Horace's 'Cleopatra Ode' (1.37)
2.4. Propertiu5
The last ofthe Roman poets to be discussed in this chapter is the elegist, Propertius. A generation younger than Vergil, but a great admirer ofhis work, Propertius was born inc.50 B.C. Like Horace, Propertius also lost property in the confiscations of 41 RC., but his equestrian family was never reduced to poverty. Lee (l996:ix) explains that Propertius was never burdened by the need to earn a living and that 'while his spirit was naturally independent and irreverent, ...it was buttressed by the confidence that money and class tend to bring.' Thus the elegist, unlike Horace and perhaps even Vergil, never needed to seek a patron under whom he could fmd economic protection, even though he did later join the literary circle presided over by Maecenas. But while this patron-client relationship, with the house of Maecenas offering a wonderful venue for recitations, served Propertius' desire for exposure well, the elegist refused the requests of both Maecenas and the Princepsto write an epic poem glorifying Augustus. Indeed, of the three poets, Propertius, with his poetry which not infrequently undermined Roman patriotism, was likely the weakest conformist and supporter ofAugustan legislation and military convention. An example ofthis defiance ofprincipate propaganda is seen in 3.4.1, in which Propertius announces that 'Caesar the God plans war;,99while in 3.5 he opens with 'Love is the God ofpeace; we lovers venerate peace... ' Lee (l996:xiii) adds that in other poems, the elegist is openly mutinous in his political stance - even in the entourage of Maecenas; an example ofthis is 2.7, which celebrates the failure ofthat Augustan marriage legislation which might have jeopardized his relationship with his lover, Cynthia.
Even with regards to Rome's victory at Actium, Propertius, in 2.15, defies the official stance of Augustus which described the battle as a war between the barbaric East and Rome, by writing blatantly about the civil war that Actium historically was:
'If all were keen to engage in such a life [as Cynthia' s and mine]
And lie back, charging limbs with wine,
There'd be no cruel steel or men-of-war - no bones Of ours would welter in Actium' s waves,
99 Translation by Lee (1996). Unless mentioned otherwise, all translations of Propertiuswill be by Lee (1996).
Nor Rome, beset so often by her own successes, Grow tired of loosening her hair in grief.
For this at least posterity can justly praise us:
Ourbattles have not yet grieved the Gods.'lOO
However, by the release of Propertius' fourth book of elegies, a patriotic flavour seasons his work even while the old hints of irreverence, mocking the 'god Caesar' in flippant tones, remain. As Ogilvie (1980: 129-30) explains, in the short spell ofthirteen years between the 'publication' ofBook 1 in 29 RC. and Book 4 in 16 RC., Propertius' attitudes are seen to undergo a radical transformation, and that, by the time 4.6 (with its castigating reference to Cleopatra) would have become known to the public, Propertius had already become an 'apostle ofthe new regime.'
In a most interesting comparative analysis of Propertius and Mark Antony, Griffin (1985) explains that in order to understand the political and social flavour ofPropertius ' elegies, and the lens through which the elegist interprets Cleopatra, one must first understand the close relationship between the literature and life of Rome in the first century B.C. For during this century, eastern influences in Rome were abundantly evident and manifest in day-to-day activities, buildings and cultural practices.
Not only was Rome full ofGreek intellectuals, but the city with its layout, aqueducts, basilicas, public baths, works of art on show, and its magnificent buildings of which Augustus boasted, were all unthinkable without Eastern influence.101 Prominent Romans' love for Greece and Greek clothes, games, wines, cosmetics, perfumes and jewellery are likewise well-documented in the ancient sources,102and the very circles in which the elegists mingled reflected a similar hankering towards the 'amours, parties, drinking, jealousy and ...poetry and music' so characteristic of the East.103
Itis well worth noting that this life of sloth and debauchery, inertia and nequitia, which Griffin (1985 :6) claims the Augustan elegists proclaimed as their own, was that same lifestyle so generously subscribed to by Antony himself. As Propertius' life of pleasure led naturally to the company of courtesans, so Antony's led to that of disreputable comics, mimers and actors. Cicero claimed to
100 2.15.41-8.
101 Griffm (1985 :6).
102 Prop. 1.8.39; 1.14.2; 2.29.17; Ovid Ars am. 3.133-68; Pliny HN 14.87; Suet. Aug. 98.
103 Griffm (1985:6).
have been inflamed by themima uxor of Antony and by his troops of mime actors of both sexes,104 while even Augustus discreetly acknowledged his association with actors and his fondness of dicing,105 a past-time similarly Eastern in inspiration. 106 This was reality for much of Roman upper- class society; that environment in which Antony delighted and in which Propertius' literary utopia with Cynthia was sustained. Antony was certainly not isolated in his love ofluxurious imports from the East, wine and women - Griffin (1985: 13) reminds us that Maecenas also delighted in eastern fabrics, jewels, wine, women, and his liaison with actors such as Bathyllus. Thus Griffin concludes that not only does literature imitate life, but life imitates literature, with the central question in Augustan poetry remaining that ofthe degree and manner ofits removal from reality. 107 He concludes (1985 :26) that 'in this we can make out ...a world thoroughly permeated with Hellenistic elements of every sort. They are not transporting the reader into a realm of pure fantasy, but making poetical ...a mode of life familiar to their readers. '
Is it possible then, that in Antony Propertius could empathize with one whose lifestyle closely resembled his own? Is it not likely, as Griffin argues later, that Propertius' presentation of himself in poetry as a romantic, reckless and obsessed paramour is closely related to the figure in history of Mark Antony?108 Such surmises are certainly not wholly removed from the truth - Antony's relationship with the disreputable Volurnnia Lycoris (who was later to become the mistress ofGallus) brought him into contact with the elegists, and it is not unlikely that Propertius would have heard from his predecessors in the genre of Roman elegy, tales and orally-transmitted anecdotes of Antony'shedonistic life ofromance and luxury. Griffin (1985:42) points out that Propertius' life (as described in his poetry) bore far closer resemblance to Antony's than to that of a 'good Augustan citizen.' Like Antony, Propertius lived (or claimed to live) impulsively, renouncing Roman marriage for a relationship with a woman unrespectable by upper-class, Roman standards. Just as Antony's friends attempted to draw him away from Cleopatra, an influence in his destruction,109 so did Propertius' friends attempt to lure him from Cynthia; 110 as senatorial Romans criticized the lifestyle
104 Cic.Phil. 2.20, 8.26.
105 Suet.Aug. 45, 74.
106 ibid., 71.
107 Griffm (1985:19, 26).
108 ibid., 32.
109 Plut.Ant. 68-69.
110 Prop. 1.1.25.
adhered to by Antony,I 11 so was Propertius similarly condemned.1l2 Griffin (1985:43) adds that above all, Antony was the slave of a woman, but that where this was, for some, a shameful state, it was, for an elegist, a great boast. Furthermore, in the early tradition of Cleopatra's death, as recorded by her physician, Olympus, Antony is shown dying 'a romantic Propertian death, after living, in many respects, the life which Propertius wished to live.,113 Griffin (1985:47) concludes that 'after all, if Antony had won the Battle of Actium, Propertius would have been an Antonian poet.'
Nevertheless, Actium was not won by Antony, and Propertius -like all the Augustan poets - follows largely the Augustan interpretation of Actium, as a war between Octavian and Rome, on the one hand, and Cleopatra and the East, on the other.