The Imprisonment of the Poet Ovid

In the novel "The Imprisonment of the Poet Ovid" the Romanian-Albanian writer Liviu Lungu refers to a historical fact. In the autumn of 8 AD, by decree of Emperor Augustus, the famous Roman classical poet Publius Ovidius Naso was exiled to Tomis (modern Constanța, Romania), on the distant shores of the Black Sea. Even today, the reasons for the poet's exile are unknown. Ovid himself wrote that the reason was carmen et error, a poem and a mistake.

In this novel, the poet Ovid shines even more through his absence. Although the center of the novel is a Roman officer, Decimus Fabius Ferox, with the mission to supervise, protect and care for the city and the poet, Ovid remains the driving force of the whole story. His shadow hangs constantly over every page of the novel. Through a closed circle of events, the author places at the core of the novel two mysteries still unresolved: the reason for Ovid's exile, possibly the first poet in the history of world literature punished by politics because of his poetry, and the mysterious death or disappearance of him.