Poems Read online

  Rocks: The Symplegades – see note to II.26b.

  Controlled anger in victory: Propertius’ odd phrase ‘victrices temperat ira manus’ (literally, ‘anger tempers our hands when they are victorious’) leads Heyworth & Morwood to cite Aeneas’ killing of Turnus at the close of the Aeneid, which, they say, ‘gives a remarkable picture of the man who symbolizes Rome rejecting restraint out of anger … The confusion of the Aeneid’s moral message is thus encapsulated in the Propertian phrase.’

  Marcius’ … aqueduct: See note to III.2.

  Albano, Nemi: Lakes in the hills south of Rome.

  Wholesome spring: The Lake of Juturna in the Roman Forum. Castor and Pollux were said to have watered their horses there after – according to legend – helping the Romans beat off an attempt by the Tarquins to reclaim the city’s throne at the (historical) Battle of Lake Regillus in the early fifth century BC.

  Andromeda: See note to I.3. There follows a series of other unpleasant episodes in Greek mythology, things Propertius says do not happen in Italy. The banquets refer to how King Atreus of Mycenae killed the sons of his brother Thyestes and served them to him at a feast – an incident that caused the disgusted Sun-god to turn back in his tracks. The death sentences recall how the Fates told the warrior Meleager’s mother Althaea that he would live as long as a log burning on her hearth. She removed the log and hid it, but when Meleager later killed her brothers she burnt it, causing his death. On the Bacchae, see note to III.17. Pentheus’ killers tore him from a tree where he had taken refuge. The substituted deer relates to the story of Iphigenia, who was ordered to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to stop unfavourable winds blocking the departure of the Greek fleet for Troy. In one version, a hind was substituted for her at the last moment and she escaped. Juno is yet another reference to the myth of Io, on which see note to I.3.

  III.23

  Writing tablets: Catullus (earlier) and Ovid (later) also wrote light-hearted poems about their writing tablets. These consisted of a double board covered with wax, with raised wooden surrounds and hinged so they could be folded shut and sealed. Propertius says that even without his personal seal, his tablets could be easily recognised. He suggests that he used them both to compose poetry and to exchange messages with girlfriends. Some scholars have surmised that the poem, which speaks of multiple women and does not mention Cynthia, is to prepare the reader for the next poem’s formal dismissal of her.

  The Esquiline: Propertius says again in IV.8 that he lived on Rome’s Esquiline Hill (not far today from the city’s main railway station), which was also the area where Maecenas resided.

  III.24–25

  Cast as Propertius’ final farewell to Cynthia. But she appears again in IV.7 (as a ghost) and IV.8 (alive).

  Aegean waters: The Aegean Sea has been noted since ancient times for its storms.

  Thessaly: See note to I.5. The reference to magic is probably a deliberate echo of I.1, as this poem purports to close off a chapter opened by Propertius’ first published work.

  IV.1

  I read IV.1 as a single poem, as in the manuscripts, though some editors print it as two, the second beginning with Horos’ intervention half-way through (after the asterisks in my version). Scholars have long argued the point. Neither side seems to me to have made a conclusive case, but on balance I prefer to see this as a more elaborate version of III.3, where Propertius is talked out of a plan to write historical epic.

  Palatine: One of the seven hills on which Rome was built, it overlooks the Forum. Propertius begins the poem in the guise (soon dropped) of a tourist guide.

  Evander: In Roman mythology, a semi-divine figure from the Greek region of Arcadia who brought Greek culture to Italy, founding the city of Pallanteum on the future site of Rome before the Trojan War and instituting the Lupercalia festival, mentioned further on in this poem. He figures prominently in Vergil’s Aeneid.

  Tarpeian rock: See also notes to III.11 and IV.4. In Propertius’ day it was the site of a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, but he is saying this was not always so.

  Immigrant Tiber: An apparent reference to the fact that the river flowed down from what was then Etruria. Its source is in what is now the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna.

  Romulus’ home: The house of the founder of Rome and his twin brother Remus was another site that had been greatly developed from humble origins.

  Vesta: See also notes to II.29b and III.4. ‘At the Vestalia on 9 June both cornmills and the donkeys that worked them were garlanded with flowers and the donkeys had loaves of bread hung around their necks.’ (Camps).

