SOURCE: An introduction to Propertius Elegies, Book I, Cambridge at the University Press, 1961, pp. 1-13.

In the following essay, Camps provides an overview of Propertius's life and works, and offers an analysis of his influences, allusions, and merit as a poet.

Gi; propertius' Works =~ Spropertius' Works

Propertius' works consist exclusively of poems in the elegiac metre. In the manuscripts they are divided into four books, containing respectively 22, 34, 25 and 11 elegies, making a total of 92. As, however, several of these are subdivided by modern editors, the total in modern editions is usually larger.

Most of the elegies in the first three books are on the subject of love. But there are some on other subjects. Several for instance, though outwardly attached to the love theme, are really concerned with Propertius' achievements and ambitions as a poet rather than with his feelings as a lover. In several again there is no...