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THE ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
CAMBRIDGE :—FPRINTED BY J. PALMER,
SEX. AURELIT PROPERTII CARMINA.
THE ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS,
WITH ENGLISH NOTES,
BY
F. A. PALEY, M.A,,
EDITOR OF OVID’S FASTI, ‘SELECT EPIGRAMS OF MARTIAL,’ ETC.
SECOND EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED.
LONDON: BELL AND DALDY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON BELT, :
MDCCCLXXII
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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
THE former edition of Propertius, with English notes, was pub- lished in 1853. Though the work was composed under rather unfavourable circumstances, and with but few books available for reference or consultation; and though Propertius then was, as he even now is, but little read, compared with the contemporary poets Horace, Ovid, and Virgil, yet it gradually made its way, and in fact, has for some years been out of print. During the long interval since its first appearance, it may be supposed that I have been enabled to make many important improvements. To the fifth book especially, which is at once the most difficult and the most interesting, I have written nearly a new commentary, and with much fuller explanations than before. While I adhere to the opinion I formerly expressed, that it is “a reproach to the scholarship of this country that one of the most beautiful, interesting, and historically important of the Augustan Poets should remain unheeded and almost unknown,’ I may yet venture to think that some little advance has been made in the favourable estimate of the merits of Propertius by the mere fact of the poet having been edited in the present con- venient form. I still feel some surprise that none of our English scholars have undertaken the work in a more thorough way, and with the painstaking minuteness that characterise the com- mentaries of Conington, Mayor, Ellis, and Munro. For I am not only quite unable myself to devote the necessary time and research even to the attempt at such a task, but I am now more fully aware of the extreme difficulties, both critical and exe- getical, that beset this author. - Of good MSS. there are but two, the Naples and the Groningen, neither of great antiquity, and both
1 Preface to Ed. 1, p. i.
vi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
often very corrupt. The style of the poet too is obscure, abrupt, replete with affected Grecisms, and perplexed by sudden tran- sitions and apostrophes. Some of the peculiarities in his Latinity may possibly be due to his Umbrian descent. For these and other reasons, (such as the great variety of the mythology, the large field of history and archeology, and the uncertainty as to the right division of the elegies, lacuna, &c.,) a really complete edition of Propertius with English notes would form a much larger work than I have the power or the time to execute. I have therefore been content to record briefly the principal readings and conjectural emendations, and to offer in all cases the best explanation that I could give, avoiding superfluous discussion.
Of course I cannot expect that all students will have the same fondness for Propertius as a poet which I have long felt for him, and which only increases by time. There is truth in the remark of Lucian Mueller) “Est sane difficilis Propertius, cujus sensus ac rationes nisi diligentissimo pariter ac longissimo studio perspicere non possis, sed ut eos quo magis penetraris, hoe vehementius te alliciant ; plane sicut Tacitus, cum quo in quantum materia sinit diversitas, mirum in modum illi convenit.” I can only wish he were more generally studied than he is; for though in some few places his elegies are, as may be expected, lax in their morality, they are nowhere coarsely indecent. And while Horace and Juvenal are read in schools, it is vain to exclude Propertius on that score.2 He was a poet of thorough genius and (in spite of his fondness at a later period for Greek models) originality ; a perfect master of pathos, which may be called the soul of elegy.
Flebilis indignos Elegeia, solve capillos ; Ah nimis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit.$ 4
As Horace boasted that he introduced the lyric, so Propertius claimed to be the Roman Callimachus,t and to have brought the elegiac Muse from her Heliconian heights into the Italian plains. Thus, though Catullus had used the elegiac verse to some
1 Pref. ad Propert. ad init. (Lips. 1870).
2 Selected Elegies from Propertius have been published, with brief notes for school- boys, by the Rey, A. H. Wratislaw, in the ‘“‘Grammar-School Classics.”
3 Ovid, Am. iii. 9, 2.
4 ‘Umbria Romani patria Callimachi,’ y. 1, 64.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. vil
extent before, and Tibullus had carried it to a high degree of perfection, to Propertius may fairly be attributed the first success- ful effort to take up this metre uniformly, as the best for narrative as well as for poetic sentiment.’ It is rather singular that Propertius nowhere alludes to Tibullus; and it is probable that he was not acquainted with his writings. Neither Catullus nor Tibullus however,—nor indeed even Ovid—used elegy alone. Tibullus had exquisite taste, and very many of his verses are truly charming. But the elegiacs—not very numerous—of Catullus are so utterly rough and archaic—I had almost said, semi- barbarous, but I must speak with respect of ‘doctus Catullus,— that they can bear no comparison with those of his successors. Take a brief example of his style:
Quem neque sancta Venus wolli requiescere lecto Desertum in lecto celit perpetitur, Nee veterum dulci scrip’ am carmine Muse Oblectant, cum mens anxia pervigilat, ς Id gratum est mihi, me quoniam tibi dicis amicum, Muneraque et Musarum hinc petis et Veneris.
Propertius was not, perhaps, as popular among his contemporaries as Tibullus; probably because he was not so conversant with the great, though he seems to have known Mecenas.* Yet he was evidently the model that Ovid proposed to himself, as is plain from the very numerous imitations that occur in his works.° Generally harmonious and smooth, he now and then adventures a word of four and even five syllables, or two spondees, at the
1 In its origin, and in the hands of such early composers as Solon, Theognis, and Tyrtaeus, elegy took rather a gnomic than a sentimental turn. Its use for epitaphs, in the hands of such a master as Simonides, perhaps tended to its after use for the ex- pression of deep feeling. To the thoughtful student and practised composer, elegy will appear to be, as it is, a metre admirable for its versatility and almost endless power of combination and yariety. A piece of English verse, given to 500 students at an ex- amination, to turn into Latin elegiacs, would not be done by any two of them in precisely the same way. The genius of Martial shows to how many subjects, and with what success, it may be applied.
2 The heroic poem in praise of Messalla, commonly given as the fourth book of Tibullus, is of rather uncertain authorship.
3 Catull. 68, 5—10.
4 See iv. 8, 57—60.
5 These have been collected at considerable length by Dr. Anton Zingerle, in three parts. Innsbruck, 1871.
vill PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
end of his hexameters.!. As Pliny the younger said? of his friend Pompeius Saturninus, “inserit sane, sed data opera, mollibus levibusque duriusculos quosdam, et hoe quasi Catullus aut Calvus.” His habit of using largely words of four, five, or even three syllables at the end of the pentameter gives a character (not, in my judgment, an unpleasing one) to the Propertian as contrasted with the more polished and equable Ovidian distich. Take the opening lines of the first book as an illustration : Cynthia prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis, Contactum nullis ante cupidinibus. Tum mihi constantis dejecit lumina fastus, Et caput impositis pressit Amor pedibus, Donec me docuit castas odisse puellas Improbus, et nullo vivere consilio.
Here the fourth verse alone, metrically considered, is not pleasing. But let the following passage? be examined with at- tention, and it cannot fail to strike the reader of taste and judgment as singularly beautiful:
Ille sub extrema pendens secluditur ala, Et volucres ramo submovet insidias.
Jam Pandioniz cessat genus Orithyie :
* Ah dolor! ibat Hylas, ibat Hamadryasin.
Hic erat Arganthi Pege sub vertice montis, Grata domus Nymphis humida Thyniasin :
Quam supra nulle pendebant debita cure Roscida purpureis poma sub arboribus;
Et circum irriguo surgebant lilia prato, Candida purpureis mixta papaveribus;
Que modo decerpens tenero pueriliter ungui Proposito florem pretulit officio ;
Et modo formosis incumbens nescius undis Errorem blandis tardat imaginibus.
It cannot be doubted that the long words at the end of the pentameters in the above passage were studiously imtroduced. Every distich is elaborately constructed on that principle. And those who would object to such verses as inharmonious must have a very limited or a very erroneous conception of the capabilities of descriptive elegiac verse.
' See instances collected by L. Miiller, De Propertii Arte Metrica, pp. xlvii—viii. 2 Ep. i. 16. 3 Book i. El. 20, 29—42.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 1X
But one of the chief beauties of Propertius’ style consists in his habit of balancing the concluding noun of the pentameter by its epithet in the first half of the verse. The following lines are a good example :?
Tu pedibus teneris positas fulcire pruinas, Tu potes insolitas, Cynthia, ferre nives ἢ
O utinam hiberne duplicentur tempora brume, Et sit iners tardis navita Vergiliis,
Nec tibi Tyrrhena solvatur funus harena, Neve inimica meas elevet aura preces,
Et me defixum vacua patiatur in ora Crudelem infesta seepe vocare manu.
Atque ego non videam tales subsidere ventos, Cum tibi provectas auferet unda rates.
Sed quocumque modo de me, perjura, mereris, Sit Galatza tuze non aliena via,
Ut te felici preevecta Ceraunia remo Accipiat placidis Oricos equoribus.
It would seem, from the style of the historical poems in the fifth book, which appear to be amongst his earliest efforts, that the dissyllabic word at the end of the pentameter was generally preferred by him at first. These poems were professedly in imitation of the Altia of Callimachus, but, the subjects being strictly national, they do not exhibit so much of the Greek learning as his later compositions.
Propertius began to write verses early in life, and as soon as he had taken the toga virilis, v.e. about 16.
Mox ubi bulla rudi demissa est aurea collo, Matris et ante deos libera sumpta toga, Tum tibi pauca suo de carmine dictat Apollo,
Et vetat insano verba tonare foro.?
Born circa 50 B.c., two or three years after Tibullus, and nearly forty after Catullus, he lived in the very best period of Roman literature. He has an interesting reference to the then forth- coming Aineid of Virgil? which he appears to have heard pub-
eG 1 Ξ 50: 2 ¥. 1. 181. 3 πὶ. 26, 63. The ending of an hexameter in iv. 7, 49, Oricia terebintho, may have been borrowed, as L. Mueller suggests, Pref. p. xlviii., from 4”. x. 136, where the same words occur in the same position.
᾿ξ PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
licly or privately recited. His first Book, entitled ‘Cynthia,— the first that was published, if not the first written—is also a work of his early life, as indeed is attested by the ardour of feeling that pervades it. It is distinctly so called by Martial.t
Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti, Accepit famam, nec minus ipsa dedit.
His birthplace was Mevania? (Bevagna) in the south of Umbria, near to Asisium and the sources of the Clitumnus. Pliny the younger twice mentions® Propertius in connection with one Passen- nus Paullus, a writer of elegies, and at once an imitator and a descendant, as well as fellow-townsman (municeps) of Propertius. It has hence been inferred that Propertius married and had legitimate children after Cynthia’s death‘ It seems that his position in life was what we call of middle class; for he supposes Cynthia to say of him (111. 16, 21):
Certus eras, heu heu, quamvis nec sanguine avito Nobilis, et quamvis haud ita dives eras.
The literary questions connected with the life and writings of Propertius have so fully been discussed by others® that I shall not here attempt to repeat them at length. An account of the numerous (but mostly late and interpolated) MSS. and early editions may also be found in the prefaces of Barth, Lachmann, Hertzberg, and others. L. Mueller, who again collated the Naples MS., hitherto regarded as of the xuith century, inclines to think it is not really earlier than sec. xv.6 In respect of its critical value, he comes to a conclusion opposed to the judgment of Lachmann, and says, “longe superat bonitate Groninganum.” This latter, the Groningen MS., is thought to have been derived from an independent source; its readings are often unique, but
1 Ep. xiv. 189.
2 y. 1, 1283—5. Plautus, also an Umbrian, but a very pure Latinist, was born at Sassina or Sarsina in the north of Umbria.
3 Pp. vi. 15 and ix. 22. “In litteris veteres @mulatur, exprimit, reddit, Pro- pertium in primis, e quo genus ducit, vera soboles, eoque simillima illi in quo ille precipuus. Si elegos ejus in manum sumpseris, leges opus tersum, molle, jucundum, et plane in Propertii domo scriptum.”
4 His connexion with Cynthia (supposed to be Hostia, a descendant of Hostius, whose name is known as a poet), was illicit, and in ii. 7 he expresses his satisfaction at the relaxation of the law enforcing marriage on Roman citizens.
5. Hertzberg and L. Mueller especially. 6 Pref. ἢ. ix.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. ΧΙ
whether or not due to an early emendator, it seems impossible to say... But the Naples MS., according to Mueller, “est certe omnium qui jam extant longe optimus.”? Lachmann? upholds the Groningen MS. as first in authority; “Codicem Groninganum, qui veram multorum locorum lectionem unus omnium indicat, proxime subsequuntur membrane Neapolitane.”
The German editions of Propertius are numerous ; it is evident that the poet has long held a far higher place in their estimation than it has in our comparatively indolent universities. I have consulted throughout the following:
1. Frid. Gottlieb Barth, Lips. 1777, in 1 vol. 8vo., a laborious work, with a copious apparatus criticus and a full index; the text is a reprint from the second Gottingen edition of 1762.
2. Christian Theophilus Kuinoel, Lips. 1805. 2 vols. 8vo. The text of this edition, like the preceding, is founded too much on conjectural emendation and the readings of the interpolated MSS. The commentary however is copious, and often useful.
3. Car. Lachmann, Lips. 1816. 1 vol. 8vo. This, the first edition, was reprinted in 1829 with Catullus and Tibullus. The second edition I have not used; but of the first I have not formed quite so high an opinion as that generally held by his numerous admirers. Many of his alterations seem to indicate a want of poetic taste; but he was the first to reject a number of readings introduced since the time of the Scaligers, and to show what MSS. should be chiefly taken as a guide.
4. Frid. Jacob, Lips. 1827. 1 vol. 12mo. An unpretending, but excellent work, and the first that can be considered as founded wholly on MS. authority. The critical notes at the end of the volume are brief, but show sound judgment and knowledge of the idioms of the author. His tendency, like that of some of his successors, is to follow Lachmann.
5. Guil. Hertzberg, Halis, (Halle,) 1843. 4 vols. 8vo. This is by much the most complete edition that has appeared. It is furnished with a complete collation of all the good MSS., followed by an elaborate commentary, extending to about 500 pages, in two volumes. To these he has added a volume of Queestiones, of
1 See L. Mueller, Preef. p. v.—vii. 2 Ib. Pref. p. 10: 3 Preef. p. x. (ed. 1816).
ΧΙ PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
great value and research, in which he treats of the personal history of the poet and his friends, his relations to Cynthia, the idioms, diction, genius and principles of his composition, the dates and historical allusions, the MSS., early editions, and other collateral points. To this work the present edition owes the greatest obligations.
6. Henr. Keil, Lips. 1850. 1 vol. 12mo. A carefully revised text, chiefly following Lachmann and Jacob. Some new emen- dations of his own or others are admitted; and the orthography is generally brought up to a uniform and more correct standard. Generally, he says,! he preferred to leave in the text readings which he felt sure were corrupt, rather than to adopt conjectures where several had a chance of being right.
7. Lucian Mueller, Lips. 1870. 1 vol. 12mo. This is an im- portant edition, and I have made good use of it throughout. The text is carefully revised, and though the emendations introduced are rather frequent and violent, they are generally ingenious, and deserving of consideration. The volume contains also Catullus and Tibullus, each with a learned and useful Preface, and each accompanied by a brief critical commentary.
These seven editions—to which I might add Mr. Wratislaw’s small volume as an eighth,—are all that I have regularly examined throughout. The editions of Weise, Haupt, and Rossbach, I have not had before me, though I have occasionally inspected that of Weise. In truth, the work of editing is so hard, and presses so severely on those whose time is fully occupied with other engagements, that I may hope for some consideration on the score both of errors and oversights, as well as of omissions.
So long as the writing of Latin verse is kept up in our public schools and colleges, Propertius ought to be, and will be, studied by some. I recommend him especially as a model for imitation ; and I repeat that, as an Augustan poet of the earlier period, he deserves a great deal more attention than in this country he has hitherto obtained.
1 Preef. p. iv. fin.
CAMBRIDGE, October, 1872.
sux AURELII PROPERTII
ELEGIARUM
ΕἸ ΒΝ PREMUS:
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Ὡς
BOOK THE FIRST.
In most of the MSS. the first book is inscribed ‘Cynthia, Monobiblos;’ and under this title the poet himself appears to allude to it, iil. 15, 2: ‘Et tua sit toto Cynthia lecta foro.’ It was both written and published by its author a.v.c. 728, probably at the early age of twenty years. Hence Martial, xiv. 189: ‘Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti.’ Ib. viii. 7, 5: ‘Cynthia te vatem fecit, lascive Properti.’ It has all the freshness and ardour of early genius, before it suffered from the pedantry of the Greek learning that was becoming more and more fashionable. The fondness of the poet for Greek mythology is even here apparent; but he was not yet an avowed rival and imitator of Philetas and Callimachus (iv. 1,1). The agnomen Nauta which is commonly given to the poet in the MSS. is thought to have originated from the false reading Navita for non ita in iii. 16, 22. So Plautus was sometimes known by the
agnomen ‘Asinius,’ probably from his birthplace Sassina in Umbria.
PROPERTII
LIBER PRIMUS.
I.
C
YNTHIA prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis, Contactum nullis ante cupidinibus.
Tum mihi constantis dejecit lumina fastus, Et caput impositis pressit Amor pedibus,
Donec me docuit castas odisse puellas
1.1 Cynthia. That this name is feigned by the poet, as Delia was by Tibullus, and Lesbia by Catullus (Ovid, TZrist. 11. 428: ‘Femina, cui falswn Lesbia nomen erat,’) is evident. Her real name is said to have been Hostia (Schol. ad Juven. Sat. vi. 7. Apuleius, Apolog. p. 279, quoted by Hertz- berg). Of her birth and family nothing is known beyond the few hints to be collected here and there from the elegies, all which have been diligently examined by Hertz- berg, Questiones Propertiane, p. 31—46. It is probable that she was a Jlibertina (compare the details of her humble funeral, v. 7, 25, &c.), not indeed a woman of virtue, but highly accomplished, and even talented as a poetess (i. 2, 27). A parti- cular description of her personal charms is given ii. 2,5. She was, however, as may be supposed, faithless and profligate; and the poet’s jealous temper continually finds in this a subject of complaint. See, for instance, ii. 5 and 6, and iii. 7. On a correct estimate of her character, which none of the editors before Hertzberg seem to have formed, the true interpretation of many passages depends. How, on any other supposition, could the poet with pro- priety introduce (ii. 6) the parallel between Cynthia and the most notorious courtesans of antiquity, Lais, Thais, and Phryne? And this circumstance was probably the real obstacle to their lawful union. See note on ii. 7,1. Cynthia seems to have been by some years older than Propertius,
~
9
iii. 9, 20, unless we should rather under- stand anus futura haud longa die of the more transient nature of female beauty under a southern climate. The passage in ili. 24, 6, would be conclusive, were the reading anum certain.
ibid. cepit, ‘took captive,’ εἷλε. The me- taphor is continued in the next three lines. —contactum, ἁλόντα, caught by none of the ‘Veneris pueri,’ v. 1,138. The sense of this is determined by a circumstance in his early life recorded iy. 14,5. Cynthia was his ‘first love,’ ὦ. 6. the first who had ever really possessed his affections.
8.7 lumina, ete., then Love made me cast down the eyes of resolute pride with which I had, as it were, bid him defiance. This appears to be the genitive of quality, but the expression is a remarkable one. Fastus is a word peculiarly used (1) as the boast of being superior to love, inf. i. 13, 27. (2) of those who reject the advances of others, as Penelope, iv. 12, 10. Com- pare iv. 18, 11; iii. 5,13; iii.17, 21. So Ovid, Fast. i. 419, ‘Fastus inest pulcris, sequiturque superbia formam.’
4.] Caput. ‘Trampled on my neck as a conqueror on a prostrate enemy.’ This seems to have been a favourite subject in ancient paintings. (Kuinoel on ii. 30, 8). So Tac. Germ. § 37, ‘infra Ventidium de- jectus Oriens.’
5.] Odisse, to dislike chastity in women, to speak and think of it as mere prudery and affectation, and to disparage it as pre-
PROPERTII
Improbus, et nullo vivere consilio. Et mihi jam toto furor hic non deficit anno, Cum tamen adversos cogor habere deos. Milanion nullos fugiendo, Tulle, labores
Qeevitiam dure contudit Tasidos.
10
Nam modo Partheniis amens errabat in antris, Ibat et hirsutas ille videre feras ;
Ille etiam Hyli percussus volnere rami Saucius Arcadiis rupibus ingemuit.
Ergo velocem potuit domuisse puellam ;—
15
Tantum in amore preces et benefacta valent. In me tardus Amor non ullas cogitat artes,
senting an obstacle to possession.—Nw/lo consilio, i.e. temere, ‘recklessly ;’ without any fixed object or principle; without re- gard to reputation or interests.
7.] The sense seems to be, ‘And now a whole year has passed, and this madness ceases not, though all that time I have been unable to have the gods in my favour.’ Cum tamen, ei καὶ, even though I have had to endure the hard fate of not securing my mistress’ affections. Inf. 31, ‘quibus facili deus annuit aure.’
9.] Tulle, see on vi.1. The argument is this. Some suitors, by persevering at- tentions and devotedness, have softened the obdurate hearts of their mistresses ; but in my case Love is slow to suggest any such method of gaining my object (vy. 17).—Milanion was the lover of Ata- Janta, daughter of Iasius. The form Jas?s is, however, from Jasus, and this is the name given by Apollodorus, iii, cap. 9. Another form, used by /Blian, is Jasion. The history of Atalanta is given by the last-mentioned writer in a very beautiful narrative, Var. Hist. xiii. 1. He does not mention Milanion, but records her success- ful contest against two centaurs, Hyleus and Rhecus, who came to serenade her. Apollodorus, l.¢., is more concise : Ἰάσου καὶ Κλυμένης τῆς Μινύου ᾿Αταλάντη ἐγέ- νετο. Ταύτης ὁ πατὴρ, ἀρρένων παίδων ἐπιθυμῶν, ἐξέθηκεν αὐτήν. “Apkros δὲ φοιτῶσα πολλάκις θηλὴν ἐδίδου, μέχρις οὗ εὑρόντες κυνηγοὶ παρ᾽ ἑαυτοῖς ἀνέτρεφον. τελεία δὲ ᾿Αταλάντη γενομένη, παρθένον ἑαυτὴν ἐφύλαττε, καὶ θηρεύουσα ἐν ἐρημίᾳ καθωπλισμένη διετέλει. Βιάζεσθαι δὲ αὐ- τὴν ἐπιχειροῦντες Κένταυροι Ῥοῖκος καὶ 'Yralos κατατοξευθέντες ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς ἀπέθανον. According to this writer, Milanion ob-
tained her in marriage by the well-known expedient of dropping golden apples when matched with her in a foot-race. See Theocr. iii. 40. The offspring was the Parthenopeus of Aschylus, Zheb. 542. Other accounts represent him as attending on Atalanta in the chase, and as having been wounded by the centaur in her de-
fence. Ovid, Ars Amat, ii. 185: ‘Quid fuit asperius Nonacrina Atalanta? Sue- cubuit meritis trux tamen illa viri. Spe
suos casus, nec mitia facta puelle, Flesse sub arboribus Milaniona ferunt.’
11.] Partheniis in antris. ZBlian, V. H. xiii. 1. ὁ δὲ (πατὴρ) ἐκθεῖναι λαβὼν, οὐκ ἀπέκτεινεν, ἐλθὼν δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ Παρθένιον ὄρος, ἔθηκε πηγῆς πλησίον. Καὶ ἣν ἐν- ταῦθα ὕπαντρος πέτρα, καὶ ἐπέκειτο συ- νηρεφὴς δρυμών. This was ἃ mountain in Arcadia—ibat videre. The Grecism is ob- vious. Cf. i. 6, 338. On antrum see Vv. 4. 9
13.] The MSS. have psii or psilli, There can be no doubt of the truth of the correction made in the Ed. Rheg. 1481. Milanion, says the poet, was even wounded by a blow from the club of the Centaur Hyleus.
15.] domuisse, δαμάσαι, ‘he was able to subdue the fleet-footed maid,’ ἡ. 6. to over- take her in the race of love. In velocem there is an elegant allusion to her being matched with her lover in the foot-race, on which ancient custom see Pindar, Pyth. ix. 114—22, Domare would probably mean ‘he might have vanquished her’; but the poets are not always consistent in the use of the present and the perfect infinitive.
16.] benefacta, viz. the assistance given against the Centaurs.
LIBER 1.
Or
Nec meminit notas, ut prius, ire vias. At vos, deductz quibus est fallacia lune,
Et labor in magicis sacra piare focis,
20
En agedum, dominz mentem convertite nostre, Et facite illa meo palleat ore magis.
Tune ego crediderim vobis, et sidera et amnes Posse Cyteis ducere carminibus.
Et vos, qui sero lapsum revocatis, amici,
Querite non sani pectoris auxilia. Fortiter et ferrum, szevos patiemur et ignes; Sit modo libertas, quee velit ira, loqui. Ferte per extremas gentes et ferte per undas,
18.] Notas vias. ‘Sunt ex, quibus ille deus insinuare se pectoribus puellarum solitus erat.’ (Hertzberg).
19.] Atvos. He appeals to magic aid, i.e. that of philtres and charms.—fadlacia, ars fallendi. There seems no reason to alter this into fiducia, or in the next line sacra into astra, with Miller. As easy a guess would be pedlacia, a word used by Lucretius.
20.] Sacra piare. An unusual express- ion, not signifying ‘sacra facere expiandi causa,’ but ‘sacra pie solemnique ritu peragere. Nihil amplius.’—Kuinoel. ‘Sacra nostro loco significant res sacrificio ob- latas, sive victimas, sive latices et herbas Magicas, que certis carminibus certoque ritu Diis adolentur.’— Hertzberg. Piare is ἁγνίζειν, καθαγίζειν. Propertius frequently uses the word, as v. 1,50; 7, 34; 9, 25.
24.] There is great difticulty about the reading of this verse. The ed. Rheg. has cytheinis ; the best MSS. eytallinis or ey- thainis. Jacob reads Cytainis, Hertzberg and Miiller Cytaines, Kuinoel, Barth, and Lachmann Cyte@is, the conjecture of Guyet. Medea is supposed to be meant, so called from Κύτη or Κυταία, a town of Colchis; compare ii. 4, 7: ‘non hic herba valet, non hic nocturna Cyteis.’ The forms Κυταιίς and Καταιεὺς occur in Apoll. Rhod. ii. 399, 403, and Κυταῖος 7b. 1095; ef. iv. 511. But it does not appear by what analogy Kurdivos could be formed from Κύτη or Kurata, with the « long. Hertzberg compares Nerine (Virg. Eel. vii. 37) from Nereus; but this fails, for Nerine is simply contracted from Νηρηΐνη or Nnpelvn. More appropriate would have been the feminine heroina from heros. Cf. i. 19, 13. The termination in mus is
generally used in the case of persons born in Greek towns, but out of Greece (es- pecially of those in Magna Grecia). The only way of defending the long « would be to compare Homer's use of émwpivds for émwpivds, on which see note on Aisch. Cho. 1038. Κυταιαῖος might be formed from Kutala, as Aiatos from Aia. The conjec- ture of Hertzberg is very plausible, ‘ Cytz- neis, i.e. Thessalicis. Steph. Byz. 8. v. Κύτινα, inquit, πόλις Θεσσαλίας, ws Θέων ἐν ὑπομνήμασι Λυκόφρονος (1389: Λακμώ- νίοι τε καὶ Κυτιναῖοι Κόδροι), ὃ πολίτης Κυτιναῖος. The principal argument in his favour is that the Thessalian witches are especially mentioned by the Latin poets as being able to draw down the moon by their incantations. So perhaps ‘Sinuessanum- que Petrinum’ in Hor. Zp.i. 5, 5, may have been so called from πέτρινον, ‘rocky.’
25.] Et vos, i.e. vos etiam. AZ, the reading of one MS. (Groning.) seems ob- jectionable from v.19 beginning with at vos. 1 am surprised that Lachmann, Hertzberg, Miiller, and Kuinoel should have admitted, and Jacob approved, aut vos, the conjecture of Hemsterhuis. With Barth, I fellow the Naples MS.
27.) Ferrum et ignes. ἤτοι κέαντες ἢ τεμόντες εὐφρόνως πειρασόμεσθα πῆμ᾽ ἄπο- στρέψαι vécov.—Aisch. Ag. 822. ‘ Docte ab arte chirurgica metaphoram duxit.’— Hertz.
29.] The sense is, ‘Nay, even banish me by way of cure, far from the sight of women.’ There is much pathos in these beautiful lines. The only condition he imposes is freedom in expressing his sense of Cynthia’s cruelty (v. 28); that is, he will not desist from writing verses to her.
6 PROPERTII
Qua non ulla meum femina norit iter.
30
Vos remanete, quibus facili Deus annuit aure, Sitis et in tuto semper amore pares.
In me nostra Venus noctes exercet amaras, Et nullo vacuus tempore defit amor.
Hoc, moneo, vitate malum: sua quemque moretur
Cura, neque assueto mutet amore locum. Quod si quis monitis tardas adverterit aures, Heu, referet quanto verba dolore mea!
iL
Quid juvat ornato procedere, vita, capillo, Et tenues Coa veste movere sinus ?
Aut quid Orontea crines perfundere myrrha, Teque peregrinis vendere muneribus,
Naturzeque decus mereato perdere cultu,
σι
Nee sinere in propriis membra nitere bonis ?
31.] Vos remanete. This may mean, in opposition to the preceding, ‘It is for you to stay at home, whose vows are heard by the gods’ (sup. 8); but it may also be explained, ‘remain constant to each other; a sense peculiar to Propertius, and rather implied by the next verse. See below, el. 10, 29, and on ii. 9, 8.
33.] amaras. See v. 8, 29, ‘at mihi cum noctes induxit vesper amaras.’
35.] Hoe malum, 1. 6. hoc extremum remedium, sc. exilium.—J/utet amore locum, ὦ. ὁ. discedat a domina sua. This distich contains advice to others to be constant, and so to avoid a quarrel (discidium) as the greatest of evils. But here also the sense is ambiguous; the lines may mean, ‘stay at home, you who haye gained the affection you aspired to.’
38.] referet, ‘he will recal,’ or, ‘he will repeat to others.’
II. This beautiful elegy conveys advice to Cynthia not to be too fond of dress. We may suppose it written after meet- ing her in public more richly attired than he thought becoming her position. He cannot suppress a suspicion that she wishes to please others beside himself. Hence a tone of ill disguised jealousy throughout the poem.
2.1 Coa veste. The silk from Cos was
celebrated in the time of Aristotle, Hist. An.v.19. ἐκ δὲ τούτου τοῦ ζῴου καὶ τὰ βομβύκια (the cocoons), ἀναλύουσι τῶν γυ- ναικῶν τινὲς ἀναπηνιζόμεναι, κἄπειτα ὑφαί- νουσιν: πρώτη δὲ λέγεται ὑφῆναι ἐν Κῷ Παμφίλη Πλάτεω θυγατήρ. (Kuinoel).— tenues, so called from their thin and pellucid texture. Whence Martial, vili. 67, says, ‘femineum lucet ceu per bombycina cor- pus.’ Infra. 11. 3,15. ‘Nee si qua Arabio lucet bombyce puella.’ This distich is repeated in y. 8, 65. The ablative, Coa veste, is rather irregular; either induta may be supplied, or the ablative of material may be meant.—movere sinus alludes to the thin and fluttering folds of the dress, probably the tunica which the poet appears to have particularly admired in Cynthia: see li. 8, 15; iii. 21, 25; iv.9,15. In this passage he speaks of it with a jealous dis- like, as too fascinating to other eyes than his own.
8.7 Orontea, with Syrian (eastern) per- fumes.—vendere, ‘to set yourself off by the produce of foreign lands,’ perfumes and silk dresses, ete.
5.] perdere, to spoil nature’s grace by purchased ornaments. The past participles of many deponent verbs are used both transitively and intransitively; as medi- tatus, comitatus, expertus, sortitus, oblitus, partitus, &e.
LIBER I. 7
Crede mihi, non ulla tue est medicina figure: Nudus Amor forme non amat artificem: Aspice quos summittit humus formosa colores ;
Ut veniant hederz sponte sua melius,
10
Surgat et in solis formosius arbutus antris, Et sciat indociles currere lympha vias. Litora nativis collucent picta lapillis, Et volucres nulla dulcius arte canunt.
Non sic Leucippis succendit Castora Phebe,
7.1 medicina, ‘there is no appliance that can improve your natural shape; Cupid is naked, and likes not the maker of an artificial beauty.’
8.7 Kuinoel reads formam, which is a wanton corruption of the text. Compare li. 1, 58; ‘solus amor morbi non amat artificem.’ Artifex does, however, occa- sionally mean artificial, as inf. 111. 23, 8; and artificem vultum, Pers. v. 40.
9.7 Submittat is the reading of Kuinoel, from the Naples MS. Miiller gives guo submittat. The others have summittat, In the next line all MSS. agree in et, for which Kuinoel, Barth, and Lach- mann give wt. This is a question of considerable difficulty. The indicative in the first line may be taken either for sub- mittat, according to the lax poetical usage sanctioned by Virgil, Georg. 1, 56, ‘nonne vides croceos ut Tmolus odores, India mittit ebur» cf. inf. 17, 6, and especially 111. 7, 29, and 26, 85; or we may under- stand aspice flores, quos humus submittit. Or again, if with Jacob and Lachmann we consider sponte sua to belong to submittit as well as to veniant, and so retain ef, we must have recourse to the ‘laxior orationis junctura’ with which Jacob cuts the knot. I agree with Hertzberg in reading wt, and understanding gwos as the relative, not as the indirect interrogative, and also in his judgment that ‘et hac sede non modo durum est, sed ne Latinum quidem.’ Swd- mittere is properly used of the earth which sends up (ὑποφύει) plants. So Lucretius, i. 7, ‘tibi suaves dedala tellus submittit flores.’
11.] Formosior Kuinoel against all the MSS. Felicius Miiller after Lachmann, as formosa occurred just before. In these beautiful verses the emphasis is of course to be placed on the words implying the absence of art; viz., sponte swa,—solis,— indociles,—nativis,—nulla arte, and the
corresponding comparatives; antris is here used as i. 1, 11, ὦ. 6. ‘mountain dells.’
12.] indociles, in reference to the water conducted in pipes from the aqueducts. So nativis aquis, v. 4, 4.
13.] Collucent. This is the reading of MS. Gron. and ed. Rheg. 1481. Cf. Cic. de Nat. D. ii. § 99, ‘insulae littoraque col- lucent distincta tectis et urbibus.’ The Naples MS. has perswadent, from which the ingenious and plausible reading per se dent, the correction of Scaliger, has been admitted by Barth and Kuinoel, with the change of canunt into canant in the next line. This, however, not only involves the correction of Japillis into lapillos, but introduces a sort of tautology by adding per se to nativos, as Lachmann has well re- marked. The fact is, the construction here passes from the oblique to the direct, z.e. it no longer depends on aspice. Per- suadent is not hastily to be rejected, since it is found in the oldest of all the existing copies. The sense would be, ‘litora picta nativis lapillis persuadent tibi non nimis laborandum esse in cultu.’ But the more regular word would be swadent ; while collucent seems altogether appropriate and natural to the context. Palmer proposed
persqualent. Miller reads prelucent after Hertzberg. 15.] It was not thus, ὦ. 6. by dress,
that Phoebe and Hilaira, daughters of Leucippus, attracted Castor and Pollux. Apollodor. iii. 10, 8. Λευκίππου δὲ καὶ Φιλοδίκης τῆς Ἰνάχου θυγατέρες ἐγένοντο Ἱλάειρα καὶ Φοίβη. Ταύτας ἁρπάσαντες, ἔγημαν Διόσκουροι. The maids had pre- viously been betrothed to Lynceus and Idas. Ovid, Fast. v. 700. Apollodor. 1]. 2. Theocrit. Jd. xxii. According to Pau- sanias, lib. iii. cap. 16, there was a temple in Sparta to Hilaira and Phoebe, with certain priestesses attached who were called Λευκιππίδες.
8 PROPERTII
Pollucem cultu non Hilaira Non, Ide et cupido quondam
soror,
discordia Phoébo,
Eveni patriis filia litoribus ; Nec Phrygium falso traxit candore maritum
Avecta externis Hippodamia rotis:
20
Sed facies aderat nullis obnoxia gemmis, Qualis Apelleis est color in tabulis.
Non ills studium vulgo conquirere amantes; Ills ampla satis forma pudicitia.
Non ego nunc vereor, ne sim tibi vilior istis:
25
Uni si qua placet, culta puella sat est. Cum tibi preesertim Phoebus sua carmina donet, Aoniamque libens Calliopea lyram ; Unica nec desit jocundis gratia verbis, Omnia, queque Venus queeque Minerva probat; 80 His tu semper eris nostre gratissima vite, Tedia dum misere sint tibi luxurie.
18.] Eventi jilia, 1.6. Marpessa. See Hom. 17]. ix. 560, seq. Apollodor. i. 7, 8. Εὔηνος μὲν οὖν ἐγέννησε Μάρπησσαν, ἣν, ᾿Απόλλωνος μνηστευομένου, Ἴδας ὁ ᾿Αφα- péws ἥρπασε, λαβὼν παρὰ Ποσειδῶνος ἅρμα ὑπόπτερον. “Idas δὲ εἰς Μεσσήνην παρα- γίνεται, καὶ αὐτῷ ὁ ᾿Απόλλων περιτυχὼν ἀφαιρεῖται τὴν κόρην. It would seem, however, from an inscription on the carved chest of Cypselus, at Elis, preserved by Pausanias, lib. y. cap. xviii, that Iadas eventually regained his bride, ‘nothing loath :’ Ἴδας Μάρπησσαν καλλίσφυρον, ἥν οἱ ἀπόλλων ἅρπασε, τὰν ἐκ ναοῦ ἄγει πάλιν οὐκ ἀέκουσαν. LPatriis litoribus, because the river Evenus was named after her father, who drowned himself therein, being unable to overtake Idas in the pursuit. Litus is therefore improperly used for vipa.
20.) externis rotis, by the stranger, Pelops in the chariot-race, Pind. Οἱ. 1, 70.
21.] Obnoxia, ‘indebted to.’ So Virg. Georg. 1, 396. ‘Nec fratris radiis obnoxia surgere luna.’
22.] Apelles, the famous painter of Cos, is mentionedalso in iv. 8,11. ‘In Veneris tabula summam sibi ponit Apelles.’ This passage shows that his figures were ad- mired for their simplicity and subdued colouring.
26.) Ne sim tibi. ‘It is not that at present I have fear lest I should be held
by you in less esteem than your other ad- mirers are; (I only mean to remark) a girl is dressed well enough who pleases the eyes of one lover.’ Jstis is said with con- tempt of his real or supposed rivals. Cf. inf. 8, 3, ii. 9,1. Kuinoel and Barth have perverted the sense by reading ne sis mihi with Scaliger and some later copies of no authority. But it may be questioned if we should not read interrogatively, ‘Non ego nune verear, ne sim,’ &c., ‘Have I not now cause to fear, that I am held in less regard than those lovers of yours?’ He thus goes on to say, ‘If you love me, dress only to please my eyes.’
27.] Especially, he adds, is dress un- necessary in the case of one who has such mental endowments as Cynthia. See ii. 8, 19—22. It seems best to connect these lines with 31—382, rather than with the preceding, which is the ordinary punctua- tion, Either however gives a fair sense.
32]. dum, dum modo, ‘so long as (pro- vided that) you hold in dislike finery that brings no happiness.’ Luxuri@. He in- directly warns her against being ‘too gay,’ ὦ. ὁ. inconstant to him. With all his ro- mantic expression of regard, it is quite clear that neither Propertius was faithful to her (see next elegy, v. 36), nor she to Propertius (v. 8, 16, and ii, 5, 2).
LIBER 1. 9
ET:
Qualis Thesea jacuit cedente carina Languida desertis Gnosia litoribus, Qualis et accubuit primo Cepheia somno, Libera jam duris cotibus Andromede, Nec minus assiduis Edonis fessa choreis 5 Qualis in herboso concidit Apidano, Talis visa mihi mollem spirare quietem Cynthia, non certis nixa caput manibus, Ebria cum multo traherem vestigia Baccho,
Et quaterent sera nocte facem pueri. Hane ego, nondum etiam sensus deperditus omnes
10
?
Molliter impresso conor adire toro. Et quamvis duplici correptum ardore juberent Hac Amor hac Liber, durus uterque deus,
Subjecto leviter positam temptare lacerto,
Osculaque admota sumere +et arma manu, Non tamen ausus eram dominz turbare quietem,
III. Few will have any difficulty in assenting to Kuinoel’s introductory re- mark: ‘Est profecto hee elegia propter orationis dilectum et ornatum, picturarum colorumque prestantium, et dramaticam quasi representationem suavissimis annu- meranda.’ It is an exquisite composition, and a finished picture. At the same time, it conveys the plainest proof that Pro- pertius was a libertine, and that Cynthia knew it. He describes his feelings when, warmed with wine, he found his Cynthia asleep, and hesitated whether to wake or to watch her; not omitting to add her re- proaches when she was aware of his late return to her.
2.1 Languida, weary with watching and worn out with grief, as Andromeda was by terror and constraint.— Gnosia, the Cretan Ariadne.
4.1 Cotibus is the reading of all good copies, and is here the same as cautibus, which Lachmann, Barth, and Kuinoel have edited. Compare codex and caudex. Cautes is a lengthened form of cos (cots), as plebes is of plebs.
5.] Edonis, ᾿Ηδωνὶς, a Bacchanal.
10.] Quaterent facem. See on iv. 16, 16.
1] The MSS. agree in reading et arma,
except that one of the best (MS. Gron.) omits ef. Kuinoel has admitted the in- genious, but violent correction of Grono- vius, ad ora. This, as Lachmann remarks, would leave it ambiguous whether manu meant Cynthia's hand, kissed by Propertius, or that of the latter raised to the face of Cynthia. On the other hand, in νυ. 4, 34, ‘dum captiva mei conspicer arma Tati,’ we should probably read ora for arma. It must be confessed that et arma is difficult to explain. The best commentators agree in understanding it in a metaphorical sense; us a soldier swmit arma for battle, so the lover, who serves under the standard of Venus. Compare iv. 20, 20. ‘Dulcia quam nobis concitet arma Venus.’ Sumere must thus be taken in a slightly different sense, 7. 6. carpere oscula, swmere arma. Perhaps the original reading was some epithet as larga, or amara, a word which fre- quently bears the sense of πικρὰ, ¢.e. ‘kisses to my cost;’ and this might be supported by v.18. The obvious antithesis to the more natural epithet dulcia, would at once suggest this meaning. Miiller reads cara, quoting from Tibull. i. 4, 53, ‘rapias tum cara licebit oscula.’
10
PROPERTII
Experte metuens jurgia seevitiee : Sed sic intentis herebam fixus ocellis,
Argus ut ignotis cornibus Inachidos.
20
Et modo solvebam nostra de fronte corollas, Ponebamque tuis, Cynthia, temporibus ; Et modo gaudebam lapsos formare capillos ;
Nune furtiva cavis poma dabam manibus,
Omniaque ingrato largibar munera somno,
Munera de prono spe voluta sinu.
Et quotiens raro duxti suspiria motu, Obstupui vano credulus auspicio,
Ne qua tibi insolitos portarent visa timores,
Neve quis invitam cogeret esse suam.
30
Donec diversas percurrens luna fenestras, Luna moraturis sedula luminibus,
Compositos levibus radiis patefecit ocellos. Sic ait, in molli fixa toro cubitum:
Tandem te nostro referens injuria lecto
18.] Verbera is the reading of Kuinoel, from a late and worthless MS. All good copies agree in jurgia, which is perfectly unobjectionable.
21.] Corollas. Chaplets were worn at the banquet, and generally by the comes- santes (kwud(ovres) after a feast. In Plat. Symph. p. 213, A., Alcibiades in the same way takes the ribbands from his own chaplet and crowns the head of Socrates.
24.] dabam, ete., I stealthily placed apples in the hollow of her hand as she lay on the couch.
25.] Munera. Though omnia is poeti- cally added, the apples are meant, which (as Kuinoel remarks) were the favourite offerings of lovers. ‘The choice of epithets in this exquisite passage deserves attention.
27.] Duvit is the reading of the Naples MS. In any other poet than Propertius, who is fond of sudden transitions of this kind, the third person would be hardly compatible with tii iny. 29. The mean- ing of the passage is this :—from Cynthia’s sleeping sigh he derived a groundless omen that she was dreaming of violence offered to her by some importunate admirer, whom he supposes to be one of his rivals.
31.] Diversas, ‘lectulo Cynthiw ex ad- verso oppositas,’ Kuinoel. See inf. on 10, 15. Or it may mean, ‘first one window
and then another.’ Sedula, ‘officious;’ in a bad sense, or possibly, ‘lighting on,’ ἐφιζάνουσα, in its literal sense from the root sed, ἐδ. Compare the use of desidia, ‘a sitting down,’ 15, 6. Moratura lumina are Cynthia’s eyes, which would have slept on if the moonlight had not opened them. Compare ‘victura rosaria Pesti,’ v. 5, 61.
34.] Fixa cubitum, like deperditus sensus in y. 11, ‘having my senses destroyed.’ So nixa caput, v. 8, and fusa brachia, iii. 7, 24. This verse, like sup. 10, is faulty, not so much from ending with a word of three syllables, as from having no counter- balancing epithet in the former part. Cf. i. 4, ii. 22, vi. 16, 20, 22.
35.] The meaning appears to be,—‘So then, you have only come to me at last, because you have been expelled by another.’ Injuria, i.e. tibi ab alia puella illata. The editors find some difficulty in the word expulit, which may mean that he was ex- cluded, or refused entrance, and so had to spend the night, as was the custom with importunate lovers, at the door in the open street, or (as the epithet Janguidus rather implies) that he was turned out, and the door shut against him, after haying spent the greater part of the night in the house of another.
LIBER I.
11
Alterius clausis expulit e foribus ?
Namque ubi longa mez consumpsti tempora noctis, Languidus exactis, hei mihi, sideribus ?
O utinam tales perducas, improbe, noctes,
Me miseram quales semper habere jubes !
40
Nam modo purpureo fallebam stamine somnum, Rursus et Orpheze carmine fessa lyre ;
Interdum leviter mecum deserta querebar Externo longas szepe in amore moras:
Dum me jocundis lapsam sopor impulit alis.
Illa fuit lacrimis ultima cura meis.
TV.
Quid mihi tam multas laudando, Basse, puellas Mutatum domina cogis abire mea ?
Quid me non pateris, vitae quodcumque sequetur, Hoc magis assueto ducere servitio ?
Tu lcet Antiopz formam Nycteidos et tu
Or
Spartane referas laudibus Hermione, Et quascumque tulit formosi temporis tas: Cynthia non illas nomen habere sinet;
Nedum, si levibus fuerit collata
39.] Miiller reads producas from the edition of 1551.
41.] Purpureo stamine. Cf. v. 8, 34. ‘Et Tyria in radios vellera secta suos.’ So Arete, the mother of the amiable Nausicaa, sate at the hearth ἠλάκατα στρωφῶσ᾽ ἅλι- πόφυρα, Od. vi. 53.—fessa, t.e. when tired of spinning.
43.] Leviter, ‘submissa et quasi sup- pressa voce.’—Hertzberg. This is the reading of all the good copies. Kuinoel and Lachmann give graviter: the latter, I think, rather through inadvertency than from deliberate choice.
46.] The meaning of this gerse, as Hertzberg has explained it, is, that the last subject of care to her grief, before she fell asleep, was the infidelity of Propertius. Andrews, in his Dictionary, takes cura here for medicina, curatio. But the sense is simple and natural, ‘sweet sleep at last brought an end to my cares ;’—‘ beyond this, I had no care to cry about.’
°
figuris,
IV. To Bassus. He was a man of noble birth, and a writer of iambics, Ovid. Zrist. iv. 10, 47. ‘Ponticus heroo, Bassus quoque clarus iambo.’ It is pro- bable that Bassus had endeavoured to draw away his friend from his infatuated at- tachment to Cynthia, by disparaging her charms, and that not from disinterested motives, as may be inferred from vy. 20.
4.1 magis assueto. Compare i. 36, ‘neque assueto mutet amore locum.”— Ducere is the reading of the Naples MS., which Kuinoel and Hertzberg have adopt- ed. Others give vivere.
5.] Antiope, daughter of Nycteus, was the mother of Amphion and Zethus, by Jupiter. She was ill-treated by Lycus, king of Thebes, and Dirce, his wife, and avenged by her sons. Apollodor. iii. 5, 5. Infra. iv. 15, 11. Hermione was the daugh- ter of Menelaus and Helen. Hom. Od. iy. 14,
9.1 ‘Still less, if she should be com- pared with ordinary figures, would she
12
Inferior duro judice turpis eat.
PROPERTII
10
Hee sed forma mei pars est extrema furoris ; Sunt majora, quibus, Basse, perire juvat: Ingenuus color et multis decus artibus et qua
Gaudia sub tacita dicere veste Ποῦ.
Quo magis et nostros contendis solvere amores,
15
Hoc magis accepta fallit uterque fide. Non impune feres: sciet hae imsana puella, Et tibi non tacitis vocibus hostis erit. Nec tibi me post hee committet Cynthia, nec te
Queeret: erit tanti criminis illa memor ;
20
Et te circum omnes alias irata puellas Differet: heu nullo limine carus eris!
Nullas illa suis contemnet fletibus aras, Et quicumque sacer, qualis ubique, lapis.
Non ullo gravius tentatur Cynthia damno,
Quam sibi cum rapto cessat amore deus, Preecipue nostri: maneat sic semper, adoro ;
Nec quicquam ex illa, quod querar, inveniam.,
come off with discredit as inferior in the estimation of even a harsh judge.’ Figura nearly corresponds with our familiar use of the word, as sup. 2, 7, iii. 17, 48. Turpis, like αἰσχρὸς, in its primary sense means ‘ugly.’ Kuinoel is scarcely correct in explaining it ‘victa, pudore suffusa decedet.’—duro judice, even by a harsh and ungracious judgment.
13.] Keil and Miiller read calor for color.—artibus, supply quaesitum, unless this be a rather harsh use of the ablative of quality, ‘a grace of many winning ways.’
14.] Sud tacita veste dicere, ‘to speak of with reserve.’ Ducere is a probable emendation, preferred by most of the editors; though Jiset is rather in favour of the vulgate.
16.] ‘Hoc magis uterque nostrum te fallet, constantes manebimus data accepta- que fide,’—Kuinoel.
19.] ‘Non permittet ut tua in posterum consuetudine fruar.’—Jd.
22.] Differet, i.e, diffamabit. 16, 48; iii. 14, 17.
Cf. inf. So the Greeks use
διαφέρειν and diacraparoew.—circum, cir- cumeundo.
22.] ‘Nulla domo excipieris, janua cu- jusvis puell tibi claudetur.’—Auinoel.
23.] Every altar and shrine, every sacer lapis, either Terminus or cippus, will be a witness to her denunciations of you. Qualis ubique, sc. in triviis stat. Cf. Tibull. i. 1,12. So ‘verbenis compita velo,’ v. 3, 57. Keil and Miller read ‘qualis, ubique, lapis,’ ὁποῖός τε καὶ ὅπου by 7.
25.] ‘Nothing distresses Cynthia so much as the feeling that she is slighted; and especially painful to her is the loss of my regard and the cessation of my visits.’ Rapto, zt. δ. per rivalis artes subrepto.
27.] nostro, Keil and Miller.
28.] Ex illa. The English idiom is, in her. he Latin language in these cases expresses a part out of the whole. So Tacit. eric. 4, ‘retinuitque, quod est difficillimum ex sapientia, modum.’ Where Ritter connects ‘ex sapientia modum re- tinuit.’ inveniam seems to be the future rather than the optative.
LIBER I.
13
ve
Invide, tu tandem voces compesce molestas, Et sine nos cursu, quo sumus, ire pares. Quid tibi vis, insane? meos sentire furores ?
Infelix, properas ultima nosse mala,
Et miser ignotos vestigia ferre per ignes, 5 Et bibere e tota toxica Thessalia.
Non est illa vagis similis collata puellis; Molliter irasci non solet illa tibi.
Quod si forte tuis non est contraria votis,
At tibi curarum milia quanta dabit !
10
Non tibi jam somnos, non illa relinquet ocellos: Illa feros animis alligat una viros.
Ah mea contemptus quotiens ad limina curres, Cum tibi singultu fortia verba cadent,
Et tremulus mestis orietur fletibus horror, 15
Et timor informem ducet in ore notam,
VY. To Gallus. This man, who it ap- pears from y. 23, was of noble birth, was a rival, if not a friend or relation of our poet. Hertzberg has a long and learned dissertation (Lib. 1, cap. v. p. 21—2), to prove who ke was zot, which the reader may well be spared. Some have thought that he was the same as /#lius Gallus, whose wife is alluded to under the name of Arethusa, in the beautiful epistle to her husband, inf. vy. 3. An estimate of his moral character may be formed from i, 13, 5. It would seem that he had made some proposals for an introduction to Cynthia, which were by no means agreeable to Pro- pertius.
2.1 Pares, i.e. sub equo jugo. Cf.i. 1, 32.
3.] meos furores, the deep or mad at- tachment that I feel. Miiller reads meae, z.e. dominae, after Hemsterhuis; but this seems a tame and very unnecessary change.
δ. Ignotos per ignes. ‘To tread on hidden fire.’ Hor. Od. ii. 1, ‘incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso.’ A danger familiar to those who lived in the volcanic regions of Italy.
6.] ‘Thessalia ferax herbarum vene- natarum. Cf. Tibull. ii. 4, 55, seqq.’.— Kuinoel. (Quicquid habet Circe, quicquid Medea veneni, Quicquid et herbarum Thes- sala terra gerit).
7.] ‘Do not infer, that because she is a mistress, she is therefore a common woman.’ Such is clearly the meaning. See supr.on 1. 1. For non solet, Barth gives non sciet, andso Kuinoel and Miiller, from a MS. of no authority. Tibi (as Jacob has noticed), may be understood ἠθικῶς, 1. ὁ. acquisitively, you will find it is her way not to be gentle in her resent- ments. So iv. 9,10, ‘exactis Calamis se mihi jactat equis.’
10.] Quanta, more usually guot milia.
11.] Relinguet ocellos, ¢. e. tui juris esse non sinet. Cf. v.1, 143. Una for unice, as frequently. So v. 6, 28, ‘Nam tulit iratos mobilis una Notos.’ ‘She has a peculiar power in enslaving and taming the fierce-minded.’ The metaphor (as ap- pears from alligat), is derived from a wild animal. See ili. 26, 48.
13.] contemptus, when on some occasion you have been slighted and spurned, 7. e. even though at other times she is not contraria votis.
14.] Cadent, ‘shall fail of utterance.’ Singultus is the spasmodic stoppage of the voice, common in excitement.
16.] Hor. Od. iv. 2, 59, ‘Qua notam duxit, niveus videri, cetera fulvus.’ Fear will ‘leave a mark,’ as we say: but the Latins use ducere (ἐλαύνειν) of anything extended in a line, as fossam, murum, ὅζο,
14
PROPERTII
Et quecumque voles fugient tibi verba querenti, Nec poteris, qui sis aut ubi, nosse miser. | Tum grave servitium nostra cogere puelle
Discere, et exclusum quid sit abire domum ;
20
Nec jam pallorem totiens mirabere nostrum, Aut cur sim toto corpore nullus ego.
Nee tibi nobilitas poterit succurrere amanti: Nescit amor priscis cedere imaginibus.
Quod si parva tue dederis vestigia culpz,
25
Quam cito de tanto nomine rumor eris! Non ego tum potero solatia ferre roganti,
Cum mihi nulla mei sit medicina mali; Sed pariter miseri socio cogemur amore
Alter in alterius mutua flere sinu.
30
Quare, quid possit mea Cynthia, desine, Galle, Queerere; non impune illa rogata venit.
Vee
Non ego nunc Hadrizw vereor mare noscere tecum, Tulle, neque Aigeo ducere vela salo; Cum quo Rhipzos possim conscendere montes,
20.) γιγνώσκειν οἷόν ἐστι τὸ ἀποκεκ- λῃμένον ἀπιέναι. Lachmann reads domo.
21.] Nee jam....mirabere, ‘you will no longer, as so often before, express your surprise at,’ &c.
22.] Toto corpore nullus, See iii. 13, 21.
24.| Imaginibus. See on iii. 4, 19.
25.] ‘If the slightest clue is furnished to your evil practices, how soon will you be in everybody’s mouth, and descend from your illustrious name.’ ‘De viro tanti nominis fies fabula et jocus.’— Barth. Culpe may perhaps mean in particular his adyances to Cynthia. wmor appears to be opposed to nomen, but the precise mean- ing is a little obscure. The sense may be, ‘how soon from that illustrious name you will become a subject of common gossip,’ or, ‘how soon your high reputation for success with women will be damaged by a repulse from Cynthia.’ Inf. 13, δ, ‘de- ceptis augetur fama puellis.’
31.] Quid possit, i. e. ‘quas vires habeat exercendi amatores suos.’—Barth. Non impune rogata venit, t. e. venit et fert secum penam roganti, sollicitanti, tentanti, eam.
But see inf. 10, 25, where ventt is nearly a synonym of est. The elision of impune is remarkable, and indicates an early stage in the art of elegy-writing.
VI. To Tullus. Tullus was a friend and equal in age of Propertius; nephew of Lucius Volcatius Tullus, who was consul in the year 721 (consule Tullo, Hor. Od. iv. 8, 12), and proconsul of Asia. Hertzberg is inclined to think that the nephew was appointed legate in the province by his uncle. It is probable that this Tullus was one of the friends who endeavoured to divert Propertius from his attachment by recommending him to travel. See i. 1, 29. This is a beautiful elegy, and one that presents little difficulty to the student.
3.] Rhipeos montes, here put indefinitely for the extreme north, as domos Memnonias, JEthiopia, for the south. Hor. Od. i. 22, 6. ‘Sive per syrtes iter estuosas, sive facturus per inhospitalem Caucasum,’—a proverbial method of expressing the confidence of friendship, as Barth observes. Memnon is well known in mythology as the son of
LIBER 1.
Ulteriusque domos vadere Memnonias:
Sed me complexe remorantur verba puelle, 5
Mutatoque graves szepe colore preces. Illa mihi totis argutat noctibus ignes, Et queritur nullos esse relicta deos; Mla meam mihi jam se denegat; illa minatur,
Que solet ingrato tristis amica ὙΠῸ.
10
His ego non horam possum durare querellis; Ah pereat, si quis lentus amare potest! An mihi sit tanti doctas cognoscere Athenas,
Atque Asiz veteres cernere divitias,
Ut mihi deducta faciat convicia puppi
Cynthia, et insanis ora notet manibus, Osculaque opposito dicat sibi debita vento, Et nihil infido durius esse viro ?
Tu patrui meritas conare anteire secures,
Et vetera oblitis jura refer sociis.
20
Nam tua non etas umquam cessavit amori, Semper et armatz cura fuit patria ;
Aurora and Tithonus, ὁ, 6. ‘a son of the east.’—ulterius domos is not a usual con- struction: the accusative appears to depend on the sense of wltra, while ulterius quam ad domes was in the mind of the poet. Or the sense may be, ‘or even still further away to the far east.’ Miiller, after Haupt, reads domo Memnonia.—nullos esse deos, &c., ‘complains that if she be deserted after all my promises, there are no gods the ayen- gers of perfidy.’
7.1 Argutat. Another form of this rare verb is argutor. Properly, ‘speaks loudly of her love,’ ὦ. 6. vehemently pro- tests it, θρυλεῖ. From the analogy of argutus, it seems that the strictest sense is ‘to talk in a shrill voice,’ ἀπολιγαίνειν. See on el. 18, 30.
9.1 The sense is, ‘she tries various ways of moving me, by taunting me with indifference, and by the usual threats of an angry mistress.’—dicit mihi se non jam esse meam; she declares she is no longer mine, no longer reigns in my affections, if I relinquish her thus easily. Others under- stand denegat se ‘Veneris gaudia negat;’ but this would rather have been denegat se mihi, without meam.—ingrato is the read- ing of two inferior MSS. The better copies agree in trato, which seems destitute of any plausible sense.
16.] Ora notet, ¢.e, sua ora.
17.] Oscula, &c., ‘And should declare that she owes (and will pay) kisses to any wind which shall prevent me from sailing.’ Hertzberg correctly explains a passage about which difficulty has been causelessly made :—‘ Quid ait Cynthia? Oscula mea debentur a me vento, si se tibi opposuerit.’
19.] ‘Do you endeavour to surpass the well-earned honours of your uncle (L. Vol- catius Tullus), and in the capacity of legate, restore the laws to the allied cities in Asia which have forgotten them.’ Se- cures is put for the proconsulship. Hertz- berg understands antecre of the precedentia longt agminis officia, Juven. x. 44, 7. ὁ. of the ceremonious respect paid to the pro- consul by attendant friends and clients on public occasions. His note is a good one, as proving the custom; but the addition of conare seems fatal to this explanation, since there could be no effort in such service. The general sense is ‘Do you, whose pur- suits are so different from mine, go alone, and endeavour by your good conduct to rise to higher fame and dignity than even your uncle.’
22.] ‘Patriz armate, non Amori, ser- viebas; studium tuum omne in patria armis tuenda ac defendenda positum erat.’ Kuinoel.—cessavit, yacayit, indulgebat.
16
PROPERTII
Et tibi non umquam nostros puer iste labores Afferat, et lacrimis omnia nota meis.
Me sine, quem semper voluit Fortuna jacere,
Hane animam extreme reddere nequitie. Multi longinquo periere in amore libenter,
In quorum numero me quoque terra tegat. Non ego sum laudi, non natus idoneus armis ;
Hane me militiam fata subire volunt.
30
At tu seu mollis qua tendit Ionia, seu qua Lydia Pactoli tingit arata liquor,
Seu pedibus terras, seu pontum carpere remis Ibis, et accepti pars eris imperil ;
Tum tibi si qua mei veniet non immemor hora,
Vivere me duro sidere certus eris.
VIL.
Dum tibi Cadmex dicuntur, Pontice, Thebe, Armaque fraternz tristia militia, Atque, ita sim felix, primo contendis Homero,—
23—30.] The depth of pathos contained in these fine verses shows the writer to have been a true poet. puer iste, Cupid; but puer hic is rather the sense required, and iste is sometimes laxly used in this sense, 6. 9. inf. viii. 46. ‘Fortune,’ says he, alluding to his comparatively humble birth (see ii. 16, 22, ib. 26, 55, v. 1. 128) ‘has willed that he should ever lie pros- trate ;’ he begs, therefore, that his friends will not attempt to raise him. The meta- phor is from ἃ prostrate wrestler or gladiator.—mequiti implies a consciousness that the connection was illicit, and to be reprobated by his friends.
27.] longinquo is here for longo, diu- turno; the confusion between words of time and space is sufficiently common.
30.] ‘This is the only warfare fate has destined me to engage in,’ ὃ, 6. amoris.
31.] Tendit, se extendit.—tingit, here in its proper use, being allied to the Greek τέγγει. Others refer it to the colour of the golden sands.
34.] Ibis carpere, see sup. 1, 12. Hertz- berg’s explanation of the following words
is satisfactory :—‘pars eris imperii grati tibi, utpote viro bellicoso: unus imperan- tium eris.’. Any one holding a situation— eyen a subordinate one—in a governor’s retinue is pars tmperii. Miiller, in part following Lachmann, reads ‘ ut accepti sors erit imperii.’ Compare inf. 21, 4.—accepti might perhaps be explained accepti a te, i.e. tébi commissi. So ‘acceptas comas’ (a vitta) v. 11, 34.
VII. To Ponticus. This Ponticus was a writer of hexameter verses, and the author of a lost Thebaid. He is mentioned in Ovid, Zrist. iv. 10, 47, already quoted on El. IV. The poem appears to be a reply to the exhortation of his friend to resign elegiac for epic composition.
2.1 Fraterne militie, Eteocles and Polynices, sons of (dipus.—tristia, be- cause fatal to themselves. The epithet is{ ἢ used however (as elsewhere durus) in op- position to mollis versus (v.19). See inf. 9, 13, ‘I, queso, et tristes illos compone libellos, Et cane quod queyis nosse puella velit.’
LIBER I.
ig
Sint modo fata tuis mollia carminibus,—
Nos, ut consuemus, nostros agitamus amores, 5
Atque aliquid duram querimus in dominam ; Nee tantum ingenio, quantum servire dolori Cogor et ztatis tempora dura queri. Hic mihi conteritur vite modus; hac mea fama est;
Hine cupio nomen carminis ire mel.
10
Me laudent doctz solum placuisse puelle, Pontice, et injustas szpe tulisse minas; Me legat assidue post hee neglectus amator,
Et prosint illi cognita nostra mala.
‘Te quoque si certo puer hic concusserit arcu, 15
Quod nolim nostros evoluisse deos!
Longe castra tibi, longe miser agmina septem Flebis in eterno surda jacere situ;
Kt frustra cupies mollem componere versum,
Nec tibi subiciet carmina serus Amor.
Tum me non humilem mirabere spe poetam ;
4.1 One might suspect a slight irony in this, as if in return for the fastus (vy. 25) of Ponticus, and as a contrast to the predic- tion of his own immortality (vy. 22). ‘You rival Homer, if only your verses are des- tined to survive.’ But the success of a poet is here spoken of as dependent on fate as much as on his own merits.
5.] Consueo for consuesco is probably a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. Oris it an equally unique instance of contraction for conswevimus 2— in dominam, t.e. ad expugnandam dominz duritiem.
7.] ‘I cannot, like you, indulge the bent of my poetical genius freely, but am obliged to make my verses (elegies) sub- servient to the expression of my grief, and in them to bewail my hard lot.’
11.1 Docte puelle, (dat.) i.e. Cynthia, herself a poetess and a musician, supra, 2, 27.—solum placuisse, to have been preferred to my rivals through the elo- quence of my verses.—laudent, like aiva, for predicent.
16.] The MSS. agree in eviolasse, which Jacob retains and attempts to explain. I cannot doubt that Lachmann, Barth, Hertz. and Kuinoel have rightly edited evolwisse. The sense is thus clear :—‘ If Cupid should hereafter strike you, as he has me; which however I trust that the gods who rule
our destinies have not designed for you; then &c.’ Miiller reads, on his own con- jecture, ‘quo nolim nostros te violasse deos,’ explaining zostros deos to mean ‘Love and Venus.’ Keil also retains evio- lasse. But the infinitive of evolvo is ap- propriate, the metaphor being taken from the thread spun by the Fates. Nor is there much force in Miiller’s remark, that Propertius does not elsewhere employ diae- resis in the perfects of solvo and volvo.— nostros dcos Barth and Kuinoel take for Venus and her attendant Cupidines. Ra- ther, I think, the Fates who iz common govern the destinies of friends. VPersius, Sat. iv. 45—0.
17—20.] ‘You will then lament the late enslavement which forces you to lay aside your unfinished Thebaid, and to try, though without success, to write love ditties to your mistress.’—/ovge, 7. 6. longe abesse, in consequence of taking up a new subject.
18.] Situ, ‘neglect.’ Both sinus ‘a nook,’ and sztws in its various senses, are from sino (ἐᾶν as opposed to κινεῖν). The ‘site’ of a building is the place where it is suffered to lie. The result of lying by is mouldiness or decay, the more usual sense of the latter word.
18
PROPERTII
Tunc ego Romanis preferar ingeniis ; Nec poterunt juvenes nostro reticere sepulcro : Ardoris nostri magne poeta jaces.
Tu cave nostra tuo contemnas carmina fastu:
Seepe venit magno fenore tardus Amor.
VIEL
Tune igitur demens, nec te mea cura moratur ? An tibi sum gelida vilior Illyria ?
Et tibi jam tanti, quicumque est, iste videtur, Ut sine me vento quolibet ire velis?
Tune audire potes vesani murmura ponti ?
Or
Fortis et in dura nave jacere potes ? Tu pedibus teneris positas fulcire pruinas ? Tu potes insolitas, Cynthia, ferre nives 7 O utinam hiberne duplicentur tempora brume,
Et sit iners tardis navita Vergiliis,
22.) Preferar, i.e. tuo judicio. But, from the general sense which the words will bear, the poet passes to the prediction of his popularity with other youths in the same circumstances as Ponticus.
24.] Jaces. An expression of regret, like ὦ φίλε, κεῖσαι, Theocr. xxiii. 44.
25.] Cavé. Similarly used 1. 10, 21; ii. 4,41. In νυ. 4, 48, ‘tu cave spinosi rorida terga jugi,’ there is a variant ‘tu cape.’
VIII. This elegy, which is rather diffi- cult, but very elegant, and full of feeling, is addressed to Cynthia (with what success appears from y. 27, &c.), to deter her from going a voyage to a half-civilised province with a certain Preetor, whom Propertius appears equally to hate and to fear as a rival. See on iii. 7,1. ‘Preetor ab Illy- ricis venit modo, Cynthia, terris.’ did. y. 8, he calls him ‘stolidum pecus.’ The circumstance affords us so clear an insight into Cynthia’s real character, that it is surprising the editors should haye generally failed to understand it.
3.] Iste, ‘that lover of yours.’ sup. 2,25. Varronianus, p. 311, ed. 2.
4.] Vento quolibet, z.e. without even waiting for a reasonable prospect of fair winds.
δι᾽] ἀνθ potes? ‘Have you the courage to bear all the dangers and dis- comforts of such a voyage?’ Cf. Pers, Sat.
See
10
vy. 146, ‘Tun’ mare transilias? tibi torta cannabe fulto Cena sit in transtro>’—et, for etiam. The editions, except Barth’s, place no question at pont?.
7.] Fulcire, ‘to press;’ ἐρείδειν, This is a remarkable use of a word which usually means to ‘support,’ as a pillar props a roof. It may be explained on the statical principle that resistance is equal to thrust, ὦ. ὁ. if the roof presses on the pillar, the pillar presents the same counter-thrust both to the roof above and to the earth below. The explanation given by Barth is absurd :—‘ qui enim per pruinas nivesque incedunt, eorum pedes hauriuntur, atque ita recte pruinas superjectas fulcire di- cuntur.’ This double sense of a verb, arising from the association of ideas, is not without examples. Thus arceo to keep off or away, means to keep in (coerceo) as a flock of sheep from a wolf: vecludo im- plies, as it were, the contrary action to claudo, not so much from its real meaning, as from the idea inseparable from it. Hertzberg reads ruinas with the best MSS. ἃ. ὁ. ‘omne quod e caelo ruit.’
9.1 Hiberna bruma is the stormy time of year at the winter solstice.
10.] ‘That the sailor may remain in- active from the late rising of the Pleiads.’ This constellation rises in spring and sets in autumn, so that while it is invisible the season is unfayourable for sailing.
LIBER I.
19
Nec tibi Tyrrhena solvatur funis arena, Neve inimica meas elevet aura preces. Atque ego non videam tales subsidere ventos, Cum tibi provectas auferet unda rates,
Et me defixum vacua patiatur in ora
Crudelem infesta seepe vocare manu.
Sed quocumque modo de me, perjura, mereris, Sit Galatea tuz non aliena vie;
Ut te felici preevecta Ceraunia remo
Accipiat placidis Oricos zquoribus.
20
Nam me non ulle poterunt corrumpere tede, Quin ego, vita, tuo limine verba querar ;
11.] Tyrrhena arena, i.e. from the west side of Italy. The rhyming sound of these words induced Scaliger (followed, as usual, by Kuinoel), to introduce the correction ix
ora. They ought at least to have read αὖ ora. A similar instance is absenti—venti, i, 17. 5.
12.] Elevet, ‘carry aloft,’ ὁ. 6. irrita reddat. The use of this verb for ‘to dis- parage,’ Persius, Sat. 1, 6; inf. iti. 26, 58, is slightly different, being a metaphor from the lighter scale of the balance.
15.] Patiatur, i.e. unda. ‘undam poeta precatur, ne committere velit, ut in litore desertus ipse—amicam crudelem frustra vocet.’— Hertzberg ; who reads patietur on the conjecture of Passerat. Nothing can be more awkward than ‘non videam ventos subsidere, cum rates auferet unda et (cum) patietur,’ &c., nor is it easy to agree with him in explaining infesta manu by ‘des- pecta et ludibrio habita’ a Cynthia. It is quite natural, that a lover, when his mistress persists in leaving him in spite of all his entreaties, should make angry ges- tures to her with his hand, by way of finally denouncing her. The sense is :— ‘may the roar of the sea and the breakers allow my voice to be heard as 1 stand on the shore, to reproach you and call you cruel many times over (se@pe vocare), before the ship can get clear of the land.’ Kuinoel’s reading ut me patiaris is without authority. Miiller, following Scaliger, transposes the couplet atgue ego &ce. to follow vocare manu; but it is difficult to see what ad- vantage we get by this, which gives awra instead of wnda as the subject of patiatur.
19.] Prevecta is the vocative; accipiat te, Cynthia, prevecta Ceraunia. This is more frequently substituted for the nomin- ative than for the accusative, as Persius, γ. 124, ‘unde datum hoc sumis, tot subdite
rebus?’ Jd. 1,123, ‘audaci quicunque afflate Cratino Iratum Eupolidem pre- grandi cum sene palles.’ Jd. iii. 29, ‘Stem- mate quod Tusco ramum milesime ducis, Censoremye tuum vel quod trabeate salu- tas.’ Barth quotes Tibullus, i. 7, 53, ‘sic venias hodierne.’ Jacob, for once depart- ing from the best MSS., admits the correct- tion of Pucci, as possibly from the Valla MS., wer seva. Miiller, who objects to the vocative for the accusative, and still more to the perfect participle instead of the present, reads post lecta Ceraunia. It does not however follow, because Jegere oram, litus, &e., is in use, that Jlegere montem would be correct. Oricos was a city of Epirus a little above Corcyra and the ‘infames scopuli Acroceraunia.’ (Hor. Od. i. 8, 20).---τὰ ἄκρα τῶν ὀρῶν ἃ Ke- ραύνια ὀνομάζουσι. Pausan. «4{{.1, 13.
22.] The MSS. reading verba querar has been altered with much probability by Passerat, whom Miiller follows, into vera querar, which Lachmann labours to refute, and corrects fida for vita. The meaning is, ‘no new object shall engage my affec- tions in your absence, or preyent me from throwing myself on your threshold and giving utterance to my grief.’—verba quert is thus opposed to tacite guerit. We might, perhaps, read acerba querar, ‘bitterly complain,’ as we say. Hertzberg also admits vera; but his explanation of it is far-fetched:—‘non alienus amor me ita corrumpet, ut tibi injuriam faciam, et ante tuas fores (ut solet improba turba) inique querar,’ which, he adds, really means: ‘querar quidem in limine, sed non nisi justa.” A simpler rendering would be, ‘No other engagement shall prevent me from upbraiding you justly.’ For a new love would induce him to resign a former one with indifference.
20
PROPERTII _
Nec me deficiet nautas rogitare citatos: Dicite, quo portu clausa puella mea est?
Et dicam, licet Autaricis considat in oris,
25
Et licet Eleis, ila futura mea est.
Hic erit! Vicimus.
Hic jurata manet! Assiduas non tulit illa preces.
Rumpantur inmiqui!
Falsa licet cupidus deponat gaudia livor :
Destitit ire novas Cynthia nostra vias.
30
Tlli carus ego, et per me carissima Roma Dicitur, et sme me dulcia regna negat. Illa vel angusto mecurh requiescere lecto, Et quocumque modo maluit esse mea,
Quam 5101 dotate regnum vetus Hippodamie,
Et quas Elis opes ante pararat equis. Quamvis magna daret, quamvis majora daturus,
Non tamen illa meos fugit avara sinus. Hane ego non auro, non Indis flectere conchis,
Sed potui blandi carminis obsequio.
40
Sunt igitur Musz, neque amanti tardus Apollo; Quis ego fretus amo: Cynthia rara mea est. Nune mihi summa licet contingere sidera plantis:
Sive dies seu nox venerit, illa mea est;
23.] The impersonal use of deficiet is worthy of attention.—c?tatos, 7. 6. quamvis festinantes.—Hertz. Others understand it to mean vocatos et compellatos. I rather incline to the latter, on the ground of testem citare being a conventional phrase.
25.] ‘Whether she is staying, from stress of weather, among the Autarii in Illyria, or on the coast of Elis, she will yet be mine.’ The common reading is Atraciis; but as Atrax was a mountain in Thessaly, and the Autarii are mentioned by Strabo vii. v., Ἰλλυριῶν δὲ Αὐταριᾶται καὶ ᾿Αρδιαῖοι καὶ Δαρδάνιοι, Hertzberg is probably right in admitting the shrewd conjecture of Pucci in the edition of 1481. Miiller reads Awutartis and Hylleis (MSS. hyleis, or hileis), With this verse Lach- mann and others conclude the present elegy, though in all the MSS. it is con- tinued as in the text. Jacob fancifully suggests that jwrata in the next line ap- pears to imply that the poet had just
extorted from her own lips a promise to remain, as if the request had been preferred by him personally. The truth perhaps is, that the whole of the elegy was written after he had successfully dissuaded her, but in the former portion he sets forth the arguments used by him, in the form of a present appeal.
29.] ‘My envious rivals may lay aside their mistaken joy at the expected sepa- ration.’
35.] quam sibt, sc. dari; though it is good Latin to say nolo or malo mihi regnum, Ke.
37.] Magna daret. It is clear from iii. 7, 43, that the Praetor, whoever he was, endeavoured to bribe Cynthia by his great wealth.
43.] Contingere sidera. A common way of expressing exultation. So Hor. Od. 1. 1, ult. ‘Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.’ Theocr, y. 144, és οὐρανὸν ὄμμιν ἁλεῦμαι.
LIBER I.
Nee mihi rivalis certos subducet amores.
Ista meam norit gloria canitiem.
EX.
Dicebam tibi venturos, irrisor, amores, Nec tibi perpetuo libera verba fore:
Ecce jaces, supplexque venis ad jura puellz, Et tibi nune quovis imperat empta modo.
Non me Chaoniz vincant in amore columbe 5
Dicere, quos juvenes queque puella domet. Me dolor et lacrimze merito fecere peritum: Atque utinam posito dicar amore rudis! Quid tibi nunc misero prodest grave dicere carmen,
Aut Amphioniz meenia flere lyre ?
10
Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero; Carmina mansuetus lenia querit Amor. I, queso, et tristis istos compone libellos,
46.] Ista, i.e. hec mea gloria. See
sup. 6, 23.
IX. To Ponticus. This elegy announces the fulfilment of the prediction made in El. vii., that Ponticus with all his boasting would some day be overtaken by love. It appears that he was enamoured of a female slaye of his own familia. This kind of attachment was considered peculiarly dis- creditable in an ingenuus. Hor. Od. 1. 27, 16.
2.] Libera verba. ‘That you would not always speak as freely and haughtily as you were wont.’ The word libera in- troduces the metaphor which follows, and in which jura refers to the legal right of the master over the person of the slave. Cf.iy.11, 2. ‘Et trahit addictum sub sua jura virum.’
4.] Hertzberg alone defends the MSS. reading gue vis (quevis), understanding the sense to be ‘ quevis nuper empta nunc im- perat tibi.’ ‘You are now so susceptible that the last female slave purchased into your family (νεώνητος) has an influence over you which makes her the mistress, you the slave.” Jacob and Lachmann, with Keil and Miiller, adopt from Pucci quovis modo, ‘to any extent,’ ‘ad arbitrium suum.’
5.] ‘The very doves of Dodona are not better prophets than I in foretelling what
youths each maiden is likely to enslave.’ — domet must be for domitura sit, for other- wise there would be nothing to prophesy, but only something to observe.
7—8.] A beautiful couplet. ‘I have learnt what love is in the school of ad- versity. O that I could unlearn it, and be again as a little child!’
9—10.] In allusion to the poem of the Thebaid which Ponticus was composing. See above, on El. vii.—Amphionie lyre. Hor. Od. iii. 11, 2, ‘movit Amphion lapides canendo,’ De Art. Poet. 394. Infra, iv. i. 43, &c.—/flere, flebiliter canere. K.
11.] ‘Elegiac verses have more influence in love than heroic.’ Mimnermus of Colo- phon lived about 600 B.c., and is said to have been the inventor of elegiac verse.
13.] Hertzberg has interpreted this verse, ‘Go now and write those very poems (?. 6. elegies) which you used to call contemptuously ¢ristes.’ Others take com- pone for ‘lay aside,’ 1.6. in your scrinium, and tristes libellos for the dull Thebaid. But he well observes (1) that componere is the proper and conventional word for scr7- bere, συντιθέναι; (2) that ἐ nunc is often used in conveying a taunt; (3) that tstos is the word of contempt formerly used by Ponticus to Propertius, and now retorted by the latter. There is weight in his arguments: nevertheless, I think the an- tithesis both here and elsewhere (see on iii.
22
PROPERTII
Et cane, quod quavis nosse puella velit.
Quid si non esset facilis tibi copia? nunc tu
15
Insanus medio flumine queeris aquam. Necdum etiam palles, vero nec tangeris igni; Heee est venturi prima favilla mali. Tum magis Armenias cupies accedere tigres,
Et magis infernz vincula nosse rote,
20
Quam pueri totiens arcum sentire medullis, Et nihil irate posse negare tue.
Nullus Amor cuiquam facilis ita preebuit alas, Ut non alterna presserit ille manu.
Nec te decipiat, quod sit satis illa parata:
Acrius illa subit, Pontice, si qua tua est; Quippe ubi non liceat vacuos seducere ocellos, Nee vigilare alio nomine cedat Amor; Qui non ante patet, donec manus attigit ossa.
Quisquis es, assiduas ah fuge blanditias.
30
Illis et silices possunt et cedere quercus;
26, 44) between fristis or durus (epic) and mollis or lenis (amatory elegiac verse), so marked, and the verses immediately pre- ceding and following so strongly in favour of the old interpretation, ‘sepone, depone,’ that I have not ventured to depart from it. Hertzberg admits that omnes composui, ‘I have buried them all,’ Hor. Sat. i. 9, 28, justifies such a sense.
15.] This seems a reply to a fancied objection made by Ponticus: ‘ You can’t 2
hat would you do if a subject to write about were wanting, when eyen now you are puzzled what to say when over head and ears in loye?’—copia here, as Hertzberg has shewn, is seribendi materies. The passage is explained by 7, 19, 20, ‘et frustra cupies mollem componere yersum, nec tibi subiciet carmina serus amor.’ Ponticus had been warned, that he had better practise elegy-writing against the time when he might require the aid of its persuasive eloquence.
17—18.] ‘And even what you now feel is but a foretaste of the pangs of real love.’
22.] Jrate tue, tue domine si quando tibi irascatur, iratam se ostendat.
23—4.] The meaning of these beautiful lines is well given by Kuinoel: ‘nunquam Amor cuiquam amanti ita facilis est, ut non sepius eum tormentis et cruciatibus afficiat.’” The metaphor is taken from ‘a
wanton’ who holds a bird in a silken thread, and lets it fly a little way only to pull it down again. I cannot believe that the poet had in mind the celebrated passage in the Phedrus, p. 251, 8.—alterna manu does not mean with the other hand, but ex- presses the alternate action of the same hand which holds the string.
25.] ‘Do not be deceived by the idea that possession will allay the anguish you are beginning to feel.’
27.) Quippe ubi, ‘since in that case,’ like guippe qui.—vigilare alio nomine, ‘love does not allow you to be awake on any other account,’ ¢.e. ‘occupies all your waking as well as your sleeping hours with the thoughts of your mistress.’ Hertz- berg and others place an interrogation at the end of v.28. ‘Can love be expected to leave you, when your eyes hourly en- counter the object of your regard?’ thus making vgilare depend on Jiceat.
29.] Manus attigit ossa. Theoer. iii. 17, ἔρως καὶ és ὀστίον ἄχρις ἰάπτει. Inf. v. 5, 64, ‘per tenuem ossa mihi sunt numerata cutem.’—patet, viz. ipsi amanti.
30.] The MSS. have aufuge, which does not admit of an accusative case :—ah fuge Kuinoel, Lachmann, and Hertzberg, with the approval of Jacob.
31.] 718. Not to the dlanditiz, but to the assiduitas ; cf. y. δ, 20.
LIBER I.
23
Nedum tu possis, spiritus iste levis. Quare, si pudor est, quam primum errata fatere: Dicere quo pereas seepe in amore levat.
x
O jocunda quies, primo cum testis amori Adfueram vestris conscius in lacrimis! O noctem meminisse mihi jocunda voluptas! O quotiens votis illa vocanda meis! Cum te complexa morientem, Galle, puella 5 Vidimus, et longa ducere verba mora. Quamvis labentes premeret mihi somnus ocellos, Et mediis ccelo Luna ruberet equis, Non tamen a vestro potui secedere lusu ;
Tantus in alternis vocibus ardor erat.
10
Sed quoniam non es veritus concredere nobis, Accipe commissee munera leetitie :
Non solum vestros didici reticere dolores ; Est quiddam in nobis majus, amice, fide.
Possum ego diversos iterum conjungere amantes,
32.] Spiritus... levis, i. e. cum isto levi spiritu. So an ill-natured man is called κακαὶ φρένες, Theocr. xiv. 31.
33.] δὲ pudor est. ‘If you are ashamed of loving a slave, and feel inclined to con- ceal the fact, be advised by me, and boldly avow it.’—rrata, a word properly used in this sense, like the Greek ἁμαρτίαι, μάται, Asch. Cho. 904. Similarly error inf. 13, 35.
34.] Quo in amore. ‘Conjungenda sunt hee verba.—Hertzberg. See on i. 13, 7, ‘perditus inquadam.’ Miiller reads qua pereas, i.e. qua puella; and this seems very probable. ‘To say, with whom you are enamoured, often brings relief in love.’
X. To Gallus. See above, on El. 5. It will be observed that Propertius speaks of him here as a friend, while before he assailed him with the bitterness of a rival. The ardent expressions in this elegy refer to an interview which Gallus had with his mistress, probably at a banquet, in presence of Propertius as a friend.
2.1 Conscius, ‘a witness.’—lacrimis, see
joys.’
15
13, 15, ‘vidi ego te—injectis flere diu manibus.’
5.] One MS. (Groning.) has longam moram, Perhaps the poet wrote ‘vidimus in longam—moram.’
11.] ‘Since you have not hesitated to make me a confidant, receive from me a return for having entrusted me with your This return is, the advice that Pro- pertius thinks himself competent to give, should a quarrel occur between lovers.
13.] Fide, ‘the power to keep a secret.’
15.] Diversos, ‘separated.’ Properly said of two persons who start from the same point in opposite directions ; while varius or varus implies a path gradually diverging, like the letter Y. See Persius, Sat.iv.12. Hor. Sat. i. 3, 47, ‘hune va- rum, distortis cruribus.’ “ cornua vara’ Ovid, Amor. i. 8,24. Hence divaricare, ‘to stretch asunder,’ as the legs of a com- pass; and puevaricari, said of a guide who deviates from the straight path, and so leads his follower wrong. ‘ Diverse fenes- tre’ i. 8, 31, are ‘opposite,’ ‘ex adverso patentes,’ Tacit. Ann, 111. 2, ‘etiam quo-
PROPERTII
Et domine tardas possum aperire fores : Et possum alterius curas sanare recentis,
Nec levis in verbis est medicina meis. Cynthia me docuit semper quaecumque petenda
Quzeque cavenda forent ;
20
non nihil egit Amor.
Tu cave ne tristi cupias pugnare puelle, Neve superba loqui, neve tacere diu; Neu, si quid petiit, ingrata fronte negaris ;
Neu tibi pro vano verba benigna cadant.
Irritata venit, quando contemnitur illa,
Nec meminit justas ponere lesa minas: At quo sis humilis magis et subjectus amori, Hoe magis effecto seepe fruare bono.
Is poterit felix una remanere puella,
Qui numquam vacuo pectore liber erit.
30
XI.
Ecquid te mediis cessantem, Cynthia, Baiis, Qua jacet Herculeis semita litoribus, Et modo Thesproti mirantem subdita regno
Proxima Misenis equora
rum diversa oppida, tamen obvyii—dolorem testabantur,’ ὦ. 6. towns away from which, rather than towards which, the funeral procession of Germanicus was directing its course.
19.] que euique petenda Miiller, who ob- serves that the poet is here giving his own experience for the benefit of others.
21.] tristi, iratee, when she happens to be cross or out of temper.
23.] Verba benigna, t.e. puelle tue. ‘Do not slight or treat with disregard her kind expressions towards you.’ —pro vano, as if they had no sincerity in them. The whole passage probably refers to a tristis puella; and he here advises Gallus to meet with frankness any symptoms of re- turning tenderness, which his repentant mistress may exhibit.
25.] Quando, si quando, quotiens.— venit, see sup.
29.] ‘That man will retain the object of his regard who shall prove himself at all times her devoted slave.’ Remanere, noticed in El. 1, 81, is frequently constans esse in Propertius.
nobilibus,
XI. Addressed to Cynthia while absent at Baie, and warning her, with all the earnestness of a jealous affection, to beware of the snares and gaities of that much fre- quented watering place.
1.] Mediis Batis, midway between Mi- senum and Puteoli.—semita, ἕο. ‘Semita illa Herculis montis jugum erat velut alta mole in mare jactum.’—Hertz. See iv. 18, 4. Strabo, lib. v. cap.iv., 6 δὲ Aox- pivos κόλπος πλατύνεται μέχρι Βαΐων, χώ- ματι εἰργόμενος ἀπὸ τῆς ἔξω θαλάττης ὀκτασταδίῳ To μῆκος, πλάτος δὲ ἁμαξιτοῦ πλατείας, ὕὅ φασιν Ἡρακλέα διαχῶσαι, τὰς βοῦς ἐλαύνοντα τὰς Γηρυόνου.
4.1 For proxima Barth and Kuinoel read οὐ modo, which was first introduced into the text by Scaliger from a late MS. Lachmann well observes that suddita is only applicable to vegno. Modo would seem to imply that Cynthia occasionally made excursions from Baiw to enjoy fine sea-views from other points. Zhesproti regno is believed to be Puteoli; but the ancient historians afford no direct testimony in confirmation of the opinion, Miiller
LIBER I.
Nostri cura subit memores ah ducere noctes ? 5
Ecquis in extremo restat amore locus?
An te nescio quis simulatis ignibus hostis Sustulit e nostris, Cynthia, carminibus ? Atque utinam mage te remis confisa minutis
Parvula Lucrina cymba moretur aqua;
10
Aut teneat clausam tenui Teuthrantis in unda Altern facilis cedere lympha manu, Quam vacet alterius blandos audire susurros
reads te Protei, but te is certainly not wanted with the second participle, ecqguid te cessantem et te mirantem, &c. “Among the fifty sons of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, a Thesprotus is mentioned by Apollodorus, iii. 8, 1, but nothing further is recorded of him. The reader will probably be con- tented with the remark of Hertzberg: ‘Ttaque non tam testimonio egere, quam testem ipsum Propertium esse credam, illam Italiz oram yel nescio cui Thesproto olim paruisse, vel a Thesprotis incolas ac- cepisse, fontes vero, unde doctrinam eam hauserit, perditos esse.’ The Roman poets, who delighted to exhibit their curious learning in Greek lore, had access to a number of writers whose works have long since perished, so that we can hardly ex- pect to adduce direct proofs for every statement advanced by them. This re- mark is applicable, as we shall have oc- casion to notice, to many passages in Pro- pertius.—A full account of Baiz is given by Becker, Gallus, p. 85—97.
5.] The construction is, ‘ecquid cura subit te, cessantem Baiis, ducere noctes memores nostri?’ ¢.¢. numquid curas du- cere >—ah ducere is the correction of Scali- ger for adducere or aducere of the MSS.
6.] All the MSS. have extremo, which Passerat, followed by Kuinoel, has changed to externo, i.e. alieno. This alteration, however, gives a sense far from satisfactory ; for not only does it too bluntly bring a charge of faithlessness against Cynthia, but it makes the poet ask the superfluous question, ‘have you any room for me in your new regard for another?’ Hertzberg suggests a meaning in which, in default of a better, I am inclined to acquiesce: ‘have you any room left for me i @ corner of your love?’ ‘In extremo certe angulo num sibi locus restet, modestius querit.’ Barth compares ‘extrema linea amare.’— Ter. Hum. iv. 2, 12.
7.] Nescio quis. Said with marked contempt, as Kuinoel observes.—sustulit,
has remoyed you from your place in my affections, and therefore from your place in my poems. Cf. vy. 7, 50, where Cynthia says ‘longa mea in libris regna fuere tuis.’
9.] Some commentators regard conjisa as the vocative for the accusative, as supr. 8,19. To me it appears clearly to agree with cymba, since a gondola ‘ relies’ on its oars for safe guidance.—moretur, detineat, should amuse or engage your leisure-hours.
10—14.] ‘I had rather you were cruis- ing in the Lucrine bay, or indulging in the retired baths of Cume, than listening to whispered vows while softly seated on the shore of Baie.’ It is altogether uncertain what is meant by Teuthrantis in unda: the reading itself is but a conjecture of Scali- ger’s for tentantis or teutantis of the MSS. Teuthras was a king of Mysia, where there was a city called Cumez, which, together with that near Baiw, was a colony of Chalcidians; hence both cities may have been called after this king. Hertzberg thinks Naples may be meant, which was originally a colony of Cumzans, (Strabo, v.iv. μετὰ δὲ Δικαιαρχίαν ἐστὶ Νεάπολις Κυμαίων: ὕστερον δὲ καὶ Χαλκιδεῖς ἐπῴ- κησαν, καὶ Πιθηκουσαίων τινὲς, καὶ ᾿Αθη- ναίων, ὥστε καὶ Νεάπολις ἐκλήθη διὰ τοῦτο), and contained, according to the same au- thority, baths not inferior to Baiw: whence clausam would mean ‘within a covered swimming-bath.’ This is by no means improbable; but I cannot concur in his opinion that Teuthrantis is an adjective, Τευθραντὶς, agreeing with lympha. Kui- noel, without quoting any ancient authority, makes Teuthras the name of a small river some distance from Baie.
12.] Manu is for manut, the old, or rather the contracted, form of the dative, used occasionally even by Tacitus, as Ann. iii. 30, 33, 84; vi. 23, and others.
13.] Susurros, ὀαρισμοὺς, ψιθυρισμούς. Words in both languages peculiarly used of lovers’ conyerse.
PROPERTII
Molliter in tacito litore compositam ;
Ut solet amoto labi custode puella
Perfida, communes nec meminisse deos; Non quia perspecta non es mihi cognita fama,
Sed quod in hac omnis parte timetur amor. Ignosces igitur, si quid tibi triste libelli
Attulerint nostri: culpa timoris erit.
20
An mihi nune major care custodia matris, Aut sine te vite cura sit ulla mex?
Tu mihi sola domus, tu, Cynthia, sola parentes, Omnia tu nostre tempora letitiz.
Seu tristis veniam, seu contra letus amicis, 25
Quicquid ero, dicam: Cynthia causa fuit. Tu modo quamprimum corruptas desere Baias; Multis ista dabunt litora discidium ; Litora, qua fuerant castis inimica puellis.
Ah pereant Baiz crimen amoris aque!
16.] Communes deos. The gods mutu- ally invoked as witnesses to vows made between two parties.
17.] The sense is; ‘Not that my fears arise from any inconstancy in you; but in this place, viz. Baie, even the slightest at- tentions paid are to be dreaded.’ Amor is here on the part of men, whom the poet hinted at in συ. 13. Compare a similar irony supr. El. 2, 25. There seems no need to read veretur for timetur, with Lach- mann and Miiller.
21.] The best MSS. have an mihi non, which Pucci in the ed. 1481, altered to au mihi sit, whence the corrected copies have an mihi sit—the reading of Kuinoel. Jacob gives from his own conjecture haud mihi sit, and in the next verse haud sine te, from one MS. (Groning.) Lachmann has ah mihi non major, and so Miiller; but ah non major sit, &c. reads strangely to the ear. Keil gives nam mihi non major, ἕο. The best correction, I think, is that of Hertz- berg, who reads nune for non, in the sense of the Greek enclitic νυν. The direct in- terrogative use of an, it must be observed, is very rare. mar, ΐ 1421) denies that it ever is so used. It occurs however sup. 6, 13, and iii, 17, 23.
Professor Key (Latin Gram-
30
23.] Parentes. We know from y. 1, 127, that Propertius lost his father while quite a boy.
28.] All the MSS. have dabunt, which seems to bear the simplest sense, ‘ will give to many others beside myself.” Laeh- mann and Hertzberg read dabant with Burmann from a late MS., and even Jacob approves. The ground of the alteration is, that the past tense, fuerant, immediately follows. But why not understand, ‘ Bais will yet cause many quarrels, as it has heretofore.’ —discidium, the reading of the Naples MS., seems more appropriate to dabunt than dissidium, which the other editors prefer, Kuinoel excepted.
29.] On the pluperfect fuerant Hertz- berg has a good note, in which he contends that the substantive verb may be so used, either alone or with a passive participle, for erant, but that the same licence does not extend to other verbs. —See inf. 12, 11.
30.] Bate aque for Baiane is a bold expressiog. See note on y. 1, 36.—crimen amorts, ‘of which love has so often had to complain.’ Baie might be called crimen for criminose ; but the genitive is added to show in what particular respect it deserves the bad character attributed to it. See an amusing epigram in Martial, i. Lsiii.
ΨΥ
LIBER 1.
21
ΧΙ].
Quid mihi desidi#z non cessas fingere crimen, Quod faciat nobis conscia Roma moram ?
Tam multa illo meo divisa est milia lecto, Quantum Hypanis Veneto dissidet Eridano,
Nec mihi consuetos amplexu nutrit amores 5 Cynthia, nec nostra dulcis in aure sonat.
Olim gratus eram: non illo tempore cuiquam Contigit, ut simili posset amare fide.
Invidiz fuimus.
Num me Deus obruit, an que Lecta Prometheis dividit herba jugis? Non sum ego, qui fueram;
10 mutat via longa puellas.
Quantus in exiguo tempore fugit amor! Nunc primum longas solus cognoscere noctes Cogor et ipse meis auribus esse gravis.
XII. To an anonymous friend, who had invited our poet into the country, and being unable to induce him to comply, had taunted him with his being a slave to Cynthia. The poet replies that she is far enough away, and laments that he has so far fallen from her affections.
2.1 Conscia Roma, ‘que amores meos, Cynthiam inclusam quasi habeat. Conscia enim sepe poetis ea dicuntur, que aliquid in se continent, vel inclusum habent.’— Kuinoel. 1am satisfied with this explana- tion. Not so Hertzberg, who by an error in judgment unusual with him, labours to prove, at some length, that the true reading is conscio amore moram, and he has actually introduced this alteration into the text. Miiller so far follows him as to read Cynthia amore moram, the inferior MSS. giving Cynthia for conscia. The idea in the poet’s mind was this: ‘You accuse me of re-
ining in Rome from some secret motive which does not exist, and you call me ‘a stay-at-home’ (deses) for not leaving a mistress who all the time is faggaway.’
3.] Ita, Cynthia. Here again Hertz- berg is at fault. lla, says he, can only tefer to Rome. The poet’s mind was s0 fall of Cynihia, that he most naturally speaks of her as illa.—Hypanis, a river of Scythia; (the Bog.)—-Eridanus, a well- known name of the Po. The hyperbole in the distance is sufficiently manifest.
6.] ‘Nor does the name Cynthia any
longer sound sweet in my ears.’ Others understand it: ‘nor does she whisper sweetly in my ears,’ {. 6. prattle to me as before. Though this would more common- ly be dulce sonat, there seems no reason why the feminine might not stand for the adverbial neuter. The poet however pro- bably means, that he hears the name of his absent mistress with a pang, because it reminds him of lost affection. ‘Non am- plius mihi dulce est nomen Cynthiz.’— Barth. Similarly 11. 1, 2, ‘Unde meus veniat mollis in ore liber.’ Hertzberg thinks it alludes to an imaginary sound of the name, for which he ingeniously quotes Lucretius, iv. 1058, ‘si abest, quod amet, presto simulacra tamen sint Iilius, et nomen dulce obvorsatur ad aureis.’
9.1 Invidiz fuimus. ἐβάσκηνεν ἡμῖν 6 θεός. This is generally read interrogatively, —the objection to which is that num would be out of place in the second question, ‘an (obruit me) herba, quz lecta &c., dividit (amantes)?’ Plants gathered on Caucasus, on which Prometheus was chained, ‘ex quo liquate solis ardore excidunt gutte, quz saxa assidue instillant, sch. frag. 179, were particularly used in incantations.
11.] Non sum di, qui fueram.
13.] Nune primum, &c., ‘Now for the first time I am compelled to learn what it is to spend long nights alone, and to listen
only to my own complainings.
28
Felix, qui potuit presenti flere puelle ;
PROPERTII
15
Nonnihil aspersis gaudet Amor lacrimis: Aut si despectus potuit mutare calores ; Sunt quoque translato gaudia servitio. Mi neque amare aliam neque ab hac discedere fas est:
Cynthia prima fuit, Cynthia finis erit.
20
RT.
Tu, quod sepe soles, nostro laetabere casu, Galle, quod abrepto solus amore vacem ;
At non ipse tuas imitabor,
perfide, voces ;
Fallere te numquam, Galle, puella velit!
Dum tibi deceptis augetur fama puellis,
σι
Certus et in nullo queris amore moram ; Perditus in quadam tardis pallescere curis Incipis, et primo lapsus abire gradu.
15.] ‘Happy he who has the chance of moving his mistress by the sight of a flood of tears.’ Nonnihil, ¢. 6. plurimum,— Barth. Wit. ‘Love likes a few tears dropped.’
17.] ‘Happy, too, if finding himself slighted, he can transfer his affections to another; for there is some pleasure even in a change of mistresses.’ Kuinoel has a full stop at the end of νυ. 16, making aut commence a new sentiment: ‘Or, (if that cannot be), should he be able to love another instead, there is some satisfaction,’ &e.
19.] Desistere Miiller, with Pucci, the Naples MS, giving dissistere.
XIII. Addressed to Gallus (see on El. 5), on his having conceived an attachment for a woman of higher character than those with whom he had hitherto boasted of his acquaintance (vy. 11). The person alluded to is the same as in El. 10, but certainly not Cynthia, as Hertzberg appears to sup- pose.
1.7 Letabere, ‘will exult:’ because Gallus had ridiculed the notion that Cyn- thia would prove as faithful to his friend as the latter had predicted. The absence of Cynthia at Baie is spoken of in the next verse, in which abrepto implies that a rival had supplanted him, in his (Gallus’) imagination if not in reality.
8.1 Tuas voces. The taunt alluded to, that she would soon leave him. These are the voces moleste of El. 5, 1.
7.1 In quadam. Hertzberg quotes many passages to prove that this is the usual form for expressing the strong deyo- tion of a lover. He might have added Hor. Od. i. 17, 20, ‘laborantes in uno Pe- nelopen yitreamque Circen.’ Quidam is here opposed to gquilibet; a particular person to any one.
8.] Kuinoel and Lachmann with the inferior copies give abire. -Adire is the reading of the good MSS. The sense would be, ‘primo gradu lapsus, adis al- teram pugnam, non victus discedis;’ the alteram being naturally implied in the word primo. The metaphor is taken per- haps from the three throws which consti- tuted a defeat in wrestling. So Gallus, once repulsed, again returns to the attack ; so devoted is he to the new object of his affection. Hertzberg disapproves of this interpretat#n of adire, which is nearly that of Jacob, and says ;—‘ hoc vult: Tu, qui antea in lubrica amoris via hue illue desultare protervus solebas, nunc, dum adis puellam, primo gradu lapsus es, jaces, κεῖσαι, (ἱ. 6. vietus es). This however should rather have been ‘ incipis labi statim aggrediens,’ not ‘incipis aggredi statim lapsus.’ It may be urged that incipis refers to pallescere rather than to adire,
LIBER I.
29
Hee erit illarum contempti peena doloris:
Multarum miseras exiget una vices.
10
Hee tibi vulgares istos compescet amores ;
Nec nova qurendo semper amicus eris. Hee ego non rumore malo, non augure doctus ;
Vidi ego; me, quieso, teste negare potes?
Vidi ego te toto vinctum languescere collo 15
Et flere injectis, Galle, diu manibus, Et cupere optatis animam deponere labris, Et que deinde meus celat, amice, pudor. Non ego complexus potui diducere vestros ;
Tantus erat demens inter utrosque furor.
Non sic Hemonio Salmonida mixtus Enipeo Tzenarius facili pressit amore deus;
Nec sic cxlestem flagrans amor Herculis Heben Sensit in CEteis gaudia prima jugis.
Una dies omnes potuit preecurrere amantes ;
Nam tibi non tepidas subdidit illa faces,
which would have been adis had the metre allowed it. But this is so farfetched that I have preferred abire, ‘to give up,’ ‘leave the arena.’ And so both Keil and Miller have edited.
10.] Multarum miseras vices, ‘retribu- tion for the unhappiness of many.’
11.] Compescet, will check, put a stop to, those amours of yours with common women, πανδήμους ἔρωτας.
13.] Rumore malo, ‘ill-natured gossip.’
15—17.] See above, 10, 5, &c. Optata labra are simply the lips he had longed for, and of which he is unwilling, as it were, to resign the possession. If any alteration is necessary, aptatis is perhaps more probable than obtentis, Hertzberg’s conjecture, who quotes against Burmann’s emendation and in favour of his own, passages from the Greek poets which tell exactly the other way. The MSS. however agree in verbis, which is perplexing enougl® But the sentiment is so familiar with the Greek epigrammatists and amatory writers, that Hertzberg seems to have judged rightly in reading Jabris, especially as Passerat pro- fessed to haye found it ‘in libro vetusto.’ So also Keil and Miiller.
21.] Neptune, assuming the form of the Thessalian river Enipeus, ravished Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus, who had been
enamoured of the river-god. Miatus, ‘miscuisse se deum marinum fluvio egregie dicit, ad significandam liquidam deorum naturam.’—Hertzberg. Apollodor. i. 9, 8. Τυρὼ ἡ Σαλμωνέως θυγάτηρ καὶ ᾿Αλκιδίκης, παρὰ Κρηθεῖ τῷ Σαλμωνέως ἀδελφῷ τρεφο- μένη, ἔρωτα ἴσχει ᾿Ενιπέως τοῦ ποταμοῦ" καὶ συνεχῶς ἐπὶ τὰ τούτου ῥεῖθρα φοιτῶσα, τούτοις ἀπωδύρετο. Ποσειδῶν δὲ εἰκασθεὶς Ἐνιπεῖ συγκατεκλίθη αὐτῇ. Tenarius deus, οὑπὶ Ταινάρῳ θεὸς, Arist. Acharn, 510. Pausan. iii. 12, ὅ. τούτων δ᾽ οὐ πόρρω τέμενος Ποσειδῶνος Ταιναρίου. Ταινάριον γὰρ ἐπονομάζουσιν.
24. In CGteis. ‘Sic libri omnes. Scaliger correxit αὖ @teis, At ista vis est. Rectius Propertium dicas fabulam secutum esse, qua Hercules in ipso (ta, rogo evicto et mortalitate abdicata, Juvente nupsisse haud insulso commento narrare- tur.’—Hertzberg. Miiller reads ab @teis —-rogis, the last word being a conjecture (a very needless one, I think,) of Schra- der’s.
25.] ‘Sententia: Tu una hac die omnes superare amantes potuisti.’—Hertzberg. ‘Eleganter tempori tribuit quod erat homi- nis.’—Kuinoel. For amantes Keil and Miiller read amores, which seems the read- ing of the best copies.
90
PROPERTII
Nec tibi preteritos passa est succedere fastus, Nec sinet abduci: te tuus ardor aget. Nec mirum, cum sit Jove digna et proxima Lede,
Et Lede partu, gratior una tribus,
30
Tlla sit Inachiis et blandior heroinis, Illa suis verbis cogat amare Jovem.
Tu vero quoniam semel es periturus amore, Utere: non alio limine dignus eras.
Que tibi sit felix, quoniam novus incidit error ;
35
Et quodcumque voles, una sit ista tibi.
eV:
Tu licet abjectus Tiberina molliter unda Lesbia Mentoreo vina bibas opere,
27.] Fastus. See on 1, 3.—succedere, ‘to come over you again,’ ὁ, 6. she will not allow you to slight her as you have done others. Kuinoel takes the word in a very different sense: ‘bene et prospere tibi eyenire,’ ‘to succeed.’ — abduct, to be drawn away by any new attachment.
30.] Miiller adopts the reading of the Naples MS., Jove digne proxima Lede. Hertzberg’s correction (Lede e partu) and explanation of this difficult passage appear to me equally unsuccessful. In defence of the former indeed he alleges the authority of one inferior MS., and argues that Pro- pertius would have used the Greek genitive Ledes unless constrained by metrical ne- cessity. The newly-found mistress of Gallus, whom he strangely conceives to be Cynthia herself, is called (he tells us) ‘a second Helen’ (una e Lede partu), who is handsomer than the real Helen, her sister Clytemnestra, and their mother Leda. Nothing, as it seems to me, can be more awkward than this. The poet says she is worthy to be, what Leda was, the consort of Jove; coming next after Leda in de- serving that honour, Leda’s own offspring from Jove being of course excepted, and more winning and agreeable (he does not say pulchrior) than all three. It is pro- bable, as Kuinoel observes, that Propertius here uses the very terms of commendation bestowed by his friend: ‘and no wonder, since, as you say, &e.’—partw is for partui, as manu for manui sup. 11, 12. It is easy to account for the exaggerated praises the poet bestows on the lady of whom Gallus is enamoured. Knowing or suspecting his
former partiality for Cynthia (see on El. 5), he is naturally anxious to extol the charms of any one else, in order to divert the fickle mind of his friend from thinking any more of Cynthia. And this seems the very point of vv. 33, 34, where non alio limine dignus clearly means ‘Cynthia was no match for you in birth.’
31.] Inachiis, ‘Grecian.’ Inachus was the first king of Argos. Cf. inf. 15, 22.
34.] Utere,‘make the most of it.’ Some earlier editions give wrere.—semel, in the preceding verse, 1s ‘for once at all events.’
35.] Lachmann, Hertzberg, Keil, Miiller, and Jacob read—‘ Que tibi sit, felix’ &c., which seems a perverse punc- tuation of a simple sentence: ‘since you have at length found a worthy mistress, I wish you all happiness in the possession of her.’—error, see on errata sup. 9, 33.
36.] Quoteungue Miiller, after Dousa, the Naples MS. giving quocungue. This is plausible, from the antithesis: ‘may she alone be to you all (ἡ, 6, parents, sister, &c.) that you can wish.’
XIV. This elegant little poem is ad- dressed to Tullus (see on El. 6) at his villa on the bank of the Tiber. The poet pre- fers his own happiness in the affection of Cynthia to the splendour and luxury of wealth,
2.1 Mentoreo opere. Mentor was cele- brated for designing and working cups and bowls in raised or embossed devices (opus celatum). See inf. iv. 9,13. Juven, viii. 104, ‘rare sine Mentore mense.’ He lived 8,0. 400—350.
LIBER I.
91
Et modo tam celeres mireris currere lintres, Et modo tam tardas funibus ire rates,
Et nemus omne satas intendat vertice silvas,
Or
Urgetur quantis Caucasus arboribus:
Non tamen ista meo valeant contendere amori; Nescit Amor magnis cedere divitiis.
Nam sive optatam mecum trahit illa quietem,
Seu facili totum ducit amore diem,
10
Tum mihi Pactoli veniunt sub tecta liquores, Et legitur rubris gemma sub exquoribus ; Tum mihi cessuros spondent mea gaudia reges; Que maneant, dum me fata perire volent!
Nam quis divitiis adverso gaudet Amore ?
Nulla mihi tristi preemia sint Venere.
Illa potest magnas heroum infringere vires ; Illa etiam duris mentibus esse dolor:
Illa neque Arabium metuit transcendere limen,
Nec timet ostrino, Tulle,
subire toro, 20
Et miserum toto juvenem versare cubili: Quid relevant variis serica textilibus?
Que mihi dum placata aderit, non ulla verebor Regna nec Alcinoi munera despicere.
4.1 Funibus ire. Towers of boats were called helciarii, Mart. ep. iv. 64, 22. The antithesis is ‘tam celeres (remis), tam tardas funibus.’
5.] Et (licet) omne nemus, &e. ‘Though all the woodland round you should wave with trees as large as those on Caucasus.’ With vertice apply from the context tam alto, Kuinoel explains ‘extendat, ut late conspicuum tollant verticem.’—sate silve are plantations, as distinct from natural forests, with which he compares them in luxuriant growth.
7.1 Contendere, ‘all those charms that you enjoy cannot (in the happiness they confer) compete with my love.’—nescit cedere, i.e. non vult superari; feliciorem se preedicat.
11.] ‘The gold-bearing waters of Pac- tolus seem to bring their wealth to my house.’
12.] Gemma. Perhaps the concha Ery- cina, inf. iv. 13, 6, pearls or mother-of- pearl. Hertzberg however well observes that the poet may mean jewels from the East, which the Romans fancied were washed up by the sea, and which even Gray
has ventured to say that ‘the dark un- fathomed caves of ocean bear.’—rubra e@quora means the Erythzan sea, or Indian ocean. Soiii. 7,17. ‘Semper in Oceanum mittit me querere gemmas.’ Martial (v. ep. 37), speaks of ‘lapilli Erythrei.’ Cf. Tibull. ii. 2, 15.
13.] Spondent, &e. ‘Assure me_that kings themselves are less happy than I.’
15.] ‘For who can take pleasure in riches, if unfortunate in his love?? Nulla premia, t. e. nulle opes.
19.] ‘Noself-control, no age, no amount of wealth secures the possessor against the assaults of love.’ -Avabiwm limen, made of a kind of precious onyx. The commenta- tors refer to Pliny, WV. H. xxxvi. 12.
21.] toto cudili, on both sides of the bed, the pluteus and sponda, See the note on y. 3, 31, ‘et queror in toto non sidere pallia lecto.’—serica, the dyed or embroid- ered silken coverlets, straguda, often men- tioned by Martial as very costly.
24,] For nec some copies have vel. Hence Miiller reads aut, to the detriment of the verse and with no gain to the Latinity.
92
PROPERTII
DO
Sepe ego multa tue levitatis dura timebam, Hac tamen excepta, Cynthia, perfidia.
Aspice me quanto rapiat Fortuna periclo: Tu tamen in nostro lenta timore venis;
Et potes hesternos manibus componere crines, 5
Et longa faciem queerere desidia, Nec minus Kois pectus variare lapillis,
Ut formosa novo que parat ire viro. At non sic Ithaci digressu mota Calypso
Desertis olim fleverat eequoribus:
10
Multos illa dies incomptis meesta capillis Sederat, injusto multa locuta salo ;
Et, quamvis numquam posthac visura, dolebat Illa tamen longe conscia letitie.
Nec sic Asoniden rapientibus anxia ventis 15
Hypsipyle vacuo constitit in thalamo:
XV. Addressed to Cynthia, to upbraid her for indifference when the poet was on the eve of a voyage, probably that spoken of in El. 17. An elegy of great pathos, cleverness, and beauty, but of some diffi- culty. .
1.] Multa dura. Cf. inf. 18, 13, ‘multa aspera.’ The MS. Groning. has jura.
5.], Hesternos, A beautiful expression, for ‘quod ita mansit, ut heri erat.’ Hertz., who quotes, after Brouckhusius, Ovid, 4. A, iii. 154. ‘Et neglecta decet multas coma: sepe jacere hesternam credas; illa repexa modo est.’ Martial, ‘non hesterna sedet lunata lingula planta.’—An equally elegant term is faciem querere, ‘to adorn your person.’ Desidia is here used liter- ally, ‘sitting at the toilet.’
7.1 Nee minus, viz. than if I were to stay at home with you.—Variare, ‘de smaragdi atque electri vicibus intelligo in monili conjunctorum.’—Jacob, The word is properly used (both actively and in a neuter sense) rather of changing tints (e. g. of ripening grapes, the hues of the clouds, sea, and foliage), than in the meaning either of aidAAew, ‘to diversify with al- ternate stripes,’ or ποικίλλειν, ‘to be- spangle.’
9.] ‘It was not after this fashion that
Calypso bewailed the departure of Ulysses.’ Od. vii. 244, &e. See iii. 12, 18.
10.] Desertis equoribus, on the solitary shore, or on the shore of the desert sea.
11—12.] Multos—multa, ‘Many days did she sit and many words did she utter.’ Miiller, whose poetic sense does not seem very high, says the repetition ‘valde dis- plicet,’ and proposes vana for mutta.
12.] Injusto, ze. sibi, ‘cruel, inflicting a wrong on her,’ by fayouring the de- parture of Ulysses.
13—14.] ‘Though about to lose him for ever, (and so having less concern in his safety than Cynthia has in mine) she wept from the recollection of past happi~ ness.’ He means to say that Cynthia ought to do the same if only from re- membering the past, even though she had lost her regard for him henceforth.
15—16.] These verses ought probably to be placed after συ. 20, or συ. 22, as the commentators have perceived. For it is clear that mec sic in v. 17 should follow the example introduced by at non sie v. 9. and Keil and Miiller have transferred them after y. 20, Alphesiboxa had married Alemzon, son of Eriphyle and Amphiaraus, who afterwards took Callirhoe for a second wife. The brothers of Alphesiboea killed
LIBER I.
Hypsipyle nullos post illos
33
sensit amores,
Ut semel Hzemonio tabuit hospitio. Alphesibcea suos ulta est pro conjuge fratres,
Sanguinis et cari vincula rupit Amor.
Conjugis Evadne miseros elata per ignes Occidit, Argivee fama pudicitie.
Quarum nulla tuos potuit convertere mores, Tu quoque uti fieres nobilis historia.
Desine jam revocare tuis perjuria verbis,
Cynthia, et oblitos parce
bo Or
movere deos:
Audax, ah nimium nostro dolitura periclo,
Si quid forte tibi durius Multa prius vasto labentur
Alemzon for his perfidy, and were them- selves put to death by her to avenge her faithless husband. See Ov.d, Met. ix. 406. The story is somewhat differently told by Apollodorus iii. 7, 5.
17—20.] Hypsipyle, queen of Lemnos, was enamoured of Jason. The legend is well known from Ovid’s Epistle ‘Hypsipyle Jasoni,’ (Heroid. vi.) Apollodor. 1. 9, 17, οὗτοι ναυαρχοῦντος Ἰάσονος ἀναχθέντες προσίσχουσι Λήμνῳ. Ἔτυχε δὲ 7 Λῆμνος ἀνδρῶν τότε οὖσα ἔρημος, βασιλευομένη δὲ ὑπὸ Ὑψιπύλης τῆς Θόαντος-.--- Ὑψιπύλη δὲ Ἰάσονι συνευνάζεται, καὶ γεννᾷ παῖδας Εὔηνον καὶ Νεβροφόνον.
21. Evadne, the wife of Capaneus, who was killed by lightning in the siege of Thebes, threw herself on the burning pile of her husband. Apollod. iii. 7, 1, τῆς δὲ Καπανέως καιομένης πυρᾶς, Εὐάδνη ἡ Καπανέως μὲν γυνὴ θυγάτηρ δὲ Ἴφιος, ἑαυτὴν βαλοῦσα συγκατεκαίετο. See Eurip. Suppl. ad fin. Elata per ignes, 7. 6. mortem sibi consciscens inter ignes. See on iv. 13, 24, y.4, 20. Hertzberg suspects that e/ata here means insaniens, ἐκβακχευσαμένη. Argive is here put for Grecian, as sup. 13, 31; ili. 17, 43. Argos anciently comprised the greater part of Greece north of the Peloponnesus. See Aisch. Suppl. 250 and the note.
23.] ‘Not one of whom could induce you to follow her example, viz. of constancy and devotion to one man, and render your- self illustrious in history.’
25.] ‘Make no more vain professions of fidelity, which is but to revive the memory of your past perjuries (false oaths of affection), and cease to provoke the gods who have forgiven the past.’—oblitos, be-
inciderit ! flumina ponto,
cause the gods were supposed to take little heed of lovers’ broken vows. ‘Jupiter ex alto perjuria ridet amantum,’ Ovid, 4. 4. 1.633. See iii. 7, 47.
27.] Audaz, i.e. in tempting the gods. —dolitura, &c., ‘dolebis laboribus nostris, si morbo forte aut alio malo tentabere ; hoc enim tua in me injuria meritam senties.’ —Lachmann. ‘Si perfidiam tuam dii, quos tu nimium audax irritas, punient, dolitura recordaberis mei periculi, desidiz perfidieque tuz.’—Kuinoel.—doleo some- times governs the ablative, as Virg. din. i. 669, ‘nostro doluisti sepe dolore.’—xostro periclo simply means the danger before al- luded to in v.3; and the poet says that Cynthia, now so coldly indifferent to it, will be sorry for it when she herself shall be in trouble, because she will reproach herself then for her heartlessness: her sympathy will be too late, and only given when she feels the want of it herself.
29.] The MSS. agree in multa. Kui- noel, Barth, Keil, Miller, and Lachmann adopt the unsatisfactory emendation of Muretus, muta. It is all but absurd to say, ‘sooners shall rivers flow noiselessly to the sea, than,’ &c., because that is what half the rivers in the world do already. Barth’s brief note is amusing: ‘De ἀδυνά- rots hujusmodi nihil attinet dicere.” I formerly felt convinced that nzd/a is right, the reading of Passerat, professedly from a ‘yvetus codex,’ ‘sooner shall xo rivers flow,’ ὦ. ὁ. as we should rather say, ‘rivers shall cease to flow.’ But I now think muita may be retained, and that the sense is ἄνω ποταμῶν ἱερῶν χωροῦσι παγαὶ, Eur. Med. 409, ‘Many rivers shall sooner flow from the waste sea,’ instead of into them,
D
94
Annus et inversas duxerit ante vices,
PROPERTII
30
Quam tua sub nostro mutetur pectore cura ; Sis quodeumque voles, non aliena tamen. Nam mihi ne viles isti videantur ocelli, Per quos seepe mihi credita perfidia est!
Hos tu jurabas, si quid mentita fuisses,
35
Ut tibi suppositis exciderent manibus.
Et contra magnum potes hos attollere Solem ? Nec tremis admissee conscia nequitize ?
Quis te cogebat multos pallere colores,
Et fletum invitis ducere luminibus ?
40
Quis ego nunc pereo, similes moniturus amantes: O nullis tutum credere blanditiis!
XVI.
τ fueram magnis olim patefacta triumphis, Janua Tarpeize nota pudicitie,
‘and the year shall sooner have the seasons go in inverted order,’ e.g. summer shall succeed to autumn, and spring to summer.
32.] Non aliena tamen, supply mihi unquam eris.
33.] The MSS. have xe, which Pucci in the ed. 1481, corrected to ne, i.e. ναί. Lachmann gives Nam mihi ne, &c., and so Keil and Miller. ‘For never be it said that I hold cheap those dear eyes of yours, that have so often made me believe you when you swore falsely. You said, with an oath on them, that if you had deceived me, you hoped they would fall out of their sockets into the hands held to catch them. Barth and Kuinoel read Quamve mihi, which is perhaps right.
38.] Admisse nequitie can hardly mean ‘perjury’ alone. He appears to charge Cynthia with having broken her promise to him by having granted her fayours to another.
39.] ‘You cannot say that I forced you to weep, and therefore when you so changed colour and shed tears, you did so from a consciousness at the time that you were deceiving me.’—muitos colores refers to the sudden change from blushing to paleness, usual in strong excitement. This express- ion has been cavilled at by Markland as ‘mire dictum.’ There is severe truth in the rejoinder of Hertzberg: ‘Non deesse scio, qui non licere poets eredant, quod
alius antea non dixerit.’ See note on v.7, 82.
41.] Nene, etiam nune, ἢ. 6. after all your frailties.—sémdles, equally credulous with myself.—O nudllis, &e. is the monitem, in the form of a maxim, offered to all lovers. See 20, 3.
XVI. The persona loquens in this elegant poem is the door of a house, traditionally said to have been that of the Vestal Tarpeia (see v. 4), but now oceupied by a female of no reputation, That janwa cannot mean the triumphal gateway (porta) into the Capitol is evident, as the Commentators have observed, from the fact that the former term is confined to the door of a private house. It is not improbable that indirectly, ὦ. ὁ. by mentioning a different house, the poet may allude to Cynthia’s obduracy. Such a house may have stood on the sacer clivus, and so, at least, have witnessed many processions to the Capitol.
1.1 ‘Patefactam januam triumphis in- terpretor, ut dominum leta familia ex- ciperet a clientibus domum deductum, simul vero titulos spoliaque recepta, quibus atrium et vestibula ornaret.’— Hertzberg.
2.] ‘The chastity of Tarpeia’ is here put by a well-known figure for ‘the chaste Tarpeia.’ Whether this was the Vestal Virgin, whose broken vows and love for Titus Tatius, so beautifully described in the fourth elegy of the fifth book, scarcely
LIBER 1.
Cujus inaurati celebrarunt limina currus, Captorum lacrimis humida supplicibus,
Nune ego, nocturnis potorum saucia rixis,
Pulsata indignis seepe queror manibus ;
Et mihi non desunt turpes pendere corollz Semper, et exclusi signa jacere faces.
Nec possum infamis domine defendere noctes
Nobilis obsceenis tradita carminibus ;—
Nec tamen illa suze revocatur parcere fame, Turpior et secli vivere luxuria. Has inter gravibus cogor deflere querellis,
entitle her to the fame of pudicitia; or whether some other possessor of the Tarpeia gens is here meant, as Hertzberg supposes, is a question which it would be yain to discuss.
3—4.] Cujus—limina, the threshold of which was once crowded with gilt cars, and wet with the tears of suppliants. The triumphal car was deposited in front of the janua, in the vestibule of the house, which is here alluded to under the word Jimina. ‘Stantes in curribus Aimilianos,’ Juven. Sat. viii. 8, and vii. 125, ‘alti Quadrijuges in vestibulo.’ The word however retains its proper sense in the short verse, which Hertzberg well explains: ‘Captivi sup- plices non reges sunt catenati, sed qui ex preda imperatori vel sorte evenerant, vel sub corona empti erant. Hi igitur ante limen prostrati sedem novi domini suzeque servitutis inter lacrimas adorabant.’
7.1 Non desunt pendere. Among many instances of this construction collected by the commentators the most appropriate is from Tacitus, Hist. iv. 11, ‘nec deerat ipse, stipatus armatis,—vim principis amplecti, nomen remittere.’? The custom of hanging on the doors of their mistresses the chaplets taken from the heads of the serenaders, is well illustrated by the fine verses of Lu- cretius, iv. 1171. ‘At lacrymans exclusus amator limina sepe Floribus et sertis operit, postesque superbos Ungit amaracino, et foribus miser oscula figit.’—twrpes, ‘ dis- reputable.’—faces, the torches which had lighted the revellers, and which were tossed away before the house when burnt out, or when morning dawned.
9.] ‘Non possum a domina mea infames noctes avertere, propulsare, nam ipsa fame sue non parcet. Virg. Eel. vil. 47. Sol- stitium pecori defendite. Hor. Od, 1. 17, 3.’ — Kuinoel.
35 5 10 10.] Tradita carminibus, ‘made the
subject of song.’ The revellers, anxious for admittance, addressed the door itself, as v.17: ‘Janua, vel domina penitus cru- delior ipsa.’—nodit’s either means, as Kui- noel thinks, ‘notorious,’ in a bad sense; or quondam nobilis is opposed to nune tra- dita, &c., which seems better.
12.] Vivere, &c., ‘from living worse than the debauchery of the day,’ 7. 6. from
“even surpassing it in profligacy. The in-
finitive here takes a prohibitive sense (rod μὴ (ἢν) which the former parcere (ὥστε φείδεσθαι) does not require. Revocatur seems susceptible of this double sense, viz. to be recalled to one act and from another. Others construe non revocatur parcere vivere, as parce movere deos, sup. 15, 26, and Miller contends this is the only legitimate con- struction.
13.] Has inter, ὃ. 6. has noctes, v.9.— deflere seems here used for flere.—tristior, &c., ‘made more sad by the long-continued appeals of the suppliant for admission.’ Kuinoel reads with Brouckhuis ah longas excubias, which Hertzberg approves. This certainly has the advantage of supplying an accusative case to deflere. So Ovid, ‘Deflet Threiciam Daulias ales Ityn.’ Many conjectures haye been proposed on this obscure passage: Hee inter, has igitur, has mihi ter gravibus, &e., I will add one more: Interea gravibus. For, interea being corruptly written iter, it was most natural, indeed, inevitable, to prefix the mono- syllable has. It has also occurred to me to read ‘supplicium longis tristius ex- cubiis,’ 7.e. a beating (6) and an abuse (17, 37) more grievous to me than even the long nights spent on the threshold. Of course, {116 (15) will then mean the lover, supplied from the context.—For a longis Hertzberg gives ah! longis, &c., and ex-
90
PROPERTII
Supplicis a longis tristior excubiis.
Ille meos numquam patitur requiescere postes,
Arguta referens carmina blanditia:
‘Janua, vel domina penitus crudelior ipsa, Quid mihi tam duris clausa taces foribus ? Cur numquam reserata meos admittis amores,
Nescia furtivas reddere mota preces ?
20
Nullane finis erit nostro concessa dolori ?
Tristis et in tepido limine somnus erit ?
Me mediz noctes, me sidera prona jacentem, Frigidaque Eoo me dolet aura gelu.
Tu sola humanos numquam miserata labores
Respondes tacitis mutua cardinibus. O utinam trajecta cava mea vocula rima Percussas domine vertat in auriculas! Sit licet et saxo patientior illa Sicano,
Sit licet et ferro durior et chalybe,
30
Non tamen illa suos poterit compescere ocellos: Surget et invitis spiritus-in lacrimis.
Nunc jacet alterius felici nixa lacerto ; At mea nocturno verba cadunt Zephyro.
Sed tu sola mei, tu maxima causa doloris,
35
Victa meis numquam, janua, muneribus. Te non ulla mez lesit petulantia lngue, Que solet irato dicere turba 1000,
plains it ‘more sorrowful than even the suppliant lying outside,’ 7.e. supplice ex- cubante. Miller (who always prints the interjection a, not ah,) takes the same view.
20.] ‘Nescia moveri et preces meas, quas clam et furtim facio, ad dominam preferre.’—Kuinoel.—reddere is ἀποδοῦναι, ‘to deliver the message.’
23.] ‘The very stars as they set and the cold morning air feel for me as I lie; you alone, Ὁ door, have no compassion.’ This is hyperbolical, but not absurd; nor does their seem good reason for the doubts and difficulties which have been raised about the passage.—prona, cf. v. 4, 64, ‘ipsaque in oceanum sidera lapsa cadunt.’
26.| Respondes mutua tacitis, &e., ‘an- swer me only by silence;’ a sort of oxy- moron. Kuinoel compares mutua flere, sup. 5, 30, as a similar construction.
27.] Cava rima is the ablative of the mode or means by which the voice is trans- mitted.
29.] ‘ More enduring than Sicilian rock,’ i.e. than /Etna; if once she hears my voice, however hard-hearted she may be, she will be melted into tears.
32.] Et invitis, ‘a sigh will arise with even involuntary tears.’ So Miiller, who compares Ovid, Remed. Amor. 268, ‘longus et (al. at) invito pectore sedit amor.’ The common reading however (a comma at ocellos) gives a good sense: ‘non poterit non lacrimare, et in lacrimis, quamvis in- vita sint, surget spiritus.’
36.] Muneribus, i.e. osculis, corollis, unguento, &c. See on vy. 7, and inf. 41—4,
38.] The MSS. give ‘que solet irato dicere tota loco,’ which is obviously corrupt. —turba is the conjecture of Pucci in the ed. Rheg. Many corrections have been
LIBER I.
Ut me tam longa raucum patiare querella
Sollicitas trivio pervigilare moras.
40
At tibi sepe novo deduxi carmina versu, Osculaque impressis nixa dedi gradibus. Ante tuos quotiens verti me, perfida, postes, Debitaque occultis vota tuli manibus!’
Hee ille, et si que miseri novistis amantes,
Et matutinis obstrepit alitibus. Sic ego nunc dominz vitiis et semper amantis Fletikus sterna differor invidia.
XVII.
. - | . . Et merito, quoniam potui fugisse puellam, Nune ego desertas alloquor alcyonas.
proposed, of which the best perhaps is that adopted by Kuinoel, ‘que solet ingrato dicere turba joco.’ Ihave followed Hertz- berg in admitting the two last words into the text.—ingrato and irato are similarly confused, El. 6, 10, but the latter epithet is consistent with petulantia.—que is here the same as qualia. Not much, 1 think, is to be said in favour of Miiller’s conjecture, which he introduces into the text, ‘qué solet ingrato figere theta loco.’ He does not tell us what this can mean, but quotes in defence of it a well-known verse of the post-augustan writer Persius, iv. 138, ‘et potis es nigrum vitiis preefigere theta.’
40.] Sollicitas moras, a long and anxious night-watch.
41.] Deduxi,‘spun.’ See vy. 1, 72.
42.] Oscula nixa, &e., for ego nixus gradibus, &c. The hypallage is a bold one; but the usage is frequent in Pro- pertius. So ebria vestigia sup. 3,9. This passage shows that the Roman houses had door-steps before them as in our own times.
44. Debita vota, i.e. corollas, &e. See on v.36. The expression is a brief one for ‘dona ex voto debita.’ From the ad- dition of occultis manibus it would seem that verti me ante postes implies his turning round to face the street while he secretly affixed offerings to the door behind him. Or is vertere in this place ἐπιστρωφᾶσθαι ?
45.] Tile, the swpplex sup. 14.
46.| Obstrepit, ‘out-bawls the morning cock.’ The lover continues his doleful strain till the cock crows, and he raises
his voice that it may be heard above it. See v. 4, 4. Kuinoel well quotes Theocr. vii. 123.
47.1 Semper—differor must be connected, as Hertzberg observes. See sup. on 4, 22. The sense is, ‘what with the frailties of the mistress within and the complaints of the lover without, the poor door is con- demned to a perpetual infamy.’ ‘To avoid the pardonable tautology, Miiller reads alterna invidia, with Markland.
XVII. It is by no means improbable that this exquisite elegy was written, as it professes to be, on board ship in the course of the voyage alluded to in El. xv. At all events the poet pictures to himself the dangers and incidents of a storm, that he may excite the sympathy of Cynthia by describing them.
1.1 Et merito. Et, like ergo, used to introduce the subject at once, has a peculiar pathos. ‘Here I am then and it serves me right’ is the idea to be conveyed.—potvt, ἔτλην, sustinui. Compare iii. 5, 14, and for potui fugisse, 1, 15.
2.1 Desertas, i.e. solitarias., As the Halcyon was considered the ‘bird of calm,’ (Theocr. vii. 57. ‘AAkudves στορεσεῦντι τὰ κύματα), alloguor here implies perhaps an appeal to the birds to appear. The mistake of the Greeks, seldom correctly observant of facts of natural history, that certain sea-fowl floating buoyantly on the waves were sitting in their nests, cannot have escaped the attention of the thought- ful. According to Aristotle, Hist. An. viii.
38
PROPERTII
Nee mihi Cassiope solito visura carinam est, Omniaque ingrato litore vota cadunt.
Quin etiam absenti prosunt tibi, Cynthia, venti: 5 Aspice, quam sevas increpat aura minas.
Nullane placatee veniet Fortuna procelle ? Heeccine parva meum funus arena teget?
Tu tamen in melius sevas converte querellas ;
Sat tibi sit poenze nox et iniqua vada.
10
An poteris siccis mea fata opponere ocellis, Ossaque nulla tuo nostra tenere sinu ? Ah pereat, quicumque rates et vela paravit
Primus et invito gurgite fecit iter.
3, there were two species of Halcyon, one of which was vocal, the other ἄφωνος. In lib. ix. 14, he gives a minute description of what appears to be the Kingfisher. It is clear that the sea-bird must not be con- founded with this.
3.] Cassiope, wife of Cepheus, was changed, like Ariadne and Callisto, into a star, which seems to have been regarded by sailors as the harbinger of a calm. The chief difficulty of this verse lies in solito, of which no other example can be adduced in this adverbial sense: for Kui- noel’s reference to Ovid Fast. v. 547, where solito citius occurs, is not to the point. Perhaps we should read soltto visura cari- nam est omine, et ἕο. Or may there have been a phrase ex solito, ἐκ τοῦ εἰωθότος, like ew more 2—ingrato litore, that is, thank- less, swrdo : regardless of the vows to build temples, offer sacrifices, &e. Hertzberg and Jacob understand Cassiope of a mari- time town so called (Κασσώπη in Strab. vii. 7). The latter says: ‘Solebant in Greciam a Brundisio navigantes Cassiopes portum in montibus Acrocerauniis situm ex more omnes petere.’ Cf. Cic. Ep. ad Fam. xvi. 9, ‘Corcyre fuimus usque a. d. xvi. Kalend. Decembr. tempestatibus re- tenti. Δ. ἃ. xv. Kalend. Decembr. in por- tum Coreyrworum ad Cassiopen stadia exx processimus.’ ‘The Venice edition 1500 gives solitam. Hertzberg reads with Wyttenbach solidam, in the sense of ‘ Cas- slope will not see my bark arrive safe.’ Miiller gives salvam, and in the next line cadent.
5.] ‘The very winds, being adverse to me, take your side,’ ὦ, 6. are taking ven- geance onme. On the indicative énerepat see sup.on 2, 9. The similarity of sound
in absenti and venti is remarkable as being an apparent oversight in the best poets (so Tyrrhena arena sup. 8, 11), but a favourite and studied usage with the ecclesiastical poets of the middle and later latinity, from whom the modern poets have derived their practice of rhyming. Lachmann has col- lected many curious instances from our poet and others. Compare also ii. 3, 27, ‘Non, non humani partus sunt talia dona : Ista decem menses non peperere bona.’
7.1 Fortuna, like the Τύχη Σωτὴρ of the Greeks (see on Agam. 647), was wor- shipped as a goddess potens maris. Hor. Od. i. 35, 6, where she is called Domina @quoris.—meum funus, ἃ. 6. meum corpus ; but involving the notion of the exequiz paid to it.
9.] ‘Sensus: desine imprecari, et vota potius pro salute mea facias.’—Awinoel.
11.] The good MSS. vary between op- ponere and reponere. The former is the reading of Jacob, Hertzberg, Keil, and Miiller, the latter of Kuinoel, Barth, and Lachmann. I follow the more recent edi- tors, who explain opponere ocellis &e., ‘to present my fate to your (mind with tear- less) eye,’ ἃ 6. to think of it without dis- tress.
12.] As a token of especial affection, the urn containing the ashes or some small relic of a deceased relative was carried in the folds of the toga, sinus, clasped to the breast. Kuinoel quotes Tibullus, i. 3, 5, ‘non hic mihi mater, que legat in moestos ossa perusta sinus.’ tones also Tacit. Ann, ii. 75, ‘At Agrippina—ascendit clas- sem cum cineribus Germanici et liberis, miserantibus cunctis quod femina nobilitate princeps—tunc feralis reliquias sinu ferret.’
LIBER I.
Nonne fuit levius dominz pervincere mores, 15
39
Quamvis dura, tamen rara puella fuit— Quam sic ignotis circumdata litora silvis
Cernere et optatos querere Tyndaridas ? Illic siqua meum sepelissent fata dolorem,
Ultimus et posito staret amore lapis,
20
Tila meo caros donasset funere crines, Molliter et tenera poneret ossa rosa:
Ila meum extremo clamasset pulvere nomen, Ut mihi non ullo pondere terra foret.
At vos equorez formosa Doride nate,
Candida felici solite vela choro: Si quando vestras labens Amor attigit undas, Mansuetis socio parcite litoribus.
XVIII.
Hee certe deserta loca et taciturna querenti,
15.] Levius, the reading of Hertzberg with Kuinoel and Lachmann, has the au- thority of the Naples MS. Jacob has edited melius from the ed. Rheg. and MS. Groning., and so Keil and Muller.
17.] ‘Than thus to be gazing at the unknown forests which line the shore, and to wonder where I am.’— Tyndaridas : see Hor. Od. i. 3, 2, and on Asch. Agam. 647, where the true explanation of this much wished-for apparition in a storm at sea is attempted. It is familiarly known in the Mediterranean as St. Elmo’s fire.
19.] Πρ, 1.6. at home. Sepelissent implies the action done once for all and completed at the time ; staret, the continued duration of the monument. But this dis- tinction does not apply to donasset and poneret in the next distich.—caros crines, 2.¢.sibi; highly-prized, and therefore given only under the impulse of a deep affection. See Becker, Gallus, p. 518—20.
