Sextus Propertius

In studying ancient Roman history, scholars most often look to well-known historians of the ancient civilization such as Suetonius, Livy, Caesar, Cicero and Tacitus.  In their works our understanding of ancient Rome has been enhanced in respect to politics, art, architecture and much more.  But for once I invite you to look into Rome through the eyes of Sextus Propertius, an elegiac love poet who wrote his Elegies I-IV under the reign of Augustus.

Propertius is estimated to have lived from around 55 to 16 BC.  The Elegies I-IV are four books of elegiac poems written about his lover, Cynthia.  While the content of the poems rarely shift away from Cynthia and the characteristics of love, in a very short poem in Elegies II he addresses Cynthia, telling her why he was so late to visit her.  Propertius indicates that he was delayed by watching the opening of the portico of the temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill.  His description is short, but one advantage to reading his poem is that it indeed very elegant with some beautiful visual imagery.  Here is a rough English translation by A.S. Kline:

“You ask why I came so late? Phoebus’s gold colonnade was opened today by mighty Caesar; such a great sight, adorned with columns from Carthage, and between them the crowd of old Danaus’s daughters. There in the midst, the temple reared in bright marble, dearer to Phoebus than his Ortygian land. Right on the top were two chariots of the Sun, and the doors of Libyan ivory, beautifully done. One mourned the Gauls thrown from Parnassus’s peak, and the other the death, of Niobe, Tantalus’s daughter. Next the Pythian god himself was singing, in flowing robes, between his mother and sister. He seemed to me more beautiful than the true Phoebus, lips parted in marble song to a silent lyre. And, about the altar, stood four of Myron’s cattle, carved statues of oxen, true to life.”

 

As you can see, not much is left of the temple of Apollo in Rome but Propertius certainly provides us with a stunning description of what the portico might have looked like when it was first constructed.

Enjoy your winter break!
Scott