Freedom of speech in Virgil and Ovid

Abstract

This paper reflects on the changing nature of free speech in the Augu- stan period through an examination of episodes in its two most important epics. It focuses primarily on the council of the Latins in Aeneid 11 and a sequence of stories in Metamorphoses 2 and 3 in which outspokenness is punished. It is par- ticularly striking that while Virgil’s Drances can demand freedom of speech in a public context, freedom of speech in Metamorphoses exists only in private. This reflects, I suggest, the altered political circumstances between the 20 s BCE and the first decade CE.