When in my mind of that night the sorrowful vision arises, Which was the end of my life spent in the city of Rome, When I remember the night when I parted from all that was dearest, Sadly a piteous tear falls even now from my eyes.[85] So Ovid sings of his departure from Rome. His letters to his wife[86] and the letter to his daughter Perilla[87] are among the most attractive of these poems of bitter exile and grief. But even upon these the bitterness of the exile’s lot casts its shadow. A greater poet, or a poet of greater character, might have soared above his grief and disappointment; but Ovid wearies us with his continued complaints. Several works by Ovid have been lost. The most important was probably his tragedy _Medea_, which was regarded as one of the greatest of Roman tragedies. Only two fragments of this play remain, from one of which we learn that Ovid represented Medea in a state of excitement bordering upon madness. Of a work in hexameters on the constellations, entitled _Phænomena_, and a series of epigrams, a few brief fragments remain. Not even fragments are preserved of a bridal song (Epithalamium) for Fabius Maximus, an elegy on the death of Messalla, a poem on the triumph of Tiberius (January 16, 13 A. D.), a poem on the death of Augustus, a medley on bad poets, made up of lines from Macer’s _Tetrasticha_, and a poem in the Getic language in honor of the imperial family. Ovid’s one defect as a poet is his lack of character. No other Roman wrote more polished verse, no other employed the Latin language more effectively for his purposes; but the want of moral earnestness and power makes Ovid, with all his genius, the least among the great Roman poets. His weakness is most noticeable in his earlier and later works, and the _Metamorphoses_ and the _Fasti_ are therefore the most admirable of his poems. Ovid was read throughout the Middle Ages, and the mythological allusions in writings of the Renaissance period and modern times are, for the most part, traceable to him. He was one of Milton’s favorite authors, and several passages in _Paradise Lost_ show his influence. Shakespeare, too, was acquainted, directly or indirectly, with the _Metamorphoses_, and numerous echoes of Ovid’s poems are heard in the strains of other English poets. CHAPTER XII LIVY—OTHER AUGUSTAN PROSE WRITERS Livy, 59 B. C.-17 A. D.—His qualities as historian and writer—Pompeius Trogus, about 20 B. C.—Justin, second or third century after Christ—Fenestella, 52 B. C.-19 A. D.—Oratory—Seneca the elder, about 55 B. C. to about 40 A. D.—Verrius Flaccus, about 1 A. D.—Festus, third or fourth century after Christ—Hyginus, about 64 B. C. to about 17 A. D.—Extant works under the name of Hyginus—Labeo and Capito—Vitruvius, about 70 B. C. to after 16 B. C.