Sextus Propertius

born 55, –43 bc, Assisi, Umbria
[Italy]
died after 16, bc, Rome
greatest elegiac poet of ancient
Rome. The first of his four books of
elegies, published in 29 bc, is called
Cynthia after its heroine (his mistress,
whose real name was Hostia); it gained
him entry into the literary circle
centring on Maecenas.
Very few details of the life of
Sextus Propertius are known. His father
died when he was still a boy, but he was
given a good education by his mother.
Part of the family estate was
confiscated (c. 40 bc) to satisfy the
resettlement needs of the veteran troops
of Octavian, later the emperor Augustus,
after the civil wars. Propertius’ income
was thus severely diminished, though he
was never really poor. With his mother,
he left Umbria for Rome, and there (c.
34 bc) he assumed the dress of manhood.
Some of his friends were poets
(including Ovid and Bassus), and he had
no interest in politics, the law, or
army life. His first love affair was
with an older woman, Lycinna, but this
was only a passing fancy when set beside
his subsequent serious attachment to the
famous “Cynthia” of his poems.
The first of Propertius’ four books
of elegies (the second of which is
divided by some editors into two) was
published in 29 bc, the year in which he
first met “Cynthia,” its heroine. It was
known as the Cynthia and also as the
Monobiblos because it was for a long
time afterward sold separately from his
other three books. Complete editions of
all four books were also available.
Cynthia seems to have had an immediate
success, for the influential literary
patron Maecenas invited Propertius to
his house, where he doubtless met the
other prominent literary figures who
formed Maecenas’ circle. These included
the poets Virgil (whom Propertius
admired) and Horace (whom he never
mentions). The influence of both,
especially that of Horace in Book III,
is manifest in his work.
Cynthia’s real name, according to the
2nd-century writer Apuleius, was Hostia.
It is often said that she was a
courtesan, but elegy 16 in Book I seems
to suggest that she belonged to a
distinguished family. It is likely that
she was married, though Propertius only
mentions her other lovers, never her
husband. From the poems she emerges as
beautiful, passionate, and uninhibited.
She was intensely jealous of Propertius’
own infidelities and is painted as a
woman terrible in her fury, irresistible
in her gentler moods. Propertius makes
it clear that, even when seeking
pleasures apart from his mistress, he
still loved her deeply, returning to her
full of remorse, and happy when she
reasserted her dominion over him.
After many violent scenes, it appears
that Propertius finally broke off his
tempestuous affair with her in 24 bc,
though inferring dates from the poems’
internal evidence cannot be undertaken
with real confidence, as this kind of
personal poetry often interweaves fact
with fancy. He was to look back on his
liaison with her as a period of disgrace
and humiliation. This may be more than a
mere literary pose, although after
Cynthia’s death (she does not seem to
have lived for long after their break)
he regretted the brusqueness of their
separation and was ashamed that he had
not even attended her funeral. In a most
beautiful and moving elegy (IV:7), he
conjures up her ghost and with it
re-creates the whole glamour and
shabbiness of the affair. While he makes
no attempt to brush over the
disagreeable side of her nature, he also
makes it clear that he loves her beyond
the grave.
Propertius’ poetic powers matured
with experience. The poetry of Book II
is far more ambitious in scope than that
of Book I and shows a richer
orchestration. His reputation grew, and
the emperor Augustus himself seems to
have taken notice of him, for, in Books
III and IV, the poet laments the
premature death of Marcellus, Augustus’
nephew and heir apparent (III:18), and
he composed a magnificent funeral elegy
(IV:11) in praise of Cornelia, Augustus’
stepdaughter—the “Queen of Elegies” as
it is sometimes called.
