This commentary provides a detailed analysis of the first book of Ovid's Fasti, a complex poem which takes as its central framework the Roman calendar in the late Augustan/early Tiberian period and purports to deal with its religious festivals and their origins. Book 1 covers the month of January, and has proven to be particularly challenging to readers in light of the apparent revision/reworking of the text undertaken by the poet whilst in exile. This commentary - the most extensive yet on any single book of the poem - locates the text of Book 1 firmly in its literary, historical and socio-political contexts and seeks both to incorporate and build on the recent scholarship on the poem. In light of the special nature of Book 1, the commentary is prefaced by two introductory sections, the second of which tackles head-on the problems (and dynamics) of post-exilic reworking of the text.

The Fasti is one of Ovid's most complex, inventive, and remarkable works. This commentary on Book 2 - the first detailed commentary in English - guides the reader towards a fuller appreciation of the poem, through detailed analysis of its religious, historical, political, and literary background.

Presents a clear and detailed guide to a central book of the Fasti, Ovid's account of Rome and its calendar.

After a period of neglect, Ovid's elegiac poem on the Roman calendar has been the focus of much recent scholarship. In her comprehensive and scholarly study of the final book, Joy Littlewood analyses Ovid's account of the origins of the festivals of June, demonstrating that Book 6 is effectively a commemoration of Roman War, and elegantly provides a framing bracket to balance the opening celebration of Peace in Book 1. She explores the subtle interweaving of pietas and virtus in Roman religion and its relationship to Augustan ideology, the depth and accuracy of Ovid's antiquarianism, and his audacious expansion of generic boundaries.

"After a period of neglect, the Fasti, Ovid's elegiac poem on the Roman calendar, has been the focus of much recent scholarship. Joy Littlewood suggests that Book 6 is unified by the theme of War, so providing a framing bracket to balance the dominant theme of Peace in Book I. While January celebrates the blessings of Augustan peace, June presents a multifaceted portrait of Roman war, a uniquely Roman combination of virtus and pictas. The three goddesses who dispute the origin of the month in the Proem have associations with military success and Roman power, a distinguishing characteristic that they share in varying degrees with the goddesses whose festivals fall in June (Carna, Vesta, Mater Matuta, Fortuna, and Minerva), most of whom, like Juno of Lanuvium, are also the focus of women's cult. Throughout the month, republican military conflicts are recalled in temples vowed and anniversaries of victory and defeat in Rome's struggle for hegemony. Finally, a complex extended epilogue, which culminates in the celebration of Hercules Musarum, coalesces with familiar themes of Augustan ideology: apotheosis, dynastic eulogy, and the monuments of the Pax Augusta. These and other themes are discussed in the Introduction to the Commentary, which includes analyses of the literary and historical background of the work, Augustus' dynastic restructuring of Roman religion, as evinced in the iconography of his new monuments, Ovid's adaptations of material from Livy's Histories and Horace's Roman Odes, his narrative technique, and his expansion of the elegiac genre through the antiquarian content of the book. Fascinating literary questions are raised by the poet's audacious violation of generic boundaries, no less than by his inclusion of sound antiquarian material artfully camouflaged by literary allusion. Ovid's Fasti Book 6 offers new insights into the complex role played by religion in Roman life."--BOOK JACKET.

Originally published in 1955, this introductory text was created for the general reader or students of the classics seeking a greater understanding of Ovid.

Ovid's Fasti, his poem on the Roman calendar, became especially influential during the fifteenth century as a guide to classical Roman culture. Ovid's treatment of mythological and astronomical lore, his investigation of anniversaries and customs, and his charting of monuments and history offered humanist poets and intellectuals an abundance of material to unravel. They could identify with Ovid as vates operosus, or hard-working seer-poet, suggesting both researcher and inspired authority. Angela Fritsen's Antiquarian Voices: The Roman Academy and the Commentary Tradition on Ovid's Fasti offers the first study of the Renaissance exegesis and imitation of Ovid as antiquarian. Fritsen analyzes the Fasti commentaries by Paolo Marsi (1440-1484) and Antonio Costanzi (1436-1490) as well as the connections between the two works. It situates Ovidian Fasti studies in the Roman Academy under the mentorship of Pomponio Leto. Nowhere could the investigation of the Fasti be carried out better than in Rome. The humanists had a guide to the City in Ovid. They also regarded the Fasti as well suited to the ideology of the ancient Roman imperium's renewal in modern papal Rome. Antiquarian Voices illustrates how in reviving the Fasti, the humanists returned Rome to its original splendor. The book demonstrates that the humanists were eager to relate the Fasti to their antiquarian pursuits--as well as to their rising personal fame.