PROPERTIUS.
(1) LIFE.
The name by which the poet designates himself is Propertius simply; the praenomen Sextus rests on the authority of Donatus. The additions in some MSS., ‘Aurelius’ and ‘Nauta,’ are clearly erroneous.
He was certainly a native of the district of Umbria, and probably of the town of Asisium (the modern Assisi). Cf. iv. 1, 121,
‘Umbria te notis antiqua penatibus edit,
(mentior? an patriae tangitur ora tuae?)
qua nebulosa cavo rorat Mevania campo,
et lacus aestivis intepet Umber aquis,
scandentisque Asisi consurgit vertice murus,
murus ab ingenio notior ille tuo.’
‘Asisi’ in l. 125 is Lachmann’s emendation for ‘Asis’ of the MSS., and is rendered almost certain by the topography of the district. Asisium agrees better than Hispellum (the modern Spello) with the description in the passage quoted; with iv. 1, 65,
‘Scandentes quisquis cernet de vallibus arces,
ingenio muros aestimet ille meo’;
and with the epithet ‘proxima’ in i. 22, 9, as Asisium is nearer than Hispellum to Perusia. Cf. i. 22, 3-10,
‘Si Perusina tibi patriae sunt nota sepulcra,
Italiae duris funera temporibus, ...
proxima supposito contingens Umbria campo
me genuit terris fertilis uberibus.’
At Assisi, moreover, have been found several inscriptions of the Propertii, one of which, C. PASSENNO | C. F. SERG. |, PAULLO | PROPERTIO | BLAESO,[66] probably refers to the Passennus Paullus mentioned by Pliny, Ep. vi. 15, as ‘municeps Propertii.’
Propertius was younger than Tibullus, and older than Ovid. His birth, therefore, took place between B.C. 54 and 43 (Hertzberg gives 46, Postgate prefers 50). Cf. Ovid, Tr. iv. 10, 53,
‘Successor fuit hic [Tibullus] tibi, Galle; Propertius illi;
quartus ab his serie temporis ipse fui.’
He came of a family well known in the neighbourhood (cf. iv. 1, 121, ‘notis penatibus,’ already quoted), but not ‘noble’ in the technical sense; ii. 34, 55,
‘Aspice me, cui parva domi fortuna relictast,
nullus et antiquo Marte triumphus avi.’
His childhood was clouded by the early death of his father, and by the confiscation of his estate in B.C. 41; iv. 1, 127,
‘Ossaque legisti non illa aetate legenda
patris; et in tenues cogeris ipse lares,
nam tua cum multi versarent rura iuvenci,
abstulit excultas pertica tristis opes.’
His mother then took him to Rome, where he studied law for a short time after assuming the toga virilis, but abandoned it in favour of poetry; iv. 1, 131,
‘Mox ubi bulla rudi demissast aurea collo,
matris et ante deos libera sumpta toga,
tum tibi pauca suo de carmine dictat Apollo
et vetat insano verba tonare foro.’
Meanwhile he was engaged in his first love affair with Lycinna, who is otherwise unknown (iii. 15, 3 sqq.). In B.C. 29 or 28 his acquaintance with Cynthia began. Her real name was Hostia (Apuleius, Apol. 10, ‘Accusent ... Propertium, qui Cynthiam dicat, Hostiam dissimulet’), and she was possibly a grand-daughter of the poet Hostius ([p. 65]). Cf. iii. 20, 8,
‘Splendidaque a docto fama refulget avo.’
A courtesan of the higher class, she is represented by Propertius as possessed of great personal charms and varied accomplishments (i. 2, 30, ‘Omnia quaeque Venus quaeque Minerva probat’), combined with many faults of temper and character. She had a house at Rome in the Subura, and we hear of her also at Tibur, where she was buried (iv. 7, 15; 85). She was considerably older than Propertius; ii. 18, 19,
‘At tu etiam iuvenem odisti me, perfida, cum sis
ipsa anus haud longa curva futura die.’
At the end of two years the unfaithfulness of Propertius led to twelve months of estrangement; iii. 16, 9,
‘Peccaram semel, et totum sum pulsus in annum.’
Cynthia was reconciled to him about the beginning of B.C. 25; but the passion on both sides gradually cooled until, in 23, Propertius harshly cast her off (iii. 24 and 25). Possibly there was a second reconciliation before her death (iv. 7). The five years of bondage (iii. 25, 3, ‘Quinque tibi potui servire fideliter annos,’) will thus be B.C. 28, 27, 25-23.
