The date of
from the otupiddy, the Bovotpoonödv, and other his birth has been variously placed between the
methods.
from the otupiddy, the Bovotpoonödv, and other his birth has been variously placed between the
methods.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
Prom.
167, &c.
376.
)
7), and the third a Naiad. (Conon, 2. ) (L. S. )
There was also an account, stating that Pro- PRO’NOMUS (Ipóvouos), of Thebes, the son of
metheus had created men out of earth and water, Oenindas, was one of the most distinguished auletic
at the very beginning of the human mce, or after musicians of Greece at the time of the Pelopon-
the flood of Deucalion, when Zeus is said to have ncsian Wrr (Epigr. Incert. 212, Brunck, Anal. vol.
ordered him and Athena to make men out of the iii. p. 194). He was the instructor of Alcibiades
mud, and the winds to breathe life into them in flute-playing. (Ath. iv. p. 184, d. ) He in-
(Apollod. i. 7. § 1; Ov. Met. i. 81 ; Etym. Mag. vented a new sort of flute, the compass of which
s. v. Ipoundeus). Prometheus is said to have given was such, that melodies could be played upon it in
to men something of all the qualities possessed by all the three modes of music, the Dorian, the Phry-
the other animals (Horat. Carm. i. 16. 13). The gian, and the Lydian, for each of which, before
kind of earth out of which Prometheus formed men this invention, a separate flute had been necessary.
was shown in later times near Panopeus in Phocis (Paus. ix. 12. § 4. 8. 5, 6; Ath. xiv. p. 631, e. )
(Paus. x. 4. § 3), and it was at his suggestion that One very celebrated composition of his was a Delian
Deucalion, when the flood approached, built a ship, prosodia (that is, a prelude to be played as the
and carried into it provisions, that he and Pyrrha sacred embassy to Delos approached the temple),
might be able to support themselves during the which he made for the people of Chalcis in Euboea
calamity (Apollod. i. 7. & 2). Prometheus, in the (Paus. l. c. ). His melodies were brought forward,
legend, often appears in connection with Athena, in competition with those of Sacadas, the Argive,
e. g. , he is said to have been punished on mount in the musical contests which formed a part of the
Caucasus for the criminal love he entertained for festivities celebrated at the foundation of Messene
her (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1249); and he is by Epaminondas (Paus. iv. 27. $ 4. 8. 7). Another
further said, with her assistance, to have ascended proof of the high esteem in which he was held by
into heaven, and there secretly to have lighted his his fellow-citizens was afforded by their erection
torch at the chariot of Helios, in order to bring of his statue near that of Epaminondas, in the
down the fire to man (Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. vi. 42). temple of Apollo Spodius, at Thebes (Paus. ix. 12.
At Athens Prometheus had a sanctuary in the $ 4. s. 5, 6). He is mentioned once by Aris-
Academy, from whence a torch-race took place in tophanes (Eccles. 102, comp. Schol. and Suid. s. v. );
honour of him (Paus. i. 30. § 2 ; Schol. ad Soph. but only to hang a jest on his long beard. (Fabric.
Oed. Col. 55 ; Harpocrat. s. 0. autás). The Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 136 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen.
mythus of Prometheus is most minutely discussed Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 76 ; Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk.
by Welcker, in his Aeschylische Trilogie Prometheus, vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 43, n. 3, 207, 314, pt. ii. pp. 192,
Darmstadt, 1824; by Völcker, Mythologie des Iapet. 236, 351. )
[P. S. )
Geschlechtes, 1824 ; and with especial reference to PRONOUS (Ipovoos). 1. A son of Phegeus,
the Prometheus of Aeschylus, by Schoemann, Des and brother of Agenor in Psophis, slew Alcmaeon.
Aeschylus Gefesselter Prometheus, Greifswald, 1844, (Apollod. iii. 7. $ 6; comp. AGENOR and Alc-
and by Blackie, in the Class. Mus. vol. 5. p. 1, &c. , MAEON ; Schol. ad Thuc. i. 3. )
which contain a very sound explanation of the 2. A Trojan who was slain by Patroclus. (Hom.
mythus, as developed by Aeschylus. [L. S. ) Il. xvi. 399. )
[L. S. )
PRONAEA (IIpovaía), a surname of Athena, PRONUBA, a surname of Juno among the
under which she had a chapel at Delphi, in front of Romans, describing her as the deity presiding over
the temple of Apollo. (Herod. i. 92 ; Aeschyl. marriage. (Virg. Aen. iv. 166, vii. 319; Ov.
