Ovid

Ovid, Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B.C.-18 A.D.), a well-known Latin poet, was of equestrian rank, and born at Sulmo. He studied rhetoric with a view to the bar; but, the death of an elder brother setting him free from this necessity, he went to Athens to study Greek, and then travelled in Asia Minor in company with another poet. On his return to Rome he filled some State offices, but his easy-going nature and love of pleasure left no room for ambition. He divorced two wives, and was credited with having Julia, daughter of Augustus, as a. mistress. He married later a third wife, by whom he had a much-loved daughter. He lived at Rome till his fiftieth year, when, for some reason unknown, Augustus banished him to Tomi, near the mouth of the Danube, where he died, but not till he had won the esteem of his new fellow-citizens. Of his works the best known are Art of Love, the Metamorphoses, the Fasti, and some shorter poems.