'Some one hundred and twenty miles south of Rome, on the coast near the modern Sperlonga, is a natural grotto facing out to sea with an ancient mansion in front of it. Suetonius (Tib. 39) refers to it in connexion with the rock-fall which came close to killing the emperor (...) The events are related also by Tacitus, Ann. 4.59. Since the grotto was decorated with statue groups (...) the attention of generations of art historians since 1839, when it was first written about by L. Rossini, has been devoted to answering basic questions about it (...): when was the work executed? who ommissioned it? who inspired it? who carried the work out? who was it originally done for? A. has been involved wiht these questions since 1964, and a long list of publications by him on the subject betokens an almost obessive fascination with it. He now, in an attempt finally to dispose of criticism of his views, writes on a large scale with earnest pertinacity and the missionary zeal of an anxious enforcer. As the subtitle of his book makes clear, he is out to demonstrate a connexion between Tiberius and Ovid (...). According to A. Ovid comes into it as the source of inspiration fro the statue groups in that they incorporate little variations on myths which in the literary record are attested only in Ovid, above all in the 'Metamorphoses'. The book is lavishly illustrated with many handsome photographs of the cave and its ancient contents, both fragmentary and as restored.' (J.B. HALL in The Classical Review (New Series), From the library of the late Professor Doktor Nikolaus Himmelmann.