mainland of Sicily. Ortygia was famed for containing | originally a branch of the same stock as the Opici or the celebrated fount of Arethusa. The earliest men- Osci. Micali considers the Sabini, Apuli, Messapii, tion of this island is found in Hesiod (Theog., 1013). On it is now situate the greater part of modern Syracuse. (Göller, de Situ et Orig. Syracus., p. 39, seq.) -III. One of the early names of the island of Delos. (Vid. Delos.) ORUS, an Egyptian deity, son of Osiris and Isis. (Vid. Horus.) OSCA, a town of Hispania Bætica, in the territory of the Turdetani. According to Mannert, it corresponds to the modern Huesca, in Aragon. (Geogr., vol. 1, p. 410.) Ukert, however, places its site to the west of the city. It was in Osca that Sertorius collected together, from the various nations of Spain, the children of the nobility, and placed masters over them to instruct them in Greek and Roman literature. Plutarch states, that this had the appearance only of an education, to prepare them for being admitted citizens of Rome; but that the children were, in fact, so many hostages. (Vit. Sertor.) the same. 46 Campani, Aurunci, and Volsci, as all branches of the OscI or OPICI, a people of ancient Italy, who seem to have been identical with the Ausones or Aurunci, and who inhabited the southern part of the peninsula. Some ancient writers consider the Ausones to be a branch of the Osci; others, as Polybius, have spoken of them as distinct tribes, but this appears to be an error. The names Opicus and Oscus are undoubtedly Aristotle (Polit., 7, 10) calls the country from the Tiber to the Silarus, Ausonia and Opicia; and other ancient writers extended the name much farther, to the Straits of Sicily; but the southern extremity of the peninsula appears to have been occupied previously by the Enotrians, a Pelasgic race, who were conquered by the Lucanians and Bruttii. Cuma, one of the earliest Greek colonies on the coast of Italy, was in the country of the Opici. The early immigrations of the Illyrians or Liburnians along the eastern coast of Italy, drove the aboriginal inhabitants from the lowlands into the fastnesses of the central Apennines, whence they issued under the various names of Sabini, Casci, or Latini veteres. There was an ancient tradition in Italy, in the time of the historian Dionysius, of a sudden irruption of strangers from the opposite coast of the Adriatic, which caused a general commotion and dispersion among the aboriginal tribes. Afterward came the Hellenic colonies, which occupied the whole seacoast from Mount Garganus to the extremity of the peninsula, in the first and second centuries of Rome; in consequence of which, the population of the southern part of the Italian peninsula became divided into two races, the tribes of Aboriginal or Oscan descent, such as the Sabini, Samnites, Lucani, and Bruttii, who remained in possession of the highlands, and the Greek colonists and their descendants, who occupied the maritime districts, but never gained possession of the upper or Apennine regions. Such is the view taken by Micali and other Italian writers. But Niebuhr describes the Sabini, and their colonies the Samnites, Lucani, and other tribes, which the Roman writers called by the general name of Sabellians, as a people distinct from the Osci OSIRIS, one of the principal Egyptian deities, was or Opici. He says, after Cato and other ancient his brother of Isis, and the father of Horus. His history torians, that the Sabini issued out of the highlands of is given in the first book of Diodorus, and in Plutarch's the central Apennines, near Amiternum, long before treatise "On Isis and Osiris;" but it is not improbthe epoch of the Trojan war, and, driving before them able that the genuine Egyptian traditions respecting the Cascans or Prisci Latini, who were an Oscan the deity had been considerably corrupted at the time tribe, settled themselves in the country which has to of these writers. According to their accounts, howthis day retained the name of Sabina. Thence they ever, Osiris was the first who reclaimed the Egyptians sent out numerous colonies, one of which penetrated from a state of barbarism, and taught them agriculture into the land of the Opicans, and became the Samnite and the various arts and sciences. After he had inpeople; and afterward the Samnites occupied Cam- troduced civilization among his own subjects, he repania, and, mixing themselves with the earlier Oscan solved to visit the other nations of the world and conpopulation, settled there and adopted their language. fer on them the same blessing. He accordingly com But, farther on, in speaking of the Sabini and Sabel-mitted the administration of his kingdom to Isis, his lians, Niebuhr admits the probability of their being sister and queen, and gave her Hermes to assist her in council, and Hercules to command her troops. | few vestiges remain of its ancient greatness. All hisHaving collected a large army himself, he visited in torians agree in ascribing the foundation of Ostia to Ansuccession Ethiopia, Arabia, and India, and thence cus Marcius. (Liv., 1, 33.