The art of love is an important way to make a relationship happy for her and you. Let us look at some easy tactics to make promises of love to a woman, as the Roman poet Ovid advised Roman men in part 12 of his “Ars Amatoria.”

A set of three books of poetry titled “Ars Amatoria,” composed by the Roman poet Ovid in the second century A.D., depicts the affluence and elegance of the wealthy Roman upper class. The wealthy people of that ancient culture valued refined, exquisite, and hedonistic pleasures. They delighted in passing time and amusing themselves with love adventures and sexual affairs. The art of love was among the most highly regarded cultural values.

In his love poetry, Ovid offers wise and captivating advice for both men and women on how to attract and maintain a lover. The first two books instruct the readers on how to approach, seduce, and make love to a woman.

In the succeeding centuries after the second century A.D., “Ars Amatoria” was translated into English as “The Art of Love” and became popular among the educated upper classes of other cultures and cultural contexts. The books have been regarded as literary classics by succeeding generations of educated people and scholars of love.

There are currently two translations of “The Art of Love” available online. One dates to 1885, while the other is from 2001.

In the 19th century, an English antiquary and famous translator of antique literature, Henry Riley (1816–1878), translated these Ovid’s poems from their original poetry into literal prose. It was published in 1885 and reprinted in 2014.

The English poet and translator of old classics Anthony Kline translated Ovid’s books of “Ars Amatoria” into English poetic form. It was published online in 2001.

Even though modern people live in a different era and a different type of society than the ancient Romans, I believe they will still find these books fascinating and interesting to read. This is why I chose to publish a number of articles containing excerpts from these books. Many ideas on how to love are still suitable and can be helpful to modern lovers and love researchers. Subsequently, I’ve reproduced a few of them borrowed from Ovid’s remarkable books translated by Anthony Kline on this blog. They’re talking about … “What Is His Task” (Part 1), “How to Find Her” (Part 2), “Search for Love While Walking” (Part 3), “Search for Love while at the Theatre” (Part 4), “Search for Love at the Races or Circus” (Part 5), “Triumphs that Are Good to Attract a Woman” (Part 6), ““Search for Love around the Dinner-Table and on the Beach” (Parts 7 and 8), “How to Win Her” (Part 9), “How to Know the Maid” (Part 10), and “How to Be Attentive to Her” (Part 11).

Here is Part 12, Teaching a Roman Man How to Write and Make Promises to a Woman.

By the way, these Ovid’s verses and advice can be useful not only for Roman men…

Try wax to pave the way, pour it out on scraped tablets:

let wax be your mind’s true confidante.

Bring her your flattering words and play the lover:

and, whoever you are, add a humble prayer.

Achilles was moved by prayer to grant Hector’s body to Priam:

a god’s anger’s deflected by the voice of prayer.

Make promises: what harm can a promise do?

Anyone can be rich in promises.

Hope lasts, if she’s once believed in,

a useful, though deceptive, goddess.

If you’ve given, you can quite reasonably be forgotten:

she carried it off, and now she’s nothing to lose.

But if you don’t give, always appear about to:

like barren fields that always cheat the farmer,

like the gambler who goes on losing, lest he’s finally lost,

and calls the dice back endlessly into his eager hand.

This is the work, the labour, to have her without giving first:

and she’ll go on giving, lest she lose what she’s freely given.

So go on, and send your letter’s flattering words,

try her intention, test the road out first.

Cydippe was deceived by the message the apple brought,

and unaware the girl by her own words was caught.

I warn you, youths of Rome, learn the noble arts,

not just to defend some trembling client:

like the crowd, the grave judge, the elected senate,

a woman will give her hand, won by eloquence.

But let your powers be hidden, don’t display your eloquence:

let irksome words vanish from your speech.

Who, but a mindless fool, declaims to his sweet friend?

A strong letter often causes her displeasure.

Let your speech be credible, use ordinary words,

flattering though, speak as if you were present.

If she won’t receive the letter, returns it un-read,

stick to your plan, and hope she’ll read it later.

In time stubborn oxen come to the plough,

in time the horse learns to suffer the bridle:

constant use wears away an iron ring,

the curved plough’s lost to the endless furrow.

What’s harder than stone, softer than water?

Yet soft water carves the hardest stone.

Once steadfast you’ll conquer Penelope herself in time:

you’ll see Troy captive, though it’s captured late.

She reads and won’t reply? Don’t press her:

just let her keep on reading your flattery.

If she wants to read, she’ll want to answer what she’s read:

such things proceed by number and by measure.

Perhaps at first a cool letter comes to you,

asking: would you please not trouble her.

What she asks, she fears: what she doesn’t ask, she wants, that you go on: do it, and you’ll soon get what you wish.

Kline, A. S. (2001). Translation of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria: The Art of Love.