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PROPERTIUS 4.2:
SLUMMING WITH VERTUMNUS?
KERILL ONEILL


IN HER RECENT STUDY of Ciceronian oratory Ann Vasaly observes that
particular activities are associated with the monuments, edifices, and
different quarters of Rome, on the basis of the daily practice and literary depiction of each location. Together, these associations constitute a
metaphysical topography of a locationthat is, the network of meanings the place held for a Roman audience in the Augustan age.1 Attention to the metaphysical topography of a place can enrich or change our
appreciation of a literary work that depends in some manner on its setting. The fourth book of Propertius directs the readers attention to a
variety of places in the city, from the Tarpeian Rock (4.4) to the Temple
of Apollo on the Palatine (4.6), from the Ara Maxima of Hercules (4.9)
to the recently restored Temple of Jupiter Feretrius (4.10). These elegies
play a part in shaping our sense of each of these places, but they also
draw upon the preexisting metaphysical topography. In 4.2 the statue of
Vertumnus on three occasions refers to its specific location in a street
shrine on the Vicus Tuscus and voices its preference for this particular
spot over any other. In this essay I describe the literary tradition concerning the statue of Vertumnus and the Vicus Tuscus and demonstrate
that the metaphysical topography of the location affords this aetiological poem a markedly amatory aspect, which encourages us to read it as
a programmatic piece for the entire book and grants some of the narrators assertions an ironic and witty flavor.
The fourth book of Propertius elegies is characterized by pervasive interplay between amatory and aetiological poetry. This interplay is
created in the first elegy, which is split into two halves (4.1a, 4.1b). In
the first half an authorial narrator introduces a new program of aetiological elegy, culminating with a promise to sing of sacred rites, festi-

1 Vasaly (1993, 4041) first uses the phrase metaphysical topography in discussing how Cicero enriches his speeches by drawing on the symbolic associations particular
sites have for his audience. See also Edwards 1996, 1.

American Journal of Philology 121 (2000) 259277  2000 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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vals, and the ancient names of places (4.1.69). In the second half Horus,
an indignant astrologer, dismisses the poets lofty ambitions and tells
him to stick to the amatory poems that Apollo favored in his earlier
books. Thus the two halves of 4.1 seek to establish a strict opposition
between programs of aetiological and amatory poetry.2 How rigorous
an opposition this is to be, however, remains a matter of doubt. The recusatio elegies of the earlier books fashion a pattern of false opposition.
For example, in 2.1, 3.3, and 3.9 the narrator appears to dismiss the writing of aetiological and nationalistic verse, but this refusal involves writing precisely what he claims to be rejecting. In other words, the discursive praxis usually referred to as recusatio may be more accurately
described by the term generic disavowal,3 since it allows the disingenuous inclusion of material ostensibly precluded by the poets antipathy or limited abilities.4 Furthermore, Propertius has a tendency
to set up binarisms that he then problematizes. Thus man appears to
be constructed as the opposite of woman until we encounter Vertumnus, a statue who can be both male and female (4.2.2324), and Hercules, a thoroughly manly god who claims to have been a pretty good
woman through transvestism and the performance of a womans tasks
(4.9.4550).5
Throughout book 4 we find a similar collapse of a binary opposition. Many of the elegies blur and transgress the dividing line between
the aetiological and amatory programs that Horus response to the authorial narrator constituted as incompatible. Amatory elements intrude
into aetiological poems, and vice versa. For example, in 4.4 Tarpeia
plays the role of an amatory heroine,6 and in 4.9 Hercules dallies with
the roles of both the exclusus amator and the puella,7 while in 4.5 we
discover sacred rites, festivals, and ancient names.8 The Vertumnus elegy, which immediately follows the divided introduction, is ostensibly
2

See Camps 1965, 26; Stahl 1985, 248305; Wyke 1987a, 15457; DeBrohun, 1994,

On recusatio as generic disavowal see Davis 1991, 2830.

On the presence of this literary phenomenon in Propertius see ONeill 1995,

4145.
4

5354.
5 See Janan (1998) on how Propertius establishes and then destabilizes binarisms
conceived around identity, gender, and nationality. And on Hercules and gender in Propertius 4.9 see Lindheim 1998.
6 Stahl 1985, 264, 279305; ONeill 1995, 5360.
7 Cairns 1992; DeBrohun 1994, 4551.
8 See ONeill 1998. For nationalistic elements in 4.3 and 4.8 see Janan 1998, 65.

