The Last Poems of Ovid

Copyright (C) 2006 by Mark Bear Akrigg
A New Edition, with Commentary, of the Fourth Book of the Epistulae ex Ponto
Original (unpublished) edition © 1985 by Mark Bear Akrigg
First published edition, corrected and augmented © 2006 by Mark Bear Akrigg
This edition and commentary are dedicated to ROB MORROW
quo non mihi carior alter

The Editor gratefully acknowledges the permission of the Herzog August Bibliothek for the use of Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: Cod. Guelf. 13.11 Aug. 4° (fragmentum Guelferbytanum).
It is a pleasure to present to the public this digital edition, with commentary, of Ex Ponto IV, the final poems written by the Roman poet Ovid, published after his death as a posthumous collection quite separate from the earlier Ex Ponto I-III.
These poems have a special place among Ovid's works, but have not received the attention which they deserve. In particular, there has been no full modern commentary on these poems.
This text presented in this edition is based on my personal examination of ten manuscripts. I have also restored to the text certain readings commonly accepted by editors until the nineteenth century. Finally, the edition contains several dozen new textual conjectures by myself and others.
This edition is intended to serve as a guide to the poems for intermediate and advanced students of Latin poetry. However, I have deliberately made it as straightforward as possible, and my hope is that even a beginning student of Latin poetry embarking on the study of these poems will find the commentary helpful.