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136 JACQUELINE CLARKE
gestion of greatness is undercut in the very first line by the phrase
quid ... profuit.
With his elaborate description of Baiae at the beginning of this
elegy. Propertius means the reader to recall the description of Baiae at
the beginning of elegy I I of his monobiblos. the poem where he represents
the place as a threat to the relationship between himself and
Cynthia. 23 The link is an intriguing one. Baiae has fulfilled its threatening
potential in a way different from that anticipated; rather than
sever Cynthia's fidelity. it has cut short t e life of a noble youth.
Barsby comments that "whereas previously as a lover he [Propertius]
had cursed Baiae for its threat to Cynthia's loyalty, now as a poet of
higher pretensions he curses it as a bringer of death to Augustus' protegee.
"24 Notwithstanding this. the link between these two poems helps
to create the suggestion that Propertius is also mourning the anticipated
ending of his union with Cynthia. Indeed. Falkner argues that
readers would initially presume from the opening description that
they were reading another love elegy about Cynthia and only corne to
the realization that it was a consolatio at 9-1025: another instance of
Propertius teasing the reader about his ultimate direction. The melancholy
tone of the elegy. with its message that beauty. power and
wealth will inevitably succumb to death (27-8). highlights the pettiness
of the world of the courtesan where such concerns are all-important.
The journey motif is taken up at the end of the poem where Propertius
envisages the passage of Marcellus' soul into heaven "far from the
paths of men by the road that Claudius the victor of the Sicilian earth
and Caesar trod" (quo Siculae victor telluris Claudius et quo / Caesar.
equi foderet calcaribus armos. "No youth of Italian race shall raise / his Latin
forefathers so high with his promise. nor shall Romulus' land ever / vaunt so
much in any of her offspring ... against him while armed none would have advanced
/ unscathed. whether he would meet the enemy on foot / or dig his spurs
into the flanks of his foaming horse" (875-'7.879-81).
23 As T.M. Falkner. "Myth. setting and immortality in Propertius 3.18." q 73
(1977) 13 points out. the references to Misenus (]) a d Hercules (4) and the erotic
overtones of clausus and ludit (I) would recall the earlier elegy.
24 Barsby (above. n. 8) 136. See also Falkner (above. n. 23) 14.
25 Falkner (above. n. 23) 13. As he observes. 3.18 is the only poem in Book 3 in
which there is no immediately visible connection with the subject of amor. Cynthia
or the writing of love poetry. Of course. as far as the ancients were concerned.
elegy originated as funeral song: G. Luck. The Latin Love Elegy (London
1969) 26. Thus. by placing a funereal elegy at this point in the book Propertius is in
effect taking it back to its roots. The interesting mixture of epikedion and love
elegy has a precedent in Catullus 68, in which a place (Troy) is employed in a
similar fashion to link a lament for Catullus' deceased brother with his struggle
to come to terms with the imperfections of his relationship with Lesbia.