Ars Amatoria

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(Redirected from Art of Love)

The Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") is a series of three books by the Roman poet Ovid. Written in verse, their guiding theme is the art of seduction. The first two, written for men about 1 BC to AD 1 , deal with 'winning women's hearts' and 'keeping the loved one', respectively. The third, addressed to women telling them how to best attract men, was written somewhat later.

The publication of the Ars Amatoria may have been at least partly responsible for Ovid's banishment to the provinces by the Emperor Augustus. Ovid’s celebration of extramarital love must have seemed an intolerable affront to a regime that sought to promote ‘family values’. When finally in AD 8 Ovid’s position in Rome became untenable, it was because of the error (‘mistake’), about whose nature there has been much inconclusive speculation, and the carmen (‘poem’), which is presumably the Ars Amatoria (Tristia 2.207: Perdiderint... me duo crimina, carmen et error).

For the modern reader part of the appeal of the Ars Amatoria lies in the vivid snapshots of contemporary Roman life.