Note 1111 — Chapter XCVIII · OUTLYING HELLENIC CITIES.
Reading edition
The picture drawn by Ovid, of his situation as an exile at Tomi, can never fail to interest, from the mere beauty and felicity of his expression; but it is not less interesting, as a real description of Hellenism in its last phase, degraded and overborne by adverse fates. The truth of Ovid’s picture is fully borne out by the analogy of Olbia, presently to be mentioned. His complaints run through the five books of the Tristia, and the four books of Epistolæ ex Ponto (Trist. v. 10, 15).
“Innumeræ circa gentes fera bella minantur, Quæ sibi non rapto vivere turpe putant. Nil extra tutum est: tumulus defenditur ægre Mœnibus exiguis ingenioque soli. Cum minime credas, ut avis, densissimus hostis Advolat, et prædam vix bene visus agit. Sæpe intra muros clausis venientia portis Per medias legimus noxia tela vias. Est igitur rarus, qui colere audeat, isque Hac arat infelix, hac tenet arma manu. Vix ope castelli defendimur: et tamen intus Mista facit Græcis barbara turba metum. Quippe simul nobis habitat discrimine nullo Barbarus, et tecti plus quoque parte tenet. Quos ut non timeas, possis odisse, videndo Pellibus et longâ corpora tecta comâ. Hos quoque, qui geniti Graiâ creduntur ab urbe, Pro patrio cultu Persica bracca tegit,” etc.
This is a specimen out of many others: compare Trist. iii. 10, 53; iv. 1, 67; Epist. Pont. iii. 1.
Ovid dwells especially upon the fact that there was more of barbaric than of Hellenic speech at Tomi—“Graiaque quod Getico victa loquela sono est” (Trist. v. 2, 68). Woollen clothing, and the practice of spinning and weaving by the free women of the family, were among the most familiar circumstances of Grecian life; the absence of these feminine arts, and the use of skins or leather for clothing, were notable departures from Grecian habits (Ex Ponto, iii. 8):—
“Vellera dura ferunt pecudes; et Palladis uti Arte Tomitanæ non didicere nurus. Femina pro lanâ Cerealia munera frangit, Suppositoque gravem vertice portat aquam.”