Eum. 21 ; Paus. ix. 10. § 2. ) Pronaus also occurs Heroid. vi. 43. )
[L. S. ]
as a surname of Hermes. (Paus. l. c. ) (L. S. ) PROPE'RTIUS, SEX. AURE’LIUS. (The
PRONA'PIDES (Ipovanions, a various reading agnonen, Nauta, found in some Codices and early
is Mpovonions), an Athenian, is said to have been editions, seems to have been derived from a corrupt
the teacher of Homer. (Tzetzes, Chil. v. 634. ) He reading of ii. 24. 38. ) The materials for a life of
is enumerated among those who used the Pelasgic Propertius are meagre and unsatisfactory, consist
letters, before the introduction of the Phoenician, ing almost entirely of the inferences which may be
and is characterised as a graceful composer of song. drawn from hints scattered in his writings. We
(Diod. iii. 66. ) Tatian (Orat. ad Graec. c. 62) know neither the precise place nor date of his
mentions, among the early Grcek writers, one Pros-birth. He tells us that he was a native of Um-
nautides, an Athenian, whom Worth, in his edition bria, where it borders on Etruria, but nowhere
of Tatian, plausibly conjectures to be Pronapides mentions the exact spot Conjecture has assigned
According to the Scholiast on Theodosius the Gram- it, among other towns, to Mevania, Ameria, His-
marian, Pronapides invented the mode of writing pellum, and Asisium ; of which one of the two
from left to right now in use, as contradistinguished last seems entitled to the preference.
The date of
from the otupiddy, the Bovotpoonödv, and other his birth has been variously placed between the
methods. (Bekker, Anecd. Graec. 786. 17 ; Fabric. years of Rome 697 and 708 (B. C. 57 to 46).
Bibl. Graec. vol. i.
P
217. ) (W. M. G. ) Lachmann, however, was the first who placed it so
PRONAX (Mpwał), a son of Talaus and Lysi- low as B. c. 48 or 47 ; and the latest date (B. C.
mache, and a brother of Adrastus and Eriphyle. 46) is that of Hertzberg, the recent German
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## p. 546 (#562) ############################################
546
PROPERTIUS.
PROPERTIUS.
editor. The latter's computation proceeds on very | putation adopted in this notice, Propertius was
strained inferences, which we have not space to about one-and-twenty. This inference is drawn
discuss ; but it may possibly be sufficient to state from the opening elegy of the second book (v. 17,
that one of his results is to place the tenth elegy &c. ), from which it appears that Maecenas had
of the second book, in which Propertius talks requested him to describe the military achieve
about his extrema aetas (v. 6) in B. C. 25, when, ments of Octavianus. At that important epoch it
according to Hertzberg, he was one-and-twenty! formed part of that minister's policy to engage the
For several reasons, too long to be here adduced, most celebrated wits of Rome in singing Caesar's
it might be shown that the year assigned by praises ; his object being to invest his master's
Mr. Clinton, namely, B. C. 51, is a much more successes with all those charms of popularity
probable one, and agrees better with the relative which would necessarily prove 60 conducive to
ages of Propertius and Ovid. We know that the the great object which lay nearest to his heart
latter was born in B. C. 43, so that he would have the establishment of Caesar's absolute empire.
been eight years younger than Propertius: a dif- This is also evident from the works of Horace.
ference which would entitle him to call Propertius That poet was a republican ; yet, after the
his predecessor, whilst at the same time it would battle of Actium, Maecenas succeeded in in-
not prevent the two poets from being sodales ducing him to magnify Caesar, with whom there
(Ov. Trist. iv. 10. 45).
was nobody left to contest the world. These con-
Propertius was not descended from a family of siderations, by the way, lead us also to the conclu-
any distinction (ii. 24. 37), nor can the inference sion that there must have been at least a difference
that it was equestrian be sustained from the men- of eight years, as stated above, in the ages of Ovid
tion of the aurea bulla (iv. 1. 131), which was the and Propertius. The latter poet was already
common ornament of all children who were ingenui. known to fame when it suited the political views
(Cic. in Verr. ii. 1, 58, with the note of Asconius; as well as the natural taste, of Maecenas to pa-
Macrob. i. 6. ) The paternal estate, however, tronise him. Ovid, on the contrary, was then a
seems to have been sufficiently ample (Nam tua mere boy ; and his reputation would have been
versarent cum multi rura juvenci, iv. 1. 129); but just bursting forth, when the faithful minister of
of this he was deprived by an agrarian division, | Augustus was dismissed by his ungrateful master.
