The Amores consist of 49 love elegies in which Ovid, as an uninvolved observer, describes the adventures of a man and his lover Corinna. Virgil had a great influence in medieval culture, making it difficult for Ovid to assert himself against him. Ovid’s importance grew with the rise of vagabond…
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (* 3 November 39; † 30 April 65) was a nephew of Seneca and enjoyed the early esteem of Emperor Nero. For reasons that are no longer comprehensible today, Lucan lost favour with the emperor and joined the conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso. When his treachery was…
Publius Ovidius Naso (* 30 BCE; † 17) gave up his political and legal career quite early on and devoted himself entirely to literature. He joined the circle of poets around Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus and celebrated his breakthrough with the Amores. Other works on love followed, such as the…
Of all Lucan’s works, only the unfinished ten books De bello civili have survived. The epic depicts the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, the climax of which was the battle at Pharsalos, which is why it was already called Pharsalia by the author himself. Lucan began the work around…
