In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil WarAlain M. GowingRobert Alan Gurval. Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil War. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. xiv 1 337 pp. 6 plates. Cloth, $45.50.Because they occur at precise moments in time, battles can provide a convenient means to mark political and even cultural changes. In Roman history one thinks of battles such as (...) those of the Allia, Cannae, Zama, Pharsalus, and Philippi, all of which came to be regarded as major turning points. As is the nature of such things, however, the recollection and representation of a battle can eclipse the event itself and assume a meaning far out of proportion to the battle’s strategic or even immediate political significance. This is particularly true of the confrontation between Antony and Octavian at Actium in 31 B.C., arguably the single most important battle in Roman history.In Actium and Augustus Robert Gurval undertakes a fresh examination of the impact that the battle had on Augustan culture. His thesis is a provocative one. While not in the least denying the powerful influence of the battle, he casts considerable doubt on the notion that from the outset Augustus deliberately sought to promote Actium as part of an imperial ideology (an ideology, that is, devised by the emperor himself) and that the attention paid to the battle by Augustan poets constitutes a reaction against or collusion in such an ideology.To that end Gurval surveys all of the available evidence. The first two chapters are devoted to historical inquiry: chapter 1 covers such matters as Augustus’ triple triumph in the summer of 29, the so-called Actian arch, Augustus’ coinage, Nicopolis, and the Actian Games; chapter 2, Octavian’s relationship with Apollo and the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine. In each of these areas Gurval calls into question a substantial body of scholarly opinion that seeks to interpret these monuments and events as part of a propagandistic celebration of [End Page 638] Augustus’ victory at Actium. In Gurval’s view, this argument, often grounded in inference and speculation, simply does not stand up to scrutiny. For example, there is little hard evidence to suggest that the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine, originally vowed following the defeat of Sextus Pompey at Naulochus in 36 and dedicated in October of 28, was in any obvious way meant as an offering to the Apollo who assisted Octavian at Actium. (As Gurval observes, Apollo Actius does not appear on coins until 16 B.C.). Similarly, he refutes those who would identify as the “Actian arch” a single-span structure that abutted the Temple of Divus Julius in the Forum but was evidently torn down to accommodate the triple arch erected in 19 B.C. to commemorate the recovery of the standards from Parthia. As he demonstrates, there are problems with both the precise date and purpose of the original arch, which he prefers to see as a generalized monument to the emperor’s military achievements rather than a reminder of Antony’s defeat.Having considerably shaken the view that Augustus sought to make propagandistic capital of Actium, Gurval turns in chapters 3–6 to the treatment of the battle by Augustan poets. Chapter 3 deals with Horace; chapter 4 with Propertius’ references to the battle in books 1–3; chapter 5 with Aeneid 8; and in chapter 6 Gurval returns to Propertius and 4.6. The special value of his close readings of these texts is that, set in the context of his broader consideration of the “Actian myth,” they yield useful insights into the way the literary handling of the battle varied from author to author and evolved over time. As one would expect, given the conclusions reached in the first two chapters, Gurval maintains that these texts neither attempt to undermine an “official propaganda” (213) about Actium nor constitute any kind of “political panegyric” (208). Rather, they are to be read as fundamentally personal reflections on an event to which the poets themselves had attached a particular and not necessarily similar importance.Faced with the irrefutable and well-illustrated fact that... (shrink)

David Blank presents a new translation into clear modern English of a key treatise by one of the greatest of ancient philosophers, together with the first ever commentary on this work. Sextus Empiricus' Against the Grammarians is a polemical attack on ancient Greek ideas about grammar, and provides one of the best examples of sustained Sceptical reasoning.

This is the first complete English translation of Sextus Empiricus' Against Those in the Disciplines that includes substantial interpretive aids, including introduction, extensive notes, and glossary. The work discusses six specialized fields of study: grammar, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astrology, and music.

