Sexperts and Legal Experts
This chapter situates the expertise of the praeceptor amoris (‘teacher of love’) in the context of the rise of the Roman jurists in the early Principate. The autonomy of jurisprudence in the schools of law goes hand in hand with the independence of sexuality in Ovid’s school of love. The bulk of the chapter explores the juridico-discursive nature of Ovid’s Ars amatoria and includes a discussion of Ovid’s account of Tiresias (Metamorphoses 3) that highlights the confluence of amatory and juridical expertise. It explores the deep interconnections between the didactic discourses of jurists and love poets. Since both Ovid’s innovative laws of love and Augustus’ legal reforms make female sexuality the centre of attention, the chapter focuses on the ways in which both Ovid and Augustus aim to fashion women in the image of their desires.