Abstract: Ovid builds his poetic ethos in his collection of exiles entitled Tristes: as a poeta relegatus, he seeks to become a true exemplum in collective memory as an emblematic figure of exile resisting political power through poetry. He thus develops a certain number of discursive and argumentative strategies which we analyse in this article – and this in the idea that the real goal of Ovide is not so much to do the work of a historian, but to secure his place in posterity.
