The Birth-Place of Propertius

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W. Y. Sellar

The Classical Review / Volume 4 / Issue 09 / November 1890, pp 393 - 396 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X0019122X, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X0019122X

How to cite this article: W. Y. Sellar (1890). The Birth-Place of Propertius. The Classical Review, 4, pp 393-396 doi:10.1017/S0009840X0019122X

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NOVEMBER 1890.

THE BIRTH-PLACE OF PROPERTIUS.

THE controversy about the birth-place of as associated with the most tragic events of Propertius, which seemed to have been the Civil Wars. The lines settled definitely in favour of Assisi, has been recently revived by the publication of Proxima supposito contingens Umbria Sr. Giulio Urbini's book entitled La Patria di campo Propertio. Although it can make no dif- Me genuit, terris fertilis uberibus ference in our enjoyment of the poetry of Propertius to know whether he was born at define the ' patria ' of Propertius, as a town Spello or Assisi, yet an attempt to solve the the territory of which lay beneath it, and question by a comparison of the sites of extended to the border of the territory of these towns with the three passages in which Perusia. This passage, if taken alone, might the poet describes or alludes to his birth- suggest the inference that he was born in a place will bring us into the presence of country-house situated in the rich plain, scenes of natural beauty and places of extending from the foot of the mountain- historic interest, which were familiar to the range, on two spurs of which Assisi and poet in his childhood and were re-visited by Spello are built, to the Tiber, forming the him in later life, and may thus help us to boundary between Umbria and Etruria. If realise some of the influences which acted on Assisi possessed any territory at all, it is his imagination. difficult to conceive where it could have been, The three well-known passages in which if it was not part of this plain extending in the riddle is proposed are: (1) the short the direction of Perusia, till it met the epilogue subjoined to the book by which river. Propertius first introduced himself to the The second passage (iv. 1, 63—66)— world; and (2 and 3) two passages from the long introductory poem to the fourth book, Ut nostris tumefaeta superbiat Umbria in the first of which (iv. 1, 65—66), in his libris, own name, he describes, in two lines, the Umbria Romani patria Callimachi, characteristic features of his native town, Scandentes quisquis cernit de vallibus in the second of which (iv. 1, 121—6), by the arces, voice of the astrologer Horon, he repeats, Ingenio muros aestimet ille meo— with a slight alteration, that description, and adds two lines introducing two familiar associates his poetic fame more definitely landmarks visible from or in the immediate with a town of Umbria, situated on a steep neighbourhood of the town. height. There are two ambiguities of ex- The first passage which professes to be an pression in line 65. Are we to trans- answer to the enquiries of his friend or late ' arces' ' heights' or ' battlements ' ] patron Tullus, to whom the book is dedicated, and are we to take ' de vallibus' after determines the locality only by its neighbour- ' cernit' or after ' scandentes ' ? Is the hood to Perusia, a town only too well known whole passage to be translated ' Whoever NO. XXXVII. VOL. IV. D D 394 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. marks the battlements (or heights) climbing certain repute, which would justify the use up steeply from the valleys,' or is it' "Whoever of the word noti. Had he meant to imply from the valleys beneath marks the battle- any greater distinction the poet would pro- ments (or heights) towering upwards "I The b.iblv have used some such word as clari or position of the words does not determine inngnes. which interpretation is right. Reasons will What, next, is the meaning of 'patriae be given later for holding that the latter is ' tangitur ora tuae' 1 Does Propertius mean to required by the only locality to which the define the exact boundaries of the territory words can apply. attached to his native town, as being In the next passage the town is still more Mevania on the one side and the 'lacus definitely marked by its neighbourhood to Umber' on the other 1 Or is it sufficient to two places, one of which at least is perfectly regard these two places, the ' Umbrian lake' well known— and Mevania in its low-lying plain, with the mists from the Clitumnus rising over it, as TJmbria te notis antiqua