the attention and patronage of Maecenas. The year of his death
is altogether unknown. As an elegiac poet a high rank must be awarded to
Propertius, and among the ancients it was a disputed point whether the
preference should be given to him or to Tibullus. To the modern reader,
however, the elegies of Propertius are not nearly so attractive as those
of Tibullus. This arises partly from their obscurity, but in a great
measure, also, from a certain want of nature in them. The fault of
Propertius was too pedantic an imitation of the Greeks. His whole
ambition was to become the Roman Callimachus, whom he made his model. He
abounds with obscure Greek myths, as well as Greek forms of expression,
and the same pedantry infects even his versification.

P. OVIDIUS NASO, usually culled OVID, was born at Sulmo, in the country
of the Peligni, on the 20th of March, B.C. 43. He was descended from an
ancient equestrian family, and was destined to be a pleader; but the
bent of his genius showed itself very early. The hours which should have
been spent in the study of jurisprudence were employed in cultivating
his poetical talent. It is a disputed point whether he ever actually
practiced as an advocate after his return to Rome. The picture Ovid
himself draws of his weak constitution and indolent temper prevents us
from thinking that he ever followed his profession with perseverance,
if, indeed, at all. He became, however, one of the _Triumviri
Capitules_; and he was subsequently made one of the _Centumviri_, or
judges who tried testamentary, and even criminal causes. Till his 50th
year he continued to reside at Rome, where he had a house near the
Capitol, occasionally taking a trip to his Pelignian farm. He not only
enjoyed the friendship of a large circle of distinguished men, but the
regard and favor of Augustus and the imperial family; notwithstanding,
in A.D. 9, he was suddenly commanded by an imperial edict to transport
himself to Tomi, a town on the Euxine, near the mouths of the Danube, on
the very border of the empire. He underwent no trial, and the sole
reason for his banishment stated in the edict was his having published
his poem on the Art of Love (_Ars Amatoria_). The real cause of his
banishment is unknown, for the publication of the Art of Love was
certainly a mere pretext. Ovid draws an affecting picture of the
miseries to which he was exposed in his place of exile. He complains of
the inhospitable soil, of the severity o