Ovid at Tomis: the Early History of the Left Pontus under the Roman Rule

Abstract

For the very first phases of the Roman rule over the Left Pontus, one should always goes
back to Ovid’s two exile poems: Tristia (AD 8-12) and Epistulae ex Ponto (AD 12/13-
16/17 – the last book being published after Ovid’s dead)1. Since the poet was banned into
exile (from the legal point of view he was only relegatus)2 in the year 8 AD, at the very beginnings
of the Roman rule, and he died in 17/18 AD, he offers a first hand account of the
early history of this area under the Roman rule. Leaving aside the poetic language and the
main poetic themes, which had many rassemblences with Ovid’s earlier poems, it is possible
to identify realible historical information3. It is the aim of this paper, starting from some
Ovid’s passages of Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, to set them in the broader context of the
early history of the Roman rule on the Lower Danube and Left Pontus.