Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/149

Rh ladic gift, than the more facile Ovid, whose 'Fasti' have cast into shade his predecessor's experiments in turning the Roman Calendar into poetry. Reserving the story of his loves for another chapter, it will be advisable that in the present we should confine ourselves to the record of his life and career, independently of that absorbing influence. It was no doubt a turning-point for him, when Propertius gained introduction and acceptance into the literary coterie of Mæcenas. Although his difference in age, and his probably less courtly manners and temper, interfered with his admission to the same close intimacy as the lively Venusian in the minister's villa and gardens on the Esquiline, there is abundant internal evidence that he was welcomed there not only for his merit as a poet, but also for the special purpose of all the introductions to that brilliant circle—namely, to nurse and raise up a meet band of celebrants of the victories and successes of Augustus. In an elegy which evinces the depth and breadth of his archæological and mythologic lore, the poet is found excusing his inability to write epics or heroics, though he adds that, could he essay such themes, it should be to commemorate the deeds of the victor at Actium, the triumphs in which golden-fettered kings were led along the Via Sacra, and the praise of his stanch friend and servant—