Sextus Propertius
Apuleius identifies her as a woman named Hostia, and Propertius suggests she is a descendent of the Roman poet Hostius. Scholars guess that she was probably a courtesan. Propertius frequently compliments her as docta puella 'learned girl', and, like Sulpicia, she herself was a writer of verse. Their affair veers wildly between emotional extremes, and as a lover she clearly dominates his life at least through the publication of the third book: “ cuncta tuus sepelivit amor, nec femina post te ulla dedit collo dulcia vincla meo. "Thy love has buried all others, nor has any woman after thee put sweet fetters upon my neck." (III.15.11-2) ” It is difficult to date precisely many of Propertius' poems, but they chronicle the kind of declarations, passions, jealousies, quarrels, and lamentations that were commonplace subjects among the Latin elegists. The last two poems in book III seem to indicate a final break with her (versibus insignem te pudet esse meis - "It is a shame that my verses have made you famous" ), and Cynthia died some time before the publication of the final book IV. In this last book Cynthia is the subject of only two poems, best regarded as a postscript. The bi-polar complexity of the relationship is amply demonstrated in a poignant (if amusing) poem from the final book. Cynthia's ghost addresses Propertius from beyond the grave with criticism (among other things) that her funeral was not lavish enough, yet the longing of the poet remains in the final line inter complexus excidit umbra meos. - "Her shade then slipped away from my embrace." Book IV strongly indicates Propertius was planning a new direction for his poetry. The book includes several aetiological poems which, in reviewing the mythological origins of Rome and its landmarks, can also be read as critical—even vaguely subversive—of Augustus and his agenda for the new Rome. The position is currently a subject of debate among modern classicists. The final poem is a touching address by the recently deceased Cornelia consoling her husband Paullus and their three children. Although the poem (given Cornelia's connection to Augustus' family) was most likely an imperial commission, its dignity, nobility, and pathos have led critics to call it the "queen of the elegies", and it is commonly considered the best in the collection. Propertius' style is marked by seemingly abrupt transitions (in the manner of Latin neoteric poetry) and a high and imaginative allusion, often to the more obscure passages of Greek and Roman myth and legend. His idiosyncratic use of language, together with the corrupted state of the text, have made his elegies a challenge to edit; among the more famous names who have offered criticism of and emendations to the text have been the classicist John Percival Postgate and the English poet A. E. Housman.