Ovid: The Poet & The Emperor

Ovid, one of the world’s greatest poets, died 2,000 years ago. His Metamorphoses is the most influential secular book in European literature, and, unique among ancient poets, he also wrote an autobiography, full of riveting intimacy. But at the height of his fame he was banished, “all because of a poem and a mistake, and on the latter my lips are sealed forever.” Michael Wood traces Ovid’s footsteps from the town of Sulmona, to the bright lights of Rome and into exile in Constanta in today’s Romania, while Ovid’s words are brought to life by Simon Russell Beale.