Ovid Revisited by Jo-Marie Claassen (2008)

Jo-Marie Claassen (born 1940) is a classical scholar from South Africa. She was Associate Professor in the Department of Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University until she retired in 2001. Her first book was published by the British publisher Duckworth in 1999:

Displaced Persons: The Literature of Exile from Cicero to Boethius.

Her second book, which is under review here, was published by the same publisher in 2008:

Ovid Revisited: The Poet in Exile.

Not everything in this book is new, because it is based on articles and book reviews written and published in different journals during the last twenty years. As the author explains in her preface, these articles and book reviews have been revised, re-arranged and combined with something new in order to create the book we have here, with an introduction and six chapters, about Ovid – his life and his works – with the main focus on the works written during the last decade of his life, while he was in exile. All the facts and all the interpretations which are presented in these articles and book reviews are now collected in a single volume. This is very reader-friendly.

Here is a brief biography about the famous poet:

Publius Ovidius Naso – known in English as Ovid – was born in Sulmo (today Sulmona) in Italy in 43 BC. Having completed his education, he lived and worked in Rome where he became a popular poet. Most of his works have been preserved. Things were going well for him, but in AD 8 his comfortable life was suddenly ruined.

In December of that year the Roman Emperor Augustus signed a decree banishing him to live in Tomis (today Constanta in Romania) on the western shore of the Black Sea, which the Romans call Pontus Euxinus. The sentence was harsh, and no delay was allowed: thus, the poet had to leave at once, even though it was in the middle of the winter season, which most ancient travellers avoided, if they could, and so he arrived in Tomis in the spring of AD 9.

While in exile, he wrote two important collections of poems, which are both preserved: Tristia (five books) written and published AD 9-12, and Epistulae ex Ponto (four books) written and published AD 12-16. He was not happy in Tomis. Time and again he asked to be permitted to return to Rome, but Augustus refused to cancel his decree, and his successor Tiberius did not recall him either, so he ended his days in Tomis in AD 17. When he died, he was ca. 60 years old. 

The introduction covers the life of Ovid, the first part in Italy as well as the second part in exile. In chapters 1-6, the author presents and discusses the works of Ovid, in particular the later works written in Tomis.

Why was the poet banished to live in Tomis? We do not know. According to Ovid himself, it was because he wrote a poem and because he made a mistake. But he refused to explain what the mistake was. Perhaps it was not something he did. Perhaps he happened to see something he was not supposed to see. Claassen discusses the case, and I think she does a good job, given the limited evidence available.

As stated above, the book is divided into an introduction and six chapters. Here is the table of contents:

** Introduction – 6 sections

** Chapter 1 – Persons and personalities – 2 sections

** Chapter 2 – Poetic nequitia: the constant factor – 2 sections

** Chapter 3 – Ovidius poeta – 3 sections

** Chapter 4 – Ovidian logodaedaly – 3 sections

** Chapter 5 – Myth metamorphosed: Ovid’s use and re-use of mythology – 11 sections

** Chapter 6 – Ad nostra tempora: Ovid today – 2 sections

At the end of the book we find the following six items: an excursus about Ovidian studies today; appendix I and appendix II; a vocabulary table; a myth table; and an index. There is no bibliography.

What about illustrations? There is a picture on the front cover. It shows the famous bronze statue of the poet in his native town Sulmo (today Sulmona) in Italy. The picture is taken by P. E. Claassen, who is the author’s husband.

The statue in Italy is a modern copy. The original stands in Tomis (today Constanta in Romania). It was commissioned in 1883-1884 by the city of Constanta, created by the Italian artist Ettore Ferrari (1850-1929), and unveiled in 1887.

But inside the book there are no illustrations; not a single map, drawing or photo.

Poetry was the cause of Ovid’s doom, but once he ended up in exile, it was also the key to his survival, as Claassen explains several times. Writing poetry helped him keep up his hopes, keep up his spirits. His hope of returning to Rome was never fulfilled, but writing poetry gave him a sense of purpose, it kept him busy. It was – to use a modern expression – therapeutic, beneficial to his mental health.

Some of his letters were addressed to friends in Rome. He asked them to go to the emperor and try to persuade him to change his mind. Other letters were addressed to his enemies. He condemned them for having abandoned him. None of them changed his legal position in any way. He was still banished from Rome. But perhaps this did not matter so much. Writing the letters gave him something to do. And maybe this was more important.

Unfortunately, the conversation with friends and enemies is a bit one-sided, because we never hear from the other side. What we have is not a dialogue, but a monologue.

A REVIEW

Rita Degl’Innocenti Pierini (University of Florence) reviewed this book in the online magazine Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2010.01.10). Most reviews in BMCR are written in English, but the editors do allow other languages, so a few of them are written in German or French. This review is written in Italian.