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an unadulterated work of aetiology. The narrator is a statue of Vertumnus, an Etruscan god of metamorphosis, standing on the Vicus Tuscus.
He describes his powers and declares that he will explain his name and
origins. Even this undertaking, however, proves complicated. We are
led to expect the one, true etymology of Vertumnus name, but instead
we face a barrage of false etymologies, until finally we learn that no one
truth is possible for a god whose essence is defined by protean mutability.9 Despite this complicating factor, this elegy is sometimes alleged to
be programmatic for book 4. Several scholars have noted that the forms
that Vertumnus claims he can take are past and future subjects and narrators of Propertian poetry.10 Others have argued further that since
these subjects and narrators occur in both of book 4s programs, Vertumnus plays a mediating role between the books aetiological and
amatory poles.11 The Vertumnus elegy therefore combines elements of
amatory and aetiological poetry. I, too, agree that 4.2 straddles the two
poetic programs, but my observations here focus less on the forms of
the statue/narrator and more on his location.
References to the particular placement of Vertumnus statue occur at the beginning and end of the elegy.12 From the start, he declares
an interest in the people (turba) around him:
Haec me turba iuvat, nec templo laetor eburno:
Romanum satis est posse videre Forum.

(4.2.56)

This crowd pleases me, and I do not take pleasure in an ivory temple:
it is enough that I can see the Forum Romanum.

9 Janan 1998, 68. See also Deremetz 1986, 130. Creating and dashing false expectations are part and parcel of Propertian style.
10 Dee 1974; Shea 1988; Deremetz 1986, 12229.
11 Wyke 1987a, 156. DeBrohun (1994, 61) suggests that Vertumnus introduces (as a
program) a rhetoric of fashion. Vertumnus claims metaphorically that the poet, by simply changing his attire, can be simultaneously and decorously one thing or its opposite
as well as both together. DeBrohun, by contrast, holds that Hercules proves the falseness of Vertumnus claim by becoming an indecorous, ludicrous combination of opposites: aetiological hero and amatory puella.
12 But see Goold (1990), who juggles the line order to a marked degree. He splices
together the three couplets that reveal the location of the statue, the gods interest in the
passersby, and his preference for this street shrine over a grander temple setting. While
this juxtaposition is attractive in many ways, I am not wholly convinced that it is necessary.

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He acknowledges his Etruscan heritage and gives an elliptical aetiology

of the naming of the street on which his shrine is situated:
et tu, Roma, meis tribuisti praemia Tuscis,
unde hodie Vicus nomina Tuscus habet.

(4.2.4950)

And you, Rome, allotted a reward for my Tuscans

whereby today the Vicus Tuscus has its name.

This statue of Vertumnus stands behind the Temple of Castor and Pollux on the Vicus Tuscus near the Forum Romanum.13 The Vicus Tuscus
was so named because it was the location of an Etruscan settlement
within Rome. Propertius follows the Varronian account that the settlement was the result of a wary acceptance of Etruscan allies in the war
against Tatius and the Sabines.14 Varro also reports that it was because
of the Etruscan presence that a statue to Vertumnus, the foremost god
of Etruria, was erected there. Yet despite his Etruscan roots Vertumnus
makes clear his partiality for his new home:
sed facias, divum Sator, ut Romana per aevum
transeat ante meos turba togata pedes.

(4.2.5556)

But make sure, Father of the gods, that for all time
the togaclad Roman crowd may pass before my feet.

