The end of Augustan literature: Ovid's Epistulae ex Ponto IV

This dissertation offers a literary, historical, and cultural analysis of Ovid’s “Epistulae ex Ponto” IV. This book of poetry has largely been overlooked by scholars of Ovid and historians of the Augustan age. By bringing attention to it, I show how crucial it is to our understanding of Roman poetic practices during the transition from Augustus’ political experiment of the Principate to dynastic imperial politics with the ascension of Tiberius to the throne. I offer substantial analysis of all sixteen poems in the collection from a variety of angles, especially, philological, historical, biographical, and feminist. In chapter one, I situate “ex Ponto” IV in the history of the Roman poetry book. I focus especially on how Ovid has modeled his book on the fourth books of his predecessors Propertius and Horace. I argue against the scholarly opinion that the book was not organized by Ovid. In chapter two, I examine the historical period of the book and inquire into Ovid’s explicit attention to Augustus’ death and the ambiguities around his celebration of the consulship of Sextus Pompeius in 14 CE. I show that the book is deeply invested in questions of inheritance and dynastic politics. Chapter three considers the portrayal of women in Ovid’s exile and stems from the curious fact that his wife does not appear in book four. I argue that Ovid had attempted to use his wife to access an unspoken network of women who were close to powerful men. He had thought that she could help get him recalled from exile. After the death of Augustus, though, Ovid distances himself and his wife from Livia because of her uncertain role in Tiberius’ reign. Chapter four looks at Ovid’s late interest in the Temple of Hercules Musarum and poetic communities in general. How, these poems ask, are poets meant to maintain a community when their members can be exiled? My last chapter is an extended study of “ex Ponto” 4.16. It considers the nature of Ovid’s catalogues throughout his poetry, especially catalogues of proper names. I particularly discuss his bold decision to put the names of living poets in the list, a phenomenon he had only ever reserved for himself.