Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC – 17 AD), known as Ovid, was a Roman epic and elegiac poet who lived during the reign of Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD). Ovid and his contemporaries, the older Virgil and Horace, form the trio of the greatest poets of Latin literature during the Augustan period, when the Roman Muse produced primarily "classic" works. In November of the year 8 AD, the poet was sentenced to exile in Tomis, a small port at the mouth of the Danube (modern Constanța, Romania), where the climate was harsh and barbarian tribes frequently attacked. His condemnation and exile may have been due either to Augustus's desire to promote his strict moral policies by punishing the libertine poet, or because he suspected Ovid of political involvement in the succession issue.