Ovid and the Augustan Age: Llewelyn Morgan (14 AD)
Llewelyn Morgan, author of Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
In this episode we return to Ancient Rome and to one of the most glittering moments in its history. After the political drama of the first century BC – the days of Caesar and Pompey the Great, and the fall of the Republic – came the long, rich and expressive Augustan Age. Our guide to this time is the scholar Professor Llewelyn Morgan.
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In the early years of the first century AD the Golden Age of Augustus was drawing to a close. The great emperor had lived a long life. Now in his seventies, he had presided over a hugely successful, peaceful period in Roman history, during which his achievement of the ‘Pax Romana’ enabled culture to flourish on an unprecedented scale.
On the city streets this was clear for all to see, as Augustus himself modestly claimed, ‘I found a Rome of bricks, I leave to you one of marble’.
During his reign the eternal city had been transformed into a magnificent imperial capital, while inside the aristocracy’s grand villas, poets, historians and orators, among them Virgil, Horace and Livy vied with one another eloquent battles of words and wit.
In 14 AD, Augustus’ death was the first important test for the new system of government he had introduced. Who would succeed him? How would power transfer? Would the peace be preserved?
Augustus in victory pose. (WikiCommons)
Another question that Augustus must have asked himself many times was how the great writers of the age would memorialise him. While alive, he controlled not only his own reputation and image, but every aspect of cultural life. No poem or inscription was below his notice.
For years Augustus had taken personal responsibility for Roman morals, passing laws to that effect. Those who did not toe the line were sent away, exiled from Rome, for many a fate worse than death.
One to suffer this fate was the brilliant poet Ovid who after a mysterious, ‘carmen et error’ ‘a song and a mistake’ was banished to spend the rest of his life on the distant shores of the Black Sea.
This was truly devastating sentence for the man who had been the darling of the Roman elite, feted for his poems and his linguistic brilliance, celebrated by the great and the good. In exile, Ovid’s writing turned from love to sadness, but his talent endured.
This is the character and the historical setting that the scholar of Roman literature, Llewelyn Morgan, takes us back to in this episode. It is a world full of verve and wit, peril and possibility, as one great age gave out to another.
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Click here to order Llewelyn Morgan’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
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Show notes
Scene One: Rome. The funeral of Augustus, an extraordinary spectacle that he had planned to the last t himself. It was effectively an embodied history of Rome with all the major figures played by people wearing specially designed wax masks.
Scene Two: Tomi. Ovid off in exile on the Black Sea, melancholic and desperate to return to his beloved Rome. He writes poetic letters to a bunch of people he hopes can help him out, including one of the consuls for AD14 and Germanicus, the heir to the throne.
Scene Three: The Rhine. Germanicus dealing with army mutinies that break out on the critical Rhine frontier after Augustus' death. This revealed the real character of the Empire, where power really lay, and also provided insight into the lives of the ordinary people who filled the army ranks.
Memento: A wax mask worn by official mourners at the funeral of the Emperor Augustus.
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Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Llewelyn Morgan
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
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About Llewelyn Morgan
Professor Llewelyn Morgan is a scholar of Roman literature at Brasenose College, Oxford. He is the author of Ovid: A Very Short Introduction and has written numerous articles on various aspects of Roman poetry, primarily focusing on the works of Virgil, Horace and Ovid. His books focus on Virgil's Georgics and on poetic metre. Morgan has been teaching at the University of Oxford for twenty years.
About the Very Short Introduction series
In 1995, Oxford University Press began publishing a new series of books called Very Short Introductions, which they billed as ‘stimulating ways into new subjects.’ Twenty six years on there are now over 350 titles providing readers with expert guides to subjects as diverse as Algebra, Chaos, The Vikings and Shakespeare’s Comedies. They are an incomparable jumping off point for anyone embarking on a new topic, small enough to slip into your pocket but sure to give you a clear overview. As today’s guest Professor Llewellyn Morgan explains, they are extremely difficult to write as they require huge amounts of information to be distilled down into a slim, concise volume.
Ovid Banished from Rome by JMW Turner
Source: The Athenaeum / WikiCommons
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