22.) ‘She would lay my bones in the tomb softly on strewed rose-leaves.’ The ablatives both here and in the next verse (pulvere), as indeed above in v. 21, and nostro limine 18, 11, have a locative sense, and furnish remarkable examples of the usage. Compare v. 8, 10, ‘creditur ore manus.’ But the exact sense of extremo pulvere is obscure. It may be an ablative of time, ‘at the last dust,’ 7.e. when earth was thrown on the graye.
25.] Doris was wife of Nereus, and mother of the Nereids. ‘unfurl the white sails with your propitious band,’ 7. ὁ. by appearing on the surface, and portending calm weather, induce the sailors to spread before the breeze the sails which have been reefed in the gale.
27.) There is exquisite feeling and taste in this appeal to the chaste Nereid nymphs; ‘if ever love has entered your cool watery realms, you can pity a lover, and will spare a fellow-slave by directing him to a sheltered shore.’—Jitortbus, as Hertzberg remarks, is the ablative ‘quo simul modus et ratio significatur.’
XVIII. This elegy, as well as the last, is among the happiest efforts of our poet’s genius, It exhibits an intensity of feeling by which Cynthia, unless more obdurate than the oaks it was addressed to, must have been moved. It is a soliloquy on Cynthia’s cruelty, uttered to the winds and the birds in the depth of a forest. Kuinoel, who with all his faults has more heart than most of his critical co-editors, calls it ‘elegantissimum carmen, et ad amice animum permovendum aptissimum. Tenerrimum,’ (he adds), ‘amoris sensum exprimit, et elocutionis suavitate ac sim- plicitate mirifice sese commendat.’
1.7 Zaciturna. This idea is more fully expressed in y. 4.
40
PROPERTII
Et vacuum Zephyri possidet aura nemus. Hic licet occultos proferre impune dolores, © Si modo sola queant saxa tenere fidem. Unde tuos primum repetam, mea Cynthia, fastus? 5 Quod mihi das flendi, Cynthia, principium ? Qui modo felices inter numerabar amantes, Nune in amore tuo cogor habere notam. Quid tantum merui? que te mihi crimina mutant ?
An nova tristitiz causa puella tus ?
10
Sic mihi te referas, levis, ut non altera nostro Limine formosos intulit ulla pedes.
Quamvis multa tibi dolor hic meus aspera debet, Non ita seva tamen venerit ira mea,
Ut tibi sim merito semper furor, et tua flendo
15
Lumina dejectis turpia sint lacrymis. An quia parva damus mutato signa colore, Et non ulla meo clamat in ore fides? Vos eritis testes, si quos habet arbor amores,
Fagus et Arcadio pinus amica deo.
5.] This verse is perhaps after Theo- critus, 11. 64, νῦν δὴ μούνη ἐοῖσα πόθεν τὸν ἔρωτα δακρυσῶ; ἐκ τίνος ἀρξεῦμαι;
8.7 Habere notam, ‘to be degraded.’ Allusion is made to the Censor’s mark of infamy, attached to the names of those gui senatu movebantur.
9.] The MSS. have carmina, which can only be interpreted of magic verses. The editors, with some later copies, agree in reading erimina, Jacob excepted. Kuinoel however seems wrong in explaining erdmina a me commissa. The word is rather used inits strict sense, ‘ accusations,’ 7. 6. slanders of enemies.—mutant te mihi, are changing or estranging your feelings towards me.
11.] Ste—ut, ‘so surely—as &e.’ This use of 516 in protestations is too well known to require illustration.—/evis is the voca- tive, ‘fickle one.’ But some explain it leviter, easily. This distich denies one of the charges, erimina, and the protestation extends over the next four. Then 17—18 reply to another erimen, that of indifference ; and this also has four following in connex- ion. At 23—24, with the following distich, he denies the charge of suspicion, queru- lousness, and jealousy.
18—16. ‘Though I have suffered much from you, yet I never will so resent it as
20
to deserve your continual indignation by loving another.’—furor, μήνιμα, the object of wrath.
17.] Kuinoel and Keil read colove, which has equal MS. authority. And certainly there is a naturalness and simplicity in this which can hardly be said to characterise calore. Compare sup.1, 22, ‘et facite illa meo palleat ore magis,’ and 6, 6, ‘mutato- que graves spe colore preces.’ This latter verse did not oceur to Hertzberg, when he raised the objection on the present passage, that mutato colore would only properly be used as ‘ primum nascentis amoris signum.’ Though this might have been urged as the very point in its favour; for the poet asks, ‘do you expect me continually to be changing colour, and do you think that, if I do not do so, my affection is mere pretence?’ The other reading, calore, is explained by Hertzberg, not very success- fully, as ‘quod tam parva signa caloris det, unde mutatum eum necessario colligatur.’ Nevertheless, Barth, Lachmann, Miiller, and Jacob adopt calore.
20.] The loves of Pan and Pitys are here meant. The legend however is only recorded by a few of the less known authors, references to which are supplied by the commentators.
LIBER I.
41
Ah quotiens teneras resonant mea verba sub umbras, : Scribitur et vestris CYNTHIA corticibus! An tua quod peperit nobis injuria curas, Que solum tacitis cognita sunt foribus 7
Omnia consueyi timidus preferre superbze
Jussa, neque arguto facta dolore queri. Pro quo, divini Fontes, et frigida rupes Et datur inculto tramite dura quies, Et quodcumque mez possunt narrare querelle,
Cogor ad argutas dicere solus aves.
30
Sed qualiscumque es, resonent mihi CYNTHIA silve, Nec deserta tuo nomine saxa vacent.
XIX.
Non ego nunc tristes vereor, mea Cynthia, Manes, Nec moror extremo debita fata rogo;
Sed ne forte tuo careat mihi funus amore, Hic timor est ipsis durior exequiis.
Non adeo leviter nostris puer hesit ocellis, 5
21.] Both Lachmann and Hertzberg have a page of notes on the precise mean- ing of teneras umbras. What can be more appropriate than tenera to the delicate foliage which forms the shade in a wood? Miiller accords a very ingenious correction of Schrader, vestras—umbras, and teneris— corticibus.
28.) Ah tua quot nobis &c.—Kuinoel. But Barth explains the vulgate rightly: ‘or is the reason of your estrangement the consciousness of having wronged me? Of that 1 have never complained except to the doors.’ More precisely, ‘Or are you vexed with me because I have been distressed by your slights>’ Miiller reads en tua quot peperit, and says that an ‘sensu caret.” The note on 11 sup. will show that he did not understand the passage.
24.] Cognita foribus. See sup. 16, 17, seq. 46.] Ficta Kuinoel after Perreius; a conjecture not worth refuting.—facta is ‘your treatment of me,’ opposed to jussa as ἔργον is to λόγος.
27. Divini is the reading of all the MSS., nor is there much reason in the ob- jections which have been raised against it. Since a divinity was believed to reside in
every tree and fountain, it was natural to call them divine. The passage in Theoc. Vili. 33, ἄγκεα καὶ ποταμοὶ, θεῖον γένος, is very much to the purpose. Miiller admits the needless alteration of N. Heinsius, ‘ pro quo dumosi montes’ &e.
30.] Argutas, vocales. Any distinct and especially piercing sound is so called, as in Virgil argutum pecten, arguta hirundo, arguta serra &e. See above v.26. arguto dolore, and on El. 6, 7.
32.] Nee saxa vacent, t.e. may the echo respond.
XIX. That this elegy was not written, as might be conjectured from the com- mencement of it, in a time of sickness or danger, appears from the concluding dis- tich. It is full of deep feeling and tender- ness to Cynthia, assuring her of his love even in the nether world.
2.1 Nee moror, ‘nor do I care for.’— ‘fata pro cadayere, mortuo,’ says Kuinoel ; but the expression, though not without a parallel, seems merely a periphrasis for Fatum rogi.
δ. Hesit. The metaphor, according to Hertzberg, who quotes from the Greek Anthology to prove it, is taken from au-
42
PROPERTII
Ut meus oblito pulvis amore vacet. Illic Phylacides jocundze conjugis heros
Non potuit ceecis immemor esse locis ; Sed cupidus falsis attingere gaudia palmis
Thessalis antiquam venerat umbra domum.
10
Illic, quicquid ero, semper tua dicar imago: Trajicit et fati litora magnus Amor.
Illic formosee veniant chorus heroine, Quas dedit Argivis Dardana preeda viris:
Quarum nulla tua fuerit mihi, Cynthia, forma
15
Gratior; et Tellus hoc ita justa sinat. Quamvis te longze remorentur fata senecte, Cara tamen lacrimis ossa futura meis:
Que tu viva mea possis sentire favilla!
Tum mihi non ullo mors sit amara loco.
cupium by birdlime. This is perhaps correct, and the image is worth attention. The lover goes about with his eyes smeared to catch Cupid as he flies, and so is unable to shake him off again. A less attentive consideration of the passage might suggest the simple notion of a bird lighting (ἐφι- (dvovros) and remaining on its perch.— oblito is here used in a passive sense. See on El. 2,5. If taken as the ablative ab- solute, vaceé will mean vacivus (or vocivus) sit, ‘that my shade will have nothing to engage or occupy it.’
7.7] Phylacides. Protesilaus, ᾿Ιφίκλου vids πολυμήλου Φυλακίδαο (Hom. 11. B. 705), who was so attached to his wife Laodamia that he obtained leave from the gods below to return to his former abode (antiqua domus) for a single day. See Ovid Her. xiii.—illic—ce@eis locis, ‘there in the gloomy realms of the dead :’ a pleonasm common in Greek, as αὐτοῦ ἐνὶ Τροίῃ, ὑπ᾽ Ἴλιον αὐτοῦ etc. in Homer. So ii. 1, 22, ‘hic—ante pedes.’
9.7 Falsis palmis, ‘utpote umbra,’ Kui- noel; who makes cupidus refer to umbra by a well-known Greek idiom, Bin “Hpa- κληίη ds etc. But Hertzberg says, ‘ cupi- dus ad Phylacides referendum, umbra Thes- salis yero non subjectum est, sed pradicato additum.’ I think he is right. Thessalis is the correction of Pucci for Zhessalus.
11.] This passage recals to mind the fine parallel in Eur. Alcest. 363, ἀλλ᾽ οὖν ἐκεῖσε προσδόκα μ᾽ Stay θάνω, καὶ δῶμ᾽ ἑτοίμας ὡς συνοικήσουσά μοι. K. compares
20
inf, 111. 6, 86, ‘hujus ero vivus, mortuus hujus ero.’—magnus amor (emphatic), 7. 6. extraordinary attachments continue even in the other world.
13.] ‘Neque formosissime heroine ibi animum meum mutabunt, nulla earum mihi jucundior te ipsa formosa erit. In- telliguntur Cassandra, Andromache, Helena, aliee feminee Trojane, que.in preede diyi- sione Grecis victoribus contigerant.’ — Kuinoel. See Eur. Troad. 241—277.
16.] Ita justa, ‘in eo justa, si id, quod jure fit, tribuit atque concedit.’ Ast, quoted by Hertzberg. Or perhaps, ‘ita (esse) sinat.’ Lachmann, ‘justos inferos sperat ut se Cynthiam heroinis preferre patiantur.’ Kuinoel follows Burmann in the portentous ᾿ alteration, ‘et Venus hoc si dea justa sinat.’
17—20.] There is some obscurity in these four verses, which have been reck- lessly altered and perverted by the earlier editors. Miller marks them severally with an obelus, but has no comment on them. Following the best MSS. with Jacob and Hertzberg, we may thus paraphrase: ‘However long you, Cynthia, may survive me, your death will ever be looked for to console my grief in Hades. And may you feel the same regard for me, while yet you remain on earth after I am burnt on the pyre, which I shall feel for you in the shades. If assured of this, death will not be bitter to me wherever I may meet it.’ Lachmann (on iii. 18, 44) interprets this verse: ‘mortem amaram nullius sibi mo- menti et nequaquam gravem fore dicit, si
LIBER I.
43
Quam vereor, ne te contempto, Cynthia, busto, Abstrahat heu! nostro pulvere iniquus Amor,
Cogat et invitam lacrimas siccare cadentes! Flectitur assiduis certa puella minis.
Quare, dum licet, inter nos letemur amantes:
Non satis est ullo tempore longus amor.
XX.
Hoc pro continuo te, Galle, monemus amore,
Id tibi ne vacuo defluat
ex animo:
Seepe imprudenti fortuna occurrit amanti. Crudelis Minyis dixerit Ascanius.
Kst tibi non infra speciem,
non nomine dispar 5
Thiodamanteo proximus ardor Hyle:
puellam sibi fidelem sciat.’ Nzllo loco amara, ‘in no respect bitter,’ is a plausible translation; but it is not very easy to defend it by the phrase nzllo loco numerare (Cic. de Fin. ii. 28, 90, quoted by Lach- mann), which seems to be a version of the Greek οὐδαμοῦ τίθεσθαι. Hertzberg is more successful: ‘ Ubicunque moriar, mors non amara mihi erit.’ Quamvis, in v.17, certainly governs remorentur, because tamen in the next verse depends directly on such a sense. It is strange that Hertzberg should make remorentur an optative, like possis, for no other reason than that a prose writer would more accurately have written remoratura sint.—Ossa, i.e. umbra tua; but the allusion evidently is to a survivor on earth clasping the bones of a deceased relative and bedewing them with tears; which action is poetically transferred to the part of him who has previously de- ceased, and is expecting his partner in Hades. See on iii. 4, 39.
22.] Hew! is the reading of Hertzberg for ὁ, which he shews to be a common compendium with transcribers for the former interjection. The otlfer editors have a, with the ed. Rheg.—dusto is, of course, for meo busto.
23.] The words cogat and invitam are used in reference to minis, threats being the last resource adopted in overcoming the fidelity of a woman. So Ovid, Fust. 11. 806, ‘nee prece, nec pretio, nec movet ille minis.’ There is no need, therefore, with Markland and Kuinoel to understand
promissis as applied in minis.—certa, 7.¢. quamvis constans.
XX. Addressed to Gallus (supra El. v.), with the advice that he should take good care of a youth on whom he had bestowed his regards, called, probably by Gallus himself, Hylas—The poem is a very elegant one, though not one of the easiest. ‘Judice Broukhusio,’ says Barth, ‘non extat in toto Latio vexatior.’
1.1 Hoe monemus te, ne id (illud) de- fluat, excidat tibi, ‘Fortunam sepe ad- versam esse’ &c. The third line is given as a maxim: cf. 15, 42.—pro continuo amore, by (for the sake of) our long uninterrupted regard. Compare 22, 2.
3.] ‘Fortune often proves adverse to a lover when least expecting it.’
4.) Dizxerit is the reading of the Naples MS. The rest have diverat. The former is clearly right: it represents the Greek optative with ἂν, but has no precise English equivalent.—crudelis Minyis; the river Ascanius, in Bithynia, is called pitiless to the Argonauts, because it occasioned the loss of Hercules: see Theocr. Jd. xiii. The sense of the whole passage is well given by Hertzberg: ‘imprudenti amanti fortunam nocere Ascanius, crudelis olim Minyis, docuerit vel doceat.’—imprudens (improvidens) is for ixcautus: cf. Virg. Georg. 1. 373, ‘nunquam imprudentibus imber obfuit.’
6.] ‘Est tibi puer amatus simillimus et facie et nomine Hylx.’—Hertzberg.
44
PROPERTII
Hunce tu, sive leges umbrosze flumina silve, Sive Aniena tuos tinxerit unda pedes, Sive Gigantea spatiabere litoris ora,
Sive ubicumque vago fluminis hospitio,
10
Nympharum semper cupidis defende rapinis,— Non minor Ausoniis est amor Adryasin.
Ne tibi sit—durum !—montes et frigida saxa, Galle, neque experto semper adire lacus,
Quze miser ignotis error perpessus in oris
15
Herculis indomito fleverat Ascanio.
Compare proxima Lede, sup. xiii. 29. Apollodor. i. 9, 19, “YAas, 6 Θειοδάμαντος παῖς, Ἡρακλέους δὲ ἐρώμενος, ἀποσταλείς ὑδρεύσασθαι, διὰ κάλλος ὑπὸ Νυμφῶν ἡρπάγη.
7.1 Sile for silve is the ingenious cor- rection of Scaliger, approved by Jacob and Lachmann, and adopted by both Keil and Miiller. This was a mountainous forest in the district of the Bruttii, in the foot of Italy. Virg. Georg. iii. 219, ‘pascitur in magna Sila formosa juvenca,’ where the common reading is silva. An. xii. 715, ‘Ac velut ingenti Sila summove Taburno,’ &c. Both words, in fact, are the same, the insertion of the digamma in the one causing the apparent difference. Hertz- berg objects that the mention of such an out-of-the-way place would be little to the purpose, and doubts whether there is any stream there which could have been navi- gable even for a boat. He appears to be right in explaining the sense thus: ‘sive tu fluminis ripam cymba leges, sive ipso flumine natabis, sive spatiaberis in litore ; perinde cavendum a rapinis nympharum.’ —On legere see v. 4, 42.
9.7 Gigantea ora, i.e. Cume. trict known to the ancients as the Phlegraean plains, (φλεγραία πλὰξ, Adsch. Hum. 285), was the scene of the battle between the gods and the rebel giants. It derives its name from some outbreak of the volcanic fires, which ever since the historic period have been more or less active in that district.
10.] wbieungue, sc. spatiabere, Gr. ὅπου ἂν ἀλλαχοῦ or ἄλλοθι.
11.] Cupidis rapinis is the reading of Jacob and Hertzberg from MS. Groning. The other have cupidas rapinas, which in- volves the necessity of altering une into huicin y. 7, with Lachmann, Barth, Miiller, and Kuinoel. In point of construction,
The dis--
there is nothing to choose. Virg. Georg. ili. 154, ‘hune arcebis grayido pecori.’ Eel, vii. 47; Hor. Od. i. 17, 3.
12.] The MSS. have adriacis, or had- riacis. Scaliger and Kuinoel give ah! Dryasin ; Jacob, a Dryasin. Lachmann’s conjecture is ingenious and appropriate, Flydriasin, Were there more authority than there appears to be for calling the water-nymphs Ὑδριάδες, (aname only found in two late epigrams in the Greek antho- logy), no judicious critic would hesitate to adopt this reading. Hertzberg gives ddry- asin, Which he tells us Lachmann himself subsequently preferred. So also Keil and Miller. Nymphs of trees were called indifferently Dryades, Adryades, Hama- dryades.
13.] Durum! σχέτλιον, an interjection, as Lachmann, Jacob, and Hertzberg agree in printing it, while Kuinoel reads duros with Lipsius. The construction is, ne tidi sit adire; and durum is added as a dis- suasive;—‘you will find it a hard task.’ Lachmann explains ‘Nympharum fraudes vita, ne tibi per montes et saxa lacusque errandum sit, quemadmodum Herculi olim Hylam amissum querenti;’ and he ap- positely quotes Theocr. xiii. 66, ἀλώμενος ὅσσ᾽ ἐμόγησεν ὥρεα καὶ δρυμώς.
14.] Hertzberg is right, I think, in reading experto for expertos. The con- struction is continued into the next distich; ‘experto (ea) que errans Hercules per- pessus fle®erat ad indomitum (i. ¢. crude- lem, flecti nescium) Ascanium.’ Ezxpertos is improbably explained by Barth, ‘ quos noxios et Nympharum insidiis plenos semper experti sunt amantes.’ The ac- cusative however is retained by Lachmann, Keil, and Miiller. Perhaps expertos is corrupt, and the next distich was meant as an exclamation.
LIBER I.
Namque ferunt olim Pagases navalibus Argo Egressam longe Phasidos isse viam ; Et jam preteritis labentem Athamantidos undis
Mysorum scopulis adplicuisse ratem.
20
Hic manus heroum placidis ut constitit oris, Mollia composita litora fronde tegit.
At comes invicti juvenis processerat ultra
Raram sepositi querere fontis aquam.
Hunce duo sectati fratres, Aquilonia proles,
Hune super et Zetes, hunc super et Calais, Oscula suspensis instabant carpere palmis, Ocula et alterna ferre supina fuga. Ile sub extrema pendens secluditur ala,
Et volucres ramo submovet insidias.
30
Jam Pandioniz cessit genus Orithyie: Ah dolor! ibat Hylas, ibat Hamadryasin.
17.] Pagase, the port in Thessaly whence the Argonauts set sail, and from which Jason is called Pagaseus in Ovid. Fast. i. 491. Miiller reads Pagase, with Lach- mann (MSS. pegase), and Argon with the old copies.
18.] Longe isse, ‘had gone far on its voyage to the Phasis,’ viz. to the east of the Euxine.
20.] ‘Applicuisse (eos) ratem labentem,’ &c., seems a better construction than that adopted by Hertzberg, ‘ferunt Argo—ap- plicuisse ratem.’ Athamantidos undis, 1. 6. the Hellespont. Helle was daughter of Athamas. pollodor. i. 9, 1, τῶν δὲ Αἰόλου παίδων ᾿Αθάμας, δυναστεύων Bow- τίας ἐκ Νεφέλης τεκνοῖ μὲν παῖδα Φρίξον, θυγατέρα δὲ Ἕλλην. Mysorum scopulis : Apollon. Rhod. i. 1177, τῆμος ap οἵ γ᾽ ἀφίκοντο Κιανίδος ἤθεα γαίης,---τοὺς μὲν ἐϊξείνως Μυσοὶ φιλότητι κιόντας δειδέχατ᾽, ἐνναέται κείνης χθονός.
22.1 Composita fronde, Theocr. xiii. 32, λειμὼν γάρ σφιν ἔκειτο μέγας, στιβάδεσσιν ὄνειαρ.
23.] Processerat querere. sup. i. 12, tbat videre.
25.] Sectati, i.e. Hyle amore incensi. Kuinoel. Calais and Zetes, of Bopéov, are enumerated among the Argonauts by Apol- lodorus, i. 9, 16. Suspensis palmis, ‘ with their hands while balanced in the air.’ Most commentators have explained palmis by pennis, But Hertzberg aptly quotes sup. 3.16, ‘oscula sumere admota manu.’
Compare
Barth reads plumis. It is evident that the whole account is taken from some picture ; and indeed the rape of Hylas was a fa- vourite subject for vase-paintings and frescos. (A very beautiful fresco from Herculaneum is engraved in Pl. 47 of Rac- colta de pix belli dipinti di Ercolano, &c., Naples, 1854). The two winged brothers are here supposed to be hovering over Hylas, with their arms hanging down to grasp his neck, while the coy youth hides his head under his arm (ala), and tries to beat off his assailants with a branch. So Mr. Wratislaw has rightly explained the passage. He thinks pendens (29) does not mean ‘raised aloft,’ but either ‘on tip-toe’ or ‘in anxious fear.’
27.) Ferre I take for φέρεσθαι rather than for φέρειν, ‘to steal kisses from his upturned face, descending to snatch them with alternate flight,’ 7. e. first one and then the other. Compare Tibullusi. 1, 20, ‘fertis munera vestra, Lares.’ Ovid, Fast. iii. 506, ‘Hei mihi! pro ceelo qualia dona fero” ‘Hoc noyum, quod oscula que Boreades proni ferebant, supina dicuntur, quippe rapta supino Hyle.’— Hertzberg.
31.] Genus Orithyig, ie. Calais and Zetes, Boreas having carried away Orithyia for his wife. Inf. iv. 7,13, ‘infelix Aquilo, rapte timor Orithyie.’
32.] Hamadryasin is the correction of Scaliger for amnadrias hine or hamadrias hine. Ah dolor! may be compared with ‘proh pudor!’ Kuinoel and others join
40
PROPERTII
Hic erat Arganthi Pege sub vertice montis Grata domus Nymphis humida Thyniasin,
Quam supra nulla pendebant debita cure
Roscida desertis poma sub arboribus, Et circum irriguo surgebant lia prato Candida, purpureis mixta papaveribus. Quze modo decerpens tenero pueriliter ungui
Proposito florem preetulit officio ;
40
Et modo formosis incumbens nescius undis Errorem blandis tardat imaginibus.
Tandem haurire parat demissis flumina palmis Innixus dextro plena trahens humero:
Cujus ut accensee Dryades candore puelle
45
Miratze solitos destituere choros, Prolapsum leviter facili traxere liquore:
Tum sonitum rapto corpore fecit Hylas. Cui procul Alcides iterat responsa: sed illi
tbat dolor (i.e. causa amoris cum dolore conjuncti) Hamadryasin; and so Hertz- berg. The sense is, ‘No sooner has Hylas escaped from one danger, than he falls into another.’—zdat, he went on merely to be- come theirs.
33.] Pege. The singular number erat excuses the use of πηγὴ for πηγαὶ, or rather Πηγαὶ, as Hertzberg observes. Apollon. Rhod. i. 1222, αἶψα δ᾽ ὅγε κρήνην μετε- κίαθεν, ἣν καλέουσι Πηγὰς ἀγχίγυοι πε- ριναιέται. The word is corruptly written in the MSS.
35—42.] The singular beauty of these verses depends in great measure on their simplicity, but in part also in the choice and appropriate epithets. Those who con- demn the use of words of more than two syllables at the end of the pentameter will do well to study this passage.
35.] The MSS. and editors agree in nulle, an old and rare form for nzdl?.
42.] Blandis imaginibus. By looking at the pleasing shadows of himself in the clear water.
44.] Plena trahens, ‘as he drew a pitcher full.’
45.1 Dryades. According to Apollonius, in a very beautiful passage, 1. 1224—39, not only the water-nymphs, but those of the woods and mountains were celebrating a nightly dance to Artemis when Hylas came by moonlight to draw water from the
spring. —ewjus refers to humero. The nymphs saw the white-armed shoulder projecting over the bank, and left the dance to gaze at it; a highly poetical image. The apodosis to the sentence as traxere ὅζο.
48.] Sonitum fecit. ‘Dum cadit Hylas, sonum corpore lapso dedit : ad hune sonum proclamayit Hercules sepius; cui nullum tamen responsum datum, nisi ab Echo.’— Barth. My. Wratislaw says, ‘Hylas ap- pears to have made a splash, not as he slipped into the water, but as he disap- peared under it. It is to this splash that Hercules iterat responsa.’ Apollonius and Theocritus represent Hylas as calling out while under the water. Propertius does not express this, but leaves the ery for aid to be implied, by stating that Hercules answered him from afar. Whether sonitwm or Hylas is the antecedent to eu, is not very clear.—zli, Herculi, aura reddit no- men (Hyle) ab extremis fontibus. The hero called ‘Hylas!’ but only the echo, not the living voice of the ravished boy, gave the reply. Theocrit. xiii. 58: τρὶς μὲν Ὕλαν dioev, ὅσον βαθὺς ἤρυγε λαιμός" Τρὶς δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὁ παῖς ὑπάκουσεν" ἀραιὰ δ᾽ ἵκετο φωνὰ ἐξ VdaTos.—extremis appears to signify longinguis; or we must supply editum if nomen means the name of Hercules uttered from the depth of the water. Miiller ad- mits an alteration of Haupt’s, which seems very unsuited to the genius of elegy, iterat
LIBER I.
Nomen ab extremis fontibus aura refert.
47 50
His, o Galle, tuos monitus servabis amores Formosum Nymphis credere visus Hylan.
ΧΧΙ.
Tu, qui consortem properas evadere casum. Miles, ab Etruscis saucius aggeribus,
Quid nostro gemitu turgentia lumina torques ? Pars ego sum vestre proxima militie.
Sic te servato possint yaudere parentes, 5 Hee soror acta tuis sentiat e lacrimis:
responset: ut illis &e. Lachmann had be- fore proposed, with no better success, zterat, responsa det: illi &e.
§2.] Visus. ‘Who have hitherto been so careless of your Hylas, that one might suppose you intended to entrust him to the very parties who were most likely to carry him off.” Kuinoel and Barth read tutus, with Scaliger, from one inferior MS. and explain it, ‘nihil sollicitus credere.’ Lach- mann’s conjecture, jisws, is perhaps more
probable.
XXI. This Gallus, whom the reader will not confound with the high-born friend of the same name addressed in El. y., nor with Gallus the poet in iii. 26, 91, was related to Propertius, as appears from v.7 of the next elegy, and seems to have been waylaid and killed by banditti in the Perusine war, haying joined the side of Antony against Octavian. He is here re- presented as giving his dying request to a comrade, to convey to his sister. There is great pathos in these brief verses, which have an epigrammatic character not unlike the ἐπιτύμβια of the Greek Anthology.
1.1 Consortem casum, ‘casum consor- tium.’— Hertzberg. He appeals to a soldier retreating from Perusia to escape the fate of so many of his comrades.
2.] Etruscis aggeribus, the walls and fortifications of Perusia (Perugia), an im- portant town of Etruria, which was taken by siege from L. Antony’s forces by Oc- tavian, B.c.40. See 11,1, 29. Tac. Hist. 1. 60. Suet. Oct. § 14.
3.] The meaning seems to be, ‘quid torques oculos ad gemitum meum, ita ut turgeant lacrymis pre miseratione?’ If torques could be used for detorques, we might be tempted to translate, ‘Why do
you turn away your eyes, filled with tears at my moans?’
4.) Proxima both Kuinoel and Hertz- berg understand as prowxime, 7. e. modo, nuper. But he was stil/ a part, being a soldier on the same side, though wounded and dying. Why should it not mean ‘closely connected by common ties,’ as the chorus in the Agamemnon says of itself, ὡς θέλει τόδ᾽ ἄγχιστον ᾿Απίας γαίας po- νόφρουρον ἕρκος, v. 246. Compare sup. 6, 34, ‘accepti pars eris imperii.’ inf. ii. 1, 738, ‘pars juventee.’
5—6.] There is much difficulty about the reading and sense of these lines. The MSS. have wt possint, (though wt appears to have been erased from MS. Groning.) and in y. 6 zee or ne. Hee is from Pucci; the ed. Rheg. has fee. Lachmann and Hertzberg read thus :-—
Sic te servato, ut possint gaudere parentes,
Nec soror acta tuis sentiat e lacrimis ; where servato is the imperative. He is followed by Keil and Miiller. I much prefer the reading of Jacob, as given in the text. Sie te &c., is the usual form of adjuration, like Horace’s ‘sic te diva potens Cypri,’ and sentiat hee acta may be ren- dered ‘let her be apprised of what has been done to me.” wis ὁ lacrymis will then signify, ‘let her know my fate from the silent testimony of your tears;’ the particulars which follow being supposed to be learned from a subsequent verbal ac- count. But, as the word acta refers also to the last instructions about burial, as in ii. 4, 18, ‘ Accipe que serves funeris acta mei,’ this will suit the sense very well; for in v. 9 a request to look for his remains is clearly conveyed. The reading of Kui- noel, hee soror Acca &c., is the conjecture of Scaliger,
48
PROPERTII
Gallum per medios ereptum Cesaris enses Effugere ignotas non potuisse manus, Et queecumque super dispersa invenerit ossa
Montibus Etruscis, hee sciat esse mea.
10
XXII.
Qualis, et unde genus, qui sint mihi, Tulle, Penates, Queris pro nostra semper amicitia.
Si Perusina tibi patriz sunt nota sepulcra, Italie duris funera temporibus,
Cum Romana suos egit discordia cives,— 5 Sit mihi precipue, pulvis Etrusca, dolor:
Tu projecta mei perpessa es membra propinqui, Tu nullo miseri contegis ossa solo,—
Proxima subposito contingens Umbria campo
Me genuit, terris fertilis uberibus.
7.] Per medios enses, ‘from amidst the weapons.’ Propertius occasionally uses per for inter, as iv. 1, 4, and v. 4, 20.— ignotas manus, the hands of some barbarous spoiler.
8.] ‘Tell her this, that she may not search in vain for my corpse among the slain, but may know that my body was mangled and my bones scattered over the mountain passes.’
XXII. To Tullus. This is probably the same Tullus to whom the first, sixth, and fourteenth elegies were addressed. The present reply to his oft-repeated (semper, v. 2) question, as to the birth and country of the poet, would seem to show that Tullus stood in the relation of a powerful patron rather than in that of an intimate acquaintance.
2.1 Pro amicitia, as pro continuo amore, sup. 20, 1.
8.1 Perusina patrie sepulcra, i.e. the number of your own citizens (Romans) who found their graves at the siege of Perusia.—sepulte is the correction of Sca- liger.
10
6.] Pulvis Etrusca, for terra Etrusca, but used with peculiar elegance from the allusion in the next verse to the unburied bones of Gallus. The construction is, sit mihi dolor (propter te), pulvis Etrusca, quia tu perpessa es &c.—prajecta, sc. jacere ῦ
an idiom like xolim factum. Sis Barth and Kuinoel after Scaliger. Miller, after Lachmann, reads sie for sit, A neater
reading, but further from the copies, would be tu mihi.
9.] Proxima contingens, &e., ‘joining close with the champaign country beneath it.’ See lib. v.i. 121, where the poet men- - tions Mevania as in the immediate vicinity of his birth-place, which was probably Asisium (Asisi). The Umbrian, like the Etrurian, towns, seem to have been built on rocky eminences, to which allusion is made in v. 1, 125, ‘scandentisque Asis consurgit vertice murus,’ and id. 65, ‘scandentes siquis cernet de vallibus arces.’ Virg. Georg. ii. 156, ‘Tot congesta manu preruptis oppida saxis.’
ΕΡΟΡΕ ΒΕ ΤΙ
LIBER SECUNDUS.
UAERITIS, unde mihi totiens scribantur amores
J
Unde meus veniat mollis in ore liber. Non hee Calliope, non hee mihi cantat Apollo: Ingenium nobis ipsa puella facit.
Sive illam Cois fulgentem incedere coccis, 5
I. Addressed to Mecenas, who appears to have urged our poet to attempt nobler strains, and to sing res egregii Cesaris (Hor. Od. i. 6,11). To which exhortation he replies that his genius is not adapted for any but elegiac composition, and that Cynthia is his perpetual theme.
2.1 Jn ore. ‘Dum in ore versatur et legitur versus, mollis apparet.’— Hertzberg. In this sense we have in Ar. Ach. 198, κἂν τῷ στόματι λέγουσι, Bai ὅποι θέλεις. Others, as Keil and Miiller, have ix ora, with the ed. Rheg.
5—10.] The order of these three dis- tichs has been reversed by Lachmann, with the approval of Jacob and Hertzberg, followed by both Keil and Miiller. Lach- mann objects to the apodosis following the protasis in the first verse, while the con- struction of that protasis itself depends on the third (vidi). Were the reading of the fifth verse certain, it would be more easy to give a definite opinion on the necessity of the transposition. The MSS. however give caeis or chois, and cogis at the end of the line; for which Lachmann conjectured coccis, and this has been received by both Jacob and Hertzberg. Kuinoel gives in- cedere vidi, which removes the difficulty of the construction at the expense of probability, vidi being only found in two late and corrected copies. Barth has ‘sive togis illam—Cois,’ with the Aldine. It seems to me that this principle of trans-
position is rather a violent remedy; and granting that the order in the text is some- what harsh, we cannot say that it is unin- telligible, or tie Roman poetry strictly to rules drawn up by ourselves. Lachmann also reads in Coa veste for e, but the latter may surely mean that a whole book is com- posed out of, 7. δ. on the subject of, Cynthia’s dress and varied accomplishments. The toga was the dress of a meretriz ; but there is good reason to doubt whether Cynthia would have assumed that degrading habit : see oni. 2, 2. It is certainly harsh to an- ticipate vidi in v. 5, from sew vidi in y.7: see however ili. 15, 11—3, though even this leaves the principal difficulty, the apo- dosis following the ellipse, undefended. On the whole, it seems best to follow Jacob and Hertzberg in retaining the common order, and admitting coceis. Coccum is a a dye extracted from an insect on the quercus coccifera, or Kermes oak; it must not be confounded with Tyrian dye, as Martial combines ‘ Tyriasque coccinasque,’ iv. 28. Compare Hor. Sat. ii. 6, 102, ‘ru- bro ubi cocco picta super lectos canderet vestis eburnos.’ Juvenal, Sat. iii. 283, ‘coccina lena.’ In the present passage, it means not only the dye, but the dyed stola. See on i. 2, 2, and compare ii. ὃ, 15; iii. 21, 25; iv. 10, 15, whence it will appear that the poet had conceived a particular admiration for this silk dress of Cynthia’s.
Ε
50
PROPERTII
Hoc totum e Coa veste volumen erit;
Seu vidi ad frontem sparsos errare capillos, Gaudet laudatis ire superba comis ; Sive lyra carmen digitis percussit eburnis,
Miramur, faciles ut premat arte manus ,;
10
Seu cum poscentes somnum declinat ocellos, Invenio causas mille poeta novas ;
Seu nuda erepto mecum luctatur amictu, Tum vero longas condimus Iliadas ;
Seu quicquid fecit, sive est quodeumque locuta,
15
Maxima de nihilo nascitur historia. Quod mihi si tantum, Mecenas, fata dedissent, Ut possem heroas ducere in arma manus, Non ego Titanas canerem, non Ossan Olympo
Impositum, ut cli Pelion esset iter ;
20
Non veteres Thebas, nec Pergama, nomen Homeri, Xerxis et imperio bina coisse vada ;
Regnave prima Remi, aut animos Carthaginis alte, Cimbrorumque minas, et benefacta Mari;
Bellaque resque tui memorarem Czsaris, et tu
25
Czesare sub magno cura secunda fores. Nam quotiens Mutinam, aut civilia busta Philippos,
10.] Premat. ‘Comprimat manus, eas- que chordis imprimat.’ Kuinoel, absurdly. Of the two interpretations here combined, the latter appears the true one.
11.] Kuinoel reads somnus from the MS. Gron. in defence of poscentes quoting iv. 10, 12, ‘Surge, et poscentes justa pre- care deos,’ 7. 6. poscentes invocari.
15.] Seu quicquid &e. Supply meditor, or scribo de ea, quicquid fecit.—de nihilo, a whole story grows out of the most trifling incidents.
17.] ‘Had nature given me the talent of writing epic poetry, I should not have selected mythologicalsubjects for my theme, but the exploits of Cesar, and your con- nexion with them.’—heroas manus, ¢. 6. heroum copias, which the poet himself is said ducere in arma by singing of their achievements. A similar figure occurs in Horace, Od. 11. 1, 17.
18.1 Heroas manus, for heroicas, like heroas sensus afferre, Persius i, 69. Cf. i. 6, 29, ‘non ego sum laudi, non natus idoneus armis.’
20.] The MSS. vary between tmpositum and impositam. Lachmann alone has pre- ferred the latter, which, being the more obvious construction, is probably due to a correction. Understand Ossam morcem, as Ossa is feminine in Ovid, Am. 11. 1, 14, quoted by Lachmann.
22.] There is truth in Hertzberg’s re- mark, that dina coisse vada cannot possibly signify the union of two continents by a bridge over the Hellespont, since vada would here stand for litora, which is ab- surd. He understands it therefore of the canal said to have been cut through Athos, Herod. vii. 21, quoting Juyen. x. 173, ‘cre- ditur olim velificatus Athos.’ Lachmann, objecting to the form of genitive Xerzis, reads Xerxive imperio.
24.] Benefacta Mari, τὰ καλῶς πεπραγ- μένα, the victory of Marius over the Cimbri, and his other military and political achieve- ments. Similarly Tac. Amn, iii. 40, ‘ma-
jorum bona facta.’
27.] Civilia busta, ubi sepulti jacent tot ciyes. Compare ‘ patric sepulera’ i. 22, 3,
LIBER II. 1.
51
Aut canerem Sicule classica bella fuge, Eversosque focos antique gentis Etrusce,
Aut Ptolemzei litora capta Phari,
30
Aut canerem Cyprum et Nilum, cum tractus in urbem Septem captivis debilis ibat aquis,
Aut regum auratis circumdata colla catenis, Actiaque in Sacra currere rostra Via;
Te mea Musa illis semper contexeret armis,
Et sumpta et posita pace fidele caput. Theseus infernis, superis testatur Achilles,
\
—-classica bella, 7.e. navalia. He alludes to the defeat of Pompey by Octavian off the coast of Sicily, a.v.c. 718. Hor. Epod. ix. 7, ‘ut nuper, actus cum freto Nep- tunius dux fugit ustis navibus,’ &c. An event at which it would seem from Epod. i. 1—4, that Mecenas was present.
29.] Focos Etrusce gentis. The siege of Perusia. See on i. 21—2.
30.] Hertzberg is probably right in reading Ptolemeei, on the analogy of ‘Ounpetos from Ὅμηρος, Πτολεμαίειος from Πτολεμαῖος. Jacob gives Ptolemaée, Lach- mann Ptolemeée, Miller Ptolomeei. Com- pare Menelaeus, 111. 6,14. The MSS. agree in the masculine form, in defence of which Hertzberg quotes Alexandrini Phari from Suet. Claud. 20. The capture of Alex- andria by Augustus is the historical event alluded to. See Hor. Od. iv. 14, 35.
31.] Cyprum is the reading of Hertz- berg from MS.Gron. Kuinoel and Jacob give gyptum from the ed. Rheg. The Naples MS. has cyptum, which is about equally in favour of both. ‘Cyprum inter titulos triumphi referri ne mireris: hance provinciam Antonius Cleopatre gratificatus regno Aigyptiaco addiderat, non sine max- ima sui inyidia. Testes Plutarch. Anton. 86, 54. Strabo xiv. 6, extr.—Hertzierg. Miiller approves of Baehrens’ correction Coptum, citing ‘Mareotica Coptos’ from Statius, Zh. i. 264. Lachmann reads aut canere inciperem et Nilum. The metaphor of the Nile enchained, and dragged to Rome as a captive with its seven mouths, is a happy one, expressive of Egypt being reduced to a Roman province by Augustus. Compare Ovid, Fast. i. 286, ‘ Tradiderat famulas jam tibi Rhenus aquas.’
33.] ‘Reges, ante currum triumphalem ducti—intelliguntur qui Antonio Bruto Sexto Pompeio et aliis Augusti hostibus
faverant.’—Kuinoel. For aut (in 38) Lachmann reads ef, observing that 31—4 describe the details of the triumph, the former verses the events preceding it. But the poet may well be supposed to have se- lected some special characteristic of the procession, and dwelt on that in particular.
34.] The prows or rather the beaks of ships destroyed in the battle of Actium seem to have been carried in the triumphal procession along the Via Sacra to the Capitol.
35.] In celebrating the above exploits the poet declares that his Muse should ἴῃς weave the name of Mecenas, as having taken an active part in them: but whether merely by his counsels, or by having been personally present in some of the engage- ments, as Kuinoel thinks, it is not easy to decide, in the absence of direct historical testimony.
37.] Having alluded to the fidelity of Mecenas to his friend and patron Augustus the poet passes by a somewhat abrupt transition to illustrate it by the example of Theseus and Pirithous, Achilles and Pa- troclus. We must therefore simply supply sic before testatur, the sense being, ‘So Theseus makes Pirithous a witness to his friendship among the shades below, and Achilles makes Patroclus among those on earth,’ (or, the gods above). It is probable that this distich was addedas an afterthought by way of compliment to Mecenas, and that it was intended to illustrate the double re- lation of the friend to the patron, et sumpta et posita pace, by instances of fidelity apud infernos et superos ; a clumsy and pointless comparison, it must be admitted. In the short verse, it will be observed that the usual rule in the use of hic and ille is violated from the necessity of the metre. See ili, 13, 33; iv. 14, 18.
PROPERTII
Hic Ixioniden; ille Mencetiaden. Sed neque Phlegreos Jovis Enceladique tumultus
Intonet angusto pectore Callimachus ;
40
Nec mea conveniunt duro preecordia versu Cresaris in Phrygios condere nomen avos.
Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator, Enumerat miles vulnera, pastor oves ;
Nos contra angusto versantis prcelia lecto:
45
Qua pote quisque, in ea conterat arte diem. Laus in amore mori; laus altera, si datur uno
Posse frui.
Fruar o solus amore meo!
Si memini, solet illa leves culpare puellas,
Et totam ex Helena non probat Iliada.
50
Seu mihi sint tangenda noverce pocula Phadre, Pocula privigno non nocitura suo,
Seu mihi Cirezeo pereundum est gramine, sive
39.] ‘But, as Callimachus, whom I pro- pose to myself as a model, would not have lungs enough (so to say) to thunder forth the battle of the giants, so neither have I the genius to treat of Julius a magno de- missum nomen Iulo” (Virg. Ain. i. 288).— ‘Nomen condere in avos est, Caesaris nomen ad Trojanorum gentem transferre, et cele- brare inde a prima gentis origine.’ Hwinoel. —‘Celebrando Augusti nomen usque in Phrygios avos carmine ascendere,’ Hertz- berg: i.e. to trace it back till lost in the dim obscure of antiquity. — duro versu (dative) is opposed to mol/i, epic contrasted with elegiac, as has been pointed out on i.9,13. The ordinary construction would be convenit precordiis versu condere ἕο.
45.] angusto, opposed to the latus campus of real warfare.—versantis, amatoris preelia versantis se in lecto &e. This is Muller’s reading and explanation for versantes. The construction, according to Hertzberg, is, nos contra (narramus) versantes &c., the accusative versantes depending on a verb implied in enumerat, v.44. This, though rather harsh, is better than cutting the knot by reading versamus with Pucci and Kuinoel.— Qua pote. See on iv. 7, 10.
47.] In this verse the poet anticipates an objection which he feels will be raised against his profession of an amatory poet, and maintains that there is credit in an attachment which, like his own, is constant
to one object. For uno Hertzberg reads uni, and explains the sense thus: ‘ Pul- chrum est, in amore mori, pulchrum hoc quoque, si contingat ut emulis remotis unus fruaris amore; quod ut mihi con- tingat non modo opto, sed futurum esse etiam spero.’ This is not improbable; but I cannot enter into his elaborate objections to uno, the sense being sufficiently simple, ‘it is likewise a credit, if a man is privi- leged to have one and not more than one love.’ It is something to boast of, that is, to keep the object of your affection exclu- sively to yourself. And he proceeds in y. 49 to extol Cynthia’s fidelity to him. ἢ
50.] Ex Helena, δι᾽ Ἑλένην. She does not approve of the whole of the Iliad, in consequence of Helen’s character as therein depicted.
51—6.] ‘Ne efficacissimis quidem vene- ficarum potationibus adigar ut dominam prodam. Moriar potius, dum ultra vires resisto, quam seduci me patiar. Nam contra amorem Venere irata pertinaciter obnitentibus mortem certam futuram omnis antiquitas credidit.’— Hertzberg.
52.] Privigno, her step-son Hippolytus. The story here alluded to may have been given in the original play of Euripides, that which we now have being a second and altered edition, Ἱππόλυτος Στεφανη- φόρος.
LIBER II. 1.
Colchis Iolciacis urat aéna focis: Una meos quoniam predata est femina sensus,
σι οι
53
Ex hac ducentur funera nostra domo. Omnes humanos sanat medicina dolores: Solus amor morbi non amat artificem. Tarda Philoctetz sanavit crura Machaon,
Pheenicis Chiron lumina Phillyrides ;
60
Et deus extinctum Cressis Epidaurius herbis Restituit patriis Androgeona focis;
Mysus et Hemonia juvenis qua cuspide volnus Senserat, hac ipsa cuspide sensit opem.
Hoe si quis vitium poterit mihi demere, solus
Tantaleze poterit tradere poma manu. Dolia virgineis idem ille repleverit urnis,
Ne tenera assidua colla graventur aqua. Idem Caucasia solvet de rupe Promethei
Brachia, et a medio pectore pellet avem.
70
Quandocumque igitur vitam mea fata reposcent, Et breve in exiguo marmore nomen ero, Mecenas, nostre pars invidiosa juvente,
54.] The MSS. reading Colchiacis ap- pears to me so intolerable, that I have here followed Lachmann in admitting Sca- liger’s correction.—wurat aena, ὦ. e. subjecto igne calefaciat, ad me recoquendum et re- novandum.— Barth. So ‘urit officinas’ Hor. Od. i. 4, 8.
56.] “ hae domo. Latet, quod nemo sensit, ‘in hujus amplexu moriar.’’ — Hertzberg.
57—62.] The general sense is, ‘ All maladies may be cured but love.’ For the particular instances adduced, see Ovid, Met. xiii. 329; viii. 307. Deus Epidaurius in Aisculapius, who restored Androgeos, son of Minos king of Crete, to life, with some others, for which he was punished by Jupiter. See on sch. Agam. 992. Propertius is the only writer who records this legend of Androgeos.
63.] Mysus juvenis, Telephus, who was wounded by Achilles, and afterwards cured by the rust from his brazen spear, accord- ing to Pliny, V.H. xxv. 5, quoted by Kuinoel.
soak Hoe vitium, this weakness, νόσος, viz. the love of women.
66.] The MSS. have Zantalea, which both Jacob and Hertzberg retain, though
the latter strongly approves the conjecture of Beroaldus, Yantalee; and this Barth, Lachmann, and Kuinoel have admitted. The error naturally arose from the copyists misunderstanding the contracted form of the dative manu: see oni. 11,12. Never- theless, the frequent use which Propertius makes of the ablative under the most un- usual conditions renders it possible that the vulgate may be right, and may signify ita tradere ut ponantur in manu. Compare ‘cum temere anguino creditur ore manus,’ y. 8,10. The sense in either case is clear: ‘he who can cure me of love, can also put the apples in the hand of Tantalus, and fill the leaking tubs of the Danaids with their urns.’ assidua aqua, ‘by the water- pots always resting on them,’ to fill the dolium, or large earthenware jars, by water carried to it in the wrnz. For urns Miiller gives umbris after Baehrens. What he says of the vulgate, that it is ineptam, might surely be retorted on the emendation. —ne, i.e. ut non, ὥστε μὴ βαρύνεσθαι.
71.] Reposcent, shall demand back the span of life they gave me to enjoy for a time.
73.] Hertzberg, Jacob, and Miiller read pars invidiosa with the MS. Groning. Kui-
54
PROPERTII
Et vite et morti gloria justa mee,
Si te forte meo ducet via proxima busto,
75
Esseda celatis siste Britanna jugis, Taliaque illacrimans mute jace verba faville:
Huiec misero fatum dura
puella fuit.
IL.
Liber eram, et vacuo meditabar vivere lecto; At me composita pace fefellit Amor. Cur hee in terris facies humana moratur ? Juppiter, ignoro pristina furta tua. Fulva coma est, longeeque manus, et maxima toto 5
noel, Lachmann, and Keil give spes from the Naples MS. and the ed Rheg. I think Hertzberg gives a satisfactory ex- planation: ‘ xostra juventa erit Romana ;—- pars autem invidiosa juvente Romane, in- vidia dignus juvenis Romanus Mecenas dicitur, ut pars militig, pars imperii.’ (i. 21, 4; 2. 6, 34). The use of envidiosus in a good sense may be illustrated by Asch. Ag. 912, ὃ δ᾽ ἀφθόνητός γ᾽ οὐκ ἐπίζηλος πέλει. Allusion is at the same time in- tended to the Equites, who were distinct- ively called juvenes, and to whom Mzcenas prided himself in belonging. Compare iv. 9, 1, ‘Mecenas, eques Etrusco de sanguine regum.’ Hor. Od. iii. 16, 20, ‘ Mecenas, Equitum decus.’
76.] Esseda Britanna, for Britannica, as Liburna for Liburnica, iv. 11, 44. Jeno Pelasga iii. 20,11. Inda for Indica, iv. 13, 5. esseda were properly the Celtic war- chariots, which were introduced at Rome for the purposes of travelling,—with certain modifications from their barbarous form, we are bound to suppose. Kuinoel refers to Cesar, Bell. Gall. iv. 24. Sueton. Calig. 51. Virg. Georg. iii. 204.
II. This short but elegant elegy de- scribes in glowing terms his admiration of Cynthia’s beauty, and is a kind of apology for his having become so deeply enamoured of her, in violation of a solemn resolution to leave her.
1.] Querebam, Kuinoel, which has no MS. authority, and is supposed by Lach- mann to have arisen from an oversight on the part of Scaliger. It is not nearly so elegant as meditabar.—composita pace is explained by Kuinoel jicta, simudata, as
componis insidias iii. 24, 19; componere fraudes ii. 9, 31. But Lachmann (Pref. p- xxv.) understands ‘pacem integrato amore cum Cynthia factam,’ quoting from Livy ii. 13, ‘his conditionibus composita pace,’ and in. vii. 339, ‘Disjice com- positam pacem.’ Thus the sense seems rather to be, ‘I vainly flattered myself, that having made a truce with love, I should live for the future unmolested by him. Compare v. i. 138, ‘Et Veneris pueris utilis hostis eris.’ The peace is that made with Love, not that with Cynthia, as Lachmann thought. From ii. 3, 3, it seems that his resolution to live apart only lasted a month.
3.] ‘Why does so fair a form still linger on earth? I think nothing of those famous charms with which you made free, O Jupiter, when I compare them with Cynthia.’ Jgnoro approaches closely to the English use; ‘I ignore them;’ i.e. I do not take any account of them, ἐκφαυλί- (ouat.—ignosco, which is written above the word in the Naples MS., not only changes the sense materially but absolutely requires another construction. The meaning is, if Jupiter were really as amorous as he is re- presented in the legends, he certainly would have carried Cynthia up to the sky. We might, however, suggest either ignora or ignoras, ‘you disown them,’ will not admit their reality, now that so much more beautiful a woman lives on earth.
5.] Longe manus, ‘taper hands.” <A well-shaped hand is a part of a portrait which is especially regarded; and it is well known how proud the possessors of such a feature are wont to be. Cf. iii. 8, 23.—Jove digna soror, a brief expression
LIBER II. 2.
Corpore, et incedit vel Jove digna soror, Aut cum Dulichias Pallas spatiatur ad aras,
Gorgonis auguifere pectus operta comis. Qualis et Ischomache, Lapithe genus, heroine,
Centauris medio grata rapina mero,
Mercurio et Sais fertur Beebeidos undis Virgineum primo composuisse latus.
Cedite jam, dive, quas pastor viderat olim Idzis tunicas ponere verticibus.
" Hane utinam faciem nolit mutare senectus,
Etsi Cumz secula vatis aget.
for gue sit Jovis soror ; ‘worthy of Jove as his sister.’—incedit, cf. Virg. AZn. i. 45. Fulva coma est. The light flaxen hair of the Teutonic type, so common in those of Saxon descent in our country, but so rare among the black-haired and olive-complex- ioned natives of the south of Europe, was greatly admired by both Greeks and Ro- mans. The former called it ξανθὴ, a word difficult to disconnect with fafvw, on the analogy of our word flaxen. οὔλη κόμη was crisp, woolly hair, as opposed to hair which could be plaited or woven from its soft and pliant nature, and the word ξανθὴ may have passed into the secondary signi- fication of the colour of such hair.
7.] The epithet Dulichias appears to refer to some cultus of Pallas in the island of Dulichium (one of the Echinades), of which no account has come down to us. As this goddess was the especial patroness of Ulysses, in whose dominions the island lay, (see iii. 5, 4), it seems rash to alter the word to Munychias, as Kuinoel has done with some of the corrected copies. The next line describes the xgis: see on v. 9, 58. For aut eum Hertzberg and others suggest ut cum, with great probability. But the idea in the poet’s mind may have been ‘ Cynthia is as fair as Juno or Pallas.’
9.] I quite agree with Hertzberg, that the common reading, Lapithe genus heroine, cannot be defended. As the good copies agree in heroine, it seems better to consider it as the Greek form of the nominative. Lapithe is the genitive singular of Lapi- thes, the hero or eponym of the Lapithe. Ischomache (called also Hippodamia) was the wife of Peirithous, king of the Lapi- the ; and it was at her nuptials, and in consequence of her being carried off by a Centaur, that the battle between the Cen-
55 10 15 taurs and the Lapithe arose. See inf. ii,
6, 18.
11.] The Naples and Groning. MSS. have Mercurio satis. Lachmann, Kuinoel, and Keil edit sanctis from an interpoiated copy; Jacob Saitis, from his own conjec- ture: Hertzberg with Pucci, Mercurio et Sais. Miiller, with Aldus, Mercuriogue &e. For primo in the pentameter Lach- mann and Kuinoel, followed by Keil and Miiller, give Brimo (Βριμὼ) a name of Proserpine, who is said to have been as- saulted by Mercury near the Boebian lake in Thessaly ; for which legend reference is given to several grammarians in Kuinoel’s note. The correction, which is Turnebe’s, is exceedingly ingenious and probable. On the other hand, Minerva is called dis κατὰ τὴν Αἰγυπτίων φωνὴν in Pausanias, ix. 12, 2, (the reference in Hertzberg’s note to the Schol. on Aisch. Sept. c. Thed. 169 is a mistake), and all accounts repre- sent Proserpine not only as having success- fully resisted the advances of Mercury, but even as having derived her name Brimo from the terrible fury she displayed on this very occasion. But Jacob and Hertz- berg incline to the opinion that the Egypt- ian Minerva was essentially the same in her attributes as Proserpine, and that Pro- pertius has followed (as in so many other instances) a somewhat different legend from any which is known to us. A verse of Hesiod preserved by Strabo, ix. 5, is be- lieved to refer to this legend, νίψατο Βοιβιάδος λίμνης πόδα παρθένος ἀδμής.
16.] Δὲ sic Kuinoel, contrary to the good copies, and with great detriment to the sense, which is obvious: ‘may her beauty never be spoiled by age, though she live as long as the Sibyl.’
PROPERTII
III.
Qui nullam tibi dicebas jam posse nocere, Hesisti: cecidit spiritus ille tuus.
Vix unum potes, infelix, requiescere mensem, Et turpis de te jam liber alter erit.
Quzrebam, sicca si posset piscis arena, 5 Nec solitus ponto vivere torvus aper,
Aut ego si possem studiis vigilare severis: Differtur, numquam tollitur ullus amor.
Nec me tam facies, quamvis sit candida, cepit,— Lilia non domina sint magis alba mea:
Ut Meotica nix minio si certet Hibero,
Utque rose puro lacte natant folia; Nec de more come per levia colla fluentes, Non oculi, geminz, sidera nostra, faces ; Nee si qua Arabio lucet bombyce puella—
Non sum de nihilo blandus amator ego,— Quantum quod posito formose saltat Iaccho,
10
Egit ut euantes dux Ariadna choros,
III. The subject is much the same as the last. The poet admits, while he alleges the reasons of, his complete enslavement to his mistress.
1.1 The MSS. have ned/um, which Jacob alone retains, while he assents to the cor- rection of Heinsius, xelam. The poet ad- dresses himself: ‘ This then, is the end of all your boasting and fastus’ (i. 1, 3).
4.] Liber alter. The first book was therefore already published, and only a month before the commencement of the second.—de te, viz. as containing a con- fession and exposure of your frailties.
5.] Querebam, ete, ‘In this resolve’ (see v. 1 of the preceding) ‘I was in fact expecting the impossibility of an animal living out of its own element.’ On nec solitus see 111. 20, 52.
7—8.] ‘Or whether I myself could give my attention to severe studies: (but alas! in vain:) love may be put off for a time, but is never entirely removed.’ Here ego is emphatic, as in contrast with péscis and aper,
9.1 cepit, cf.i.1, 1.
11.] Minio Hibero, ‘vyermilion from Spain,’ ὦ, 6. cinnabar, or ore of Mercury. K. refers to Pliny N.H. 33,7. The μίλτος
of Homer proves its use as a colouring matter from very early times.
12.] The elegant comparison of rose- leaves in milk with the delicate contrasts of colour in a youthful face occurs also in ZEn. xii. 68, ‘aut mixta rubent ubi lilia multa alba rosa.’ (K.)
15.] ‘Si qua, i.e. si forte vel quando- cunque. Jacob; which Hertzberg ap- proves of, comparing 4m. i. 18, ‘Si qua — fata sinant.’ He might have added ib. vi. 883, ‘si qua fata aspera rumpas,’ ἤν πως. But I think sigua is for δὲ aliqua, and that the meaning is this: ‘nor is it from the mere accident of a girl dressing in silk: I am not a man to become a devoted lover on such trifling grounds.’ So iii. 4, 10, ‘Nec siqua illustres femina jactat avos.’— blandus amator, i.e. qui blanditias adhibet, qui captare studet. Jacob draws a refined distinction between ‘ guia pulcra est et guod saltat,’ and ‘si forte et quum ; the causal and the conditional. On the silk dresses of the Roman ladies see oni. 2,2. Becker, Gallus, p. 442 &e.
17.] From this verse (and inf. 33) the true character of Cynthia (¢.e, as a mere- trix) is sufficiently apparent. For her polite accomplishments see i. 2, 27.
LIBER II. 8.
57
Et quantum, Aolio cum tentat carmina plectro, Par Aganippez ludere docta lyre, 20 Et sua cum antique committit scripta Corinne, Carminaque Erinnes non putat equa suis. Num tibi nascenti primis, mea vita, diebus Candidus argutum sternuit omen Amor ?
Hee tibi contulerunt cxlestia munera divi;
Hee tibi ne matrem forte dedisse putes. Non, non humani sunt partus talia dona ;
Ista decem menses non peperere bona. Gloria Romanis una es tu nata puellis;
Romana accumbes prima puella Jovi.
30
Nec semper nobiscum humana cubilia vises; Post Helenam hee terris forma secunda redit.
Hac ego nunc mirer si flagrat nostra juventus ? Pulchrius hac fuerat, Troja, perire tibi.
Olim mirabar, quod tanti ad Pergama belli
19.] For £olio Miiller Aonio.
20.] <Aganippee lyre, the Muses.—par appears to be the nominative.
21.] £t cum, ‘and when &c.” Hertz- berg rightly observes that Corinne is the dative, being used for seriptis Corinne by a well-known idiom. Otherwise the con- struction might have been cum (scriptis) Corinne, σὺν τοῖς τῆς &c., but that the poet would have written Corinnes, as Hertz- berg remarks. Compare ii. 8, 23, ‘Et sua cum miserz permiscuit ossa puelle.’
22.] The MSS. generally have carmina que quivis (evidently a correction), or gue lyrnes. The latter (in MS. Gron.) retains a vestige of the true reading, which was restored by Beroaldus.— Corinna was a Beeotian poetess, contemporary with Pindar. Erinna lived still earlier (about B.c. 600). Both composed in the Aolic dialect, whence Holio plectro, v.19. There can be no doubt that in the Augustan age the ancient lyric poetry of Greece was extant, and ex- tensively read and imitated.—The senti- ment, perhaps, is not intended to be so boastful as it appears at first sight: ‘she vies with the poetesses of old’ is what the poet wished to express. There is an hy- perbole however in either case.
24.) The MSS, have arduus or ardidus. Kuinoel gives aureus from Heinsius. Jacob and Lachmann candidus, which, being pre-
conjectures
35
served by Macrobius, who quotes this verse (though with the error of auguste for ar- gutum), seems evidently the true reading, especially as the accidental omission or ob- literation of the initial C would account for the reading ardidus. Hertzberg’s usual good judgment fails him here, when he says there is no reason why we should re- ject ardidus, (which he gives in the text), since it may have been formed from ardeo after the analogy of timidus, tumidus, fer- vidus, &e. The appeal to what may have been is always unsafe in a critic, who has only to deal with what is, in the state in which a language exists as known to him, The omen of sneezing was considered lucky even from the time of Homer (0d. xvii. 541), and a similar passage to the present is quoted from Theocr, vii. 96, Σιμιχίδᾳ μὲν Ἔρωτες ἐπέπταρον.
26.] Forte (ἱ. ὁ. fortuito) dedisse are to be connected, though ne forte putes is de- fensible if we suppose an ellipse, as (‘which I say) lest’? &c. On the rhyme in the following distich see i. 17, 5.
30.] The MSS. have accumbens. With some probability Lachmann and Jacob pro- pose to change the order of these lines, so that nec semper &e. should be followed by Romana aceumbes &e.
33.] Flagrat Keil and Miiller for fagret. —hac, sc. quam Helena, ἢ, 6, propter Helenam.
58
PROPERTII
Europe atque Asiz causa puella fuit: Nunc, Pari, tu sapiens, et tu, Menelae, fuisti, Tu, quia poscebas, tu, quia lentus eras. Digna quidem facies, pro qua vel obiret Achilles;
Vel Priamo belli causa probanda fuit.
40
Si quis vult fama tabulas anteire vetustas, Hic dominam exemplo ponat in arte meam:
Sive illam Hesperiis, sive Ulam ostendet Kois, Uret et Koos, uret et Hesperios.
His saltem ut tenear jam finibus; at mihi siquis,
38.] Lentus, sc. in reddendo quam in- juria rapuisti. This is a clever distich.
39.] ‘Beauty (in the abstract) I now feel to have been worth dying for, even if it cost the life of an Achilles; nay, it was deserving of approval (probari debebat) as a motive for war even by the aged Priam.’ Lachmann reads foret withthe MS. Groning. But this would imply the awkward ellipse of vel (que) foret, &c., the subjunctive depending on digna. The same MS. has Priamus. The verse has evidently been tampered with. Allusion is made to that fine scene, JJ, iii. 154.
42.] ‘Let that man portray my mis- tress.’—ponere in arte is so natural and correct an expression, that it seems sur- prising how Jacob and Lachmann should have preferred i” ante, the reading of the Naples and Groning. MSS. Of the con- fusion between ἢ and + we have had an instance in ardidus for (c)andidus sup. v. 24. Lachmann says, ‘ante verissimum est :—id est, ante quam alias tabulas ponat, pro exemplo pingat dominam nostram.’ Truly, a most meagre sentiment.—exemplo, as an original to copy.
43.] ‘Omnes quicunque Cynthia imag- inem viderint, sive sint Hoi, sive Hesperii, eam deperibunt.’—Auinoel. ‘If the artist shall but exhibit the portrait of Cynthia to the nations of the east or the west, they will all be enamoured of her beauty.’ Lachmann has a long note on this passage, of more curious learning than of practical utility, in which he collects from the best poets many examples of words repeated with a change of the ictus, as in the present instance, ‘sive illam Hesperiis, sive illam ostendet Kois.’
45.] With this verse Keil and Miiller with Jacob and Lachmann commence a new elegy, and print it in continuation with the next, contrary to the authority
45
of the MSS. Lachmann writes at great length, but by no means convincingly, in favour of his new arrangement. ‘Cum neque illi decem versus’ (he says) ‘ His sallem etc. prioribus commode conjungi queant, et hi versus Multa prius ete. in carminis principio positi difficiles intellectus habeant, quid probabilius est quam illos decem versus ad hoe posterius carmen per- tinere?’ But, if the sentiment here enun- ciated seems abrupt, is it not still more so at the beginning of another poem? Hertzberg appears to judge more correctly in the following words (Qwest. Lib. ii. cap. v. p. 86), ‘Non raro poematia diversi illa quidem argumenti, sed quae una eademque occasione nata exiguo temporis spatio inter- jecto scripta aut essent aut fingerentur, ab ipso poeta ita sunt conjuncta, ut, quomodo ab artificibus plures seepe statuas in unum argumentum compositas esse videmus, sic in unius quodammodo corporis membra coirent.’ He therefore places a mark of separation in this and other instances, to show the addition of an afterthought, or rather a postscript, to the poem as origin- ally completed. The idea in the poet’s mind seems to have been this: Cynthia’s charms are such, that my former vows to live vacuo lecto were not broken without some excuse. My object now is to keep within the limits of this one new affection; for, since I experience such pangs in this, what should I suffer were another and still more ardent passion to possess ΠῚ δ᾽ For aut mihi st quis Lachmann and Keil give hei mihi, si quis, Miller δὲ mihi, Hertzberg ah mihi, si quis &c. I have some confi- dence in restoring at mihi si quis, which, like the Greek ἀλλ᾽ ei, ‘but what if,’ furnishes the exact sense required. Com- pare Ovid, Fast. ii. 399, ‘at si quis vestree deus esset originis auctor,’ if some fastidi- ous critic should require an example of the
LIBER II. 4.
59
Acrius ut moriar, venerit alter amor! Ac veluti primo taurus detrectat aratra,
Post venit assueto mollis ad arva jugo, Sic primo juvenes trepidant in amore feroces,
Dehinc domiti post hac equa et imiqua ferunt.
50
Turpia perpessus vates est vincla Melampus, Cognitus Iphicli subripuisse boves ;
Quem non lucra, magis Pero formosa coegit, Mox Amythaonia nupta futura domo.
ye
Multa prius dominz delicta queraris oportet, Sepe roges aliquid, seepe repulsus eas,
Et spe immeritos corrumpas dentibus ungues, Et crepitum dubio suscitet ira pede.
Nequicquam perfusa meis unguenta capillis,
σι
Ibat et expenso planta morata gradu. Non hie herba valet, non hie nocturna Cyteis,
concurrence of these words. At the same time I am aware that at is not commonly used in interrogative sentences, and there- fore it seems best to regard it as inter- jectional.—acrius ut moriar, like peream, must be understood metaphorically, of the distresses of love; as indeed acriter mort would have no meaning taken literally.
50.) Ferunt, se. que 510] imperat domina.
51.] Melampus, son of Amythaon and brother of Bias, according to the common legend, undertook to drive the herd of Iphiclus for Neleus, the father of the fair Pero, that Bias might possess her as a wife. See Theocr.iii.43; Hom. Od.xi. 290, xy. 225. Melampus however was caught in the attempt, and imprisoned for a time by Iphiclus. Being a seer, προεῖπεν ὅτι φωραθήσεται, καὶ δεθεὶς ἐνιαυτὸν, οὕτω τὰς βοῦς λήψεται, Apollodor.i.9, 12. But, as Hertzberg remarks, our poet clearly re- presents Melampus himself to have been enamoured of Pero; otherwise there would be no point whatever in the illustration. The context shows, that Melampus had re- fused the offer of bribes, but yielded through love of Pero, though destined to be his brother's bride.
IV. Under the form of counsel and warning to a friend, the poet describes his
own experience in love. He appears to have written this elegy when smarting under some provocation or disappointment.
1—4.] ‘You will have to complain of many wrongs and many refusals; you will give way to much ill-temper and im- patience, before the course of love becomes smooth for you.’—immeritos, you will gnaw the nails which deserved no such ven- geance; cf. v. 3,19, and 7b. 4, 23.—crepitum suscitet (oportet), the creaking of the shoe from hasty and irresolute steps seems in- tended. Others explain it of the noise made by stamping on the ground. The latter is the more natural action, the former the more correct meaning of the word. Crepare however is used even of the notes of a pipe, v. 7, 25. «nerepare of the sharp ringing sound of a bow, ib. 3, 66, fragor increpat, Ain. viii. 527.
5.] ‘I found it of no avail to perfume my hair and to walk with slow and meas- ured step,’ ἁβρὸν βαίνειν, 1. e. in attempt- ing to win the favour of Cynthia. The commentators compare the Greek expres- sion μετὰ ῥύθμου βαίνειν.
7—14.] ‘Nor can love be treated as an ordinary malady, and cured by diet or drugs,’ (as some think φίλτρα will cure it). —Cyte@is, i.e. Medea: see on i. 1, 24.— nocturna, because spells were practised at
60
PROPERTII
Non Perimedee gramina cocta manus. Quippe ubi nec causas nec apertos cernimus ictus,
Unde tamen veniant tot mala, ceca via est.
10
Non eget hic medicis, non lectis mollibus eger ; Huic nullum celi tempus et aura nocet. Ambulat, et subito mirantur funus amici: Sic est incautum, quicquid habetur amor.
Nam cui non ego sum fallaci preemia vati ?
15
Quze mea non decies somnia versat anus ? Hostis si quis erit nobis, amet ille puellas; Gaudeat in puero, si quis amicus erit.
Tranquillo tuta descendis flumine cymba :
Quid tibi tam parvi litoris unda nocet ?
20
Alter sepe uno mutat pracordia verbo, Altera vix ipso sanguine mollis erit.
night, by the aid of Hecate and in presence of the moon. Perimede was a celebrated enchantress, mentioned in connexion with Medea by Theocritus ii. 16. Apollodorus (i. 7, 3) records the name of Perimede daughter of Molus king of Thessaly, who is perhaps the same, that country being renowned for witches. —The MSS. give per Medee, which Beroaldus corrected from alate MS. Lachmann and Hertzberg ex- plain manus by turbe2,—i.e. venefice in general; in which opinion I cannot follow them. Why should not ‘herbs distilled (cocta) by the hand of Perimede’ be allowed to signify philtres made after her recipe?
10.] Zamen. The sense is, ‘ For, where we cannot see the cause of the malady, the course of all these evils (which never- theless do spring from some source) is un- certain, and their treatment empirical.’ Hertzberg well compares v. 5 of the next elegy, and Ovid, Fast. i. 495, ‘Nec fera tempestas toto tamen horret in anno,’ though he has added other passages which are not to the point.
11.] ‘It is no bodily affection; neither the season nor malaria has hurt him: he walks about in apparent health, and—drops down dead.’ He means to express the perplexing nature of the malady of love, by comparing it with some obscure ailment (as disease of the heart) in which nothing
does the patient any good, and by which he is suddenly carried off without, as it were, being actually ill.
14.] Ineautum, ἀφύλακτον, 1.6. non precavendum,. — guicguid habetur amor, quicquid illud est quod dicitur amare, ‘ the thing men call Love.’ So Ovid, Her. xi. 32, ‘Nec noram quid amans esset; at illud eram.’ Eur. Hippol. τί τοῦθ᾽, ὅ δὴ λέγου- σιν ἀνθρώπους ἐρᾶν;
15.] ‘How many seers and beldames have I not paid to interpret my dreams and tell me my fortune? Theocr. ii. 90, καὶ ἐς τίνος οὐκ ἐπέρησα; ἢ ποίας ἔλιπον γραίας δόμον, ἅτις ἐπᾷδεν ;
18.] Jn puero, in amasio. So vy. 8, 63, ‘Cynthia gaudet in exuviis victrixque re- currit.’ ‘My worst wish to an enemy is that he may be captivated by women; to a friend I would say, fix your regard upon a youth, where (inf. 19—22) the course of affection is smooth, and safe from rocks and shoals. The one is mollified by a word; the other is scarcely appeased by your very life-blood.’ On in puero see on 1.138, 7, v. 8, 63.
20.] Unda parvi litoris, ‘you will re- ceive no harm from sailing in a small creek, which has none of the dangers of a great sea.’ Hither Zitus here means ripa, or Jlumine means estu, the current or motion of the sea.
LIBER II. 5.
61
We
Hoc verum est, tota te ferri Cynthia, Roma, Et non ignota vivere nequitia ?
Hee merui sperare? dabis mihi, perfida, poenas; Et nobis aliquo, Cynthia, ventus erit.
Inveniam tamen e multis fallacibus unam, Ὁ Que fieri nostro carmine nota velit,
Nec mihi tam duris insultet moribus, et te
Vellicet.
Heu sero flebis amatu diu!
Nune est ira recens, nunc est discedere tempus:
Si dolor abfuerit, crede, redibit amor.
10
Non ita Carpathiz variant Aquilonibus unde, Nec dubio nubes vertitur atra Noto,
Quam facile irati verbo mutantur amantes: Dum licet, injusto subtrahe colla jugo.
Nec tu non aliquid, sed prima nocte dolebis:
15
Omne in amore malum, si patiare, leve est. At tu, per domine Junonis dulcia jura,
V. He upbraids Cynthia with an in- constancy which was so notorious as to have become common gossip ; and threatens to leave her, and write verses in praise of one more deserving of the honour. It is clear he feels himself piqued as a poet, as well as aggrieved as a man.
1.1 Ferri, ‘differri, diffamari.’— Huznoel.
4.1] The MSS. agree in et nobis Aquilo, a reading which, as Hertzberg pleasantly remarks, ‘immanes tempestates interpret- ibus movit.’ Accordingly, he admits aliguo, which is the almost certain correction of Lachmann, (or rather, his improvement upon Burmann’s emendation alio). The sense will then be, ‘ We too will sail some- where else,’ ¢.e. I will attach myself to some other mistress. The metaphor we have just seen in the preceding elegy, vv. 19, 20. Jacob, while he retains the vulgate, assents to the correction. Should any one insist on the MSS. reading, perhaps eris for erit would afford the best solution of the diffi- culty; ‘I tco (like other disappointed lovers) shall hold you as fickle as the wind.’ And this well suits not only inf. 11, but also the following distich: ‘ Yet, fickle as women are, I shall find some one who will be faithful to me, and will like to become known through my verse,’ ¢.e. who
will be grateful for the compliment. Other- wise (viz. reading aliguo) we must refer tamen to the use noticed above, 4, 10.
8.1 Vellicet. ‘Verbum vindicte femi- new in rivalem alteram apprime conyeniens; te insectabitur, per ora hominum traducet. Horat. Serm. i. 10, 79, vellicat absentem Demetrius.’—Kuinoel. It may mean, ‘ vex and annoy you by the contrast of her at- tachment with your levity.’
11.] Non ita, supply facile.—variant, ‘change colour.’ See y. 2, 13, and on i. NYE
14.] Subtrahe. He addresses himself, (as also, perhaps, in 9—10) and argues the necessity of immediate separation, having felt his own weakness in keeping resolu- tions before, ii. 8, 4.—cnjusto, iniquo, ‘ill- matched.’ Virg. Georg. iii. 347, ‘Non secus ac patriis acer Romanus in armis Injusto sub fasce viam quum carpit.’
15.] ‘Dolebis, sed iste dolor non ultra prime noctis spatium protendetur.’—Kui- noel. Here also the poet addresses himself.
17.] After threatening Cynthia that he will abandon her for ever, he relents, and has recourse to the most gentle and winning expostulation. Propertius is eminently a poet of the heart. He carries with him the whole sympathy of the reader; and
62
PROPERTII
Parce tuis animis, vita, nocere tibi. Non solum taurus ferit uncis cornibus hostem,
Verum etiam instanti lesa repugnat ovis.
20
Nec tibi perjuro scindam de corpore vestem, Nec mea preclusas fregerit ira fores;
Nec tibi connexos iratus carpere crines, Nec duris ausim leedere pollicibus:
Rusticus hee aliquis tam turpia prelia queerat,
25
Cujus non hedere circuiere caput. Scribam igitur, quod non umquam tua deleat tas: CYNTHIA FORMA POTENS, CYNTHIA VERBA LEVIS. Crede mihi, quamvis contemnas murmura fame,
Hic tibi pallori, Cynthia,
versus erit. 30
Vi.
Non ita complebant Ephyrez Laidos des, Ad cujus jacuit Greecia tota fores, Turba Menandrew fuerat nec Thaidos olim
the singular charm of his verses consists in their intense feeling, while Ovid is more indebted to his art in versification for mak- ing an impression on the affections. —tuis animis, ‘through your own waywardness.’
18.] wis animis, ista ferocia, ‘by that high spirit of yours.’
19—20.] ‘Even a naturally harmless and quiet disposition can resent, if irritated beyond endurance.’
21.] Nec, i.e. nec tamen, ‘Not that my revenge shall consist of vulgar violence. No! I ama poet, and you shall be punished by a verse’ (28).
23.] Connexos, put together by a comb or hair-pins. Cf. v. 5, 31, ‘si tibi forte comas vexaverit utilis ira.’
27.) Quod non unquam &c., ‘which will be remembered as long as you live.’ The subjunctive expresses the nature and quality of the verse. Cf. 6, 38.
28.] Verba levis, i.e. false in her pro- fessions of fidelity. Kuinoel and Barth read forma levis, inferior in sense (if indeed, it has any meaning at all, except that in i. 4, 9, quoted by Lachmann), and contrary to the authentic copies. Of all the ab- surdities (and they are not few) inflicted by Scaliger on Propertius, his emendation of this verse bears the palm: ‘Cynthia formipotens, Cynthia verbilevis.
29.] Contemnis Kuinoel and Barth, con- trary to the MSS. and the usage of the best writers. Not that guamvis, when used for quamquam (καίτοι), may not be followed by an indicative, (as Virg. Eel. iii. 84, inf. 8, 27), but that in this case it bears its proper sense of however much, and therefore requires the conjunctive.
VI. The subject of this elegy is so in- timately connected with the last, that it is surprising that no adventurous editor has proposed to print it continuously. Jacob and Lachmann, (whom Keil and Miiller more or less closely follow) have introduced marks of lacune in several places (after v. 24, 26, 34, 36), though there is no proof of anything having been lost except a certain abruptness, more imaginary than real,—certainly not greater than the ex- citement of the writer’s mind would fairly account for. Of this propensity to ‘ dis- junctiveness’ we shall have many other instances to discuss in the present and succeeding books.
1—3.] Lais of Corinth and Thais of Alexandria were celebrated courtesans, whose beauty and accomplishments capti- vated the richest and greatest men of their day. The first lived in the time of the Peloponnesian war: the second was con-
LIBER II. 6.
63
Tanta, in qua populus lusit Erichthonius,
Nec que deletas potuit componere Thebas 5 Phryne, tam multis facta beata viris.
Quin etiam falsos fingis tibi seepe propinquos, Oscula nec desunt qui tibi jure ferant.
Me juvenum picte facies, me nomina ledunt,
Me tener in cunis et sine voce puer;
10
Me ledit, si multa tibi dedit oscula mater, Me soror, et cum qua dormit amica simul. Omnia me ledunt ;—timidus sum; ignosce timori ;— Et miser in tunica’ suspicor esse virum.
temporary with Alexander and the Ptole- mies, who are said not to have been in- sensible to her charms. She is called ‘Thais pretiosa Menandri’ in v. 1, 43, from that poet having inscribed a play with her name.
4.] ZLusit, ‘disported itself,’ ‘found amusement.’ Others render it, ‘who was the object of their amours.’ See iii. 9, 24, and i. 10, 9.—in gua, ‘in the drama called after her name.’ See note on i. 13. 7.— populus Erichthonius, the Athenians.
5.] Phryne, a contemporary of Thais, was a renowned beauty born in Beotia, and so popular with the gay and the wealthy that she offered to rebuild Thebes at her own expense on condition that Alexander who destroyed it would consent to allow an inscription to record the facts. —componere, ‘to put together,’ 7. 6. rebuild. There is, of course, nothing in the word which of itself can imply reponere. This sense is derived from the epithet deletas. Kuinoel endeavours to elicit such a mean- ing from ‘urbem componere terra,’ Zn. lii. 587, and ‘componere templa,’ Ovid, Fast. 1, 708. With the latter passage the sense of vy. 9, 74, accords better than the verse before us. In the first six lines we notice the compliment paid to Cynthia, by comparing her successes with those of the most celebrated ἑταῖραι of antiquity, to- gether with a reproach for her shameless infidelity. The poet proceeds to express his jealous fears lest every pretended rela- tion of Cynthia should prove a lover in disguise, and every portrait a souvenir of some favoured admirer.
6.] acta beata, made rich by the costly presents of so many admirers.
8.] Nec desunt. There is a slight irony in this: ‘you say they are only cousins, who have a right to salute you.’ Jacob
(probably by an oversight) has edited with Kuinoel and the emendated copies ne desint.
9.1 Numina, Kuinoel, with one or two of the interpolated copies. This reading Hertzberg thinks ‘non inficetum,’ suppos- ing with others that portraits of the gods may be meant, made to represent, accord- ing to a custom not unusual, likenesses of friends and admirers. But nomina (i.e. juvenum) pronounced by Cynthia as if speaking of her relations, is far more simple and natural, and has all the good copies in its favour.
10.] Puer. Cynthia had no child of her own. (See iii. 9, 33, ‘cum tibi nec frater, nec sit tibi filius ullus.’) The child alluded to does not therefore imply any fear that it was Cynthia’s by another father, but simply that the poet is jealous of the kisses bestowed even on a child in the cradle: an hyperbole, as in the follow- ing distich.
12.] Cum qua, &c., et ea, cum qua amica dormit, ὦ. 6. even though my suspicions might fairly be removed by the circum- stance. The two sleeping together would at least not indicate a lover’s cunning device to obtain Cynthia. Amica is not Cynthia, but any friend or attendant; the idea uppermost in the poet’s mind being, that a lover is lurking under this or that character, even though a female one. Cum que, the correction of Dousa, i.e. cum aliqua, for si gua, has received the appro- bation of Lachmann, Hertzberg, Jacob, Keil, and Miiller.
14.] In tunica. Although this garment was worn by men, as was the toga under certain circumstances by women, it is clear from this passage that the two words, in a general sense, represent the distinctive dresses of the sexes. Compare y. 2, 23.
64
PROPERTII
His olim, ut fama est, vitiis ad prelia ventum est: 15 His Trojana vides funera principiis.
Aspera Centauros eadem dementia jussit Frangere in adversum pocula Pirithoum.
Cur exempla petam Graium? tu criminis auctor,
Nutritus duro, Romule, lacte lupe.
20
Tu rapere intactas docuisti impune Sabinas; Per te nune Rome quidlibet audet Amor. Felix Admeti conjunx et lectus Ulixis, Et quecumque viri femina lmen amat.
Templa Pudicitiz quid opus statuisse puellis,
Si cuivis nuptze quidlibet esse licet ?
Que manus obscenas depinxit prima tabellas, Et posuit casta turpia visa domo,
Illa puellaruam ingenuos corrupit ocellos,
Nequitizque suze noluit esse rudes.
30
Ah gemat, in terris ista qui protulit arte Jurgia sub tacita condita leetitia.
15—24.] The connexion of these verses with the preceding seems to be this: ‘Such indeed are the frauds which women have ever practised, and such are the jealousies of men consequent upon them.’ Of the latter he proceeds to give examples. ‘De mu- lierum libidine accipias, quam efficere dicit, ut jure meritoque aliquis timeat.’ —Lachm.
17.] ‘ The same infatuation led the Cen- taurs to break embossed beakers over the head of Pirithous.’ See note on ii. 2, 9.
20.) Dura, Lachmann, Miiller, and Kuinoel, with one late MS. Hertzberg compares v. 4, 52, ‘dura papilla lupe.’
21.] Compare συ. 4, 57, ‘at rapte ne sint impune Sabine, me rape.’
23.] Ulyxis. According to analogy, this word should be written Olixis, and so (if I remember aright) Dr. C. Wordsworth copied it from the walls of Pompeii. Lach- mann gives Ulizi. The Greek 6 passes into the Latin 7, as in δάκρυ, lacrima, Ke.
25.] Templa. There were two, dedi- cated to P. patricia, in the forum boarium, and to P. plebeia, in the Vicus Longus. Livy, x. 23. The poet shows the absurdity and the mockery of public temples to Chastity, while every private house tended to a violation of that virtue by its internal decorations. The passage 27—386 is a very fine one; and it is curious to remark the ideas of morality which could induce a
Propertius so feelingly to bewail the de- pravity of the women, unconscious of his own delinquencies.
26.] Quidlibet, i.e. not only a wife to her husband but a concubine to others. There seems no need of Lachmann’s read- ing cuilibet, found in inferior copies. He thinks nupta is here not confined to the meaning of ‘lawful wife,’ but ‘de illegiti- mo quoque amore dicitur.’
27.] Yabellas. From v. 34 it seems clear that the fresco paintings are meant, which were very frequently of the most amorous, not to say indecent description. To them perhaps Juvenal alludes in the celebrated lines, ‘ Nil dictu feedum visuque hee limina tangat, intra que puer est.’ I scarcely comprehend on what ground Hertzberg, on vy. 34, after Welcker, says, ‘non picturas tectorias, sed tabellas parieti- bus inclusas,’ comparing the present verse.
31.] Gemat, οἰμώξειε. In terris for sub terris, says Kuinoel. There is no ground for such an interpretation: it is better to connect én terris with what follows.
32.] Jurgia. The quarrels and disputes of lovers, originating from what was meant tacitly to please the eye. The latter being the secret source of the former, are said condere, to conceal them. Jurgia are the same as the Greek νείκη, a word peculiarly applied to disputes caused by jealousy.
LIBER II. 7.
Non istis olim variabant tecta figuris: Tum paries nullo crimine pictus erat.
Sed non immerito velavit aranea fanum,
Et mala desertos occupat herba Deos. Quos igitur tibi custodes, que limina ponam, Quze numquam supra pes inimicus eat ?
Nam nihil invite tristis custodia prodest:
Quam peccare pudet, Cynthia, tuta sat est.
40
Nos uxor numquam, numquam diducet amica: Semper amica mihi, semper et uxor eris.
gar
Gavisa est certe sublatam Cynthia legem, Qua quondam edicta flemus uterque diu,
35.] ‘ Hoc distichon, presertim hoc loco positum, intelligi nullo modo potest,’ Lach- mann; who places the mark of a lacuna before it. Hertzberg would read sed nune immerito. It is difficult to see what the editors object to in the vulgate, of which the sense is by no means obscure: ‘ But now religion has fled; the temples (viz. of Mens, Fides, Pudicitia &c.,) are deserted ; vice and immorality prevail, and the gods are neglected. How therefore (vy. 37) shall I keep my Cynthia virtuous, apart from her moral sense?’ —wnon immerito, ‘not without good reason,’ ¢.e. no wonder the temples are deserted when all regard for piety is lost.
37.] Que limina, he should rather have said inveniam, but he uses ponam in direct reference to custodes. Lachmann reads que ad limina, which makes an awkward elision, and is not necessary for the sense. —eat, see sup. 5, 27.
39.] Nihil prodest invite, t.e. nolenti pudicam esse non opus est custodem im- ponere: ‘persuasze fallere rima sat est,’ y. 1, 146.
42.] ‘For my part, I can assert that neither wife nor mistress shall ever draw me away from my Cynthia.’ Keil and Miiller mark a Jacuna before the final distich. The point of it appears to be, that Propertius will remain faithful, though Cynthia be unfaithful. Such professions, made on the ardour of the moment or for a purpose, are hardly to be expected to possess the close coherence which a less impassioned reasoning might claim. But
it is probable the allusion to wor is the same as in the following elegy. The MSS. give me ducet. To avoid the change of nos and me, Lachmann gives diducet, (the Ro- man edition of 1482 haying deducet), Kui- noel wxor me nunquam.
VII. He congratulates Cynthia on his not being compelled by the law to take a wife, and so obliged to desert his mistress, A poem remarkable for its pathos and ten- derness.
1.1 Gavisa es Lachmann, Keil, Miiller with Burmann.
Ibid. Sublatam legem. Tacit. Ann. iii. 25: ‘Relatum deinde de moderanda Papia Poppa, quam senior Augustus, post Julias rogationes, incitandis celibum pcenis et augendo erario sanxerat. Nec ideo con- jugia et educationes liberum frequenta- bantur, prevalida orbitate: ceterum multi- tudo periclitantium gliscebat, cum omnis domus delatorum interpretationibus sub- verteretur; utque antehac flagitiis, ita tune legibus laborabatur.’ See on this passage the excellent note of the last editor, Ritter. The Julian law alluded to he considers to have been revived in the year of the city 736; and certainly it was in force in 737, when Horace speaks of the ‘ patrum decreta super jugandis feminis, Carm. Sec. 17; but it was found so impracticable that it had to be modified shortly afterwards. An historical difficulty occurs in the discrepancy of dates, since the present book is shewn by Hertzberg to have been written in 728, and he is therefore driven to the supposition
F
66
PROPERTII
Ni nos divideret; quamvis diducere amantes Non queat invitos Juppiter ipse duos.
At magnus Cesar;—sed magnus Cesar in armis: 5 Devictz gentes nil in amore valent.
Nam citius paterer caput hoc discedere collo, Quam possem nuptz perdere amore faces,
Aut ego transirem tua limina clausa maritus,
Respiciens udis prodita luminibus.
“10
Ah mea tum qualis caneret tibi, Cynthia, somnos Tibia, funesta tristior ila tuba! Unde mihi patriis gnatos preebere triumphis ?
that some previous attempt of Augustus must be alluded to, (see Quest. Prop. p. 224 seq.) and that the ‘Julia rogationes’ of Tacitus must be understood of a bill founded on Julius Cesar’s edict by Au- gustus, but which never passed into a law. The Lex Papia Poppa was not carried till the year 762, or a.v. 9. The reason why Propertius could not have married Cynthia was that she was a meretrix ; and such were not allowed by the Roman law to marry with imgenui. See Hertzberg, Quest. lib. I. cap. vi. p. 386. Kuinoel’s in- troductory note contains some errors from a misconception of the real character of Cynthia, whom he regards, and often de- scribes in his commentary, as a lady of high birth.
3.] Ni nos divideret. The sense is, ‘flentes timebamus ne nos divideret.’ Nz is an old usage for ve, which latter is the reading of the Groning. MS. Hertzberg rightly shows that since ‘quicunque filet, aut doleat aut metuat necesse est,’ the con- struction is sometimes adapted to both of these meanings. (Quest. p.156). In divi- dere and diducere a difference of sense seems intended: ‘the law might separate us, though Jove himself could not break the bonds of mutual affection.’
5.] It is not very clear whether we should understand at magnus (est) Cesar, or at magnus Cesar diducere potest or po- terat. The latter is the construction adopt- ed by Lachmann and Kuinoel, and also by Hertzberg, who considers the flattery of making Augustus superior to Jove not too gross for the age: and he is right. But the poet may be supposed to correct himself after making an apparently disparaging re- mark on Cesar’s law; ‘I admit indeed that he is great; but his greatness is in arms, not in controlling affections: and I
say that neither he nor Jove himself can do this.’—devicte gentes, &c. for ‘ devicisse gentes nil valet.’ Cf. dn. xi. 268, ‘de- victam Asiam subsedit adulter.’
8.] Faces. ‘Intellige flammas amoris ingenuas, quas matrimonio perdere vere- atur poeta.’ Hertzberg; who compares i. 18, 26, and i. 18, 21. The earlier com- mentators absurdly explained this ‘faces nuptiales inutili sumptu dispendioque frus- tra prodigendas.’
9.] The construction is, aut (quam) transirem &c., ‘I would sooner die than have to pass by your house, and see it abandoned and closed, as I proceed to my home in the marriage procession.’ The editors however agree in placing a full stop at faces, and commencing a new inter- rogative sentence with aut ego or anne ego. —prodita, i.e. a me: in the sense of προ- δοῦναι.
11.] ‘What sort of sleep would my pipers play to you in the same procession, as it passed by night conducting the bride to her husband? Would it not sound more doleful than"the trumpets in a fune- ral?’ For Cynthia the Naples MS. has tybia. In Kuinoel’s and Barth’s editions the verse is read ah mea tum quales faceret tibi tibia cantus. The reader will notice the antithesis in mea and tidi. For the allusion in tibia and tuba compare Ovid, Her. xii. 140, ‘Tibiaque effudit socialia carmina vobis, At mihi funesta flebiliora tuba.’ In this, as in so many other in- stances, it is difficult to acquit Ovid of plagiarism. See also inf. y. 11,9, ‘Sic moeste cecinere tubs.’
13.] Unde mihi, i.e. quo mihi? quid prodest>? In most of the copies a new elegy commences with this verse. Lach- mann and Jacob, followed by Keil and Miiller, put a mark of a lacuna. But the
LIBER II. 8.
67
Nullus de nostro sanguine miles erit.
Quod si vera mez comitarem castra puelle,
15
Non mihi sat magnus Castoris iret equus.
Hine etenim tantum meruit mea gloria nomen, Gloria ad hibernos lata Borysthenidas.
Tu mihi sola places: placeam tibi, Cynthia, solus:
Hic erit et patrio sanguine pluris amor.
20
VEL.
Eripitur nobis jam pridem cara puella;
\
connexion is complete. ‘Why should I marry, merely to furnish sons to grace the triumphal processions? A general way of saying, ‘to supply my country with soldiers.’ Miiller follows Lachmann in reading Parthis for patriis, i.e. ‘trium- phis a Parthis agendis.’ This verse sup- plies a clear hint of the real motive in passing the laws de maritandis ordinibus : which indeed is known from other sources, viz., to supply the deficiency in the popu- lation caused by the civil wars, which rendered it difficult to procure a sufficient number of recruits. See Hor. Od. i. 2, ‘yitio parentum rara juventus.’
15.] Compare v. 3, 45, ‘Romanis utinam patuissent castra puellis.’ Tacitus (Ann. lii. 33—4) records an interesting debate on a measure proposed in the senate ‘ne quem magistratum, cui provincia obyenisset, uxor comitaretur :᾿ which was negatived rather as an indulgence than on military prin- ciples.—For the obscure words vera mee, Scaliger, followed as usual by Kuinoel, reads Romane ; a most improbable conjec- ture on any known principles of palo- graphy. Hertzberg, who reads comitarent with the MSS., thus explains it: ‘Quam- quam si castra, que puelle mez sequuntur, z.e. dulcis illa amoris militia (i. 6, 30) vera militia verumque bellum esset; summus miles par mihi non esset futurus.’ Pro- pertius (like most of the elegiac poets) constantly speaks of the castra amoris, as again v. 1, 138, so that it became almost necessary, if he wished to be understood in speaking of veal warfare, to add vera.— mee puelle, in the plural, is used (as Hertzberg thinks) not only because ‘one mistress does not make a camp,’ but because the poet elsewhere openly boasts, as in iii. 26, 57, of the favour of several mistresses, ‘ut regnet mixtas inter conviva puellas.’ This is surely unsatisfactory. For it is
obvious that Cynthia must be principally and in particular meant, since, taken liter- ally, the plural involves an absurdity, as it would convert a compliment into an insult. But Keil and Miiller follow Lachmann in retaining comitarent, and for vera Miiller proposes sera, Lachmann eura—comitari. The whole passage is very obscure, and perhaps, as Lachmann thinks, corrupt. He gives the general meaning nearly thus: ‘Si Cynthia se comitaretur, non filios se militatum missurum esse, sed ipsum cum illa in castra profecturum; hance enim solam carminis sui, hance glories causam esse, hance unam pre omnibus sibi placere.’ Jacob gives comitarer from the excerpta of Pucci, and perhaps on the whole this is the simpler sense: ‘ Were I in reality (7.e. not only as a miles amoris) to follow my Cyn- thia in the field, I would rush to battle as quickly as the best steed could carry me.’ The horse of Castor,—as renowned for the equestrian as his brother for the pugilistic art,—was called Cyllarus, Virg. Georg. iii. 90.
17.] Etenim. There is an ellipse which must be supplied to connect the sense. (‘But I do not fight, for I am by pro- fession a poet:) it is from this, not from deeds of arms, that my fame lives.’
20.] Patrio sanguine. A singular ex- pression for procreandis liberis, as Hertzberg appears rightly to explain it, referring it to the Julian law. /Patrio is either for paterno, ‘I prefer illicit love to the honours of paternity,’ or it signifies the Roman race in a general sense. Compare patriis tri- umphis, ‘national triumphs,’ y. 13.
VIII. A-singularly elegant and eloquent composition, lamenting the success of a rival, and threatening vengeance against both him and the faithless Cynthia. The parties alluded to in vy. 3 and 6 are un-
08
PROPERTII
Et tu me lacrimas fundere, amice, vetas ! Nulle sunt inimicitia, nisi amoris, acerbee ; Ipsum me jugula, lenior hostis ero. Possum ego in alterius positam spectare lacerto ? 5 Nec mea dicetur, quae modo dicta mea est ? Omnia vertuntur; certe vertuntur amores: Vinceris, aut vincis; hee in amore rota est.
Magni seepe duces, magni cecidere tyranni,
Et Theb steterant, altaque Troja fuit.
10
Munera quanta dedi, vel qualia carmina feci ! Illa tamen numquam ferrea dixit: Amo.
Ergo jam multos nimium temerarius annos, Improba, qui tulerim teque tuamque domum.
Ecquandone tibi liber sum visus? an usque
15
In nostrum jacies verba superba caput ?
known. Lachmann divides this elegy into two at v.17, and prints the first part as lacunose, in which he is followed by Jacob and Miiller. Having a decided opinion on the unity and integrity of the whole, as arranged in all the MSS., I have not hesitated to restore the old way, with Hertzberg, Kuinoel, and Keil.
1.] Jam pridem cara must be construed together. He means to express his prior claims to possession arising from long at- tachment.—jampridem eripitur would mean ‘has this long time been gradually leaving me,’ and is less consistent with the out- burst of grief implied in the next verse.
3.] -Acerbe, ‘implacable.’—amoris, re- sulting from, or on the subject of, love.
8.] Rota, ‘the turn of fortune,’ in re- ference to vertuntur. Miiller, after Sca- liger, places this distich after v.10. This seems to pervert the sense entirely, since magni sepe duces &c. are cited as an ex- ample of the fickleness of fortune.
10.] The MSS. have steterant, which Jacob alone retains in the text, though ap- proving of Scaliger’s correction. It is not so certain that Propertius would have pre- ferred stetérunt to a lax use of the plu- perfect, were the alternative to choose be- tween them.
11.] Vel. ‘cum leni correctione copu- lat.’.—Jacob. Hertzberg has this good note: ‘cum aut non posse simul esse duas res significet; ef vero simpliciter, esse simul; vel in medio positum non debere quidem simul esse, sed posse ita cogitari, indicat.’ For example: aut vir, aut femina
(but not both): e¢ vir δέ femina (both at once): vel vir vel femina (either one or the other, 07 possibly both). So below, v. 39, inferior vel matre vel armis, ‘certainly in one or the other, probably in both.’ Here we may translate, ‘and I might say, how many verses have I eomposed.’ For vel Lachmann reads vee.
13—16.] These lines admirably express the roused spirit of a wronged man. The poet suddenly addresses himself, almost fiercely, to Cynthia, and asks if he has not been infatuated in so long bearing with her and her family. It is easier to understand sum with temerarius (and perhaps it is not too much to say that its omission imparts a tone of abruptness and indignation), than to suppose a distich lost, while v. 15 so closely continues the sense. Hertzberg, by placing only a comma after domum, (in which he is followed by Miiller), makes the construction to be, ‘ecquando ego te- merarius—visus sum liber? But ergo ecquandone 2 do not well agree; on the other hand ergo is used in making ad- missions or confessions: ‘so then I have been rash,’ &ce. There is probability in Lachmann’s proposed reading Ergo ego tam muitos ἕο. He gives the general sense thus: ‘Ergo ego nimis temerarius? egone audax, qui amorem tuum poscam?> cum tamen tam multos annos imperium tuum patienter tulerim. Jam dubito, simne tibi umquam liber visus, an usque me pro servo tuo habitura sis.’ ‘Do you suppose lam for ever to be your slave”
LIBER II. 8.
69
Sic igitur prima moriere xtate, Properti ? Sed morere; interitu gaudeat illa tuo; Exagitet nostros Manes, sectetur et umbras,
Insultetque rogis, calcet et ossa mea.
Quid? non Antigone tumulo Beotius Hzemon Corruit ipse suo saucius ense latus,
Et sua cum misere permiscuit ossa puelle, Qua sine Thebanam noluit ire domum ?
Sed non effugies: mecum moriaris oportet ;
Hoe eodem ferro stillet uterque cruor. Quamvis ista mihi mors est inhonesta futura; Mors inhonesta quidem; tu moriere tamen.
Ile etiam abrepta desertus Cessare in tectis pertulit
Viderat ille fugas, tractos in litore Achivos, Fervere et Hectorea Dorica castra face;
Viderat informem multa Patroclon arena Porrectum et sparsas cede jacere comas;
Omnia formosam propter Briseida passus:
20 25 conjuge Achilles arma sua. 30 35
Tantus in erepto sevit amore dolor. At postquam sera captiva est reddita pena, Fortem illum Hzmoniis Hectora traxit equis.
17.] ‘Shall I then die without an effort to escape? Yes: die, as Hemon died of love for Antigone, (Soph. Ant. 1235,) die, that she may exult in her victory.’ There is something fine in the sudden despair with which he resigns his resolution to resist as soon as he has made it. Kuinoel well says in his terse way, ‘splendidus locus.’
23.] Cum (ossibus) puelle. 3, 21.
᾽24. Miiller reads nollet inire; but ire may well stand for redire.
26.] Eodem. On the synizesis see vy. He
” 30.] In tectis, ‘in his tent.’ Kuinoel has in Teueros, from the later and inter- polated copies. Barth has the bad taste to read in thecis, and Miiller follows him. The allusion is probably to some lost epic, as inf. 10, 9, seqq.
31.] Fugas. Thus Lachmann, Hertz- berg, and Jacob, with the Naples MS. The Groning. MS. and ed. Rheg. give fuga tractos ( fractos, Kuinoel). Lachmann has
See on i.
Sugas, fractos &c., but suggests pyras ; Miiller fuga stratos, Keil fuga fractos.—In the next verse the burning of the Grecian fleet by Hector is alluded to.
33.] Kuinoel and Barth edit Patroclen, which is a false quantity. The MSS. agree in Patroclon. Both Πάτροκλος and Πατροκλῆς occur.—multa arena porrectum, ἐν κονίῃσι μέγας μεγαλωστὶ τανυσθεὶς, Il. xviii. 27.
36.] Inerepto dolore. These words, com- pared with the first line eripitur nobis &c., go far to show that the whole of this is really one connected elegy.
37.] Sera pena, ‘by a late retribution,’ mown, as ΚΟ, remarks. If, says the poet, the loss of his love could so completely subdue even the hero Achilles, who only regained his valour on her restoration, it is not to be wondered at if love has still greater power over one so inferior to him.
38.] Fortem illum, ‘that brave Hector,’ τὸν ἐσθλὸν, is simple and natural. Miiller needlessly reads fortem idem &e.— Hemoniis, Thessalian, viz. from Phthiotis,
70
PROPERTII
Inferior multo cum sim vel matre vel armis,
Mirum, si de me jure triumphat Amor?
40
IX.
Iste quod est, ego seepe fui; sed fors et in hora, Hoc ipso ejecto, carior alter erit. Penelope poterat bis denos salva per annos Vivere, tam multis femina digna procis; Conjugium falsa poterat differre Minerva, 5 Nocturno solvens texta diurno dolo; Visura et quamvis numquam speraret Ulixem, Illum expectando facta remansit anus. Nec non exanimem amplectens Briseis Achillem
Candida vesana verberat
39.] MMatre. Because a goddess was the mother of Achilles. Most of the copies have Marte. On vel—vel, see above on vy. li.
40.] There is some confusion in this verse between mirum, si triumphat, and Jure triumphat.
IX. Like the last, this is a very charm- ing poem; but like it also, it has been dis- figured by being printed in a mutilated and lacunose form in the editions of Jacob, Lachmann, and Miiller. Even Hertzberg has a gap between y. 40 and 41. No stronger presumption of the fallacy, or at least, the utter uncertainty, of these opin- ions need be adduced, than the fact that the editors themselves do not agree as to where the supposed abruptness exists; for while Jacob ignores one of Lachmann’s lacuné (after y. 24), Hertzberg ignores those of both, except after v. 40.—The subject of this elegy is the same as the preceding, and probably in reference to the same rival. He upbraids Cynthia with ingratitude, and asserts his unchanged af- fection in the most moving terms.
1.1 Jste. On the contemptuous use of this pronoun applied to a rival, see on i, 2, 25.—‘ The same inconstaney which induced you to reject me for this man, will perhaps in an hour supply his place by a third.’ The natural sentiment of one who tries to persuade himself that his rival is not really beloved—fors?t is the not improbable read- ing in Barth’s edition.
2—16.] ‘Women were constant in times
10
ora Manu,
of old, and waited with unchanged affection for their husbands even until death; where- as Cynthia could not wait for a single day or anight’ (19—20).
δ] Falsa Minerva, ‘by pretending to weave,’ and undoing at night the web she had completed in the day, Od. ii. 104. Plat. Phedo, p. 84, A., ἀνήνυτον ἔργον πράττειν, Πηνελόπης τινὰ ἐναντίως ἱστὸν μεταχειριζομένην.
7.1 Visura speraret. A very remark- able construction, to which it is not easy to find an exact parallel in either language. The Greeks do not say ἤλπιζεν ὀψομένη for ὄψεσθαι, and Virgil’s well-known ‘sensit medios delapsus in hostes’ pertains to an idiom restricted to verbs of sense and per- ception. The present may, perhaps, be regarded as an attempt at a Grecism, made on unsound principles. He intended to express speraret se viswram esse, and thought himself at liberty to substitute viswa,—if, indeed, viswram, with the ellipse of se, be not the true reading. The instance given by Hertzberg, from iv. 6, 40, ‘jurabo et bis sex integer esse dies,’ is not strictly to the purpose, being a simple rendering of ὀμοῦμαι ἢ μὴν ἁγνεύειν, or ἁγνὸς εἶναι.
8.1 Remansit, i.e. in ejus conjugio: ‘perduravit,’ Hertzberg. Lachmann quotes iii, 11, 17, ‘me tibi ad extremas mansurum, vita, tenebras,’ and Homer’s use of μένειν in several passages relating to Penelope, as well as Eur. Ovest. 583 (590). Compare i. 1, 31, and 10, 29. There is no difficulty in facta anus expectando illum. Lachmann needlessly proposes ¢//i and casta.
° LIBER II. 9.
71
Et dominum lavit mcerens captiva cruentum, Appositum flavis in Simoénta vadis;
Foedavitque comas, et tanti corpus Achilli Maximaque in parva sustulit ossa manu,
Cum tibi nec Peleus aderat nec cxerula mater,
15
Scyria nec viduo Deidamia viro. Tune igitur veris gaudebat Grecia natis; Tune etiam felix inter et arma pudor. At tu non una potuisti nocte vacare,*
Impia, non unum sola manere diem.
20
Quin etiam multo duxistis pocula risu, Forsitan et de me verba fuere mala. Hic etiam petitur, qui te prius ipse reliquit ;— Di faciant, isto capta fruare viro! Hee mihi yota tuam propter suscepta salutem ? 25
12.] This verse is probably corrupt. The MSS. agree in fluviis, which Jacob and Hertzberg retain; the latter however alone attempts to defend flwwiis vadis, which he thinks intended to express a shallow pool of running water, the epithet, or rather attribute, implying the virtue believed to reside in such water for the purposes of lustration. If is difficult to believe that the usage is good Latin. Is it conceivable that fluvius vadum could have been used in the nominative? With Lachmann and Kuinoel I have admitted Heinsius’ con- jecture, flavis, for which Horace’s ‘flayum Tiberim,’ furnishes sufficient authority. It has, however, this objection, though to some it may appear a fanciful one, that the word expresses the name of the second Trojan stream, Xanthus. If vadis could mean (and why should it not?) the sandy puddles formed at the estuary of a river, fulvis would be an obvious suggestion, from Virgil’s use of fulva arena, Georg. ili. 110.—in Simoenta, as the Greeks say τιθέναι εἰς τόπον, ‘brought to the river and laid there.’ Hertzberg suggests that it may mean ‘so placed as to lie in the water in part.’ Perhaps however in Si- moenta was meant to depend on some word (as fusts or fluxis) now lost in the corrupt Jluviis, or else we should read ad Simoenta, i. 6. ad ripas Simoentis.
‘13.] Fedavit, ἤσχυνε. The poet imi- tates 71. xviii. 23, as the commentators have pointed out. There is something touching and beautiful in Briseis holding ‘tho large bones (i.e. the ashes of them)
in her Ζ 16 hand.’ Τῷ is the happy stroke of an artist to a picture.—tanti, ‘so huge a man. So Achilles is called τοσοῦτος, ‘so big,’ by Phoenix in //. ix. 485. It is strange that Miiller should not have seen this, but marked the passage as corrupt, and proposed the tasteless reading ad functi corpus Achivi.
15.] Tibi. Achilles is addressed, though the apostrophe is harsh and strange, es- pecially as Cynthia is so soon after appealed to, v.19. ‘All this Briseis did through her affection for you, when others stood aloof.’ —viduo viro, χηρεύοντί σοι, ‘when thus left a widower,’ ὁ. e. by the absence of Deidamia, by whom, when in the island of Scyros, the hero had had a son Pyrrhus (or Neoptolemus).—Lachmann, Kuinoel, and the more recent editors have toro for viro, from a late MS.
18.] Felix &c. ‘Then also virtue throve even in the camp.’—etiam is to be taken with tune, so that et arma has its own independent force.
21.] Dusistis, viz. you and your lover, the iste of vy. 1. So ‘ducere Nectaris suceos’ Hor. Carm., 111. 3, 34.
23.] Prius, ‘ona former occasion.’ For ipse Miiller and Keil, against the copies, give ante, ‘before you deserted him.’ Or should we read prior ?—fruare, bvato, ἀπολαύσαις, ‘may you have a benefit of him,’ as we say.
05] I have placed the interrogation at the end of this verse rather than after v. 27, with most of the editors, because cum—tum seem to be natural correlatives.
72
PROPERTII »
Cum capite hoc Stygiz jam poterentur aque, Et lectum flentes circum staremus amici,
Hic ubi tum, pro di, perfida, quisve fuit ? Quid, si longinquos retinerer miles ad Indos ?
Aut mea si staret navis in Oceano ?
30
Sed vobis facile est, verba et componere fraudes: Hoc unum didicit femina semper opus.
Non sic incerto mutantur flamine Syrtes, Nee folia hiberno tam tremefacta Noto,
Quam cito feminea non constat foedus in ira,
35
Sive ea causa gravis, sive ea causa levis. Nune, quoniam ista tibi placuit sententia, cedam: Tela, precor, Pueri, promite acuta magis! Figite certantes, atque hance mihi solvite vitam:
Sanguis erit vobis maxima palma meus.
40
Sidera sunt testes, et matutina pruina, Et furtim misero janua aperta mihi,
Te nihil in vita nobis acceptius umquam ; Nune quoque eris, quamyvis sis Imimica mihi;
For fee Kuinoel has guz, with an ex- clamation at amici y. 27. Lachmann need- lessly proposes et. The sense is, ‘ Are these the vows I made for your recovery, when you were despaired of?’ 7. ὁ. is this the gratitude you showed for all my con- cern? Hertzberg well compares y. 3, 11, ‘heeene marita fides?” &e. The dangerous illness and recovery of Cynthia are de- scribed again ii. 20, but if we follow Hertzberg (Quest. p. 224), in his chrono- logical arrangement of the poems, the present elegy was written a.v.c. 728, the other later than 729, but before 732.
28.] Hic, ‘where then was this lover of your’s, or who was he to you?’ ὦ. 6. ἃ stranger, or a friend, or false loyer and a traitor.
29.] Quid si &e. ‘If you leave me so easily when I am present, what might I expect if (like Ulysses) I were detained far away from home?’
33.] Mutantur, i.e. by the shifting of the sands: an event common to all shoals, and constituting their chief dangers.
34.] Zam, i.e. tam cito.
88,7 Pueri, “Ὁ Cupids.’ Compare y. 1, 138, ‘Et Veneris pueris utilis hostis eris.’ ili. 21, 8, ‘obvia nescio quot pueri mihi turba minuta.’ Kuinoel, following Bur-
mann, strangely understands the slaves ;— ‘alloquitur pueros, servos, eosque cohor- tatur ut ipsi ferro mortem inferant.’ Barth is here quite right: ‘alloquitur Cupidines cum desperatione.’
40.] Palma, see vy. 1, 140.
41—52.] Here Jacob, Lachmann, Hertz- berg, (as stated at the beginning of the elegy) Miiller and Keil place a mark of severance, as if the concluding lines had no intelligible connexion with the pre- ceding. Hertzberg does not hesitate to call it ‘pannus ordine prepostero hie as- sutus, ad El. xiii. (iii. 4) referendus.’ It is hard that the poet may not end his appeal to Cynthia by the simple and natural sentiment,’ ‘The very stars can bear witness how I have ever loved you,’ without being so capriciously used. By placing a colon at the end of y.42, and thus making y. 43 an independent sentence, an incoherence (if such it can be called) is created, which is at once removed by adopting the construction sidera sunt testes —te nihil unguam acceptius fuisse. But, since Hertzberg adds, ‘Lachmannus non posse post absolutum jam carmen hune exitum tolerari certissimis argumentis evi- cit,’ it is due to these learned men briefly to examine these cogent reasons. ‘ Hither-
LIBER II. 9.
Nec domina ulla meo ponet vestigia lecto:
73 45
Solus ero, quoniam non licet esse tuum. Atque utinam, si forte pios eduximus annos, Ile vir in medio fiat amore lapis! Non ob regna magis diris cecidere sub armis
Thebani media non sine matre duces,
50
Quam, mihi si media liceat pugnare puella, Mortem ego non fugiam morte subire tua.
to,’ says Lachmann, ‘the poet has despaired —giyen in—invoked the Cupids\to kill him. Now he declares he will never live with another.’ Truly, an invincible ar- gument! Let the reader compare the perfectly parallel μετάνοια in 11. 5, 17, where, after asserting that he will instantly leave her, he begs her to relent, and think of her own interest. Similarly, he now offers to receive her again into his favour, and declares that he will have her or no one.
45.] Vestigia. This word, like στίβοι φιλάνορες in Aisch. 4g. 401, appears to mean the mark or impression left by a sleeper on the couch. Compare iii. 21, 35, ‘apparent non ulla toro vestigia presso,’ and Ovid, Her. x. 53. Hertzberg, in a long note, endeavours to show that ponere vestigia is the same as ponere pedes, i.e. adire, ingredi. Such appears commonly to be the true meaning; nor is it necessary
to quote fifty passages to prove that a person who plants a footstep also plants his foot.
47.] Si forte &c., if the affection (or dutifulness) of our former years has entitled the prayer to be heard.—z//e vir, the rival alluded to at the beginning of the elegy.
49—52.] ‘ Not more fatal were the arms by which Eteocles and Polynices slew each other, when their mother Jocasta vainly interfered to separate them, than those should be with which I would fight my rival were Cynthia placed between us as the prize in the contest.’ The simile is rather irregularly worked out; such how- ever seems to be the poet’s meaning. The last four lines are marked off by a space in the later editions, after Lachmann; but the connexion does not seem broken; ‘I would die for you,’ adds the poet, after declaring that he will have none other than Cynthia.
PROP EAR Lr
LIBER TERTIUS.
I. It is difficult to resist the arguments of Lachmann (Pref. pp. xxi—iii.) that with the present elegy a new Book commences, whether we assent to his opinion or not, that a large portion of the Second Book has been lost. The elegy now before us is decidedly introductory in its character. It is strictly a proemium, like those with which Books 11. and IV. respectively open. The poet changes his style and tone, and bethinks himself of acting on the often- urged advice of his friends, to sing of wars, that is, in fact, of the exploits of Augustus : for this is what the Augustan poets always mean when they talk of turning martial. ‘Bella Canam,’ he says, v. 8, ‘quando scripta puclla mea est.’ More conclusive still is v.25 of the fourth elegy, in which the poet says ‘sat mea sat magna est, si tres sint pompa Jibelli,’ proving that two had already been published, and that this therefore was part of the third. Never- theless, Hertzberg, who follows the MSS. in continuing the second book up to the conclusion of the third of the present volume, while he admits (Quest. lib. 111. cap. ii. p. 215) that Lachmann’s new ar- rangement is ‘ satis probabilis,’ is of opinion that a counter-testimony to the above verse may be drawn from iii. 15, 1. ‘Tu loqueris, cum sis jam noto fabula libro, as if only one book had hitherto been published. It is not perhaps very easy to reconcile the two passages: but Lachmann suggests that the third may have been written before the second book was published ; or again, that all the poems collectively, written to and on Cynthia, may be called generally ‘a book,’ (Preef. p. xxvii.) There are reasons
If
SED tempus lustrare aliis Helicona choreis,
Et campum Hzemonio jam dare tempus equo.
Jam libet et fortes memorare ad preelia turmas, Et Romana mei dicere castra ducis.
too for believing (Hertzberg, Quest. p. 220) that the first book was dedicated to Cyn- thia, and as such published as a distinct work with all the care and polish the poet could bestow upon it; and if this verse (iii. 15, 1) be taken, as it must, in strict connexion with its pentameter, ‘ Et tua sit toto Cynthia lecta foro,’ it is almost certain that the first book alone is alluded to. To the ordinary reader, it is a matter of such little importance and even interest whether there are five or only four books of elegies, that I have purposely avoided a long dis- cussion of the subtle and intricate argu- ments by which the contrary opinions are respectively maintained, and contented my- self with following Lachmann, Jacob, Keil, and Miiller, as on the whole the more plausible view.
1.] Sed tempus. Lachmann and Jacob © consider the commencement abrupt, and that something has been lost. Barth and Kuinoel read yam for sed. But Hertzberg rightly observes that the idea in the poet’s mind was this: ‘ Hucusque equidem cecini puellarum amores; sed tempus &c.—/us- trare, to go over, visit; so Virg. in. 11. 528, ‘vacua atria lustrat saucius.—He- monio, 7.e. Thessalico, the horses of that country being noted for their breed. See ii. 8, 38. Miuiller reads Hmathio. ‘To give the field’ to the steed, is to give him wider space, as well as to urge him to full speed. For the well-known metaphor compare Georgie iii. ult.
3.] Construe fortes ad prelia, i. e. equi- tem ad pugnandum promptum, audacem.
4.1 Mei ducis, Augustus. There is al- lusion to the military title of Imperator.
LIBER III. 1.
75
Quod si deficient vires, audacia certe 5 Laus erit: in magnis et voluisse sat est.
AKtas prima canat Veneres,
extrema tumultus;
Bella canam, quando scripta puella mea est. Nune volo subducto gravior procedere vultu:
Nune aliam citharam me mea Musa docet.
10
Surge, anima, ex humili jam carmine sumite vires, Pierides: magni nunc erit oris opus.
Jam negat Euphrates equitem post terga tueri Parthorum, et Crassos se tenuisse dolet;
India quin, Auguste, tuo dat colla triumpho,
Et domus intact te tremit Arabi ;
Et, si qua extremis tellus se subtrahit oris, Sentiet illa tuas postmodo capta manus.
Heee ego castra sequar; vates tua castra canendo
Magnus ero; servent hune mihi fata diem!
20
Ut caput in magnis ubi non est tangere signis,
5.] Audacia, fiducia, ‘courage to make the attempt.’ The word is rarely found in a good sense.—in magnis, ἐν τοῖς χαλεποῖς, in subjects great and difficult.
7.] The apparent antithesis in prima and extrema etas is much greater than is really intended, or than the dates of the poems will admit of. See on iy. 25, 8. The poet merely means that youth is fit for singing of love, maturer age of war (tumultus).
8.1 Quando, quandoquidem, ἐπειδή.
9.1 Sudbducto vultu, ‘withdrawn into it- self,’ 7. δ. sober and demure.
11.] Lachmann punctuates thus: ‘Surge, anime, ex humili: jam carmine sumite vires, Pierides.’ This appears to me to be an alteration without improvement, though he is followed by Jacob and Hertzberg. Barth and Keil, ‘surge, anima, ex humili jam carmine, sumite vires.—ez is here ‘after... Kuinoel and Lachmann give anime, with Burmann.
13.] The sense is, ‘The Euphrates no longer boasts of its Parthian horseman, Jjidentem fuge versisque sagittis’ Georg. 111. 31.—post terga tueri, ἵ. ὁ. to watch for the opportunity of turning round and dis- charging a fatal arrow at the pursuer. Crassos tenuisse, non remisisse. Both father and son were killed in that unfortunate expedition, B.c. 53—4. Whence Ovid,
A.A. 1, 179, ‘Crassi gaudete sepulti.’ See inf. v. 6, 83.
10,1 Intacte Arabie. From this verse Hertzberg (Quest. p. 217) deduces the date of the poem. The allusion is to the ex- pedition of Alius Gallus (see on νυ. 8) in 730, which was miserably defeated and de- stroyed. Now he rightly argues that had this unfortunate termination already oc- curred, the poet would not have mentioned it, as reflecting discredit rather than praise on Augustus: and therefore that this was written when the expedition was contem- plated, B.c. 25, or in 729. Arabia is called tntacta because the Roman arms were first brought against it on this occasion. Barth compares ‘intactis opulentior Thesauris Arabum,’ Hor. Od. iii. 24,1. The length- ening of ἃ in Arabia is one of the many instances of the metrical licence taken by both Greek and Latin poets in proper names. Similarly Arabium limen i. 14, 19: and ii. 3, 15.
19.] Castra sequar, i.e. as if a bard attached to the expedition on purpose to celebrate its victories. Hertzberg com- pares iv. 9, 43, ‘prosequar et currus utro- que ab litore ovantes:’ but this refers rather to following the triumphal car in the procession to the capitol.
21—4.] The simile is a very original one. ‘As, when we cannot reach the head
76
PROPERTII
Ponitur hic imos ante corona pedes,
Sic nos nunc, inopes laudis conscendere carmen, Pauperibus sacris vilia tura damus.
Nondum etiam Ascrzeos norunt mea carmina fontes,
Sed modo Permessi flumine lavit Amor.
26
{π᾿
Scribant de te alii, vel sis ignota licebit ; Laudet, qui sterili semina ponit humo.
Omnia, crede mihi, secum uno munera lecto Auferet extremi funeris atra dies.
Et tua transibit contemnens ossa viator, 5 Nee dicet: Cinis hic docta puella fuit.
11.
Quicumque ille fuit, puerum qui pinxit Amorem,
Nonne putas miras hunc
of a lofty statue, we are compelled to lay at its feet the crown we have brought as an offering: so I, at a loss to rise to the height of heroic song, am content to give a trifling tribute.’ Kuinoel misinterprets hie ante pedes (v.22) by ‘tune, ubi non licet.’ It is rather the Greek αὐτοῦ ὑπὸ ποσίν, as if the place where to lay the crown were pointed out to the party offering it. See on i. 19, 7.— laudis conscendere carmen, ‘illud assequi culmen, quo epici poetz perveniunt carminibus suis.’— Barth. Miiller reads culmen after Heinsius. So v.10, 3, ‘Magnum iter ascendo.’ Or we might suggest cwrrum.—sacris, see on v. 6, 1, ‘sacra facit vates,’ and iv. 1, 3, ‘primus ego ingredior puro de fonte sacerdos’ &e.— vilia tura, cheap and common: compare nulla mercede hyacinthos vy. 7, 33. συ. 1, ‘Vesta coronatis pauper gaudebat asellis; Ducebant macree vilia sacra boves.’
25.] For etiam Miiller reads etenim, and says the vulgate omni vacat sensu.
25—6.] ‘I am not yet a Hesiod: the only skill I have attained in versification was taught me by Love.’ Permessus Hesiod. Theog. 5) was a spring near to
ippocrene, and sacred to the Muses. The antithesis is not so much between a greater and a less fountain, as between heroic and amatory subjects. On lavit, i.e. lavit me, Hertzberg remarks, that bathing in, as
habuisse manus 7
well as drinking of, the sacred well was thought to inspire poetic rapture.—modo, 7. 6. tantummodo.
II. This isolated and perhaps fragment- ary ἐπύλλιον was probably written under the excitement of some momentary vexa- tion, perhaps caused by the indifference Cynthia had manifested towards some of the poet’s verses. He warns her not to rely too much on her present popularity, which, he intimates, arises from his praises, and that she possesses no quality which will cause her name to be known to pos- terity. Jacob (who in this particular re- spect almost always echoes Lachmann’s dictum) too confidently writes, ‘Neque elegiam primam finitam esse, et hujus initium desiderari, certum est.’
2.] ‘Let him praise you henceforth who is willing to undertake a vain task.’
3.] Omnia munera. ‘Carmina illa, que laudes tuas celebrant.’—uinoel. Rather, I think, ‘all your accomplishments,’ ζ. e. beauty and mental endowments, the latter of which are alluded to in y. 6.—wno lecto, the bier on which the body was carried to the pyre. See on y. 11, 12.
III. An elegant but difficult little poem on the symbolism embodied in the popular representations of love.
LIBER III. 3.
77
Hic primum vidit sine sensu vivere amantes, Et levibus curis magna perire bona.
Idem non frustra ventosas addidit alas, 5 Fecit et humano corde volare deum;
Scilicet alterna quoniam jactamur in unda, Nostraque non ullis permanet aura locis.
Et merito hamatis manus est armata sagittis,
Et pharetra ex humero Gnosia utroque jacet;
10
Ante ferit quoniam, tuti quam cernimus hostem, Nec quisquam ex illo vulnere sanus abit.
In me tela manent, manet et puerilis imago; Sed certe pennas perdidit ille suas,
Evolat heu! nostro quoniam de pectore nusquam,
15
Assiduusque meo sanguine bella gerit.
Quid tibi jocundum est siccis habitare medullis ? Si pudor est, alio trajice tela tua.
Intactos isto satius tentare veneno:
Non ego, sed tenuis vapulat umbra mea;
20
Quam si perdideris, quis erit qui talia cantet ?
8.1 Sine sensu, ἀναισθήτως, appovtic- τως. Is the allusion to Love being blind? Theocr. ix. 19, τυφλὸς δ᾽ οὐκ αὐτὸς 6 Πλοῦτος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡφρόντιστος ~Epws.— levibus curtis, i.e. pre negligentia ; or, per- haps, ‘with indifference,’ οὐ φροντίζειν ἀπολλυμένης τῆς οὐσίας.
6.] Humano corde. These words have been very variously interpreted. Hertz- berg seems right in considering them the ablative of place, ‘to flit i the human heart.’ If it can be shown from ancient art that love was represented as a heart with wings affixed, such an image would be well expressed by the words in the text, where hwmano corde would be the ablative of the mode. In the next verse, scilicet is in explanation of the epithet ventosas. The wings, says the poet, typify our ever-changing destinies, and the fickle- ness of the gales by which we are driven, as it were, this way and that.—alterna unda, ‘modo tranquilla, modo commota.’— Barth. This is not satisfactory. Probably it means ‘up and down,’ 7.¢. now on the
crest, now in the trough of the wave. So alterna manu, 1. 9, 24. 10.] Ex humero utroque, Not that he
had two quivers, as Hertzberg remarks, but that the quiver with its strap (amen-
tum) may be said to hang from both shoulders. But I have some suspicion that the sense is this: the quiver, when not in use, hung at the back, from both shoulders; when used, it was pulled to one side, and so was suspended only from the opposite shoulder. In this case, Love holds the barbed arrow ready in his hand, because (quoniam) he aims instantaneously, before we can see his movements from a position of security, and does not wait to draw the arrow from the quiver. I agree with Hertzberg in rejecting Jacob’s emen- dation, jacit.
13.] Puerilis tmago. He appears to mean Cupid himself, but uses the word imago because he is describing the details of his image or picture.
17.] Miiller reads gui for guid, and in the next verse, 7, puer, en, alio &c., the Naples MS. giving puer for pudor.
20.] Tenuis umbra. The commentators observe that the poets (as Theocr. ii. 55) speak of love as draining the life-blood of its votaries. At the same time the poet probably. alludes to his own attenuated frame, iii. 13, 21.
21.] δὲ perdideris, ‘if you utterly destroy the poor lover, who will equally well sing your (Cupid’s) praises δ᾽
78
PROPERTII
Heee mea Musa levis gloria magna tua est, Quz caput et digitos et lumina nigra puelle, Et canit, ut soleant molliter ire pedes.
LV:
Non tot Achzemeniis armatur Itura sagittis, Spicula quot nostro pectore fixit Amor.
Hic me tam graciles vetuit contemnere Musas, Jussit et Ascreeum sic habitare nemus:
Non ut Pierize quercus mea verba sequantur,
Or
Aut possim Ismaria ducere valle feras, Sed magis ut nostro stupefiat Cynthia versu: Tune ego sim Inachio notior arte Lino.
Non ego sum forme tantum mirator honeste,
Nec si qua illustres femina jactat avos ;
23—4.] Miiller and Keil, with Lach- mann and Hertzberg, read gui caput—, et canat—, from the Naples MS., regarding the preceding verse as parenthetical, and thus continuing the construction from gui talia cantet in v.21. The authority for the two readings being about equal, the sense of that given in the text seems pre- ferable; ‘This muse of mine, humble as it is, is a great glory to you, in extolling as it does the various perfections of my mis- tress,’ i. 2, 27.—digitos ; see on il. 2, 5.
IVY. There does not appear to be suffi- cient reason for following those editors who would divide the present long elegy into three, viz. at v. 17, and v. 43. Here again, as remarked on ii. 9, there is a discrepancy of opinion which goes far to invalidate the whole theory. For while Lachmann and Kuinoel, after others, break the continuity of the poem at the points mentioned, Hertz- berg makes no stop at v.17, and Jacob none at v. 43. I hope to shew at the proper place that the elegy may fairly be regarded as a whole and complete com- position. The subject is, that the poet’s memory will survive in his poems; to which are added some general, but by no means desultory or unconnected, reflections on his death.
1.] The authentic copies have efrusca or hetrusca, for which Barth, Lachmann, Kuinoel, Jacob, Keil, and Miiller, give Susa, after Beroaldus, who professed to have found it in a MS., though doubtless
10
a corrected one. Hertzberg follows the conjectural correction of Pontanus, [tura ; and this seems the most plausible emenda- tion, from the celebrity of the Itursans in archery: compare Georg. ii. 448, ‘ Itureeos taxi torquentur in arcus.’ The epithet Achemeniis (Persiax) may very well arise, Hertzberg observes, from the imperfect geographical knowledge and confusion be- tween the names of eastern nations which prevailed in the Augustan age. Itura, or Iturcea, was situated on the N.E. of Pales- tine, and was an Arabian tribe. See Tac. Ann. xii. 23.
2.1 Spicula. The metaphor seems to show that the present was written soon after, or in continuation of, the preceding elegy, of which ef. v. 13.
3.] Graciles, slight and slender, opposed to graves, amatory to heroic verse.
4.1 Site. ‘Love compelled me to be a poet to this end, viz. not to make the Thracian oaks and wild beasts follow me like a second Orpheus, but in order to captivate Cynthia.’ Kuinoel, by placing a full stop at remus, v. 4, shows that he misunderstood the sense.
8.1 Zune. ‘Then, and then only,’ viz. if I succeed in this, ‘should I surpass the fame of the Grecian Linus.’ Sim appears to be εἴην ἂν, not the expression of a wish. See on i. 13. 31, ‘Inachiis et blandior heroinis.’
10.] Nee st qua. The sentiment ap- pears to be a general one. But see on iy. 20, 8.
LIBER III. 4 (5).
79
Me juvet in gremio doctz legisse puelle, Auribus et puris scripta probasse mea. Hee ubi contigerint, populi confusa valeto Fabula; nam domina judice tutus ero.
Qu si forte bonas ad pacem verterit aures,
15
Possum inimicitias tune ego ferre Jovis. Quandocumque igitur nostros nox claudet ocellos, Accipe qu serves funeris acta mei; Nec mea tunc longa spatietur imagine pompa,
Nec tuba sit fati vana querella mei;
20
Nee mihi tune fulcro \sternatur lectus eburno, Nec sit-in Attalico mors mea nixa toro. Desit odoriferis ordo mihi lancibus; adsint
11.] Jwvat Kuinoel, with some inferior copies. Lachmann accutely observes that hee ubi contigerint,v. 13, implies that such a result as her critical approbation was yet to come. — auribus puris, ὠσὶ καθαροῖς, properly purgatis in a physical sense, Hor. Ep.i.1, 7. Pers. Sat. v.63; then, such as are capable of appreciating harmony, &e. —docte. The emphasis is on this word: Tis not only beauty and rank, but talent and judgment which captivate me.’ Com- pare with this passage ii. 3, 9—22.—pro- basse, to make them acceptable to, com- mendasse.
13.] Confusa fabula. ‘The vague and contradictory talk.’ We may infer from this that the poet had his calumniators. To this probably v. 16 alludes.
15.] Ad pacem,. If she listens to the proposals of peace offered in my poems, I eare not if Jupiter himself is my enemy.
17.] Having spoken of his verses with some slight self-congratulation, he proceeds to say, that he wishes for no other honour to be paid to his memory, than that they should be carried in his funeral procession ; and accordingly, he leaves instructions to that effect. 1 do not think it necessary to add a word in refutation of Kuinoel’s re- mark, even though echoed by both Lach- mann and Jacob, ‘Que inde a y. 17 le- guntur, neutiquam cum antecedentibus co- hzrere jam Brouckhusius, Hemsterhusius, Burmannus, alii, monuerunt.’
18,7 ‘Hear’ (this is said to Cynthia) ‘the instructions which you are to observe in conducting my funeral.’ On this pe- culiar use of acta, see i. 21, 6.
19.] ‘Longa imagine. Pro longa ima- ginem serie dixit.’— Hertzberg. querella, see on v.11, 9. The Romans had a singular custom of preserving waxen masks or like- nesses of their ancestors, arranged in order round the atrium, and used only on the occasion of funerals. They are called *picti vultus majorum,’ Juven. viii. 2, who alludes to them also éid. 19, ‘Tota licet veteres exornent undique cere Atria, no- bilitas sola est atque unica virtus.’ Ovid, Fast. i. 591, ‘Perlege dispositas generosa per atria ceras.’ -Amor.i. 8, 65, ‘Nec te decipiant veteres quinquatria cere : Tolle tuos tecum, pauper amator, avos.’ See Becker, Gallus, p. 512; ‘Men, resembling in size and figure the persons to be repre- sented, placed these masks before their faces, and marched along in front of the lectus, clad in the dress appropriate to each, with all the insignia appertaining ; whence also Hor. Epod viii. 2, ‘Esto beata: funus atque imagines ducant triumphales tuum.’ Thus the whole row of ancestors swept along, represented by living individuals in proper costume, in front of the corpse; and this was not confined to those in direct ascent, but the collateral branches also sent their imagines to the cavalcade; as is seen from Polybius. This is what Pliny xxxv. 2 calls ‘gentilitia funera,’ Supra, i. δ, 24, ‘Nescit amor priscis cedere imaginibus.’ From this the more modern, though now nearly obsolete, practice of heraldic pur- suivants and blazonry has originated.
22.) Mors mea, t.e. cadaver meum. Attalico: see on v.5, 24. ‘Sectaque ab Attalicis putria signa toris.’
80
PROPERTII
Plebei parvee funeris exequie.
Sat mea sat magna est, si tres sint pompa libelli, 25 Quos ego Persephone maxima dona feram.
Tu vero nudum pectus lacerata sequeris, Nec fueris nomen lassa vocare meum,
Osculaque in gelidis pones suprema labellis,
Cum dabitur Syrio munere plenus onyx.
30
Deinde, ubi suppositus cinerem me fecerit ardor, Accipiat Manes parvula testa meos,
Et sit in exiguo laurus superaddita busto, Que tegat extincti funeris umbra locum.
Et duo sint versus: QUI NUNC JACET HORRIDA PULVIS,
UNIUS HIC QUONDAM SERVUS AMORIS ERAT.
90
Nec minus hee nostri notescet fama sepuleri, Quam fuerant Phthii busta cruenta viri. Tu quoque si quando venies ad fata (memento
Hoc iter) ad lapides cana veni memores.
24.] The Zances here spoken of seem to be small metallic pans, containing frank- incense, and carried in front of the pro- cession. These are not to be confounded with the perfumes placed with the burnt bones in the urn; see i. 17, 22. Among the articles consumed on the pyre Virgil (din. vi. 224) enumerates ‘thurea dona, dapes, fuso crateres Olivo.’ The immense quantity of perfumes used in funerals may be inferred from Juvenal, iv. 109.
25.] Sce introductory note to the first elegy of this Book. The construction is: ‘sat magna est mea pompa, si sint tres libelli,’ &c. The best copies give sat mea sit magni si Ke.
29,71 Pones. In the imperative sense, like segueris v.27. Kuinoel has ponas, from some inferior copies, which likewise give sequare. This use of the future is principally confined to persons, being an imitation of the Greek optative with ἄν. On this principle the poet writes accipiat rather than accipiet, v.32. On manes for ossa, see note on v.11, 1.
33.] Busto is used in the proper sense, for the spot on which the body was burnt.
35.] All the good copies agree in horrida. Kuinoel and even Jacob give arida from the corrected MSS. Hertzberg well ob- serves on the vulgate: ‘ Tristes et deformes mortui reliquias compto illi et eleganti
40
quondam Venerei hominis cultui oppositas puta.’ The first part of the distich may have been siste, viator, iter, or some such familiar formula of address.
38.] Phthii viri, i.e. of Achilles, over whose tomb Polyxena was sacrificed. The construction is remarkable: on minus notescet quam busta fuerant (nota). On the inchoative form of the substantive verb esco, like the Greek ἔσκον for ἦν, Hertzberg has a good note: but the limits of the present work only allow a reference to it. See Varronianus, p. 396.
39.] ‘Hoc ait:’ Tu quoque aliquando moricris—nee unquam velim hoe oblivis- care—sed opto, ut diu etiam in vivis sis, neve nisi anus ad inferos et sepulera venias; illic ego semper tui memor ero.’— Hertzberg. ‘When you too shall come to die, come (¢.e. may you come) at a ripe age to join me in Hades, where be sure that I shall expect your arrival.’ See on i. 19, 17.—lapides, i.e. me sepultum. Supra, vy. 32, where see note. There is an an- tithesis in cana and memores, rather implied than expressed. Compare i. 19, 17. ‘Quam- vis te long remorentur fata senectee, Cara tamen lacrymis ossa futura meis.’ But the verse is probably corrupt. No other pentameter in the elegy ends with three syllables; and the correction ‘memento— cara yenire meos’ is plausible.
