Sextus Propertius

(c. 50 BC - c. 16 BC)

Born in Assisi around 50 BC, Sextus Propertius gained entry into Maecenas’ literary circle on the strength of the first of his four volumes of elegies, published around 29 BC and named for its heroine, Cynthia. Ovid later borrowed heavily from Propertius for his own poetry; graffiti of their verses on the walls of Pompeii attest to their joint first­century popularity. “Stands genius a deathless adornment,” Ezra Pound wrote in his “Homage to Sextus Propertius,” “a name not to be worn out with the years.”

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