propertius

Question 1

monuments and architecture of Augustan Rome in Propertius

Answer 1

several references to specific building projects which Augustus and Livia are responsible for:
Ara Maxima
Sanctuary of Bona Dea

explicitly situates the poetry in AUGUSTAN Rome specifically, rather than the Late Republic or the mythological past - augustus’ authority stretching beyond reality and into his writing

Question 2

Baiae and Rome in elegies 1.1 (propertius)

Answer 2

name drops the ‘semita’ which connects Baiae and Puteoli (supposedly created by Hercules) and the connection from Lake Avernus to Musenum

both of these reference the construction of the Portus Iulius by Agrippa (under Augustus’ orders) in 37 BC - built to train fro a counter attack against Sextus Pompey - augustus creating an unnatural alteration of the coastline - his power at odds with forces of nature

Augustus dissolves the barrier between sea and land, Hercules in 4.9 creates a barrier between the two - in opposition with one another

Propertius makes the Portus Iulius - constructed with war in mind (which is an epic subject matter) - and appropriates the setting for elegiac folly

Uses Augustus’ carefully managed waters to safely enclose Cynthia and protect from the perversity / possible erotic abandonment

Question 3

architecture as poetic construction in propertius

Answer 3

3.2: models the construction of his own poetic legacy on the physical works of construction in rome under Augustus

chiastic ‘nec camera auratas iter eburna tribes, nec’ -> mimics the construction of a roof

‘marcus antra liquor’ - reference to built environment of rome resituating the poetic landscape in an Augustan Rome