im toto corpore nullus ego';

ii. 4, 5,

'Nequiquam perfusa meis unguenta capillis,
ibat et expenso planta morata gradu.'

He had been introduced to Maecenas after the publication of his first
Book, but naturally was not on such intimate terms with him as older
men like Virgil and Horace were. ii. 1 and iii. 9 are addressed to
Maecenas. In the first of these poems Propertius declares that he is
unequal to the composition of an epic, which his patron had urged upon
him, but adds (l. 17)

'Quod mihi si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent
ut possem heroas ducere in arma manus, ...
bellaque resque tui memorarem Caesaris, et tu
Caesare sub magno cura secunda fores.'

For poems referring to Augustus cf. ii. 10, iv. 6 (on Actium), iii. 18
(on the death of Marcellus).

Horace and Propertius do not mention each other by name. Chronology
forbids the identification of the bore in Hor. _Sat._ i. 9 with
Propertius, who, on the same ground, cannot be meant in _Sat._ i. 10,
18,

'Neque simius iste,
nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.'

But Hor. _Ep._ ii. 2, 87-101, is undoubtedly aimed at Propertius. Cf.
especially l. 99,

'Discedo Alcaeus puncto illius; ille meo quis?
quis nisi Callimachus? Si plus adposcere visus,
fit Mimnermus et optivo cognomine crescit.'

Though both poets belonged to the same literary circle, they differed
widely in temperament as well as in age. With Tibullus, who was a
member of Messalla's circle, Propertius may have had no personal
acquaintance; at all events, neither alludes to the other.

For Virgil Propertius expresses warm admiration in ii. 34, written
during the composition of the _Aeneid_. Ovid, who calls him 'blandus'
(_Tr._ ii. 465) and 'tener' (_A.A._ iii. 333), was an intimate friend
of his; cf. _Tr._ iv. 10, 45 (quoted p. 206). The minor poets to whom
he writes are Ponticus (i. 7 and 9), Bassus (i. 4), and a tragic poet,
Lynceus (a pseudonym, ii. 34, 25).

(2) WORKS.

The extant Elegies, divided in the MSS. into four Books, are probably
all that Propertius ever wrote. On account of the disproportionate
length of Book ii., and the number 'tres' (which, however, may be said
in anticipation) in ii. 13, 25,

'Sat mea sat magna est si tres sint pompa libelli,
quos ego Persephonae maxima dona feram,'

some editors make Book ii. consist only of _El._ 1-9, and assign the
remainder (10-34) to a new Book iii. Books iii. an