How relegation transformed Ovid's view of games

Translated from french (please notify us of errors)

*Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD). Engraving after a painting by Anton von Werner, published in 1905 in the “Bibliothek des allgemeinen und praktischen Wissens”.*

There are virtually identical verses in Ovid’s Art of Love and his Sorrows. Yet everything has changed. Between these two works, relegation far from Rome radically transformed the Roman poet’s vision of games and their place in society.

“A small board contains three pebbles on each side, where victory consists in having aligned one’s own.” This description of terni lapilli appears almost word for word in two works by Ovid[1]. But the context could not be more different.

The art of seduction through games

In book 3 of the Art of Love, Ovid dispenses his advice to Roman women eager to win men’s hearts. Games occupy a place of honour in a passage of thirty-eight verses (349-386). He encourages women to “practise a thousand games; it is shameful for a young woman not to know how to play: in playing, love is often prepared”[2].

For the poet, games constitute a veritable art of living. Dance, knucklebones, dice, the game of brigands (ludus latrunculorum), ball in a net, terni lapilli: Ovid draws up a detailed catalogue of six ludic activities that every cultured woman must master. These entertainments are not mere pastimes, but refined tools of seduction.

Games become a privileged relational medium. Ovid invites us to understand that it is in these moments of relaxation that true personalities are revealed.

But already, the poet clearly sees that games can also reveal weaknesses: anger, cupidity, disputes. He notes having “often seen cheeks wet with tears”[3].

Relegation changes everything

In the Sorrows, Ovid, relegated* to Tomis for reasons that remain mysterious (carmen et error – “a poem and an error”[4], he says), takes up exactly the same games in a passage of thirty verses (485-514). But this time, it is to defend himself against them.

The approach is radically different. Games are no longer arts of seduction, but examples of frivolity that other authors have treated without being troubled. Ovid argues that “others have written treatises on games of chance”[5], and that “all these games are wont to make us lose our time, a precious thing”[6].

Time becomes the key. What was once an investment in the art of pleasing becomes sterile loss. The poet deplores with bitterness: “deceived by these examples, I did not make sad verses, but sad punishment has followed our jests”[7].

A revealing reversal

This strategy reveals Ovid’s rhetorical skill. In the Sorrows, he transforms his defence into an argument of proportionality: since other authors have been able to write with impunity on “frivolous” subjects like games of chance, why should he alone be punished for having written the Ars amatoria, his manual of seduction?

The political context explains the gravity of the accusation. Augustus had promulgated laws on marriage (lex Iulia de adulteriis, 18 BC) to restore Roman morality and combat the decadence of morals. The Ars amatoria gave recipes for circumventing these laws, teaching notably how to deceive husbands and guardians, seduce married women and escape surveillance. This direct transgression of Augustan moral policy made Ovid’s work particularly problematic.

Ovid does not deny that his Art of Love is light or provocative. Rather, he contests the arbitrary nature of his condemnation. By placing his erotic poetry in the same category as ludic treatises – both belonging to entertainment literature – he highlights the inconsistency of the treatment reserved for him. If Rome tolerates teaching the subtleties of dice games, why would it not tolerate teaching those of seduction?

This comparison allows Ovid to avoid a denial of guilt (dangerous in the face of Augustus) whilst denouncing an inequality of treatment in the literary standards of the era.

Even more revealing: Ovid maintains his conviction that games reveal true human nature. Whether valorised (Art of Love) or deprecated (Sorrows), they remain a mirror of the soul. This anthropological constant makes Ovid a modern observer of ludic psychology.

A contrasted literary tradition

Ovid is not the only Latin author to evoke board games in his works, but his approach reveals a certain originality. Among his contemporaries and predecessors, games serve other literary functions.

For Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, ludus latrunculorum becomes a moral metaphor in his Letters to Lucilius. Criticising the “very clever arguments” that distract from the essential, he evokes one who “looks at the latrunculi board to know how an obstructed piece can get out” instead of running to extinguish the fire in his house[8]. The game illustrates what must be avoided: wasting time on trifles when the urgency is true philosophy.

At the opposite extreme, Martial in his Epigrams celebrates games as objects of worldly sociability. His verse labels for Saturnalia gifts mention the tabula lusoria where “the two-coloured pawn perishes between two twin enemies” and the calculi that serve for “combats of insidious brigands”[9].

In this same worldly vein, the anonymous poet of the Laus Pisonis develops an entire scene of latrunculi where “wars are conducted with glass soldiers, now the whites bind the blacks, now the black binds the whites”[10]. This detailed description aims to show the urbanitas of a great lord for whom playing well forms part of drawing-room virtues.

