The elegiac poet Propertius responds in his verse to the complex changes that Rome underwent in his lifetime, taking on numerous topics of poetry, poetic and sexual rivalry, visual art, violence, imperialism, colonialism, civil war, the radical new emperor Augustus, and more. These essays, by well-known scholars of Roman elegy, offer new ways of reading Propertius’ topics, attitudes, and poetics.

This book begins with two distinguished essays by influential Propertian scholar Barbara Flaschenriem, who passed away unexpectedly. The other contributions, offered in her memory, are by Diane Rayor, Andrew Feldherr, Ellen Greene, Lowell Bowditch, Alison Keith, and volume editor Sharon L. James. These essays explore themes including Propertian didacticism, dream interpretation, visual art and formalism, sex and violence, Roman imperialism and its connection to the elegiac puella, and Propertius’ engagement, in Book 4, with Vergil’s poetry.