Part 4 (1/2)

It is a peculiarity in the productions of this author, that, on whatever he employs his pen, he exhausts the subject; not with any prolixity that fatigues the attention, but by a quick succession of new ideas, equally brilliant and apposite, often expressed in antitheses Void of obscenity in expression, but lascivious in sentiment, he may be said rather to stimulate iination No poet is uided in versification by the nature of his subject than Ovid In common narrative, his ideas are expressed with alloith sentirandeur, his style is proportionably elevated, and he rises to a pitch of sublimity

No point in ancient history has excited more variety of conjectures than the banishment of Ovid; but after all the efforts of different writers to elucidate the subject, the cause of this extraordinary transaction remains involved in obscurity It may therefore not be improper, in this place, to examine the foundation of the several conjectures which have been formed, and if they appear to be utterly imadmissible, to attempt a solution of the question upon principles more conformable to probability, and countenanced by historical evidence

The ostensible reason assigned by Augustus for banishi+ng Ovid, was his corrupting the Roman youth by lascivious publications; but it is evident, froes in the poet's productions after this period, that there was, besides, soed He says in his Tristia, Lib ii 1- Perdiderent cum me duo crie in the sa which Ovid had seen, and, as he insinuates, through his own ignorance and mistake

Cur aliquid vidi? cur conscia lunita culpa mihi est?-Ibid

(180) Inscia quod crimen viderunt lumina, plector: Peccatumque oculos est habuisse meum 279 De Trist iii 5

It seems, therefore, to be a fact sufficiently established, that Ovid had seen soustus was concerned What this was, is the question So it to have been of a kind extreone so far as to suppose, that it ustus and his own daughter Julia, who, notwithstanding the strict attention paid to her education by her father, became a woman of theher ate after her union with her next husband, Tiberius This supposition, however, rests entirely upon conjecture, and is not only discredited by its own iument It is certain that Julia was at this time in banishe with Tiberius, as now forty seven, and they had not cohabited for ustus sent her into exile, but we may conclude with confidence, that it happened soon after her separation from Tiberius; whose own interest with the emperor, as well as that of hisexerted, if any such application was necessary, towards re from the capital a woman, who, by the notoriety of her prostitution, reflected disgrace upon all hom she was connected, either by blood or alliance But no application from Tiberius or his ustus even presented to the senate a narrative respecting the infahter, which was read by the quaestor He was soti her to death She was banished to an island on the coast of Campania for five years; at the expiration of which period, she was removed to the continent, and the severity of her treath frequent applications were ustus never could be prevailed upon to permit her return

(181) Other writers have conjectured, that, instead of Julia, the daughter of Augustus, the person seen with hihter, who inherited the vicious disposition of her ustus The epoch of this lady's banishument can be drawn froustus had shown the sa trained up in virtuous habits, as he had done in respect of her h in both cases unsuccessfully; and this consideration, joined to the enorreat sensibility which Augustus had discovered with regard to the infahter, seee Besides, is it possible that he could have sent her into banishment for the infamy of her prostitution, while (upon the supposition of incest) she was mistress of so important a secret, as that he himself had been more criminal with her than any othera wider scope to conjecture, have supposed the transaction to be of a nature still ed Mecaenas, the minister, into a participation of the crime Fortunately, however, for the reputation of the illustrious patron of polite learning, as well as for that of the emperor, this crude conjecture y The commencement of Ovid's exile happened in the ninth year of the Christian aera, and the death of Mecaenas, eight years before that period Between this and other calculations, we find a difference of three or four years; but allowing the utmost latitude of variation, there intervened, from the death of Mecaenas to the banishment of Ovid, a period of eleven years; an observation which fully invalidates the conjecture above- now refuted, as it is presumed, the opinions of the different commentators on this subject, we shall proceed to offer a new conjecture, which seereater claiested

