When this book was first published in 1976, the works of Propertius were
becoming increasingly fashionable. Professor Sullivan proposes what was,
at the time of publication, a new view on Propertius' poetic development
and his place in the social political and literary circles of the day.
His was an important re-evaluation. It finally banished the picture of
Propertius, put forward before his celebration in the work of Ezra Pound
and Robert Lowell, as a simple romantic, apprehended dimly through poor
texts and an obscure vocabulary. We are shown instead a more complex,
but a more credible and interesting poet. All quotations are in both
Latin and English, and the book is intended for the general literary
reader as much as for the classical student.