probably that in B. c. 36, after the Sicilian war, An earlier, and perhaps more disinterested, patron
and thus thrown into comparative poverty (in tenues of Propertius was Tullus, the nephew, probably, of
cogeris ipse Lares, 16. 128). “At the time of L. Volcatius Tullus, the fellow-consul of Octa-
this misfortune he had not yet assumed the toga vianus, in B. C. 33. Tullus, however, seems to
virilis, and was therefore under sixteen years of have been much of the same age as Propertius, as
age. He had already lost his father, who, it has may be inferred from the conclusion of iji. 22 ;
been conjectured, was one of the victims sacrificed and they may, therefore, be in some degree looked
after the taking of Perusia ; but this notion does upon as sodales.
not rest on any satisfactory grounds. The elegy It was probably in B. C. 32 or 31, that Proper-
on which it is founded (i. 21) refers to a kinsman tius first became acquainted with his Cynthia. He
named Gallus. We have no account of Pro- had previously had an amour with a certain Ly-
pertius's education ; but from the elegy before cinna, and to which we must assign the space of a
quoted (iv. 1) it would seem that he was destined year or two. This connection, however, was a
to be an advocate, but abandoned the profession merely sensual one, and was not, therefore, of a
for that of poetry. That he was carefully in- nature to draw out his poetical powers. In Cyn-
structed appears from the learning displayed in this, though by no means an obdurate beauty, he
his writings, and which was probably acquired found incitement enough, as well as sufficient ob-
altogether at Rome ; the smallness of his means stacles to the gratification of his passion, to lend it
having prevented him from finishing his education refinement, and to develope the genius of his muse.
at Athens, as was then commonly done by the The biographers of Propertius make him
wealthier Romans. At all events it is plain from ful lover at once. They neither allow time for
the sixth elegy of the first book, written after his courtship, nor assign any of his elegies to that pe-
connection with Cynthia had begun, that he had riod. It is plain, however, from several passages,
not then visited Greece. In the twenty-first elegy that his suit must have been for a length of time
of the third book he meditates a journey thither, an unsuccessful one (see especially ii. 14. 15), and
probably at the time when he had quarrelled with several of his pieces were probably written during
his mistress ; but whether he ever carried the its progress ; as the first of the first book (which
design into execution we have no means of know- Lachmann refers to the time of his quarrel with
ing.
his mistress), the fifth of the fourth book, and
The history of Propertius's life, so far as it is Others Cynthia was a native of Tibur (iv. 7. 85),
known to us, is the history of his amours, nor can and her real name was Hostia. (Appuleius,
it be said how much of these is fiction. He was, Apolog. ; Schol. in Juven. vi. 7. ) As Propertius
what has been called in modern times “ a man of (iï. 20. 8) alludes to her doctus arus, it is pro-
wit and pleasure about town ;” nor in the few bable that she was a grand-daughter of Hostius,
particulars of his life which he communicates in who wrote a poem on the Histric war. [Hostius. ]
the first elegy of the fourth book, does he drop the She seems to have inherited a considerable portion
slightest hint of his ever having been engaged in of the family talent, and was herself a poetess, be-
any serious or useful employment. He began to sides being skilled in music, dancing, and needle-
write poetry at a very early age, and the merit of work (i. 2. 27, i. 3. 41, ii. 1. 9, ii. 3. 17, &c. ). From
his productions soon attracted the attention and pa- these accomplishments Paldamus, in the Ép. Ded.
tronage of Maecenas. This was most probably to his edition of Propertius, inferred that she was
shortly after the final discomfiture and death of a woman of rank ; and some have even absurdly
Antony in B. C. 30, when, according to the com- derived her genealogy from Hostus Hostilius. But
success-
## p. 547 (#563) ############################################
PROPERTIUS.
