‘Sceptra tamen sumpsi, curaque tragoedia nostra
crevit, et huic operi quamlibet aptus eram.’
The drama enjoyed a high reputation in antiquity. Cf. Quint. x. 1, 98, ‘Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere, quantum ille vir praestare potuerit, si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgere maluisset.’
4. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, an incomplete poem of 100 lines, giving directions for the toilet. Cf. A.A. iii. 205,
‘Est mihi, quo dixi vestrae medicamina formae,
parvus, sed cura grande, libellus, opus.’
5. Ars Amatoria, a didactic poem in three Books, on the art of love-intrigue. The title given by the MSS. is doubtless correct: Ovid himself speaks of ‘ars amandi,’ or simply ‘ars’ or ‘artes.’ It was written about B.C. 2, from the allusion, i. 171, to the ‘naumachia’ in that year,
‘Quid, modo cum belli navalis imagine Caesar
Persidas induxit Cecropiasque rates?’
The Ars must have been in view when he wrote Am. ii. 18, 19,
‘Quod licet, aut artes teneri profitemur amoris—
ei mihi, praeceptis urgeor ipse meis!’
6. Remedia Amoris, written next, while professing to be a recantation of the last-named work, exhibits, if possible, a more immoral tone. Cf. l. 487,
‘Quaeris, ubi invenias? artes, i, perlege nostras.’