tly
because the title _Heroides_ cannot apply to half of them, and also
because of their inferiority in style. In the use of the epistolary
form in love poetry Ovid had no predecessor, and he himself calls
attention to the novelty (_A.A._ above). The style shows the influence
of Ovid's rhetorical training: the Epistles are _suasoriae_ in verse,
and of _suasoriae_ we know that he was particularly fond (Sen.
_Contr._ ii. 10, 12, 'Declamabat Naso raro controversias et non nisi
ethicas: libentius dicebat suasorias. Molesta illi erat omnis
argumentatio.'). His matter he would naturally draw from Homer, the
_Cypria_, Apollonius Rhodius, and the Greek tragedians.

3. Between the two editions of the _Amores_ he wrote the lost tragedy
_Medea_. It was later than _Am._ iii. 1, where he pictures the Muses
of Elegy and Tragedy as contending for his homage, and he finally
decides (ll. 67-8),

'Exiguum vati concede, Tragoedia, tempus:
tu labor aeternus; quod petit illa breve est.'

On the other hand, it was earlier than _Am._ ii. 18, 13,

'Sceptra tamen sumpsi, curaque tragoedia nostra
crevit, et huic operi quamlibet aptus eram.'

The drama enjoyed a high reputation in antiquity. Cf. Quint. x. 1, 98,
'Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere, quantum ille vir praestare
potuerit, si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgere maluisset.'

4. _Medicamina Faciei Femineae_, an incomplete poem of 100 lines,
giving directions for the toilet. Cf. _A.A._ iii. 205,

'Est mihi, quo dixi vestrae medicamina formae,
parvus, sed cura grande, libellus, opus.'

5. _Ars Amatoria_, a didactic poem in three Books, on the art of
love-intrigue. The title given by the MSS. is doubtless correct: Ovid
himself speaks of 'ars amandi,' or simply 'ars' or 'artes.' It was
written about B.C. 2, from the allusion, i. 171, to the 'naumachia' in
that year,

'Quid, modo cum belli navalis imagine Caesar
Persidas induxit Cecropiasque rates?'

The _Ars_ must have been in view when he wrote _Am._ ii. 18, 19,

'Quod licet, aut artes teneri profitemur amoris--
ei mihi, praeceptis urgeor ipse meis!'

6. _Remedia Amoris_, written next, while professing to be a
recantation of the last-named work, exhibits, if possible, a more
immoral tone. Cf. l. 487,

'Quaeris, ubi invenias? artes, i, perlege nostras.'

7. Ovid now produced a work of greater compass, the _Metamorphoses_,
in fifteen Books of heroic verse. When it was composed is not known,