Penatibus edit. conspicuous land-marks in the neighbour- Mentior ? an patriae tangitur ora tuae, hood? This question becomes of great im- Qua nebulosa cavo rorat Mevania cainpo, portance if the ordinary interpretation of the Et lacus aestivis intepet Umber aquis, words ' lacus Umber' is accepted. The terri- Scandentisque Asis (arcis 1) consurgit ver- tory lying between Bevagna and the sources tice murus, of the Clitumnus may have formed part of Murus ab iiigenio notior 111B tuo? the territory of Spello, but it could not possibly have been that of Assisi, nor could it In this passage there are more serious in any sense be described as the part of uncertainties both of interpretation and Umbria nearest to Perusia. But Sr. Urbini reading. raises here an important question, his answer Do the words noti Penates apply to the to which really seems to tell against his own family residence of Propertius or to his contention in favour of Spello. Is the inter- native town ? It is argued that they cannot pretation of ' lacus Umber' as ' the broad apply to the former because Propertius tells pool formed by the sources of the Clitumnus' us that he was neither of noble birth, nor really right ? It is said that a scholiast of a particularly rich family (non ita dives). on Vergil (Georgics ii. 147) applies the word But ' noti' does not mean either ' rich ' or lacus to the Clitumnus, and Pliny, in the ' noble,' but ' respectable' ; and that is well known passage of his Letters in which exactly what the parentage of Propertius he gives an account of his visit to its sources, was. He was not of knightly birth like describes the pool of running water in which Tibullus and Ovid, but he was a member of these various sources meet as ' gurgitem qui a good provincial family possessing a con- lato gremio patescit.' But does not the word siderable estate— ' gurges' almost exclude the notion of a lake in the natural sense of the word, and still Nam tua cum multi versarent rura more of a lake to which the words ' aestivis iuvenci, intepet aquis' are applied 1 But the charac- Abstulit excultas pertica tristis opes. teristic of the water at and near these sources to which Pliny and other ancient writers Penates might be used of his native town, draw emphatic attention is their extreme but not necessarily or even naturally. When coldness, and the truth of their statement Catullus writes to Verannius may be verified by any one who visits them in the present day.1 If this ' gurges' ever Venistine domum ad tuos Penates 1 extended to the dimensions of a lake, it has now shrunk to the dimensions of a mode- we do not naturally think of Rome or any rately sized pool, overgrown with weeds, town of Italy, which may have been the home through which however the ' divini fontes' of Verannius. This point is of some im- still flow in a clear stream, ' splendidior portance, as one of the chief arguments urged vitro.' It is impossible to conceive a descrip- in favour of Spello was that Hispellum was, tion less applicable in every way than the or became after it was turned into a military line 'Et lacus aestivis intepet Umber aquis' colony, a much more important place than to the clear-flowing cold stream of the Cli- Assisium. But even if we \rere constrained tumnus, of which the charm was so great in to regard Penates as indicative of the town, 1 The waters were found to be pleasantly cold both though Hispellnm may have been more to the taste and touch in a hot day of May in the famous, Assisium may yet have enjoyed a present year. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 395 the eyes of those accustomed to the muddy island ' and its inhabitants as ' the islanders,' streams of central Italy, as to be deemed and partly on the appearance of the district. worthy of a temple to mark the sanctity There is certainly no such difficulty in admit- attached to it. How then is the line to be ting such a conjecture as there is in supposing explained 1 The words point to a sheet of that Propertius, or any other poet or any water of considerable size, which would be a person of sane judgment, should have selected conspicuous object from the town, whether the ' steaming warmth of its summer waves' it was Hispellum or Assisium. But no such as the special characteristic of the pool of lake is visible in the neighbourhood of clear, cold, running water, in which tho Perugia, Assisi, or Spello, nor indeed any- sources of the Clitumnus meet, a few feet where in what was the ancient territory of below the spot where they issue ' ab Umbro Umbria. It seems to follow that either the tramite.'3 text is corrupt—and that has been suggested, It