-Dion. Hal., 3, 44-Flor., marched through Central Asia into Europe, instruct-1, 4.) That it was a Roman colony we learn from ing the nations in agriculture, and in the arts and sci- Florus (l. c.-Compare Senec., 1, 15.-Tacit., Hist., ences. He left his son Macedon in Thrace and Ma- 1, 80). When the Romans began to have-ships of cedonia, and committed the cultivation of the land of war, Ostia became a place of greater importance, and a Attica to Triptolemus. After visiting all parts of the fleet was constantly stationed there to guard the mouth inhabited world, he returned to Egypt, where he was of the Tiber. (Liv., 22, 11 et 27.—Id., 23, 38 — Id., murdered soon after his arrival by his brother Typhon, 27, 22.) It was here that the statue of Cybele was who cut up his body into twenty-six parts, and divided received with due solemnity by Scipio Nasica, when it among the conspirators who had aided him in the the public voice had selected him for that duty, as the murder of his brother. These parts were afterward, best citizen of Rome. (Livy, 29, 14.- Herodian, with one exception, discovered by Isis, who enclosed 1, 11, 10.) In the civil wars, Östia fell into the hands each of them in a statue of wax, made to resemble of Marius, and was treated with savage cruelty. (Lit., Osiris, and distributed them through different parts of Epit., 79.) Cicero, in one of his orations, alludes Egypt. Other forms of the legend may be found in with indignation to the capture of the fleet stationed Creuzer's claborate work (Symbolik, vol. 1, p. 259, at Ostia by some pirates. (Pro. L. Manil.) The seqq.-Symbolik, par Guigniaut, vol. 1, pt. 1, p. 389, town and colony of Ostia were distant only thirteen seqq.) For some remarks explanatory of it, consult miles from Rome, but the port itself, according to the the article Isis.-Herodotus informs us (2, 48), that Itineraries, was at the mouth of the Tiber; unless it the festival of Osiris was celebrated in almost the be thought with Vulpius, that the town and harbour, same manner as that of Bacchus. It appears, howev- with all their dependencies, might occupy an extent er, not improbable, that the worship of Osiris was in- of three miles along the river. (Vet. Lat., 2, 1, p. troduced into Egypt, in common with the arts and sci- 136.) There is some difficulty, however, in ascerences, from the Ethiopian Meroë. We learn from taining the exact situation of the harbour, from the Herodotus (2, 29), that Ammon and Osiris were the change which appears to have taken place in the national deities of Meroe, and we are told by Diodorus mouth of the river during the lapse of so many ages. (3, 3) that Osiris led a colony from Ethiopia into Even the number of its channels is a disputed point. Egypt.-Osiris was venerated under the form of the Ovid seems to point out two (Fast., 4, 291.—Ibid, sacred bulls Apis and Mnevis (Diod. Sic., 1, 21); and 4, 329), but Dionysius Periegetes positively states as it is usual in the Egyptian symbolical language to that there was but one. The difference, however, represent their deities with human forms, and with may be reconciled by supposing that, in the geogthe heads of the animals which were their representa- rapher's time, the right branch of the river might tives, we find statues of Osiris with the horns of a alone be used for the purposes of navigation, and that bull. (Egyptian Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 295.) Osiris, the other stream was too insignificant and shallow for in common with Isis, presided over the world below; the reception of ships of any size. The two streams and it is not uncommon to find him represented on still exist; the left is called Fiumaro, the right, on rolls of papyrus, as sitting in judgment on departed which the Portus Augusti was situate, is known by spirits. His usual attributes are the high cap, the the name of Fiumecino.-According to Plutarch, Juflail or whip, and the crosier. (Encycl. Us. Knowl., lius Cæsar was the first who turned his attention to vol. 17, p. 49.-Cory, Horapollo Nilous, p. 164, pl. 2.) the construction of a port at Ostia, by raising there a OSISMII, a people of Gallia Lugdunensis Tertia, on mole and other works; but it was to the Emperor the coast of the Mare Britannicum, and at the south- Claudius that this harbour seems indebted for all the western extremity of the Tractus Armoricus. Their magnificence ascribed to it by antiquity. Suetonius, country, according to some, answers to the modern in his life of that prince, has given us a detailed acLéon and Tréguier; but, according to D'Anville, count of the formation of this harbour with its pharos their chief city was Vorgannum, now Karhez, in Basse (c. 20.-Compare Dio Cass., 60, 11.-Plin., 36, 9. Bretagne. (Cæs., B. G., 2, 34.-Id. ib., 3, 9, &c.—Id., 36, 15 et 40). It is generally supposed that Lemaire, Ind. Geogr., ad. Cæs., s. v.) Trajan subsequently improved and beautified the port of Ostia; but the only authority for such a supposition is derived from the scholiast on Juvenal, in his commentary on the passage where that poet describes the entrance of Catullus into this haven (12, 75). It is not improbable, however, that the scholiast might confound the harbour of Ostia with that of Centum Cellæ. OSRHOENE, a district of Mesopotamia, in the northwestern section of the country. (Vid. Mesopotamia.) OSSA, I. a celebrated mountain, or, more correctly, mountain-range of Thessaly, extending from the right bank of the Peneus along the Magnesian coast to the chain of Pelion. It was supposed that Ossa and Olympus were once united, but that an earthquake-In process of time, a considerable town was formed had rent them asunder (Herod., 7, 132.-Elian, V. H., 3, 1), forming the vale of Tempe. (Vid. Tempe.) Ossa was one of the mountains which the giants, in their war with the gods, piled upon Olympus in order to ascend to the heavens. (Hom., Od., 11, 312, seqq. -Virg., Georg., 1, 282.) The modern name is Kissovo, or, according to Dodwell, Kissabos (Kissavos). "Mount Ossa," observes Dodwell, "which does no: appear so high as Pelion, is much lower than Olympus.jan; for Pliny the younger informs us, when descriIt rises gradually to a point, which appears about 5000 feet above the level of the plain; but I speak only from conjecture." (Tour, vol. 2, p. 106.-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 422.)—II. A small town of Macedonia, in the territory of Bisaltia, and situate on a river (probably the Basaltes) falling into the Stry mon. OSTIA, a celebrated town and harbour, at the mouth of the river Tiber, in Italy. It was the port of Rome, and its name even now continues unchanged, though around the harbour of Ostia, which was itself called Portus Augusti, or simply Portus; and a road was constructed thence to the capital, which took the name of Via Portuensis. Ostia, as has been remarked, attained the summit of its prosperity and importance under Claudius, who always testified a peculiar regard for this colony. It seems to have flourished likewise under Vespasian, and even as late as the reign of Tra bing his Laurentine villa, that he derived most of his household supplies from Ostia. In the time of Procopius, however, this city was nearly deserted, all its commerce and population having been transported to the neighbouring Portus Augusti. The same writer gives a full account of the trade and navigation of the Tiber at this period; from him we learn, that the island which was formed by the separation of the two branches of that river was called Sacra. (Rer. Got., 1Compare Rutil., Itin., 1, 169.) The salt marshes form ed to remove the Ostrogoths from his territories. Theodoric defeated Odoacer in various battles, took him prisoner, and some time after put him to death. Upon this event, Theodoric sent an ambassador to Anastasius, the emperor of Constantinople, who transmitted to him, in return, the purple vest, and acknowledged him as King of Italy. It appears that both Theodoric and his predecessor Odoacer acknowledged, nominally at least, the supremacy of the Eastern emconnected with that of Theodoric, who established his dynasty over Italy, which is generally styled the reign of the Goths in that country. (Encycl. Us. Knowl., vol. 17, p. 55.) OSYMANDYAS, a king of Egypt, the same with Ameproph or Phamenoph. (Vid. Memnon, and Memnonium.) Jablonski makes Osymanydas equivalent in meaning to "dans vocem," voice-emitting. (Voc. Egypt., p. 29, p. 97.-Compare Creuzer, Symbolik, par Guigniaut, vol. 1, p. 482.) ed by Ancus Marcius, at the first foundation of Ostia | appears, with the consent of Zeno himself, who wish(Liv., 1, 33), still subsist near the site now called Casone del Sale. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 2, p. 11, seqq.)"Nothing," observes a modern traveller, "can be more dreary than the ride from Rome to this once magnificent seaport. You issue out of the Porta San Paola, and proceed through a continued scene of dismal and heart-sinking desolation; no fields, no dwellings, no trees, no landmarks, no marks of cultivation, except a few scanty patches of corn, thinly scattered over the waste; and huts, like wig-peror. The rest of the history of the Ostrogoths is wams, to shelter the wretched and half-starved people that are doomed to live on this field of death. The Tiber, rolling turbidly along in its solitary course, seems sullenly to behold the altered scenes that have withered around him. A few miles from Ostia we entered upon a wilderness indeed. A dreary swamp extended all around, intermingled with thickets, through which roamed wild buffaloes, the only inhabitants of the waste. A considerable part of the way was upon the ancient pavement of the Via Ostiensis, in some places in good preservation, in others broken up and OTHO, I. MARCUS SALVIUS, was born A.D. 31 or 32. destroyed. When this failed us, the road was exe- He was descended of an honourable family, which crable. The modern fortifications of Ostia appeared originally came from Ferentinum, and which traced its before us long before we reached them. At length origin to the Lucumones of Etruria. His grandfather, we entered its gate, guarded by no sentinel; on its who belonged to the equestrian order, was made a senbastions appeared no soldier; no children ran from ator through the influence of Livia Augusta, but did its houses to gaze at the rare splendour of a carriage; not rise higher in office than the prætorship. His fano passenger was seen in the grass-grown street. It ther, Lucius Otho, was advanced to offices of great presented the strange spectacle of a town without in- honour and trust by the Emperor Tiberius, whom he habitants. After some beating and hallooing, on the is said to have resembled so closely in person as to part of the coachman and lackey, at the shut-up door have been frequently taken for a near relation. Marof one of the houses, a woman, unclosing the shutter cus Otho was an intimate friend of Nero during the of an upper window, presented her ghastly face; and, early years of his reign, and his associate in his exhaving first carefully reconnoitred us, slowly and reluc-cesses and debaucheries; but Nero's love for Poppaa, tantly admitted us into her wretched hovel. Where are all the people of the town?' we inquired. 'Dead,' was the brief reply. The fever of the malaria annually carries off almost all whom necessity confines to this pestilential region. But this was the month of April, the season of comparative health, and we learned, on more strict inquiry, that the population of Ostia, at present, nominally consisted of twelve men, four women, no children, and two priests.-The ruins of old Ostia are farther in the wilderness. The sea is now two miles, or nearly, from the ancient port. The cause of this, in a great measure, seems to be, that the extreme flatness of the land does not allow the Tiber to carry off the immense quantity of earth and mud its turbid waters bring down; and the more that is deposited, the more sluggishly it flows, and thus the shore rises, the sea recedes, and the marshes extend. The marshy insula sacra, in the middle of the river, is now inhabited by wild buffaloes. We had intended to cross to the sacred island, and from thence to the village of Fiumecino, on the other side, where there are said to be still some noble remains of ancient Porto, particularly of the mole, but a sudden storm prevented us." (Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. 2, p. 449.) whom Otho had seduced from her husband, and to whom he was greatly attached, produced a coolness between them, and this rivalry for the affections of an unprincipled woman would soon have terminated in the ruin of Otho, had not Seneca procured for the latter the government of Lusitania, to which he was sent as into a kind of honourable exile. In this province, which he governed, according to Suetonius (Vit. Othonis, 3), with great justice, he remained for ten years; and afterward took an active part in opposition to Nero, and in placing Galba on the throne, A.D. 68. Otho appears to have expected, as the reward of his services, that he would be declared his successor; but when Galba proceeded to adopt Piso Licinianus, Otho formed a conspiracy among the guards, who proclaimed him emperor, and put Galba to death after a reign of only seven months. Otho commenced his reign by ingratiating himself with the soldiery, whom Galba had unwisely neglected to conciliate. He yielded