  Lupercalia: In Propertius’ time, the festival was held on 15 February. Selected young men ran around the Palatine striking with goat-skin thongs any woman they came across, in a ritual supposed to promote fertility. The practice is mentioned in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, where Caesar instructs Mark Antony, who will be one of the runners, to strike his (Caesar’s) wife Calpurnia, in the hope that she will conceive.

  Lycmon: An Etruscan king who helped Romulus against Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines. Tatius later ruled Rome jointly with Romulus. He is dealt with at length in IV.4.

  Bovillae … Gabii … Alba … Fidene: Four once significant towns near Rome that by Propertius’ day had either been absorbed into the conurbation or disappeared. On Alba, see note to III.3. The only place that still survives is Fidene, now a Rome suburb.

  Troy: Propertius develops the theme, central to the Aeneid, that although the Greeks sacked Troy, the escape of Aeneas and his followers, resulting eventually in the rise of Rome, represented the survival of Troy and even its revenge upon Greece. Propertius makes much of the Roman concept of Penates, or household gods, which came to be synonymous with a home. They are seen as having existed in Troy and been brought to Italy by Aeneas.

  Trembling father: Anchises, who, in the legend, was carried out of Troy on the shoulders of his son, Aeneas.

  Decius: See note to III.11.

  Brutus: Not the assassin of Caesar, but his supposed ancestor Lucius Junius Brutus, who overthrew the Tarquin kings in 509 BC and became one of Rome’s first consuls. The reference to his axes is ambiguous: they were the symbol of consular authority but were also used to execute criminals. Brutus had his own sons executed for conspiring against the state.

  Her progeny Caesar: See note to III.4. In the Aeneid, Vergil portrays Venus as using her bedroom skills to persuade her husband Vulcan, the smith-god, to make new armour for Aeneas.

  Julus: The son of Aeneas.

  Sibyl: See also note to II.2. She was said to have resided at Cuma, near Lake Averno (see also note to I.11) in the Naples area. Propertius suggests that she forecast the death of Remus – slain by his brother for derisively jumping over the nascent walls of Rome – as a ritual sacrifice that would ensure the city’s future prosperity.

  Cassandra: See note to III.13.

  Ennius: See note to III.3. By appealing to Bacchus for a wreath of his ivy, Propertius is implicitly contrasting himself with a poet seen by his time as venerable, but antiquated and uncouth.

  Whoa!: The speaker for the rest of the poem, aside from a sub-quotation attributed to Apollo, is Horos, an astrologer who is otherwise unknown but whose name presumably recalls the word ‘horoscope’. Some of his speech seems intended to suggest astrological mumbo-jumbo, but the overall purpose, I would argue, is once again to use humour as a way to deflect the pressure on Propertius to write ‘regime poetry’, instead continuing to use the elegiac-couplet metre that was considered incompatible with epic.

  Archytas: A Greek polymath (428–347 BC) of the Pythagorean school, whose specialities included astronomy. Orops is unknown and possibly invented by Propertius, though the name suggests the Middle East. Conon, from the Greek island of Samos, was a third-century-BC astronomer and mathematician, known for having named the Lock of Berenice constellation.

  Capricorn: The constellation sets below the western horizon, hence, from the Roman standpoint, in the sea.


  Arria … Lupercus … Gallus: All unknown. Commentators believe, however, that the reference may be to the ‘Lollius disaster’, in which Roman legions under the control of Marcus Lollius, governor of Gaul, were defeated by German tribes that had crossed the Rhine in 16 BC (approximate date of Book Four).

  Cinara: Also unknown. Juno Lucina was the goddess of childbirth.

  Jupiter’s sandy cave: An oracle of a North African version of Jupiter at the Siwa oasis in Libya. In attempting to foresee the future, the ancients attached much importance to birds – their calls (as mentioned earlier in the poem), their flight and their entrails. Our word ‘auspicious’ derives from Latin ‘auspicium’, meaning ‘observation of birds’. Propertius’ reference to spirits rising from bowls of water reminds us that the modern practices of mediums have a long history.

