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Ovid was born in Sulmo (modern Sulmona, Italy) and received an elite education in Rome, studying rhetoric and poetry. This laid the foundation for his literary career.
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Ovid gained fame with works like Amores (The Loves), Heroides (Letters of Heroines), and Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), solidifying his reputation as a leading poet of Rome.
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Emperor Augustus banished Ovid to Tomis on the Black Sea for reasons Ovid cryptically described as a carmen ("poem") and an error ("mistake"). The exile profoundly affected his later works.
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His magnum opus, Metamorphoses, a mythological epic of transformation, became one of the most celebrated works in Western literature.
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Ovid died in Tomis, never allowed to return to Rome. Despite his exile, his poetry endured, influencing art and literature for centuries.