In his final reference to his location Vertumnus thus affirms his pro
Roman bias and links it to the people (turba, 56) he sees every day.
The Propertian statue of Vertumnus emphasizes that he is Etruscan through and through but declares that he wishes to remain at Rome
forever. He is careful to emphasize that it is not the wealth of Rome
that has seduced him; he prefers his street shrine to an ivory temple.
The ivory temple may refer to the far grander temple of Vertumnus on
the Aventine, or it may refer to a generic home, appropriate for a god.15
We should remember that Augustus had for some time been rebuilding

For a full examination of the location of this statue see Putnam 1967.
See Varro LL 5.46 and Tac. Ann. 4.65; but see also Liv. 2.14 and Dion. 5.36, both
stating that it was the result of Roman kindness to Etruscan survivors of a battle with a
nearby city.
15 See Camps 1965; Richardson 1976 ad loc.
13
14

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the temples of Rome into testaments of Romes power and wealth, but
this narrator shows no interest in such restoration projects (Pinotti
1983, 83). Propertius selects not the god in the temple but the god in the
street as the speaker. The reference to the ivory temple has the effect of
drawing attention to the street location by contrasting it with an ostensibly more fitting location for the first in a series of nationalistic, aetiological poems. Nevertheless, the street shrine has certain amatory associations that make it, rather than the temple on the Aventine, a
preferable milieu for the Propertian god of change, who has a programmatic role to play for the amatory elegies too. No matter what Vertumnus is rejecting, however, it is what pleases him that must concern us
now. His desire to stay at Rome is expressed as a prayer that he may always have this Roman togaclad turba passing before him. The crowd is
localized, because they are passing before the feet of the statue (56).
The text thus reminds us that we are dealing with a particular statue in
a specific setting. He tells us that he likes haec turba, this crowd, and
is happy that he can see the Forum Romanum (56). The reference to
sight once again limits and localizes haec turba to those he can see from
his pedestal. In other words, he likes the people on the Vicus Tuscus.
Whatever his past honors as the god of Romes Etruscan allies,
Vertumnus statue on the Vicus Tuscus became virtually synonymous
with prostitution in the literature before and during Propertius lifetime.16 The earliest, and most damning, clue to the character of the
street occurs in Plautus, in the course of a description of the kinds of
people found in different parts of Rome:
pone aedem Castoris, ibi sunt subito quibus credas male.
in Tusco vico, ibi sunt homines qui ipsi sese venditant.
(Curc. 48182)
Behind the temple of Castor are those whom you should not trust
too soon.
On the Vicus Tuscus are men who prostitute themselves.

In 4.1a the authorial narrator has declared that he will glorify Rome in
dutiful verse (5758). The association, however, of this street with prostitution makes it an unseemly setting for an aetiological poem and calls

16 It is worth remembering that in Ovid, Vertumnus appears as an erotic figure,

changing his form in order to seduce Pomona (Met. 14.623771).

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that promise into question (Wright 1993 ad loc.). This kind of area
seems much more appropriate to the world of amatory elegy which Horus advocates and which features in 4.5 and 4.8.
If this statement in Curculio were the only evidence to impugn the
reputation of the Vicus Tuscus, we could perhaps disregard its impact
on Propertius poem, but another of Plautus comedies strengthens the
association of prostitution with this street:
ego te reduco et revoco ad summas ditias,
ubi tu locere in luculentam familiam,
unde tibi talenta magna viginti pater
det dotis; non enim hic, ubi ex Tusco modo
tute tibi indigne dotem quaeras corpore.

(Cist. 55963)

I am leading and inviting you back to great riches,

to a place where you will be established in a fine family,
and where a father will give you a dowry of twenty Attic talents;
but that is not the case here, where you would earn
a shameful dowry with your body in the Tuscan way.

The reference here to selling ones body in the Tuscan way has long
been interpreted as a comment on the activities on the Vicus Tuscus.
Nixon notes simply that the Tuscan quarter in Rome was in bad repute and adds that according to Herodotus the Lydians (the ancestors
of the Etruscans) made their daughters earn their dowries by prostitution.17 Thus it seems safe to say that as far as Plautus was concerned,
the Vicus Tuscus was an area of loose morals.
The Vicus Tuscus and the statue of Vertumnus are also associated
with vice by a contemporary of Propertius. Horace alludes to the flesh
peddling around the statue on three separate occasions. The most explicit reference comes in the Epistles:18
Vortumnum Ianumque, liber, spectare videris,
scilicet ut prostes Sosiorum pumice mundus.
See Nixon 1917 ad loc. The relevant passage in Herodotus is 1.9394.
The last line of 1.20 states that the poem was completed in 21 B.C. Epistles 1 is
generally believed to have been published in 20 or 19 B.C. (Mayer 1994, 811). The publication dates for Propertius are (book 1) 30/29 B.C., (2) 2824 B.C.[?], (3) 23/22 B.C.,
(4) 16/15 B.C.[?]. Thus Horaces poem appeared between the publications of Propertius 3
and 4.
17
18

