Editing Propertius (section)

== Influence ==
Propertius himself says he was popular and even scandalous in his own day.<ref>II.24a.1-8</ref>  [[Horace]], however, says that he would have to "endure much" and "stop up his ears" if he had to listen to "[[Callimachus]]... to please the sensitive stock of poets";<ref> For his complete criticism, v. ''Epistles'' II.2.87-104</ref> Postgate and others see this as a veiled attack on Propertius, who considered himself the Roman heir to Callimachus.<ref>cf. ''e.g.'' III.1.1-2</ref> This judgement also seems to be upheld by [[Quintilian]], who ranks the elegies of [[Tibullus]] higher and, while accepting that others preferred Propertius,<ref>H J Rose, ''A Handbook of Latin Literature'' (London 1966) p. 289: "sunt qui Propertium malint".</ref> is himself somewhat dismissive of the poet. However, Propertius' popularity is attested by the presence of his verses in the graffiti preserved at [[Pompeii]]; while [[Ovid]], for example, drew on him repeatedly for poetic themes,<ref>H J Rose, ''A Handbook of Latin Literature'' (London 1966) p. 293-4</ref> more than on Tibullus.<ref>A D Melville trans., ''Ovid: The Love Poems'' (OUP 2008) p. xii and p. xx</ref>

Propertius fell into obscurity in the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, he and Cynthia were summoned to a [[Assizes|Love Assize]] {{clarification needed|date=August 2024}} <ref>H Waddell, ''The Wandering Scholars'' (London1927) p. 20</ref> but he was truly rediscovered during the Italian Renaissance along with the other elegists.  [[Petrarch]]'s love sonnets certainly show the influence of his writing, and [[Pope Pius II|Aeneas Silvius]] (the future Pope Pius II) titled a collection of his youthful elegies "Cinthia". There are also a set of "Propertian Elegies" attributed to the English writer [[Ben Jonson]], though the authorship of these is disputed.  [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]'s 1795 collection of "Elegies" also shows some familiarity with Propertius' poetry.

Propertius is the lyrical protagonist of [[Joseph Brodsky]]'s poem "Anno Domini" (1968), originally written in Russian. His relationship with Cynthia is also addressed in [[Robert Lowell]]'s poem, "The Ghost. After Sextus Propertius", which is a free translation of Propertius' Elegy IV 7. 

[[Elena Shvarts]] wrote a cycle of poems as if they were the works of Propertius' love, Cynthia. She explains Cynthia's 'poems have not survived, nevertheless I have tried to translate them into Russian'.<ref>p.53, 'Paradise' Selected Poems, tr. Michael Molnar, Bloodaxe, 1993.</ref>