to the wishes of the people in putting to death Tigellius, who had been the chief minister of Nero's pleasures, and he acquired considerable popularity by his wise and judicious administration. He was, however, scarcely seated upon the throne, before he was called upon to oppose Vitellius, who had been proclaimed emperor by the legions in Germany a few days before the death of Galba. Vitellius, who was of an indolent disposition, sent forward Cæcina, one of his generals, to secure the passes of the Alps, while OSTROGOTHÆ, or Eastern Goths, a division of the he himself remained in his camp upon the Rhine. Otho great Gothic nation, who settled in Pannonia in the quickly collected a large army and marched against fifth century of our era, whence they extended their Cacina, while he sent his fleet to reduce to obedience dominion over Noricum, Rhætia, and Illyricum. About Liguria and Gallia Narbonensis. (Compare Tacitus, 482 or 483 A.D., their king Theodoric was serving Agric., c. 7.) At first Otho was completely successas an auxiliary under the Emperor Zeno, and distin- ful. Liguria and Gallia Narbonensis submitted to his guished himself in Syria. On his return to Constanti-authority, while Cecina was repulsed with consideranople, Theodoric, according to the statement of the historian Evagrius, fearing Zeno's jealousy of his success, retired into Pannonia in 487, where he collected an army, and in the following year marched into Italy, with all his tribe, men, women, and children, and, as OSTORIUS SCAPULA, a governor of Britain in the reign of Claudius, who defeated and took prisoner the famous Caractacus. He died A.D. 55. (Tacit., Ann., 12, 36.) ble loss in an attack upon Placentia. Cacina encountered subsequently a second check. But, shortly after, Otho's army was completely defeated by the troops of Vitellius, in a hard-fought battle near Bebriacum, a village on the Po, sorthwest of Mantua. Otho, who ninety miles from Rome. Ovid came into the world does not appear, however, to have been deficient in bravery, had been persuaded, for the security of his person, to retire before the battle to Brixellum; a step which tended, as Tacitus has observed, to occasion his defeat. When he was informed of the result of the conflict, he refused to make any farther effort for the empire, but put an end to his own life by falling upon his sword, at the age of 37 according to Tacitus (Hist., 2, 50), or of 38 according to Suetonius (Vit. Oth., c. 11), after reigning 95 days. Plutarch, in his life of Otho, relates that the soldiers immediately buried his body, that it might not be exposed to indignity by falling into the hands of his enemies, and erected a plain monument over his grave, with the simple inscription, "To the memory of Marcus Otho." The early debaucheries of Otho threw a stain upon his reputation, which his good conduct in Lusitania and his mildness as emperor did not altogether remove. The treatment which he received from Nero might in some degree justify his rebellion against that prince; but no palliation can be found for the treason and cruelty with which he was chargeable towards Galba. In all things his actions were marked by a culpable extreme; and perhaps both the good and the evil which appeared in his life were the result of circumstances rather than of virtuous principles or of fixed and incurable depravity. (Tacit., Hist., lib. 1 et 2.- - Sueton., Vit. Othon. Plut., Vit. Othon.-Dio Cass., lib. 64.-Encycl. Us. Knowl., vol. 17, p. 59.-Encycl. Metropol., div. 3, vol. 2, p. 497, seqq.)-II. L. Roscius, a tribune of the commons, who, in the year that Cicero was consul, proposed and caused to be passed the well-known law which allowed the equestrian order particular seats in the theatre. The equites, previous to this, sat promiscuously with the commons. By this new regulation of Otho's, the commons considered themselves dishonoured, and hissed and insulted Otho when he appeared in the theatre: the equites, on the other hand, received him with loud plaudits. The commons repeated their hissings and the knights their applause, until at last they came to mutual reproaches, and the whole theatre presented a scene of the greatest disorder. Cicero, being informed of the disturbance, came and summoned the people to the temple of Bellona, where, partly by his reproofs and partly by his persuasive eloquence, he so wrought upon them that they returned to the theatre, loudly testified their approbation of Otho, and strove with the equites which should show him the most honour. The speech delivered on this occasion was afterward reduced to writing. It is now lost, but, having been delivered extempore, it affords a strong example of the persuasive nature of his elo-ferent parts of the island. After his return to Rome, quence. One topic which he touched on in this oration, and the only one of which we have any hint from antiquity, was his reproaching the rioters for their want of taste, in creating a tumult while Roscius was performing on the stage. (Livy, Epit., 99. Horat., Epist., 1, 1, 62.