  Five zones: In his Georgics, Vergil, following the third-century-BC Greek geographer Eratosthenes, speaks of five zones of the sky (and hence of earth) – two cold, two temperate and one hot.

  Calchas: The mythological seer who said that in order to turn the winds that were holding the Troy-bound Greek fleet at Aulis, Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigenia would have to be sacrificed (see also note to III.22).

  Nauplius: See note to II.26b.

  The prophetess: A further reference to Cassandra, who, after the fall of Troy, was raped by a Greek fighter known as Ajax the Lesser (to distinguish him from the mighty warrior Ajax, subject of a play by Sophocles).

  The Umbrian lake: A modern reader familiar with Italy might take this to be Trasimeno, the country’s fourth largest lake. Some scholars agree, but others say that in Roman times Trasimeno was in Etruria, not Umbria, and that Propertius must be referring to another lake presumed to have existed near Assisi but to have since dried up.

  Bailiff’s rod: This section is our primary evidence for believing that at least part of the Propertius family estate in Umbria was taken away to provide farmland for Octavian’s veterans (see note to I.21). It accounts for most of our scanty knowledge of the poet’s early life, including that he rejected a legal career. In their mid-teens, Roman boys gave up an amulet, or locket, normally donated by their fathers, and began to wear an adult male’s toga.

  ‘Write love poems …: The next twelve lines are ascribed by editors to Apollo, quoted by Horos.

  Her boys: The Cupids, often seen (as in II.29a) as a group rather than an individual.

  One girl: Clearly, Cynthia. Propertius serves notice that, despite the apparent final farewell in III.24–25, she is not forgotten. She will, in fact, reappear in IV.7 and IV.8.

  The eight-footed Crab: The bizarre end to the poem may be intended as more astrological hokum. Scholars have, however, found one or two mentions in classical authors of the star-sign Cancer being inimical to lovers. Some have suggested that, because coins dating from the period of Book Four have been found with a crab design on the back, Horos may be advising Propertius to beware the power of money – or of Augustus, who appeared on the obverse.

  IV.2

  Vertumnus: Much of what we know about this Etruscan deity derives from this poem, in which he is the speaker. He is mentioned by other Roman authors, though, including the historian and agricultural writer Varro, a rough contemporary of Propertius, who called him ‘the chief god of Etruria’. Associated with the seasons and the harvest, Vertumnus had a statue – Propertius says originally of wood but later of bronze – in the Vicus Tuscus (‘Tuscan Street’, mentioned later in this poem), which came to the Forum from the Tiber under the slopes of the Palatine. Part of the poem deals with the origin of the god’s name, which, in the line arrangement adopted here, he links with the battle soon after Rome’s foundation (traditionally in 753 BC) when the allied Romans and Etruscans (see note to IV.1) defeated the Sabines. The poem as we have it, however, does not make clear the name’s true etymology.

  Old Tiber: The district known as the Velabro, where the Vicus Tuscus ran, was originally marshy, with overspill from the Tiber. It was later drained, in what Propertius describes as a benevolent act by the river.

  Numa: Numa Pompilius was the second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus, according to Roman historians, who give the dates of his reign as 715–673 BC.

  Mamurrius: Mamurrius Veturius was a legendary sculptor in early Rome. He came from Campania, to the south.

  IV.3

  Styx-water: See note to II.9. Arethusa is saying with heavy irony that all the customary rituals at her wedding must have been blighted by ill omens, since her husband now spends so much time away from home.

  Ocnus: ‘[A] proverbial character who let an extravagant wife waste the fruits of his industry, and was condemned to sit to eternity twisting (i.e. making) a rope, while a donkey standing by ate it up … as fast as he made it.’ (Camps).

  Tyrian wool: See note to II.16b.

  Aras River: See note to III.12.

  Parthian camels: See note to II.10.

  Hippolyte: Leader of the Amazons, on whom see note to III.14.

  Sabine herbs: The Sabine hills lie north and east of Rome. Arethusa says she has observed all necessary religious rituals to ensure Lycotas’ safe return. A hooting owl was considered to herald bad luck. But, according to Ovid, a sputtering lamp was a good omen, to which the correct response was to sprinkle it with drops of wine. Both good and bad omens would have required animal sacrifices, arranged – for payment – by assistant priests.