Pierini mentions Claassen’s first book that was published in 1999. As she says, it received a positive review in BMCR (2001.12.21). The first book is about exile in the ancient world. It covers several cases from Cicero to Boethius. The second book is also about exile, but this time the focus is on a single author, Ovid.

In general, Pierini is positive. She likes the fact that all quotations from Ovid are given two times: first in Latin and then in an English translation. This is a good idea, because it makes the book accessible to the non-specialist. But she also has a few critical remarks:

** She is perplexed by the absence of a bibliography.

** She points out that one important study is never mentioned by Claassen: Repetition in Latin Poetry by Jeffrey Wills (1996, 2001).

** She deplores Claassen’s decision to eliminate the notes of the original articles in the book. The non-specialist can focus on the text and ignore the notes, while the specialist can read the text as well as the notes.

Pierini concludes her review with the following statement:

“In spite of a few reservations, which I have mentioned here, this volume is recommended: for the wide spectrum of topics covered, for the sensitive reading of Ovid, for the attention to linguistic details, and for the conviction - which I fully support - that the works of the exiled poet are much more than dull lamentations.”

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

I agree with Pierini’s review; the positive as well as the negative remarks. I have a few additional comments:

(1) It is a shame there are no illustrations in this book (apart from the picture on the front cover). Even a literary analysis can benefit from a few illustrations.

(2) Claassen is (in most cases) a careful author, but I noticed two minor flaws:

(a) On page 39 she writes: 

“Vipsania, wife of Agrippa, divorced from Tiberius so that he might marry Julia.” 

Vipsania (36 BC-AD 20) is the daughter of Agrippa, not his wife!

(b) On page 236 she mentions: 

“… Cicero’s relationships with his freedman Tyro.” 

The name of Cicero’s secretary is Tiro, not Tyro. He was born ca. 103 BC; freed by Cicero in 53 BC, and took his Roman name from his former master: Marcus Tullius Tiro. While Cicero was executed in 43 BC, Tiro lived on to be an old man. He died around 4 BC.

A COMPARISON

While Claassen discusses several modern studies of Ovid, one important work is never mentioned: Ovid in Exile by the late Romanian scholar Adrian Radulescu (published in 2002, two years after his death). It is obvious to compare this book with Claassen's book, because their topic is exactly the same:

(a) One is much shorter than the other. Ovid in Exile has only 141 pages, while Ovid Revisited has almost three hundred (to be precise, 292 pages).

(b) Radulescu includes a bibliography which covers six pages, while Claassen has no bibliography at all.

(c) Ovid in Exile has an index which covers nine pages, and it is easy to use, because it follows the alphabet. Ovid Revisited has an index which covers nine pages, but it is not so easy to use, because it is based on topics. Here are a few examples to illustrate the problem:

If you wish to find Seneca, you will search in vain under the letter S. To find Seneca, you must go to AUTHORS, and then to ANCIENT. To find Agrippa, you must go to AUGUSTUS’ FAMILY. To find Tomis, you must look for GEOGRAPHY. I do not understand why the index is arranged in this awkward way. It is not helpful at all.

(d) Radulescu has written a popular account that is easy to read and understand, while Claassen has written an academic account which may appeal more to the specialist than the general reader. To offer just one example: the title of chapter 4 “Ovidian logodaedaly” is not exactly a common term. Perhaps it would be better to say “Ovid as a wordsmith.” Claassen is aware of this problem. In her preface she says: “Non-specialist readers may feel happier to skip the more technical sections of Chapters 3 and 4.”

(e) Radulescu wants to place Ovid in his Romanian setting; and the focus of his book is on history and geography. For Claassen the concept of exile is important – in chapter 6, she compares the ancient Roman poet Ovid with the modern South African poet Breyten Beytenbach (who was born in 1939) – and the focus of her book is on literary and linguistic aspects.

CONCLUSION
Both volumes have positive and negative elements. Therefore I wish to recommend both of them and to give them a rating of four stars.

PS # 1. The following article is available online: John Richmond (University College, Dublin), “The Latter Days of a Love Poet: Ovid in Exile,” Classics Ireland, vol. 2, 1995.

PS # 2. For more information, see History in Ovid by Ronald Syme (Oxford University Press, 1978). This book is mentioned by Jo-Marie Claassen but not by Adrian Radulescu.

PS # 3. See also Ovid in Exile: Power and Poetic Redress by Matthew McGowan (Brill, 2009). This (expensive) book is reviewed in BMCR 2011.08.45.