-Juv., Sat., 3, 159.-Vell. Paterc., 2, 32.-Fuss, Rom. Antiq., p. 147.) OTHRYS, a mountain-range of Thessaly, which, branching out of Tymphrestus, one of the highest points in the chain of Pindus, closed the great basin of Thessaly to the south, and served at the same time to divide the waters which flowed northward into the Peneus from those received by the Sperchius. This mountain is often celebrated by the poets of antiquity. (Eurip., Alcest., 583.-Theocr., Idyll., 3, 43.-Virg., En., 7,674-Lucan, 6, 337.) At present it is known by the different names of Hellovo, Varibovo, and Goura. (Ponqueville, vol. 3, p. 394. - Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 412.) Orus and EPHIALTES, sons of Neptune. (Vid. Aloïda.) OVIDIUS NASO, P., a celebrated poet, born at Sulmo (now Sulmona), a town lying on the river Pescara, in the territory of the Peligni, at the distance of and on attaining the suitable age, Ovid held success- gardens, which lay a little beyond the city, at the junc- | with the smiles of fortune, honoured with the favour tion of the Clodian and Flaminian Ways, near the of his prince, and fondly anticipating a tranquil old Pons Milvius, where he composed many of his verses. age. (Tristia, 4, 8, 29.) He now remained at Rome He was fond, indeed, of the rural pleasures of flowers the last of the constellation of poets which had and trees, but he chiefly delighted to sow and plant brightened the earlier age of Augustus. That prince them in these suburban gardens. (Ep. e Ponto, i, 8.) had by this time lost his favourite ministers, Mæcenas Far from hiding himself amid his groves, like the mel- and Agrippa: he was less prosperous than during forancholy Tibullus, he courted society, and never was mer years in the external affairs of the empire, and happier than amid the bustle of the capital. One day, less prudently advised in his domestic concerns: he when Augustus, in his capacity of censor, according was insidiously alienated from his own family, and to ancient custom, made the whole body of Roman was sinking in his old age under the sway of the imknights pass before him in review, he presented our perious Livia and the dark-souled Tiberius. Ovid's poet with a beautiful steed. (Tristia, 2, 89.) The friendships lay chiefly among those who supported the gift was accounted a peculiar mark of favour, and lineal descendants of Augustus, the unfortunate offshows that, at the time when it was bestowed, he had spring of Julia and Agrippa. He thus became an obincurred no moral stain which merited the disapproba- ject of suspicion to the party in power, and had lost tion of his prince. While frequenting the court of many of those benefactors who might have shielded Augustus, Ovid was well received by the politest of him from the storm which now unexpectedly burst on the courtiers. The titles of many of the epistles writ- his head, and swept from him every hope and comfort ten during his banishment, show that they were ad- for the remainder of his existence. It was in the dressed to persons well known to us, even at this dis-year 762, and when Ovid had reached the age of 51, tance of time, as distinguished statesmen and imperial that Augustus suddenly banished him from Rome to a favourites. Messala, to whose house he much resort-wild and distant corner of the empire. Ovid has deed, had early encouraged the rising genius, and direct-rived nearly as much celebrity from his misfortunes ed the studies of Ovid; and the friendship which the as his writings; and, having been solely occasioned father had extended to our poet was continued to him by the vengeance of Augustus, they have reflected by the sons. But his chief patron was Q. Fabius Max- some dishonour on a name which would otherwise imus, long the friend of Augustus, and, in the closing have descended to posterity as that of a generous and scenes of that prince's life, the chief confidant of his almost universal protector of learning and poetry. weaknesses and domestic sorrows. (Tacit., Ann., 1, The real cause of his exile is the great problem in the 5.) Nor was Ovid's acquaintance less with the cele- literary history of Rome, and has occasioned as much brated poets of his age than with its courtiers and sen- doubt and controversy as the imprisonment of Tasso ators. Virgil, indeed, he had merely seen, and pre- by Alphonso has created in modern Italy. The semature death cut off the society of Tibullus; but Hor- cret unquestionably was known to many persons in ace, Macer, and Propertius were long his familiar Rome at the time (Tristia, 4, 10.