![]() ![]() ![]() The reader of this poem tours the monuments of the Augustan-era city. Endlessly playful, this is also a work of integrity and courage, and a superb climax to the life of one of Rome's greatest writers. Ovids Fasti is a journey through ancient Rome, using the calendar as a guide. It may also be read as a subtle but powerful political manifesto which derides Augustus' attempts to control his subjects by imposing his own mythology upon them: after celebrating the emperor as a Jupiter-on-earth, for example, Ovid deliberately juxtaposes a story showing the king of the gods as a savage rapist. Both a calendar of daily rituals and a witty sequence of stories recounted in a variety of styles, it weaves together tales of gods and citizens together to explore Rome's history, religious beliefs and traditions. Ovids Fasti, unlike his Metamorphoses, is anchored in Rome: religion, history and legend, monuments, and character. ![]() Written after he had been banished to the Black Sea city of Tomis by Emperor Augustus, the Fasti is Ovid's last major poetic work. ![]()
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