Propior Patriae: Allusion, Rhetoric, and Persuasion in ex Ponto 1.2

In ex Ponto 1.2, Ovid addresses Paullus Maximus, a confidant of Augustus, by employing, within a web of allusions, many rhetorical devices, chief among which is a sustained paronomasia on Maximus’s very name. This paper enlarges on these devices by citing specific examples of each and analyzing various references to Virgil and Catullus that contextualize the poetic persona’s request to be brought nearer to his homeland, whether in life or, as we find out at the poem’s end, even in death.