LIBER III. 4 (5).
81
Interea cave sis nos aspernata sepultos: Nonnihil ad verum conscia terra sapit.
Atque utinam primis animam me ponere cunis Jussisset queevis de tribus una soror!
Nam quo tam dubiz servetur spiritus hore ?
Nestoris est visus post tria secla cinis; Cui si longzevee minuisset fata senecte Gallicus Iliacis miles in aggeribus,
Non ille Antilochi vidisset
Diceret aut: O mors, cur mihi sera venis ?
corpus humari, 50
Tu tamen amisso non numquam flebis amico: Fas est preeteritos semper amare viros.
Testis, cui niveum quondam percussit Adonin Venantem Idalio vertice durus aper.
Ulis formosum jacuisse paludibus, illue
41.] Interea, between the present time and your yet remote decease. The sense is, ‘slight me not in the grave, for the dead have some perception of what is pass- ing on earth, and therefore can be pained by being forgotten.’ The pantheistic doc- trine of earth itself being a divinity possessed of consciousness and volition, is here enun- ciated. Whether we should construe ad verum sapit or ad verum conscia, seems un- certain.
43.] Having spoken of the uncertainty of the time of death, he passes into a natural reflection, that it would be better to die young than to live long in a state of suspense and anxiety. In a word, the subject of death is followed out to the con- clusion of the elegy in a manner, to say the least, not inconsistent with the senti- ments already expressed. Hertzberg calls these verses ‘pannus infeliciter assutus.’ See however the introductory note.
45.] ‘For to what purpose should life be preserved for an event so unforeseen and uncertain as death ?
47.] The best copies read Quis tam longeve &c., of which it seems impossible to make any plausible sense, though it is retained by Keil. With Lachmann, I have admitted an anonymous conjecture Cwi s?, approved also by Jacob. Hertzberg, loath to part with tam, gives Cui tam longeve, understanding s? ; which is very awkward and unsatisfactory. Barth reads si tam longeve ἕο. When Cui si had been cor- rupted into quis, it was natural to add tam to prop up the metre.
55
48.] The word Gallicus seems corrupt; nor has any very probable conjecture been proposed. Lachmann reads Siius Iliacis, ‘me probante,’—says Jacob. It appears to me to be liable to the same objection as Colchis Colchiacis ii. 1, 54. Kuinoel ex- plains: ‘Gallicus miles, Phrygius, Tro- janus, a Gallo Phrygie fluvio, de quo y. Ovid, Fast. iv. 364. Stephanus de urbibus: Γάλλος ποταμὸς Φρυγίας. Hertzberg thinks it barely possible that Propertius may have borrowed the name from some Alexandrine or Cyclic poet, or even from Callimachus, referred to by Pliny, WV. H. vi. 1.
49.] Antilochi. A remarkably parallel passage occurs in Juvenal, x. 260, ‘ Atten- das, quantum de legibus ipse queratur Fatorum, et nimio de stamine, cum videt acris Antilochi barbam ardentem,’ &c.
51.] ‘Yet you will be sorry to lose me, and if you long survive me, will regret for the rest of your life that you loved me so little.’ — preteritos, oixopévouvs. ‘It is usual to love when too late,’—fas est, 7. ὁ. mos hominum.
53.] Testis (Venus) cui &e. The MSS. and early edd. have Zestis gui, which in- troduces the manifest absurdity of a boar being a witness to a moral truth. Hertz- berg, Lachmann, and the later editors have admitted eu? from the conjecture of Huschk. Kuinoel gives Testis, quem niveum quondam percussit, Adonis, &e.
55.] The construction is, ‘illis paludibus (dicitur eum) formosum jacuisse; illic tu diceris isse’ &c. Kuinoel has flevisse for
G
82
PROPERTII
Diceris effusa tu, Venus, isse coma. Sed frustra mutos revocabis, Cynthia, Manes: Nam mea quid poterunt ossa minuta loqui ?
Vi.
Non ita Dardanio gavisus Atrida triumpho est, Cum caderent magne Laomedontis opes; Nec sic errore exacto letatus Ulixes, Cum tetigit care ltora Dulichie, Nee sic Electra, salvum cum vidit Oresten, 5 Cujus falsa tenens fleverat ossa soror, Nec 516 incolumem Minois Thesea vidit, Deedaleum lino cum duce rexit iter, Quanta ego preterita collegi gaudia nocte:
Immortalis ero, si altera talis erit.
10
At dum demissis supplex cervicibus ibam,
jacuisse, from some of the early editions. Lachmann, from his own conjecture, die Jormosis jacuisse &e. The construction of the vulgate reading is so harsh that its correctness cannot be relied upon. Miiller’s emendation, vocitasse for jacuisse, seems to have but small probability.
57—8.] ‘You will vainly call on me in the grave. Shew your affection for me while I have the faculty of speech, and can return it.’—dogui, 7. e. respondere. ef. 28, ‘nec fueris nomen lassa vocare meum.’ —minuta, when reduced to fragments on the pyre.
V. ‘Letitia exultat, quod amica tandem et preter opinionem suam potitus fuerit. Letitiam suam inde perceptam aflirmat majorem fuisse et esse, (1—8) letitia Aga- memnonis, Troja capta; Ulyssis, cum finito errore in patriam revenisset; Electra, cum salyvum adspexisset Orestem; Ariadne, cum Thesea sospitem vidisset. Duo priora exempla (1—4) gaudium indicant post longum temporis spatium perceptum ; pos- teriora, (6—8) nec opinatum.’—Awinoel.
4.] Dulichig. See onii. 2, 7. In Homer, the name is always written Δουλίχιον, nor does any passage in either of his poems imply that this island was part of Ulysses’ dominions. On the contrary, each of the adjacent group seems to have had its regulus or hero-chief. Here, however, (and compare iii. 12, 13), Dudichia stands
for Ithaca; or rather, a part of the domin- ions is put for the whole. The word is perhaps a form of δολιχός, ‘Long Island.’
6.] alsa ossa, the urn with the pre- tended ashes of Orestes, as described in the Chephorce and in the Electra of Sophocles.
7.1 Nee sic, i.e. letus or laetatus.—cum vexit &e., when she had guided his steps safely out of the labyrinth of Dedalus by the clue of a thread.
11.] Demissis cervicibus, i. 6. demisso capite, humiliated and forlorn as one re- jected.—The expression sicco lacu vilior can only be understood by reference to local customs. In volcanic districts, where water 15 at once bad and scarce, tanks were, and still are, used (the λάκκοι of the Greeks: see on y. 1, 124) for collecting and preserving the precious gift of nature. The well-known epigram of Martial (iii. 57) is thus to be explained: ‘Callidus im- posuit nuper mihi caupo Ravenne; Cum peterem mixtum, vendidit ille merum;’ that is, water was dearer than wine, as the preceding epigram distinctly asserts: ‘ Sit cisterna mihi quam yinea malo Ravenne, Cum possim multo vendere pluris aquam.’ When these tanks were dry, the disappoint- ment of the thirsty traveller who had ex- pected a supply from them, induced him to turn away with disgust, and originated the proverb ‘more worthless than a dry tank.’ The tanks in Rome, supplied by the aqueducts, can hardly be meant, since
—— τὶ
LIBER III. 5 (6).
Dicebar sicco vilior esse lacu. Nee mihi jam fastus opponere querit iiquos, Nec mihi ploranti lenta sedere potest.
Atque utinam non tam sero mihis nota fuisset
Conditio! cineri nunc medicina datur. Ante pedes czcis lucebat semita nobis; Scilicet insano nemo in amore videt. Hoe sensi prodesse magis: Contemnite, amantes;
Sic hodie veniet, si qua negavit heri.
Pulsabant alii frustra dominamque vocabant ; Mecum habuit positum)lenta puella caput. Heee mihi devictis. potior victoria Parthis, Hee spolia, hee reges, heee mihi currus erunt.
Magna ego dona tua figam, Cytherea, columna,
Taleque sub nostro nomine carmen erit:
HAS PONO ANTE TUAS TIBI,
EXUVIAS, TOTA NOCTE RECEPTUS AMANS. Nune in te, mea lux, veniat mea litore navis
these were never sicc?. Compare iii. 14, 2. ‘Tpsa petita lacu nune mihi dulcis aqua est.’
13,] Fastus. See note on i. 1, 3.—op- ponere mihi, i.e. ‘to reply to my entreaties by a cold refusal.’
14.] Potest, ‘has she the heart.’ —Jenta, apathetic, heartless, indifferent, as inf. 22, se. lenta aliis. Cf. i. 15, 4.
16.] Conditio. That the way to over- come contempt in a mistress is to show contempt for her in return. This appears from y. 19, where some have perverted the sense of the whole passage (15—20) by reading contendite from an interpolated MS. —cinert medicina datur, 7. ὁ. the remedy is known too late. A proverb, perhaps; ‘’tis too late to give drugs to dead men.’
17.) Ante pedes ἕο. ‘The road lay clear and bright before us as we walked, but we were blind and saw it not; people never do see, when madly in love.’ Hence the saying that Cupid is blind. The mean- ing is, that the poet did not perceive, blinded by his love, that the best way of treating Cynthia was to requite her with affected indifference.
24.] Hee ἕο. The more usual idiom is ‘Ai reges, hi mihi currus erunt.’
25.] Tua columna. On the pillars of the temples it was the custom to hang votive verses: see iii, 20, 43. ‘ Pro quibus
83 15 20 25 DIVA, PROPERTIUS ADES optatis sacro me carmine damno.’ In the
present instance, probably always, some gift was attached, like the ‘gilt palm’ in Tibullus, i. 9, 82. See also Ovid, Am. ii. 13, 25 (quoted by Kuinoel). ‘The votive tabule attixed to the walls are well known from Hor. 04. 1. 5, 14.—sub nostro nomine. Kuinoel gives munere on the authority of a late MS. We must suppose that the gift was accompanied with the dedicatory words ‘ Propertius posuit,’ and that wnder the name the distich was written.— Exuvie must be understood in continuation of the metaphor in y. 23, ἡ. 6. Cynthia’s favours wrested from his rivals, and represented by some offering to Venus.
27.] The use of the plural edes (mean- ing a temple and not a house) is remark- able. Kuinoel and even Lachmann read @dem from Scaliger’s correction.
29.] ‘Henceforth it depends on you whether my bark is to come safe to shore, or to be stranded on the shoals.’ The MSS. and editions have ad te, which I have ventured, with Heinsius, to alter to in te. The vulgate is retained by Keil and Miiller, who think the difficulty removed by an interrogation at vadis. tm te was altered to ad te, as I conceive, in con- sequence of veniat.. Kuinoel adopts (in his note; for he retains ad te in his text, by an oversight), α te from one MS., which
84
Servata, an mediis sidat onusta vadis.
PROPERTII
30
Quod si forte aliqua nobis mutabere culpa, Vestibulum jaceam mortuus ante tuum.
VI.
O me felicem! o nox mihi candida! et o tu Lectule, deliciis facte beate meis!
Quam multa apposita narramus verba lucerna, Quantaque sublato lumine rixa fuit!
Nam modo nudatis mecum est luctata papillis, 5 Interdum tunica duxit operta moram.
Illa meos somno lapsos patefecit ocellos
Ore suo, et dixit:
Siccine, lente, jaces ?
Quam vario amplexu mutamus brachia! quantum
Oscula sunt labris nostra morata tuis!
10
Non juvat in ceco Venerem corrumpere motu :
Si nescis, oculi sunt in amore duces. Ipse Paris nuda fertur periisse Lacena, Cum Menelaéo surgeret e thalamo ;
Nudus et Endymion Phoebi cepisse sororem
Dicitur et nudz concubuisse deez. Quod si pertendens animo vestita cubaris,
Scissa veste meas experiere manus;
Quin etiam, si me ulterius provexerit ira,
Ostendes matri brachia lesa tue.
he explains by a questionable ellipse, @ te pendet. Lachmann reads ‘nunc da te, mea lux, venit mea litore navis servata: an mediis sidat onusta vadis??—For sidat Jacob has given sistat from the Groning. MS.: but the common reading seems much more appropriate. Jacob indeed maintains the reverse, but on grounds not connected with the reading given in the text. Cf. iv. 24, 16.
81. ] ‘If you should unfortunately change your feelings towards me through any fault of mine, my wish then is that I may be found dead before your door, and so give a proof of my affection to the last.’ See i. 16, 17 seqq. On vestibulum see Becker, Gallus, p. 237.
VI. The subject is continued from the
20
last, and probably refers to the same oc- casion. He reiterates his profession of ardent attachment and fidelity to Cynthia.
1.7 Felicem. The hiatus, or non-elision of the final m, is remarkable. In Plautus it seems often to occur, where modern editors thrust in some word to evade 1. In this case it would be easy to read o te nox mihi candida.
7.] Zila has the same emphasis as if he had said illa ipsa suo carissimo ore &e.
13.] Fertur. Some lost ‘Homeric’ or ‘Cyclic’ account is clearly alluded to.
ie J Cubaris. We may notice here and inf. 7, 23, the archaism cubavi for the more usual cubui. The address to Cynthia is sudden, but this is a common practice with the poet, e.g. ii. 9, 16.
LIBER III. 6 (7).
Necdum inclinate prohibent te ludere mamme ; Viderit hee, si quam jam peperisse pudet.
Dum nos fata sinunt, oculos satiemus amore: Nox tibi longa venit, nec reditura dies.
Atque utinam herentes sic nos vincire catena 2
σι
Velles, ut numquam solveret ulla dies! Exemplo junctze tibi sint in amore columbe,
Masculus et totum femina conjugium. Errat, qui finem vesani queerit amoris:
Verus amor nullum‘\novit habere modum.
Terra prius falso partu deludet arantes, Et citius nigros Sol agitabit equos, Fluminaque ad caput incipient revocare liquores, Aridus et sicco gurgite piscis erit,
Quam possim nostros alio transferre dolores:
Hujus ero vivus, mortuus hujus ero.
Quod mihi si secum tales concedere noctes Illa velit, vite longus et annus erit;
Si dabit hc multas, fiam immortalis in illis:
Nocte una quivis vel deus esse potest.
Qualem si cuncti cuperent Et pressi multo membra Non ferrum crudele neque
21.] Necdum, ‘et nondum.’ ‘ Besides, such Jusus befits your youth,’ τῷ νέῳ τε καὶ σφριγῶντι σώματι, Eur. Androm. 196. —viderit hec-&c., ‘let that be the concern of those who regret they are past child- bearing,’ which you are not. See inf. 9, 20.
25.] Catena, ‘jugo Veneris.’ Jacob.— velles, addressed to Cynthia, ‘I would that you might consent,’ &c. Kuinoel has vellent, i.e. fata; the conjecture of Bur- mann. The allusion in catena is to the well-known legend of Mars and Venus in Hom. Od. viii. 275, &c.
28.] Totum conjugium, ὦ. 6. qui solo suo conjugio fruuntur; quo toti sibi, non aliis, dediti sunt. The order of the words is, ‘masculus et femina, totum (in se ipsis) conjugium.’ ‘Unus columbus non nisi unam columbam in coniugio habet.’— Barth.
31.] Falso partu, monstroso, ‘unna- tural.’ Juyenal, Sat. xiii, 64, ‘Egregium
40 decurrere vitam,
jacere mero, esset bellica navis,
sanctumque virum si cerno, bimembri Hoc monstrum puero, vel miranti sub aratro Piscibus inventis, aut fete comparo mult.’
33.] Revocare. See 1. 15, 29.— piseis erit, ἃ, ὁ. live fishes will be found in the dry bed ofa river. That this, here spoken of as a prodigy, is literally true under certain circumstances, is asserted by Sir Emerson Tennent in his Natural History of Ceylon, chap. x.
35.] Jacob and Lachmann, with Barth and Kuinoel, read calores from the Aldine. —dolores is much more elegant, and may easily bear the same sense.
39.] ‘Even a single year will seem long for my life.’ With the next verse com- pare v. 10 of the preceding: ‘immortalis ero, si altera talis erit.’
41.] Jacob alone has deducere from the Groning. MS. The sense is, ‘If all man- kind would worship Venus and Bacchus, the service of Mars would soon cease.’
86
PROPERTII
Nec nostra Actiacum verteret ossa mare,
Nec totiens propriis circum oppugnata triumphis
Lassa foret crines solvere Roma suos. Hee certe merito poterunt laudare minores:
Leserunt nullos pocula nostra deos.
Tu modo, dum lucet, fructum ne desere vite: Omnia si dederis oscula,
Ac veluti folia arentes liquere corollas, Que passim calathis strata natare vides,
Sic nobis, qui nune magnum speramus amantes, Forsitan includet crastina fata dies.
44.] Verreret, Barth and Kuinoel with Sealiger. Lachmann defends the vulgate by Virgil’s use of volvere, Georg. iv. 25, to which Hertzberg adds An. i. 100, ‘scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volves.’ But volvo and verto are not sy- nonymous; and the conjecture of Scaliger has much to commend it.
45.] ‘Rome beset all around by its own victories’ is a bold figure. Propriis tri- umphis is interpreted by Kuinoel evvidibus victoriis ; and perhaps propriis may signify de se ipsa reportatis. ‘The idea however is, that its victories have been but so many defeats, and that it has been wearied in weeping for its own citizens. Solvere crines refers to the dishevelled hair of cap- tives. See v. 11,38. ‘Africa tonsa,’ which relates to the same custom, since either cutting off or letting fall the long hair im- plies the same disregard of personal adorn- ment. So Livy, i. 26, ‘Solvit crines, et flebiliter nomine mortuum sponsum ap- pellat.’—Lassa solvere, as lassa vocare, iii. 4, 28.
47.] Hee, sc. what he ayows in the next verse, that the gods have never been outraged by his intemperance. See v. 42. It is probable that there is an allusion to Antony’s well-known propensity, since this would be in keeping with the reference to the battle of Actium ν. 44. This however is mere supposition, the sense being com- plete in itself, ‘Whatever posterity shall say of our pleasures, they cannot charge us with the crime of provoking the gods to take vengeance on our country.’
49.] Dum lucet, t.e. antequam adyes-
45 pauca dabis. 50 perascit. Compare supr. vy. 2. Lachmann
and Kuinoel give dum licet, hunc &e. The Groning. MS. has dwm liceat, the ed. Rheg. dum licet, the Naples MS. alone dum lucet. Miiller reads dum licet, o fructum &e., the good copies omitting hunc.—ne desere, noli deserere, μὴ προδῷς, do not relinquish or resign it.
51.] A very choice and original simile, or rather, a new way of expressing an old one. ‘Life is as frail as the leaves which fall from the garlands on the heads of the guests, into the goblets.’ This sense of calathus (usually ‘a flower-basket’) is found in Virg. Eelog. v.71, ‘ Vina novum fundam calathis Ariusia nectar.’ Compare 111. 25, 37.
53.] Lachmann and Kuinoel prefer spi- ramus; a conjecture, though a probable one, of Scaliger’s. It is adopted also by Keil and Miiller, and by Barth, who compares μέγα πνεῖν and μέγα φρονεῖν. Yet with magnum we may understand Sructum from ν. 49.
54.] Includet fata. This is generally interpreted ‘finiet vitam.’ Hertzbeag has suggested a more natural meaning of the words, ‘crastina dies nos mortuos Orcino thesauro tradet,’ and he ingeniously ex- plains from this verse the obscure one in Hor. Od. i. 24, 17, ‘Non lenis precibus fata recludere.’ In fine, fata being used for mortuos, the notion of inclosing in the tomb is so natural a one, that it is found under some form or other in many passages, e.g. Vv. 11, 2, ‘Panditur ad nullas janua nigra preces.’
᾿ LIBER III. 7 (8).
87
ὙΠ
Pretor ab Illyricis venit modo, Cynthia, terris, Maxima preeda tibi, maxima cura mihi.
Non potuit saxo vitam posuisse Cerauno ? Ah, Neptune, tibi qualia dona darem!
Nune sine me plena fiunt convivia mensa, 5 Nunc sine me tota janua nocte patet.
Quare, si sapis, oblatas ne desere messes, Et stolidum pleno, veliere carpe pecus.
Deinde, ubi consumpto restabit munere pauper,
Dic alias iterum naviget Lllyrias.
10
Cynthia non sequitur fasces, nec curat honores; Semper amatorum ponderat illa sinus.
At tu nune nostro, Venus, 0 succurre dolori, Rumpat ut assiduis membra libidinibus.
Ergo muneribus quivis mercatur amorem ? Juppiter, indigna merce puella perit.
VII. Written to upbraid Cynthia for re- newing a connexion with a certain wealthy but unintellectual official, already alluded toi.8. He will not allow himself to sup- pose she cares for anything but his money; hence he directs his approaches rather against her avarice than the fickleness of her attachment.
“1.1 Illyricis. From i. 8, 2, it appears that the pretor was governor of the pro- vince of Illyricum; and as on a former occasion he had proposed to carry Cynthia with him from Rome, so now on his return he desires to renew an old acquaintance. It may appear strange that the poet should dare to speak so insolently (v. 8 and 24) of a dignity like the Praetorian presidency ofaprovince. Yet Tacit. Ann. iv. 52, calls Domitius Afer, ‘recens pretura, modicus dignationis:’ whence it may be inferred that expretors (to whom under Augustus the provinces were generally assigned, Asia and Africa being proconsular appointments), were of no very high rank. The student will refer to the ‘ Dictionary of Antiquities,’ under Provincia, for a full account of their administrative powers. That the govern- ment of a province was a most lucrative appointment is certain from abundant tes- timonies. See Juvenal, viii. 87—122.
7.] δὲ sapis &e., said, of course, in
bitter irony.
8.7 Pleno vellere. ‘Pluck him while his fleece hangs thick upon him,’ ὦ. 6. before he is stripped of it by those who are ready and willing to plunder him. ‘There is per- haps an allusion to the golden fleece, so that pleno might mean, ‘full of gold dust.’ So Caligula called Junius Silanus, pro- consul of Asia, ‘pecus aurea,’ Tac. Ann. xill. 1.
10.] Alias &c., that he may get rich by plundering another province.
11.] Having told Cynthia, in a taunting manner, to make the most of her prize, he adds, in the same strain, ‘’tis not so much rank and honour that my Cynthia cares for,as money. She always feels the pockets of her lovers to see if they are heavy.’ There is perhaps a double sense in sinus, the folds of the toga and the feelings of the heart; and if so, he ironically means that Cynthia does zot care for the deyotion of lovers, but only for their wealth.
14.] Rumpat ut, i.e. faciendo ut &e.
16.] Indigna merce, ‘for an inadequate price.’ Lachmann reads, Juppiter, indig- num! merce puella perit! But he rightly explains the vulgate, ‘indigna hercle ista merx est, qua puella veneat,’ while he less correctly objects that such a sense should have followed a specific mention of gold
88
PROPERTII Ἀ
Semper in Oceanum mittit me querere gemmas, Et jubet ex ipsa tollere dona Tyro. Atque utinam Rome nemo esset dives, et ipse
Straminea posset dux habitare casa!
20
Numquam venales essent ad munus amice, Atque una fieret cana puella domo.
Non, quia septenas noctes sejuncta cubaris, Candida tam fcedo brachia fusa ὙΠῸ ;
Non quia peccaris, testor te, sed quia vulgo
25
Formosis levitas semper amica fuit. Barbarus excussis agitat vestigia lumbis,
Et subito felix nunc mea regna tenet. Aspice quid donis Eriphyla invenit amaris,
Arserit et quantis nupta Creusa malis.
30
Nullane sedabit nostros injuria fletus ? An dolor hic vitiis nescit abesse tuis ?
and gems, and not a gencral enuntiation, muneribus. Hertzberg gives a sufficient reply to this: ‘puella merce perit, indigna (re) qua puella pereat. Semper enim in- digna merx, qua puella talis pereat.’-—pervt, ‘is thrown away,’ ‘is lost,’ perditur.
17.] Mittit me. The connexion is, ‘I now see that it was from her natural avarice that she was ever asking me for gifts.’ The expression is of course hyper- bolical. See oni. 14, 12.
20.] ‘I would that the emperor himself could have lived, like Romulus of old, in a thatched hut.’ There is an allusion to the casa Romuli, on which see v. 1, 9.
23.] Septenas. Here used for septem. —fusa brachia, a Grecism like flores in- seripti nomina. Virg. Ec. ὃ, 1006. περι- πεπλεγμένη ὠλένας. See oni. 3, 34.
25.] The editors agree in pecearis, which (according to Jacob, but not to Lachmann and Hertzberg), is the reading of the MS. Groning. The rest give pecearim. ‘ Phi- lippus Beroaldus correxit.’ Lachmann. ‘Non te testem appello tui unius peccati, sed communis formosarum mulierum levi- tatis, 7. ὁ. non tantum indignarer, si sola tu hoc commisisses scelus, quantum quod jam nulli puelle confidere licet.’—Hertzberg. The sense is, ‘I make this appeal to your feelings, not so much from offence at your fault in particular, but because frailty seems inseparable from beauty.’ These verses contain in fact an apology for her conduct rather than a reproof. Jacob has adopted
a punctuation which destroys wholly the even tenour of the passage; sed guia—bar- barus &c., the intermediate words being taken as parenthetical.
27.] For excussis Miiller suggests ecce suis.
28.] Mea regna, ‘the queen of my heart.’ Cf. v. 7, 50, ‘longa mea in libris regna fuere tuis.’
29.] Aspice—quid invenit. See on i. 2, 9. The story of Eriphyle, wife of Am- phiaraus, who betrayed her husband for the bribe of a necklace from Polynices, and was put to death in consequence by Alemzon, Apollodor. iii. 6, 2, is familiar to most.—To Creusa, alias Glauce, daughter of Creon king of Corinth, Medea sent an ~ embroidered robe besmeared with phos- phorus. Hertzberg objects that this is not a case in point, since it does not appear that Creusa was bribed; and he supposes the poet to have followed, as else- where, an account now lost. But the general idea in view is the evil arising from gifts, and the danger of women re- ceiving them under any circumstances.
31.] ‘Sedadit fletus, efficiet ut Cynthiam contemnam, ab eaque discedam.’—Auinoel.
32.] ‘Am I to grieve for ever at your perfidious conduct, or shall I not cast you off if you continue to offend? τ. 6. ‘an ego, quamvis dolens, nunquam potero a te vitiosa decedere > For tus Kuinoel gives suis, with the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. Lachmann reads ah dolor from his own
LIBER III. 7 (8).
89
Tot jam abiere dies, cum me nec cura theatri, Nec tetigit Campi, nec mea Musa juvat.
At pudeat certe, pudeat: nisi forte, quod aiunt,
Turpis amor surdis auribus esse solet.
Cerne ducem, modo qui fremitu complevit inani Actia damnatis eequora militibus.
Hune infamis amor versis dare terga carinis
Jussit, et extremo querere in orbe fugam.
40
Cesaris hee virtus et gloria Cesaris hee est: Illa, qua vicit, condidit arma manu.
Sed quascumque tibi'vestes, quoscumque smaragdos, Quosve dedit flavo lumine chrysolithos,
Hee videam rapidas in vanum ferre procellas,
45
Que tibi terra, velim, que tibi fiat aqua. Non semper placidus perjuros ridet amantes
Juppiter, et surda negligit aure preces. Vidistis toto sonitus percurrere clo
Fulminaque etheria desiluisse domo: 50 Non hee Pleiades faciunt, neque aquosus Orion,
Nee sic de nihilo fulminis ira cadit:
conjecture. (Hertzberg is wrong in attri- buting ah to MS. Gron. the mistake arising from confounding this with y. 35).
35.] Pudeat, ἠσχυνόμην ἄν. This is said in respect of the advice so often tendered by his- friends. See i. 1, 26. a, pudeat certe, Miiller, with MS. Gron.
36.] Turpis amor, i.e. infamis, ‘ disre- putable attachments refuse to hear the ad- vice of friends.’
87.] ‘Look at the case of Antony, and his infatuated attachment, and then say if it is easy to pause in the career of love before it has brought ruin.’
38.] Damnatis, cf. v. 6, 21, ‘altera classis erat Teucro damnata Quirino.’ 72. 11, 15, ‘damnate noctes, et vos, vada lenta, paludes.’ The construction is not very clear; probably damnatis militibus is the ablative absolute, ‘when his crew were condemned to defeat by the deified Romulus.’ Barth explains it, ‘ quos sena- tus cum duce Antonio hostes judicaverat.’
39.] Insanus amor Miiller, with the in- ferior copies. He says these words are sometimes confused by transcribers.—amor, viz. Cleopatre.
40.] Extremo orbe, t.e. by making sail for Egypt, v. 6, 63.
42.] Condidit, he sheathed the sword
with the same hand by which he conquered. For, as Aristotle says, Eth. N. x, 7, πολε- μοῦμεν ἵνα εἰρήνην ἄγωμεν.
43.] Smaragdos. On the metrical pe- culiarity see on v. 4, 48.
44.) Dedit, sc. praetor iste.
46.] Fiat. So all the editors but Jacob, who gives fiet from the MSS. while he ad- mits the necessity of the correction. The meaning of vy. 43—6 is, ‘Perish the gifts he has given you! May they turn to vile earth and water in your possession!’ The expression is proverbial. Kuinoel quotes Hom. 71. vii. 99, ἀλλ᾽ ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα γένοισθε. Tibull.i. 10, 11, ‘ At deus illa In cinerem et liquidas munera vertat aquas.’
47—52.| See oni. 15, 25, and compare Juvenal, xiii. 223; Persiusi. 24; Aristoph. Nub. 399, from which it is clear that the ancients thought death by lightning the proper and peculiar punishment of perjury. Kuinoel refers to Tibull. iii. 6, 49, ‘ perjuria ridet amantum Jupiter, et yentos irrita ferre jubet.’
δ. For fulminis ira cadit Miiller con- jectures numinis ira calet. Compare how- ever Asch. Theb. 424, οὐδὲ τὴν Διὸς ἔριν πέδῳ σκήψασαν ἐκποδὼν σχεθεῖν.
90
PROPERTII
Perjuras tune ille solet punire puellas, Deceptus quoniam flevit et ipse deus,
Quare ne tibi sit tanti Sidonia vestis,
55
Ut timeas, quotiens nubilus Auster erit.
Vir
Mentiri noctem, promissis ducere amantem, Hoe erit infectas sanguine habere manus.
Horum ego sum vates, quotiens desertus amaras Explevi noctes, fractus utroque toro.
Vel tu Tantalea moveare ad flumina sorte, 5 Ut liquor arenti fallat ab ore sitim;
Vel tu Sisyphios licet admirere labores, Difficile ut toto monte volutet onus:
Durius in terris nihil est, quod vivat, amante,
Nec, modo si sapias, quod minus esse velis.
10
Quem modo felicem, invidia admirante, ferebant, Nune decimo admittor vix ego quoque die. Nune jacere e duro corpus juvat, impia, saxo,
53.] Tune, 7. ὁ. quoties fulminat.
55.] ‘A Tyrian garment is an uneasy possession, if the owner has to fear every storm ;’—‘exanimis primo quoque mur- mure cli,’ Juven. xiii, 224.
VIII. He complains of having been deceived by a promise of admittance.
1—2.] ‘To disappoint a lover is as bad as to be a murderess.’ This alludes to v.13, where he threatens to kill himself. Hence ‘hoe erit,’ i. ὁ. you will be answer- able for my death. Compare for the senti- ment iii. 13, 46.
8.7] Horum ego sum vates. ‘TI foretell that such an event will happen, (ze. I think of suicide) whenever I have to pass the night alone.’ ‘Per utrumque torum intelligitur utraque tori pars, sc. sponda interior et exterior.’ Ovid, Am.1, 14, 82. ‘Cur pressus prior est interiorque torus? fractus, nam qui somno frui non_ potest, membra hue et illue versat.’—Auinoel. Compare v. 3, 31, ‘tum queror in toto non sidere pallia lecto,’ and on 1. 14, 21, ‘et miserum toto juvenem versare cupili.’ He means both sponda and pluteus (Becker, Gallus, p. 291). For fractus, 1. ὁ. fatigatus, Miiller feebly reads stratus, a conjecture of Keil’s. Hertzberg has a long note in ex-
planation of uterque torus for utrague pars tort, which he defends on the principle that adjectives of number are often added to singular substantives to express the component parts of a whole, as non omnis moriar, multa aqua &c., and perhaps he ΤΕ have added totum conjugium, iii. 6,
5—10.] ‘You may commiserate Tan- talus and Sisyphus, but a lover is more truly deserving of your pity.’ The con- struction is, ‘licet vel moveare Tantali ἡ sorte ad flumina (stantis), quomodo liquor ab ore (recedens) fallat sitim, ¢.e. sitien- tem.’
11.] Invidia admirante, ‘Envy herself standing aghast at my good fortune.’ Martial, ep. v. 6, 5, ‘et sis invidia fayente felix.’
13.] Nune—juvat. ‘Now Iam disposed to commit suicide.’ I doubt if the reader would stop to raise an objection against this passage, were he not told ‘corruptum locum critici omnes senserunt,’ and that Lachmann, in a note of two pages in length, defends his conjectural reading
Jubet for juvat, while Hertzberg devotes
more than a page to prove that the two distichs 13—16 should be transposed, and licet substituted for juvat ; both of which
LIBER III. 9 (10).
91
Sumere et in nostras trita venena manus.
Nee licet in triviis sicca requiescere luna,
15
Aut per rimosas mittere verba fores. Quod quamvis ita sit, dominam mutare cavebo. Tum flebit, cum in me senserit esse fidem.
ἘΧΕ
Assiduz multis odium peperere querelle: Frangitur in tacito, femina szepe viro. Si quid vidisti, semper vidisse negato;
Aut si quid doluit forte,
dolere nega.
Quid si jam canis «tas mea candeat annis, 5
corrections he admits into the text. But the chief seat of the corruption is presumed to be in v. 15, where all the MSS. have nec licet. Kuinoel gives nune licet, Hertz- berg nee juvat. Rejecting these alterations as altogether uncertain and by no means necessary, we may translate, ‘Nor is it possible to sleep in the streets when the moon is waning, and so to whisper through a chink in the door.’ Probably (at least the hypothesis is not an extravagant one) the Romans thought the night air pecu- larly unwholesome when the moon was waning ; and every one knows what danger there is in the malaria of an Italian night. Sicca luna, a singular expression, derived from a popular notion that the apparent expansion and diminution of the moon's disk arose from the vapours which it im- bibed or parted with. The commentators refer to Anacreon xix. 5, and Pliny, NV. H. xvii. 9. Lachmann supposes nee licet to refer to the care taken by his rival the Pretor, mentioned in the foregoing elegy, and probably alluded to in this, to prevent his access to Cynthia: to which Hertzberg objects that decimo quoque die he was per- mitted to see her, which would hardly have been the case under such circum- stances.
14.] Trita. So the Groning. and Naples MSS. Hertzberg supposes there is a re- ference intended to the embrocades (éy- χριστά) of the ancient pharmacy. Kui- noel's tetra has but little authority.
17—18.] ‘However, I shall take good care not to leave her for another; and perhaps in the end my constancy will move her to relent.’
IX. In this elegy the poet grows not only impatient of Cynthia’s cruelty, but so unpolite as to taunt her with becoming old, and dyeing her hair. There is something amusing in the pettish spite with which he denounces this innocent article of the toilet (v.27). It seems extraordinary, since the two taunts are so naturally connected, that Lachmann and Jacob, and even Kuinoel, Keil, and Miiller (who, however, generally follow Lachmann), should suppose a new elegy commences with v. 23. ‘There is no more reason for thinking with Jacob and Kuinoel that something may have been lost after v. 32: and here Lachmann holds the contrary opinion.
1—2.] ‘Too much complaining often engender dislike; while keeping silence (ἡ. 6. enduring in silence) often regains an estranged mistress.’ Herizberg shrewdly remarks on this, ‘Ipse secum agit poeta, et dum in rebus amatoriis vulgaris sapien- tize preceptis in ordinem redigere ipsum se fingit, figurata hac et composita oratione falsam istam doctrinam irridere se signi- ficat.’
3.] Vidisse negato. Compare Juvenal, 1, 56, ‘doctus spectare lacunar, Doctus et ad calicem vigilanti stertere naso.’
4.1 Doluit, ἐλύπησε, used transitively, as in i. 16, 24.—dolere, i. e. nega id tibi dolori esse.
5.] Lachmann, Jacob, and Hertzberg adopt the reading of MS. Gron. and ed. Rheg., as given in the text. Kuinoel and Miiller have guid mea si canis etas can- desceret annis, in which they follow the Naples MS., except that the latter has canesceret. Some of the latter MSS. give
92
PROPERTII
Et faciat scissas languida ruga genas ? At non Tithoni spernens Aurora senectam Desertum Eoa passa jacere domo est. Illum seepe suis decedens fovit in undis,
Quam prius adjunctos sedula lavit equos.
10
Tlum ad vicinos cum amplexa quiesceret Indos, Maturos iterum est questa redire dies,
Tila deos currum conscendens dixit iniquos, Invitum et terris preestitit officium ;
Cui majora senis Tithoni gaudia vivi,
15
Quam gravis amisso Memnone luctus erat. Cum sene non puduit talem dormire puellam, Et cane totiens oscula ferre come. At tu etiam juvenem odisti me, perfida, cum sis
Ipsa anus haud longa curva futura die.
20
Quin ego deminuo curam, quod sepe Cupido
caneret. Barth ventures to edit ‘quid si jam canis tas mea caneret annis?’ Hertz- berg thinks the passage corrupt, on the ground that candeo ‘de splendido maxime colore dicitur.. The argument does not seem worth much, especially as he quotes Tibull. i. 10, 48, where it is used of grey hair. Anyhow, the meaning of the poet is perfectly clear: ‘If you slight me in my youth, how would you treat me as an old man?’
6.] Languida, ‘attesting the fecbleness of age.’
7.1 ‘Aurora could love Tithonus, old as he was; whereas I (vy. 19) am still in the prime of manhood.’ ‘These verses are very beautiful, and by no means difficult, though much altered and perplexed by the com- mentators. Hoa domo, ‘in Oriente, ubi sol surgere visus.’ The ‘abode’ of Aurora is in the East. When she was obliged to depart to perform her duties of giving light to the world (y. 14), she did not leave him without a parting embrace, but fovit, nyd- πησε, ‘hugged him,’ and that seis ix undis, where, as the dawn first rises (to an Italian) over the sea, her chamber was feigned to lie. Jacob quotes Hom. Hymn in Ven. 227, where it is said that Tithonus, while young, vate map’ ᾿Ωκεανοῖο pons ἐπὶ πείρασι γαίης, but when old he was petted by the goddess in her home, αὐτὸν δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἀτίταλλεν ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ἔχουσα. Lavit equos refers to the plunge through the sea
from the submarine stabulum in which they had passed the night. Kuinoel, Barth, and even Lachmann, totally pervert the mean- ing of these lines by reading unis and abjunctos. Keil and Miiller also read ulnis, retaining adjunctos.
10.] Quam prius. For priusquam. Surely this is a remarkable usage. For to compare, as Kuinoel does, Ovid, Trist. iv. 9, 31, ‘hoc quoque, quam volui, plus est,’ is clearly nothing to the purpose. It would only have been applicable had the present passage been ‘quam layit, prius fovit ;’ a construction by no means with- out examples. The peculiarity here is the placing the particle of comparison quam, without the action compared, before the comparative adverb prius. The commen- tators generally pass it over without re- mark. See however on ili. 17, 26.
12.] JDfaturos, ‘all too soon.’
16.] Amisso Memnone. This is not mentioned by Homer, who only records the name Od, xi. 522.
20.] Anus futura. From this verse, and perhaps we may add, from the fact that she was childless (v. 33), it might be inferred that Cynthia was somewhat ad- vanced in life. See however iii. 6,21. The word juvenis is so indefinite that it is not clear whether she was older than the poet.
21.] Quin ego diminuo curam. ‘Let me however console myself with the reflection, that Cupid is fickle, and often punishes
LIBER III. 9 (10, 11).
93
Huic malus esse solet, cui bonus ante fuit. Nune etiam infectos demens imitare Britannos, Ludis et externo tincta nitore caput ?
Ut natura dedit, sic omnis recta figura est:
Turpis Romano Belgicus ore color. fh sub terris fiant mala multa puelle, Qu mentita suas vertit inepta comas! De me, mi certe poteris formosa videri:
Mi formosa satis, si modo sepe venis.
30
An si ceruleo quedam sua tempora fuco Tinxerit, idcirco catula forma bona est ? Cum tibi nec frater nec sit tibi filius ullus, Frater ego et tibi sim filius unus ego,
those whom he before favoured.’ This use of guin, properly asking a question, ‘ Why do Inot?’ and thence in a hortatory sense, is familiar to every scholar.
23.) Infectos, ‘stained with woad.’ nune etiam, t.e. at your time of life, when these follies might reasonably cease. Though perhaps in Cynthia’s view it was just the time to begin them. From the practice of dyeing the hair, the poet draws an exaggerated comparison of staining the whole body.—Ludis, ἀφροδισιάζεις : com- ‘pare Jusu, 111. 24, 29. The ancient Britons are said to have stained themselyes with woad (¢satis tinctoria), to which colour he alludes in ceruleo, v.31. Compare Martial, ep. xi. 53. The Eastern practice of staining the eyes, nails, &c. with henna probably led to the adoption of similar customs in Rome. See the curious fragment of Ovid, Medicamina Faciei, which contains the re- cipes for various cosmetics. Id Rem. Amor. 351, ‘Tum quoque, cum positis sua collinet ora venenis, Ad dominze yultus, nec pudor obstet, eas. Pyxidas invenies, et rerum mille colores, &c. Dyeing the hair is frequently alluded to: cf. Ovid, Amor. i. 14, 1, ‘Dicebam, medicare tuos desiste eapillos: Tingere quam possis, jam tibi nulla coma est.’ Tibull. i. 8, 48, ‘Tum studium forme: coma tum mutatur, ut annos Dissimulet viridi cortice tincta nu- cis;’ which appears to refer to the peel of fresh walnuts.
24.1 Nitor is here the glossy colour of the flavi crines of which the Romans were so fond. See ii. 2, 5.
25.] Recta est, καλῶς ἔχει. see i. 4, 9.
On figura
26.] Belgicus color. There is some doubt as to the precise meaning of this expression. Both Kuinoel and Hertzberg agree with D’Orville that ‘Dutch soap,’ spuma Batava, Martial, viii. 23, 20, is meant, a preparation with which the an- cient German tribes inhabiting that country used to dye their hair red, the ‘flava ceesaries’ (Juven. 13, 165) of that people being well known. Compare also Martial, xiv. 26, ‘Caustica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos.’ The same writer (iii. 43) mentions the practice of staining gray hair : ‘Mentiris juvenem tinctis, Lentine, ca- pillis; Tam subito corvus, qui modo cyg- nus eras.’ See also lib. iv. ep. 36.
29.] De me, ‘quod ad me attinet.’ Kuinoel, who refers to iii. 24, 21, not quite appositely. Compare Martial, ep. i. 18, 4, ‘de nobis facile est; scelus est jugulare Falernum.’—ypoteris, i.e. sepe yeniendo.
30.] Sat es for satis Miiller after Lach- mann and Heinsius. But it is easy to supply videris from the preceding.
31.] ‘Supposing it were the fashion to dye the hair blue; would it be becoming merely because it was fashionable” By an absurd supposition he endeavours to throw ridicule upon the custom.
34.] The editors, by placing a full stop at ego have made out a plausible excuse for the supposed lacuna after y. 32. The sense however is clear enough, and closely connected with the preceding verses: ‘Since you have no relations to dress for, and only me to please, keep to your own en- gagements, and do not study personal adornment so much.’ In cuwstodia he al- ludes to the keepers (see i. 11, 15; iii. 14,
94
Ipse tuus semper tibi sit custodia lectus,
PROPERTII
Nee nimis ornata fronte sedere velis. Credam ego narranti, noli committere, fame : Et terram rumor transilit et maria.
X.
Etsi me invito discedis, Cynthia, Roma, Leetor quod sine me devia rura colis.
Nullus erit castis juvenis corruptor in agris,
Qui te blanditiis non sinat esse probam ;
Nulla neque ante tuas orietur rixa fenestras, 5 Nee tibi clamatze somnus amarus erit:
Sola eris, et solos spectabis, Cynthia, montes, Et pecus et fines pauperis agricole.
Illic te nulli poterunt corrumpere ludi,
Fanaque peccatis plurima causa tuis.
10
Illic assidue tauros spectabis arantes, Et vitem docta ponere falce comas ; Atque ibi rara feres inculto tura sacello, Hiedus ubi agrestis corruet ante focos;
14) who were appointed to protect and watch the actions of women in Cynthia’s position.—tuus lectus, ὁ. ὁ. your pledges to me.—nimis ornata, cf. i. 2, 1 seqq.
37.] The meaning appears to be, ‘noli committere ut ego credam fame de te mala narranti.’ Kuinoel explains the verse very differently : ‘Credam ego fame de te narranti, propterea noli committere, noli peceare, nam nihil tacetur.’ Nor is this in itself objectionable.—narranti, ‘ gossip- ing.’
38.] Zerras Lachmann.
X. Addressed to Cynthia on her con- templated excursion into the country, and written in a cheerful and affectionate tone, which presents a strong contrast with his anxiety at her absence at Baie, i. 11. A very elegant poem, and displaying a fine sense of the beauties of nature, to which Humboldt (Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 15) considers the Romans in general to have been but little sensitive.
2.1 Quod sine me, t.e. quod, quum me presto non habeas, &c. For colts, the reading of the authentic copies, Lachmann,
Hertzberg, and Miiller give coles from one or two of the later MSS. It is true that Cynthia is about to depart, and therefore that co/’s must be taken for cultura es ; but there seems no great difficulty in such a use of the present. 8.1 Juvenis corruptor. See i. 11, 18, 9.7 Ludi, i.e. theatrales.—fana, because under pretence of religion these places were made the scenes of secret meetings &e. Compare v. 8,16. Juvenal, ix. 24, ‘Nam quo non prostat femina templo δ᾽ 12.] Docta falce, ‘skilful,’ because on the art of the pruner the crop of fruit in great measure depends. From the judg- ment required in selecting proper surcult, and cutting away the rest, putare, ‘to prune,’ and amputare (ἀμφὶ), ‘to cut away on both sides, leaving a central twig,’ sug- gested the cognate meaning of rejecting all superfluous and intrusive ideas, and fixing the mind on one subject, ἡ, ὁ. of thinking. 13.] tara, ‘only now and then,’ ¢.e. your dreaded visits to temples will be few and far between. So raris Kalendis, y. 3, 53.
Protinus et nuda choreas imitabere sura,
᾿ Omnia ab externo sint modo tuta viro.
Ipsa ego venabor.
Suscipere, et Veneri ponere vota juvat. Incipiam captare feras, et reddere pinu
Cornua, et audaces ipse monere canes.
Non tamen ut vastos ausim temptare leones, Aut celer agrestes cominus ire sues:
Hee igitur mihi sit lepores audacia molles Excipere et stricto figere avem calamo,
LIBER III. 10 (12). 95 15 Jam nune me sacra Diane 20 25
Qua formosa suo Clitummnus flumina luco
Integit, et niveos abluit unda boves. Tu quotiens aliquid conabere, vita, memento Venturum paucis me tibi Luciferis.
15.] ‘There you shall dance forthwith,’ (protinus, without let or hindrance from me) ‘ with bared leg in the festive dance of the rustics, so long as no rival is there as a spectator.’
17.] Sacra. Hertzberg regards this as an adjective agreeing with vote. The passage, which is obscure, is thus explained by him: ‘Jam recuperato Cynthice amore, Veneri gratus vota pono suscepta; jam nova Dian suscipio, et si propitia mihi fuerit in venando, in delubris ejus (he autem sunt silvee) prede partem, cornua excelsa, suspensurum me voto damno.’ Ponere vota is solvere, ἀνατιθέναι, suspen- dere. But the simpler sense is, ‘I will now make my vows (for success) to the goddess of the chase, and lay aside the vows I have hitherto made to the goddess of love.’ A contrast seems intended be- tween the two infinitives, the one to take up, the other as it were to Jay down, or get quit of certain vows. The custom of hanging the spoils of the chase on the forest trees is interesting, as showing the origin of that ancient and chivalrous adorn- ment of baronial halls, horns and heads of beasts captured in hunting. See Plutarch, Quest. Rom. Siv.; Virg. Eel. vii. 80. Kui- noel, who misinterprets the whole passage 17—20, reads reddere pennis on Burmann’'s improbable conjecture.
21.] The MS. Gron. has temerare, the Naples and ed. Rheg. temptare.—vastos, ‘huge,’ as ‘ vasti ducis,’ v. 10, 40.—Leones must be taken as an hyperbolical expres- sion, unless any one will seriously maintain
that the Italian woods sheltered that crea- ture in the Augustan age. Yet lions once existed in Britain; they are found to this day in Asia Minor, and the upper part of Greece seems to have been infested with them even in the time of Pausanias, who says (vi. 5, 3) οὗτοι πολλάκις of λέοντες Kal ἐς τὴν περὶ τὸν “OAuuTOV πλανῶνται χώραν. The question, perhaps, deserves investigation. See Georgie ii. 151; Mar- tial, xiv. 30.—The accusative follows co- minus tre, as if aggredi was the word he had intended.
23.] Mthi, emphatic; ‘let this then be my venture, to lay in wait for the harml@&s hare.’— Exeipere, a word used of the hunter who les in waiting near his nets, Awor- Tomwevos.—stricto calamo, 1, 6. sagitta ad jaculandum parata.
25.] Clitumnus. Sea on y. i. 124. Georg. τι. 146-7.—xtveos abluit, a Grecism, ‘washes them white ;’ because by drinking the water of that river cows were believed to produce white calyes, so much required for sacrifices. The shady banks of the river, where it passed through or near the poet's paternal estate, are spoken of as ‘hiding the stream in its own woods.’
27.) Aliquid conabere. The commen- tators understand by this ‘aliquid nefandi,’ so that venturum me would imply a kind of threat,—an argument against the hope of wronging him with impunity. They are perhaps right, though the tender expression vita does not seem well to accord with this view. May not the poet mean ‘aliquid in venando’ ὃ
96
PROPERTII
Sic me nec sole poterunt avertere silve,
Nee vaga muscosis flumina fusa jugis,
30
+Quin ego in assidua mutem tua nomina lingua ; Absenti nemo non nocuisse velit.
aT
Quid fles abducta gravius Briseide? quid fles Anxia captiva tristius Andromacha ?
Quidve mea de fraude deos, insana, fatigas ? Quid quereris nostram sic cecidisse fidem ?
Non tam nocturna volucris funesta querella 5 Attica Cecropiis obstrepit in foliis,
Nee tantum Niobe bis sex ad busta superba
29.] Sole silve. Not those of his own retirement at home, but Cynthia’s country abode. ‘Not even your present seclusion can prevent me from haying your name continually on my tongue,’ (i. 18, 31), ἢ, ὁ. from anxieties and fears on your behalf. Hertzberg, in a very long note, maintains that metare is for movitare; and that in this passage it is to be taken literally in the latter sense, as in Virgil, Zed. vy. 5, ‘Zephyris mutantibus umbras,’ and vi. 28. En. ν. 707, where motare has less MS. authority than mutare. Jacob ingeniously suggests metuam, ‘from fearing your name on everybody’s tongue,’ (7. 6. the frequent mé@htion of you, and your celebrity for talent and beauty, which will render your real seclusion a difficult matter), ‘lest some one should wrong me while absent,’ or should try to withdraw your affections from me. Perhaps we should read mussem, (a word that occurs Virg. 4, xii. 657 and elsewhere,) ὦ. ὁ. ‘mutter,’ ‘secretly invoke.’ Barth gives the sense thus: ‘silvas, flumina, formosam Cynthiam resonare assidue do- cebo, atque ita linguis fascinantibus et male laudantibus obstrepere non desinam, ne tibi nocere possint.’
32.] Hertzberg with good reason ob- jects to ne nemo velit for ne quis velit, as false Latinity. He himself reads non for me, with the Naples MS., placing a colon at the end of the preceding verse ;—‘ any one will be willing to wrong me in my absence from you.’ Miiller follows Lach- mann in reading ze. Keil edits as given in the text above. ‘Lest no one should be willing’ can only imply a wish that
some one should be willing; whereas nemo non is quivis, ‘any one may wish’ &e,, ὦ, 6. any rival of mine. The passage is difficult, and both of these interpretations make considerable demands on one’s faith in the integrity of the MSS. One of the later copies has me for ne. May mé for mihi have been the true reading? The sense would then be optative, ‘may no one wrong me’ &c. Compare utinam nolit, 11, 2, 15; wtinam velles, 111. 6, 25.
XI. Kuinoel says, ‘ Hee elegia est una ex illis, quas poeta ante omnes reliquas, etiam primi libri, scripsit.’ It is difficult to say wherein he finds the proof of this; in fact, he is generally content to re-echo the statements of his predecessors. That neither Propertius nor Cynthia observed strict fidelity to each other is certain from many passages already noticed; and the recrimination of the one, followed by pro- testations of regard from the other, may be supposed to have been frequent during the whole course of their connexion. In this instance the poet seems to have been the offender; for the present elegy is manifestly a reply to her expostulations (vy. 33).
5.] Funesta volucris Attica, Philomel, daughter of Pandion.—obstrepit, properly ἀντιφωνεῖ, sings against other birds: see on i. 16, 46.
7.1 Niobe—superba are to be taken to- gether. The epithet refers to her conceit in preferring the beauty of her own off- spring to that of Latona, for which offence she was punished by the loss of her twelve children,—4dis sex ad busta affords a curious
LIBER III. 11 (13).
97
Sollicito +lacrimas defluit a Sipylo. Me licet eratis astringant brachia nodis,
Sint mea vel Danaés condita membra domo;
10
In te ego et eratas rumpam, mea vita, catenas, Ferratam Danaés transiliamque domum.
De te quodcumque ad surdas mihi dicitur aures; Tu modo ne dubita de gravitate mea.
Ossa tibi juro per matris et ossa parentis,— 15
Si fallo, cis heu sit mihi uterque gravis !— Me tibi ad extremas mansurum, vita, tenebras: Ambos una fides auferet, una dies. Quod si nec nomen, nec me tua forma teneret,
Posset servitium mite tenere tuum.
instance of the want of the article in the Latin tongue (τῶν dé5exa).—tantum, fol- lowing tam, need not create any difficulty, as some have thought. Compare Moschus, 14. iti. 37 —44, οὐ τόσον εἰναλίαισι παρ᾽ ἀόσι μύρατο δελφὶν, κ.τ.λ.
8.1 Lachmann, Jacob, Keil, Miiller, and Hertzberg, retain the MSS. reading defluit. Kuinoel and Barth have depluit, the probable conjecture of Scaliger. For the active use of defluere Lachmann adduces no more satisfactory authority than two passages from Claudian. Hertzberg adds the tran- sitive construction of ῥεῖν in Eur. Hee. 528. Miiller adopts the correction of the elder Burmann, Jacrime, 7. e. ‘nec tantum lacri- mez defluit a Sipylo ad busta bis sex (libe- rorum superbe Niobe.’ But lacrime is too far removed from tantum,; and the singular is strangely used for tantwm lacri- marum. Lachmann reads superne for sz- perba or superbe, i.e. superne definit. Even this seems unsatisfactory. Perhaps /acri- mis, as the poets use fluere sanguine, sudore, mero &c. The beautiful legend of Niobe turned to stone manifestly arose from a water-dropping crag, which at a distance resembled the human form. Pausan. Lib. i. cap. 21,5, ταύτην τὴν Νιόβην καὶ αὐτὸς εἶδον ἀνελθὼν ἐς τὸν Σίπυλον τὸ ὄρος" 7 δὲ πλησίον μὲν πέτρα καὶ κρημνός ἐστιν, οὐδὲν παρόντι σχῆμα παρεχόμενος γυναικὸς, οὔτε ἄλλως, οὔτε πενθούσης: εἰ δέ γε πορρωτέρω γένοιο, δεδακρυμένην δόξεις ὁρᾶν καὶ κατηφῆ γυναῖκα. The ‘Group of Nio- be,’ in the Florence collection, is engraved in p. 552 of Smith’s History of Greece.
10.] Domo, the ‘turris aénea,’ Hor. Carm. iii. 16, 1, in which Danae was con- fined by her father Acrisius.
20
11.] Jn te, ‘in your case,’ ¢.e. propter te.
13.] The construction is, ‘quodcunque de te dicitur, id dicitur mihi ad surdas aures.’ Cynthia, as Kuinoel observes, had evidently offered some explanation for a rumour which had reached the poet re- specting her conduct. He ingeniously turns aside the complaints against himself, by assuring Cynthia he never listens to what people say of her; implying that she ought equally to disregard evil reports re- specting himself. — gravitas in the pen- tameter is opposed to /evitas, and therefore means constantia.
15.] From this verse we learn that both the poet’s parents were dead. Hence the allusion ini. 11,23. His father died when he was very young: see y. 1,127. The use of parentis for patris, as opposed to matris, is, as Hertzberg observes, re- markable, and the more so because it is properly 4 τίκτουσα. The impossibility of misunderstanding its meaning 15 a suflicient excuse; nor is paterna, which some have proposed, likely to be the true reading.
17.] Mansurum, constantem futurum ; or supply fidwmn or in fide.
18.] Una fides awferet. A poetic way of saying in wna eademque fide (cf. vy. 34) moriemur.
19.] Nomen. ‘Genus, nobilitas.’—Kui- noel. This is clearly wrong: see note on i. 1,1. We must understand her reputa- tion for beauty and talent, so often alluded to before.—mite servitium tuum, ‘the in- fluence which you possess, and so gently exercise over me, might have retained me,’ —an elegant way of saying mitia imperia tua, the apparent contrary; but servitium tuum is τὸ ἐμὲ δουλεύειν σοι.
Η
98
PROPERTII
Septima jam plenz deducitur orbita lune, Cum de me et de te compita nulla tacent ;
Interea nobis non numquam janua mollis, Non numquam lecti copia facta tui;
Nec mihi muneribus -nox ulla est empta beatis ;
Quicquid eram, hoc animi gratia magna tui. Cum te tam multi peterent, tu me una petisti;
Possum ego nature non meminisse tue ? Tum me vel tragice vexetis Erinyes, et me
Inferno damnes, Alace, judicio,
30
Atque inter Tityi volucres mea poena vagetur, Tumque ego Sisyphio saxa labore geram.
Nec tu supplicibus me sis venerata tabellis: Ultima talis erit, quae mea prima fides.
Hoc mihi perpetuo jus est,
quod solus amator
Nec cito desisto, nec temere incipio.
XII.
Ah quantum de me Panthi tibi pagina finxit, Tantum illi Pantho ne sit amica Venus!
Sed tibi jam videor Dodona verior augur? Uxorem ille tuus pulcher amator habet.
Tot noctes periere!
21.] Deducitur. ‘ Recte Jacobs. confert Ovid, Met. vii. 530, ‘Luna quater plenum tenuata retexuit orbem.? Nam deducere proprium de opere textorio verbum.’— Hertzberg. See i. 16, 41; inf. 25, 38.
23—4.] Jacob is inclined to prefer non unquam with the Naples MS. But the sense is obvious: ‘during the last seven months all the world has been talking of us, (ὦ. 6, saying things to our discredit) and yet many times has your door been opened to me, and that from regard, not for gifts received from me.’ Compare nonnihil for plurimum, i. 12, 16.— mollis, opposed to dura, crudelis, i. 16, 17—8.
26.] Quidquid eram (tibi), ‘tue beni- volentiw acceptum debeo.’—Kwinoel. 28.] Nature tue, 1. 6. indolis,
kindness.’
29.] Tune, z. e. si quando obliviscar.
30.] ace, see v. 11, 19.
31.] Mea pena vagetur, inter yagas volucres sit.
‘your
Nihil pudet? aspice, cantat 5
33.] ‘Write me no more supplicatory letters: my affection will never change; I am not as other lovers, fickle and ca- pricious; but my way is not to be easily smitten nor soon tired.’—hoe jus est, hance legem habeo, hune morem sequor.—The last distich is omitted in MS. Gron.
XII. He boasts of having foreseen the true character of one Panthus, a rival, who had deceived Cynthia and married another.
1—2.] ‘In the same degree as Panthus has misrepresented and slandered me in his correspondence with you, may Venus prove adverse,’ i.e. may his recent marriage be an unhappy one. For ah, MS. Gron. has an. Barth and Kuinoel edit at, the con- jecture (a probable one) of Heinsius.
3.] ‘Do I now seem to have predicted truly, when I told you he did not really love you? Behold, he has married a wife.’
5.] Periere, ‘have been thrown away.’ —cantat liber, i.e. vacuus, tui amore non
LIBER III. 12 (14).
99
Liber; tu nimium credula sola jaces.
Et nune inter eos tu sermo es; te ille superbus Dicit se invito seepe fuisse domi.
Dispeream, si quicquam aliud quam gloria de te
Queritur; has laudes ille maritts habet.
10
Colchida sic hospes quondam decepit Iason: Ejecta est; tenuit namque Creusa domum.
Sic a Dulichio juvene est elusa Calypso: Vidit amatorem pandere vela suum.
Ah nimium faciles aurem prebere puelle,
Discite desertze non temere esse bone. Huic quoque, qui restat, jam pridem queritur alter.
Experta in primo, stulta,
cavere potes.
Nos quocumque loco, nos omni tempore tecum
Sive egra pariter sive valente sumus.
obligatus.—cantare implies the indifference of one who has no other concern to occupy his thoughts. Tw sola jaces, i.e. illo con- juge non potiris.
7—8.] ‘At this very time Panthus and his wife are talking about you, and he is trying to persuade her that it was not by his desire that you so often remained at home, but that you were so fond of him’ &e. Esse domi, like our familiar phrase, implied the intention of admitting a visitor. ‘Ait te domi fuisse, non quod ille jusserit et condixerit, sed quod tu volueris. —Barth.
9.] Gloria. Compare i. 13, 5, ‘dum tibi deceptis augetur fama puellis.’—has laudes. ‘ Now that he is married, he boasts of your affection for him: he glories in having deceived you, just as Jason deceived Medea and married Creusa; or as Ulysses won the regard of Calypso and then left her.’— ille maritus, ironical; ὁ πόσις 6 καλός.
12.1 TZenuit namque Creusa domum. So Lachmann, Jacob, Hertzberg. with the MS. Groning. The common reading is tenuis domo. Kuinoel gives ejecta tenuit namque Creusadomum. Barth reads ‘Electa est tenui namque Creusa domo.’ Miiller *ejectee tenuit’ &c., after Ruhnken, who also proposed locum for domum. The sense however is sufficiently clear: ‘she was cast off because Creusa became the wife.’ —On Dulichius juvenis, see 111. 5, 4.
16.] Non temere esse bone, ‘not on such
20
slight grounds to earn the title of bone,’ ἴ. 6. faciles, from your admirers. The con- struction of the nominative is a Grecism: see on ii. 9, 7. Hertzberg’s note is rather obscure; ‘Déscite hic quasi imperativus verbi posse est.’ Rather the verb assumes the construction of nolo, incipio, desino &e.
17.] Hune quoque, Kuinoel. Hine quo- que MS.Gron. Keil reads huie quoque qui restet; Barth, nune quoque, qui restet ; Miiller, Aine quoque qui restat? Lach- mann, huie quoque qui restat ὁ Hertzberg appears to be right in his view of the passage, which has perplexed the commen- tators not a little: ‘Hee quoque, (i.e. puella nostra, Cynthia,) modo repudiata nihil pcena sua didicit; jam enim querit alterum amatorem eum, qui restat, quem- que in talem eventum 5101 quodammodo reseryaverat. In quo idem eam periculum, quod in priore modo experta sit, manere ait Propertius.’—hute quogue, 7. 6. puelle, Cynthiz ; in reference to pwelle used gener- ally in 15.—gui restat probably refers to the Pretor, supr. El. 7.
19—20.] ‘You can rely on my devyo- tion to you both in health and in sickness.’ ‘Videtur 1116 rivalis Cynthiam egram neglexisse.—Kuinoel. This view is justi- fied by ii. 9, 28.—ypariter, t.e. sive egra sis sive valeas. The argument is, ‘since therefore you can depend upon me alone, resign all others and attach yourself to me.’
100
PROPERTII
GAD
Scis here mi multas pariter placuisse puellas, Scis mihi, Demophoon, multa venire mala. Nulla meis frustra fustrantur compita plantis; O nimis exitio nata theatra meo! Sive aliquis molli diducit candida gestu 5 Brachia, seu varios incinit ore modos, Interea nostri querunt sibi vulnus ocelli, Candida non tecto pectore si qua sedet, Sive vagi crines puris in frontibus errant,
Indica quos medio vertice gemma tenet.
10
Que si forte aliquid vultu mihi dura negarat, Frigida de tota fronte cadebat aqua. Queris, Demophoon, cur sim tam mollis in omnes ?
Quod queris QUARE non
XIII. In an epistle to a feigned friend the poet describes his own temperament, and confesses his weaknesses in a very in- genuous strain. It may be inferred from y. 20—1, that he had been reproached with injuring his health by his follies; he calls such reproofs invidia, and, as usual, quotes precedents in his favour from Grecian an- tiquity. This elegy is concluded by Jacob and Lachmann with v. 42.
1.] Here. The day before he seems to have been at the theatre, and expressed his admiration for mute puelle whom he saw there.—venire, ἴ,6. ea ex causa. Lachmann awkwardly and unnecessarily inserts Aine, ‘scis mi hinc, Demophoon,’ &c.— mala means nothing more than amoris vulnera, as iii. 17, 48.
8.1 Lustrantur, ‘are traversed,’ iii. 1, 1. No allusion seems intended to the Com- pitalia, which would be quite out of place.
4.1 O nimis &e. ‘And as for the theatres—alas! they were made for my ruin.’ Such is the sense of this verse. Kuinoel and Barth, following the inter- polated copies, give omnia in extitium— meum. The reading, as Jacob observes, seems to have arisen from a mistake, after- wards corrected, of the transcriber of the Groning. MS. O nimis in exitio, Lach- mann, followed by Keil and Miiller, place a comma at meo, and a note of admiration at modos. But this would make Propertius an admirer of the actors; whereas he says that while the acting is going on (interea),
habet ullus amor.
he is looking at the women in the theatre. Lachmann explains interea by ‘dum puelle illos artifices spectant.’
5.] Diducit Lachmann and Hertzberg with Passerat. The MSS. have deducit. He speaks of dancers gracefully extending their arms, gesticulantes, while performing in the lewd farces called mimes, and pro- fesses his indifference to the acting, how- ever good.
9.7 Puris, ‘apertis et splendentibus.’— Barth.
10.] Medio vertice. The top-knot, κρώ- Bvaos (apparently the English word erope or crop), which appears to have been fastened with a jewelled pin, perhaps after the fashion of the modern Italian women (Martial, xiv. 24). This (Roman) method of dressing the hair is described in the article on acus in the Dictionary of An- tiquities. An engraving (art. coma, p. 268), is given of a top-knot from the head of Diana, and this is perhaps the costume alluded to. Compare Ovid, 4. A. iii, 143, ‘altera succinct religetur more Diane.’
14.] The true meaning of this verse was first seen by Lachmann; ‘hoc Quare, quod tu queris, rationem ewr aliquis amet, non habet ullus amor.’ Cur and quare (qua re, quur, quor, cur) being different forms of the same word, or rather words, this repetition is quite appropriate. Hertz- berg has collected several instances of this custom of guoting a word (which the Greeks so neatly express by prefixing the neuter
LIBER III.
Cur aliquis sacris laniat sua brachia cultris,
Et Phrygis insanos ceditur ad numeros ? Unicuique dedit vitium natura creato ;
Mi fortuna aliquid semper amare dedit. Me licet et Thamyre cantoris fata’ sequantur,
Numquam ad formosas,
Sed tibi si exiles videor tenuatus in artus,
Falleris: haud umquam Percontere licet; saepe est
Officium tota nocte valere meum.
Juppiter Alemenz geminas requieverat Arctos,
Et celum noctu bis sine rege fuit: Nec tamen idcirco languens ad fulmina venit:
Nullus amor vires eripit
Quid? cum e complexu Briseidos iret Achilles,
Num fugere minus Thessala tela Phryges ?
Quid? ferus Andromache
article), among which that from Persius,
v. 87, is the best, ‘Zicet illud et wt volo tolle,’ Δ. ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἔξεστι Kal τὸ ὅπως
θέλω. Compare also Antig. 567, ἀλλ᾽ ‘HAE μέντοι μὴ λέγ᾽. See inf. iii. 17, 2. Miller reads ewe with Huschk, ὦ ὁ. amor non curat ; and Lachmann thinks the cor- rection plausible.
15.] ‘You may as well ask the reason of the infatuation which makes some votary of Cybele cut himself with knives at the sound of the Phrygian flute.’
17.] Creato, ‘at his birth,’ γεινομένῳ. For fortuna Barth and Kuinoel repeat na- twra, following as usual a late MS. There is no réason for supposing, with Lachmann, that fortuna is the ablative, and under- standing zatura from the preceding verse, —‘ut semper forte fortuna aliquid amet.’ The influence of Fortune in love is men- tioned ii. 8, 8.
19.] The sentiment seems a singular one, ‘Though I should be struck blind like Thamyras or Thamyris (17. ii. 595—-9), I shall never be blind to beauty.’ He means, however, ‘Though I should be blind to all other objects,’ &e.
25.] Geminas Arctos, i.e. duas noctes, Kuinoel’s idea that reguieverat is for requi- escere fecerat, is refuted by Jacob at great length. A fact so obvious as that requiesco is and can be only an intransitive verb scarcely requires five pages in the way of
13 (15, 16). 101 10 invide, czecus ero. 20 est culta labore Venus. experta puella 25 1056. suas. 30
lecto cum surgeret Hector,
proof. The notion of its active sense seems principally to have arisen from an unsound remark of Servius on Virg. Μοὶ, viii. 4, ‘ Et mutata suos requierunt flumina cursus,’ where the accusative depends on mutata. But the same learned critic is less happy in his brief note: ‘Ceterum Alemene genitivus est, qui dependet a Jovis nomine, ut Alemene Juppiter ex amantium more dicatur.’ It is the dative ‘acquisitively’ used, ix gratiam Alcmenes. See Plautus, Amphitryo, Prolog. 113, ‘et hee ob eam rem nox est facta longior, Dum cum illa quacum volt voluptatem capit.’—geminas Arctos, i.e. duas noctes dum se vertunt ea sidera. 31.] Andromache. ‘This is the reading of all the good copies. Hertzberg, who whas examined the question with great mi- nuteness, (Quest. p. 163—4), contends that Propertius always prefers the Greek geni- tive in es, rather than the Latin in ae, in Greek names of this declension, and that if in certain instances the MSS. agree in the latter, some reason must be looked for, or some corruption be suspected. Hence in i. 13, 30, he reads ‘et Lede e partu,’ and in the present passage ‘Andromache e lecto.” Iam not sufficiently convinced of the certainty of the fact, to which there are several exceptions, the authority of the MSS., or the consistency of the poet in such details, either to follow him or to
102
PROPERTII
Bella Myceneee non timuere rates?
Ille vel hic classes poterat,
vel perdere muros.
Hic ego Pelides, hic ferus Hector ego.
Aspice uti czlo modo sol, modo luna ministret:
Sic etiam nobis una puella parum est. Altera me cupidis teneat foveatque lacertis, Altera si quando non sinit esse locum:
Aut, si forte irata meo sit facta ministro,
Ut sciat esse aliam, que Nam melius duo defendunt
velit esse mea.
40
retinacula navim,
Tutius et geminos anxia mater alit. Aut, si es dura, nega: sin es non dura, venito! Quid juvat et nullo ponere verba loco?
write Andromaches with Lachmann. This learned scholar is of opinion that the names Andromeda, Clytemnestra, Leda, Cinara, and generally Electra, forming the Greek nominative in a, not in 7, always form the genitive in @ But not even this rule can be considered an absolute one: he admits the occurrence of Hypermnestre and Andro- mede in Ovid, and also supr.i. ὃ, 4; v. 7, 638, and 67.
33.] A confused expression for vel ile (Hector) classes, vel hie muros perdere po- terat : where the usual rule for the use of hic and ille is not observed. See on ii. 1, 37.—‘ hie ego nempe in amoris militia.’— Kuinoel. For the concluding ego perhaps we should read with MS. Gron. evo. In either case hic is the adverb, sc. in hac nostra militia.
36.] Sie etiam, viz. by change and ro- tation.
39.] Meo ministro. See on v. 3, of the next elegy. He appears to allude to some offence given to Cynthia by his servant. Jacob proposes mero, i.e. inter vina. There is no necessity for the change, were it¥ better than it is.—auwt—wut sciat gives a second reason why another girl should be held, as it were, in reserve; the first being si quando non sinit, ἕο. ‘Or that she may know I have another girl who will consent to be mine, if ske should pout and show ill temper.’ By placing full stops at the end of 87 and 38, with Barth, Kuinoel shows that he did not understand the poet’s meaning.
41.] Duo retinacula, %. 6. due anchore, or, which is much the same thing, duo funes (πρυμνήσια). The Greek proverb is well known. See Pindar, Οἱ. vi. 100, ἀγαθαὶ δὲ πέλοντ᾽ ἐν xemepla νυκτὶ Bods
ἐκ vads ἀπεσκίμφθαι δύ᾽ ἄγκυραι. “Τὸ have two strings to your bow’ is the equivalent modern proverb.
42.] A mother was supposed to {have more care for each child, when she had several, than for an only child. The opin- ion is not confirmed by modern experience. Kuinoel quotes two beautiful lines from Ovid, Remed. Am. 463, ‘Fortius e multis mater desiderat unum, Quam que flens dicit, Tu mihi solus eras.’
43.] Lachmann and Jacob, followed by Keil and Miiller, commence a new elegy with this verse. Hertzberg however (Quest. p. 118 ἄς.) has remarked that Propertius is peculiarly apt to apostrophise persons of whom he was before speaking in the third person. This being admitted, it is clear that the poet is pursuing the idea in vy. 38. The general sense is, ‘ Refuse or assent as you please; it matters not to me, who have another in reserve.’ This is not said to Cynthia in particular, but to any one of his acquaintances indefinitely. The con- struction is rather irregular for aut nega, aut venito.
44.] Ponere verba nullo loco, ‘hie debet esse, nullius auctoritatis vel ponderis verba proloqui: at random quod Angli aiunt.’ — Jacob, Miiller reads a, nullo &e. (te. ah!) ‘Cur nihili facis verba, id est, pro- missa tua?>’—LZachmann. See on i. 19, 17—20. Barth and Kuinoel follow Bero- aldus, in nullo pondere verba logui, and tells his readers, ‘ prepositio iz redundat.’ The expression (in this sense) is unusual. Per- haps he had in view οὐδαμοῦ τίθεσθαι. Hertzberg considers that ‘not to value words,’ and ‘to throw away or waste words,’ are correlative ideas. Yet it
LIBER III. 14 (17).
Hic unus dolor est ex omnibus acer amanti, 45
103
Speranti subito si qua venire negat. Quanta illum toto versant suspiria lecto,
Cum recipi, quem non noverit illa, putat. Et rursus puerum querendo audita fatigat,
Quem, que scire timet, dicere plura jubet.
50
XIV.
Cui fuit indocti fugienda hee semita vulgi,
Ipsa petita lacu nunc mihi dulcis aqua est. Ingenuus quisquam alterius dat munera servo,
Ut promissa suze verba ferat domine ? Et querit totiens: Quzenam nunc porticus lam 5
scarcely follows that they are convertible terms. The poet’s meaning is this: ‘ What is the good of promising, merely to keep peace for a time, when you do not intend to perform?’ He proceeds to show the annoyance arising from such conduct.
46.] Kuinoel joins sudito venire. Rather, I should say, swbito negat, which alludes to sending a sudden excuse.
48.] Cum recipi, &e. ‘Cum sibi pre- ferri alium ignotum amatorem putat.’— Kuinoel, who reads guem non noverit ile. This ‘vexatissimus versiculus,’ as Lach- mann calls it, is variously read in the MSS. The best copies have eur for eum, que and ille for quem and ila ; and vetat for putat. The reading in the text is that of Lachmann and Jacob, with Keil and Miiller, from the excerpta of Pucci. The sense is, ‘ he is tortured with jealousy, be- lieving she has admitted some one else, to whom in fact she is a perfect stranger.’
49.] Rursus querendo audita, ‘by re- repeating questions already answered.’
50.] This verse is wanting in the Naples MS., whence there is some reason to suspect that the conclusion is imperfect. The sense appears to be, ‘whom (1.6. the slave) he urges to tell him more fully the circum- stances of which he (the expectant) fears to be informed.’ In a few words, ‘he im- plores him to tell the worst.’ But guerere plura is the reading of the MSS. and most of the edd. Lachmann says: ‘puerum, qui se causam, cur puella non yeniat, scire negavit, plura, que ipse timet scire, qua- rere jubet.” And he marks the loss of some yerses next following.
XIV. He compares the pride of high- born women with the facile compliance of the humbler classes. This, like the next, is a difficult elegy ; both have given much trouble to critics and comrffentators.
1—2.] ‘I, who formerly thought that I ought to shun the vulgar path, now find the water sweet drawn from the common tank.’ That is, I who once thought my- self too clever to act like others, now dis- cover my error, and find satisfaction in re- turning to the old ways. He blames him- self for aspiring to the favour of Roman ladies above his position in life. For the metaphor in y. 2, see note on 11]. 5, 12.— ‘semita vulgi, alludit ad semitarias meri- triculas..— Barth. Cynthia, it will be re- membered, was not one of these.
8-4. ‘Is a gentleman to bribe the servant of another to carry the message which he has engaged to convey (and therefore is bound to convey without a gift) to his mistress?’ Or promissa may mean, ‘promised by the lover at some former interview.’ It is probable that services of this description formed a regular trade at Rome. To be a ‘ go-between’ was to make a handsome livelihood. Juvenal, Sat. 111. 45.
5—8.] ‘Is he to put himself to endless trouble to find out in what piazza or in what part of the Campus Martius she takes her walk, merely to be favoured with a note from her, asking for a present?’ On the peculiar construction guisguam dat, where we should expect the subjunctive, see lil. 26, 1.
104
PROPERTII
Integit? et: Campo quo movet illa pedes? Deinde, ubi pertuleris, quos dicit fama, labores
Herculis, ut scribat: Muneris ecquid habes ? Cernere uti possis vultum custodis amari, ἢ
Captus et immunda spe latere casa?
10
Quam care semel in toto nox vertitur anno! Ah pereant, si quos janua clausa juvat!
Contra, rejecto quae libera vadit amictu, Custodum et nullo septa timore, placet ;
Cui spe immundo Sacra conteritur Via socco,
15
Nec sinit esse moram, si quis adire velit.
Differet heee numquam, nec poscet garrula, quod te Astrictus ploret szepe dedisse pater ; Nec dicet: Timeo: propera jam surgere, queso:
Infelix, hodie vir mihi rure venit!
20
Et quas Euphrates et quas mihi misit Orontes, Me juerint: nolim furta pudica tori.
9.] Amari, ‘cross.’ Kuinoel and Barth give avari from the Aldine.
10.] Captus, metuens ne deprehendatur marito superveniente.—casa, the wooden shed of some slave, the porter, perhaps. Hor. Sat. i. 2, 132, ‘discincta tunica fugi- endum est ac pede nudo; Deprendi mi- serum est.’
11.] Quam cde, ‘at how high a price a single night in the whole year comes round to your turn!’ The MS. Gron, has verterit. Kuinoel venditur, the conjecture of Hemsterhusius.—noz, 7. 6. unius noctis fructus.—janua clausa, aditu difficilis; si quos juvat seepius excludi quam admitti.
13.] Libera, ad suum arbitrium; ubi- cunque et quandocunque vult; mariti timore non impedita, &e.—reecto amictu. These words naturally refer to the custom of muffling the face for fear of being re- cognised. Hertzberg explains it, ‘domi relicta toga a meretrice,’ comparing the tunicatus popellus of Horace, Ep. i. 7, 64, which however probably refers only to males,—as we should say, ‘in shirt-sleeves.’ Another interpretation proposed by him is that the recinium (Festus, p. 274, Miller), or dress of the nobiles feming, marked with the laticlave, is meant; a word supposed to be derived a rejiciendo (mapa τὸ ava- βάλλεσθαι). Varro, L. L. γ΄. § 182, ‘An- tiquissimis amictui ricinivm. Id, quod eo
utebantur duplici, ab eo quod dimidiam partem retrorsum jaciebant, ab rejiciendo ricinium dictum.’ Perhaps the domino or mask of more recent times. JLbera must then mean carens, for he is speaking not of ladies, but ‘contra,’ of those who are in common life.—Timore custodum, 1.e. cus- todibus timendis. Kuinoel and Barth read tumore, from the Aldine; ὁ, 6. the ὄγκος, or ‘parade’ of attendants.
15.] Soceus was the loose overshoe used by both sexes in their ordinary out-of-door avocations. Hence immundus, lutulentus. Ladies were carried in their lectice.
17.] Differet, ‘abuse you.’ See oni. 4, 22.—‘ Promissis ducet.’—Barth.
20.] Infelix, supply swm.—rure venit, redit; cf. Hor. Sat. i. 2, 127, ‘nec me- tuo ne—vir rure recurrat.’
21.] Juven. iii. 62—5, ‘Jam pridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes, et lin- guam et mores, et cum tibicine chordas— Vexit, et ad Circum jussas prostare puellas.’ —juerint, i.e. juverint. So Hertzberg from the Naples MS., which gives juverint. The rest have capiant. One reading or the other is manifestly a correction; and as a question of probability, the chances are in favour of the least usual form being the genuine one. Jwerint oceurs Catull. Ixvi. 18.—furta pudica tori, i.e. pudici tori, nuptarum.
LIBER III. 15 (18).
105
Libertas quoniam nulli jam restat amanti, Nullus liber erit, si quis amare volet.
DAE
‘Tu loqueris, cum sis jam noto fabula libro, Et tua sit toto Cynthia lecta foro ?’ Cui non his verbis aspergat tempora sudor 7 Aut pudor ingenuis, aut reticendus amor. Quod si tam facilis spiraret Cynthia nobis, 5 Non ego nequitiz dicerer esse caput ; Nec sic per totam infamis traducerer urbem, Urerer et quamyis, nomine verba darem.
23—4.] ‘Since every lover of necessity loses his liberty, none must love who wish to be free.’ Jacob places a colon at v. 22, and a full stop at v.23, ‘ne in protasi idem esset quod in apodosi: Quoniam memo amans liber, nemo amans liber est.’ Hertzberg rightly restores the old punctu- ation. Miiller follows Fischer in regarding the last verse as ‘ab interpolatore confic- tum.’ Perhaps volet may be rendered, ‘if he shall persist in loving,’ 7. ὁ. free women.
XV. The same subject’ is continued. He excuses himself for his faithlessness to Cynthia, on the plea that she acts towards him the capricious part before described as peculiar to the ladies of Rome. This elegy is difficult, nor do the commentators agree either as to sense, reading, or punctuation in many places.
1.] Tu loqueris? As in El. 9, supr. he commences with a quotation, and is reply- ing to an imaginary rebuke: ‘Do yow talk of haying abandoned your pursuit of women in the better rank of life, when all the world knows, by your published poems, your attachment to Cynthia ?’—xoto libro, See introductory note on iii. i.
2.1 Cynthia lecta. The first book of Elegies was inscribed ‘Cynthia,’ as has been already stated. Hence, /ecta must be taken literally.
3.] ‘Is there not some reason to feel distressed at the just reproach >’ 1.6. Have I not subjected myself to just ridicule? With Jacob and Lachmann [ have followed the reading of all the MSS. in retaining sudor, which in fact the sense of the verse almost imperatively demands. Hertzberg, Barth, and Kuinoel give surdo from Scaliger’s conjecture, and make pudor and amor the
nominatives to aspergat, v. 3. The whole passage is very obscure, and has been vari- ously interpreted. One difficulty is, whether the second distich continues the reproach, or contains the poet’s reply. The fourth verse is commonly read thus: aut pudor ingenuus, aut reticendus amor. For the first aut the MS. Gron. has at, which* Jacob admits. Lachmann incloses the whole verse in brackets, as ‘spurius et subditivus:’ a supposition extremely improbable. None of the editors seem to have taken offence at the metrical licence at the end of the first penthemimer, which is in some degree justified by vinczs in ii. 8, 8. Nevertheless, ingenuis is surely the true reading. The sense is, ‘men of good birth must either expect to be put to the blush, or they must keep secret their love.’ Or thus: ‘if young nobles have any shame, they will not talk of their loves.’ In plain words, ‘If a man will write verses on his mistress, (he being txgenuus and she a meretrix), he cannot avoid becoming fabula in toto foro.’ Miiller reads haut pudor ingenuis, haut &e.’ with Haupt, and makes this distich to continue the speech or address of the first two lines.
5.] ‘Were Cynthia a little less cruel, I should never have been called a profligate,’ z.e. 1 should not have exposed myself by writing verses. tam facilis, ‘as compliant as you say that she is.’ On spiraret see iii. 3, 8.
8.] Nomine, by concealing my name. If, he says, Cynthia were less obdurate, I would not make myself notorious by writing verses about her; however much I was in love (wrerer), I would not let out the secret, reticerem amorem, sup. 4. From infamant however (10) it might be surmised
100
PROPERTII
Quare ne tibi sit mirum me querere viles:
Parcius infamant; num tibi causa levis?
10
Et modo pavonis caudz flabella superbe, Et manibus dura frigus habere pila,
Et cupit iratum talos me poscere eburnos, Queeque nitent Sacra vilia dona Via.
Ah peream, si me ista movent dispendia; sed me
15
Fallaci dominz jam pudet esse jocum.
XVI.
Hoe erat in primis, quod me gaudere jubebas ? Tam te formosam non pudet esse levem ?
Una aut altera nox nondum est in amore peracta, Et dicor lecto jam gravis esse tuo.
Me modo laudabas, et carmina nostra legebas: 5 Ille tuus pennas tam cito vertit amor ?
that Cynthia had spoken against him to his rivals.
11.] He passes to another objection, alluded to in v.8 of the preceding elegy. ‘ Besides, she is extravagant, and is ever wishing to possess a flapper (fan) of pea- cock’s feathers, or a ball for cooling her hands; and she requires me, already ex- asperated by her demands, to beg for her (emere, Hertzberg) ivory dice.’ The μα- bellum was used, as it now is in hot coun- tries, for making a cool breeze: Martial, iil. 82. Plautus, Zrimwm. 252 enumerates the flabellifere among the many attendants of fashionable courtesans. What the pila was, alluded to in vy. 12, appears to be hitherto unexplained. Kuinoel says, ‘ pila ex crystallo, quam matron delicatiores zstivo tempore ad calorem frigore ejus mitigandum manibus tenere solebant. Vide Pliny, NV. H. xxxvii.2; Martial, xi. 8,’ (v. 37), where mention is made of amber, but in a manner not applicable to the present passage. A conjecture may be hazarded, in the absence of any direct testimony. Claudian has a series of epigrams (vi—xiv.) ‘de crystallo cui aqua inerat,’ which the Romans appear to have considered (or rather perhaps, poetically to have repre- sented) as ice, partly congealed to stone, partly liquified in the interior. The cold sensation to the touch is more than once alluded to: ep. viii. ‘Solibus indomitum glacies Alpina rigorem Induerat, nimio yam
pretiosa gelu ;’ and ep. xi. ‘Dum crystalla puer contingere lubrica gaudet, Et gelidwm tenero pollice versat onus’ &c. Pieces of rock-erystal may be seen in museums in which water or globules of air are enclosed. To this day ignorant vendors of minerals tell their customers that quartz, sulphate of lime, and fluor spar, are ‘ congealed water.’ And from the same erroneous idea, per- haps, the epithet aguosa is applied to crystal in y.3, 52. The cold feel, attributed to crystal, arose from the notion of its being mineralised ice. It is common to see in toy-shops glass globes containing water with bubbles or particles of light matter which float within on being shaken.
XVI. This elegy is a continuation of the preceding in all the MSS. There can be no reasonable doubt that the editors have rightly separated it. It is addressed to Cynthia, and the subject is a comparison of his own fidelity with the insincerity of his rivals. ‘Mollissimus regnat in hoe carmine sensus, qui et ad commiserationem mirifice animum movet.’—uwinoel.
1.1 Hoe erat ἕο. ‘Heccine tua pro- missa, que meum animum letitia per- fundebant? itane constans es in amore?” Kuinoel.—gaudeo not unfrequently governs an accusative, like the Greek ἥδεσθαί τι. ---- in primis gaudere, ‘so greatly to congratu- late myself upon.’
LIBER III. 16 (19).
107
Contendat mecum ingenio, contendat et arte, In primis una discat amare domo;
Si libitum tibi erit, Lernzeas pugnet ad hydras Et tibi ab Hesperio mala dracone ferat ;
>
10
Tetra venena libens, et naufragus ebibat undas,
Et numquam pro te deneget esse miser; Quos utinam in nobis, vita, experiare labores! Jam tibi de timidis iste superbus erit,
Qui nunc in tumidum jactando venit honorem;
Discidium vobis proximus annus erit. At me non etas mutabit tota Sibylle, Non labor Alcidze, non niger ille dies. Tu mea compones, et dices: ‘Ossa, Properti,
Hee tua sunt; heu heu,
tu mihi certus eras. 20
Certus eras heu heu, quamvis nec sanguine avito Nobilis, et quamvis haud ita dives eras.’ Nil ego non patiar; numquam me injuria mutat;
7—12.] ‘Let my favoured rival shew himself as clever, as patient, as obedient to your behests as I, before he makes the same pretensions to your esteem.’ — in primis discat &e. ‘ Above all, let him learn to be constant to one.’ The connexion with the preceding seems sufficiently plain : but Miiller marks a lacuna after v. 6, ‘oratione aperte hiante,’ as he says.
10.] ‘Let him prove his devotion by performing at your will some Herculean task.’ Barth remarks that this verse is taken from Theocritus, 714, 28, 37:
νῦν μὲν κἠπὶ τὰ χρύσεα μᾶλ᾽ ἕνεκεν σέθεν βαίην, καὶ φύλακον νεκύων πεδὰ Κέρβερον.
Ibid.) Ebibat. Lachmann raises a groundless objection to this word as if it could only mean ‘let him drink up the sea,’ and reads indibat. From iy. 7, 52, it will be seen that nothing more is meant, than ‘let him brave shipwreck, and gulp the briny wave.’ Zpotus however means ‘drunk up,’ Juven. x. 177.
11.] Zita for tetra Miller, who shows that these words are sometimes confused.
13—15.] ‘And then try the same toils and troubles in me, and you will find, by the contrast, that your proud and boastful lover is a coward.’ All the editors adopt a punctuation of v.13 which appears to me completely to pervert the sense. Keil and Miiller, with Barth and Kuinoel, in- close it as a parenthesis; the others regard
it as an abrupt and interpolated exclama- tion. Yet the general sense seems 51Π- ciently clear. Utinam experiare in nobis eosdem labores, may certainly signify, ‘I only wish you would put me to the test in performing the same task.’
15.] In tumidum honorem is both an unusual and a questionable expression. Kuinoel explains, ‘honor qui tumidum et inflatum reddit.’ The editors give gui nune se in tumidum &e., but the MS. Gron. omits se, and so Hertzberg (in his com- mentary): jactando will thus be used ab- solutely for jactantia. But perhaps we should read, Qui nune se tumidum (i.e. tumide) jactando invenit honorem.
16.] Lessidium, Kuinoel with the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg.
22.] Non ita is the conjecture of Bero- aldus. The MSS. have navita, which seems to have arisen from the agnomen
Jauta attached in most copies to the names Sextus Aurelius Propertius; or conversely (as Hertzberg and others think), the cor- ruption of the present passage suggested the addition of the name. Jacob, with Heinsius, prefers haud ita; and this is nearer to Navita, hauwd or haut being some- times written haw, according to Gronovius on Tac. Ann. vi. 43, quoted by Hertzberg, [where the Medicean MS. has hac?.]—On the birth and fortune of the poet, see on γ. 1, 128; iii. 26, δ.
108
PROPERTII
Ferre ego formosam nullum onus esse puto.
Credo ego non paucos ista perilisse figura ;
25
Credo ego sed multos non habuisse fidem. Parvo dilexit spatio Minoida Theseus,
Phyllida Demophoon, hospes uterque malus ; Jam tibi Iasonia amota est Medea carina,
Et modo servato sola relicta viro.
30
Dura est, que multis simulatum fingit amorem, Et se plus uni si qua parare potest.
Noli nobilibus, noli conferre beatis: Vix venit, extremo qui legat ossa die.
Ii tibi nos erimus; sed tu potius precor ut me
Demissis plangas, pectora nuda, comis.
xV i:
Unica nata meo pulcherrima cura dolori,
24.] Ferre fermosam. There isa play on the verb between the literal sense and that of ‘putting up with the caprices of’ ζῶο.
26.] Fidem, sc. quam ego habeo.
29.| The MSS. and early editions give nota est. ‘Jam artius conjunge cum Jasonia carina, et vide an satis apta hee evasura sit sententia: ‘Notum est tibi, Medeam jam fuisse in nave Iasonis: et tamen mox perfide desertam.’’—Hertzberg. Jam fuisse in nave he explains as equivalent to jam ab illo tanquam uxorem avectam. The omission of fuisse is a grave objection to such an in- terpretation. There is less difficulty in et for et tamen, with the defence of which the greater part of the learned commentator’s note isoccupied. Lachmann, with Jacob’s approval (!) reads Jam tibi Iasonia votum est, Medea, carina, i.e. ‘habes quod optabas in nave Iasonis;’ and he quotes some pas- sages where votwm means ‘one’s wish.’ Jacob says: ‘nota est erit: modo innotuit nobis illue venisse, et jam deseri eam vi- demus.’ None of these views appear ten- able. The context seems to require amota est, which accordingly I have ventured to restore. ‘Then again, you have (in story) Medea carried off by Jason in his ship, and deserted by a husband whose life she had so lately saved.’ The sense of jam may also be, that she was no sooner carried off than she was deserted. For the ac- quisitive use of ἐὐδὲ see on i. 5, 8.
32.] Parare se. So the Greeks use
ἑτοιμάζειν of preparing for nuptial pur- poses, Eur. Suppi. 454.
33.] Conferre, ‘to draw comparisons with the noble and the wealthy.’ Barth thinks it may mean ‘confer your fayour on,’ χαρίζεσθαι.
34.] Vix venit, raro inventus est.
35.] Pectora nuda. Kuinoel reads pectore with Scaliger. Nuda is of course the nominative. The sense is, ‘I hope how- ever that you will survive me.’ This is said, as it were, avertendi ominis gratia, since in y. 34 allusion is made, though in a general sentiment, to Cynthia’s death.
XVII. He asserts that though there is a time for all things to cease, yet he can never cease to love; and (vy. 21) warns his rivals not to rely on the permanence of the favour they now enjoy. This is one of the more difficult of the elegies,
1.1 “0 tu, que pulcherrima mihi cura nata, quamvis dolenti, quod tam raro ad- mittor, unica tamen cura es.’—Hertzberg ; who rightly connects guwontam in the second verse with meo dolori.—sepe veni, τὸ πολ- λάκις ἐπιφοιτᾶν. See on iii. 13,14. This explanation is due to Jacob, before whose edition the most extravagant alterations and interpretations had been proposed. Lachmann on his own conjecture reads ‘excludi quoniam sors mea sepe vehit;’ Barth, ‘excludi quoniam sors mea sepe, venis.’ Miiller and Keil edit as in the text.
LIBER III. 17 (20).
109
Excludit quoniam sors mea SPE VENI; Ista meis fiet notissima forma libellis, Calve, tua venia, pace, Catulle, tua.
Miles depositis annosus secubat armis, 5
Grandevique negant ducere aratra boves, Putris et in vacua requiescit navis arena, Et vetus in templo bellica parma vacat;
At me ab amore tuo deducet nulla senectus Sive ego Tithonus, sive ego Nestor ero.
2
10
Nonne fuit satius duro servire tyranno, Et gemere in tauro, seve Perille, tuo ? Gorgonis et satius fuit obdurescere vultu;
Caucasias etiam si pateremur aves.
Sed tamen obsistam: teritur rubigine mucro
15
Ferreus, et parvo sepe liquore silex; At nullo domine teritur +sub limine amor, qui Restat et immerita sustinet aure minas.
Ultro contemptus rogat, et
4.] Calvus was the friend of Catullus, and like him a writer of amatory verses. Ovid, Am. iii. 9, 62, ‘Obvius huic venias, hedera juvenilia cinctus Tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo.’ He apologises to them for haying used the superlative, notissima, etiam notior vestris; implying that Cynthia’s celebrity would be greater than the mistresses of either of those poets, viz. Quintilia and Lesbia, inf. iii. 26, 87— 90.
5—10.] ‘The soldier lies by when aged, the ox at length leaves off ploughing, the old ship and the old shield become useless ; but of my love there will be no end, if I live as long as Nestor.’
9.] Lachmann reads diducet. See on iii. 13, 5. In this instance there is no reason for altering the reading of all good copies.
11.] ‘And yet have I not endured more torture than? &c. Still, I will not give in. The obduracy even of a rock is worn down by the continued efforts of the un- ceasing water-drop.’ — Perillus was the maker of the brazen bull for the tyrant Phalaris, and was himself burnt alive in it. ‘Et Phalaris tauro violenti membra Perilli Torruit: infelix imbuit auctor opus.’ —
13.] Obdurescere, to be changed into stone by looking at the head of Medusa.—
peceasse fatetur
Caucasias aves, the vulture of Prometheus, With etiam understand satius fuit.
17.] ‘ Desperatus versus.’—Jacob ; who gives the reading of the MS. Gron., “4¢ nullo de me teritur sub lumine amor qui, and proposes to read at nullo domine teritur spes limine, amorque Restat &e. interpreting nullo limine by nulla exclusione. As may be anticipated, he has not found a follower in Hertzberg, who retains the vulgate, and explains Zimen of the Jintel, ὑπερθύριον. Miller reads teritur molimine amator, from Davis and Heins, but he doubts the genu- ineness of teritur. Possibly sub nuilo domine limine may mean, as Barth has ex- plained it, ‘domine limen in quo jaceo pernox, non potest amorem meum terere et consumere.’ Sub limine must be taken literally, but elliptically, for exeubando sub limine, i.e. ‘close under,’ and nullo gives the sense of nunguam to the whole verse. But if any should prefer to take sub Limine for sub domo, there would be no difficulty, especially if for amor gui we read amator. estat will thus mean ‘he holds out,’ καρ- τερεῖ, ‘remains obstinate,’ even though he is forced to listen to threats which he thinks he has not deserved.
19.1] Ultro is properly used when any- thing is done proprio motu; unasked, un- challenged, unprovoked: properly, beyond what the laws of yar pari referto require.
110
Lesus, et invitis 1056 redit pedibus.
PROPERTII
20
Tu quoque, qui pleno fastus adsumis amore, Credule, nulla diu femina pondus habet.
An quisquam in mediis persolvit vota procellis, Cum sepe in portu fracta carina natet ?
Aut prius infecto deposcit preemia cursu,
Septima quam metam triverit ante rota? Mendaces ludunt flatus in amore secundi.
Si qua venit sero, magna ruina venit. Tu tamen interea, quamvis te diligat illa,
In tacito cohibe gaudia clausa sinu ;
30
Namque in amore suo semper sua maxima cuique Nescio quo pacto verba nocere solent.
Thus, wtro bellum inferre is to commence hostilities without any previous injury. In the case of separated lovers, the party who first makes overtures for a reconcilia- tion is said wltro vocare. Hence Persius, yv.172, ‘ne nunc, cum accersor, et wtro supplicat, accedam ?’—peccasse fatetur lesus, z. e. when the lover, though the fault is not really on his side, is willing to bear it in his anxiety to make up the quarrel. The editors place a full stop at minas. Possibly the construction is continued from restat, viz. amator.
21.] He warns his rival, in a. very elegant couplet, that he will not give up his claims to Cynthia because he has been rejected; but may yet supplant him in the contest for her regard.—fastws. See oni. 1. 8.
23—6.] ‘No one reckons on safety in a storm, or victory in a race, before he has realised it: do you therefore not presume too much on your fancied success.’—eum sepe, &e., 7.e. when even in the harbour itself ships are sometimes lost: ‘ fallit portus et ipse fidem,’ iv. 7, 36.— natet, ‘floats helpless,’ or ‘water-logged”’ <A singular meaning of the word, which seems so used in y. 1, 116, ‘et natat exuviis Grecia pressa suis.’—septima rota, septimo cursu. Both in the Greek stadium and the Roman circus, the racers took twelve turns round the pillar. Soph. ΔΙ. 755, τελοῦντες ἕκτον ἕβδομόν τ᾽ ἤδη δρόμον. The chario- teer was said radere, stringere, or terere metam, words signifying the actual scraping of the wheel against the pillar, but imply- ing only the close proximity.—prius-quam ante trwerit seems to be the construction intended, ante being redundant by a well-
known use, as “sch. S. 6. Theb. 694, λέ- youca κέρδος πρότερον ὑστέρου μόρου. Hertzberg joins guam-ante, for antequam ; see on ill. 9,10, ‘Quam prius adjunctos sedula lavit equos.’ The examples he ad- duces from Tibull. i. 3, 9; iv. 1, 33, Ovid, Trist. iv. 9, 31, are not really to the point for the reason mentioned on the former passage. But that from the Copa, com- monly attributed to Virgil, v. 4, is appro- priate: ‘Quid juvat ezstivo defessum pul- vere abesse, Quam potius bibulo decubuisse toro;’ ὦ. 6. potius quam. The redundance of ante after prius is well defended by Kuinoel from Virg. An. iv. 24—7, ‘Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat, —ante, Pudor, quam te violo.’
27.] Secundi. Kuinoel, with Heinsius, reads secundo. Hertzberg rightly approves of Lachmann’s explanation: ‘mendaces isti venti sunt, si qui propitii amantibus flare videntur.’ ‘In love, fair gales play but to deceive.’
29.) Zu tamen. That is, quamvis te diligat, tu tamen cohibe &e. ‘Do not boast of your good fortune lest you should be put to the blush when it leaves you.’ The evils arising from proud words are well expressed in the following distich; ‘in speaking of his own success in love, some how or other it happens that his own big words are ever wont to bring a lover his bane.’
32.] From speaking with too much bold- ness and freedom, the poet passes to the danger of acting in such a way as to excite tnvidia. Both the Greeks and the Romans considered that it was easy to provoke the gods to withdraw the felicity bestowed on those who made an unworthy or thankless
LIBER III. 17 (20).
Quamvis te persepe vocet,
11}}}
semel ire memento:
Invidiam quod habet, non solet esse diu.
At si secla forent antiquis grata puellis, 35 Essem ego, quod nunc tu; tempore vincor ego.
Non tamen ista meos mutabunt secula mores: Unusquisque sua noverit ire via.
At vos, qui officia in multos revocatis amores,
Quantum sic cruciat lumina vestra dolor!
40
Vidistis pleno teneram candore puellam, Vidistis fusco: ducit uterque color. Vidistis quandam Argiva prodire figura, Vidistis nostras: utraque forma rapit.
Illaque plebeio, vel sit sandicis amictu:
Heee atque illa mali vulneris una via est; Cum satis una tuis insomnia portet ocellis, Una sit et cuivis femina multa mala.
use of it. Lachmann singularly misun- derstood this doctrine: ‘ineptum hoc est, immo putidum, quod quamvis spe a puella vocetur, semel tantum, neque amplius, ire jubetur.’ Jacob pronounces semel ‘ ridicu- lum,’ and would read simulare memento. Kuinoel’s explanation appears perfectly right :—‘ne abutaris benignitate domine, sed parce utere ea, ut decet circumspec- tum.’
35—6.] The meaning of this distich, which has much perplexed the editors, and which Lachmann and Miiller regard as corrupt, appears to be this: ‘ But if the times now were, which the girls of the olden time so much liked, (7. 6. the times when lovers were constant, and did not trust to bribes,) I should be what you now are (viz. in favour with Cynthia;) it is by the custom of the age (not by your merits) that I am beaten in the contest.’ He goes on in the same strain: ‘However, this fashion of yours,’ ὦ. 6. of bribing, ‘shall not change my manners; every man will know best how to pursue his own way,’—you by gifts, I by my constancy.
39.] Revocatis, ‘withdraw from one to bestow upon another.’— ‘You who set your fickle affections on many women, what pain do you inflict on your own eyes
by this conduct!’ This uneasiness, which he here assigns to others, the’ poet ayows to be his own habitual malady, supr. El. 13.
42.] Fusco, sc. colore. Miiller reads fuscam on his own conjecture.
43.] <Argiva figura, ‘of Grecian form.’ (‘Grecian bend,’ we might almost render it in modern phrase). See on i. 15, 22, and i. 4, 9.
45.] Sandicis, ‘of purple’ — sandizx, (Virg. Eel. iy. 45) or sandyx was a dye ex- tracted from a plant. Others (Pliny, V.H. 35, 23) make it a bright red mineral colour.
46.] Hee atque illa &e. ‘Each of these individually inflicts a wound.’ Hertzberg observes on this: ‘mirum, quod puella ipsa via vulneris dicitur, quam pro causa Latine poni nego.’ He therefore thinks that the vu/nus spoken of is from the darts of Cupid, who ‘pulchris excubat in genis’ puelle. And this seems a reason- able view. Cupid inflicts the wound, which comes through the girl by whose beauty the party is struck.
48.] Et cuivis, supply alii, se. mihi. ‘ As one woman causes sleeplessness enough to your eyes, so one woman may well be the cause of many evils to any one else,’-— that is, Cynthia to me.
112
PROPERTII
VLE
Vidi te in somnis fracta, mea vita, carina Tonio lassas ducere rore manus, Et quecumque in me fueras mentita fateri, Nec jam humore graves tollere posse comas, Qualem purpureis agitatam fluctibus Hellen, 5 Aurea quam molli tergore vexit ovis. Quam timui, ne forte tuum mare nomen haberet, Atque tua labens navita fleret aqua! Que tum ego Neptuno, que tum cum Castore fratri,
Queeque tibi excepi, jam dea Leucothoé ?
10
At tu, vix primas extollens gurgite palmas,
Szepe meum nomen jam
XVIII. He endeavours, by relating a feigned dream, to deter Cynthia from a voyage she was about to make (vy. 29); but concludes by professing his readiness to follow her, should she adhere to her reso- lution, From not sufficiently attending to the poet’s custom of relenting and unsaying at the end what he had threatened or pre- dicted at the beginning, most of the editors have commenced a new elegy at v. 21. Hertzberg has followed the arrangement in the MSS., observing that it would be absurd to relate a dream without following it up by some conclusion. He regards it as an allegory, implying the favour of the gods towards a poet, (v.18; but this is sid of Cynthia, not of Propertius); and his own fidelity, symbolized by leaping after her from a rock, y. 19.—It is a most elegant poem.
5.] Qualem Hellen. More usually guadlis Helle ; but the accusative is by attraction to te preceding. Barth is clearly wrong in construing qualem ovis aurea vidit Hellen. Hertzberg remarks on purpureis (the Ho- meric πορφυρέον κῦμα), that the southern seas do under certain circumstances assume a purple tint; arising, of course, from the reflection of the sky. See on v. 2, 13.— tergus, it is proper to remark, differs from tergum ; though the latter is used for the former by Tacit. dmx. iv. 72, and xy. 44. Virg. din. i. 368.
7.1 Tuum nomen, The elegance of the compliment is enhanced by guam timut, as if he could not lose her even for the geo- graphical immortality of a ‘Mare Cynthi- acum.’ — For atgue Hertzberg proposes
peritura vocas.
teque, observing that out of 43 places where the poet has used the word, in one other only (y. 2, 52) it occurs without elision. The reluctance of the Roman poets generally to place atgue before a consonant is well known: perhaps meve would be a still more probable correction.
9.] Que (vota) excepi, ie. suscepi Nep- tuno. So 111. 7, 4. ‘Ah! Neptune, tibi qualia dona darem!’—jam dea, ‘once a mortal, now a goddess,’ Jacob. Keil and Miiller, with Kuinoel and Lachmann, read tum dea, after Beroaldus. Hertzberg is more successful; ‘jam ad te me converti, Leucothoe, que simili quondam periculo per undas jactata misera mulier, dea facta sis naufragis propitia ;’ though this amounts to nothing more than making jam equiy-* alent to twm. The same critic retains the MSS. reading Leucothoe. The others change it to Leuwcothée, a questionable form. The Greeks used either Λευκοθόη or Λευκοθέη, the Latins appears to have preferred Leu- cothea. The derivation of both is from θέειν, Gods, as Hertzberg remarks. Com- pare Cymothoe v. 16.—Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was enamoured of Athamas, and threw herself into the sea with the body of her son Melicertes, Learchus, the brother of the latter, having been killed by his father Athamas in a fit of madness. See Apollodor. iii. 4, 3, who writes the word Λευκοθέα. Inf. El. 20, 19.
11—12.] Miiller, after Baehrens, trans- poses this distich to follow 18. He thinks it absurd that the poet should wish to assist Cynthia, when the dolphin was at hand to help her, unless some new cause
LIBER ΠῚ. 18 (22).
113
Quod si forte tuos vidisset Glaucus ocellos, Esses Joni facta puella maris,
Et tibi ob invidiam Nereides increpitarent,
15
Candida Nesé, czerula Cymothoé. Sed tibi subsidio delphinum currere vidi, Qui, puto, Arioniam vexerat ante lyram. Jamque ego conabar summo me mittere saxo, Cum mihi discussit talia visa metus. 20 Nune admirentur, quod tam mihi pulchra puella Serviat, et tota dicar in urbe potens. Non, si Cambysze redeant et flumina Cressi, Dicat: De nostro surge, poeta, toro.
Nam mea cum recitat, dicit se odisse beatos: 25
Carmina tam sancte nulla puella colit. Multum in amore fides, multum constantia prodest: Qui dare multa potest, multa et amare potest. Seu mare per longum mea cogitet ire puella,
Hane sequar, et fidos una aget aura duos.
30
Unum litus erit sopitis, unaque tecto Arbor, et ex una spe bibemus aqua,
Et tabula una duos poterit componere amantes, Prora cubile mihi, seu mihi puppis erit.
Omnia perpetiar; szvus licet urgeat Eurus, 35
of alarm had occurred. But this argument does not seem a cogent one. The idea of the description is borrowed from Helle when drowning stretching out her hand to her brother Phrixus.
13.] Quod si ἕο. If some sea-god had then seen you, my aid, as well as that of the dolphin, would have been useless; you would have been carried off to be made queen of the sea, and to excite the jealousy of the Nereids.
15.] Οὐ invidiam. Pre invidia Barth and Kuinoel, the reading of the inferior copies.
18.] Zyram. Hertzberg remarks on the use of this word to express the mu- sician himself. He should have used this verse in defence of the much more singular expression tmbelles lyre for ‘the Muses,’ in y. 6, 36. But nothing more is conveyed by the phrase than ‘ Arion and his lute.’
21.] Nune admirentur. He proceeds to show, that it is through fondness for his verses, and not for money, that Cynthia
~
attaches herself to him. ‘Not for all the gold of Pactolus’ (he adds, v. 23) ‘ would she reject me to the admission of a rival.’ Probably he has in view his enemy the Preetor, 111. 7.
23.) Jam Gyge, for Cambyse Miiller, after Schrader.
24.] Poeta, t.e. ‘qui carmina tantum, non numos, mihi das.’ Cf. v. 5, 57, ‘Qui versus, Coz dederit nec munera vestis, Istius tibi sit surda sine ere lyra.’ F
27.] ‘There is much, too, in a constant lover, who is with good reason preferred to a rich one, inasmuch as his very riches supply the means of tampering with the affections of many.’
28.] Multa amare, ‘multas puellas nulla constantia.’— Kwinoel.
31—4.] These beautiful lines evidently allude to some voyage which Cynthia was about to make.’—tabula una, &e. ‘Asingle plank shall form our common couch,’— componere is συγκοιμίζειν. Compare Asch, Ag. 1417, ναυτίλοις δὲ σελμάτων ἰσοτρίβης.
[
114
PROPERTII
Velaque in incertum frigidus Auster agat, Quoteumque et venti miserum vexastis Ulixen, Et Danaum Euboico litore mille rates,
Et qui movistis duo litora,
Dux erat ignoto missa columba mari;
cum rudis Argus 40
Illa meis tantum non umquam desit ocellis, Incendat navem Juppiter ipse licet.
Certe isdem nudi pariter jactabimur oris. Me licet unda ferat, te modo terra tegat.
Sed non Neptunus tanto crudelis amori;
Neptunus fratri par in amore Jovi. Testis Amymone, latices dum ferret, in Argis Compressa, et Lerne pulsa tridente palus.
Jam Deus amplexu votum
Aurea divinas urna profudit aquas.
persolvit; at ill 50
Crudelem et Boream rapta Orithyia negavit ;
Hic deus et terras et maria alta domat.
Crede mihi, nobis mitescet
37.] The Groning. MS. alone gives quodeunque ; the rest guicunque, and so Kuinoel and Lachmann, and the later editors. Hertzberg guotewngue ; which is a happy restoration of the true reading.— Euboico litore. See on συ. 1, 115,
39.] Duo litora. The Symplegades. See on v. 6, 27. Miller thinks Uitora (littora) has crept in from the preceding verse, but he suggests no substitute.— movistis, ‘qui venti concurrere fecistis.’— Barth.—rudis Argus is a correction of raiis Argo first made in the edition of 1488. Apollon. Rhod. 11. 562.
ὁ δ᾽ dita: πτερύγεσσιν
Εὔφημος προέηκε πελειάδα: τοὶ δ᾽
πάντες
ἤειραν κεφαλὰς ἐσορώμενοι' ἡ δὲ δι αὐτῶν
ἔπτατο.
41-- 4.1 In fine, lightning may strike the ship, provided only I do not lose sight of you: and if we are to be cast on the waters, I will not leave you, alive or dead. I shall be content to float on the wave, provided you are covered with a little sand.’—certe, ‘be assured that I shall not leave you; if we are cast ashore, it shall be in each others arms.’
47.] Testis, sc. Neptunum amori esse deditum. Hertzberg follows Jacob in read- ing dwn for cw from the Naples MS., and interpreting, ‘on condition of receiving
e
ἅμα
Scylla, nee umquam
water.” On this use of 7εγγο (φέρεσθαι) see on i. 20, 28. Apollodor. 11. 1, 4, μία δὲ αὐτῶν (sc. Δαναΐδων) ᾿Αμυμώνη ζητοῦσα ὕδωρ ῥίπτει βέλος ἐπὶ ἔλαφον, καὶ κοι- μωμένου Σατύρου τυγχάνει: κἀκεῖνος πε- ριαναστὰς ἐπεθύμει συγγενέσθαι. Ποσει- δῶνος δὲ ἐπιφανέντος 6 Σάτυρος μὲν ἔφυγεν» ᾿Αμυμώνη δὲ τούτῳ συνευνάζεται. καὶ αὐτῇ Ποσειδῶν τὰς ἐν Λέρνῃ πηγὰς ἐμήνυσεν. See Ovid, Met. i. 283.
48.] Lerne Hertzberg, with the Naples MS., and so Kuinoel. Zernes Lachmann, Lerne Jacob, Keil, and Miiller.
49.] Amplexu. ‘Non dativum pro am- plexui, sed ablativum pretii.’—Hertzberg.
51.] Kuinoel gives negabit. The later editors have rightly restored negavit from the MSS. ‘Amymone Neptunum amori facilem testificata est, Boream Orithyia.’— Lachmann. The argument is, that lovers need not fear either winds or waves, since both these elements can sympathise with them,
53.] Nee unquam Scylla vorans. 1. 6. et Scylla (mitescet) nunquam vorans sc. naves estu absorbens. Hertzberg is the only one who has rightly understood this pas- sage. He compares iii. 20, 52, ‘ Vobiscum Europe; nec proba Pasiphae,’ 7. 6. et non proba Pasiphae. Kuinoel, with one or two interpolated copies, reads alternas revomet ; which Lachmann in a long note shows to
LIBER IIT. 19 (28).
Alternante vorans vasta Charybdis aqua.
Tpsaque sidera erunt nullis
Jt
οι
obscura tenebris ;
Purus et Orion, purus et Heedus erit. Quod mihi si ponenda tuo sit corpore vita, Exitus hic nobis non inhonestus erit.
XIX.
At vos incertam, mortales, funeris horam Queritis, et qua sit mors aditura via; Queritis et clo, Phceenicum inventa, sereno, Que sit stella homini commoda quieque mala, Seu pedibus Parthos sequitur seu classe Britannos, 5 Et maris et terre ceca pericla vie. Rursus et objectum fletis capiti esse tumultum, Cum Mavors dubias miscet utrimque manus;
Preeterea domibus flammas, Neu subeant labris pocula nigra tuis.
Solus amans novit, quando
+domibusque ruinas, 10 periturus et a qua
Morte; neque hic Borez flabra neque arma timet;
Jam licet et Stygia sedeat Cernat et inferne tristia
be wrong, though he himself understands erit, and Jacob follows him. Miiller reads vacans for vorans, after Haupt. But Lach- mann well compares Ovid, Jet. xiii. 731, ‘vorat hee raptas revomitque carinas.’ 57.) Tuo corpore. The sense is, if Iam to be drowned in your embrace, 7. ὁ. in try- ing to save you, it will be an honourable death. On the ablative see i. 17, 21.
XIX. The manner of death is uncertain to all but the lover, who alone knows that the ardour of his affection must bring him to the grave. This sentiment seems con- nected with some popular superstition on the ‘charmed life’ of a lover. See y. 1, 147—9.
3.] Phenicum inventa. The accusative in apposition to the sentence gue sit stella &e. He attributes to the Phenicians the art of astrology, perhaps confounding them with the Chaldeans from the well-known skill of the former in navigating by ob- servation of the stars. Cfv. 1, 83, ‘feli- cesque Joyis stellas Martisque rapacis, Et grave Saturni sidus in omne caput.
sub arundine remex, vela ratis:
5.] Sequimur Kuinoel, with the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. In either case the transition to fletis in vy. 7, is rather harsh, though much more so by the ordinary punctuation, which places a full stop at mala, v. 4, and only a colon or semicolon at viz, v.6. The nominative homo is im- plied from the preceding verse.—viz maris et terre, ἴ. 6. itineris mari vel terra facti.
7.1 Caput esse tumultu (1. 6. tumultut) Miiller, who gives caput on the authority of ‘ optimus liber’ without naming it.
9.] Ruinas, i.e. casus. The fall of a house, an event so rare in modern times, seems to have been a danger constantly dreaded in Rome. See Juvenal Sat. iii. 190—6, ‘Quis timet aut timuit gelida Preneste ruinam,’ &c.—For domibusque, which appears to be corrupt, Lachmann reads dominisque, Miiller, on his own con- jecture, which is probable, metwisque.
13.] Remex, ‘with oar in hand.’ Virg. En, vi. 320; Arist. Ran. 201 &e. Virgil also (Georg. iv. 478) describes the ‘limus niger et deformis arundo Cocyti.’
110
Si modo damnatum revocaverit aura puelle,
PROPERTITI
15
Concessum nulla lege redibit iter.
XX.
Juppiter, affectee tandem miserere puellee ! Tam formosa tuum mortua crimen erit. Venit enim tempus, quo torridus estuat aer,
Incipit et sicco fervere terra Cane.
.
Sed non tam ardoris culpa
est, neque crimina celi, 5
Quam totiens sanctos non habuisse deos.
Hoe perdit miseras, hoc perdidit ante puellas: Quicquid jurarunt, ventus et unda rapit.
Num sibi collatam doluit Venus ipsa paremque ?
Ῥγ se formosis invidiosa dea est.
An contempta tibi Junonis
15.] ‘Amator vel morti vicinus revi- yiscet, si modo fugientem animam revyo- caverit puella amata.’—Auinoel. Compare vy. 7, 28, ‘At mihi non oculos quisquam inclamavit euntes: Unum impetrassem, te revocante, diem.’—The reading damnatum (i.e. morti addictum) is only found in the MS. Groning. Kuinoel, Barth, and Lach- mann give clamantis with the other copies. Apart from the question of authority, dam- natum, or perhaps clamatum appears the preferable word.—aura is obscure: Hertz- berg seems to be right in understanding it of the flashing light or glimpse of a passing object; comparing, with Jacob, Hor. Od. ii. 8,24, ‘tua ne retardet aura maritos.’ Perhaps aura and aurum may be considered cognate, as ‘that which flashes’ has the same connexion with ‘that which passes quickly by,’ as corusco, mico, &e., in their double meaning of to shine and to move quickly. It is at least remarkable that Virgil combines these two words, 42n. vi. 204, ‘Discolor unde auri per ramos aura refulsit.’ See, however, Varronianus, p. 113, ed. 2.
XX. This beautiful poem was written on an occasion of Cynthia’s dangerous ill- ness. Nothing can be more refined and tasteful than the mythological allusions by which he at once compliments and consoles her. At the same time he warns her that sickness is sent as a punishment for broken vows. On the date of the elegy, see on ii. 9, 25.
10 templa Pelasge,
1.1 Affecte, sc. morbo, egrotanti.—tam formosa mortua, τὸ Thy τοιαύτην ἀποθανεῖν, erimen erit tibi, sc. dedeeus tibi, utpote in formosas propenso.
3.] The unhealthiness of Rome in sum- mer and autumn is well known. Hence enim refers to mortua, and implies that the hopes of her recovery were but slight at that season. The MS. Gron. has Incipiunt sicca fervere rura cane ; which none of the editors haye preferred, though it appears fully as good as Incipit et &e.
δ.) Zam would not be missed if the MSS. ignored it.
9.] The Groning. MS. alone preserves the true reading ipsa paremque. The rest give per eque or pereque. ‘Num forte, inquit, cum ipsa Venere tuam formam contulisti? Hoe malum tibi dolor dee parem te sibi agnoscentis immisit.’—LZach- mann.
10.] Pre se formosis, i.e. se formosi- oribus. Lachmann’s objection is scarcely fair, that this is incompatible with parem- que in the hexameter. It is merely, as it were, improving upon it: ‘ Venus is ever jealous of equal and superior charms.’
achmann reads per se, and Miiller follows him. Hertzberg proposes semper, believing the vulgate corrupt. I entertain no doubt of its being the true reading.
11.] Juno Pelasga (see on ii. 1, 76. Hera was κατ᾽ ἐξοχὴν the goddess of the Argive or Pelasgic race. Inf. v. 8, 3. JEisch. Suppl. 287.—bonos, sc. pulchros; in allusion to some foolish discussion of the
LIBER IIT. 20 (24).
111
Palladis aut oculos ausa negare bonos 7 Semper, formosz, non nostis parcere verbis. Hoe tibi lingua nocens, hoc tibi forma dedit.
Sed tibi, vexatz per multa pericula vite,
Extremo veniet mollior hora die. Io versa caput primos mugiverat annos: Nune dea, que Nili flumina vacea bibit. Ino etiam prima terris etate vagata est:
Hance miser implorat navita Leucothoén.
Andromede monstris fuerat devota marinis: Heee eadem Persei nobilis uxor erat. Callisto Arcadios erraverat ursa per agros:
Hee nocturna suo sidere vela regit.
Quod si forte tibi properarint fata quietem,
Illa sepulturze fata beata tue: Narrabis Semele, quo sit formosa periclo ; Credet et illa suo docta puella malo; Et tibi Mzeonias interque Heroidas omnis
day whether γλαυκῶπις was ἃ compliment- ary epithet or the reverse.—ausa, supply es
14.] Hoe, ‘hune morbum.’—Kuwinoel. lingua nocens alludes to the supposed offence against Juno and Pallas; forma to the comparison with Venus, v.9. Barth refers to a similar verse in Ovid, Heroid. xv. 68, ‘hoe mihi libertas, hoc pia lingua dedit.’ The transition here from the plural to the singular is in accordance with the poet’s habit of suddenly apostrophising. For the danger of proud words, see iii. 17, 31.
15.] Vexata—vita Jacob, from Pucci’s excerpta, to avoid the ambiguity of the common reading, vevate being the dative, vite the genitive. The sense is, ‘If you die, you will not only be released from the dangers and vexations of life, but will re- ceive the consolation of being honoured as the most beautiful of women in the other world.’ And the poet gives examples of mortal women who have become goddesses,
17.] Versa caput. Hertzberg denies that lo was represented either by Adschylus or others as ὦ cow, and considers that she was simply a woman with horns on her head. He appeals in proof of this to an- cient paintings where she is so represented. That such was the idea which Propertius entertained there can be no doubt; but it is far from certain that he is right with
respect to Mschylus. At all events, Suppl. 294—6 can only be understood of the body of acow. See note on y. 564 of that play. —nune dea, 50. Isis.
19.] Zerras Kuinoel, with some early editions; which is correct Latinity, like Virgil’s maria omnia veeti, Ain. i. 524, but the good copies agree in ¢erris. Miiller reads prima Thebis etate fugatast. On the form of the word Leucothoen see on iii. 18, 9:
25.] Properarint quietem, i.e. preema- turam mortem voluerint.—fata sepulture, sc. fatum quod post mortem te manet, beata erunt.
28.] Docta suo malo. Semele was killed by lightning δίους ὅτι γάμους ἐψεύσατο, Eur. Bacch. 15. He therefore means to express the danger of beauty combined with falsehood and perjury.
29.] The Groning. MS. alone has znter- gue. The rest inter, which the editors have preferred. The conjunction seems less ob- jectionable than the metrical licence. For it 15 easy to understand omnes alias heroidas, i.e. heroinas.—Meonias, ‘ab Homero ce- lebratas.’ Others understand _4siaticas, which is less appropriate to the sense; or specifically Zrojanas; which has i. 19, 13—15 in its favour. Kuinoel compares Ovid, Trist, i. 6, 33, ‘Prima locum sanctas Heroidas inter haberes.’
118
Primus erit, nulla non tribuente, locus.
PROPERTII
30
Nunc, utcumque potes, fato gere saucia morem: Et deus et durus vertitur ipse dies.
Hoe tibi vel poterit conjunx ignoscere Juno: Frangitur et Juno, si qua puella perit.
Deficiunt magico torti sub carmine rhombi,
Et jacet extincto laurus adusta foco, Et jam Luna negat totiens descendere celo; Nigraque -funestum concinit omen avis. Una ratis fati nostros portabit amores
Ceerula ad infernos velificata lacus.
40
Si non unius, queso, miserere duorum.
Vivam, si vivet; si cadet illa, cadam.
31.] ‘Now that you are struck with illness, submit, as best you may, to fate,’ ἦ. ὁ. to whatever is in store for you, be it death or recovery.—durus dies vertitur, ‘even the decree of death when it has gone forth is not irrevocable,’ since persons have recovered even when despaired of. From all these expressions it must be in- ferred that Cynthia was or had been in great danger.
33.] Keil and Miiller, with Lachmann and Hertzberg, regard conjunx as the voca- tive, sc. tibi, O Jupiter. Jacob considers hoe as the ablative, ‘on this condition,’ (i.e. si morem geris), but proposes to read sie. Hoc however is clearly the accusative, namely the sparing Cynthia’s life. Ignosco is properly identical with ignoro : ‘ignos- cere alicui aliquid’ is, ‘to know nothing about a thing in reference to a particular party;’ the Greek περιιδεῖν, ‘to overlook it,’ ‘ignore its existence.’ Conjunx Juno, also ‘Juno sacris prefecta maritis,’ Ovid, Her. 12, 87, Ἥρα τελεία, hence called simply γαμετὴ, ‘the wife,’ in Ausch. Suppl. 170.—tidi, again a sudden apostrophe, se. O Jupiter. Miiller inclines to the view of some who would place this distich after v. 2; but Lachmann observes that miserere in 41 would be unintelligible unless Jupiter were before appealed to.
35.] At this verse a new elegy com- mences in the Naples MS. Jacob, Keil, and Miiller, follow this arrangement, and Hertzberg prints it detached from the pre- ceding. But I cannot see any just reason for questioning its continuity. ‘We have done all that we can,’ says the poet, ‘for Cynthia’s recovery, and have tried magic
arts in vain; the rest must be left to Jupiter.’ Moreover, (as above remarked), tibi in v. 33, and miéserere in v. 41, are alike addressed to Jupiter; consequently the whole passage inclusive must be regarded as one and the same appeal to him for pity. —torti sub carmine rhombi, ‘preeunte car- mine ac rhombi vertiginem moderante.’— Barth. An imitation of a well-known use of ὑπό.
36.] Ft tacet Lachmann, and so Barth.
37.] Negat toties, ‘refuses any longer to descend to our incantations.’ The con- nexion of the moon with sudden affections, according to the ancient philosophy, while it accounts for the word dunaticeus, ‘moon- struck,’ explains the reason why Artemis was so often said vis ἀγανοῖς βελέεσσιν ἐποιχομένη καταπεφνεῖν, and why Cynthia is urged (v. 60) to institute a chorus in honour of Diana. Hence witches seem to have been engaged ‘to draw down the moon’ in cases of serious illness. The notion of the temporary absence of that satellite from the sky must of course have arisen from its frequent eclipses.
38.] Nigra avis. This is generally ex- plained infelizx, infausta, and understood of the owl: see v. 8,59. Why not the raven? The croaking of this bird is believed by some to portend death in a family even to this day. K. cites Ovid, Amor. 111, 12, 2., ‘Omina non albz concinuistis aves.’
39.] Ratis fati, for fatalis cymba.— velificata &e., ‘sailing for the Stygian waters,’ ὁ, 6. to cross them. See vy. 9, 6, ‘Nauta per urbanas velificabat aquas,’ Juyen. x. 174, ‘velificatus Athos.’
ΩΝ
LIBER III. 20 (25, 26). 179
Pro quibus optatis sacro me carmine damno: Scribam ego: PER MAGNUM SALVA PUELLA JOVEM. Ante tuosque pedes illa ipsa adoperta sedebit. 45 Narrabitque sedens longa pericla sua. Hee tua, Persephone, maneat clementia, nec tu, Persephones conjunx, sevior esse velis. Sunt apud infernos tot milia formosarum: Pulchra sit in superis, si licet, una locis. 50 Vobiscum est Iope, vobiscum candida Tyro, Vobiscum Europe, nec proba Pasiphaé, Et quot Troja tulit vetus et quot Achaia formas, +Et Pheebi et Priami diruta regna senis:
Et quecumque erat in numero Romana puella, ᾿ Has omnes ignis avarus habet;
Occidit.
τ
ὧς
Nec forma eternum, aut cuiquam est fortuna perennis: Longius aut proprius mors sua quemque manet. Tu quoniam es, mea lux, magno dimissa periclo,
43.] Damno me carmine, ‘I undertake to offer verses in the temple.’ See iii. 5, 25. Voti reus and voti (or voto) damnatus, Virgil, Zci. v.80, are said of those who are under obligation to pay what they have promised to the gods.
44.] Salva &. Cf. v. 8, 72, ‘sub- scribam, salvo grata puella viro.’
45.] -Adoperta, capite velato. To sit at the feet of the statute and express viva voce gratitude for deliverance seems to have been considered an act of greater piety than to suspend a votive tablet on the wall.
47.] Jacob and Lachmann, followed by Keil and Miiller, make this the beginning of a new elegy. The MSS. agree in con- necting it with the preceding. Having spoken of what he will do in the event of her recovery, he proceeds to speak of it as realised, and begs of Proserpine and Pluto not to withdraw the boon they have granted. Perhaps these lines were added as an after- thought, on the illness taking a favourable turn. Barth’s explanation is not probable: ‘etiam tua clementia expectet vota similia lis que Jovi solvet.’
51.] ope. So Jacob and Hertzberg with the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. The MS. Gron. has Jole, which Lachmann pre- fers; Barth and others edit Antiope. ope is said to have been the wife of Cepheus.— nec proba Pasiphae, i.e. et improba Pasiphae. See supr. iii. 18, 53,
53.] Troja. The MSS. agree in this reading, which gives a perfectly natural sense in connexion with Achaia, since the Trojan and Grecian heroine are elsewhere mentioned by the poet, ¢.g. i. 13,313 i. 19, 14. Scaliger, however, finding in one copy Aioa, and in the margin hiona, (ap- parently a misspelt word clumsily corrected by a late scribe), conjectured Jona, in which he is followed by Barth and Kuinoel, though the word is contrary to all analogy. Hertzberg gives Hoa, and in the next verse Phebei et muri,—both rather violent and by no means plausible alterations, though of the latter he does not fear to say, ‘Cer- tum est, Propertium scripsisse quod dedi- mus.’ The only objection that can be raised against the reading 7 γο7α is that the next verse implies a repetition. Perhaps however we may allow a poet to amplify a particular city by adding, in a wider sense, the entire dominions of its king, The word Phedi is more probably corrupt. Jacob proposes δέ Beli, Scaliger et Thebe. Hence Miiller gives Thebe. Lachmann incloses the distich in brackets, ‘ne legen- tem moretur.’
59.] Jacob makes the last four lines a separate elegy: the improbability of which must strike every reader of judg- ment, —dimissa is the reading of Hertzberg and Lachmann for demissa,
120
Munera Dianz debita redde choros;
PROPERTII
60
Redde etiam excubias dive nunc, ante juvence ; Votivas noctes et mihi solve decem.
XXI.
Extrema, mea lux, cum potus nocte vagarer, Nec me servorum duceret ulla manus, Obvia nescio quot pueri mihi turba minuta Venerat ;—hos vetuit me numerare timor,— Quorum alii faculas, aliiretinere sagittas, 5 Pars etiam visa est vincla parare mihi.
Sed nudi fuerant.
Quorum lascivior unus, ‘Arripite hunc, inquit, ‘nam bene nostis eum ;
2
Hic erat, hune mulier nobis irata locavit.’
Dixit, et in collo jam mihi nodus erat.
10
Hic alter jubet in medium propellere, at alter: . ‘Intereat, qui nos non putat esse deos ! Hee te non meritum totas expectat in horas;
60.] Diane. See supra on y. 87.
61.] Excubias, t.e. vigilias. Isis, or Io, (see supra v. 17) seems to have brought with her to Rome some admixture of Phe- nician or Jewish rites, (see iii. 25, 2), one of which was the abstinence from conjugal rights for ten nights, to which he evidently alludes in the decem votive noctes sibi potius quam Isidi solvende.
XXI. In this elegy the poet offers a playful excuse for haying wrongly sus- pected, and jealously tested, the fidelity of Cynthia, by acting as a spy on her privacy. He now pretends that it was the result of a drunken frolic, and laments the con- sequent loss of her regard.
1.1 The MSS. give hesterma. As it is impossible to reconcile with this reading the last verse of the elegy, where the poet declares that since then he has never spent a happy night, I have followed Lachmann and Hertzberg in admitting Heinsius’ cor- rection Extrema. Soalso Keil and Miiller. ‘Late at night,’ is when night is coming to an end, and morning is approaching, Hertzberg remarks that extrema and hes- terna are often confused in the MSS.
2.1 Servorum manus. The slaves of
a family used to attend their masters home with torches: Juvenal, iii. 284.
3.] Minuta. When anything is broken into small pieces, each particle becomes ‘minute,’ z.e. small. This is one of a class of verbal adjectives, (commonly called passive participles), which have become by use mere adjectives,.as rectzus, celsus, (cello), altus, certus (for cretus, cerno), &c. So ‘remis confisa minutis,’ i. 11, 9.
5.] Retinere, ‘to have in store for me,’ i.e. to keep back for the present. This seems more correct than Kuinoel’s ‘ retinere pro tenere.’
7.] Luerunt for fuerant Miiller, with Heins.
9.1 Locavit, ‘pretio proposito excruci- andum tradidit.’ Locare and conducere, the reader is aware, are terms used of let- ting and accepting contracts, expressed in Greek by μισθῶσαι and μισθώσασθαι.
11.1 Jn medium, és μέσον, as if before a court or public assembly. Hertzberg gives at alter from the Naples MS. The editors generally prefer et alter.
13.] Zotas in horas, ‘for whole hours gare Similarly ‘totis noctibus,’ i. Bis
LIBER III. 21 (27). 121
At tu nescio quas queris, inepte, fores.
Que cum Sidoniz nocturna ligamina mitre
Solverit, atque oculos moverit illa graves, Adflabunt tibi non Arabum de gramine odores,
Sed quos ipse suis fecit Amor manibus. Parcite jam, frates; jam certos spondet amores;
Et jam ad mandatam venimus ecce domum.’ 20
Atque ita me injecto duxerunt rursus amictu: ‘T nunc, et noctes disce manere domi!’
Mane erat, et volui, si sola quiesceret 1118, Visere: at in lecto Cynthia sola fuit.
Obstupui; non illa mihi formosior umquam 2
Visa, neque ostrina cum
14.] Inepte. ‘Stuporem poete expro- brant Cupidines, quod cum pulcherrimam puellam gratis habere possit, alterius fastus ferre malit.’— Hertzberg.—F or fores Miller reads foris, with Douse, in allusion to vagarer sup.1. Thus nescio guas means puellas. But there is no sufficient reason for altering the vulgate. If indeed, we read nescio quam, the gue in 15 would refer to this meretrix, to whom mitra was ap- propriate (Juv. iii. 66, ‘picta lupa barbara mitra,’) and ἡ in 16 will mean Cynthia: and this will alter the whole tone and meaning of the passage.
15.] Que cum, &e. ‘When Cynthia rises in the morning, the most delicate fragrance will play around you, and remind you of your folly in slighting her charms.’ Sidonia mitra, the night-cap of Tyrian dye; rather, perhaps, of Tyrian embroidery or imagery. The mitra is usually spoken of as the head-tire of o/d women, as in v.35, 72. It was worn like a kerchief folded round the head. Thus ‘ligamina mitre’ does not mean ‘the night-cap strings,’ but mitram circumligatam.
18.] Love himself is represented as possessing a recipe for the perfumes which attend the presence of Cynthia. But Hertzberg seems to be correct in explain- ing the verse of the natural freshness of health and youth as opposed to the artificial eastern perfumes, of which the poet pro- fesses himself to be no admirer, i. 2, 3.
19.] Spondet, ‘he (our captive) pro- mises to be constant for the future.’ Jacob reads spondeo from Pucci. This alteration is metrically inelegant, and supported by an argument of little weight, that the leader of the Loves ought rather to give
Or
fuit in tunica,
his guaranty for the poet, than the latter for himself, ‘in ingente pavore Propertio obmutescente.’
21.] Me—duxerunt. I have retained the reading of the MSS. against the united judgment of the best editors, who adopt the conjecture of Heinsius mi—dixerunt. Rursus injecto implies that they had stripped off his outer garment. Duxerunt rursus (revorsus) might imply that they took him at once back to his own house: but the point of the story seems to be that the Loves brought him first to Cynthia’s house that he might see with his own eyes the ground- lessness of his suspicions. What follows, mane erat &c., implies that in the morning, ὦ. e. When he was sober and the dream had fled, he wished to go and visit Cynthia. This would be from his own house; and therefore it was more natural to represent that he had been conducted back again by the Loves.
23.] δὲ sola quiesceret, si aliquem secum haberet. Compare with this visit the beautiful account in i. 3.
24.] Hertzberg and Jacob give et with the Groning. MS., the others at. I do not feel the force of Jacob’s remark, that the poet ought not to express swrprise at her being alone, but satisfaction at his sus- picion proving groundless. For the very fact of his going to see, implied a doubt of her being faithful; which doubt is properly followed by at.
26.] Ostrina tunica. Lachmann refers this to the particular dress which Cynthia wore when the poet first beheld her; see iv. 10, 15. ‘ Dein qua primum oculos cepisti veste Properti, Indue, nec vacuum flore relinque caput.’ The general sense and
122
PROPERTII
Tbat et hine caste narratum somnia Veste, Neu 5101, neve mihi que nocitura forent: Talis visa mihi somno dimissa recenti ;
Heu quantum per se candida forma valet!
30
‘Quo tu matutinus, ait, ‘speculator amicze 7 Me similem vestris moribus esse putas ?
Non ego tam facilis: sat erit mihi cognitus unus, Vel tu, vel si quis verior esse potest.
Apparent non ulla toro vestigia presso,
Signa voluptatis, nec jacuisse duos.
Aspice, ut in toto nullus mihi corpore surgat Spiritus, admisso notus adulterio.’
Dixit, et opposita propellens savia dextra,
Prosilit in laxa nixa pedem solea.
