ABSTRACT
The author thinks that Ovids defence of the Ars is on the whole well-founded, and that the most striking parts of Tristia, II are those where he warms to his task and even says more than prudence would dictate in such circumstances. For the Latin equivalent of four-letter words one must go to Catullus, and for a technical description of sexual intercourse to Lucretius. Ovid does not approach either; certainly his Ars Amatoria is not a manual of sexual technique. The most one can fairly say is that the general atmosphere of the Ars was unhelpful to Augustus policy of moral reform. All the same the Ars Amatoria clearly upset traditional Roman sentiment, and it is important to discover where exactly it hurt. In the Ars Amatoria, as earlier in the Amores, Ovid provocatively reverses the usual moral categories, presenting love as a worthy and strenuous occupation, like farming or hunting, in which all his fellow-citizens should be expert.