remains to ask which of the two walls though on no sufficient grounds—or that or walled towns described as ' climbing up a what was once a lake has disappeared and steep height' answers best to the description become part of the rich flat plain which given in stretches between the Tiber and the hill on which Assisi is built. Sr. Urbini states that 3 Propert. iii. 22, 23-4. in a medieval document the modern Bastia, Hie Anio Tiburne fluis, Clitumnus ab Umlro which is the first station after crossing the Tramite. Tiber on the railway between Perugia and Compare i. 18, 27-28. Assisi, is spoken of as an island,1 and its in- 2 Pro quo divini fontes et frigida rupes habitants are called ' Isolani.' Bastia is Et datur inculto tramite dura quies. situated at the confluence of two consider- The use of the word tramite in both these passages able streams, the Chiascio and the Tescio, suggests that the 'divini fontes' are the sources of which flow into the Popino, of which the the Clitumnus, and that the ' deserta loca et taci- Clitumnus also is an affluent: and their turna querenti,' to which Propertius retired in his united waters empty themselves into the despair, is the same scene as that which he describes in a happier mood in ii. 19, where he proposes Tiber about fifteen miles from Perugia. The joining Cynthia in a few days, and enjoying such field flat plain above and below Bastia looks as if sports as he was capable of it might have been at no very distant date Qua formosa suo Clitumnus flumina luco covered by the waters of a shallow lake, to Integit, et niveos abliiit unda boves. which the two streams mentioned above may have contributed their waters. From its The lines vicinity to the frontier it might naturally Sola eris et solos speetabis Cynthia montes receive the general name of the ' Umbrian Et pecus et fines pauperis agricolae lake,' not being of sufficient size or import- will at once occur to any reader of Propertius as he looks towards the amphitheatre of hills immediately ance to receive a distinctive name, like the to the south of the sources. But what is the exact Thrasimene lake, the lake Vadimon, or the meaning of tramite in these two passages and in iii. lake Velinus. The disappearance of a shallow 13, 43-44 sheet of water, by natural causes or by ' Et leporem, quicunque venis, venaberis hospes, drainage, in a well-cultivated territory, is not Et si forte meo tramite quaeris avem ? an unusual occurrence. Thus, for instance, Hartzberg points out that these last two lines are a the waters of the ' Nor loch,' familiar to translation of two Greek lines of Leonidas of Taren- readers of the Fortunes of Nigel, have been tum :— replaced within recent memory t by the Euci'ypei, KayoQripa, KOX et irercrjvb. $id>KQ)V Princes Street Gardens that separate the old 'l^fvT^s 5JK61S rovff virb Siffabv opos— and new town of Edinburgh. The existence Propertius seems thus to use trames in the same sense as the Greek Spos. Can we translate in i. 1, 18, of such a lake in the neighbourhood of ' inculto tramite ' ' wild hill-side ' like ' the cold hill- Bastia can, of course, only be a matter of side ' in Keats' ' La belle dame Sans Merci,' a poem more or less probable conjecture, based expressive of a mood not remote from that of this, partly on the fact that the land on which it one of the grandest of all the Elegies of Propertius ? stands was at one time known as ' the In Vergil's Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitii (Georg. i. 108) the word must be used in the same sense as in Pro- 1 He quotes from a document of the 12th century : pertius. Dr. Kennedy translates it ' from the brow ' Una petia de terra cum vinea quae posita est infra of a cross-lying slope,' and in all these passages some- • comitatum Assisinatnm in loco qui dicitur de insula thing much nearer the notion of a ' hill' than a Romanesca.' ' channel' or ' cross-way' is wanted. The bare range 2 'Nel 1053, ch e, per quanto si sappia, la piu or hill-side at the foot of which, close to the road, antica data sotto cui se ne faccia ricordo, gli abitanti the Clitumnus rises, runs across and forms one erano chiamati, per la natura del luogo, isolani, boundary of the plain, through which the stream semplicimente. flows in a northerly direction. D D 2 396 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. Scandentes quisquis cernit de vallibus arces, built, the two conspicuous objects which fix and his attention, as he makes his way to the town gate, are the turns and windings of the Scandentisque Asis (arcis T) consurgit vertice deep valley of the Tescio below him, and the murus. great ancient wall which