Propertius lived chiefly at Rome; but i. 18 was written near the Clitumnus, and in ii. 19 he promises to join Cynthia in that region. In iii. 21 he contemplates a voyage to Athens; l. 1,
‘Magnum iter ad doctas proficisci cogor Athenas,
ut me longa gravi solvat amore via.’
A few years earlier he had refused to accompany his friend Tullus to Athens and Asia (i. 6).
Nothing is known of the subsequent life of Propertius, but from two passages in the younger Pliny it is natural to infer that he married, in obedience to the Lex Iulia of B.C. 18, and had issue. Pliny, Ep. vi. 15, ‘Passennus Paullus ... inter maiores suos Propertium numerat’; ix. 22, ‘Propertium ... a quo genus ducit.’
We cannot tell even when he died. He must have been alive in B.C. 16, because iv. 6 was written for the ludi quinquennales, which were held for the first time in that year; and iv. 11. 65, is an allusion to the consulship of P. Cornelius Scipio, also in B.C. 16.
In personal appearance Propertius was pale and thin, and rather fond of dress; i. 5, 21,
‘Nec iam pallorem totiens mirabere nostrum,
aut cur sim toto corpore nullus ego’;
ii. 4, 5,
‘Nequiquam perfusa meis unguenta capillis,
ibat et expenso planta morata gradu.’
He had been introduced to Maecenas after the publication of his first Book, but naturally was not on such intimate terms with him as older men like Virgil and Horace were. ii. 1 and iii. 9 are addressed to Maecenas. In the first of these poems Propertius declares that he is unequal to the composition of an epic, which his patron had urged upon him, but adds (l. 17)
‘Quod mihi si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent
ut possem heroas ducere in arma manus, ...
bellaque resque tui memorarem Caesaris, et tu
Caesare sub magno cura secunda fores.’
For poems referring to Augustus cf. ii. 10, iv. 6 (on Actium), iii. 18 (on the death of Marcellus).
Horace and Propertius do not mention each other by name. Chronology forbids the identification of the bore in Hor. Sat. i. 9 with Propertius, who, on the same ground, cannot be meant in Sat. i. 10, 18,
‘Neque simius iste,
nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.’
But Hor. Ep. ii. 2, 87-101, is undoubtedly aimed at Propertius. Cf. especially l. 99,
‘Discedo Alcaeus puncto illius; ille meo quis?
quis nisi Callimachus? Si plus adposcere visus,
fit Mimnermus et optivo cognomine crescit.’
Though both poets belonged to the same literary circle, they differed widely in temperament as well as in age. With Tibullus, who was a member of Messalla’s circle, Propertius may have had no personal acquaintance; at all events, neither alludes to the other.
For Virgil Propertius expresses warm admiration in ii. 34, written during the composition of the Aeneid. Ovid, who calls him ‘blandus’ (Tr. ii. 465) and ‘tener’ (A.A. iii. 333), was an intimate friend of his; cf. Tr. iv. 10, 45 (quoted [p. 206]). The minor poets to whom he writes are Ponticus (i. 7 and 9), Bassus (i. 4), and a tragic poet, Lynceus (a pseudonym, ii. 34, 25).
(2) WORKS.
The extant Elegies, divided in the MSS. into four Books, are probably all that Propertius ever wrote. On account of the disproportionate length of Book ii., and the number ‘tres’ (which, however, may be said in anticipation) in ii. 13, 25,
‘Sat mea sat magna est si tres sint pompa libelli,
quos ego Persephonae maxima dona feram,’
some editors make Book ii. consist only of El. 1-9, and assign the remainder (10-34) to a new Book iii. Books iii. and iv. of the MSS. then become iv. and v. respectively. In the most recent editions, however, the MSS. arrangement is retained, and it is here followed.
Book i.—All the Elegies in Book i., except the last two, are amatory. El. 2-10 belong to the first months of the poet’s love, when Cynthia was gracious, though capricious. She had refused to accompany a rival of his, who was going to Illyricum as praetor (El. 8); but afterwards she left Rome for Baiae, and the rest of the Book is full of complaints of her harshness. El. 1, written after the year of separation, introduces the whole Book in a melancholy strain.
The clearest indication of date in Book i. is 8, 21, ‘Nam me non ullae poterunt corrumpere taedae,’ where Propertius protests that he will never marry, in spite of the Lex Iulia of B.C. 27. (He could not legally marry a woman of Cynthia’s class.) The Book was published probably in B.C. 25, under the title of ‘Cynthia.’ Cf. ii. 24, 1,
‘Cum sis iam noto fabula libro
et tua sit toto Cynthia lecta foro.’
