CORRIGENDA. Page 119. Note on v. 10. The tutulus (Varro, L. L. vii. § 44,) rather than the acus appears to be meant. 123. Recinium (or ricinium) is understood by Becker (Gallus, p. 438) as a kind of veil. Perhaps it was a cloth thrown over the head and neck, such as is still used by Spanish women of the middle class. 243. For Geryona (in the text) read Geryonis. For Tyrrhenian trumpet' read 'sacrificial 265. Note on v. 125. For Assizzi read Assisi. 273. The note on v. 7 is cancelled. See Varronianus, p. 420. BOOK THE FIRST. 6 IN most of the MSS. this book is inscribed Cynthia, Monobiblos ;' and under this title the poet himself probably alludes to it, iii. 15, 2: Et tua sit toto Cynthia lecta foro.' It was both written and published a. u. c. 728, probably at the early age of twenty years. Hence Martial, xiv. 189; Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti.' Of all the extant works of this author the first book is the most elaborately finished, and though in some places difficult, it has come down to us in a more perfect condition than the rest. The agnomen Nauta which is commonly given to the poet in the MSS. is thought to have originated from the false reading Navita for non ita in iii. 16. 22. PROPERTII LIBER PRIMUS. I. CYNTHIA prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis, Contactum nullis ante cupidinibus. Tum mihi constantis dejecit lumina fastus, I Cynthia. That this name is feigned by the poet, as Delia was by Tibullus, and Lesbia by Catullus (Ovid, Trist. ii. 428. Femina, cui falsum Lesbia nomen erat,') is evident. Her real name is said to have been Hostia (Schol. ad Juven. Sat. vi. 7. Apuleius, Apolog. p. 279, quoted by Hertzberg). Of her birth and family nothing is known beyond the few hints to be collected here and there from the elegies, all which have been diligently examined by Hertzberg, Quæstiones Propertianæ, p. 31 -46. It is probable that she was a libertina (compare the details of her humble funeral, v. 7, 25, &c.), and sufficiently certain that she was a meretrix, though not one of low degree (prostibulum), but highly accomplished, and even talented as a poetess (i. 2, 27.) A particular description of her personal charms is given ii. 2, 5. She was, however, as may be supposed, faithless and profligate; and the poet's jealous temper continually finds in this a subject of complaint. See, for instance, ii. 5 and 6, and iii. 7. On a correct estimate of her character, which none of the editors before Hertzberg seem to have formed, the true interpretation of very many passages depends. How, on any other supposition, could the poet with common propriety introduce (ii. 6.) the parallel between Cynthia and the most notorious courtesans of antiquity, Lais, Thais, and Phryne? And this circumstance was probably the real obstacle to their lawful union. See note on ii. 7, 1. Cynthia seems to have been by some years older than Propertius, iii. 9, 20, unless we should rather understand anus futura haud longa die of the more transient nature of female beauty, especially under a southern climate. The passage in iii. 24, 6, would be conclusive, were the reading anum certain. 2. Cupidinibus. The sense of this is determined by a circumstance in his early life recorded iv. 14, 5. Cynthia was his first love,' i. e. the first who had ever really possessed his affections. 3 Lumina fastus. It is natural to translate this eyes of pride,' without remembering that the Latin idiom would rather require fastus luminum. |