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

PROPERTIUS. PROPERTIUS. 547
the truth seems to be that she belonged, as Hertz- and he has been followed by Barth and other criberg thinks, to that higher class of courtezans, or tics. Masson's reasons for fixing on that year are
rather kept women, then sufficiently numerous at that none of his elegies can be assigned to a later
Rome. We cannot reconcile the whole tenor of date than B. C. 16; and that Ovid twice mentions
the poems with any other supposition. Thus it him in his Ars Aimatoria (iii. 333 and 536) in a
appears that Propertius succeeded a lover who had way that shows him to have been dead. The first
gone to Africa for the purpose of gain (iii. 20), of these proves nothing. It does not follow that
perhaps after having been well stripped by Cyn- Propertius ceased to live because he ceased to
thia. Propertius is in turn displaced by a stupid write; or that he ceased to write because nothing
praetor, returning from Illyricum with a well-filled later has been preserved. The latter assertion,
purse, and whom the poet advises his mistress to too, is not indisputable. There are no means of
make the most of (ii. 16). We are led to the same fixing the dates of several of his pieces; and El.
conclusion by the fifth elegy of the fourth book, iv. 6, which alludes to Caius and Lucius, the grandbefore alluded to, as written during his courtship, sons of Augustus (1. 82), was probably written
which is addressed to Acanthis, a lena, or pro- considerably after B.c. 15. (Clinton, F. H. B. c. 26.)
curess, who had done all she could to depreciate With regard to Masson's second reason, the
Propertius and his poems with Cynthia, on account passages in the Ars Am. by no means show
of his want of wealth. Nor can we draw any other that Propertius was dead; and even if they did, it
inference from the seventh elegy of the second would be a strange method of proving a man debook, which expresses the alarm felt by the lovers funct in B. C. 15, because he was so in B. C. 2, Maslest they should be separated by the Lex Julia de son's own date for the publication of that poem!
m(0aitandis ordinibus, and the joy of Cynthia at its Propertius resided on the Esquiline, near the
not having been passed. What should have pre- gardens of Maecenas. He seems to have cultivented Propertius, then, apparently a bachelor, vated the friendship of his brother poets, as Ponfrom marrying his mistress? It was because ticus, Bassus, Ovid, and others. He mentions
women who had exercised the profession of a Virgil (ii. 34. 63) in a way that shows he had
courtezan were forbidden by that law to marry an heard parts of the Aeneid privately recited. But
ingenues. There was no other disqualification, though he belonged to the circle of Maecenas, he
except that libertinae were not permitted to marry never once mentions Horace. He is equally silent
a man of senatorial dignity. The objection raised about Tibullus. His not mentioning Ovid is best
might, indeed, be solved if it could be shown explained by the difference in their ages; for Ovid
that Cynthia was a married woman. But though alludes more than once to Propertius, and with
Broukhusius (ad ii. 6. 1) has adopted that opinion, evident affection.
he is by no means borne out in it by the passages In 1722, a stone, bearing a head and two inhe adduces in its support. That she had a hus- scriptions, one to Propertius, and one to a certain
band is nowhere mentioned by Propertius, which Cominius, was pretended to be discovered at Spello,
could hardly have been the case had such been the the ancient Hispellum, in the palace of Theresa
fact. The very elegy to which Broukhusius's note Grilli, Princess Pamphila. Though the genuineis appended, by comparing Cynthia to Lais, and ness of this monument was maintained by Montother celebrated Grecian courtezans, proves the faucon and other antiquarians, as well as by several
reverse. Nor can the opinion of that critic be eminent critics, later researches have shown the
supported by the word nupta in the twenty-sixth inscription of Propertius's name to be a forgery.
line of the same piece. That term by no means The same stone, discovered in the same place, was
excludes the notion of an illicit connection. Such known to be extant in the previous century, but
ans arrangement, or conditio (ii. 14. 18), as that bearing only the inscription to Cominius. (See
between Propertius and his mistress, did not take the authorities adduced by Hertzberg, Qusaest.
place without some previous stipulations, and even 1'roperl. vol. i. p. 4.)
solemnities, which the poet has described in the As an elegiac poet, a high rank must be awarded
twentieth elegy of the third book (v. 15, &c.), and to Propertius, and among the ancients it was a
which he does not hesitate to call sacra marita. moot point whether the preference should be given
The precise date and duration of this connection to him or to Tibullus. (Quint. x. 1. ~ 93.) His
cannot be accurately determined. Propertius's first genius, however, did not fit him for the sublimer
success with his mistress must have been after flights of poetry, and he had the good sense to rethe battle of Actiull, from ii. 15. 37 and 44; and frain from attempting them. (iii. 3. 15, &c.)
as it was in the summer time (iii. 20. 11, &c.), it Though he excels Ovid in warmth of passion, he
should probably be placed in B. c. 30. The seventh never indulges in the grossness which disfigures
elegy of the fourth book seems to show that the some of the latter's compositions. It must, howlovers were separated only by the death of ever, be confessed that, to the modern reader, the
Cynthia. See especially tile fifth anId sixth elegies of Propertius are not nearly so attractive
verses:- as those of Tibullus. This arises partly from their
Cum mihi somnus ab exequiis penderet amoris, obscurity, but in a great measure also from a cerEt quererer lecti frigida regna mei. tain want of nature in them. Muretus, in an admirable parallel of Tibullus and Propertius, in the
That Propertius married, probably after Cyn- preface to his Scholia on the latter, though he does
thia's death, and left legitimate issue, may be not finally adjudicate the respective claims of the
inferred from the younger Pliny twice mentioning two poets, has very happily expressed the diffePassiesus Paulus, a splendidus eques Romanus, as rence between them in the following terms:descended from him. (Ep. vi. 15, and ix. 22.) "Illum (Tibullum) judices simplicius scripsisse
This must have been through the female line. The quae cogitaret: hunl (Propertium) diligentius coyear of Propertius's death is altogether unknown. gitasse quid scriberet. In illo plus naturae, in hoc
Masson placed it in B.c. 15 ( Vit. Ovid. A.u.c. 739), plus curae atque industriae perspicias." The fault
NN 2