* * *

Jo-Marie Claassen,

Ovid Revisited: The Poet in Exile,

Duckworth, London, 2008, 292 pages

* * *

Jo-Marie Claassen (born 1940),
Associate Professor at the Latin Department of
Stellenbosch University until she retired in 2001

(This picture is borrowed from the website Stellenbosch writers)

* * *

Ovid in Exile by Adrian Radulescu (2002)

Adrian Rǎdulescu (1932-2000) was a Romanian archaeologist and Director of the Museum of History and Archaeology in Constanta for more than thirty years (1968-2000). The ancient name of Constanta is Tomis. The English version of his book about Ovid in exile was published by the Center for Romanian Studies in 2002 (two years after his death). It is translated into English by Laura Treptow. The main text is divided into six chapters, which cover different topics. Here is the table of contents:

** Chapter I – Constanta (Tomis) and the Black Sea Coast

** Chapter II – Ovid in Italy

** Chapter III – Banishment from Rome

** Chapter IV – The Getae and Tomis

** Chapter V – Post-Ovidian Tomis

** Chapter VI – Ovid and Posterity

Notes with references and additional information are placed in footnotes at the bottom of the page, which is very reader-friendly.

At the end of the book we find a bibliography and an index. The bibliography (which covers six pages) betrays the author’s origin: most items listed here are written in Romanian, but there are some items in other languages, for instance in French and German, and even a few in English. Unfortunately, one important work in English is missing: History in Ovid by Ronald Syme (Oxford University Press, 1978). The index (which covers nine pages) seems to be comprehensive.

What about illustrations? There are no illustrations in this book. There is a picture on the front cover of the dust jacket. It shows the famous statue of Ovid placed in the centre of the square named after him in Constanta: Piata Ovidiu. The statue was commissioned by the city council of Constanta 1883-1884, designed and created by the Italian artist Ettore Ferrari (1850-1929), and unveiled in 1887, just ten years after Romania was established as an independent state. 

But inside the book there is not a single illustration (I will return to this matter below).

Obviously, there are many quotations from Ovid in this book. All quotations appear twice: the first time in English, based on the Loeb edition; the second time in Latin. This is a good solution, because it means the book is accessible to the general reader and not only the specialist.

A technical detail: Ovid often writes elegiac poetry, which means that a line of hexameter is followed by a line of pentameter. In most modern editions the layout helps the reader distinguish the former from the latter: the odd numbers begin at the left margin, while the even numbers are indented. But in this book all lines begin at the left margin, i.e. the pentameters are not indented. Perhaps the translator or the publisher was not aware of this tradition.

Publius Ovidius Naso – known in English as Ovid – was born in Sulmo (today Sulmona) in Italy in 43 BC. Having completed his education, he lived and worked in Rome where he became a popular poet. Most of his works have been preserved. Things were going well for him, but in AD 8 his comfortable life was suddenly ruined.

In December of that year the Roman Emperor Augustus signed a decree banishing him to live in Tomis (today Constanta) on the western shore of the Black Sea, which the Romans call Pontus Euxinus. The sentence was harsh, and no delay was allowed: the poet had to leave at once, even though it was during the winter season, which most ancient travellers avoided, if they could, and thus he arrived in Tomis in the spring of AD 9.

While in exile on the Black Sea Coast, he wrote two important collections, which are both preserved: Tristia (five books) written AD 8-12, and Epistulae ex Ponto (four books) written AD 12-16. The poet was not happy in Tomis. Time and again he asked to be permitted to return to Rome, but Augustus refused to cancel his decree, and his successor Tiberius did not recall him either, so Ovid ended his days in Tomis in AD 17. When he died, he was ca. 60 years old. 

This book covers the life of Ovid, the first part in Italy as well as the second part in exile. The author presents and discusses the works of Ovid, the early works written in Rome as well as the later works written in Tomis.

Why was Ovid banished to live in Tomis? We do not know. According to Ovid himself, it was because he wrote a poem and because he made a mistake. But he refused to explain what the mistake was. Perhaps it was not something he did. Perhaps he saw something he was not supposed to see. Rǎdulescu discusses the case back and forth, and I think he does it very well, given the limited evidence available.

The author demonstrates that the mood of the poet changed somewhat during his long exile in Tomis. On page 101 he says: 

“Reading Epistulae ex Ponto we shall see that, although Ovid’s laments continue, they are less desperate in comparison with those in Tristia. The poet became accustomed to his situation or began to resign himself to his fate.”

Towards the end of his life, in one of the last letters from Pontus, Ovid could say that he cared for Tomis and the people who lived there, the Geto-Dacians:

** Tam mihi cara Tomis, patria quae sede fugatis

***** Tempus ad hoc nobis hospita fide manet.

In English:

** “So dear is Tomis to me; to me exiled from my native abode.

***** It remains hospitable and loyal to the present time.”

 

[Epistulae ex Ponto, IV, 14, 59-60, quoted from pp. 103-104.]

I like this book, but I have to mention a few things which bother me. They can be divided into three categories, depending on who is responsible for them.

