A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

546 PROPERTIUS. PROPERTIUS.
editor. The latter's computation proceeds on very putation adopted in this notice, Propertius was
strained inferences, which we have not space to about one-and-twenty. This inference is drawn
discuss; but it may possibly be sufficient to state from the opening elegy of the second book (v. 17,
that one of his results is to place the tenth elegy &c.), from which it appears that Maecenas had
of the second book, in which Propertius talks requested him to describe the military achieveabout his extreme aetas (v. 6) in B. C. 25, when, ments of Octavianus. At that important epoch it
according to Hertzberg, he was one-and-twenty! formed part of that minister's policy to engage the
For several reasons, too long to be here adduced, most celebrated wits of Rome in singing Caesar's
it might be shown that the year assigned by praises; his object being to invest his master's
Mr. Clinton, namely, B.c. 51, is a much more successes with all those charms of popularity
probable one, and agrees better with the relative which would necessarily prove so conducive to
ages of Propertius and Ovid. We know that the the great object which lay nearest to his heart
latter was born in B. C. 43, so that he would have -the establishment of Caesar's absolute empire.
been eight years younger than Propertius: a dif- This is also evident from the works of Horace.
ference which would entitle him to call Propertius That poet was a republican; yet, after the
his predecessor, whilst at the same time it would battle of Actium, Maecenas succeeded in innot prevent the two poets from being sodales ducing him to magnify Caesar, with whom there
(Ov. Trist. iv. 1'0. 45). was nobody left to contest the world. These conPropertius was not descended from a family of siderations, by the way, lead us also to the concluany distinction (ii. 24. 37), nor can the inference sion that there must have been at least a difference
that it was equestrian be sustained from the men- of eight years, as stated above, in the ages of Ovid
tion of the aurea bulla (iv. 1. 131), which was the and Propertius. The latter poet was already
common ornament of all children who were ingenui. known to fame when it suited the political views,
(Cic. in Verr. ii. 1, 58, with the note of Asconius; as well as the natural taste, of Maecenas to paMacrob. i. 6.) The paternal estate, however, tronise him. Ovid, on the contrary, was then a
seems to have been sufficiently ample (Nam tuan mere boy; and his reputation would have been
versarent cum multi rurajuvenci, iv. 1. 129); but just bursting forth, when the faithful minister of
of this he was deprived by an agrarian division, Augustus was dismissed by his ungrateful master.
probably that in B. C. 36, after the Sicilian war, An earlier, and perhaps more disinterested, patron
and thus thrown into comparative poverty (in tenues of Propertius was Tullus, the nephew, probably, of
cogeris ipse Lares, Ib. 128). At the time of L. Volcatius Tullus, the fellow-cousul of Octathis misfortune he had not yet assumed the toqa vianus, in B. C. 33. Tullus, however, seems to
virilis, and was therefore under sixteen years of have been much of the same age as Propertius, as
age. He had already lost his father, who, it has may be inferred from the conclusion of iii. 22;
been conjectured, was one of the victims sacrificed and they may, therefore, be in some degree looked
after the taking of Perusia; but this notion does upon as sodales.
not rest on any satisfactory grounds. The elegy It was probably in B. C. 32 or 31, that Properon which it is founded (i. 21) refers to a kinsman tius first became acquainted with his Cynthia. He
named Gallus. We have no account of Pro- had previously had an amour with a certain Lvpertius's education; but from the elegy before cinna, and to which we must assign the space of a
quoted (iv. 1) it would seem that he was destined year or two. This connection, however, was a
to be an advocate, but abandoned the profession merely sensual one, and was not, therefore, of a
for that of poetry. That he was carefully in- nature to draw out his poetical powers. In Cynstructed appears from the learning displayed in thia, though by no means an obdurate beauty, he
his writings, and which was probably acquired found incitement enough, as well as sufficient obaltogether at Rome; the smallness of his means stacles to the gratification of his passion, to lend it
having prevented him from finishing his education refinement, and to develope the genius of his muse.
at Athens, as was then commonly done by the The biographers of Propertius make him a success\wealthier Romans. At all events it is plain from ful lover at once. They neither allow time for
the sixth elegy of the first book, written after his courtship, nor assign any of his elegies to that peconnection with Cynthia had begun, that he had riod. It is plain, however, from several passages,
not then visited Greece. In the twenty-first elegy that his suit must have been for a length of time
of the third book he meditates a journey thither, an unsuccessful one (see especially ii. 14. 15), and
probably at the time when he had quarrelled with several of his pieces were probably written during
his mistress; but whether he ever carried the its progress; as the first of the first book (which
design into execution we have no means of know- Lachmann refers to the time of his quarrel with
ilg. his mistress), the fifth of the fourth book, and
The history of Propertius's life, so far as it is others. Cynthia was a native of Tibur (iv. 7. 85),
known to us, is the history of his amours, nor can and her real name was Hostia. (Appuleius,
it be said how much of these is fiction. He was, Apolog.; Schol. in Juven. vi. 7.) As Propertius
what has been called in modern times " a man of (iii. 20. 8) alludes to her doctus avus, it is prowit and pleasure about town;" nor in the few bable that she was a grand-daughter of Hostius,
particulars of his life which he communicates in who wrote a poem on the Histric war. [HosTIUs.]
the first elegy of the fourth book, does he drop the She seems to have inherited a considerable portion
slightest hint of his ever having been engaged in of the family talent, and was herself a poetess, beany serious or useful employment. He began to sides being skilled in music, dancing, and needlewrite poetry at a very early age, and the merit of work (i 2. 27, i. 3. 41, ii. 1.9, ii. 3.17, &c.). From
his productions soon attracted the attention and pa- these accomplishments Paldamus, in the Ep. Ded.
tronage of Maecenas. This was most probably to his edition of Propertius, inferred that she was
shortly after the final discomfiture and death of a woman of rank; and solne have even absurdly
Antony in B. C. 30, when, according to -the com- derived her genealogy from HIostus Hostilius. But