Ovid
Book description
In AD8, Augustus banished the poet Ovid to Tomi, on the Black Sea. In spite of repeated appeals by his friends in Rome for the sentence to be revoked, he died in exile ten years later.
No one knows why Ovid was banished. The most convincing explanation is that Ovid…Why read it?
2 authors picked Ovid as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
For those who like their conspiracy theories, it is hard not to be seduced by Ovid and David Wishart’s hard-boiled detective Marcus Corvinus.
Commissioned to bring back Ovid’s ashes, the author links the exile of the poet Ovid by the Emperor Augustus to the loss of the three legions under Varus. The book is notable both for the real sense that it gives how the defeat became one to be avoided in the polite society in Rome, but also for its generally sympathetic portrait of the Roman governor. Varus is corrupted and betrayed by Arminius, but he is not wholly…
From Adrian's list on the Roman Empire’s defeat at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.
Marcus Valerius Corvinus is a natty young aristocrat-about-town, the despair of his strait-laced father. Young Marcus is determined to take no part in Roman government and concentrates on partying. Of course, he is not nearly as feckless and two-dimensional as he tries to make himself out to the reader, and when the lovely Perilla asks for his help, we get not only a mystery but also a very-well-done romance. Wishart starts off this series in wise-cracking style which is a feature of Marcus’ first person narration, but there is genuine historical mystery behind it all, which scholars have worried over…
From Fiona's list on political shenanigans in ancient Rome.
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