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Banned from the Libraries?: Ovid's Books and Their Fate in the Exile Poetry

2017; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 138; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ajp.2017.0024

1086-3168

Barak Blum,

Freedom of Expression and Defamation

This article looks into the fate of Ovid's works in the wake of his relegation. Were they expelled from the public libraries of Rome as is commonly thought? A re-examination of pertinent passages in the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, as well as of what is known of the workings of ancient libraries and the history of Roman book censorship, presents an alternative. The investigation concludes with an account of the factors which may have given rise to the communis opinio.