Suetonius adopts a different perspective by using games to sketch imperial portraits. In his Life of Claudius, he notes that the emperor “played dice with the greatest passion, and even published a book on this art; he was in the habit of playing even whilst travelling, having adapted his chariot and his game board so that play would not be disturbed”[11]. Here, ludic passion becomes a trait characterising the prince’s personality.

Ovid’s originality

Faced with these varied uses –moral metaphor in Seneca, social marker in Martial and in the Laus Pisonis, biographical trait in Suetonius– Ovid develops a singular approach. Despite very different contexts in the Art of Love and the Sorrows, he makes games a psychological revealer: the tool that unveils the true nature of individuals beneath the social veneer. “Our naked hearts show themselves through games,” he observes with thoroughly modern perspicacity.

* In 8 AD, by a simple edict of Augustus, Ovid is relegated (relegatus) to Tomis, on the Euxine Sea. Unlike exile, which deprives one of citizenship and possessions, relegation maintains his civic rights and his fortune: he remains free to write and correspond, but must reside far from Rome.

[1] Ars amatoria 3, 365-366 et Tristia 2, 499-500.
[2] Ars amatoria 3, 367-368
[3] Ars amatoria 3, 378
[4] Tristia II, 207–208: Perdiderint cum me duo crimina, carmen et error, / alterius facti culpa silenda mihi
[5] Tristia 2, 489
[6] Tristia 2, 502
[7] Tristia 2, 511-512
[8] Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 117, 30: tabulam latrunculariam prospicit ut sciat quomodo alligatus exeat calculus
[9] Martial, Apophoreta 14.17-18: Calculus hac gemino discolor hoste perit et Insidiosorum si ludis bella latronum
[10] Laus Pisonis vv. 193-194: vitreo peraguntur milite bella, / ut niveos nigros, nunc et niger alliget albos
[11] Suetonius, Life of Claudius 33: Aleam studiosissime lusit, de cuius arte librum quoque emisit

**Ovid, Ars amatoria III, 349-386**

349	Quis dubitet, quin scire velim saltare puellam,	Who would doubt that I want a girl to know how to dance,
350	Ut moveat posito brachia iussa mero?	so that she may move her arms as bidden, once the wine has been set down?
351	Artifices lateris, scenae spectacula, amantur:	Skilled movers of the body, a spectacle of the stage, are loved:
352	Tantum mobilitas illa decoris habet.	such grace does that suppleness possess.
353	Parva monere pudet, talorum dicere iactus	I am ashamed to give small advice, to speak of the throws of the knucklebones;
354	Ut sciat, et vires, tessera missa, tuas:	so that she may know your strength, once the die is cast:
355	Et modo tres iactet numeros, modo cogitet, apte	and now let her throw three numbers, now let her think, skilfully,
356	Quam subeat partem callida, quamque vocet.	being clever, which point to take and which to call.
357	Cautaque non stulte latronum proelia ludat,	And let her play the soldiers’ battles cautiously, not foolishly,
358	Unus cum gemino calculus hoste perit,	when a single piece perishes before a double enemy,
359	Bellatorque sua prensus sine compare bellat,	and the warrior, caught without his fellow, fights on,
360	Aemulus et coeptum saepe recurrit iter.	and the rival often has to retrace the path he began.
361	Reticuloque pilae leves fundantur aperto,	And let light balls be poured out from an open net,
362	Nec, nisi quam tolles, ulla movenda pila est.	and let no ball be moved except the one you mean to take.
363	Est genus, in totidem tenui ratione redactum	There is a kind of game, marked out with fine calculation into as many
364	Scriptula, quot menses lubricus annus habet:	squares as the slipping year has months:
365	Parva tabella capit ternos utrimque lapillos,	a small board holds three pebbles on either side,
366	In qua vicisse est continuasse suos.	where to win is to have kept one’s own pieces in a row.
367	Mille facesse iocos; turpe est nescire puellam	Practise a thousand games; it is shameful for a girl not to know
368	Ludere: ludendo saepe paratur amor.	how to play: by playing, love is often prepared.
369	Sed minimus labor est sapienter iactibus uti:	But it is the smallest task to use the throws wisely:
370	Maius opus mores composuisse suos.	the greater task is to have shaped one’s own character.
371	Tum sumus incauti, studioque aperimur in ipso,	For then we are unguarded, and lay ourselves bare in the very heat of the game,
372	Nudaque per lusus pectora nostra patent;	and our bared hearts show themselves through play;
373	Ira subit, deforme malum, lucrique cupido,	anger creeps in, an ugly vice, along with the greed for gain,
374	Iurgiaque et rixae sollicitusque dolor:	quarrels, brawls, and anxious grief:
375	Crimina dicuntur, resonat clamoribus aether,	accusations are hurled, the air rings with shouting,
376	Invocat iratos et sibi quisque deos:	and each one calls down the angry gods upon himself:
377	Nulla fides, tabulaeque novae per vota petuntur;	there is no trust, and new tallies are begged for with vows;
378	Et lacrimis vidi saepe madere genas.	and I have often seen cheeks wet with tears.
379	Iuppiter a vobis tam turpia crimina pellat,	May Jupiter drive such shameful faults far from you,
380	In quibus est ulli cura placere viro.	you who take care to please some man.
381	Hos ignava iocos tribuit natura puellis;	Nature, in her idleness, gave these games to girls;
382	Materia ludunt uberiore viri.	men play with richer material.
383	Sunt illis celeresque pilae iaculumque trochique	They have swift balls, the javelin, the hoop,
384	Armaque et in gyros ire coactus equus.	weapons, and the horse driven to run in circles.
385	Nec vos Campus habet, nec vos gelidissima Virgo,	Neither the Campus (the Field of Mars) receives you, nor the icy-cold Virgo (baths fed by the Aqua Virgo aqueduct),
386	Nec Tuscus placida devehit amnis aqua.	nor does the Tuscan river (the Tiber) carry you along on its calm waters.