About Sextus Sextus Empiricus is one of the most important ancient philosophical writers after Plato and Aristotle. His writings are our main source for the doctrines and arguments of Scepticism. He probably lived in the second century AD. Eleven books of his writings have survived, covering logic, physics, ethics, and numerous more specialized fields. About Against the Ethicists In this unjustly neglected and misunderstood work Sextus sets out a distinctive Sceptic position in ethics. He discusses the concepts (...) good and bad, and puts forward the sceptical argument that nothing is either good or bad by nature or intrinsically or invariably, but only relatively to persons and/or to circumstances. He then argues that the sceptic is better off than the non-sceptic. In the latter part of the book, Sextus attacks the Stoic view that there is such a thing as a `skill for life'. About this edition This volume contains a translation of Against the Ethicists in clear modern English, together with an introduction and a detailed commentary. Those who have discussed this work in the past have tended to underestimate it, often regarding its main position as essentially the same as that of Sextus' better-known Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Richard Bett shows that Against the Ethicists represents quite a distinct and coherent philosophical outlook, associated with a phase of Scepticism earlier than Sextus himself, an outlook of which little other evidence survives. (shrink)

THE following treatise on Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism has been prepared to supply a need much felt in the English language by students of Greek philosophy. For while other schools of Greek philosophy have been exhaustively and critically discussed by English scholars, there are few sources of information available to the student who wishes to make himself familiar with the teachings of Pyrrhonism. The aim has been, accordingly, to give a concise presentation of Pyrrhonism in relation to its (...) historical development and the Scepticism of the Academy, with critical references to the French and German works existing on the subject. The time and manner of the connection of Sextus Empiricus with the Pyrrhonean School has also been discussed. As the First Book of the "Hypotyposes," or Pyrrhonic Sketches by Sextus Empiricus, contains the substance of the teachings of Pyrrhonism, it has been hoped that a translation of it into English might prove a useful contribution to the literature on Pyrrhonism, and this translation has been added to the critical part of the work. (shrink)

The first Ukrainian translation of the classic work of ancient skepticism, Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Pyrrhonism, made by D. of Sc. Philology Lesia Zvonska under the scientific editorship of Dr. of Sc. in Philosophy. Oleg Khoma.

Throughout history philosophers have sought to define, understand, and delineate concepts important to human well-being. One such concept is "knowledge." Many philosophers believed that absolute, certain knowledge, is possible--that the physical world and ideas formulated about it could be given solid foundation unaffected by the varieties of mere opinion. Sextus Empiricus stands as an example of the "skeptic" school of thought whose members believed that knowledge was either unattainable or, if a genuine possibility, the conditions necessary to achieve it (...) were next to impossible to satisfy. In other words, in the absence of complete knowledge, one must make do with the information provided by an imperfect world and conveyed to the mind through sense impressions that can often deceive us. Throughout his life Sextus Empiricus entered into intellectual combat with those who confidently claimed to possess indubitable knowledge. For skeptics, the best one can hope to achieve is a reasonable suspension of judgment--remaining ever mindful that claims to knowledge require careful scrutiny, thoughtful analysis, and critical review if we are to prevent ourselves and others from plunging headlong into mistaken notions. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Elegia i.3 PROPERTIUS Translated by Steven J.Willett Just as she lay when Theseus’ keel was sliding seaward, the Cnossian maid languid on the desolate shore; just as Cepheus’ daughter reclined in her first slumber, Andromeda, now freed from jagged rocks; just as the Thracian bacchant, weary from incessant dancing, slumps on the grassy bank of the Apidanus; even so Cynthia seemed to breathe a soft repose, her head pillowed (...) on open unruly hands, when I came dragging footsteps wobbly with too much wine, the boys waving burnt-out torches in the late night. Against her I tried, not all my senses utterly derelict, to advance gently on the compliant couch; and, though seized by a double ardor—each was commanding me, love here and wine there, both implacable gods— to assault her by slipping my arm lightly beneath her body and with a hand advanced take kisses and arms, yet I lacked the courage to shatter my mistress’ repose, fearing the brawls whose savagery I’d tasted; so I remained standing there motionless with rapt eyes, like Argus at the strange sight of Io’s horns. And now I was untying the garlands from my forehead and placing them, Cynthia, around your temples; and now I was finding it pleasant to smooth your fallen tresses; then I was giving you stolen apples in hollow palms; but I was lavishing all these gifts on ungrateful sleep, gifts that often tumbled from your sloping lap; and every time you heaved a sigh stirring fitfully, arion 28.2 fall 2020 98 elegia 1.3 I froze, foolishly credulous of an empty sign, fearful that some dream was bringing you strange terrors, or some man was forcing you reluctantly to be his: until the moon drifting across the opposite windows, the meddling moon whose eyes incline to linger, drew her closely-lidded eyes open under its delicate beams. Then, her elbow propped on the soft couch, she asked: “Has another’s rejection finally brought you back to my bed, chucked out with the doors slammed in your face? Where have you squandered the long hours of my night, languid, alas for me, as the stars are waning? Oh, I pray that you may endure, you beast, such nights as you are always making poor me to suffer! Just now I was cheating sleep with purple yarn at the loom, and then, exhausted, with song on Orpheus’ lyre; and sometimes, quite desolate, I softly complained to myself of the long waits your outside loves often cost me. Till sleep with gentle wings brushed me down to oblivion. That was the last concern of all my tears.”... (shrink)

