OVERWEG, (i'ver-vau, Anor,F (1822-52). A German explorer. Be was born in Hamburg, and studied geology at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. In 1850 lie joined Barth and Richardson in their explorations of Central Africa. He reached Lake Chad with a boat which had been brought overland from Tripoli, and devoted five weeks to exploring that lake, tieing the first European who had ever sailed upon its waters. Ile then tried to penetrate the emmtry of Yakoba, northwest of the Benue. hut his health was shat tered and lie returned to Kuka. near which place he died. His reports appeared in ,lfonat.cberielmte der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde (1S51-52), and in Zeitselmrift fiir Allgemeine Erdkunde (1853).
OV'ID (Primus OVIDIUS PASO) (B.C. 43 A.D. IS). A Roman poet. He was a descend ant of an old equestrian family, and was horn on March 20, B.C. 43, at Sulmo (now Sulmona), in the country of the Picligni. He was educated for the bar, and under his mas ters, AreBins Fuseus and Porcius Latro, he be came highly proficient in the art of declamation. llis genius, however, was essentially that of the poet, and the writing of verses began to absorb the time he was supposed to spend in the study of jurisprudence. By the death of his elder brother, Ovid inherited all his father's property, and went, for the completion of his education, to Athens. lle afterwards made a tour of Asia and Sicily with the poet. Maeer. It is uncertain whether, on his return In Rome, he ever practiced as advocate. Although by birth entitled to as pire to the dignity, he never entered the Senate; his weakness of body and indolence of habit pre vented him from ever rising higher than the posi tion of a decemvir, who convoked and presided over the court of the centumviri. While his pub lic life was unimportant, his private life was that of a gay and licentious man of letters. The restraint of marriage was always distasteful to him; twice married in early life, he soon divorced each of his wives; while he carried on an intrigue with a lady whom he celebrated as Corinna, and who has been thought to have been no other than Julia, the accomplished daughter of Augustus. Before his thirtieth year, lie married a third time, and became the father of PeriIla, of whom he was tenderly fond. Up to his fiftieth year he resided chiefly at Rome, in a house near the CapitoLand occasionally visit ed his P:elignan estate. His society was much courted, and his large circle of distinguished friends included Augustus and the Imperial fam ily. By an edict of the Emperor, however, he was, in A.D. 8, commanded to leave Rome for Tomi, a town near the delta of the Danube, and on the very boundary of the Empire. The sen tence did not condemn him to an cxsiliuni, but to a relcgatio—or, in other words, lie did not lose his citizenship, and lie was not cut off from all hope of a return. The cause of this sudden banishment is a mystery. since the reason assigned in the edict—the publication of his A Ts .1 matoria—was a mere pretext. the poem having been in circulation for ten years before. His cognizance of a love affair of Julia's daughter, and the consequent displeasure of Augustus or of Livia, have been adduced with various degrees of plausibility as the cause of a sentence to which Ovid himself only mysteriously refers. The misery of his life on the inhospitable
and barbarous share of the Euxine is com memorated by the poems in the composition of which lie found his solace. He became a favorite with the people of Tomi, before whom he publicly recited sonic poems in honor of Augustus. But his devotion to the Emperor, and the entreaties addressed to the Imperial Court by himself and his friends, failed to shorten the term or to change the scene of his banishment, and lie died. an honored citizen of TOMi. A.D. 18, in his six tieth year. His works which have conic down to us. either in whole or in part, appeared in the following order: (1) A moritin Libri 1!!., a vised and abridged edition of an early series. (2) Twenty-one Epistoler. Heroidum. (3) The Ars A nialoria. (4)Remedia Amoris. (5) Nvx, the remonstrance of a nut-tree against the ill treatment it received from the wayfarer. and even from its owner. (6) Netamorphoseon Libri This is deservedly Ovid's best known work. It seems to have been written between the poet's fortieth and fiftieth years, and treats of all the transformations recorded in legend from the creation down to the time of Julius Caesar, whose change into a star forms the last of the series. (7) Pastornin Libri XII., the first six of which are all that remain. The poem is a Roman calendar versified, and describes the appropriate festivals and mythic legends from materials sup plied by the old annalists. (S) Tristium Libri V., written during the first four years of the poet*, banishment. They are mainly descrip tive of his miserable fate, and are full of ap peals to the clemency of Augustus. (9) Episto larum es Panto Libri IF., similar in substance to the Tristia. (10) Ibis, a short satire against some traducer of Ovid. (11) ronsolatio ad Liriam Angustam, held spurious by some critics. (12) Medicaminia Fariei and Ilalieuticon, dubiously genuine, of which we possess but fragments. Several of his works are entirely lost, the one best known to antiquity being Medea, a tragedy.
The poetical genius of Ovid has always been admired. A masterly facility of composition. a fancy vigorous and rarely at fault, a fine eye for color, and a versifieation very musical in its flow. are the merits which have made him a favorite, in spite of his occasional slovenliness and falsity of thought. The best early edition of Ovid's entire works is Burmann's (Amsterdam, 1728). Of modern editions, the best is that of Merkel revised by Ehwald (Leipzig, 1889-94). The editions of single poems. especially the Metamorphoses, are very numerous. An im portant edition of the Ileroidcs, with ample commentary and Greek translation by Planudes. by Palmer, should be mentioned (Oxford, 1S9S). Ovid has been a favorite with English translat ors; the Amores were done into English verse by Christopher Marlowe; the Ars Amatoria by Congreve and Dryden; the Tristia by Arden (New York, 1821) ; and many translations of the Metamorphoses were collected by Garth (1st ed., London. 1810, frequently reprinted).