The Last Poems of Ovid | Page 4

103-4 and _Tr_ III v 49-50 to have been the witnessing of some action that was embarrassing to the imperial family. Beyond this nothing is known, for Ovid was careful to avoid compounding his original mistake by mentioning what it consisted of.
[Footnote 1: The evidence for Ovid's _error_ and the many theories advanced to explain it are gathered and fully discussed in J. C. Thibault's _The Mystery of Ovid's Exile_ (Berkeley: 1964).]
The catastrophe which befell Ovid did not put an end to his poetic activity; from the eight or nine years of his exile we possess a corpus of elegiac verse that substantially exceeds in bulk the combined production of Tibullus and Propertius.
The first work produced by Ovid was book I of the _Tristia_. Although it is perhaps not literally true that Ovid wrote much of the poetry on shipboard (_Tr_ I xi 3-10), all of the poems are directly related to the circumstances of his downfall and his journey to exile; and it is reasonable to suppose that the book was published shortly after Ovid's arrival in Tomis.
In his first poems from exile, Ovid had attempted to engage the sympathy of the public on his behalf; his next production was a direct appeal to Augustus in the 578-line elegiac poem that comprises the second book of the _Tristia_. The poem is written with Ovid's usual clarity and elegance, but its failure to secure his recall is not surprising. The poem deals only with the publication of the _Ars Amatoria_, which was not the true cause of the exile; and rather than admitting his guilt and appealing to Augustus' clemency, Ovid tactlessly argues that Augustus had been wrong to exile him.
The years 10, 11, and 12 saw the publication of the final three books of the _Tristia_. The charge of monotony that is generally brought against Ovid's poetry from exile (and was brought by his friends at the time; Ovid makes his defence in _EP_ III ix) is most nearly true of these three books of verse. He was unable to name his correspondents and vary his poetry with personal references as he was to do in the _Ex Ponto_; and the pain of exile was so fresh as to exclude other topics.
Not all of Ovid's literary efforts in exile were devoted to his letters. It appears from _Fast_ IV 81-82 and VI 666, as well as from the dedication to Germanicus at the start of the first book (at _Tr_ II 551 Ovid says he dedicated the work to Augustus) that the _Fasti_ in the edition we possess is a revision produced by Ovid in exile after the death of Augustus.
In AD 12 Ovid produced the _Ibis_. The greater part of the poem is a series of curses showing such minute mythological learning that many of them have not been explained; but the poem's lengthy exordium is a powerful treatment of Ovid's circumstances and Ibis's perfidy that has been considered Ovid's most perfect literary creation (Housman 1041).
Many scholars also ascribe the composition of the final six _Heroides_ to the period of Ovid's exile; but although the literary appeal of these three sets of double epistles is considerable, I believe that their comparative diffuseness of manner indicates that Ovid was not their author. They are, however, clearly modelled on the _Heroides_ written by Ovid, and I have frequently quoted from them in the commentary.
In AD 12 Ovid must have received some indication that it was safe for him to name his correspondents. He took full advantage of this new opportunity to induce his friends to work on his behalf; it is clear from Ovid's references to his fourth year of exile (I ii 26, I viii 28) and to Tiberius' triumph of 23 October AD 12 (II i 1 & 46, II ii 75-76, II v 27-28, III i 136, III iii 86, III iv 3)[2] that all three books were written within the space of a single year: as fast a rate of composition as can be proved for any part of Ovid's life. The three books were published as a unit: the opening poem of the first book and the closing poem of the last are addressed to Brutus, who was therefore the dedicatee of the collection; both poems are apologies for Ovid's verse. No such framing poems are found at the start of books II or III, or at the end of books I and II, although the addressees of II i and III i, Germanicus and Ovid's wife, were clearly chosen for their respective importance and closeness to Ovid.
[Footnote 2: For these references I am indebted to page xxxv of A. L. Wheeler's excellent introduction to the Loeb edition of the _Tristia_ and _Ex Ponto_. For the date of Tiberius' triumph, see Syme _History in Ovid_