Suetonius inforustus, in the latter part of his life, contracted a vicious inclination for the enjoyins, ere procured for him from all parts, not only with the connivance, but by the clandestine ement of his consort Livia It was therefore probably with one of those victiustus had for many years affected a decency of behaviour, and he would, therefore, naturally be not a little disconcerted at the unseasonable intrusion of the poet That Ovid knew not of Augustus's being in the place, is beyond all doubt: and Augustus's consciousness (182) of this circuest an unfavourable suspicion of the ht the latter thither Abstracted from the iht be regarded as ludicrous, and certainly was ustus But the purpose of Ovid's visit appears, froh of what nature we know not: Non equidem totam possum defendere culpam: Sed parte 5

I know I cannot wholly be defended, Yet plead 'twas chance, no ill was then intended-Catlin

Ovid was at this tier arded as any object of jealousy in love, yet by Augustus, now in his sixty-ninth year, he ht be dee with that which arose froratification, infla to a distant country a man whom he considered as his rival, and whose presence, froustus having determined on the banish the ostensible to the secret and real cause of this resolution

No argument to establish the date of publication, can be drawn from the order in which the various productions of Ovid are placed in the collection of his works: but reasoning from probability, we should suppose that the Ars A the period of his youth; and this seee in the second book of the Fasti: Certe ego vos habui faciles in amore ministros; cum lusit numeris prima juventa suis 280 That inal publication, is evident from the subsequent lines in the second book of the Tristia: Nos quoque jam pridem scripto peccavimus uno

Supplicium patitur non nova culpa novum

Carminaque edideram, cum te delicta notanteo, quae juveni mihi non nocitura putavi Scripta parum prudens, nunc nocuere seni? 281 With what show, then, of justice, it ustus now punish a fault, which, in his sole and repeatedly overlooked? The answer is obvious: in a production so popular as we st the Roh several editions in the course of so with the fatal discovery, afforded the emperor a specious pretext for the execution of his purpose The severity exercised on this occasion, however, when the poet was suddenly driven into exile, unaccompanied even by the partner of his bed, who had been his companion for many years, was an act so inconsistent with the usual ustus, that we cannot justly ascribe it to any other motive than personal resentment; especially as this arbitrary punishment of the author could answer no end of public utility, while the obnoxious production remained to affect, if it really ever did essentially affect, the ustus could not thenceforth admit of any personal intercourse with Ovid, or even of his living within the lier fro into honourable exile, with every indulgence which could alleviate so distressful a necessity, a ed with no actual offence against the laws, and whose genius, with all its indiscretion, did ied, that, considering the predicareater thanthe life of Ovid It will readily be granted, that Ovid, in the same circumstances, under any one of the four subsequent eustus, upon a late occasion, had shown hiuinary, for he put to death, by the hand of Varus, a poet of Par written soainst him By that recent exa which the emperor still retained, there was sufficient hold of the poet's secrecy respecting the fatal transaction, which, if divulged (184) to the world, Augustus would reprobate as a false and infaly Ovid, on his part, was sensible, that, should he dare to violate the ieance would reach him even on the shores of the Euxine It appears, however, froe in the Ibis, which can apply to no other than Augustus, that Ovid was not sent into banishment destitute of pecuniary provision: Di e mihi maxiitur rates, ubicuam

The Gods defend! of whoh banished, want relief

For this his favour therefore whilst I live, Where'er I aive

What sum the emperor bestowed, for the support of a banishment which he was resolved should be perpetual, it is impossible to ascertain; but he had formerly been liberal to Ovid, as well as to other poets

If we ue which occasioned the banishment of Ovid, we should place it in soh called Palatiu built on the Palatine hill, and inhabited by the sovereign, was only a sed to Hortensius, the orator Adjoining to this place Augustus had built the temple of Apollo, which he endoith a public library, and allotted for the use of poets, to recite their compositions to each other Ovid was particularly intiustus's freedht therefore have been in the library, and spying froardens, he had the curiosity to follow her

