The present edition of the first book of the Epistulae ex Ponto gives a revised text with a new translation, an extended introduction, and the first full-scale commentary of this work in English. The commentary pays particular attention to stylistic questions and examines how the Epistulae ex Ponto differs from the poet's remaining oeuvre. It demonstrates that Ovid generally adopts a more colloquial and prosaic style (as suits the epistolary form) and that he carefully adjusts the stylistic register to the respective addressees of the letters.

Exile and displacement are central topics in classical literature. Previous research has been mostly biographical and has focused on the three most prominent exiles: Cicero, Ovid, and Seneca. By shifting focus to a discourse of exile and displacement in early Greek poetry, Greek historiography, Cynicism, consolatory literature, Latin epic, Greek literature of the empire, and Medieval Latin literature, the present volume questions the notion of a distinct, psychologically conditioned 'genre' or 'mode' of exile literature. It shows how ancient and medieval authors perceive and present their...