PVBLIVS OVIDIVS NA­SO, descended of the ancient Family of the Nasones, who had preserued the dignitie of Roman Knights from the first originall of that Order, was borne at Sulmo, a Citie of the Peligni, on the 14. of the Calends of April, in the Consul-ships of Hirci­us and Pansa, both slaine at the battell of Mutina against Marcus Antonius. While yet a boy, his quicke wit and ready apprehension gaue his parents an assurance of a future excellencie: in so much as his father Lucius sent him to Rome (together with his bro­ther, a yeere elder than he, and borne on the same day) to bee instructed by Plotius Grippus, that Art might per­fect the accomplishments of nature. In his first of youth he was much ad­dicted vnto poetrie, wherein hee had [Page] [...] grace and naturall facili­tie▪ But co [...]tinually reproued by his father for following so vnprofitable a [...] with an ill will he forsooke the pleasant walkes of the Muses to trauel in the rugged paths of the Law, vnder [...] and Porcius Lairo; of whose [...]quence and learning he was a great Admirer. Neither attained he the [...] in to a vulgar commendation; be­ing [...] by Marcus Annaeus Sene­ [...]a among the principall Orators of those times. His prose was no other than dissolued verse: his speech wit­tie, briefe, and powerful in perswasion. Hauing past through diuers offices of Iudicature, and now readie to assume the habit of a Senator: his elder bro­ther and father being dead, impatient of toyle, and the clamours of litigious Assemblies, hee retired himselfe from all publick affaires to affected vacan­cie and his former abandoned studies. Yet such was the mutuall affection betweene him and Varro, that he ac­cepted of Command, & serued vnder [Page] him in the wars of Asia: from whence he returned by Athens, where he made his aboad, vntill hee had attained to the perfection of that language. Hee was of a meane stature, slender of bo­dy, spare of diet; and, it not too amo­rous, euery way temperate. He drunk no wine but what was much alayed with water: An Abhorrer of vnnatu­rall Lusts, from which it should seem that age was not innocent: neat in apparell; of a free, affable, and courtly behauiour; whereby he acquired the friendship of many, such as were great in learning & nobilitie; among whom not a few of Consular dignitie: and so honoured by diuers, that they wore his picture in rings cut in preci­ous stones. A great Admirer, and as much admired, of the excellent Poets of those times, with whom hee was most familiar and intimate. Being per­swaded by some of them to leaue out three verses of those many which hee had written, hee gaue his consent, so that of all he might except three only: [Page] whereupon they priuately writ those which they would haue him abolish, and he on the other side those which he excepted, when both their papers, being showne, presented the same verses, the first and second recorded by Pedo Albinovanus, who was one of the arbiters,

whereby it appeareth that his admira­ble wit did not want an answerable iudgement in suppressing the libertie of his verse, had he not affected it. An ample patrimonie he had in the ter­ritories of Sulmo; with a house and a temple in the citie, where now stands the Church of Sancta Maria de Tum­ba; and where now stands the Church of Sancta Maria de Consolatione he had an other in Rome, not farre from the Capitoll; with pleasant Hort-yards betweene the wayes of Flaminia and Claudia, wherein hee was accustomed to recreate himselfe with his Muses. Hee had had three wiues: whereof [Page] the first being giuen him in his youth, as neither worthie nor profitable, soone after (according to the custome of the Romans) he diuorced: nor liu'd he long with the second, although nobly borne, and of behauiour incul­pable. The chastitie and beauty of the third he often extolleth; whom hee instructed in poetrie, and to his death entirely affected. Neither was her af­fection inferior to his; liuing all the time of his banishment like a sorrow­full widow; and continuing to the end exemplarie faithfull. But in this euery-way happy condition, when his age required ease, and now about to imploy his beloued vacancie in the re­niew and polishing of his former la­bours, he was banished, or rather con­ [...]ined to Tomos (a citie of Sarmatia bordering on the Euxine Sea) by Au­gustus Caesar, on the fourth of the Ides of December, and in the one and fifti­eth yeere of his age, to the generall griefe of his friends & acquaintance; who sailed into Thrace in a ship of his [Page] owne, and by land performed the rest of his voyage. The cause of this his so cruell and deplored exile is rather coniectured than certainely knowne. Most agree that it was for his too much familiaritie with Iulia the daughter of Augustus, masked vnder the name of Corinna. Others, that hee had vnfortunately seene the incest of Caesar: which may be insinuated, in, that he complaines of his error, and compares himself to Actaeon. But the pretended occasion was for his com­posing of the Art of Loue, as intolera­bly lasciuious, and corrupting good manners. A pretence I may cal it, since vnlikely it is that he should banish him in his age for what he writ whē hard­ly a man, & after so long a conniuance. Yet Augustus, either to conceale his owne crime or his daughters, would haue it so thought: neither would Ov [...] reneale the true cause, lest hee should further exasperate his displea­sure. After he had long in vaine solici­ted his repea [...]e by the mediation of [Page] Germanicus Caesar, and others that were neere vnto the Emperour; or at least to bee remoued to a more tem­perate Clime; his hopes (as he writes) forsaking the earth with Augustus, he dyed at Tomos in the fifth yeere of the raigne of Tiberius; hauing liued seuen yeeres in banishment. As Tibullus and hee were borne in one day, so he and Liuie dyed on an other; that his birth and death might bee nobly accompa­nied. He had so wonne the barbarous Get's with his humanitie and gene­rous actions (hauing also written a booke in their language) that they honoured him in his life with trium­phant garlands, and celebrated his fu­nerals with vniuersall sorrow; ere­cting his tombe before the gates of their citie, hard by a lake which re­taineth his name to this day. His se­pulchre was found in the yeere, MDVIII. with a magnificent couer­ture presenting this Epitaph.