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odisti claves et grata sigilla pudico,

paucis ostendi gemis et communia laudas,
non ita nutritus: fuge quo descendere gestis.
non erit emisso reditus tibi. quid miser egi?
quid volui? dices ubi quid te laeserit; et scis
in breve te cogi, cum plenus languet amator.
Quodsi non odio peccantis desipit augur,
carus eris Romae, donec te deserat aetas:
contrectatus ubi manibus sordescere vulgi
coeperis, aut tineas pasces taciturnus inertes
aut fugies Uticam aut vinctus mitteris Ilerdam.

265

(Epist. 1.20.113)

Book, you seem to look towards Vertumnus and Janus,

doubtless so that, scrubbed smooth by the pumice of the Sosii, you may
sell yourself.
You hate keys and seals so pleasing to the decent,
you groan at being displayed to only a few, and praise being available
to all,
although you were not brought up like that. Fly down the slope you
want:
but there will be no return, once you have been launched. Poor me,
what did I do?
What did I want? you will say when something harms you;
and you know that you are being set aside when your sated lover
droops.
But if the augur does not play the fool out of hatred for your sinning,
you will be dear in Rome, until youth abandons you.
When, after being fondled by the hands of the masses, you begin
to grow dirty, either you will feed indolent lice in silence
or you will flee to Utica, or you will be sent in chains to Ilerda.19

In this, the closing poem of Epistles 1, the poet addresses the book as if
it were a slave boy with promiscuous desires. The Horatian narrators
warning to the boy/book that he will grow old and experience rejection
recalls the Propertian lovers curse and prophecy in 3.25 that Cynthia
will suffer those same ignominies (1118). The Horatian warning also
foreshadows the caveat and ghastly end of the former puella Acanthis,

19 Shea (1988, 64) also draws attention to this Horatian epistle, but only as evidence of the association of Vertumnus with the bookselling district; he does not discuss
the promiscuous double entendres.

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at Propertius 4.5.5962 and 6972.20 Furthermore, as others have observed, this Horatian passage bristles with so many double entendres
that it is very difficult to translate adequately.21
The poem functions on two levels. On one, the sale of the first
book of epistles is discussed. On the other, brought out by the double
entendres, the sale of the book is compared with plying the prostitutes
trade. Word after word evokes solicitation, hostility to the constraints of
a chaste life, frequenting brothels, and the transience of the customers interest. Let me offer a few examples.22 The verb prostare (prostes,
1.20.2) can mean to offer goods for sale but also to expose a prostitute
for hire. Pumice mundus (2) can describe papyrus rolls prepared for
purchase but also the skin of adolescent male prostitutes depilated by
scrubbing for a more youthful appearance.23 Communia (4) appears
here to contain a reference to loci communes, brothels. Contrectare (11)
can be translated innocuously as to handle, but it often means to
fondle in a sexual way, or even to have sexual intercourse.24 These
wordplays or puns link the sale of books with prostitution.
Thus Vertumnus figures in this passage as a boundary marker of
both the bookselling district and the redlight district. The book is said
to look towards him (spectare, 1). And thus it is not the god himself
but his temple or statue that the book gazes upon. The Temple of Janus
stood at the bottom of the Argiletum, near the Subura, which also had
a bad reputation, on the opposite side of the Forum from the statue of
Vertumnus and the Vicus Tuscus. The bookselling district would therefore seem to cover the Argiletum and Forum.25 Through its many double entendres, however, this passage provides at least as much evidence