Outlines of Scepticism, by the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus, is a work of major importance. It is the fullest extant account of ancient Scepticism, and also one of our most copious sources of information about the other Hellenistic philosophies. Moreover, the rediscovery of Sextus in the sixteenth century brought about a revolution in philosophy. Anyone interested in the history of philosophy must have at least an acquaintance with Sextus, and for students of Hellenistic philosophy his writings are (...) indispensable. Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes provide an accurate and readable English translation of the Outlines, with a short introduction and brief annotation. (shrink)

By far the most detailed surviving examination by any ancient Greek sceptic of epistemology and logic, this work critically reviews the pretensions of non-sceptical philosophers, to have discovered methods for determining the truth, either through direct observation or by inference from the observed to the unobserved. A fine example of the Pyrrhonist sceptical method at work, it also provides extensive information about the ideas of other Greek thinkers, which in many instances, are poorly preserved in other sources.

R. G. Bury’s translations of Sextus Empiricus for the Loeb Library have served English language readers well, but new translations, taking account of advances in scholarship since Bury’s day, have long been needed. We now have two new English versions of the Outlines of Pyrrhonism. They take different and in some ways complementary approaches to the task.

Arithmetic deals with numbers: but what is the nature of their existence, of their parts, and of their relationship with countable items? These questions nourished a lively debate between the Platonico-Pythagorean tradition (trying to answer them) and the Pyrrhonian tradition (trying to show that these answers were unsatisfactory). The debate lies at the heart of Sextus Empiricus' Against the Arithmeticians. The present book aims at facing the remarkable historical and philosophical questions raised by Sextus' treatise by offering a (...) new translation of it and the first dedicated commentary to it. (shrink)

v. 1. Schițe pyrrhonene, în trei părți. Contra învățaților.

t. 1. Dve knigi protiv logikov. Dve knigi protiv fizikov.--t. 2. Protiv uchenykh. Tri knigi Pirronovykh polozheniĭ.

Sextus’s arguments against ethical theories are shorter and more general than those he brings against the other two parts of ancient philosophy, logic and physics. Until recently this part of his work, in Outlines of Pyrrhonism III and Adversus Mathematicos XI has been comparatively neglected. Now, as well as the splendidly scholarly book by Emidio Spinelli, Sesto Empirico: Contro Gli Etici we have Richard Bett’s translation with commentary in the Clarendon Later Ancient Philosophers series. Both books make Sextus’s (...) sometimes elusive work far more available and usable to the modern reader. (shrink)

Alan Bailey offers a clear exposition and defence of the philosophy of Sextus Empiricus, one of the most influential of ancient thinkers, the father of philosophical scepticism.

When Propertius tells Cynthia in 2. 29A that, on his drunken way to another woman the previous night, he was seized and hauled back to Cynthia by a band of Cupids, it is fairly clear that the poet is giving dramatic embodiment to the erotic commonplace that the lover fired by wine is unable to stay away from his mistress but is dragged back to her perforce by love.The nature of the drama in which the topos is embodied is, however, (...) not at all clear. Most commentators have seen it as nothing more than a fantasy or fairy-tale having no connection whatsoever with real life. Two, while recognizing that elements of fantasy are present, nevertheless have felt that the action of the drama is derived from real life with the Cupids playing a real-life role.I believe that those who have seen 2. 29A as merely fantasy are incorrect. This is not to say that pure fantasy does not occur in Propertius’ work. But when it does it takes place in a dream or fantasy landscape. In 2. 29A the scene is the streets of Rome and this realistic setting suggests that, as in another realistic setting Propertius although giving rein to his fantasy links it with reality by taking on himself the role of triumphator, so here it is more likely that the characters in a drama with a real setting will have real-life roles to play. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to discuss some challenging issues concerning Sextus’ works and outlook, and to offer an overview of the influence exerted by Sextan Pyrrhonism on both early modern and contemporary philosophy.