THE FIRST CATEGORY

I think the author is to blame for the first category of flaws:

** Note 13 on page 51 is a reference to an article published in 1925 by the French scholar Jérome Carcopino. According to Rǎdulescu, the title is “De la Porta Maggiore la Tomis.” The correct title is “De la Porta Maggiore a Tomis.”

** Note 27 on page 59 mentions the so-called first triumvirate. According to Rǎdulescu, it was formed in 59 BC. In fact, it was formed in 60 BC.

** On page 93 Rǎdulescu writes: 

“Although Augustus died, and after him his plotting wife, her son Tiberius came to power, himself also filled with hatred for the exile.”

This passage is unfortunate, because it implies that Livia died soon after Augustus died and before Ovid died. But this is not true: Augustus died in AD 14, Ovid in AD 17, Livia in AD 29, and Tiberius in AD 37.

** On page 111 Rǎdulescu mentions the Roman Emperor Philip the Arab and claims he ruled 245-249. If fact, this emperor ruled from 244.

THE SECOND CATEGORY

I think the translator is to blame for the second category of flaws:

** On page 39 the text mentions “an eulogy.” The article “an” is wrong. It should be “a eulogy.” The translator should know this. When you work with a computer, the program will place a red line under a misspelled word to warn you that something is wrong. It seems the translator ignored this warning.

** On page 46 the text says: 

“The third day of the Ides of February, for instance, was dedicated to Lupercalia.”

There is no such date. In February the Ides falls on the 13th day of the month. The Lupercalia was celebrated on 15 February. Using the Roman (inclusive) way of counting, we can say that this festival was celebrated on the third day after the Ides of February.

In Fasti (II, 267) Ovid says: 

“Tertia post Idus nudos aurora Lupercos aspicit.” 

In English: 

“The third morning after the Ides sees the naked Lupercians.” 

Perhaps the translator is not familiar with the Roman calendar.

** On page 75 the text says: 

“Jason yoked two wild bulls with steel legs who breathed fire through their noses; he used then to plow a lot where he afterwards sowed dragon teeth, which grew into giants.”

Two things are wrong here: the word “then” should be replaced with “them” and the word “plow” should be replaced with “plough.” The sentence should be revised as follows: “he used them to plough a lot…”

THE THIRD CATEGORY

I think the publisher – The Center for Romanian Studies - is to blame for the third category of flaws: the lack of illustrations, which is a serious problem. If relevant illustrations had been included to support the text, the book would have been so much better than it is now.

Constanta is mentioned many times. I would like to see a map of the modern town. Ancient sites in the vicinity of Constanta are mentioned several times. I would like to see a map of modern Romania, where some of these sites are marked, for instance:

*** Histria, on the coast, ca. 65 km north of Constanta

*** Callatis (today Mangalia) on the coast, ca. 44 km south of Constanta

*** Trajan’s victory monument - known as Tropaeum Traiani - completed in AD 109 and reconstructed in 1977, ca. 63 km west of Constanta; the modern Romanian name of this place is Adamclisi

Ancient artefacts excavated by archaeologists in modern times – such as inscriptions with Greek or Latin letters - are mentioned several times. A picture of some of these interesting objects would have improved the quality of the book.

While the first and the second category can be dismissed as minor flaws, I am afraid the third category cannot be overlooked because it is a serious flaw.

In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that the author and the translator have done a good job. Regarding the translation, I must say: the English text is clear and easy to understand. Regarding the text, I must say: anyone who reads this book cannot fail to notice and be impressed by Rǎdulescu’s commitment to and knowledge about his topic.

All relevant aspects of the topic are explored. In this way the famous poet from Italy and his exile in Tomis on the Black Sea Coast are placed in their proper historical context. That is why this book deserves to be recommended.

PS # 1. For more information about the topic, see Ovid Revisited: The Poet in Exile by Jo-Marie Claassen (2008); and Ralph Hexter, “The Poetry of Ovid’s Exile,” in Ovid: The Classical Heritage edited by William S. Anderson (1995, reprinted 2014), pp. 37-60.

PS # 2. Regarding the ancient history of Romania, which the Romans call Dacia, see The Dacian Stones Speak written by the late US scholar Paul MacKendrick (hardcover 1975, paperback 2000).

PS # 3. In his preface, MacKendrick mentions several Romanian scholars who were his hosts during his fact-finding visit to Romania in the beginning of the 1970s. They showed him some of the ancient sites and some of the museums of ancient history. One of these scholars, who became his friends, is Adrian Radulescu. 

* * *

Adrian Radulescu,

Ovid in Exile,

The Center for Romanian Studies, 2002, 141 pages

* * *

Adrian Radulescu (1932-2000)

This picture is borrowed from the archaeological museum in Adamclisi, Romania

* * *