40
Sic ego tam sancti +custos excludor amoris. Ex illo felix nox mihi nulla fuit.
connexion are thus given in Hertzberg’s paraphrase: ‘nunquam formosior visa. est, ne tum quidem cum, quantum memini, pulcherrima mihi videretur, quo tempore purpurea tunica induta ex hoc ipso cubi- culo (Aine) prodiens ad Veste ibat. Nec aliter (talis, v.29) nunc recens experrecta.’ But, if idat depends upon ewm, and the poet’s first sight of Cynthia is referred to the time when she was going to relate her dreams (primum cepisti,) to Vesta, it is difficult to understand her motive in pray- ing that they might prove harmless to herself and to Propertius (vy. 28), with whom she could have had no acquaint- ance. On the other hand, if tbat describes her action on the present occasion, 7 lecto fuit et exire parabat, talis visa mihi in v. 29 must be referred back to v. 26, which is certainly awkward. The tunic however may well have been the same as that which first captivated the poet on her ap- pearance in it before the time here spoken of. Lachmann gives tbat ut hine &c., add- ing ‘illo ipso tempore, quo ad Veste temp- lum in tunica purpurea iverat, primum ocellis suis amatorem ceperat.’
28.] New—que. For nequa (i. 3, 29). Neu—neve here follow the analogy of sew— sive,—both being, as the student is aware, different forms of the same words,—whereas new generally follows ve, and may be con- sidered in translating as equivalent to ef ne.
29.] Dimissa, The MSS. have demissa, as in y. 59 of the preceding elegy.
30.] En quantum Miiller, on his own
conjecture. 31.] Quo. ‘Qua mente ? quo consilio ὃ᾽ Barth.
32.] Vestris moribus, ἃ. 6. moribus ho- minum qualis tu es.
383.] Yam fucilis, se. quam putas.
34.| Verior. Not constantior, but minus mendax, according to Hertzberg. Certus is the word generally used for ‘constant,’ as iil. 16, 20, and y. 19 of this elegy.
35.] Vestigia. See on ii. 9, 45.
38.] Notus, ἃ, 6. ut vulgo fieri notum est.
39.] Propedlere, used in its proper sense sup. 11, here means repellere.
40.] Niwa pedem. Compare i. 3, 8, ‘Cynthia non certis nixa caput manibus.’ —prosilit, e lecto, sup. 24.
41.] The reading of this verse is very — uncertain, The MS. Groning.. gives cus- tode recludor, the Naples MS. custode re- ludor, the ed. Rheg. custodis rector. Kui- noel and Lachmann follow Broukhuis, custos excludor, understanding custos as speculator, explorator, observator. Hertz- berg gives eustos recludor, which appears from his commentary to be a misprint for excludor. Keil reads custode recludor, Miiller cxstodi excludor, after Heins. Lach- mann conjectures cultu secludor, ‘nihil promittens de veritate conjecture.’ The reading of ed. Rheg. points to custos rejector, the correction of Pucci; but rejecto is a rare word, and in Lucretius 11. 327, it
LIBER III. 22 (28).
XXII.
Quo fugis? ah, demens, nulla est fuga! tu licet usque
Ad Tanain fugias, usque
sequetur Amor.
Non si Pegaseo vecteris in aére dorso, Nec tibi si Persei moverit ala pedes ;
Vel si te secte rapiant talaribus aure,
Or
Nil tibi Mercurii proderit alta via. Instat semper Amor supra caput; instat amanti, Et gravis ipse super libera colla sedet. Excubat ille acer custos, et tollere numquam
Te patietur humo lumina capta semel.
Et jam si pecces, deus exorabilis ille est, Si modo presentes viderit esse preces. Ista senes licet accusent convivia duri:
means to ‘re-echo.’ Perhaps custodi ludor, ‘T am batiled by one who so virtuously keeps her affections for me,’ tam sancte amorem custodit. When the dative was corrupted into the ablative (which would have been a custode), ludor was not unnaturally changed to reludor. Compare ‘tibi ludi- tur,’ ‘the game is played by you,’ Persius, Sat. 111. 20.
XXII. This is a difficult elegy. Kui- noel, with the earlier commentators, wrong- ly imagined that the poet was addressing Cynthia, and dissuading her from under- taking a voyage ‘ad Parthos vel Indos,’ (!) on the plea of withdrawing herself from the calumnies of her enemies. Barth is even more absurd: ‘ Cynthiam lucri studio in bellum (!) proficisci cupientem revocat ab incepto,’ &c. The poet however speaks of himself in the second person, or in other words, holds a dialogue with himself, to show the impossibility of escaping from the thraldom of love, and the expediency of acquiescing in his present fate. He as- sumes the Bacchic frenzy, and invites Cynthia to join him in a revel in the wild woods (25, 39), resolving to indulge in gaiety and pleasure, since it is distasteful to him to follow the precepts of dull virtue (15). Neither Lachmann, who divides the present elegy into two at v. 23, nor Jacob, who seems to think the first part of the poem addressed to a friend, has rightly seen the purport of the whole, the chief obscurity in which depends on the sudden
transitions from one person to another, which will be pointed out in their proper places.
3—6.] There is a slight confusion in the disposition of the negatives, if we follow the explanation commonly proposed, non—nil tibi proderit, in which case vel in γ. 5, must be taken for xec. But may we not rather understand zon (proderit) sz vec- teris, nee si ala &e., vel, si aure te rapiant, nil tibi via Mercurtt proderit : where vel-— nil in the last distich is equivalent to nec quicquam. Or thus: ‘non (fuga est) si Pegaso vecteris; si te vel Mercurii talaria te rapiant, nihil proderit ejus via.’
8.] Jpse. Lachmann and Hertzberg approve of the correction of Beroaldus, ipsa, 1. 6. etiam super Libera colla, sc. amore vacua, But dyse may mean in person, not per custodem, nor by mere mental anxieties &e.
11.] £¢. Lachmann follows Burmann in reading sed, with the approval of Jacob. Perhaps et may have the sense of et tamen ; ‘And yet, if any indiscretion shall have alienated you for a time from your mistress, the quarrel may be made up by a prompt confession.’ Indeed, etiam is only another way of writing et jam; and other passages occur where the meaning is identical, as Georg. ili, 189.—presentes, map’ αὐτὸ τὸ ἀδίκημα. ‘Quamprimum errata fatere,’ i. 9, 33.
13.] Ista convivia may mean hos con- victos ; or tua convivia, if we suppose the poet addresses Cynthia as a part of himself.
124
PROPERTII
Nos modo propositum, vita, teramus iter.
Ilorum antiquis onerentur legibus aures:
15
Hic locus est, in quo, tibia docta, sones, Que non jure vado Meeandri jacta natasti, . Turpia cum faceret Palladis ora tumor. Num jam, dure, paras Phrygias nune ire per undas,
Et petere Hyrcani litora nauta maris 7
20
Spargere et alterna communes cede Penates, Et ferre ad patrios preemia dira Lares 7
Una contentum pudeat me vivere amica 7 Hoe si crimen erit, crimen Amoris erit;
Equally ambiguous is modo in the next line. It may mean nwper propositum, or nos modo teramus, ἴ, ὁ. nibil curantes senum precepta.
15.] Construe, @wlorum aures onerentur &e., ‘Let them (the senes) be bored with old-fashioned rules; this is the school for wine and music;’ ef. inf. 37.
17.] Que non jure &e. “πῶ immerito a Minerva abjecta es in Mzandrum, cum te inflasset et vidisset genas intumuisse.’— Kuinoel. Ovid, Art. Amat. iii. 505, “1 procul hine, dixit, non es mihi, tibia, tanti, Ut vidit vultus Pallas in amne suos.’ Cf. Fast. vi. 700; Pind. Pyth, xii.
19.] Lachmann, Kuinoel, and Keil give num jam, dura, paras &e. Jacob and Miiller num jam, dure, paras, Hertzberg nune jam, dure &c, Dura is the reading of the MS. Groning., and seems to have arisen from the mistaken idea that it was Cynthia and not Propertius who was con- templating the journey. The same MS. has nune with the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. But nune paras, nune ive is a re- petition which could only be defended on the ground that the instant urgency of the journey (perhaps such a journey as his friends had advised him to take, i. 1, 29), was the point in question, which does not seem to be the case: to say nothing of the awkward nunc jam for jam nunc. The sense is, ‘Do you still intend?’ &., 1, 6. after the considerations just enumerated against it. The reading of the MS. Naples is remarkable: mon (sie ὦ pr.m.) tamen immerito. This, taken in combination with 21—2, might be considered as ironically said; ‘truly, you have good reason for wishing to go abroad and fight against enemies who ought rather to be friends of Rome’ &c. But it does not appear by
what doctrine of ellipse the infinitives could be explained.
20.] The MSS. have ofa, except one of the inferior copies, which gives ata. Hertzberg’s correction is so probable that I have ventured to admit it. He compares Hor. Od. i. 1, 13, ‘ut trabe Cypria Myr- toum pavidus nauta secet mare,’ and 7b, ii. 4, 30, ‘insanientem navita Bosporum tentabo,’ while he shows that so far from the shores of the Caspian sea being nota to the Romans, they were the very reverse. Miller reads Uittora Eoa.
21.] Communes Penates. Hertzberg ridicules, and with good reason, the absurd explanation of preceding commentators, ‘Cynthiz et Propertii edes,’ and compares i. 11, 16, ‘communes nec meminisse deos,’ the gods common to two sides or parties, and similarly Virg. An. viii. 275; xii. 118. Allusion is made (Hertzberg, Quest. p. 225) to a treaty ratified in the year of the city 728 between the Romans and Polemo king of Pontus, apparently against the rebellious and quarrelsome nation of the Parthi. ‘Itaque communes Penates aut erunt publict penates ejus regionis quam bello petitura erat expeditio Romana, aut quod multo magis placet, quos uterque populus colit.’ —Hertzberg. What particular gods the Parthians worshipped in common with Rome, the learned editor is unable to state.
23.] With this verse Lachmann com- mences a new elegy; but he is not followed by the recent editors. ‘My severe censors say that I ought to be ashamed of living with Cynthia. Ashamed of being faithful to one! That is but nature, and therefore no sin.’ Compare ii. 1, 47, ‘Laus in amore mori; laus altera, si datur uno Posse frui.’
LIBER III, 22 (29).
Mi nemo obiciat.
Libeat tibi, Cynthia, mecum
Roscida muscosis antra tenere jugis. Illic aspicies scopulis herere Sorores, Et canere antiqui dulcia furta Jovis: Ut Semela est combustus, ut est deperditus Io,
Denique ut ad Troj tecta volarit avis.
30
Quod si nemo extat, qui vicerit Alitis arma, Communis culpze cur reus unus agor 7
Nec tu Virginibus reverentia moveris ora: Hic quoque non nescit quid sit amare chorus;
Si tamen C#agri queedam compressa figura 35
Bistonius olim rupibus accubuit. Hic ubi te prima statuent in parte chores, Et medius docta cuspide Bacchus erit, Tum capiti sacros patiar pendere corymbos:
Nam sine te nostrum nil valet ingenium.
25.) Mihi &e. ‘Let no one charge me with a crime for which Love alone is re- sponsible.’ He adds, somewhat abruptly, ‘If we cannot live without these reproaches at Rome, retire with me into the country, and cultivate literature and poetry (i. 2, 27) in peace.’
29.] 10 (Io?) seems to be the ablative. Otherwise the accusative (Ἰὼ) might have been defended, as deperditus est = amavit : compare ardebat Alexim, Virg. Ecl. ii. 1.— avis, t. 6. IN avim, sc. aquilam, mutatus, ad rapiendum Ganymedem. The construction is similar to Eel. vi. 64, ‘Tum canit, erran- tem Permessi ad flumina Gallum Aonas in montes ut duxerit una sororum.’
31.] Alitis, h. 6. Cupidinis.
33.] ‘Nor will you put the Virgin Muses to the blush: for they also know well what itis to love. Reverentia, αἰδοῖα, verecunda. The sense is, ‘ Be not deterred by their well-known attributes of Vir- ginitas and verecundia from invoking them ‘In composing love-songs.’
35.] δὲ tamen. ‘If, in spite of the alleged chastity’ &c. See on ii. 4, 10.— Gagri figura, ‘by one in the form of (agrus ;’ thus leaving it indefinite whether he were really (Hagrus or a god. Apollodor. 1, 8, 2, Καλλιόπης μὲν οὖν καὶ Οἰάγρου, κατ᾽ ἐπίκλησιν δὲ ᾿Απόλλωνος, Λῖνος, ὃν Ἡρακλῆς ἀπέκτεινε. There is a similar story of Terpsichore and the river Strymon, Eur. Rhes. 920.
37.] Lachmann, with the approval of
40
Jacob, reads te for me from one of the inferior MS. Both Keil and Miiller retain me. Hertzberg is scarcely successful in his explanation:—‘hic, (1. 6. tecum in patriis montibus, non esculetis Hyrcanis), si mihi Muse et Bacchus carmina dederint, lubens ego me furore poetico rapi patiar,— vel si te presente, gelidum nemus fon- tesque salubres et vinum ad carmina pan- genda paratum me reddiderint, non re- fragabor. Nam sine te nostrum non valet ingenium.’—He rightly compares, in illus- tration of prima in parte chorea, iv. 5, 19. But Aic seems rather to refer to hie locus, sup. 16,
38.] Bacchus. On his connexion with poetry, see on v. 1, 62.—docta cuspide, τ, e. thyrso, quo docte moderatur choro. Com- pare docta falce iii. 10,12. Scaliger, fol- lowed by Kuinoel, reads tecta cuspide, comparing Catull. lxiv. 257, ¢. 6. velata.— In medius erit there is a double allusion, both to wine being placed on the table before Cynthia and Propertius, and to the god Bacchus acting as arbiter and exarch of the chorus.
40.] Sinete. Can this refer to Bacchus? The change in the person from y. 33, pre- sents little difficulty in Propertius. In this case, of course, the MSS. reading me would be retained in y. 37. But all the commentators understand this verse of Cynthia, who as it were inspires the poet to sing. Compare ii. 1, 4, ‘Ingenium nobis ipsa puella facit.’
126
PROPERTII
XXIII.
Queris, cur veniam tibi tardior? Aurea Phcebo Porticus a magno Czesare aperta fuit.
Tota erat in speciem Pcenis digesta columnis, Inter quas Danai femina turba senis.
Hic equidem Phoebo visus mihi pulchrior ipso 5 Marmoreus tacita carmen hiare Lyra;
Atque aram circum steterant armenta Myronis, Quattuor artificis, vivida signa, boves.
Tum medium claro surgebat marmore templum,
XXIII. This elegy is one of the poet’s earlier productions. The date is deter- mined by the circumstances alluded to, the solemn dedication and opening of the new temple of Apollo on the Palatine, Oct. 24, A.u.C. 726, by Augustus in memory of his victory at Actium. The same event is commemorated by Horace, Od.i. 31. The poet excuses his delay in visiting Cynthia on the plea of having been present at the ceremony. Some have thought this a mere fragment of a longer poem describing the spectacle in detail: but Lachmann acutely remarks that ew veniam, v.1, would have been eur venerim, had the poet taken time to compose a long account.
2.] Magno, cf. ii. 7, 5, ‘at magnus Ceesar.’
3.] In speciem, speciose, ‘with a view to etfect;’ the architect had laid out. the whole design (not only the facade) with columns for the purpose of presenting a magnificent appearance, not merely for structural use. — Penis columnis, of the marble now called ‘giallo antico ;’ Hertz- berg. See the commentators on Hor. Od. li. 18, 4, ‘non trabes Hymettize premunt columnas ultima recisas Africa.’ Ovid, Am. ii. 2, 3, ‘Hesterna vidi spatiantem luce puellam, Illa qua Danai porticus agmen habet.’ Trist. iii. 1, 59, ‘Inde tenore pari gradibus sublimia celsis Ducor ad intonsi candida templa dei; Signa pere- grinis ubi sunt alterna columnis Belides, et stricto barbarus ense pater.’ Opposite to these were the fratres aheni, or equestrian statues of the sons of Aigyptus. Persius, Sat. ii. 56.
41] Turba, as v. 11, 76, ‘omnis erit collo turba ferenda tuo,’ ὦ. ὁ. omnes liberi.
5.] LEquidem. A remarkable instance of the use of this word in a writer of the Augustan age, which tends to disprove its alleged derivation from ego quidem. Lach-
mann reads hie guidam, after Markland. It is not easy to assent to the opinion of Dr. Donaldson, Varron. Ὁ. 448, that the initial 8 is long, and that it must therefore have been pronounced in verse égw’em, and that in Persius, i. 110, ‘per me equidem sint omnia protinus alba,’ we must read me quidem and pronounce it per me quem. Hertzberg transposes vv. 5—8 to the end of the elegy, on the ground that the same statue is here described asin v.15. Grant- ing this to be the case, and that it would have been better to have arranged the subject otherwise, the common order is sufficiently justified by the haste and brevity of what was, perhaps, little better than an extempore composition. In truth, the four verses in question do not har- monise in continuation with v. 16.
6.] TZuacita lyra, an elegant expression for a mute statue. This stature is said to have been the work of Scopas (Pliny, N.H. xxxvi. 4, 7), and is distinguished by Hertzberg from another colossal one of bronze, said to have represented Augustus himself, and to have stood in the Palatine library. Hor. Zp. i. 3, 17, ‘et tangere vitet scripta, Palatinus quecunque recepit Apollo.’ A copy of this statue, ‘ Apollo Citharcedus,’ is in the Vatican collection, and is engraved in Dr. Smith’s Student's History of Greece, p. 551, 580. The mouth is opened, as in singing; hence the pro- priety of carmen hiare.
8.] The MSS. give artificis, which may stand, if taken for artifices. See note on i, 2, 8. But most editors prefer the latter form. What particular mythical event (if any) the four cows represented, is not known.
9.] Medium. The temple itself appears to have stood between two, if not four porticos. Hertzberg shows from Sueton. Oct. § 29, that more than one were dedicated
LIBER III. 24 (30). 12s
Et patria Phcebo carius Ortygia.
10
In quo Solis erat supra fastigia currus, Et valve, Libyci nobile dentis opus,
Altera dejectos Parnasi vertice Gallos, Altera mceerebat funera Tantalidos.
Deinde inter matrem deus ipse interque sororem
15
Pythius in longa carmina veste sonat.
XXIV.
Qui videt, is peccat: qui te non viderit ergo, Non cupiet; facti lumina crimen habent. Nam quid Prznesti dubias, ο Cynthia, sortes,
by Augustus.—claro marmore, 7. 6. bright, polished. Scaliger, followed by Kuinoel, reads clario.—et patria Ortygia, ‘even than his native Ortygia,’ z. ὁ. than the temple in Delos, or as some think, near Ephesus (Tac. Ann. iii. 61). That the gods had a particular partiality for certain temples is well known, and easily explained from the jealousies incidental to rival pretensions,
11.] The MSS. have zz guo, which Keil and Miiller retain. Hertzberg reads et duo, and erant for erat, proving from ancient examples that the figures on the pediment were two, one on each side of the highest point, as on the Mausoleum in Caria. Cf. Ovid, Fast: v. 560. Others have proposed azo, or ergo, and read erat.
12.] ‘This verse is nearly identical with one of Martial’s, xiv. 3, ‘Essemus Libyci nobile dentis opus.’
14.] Merebat. One of the great doors represented sculptured in ivory the retreat of the Gauls from the temple at Delphi, scared by earthquakes and a storm of thunder and lightning; the other mourned, 7. 6. set forth in moving imagery, the death of Niobe’s children, slain by Apollo and Diana. With Gallos we may supply from the context some verb like pingebat.— Sunera, ‘the dead children;’ so vy. 1. 97, ‘fatales pueri, duo funera matris avare.’ On the former event see on iv. 13, 53.
15.] The god stands between Latona and Diana, wearing the long dress ( pa//a, Tibull. ii. 4, 35) peculiar to the citharcedi. It was this which Arion put on before he leapt into the waves, Ovid, Fust. i. 107, ‘ Induerat Tyrio bis tinctam murice pallam.’ Deinde means, ‘after passing through the portico,’
XXIV. Written in a fit of jealous alarm to upbraid Cynthia for her frequent ab- sence from Rome under various pretgnces, which he suspects are but vain excuses for getting out of his sight, and seeking the company of more favoured lovers.
1—2.] Hertzberg considers Qui videt is peccat, as the words of Cynthia excusing her conduct, by alleging that she cannot help the notice which she attracts. ‘Tu frequentiam amatorum eo excusas, quod quicunque te viderit, te tentet. Non equi- dem nego factum. Sed causam facti pre- cidere te jubeo. Fac ne videaris.’ Lumen he accordingly interprets ‘ quod semper illa in publico et lumine versetur,’ while others explain it of the eyes of Cynthia’s admirers, which are in fault rather than themselves. In the vulg. facti crimina lumen habet, lu- men may mean ‘ your frequently exhibiting yourself in open day ;’ but the first words seem to be not Cynthia’s, but the poet’s. ‘To see you,’ he says, in a half angry, half expostulatory strain, ‘is to be en- amoured. Therefore avoid being seen, which is the cause of your misbehaviour.’ Miller, with Heins and Lachmann, reads Jacti lumina erimen habent, the Naples MS. giving crimina lumen habent. And they are probably right: ‘the eyes have the guilt of the deed.’ For, as Shakespeare says, ‘how oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done.’
3.] The reading of the MSS. Gron. and Naples is rightly retained by Hertzberg, who shows (what seems obvious enough) that it is the locative, ὦ, ὁ. ‘at Preaeneste’ So also Keil and Miiller. Jacob and Kui- noel give Prenestis ; Lachmann, very im-
-probably, Nam quid Preneste in dubias,
128 PROPERTII
Quid petis Aizi mcenia Telegoni ?
Curve te in Herculeum deportant esseda Tibur ?
Or
Appia cur totiens te via ducit anum ? Hoe utinam spatiere loco, quodcumque vacabis, Cynthia! sed tibi me credere turba vetat, Cum videt accensis devotam currere tedis In nemus et Triviz lumina ferre dee. 10 Scilicet umbrosis sordet Pompeia columnis Porticus auleis nobilis Attalicis, Et creber platanis pariter surgentibus ordo,
&e., ¢.e. ‘Quid Preeneste tendis, illas dubias sortes quesitum? The adlative is Pra- neste, which misled the commentators. Juven. iii. 190, ‘Quis timet aut timuit gelida Preeneste ruinam?’ ‘There was a temple of Fortune at Przeneste, and the reader will find in Cic. de Div. ii. 41, a curious account of the sortes Preenestine. For @’similar and equally questionable trip of Cynthia to Lanuvium, see v. 8, 15.
4.] Tusculum is here called the ‘fort of Telegonus,’ as in Horace, Od. 111. 29, 8, ‘ Telegoni juga parricide.’ Telegonus was the son of Ulysses by Circe, hence called the Aizan:’ Hom. Od. x. 135, Αἰαίην δ᾽ ἐς νῆσον ἀφικόμεθ᾽" ἔνθα δ᾽ ἔναιεν Κίρκη εὐπλόκαμος.
5.] Herculewn Tibur. See on v. 7, 82. These two last mentioned places, Frascati and Tivoli, were favourite resorts of the Romans in the summer. This verse is corruptly written in the MSS., but so as to leave little doubt of the true reading. Miiller gives ‘Cur aut te’ &. The MS. Gron. has cum vatem, others eur vatem. The Naples MS., by a curious corruption, ‘curva te herculeum deportantes sed abi- tur.’
6.] The better copies agree in anwm, which can only mean ‘old woman as you are;’ for the suggestion of an old com- mentator ‘ducit te toties ad anum,’ ὦ. 6. ad sagam,’ is scarcely admissible. Lachmann, Jacob, Hertzberg, and the latest editors, read anus, which is found in three of the inferior copies. Authority however is clearly for anum. Is it then less harsh and unusual to call a public highway anus via, than to taunt Cynthia with vanity in being so fond of displaying her charms when she was becoming passée? This very fact she is reminded of in terms nearly as blunt and undisguised in iii. 9, 20, ‘cum sis ipsa anus haud longa curva futura die.’ On a careful consideration of
the passage I have not hesitated to retain anum, though Hertzberg quotes terra anus, charta anus, testa anus, &e., in defence of anus via, which the Appian road is con- ceived to be called, because it was the first constructed of all the Roman roads. See Wokey ttl
8.] Keil and Miller, with Jacob and Lachmann, read nam for sed, from the MS. Groning. The sense is equally good.— turba, 7. e. the crowd who come to see you. ‘In illa turba hominum, que in ea via semper versatur, vereor ne plures insint qui te visam depereant.’— Lachmann.
10.] Zrivie dee. To Diana worshipped
-at Aricia, called on that account ‘nemoralis
Aricia’ by Ovid, Fast. vi. 59. Ibid. iii. 253, ‘Vallis Aricine sylva precinctus opaca Est locus, antiqua religione sacer.— Seepe potens voti, frontem redimita coronis, Femina lucentes portat ab urbe faces.’ This worship was connected with the in- fernal attributes of Diana as Hecate. She was the goddess of light, Lucina, z.e. Luna, and as such may have claimed the offering of torches: but Zrivia is synonymous with Hecate. Ovid gives an explanation, though an absurd one, of this ancient custom, Fast. iv. 493, viz. that Ceres lighted her torch at the crater of Etna in her search for Proserpine: ‘Illic accendit geminas pro lampade teedas: Hine Cereris sacris nune quoque taeda datur.’
11.] Seilicet. ‘I suppose, forsooth,’ &e. The piazza of Pompey was a favourite and fashionable promenade. See v. 8,75, ‘Tu neque Pompeia spatiabere cultus in umbra.’ Ovid, A.A. i. 67; Mart. ii. 14, 10.
12.] Tapestry of eastern manufacture, professedly or really bequeathed to the Romans by king Attalus (see y. 5, 24), appears to have been suspended in the Portico to shade it from the sun, Hence, perhaps, (in part at least) the columns are called wnbrose.
LIBER III. 24 (30).
129
Flumina sopito quzque Marone cadunt,
Et leviter lymphis tota crepitantibus urbe,
Cum subito Triton ore recondit aquam. Falleris; ista tui furtum via monstrat amoris: Non urbem, demens, lumina nostra fugis ;
Nil agis; insidias in me componis inanes ;
Tendis iners docto retia nota mihi.
Sed de me minus est: fame jactura pudice Tanta tibi miserze, quanta mereris, erit. Nuper enim de te nostras me ledit ad aures Rumor, et in tota non bonus urbe fuit.
Sed tu non debes inimicz
bo Or
credere lingue :
Semper formosis fabula poena fuit. Non tua deprenso damnata est fama veneno; Testis eris puras, Phoebe, videre manus: Sin autem longo nox una aut altera lusu
Consumpta est, non me crimina parva movent.
30
Tyndaris externo patriam mutavit amore,’
14.] Sopito Marone, ‘from a statue of the sleeping Maro.’ Maro is variously re- presented as Silenus, a son of Silenus, and a son of Bacchus: see Hertzberg, who shows in a very excellent note that these figures of Silenus, teeming water from a jar, were so common in Italy that the conduits formed in that fashion were called Silani. Hence Lucretius, vi. 1262, speaking of the thirst occasioned by the plague, says ‘ cor- pora si/anos ad aquarum strata jacebant.’ Kuinoel’s brief note is right, though he was probably at a loss for details: ‘Marone, intell. statua sc. signum Maronis, e quo aque cadebant.’ Keil and Miiller read Anione for Marone, and in the next verse tot leviter &c., ‘when so many fountains may be heard plashing in Rome.’
16.] Triton, A similar fountain to the above is here described, probably spouting out water from a shell. For /ymphis the Naples MS. has ximphis, whence Kuinoel Nymphis. In either case it must be under- stood of the babbling of water. The argu- ‘ment of the poet is this: ‘ You pretend to seek for cool shade and refreshing streams at Tibur and Tusculum, when you may have both in Rome.’ Hence falleris (vy. 16) is, ‘You are mistaken if you think to deceive me by that plea.’
20.] Iners, &rexvos, contrasted with docto mihi.
22.] Quanta mereris, ‘in proportion to your deserts.’ The meaning is, ‘I do not care so much about myself, as about the discredit you are incurring by your mis- conduct.’
23.] Me ledit. The Groning. MS. has pervenit, which appears to be a correction. The ellipse of per/atus is awkward, and the present tense following nwper suspicious. Compare however iii. 8, 6. Miller marks the verse with an obelus.
25.] ‘But’ (you will say to me) ‘you ought not to trust report, which has ever been unjust to the fair. Granted, that you are not accused of poisoning; that you can say, ‘ Bear witness, O sun, that my hands are pure;’ nay, I am not disposed to take you to task for spending one or two nights in gaiety; it is ποῦ ἃ little cause that moves my wrath.’
29.] Luxu Jacob and Keil, from the MS. Groning. This word means more than ‘luxury’ in the best authors, and is equivalent to our term ‘debanchery.’— lusu, ‘pastime,’ here means the same, but is a less coarse and criminatory expression, See iii. 9, 24.
31.] ‘Helen left husband and home, and yet was taken back without formal condemnation being passed upon her,’ sine decreto, perhaps a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον for sine supplicio, The sense is, other persons haye
K
130
PROPERTII
Et sine decreto viva reducta domum est; Ipsa Venus quamvis corrupta libidine Martis, Non minus in celo semper honesta fuit ;
Quamvis Ida Parim pastorem dicat amasse
35
Atque inter pecudes accubuisse deam.
Hoe et Hamadryadum spectavit turba sororum, Silenique senes, et pater ipse chor,
Cum quibus Idzeo legisti poma sub antro,
Supposita excipiens Naica dona manu.
40
An quisquam in tanto stuprorum examine querit: Cur hee tam dives? quis dedit? unde dedit ? O nimium nostro felicem tempore Romam, Si contra mores una puella facit!
Hee eadem ante illam impune et Lesbia fecit:
4
Quz sequitur, certe est invidiosa minus. Qui querit Tatios veteres durosque Sabinos, Hic posuit nostra nuper in urbe pedem. Tu prius et fluctus poteris siccare marinos,
Altaque mortali deligere astra manu,
50
Quam facere, ut nostra nolint peccare puelle : Hic mos Saturno regna tenente fuit,
committed greater crimes and been for- given.
34.] Non minus. I have followed Jacob, Hertzberg, and Keil, in the reading of this passage. For quamvis (v.33), the Naples MS. gives fertur, which Lachmann has edited, and both that and MS. Groning. have nee minus, non being from Pucci. If mec be understood as nee tamen, there is no reason for rejecting fertur. But it is a difficult critical question to decide between the merits of these two MSS., neither of which is altogether free from the suspicion of conjectural emendation.
35.] ‘No, not even though mount Ida can attest that the goddess was enamoured of Paris, and was his consort among the flocks of his fold.’ The construction is, dicat deam amasse Parim. This legend, it must be observed, is not recorded by any other writer. It is not impossible that the poet, who has elsewhere erred in his my- thology (see on vy. 4, 40) has confounded Paris with Anchises. Miiller reads palam for Parim, after Haupt.
39.] Legisti, i.e. Ὁ Pari.—Naica dona, gifts offered by the Naid Gnone; apples gathered by her for you and dropped into
your hands.
41.] ‘ Where all are unchaste, does any one express surprise or curiosity at the magnificent gifts received? Rome were too happy if ({. ὁ. it cannot be expected that) one girl should act otherwise than the rest.’ Stuprorum examen, 7. 6. turba impudicarum.
45.] Lesbia, the mistress of Catullus. ‘She was not blamed for infidelity : why should I expect Cynthia to be more faith- ful? For the non-elision in d/am see 111, 7,1. Perhaps ante illas, alluding to stu- prorum turba in 41.
47.] Latias veteres, ‘ Latin girls of the Olden time,’ Miiller, after Schrader, re- taining the vulgate dwrasque Sabinas, which Lachmann altered to durosqgue Sa- binos. ‘He who expects to find the primitive virtue of the Sabines in Rome, must have arrived fresh in the city.’
50.] Deripere astra Miiller, after Bur- mann. It is difficult to defend the vulgate.
52.] Hie mos, sc. ‘non peccandi.’ So Juv. Sat. 6, 1, ‘ Credo pudicitiam Saturno Rege moratam In terris.’—ostre, by con- trast, means ‘nostri temporis puelle.’
LIBER III. 25 (81).
131
Et cum Deucalionis aque fluxere per orbem, Et post antiquas Deucalionis aquas.
Dic mihi, quis potuit lectum servare pudicum ?
55
Quze dea cum solo vivere sola deo? Uxorem quondam magni Minois, at aiunt,
Corrupit torvi candida forma bovis. Nec minus erato Danaé circumdata muro
Non potuit magno casta negare Jovi.
60
Quod si tu Graias, tuque es mirata Latinas, Semper vive meo libera judicio.
XXV.
Tristia jam redeunt iterum sollemnia nobis ; Cynthia jam noctes est operata decem.
Atque utinam pereat, Nilo que sacra tepente Misit matronis Inachis Ausoniis!
53.] At for et Miiller, as Beroaldus had proposed, with a comma after aguas. But Lachmann objects, ‘deos ante diluvium Deucalionis amoribus non studuisse falsum est, si vera narravit Clymene Virg. Georg. iv. 347,’ ‘aque Chao densos divum nume- rabat amores.’
57.] Uxorem Minois, Pasiphae, whose amour resulted in the birth of the Minotaur.
60.] Casta, i.e. quamyis casta. For Jovi Jacob has deo, apparently by a mis-
rint.
61.] The best MSS. have imitata, which Keil retains. Hertzberg seems right in editing mirata from two or three of the inferior MSS., on metrical grounds. Lach- mann reads ques (zque es), and Miiller a@quesque imitata, The sense is, ‘if you profess to be an admirer and follower of the profligate heroines of Greece and Rome, I will not be your judge: follow the bent of your own inclination, and suffer for it.’
XXY. The poet complains of Cynthia’s too rigid observance of certain foreign rites, enjoining strict continence for a stated period. (See iii. 20, 61; v. 5, 34). With an inconsistency not uncommon in profli- gate persons, she appears to have paid scrupulous attention to the ceremonies of religion, while she spent her nights in drinking and loose company.
2.] Operata est. The meaning evidently is, ‘has engaged to keep,’ &c., for if the
time had elapsed there would have been little to complain of; if it had not yet commenced, the perfect tense could not have been used. The word saecris must be supplied. Compare Juyenal, vi. 535, ‘Ille petit veniam, quoties non abstinet uxor Concubitu sacris observandisque diebus.’ See the whole passage, 526—441. The same rite was strictly kept by Delia. Ti- bullus, i. 8, 25; ef. Ovid. Am. iii. 9, 34, and 10, 2.
4.] In his contempt for Egyptian cus- toms, he does not hesitate to ridicule the cow-goddess (for Isis was the same as Io) who has imported from the tropical Nile into Rome so much of superstitious novelty. The facility with which the Romans en- larged their mythological creed to admit all sects and professions has often caused surprise, and been attributed to various motives. The explanation of it is probably to be sought in the immense number of resident foreigners who were allowed, from the necessity of the case, to exercise their own religion without restraint. The state had no particular fondness for innovation, for it could enact stringent laws against externe superstitiones, and enforce them too, when Christians or Jews were the subjects. We find the Emperor Claudius complain- ing of the rapid spread of foreign rites, Tac. Ann. xi. 15. It may be questioned if a national or established religion is ever tolerant but from motives of policy. Pas-
Quze dea tam cupidos totiens divisit amantes,
PROPERTII
Or
Quecumque illa fuit, semper amara fuit. Tu certe Jovis occultis in amoribus, Io,
Sensisti, multas quid sit
inire vias,
Cum te jussit habere puellam cornua Juno,
Et pecoris duro perdere verba sono.
10
Ah quotiens quernis lesisti frondibus ora ! Mansisti stabulis abdita pasta tuis!
An, quoniam agrestem detraxit ab ore figuram Juppiter, idcirco facta superba dea es ?
An tibi non satis est fuscis Algyptus alumnis ?
15
Cur tibi tam longa Roma petita via est ? Quidve tibi prodest viduas dormire puellas ?
Sed tibi, crede mihi, cornua rursus erunt ; At nos e nostra te, seeva, fugabimus urbe:
Cum Tiberi Nilo gratia nulla fuit.
At tu, que nostro nimium
sages like the present show the contempt in which the genuine Romans held the worship of strange divinities. Augustus held in respect only such as were of ancient repute in other countries, ‘ceteras con- temptui habuit.’—Sueton. Oct. § 93. Ti- berius ‘externas csremonias compescuit, Td. Tid. § 36. Infra vy.1, 17, ‘Nulli cura fuit externos queerere divos.’
6.1 Quecunque illa fuit. ἥτις ποτ᾽ ἦν, implying contemptuous disregard who and what she really was, ¢. 6. whether identical with Io or not. Keil and Miiller place a mark of interrogation at amantes, Lachmann a mark of admiration.
7.] The sense is, ‘you at least should be the last to cause in others the pain of separation which you so bitterly experi- enced in your own case.’ Any one may be said znirve multas vias who enters on many routes but pursues none; that is, who wanders vaguely and without purpose. Lachmann and others seem wrong in attri- buting a less delicate meaning to the words: unless indeed we are to regard the whole passage (7—12) as a coarse insult rather than a peevish banter. But the logical sequence is clearer on the other view.
12.] Mansisti.i—ah quoties must be re- peated, though the ellipse is harsh even for Propertius, Perhaps δέ has been lost. Lachmann reads mansisti ut. ‘ How often,’ he says in ridicule, ‘after a dinner on oak-
20 placata dolore es,
leaves, were you shut up all alone to digest it! How often you experienced solitude and separation, and that too in a manner and under circumstances not the most agreeable. We might suggest at quotiens &e., ‘but when you had dined off rough oak-leaves, you had to stay concealed in your stall, and secluded from converse with your lover.’
13.] <Agrestem figuram, μορφὴν θηριώδη. ‘Have you become proud as a goddess for no other reason than that you did not always remain a cow?”
18—19.] He continues to banter the unfortunate Isis. ‘You seem, from your savage temper, likely to wear your cast-off horns again. Methinks it were better for. us to turn you out of our city at once.’ Barth observes, on the authority of Dio, that Agrippa, as prefect of the city, did in fact prohibit the worship of Isis at Rome in 733. This threat therefore has an his- torical import. Seva belongs rather to y. 18.
21.] Nostro placata dolore. candve nimiam operam sumsi, que nimis duram te prebuisti..—Barth. Lachmann reads inplacata with Heinsius.—Perhaps placanda. Noctibus his vacui, i.e. when the period of abstinence shall have been com- pleted.—iter is the ‘cursus amoris.’—ter seems to be added, as if the temporary suspension of endearments justified a more
‘Cui pla-
LIBER III. 25 (81).
133
Noctibus his vacui ter faciamus iter. Non audis, et verba sinis mea ludere, cum jam Flectant Icarii sidera tarda boves.
Lenta bibis; mediz nequeunt te frangere noctes.
25
An nondum est talos mittere lassa manus ? Ah pereat, quicumque meracas repperit uvas, Corrupitque bonas nectare primus aquas !
Icare, Cecropiis merito jugulate colonis,
Pampineus nosti quam sit amarus ddor.
30
Tuque o Eurytion vino Centaure peristi, Nec non Ismario tu, Polypheme, mero.
Vino forma perit, vino corrumpitur etas, Vino spe suum nescit amica virum.
Me miserum, ut multo nihil est mutata Lyzo!
Jam bibe; formosa es: nil tibi vina nocent, Cum tua prependent demisse in pocula serte,
frequent renewal. Scaliger’s portentous emendation, refaciamus, though a barbarous form, has found its way into Barth’s gener- ally judicious text.
23.] Before this verse Hertzberg, after a peculiar fashion of his own, places the marks of a lacuna, regarding the remainder of the elegy as an afterthought. There is perhaps more probability in Kuinoel’s view, that it is a scrap of an amorous ditty sung in a serenade, like i. 16. But neither of these suppositions is necessary. The poet, having proposed his visit, immediately pictures to himself the exclusion he has too much reason to expect. This sudden transition of thought and scene is common in Propertius, and is the key to the right understanding of many very abrupt pas- sages.—ludere, ludibrio fieri.
24. Icarii boves. Kuinoel wrongly joins Icarii sidera ; but Hertzberg is un- necessarily severe upon him, for both forms, Icarus and Icarius, were in use, and the poet seems to have adopted both indiffer- ently (see v. 29). Besides, Icarius may here be an adjective from Icarus. Apollod. iii. 14, 7, Δήμητρα μὲν Κελεὸς εἰς τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα ὑπεδέξατο, Διόνυσον δὲ Ἰκάριος, καὶ λαμβάνει παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ κλῆμα ἀμπέλου. Καὶ τὰ περὶ τὴν οἰνοποιΐαν μανθάνων, καὶ τὰς τοῦ θεοῦ δωρήσασθαι θέλων χάριτας ἀνθρώποις, ἀφικνεῖται πρός τινας ποιμένας, ot γευσάμενοι τοῦ ποτοῦ, καὶ χωρὶς ὕδατος δι ἡδονὴν ἀφειδῶς ἑλκύσαντες, πεφαρ- μάχθαι νομίζοντες, ἀπέκτειναν αὐτόν. He
was made a star in Bootes by Bacchus. Tibullus, iv. 1, 9, ‘cunctis Baccho jucun- dior hospes Icarus, ut puro testantur sidera celo.’ It appears to be another name for Arcturus or Bootes, Charles’ wain (i. ὁ. ‘churl’s waggon’), and the meaning is, ‘you keep me here offering a vain petition while the slow-moving stars of the pole are making their descent towards the morn- ing.’
25.] Frangere, fatigare.
27.]- Merum, vinum meracum, ἄκρατον, was only used by drunkards.. There is a sort of confusion in expressing two distinct ideas: ‘Perish he who introduced neat wine, and even he who used it in the less objectionable mixture with water.’ It is not quite clear whether corrwmpere is simply for miscere (cf. Georg. ii. 466), or in the literal sense of spoiling good water: the epithet rather suggests the latter.
31.] Eurytion. He was killed in the fight of the Centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous: see li. 6. 17.—IJsmario mero. Hom. Od. ix. 198.
35.] Nihil es mutata Barth, against the best copies. The ed. Rheg. has es, the other copies est.
36.] Jam bibe. πίνοις ἄν ἤδη, ‘ Well, go on drinking, Wine has no ill effect on you: you look the handsomer for it when,’ Ke.
37.] The Naples MS. gives serte, the others serta. And the former reading is quoted by Charisius, a grammarian who
184
PROPERTII
Et mea deducta carmina voce legis. Largius effuso madeat tibi mensa Falerno,
Spumet et aurato mollius in calice!
40
Nulla tamen lecto recipit se sola libenter ; Est quiddam, quod vos querere cogat Amor. Semper in absentis felicior estus amantes: Elevat assiduos copia longa viros.
XXXVI:
Cur quisquam faciem dominze jam credit amori ? Sic erepta mihi pzne puella mea est.
lived circa A.D. 400. ‘ Propertius feminine extulit: Cum tua praependent demisse in pocula serte.’ The same MS. also has prependent, while the others give per- pendent or propendent. ‘This is a testimony of some value to the integrity of the oldest MS. extant of Propertius. See note on 11]. 6, 29.
38.] Deducta voce. As these verses are evidently intended to express a half-in- toxicated condition, the meaning of the words must be determined by the circum- stances of the case. Hertzberg explains, ‘voce molliter in muliebrem modum fracta et cum plasmate cantui simili flexa,’ quot- ing vocem deducere and vox deducta trom fragments of Lucilius and other writers, where the sense seems to be, ‘submissa,’ ‘gentle, ‘winning.’ Others understand, ‘a drawling tone of voice,’ deriving the metaphor from spinning. This certainly seems to suit the context. See iii. 11, 21. There is something very graphic, as Kui- noel remarks, and almost picturesque, in the description of Cynthia sitting at a banquet and reading to others the verses of him whom she has slighted, and looking the more lovely from the drooping garlands and the flush of the wine.
39.] ‘Let the wine flow more freely, that you may drown the thoughts of me which will arise amidst your forced gaiety.’ This is said with something of spiteful vexation.—‘ Yet the time will come when you will regret a lover’s absence. Pos- session cloys, absence enhances desire.’ Sola refers to v. 2. Barth explains aJ- sentes of some rival, as opposed to assiduos, implying the attentions of the poet. But the sense seems rather to be, ‘You will miss me when you find your loss.’—felicior @stus, ‘warmer passion,’ or ‘more fayour-
able disposition towards,’ &c.—elevat, parvi facit.
41.] ecto, for ad lectum, is remarkable. Perhaps reficit se.
XXVI. This elegy, which in the MSS. is continuous with the preceding, is ad- dressed to Lynceus, a friend and fellow- poet, who seems to have so far abused the confidence of Propertius as to have at- tempted to ingratiate himself with Cynthia at a banquet (v. 22). Of Lynceus as a poet nothing is recorded. He appears (from vy. 39-41) to have composed a tragedy on the model of the Seven against Thebes. The first part of the present poem (1—26) is devoted to an expostulation and reproof; the middle portion (27—46) conveys ad- vice, that since he (Lynceus) has at length succumbed to love, he should change the style of his writings and the course of his studies for others more congenial to his circumstances; and the conclusion contains a fine eulogy on Virgil, and an exhortation to tread in the steps of other poets who have sung the praises of their mistresses. | Hertzberg (Quest. p. 95) remarks on the general composition, ‘Si quis singulas iterum hujus elegize partes excutere et ad suum quamque locum referre tentaverit, tantam dispositionis varietatem agnoscet, quantam in nullo alio carmine.’ It may be added, few elegies exhibit greater critical difficulties than the present.
1.1 Credit. The Naples MS. has eredat, and so Lachmann and Kuinoel. It is by no means clear that they are wrong. The usual construction of guisguam interroga- tively is with the indicative, as iii. 14, 3, ‘Ingenuus quisquam alterius dat munera servo?’ Martial, Zp. i. 56, 5, ‘Quisquam picta colit Spartani frigora saxi® and the
LIBER III. 26 (34).
Expertus dico, nemo est in amore fidelis: Formosam raro non sibi quisque petit.
Polluit 1116 deus cognatos, solvit amicos, 5
Et bene concordes tristia ad arma vocat. Hospes in hospitium Menelai venit adulter:
Colchis et ignotum nonne secuta virum est ? Lynceu, tune meam potuisti, perfide, curam
Tangere? nonne tuze tum cecidere manus ?
10
Quid, si non constans illa et tam certa fuisset ? Posses in tanto vivere flagitio ?
Tu mihi vel ferro pectus, vel perde veneno: A domina tantum te modo tolle mea.
Te socium vite, te corporis esse licebit, 15
Te dominum admitto rebus, amice, meis: Lecto te solum, lecto te deprecor uno; Rivalem possum non ego ferre Jovem.
reason is, that when we say ‘quisquam hoc facit?? we mean, ‘nemo hoc facit.’ But the addition of cw makes some differ- ence in this case: nor is the passage which Hertzberg quotes from Hor. Saé. ii. 2, 103, ‘Cur eget indignus quisquam te divite?’ really parallel to the present. For in that verse a fact is stated, and the reason of it is asked. We may, however, understand cur quisquam credit? in this sense: ‘On what principle of reason do men continue to entrust, as we daily see them doing, beauty to the tender mercies of Love” Amor is here represented as a treacherous custos, who is sure to betray his charge. The MS. Gron. has amari. Jacob edits amico from Pucci. This, though adopted also by Weise, Miiller, and Keil, reads rather like a correction; though, on the other hand, {16 deus (in 5) may have caused amico to be corrupted into Amori.—sie, 1.6. sic temere credendo. The poet seems to have allowed Cynthia to be escorted to a banquet by his sober old friend, as he thought him; but wine and beauty fairly overcame the veteran.
8.1 In amore, i.e. sibi commisso.
δ. Polluit cognatos, ‘sets at defiance natural laws of relationship.’ isch. Suppl. 221, ἐχθρῶν ὁμαίμων καὶ μιαινόντων γένος. Inf. v. 9, 8, ‘furto polluit ille Jovem.’ Hor. Od. iii. 6,18, ‘inquinavere et genus et domos.’
7.] ‘Paris, to whom as a stranger
Menelaus entrusted the honour of his wife, proved himself a false guest.’ Asch. Agam. 388, οἷος καὶ Πάρις, ἐλθὼν ἐς δόμον τὸν ᾿Ατρειδᾶν, ἤσχυνε ξενίαν τράπεζαν κλοπαῖσι yuvaikds.—ignotum virum, τ, ὁ. hospitem, peregrinum. ‘A gallant gay came as a guest to be entertained by Menelaus; and did not Medea in hke manner go off with a stranger? For hospes Miiller reads Tros et.
9.] Perfide, curam tangere? Others, as Barth and Keil, read tangere—perfide, but against the best copies.—meam curam, ‘the object of my care,’ ἐμὸν méeAnua.—cecidere manus, asin Virg. Ain. vi. 33, ‘bis patrie cecidere manus,’ sc. defecere, victz sunt.
12.] Posses, ‘could you have consented to live (or gone on living) under the con- sciousness of so great a crime,’ viz. of having succeeded in the seduction.
13.] Perde &e. ‘Vel fodi pectus ferro, vel perde (vitam) veneno.’
14.] Modo following tantum seems a tautology; ‘all I ask is, that you do but take yourself off from my mistress.’ Miiller proposes fe tibi tolle.
15.] ‘Corporis socius est is, qui con- tinuus comes lateri adheret.’—Avwinoel. dominum admitto, in reference to the pro- verb κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων.
17.1 Solum—uno. You are the only man | would refuse, and the only thing I would refuse you is my Cynthia.
190
PROPERTII
Tpse meas solus, quod nil est, emulor umbras,
Stultus, quod stulto seepe timore tremo.
20
Una tamen causa est, qua crimina tanta remitto, Errabant multo quod tua verba mero.
Sed numquam vite fallet me ruga severe: Omnes jam norunt, quam sit amare bonum.
Lynceus ipse meus seros insanit amores.
25
Solum te nostros letor adire deos.
Quid tua Socraticis tibi nune sapientia libris Proderit, aut rerum dicere posse vias ?
Aut quid +Erechthei tibi prosunt carmina lecta ?
Nil juvat in magno vester amore senex.
30
Tu satius -memorem Musis imitere Philetam, Et non inflati somnia Callimachi.
19.] ‘I am jealous even of my own un- substantial shadow; much more so of a friend who, though no longer young, is still flesh and blood.’ This use of @mulor with an accusative is worth attention.— solus, 1.6. when none else is near to be jealous of,
24.] Jam norunt, a satire, perhaps, on the results of philosophy, when philosophers themselves set the example of going astray.
25.] Seros. This word shows that Lyn- ceus was advanced in life.—xostros deos, Venus and Cupid. ‘My only consolation and hope of revenge is, that you are be- come a votary of my deities,’ ὦ. 6. a lover at last, like myself.
27—8.] This distich explains 51—44. Lynceus was not only a poet, but a student of both moral and natural philosophy.
29.| Erechthet. This is the emendation of Hertzberg, who does not seem to have been aware that Heinsius had anticipated him. The Naples MS. gives Erechtz, the MS. Gron. Hrethei, with vatis for lecta ; the ed. Rheg. crete, and later copies cretat or Eretheit. Pucci reads erite’, but con- jectures Tirted (Tyrtei), Lachmann, with Scaliger, edits Luereti, Jacob and Kuinoel Cretei, supposing the word to mean Epi- menides of Crete. Both these are very improbable. rechtheus is taken to mean Atheniensis, that is, Aischylus. ‘The ob- jection to this is, that dschyleo cothurno oceurs inf. 41, Miiller reads eye Chii, on his own conjecture, ‘the epics of the Chian bard,’ Homer. Vester seneax in the next verse is not inappropriately applied to the same poet; and Hertzberg well refers to
Arist. Ran. 1053 as a witness to his avowed indifference to the emotions of love. Vester however should rather apply to the philo- sophers generally.
31.] There is much reason to fear that this verse is corrupt. The copies give either memorem Musis or Musis memorem. Hertzberg adopts Scaliger’s correction, Musis meliorem, but proposes a better him- self, ‘Tu socius Musis Mimnermi imitere Philetam.’ Whether sativs can be used adverbially for potius, does not seem certain: the dictionaries however attribute the usage to Cicero. Hertzberg and Miiller evade the difficulty by explaining it satius est te imitari, i.e. satius est ut imitere. Cf. iii. 3,19. Perhaps the suggestion of Pucci is worth some attention, that »memorem is used passively for evram Musarum. Something similar is dociles usus, v. 2, 63. Philetas may have spoken of himself as Μώσαις μεμναμένον, or used some similar expres- sion constructed with the dative. Miiller gives dusus for Musis, on the ingenious correction of Eldik. Keil, 7 ZLatiis Me- ropem Musis &c., which has but slight pro- bability.
32.] Non inflati. The epithet is perhaps intended as a defence of his favourite poet against the common and not altogether un- just charge of being inclined to bombast. Compare 11. 1, 40, ‘ Intonet angusto pectore Callimachus,’ which expresses precisely the same idea. The lost epic, Atria, is called somnia, ‘quia Callimachus finxerat, som- niasse aliquando se intervenisse Musis, quas postea literis mandavit.’—Barth.
LIBER III. 26 (34).
137
Nam cursus licet Atoli referas Acheloi, Fluxerit ut magno fractus amore liquor,
Atque etiam ut Phrygio fallax Mzandria campo
Errat et ipsa suas decipit unda vias, Qualis et Adrasti fuerit vocalis Arion
Tristis ad Archemori funera victor equus; Amphiaraéze non prosunt fata quadrige,
Aut Capanei magno grata ruina Jovi.
40
Desine et Aischyleo componere verba cothurno, Desine, et ad molles membra resolve choros. Incipe jam angusto versus includere torno,
33.] Cursus. The Naples MS. with some inferior copies give rursus, but the reading is not deserving of much consider- ation. Barth has non rursus licet, Kuinoel non cursus &c., non being from Scaliger. But none of them understood the poet’s meaning. ‘You may, if you please,’ (he says) ‘imitate Callimachus, and take up the same mythical narratives which he treated of in his Atria (viz. 33—8), but your present tragedy of the Seven against Thebes will not tend to alleviate your dis- tress’ (v. 39).
34.] Fluzerit. So all the MSS. He alludes to the defeat of the river by Hercules (μνηστὴρ yap ἣν μοι ποταμὸς, "AxeAgov λέγω, Trach. 9), and to the con- sequent reduction of speed in the van- quished current. Some, as Barth and Weise, read luxerit.
35.] Uterrat. On the construction see i.2,9. The river Meander is mentioned, as Hertzberg plausibly suggests, in con- nexion with Hercules’ enslavement to Om- phale, Ovid, Her. ix. 55.—decipit suas vias, an elegant expression applied to a winding stream which continually thwarts its own progress by returning back upon itself.
37.] The order of the words is, ‘ Et qualis tristis victor ad Archemori funera fuerit Arion, vocalis ille equus Adrasti.’ As a victor is usually /etus, ovans, so here Arion was f¢ristis, because the games at which he conquered were instituted in memory of Archemorus, son of Lycurgus, king of Nemea. Lachmann and Weise, with Barth, read ¢ristia. This horse is said to have carried Adrastus safe out of the battle-field (Apollodor. iii. 6, 8. See also 7b. § 4), and to have been gifted with human voice and more than human fore- sight. He is called ‘prasagus Arion’ by Statius, Zheb. vi. 424, &c. where a long ac-
count of his conduct in a race is given.
39.] This verse has suffered from the clumsy attempts of metrical transcribers. The MSS. prefix xon to Amphiaraee, which is variously written. The copyists evi- dently supposed its scansion was the same as Amphioniz, 1. 9,10. Barth and Kuinoel give A. nil prosunt, &c. Jacob A. haud prosunt tibi, and Hertzberg A. haud prosunt fata, leaving the hiatus to take care of itself. In the pentameter the MS. Gron. omits magno, which error has given rise to some extravagant conjectures, among which that of Lachmann must be enumerated. He edits the distich thus :—
‘Non magna Amphiaraé2 prosunt tibi fata Quadrige, aut Capanei grata ruina Jovi.’ Miiller gives a verse hardly less inhar- monious, ‘non prosint tibi quadrige fata Amphiaree.’ Keil, ‘non magna Amphi- are tibi fata quadrige prosint, aut’ &e. In all probability, the verse requires no other alteration than to restore non to its
place after Amphiaraee.
41.] Aschyleo. The quantity of this word is to be remarked. The Naples MS. has aechileo, whence Scaliger conjectured desine Achilleo, and so it is printed in Barth’s edition. — resolve, ‘unbend your limbs, ὃ, 6. your stiff attitude, to take part in the pliant dance.’
43.] -Angusto torno, ‘a limited theme,’ z.e. one of love, and not of heroic deeds, which present so wide and varied a field. ‘Quod angustiori elegiace poesis spiritui accommodatus est.’— Hertzberg. Similarly, but more literally, Barth; ‘elegos scribere, ubi singulis distichis sententia includitur.’ —tornus is an instrument for bringing ob- jects to a true circular outline, by which they are said ixcludi. Miiller reads incudere, which introduces a different metaphor.
138
PROPERTII
Inque tuos ignes, dure poeta, veni.
Tu non Antimacho, non tutior ibis Homero:
Despicit et magnos recta puella deos. Sed non ante gravi taurus succumbit aratro, Cornua quam validis heeserit in laqueis; Nec tu tam duros per te patieris amores;
Trux tamen a nobis ante domandus eris.
Harum nulla solet rationem querere mundi, Nee cur fraternis Luna laboret equis,
Nee si post Stygias aliquid restabimus undas, Nec si consulto fulmina missa tonent.
Aspice me, cui parva domi fortuna relicta est,
Nullus et antiquo Marte triumphus avi, Ut regnem mixtas inter conviva puellas
44.] Durus poeta is opposed to mollis (v. 42) as epic or tragic is contrasted with elegiac verse. Compare ii. 1, 2, and 41; and note oni. 9, 13, inf. iv. 1, 19—20.
45.] Antimachus of Colophon was a celebrated epic poet, who is said to have edited a Homer, and to have written a Thebaid and also an elegy on the death of one Lyde, his mistress. Ovid, Trist. i, 6, 1, ‘Nec tantum Clario Lyde dilecta poete.’ He was contemporary with Aristophanes. Hertzberg rightly gives the sense, which some editors have greatly misunderstood : ‘Tu, quamvis magnus poeta, eadem que maximi ante te passi sunt ne spera evita- turum esse. Nam Homerum et Antima- chum, utrumque amoris vinculis irretitum fuisse, Hermesianax auctor est.’ The ar- gument is, ‘Think not to conquer your love by pursuing epic and heroic themes, on the vain notion that epic-poets are superior to love.’
46.] Recta puella, t.e. puella recte figure. Cf. iii. 9,25, ‘Recta puella est ita comparata, ut recte et vere eo nomine digna sit,—wne fille comme tl faut.’ —Herts. ‘deos, nedum poetas heroicos et philosophos, qualis tu es.’—Kwinoel : who wrongly ex- plains recta by superba.—despicit is κατα- φρονεῖ, facile vincit.
47.] ‘But, as the sturdy bull is not brought to the yoke without being first caught and thrown by the lasso, so you, inexperienced and restive in love, must take a preparatory lesson from me,’ (55). Kuinoel has arte, which is not improbable, in y. 50.
49.] Per te, sponte tua, sine alterius
disciplina.—trux tamen, t.e. quamyis modo captus ferocias, tamen jugum per me tibi imponendum erit.
51—4.] The meaning is, ‘you must not expect to captivate your mistress by your philosophy.’ But it is not quite clear to what iarum refers. If, as most com- mentators think, the mistresses of the above- mentioned poets are meant, solet for solebat is awkwardly used. Miller transposes 51—4 to follow 46, apparently acquiescing in this view. Probably he means harwm, inter quas ego regno, VY. 57, and he points to his own success as an elegiac poet, and how fe is toasted by the fair, though with- out wealth, or philosophic wit, by way of exhorting Lynceus to follow his example. Compare with the present passage iv. 5, 25—46, and especially Tibullus, ii. 4, 17— 20.
53.] This verse also is corrupt in the MSS., which vary between restaverit undas and restabit erumnas. In the Naples MS, the verse stops short with restabit. Hertz- berg has admitted Jacob’s conjecture, aliquis sedet arbiter undas, comparing iy. 19, 27, ‘ Minos sedet arbiter Orci.’ Miiller, following Haupt, reads aliquid restabimus, z.é. si aliquid de nobis post mortem resta- bit” Prof. Munro ingeniously conjectures ‘aliquis re est arbiter,’ 7. 6. ὄντως, ‘if there really is a judge of the nether world.’ Lachmann and Barth give aliquid restabit ad undas, in which case post must be taken for posthac.
54.] Consulto. Opposed to fortuito.
55.] See note on y. 1, 127, and iii, 16, 21.
LIBER III. 26 (34).
139
Hoc ego, quo tibi nune elevor, ingenio. Me juvet hesternis positum languere corollis,
uem tetigit jactu certus ad ossa Deus: git J
60
Actia Vergilium custodis litora Pheebi, Cesaris et fortes dicere posse rates:
Qui nunc Anezx Trojani suscitat arma, Jactaque Lavinis meenia litoribus.
Cedite Romani scriptores, cedite Graii:
65
Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade. Tu canis umbrosi subter pineta Galesi Thyrsin, et attritis Daphnin arundinibus, Utque decem possint corrumpere mala puellas,
Missus et impressis hedus ab uberibus.
70
Felix, qui viles pomis mercaris amores! Huic licet ingratee Tityrus ipse canat. Felix, intactum Corydon qui tentat Alexin
58.] go is emphatic, ‘how 7 hold rule’ &c. Barth and Weise read hoc, ego quo &e.
59—64.] ‘Be it mine to spend whole nights at the banquet, and to lie at my ease crowned with the flowers of yester- day’s feast; let others, if they prefer it, write epic poems in praise of Cesar.’
61.] Virgilio MS. Naples and ed. Rheg., and so Jacob, who understands fas est.
63.] Troajanaque Jacob with the MS. Gron. The rest have Zrojani. From the words nune suscitat it is clear that Virgil was known to be engaged on the composi- tion of the Aneid, which is generally be- lieved to have been commenced 8.0. 27. The date of this elegy is B.c. 26.
65—6.] These often-quoted lines refer to the expectation which was generally entertained of the surpassing merits of the forthcoming ΖΕ ποῖα. It is very probable that some parts of it had already been heard at public recitations.
67.] With this verse commences a difficult yet very interesting and beautiful part of the poem. ‘There is some truth in Lachmann’s complaint that the sense is in- coherent. Zw is, of course, addressed to Virgil, not to Lynceus, and he appears to mean, ‘ Not that Virgil confines himself to epic poetry, since he has written not only distinctively amorous poems in the Bucolics, but also others (the Georgics) which occupy a kind of middle place between the two, and are adapted for all tastes’ (v. 81—2).
Thus ἕω canis will mean ‘ etiam tu, Virgili, non solum Philetas et Callimachus.’ The inference therefore is, that Lynceus might attempt more than one style with the like success.—Galesus was a river near Ta- rentum, called by Horace ‘dulce pellitis ovibus flumen,’ Od. ii. 6, 10, where Virgil was then residing. See Georgie iv. 126. The particular allusions in the following lines are to Eelog. γ. and vii., iii. 70, and perhaps ii. 84.
69.] Puellas. The ‘aurea mala decem,’ Eel. iii. 70, were in fact sent by Menalcas to his favourite boy. Compare Lucret. y. 965, ‘vel pretium (amoris) glandes atque arbuta vel pira lecta.’ Lachmann reads puellam. But by using the plural our poet means to apply a particular gift to the influence of presents generally. In v- 71, feliz &c. is addressed to Menalcas, and so returns, as it were, to the point.
70.] Impressis, non pressis, νημέλκτοις. Compare ‘mmorso, i.e. non morso, iv. 8, 21.
72.] Huic. Galatea, the mistress of Tityrus, Hel. i. 32. The sense is, ‘happy those who by a few apples or a tune on the pipe can soften the anger of their favourites.’—licet canat is for canere posstt, ef. 33; and ipse implies that he does it in person, while others, who are exclusi, can only send verses &e. Cf.i. 12,15. Lach- mann reads huic, licet ingrate, Tityrus ipse canam.
140
PROPERTII
Agricole domini carpere delicias!
Quamvis ille sua lassus requiescat avena,
75
Laudatur facilis inter Hamadryadas. Tu canis Ascreei veteris preecepta poete, Quo seges in campo, quo viret uva jugo. Tale facis carmen, docta testudine quale
Cynthius impositis temperat articulis.
80
Non tamen hee ulli venient ingrata legenti, Sive in amore rudis, sive peritus erit.
Nec minor his animis, aut si minor, ore canorus Anseris indocto carmine cessit olor.
Hee quoque perfecto ludebat Iasone Varro,
85
Varro Leucadiz maxima flamma sue. Hee quoque lascivi cantarunt scripta Catulli, Lesbia quis ipsa notior est Helena. Hee etiam docti confessa est pagina Calvi,
74.] Delicias domini is borrowed from Ecl. ii. 2.—carpere Alexin, as carpere fruc- tum &e.
75.] lle, Another sudden transition. ‘Though Virgil should throw aside the bucolic reed, he gains equal reputation by singing of forest trees,’ 1.6. by the Georgics. He pleases’ the compliant wood-nymphs, and therefore knows how to win woman’s favour. The following distich is added to make the allusion to the Georgics more definite and intelligible.—tw, ¢.e. Ὁ Virgili.
81.] See on v. 67.
83.] By a witty application of the name of a bad poet, Anser, to the lines of Virgil, Eel. ix. 35, ‘Nam neque adhuc Vario videor, nec dicere Cinna Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores,’ Propertius pays his friend an elegant compliment. A goose as opposed to a swan (the bird of song: see on Alsch. Agam. 1419), is as a bad poet compared with a good one: hence olor, Virgil, is said not to be silenced by the unskilful verse of Anser. The passage is obscure, and Miller, who marks it with an obelus, says ‘hee nondum cuiquam ex- pedire contigit.”. The sense is thus given by Hertzberg after Weichert, though the latter reads animus, nec δὲ minor. ‘Nec minor est his, ¢.e. Eclogis et Georgicis, Virgilii spiritus, aut si minor est, non tamen hic olor ore canorus cessit indocto carmini Anseris, 7. ὁ. non tamen ab Ansere, indocto carminis auctore, superatus est.’ Hertzberg adds, ‘Ai animi animi erunt,
qui his carminibus apparent.’ Barth and Kuinoel read se minor. The best copies give sim minor. The Naples MS. omits minor ore eanorus. Lachmann has trans- posed this distich to follow v. 66. The reservation implied in aut si minor is well explained in the brief words of Hertzberg: “ut concessa majore carminis heroici laude, tamen his etiam Virgilii lusibus aliquam laureolam relinqui dicatur.—The poet An- ser is mentioned by Ovid, Trist. ii. 435, ‘Cinna quoque his comes est, Cinnaque procacior Anser, Et leve Cornifici, parque Catonis opus,’ where procacior shows, as do the other passages where the unfortunate name occurs, that his contemporaries de- lighted to banter the luckless owner of it. —On carmine see iv. 6, 24.
85.] Hee quoque, i.e. the subject of love.— Varro, called Atacinus from having been born near the river Atax in Gallia Narbonensis, 8.c. 82, translated the Argo- nautics of Apollonius. Ovid appears to allude to him, Zvist. ii. 439, ‘Is quoque, Phasiacas Argo qui duxit in undas, Non potuit Veneris furta tacere sue.’ Hor. Sat. i. 10, 46, ‘experto frustra Varrone Atacino.” Hence perfecto Iasone means, ‘carmine de Iasone absoluto.’ Perhaps indeed the poem was entitled Jason.
89.] Confessa est, ‘the same confession of devoted attachment is found in the writings of Calvus, when he sang the fate of his poor dear Quintilia.’ He was a friend of Catullus: see on iii. 17, 4.
LIBER III.
Cum caneret misere funera Quintiliz.,
26 (84). 141
90
Et modo formosa quam multa Lycoride Gallus Mortuus inferna vulnera lavit aqua!
Cynthia quin etiam versu laudata Properti, Hos inter si me ponere Fama volet.
91.] Modo. Cornelius Gallus the poet (a different person from the Gallus of i. 21, &c.) killed himself in the year 728. ‘He not only wrote,’ says the poet, ‘but he even died for love.’ He had been ap- pointed by Augustus to the prefecture of Egypt, but fell under suspicion of mal- administration and treason. ‘This is the Gallus who has furnished the subject of Becker’s celebrated narrative of that name. Ovid, Amor. iii. 9, 64, ‘Sanguinis atque anime prodige, Galle, tue.’ Elsewhere these poets are mentioned together, as Art. Am, ii. 333—5; Amor. i. 15, 21—30,—
formosa Lycoride may be called a Proper- tian ablative absolute, ‘cum ei esset for- mosa Lycoris.’ Lachmann is certainly wrong in construing mortuus Lycoride. There is some probability in Wakker’s conjecture, gui multa Lycoride passus, since the poet may well have suppressed the name in consideration of his melan- choly end. In vudnera (i.e. amoris) there is no allusion to that event.
93.] Cynthia. Kither nota erit must be supplied from y. 88, or daudata erit was intended. Either ellipse is sufficiently harsh.
ΡΠ ΟΡΕΈΕΙΡΨΕ
LIBER QUARTUS.
I
ALLIMACHI Manes et Coi sacra Philete, In vestrum, queso, me sinite ire nemus. Primus ego ingredior puro de fonte sacerdos Itala per Graios orgia ferre choros. Dicite, quo pariter carmen tenuastis in antro? 5 Quove pede ingressi? quamve bibistis aquam ?
This book comprises elegies written A.u.c. 731—2. The historical proofs will be noticed as they occur. The subject of the present elegy is one which the poet re- peatedly treats of, and shortly below, El. 8, viz. his reasons for adhering to elegiac composition, and declining to attempt heroic strains: from the former alone he looks for an immortality of fame.
1.7 Sacra. He represents himself as a priest, and consistently with the metaphor addresses the sacred rites and sacred grove of Philetas of Cos, asking to be allowed admittance thereto. Compare συ. 6, 1, ‘Sacra facit vates; sint ora fayentia sa- cris.’ Hor. Od. ii. 1, 3, ‘carmina non prius audita Musarum sacerdos Virginibus puerisque canto.’ There really is nothing in the expression to require the pages of notes which the commentators have de- voted to its explanation. Instead of say- ing, “Ὁ Philetas, admit me to your sacred rites,’ he changes the ordinary expression to, ‘Ye sacred rites of Philetas, admit me to your grove,’ ἢ. 6. to the grove in which you are celebrated. Some have attempted to explain sacra by Manes—a mere tau- tology. By invoking the ‘Spirit of Calli- machus’ he shows that the rites meant are those offered to the dead.
3.] Ingredior. He uses this word in reference to nemus. The infinitive in the next verse may be compared with tat videre, i. 1, 12, ‘I am the first who haye
entered that grove for the purpose of intro- ducing Roman poetry, from a source not yet made turbid by the crowd of ordi- nary poets, to take its place among Greek compositions.’ In orgia and choros the metaphor is continued from saera, y. 1. Fer is not unfrequently used for inter, as i. 21,7; iv. 14,5; v.4, 20. Hertzberg thinks [tala per must be joined; but the ambiguity of this is too great to be attri- buted to Propertius, even though he does occasionally misplace his words in a very awkward manner, as remarked on iii. 17, 35. Similarly inf. El. 4, 18, ‘subter captos arma sedere duces,’ for subter arma. Primus is evidently used with a consciousness that he can rightly claim that honour. The fact is that Catullus and Tibullus, who preceded Propertius, cannot compete with him in this respect. Catullus wrote but few elegiacs, and those of Tibullus are not derived from any acquaintance with the pedantic Alexandrine learning of the Au- gustan age.
5.] Carmen tenuastis, ¢. e. carmen molle ac tenue fecistis. ‘To spin a jine verse,’ or rather, ‘to spin it fine,’ as opposed to the rough and bold sounds of the heroic foot, seems more naturally the poet’s idea than levigare, polire, which Hertzberg at- tributes to him from tenui pumice in v. 8.
6.] Quo pede ingressi. The usual ex- planation of this passage, dextro an levo, which is defended by Becker, Gallus, p. 97,
-Ἐ.-"
; 7 . δώ | ᾿ LA rye LE Ae
PROPERTII.
LIBER IV. 1. 143
Ah valeat, Phcebum quicumque moratur in armis! Exactus tenui pumice versus eat, Quo me Fama levat terra sublimis, et a me
Nata coronatis Musa triumphat equis,
10
Et mecum in curru parvi vectantur Amores, Scriptorumque meas turba secuta rotas. Quid frustra missis in me certatis habenis ?
Non datur ad Musas currere lata via.
Multi, Roma, tuas laudes annalibus addent,
Qui finem imperi Bactra futura canent : Sed, quod pace legas, opus hoe de monte Sororum Detulit intacta pagina nostra via. Mollia, Pegasides, date vestro serta poet: on
(English ed. 1849) is rejected by Hertzberg as ‘absurdum, ac ne Latinum quidem.’ Barth also prefers to understand, ‘ quam viam, quam rationem inieritis” Juvenal’s quid tam dextro pede concipis &e. (x. 5) is well known to allude to the popular super- stition of ‘ putting the best leg foremost,’ or entering a place with the right foot first. The objection, that this would have utro pede, is hypercritical in a poet like Propertius. It is not, however, a very appropriate question to put to successful and celebrated poets, ‘did you enter the grotto of the Muses with the right or the left foot first?’ for the former would be understood as a matter of course. The words may indeed mean, ‘quo pedibus in- gressi estis>’ The general idea is evidently this: ‘tell me where you sate, and from
what inspiring fount you drank, that I
may closely follow your example.’
7.1 Phebum moratur in armis, ‘employs his genius on heroic verse.’ The epithet tenui in the next verse applies virtually to versus, and gives the sense of mollis: see onii.1,41. The application of pumice to the external finishing of the parchment is borrowed to express the careful composition of the verses. Hence also eat, in allusion to publication.
9.7 Quo me levat. ‘Let that verse be elegiac by which fame is to raise me to the triumphal caf.’ — The indicatives which follow eat are rather irregular. He seems to have meant, ‘ille versus, qui me leva- turus est, et per quem Musa triumphat, eat,’ &e.
- 10.] Musa a me nata, ‘a style of poetry originating from me.’ Lachmann reads nota, an unfortunate change.
12.] Rotas. He continues the simile of a triumphal procession, in which he represents himself as the victor in the chariot, the Loves as his children borne with him (a custom which Hertzberg proves from Livy, xly. 40), and the inferior — poets following him. Sueton. Jib. § 6, ἡ ‘Dehine pubescens (Tiberius) Actiaco tri- umpho currum Augusti comitatus est sinis- teriore funali equo, quum Marcellus, Oc- taviee filius, dexteriore veheretur.’
13.] Certatis, i.e. O scriptorum turba. He suddenly changes the metaphor to the race-course. Lata via implies the attempt to pass his chariot. ‘The road to poetic fame is narrow; you cannot get before me without a collision.’
15.] ‘There will be no lack of poets to sing the military glories of Rome: I there- fore prefer to follow a new track, and to write for the amusement of my countrymen in times of peace.’ It is clear that tuas laudes, 7.e. bellicas virtutes, is opposed to pace, and multi to intacta via. " But this work, to be read in a time of peace, my Muse hath brought down from Helicon by a route as yet untrodden.’—Bactra futura, the expedition against the Parthians under- taken A.u.c. 734, B.c. 20, was contemplated even at this time: see inf. El, 4.
19.] The usual antithesis between mollia and dura, elegiac and epic, has already been pointed out, iii. 26, 44. So hirsuta corona, of the archaic language of Eunius, v. 1, 85. The more common idiom is Sacere ad, as Ovid, Her. xv. 8, ‘Non facit ad lacrimas barbitos ulla meas.’ But the dative closely represents the English use, ‘will not do for my head.’ Compare y. 1, 61.
144.
Non faciet capiti dura corona meo.
PROPERTII
20
At mihi quod vivo detraxerit invida turba, Post obitum duplici fenore reddit Honos. Omnia post obitum fingit majora vetustas: Majus ab exequiis nomen in ora venit. Nam quis equo pulsas abiegno nosceret arces, 25 Fluminaque Heemonio cominus isse ὙΠῸ, Idzeum Simoenta Jovis cunabula parvi, Hectora per campos ter maculasse rotas ? Deiphobumque Helenumque et Pulydamantas in armis ?
Qualemcumque Parin vix sua nosset humus.
30
Exiguo sermone fores nunc Ilion, et tu Troja, bis Citei numine capta dei.
Nee non ille tui casus memorator Homerus Posteritate suum crescere sensit opus ;
. Meque inter seros laudabit Roma nepotes:
21.] An ellipse must be mentally sup- plied. ‘(True it is, that detractors are never wanting when a poet attempts a new and unbeaten track ;) yet’ &e.
23.] The prospective use of vetustas is remarkable. It illustrates the well-known ἀρχαῖον γάνος, olim antiquum futurum, /Esch. Ag. 579. The sense is, ‘when poems become old, they are always more valued than when new.’
25.] ‘For, (if poetry did not survive to late posterity), who at the present day would have heard of Troy taken by the wooden horse, or the fight between the river Xanthus and Achilles ?’—pulsas arces,
, because some writers considered the δου-
patios ἵππος to have been used for batter- ing the walls, as indeed the Greek epithet not unnaturally implies; or rather, per- haps, it was contrived as a pent-house for concealing and covering the ram. See Pausan. i. 23.
27.] Jovis cunabula. There is a con fusion between the mount Ida of Crete, fabled as the birth-place of Jove, and the Ida of Troas. Lachmann in a long note, not very creditable to his critical judgment, condemns the whole verse. The legends of the Cretans and the Phrygians probably had the same eastern origin, and therefore were naturally mixed up together, as Hertzberg shows that in fact they fre- quently were. It is singular that the words cunabula parvi are omitted in the Naples MS. Probably the scribe could
35
not decipher them in his copy, and had in- tended to supply the omission afterwards. See on iii. 26, 83.
28.] Per. Lachmann, Barth, and Kui- noel, read tev, the conjecture of Fruter. But it is easy to supply tractum; ‘aut Hectora, ter tractum per campos, rotas currus maculasse.’
29.] The MSS. give Polydamantes (more or less correctly written) ix armis. Lach- mann and Jacob read Polydamanta, et in armis ἕο. Kuinoel and Barth P. sine armis. ‘There is no reason for altering the vulgate. The plural seems used to express the Trojan heroes generally, Jn armis is a common use for arma indutos. See v. 2,
28, ‘Corbis in imposito pondere messor’
eram,’—The form Pulydamas is to be pre- ferred, as representing the Greek Πουλυ- dduas. Persius, Sat. 1, 4, ‘Ne mihi Puly- damas et Troiades Labeonem preetulerint.’
30.] Vix, ae. nisi carmine celebratus esset. ;
32.] Bits capta. ‘Primum ab Hercule ipso, sub Laomedonte, qui ei equos pro- missos denegarat, deinde sub Priamo, ope sagittarum Herculis, que Philoctete ob- tigerant.’— Kwinoel.
34.] I have removed the full stop usually placed at the end of this verse. The sense appears to be, ‘both Homer gained greater renown after the lapse of time, and I shall in like manner be held in repute by future generations.’
LIBER IV. 2.
Illum post cineres auguror ipse diem. Ne mea contempto lapis indicet ossa sepulcro Provisum est, Lycio vota probante deo. Carminis interea nostri redeamus in orbem,
Gaudeat ut solito tacta puella sono.
{Π|:
Orphea detinuisse feras et concita dicunt Flumina Threicia sustinuisse lyra ;
Saxa Cithzeronis Thebas agitata per artem Sponte sua in muri membra coisse ferunt;
Quin etiam, Polypheme, fera Galatea sub Aitna 5 Ad tua rorantes carmina flexit equos.
Miremur, nobis et Baccho et Apolline dextro,
Turba puellarum si mea Quod non Teenariis domus
36.] Ilium diem, z.e. illam vitam. The MS. Gron. has esse, which might stand by a lax use for futurum esse.
38.] Provisum est, sc. a me, votis Apol- lini susceptis et ab eo probatis. He al- ludes, as Barth thinks, to his poems being admitted into the Palatine library.
39.] Orbem, ‘routine. ‘Ita redit, ut cum ab initio puellis amantibus potius placere quam magno heroum facta cele- brando famam querere se professus esset, postquam inde a vy. 21, alio digressa est oratio, puellam suam sono solito delecta, turum se promittat.’ Hertzberg, Quest. p. 85.—The Naples MS. gives ‘nsolito, whence Lachmann, with Burmann, reads in solito sono. But on gaudeat in puero, ii. 4, 28, which they adduce in defence of this reading, see the note. See also v. 8, 63.
II. He speaks of the influence of poetry over the female mind, and attributes his own success not to any wealth or splendour, but solely to his verses. This elegant little elegy is connected with the preceding by Lachmann, and even Jacob inclines to _ follow him, on the authority of Muretus. So also Keil and Miiller. The break in most of the MSS. is at νυ. 39, of the pre- ceding.
1,7 Detinwisse, ‘to
have arrested,’
145 40 verba colit 7 est mihi fulta columnis, ‘amused,’ ‘kept fixed to the spot.’ Kui-
noel has Orpheu, te lenisse feras &e. Lachmann, Orphea delinisse; Miiller, de- lenisse; others, Orpheu, te tenuisse. But the good copies agree in the reading in the text.—sustinuisse is, ‘tenuisse ne deorsum fluerent,’ ‘to have kept back.’ Ovid, Fast. v.660, ‘cursum sustinuistis, aque.’
3.] Per artem, t.e. non vi tracta, sed Amphionis lyra delenita. Compare ‘ Am- phionize meenia flere lyre,’ i. 9, 10.—agi- tata, coacta, ad Thebas conyecta; or φοι- τῶντα, perhaps, implying the frequent repetition of the act.
5.] See Theocr. Jd. vi. where however no mention is made of ocean steeds. Pro- bably therefore the poet has other Greek authorities in view, who made even the sea to have yielded up its denizens to hear the magic strains. These imaginary sea- monsters, half fish and half horse, are commonly represented in the train of ocean deities. Cf. Georg. iv. 388.
7.1 On the poetical connexion of Bac- chus with Apollo, see on συ. 6, 76, and ili. 22, 38.
9.] Quod non &e. ‘As for the fact that,’ &c. Perhaps (as δὲ non would be simpler in this sense,) we should read non quod, i.e. non me colunt quia &e. It is easy however to supply an ellipse, such as hoe quidem nihil est.
L
140
Nec camera auratas inter eburna trabes ;
PROPERTIIL
10
Nec mea Pheacas eequant pomaria silvas, Non operosa rigat Martius antra liquor:
At Musee comites, et carmina cara legeriti, Et defessa choris Calliopea meis.
Fortunata, meo si qua es celebrata libello!
15
Carmina erunt forme tot monumenta tue. Nam neque Pyramidum sumptus ad sidera ducti, Nec Jovis Elei celum imitata domus, Nec Mausolei dives fortuna sepulcri
Mortis ab extrema conditione vacant.
20
Aut illis flamma aut imber subducet honores, Annorum aut ictu pondera victa ruent;
At non ingenio quesitum nomen ab xvo Excidet: ingenio stat sine morte decus.
10.] Camera eburna. The sunken panels of white stucco forming rectangular com- partments between the gilded beams, other- wise called /acunaria. Kuinoel refers to Pliny, NV. H. xxxiii. 3, to prove that these were actually overlaid with ivory. See also Hor. Od. ii. 18, 1,‘ Non ebur neque aureum Mea renidet in domo lacunar,’ where however ebur does not necessarily apply to the ceiling. The Tenarian marble, according to Becker (Gallus, p. 16), was verde antico, or green porphyry.
11.] Nee mea pomaria &e. ‘And that I have no orchards to vie with the Phe- acian plantations.’ Hertzberg well re- marks, that mea does not imply that the poet really possessed any orchards at all.— The MSS. and early edd. have Pheacias. If Pheax silva be the nominative, the final syllable should be short. It appears there- fore to be from Pheacus.
12.] Operosa antra. ‘ Artficial grottos.’ * The water from the aqueduct built by Q. Martius Rex, who was pretor 8.0. 144, » some arches of which are still standing, was held in especial esteem for its clear- ness. It was supplied to private houses and gardens by leaden pipes, as we are perhaps justified in inferring from a curious passage in Oyid, Met. iy. 121. ‘To this
Strabo seems to allude, lib. y. cap. iii. τοσοῦτον δ᾽ ἐστὶ τὸ εἰσαγώγιμον ὕδωρ διὰ τῶν ὑδραγωγείων, ὥστε ποταμοὺς διὰ τῆς πόλεως καὶ τῶν ὑπονόμων ῥεῖν: ἅπασαν δὲ οἰκίαν σχεδὸν δεξαμενὰς καὶ σίφωνας καὶ κρουνοὺς ἔχειν ἀφθόνους. Cf. Hor. Epist, 1.10, 20; Martial, Hp. vi. 42, 18, and ix. 18, 6; Tac. Ann. xiv. 22.
13.] Cara. Jacob gives grata from the MS. Groning.
15.] Est Hertzberg and Lachmann with the Naples and Groning. MSS. The others give es from Pucci. Cynthia is obviously meant under the indefinite sz gua.
18.] Celum imitata, i.e. bespangled with stars.
19.] The tomb of Mausolus, king of Caria, erected by his surviving queen, Artemisia, at Halicarnassus, B.c. 353, was celebrated as one of the seven wonders of the world. Though partly recovered by modern research, under the care of Mr. Newton, its overthrow, by an earthquake or by human yiolence, verifies the poet’s prediction. .
23.] Ab evo. The preposition is added because excidet is equivalent to extinguetur, and @vum is regarded as the agent rather than the instrument. In the same way the Greeks say πάσχειν τι ὑπό Twos.
LIBER
IV. 8 (2). 147
{ΠῚ᾿
Visus eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbra, Bellerophontei qua fluit humor equi,
Reges, Alba, tuos et regum facta tuorum, Tantum operis, nervis hiscere posse meis;
Parvaque iam magnis admoram fontibus ora, 5 Unde pater sitiens Ennius ante bibit,
Et cecinit Curios fratres, et Horatia pila, Regiaque Aimilia vecta tropxa rate,
Victricesque moras Fabii, pugnamque sinistram
Cannensem et versos ad pia vota deos,
10
Hannibalemque Lares Romana sede fugantes,
III. The poet pleads the injunctions of Apollo and the Muses for continuing to write elegies, and for not essaying heroic verse. Frequently as this theme is re- peated, there is ever novelty and ingenuity in the treatment of it, which prevents sameness and monotony.
1.1 Visus eram, ἐδόκουν ἐμοὶ, ‘I had fancied myself able.’ As the infinitive posse, γ. 4, depends on this verb, the strict notion of videbar mihi in somniis seems scarcely applicable. We do not dream of a mere possibility, but of some action, though the action itself may be impossible. It may, indeed, be questioned if the title ordinarily prefixed to this elegy, ‘ Propertii somnium,’ is correct. There is no indica- tion throughout the poem that he intends to describe a dream. It is rather an alle- gory than a vision: while expatiating in the regions of poetry he had ventured to think himself capable of higher efforts, but received arebuke from Apollo. The editors seem to attribute too much weight to Hesiod’s narrative, that he became a poet while feeding his flocks on Helicon.
4.] Tantum operis, ‘great as was the task.’
5,] For the common reading tam I have ventured to read jam, on account of cum inf. 18, ‘Already I had essayed heroic subjects, when Phoebus rebuked me, and bade me turn to another kind of verse.’ He had already tried historical poems, those in the fifth book being among the earliest in date. See on y. 1, introductory note.
8.] Aimilia rate. By a singular ana- chronism, pointed out by Hertzberg, the commentators haye referred these words to
the return of Lucius milius Paullus, after the defeat of Perseus, king of Mace- donia, in 486, (B.c. 167), whereas Ennius died B.c. 169, or nearly two years before that event. The allusion is therefore to the defeat of Demetrius, governor of the island of Pharos, in the Adriatic, by Lucius JKmilius Paullus the consul, p.c.219. It may be remarked that we have here an authentic enumeration of some of the sub- jects on which Ennius wrote in his Roman Annals. But Keil and Miller read ceecni for cecinit,—The short form Curii for Curiatii, the three champions of Alba, is said to occur only in this passage. For a theory of the meaning of the names see Varroni- anus, p. 76. ‘The fight between the Horatii and Curiatii probably refers to a contest between the κούρητες, ‘men of the Curia, and wielders of the spear, or wear- ers of the helmet, and the χερνῆτες, or ‘handicraftsmen,’ ¢.¢. the lower order, in which contest, as usual, the latter succeeded in maintaining their just rights.’ We may notice too Horatia used for Horatiana. So Partha for Parthica, inf. 4, 6.
9.] Moras Fabit, τ, ὁ. the policy of Q. Fabius Maximus, who obtained the ag- nomen of Cunctator in his contest with Hannibal.
10.] Versos deos. He alludes to the: public supplications, by which it was be- lieved that the gods diverted Hannibal from attacking Rome after the battle of Canne.
11.] Lares. Hertzberg shows: from Varro that a Lar was called Tutanus from the supposed influence of his fraternity in keeping Hannibal away from the city.— anseris voce; the cackling of the geese in
-- ee a
148
PROPERTII
Anseris et tutum voce fuisse Jovem ;
Cum me Castalia speculans
ex arbore Phoebus
Sic ait aurata nixus ad antra lyra:
Quid tibi cum tali, demens,
est flumine? quis te 15
Carminis heroi tangere jussit opus ?
Non hine ulla tibi speranda est fama, Properti: Mollia sunt parvis prata terenda rotis,
Ut tuus in scamno jactetur seepe libellus,
Quem legat expectans sola puella virum.
20
Cur tua prescriptos evecta est pagina gyros ? Non est ingenii cymba gravanda tui. Alter remus aquas, alter tibi radat arenas ;
Tutus eris: medio maxima turba mari est.
Dixerat, et plectro sedem mihi monstrat eburno,
25
Qua nova muscoso semita facta solo est. Hic erat affixis viridis spelunca lapillis, Pendebantque cavis tympana pumicibus.
the Capitol, by which M. Manlius, consul B.c. 892, was aroused when it was at- tempted by the Gauls under Brennus.— Jovem, i.e. Jovis Capitolini templum.
13.] Castalia, The fountain, and per- haps grove, so called, were on Parnassus, not on Helicon. But Hertzberg rightly observes that the names of these sacred localities are indifferently used, as the narrative is only allegorical.—ea arbore, ex silva.—ad antra, prope ad, juxta. Apollo presented himself as watchmg my move- ments, sheltered by trees and leaning on his lute at the entrance of a sacred grot (γύαλον) concealed by bay-trees. And he pointed out a new retreat which the Muses were just adorning and furnishing for themselves and their votaries, inf. 33.
17.] Non hinc. Non ex eo loco quo nunc versaris. Hine is from the edition of Volscus. The MSS. give hie.
18—20.] ‘You must enter a smoother course, with less aspiring effort, and write ditties for the desultory reading of a forlorn mistress.’
21.] From the slight error (presuming it to be such) of the MSS. prescripto sevecta for prescriptos evecta, which would, as a matter of course, be the cause of changing gyros into gyro, Lachmann, Jacob, Hertz- berg, Keil, and Miiller have ventured to enrich the Latin language with the other-
wise unknown and improbable compound seveho. Lachmann’s objection is futile,
‘quis ita locutus est, eveht gyros, pro ex : The idiom is, in — fact, very common, as egredi flumen, evadere —
gyris, vel extra gyros?’
sylvas &e. So fines exire, iv. 5, 37.—
gt gir ΩΣ Eat
gyrus, like orbdis, iii. 1, 39, is the usual — 4
routine of composition. At the same time, allusion is made to the turnings of the race-course.
23. Alter remus &e. Hug the shore in your course, and do not venture far out to sea, where the waters are raging.
27.] Affxis lapillis. Hertzberg well observes that the poet had in view the artificial grottos (operosa antra, supr. 2, 12) common in the gardens of the wealthy Romans. It may be suggested, that the Romans called voleanic rocks in general by the terms pwmex and silex. In the cindery precipices of the Canary islands, I have seen hundreds of natural caves of this description; whereas pumice-stone, properly so called, only occurs in isolated pieces or stratified beds. It is clear that we must understand Horace’s ‘Que nune oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare Tyrrhe- num,’ Od. i. 11, 5, according to the above general explanation.—tympana, the Bac- chie instrument, τύπανον, the tambourine, was hanging on the walls of the cave, or from the vaulted roof.
LIBER IV. 8 (2).
149
Ergo Musarum et Sileni patris imago
Fictilis, et calami, Pan Tageee, tui;
30
Et Veneris dominz volucres, mea turba, columbe Tingunt Gorgoneo punica rostra lacu; Diverseeque novem sortite rura puelle Exercent teneras in sua dona manus.
Hee hederas legit in thyrsos, hee carmina nervis
35
Aptat, at illa manu texit utraque rosam.
E quarum numero me contigit una dearum,— Ut reor a facie, Calliopea fuit:
Contentus niveis semper vectabere cycnis,
Nec te fortis equi ducet ad arma sonus.
40
Nil tibi sit rauco preconia classica cornu Flare, nec Aonium cingere Marte nemus,
Aut quibus in campis Mariano prelia signo Stent et Teutonicas Roma refringat opes:
29.] He describes the grotto as sacred to Pan, Silenus, the Muses, and Venus; the instruments of one, the terra-cotta image of another, and the doves of the last, respectively indicating the joint possessors.—ergo is used in a rare sense: ‘conjeceram Musas tibi futuras: en vero ipsas’ Hertzberg; ‘and so in fact,’ ἡ. e. as might have been anticipated from the general appearance. Or perhaps for deinde, like agitur (Varronianus, p. 149). Lach- mann reads ergo hie Musarwm, and explains it of effigies or statues of the Muses made of terra-cotta. Miiller adopts the rather ingenious, but surely unnecessary, correc- tions of Heins and Unger, Orgia mustarum (mystarum, μυστῶν).
31.] Mea turba, t.e. mex delicie, mihi amate.—Gorgoneo lacu, Hippocrene; Pe- gasus having sprung from the Gorgon Medusa, whence he is called Meduseus equus by Ovid, Fast. v. 7. Allusion is probably made to a well-known classical design of doves drinking out of a basin. — tingunt, τέγγουσι, as elsewhere.—punica rostra, red or rose-coloured, Ovid, Am. ii. 6, 22. Huripides attributes to these birds φοινικοσκελεῖς χηλαὶ, Ton, v. 1207.
33.] Diverse, χωρὶς, each apart from the others.—rwra here represent the diffe- rent departments of poetry and fine art which the Muses cultivated; λειμῶνα Μουσῶν ἱερὸν, Arist. Ran. 1300.—in sua dona, to prepare the different gifts for
different classes of poets, e.g. the thyrsus for writers of dithyrambs, the crown of roses for elegiac authors.
38.] A facie, as if the name were from καλὴ and ὄψις.
39.1 ‘Recte cyenis vectum ideo fingi interpretes perspexerunt, quod ea avi Venus quoque in curribus utatur,’—Hertz.
41.] Nil tibi sit. ‘Let it not be your part.’ So the Greek occasionally use οὐδὲν and μηδὲν for οὐ and μὴ, Esch. Ag. 1462. But in the following distich it bears a slightly different sense, ‘Let it be nothing to you,’ ‘let it not concern you.’—preconia classica, ¢, 6. nayalium bellorum laudes.— classica is here used precisely as in ‘clas- sica bella,’ 11.1. 28. Barth has adopted pretoria from Beroaldus. For flare the MSS. give flere, which was first corrected by Dousa. Lachmann well refers to Martial, xiii. 3, ‘Quantaque Pieria prelia flare tuba;’ but he is scarcely justified in saying of this distich, ‘singula fere verba hic dubitationi obnoxia sunt.’ — cingere Marte nemus, ἃ. 6. ‘arma et bellum ipsum in poesin inferre, hujusque mollitiem stre- pitu dissono perdere.’— Hertzberg. ‘To beset with armed force the Grove of the Muses’ is a rather inflated way of saying ‘to disturb its peacefulness by singing of wars.’
43—4.] Marius’ defeat of the Cimbri and Teutones is alluded to, Β.0. 102—1.
150
Barbarus aut Suevo perfusus sanguine Rhenus
PROPERTIL
Saucia meerenti corpora vectet aqua. Quippe coronatos alienum ad limen amantes Nocturnzeque canes ebria signa fuge, Ut per te clausas sciat excantare puellas, Qui volet austeros arte ferire viros. 50 Talia Calliope, lymphisque a fonte petitis Ora Phileteea nostra rigavit aqua.
IV.
Arma Deus Cesar dites meditatur ad Indos, Et freta gemmiferi findere classe maris.
Magna, viri, merces: parat Tigris et Euphrates sub
45.1 Suevo. The good copies give sevo or scevo. The error was corrected in some of the early editions. The event described is the victory over Ariovistus, the German chieftain, by Julius Cvsar, 8.0. 58. See Bell. Gall.iv. 1. With vectet it seems that quo must be supplied, by a very harsh ellipse, from guibus, v. 49.
48.] Ebria signa fuge. Hertzberg understands ‘spolia ab ebrio amatore noc- turnis rixis de puellis recepta;’ Kuinoel and others explain it of the rout of the drunken serenaders by more sober rivals or by indignant husbands. Possibly this may have reference to the clever poem ‘ Disce quid Esquilias’ &e. in y. 8, then perhaps completed among other juvenile perfor- mances. Signa may be referred to the torches and flowers left behind them in their flight.
49.] Ezxcantare must be taken in its most literal sense, cantando excire, ‘to sing them out of their locked apartments.’— ferire seems to have been the word con- ventionally applied to the deceiving a husband. ‘Terence, Phorm. i. 1, 13. See νυ. 5, 44.
52.] Philetea aqua. The sense is, she herself handed me a draught from the same spring whence Philetas had derived his in- spiration.
IV. In this spirited elegy the poet pre- dicts success to the expedition contemplated by Augustus against the Parthians A.v.c. 732, but not carried into effect till 734.
1.] Ad Indos, i.e. usque ad. Kuinoel wrongly explains it adversus.—deus Cesar.
ultima terra triumphos ; tua jura fluent.
See v. 11, 60. Flattery could go no further. Horace pays him the same ex- travagant, and even to a pagan, almost blasphemous compliment, Zp. ii. 1, 16. Od. iii. 8, 11, as does Ovid frequently. Such a προληπτικὴ ἀποθέωσις shows how deeply Rome was sunk in servility. The blame perhaps lay rather with Julius Cesar, who permitted and encouraged such ex- travagant honours. Sueton. Jul. Cesar, § 76, ‘Ampliora etiam humano fastigio de- cerni sibi passus est,—templa, aras, simu- lacra juxta deos, pulvinar, flaminem, Lu- percos, appellationem mensis e suo nomine.’ Did he not borrow this from the Egyptian Ptolemies> ‘This appears in fact to be the origin of the Roman deification proper, as distinct from ‘hero-worship,’ which was more nearly connected with devil-worship.
2.1 Gemmiferi maris. The Indian ocean. See on i. 14, 12. Tuibullus, ii. 2, 15, ‘ Nec tibi gemmarum quicquid felicibus Indis Nascitur, Eoi qua maris unda rubet.’
3.] Viri. He addresses and encourages those who were to take part in the ex- pedition. Lachmann was the first to per- ceive that this was the vocative case. Others altered it to vie, supposing it the genitive.
4.] Sub tua jura fluent. Sub tuum imperium redigentur, O Auguste. The notion is, as expressed by the accusative, that the two rivers of the east shall unite their waters with the Tiber. See on iv. 9, 52. Nothing can be worse than the correction of Broukhuis, though adopted by Lachmann and Miiller, sub swa jura, t.e. ‘sub debitam ditionem.’
-»»-
LIBER IV. 4 (3
Sera, sed Ausoniis veniet provincia virgis; 5
151
Adsuescent Latio Partha tropxa Jovi. Ite, agite, experte bello date lintea proree
Et solitum armigeri ducite munus equi. Crassos clademque piate ; Ite et Romane consulite historiz.
Omina fausta cano:
10
Mars pater et sacre fatalia lumina Vestee, Ante meos obitus sit, precor, illa dies,
Qua videam,
spoliis onerato Cesaris axe,
Ad vulgi plausus sepe resistere equos;
Inque sinu care nixus spectare puellie
Incipiam, et titulis oppida capta legam,
δ.) The MSS. have Sera, sed Ausoniis &ce., and so Lachmann, Jacob, and Hertz- berg. Sera, sed veniet, as the Greeks would say ὀψὲ μὲν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως. Compare iv. 6, 32, ‘ Poena erit ante meos sera, sed ampla, pedes.’ Lachmann rightly explains it, ‘ultima terra sera fiet provincia, sed fiet tamen.’ Barth and Kuinoel admit the not improbable emendation of Heinsius, Serves et, i.e. Seres quoque. This is confirmed by the reading of a later copy, venient. The Seres (see on vy. 3, 8) are mentioned in con- junction with the Indians, Hor. Od. i. 12, 63. The nation so called by Virgil, Georg. li. 121, ‘Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres,’ are probably, as implied by the preceding verse, Aithiopians, and not Chinese. The name seems derived from ohp, ἃ silk-worm; but not only was cotton (as a raw material) confounded with silk, as may be inferred from the lines of Virgil just referred to, and from Pliny, WV. ἢ. vi. 17, 20, ‘Seres lanicio sylvarum nobiles, perfusam aqua depectentes frondium cani- tiem, unde geminus feminis nostris labor, reordiendi fila rursumque texendi,’ where the first words seem to refer to cotton, the last to unwinding the cocoons of silk,— but, from some perverse notion that the east side of Africa extended to China (Humboldt, Cosmos, ii. p. 192), the name Seres was applied to two totally distinct nations. Hence the evident perplexity of Pausanias, lib. vi. cap. 26, 4, οὗτοι μὲν δὴ τοῦ Αἰθιόπων γένους αὐτοί τε εἰσὶν οἱ Σῆρες, καὶ ὅσοι τὰς προσεχεῖς αὐτῇ νέ- μονται νήσους, ~“ABacay καὶ Σακαίαν: oi δὲ αὐτοὺς οὐκ Αἰθίοπας, Σκύθας δὲ ἀνα- μεμιγμένους ᾿Ινδοῖς φασὶν εἶναι. Aischylus also describes the Indians as bordering on (aorvye:tovoupévas) the Ethiopians, Suppl.
286.
though many commentators regard both it
7.1 Prore appears to be the nth
and egui in the next verse as vocatives The usual phrase is dare vela vento rather than xavi. The poet addresses in a general way all who were to take part in the ex- pedition. xperte bello, ‘tried in war,’
alludes to the nayal victory at Actium, in |
which, in like manner, the poet speaks of ‘signa, jam patriz vincere docta sux,’ v. 6, 24.—Manus equi is referred ‘with pro- bability by Hertzberg to the horses pro- vided at the public expense for the Equites: ‘omnes Propertius hic alloquitur, quibuscunque equum publicum in bellum ducere licebat.’ Some explain it of the horses attached to the triumphal car, as if the victory were already as good as gained ;
others of a richly caparisoned steed, sup- posed ( ) to have been brought for the use of the Imperator when about to undertake an expedition. Barth takes munus for spolia.
9.1 Crassos clademque. The defeat of the Crassi, father and son, B.c. 53.
11.] ‘Vesta, goddess of the sacred fire, which contains the destinies of Rome.’
13.] Lachmann, Jacob, Hertzberg, Keil, and Miiller, follow the reading of the MSS. oneratos—axes. The omission of et in the next verse is so harsh, and the correction of Muretus so probable and easy, that with Barth and Kuinoel I have ven- tured to adopt it. The poet certainly would here have written et vulgi ad plausus, though he elsewhere omits the copulative.
15.] In sinu puelle. He had before (ii. 7, 18), declared his aversion to taking any active part in arms.—titwis &e. See Tacitus, Ann. ii. 18,22. Inf. v.11, 38.
ἽΝ ) Clu |
152
᾿ ἃ Ὁ phate
PROPERTII
Tela fugacis equi, et braccati militis arcus, Et subter captos arma sedere duces. Ipsa tuam prolem serva, Venus: hoc sit in evum,
Cernis ab Ainea quod superesse caput.
20
Preeda sit hee illis, quorum meruere labores: Me sat erit Sacra plaudere posse Via.
Af
Pacis Amor deus est; pacem veneramur amantes. Stant mihi cum domina prceelia dura mea:
Nec tamen inviso pectus mihi carpitur auro, Nec bibit e gemma divite nostra sitis;
Nec mihi mille jugis Campania pinguis aratur, 5 Nec miser era paro clade, Corinthe, tua.
O prima infelix fingenti terra Prometheo!
17.] Braccati militis. See on v. 10, 43. Here however not the Celts but the Par- thians are meant, who wore the wide Persian trousers wittily called θύλακοι, ‘bags,’ by Aristoph. Vesp. 1087.—The in- finitive sédere depends, like the accusatives tela and arcus, on spectare in v.15, a con- struction not otherwise remarkable than for the interposition of the finite verb legam v.16. <A similar case occurs below, El. 6, 11—18. See the notes on iii. 1, 4, and v. 11, 38.
18.] See on iv. 1, 3. By sedere sub arma effigies are meant, placed beneath lofty trophies, as we see in some modern monuments.
19.] Hoe caput, Augustus, sit in evum, vivat ; a popular exclamation.
22.] The reading of the ed. Rheg. is plausible, m# for me; and so Barth and Kuinoel.
V. This elegant elegy alludes to the same circumstances as the last, the in- tended expedition into the East. He takes occasion to show the folly of braving the dangers of war for riches, and declares (1) that Ais battles are fought under the stand- ard of Venus, and (2) that when too old for that service he will devote himself to the study of nature.
1—3.] The argument (which neither Lachmann nor Jacob seems to have under- stood aright) is this: ‘Much as all lovers desire peace, I am compelled to wage war,
yet not from avarice, but from differences with Cynthia,’ ¢.e. my motives belli gerendi are very different from those of others about to fight against the Parthians. Stant mihi prelia, h.e. durant, non facile diri- muntur. Much difficulty has been raised on this word. Some explain it gudeseunt ; Hertzberg, quoting iv. 3, 44, gives the far-
fetched explanation, ‘ stare pugna dicitur, | quum ab utraque parte equo Marte pug- |
natum est.’
next line nee tantum.
3.] Carpitur, vexatur, sollicitatur.
4.] Nee bibit, i.e. I have no gold and gems to excite in me the desire of possess- ing more—gemma is either for poculwm gemmatum (Georg. ii. 506, ‘ut gemma bibat:’ Juven. x. 26, ‘cum pocula sumes gemmata:’ compare Sat. v. 388—45), or it may signify a goblet worked out of a single piece of opal, jasper, or chaleedony.—For bibit Lachmann gives dcbat, and in the next verse aretur.
6.] The Naples MS. has ere, the ed. Rheg. with some later copies we. For clade Barth and Kuinoel substitute classe from Pucci and the Aldine. On the fond- ness of the Romans for Corinthian bronze, see Becker, Gallus, p. 18 —clade tua means ‘obtained by your destruction,’ which was barbarously effected by the consul Mum- mius B.c. 146.
7.] Prima terra. The princeps lutus of
Lachmann, who makes sad. havoc of the whole passage 1—5, follows Heinsius in reading sat mihi, and in the |
-......... ----.--- ν......
|
Ἢ
|
4 5
|
LIBER IV. 5 (4). 153
Ille parum cauti pectoris
egit opus:
Corpora disponens mentem non vidit in arte. Recta animi primum debuit esse via. 10
Nune maris in tantum vento jactamur, et hostem Querimus, atque armis nectimus arma nova.
Haud ullas portabis opes Acherontis ad undas: Nudus ad infernas, stulte vehere rates.
Victor cum victis pariter miscebitur umbris; 15 Consule cum Mario, capte Jugurtha, sedes;
Lydus Dulichio non distat Croesus ab Ivo;
Optima mors, parca quie
Hor. Od. i. 16, 13. Human credulity per- haps never went further than in believing that certain lumps of stone, lying in a water-course near Panope in Phocis, were composed of the clay left over and above from the plastic process of Prometheus. Pausanias (x. 4, 3) gravely says, ταῦτα ἔτι λείπεσθαι τοῦ πηλοῦ λέγουσιν, ἐξ οὗ Kal ἅπαν ὑπὸ τοῦ Προμηθέως τὸ γένος πλασ- θῆναι τῶν ἀνθρώπων. He adds, ‘They smell remarkably like the human skin.’ The identity of the legend with the creation of Adam is manifest. The Eastern Christ- ians still believe that the first man was made out of red earth at Damascus. (Lepsius, Discoveries in Egypt, p. 400).
8.1] Parum cauti pectoris. In allusion to the etymology of the name from zpo- pn@ia. Hertzberg misunderstands the sense, explaining it ‘ pectori, dum finxisset, parum cavisse.’ The poet simply means, that
| Prometheus executed the work without the
care and forethought implied by his name.
10.] Animi ἕο. ‘Ante omnia oportuit bone mentis rationem habere.’— Barth. ‘If there was one quality more than another which the god of forethought ought to have given to man, it was sound sense and reason.’
11.] Jactari in mare is properly to be} carried into the open sea.—hostem querimus | &c. ‘not content with repelling attacks at | home, we must look for an enemy abroad : not satisfied with the wars on hand, eal must add new wars.’
13.] ‘And yet riches, when acquired, will profit you nothing in the grave.’
14.] The MSS. agree in ad infernas— rates, which is retained by Lachmann, Keil, and Miller. The plural is defended by Lachmann from the mention of two ferry-boats for the dead in v. 7, 57. Τὸ the correction of Perrey, αὖ inferna rate, it
“15 objected that the preposition is wrongly
venit apta die.
used. ‘Animam anteguam ad rates per- venerit, vectam esse, quo jure dixeris ??— Hertzberg : who reads with Schrader nudus at inferna ; but this is a very incorrect use of at, and is not sufficiently defended by i. 6, 22, where the MSS, vary between at and et. The meaning perhaps is, that whereas we now look for fleets and voyages for making our fortunes, hereafter we shall be stripped of everything, and see only the ships on the infernal river. Thus vehi ad rates is simply ‘to be ferried over to the fleet.’
15.] The Groning. MS. gives wndis, whence Barth and Kuinoel read Jndis, and even Lachmann, who adopts it, calls this ‘certissima emendatio.’ The same MS. has miscebimer, which the above editors also adopt with Lachmann.
18.] ‘Hertzberg, Jacob, Lachmann, and the later editors read acta for apta from the Naples MS. Lachmann compares iy. 7, 30, ‘Ista per humanas mors venit acta manus,’ where however the addition of per manus makes all the difference. That any editor should be satisfied with Sca- liger’s explanation of parca dies by 4 me- πρωμένη ἡμέρα is truly surprising.—parca dies is ‘a day, or time, of poverty;’ and the poet says, that not only is wealth use- less when you die, but death comes easiest when it comes apta, appropriate and wished for, to relieve you from your poverty. Hertzberg’s explanation is far from pro- bable: ‘mortem, ut tardissime venerit, utque maxime hominum vite et diutissime pepercerit, ita optimam esse.’ Lachmann reads Paree die, which seems scarcely good Latin for fatali die, though Jacob gives his approval, and both Keil and Miiller follow him. Lachmann indeed compares ‘ Par- carum dies,’ Virg. 42n. xii. 150; still this is not strictly parallel, since much of the difficulty lies in the use of the singular.
τ
154
PROPERTII
Me juvat in prima coluisse Helicona juventa,
Musarumque choris implicuisse manus.
Me juvat et multo mentem vincire Lyzo,
p mule in vs, Et caput im verna semper habere rosa.
Ρ. 1-νι ἔχ aie: : (στ Atque ubi jam Venerem gravis interceperit zetas, Sparserit et nigras alba senecta comas,
Tum mihi Nature libeat perdiscere mores,
Quis deus hance mundi temperet arte domum ; Qua venit exoriens, qua deficit, unde coactis
Cornibus in plenum menstrua luna redit; Unde salo superant venti; quid flamine captet
Eurus, et in nubes unde perennis aqua;
Sit ventura dies, mundi que subruat arces; Purpureus pluvias cur bibit arcus aquas ; Aut cur Perrhebi tremuere cacumina Pindi,
Solis et atratis luxerit orbis equis;
Cur serus versare boves et plaustra Bootes ;
Pleiadum spisso cur coit igne chorus;
Curve suos fines altum non exeat sequor, Plenus et in partes quattuor annus eat ; Sub terris sint jura deum et tormenta gigantum ;
Tisiphones atro si furit angue caput ;
40
Aut Alemzoniz furiz aut jejunia Phinei ; Num rota, num scopuli, num sitis inter aquas;
19.] Me juwat. ‘My pleasure is, (not war, but) love in youth and science in old age.’ A similar aspiration after the ‘ causas rerum’ occurs in the magnificent passage, Georgic, τὶ. 475, seq.
24.) The Groning. and Naples MSS. give wtegras; a reading worthy of some consideration.
25.) Tum, emphatic; then and not till then.
27.] Qua, supply ratione; or perhaps like the Greek use of ἣ for ἡ ὁδῷ, ‘how τέ comes,’ viz. by what course or direction.
“p9.] Quid qaaptet, what,it aims ati; what t desired to Yo. Barth| coma | Virg.
YN vs a bers 5 2, quid cogitet humidus auster.
org. i.
31] Lachmann and others read si ven- tura, and in συ. 39, si jura deum, in both cases against the authority of the MSS. It is not probable that δὲ would have been altered by the copyists. See the note on y. i. 88.
33.] Perrhebi Pindi. Misch. Suppl.
252, δρίζομαι δὲ τήν Te Περραίβων χθόνα, Πίνδου τε τἀπέκεινα, Παιόνων πέλας, where see the note. It is not known whether any particular earthquake is here alluded to. Barth thinks it is the same as that in iv. 13, 53. But perhaps mountains gener- ἢ ally are meant, by a common usage of | poets.—luxerit, from lugeo, but inf. ix. 20 from Juceo. Notice here the alternation of subjunctive with indicative, as in Persius, } Sat. iii. 66 seqq. y
36.] Spisso igne. The apparent prox- imity to each other of the stars in that constellation presents to the naked eye a confused appearance. Barth and Kuinoel give Heinsius’ emendation imdre.
39.] Gigantum is said to be wanting in the Naples MS. Miller reads nocentum, after Haupt.
41.] Alemeonie Furie. ‘An Alemeon ob Eriphylen matrem interfectam a Furiis j agitetur.’—Kuinoel, Y
Kk
LIBER IV. 6 (5).
Num tribus infernum custodit faucibus antrum Cerberus, an Tityo jugera pauca novem;
An ficta in miseras descendit fabula gentes,
Et timor haud ultra quam rogus esse potest. Exitus hic vite superet mihi: vos, quibus arma Grata magis, Crassi signa referte domum.
Wake
Dic mihi de nostra, quae sentis, vera puella: Sic tibi sint domine, Lygdame, dempta juga.
Num me letitia tumefactum fallis inani, Hee referens, quee me credere velle putas ?
Omnis enim debet sine vano nuntius esse, 5 Majoremque timens servus habere fidem.
Nune mihi, si qua tenes, ab origine dicere prima Incipe; suspensis auribus ista bibam. ]
Siccine eam incomptis vidisti flere capillis ? Sm - Thus ex oculis multa cadebat aqua ?
10
Nee speculum strato vidisti, Lygdame, lecto ?
44.] Pauca, ‘Et num Tityo jugera novem sint pauca.’— Barth; who compares Tibull. i. 3, 75, ‘porrectusque noyem Tityos per jugera terre.’
45.] Ficta fabula. The Epicurean phi- losophy. Compare with this passage, iii. 26, 53.
VI. This assumes the form of a dialogue between the poet and Cynthia’s slave Lyg- damus. The latter is called upon to report faithfully his mistress’ disposition towards Propertius, who had deserted her on some disagreement having arisen between them, and to act as mediator in bringing about a reconciliation, should both parties prove equally desirous of it. This is one of the more obscure, and perhaps corrupt of the poet’s productions.
3.] Num. This is clearly the right reading, preserved by Pucci. The Naples MS. gives zon, the Gron. MS. dum.—tume- factum, like πιαίνειν Asch. Agam. 207, 1647, ‘puffed up with vain hopes.’—num failis is said in a threatening voice: ‘are you thinking of telling me a false tale? You will deceive me at your peril. For, as every messenger ought to report the truth, so especially should a slave with
the fear of punishment impending over him.’ Hertzberg prefers: ‘omnis servus debet verus nuntius esse,’ &c.—timens is the reading of all the good copies.—metu is the useless correction of Muretus. In the preceding verse the ed. Rheg. has sine vanis esse relator ; a remarkable reading, but probably a gloss.—sne vanis might be defended, as the Greeks used δίκαια for δίκη, Aisch, 4g. 812. Lachmann, failing
to see the meaning and connexion of this |
distich, incloses it within brackets as spu- rious He also reads, with a few of the inferior copies, sive vanis esse relator. order is, ‘omnis nuntius debet esse sine vano, 7.é. carere mendacio. Lygdamus (v. 8, 37), though Cynthia’s servant, seems to have been in the confidence of Pro- pertius. The expression jfidem habere is unusual in the sense of ‘to prove faithful,’ ‘to have truthfulness.’ More commonly it signifies ‘to have credit,’ 7. 6. to be be- lieved, as in iy. 23, 4.
9.1 Siccine. The MSS. have si or sie, or sicut, The Aldine gives the true reading.
1l.] Nee speculum &e. ‘Was there no mirror lying (as usual) on the bed, in- dicating that her toilet was a matter of anxious care ?”
Hy υὐὐαλίε Yeu a0
nade
The 3
Cade -
156
PROPERTII
Ornabat niveas nullane gemma manus ? Ac mestam teneris vestem pendere lacertis ? Scriniaque ad lecti clausa jacere pedes ?
Tristis erat domus, et tristes sua pensa ministree
15
Carpebant, medio nebat et ipsa loco ? Humidaque impressa siccabat lumina lana,
Rettulit et querulo jurgia nostra sono ?
‘Hee te teste mihi promissa est, Lygdame, merces ? Est pcenz servo rumpere teste fidem.
Tlle potest, nullo miseram me linquere facto, AKqualem nulla dicere habere domo.
20
Gaudet me vacuo solam tabescere lecto: Si placet, insultet, Lygdame, morte mea.
Non me moribus illa, sed herbis improba vicit:
25
Staminea rhombi ducitur ille rota. Illum turgentis rane portenta rubetie Et lecta exectis anguibus ossa trahunt,
13.] -Acwestam the Naples MS., at mestam MS. Gron., and so Lachmann and Miiller. Et mestum Keil.— vestem, the tunica manicata, not buttoned or laced up, but hanging loose from the elbow. These questions are evidently asked in an excited and hurried tone, the point of them all being to know if Cynthia seemed discon- solate at the poet’s absence. He here re- turns to the infinitive depending on widist7,
‘ See above, El. 4, 17.—serinia, not the capsa
' or manuscript-case, but the casket or dress-
/ing-case for the toilet; if the opinion of the commentators be correct.
17.] Lana, viz. with a piece of the wool which she was spinning.
18.] Retulit jurgia nostra, τ, ὁ. ‘related to her maids the dispute she had had with me.’
19.] Iygdamus here proceeds to relate what Cynthia had said to him about the poet, and her anxiety to learn if he still loved her. ‘Were you a witness (she asked), when he promised me this reward of my constancy? He must certainly feel it, if he has broken that promise made in your presence. Yet now he has the heart to desert me without any fault of mine (nullo facto), and the boldness to assert, what is but too clearly false, that he has no other mistress to hold an equal place in his affections.’ ‘There is considerable dif_i- culty in these verses. For egualem Barth
gives ac qualem from Scaliger. The verse is perhaps corrupt. Hertzberg suspects atque aliam to be the true reading. Barth and Kuinoel make vy. 21—8 interrogative. Lachmann more correctly prints them with marks of interjection, and so Miiller, who reads multa for nulla. The sense appears to be, ‘potest dicere se nulla domo habere zequalem mihi,’
23.] Gaudet &e. ‘No! he is pleased to think that I pine in solitude. Let him, if he likes, rejoice over my death.’ Morte mea is an instance of the lax use of the
ui
ablative so common with Propertius. It }
is perhaps better to regard it as governed by the sense of insultet, i.e. superbiat, gau- deat, than as an ablative for a dative, on which idiom see y. 8, 10.
25—30.] She accuses her rival of having drawn away the poet, not by superior ac- complishments, but by magic arts. See v. 7, 72, ‘Si te non totum Doridos herba tenet.’
28.] Anguibus. ‘Similiter apud Hora- tium, Sat. 1. 8, 43, ‘varies quoque dente colubree,’ ἢ, 6. dectis anguium ossibus, non omnibus, venefice utuntur.’—Jacob. Barth reads wnguibus, with Broukhusius. Lach- mann gives ex structis ignibus, a bad read- ing made up of his own and Heinsius’ conjecture. — trahunt, ἕλκουσι, a word technically used to imply the irresistible force of magic arts.
LIBER IV. 7 (6). 157
Et strigis invente per busta jacentia plume, Cinctaque funesto lanea vitta viro. 20 ὁ lor Si non vana canunt mea somnia, Lygdame, testor, Poena erit ante meos sera, sed ampla, pedes. Putris et in vacuo texetur aranea lecto ; Noctibus illorum dormiet ipsa Venus.’ frop© Que tibi si veris animis est questa puella, 35 Hac eadem rursus, Lygdame, curre via, Et mea cum multis lacrimis mandata reporta ; Ivram, non fraudes esse in amore meo;
5. od (Ὁ : ΟΡ ἄρον A Me quoque consimili impositum torquerier igni ep a Jurabo et bis sex integer esse dies. 40 Quod mihi si tanto felix concordia bello Extiterit, per me, Lygdame, liber eris. i \ 4 a VIL. N43. 24 Ergo sollicitee tu causa, Pecunia, vite ; sn 29.] Busta jacentia, ‘ruined tombs.’ 35.] Que tibi &e. The reply of Pro- Others understand the extinct ashes of pertius. ‘Well! if these were the grounds funeral piles. Hor. Epod. v.19, ‘et unctay of the complaints against me, and if they turpis ova rane sanguine, Plumamque noc-}] were made not in pettishness but in sin- turne strigis,’ &c. The strix was probably] cerity, go back at once and tell her, that the screech-owl; but as it was a night’ though I am angry with her, I have not bird, and therefore indistinctly seen, the wronged her by my love.’—Veris animis, ancients fancied it was a sort of harpy ἢ. 6. vero affectu. Tac. Ann. xiv. 1, ‘For- generated by magic art. See Ovid, Fast, mam scilicet displicere, et triumphales ayos, vi. 131—142. Inf. v. 5, 17. an fecunditatem et verum animum ? 30.] All the MSS. give vivo, Heinsius 36.] adem. On the dissyllable see y. conjectured toro. These two words are 7, 7. thought to have been confused also in ii. 40.] See note on ii. 9, 7, integer, i.e. 9,16, ‘Scyria nec viduo Deidamia viro.” λέκτρων ἄθικτος. Esse is for fuisse, and Hertzberg alone retains the vulgate, under- implies the duration of time. He means standing it of the ‘imago funesta,’ orimage to assure Cynthia, that her suspicions of of the party to be enthralled by the charm; his infidelity since their rupture are vain. see Virg. Eel. viii. 73. Hor. Sat. 1. 8, 30, The change of construction is remarkable: ‘ Lanea et effigies erat, altera cerea’ (speak- jurabo me torqueri, et integer esse. ing of witches at their incantation). Cincta 41.] The Naples MS. has quod nisi et is for cireumdata, by arare use. Butverbs tanto, whence Miiller reads Quodsin e tanto, of this nature are susceptible of a double which is perhaps right. Lachmann pro- construction. Barth has vinclague, Lach- posed quod mihi si ὁ tanto &e. mann vinctague, because ‘vitta cingebatur 42.] Extiterit, ‘shall have resulted |! ( torus, non toro vitta.’ See on συ. 10, 5. from.’—per me, ἐμοῦ ἕκατι, quantum mea {|i
32.] Pena erit. ‘Ante meos pedes opera fieri potest. See supra v. 2. procumbet, nempe Propertius, veniamque sero rogabit; tunc poenas de eo exigam VII. This is one of the most beautiful amplissimas, gravissimas.’— Auinoel. poems of Propertius. The pathos is only
33.] This verse is from Od. xvi. 34, equalled by the elegance of the versifica- ᾿Οδυσσῆος δέ που εὐνὴ Χήτει evevvalwy tion. It is on the death of a young friend κάκ᾽ ἀράχνια κεῖται exovoa. —dormiet named Petus, who was drowned in a Venus, ‘iners languescet.’—Iuinoel. voyage to Egypt undertaken for some
—$——__
158
PROPERTII
Per te immaturum mortis adimus iter. Tu vitiis hominum crudelia pabula przebes ; Semina curarum de capite orta tuo. Tu Petum ad Pharios tendentem lntea portus 5 Obruis insano terque quaterque mari. Nam dum te sequitur, primo miser excidit evo, Et nova longinquis piscibus esca natat ; Et mater non justa pie dare debita terre
Nec pote cognatos inter humare rogos;
10
Sed tua nune volucres astant super ossa marine ;
Nune tibi pro tumulo Carpathium omne mare est. Infelix Aquilo, rapte timor Orithyie, Que spolia ex illo tanta fuere tibi?
Aut quidnam fracta gaudes, Neptune, carina ?
15
Portabat sanctos alveus ille viros. Pete, quid xtatem numeras? quid cara natanti
Mater in ore tibi est? non habet unda deos. Nam tibi nocturnis ad saxa ligata procellis
mercantile purpose, which gives the poet occasion to inveigh against the avarice of man. It is strange that Scaliger should have been so little able to appreciate a poetical narrative as to have attempted a new arrangement of the verses throughout the entire elegy. Lachmann truly judges of the result; ‘omnia transponendo nihil effecit, nisi ut minus quam antea cohz- rerent.
1.] Vulgo Vite es. The Naples MS. omits es, the addition of which is certainly no improvement to the verse.
8.1 Crudelia, cruda, ὠμὰ, 1.6. by causing so much bloodshed.
41 De capite tuo. Pecunia is here per- sonified. Perhaps there is an allusion to Athene born from the head of Jupiter. See on iy. 13, 2.
5.] Pharios portus, τ, 6, Alexandria.
8.7 ‘Cur nova esca, nemo explicuit; scilicet longinguis piscibus.’ — Hertzberg. The food was strange because the man came from a far-distant land,—a merely poetical image.
9.] Pie terre. The epithet partly re- fers to the idea expressed in the following verse. The earth holds, as it were, in a parental embrace, the deceased members of one family. But with the earth are as- sociated the dead who are buried there.
Properly speaking, the mother would pay ‘justa debita piis Manibus.’
10.] Pote. Itis evident that this is not the neuter, but stands for pott, i.e. potis est. Compare mage for magis, amabere for amaberis &c., and see ii. 1, 46.
11.] <Astant &c. Cf. Ovid, Heroid, x. 123, ‘ossa superstabunt volucres inhumata marine.’
14.] Ex illo, Peto. To carry off the maid had some excuse; but what prize was a poor boy? The whole of this pas- sage has great tenderness and beauty.
16.] Sanctos viros, t.e. deorum cultores, non sacrilegos, perjuros, cet. Compare Od. viii. 565. sch. Theb. 598, ἢ yap tuvec- Bas πλοῖον εὐσεβὴς ἀνὴρ ναύταισι θερμοῖς καὶ πανουργίᾳ τινὶ ὄλωλεν ἀνδρῶν ξὺν θεο- πτύστῳ γένει.
17.1] Etatem numeras, t.e. ὈΡΡταϊα heaven with cutting off so young a life.— non habet unda deos. ‘The briny wave cannot hear your prayers.’
19.] Nam. For if the sea could have felt pity, it would not have so imperilled the ship by wearing the ropes against the rocks, The wincula are the retinacula, Ovid, Her. 18, 11, δεσμοὶ, Od. xiii. 100. Kuinoel joins detrito ad saxa, and under- stands it of undergirding the ship ; in which he merely follows Barth and his immediate
VE. nota,
Jo Hou
P
LIBER IV. 7 (6).
Omnia detrito vincula fune cadunt. Sunt Agamemnonias testantia litora curas, Que notaf Argynni poena +minantis aque.
fh f 7
159 20
Hoe juvene amisso classem non solvit Atrides, Pro qua mactata est Iphigenia mora.
Reddite corpus humo, positaque in gurgite vita Pxtum sponte tua, vilis arena, tegas. fF «λεῖον. Et quotiens Pzeti transibit nauta sepulcrum,
25
Dicat: Et audaci tu timor esse potes. Ite, rates curvas et leti texite causas!
Ista per humanas mors venit acta manus.
predecessors. It is better to take the words in their natural order, ad saxa ligata, ἴ. 6. ad saxosum litus. They had endeav- oured to moor the ship in some sheltered bay, but the ropes were chafed by the sharp rocks and would not hold. We are not concerned with the good or bad sea- manship of such an attempt. Perhaps the storm arose after the ship had been so moored. It was nocturna procella, and ships were moored in the evening, Theocr. xiii. 33.
22.] This obscure verse has been vari- ously altered and interpreted. The common reading is minantis aque, and the MSS. offer no variety of importance, except that the MS. Gron. gives nota argivis. Hertz- berg undertakes to show that his reading, Que notat Argynni pena Athamantiadea, is the genuine one; it is certainly in- genious, and is adopted by both Keil and Miller. Scaliger from a late copy read natantis agua, the sense then being ‘there are certain shores rendered remarkable for the punishment of Argynnus drowned (or wrecked) in the sea.’ Others read natantis aquas.—notat, infamat. The legend was that Agamemnon, enamoured of a beautiful youth, Argynnus, caused his death by pur- suing him to the banks of the Cephisus. See Athen. xiii. p.603. Martial, Ep. vii. 15, 5. It seem to have been a duplicate of the well-known story of Hylas. Hertz- berg however is probably right in sup- posing that our poet followed some account which represented him as lost at sea; otherwise there is no parallel with the case of Petus. He might have supported his opinion by observing that Zitora, not ripa, is used. The scene of Petus’ shipwreck nas the same as that of Argynnus before
93. 41 Jacob considers this distich the
30
interpolation of some scholiast. Without being necessary, it is a natural addition to amplify the narrative and to express the greatness of the loss, and by implication, that of Pzetus also. Lachmann reads hie for hoe.
25—6.] It is not clear to whom the imperative reddite is addressed. I agree with Barth that Aquilo and Neptune are meant (13—15), rather than with Hertz- berg, who understands wadarum dit. the very existence of the latter is denied in v.18. Perhaps indeed 25—28 should be transposed to follow 70, where they would come in very appropriately. This was suggested by Scaliger, and he has been followed by Miiller. In other respects the sense of these two lines is sufficiently evi- dent: ‘now that the water has taken his life, the body may surely be spared for burial in the sand,’—sponte tua, 7. ὁ. in the absence of any friendly hand. In address- ing the sand, he applies the same epithet vilis, though not a complimentary one, which he would have done had he asked the boon of ‘a little valueless sand’ from another. ‘The reader will scarcely approve the poetical taste which induced Lachmann to read thus: ‘ Reddite corpus humo posi-
coaal of ὃ αὐτὰ
4)
For wi
NI}
tumque in gurgite, venti, Petum; sponte ἡ
tua, vilis arena, tegas.’ Jacob’s brief note is excellent; ‘predam habetis; corpus reddite.’ But his reading of v. 25, from
the Naples MS., is far from satisfactory : | ‘Reddite corpus humo! posita est in gur- ἢ He is followed however by '
gite vita!’ Miiller, who makes the last clause a pa- renthesis.
29.] The MSS. have curve, which was corrected by Passerat.
30.] Ista, ‘that death which you pro- voke is brought on by human hands;’ 1,6, do not blame fate, or the gods.
100
PROPERTII
Terra parum fuerat: fatis adjecimus undas ; Fortunz miseras auximus arte vias.
Ancora te teneat, quem non tenuere Penates ? Quid meritum dicas, cui sua terra parum est ?
Ventorum est, quodcumque
Consenuit; fallit portus et ipse fidem.
paras: haud ulla carina
36
Natura insidians pontum substravit avaris ; Ut tibi succedat, vix semel esse potest. , Saxa triumphales fregere Capharea puppes,
Naufraga cum vasto Grecia tracta salo est. Paullatim socium jacturam flevit Ulixes, ie In mare cui soliti non valuere doli. la
Quod si contentus patrio bove verteret agros, | ἢ Verbaque duxisset pondus habere mea,
Viveret ante suos dulcis oe Penates, , Pauper, at in terra, nil ubi flere potest.
45
Non tulit hic Ptus stridorem audire procelle, Behr.wn/
Et duro teneras ledere fune manus,
Sed thyio thalamo aut Oricia terebintho
——>
31.] Most editors read parum fuerat fatis ; but the stop comes better at the caesura of the verse. Fatis, ἃ, e. to the many ways of death already existing. This is a clever distich.
32.] ‘We have added by art to the many
roads to misery which Chance had already οἰ prepared for us.’ . Nature, and Fortuna in y. 37, the un-
Barth and Kuinoel read
warrantable alteration of Broukhusius.
37.] I follow Jacob, Keil, and Miller in admitting insidians from the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. The others have insidias, which is in itself a good reading, taken in apposition with pontum. The sense is: ‘it was for the very purpose of ensnaring them that Nature spread out the sea as a smooth and enticing path for the ava- ricious.. He adds: ‘success awaits you scarcely once in your many attempts.’ And he illustrates the dangers of the sea by memorable instances of shipwreck.
39.] Triumphales, i.e. they were wrecked as it were close to their home and in the very arms of victory. See on v. 1, 115.
42.] The MSS. give soli, which Jacob retains. Soliti was the conjecture of Lip- sius, and is found in one of the later copies. Miiller would prefer so/wm. 'The sense is, ‘the usually successful arts and contrivances
of Ulysses failed to secure him against losses by sea.’
44.] Verba mea. ‘The sentiment which I now express in words.’ On the change of tenses in verteret and duwisset see i. 17, 20. Lachmann reads O si contentus &c.
46.] Jacob’s correction, admitted with great praise by Hertzberg, and adopted by both Keil and Miiller, is ingenious and probable, ‘nil ubi flare potest,’ ὦ, 6. ‘ubi venti nihil possunt.’ Still, it is a strange expression, ‘on terra firma, where nothing can blow, for ‘far from stormy waves.’ On the other hand, the vulgate gives a simple and satisfactory sense, ‘ poor indeed, but with no cause for sorrow.’ <A prose writer could have said, ‘ubi nihil esset quod flere posset.’ Probably also he would have used sed instead of at.
47.] Non tulit hic. ‘ While he remained on land, he had not to endure,’ &e. ‘Si Petus in terra manere sustinuisset, non hic pericula et labores ei ferenda erant, sed omnibus vite cultioris deliciis lente frui licebat.’— Hertzberg. Lachmann reads non tulit hee Petus, stridorem &e.
49.] Thyio. This word is an adjective from @va, or θυία, which is generally sup- posed to have been a kind of cedar, but it is more probably a species of arbor vite,
MSS pws hk nig, Ε(οιοῖ of
LIBER IV. 7 (6).
Effultum pluma versicolore caput. Huie fluctus vivo radicitus abstulit ungues, Et miser invisam traxit hiatus aquam ; Hune parvo ferri vidit nox improba lgno ;
161
Petus ut occideret tot coiere mala.
Flens tamen extremis dedit hac mandata querellis,
Ou Or
Cum moribunda niger clauderet ora liquor : Di maris Aigeei quos sunt penes eequora, Venti,
Et quecumque meum degravat unda caput, Quo rapitis miseros prime lanuginis annos ? Attulimus longas in fretra vestra manus.
et oe
Ah miser aleyonum scopulis afiligar acutis ; In me ceruleo fuscina sumpta deo est, At saltem Italiz regionibus advehat eestus:
the Thwa articulata of Linneus, a native of the mountains in the N.W. of Africa, and the timber of which exhales a fragrant odour. The terebinth, or turpentine tree, (pistacia terebinthus), is of large size and stately growth, and is not uncommon in Palestine and many of the Greek islands. It is not one of the coniferee, but bears a fruit like a small cherry. Sir Charles Fellows (Travels in Asia Minor) com- pares it with our ash. Our word turpentine is a corruption of terbinthine. Pucci gives thyie in thalamo, and so Jacob. Barth and Kuinoel thyie@ thalamo.—Oricia, see i. 8, 20. The MSS. give ehzo, which Keil retains. Lachmann makes a desperate effort to correct a verse about which very little doubt can exist, and reads sed Cnidio calamo.
50.] Effultum, sc. erat. The MSS. have et fultum, which Lachmann retains. Mr. Wratislaw reads et fultus.—pluma versicolor seems naturally to refer to cushions made of dyed feathers; but Hertzberg regards pluma as here used for the sofa or coverlet itself. Possibly a sort of pulvinus was composed of coloured feathers strung or matted together. On the plumarii, or feather-sewers (a craft by no means lost in our times) see a curious dissertation in Becker’s Gallus, p. 287—90, where the present passage is discussed.
51—4.] The sense is, there were several causes which conspired to drown Petus; (1) his hands were hurt so that he could not swim effectively: (2) he was nearly choked by swallowing sea-water; (3) the plank he grasped was too small; (4) it was dark. For vivo (i.e. adhue spiranti)
which is the MSS. reading, some plausibly edit vivos, to which Hertzberg fancifully objects that it adds unnecessarily to the shocking picture. Vivo is, however, rather otiose, ‘The poet perhaps had in view the shipwreck of Ulysses, Od. v. 434, θρασειάων ἀπὸ χειρῶν ῥινοὶ ἀπέδρυφθεν.
52.] Lachmann reads et miserum invita traxit hiatus aqua. It is hardly necessary to add that miser hiatus is os misert hominis hiantis. Cf. v.56. Or thus: ‘miserum os hiantis Peeti invisam aquam hausit.’
54.] Tot mala, as if more than ordinary means were required to extinguish such a life.
57.] Dii maris, e¢ venti, et queecunque unda Ke.
60.] Longas manus. The expression is obscure, as it does not appear what is the point of the appeal. Hertzberg under- stands ‘ puleras, procerulas,’ which gives a very weak meaning. I incline to Barth’s view, ‘integras antea,’ in allusion to v. 51. Kuinoel follows Scaliger in the far-fetched idea that ‘puras, innocentes,’ are meant, because the ancients thought that perjury was often punished by the mutilation of a limb. Becker (ap. Hertz.) quotes Ovid, Am. iii. 8, 2, ‘Quam longos habuit nondum jurata capillos, Tam longos postquam nu- mina lesit habet.’
61.] Adfigar Lachmann and Miiller, with MS. Gron.
63.] Evehat is the reading of the good copies (MS. Naples eveat). This might mean, perhaps, ἐξενέγκοι, ‘ throw me ashore on Italian land.’ Lachmann and others give advehat from Scaliger’s correction.
M
11 doa +L 9
tenbad -
60 fell Fai
102
PROPERTII
Hoc de me} sat erit si modo matris erit.
Subtrahit heee fantem torta vertigine fluctus ; Ultima que Peto voxque diesque fuit.
65
O centum «quoree Nereo genitore puelle, Et tu materno tacta dolore Thetis, Vos decuit lasso supponere brachia mento ;
Non poterat vestras ille gravare manus.
70
At tu, seve Aquilo, numquam mea vela videbis; Ante fores dominze condar oportet iners.
VTE:
Dulcis ad hesternas fuerat mihi rixa lucernas, Vocis et insanz tot maledicta tue.
Cur furibunda mero mensam propellis, et in me Proicis insana cymbia plena manu ?
Tu vero nostros audax invade capillos,
Or
Et mea formosis unguibus ora nota; Tu minitare oculos subjecta exurere flamma, Fac mea rescisso pectora nuda sinu. Nimirum veri dantur mihi signa caloris ;
[Nam sine amore gravi femina nulla dolet.
Que mulier rabida jactat convicia lingua,
64.] Sat mihi erit, si hoc quod de me restat, matris erit, ὁ. 6. si corpus in matris manus yenict.
68.] The MSS. have Thetis, Hertzberg retains. Most editions read Theti with Pucci. These four lines (67— 70) contain a most beautiful and pathetic appeal. Miller, who here inserts 25—8, incloses 69—70 as a parenthesis, in order that reddite corpus &c. may refer to puelle and Thetis.
VIII. In this clever and spirited elegy the poet assures Cynthia that so far from being offended with her for her violent bearing in a recent quarrel, he considers it as the strongest proof of her affection. This is said with a view to retaining her favour against the claims of a rival who is briefly addressed with considerable bitter- ness at the conclusion.
