What did Ovid find at Tomis, a city founded in the sixth century a. Chr. n. by the
settlers who had come from Asia Minor on the site of the Thracian-Geto-Dacians’
Neolithic settlement?! What impression did he make on this city-state, where the
Geto-Dacian speakers (the natives, both Greek and Latin speakers, the latter being
the former’s ephemeral masters) were also fighting in their ideas, not only in swords
and scimitars?! How did Ovid spend the last years of his life away from his native
city, i.e. the eternal Rome, and from his loved ones? What relations did the poet of
Rome have with the natives (the Geto-Dacians’)? What did he do for them and how
was he rewarded by them? What significance did his Elegies have for the history of
today’s Romanian Dobrogea? Here are a few questions that we will answer – at
least briefly – based on a hermeneutical analysis of several representative and
eloquent texts from his work, especially from “Tristia” (five volumes) and
“Epistulae ex Ponto” (four volumes), which poet Ovid wrote at Tomis, in his
express desire to obtain the revocation of the edict of exile, explaining – primarily
– the harsh conditions of the life among the Tomitae, on the western Black Sea
shore, i.e. among “Thracians” from the north of the Danube, called “Getae” by the
Romans and “Dacians” by the Greeks, although they were one and the same people.
Before proceeding to the hermeneutical analysis of some excerpts on the
so-called adversity that Ovid endured during his exile in “Scythia Minor” (today’s
Romanian Dobrogea), we would like to mention that – before his arrival to the
Getae’s homeland, i.e. the Proto-Romanians, – Ovid proved to be an adept of the
ethnophyletism propagated by the philosophical schools born in the Greek polis
from the seventh to fifth centuries a. Chr. n. The ethnophyletism made a clear
distinction between “Greeks” and “barbarians”, i.e. those who were “foreigners” to
the Greeks and Romans.
In vogue in the Rome of his times, these schools made the same discriminating
distinction between “the Romans” and the other nations, labeled as “barbarians”,
though – in the Greek speaking world – the stoic philosophy had propagated a
concept “avant la lettre” about the mankind’s universalist nature, hence its solidary
and humanist origins. It is no wonder that, among its followers, the Stoicism would
enroll the historian and Greek philosopher Polybios of Megalopolis (c. 200–120
a. Chr. n.), the Rabbi and philosopher Paul of Tarsus, “Apostle of the Gentiles” –
who turned out to be familiar not only with his native language, i.e. Hebrew, but
also with Greek and Latin –, the orator, philosopher and politician Marcus Tullius
Cicero (106–43 a. Chr. n.) etc.
At Rome, Ovid was not acquainted with the Stoics’ doctrine, according to which
people are the same, regardless of their ethnicity, skin color, religious faith etc.
Moreover, he was not acquainted with the Christian teaching of apostolic origin,
which stated that there were no slaves, no freemen, no Greeks, no Romans etc., but
that we all are one (cf. Gal. 3, 28), i.e. we are all from the same family of the human
race, created by God. Therefore, he also continued to distinguish the Romans and
the Greeks from the “barbarians”, i.e. from other nations. However, at Tomis –
among the Geto-Dacians’ natives and the Greek speakers originating from the
former colonists of Asia Minor, Greeks or Hellenized Thracians, who had been
inhabiting the city since the late sixth century a. Chr. n. – Ovid could become
68
N.V. Dura ˘
settlers who had come from Asia Minor on the site of the Thracian-Geto-Dacians’
Neolithic settlement?! What impression did he make on this city-state, where the
Geto-Dacian speakers (the natives, both Greek and Latin speakers, the latter being
the former’s ephemeral masters) were also fighting in their ideas, not only in swords
and scimitars?! How did Ovid spend the last years of his life away from his native
city, i.e. the eternal Rome, and from his loved ones? What relations did the poet of
Rome have with the natives (the Geto-Dacians’)? What did he do for them and how
was he rewarded by them? What significance did his Elegies have for the history of
today’s Romanian Dobrogea? Here are a few questions that we will answer – at
least briefly – based on a hermeneutical analysis of several representative and
eloquent texts from his work, especially from “Tristia” (five volumes) and
“Epistulae ex Ponto” (four volumes), which poet Ovid wrote at Tomis, in his
express desire to obtain the revocation of the edict of exile, explaining – primarily
– the harsh conditions of the life among the Tomitae, on the western Black Sea
shore, i.e. among “Thracians” from the north of the Danube, called “Getae” by the
Romans and “Dacians” by the Greeks, although they were one and the same people.
Before proceeding to the hermeneutical analysis of some excerpts on the
so-called adversity that Ovid endured during his exile in “Scythia Minor” (today’s
Romanian Dobrogea), we would like to mention that – before his arrival to the
Getae’s homeland, i.e. the Proto-Romanians, – Ovid proved to be an adept of the
ethnophyletism propagated by the philosophical schools born in the Greek polis
from the seventh to fifth centuries a. Chr. n. The ethnophyletism made a clear
distinction between “Greeks” and “barbarians”, i.e. those who were “foreigners” to
the Greeks and Romans.
In vogue in the Rome of his times, these schools made the same discriminating
distinction between “the Romans” and the other nations, labeled as “barbarians”,
though – in the Greek speaking world – the stoic philosophy had propagated a
concept “avant la lettre” about the mankind’s universalist nature, hence its solidary
and humanist origins. It is no wonder that, among its followers, the Stoicism would
enroll the historian and Greek philosopher Polybios of Megalopolis (c. 200–120
a. Chr. n.), the Rabbi and philosopher Paul of Tarsus, “Apostle of the Gentiles” –
who turned out to be familiar not only with his native language, i.e. Hebrew, but
also with Greek and Latin –, the orator, philosopher and politician Marcus Tullius
Cicero (106–43 a. Chr. n.) etc.
At Rome, Ovid was not acquainted with the Stoics’ doctrine, according to which
people are the same, regardless of their ethnicity, skin color, religious faith etc.
Moreover, he was not acquainted with the Christian teaching of apostolic origin,
which stated that there were no slaves, no freemen, no Greeks, no Romans etc., but
that we all are one (cf. Gal. 3, 28), i.e. we are all from the same family of the human
race, created by God. Therefore, he also continued to distinguish the Romans and
the Greeks from the “barbarians”, i.e. from other nations. However, at Tomis –
among the Geto-Dacians’ natives and the Greek speakers originating from the
former colonists of Asia Minor, Greeks or Hellenized Thracians, who had been
inhabiting the city since the late sixth century a. Chr. n. – Ovid could become
68
N.V. Dura ˘