Tristia Tresunus - first stop

If this is your first encounter with Tristia Tresunus, please go to the Prima Porta VRomana so you can meet him properly before starting on his journey through Rome.

Ovid, Tristia 3.1

"I am the book of an exile, who has sent me into this city. I come hesitantly; please, dear reader, lend me a kindly hand. Don't be afraid that I might cause you shame; no verse on this page teaches about love. The ill-fortune of my unhappy master prohibits any concealment with jokes! The poetry with which he wrongly sported in his green youth he now--too late, alas!--hates and condemns.

Look at the words I am carrying: you will see nothing here except sadness, since the song suits its circumstances. If this lame song limps with every other line, that's because of the disproportion of my feet . . . or the long journey. If I'm not golden with cedar-oil or rubbed smooth with pumice, that's because I blush to be more finely groomed than my master. If my stained letters have many unsightly blots, that's because the poet himself injured his own work with his tears. If by any chance it seems that the words are not spoken in Latin, remember that he wrote in a barbarian land. Tell me, readers, if it's not too much trouble--where should I go, what home should I, a stranger book, seek in this city?"

When I had spoken these words timidly, with trembling tongue, only one person stepped up to show me the way. I said, "May the gods grant you what they have not given to our poet--to spend your life in comfort in your native land. Let's go! Lead on, for I will follow, although I came here over land and sea, worn out from a distant land."

He obeyed and began to guide me, saying, "These are the fora of Caesar."

This itinerary shows you the route. Follow Tristia Tresunus to his next stop by using the exit for Argiletum, then turning left on to the Sacra Via Infima; you will see the exits after you click on view room in web frame.