1.] Hesternas. Other readings are ex- ternas and extremas. Barth and Kuinoel give the latter: ‘sub auroram jam de-
which
ficiente lucerna,’ in the words of Ovid.— dulcis rixa is sufficiently explained by v. 5.
3.] For cwr Pucci gives cum. Barth and Kuinoel dum, after Broukhuis. <As the quarrel had happened the night before, he speaks of it as if still present: ‘I ask why do you act,with such violence towards me? Yet do more if you will: it isa proof of your love.’ The repetition of i- sana, Υ. 2 and 4, implies hasty composition.
7.1 Oculos exurere, ‘to burn out my , eyes, by thrusting a torch in my face. These personal assaults, which in our times | are nearly confined to the lowest and most abandoned, appear to have been ordinary events among very respectable Roman lovers. Cynthia’s character is in no re- spect amiable: see particularly y. 8, 51, seq.
11.] The MSS. give gravida. The editors agree in admitting the emendation of Scaliger. It is probable that these verses (11—16) describe the actual conduct of Cynthia on several occasions. The apo-
—s
LIBER IV. 8 (7). 163
Et Veneris magne volvitur ante pedes, Custodum gregibus circa se stipat euntem, Seu sequitur medias, Meenas ut icta, vias, Seu timidam crebro dementia somnia terrent, 15 Seu miseram in tabula picta puella movet ;— His ego tormentis animi sum verus aruspex, Has didici certo seepe in amore notas. Non est certa fides, quam non injuria versat. Hostibus eveniat lenta puella meis! 20 Immorso equales videant mea vulnera collo;
Me doceat livor mecum habuisse meam. Aut in amore dolere volo, aut audire dolentem ; Sive meas lacrimas, sive videre tuas,
Tecta superciliis si quando verba remittis,
Nw Or
Aut tua cum digitis scripta silenda notas.
dosis occurs in y. 17. The sense is: ‘When a woman abuses her lover, passion- ately supplicates Venus, appears in public with so many attendants that he cannot have access to her, or runs like a frantic Bacchante down the middle of the street, or who is restless from dreams or starts at the sight of a female portrait,—I can only interpret this excitement as betokening strong affection on her part.’
13.] The MSS. Gron. and Naples have circa se stipat. Pucci gives circum. Barth and Kuinoel sew guum se stipat. Jacob (from Perrey) circum que stipat, which he strangely explains of the woman surround- ing the man with attendants, lest her rivals should speak to him. Hertzberg edits circa seu stipat, and so Keil and Miiller; and lastly, Lachmann has edvewm se stipat, inserting et before gregibus. Hertzberg appears to acquiesce in Jacob’s view. I have preferred the reading of the best copies, understanding ‘ (et que) circa stipat se euntem’ &c. A similar omission of e¢ see inf. 9, 34.
18.] Certo in amore, ‘in the case of a constant affection.’ Barth and Kuinoel give certas from inferior copies.
19.] ‘That attachment is not to be re- lied on, which is not moved to resentment by awrong.’ These words cannot signify ‘si puella amatorem nulla injuria atfticit,’ as Kuinoel supposes. — versat is agitat, vexat, and the imjuria is either a real or a supposed wrong, 1.6. the wrong of pre- ferring another to her.—/enta, ‘ indifferent,’ ‘apathetic.’
21.] Jmmorso. Hertzberg’s explana- tion is probably correct: ‘aquales non morsi collo ipsi videant me vulneratum.’ We have equalis for ‘a rival’ sup. 6, 22. The apparent emphasis on me in the follow- ing verse certainly favours the antithesis. Barth has iz morso: others derive ἐηι- morsus from dnmordeo.—livor, a weal, bruise, or blue mark.
23—4.] ‘I do not like apathy in true love; I would either feel pain myself, or know that my mistress is pained. On one side, at least, let us have reality.’
25—6.] Lachmann considers these two verses as spurious: a summary course he is too apt to pursue when he is not satisfied with the poet’s meaning. He cites two very similar lines from Ovid, Her. xvii. 81, ‘ah quoties digitis, quoties ego tecta
Cy Po
x
notavi Signa supercilio pzne loquente hel s
dari!’ Hertzberg devotes two pages of notes to their explanation, but fails to elicit any natural sense. The meaning is this: ‘Love is nothing worth when it brings pain to neither side. A little jealousy is inseparable from true affec- tion. I like to hear complaints from my mistress; or if she cannot complain openly in the presence of a rival, to see silent tears and secret tokens of her dis- approbation and dislike to his presence.’ Writing on the table imaginary letters, or with a finger dipped in wine, was a fre- quent practice under similar circumstances, It is probable that Cynthia had really acted thus, to the gratification of the poet when he was dreading the success of a
164
PROPERTII
Odi ego, quum numquam pungunt suspiria somnos. Semper in irata pallidus esse velim. Dulcior ignis erat Paridi, cum Graia per arma
Tyndaridi poterat gaudia ferre sue.
Dum vincunt Danai, dum restat barbarus Hector, Ille Helenze in gremio maxima bella gerit.
Aut tecum, aut pro te mihi cum rivalibus arma Semper erunt: in te pax mihi nulla placet. Gaude, quod nulla est ezque formosa; doleres, Cw
Si qua foret; nunc sis jure superba licet. At tibi, qui nostro nexisti retia lecto,
Sit socer eternum, nec sine matre domus. Cui nune si qua data est furandz copia noctis,
Offensa illa mihi, non tibi amica dedit.
30 yh τὶ vo 35 pe 40
IX.
Mzecenas, eques Etrusco de sanguine regum,
rival. Notare scripta is rather a remark- able inversion for scribere notas. Miller thinks some lines have dropped out before 25, expressive of hope that the poet may be restored to favour; and he marks a lacuna accordingly.
27.] Quum. So Jacob and Hertzberg from Pucci. The MS. Gron. has que, the Naples MS. guem. Lachmann, Barth, and Kuinoel edit gwos, which is not likely to be the true reading. Compare vy. 15, and i. ὃ, 27. Odi is used absolutely; ἀπέπ- τυσα.
29.] The sense is, ‘difficulties and ob- stacles only enhance the enjoyment.’ For Graia the MSS. give grata, which was corrected by Palmer.
31.] Restat, τ, 6. resistit.
32.] Maxima, longe majora quam illi.
35.] This verse, as Hertzberg well ob- serves, contains a more serious expostula- tion than his somewhat playful assertion in the former part of the elegy, that he is gratified by her violence: ‘Consider your- self fortunate that there is no other as handsome as yourself; otherwise it may be that your pride would tempt me to leave you.’
87.] The MSS. of Propertius agree in tendist?, but the editors adopt newisti from Priscian and Diomede the grammarians, the latter of whom has ‘Mecenas; newisti
retia lecta,’ while the former quotes our poet. ‘There appears to be no authority for the unreduplicated form of perfect, tendi.
38.] Socer. A father-in-law is natu- rally severe against the faithless husband of his daughter. Is it therefore to be in- ferred that the poet’s rival was a married man?
39.] Cui, i.e..nam tibi. ‘If she has granted you favours, ’tis merely to spite me, not through regard for you.’ An amiable sentiment, certainly. Fwrari noc- tem implies stealing an opportunity, and in some degree exonerates Cynthia by lay- ing the blame on the rival.
40.] Offensa. The Naples MS. has offensam, which reading arose from not understanding the right accusative (copiam noctis) to dedit.
IX. The poet pays a judicious and elegant compliment to Mecenas, who had urged him to write heroic verse, by pro- posing to himself to follow the example of that great man. For while the highest honours of the state were within his reach, he contented himself with the title of Eques. The argument much resembles ii. 1, and it cannot be doubted that the poet received frequent and urgent requests from his patron to try another style of
wl a”
re
ED
t
LIBER IV. 9 (8).
165
Intra fortunam qui cupis esse tuam,
Quid me scribendi tam vastum mittis in equor? Non sunt apta mez grandia vela rati.
Turpe est, quod negueas, capiti committere pondus, 5 Et pressum inflexo mox dare terga genu.
Omnia non pariter rerum sunt omnibus apta,
Fama nec ex equo ducitur ulla jugo. Gloria Lysippo est animosa effingere signa ; Exactis Calamis se mihi jactat equis. 10 In Veneris tabula summam 5101 ponit Apelles ; Parrhasius parva vindicat arte locum.
composition. Whether this desire arose from his own indifference to amatory ele- giac compositions, or from a wish to see all the poetic talent of the age devoted to the praises of Cesar, it is not important to determine.
2.1 Intra fortunam, ‘limites fortune tuz non egredi, contentum esse sorte tua.’ —Barth. Compare Tacitus, Amn. 111. 30.
5.] Quod nequeas. Though the mind naturally supplies ferre, it is perhaps more correct to regard the verb nequeo as used transitively, like posse aliquid. Certainly Barth is wrong in understanding jure com- mittere.
6.] Jacob reads pesswm with Pucci. Hertzberg approves of this, but retains the vulgate. Their reason is, that dare terga being, as it were, an established expression for aufugere, was not likely to have been used in this instance for declinare or sub- mittere tergum. But the objection arises from being the ‘slave of words’ rather than looking at the sense of the passage as a whole. The addition of presswm and in- fiexo genu absolutely fixes the sense of dare terga, ἐνδιδόναι, ‘to give in;’ indeed, the notion of flight could hardly occur to a reader engaged in contemplating the bearer of a heavy burden. On the other hand, pessum dare terga for ‘totis simul viribus fractis concidere’ seems an unheard-of ex- pression.
7.] Omnia rerum, sc. genera.
8.] There is a perplexing variety of readings in this verse. The MS. Gron. gives ‘ Flamma nec eoo ducitur ulla jugo:’ the Naples MS. has flamma, but otherwise as in the text. The ed. Rheg. ‘Flamma nec ex wquo ducitur illa rogo.’ One of the inferior MSS. gives palma and clauditur. Fama is from Pucci. If the reading given above be genuine, it seems hest to follow
\ (. } : Γ Re ὼ Labia ἥν ὃ Cao Aue ἤν: ( Cla Pos wh. Was nroril aN Xblacieny fe varcaluns ἘΞ ‘
Coo = Phdelree, |
Kuinoel in explaining eguo jugo by pari jugo, to which the preceding pariter in some degree seems to point, but much more so the tenour of the whole passage. ‘To be renowned,’ says the poet, ‘you must stand alone. You must have no rival, no yoke-fellow attached to the same ear.’ Lachmann, with the approval of Jacob, understands ‘a gentle hill,’ ‘mons ascensu facilis,’ comparing v.10, 4, ‘Non juvat ex facili lecta corona jugo.’ To say nothing of the harshness of the oxymoron, ‘a level hill,’ or of the unusual sense which Hertzberg assigns to it, ‘the same hill with any other,’ (diversa sunt juga unde diverse fame ducuntur,’) the meta- phor of the yoke seems so appropriate in itself and so naturally suggested by the epithet, that it certainly would have first presented itself to the mind of a reader. Barth’s explanation is no better than the others: ‘Idem nomen eademque laus non manat ex eodem fonte, ex eadem arte.’
9.7 Animosa, ‘spirited,’ ‘expressive.’ He was a famous worker in bronze, and was fond of representing Hercules and his supposed descendant Alexander.—Calamis was chiefly renowned for the finish he gave to equestrian statuary; but it is evident from Pausanias, who frequently describes his works, that he did not confine himself to this department of the art. On the use of mht, see 1. 5, 8.
11.] Swmmam sibi ponit, regards as his chef d’ euvre, as we say; lit. places his highest effort, or effect, in his picture of Venus. ‘Summam artis sue in Veneris tabula positam ipse Apelles judicat.’— Lachmann.
12.] Parva arte, i.e. in small groups, or, as we say, cabinet pictures. Pliny, N. H. xxxv. 10, distinctly says ‘ pinxit et minoribus tabellis libidines, eo genere petu-
‘
(esas:
—
PROPERTII
Argumenta magis sunt Mentoris addita forme ; At Myos exiguum flectit acanthus iter. Phidiacus signo se Juppiter ornat eburno ; 15 Praxitelen propria vindicat urbe apis. Est quibus Eleze concurrit palma quadrige ; Est quibus in celeres gloria nata pedes. Hic satus ad pacem; hic castrensibus utilis armis: Naturee sequitur semina quisque sue. 20 At tua, Meecenas, vitee praecepta recepi, Cogor et exemplis te superare tuis.
lantis joci se reficiens.’ He also states in the same passage that this artist was the first who attended to minute details,—‘ ar- gutias vultus, elegantiam capilli, venus- tatem oris,’ which may perhaps be included in the meaning of parva ars. That Hertz- berg should approve Lachmann’s conjec- ture, jocum for locum, on the strength of the above passage, is surprising. Without having recourse to Jacob’s explanation, ‘qui locum sibi vindicat, reliquos omnes inde depellit,’ we may naturally and easily supply inter swmmos pictores, or those artists just enumerated.
13.] Argumenta, Not single figures, but subjects involving groups. ‘ Historic fabuleque sculpte, emblemata insculpta.’ Barth. Hertzberg well quotes the follow- ing from Quintilian, v. 10, 10, ‘Vulgoque paullo numerosius opus dicitur argumen- tosum.’—forme, his model, or design.
14.] Dyos. The MSS. corruptly give myros, miros, or muros. On this artist see Pausan. i. 28, 2. Like Mentor, his practice was toreutic (celatum opus). ‘His acan- thus,’ says the poet, ‘curves in short and delicately crisp foliage,’ viz. round the handles of vases and goblets.
15.] Ornat se is a harsh, but not unin- telligible expression for ornatw. This is, in fact, a Propertian idiom, as domus se sustulit, v. 1,9; ara se vindicat, ib. 9, 56. The notion is, that the god condescends to exhibit to man his most graceful form in the Olympian statue made by Phidias. Hertzberg is too refined in his explanation. He thinks Phidiacus Jupiter is the ideal god, as conceived in the artist’s mind, and afterwards embodied in wood or stone. Lachmann gives up the verse as hopeless, and according to his custom incloses it with brackets as spurious.
16.] This verse is difficult. For propria Broukhusius conjectured Paria, and _ so Barth, Kuinoel, and Lachmann. -— apis
propria urbe (oriundus) seems to mean the native Pentelic marble of Athens, (of which place Praxiteles was a citizen), as opposed to the imported marbles of Paros. This marble is said to ‘claim him for its own,’ as if his hand alone could do justice to it. Hertzberg proposes venditat, and patria for propria, z7.e. ‘unice commendat, jactat hune;’ but the verb is not a poetical one.
17.] Est quibus, ἔστιν ois, a bold and perhaps unique Grecism.—concurrit, simul currit, comitatur; te. ‘there are some whom the victory of the chariot always attends,’ or perhaps, ‘to whom it is congenial.’ Hertzberg, too intent on finding new and curious meanings, protests against the above, and says, ‘ palma aurigze acrius nitenti advolare a meta et obyiam concurrere egregie fingitur.’
18.] Kuinoel, who is never happy with- out his hypallage, explains this verse by ‘quibus celeres pedes in gloriam nati.’ Hertzberg is more scholarlike in his view : ‘Hoe ait; gloriam quidem omnibus illis, qui eam qualicunque modo assequuntur, natam esse; indolem tantum differre, qua comparetur. Itaque aut ingenio aut ma- nibus aut adeo pedibus eam tribui et his partibus (sive in has partes), prout quisque. excellat, natam videri.’ The literal sense is, ‘There are others to whom glory was born for their swiftness of foot;’ Gr. ἐπ᾽ ὠκέσι τοῖς ποσὶ, in other words, ‘whom glory was destined to await in the foot- race.’
21.] Tua vite precepta, ‘ad que tu vitam tuam dirigis.—Hertzberg. cogor is explained by the same editor as implying the will was greater than the ability on the part of Mecenas to remain in privacy. The sense seems rather to be, ‘I am forced, by natural inferiority, to go beyond you in the example you set,’ viz. since you have the genius to succeed in your undertakings, which I have not. Ξ
bah ote
hr Na
LIBER IV. 9 (8). 167
Cum tibi Romano dominas in honore secures Et liceat medio ponere jura foro,
Vel tibi Medorum pugnaces ire per hostes,
bo Or
Atque onerare tuam fixa per arma domum,
Et tibi ad effectum vires det Ceesar, et omni Tempore tam faciles insinuentur opes ;
Parcis, et in tenues humilem te colligis umbras ; Velorum plenos subtrahis ipse sinus. 30
Crede mihi, magnos equabunt ista Camullos Judicia, et venies tu quoque in ora virum,
Ceesaris et famze vestigia juncta tenebis : Meecenatis erunt vera tropza fides.
Non ego velifera tumidum mare findo carina: 35 Tuta sub exiguo flumine nostra mora est.
Non flebo in cineres arcem sedisse paternos
23.] Cum, i.e. cum enim &c., the apo- dosis being at vy. 29. It is more probable that swmere is to be supplied to the word secures than ponere literally interpreted, ‘statuere, ut faciunt lictores cum in foro cum securibus apparent.’—Barth. ponere jura like our phrase ‘to lay down the law,’ would thus be used in a somewhat different sense, of those who have supreme authority to legislate for others. Compare y. 4, 11; iv. 11,46. It is a nice question, in cases like the present, whether the verb actually bears two meanings or a second verb is left to be mentally suggested by the first. Cf. 1ν- 7, 29.
25.] Medorum hostes, i.e. hostes qui ex Medis constant. Or the ‘enemies of the Medes’ may mean the Parthian or Bactrian peoples. Hertzberg seems to approve Lachmann’s tasteless conjecture astus, 7. 6. ‘astutam Parthorum fugam,’ vy. 54. Miiller reads hastas, after Markland.
28.] Insinuentur, in sinum tuum fun- dantur.
31.] ‘This resolve of yours will be placed on a level with the great Camilli, and you as well as they shall live in posterity.’ The plural is used, because there were several of the same name, though only one was particularly illus- trious.
34.] Fides. His fidelity to Cesar. It may be inferred from this passage that Meecenas was not personally fond of mili- tary exploits.
35,] This verse is wanting in the Naples MS., and the rare licence of the short ὁ in
Jindo has made some critics doubt its genu- ineness.
36.] Nostra mora. ‘Moram de loco dicit, non de tempore.’—Lachmann. The MS. Gron. has ratis, which is a correction ; ἢ but it alone preserves tuta; the others’ have tota, which Jacob in an unusually | long note defends. But what is there | either obscure or objectionable in the poet © saying, ‘I lie safe under shelter of a little stream’? The metaphor is obviously borrowed from one who anchors near the mouth of a river into which he may run for shelter ina storm. The Greeks called this ὕφορμος. Lachmann is altogether wrong in the following remark: ‘ Pro- pertium recte se sub flwmine morari dicere, cum pars nayigii sub aqua sit.’
87.1 Non flebo &e. “1 do not intend to sing in mournful strains the destruction of Thebes and Troy.’ ‘Paterni cineres sunt cineres bellis civilibus conflati. Nam pa- ternus est patrius, t.e. ad patriam pertinens. Hor. Od. i. 20, 5, ‘paterni fluminis ripa.’ Inf. y. 2, 2, ‘Accipe Vertumni signa pa- terna dei.’’—Hertzberg: who admits the conjecture of Passerat, septem for semper. So also Keil and Miiller. The latter word implies that in several engagements neither side gained any advantage. But there is much probability in the correction, which Jacob also approves: ‘septem ab utraque parte cecidisse duces, eaque dici prelia, non est quod moneam.’ Barth supposes the proverb Καδμεία νίκη to haye been in the poct’s mind.
μου ΚΓ ΝΣ
᾿ΑΙ]αβίοπ being to Philctas.
168
PROPERTII
Cadmi, nec semper preelia clade pari; Nec referam Sceeas et Pergama Apollinis arces,
Et Danaum decimo vere redisse rates,
40
Meenia cum Graio Neptunia pressit aratro Victor Palladize lgneus artis equus.
Inter Callimachi sat erit placuisse libellos, Et cecinisse modis, Dore poeta, tuis.
Hee urant pueros, hee urant scripta puellas ;
45
Meque Deum clament, et mihi sacra ferant.
Te duce vel Jovis arma canam, celoque minantem Coeum et Phlegreeis Oromedonta jugis ;
Celsaque Romanis decerpta Palatia tauris
Ordiar, et caso Eductosque pares
moenia firma Remo; silvestri ex ubere reges;
Crescet et ingenium sub tua jussa meum. Prosequar et currus utroque ab litore ovantes,
41.] Pressit aratro, 1.6, effecit, ut ‘im- primeret muris hostile aratrum exercitus insolens. The wooden horse is called ‘the work of Pallas’ from Od. viii. 493, τὸν ᾿Επειὸς ἐποίησεν σὺν ᾿Αθήνῃ. Brouk- huis reads arces here and artes in y. 39, in both places followed by Barth and Kuinoel, as also in his useless correction wndecimo for decimo.
44.] Keil and Miiller, with Lachmann and Jacob, edit Coé poeta from Pucci. The MSS. give dure, whence Scriverius in-
+ geniously conjectured Dore, which Barth,
Kuinoel, and Hertzberg rightly adopt, the Compare Brit- anna for Britannica, ii. 1, 76, Lydus for Lydius, ν. 9, 48. So Parthus, Indus, for Parthicus &e.
45.] Hee urant. The Gron. and Naples MSS. ize curant. The reading of Barth and Kuinoel, hae pueri curent (curent pueri, Barth) is from Pucci. The verse is rightly printed in the edition of 1488.
47.] Ze duce. Not te jubente, but te praeunte, ‘when you live less modestly, then I will write more boldly.’
48.] Oromedonta. The MSS. agree in this form of the word, which occurs also in Theoeritus, vii. 45, except that the Naples MS. (according to Miiller) gives oromodunta, ‘lhe uncertainty of the ety- mology renders it suspicious, and Hertz- berg is probably right in restoring Fwiy- medonta from Od. vii. 68, on the suggestion of Huschk, The other form, however,
Jiuet, iv. 4, 4.
though a corrupt one, is possibly as old as Propertius.
49.] Celsa Palatia, a poetic exaggera- tion, as in y. 9, 8, ‘ venit ad eductos peco- rosa Palatia montis.’—/irma, firmata.
51.] Ordiar. The future seems to be used, because his historic poems in the fifth book were juvenile performances which he does not now take into account.
52.] Crescet sub tua jussa, 1. 6. altius ascendet donec sub tua jussa venerit, ut Cesaris res gestas canat. The expression is a brief one, but not very obscure. It may be compared with esse in partes, v. 60, καθίστασθαι ἐς τρόπους. So ‘in castra re- ponere,’ v. 4,387. Compare sub tua jura Hertzberg’s comment is as follows: ‘Hoc ait, se non aliter suum scribendi institutum mutaturum esse, nisi _ cum Meecenas vivendi rationem mutaverit, Tum demum illo duce majora se ausurum.’ But it is not easy to assent to his view, that sub tua jussa means, ‘si sub tuum imperium. carmine perventum foret;’ %.e.
‘if my epic were to be continued from the foundation of the city to your times.’ What imperium had Mecenas? Or what authority is there for this use of jussa ?
53.] Utrogue ab litore, From the ex- treme east to the extreme west inclusive ; the whole Roman empire. The same phrase occurs in Georgie iii. 38.—Prosequar, ἢ. 6. carmine: but there is a sort of play on the word.
σας σ΄
aN
τὴ
LIBER IV. 10 (9).
169
Parthorum astute tela remissa fuge ;
Castraque Pelusi Romano subruta ferro, 55
Antonique graves in sua fata manus.
Mollis tu cceptee fautor cape lora juvente, Dexteraque inmissis da mihi signa rotis.
Hoc mihi, Mecenas, laudis concedis; et a te est, Quod ferar in partes ipse fuisse tuas.
X.
Mirabar quidnam misissent mane Camene, Ante meum stantes sole rubente torum. Natalis nostre signum misere puelle,
. Et manibus faustos ter crepuere sonos. ¢sTranseat hic sine nube dies, stent aére venti, Ὁ ΟΝ Ponat et in sicco molliter unda minas. ae
ey Adspiciam nullos hodierna luce dolentes, Et Niobes lacrimas supprimat ipse lapis.
δ4.1 Remissa fuge, ‘unstrung for a crafty flight, ze. to be used against the enemy by suddenly turning round.’ Virg. Georg. ii. 31, ‘ fidentemque fuga Parthum versisque sagittis.’
55.] Castra Pelusi. Lachmann, Barth, and Kuinoel read claustra, the conjecture of Lipsius. Pelusium was regarded as commanding access to Egypt by land, and was therefore destroyed by Octavian. Castra here means the garrison or fort; more commonly castellwm.
57—60.] The meaning of the conclud-
ing verses is this: ‘ Though disinclined to -write historical poems, still if you my patron insist upon it, and will engage to
regard them favourably if unequal to your expectations, I will consent, conscious that at least you cannot deny me the credit of
_ having taken the side of humility, like
_yourself.’—quod ferar, ‘that I shall be said _to have myself joined your side,’ in partes
tuas accessisse. ‘Hos honores mihi ha- bendos tu solus concedis, quod tuum ex- emplum secutus res magnas non affectare predicabor.’—Lachmann ; who transposes the last distich after v. 46.
58.] Inmissis rotis, ‘when my car is in full career.’ A metaphor from the circus,
Aleyonum positis requiescant ora querellis ; Increpet absumptum nec sua mater Ityn.
where the drivers received signs of en- couragement from the spectators, and par- tizans of the factions, fautores.
X. This charming little poem seems to have been sent as a birthday compliment to Cynthia. It breathes a fondness which could only haye found such expression in sincerity : nor must we measure its mo- rality by any other than a heathen standard.
4.] Ter crepuere, 1.6. by clapping their hands thrice they made a joyous sound, or brought tidings of a happy event, the birth-day of my dear girl. For misere we should have expected tulere.
6.] In sicco, ἐν χέρσῳ, ποτὶ ἕξερὸν ἠπείροιο, Od. ν. 402. When there is a storm, the whole shore is wet; in a calm the sand is dry to the water’s edge. Pliny, Ep. ii. 17, 27, ‘ipso litore—quod non nun- quam longa tranquillitas mollit, sepius frequens et contrarius fluctus indurat.’
8.] Hertzberg reads Niobe with the Naples MS., comparing, though hardly parallel, Lerne palus, 111. 18, 48, and Hom. 11. χχῖν. 617, ἔνθα λίθος περ ἐοῦσα θεῶν ἐκ κήδεα πέσσει. Jacob gives Niobes from MS. Gron. and Pucci. The others Niobe.
Niche Ἔ Κα nae? (- σε Pie ere OS shone on a ag Dipyla δ wh: im RLMMIMNer A furans sheer Harr
170
PROPERTII
Tuque, o cara mihi, felicibus edita pennis, Surge, et poscentes justa precare Deos.
Ac primum pura somnum tibi discute lympha, Et nitidas presso pollice finge comas. .
Dein qua primum oculos cepisti veste Properti, 15
Indue, nee vacuum flore relinque caput; Et pete, qua polles, ut sit tibi forma perennis, Inque meum semper stent tua regna caput. Inde coronatas ubi ture piaveris aras,
Luxerit et tota flamma secunda domo,
20
Sit mense ratio, noxque inter pocula currat, Et crocino nares murreus ungat onyx. Tibia nocturnis succumbat rauca choreis, Et sint nequitiz libera verba tue ;
Dulciaque ingratos adimant convivia somnos ;
Publica vicinze perstrepat aura vie. Sit sors et nobis talorum interprete jactu, Quem gravibus pennis verberet ille Puer. Cum fuerit multis exacta trientibus hora,
11.] Pennis, 7.e. omine, ‘born with a lucky omen.’ So the Greeks use πτερόν. See on Asch. Ag. 267.
12.] Poscentes, scil. invocari. Compare ii. 1, 11, and Ovid, Fast. 1, ult. ‘Ad pia propensos yota vocate deos.’—justa precare, de. talia quae concessuri sint dii. Or per- haps justa poscentes, should be joined, ‘the gods who are expecting from you the worship that is due.’
13.] Somnum discute. Some understand this of the usual washing in running water to avert the ill effects of a dream (Persius, ii. 16). But the poet seems to have nothing more in view than the common-place, though very elegantly expressed, details of everyday life; ‘rise, say your prayers, wash yourself, and put on that silk tunic (see on 1. 2, 2; ii. 1, 5) which I admired when I first saw you.’—/inge &e., ‘put into shape those glossy locks by the pres- sure of your finger.’
17—18.] This beautiful distich is want- ing in the Naples MS. probably on account of caput ending vy. 16.
19.] Piaveris, ‘when you have per- formed the holy rite with incense on the '; festooned altar.’ Piare is a favourite word ‘with the poet.—/Juxerit (luceo), because favourable omens were derived from the brightness of the flame.
22.] Crocino, κροκίνῳ, sc. unguento, essence of saffron. On the word murreus see v. 5, 26.—onyx was properly a kind of marble; here used for the gallipot itself. So Hor. iv. 12,16, ‘nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum.’—wngat, unguenti odore afficiat.
23.] Succumbat. ‘Deficiat tibicen et impar sit saltationibus nimis productis.’— Barth. ‘Let the hoarse piper give in, wearied with the nightly dance, and let there be free expression of the warmth of your amorous feelings’ (neguitie).
26.] Publica aura, i.e. non modo privata domus intus strepat, sed exterior aura vie in qua populus versatur. The sense is, ‘let the noise of our convivial party be heard by the people in the streets; lit. ‘let the very air in the public streets near the house ring with the festive sounds.’ The expression is a singular one, and the more so because pudlica in point of sense belongs rather to vie.
28.] Sit sors &e. ‘Let us try our luck too by a throw of the dice to tell us (in- terprete) which of the company is smitten by the heavy wings of the boy-god’ (Cupid). By gravibus pennis he means that the blow is heavily felt, Κύπρις γὰρ οὐ φορητὸς ἢν πολλὴ ῥυῇ, Eur. Hipp. 448, and so Plato speaks of φέρειν τὸ τοῦ
uw
LIBER IV. 11 (10).
Noctis et instituet sacra ministra Venus,
Liat 30
Annua solvamus thalamo sollemnia nostro, Natalisque tui sic peragamus iter.
XI.
Quid mirare, meam si versat femina vitam, Et trahit addictum sub sua jura virum, Criminaque ignavi capitis mihi turpia fingis,
Quod nequeam fracto rumpere vincla jugo ?
Venturam melius presagit navita noctem: 5
Vulneribus didicit miles habere metum. Ista ego preterita jactavi verba juventa ;
Tu nunc exemplo disce timere meo. Colchis flagrantis adamantina sub juga tauros
πτερωνύμου ἄχθος, Phedr. p. 252, c. The custom alluded to is that described in Hor. Od.i. 27, 10. See also Becker’s Gallus, p. 129, &e. The ¢riens, according to the same authority, contained four cyathi, or ladles-full; the sextarius being divided into twelve parts, like the as.
30.] Construe xoctis sacra, ‘when Venus our attendant shall bring on the nightly mysteries,’ ὦ. 6. of lovers.
31.] ‘Ipsis igitur natalibus Cynthie amores junxerant; eoque ipso die puella, uno anno ante tunicam ostrinam induta, dum ad Vestz precatum it, Propertii oculos ceperat (iii. 21, 26). Vides, cur preces et sacra nunc quoque dii poscant.’— Hertzberg. This is surely a gratuitous assumption. All that the poet says is this: ‘let us finish the birthday with mutual endear- ments,’ &c. Barth appears to interpret the concltiding verse aright; ‘ peragere iter natalis est celebrare diem natalem cum longus est. Iter natalis dicitur, ut alibi iter lucis, mortis, vite.’ Lachmann, who reads ter for sic, from the MS. Gron., as- signs a widely different and less becoming
sense to the passage.
XI. This elegy, addressed probably to one of those friends who had endeavoured to draw him away from his unworthy attachment, commences with a justification of his conduct, by showing that the great- est heroes have been equally enslaved. Having quoted among other instances the example of Antony and Cleopatra, he runs off in rather a desultory but splendidly poetical strain to compliment Ceasar on
haying rid Rome of one whom he seems to have regarded as a sort of female monster. See lib. vy. 6, and compare especially Horace, Od.i. 37. One might conjecture that our poet here attempted to gratify Mecenas by giving a specimen of his capability for historic subjects. Kuinoel has a fancy that two elegies are combined in one, and places a mark of separation at v.28. In the ed. Rheg. the division is fixed at νυ. 21.
2.1 Addictum, t.e. as an
to be sold as a slave trans Tiberim, v. 32.
5.] Noctem. This reading is given as a conjecture by Pucci. The good copies have mortem, which Miller retains. The sense is, ‘As a sailor knows by experience the approach of a storm and its accompany- ing dangers, better than a landsman, and a wounded soldier has more cause to fear the conflict, so does a lover more clearly foresee the risks and the difficulties of contending against Cupid.’
7.] Ista &e. ‘What you say to me, I used to say in my youth’ (viz. that it was easy to get rid of love’s yoke); but let my example now teach you to fear lest you should yourself some day find it to be far otherwise.
9.] The poet proceeds to say, that Medea, Omphale, and others, (for he men- tions the women rather than the men, as more aptly introductory to the chief point of the poem, the case of Cleopatra), ex- ercised a powerful influence on the most renowned heroes, Jason, Hercules, Ninus; nay, that gods and heroes (27) were equally
insolvent ἢ debtor is formally made over to a creditor, |
οὐ ἢ
172
Egit, et armigera proelia sevit humo,
PROPERTII
10
Custodisque feros clausit serpentis hiatus, τοῦ ut Asonias aurea lana domos.
Ausa ferox ab equo quondam oppugnare. sagittis Meotis Danaum Penthesilea rates ;
Aurea cui postquam nudavit cassida frontem,
15
Vicit victorem candida forma virum. Omphale in tantum forme processit honorem, Lydia Gygzeo tincta puella lacu, Ut, qui pacato statuisset in orbe columnas,
Tam dura traheret molla pensa manu.
20
Persarum statuit Babylona Semiramis urbem, Ut solidum cocto tolleret aggere opus, Et duo in adversum missi per mecenia currus,
susceptible. But the argument is not clearly stated; for in the case of Medea and Semiramis he describes what they did, leaving the reader to trace out the con- nexion of their acts with the love of those heroes.—adamantina juga, a mere poetical expression for strong and unbending. ‘The material Hertzberg with others regards as iron or steel. I have suggested on y. 11, 4, that the word originally meant basalt.
10.] Prelia sevit, ‘sparsit dentes dra- conis, unde nati armati inter se dimicarunt.’ —Barth.
13.] The legend was, that Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, haying come to assist the Trojans, was slain by Achilles, who on removing her war-cap or helmet was enraptured by her beauty. This was a not uncommon subject with the painters of the early Greek vases. According to Homer, 71. iii. 189, the Amazons seem to have fought against the Trojans at a time anterior to the Trojan war.—For guondam Lachmann and others give contra, which is only found in one of the inferior MSS. —virum, {.6. the man felt and acknowledged the beauty of the woman.
15.] Cassida. A rare form of the nominative, for which Hertzberg’s note will supply the student with sufficient authority. Dr. Donaldson (Varronianus, p. 155) quotes cassi/a as the ancient Etrus- can word. ‘The use of nudavit, i.e. abrepta fecit ut nudaretur, belongs to an idiom pointed out on iy. 22, 22.
17.] Omphale et in Lachmann, Barth, Kuinoel from a single copy of inferior
note. The hiatus, though remarkable, ap- pears genuine. Common as an open yowel is when the ictus falls on it, there are but few instances of it under the present cir- cumstances.—in tantum forme honorem processit, és τοσοῦτον ἀφίκετο κάλλους, tam formosa fuit.
18.] Gyg@o lacu. See Herod. i. 93. Γυγαίη λίμνη was the name eyen in Homer’s time, 1. ii. 865. It was called after Gyges king of Lydia, in which country it was situated. On tineta see on i. 6, 32. Barth rightly explains ‘ lota.’
19.] Statuisset should rather be statu- erat ; but the relative clause is affected by ut traheret.
21.] The poet, in mentioning Semiramis, leaves that part of her history which he must have had in mind without even an allusion. She is said to have been the wife of one of the king’s generals, but to have inspired the king (Ninus) with such a passion that he obtained her, as David did Bathsheba, by putting her husband to death. It was by her counsels, it is said, that the Assyrians were enabled to take Bactra after a long siege. The building of Babylon &c. is here spoken of as an in- stance of the influence obtained by women in carrying out the greatest works, such as their husbands would never have effected alone.
23.] Lachmann and Hertzberg rightly admit mdsst from the Naples and Gron. MSS. Jacob gives mis’t from Pucci, and so Kuinoel. Barth tnmissi, on what au- thority does not appear.
LIBER IV. 11 (10). 173
Ne possent tacto stringere ab axe latus.
Duxit et Euphratem medium, qua condidit arces,
25
Jussit et imperio surgere Bactra caput.
Nam quid ego heroas, quid raptem in crimine divos 7 Juppiter infamat seque suamque domum.
Quid? modo qu nostris opprobria vexerat armis,
Et famulos inter femina trita suos 7
30
Conjugis obsceni pretium Romana poposcit Meenia, et addictos in sua regna patres.
Noxia Alexandrea, dolis aptissima tellus, Et totiens nostro, Memphi, cruenta malo,
Tres ubi Pompeio detraxit
24.] Ne possent. For ita ut non possent ; an incorrect usage where the consequence and not the purpose is expressed. The meaning is, two chariots could be driven past each other on the top of the wall without collision. See Herod. i. 179.—adb may be considered as redundant, as in iy. 2, 23. :
25.] Medium. See Herod. i. 180.
26.] Lachmann reads subdere, the con- jecture of the elder Burmann. Miller adopts, Hertzberg and Jacob approve with- out admitting it. It does not indeed ac- cord with history to represent Bactra as the head of the Assyrian empire at that or any other time. But Hertzberg remarks on the uncertainty and the difficulty of reconciling conflicting Eastern legends; and he concludes that our poet probably ᾿ς followed authors now lost. It is more | natural and reasonable to refer the state- | ment to the want of accurate information ' on Eastern history and geography. We _may acquiesce in Barth’s brief comment, _‘yoluit urbem primariam esse totius im-
perii;’ swrgere not being put for edificari, but implying subsequent aggrandisement. 27.] Raptem in crimine, ‘assail the gods under the same charge.’ So MSS. Gron., Naples; erimina Pucci. Barth and Hertzberg alone defend the former, It is, however, fully as good, while it has more authority, and was more likely to have been changed to crimina by the tran- scribers than the converse. On vraptem Hertzberg remarks: ‘Judiciale verbum proprie est raptare. Hine in accusandi et convitiandi notionem transiit.’ In the acrostich argument to the Amphitryo of Plautus we have ‘invicem raptant pro meechis.’—infamat, viz. by his amours. 29.] The best copies have vexerit.
arena triumphos !
35
30.] Zrita, a coarse insinuation, that Cleopatra was too familiar with her own slaves and eunuchs. Hor. Od. i. 37, 9, ‘contaminato cum grege turpium morbo virorum.’
31.] Lachmann reads conjugi et, Miiller, Barth, and Kuinoel conjugii, both against the MSS., which agree in conjugis. The sense is, ‘As the price to be paid by her debased and degenerate husband Antony she demanded Rome itself.’ In other words, she made Antony promise to sub- ject Rome to her dominions. ‘Pretium conjugis, quod conjux dat.’—Jacob. Com- pare v. 4, ὅθ, ‘dos tibi non humilis pro- dita Roma venit.’ Barth rightly observes, ‘alludit ad matrimonium per coemptionem,’ ἢ. 6. per es et libram. See Becker, Gallus, p. 167. Antony was ‘emancipatus femine,’ sold to a woman, Hor. Hpod. 9,12. The reader will observe that the popular notion of Cleopatra’s beauty, elegance, and fasci- nations, is not borne out by the account of Propertius, who regards her simply as a lewd and abandoned woman, lost to all sense of shame, or even decency.
34.] Toties, i.e. the murder of Pompey on the shore by the treachery of Ptolemy, the siege of Julius Cesar in the Alex- andrine war, and the factions in favour of Antony.
35,] Detraxit tres triumphos. The shore itself, where he fell, is said to have stripped him of his former glories. There is, per- haps, an allusion to gladiators: see on iy. 14, 17. ries over Iarbas, the Pirates, and Mithri-. dates.— arena, the African shore, where | Pompey was killed by his freedman Po- ᾿ snug at his own request, Mart. Zp. v. © ἜΣ,
The three triumphs are the victo-. a
ie
174
PROPERTII
Tollet nulla dies hane tibi, Roma, notam. Issent Phlegrzeo melius tibi funera campo,
Vel tua si socero colla daturus eras. Scilicet incesti meretrix regina Canopi,
Una Philippeo sanguine adusta nota,
40
Ausa Jovi 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,
36.] Notam. He speaks of the death of Pompey as a national disgrace, either because he was compelled to fly from his country, or because sufficient vengeance was not exacted for his murder. It is clear that his sympathies were strongly on the side of that great and unfortunate general. Lachmann transfers this verse to the place of v.40, which he inserts in this place, lest the poet should seem to reflect on Augustus. He is sufficiently re- futed by Hertzberg. Lachmann’s suppo- tion is, that the termination of both verses with xota led to the accidental change. There might have been some plea in this, had the two pentameters been separated by a less interval. A still more extravagant transposition has been made by the same critic placing vv. 67—8 after v. 46.
37.] Phlegreo campo, i.e. he had better have died in the battle of Pharsalia, Com- pare Juvenal, x. 283, ‘Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres Optandas; sed mult urbes et publica vota Vicerunt’ &c. There was a Philegrean (i.e. volcanic) dis- trict in Thessaly as well as that better known by the name in Campania, the scene of the conflict with the giants. See Strabo, Excerpt. lib. vii. 12.
38.] Socero. Julius Cesar, whose daughter Julia Pompey had married. ‘You had better,’ says the poet, ‘have entrusted your life and safety to Casar after. your defeat by him on the field of Pharsalia.’
39.] Incest’, viz. because more than one
_ of the Ptolemies married their own sisters.
40.] All the good copies have sanguine adusta. Pucci gives sanguini, which Jacob admits. The meaning of the poet is rather obscure, ‘branded on us by the race of Philip,’ z.e. by the Ptolemies. Cf. συ. 11, 74, ‘ heee cura et cineri spirat inusta meo,’ The following is Hertzberg’s view: ‘ Nota adusta ad omnem periodum pertinet inde ay. 39—46, Turpia regine ausa et mine,
4
Romani nominis contemptio, hee wna nota est, quam sanguis Philippeus adussit. Cui autem, nisi Rome?’ He rightly observes, after Lachmann, that the simpler sense of the verse, ‘the sole (or peculiar, wea) dis- grace indelibly marked upon the Ptolemies,’ who boasted their descent from the kings of Macedonia, is not borne out by history, since that royal house was far from im- maculate in many of its members. With- out however regarding nota in apposition with what follows, we may understand it thus: ‘that sole blot on our fair name which the race of Philip has ever been able to leave.’ It is clear that the poet is offended at the impudence of Cleopatra fighting with his countrymen, and that he regards this fact alone as an ignominy hardly atoned for by her signal defeat. His detestation of the Egyptians generally is evinced by the spite with which he ridicules Isis, iii. 25, 4.
41.] Ausa, supply est.
44,.] Sequi, διώκειν, ‘to endeavour to overtake the sharp-prowed Liburnian galleys by a barge propelled with a pole.’ This is bitter irony in disparagement of the Egyptian fleet.
45.] Itis rather singular that the mus- quito-curtains, now so commonly used in
Italy, should have excited the wrath of © the Romans so greatly in the Augustan |
age; see Hor. Eyod.ix.16. The circum- stance of its being a foreign innovation was perhaps enough to rouse their anger; for such feelings are common among nar- row-minded people to this day. It is hardly necessary to add that we derive our word canopy from it, which a recent writer on etymology has deduced from cannabis, ‘hemp.’ It is probable that the ‘cono- pium’ which gaye such offence was a peculiar sort of tent, and not a mere curtain; still less, as some have thought, used as an Egyptian standard.
---
-------
LIBER IV. 11 (10).
Jura dare et statuas inter et arma Mari! Quid nune Tarquini fractas juvat esse secures, Nomine quem simili vita superba notat,
Si mulier patienda fuit ?
Cape, Roma, triumphum, Et longum Augusto salva precare diem.
50
Fugisti tamen in timidi vaga flumina Nili; Accepere tuze Romula vincla manus.
Brachia spectavi sacris admorsa colubris, Et trahere occultum membra soporis iter.
‘Non hoc, Roma, fui tanto tibi cive verenda, δὲ
Or
Dixit, ‘et assiduo lingua sepulta mero,’ Septem urbs alta jugis, toto que presidet orbi, Femineas timuit territa Marte minas!
Nune ubi Scipiade classes,
46.] Ausa—jura dare. ‘She aspired to legislate at Rome.’ Hertzberg well ob- serves, on the authority of Dio, that τὸ ἐν Καπιτωλίῳ δικάσαι was a real wish re- peatedly expressed by the Egyptian Queen. —On jura dare see y. 11, 18.—arma Mari,
j z.e. the arms and trophies taken by Marius -' and placed in the capitol.—sfatvas must “not be connected with the same genitive, as Hertzberg well observes that before Julius Czsar’s statue was erected, none but kings, with the single exception of Brutus, were allowed that honour.
48.] Quem—notat, Whose life of pride made him notorious by the just title of Superbus.
51.] Timidi Nii. As if the river feared
to receive her, lest it should experience Ceesar’s wrath. See υ. 6, 63. 52.] Romula vinela, like Horatia pila,
sup. iv. 3. 7. 53.] On the metrical licence see on Υ. 4, 48. It may be questioned if brachia was not pronounced as a dissyllable. The death of Cleopatra, commonly attributed ἢ to an asp, is of doubtful authority. Strabo, ‘lib. xvii. cap. i. gives another, but scarcely more probable account: λαβὼν (Καῖσαρ) ἐξ ἐφόδου τὴν πόλιν, ἠνάγκασε τὸν μὲν ᾿Αντώνιον ἑαυτὸν διαχειρίσασθαι, τὴν δὲ Κλεοπάτραν ζῶσαν ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὴν ἐξουσίαν. Μικρὸν δ᾽ ὕστερον κἀκείνη ἑαυτὴν ἐν τῇ φρουρᾷ διεχειρίσατο λάθρα δήγματι ἂσ- mldos, ἢ φαρμάκῳ ἐπιχρίστῳ: λέγεται γὰρ ἀμφότερα. The commentators suppose, on the testimony of Plutarch, Anton. cap. 86, that an effigy of Cleopatra was carried in the triumph. The disappointment of the
67
ubi signa Camilli,
victor at not being able to exhibit the living reality is expressed vy. 6, 63—6.
54.] Occultum soporis iter. ‘Pro ipso sopore tacite adrepente dictum. ’-- Hertzberg. trahere, perhaps for contrahere, ‘I saw the sleep of death contract her limbs;’ or, as others understand it, ‘I saw her limbs take in the subtle poison that caused the sleep of death.’ The exact construction of trahere is not clear.
55—6.] Jacob explains this distich, with the approval of Hertzberg :—‘ Hoc tanto cive non ego, O Roma, timenda fui, nec Antonius vinositate delirans.’ This is quite satisfactory. The dying words of the unfortunate and much-abused queen are here made to pay Augustus a com- pliment: ‘You need not, Romans! have brought me to this. There was no danger from me while Cesar was your protector.’ —sepulta, cf. ‘mentem lymphatam Mareo- tico,’ Hor. Carm.i. 37,14. On cive Barth rightly remarks, ‘ quia e‘vilis yideri yolebat Augustus. Cf. Ovid, Zrist. iv. 4, 13’— With this ablative absolute compare parva urbe, γ. 1, 33.—fui is from Pucci; the MSS. give fuit. The reading of Barth, Lachmann, and Kuinoel, non hee, Roma, Suit, and nee ducis assiduo &e. is said to be found in some copies; but nee appears to be from Heinsius’ conjecture.
57-8.] These lines are ironical. ‘ What! Rome fear a woman’s threats!’ &c, Per- haps we should read timeat. The latter verse is wanting in the Naples MS.—toto, see 1. 20, 35.
67 seqq.] The absence of any verb, and the difficulty of supplying one even in the
176
Aut modo Pompeia, Bospore, capta manu ? Hannibalis spolia et victi monumenta Syphacis Et Pyrrhi ad nostros gloria fracta pedes ?
PROPERTII
Curtius expletis statuit monumenta lacunis ; At Decius misso preelia rupit equo ;
Coclitis abscissos testatur semita pontes ;
68 “ul 59 BL.203 60 by Africa 65
Est cui cognomen corvus habere dedit. Hee di condiderunt, hee di quoque meenia servant: Vix timeat, salvo Cesare, Roma Jovem. Leucadius versas acies memorabit Apollo.
Tantum operis belli sustulit una dies.
70
At tu, sive petes portus, seu, navita, linques, Ceesaris in toto sis memor Ionio.
mind, may be thought to show the poetic ardour and glow of patriotism with which the whole of this fine passage was written off. The very recurrence of monwmenta in v. 61, indicates a furor scribendi. There is however no reason to suppose the word corrupt in the former verse, with Lach- mann, who objects that ‘monumenta ob Syphacem devictum nulla Scipioni posita fuerunt. For monumentum is anything which reminds us (monet) of an event. Mr. Wratislaw thinks this couplet is in apposition with ‘septem urbs alta jugis,’ and places only a comma at minas. The general sense will thus be, ‘Here, in our Capitol, are the tokens of many victories won over mightier enemies than an Egypt- ian queen. Rome can boast of her Curtii, and her Decii, devoted heads, her Cocles and her Corvinus,—and she has now a Cesar,’ &c. Miiller marks a lacuna after v.60. It is better perhaps to transfer 67—8 to follow 58, and so place an in- terrogation at 60. ‘The sense thus becomes quite simple, ‘How Rome must have de- scended from her former greatness!’ And hee dii condiderunt &c. means that even yet we need not despair, for we still have Ceesar for our preserver. Barth preserves the order of this distich, which has been variously transposed by others, and thus explains the sense. ‘Fuit ingens olim Africani et Camilli et Pompeii gloria, terra marique parta: sed nunc in ore hominum esse desiit, et quodammodo evanuit, post- quam Augustus preelio Actiaco Antonium
et Cleopatram vicit. Hance victoriam cele- brant omnes, et in posterum memorabunt, aliarum peene obliti.’
68.] Bosphore is the reading of the Naples and Gron. MSS. The construc- tion appears to be, ‘aut ubi sunt signa capta Pompeio apud te, Ὁ Bospore? It is not impossible that Bospore was intended as an ablative or locative, like Tidure, inf, 16, 2. Lachmann unnecessarily reads capte. Others adopt the false reading Bospora from the ed. Rheg. and some of the later copies. But Lachmann rightly observes that a Greek word formed from πόρος could not have a neuter plural like Ismara, Menala, Gargara, which imply an obsolete form in w«m.—modo, viz. in the recent Mithridatic War.
65.] Coelitis semita. A pathway so called seems to have remained in honour of that hero’s exploits at the Sublician bridge even to the Augustan age.—For est the MSS. give δέ.
67.] Condiderunt. The MSS. give con- diderant, which Jacob attempts to defend, and Keil also retains.
70.1 Zantum operis Ke. ‘So much of military achievement has a single day taken from the victors.’ That is, one day has eclipsed all their warlike deeds.
72.] The poet bids every sailor to feel grateful to Augustus for his glorious victory j at Actium. The Leucadian Apollo here [δἰ mentioned, like Apollo Actius, had a temple on the promontory of that name, not far from the scene of the nayal engagement.
hn
νυ. δου... ἜΝ
person.
Ϊ tine, ut lacrimes, Africa tota fuit ὃ
LIBER IV. 12 (11).
XII.
Postume, plorantem potuisti linquere Gallam,
Miles et Augusti fortia signa sequi ? Tantine ulla fuit spoliati gloria Parthi, Ne faceres Galla multa rogante tua ?
Si fas est, omnes pariter pereatis avari, 5
Et quisquis fido preetulit arma toro ! Tu tamen injecta tectus, vesane, lacerna Potabis galea fessus Araxis aquam. Illa quidem interea fama tabescet inani,
Hec tua ne virtus fiat amara tibi;
10
Neve tua Med letentur cede sagitte, Ferreus aurato neu cataphractus equo:
Neve aliquid de te flendum referatur in urna. Sic redeunt, 1115. qui cecidere locis.
Ter quater in casta felix, o Postume, Galla;
XII. This truly beautiful elegy is ad- dressed to a friend under the real or feigned name of Postumus, who was then engaged in the expedition of Adlius Gallus in Arabia, and had left his wife, who would seem to be related to the Gallus of i. 5, and there- fore a connexion of the poet’s, to lament his long absence from home. Some have thought that the same parties are addressed in the fine epistle v. 3, under the names of Arethusa and Lycotas; but Hertzberg doubts this (Quest. p. 22), and apparently
| with good reason: see introductory note to
the latter. Mlius Gallus was prefect of Egypt, and was the first who penetrated with a Roman army into Arabia, a.v.c. 730, but he was compelled to retreat with the loss of many of his men. One of the same name is mentioned in Tac. Ann. v. 8, A.u.c. 784, but can hardly be the same
8.1 Tantine. Compare iv. 20, 4, ‘Tan- The aoristic use of spoliati, (when an action is contemplated as prospectively accomplish- ed), is noticed by Hertzberg, who com- pares ‘ascensis Bactris,’ v. 3, 63.
4.] Ne faceres, rogante &e. 1.6. ut Galle tuze preces sperneres, hortantis ne eam relinqueres. ν
8.1 Avari. He indirectly upbraids him with leaving his wife from mere motives
15
of gain.
6.] Fido toro. His dislike of military service is frequently expressed, as ii. 7, 14; v. 3, 19, &e. On the lacerna see v. 3, 18.
8.] Araxis. This seems a kind of typical Eastern river with Propertius (like the Eridanus of earlier times). He pro- bably, as Mr. Wratislaw suggests, and as appears from v. 3, 33—7, knew but little of the geography of Asia. Thus he calls Babylon the capitol of the Persians, sup. 10, 21. More than one river seems called the ‘ Araxes’ by Herodotus,
10.] Amara tibi. See oni. 3,16. So πικρὴ Αἴγυπτος, Od. xvii, 448. Supply metuens ne Ke.
12.] -Adurato equo is the ablative after letetur. Ferreus is opposed to auratus. The Parthian, with his barbed horse in chain mail, would exult in the gilded trap- pings of his more Juxurious but less hardy opponent. Virg. An. xi. 770, ‘spuman- temque agitabat equum, quem pellis ahenis In plumam squamis auro conserta tegebat.’ Hor. Od, iii. 6, 11, de Parthis: ‘et adje- cisse predam Torquibus exiguis renidet.’— erato and armato are unnecessary con- jectures. On the word cataphractus see Tacit. Ann, iii. 43; Hist. i. 70, Livy, xxxvil. 40. Jacob thinks that the poet had in view the characters of Glaucus and Diomede, 74. vi. 235.
N
178
PROPERTII
Moribus his alia conjuge dignus eras.
Quid faciet nullo munita puella timore, Cum sit luxuriz Roma magistra suze ?
oe a Sed securus eas. Gallam non munera vincent,
Duritizque tus non erit illa memor.
20
Nam quocumque die salvum te fata remittent, Pendebit collo Galla pudica tuo. Postumus alter erit miranda conjuge Ulixes. Non ill longee tot nocuere more ; Castra decem annorum, et Ciconum manus, Ismara capta,
Exustaque tux mox, Polypheme, genzej4{“~ " Et Circe fraudes, lotosque, herbaque tenaces,
Scyllaque, et alternas scissa Charybdis aquas, Lampeties Ithacis veribus mugisse juvencos,—
Paverat hos Phcebo filia Lampetie,
Et thalamum Atzee flentis fugisse puelle, Totque hiemis noctes, totque natasse dies, Nigrantisque domos animarum intrasse silentum,
16.] Moribus his, ‘with such a cold and unloving disposition you did not de- serve such a wife as Galla.’
17.] Quid faciet. ‘What can you ex- pect will become of a wife, when the fear of her husband is removed, and when Rome is her residence, the very hot-bed of vice, and the teacher to others of its own profligacy.’ However (he adds, to allay the alarm his remark was calculated to arouse) you need not fear for Galla.’ Lachmann, Keil, and Miiller prefer the reading of some corrected copies, sue, for the vulg. tue.
22.] Pudica, not an otiose epithet, but salva pudicitia inter tot probra.
25.] Ciconum mons, Ismara, Calpe is the reading of all the authentic copies; and so both Jacob and Hertzberg have edited the passage, on the plea that Propertius may have followed accounts now lost of the wanderings of Ulysses. Yet, as the following incidents are wholly from the Odyssey, and as the fight with the Cicones and the capture of their city Ismarus are actually recorded, Od. ix. 38, it seems un- reasonable to doubt the correction of Fon- teine, which Lachmann and Kuinoel have admitted, and so also Miiller. Calpe (Gib- raltar) seems utterly out of place in speak- ing of the Thracians and of the Cyclops, both the subjects of the ninth book of the
Odyssey. There was, it seems, an obscure tradition that Ulysses visited Spain, and founded a city Ὀδύσσεια, Ulyssippo, or Lisbon, (Strabo, iii. p. 398); and Astibur- gium, or Asberg, in Holland (Tac. Germ. 3); but it does not seem probable that our poet should attach the same weight to it as to the Homeric narrative, which he evi- dently has in view. Hertzberg endeavours to found an argument on the events not being in the same order as they are re- corded in the Odyssey, whence he infers that our poet followed Philetas rather than Homer. _ For the same reason he thinks, with others, that ea puella, v. 31, is
Calypso, and not Circe; an opinion by no |
means certain, since according to Homer, Circe dwelt in the island Ala or Mea, Calypso in Ogygia. Nor is it a conclusive argument that Circe has just been men- tioned, vy. 27. Perhaps indeed Propertius had no yery accurate knowledge of the Odyssey, and made the slight mistake of confounding Calypso and Circe, who are but duplicate descriptions of an enchant- ress half human, half divine.
27.] Tenaces, keeping them away from their homes.
31.] Natasse. A word peculiarly ap-
plied to shipwrecked mariners. See iv. 17, 22.
μ.11 (ue
LIBER IV. 13 (12).
79
Sirenum surdo remige adisse lacus,
Et veteres arcus leto renovasse procorum,
Errorisque sui sic statuisse modum. Nec frustra, quia casta domi persederat uxor. Vincit Penelopes Atha Galla fidem.
XIII.
Queeritis, unde avidis nox sit pretiosa puellis,
—
Et Venere exhaustz damna querantur Opes.
Certa quidem tantis causa et manifesta ruinis: Luxuriz nimium libera facta via est.
Inda cavis aurum mittit formica metallis, : 5
Et venit e rubro concha Erycina salo, Et Tyros ostrinos preebet Cadmea colores, Cinnamon et multi pastor odoris Arabs. Hee etiam clausas expugnant arma pudicas,
35.] Renovasse, to have brought again into use a long disused bow by killing the suitors, Od. xxii. The infinitives all de- pend on xon ili nocuit, from sup. 24.
37.] Nee frustra, se. non nocuere, v. 24, unless perhaps it is simpler and easier to supply hee omnia perpessus est. Hertzberg objects to the former; but he is for ever dwelling on words, when the general sense is far from obscure. The poet means nothing more than ‘it was not for nothing that he escaped so many dangers: he was rewarded by returning to a faithful wife.’
38.] The MSS. give Zelia or Lelia, but agree in vincit, for which Lachmann and others have edited vincet. But the sense is, that Galla surpasses in her devotion and fidelity even Penelope.
XIII. Directed against the avarice of women, and probably suggested by the importunity of Cynthia. A very elegant poem, in which the simplicity of primitive life is contrasted with the profligacy of Rome. See on iii. 24, 28.
1.1 Pretiosa, pretio sc. muneribus emen- da. So Thais pretiosa Menandri, v. 5, 43. —Venere is from Pucci and one late copy. The Naples MS. has e¢ Venerem exhausto. Venerem is also in MS. Gron. and ed. Rheg., nor is this reading indefensible, damna being regarded as in apposition, ὁ. ὁ. damni causam. On the frequent personifi- cation of Opes and Πλοῦτος, see Asch. Agam. 1305. Supra, iy. 7, 1.
5.] Inda, for Indica. See on ii. 1, 76. The allusion is to the well-known story in Herod, iii. 102, so ingeniously explained by
umboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii. note 205. — concha Erycina, ‘the shell of Venus,’ pro- bably pearls. Others read Erythrea. It is impossible to determine with accuracy the particular shell or material here meant. Venus, however, as the goddess born from the sea, is represented as riding in a giant shell, (concha was the mystic symbol of the sex), and Hertzberg quotes ‘conchas Cytheriacas,’ from Martial 11. 47, 2. Why the Indian Ocean was called ‘the Red Sea,’ from which the more limited term of modern geography is derived, appears to be unknown. May it not have meant the Eastern sea, which ‘Aurora suis rubra colorat equis,’ inf. 16? Cf. Tibull. iy. 2,
8.1 Fastor Arabs. The Nomade Ara- bians. — pastor multi odoris, as Martial calls him messor Arabs, Ep. iii. 65, 5. See Herod. iii. 107. He enumerates, as Barth observes, ‘quatuor genera luxurie; aurum, gemmas, purpuram, unguenta.’ Cinnamon was probably obtained from Ceylon (Ta- brobane) or East Africa; but the produc- tions of India, Africa, and Arabia are often confounded by the ancients. See Hum- boldt, Cosmos, vol. 11. pp. 206-7, (note 243).
9.] Etiam clausas expugnant. A meta- phor from a beleaguered city retiring with- in its closed gates. For clausas Miiller reads nymphas, ‘brides,’ the Naples MS.
180
Quzque gerunt fastus, Icarioti, tuos:
PROPERTII
10
Matrona incedit census induta nepotum, Et spolia opprobrii nostra per ora trahit. Nulla est poscendi, nulla est reverentia dandi; Aut si qua est, pretio tollitur ipsa mora.
Felix Eois lex funeris una maritis,
15
Quos Aurora suis rubra colorat equis.
Namque ubi mortifero jacta est fax ultima lecto, Uxorum fusis stat pia turba comis,
Et certamen habent leti, que viva sequatur
Conjugium; pudor est, non licuisse mori.
20
Ardent victrices et flammz pectora prabent, Imponuntque suis ora perusta viris.
Hic genus infidum nuptarum; hic nulla puella Nec fida Evadne, nec pia Penelope.
having the reading mifeas superscribed by the same hand.
10.] Jacob and Hertzberg read Hecque from Pucci; an unusual and unpleasing combination. The Gron. and Naples MSS. give gueque, which Lachmann, Barth, and Kuinoel adopt.—gerunt for terunt is adopt- ed by the best editors from Guiet. Com- pare Tac. Ann. xi. 37, ‘tantum inter ex- trema superbie gerebat’ (swperbia egebat MS. Med.) Lachmann retains terwnt, the sense of which can only be, ‘et eas, que terunt, deterunt, imminuunt, fastus tuos, O Penelope.’ ‘Fastum alicujus terere est —facere ne quis tantopere superbiat.’— Barth.
11.] Census induta nepotum. ‘Wearing on her person whole fortunes of spend- thrifts.’ Hertzberg endeavours to show from a single passage (Ovid, Met. vii. 739), that census was properly used for xoctis merces.—Spolia opprobrit, t.e. per oppro- brium et dedecus suum parta.
18—14.] ‘Omnes jam mulieres Rome poscunt munera, omnes jam promiscue et passim sui dant copiam. Aut si contra accidit et mora injicitur, ne castiorem ideo crede puellam, que delicias agit; avarior enim tantum est: aurum ostende, ipsa mora tolletur.’—Hertzberg. The context seems to show that poscere and dare are correlative terms, as he is speaking of gifts. The poet means, I think, that the giver is as reckless as the party who asks; and any hesitation in giving—any avaritia —is bought off, t.e. by making it com-
pulsory to give as a return for something received. People buy even gifts; which from their very nature ought not to be bought.
15—22.] This touching and extremely beautiful passage is interesting as showing the antiquity of the Suttee, that strange and fanatical custom of burning alive widows in India. lian, Var. Hist. vii. 18, Παρὰ Ἰνδοῖς αἱ γυναῖκες τὸ αὐτὸ πῦρ ἀποθανοῦσι τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ὑπομένουσι. Φι- λοτιμοῦνται δὲ περὶ τούτου αἱ γυναῖκες τοῦ ἀνδρός: καὶ ἣ κλήρῳ λαχοῦσα συγκαίεται. Nor can we doubt that the legend of Evadne leaping into the pyre of her husband Capaneus, i. 15, 21, Eur. Suppl. 1046, was derived from an early Indian tradition. See Herod. y. 5.
16.] Colorat. ‘* Eastern and western relations determined the whole thermic meteorology of the Greeks. The parts of the earth towards the sun-rising were re- garded as near to the sun, or sun-lands. ‘The God in his course colours the skin of man with a dark sooty lustre, and parches and curls his hair.’ (Theodectes).” Hum- boldt, Cosmos, vol. 11. p. 160.
18.] Barth and Kuinoel give positis for Jusis, from the MS. Gron.
21.) Vietrices, i.e. quee amoris certamine vicerunt.
23.] Nulla—nec. Lachmann compares iii. 10, 5, ‘Nulla neque ante tuas orietur rixa fenestras’ &e.
24.] Euhadne Miiller, Euadne Lach- mann and others.
LIBER IV. 18 (12).
Felix agrestum quondam pacata juventus,
181
bo οι
Divitiz quorum messis et arbor erant. Ils munus erat decussa Cydonia ramo, Et dare puniceis -plena canistra rubis;
Nune violas tondere manu, Lilia virgineos lucida per calathos ;
nune mixta referre 30
Et portare suis vestitas frondibus uvas, Aut variam plume versicoloris avem. - His tum blanditiis furtiva per antra puelle Oscula silvicolis empta dedere viris. ὁ
Hinulei pellis totos operibat amantes,
Altaque nativo creverat herba toro, Pinus et incumbens lentas cireumdabat umbras, Nec fuerat nudas poena videre deas, Corniger atque dei vacuam pastoris in aulam
Dux aries saturas 1056 reduxit oves;
40
Dique dezque omnes, quibus est tutela per agros, Preebebant vestris verba secunda focis:
25.] Pacata, i.e. pacis studiosa. Lach- mann. With these beautiful verses com- pare Tacit. Ann. iii. 26, ‘ Vetustissimi mortalium, nulla adhuc mala libidine, sine probro, scelere, eoque sine poena aut coer- citionibus agebant ;’ and especially Juyven. vi. 1—12. Lucretius, v. 962.
27.] Barth and Kuinoel give ἐϊ{5 pompa Suit from Pucci; an improbable reading.
30.] Virgineos. Lachmann and Kuinoel vimineos, the plausible conjecture of Palmer. The latter epithet, however, though appro- priate, is so obvious and common-place,
to have preferred the former, whether in the sense of novos, intactos, or for virginum
] that Propertius may reasonably be thought
-+| calathos, like ‘ virginee urne,’ ii. 1, 67, || which Hertzberg compares.
τ
82.1 Jacob reads pluricoloris from the ed. Rheg. The others give versicoloris, which is probably genuine. In the Naples MS. it is viricoloris, in MS. Gron. vari- coloris.
35.] Hinnulei is the conjecture of Sca- liger. The MSS. have atgue hinuli, atque humilis or humili. The form hinulus, with the first syllable short, is unknown. Miiller supposes the ez in hinulei was mistaken for a dipthong, z.e. the archaic form of hinuli, and thus atgue was added by some transcriber.—For totos he also reads stratos with Baehrens. The sense seems simple
and appropriate, that a skin was large enough to cover up both. This is a satire on the stragula and the plume of the modern Roman beds.
37.] Jacob reads δίας from the ed. Rheg. Barth, Kuinoel, and Lachmann admit Jatas from the Aldine. There is not the slightest ground, except the love of altering the text, for rejecting Jentas; the pliant boughs of the pine formed a bower over them. This is just what most of the pines do; the stone pine (pinus pinea) might indeed be said to lend /atas umbras, but not inewmbere, at least in the sense of drooping to the ground. — Nee pena Suerat, ἐ, e. et impune licebat.
39.] Dei pastoris. The reading appears rather doubtful, though the good copies here agree. Barth and Kuinoel give dei from the Aldine, the conjecture of Volscus, (1482). Lachmann reads ingue dies. Jacob and Hertzberg regard deus pastor as Apollo. Perhaps it is indefinitely used, since in those golden times the gods commonly conversed with men, as the next distich implies.
42.] Vestris focis, i.e. O agrestes. No- thing is more frequent in the Propertian elegies than this sudden apostrophe, as has already been observed. The sense is, the gods used. to speak kind and encouraging words at the simple sacrifices offered to
ov “Proloquar: atque utinam patriz sim vanus aruspex! A . . . . “ Frangitur ipsa suis Roma superba bonis.
unit
182
PROPERTII
‘Et leporem, quicumque venis, venaberis, hospes, ‘Et si forte meo tramite queris avem ;
‘Et me Pana tibi comitem de rupe vocato,
45
‘Sive petes calamo preemia, sive .cane.’ At nune desertis cessant sacraria lucis: Aurum omnes victa jam pietate colunt. Auro pulsa fides, auro venalia jura, Aurum lex sequitur, mox sine lege pudor. 50 Torrida sacrilegum testantur mina Brennum, Dum petit intonsi Pythia regna dei; (At mons laurigero concussus vertice diras Gallica Parnasus sparsit in arma nives.
Te scelus accepto Thracis Polymestoris auro
Nutrit in hospitio non, Polydore, pio. Tu quoque ut auratos gereres, Eriphyla, lacertos, Dilapsis nusquam_est Amphiaraus equis. “ρ΄. —
their honour. Barth gives Scaliger’s cor- rection versis, viz. as participle of verro. The beautiful lines which follow are taken from an epigram of Leonidas of Tarentum, which is fortunately preserved : Εὐάγρει, λαγοθῆρα, καὶ εἰ πετεηνὰ διώκων “ϊξευτὴς ἥκεις τοῦθ᾽ ὑπὸ δισσὸν pos, Kaye τὸν ὑλήωρον ἀπὸ κρημνοῖο Bdacov
Πᾶνα: συναγρεύσω καὶ κυσὶ καὶ καλάμοις. The calamus in y. 46 is the fowler’s rod; the arundo of v. 2, 33. See Martial xiv. 208.
Non tantum calamis, sed cantu fallitur ales,
Callida dum tacita crescit arundo manu. and also lib. ix, 54.
50.] Dow, i.e. sequetur aurum. ‘ Homi- nes ad recte agendum vel legibus vel pudore ingenuo ducuntur. Jam _ leges auro sublate. Mox vel pudor sequetur, qui quamvis hominibus a natura insitus sit, a legibus tamen certum firmamentum habet et vinculum,’— Hertzberg.
61.] Torrida limina. He gives an ex- ample of sacrilegious avarice and impiety and its punishment. Brennus had en- deayoured to plunder the temple at Delphi, but was driven away by a sudden earth- quake and hailstorm, with thunder and lightning, which the poet speaks of as hay- ing struck the temple itself. See Cie. de Div. i.§ 81; Pausanijas, i. cap. 4, and x, cap. 23,
60
who says that Brennus himself and 6000 men were killed in the fight with the Phocians, and 10,000 by the storm and earthquake, and as many more by famine. Professor Geddes says (Philological Uses of the Celtie Tongue, p-19), ‘‘The leader whom the Gauls poured down upon Rome in 390 B.c. bore among the Romans the name of Brennus, and this is still the Gaelic word for ‘judge’ and ‘judgment,’ Breithanas, proying that the Gauls were under a social organisation, where the office of a King was not so much to lead in war as to dispense judg- ment and administer justice. It is strange to find the same name appearing also in the leader of the irruption into Greece a century later, down upon Delphi, a portion of which band afterwards became the occu- pants of Galatia, in the heart of Asia Minor.”’
54.] Gallica in arma, i.e, in Gallos hostes. The MS. Gron. gives ora, which most editors seem to have preferred. See on vy. 4, 34.
59.] Utinam sim vanus aruspex. ‘1 hope 1 may be mistaken in my forebod- ings.’ The Groning. and Naples MSS. give verus, which could only mean ereditus ; ‘utinam cives mei vera dicentem audiant !’ Lachmann compares Livy, xxi. 10, where Hanno says, ‘falsus utinam yates sim!’
LIBER IV. 14 (13).
183
Certa loquor, sed nulla fides: neque enim Ilia quondam Verax Pergameis Meenas habenda malis.
Sola Parim Phrygize. fatum componere, sola / ary am Fallacem patriz serpere dixit equum.
Ille furor patrie fuit utilis, ille parenti; 65 Experta est veros irrita lingua deos. unheeded
ΧΤΙΥ.
Multa tux, Sparte, miramur jura palestre, Sed mage virginei tot bona gymnasii, Quod non infames exercet corpore ludos
62.] Ilia Meenas. Cassandra. See on ZMsch. Ag. 1183. The punishment in- flicted on her by Apollo was that she should never be believed though she predicted the truth. Compare inf. v. 1, 51, ‘ Pergamex sero rata carmina yatis.’ The sense is, Ut illa Trojanis, sic ego Romanis de rebus falsa loqui visus sum.—habenda, i.e. fuit or videbatur.
63.] ‘She alone declared that Paris was bringing ruin on his country.’—fatum componere is explained ‘perniciem afferre, struere ;’ but Hertzberg will have it that the poet simply meant sepelire, as i. 22, 3, ‘patrie sepulera,’ fatum Phrygie being used for mortuam Phrygiam. Perhaps the building of the fleet is meant, which was ἀρχέκακος, pregnant with fate to Troy.— equum, the wooden horse.
65.] Fuit utilis, t.e. revera fuit utilis, quanquam spretus nihili factus est; which is equivalent to saying, ‘fuisset utilis, si auditus esset.’—‘ irrita lingua, Cassandree, non credita, verum deum habuit, vaticinata est vera et exitu comprobata.’—Barth, The poet evidently meant to express this sentiment: ‘her words, though despised and regarded as vain at the time, proved in the end to have been dictated by divine inspiration.’ The voice of a prophet is rightly said ‘to have true gods’ who in- spire it. Hxpertaest is used, because their veracity was only known by the result; and irrita implies a delusion which could only be removed experiendo. Jacob prefers to understand it thus: ‘ Dii et dono et fide adempta veri fuerunt.’ Hertzberg: ‘ At quamyis veros exinde deos suos eventu postea probaverit, irrita tamen erat, eodem quo ego nure modo.’
XIV. Though there can be little doubt
that a new elegy commences here, the transcriber of the Naples MS. seems to have found it in his copy continuous with the last; and we may observe, as in many other instances, a connexion of subject which shows that the two poems must be regarded as a pair, or the latter as a sequel to the former. For he here speaks of the simplicity of Spartan manners as conducive to chastity, and contrasts the free and un- restrained intercourse of the sexes with the jealous custody of Roman matrons. Kui- noel follows those who imagine the poet to have written this after a tour in Greece (see below, El. 21); but the education of the Spartan women was so notorious that he may at least as probably have read of it in books as witnessed it. It would appear indeed from the account given by Seneca, De Benefic. v. cap. 3, that the poet speaks rather of what once was than of the con- temporaneous customs of the Spartans. Euripides, Androm. 595 seqq., inveighs with much bitterness against the Spartan custom, and says it was the cause of all immorality.
3.] Hertzberg alone defends the reading of all the MSS., /audes. The other editors acquiesce in Scaliger’s conjecture, /udos.— exercere laudes corpore for certando prestare is scarcely defensible even in a durus poeta like Propertius; added to which non in- Jamis laus for honesta, seems scarcely a Latin expression’ Jacob hazards a con- jecture that the sense may be, ‘laudandos esse Lacedeemones, qui luctari nudas suas puellas voluissent, quum laudes easdem Romani infames haberent.’ The only way of defending the vulgate would be to un- derstand lJaudes for virtutem or res bene gestas; in Greek, ἀσκεῖν ἀρετήν. It is not without hesitation that I have rejected
oa Os γα ἃ
184
PROPERTII
Inter luctantes nuda puella viros ;
Cum pila velocis fallit per brachia jactus,
Increpat et versi clavis adunca trochi, Pulverulentaque ad extremas stat femina metas, Et patitur duro vulnera pancratio.
Nune ligat ad ceestum gaudentia brachia loris,
Missile nune disci pondus in orbe rotat.
10
Gyrum pulsat equis, niveum latus ense revincit, Virgineumque cavo protegit sre caput;
Qualis Amazonidum nudatis bellica mammis Thermodontiacis turba lavatur aquuis ;
Et modo Taygeti, crines adspersa pruina,
15
Sectatur patrios per juga longa canes;
the vulgate. But both Keil and Miller, as well as Lachmann, adopt dudos. Hertz- berg’s explanation is this: ‘Apud nos quidem laus, quam nuda puella inter viros luctando quereret, infamis esset, illic vero minime ; atqui hoc illud est, quod mihi ex illorum institutis preeplacet..—It is im- portant here to remind the student, that nudus properly means ‘lightly clad.’
5.] Various corrections and interpreta- tions of this verse haye been proposed. Scaliger’s emendation, veloci jactu, has been adopted by Barth and Kuinoel; and cer- tainly it removes the difficulty, though it has but little probability. Jacob regards velocis jactus as the genitive, ‘ea pila, que velociter huc illue volare docta nos fallat.’ The MS. Groning. however gives veloces, which Miller accepts, while Hertzberg and Lachmann regard velocis as the ac- cusative dependent on fallit.’ The former explains thus: ‘ipsa pila dicitur jactus suos fallere, dum per brachia expulsa cur- sum suum, quem quodammodo promisisse videbatur, subito alio flectat,’ comparing ii. 26, 36. Perhaps we may compare Nausicaa’s unsuccessful throw, Od. vi. ᾿Αμφιπόλου μὲν ἅμαρτε, βαθείῃ δ᾽ ἔμπεσε δίνῃ. See also Od. viii. 874. The reader will find a valuable excursus on the pila in Becker’s Gallus, p. 898—404. On per for inter, see iv. 1, 4.
6.] The game of the trochus, or hoop, is involved in considerable obscurity. The reader will refer to the Dictionary of An- tiquities, where illustrations are given from antique gems. It was ‘a bronze ring, and had sometimes bells attached to it.’ The instrument by which it was propelled was
a hooked wire, here called clavis adunca. Tron hoops may be seen at the present day driven precisely in this manner.
7.] Ad extremas metas, ‘cursu con- fecto.,— Barth. ‘When the female all covered with dust (after the foot-race) stands at the pillar at the end of the course, and courageously bears the pain of wounds received in the hard scuffling- match.’ Hertzberg regards the particular game here mentioned as a kind of rhetorical exaggeration, since it appears from Seneca De Benef. v.31, that it was not practised by the Spartans.
11.] Gyrum pulsare (πατεῖν, ἐγκροτεῖν), is here used for galloping round the turns in the stadium. Lachmann refers to Ovid, Met. vi. 219, 487, for pulsare campum or spatium, and to a note of Burmann’s on the Anthol. Lat, iii. 15, 15, p. 468, in illus- tration of ‘gyrus’ for syatiwm curriculi.
13.] Not only does the Spartan virgin engage in the above laborious and manly exercises, but she bathes in the Eurotas as the Amazons in their native Thermodon. The awkward punctuation of Lachmann, Jacob, and Hertzberg, viz. ‘ Thermodon- tiacis turba, lavatur, aquis,’ is so artificial that I have preferred to understand lavatur (in Eurota), gualis turba Am, lavatur in Thermodonte.
15.] Taygeti, Τηὔγέτου, probably a cor- ruption of τηλυγέτου, ‘the far-off moun- tain.’
16.] Patrios. Cf. Soph. Ajax, 8, κυνὸς Λακαίνης ὥς τις εὔρινος βάσις. Virg. Georg. ili. 405, ‘veloces Sparte catulos acremque Molossum.’
(ue
—
— — ———— oo
— : Ὁ νι ὁ ὁὃῸϑοΘοστ͵
ΙΝ
{.
᾿ “440
qe
LIBER IV. 14 (13).
Qualis et Eurote Pollux et Castor arenis, Hic victor pugnis, ille futurus equis; Inter quos Helene nudis capere arma papillis
Fertur, nec fratres erubuisse deos.
20
Lex igitur Spartana vetat secedere amantes, Et licet in triviis ad latus esse sue;
Nee timor aut ulla est clause tutela puelle, Nee gravis austeri poena cavenda viri.
Nullo premisso de rebus tute loquaris
Ipse tuis; longe nulla repulsa more. Non Tyriz vestes errantia lumina fallunt, Est neque odoratze cura molesta come.
At nostra ingenti vadit circumdata turba Nec digitum angusta est imseruisse via.
2
90
Nec que sint facies, nec que sint verba rogandi, ‘Invenias: cecum versat amator iter.
Quod si jura fores pugnasque imitata Laconum, Carior hoc esses tu mihi, Roma, bono.
17.] The Naples and Groning. MSS. give habenis, Pucci ad undas, which Jacob alone prefers. -Avenis is the conjecture of Volscus (1488). The word is very often spelt havena in MSS. The poet’s meaning in 17—20 is rather confused in the ex- pression. He intended to say, ‘et capit arma inter yiros, qualis Helene inter fratres deos,’ 1.6. nec magis pudore afficitur, quam si inter fratres certet. Lachmann reads interque hos v. 19, but the meaning is essentially the same.—arenis is aptly used in reference to the pugilistic and equestrian contests in which they engaged near the Eurotas. See iv. 11, 35.
21.] Vetat secedere, i.e. in publico ver- sari jubet, non seorsim agere, non yulgi oculis se subtrahere.
25.] Nullo premisso. Without sending a servant before to announce your intended visit.—longe more is the dative: ‘ No re- fusal follows your long and patient waiting for admission.’
27.] The Spartan maid does not, like the Roman, wear Tyrian purple to deceive the mistaken eye. There is no difficulty in this: fine dress seems to promise a fine form, but the eye is often disappointed in looking at the former without finding the latter.
28.] Come. This is the conjecture of Canter, and has been adopted by all but
Hertzberg, who reads adorate—domi from the Naples MS., and explains it ‘de salu- tantium molesta utique amatori turba.’ All the copies agree in domi,—a strange read- ing, and certainly not like a corruption of come. Hertzberg proposes, ‘Est neque odora canum cura molesta domi,’ com- paring vy. 5, 73, ‘ Et canis in nostros nimis experrecta dolores.’ Few will approve this. If domi be genuine, it would be easier to take it adverbially, οἴκοι, and understand adorate puelle.
30.] Nee digitum &c. A hyperbolical expression. The pathway is so crowded with attendants, that so far from being allowed access, you could not insert even a finger among them: véa is the usual ablative of Propertius: see on i. 17, 23, the sense being, ‘cum tam densa sit ac frequens via qua ambulat.’
31.] Facies rogandi, ‘What imploring look to assume without being detected.’ The facies, as Hertzberg shows, is not that of the girl, but the lover’s. ‘What to say, or with what face to say it, ’tis not easy to find.’
34.] For Laconum in the preceding v. the Naples MS. has the singular reading leonum; one proof among many that we must not put too much confidence in that ancient and generally excellent copy.— hoe bono, propter hoe bonum.
180
PROPERTII
Ve
Sic ego non ullos jam norim in amore tumultus, Nec veniat sine te nox vigilanda mihi;
Ut mihi preetextee pudor est velatus amictu,
| Et data libertas noscere amoris iter,
Illa rudes animos per noctes conscia primas 5 Imbuit heu nullis capta Lycinna datis.
Tertius haud multo minus est cum ducitur annus; Vix memini nobis verba coisse decem.
Cuncta tuus sepelivit amor, nec femina post te
Ulla dedit collo dulcia vincla meo.
10
Testis erit Dirce tam vero crimine seeva,
XV. The poet intercedes with Cynthia in behalf of a female slave called Lycinna, who seems to have been harshly treated by her on suspicion of some connexion clan- destinely continued between them. His object is, by explaining the circumstances, to reassure Cynthia of his constancy.
3.] Velatus. Kuinoel edatus, from Guyet. This passage presents considerable difficul- ties, in whatever way we attempt either to explain or to correct the vulgate. The more obvious punctuation is that adopted by Barth and Kuinoel, viz., a full stop at the end of y.4; ‘So may I never be crossed in love, as it is true that’ &e. The later editors seem to be right in placing only a comma at amoris iter, and understanding it thus: ‘So may I never more be crossed in love (as what I now say is true). When my boyish modesty had been veiled by the toga virilis, (?.e. hidden and concealed under the plea of manhood now attained) and I found no longer any restraint im- posed on my inclinations, then first I became acquainted with Lycinna.’ Lach- mann explains, ‘rubor pudens in petalis (heee sunt amictus rose) se in sinum dicitur expandere vel solvere;’ and he compares Statius, S7v. ii. 1, 1386, ‘sola verecundo deerat pretexta decori Now the pre- texta is said to have been sometimes laid aside, and the toga libera taken, soon after fourteen, or the age of puberty: though it is probable (Hertzberg, Quest. p. 17), that sixteen was the usual age; see Becker, Gallus, pp.195—7. At this period, there- fore, we may assume the connexion to have commenced. But how unusual an expression is this, ‘when the bashfulness of the preetexta was concealed by the
amictus! Hertzberg has good reason to doubt if the latter word, in the sense of the toga virilis, can be opposed to the former, since amictus is quite a general term for any outer garment. (See, how- ever, Ovid, Fast. vi. 623, compared with 570). He therefore proposes to read ‘ Ut mihi pretexti pudor est elatus amictus,’ the Naples MS. giving pretexti and amicus. Elatus is ‘dead and buried,’ as in v.9, ‘Cuncta tuus sepelivit amor.’ Without feeling quite satisfied with this, I incline to it as better than any explanation that has been proposed, especially as it has the best MS. authority in its favour, the word elatus excepted. Kuinoel construes pre- textee amiciu, and comments thus: ‘ post- quam posui cum pretexta pudorem.’ In this case ewm could hardly have been omit- ted. Barth takes velatus amietu as a mere metaphor, ‘when I had learned to cover up, and set aside, my modesty ;’ ‘ postquam ῬΌΔΟΥ puerilis, quem habui in toga prae- texta obrutus a me amictu, adeoque neg- lectus et abiectus fuit.’ On which we re- mark, that this explanation of μέ by post- guam does not suit the full stop at amoris ater.
6.] Tertius ἕο. ‘The sense is, ‘ tertius annus ducitur cum (ex quo) memini’ &e., or, ‘ex quo, quantum memini, vix inter nos decem verba coierunt.’ Or supply ea 60 tempore, et Vix memini &e.
11.1 Testis erit.—erat Lachmann, who remarks, after others, that it is not clear of what fact Dirce is appealed to as a witness. Barth understands, ‘testis erit mulierum adversus pellices iram yvehementissimam et acerrimam esse, que tam crudelem se prestitit in vero crimine, (evimen verum
LIBER IV. 15 (14).
187
Nycteos Antiopen accubuisse Lyco. Ah quotiens pulchros ussit regina capillos, Molhaque immites fixit in ora manus!
Ah quotiens famulam pensis oneravit iniquis,
Et caput in dura ponere jussit humo! Seepe illam immundis passa est habitare tenebris, Vilem jejunz seepe negavit aquam. Juppiter, Antiopze nusquam succurris habenti Tot mala? corrumpit dura catena manus. 20 Si deus es, tibi turpe tuam servire puellam: Invocet Antiope quem nisi vincta Jovem ? Sola tamen, quaecumque aderant in corpore vires, Regales manicas rupit utraque manu.
Inde Cithzronis timido pede currit in arces.
bo Or
Nox erat, et sparso triste cubile gelu.
Seepe vago Asopi sonitu permota fluentis Credebat dominze pone venire pedes;
Et durum Zethum et lacrimis Amphiona mollem
Experta est stabulis mater abacta suis.
opponit suo quod a Cynthia fingebatur tantum), videlicet cum ipsi nunciatum fuisset, Antiopen Nyctei filiam cum Lyco viro suo in lecto cubuisse. We must therefore, it would seem, construe tam séva, and take accubwisse as depending on erimine. Still, tam vero crimine might mean ‘quod tam verum erat quam falsum est quod mihi obicitur.’ Hertzberg more simply explains ‘testis erit mihi contra Cynthiam.’ The story of Dirce is this. Antiope was daughter of Nycteus, and had been married to Lycus, her uncle, king of Thebes. From her were born, by Zeus, Amphion and Zethus. Lycus having re- pudiated Antiope and married Dirce, the jealousy of the latter induced her to treat Antiope with the greatest indignity. At last however she escaped, and succeeded in informing her step-sons of her cruel treat- ment; who accordingly avenged her by killing both Lycus and Dirce. The story is given, with some varieties, by Pausanias, ii. v. § 2, who follows Homer, Od. xi. 260. This account represents her as the daughter of the river Asopus, and ravished by Epo- peus. Apollodor. iii. 5, 5, ᾿Αντιόπην δὲ ἠκίζετο Λύκος καθείρξας, καὶ ἣ τούτου γυνὴ Δίρκη: λαθοῦσα δέ ποτε, τῶν δεσμῶν αὐ- τομάτως λυθέντων, ἧκεν ἐπὶ τῶν παίδων
90
ἔπαυλιν, δεχθῆναι πρὸς αὐτῶν θέλουσα. Οἱ δὲ, ἀναγνωρισάμενοι τὴν μητέρα, τὸν μὲν Λύκον κτείνουσι, τὴν δὲ Δίρκην δή- σαντες ἐκ ταύρου θανοῦσαν ῥίπτουσιν εἰς κρήνην τὴν am ἐκείνης καλουμένην Δίρκην. The moral of the story is, to warn Cynthia of the fate of one who had acted with un- merited severity towards a rival.
14.] Jacob, Keil, and Miiller adopt the unpoetical reading of the ed. Rheg. and Naples MS., cmmitiens.
17.] For habitare Miller conjectures latitare.
21.] Jacob gives servare (interroga- tively) from the Groning. MS. The others edit servire, rightly, in my judgment.
23.] Sola. ‘Non adjuta a Jove’— Barth. ‘Yet all unassisted as she was, by exerting all the strength she had left in her body, she broke with both hands the fetters put on her by the King and his Queen.’
30.] Abacta, sc. a Zetho.—suis, sibi debitis, quie swa esse, ut mater, putaverat. Hertzberg remarks that durum Zethum ought to have come after Amphiona mollem, as abacta refers directly to the former. The metrical difficulty of the verse will sufficiently account for the arrangement adopted.
M.S
PROPERTII
Ac veluti magnos cum ponunt equora motus, Eurus ubi adverso desinit ire Noto,
Litore sic tacito sonitus rarescit arene ; Sic cadit inflexo lapsa puella genu.
Sera tamen pietas; natis est cognitus error ; Digne Jovis natos qui tueare senex,
3D Ordion.
Tu reddis pueris matrem, puerique trahendam Vinxerunt Dircen sub trucis ora bovis. Antiope, cognosce Jovem: tibi gloria Dirce
Ducitur, in multis mortem habitura locis.
40
Prata cruentantur Zetho, victorque canebat Peeana Amphion rupe, Aracynthe, tua.
At tu non meritam parcas vexare Lycinnam ; Nescit vestra ruens ira referre pedem.
31—35.] Hertzberg says on this pas- sage, ‘Locum a criticis varie vexatum— interpunctione persanavimus,’ The reader of taste shall form his own opinion on this new ‘ interpunctio.’
Ac veluti, magnos cum ponunt cequora motus,
—Eurus in adversos desinit ire Notos,—
Litore si tacito sonitus rarescit arene,
Sic—cadit inflexo lapsa puella genu—
Sera, tamen pietas.
To the present editor it seems truly sur- prising that both Keil and Muller should accept the parenthetic construction of the last verse. Nor is that adopted by Jacob much better. ‘There is, no doubt, an ob- scurity, or perhaps impropriety, in the simile; but anything is better than such violent ‘interpunctiones.’ Kuinoel is per- haps hardly justified in calling it ‘ praeclara comparatio ;’ but the sinking down of the wearied mother after her earnest appeal for admission, and the altercation conse- quent upon the request, is not inaptly il- lustrated by the silence of the worn-out elements after a storm. With Lachmann and Miiller I read wbi adverso—Noto, the Naples MS. giving swb adverso Notho. See y. 5, 24. The others edit 7” adversos notos with the majority of the good copies. Keil has Burus et adverso το.
33.] The Groning. MS. has s?, the Naples MS. sic. Miuiller reads littore si tacito, Keil and Lachmann Jitore sub tacito. We should not say, ‘the waves subside if the sound of the breakers ceases,’ but ‘the sound ceases if the waves subside.’ Pucci gives guwm, probably an explanation of s?, Sic tacito is to be closely connected, #.e. desinentibus, cessantibus ventis tandem silente.
35.] Sera tamen pietas. ‘There is some ellipse: ‘(the conduct of the sons was indeed cruel) yet affection showed itself at last.’ Indeed, tamen is said in respect of durum Zethum and abacta stabulis suis. The discovery of their relationship was made by an old shepherd, who had educated the youths, and whom the poet apostrophises in ver. 36.
38.] Sub ora, to the head or horns of a bull, so as to be tossed and gored to death. A beautiful fresco of this subject was found at Pompeii; but Dirce is there tied to the bull by a rope round its body.
39.] Cognosce Jovem. ‘Vim Jovis et opem agnosce.’—Kuinoel.
41.] Pucci gives Zeto, whence Lach- mann ingeniously conjectured /eto. But the dative in the sense of prata Zethi is quite defensible. The locality was perhaps so called after the event. He (as Jacob remarks) took upon himself the sterner part both in rejecting the mother and afterwards avenging her wrongs, while Amphion sate him down and played a pean on his lyre. Aracyn- thus was a mountain on the confines of Attica; perhaps confused with the ’Apax- ναῖον almos of Aischylus, dg. 309. But Dr. Smith says (Classical Dictionary in v.) ‘A mountain on the S.W. coast of Aitolia near Pleuron, sometimes placed in Acar- nania. Later writers erroneously make it a mountain between Bootia and Attica, and hence mention it in connection with Amphion the Beotian hero, Prop. iv. 13, 41. Virg. Eel. ii, 24.’
44.] Vestra, ‘the anger of you jealous women.’
LIBER IV. 16 (15).
Fabula nulla tuas de nobis concitet aures:
189
Te solam et lignis funeris ustus amem.
ΧΟΡ
Nox media, et dominze mihi venit epistola nostra Tibure: me missa jussit adesse mora,
Candida qua geminas ostendunt culmina turres, Et cadit in patulos lympha Aniena lacus.
Quid faciam? obductis committam mene tenebris,
Or
Ut timeam audaces in mea membra manus ? At si distulero hee nostro mandata timore, Nocturno fletus szvior hoste mihi. Peccaram semel, et totum sum pulsus in annum:
In me mansuetas non habet ila manus.
45.] Concitet, moveat, 7.e. noli credere falsis de me fabulis.
XVI. The poet is supposed to solilo- quize on a letter he has just received from his mistress at Tibur. He weighs the in- convenience against the obligation to obey, and concludes with a touching picture of his funeral, supposing that some accident should happen on the journey.
1—2.] The editors generally place a
» colon at nostrz, and make adesse Tibure to | signify ad Tibur venire. Jacob, who thinks | the poet was summoned, not from Rome to _ Tibur, but from Tibur to Rome, defends the ablative by Ovid, Met. ii. 512, ‘Que- \ ritis, zetheriis quare Regina deorum Sedi- | bus huc adsim.’ The sense must then be adesse Rome a Tibure. Perhaps indeed | | Tibure adesse may mean ‘to be at Tibur.’ | Hertzberg observes, that in v. 3—4 a de- _ +scription of Tibur itself is clearly intended ; therefore the poet is to go ¢o that town. ‘Jacob, feeling this objection to his view, ‘says, ‘monumentum aliquod Romanum describunt, quod a quodam lacu Aque _Anienis haud procul aberat; illic inven- ‘turum Cynthiam esse.’ But it seems on the whole better to adopt the punctuation of Hertzberg, by which all obscurity and difficulty is at once removed. ‘A letter came from Tibur to say I was wanted there immediately.’
3.] The topography of Tibur is learnedly illustrated by Hertzberg. The white cliff, of the formation called travertin, the ravine of the Anio, which there dashes rapidly
10
into a wide basin, and the prominent land- marks on each side of the bank described as gemine turres, were familiar objects to ave Roman, and could only apply to that place.
41 Lympha. Hertzberg prefers Nym- pha from the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. It is well known that the words are iden- tical ; nor does a long note seem necessary, to prove that whatever is presided over by a deity may be called by the name of that deity, as Ceres and Bacchus often signify bread and wine.
6—8.] The danger of a night journey in the neighbourhood of Rome, from the roads being infested with banditti, is forci- bly expressed. See Juven. iii. 305, x. 20.— For distwlero hee some prefer hee distulero from the Groning. MS. and ed. Rheg. On this Lachmann makes a curious remark, which the reader will do well to verify for himself: ‘Amant poetze hee futura ultima vocali liquefacta ponere.’—wostro timore, from personal fear, fear for myself. Hertz- berg attempts to connect nostro mandata timore, for nobis timentibus, as nostro gemitu i. 21, 3. This seems as far-fetched as it is unnecessary.
8.1 Fletus, t.e. the consequences to my- self of disobeying her behest: οἰμώζειν, as Barth observes.
9.1 Peccaram semel, ‘I had offended only once,’ or had neglected to go when summoned on one single occasion, ‘and I was cast off for a whole year.’—totum in annum, 1.6. the year 729, according to Hertzberg’s calculation, Quest. p. 16.
oe
PROPERTII
XNec tamen est quisquam, sacros qui ledat amantes. Scironis media sic licet ire via.
Quisquis amator erit, Scythicis licet ambulet oris; Nemo adeo, ut noceat, barbarus esse volet. Luna ministrat iter; demonstrant astra salebras ;
found ΠΣ mn
Ipse Amor accensas percutit ante faces. Seeva canum rabies morsus avertit hiantis:
Huic generi quovis tempore tuta via est. Sanguine tam parvo quis enim spargatur amantis
Improbus? exclusis fit comes ipsa Venus.
20
Quod si certa meos sequerentur funera casus, Talis mors pretio vel sit emenda mihi.
Adferet hue unguenta mihi, sertisque sepulcrum Ornabit custos ad mea busta sedens.
Di faciant, mea ne terra locet ossa frequent,
Qua facit assiduo tramite vulgus iter.
Post mortem tumuli sic infamantur amantum ; ἃ ee Ow Me tegat arborea devia terra coma, Aut humet ignote cumulus vallatus arene ;
Non juvat in media nomen habere via.
11—18.] He here alludes to the popular notion that a lover bore a charmed life: see vy. 1, 147—9. Tibull. i. 2, 27, ‘ Quis- quis amore tenetur, eat tutusque sacerque Qualibet; insidias non timuisse decet.’— sic, i.e. Si quis amat, is from Pucci. The MSS. have s¢licet or seclicet.
16.] ‘Pereutit omnes. Corrigunt pre- cutit; non recte; nam precutit facem is, qui preecedens pereutit; hic autem Amor percutit ante.’—Jacob, Percutere is _pro- perly said of those who in carrying links strike the lighted end against a wall to knock off the accumulated ashes. See i. 8, 10, Ovid, Am, i. 2, 12, ‘Vidi ego jac- tatas mota face crescere flammas, Et vidi nullo concutiente mori.’ The accusative after ministrat (i.e. preebet, commodat iter), is supported by Lachmann from Virgil (Georg. iv. 146), Seneca, and Statius; and therefore to read eguwis for titer in y. 19, with Barth and Kuinoel, from one late copy, would be most unreasonable,
18.] Huie generi, 501]. amatorum.
19.1 Parvo sanguine, 1. ὁ. insignificant, vili, as offering no prize to recompense the murderer. Miiller reads tam puro, after Fischer, and ecce, suis for eaclusis in the
30
pentameter, on the same authority. Both seem to me most needless alterations.
20.] Exclusis. The meaning of this word is obscure. Lachmann pronounces it ‘ineptissimum,’ and reads δέ cursus. Hertzberg understands execlusis commercio hominum, which is the most plausible ex- planation. The context rather suggests exclusis amicorum comitatu, Perhaps how- ever the poet had in mind the double danger both of the journey thither and the return when the lover had been refused admittance.
21.] Meos casus, death by being way- laid. Certa funera, ‘si funera sibi parata fore certe sciat..—Lachmann.
22.) Vel sit emenda, digna etiam esset quam emerem pretio:
23.] Hue, sc. ad funera, Lachmann and others read hee with Guyet, but against the authority of the MSS.
29.] Keil and Miiller, with Jacob and Lachmann, read aut humer ignote cumulis &e. The MSS. present various corrup- tions; the Naples MS. gives Awmeri and cumulis, the MS. Gron. humer (ὃ so Hertz- berg) Awmet according to Jacob, and ¢umu- lus: the ed. Rheg. Aumet. The epithet
w
alls 9 yew
REP >
ΐ
LIBER IV. 17 (16).
191
XVII.
Nune, o Bacche, tuis humiles advolvimur aris: Da mihi pacato vela secunda, pater.
Tu potes insane Veneris compescere fastus, Curarumque tuo fit medicina mero.
Per te junguntur, per te solvuntur amantes:
Or
Tu vitium ex animo dilue, Bacche, meo.
Te quoque enim non esse rudem testatur in astris Lyncibus ad celum vecta Ariadna tuis.
Hoe mihi, quod veteres custodit in ossibus ignes,
Funera sanabunt, aut tua vina, malum.
10
Semper enim vacuos nox sobria torquet amantes, Spesque timorque animum versat utroque meum.
Quod si, Bacche, tuis per fervida tempora donis Accersitus erit somnus in ossa mea,
Ipse seram vites, pangamque ex ordine colles,
15
Quos carpant nulle, me vigilante, fere. Dummodo purpureo spument mihi dolia musto,
vallatus applied to tumulus would be super- fluous, if not inappropriate; and the person buried would hardly be said vallari eumulis arene, which is applicable rather to one fenced round with a mound than to a dead body covered by it.
XVII. This spirited poem bears internal evidence of having been written, like Horace’s Eve ! recenti mens trepidat metu, under the inspiration of the god himself who is addressed. Having been excluded by Cynthia, the poet consoles himself with wine; and the concluding distich would seem to indicate that he was now becoming tired of the servitude which in El. xxiv. he finally abjures.
2.] Lachmann and Barth adopt the |, reading of the MS. Groning., bacchato. τ But the whole point of the poem is to ask for ease and comfort from the god of wine. The word in the text is also adapted to the simile borrowed from a calm sea.
5.] As on the one hand affection is warmed and love promoted, so on the other quarrels arise and separations result from wine.
6.] Vitium, ‘this weakness,’ ‘ egritu- dinem animi.’— Barth.
7.] Rudem, amoris expertem.
9.] In ossibus, Cf. vy. 4, 70, ‘Nam
Vesta—culpam alit et plures condit in ossa faces.’—aut tua vina, 7.e. if your wine will not heal it, nothing but death will.
12.] There is some doubt as to the true reading of this verse. The Groning. MS, gives animum vexat utringue meum; the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. animo versat utroque modo. Iam inclined to think that utroque is genuine, and that the other ab- latives are corruptions arising from an at- tempt to adapt some substantive to the supposed pronoun. I therefore follow Kuinoel and Lachmann rather than Barth and Jacob, who give versat utrogue modo, and so also Keil and Miiller. Hertzberg has versat utringue meum. Mr. Wratislaw, utraque. The sense is, ‘As a sober night is always dismal to a lover who lies vacuo toro, and as my mind is distracted at present between hope and the fear of disappoint- ment, therefore I will have recourse to wine.’
13.] Construe donis per fervida tempora, sc. fusis, ‘by wine acting on my feverish brow.’ Compare ‘hoc sollicitum caput,’ inf, 42.
15.] Pangam, disponam, conseram, dis- tinguam.—me vigilante, τ. ὁ. quos custodiam ne carpant fere.
17—20.] ‘Provided only I have a neyer-failing supply of grape juice, I will
192
PROPERTII
Et nova pressantis inquinet. uva pedes, Quod superest vite, per te et tua cornua vivam,
Virtutisque tuze, Bacche, poeta ferar. Dicam ego maternos Aitnzeo fulmine partus, Indica Nysxis arma fugata choris,
Vesanumque nova nequidquam in vite Lycurgum, Pentheos in triplices funera grata greges,
Curvaque Tyrrhenos delphinum corpora nautas
25
In vada pampinea desiluisse rate, Et tibi per mediam bene olentia flumina Naxon,
ever be your votary and the poet of your valourous deeds.’ Jacob and Hertzberg seem to have rightly transferred the full stop usually placed at pedes v.18, to fere y. 16, since the condition in dwmmodo refers rather to what follows than to zpse seram vites &e.
19.] Cornua. One of the attributes of ' Bacchus was κερασφόρος. See Tibull. 11. .1, 3; Plutarch, Jsid. § 35, who identifies the god with Osiris. The true explanation seems to be that the bull was the common Eastern symbol of vitality and physical power, whence it so commonly occurs in the Assyrian sculptures. According to Plutarch, Symposiae. lib. ix. ii. § 3, ἄλφα was the Phoenician name of the ox, which may be supposed to have stood first in a phonetic alphabet as the most important gift of Earth. Now the grape was so naturally associated with the ox, as being one of the most essential vegetable pro- ducts of the soil, that we need not be surprised at Bacchus being painted with horns. Corn, wine, and cattle, were the three staple commodities of the early set- tlers, and closely associated in their my- thology.
21.) tno fulmine. Eurip. Bacch, Σεμέλη λοχευθεῖσ᾽ ἀστραπηφόρῳ πυρί.
This legend also is easily explained: in fact, Strabo gave the true interpretation of it long before philology was thought of asa science. The vine, it is well known, delights in volcanic soils, on the potash and sulphur of which it feeds; hence the grape was called the offspring of eruptions. Strabo, lib. xiii. iv.: τινὲς δὲ εἰκότως πυ- ριγενῆ τὸν Διόνυσον λέγεσθαί φασιν, ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων χωρίων τεκμαιρόμενοι. Idem, lib. v. cap. 4, (speaking of Vesuvius, which in his time was not an active volcano), τάχα δὲ καὶ τῆς εὐκαρπίας τῆς κύκλῳ TOUT αἴτιον, ὥσπερ τῇ Κατάνῃ φασὶ, 7d κατα- τεφρωθὲν μέρος ἐκ τῆς σποδοῦ τῆς ἀνε-
νεχθείσης ὑπὸ τοῦ Αἰτναίου πυρὸς, εὐάμ- πέλον τὴν γῆν ἐποίησεν: ἔχει μὲν γὰρ τὸ λιπαῖνον καὶ τὴν ἐκπυρουμένην βῶλον, καὶ τὴν ἐκφέρουσαν τοὺς καρπούς.
23,1 Vesanum in vite, ‘acting madly in the case of the vine,’ 7.e. in his treatment of it, by a well-known idiom. Various accounts of this Thracian king are given: the epithet nova implies that he opposed the introduction of the grape, or, perhaps, some particular variety of it. He is said to haye gone mad and to have cut his own knee, or, according to others, to have killed his own son, in attempting to destroy the vines. See Iliad, vi. 180; Soph. Ant. 959. Apollodor. iii. 5, 1, Λυκοῦργος δὲ, παῖς Aptavros, "Hdwvav βασιλεὺς, of Στρύμονα ποταμὸν παροικοῦσι, πρῶτος ὑβρίσας ἐξέ- βαλεν αὐτόν.---Ὁ δὲ, μεμηνὼς, Δρύαντα τὸν παῖδα, ἀμπέλου νομίζων κλῆμα κόπτειν, πελέκει πλήξας, ἀπέκτεινε, καὶ ἀκρωτη- ριάσας αὐτὸν, ἐσωφρόνησε.
24.] In triplices greges. Barth supplies divisa, which is certainly better than Kui- noel’s ‘funera grata in triplices greges pro, triplicibus gregibus.’—grata, t.e. Baccho. Compare Eur. Bacch. 680, ὁρῶ δὲ θιάσους τρεῖς γυναικείων χορῶν, ὧν ἦρχ᾽ ἑνὸς μὲν
Αὐτονόη, τοῦ δευτέρου Μήτηρ ᾿Αγαύη σὴ; | '
τρίτου δ᾽ ᾿Ινὼ χοροῦ.
25—6.] This story is beautifully told...
in one of the Homeric Hymns to Bacchus. Ὁ
See also Ovid, Wet. iii. 630 seq.—delphinum. τ
corpora, mutatos in delphinas.
27.] Flumina, i.e. dicam, v.21. ‘Dicam vini flumina per mediam Naxon tibi efflux- isse.’ The tradition was that at Naxos there was a spring of pure wine; a legend expressive of abundance of the grape. Eur. Bacch. 707, καὶ τῇδε κρήνην ἐξανῆκ᾽ οἴνου θεός. It was in this fertile and beautiful
Ariadne mourning for the perfidious The- seus, and that the wedding ceremony was held, which is here alluded to.
Ε = ἣν
ἢ zy
|
island, also called Dia, that Bacchus Ἂ
LIBER IV. 18 (17). 193
Unde tuum potant Naxia turba merum. Candida laxatis onerato colla corymbis ὲ
Cinget Bassaricas Lydia mitra comas; ἢ 30 Levis odorato cervix manabit olivo,
Et feries nudos veste fluente pedes.
Molla Dircee pulsabunt tympana Thebe ; Capripedes calamo Panes hiante canent; Vertice turrigero juxta dea magna Cybelle
ep ΟΣ
Tundet ad Τάξθοβ. cymbala rauca choros. Ante fores templi crater antistitis auro Libatum fundens in tua sacra merum. Hee ego non humili referam memeranda cothurno, Qualis Pindarico spiritus ore tonat. 40 Tu modo servitio vacuum me siste superbo, Atque hoe sollicitum vince sopore caput.
XVITI.
Clausus ab umbroso qua ludit Pontus Averno,
30.] Cinget and the following futures mean in meo carmine. Cf. 39. — Lydia mitra. Hertzberg considers this to have been a peculiar form of the head-dress, with pendents covering the cheeks. See vy. 7, 62, and ibid. 5, 72.
32.] Nudos pedes. Bacchus seems to have been thus represented from the custom of treading grapes. ‘Tinge novo mecum dereptis crura cothurnis,’ Virg. Georg. ii. 8. The vestis fluens alluded to is the long palla. See iii. 23, 16, and on vy. 6, 76.
36.] The MSS. give fundet, There can be no doubt of the truth of Scaliger’s cor- rection, though Jacob hesitates to admit it. The transposition of eymbala and tympana, on account of their respective epithets, is mere trifling with the text, and it is sur- prising that Lachmann should have followed Burmann in the alteration. The tympana are ‘soft,’ z.e. yielding to the blow, because made of stretched hide; the cymbala are ‘harsh’ from their noisy clang. On the other hand, as Hertzberg observes, modlia cymbala is an absurdity.
37.] auro, supply factus erit, 1 Siste &c., κατάστησον, ‘fac me carere servitio mihi a Cynthia imposito.’
XVIII. On the death of Marcellus, son of C. Marcellus and Octayia, sister of Au-
gustus, which event took place at Baia, B.C. 23, when he was in his 20th year (v. 15). The celebrated passage in the Aimeid, vi. 860 seq., commemorates and immortalises his memory. From a mis- taken notion that the poet speaks of him in v. 9 as having been accidentally drowned, it has been erroneously inferred that sus- picion of foul play on the part of Livia was entertained. The silence of Suetonius on the subject of his death is remarkable ; but there is no reason to doubt that it was caused by the incautious or excessive use of the bath, added, perhaps, to the ener- vating effects of the sea air: see on τ. 9. 1.] The MSS. and edd. give Judit, ‘chafes and ripples,’ which has been re- tained by the recent editors, except Hertz- berg, who reads adludit, the conjecture of Canter, 7.e. ‘where the sea washes Baiz.’ But the elision is not metrically elegant, and perhaps it is better to take stagna in apposition to Pontus, i.e. ubi sunt stagna. The Lucrine lake, it is well known, was connected with the Avernian (Georg. ii. 161), by a cutting through the intervening ridge, so as to form a connected series of docks or harbours, called the Julian Port, the outer sea, or bay of Naples, being kept out by the natural barrier of the via Herculis, see i, 11, 12. The lake Avernus
O
35 th baer. “
«τωρ
194
PROPERTII
Fumida Baiarum stagna tepentis aque,
Qua jacet et Trojz tubicen Misenus arena, Et sonat Hereculeo structa labore via,
Hic, ubi, mortales dextra cum quereret urbes, 5 Cymbala Thebano concrepuere deo,-—
At nunc, invisee magno cum crimine Baie,
is called wnbrosus, because the overhanging sides were formerly covered with a verdure which imparted a gloomy and dismal aspect to a lake which was already regarded as ‘uncannie,’ and wmbrarum locus (Ain. vi. 890). So wnbrost rogi in v. 11, 8, are the shadow-haunted tombs. Strabo, v. cap. 4, περικλείεται δ᾽ ~Aopvos ὀφρύσιν ὀρθίαις, ὑπερκειμέναις πανταχόθεν πλὴν τοῦ εἴσ- πλου, νῦν μὲν ἡμέρως ἐκπεπονημέναις, πρότερον δὲ συνηρεφέσιν ἀγρίᾳ ὕλῃ με- γαλοδένδρῳ καὶ ἀβάτῳ, αἱ κατὰ δεισι- δαιμονίαν κατάσκιον ἐποίουν τὸν κόλπον. The Lucrine lake extended nearly up to Baie (πλατύνεται μέχρι Balwy, Strabo) whence it is here in a manner identified with the hot sulphur baths of that watering place. Pontus must therefore be under- stood of the Lucrine lake, not of the outer sea. It is clausus, as divided by a strip of land from Avernus. Hertzberg has a sus- picion that Averno is here put for Lucrino, and that Pontus is the bay of Naples, shut out by the via Herculis. Strabo, in fact, distinctly says that Artemidorus considered the Lucrine lake to be the Avernus.—The topography of the place is known from ancient accounts; but the nature of the ground has, been greatly changed, both by the alteration of the coast line and by the Monte Nuovo rising up in a single night, Sept. 19, 1538, in the site of the Lucrine lake, which thus disappeared. See Hum- boldt, Cosmos, vol.i. p. 229. It is probable that the via Herculis was in part at least artificial, as Agrippa, who executed the above great work, is said by Strabo to have repaired it (ἐπισκευάσαι). See Ritter on Tac. Ann. xiv. 8. ‘Lucrino addita claustra,’ Georg. ii. 161.
2.] Fumida. The copies and earlier edd. give hwmida. Scaliger’s emendation admits of no doubt. Ovid, 4. A. i. 256, ‘Quid referam Baias, preetextaque litora velis, Et que de calido sulphure fumat, aquam δ᾽
8.1 Misenus, See 1.11, 4; Virg. Zn, vi. 162, seq.—sonat, ¢.e. ‘maris vehemen- tioris appulsu,’ as Hertzberg rightly ex- plains. Others understand eguorwm ungulis. But Strabo says it was only as wide as a
carriage road, and not easily crossed even on foot. It was, in fact, a long and narrow trap dyke, which could hardly have been used for horses or even mules, especially as there was, of course, an entrance through it into the Lucrine Lake.
5.] I have adopted mortales (for mor- talis) from the Naples and Groning. MSS. The nominative, as Hertzberg shows, is objectionable for two reasons; first, the very next line speaks of Hercules as deus, not homo; secondly, he was at all events not mortalis, even in the condition of homo on earth.—guerere mortales urbes is op- posed to celum adire, implied in deo. Both Keil and Miiller however, and also Mr. Wratislaw, read mortalis. It is not quite clear whether Thebanus deus is Hercules or
Bacchus; and on this depends the sense of i : The addition of dextra, ‘by ἡ
quereret. prowess of hand,’ seems to fix the sense to Hercules and his conquests. If we read
mortalis, the meaning will be, ‘on the
spot where the Theban god was worshipped for conquering cities as a human hero on earth.’ From his legendary exploits in this part of Italy the town of Herculaneum derived its name. He was also the patron, as Hertzberg observes, of hot springs, and hence was additionally honoured at Bais, as well as at Tibur (vy. 7, 82). Hence, too, there is a peculiar force in hostis deus, v. 8, as if the patron god had abandoned the springs and some noxious deity had occupied his place. Dr, Livingstone, writ- ing from Central Africa, says, the Manyema people ‘call the spirit of evil, who resides in the deep, Mulambu. A hot fountain near Bambarre is supposed to belong to this being, the author of death by drown- ing and other misfortunes.’
7.] The anacoluthon in the opening verses presents no serious difficulty; the distich 7—8 containing one of those sudden apostrophes so characteristic of Propertius. The apodosis is at vy. 9. ‘Where Baiz is, —formerly favoured by the presence of a god, but now having a less benign influence, —here,’ &c. The name of Marcellus, it will be observed, is suppressed.
Sethe
2...)
Alse Sy Td harne γῶν. Avlgnus>
ΙΒ FV. 18. (17).
Quis deus in vestra constitit hostis aqua ?— His pressus Stygias vultum demisit in undas,
- Errat et in vestro spiritus 1116 lacu.
10
Quid genus, aut virtus, aut optima profuit illi Mater, et amplexum Cesaris esse focos ?
Aut modo tam pleno fluitantia vela theatro, Et per maternas omnia gesta manus ?
Occidit, et misero steterat vigesimus annus:
Tot bona tam parvo clausit in orbe dies. I nunc, tolle animos, et tecum finge triumphos, Stantiaque in plausum tota theatra juvent. Attalicas supera vestes, atque omnia magnis
Gemmea sint ludis: ignibus ista dabis.
Sed tamen huc omnes, hue
9.] His pressus, i.e. stagnis, sup. 2. This verse is commonly nusinterpreted to signify that the youth was drowned in the bay of Baiz. But it is evident that this is a gratuitous supposition. Such an ex- planation leaves it doubtful to what his refers: in fact it is only by supplying aquis, that such a sense could be elicited. By saying that Marcellus died oppressed and overcome by the baths at Baie, he explains why that watering-place was now invise cum magno crimine. Mr. Wratislaw, referring iis to his Baits, naturally finds a difficulty in vestro Jacu, and proposes hic. It is hard to say if ‘demittere vultum in Stygias aquas’ is a general term for dying, or has reference to dipping the head and face in sulphur-waters supposed to be in- fested with a demon. Lachmann, Barth, and others read demersit, which would rather require im undis. Hertzberg rightly explains pressus by oppressus, afflictus, show- ing from Cic. Ep. ad Fam. ix. 12, that the climate of Baize was considered very re- laxing and unwholesome. Strabo too calls the volcanic vapours καμνώδεις.
10.] This fine verse is certainly not im- proved by Lachmann’s punctuation, ‘ Errat et in vestro, spiritus, Ile, lacu.’ He is right, however, as to the sense. Marcellus ‘flits a spirit’ in those fatal waters. The
| Avernian lake was the very abode of
ghosts, νεκυομαντεῖον, Strabo, γ. cap. 4. 12.] Amplexum esse.—amplexo Barth and Kuinoel, but against the good copies. What availed it, the poet asks, that he was connected with the house of Cesar? ‘Amplexus vero erat Augusti focos non tantum adoptione, sed etiam sponsaliis
20 primus et ultimus ordo:
celebratis ante deos Penates cum Julia, Augusti filia.’—Barth.
13.] The sense is thus given by Hertz- berg : ‘ Quid referam Marcelli ipsius gesta, quid preeterea omnia illa, que ejus nomine mater gesserit >’ Ἵ the duties of her son as .25.4116, when he ἡ was unable through illness to attend to them. The theatre of Marcellus was erected by Augustus in the name of his nephew. See Tac. Ann. ili. 64; Sueton. Oct. § 29. ‘Quedam etiam opera sub nomine alieno, nepotum scilicet et uxoris sororisque, fecit : ut porticum basilicamque Caii et Lucii; item porticus Livie et Octavie, theatrumque Marcelli.’ — Jodo tam pleno seems more correct than modo Jfluitantia, i.e. que nuper fluitare vidimus. To the same gift he alludes in y.19, Atta- licas supera vestes. See v.5, 24. The vela were the awnings, (sinuosa vela, v. 1, 15), graphically described in the old theatre by Lucretius, iv. 75 seqq., where they are also called vela, different perhaps from aulea, Georg. 111. 25.
16.] Dies, i.e. the brief life of Marcellus.
17.] 1 mune. Addressed ironically to any vain believer in human glory.
20.] The MSS. agree in ὑδέα. Jacob and Lachmann, apparently by an over- sight, print usta, which is also given by Kuinoel from a late MS., though not by Barth. The reading is decidedly inferior, as it ought rather to have been wrenda. On the contrary, ista, ‘those riches and honours of yours,’ happily expresses the perishable and worthless nature of them.
21.] Hue, sc. tendimus. The Naples and Gron. MSS. have hoe, which Lach-
Octavia had conducted »
ἴω KANTO re ς arin Δαναῶν fT
«μύμδα Td eN®
PROPERTII
Est mala, sed cunctis ista terenda via est. Exoranda canis tria sunt latrantia colla; Scandenda est torvi publica cymba senis. :
ΠΙῸ licet ferro cautus se condat et ere, Mors tamen inclusum protrahit inde caput.
Nirea non facies, non vis exemit Achillem, Creesum aut, Pactoli quas parit humor, opes.
Hic olim ignaros luctus populavit Achivos, Atridze magno cum stetit alter amor.
At tibi nauta, pias hominum qui traicit™umbras, Hue anime portet corpus inane tue,
Qua Siculee victor flluris Claudius et qua
Cesar ab humana cessit
mann reads in both places, sc. ‘hoc omnes coguntur facere.’—ordo perhaps refers to the different ranks as arranged in the theatre. —tamen implies some ellipse: ‘(in- visa quidem est mors) sed tamen’ &e. This sentiment in fact is expressed in the pen- tameter.
25.] lle, ‘this (1.6. any) man may hide his body in iron and brass; yet Death will come and force him to put out his head.’ The figure is perhaps derived from a snail or tortoise concealed in a shell.
29.] Jgnaros, sc. imprudentes, causam mali nescientes. Alter amor is the love of Chryseis; whence Clytemnestra taunts her husband with having been Χρυσηΐδων μείλιγμα τῶν ὑπ᾽ Ἰλίῳ, Ag. 1414. Lach- mann gives altus amor, and refers magno stetit to the Greeks, not to Agamemnon himself. Hertzberg thus paraphrases: ‘quo tempore A. iterum amore male mulc- tatus est;’ observing that in all his loves Agamemnon was unfortunate. As popu- lavit is stronger than vexavit, it is likely that Zwetws is the grief of Achilles for the loss of Briseis; which grief caused the loss, by war and pestilence, of so many of the Greeks. ‘Talis tantusque est hic luctus ob Marcellum extinctum, qualis quantus- que Greecorum fuit, publicus nempe, non privatus.’—Barth.
32.] Miller, with Lachmann and Kui- noel reads suze for tue, which latter is found in all the copies. The passage is obscure, and has been variously altered and explained. The common reading is, ‘At tibi, nauta, pias hominum qui trajicis umbras, Hue anime portent corpus inane tue.’ Hertzberg has a rather tedious note of four pages upon it: ‘ Tue anime are ex-
in astra via.
plained ‘tui venti, tua flamina, O Charon,’ as Pucci interpreted it: tii, ἐ.6. ‘tuo dicto obedientes.’ Corpus inane is for wnbram mortui, the confusion between the soul and the body being, as elsewhere remarked, very common in the Latin poets. This explanation of the vulgate is the best that has been proposed. Few however will consider it satisfactory. In the former edition I proposed the reading now given in the text, and it has been adopted by Mr. Wratislaw; ὁ, 6. ‘Tibi, O Marcelle, hue portet Charon corpus inane anime tux, (sc. vita defunctum), Qua,’ &c. (see v. 7,60). The natural mistake of connect- ing tibi, O nauta, necessarily led to the corruption of trajicit to trajicis—Lachmann quotes ‘corpus inane anime’ from Ovid, Met. ii. 611, and xiii. 488. So Hor. Od. iii. 11, 26, ‘inane lymphe dolium.’
33.] Claudius, i.e. Claudius Marcellus, conqueror of Syracuse B.c. 212. To him Ovid alludes, Fast. iv. 873, ‘Utque Syra- cusas Arethusidas abstulit armis Claudius, et bello te quoque cepit, Eryx,’ &c. The meaning of the whole passage is thus given by Hertzberg: ‘ Hoc Charontem obsecrat, ut Marcellum eo advehat, qua via ad sedes beatorum ducat. Hae quondam avyum Claudium cessisse, hac divum Czsarem ingressum ulterius etiam astra petisse.’ Humana via is the road which all must tread, ὦ 6. death, according to the same authority : but why not ad hominum con- versatione 2 In astra must of course be understood of Julius Cesar alone: gua (agit or vivit) Claudius, ze. in Elysium, is to be supplied in the former part of the verse.
LIBER IV. 19 (18).
197
XIX.
Objicitur totiens a te mihi nostra libido; Crede mihi, vobis imperat ista magis. Vos, ubi contempti rupistis frena pudoris, Nescitis captee mentis habere modum.
Flamma per incensas citius sedetur aristas, 5
Fluminaque ad fontis sint reditura caput, Et placidum Syrtes portum et bona litora nautis
Preebeat hospitio seva Malea suo,
Quam possit, vestros quisquam reprehendere cursus, Et rabide stimulos frangere nequitie.
Testis, Cretzi fastus que passa juvenci
10
Induit abiegne cornua falsa bovis; Testis Thessalico flagrans Salmonis Enipeo, Que voluit liquido tota subire deo.
Crimen et illa fuit patria succensa senecta
Arboris in frondes condita Myrrha nove.
Nam quid Medex referam quo tempore matris Tram natorum cede piavit amor?
Quidve Clytzemnestre, propter quam tota Mycenis
XIX. The poet endeavours to prove that the passions of the female sex are stronger and less under control than in men.
5.] Sedetur. The potential of sedare. Kuinoel reads sedaret from the Palatine MS., which however is manifestly wrong, the verb being active.
7.] Syrtes, the plural, to which prebeant is to be supplied.
8.] MMalea. Pucci observes that Virgil shortens the second syllable, zn. συ. 193, ‘ Malezeque sequacibus undis.’ The Greek is Μάλεια and Μαλέα. It seems certain that the diphthong εἰ as well as αἱ is sus- ceptible of being pronounced short before a vowel. So Auschylus uses dyieta, Ag. 972, and we have #schyléo in iii. 26, 41.
9.] Reprehendere, cohibere, retinere.
10.] Rabide Miller, from the corrected copies, for rapide, which Lachmann and Keil retain. The strong words flagrans (13) and suecensa (15) justify the correc- tion.
12.] See v. 7, 57, ‘mentite lignea monstra bovis.’—cornua, t.e. formam boyis.
13.] Salmonis. See oni, 13, 21, ~
14.] Swubire, se subdere.
15.] Crimen. For eriminosa, by a Greek use, as plonua, στύγημα &e. applied to persons. Compare i. 11, 30, ‘Ah pereant Baie, crimen amoris, aque.’—patria suc- censa senecta, ‘flagrans amore patris senis Cinyre.’— Kuinoel. See Ovid, Met. x. 298.
17.] Medez, sc. crimen. The same word must be supplied in vy. 19. The construction is, ‘cum Medex amor piavit (explevit) matris iram (sc. in Creusam) cede natorum suorum :’ when the love of a mother was so far overcome by her in- fatuated attachment that she killed her own children. Matris ira is the resent- ment she felt as a mother, on the father of her children deserting her for another. And this is contrasted with the conflicting emotion, amor conjugis. Jacob considers the construction to be; ‘quid referam quo tempore Medew amor matris iram piavit.’ But this leaves the genitive Clytemnestre unprovided for except by supplying amor. Lachmann reads Clytemnestra, in the nomi- native, which however leaves some ellipse to be supplied.
198
Infamis stupro stat Pelopea domus ?
PROPERTII
20
Tuque o Minoa venumdata, Scylla, figura, Tondens purpurea regna paterna coma. Hane igitur dotem virgo desponderat hosti: Nise, tuas portas fraude reclusit Amor.
At vos, innuptee, felicius urite tedas:
Pendet Cretza tracta puella rate. Non tamen immerito Minos sedet arbiter Orci: Victor erat quamvis, zquus in hoste fuit.
XX.
Credis eum jam posse tus meminisse figure, Vidisti a lecto quem dare vela tuo? Durus, qui lucro potuit mutare puellam!
21.] Tuque O &e. 1.6. tu quoque, Ὁ Scylla, venumdata es, capta, Minois pul- critudine. On this Propertian use of Jigura see 1.4, 9. Scylla, daughter of Nisus king of Megara, (sometimes wrongly confounded with Scylla the marine monster, as in y. 4, 39) sold herself and her country to Minos, king of Crete, by cutting off a certain purple lock of her father’s hair, See Asch. Cho. 615 &e. Pausan. Aft. 1, xix. 5: és τοῦτον τὸν Νῖσον ἔχει λόγος, τρίχας ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ οἱ πορφυρᾶς εἶναι, χρῆναι δὲ αὐτὸν ἐπὶ ταύταις ἀποκαρείσαις τελευτᾶν. ‘Os δὲ οἱ Κρῆτες ἦλθον ἐς τὴν γῆν, τὰς μὲν ἄλλας ἥρουν ἐξ ἐπιδρομῆς τὰς ἐν τῇ Μεγαρίδι πόλεις, ἐς δὲ τὴν Νισαίαν καταφεύγοντα τὸν Νῖσον ἐπολιόρκουν" ἐνταῦθα τοῦ Νίσον λέγεται θυγατέρα ἐρασθῆναι Μίνω, καὶ ὡς ἀπέκειρε τὰς τρίχας τοῦ πατρός.
22. Tondens. ‘Cum purpurea coma patris Nisi regnum simul tondens et ex- cidens.’—Barth. Perhaps we should read purpuream comam, to which regna would stand in apposition; ‘comam a qua pen- debat regni salus.’ See on iv. 13,2. Keil and Miiller read tondes. It is easy to supply either crimen es or testis es from 13, 14, 23.] Hane dotem, t.e. prodende patric. Compare y. 4, 56, ‘Dos tibi non humilis prodita Roma venit.’
25.) Felicius write, i.e. may your mar- riages have a happier result.
26.] Tracta rate. She was tied to the rudder of Minos’ ship.
27.] Though a conqueror, he showed his justice even in the case of an enemy, ἦ.6. mM avenging even an enemy by punish- ing her who had betrayed him. Pindar (Pyth. ii. 73) gives a similar reason for Rhadamanthys being a judge in Hades, because he was sensible and not deceived by guiles and flatteries.
XX. Barth is of opinion that this diffi- cult elegy is one of the earliest of the poet’s compositions; and he places the date at A.u.c. 723, while Hertzberg assigns A.u.c. 732. He shrewdly observes, that the name Cynthia does not occur in it; and it is certainly not easy to understand vy. 9 and 13 otherwise than as implying the commencement of their intimacy (in 726). Lachmann and Jacob indeed, as well as Keil and Miller, follow Scaliger in beginning a new elegy after ver. 10, and transposing the distich 13, 14, before 11, 12. If we adopt the latter almost necessary correction, there is no want of continuity in the ordinary arrangement. Having invited Cynthia (or Hostia) to ac- cept his protection and regard, he imme- diately proceeds to arrange the terms as if he were tpso facto her recognised lover. Such a fragmentary and unfinished address of ten lines is not rashly to be attributed to the poet. Who the faithless rival al- luded to in y. 1—2 may have been, is un- known.
2.1 Dare velaalecto. ἐκ τῶν ἁβροτίμων προκαλυμμάτων ἕπλευσεν, Asch. 4g. 700.
LIBER IV. 20 (19).
199
Tantine, ut lacrimes, Africa tota fuit ? At tu, stulta, deos tu fingis, inania verba! ὄ Forsitan 1116 alio pectus amore terat.
Est tibi forma potens, sunt cast Palladis artes, Splendidaque a docto fama refulget avo. μ᾽
ἢ if
Fortunata domus, modo sit tibi fidus amicus.
Fidus ero: in nostros curre, puella, toros.
10
Nox mihi prima venit; prime data tempora noctis 13
Longius in primo, Luna, morare toro ; 14 Tu quoque, qui ezstivos spatiosius exigis ignes, 11 Phcebe, morature contrahe lucis iter. 1 Foedera sunt ponenda prius, signandaque jura, 15
Et scribenda mihi lex in amore novo.
4. Tantine is the reading of Pucci:
the MSS. give tantisne in lacrimis, except that iz is omitted inthe MS. Gron. Jacob has tantine in lacrimis, which he explains ‘inter lacrymas,’ and so Keil; Hertzberg tantine, his lacrimis, &e. 1, 6. ‘hac lacri- mante;’ Lachmann TYantisne in lacrimis Africa grata fuit 5 Barth Tantisne in lucris &c. and lastly, Kuinoel, with Heinsius, Tantine ut lacrymes ἕο. Miiller, after Heinsius, tantine, ut lacrimes. Of these various attempts I prefer that of Miiller, which gives the easiest and most natural sense. Compare sup. 12, 3, ‘tantine ulla fuit spoliati gloria Parthi ?’ 6.) At tu &e. ‘But you, simpleton, console yourself by fancying that there are gods who will avenge his perfidy; vain belief! while he meanwhile is perhaps cherishing another.’ Hertzberg condemns this simple explanation, which is due to Kuinoel, and prefers the following: ‘Tu deos veros esse et quales deos esse decet (perjurii vindices) falso tibi persuades. At illi perfidiam non curant,’ &c. while verba jingis he takes in a different sense, ‘verba componis, ne perfidum credere ama- torem sustineas.’ Lachmann gives vera for verba, and he is followed by Miller. Jacob says: ‘sensus est: et deos et inania promissa tu fingis;—illa istius deos, per quos juraverat, promissaque, que dederat, vera fingens, quum essent inania, se ipsa fefellit.’
6.] Terat, pectus &e.
7.1 Forma potens, cf. ii. 5, 28, ‘Cynthia forma potens, Cynthia verba levis.’—Pal- ladis artes, see oni. 2, 27. On the doctus avus, whom some haye supposed to be the
consumat, vexet suum
poet Hostius, Hertzberg has a not very convincing discussion, Quest. pp. 38—9, where he insists that Cynthia (7. e. Hostia) must have been born of Zibertini, but makes no attempt to account for the strong ex- pressions splendida fama and docto avo. The avus in question may probably have , been celebrated as an actor or musician on © the stage; for the highly laudatory words of the poet may fairly be regarded as the language of compliment. Nothing what- ever is known of Cynthia’s parentage.
10.] One of the inferior MSS. gives sinus, which is certainly more elegant than the vulgate, and 1s adopted by Barth and Kuinoel. Had the poet already conferred the name Cynthia on his mistress, he would probably have written ‘Cynthia eurre’ for ‘curre puella.’
12.] Morature lueis, i.e. the day which would in the natural course of events linger on. Compare ‘Luna moraturis sedula luminibus,’ i. 3, 32, and ‘victura rosaria Peesti,’ v. 5,61. The idea, which is most poetically expressed, perhaps is taken from the legend in Plautus, Am- phitr. 118, ‘et hee ob eam rem nox est facta longior, Dum cum illa quacum vult voluptatem capit,’ sc. Jupiter.
13.] The connexion is, ‘nox enim prima venit? &e. For data Lachmann, Keil, and Miiller give date, with the Naples MS.
15—20.] ‘The marriage rite has first to be duly solemnised.’ This, as Jacob supposes, is mentioned as a reason why the day should be shortened and the night protracted. If this be right, priws in 16 means that before the night has passed the marriage ceremonies haye to be gone through, 7.¢. the novus amor to be con-
f
Hc Amor ipse suo constringet pignera signo ; . . “ Testis sidereze tota corona dee.
PROPERTII
Quam multz ante meis cedent sermonibus hore,
Dulcia quam nobis concitet arma Venus!
Namque, ubi non certo vincitur feedere lectus, Non habet ultores nox vigilanda deos,
Et quibus imposuit, solvit mox vincla libido :— Contineant nobis omina prima fidem !
Ergo, qui pactas in foedera ruperit aras,
Pollueritque novo sacra marita toro, Uh sint, quicumque solent in amore dolores, Et caput argutze prebeat histori ;
summated. The allusion to the marriage is of course allegorical; he means, ‘ We must first make a formal engagement to live faithfully to each other.’ Such com- pacts appear to have been really made among the Romans, where justwm matri- monium was out of the question. It has been shewn on ‘ii. 7, 1, that Propertius could not legally have married Cynthia if he had wished.
17.] Signo. So Juvenal, alluding to the shameless marriage of Messalina with Silius, x. 336, ‘veniet cum signatoribus auspex.’ As the marriage is not a real, but only a pretended one; so the signatures and the witnesses are impossible personages. But all these ideas are exquisitely ren- dered, and it would be difficult to find more beautiful verses. For tota all the copies give torta, which Hertzberg alone retains, explaining it of the apparent revo- lution of the heavens, and comparing n. v. 738, ‘torquet medios nox humida ecur- rus,’ and Ovid, Jet. ii. 71, ‘caelum—Si- deraque alta trahit celerique volumine torquet.’ As a matter of poetical taste, one would prefer fota, as there is some- thing fine in calling a// the ‘ conscia sidera’ to witness the contract.—siderew dea, i.e. noctis.
19.] Quam multe &e. ‘How many hours must pass in talk,—must be talked away—before,’ ἕο. Barth and Kuinoel read cedant; the latter even interprets guam ante in reference to fadera sunt po- nenda prius, making vv. 17, 18, paren- thetical. Lachmann follows Scaliger in transposing this couplet to precede 16. Thus namgue in 21 is left to explain testis ete. in 18.
21.]. Namque &e. ‘For, when no marriage-tie as yet exists, the gods will not bring punishment on a night spent in talk.’ If the order of this very obscure distich is right, the reference must be to the delay alluded to in 19—20. Some from inferior copies give xox violanda, which must mean adulteriwm.
23.] Nox is the reading of all the good copies, and is retained by Jacob and Hertz- berg. ‘And besides, mere passion (apart from legal marriage) soon breaks the tie between those on whom it has fastened it. In owr case may these first rites prove the means of preserving our good faith!’ Only inferior MSS. give mor. Jacob supposes the order of the words to be: ‘quibus libido vincula imposuit, iis (una) nox solvit (ea),’ adding, ‘ quo nihil potest dici melius.’ But this is a complexity of construction which no language will bear, if it is to convey intelligible sentiments. It is more probable that mox solvit forms an antithesis with contineant.—omina prima, %.e. aus- picia quasi nuptialia. ]
25.| Pactas in federa, ‘pledged in at- testation of the contract.’ The Groningen MS. gives actas in federe, Barth and Kuinoel tactas from a late copy. Ergo introduces the terms of the mutual agree- ment: ‘Accordingly, let us pledge our- selves as follows; May he who violates,’ &e., where the words gui ruperit are ap- plied by the poet to his own case.
28.) Argute historie. ‘La nouvelle galante.’— Barth. Hertzberg also cor- rectly understands ‘the gossip of the neighbourhood.’
Sm sucasahs : chafaler
(Of sulyeel malir ἣν chape+ ν
LIBER IV. 21.
201
Nec flenti domine patefiant nocte fenestre :
Semper amet, fructu semper amoris egens.
30
XXI.
Magnum iter ad doctas proficisci cogor Athenas, Ut me longa gravi solvat amore via.
Crescit enim assidue spectando cura puelle: Ipse alimenta 5101 maxima prebet amor.
Omnia sunt tentata mihi, quacumque fugari 5 Possit: at ex omni me premit ipse deus.
Vix tamen aut semel admittit, cum spe negavit ; Seu venit, extremo dormit amica toro.
Unum erit auxilium; mutatis Cynthia terris
29.] ‘Nec fienti (illi) patefiant domine fenestre.’ Compare the beautiful lines in lib. v. 7, 15—18. Jacob inclines to the reading of the Groningen MS. patefacte, understanding sint from vy. 27.
XXI. It is altogether uncertain whether the journey to Athens here spoken of was ever really made, or even really contem- plated. It may have been a mere threat, —a ruse to alarm the jealousy of Cynthia. The argument bears some resemblance to the various passages in the first book (i. 1, 30; 7.6 and 15), where he speaks of travelling as a remedy for love. Hertzberg is inclined to suspect that the same journey is here referred to: but observes (Quest. p. 26), that if he had really made the tour of Athens and Asia, some allusion to it might have been looked for in the follow- ing elegies. It seems more probable that he was becoming anxious to shake off Cynthia, though he disguises his real feel- ings here; see however inf. El. 24. We may perhaps surmise, that the poet, who has elsewhere frequently arranged his ele- gies in connected couplets, purposely placed the present after the preceding, that the commencement of his love might be con- trasted with the valediction—for such it virtually is—he has resolved to pronounce.