  Conqueror’s spear: A victorious commander carried an untipped spear in his triumphal procession.

  Capena Gate: At the start of the Appian Way, which headed south-east out of Rome. The Senate consecrated an altar there to mark Augustus’ return from the East in 19 BC.

  IV.4

  The name of the Tarpeian Rock, on the Capitoline Hill, derived from Tarpeia, a Vestal Virgin who betrayed the hill to the Sabines attacking Rome in reprisal for the Rape of the Sabine Women, an event traditionally dated to 750 BC during the reign of Romulus (see also below and note to II.6; the Roman-Sabine conflict has already been mentioned in IV.1 and IV.2). The Vestal Virgins (on whom see also notes to II.29b and III.4) were chosen before puberty and served for thirty years. They received significant privileges but also faced severe penalties for wrongdoing. The punishment for letting Vesta’s fire go out was scourging. If they had sexual relations with men they could be buried alive (there are ten reported cases of this in the thousand years or so during which the office continued). Because of Tarpeia’s role as a Vestal, her treachery is portrayed as particularly heinous. Her tomb no longer existed in Propertius’ day.

  Cures: A Sabine city, where Passo Corese is now sited, from which Tatius launched his campaign.

  Silvanus: A rural deity.

  Scylla: See note to III.19. But Propertius here blends that Scylla, whose story resembles that of Tarpeia, with the monster of the same name at the Straits of Messina (see note to II.26b), whose lower parts were portrayed as ravening hounds.

  Ariadne: See note to I.3. She was the daughter of Pasiphae and King Minos, while the Minotaur was the offspring of Pasiphae and a bull, making Ariadne its half-sister. She gave Theseus a ball of thread to help him escape, after killing the monster, from the labyrinth where it was kept.

  Minerva’s fire: An image of Minerva, said to have come from Troy, was kept in the temple of Vesta.

  Motherless child: Romulus. His mother was in fact the princess Rhea Silvia, but he was abandoned, along with his twin brother Remus, to die in the flooding Tiber; the river receded and they were rescued by a she-wolf.

  Rape of the Sabine Women: The phrase has passed into history. But I have not followed some other translators in rendering Propertius’ arresting Latin ‘me rape’ in the next line as ‘rape me’ – on the grounds that, as mentioned in the note to II.6, the Latin term strictly means abduction rather than sexual violation. With ‘I can ease apart…’ Tarpeia lays claim to the role Roman historians ascribed to the abducted Sabine women of mediating an end to the war between their Sabine families and new
Roman husbands.

  Venus: As Aeneas’ mother, a partisan of the Trojan and later the Roman cause.

  Terme River: See note to III.14. Propertius here seems to merge the bacchants, identified with the Greek region of Thrace, with the Amazons, who lived near the Terme.

  Parilia: The feast of Pales, a shepherds’ deity, which was celebrated on 21 April, supposed date of the foundation of Rome.

  IV.5

  The poem is addressed to a lena – the female manager of a prostitute. The character was a stock villain of ancient comedy, and the tone of the poem seems primarily comic. The debt to the theatre is recognised in the reference to Menander. We learn late on that the woman’s name is Acanthis, related to the Greek word for ‘thorn’ (thorns are mentioned at the start of the poem). Scholars have dismissed the notion that the ‘lady-friend’ referred to could be Cynthia. But it is worth noting that some of the tricks Acanthis recommends to her protegée are elsewhere described as characteristic of Cynthia.

  Cerberus: See note to III.5.

  Hippolytus: See note on Phaedra in II.1.

  Antinous: Leader of the suitors who besieged Ulysses’ wife Penelope during his absence.

  Secretions from a mare: In the last of his jibes at Acanthis’ supposed witchlike powers, Propertius mentions ‘hippomanes’, a substance obtained from mares in heat or pregnant, which ancient writers describe variously as an aphrodisiac or poison (apparently the latter is meant here).

  Tyrian dyes: See note to II.16b. I have abbreviated and simplified this section to get rid of some proper names of marginal importance.

  Kos: See note to I.2. Its fabrics are referred to again later in the poem as much more valuable than verses from the same place – a reference to Philitas of Kos, one of Propertius’ role-models.