Her name was a recommendation for the Book, and it was probably her satisfaction at the fame which it brought her that caused her to relent towards Propertius. Cf. Mart. xiv. 189,
‘Cynthia, facundi carmen iuvenile Properti,
accepit famam, nec minus ipsa dedit.’
At all events, a few months afterwards we find the old relations re-established; ii. 3, 3,
‘Vix unum potes, infelix, requiescere mensem,
et turpis de te iam liber alter erit.’
Book ii.—Cynthia is the theme of nearly all the thirty-four poems of Book ii., which give lively expression to her lover’s varying moods. Only three Elegies (1, 10, and 31) are given to other subjects.
Of the few poems to which dates can be assigned, the earliest is El. 31 (on the dedication of the temple of the Palatine Apollo, B.C. 28), and the latest is El. 10, to Augustus (written shortly before the invasion of Arabia by Aelius Gallus in B.C. 24. Cf. l. 16, ‘et domus intactae te tremit Arabiae’). The Book was therefore published B.C. 24 at the earliest.
Book iii.—In this Book the poems on Cynthia form a far smaller proportion; 7, 12, and 22 show the warmth of the poet’s friendship; events of national interest are treated in 4, 11, and 18. In 5, 23-47, Propertius looks forward to spending his later years in the study of natural science (‘naturae perdiscere mores,’ l. 25).
There are few hints of the date of any of the poems in iii. El. 20 is apparently as early as B.C. 28; 18 certainly belongs to B.C. 23; 4 perhaps refers to the expedition against the Parthians planned in B.C. 22. The last-mentioned year is the earliest possible date of publication.
Book iv., in which there is no principle of arrangement, probably appeared after the author’s death. His archaeological tastes come out in four Elegies written, in imitation of the Αἴτια of Callimachus, on Roman antiquities—El. 2 on Vertumnus, 4 on Tarpeia, 9 on Cacus, 10 on Jupiter Feretrius. In this way Propertius fulfilled his promise to Maecenas, iii. 9, 49,
‘Celsaque Romanis decerpta Palatia tauris
ordiar et caeso moenia firma Remo,
eductosque pares silvestri ex ubere reges,
crescet et ingenium sub tua iussa meum.’
El. 7 and 8 relate to Cynthia; in 7 her ghost appears to the poet. El. 3, a letter from Arethusa to Lycotas, possibly suggested to Ovid the plan of his Heroides, just as the antiquarian poems already mentioned may have suggested the Fasti. The Book ends with a lament for Cornelia, daughter of Scribonia, Augustus’ first wife (El. 11).
The date of 6 and 11 is certainly not earlier than B.C. 16, while 8 seems to have been written before the rupture with Cynthia. The antiquarian poems are considered by some to have been among Propertius’ earliest efforts.
Propertius was familiar with the whole range of Greek poetry—Homer (iii. 1, 25-34), Mimnermus (i. 9, 11), Pindar (iii. 17, 40), the dramatists, Theocritus, and Apollonius Rhodius. As his models he names especially the Alexandrians Callimachus and Philetas, whom he claims to follow more closely than any of his predecessors; iii. 1, 1,
‘Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philetae,
in vestrum, quaeso, me sinite ire nemus.
Primus ego ingredior puro de fonte sacerdos
Itala per Graios orgia ferre choros.’
Cf. iv. 1, 64,
‘Umbria Romani patria Callimachi.’
In wealth of mythological illustration Propertius is peculiarly Alexandrian. He is continually drawing parallels and contrasts from Greek legend; e.g. i. 15, Cynthia how unlike Calypso! iii. 12, Aelia Galla a modern Penelope. Of Roman poets, he names as his predecessors in amatory verse Virgil, Varro Atacinus, Catullus, Calvus, and Cornelius Gallus (ii 34, 61-92). Once he dreams of writing an epic on the Alban kings in the vein of Ennius; iii. 3, 5,
‘Parvaque tam magnis admoram fontibus ora,
unde pater sitiens Ennius ante bibit.’
In Propertius love of social pleasures appears side by side with a strain of deep melancholy e.g. in. 5, 21,
Me iuvat et multo mentem vincire Lyaeo
et caput in verna semper habere rosa,
contrasted with the numerous passages where he is thinking of the grave, e.g. ii. 1, 71,
‘Quandocumque igitur vitam mea fata reposcent,
et breve in exiguo marmore nomen ero.’
There is no greater patriot than Propertius. Cf. the denunciation of Cleopatra (iii. 11) and the frequency of the epithet ‘Romanus.’