1

was still ample, evidently, to provide for all the boy's needs, he early discovered his poetic gift, and turned his back on a Forum which seemed to him a madman's paradise (4, 1, 133-134). But he was no recluse. He loved good-fellowship, and was ambitious to rise into the highest literary circles. Among his best friends were Tullus, a nephew of the consul of 33 B.C., Ponticus (1, 7), and Bassus (1, 4). Lynceus (2, 34) may be a pseudonym for some tragic writer. Of the better known literary men, Ovid and Vergil were certainly included in his circle of friends. Tibullus and Propertius do not mention each other; but evidently they were well acquainted each with the work of the other. The relation of Propertius to Horace has been a subject for interesting discussions. There is no sign that they were friends, although belonging to the same literary circle, that of Maecenas. More than that, quite a case can be made out for thinking that Horace turned up his nose at the poetic aspirations as well as the personality of the ambitious young elegist. Postgate (Prop., p. 33) has an elaborate argument for identifying the passage in Horace's Epistles, 2, 2, 87 sqq., as a direct attack upon Propertius. It was probably the publication of Book I of the elegies that won recognition and friendship from Maecenas, and placed Propertius in the most coveted position in Rome. Elegies 2, 1, and 3, 9 are addressed to Maecenas.2 The friendship of Maecenas implied more or less direct relations with Augustus. The emperor is duly praised in various places.3 Propertius seems to have lived a social life at Rome, seldom leaving it, and always anxious to return, when away. He was able to live on the Esquiline, 1 and occasionally we find him at Tibur, or back in Umbria for a brief sojourn.

4

33. But as with Catullus, the career of Propertius, as well as

1Cf. I, 1; 1,6; 1, 14; I, 22; 3, 22.

2 For a fascinating fancy sketch of the poet's relations to this group of men of letters cf. Anne C. E. Allinson," A Poet's Toll," Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 106 (1910), pp. 774-784.

33, 4, I; II, 66; 4, 6, 14; 11, 6ɔ

43, 23, 24.

his failure to realize all his possibilities, is largely due to one woman. True, his ardent nature led him when but a slip of a boy into an attachment to one Lycinna.1 Who she was we can hardly guess; but when he protested to his jealous mistress later (v. 43) that Lycinna had been but a passing fancy of two or three early years (vv. 7-10) and added, cuncta tuus sepelivit amor, we may believe that he spoke as near the truth as forgetful lovers ever can. For when Cynthia dawned upon his life he became for the time being essentially a man of one idea. Her real name was Hostia,2 the pseudonym suggesting not merely the qualities of an ordinary lover's "divinity," but more especially her function as an inspirer of his poetry; for she was not only herself a docta puella, but came of literary ancestry, her grandfather Hostius having written, it is believed, a poem on the Illyrian war.3 Her fine literary tastes and elegant accomplishments were enhanced by all the feminine arts and graces and by a beauty which made the susceptible young poet her willing slave. Her birthplace was at Tibur, where she seems to have lived at times, while commonly maintaining a considerable establishment at Rome. It was she who made the first advances, partly, perhaps, because she admired the gifts of the young student of poetic promise. Indeed, she may have been more or less responsible for his forsaking the Forum and frequenting the salon. Immediately the Alexandrian impetus which is seen in his earliest work was concentrated on this absorbing affection and its object, and he tells the world of her golden hair, her taper fingers, her sparkling black eyes, and her stately carriage.4

But Cynthia was older than Propertius 5 and more artful. As a meretrix she could not contract a legal marriage; and there were other lovers to whom at times she gave more attention

than the ardent poet lover could well endure.1 There were quarrels and reconciliations. For some fault he was banished for a whole year from her presence2; yet much later, in his bitter leave-taking he reminds her that he had been her devoted slave for five years. The chronology of the poems appears to agree with this five-year period; for none of those referring to Cynthia appears to have been written earlier than 28 or later than 23 B.C. Yet the question of the relative order of the elegies and the determination of the exact years included in the five are unsolved problems. When the year of separation occurred, and whether the five years were interrupted or not, are moot questions. The publication of the poet's first book of elegies, probably in the year 25, dealing almost exclusively with his love, must have flattered the lady and cemented their affection for the time. But its genius won for Propertius also a place in the friendship of Maecenas, prince of patrons, and opened the way for the development of other interests and for increasing ambition to write on other themes. While about two thirds of all the elegies are connected in some way with Cynthia, there may be noted an increasing restlessness on the part of the poet, a sense of dissatisfaction that his work is confined within so narrow a circle, which feeling was probably fostered by his friends, who saw higher possibilities in him. He defends himself from time to time for not launching out on a broader sea, and tries his hand a little on a certain patriotic type of poetry. Meanwhile his liaison was running the natural course of all such attachments. The lover became tired of the imperiousness and the fickleness of the beloved; love was supplanted by disgust,

2 3, 16, 9.