20 On the lena as former puella see Courtney 1969, 83; Murgatroyd 1994 ad 2.6.45.
On the link between Cynthia in 3.25 and Acanthis in 4.5 see Gutzwiller 1985, 111; Myers
1996, 56; ONeill 1998, 7576.
21 Johnson (1993, 6971) summarizes the boy/book poem thus: OK, you silly little
faggot. Go off and peddle your ass in the streets of Rome and see how much you like
that.
22 These examples are drawn variously from (ad loc.) Mayer 1994; Kiessling and
Heinze 1957; Dilke 1954; Morris 1911; Wilkins 1892; Schtz 1883; Orelli and Baiter 1852.
See also Fraenkel 1957, 35663.
23 Cf. Cat. 1.2; [Tib.] 3.1.910. See also Murgatroyd 1980 ad Tib. 1.8.3132, 4546.
24 OLD lists examples of the obscene sense from Plautus, Ovid, Seneca, Suetonius,
Apuleius, and Tacitus.
25 Martial makes two references to the bookshops in the Argiletum: 1.3.1 and
1.117.9. Howell (1980 ad loc.) states that Horaces epistle is the model for Martial 1.3.

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for the association of this statue of Vertumnus with prostitution as for

an association with bookselling. It is noteworthy that in this passage the
district is delimited by being within sight of the statue of Vertumnus,
just as the Propertian Vertumnus delimits his location by the people
and places that he can see (videre, 4.2.6).
Another reference to Vertumnus comes in Horaces Satires.26
Here, a slave takes advantage of the Saturnalia to criticize his masters
inconstancy. He illustrates his point by referring to the incredibly fickle
nature of a certain Priscus:
iam moechus Romae, iam mallet doctus Athenis
vivere, Vertumnis, quotquot sunt, natus iniquis.

(Sat. 2.7.1314)

Now he would choose to be a lecher in Rome, now a scholar in Athens,

a man born with as many Vertumnuses as there are all hostile to him.

The plural form of Vertumnus can be interpreted in a couple of ways. It

may refer to multiple statues of him around the towns of Etruria and
Rome,27 or it may be meant to give the sense however many shapes he
assumes.28 In any case, the point of the statement is that having been
born an enemy of Vertumnus, this man is somehow condemned to be as
changeable as the god. Thus Priscus can be a lecher one moment and a
scholar the next. Here too Vertumnus is embroiled with illicit sexuality,
this time through his association with a philanderer.
Another Horatian passage, also from the Satires, makes an explicit reference to the nefarious character of those who frequent the Vicus Tuscus:
Hic simul accepit patrimoni mille talenta,
edicit, piscator uti, pomarius, auceps,
unguentarius ac Tusci turba impia vici,
cum scurris fartor, cum Velabro omne macellum
mane domum veniant. Quid tum? Venere frequentes.
Verba facit leno: quidquid mihi, quidquid et horum
cuique domi est, id crede tuum et vel nunc pete vel cras.
(Sat. 2.3.22632)

26 Publication of the second book of Satires is usually dated to 30 B.C. See Palmer
1964, xix.
27 Orelli and Baiter 1852 ad loc.; Ritter 1857 ad loc.
28 Hayes and Plaistowe 1900 ad loc.

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As soon as he received his patrimony of a thousand talents,

this man decreed that fishmonger, fruitseller, fowler,
perfumer, and the godless crowd from the Vicus Tuscus,
poulterer, and layabouts, the whole market with the Velabrum
should come to his house the next morning. What happened then?
They came in crowds.
A pimp does the talking: Whatever I own, and whatever any of
these men has at home, believe me, its yours, whether you want it
now or tomorrow.

This passage occurs in the context of an indictment of the foolishness of

extravagance. A young inheritor prodigally disperses his wealth on the
undeserving. The list of the undeserving beneficiaries of his profligacy
includes the Tusci turba impia vici.29 In the context of the traditional
perception of the Vicus Tuscus as a center of prostitution, it seems
likely that the turba is considered impia because of its association with
that profession.30 Confirmation of this hypothesis is provided by the
text, which makes a pimp the spokesperson of the crowd that gathers at
the young mans house. As the pimps profession was not specifically
listed in the inheritors decree, it is reasonable to presume that he is
drawn from the godless crowd of the Vicus Tuscus.31
Certainly, the scholiast Pomponius Porphyrio understood the
turba impia to be composed of pimps:
AC TUSCI TURBA IMPIA VICI: Lenones dicit. Ibi enim commanent.
(ad Sat. 2.3.228.1)
And the godless crowd of the Vicus Tuscus: He means pimps. For that
is where they always are.