547
PROPERTIUS.
the truth seems to be that she belonged, as Hertz- / and he has been followed by Barth and other cri-
berg thinks, to that higher class of courtczane, or tics. Masson's reasons for fixing on that year are
rather kept women, then sufficiently numerous at that none of his elegies can be assigned to a later
Rome. We cannot reconcile the whole tenor of date than B. C. 16; and that Ovid twice mentions
the poems with any other supposition. Thus it him in his Ars Amatoria (iii. 333 and 536) in a
appears that Propertius succeeded a lover who had | way that shows him to have been dead. The first
gone to Africa for the purpose of gain (iii. 20), of these proves nothing. It docs not follow that
perhaps after having been well stripped by Cyn. Propertius ceased to live because he ceased to
thia. Propertius is in turn displaced by a stupid write ; or that he ceased to write because nothing
praetor, returning from Illyricum with a well-filled later has been preserved. The latter assertion,
purse, and whom the poet advises his mistress to too, is not indisputable. There are no means of
make the most of (ii. 16). We are led to the same fixing the dates of several of his pieces ; and El.
conclusion by the fifth elegy of the fourth book, iv. 6, which alludes to Caius and Lucius, the grand-
before alluded to, as written during his courtship, sons of Augustus (1. 82), was probably written
which is addressed to Acanthis, a lena, or pro considerably after B. C. 15. (Clinton, F. H. B. C. 26. )
curess, who had done all she could to depreciate With regard to Masson's second reason, the
Propertius and his poems with Cynthia, on account passages in the Ars Am. by no means show
of his want of wealth. Nor can we draw any other that Propertius was dead ; and even if they did, it
inference from the seventh elegy of the second would be a strange method of proving a man de-
book, which expresses the alarm felt by the lovers funct in B. c. 15, because he was 60 in B. c. 2, Mas
Jest they should be separated by the Ler Julia de son's own date for the publication of that poem!
maritandis ordinibus, and the joy of Cynthia at its Propertius resided on the Esquiline, near the
not having been passed. What should have pre- gardens of Maecenas. He seems to have culti-
vented Propertius, then, apparently a bachelor, vated the friendship of his brother poets, as Pon-
from marrying his mistress ? It was because ticus, Bassus, Ovid, and others. He mentions
women who had exercised the profession of a Virgil (ii. 34. 63) in a way that shows he had
courtezan were forbidden by that law to marry an heard parts of the Aeneid privately recited. But
ingenuus. There was no other disqualification, though he belonged to the circle of Maecenas, he
except that libertinae were not permitted to marry never once mentions Horace. He is equally silent
a man of senatorial dignity. The objection raised about Tibullus. His not mentioning Ovid is best
might, indeed, be solved if it could be shown explained by the difference in their ages ; for Ovid
that Cynthia was a married woman. But though alludes more than once to Propertius, and with
Broukhusius (ad ii. 6. 1) has adopted that opinion, evident affection.
he is by no means borne out in it by the passages In 1722, a stone, bearing a head and two in-
he adduces in its support. That she had a hus- scriptions, one to Propertius, and one to a certain
band is nowhere mentioned by Propertius, which Cominius, was pretended to be discovered at Spello,
could hardly have been the case had such been the the ancient Hispellum, in the palace of Theresa
fact. The very elegy to which Broukhusius's note Grilli, Princess Pamphila. Though the genuine-
is appended, by comparing Cynthia to Laïs, and ness of this monument was maintained by Mont-
other celebrated Grecian courtezans, proves the faucon and other antiquarians, as well as by several
Nor can the opinion of that critic be eminent critics, later researches have shown the
supported by the word nupta in the twenty-sixth inscription of Propertius's name to be a forgery.
line of the same piece. That term by no means The same stone, discovered in the same place, was
excludes the notion of an illicit connection. Such known to be extant in the previous century, but
an arrangement, or conditio (ii. 14. 18), as that bearing only the inscription to Cominius. " (See
between Propertius and his mistress, did not take the authorities adduced by Hertzberg, Quaest.
place without some previous stipulations, and even Propert. vol. i. p. 4. )
solemnities, which the poet has described in the As an elegiac poet, a high rank must be awarded
twentieth elegy of the third book (v. 15, &c. ), and to Propertius, and among the ancients it was a
which he does not hesitate to call sacra marita. moot point whether the preference should be given
The precise date and duration of this connection to him or to Tibullus. (Quint. x. 1. $ 93. ) His
cannot be accurately determined. Propertius's first genius, however, did not fit him for the sublimer
success with his mistress must have been aſter flights of poetry, and he had the good sense to re-
the battle of Actium, from ii. 15.
