AUGUSTUS IN OVID’S PONTICA
AUGUSTUS IN OVID’S PONTICA

Summary/Abstract: Pontus, which was the homeland of Ovid for the last years of his life, remained in his poetry especially through Pontica, part of his work from exile. Augustus, the god-like ruler of Rome, is present in Pontica, like a Divus, but especially as pater patriae and pater familias. Augustus is a conditor of a new Rome the exiled poet longs for until the last moment of his life, hoping to see it again, hoping that his pleas will be finally heard by Augustus, his punisher. If in Tristia Ovid insisted on the personality cult of Augustus, in Pontica the poet insists on the skilful politician who created and gave a political legacy to his descendants. The whole family of Augustus is in one way or another mentioned in Ovid's lyrics, as he hopes to be forgiven and recalled to Rome either by Augustus or by his descendants, and to find eternal peace in the Eternal City. Even if Ovid outlives Augustus, the new Caesar does not forgive him and the poet will soon follow in eternity the one who exiled him, in the place of exile. The lyricism of Pontica is the deepest and most hopeless of the work of Ovid, who passed away in the place of exile, a place where he never adapted again, comparing it with the unrivalled city of Rome, and where he died a little each day because of the wrath of merciless Augustus, whom he made immortal through his lyrics too.

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