Among the difficulties in Propertius is the question whether to retain ‘cecinit’ in 3. 3. 7 or to adopt the conjecture ‘cecini’. Propertius dreamed that he was reclining upon Helicon in a grove by Hippocrene and that he was able to compose a Roman historical epic: Visus eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbra, Bellerophontei qua fluit umor equi, Reges, Alba, tuos et regum facta tuorum neruis hiscere posse meis, Paruaque tam magnis admoram fontibus ora Vnde pater sitiens Ennius ante bibit, (...) Et cecinit Curios fratres et Horatia pila Regiaque Aemilia uecta tropaea rate Victricesque moras Fabii pugnamque sinistram Cannensem et uersos ad pia uota deos Hannibalemque Lares Romana sede fugantes, Anseris et tutum uoce fuisse Iouem, Cum me Castalia speculans ex arbore Phoebus Sic ait… According to the paradosis 7–12 constitute a summary of Ennius' Annales. In that I case Propertius' failure to observe historical sequence is peculiar; nor is it defended securely by I supposedly parallel passages. More damaging, however, is that 8 must describe the triumph of L. Aemilius Paullus in 167, two years after the accepted date of Ennius' death. Hertzberg and Postgate claimed that it alludes to the defeat of Demetrius of I Pharos by a L. Aemilius Paullus in 219 ; this is unlikely for some of the same reasons as the rival theory of Butler and Barber, which has found many adherents, that it refers to the victory over Antiochus' navy by L. Aemilius Regillus at Myonnesus in 190. (shrink)

This mainly historical paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the (heretoforth neglected) evidence of Peripatetic syllogistic in Sextus Empiricus. The paper sets out to show that it is likely that in Sextus (and Apuleius) there is valuable evidence of a transitional period in later ancient logic that is marked out as such by a number of characteristics, which include the following: (i) A Peripatetic term ‘categorical syllogism’ is newly in use, but no term ‘hypothetical syllogism’ has been established (...) yet. (ii) Stoic and Peripatetic logic are treated as complementing each other. (iii) The reversion of quantified propositions from predicate-subject to subject-predicate formulation is still fairly new. (iv) The so-called crocodile example is used to show that induction lacks the feature of concluding by necessity that is a defining mark of Aristotelian syllogisms. (v) The use of the expression katholikê protasis for categorical universal premise-propositions is distinctive of the period. (vi) The argument forms displayed by Sextus’ three examples appear to be indirectly related to the soon-to-appear Platonist hypothetical syllogistic. (vii) There are parallels that suggest that Sextus’ source belongs to the same historical period of logic as Apuleius’ source and as some probably recent source of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ Prior Analytics commentary (that is presented along with some later views and arguments, which may include Alexander’s own). Small differences between the three authors show that Sextus did not draw from the Greek handbook that was Apuleius’ source. (shrink)

In his Outlines of Pyrrhonism 2.110–113, Sextus Empiricus presents four different accounts of the conditional, presumably all from the Hellenistic period, in increasing logical strength. While the interpretation and provenance of the first three accounts is relatively secure, the fourth account has perplexed and frustrated interpreters for decades or longer. Most interpreters have ultimately taken a dismissive attitude towards the fourth account and discounted it as being of both little historical and logical interest. We argue that this attitude is (...) unwarranted and demonstrate that the conditional expressed in the fourth account can profitably be understood as a precursor of analytic entailment, familiar from containment logics such as those developed by Parry and Angell. Exploiting recent work by Fine, we present a formal truthmaker semantics for this conditional and show how it sheds light on a number of longstanding issues in the interpretation of this passage. (shrink)

Outlines of Scepticism, by the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus, is a work of major importance for the history of Greek philosophy. It is the fullest extant account of ancient scepticism, and it is also one of our most copious sources of information about the other Hellenistic philosophies. Its first part contains an elaborate exposition of the Pyrrhonian variety of scepticism; its second and third parts are critical and destructive, arguing against 'dogmatism' in logic, epistemology, science and ethics - an (...) approach that revolutionized the study of philosophy when Sextus' works were rediscovered and published in the sixteenth century. This volume presents the accurate and readable translation which was first published in 1994, together with a substantial new historical and philosophical introduction by Jonathan Barnes. (shrink)