7), and the third a Naiad. (Conon, 2. ) (L. S. )
There was also an account, stating that Pro- PRO’NOMUS (Ipóvouos), of Thebes, the son of
metheus had created men out of earth and water, Oenindas, was one of the most distinguished auletic
at the very beginning of the human mce, or after musicians of Greece at the time of the Pelopon-
the flood of Deucalion, when Zeus is said to have ncsian Wrr (Epigr. Incert. 212, Brunck, Anal. vol.
ordered him and Athena to make men out of the iii. p. 194). He was the instructor of Alcibiades
mud, and the winds to breathe life into them in flute-playing. (Ath. iv. p. 184, d. ) He in-
(Apollod. i. 7. § 1; Ov. Met. i. 81 ; Etym. Mag. vented a new sort of flute, the compass of which
s. v. Ipoundeus). Prometheus is said to have given was such, that melodies could be played upon it in
to men something of all the qualities possessed by all the three modes of music, the Dorian, the Phry-
the other animals (Horat. Carm. i. 16. 13). The gian, and the Lydian, for each of which, before
kind of earth out of which Prometheus formed men this invention, a separate flute had been necessary.
was shown in later times near Panopeus in Phocis (Paus. ix. 12. § 4. 8. 5, 6; Ath. xiv. p. 631, e. )
(Paus. x. 4. § 3), and it was at his suggestion that One very celebrated composition of his was a Delian
Deucalion, when the flood approached, built a ship, prosodia (that is, a prelude to be played as the
and carried into it provisions, that he and Pyrrha sacred embassy to Delos approached the temple),
might be able to support themselves during the which he made for the people of Chalcis in Euboea
calamity (Apollod. i. 7. & 2). Prometheus, in the (Paus. l. c. ). His melodies were brought forward,
legend, often appears in connection with Athena, in competition with those of Sacadas, the Argive,
e. g. , he is said to have been punished on mount in the musical contests which formed a part of the
Caucasus for the criminal love he entertained for festivities celebrated at the foundation of Messene
her (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1249); and he is by Epaminondas (Paus. iv. 27. $ 4. 8. 7). Another
further said, with her assistance, to have ascended proof of the high esteem in which he was held by
into heaven, and there secretly to have lighted his his fellow-citizens was afforded by their erection
torch at the chariot of Helios, in order to bring of his statue near that of Epaminondas, in the
down the fire to man (Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. vi. 42). temple of Apollo Spodius, at Thebes (Paus. ix. 12.
At Athens Prometheus had a sanctuary in the $ 4. s. 5, 6). He is mentioned once by Aris-
Academy, from whence a torch-race took place in tophanes (Eccles. 102, comp. Schol. and Suid. s. v. );
honour of him (Paus. i. 30. § 2 ; Schol. ad Soph. but only to hang a jest on his long beard. (Fabric.
Oed. Col. 55 ; Harpocrat. s. 0. autás). The Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 136 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen.
mythus of Prometheus is most minutely discussed Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 76 ; Bode, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk.
by Welcker, in his Aeschylische Trilogie Prometheus, vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 43, n. 3, 207, 314, pt. ii. pp. 192,
Darmstadt, 1824; by Völcker, Mythologie des Iapet. 236, 351. )
[P. S. )
Geschlechtes, 1824 ; and with especial reference to PRONOUS (Ipovoos). 1. A son of Phegeus,
the Prometheus of Aeschylus, by Schoemann, Des and brother of Agenor in Psophis, slew Alcmaeon.
Aeschylus Gefesselter Prometheus, Greifswald, 1844, (Apollod. iii. 7. $ 6; comp. AGENOR and Alc-
and by Blackie, in the Class. Mus. vol. 5. p. 1, &c. , MAEON ; Schol. ad Thuc. i. 3. )
which contain a very sound explanation of the 2. A Trojan who was slain by Patroclus. (Hom.
mythus, as developed by Aeschylus. [L. S. ) Il. xvi. 399. )
[L. S. )
PRONAEA (IIpovaía), a surname of Athena, PRONUBA, a surname of Juno among the
under which she had a chapel at Delphi, in front of Romans, describing her as the deity presiding over
the temple of Apollo. (Herod. i. 92 ; Aeschyl. marriage. (Virg. Aen. iv. 166, vii. 319; Ov.
