Ovid’s Birthday

Ovid, first-century marble bust, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Today in 54 B.C. was born Publius Ovidius Naso. He ranks, with his contemporaries Virgil and Horace, among the three greatest Latin poets. Ovid was, of the three, the most unruly and irreverent and consequently died in exile on the shores of the Black Sea.