Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/156

144 Volcatius Tullus and his patronage we have taken notice above. The poet's elegies to him affectionately speed his parting for the East, and in due course long to welcome his return to the Rome of his friends and ancestors. The first supplies, incidentally, evidence that Propertius had not, up to the date of it, visited Athens; and it is very doubtful whether—though in IV. xxi. he seems to contemplate a pilgrimage thither in the fond hope that length of voyage may make him forget his untoward loves, and though in I. xv. he gives a graphic picture of the dangers and terrors of a storm at sea—he ever really left his native shores, or indulged in foreign travel. There is much reason to agree with Mr Cranstoun that the absence of direct testimony on this point negatives the supposition; and his periodical threats of taking wing, and thrilling pictures of perils of waters, may perhaps be interpreted as only hints to his mistress to behave herself, and suggestions of desertion, which she probably valued at a cheap rate from a knowledge of her influence and attractions. Though full of the mythic lore of Greece, the poetry of Propertius betrays no eyewitness of its ancient cities or learned seats; and it is a more probable conclusion that he was a stay-at-home, though not unimaginative, traveller. His continued attachment to Cynthia—a long phase in his life-history to be treated separately—tends to this conclusion; and we know so little of him after the final rupture with her, that silence seems to confirm the unlocomotiveness of his few remaining years.