Eum. 21 ; Paus. ix. 10. § 2. ) Pronaus also occurs Heroid. vi. 43. )
[L. S. ]
as a surname of Hermes. (Paus. l. c. ) (L. S. ) PROPE'RTIUS, SEX. AURE’LIUS. (The
PRONA'PIDES (Ipovanions, a various reading agnonen, Nauta, found in some Codices and early
is Mpovonions), an Athenian, is said to have been editions, seems to have been derived from a corrupt
the teacher of Homer. (Tzetzes, Chil. v. 634. ) He reading of ii. 24. 38. ) The materials for a life of
is enumerated among those who used the Pelasgic Propertius are meagre and unsatisfactory, consist
letters, before the introduction of the Phoenician, ing almost entirely of the inferences which may be
and is characterised as a graceful composer of song. drawn from hints scattered in his writings. We
(Diod. iii. 66. ) Tatian (Orat. ad Graec. c. 62) know neither the precise place nor date of his
mentions, among the early Grcek writers, one Pros-birth. He tells us that he was a native of Um-
nautides, an Athenian, whom Worth, in his edition bria, where it borders on Etruria, but nowhere
of Tatian, plausibly conjectures to be Pronapides mentions the exact spot Conjecture has assigned
According to the Scholiast on Theodosius the Gram- it, among other towns, to Mevania, Ameria, His-
marian, Pronapides invented the mode of writing pellum, and Asisium ; of which one of the two
from left to right now in use, as contradistinguished last seems entitled to the preference.
The date of
from the otupiddy, the Bovotpoonödv, and other his birth has been variously placed between the
methods. (Bekker, Anecd. Graec. 786. 17 ; Fabric. years of Rome 697 and 708 (B. C. 57 to 46).
Bibl. Graec. vol. i.
P
217. ) (W. M. G. ) Lachmann, however, was the first who placed it so
PRONAX (Mpwał), a son of Talaus and Lysi- low as B. c. 48 or 47 ; and the latest date (B. C.
mache, and a brother of Adrastus and Eriphyle. 46) is that of Hertzberg, the recent German
VOL. UI.
NN
## p. 546 (#562) ############################################
546
PROPERTIUS.
PROPERTIUS.
editor. The latter's computation proceeds on very | putation adopted in this notice, Propertius was
strained inferences, which we have not space to about one-and-twenty. This inference is drawn
discuss ; but it may possibly be sufficient to state from the opening elegy of the second book (v. 17,
that one of his results is to place the tenth elegy &c. ), from which it appears that Maecenas had
of the second book, in which Propertius talks requested him to describe the military achieve
about his extrema aetas (v. 6) in B. C. 25, when, ments of Octavianus. At that important epoch it
according to Hertzberg, he was one-and-twenty! formed part of that minister's policy to engage the
For several reasons, too long to be here adduced, most celebrated wits of Rome in singing Caesar's
it might be shown that the year assigned by praises ; his object being to invest his master's
Mr. Clinton, namely, B. C. 51, is a much more successes with all those charms of popularity
probable one, and agrees better with the relative which would necessarily prove 60 conducive to
ages of Propertius and Ovid. We know that the the great object which lay nearest to his heart
latter was born in B. C. 43, so that he would have the establishment of Caesar's absolute empire.
been eight years younger than Propertius: a dif- This is also evident from the works of Horace.
ference which would entitle him to call Propertius That poet was a republican ; yet, after the
his predecessor, whilst at the same time it would battle of Actium, Maecenas succeeded in in-
not prevent the two poets from being sodales ducing him to magnify Caesar, with whom there
(Ov. Trist. iv. 10. 45).
was nobody left to contest the world. These con-
Propertius was not descended from a family of siderations, by the way, lead us also to the conclu-
any distinction (ii. 24. 37), nor can the inference sion that there must have been at least a difference
that it was equestrian be sustained from the men- of eight years, as stated above, in the ages of Ovid
tion of the aurea bulla (iv. 1. 131), which was the and Propertius. The latter poet was already
common ornament of all children who were ingenui. known to fame when it suited the political views
(Cic. in Verr. ii. 1, 58, with the note of Asconius; as well as the natural taste, of Maecenas to pa-
Macrob. i. 6. ) The paternal estate, however, tronise him. Ovid, on the contrary, was then a
seems to have been sufficiently ample (Nam tua mere boy ; and his reputation would have been
versarent cum multi rura juvenci, iv. 1. 129); but just bursting forth, when the faithful minister of
of this he was deprived by an agrarian division, | Augustus was dismissed by his ungrateful master.
