'Te duce magnificas Asiae perspeximus urbes, Trinacris est oculis te duce nota meis, ... Hic mihi labentis pars anni magna peracta est.'
'Cura videre fuit: vidi templumque locumque,'
Towards the end of A.D. 8, Ovid was banished by imperial edict to Tomi, on the Black Sea, near the mouth of the Danube, the cause alleged being the publication of the _Ars Amatoria_. Ovid mentions this edict, but also hints at another reason, connected with the imperial family. _Tr._ ii. 207,
'Perdiderint cum me duo crimina, carmen et error, alterius facti culpa silenda mihi; nam non sum tanti renovem ut tua vulnera, Caesar, quem nimio plus est indoluisse semel. Altera pars superest, qua turpi carmine factus arguor obscaeni doctor adulterii.'
He was guilty of no crime of his own, but was banished for witnessing the crime of another. Cf. _Tr._ iii. 5, 49,
'Inscia quod crimen viderunt lumina, plector, peccatumque oculos est habuisse meum.'
It is probable that the real reason[68] of Ovid's banishment was that he was privy to a guilty intrigue between D. Silanus and Julia, the grand-daughter of Augustus. Julia was banished in A.D. 9, and Tacitus (_Ann._ iii. 24) tells us of the intrigue, for which Silanus (like Ovid) suffered _relegatio_. His knowledge of the offence was betrayed by friends and domestics. Cf. _Tr._ iv. 10, 101,
'Quid referam comitumque nefas famulosque nocentes?'
The date of his banishment is given _Tr._ iv. 10, 95,
'Postque meos ortus Pisaea vinctus oliva abstulerat decies praemia victor equus, cum maris Euxini positos ad laeva Tomitas quaerere me laesi principis ira iubet.'
[Here an Olympiad is reckoned as five years.] His punishment was _relegatio_, involving banishment to a fixed spot, but not confiscation of property; _Tr._ ii. 135,
'Adde quod edictum, quamvis immite minaxque, attamen in poenae nomine lene fuit; quippe relegatus, non exul, dicor in illo, privaque fortunae sunt ibi verba meae.'
In Tomi he spent the remaining years of his life, far from friends and books; _Tr._ v. 12, 53,
'Non liber hic ullus, non qui mihi commodet aurem, verbaque significent quid mea norit, adest';
suffering from illness (_Tr._ iii. 3) and the climate, and fighting against the barbarians; _Tr._ iv. 1, 71,