Propertius 3.23 Notes

Question 1

What could have happened to his writing tablets which he is refusing to admit?

Answer 1

She may have held onto them and refused to reply due to his message

Question 2

How can we tell where the tablets are?

Answer 2

The nature of the message he sent suggests she could have taken umbrage

Question 3

What is this poem acting as?

Answer 3

The message posted as a public report of his loss

Question 4

Where could the tablets be?

Answer 4

With him because he is refusing to accept the answer he received or that she refuses to answer so still has them

Question 5

What was this poem inspiration for?

Answer 5

Ovid’s amores

Question 6

Where are we at the beginning of this poem?

Answer 6

In media res

Question 7

Where is there personification?

Answer 7

‘Tam doctae’

Question 8

What are the tablets an epithet for?

Answer 8

The muses

Question 9

Why did Propertius not sign his tablets?

Answer 9

To save the embarrassment if they fell into the wrong hands e.g. a jealous husband

Question 10

What is the idea with his former usage?

Answer 10

The tablets were so scarred, the scars were familiar as his tablets

Question 11

What does he mean by ‘without my help’?

Answer 11

The tablets could pacify a woman or angry mistress just by it’s familiar arrival rather than what was written as a sign of pleading for reconciliation

Question 12

What does he mean by ‘gold fittings’?

Answer 12

Tablets were articles of luxury with citrus wood or ivory for example

Question 13

Which word adds to the personification of the tablets?

Answer 13

‘Promeruere’

Question 14

Who are the questions from?

Answer 14

His girl

Question 15

What is the tone of the first question?

Answer 15

Playfully petulant

Question 16

What is the tone of the second question?

Answer 16

Worried and aggrieved

Question 17

What is the tone of the third question?

Answer 17

Apologetic and anxious to clear herself

Question 18

What could the ‘unkind slander’ be about?

Answer 18

Her infidelity

Question 19

What can we infer from him being delayed in arriving at her place?

Answer 19

He didn’t arrive

Question 20

What is ‘lente’?

Answer 20

An accusation of their indifference. He is slow but but she is not

Question 21

What does ‘an’ pick up in line 13?

Answer 21

‘Forsitan’

Question 22

Is line 13 more likely to be a statement of a question? Why?

Answer 22

Statement because the next line is

Question 23

What is the effect of ‘Venies’?

Answer 23

Gives a note of intimacy and plans for the future, assuming something will be done

Question 24

What is she doing instead of fixing a time?

Answer 24

Writing a love letter

Question 25

Which two phrases are particularly ambiguous?

Answer 25

‘Non stulta’
‘Garrula’
In terms of which words they go with

Question 26

What is significant about the tablets being with an old man’s dire ledgers?

Answer 26

They are being filed where they will not be called back into use quickly e.g. Pompeii banker L. Caecilius. Iucundus wrote on tablets and kept them in a chest

Question 27

Who does ‘puer’ commonly refer to?

Answer 27

A slave

Question 28

Explain the idea with the columns

Answer 28

In Pompeii, public notices were painted on any wall surface in a busy street while in Herculaneum that was rare. Rules governing use of public buildings but maybe certain columns or spaces in public porticoes set aside for the purpose of displaying public notices

Question 29

What is Esquiline?

Answer 29

Newer residential district of Rome in Augustus’ extension of Pomoerium. Where Propertius’ house was and probably not very fashionable

Question 30

What is his media?

Answer 30

His tablets

Question 31

What could the gold fixings represent?

Answer 31

The gold written on the tablets

Question 32

What does he mean by producing a good effect?

Answer 32

Good results

Question 33

What sort of words could be written on the tablets in response?

Answer 33

Forceful words
Rebukes
Insults

Question 34

What does she mean by ‘laggard’?

Answer 34

Slow coach

Lazy bones

Question 35

What is inferred when she asks about unkind slander?

Answer 35

She did not get his humour

Question 36

What is significant about ‘reperit’?

Answer 36

Suggests deceit

Question 37

Where is there litotes?

Answer 37

‘Non stulta’

Using a negative to reinforce her intelligence

Question 38

Which parts link to Ovid’s poem?

Answer 38

The old man writing ‘accounts’ on the tablets and the ‘dire ledgers’

Question 39

As well as the tablets, what else does he exaggerate that he has lost?

Answer 39

The Muses

Question 40

Which word is contracted?

Answer 40

‘Periere’

Question 41

Why is ‘usus’ at the end of the line?

Answer 41

Delays why they are worn to emphasise how much he used them

Question 42

Why does he talk about the tablets being ‘ordinary’?

Answer 42

It was what was written on them that made them special and impressive

Question 43

What was there repetition of? Why?

Answer 43

‘Semper’

Gives a wistful (longing) eulogy effect

Question 44

What else gives a wistful effect?

Answer 44

‘Tam’ and ‘tot’

Question 45

Why is there enjambment of ‘tu’?

Answer 45

Shows gossip flowing and makes it stand out - like gossip does

Question 46

Where is there a pattern on line 13?

Answer 46

‘An tibi’ and ‘an tu’ frame the line to put more focus in him as if he has done something really wrong

Question 47

What does he mean by ‘setting a time’?

Answer 47

Talking hour

Question 48

Where is there deceit?

Answer 48

Her setting a time with ‘flattering wiles’

Question 49

Where is there separative patterning?

Answer 49

Line 13

‘Aliquis… avarus’

Question 50

What is significant about ‘inter’?

Answer 50

It is literally in between the ‘dire’ and the ‘ledgers’

Question 51

Who was Propertius influenced by for the separative patterning?

Answer 51

Callimachus