Book IV of Ovid's celebration of the calendar and the associated legends of the Roman year treats the month of April, a particularly happy phase of the Augustan ceremonial year. Around the festival of Venus and the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Ovid retells the legends of Rome's royal founder Romulus and the Trojan hero Aeneas. The introduction and commentary pay special attention to Ovid's art as a poet, but aim to provide both the general background and specific explanations of his historical and religious material.
The first English language commentary on any book of the Fasti since Frazer's five volume edition and annotated Loeb of 1929/31.
"...[Fasti Book IV] will secure a place in every undergraduate curriculum of Roman history." Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"Ovid is fortunate to have found so interested and learned a commentator as Fantham." William S. Anderson, Classical Reviews