omnia vertuntur. certe vertuntur amores: vinceris aut vincis, haec in amore rota est. magni saepe duces, magni cecidere tyranni, et Thebae steterant altaque Troia fuit. munera quanta dedi vel qualia carmina feci! illa tamen numquam ferrea dixit “ Amo.” 1 10 VIIIA ERGO iam multos nimium temerarius annos, improba, qui tulerim teque tuamque domum ? ecquandone tibi liber sum visus ? an usque in nostrum iacies verba superba caput ? sic igitur prima moriere aetate, Properti? sed morere; interitu gaudeat illa tuo ' exagitet nostros Manes, sectetur et umbras, insultetque rogis, calcet et ossa mea! [quid? non Antigonae tumulo Boeotius Haemon corruit ipse suo saucius ense latus, et sua cum miserae permiscuit ossa puellae, qua sine Thebanam noluit ire domum ? 2] sed non effugies: mecum moriaris oportet; hoc eodem ferro stillet uterque cruor. 20 1 The MSS. mark no break at this point. But 1-12 can stand by themselves and clearly do not belong to what follows. I therefore mark a new elegy. 2 Lines 21-24 cannot belong to their present context; the simile is too irrelevant. Housman would place them after XXVIII. 40, perhaps rightly. not least; conqueror thou art or conquered; so turns the wheel of love. Oft have leaders and lords once was. of might fallen; Thebes stood of old and lofty Troy What gifts I gave her, what songs I made for her! Yet never did she soften her iron heart nor say, "I love thee." VIIIA So then, have I, that through so many years too rashly have endured thee and thy household, cruel girl, have I ever seemed to thee aught save thy slave? Or wilt thou never cease to hurl words of scorn at me? 17 So then, Propertius, must thou die in thine earliest youth? Nay, die! let her rejoice to see thee perish! Let her harry my ghost, and vex my shade, let her trample on my pyre and spurn my bones! [Why? Did not Boeotian Haemon die by Antigone's tomb, his side rent by his own sword, and mingle his bones with those of the hapless maid, without whom he would not return to his Theban home?] But thou shalt not escape; thou must die with me, on this same steel must drip the blood of both! Such death shall quamvis ista mihi mors est inhonesta futura: mors inhonesta quidem, tu moriere tamen.1 ille etiam abrepta desertus coniuge Achilles IX ISTE quod est, ego saepe fui: sed fors et in hora Penelope poterat bis denos salva per annos 30 40 1 Some lines seem to have been lost at this point, if, indeed, 29-40 can be regarded as belonging at all to what precedes. 2 matre, a MS. of L. Valla: marte NF. 3 eiecto 5: electo NF. be for me a death of shame; but, shameful though it be, thou still shalt die. 29 Even the great Achilles when left forlorn, his love snatched from his side, endured that his arms should lie idle in his tent. He saw the rout, the Achaeans dragged along the shore, he saw the Dorian camp glow with the torch of Hector, he saw Patroclus lie low defiled with clotted sand, his streaming hair dabbled with blood; and all this he endured for the sake of the lovely Briseis. Such is the force and fierceness of grief when love is stolen away. when with tardy retribution his captive was restored to him, it was the same Achilles dragged brave Hector at the heels of his Haemonian steeds. What wonder then if Love rightfully triumphs over me, that have neither mother nor armour like to his? But IX WHAT yonder fool now is, I often was. Yet one day, it may be, he too shall be cast forth and another dearer to thy heart. 3 Penelope was able to live true to her vows for twice ten years, a woman worthy to be wooed of so many suitors; she was able to put off her marriage by her false weaving, in crafty wise, unravelling by night the weft of the day, and though she ne'er hoped to look on Ulysses' face again, she remained faithful in his house, grown old in waiting his return. Briseis nec non exanimem amplectens Briseis Achillen et dominum lavit maerens captiva cruentum, haec mihi vota tuam propter suscepta salutem, non sic incerto mutantur flamine Syrtes, 1 fulvis : fluviis NF. 2 toro Itali: viro NF. 10 20 30 |