probably that in B. c. 36, after the Sicilian war, An earlier, and perhaps more disinterested, patron
and thus thrown into comparative poverty (in tenues of Propertius was Tullus, the nephew, probably, of
cogeris ipse Lares, 16. 128). “At the time of L. Volcatius Tullus, the fellow-consul of Octa-
this misfortune he had not yet assumed the toga vianus, in B. C. 33. Tullus, however, seems to
virilis, and was therefore under sixteen years of have been much of the same age as Propertius, as
age. He had already lost his father, who, it has may be inferred from the conclusion of iji. 22 ;
been conjectured, was one of the victims sacrificed and they may, therefore, be in some degree looked
after the taking of Perusia ; but this notion does upon as sodales.
not rest on any satisfactory grounds. The elegy It was probably in B. C. 32 or 31, that Proper-
on which it is founded (i. 21) refers to a kinsman tius first became acquainted with his Cynthia. He
named Gallus. We have no account of Pro- had previously had an amour with a certain Ly-
pertius's education ; but from the elegy before cinna, and to which we must assign the space of a
quoted (iv. 1) it would seem that he was destined year or two. This connection, however, was a
to be an advocate, but abandoned the profession merely sensual one, and was not, therefore, of a
for that of poetry. That he was carefully in- nature to draw out his poetical powers. In Cyn-
structed appears from the learning displayed in this, though by no means an obdurate beauty, he
his writings, and which was probably acquired found incitement enough, as well as sufficient ob-
altogether at Rome ; the smallness of his means stacles to the gratification of his passion, to lend it
having prevented him from finishing his education refinement, and to develope the genius of his muse.
at Athens, as was then commonly done by the The biographers of Propertius make him
wealthier Romans. At all events it is plain from ful lover at once. They neither allow time for
the sixth elegy of the first book, written after his courtship, nor assign any of his elegies to that pe-
connection with Cynthia had begun, that he had riod. It is plain, however, from several passages,
not then visited Greece. In the twenty-first elegy that his suit must have been for a length of time
of the third book he meditates a journey thither, an unsuccessful one (see especially ii. 14. 15), and
probably at the time when he had quarrelled with several of his pieces were probably written during
his mistress ; but whether he ever carried the its progress ; as the first of the first book (which
design into execution we have no means of know- Lachmann refers to the time of his quarrel with
ing.
his mistress), the fifth of the fourth book, and
The history of Propertius's life, so far as it is Others Cynthia was a native of Tibur (iv. 7. 85),
known to us, is the history of his amours, nor can and her real name was Hostia. (Appuleius,
it be said how much of these is fiction. He was, Apolog. ; Schol. in Juven. vi. 7. ) As Propertius
what has been called in modern times “ a man of (iï. 20. 8) alludes to her doctus arus, it is pro-
wit and pleasure about town ;” nor in the few bable that she was a grand-daughter of Hostius,
particulars of his life which he communicates in who wrote a poem on the Histric war. [Hostius. ]
the first elegy of the fourth book, does he drop the She seems to have inherited a considerable portion
slightest hint of his ever having been engaged in of the family talent, and was herself a poetess, be-
any serious or useful employment. He began to sides being skilled in music, dancing, and needle-
write poetry at a very early age, and the merit of work (i. 2. 27, i. 3. 41, ii. 1. 9, ii. 3. 17, &c. ). From
his productions soon attracted the attention and pa- these accomplishments Paldamus, in the Ép. Ded.
tronage of Maecenas. This was most probably to his edition of Propertius, inferred that she was
shortly after the final discomfiture and death of a woman of rank ; and some have even absurdly
Antony in B. C. 30, when, according to the com- derived her genealogy from Hostus Hostilius. But
success-
## p. 547 (#563) ############################################
PROPERTIUS.
