35 et totiens nostro Memphi cruenta malo, tres ubi Pompeio detraxit harena triumphos! tollet nulla dies hanc tibi, Roma, notam. issent Phlegraeo melius tibi funera campo, vel tua si socero colla daturus eras, scilicet incesti meretrix regina Canopi, 34. totiens in particular, in the Alexandrian war of Caesar, the various engagements during the struggle of Octavian against the power of Cleopatra, and the event to which reference is made in v. 35. — nostro... malo: one of Propertius's vague ablatives: 'to our hurt.' 35. tres... triumphos: over Numidia (80 B.C.), Spain (71 B.C.), and Mithridates (61 B.C.); cf. Cic. Pro Sest. 61, 129: vir is, qui tripertitas orbis terrarum oras atque regiones tribus triumphis adiunctas huic imperio notavit. ubi: used loosely of tellus in general. — detraxit harena: Pompey was murdered in the little boat in which he was proceeding to land, and his corpse was left upon the sandy beach, naked and headless. 37. issent = fuissent : cf. Juv. 7,29: dignus venias hederis; German "Wie geht's?"-Phlegraeo... campo a willful or careless ambiguity. The expression may refer to Campania, where Pompey was dangerously ill at Naples, in 50 B.C. (cf. Cic. Tusc. Disp. 1, 86); or to Pharsalus, where he was finally defeated by Caesar, in a battle which might be poetically com pared to that of the Giants on the neighboring Phlegraean plains of Macedonia. The former interpretation seems to have been accepted by Juvenal (10, 283 sqq.); the latter, which suits better the development of the thought here, was apparently in the mind of Lucan (7, 144 sqq.; 8, 530, 531). — tibi: Pompey, though there is no new vocative to change the person addressed from that in the previous verse; cf. Tib. 1, 7, 3, n. 40 45 una Philippeo sanguine adusta nota, ausa Iovi nostro latrantem opponere Anubim, et Tiberim Nili cogere ferre minas, Romanamque tubam crepitanti pellere sistro, baridos et contis rostra Liburna sequi, foedaque Tarpeio conopia tendere saxo, iura dare et statuas inter et arma Mari. 41. ausa: sc. est. - latrantem: the Egyptian god Anubis was represented with a jackal's, or dog's, head; Vergil (Aen. 8, 698) and Ovid (Met. 9, 690) use the expression latrator Anubis. The inferiority of Egypt to Rome is implied in the series of comparisons (1) great gods; (2) local river gods; (3) army; (4) navy; (5) national character; (6) laws. 42. Cf. 2, 33, 20: cum Tiberi Nilo gratia nulla fuit. 43. crepitanti: jingling.' To rouse them to deeds of battle they must rely on the barbarian sistrum, a mere adjunct of their characteristic worship. 44. baridos: it was like matching our canal boat with the steam war vessel (C. S.). The βᾶρις was a clumsy river transport propelled by poles (contis). — Liburna : swiftly moving galleys like those used by the Illyrian pirates. They had played an important part in the victory of Actium. 45. Tarpeio . . . saxò: where the heroic Roman character had been so often exhibited, and death scorned. conopia: to a Roman soldier mosquito netting would be the extreme of effeminacy. Cf. Hor. Epod. 9, 15: interque signa turpe militaria sol adspicit conopium. 46. iura dare: what a feminine regime like that of Cleopatra would be at Rome is hinted from the previous verse, and the effect of the imaginary picture is heightened by the contrast with the rule of the most virile heroes in Roman history, like Marius. statuas of the great gods of Rome and of famous Romans. They grew so numerous that they began to be removed by the State from the Capitol as early as 179 B.C., from the Forum in 158 B.C. arma Mari: the trophies that Marius won from Jugurtha, and 50 quid nunc Tarquinii fractas iuvat esse secures, et longum Augusto salva precare diem. from the Cimbri and Teutons, set up on the Capitoline hill, were torn down by Sulla, but restored by Julius Caesar. Cf. Suet. Iul. ... 52. accepere manus: figuratively. Romula: this adjective is used also in 4, 4, 26; the usual prose form is Romulea Romana; cf. Hor. Carm. Saec. 47: Romulae genti. 