her awake with worry. Four, five, and six are thematically related in that all have to do with attempts to separate the poet from Cynthia. First he argues with a friend who wants him to break with her. Then he warns another friend to stop making overtures to her. Later he regretfully tells another friend that Cynthia will not let him travel abroad with the friend. Here we see another dimension of this love affair. Propertius, full of passion, is nevertheless irritated by Cynthia's possessiveness. This and similar paradoxes have much to do with the interest of Propertius' love poetry. The very perversity of the two strong-minded lovers attracts us.

In the seventh poem, Propertius warns the epic poet Ponticus that he will be less satisfied with himself and the epic style if he should ever fall in love. In the eighth a crisis arises. Cynthia has decided that she will go abroad, and with a rival of the poet. Propertius prays for a storm to hold her back, but he wishes her a safe trip if she does go. Then in eight-A, he ecstatically informs us that Cynthia has decided not to go. In nine we find Propertius saying, in effect, "I told you so" to the epic poet of poem seven, and in ten Propertius is happy because a possible rival has been sidetracked. Cynthia, we find in eleven, has gone to the seaside resort of Baiae, and the poet is worried that she will act scandalously and ruin her "good" name; he begs her to come back to Rome. Twelve and thirteen form a pair: in the former Propertius admits that he has been unable to work lately because of his all dominating attachment to the once more estranged Cynthia. In the latter, the poet, speaking to the man who has just accused him of sloth, says that his friend may gloat over Propertius' love troubles, but that he will not retailiate. Next, in number fourteen, we hear of a reconciliation. The pleasures of love, the poet claims, are superior to the joys of wealth. But in fifteen we find that Propertius is again in trouble with Cynthia. Though he must face some danger, Cynthia is unconcerned and takes a new lover. The poet claims that he will nevertheless remain faithful.

Poems sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen are the lover's laments. The first is expressed beside Cynthia's door, now closed to him; the second has for background a storm at sea; and the third poem, a very influencial piece, is set in a wild and lonely forest. Apparently the laments had some effect, for in nineteen the lovers seem to be reconciled. In this piece Propertius contemplates death and urges lovers to love while they may. Neither twenty, twenty-one, or twenty-three (the autobiographical poem) are concerned with Cynthia. Twenty is a version of the myth of the rape of Hylas, and twenty-one contains the final words of a man being murdered by bandits.

The appearance and success of the first book of elegies brought Propertius to the attention of the great Roman patron of letters, Maecenas. Propertius was admitted to his circle, and thus Book Two begins with a dedicatory poem to Maecenas. Here the poet protests he can only write of love, since his being is dominated by Cynthia. Poems two through nine return to the subject of his love. Cynthia's beauty is praised more fully; her perversity and falseness are described; the poet's continued infatuation and his joy at the repeal of a law that might have forced him to abandon the woman are discussed. Just as love was previously seen to be superior to wealth, it is here proclaimed more wonderful than the soldier's glory. In the tenth poem however, the poet momentarily turns from love, claiming that only youth writes of that subject; now he will turn to the more mature subject of war. Then, he immediately reverses himself, and the rest of the rather confused second book discusses various aspects of his affair with Cynthia. In these poems we observe an interesting aspect of the affair and a clever bit of lover's flattery. Propertius emphasizes the intellectual ability and literary judgment of his mistress. In poem thirteen, for example, he claims that he is not impressed with beauty and breeding alone in a woman. His greatest joy is to lie in the arms of Cynthia, reading his poems which she so intelligently appreciates and so judiciously criticizes. As the book proceeds, however, Propertius' recriminations become both more frequent and bitter; the affair is subtly changing for the worse.

This progress comes to its climax in Book Three. Though he writes on several other topics, love is still his important theme. Particularly noteworthy are poems ten, fifteen, twenty-four and twenty-five. Ten is a beautiful and clever elegy on Cynthia's birthday. The poet sensuously describes the awakening of Cynthia, the birthday ceremonies, the rich and happy banquet; then, he suggests, after much joy and many emptied goblets they will retire to the bedroom to conduct those rites appointed by Venus and thus complete the course of her natal day. Fifteen is interesting in that it speaks of his adolescent love, Lycinna (mentioned several other times in the elegies) who was Propertius' introduction to women. He gives some details of the early affair and a description of how Cynthia swept Lycinna from his mind. In poems twenty-four and twenty-five, the poet bitterly proclaims his final break with Cynthia. In the first Propertius says that the too proud Cynthia puts too much trust in the efficacy of her beauty. As for him, after a long time being tossed about in the sea of love, he has now escaped and is cured of his infatuation. Henceforth, good sense will dictate his ways. In the second poem, the poet remains adamant despite the tears of Cynthia, for too often in the past has he been beguiled by her weeping. For five years her domination of him has been a public joke. He ends by cursing her with a wrinkled old age and says that he will relish her inevitable loneliness.

Book Four is almost wholly taken up with more solemn themes than love. Included are a series of aetiological poems on the god Vertumnus (two), on Tarpeia (four), on the anniversary of Actium (six), on the Great Altar of Rome (nine) and on Jupiter Feretrius (ten). Only two poems, seven and eight, are concerned with Cynthia. Both are excellent. Seven is in the form of a striking and touching interview with Cynthia's ghost in which she chides a moved Propertius for his neglect. Eight is an amusing and active retrospective account of a night when Propertius, bitter at Cynthia's harsh treatment, set out to console himself with two other ladies of easy virtue. Suddenly Cynthia shows up. She violently drives off the girls and physically attacks Propertius. He bows to her chastisements and all is made well on the couch so familiar to them.

Book Four closes with a solemn funeral poem which, paradoxically for a poet made famous by his love poems, is commonly accounted Propertius' greatest single elegy. The poem celebrates Cornelia, the daughter of Augustus' wife Scribonia. Noble in tone, the poem praises the virtue of the dead woman to the judges of the dead, to her family, and to the world.