Cynthia is away, probably at the luxurious seaside resort of Baiae, with its entertainments, attractions and temptations. What is she up to? Propertius is afraid that the separation has broken the bond between them, and that a great love may be dead or dying. Not for the first or last time, his imagination is torturing him. Nevertheless he asserts – in the face of some of the evidence – that he is a one-woman man. Cynthia was the first, he says, and she will be his last.

Hear Propertius’s Latin and follow in English here.

Cynthia is no more, and her ghost appears to Propertius as he lies at night in his lonely bed. Even death, it seems, has not mellowed her mood…

Hear a extract in the original Latin and follow the whole text in English in parallel here.

See the illustrated blog post here.

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