climbs up from that Aesisi and Spello are situated on two spurs, part of the hill on which the church of St. which jut out into the plain at each ex- Francis is built, past the gate which rises tremity of the long range of Subasio, a bare above and to the right of the church, till it mountain running in a direction from north reaches the citadel and then continues to run to south, and rising to a height of about along the summit of the ridge, by which the 3600 feet. These spurs are about six miles Monte Subasio joins the outlying spur on from one another. Assisi is on the northern, which the town is built. The wall, though that nearest to Perugia. The height on not so ancient as that running up the height which Spello is built is considerably smaller on which Cortona stands, has all the appear- and lower than that occupied by Assisi. The ance of the workmanship of the old Roman modern town of Spello rises at once out of times. If then we translate the first pas- the plain and climbs up the face and two sage 'whoever from the valleys below ob- sides of a kind of promontory, sufficiently serves the battlements rising one above the detached to have the appearance of a separ- other,' and the second ' and a wall rises up ate hill, though connected with the main along the summit of the steep height, or ' the range by a narrow ridge. Assisi, on the steep Asis' we shall find no difficulty in other hand, does not rise out of the plain, but identifying the description with what any one begins about half-way, up the height, and the may see who goes out of the gate, above and town does not rise on any side to the top of to the right of the famous church, and walks this height. It is to be noted that in both along the hill at the back of the town till he the passages Propertius fixes our attention reaches the old citadel. The distinct state- not on the towns themselves but on their ment of Propertius that his native district walls :— was that part of TJmbria nearest to Perusia is thus confirmed by his description of strik- Ingenio muros aestimet ille meo.— ing characteristics of the site of the town to which that territory was attached. The Murufi ab ingenio notior ille tuo.— number of inscriptions of the Propertii Sr. Urbini remarks that as the wall of found at or near Assisi afford confirmation Assisi does not begin to rise out of the plain, of this. If ' Asis' is the reading in line while that of Spello does, the description can 125, it is difficult to see how it can apply to only apply to the latter. But can ' de vallibus' Spello. Sr. Urbini supposes that this was possibly mean the same thing as ' de campo "I the name for the whole range of Monte There are no valleys or no single valley lying Subasio. But in that case he is obliged to below the height on which Spello is built; translate ' vertice' not ' the summit,' but ' a unless those words can be intended to denote height,' certainly an unusual use of the word. the whole of the broad plain lying between If the ' lacus Umber ' is to be sought in the the Monte Subasio—the name given to the neighbourhood of Bastia, it was within a whole range rising above both Aseisi and short distance of Assisi, and may have Spello—and the low range which separates the formed one boundary of its territory. The waters of the Clitumnus and the Popino from neighbourhood of Mevania may have formed the valley of the Tiber. Professor Ramsay its southern extremity. In any case the decides that the town meant cannot be Assisi, town of Mevania, which was a much more considerable place in ancient than in modern because it is situated not on the top (vertice) 1 but on the side of the height. To any one times —as is testified by the remains of an looking at Assisi in front, from the ' campo amphitheatre—and the mists rising over it supposito,' or walking through the town from the valley of the Clitumnus, would be itself, there is nothing within sight to cor- conspicuous objects from the heights on respond with either the ' valleys ' or with which Assisi is built. In the opposite direc- ' the wall rising on the summit of the tion the most conspicuous objects were the height.' The first impression of any one hill and town of Perusia, so fraught with looking at the two places will be that on the tragic memories for Propertius. whole Spello deviates less from the actual W. Y. SELLAE. description given. But if he climbs up to 1 what was the old citadel and returns by the Mentioned in Tacitus Histories iii. 59 as evidently a place of importance: 'Ut terrorem Italiae possessa back of the hill, on which there are no houses Mevania ac velut renatum ex integro bellum intulerat.'