- Compare Ep. e friends, and often communicated to him their writings Ponto, 2, 6); but, as its discovery had deeply wounded previous to publication. While blessed with so many the feelings of Augustus (Tristia, 2, 209), no confriends, he seems to have been undisturbed, at least temporary author ventured to disclose it. Ovid himduring this period of his life, by the malice of a sin- self has only dared remotely to allude to it, and when gle foe: neither the court favour he enjoyed nor his he does mention it, his hints and suggestions are poetical renown procured him enemies; and he was scarcely reconcilable with each other, sometimes never assailed by that spirit of envy and detraction by speaking of his offence as a mistake or chance, in which Horace had been persecuted. His poetry was which he was more unfortunate than blameable, and at universally popular (Tristia, 1, 1, 64): like the stanzas other times as if his life might have been forfeited of Tasso, it was often sung in the streets or at enter- without injustice. (Tristia, 5, 11.) No subsequent tainments; and his verses were frequently recited in the writer thought of revealing or investigating the mystheatre amid the applause of the multitude. Among tery till it was too late, and it seems to be now closed his other distinctions, Ovid was a favourite of the for ever within the tomb of the Cæsars. The most fair, with whom his engagements were numerous and ancient opinion (to which Sidonius Apollinaris refers) his intercourse unrestrained. (Am., 2, 4.— Tristia, is, that Övid was banished for having presumed to 4, 10, 65.) He was extremely susceptible of love, love Julia, the daughter of Augustus, and for having and his love was ever changing. His first wife, whom celebrated her under the name of Corinna (Sidon. he married when almost a boy, was unworthy of his Apoll., Carm., 23, v. 158); and it was considered as affections, and possessed them but a short while. a confirmation of this opinion, that exile was the punThe second, who came from the country of the an-ishment inflicted on Sempronius, the most known and cient Falisci, led a blameless life, but was soon repu- best beloved of all her paramours. This notion was diated. After parting with her, Ovid was united to a adopted by Crinitus and Lylius Gyraldus; but it was third, who was of the Fabian family. In her youth refuted as early as the time of Aldus Manutius, who she had been the companion of Marcia, the wife of has shown from the writings of Ovid that he was enFabius Maximus, and a favourite of Marcia's mother, gaged in the amour with his pretended Corinna in his who was the maternal aunt of Augustus. She was a earliest youth; and it certainly is not probable that widow at the time of her marriage with Ovid, and had such an intrigue should have continued for about thirty a daughter by her former husband, who was married to years, and till Ovid had reached the age of fifty-one, Suillius, the friend of Germanicus. (Ep. e Ponto, 4, or that Augustus should have been so slow in discov8.) But these successive legitimate connexions did ering the intercourse which subsisted. Julia, too, was not prevent him from forming others of a different de- banished to Pandataria in the year 752, which was scription. Corinna, a wanton, enticing beauty, whose nine years before the exile of Ovid; and why should real name and family the commentators and biogra- his punishment have been delayed so long after the phers of our poet have ineffectually laboured to dis- discovery of his transgression? Besides, had he been cover, allured him in his early youth from the paths of guilty of such an offence, would he have dared in his rectitude. It is quite improbable that Corinna denoted Tristia, when soliciting his recall from banishment, to Julia, the daughter of Augustus, and impossible that justify his morals to the emperor, and to declare that she represented Julia, his granddaughter, who was he had committed an involuntary error? Or would he an infant when Ovid recorded his amours with Co-have been befriended and supported in exile by the inna. Ovid passed nearly thirty years in the volup-greatest men of Rome, some of whom were the fatuous enjoyment of the pleasures of the capital, blessed | vourites and counsellors of Augustus ?-Subsequently |