SOURCE: "Propertius and Horace," Classical Philology, Vol. XLIII, No. 2, April, 1948, pp. 105-09.

In the following essay, Solmsen considers the influence of Horace's Odes on Propertius's third book, particularly in regard to the idea of gaining immortality through literary accomplishments in poetry.

It is well known that in Propertius' third book the love theme occupies a much smaller place than it does in the first and second books. The first poem that actually treats of his love and his puella is iii. 6. In the preceding five poems (which for our purposes may be regarded as a unit)¹ Propertius is concerned not so much with his love as with his status as poet of love. Poem iii. I was clearly written as a proem to the new collection, although iii. 3 could serve this purpose equally well and was perhaps at one time destined for the place at the opening of...