28. For we have poems addressed to Cynthia from 28 to 23, and Propertius tells us his faithful servitude' lasted five years, which is probably exclusive of a year of separation1.

For two years hardly a cloud marred the serenity of the lovers' day. There were no doubt the usual quarrels, partings, and reconFirst period. ciliations; and at one time it seemed possible that Cynthia would be tempted by the splendid offers of a Praetor to accompany him abroad. But Cynthia was true to her self-chosen lover, and the Praetor had to depart alone. Propertius on his part was equally firm in resisting the solicitations and expostulations by which his father's friends' sought to draw him away from his mistress. The majority of the elegies in the first book are the outcome of this, the most fortunate period of his attachment; and in their tone they differ widely from the rest. There is a noticeable absence of the bitterness which pervades some of the later Cynthia elegies; they are gentler, tenderer, and more trustful. Another source of anxiety also passed away. After his power was established and his victory over his rivals magnificently celebrated, Augustus turned his attention to social reforms. The evil which called most clamorously for redress was the wide prevalence of celibacy and the moral corruption which it at once betokened and aggravated. Augustus brought forward a repressive measure, of the same tendency as the one passed in B.C. 18, inflicting severe penalties on those who continued obstinately in the single estate. This would probably have parted the lovers, as Propertius in spite of his protestations 1 rv. 25. 3 quinque tibi potui seruire fideliter annos. 2 I. 1. 25, iv. 24. 9.

3 The measure is generally placed in B.C. 27. It is probably referred to in 1. 8. 21 (n.), and it is the subject of II. 7, which was written some time after the law had been proposed (v. 2 quondam edicta).

P. P.

с

would have been unable to resist an imperial edict, and he could not legally marry a woman of Cynthia's class'. But the danger passed, and the law was allowed to drop (sublata) in consequence of the opposition which it encountered and the pressure of external affairs.

But this mutual happiness was now to be broken up. Propertius fell away from his faith. Separation for His defection was severely punished. a year. He was banished from his mistress' presence for a year'. We must suppose that Cynthia's feelings were deeply piqued and even wounded by this conduct, as she visited it with a punishment which she did not extend to later infidelities.

The separation seems to have quite unbalanced Propertius, and partly to still the cravings of an unsatisfied passion, and partly in retaliation for Cynthia's severity, he plunged into reckless dissipation. But all in vain. His passion, to which absence had only given a double intensity, gave him no rest, until exhausted by its own efforts it gradually sank into a dull and resourceless despair. This stupor of grief is embodied in the elegy which was afterwards prefixed to Book 1., and which forms the most gloomy opening to a book of love poems that can well be conceived.

About the beginning of 25 a reconciliation took place; and soon after, perhaps as a peace- Reconciliation. offering to Cynthia, the first book was Second period. published and inscribed with her name: and immediately gained for its author and its subject a wide

1 Ulpian quoted by Hertzberg 1. p. 36.

2 Iv. 15 (16). 9 peccaram semel et totum sum pulsus in

annum.

3 Lachmann's explanation of the circumstances of 1. 1 seems to me unquestionably correct. See his introduction. Hertzberg's caution however as to the uncertainty of the data must be borne in mind.

and enduring reputation'. Soon after this Propertius' mother died. Her son had carefully tended her declining years, and though she is only three times mentioned in the poems, we can gather from incidental expressions that this was a labour of love.

The intimacy thus renewed lasted for three years. For the first few months all was sunshine. Compare II. 3. 3 sqq. with III. 13 (11). 21 sqq. septima iam plenae deducitur orbita lunae, cum de me et de te compita nulla tacent; interea nobis non numquam ianua mollis, &c. But the bond had been too severely strained for this to last. Though it seems that neither party now demanded from the other a single devotion, yet, when either fell back into old ways, retaliations and recriminations could not fail to ensue: III. 8 (7), cf. 30 (24). The Praetor returned from Illyricum, and found Cynthia more compliant than formerly; and Propertius consoled himself with a Phyllis or a Teia (v. 8. 31 sqq.). Besides Propertius was awaking to a sense of the turpitude of a connexion which, though excusable in a youth, was entirely out of keeping with a more advanced age. Thus we find him in IV. 21 contemplating or undertaking a voyage to Athens to find in its distractions a cure for his degrading passion. So in Iv. 16 (17) he would seek a remedy in the potency

1 III. 18 (15). 1 cum sis iam noto fabuła libro et tua sit toto Cynthia lecta foro, Mart. 14. 189 Cynthia, facundi carmen iuuenile Properti, accepit famam nec minus ipsa dedit.

