Although commentaries on Ovid's Amores are not rare (with three published on Book 1 in the past 50 years alone), there has been a notable lack of a complete commentary on Book 3 in its entirety (while J.C. McKeown and R.J. Littlewood released the first half of their long-awaited commentary on half of Book 3 in January 2024, we are still awaiting the completed project). Into this void comes D.'s volume, offering scholars and students alike an introduction to the amatory works of Ovid along with a solid translation and commentary on this important book of Latin elegy.
Split into three sections, D.'s commentary opens with a detailed introduction to both the author and the text, situating Book 3 (and Amores as a whole) within ancient literary culture and modern elegiac scholarship. Discussing a range of topics regarding both the real-world issues surrounding the production of Amores and textual criticism, D.'s introduction is well suited to newcomers to Latin elegy. He keeps his eye on accessibility, always providing English translations and including a list of abbreviations for those new to the field. The introduction covers a variety of topics, including Ovid's life as we understand it, the complicated dating of Ovid's Amores, the textual structure of the Amores and the role of Book 3 within that structure, the role of the author/narrator and his beloved in the text, the politics of Ovid and the Amores, the performativity and verbal patterning of the text, and the situation of the Amores within the genre of Latin love elegy. Each section thoroughly engages with the many secondary scholars writing on the topic, providing an excellent jumping-off point for students new to Ovid or Latin elegy.
However, while this introduction offers a thorough entry for newcomers to the genre, D.'s biases show through at times, specifically in his discussions of the narrativity of the text. Certainly, this perspective on the lack of narrative in Latin elegy (and Ovid's Amores in particular) is not unique to D. Indeed, P. Veyne once wrote about Tibullus that elegy has ‘no chronology, and each elegy deals with its themes independently of all the others’ (P. Veyne, Roman Erotic Elegy [1988], p. 50). However, this perspective has been significantly challenged in recent years by elegiac scholars and narratologists, such as D. Kennedy, G. Liveley, P. Salzman-Mitchell and myself, who have begun to ask questions about the narrativity of all elegiac texts. Considering D.'s extensive knowledge and representation of various secondary scholarship on Ovid and Latin elegy in the introduction and throughout the commentary, this oversight is notable. Despite these occasional biases, however, D.'s introduction is excellent for early students of elegy, providing an accessible gateway to the text.
In the second section D. provides a full translation of Book 3 of the Amores. D. claims in the preface that ‘My translation makes no claim to grace or elegance. It is intended primarily to clarify the surface meaning of the Latin’ (p. vii). Yet D. sells himself short here, as his translation is inherently readable and engaging, and he does not lose the beauty of the Latin in his attempts to remain true to the grammar. Moreover, D. includes a thorough list of differences between his own version and those of a variety of other commonly used translations, including those by F. Munari, G. Showerman and G.P. Goold, McKeown, E.J. Kenney and A. Ramírez de Verger. By including an account of these small differences, readers/translators will be particularly well armed in their approach to Ovid's sometimes eccentric Latin and the uncertainties caused by the historical transmission of the Amores.
Yet the section of the volume that truly shines is precisely what most scholars will be coming to this book for: the commentary. Although a scholar who focuses on the politics of Augustan Rome in his other work, D.'s expertise does not dominate here. Instead, the commentary thoroughly addresses intertextual, intratextual and extratextual concerns as well as Ovid's linguistic choices. Here, D. demonstrates an excellent knowledge of Latin, Latin elegy and Ovid as a writer. For example, in his discussion of Amores 3.1 D. notes that illi … inesse loco has inesse taking the dative (rather than in plus the ablative), which is typical of Ovid: a helpful note for those new to Ovid and a reassuring touch for those familiar with his works.
D. too stays true to his predecessors, such as McKeown, with a thorough eye to other Latin poets, frequently commenting on the extensive intertextuality of Ovid's Amores both within the genre of Latin elegy and within the literature of ancient Greece and Rome more broadly. This extends beyond Ovid's extensive references to other authors to include differences in language usage as well. For example, when discussing Amores 3.7, D. notes that Ovid's use of formosa (‘beautiful’) suggests a chasteness that differs from Catullus’ association of the term with intelligence and charm. In this way D.'s is a well-rounded commentary that helps deepen the reader's knowledge of Book 3 of Amores and Latin literature more broadly.
Beyond the line-by-line commentary, D. includes long introductions to each poem that provide a brief summary, a detailed discussion of the poem's extratextual context and an overview of previous scholarly approaches to each text. Here D.'s political expertise really shines. In his discussion of Amores 3.4, for example (which D. titles ‘Some Marital Advice’), he explains the historical leges Iuliae (‘Julian laws’) on marriage to assist new readers in understanding the political implications of what (to modern readers) may appear to be little more than a poem about inter-personal relationships. D.'s knowledge of elegiac scholarship is extensive and not limited to the political context of each elegy. Indeed, these introductions culminate in suggested further reading on each poem, another useful resource for newcomers to the genre.
While his introduction fails to thoroughly address several dissenting arguments regarding Ovid's Amores (specifically around narrativity), D.'s commentary proves itself a worthy entry into the catalogue of commentaries on Ovid. Although this is a text with a clear intention towards use in Latin instruction or for students new to Ovid, the commentary's thoroughness and D.'s readability make this a valuable resource for any scholar of elegy.