**Ovid, Tristia II, 485-514**

485	His ego successi, quoniam praestantia candor	I succeeded these men (other love poets), since outstanding honesty
486	nomina vivorum dissimulare iubet.	commands that the names of the living be concealed.
487	Non timui, fateor, ne, qua tot iere carinae,	I did not fear, I confess, that where so many ships had sailed,
488	naufraga servatis omnibus una foret.	mine alone would be wrecked while all the rest were saved.
489	Sunt aliis scriptae, quibus alea luditur, artes	Others have written treatises on how the dice are played
490	(hoc est ad nostros non leve crimen avos)	(and this, in the eyes of our ancestors, was no light offence)
491	quid valeant tali, quo possis plurima iactu	what the knucklebones are worth, by what throw you may score the highest,
492	figere, damnosos effugiasve canes,	and how to avoid the ruinous “dogs,”
493	tessera quos habeat numeros, distante vocato	what numbers each die carries, at what distance one should throw when called,
494	mittere quo deceat, quo dare missa modo,	in what manner the dice, once cast, should be played,
495	discolor ut recto grassetur limite miles,	how the two-coloured piece should advance along a straight line,
496	cum medius gemino calculus hoste perit,	when a piece caught in the middle perishes between two enemies,
497	ut bellare sequens sciat et revocare priorem,	how the piece that follows should know to fight on and call back the one before it,
498	nec tuto fugiens incomitatus eat;	and how a fleeing piece should never go unescorted;
499	parva sit ut ternis instructa tabella lapillis,	that there be a small board set out with three pebbles a side,
500	in qua vicisse est continuasse suos;	on which to win is to have kept one’s own pieces in a row;
501	quique alli lusus (neque enim nunc persequar omnes)	and all those other games (for I shall not run through them all here)
502	perdere, rem caram, tempora nostra solent.	that so often steal our time, so precious a thing.
503	Ecce canit formas alius iactusque pilarum,	Look, another man sings of the shapes and throws of balls,
504	hic artem nandi praecipit, ille trochi,	this one teaches the art of swimming, that one the art of the hoop;
505	composita est aliis fucandi cura coloris;	others have taken pains over blending colours as dyes;
506	hic epulis leges hospitioque dedit	this man gave rules for banquets and hospitality,
507	alter humum, de qua fingantur pocula, monstrat,	another points out the clay from which cups may be shaped,
508	quaeque, docet, liquido testa sit apta mero.	and teaches which vessel best suits pure wine.
509	Talia luduntur fumoso mense Decembri,	Such things are trifled with in the smoky month of December,
510	quae damno nulli composuisse fuit.	and no one has ever come to grief for having written of them.
511	His ego deceptus non tristia carmina feci,	Misled by these examples, I did not write sorrowful poems,
512	sed tristis nostros poena secuta iocos.	yet a sad punishment has followed my playful verses.
513	Denique nec video tot de scribentibus unum,	In the end, among so many writers, I see not a single one
514	quem sua perdiderit Musa, repertus ego.	whom his own Muse has ruined — and I turn out to be that one.