Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/147

Rh terateurs has not the original destination been similar, and similarly diverted! It was essential, doubtless, to Propertius's success in this divergent occupation and livelihood that he should find a patron, to become to him what Mæcenas was to Horace, and Messala to Tibullus. Later on, he got introduced to the great commoner, prime minister, and patron, whose inner circle on the Esquiline assured distinction in letters to all its members: but his first patron was Volcatius Tullus, the nephew of L. Volcatius Tullus, consul in 33 and proconsul in Asia, who was of the poet's own age, and probably his uncle's lieutenant. To this Tullus are addressed several of the elegies of the first book, and it is reasonable to think that the link between patron and client was one of equal friendship. A little of the proper pride of the Umbrian rhymer comes out in what he writes to Mæcenas, at a subsequent period, deprecating public station and prominence, and delicately suggesting that in eschewing these and loftier themes he does but imitate the retiring modesty of his patron.

Before, however, we discuss his relations with patrons and contemporary poets, it were well to glance at the sources and subjects of his trained and erudite muse. If ever epithet was fitted to a proper name, it is the epithet of "doctus" or "learned" in connection with that of Propertius. More than Catullus, infinitely more than Tibullus, Propertius was imbued with and bathed in the Alexandrian poetry and poets. Again and again he calls himself the disciple of the Coan Philetas, and his ambition was to be, what Ovid designates