The Ports of King Tomis: Ovid and Rome's Black Sea Exile

This episode follows the Roman poet Ovid into exile at Tomis—modern Constanța, Romania—on the Black Sea coast. Lucas and Luna explore why Augustus banished Rome's most famous living writer to this Greek-speaking frontier town, what Ovid's poems from exile reveal about life in the Dobruja region, and how his presence forever linked classical Latin literature to Romanian shores. They discuss the mixed Getic and Greek culture of the Pontic cities, the likelihood that Ovid learned to speak Getic, and the strange fate of his tomb. They also touch on the archaeological traces of Tomis's Roman harbor and the later transformation of the site into a Byzantine and Genoese stronghold. A short mid-episode break explains why Fexingo History stays ad-free and how listener support makes that possible.

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