The Europa Barbarorum Quotes Project

[oudysseos]

Actually, unless I am greatly mistaken, the only Ovid in the quotes is

{Author_15} Publius Ovidius Naso
{Quote_15} The gods favour the bold.

Which is itself a paraphrase of Ennius, I think.

But to answer your broader question, the time-frame is the primary criterion for including a quote, along with relevance to the area involved: there are no Chinese quotes, for example, not even ones from the 3rd century BCE. I bent the rules in 3 or 4 cases (the Irish triads and so on) because it is otherwise very difficult to give pre-literate people (or people whose literature had been totally lost) a voice. Since we're talking 4 quotes out of 300 I think that we are still pretty good. But although there may be some shades of grey, Shakespeare is without question well over the line. To be honest, I'd leave out the Vegetius as well, except that one can argue that he is mainly epitomizing earlier sources.

EDIT: Actually 'The Gods favour the bold' probably comes from Terence originally, by way of Vergil.