As far as Porphyrio is concerned, it is a matter of record that pimps

plied their trade on the Vicus Tuscus, and Horace must be referring to

29 Rothstein (1924 ad Prop. 4.2.5) calls the Vicus Tuscus a Geschftsgegend. He

cites this line and says that the traffic along this street must have been sehr lebhafter,
with a bewegte Leben. Nonetheless he limits himself to saying that Vertumnus was
friendly and affable to the working people of Rome and Etruria. Dee (1974, 54 n. 29) also
refers to this Horatian passage and the lines from Curculio. He observes that the Vicus
Tuscus was a very crowded and slightly unsavory street, but he does not consider the
generic implications for the poem.
30 See Palmer 1964 ad loc.
31 Ritter 1857 ad loc.

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them. This is not so much a statement from the literary tradition but a
comment apparently based on observation of the daily practice there.
The evidence, therefore, that the Vicus Tuscus was a place of ill repute
is convincing. It is certainly of questionable propriety to make such a
place the setting for the first of a cycle of national and aetiological poems. The mounting evidence of this locales association with prostitution makes this poem a more appropriate companion to the racier amatory elegies of the book, like 4.5, about the lena Acanthis, and 4.8,
about Cynthia catching her poet/lover with two ladies of easy virtue.
Given the evidence for the seamy reputation of this particular
statue of Vertumnus on the Vicus Tuscus, Propertius selection of the
location as the physical setting for this poem takes on the appearance
of a deliberate redefinition of the presumed goals of the sort of patriotic, aetiological poetry which he espouses in 4.1a. In earlier discussion
(with note 10) I mentioned that the forms of Vertumnus have been observed to represent past and future subjects and narrators of Propertius poetry. The first form that the statue claims he can take is a non
dura puella:
indue me Cois, fiam non dura puella:
meque virum sumpta quis neget esse toga?

(4.2.2324)

Dress me in Coan silks, I shall become a none too hardhearted girl:

but who will deny that I am a man when I have put on a toga?

The opposites here, the puella and the vir, are reminiscent of Priscus,
the lecher/philosopher in Horace. Wyke and DeBrohun see in this
first transformation a reference to Cynthia, the elegiac woman.32 Certainly, the virtually transparent Coan silks are her most constant attributes.33 Not surprisingly, such silks were associated with promiscuity
due to their transparency.34 In the present context, perhaps the most
significant references to Coan silks occur in 4.5, the Acanthis elegy,
where the old procuress lists them as a form of payment for the services
of a young prostitute, or courtesan, whom she is advising. Thus the first
form that Vertumnus takes is that of the elegiac woman: a prostitute,
or, at the very least, a promiscuous woman. That form, by coming first

Wyke 1987a, 156; DeBrohun 1994, 5455.

See 1.2.2, 2.1.5, 4.5.23, 4.5.5558.
34 See Enk 1946 on 1.2.2; Carter 1900 on Tib. 2.3.53; Lucot 1953, 7071.
32
33

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in the list, should be sufficient to evoke the less salubrious reputation of

this statue and street. To paraphrase an old joke, if Propertius is putting
Vertumnus up on a pedestal, it is only so we can look up his dress.
The silkdraped form of the elegiac woman complicates the mutability and shifting identity of Vertumnus on a fundamental level.35 Cynthia is a written woman. She is both a woman in the text, and also the
text itself.36 As Gold has observed, Cynthia was being read all over the
city (tua sit toto Cynthia lecta foro, 2.24.2). So, too, Vertumnus is a
written statue, both inscribed in the text and, in the end, also the text,
counting how many of his verses remain (5764). Moreover, just as this
poem is about the shifting identity of Vertumnus, the narrator sometimes appears to be the statue, sometimes the god, sometimes the poet,
and sometimes the text of the poem (DeBrohun 1994, 5455). Gold
comments that Propertius manipulates Cynthias time, space, and attributes.37 Vertumnus endures the same objectification, as the poet controls references to the gods past and present, his original location and
his current home, and his formgiving symbols and attire. Propertius
puts the male lovers gender into play by destabilizing his identity,
switching traditional gender traits between the lover and the elegiac
woman, and averring that his poetry emerges from Cynthias Coan silks
(2.1.16). As Vertumnus puts his own gender and identity into play in
similar fashion, he casts himself as both poet and poem and sets the
stage for further selfdisclosure.
I make only the briefest mention here of another of Vertumnus
forms with possibly erotic overtones. In line 38 the form taken is that of
a peddler, mundus demissis institor in tunicis. The peddler is routinely
presented as sexually promiscuous in Latin literature.38 And Lucot

