OVID, EPISTULAE EX PONTO 4.8, GERMANICUS, AND THE FASTI

Abstract

In Epistulae ex Ponto 4.8, one of the last poems written from exile (dated to 15 or 16 c.e.), Ovid expresses his increasing hopes for Germanicus' assistance in effecting his recall to Rome. Though ostensibly addressed to his stepdaughter's father-in-law, P. Suillius Rufus, the poem contains a petition to Germanicus (27–88), as a poet to a poet, which promises future commemoration in Ovid's poetry if he is removed from Tomis: clausaque si misero patria est, ut ponar in ullo,qui minus Ausonia distet ab Vrbe loco,unde tuas possim laudes celebrare recentesmagnaque quam minima facta referre mora.   (85–8)and if my country is closed against me in my misery, may I be placed in any place less distant from the Ausonian city, whence I might celebrate your praises while they are recent and relate your great deeds with the least delay.