2 Viz., 11. 8.39,шг. 13 (11). 15, 1. 11. 21 an mihi sit maior carae custodia matris? Compare the sympathy which Propertius shews with a mother's feelings in the Paetus, Marcellus and Cornelia elegies, and the usage of mater and maternus. There is nothing similar in the case of pater and paternus, as we might expect from Propertius having lost his father so early. We do not know precisely when his mother died: but he had lost both parents when III. 13 (11) was written, i.e. six months after the first book was published, v. 15 ossa tibi iuro per matris et ossa parentis; si fallo, cinis, heu, sit mihi uterque grauis.

of Bacchus. If we suppose, as I think we may, that, on the whole, the poems in Book IV. (III.) are later than those in Books II, and III. (Bk. II.), we may see in its quiet beauty and measured tone, as contrasted with their bursts of anger and jubilant outcries, a sign that the end was near.

All the same the last two elegies of Book IV. jar us with a harsh surprise. By this time love

Second separa

has cooled almost to indifference. The tion. glamour which no friendly counsels, no remedies, nay no aid from supernatural powers could dispel, has vanished of itself. The blaze and the heat of passion are extinct; and Propertius takes the cinders and flings them coolly and contemptuously away. 'Woman' (he nowhere else uses this slighting form of address), your reign is over. My shameful hallucination is past. Go to a loveless old age to be flouted by others as you have flouted me'.'

This separation probably took place in B.C. 23 which is the last year to which we can assign any of the Cynthian elegies. Cynthia survived the separation, but not for long3. As we have already said, she was considerably older than Propertius, and had already had an illness in which her life was despaired of*. Whether a reconciliation took place before her death turns on the interpretation of v. vii., Subsequent a poem full of difficulties which have been history. neglected by the commentators.

1 These expressions seem to us harsh and cruel in the extreme. But the ancient Greeks and Romans were destitute of chivalry and Propertius may even compare favourably with the cold-blooded exultation of Horace in similar cases, Od. 1. 25, 4. 13.

:

2 See below, p. lii.

3 She probably died before B.c. 18. The longer we suppose her to have lived, the less likely was the reconciliation to have

taken place.

4

III. 24 seqq. (20) compared with 11. 9. 25—27.

Examination of Book V.

Elegy vii.

It represents the spirit of Cynthia as appearing in a dream to the poet shortly after her death. In it she rebukes him for so soon forgetting their love (13-22) and for his carelessness in superintending her funeral (23-34). She insinuates that her death has been caused by poison and that the torture test should be applied to her slaves (35—38). She accuses Propertius of exalting to her place a rival of the lowest class, whose name we are told in v. 72 was Chloris, and allowing her to wreak her malice on Cynthia's slaves and to melt down the gold statuette which she had taken from the burning pyre (39-48). Then, after saying she will not chide Propertius although he deserves it, she passes on to describe her lot in the world below (49-70). Then she gives him some instructions. Her nurse Parthenie is to be shielded from want in her declining years; Latris, her favourite maid, is not to wait on a new mistress. Propertius is to burn the verses he has written in her honour. Lastly he is to clear away the ivy which is strangling her in her tomb by the Anio, and write upon it an epitaph which she dictates (71-86). And now she must leave him: for the morn is approaching. But it is only for a while. Though he is another's now, he will soon be hers. 'Mine' she adds in a ghoulish line: mecum eris et mixtis ossibus ossa teram. And then she vanishes.

Can anyone read this poem and suppose that the last two elegies of Book IV. represent the final act of the Cynthia drama? And even supposing that her death had so far softened Propertius that this sympathy and even this self-reproach was possible, can we neglect precise expressions like those in vv. 5, 6 and 14 in te iam uires somnus habere potest? Why the iam, if they had been parted for years? It seems to me that this compels us to conclude that the lovers were reconciled once more. Possibly Cynthia finding