As his poetic powers developed, so
also did Propertius’ character and
interests. In his earliest elegies, love
is not only his main theme but is almost
his religion and philosophy. It is still
the principal theme of Book II, but he
now seems a little embarrassed by the
popular success of Book I and is anxious
not to be thought of simply as a gifted
scoundrel who is constantly in love and
can write of nothing else. In Book II he
considers writing an epic, is
preoccupied with the thought of death,
and attacks (in the manner of later
satirists, such as Juvenal) the coarse
materialism of his time. He still loves
to go to parties and feels perfectly at
ease in the big city with its crowded
streets, its temples, theatres, and
porticoes, and its disreputable
quarters. In a way, he is a conservative
snob, in general sympathy with Roman
imperialism and Augustan rule; but he is
open to the beauties of nature and is
genuinely interested in works of art.
Though he disapproves of ostentatious
luxury, he also appreciates contemporary
fashions.
Some of his contemporaries accused
him of leading a life of idleness and
complained that he contributed nothing
to society. But Propertius felt it his
duty to support the right of the artist
to lead his own life, and he demanded
that poetry, and art in general, should
not be regarded simply as a civilized
way of passing the time. In elegy 3 of
Book III he gives deep meaning to the
process of artistic creation and
emphasizes the importance of the
creative artist.
In Books III and IV Propertius
demonstrates his command over various
literary forms, including the diatribe
and the hymn. Many of his poems show the
influence of such Alexandrian poets as
Callimachus and Philetas. Propertius
acknowledges this debt, and his claim to
be the “Roman Callimachus,” treating
Italian themes in the baroque
Alexandrian manner, is perhaps best
shown in a series of elegies in Book IV
that deal with aspects of Roman
mythology and history and were to
inspire Ovid to write his Fasti, a
calendar of the Roman religious year.
These poems are a compromise between the
elegy and the epic. Book IV also
contains some grotesque, realistic
pieces, two unusual funeral elegies, and
a poetic letter.
Two of the lasting merits of
Propertius seem to have impressed the
ancients themselves. The first they
called blanditia, a vague but expressive
word by which they meant softness of
outline, warmth of colouring, a fine and
almost voluptuous feeling for beauty of
every kind, and a pleading and
melancholy tenderness; this is most
obvious in his descriptive passages and
in his portrayal of emotion. His second
and even more remarkable quality is
poetic facundia, or command of striking
and appropriate language. Not only is
his vocabulary extensive but his
employment of it is extraordinarily bold
and unconventional: poetic and
colloquial Latinity alternate abruptly,
and in his quest for the striking
expression he frequently seems to strain
the language to the breaking point.
Propertius’ handling of the elegiac
couplet, and particularly of the
pentameter, deserves especial
recognition. It is vigorous, varied, and
picturesque. In the matter of the
rhythms, caesuras, and elisions that it
allows, the metrical treatment is more
severe than that of Catullus but
noticeably freer than that of Ovid, to
whose stricter usage, however,
Propertius increasingly tended
(particularly in his preference for a
disyllabic word at the end of the
pentameter). An elaborate symmetry is
observable in the construction of many
of his elegies, and this has tempted
critics to divide a number of them into
strophes.
As Propertius had borrowed from his
predecessors, so his successors, Ovid
above all, borrowed from him; and
graffiti on the walls of Pompeii attest
his popularity in the 1st century ad. In
the European Middle Ages he was
virtually forgotten, and since the
Renaissance he has been studied by
professional scholars more than he has
been enjoyed by the general public. To
the modern reader acquainted with the
psychological discoveries of the 20th
century, the self-revelations of his
passionate, fitful, brooding spirit are
of peculiar interest.
Almost nothing is known about
Propertius’ life after his love affair
with Cynthia was over. It is possible
that he married her successor in his
affections (perhaps in order to qualify
for the financial benefits offered to
married men by the leges Juliae of 18
bc) and had a child, for an inscription
in Assisi and two passages in the
letters of the younger Pliny (ad
61/62–c. 113) indicate that Propertius
had a descendant called Gaius Passennus
Paulus Propertius, who was also a poet.
During his later years he lived in an
elegant residential area in Rome on the
Esquiline Hill. The date of his death is
not certain, though he was still alive
in 16 bc, for two events of that year
are mentioned in his fourth book, which
was perhaps edited posthumously.
Georg Hans Luck