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The Actian Miracle: Propertius 4.6

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

P. J. Connor
P. J. Connor*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Extract

A revision of attitude toward Propertius' Actium poem has been gathering way for some time. An impressive list of scholars who took it at face value (whatever that can mean now that a closer, more sensitive, reading has altered our directions) would include P. Grimal, for example, who contended that, ‘La pièce se présente comme un hymne à Apollon protecteur du Prince; elle a comme prétexte le temple dont la construction, projetée dès 36 av. J.C., ne prit toute sa signification qu' apès la victoire d'Actium'. R. Pichon selected a different emphasis as the real point of the poem, but he shared the notion of a political panegyric, ‘C’est donc bien la victoire impériale que veut chanter Properce, c'est l'établissement de la dynastie césarienne: pour lui, Actium est le monument de la gloire des Julii'. More recent acceptance of Propertius as the glorifier of Augustus is seen in H. Pillinger, ‘His poem then is as much a hymn to Apollo as a glorification of Augustus, or perhaps we should agree with the poet that it is a hymn to both at once, the glory of Augustus being prefigured in the brilliance of Apollo.’ W. R. Nethercut describes 4.6 as the centre of Book 4 representing ‘a moment of illumination surrounded by poems set in night … Poem IV.6 thus indeed provides the whole of Book IV with illumination'. In his dissertation of 1963, Nethercut points out that Grimal and Eisenhut consider 4.6 the high point of Augustanism, and goes on to discuss how ‘even Paratore felt the need to account for this poem’.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , 1978 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 1978

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References

°I have taken the translations from The Poems of Propertius, trans. Musker, Ronald (London, 1972).Google Scholar

1. Grimal, P., Les intentions de Properce et la composition du livre IV des Elégies (Brussels, 1952) 193.Google Scholar

2. Pichon, R., ‘La bataille d’Actium et les témoignages contemporains’, Mélanges Boissier (1903) 399Google Scholar.Both these passages are quoted from LEC 24 (1956) 345.

3. Pillinger, H. E., ‘Some Callimachean influences on Propertius, Book 4’, HSCP 73 (1969) 192.Google Scholar

4. Nethercut, W. R., ‘Notes on the structure of Propertius, Book IV’, AJP 89 (1968) 464Google Scholar and n. 30. Nethercut also cites Grimal, CRAI 1952, 259, ‘placée au centre du livre, elle l’éclaire’.

5. Nethercut, W. R., ‘Propertius and Augustus’ (Diss. Columbia, 1963) 260ff.Google Scholar The reference is to Eisenhut, W., ‘Die Einleitungsverse der Elegie IV 6 des Properz’, Hermes 84 (1956) 121–126.Google Scholar

6. Nethercut, Diss. 1963, p. 1, referring to Paratore, E., L’elegia III, 11 e gli atteggiamenti politici di Properzio (Palermo, 1936).Google Scholar

7. Lefèvre, E., Propertius ludibundus (Heidelberg, 1966) 97–98Google Scholar: ‘Wenn wir bei der Betrachtung der aitiologischen Gedichte für unser Thema die Erkenntnis gewonnen haben, dass in ihnen das humorvolle Element nur an wenigen Stellen auftreten kann so gilt dies in besonderem Masse für die Elegie 4.6, die, den Mittelpunkt des Buches bildend, den wohl bedeutendsten Beitrag des Properz für die Gesinnung des Augustus bringt.’ Baker, R. J., Latomus 27 (1968) 344–346Google Scholar and Latomus 29 (1970) 694Google Scholar also stresses what he sees as the importance of 4.6 in Propertius’ literary development.

8. Paladini, M. L., A proposito della tradizione poetica sulla battaglia di Azio (Brussels, 1958) 47.Google Scholar

9. Johnson, W. R., ‘The emotions of patriotism: Propertius 4.6’, CSCA 6 (1973) 151f.Google Scholar

10. Sullivan, J. P., Ezra Pound and Sextus Propertius (Austin, 1964) 64.Google Scholar

11. Sullivan, J. P., ‘Propertius: a preliminary essay’, Arion 5 (1966) 5fGoogle Scholar., at p. 19.

12 Hallett, Judith P., Book IV: Propertius’ Recusatio to Augustus and Augustan ideals (Diss. Harvard, 1971) 107Google Scholar. The citation from Sullivan is Arion 5 (1966) 19.Google ScholarPubMed

13. Hallet (n. 12 above) 113.

14. Sweet, F., ‘Propertius and political panegyric’, Arethusa 5 (1972) 169–175Google Scholar. The citations come from pp. 171, 172 and 173 respectively.

15. Sweet (n. 14 above) 174.

16. Johnson (n. 9 above) 151.

17. Sullivan (n. 10 above) 64: ‘The whole thing reads to me like a gentle parody of court poetry’; Johnson (n. 9 above) 160: ‘Among other things, he is parodying Vergil’s Actium’; 167: ‘Propertius admired the art, and maybe envied it; in any case he paid its power the homage of parody’.

18. Sullivan, ibid.

19. Connor, P. J., ‘Propertius’ vein of humour: in which some discrimination is proposed’, Ramus 5 (1976) 103–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. For a discussion of this propaganda see Deonna, W., ‘Le trésor des Fins d’Annecy’, Revue Archéologique XI (1920) 112f.Google Scholar, especially 162f.