53. bracchiă: cf. Intr. § 43. spectavi: Propertius doubtless saw in the triumphal procession an effigy of Cleopatra with the asp that common tradition in literature and art has accepted as the means of her death, though here, as often, the tradition rests on an uncertain basis. Cf. Hor. Car. 1, 37, 26; Plut. Ant. 86. sacris i.e. to Isis; cf. Ovid, Am. 2, 13, 13: pigraque dabatur circa donaria serpens: Juv. 6, 538: et movisse caput visa est argentea serpens. 54. Propertius mixes his metaphors, the last sleep, and that journey from which there is no return. The frame drinks in the poison which causes the queen to start on the journey to the world of the dead. Only Propertius would dare to speak of draining a draught of journey!" 55 60 'non hoc, Roma, fui tanto tibi cive verenda' 55. hoc... tanto . . . cive: Augustus is complimented by being referred to under his favorite title of Princeps. The abl. abs. is equivalent to a clause of proviso. -fui: Cleopatra is speaking. 56. Sc. non fuit verenda with lingua, referring to Antony. 57. toto cf. 2, 1, 47 (uno); Tib. 4, 6, 9, n. 58. Marte bello. 59. The general sense of this fine outburst is that in Augustus Rome had a hero far greater than in all her past history, and possessing him she scarcely need fear Jove himself (C. S.), much less a woman. The glory of defeating Hannibal, Syphax (a Numidian king who helped Hannibal), and Pyrrhus, as representing masculine warriors from Greece and Africa, the countries that Cleopatra represented, is appropriately contrasted here with the terrorizing influence she had over Rome, expressed in v. 58. The animadversions of the critics and the transpositions by the editors in the latter part of this poem are incomprehensible. Cf. Vahlen, Ind. Lect. 1886-87, Berlin. 61. Here follow instances of self-sacrificing heroism to save the State in earlier days. Curtius: the story is told in Livy, 7, 6. monimenta such word repetitions are not uncommon in the Roman elegy; cf. vv. 16, 17; 19, 21; 36, 40; Vahlen, l.c. 62. at the method of Decius was a different one; see Livy, 8, 9; 10, 28; Cic. Tusc. Disp. 1, 37, 89. 63. Coclitis Horatius Cocles, the hero of the bridge; cf. Livy, 2, IO. semita: the location of the street named after Horatius is not known. 64. est cui: M. Valerius Corvus; see Livy, 7, 26. habere = habendam; cf. Verg. Aen. 5, 260: loricam quam Demoleo detraxerat ipse victor. donat habere viro; R. 1363. 65 70 haec di condiderant, haec di quoque moenia servant: nunc ubi Scipiadae classes, ubi signa Camilli, 65. condiderant : even before these heroic deeds the gods had established Rome. 66. salvo Caesare: the construction is a repetition of hoc tanto . . cive (v. 55). The thought of the verse is contrasted with that of v. 58. 67. nunc ubi i.e. in comparison with the glorious victory of Augustus at Actium. Scipiadae: the regular patronymic formation in this family. - classes: the famous fleet prepared in 45 days in 205 B.C. to bring the second Punic war to a close. The plural, like pontes, in v. 63, is purely rhetorical. Cf. L. 1110. signa Camilli: taken from the Gauls in 390 B.C.; cf. Livy, 5, 49, 7: dictator. triumphans in urbem rediit; Verg. Aen. 6, 825: referentem signa Camillum. 68. modo but recently,' contrasted with the other great Roman victories mentioned. Bospore : vocative. It was from Panticapaeum on the Cimmerian Bosporus, which Pliny (N. H. 4, 78) calls the edge of Europe, that the body of the dead Mithridates was sent to Pompey at Amisus; but Propertius flatters the memory of Pompey by intimating that the latter conquered a region that he probably never saw. 69. Leucadius. . . Apollo: the celebrated temple of Apollo on the north promontory of the island of Leucas looked down upon the battle of Actium. The Leucadian Apollo was frequently invoked by sailors. versas acies: cf. Hor. Epod. 9, 17-20. 70. tantum operis belli: i.e. the fleet of Cleopatra. — una dies: that of the battle of Actium. 72. Augustus has cleared the seas of all the enemies of Rome, including pirates. Cf. Hor. Car. 4, 5, 19: pacatum volitant per mare navitae. |