3.] Spectanti Miiller, the Naples MS. giving spectandt.
6.] Ex omni, sc. parte; as ‘omnia rerum (genera)’ sup. 9, 7.—dpse deus, t.e. the very god who compels me to gaze, afflicts and distresses me by the sight. J/e for ipse is only found in the later copies. Miiller reads iste.
7.1 Negarit Miller, with the Naples MS.
8.] Amica. This is the reading of all MSS. and early edd. Scaliger proposed amicta, (in the sense of operta iii. 6, 6, and vestita ibid. 18), which the obsequious Broukhusius (Broeckhuizen) pronounces ‘ex tripode dictum ;’ and he is followed by Lachmann, Barth, Kuinoel, and the recent editors. Hertzberg places only a comma after deus (v.6), and makes it the subject to admittit and negavit, thus ingeniously introducing some sort of necessity for a new nominative amica. But I cannot per- suade myself that this was the poet’s meaning. -Amicta is certainly probable, though the word is rather unusual in the precise sense to be conveyed; compare ‘pudor est velatus amictu,’ sup. 15, 3; ‘vestita cubaris,’ iii. 7, 17, and ‘tunica duxit operta moram’ 7.6. But amica, if taken with admittit and the following verbs, and not with dormit alone, has nothing objectionable in itself. Venit is understood by some as a verbum amatorium for copiam dat sui. Lachmann more pro- bably regards it as opposed to admittit, 7. ὁ. whether I go to her or she to me.—eztremo toro, 1.e. extrema sponda, Hor. Ep. iii. 22, for the bed had a raised ledge (pluteus) on one side, the outer part being called sponda ; which explains fractus utroque toro, ili. 8,4. See Becker, Gallus, p. 291, and inf. y. 8, 68.
9.] Hertzberg rightly follows Lachmann in regarding Cynthia as the nominative rather than the vocative: ‘Cum Cynthiam non amplius videbo, non amabo amplius.’ —quantum, 1, 6. quam procul Cynthia ab oculis, tam procul amor ex animo.
“οουτιυν-σλικνιοσονον
“»ωνκα τ ετελιδισ κῶν
|
Quantum oculis, animo tam procul ibit amor.
PROPERTII
10
Nune agite, o socii, propellite in squora navim, Remorumque pares ducite sorte vices ; Jungiteque extremo felicia lintea malo: - Jam liquidum nautis aura secundat iter.
Romane turres et vos valeatis amici,
15
Qualiscumque mihi tuque puella vale. Ergo ego nunc rudis Hadriaci vehar zquoris hospes, Cogar et undisonos nunc prece adire deos. Deinde per Ionium vectus cum fessa Lechzo
Sedarit placida vela phaselus aqua,
20
Quod superest, sufferte pedes, properate laborem, Isthmos qua terris arcet utrumque mare.
Inde ubi Pireei capient me litora portus, Scandam ego Theseze brachia longa vie.
Tllic vel studiis animum emendare Platonis
12.] Pares sorte vices, ‘draw lots for your turns at the oar in couples.’ Virg. Ain. iii. 509, ‘Sternimur optate gremio telluris ad undam, Sortiti vemos.’ It seems that they drew lots (1) who should be paired, and (2) in what order they should relieve each other. But the sense may be, ‘pull the equal pairs of oars in your al- lotted places.’
13.] Extremo, summo malo; 1.6. hoist all sail, put on all the canvass, as we say.
16.] One MS. is said to give tuque Johanna vale. The scribe was evidently
- thinking of his own Cynthia.
19.] Lecheo. One of the harbours of Corinth on the side of the Sinus Corinth- iacus. The isthmus had to be crossed by travellers to Athens, and a boat taken on the other side, or the rest of the journey was performed by land. Hertzberg seems to understand y. 21 in the latter sense. It may however refer only to crossing the isthmus; for v.23 seems rather to imply his sailing into the Pireus, though Jacob says ‘ad terrestre iter ea oratio’ (sc. Pirei litora portus) ‘optime vertitur.’ In truth it is ambiguous, for ζίέογα might refer equally to the ship touching the shore, and to the traveller who merely approaches the port by land. The isthmus is only three or four miles in the narrowest part.
23.] Lachmann alone prefers the read- ing of the Groning. MS. mea lintea portus. But he candidly adds, ‘utra lectio verior sit, non possum dicere.’
25
25.] It is not easy to comprehend on what grounds almost every commentator has felt difficulties about this passage. ‘When arrived at Athens,’ says the poet, ‘T shall improve my mind by the study of Plato, Epicurus, or Menander.’ Nothing can be simpler, no resolve more prudent and reasonable. ‘But,’ says one, ‘ Epi- curus was not doctus; besides, docte Me- nandre occurs just below. We should read dux Epicure.’ Another will have it that studiis Platonis and studium Demos- thenis cannot haye been written by the poet; and therefore corrects spatiis or stadiis. yen Lachmann was so far led away by these hypercritical objections, that he has enclosed vy. 25—6 in brackets as spurious: and Hertzberg adds, ‘ fortasse rectius abessent;’ a verdict from which we may be allowed to dissent. See the remark on El. 8, 4, supra. Some have maintained that studia Platonis cannot literally signify ‘the study of Plato;’ to which Hertzberg replies that the words mean ‘studia, qualibus Plato vacabat.’ Lastly, the objection that ved—aut cannot be used as disjunctives, has perhaps but little foree in a poet like Propertius. Granting that the use is not strictly correct (see on ii. 8, 11), can a modern editor guarantee that a Roman poet never by any possibility did or could write in- accurately? I can only say, that I do not agree with Hertzberg in explaining vel studiis as equivalent to etiam studits.
LIBER
Incipiam, aut hortis, docte Epicure, tuis. Persequar aut studium lingue, Demosthenis arma, Librorumque tuos, docte Menandre, sales ; Aut certe tabule capient mea lumina picte,
Sive ebore exactz, seu magis ere manus;
Aut spatia annorum, aut longa intervalla profundi, Lenibunt tacito vulnera nostra sinu ;
Seu moriar, fato, non turpi fractus amore ; Atque erit illa mihi mortis honesta dies.
XXII.
Frigida tam multos placuit
Miiller edits the passage thus: ‘illic aut stadiis animum emendare Platonis Inci- piam’ &c., and (in 28) ‘libaboque tuos, scite Menandre, sales.’ In this I have no desire to follow him. Lachmann’s note is excellent, and the examples he quotes show that the Romans used (1) aut—, aut—, vel; (2) non—, nec—, aut—, vel —; (8) non—, aut—, vel—. But of vel —, aut—, he can adduce πὸ instance. Who shall venture to condemn the present passage, even if a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, unless we moderns are to prescribe laws for the ancients? These details admit only of observation, not of being reduced to fixed rules. All who write or speak in living languages do so intuitively, and without the consciousness of any formal restraint: and we are by no means sure that we exactly realise the Roman feelings of pro- priety in speaking.
27.] Persequar, ‘I will pursue,’ ‘ attain for myself.’ Perhaps the word means something more than seguar, since we know from y. 1, 134, that the poet was in- tended for the bar in early life. The Groning. MS. has prosequar, a very good reading.
28.] Jacob follows Lachmann in placing a stop after Zibrorwmque, and understanding studium, to which twos sales may stand in opposition, as arma in the preceding verse. There is nothing more than a poetical enallage in tuos sales librorum.
30.] Manus. A bold expression for manuum opera.
32.] Tacito sinu, ‘in a quiet nook ; ‘in silent retirement.’ Possibly he may mean ‘animi tranquillitate, the ablative of the means. Barth seems to understand it ‘in
IV. 22. 203 30
tibi Cyzicus annos,
their quiet bosom,’ 7.¢. retirement. Cf.
Tac. Agric. § 4, ‘in hujus sinu indulgen- tiaque educatus.’ 7014, § 30, ‘nos—re- cessus ipse ac sinus fame in hune diem defendit.’ Heinsius reads situ.—situs is properly ‘the being let alone,’ and thence the consequences of it, neglect, decay, dirt, &e. <A similar word is s¢zus, also perhaps from sinere, ἐᾶν. Buta nook is a fold or bend ; whence sinuo.
33.] Fractus, &e. ‘Or, if I am to die, it will at least be by a natural death, and not through grief at being the victim of a discreditable attachment.’ ‘ Recte’ (says Hertzberg) ‘contuleris Britannorum heart- broken.” From the epithet turpi we may infer that this elegy was not addressed ‘ ad Cynthiam,’ as most editors have thought, probably from regarding Cynthia in v. 9, as the yocative. Nor does y. 16 militate against the view that it is designed to inform his friends of the intended journey and its motives. For he there takes leave of her in common with other persons and other objects.
XXII. This elegy is addressed to the same friend as i. 6, &c., and is an exhorta- tion that he should return to Rome after a long residence at the noble and picturesque city of Cyzicus on the Propontis (sea of Marmara). He had followed his uncle to Asia in the capacity of legatus (see on i. 6, 34), and after his year of office had expired, remained for the sake of pleasure and im- provement in that country. The chief point of the poem is the /audes Italie, much in the same strain as the well-known passage, Georgie ii. 136, &e.
—————————e ee Stelle Aaughler σ
: ΄σ Kearthus rv Jro for Rarely ¢ frickic, tnh Vea where Kec Greame “τις
Jal amor,
Garson.
204
PROPERTII
Tulle, Propontiaca qua fluit Isthmos aqua,
Dindymus, et sacre fabricata juvenca Cybelle, Raptorisque tulit qua via Ditis equos.
Si te forte juvant Helles Athamantidos urbes, _ 5 Nec desiderio, Tulle, movere meo:
Tu licet aspicias ceelum omne Atlanta gerentem, Sectaque Persea Phorcidos ora manu,
Geryonis stabula, et Iuctantum in pulvere signa
2.1 Fluit Isthmos. For the connexion of the island on which the city stood with the continent was only by a bridge. He means that the access to it was over water, not solid earth.
3.| Dindymus. A mountain of this name, close to the city, was famous for the worship of the Asiatic goddess Rhea or Cybele, like that of the same name in Phrygia. —juvenca is the conjecture of Vossius, and has been admitted by most of the later editors for nventa. The par- ticular allusion cannot be fully explained from deficiency of direct testimonies: but as the identity of Rhea or Cybele with Isis or Io is unquestionable, and as the cow was the Indian as well as the Egyptian symbol of Earth, there can be no difficulty in supposing that a famous statue of Cybele under this form existed at Cyzicus. Hertz- berg observes that the impress of a cow is frequent on Cyzicenian coins. The MSS. give sacra. Pucci wrote on the margin of
the ed. Rheg., ‘Dindyma qua Argivum
fabricata inventa Cybele est,’ but whether from his MS. or his conjecture is uncertain. Miiller after Haupt gives sacra fabricata e vite Cybebe (MS. Naples Cibele). Hertz- berg reads ‘ Dindyma sacra Rhee, et fabri- cata juvenca Cybele,’—but his reasons scarcely seem to justify so wide a departure from the copies. He is probably right in regarding Cybele as the dative, since our poet prefers the Greek form of the genitive in es. Lachmann accordingly has edited Cybebes.
4.1 No other record of Proserpine hay- ing been carried down to Hades at Cyzicus exists, except a single passage quoted by Hertzberg from the Latin anthology. Among the endless aflinities of the ancient deities, due perhaps in great part to the confusion of Semitic and Indo-germanic legends with various local modifications of belief, Proserpine, Isis, and Io, and there- fore Cybele, become eventually identified as personifications of the moon. Hence we may expect to find the worship of Pro-
serpine connected with that of Cybele.
5—18.] The whole of this passage forms one connected sentiment, of which this is the brief outline: ‘However much you may be pleased with the beauties of art and nature by the Hellespont, and how- ever little, in consequence, you may care to return to your friends; know, that if you were to visit all the wonders of the world, Italy would be found to equal any of them.’ Lachmann places a comma at equos, a full stop at meo. He gives the sense thus: ‘Diu tibi Cyzicus placuit, si te Dindymus forte juvat et Hellesponti urbes, qua Ditis raptoris equos via tulit.’
7.1 Licet aspicias. ‘Though you may love to gaze on the statues of Atlas, Perseus, and Hercules,’ &c. Humboldt contends that the ancient Atlas is the magnificent volcano now known as the Peak of Teneriffe, which is 12,172 feet above the sea, and generally has its snow- capped cone enveloped in ‘clouds. The highest of the Atlas mountains in the n.w. of Africa rises to 11,400 feet; but it does not appear to have been the original giant of the Hesiodean mythology. See Aspects of Nature, vol.i. p. 144.
9.] Signa. Not, as Hertzberg thinks, any statues, but vestigia, the marks fanci- fully supposed to be left by the wrestling heroes. place in Mauretania. Pliny, W. H. v.1. But it is more probable that the poet means the works of art preserved at Cyzicus. It will be observed that where he speaks of actual travels in the following verses, he confines himself to reasonable distances from that city. To send his friend to the extreme west, and then back to Asia, is an improbable arrangement. On the oxen of Geryon see y. 9, 2.—I have preferred the form Geryonis (Gr. Τηρυὼν, Aisch. Ag. 870), the reading of the Naples and Groningen MSS., to Geryone or Gery- oni, the former of which is commonly adopted from the ed. Rheg.
The event was said to have taken -
a 7 Orckemenre + healer 7 Phaymo, ( bath by Mephe le) δος Khe QU cm Core wtk no Wer Jona Vel verter ey iy PI A fl 4 Pradnege Ah, ulled
σε-
LIBER IV. 22.
Herculis Antzique, Hesperidumque choros, 10 Tuque tuo Colchum propellas remige Phasim, Peliaceeque trabis totum iter ipse legas, Qua rudis Argoa natat inter saxa columba : In faciem prore pinus adacta nove, Et si, qua Ortygiz visenda est ora Caystri, Et qua septenas temperat unda vias ; Omnia Romane cedent miracula terre : Natura hic posuit, quidquid ubique fuit. Armis apta magis tellus, quam commoda noxe, Famam, Roma, tuz non pudet historie. 20 Nam quantum ferro, tantum pietate potentes Stamus; victrices temperat ira manus. Hic Anio Tiburne fluis, Citumnus ab Umbro agutuct FG Y C
Tramite, et eternum Marcius humor opus;
Albanus lacus et socia Nemorensis ab unda, 25
10.] Anteigue. With the elision in this verse compare i. 5, 32, ‘non impune illa rogata venit.’
12.] 1586, sc. quod olim heroes legebant.
13.] Argoa columba, i.e. cum columba Argoa adesset. (Hertzberg). See on iii. 18, 39.
14.] In faciem &c. ‘ Arbor, rudis antea, redacta in formam navigii novi.’— Barth.
15.] Ortygie is probably the dative of place, ‘at Ortygia.’ ‘Et si navigaveris, qua memorabilis Caystri ora juxta Ephesum tendit.’— Hertzberg. ‘Qua Caystri ora est, tam vicina illa Ortygiz, ut huic videnda sit.,—Lachmann. ‘ Ortygia’s shore of (or on) Cayster’ may be defended by ‘ Libyz Jovis antrum,’ v.1, 103. The reading is doubtful: most of the copies give origz or orige, but some of the earliest editions have ogygia, origiz, or gygzi. Kuinoel prints a verse which will not even scan; Et δὲ qua Gyg@ai ἕο. Miiller, ‘et sis, qua Or- tygia et visenda est ora Caystri.’ Ortygia was the ancient name for Ephesus, or rather of a grove near that city, connected with the worship of Diana and Latona. The reading adopted from Vossius by Barth, Ortygii—Caystri is not improbable, as the river might have been called Ortygian from the vicinity of the grove, though an ob- jection has been raised, that it was not on the very bank of that river, but of the Cenchrius.
16.] ‘ Zemperare propria significatione liquor Nili dicitur, qui denuo semper per
vias suas effunditur, novasque aquas pri- oribus addit, et has suis miscet.’ Hertzberg. This explanation is too artificial: the poet probably only meant ‘reduces his speed and volume by dividing his waters into seven channels.’ It is not, perhaps, certain, ἢ that the Nile is here spoken of. suggests that the Rhesus, a river of the » Troad, may be meant, which Strabo de-
scribes as having seven mouths. Yet few readers, unless the context clearly deter- mined the matter, could hesitate to refer the familiar expression to the famous Nile.
19.] Commoda noxe, ‘damno inferendo : Magis vincunt quam nocent Romani.’— Barth.
21.] Pietate, ‘ patriotism.’
22.] Ira temperat, z.e. iva facile remissa temperat victoriam.’ ‘Ira in hostem, simul ac victum videmus, cessat et manus a seviendo retrahit.’—Zachmann. ‘Sic ex studio brevitatis interdum loquuntur poete, ut dicant rem fieri ab aliquo, a quo nihil impedimenti interponitur, quo minus fiat.’ (Editor’s note on Msch. Suppl. 612). Others understand ‘postquam vicimus quamyis irati manibus temperamus.’
23.] Hie, ‘in Italia.” —Barth.
24.] Marcius humor. See on iy. 2, 12.
25:] The Naples and Groningen MSs. give socii, whence Hertzberg reads ‘ Alba- nusque lacus, socii Nemorensis et unda,’ (et for αὖ from MS. Gron.) explaining socti as equivalent to propingui. The two lakes, the former said to be of immense depth,
Barth αἰ!
200
Potaque Pollucis lympha salubris equo. At non squamoso labuntur ventre cerastie,
PROPERTII
formed Serpents
Itala portentis nec fluit unda novis; Non hic Andromedze resonant pro matre catene,
Nec tremis Ausonias, Phoebe fugate, dapes ;
30
Nec cuiquam absentes arserunt in caput ignes, Exitium nato matre movente suo;
Penthea non seve venantur in arbore Bacche ; Nec solvit Danaas subdita cerva rates ;
Cornua nec valuit curvare in pellice Juno,
35
Aut faciem turpi dedecorare bove: Arboreasque cruces Sinis, et non hospita Gratis
and believed to be an extinct crater, now Lago di Albano, certainly cannot with truth be said (as Lachmann asserts) to have a common source. But it is so pro- bable that Propertius records some tra- dition to that effect, that it seems rash to depart from the reading generally received. There has always been, as there still is, a popular tendency to connect deep waters, whose sources are unknown, by under- ground communications with other lakes. Barth and Kuinoel also give -Albanusque lacus, which is found in two or three cor- rected copies. Nemorensis is now Nem. 26.] Lympha. The Naples MS. has nympha. The pond in the forum Roma- num, called Lacus Juturne, is here
''| meant, from which Castor and Pollux are
‘| said to have watered their horses after the
battle at Lake Regillus, Ovid, Fast. 1. 707. The enthusiasm with which the Latin poets enumerate the rivers and springs and aque- ducts can only be understood by remem- bering the great scarcity of wholesome water over a large district of lower Italy.
27.] At non &. Compare Virg. Georg. li. 140 seqq., ‘heee loca non tauri spirantes raribus ignem Invertere satis immanis dentibus hydri’ &e.
29.] Andromede. ‘For through her mother’s fault.’ 65.
30.] Ausonias dapes. The banquet of Thyestes. ‘The sense is, ‘You have not to fear an Italian banquet as you were horrified by that in Greece.’
31.] The story of Althea, who threw
Andromeda See on vy. 7,
' on the fire the fatal log of wood, the δαλὸς ᾿ ἧλιξ of Esch. Cho. 607, by which the ' death of her son Meleager was caused.
Pausan. Phocic. x. cap. 31, Τὸν δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ δαλῷ λόγον, ὡς δοθείη μὲν ὑπὸ Μοιρῶν τῇ
᾿Αλθαίᾳ, Μελεάγρῳ δὲ οὐ πρότερον ἔδει τὴν τελευτὴν συμβῆναι, πρὶν ἢ ὑπὸ πυρὸς ἀφανισθῆναι τὸν δαλὸν, καὶ ws ὕπὸ τοῦ θυμοῦ καταπρήσειεν αὐτὸν ἡ ᾿Αλθαία, τοῦτον τὸν λόγον Φρύνιχος 6 Πολυφράδμονος πρῶ- τος ἐν δράματι ἔδειξε Πλευρῶνι"
“EK κρυερὸν γὰρ οὐκ ἤλυξεν μόρον" ᾿Ωκεῖα δέ νιν φλὸξ κατεδαίσατο Δαλοῦ περθομένου
Ματρὸς ὑπ᾽ αἰνᾶς κακομηχάνου.᾽
—absentes ignes is elegantly used, because, ordinarily, fire can only damage the persons of those in contact.
33.] In arbore, ἴ, 6, sedentem. Eur. Bacch. 1093.
34.] Subdita cerva, the substitution of a deer for Iphigenia when laid on the altar at Aulis.
36.] Bove, for bovis figura, in allusion to Io. See iii. 20,17. sch. Suppl. 299, βοῦν τὴν γυναῖκ᾽ ἔθηκεν ᾿Αργεία θεός.
37.] Arboreasve Lachmann. With eru- ces the commentators usually supply valwit curvare from y. 35. But this, as Barth observed before Hertzberg, will not ex- plain the accusative saxa, nor could eurvare curvatas trabes be tolerated. We must therefore supply non valuit habere or ad- hibere, as Lachmann suggests. Miller marks the loss of some lines before this verse, in which he supposes the labours of Hercules to have been described.—in sua
See
fata, because the robber was killed as he
had killed others, by being tied to fir- trees which were bent together and then let go. Hence he was called πιτυοκάμπ- της. The saxa are the Scironian rocks, which are interposed awkwardly enough, since in sua fata must refer, not to Sciron, but to Sinis. Perhaps the poet confused the two stories, since both robbers were
Ἔν i ee
‘
‘
\\
| Hertzberg understands the rocky Isthmus
2
LIBER IV. 23.
207
Saxa, et curvatas in sua fata trabes. Hee tibi, Tulle, parens, hee est pulcherrima sedes ;
Hic tibi pro digna gente petendus honos.
40
Hic tibi ad eloquium cives, hic ampla nepotum
Spes et venture conjugis aptus amor.
XXIII. Ergo tam doctz nobis periere tabelle, Scripta quibus pariter tot periere bona! Vi
Has quondam nostris manibus detriverat usus, Qui non signatas jussit habere fidem.
Ile jam sine me norant placare puellas,
Or
Et queedam sine me verba diserta loqui. Non illas fixum caras effecerat aurum:
Vulgari buxo sordida cera fuit. Qualescumque, mihi semper mansere fideles,
Semper et effectus promeruere bonos.
10
Forsitan heec illis fuerant mandata tabellis: ‘Trascor, quoniam es, lente, moratus heri. An tibi nescio quze visa est formosior? an tu
killed by Theseus. See however iv. 16, 12.
where Sinis dwelt. Pausan. ii. 1, 4: ἔστι δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰσθμοῦ τῆς apxis, ἔνθα ὁ λήστης Σίνις λαμβανόμενος πιτύων ἦγεν ἐς τὸ κάτω σφᾶς. Τοιούτῳ διεφθάρη τρόπῳ καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπὸ Θησέως 6 Σίνις.
40.] Pro digna gente. ‘Ambiendi tibi sunt honores et magistratus capiendi prout nobilitas gentis tue postulat.”— Barth. Tullus was therefore yet a youth, and an aspirant to the usual routine of offices in the city. The concluding verse shows that he was not yet married.
41.] Ad eloquium. ‘To whom you may exhibit your eloquence, and for whom you may profitably employ it.’
XXIII. This little poem stands alone in the writings of Propertius. It is a playful lament on the loss of his tabelle,— thin tablets of wood, covered with wax, and hinged together, used for the trans- mission of messages by post,—and con- cludes with the offer of a reward for their recovery.
2.] Tot bona. For the book was lost in returning from Cynthia, and with it
therefore the answer she had sent. Or perhaps he had written in it some verses, which he playfully calls bona.
3.] Usus detriverat manibus, poetically for manus detriverant usu.
4.] Non signatas, ‘Even without being sealed.’ ‘Namque amica Propertii no- verat illas ita, ut signo nihil opus esset.’— Barth. For the method of folding and tying these missives the reader may con- sult Becker’s Gallus, p. 339.
5.] Sine me. ‘They were as effectual as my presence in appeasing the anger of my mistresses.’ The good copies agree in puellas: Lachmann and his predecessors give puellam from corrected MSS. Else- where, however, (as iii. 26, 57), he boasts of a plurality of female acquaintances. Compare Martial, xiv. 8, ‘Nondum legerit hos licet puella; Novit quid cupiant yitel- liani.’
9.] Qualescumgue, sc. fuerunt. Supr. El. 21, 16, ‘Qualiscunque mihi tuque puella vale.” Lib. v. 1, 1, ‘hoc, quodeun- que vides, hospes.’—promervere, ‘they won for me.’
13,] An tibi &e. ‘Was the cause of your coming indifference (/ente), or because
——<
208
45) bene, properrit
Non bene de nobis crimina ficta jacis ?’
Aut dixit: ‘Venies hodie, cessabimus una: Hospitium tota nocte paravit Amor.’ .
Et quecumque volens reperit non stulta puella, Garrula cum blandis dicitur hora dolis.
Me miserum, his aliquis rationem scribit avarus, ™ wor
Et ponit duras inter ephemeridas ! 20 Quas si quis mihi rettulerit, donabitur auro.
Quis pro divitiis hgna retenta velit ? I puer, et citus heee aliqua propone columna,
Et dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare tuum.
XXIV. °
Falsa est ista tuee, mulier, fiducia forme, Olim oculis nimium facta superba meis.
you preferred the charms of another, or because you are spending your time in getting up false charges against me?’ The third reason should rather be, ‘that you are listening to charges against me;’ and perhaps for jacis we should read rapis.
14.] The MSS. give zon bona. All the editors have admitted on bene, from one late copy and two of the early edd. Jacob quotes dene from the Naples MS.
17.] Volens. This is the correction of Broukhusius for dolens, which is clearly against the sense.
18.] Dicitur, ¢.e. condicitur, indicitur,’ ‘when with winning wiles she appoints an hour for a chat.’ This reading was re- stored by Lachmann from the MS. Groning. The others have ducitur. Kuinoel reads ducitur hora jocis, the last word from Heinsius. But a little consideration will show that this is far from the poet’s mean- ing, and indeed from common sense. Cyn- thia would not write ‘ while the time was passing in jokes,’ but she would add ‘ such persuasive and complimentary expressions as a clever girl can devise when she in- vites to an interview.’ Blandi doli may be understood of stealthy or clandestine meetings; or ‘dolose blanditiz,’ κρύφιοι ὀαρισμοί.
20.] Duras ephemeridas, ‘his clumsy ledgers ;’ or, perhaps, his heartless ac- counts.’ Hertzberg refers duras to the thick and heavy clasped books in which the miser kept his daily reckonings, Oyid
+f"
has copied this passage, Am. i. 12, 25.
22.] Ligna is from Pucci. have signa.
23.] Colwmna, pila, a public post or column, perhaps before a bookseller’s shop. See Hor. Sat. i. 4, 71, and Epist. ad Pison. 373.
XXIV. Kuinoel pronounces this elegy ‘ingenuo nitore commendabilis.’ One al- most regrets to find the poetry of a romantic attachment dispelled by an unfeeling and unexpected farewell, conveying at once a taunt (v. 8), and a boast that the lover has ; escaped from a great danger. But we can- | not forget that Cynthia was really in fault; ὦ the concluding elegy shows that the sepa- — ration had cost the poet a pang, and con-
tains a fair apology for his apparently —
harsh conduct. It will be observed that this elegy has a particular reference to the introductory one of the first book: to which it therefore forms a palinodia.
2.1 Oculis meis. The meaning is a little obscure. Kuinoel explains ‘ oculorum ju- dicio,’ Hertzberg ‘oculis quasi spoliis qui- busdam superba,’ as a lover’s eyes are said capi, to be captivated. But this seems to be less consistent with what follows; the admission that he had seen her with partial eyes. Hence the sense must rather be supplied thus: ‘made conceited by the charms which my partial eyes discovered in you, and which found expression in my impassioned verse.’
The others fw
LIBER IV. 24.
209
Noster amor tales tribuit tibi, Cynthia, laudes; Versibus insignem te pudet esse meis.
Mixtam te varia laudavi sepe figura,
Or
Ut, quod non esses, esse putaret amor.
Et color est totiens roseo collatus Eoo, Cum tibi quesitus candor in ore foret.
Quod mihi non patrii poterant avertere amici,
Eluere aut vasto Thessala saga mari,
Hee ego, non ferro, non igne coactus, et ipsa Naufragus Aigzea verba fatebor aqua.
Correptus seevo Veneris torrebar aheno ; Vinctus eram yversas In mea terga manus.
Ecce coronate portum tetigere carine,
15
Trajectze Syrtes, ancora jacta mihi est.
Nunc demum vasto fessi resipiscimus estu, Vulneraque ad sanum nunc coiere mea.
Mens Bona, si qua dea es, tua me in_sacraria dono.
4.1 Te pudet esse, i.e. pudet me te in- signem esse, &c.
5.| Varia figura, i.e. variis pulchritu- dinis partibus, elementis. See ii. 3, 9, seqq.—wut &c., for ita ut, ‘so that love fancied you were what you were not,’ or that your artificial charms were real ones. The connexion and meaning are not clear, and Miller thinks a distich has been lost after 4, beginning with ¢f. Perhaps mizx- tam means compositam, partly real and partly made up. Barth compares Theocr. vi. 18, ἢ yap ἔρωτι Πολλάκις ὦ Πολύφημε, τὰ μὴ καλὰ καλὰ πέφανται.
7.1 Roseo Eoo. ‘The blush of morn- ing.’ Georgie. i. 288, ‘Aut cum sole novo terras irrorat Eous.’
9.1 Patrii amici. Compare i. 1, 25, εὖ. 9, and for ferro and igne, a metaphor from surgery, 7. 27.
12.] Hertzberg alone retains the read- ing of all the copies, verba fatebor. The others admit the probable conjecture of Passerat, vera fatebar. The words would then allude to the fine elegy, i.17, where he bewails his absence from Cynthia in the midst of a storm. ‘ Without being forced into the confession by violent reme- dies, but merely moved by the danger of a shipwreck, I acknowledged to you that I loved you, torrevi me Veneris aheno.’ There is not, perhaps, much difficulty in under- standing et ipsa for nec ipsa, t.e. continuing the negative sense, ‘nor even by ship-
wreck’ &c. The reading in the text may be thus explained: ‘As for that enthral- ment which I once said neither my friends nor even magic arts could prevent,—all this I will now confess to have been mere words, and that without being put to the torture which I then had to en- dure; nay, even though again in such danger of a shipwreck as formerly called forth all those tender expressions.’ This is nearly the sense as given by Hertz- berg. By the words naufragus &e. he means to say, ‘Place me in like danger again, and see if I will use the same lan- guage towards Cynthia.’ Others place a full stop at mari and a colon at foret in ver. 8. In that case quod (9) will mean ‘which infatuation of believing in your beauty.’
15.] Coronate. Cf. Georgie. i. 303, ‘Ceu fesse cum jam portum tetigere carine, Puppibus et leti nautee imposuere coronas.’
19.] Dono, I hereby make an offering of myself, as a tabula votiva for haying es- caped as it were amoral shipwreck. Barth and Kuinoel adopt the needless correction of Heinsius, condo.—Condere in aliquid is a construction familiar to Propertius, as ii. 1, 42, ‘in Phrygios condere nomen avos ;’ iv. 19, 16, ‘Arboris in frondes condita Myrrha nove.’ But the same Grecism explains donare in aliquid. ‘Ipsum se pro donario vel ἀναθήματι donat Rone Menti.’ Lachmann. Mens Bona, as Hertzberg well
P
Exciderant surdo tot mea vota Jovi.
>
PROPERTII
20
XXV.
Risus eram positis inter convivia mensis, Et de me poterat quilibet esse loquax. Quinque tibi potui servire fideliter annos:
Ungue meam morso spe querere fidem.
Nil moveor lacrimis: ista sum captus ab arte.
Semper ab insidiis, Cynthia, flere soles. Flebo ego discedens, sed fletum injuria vincet. Tu bene conveniens non sinis ire jugum. Limina jam nostris valeant lacrimantia verbis,
Nec tamen irata janua fracta manu.
10
At te celatis «tas gravis urgeat annis,
observes, is not an abstract idea personified by the fancy of the poet, but a real goddess worshipped as such by the Romans, and possessing a temple. See Ovid, Must. vi. 241, and compare Am. i. 2, 31.
20.] Exciderant. “1 dedicate myself to you, since all my vows fad been slighted by Jupiter before I had recourse to you (1.6. to Reason) for liberating me.’ Others have proposed exciderint, or exciderunt. The ed. Rheg. has ewciderent. See on v. 7, 15, ‘Jamne tibi exciderant vigilacis furta suburee >’
XXV. The subject of the last is con-
tinued, and more explicit reasons are given for the poet’s resolution to resign all con- nexion with Cynthia. Lachmann and Jacob, following the suggestion of Pucci, print this elegy in continuation with the preceding. It is however probable that the present is a reply to her expostulations and tears on receiving the last. ! 117 Risus eram. Hertzberg regards | risus as the substantive, γέλως, and so ' Kuinoel had explained it. As the plu- _ perfect of videor it is less suited to the sense. He would have said ridebar.
3.] Quingue annos, i.e. from the year 726 to the beginning of 732, according to the careful chronology of Hertzberg (Quest. p- 16), who includes in his reckoning the year of separation mentioned iv. 16, 9, *Peccaram semel, et totum sum pulsus in annum,’ which seems to have been A.v.c., 729. That the word jideliter must not be taken in the sense we are wont to attach
to it, as implying exclusive devotion to one, has been before observed, and is clear from admissions frequently made in the fore- going elegies. So jfidem, v.7, 58.
6.| Ab insidiis, The motive for crying is generally an artful one. Such is the force of ab. In the preceding verse, a arte, the mode and the agent are mentally confused, a te captus sum arte lacrimandi.
7.) Flebo ego, i.e. ego quoque.
8.] tw &e., ‘It is you (not I) who do not allow the pair to be well-matched in the journey through life.’
9.1 Lacrimantia. Compare i. 17-—44, where the door is spoken of as susceptible of feelings of compassion. So concise however is the language of our poet, that he may have meant, ‘lacrimis perfusa inter verba querentis.’—nec tamen, see on ili. 20, 52. ‘Et janua quam, iratus quam- vis, nolui manu frangere, /.e. pulsando.’
11.] Celatis, ‘tacite adlabentibus,’ Kui- noel, Rather, dissimulatis.—The impre- cation, bad as it is and cruel in a former lover to utter it, must be taken for what it is worth in the mouth of a Roman lover, to whom it came almost as a form and a matter of course, poetically at least. See v. 6, 75.
13—16.] Lachmann and _ Hertzberg follow the best MSS. in reading cupias, patiare, and gueraris. Jacob and the other two later editors prefer the future on the authority of Pucci, (the Groning. MS. haying cwpies). The optative seems better to agree with has diras, v.17.
ΐ :
ἶ i
=
ΐ
iS
LIBER IV. 25. 211
Et veniat forme ruga sinistra tue. Vellere tum cupias albos a stirpe capillos, Ah, speculo rugas increpitante tibi;
Exclusa inque vicem fastus patiare superbos,
15
Et que fecisti, facta queraris anus. Has tibi fatalis cecinit mea pagina diras. Eventum forme disce timere tue.
14.] The MSS. have a syeculo. Barth reads ef, Kuinoel at.—ah is often written @ in the copies. Et speculo, i.e. vel ipso speculo, is a good reading, but is found only in the corrected MSS. The meaning is, that when you look into the mirror
during the process of pulling out the grey hairs, you will be startled to see how wrinkled you have got.
18.] Eventum forme. ‘Quod forme tuz eveniet, rugas intelligit et canos cum- que his conjunctum contemptum.’— Barth.
iP O Pai ΤΙ
LIBER QUINTUS.
H°
I
C, quodcumque vides, hospes, qua maxima Roma est, Ante Phrygem Afnean collis et herba fuit ;
Atque ubi Navyali stant sacra Palatia Pheebo,
The elegies in this book are of a mis- cellaneous character, and of dates varying between a.u.c. 726 and 738. They are all good, each differing in subject and cha- racter, and of the highest value and interest for their large stores of legendary and archeological lore. At the same time they are full of difficulties, and demand, as they fairly deserve, a long and careful study. It is the opinion of Lachmann, in which Hertzberg concurs, that they were not published during the life of the poet, but collected and edited by his friends; and he thinks that they are generally in a more rude and imperfect state than the others. There are indications without doubt (see on 67 inf., and on ii. 57 inf.) of a re- arrangement and correction of previously written poems; but it is likely enough that the author undertook the task himself when he had risen to fame. From the fifth elegy Ovid would seem to have bor- rowed the idea of his 74is, and also his Ars Amatoria; from the third,—a most beautiful composition,—his Lpistles, from the first, second, ninth and tenth, his Fasti. Howeyer this may be, it is certain that not a few of these posthumous poems are of surpassing beauty, and a very high order of poetical merit. There is a marked difference in style between this. book and the first, especially in the studied use, in the first, of long words at the end of the pentameters.
I. This difficult elegy, as far as v. 70, is supposed by Hertzberg to have been designed as a procmium to a book of Roman Fasti, undertaken by the poet, probably in the year of the city 726, and
just before his love for Cynthia, in imi- tation of the Atria of Callimachus. To the same work probably belong El. 2, 4, 9 and 10, all of which are among his earliest performances. The latter part of the pre- sent elegy was evidently added after his attachment had commenced (inf. 140), and was meant as a kind of apology for ποῦ. pursuing the historic style of composition further, but devoting himself to amatory versification. (See iv. 38, 5). Hence the hospes addressed in y. 1, originally repre- sented an imaginary stranger to whom the poet was pointing out the antiquities of the city; the idea of making him speak in the character of a Babylonian Seer may have subsequently suggested itself. But it is more likely that the two persons are not the same, 1.] The MSS. have guam for gua. The /\ mistake arose from supposing guam nal { fi
᾿
was an intensive superlative. ‘This small site, where now is mighty Rome, before /Eineas came from Phrygia (Troy) was a grassy hill.’—guodeumque, as it may appear in your eyes, either large or small. So Lucret. ii. 16, ‘qualibus in tenebris vite quantisque periclis Degitur hoe vi, quod- cunque est.’ See also sup. iv. 28, 9.— Phrygem, see iv. 13, 68.
3.] Navali Phebo. ‘Significat adem Apollinis in monte Palatino, quam Au- gustus A.U.C. DCCXXVI propter navalem ad Actium de Antonio et Cleopatra reportatam victoriam <Apollini, cui hane victoriam nayalem tribuebat, extruxerat.’—Xuinoel. ' See on vy. 6, init. The Navalis Phebus of If the Palatine was the local Aetius Apollo. | whom Augustus thus honoured by trans- |) } | ferring his cultus to Rome. See Zn. viii. } |
’
PROPERTILI.
LIBER V. 1.
Evandri profugze concubuere boves.
Fictilibus crevere deis hxc
σι
aurea templa,
Nec fuit opprobrio facta sine arte casa, Tarpeiusque pater nuda de rupe tonabat,
a
Et Tiberis nostris advena bubus erat.
Quo gradibus domus ista Remi se sustulit, olim Unus erat. fratrum maxima regna focus. 10
Curia, preetexto que nunc nitet alta Senatu, Pellitos habuit, rustica corda, patres.
Buccina cogebat priscos ad
704,—Palatia, as usual, includes the Pala- tine hill itself, as well as merely the build- ings upon it. Compare ‘pecorosa palatia’ inf. v. 9, 3. Tibull. ii. 5, 25, ‘sed tune pascebant herbosa palatia vacee.’ Mar- tial, i. 70, 5.
4.1 Profuge, ‘exiled, as ‘profugos Penates’ inf. 39. For the story of Evander and his prophetic mother Carmentis, see Ovid, Fast. i. 470 seqq. '
5.] Crevere, as inf. 56, ‘qualia creverunt meenia lacte tuo,’ means that from humble beginnings, a mere shed (casa) for clayen gods, the present gilded temple of Jupiter Capitolinus arose. Perhaps a structure of green boughs or turf is meant as the orig- inal shrine. Cf. Tib. ii. 5, 25, ‘sed tunc pascebant herbosa Palatia vacce, Et sta- bant humiles in Jovis arce case.’ Ovid, Fast. i. 203, ‘frondibus ornabant que nunc Capitolia gemmis,’ and 202, ‘Inque Jovis dextra fictile fulmen erat.’ We have casa similarly used inf. 9, 28 and 56.—oppro- brio, sc. ilis.
7.] Nuda de rupe. The temple of
|| Jupiter Tonans (as distinct from Capito- | linus) stood on the Arx, above the Tarpeian ‘rock. The poet means, that he formerly
thundered from the bare rock, in all the majesty of nature, and had no temple at allonthespot. Virg. 4x. viii. 347, ‘hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem et Capitolia ducit, Aurea nunc, olim silvestribus horrida dumis.’ Juvenal, xiii. 78, speaks of swear- ing ‘per Tarpeia fulmina.’
8.] -Advena, ‘the Tiber rolled his waters from afar (only) for our oxen,’ not for the inhabitants of a mighty city. Ovid has this phrase more than once, e.g. Fast. ii. 68, ‘qua petit sequoreas advena Tibris aquas,’ 72. 1. 524, ‘haud procul a ripis, advena Tibri, tuis.’ Also νυ. 268, ‘et per- eunt lentes, advena Nile, tue;’ and a similar sentiment occurs ibid. 641, ‘et quem nunc gentes Tiberim noruntque ti-
verba Quirites :
mentque, Tune etiam pecori despiciendus eram.’ The notion seems derived from the water, in passing from its source into the sea, visiting different places in its course.
9—10.] Quo, ‘eo loco, in quo nune stat domus (casa) Romuli, olim fratres habebant unius foci commune regnum, et magnum quidem.’ The word domus is used improperly in reference to the humble cottage which was still traditionally point- ed to as the ‘casa Romuli,’ but poetically as the residence of kings. ‘One hearth- stone was a large kingdom for two brothers’ is a happy expression. Compare sup. iii. 7, 8, ‘et ipse Straminea posset dux habi- tare casa.’ Fast.i. 199, ‘dum casa Marti- genam capiebat-parva Quirinum.’ 172. iii. 183, ‘que fuerit nostri, si queris, regia nati, Aspice de canna straminibusque do- mum.’ 4. viii. 654, ‘ Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.’—se sustlit gradibus means that the casa had ‘mounted up’ on steps to a higher place of dignity, viz. from its original site in the valley near the Circus, to the Palatine. Hertzberg thinks the gradus here mentioned are the βαθμοὶ of Plutarch, Romul. § 20, and the Scale Gaii of Solinus.
11.] Curia, the new senate-house built and consecrated by Augustus, which did not stand on the site of the old Curia Hostilia.—pretexto, pretextato, in refer- ence to the purple border on the senatorial toga, as nitet is said of the ‘nitida toga,’ or clean white woollen mantle. The old ° senate-house had ‘skin-clad fathers, clown- ish minds,’ whom the poet describes, in the following distich, as summoned to their parliament (ad verba) by the shep- herd’s horn, and ‘often to have had no other meeting-place than a meadow.’— centum illi, ‘ the original hundred appoint-~ ed by Romulus,’
ce lhe Bude trsfa ther ah
214
PROPERTII
Centum illi in prato seepe Senatus erat.
Nec sinuosa cavo pendebant vela theatro,
15
Pulpita sollemnes non oluere crocos. : Nulli cura fuit externos quzrere divos,
Cum tremeret patrio pendula turba sacro, Annuaque accenso celebrare Parilia fzeno,
Qualia nunc curto lustra novantur equo.
20
Vesta coronatis pauper gaudebat asellis, Ducebant macre vilia sacra boves. Parva saginati lustrabant compita porci,
15.] Vela, the awnings of the theatre of Marcellus: See on iy. 18, 13.—pulpita &c., ‘nor was the stage made fragrant with the saffron used on great days,’ or festive occasions when unusual displays were made. Saffron-water was sprinkled about the theatre to cool the air and to afford a refreshing smell. Ovid, Fast. i. 342, ‘ Nec fuerant rubri cognita fila croci,’ (where jila are the dried pistils of eracus sativus, the spica Cilissa of 6, 74, inf.) Martial, Hp. v. 25, ‘rubro pulpita nimbo spargere, et effuso permaduisse croco.’ Ovid, A. A.i. 103, ‘Tum neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro, Nec fuerant liqui- do pulpita rubra croco,’—a passage perhaps borrowed from this.
18—20.] Nulli &e. ‘No one then cared to look for foreign gods, when the crowd hung in anxious suspense over their native rites, or to celebrate the annual Parilia with lighted hay, for expiations such as are still kept up with the blood of a dock- tailed horse.’ By externi dit, ἐπακτοὶ θεοὶ, the worship of Isis with other Syrian and Egyptian gods, more or less lately intro- duced, is meant.—tremeret pendula is a comment on the most probable meaning of superstitio, ‘the standing over an object of awe’ (e.g. a puteal or a bidental), or the ex-
_ hibition of any sacred rite or mystery.
19.1 Parilia, or Palilia (1 and ry being convertible) was the old festival kept in honour of the country goddess Pales,
' probably the female of the god Φαλῆς,
Ar. Acharn. 263, and the origin of Pala- tium. The poet seems to say that, rude and simple as the ceremony was, viz. that of jumping through lighted bonfires placed at intervals, if was not known at the earliest period. See inf. 4, 77. Ovid. Dust. iv, 720 seqq. Persius, i. 72, ‘fumosa Palilia foeno,’ It is probable that it was a sym- bolic record of a kind of Moloch-worship, in which victims were burnt alive to the
demon-spirits,—for such, alas! was primi- tive religion.—curto equo, like eurto mulo, Hor. Sat. i. 6, 105. Certain expiatory rites (lustra) were performed with the blood of the October horse; which rites are said novari, 1.6. solemniter fieri, after the old fashion. The horse was killed for the purpose six months beforehand, and the tail was cut off that the blood might drop on the altar of Vesta, from which it was removed in a concrete form to be used as a suffimen, mixed with other substances enumerated by Ovid, Fast. iv. 733, ‘San- guis equi suftimen erit, vitulique favilla: Tertia res, duree culmen inane fabe.’ By novantur it is meant that the rites are renewed and kept up every year, as, it is clear from the passage in Ovid, was really the case. The blood of the horse, perhaps, had some relation to sun-worship, since that was the victim offered by the Persians to the sun, Ovid, Fast. i. 3865.
21.] Coronatis asellis. On the feast of Vesta, or the fifth before the Ides of June, a procession took place in honour of that goddess, in which the prominent figure was an ass decked with strings of loaves. Ovid, Fust. vi. 818, ‘ Kece coronatis panis dependet asellis, Et velant scabras florida serta molas.’ Jbid. v. 347, ‘Quem tu, Diva, memor de pane monilibus ornas.’ The origin of the custom is explained at length in that passage. —macre boves, ‘poorly-fed cows conveyed the homely altar-fittings,’ εὐτελῆ ἱερά. By ὄργια, ἱερὰ, and sacra, not only the victims, but all the implements and instrumenta of a sacrifice are usually meant.
23.] Compita,™ ‘the cross-roads, then but small, were consecrated (or exorcised) by the blood of home-fed porkers, and the shepherd offered the inwards of a ewe to the notes of a reed pipe.’ The sense is, that the feast of the Compitalia to the Lares (Fast. y. 140) was then celebrated
ee Comp ele
—
4
LIBER V. 1.
Pastor et ad calamos exta litabat ovis.
Verbera pellitus szetosa movebat arator,
Unde licens Fabius sacra Lupercus habet. Nec rudis infestis miles radiabat in armis: Miscebant usta prcelia nuda sude. Prima galeritus posuit pratoria Lycmon,
Magnaque pars Tatio rerum erat inter oves.
30
Hinc Titiens Ramnesque viri Luceresque coloni,
on a small scale, and with cheap and hum- ble victims only. Perhaps there is an allusion to the costly swovetaurilia of later times.—ad calamos, in place of the tibia (αὐλὸς) used in the ceremony.—ltabat, ἐκαλλιερεῖτο, a word not easy to render in English; Jitare is to make an offering ac- ceptable to the gods, as Fast. iv. 630, ‘pontifices, forda sacra litate bove.’ Mart. Ep. x. 73, 6, ‘non quacunque manu vic- tima cesa litat.’? Pers. Sat. ii. 75, ‘farre litabo.’
25.] -Pellitus, ‘decked with pieces of goat-skin to imitate Pan.’—setosa verbera are the blows inflicted with thongs of raw goats’ hide by the Luperci on all whom they met in the streets, and especially on the women. This was regarded as a cause of prosperity and fecundity. Ovid, Fast. ii. 31, ‘Mensis ab his ({. 6. februis) dictus, secta quia pelle Luperci Omne solum lus- trant, idque piamen habent.’ See also 7b. 427—4565, and lib. v. 102. The festival is described in detail, 7. ii. 267, &c. 1 add an interesting passage from Plutarch, Quest. Rom, § \xvili. Διὰ τί κύνα θύουσιν ot Λούπερκοι; (Λούπερκοι δ᾽ εἶσιν of τοῖς Δουπερκαλίοις γυμνοὶ διαθέοντες ἐν πε- ριζώμασι, καὶ καθικνούμενοι σκύτει τῶν ἀπαντώντων") πότερον ὅτι καθαρμός ἐστι τῆς πόλεως τὰ δρώμενα, καὶ τὸν μῆνα Φεβρουάριον καλοῦσι; καὶ νὴ Δία τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην Φεβράτην, καὶ Φέβραριν τὸ τῶν σκυτῶν ἤθει καθικνεῖσθαι, τοῦ ῥήματος τὸ καθαίρειν σημαίνοντος; τῷ δὲ κυνὶ πάντες, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, Ἕλληνες ἐχρῶντο καὶ χρῶνταί γε μέχρι νῦν ἔνιοι σφαγίῳ πρὸς τοὺς καθαρμούς. The Lupercalia having fallen into disuse were restored by Au- gustus, Sueton. Oct. § 31.
26.] Unde, ex quo more.—licens, ‘lewd,’ the conduct of these men in the perform- ance of a phallic ceremony not being very modest or refined. They are the ‘nudi Luperci’ of Zn. viii. 663, and the name would seem to indicate some primitive worship ad arcendos lupos, for keeping the wolves from the flocks placed under the
protection of Pan. They were divided
i)
into two classes, the Fabii and the Quin- ἢ tilii, called (it was said) after the gens of | their respective founders, the followers of ἢ
Romulus and Remus. See Fast. ii. 377, ‘Risit, et indoluit Fabios potuisse Remum- que Vincere; Quintilios non potuisse suos.’ So the priests of Hercules were divided into Potilii and Pinarii, Livy, i. 7.
27.] Nec rudis ἕο. ‘Rude was the soldier then, nor in offensive armour did he shine: they joined in the fight without covering, and with no weapons but a charred stake.’ — nuda, arevx7, without the protection even of a target. Ain. vii. 523, ‘non jam certamine agresti, Stipiti- bus duris agitur sudibusve preeustis.’
29.] Lycmon, or Lygmon, (al. Licmon, LIuemo), seems either a general name for an Etruscan chief or noble, or the eponym hero of the Lucwmones or Luceres, (be they Latians or Etrurians). Compare Lyco- medius, inf.2, 51. Galeritus means ‘ clad in the rustic cap of wolf-skin.’ nn. vii. 688, ‘fulvosque lupi de pelle ga- leros Tegmen habent capiti.’ The sense appears to be, that the first regular camp, with separate quarters for the general, was introduced by the Luceres, with some at- tempt at protective armour as a covering for the head; and Titus Tatius, himself a warrior, was too much engaged in settling disputes among his shepherd people to give up his whole time to war.
31.] Hine ἕο. ‘Yet, small as these beginnings were, it was from them that the three tribes of the Titienses, Ramnes, and Luceres arose, and that Romulus ended in driving four white steeds in triumph to the Capitol,’ viz. after his victory over the Ceeninenses, inf. 10, 9, Livy, i. 10. — Titiens (al. Tities) seems intended as the nominative singular of Titientes or Titienses, the ‘ warriors’ (Varronianus, p. 26). The Ramnes contain the same root as Romulus, Remus, Roma, ficus Ruminalis ἕο. (Don- aldson, Varron. p. 60, suggests the Lithu- arian raumu, ‘a dug,’ which certainly best
210
PROPERTII
Quattuor hine albos Romulus egit equos. Quippe suburbanz parva minus urbe Boville
Hac -Fubi
Et, qui nune nulli, maxima turba Gabi, Et stetit Alba potens, albze suis omine nata, Fidenas longe erat ire via.
Nil patrium nisi nomen habet Romanus alumnus:
4 ws Sanguinis Huc melius
suits our idea of ‘to ruminate,’ or ‘make milk ;’ others groma, grumus, srouma, ‘stream-town,’ but it is all guess). There is much difficulty in the antithesis vi and colonit. The sense cannot be ‘fighting- men’ and ‘farmers,’ because the Lucumo is said to have made the first camp. Therefore, colont probably means ἔποικοι, viz. that the Luceres came last and were added on, as new settlers, to the Roman and Sabine tribes. It is to be observed that Ovid, ust. 111. 131, makes the first syllable of JLwceres long, ‘Quin etiam partes totidem Titiensibus idem, Quosque vocant Ramnes, Luceribusque dedit.’
33.] Quippe seems to give the reason why Romulus could triumph over towns which afterwards became almost part of Rome. Bovyille was indeed about ten miles distant; yet Ovid also, Fust. iii. 667, applies the same epithet, ‘ Orta suburbanis quedam fuit Anna Boyillis.? Miller marks the loss of some verses before this, which he thus explains: ‘ When Rome was small, Boville was less in its im- mediate neighbourhood (minus suburbane) than it now is, when the imperial city has ΒΟ much encroached on the towns and villages near.’ The order of the words certainly suggests the construe of parva minus urbe, May this be the ablative of quality, and mean that formerly Boville, now small, and a mere suburb, was once ‘of a less small and insignificant size,’ ¢.e. relatively? It was then thought a great place, because there was no larger city to contrast with it. This sense exactly suits the next verse, ‘And Gabii, now nothing, was a large people.’ Miiller however, rather ingeniously, transposes 34 and 36, and here reads ‘ Atque ibi Fidenas longe erat isse via.’ in this sense; ‘it was then a long journey from Rome to Fidens, which now seems close at hand.’ Others read parva eminus urbe; but I think Pro- pertins would certainly have used procul, not «minus, —It is hardly necessary to add
fallere.
altricem non pudet esse lupam. profugos misisti, Troia, penates. O qual vecta est Dardana puppis ave!
40
that Gabii, once an important Alban or Latin town, was at this time almost de- serted, Hor. 1». 1. 11, 7.
36.] Hac &c. ‘ Alba stood on the road which brought you to Fidene by a long | route.’ If this be genuine, the sense can only be, that Alba stood on the road to,
Ἧ
a
ο f
5 i ΕΣ
rd Z
Fidene, which in fact lay in an opposite τὸ
direction from Rome. to have ever been the case; but as a poetical hyperbole it may mean that a journey even to Fidenze was then thought | a serious matter. I have marked the! passage however as doubtful both in sense and in the reading. isse for ire.
37.] Nil patriwm &e. ‘Nomen tantum- modo a Romulo usurpant; sanguinem, #.e. indolem a Martia lupa habent.’—non pudet, gloriantur se a lupa nutritos esse, utpote gentem marte validam. This is said to show how and why the neighbouring towns were so soon absorbed in Rome, and why Rome still delights in its conquests.
39.] Melius, felicius, quam si Grecis preeda cessisses.—Barth. huc, sc. in tam bellicosam terram.—gwali ave, quam bono omine. Hor. Od.i.15, 5, ‘mala ducis avi domum.’ Hew simply expresses admira- tion. Hertzberg and others read 0, against the good copies.—Dardana puppis, the ship that brought A®neas, who is virtually de- scribed under id/am in the next verse. It was a favourable circumstance, says the poet, and an omen of her future destinies, that Troy did not lose αἵ her citizens by the stratagem of the wooden horse, but that Aineas escaped with his father An- chises and a handful of followers. The vowel is shortened before sp as in iv. 11, 53, ‘brachia spectayi,’ inf. v. 4, 48, ‘tu cave spinosi rorida terga πρὶ, where we trace the French pronunciation, épine, in the liquefaction of the s. So also in σκέπαρνον, smaragdus, Scamander &c., and στέγειν, σφάλλειν, compared with tegere, See also y. 5, 17.
This is not likely
ie *
The Naples MS. gives)
LIBER V. 1.
Leeserat abiegni venter
Jam bene spondebant tune omina, quod nihil illam
apertus equi,
Cum pater in gnati trepidus cervice pependit,
Et verita est humeros urere flamma pios.
Tune animi venere Deci Brutique secures,
Vexit et ipsa sui Cesaris arma Venus,
ὃ is portans Arma resurgent ortans
victricia Troie:
Felix terra tuos cepit, Iule, deos! Si modo Avernalis tremule cortina Sibylle
Dixit Aventino rura pianda Remo,
50
Aut si Pergamez sero rata carmina vatis
Longeevum ad Priami vera fuere caput, Vertite equum, Danai, male vincitis: Ilha tellus Vivet, et huic cineri Juppiter arma dabit.
Optima nutricum nostris lupa Martia rebus,
Qualia creverunt mcenia
55 lacte tuo!
Mcenia namque pio conor disponere versu:
44.] Flamma. See the fine account in Ain. ii. 721.—pios, ‘ filial.’
46.] Vexit arma. An elegant compli- ment to the victorious arms of Augustus, derived from the tale of Thetis bringing the arms of Achilles, and the probably older tale of the Nereids conveying the arms of Peleus as a marriage present from the gods. For vexit Miiller proposes awxit, which seems to me entirely to destroy the point and beauty of the passage.—yportans, ‘in bringing the victorious arms of the Troy that was destined to rise again out of
its own ashes, 7.e. in Rome, Venus brought the arms which were to be used by her own Cesar in his expeditions.’
49.] ‘Romam felicia fata manent, si vere Sibylla gemellos reges et auspicari et condere Urbem jussit.’ Hertzberg.—pianda, z.e. ad capiendum auspicium. Florus, 1.1, ‘Gemini erant: uter auspicaretur et rege- ret, adhibuere piacula.’ Jdem.—<Aventino is perhaps the ablative of place, ‘on the Aventine;’ or we might read Aventini rura. The Sibyl is called Avernalis from her residence at Cumez near the Avernian lake, on which see iv. 18, 1, “7. 1. 442. cortina, the seat or cover of the prophetic tripod, originally, it is probable, intended to receive and inclose the volcanic gases which were supposed to be the breath of the spirits below. See Zn, iii, 92, ‘neque te Phoebi cortina fefellit.’
51.] Sero rata, ‘too late found true.’
The simple sense is, ‘aut si vera cecinit Cassandra, in fatis esse ut Troja resurgeret.’ See on iv. 18, 62.—ad Priami caput, viz. predicting that her father’s murder by Neo- ptolemus would be avenged. The apodosis is at Vertite equum, Danai. “ Τῇ prophecies were true, that Rome should be a second Troy, then the Greeks were wrong in seeking the old Troy, because they would be conquered in their turn by the new one.’ This is the sense of male vincitis. Muller regards vertite—dabit as Cassandra’s speech, to which he prefixes 87, 88 inf., transposed to this place. I cannot see the least ap- propriateness or probability in such an arrangement.
56.] Qualia, ἡλίκα, ‘to what a size have grown walls from your milk,’ ἢ. ὁ. built by one nourished from the wolf’s teat. A harsh expression; cf. sup. 5.— With this verse, as I believe, the original, or first draught of the poem ended. We now proceed with the verses of a man made vain by success, and marked by an egotism from which the earlier verses are free. I think too that in 67—70 I detect verses which were at first designed as a general proéme to his ballads on Roman history, but which were, in the subsequent recension, misplaced or interpolated in the wrong place, precisely like the lines con- cluding the Vertumnus (inf. 2, 59—64).
57.] Menta is repeated from the pre- ceding verse, like arma in 47.—disponere
217
event
eon yer
eres eee χαιρνοδηθες
SecA ϑθραμαλ ΡΘΕ liebe
218
PROPERTII
Hei mihi, quod nostro est parvus in ore sonus! Sed tamen exiguo quodcumque e pectore rivi
Fluxerit, hoc patriz serviet omne mee.
60
Ennius hirsuta cingat sua dicta corona: Mi folia ex hedera porrige, Bacche, tua, Ut nostris tumefacta superbiat Umbria libris, ; Umbria Romani patria Callimachi.
Scandentes si quis cernet de vallibus arces, Ingenio muros zstimet ille meo. Roma, fave, tibi surgit opus, date candida cives
65
Omina et inceptis dextera cantet avis. Sacra diesque canam et cognomina prisca locorum:
Has meus ad metas sudet oportet equus. Dicam: Troia cades et Troica Roma resurges,
Et maris et terre longa sepulcra canam. dicere sacra, Properti ?
‘Quo ruis inprudens, vage 2 hohe)
is ‘to describe,’ by arranging in parts, or in a methodical way, and so is nearly a synonym of descridere. So Lucret. ili. 420, ‘digna tua pergam disponere carmina cura.’ pio is here ‘affectionate.’ Miiller, who thinks the vulgate reading absurd, and de- nies that disponere can have this sense, edits on his own conjecture ‘ Munere nam- que pio conor disponere versus.’
61.] Ennius &e. The poet says he will devote his talents to the praise of his country, leaying however rough heroics to others, and preferring the soft and smooth elegiac verse. Miiller marks dicta with an obelus.—hedera, partly as the type of
_ smoothness, partly in reference to the
- *doctarum hederz premia frontium.’
To
_ these are opposed the thorny or prickly
crown of Ennius. Cf. Ovid, Tvist. 11. 259, ‘sumpserit Annales, nihil est hirsutius illis.’ Supra iy. 1,19, ‘ Mollia, Pegasides, date vestro serta poete; Non faciet capiti dura corona meo.’ Hertzberg: ‘hirsute corone dum mollius folium opponere poeta vult, sponte se prebuit hedera, cujus se- quax natura vel in proverbium abiit. Hederam suam Bacchus sequutus est. Quem deum—ut poetarum lyricorum et elegiacorum patronum hic quoque, quam- vis majora ausurus, jure Propertius vene- ratur.’
64.] The poet calls himself the Roman Callimachus in accordance with the senti- ments before expressed, iv. 1, 1, &e.
65.] Scandentes, i.e. ascendentes, sur-
gentes.—arces are the same as muros, the natural precipices on which his native town arose. See below, v. 125.—quisguis- Miiller, from MS. Naples, for δὲ guts. ~~
66.] Zstimet ingenio meo. ‘Let him measure their greatness and importance by my genius,’ or by their being my birth- place. Ingenio is the ablative of price, as Hertzberg almost unnecessarily remarks. Compare inf. 126, ‘Murus ab ingenio notior ille tuo.’
67—70.] As above remarked (on 56), it is probable that these verses really formed a general prowmium, to which pur- pose they are singularly appropriate. Rome is asked to favour the work, and a fayour- able omen is asked to attend the under- taking. Add to these four verses the obscure distich, 87-8, ‘dicam Troja cades’ &c., and we have a statement of the general subject, much like that in the opening lines of the Fuasti, 0.g. 7, 8, ‘Sacra re- cognosces annalibus eruta priscis, Et quo sit merito queeque notata dies.’—/longa se- pulcra, longinquas mortes, the deaths of the heroes in their return from Troy.
70.] Has ad metas. ‘This is the goal which my steed must toil to reach.’ Cf. Georg. iii. 202, ‘hic vel ad Elei metas et maxima campi Sudabit spatia.’ Miller here marks the loss of some verses, and Lachmann makes a space or break in the poem; but the abruptness does not show the passage to be faulty, No sooner has the poet announced his in-
LIBER v. t=
Non sunt ah dextro condita fila colo. Ayersis Charisin cantas, aversus Apollo:
Poscis ab invita verba pigenda lyra.
Certa feram certis auctoribus: aut ego vates Nescius wrata signa movere pila.
Me creat Archytz soboles Babylonius Horos, Horon et a proavo ducta Conone domus.
Di mihi sunt testes non degenerasse propinquos, Inque meis libris nil prius esse fide.
Nune pretium fecere deos et fallitur auro
80
tention, and the aim which he has in view, than his ardour is checked by the serious warning of an Astrologer, who extols his own infallibility in his art somewhat vauntingly, and at considerable length, in order to gain credit for his prediction that the contemplated historical poem will prove a failure. This is, of course, only an ex-
the planets in concentric rings on the As- trolabe. Pila, which I before interpreted |) © a hollow sphere round which the planets || | were made to move as in an orrery, I ΠΟῪ ἢ think, from having seen one, must be the) | astrolabe, which is a flat circular disk with moving segments so contrived as to mark | conjunctions and opposition of the planets. ©
i ee i te eee eee
ὶ
3 tid
eed
Py,
a 5 . 5 arcessis lacrimis.
pedient on the part of the poet to apologize for his supposed unfitness for the task. There is no reason whatever to identify the Astrologer with the hospes in ver. 1. The Romans were greatly influenced by astrological predictions. See, for instance, Persius, Sat. v. 45 seqq., Tac. Ann. iv. 48, and inf. on 83 (after 108).
Ibid. Imprudens, ‘thoughtless,’ ‘ with- out foreseeing the consequences.’— vage, desultory, restless, not keeping to one theme or subject. For sacra the best copies give fata or facta, Lachmann and Miiller adopt the former. Sacra certainly suits the sense better, as it takes up the word in ver. 69, ‘Sacra, did you say? That is not a thread for you to twist, nor for your lute to play.’
72.] Condita, ‘not put together from a lucky distaff,,—in allusion perhaps to the thread spun by the Fates. For the mas- culine colus see inf. ix. 47.
73.] Charisin has no MS. authority, and is the conjecture of Heinsius. The Naples MS. gives accersis lacrimas, the Groningen Miiller proposes aversis rythmis, Lachmann arcessis Latium. Pucci versis musis, which Jacob adopts. Cf. Martial, Zp. viii. 62, ‘Scribit in aversa Picens epigrammata charta, Et dolet, averso quod facit illa deo.’
75.] Aut ego, i.e. ‘or put me down as one who does not know how to use the astro- labe.’ Jacob and Keil give haud, from Pucci, Miiller haut.—signa movere, to move
77.] There is some uncertainty here about the reading. In the first line the MSS. vary between orops and horos, for which Pucci gives Oron; in the second all give oron or horon. The sense appears to be, ‘me creavit Horos, et Horon creavit domus Cononis.’ Lachmann understands, ‘me Horon creat Horops et,’ &c., and so Miiller.—‘Nec nune anxie querendum, quomodo Archyte Tarentini gentem cum Cononis Alexandrini et Hori Chaldzi com- ponas. Satis erat homini gloriabundo clara mathematicorum nomina undique corrasa tanquam paterna et avita jactare.’ Hertzberg.—ereat for creavit, as inf. y. 121, edit for edidit.
79.1 Degenerasse. This verb is followed by an accusative in Ovid Met. vii. 543; ex Pont. iii. 1, 45; quoted by Kuinoel. In the same sense, the Greeks say καταισ- χύνειν yéevos.—fide, ‘than declaring the truth, whether fayourable or not, to those who consult me.’ This was doubtless the boastful profession of the impostors in the art.
81.1 Pretium fecere deos, ‘Now-a-days they have turned the gods to profit.’ The nominative to be supplied is, the pre- tenders to astrology; the Babylonian hay- ing just boasted of his own jides.—fallitur auro Jupiter, ‘for gold they misrepresent Jupiter ;’ 7.e. these pretenders, for money, will falsely announce the will of the gods to those who consult them. See below on 11, 80.
ips Aecettt lachygye mil cantat auersak A) σ᾽ apolle
«enn
pop gz a1da
PROPERTII
Juppiter, oblique signa iterata rote. 82
Dixi ego, cum geminos produceret Arria natos, (Illa dabat natis arma vetante deo) ᾿
Non posse ad patrios sua pila referre Penates: Nempe meam firmant nunc duo busta fidem.
Quippe Lupercus, equi dum saucia protegit ora, Heu sibi prolapso non bene cavit equo:
Gallus at, in castris dum credita signa tuetur,
Concidit ante aquilee rostra cruenta sue. Fatales pueri, duo funera matris avare,
Vera, sed invito contigit ista fides. Idem ego, cum Cinare traheret Lucina dolores
Et facerent uteri pondera lenta moram,
100
Junonis facito votum inpetrabile, dixi: Illa parit: libris est data palma meis.
Hoe neque harenosum Libyze Jovis explicat antrum
82.] Oblique rote signa. The sphere or globe is called rota, and the epithet ex- presses that the axis is deflected from the perpendicular, so that the ecliptic or plane of the sun cuts it transversely. Claudian, Epigr. xxv. ‘Fallaces vitreo stellas com- ponere mundo, Et vaga Saturni sidera seepe queri, Venturumque Jovem paucis promittere nummis, Cureti genitor noverat Uranius.’ The invention was attributed to Archimedes: Ovid, Fast. vi. 277, ‘ Arte Syracosia suspensus in aere clauso Stat globus, immensi parva figura poli.’ The signa iterata appear to be the signs of the zodiac repeatedly consulted and considered, —as we should say, hackneyed. See inf. 8, 7. It seems best to supply set.
89.] Dixiego. ‘I predicted (viz. which was more than these impostors could have done) when Arria was escorting her twin sons to the war, against the will of the gods, that it was impossible they should return alive to their home.’ This pro- phecy, like that following about Cinara in labour (100), was a pretty safe guess, and probably the examples are given merely to satirize the art.—producere is προπέμπειν, to give a complimentary escort. So Ovid, Her, 18, 141—8, ‘Arma dabit, dumque arma dabit, simul oscula sumet,—producet- que virum.’
94.] Sibi non bene cavit. In endeayour- ing to save his horse who had been wounded in the head, he took no care of his own safety after his horse had fallen, and he
?
had no steed to mount. To avoid the repetition egui—equo, Heinsius proposed Lupercus eques. «
95.] Credita (sibi) signa, as the bearer of the eagle of the legion. Signum more commonly means the vexillum of a cohort. In rostva cruenta there is a play on the double sense, derived from the habits of a bird of prey.
97.] -Avare, either she had coveted the stipendium, or had sent them to war in the hope of spoils. Miller ingeniously pro- poses Martis avari. But there is pathos in the widowed mother too late bewailing her loss, and blaming herself as the cause of it. Lachmann makes the genitive de- pend on pueri; but funera means ‘ deaths,’ ‘losses,’ as ‘funera Tantalidos,’ iii. 23, 14.
98.] Jsta seems rather improperly used, and is best taken in the sense of hee.—
Jides, ‘this fulfilment of the prediction came
true, but I was sorry that it happened so.’
101.] Facito for facite is Burmann’s correction. Lachmann reads votwm facite. —Junonis, i.e. Lucine. Kuinoel and Barth read Junont with Scaliger. Lachmann defends the genitive by vota deum solvere in “232. xi. 4.
103.] Hoe &e. As above remarked, there must be irony in making the As- trologer say ‘That is more than the oracle of Jupiter Ammon could tell you.’ The point of what follows is to magnify as- trology to the disparagement of all other kinds of divination.—Libye Jovis antrum,
ππ. οὔ
LIBRE V.+1. 221
Aut sibi commissos fibra locuta deos,
Aut si quis motas cornicis
senserit alas, 105
Umbra neque e magicis mortua prodit aquis. Aspicienda via est czli verusque per astra
Trames et ab zonis quinque petenda fides, Felicesque Jovis stelle Martisque rapacis it grave Saturni sidus in omne caput,
Quid moveant Pisces animosaque signa Leonis, Lotus et Hesperia quid Capricornus aqua.
108 85 84 85 86
Exemplum grave erit Calchas: namque Aulide solvit
Ille bene herentes ad pia saxa rates:
110
Idem Agamemnoniz ferrum cervice puellz Tinxit, et Atrides vela cruenta dedit:
‘the prophetic recess of Jupiter in Libya.’ See on iv. 22,15, ‘Ortygize visenda est ora Caystri.’ Pind. Pyth. iv. 56, Νείλοιο πρὸς πῖον τέμενος Kpovida, ‘the fertile oasis of Jupiter near the Nile ;’ where also the temple of Ammon is meant.
106.1 Prodit, declarat. Some kind of νεκρομαντεία, necromancy, or what modern superstition calls ‘ spirit-rapping,’ was pro- bably practiced at the Avernian lake. Lachmann and Miiller read uwmbrave que, the Naples MS. having wmbrane que.
107.] Verus per astra trames, ‘the true path that lies through the stars,’ or, as we should say, ‘the only road to truth is througk astrology.’ It is best perhaps to supply petendus est. The variant versus for verus is worth attention; cf. Georg. i. 238, ‘via secta per ambas, Obliquus qua se signorum verteret ordo.’ The allusion here clearly is to a globe with the five zones (Georg. i. 233), in which the equator is intersected by the ecliptic.—After this verse I have inserted four lines which are at least appropriate in this place, (reading stelle for stelias, with Scaliger), while in their usual order they are well-nigh un- intelligible. The meaning now is clear; if one wants to know the future, one must take the horoscope of a person, and observe what the constellations or planets under which he was born portend for good or evil. Compare Persius, Sat. iv. 50, ‘Sat- urnumque gravem nostro Jove frangimus una.’
83—6.] ‘Even the good and bad plane- tary influences, and what the Pisces ἄο. portend,—all this is now a mere matter of traffic with the pretenders.’—In the punc-
tuation and explanation of this obscure passage I have departed widely from both Jacob and Hertzberg. It must be re- membered that the astrologers (Chaldei or Mathematic?) obtained great and dangerous influence in Rome under the Emperors. Even Tacitus appears to have believed in the science: Ann. iv. 58. See also vi. 22, ‘Plurimis mortalium non eximitur quin primo cujusque ortu ventura destinentur : sed queedam secus quam dicta sint cadere Jallaciis ignara dicentium. Juvenal, vi. 553, ‘Chaldeis sed major erit fiducia: quicquid Dixerit astrologus, credent a fonte relatum Hammonis; quoniam Delphis ora- cula cessant’ ἕο. Augustus was a believer in the art. Suet. Oct. §94, ‘Tantam mox fiduciam fati Augustus habuit, ut thema suum vulgaverit, nummumque argenteum nota sideris Capricorni, quo natus est, per- cusserit.’ Tiberius had Chaldeans with him at Caprese, Juv. x. 94.
85.] -dnimosa (iv. 9, 9), is perhaps an astrologer’s term, in reference to the sup- posed courage or spirit of the animal.
109.] Exemplum grave, ‘a serious warn- ing,’ viz. of the danger of trusting seers rather than astrologers. | Agamemnon,
misled by Calchas, let his fleet sail from |
Aulis when it would have been well de-
tained (bene hesisset) at rocks which | |
asked not, as Diana did, the death of a child, Iphigenia.—pia saza, like pie porte, inf. 7, 87, having regard and reverence for loved objects. Cic. de Div. i. 16, ὁ 29, ‘Agamemnon, quum Achivi coepissent inter sese strepere, aperteque artem obterere extispicum, Solvere imperat secundo rumore adversaque ai.’
222
PROPERTII
Nec rediere tamen Danai: tu diruta fletum Supprime et Euboicos respice, Troia, sinus.
Nauplius ultores sub noctem porrigit ignes
115
Et natat exuviis Greecia pressa suis.
Victor Oiliade, rape nunc et dilige vatem, A. Quam _vetat avelli veste Minerva sua. /~ Hactenus histori: nunc ad tua devehar astra: Incipe tu lacrimis zquus adesse novis.
2:
120
WN Umbria te notis antiqua Penatibus edit, (Mentior? an patrize tangitur ora tue 7)
113.] ‘Dry your eyes, Ὁ Troy, when you turn them to view the destruction of the Grecian fleet off the south-eastern pro- montory of Eubcea, and see yourself thus avenged.’ The sense is, Calchas had pro- mised a safe return, but his prediction was proved by the event to have been false. Nauplius, the father of Palamedes, to avenge himself on the Greeks for the loss of his son, held up lights off the dangerous promontory of Caphareus, by which the Greek pilots were deceived and the vessels wrecked. Compare iv. 7, 39, ‘Saxa tri- umphales fregere Capharea puppes, Nau- fraga cum vasto Grecia tracta salo est.’
irg. Zn. xi. 260, ‘ Euboice cautes, ultor- que Caphareus.’ Pausan. iv. 36, 3, ἐοίκασι δὲ ai ἀνθρώπειαι τύχαι Kal χωρία τέως ἄγνωστα ἐς δόξαν προηχέναι. Καφηρέως γάρ ἐστιν ὄνομα τοῦ ἐν Εὐβοίᾳ, τοῖς σὺν ᾿Αγαμέμνονι Ἕλλησιν ἐπιγενομένου χει- μῶνος ἐνταῦθα, ὡς ἐκομίζοντο ἐξ Ἰλίου.
116.] Et natat ἕο. ‘The Grecian fleet floats helpless on the water (is water- logged), overweighted with sacrilegious spoils.’ For this sense of xatat see 11]. 17, 24, and iv. 12, 82. It seems better to understand it thus than to refer it to the efforts of the crew to save themselves by swimming. The story is taken from the ancient tale of the Νόστοι, like the account of the storm in the Agamemnon and at the beginning of the Troades.
117.] Oiliades, Ajax the son of Oileus. The initial O represents the digamma. Lachmann needlessly reads Iliade victor. Pindar has the form Ἰλιάδα for Ειλιάδα in Ol. ix. 112.—dilige, choose as your consort. Ajax, son of Oileus, had ravished Cassandra in the very temple of Pallas, and though she had taken refuge by clasping the sacred statue. See 4n.i.40, and the fine pas- sage in ii. 403, &.—veste sua, in allusion to the peplus, which was placed on the
Bpéras, or ancient statue of Pallas in the Parthenon ; the same usage being supposed to exist at Troy, by a common practice of the poets. This scene, the rape of Cas- sandra from the Palladium, is one of the commonest of the designs on Greek Vases. The sense is, ‘Go, now, Ajax, commit sacrilege,—and suffer the just consequences of it.’ This use of the imperative is com- mon when the speaker dares or challenges another to brave a certain risk: so 7 nune, ite &c. iv. 7, 29, and 18,17. The calam- ities of the voyage homewards were attri- bated to this act of Ajax. See on Asch. Agam. 336.
119.] Historie. ‘So far for history. Now I will come (lit. down the course of time) to your destinies. Prepare yourself to hear with patience a new subject of grief.’—novis, different from the old tale of
Troy. all Mentior, ‘Am I speaking falsely, or do I hit (with my art) the border of
your native land? Cf. Asch. Ag. 1165, ἥμαρτον, ἢ κυρῶ τι, τοξότης Tis ὥς ;—qua &e., ‘it is the place where dank Mevania (Bevagna) sheds its dews on the low-lying plain, and the Umbrian tarn basks with its waters in the summer sun.’ The Jacus Umber seems to be the sources of the river Clitumnus, described by Pliny in a well- known and beautiful letter, Zp. viii. 8, ‘eluctatus (fons) quem facit gurgitem Jato gremio patescit purus et vitreus.’ Those who have seen the sources of the ‘New River’ near Ware, will understand the de- scription. But Pliny adds that its waters are intensely cold, ‘rigor aque certaverit nivibus.’ Poetically, perhaps, rather than truly, it is said to be warmed by the summer sun. But the form imtepeo (for intepesco) is suspected. Miiller reads δὲ tepet, but he does not condescend to explain what sense he thus attaches to the passage.
oF a ΞΕ
4
LIBER V. 1.
223
Qua nebulosa cavo rorat Mevania campo, Et lacus xstivis intepet Umber aquis,
Scandentisque Asisi consurgit vertice murus,
μκαὶ bo Or
Murus ab ingenio notior ille tuo. Ossaque legisti non illa etate legenda | Patris et in tenues cogeris ipse Lares: Nam tua cum multi versarent rura juvenci,
Abstulit excultas pertica tristis opes.
130
Mox ubi bulla rudi demissa est aurea collo, Matris et ante deos libera sumpta toga, Tum tibi pauca suo de carmine dictat Apollo
Et vetat insano verba tonare foro.
At tu finge elegos, fallax opus, hee tua castra,
Scribat ut exemplo cetera turba tuo. Militiam Veneris blandis patiere sub armis Et Veneris pueris utilis hostis eris. Nam tibi victrices quascumque “labore parasti,
125.] Asis for Asis is the almost cer- tain correction of Lachmann and Haupt. Asisium, or Asisi, one of the many hill- towns of Italy, was the birthplace of the
poet, and is better known in modern times Ἵ as that of St. Francis. With the vanity of one who had now made a fame, Pro- pertius puts his own biography into the ἡ mouth of the pseudo-astrologer.
127.] It appears from 111. 26, ὅδ, that ‘\Propertius was born of impoverished pa- rents, not conspicuous for their ancestry. VSee also iii. 16,21. That he was, how- ever, ingenuus is clear from the mention of the aurea bulla vy. 131. Of his parentage and gens next to nothing is known. See Hertzberg, Quest. pp. 12—14.
Ξ 130.] Pertica, the measuring-rod, or : perch, by which the unjust distribution of confiscated lands was made to the veterans of Octavian in the year 713, an event so = well known from the first Eclogue of + Virgil.—exeultas, ‘highly tilled;’ cf. Mar- ‘ tial, Ep. i. 85, 1.
* 181.] Bulla aurea. The pendent or amulet worn round the neck of infants, and retained till the age (16) for taking the toga virilis, (libera toga, vy. 132). This bulla was of gold if the parents were pa- trician, and of leather if they were in humble life. Juven. v. 164, ‘ Etruscum puero si contigit aurum, Vel nodus tantum, et signum de paupere loro.’ Hence the
f
oo | document called ‘a bull,’ de-
rives its name from the seal appended to it. Dimissa 15 ΤΊΣ in the Naples MS. Demissa is retained by Miiller.
132.] Jlatris deos. His father being dead, the Lares are called his mother’s gods. We know from Persius, Sat. v. 31, that such was the custom: ‘Bullaque succinctis Laribus donata pependit.’ See Becker, Gallus, p. 183.
133.] Tum tibi ο. The sense is, ‘then you began to write verses, and refused to be brought up as a lawyer.’ Of course, all this is attributed to the influence of Apollo. Whether the next distich con- tains the words of the god or of the astrologer, is not very clear.
135]. Fallax opus, ‘disappointing though the work may be.’ Or perhaps, as Lach- mann explains it, ‘quod in fraudibus et fallaciis versatur,’ ‘intended to deceive.’— hee &c., ‘this is your field, to furnish a model for inferior poets to follow.’—turba, ὄχλος τῶν ποιητῶν. Soiy.1, 12, ‘scrip- torumque meas turba secuta rotas.’
138.] Utilis, you will serve the Cupids as a fit person to practice on.
139.] Victrices palmas, victorias, or te victorem. ‘One girl will make vain, or baffle, all the victories you may have gained over love.’ The sentiment is ex- panded in the next couplet; ‘you may boast that you have resisted the charms of many, but Cynthia will catch you at last.’
224
Eludet palmas una puella tuas:
PROPERTII
140
Et bene cum fixum mento discusseris uncum, Nil erit hoc, rostro te premet ansa suo. Tllius arbitrio noctem lucemque videbis: Gutta quoque ex oculis non nisi jussa cadet.
Nec mille excubiz nec te signata juvabunt oO
145
Limina: persuase fallere rima sat est. Nune tua vel mediis puppis luctetur in undis, Vel licet armatis hostis nermis eas, Vel tremefacta cavo tellus diducat hiatum :
Octipedis Cancri terga sinistra time.
1.
Quid mirare meas tot in uno corpore formas ? Accipe Vertumni signa paterna dei.
142.] Ansa, the handle, or knop, of the hook by which a body was dragged igno- miniously from the place of execution. ¢Sejanus ducitur unco Spectandus,’ Juven. x. 66. Hor. Carm. i. 35,19, ‘Nec severus Uncus abest liquidumve plumbum.” Ovid, Ibis, 167, ‘Carnificisque manu, populo plaudente traheris, Infixusque tuis ossibus uncus erit.’ The notion intended probably is, that when the sharp hook would not hold in a lacerated or putrified corpse, some use was made of the other end for pushing, shoving, or thrusting it along, which is the literal sense of premet; but this is only a conjectural explanation of a very obscure passage. The general sense may be, ‘you may get away from her now and then, but she will beat you in the end.’ The MSS. give vostro and ausa, and inf. 146 prima, which were emended by Pucci.
143.] Arbitrio, by her permission alone you will be allowed to sleep, or be awake, or even to ery. Compare i. 5, 11, ‘Non tibi jam somnos, non illa relinquet ocellos.’
145.] Nee ἕο. ‘Nor, though she thus holds you in thrall, will you keep her faithful to you.’—ypersuase, cui persuasum est; ef. Ovid, Avs. Am. 679, ‘jamdudum persuasus erit; miserebitur ultro.’
147.] ‘You need not now dread ship- fared battles, or earthquakes; your fate will come from a woman born under the constellation Cancer,’ and therefore rapa. This is almost a proverbial way of predict-
ing a certain end, as when we say, ‘That
man was not born to be drowned.’ See 111. 19, 12; iv. 16, 11 seqq., and Tibull. i. 2, 27, ‘ Quisquis amore tenetur, eat tutus- que sacerque Qualibet.” There is some satire perhaps on the mystic language of the astrologers in terga cancri. The al- lusion may be to Cynthia’s avaricious de- mands, 111. 7, and iy. 13.
149.] Lachmann and others read cavo hiatu, with MS. Gron., and this would be satisfactory enough with deducat, ‘carry you down in its yawning gulf.’ Perhaps there were two readings, cavum diducat hiatum, (like diducere rictum, Juy. x. 230), and cavo deducat hiatu. As the text stands in the best editions, tremefacta cavo must be construed, @.e. utero concussa.
II. A mythological account of the god Vertumnus, who is introduced as the per- sona loquens. Vertumnus was a kind of harlequin god, who in accordance with his name was made to take different costumes at different festivals and seasons.
2.1 Vertumni. Another form, found in the best copies, is Vertunnt, which seems to point to Vertuni. Compare Portunus and Fortuna. The word is from an old participle of verto or vorto, i.e. vertomenus. Similarly Auctumnus for auctomenus, ‘the year as it gets old” It is well known that a duality of sexes characterized the oldest mythology, whence we find Liber and Libera, (Tac. Ann. ii. 41), Jupiter and Juno, (i.e. Jovino), Janus and Diana, Helios and Selene, &e. The origin of the name
On Eee
LIBER V. 2.
Tuscus ego et Tuscis orior, Preelia Volsanos deseruisse focos.
Hee me turba juvat, nec templo letor eburno: Romanum satis est posse videre forum.
nec poeenitet inter .
Hac quondam Tiberinus iter faciebat, et aiunt Remorum auditos per vada pulsa sonos: At postquam ille suis tantum concessit alumnis,
Fortuna, otherwise called Fors (for Vorts), (the Fortis Fortuna of Fasti vi. 773), must be sought in the peculiar attributes of Chance,—uncertainty, fickleness, and revo- lutionary caprice. Hence she is painted with a wheel: see Ritter on Tac. Anz. iii. 71; supra, ii. 8, 7—8. According to Pau- sanias, lib. iv. cap. 30, § 3, 4, the Messeni- ans represented their Τύχη as πόλον ἔχουσα ἐπὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ. Fortuna was worshipped as Nursia or Nortia (Nevortia, Juven. x. 74) at Vulsinii, and hence she is clearly identified with Vertumnus. Some derived Vertumnus from ver, and so made him the husband of Pomona, from a fancied analogy of Vertumnus to Auctumnus. Varro (JZ. L. § 74), writes ‘et aree Sabinam linguam olent, que Tati regis voto sunt Rome dedicate: nam ut Annales dicunt, vovit Opi,—Vor- tumno.’ But the semi-Greek form of the name points to a Tyrrhenian origin, verto being an Umbrian or indigenous word in- flected on the Pelasgic model. Compare Varronianus, p. 886. A writer in Dr. Smith’s smaller Classical Dictionary does not seem justified in saying: ‘The story of the Etruscan origin seems to be sufli- ciently refuted by his genuine Roman name, and it is much more probable that the worship of Vertumnus was of Sabine origin.’—signa paterna, ‘the proofs of the parentage or paternity, z.e. of the native land, of the god Vertumnus.’ He means the proofs, such as those adduced inf. 49 seqq. But paternus and patrius are not synonyms, though here confused.
8.1 Inter prelia, when the early wars of Rome with the Sabines were in progress. See inf. v. 51.
4.] The MSS. vary between volsanos, volsinos, and volsanios, each of which forms, as usual in similar cases, finds an advocate in one or other of the editors. Volsiniis occurs in Tac. Ann. iv. 1, and in Juvenal, Sat. iii. 190, with the first 7 short, whence Volsinios was conjectured by Heinsius. Barth and Lachmann give Volsanos, which, according to Hertzberg, is also approved by Miiller. But he now reads Volsunios.
5.] Hee turba, i.e. frequentissimus hic vicus.—jwvat, in a double sense: I like Rome, and I like to see the people, and therefore I would not have them hid from my sight. The statue of Vertumnus, ap- parently not inclosed in a shrine (nec tem- plo letor eburno), was placed in the vicus Tuscus, otherwise called, as Hertzberg shows in a very elaborate note, vicus tura- rius, (Hor. Epist. ii. 1, 269, ‘vicum ven- dentem thus et odores,’) from a confusion between Tuscus and tusculum or thuseulum. Varro, vy. 46, distinctly says, ‘ab eis (sc. Tuscis) dictus vicus Tuscus, et ibi ideo Vortumnum stare, quod is deus Etrurice princeps.’ Thus parts of English cities were called the Jewry from being assigned for the habitation of Jews. The vicus Tuscus led from the Velabrum into the Forum Romanum (see v. 4, 12), and ap-
ears to have commanded a view of it.
7.] The first reason the god assigns for his name is that the part of Rome called the Velabrum (from veda, inf. 9, 5) was formerly covered with water, and was re- covered by turning the course of the river. Ovid, Fast. vi. 405—10, ‘Qua Velabra solent ad Circum ducere pompas, Nil pree- ter salices crassaque canna fuit.—Nondum conyeniens diversis iste figuris Nomen ab averso ceperat amne Deus’ (Vertumnus quasi Vertamnus).—hac, δεικτικῶς, pointing to the Velabrum lying below.— Tiberinus, the river-god, who was supposed to have walked on the oozy shallows.
9.1 Concessit, ‘gave up so much ground to the children whom he fed with his waters,’ as κουροτρόφος. Lucret. v. 1370, ‘inque diem magis in montem succedere silvas cogebant, infraque locum concedere cultis.’” In the pentameter I have written Vertamnus (as in 12 Vertannus) in place of the ordinary form. It is evident that the poet discusses the origin of the name ac- cording to different ways of spelling and pronouncing it. Hence in 21 and 47 it is equally clear that Vertomnus was derived from vertere tn omnes, and in 64 from vertere omnes in fugam.
Q
—
226
Vertamnus verso dicor ab amne deus.
PROPERTII
10
Seu, quia vertentis fructum preecepimus anni, Vertanni rursus creditur esse sacrum. Prima mihi variat liventibus uva racemis, Et coma lactenti spicea fruge tumet.
Hic dulces cerasos, hic auctumnalia pruna
15
Cernis et «stivo mora rubere die.
Insitor hic solvit pomosa vota corona, Cum pirus invito stipite mala tulit. | Mendax fama noces: alius mihi nominis index: De se narranti tu modo crede deo:
Opportuna mea est cunctis natura figuris ; In quamcumque voles, verte; decorus ero. Indue me Cois, fiam non dura puella: Meque virum sumpta quis neget esse toga? Da falcem et torto frontem mihi comprime feno, 25
11.] Another theory of the name is propounded, and enlarged upon by a de- scription of the changes of fruit in the autumn.—precepimus, ‘we take the first tribute of, —a preceptio of the fruits, as it were. The plural refers to the citizens generally, not to the god, who throughout uses the singular. They are said to take the early samples of garden-produce and offer them on the feast of Vertumnus, the perfect tense representing the aoristic sense ‘preecipere solemus.’ It seems needless to alter this into precerpimus, with Fea, whom Miiller follows.—rursus, at, ‘for this other reason.’—sacrwm, i.e. tempus or festum; ‘the time of the first tasting is considered the Feast of Vertumnus.’ The MSS. give eredidit, which was corrected by Pucci.
13.] Prima &e. This explains what is meant by the preceptio. ‘The first bunch of grapes that changes its colour is mine (lit. ‘does so for me’); and the first spiky ear that swells with milky grain,’ 1,6. in which the milky grain begins to enlarge.— variat, verti incipit; here intransitive, as in ii. 5,11, ‘non ita Carpathie variant Aquilonibus unde.’ The Greek is ὑπο- περκάζειν, Od. vii. 126. Soph. Frag. 239, 6, καὶ κλίνεταί ye κἀποπερκοῦται βότρυς.
15.] Hic, before my statue, to which the first ripe fruits (dulces) were duly brought.
16.] Rubere. Like the blackberry, the mulberry is green, scarlet, or black in
different stages of ripening. Asch. Frag. Cress. 107, λευκοῖς τε γὰρ μόροισι καὶ μελαγχίμοις καὶ μιλτοπρέπτοις βρίθεται ταὐτοῦ χρόνου.
17.] Another kind of change, the success of which is attributed to the god, is that produced by grafting; though, of course, a pear-stock will not bear apples any more than an elm will bear acorns, as Virgil fancied, Georg. ii. 72.—pomosa corona may mean either a string of young apples or a garland of apple-blossoms.
19.] Noces, ‘you do me injustice.’ The popular notions about the origin of the name Vertumnus are all wrong; the real derivation is from verti in omnes figuras.— mihi, 1.6. alium habeo nominis indicem, sc. meipsum. Perhaps however tdi should be read, addressed, like the following tw, to the reader, or more simply still, to Fama, who is thus referred to the god himself for the account she is to give of him. Whether modo erede should be con- strued, or deo modo dum de se narrat, is uncertain.
21—2.] In eunctis and verte the name Vertomnus is implied, as inf. 47, The in- tervening verses describe the varieties of guise assumed by the god.
23.] Cots, see i. 2, 2, and 11. 1. 5.—non dura, no awkward girl, but of natural and easy gait.
25.] Falcem. Give me a sickle (or scythe) and a hayband round my brows, and you will swear I have been mowing
LIBER V. 2.
Jurabis nostra gramina secta manu. Arma tuli quondam et, memini, laudabar in illis: - Corbis in imposito pondere messor eram.
Sobrius ad lites: at cum est imposta corona, Clamabis capiti vina subisse meo.
Cinge caput mitra, speciem furabor Iacchi: Furabor Phebi, si modo plectra dabis. ἢ Cassibus impositis venor: sed harundine sumpta
Faunus plumoso sum deus aucupio. Est etiam aurige species Vertumnus et ejus, Traicit alterno qui leve pondus equo.
Suppetat hoc, pisces calamo preedabor, et ibo Mundus demissis institor in tunicis.
Pastor me ad baculum possum curvare vel idem
grass.’ The whole of this passage should be compared with Ovid, det, xiv. 641—41.
27.] Arma, see 3 and 53.—laudabar, as sup. decorus ero ;—in illis, as Gr. ἐν ὅπλοις, dressed as a warrior. The use of 77) is the same in the pentameter, where cordis is | the reaper’s basket or hamper in which the ears of corn were placed, the straw being left standing.
29.] Sobrius, οὐκ εἰμὶ πάροινος, ‘I am not easily provoked to a drunken brawl.’ He can assume the guise of a comissator or κωμαστὴ5, and appear as if wine had got into his head. Plaut. Amphitryo, 999, ‘capiam coronam mi in caput, adsimulabo me esse ebrium.’
33.] Harundine, the fowler’s jointed rod, tipped with bird-lime and so con- structed that it could be suddenly darted out to a considerable length; the calamus of iy. 18, 46. Martial, ix. 54, 3, ‘aut crescente levis traheretur harundine prada, Pinquis et implicitas virga teneret aves.’— aucupio, ‘for bird-catching,’ ‘for taking feathered game.’
35.] ‘Vertumnus assumes also the guise of a charioteer, and of one who throws his light weight from one horse to another in the circus.’—leve pondus is the accusative, not the nominative in apposition to gw, as Lachmann thought. Barth rightly sup- plies ‘scil. corporis sui.’ So pedes trai- cere inf. 4, 78. The practice alluded to is much like that which is still commonly exhibited, viz., feats of agility on horseback at full speed. The horses were called equi desultortzi. Kuinoel refers to Sueton. Jul. Cesar, 39, ‘quadrigas bigasque et equos desultorios agitaverunt nobilissimi juyenes.’
ἢ
227
30
| 90 CA
forges
The celebrated and curious passage in Hom. 11, xv. 680 shows that this exhibi- tion sometimes took place on the high roads.
37.] Suppetat hoc, z.e. modo fiat mihi copia hujus rei. Compare inf. 4, 9.
38.] Mundus, ‘spruce and tidy.’—de- missis tunicis, non succinctus. The latter implied hurry, exertion, and indifference to personal appearance. The pedlar (i- stitor) would seem to have found great favour in Roman families, and to have had interested motives in dressing so as to please female eyes. Compare Hor. Od. iii. 6, 30; Epod. xvii. 20; Ovid, Art. Am. i. 421; Remed. Amor. 305. The proper office of the znstitor seems to have been to dis- pose of goods on commission, much in the way practised by our commercial travellers.
39.] All the good copies give pastorem ad baculum possum curare; a reading with which Jacob expresses no desire to quarrel. Hertzberg also retains it, and thinks pas- torem curare is not more harsh than dp/lere pastorem, ‘to fulfil the part of a shepherd,’ like ‘censorem implere,’ Vell. Paterc. ii. 96. So also Miiller and Keil. I still think this reading is nonsense, and I doubt if Mr. Wratislaw mends the matter by reading ‘pastorem ad baculum possum curvyare,’ i.e. ‘curyum pastorem agere.’ I have therefore adopted, with Kuinoel, the ex- cellent conjecture of Ayrmann, in defence of which Kuinoel well observes, that on ancient gems shepherds are usually repre- sented as leaning on their staffs, and he quotes from Ovid, Zrist. iv. 1, 11, ‘ Fessus ut incubuit baculo saxoye resedit Pastor.’
228
Sirpiculis medio pulvere ferre rosam.
PROPERTIT
40
Nam quid ego adiciam, de quo mihi maxima fama est, : Hortorum in manibus dona probata meis ?
Ceruleus cucumis tumidoque cucurbita ventre
Me notat et junco brassica vincta levi.
Nec flos ullus hiat, pratis, quin 1116 decenter
Impositus “fronti langueat ante mez.
At mihi, quod formas unus vertebar in omnes, Nomen ab eventu patria lingua dedit.
Et tu, Roma, meis tribuisti preemia Tuscis,
Unde hodie vicus nomina Tuscus habet,
50.
Tempore quo sociis venit Lycomedius armis, Atque Sabina. feri contudit arma Tati, Vidi ego labentes acies et tela caduca,
40.] Medio pulvere, which some take for media arena, and explain of the custom of selling roses to the spectators in the circus, Hertzberg and others more probably understand for media estate. ‘ Hortorum villicum vel adeo puellam rusticam tibi finge «state per vias pulverulentas canis- tras (canistra) florum plenas Romam por- tantem.’— Hertzberg, who perhaps presses the sense of medio pulvere too closely. The custom of sending flowers to sell in the city is mentioned Georg. iv. 134, ‘Primus vere rosam, atque autumno car- pere poma.’ The sirpiculus was a hamper or flower-basket, alluded to perhaps in iy. 18, 30. Varro (the worst of etymologists) says, perhaps rightly, v. § 187, ‘Falces sirpicule vocatee ab sirpando, id est ab alli- gando,’ and again § 139, ‘sirpea, quod virgis sirpatur, id est colligando implicatur.’
41.] Nam quid &e., ‘quid quod hor- torum dona ponuntur in manibus meis,’ z.e. accedit quod &e.—maxima fama, be- cause Vertumnus was associated with Po- mona.—dona probata, the choice produce of the garden, including fruits and vege- tables, but the latter here seem chiefly meant.
43.] Ceruleus, in respect of its bluish or glaucous bloom. So Lucretius has ‘olearum ceerula plaga,’ v. 1374.—me notat, insignem facit; in a good, or at least, in- different sense. Cf, iv. 7, 22, ‘qua notat Argynni poena natantis aquas.’
45.|] Jlle seems to mean e¢ ile; as inf, 7, 92, ‘nos vehimur’ is xos guogue. Com- pare however tid. 76.—pratis is opposed to hortorum,; ‘nay, even the first flowers
of the fields are put to wither on my brow.’
47.] In omnes, see sup. on 21.—patria, the language of my adopted country, the Roman.
49.] Lt tu, Roma. ‘As 1 was called Vertomnus from verti in omnia, so Vicus Tuscus was called from the Tusci.’—unde, z.e. ‘nam ab iis’ το.
51.] The good copies agree in Lycome- dius. Kuinoel and Lachmann admit Bur- mann’s conjecture, Lucwmonius. See on v. 1, 29. The historical incident referred to by the poet is the assistance lent to the Romans against the Sabines by the Tuscans under Cales Vibenna, whence the vicus Tuscus was believed to haye derived
its name, and the tribe of the Luceres | seems to have sprung. Tacitus, Ann. iv. | 65, ‘ Caelium (montem) appellitatum a Cele | -
Vibenna, qui dux gentis Etrusce cum aux-
ium tulisset, sedem suam acceperat a ~
Tarquinio Prisco, seu quis alius regum dedit: nam scriptores in eo dissentiunt. Cetera non ambigua sunt, magnas eas copias per plana etiam ac foro propinqua habitavisse, unde Tuscum Vicum e vo- cabulo advyenarum dictum.’ <A _ people called Lucomedi, the same in fact as the Luceres, are recorded by Festus and Paul the deacon, quoted by Hertzberg; but of a leader so called, no mention occurs ex- cept in the present passage. There seems an allusion to λύκος or λύκειος, as Suggest- ive of fierceness.
53.] Vidi ego. See sup. 27.—tela ca- cin wrrita, weapons that fell short of the mark,
pS RCTS ATION ΒΟΝΝΗΝΉΒΝΒΝΝΝ ee
sre
S541 PERI HEE
arti BABE
age
τ eee)
oo
eA EA RAL He nery:
hore!
LIBER V. 3. 229
Atque hostes turpi terga dedisse fuge. Sed facias, divum sator, ut Romana per evum Transeat ante meos turba togata pedes. Sex superant versus: te, qui ad vadimonia curris, Non moror: hee spatiis ultima meta meis. Stipes acernus eram, properanti falee dolatus, Ante Numam grata pauper in urbe deus. 60 At tibi, Mamurri, forme celator ahene, Tellus artifices ne terat Osca manus, Qui me tam docilis potuisti fundere in usus. Unum opus est, operi non datur unus honos.
Or Or
IH
Hee Arethusa suo mittit mandata Lycote,
54.] Hostes, i.e. Sabinos. As they were 62.] Osca. It is not very clear whether versi in fugam, it is probable that the name the poet meant generally Itala, as Miiller Vertumnus is again alluded to. (quoted by Hertzberg) thinks, or Campana,
56.] Ante meos pedes. The way to the as the latter prefers, or lastly, whether Circus maximus, which stood in the low any antithesis is intended between the ground between the Palatine and Aventine aboriginal Oscans and the Etrurian or hills, from the Forum Romanum, was by Pelasgic settlers. Possibly (as in Lyco- the Vicus Tuscus and the Velabrum, so »medius sup.) there is a fanciful allusion to that crowds of people were constantly pass- opifex in Osci or Opici. The name would ing the statue of Vertumnus. — Zogata, seem to be connected with IMamers, the peaceful or civilian. Oscan word for Mars; see Varronianus,
57.] Ad vadimonia. Here used for any p.80. The general sense however is clear: urgent and important business. Juy.iii. ‘may the earth spare the skilful hands 213, ‘differt vadimonia pretor.’ Any one that made me,’ ὦ, 6. may it be light to your in a hurry, says the poet, may pass over remains. the remaining six verses, as merely sup- 63.] Fundere, xwvetew, whence, of plementary. It may be conjectured, from course, our word foundry. There is this the unusual and awkward way in which difference between fundere and conflare the last six lines are connected with the (inf. v. 7, 47), that the former is to cast preceding, that the present elegy was at anew statue &c., the latter to melt down first commenced with the words ‘Stipes an old one.—doctles is here in a passive acernus eram’ &c. See sup. on i.67, and _ sense, ‘readily assumed:’ the mind of the compare Horace, Sat. i. 8,1. ‘Olim trun- poet was perhaps rather ‘me docilem in cus eram ficulnus,’ &e. tot usus,’ ‘who had the skill to cast me
58.] Ultima meta, ‘the last heat;’ cf. fit for being turned into so many uses.’ sup.i. 70, ‘hasmeusad metas sudet oportet Hence xon unus honos operi; it is praised equus.’—spatia, as in Georg. i. 512, means under whichever of its attributes it is the courses run, each up-and-down, δί- viewed. avaos, being a ‘spatium.’
61.] Mamurius Veturius was a famous III. This elegy, which Kuinoel rightly sculptor or modeller in the time of Numa. |{ styles ‘mellitissimum carmen,’ as much Ovid, Fast. iii. 383, speaking of the ancilia:|{ resembles Ovid’s Heroides as the two ‘Mamurius, morum fabrene exactior artis} preceding are like the style of the Fasti. Difficile est illud dicere, clausit opus.’ Under the feigned names of Arethusa and With Miiller and the Naples MSS., wef Lycotas it is generally thought that Alia should read Mamurri in the present pas-+Galla and her husband Postumus are sage, as Ovid shortens the w. meant. See on iv. 12, which also treats
230
PROPERTII
Cum totiens absis, si potes esse meus. Si qua tamen tibi lecturo pars oblita deerit, Hee erit 6 lacrimis facta litura meéis:
Aut si qua incerto fallet te littera tractu, 5 Signa mez dextree jam morientis erunt. Te modo viderunt iteratos Bactra per ortus, Te modo munito Neuricus hostis equo, “αἵ ames eee 1 (ἃ Hibernique Getz, pictoque Britannia curru, Ustus et Eoa discolor Indus aqua. 10
Heecne marita fides et pacts gaudia noctes, Cum rudis urgenti brachia victa dedi ? Que mihi deduct fax omen preetulit, illa
Traxit ab everso lumina nigra rogo,
of Ceesar’s expedition to the East. Hertz- berg doubts the identity of the parties (Quest. lib. 1, cap. v. p. 22), because he thinks it improbable that feigned names should be used after the real ones had been given. <A more plausible argument lies in the curious fact, pointed out by Bentley on Hor. Od. ii. 12, 13, that when the Roman writers employed feigned names, they se- lected such as were of the same rhythm as the real ones, 7.e. metrically convertible. Whether this was a law, or merely a common practice, may perhaps fairly be questioned, The similarity of circum- stances detailed in the two elegies strongly suggests that the persons are the same. The date 734 is assigned by Hertzberg to the present elegy, Quest. p. 228.
8.1 δὲ gua tamen ἕο. Ovid expresses this idea with not less beauty, Her. iii. 3, “Quascunque aspicies, lacrime fecere li- turas; Sed tamen et lacrime pondera vocis habent;’ and ¢bid. xi. 1, ‘si qua tamen cxecis errabunt scripta lituris, Oblitus a dominz crede libellus erit.’.—/ec is em- phatic: ‘this is not the ordinary erasure of letter-writers’ Ke.
5.] Aut si &e. ‘Or, if you fail to read any letter from its unsteady stroke, this shall be a sign that death was even now upon my hand.’
7.1 Jteratos, ‘more than once visited ;’ in allusion perhaps to the sending troops and supplies for the second Parthian ex- pedition to revenge the death of Crassus (inf. 6, 83). Compare signa iterata sup. i. 82, and Hor. Carm.i.7, 32, ‘cras ingens iterabimus equor.’ Miiller marks the _ passage as corrupt, the Naples MS. omit- | ting the words Bactra per ortus.—Neuricus
is the conjecture of Jacob, adopted by Hertzberg and Miiller, for hertcus or euricus. Lachmann and the older editors read Sericus after Beroaldus. Keil gives Noricus. The Neuri were a Sarmatian people, mentioned by Strabo, vii. 3, ὁ 14, Herod. iv. 17, and elsewhere. JMzunito equo refers to the cata- phracte or mail-clad Sarmatian cavalry, Tac. Hist.i. 79. See sup. iv. 12, 12.
9.] Pieto curru. Cf. ii. 1, 76, ‘esseda celatis siste Britanna jugis.’—EHoa aqua, ‘ad aquam Eoam,’ Lachmann. This seems the best and simplest explanation; ‘the sun-burnt swarthy Indian by the eastern sea.’ The far north, west, and east are mentioned under the names Gete, Britanni, and Indi. The ancient idea, that the sun rose from the far-distant eastern ocean, and burnt black the natives of that region, is a fair subject for a poet to adopt. Others take Jndus for the name of the river, which makes it hard to explain wstus and discolor. Miiller, with Barth and Kuinoel, read eoo decolor Indus equo; one objection to which is, that eguo thus ends two consecutive pentameters.
11.1 Pacte et mihi gaudia noctis is the plausible conjecture of Miiller for δέ parce avia noctes (MS. Naples), or et pacte mihi noctes (MS. Gron.) The ordinary texts give he pacte sunt mihi noctes, after Pucci and Beroaldus. I formerly gave e¢ sie pacte &c. Mr. Shilleto suggests et pacte tum mihi noctes, Cum rudis ἕο. For avia Haupt proposed savia, a word but little used by elegiae writers. It occurs how- ever iii. 21, 39.
13—14.] Que mthi &e. ‘The torch which preceded me as an omen of my marriage drew its dismal light from some
Mf |b 537
ὟΝ, “«(
Ε..
ee
a ean a inet!
LIBER V. ὃ.
Et Stygio sum sparsa lacu,
231
nec recta capillis 15
Vitta data est: nupsi non comitante deo. Omnibus heu portis pendent mea noxia vota:
Texitur hee castris quarta lacerna tuis. Occidat, immerita qui carpsit ab arbore vallum
Et struxit querulas rauca per ossa tubas,
20
Dignior obliquo funem qui torqueat Ocno,
burnt-out pyre.’ —xigra, fuliginosa, not burning clear and bright, which was a good omen, sup. iv. 10, 20. Such fires are called nigri and atri, ¢.g. Hor. Carm. iv. 12, 26; Zn. xi. 186. The Romans had a great dread of connecting in any way the rites of marriage and of burial. They did not marry during the Feralia, whence Ovid writes (Fust. ii. 561), ‘Conde tuas, Hy- mene, faces, et ab ignibus atris aufer: habent alias mcesta sepulcra faces.’ See ibid. v.487. They also thought much of lighting a torch from a lucky source. Ovid, Her. ii. 117—120, ‘Pronuba Tisi- phone thalamis ululavit in illis,—Suntque sepulcrali lumina mota face.’
15.] Stygio. The water used for sprink- ling was not fresh from the stream, but came from the Ayernian lake. The chaplet too was placed awry on my head, and this was an unlucky omen. The god Hymen, invoked in the marriage song, ‘Hymen ades, o Hymenzxe,’ did not come when he was called, and so I was married without his attendance.’
17.] Portis. Hertzberg appears to be right in understanding the city gates, at which altars and shrines of the Lares viales were placed, and before which written vows for the safety of the absent were suspended. In this case, her vows (1.6, promises of offerings) for Lycotas’ return from service were noxia, rather injurious than other- wise; not favourably received by the gods. ‘Que magis nocent quam juvant, reditu non impetrato.’—Barth. In Cic. de Legg. ii. 23, § 58, mention is made of an altar in the temple of Honour without the Colline Gate.
18.] Quarta lacerna. That her vows for his return had not been heard, was shown by his now being absent for the fourth year on service. The-custom of wives and their maidens weaving these military cloaks for their husbands in the camp, is alluded to in Livy i. 26, ‘soror— cognito super humeros fratris paludamento sponsi quod ipsa confecerat, solvit crines.’ Fast. ii. 745, ‘Mittenda est domino, nunc
nune properate, puelle, Quam primum nostra facta lacerna manu.’
19.] Occidat, ‘perish he who first in- vented the implements of war!—vallum, the stake carried by the Roman soldier for fencing the camp.—immerita (inf. 4, 23) ἀναιτίῳ, not to be blamed as the cause of war; perhaps, deserving of a better fate ; or, which never should have been used for such a purpose.—gquerulas per ossa, uttering its hoarse notes through lengths of hollow bone. The leg-bone (tibia) seems anciently to have been so used, and it is said to be so still. The North American Indians make whistles out of the bones of their enemies. Among the arms taken from the natives of Dewangiri, Bhootan, was a trumpet made out of ahumanthigh-bone (Illustrated News, June 24, 1865). A New Zealand chief is said to have made a flute out of the thigh- bone of his enemy. Compare Ar. Acharn. 863, τοῖς ὀστίνοις φυσῆτε.τὸν πρωκτὸν κυνός. Callim. H. Dian. 244, οὐ γάρ πω νέβρεια δι᾽ ὀστέα τετρήναντο.
21.1 Dignior. ‘More worthy was he than the lollard Ocnus to twist the rope merely to provide a lasting supply of food for the hungry ass.’—odliguo, Ἀεχρίῳ, not sitting straight, but turning on one side so as not to see the ass at his elbow. This seems to have been either a well-known fable or a common subject for wall-painters. The general sense is, ‘ Dignior, qui funem torqueat, etiam quam Ocnus ipse, qui ob- liquus et transyersus operi incumbit, dum asinus ad latus ignaro funem comedit :’— the inventor of war ought to have been the personification of useless toil and trouble, rather than Ocnus in the picture. Pausan. Phocie. lib. x. cap. 29, 1, (speaking of cer- tain paintings at Delphi): μετὰ δὲ αὐτοὺς ἀνήρ ἐστι καθήμενος, ἐπίγραμμα δὲ Οκνον εἶναι λέγει τὸν ἄνθρωπον: πεποίηται μὲν πλέκων σχοινίον, παρέστηκε δὲ θήλεια ὄνος ἐπεσθίουσα τὸ πεπλεγμένον ἀεὶ τοῦ σχοινίου. Τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν “Oxvoy φίλεργόν φασιν ἄνθρωπον, γυναῖκα δὲ ἔχειν δαπανηράν" καὶ ὁπόσα συλλέξαιτο ἐργαζόμενος, οὐ πολὺ ἂν ὕστερον ὑπὸ ἐκείνης ἀνήλωτο. — οἷδα
Ε: 5
δ 3 h
. 1
‘ Hj
ν
292
PROPERTII
/Eternusque tuam pascat, aselle, famem. Dic mihi, num teneros urit lorica lacertos ? Num gravis imbelles atterit hasta manus ?
Hee noceant potius, quam dentibus ulla puella
25
Det mihi plorandas per tua colla notas. Diceris et macie vultum tenuasse: sed opto, E desiderio sit color iste meo. At mihi cum noctes induxit vesper amaras,
Si qua relicta jacent, osculor arma tua.
30
Tum queror in toto non sidere pallia lecto, Lucis et auctores non dare carmen ayes.
Noctibus hibernis castrensia pensa laboro Et Tyria in radios vellera secta suos,
Et disco, qua parte fluat vincendus Araxes,
35
Quot sine aqua Parthus milia currat equus, Conor et e tabula pictos ediscere mundos,
δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ ᾿Ιώνων, ὁπότε ἴδοιέν τινα πο- νοῦντα, ἐπὶ οὐδενὶ ὄ ὄνησιν φέροντι, ὑπὸ τού- των εἰρημένον, ὡς 6 ἄνὴρ οὗτος συνάγει τοῦ Ὄκνου τὴν θώμιγγα. Pliny, NV. H. lib. χχχν. 11, ὁ 197, ‘piger qui appellatur Oc- nos, spartum torquens quod asellus rodit.’
23—4.] Dic mihi, ‘Tell me, does the corselet chafe those tender arms, or the heavy spear gall those too delicate hands? I would rather these should hurt you than that any girl should leave on your neck marks that I should have to deplore,’ viz. the ‘livor Quem facit impresso mutua dente Venus,’ Tibull.i.6, 14. Inf. 5, 39, ‘semper habe morsus cirea tua colla re- centes, Litibus alternis quos putet esse datos.’—urit, so Hor. Epist. i. 13, 6, ‘si te forte me gravis uret sarcina charte.’
27.) ‘Iam told too that you look thin and wan: I only hope that paleness of yours comes from a longing for me,’ not from ill-health or over-fatigue.
29.] Amaras, cf.i. 1, 88, ‘in me nostra Venus noctes exercet amaras.’ Ovid, ‘nunc et amara dies et noctis amarior umbra est.’ si qua &c., ‘if any arms left in the house lie about, I kiss them as yours.’
, 81.] In toto lecto, see oni. 14, 21. She ‘complains that the coverlet (the χλαῖνα, | often used for this purpose), does not rest on the whole bed, but only on half of it, z.e. that one occupant of it is absent. i i think this is a more probable explanation than that she complains of its slipping off \ the bed, which in itself would be a trifling Cf. i. 14, 21,
incident. et miserum toto
juvenem versare cubili.’—aves, the cocks do not announce the coming dawn by crowing.
34.] In radios suos, ‘cut in lengths to fit their shuttles.’ In weaving patterns of different coloured wool, several shuttles would be used, each charged with a certain quantity of dyed worsted. The MSS. have gladios, which was corrected by Perrey. For gladius is the batten, or σπάθη (Asch. Cho. 224), used for pressing the wool close. Tyria, of sea-purple dye; but there were many different hues in use. Cf. inf. 51.
35.] Perhaps aut disco &e., viz. as one of the employments of the long winter- nights. ‘I try to make out in what part of the East the Araxes flows, that is to be conquered by your arms, and how many miles the Parthian steed runs without water’ (ὦ. ὁ. must run to get water). The Arab horse is second only to the camel in his endurance of thirst.
37.] Conor is the reading of Hertzberg for cogor, after Broukhusius. The words are sometimes confused, and cogor could only express the truism, that as she was not with her husband in the east, she was obliged to haye recourse to the map. By ‘pictos mundos’ she seems to mean ‘ pictas mundi (<.e. orbis) partes.’ The πίναξ of Herod. v. 49 shows how early this device was in- vented; and only a few centuries have elapsed since anything approaching to ac- curacy in map- -making was attained. Some blunders in the map of Dicearchus are pointed out by Cicero, Hp. ad Att. vi. 2, 3.
LIBER V. 3. 259
Qualis et hee docti sit positura dei, Que tellus sit lenta gelu, que putris ab estu, Ventus in Italiam qui bene vela ferat. 40 Adsidet una soror, curis et pallida nutrix
Peierat hiberni temporis
esse moras.
Felix Hippolyte nuda tulit arma papilla Et texit galea barbara molle caput.
Romanis utinam patuissent castra puellis! 45
Essem militiz: sarcina fida tus,
-- cu
Nee me tardarent Scythie juga, cum pater altas +Africus in glaciem frigore nectit aquas.
Omnis amor magnus, sed aperto in conjuge major: Hane Venus, ut vivat, ventilat ipsa facem. 50 Nam mihi quo Peenis tibi purpura fulgeat ostris
38.] Positurais a Lucretian word. The sense seems to be, ‘ And how this world of ours has been arranged in its parts by the wise Creator.’—docti dei, τοῦ σοφοῦ πάντων δημιουργοῦ. That she does not mean the geography of the east alone, seems shown by the use of Aze instead of ista.
39.] Zenta, ‘numbed,’ ‘stiff,’ ‘frost- bound ;’ opposed to putris, as ‘adhesive’ to ‘loose and friable ;’ putre solum, Georg. li. 204, and zbed. 250, ‘haud unquam man- ibus jactata fatiscit, Sed picis in morem ad digitos lentescit habendo.’—ventus &c., in reference to the hoped-for return of her husband by the first favourable wind.
42.] Pejerat, ‘ falsely swears.’ Though she knows it is not true, yet, for the purpose of consoling me, my nurse assures me the continued delay is caused solely by the sailing-season not yet having arrived.
43.] Felix ἕο. ‘Happy was the queen of the Amazons who could bear arms with exposed breast’ (the one breast, as from & and pads), ‘and barbarian as she was, cover a woman’s head with the dog-skin cap. O that the camp were open to Roman wives too! A faithful companion to your train would I make.’ The sense is, ‘She, as an Eastern Queen, had a free- dom to serve in the wars which is denied to us Roman girls.’—/ida, virtuous amid all the allurements of a camp. On the exclusion of Roman wives from the service, see on il.7, 15. Ovid, Her. iii. 68, ‘non ego sum classi sarcina magna tue,’ says Briseis to Achilles.
48.] The reading of the MSS. Africus must beconsidered doubtful. Assuming that
the winds aresometimes personified, and that ‘pater Boreas,’ ‘Zephyrus’ &c. might even be justified on the idea of their life-giving influence, yet the south-west wind would hardly be the wind to freeze the rivers of Scythia. It may be replied (1) that local meteorology may be very exceptional; (2) that Propertius may speak in ignorance of or indifference to exact eastern geography ; (3) that Africus is used indefinitely for any wind. These considerations have sufficient weight to make the rejection of the vulgate somewhat rash. The best correction, I think, that has been made is aprico for Africus; ‘when Jupiter freezes the deep rivers by clear cold frost.’ Miiller reads etheris, which he thinks ‘pane necessa- rium’ to explain ‘alte aque.’ But he forgets that ether is always associated with fire and upper bright air, never with rain. Lachmann reads Arctoo, Schneide- win and Haupt Zetricws, neither of which seem to have much probability.
49.] -Aperto in conjuge, ‘in the case of an acknowledged and lawful husband,’ κουρίδιος πόσις. Kuinoel, after Burmann, reads deserta in conjuge. The alliteration in the next line seems intentional. It is a beautiful verse, the metaphor being taken from swinging to and fro, or fanning, a piece of charcoal or any feeble flame,— perhaps a torch or link.
51.] Hertzberg, Keil, Miiller, and others place the question at guo? ‘What is it to me to be handsomely dressed? For your eyes alone let the costly Tyrian hues glow, and my hands wear clear crystal gems,’ But it seems simpler to understand
]
[ }
Ἐ
294.
PROPERTII
Crystallusque meas ornet aquosa manus ? Omnia surda tacent, rarisque adsueta kalendis Vix aperit clausos una puella lares;
Glaucidos et catulee vox est mihi grata querentis:
55
Illa tui partem vindicat una toro. Flore sacella tego, verbenis compita velo, Et crepat ad veteres herba Sabina focos. Sive in finitimo gemuit stans noctua tigno,
Seu voluit tangi, parca lucerna mero,
60
Illa dies hornis ceedem denuntiat agnis,
it thus: ‘What is it to me that you have fine clothes and that I wear fine gems? All is dull and silent without you’ &e. Lachmann, Barth, and Kuinoel reads? Fulgeat after Heins; but this should be δὲ fulget. The Naples MS. gives te for tidi, and the Groningen MS, twas for meas in the pentameter; and this reading is pre- ferred by Hertzberg, while Barth and others give sas. On erystallus aguosa see iii. 15,12. Whether the pela, or hand-ball of rock erystal is meant, or a crystal ring, or even a diamond (adamas), is very un- certain. The feminine seems to follow the analogy of 7 λίθος in the sense of ‘ precious stone.’—aguosa may mean ‘with water in it’ (the pila), or ‘clear as water,’ or lastly, ‘congealed from water,’ according to the ideas prevalent about the origin of rock- crystal.
53.] Raris Kalendis, ‘only now and then on the first of the month.’ So Mar- tial, Ep. iv. 66, 3, ‘Idibus et raris togula est excussa Kalendis.’ Kuinoel adopts the needless alteration of Schrader, ‘lanisque assueta colendis.’ The clausi Lares refers to the lararium, the shrine or closet in which the Lares were inclosed, something after the fashion of our altar-triptychs,
perhaps. To the Roman mind, the shut- ἢ ting up of the Lar Familiaris was a symbol . of complete desolation in a house.
55.] Et (perhaps at) seems to mean ‘et sola vox catule’ &e. Martial has a very pretty epigram, i. 110, on a lap-dog called Issa, which slept on its master’s bed.—tuz partem means ‘vindicat sibi partem quam tu debebas (solebas) capere in toro,’ Hertzberg explains it ‘non omne mariti munus, sed partem tantum;’ and this may be right.
58.] Herba Sabina, the Savine or Ju- niper, seems to have been used in φίλτρα or love-potions, and an omen was derived
from its crackling sound when burnt as a charm on the hearth. Ovid, Fust. i. 848, ‘ Ara dabat fumos herbis contenta Sabinis.’ compita, at the shrines of the Lares viales, perhaps.
59—62.] ‘If an owl has whooped, or the lamp has sputtered, the omen is fol- lowed by a sacrifice, either to avert evil portended by the one, or to ensure the good promised by the other.’ The owl was counted inter diras aves by the Romans, and has been regarded with awe in every age. See iv. 6, 29.
60.] Zangi mero. An omen was derived from the sputtering of a wick, which was called ‘sneezing.’ Anthol. Gr. A. 180, ἤδη, φίλτατε λύχνε, τρὶς ἔπταρες: ἢ τάχα τερπνὴν °Es θαλάμους ἥξειν ᾿Αντιγόνην mpodeyels. Kuinoel appositely quotes Ovid, Heroid, xix. 151, ‘Sternuit et lumen (posito nam scribimus illo), Sternuit, et nobis prospera signa dedit.. Ecce merum nutrix faustos instillat in ignes; Crasque erimus plures, inquit, et ipsa bibit :’—but it is singular that he should have stopped at the third line, whereas the fourth shows that if the lamp sputtered, an arrival was expected. The wine was poured by way of acknowledgment of the omen, and as a libation, and also, perhaps, because it made the lamp sputter the more. Compare the modern custom of predicting a guest from the tea-leaves at the bottom of a cup.
61.] Hornis, hovernis, spring (or year- ling) lambs. If a lucky omen occurs, it is followed up at once by a sacrifice, and the butchers, with their sacrificial dress (called limus) tucked up for the work, are eager after fresh perquisites,—a portion of the meat being sent to them after duly perform- ing the sacrifice. The popa was employed to fell the victim, the cwltrarius to cut the throat. Persius has ‘popa venter,’ Sat. vi, 74.
ὶ
Ἷ
q Ἵ
Ὶ a
LIBER V. 4.
Succinetique calent ad nova lucra pope.
Ne, precor, ascensis tanti sit gloria Bactris, Raptave odorato carbasa lina duci, Plumbea cum torte sparguntur pondera funde,
op δεῖ! 65
9
Subdolus et versis increpat arcus equis. Sed, tua sic domitis Parthe telluris alumnis Pura triumphantis hasta sequatur equos,
Incorrupta mei conserva fcedera lecti.
Hac ego te sola lege redisse velim,
Armaque cum tulero portze votiva Capene, Subscribam ‘salvo grata puella viro.’
ΙΝ.
Tarpeium nemus et Tarpeiz turpe sepulcrum
63.] Tanti, sc. ut vitam perdas,—as- censis, as if Bactra was an acropolis. It is said to haye stood at the foot of the moun- tain range known as the Hindoo Koosh, odorato, from the notion that the east was the region of perfumes, and that the great potentates always used them.—carbasa lina, the colours, or standard, of embroidered linen cloth. The syolia opima may perhaps be meant (inf. 10,5). The combination carbasa lina is strange: probably all that Propertius knew was that carbasus was an eastern word, and it is pretty clear that he here uses it as an adjective. Virgil, 4. xi. 776, has ‘sinus crepantes carbaseos,’ where erepantes may refer to the thick and rustling material. It is said to be the Sanscrit Karpdsa, ‘cotton.’ Inf. 11, 54, ‘exhibuit vivos carbasus alba focos.’
66.] Versis equis. The Parthian pre- tended flight, and then suddenly turned on his enemy and discharged arrows at him. See iii. 1, 13.
67.] Sed &c. Do not care for glory, but think only of, and try to requite, the virtuous love of your wife. She adds, ‘So may the virgin spear follow the horses
\ in the triumphal car, after the conquest of ' the Parthians.’
The pura hasta was a pointless wand presented as a badge of honour to those who had first distinguished themselves in the wars. It is like the ‘ winning the spurs’ in our ages of chivalry. Compare Ain. vi. 760, ‘hic juvenis pura qui nititur hasta.’
71.] Porte Carpene, i.e. to the temple “of Mars ad portam. Ovid, Fast. vi. 191, ‘Lux eadem Marti festa est, quem pro- a
5
spicit extra Appositum Tectz Porta Capena vie.’ It was the custom for wives to offer arms in this way on the safe return of theirlords. Ovid, Her. 1. 27, ‘grata ferunt Nymph pro salvis dona maritis.’ The four simple words that end this beauti- ful elegy form a most effective conclusion. The verb, it is needless to add, is usually omitted in this formula, as in the verse ‘ Aineas hee de Danais victoribus arma,’ and even in much earlier Greek dedications. Ἱέρων---τῷ Aw Τυρρηνὰ ἀπὸ Κύμας is the inscription on a helmet about 8.0. 47 (Donaldson’s Pindar, p.95). Sup. i. 20, 44, ‘scribam ego, Per magnum salva puella Jovem.’
IV. The legend of Tarpeia, who be- trayed the capitol to Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, for whom she had conceived an affection. See Ovid, Fast.i. 260; Livy, 1.2. Tacit. Ann. xii. 24, ‘Forum Roma- num et Capitolium non a Romulo sed a Tito Tatio additum urbi credidere.’ Ro- man pride, of course, clung to the legend or tradition that the Capitol was betrayed to the Sabine king. This is one of the most beautiful of the elegies, and was doubtless composed for the work on the Fasti already alluded to. The date is un- certain, but it is one of the early poems.
1.1 Zurpe sepulerum, infamem sepul- turam, inf. v. 91.—Jdimina capta Jovis, ‘the capture of the fortress where now stands the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.’ He is called antigui in contrast with the more modern temple: cf. sup. 1, 4.
PROPERTII
Fabor et antiqui limina capta Jovis. Lucus erat felix hederoso conditus antro, Multaque nativis obstrepit arbor aquis,
Silvani ramosa domus, quo dulcis ab estu Fistula poturas ire jubebat oves.
Or i
Hune Tatius fontem vallo preecingit acerno, Fidaque suggesta castra coronat humo. Quid tum Roma fuit, tubicen vicina Curetis
Cum quateret lento murmure saxa Jovis,
10
Atque ubi nune terris dicuntur jura subactis, Stabant Romano pila Sabina foro ?
Murus erant montes: ubi nunc est Curia septa, Bellicus ex illo fonte bibebat equus. |
Hine Tarpeia dee fontem libavit: at illi
Urgebat medium fictilis urna caput.
3.] Lucus felix, a thriving or luxuriant grove; the Zurpeti luci, inf. 8, 31.—con- ditus antro, ‘inclosed within an ivy-clad ravine,’ ὦ, 6. the sides of which were clothed with ivy. Consitus antro Barth, Kuinoel, ‘and Lachmann, from inferior copies; and this Jacob approves.—Antrum is here used as ‘Partheniis in antris’ i. 1, 11, and 7did. . 2, 11, ‘surgat et in solis formosius arbutus antris.’ Virgil, “ΖΞ. viii. 347, describes the Tarpeia sedes as ‘olim sylvestribus horrida dumis.’
4 Obstrepit, ‘makes music to the rip- pling of a natural spring.’ Cf.i, 17, 46.— nativis, not conducted by pipes from an aqueduct: see iv. 2, 12.
6.] Potwras, more usually potwm ire.
7.) Hune fontem. Hertzberg considers this to have been a small mountain stream, rnnning down the gorge between wooded banks, and collected in a pond at the bottom, from which ‘bellicus equus_bi- bebat? v.14. From the spring-head Tar- peia drew water v.15, so that it is clear that it was not in the occupation of the Sabines. By hune fontem he seems to mean the pond itself at the bottom of the hill, which Tatius secured for his own use by fencing it in front with palisades. Hertzberg quotes the following important passage from Plutarch, Num. 13, τὴν δὲ πηγὴν ἣ κατάρδει τὸ χωρίον, ὕδωρ ἱερὸν ἀπέδειξε ταῖς Ἑστιάσι παρθένοις, ὕπως λαμβάνουσαι καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἁγνίζωσι καὶ ῥαίνωσι τὸ ἀνάκτορον. It was sacred to the Muses, and known as Fons Came- narum.
8.1 Coronat, ‘he makes a secure camp by heaping up the earth into a circular agger, or ring-fence.’ A clever verse, in which every word has a special meaning.
9.1 Curetis, Κουρῆτος, Quirini; Quirium and Cures being, perhaps, but different names for the chief town of the Sabines. Here, it would seem, as in Lyemon sup. 1, 29, the poet makes Cures, Curetis, the eponym title of the Sabine fighting-men. Cf. Ovid, Fast. ii. 477, ‘sive quod hasta curis priscis est dicta Sabinis.’— Jento, ‘lingering,’ ‘long-drawn,’ echoing against the rocks where now stands the temple of Jupiter.
12.] Romano foro. As above remarked, from ‘Tacitus, the Forum Romanum was believed originally to have belonged to the Sabines. ;
13.] Murus. There was no other wall but the mountains,—no agger, no Roma Quadrata, no pomerium.— Curia, the Curia Hostilia at the foot of the Capitoline hill. ex tllo fonte, ‘from a spring (or pond) on that spot,’ viz. that inclosed by a palisade by Tatius, sup. 7. From this spring, but at its source, or at some point on the hill- side, Tarpeia on one occasion drew water in her urn for the service of Vesta. Then first she saw Tatius, and fell in love at the sight of his kingly bearing and comely form.
16.] Urgebat, premebat, #revye.—/ictilis, the terra-cotta urn used by Vestals. So Fast. iii. 14 (of the Vestal Silvia), ‘ ponitur e summa fictilis urna coma.’ Pers. Sat. 11. 60, ‘aurum—vestalesque urnas et Tus- cum fictile mutat.’
iW
chat
LIBER V. 4.
237
Et satis una male potuit mors esse puelle, Qu voluit flammas fallere, Vesta, tuas ? Vidit harenosis Tatium proludere campis
Pictaque per flavas arma levare jubas: 20
Paclacne Obstupuit regis facie et regalibus armis,
----
(4?)
Interque oblitas excidit urna manus.
Spe illa immeritz causata est omina lune,
Et sibi tingendas dixit in amne comas:
Sepe tulit blandis argentea liha Nymphis, 25
Romula ne faciem lederet hasta Tati: Dumque subit primo Capitolia nubila fumo, Rettulit hirsutis brachia secta rubis, Et sua Tarpeia residens ita flevit ab arce
17.] Una. As the punishment of a faithless Vestal was to be buried alive, this“cruel fate is called ‘many deaths,’ like the Greek μυριάκις or πολλάκις τεθνάναι. So Hor. Carm. iii. 27, 37, quoted by Barth, ‘levis una mors est Virginum culpx.’ — voluit fallere, ἤθελε or ἔτλη προδοῦναι, ‘consented to betray.’ The remark an- ticipates the statement, that she fell in love with the royal barbarian whom she saw exercising on the level sand, and raising his arms, from his superior height, over the crested helmets of his officers around him.—yer, i.e. inter, as in iy. 1, 4.
922. Execidit, cf. inf. 7, 96, ‘inter com- plexus excidit umbra meos.’ The sense merely is, that she forgot to take again into her hands the urn that she had lifted from her head.
23—6.] Causata est, προὐφασίζετο, ‘often she pleaded as an excuse (viz. for going to the spring) some ominous appear- ances of the moon, when the moon was not to be blamed, and declared that she must dip her hair in the water. Often too she brought silver lilies to the gentle nymphs of the spring, that the spear of Romulus might not harm the handsome face of her Tatius.’ Compare Tibull. i. 3, 17, ‘aut ego sum causatus aves aut omina dira.’ Tac. Ann.i. 47, ‘mox hiemem aut negotia varie causatus primo prudentes, dein vulgum, diutissime provincias fefellit.’ immerite, sup. 3,19. The ‘omens’ were, of course, pretended; but eclipses, which were attributed to sorcery, were always dreaded, Tac. Ann.i.28. The dipping the head in running water was done avertendi ominis gratia. Pers. Sat. ii. 15, ‘hee sancte ut poscas, Tiberino in gurgite mer-
gis Mane caput bis terque, et noctem flu- mine purgas.’
26.] Romula, for Romulea, like ‘ Ro- mula vincla’ in iy. 11, 52. The meaning appears to be, that while she professed to be making a pious offering to the Naiad nymphs, she accompanied it with a prayer that they would protect her Tatius, who had taken the spring under his own care, sup. 7. Hence this visit also to the spring was made under false pretences. j
27.] Subit, ascendit.—primo fumo may ἢ mean the early evening smoke, when the}. fires were lighted for cooking the evening | meal. Virg. Eel. i. 83, ‘et jam summa’! procul villarum culmina fumant, Majores-” que cadunt longis de montibus umbree.’” If the morning smoke is meant, we must suppose she had been absent all night, which is unlikely, or at least, that she had gone out very early.—rudis, because the hill-side was spzvosus, inf. 48,
29.] Πα, in the following terms (31— 46). Barth and Miller extend the speech or soliloquy of the maid to ver. 66; but the address in ver. 48 should be regarded as distinct, since flevit is inapplicable to the command there given.—vulnera, the wounds of love, which, as they were destined to cause the betrayal of the Arx to the Sabines, were not to be tolerated, ov συγγνωστὰ, by the god of the neigh- bouring height (Jupiter Tarpeius, or Capi- tolinus, sup. 1, 5—7), especially in a Vestal. Compare inf. 86, ‘Sed Jupiter unus decrevit penis invigilare tuis.’” Lach- mann and Hertzberg prefer to make pati- enda the nominative; ‘she, who ought not to have been admitted to the Arx from which her complaints were made.’
288 PROPERTIL
Vulnera, vicino non patienda Jovi: 30 ‘Tgnes castrorum et Tatiz pratoria turme Et formosa oculis arma Sabina meis, O utinam ad vestros sedeam captiva Penates, Dum captiva mei conspicer ora Tati. Romani montes et montibus addita Roma 35 Et valeat probro Vesta pudenda meo. Ile equus, ille meos in castra reponet amores, Cui Tatius dextras collocat ipse jubas. Quid mirum in patrios Scyllam szevisse capillos, Candidaque in szvos inguina versa canes ? 40 Prodita quid mirum fraterni cornua monstri, Cum patuit lecto stamine torta via ? Quantum ego sum Ausoniis crimen factura puellis, Improba virgineo lecta ministra foco ! Pallados extinctos si quis mirabitur ignes, 45
32.] Formosa oculis meis. They were picta arma sup. 20, and would have been thought barbaric and the reverse of beau~ tiful by less prejudiced Roman eyes.
34.] Ora, ‘provided only that I might gaze a captive on the face of my Tatius.’ A beautiful sentiment. The Naples MS. gives esse Tati, the Groning. MS. arma Tati. As in 1. 8, 16, and iv. 18, 54, ora and arma have been interchanged by the transcribers, who here seem to have copied arma from 32 sup. Compare inf. 6, 32—6.
35.] Tarpeia now speaks as if she had formed a desperate resolve to make at once for the enemy’s camp, and to bid good-bye to Rome and her service of the goddess. — addita, mountains lately covered with wood, collis et herba, sup. 1, 2, now crowned with buildings that add to their height.—pu- denda, like verba pigenda sup. 1, 74, and barba pudenda inf. 8, 26, ‘Vesta, whom I ought to be ashamed of for my crime.’
37.] Meos amores is explained me aman- tem; ‘that horse and none other shall take me back to the camp (?.e where my heart has long been), whose mane my Tatius with his own hand arranges on the right side of the neck.’ But I am now inclined to think meos amores means Tatius himself ; and thus she wishes she were the horse whose happy lot it was to bear his master back to the camp. Miiller approves the conjecture of Broukhusius, veportet for 76- ponet.
38.] Dextras. Virgil, Georgic, iii. 36,
‘densa juba, et dextro jactata recumbit in armo.’
39—42.] She now recals cases of broken faith through the force of love, and says
she can feel and understand the strength -
of the motive. . ‘What wonder is it that Scylla should have betrayed her father, and Ariadne her brother the Minotaur, by giving Theseus a clue to guide him out of the labyrinth?’ For the legend of Scylla see iv. 19, 21. Propertius has confounded
the Homeric monster (the cuttle-fish) with | the daughter of Nisus, king of Megara; |
but other poets have done the same. See Virg. Eel. vi. 74, ‘Scyllam Nisi, quam fama secuta est, Candida succinctam la- trantibus inguina monstris.’ Ovid, Fast. iv. 500, and Avs. Am. i. 331.
41.] Cornua, ‘the horned monster her brother,’ the Minotaur.—lecto stamine, ‘by the clue which he took up as he went along.’ This is the literal and perhaps primary sense of /egere, as in ‘ legere litus,’ ‘flumina’ &e. Ovid, Her. x. 108, ‘nec tibi que reditus monstrarent, fila dedissem, Fila per adductas seepe recepta manus.’
43.] Quantum &e. <A feeling of remorse at her resolve comes over her mind: ‘ But then what a cause of reproach I am about to bring on Italian maidens, for having been chosen to serve the altar of the god- dess, unworthy wretch that I am!’
45.] LPallados. The Palladium (Fast. vi. 421 seqq.) is sometimes confounded with Vesta, in whose temple the image,
el
LIBER V. 4.
Ignoscat: lacrimis spargitur ara meis.
Cras, ut rumor ait, tota pugnabitur urbe: Tu cape spinosi rorida terga jugi.
Lubrica tota via est et perfida; quippe tacentes
Fallaci celat limite semper aquas.
50
O utinam magice nossem cantamina Muse ! Hee quoque formoso lingua tulisset opem.
Te toga picta decet, non quem sine matris honore Nutrit inhumane dura papilla lupe.
Sive hospes, pariamve tua regina sub aula,
brought from Troy, was preserved. Ovid, Trist. iti. 1, 29, ‘hie locus est Vestee, qui Pallada servat et ignem.’—gnoscat, ‘let him make allowance for, let him pardon, the seeming negligence; the altar was wet with my tears and the fire would not burn.’ A truly poetical idea.
47.1 Tarpeia now makes the resolve. She will betray the citadel at all hazards, and she chooses a day when the guards are on holiday and their attention will not be directed to the enemy’s movements (inf. 81). At present, she gives the very op- posite reason, viz. the prospect of a general fight on the morrow. It is not easy to reconcile the two, especially as ‘ convenit hostem’ in 81 seems to indicate her first actual meeting with Tatius. In either case however the time named would be suitable to the attempt. But does tw cape (or tw cave) refer to Tatius, or is she ex- horting herself? I rather suspect the latter, even though ¢e in 53 is certainly addressed to him. She must either invite him to ascend the hill for an interview, or herself to descend for the same purpose. Then cape, the reading of the copies, is altered into cave by every editor but Hertz- berg. In the latter case, we may compare _ inf. 8, 6, ‘virgo, tale iter omne cave,’ and understand ‘beware how you ascend the back of the thorn-clad hill, for the whole path is dangerous and slippery from the hidden streamlet.’ On the other hand, cape, if addressed to herself, will mean the thorny path already familiar to her, and the same as that mentioned sup. 28, ‘ ret- tulit hirsutis brachia secta rubis.’ And thus also lubrica and perfida will have a very significant and appropriate double en- tendre; ‘the road is one of danger and perfidy,’ z.¢. of betrayal, and ‘one that is slippery and treacherous to the feet.’ Reading, then, with the MSS., tu cape, she will mean ‘take that path, but re-
55
member that it is a dangerous one.’ Of course, cape or cave may be conceived as spoken to Tatius in his absence; but it 15 a pointless thing to give a special direction where one knows it cannot be heard.
50.] Aguas. Either the spring before alluded to (15), or a hot sulphurous spring which, according to Ovid, was sent forth by the god Janus expressly to stop the ascent of the Sabines:
‘Oraque, qua pollens ope sum, fontana reclusi, Sumque repentinas ejaculatus aquas.
Ante tamen madidis subjeci sulpura venis, Clauderet ut Tatio fervidus humor iter.’
—On the short vowel before spzxosi, see sup. 1, 41.— limite, ef. inf. 9, 60, ‘hee lympha puellis Avia secreti limitis una fluit.’
51.] Utinam &e. ‘Would that, like Medea, I knew the incantations of magic song! Then would my tongue too, lke her’s, bring aid to my handsome knight.’
53.] Ze. ‘You, barbarian and enemy though they call you, the robe of victory should grace: not him who, born of an unhonoured mother (a faithless Vestal), was nurtured by the hard teat of a she- wolf that had nothing of the human in it.’ Martial, Zp. x. 48, 14,. ‘hoedus inhumani raptus ab ore πρὶ. Cf. sup. 1, 38, ‘san- guinis altricem non pudet esse lupam.’
55.] The MSS. read sie hosyes pariamve tua &c., which Miiller retains, but marks as corrupt, after Lachmann. So also Barth and the older editors. Mr. Wratislaw thinks the vulgate may stand for sive—sive, ‘Whether it be as a guest (7. e. concubine) or as a queen (1.6. legitimate wife) that I bear children within your palace.’ Hertz- berg reads ‘sic, hospes, patrizeve tua re- gina sub aula;’ Jacob, with Pucci, ‘si conjux, pariamve tua’ &c. I think s?ve— pariamve is sufficiently defended by 5, 19, ‘exornabat opus verbis, seu blanda perurat Saxosamye terat sedula culpa viam.’
240
PROPERTII
Dos tibi non humilis prodita Roma venit. Si minus, at, rapte ne sint impune Sabine, Me rape, et alterna lege repende vices. Commissas acies ego possum solvere; nuptee,
Vos medium palla foedus inite mea.
60
Adde, Hymenze, modos; tubicen fera murmura conde; Credite, vestra meus molliet arma torus.
Et jam quarta canit venturam buccina lucem, Ipsaque in Oceanum sidera lapsa cadunt.
Experiar somnum; de te mihi somnia queram:
65
Fac venias oculis umbra benigna meis. Dixit, et incerto permisit brachia somno,
Nescia vee furiis accubuisse novis. Nam Vesta, Iliace felix tutela faville,
Culpam alit, et plures condit in ossa faces.
57.] St minus &e. ‘If these terms please you not, then carry me off as a reprisal for the rape of the Sabine women. The good copies have δὲ, not ‘sin minus,’ as Barth and Kuinoel have edited.
59.] Solvere, as inf. 8, 88, ‘tuto solvi- ‘mus arma toro.’ The sense is, ‘It is in / my power, t.e. not that of the generals, to separate the armies engaged in the fight.’ This is what the Sabine women were said to have done, expressing their willingness to remain with their Roman conquerors, Fast. iii. 217 seqq.—nupie, ‘ye Sabine brides,’ viz. in whose cause this war is being waged.—palla mea, nuptiis meis; the ablative implying the means whereby the treaty was to be effected. The padla seems to have been used as a marriage- dress. Hertzberg cites Ovid, Her. 21, 162, “et trahitur multo splendida palla croco.’— medium fadus means simply a treaty be- tween the two contending parties; ‘a mediating treaty,’ perhaps.
61.] Zubicen. Let us have the tidia for the marriage strain, and not the tuba with its war-notes wild.—meus torus, again for ‘nuptiw me.’ This, she says, will be no rape, but a voluntary marriage on my part.—vestra arma, the contest about you, —‘my marriage (a surer bond than ἃ rapina for reprisal) shall allay the anger of those who would reclaim you or retain you by force of arms.’—modliet, solvet, compescet, καταλύσει μάχην.
63—6.] A beautiful passage. Weary with watching, excitement, and grief, she
lies down by her altar for repose. I may be allowed to cite a few lines from my ‘Verse Translations from Propertius :’ ‘Now the fourth bugle calls the coming morn ; The very stars sink paled before the dawn. Come sleep, come pleasing visions of the night ; Come thou, kind shade, and bless my longing sight! She spoke, and sank with wearied arms to rest: Unlooked-for demons still her sleep infest :— Vesta, blest guardian of the Trojan fires, Burns in her bones, and kindles fierce desires.’ 65,] De te, cf. Martial, Zp. vii. 54, 1, “semper mane mihi de me tua somnia nairas.’—fae venias, like fae teneas, inf. 11, 68 ; fac simules, 5, 34.—benigna, in angelic form, as we should say; not as a ‘ goblin damned.’ 67.] Incerto, ‘fitful. —permisit brachia,
a formula of complete submission, as dare Ὁ if
manus, brachia victa, sup. 3, 12.—aceubuisse, ‘little thinking she had lain down near one (Vesta) who would be to her a fresh cause of passion.’ Vesta, whom Tarpeia had wronged, now becomes to her a Furia and a vengeful power, though the kindly guardian of the sacred fire.’ Perhaps in- deed we should read swecubuisse, ‘that she had given way to a passion that would bring a fresh curse,’ ὦ, 6. her death by violence. Miiller, after Lachmann and the older editors, reads se furiis, the MSS. giving nefariis. Jacob, whom Hertzberg follows, proposed v@.—condit in ossa, viz. as the goddess of fire, ‘subdit ossibus ignem.’
τ river Thermodon. ' cian Bacchante was meant, especially as οἰ Propertius often shows vague notions of ἢ geography.—sinu, the folds of the dress, ||| πρόστερνοι στολμοὶ, ZEsch. Cho. 27, which |! were torn off in the mad excitement of
τ
= the race.
EO oo a
LIBER V. 4.
241
Illa ruit, qualis celerem prope Thermodonta
Strymonis abscisso fertur aperta sinu.
Urbi festus erat, dixere Parilia patres, Hic primus ceepit moenibus esse dies, Annua pastorum convivia, lusus in urbe, 715) Cum pagana madent fercula deliciis, Cumque super raros fxeni flammantis acervos Traicit immundos ebria turba_pedes. Romulus excubias decrevit in otia solvi Atque intermissa castra silere tuba. 80
Hoc Tarpeia suum tempus
rata convenit hostem:
Pacta ligat, pactis ipsa futura comes. Mons erat ascensu dubius festoque remissus: Nec mora, vocales occupat ense canes.
Omnia prebebant somnos:
sed Juppiter unus 85
Decrevit poenis invigilare tuis.
Prodiderat porteeque fidem
71.) Ruit, μεγάροιο διέσσυτο μαινάδι ἴση, 11. xxii. 460.—illa is used superfluous- ly, as sup. 2, 45, inf. 6, 63.—Strymonis is usually taken for an Amazon, on account of the locality (Asch. Prom. 744) on the More probably a Thra-
73.] Festus erat, supply dies from the next verse. This ‘is better than, with Lachmann and Haupt, to inclose dixere— esse in a parenthesis. —divere, indixerant; the burghers had given notice of a general holiday on the feast of the Parilia or Palilia (sup. 1, 19).—primus cepit esse, a poetical way of saying ‘hic primus dies fuit con- dendis moenibus,’ or ‘primus dies, quo coeperunt esse moenia.’
76.] Pagana fereula, ‘when the platters of the shepherds in the pagi, or hill fast- nesses, are moistened with richer fare,’ lit. with more oil in them than usual. The ‘uncta patella’ (Pers. Sat. iv. 17), and ‘madidi penates’ (Mart. Ep. vii. 27, 5), are opposed to ‘siccus cibus,’ ξηρὸς σῖτος, or- dinary dry fare,—our phrase ‘ dry bread.’
77.] Haros, ‘placed at intervals.’ See sup. on 1, 19.—immundos pedes, ‘their grimy feet,’ is a certain correction of im- mundas dapes, an error arising, as Hertz-
patriamque jacentem,
berg supposes, from the mind of the tran- scriber being fixed on the fercwla preceding.
80.] Intermissa, ‘discontinued for a time,’ viz. for the day’s holiday. So ‘in- termissa custodiis loca,’ Livy, xxiv. 35.
81.] Swwm, thinking their time was her time; judging that her chance of having an interview with Tatius was now a good one. —ligat, ‘she makes the compact a binding one by promising herself to take a part in the fulfilment of it.’ The bargain is to be null and void unless she is there at the appointed time to open the gates. Thus comes pactis is a short way of saying ‘adfutura cum pacta rata fient.’
83.] Remissus, ‘left unguarded.’ ‘Nam loca natura munitissima ideoque ascensu difficillima, maxime negligi ab oppugnatis solent.’-—Hertzberg.
84.] Occupat, i.e. Tatius; he silences the dogs by striking them with his sword before they could give tongue; φθάνει παίσας.
85.] Omnia, the holiday, the good cheer, the wine &e.—unus, ¢.e. as the other guards were asleep, Jupiter resolyed that he at least would keep awake to punish the traitress. Barth, Lachmann, and others give suis, but against the good copies, Sudden apostrophes are a remarkable fea- ture in the style of Propertius.
87.] Porte fidem, porte custodiam. Her father was in fact the warder, but she would naturally haye an casy task in be-
R
|
PROPERTII
Nubendique petit, quem velit ipse, diem. At Tatius (neque enim sceleri dedit hostis honorem)
“ΝΘ, ait, ‘et regni scande cubile mei.
90
Dixit, et ingestis comitum super obruit armis. Hee, virgo, officiis dos erat apta tuis.
A duce Tarpeio mons est cognomen adeptus: O vigil, injustee preemia sortis habes.
Ν:
Terra tuum spinis obducat, lena, sepulcrum, Et tua, quod non vis, sentiat umbra sitim, Nec sedeant cineri Manes, et Cerberus ultor
traying it. Livy, i. 11, ‘Sp. Tarpeius Ro- mane preerat arci. Hujus filiam virginem auro corrumpit Tatius, ut armatos in arcem accipiat. Aquam forte ea tum sacris extra moenia petitum ierat. Accepti obrutam armis necavere, seu ut vi capta potius arx videretur, seu prodendi exempli causa, ne quid usquam fidum proditori esset.’—ja- centem, ‘somno,’ perhaps; ‘ vino somnoque sepultam,’ Barth.—ipse, she leaves it to Tatius to name the day. Hertzberg and Barth retain the MSS. reading ipsa. The difference is not very important, but the best editors agree in accepting dpse.
89.] Hostis, though an enemy, he had a noble soul, and would not give credit to treachery. Propertius had a patriotic zeal which was superior to the charms of women. Hence of Tarpeia the Vestal, not less than of Cleopatra the Queen, he speaks in terms of bitter reproach, as sup. iv. 11, 29 and 39, inf. 6, 22 &c.
90.1 Scande cubile, a poetical way of saying ‘become my queen,’ or, ‘be this your royal bed,’ the place where you will lie.
91.] Armis. Livy, i. 11, and Ovid, Fast. i. 261, represent Tarpeia to have been bribed by the golden bracelets of the Sabines, and then treacherously killed by the weight of their shields.—virgo, 1.6. as a faithless Vestal such a death, to be buried alive, was a befitting end. But dos may have reference to the Sabine armille as her marriage portion.—offici’s, your services in betraying to them the capital. Cf. sup. 56.
93.] Zarpeio. The sense seems to be, that from the father, not from the daughter, the Tarpeian rock obtained its name. Thus the warder, vigi/, though he lost a daughter,
which was injusta sors to one who had not deserved it, yet obtained the honour in question. Keil, Miiller, and Mr. Wratislaw read Tarpeia, and injuste, with Lachmann, who explains the verse thus: ‘Tarpeia exitus sui preemia immerito accepit, monte Tarpeio ab ea nomen adepto.’
V. This difficult’ but rather important poem in part resembles the 1015 of Ovid, and is yet more plainly imitated by that poet in Amor. i. 8, as Kuinoel has observed. It contains a malediction on an old lena called Acanthis (ver. 61), who appears to have incurred the resentment of our poet for some reasons unknown to us, and per- haps unconnected with his love for Cynthia. It is probable too that Ovid borrowed the idea of his Art of Love from vv. 21—60. And to the same verses he alludes when he says (Zrist. ii. 461), speaking of Tibullus, ‘Multaque dat talis furti praecepta, docet- que Qua nupte possint fallere ab arte viros.’—Invenies eadem blandi praecepta Properti,’—lines which Lachmann has too hastily used as a proof that not all Pro- pertius’ writings have come down to us (Pref. p. Xxi.)
1.1 Spinis, in allusion to the name Acanthis; ‘thorny in life, may you be thorny also in death.’—gwod non vis, which you, as a tippler, would specially dislike. Compare the propensities of the dena in Plautus, Cureul. 1. 2.
3.] Nee sedeant. ‘May your shade not rest on your grave, and may vengeful Cerberus scare those foul old bones by his hungry bark.’ The notion of the ghost flitting restlessly over the tomb seems as old as literature. See Eur. Hee, 37;
| be buried alive. ἢ Esquilize was used, Hor. Sat. i. 8, 22.—
LIBER V. 5.
243
Turpia jejuno terreat ossa sono.
Docta vel Hippolytum Veneri mollire negantem,
or
Concordique toro pessima semper avis, Penelopen quoque neglecto rumore mariti Nubere lascivo cogeret Antinoo. Tila velit, poterit magnes non ducere ferrum
Et volucris nidis esse noverea suis.
10
Quippe οὖ, Collinas ad fossam moverit herbas, Stantia currenti diluerentur aqua.
Audax cantate leges imponere lune Et sua nocturno fallere terga lupo,
Posset ut intentos astu ceecare maritos,
15
Cornicum immeritas eruit ungue genas,
Misch, Pers. 686; Plat. Phed. p. 81, ¢, ψυχὴ---περὶ τὰ μνήματά τε Kal τοὺς τάφους κυλινδουμένη, περὶ ἃ δὴ καὶ ὥφθη ἄττα ψυχῶν σκιοειδὴ φαντάσματα. Inf. 11], 8. Ibid, 25, ‘Cerberus et nullas hodie petat improbus umbras.’
d—8.] Docta &e. ‘One who had skill enough to reconcile the reluctant Hippo- lytus to the goddess of love, and who ever brought the worst luck on a well-assorted marriage’ (1,6. by causing groundless jeal- ousies), ‘would have forced even a Penelope to give up all concern to hear news of her husband, and to marry the amorous Anti- nous.’ See Od. xiv. 126 seqq.—concordi, ὁμόφρονος εὐνᾶς, Pind. Ol. vi. init. Eur. Med. 15, ὅταν γυνὴ πρὸς ἄνδρα μὴ δι- χοστατῇ.--- αὐὖδ, as ‘mala ducis avi domum’ &c., Hor. Carm.i. 15, 5.
9—10.] Velit, si velit, as ‘suppetat hoc’ sup. 2, 387, ‘moverit’ inf.11 &c. ‘Should she desife it, the magnet could lose its power of attracting iron, and a bird could play the step-dame to its own nest,’ 1.6. by turning out of it its own callow young.
11.] The ‘Colline herbs’ were supposed to have a special magic power, because near the Porta Collina was the ‘Campus Sceleratus,’ said to have been the cemetery for the Vestal Virgins who were doomed to So the grave-yard on the
moverit, ‘let her but apply to the magic trench the rank weeds from the Colline field, and solid rocks would melt away in flowing water.’ Compare a fine passage on the supposed power of witchcraft, Tibull. i. 2, 43—54.—stantia, ‘res solidissime et firme liquescerent, mutata ipsa rerum natura.’— Barth, So Horace has ‘stat
nive candidum Soracte,’ ‘stet iners’ ἄο.
13—16.] The construction of these lines is nearly the same as 5—8, ‘Daring as she was in forcing the enchanted moon to obey her spells, and in disguising her own form by that of a night-prowling wolf, her custom was, in order to blind by her craft the keen-eyed husbands, to gouge out the eyes of poor harmless ravens with her nail.’ This is a very curious passage. See Becker, Gallus, p.120. The ancient and singular superstition that witches could change themselves into other forms, especially inte that of the were-wolf, and so become versi- pelles, is not yet extinct. I myself re- member a whole village in a panic because an old woman was said to have been seen in the form of a white hare, and at another time in that of a white pigeon. See Herod. iv. 105, κινδυνεύουσι δὲ of ἄνθρωποι οὗτοι γόητες εἶναι, λέγονται γὰρ ὑπὸ Σκυ- θέων καὶ Ἑλλήνων---ὡς ἔτεος ἑκάστου ἅπαξ τῶν Νευρῶν ἕκαστος λύκος γίνεται ἡμέρας ὀλίγας, καὶ αὖτις ὀπίσω ἐς ταὐτὰ Kabic- ταται. For the use of fallere compare inf. 11, 80, ‘cum venient, siccis oscula falle genis.’ Virg. 4n. i. 684, ‘tu faciem illius noctem non amplius unam Falle dolo.’— For posset ut the MSS. give posset et, which Lachmann and Jacob retain, placing a full stop at the end of the verse.
16.] Genas, ἱ. 6. oculos. The notion was, that if the eyes of a crow were added to a love-potion (like the ‘eye of newt,’ in Shakespeare’s Macbeth), they would draw away, by a sort of mesmeric influence, or in some way neutralise by their superior brightness, the vigilance of the husband’s eye.
glacies
244.
PROPERTII
Consuluitque striges nostro de sanguine et in me Hippomanes fete semina legit eque. Exornabat opus verbis, seu blanda perurat
Saxosamve terat sedula culpa viam:
20
‘Si te Eoa, Doryxenium, juvat aurea ripa, Et que sub Tyria concha superbit aqua, Eurypylique placet Coz textura Minervee
17—18.] For striges I suspect that we should read strigas. The strige (the modern Italian stregas) were a kind of bird-witch, supposed to carry off and kill
famous advice of the old woman to some young girl, who is here named (according to a common Greck usage of forming the ὑποκόρισμα of a harlot by a neuter diminu-
The MSS.
or lacerate infants in their cradle. (See | \\ my note on Ovid, Fast. vi. 131), Plautus, \| Pseud. 820, ‘non condimentis condiunt, sed | ||) strigibus, Vivis convivis intestina que ex- | jadint.’ It appears from this, that though ‘| \\the short ὅ before striges may be defended \ \\(sup. 4, 48), we might here read ‘consuluit
tive) Doryxeniwm, Δορυξένιον. have doroxanthum, or dorozantum, with some varieties, all of which are confessedly corrupt. My own conjecture, Dorymenium, I find has been anticipated by. Jacob. Hertzberg considers Dorozantum, ‘ignotum populi Indici nomen ;’ and Keil and Muller
\striges.’—de sanguine, ‘nece,’ ‘exitio.”— ‘Kuinoel.—Virg. Georgie. ili. 280, ‘ hippom- ‘anes, quod sepe male legere noverce, ‘Miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba.’
19—20.] Exzornabat Kuinoel, Barth and Lachmann. The more recent editors retain exorabat, the MSS. reading; but the phrase opus exorare conveys no intelligible mean- ing, naturally at least. On the other hand exornare is like the Greek κοσμεῖν ἔργα ‘to dress up exploits’ by the graces of poetry, music &c. The passage is difficult, and variously explained and read, some giving pererrat for perurat on conjecture, lympha for culpa from one or two inferior MSS., and varying between cew of the good copies and seu, saxosamque and saxosamve. The sense seems to be this: ‘she dressed up (or glozed over) her vile work by specious words, whether the seductive crime (banda culpa) fires the victim, or slowly (seduia) wears its way in a stony heart.’ For seu—ve = seu—sive, see sup. iv. 55. The metaphor seems taken from the opposite effects of water and fire, the one wearing away a stone drop by drop, the other set- ting ablaze the fuel it touches; and these effects are transferred to phlegmatic or ex- citable constitutions. With perwrat supply puellee animum or ingenium, viam belonging only to terat. The emended reading viam pererrat teritque, which allows the reten- tion of the MSS. reading saxosamque, of course refers only to the slow effects of water; and thus vam forms the pbject to both verbs alike.
21—62.! These lines contain the in-
adopt this. 'Turnebus perceived that the name of a girl was required by the sense ; but he proposed one of unintelligible for- mation, Doroxanium, which Lachmann prefers, therein following Barth. The sense is, ‘If you wish for the gold of the east, or Tyrian purples,’ &c. By the in- definite term awrea ripa, we may under- stand the eastern shore of the Erythrean sea, the ancient Ophir, vipa being used im- properly, as conversely ditus in i. 2, 18. Hertzberg raises the objection, that Cyn- thia in particular is here meant. But where is the proof? The poet is deserib- ing in general terms the insidious arts which the old woman practised on her youthful victims. Nor is nostre amice, y. 63, conclusive in his favour, since his may very well mean ‘his atque talibus.’
22.| Concha. Our poet speaks of the shell that furnishes the sea-purple (a spe- cies of whelk) as if its purple hue were visible in the water, which of course is not the case; so that we must regard saperdit as a poetical hyperbole.
23.] Eurypyli. The double genitive is
not so rare as to cause any reasonable }
perplexity. See sup. 1, 103. ‘Eurypy- lus’s texture of Coan art,’ is not more strange than ‘so and so’s Manchester cotton’ would sound to our ears. Eury- pylus was an ancient king of Cos. JU. 11. 677. See on i. 2, 2. Hertzberg makes Eurypyli the genitive after Coe, which is scarcely good Latinity.
24.] Putria signa. ‘Tattered fragments of tapestry cut from divans which belonged to Attalus,’ king of Pergamus, whose wealth
| |
i. i
᾿ ἢ
|
| was inherited by the Roman people. Hertz- ἢ berg thinks that signa are the designs in ' overlaid wood, ivory, or tortoise-shell, so often mentioned in connexion with the ancient sponde or sofas. This is not im- probable in itself, as the Romans were ex- tremely fond of collecting articles of vertu. But the eastern method of covering settees with rich embroidery is not to be over- looked. lian, Var. Hist. viii. 7, (speak- ing of an entertainment given by Alex- ander), καὶ ἑκάστη κλίνη ἀργυρόπους ἦν, ἢ δὲ αὐτοῦ χρυσόπους. Καὶ κεκόσμηντο πᾶσαι ἁλουργοῖς καὶ ποικίλοις ἱματίοις ὑφῆς βαρβαρικῆς peyativov.—For putria compare Plaut. Rudens. 1324, ‘tramas pu- tidas,’ ‘rotten woof.’ Hor. Sat. 11. 3, 118, ‘cui stragula vestis, Blattarum ac tinearum epulz, putrescat in area.’ Martial, Ep. v. 62, 5, ‘nulla tegit fractos nec inanis cul- cita lectos, Putris et abrupta fascia reste jacet.’ . 26.] The peculiar ware called murrea Ϊ or murrina vasa, a manufacture now lost, j is well known from frequent allusion to it, ? to have been highly prized by the Romans. | According to Pliny, xxxvii. 2, quoted by ᾿ς Kuinoel, Parthia was one of the places +) where it was made. Supposed specimens ' of it exist in many museums. The fabric of those generally exhibited appears to be glass. The Dictionary of Antiquities says, © Most recent writers are inclined to think that they were true Chinese porcelain,’ and the present passage is adduced in support of the opinion. Martial also speaks of ‘myrrhina picta,’ xiii. 110. See also iid. ix. 59,14. Becker, Gallus, p. 304, on the authority of Pliny, WV. H. xxxvii. 2, 8, con- siders the true murrhine vases to have been made of fluor spa, and regards those mentioned in the text as imitations.
yee
EL eres
oa bere
τη
RENO ear
LIBER’ V. 5.
Sectaque ab Attalicis putria signa toris, Seu que palmiferze mittunt venalia Thebe, Murreaque in Parthis pocula cocta focis, Sperne fidem, provolve deos, mendacia vincant, Frange et damnose jura pudicitie. Et simulare virum pretium facit: utere causis: Major dilata nocte recurret amor. Si tibi forte comas vexaverit utilis ira, Post modo mercata pace premendus erit. Denique ubi amplexu Venerem promiseris empto, Fac simules puros Isidis esse dies. Ingerat Apriles Iole tibi, tundat Amycle
25
30
35
27.] Provolve deos. ‘ Kos pedibus velut proculca, a sacrariis proturba, exquisite pro, contemne deos.’— Kuinoel. The gene- ral sense from vy. 21 is, ‘If you expect your wishes to be gratified, you must not be scrupulous.’
‘Spurn faith, despise divine and human laws ; Break virtue’s precepts; ’tis a losing cause.’ 29.] The obvious sense of this verse,
‘it pays too to pretend that you are a married woman,’ seems preferable to Hertz- berg’s explanation: ‘simulatio amatorem pretium facit, ¢.e. efficit ut ex viro lucrum facias,’ for which he quotes ‘ Nunc pretium fecere deos,’ sup. v. 1, 81. The pretended difficulty thrown in the way of the lover would of course induce him to give larger bribes.—utere causis, ‘make the best use of reasons for refusal,’ ἐ.6. by rejecting him on the particular occasion make him more im- portunate, and so more liberal in his offers.
31.] ‘All the better for you if he ruffles your hair in anger: you will make him pay for peace, and so keep a tight rein over him for the future.’ Hertzberg places a comma after vevaverit, and understands ‘utilis (erit) ira.’
84.717 Fac simules, cf. sup. 4, 66.—Tsidis, thé correction of Beroaldus, is adopted by the best editors for sideris, the sacred fes- tival of Isis, on which secwbitus, or the separation of the sexes, was rigidly en- forced. Ovid, Amor. i. 8, 73, ‘Sape nega noctes, capiti modo finge dolorem, Et modo que causas prebeat, Isis erit.’ Hertzberg thinks sideris dies may mean dies Saturn, ‘Saturday,’ the sabbata of the Jews, Pers. Sat. v. 180. Tibull.i. 3, 18, ‘Saturni aut sacrum me tenuisse diem.’
35.] Ingerat, ‘force upon your notice.’ Tac. Ann. i. 72, ‘nomen patris patrie Ti- berius, a populo sepius ingestum, repu-
240
PROPERTIL
Natalem Mais Idibus esse tuum. Supplex ille sedet: posita tu scribe cathedra Quidlibet: has artes si pavet ille, tenes. Semper habe morsus circa tua colla recentes,
Litibus alternis quos putet esse datos.
40
Nec te Medez delectent probra sequacis (Nempe tulit fastus ausa rogare prior), Sed potius mundi Thais pretiosa Menandni, Cum ferit astutos comica moecha Getas.
In mores te verte viri: si cantica jactat,
I comes et voces ebria junge tuas.
Janitor ad dantes vigilet: si pulset inanis,
Surdus in obductam somniet usque seram. Nec tibi displiceat miles non factus amori,
Nauta nec attrita, si ferat era, manu,
diavit.’ Pers. Sat. v. 177, ‘cicer ingere large Rixanti populo.’ The sense is, ‘ Let your maids come in one after the other and remind you, in his presence, that you expect a present.’ —Apriles, either Kalendas or Jdus; an unusual ellipse. There may be an allusion to a ceremony performed to the statue of Venus by the meretrices, men- tioned in Fast.iv. 133 seqq. See also Ars Am. i. 417, ‘Magna superstitio tibi sit natalis amice, Quaque aliquid dandum est, atra sit illa dies.’ On both these occasions the lover, of course, was expected to be liberal.—tundat, ‘din into you,’ as if you had forgotten it.—Matis for malis the later editions; J/ais Miiller.
37.] Supplex &e. Here the art is to be tried of pretended indifference. ‘Suppose that he sits a suppliant for your favour. Well, take your easy chair and write any- thing you please. If he shows fear of these arts, then you have him.’—guidlibet seems to show that the mere act of writing, z.e. the inattention thereby implied to the lover’s request, rather than the penning of an invitation to a rival, is meant. —cathedra was the chair especially in use by women, —tenes, ἔχεις, ἥρηκας αὐτόν.
39.] dorsus. Next jealousy is to be roused. ‘ Affect to have marks upon your face left by some lover's fray, that he may think you have been too familiar with his rival.’ See sup. 3, 26.
41.] Nee te &e. ‘And be not too for- ward or free in your taunts and reproaches, or you will alienate his affections.’—se- quacis, ‘persecuting,’ ‘importunate,’ The
50
epithet does not seem to refer to the cha- racter in the play of Euripides, though probra, in its literal sense, suits it well enough. Perhaps the poet meant nequitia, ‘amorousness.’ See Eur. Jed. 265. — nempe, cf. inf. 11, 6; ‘in fact, she gained for herself dislike by being too forward in asking.’
43.] Sed potius. ‘Rather be the high- priced Thais of the elegant Menander, when the girl in the comedy makes the_ cunning Getan slaves to fall in love with her.’—fertt, a metaphor from gladiators. So in iv. 3, 50, ‘Qui volet austeros arte ferire viros.’ In Plautus, Zrinwm. 247, ‘ibi illa pendentem ferit;’ perhaps the punishment of slaves is alluded to, though Jerit means ‘capit,’ ‘fascinates.’—mundi, κομψοῦ, neat and eloquent in expression.
45—6.] ‘ Accommodate yourself to your lover’s humours, and be merry when he is so disposed.’ So Hor. Epist. i. 18, 40, ‘nec, cum venari volet 1116, poemata pan- ges.’—jactat, ‘if he sports (or spouts) love- ditties, accompany him.’
47—58.] ‘Above all things take care the lover brings money or presents. Never mind who he is; look only to what he offers.’—ad dantes, ‘at the call of those who give,’-—not to himself as a bribe for opening the door, but to the inmate whom the lover seeks.—inanis, ‘empty-handed.’ surdus, ‘let him pretend not to hear, and go on sleeping over (leaning on) the bar drawn across the door.’ <A graphic picture of one who doggedly refuses to wake up when he is wanted. See Becker, Gallus, p. 281.
)
LIBER V. 5.
247
Aut quorum titulus per barbara colla pependit, Cretati medio cum saluere foro.
Aurum spectato, non que manus adferat aurum. Versibus auditis quid nisi verba feres ?
[Quid juvat ornato procedere, vita, capillo
55
Et tenues Coa veste movere sinus ?]
Qui versus, Coz dederit nec munera vestis, Istius tibi sit surda sine ere lyra.
Dum vernat sanguis, dum rugis integer annus,
Utere, ne quid cras libet ab ore dies.
60
Vidi ego odorati victura rosaria Pesti Sub matutino cocta jacere Noto.’
His animum nostre dum versat Acanthis amice, Per tenuem ossa mihi sunt numerata cutem.
51.] Titulus. ‘Do not reject even a slave, who has stood on the catasta with a paper round his neck, setting forth age, abilities, country, &c., and whose chalked feet have danced to show his agility and muscular power,’ (1.6. do not spurn one who was once a slave, but now is a rich libertus). The same practice prevailed till lately, if it does not still continue, in the slaye-markets of South America. The gypsati pedes are mentioned also by Martial and Tibullus ii. 2, 59, and allude to a custom of so marking foreign slaves by way of distinction. This appears from Juvenal, i. 111, ‘Nuper in hane urbem pedibus qui venerat albis.’ The MSS. give celati, whence Jacob, Hertzberg, Keil and Miiller, with the Aldine, read ce/ati, which they explain ‘tattooed.’ But first, it is very doubtful whether such were ever exhibited in the slaye-market; and second- ly, it seems strange to call such a man ‘engraved,’ or ‘embossed.’ I have there- fore adopted with Lachmann the ingenious conjecture of Passerat. See Becker, Gallus, p- 200, who remarks that only the inferior class of slaves were thus exposed in the market.
54.] As verba dare is ‘to cheat,’ so verba Serre may mean ‘to be cheated ;’ but with the double meaning ‘ you will get nothing but words,’ 1.6. nothing more substantial.
55—6.] All the MSS. here insert a distich from i. 2, 1—2, which Lachmann and Kuinoel omit with Scaliger, to the great indignation of Hertzberg, who calls it ‘nervos totius elegie.’ These verses may indeed have been a marginal quotation
added by some copyist; but they may also have been repeated by the poet,—though not, perhaps, in very good taste,—to apply the remark more pointedly to his own case. The sense is, ‘He who gives no better present than mere compliments, is not to be listened to, however fine his poetry may be.’—sine @re, t.e. si sine oblato ere sonet. The ed. Rheg. gives size arte, which Kui- noel adopts.
59-—62.] ‘Make the best use of your youthful charms, and remember that they are not lasting.’—annus, ὥρα, the bloom of life.—dibet, carpat, deminuat.
61.] Victwra, ‘which would have lived longer,’ 1.6. killed before their time. An elegant usage; compare ‘luna moraturis sedula luminibus,’ i. 3, 32.—cocta, ‘ with- ered,’ ‘shrivelled.”’ The Notus is perhaps what is called the Scirocco, though this, properly speaking, is the s.z.
63.] Versat, ‘plies,’ ‘keeps in sus- pense.’ So Hor. Sat. i. 8,19, ‘carminibus que versant atque venenis Humanos ani- mos.’—/is, ‘by the foregoing precepts ;’ meaning especially that about admitting only the rich.
64.] This verse is thus given in the MSS. and early editions; ‘per tenues ossa sunt numerata cutes,’ which Keil retains. Miiller gives ‘Ossa inter tenues sunt’ το, Kuinoel, Barth, and Lachmann omit it al- together, as being thrust in by some copy- ist to fill up a lacuna. If genuine, it is not easy to restore the metre with anything like certainty. Of two conjectures, I pre- fer that of Jacob. Hertzberg edits per tenues ossa has, &c., which is not only (as
248
Sed cape torquatee, Venus o regina, columbee
PROPERTII
65
Ob meritum ante tuos guttura secta focos. Vidi ego rugoso tussim concrescere collo, Sputaque per dentes ire cruenta cavos, Atque animam in tegetes putrem expirare paternas:
Horruit algenti pergula curta foco.
70
Exequize fuerant rari furtiva capilli Vincula et immundo pallida mitra situ, Et canis in nostros nimis experrecta dolores, Cum fallenda meo pollice clatra forent.
Sit tumulus lenz curto vetus amphora collo:
he admits) unrhythmical, but retains the unusual plural ewtes, in which the corrup- tion seems partly to lie. The sense is, ‘While Acanthis was thus lecturing Cyn- thia on the art of frustrating a lover’s hopes, I was pining away with desire.’ Cf. i. 9, 29, ‘qui non ante patet, donee manus attigit ossa.’
65—6.] ‘But, thank Venus, I have lived to pay her a tribute for delivering me from such a hag,’ &e.—torquata columba,
a pretty expression for a ring-dove. Kui- noel quotes Ovid, Mast. i. 452, ‘ Uritur
Idaliis alba columba focis.’ ‘ Torquatus palumbus’ occurs in Martial, xiii. 67. 67—70.] A curious and not pleasing, though powerful, description of death by consumption, as it would seem. ‘I have lived to see the cough get more choking in that skinny neck, and the blood-tinged spittle pass through the hollows between her teeth ;—I have seen her gasp out that foul breath in the beggarly rags that her father wore, while she lay shivering before the fireless hearth in a narrow out-house.’ The teges was a coarse mat worn by men- dicants, as appears from Juyen. Sat. 5, 8, ‘nusquam pons et tegetis pars Dimidia brevior? Mart. Zp. xi. 56, 5, ‘et teges et cimex et nudi sponda grabati.’ did. 32, 2, ‘de bibula sarta palude teges;’ and ix. 92, 8, ‘dat tibi securos vilis tegeticula somnos.’ Plautus calls it ‘tegillum,’ Rud. 576. For pergula, a kind of lean-to of wood, built on to a house, see Rich’s Com- panion to the Dictionary in v., and Becker, Gallus, p. 268. Perhaps this, or something like it, is the ‘ posticulum’ or ‘ back-house’ in Plaut. Zrin. 194. The pergula itself is said horrere by a common figure, meaning, of course, the occupant of it. The MSS. give percula or pocula curva. Lachmann,
75
with Barth and Kuinoel, read tegula curta after Pucci; cf. inf. 7, 26.
71—4.] Exequie, here the dress in which she was laid out. ‘They buried her in the band she had stolen to bind her thin grey hairs, and in a cap from which the colour had faded from untidy dirt; the dog too was there, that had too often been wakeful to my vexation, when the latch had to be stealthily lifted by the pressure of my thumb.’ There is mixed comedy and pathos in the description, which is at once heartless and clever. The poet vents his spite even upon the poor little dog, which was her only friend in life and her only mourner at her grave.—wmitra, iii. 21, 15, a kind of night-cap or folded kerchief, once coloured, now dim, ἐξίτηλος, through the dirt of neglect, mivos.—clatra, the MSS. give cultra or caltra, The Romans hardened the dental, as in tus, θύος, celitus, for the termination θεν.
75.) Tumulus. ‘May the old bawd have no more costly tomb than an old wine-jar with a broken neck; and may a vyigor- ous wild fig-tree narrow her graye by its growth above it.’ Nothing more, perhaps, is meant than that some such cheap and worthless monument should mark her grave, as would encourage the passer-by to pelt if with stones, as a half-broken pot would do. This was considered a special insult; compare Eur. El. 324, πέτροισι λεύει μνῆμα λάϊνον πατρός. There may also (as sup. ver. 2) be an allusion to the old woman’s fondness for drink. The cap- rificus, generally spoken of as destructive of tombs (Juy. x. 145) by forcing its way through the joints of the stones, seems here to haye reference to the roots pene- trating into the graye beneath which it grows,
LIBER V. 6.
249
Urgeat hune supra vis, caprifice, tua. Quisquis amas, scabris hoc bustum czdite saxis, Mixtaque cum saxis addite verba mala.
VI.
Sacra facit vates: sint ora faventia sacris, Ut cadat ante meos icta juvenca focos. Hedra Philetzis certet Romana corymbis,
77.] Jacob and Hertzberg give cedito, the MS. reading being cedito, which Keil and Miller retain. The correction may easily have been made by copyists in re- ference to the singular, guisquis amas; and the same motive will account for the MS. Groning. giving in the short verse adjice for addite.
78.] Verba mala. ‘Pelt the tomb not only with stones, but with imprecations.’ Thus the Greeks say θείνειν or βάλλειν ὀνείδει, and so Arist. Ach. 686, és τάχος παίει ξυνάπτων στρογγύλοις τοῖς ῥήμασι, ‘with his words rounded like balls for throwing.’
VI. This very fine elegy is the earliest, and perhaps in some sense the most de- tailed and authentic, record of the great battle of Actium. Like the Perse of Aaschylus, compared with the later and more popularised account of the battle of Salamis in Herodotus, it is of value beyond its mere poetic merit. It contains a splen- did eulogy on Augustus for his victory over Antony and Cleopatra, 8.0. 31, in thanksgiving for which he had rebuilt on the spot a temple to Apollo Actius (navalis Phebus ν. 1, 3), and instituted games to be celebrated every five years, or rather, remodelled the ancient Actia which were held every three years. Sueton. Octav. § 18, ‘Quoque Actiacz victoriz memoria celebratior et in posterum esset, urbem Nicopolim apud Actium condidit, ludosque alice quinquennales constituit; et ampliato vetere Apollinis templo locum castrorum, quibus fuerat usus, exornatum navalibus spoliis, Neptuno ac Marti consecrayit.’ Ibid. § 29, ‘ Publica opera plurima extruxit, —templum Apollinis in Palatio, edem To- nantis Jovis in Capitolio.’ The reader will not confound these two distinct monu- ments of the victory. Hertzberg considers that there were two local games, 1.6. at Actium and at the temple on the Palatine, the latter of which are here meant. There
is some obscurity on this point: perhaps the Actia were transferred to Rome, while a semblance of the old institution was kept up at Actium. The word illic will be noticed in the former extract from Sue- tonius. The present elegy, as Barth ob- serves, seems to have been intended as an ἐπινίκιον on the occasion of these games, A.v.c. 738, being held for the fourth time.
1.] Sacra facit, θύει ἐπινίκια. The poet represents himself as a priest about to per- form a sacrifice; and hence in the succeed- ing verses he borrows metaphors strictly derived from sacrificial usages.’ On which Hertzberg well observes, ‘In allegoria, que decem primos versus obtinet, magno- pere cavendum est, ne ad vivum resecare metaphoras, neve que singula significent, anxie querere yvelimus. Quid enim ju- venca, quid costum, quid laneus orbis, quid denique lymph translatione soluta in carmine significent, putidum est explorare.’
2.1 I have given wt cadat for et cadat, on the ground that the sacrificial custom was to command silence for the killing of the beast, immediately after which a joyful sacrificial shout was raised.
3.] The sense is, ‘Let Roman verses | vie with the elegiac renown of Philetas of Cos.’ But the reading is rather doubtful. The good copies give cera Philippeis. Most editors adopt serta from Scaliger; cf. ili. 25, 37. Haupt reads ara; but nothing seems to me so probable as Hedra, which is found in one of the later MSS. Com- pare sup. 1, 62, ‘mi folia ex hedera porriga, Bacche, tua.’ So aspris for asperis, An. 11. 579, poplo for populo, Plaut. Amphitr. 101.—Phileteis is the certain correction of Beroaldus. See on iy.1, 1. In v. 4, Callimachus of Cyrene is meant, the flow of whose verses is compared with lustral water, χέρνιψ, used for the purposes of the sacred rites. To drink of certain springs was thought inspiring to a poet; cf. sup. iy. 8, 6; Pindar, O/. vi. 85; Isth. v. 74.
250 PROPERTII . Et Cyrenzas urna ministret aquas. ~Costum molle date et blandi mihi turis honores, 5
Terque focum circa laneus orbis eat.’
Spargite me lymphis, carmenque recentibus aris Tibia Mygdoniis libet eburna cadis._
Wok yw
Ite procul fraudes, alio sint wefe noxe:
Pura novum vati laurea mollit iter.
10
Musa, Palatini referemus Apollinis «dem : Res est, Calliope, digna favore tuo.
Cesaris in nomen ducuntur carmina: Czesar Dum canitur, queso, Juppiter ipse vaces.
Est Phoebi fugiens Athamana ad litora portus,
15
Qua sinus Ionize murmura condit aque, ~ Actia Iulez pelagus monimenta carine, «πῃ
=
6.] Laneus orbis is the vitta or infula, the woollen chaplet, which is generally seen sculptured on the sides of Roman altars. See Virg. Eel. viii. 65, and Dict. of Antig. in ν. ara.
7.] Spargite. This too was a Greek custom at a sacrifice; see Arist. Pax 972. recentibus, νεοδμήτοις, newly built of turf.
8.] Lachmann, Kuinoel, and Jacob write Cadis as a proper name, after Scaliger. According to Strabo, xii. p. 220, a town of Phrygia was so named, and as the Phryg- lans were also called Mygdones, the music may be supposed to have been played Φρυγιστί. But Hertzberg more probably regards it as a continuation of the same metaphor, by which the notes of the tibia are compared with the libation of wine from a jar or crock at a sacrifice. He aptly quotes Pindar, Nem. iii. 76, where the idea of πόμ᾽ ἀοίδιμον is carried out through several verses. Compare also νέκταρ χυτὸν, Μοισᾶν δόσιν, Ol. vii. 7. We may therefore translate, ‘and let the pipe pour forth music from Phrygian stores at the altars of fresh turf.’
9.1 Fraudes, like nove, here signifies generally all that is bad and unworthy to be present at a sacrifice. See Aristoph. Pax 968. Perhaps from Callimachus, ἑκὰς ἑκὰς ὅστις ἀλιτρός.---αἰϊο sint aere, a com- mon method of deprecating any evil, ‘let it go where it likes if only it does not stay here.’
10.] Mollit, because the road is strewed \thick with leaves.—novum iter, ‘panegy- lricus hic elegiacus.’ Hertzberg. — pura laurea seems so called in reference to
people.
Apollo’s attribute φοῖβος, and it is also mentioned as the plant of victory.
11.] LReferemus, ‘our theme shall be the building, 7.e. the cause of building, the temple of the Palatine Apollo. Barth cites Ovid, A. A, iii. 389, ‘visite laurigero sacrata Palatia Phoebo; Ille Paretonias mersit in alta rates.’ (Paretonias, 1. 6. JEgyptias; so called from a town on the north coast of Africa).
14.1 Vaces, sc. carmine ; ‘consent for a time not to be honoured in our verse.’
15.] -Athamana litora, ‘the shores of ὁ Epirus,’ of which the ᾿Αθάμανες were a | See on vy. 1, 36. The construction of the passage cannot be explained better than in the words of Hertzberg: ‘ipse sinus eleganti appositione et pelagus dicitur (est enim maris pars), et monumenta carine lulez, et via facilis nautis. Monumentum autem omne est, quo alicujus rei admo- nemur. Actia denique attributum vocis monumenta, cum proprie ad pelagus deberet referri.” ‘Translate, ‘a wide expanse of water that records (by the temple on its shore) the exploits of the Julian fleet at Actium, and a roadway that gives no trouble to sailors’ vows,’ z.e. from its open and easy access. The plural monumenta is worthy of remark, as being used in this sense by Tacitus, Ann. iii. 23, 72, and iv. 7. The sinus Ambracius is meant, which is of considerable size, (about 25 miles long by 10 wide) otherwise pelagus is properly used of the open sea, as mare and pontus express inland seas, and oceanus the great circumambient external ocean. See Tac. Ann. ii. 53.
ore)
5
yy
caps tl ἔε
ὥ
LIBER V. 6.
horbour a Mee poles eomatiucts® Σ Hu 512 Ls of ta vce bor
251
Nautarum votis non operosa via. Hue mundi coiere manus: stetit equore moles
Pinea, nec remis equa favebat avis.
20
Altera classis erat Teucro damnata Quirino,
. - . A Pilaque feminea turpiter acta manu:
Per ty.
Hine Augusta ratis plenis Jovis omine velis Signaque jam patriz vincere docta suze.
Tandem acies geminos Nereus lunarat in arcus,
25
Armorum radiis picta tremebat aqua,
Cum Pheebus linquens stantem se vindice Delon (Nam tulit iratos mobilis una Notos)
ΠΣ Ἐπ eye Or Mic
Astitit Augusti puppim super, et nova flamma
Luxit in obliquam ter sinuata facem.
19.] Mundi manus. Antony’s fleet was composed partly of Egyptian auxiliaries, partly of eastern nations. Kuinoel refers to Virg. Zn. viii. 687, ‘ Hgyptum vires- que Orientis et ultima secum Bactra vehit :’ ef. vy. 705.—moles pinea: see ibid. viii. 691. The notion is, that the fleet, from the size of its ships, seemed to stand motionless on the sea like some rock or mountain, though built of buoyant fir-wood. Virg. dn. vi. 471, ‘nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur Quam si dura silex aut stet Mar- pesia cautes.’—xec equa &c., ‘at non eque bonum utrique classierat angurium.’ ‘The one fleet (Antony’s) was under the ban of the Troy-descended Romulus;and so were
“the darts that were basely directed against
Rome by a woman’s hand.’—turpiter, be- cause it was discreditable in a woman to join a war in (as the poet considered it) an unholy cause.—damnata, alluding to the custom of solemnly denouncing in the senate the enemies of the Roman people. Compare iii. 7, 38, ‘ Actia damnatis zequora militibus.’
23.] Jovis omine, the favourable breeze was regarded as sent by Ζεὺς ovpios.—hine, ‘on our side.’
24.) Vincere docta. In the various victories Augustus had already obtained by land: compare y. 39. The dative is acquisitively used.
25.) The disposition of the opposing fleets in two crescent-shaped lines is re- presented as entrusted to the god of the sea. Martial, Lib. Spectac. 28, 7, perhaps alludes to this in his account of a Nau- machia in the Amphitheatre; ‘Dumque parat sevis ratibus fera prelia Nereus, Abnuit in liquidis ire pedester aquis.’—
30
radiis, ‘the sheen of the arms.’ Lachmann reads armorum et radiis. The battle is just about to commence, when Apollo ar- rives from Delos, and takes his place on the ship of Augustus in the form of a wavy flame on the poop. I have en- deavoured to explain the allusion in the note on Asch, .4gam. 647. See Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. 11. note 90.
28.] The MSS. have τρια, but the MS. Gron. with a dot under the d, showing that it should be erased. Jacob, Hertz- berg, and Miiller edit wa; Lachmann, with Barth and Kuinoel, admit the im- probable conjecture of Broukhusius, ante. The idea is, that Phoebus had so firmly fixed the island, which was the only one that had ever been otherwise than fixed, and liable to be borne to and fro by the angry winds, that he now left it fearlessly to take care of itself in his absence.—se vindice, ‘under threat of his vengeance,’ means that he would have punished it for not standing, by finally reducing it to the former condition of instability. Or perhaps (as inf. 41) ‘under his protection.’ Hence ‘nam tulit? &e., 1.6. pertulit, perpessa est, ‘bore the brunt of.’ Or should we read tratisqobilis unda notis, ‘the water carried it before the winds >’
30.] Ter sinuata. Not tripartite, but ‘thrice deflected from a straight line, after the fashion of a torch held aslant;’ by which the flame is curved upwards. Lu- cian, wep) τῶν ἐπὶ μισθῷ συνόντων, p. 652, ridicules the idea of a god ἐπὶ τῷ καρχησίῳ καθεζόμενον ἢ πρὸς τοῖς πηδαλίοις ἑστῶτα καὶ πρός τινα ἠϊόνα μαλακὴν ἀπευθύνοντα τὴν ναῦν, &e.
α»7α.
ST
a 91 τὸ
Lyre |
“55 μπερε δ Cumn
aljo
.2:
er
near Detphe r Son τῇ Shp «ἐδ Kveoteug
PROPERTII
Non ille attulerat crines in colla solutos Aut testudineze carmen inerme lyre, —
Sed quali aspexit Pelopeum Agamemnona vultu, Egessitque avidis Dorica castra rogis,
Aut qualis flexos solvit Pythona per orbes
35
Serpentem, imbelles quem timuere lyre. ἢ Mox ait ‘o longa mundi servator ab Alba, Auguste, Hectoreis cognite major avis, Vince mari: jam terra tua est: tibi militat arcus,
Et favet ex humeris hoc onus omne meis.
40
Solve metu patriam, que nunc te vindice freta Imposuit prorzee publica vota tuz.
Quam nisi defendes, murorum Romulus augur Ire Palatinas non bene vidit aves.
A
31.] This noble and spirited passage describes the character under which Apollo appeared: not as the god of music, waving his txtonsos crines, but as the god of war and destruction, armed with bow and quiver.
33.] We may either understand ‘sed (venerat) quali vultu,’ or ‘sed (attulerat) vultum, quali’ &e. Miiller reads ad testu- dinee ἕο. This alludes to the pestilence described in Homer as having been sent by Apollo against the Greeks, 17. i. 40—50. egerere castra is a metaphor from digging out and carrying away earth or rubbish: hence to clear or empty by removing the dead to the pyres without,—del δὲ πυραὶ καίοντο θαμειαί. Cf. Pers. vy. 69, ‘ecce aliud cras Egerit hos annos.’
35.] Aut qualis &e. ‘Or as when he disabled the serpent Python (the monster snake of Delphi) in all his twining coils.’ This is the subject of one of Turner’s greatest pictures, now in the National Gallery.
36.] Imbelles lyre. A sufficiently bold expression for the Muses, to whom the snake which Apollo scotched had been an object of terror. See on iii. 18,18. But the termination of this verse has probably been repeated by mistake from 382 (see iil. 18, 18), and we should here read either dee or chori. Miller reads, on his own con- jecture, inbelles quom tacuere lyre. The only way of explaining the vulgate is to
in mimum Slows und en ade aalin on
ν : ι bi ie +. Preccbe fu Auch | VLA LA vel a Nalw ἰς ‘ (
Et nimium remis audent; proh turpe Latinis Principe te fluctus regia vela pati.
regard it as a short phrase for ‘Muse non arma sed lyras gestantes.’
37.] Ab Alba, like ‘pastor ab Amphryso,’ Georgie. 111. 2.—cognite, ἐξετασθεὶς, whose exploits have proved you to be greater than even your Trojan ancestors.
40.] Hoe onus omne, ὃ. 6. pharetrae.
42.] Vota, viz. in the form of corone or tabelle.
43.] -Auctor is the reading of Lachmann and Kuinoel, after Bentley on Hor. iii. 3, 66. ‘The correction is too obvious to de- serve the praise of ingenuity; and the great name of the critic to whom it is due has given it (as in so many other cases) a weight to which its merits do not entitle it. The very next verse shows the vulgate to be correct.—augur murorum is briefly put for cum muris auguria caperet. The sense is, ‘If you, Augustus, do not now save Rome, it will have been founded mala avi, contrary to the belief of all the world.’ Compare sup. 1, 49—54.
45—6.] These obscure verses are ex- plained in various ways, according to the punctuation adopted. That of Hertzberg is somewhat harsh and awkward: ‘regia vela nimium audent pati fluctus Latinis remis;’ or, in his own words, ‘nimium turpe est, quod naves regine, Te principe, Romani remigii ope fluctibus committere se audent.’ He admits that vela for naves is somewhat objectionable when coupled closely with vemts, but throws the blame
sel yu
LIBER V. 6. 253
Nec te, quod classis centenis remiget alis, Terreat: invito labitur illa mari: Quodque vehunt prorze Centaurica saxa minantis,
Tigna cava et pictos experiere metus.
50
Frangit et attollit vires in milite causa; Que nisi justa subest, excutit arma pudor. Tempus adest, committe rates: ego temporis auctor Ducam laurigera Julia rostra manu.’
Dixerat, et pharetree pondus consumit in arcus:
55
Proxima post arcus Cesaris hasta fuit. Vincit Roma fide Phcebi: dat femina pcenas: Sceptra per Tonias fracta vehuntur aquas. At pater Idalio miratur Cesar ab astro: {
on the poet. I prefer the following: ‘turpe est Romanis, quibus tu es princeps, fluctus maris, quod sub ipsorum ditione est, pati naves regine Cleopatre;’ the antithesis lying in the words princeps and regina; for rex was a forbidden word, so to speak, under the empire. For pro the MSS. give prope, which Miiller retains, reading en with some late copies for et.— The sentence et nimium remis audent, seems to imply that Antony’s ships first rowed forward for the conflict; perhaps also, that they placed too much confidence in their oars, and too little in the aid of a god.
47.] Remiget means, ‘do not be fright- ened because you think that each ship in the fleet rows with a hundred oars’ (the Homeric sense of πτερά). Perhaps remigat should be read, like vehwnt in 49; which implies the objective fact that it was so.— invito mari, ‘the very sea it rides on is against it.’ There appears to have been rather rough water at the battle of Actium: see Martial, Zp. iv. 11, 6, (Antoni nomen) ‘obruit Actiaci quod gravis ira freti.’
49.] ‘And as for the prows carrying figures which seem to be heaving stones as large as those hurled by the Lapithe against the Centaurs,—why, you will find them to be mere μορμολυκεῖα, painted boards.’ Centauros is the reading of Barth and Kuinoel after Guyet; which alters the sense materially against the authority of all the copies. Hertzberg observes that real stones used as missiles against the enemy might be meant, quoting Dio. i. 33, and Virg. 42n, viii. 693, ‘Tanta mole viri turritis navibus instant,’ but that the pen- tameter verse seems conclusive against it. Probably they were painted figures, as we
know from Virg. Georg. iv. 289, that the Egyptians had this custom, ‘Et circa pietis vehitur sua rura phaselis.’ And perhaps (as in 4in.x.195) one of the ships was called The Centaur. Is vehunt used in- transitively for vehuntur, as we say, ‘the ship rides on the waves?’ Compare vector, ‘a rider,’ inf. 7, 84, and the examples of vehere for equitare supplied by the Dic- tionaries.
52.] Subest, ὑπάρχει. ‘It is the cause which weakens or raises the courage in a soldier; if there is no justice in it from the first, his arms fall from his hands through his own sense of shame.’ ‘’Tis the cause makes all, Degrades or hallows valour in its fall.’— Byron.
54.] Laurigera manu. Elegantly used, as if Apollo were about to put a crown of victory on the conquering prows.—temporis auctor, ἔγὼ 6 τὸν καιρὸν ὑποθέμενος, Viz. the time for commencing the action. ΓΘ Fide Phebi, ex promissis, y. 39,
58.] Sceptra fraeta, i.e. victa classis.— vehuntur, ‘rides,’ or perhaps ‘is towed,’ viz. as a prize taken.
59.] Barth and Kuinoel read miratus from the Aldine, and en for δέ or est in the pentameter, after Markland, in which latter both Lachmann and Hertzberg agree. The ‘Idalian star’ from which the deified Julius regarded with admiration the exploits of his adopted son, does not mean any parti- cular star (much less the planet Venus), but the epithet relates to his supposed descent from the goddess. mentators on Juliwm sidus, Hor. Od. i. 12, 47, on which passage Orelli, observing that mention is made of Julius Cxsar only
See the com. ἢ
so 8 SS
254
PROPERTII
‘Sum deus, et nostri sanguinis ista fides.’ 60 Prosequitur cantu Triton, omnesque marine Plauserunt circa libera signa dee. Illa petit Nilum cymba male nacta fugaci Hoc unum, jusso non moritura die.
Dii melius! quantus mulier foret una triumphus, Ductus erat per quas ante Jugurtha vias.
Actius hine traxit Phcebus monimenta, quod ejus Una decem vicit missa sagitta rates. Bella satis cecini: citharam jam poscit Apollo
Victor et ad placidos exuit arma choros.
70
Candida nune molli subeant convivia luco, Blanditizque fluant per mea colla rose,
Vinaque fundantur preelis elisa Falernis, Terque lavet nostras spica Cilissa comas.
Ingenium potis irritat Musa poetis:
twice by Horace, and thrice by Virgil, is not correct in stating that he is nowhere spoken of by Propertius. See also sup. iv. 18. 34. The sense of v. 60 is, ‘I ama god, and this victory of yours is a guarantee that you are born of my race.’ ides is so used sup. 1, 98.
61.] Triton, cf. Hom. 11. xiii. 27, βῆ δ᾽ ἐλάαν ἐπὶ κύματ᾽, ἄταλλε δὲ KATE ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ πάντοθεν ἐκ κευθμῶν, οὐδ᾽ ἠγνοίησεν ἄνακτα. Mart. Lid. Spect. 28, 5, ‘ Vidit in eequoreo ferventes pulvere currus, Et do- mini Triton ipse putavit equos.’
62.] Libera signa. ‘Nunc demum, post- quam apud Actium debellatum est, non amplius ab Antonio oppugnata, vere débera dicuntur.’— Hertzberg.
63.] ila, ‘the queen on her part;’ ef. sup. 4, 71, and 5,9. Keilreads ipsa. For nixa 1 have ventured to read acta, by which hoe wnum obtains something like an intelligible syntax. ‘She gained this one advantage, though unfairly, by the speed of her galley, that she was not destined to die on the very day that her conqueror had ordered.’ He should properly have said non moriendum sibi esse.—jusso die, constituto a victore. The only exception to her complete defeat was that she eluded the conqueror’s hands and put an end to her own existence.
65.] Dii metius, se. nobis consuluerunt. The sense is, ‘Heaven willed it otherwise, and no doubt for the best: for a woman would haye made but a sorry figure as a
75
captive in a triumph, which had before been graced by such a great king and so illustrious an enemy as Jugurtha.’—quan- tus, quantillus. Perhaps the mark of a question should be placed at vias.
68.] γι sagitta. So An. yiii. 704, ‘Actius hee cernens arcum intendebat Apollo Desuper’ &ce. Sup. 55. perbole is extravagant, of course.
69.] Citharam, viz. which he had laid aside during the fight, sup. 32.
71.] Luco. The poet, who in the com- mencement of the elegy had assumed the character of a priest, now speaks of the banquet which (says Hertzberg) the college of priests used to partake of in the sacred grove after the sacrifice had been offered. See the commentators on ‘ Saliares dapes.’ Hor. Od. i. 37, 2, and on ‘Pontificum ccene,’ 7b. ii. 14, 28. Kuinoel reads ludo after Heinsius. In the pentameter verse, rose is the genitive, as Hertzberg points out after others. See on τ. 8, 40.
71—2.] Candida κο. ‘Let the white- robed banqueters now enter the turf-clad grove, and the soft caress of the rose (or, chaplets of dainty roses) droop freely over my neck.’ Lachmann’s emendation, b/an- de utrimque fluant, has little to commend it.
i. 76, for the saffron of Corycus in Cilicia. See sup. 1, 14.
78.) I have adopted Scaliger’s reading trritat for irritet, since not the wish, but
74.] Spica Cilissa, used by Ovid, tia Π
|
5
The hy- Ϊ |
, LIBER V. 7.
Bacche, soles Phcebo fertilis esse tuo. Ile paludosos memoret servire Sicambros, Cepheam hic Meroen fuscaque regna canat, Hic referat sero confessum fcedere Parthum:
Reddat signa Remi, mox dabit ipse sua:
80
Sive aliquid pharetris Augustus parcet Eois, Differat in pueros ista tropxa suos.
Gaude, Crasse, nigras si quid sapis inter harenas: Tre per Euphraten ad tua busta licet.
Sic noctem patera, sic ducam carmine, donec
85
Iniciat radios in mea vina dies.
Wane.
Sunt aliquid Manes: letum non omnia finit,
the statement of a fact seems conveyed, that wine stimulates the poet’s genius. The vulgate might however mean, ‘ Let us try the effect of wine in inspiring our minds.’ And Lachmann prefers this, re- jecting Scaliger’s emendation.
76.] Fertilis, γόνιμος Arist. Ran. 96, ‘suggestive.’ The intimate connection between Bacchus and Apollo in the patro- nage of poetry explains Phebo tuo. Thus Parnassus was sacred to both deities. Ju- venal (7, 64) speaks of poets as inspired ‘dominis Cirrhe Nyseque.’ Tibullus, iii. 4, 44, ‘casto nam rite poete Phcbusque et Bacchus Pieridesque favent.’ Ovid, Am. 1. 3,11, ‘At Phoebus, comitesque novem, Vitisque repertor, Hoc faciunt.’ Here, however, the poet is implied under the name of the god himself.
77.] ‘Let one poet celebrate (viz. in recitations at the ἐπινίκια) the emperor's victory over the Germans, another his Ethiopian conquests, and a third his ex- pedition against the Parthians to recover the lost standards of Crassus.’—dabdit, ef. inf. 10,12. Meroe is a well-known island formed by the Nile, Herod. ii. 29. Strabo xvi. 4, xvii. 1, here called Cephean from
ὦ Cepheus king of Ethiopia, the father of
' Andromeda.
79.] Confessum, 7. 6. Romanorum poten- tiam, et se ab iis probe victum esse.
81---2᾽ ‘If Augustus does not entirely quell the rebel Parthians, may it be for the purpose of leaying his sons something to conquer.’ Caius and Lucius Cesar, the sons of his daughter Julia by M. Agrippa, adopted by Augustus, are here meant. See Ovid, 4. 4.i.177.
83.] Nigras harenas, the alluvial plains watered by the Euphrates; though pro- perly speaking these did not extend up to Parthia. Virg. Georg. iii. 241, ‘Et viridem Egyptum nigra fecundat arena.’—si guid sapis, 1.6. if there is any consciousness in Hades, if your Manes can know that you have been avenged. Similarly iii. 4, 42, ‘Nonnihil ad verum conscia terra sapit.’
84.] Ire licet. The way to the east is now opened by the Roman arms. Some light is thrown on this passage by Tacit. Ann. ii. 58, ‘Inter que ab rege Parthorum Artabano legati venere. Miserat amici- tiam ac foedus memoraturos, et cupere re- novari dextras, daturumque honori Ger- manici ut ripam Euphratis accederet.’
VII. This elegy also is of very great pathos and beauty, and is in all respects a most instructive and interesting poem. The ghost of Cynthia, in all the horrors of a half-burnt body from the funeral pile, appears to the poet when asleep and dream- ing of her, and upbraids him in affecting words with his heartless neglect of her in death. From the concluding elegies of the fourth book the reader is prepared for the part Propertius was likely to take in the matter. Her continued profligacy had in fact at length effectually estranged him. Yet it seems singular that he should record the just complaints of the deceased against himself, unless impelled to do so by re- morse. It was evidently composed imme- diately after the obsequies, but the exact date cannot be determined.
1.] Sunt aliquid Manes. ‘There are then such things as spirits:’ ἦν ἄρα τις
256
PROPERTII
Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.
Cynthia namque meo visa est incumbere fulcro, Murmur ad extreme nuper humata vie,
Cum mihi somnus ab exequiis penderet amoris, 5 Et quererer lecti frigida regna mei.
Eosdem habuit secum, quibus est elata, capillos, Eosdem oculos: lateri vestis adusta fuit,
Et solitum digito beryllon adederat ignis, — Summaque Lethzeus triverat ora liquor: 10
Spirantisque animos et vocem misit: at illi Pollicibus fragiles increpuere manus:
‘Perfide nee cuiquam melior sperande puelle, In te jam vires somnus habere potest ?
Jamne tibi exciderant vigilacis furta Subure 15
ψυχή, compare J/. xxiii. 103; Od. xi. 218; Juv. 2,149. The doctrine of the immor- tality of the soul was perhaps not more sincerely held by the majority of well-in- formed pagans than the legends of Tartarus and future judgment connected with it. Of its separate existence, apart from the body, and its spiritual essence, the Romans understood perhaps less than the Greeks. See on v.11, 1. The poet’s scepticism is evinced by iy. 5, 45.—evictos rogos, 1.6. qui Manes domare non possunt. ‘The grisly ghost flies free from the pyre that has failed to destroy it.’ isch. Cho. 316, τέκνον, φρόνημα τοῦ θανόντος od δαμάζει πυρὸς μαλερὰ yvabos.—effugit, clapsa est.
4.1 Murmur, strepitum preetereuntis populi, according to Hertzberg, which be- comes a faint murmur in the extrema via, the remoter parts; where, we may suggest from the tenour of the poem, the poor and despised were buried, while such of the more wealthy as were not interred swo agro had their graves close to the road-way, that all might ejaculate st ἰδὲ terra levis &e.— Murmur is by others, more correctly, I think, explained of the waters of the Anio, on the banks of which the via Tiburtina ended. See inf.85—6. Marmor ad ex- treme &c. is an obyious suggestion, ‘hard by the milestone ;’ yet this could only have a local meaning which we are not warrant- ed in assuming. In either case humata refers to burying the cinerary urn, for which the more correct expression is se- pulta (Becker, Gallus, p. 516).
δ. Exequiis amoris, ‘my buried love.’ Compare i. 17, 20, ‘Ultimus et posito staret
amore lapis,’ and Theocr. 23, 48, Χῶμα δέ μοι κοίλανον, ὅ μευ κρύψει τὸν ἔρωτα, pas- sages which Lachmann has well quoted in defence of the MS. reading. Barth and Kuinoel give amaris after Broukhusius.
7.1 The dissyllabic eosdem is remark- able; cdem and isdem for zidem and tisdem are familiar; 7 is a monosyllable iii. 16, 35. The initial e was pronounced as our y. Compare ‘hoc eodem ferro’ ii. 8, 26; ‘hae eadem via’ iv. 6, 386. Most of the copies here give hosdem. So ἕως Soph. Ajac, 1114.
8.] Vestis. ‘Her appearance was the same as in life, but the tunic was scorched on her side (lit. ‘burnt on to it’), and the beryl that she used to wear was blistered on her finger.’ It appears from inf. 48, and from the evidence of gems which have evidently passed through the fire (one of which I have seen), that the jewels were placed on the pyre with the body, though sometimes recovered from the ashes.
10.1 Letheus liquor. Kuinoel appears to be right in explaining this of the pallor or blackness of the lips, as if she had sipped the waters of Lethe before she returned to earth.
11—12.] animos ἕο. ‘The energy of her words and the sounds she uttered were those of one living; but the frail hands rattled in the finger-joints.’ Cf. sup. 3, 66, ‘subdolus et versis increpat arcus equis.’”
14.] Jam, ‘so soon.’ So the ghost of Patroclus says in 77. xxiii. 69, εὕδεις, αὐτὰρ ἐμεῖο λελασμένος ἔπλευ ᾿Αχιλλεῦ.
15.] The MSS. have exciderant (not ex- eiderunt), which seems to be correct. See
iv. 24, 20.
LEBER V. 7
Et mea nocturnis trita fenestra dolis ?
Per quam demisso quotiens tibi fune pependi, Alterna veniens in tua colla manu!
Seepe Venus trivio commissa est, pectore mixto Fecerunt tepidas pallia nostra vias. 20
Feederis heu taciti! cujus fallacia verba | Non audituri diripuere Noti.
At mihi non oculos quisquam inclamavit euntis ; Unum impetrassem, te revocante, diem.
Nec crepuit fissa me propter harundine custos, 25 Lesit et obiectum tegula curta caput.
Denique quis nostro curvum te funere vidit, Atram quis lacrimis incaluisse togam ?
‘Had you already forgotten, when you fell asleep, our stealthy meetings in the Suburra>’ This part of Rome was disreputable (Pers. Sat. v. 32), and it may be adduced among other proofs of Cynthia’s ow birth and character.
.* 21—2.] Fewderis seems a genitive of ex-
clamation, in imitation of a well-known Greek idiom. ‘ Alas for the plighted love that found no utterance; for the words, destined but to deceive, were wafted away by winds that would not hear them.’ The notion is, that the promised pledges came to nothing, because they were never ex- pressed in audible words.
23.] It requires some sagacity to choose between inclamavit, the reading of the Naples MS., and inclinavit, which most editors have adopted from MS. Gron. and ed. Rheg. Hertzberg, Keil, and Miiller admit the former, and Jacob also approves of it, observing that the pentameter verse has no allusion to closing the eyes, but evidently implies an earnest appeal to the dying, when the eyes are euntes (1.6, la- bentes, deficientes), to stay yet awhile with the friends who sit by the couch. The action is natural; and Jacob observes
_ ‘posse autem amore, desiderio, voto reti-
neri fugientem animam putarunt multi.’ See iii. 19, 15, ‘Si modo damnatum reyo- caverit aura puelle, Concessum nulla lege redibit iter.’ It was the custom, when the eyes of the deceased had been closed (so
‘says Becker, Gallus, p. 506), to set up a
loud clamour or wailing, to recal the de- parting spirit, if the person should only be in a trance. When no hope remained, they said conclamatum est. Does not the
present passage show that the clamor took place also in articulo mortis? In fact, this is clear from Ovid, Zvist. iii. 3, 43, quoted by Becker himself, and from Lucret. 111, 598, ‘ubi jam trepidatur, et omnes extremum cupiunt vite reprendere vinclum.’
25.] Much has been written, and not a few conjectures have been proposed on these two verses, which Lachmann, Jacob, and others have transferred to follow y. 20 or y. 18, (Jacob in the latter instance sug- gesting ac erepuit for nec crepuit), But the objection to denique, that it shows ‘ante exequias actam esse rem,’ is easily removed by Hertzberg,*who remarks that it is ‘non temporis, sed ordinis vocabulum.’ The arrangement in fact is quite a natural one: (1) nemo morientem inclamavit. (2) Mortuze nemo assedit. (3) Nemo vidit te atram togam indutum.—The custos here mentioned was appointed to watch by the body till it was carried to the pyre (e/atum), and he seems to have occasionally sounded a shrill note with a pipe, in case the ap- parently dead should only be in a trance, and so might possibly be aroused to con- sciousness. This is stated on the authority of Pliny, quoted by Servius on in. v1. 218.
26.] Tegula curta. Instead of a cushion, a broken tile was used to prop the head on the Zectus, or funeral bier, which head was cut (Jesa) by being rudely jammed against it, (obiectum).
27.] Curvum, bent, weighed down with grief. Lachmann adopts the improbable alteration of Passerat, furvum, in the sense of pullatum.
PROPERTII
Si piguit portas ultra procedere, at illuc
Jussisses lectum lentius ire meum.
30
Cur ventos non ipse rogis, ingrate, petisti ? Cur nardo flammz non oluere mee ?
Hoe etiam grave erat, nulla mercede hyacinthos Inicere et fracto busta piare cado ?
Lygdamus uratur, candescat lamina verne ;—
35
Sensi ego, cum insidiis pallida vina bibi;— At Nomas arcanas tollat versuta salivas:
Dicet damnatas ignea testa manus. Quze modo per viles inspecta est publica noctes,
Heec nune aurata cyclade signat humum;
40
Et graviora rependit iniquis pensa quasillis,
30.] ‘If you would not attend me to the pyre, at least you might have given orders that the bearers (vespillones) should carry the bier (sandapila) without such in- decent haste.’ It was a common custom for the friends to accompany the body only as far as the city gate. The bearers per- haps hastened their steps after this, just as with us a hearse or a mourning coach moves quicker when it has passed through a town.—lluc, ἐκεῖσε, ‘at least as far as the gate.’ Barth reads dlud.
31.] Jpse, present in person at the funeral.—ventos petisti?, Hom. 71. xxiii. 208, ἀλλ᾽ ᾿Αχιλεὺς Βορέην ἠδὲ Ζέφυρον κελα- δεινὸν ἐλθεῖν ἀρᾶται, καὶ ὑπίσχεται ἱερὰ καλά.
92.1 Nardo, the precious perfume gene- rally translated spikenard, and supposed by some to have been oil of cloves. It is said to have been the produce of a species of valerian from the mountains of India.
34.] I have placed a mark of interro- gation at cado, the simplest sense of the passage being a continuation of the re- proach in the same strain: ‘Was this too a trouble to you, to throw on my pyre hyacinths at no cost, and to propitiate the fire by breaking over it a crock of wine” (viz. as a libation to the element; see sup. 3, 60). Compare Fast. y. 426, ‘ compositi- que nepos busta piabat avi.’ Propertius is fond of the word pzare in various senses.
35.] This Lygdamus was Cynthia’s con- fidential slave ; see iv. 6, 2. The sense is, ‘You ought to put Lygdamus to the ordeal of the hot iron on suspicion of poisoning my wine, and thus give at least a late proof of your regard by avenging my death.’—/Jamina, the hot plate, μύδρους
αἴρειν χεροῖν, Soph. Antig. 264.—sensi, “1 felt the deadly effects as soon as I drank the poisoned wine that was handed to me by his treachery.’ Sudden attacks of ill- ness were generally attributed to the in- fluence of some drug. The wine is called pallida, from producing a sudden paleness
when drunk. So divida adipata, Juv. vi. 091. 37.] ‘Let Nomas, who was an accom-
plice in the plot, only lay aside her cunning trick of spitting on them, and the hot tile will declare her hands to be guilty.’ The supposed benefit of spitting on the hand was magical rather than physical, this being a common method of averting harm. It seems that Nomas had under- gone the trial before, but had been declared innocent in consequence, as is now hinted, of having had recourse to an unfair ex- pedient. 7 39.] Cynthia here charges the poet with having taken into his favour and dressed in fine clothes some woman of low degree, who punishes with jealous severity any of Cynthia’s faithful handmaids who presume to say a word or do a deed in compliment to their departed mistress,—inspecta est, ἴ.6. ut prostibulum. 40.] Cyclade, a light flowing dress like ©
our ‘muslin shawl,’ with gold embroidery _
round the edges. (See Rich, Companion to Dict. inv.) The proper dress of the mere- — trix was the toga.
41.] Quasillis, wool-baskets, ταλάροις, Tibull. iv. 10, 3, ‘sit tibi cura toge potior pressumque quasillo Scortum, quam Servi filia Sulpicia.’ (See Rich, in v. Qualus).— de facie, se. quam pulchra fuerit.
Garrula de facie si qua locuta mea est;
Codicis immundi vincula sentit anus;
Ceditur et Lalage tortis suspensa capillis,
Per nomen quoniam est ausa rogare meum. Te patiente mez conflavit imaginis aurum, Ardenti e nostro dotem habitura rogo. Non tamen insector, quamvis mereare, Properti:
Longa mea in libris regna fuere tuis.
Juro ego Fatorum nulli revolubile carmen, Tergeminusque canis sic mihi molle sonet,
Me servasse fidem. Si fallo, vipera nostris Sibilet in tumulis et super ossa cubet.
Turbaque diversa remigat omnis aqua. Una Clytemnestre stuprum vehit, altera Cresse
LIBER V. 7. 259 Nostraque quod Petale tulit ad monumenta coronas, 45 50 Nam gemina est sedes turpem sortita per amnem, 55 ἢ ξ ἐν. ved abublera common as it is with jidwm. Compare v.
44.] The codex was a clog tied to the foot, in this case to keep her from yisiting the tomb. See Juvenal, Sat. 11. 57.
45.] Suspensa capillis. It is not clear whether this should be taken together, ‘hung up by her hair,’ or, in a modified sense, capillis correpta; or whether with Burmann and Kuinoel we must understand ‘flagella ex capillis tanquam in funem contortis facta.’ The excessive cruelty of
\ mistresses to their maids is very touchingly ᾿ described by Juvenal, vi. 490—4, and in a ‘ beautiful epigram by Martial, ii. 66.
\
47.] Conflavit, nova domina tua. See on y. 2, 63.—dotem habitura, ‘hoping to obtain a dowry from the very flames of the pyre,’ 1.6. by rescuing from the fire the portrait set in gold. The notion seems to be, that riches would bring no luck, derived from such a source; see sup. 8, 14. Cyn- thia therefore was consumed with her own jewellery, as the beryl ring, v.9, and her likeness, perhaps in a gem or cameo, ac- cording to a common but barbaric usage of depositing or consuming with the body the most favourite possessions in life. But must we not infer from this passage that the attendants sometimes filched trinkets from the pyre as perquisites for them- selves ?
61.] Nulli revolubile, ‘which cannot be untwisted,’ i.e. the weird song sung by the Parce as they spin the thread, and which ‘is not to be unspun. The phrase tezere,
pices, deducere versum &c, is almost as
1, 72. The MS. Groning. gives revocadile. 53.] idem, ‘my promise to be yours.’
Fidelity, in the stricter sense, she could not
profess.—s? fallo, compare inf. 11, 27.
55.] Sortita, ‘allotted.’ This word, both here and inf. 11, 20, appears to bear a passive sense. See oni.2,5, The con- struction as explained by Hertzberg is somewhat complex and harsh: ‘nam turba omnis gemina (sc. in duas partes divisa) sedes per fluvium sortita est, et diversa aqua remigat.’ If the transitive sense be insisted on, it will be better to take gemina adyerbially (sc. as equivalent to an adverb, δίχα) which however amounts nearly to the same thing. In either case the mean- ing is clear: ‘all who are rowed across are conveyed either to Elysium or to penal abodes, the one in an opposite direction from the other.’ —diversa aqua perhaps means, that some go up, others down the stream, omnis turba meaning the οὗ πολλοὶ, the dead in general.—per amnem seems to mean trans amnem.
57.] The MSS. give wna and altera, which has every appearance of being gen- uine, though rather difficult to explain. For it is argued that Clytemnestra, the murderer of her husband, and ; Pasiphae from whose unnatural appetite the Mino- taur sprung, were only fit to keep company in going one road, and that the opposite to the Elysian. Hence for altera various corrections haye been proposed; atraque,
200
PROPERTII
Portat mentite lignea monstra bovis. Ecce, coronato pars altera vecta phaselo,
Mulcet ubi Elysias aura beata rosas,
60
Qua numerosa fides, quaque era rotunda Cybebes, Mitratisque sonant Lydia plectra choris:
Andromedeque et Hypermnestre, sine fraude marite, Narrant historias pectora nota suas,—
Heee sua maternis queritur livere catenis
65
Brachia, nec meritas frigida saxa manus; Narrat Hypermnestre magnum ausas esse sorores, In scelus hoc animum non valuisse suum. Sic mortis lacrimis vita sanamus amores.
Celo ego perfidiz crimina multa tue.
unaque, arteque, ausaque, ac rate &e. Hertzberg reads, ‘Unda Clytemnestre stuprum vehit altera, Cresse Portat,’ &e. in which he maintains that the asyndeton is not only excusable but even laudable. Miller marks both verses as corrupt, but proposes ‘unda Clyteemnestre stuprum et vehit altera Cressee Portans’ &c. The true interpretation seems to be this: the good go one way, the bad another: these are the two great divisions, the heaven or the hell, as it were, of the pagan mythology. But, as there are degrees of punishment, so Clytemnestra is conveyed in a different boat and by a different course from the destination of Pasiphae. They are not both bad enough or good enough to be conveyed in the same boat. The pars altera, v.59, has nothing to do with the sub-division of the damned implied by wa et altera aqua, i.e. eymba.
58.] The construction is, ‘altera vehit Cressee stuprum, mentite (πλασαμένης) lignea monstra bovis.’
59.] Coronato, in reference, perhaps, to the Delian mission-ship, θεωρίς. Plat. Phed. p. 57, ο, ἐπειδὰν 6 ἱερεὺς τοῦ ᾿Απόλ- Awvos στέψῃ τὴν πρύμναν τοῦ πλοίου.--- aura, the soft breeze usually mentioned in connection with Elysium. Pind. 02. ii. 71; Hom. Od. iv. 567.—mitratis, the turbaned choirs; cf. sup. 5, 72. Ar. Ran. 154—7.
‘But see, one bay-wreathed bark the blest con- veys
Where fragrant air ’mid flowers Elysian plays;
Where lutes resound, where tinkling cymbals
ring,
And mitred choirs to Lydian minstrels sing.’
Verse-Translations &c., p.47.
61.] Quaque era rotunda. This is the
certain emendation of Scaliger and Turnébe
70
for the MS. reading gua guerar (or querar) ut unda.
63.] Sine fraude marite, ‘those guile- less wives,’ viz. as contrasted with Cly- temnestra.—For pectora Miiller reads fe- dera, retaining the MSS. reading historie sue. Being unable to see the sense of this, I have ventured to edit historias, be- lieving that the dative has been introduced to make the construction depend on nota. But nota means nota fame, insignia, illus- tria. Compare sup. 1, 12, ‘pellitos habuit, rustica corda, patres.’ I formerly read, with Hertzberg and Lachmann, Warrant, historie pectora nota sue,
65.] JJaternis catenis. Because the reason of her being chained to the rock, to be devoured by the sea monster, was the pride of her mother Cassiope in con- tending with the Nereids in beauty. Apol- lodor. 11. 4, 3. See iv. 22, 29, ‘Non hic Andromedz resonant pro matre catene.’ Sua maternis is only found in the MS. Groning. The other copies have swmma eternis, which Jacob thinks may fairly be said of Andromeda as a constellation. But what has that to do with her personality in Elysium >
67.] Magnum, μέγα, δεινόν. See Hor. Carm, iii. 1, 80 seqq.; Asch. Prom. 880.
69.] ‘Thus among the shades we heal the wounds inflicted by earthly love, while we weep over each other’s griefs.’ Or more literally, ‘Our loves in life by tears in death we heal’—a beautiful sentiment. Mortis lacrime is briefly used for lacrime inter inferos profuse.
70.] Celo ego. The ego is emphatic: ‘unlike the heroines who console them- selves by relating their loves, J say nothing (in Hades) of your perfidy to me.’
ἴω.“ -οτρνολμοστοσι στοτος
"οί |
LIBER V. 7.
‘Sed tibi nunc mandata damus, si forte moveris, Si te non totum Chloridos herba tenet: .
Nutrix in tremulis ne quid desideret annis Parthenie: patuit, nec tibi avara fuit.
Delicizque mez Latris, cui nomen ab usu est,
75
Ne speculum dominz porrigat illa nove. Et quoscumque meo fecisti nomine versus, Ure mihi: laudes desine habere meas. Pelle hederam tumulo, mihi que pugnante corymbo
Mollia contortis alligat ossa comis.
80
Pomosis Anio qua spumifer incubat arvis, Et numquam-Herculeo numine pallet ebur, Hic carmen media dignum me scribe columna,
72.] Miiller has restored Chloridos from the Naples MS., for the vulg. Doridos. Chloris is the nova domina alluded to in vy. 39, who is here said to have captivated Propertius by magic arts, or some hag in her employ; as if Cynthia was unwilling to believe that his regard for her could have vanished except by some such arti- fices. Compare iv. 6, 25.
74.] Patuit, tibi facilis fuit ;—nee avara, i.e. nec nimia mercede id fecit. Cf. Theocr. xiv. 47, of δὲ Λύκος νῦν πάντα, Λύκῳ καὶ νυκτὸς ἄνῳκται.
76.] Porrigat, ‘hold out at arm’s length.’ So ‘porrigit ignes,’ sup. 1, 114.—d//a, see sup. 2, 40.
77.] Meo nomine, ‘on my account,’ ‘about me.’ The first book, inscribed Cynthia, can hardly be meant; for why should that only be destroyed? Besides, quoscunque implies a//Z that he had written about her. In the short verse meas laudes is τὴν δι’ ἐμὲ δόξαν, ‘credit devolving upon you through me.’
79.| Pelle &c. ‘Clear from my tomb the ivy which in chains Of straggling stems my gentle bones retains.’—mol/ia, ‘ slight,’ ‘womanly,’ as ‘molle caput’ sup. 3, 44. To prevent the grave of a relative from being overgrown with weeds is a common and natural dictate in our own minds. But the notion that ivy impeded the free egress of the spirit, which seems here in- tended, is a very singular one.
81.] Jacob here received (with all the later editors except Hertzberg) the correc- tion of Broukhusius, Pomosis Anio qua spumifer, for ramosis Anio qua pomifer. Cf. iv. 15, 4, ‘qua cadit in patulos lympha Aniena lacus.’ -Arva are the orchards for
* Which Tibur was celebrated; Hor. Od. i.
7, 14, ‘Tiburni lucus, et uda mobilibus pomaria rivis.’ Sat. ii. 4, 70, ‘ Picenis cedunt pomis Tiburtia succo.’
82.] Herculeo numine, ‘by the favour of Hercules,’ who was worshipped at Tibur, whence ‘ Herculeum Tibur,’ iii. 24, 5. He was the patron of hot springs in general; see iv.17, 5. The ancients imagined that ivory never turned to a dingy yellow, but remained white, from the air impregnated by sulphureous exhalations. See Martial, iv. 62, ‘Tibur in Herculeum migravit nigra Lycoris, Omnia dum fieri candida credit ibi;’ and εὖ. viii. 28, 11, ‘Lilia tu vincis, nec adhue delapsa ligustra, Et Tiburtino monte quod albet ebur.’ Also lib. vii. 13. The white-faced Saxon is apt to misun- derstand the classical idea of pallor, which implies the greenish-yellow or bilious tint peculiar to olive complexions. Hence Ovid compares it to the sere leaves in autumn, Fast. vi. 150. Hence also Ho- mer’s @xpos δέ μιν εἷλε παρειὰς, ἐμὲ δὲ χλωρὸν δέος ἥρει ἕο. Thus ‘ivory be- coming pale’ meant ivory losing its white- ness. Horace indeed (Zpod. vii. 15), has ‘pallor albus;’ but also ‘pallor luteus,’ 7. x. 16, and ‘tinctus viola pallor,’ ¢.e. of the yellow pansy, i. iii. 10,14. Candor (as iv. 24, 8), is always spoken of as a peculiar beauty.
83.] Columna, the square cippus, in- scribed at half height with the couplet.— vector, like gestator, Mart. Ep. iv. 64, 19, here means ‘a rider,’ either on horseback or inacar. We may infer from this that loiterers on the way stopped to-read the tombs.
‘In Tibur’s earth here golden Cynthia lies, Thy banks, O Anio, now the more we prize.’
202
PROPERTII
Sed breve, quod currens vector ab urbe legat:
Hic TiBuRTINA JACET AUREA CYNTHIA TERRA.
85
ACCESSIT RIPA LAUS, ANIENE, TU. Nec tu sperne piis venientia somnia portis:
Cum pia venerunt somnia, pondus habent. Nocte vagze ferimur; nox clausas liberat umbras;
Errat et abiecta Cerberus ipse sera.
90
Luce jubent leges Lethza ad stagna reverti. Nos vehimur; vectum nauta recenset onus.
Nune te possideant aliz; mox sola tenebo; Mecum eris, et mixtis ossibus ossa teram. Ps
Hee postquam querula mecum sub lite peregit,
95
Inter complexus excidit umbra meos.
85-6.] This beautiful epitaph—to which the expression aurea Oynthia, i.e. cara, pretiosa, lends such a charm, (compare an epigram on Homer attributed to Pisistratus, Ἡμέτερος yap κεῖνος 6 χρύσεος ἣν πολι- ἤτη5), is given by Hertzberg as it stands in the MSS. TZiburtina jacet hac, &c. The Naples MS. giving ‘Sed Tiburna jacet hic,’ &c. where sed appears to have been added to fill up the metre. But there is weight in Jacob’s reasoning, ‘Si Tiburtina Cynthia erat, non brevi hoc monumento
onor Anieni accedebat, sed loco natali.’ Which Hertzberg thus answers: ‘non hic honorem Anieni accessisse poeta dicit, quod Tiburtina illa fuerit, sed quod aurea puella et per seecula carminibus amici immortalis illic sepulta sit.’ -Accessit is rather am- biguous, as it does not necessarily imply that Cynthia came there from another place, but only that additional charm was gained by her remains lying near the Anio. The beautiful was brought to the beautiful, and so the beauty was now double. The question is of some importance, because if the MSS. be right, the verse determines the birthplace of Cynthia, of which there is no hint in any other place. See iv. 16, 2.—Anienus is the River-god, who repre- sents the river itself. Similarly Tiberinus for Tiberis y. 2, 7.
87.] Pits portis, ‘the gates (of Hades) that send news of those we love.’ The gates of horn are evidently meant, through which true dreams were believed to be trans- mitted. Virg. 4n. vi. 894, ‘Sunt gemine somni porte, quarum altera fertur Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris,’ &e. pia somnia may be understood of dreams or visions of relatives, having some mes- sage of affection to communicate ; compare pia saxa, sup. 1, 110.
88.] Pondus habent. Perhaps the rather obscure word in Hom. Od. xix. 665, ἐλε- φαίρονται, ‘are light and fickle,’ is alluded to.
90.] <Adiecta, se. a postibus. 6, 48: inf. 11. 26:
92.] Nos vehimur, i.e. nos quoque.—re- censet, ‘he counts his crew, so that not one can escape,’ as a shepherd counts his sheep, Virg. Hel. 111. 34. ᾿
95.] Sub lite isa remarkable expression, to which it is hard to find a parallel, unless perhaps in the Greek εὐχαῖς ὑπὸ θεσπεσίαις, Pind. Isth. ν. 44.—excidit, see sup. 4, 22. Fast, ν. 476, ‘Lubrica prensantes effugit umbra manus.’ Virg. An. ii. 793. Hom. Od. xi. 207, τρὶς δέ μοι ἐκ χειρῶν σκιῇ εἴκελον ἢ καὶ ὀνείρῳ Ἔπτατ᾽. A beautiful and appropriate ending of a most interest- ing and well-written poem,
See sup.
LIBER V. 8.
263
VAD
Disce, quid Esquilias hac nocte fugarit aquosas, Cum vicina novis turba cucurrit agris. Lanuvium annosi vetus est tutela draconis, Hic ubi tam rare non perit hora more, Qua sacer abripitur czeco descensus hiatu, 5 Qua penetrat,—virgo, tale iter omne cave! Jejuni serpentis honos, cum pabula poscit Annua, et ex ima sibila torquet humo. Talia demissze pallent ad sacra puelle,
VIII. The poet gives a lively account of the manner in which he had retaliated on Cynthia for her infidelity, and how she had detected him, and of her summary vengeance. The provocation is sufficiently manifest: the fault was the greater on her side (v. 16).
1.1 Zsguilias. That Propertius lived there we know from iv. 23, 24. It was called aguose from its springs and marshy slopes, which were favourable to the growth of the zsculeta or oak-groves from which the name was derived. See Varro, ἢ. ἢ. v. § 49. So Viminalis from vimen, vb. § 51. Celius was originally Querguetulanus from its guerceta, Tac. “πη. ἵν. 65. It is curious that these hills of Rome should have been named from their vegetation; and the cir- cumstance confirms the poet’s statements in vy. 4, 3, &e.—hac nocte, ‘last night,’ as the Greeks say νυκτὸς τῆσδε, or ἐν νυκτὶ τῇ νῦν, Soph. Ant. 16.
2.1 Novis agris. Meecenas had converted a cemetery which formerly existed there into a suburban park. See Hor. Sat. i. 8, 14, ‘Nune licet Esquiliis habitare salu- bribus atque Aggere in aprico spatiari, qua modo tristes Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum.’ The sense is, ‘ Hear now the cause that last night scared all the marshy Esquiline, and set the folk who live near the new park running to see what was the matter.’— After the first couplet, perhaps, should follow that which now stands 19—20 inf.
3.] Lanuvium. This place was cele- brated for the cultus of Juno Sospita, and for the presiding divinity of a serpent. See ABlian, Nat. Anim. xi. 16; Cic. de Div. i. § 36.—tuwtela means not only ‘ patronage,’ but the thing or person protected, as Ovid, Trist.i.10, 1, ‘Est mihi, sitque precor, flavee tutela Minerve Nayis, et a picta casside nomen habet.’
4.1 Hie ubi &e. ‘Hic ubi spectaculum tam rarum, quippe non nisi semel quot- annis obyium, non perit, sed avide arripitur a spectatoribus.' Barth.— mora is for tempus commorandi, as Hertzberg observes. ‘Here, where the season of an amusement so rarely to be enjoyed (annua, inf. 8) is not thrown away.’—more, see inf. 78. For hie we might suggest uc, repeated inf. 15, with a colon at draconis.
5—8.] Hiatu, sup.1,149. ‘Where the descent into the sacred cave is rapidly made through a dark opening, into which the tribute to the hungry snake finds its way (beware, maids! of all such ways as this), when he demands his yearly food, and hisses from the depths of the earth as he moves his coils..—The ceremony, which is similar to one long kept up in this country, by making girls pass through holes or apertures in walls &c., is evidently of phallic origin, the serpent being a phallic symbol. Like the tales about Cerberus, Typheeus, Echidna, &c., either the hissing or rumbling heard in volcanic caves, or some trick easily put on the credulous, will sufficiently account for the story here told.
6.] Qua penetrat, ubi demittitur, ini- citur, honos serpentis, yépas, donum, placa- mentum, μελιτοῦττα. Barth and Kuinoel give penetral from the conjecture of Sca- liger. The allusion in cave, virgo! is to the popular notion that the successful re- turn from the serpent’s cave was a proof of chastity, and the bantering which would follow the experiments no doubt made this a favourite and much-frequented festival.
9—10.] ‘Such are the rites to which girls descend pale with fear into the cave, when their hands (7.e. holding out the food) are rashly trusted in the snake’s mouth,’— demiss@, sup. 5, 17.
.
204
Cum temere anguino creditur ore manus.
PROPERTILI
10
Tle 5101 admotas a virgine corripit escas: Virginis in palmis ipsa canistra tremunt.
Si fuerint caste, redeupt paeeglia parentum ;
Clamantque agricole: Fertilis annus erit.
Huc mea detonsis avecta est Cynthia mannis: Causa fuit Juno, sed mage causa Venus. Appia dic, queeso, quantum te teste triumphum
Egerit, effusis per tua saxa rotis, Turpis in arcana sonuit cum rixa taberna ;
Si sine me, famz non sine labe mee.
20
Spectaclum ipsa sedens primo temone pependit, Ausa per impuros frena movere locos.
10.] Creditur ore. A remarkable use of the ablative in a locative sense. See 1. 17, 22. It does not seem philosophical to say that the ablative can be used in these cases for the dative: but it is not very easy on any other theory to explain carmine cessit, iii. 26, 84; or txseltet morte, iv. 6, 24. Dr. Donaldson (Varronianus, p. 282, ed. 2) has some remarks on the con- fusion of form in the dative, locative, and ablative of nouns; but these instances are more decisive than any which he quotes. Lachmann retains the reading of the best copies, tremere. We might suggest tenera.
11.] <Admotas a virgine, ‘if offered by a maid, he greedily seizes the food.’ Other- wise, according to Adlian, it was rejected.
12.1 Canistra. The basket containing the food sometimes shook from the neryous- ness of the person undergoing the test; and this was regarded as a good omen.
15.] Detonsis, ‘ clipped,’ that is, trimmed as to tails and manes. On the word mannus see the commentators on Hor. Od. iii.27, 7. The MSS. have ab annis, which was corrected by Beroaldus.
16.] A very witty verse. The osten- sible motive was the worship of Juno; the real one, to spend the day with a favoured rival of the poet’s.
18.] Ler tua sava. The Appian road was paved with large blocks, whence Hor. Ναί. 1. 5,6, ‘nimis est gravis Appia tardis,’ ‘too jolting for those who would take a journey easily.’ To drive in a dashing style over this pavement was the ambition of a smart Roman; for carriages were not allowed in the streets of the city. Hor. Epod. iy. 14, ‘et Appiam mannis terit.’—
effusis rotis, ἀνέδην, ἐκκεχυμένως. This verb is applied to the passage over ob- stacles without check, as Persius, 1, 64, ‘ut per leve severos effundat junctura un- gues.’
19—20.] This couplet, as above re- marked, would come in better after ver. 2. ‘When a disgraceful brawl raised a dis- turbance in an out-of-the-way tavern, if without me, yet not without a slur on my character.’ Whether this taberna was the place mentioned inf. 35 seqq., is not clear; nor how the poet can justly say the brawl was ‘sine me.’. Perhaps he means, that he did not intend to provoke it.
21.] This also is an expressive verse. She leant forward, pependit, over the pole (prima parte temonis, πρώτῳ ῥυμῷ, Il. vi. 40), spectaclum, so as to attract the atten- tion of all to herself and her skilful driving over rough parts of the road, dmpuros locos. The figure seems borrowed from charioteers in the circus.—pependit, ef. din. v. 147, ‘aurigee—proni in verbera pendent.’ Cyn- thia, it would seem, took a turn at the reins herself, to exhibit her courage and steady hand, whence ausa. The very words frena movere (κινεῖν χαλινὸν) bear the sense of ‘driving at full speed.’—purus, like καθαρὸς, is sometimes used of clear, unimpeded ground. So Ovid. Fast. iii. 581, ‘ Est prope piscosos lapidosi Crathidis amnes Purus ager.’.—Q. Curtius, iii. 4, 8, ‘Cydnus—leni tractu a fontibus labens, puro solo excipitur.’ Kuinoel and others wrongly understand ‘loca sordida,’—‘ by- ways and alleys.’ But no one who wishes to display his equipage selects such places,
LIBER V. 8.
bo ὩΣ οι
Serica nam taceo volsi carpenta nepotis Atque armillatos colla Molossa canes,
Qui dabit immundz venalia fata sagine,
Vincet ubi erasas barba pudenda genas. Cum fieret nostro totiens injuria lecto, Mutato volui castra movere toro. Phyllis Aventine quedam est vicina Diane,
Sobria grata parum; cum bibit, omne decet.
30
Altera Tarpeios est inter Teia lucos, Candida, sed pots non satis unus erit.
His ego constitui noctem lenire vocatis, Et Venere ignota furta novare mea.
Unus erat tribus in secreta lectulus herba.
Quris concubitus? inter utramque fui. Lygdamus ad cyathos, vitrique estiva supellex, Et Methymnei Greeca saliva meri.
23.] Serica nam taceo. The elegant correction of Beroaldus for strica or siriga nam capto or tacto. Carpentum was a two- wheeled vehicle, peculiarly used by women (like the ἁρμάμαξα of the Greeks) and on state occasions; whence it is called serica, lined or curtained with silk. Tac. Ann. xii. 42, ‘Suum quoque fastigium Agrip- pina extollere altius; carpento Capitolium ingredi, qui mos sacerdotibus et sacris an- tiquitus concessus venerationem augebat feminz.’ Juy. Sat. viii. 146, ‘ Praeter ma- jorum cineres atque ossa volucri Carpento rapitur pinguis Damasippus.’ —vulsi nepotis, ‘the close-shaved fop.’ Nepos expresses what we call ‘a fast man.’ The pulling out (iv. 25, 13,) or otherwise removing hair (depilatio) of straggling and irregular growth was a frequent practice with ef- feminate Romans, and was considered dis- reputable. Hence Suetonius (C@s. § 45,) ‘circa corporis curam morosior, ut non solum tonderetur, sed velleretur etiam, ut quidam exprobraverunt.’
24.] <Armillatos. Some have fancied that Cynthia’s bracelets were transferred to the dogs’ necks; an absurd idea. The word is derived from armus, and properly means that which pertains to the shoulders. Hence, applied to human beings, armillee are not bracelets but armilets, 1,6. rings on the upper part of the arm, just below the shoulders, as they are still worn by many savage tribes. Molossa agreeing with colla is a singular construction. Muller reads Molosa (malosa MS. Naples). The dogs,
or hounds, belonged to the nepos, and had ornamental collars on, called perhaps in ridicule, ‘ armille.’
25.] ‘A wretch who will one day (viz. when he has run through all his property), sell himself to be trained and coarsely fed for a gladiator, where the beard he will have to be ashamed of (1.6. of which he has such a dislike) will outgrow and get the mastery over the cheeks now so finely scraped.’—pudenda, sup. 4, 36.
29.] <Aventine Diane. The temple of " j
the goddess on the Aventine. Ovid, Fast. iii. ult, ‘Aventino Luna colenda jugo.’ ἢ Hor. Carm. Sec. 69, ‘Queeque Aventinum tenet Algidumque,’ &c.—With this verse a new elegy commences in the MSS.
31.] Zarpeios lucos. See sup. 4, 3.
33—4.] ‘By inviting these I made an appointment to dismiss dull care for one night, and to repeat my former stealthy meetings by trying a new mistress.’ —furta, see sup. 7, 15.
35.] In secreta herba, 1.6. in the viri- darium, or conservatory in the centre of the peristyle. See Becker, Gallus, p. 251. This custom is still kept up in Spanish houses, where the inner court is planted with orange-trees and fragrant shrubs. Compare Tibull. iii. 3, 15, ‘et nemora in domibus sacros imitantia lucos,’
36.] Concubitus. He evidently speaks of the triclinium, as he proceeds to describe the entertainment.
37—8.] ‘We had Lygdamus to serve the wine, and we had a light summer-
266
.7)
PROPERTII
Nile tuus tibicen erat, crotalistria Phyllis, Et facilis spargi munda sine arte rosa.
40
Nanus et ipse suos breviter concretus in artus Jactabat truncas ad cava buxa manus.
Sed neque suppletis constabat flamma lucernis, Recidit inque suos mensa supina pedes. . Me quoque per talos Venerem querente secundos, 45
Semper damnosi subsiluere canes. Cantabant surdo, nudabant pectora ceco:
Lanuvii ad portas (hei mihi!) solus eram ; Cum subito rauci sonuerunt cardine postes,
service of glass, and wine from Methymna with the Greek smack of turpentine.’ The vinum picatum derived a flavour from the rosin that lined the jars internally, and this peculiar flavour was still more pre- valent in the Greek wines. Hence in Arist. dch. 190, the σπονδαὶ, which are samples of wine, are said (in one sense) ὄζειν mirrns.—Compare Pers. vi. 24, ‘nec tenuem sollers turdarum nosse salivam.’
39.] There does not seem to be any ground for the alteration of Scaliger, Nilotes tibicen, though it has been received by Kuinoel, Lachmann, and Miiller.—ero- talistria is the emendation of Turnébe; the MSS. give a word more or less cor- rupted, choralistria, eboralistria, The part of the κροταλίστρια was to beat time with castanets (κρέκειν ὀστράκοις) of terra cotta or box-wood (cava buxa, y. 42).
40.] Facilis spargi rosa, ‘ good-natured to be pelted with roses.’ Hertzberg may be right in regarding rosa as the ablative, and referring facilis to Phyllis. He com- pares ‘simplex munditiis’ of Horace, and remarks that the amusement of tossing flowers (perhaps pulled from the chaplets) was common in company of this descrip- tion. Thus munda sine arte is ‘tidily, but not artistically dressed.’ Otherwise we might translate ‘roses neatly tied in bun- ches for throwing them easily about.’ So Hor. Carm. iii. 19, 21, ‘parcentes ego dex- teras Odi; sparge rosas.’ The poet seems to prefer the use of vosa in the singular. Compare ‘blanditie rosze,’ v. 6,72; ‘verna rosa,’ iv. 5,22; ‘ferre rosam,’ v. 2,40. So Ovid uses fios for flores, Fast. y. 211—2, and Tibullus has even ‘innumeram ovem,’ li. 2, 42.
41.] Nanus et &e. ‘A dwarf too, shrunk up into his own limbs, flung out his
shortened hands to the hollow box-wood castanets.’ The action meant is the gesti- ticulatio (Livy, vii. 2) to the crotalistria. Thus the Jdellus homo in Martial, Zp. iii. 63, 6, among other accomplishments ‘mo- vet in varios brachia volsa modos.’ The MSS. give magnus, corrected by Beroaldus. Hertzberg observes that two bronze effigies of dwarfs, with castanets precisely in the attitude here described, have been found at Herculaneum. On these pumiliones see Becker's Gallus, Ὁ. 211. Augustus had the good sense to discountenance the fash- ionable folly. Suet, Oct. § 83, ‘pumilos atque distortos et omnes generis ejusdem, ut ludibria naturee malique ominis, ad- horrebat.’
43—4.] Sed neque. ‘But the flame did not burn steady though the lamp was filled with oil, and the top of the table fell with its face uppermost upon its own feet.’ The unsteady (or sputtering) flame was an omen of an arrival, sup. 3, 60.—in suos pedes can only mean that the mensa or abacus was moveable, and slid off from its frame, trapezophora. See my note on Martial, Ep. 357, and 476, 7. Becker, Gallus, p. 296, who might have made important use of this passage. The sense is, ‘in spite of all attempts at merriment, unlucky omens disturbed our sport, and ill-suecess with the dice added to my chagrin.’
46.] Dammnosi, ‘losing,’ supra, 5, 28. Plaut. Capt. 73; Curcul. 356. — subsiluere, ‘fell so that aces always came uppermost.’ The highest throw was Venus, when all the four dice turned up different numbers ; the lowest canis, when the player threw four aces. See Becker's Gallus, p. 500.
48.] Solus. ‘My mind was solely with Cynthia at Lanuvium.’—solus for solum- modo, or totus.
LIBER V. 8.
Et levia ad primos murmura facta Lares.
267 50
Nec mora, cum totas resupinat Cynthia valvas, Non operosa comis, sed furibunda decens,.
Pocula mi digitos inter cecidere remissos, Palluerantque ipso labra soluta mero.
Fulminat ila oculis et quantum femina sevit: 55 Spectaclum capta nec minus urbe fuit.
Phyllidos iratos in vultum conicit ungues; Territa vicinas Teia clamat aquas.
Lumina sopitos turbant elata Quirites,
Omnis et insana semita nocte sonat.
60
Illas direptisque comis tunicisque solutis Excipit obscurze prima taberna viz.
Cynthia gaudet in exuviis, victrixque recurrit, Et mea perversa sauciat ora manu,
Imponitque notam collo, morsuque cruentat, 65 Preecipueque oculos, qui meruere, ferit.
Atque ubi jam nostris lassavit brachia plagis, Lygdamus ad plutei fulcra sinistra latens
Eruitur, geniumque meum prostratus adorat ;—
50.] Levia, ‘faint sounds were heard as of one talking at the entrance of the house,’ t.e, demanding admission from the janitor.
52.] Operosa (iv. 2, 12, sup. 6, 18), ‘not elaborately decked or attired in her hair, but all dishevelled as she was.’— Furibunda decens, ‘ beautiful in her rage.’—The valve were double or jointed doors, like window shutters, which folded back, whence resu- pinat: totas is added, because in entering quietly it was usual to open only one side, or flap.
54.] Palluerantque. The change of tense suggests the omission of gue. Pro- bably he wrote palluerunt, pronounced as a trisyllable.—ipso mero is for inter ipsum vinum, ‘in the very act of drinking.’ See on v. 10, supra.
56.] Spectaclum, ‘a scene.’
57.] The margin of MS. Gron. has igzes, which seems to have been suggested by aquas in the next verse. But it was a strange action even for Cynthia to throw the lamp in Phyllis’ face; and ¢ratos could thus only be taken for trata. On the other hand, compare iy. 8, 7, ‘Tu minitare oculos subjecta exurere flamma,’ which will allow us to explain conjicit ‘thrusts in
her face.’ Still this reading is not neces- sary; for experience shows that on any sudden panic people are willing enough to cry out ‘fire!’ and others to bawl for ‘ water !’—vicinas, the Esquiline hill being ‘aquosus,’ sup. 1.
60.] Insana nocte, ‘the nightly brawl.’ Cf. iv. 10, 26, ‘publica vicine perstrepat aura vie.’ Kuinoel has voce tonat, as usual against the best MSS.
61.] Illas &e. ‘They, with hair all pulled about and tunics all loose, find shelter in the first shop in the gloomy alley.’
63.] Recurrit, sc.ad me. ‘ Having put them to flight, she runs back and wounds my face with vixenish hand.’ On gaudere in &e. see 11. 4, 18, where however ‘gaudeat in puero’ perhaps rather belongs to the idiom pointed out on i. 18, 7, so that in may here stand for inter. Cf. Catull..22, 17; Lucret. 111. 72.
65.] Notam, sup. 3, 26. ‘She leaves a mark on my neck by biting till the blood starts, but especially she strikes my eyes, which were the real delinquents.’
69.] Latens, ‘who had been lying con- cealed,’—eruitur, for exuitur, was restored
208
Lygdame, nil potui: tecum ego captus eram.
PROPERTII
70
Supplicibus palmis tum demum ad fcedera veni, Cum vix tangendos preebuit illa pedes,
Atque ait: Admissze si vis me ignoscere culpe, Accipe, quae nostra formula legis erit.
Tu neque Pompeia spatiabere cultus in umbra, 75
Nee cum lascivum sternet arena forum.
Colla cave inflectas ad summum obliqua theatrum, Aut lectica tu sidat aperta more.
Lygdamus in primis, omnis mihi causa querellz,
Veneat, et pedibus vincula bina trahat. Respondi ego: Legibus utar.
Indixit leges.
80
Riserat imperio facta superba dato. Dein quemcumque locum extern tetigere puelle, Suffiit; at pura limina tergit aqua.
Imperat et totas iterum mutare lacernas,
by Lachmann from the Naples MS., which also gives protractus, a reading not inferior to the vulgate.—fulera plutei seem to be the legs supporting the raised board or ledge,—as we should say, the back of the sofa,—in other words, the hinder legs of the triclinium.—The Lygdamus here men- tioned must have been the poet’s slave, as she demands his punishment, v.80, and therefore the person mentioned sup. 7, 34, and iv. 6, 2, may be regarded as lent to Cynthia, on the principle often acted on by Cicero and Atticus, κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων.
70.) Yecum, t.e. 1 was taken captive like yourself.
72.] Cum vix, ‘when at last’—for so vic may frequently be rendered—‘ she al- lowed me to embrace and kiss her feet.’
74.] Que erit, ie. que sit, or futura sit.
75.) ‘You shall never walk in full dress under Pompey’s piazza,’—7.e. to attract or be attracted,—‘nor be a spectator of the gladiators in the forum.’ Compare iii. 14, 5, ‘Queenam nune porticus illam excipit > This verse seems to have been copied by Martial, xi. 47, ‘Cur nec Pompeia lentus spatiatur in umbra?’—arena is here liter- ally meant, ‘when sand shall strew the forum for the combat.’ Ovid, 7 γἱ͵δέ, ii. 282, ‘Martia cum durum sternet arena forum.’
77.| Summum theatrum. The higher and therefore more remote seats, where the women sate apart.’ Sueton. Oct. § 44,
‘Feminis ne gladiatores quidem, quos pro- miscue spectari solemne olim erat, nis? ex superiore loco spectare concessit. Solis Virginibus Vestalibus locum in theatro separatim et contra preetoris tribunal dedit. Athletarum vero spectaculo muliebre sexus omne adeo summovit, ut pontificalibus ludis pugilum par postulatum distulerit in se- quentis diei matutinum tempus, edixerit- que, mulieres ante horam quintam venire in theatrum non placere.’
78.] The MSS. give sudet. (The Naples MS. sidet according to Jacob and Lach- mann; but Hertzberg says, ‘sudet ommnes.’) The sense is, ‘let not the lectica be left open for your amusement.’ See sup. 4.
82.] Dato, concesso sibi a me.
84.] The MSS. have suficiat pura, or sufficat pura.—suffcit : et pura is the read- ing of the ed. Rheg. It is hard to choose between sufitit, et and suffiit, at (Hertz- berg). The latter is certainly nearer the MS. reading. Jaccb has edited suffit, et a pura from Pucci. Miiller, sxfftt et pura.
85.] Totas mutare lacernas, ‘to change again (1.6. as I had just put one on) the mantle with its hood.’ It is difficult to render the plural, which implies ‘the set,’ or cloak with its appendages. Compare Martial, Zp. ii. 29, 8, and iv. 61, 5, ‘milibus decem dixti Emptas lacernas munus esse Pompulle.’ The Lacerna was the garment which the Romans threw over the toga, and which differed but little from the
LIBER V. 9.
269
Terque meum tetigit sulphuris igne caput. Atque ita, mutato per singula pallia lecto, Respondi, et tuto solvimus arma toro.
Exe
Amphitryoniades qua tempestate juvencos Egerat a stabulis, o Erythea, tuis,
Venit ad eductos pecorosa Palatia montes, Et statuit fessos fessus et ipse boves,
Qua Velabra suo stagnabant flumine, quaque
penula. See Becker’s Gallus, p.420. The Naples MS. has Zucernas, ‘quod puto verius esse,’ says Jacob.
86.] Sulphuris (al. sulfuris), used in ex- piation or lustration; Hom. Od. xxii. 482; Ovid, Fast. iv. 740, ‘tactaque fumanti sulphure balet ovis.’
87.] Per singula pallia, ‘the bedding having been changed sheet by sheet.’ See on y. 3, 31. These passages show that more than one of these coverlets were occasionally used.
88.] All the MSS. have respondi et toto. Both Jacob and Hertzberg have adopted from Pucci despondi, et tuto. Kuinoel has et spondis, Lachmann and Barth et sponda et. Respondi is ὑπήκουσα, “1 complied with her request.’ Miiller marks the verse as corrupt, but suggests ves pacta for re- spondi. By totus he may mean wterque torus, sup. ili. 8, 4, and v. 3, 31, ‘in toto non sidere pallia lecto,’ viz. that peace was made by occupying the couch together. Compare sup. 4, 59 and 62, ‘solvere acies’ and ‘molliet arma.’—tuto toro may well mean, ‘rendered harmless by the purifica- tion employed, and the change of the pa/lia,’ or perhaps, ‘not again disturbed by a brawl.’ Barth and Kuinoel read movimus arma from Heinsius. It does not seem to have occurred to these emendators, that poets purposely avoid hackneyed express- ions.
IX. This poem contains the legend of the foundation and dedication by Hercules of the Ara Maxima (Livy, i. 7), which women were forbidden to approach, and is evidently one of those composed for the work on Roman Fasti already mentioned. Incidentally other stories are introduced, as the origin of the Velabrum, the Forum Boarium, and the Sabine title of Hercules, Sancus, v.74.
» 9
2.1 Evrythea. An island on the sw. - coast of Spain, where Geryon kept his —— herds. Hence Ovid calls them ‘boves Erytheidas,’ Fast.i. 543. ‘ Erytheida pre- dam,’ 7. vy. 649. Strabo, lib. iii. cap. 2, ἐοίκασι δ᾽ of παλαιοὶ καλεῖν τὸν Βαῖτιν (the Guadalquiver) Ταρτησσόν: τὰ δὲ Γάδειρα (Cadiz) καὶ τὰς πρὸς αὐτὴν νήσους ᾿Ἐρύ- θειαν.--- ρατοσθένης δὲ τὴν συνεχῆ τῇ Κάλπῃ (Gibraltar) Ταρτησσίδα καλεῖσθαί φησι, καὶ ᾿Ερύθειαν νῆσον εὐδαίμονα. See also Herod. iv. 8, from which it is clear that Erythea was the Isle de Leon, on which Cadiz stands. The legend probably arose from the Greeks wishing to obtain from Spain a superior breed of cattle; and ἢ Pausanias, who is often ingenious in in- terpreting a myth, perceived this, lib. iv. . cap. 36, ᾧ 2, Ἡρακλεῖ κατὰ δόξαν τὼν ἐν Ἰβηρίᾳ βοῶν προσέταξεν Εὐρυσθεὺς ἐλάσαι τῶν Τηρυόνου βοῶν τὴν ἀγέλην: φαίνεται δὲ καὶ “Epvt τότε ἐν Σικελίᾳ δυναστεύων δριμὺν οὕτως ἔχων ἐς τὰς βοῦς τὰς ἐξ ᾿Ερυθείας ἔρωτα, ὥστε καὶ ἐπάλαισε πρὸς τὸν Ἡρακλέα.
3.] Ad eductos. The MSS. give et ad- ductos, or et ad victos, from the latter of which the common reading ad invictos was devised by theearly editors. Lachmann con- jectured eductos, i.e. editos, which Hertzberg and Miiller have adopted. The correction is a probable one. Compare ‘celsa Palatia,’ iv. 9,49. Though educere is generally ap- plied to works of art, as 2n. vi. 178, ‘aramque sepulcri Congerere arboribus, cxloque educere certant,’ and ‘educte turres, Tac. Ann. xii. 16, it occurs in Lucan 11. 428, of the Apennine ridge, ‘educto dorso’ (quoted by Hertzberg).— On pecorosa, pecoribus plena, ¢.e. depasta, see v. 1, 4.—nemorosa is a reading of less MS. authority.
5.] Velabra. The low part of the city called the Velabrum is here derived from
270
PROPERTII
Nauta per urbanas velificabat aquas. Sed non infido manserunt hospite Caco Incolumes: furto polluit ille Jovem. Incola Cacus erat, metuendo raptor ab antro,
Per tria partitos qui dabat ora focos.
10
Hic, ne certa forent manifest signa rapine, Aversos cauda traxit in antra boves;
Nee sine teste deo: furem_sonuere juvenci, Furis et implacidas diruit ira fores.
Meenalio jacuit pulsus tria tempora ramo
15
Cacus; et Alcides sic ait: Ite boves, Herculis ite boves, nostree labor ultime clave, Bis mihi queesitee, bis mea preeda, boves,
Arvaque mugitu sancite boaria longo:
Nobile erit Rom pascua vestra forum.
20
Dixerat, et sicco torret sitis ora palato ;
Terraque non ullas feta ministrat aquas.
vela, on the theory that it was once, like the place called λίμναι at Athens, stagnant water. See on συ. 2, 8. Varro, LZ. L. v. §43—4, ‘Olim paludibus mons (Aventi- nus) erat ab reliquis disclusus, itaque ex urbe advehebantur ratibus: quojus ves- tigia, quod ea, qua tum vehebantur, etiam nunc dicitur Velabrum.’—‘ Velabrum a vehendo. Velaturam facere etiam nunc dicuntur, qui id mercede faciunt.’
7. Sed non. ‘But they did not long remain safe under so faithless a host as Cacus: for he played the thief and violated the sanctity of the asylum of Jupiter.’ He
/ was the θεὸς ἐπεχώριος, though his seat ‘| was rather the Capitol than the Palatine.
Hercules had accepted the hospitality of this Cacus, which had been proffered with a view to the theft. The word may be identical with κακὸς, t.¢. κακοεργὸς, the Devastator. He was the Roman type of Typhoeus or Chimera, a volcanic agent who sent up fire and smoke through several vents at the same time. See the fine ac- count in 77. viii. 190, seqq. Ovid also represents Cacus as fire-breathing, but not as three-headed, Fast. i. 572.
9.] Incola. MSS. insula. Schrader and Kuinoel accola.—raptor ab antro, like ductor ab arce, inf. x.9; mundi servator ab Alba, sup. 6, 37.
12.] Ovid has nearly the same verse, Fast. 1. 550, ‘Traxerat aversos Cacus in antra feros.’
13.] Nee (te. nee tamen) sine teste deo.
Deus is the god of hospitality (v. 8) who gave testimony of the theft by making the cattle in the cave low in recognition of the rest as they passed.
14.] £t. The conjunction implies the immediate consequence. Kuinoel reads at, with Heinsius.—implacidas, avapotas, hos- tiles. Hor. Carm. iy. 14, 10, ‘Geraunos, implacidum genus.’
15.] Ramo. Cf.i. 1, 18, ‘Hylei per- cussus volnere rami.’ ;
19.] Sancite. The sense is, inaugurate — the site of, or supply a precedent after Ὁ which the Forum Boarium may reasonably ~ be called in future times. One might — suppose the poet had in mind βοὴ rather | than Bots. The Naples MS. gives bovaria, which Miiller has adopted; the MS. Gron. boaria, with the letter v erased.
20.] Nobile, a chief or principal forum, i After this verse (if nothing has been lost) we must suppose the act of building and dedicating the Ara Maxima, on the re- covery of the lost oxen, to have taken place. For inf. 68, Hercules speaks of it as already constructed.
22.] Feta ministrat may be taken as equivalent to parit, or parens prebet. ‘Terra nune feta non erat Herculi, neque potum ministrabat.’—Hertzberg. ‘the teeming earth (¢.e. that had given pasture to the cattle) supplies no water for him.’ Cf. sup. 6, 4, ‘et Cyreneas urna ministret aquas.’
LIBER V. 9.
271
Sed procul inclusas audit ridere puellas, Lucus ubi umbroso fecerat orbe nemus;
Feminee loca clausa dez fontesque piandos,
Impune et nullis sacra retecta viris. Devia punicez velabant limina vittee,
Putris odorato luxerat igne casa, Populus et longis ornabat frondibus sedem,
Multaque cantantis umbra tegebat aves.
30
Huc ruit in siccam congesto pulvere barbam, Et jacit ante fores verba minora deg: ‘Vos precor, Ο luci sacro que Iluditis antro,
‘Pandite defessis hospita
‘Fontis egens erro, circaque sonantia lymphis Θ y 5)
241 The conjecture of Heinsius, wi for ab, appears to deserve more notice than it has received from the later editors. The correction is so obvious, and so much im- proves the sense, while on the other hand ‘lucus fecerat nemus ab orbe’ is such an unusual construction, that I have not hesi- tated to reject the old reading. Similarly ubi has been corrupted, from the elision of ὦ, in iv. 15, 32.
25.] Fontes piandos. adhibentur.’ Hertzberg: ‘sacra piare’ i. 1, 20. Barth explains, ‘viris expiandos si inde biberint.’ Unless the water itself was purified and as it were consecrated before being used for aspersion, it could not be called pianda. Propertius is fond of using this verb, which is a met- rically convenient one, but not very definite in its meaning. The accusative, it will be observed, does not depend directly on fecerat, but some participle like continens must be mentally supplied with nemus.
26.) The goddess alluded to is Bona Dea, and the connexion of her cultus by women exclusively with that of Demeter in the Thesmophoria cannot reasonably be doubted. They are called ‘rites not to be revealed (or, that never had been revealed) with impunity to any male.’
27. Vitte. ‘The doorway of the se- questered retreat was veiled by scarlet fillets.’ This, like the Greek εἰρεσιώνη placed over doors, seems to have indicated an asylum, or the offer of hospitality. See inf, on v. 52.—putris casa, ‘innuitur sacra- rium vetustate fere collapsum, ut apud Hor. Epist. i. 10, 49, ‘fanum putre Vacune.’’— Kuinoel. The word is connected with
‘Qui sacrificiis who compares
fana viris.
πύθεσθαι, and signifies the decomposition and softening caused by time and exposure, as putris navis, 111. 17, 7, putria signa, sup. 5, 24. It is but rarely used (as in Ovid, Fast. i. 379), in the sense which the English derivative bears.—casa, 7.e. sacellum, as in v.1, 6. ‘The time-worn shrine had been lit up with fragrant fire.’
29.] Populus, the tree sacred to Her- |: cules, and so giving as it were an omen of ©
his reception.—multa umbra, ἀμφιλαφὴς, its ample shade (or, the shade of many trees) gave shelter to singing birds.
32.] Minora deo. ‘Beneath the language |
of a god,’ ‘undignified for a god to utter.’ ὁ jy He condescended to petition as a mere ©
mortal, being not yet deified.
33.] Luditis. This refers to ridere y. 23.—antro, ‘this bower.’ Cf. sup. 4, 3.— fana is Scaliger’s correction. The Naples MS. gives vena, the MS. Gron. and ed. Rheg. vestra, whence Pucci suggested tes- qua.—viris, ‘even males (sup. 26), if weary, have a claim on your hospitality.’
35.] Sonantia. The ellipse of loca is unusual; nor is Hertzberg’s remark quite to the point, that with adjectives involving the sense of the substantive, such as de- clivia, plana, aperta, lubrica, &e. the latter may be omitted. He more aptly quotes Ovid, Met. v. 405, ‘Perque lacus altos et olentia sulphure fertur.’—gve must be un- derstood as guanguam, Gr. kal ταῦτα. ‘A wanderer I, perishing for drink, while all round the sound of water is heard’ (i.e. there is plenty for all), ‘and all I ask is as much of it from the stream as I can take in the hollow of my hand.’ Cf. sup. 1, 146, ‘persuasee fallere rima sat est,’
272
PROPERTII
‘Et cava suscepto flumine palma sat est. ‘Audistisne aliquem, tergo qui sustulit orbem ?
“1116 ego sum: Alciden terra recepta vocat. ‘Quis facta Hercules non audit fortia clave,
‘Et numquam ad ‘-fnatas irrita tela feras,
40
‘Atque uni Stygias homini luxisse tenebras 7 ‘Accipite; hee fesso vix mihi terra patet.
‘Quod si Junoni sacrum faceretis amare, ‘Non clausisset aquas ipsa noverca suas.
‘Sin aliquam vultusque meus szteeque leonis
45
‘Terrent, et Libyco sole perusta coma, ‘Idem ego Sidonia feci servilia palla ‘Officia, et Lydo pensa diurna colo;
‘Mollis et hirsutum cepit mihi fascia pectus,
‘Et manibus duris apta puella fui.’
50
Talibus Alcides; at talibus alma Sacerdos, Puniceo canas stamine vincta comas;
‘Parce oculis, hospes, lucoque abscede verendo: ‘Cede agedum, et tuta limina linque fuga.
‘Interdicta viris metuenda lege piatur,
40.] Natas can hardly be the true read- ing; but no probable conjecture has been proposed. The Naples MS. gives advatas. It may be remarked generally how much less successful conjectural emendation is when applied to the Latin than to the Greek classics. Varias, vastas, nocuas, tantas, notas have been suggested; but none of these is quite satisfactory. Can the poet have attempted to represent the Grecism πρὸς τὰ ἀεὶ ἐπιγιγνόμενα θηρία, ‘darts that never failed against any creature that ever was born?’—I have given audit for audit.
42.] This verse recurs after v. 65. If genuine in both places, it would seem to have resulted rather from haste or over- sight in composing than to be ‘summa cum indignationis vi repetitus,’ as Hertz- berg thinks. Muller with Barth and Kui- noel omits it here, after Scaliger, thus leaving an awkward lacuna in the text. Lachmann also follows them. ‘The sense is, ‘Take me in; let it not be said that this is the only corner in the world that, after all my labours in clearing it of mon- sters, refuses to receive me when weary.’
43.] ‘Why, even if you had been offer- ing a sacrifice to Juno, my step-mother
ww 99
and implacable enemy, and not to Bona Dea, she would not thus cruelly have denied me water.’ Jacob and Miiller follow Lachmann in reading Quid, si &e. interrogatively.
47.] ‘I am the same hero who in the service of Omphale was dressed as a woman in Tyre-dyed robe and spun wool.’ See Ovid, Her. 8, 50, ζο. and supra iv. 11, 17—20.—colus here and y. 1, 72, is mas- culine, if the MSS. are to be trusted. There seem to have been two forms, hee colus, of the τι declension, and hie colus—t. Barth and Lachmann read colw.
49.] Fascia. The Greek στρόφος, some- what resembling the modern use of stays. See Rich’s Dict. ix v.
50.] Manibus duris. ‘And, hard as my hands were, I made a handy girl.’—apta, sc. pensis trahendis, habilis. So sup. 2, 23, ‘fiam non dura puella.’
52.] Puniceo stamine. The vitta, which confined the woollen infula to the brows. The purple or scarlet colour, denoting sacrificial or priestly dignity, (Zisch. Zum. 982) is retained in modern ecclesiastical costumes.
55.] Metuenda lege interdicta, i.e. by the penalty of blindness. Hence ‘parce
LIBER V. 9.
273
‘Que se summota vindicat ara casa. ‘Magno Tiresias aspexit Pallada vates,
‘Fortia dum posita Gorgone membra lavat. ‘Di tibi dent alios fontes: hee lympha puellis
‘Avia secreti limitis una fluit.’
00.
Sic anus; ille humeris postes concussit opacos, Nec tulit iratam janua clausa sitim.
At postquam exhausto jam flumine vicerat estum, Ponit vix siccis tristia jura labris.
‘Angulus hic mundi nune me mea fata trahentem 65 ‘Accipit; heec fesso vix mihi terra patet.
‘Maxima que gregibus devota est Ara repertis,
oculis hospes,’ ‘have regard for your eye- sight,’ v.53. Piare aram is to purify, ἁγνίζειν, an altar before commencing the sacrifice: here the reference seems to be to the expiations which would be necessary on the violation of it.—tuta fuga, ‘ while yet you can retire in safety.’ Compare iy. 10, 19, and sup. 1, 50.—vindicat se, ‘ asserts its own sanctity,’ viz. a temere accedentibus Viris.
57.] Hertzberg alone has ventured to retain the reading of all the good copies, magnam. With better critical judgment, as I think, Lachmann and the recent edi- tors have admitted magno, though the avowedly corrected reading of an inter- polated copy. The epithet magnam is superfluous and insipid, whereas magno, 7.e. pretio, is all but required by the sense. Were any argument wanting, it would be supplied by the verse of Callimachus, evi- dently copied by Propertius, Lav. Pall. 102, μισθῷ τοῦτον ἱδεῖν μεγάλῳ, SC. γυμνὴν Thy Παλλάδα. See also ibid. 75.
58.] Posita Gorgone, after having divested herself of the egis (the goat-skin folded round the chest). See ii. 2, 8.
60.) Hece—fluit. ‘This particular spring in a retired course far from the high road flows only for the use of women.’ There was some superstition connected with this: see Hes.”Epy. 751, μηδὲ γυναικείῳ λουτρῷ χρόα φαιδρύνεσθαι avepa.—limitis, see sup. 4, 50, ‘fallaci celat limite semper aquas.’ The MSS. have fluit, which Jacob retains. Fiuit is the correction of Fruter.
61.] Coneussit. Hercules was repre- sented in comedy as knocking violently at doors and bursting them open, κενταυρικῶς, Ar. Ran. 38 (where Dionysus is imitating the customs of Hereules).—e/ausa, ‘though
closed to him, it could not withstand his angry demands for drink.’
64.] This verse may be interpreted in two very different ways: either ‘he scarcely puts reluctant control on his thirsty lips,’ z.e. can scarcely stop drinking; or, ‘he lays down severe laws even before drying his lips,’ alluding to v. 09, The latter is pro- bably right. Compare ‘ponere jura,’ iv. 9, 24.—In this, as in most of the legends of Hercules, a strong admixture of comedy is perceptible.
65—6.] The meaning is, ‘Thus then my destiny has brought me to this obscure corner of the world, and here I am doomed to be refused a cup of water.’ The senti- ment is that of a king who should find himself spurned from a cottage door, and implies conscious merit and just indigna- tion. See sup. 42.—trahentem, not ultro, but in the performance, or working out, of my destiny.
67.] Gregibus repertis is the ablative absolute, not the dative after devota, (1.6. promissa si reperisset) as Hertzberg shows. Devoveo, he observes, is used of victims, not of places, when in the sense of pro- mising something on the fulfilment of a desire. The sense is, ‘hee ara, que post receptas boves nunc mihi dicata est, et a parva maxima facta est’ &e. For the altar was not newly built, but only enlarged by him; it was the same altar of the Bona Dea which the women had in charge; and as they had excluded males from approach- ing it, so now in retaliation he decrees that women in future shall not be allowed ac- cess. (This enlarging of old altars, we may remark, was an ancient custom; see Thucyd. vi. 54, ad jin.) There is some uncertainty whether this altar was dedi-
AN
| |
274
PROPERTII
‘Ara per has, inquit, ‘Maxima facta manus, ‘Heee nullis umquam pateat veneranda puellis,
‘Herculis eximii ne sit inulta sitis.’
70
Sancte pater salve, cui jam favet aspera Juno; Sancte, velis libro dexter inesse meo.
Hunc, quoniam manibus purgatum sanxerat orbem, Sic Sanctum Tatize composuere Cures.
X.
Nune Jovis incipiam causas aperire Feretri,
cated by Hercules to Jupiter, in thanks- giving for recovering his oxen, or whether suo numini, as a memorial of himself, and as conscious of his own divinity. But it appears, as Hertzberg demonstrates at length, that the two actions were distinct : the first is briefly alluded to by Ovid, Fast. i.579, ‘Immolat ex illis taurum tibi Ju- piter unum Victor;’ the latter was an in- stitution of a new cultus, that of the Potitii and Pinarii, with a view to his own future deification.
70.] Sitis, the refusal of drink to the thirsty Hercules. | 71.] Sancte Pater. The invocation of the poet, that Hercules may be propitious to his verse. Whether here we read Sance, and in vy. 74 Sancum, or with Jacob, Miller, and Hertzberg retain the MS. reading in both places, we cannot doubt that allusion is intended to the Sabine title of Hercules, Sancus. Dr. Donaldson (Varronianus, p. 6) considers Sancus to haye been an Um-
‘brian deity; which is much the same
| ‘revered.’
thing, as the Sabines were of Umbrian origin. He thinks that the word meant Other names for the same god were Fidius (whence Medius Fidius, ‘may Fidius (son) of Jove help me’) and Semo. Ovid, Fast. vi. 218, ‘Querebam Nonas Sanco Fidione referrem, An tibi, Semo pater: cum mihi Sancus ait, Cuicunque ex illis dederis, ego munus habebo; Nom- ina trina fero; sic voluere Cures.’ Varro, LD. L. vy. § 66, ‘ Alius Dium Fidium dicebat Dioyis filium, ut Graci Διόσκορον Cas- torem, et putabat hune esse Sancum ab Sabina lingua, et Herculem a Greca.’ Here it is evident that the poet wishes to derive the title from sancire. Cf. sup. In fact the word was written, as Hertzberg shows, Sancus, Sangus, and Sanctus.—Cui
Jam favet Juno, v.e. cui jam, ut in celum
recepto, iram remisit.’ He had wedded
Hebe, the daughter of Juno.
72.] Inesse is the reading of all the copies. Kuinoel and others give adesse. The former word conyeys the prayer that the hero will be im the poem, by the in- spiration of his divinity.
73.] For hune Miiller reads huic, Lach- mann zune. The sense is, ‘(I say Sancte), for this very god, since he had cleared the world of crime, the chief city of the Sabines consecrated, for these benefits, as the Puri- fier.’—sie, ἐπὶ rotcde.—-composuere, ἱδρύ- σαντο, templo dedicavere. See ii. 6, 5, ‘que delectas potuit componere Thebas.’
X. The poet in the present elegy en- deayours to assign the origin of the obscure title Jupiter Feretrius. Whether the re- storation of the temple of this deity by Octayianus, which probably took place while Propertius was quite a youth, had any part in suggesting the subject, or whether it was written simply in reference to his work on the Roman Fasti, is un- certain, and is a matter of no great im- portance. The commencement, ‘ Nune in- cipiam causas’ &c., seems to point to the latter. The poem undoubtedly bears the impress of a juvenile performance, and has perhaps as little merit as anything re- maining to us from the same pen. The word feretrius is clearly Greek, pepérptos, and certainly cannot be derived from ferire, (inf. 46,) but is rather from ferre, either in the sense of φέρειν or φέρεσθαι.
1.] Causas, the origin of the name. Compare inf. 45. In using the word, (with which Ovid also opens his Fastt, ‘Tempora cum causis’ &c.) allusion is pro- bably made to the Atria of Callimachus.— Hertzberg’s objection, that arma aperire is incorrect, seems futile, since the sense it- self suggests canam,
ave
LIBER V. 10.
bo -1 Or
Armaque de ducibus trina recepta tribus. Magnum iter ascendo, sed dat mihi gloria vires: Non juvat e facili lecta corona jugo.
Imbuis exemplum prime tu, Romule, palm
Or
Hujus, et exuvio plenus ab hoste redis, Tempore quo portas Czeninum Acronta petentem
Victor in eversum cuspide fundis equum. Acron Herculeus Ceenina ductor ab arce,
Roma, tuis quondam finibus horror erat.
Hic spolia ex humeris ausus sperare Quirini Ipse dedit, sed non sanguine sicca suo. Hune videt ante cavas librantem spicula turres
Romulus, et votis occupat ante ratis: Juppiter, hxc hodie tibi victima corruet Acron. 1
Oe
Voverat: et spolium corruit ille Jovi. Urbis virtutisque parens sic vincere suevit, Qui tulit aprico frigida castra Lare. Idem eques et frenis, idem fuit aptus aratris,
41 E facili jugo. This is elegantly said in reference to ascendo in vy. 3. The sentiment is the same as in the well-known lines of Lucretius, ‘ Avia Pieridum peragro loca,’ &c., and is expressed by the proverb, χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά.