3 3, 25, 3.

1 Cf. I, 8. 4 Cf. 2, 8, 13: ergo iam multos nimium temerarius annos, inproba, qui tulerim teque tuamque domum, ecquandone tibi liber sum visus?

5 Cf. Schanz, 287; Plessis, pp. 210 sqq.; Postgate, Prop., pp. xxi sqq.; Ramsay, p. xlvi; Otto, "Die Reihenfolge der Gedichte des Properz," in Hermes, Vol. 20 (1885), pp. 552-572.

6 The Cynthia Monobiblos of Martial's epigram 14, 189: Cynthia, facundi carmen iuvenale Properti, accepit famam, nec minus ipsa dedit.

and, probably in the year 23, Propertius renou in two bitter elegies (3, 24 and 25), in which as intense as his earlier love had been. Whet sort of a reconciliation before her death (whic later than the year 18) seems very doubtful.1 ble that in conformity with the wishes of Augu have married some time before his death father of offspring.2

34. That the Cynthia book was published whole, is clear.3 Book 2 is somewhat larger elegies; but they are still mostly on the same. first and last poems are well adapted to opspectively such a book. Lachmann, however, i ently endless confusion into Propertius texts b third book begins with 2, 10. His argument is an assumed lacuna before 2, 10; on the appare elegy to open a new book dedicated to Augus use of the expression tres libelli in 2, 13, 25hand, it may be urged (1) that it is not certain complete, or is preceded by any important omi poem is not very suitable as an introduction to ing little but love elegies. (3) Libellus does mean a 'book' of poems at all.5 Propertius in question does not appear to be thinking of n death, and might easily have been expecting to books of elegies before that should occur. Pe tional number is suggested by the fact that H

1 But cf. Postgate's elaborate argument in his Selections, PF 2 Cf. Plin. Ep. 6, 15: Passennus Paulus . . . scribit eleg illi: est enim municeps Properti atque etiam inter maiores suos 8 Cf. 2, 3, 3-4: vix unum potes, infelix, requiescere mensen liber alter erit; 2, 24, 1-2: cum sis iam noto fabula libro e lecta foro.

4 Cf. Lachmann, pp. xx sqq.

5 Cf. for its use as referring to a single poem, I, II, 19; 2, 2

5

three books of odes just about this time. Although there are still found scholars to defend the theory of Lachmann, the growing disposition seems to be to return to the Ms. division into four books.2 Book 2 was probably published about 24 B.C., but some of its elegies were written at least several years earlier. The third book is still on the whole largely concerned with Cynthia. There are, however, in this book a number of more general love poems, and a third group, including the first five elegies, in which he only starts with love, if love figures at all in these, and branches off into other subjects. The book must have been published as late as, or later than, 23 B.C., as is evidenced by 3, 18, on the death of Marcellus. In fact, 3, 4 seems to be of the year 22. In the fourth book elegies Nos. 7 and 8 at least refer to Cynthia. Nos. 3 and 11 are of the type of the Heroides of Ovid, while the others are of the aetiological type which Propertius, following in the wake of Callimachus, was evidently ambitiously planning to develop.6 The last elegy of the collection was written in the year 16, and was probably the last one he penned. There is no cogent reason for doubting that he attended himself to the publication of all these books.

35. Propertius is the greater genius, Tibullus the greater artist.' There are many points of similarity between Propertius and Catullus. Both undertook to follow the Alexandrian school of elegy. Both were gifted with the genuine poetic fire. Each in the years of youthfully exuberant passions fell under the spell of a somewhat older, yet commanding belle, who knew how

1 For still other possibilities cf. Lachmann himself, l.c., p. xxii.

2 For the view that Book I was long lost and that the grammarians were wont to cite from an edition of Books 2-4, cf. Ullman in Class. Phil., Vol. 4 (1909), pp. 45-51, and Birt in Rh. Mus., Vol. 64 (1909), pp. 393 sqq.

3 Cf. 2, 10, Intr.

5 E.g. 11 and 13.

4 E.g. 2, 31, which belongs to the year 28. 6 Cf. 4, 1, Intr.

7 Leo, in Die Kultur der Gegenwart, "Die Römische Literatur," p. 350.

8 For Propertius as a poet of nature cf. K. P. H. in PAPA., Vol. 32 (1901),

pp. xx-xxii; Geikie, pp. 96–97, et passim.

ROM. EL. POETS · 4