When Ovid was banished to Tomis by the Black Sea he considered his exile a living death. He understood his exile as an expulsion from the known world (Rome) to an unknown world (Tomis) on the other side of the boundary of what was familiar and knowable for him. Like death, Tomis, in all its exteriority beyond the boundary of known world, was unknown and unknowable for Ovid. I shall also identify two features of Roman culture which help to explain the association of exile with death: the archaic religious background of exile and the legal history of exile1.

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cultural anthropology punishment attitude to death Religion and Psychology ethnology psychological aspect religion Article history History, Ancient Roman World psychology