547
PROPERTIUS.
the truth seems to be that she belonged, as Hertz- / and he has been followed by Barth and other cri-
berg thinks, to that higher class of courtczane, or tics. Masson's reasons for fixing on that year are
rather kept women, then sufficiently numerous at that none of his elegies can be assigned to a later
Rome. We cannot reconcile the whole tenor of date than B. C. 16; and that Ovid twice mentions
the poems with any other supposition. Thus it him in his Ars Amatoria (iii. 333 and 536) in a
appears that Propertius succeeded a lover who had | way that shows him to have been dead. The first
gone to Africa for the purpose of gain (iii. 20), of these proves nothing. It docs not follow that
perhaps after having been well stripped by Cyn. Propertius ceased to live because he ceased to
thia. Propertius is in turn displaced by a stupid write ; or that he ceased to write because nothing
praetor, returning from Illyricum with a well-filled later has been preserved. The latter assertion,
purse, and whom the poet advises his mistress to too, is not indisputable. There are no means of
make the most of (ii. 16). We are led to the same fixing the dates of several of his pieces ; and El.
conclusion by the fifth elegy of the fourth book, iv. 6, which alludes to Caius and Lucius, the grand-
before alluded to, as written during his courtship, sons of Augustus (1. 82), was probably written
which is addressed to Acanthis, a lena, or pro considerably after B. C. 15. (Clinton, F. H. B. C. 26. )
curess, who had done all she could to depreciate With regard to Masson's second reason, the
Propertius and his poems with Cynthia, on account passages in the Ars Am. by no means show
of his want of wealth. Nor can we draw any other that Propertius was dead ; and even if they did, it
inference from the seventh elegy of the second would be a strange method of proving a man de-
book, which expresses the alarm felt by the lovers funct in B. c. 15, because he was 60 in B. c. 2, Mas
Jest they should be separated by the Ler Julia de son's own date for the publication of that poem!
maritandis ordinibus, and the joy of Cynthia at its Propertius resided on the Esquiline, near the
not having been passed. What should have pre- gardens of Maecenas. He seems to have culti-
vented Propertius, then, apparently a bachelor, vated the friendship of his brother poets, as Pon-
from marrying his mistress ? It was because ticus, Bassus, Ovid, and others. He mentions
women who had exercised the profession of a Virgil (ii. 34. 63) in a way that shows he had
courtezan were forbidden by that law to marry an heard parts of the Aeneid privately recited. But
ingenuus. There was no other disqualification, though he belonged to the circle of Maecenas, he
except that libertinae were not permitted to marry never once mentions Horace. He is equally silent
a man of senatorial dignity. The objection raised about Tibullus. His not mentioning Ovid is best
might, indeed, be solved if it could be shown explained by the difference in their ages ; for Ovid
that Cynthia was a married woman. But though alludes more than once to Propertius, and with
Broukhusius (ad ii. 6. 1) has adopted that opinion, evident affection.
he is by no means borne out in it by the passages In 1722, a stone, bearing a head and two in-
he adduces in its support. That she had a hus- scriptions, one to Propertius, and one to a certain
band is nowhere mentioned by Propertius, which Cominius, was pretended to be discovered at Spello,
could hardly have been the case had such been the the ancient Hispellum, in the palace of Theresa
fact. The very elegy to which Broukhusius's note Grilli, Princess Pamphila. Though the genuine-
is appended, by comparing Cynthia to Laïs, and ness of this monument was maintained by Mont-
other celebrated Grecian courtezans, proves the faucon and other antiquarians, as well as by several
Nor can the opinion of that critic be eminent critics, later researches have shown the
supported by the word nupta in the twenty-sixth inscription of Propertius's name to be a forgery.
line of the same piece. That term by no means The same stone, discovered in the same place, was
excludes the notion of an illicit connection. Such known to be extant in the previous century, but
an arrangement, or conditio (ii. 14. 18), as that bearing only the inscription to Cominius. " (See
between Propertius and his mistress, did not take the authorities adduced by Hertzberg, Quaest.
place without some previous stipulations, and even Propert. vol. i. p. 4. )
solemnities, which the poet has described in the As an elegiac poet, a high rank must be awarded
twentieth elegy of the third book (v. 15, &c. ), and to Propertius, and among the ancients it was a
which he does not hesitate to call sacra marita. moot point whether the preference should be given
The precise date and duration of this connection to him or to Tibullus. (Quint. x. 1. $ 93. ) His
cannot be accurately determined. Propertius's first genius, however, did not fit him for the sublimer
success with his mistress must have been aſter flights of poetry, and he had the good sense to re-
the battle of Actium, from ii. 15.
