Ovid (43 BC - AD 18) was a Roman writer who mastered a wide range of literary forms from elegies of nostalgia and love to 'collective' narratives relating disconnected stories, such as Metamorphoses. He died in exile by the Black Sea. Ovid's influence has extended through Chaucer's age to Marlowe, Spenser, Shakespeare, and to poets such as Ted Hughes in the twentieth century. Anthony Boyle is Professor of Classics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He is the editor of the classical literary journal Ramus and his publications include Ancient Pastoral, The Imperial Muse and Roman Literature and Ideology. Roger Woodard is Associate Professor of Classics at UCLA. His publications include Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer and The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages.