OUSEION - Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative ...

"GOODBYE TO ALL THA T" I43
of separation for the reader. enabling Cynthia to be dismissed with a
few choice words in the final two elegies of the book. His poetry has
taken a meandering route. keeping the reader guessing about his
ultimate destination: he ventures into the worlds of Greek lyric. sepulchral
elegy. back to his own monobiblos and outwards to the Carmina
of his contemporary Horace. All the time his poetry has continued to
evolve in a new direction. away from the close social world of lovers.
friends and enemies. When Propertius returns to Rome in the elegy
following 3.21. or rather welcomes the soldier Tullus back to it from
his travels in the monobiblos. it is a very different Rome that he comes
to. In glowing. patriotic terms he praises the glories of Rome. contrasting
it favourably with the wonders of other lands in a manner reminiscent
of the passages at the end of Georgics 2 and the start of Odes
1.7. In a sense. the world has been turned on its head from the previous
elegy: Courtney comments that the Greek world that seemed so
appealing to Propertius is now a land of monsters. while Italy has become
attractiveY This is a Rome made strong by the sword and pietas
(19-22). one fit for heroes to contract legitimate marriages and beget
children (39-42); there is no place for Cynthia in this Rome. 43 It is this
Rome that Propertius will celebrate in his first elegy of Book 4.
DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES
UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
AUSTRALIA 5005
42 Courtney (above. n. 10) 52.
43 It is worth noting that Putnam (above. n. 12) sees this Rome as something of
a compromise between Imperial Rome and the elegists' Rome: see further Putnam
106. It is possible that there is a degree of irony in this poem: it is interesting
that Propertius devotes much more space to castigating Greece than praising
Rome and that his descriptions of the gods and heroes of Greek mythology
(29-36) have a certain lightness and frivolity to them. While this playfulness may
merely be in imitation of Callimachus (see Thomas [above, n. 351 208) it may also
be meant to suggest that neither the old Greece nor the new Rome should be taken
entirely seriously. [ do not, however, agree with Jacobson's view (above. n. I I,
170) that Tullus' return to Rome in this poem symbolizes a rejection of Propertius'
plan to abandon love elegy. Even if the Rome to which Tullus returns is
viewed with a certain ironic light. it is a very different Rome from the one that
nurtured Propertius' and Cynthia's love affair.