Propertius, one of the great love poets of the age of Augustus, closed his final book of odes with a long poem (4.11) written from Cornelia (the half sister of Julia, Augustus's daughter) to her husband after her death. Propertius creates the image of a man weeping over a new grave, with the ghost of his wife standing nearby, attempting to console him:

Paullus, cease burdening my grave with tears:

No prayers will open the gate of darkness. . . .

Early, when my bordered dress was put away

Before my marriage-torch, and a new head-band

Caught up and bound my hair, then I was brought

To your bed, Paullus—soon to be separated thus.

On this stone it may be read engraved that I

Have been married to one alone. I call

To witness my ancestors' ashes, tended by...