This is our well received text of Propertius' celebrated address to the shades of Callimachus and Philitas at 3.1.1–2: Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philitae, in vestrum, quaeso, me sinite ire nemus. Well received it may be, but scholarly worries and disagreements about the precise meaning of sacra, and indeed about the real purpose of the address, perhaps have diverted editors' eyes from a possible corruption. I would like to suggest that the pairing of ethnic adjective and personal name, Coi (...) and Philitae, in line 1 may not be Propertian. (shrink)

At 3.9.37–8, Propertius says that he will not bewail the destruction of Thebes by the Epigonoi or the earlier assault on the city by the Seven: non flebo in cineres arcem sedisse paternos Cadmi, nee septem proelia clade pari. That nec…pari in 38 refers to the Seven, with Lipsius' septem for the manuscripts' semper, J. D. Morgan demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt in his discussion of the couplet in CQ 36 , 186–8. But Morgan's chief concern in that discussion was with (...) paternos at the end of 37, and it is his treatment of that adjective which prompts this note. (shrink)

‘Quot editores, tot Propertii’ has been a familiar—and much misunderstood—phrase in Propertian scholarship ever since it first appeared in the preface to Phillimore′s Oxford Classical Text of 1901. In its original context it described not an existing situation but rather the chaos that Phillimore alleged would result if editors began to adopt significant numbers of transpositions. Such chaos, however, does characterize the current state of Propertian studies; every interpreter seems to create a different Propertius, who in the last twenty-five years (...) has been represented as a feminist, a neurotic traumatized by the siege of Perugia, an anti-Augustan iconoclast, an apostle of love oppressed by a quasi-Stalinist principate, a decadent pre-Raphaelite, and most recently as the ‘modernist poet of antiquity’. (shrink)

In the midst of his fulminations against Cleopatra, Propertius denounces her land of Egypt in the following ‘wholly admirable parenthesis:’ Noxia Alexandria, dolis aptissima tellus Et totiens nostro Memphi cruenta malo, Tres ubi Pompeio detraxit harena triumphos! Toilet nulla dies hanc tibi, Roma, notam. Issent Phlegraeo melius tibi funera campo Vel tua si socero colla daturus eras.

To the host of suggestions I would add the sense of the passage is, ‘I have never annoyed you with petulant language, with the things the mob in the heated forum is accustomed to say, that you suffer me to… But I have often…’ His was, as line 41 explains, the language of poetry. The contrast between the language of the forum and poetry is an obvious one, and is made elsewhere by Propertius ‘turn tibi pauca suo de carmine dictat (...) Apollo et vetat insano verba tonare foro. at tu finge elegos’ . In the present passage the contrast is between the common language typical of the angry mob and the original verses of the exclusus amator. It is particularly bitter that he should be condemned to the ‘trivio’ which, like the forum, is the very milieu of the type of language he has eschewed. (shrink)

Cynthia's apparition is upbraiding Propertius ior having forgotten her so soon. In spite of their former love, he had not been present at her death, and, because of his neglect, her funeral had been a mean affair, lacking not merely any signs of affection, but any semblance of ordinary decent feeling. In a succession of couplets tracing the regular stages of a Roman funeral from the deathbed to the final rites of the cremation, this lack of respect and affection is (...) particularized: no loving voice had been heard in her dying moments ; her body had been laid out to await the funeral with little thought for what was seemly at such a time ; on the day of the funeral Propertius had not put on mourning or shown signs of grief ; the funeral procession had moved with indecorous haste to the city gate ; Propertius had not been present at the cremation, and no perfumes had been poured on the flames ; no customary final offerings had been made to the ashes. (shrink)

This paper sets out in section I the most useful evidence we possess for the dating of Propertius Book 1, Tibullus Book 1, and Propertius Books 2a and 2b.2 The evidence squares with a sequence of publication: Prop. 1, Tibull. 1, Prop. 2a, Prop. 2b, which is what, in my view, literary considerations suggest. The most important, or at least most interesting, of these considerations are the signs of response and counterresponse between the two poets. I detect spirited ripostes by (...) the poets, one to the other. Section II examines some Tibullan responses to Propertius Book 1, and section III some Propertian responses, in ‘Book 2’, to Tibullus Book 1. (shrink)

