id="FNanchor_5_5"/>[5]. It is significant that he is not the recipient of any of Ovid's earlier letters from exile; this is discussed in the next section.

In the attention Ovid gives Sextus Pompeius there can be seen, according to Syme (HO 156), a deliberate attempt to gain the favour of Germanicus, who is mentioned in connection with Sextus Pompeius at v 25. It is interesting that in viii Ovid addresses Germanicus' quaestor Suillius (and in the course of the poem addresses Germanicus), and that the recipient of xiii is Carus, the tutor of Germanicus' sons. But it is only natural that Ovid, when at last permitted, should address so influential a man as his benefactor Sextus Pompeius; and it does not seem strange that he should address his fellow poet Carus, still less that he should send a letter to Suillius, husband of his stepdaughter Perilla.

C. Pomponius Graecinus, the recipient of ix, must have had some political influence, since the poem is in celebration of his becoming suffect consul in 16. But he probably owed this influence to his brother Flaccus, a close friend of Tiberius who succeeded Graecinus as consul ordinarius for 17, and whom Ovid gives prominent mention at ix 57 ff. Graecinus must have been an old associate of Ovid, since he has the rare distinction of being mentioned by name in a poem written by Ovid before his exile (Am II x 1).

Two of Ovid's correspondents were orators. Gallio, the addressee of the eleventh poem, is frequently quoted by the elder Seneca. He was a senator; both Tacitus and Dio give accounts of how he fell into disfavour with Tiberius for proposing that ex-members of the Praetorian guard be granted the privilege of using the theatre seats reserved for members of the equestrian order (Ann VI 3; LVIII 18 4). Brutus, the recipient of the sixth poem and dedicatee of the first three books of the Ex Ponto, is not mentioned by other writers, but it appears from vi 29-38 that he had a considerable reputation as a forensic orator, although some allowance must be made for possible exaggeration in Ovid's description of his close friend. The poem contains six lines on the death of Fabius Maximus, to whom Ovid had addressed EP I ii and III iii; perhaps he and Brutus had been associates.

Five epistles are addressed to Ovid's fellow poets. Cornelius Severus, the recipient of the second poem, was one of the most famous epic poets of the day; he is mentioned by Quintilian (X i 89), and the elder Seneca preserves his lines on the death of Cicero (Suas VI 26), Albinovanus Pedo, the recipient of the tenth epistle, was known as a writer of hexameter verse and of epigram. He served in Germanicus' campaign of AD 15 (Tac Ann I 60 2), and the elder Seneca preserves a fragment of his poem on Germanicus' campaigns (Suas I 15). It might be argued that in addressing him Ovid is once again trying to win Germanicus' favour. But in view of his intimacy with Ovid (mentioned at Sen Cont II 2 12), Albinovanus seems a natural choice to receive one of Ovid's letters. Tuticanus, the recipient of the twelfth and fourteenth poems and author of a Phaeacid based on Homer (mentioned at xii 27 and again in the catalogue of poets at xvi 29), is known only through the Ex Ponto; the same is true of Carus, author of a poem on Hercules and, as already mentioned, tutor of the sons of Germanicus.

Vestalis, the recipient of the seventh poem, is in a class separate from the other recipients of Ovid's verse epistles. As primipilaris of the legion stationed in the vicinity, he would of course have been without influence at Rome, but as (apparently) the prefect of the region around Tomis, he presumably had some control over Ovid's circumstances.

The traitorous friend to whom the third poem is addressed was a real person, for Ovid is quite explicit when speaking of their past together and of the friend's perfidy towards him; the same cannot be said of the inuidus to whom is addressed the concluding poem of the book, a defence of Ovid's reputation as a poet.

Cotta Maximus, the younger son of Tibullus' patron Messalla, is prominently mentioned at xvi 41-44 as an unpublished poet of outstanding excellence. He is the recipient of six letters in the earlier books of the Ex Ponto. Syme finds it significant that there is no poem in EP IV addressed to Cotta: 'Ovid ... was now concentrating his efforts elsewhere: Germanicus, the friends of Germanicus, Sextus Pompeius ... The tardy tribute may perhaps be interpreted as a veiled reproach' (HO 128). But arguments from silence are dangerous; and Ovid's mention of Cotta seems flattering enough.

It is perhaps safer to postulate a change in Ovid's feelings towards his wife. She is never mentioned in EP IV, although she had been the recipient of some eight earlier letters from exile (Tr I vi, III iii, IV iii, V ii, xi, xiv, EP I iv, III i; Tr V v was written in honour of her birthday). At EP III vii 11-12 Ovid indicates that his wife's efforts on his behalf had not matched his hopes: