Sextus Propertius

Sextus Propertius (50 BC – 16 BC) was a Roman elegiac poet in Maecenas' circle.

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Elegies

• Never change when love has found its home.
  • I, i, 36

• Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator,
  Enumerat miles vulnera, pastor oves.
  • Translation: The sailor tells of winds, the ploughman of bulls,
    the soldier counts his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.
  • II, i, 43-4

• Let each man pass his days in that wherein his skill is greatest.
  • II, i, 46

• Quod si deficiant vires, audacia certe
  Laus erit: in magnis et voluisse sat est.
  • Translation: What though strength fails? Boldness is certain to win praise. In mighty enterprises, it is enough to have had the determination.
  • Variant translation: Even if strength fail, boldness at least will deserve praise: in great endeavors even to have had the will is enough.
  • II, x, 5

• Absenti nemo non nocuisse velit.
  • Translation: Let no one be willing to speak ill of the absent.
  • II, xix, 32

• Let each man have the wit to go his own way.
  • II, xxv, 38

• Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes.
  • Translation: Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
  • II, xxxiii, 43

• Cedite Romani scriptores, cedite Grai!
  Nescioquid maius nascitur Iliade.
  • Translation:
    Make way, you Roman writers, make way, Greeks!
    Something greater than the Iliad is born.
    • Of Virgil’s Aeneid
  • II, xxxiv, 65

• There is something beyond the grave; death does not end all, and the pale ghost escapes from the vanquished pyre.
  • IV, vii, 1