Ovid´ius, P. Na´so

A celebrated Roman poet born at Sulmo. He was sent at an early age to Rome, and afterwards went to Athens in the sixteenth year of his age, where his progre in the study of eloquence was great. His natural inclination, however, was towards poetry, and to this he devoted his chief attention. His lively genius and fertile imagination soon gained him admirers; the learned became his friends; Virgil, Pro pert i us, Horace, and Tibullus, honored him with their correspondence, and August us patronized him with unbounded liberality. These favors, however, were transitory, and he was banished to a place on the Euxine Sea by order of the emperor. The true cause of his banishment is not known. His friends ardently entreated the emperor to permit him to return, but in vain, and he died in the seventh or eighth year of his banishment, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, A.D. 17. A great portion of his works remains. These consist of the “Metamorphoses,” “Fasti,” “Epistolæ,” etc. Whilst his works are occasionally disfigured by indelicacy, they are distinguished by great sweetne and elegance. Pacto´lus. A celebrated river of Lydia. It was in this river that Midas washed himself when he turned into gold whatever he touched.