All editors and translators of Propertius seem convinced that the Roman poet has endowed the horse Arion with the power of speech. I present a few sample translations of the two lines.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:American Journal of Philology 121.2 (2000) 259-277 [Access article in PDF] Propertius 4.2: Slumming with Vertumnus? Kerill O'Neill In her recent study of Ciceronian oratory Ann Vasaly observes that particular activities are associated with the monuments, edifices, and different quarters of Rome, on the basis of the daily practice and literary depiction of each location. Together, these associations constitute a "metaphysical topography" of a location--that is, the network of (...) meanings the place held for a Roman audience in the Augustan age. 1 Attention to the metaphysical topography of a place can enrich or change our appreciation of a literary work that depends in some manner on its setting. The fourth book of Propertius directs the reader's attention to a variety of places in the city, from the Tarpeian Rock (4.4) to the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine (4.6), from the Ara Maxima of Hercules (4.9) to the recently restored Temple of Jupiter Feretrius (4.10). These elegies play a part in shaping our sense of each of these places, but they also draw upon the preexisting metaphysical topography. In 4.2 the statue of Vertumnus on three occasions refers to its specific location in a street shrine on the Vicus Tuscus and voices its preference for this particular spot over any other. In this essay I describe the literary tradition concerning the statue of Vertumnus and the Vicus Tuscus and demonstrate that the metaphysical topography of the location affords this aetiological poem a markedly amatory aspect, which encourages us to read it as a programmatic piece for the entire book and grants some of the narrator's assertions an ironic and witty flavor.The fourth book of Propertius' elegies is characterized by pervasive interplay between amatory and aetiological poetry. This interplay is created in the first elegy, which is split into two halves (4.1a, 4.1b). In the first half an authorial narrator introduces a new program of aetiological elegy, culminating with a promise to sing of sacred rites, festivals, [End Page 259] and the ancient names of places (4.1.69). In the second half Horus, an indignant astrologer, dismisses the poet's lofty ambitions and tells him to stick to the amatory poems that Apollo favored in his earlier books. Thus the two halves of 4.1 seek to establish a strict opposition between programs of aetiological and amatory poetry. 2 How rigorous an opposition this is to be, however, remains a matter of doubt. The recusatio elegies of the earlier books fashion a pattern of false opposition. For example, in 2.1, 3.3, and 3.9 the narrator appears to dismiss the writing of aetiological and nationalistic verse, but this refusal involves writing precisely what he claims to be rejecting. In other words, the discursive praxis usually referred to as recusatio may be more accurately described by the term "generic disavowal," 3 since it allows the disingenuous inclusion of material ostensibly precluded by the poet's antipathy or limited abilities. 4 Furthermore, Propertius has a tendency to set up binarisms that he then problematizes. Thus man appears to be constructed as the opposite of woman until we encounter Vertumnus, a statue who can be both male and female (4.2.23-24), and Hercules, a thoroughly manly god who claims to have been a "pretty good woman" through transvestism and the performance of a woman's tasks (4.9.45-50). 5Throughout book 4 we find a similar collapse of a binary opposition. Many of the elegies blur and transgress the dividing line between the aetiological and amatory programs that Horus' response to the authorial narrator constituted as incompatible. Amatory elements intrude into aetiological poems, and vice versa. For example, in 4.4 Tarpeia plays the role of an amatory heroine, 6 and in 4.9 Hercules dallies with the roles of both the exclusus amator and the puella, 7 while in 4.5 we discover sacred rites, festivals, and ancient names. 8 The Vertumnus elegy, which immediately follows the divided introduction, is ostensibly [End Page 260] an unadulterated... (shrink)

Between the first eight lines of Propertius 3.7, addressed to ‘pecunia’, and the lover's farewell couplet to Aquilo, the narration of Paetus′ shipwreck and death has first bewildered and then inspired generations of readers either to defend the basic order of verses given in the manuscripts or to create a more satisfactory arrangement through transposition. To some, the inherited poem presents a catastrophe equal to Paetus′ own dismemberment: Aquilo blew the pages around, a scribe playing Neptune took pleasure in his (...) own power to change, while the uncontrollable seas of error scattered couplets far and wide and altered the shape of words and letters. To others, the textual problems of 3.7 can be explained with appeals to parallels or to Propertius′ stylistic intentions. (shrink)

Professor Cairns has suggested that the use of modo in Propertius 1.1.11, which has long been seen as problematic, can be understood in terms of some instances of the Greek modo, he says, here means not but, and the modo clause is prior in time to the clause that follows it just as, in his view, a Greek imperfect with can have the force of a pluperfect and refer to a time prior to that of the verb of a following (...) clause. (shrink)