Ovid and the Julio-Claudians: Augustus – “Love, Myths and Other Stories” – LXXIII
In an effort to improve public morals and restock the Roman upper classes depleted by the Civil War, Augustus in 18 BC passed his marriage laws. One of them was the “lex Iulia de adultery” (Julian Law on Adultery). Adultery, or extramarital sexual activity of a married woman (NB: not man), had previously been considered a private matter, but now gained the status of a crime that had to be prosecuted in court.
If convicted, both the woman and her lover faced relegation – to different places, for obvious reasons. If the husband had profited from his wife’ s relationship or even simply tolerated it, he was subject to prosecution as well. The mystery of Ovid ’s exile has exercised readers since late antiquity and spawned a multitude of theories, many of them fantastic. Among the more plausible ones, there are two main lines of approach: the sexual and the political. Ovid at least had not shied from joking in the Amores that adultery was one of Rome's hallowed traditions. But with the execution or exile of Julia's lovers the situation changed. The contents of his works contrary to the new ethical standards professed by Augustus may have really been at the origin of his misfortunes.
The exact nature of the punishment for Ovid’s wrong was made known to the people in an edict issued by the emperor himself. The words of the edict, though harsh and threatening, were again specially formulated to fit Ovid’s fate, calling him “relegatus” instead of “exul”. The Romans made a remarkable difference between “relegation” and “exilium”. Both required that the condemned leaves the city while staying inside the limes of Roman territory at a specified distance from Rome. They differed in that “exilium” brought with it the loss of citizenship and the subsequent confiscation of property, while “relegation” allowed the condemned to keep both, as Ovid himself notes thankfully on several occasions.
Source Steven J. Green, “Ovid’s Fasti”
Marble statue
216 x 80 x 45 cm
1st half 1st century AD
From Aquileia, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
Ovid and the Julio-Claudians: Augustus – “Love, Myths and Other Stories” – LXXIII
In an effort to improve public morals and restock the Roman upper classes depleted by the Civil War, Augustus in 18 BC passed his marriage laws. One of them was the “lex Iulia de adultery” (Julian Law on Adultery). Adultery, or extramarital sexual activity of a married woman (NB: not man), had previously been considered a private matter, but now gained the status of a crime that had to be prosecuted in court.
If convicted, both the woman and her lover faced relegation – to different places, for obvious reasons. If the husband had profited from his wife’ s relationship or even simply tolerated it, he was subject to prosecution as well. The mystery of Ovid ’s exile has exercised readers since late antiquity and spawned a multitude of theories, many of them fantastic. Among the more plausible ones, there are two main lines of approach: the sexual and the political. Ovid at least had not shied from joking in the Amores that adultery was one of Rome's hallowed traditions. But with the execution or exile of Julia's lovers the situation changed. The contents of his works contrary to the new ethical standards professed by Augustus may have really been at the origin of his misfortunes.
The exact nature of the punishment for Ovid’s wrong was made known to the people in an edict issued by the emperor himself. The words of the edict, though harsh and threatening, were again specially formulated to fit Ovid’s fate, calling him “relegatus” instead of “exul”. The Romans made a remarkable difference between “relegation” and “exilium”. Both required that the condemned leaves the city while staying inside the limes of Roman territory at a specified distance from Rome. They differed in that “exilium” brought with it the loss of citizenship and the subsequent confiscation of property, while “relegation” allowed the condemned to keep both, as Ovid himself notes thankfully on several occasions.
Source Steven J. Green, “Ovid’s Fasti”
Marble statue
216 x 80 x 45 cm
1st half 1st century AD
From Aquileia, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome