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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:
care peel Cy diz hna “ΦΑ
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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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