The place of Ovid's banisharia, towards the mouth of the Ister, where is a lake still called by the natives Ouvidouve Jesero, the lake of Ovid In this retirement, and the Euxine Pontus, he passed the remainder of his life, athe lascivious writings of Ovid, it does not appear that he was in his conduct a libertine He was three times married: his first wife, as of mean extraction, and (185) who, he divorced; the second he dismissed on account of her immodest behaviour; and the third appears to have survived him He had a number of respectable friends, and seems to have been much beloved by them-- TIBULLUS was descended of an equestrian family, and is said, but erroneously, as will afterwards appear, to have been born on the same day with Ovid His amiable accomplishments procured him the friendshi+p of Messala Corvinus, whom he accompanied in a military expedition to the island of Corcyra But an indisposition hich he was seized, and a natural aversion to the toils of war, induced hined himself to a life of indolence and pleasure, amidst which he devoted a part of his tiiac poetry had been cultivated by several Greek writers, particularly Callimachus, Mimnermus, and Philetas; but, so far as we can find, had, until the present age, been unknown to the Roue It consisted of a heroic and pentay of the moderns, usually appropriated to the lamentation of the deceased, but employed chiefly in coht, indeed, be used upon alh, from the limp in the pentameter line, it is not suitable to sublime subjects, which require a fulness of expression, and an expansion of sound To this species of poetry Tibullus restricted his application, by which he cultivated that sireeable ease of sentiment, which constitute the characteristic perfections of the elegiac muse

In the description of rural scenes, the peaceful occupations of the field, the charms of domestic happiness, and the joys of reciprocal love, scarcely any poet surpasses Tibullus His luxuriant iination collects the most beautiful flowers of nature, and he displays them with all the delicate attraction of soft and harmonious numbers With a dexterity peculiar to hies, he leads his readers ih devious paths of pleasure, of which, at the outset of the poem, they could form no conception He seems to have often written without any previous ies may be said to have neither radations so easy, that though ander through Elysian scenes of fancy, the eneous in their nature, we are sensible of no defect in the concatenation which has joined theretted that, in some instances, Tibullus betrays that licentiousness of eneral a characteristic even of this refined age His elegies addressed to Messala contain a beautiful amplification of sentiments founded in friendshi+p and esteem, in which it is difficult to say, whether the virtues of the patron or the genius of the poet be more conspicuous

Valerius Messala Corvinus, whom he celebrates, was descended of a very ancient family In the civil hich followed the death of Julius Caesar he joined the republican party, and made himself master of the camp of Octavius at Philippi; but he was afterwards reconciled to his opponent, and lived to an advanced age in favour and esteeuished not only by his rity, and patriotiss of Tibullus, commentators have conjectured that he was deprived of his lands by the sail had been involved: Cui fuerant flavi ditantes ordine sulci Horrea, faecundas ad deficientia mine colles, Et domino satis, et nimium furique lupoque: Nunc desiderium superest: nam cura novatur, cum memor anteactos semper dolor admovet annos

Lib iv El 1

But this seems not very probable, e consider that Horace, several years after that period, represents him as opulent

Dii tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi

Epist Lib i 4

To thee the Gods a fair estate In bounty gave, with heart to kno to enjoy what they bestow-Francis

We know not the age of Tibullus at the tiy written by Ovid upon that occasion, he is spoken of as a young raphers, that he was born the san the event to an early period: for Ovid cannot have written the elegy after the forty-third year of his own life, and how long before is uncertain In the tenth elegy of the fourth book, De Tristibus, he observes, that the fates had allowed little time for the cultivation of his friendshi+p with Tibullus

Virgilium vidi tantum: nec avara Tibullo Tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae

Successor fuit hic tibi, Galle; Propertius illi: Quartus ab his serie teo il I only saw, and envious fate Did soon my friend Tibullus hence translate

He followed Gallus, and Propertius him, And I myself was fourth in course of time-Catlin

As both Ovid and Tibullus lived at Roenial dispositions, it is natural to suppose that their acquaintance commenced at an early period; and if, after all, it was of short duration, there would be no ie of soraphers have coard to the birth of this poet; for in the passage above cited of the Tristia, Ovid h his contee we should be justified in placing the death of Tibullus between the fortieth and fiftieth year of his age, and rather nearer to the latter period; for, otherwise, Horace would scarcely have mentioned him in the manner he does in one of his epistles

Albi, nostroruione Pedana?

Scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat; An tacitunam sapiente bonoque est?-Epist i 4