Giulio Cesare nei 'Fasti' di Ovidio: alcune riflessioni fra storia e diritto

This essay deals with the treatment of Julius Caesar in Ovid’s Fasti, elegiac couplets for an etiological work in which the poet explores the rites and festivities associated to the Roman calendar, now practised at the beginning of the julio-claudian age without knowing their meaning exactly. The poet celebrates Caesar’s military victories, the Ides of March and the awarding of the title of pater patriae amidst redraftings and omissions, demonstrating a substantial consistency with the official ideological orientation: it assumes the absolute excellence of Augustus over any ruler of the past and places the highly controversial and bulky figure of Caesar outside of history. There are, however, situations in which the latter is given a real dimension and, by means of cautious distinctions made through refined narrative devices, Ovid clarify opinions that are not entirely consistent with the regime’s propaganda, precisely regarding to the evaluation of the results of Caesar’s experience.