Publius Ovidius Naso
Ovid was one of the greatest Roman poets and a leading figure in Roman society until the emperor Augustus banished him in A.D. 8. Traditional Roman values included military duty hard work, and civic service. Before Ovid, love had been considered a kind of destructive illness that threatened one’s personality. Ovid turned those ideas upside down as he celebrated love in his poetry as the more important and positive force in human nature. Ovid's Life and Times. Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) was born in 43 B.C. in the town of Sulmo, about 100 miles east of Rome. He received the standard education for a person of his class, studying rhetoric* in Rome as he prepared for a career in public service. After his formal training, Ovid, like most educated young men, studied philosophy* in Athens and toured the lands of the eastern Mediterranean before returning to Rome. He held several minor government offices, a career he soon abandoned to spend his time visiting booksellers’ shops and becoming...