5.] Imbuis, ‘you impart,’ or furnish. More usually, aliguem aliguo, and properly used of the first dye or colour (Mart. viii. 51, 17, ‘imbuat egregium digno mihi nec- tare munus’). The root is probably the same as in βάπτω and Baph.—hujus palme, of the spolia opima, or arms taken by a Roman general (or as some will have it, see sup. 3, 64, by a common soldier,) with his own hand from the leader of the hostile forces.
6.] The best copies have eximio or exu- quo, which are mere varieties in reading rather than in writing exuvio. The com- mon reading, exuviis, which Kuinoel and Barth give, seems to have proceeded from the school of Italian emendators. The form exuvium appears of questionable au- thority. Compare however deliciwm, Mar- tial, i. 8.
7.] Acron, king of the Ceninenses, a Sabine people, and as such boasting his
_ descent from Hercules (see on vy. 71 of the
preceding elegy), was killed by Romulus
_ (Livy, i. 10), who carried his arms as the
primitiz of war to the capitol, ‘ fabricato ad id apte ferculo,’ ¢.¢. pepérpw, whence the historian supposes the title to be de- rived.
8.] In eversum equum. ‘Hasta Ro- muli prostravit equitem, et equum simul fusum resupinavit.—Barth. So sup. 1, 94, ‘heu sibi prolapso non bene cavit equo.’ ‘You threw (or pitched) him with your spear upon the horse that had fallen under him’ (or, that had been overthrown by the shock).
9.] Abarce. See sup. 9, 9.
12.] Ipse dedit. Cf. sup. 6, 80, ‘ reddat signa Remi, mox dabit ipse sua.’
14.] Occupat, is beforehand with him, anticipates him in making vows that were rata, accepted by the gods, non irrita. So ‘vocales occupat ense canes,’ sup. 4, 84. Ovid, Fast. i. 575, ‘occupat Alcides,’ ‘Hercules closes with Cacus and strikes him first.’
17.] Sie vincere, t.e. by determination to win at all hazards; by making a solemn engagement to do so. Or, by saying he would do a thing, and doing it.
18.] Aprico Lare. ‘Who bore the cold of the camp without the shelter of a tent,’ z.e.non sub tecto, sed ‘patiens pulveris atque solis’ in castris.
276
Et galea hirsuta compta lupina juba,
PROPERTII
20
Picta neque inducto fulgebat parma. pyropo ; Preebebant ceesi baltea lenta boves.
Cossus at insequitur Veientis cede Tolumni,
- Vincere cum Veios posse laboris erat,
~Nec dum ultra Tiberim belli sonus; ultima preda 25
Nomentum et captz jugera terna Core.
O Veii veteres, et vos tum regna fuistis, Et vestro posita est aurea sella foro:
Nune intra muros pastoris buccina lenti
Cantat, et in vestris ossibus arva metunt.
30
Forte super porte dux Veius adstitit arcem, - Colloquiumque sua fretus ab urbe dedit.
7 20.) Et galea, ‘His cap or helmet was
' of wolf-skin with its shaggy hair combed
Τ᾿ into shape,’ not the plumed helmet of the
ἢ later time. Cf. sup. 1, 29, and 4, 20, ‘Nor ‘ was his shield,’ he continues, ‘overlaid with plates of pinchbeck; and slaughtered oxen afforded him a tough leather belt.’ With the galea lupina compare the καταῖτυξ of Hom. 7.x. 258. With compta, though the construction is a little abrupt, it is best to supply erat. 21.] Pyropo. Ovid, Met. 11, 2, ‘Clara micante auro flammasque imitante pyropo.’ εἰ According to Pliny, .V. H. xxxiy. 20, pyro- } | pus was a mixed metal of gold and brass. Mi} —Hertzberg.
23.] Insequitur, 1. 6. as the second in- stance of spolia opima. For the narrative, see Livy, iv. 20; Virg. 4. vi. 842. The at, as usual, introduces a change of subject. For its position compare sup. 1, 95. To- lumnius was killed by Cornelius Cossus in the war subsequent upon the outrage com- mitted by the people of Fidenz on four Roman ambassadors in the year 438 8.0. Since at this period the Roman arms were - widely extended, it has been suggested by
Passerat to transpose vy. 25, 26, so as to follow 22. To say that 8.0. 488, Nomen- tum and Cora, (Plaut. Capt. 881), towns within a few miles of Rome, were the limits of Roman victory, and that war had not yet been heard beyond the Tiber, is, as Hertzberg remarks, ‘non ὑπερβολὴ, sed mendacium.’ The blame is conveniently thrown on the youthful carelessness of the poet, otherwise there is much to recom- mend the proposed change in the text, especially as ‘O Veii yeteres’ so naturally
follows v.24.—In jugera terna Niebuhr, quoted by Hertzberg, thinks that allusion is made to the triple division of captured territory between the three original tribes of Rome. The best copies give terra chore ἢ : or chore. Κι
27.] O vehi veteres, MS. Gron., whence Jacob, Lachmann, Hertzberg, Keil, give O Veit for Et Veii, the reading of Kuinoel and the earlier editions. Hew Vei veteres! Miiller. The immense city of Veii was so completely destroyed after its capture by Camillus that hardly a vestige remained in the time of Augustus; and its site has only recently been determined with cer- tainty.
28.] Aurea sella. The official seat of the king, the position of which in the forum indicated the ancient office of de- ciding suits, long performed by the kings in person until a vicegerent was found necessary. But as even in our country a judge is the representative of the sovereign, as exercising the power over life and death; so the pretor at Rome was possessed of curule dignity ; see Livy i. 20.
29.] Buccina (sup. 1, 18), the horn of the lazy shepherd sounds on the spot once enclosed by walls, and reapers gather the harvests from fields enriched by the bones of your buried heroes. A fine passage.
31.] Forte &e. ‘It chanced that the commander of Veii had taken his stand on the Gate Tower, and held parley with the enemy from his own citadel, confident in its strength.’—fretus, τ, 6. confidenter; un- less with Hertzberg we understand urbe Sretus sua, ab urbe dedit.
LIBER V. 10.
277
Dumque aries murum cornu pulsabat aheno, Vinea qua ductum longa tegebat opus,
Cossus ait: Forti melius concurrere campo.
Nec mora fit: plano sistit uterque gradum, Di Latias juvere manus: desecta Tolumni
Cervix Romanos sanguine lavit equos. Claudius a Rheno trajectos arcuit hostes,
Belgica cum vasti parma relata ducis
40
Virdumari. Genus hic Rheno jactabat ab ipso, Nobilis e rectis fundere gzesa rotis. Illi virgatis jaculantis ab agmine braccis
34.] Vinea longa, the penthouse or mantlet which covered the long earth- work; the shed raised over the vallum on which the ram was worked.—Jacob, Hertz- berg, Lachmann, and the later editors,
ollow the Naples MS. in reading gua
*ductum. Barth and Kuinoel give Vineaque tnductum with the MS. Gron. and ed. Rheg. 39.) Forti, sub. viro, ‘For a brave man it were better to give'a meeting on the plain. Nor is there delay on his own part; each takes his stand on the level ground.’ The taunt implied in forti made the dux Veius ashamed of ensconcing him- self longer in his tower.
39.] The third instance of winning the spolia opima. Marcus Claudius Marcellus was five times consul, for the first time in 222 B.c. when he conquered the Insubres
“Hear “Mtlams—and slew Britomart (Virdo- marus or Virdumarus) with his own hand. This is the hero mentioned in iv. 18, 33, and so finely celebrated by Virgil, 7x. vi. 856, ‘ Aspice ut ingreditur spoliis Marcellus opimis,’ &c.—For a Rheno Barth, Kuinoel, and Miiller read Eridanum, the conjecture of Guyet. There does not seem sufficient reason for departing from the MSS., as the enemy are rightly said @ Rheno (in Italiam) trajecti.
40.] Cum, quo tempore, relata, repor- tata est &e.—eui Kuinoel and Miiller, with Guyet and Heinsius.—vasti, ‘huge,’ πε- A@pov. A rather rare sense of the word; cf. ‘vastos leones,’ iii. 10, 21; ‘vasta trabe,’ Pers. Sat. v. 141.
/ 41.] Brenno, Heinsius, which Jacob calls ‘admodum probabilis.’” There would, however, be less point in tracing his des- cent from Brennus, than from the mythical river-god. And Hertzberg sensibly re- marks, ‘Nihil poetis Latinis frequentius quam heroum originem a diis patriis, flu-
vialibus imprimis, repetere.’—erectis is the reading of the good copies, (ereeti, accord- ing to Hertzberg, in the Naples MS.) which has been altered to ὁ tectis by Lipsius, and this has been admitted by Barth and Kui- noel. Keil and Miiller retain erectis, the latter with an obelus. Hertzberg explains recte rote to mean the chariot managed by the driver at the same time that he hurls his javelin; quoting Cesar de B. Gail. iy. 33. But, ‘to deal darts from ruled wheels’ is a singular sort of terseness, besides that rectus generally loses its primary sense of ruled for the secondary adjectival one. I think ὁ recto curru is naturally equivalent to the ὀρθὸς δίφρος of Soph. Electr. 742, and may be rendered, ‘ from the car driven safely at full speed,’ ¢.e. not yet overthrown in the heat of the contest. Compare Pind. Pyth. v. 30, ἀκηράτοις ἡνίαις.
43.] This verse is considered by most of the editors as hopelessly corrupt, and has been variously corrected maculanti sanguine braccas, jaculanti abiegnea braccis (Hertzberg), and jaculantis ab inguine braccis. Perhaps we may venture to ex- plain it thus: ‘illi, nempe Claudio, torquis decidit ab gula Virdumari jaculantis ab agmine virgatis braccis, 7.¢. dum braccas indutus jaculatur ab agmine suo.’ Some consider i/i an old form of the genitive; an unnecessary hypothesis. —The virgate bracce of the Celts were probably striped like the tartan plaids of the modern Gaels, Virg. in. viii. 659, ‘ Aurea czesaries ollis atque aurea vestis; Virgatis lucent sagu- lis; tum lactea colla Auro innectuntur; duo quisque Alpina coruscant Gasa manu, scutis protecti corpora longis.’ Diodor. Sic. v. 30, init., ἐσθῆσι δὲ χρῶνται (οἱ Γαλάται) καταπληκτικαῖς, χιτῶσι μὲν βαπ- τοῖς χρώμασι παντοδαποῖς διηνθισμένοις καὶ ἀναξυρίσιν, ἃς ἐκεῖνοι βράκας προσαγ-
' | quently married to Augustus.
278
PROPERTII
Torquis ab incisa decidit unca gula.
Nunc spolia in templo tria condita; causa Feretri, 45 Omine quod certo dux ferit ense ducem.
Seu quia victa suis humeris heec arma ferebant, Hine Feretri dicta est ara superba Jovis.
DG
Desine, Paulle, meum lacrimis urgere sepulcrum: Panditur ad nullas janua nigra preces.
Cum semel infernas intrarunt funera leges, Non exorato stant adamante vie.
Te licet orantem fuscee deus audiat aul; 5 Nempe tuas lacrimas litora surda bibent.
ορεύουσιν.---αὖ agmine, %.e. covered by his comrades in the line, not alone and in the open field. The torguis, or Celtic torque, identical with the ornament sometimes found in the bogs and peat-mosses of Great Britain, derived its name from being made of twisted gold wire. The epithet wnca refers to the hook and eye by which the collar was clasped round the throat, and which are seen in the specimens preserved in our museums.
46.] Omine certo, with an omen that had its fulfilment in the name.
47.] Seu, te. sive a feriendo, seu ‘potius a ferendo.
XI. This elegy may fairly be regarded as the masterpiece of the poet’s genius. It is a splendid composition, full of pathos and eloquent appeal, and is on the whole worthy of the almost extravagant praises which Barth and Kuinoel have bestowed upon it. It assumes the form of an ad- dress from a deceased wife, Cornelia, to her husband Lucius /imilius Paulus, who was Censor in the year B.c, 22, Cornelia was the daughter of Scribonia, formerly wife of P. Cornelius Scipio, but subse- u See Tac. Ann. ii. 27; Sueton. Oct. 62. She was di- vorced by the latter on his marriage with Livia. He appears indeed to have left her
} from her unamiable temper; ‘pertesus,’ + says Suetonius, ‘ut scribit, morum perver- τ sitatem ejus.’
This is the latest of the poet’s extant writings, the date being a.u.c. 738, as appears from y. 66.
1.] Urgere, ‘to press,’ t.e. to vex, or weary with your tears. So Hor. Od. ii. 9,
9, ‘Tu semper urges flebilibus modis My- sten ademptum.’—Sepulerum is here for Manes. The confusion of bodily and spiritual ideas, and therefore of terms, so observable in this elegy, and generally in the Latin poets, is a natural consequence of the materialism of the ancient my- thology. Thus funera v. 3, rogos vy. 8, ossa v. 20 and 58, are used of the ghost of the deceased, from which the poet cannot detach the notion of a continued bodily ex- istence in the other world; which is the more perplexing, as he does not forget the annihilation of the earthly corpse on the pyre, v.10. See sup. 7,1. ‘The practical tendency of the Roman mind made them regard all realities as necessarily palpable.’ (Varronianus, p. 304). Conversely, iii. 4, 32, we have, ‘Accipiat Manes parvula testa meos,’ where he means cineres.
2.1 Panditur, i.e. ad emittendum mor- tuum. So Hades is called πυλαρτὴς κρατερὸς, Od. xi. 277. The door of the tomb, (or rather, sepulchral chamber,) is the barrier, as it were, between life and death.
3.] ‘Cum semel sub inferorum ditione venerint mortui, clausi sunt et quasi fir- mantur exitus adamante nullis precibus amovendo.’ We might conjecture sedes.— stant vie adamante, for ‘adamas stat non exorandus in viis.’ ‘Adamant’ seems to mean ‘basalt,’ Στυγὸς μελανοκάρδιος πέτρα, Ar. Ran. 470.
6.] Nempe. A form of mnamgue, as quispiam is a form of guisguam. And this sense is sufficiently appropriate here, if we suppose some ellipse, (‘but you will not gain your object,) for the sand that cannot
LIBER V. 11.
279
Vota movent Superos,—ubi portitor sera recepit, Obserat umbrosos lurida porta rogos. Sic mest cecinere tubs, cum subdita nostrum
Detraheret lecto fax inimica caput.
10
Quid mihi conjugium Paulli, quid currus avorum Profuit, aut fam pignora tanta mez ?
Num minus immites habuit Cornelia Parcas ? En sum, quod digitis quinque levatur, onus.
Damnatie noctes, et vos vada lenta paludes,
Et queecumque meos implicat unda pedes, Immatura licet, tamen huc non noxia veni. Det pater hinc umbre mollia jura mez.
hear you will drink up your tears, and thus they will never reach the god whom they were intended to soften.’ Compare sup. 1, 92, and 5, 42. The sense is, ‘the god may be willing, on his part, to hear you, but the laws of fate are superior to his will, and inexorable.’ There seems to have been something ominous to the Roman mind in representing Pluto as cruel and relentless. They preferred to speak of him as the Greeks did of the Eumenides.
7.] ‘Superi tantummodo moventur pre- cibus, non item inferi. Nam cum semel Charon naulum, sc. obolum accepit, Orci porta continet et includit sepultos.’ For the obscure epithet herbosos, the reading of all the good copies, Jacob and Miiller have adopted wmbrosos from Pucci. Lachmann and Hertzberg adhere to the MSS., and it certainly seems at first sight improbable that so simple a word as wmbrosos should have been altered to herbosos. The latter is explained by Barth: ‘herbosi rogi vel mortui dicuntur, quorum sepuleris spiran- tes croci aliique flores bene olentes ingere- bantur.’ But wmbrosos is the more appro- priate word in the sense of ‘haunted by the shade;’ see on iv. 17,1. Some one \)may have altered it to herbosos, who sup- }posed the shade of trees was meant.— lurida, ‘grisly ;’ cf. sup. 7, 2, ‘luridaque eyictos effugit umbra rogos.’
9.] ‘Such was the burden of the funeral strain,’ 1.6. the mournful notes of the tuba in the procession proclaimed this doctrine. Similarly iii. iv. 20, ‘Nec tuba sit fati vana querela mei.’ See on ii. 7,12. The following verse must be literally under- stood: ‘when the lighted pile was con- suming my remains, and withdrawing my
head from the bier.’ 2. ὃ.
13.] Habui, Jacob, with Barth, Kuinoel, and Lachmann; who remarks ‘quod sine dubio verum est.’ So also Keil and Miller. Hertzberg has habuit with the best MSS. Compare inf. ν. 43—4. In the next verse en for et has been admitted by all from the MS. Gron., to which we are also indebted for alone preserving num minus for non minus. The well-known passage of Juve- nal, ‘Expende Hannibalem’ &c., will occur as a parallel to v. 14.
15.] Damnate noctes, ‘darkness of the damned,’ ‘noctes inferorum ubi damnati sunt,’ Kuinoel. “ Figura Propertii maxime familiari, Hertzberg. See oni. 16, 42.
16.] Jmplicat, ‘entangles,’ a metaphor from a rope entwined round the feet of one who endeavours to escape. Compare Georg. iv. 478, ‘tardaque palus inamabilis unda Alligat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet.’
17.] Prematura morte extingui eos credebant qui grave quoddam commisissent crimen. Itaque criminis suspicionem a se amoliri Cornelia studet.’ AX winoel.—In v. 18, hue is the reading of the MS. Gron. (the Naples MS. has unfortunately lost a leaf, including v. 17—76). — hine Jacob with Pucci: fic, Kuinoel, Lachmann, Miiller, Hertzberg. Hine seems almost necessary to the sense, 7.6. propter inno- centiam meam. Hertzberg understands pater hie as Jupiter infernus; which does not read very poetically.—Jwra dare, as Hertzberg proves hy abundant examples, is never used for jus dicere or judicare, but for leges constituere. The sense therefore of this verse is, ‘may Pluto accordingly
See on y. 7, 26; iii.
wer
ware |
impose lenient conditions on my shade for its residence in Orcus.’ Dare jus is either to decide a question at issue, as judge, or to confer the power of deciding on another, as Tac. Ann, iv. 15.
19—24.] These verses are exceedingly difficult. From Hertzberg’s commentary upon them, extending over seven octavo pages, the following interpretation may be extracted; and it is on the whole perhaps the best that has been proposed: ‘Or, if \I am to undergo a trial (my asserted in- Mmocence not being taken for granted), and if there be indeed an /acus to judge the dead, let him punish my shade according to its deserts by the appointment of a jury (by drawing from the urn the names of the {judices); and let Minos and Rhadamanthus ἰδοῦ as assessors, while near the chair of the Ι former the Furies stand as lictors :’ (rather
fi
eee as accusers; see Asch. Humen.
545, seq.) In this complicated allusion to | the judicial forms of the preetor’s court, | the reader will observe :—(1) That lacus ͵ 1s the quesitor (A2n. vi. 430) who appoints
| the jury by putting the names to be drawn,
written on a ballot (pda), into an urn. (2) That the jury are supposed to be taken from the shades of the dead. (3) That vindicare in aliquem can only mean to punish, as Tac. Ann. iv. 15, ‘in Gaium Silanum vindicatum erat;’ and that this sense in fact suits the context best, aut tf 19) implying ‘or, if I am guilty,’ &e. 4) That sortita pila is the same as sorti- endis judicibus, the participle being used in a passive signification: see oni. 2, 5; v. 7, 55. ‘Sic igitur dispositam judicii quodammodo scenam puta, ut in medio tribunali lacus quiesitor sedeat; ab utraque parte Minos et Rhadamanthus assessores; hine in sub- selliis judices selecti, illine (juxta Minoida sellam) Eumenides ad exequenda judicia parate.’ Hertzberg.—Jacob reads judicet, with the Groningen and Hamburg MSS. Miiller, zs mea sortita &c., which does not read poetically.
ἀρ Cerberus et nullas hodie petat improbus umbras, Et jaceat tacita lapsa catena sera.
20
280 PROPERTII
Aut si quis posita judex sedet Afacus urna, In mea sortita vindicet ossa pila:
Assideant fratres, juxta Minoida sellam Eumenidum intento turba severa foro.
Sisyphe, mole vaces; taceant Ixionis orbes ; Fallax Tantaleo corripiaré liquor ;
aa
25
21.] Minoida sellam, Lachmann, Jacob, Hertzberg, with the best copies. Minoia sella, et, Barth and Kuinoel, with Scaliger and the succeeding editors. Miiller reads, with Lachmann, cata et Minoida sellam, the only way of construing which is ‘ assi- deant Eumenides iuxta fratres et sellam Minois,’ or (as Lachmann puts it) ‘juxta Minoém ejusque fratres.’ The MS. Gron. has justa Minonida sellam. The ed. Rheg. gives juxta Minoia sella. There is no diffi- culty in admitting the Greek accusative of Μινωΐς. See iii. 16, 27.
22.) Intento foro, ‘in the listening court.’ In continuation of this idea the poet proceeds to speak of the infernal punishments.—severa, ‘with fixed looks.’ -
24.] Tantaleo. Jacob reads Tantalide, one of the inferior MSS. having Zantalee. But the patronymic is very unsatisfactory. Tantaleo corripere ore is the conjecture of Auratus, which Hertzberg calls ‘ blanda,’ and Kuinoel and Miiller admit into the text. Zantaleus is perhaps as probable as any correction. ‘May the delusive water in which Tantalus stands be caught by him at last.’ Od. xi. 582, καὶ μὴν Τάν- ταλον εἰσεῖδον χαλέπ᾽ ἄλγε᾽ ἔχοντα, ἕἑσ- ταότ᾽ ἐν λίμνῃ, ἣ δὲ προσέπλαζε γενείῳ. Sup. iii. 8, 5, ‘vel tu Tantalea moveare ad flumina sorte, Ut liquor arenti fallat ab ore sitim.’ Hertzberg is inclined to acquiesce in the lengthened form of the name, and retains the vulgate with Lachmann. If this be the true reading, it must represent the Greek form Τανταλέῳ from Τανταλέως, like Tuvdapéws for Τύνδαρος, Od. xi, 298,“ and Πανδαρέως for Πάνδαρος, tb, xix. 518.
26.] Zt, perhaps set or sed. ‘ May the relentless dog this day attack none of the shades, but may his chain fall from the silent door-bar (ἰ.6. to which he is tied) and lie quietly on the ground.’—tacita, because the bar is no longer jerked by his straining the chain and barking at the ghosts,
LIBER V. 11.
Ipsa loquor pro me.
281
Si fallo, peena sororum
Infelix humeros urgeat urna meos. Si cui fama fuit per avita tropza decori,
Afra Numantinos regna loquuntur avos.
90
Altera maternos exzequat turba Libones, Et domus est titulis utraque fulta suis. Mox, ubi jam facibus cessit pratexta maritis, Vinxit et acceptas altera vitta comas,
Jungor, Paulle, tuo, sic discessura, cubili: In lapide huic uni nupta fuisse legar. Testor majorum cineres tibi, Roma, verendos,
90
M S.8. crte-
Sub quorum titulis, Africa, tonsa jaces,
27.] Loguor, Lachmann with MS. Gron. and ed. Rheg. Jacob, Kuinoel, and Miiller loguar. ~The verses which follow, to the end of the poem, must be regarded as the speech addressed to the infernal court be- fore whom she is arraigned. This appears from y. 99, ‘Causa perorata est.’ But the poet has not maintained the persona loguens with perfect consistency, as the appeal to her children (v. 63), and still more, her advice respecting their conduct towards their stepmother, and to her husband (y. 73), have nothing to do with a defence. In fact, there is a confusion throughout both as to locality and the subject-matter. The poet would seem to have been so carried away by his theme as to have for- gotten that his heroine was on her trial, and by no means in a position to lecture her family from below. Mr. Wratislaw says, ‘Cornelia in the lower world is sup- posed to see her friends lamenting at her tomb, and at the end of her defence before her judges calls them as witnesses to her character.’—si fallo, cf. sup. 7, 53.
30.] Afra. This is the certain correc- tion of Scaliger for ΖΞ γα. The allusion is to Scipio Africanus (?.e. P. Cornelius Scipio JEmilianus Minor, the younger son of Lucius #imilius Paulus) who obtained the agnomen of Numantinus from Numantia in Spain. Ovid, Fast. i. 595, ‘Hunc Numidez faciunt, illum Messana superbum; Ille Numaniina traxit ab urbe notam.’ His father Lucius milianus was surnamed Macedonicus from his victory and triumph over Perses or Perseus, B.c. 168. Cornelia here boasts of her descent on the father’s side.—altera turba, the ancestry on the mother’s side, exequat, ἐξισοῖ, pares facit paternis, Libones. The latter were mem-
bers of the Scribonia gens, Cornelia’s
mother bearing this nomen, v. 55.—fulta,
both families alike rest on their titles, so as not to come to extinction or obscurity.
33.] Pretexta, the maiden dress, laid aside at marriage. The form of the vitta
(riband or head-band) was also different for the wife and the virgin. See v. 3, 15, ‘nec recta capillis Vitta data est,’ &e.— acceptas comas is the MS. reading; Kui- noel’s aspersas is from a corrected copy. Capere crines was the phrase used for
‘taking up’ the maiden’s long locks. See bye ‘soli gerundum ' <=.
}
4
ii
ἘΠ} yy:
Plaut. Mostell. i. 3, 69,
censes morem, et capiundos crines.’ M7. Glor. 792, ‘ut matronarum modo Capite compto crines vittasque habeat adsimulet- que se Tuam esse uxorem.’ Callim. H. ad Cer. 5, μὴ mats μηδὲ γυνὰ μηδ᾽ ἃ κατεχεύατο χαίταν.
35.] Sie discessura, i.e, not destined to enter into a second marriage.— Hertzberg.
36.] Jacob and Hertzberg retain, with Barth, the MS. reading ioc. Lachmann, Kuinoel, and Miiller edit Awie. And this seems more likely to be true, since in lapide hoc, which Hertzberg explains ‘in lapide hayes, i.e. meo,’ is to a degree strained and unnatural; while the obvious sense implies an unmeaning appeal to the epitaph δεικτικῶς.---ίοσαν is here the future.
38.] Under the inscription at the base of a statue or trophy commemorating the exploits of Scipio Africanus, we must sup- pose a symbolical sculpture of Africa to have been placed, represented as a woman (or female slave or captive) with hair shorn in token of grief. See iii. 6,46. The custom is familiar to us at the present day by such monuments as those in St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey, the only difference
bX | ᾿ς
iS. βννδανων a . prod 282 PROPERTII Et Persen, proayi simulantem pectus Achillis, Quique tuas proavus fregit, Achille, domos: 40
Me neque censuree legem mollisse, nec ulla Labe mea vestros erubuisse focos.
Non fuit exuviis tantis Cornelia damnum: Quin erat et magne pars imitanda domus.
Nec mea mutata est wtas; sine crimine tota est:
Viximus insignes inter utramque facem. Mi natura dedit leges a sanguine ductas,
Ne possem melior judicis esse metu. Quelibet austeras de me ferat urna tabellas:
Turpior assessu non erit ulla meo,
50
Vel tu, que tardam movisti fune Cybellen,
being that in the latter case the order is usually reversed, the ¢itulus being beneath the effigy. Mr. Wratislaw thinks that coins rather than monuments are here alluded to.
39.] For et Persen Lachmann reads Te, Perseu, and in the pentameter proavo for proavus. The construction may be either et (testor) Persen et eum qui fregit &e., or et (testor) proavum, qui fregit Persen et tuas domos, Achille; which Mr. Wratislaw prefers.
40.] Proavus, L. milius Paullus, the conqueror of Perses, and ancestor of Cor- nelia’s husband. Achille is the vocative, on the principle that Greek names in es (Pericles &c.) were inflected in Latin mostly after the o declension.
41.] ‘That my husband was not com- pelled to relax the severity of the Censor- ship through any fault of mine which he would haye had to punish.’ Lit. ‘that I did not relax,’ for non fuisse me causam cur molliret &c. She here answers a charge which seems to have been unjustly brought against her, of having by some misconduct disgraced herself and her ancestry. The ancients had a theory that high birth was closely allied with natural virtue; τὸ yap εὐγενὲς ἐκφέρεται πρὸς aida.—For vestros Miiller reads xostvos. Compare inf. y. 67. —wmollisse, cf. sup. 4, 62.
43—4,.] ‘Cornelia did not detract from such high honours as her family can show ; nay, great as was the house of which she was a member, she was herself even a pattern of virtue in it.’
46.] Utramque facem, the marriage and the funeral torch. Ovid, Her. 21, 172,
“Et face pro thalami fax mihi mortis erit.’
—insignes, the observed and admired of all.
47.] A sanguine ductas. Cf. Eur. Hipp. 79, ὅσοις διδακτὸν μηδὲν, GAN ἐν TH φύσει τὸ σωφρονεῖν εἴληχεν ἐς τὰ πάνθ᾽ ὁμῶς.
48.] Ne possem ζο. ‘Ita ut tum, cum viverem, non possem melior esse metu, quia per naturam eram optima.’—Barth.
49.] The urna here mentioned is dif- ferent from that in vy. 19, being the one into which the votes of acquittal and con- demnation were dropped. ‘The sense is, ‘Let any jury you please pass their severest sentence on me, still no one, however virtuous, will be disgraced by contact with me,’ 1.6. by being classed with me. The sense is well given by Hertzberg: ‘Non, siqua uno ordine locoque mecum censetur, turpior inde videbitur.’ Quelibet urna for quilibet judex. Hertzberg thinks that re- ference is made to several urns being used to collect the votes of the jury per decurias. Kuinoel with the emendators gives guam- libet, against all the copies.
51.1 Cybellen. See on y. 7, 61. The legend of Claudia is this:—She was a Vestal Virgin, and being unjustly suspected of having violated her vows, was favoured with a miraculous attestation to her virtue by drawing a ship, containing the image of Cybele, off a shoal in the Tiber, with her own hands, after numbers of men had made the same effort in vain. See Ritter on Tac. Ann. ἵν. 64, who quotes from Orelli an ancient inscription commemorative of the above event, Navis Salvia. The story is told in Ovid, Fast. iv. 300—27; Livy, xxix. 14; Suetonius, Zid. § 2.— tardam, when stranded in the Tiber.—twrrite, see Lueret. ii. 606.—rara, cf. i. 17, 16.
pe REN
—
ee
LIBER
A eet Mie 283
Claudia, turritze rara ministra dee ; Vel cui, commissos cum Vesta reposceret ignes, Exhibuit vivos carbasus alba focos.
Nec te, dulce caput, mater Seribonia, leesi.
In me mutatum quid, nisi fata, velis ? Maternis laudor lacrimis urbisque querellis, Defensa et gemitu Czesaris ossa mea.
Ile sua nata dignam vixisse sororem
Increpat; et lacrimas vidimus ire deo.
60
Et tamen emerui generosos vestis honores, Ne mea de sterili facta rapina domo.
Tu, Lepide, et tu, Paulle, meum post fata levamen, Condita sunt vestro lumina nostra sinu.
Vidimus et fratrem sellam geminasse curulem; 65
Consule quo facto tempore rapta soror. Fila, tu specimen censure nata paterne, Fac teneas unum, nos imitata, virum.
Et serie fulcite genus.
53.] Reposceret, ‘claimed as a deposit committed to her care.’ /Mmilia was also a Vestal, who was accused of letting the sacred fire go out; when she lighted a piece of her embroidered garment from the apparently cold ashes.
54.] Carbasus. See sup. 3, 64.
55.] Mater Scribonia. She had been the wife of Augustus, but divorced: see introduction to the present elegy. This explains the allusions in vy. 58—9. For ‘the notorious Julia was the daughter of
Scribonia by Augustus, and therefore half- sister of Cornelia.
58.] Defensa. Kuinoel well remarks
at some aspersions seem to have been
ast on Cornelia, by which her reference
o the chaste but suspected Vestals in συ.
1—4 becomes peculiarly appropriate.
59.| Sua nata dignam. An instance of
the gross adulation of the age. On deo, t.e. Cesari, see iv. 4, 1.—Jnerepat vizisse, mortuam esse queritur.
61.] Lt tamen, viz. quamvis immatura jmorte rapta, sup. 17.—vestis honores, the ' presentation of an embroidered vestment, perhaps in imitation of the Greek peplus. _ This seems to have been a privilege con- nected with the jus trium liberorum. But nothing definite appears to be recorded on the subject.
Mihi cymba volenti
65.] The brother of Cornelia, Publius Cornelius Scipio, was edile and pretor (both curule offices), and consul 8.0. 16, which is therefore the date of Cornelia’s death, if reliance can be placed on any in- terpretation of the obscure pentameter, vy. 66. If it be not a brief or rather a con- fused way of expressing ‘qui cum consul factus esset, eo tempore rapta est soror ejus,’ (1.6. ego rapta sum), or, cujus con- sulatus tempore rapta est soror, we must understand tempore with Hertzberg as the ablative of the instrument, rather than with others for opportune. Miiller, after Lachmann, reads ‘Consul quo factus tem- pore, rapta soror,’ which is at best awk- ward, if it means ‘quo tempore is factus est consul, eo tempore rapta est soror.’
67.] ‘ Filia nata ut sis specimen censure paterne, ut censuram patris moribus tuis exprimas.’—Kuinoel.
68.] Fac teneas. Sce sup. 4, 66; and
5, 34. 69.] Serie fulcite. Cf. sup. 32. Pliny, Ep. iv. 21, 3, ‘cui nune unus ex tribus
liberis superest, domumque pluribus ad- miniculis paulo ante fundatam desolatus fulcit ac sustinet.’ So ‘pluribus muni- mentis insistere,’ Tac. Ann. i. 3.
284 PROPERTII
Solvitur, aucturis tot mea fata meis. 70 Hee est feminei merces extrema triumphi, Laudat ubi emeritum libera fama rogum. Nunc tibi commendo, communia pignora, natos. Hee cura et cineri spirat inusta meo. Fungere maternis vicibus pater. Illa meorum 75 Omnis erit collo turba ferenda tuo. Oscula cum dederis tua flentibus, adjice matris. Tota domus ecepit nunc onus esse tuum. Et si quid doliturus eris, sine testibus illis: Cum venient, siccis oscula falle genis. 80 Sat tibi sint noctes, quas de me, Paulle, fatiges, Somniaque in faciem credita sepe meam.
| ' 70.] The MSS. have malis, which Pucci
‘thus explains: ‘tot malis aucturis mea | }/fata, quod insequi poterant mala, que pre- iverti moriens.’ This is so unsatisfactory, \that I have followed Hertzberg and Muller ) / jin admitting Lachmann’s conjecture mezs, | | ‘The sense will then be, ‘I die resigned now that so many of my children survive /me to perpetuate my memory.’ Mea fata signifies meam sortem, which would derive
!
Δα, οΠ4] lustre from the glory and virtue of her descendants.—malis may have been ‘written by transcribers who objected to the close occurrence of mea and mets.
71—2.] A noble sentiment finely ex- pressed. ‘This is the highest glory of a woman, to leave behind her a fair fame among those who are free to speak of her as she deserves.’—emeritum rogum, in its simplest sense, means nothing more than defunctam vita mulierem, according to the familiar use of emeritus applied to things done with, past and gone, and become un- serviceable. Hertzberg interprets it ‘plane meritum, 1.6. landari meritum,’ comparing emerui v.61, and emeritis for valde meritis, Ovid, Zp. ex Pont.i.7, 61. It is difficult to decide: Propertius is apt to be so lax in his use of words that Jaudare emeritum rogum may have been intended for vitam bene merentem post fatum laudare.
74. ‘This care lives asit were branded in my-very bones.’ “The impression must therefore be deep to “strvive the pyre. The passage from Cicero, Verr. 1, 44, quoted by Hertzberg after Broukhusius, is remarkably apposite: ‘Cur hune dolorem cineri ejus atque ossibus inussisti?? The conclusion of the poem from y.73 is ex-
quisitely beautiful, full as it is of affection, tenderness, and truthfulness to nature. I add here a few lines from ‘ Verse-Transla- tions’ &e.—
‘Take now these dearest pledges of my love;
To them a father and a mother prove.
To thee, their sire, the precious charge returns ;
This care still lives, and in my ashes burns.
To thy dear neck my children all must cling,
On thee henceforth a double burden bring.
And when your weeping little ones you see,
And kiss them, kiss them yet again for me.
In sighing, let them not perceive your sighs;
In greeting, with dry cheeks your grief dis-
guise.
Enough, for me the livelong nights to pine,
Dream of delusive shapes, and think them
mine.’ πι,
76.1 Turba, cf. iii. 28,, 4.—erit ferenda, sup. 8, 32.
80.] Oseula falle, ‘abstersis lacrymis, decipe osculantes, et fac, ne flevisse te sentiant.’ — Hertzberg ; who refers oscula to the children’s kiss, not to the father’s. But there seems no reason why we may not understand ‘falle eos, osculando siccis genis,’ ὦ 6. ‘give a feigned cheerfulness to your kisses,’ ‘disguise your real feelings by a cheerful kiss ;’ since fallere aliquid is to do anything falsely or with a disguised action. So ‘fallere terga lupo,’ v. 5, 14, to assume a form which is not your real one; ‘fallitur Jupiter,’ 7.1, 81, ‘Jupiter is made a liar.’ The same editor rightly, as I think, places a colon instead of a comma at the end of the preceding verse, the sense being me doleas (sec. dolori indul- geas) coram illis.
82.] In faciem meam &e. ‘Vain dreams, taken for visions of me,’ ἠκασμένα, or, in the words of Hertzberg, ‘ita credita, ut facies mea tibi apparere videatur.’
/, examples, Quest. lib. 11. § 28, p. 153. _ sense is, ‘if a new marriage-bed shall have ' been placed in the atrium opposite to the
LIBER V. 11.
285
Atque ubi secreto nostra ad simulacra loqueris, Ut responsure singula verba jace.
Seu tamen adversum mutarit janua lectum, 85
Sederit et nostro cauta noverca toro, Conjugium, pueri, laudate et ferte paternum ; Capta dabit vestris moribus illa manus.
Nec matrem laudate nimis; collata priori
Vertet in offensas libera
verba suas. 90
Seu memor ille mea contentus manserit umbra, Et tanti cineres duxerit esse meos,
Discite venturam jam nunc sentire senectam, Coelibis ad curas nec vacet ulla via.
Quod mihi detractum est, vestros accedat ad annos:
Prole mea Paullum sic juvet esse senem.
96
Et bene habet: nunquam mater lugubria sumpsi ; Venit in exequias tota caterva meas.
Causa perorata est.
83.] Nostra ad simulacra, ‘to my por- trait ;’ imagine that it will answer you, and realise from it that which it only represents.
85.] Mutarit janua lectum, for ‘seu lectus genialis mutatus sit ex adverso janue.’ Propertius frequently treats the means or cause by which anything is done, as the agent which effects it, of which Hertzberg has collected a great paca ie
e
door,’ ὦ. 6. a new bride introduced. Lit. ‘if the door shall have got a new J/ectus opposite to it.’ “ Genialis hic lectus cuique domum intranti signum erat conjugum par in ea habitare; nam muliere mortua vel post divortium cum ea factum, tollebatur.’ Orelli on Hor. Zp.i. 1, 87. Becker (Gallus, p. 247) regards adversus as a synonym of genialts, See also zbid. p. 166.
Cauta, ‘suspicious,’ ‘reserved.’
86 \ The epithet is meant to imply, in a gentle
manner consistently with Cornelia’s ami- able character, the proverbial attributes of a noverca, severity and jealousy.
87.] Laudate, αἰνεῖτε, ‘acquiesce in,’ ‘speak kindly of.’ Miller marks this word as corrupt, and suggests placati ferte.
93.] Sentire, ‘learn to mark the least symptoms of his approaching age,’ and so to anticipate his wants and weaknesses.—
Flentes me surgite testes,
jam nune is to be construed with sentire, 1. 6. presentire. ‘But if my ashes still he holds so dear, And still my memory honours with a tear, Learn to anticipate his coming age, And let no cares a widower’s thoughts engage.’ Verse-Translations &c.
The reading of Shrader, adopted by Kuinoel and Miller, /enire, would be satisfactory enough, if only the poet had thought fit to use it. But some critics put themselves in the position of a master correcting a schoolboy’s exercise rather than confine themselves to detecting the interpolations and errors of transcribers.
96.] Sie, by your being all spared till his old age. May the happiness he finds in you cause him to feel pleasure in his declining years.
98.] Tota caterva = omnis turba meorum, sup. 75. 99.] Causa perorata est. See supra-on
v.27. The poet, who seems to have for- gotten that Cornelia was not arraigned before A#acus to talk of family matters, here recals the position in which he had placed her. Who the witnesses are whom she invites to speak in her favour before the infernal tribunal, she leaves uncertain. The allusion is to the custom of the courts, by which witnesses were called after the defence. But there seems no particular reference intended to testor majorum cineres,
286
Dum pretium vite grata rependit humus.
PROPERTII. LIBER V. 11.
100
Moribus et ceelum patuit; sim digna merendo Cujus honoratis ossa vehantur equis.
v.37. As she considers her defence com- plete, and leaves no doubt to be entertained of her innocence, she uses the words flentes me rather than dicentes pro me; and regards the reward bestowed upon her by the ‘erateful earth’ (1.6. while her memory is still cherished on earth,) as conferred at once, even while the witnesses are lament- ing her loss to those above.
101.] ‘Some have even ascended to the gods by their virtues: all that I aspire to is, that my shade may have a triumphal entry into rest.’ Such appears to be the true meaning of these obscure verses. For equis the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. give
~ aquis, whence Lachmann, Miiller and Kui- - noel, with Heinsius, edit avis, understand-
ing it of laying her bones in the sepulchre
of her honoured ancestors. But the verb vehantur is strongly in fayour of eguis. Vehi avis could hardly mean ad avos; and unless vehi is used of Charon’s boat (as sup. 7 ad fin.), we should expect ferantur. The idea of a triumphal procession and a car of honour, carpentum, so familiar to the mind of a Roman, is borrowed to express Cornelia’s joyful conveyance to the regions of Elysium, as Hertzberg, with his usual good sense, has shewn against the impro- bable fancies and alterations of his pre- decessors. There is perhaps an allusion to a curious Roman custom mentioned by Plutarch, Quest. Rom. § \xxix, Διὰ τὶ τοῦ θριαμβεύσαντος, εἶτα ἀποθανόντος καὶ Ka- έντος, ἐξῆν ὀστέον λαβόντας εἰς τὴν πόλιν εἰσφέρειν καὶ κατατίθεσθαι, Ke.
“ςς--
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES,
(CORRECTED FROM KUINOEL’S EDITION).
A.
Acanthis, v. 5, 63.
Achemenie sagitte, iii. 4, 1.
Achaia tulit multas formas, iii. 20, 53.
Achelous #tolus, iii. 26, 33.
Acherontis ad undas haud ullas portabis opes, iy. 5, 13.
Achilles superis testatur Mencetiaden, ii. 1, 37; pro hac vel obiret facie, 11, 3, 39; desertus abrepta conjuge, ii. 8, 29; Achillis proavi pectus simulantem Per- sen, v.11, 39; Achillei tanti corpus foedavit Briseis, ii. 9, 13; Achillem ex- animum amplectens Briseis, ii. 9, 9; vis non exemit morti, iv. 18, 27.
Achivos fractos in littore, ii. 8, 31; ignaros luctus populavit, iv. 18, 29.
Acron Ceninus, y. 10, 7; Herculeus, v. 10, 9; victima corruet Jovi, y. 10, 15.
Actiacum mare, iii. 6, 44.
Actius Phoebus, v. 6, 67; Actia rostra, ii. 1, 34; equora, iii. 7, 38; littora, iii. 26, 61; monimenta, v. 6, 17.
Admeti conjux, ii. 6, 23.
Adonem niveum percussit aper, ii. 4, 53.
Adrasti equus Arion, iii. 26, 37.
Adriz mare, i. 6,1; Adriacum equor, iy. 91, 17.
Adryades Ausoniz, i. 20, 12.
®acus sedet posita urna judex, v.11, 19; ZEace, inferno me damnes judicio, iii. 11, 30.
ΖΕ θα puella, iv. 12, 31; Telegoni Mei moenia, iil. 24, 4.
/Egeum mare, iv. 7,57; salum, i. 6, 2; “Ἔρος aqua, iv. 24, 12.
JHigyptus fuscis alumnis, iii. 25, 15.
fflia Galla, iv. 12, 38.
Emilia ratis, iv. 3, 8.
Jimon, vide Hemon.
imonius Enipeus, i. 13, 21; vir, iy. 1, 26; equus, ii. 8, 38; ii. 10,2; monia cuspis, il, 1, 63; AAimonium hospitium, i. 15, 20.
Aneas Trojanus, iii. 26, 63.
AAolio tentat carmina plectro, ii. 3, 19,
ZEschyleus cothurnus, iii. 26, 48,
ZEsoniden rapientibus anxia yentis Hyp- sipyle, i. 15, 17.
sonia domus, iy. 11, 12.
ABtna, iy. 2,5; Etneum fulmen, iv. 17. 21.
“ΖΕ τοΙ5 Achelous, iii. 26, 33.
Africa tota, iv. 20, 4; tonsa, y. 11, 38; Afra regna, y. 11, 30.
Africus pater, v. 3, 48.
Agamemnon Pelopeus, v. 6, 33.
Aganippea lyra, ii. 3, 20.
Alba longa, v. 6, 37; albze suis omine nata, γ. 1, 35; Alba tuos reges, iv. 3, 3.
Albanus lacus, iy. 22, 25.
Alcides iterat responsa, i. 20, 49; Alcidx labor, iii. 16, 18; Alciden terra recepta vocat, v. 9, 38.
Alcinoi despicere munera, i. 14, 24,
Alemeonize Furix, iv. 5, 41.
Alemenz geminas requieyerat arctos Ju- piter, 111. 13, 25.
Alcyonas desertas alloquor, i.17, 2; Al- cyonum scopuli, iv. 7, 61; querell, iv. 10, 9.
Alexandrea noxia, iv. 11, 33.
Alexin intactum tentat Corydon, iii. 26, 76.
Alphesibeea suos ulta est pro conjuge fratres, i. 15, 15.
Amazonidum nudatis bellica mammis tur- ma, iv. 14, 13.
Amor tardus, i. 1,17; 1. 7, 26; vacuus, i. 1, 34; nudus, i. 2,8; durus, i. 3, 14; serus, 1. 7,20; mansuetus, 1. 9, 12; in- iquus, 1. 19, 22; aureus, ii. 3, 24; acer custos, iii. 22,9; Deus pacis est, iv. 5, 1; cedat, i. 9, 28; caput impositis pres- sit pedibus, i. 1, 4; quidlibet audet, ii. 6, 22; jure de me triumphat, 11. 8, 40; spicula nostro pectore fixit, iii. 4,2; si quando labens vestras attigit undas, i. 17, 27; non nihil egit, i. 10, 20; Amori non unquam tua cessavit etas, i. 6, 21; Amores parvi, iy. 1, 11.
Amphiar quadrigz, ii, 26, 39.
288
Amphion victor canebat pwana, iv. 15, 42; Amphiona mollem lacrymis, iv. 15, 29; Amphionia lyra, 1.9, 10.
Amphitryoniades, v. 9, 1.
Amycle tundat natalem tuum esse, v. 9, 96.
Amymone palus, iii. 18, 47.
Amythaonia domo nupta futura Pero, ii. 3, 54.
Androgeona exstinctum Epidaurius, ii. 1, 62. Andromacha captiva, iii. 11, 2; Andro- mache lecto quum surgeret ferus Hector,
iii. 13, 31.
Andromede Cepheia, i. 3,4; sine fraude marita, v. 7, 63; iv. 22, 29.
Anio Tiburnus, iv. 22, 23; pomifer, v. 7, 81; Aniena unda, i. 20,8; Anieni ripa, vy. 7, 86; Nympha, iv. 16, 4.
Anser, iii. 26, 84.
Antzeus, iv. 22, 10.
Antigone tumulo Beeotius Hemon corruit, ii. 8, 21.
Antilochi humati corpus, iil. 4, 49.
Antimacho tu non tutior ibis, iii. 26, 45.
Antinous lascivus, v. 5, 8.
Antiope Nyeteis, i. 4,5; Nycteos, iv. 16, 12; vincta, iv. 15, 22.
Antoni graves in sua fata manus, iv. 9, 56.
Anubis latrans, iv. 11, 41.
Aonia lyra, 1. 2, 28; Aonium nemus, ly. 3, 42.
Apelles omnem artis summam in Veneris tabula sibi ponit, iv. 9, 11.
Apellez tabula, i. 2, 22.
Apidanus herbosus, i. 3, 6.
Apollo Leucadius, iv. 11, 69; aversus, v. 1,73; victor, v. 6, 70; non tardus amanti, i. 8, 41: non hee mihi cantat, ii. 1,3; Palatini Apollinis edes, v. 6, 11; Apollinis arces Pergama, iv. 9, 39.
Appia via te ducit, iii, 24,6; dic quantum triumphum egerit, v. 8, 17.
Apriles idus, v. 5, 39.
Aquilo sevus, iv. 7, 71; rapte timor Orithyie, iv. 7,13; Aquilonibus variant unde, li. 5, 11.
Aquilonia proles, i. 20, 25.
Arabs multi pastor odoris, iv. 13, 8; odores Arabum de gramine, iii. 21, 17. Arabic intacte domus, iii. 21,16; Ara- bium limen transecendere, i. 14, 19;
Arabius bombyx, 11. 3, 18.
Aracynthus mons, iv. 19, 42.
Araxes, iv. 12, 8; v. 3, 39.
Arcadius Deus, i. 18, 20; Arcadia rupes, i. 1, 14; Arcadii agri, iii. 20, 23.
Archemori tristia funera, iii. 26, 38.
Archyte soboles, Babylonius Horos, v. 1, ge
Arctos geminas, iii. 13, 25.
restituit Deus
Andromed catene, .
INDEX OF NAMES.
Arethusa, y. 3, 1.
Arganthus, i. 20, 33.
Argiva figura, iii. 17, 43; Argive fama pudicitia Evadne, 1. 15, 22; Argivis viris Dardana preda dedit formosas he- roinas, i. 19, 14.
Argo Pagase navalibus egressam, 1. 20, 17; Argus rudis dux columba, ii. 18, 39.
Argoa columba, iv. 22, 13.
Argus fixus ignotis cornibus Inachidos, 1. 8, 20.
Argynni poena, iv. 7, 22.
Ariadne in celum vecta lyncibus, iv. 17, 8; dux egit evantes choros, ii. 3, 18.
Arion equus Adrasti vocalis, iii, 26, 37.
Arionia lyra, iii. 18, 18.
Armeniz tigres, i. 9, 19.
Arria, v. 1, 89.
Ascanius crudelis, i. i, 20, 116:
Ascreum nemus, ili. 4, 4; Ascreei poetee veteris precepta, ili, 26, 79; Ascrai fontes, iii. 1, 25.
Asiz veteres divitias cernere, i. 6, 14; et Europe belli causa puella, ii. 3, 36.
Asopi vago sonitu fluentis permota, iv. 16, 27.
Athamana littora, v. 6, 15.
Athamantidos und, 1. 20,19; urbes, iv. 22, 5.
Athene docta, i. 6, 13; iv. 21, 1.
Atlas ceelum omne gerens, iy. 22, 7.
Atrida gavisus est Dardanio triumpho, iii. 5,1; Atrides classem non solvit, iv. 7, 23.
Attalicus torus, iii. 4, 22; v. 5, 24; Atta- licee vestes, iv. 18, 19; Attalica aulea, iii. 24, 12.
Attica volucris, iii. 11, 6.
Aventini rura pianda Remo,’ v. 1, 50; Aventina Diana, v. 8, 29.
Avernus umbrosus, iv. 18,1; Avernalis Sibylla, v. 1, 49.
Augustus, iii. 1,15; parcet pharetris Eois, v. 6, 81; Augusta ratis, v. 6, 28; lon- gum precare diem, iv. 11, 50.
Aulide solvit herentes rates Calchas, v. 1, 109.
Aurora non Tithoni spernens senectam, iii. 9,7; rubra suis equis colorat maritos Eoos, iv. 13, 16.
Ausonie <Adryades, 1. 20, 12; matron,
5 dapes, iv.
20, 4; indomitus,
iii. 25, 4; virge, iv. 4, δ; 22, 30; puelle, v. 4, 43. Auster nubilus, iii. 7, 56; frigidus, iii. 18,
36. Autaricis in oris, i. 8, 25.
B. Babylona Semiramis statuit, iv. 11, 21.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Babylonius Horos, Archytz soboles, v. 1, 77
Bacchus medius erit docta cuspide, ii. 22, 88; et Baccho et Apolline dextro, iy. 2, 7; Baccho multo ebria vestigia, i. 3, 9; Bacche passim, iv. 17.
Bacche sey venantur in arbore, iv. 22, 33.
Bactra Semiramis jussit imperio surgere caput, iv. 11, 26; futura finis imperil Romani, iy. 1, 16; te modo viderunt iteratos’ per ortus, Υ. 3, 7; adscensis Bactris, y. 3, 63.
Baie corrupte, i. 11, 27; aque, crimen amoris, i. 11, 30; invise, iv. 18, 7; Baiarum stagna, iv. 18, 2; Baiis mediis cessantem, 1. 11, 1.
Baridos et contis rostra Liburna sequi, iv. 11, 44.
Bassaricze come, iv. 17, 30.
Bassus, i. 4, 1.
Belgicus color, iii. 9, 26.
Bellerophonteus equus, iv. 3, 2.
Bistoniz rupes, iii. 22, 36.
Bebeidos undis virgineum Sais composu- isse fertur latus, 11. 2, 11.
Beeotius Hemon, ii. 8, 21.
Bootes serus, iv. 5, 35.
Boream crudelem negavit rapta Orithyia, iii. 18, 51; Borew flabra, 111. 19, 12.
Borysthenidz hiberni, ii. 7, 18.
Bosporus, iii. 11, 68.
Boville suburbane, y. 1, 33.
Brennum sacrilegum_testantur limina, iv. 13, 51.
Brimo, ii. 2, 12.
Briseis formosa, ii. 8, 35; exanimum am- plectens Achillen, ii. 9,9; Briseide ab- ducta, iii. 11, 1; complexu Briseidis iret Achilles, iii. 13, 29.
Britanni infecti, iii. 9, 23; Britannos se- quimur, iii. 19, 5; Britanna esseda, ii. 1, 76; picto Britannia curru, v. 3, 9.
Bruti secures, y. 1, 45.
*
torrida
Cacus, v. 9, 7, 16.
Cadi, v. 6, 8.
Cadmi arcem, iv. 9, 37; Cadmea Tyros, iv. 13, 7; Cadmezx Thebse, i. 7, 1.
Ceninus Acron, v.10, 7; Cznina arx, v. 10, 9.
Cesar pater ab Idalio astro miratus, v. 6, 59; canitur, v. 6,13; magnus in armis, ii. 7,5; Deus arma ad Indos meditatur, iv. 4,1; Czsaris nomen condere, 1]. 1, 42; bellaque resque memorarem, ii. 1, 25; hee virtus et gloria, iii. 7, 41; focos amplecti, iv. 18, 12; Cesare sub magno tu, Mecenas, cura secunda fores, ii. 1,
26. Calais et Zethes, Aquilonia proles, i. 20, 26.
289
Calamis se exactis equis jactat, iii. 9, 10.
Calchas rates Aulide solvit, vy. 1, 109.
Callimachus angusto pectore, ii. 1, 40; Callimachi manes, iv. 1, 1; Romani Umbria patria, v. 1, 64; non inflati somnia, 111. 26, 32.
Calliope non hee cantat, ii. 1, 3; rigavit ora Philetea aqua, iv. 3, 52; ut reor a facie Calliopea fuit, iv. 3, 38; Calliopea libens tibi donat Aoniam lyram, i. 2, 28,
Calliste ursa Arcadios per agros errayit, iii. 20, 23.
Calpe, iv. 12, 25.
Calvi docti pagina, iii. 26, 89; Calve, tua venia, iii. 17, 4.
Calypso mota Ithaci digressu, i. 15, 9; a Dulichio juvene delusa, iii. 12, 13.
Cambysz flumina, iii. 18, 23.
Camilli magni, iy. 9, 31; Camilli signa, ἵν 1 6.7:
Camene, iv. 10, 1.
Campania pinguis, iv. 5, 5.
Cancri octipedis terga sinistra cave, vy. 1, 150.
Cannensis pugna sinistra, iv. 3, 10.
Canis siccus, iii. 20, 4.
Canopi incesti regina, iv. 11. 39.
Capanei ruina, iii. 26, 40.
Capen porte quum tulero arma votiva, Neh (le
Capharea saxa fregere triumphales puppes, he (ck)
Capitolia nubila fumo, v. 4, 27.
Capricornus lotus Hesperia aqua, vy. 1, 86.
Carpathium mare, iv. 7, 12; Carpathiz variant Aquilonibus unde, 11. 5, 11.
Carthaginis altze non canerem animos, ii.
» 23.
Cassiope solito visura carinam, 1. 17, 3.
Castalia ex arbore speculans Phcebus, iv. Buy
Castor et Pollux, hie victor pugnis, ille futurus equis, iv. 14, 17; Castoris equus, ii. 7,16; Castora succendit Pheebe, 1. 2, 15.
Catulli lascivi scripta, iii. 26, 87; Catulle, pace tua, 111. 17, 4.
Caucasus arboribus urgetur, i. 14,6; Cau- casias aves pati, iii. 17,14; Caucasia de rupe Promethei brachia solvet, ii. 1, 69.
Caystrus, iv. 22, 15.
Cecropii coloni, iii. 25, 29; Cecropiis in foliis obstrepit Attica volucris, i. 11, 6.
Centaure Eurytion vino peristi, iii. 25, 31; Centauris medio grata rapina mero, ii. 2,10; Centauros dementia jussit aspera in adversum pocula Pirithoum frangere, ii. 6, 17; Centaurica saxa minantes, v. 6, 49.
Cepheia Andromede, i. 3, 3; Cephea Me- roe, v. 6, 78.
U
290
Ceraunia prevecta, i. 8, 19; Ceraunum saxum, 111. 7, 3.
Cerberus tribus faucibus custodit antrum infernum, iv. 5, 44; ultor, v. 5, 3; nocte errat abjecta sera, v. 7,90; im- probus nullas petat umbras, y. 11, 26.
Chaonie columbe, i. 9, 5.
Charisin aversis, v. 1, 73.
Charybdis vasta vorans alternante aqua, iii. 18, 54; scissa alternas aquas, iv. 12, 28.
Chiron sanayvit lumina Pheenicis, ii. 1, 60.
Chloridos herba, ν. 7, 72.
Ciconum mons, iy. 12, 26.
Cilissa spica, v. 6, 74.
Cimbrorum non canerem minas, ii. 1, 24.
Cinare quum traheret Lucina dolores, v. 1, 99.
Cire fraudes, iv. 12, 27; Circeeo gramine perire, ii. 1, 53.
Cithzeronis arces, iv. 15, 25; saxa in muri membra coisse ferunt, iv. 2, 3.
Claudia turrite rara ministra Dew Cybele, v. 11, 52.
Claudius areuit hostes a Rheno trajectos, v. 10, 89; victor Sicule telluris, iv. 18, 33.
Clitumnus integit formosa flumina suo luco, iii. 10, 25; ab Umbro tramite fluit, iv. 22, 23.
Clytemnestre stuprum, v. 7, 57; quid Clytemnestree referam, propter quam tota Mycenis infamis stupro stat Pelopea domus? iv. 19, 19.
Coclitis semita, iv. 11, 63.
Cceum clo minantem, iv. 9, 48.
Colchis urat ahena focis, ii. 1, 54; egit tauros flagrantes sub adamantina juga, iv. 11, 9; ignotum virum secuta est, 11], 26,8; Colchida Jason decepit, 111, 12. 11.
Colchum Phasim remige propellas, iy. 22, {Π|:
Collinee herb, v. 5, 11.
Conon, v. 1, 78.
Core capte jugera pauca, v. 10, 26.
Corinne antique sua committit scripta, 11. 3, 21
Corinthe, non paro clade tua era, iv. 5, 6.
Cornelia, ν. 11, 18.
Corvinus, iy. 11, 64.
Corydon intactum tentat Alexin, iii. 26, 73.
Cossus insequitur Veientis clade Tolumni, v. 10, 28:
Coa vestis, i. 2, 2; ii. 1, 6; v. 5, 55; Coi Philete sacra, iv. 1, 1; Cow textura Minervie, vy. 5, 23; Cois coccis incedere, ii. 1, 5; indue me Cois, v. 2, 23.
Crassi signa referte domum, iv. 5, 48; gaude Crasse, v. 6, 83; Crassos se tenu- isse dolet Euphrates, iii. 1, 14; clades- que piate, iy. 4, 9.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Cressa bos, y. 7, 57; Cress herbe, ii. 1, 1
Cretzea ratis, ii. 19, 26.
Creusa nupta quantis arserit malis, ili. 7, 30; tenuit domum, iii. 12, 12.
Creesus non distat ab Iro, iv. 5, 17; Creesi flumina, 111. 18, 23; Creesum opes non exemerunt morti, iv. 18, 28.
Cumeee vatis secula, ii. 2, 16.
Cupido spe huic malus esse solet, cui bonus antea fuit, 111, 9, 21; Cupidinibus nullis contactum, i. 1, 2.
Cures Tatiw, v. 9, 74; tubicen Curetis, Va 4,9:
Curios fratres cecinit Ennius, iv. 3, 7.
Curtius expletis statuit monumenta lacunis, ἵν: 11. 61:
Cybelle vertice turrigero dea magna, iil. 17, 25; Cybelle sacree fabricata juvenca, iN. 22, 3; Cybelles «ra rotunda, y. 7,
Cydonia scl. mala, iv. 13, 27.
Cymothoe czerula, iii. 18, 16.
Cynthius carmen temperat impositis arti- culis, iii. 26, 82.
Cyprum quoties canerem, ii. 1, 31.
Cyrene aque, v. 6, 4.
Cyteis nocturna non hic valet, ii. 4, 7.
Cytzesea carmina, i. 1, 24.
Cytherea, magna ego dona tua figam co- lumna, iii. 5, 25.
Cyzicus frigida, iv. 22, 1,
ἘΝ
Deedaleum iter, iii. 5, 8.
Danae erato circumdata muro, 111, 24, 59; Danaes ferratam domum, iii. 11, 12.
Danai femina turba, iii. 23, 4.
Danai vincunt, iv. 8,31; Danatim mille rates, iii, 18, 38; non solvit Danaas subdita cerva rates, iv. 22, 34.
Daphnin tu canis, iii. 26, 70.
Dardana preda, i. 19, 14; puppis, v. 1, 40; Dardanius triumphus, iii. 4, 1.
Decius admisso equo preelia rupit, iv. 11, 62; animi Decii, v. 1, 45.
Deidamia Scyria, ii. 9, 16.
Deiphobus in armis, iii. 1, 29.
Delon stantem se vindice linquens Phebus, v. 6, 27.
Demophoon, iii. 18, 2; Phyllida dilexit parvo spatio, iii. 16, 28.
Demosthenis arma, studium lingue, perse- quar, iv. 21, 27.
Deucalionis aque, iii. 24, 58.
Diana Aventina, vy. 8,29; Diane. sacra suscipere, lil. 10, 17; choros redde, iii. 20, 60.
Dindymus, iv. 22, 3.
Dirce testis erit, iv. 15,11; Thebe Dir- cree, iy. 17, 33.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Dis raptor, iv. 22, 4.
Dodona verior augur, iii. 12, 3.
Dorica castra, ii. 8, 32; v. 6, 34.
Dore poeta, iv. 9, 44.
Doride formosa nate, i. 17, 25.
Doryxenium, v. 5, 21.
Dryades puelle, i. 20, 45.
Dulichius Irus, iv. 5, 17; carz littora Du- lichiz tetigit Ulysses, iii. 5, 4; juvenis, ἘΠῚ 12, 13; are, ii. 2, 7
E.
Edonis assiduis fessa choreis, i. 3, 5. «
Electra, salyum quum adspexit Oresten, iii. 5, 5.
Elis opes pararat equis, i. 8, 36.
Eleus Jupiter, iv. 2,18; oris Eleis, i. 8, 26; quadrigee Elez palma, iy. 9, 17.
Elysiz rose, v. 7, 60.
Enceladi tumultus, ii. 1, 39.
Endymion nudus cepisse dicitur Pheebi sororem, ili. 6, 15.
Enipeus Hmonius, i. 13, 21; Thessalicus, iv. 19, 13.
Ennius pater, iv. 3, 6; hirsuta cingat sua dicta corona, v. 1, 61.
Eoa aqua, y. 3,10; Eoa domus Aurore, ii. 9,8; Eoa ripa aurea, v. 5,21; Eoum gelu, i. 16, 24; Eoo roseo, iv. 24, 7; Koi lapilli, i. 15, 7; mariti, iv. 13, 15; Eoz pharetre, v. 6, 81; Eoos et Hes- perios uret, ii. 3, 44; Eois et Hesperiis illam ostendet, ii. 3, 43.
Ephyrez Laidos edes, ii. 6, 1.
Epicurus doctus, iv. 21, 26.
Epidaurius Deus, ii. 1, 61.
Erecthei carmina lecta, iii. 26, 29.
Erichthonius populus, ii. 6, 4.
Eridano Veneto dissidet Hypanis, i. 12, 4.
Erinne, ii. 3, 22.
Erinnyes tragice, iii. 11, 29.
Eriphyle, iii. 7, 29; iv. 13, 57.
Erycina concha, iv. 13, 6.
Erythea, y. 9, 2.
Esquiliz, iv. 23, 24; aquose, vy. 8, 1.
Etrusci montes, i. 21, 10.
Etrusca pulvis, i. 22, 6; focos Etrusce gentis, ii. 1,29; Mecenas Etrusco de sanguine Regum, iv. 9,1; Etruscis miles ab aggeribus, i. 21, 2.
Evadne fida, iv. 13, 24; Argive fama pudicitie, i. 15, 21.
Evandri profuge concubuere boves, v. 1, 4
Euboico littore Danaum rates vexavit ven- tus, ili. 18, 38; Euboicos respice Troja sinus, y. 1, 114.
Eveni filia, i. 2, 18.
Eumenidum turba seyera, y. 11, 22.
291
Euphrates jam negat equitem post terga tueri Parthorum, iii. 1, 13; et Tigris sub tua jura fluent, iv. 4, 4.
Europe atque Asie belli caussa puella, ii. 3, 36.
Europe, iii. 20, 52.
Eurotas, iv. 14, 17.
Eurus szevus licet urgeat, iii. 18, 35; quid flamine captet, iv. 5, 80; desinit ire noto adverso, iy. 15, 32.
Eurypylus, y. 5, 23.
Eurytion Centaure vino peristi, iii, 25, 31.
F.
Fabius Lupercus licens sacra habet, v. 1, 26.
Fabii victrices more, iy. 3, 9.
Falerno effuso madeat tibi mensa, iii. 25, 39; Falernis vina prelis elisa, v. 6, 73.
Faunus plumoso sum Deus aucupio, vy. 2, 94
Feretrius Jupiter, vy. 10, 1.
Fidenas longe erat ire, y. 1, 36.
Fortuna Dea, i, 6, 25; i. 15, 3; 1. 17, 7; iy. 7, 32.
α.
Gabii maxima turba, nunc nulli, y. 1, 84.
Galatea fera sub Aitna, iv. 2,7; non aliena sit vie tue, i. 18, 18.
Galesi umbrosi subter pineta Thyrsin et Daphnin canis, iii. 26, 67.
Galla, iii. 12, 1, passim.
Galles 15055 91 ὉΠ ΤΟΣ 5. 1. 19} 2.51920, 1 Gallus in castris credita signa tuetur, y. 1, 95; formosa qui multa Lycoride mor- tuus inferna yulnera lavit aqua, iii. 26, 91; Gallum per medios ereptum Cvesaris enses, i. 21, 7.
Galli dejecti vertice Parnassi, iii. 23, 13.
Gallicus miles, iii. 4, 48; in Gallica ora Parnassus sparsit nives, iv. 13, 54.
Geryonis stabula, iv. 22, 9.
Getz hiberni, v. 3, 9; astuti, v. 5, 44.
Gigantum tormenta, iv. 5, 39.
Gigantea littoris ora, i. 20, 9.
Glaucidos catule vox, vy. 3, 55.
Glaucus, 111, 18, 13.
Gnosia pharetra, iii. 3, 10; languida jacuit desertis littoribus, i. 3, 2.
Gorgonis anguiferee comis pectus operta Pallas, ii. 2,8; vultu obdurescere, iii. 17, 13; posita Gorgone membra lavat Pallas, v. 9, 58.
Gorgoneo lacu tingunt Punica rostra co- lumbe, iv. 3, 32.
Grecia tota jacuit ad fores Laidos, ii. 6, 2; veris gaudebat natis, 11. 9,17; naufraga tracta est salo yasto, iv. 7, 40; natat exuylis pressa, iy. 1, 116,
292
Graio aratro pressit Neptunia meenia, iv. 9, 41; Grail scriptores, iii. 26, 65; ex- empla Graium, ii. 6,19; Graias imitari, ili. 24,61; per Graios choros Itala orgia ferre, iii. 1,4; Graia saliva meri Me- thymnzi, v. 8, 38.
Gygzo lacu Lydia tincta puella, iy. 11, 18.
ἘΠῚ
Hadria, vide Adria.
Heedus purus erit, iii. 18, 56.
Hemon Beeotius Antigone tumulo corruit, ribs 9. Valle
Hemonius, vide 7AAmonius.
Hamadryades faciles, iii. 26,78; THama- dryadum sororum turba, ili, 24, 387; Hamadryasin ibat Hylas, i. 20, 32.
Hannibalis spolia, iv. 11,59; Hannibalem fugant lares Romana sede, ivy. 3, 11.
Heben cilestem flagrans amor Herculis, i. 13, 23.
Hector ferus, iii. 13, 834; dum restat bar- barus, iv. 8, 31; Hectora illum fortem Heemoniis Achilles traxit equis, 11. 8, 88; per campos ter maculasse rotas, iy. 1, 28.
Hectorea face fervere viderat Dorica castra, ii. 8,32; Hectoreis avis Augustus major, v. 6, 38.
Helene inter fratres arma capere fertur, iv. 14,19; Helens in gremio maxima bella gerit Paris, iv. 8, 32; post Helenam heee forma secunda redit terris, 11, 3, 32; notior ipsa Helena est Lesbia Catulli, ii. 26, 88; ex Helena totam Iliada non probat Cynthia, ii. i. 50.
Helenus in armis, iv. 1, 29.
Heliconis umbra, iv. ὃ, 1; lustrare Heli- cona aliis choreis, iii. 1, 1; coluisse Helicona in prima juventa, iv. 4, 19.
Helle purpureis fluctibus agitata, iii. 18, 5; Helles Athamantidos urbes, iv. 22, 5.
- Hercules invictus, i. 20, 23; Herculis boves, ν. 9, 17; Jabores, iii. 14, 7; amor flagrans Heben, i. 13, 23; eximii sitis, v. 9, 70; error miser ignotis per- pessus in oris, 1. 20, 16; Antzique luc- tantum in pulvere signa, iv. 22, 10.
Herculeum numen, v. 7, 82; Tibuy, iii. 24,5; Hercule clave fortia facta, v. 9, 39; Herculeo labore structa via, iv. 18, 4; semita Herculeis littoribus, i. 11,
Hermione Spartana, 1. 4, 6.
Hesperidum chori, iv. 22, 10.
Hesperius draco, iii. 16, 10; Hesperia aqua, v. 1, 86; Hesperios et Eoos uret, ii. 3, 44; Hesperiis et Eois illam os- tendet, 11, 3, 43.
Hiberum mininm, 11, 3, 11.
Hilaira Pollucem succendit, i. 2, 16,
INDEX OF NAMES.
Hippodamia avecta externis rotis, i. 2, 20; Hippodamie’ dotate regnum vetus, i. 8, 98.
Hippolyte, ν. 3, 43.
Hippolytum Veneri mollire negantem, v. 5, δ.
Homerus casus Trojani memorator, iv. 1, 33; Pergama nomen Homeri, ii. 1, 21; Homero primo contendit Ponticus, i. 7, 3; tu non tutior ibis Homero, ii. 26, 45; Homero plus valet Mimnermi versus in amore, 1. 9, 11.
Horatia pila, iv. 3, 7.
Horos Babylonius, Archyte soboles, v. 1, Hh
Hylei percussus vulnere rami, i. 1, 13.
Hylas ibat Hamadryasin, i. 20, 32; Hyle Thiodamanteo proximus ardor, i. 20, 6; Hylan formosum, i. 20, 52.
Hymeneus, v. 4, 61.
Hypanis Veneto dissidet Eridano, i. 12, 4.
Hypermnestre sine fraude marita, v. 7, 63 ; narrat magnum ausas esse sorores, Υ͂. 7, 67.
Hypsipyle anxia vacuo constitit in tha- lamo, i. 15, 18.
Hyrcani maris littora, ili. 22, 20.
If
Tacchi speciem furabor, y. 2, 31; Iaccho posito saltat puella, ii. 3, 17.
Tasidos dure seevitiam contudit Milanion, i. 1, 10.
Tason decepit Colchida, iii. 12, 11; Iaso- nem perfecit Varro, 111. 26, 85.
Tasonia carina, iii. 16, 29.
Icare Cecropiis merito jugulate colonis, iii, 25, 29.
Tcarii boyes, 111. 25, 24.
Icariotis, iv. 18, 10.
Ida dicit deam Parim pastorem amasse, 111. 24, 36.
Ideus Simois, iv. 1,17; Ideum antrum, iii. 24,89; Idi vertices, Ui. 2,14; chori, iv. 17, 36.
Idalius vertex, iii. 4, 54; Idalium astrum, γ. 6, 59,
Wdasy a 25nd.
Tliaca favilla, v. 4, 69; Iliaci aggeres, iii. 4, 48.
Tliada totam non probat ex Helena Cyn- thia, ii. 1, 50; Iliade nescio quid majus nascitur, ii. 26, 66; Iliadas longas con- dimus, li. 1, 14.
Ilion, iv. 1, 31.
Tlia Meenas, iy. 18, 61; tellus, y. 1, 53.
Illyria gelida, i. 8,2; MDllyrias navigare, 11. 7, 10; Illyrice terre, 11]. 7, 1.
Inachis misit Nilo tepente sacra matronis Ausoniis, iii. 25, 4; Inachidos ignota cornua, 1. 3, 20.
INDEX OF NAMES.
TInachius Linus, iii. 4,8; Inachiz heroine, i. 13, 31.
India dat colla triumpho, iii. 1, 15.
Indica gemma, ii. 13, 10; Indica arma fugata Nysveis choris, lv. 17, 22.
Indus discolor, v. 3, 10; Indi Jonginqui, li. 9, 29; vicini, iil. 9, 11; dites, iv. 4, 1: Inda formica, iv. 13, 5; Inde con- che, i. 8, 39.
Ino prima etate terras vagata est, iii. 20,
Io versa caput, iii. 20,17; Io deperditus Jupiter, ui. 22, 29.
Toleiaci foci, ii. 1, δά.
Tole, ii. 28, 51; iv. 5, 85.
Tonia mollis, χ.. 86. 31:
Tonium, iv. 21, 19; Ionius ros, ili. 18, 2; Tonium mare, 111. 18, 14; Ioniew aqua, v. 6. 58.
Tphicli boves, ii. 3, 52.
Iphigenia mactata pro mora, iy. 7, 24.
Trus Dulichius, iv. 5, 17.
-Ischomache Lapithe genus heroine, ii. 2, 9
Isis, v. 5, 34.
Ismarus mons, iv. 12, 25.
Ismaria vallis, iii. 4,6; Ismarium merum, iii. 25, 32.
Isthmos terris arcet utrumque mare, iy. 21, 22; fluit Propontiaca aqua iv. 22, 2.
Italize dura tempora, i. 22, 4; regiones,
iv. 7, 63; in Italiam qui bene vela ferat ventus, v. 3, 40. ne unda, iv. 22, 28; Itala orgia, iv. 1,
Ithaci digressu mota Calypso, i. 15, 9; Ithacis verubus mugierunt juvenci Lam- peties, iv. 12, 29.
Ityn absumtum increpat mater, iv. 10, 10.
Jugurtha, iv. 5, 16; v. 6, 66.
Tulus, y. 1, 48.
Tule carine, νυ. 6, 17, 54.
Juno aspera, v. 9, 71; frangitur, iii. 20, 384; non yaluit curvare cornua in pellice, iv. 22, 35; Junonis pelasge templa, iii. 20,11; Junonis per dulcia jura, 11. ὃ, 17; Junoni amare sacrum facere, y. 9, 43; votum facere, v. 1, 101.
Jupiter, iii. 7, 16; Phidiacus, iv. 9, 15; auro fallitur, y. 1, 81; ignoro furta pris- tina tua, ii. 2, 4; quamvis ipse non queat diducere amantes, ii. 7,4; Jovis Feretri causse, συ. 10,1; antrum are- nosum Τρ γνῶ, y. 1, 103; nati Zethus et Amphion, iv. 15, 36; arma, iv. 9, 47; ey y. 4, 10; antiqui limina capta, ν 4, 2; Phlegrzeos tumultus, 11. 1, 39; inimicitiz, ili. 4, 16; Jovi victima cor- ruit Acron, vy. 10, 15; Latio adsuescent Partha Tropza, iv. 4, 6; magno negare non potuit Danae, iii. 24, 60; surdo vota excidunt, iv. 24, 20; opponere
293
Anubim, iy. 11, 41; vicino vulnera non patienda, Wences 30; "magno grata ruina Capanei, iii. 26, 40; prima accumbes puella Romana, ii. 3, 30; Joyem cog- nosce Antiope, iv. 16, 39; rivalem non ego ferre possum, iii. 26, 18; polluit furto Cacus, v. 9, 8; illa suis verbis cogat amare, i. 13, "32 ; Jove digna soror, ii. 2, 6.
Ixionis orbes, iv. 11, 23.
Ixioniden testatur infernis Theseus, ii, 1, 38.
L.
Lacena nuda fertur Paris periisse, iii. 6, 13.
Laconum pugne, iy. 14, 33.
Laidos Ephyree edes, ii. 6, 1.
Lalage, v. 7, 45.
Lampetie Pheebo juvencos paverat, iv. 12, 29.
Lanuyium vetus est tutela Draconis annosi, γ. 8, 3; Lanuvii ad portas solus eram, v. 8, 48.
Laomedontis opes, 111. 5, 2.
Lapithe genus Ischomache, ii. 2, 9.
Lares patrii, 111. 22, 22; fugantes Hanni- balem sede Romana Lares, ἘΝ 5.11
Latini, v. 6, 45; Latinas imitata, iu. 24, 61.
Latius Jupiter, iv. 4,6; Latiz manus, vy. 10, 37.
Latris, v. 7, 75.
Lavina littora, 11. 26, 64.
Lecheum, iv. 21, 19.
Leda, i. 13, 29; Lede partus, i. 18, 30.
Leonis signa animosa, y. 1, 85.
Lepidus, ν. 11, 63.
Lerne palus, ii. 18, 48; iii. 16, 9.
Lesbia notior Helena, 11. 26, 88.
Lesbia vina bibas, i. 14, 2.
Lethzeus liquor, v. 7, 10; Lethea stagna, Ne te cele
Leucadia, ii. 26, 86.
Leucadius Apollo, iv. 11, 69.
Leucippis Phoebe i. 2, 15.
Leucothoe Dea, iii. 18, 10; Leucothoen miser implorat navita, 111. 20, 20.
Liber durus Deus, i. 3, 14.
Libones materni, y. 11, 31.
Liburna rostra, iy. 11, 44.
Libyz arenosum Jovis antrum, vy. 1, 103.
Libycus dens, iii. 23, 12; sol, v. 9, 46.
Lino Inachio sim notior arte, iii. 4. 8.
Longa Alba, v. 6, 37.
Luceres coloni, v. 1, 31.
Lucina quum traheret Cinare dolores, y. 1, 99.
Lucrina aqua, i. 11, 10.
Lernea hydra,
294
Luna sedula, i. 8, 32; deducta, i. 1, 19; menstrua, iv. 5, 28; sicca, 111. 8, 15; Lune plenz orbita, iii. 11, 21; Lune cantatze leges imponere audax, v. 6, 13.
Lupercus, vy. 1, 93; Lupercus Fabius licens, v. 1, 26.
Lyzo multo nihil es mutata, ii. 25, 34; multo mentem vincire, iy. 5, 21.
Lycinna, iv. 14, 6.
Lycius Deus, iv. 1, 38.
Lycmon, v. 1, 29.
Lycomedius, v. 2, 41.
Lycus, iv. 15, 12.
Lycoride formosa multa vulnera lavit mor- tuus Gallus inferna aqua, 111. 26, 91.
Lycotas, v. 3, 1.
Lycurgus yesanus in vite, iy. 17, 23.
Lydus Croesus, iv. 5, 17; Lydus colus Herculis, v. 9, “18: Lydia “puella, iv. 11:18: arata, as 6, 32; mitra, iv. 17, 30; plectra, v. 7, 62.
Lygdamus, iv. 6, passim ; 37, 79
Lynceus, 111. 26, 9.
Lysippo gloria est eflingere signa animosa, Iv. 9, 9.
VO (ioe Work
M.
Machaon sanavit crura Philoctete, ii. 1, 59.
Meeandria unda fallax errat et decipit ipsa vias suas, ili. 26, 35; tibia non jure vado Meeandri jacta natavit, 111. 22, 17.
Meecenas, ii. 1, 17, 73; Etrusco de san- guine regum, iy. 9, 1.
Meenalius ramus, v. 9, 15.
Meenas, iv. 8, 14; verax, iv. 13, 62.
Meeonie Heroides, ii. 20, 29.
Meeotis Penthesilea, iv. 11, 14.
Meotica nix, ii. 3, 11.
Maiis idibus natalis, v. 5, 36.
Malea seeva, iv. 19, 8.
Mamurius forme czlator ahene, v. 2, 61.
Marcius liquor, iv. 2, 12; wternum Mar- cius humor opus, iv. 22, 24.
Marii arma, iv. 11, 46; benefacta, ii. 1, 24; consule cum Mario sedet Jugurtha, iv. 5,16; Mariano preelia signo, iy. 3, 43.
Marone sopito cadunt flumina, iii. 24, 14.
Mars pater, iv. 4, 11; Marte cingere Ao- nium nemus, iv. 3, 42; nullus antiquo Marte triumphus, 111. 26, 56.
Martia lupa, v. 1, 55.
Mausoleum sepulerum, iv. 2, 19.
Mavors miscet utrimque manus dubias, ili. 19, 8.
Maxima Ara Herculis. v. 9, 67.
Medea amota Jasonia carina, iii. 16, 29; Medew sequacis probra, y. 6, 41; cri- mina, quo tempore matris iram natorum cede piayit amor, iv. 19, 17.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Medorum ire per hostes, iv. 9, 25; Meda sagitte, iv. 12, 11.
Melampus vates ‘turpia perpessus est yin- cla, 11. 8, 51.
Memnone amisso gravis luctus erat, ili. 9, 16.
Memnoniz domus, 1. 6, 4.
Memphis cruenta malo nostro, iy. 11, 34.
Menander vel-drus, doctus, iv. 21, 28; mundus, y. 5, 48; Menandrea Thais, ii. 6, 3.
Menelae tu sapiens fuisti, 11. 3, 87; Mene- laeus thalamus, 111. 6, 14.
Mencetiaden testatur superis Achilles, ii. 13g
Mens Bona, iy. 24, 19.
Mentoris forme addita argumenta, iv. 9, 19.
Mentoreo opere vina bibas, 1. 14, 2.
Mercurii alta via, 111. 22, 6; Mercurio latus composuisse fertur Minerva, ii. 2, 11.
Meroe Cephea, y. 6, 78.
Methymnzeum merum, y. 8, 38.
Mevania nebulosa, y. 1, 123. .
Milanion sevitiam durze contudit Tasidos, ry tl),
Mimnermi versus plus valet in amore Ho- MOTO; ἡ. 9. 11.
Minerva que probat, i. 2, 30; Penelope falsa Minerva differre poterat conjugium, ii. 9, 5; Minerve Coz textura, v. 5, 39.
Minos magnus, iii. 24, 57; sedet Orci arbiter, iv. 19, 27; Minoa figura, iv. 19, 21.
Minois sella, v: 11, 21.
Minois vidit incolumen Thesea, iii. 5, 7.
Minyis dixerit crudelis Ascanius, 1. 20, 4.
Misenus Trojz tubicen, iy. 18, 3 ; Misenis nobilibus eequora subdita, 1. ΤΠ: 4.
Molossa colla, y. 8, 24.
Musa mea aliam me docet citharam, 111. 1. 10; mea non juvat me, ili. 7, 34; ἃ me
nata triumphat, iv. 1, 10; levis mea gloria magna tua est, ᾽ξ. 8, 22; potis ingenium ‘irritat Musa poetis, v. 6, 75; te mea Musa contexeret armis illis, ii. 1, 35; Muse magice cantamina, vy. 4,
1; Muse non sunt tarde amanti, i. 8, 41; Musas tam graciles contemnere ve- tuit Amor, iii. 4,3; ad Musas currere non data lata via, iv. 1, 14; O Musa, referemus Appollinis adem, v. 6, 11.
Mutinam quoties canerem, ii. 1, 27.
Mycene, iv. 19, 19.
Mycenvee rates, 111. 13, 32.
Mygdonii cadi, v. 6, 8.
Myronis armenta, 111. 23, 7.
Myrrha condita in frondes arboris nove, iv. 19, 16.
Mys, iv. 9, 14.
Mysus juvenis, ii. 1, 63.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Mysorum scopuli, i. 20, 20.
N.
Naicus, iii. 24, 40.
Nauplius ultores sub noctem porrigit ignes, y. 1, 115.
Navalis Phebus, v. 1, ὃ.
Naxos, iv. 17, 27; Naxia turba, ἐδ. 28.
Nemorensis lacus, iv. 22, 25.
Neptunus non crudelis amori, fratri par in amore Jovi, iii. 18, 45, 46; Neptune, a. 7, £3 iv. 7, Ld.
Neptunia moenia, iv. 9, 41.
Nereus acies geminos lunarat in arcus, v. 6, 25; o centum equore Nereo genitore puelle, iv. 7, 67.
Nereides, ili. 18, 16.
Neswe candida, iii. 18, 16.
Nestoris post tria secla cinis visus est, iii. 4,46; sive ego Tithonus sive ego Nestor
ero, iii. 17, 10; Nestor videt corpus humati Antilochi, 11. 13, 49.
Neuricus hostis, v. 3, 8.
Nilus tepens, 111. 25, 3; Nili timidi vaga flumina, iv. 11, 51; mine, iv. 11, 42; Nilo cum Tiberi gratia nulla fuit, ii. 25, 20; Nilum canere, ii. 1, 31; Nile, tuus tibicen, vy. 8, 39.
Niobe bis sex ad busta lacrymas defluit e Sipylo, iii. 11, 7; supprimat lacrymas Niobe lapis, iv. 10, 8.
Nirea non facies exemit, iy. 18, 27.
Nisus, iv. 19, 24.
Nomas versuta, v. 7, 37.
Nomentum, iy. 10, 26.
Notus matutinus, v. 5, 62; dubius, ii. 4, 12; hibernus, ii. 9, 34; Noti adversi, iv. 15, 32; irati, v. 6, 28; non audituri diripuere verba, v. 7, 22.
Numam ante pauper in urbe Deus, v. 2, 60.
Numantini avi, v. 11, 30.
Nycteis Antiope, i. 4, 4.
Nycteus, genit. gr. Nycteos, lat. Nyctei; Nycteos Antiopen, iy. 15, 12.
Nymphe Thyniades, i. 20, 94.
Nysei chori, iv. 17, 22.
0.
Ocnus obliquus, y. 3, 21.
(agri figura, 111. 22, 35.
(Eteus Deus, iv. 1, 32; tea juga, 1. 13, 24.
Oiliades, y. 1, 117.
Olixes, see Ulyxes.
Olympo Ossa imposita, 11. 1, 19.
Omphale, iv. 11, 17.
Orci arbiter Minos sedet, iv. 19, 27.
Oresten salyum adspexit Electre, 111. 5, 5.
Oricos, i. 8, 20.
Oricia terebinthus, iv. 7, 49.
295
Gren aquosus, iii. 7, 51; purus, iii. 18,
6.
Orithyia Borean negavit crudelem, iii. 18, 51; Orithyize Pandionie genus, i. 20, 31; rapte Aquilo timor, iy. 7, 13.
Oromedon, iv. 9, 48.
Orontes, iii. 14, 21.
Orontea myrrha, i. 2, 3.
Orphea detinuisse feras et flumina susti- nuisse dicunt, iv. 2, 1.
Orphea lyra, i. 3, 42.
Ortygia, iii. 23, 10; iv. 22, 15.
Osca tellus, v. 2, 62.
Ossa Olympo imposita, ii. 1, 19.
ἘΣ
Pactoli liquor, i. 6, 82; liquores, 1. 14, 11; humor parit opes, iv. 18, 28.
Peeana canebat victor Amphion, iy. 15, 42.
Peestum odoratum, v. 4, 61.
Petus, iv. 7 passim.
Pagase navalibus Argo egressa, i. 20, 17.
Palatia pecorosa, v. 9, 3; tauris decerpta, iv. 9, 49; sacra Pheebo, v. 1, 3.
Palatinus Apollo, vy. 6, 11; Palatinze aves, v. 6, 44.
Palilia, ν. 4, 73; annua accenso celebrare foeno, v. 1, 19.
Pallas spatiatur ad aras, ii. 2, 7; Palladis oculi boni, iii. 20, 12; ignes, v. 4, 45; ora, 111. 22,18; caste artes, iv. 20, 7; Pallada magno Tiresias vates adspexit, vy. 9, 57.
Pan Tegexus, iv. 3, 30; me pana de rupe comitem tibi vocato, iv. 18, 45; Panes capripedes, iv. 17, 34.
Pandioniz Orithyie genus, i. 20, 31.
Panthus, iii. 12, 1.
Paris pastor, iii. 24, 35; nuda fertur peri- isse Lacena, iii. 6, 18; Pari tu sapiens fuisti, ii. 3, 37; qualemcunque vix sua nosset humus, iii. 1, 30.
Parnassus Gallica sparsit in arma nives, iv. 18, 54; dejecti Parnassi vertice Galli, iii. 23, 13. 5
Parrhasius, iv. 9, 12.
Parthenie nutrix, v. 7, 74.
Partheniis in antris errabat Milanion, i. 1, bile
Parthus eques, vy. 3, 36; sero confessus foedere Parthus, v. 6, 79; Partha tellus, vy. 3, 67; Partha tropea, iv. 4, 6; Par- thorum astute tela remissa fuga, iv. 9, 54; equitem post terga tueri, ii. 1, 14; pocula cocta in focis Parthis, y. 6, 26.
Pasiphae non proba, iii. 20, 62.
Patroclon viderat Achilles informem multa arena porrectum, il. 8, 33.
Paullus, v. 11, 1.
Pege sub vertice Arganthi montis, i. 20, 33.
296
Pegaseum dorsum, iii. 22, 3.
Pegasides, ivy. 1, 19.
Pelasga Juno, iti. 20, 11.
Peleus non aderat, ii. 9, 15.
Pelides, iii. 18, 34.
Peliaca trabs, iv. 22, 12.
Pelion ut esset celo iter, ii. 1, 20. Pelopeius Agamemnon, v. 6, 33; Pelopea domus stat infamis stupro, iv. 19, 20. Pelusii claustra Romano subruta ferro, iv.
9, 55.
Penates profugi, v. 1, 39; patrii, iv. 1, 91; spargere communes Penates alterna cade, ili. 22, 21; anchora te teneat, quem non tenuere Penates, iv. 7, 33; qui mihi sint Penates queeris, i. 22, 1; Penatibus notis Umbria te edit, v. 1, 121; ad vestros sedeam captiva Penates, vy. 4, 33.
Penelope pia, iy. 18, 24; bis denos salva per annos vivere poterat, ii. 9, 3; Pene- lopes vincet fidem, iv. 12, 38; Penelopen cogeret Antinoo nubere, y. 5. 8.
Penthesilea Meotis, iv. 11, 14.
Pentheus, iv. 17, 24; Penthea non seve Baeche venantur in arbore, iv. 22, 33. Pergama nomen Homeri, ii. 1, 21; Apol- linis arces, iv. 9, 39; olim mirabar, cur tanti ad Pergama belli caussa puella
fuit, 11. 3, 36.
Pergamea vates, y. 1,51; Pergamea mala, iv. 18, 62.
Perillus seeyus, iii. 17, 12.
Perimedea manu cocta gramina, ii. 4, 8.
Permessi flumen, iii. 1, 26.
Pero formosa, ii. 3, 58.
Perrhebi Pindi cacumina, iv. 5, 33.
Persarum urbs Babylon, iv. 11, 21.
Perseus, iv. 22, 8; Persei ala, 111. 22, 4; uxor, 111. 20, 22.
Perses proavi simulans pectus Achillis, vy. 11, 39.
Per sephone, ii. 20, 47; Persephones con- jux, lii. 20, 48; Persephone dona feram mgos libros, iii. 4, 26.
Perusina funera, i. 22, 3.
Petale, v. 7, 43.
Pheeace silva, iv. 2, 11.
Pheedree noverez pocula, ii. 1, 51.
Phari Ptolemeei littora capta, ii. 1, 30; Pharii portus, iv. 7, 6.
Phasidos isse viam Argo ferunt, i. 20, 18; Phasim Colchum remige propellas, iv. 22, 11.
Phidiacus Jupiter, iv. 9, 15.
Philetz sacra, iv.1,1; Philetam Musis meliorem imitari, 111. 26, 31.
Philetsea aqua, iv. 3,52; Philetwi corymbi, ὙΠ 0, 9.
Philippos civilia busta, ii. 1,27; Philippeo sanguine inusta nota, iv. 11, 40.
Phillyrides Chiron, ii. 1, 60.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Philoctetee tarda crura sanavit Machaon, ui. 1, 59.
Phinei j jejunia, iv. 6, 41.
Phlegrieus cammprs iv. 11, 37; Phlegrei tumultus, ii. 1, 39; Phlegraa juga, iy. 9, 48.
Pheebe Leucippis, i. 2, 15.
Phebus Navalis, v. 1, 3; cupidus, i. 2, 17; speculans ex arbore, iv. 8, 13; donat tibi sua carmina, i. 2, 27; Pheebi portus, v. 6,15; fide vincit Roma, y. 6,57; aurea porticus, iii. 23,1; sororem nudus Endymion cepit, iii. 6, 15; cus- todis Actia littora, 111. 26, 61; speciem furabor, vy. 2, 32; Phcoebum in armis morari, iy. 1, 7; Phoebe fugate non tremis Ausonias dapes, iv. 22, 30; Pho- bo pulchrior ipso, iii. 23, 5.
Pheenicis lumina sanavit Chiron, ii. 1, 60.
Pheenicum inyenta, iii. 19, 3.
Phorcidos ora, iv. 22, 8.
Phryges, iii. 18, 30; v. 1, 2; Phrygis caedi, 111. 13, 18.
Ῥμιυρία fatum, iv. 13, 63.
Phrygius maritus, ite 2, 19; campus, iii. 26, 35; Phrygii avi, 11. 1, "42; Phrygize unde, iii. 22, 19.
Phryne potuit deletas componere Thebas, ii. 6, 4.
Phthius vir, iii. 4, 38.
Phylacides heros, i. 19, 7.
Phyllis quedam vicina Diane Aventine, v. 8, 29; crotalistria, 7. 39; Phyllida dilexit Demophoon, iii. 16, 28.
Pierie quercus, iii. 4, 5.
Pierides, iii. 1, 12.
Pindarico ore spiritus tonat, iv. 17, 40.
Pindi cacumina tremuere, iy. 5, 38.
Pireeus portus, iv. 21, 28.
Pirithous, ii. 6, 18.
Pisces, v. 1, 85.
Platonis studiis animum emendare, iy. 21, 28.
Pleiades, iii. 7, 51; 5, 36.
Penum ostrum, v. 3,51; Pone columne, iii, 23, 3.
Pollux pugnis victor, iv. 14, 18; Pollucis equus, iv. 22, 26; Pollucem succendit Hilaira, i. 2, 16.
Polydamantes in armis, iy. 1, 29.
Polydorus, iy. 13, 56.
Polymestor, iv. 13, 55.
Polyphemus, iv. 2, 5; iti. 25, 32; iv. 12, 26.
Pompeius, iy. 11, 35; Pompeia porticus, iii. 24, 11; umbra, v. 8, 75; manu spolia Bosporo capta, iy. 11, 68.
Ponticus, i. 7, 1; i. 9, 26.
Postumus, iv. 12, 1.
Prenesti dubiew sortes, iii. 24, 3.
Praxiteles, iv. 9, 16.
ad numeros
Pleiadum chorus, iy.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Priamus, ii. 3, 40; Priami longevum caput, v. 1, 52; senis regna diruta, iii. 20, 54.
Prometheus, iv. 5, 7; Promethei brachia, ii. 1, 69; Prometheis jugis lecta herba, i. 12, 10.
Propertius, ii. 8,17; iii. 5, 27; iii. 26,93; iy. 10, 15; v. 1, 71.
Propontiacus, iii. 22, 2.
Ptolemeei littora capta Phari, ii. 1, 30.
Pudicitie templa, ii. 6, 25.
Pyramidum sumtus ad sidera ducti, iv. 2, ive
Pyrrhi gloria fracta, iv. 11, 60.
Pythius Deus, iii. 23, 16; Pythia regna, iv. 13, 52.
Python serpens, v. 6, 35.
Q.
Quintilie misere funera quum caneret Calvus, iii. 26, 90.
Quirinus, v. 6, 21; Acron spolia ex hu- meris ausus sperare Quirini, v. 10, 11.
Quirites prisci, v. 1, 13; sopiti, v. 8, 59.
R.
Ramunes, vy. 1, 31.
Remus cesus, iv. 9, 50; Remi prima regna, ii. 1, 23; domus, vy. 1, 9; signa, v. 6, 80; Remo Aventino rura pianda, v. 1, 50.
Rhenus Barbarus Suevo perfusus sanguine, iv. 3, 45; Virdumarus genus ab ipso Rheno jactabat, v. 10, 41; a Rheno trajectos hostes, v. 10, 39.
Riphzi montes, i. 6, 3.
Roma carissima, i. 8, 31; conscia, i. 12, 2; septem urbs alta jugis, iy. 11, 57; montibus addita, y. 4, 35; maxima, v. 1,1; superba frangitur suis bonis, iv. 13, 60; Troica, v. 1,87; Rome per te, Romule, quidlibet audet amor, ii. 6, 22; Roma tota ferri, ii. 5, 1; tribuisti pro- mia Tuscis, v. 2, 49.
Romanus alumnus, v. 1, 37; Callimachus, v. 1, 64; ii. 3, 29, 30; iii. 20, ὅδ; dis- cordia, i. 22, 5; sedes, iv. 3, 11; turba, v. 2, 55; historia, iv. 4,10; terra, iv. 22, 17; tuba, iv. 11, 43; serta, v. 6, 3; meenia, iii. 11, 31; castra, iii. 1, 4; in- genia, 1. 7, 22; Romanum forum, v. 2, 6; v. 4,12; ferrum, iv. 9, 55; 0s, iii. 9, 26; Romano in honore dominas se- cures ponere licet Mecenati, iv. 9, 23; Romani montes, vy. 4, 35; scriptores, lil. 26, 65; tauri, iv. 9, 49; equi, v. 10, 38; Romane turres, iv. 21, 16.
Romulus nutritus duro lacte lupe, ii. 6, 20; murorum augur, y. 6, 43; quatuor albos egit equos, v. 1, 32; decreyit ex- cubias in otia solvi, v. 4, 79; videt
297
Acronta vibrantem spicula, vy. 10, 14; prime palm imbuis exemplum, Romule, ν- 10, δ.
8.
Sabina herba, v. 3, 58; Sabine dure, iii. 24, 47; Sabinas rapere docuit Romulus, ii. 6, 21; Sabina pila, vy. 4,12; arma, v. 4, 32; v. 2, 52.
Sacra Via, vid. Via.
Sais, ii. 2, 11.
Salmonis flagrans Thessalico Enipeo, iv. 19, 13; Salmonida non sie facili pressit amore Tzenarius Deus, i. 13, 21.
Sancus, v. 9, 71.
Saturni sidus grave, v. 1, 84; Saturno regna tenente hic mos fuit, 111, 24, 52.
Sceez porte, iy. 9, 39.
Scipiade classes, iv. 11, 67.
Scironis media licet ire via, iy. 16, 12.
Scribonia, y. 11, 55.
Scylla, iv. 12, 28; Minoa venumdata figura, iv. 19, 21; in patrios sevit ca- pillos, v. 4,39; nobis mitescet, iii. 18, 53
Scyria Deidamia, ii. 9, 16.
Scythie juga, v. 3, 47.
Scythice ore, iv. 16, 18.
Semele narrabis quo sis formosa periclo, 111. 20, 27; Semela combustus Jupiter, iii. 22, 29.
Semiramis Persarum urbem Babylona statuit, iv. 11, 21.
Seres, iv. 4, 5.
Serica, i. 14, 22; Serica carpenta, v. 8, 23.
Sibylle etas, iii. 16, 17; cortina, v. 1, 49.
Sicambri paludosi, y. 6, 77.
Sicanum saxum, i. 16, 29.
Sicule telluris victor, iy. 18, 33; fugee classica bella, ii. 1, 28.
Sidonia palla, v. 9, 47; mitra, iii. 21, 15; vestis, 111. 7, 55. . Sileni patris imago, iy. 8, 29; Sileni senes,
iii. 24, 38.
Simois, ii. 9,12; Idzeus, iv. 1, 27.
Sinis, iv. 22, 37.
Siphacis victi monimenta, iy. 11, 59.
Sipylus, iii. 11, 8.
Sirenes, iv. 12, 34.
Sisyphus, v. 11, 23.
Sisyphius labor, iii. 8, 7; iii. 11, 32.
Socratici libri, iii. 26, 27.
Spartana lex, iv. 14, 21; Hermione, i. 4, 6
Sparte, tus miramur jura palestre, iy. 1451:
Strymonis, vy. 4, 72.
Stygius lacus, v. 3, 15; Stygia arundo, lil. 19,13; Stygie unde, iii. 26, 53; iv. 18,9; aque, ii. 9, 26; tenebra, v. 9, 41
298
Suburra vigilax, v. 7, 15.
Suevus sanguis, iy. ὃ, 45.
Susa, 11]. 4, 1.
Sylvanus, v. 4, 6.
Syrio munere plenus onyx, 111. 4, 30.
Syrtes trajecte, iv. 24, 16; non sic mu- tantur, 11. 9, 33; portum placidum prie- beant, iv. 19, 7.
ΠΣ
Teenarius Deus #imonio mixtus Enipeo, i. 13, 22; Tzenarie columne, iv. 2, 9.
Tanais, iii, 22, 2.
Tantalea sors, iii. 8, 5; Tantalezee manu solus poterit tradere poma, ii. 1, 66.
Tantaleus, v. 11, 24.
Tantalidos funera, 111. 23, 14.
Tarpeia, v. 4. 1.
Tarpeius pater, v. 1, 7; lucus, v. 8, 31; Tarpeia arx, v. 4, 29; Tarpeium nemus, vy. 4, 1; saxum, iv. 11, 45; Tarpeic pudicitia, i. 16, 2; est mons a duce Tarpeio cognomen adeptus, v. 4, 93.
Tarquinii secures fracte, iv. 11, 47.
Tati arma contudit Lycomedius tempore Romuli, v. 2, 52; Tatio magna pars rerum inter oves, v. 1, 30; Tati pre- toria turme, v. 4, 31; Tatios veteres queerit, ili. 24, 47.
Taygetus, iv. 14, 15.
Tegeeus Pan, iv. 3, 30.
Teia, v. 8, 31, 58.
Telegoni moenia, iii. 24, 4.
Tellus justa, i. 19, 16.
Terebinthus, iv. 7, 49.
Teuthrantis unda, i. 11, 11.
Teutonice opes, iv. 3, 44.
Thais pretiosa, v. 5, 43; Menandrea, ii. 6,. 3.
Thamyre cantoris fata, iii. 13, 19.
Thebe palmifere, v. 5, 25; Direc, iv. 17, 33; Cadmew, i. 7,1; steterunt, il. 8,10; Thebas non canerem, ii. 1, 21; deletas, ii. 6, 5; agitata per artem saxa coiere, iv. 2, 3.
Thebanus Deus, iv. 18, 6; Thebani duces, ii. 9, 50; Thebana domus, il. 8, 24.
Thermodon celer, vy. 4, 71.
Thermodontiace aque, iv. 14, 14.
Theseus testatur infernis Ixioniden, ii. 1, 37; parvo spatio Minoida dilexit, iii. 16, 27; Thesea Minois vidit, ii. 5, 7; Thesea carina cedente Gnosia jacuit, 1. 8, 1; Thesew vie brachia, iv. 21, 24.
Thesproti regno subdita aquora, i. 11, 3.
Thessalia toxica bibere, i. 5, 6.
Thessala saga, iy. 24,10; Thessala tela, iii. 13, 30.
Thessalicus Enipeus, iy. 19,13; Thessalis umbra, i. 19, 10.
Thetis, iv. 7, 68.
INDEX OF NAMES.
Thiodamanteus Hylas, i. 20, 6.
Thrax Polymestor, iv. 13, 55.
Threicia lyra, iv. 2, 2.
Thyniades Nymphe, i. 20, 34.
Thyrsis, iii. 26, 68.
Tiberinus, v. 2, 7; Tiberina unda, i. 14, 1.
Tiberis advena, v. 1, 8; ultra Tiberim, vy. 10, 25; cogere ferre Nili minas, iv. 11, 42; cum Tiberi Nilo gratia nulla fuit, iii. 25, 20.
Tibur Herculeum, iii. 24, 5; Tibure yenit domine epistola, iv. 16, 2.
Tiburnus Anio, iy. 22, 23.
Tiburtina terra jacet Cynthia, y. 7, 85.
Tigris, iv. 4, 4.
Tiresias vates magno adspexit Pallada, νυ. 9, 57.
Tisiphones caput furit angue, iv. 4, 40.
Titanas non ego canerem, ii. 1, 19.
Tithonus, iii. 17, 10; Tithoni vivi gaudia, iii. 9, 15; senectam non spernens Au- ΤΟΥ. 1. 9. ἢ:
Titiens, v. 1, 31.
Tityrus, ili. 26, 72.
Tityus, iii. 5, 44; Tityi volucres, 11. 20, 31.
Tolumni desecta cervix, iy. 10, 37; Veiens, 1b. 23.
Triton prosequitur cantu, y. 6,61; ore recondit aquam, 111. 24, 16.
Trivia Dea, iii. 24, 10.
Troja bis capta CEtei numine Dei, iy. 1, 82; alta fuit, ii. 8, 10; Troje resur- gentis arma, v. 1, 47; tubicen, iy. 18, 3; Troja, tibi perire pulcrius fuerat, ii. 3, 34; cades, v. 1,87; supprime fletum, v. 1, 114; misisti Penates, τ. 1, 39; quot formas tulit, 111. 20, 53.
Troica Roma resurges, yv. 1, 87.
Trojani nee arma suscitat Virgilius, iii. 26, 63 ;:Trojana funera, ii. 6, 16.
Tullus, i. 1, 9; 1.8, 2; 5. 14. 0: 222545 iv. 22, 2, 39.
Tuscus ego et Tuscis orior, vy. 2, 3; vicus, v. 2, 50; Tuscis tribuisti preemia, vy. 2, 49.
Tyndaris patriam mutavit, 111. 24, 31.
Tyndaridi sue gaudia referre poterat Paris, iv. 8, 30.
Tyndaridas optatos queerere, i. 17, 18.
Tyro candida, iii. 20, 51.
Tyros Cadmea, iv. 13, 7; dona ex ipsa Tyro tollere, iii. 7, 18.
Tyria sub aqua concha superbit, v. 5, 22; Tyrie vestes, iv. 14, 27; Tyria vellera, v. 3. 84.
Tyrrhena arena, i. 8, 11; Tyrrheni naute, iy. 17, 26.
U Ulyxes fleyit jacturam socitm, iy. 7, 41;
INDEX OF NAMES.
errore exacto letatus est, ili. 5, 3; alter erit Postumus, iv. 12, 23; Ulyxis felix lectus, ii. 6, 23; Ulyxen miserum yvex- astis venti, iii. 18, 37; visura nunquam Penelope, ii. 9, 7.
Umber lacus, v. 1, 124; Umbro a tramite Clitumnus, iv. 22, 23.
Umbria proxima supposito contingens campo, i. 22, 9; Romani patria Calli- machi, y. 1, 64; antiqua, v. 1, 121.
ve
Varro Leucadiw sue maxima flamma, iii. 26, 86.
Veios vincere laboris erat, vy. 10, 24.
Veiens Tolumnus, vy. 10, 23.
Veius dux, v. 10, 31.
Velabrum, iy. 9, 5.
Veneto Eridano dissidet Hypanis, i. 12,-4.
Venus in me noctes exercet amaras, i. 1, 33; que probat, i. 2, 30; dicitur isse effusa coma, iii. 4, 56; ne sit amica Pantho, iii. 12, 2; haud unquam est culta labore, iii. 13, 22; num doluit? iii. 20, 9; corrupta libidine Martis, 11]. 24, 33; dormiet ipsa noctibus illorum, iv. 6, 34; noctis sacra instituet, iv. 10, 80; exclusis fit comes, iv. 16, 20; dulcia concitat arma, iv. 20, 20: vexit Cesaris arma, v. 1,46; ventilat facem, τ. 3, 50; commissa trivio, vy. 7, 19; mage caussa fuit, v. 8,16; Veneris dominz volucres, ivy. 3, 31; magne ante pedes volvitur, iy. 8,12; in tabula summam sibi ponit Apelles, iv. 9, 11; imsane fastus, iv. 17, 3; torrebat sevo aheno, iv. 24, 13; sub armis, y. 1, 137; Veneri vota ponere,
299
iii. 10, 18; mollire negantem Hippo- lytum, v. 5, 5; Venerem corrumpere, iii. 6, 11; ubi jam gravis interceperit ztas, iv. 5, 23; ubi promiseris, v. 4, 33; queerente per talos, v. 8,45; Venus, succurre dolori, iii. 7, 13; serva tuam prolem, iv. 4, 19; o regina, v. 5, 65; Venere tristi nulla mihi sint premia, i. 14, 16; exhauste opes, iv. 13,2; ignota furta, v. 8, 34; Veneres canat etas prima, iii. 1, 7.
Vergilize tarde, 1. 8, 10.
Vertumnus, iv. 2, 2, 10, 12, 35.
Vesta coronatis gaudebat asellis, vy. 1, 21; pudenda probro meo, vy. 4, 36; Lliace felix tutela faville, v. 4, 69; commissos reposcit ignes, v. 11, 53; Veste fatalia lumina, iy. 4,11; Tarpeia voluit flammas tuas fallere, Vesta, v. 4,18; narratum somnia Vest, iii. 21, 27.
Via Sacra, ili. 14,15; iii. 15, 14; iv. 4, 22.
Virdumarus, v. 10, 41.
Virgilius, iii. 26, 61.
Volsani foci, v. 2, 4.
X.
Xerxis imperio bina coiere vada, ii. 1, 22.
Z.
Zephyri aura nemus vacuum possidet, i. 18, 2; mea nocturno yerba cadunt Zephyro, i. 16, 34.
Zethes hune super, hune super et Calais instabant, i. 20, 26.
Zethus durus, iv. 15, 29; Zethi prata cruentantur, iy. 15, 41.
INDEX II.
camera, iy. 2, 10.
Acanthus, iv. 9, 14. campus sceleratus, y. 5, 11. Achille, vocative, vy. 11, 40. canistrum, v. 8, 12. acta, i. 21, 6. capere crines, vy. 11, 34. — funeris, iii. 4, 18. caprificus, y. 5, 76. Actia (ludi), v. 6, init. carbasus, v. 3, 64; 11, 54. adamas, iy. 11, 9; v. 11, 4. carpenta, v. 8, 23. addictus, iv. 11, 2. casa (sacellum), v. 1, 6; 9, 28. advena Tiberis, Nilus &c., v. 1, 8. —immunda, iii. 14, 10. zemulor (cum accusativo rei), 111. 26, 19. — Romuli, v. 1, 9. ala (humeri), i. 20, 29. Cassandra, iv. 13, 62; νυ. 1, 51. amictus, iv. 15, 3. cassida, iy. 11, 16. amputare, 1. 10.112. castra amoris, i, 6, 30; v. 1, 187. any. 11. 2]. cataphractus, iv. 12, 12; v. 3, 8. animosus, iv. 9, 9. catasta, v. 5, 51. ansa, v. 1, 142. cathedra, v. 5, 37. antrum, i. 2,11; iv. 2,12; v.9, 3; 4,3. causari aliquid, v. 4, 23. apricus, v. 10, 18. cavé, i. 7, 25; 10, 21. ara maxima, v. 9, 67. censuram ‘mollire, vy. 11, 41. ardidus, li. 3, 24. ceraste, iv. 22, 27. argumenta, iv. 9, 13. clatra, v. 5, 74. argutare, i. 6, 7. Clitumnus, iv. 22, 23. argutus, i. 18, 30. Coa vestis, i. 2, 2. aries, v. 10, 33. coccum, ii. 1, 5. armille, vy. 8, 24. codex, v. 7, 44. artifex, i. 2, 8; iii. 23, 8. colluceo, i. 2, 13. arundo ancupum, iv. 13, 46; vy. 2, 33. columna, iv. 28, 23; v. 7, 83. — fissa, v. 7, 26. colus, v. 9, 48. aulea, 111. 24, 12. compitalia, v. 1, 23. aura, aurum, iii. 19, 15. componere, ii. 6, 5. aut—vel, ii. 8, 11; iv. 21, 26. concha Veneris, iv. 13, 6. condere in aliquid, iy. 24, 19; vy. 4, 70. B. conopia, iv. 11, 46. Baltea, v. 10, 22. corbis, y. 2, 28. beryllus, v. 7, 9. cortina, v. 1, 49. Boarium, vy. 9, 19. cos, cautes, i. 3, 4. Bona Dea, v. 9, 26. costum molle, v. 6, 5. braces, iv. 4,17; v. 10, 43. crepare, v. 7, 25. brassica, v. 2, 44. cretati servi, v. 5, 52. buccina, v. 1, 13; 4, 63; 10, 29. crocinum, iy. 10, 22. bulla, v. 1, 131. crocus, v. 1, 16. buxum, iy. 23, 8. crotalistria, v. 8, 39. cerystallus, v. 3, 52. σ. cubo, -avi, iii. 6, 17. cadus, v. 7, 34. cucumis, v. 2, 43. cestus, iv. 14, 9. cucurbita, iid. calamus ancupis, iv. 13, 46. curia, v. 1, 11; Ὁ 13.
calathus, iii. 6, 52. Curiatii, iv. 3, 8.
curtus equus, vy. 1, 20. eyclas, v. 7, 40. cymbala, iv. 17, 36; 18, 6.
Dz. dare terga, iv. 9, 6. deducta vox, 111. 25, 38. defluere, depluere, ii. 11, 8. degenerare aliquem, vy. 1, 79. desidia, i. 12, 1. devoveo, συ. 10, 67. differre, i. 4, 22. discus, iv. 14, 10. disponere, y. 1, 57. diversus, i. 10, 15.
E. eductus, v. 9, 3. egerere, v. 6, 34. elevare, i. 8, 12. emeritus, v. 11, 72. ephemerides, iv. 23, 20. eosdem (dissyllab.), y. 7, 7. equidem, iil. 23, ὅ. equi desultorii, v. 2, 35. ergo, ii. 8, 13; iv. 3, 29. Esquilie, iv. 23, 24; v. 8, 1. esseda, i. 1, 76. est quibus, iv. 9, 17. exuvium, νυ. 10, 6.
F.
fac venias &c., v. 4, 65. fascia, v. 9, 49.
fastus, i. 1, 3.
fercula pagana, v. 4, 76. Feretrius, y. 10, 48.
ferire (amatorem), iv. 3, 50; v. 5, 44.
ferro et igne coactus, iv. 24, 11. ferrum et ignes pati, i. 1, 27. flabellum, 111. 15, 11.
fulcire, i. 8, 7.
fulcra plutei, v. 8, 79.
fundere, v. 2, 63.
furie amoris, y. 4, 68.
. G
Galea lupina, y. 10, 20. galeritus, v. 1, 29.
gaudere in, ii. 4, 18; y. 8, 63. — aliquid, iu. 16, 1.
geesa, v. 10, 42.
gladius, radius, v. 3, 34. gypsati, cretati pedes, y. 4, 51. gyrus, iy. 14, 11.
ἘΠ.
habere notam, i. 18, 8. harundo (see arundo), hasta pura, vy. 3, 68. hedra, v. 6, 3.
INDEX. II.
hiare carmen, iii. 23, 6. hinuleus, iv. 18, 34. Horatii, iv. 3, 8. hornus, y. 3, 61. hyacinthi, y. 7, 33.
i ignoro, li. 2, 4. imagines cerew, iii. 4, 18. imbuo, iv. 15, 6; v. 10, 5. immorsus, iv. 8, 21. impressus, iii. 26, 70. inclamare oculos, y. 7, 23. increpo, ii. 4, 4. induo, iv. 19, 12. ingerere, vy. 5, 35. insitor, v. 2, 17. institor, v. 2, 38. intepeo, v. 1, 124. iterare, i. 20, 49; v. 1, 82; 3, 7.
J. jacere, i. 6, 25. Julie rogationes, ii. 7, init.
301
jura dare, dicere, iv. 11, 46; y. 4, 11.
— ponere, iv. 9, 24, Juturna, iv. 22, 26.
Ke
Kalende Apriles, y. 5, 35. — rare, Υ. 3, 52.
ΤΠ
Lacerne, Υ. 8, 18; 8, 85. lacus, λάκκος, 111. 5, 12. — Umber, v. 1, 124. lamina candens, vy. 7, 3d. lances, ili. 4, 23.
Lar Tutanus, iv. 3, 11. lararium, v. 3, 53.
lectus adversus, genialis, vy. 11, 85.
legere, v. 4, 42.
lentus, v. 3, 39.
lex Papia Poppea, ii. 7, init. libera toga, v. 1, 130.
luna sicea, iii. 8, 15. Lupercalia, v. 1, 26.
luxus, iii. 24, 29.
lyre imbelles, y. 6, 36.
M. Manni, v. 8, 15. manus longs, ii. 2,5; iv. 7, 60. Marcellus, death of, iv. 18, init. Mathematici, v. 1, 83. Medius Fidius, vy. 9, 71. Mens Bona, iv. 24, 19. meta, ili. 17, 20; iv. 14, 7. minium, li. 3, 11. minutus, 111. 21, 3; 4, 58.
mitra, ili, 21, 15; iv. 17, 30; v, 5, 72.
902 INDEX II.
mora, v. 8, 4. murreus onyx, iy. 10, 22. murrina, vy. ὃ, 26.
ING: Nacta, nixa, confus., v. 6, 63. nanus, vy. 8, 41. nardus, v. 7, 32.
natare, iii. 17, 24; iv. 12, 32; v. 1, 116.
nayvita, non ita, confus., ii. 16, 22. nempe, v. 11, 6.
neu, neve, iii. 21, 28.
ni pro ne, ii. 7, 3.
noctua, v. 3, 59.
notam habere, i. 18, 8.
Nursia, Nevortia, v. 2, init.
0:
obliqua rota, v. 1, 82.
obliquus Ocnus, v. 3, 21. obstrepere, i. 16, 46; iii. 11, 6; v. 4, 4. occupare aliquem, vy. 10, 14.
olor, 111. 26, 84.
onyx, iii. 4, 30; iv. 10, 22. operari, iii. 25, 2.
ora, arma, confus., v. 4, 34.
ossa equis, avis, vecta, v. 11, 102. ostrina tunica, 111. 21, 26. ostrinus torus, i. 14, 20.
Ῥ
palla, iii. 28,16; iv. 17, 82; v. 4, 60. pallium, v. 8, 87; 3, 31. pallor, v. 7, 82.
pancratium, iv. 14, 8.
parilia, v. 1,19; 4, 73. patrius, paternus, 11. 7, 20; v. 2, 2. pejerare, v. 3, 42.
pelliti patres, v. 1, 12.
pensa, iv. 6,15; v. 3, 33. pereutere facem, iv. 16, 16. pergula, v. 5, 70.
pertica, v. 1, 130.
phaselus, v. 7, 59; iv. 21, 20. piare aram, v. 9, 56.
— busta, v. 7, 34.
— fontes, v. 9, 26.
—rura, v. 1, 50.
— sacra, i. 1, 20.
pila erystallina, iii. 15, 4.
— judicum, v. 11, 20.
— lusoria, iv. 14, 5.
— erata, v. 1, 76.
pius, iv. 7,9; v. 1, 110. plumarii, iv. 7, 50.
pluteus, iv. 21, 8; v- 8, 68. ponere nullo loco, ili. 13, 44. — jura, iv. 9, 24.
— vota, iii. 10, 18.
popre, v. 8, 62.
porticus, iii, 23, 2.
— Pompeii, 111. 24, 11. positura, v. ὃ, 38. pretexta, iv. 15, 3. pretoria, y. 1, 29. pulpita, v. 1, 16. pumices, iy. 3, 28. pumiliones, v. 8, 41. pura loca, v. 8, 22. putris, iv. 6, 33; v. 8, 39; 9, 28. pyropus, y. 10, 21.
Q. Quam prius, iii. 17, 23; 9, 10. qua pote, 11. 1, 46. quasillus, v. 7, 41. quatere facem, i. 3, 10. Querquetulanus, v. 8, init. Quirium, v. 4, 9. quisquam (interrog.), ili, 14, 3; 26, 1.
Re:
Radius textorius, v. 3, 34. rana rubeta, iv. 6, 27.
raptare, iv. 11, 27.
recinium, 111. 14, 3.
rectee rote, v. 10, 42. remanere, ii. 9, 3.
retinacula navis, ii. 13, 41. rhombus, iii. 20, 35; iv. 6, 26. ripa aurea, v. 5, 21.
rostrum, y. 1, 142.
8. saginatus, v. 1, 23. saliva, v. 7, 37; 8, 38. Sancus, Sanctus, vy. 9, 71. sandix, iii. 17, 46. satius, li, 26, 31. savia, 111. 21, 39. sedula luna, i. 3, 32. sella, v. 10, 28. semita Herculis, i. 11, 2. sera, v. 5, 48; 7, 90; 11, 26. sericus, i. 14, 22; v. 8, 28. serta, -2, iil. 25, 37. seveho, iv. 3, 21. signatores, iv. 20, 17. silani, iii. 24, 14. silva, sila, 1. 20, 7. sive—ve, v. 4, 55; 5, 20. sinuo, iv. 21, 32. sinus, iv. 21, 32. — ponderare, il. 7, 12. sirpiculus, -la, v. 2, 40. sistrum, iv. 11, 438. situs, 1. 7, 18; iv. 21, 32. smaragdi, ili. 7, 438. soccus, li. 14, 18. solito, i. 17, 3. sortes Pranestine, ill, 24, 3.
INDEX II. 303
sortitus, passive, v. 7, 55; 11, 20. tuba funesta, ii. 7, 12; iii. 4,18, v.11, 9. spica Cilissa, v. 6, 74. — ossibus facta, y. 3, 20, spolia opima, y. 10, 5. tunica, ii. 6, 14. sponda, iv. 21, 8. tutela, v. 8, 3. strix, iv. 6, 29; v. 5, 17. tympana, iy. 3, 28. superstitio, y. 1, 18. ΠΕ
᾿ " = ; ultro, iii. 17, 19. tabelle, i. 1, 8; ii. 6, 27; ili. 11, 33; iv. Ulyxes, Olixes, ii. 6, 23. 23, 1; v. 11, 49. umbrosi rogi, v. 11, 8. talaria, 111, 22, 5. uncus, v. 1, 141. tamen, 1. 1, 8. tali, iv. 10, 27.
— eburni, iii. 15, 13. V.
Tantaleus, v. 11, 24. vadimonia, v. 2, 57.
teges, y. 5, 69. valve, v. 8, 51.
tegula curta, v. 7, 26. variare, 1. 15, 7; 11. 6, 33; v. 2. 13. terebinthus, iv. 7, 49. varius, varus, i. 10, 15.
tergus, ii. 18, 6. vastus (magnus), iii. 10, 21; v. 10, 40. testa ignea, v. 7, 38. vel—aut, iv. 21, 25.
thyius thalamus, iv. 7, 49. vela theatri, iv. 18, 13; v. 1, 16. tibia (in nuptiis), ii. 7, 11. vellicare, u. 5, 8.
— (in sacrificio), v. 1, 24. ventilare facem, vy. 3, 50.
— Palladis, ii. 22, 16. versipelles, v. 5, 14.
titulus, iv. 4, 16; v. 11, 38. vestibulum, iii. 5, 32.
— servorum, vy. 5, dl. vestigia lecti, ii. 9, 45.
toga libera, iv. 15, 3; v. 1, 132. vestis (πέπλος), v. 1, 118; 11, 61. torquata columba, y. 5, 65, via sacra, ii. 1, 34; ii. 14, 15. torquis, v. 10, 44. vicus Tuscus, vy. 2, 50.
torus, 111, 26, 43. vindicare in aliquem, y. 11, 20. torus uterque, iii. 8, 4. vinea, v. 10, 34.
toxica, i, 4, 6. vinum picatum, v. 8, 37. trapezophora, vy. 8, 43. viridarium, vy. 8, 35.
trientes, iv. 10, 29. vitta, v. 8, 16; 6, 63 11, 34.
trochus, iy. 14, 6. — in magicis, iy. 6, 30.
INDEX. III.
A.
Ablative for dative, v. 8, 10.
Accusative with passive participles, i. 3, 94,
Mneid, promise of the, iii. 26, 63.
/schylus, iii, 26, 29, 41.
ZKsculapius, ii. 1, 61.
Alban lake, iv. 22, 25.
Althea, legend of, iv. 22, 31.
Amazons, iv. 11, 14; 14, 18; v. 8, 43; 4, 71.
Anio, cascade of the, iv. 16, 4; v. 7, 81.
Ants, Indian, iv. 13, 5.
Apollo citharcedus, iii, 23, 6.
Appian way, v. 8, 17.
Aqueducts, iv. 2, 12.
Araxes, vagueness of name, iv. 12, 8.
Art, works of, at Athens, iv. 21, 29.
at Cyzicus, iv. 22, 9.
—-— in Palatine temple, iii, 23, 3 seqq.
of Greek painters and sculptors, iy. 9, 9.
Astrolabe, v. 1, 75.
Asisi, v. 1, 125.
Ass in procession of Vesta, νυ. 1, 21.
Astrology, belief in, v. 1, 83.
— invention of, iii. 19, 3.
Augustus, statues of, ili, 23, 6.
B.
Bacchus, his connexion with Apollo, iy. Pa RS Ki 0. 10:
— why corniger, iv. 17, 19.
Baie, relaxing air of, iy. 18, 9.
Britomart, v. 10, 41.
Britons, woad-stained, iii. 9, 23,
Bronze, Corinthian, iy. 5, 6.
Bull, eastern symbol, iv. 17, 19.
σ Cadiz, v, 9, 2. Castanets, v. 8, 39, 42. Chariot, triumphal, y. 11, 102. Charles’ wain, iii, 25, 24. Cinnamon, iv. 13, 8. Circus, metaphor from, iii. 17, 23; iy. 9, 58
Citadel, Roman, vy. 4, 2, 87.
Cleopatra, the poet’s dislike of, iy. 11, 29; v. 6, 22; 4, 89.
— death of, iv. 11, 53.
Clitumnus, source of the, y. 1, 124.
conduits, iti. 24, 14. -
consumption, death by, vy. 5, 67.
cotton, iv. 4, 5.
creation of Man, iv. 5, 7.
Crop (of hair), iii. 13, 10.
Cupid, painted with wings, iii. 3, 5.
Cybelle turrita, iv. 17, 35; v. 11, 51.
Cynthia, real name of, i. 1, init.
— childless, iii. 9, 33.
— middle aged, iii. 24, 6.
— illness of, ii. 9, 25; iii, 20, 1.
— parentage of, v. 7, 15.
Cyzicus, coins of, iv. 22, 3.
D. Deification of living Emperors, iy. 4, 1.
Deponent participles, i, 2, 5. Diamonds, vy. 3, 52.
Dice, v. 8, 46.
Dirce, painting of, iv. 15, 38. Dreams, v. 7, 87
Doves, drinking, iv. 3, 31. — of Dodona, i. 9, 5. dwarfs, ν. 8, 41.
dyeing of hair, iii. 9, 23.
E. Felipses, y. 4, 23. Egyptians, dislike of the, iii. 25, 4. Embroidery, Eastern, y. 5, 24.
ἘΠ Fire, blessed, ν. 8, 13. Flame, omens from, vy. 3, 60; 8, 43. Fortune, goddess of the sea, i. 17, 7. — Etruscan, v. 2, 1. Foot, omen of the right, iv. 1, 6. Funerals, iii, 4, 18.
Ὁ:
Gauls, invasions of the, iv. 13, 51.
Gems, Indian, iii. 13, 10.
— from ocean, i. 14, 12; iii. 7, 17; iy. 4, 2.
ΙΝΌΕΧ TEE
Gems, burnt with body, v. 7, 9. Genitive, Greek form of, iii. 13, 31. Geography, poet’s ignorance of, y. 3, 48.
Ghosts, Roman theory of, v. 5, 3; 7, 1;
τα, τς Gibraltar, iv. 12, 25; v. 9, 2. Grottoes, (see antra, Ind. 11.)
He
Hair, flaxen, ii. 2, 5.
— dyeing, iii. 9, 24.
— of married women, v. 11, 34. — in mourning, i. 17, 21.
— of Nisus, iv. 19, 22. Halcyon, i. 17, 2.
Heaven and Hell, Roman notions of, v. 7,
57. Hesiod, allusion to, iii. 26, 77. Hoops (¢trochi), iv. 14, 6. Horses, Arabian, v. 3, 36. Hunting, spoils of, ii. 10, 20. Hyacinths, thrown on pyre, y. 7, 33.
Te
ictus, change of in a repeated word, ii. 3,
43. India, expedition to, iii. 1, 15; iv. 4, 1. Andians, colour of, iv. 18, 16; v. 3, 10.
-ndicative after aspice ut &., 1. 2,9; 111.
Ἷ 29. Isis, ridicule of, 111, 25, 3. — days of. v. 5, 34. Ivory, whitened by sulphur, v. 7, 82. — ceilings, iy. 2, 10. — sculptures, iv. 9, 15. ivy on tombs, v. 7, 80. — poet’s crown of, v. 1, 62.
J. Jewry, v. 2, 5. Jews, their rites tolerated, ii. 25, 4. Judges, infernal, v. 11, 19. Julian Port, iv. 18, 1. Jupiter Capitolinus and Tonans, y. 1, 7.
L.
\
Lake, Lucrine, i. 11, 10; iv. 18, 1.
— Avernian, zbid.
Lamp, omen from, v. 3, 60.
lilies, offerings of, iv. 18, 30; v. 4, 25. Lions in Italy, iii. 10, 21.
Locative, i. 17, 22; ii. 24, 3; v. 8, 10. Lovers, charmed life of, iy. 16, 11.
— presents of, iy. 13, 27.
M. Magnets, v. 5, 9. Maps, v. 3, 37. Marble, Athenian, iv. 9, 16. — Teenarian, iy. 2, 9. Marriage, ceremonies of, iv. 20, 15.
305
Marriage torch, y. 11, 46.
Monte Nuovo, iv. 18, 1.
Moon, incantation of, τ 19. ν δὲ 5: — unhealthiness of waning, iii. 8, 15. Mulberries, y. 2, 16.
Myrrhine vases, iv. 10, 22; y. 5, 26.
N.
Names, feigned, i. 1, zit. ; v. 3, init.
Nymphs of Trees, i. 20, 12.
— water, iii. 24, 39.
— offerings to, y. 4, 25.
0.
October horse, y. 1, 20.
Odyssey, scenes from the, iv. 12, 26. Ordeal, v. 7, 35.
Owls, omen of, v. 3, 59.
—in witchcraft, iy. 6, 29; γ᾿ 5, 17. Oxen, Spanish, νυ. 9, 2.
iv. 12, init.;
Ῥ:
Paintings, amorous, ii. 6, 27.
Palatine hill, v. 1, 3; 9, 3.
Palladium, ν. 4, 45.
Pallas the same as Vesta, συ. 4, 45.
Participles, deponent, i. 2, 5.
— passive in medial sense, i. 3, 34.
Pediment, figures on, iii. 28, 11.
Pedlars, v. 2, 38
Perfumes, eastern, iv. 13, 8; v. 8, 64.
Perjury, punishment Mie 15 IS VIR 111 ἢ» AT.
pine, loves of, i. 18, 20.
— stone, iv. 13, 37.
Pipes, leaden, iv. 2) 12:
Poets, represented as priests, iv. 1, nit.; v. 6, emit.
— patronised by Bacchus and Apollo, iv. Ὁ:
Porcelain, v. 5, 26.
Portraits, address to, v. 11, 84.
— consumed with body, v. 7, 47.
Preetors, i. 8, 2; iii. 7, 1.
Quiver, way of wearing, iii. 3, 10. Quotations of grammarians, iy. 8, 37.
R.
Ravens, eyes of used in magic, y. 5. 16. Red Sea, iv. 18, 6.
Religions, toleration of various, 111, 25, 4. Rhyming verses, i. 17, 5.
Rome, origin of name, vy. 1, 31.
Roses, sale of, v. 2, 40.
— used in banquets, v. 6, 72; 8, 40.
— at funerals, i. 17, 22.
Ruminate, v. 1, 31.
x
900
Ss. Sacrifices, metaphors from, iv. 1, 1; v. 6,
il Saffron, iv. 10, 22; v. 1,16; 6, 74. Savine, v. 3, 58. Scythia, climate of, v. 3, 47. Scarlet, sacrificial colour, v. 9, 52. Serpents, worship of, v. 8, 5. Sexes, duality of in mythology, v. 2, 2. Sibyl, v. 1, 49. Silk dresses, i. 2, 2; v. 8, 55. Slaves, cruelty to, iv. 16,18; v. 7, 35; 8, 80. Sneezing, omen of, 11. ὃ, 24; v. 3, 60. Spartans, education of women, iv. 14, 1. St. Elmo’s fire, vy. 6, 29. Staff, shepherd’s, v. 2, 39. Steps to the casa Romuli, v. 1, 9. Sulphur, in purifying, v. 8, 86. Suttees, antiquity of, iv. 13, 15.
ΠῚ:
Tables, loose tops of, v. 8, 44. Tanks, 111. 5, 11.
Tartan plaids, v. 10, 43. Teneriffe, iv. 22, 7.
Theatre, iv. 18, 13; v. 1, 15. Tibur, topography of, iv. 16, 2. — apple orchards of, y. 7, 81. Torch, marriage, v. 8, 138; 11, 33. Tongue, Celtic, v. 10, 44.
Tribes, three Roman, v. 1, 31. Troy twice taken, iv. 1, 32. Turpentine, terebinthine, iv. 7, 49. — taste of in wine, v. 8, 38.
U. Umbrian towns, i, 22,9; v. 1, 125.
INDEX III.
Urn, sepulchral, iv. 12, 13.
— balloting, v.11, 19.
— Vestal, v. 4, 16.
— of Danaids, ii. 1, 67; v. 11, 28.
ΝΣ
Veryain in sacrifices, y. 3, 57.
Vestals, miracles ascribed to, y. 11, 51.
Vine, culture in volcanic soil, iv. 17, 21.
Viper in tombs, v. 7, 54.
Virgil, (see Aineid).
Vocative, for nominative and accusative, i. 8, 19.
Votive offerings, iii. 10, 20; v. 3, 71.
Vowel, short before sy, v. 1, 39.
Wis
Water, scarcity of, iii. 5, 11.
— averts omens, iv. 10, 13; v. 4, 24. — forbidden to males, v. 9, 60.
— possessed by evil spirit, iv. 18, 8. Widows, burning of, iy. 138, 15. Wine, eulogy of, iv. 17, 4 ete.
— writing on table with, iv. 8, 26. — compared to poetry, v. 6, 8. Wings, why given to Cupid, iii. 3, 1. Witcheraft, v. 5, 11.
Wives, excluded from the camp, v. 3, 48. Woad, staining with, 111. 9, 23.
Wolf, change into, v. 4, 14.
— cap of skin, y. 10, 20.
Wrestlers, i. 18, 8.
Z
Zodiac, signs of the, v. 1, 107. Zones, the five, v. 1, 108.
APPENDIX.
Styce the foregoing sheets were printed, some remarks by Professor Ellis, on certain obscure passages in Propertius, have appeared in the “ Pro- fessorial Dissertations for 1871—2,” issued by University College, London.
In ii. 2, 11—12, he accepts the correction of Turnebe, Brimo .for primo, and says that “no one at the present day will doubt that this is right.” I think this is rather strong: between the MSS. readings satis— primo, and the conjecture Sa’s—Brimo there is rather a serious difference. There is some difficulty in proving that Brimo was a title of Proserpine ; difficulty in the wide separation of the epithet from the name; difficulty also in identifying the Egyptian name of Athene or Minerva, Sais, with Brimo or Proserpine. Prof. Ellis suggests that Sais may mean “ of Saos in Thrace or Samothrace,” where Hecate is thought to have been worshipped. Another suggestion of his is that we should read satius for satis; ‘‘satius fuerat Brimo composuisse latus, ut fertur, Mercurio,’’ and this for ‘‘satius fuerat Mercurium concubuisse Brimo quam violantem Cynthiw,”—(meaning, I presume, guam violasse Cynthiam). Indepen- dently of the very unsatisfactory sense, I doubt if this syntax of satius Jertur would even be correct Latinity.
I fear the passage is well-nigh hopeless. If Brimo be right, I think satis is the corruption of some epithet to wadis. (I suppose sals’s is not physically true). If Sas is genuine, I should prefer to retain (as I have edited) primo, which suits wrgineum, in respect of the ‘primus con- cubitus.’ Perhaps primum was avoided for the sake of euphony.
In in. 4, 1, Mr. Ellis suggests déusa for the corrupt MS. reading Etrusca. He finds on a unique coin the name of the ᾿Ατουσιεῖς, an Assyrian city, with the badge of an arrow and a palm branch.
᾿ Τὴ iii. 24, 50, Mr. Ellis defends deligere (which I have retained against the proposed alteration deripere), by showing that delegere and ablegere in Tac. Ann. i. 22, sometimes meant ‘to remove,’ ‘do away with.’ (The dictionaries however recognise only delegare and ablegare. An example of deligere in this sense is cited from Virg. 4x. ν. 717).
In iy. 22, 15, for the corrupt orige he proposes Coryecii, as an epithet to Caystri. It is difficult however to see what connexion there can be between a river in Lydia and a town in Cilicia.
908 APPENDIX.
In vol. i. no. 2 (pp. 152—5) of the Journal of Philology, Mr. Wratislaw has given his view of a few of the more difficult passages in our poet. In iil. 5, 29, he would retain xune ad te, mea lux, supplying 7bo, and regarding veniat mea navis, an sidat vadis as equivalent to s’ve—sive. I think this rather far-fetched, especially as, under the latter condition, (viz. the ship settling in the shoals), ad te τὖο could hardly be said; unless indeed the poet meant that he would then swim to the shore.
In iii. 26, 72, Mr. Wratislaw thinks the sense of the pentameter is parenthetical: ‘‘ Happy are you, Virgil, in your love affairs. To this ungrateful girl of mine Tityrus himself (7. 6. Virgil) may sing, and sing in vain.”
In iv. 9, 25, he takes precisely the same view of Iedorum ire per hostes as I have done, viz. that the hostile Parthians are meant, who had conquered the Medes.
I must beg the reader to pardon a few slight and unimportant misprints, which have escaped eyes that are not as good as they were. Such are,—
Plat. Symph. for Plat. Symp., p.10, note 21. Pagase for Pagases, Ὁ. 45, note 17.
Asis for Asist, p. 48, note 9.
portray for pourtray, p. 58, note 42. Sermosam for formosam, Ὁ. 108, note 24. Amphiaree for Amphiaraee, p.137, note 39. pinguis for pinguis, p. 227, note 33.
Carpene for Capene, p. 235, note 71. Typheus for Typhoeus, p. 263, note 5. ἐπεχώριος for ἐπιχώριος, p. 270, note 7.
THE END.
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