Propertius and Rhetoric

This chapter suggests ways of looking at Propertius through the eyes of a student of rhetoric, highlighting in the process how the issue of rhetoric is bound up with aspects of Propertius that have received more attention. It sets out a few background considerations first, then explains the author's criteria, and later proceeds to the discussion of the evidence. Propertius does not seem as obviously a rhetorical poet as his fellow elegist Ovid. The evidence has been observed by Trankle (1960) 143-49 that the situations in which Propertius' elegies are spoken are often in some sense open and undecided, thus creating the scope for an attempt to influence a person addressed. Propertius 1.2 is the first sustained attempt at persuasion: the speaker addresses Cynthia and tries to prevent her from using cosmetic help to enhance her beauty, ostensibly because that would make her needlessly attractive for other men. Keywords: Cynthia; Ovid; Propertius; rhetoric; Trankle