Blackwell Reference Online

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Most of the dates of Ovid's works are entirely conjectural. Those given below reflect a consensus view, but can only be considered approximate. Ovid's life Key literary events Key historical events 43 bce Birth of Ovid Death of Cicero Battle of Mutina, deaths of consuls Hirtius and Pansa. 42–40 Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum Defeat of Caesar's assassins at Philippi; civil unrest in Italy 38 Virgil, Eclogues Renewal of the Second Triumvirate. Marriage of Octavian and Livia 36-35 Horace, Satires 1 (35). Death of Sallust Octavian defeats Sextus Pompey; Antony's failed Parthian offensive 32-30 Horace, Epodes; Tibullus 1 Civil War between Octavian and Antony; defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium 29-25 Ovid's first recitations Horace, Satires 2; Tibullus 1–2, Virgil's Georgics , Propertius 1. Suicide of Gallus. Octavian celebrates a triple triumph; closing of the doors of the temple of Janus; Octavian takes the title of ‘Augustus' 23 Horace's Odes 1–3. Vitruvius, De Architectura . Augustus receives tribunicia potestas for life; death of Marcellus 19 Heroides 1–15 (?). Aeneid; Horace, Epistles 1. Deaths of Virgil and Tibullus. Death of Tibullus 18-17 Horace, Carmen Saeculare Augustus’ moral legislation. Augustus adopts his grandsons, Gaius and Lucius 16-15 First edition of the Amores (?) Propertius 4 Birth of Germanicus 12 Medea (?) Horace, Epistles 2.1 Death ... log in or subscribe to read full text