35 I am indebted to the anonymous referee for drawing these parallels to my attention and for directing me to Golds article.
36 Gold 1993, 8588. Cf. Wyke 1987a, 1987b, 1989.
37 Gold (1993, 8889) describes Cynthia as a foil, a relational other, entirely defined by the parts the poet plays. For other notable examples of the manipulation of Cynthia as an object see Prop. 1.3, 1.11; Greene 1995.
38 Hor. C. 3.6.2532, peddler calls a faithless wife to adulterous union (Garrison
1991 ad loc. implies that the husband is cast as a pimp); Epod. 17.20, peddlers love Canidia, the witch who practices erotic magic against the poet (Mankin 1995; Garrison 1991,
institor as notorious philanderer; Page 1964); Ov. Rem. 306, peddler enjoys the nights a
woman refuses to her lover; Ars 1.421, a dissolute peddler helps a mistress fleece her
wretched lover; Sen. fr. 52, a warning that peddlers are a threat to a womans modesty;
Ben. 6.38.3, peddlers grow rich through corrupting youth; Ep. 52.15, peddler as a threat to
philosophy metaphorically presented as a woman who has prostituted herself.

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(1953, 71) has collected ancient evidence for the scandal caused by
wearing an unbelted tunic in polite society. The epithet mundus applied
to the peddler implies that he takes care of his appearance, to make
himself desirable (Paley 1872 ad loc.). We have already seen this adjective applied to Horaces promiscuous slave boy, scrubbing himself to
make his skin more youthful and appealing (Epist. 1.20.2). The word,
which is rare in Propertius, occurs again at 4.5.43, mundi Thais pretiosa
Menandri, the highpriced Thais of smooth Menander. Thais is the
name of the famous prostitute of Menandrine comedy, and also of the
famous courtesan loved by Alexander and later by Ptolemy I.39 Mundus
can refer to elegance or beauty both of appearance and in language.40
Here, the form of mundus agrees with Menandri but is juxtaposed with
Thais pretiosa, so that both senses resonate. Thus mundus seems to
have a sexual sense in Propertius. In any case, it is safe to say that these
two forms, the prostitute and the peddler, each dressed in scandalous
attire, involve the Propertian Vertumnus with the kind of amatory figures one might expect to meet around his street shrine.
Scattered through 4.2 are references to Vertumnus seeing and being seen. He sees the Roman Forum (videre, 6), and, by implication, he
observes the people at his feet (56). On the other hand, he is also the
object of a verb of seeing (cernis, 16), and the various symbols and
clothing he is given change his visual appearance (speciem, 31; species,
35).41 Immediately before he introduces us to his first form, the narrator
makes clear that his different forms depend on the desire of the viewer/
costumier:
Opportuna mea est cunctis natura figuris:
In quamcumque voles verte, decorus ero.

(4.2.2122)

My nature is suitable for all kinds:

Convert me into whatever you will, I shall be perfect.

The next line suggests that the statue could be dressed up in diaphanous silks as the elegiac woman. The combination of objectification and
references to sight invites us to consider the role of the gaze. One of

See Butler and Barber 1933 on 2.6.3 for ancient evidence.

It also occurs three times in a very obscene poem, Cat. 97, in which the poet debates (34) whether the mouth of the lascivious Aemilius smells worse than his anus or
the vagina of a mule.
41 There is also an element of looking in mirare in the opening line of the poem.
39
40

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the most invigorating lines of inquiry into elegy in recent years has
been the reading generated by feminist theory, in part as a response to
feminist psychoanalytic theorys confrontation with Freud. Freud theorizes that the gaze is a phallic activity, enacting the voyeurs desire for
sadistic power. By the same token, the gaze casts its object as a passive,
masochistic, feminine victim. But the gaze turns woman into merely a
negative mirror image of the male observer, a reflection of his desires.42
Irigaray (1997, 36467) argues that this process of specularization turns
women into statues, and that the gaze places woman on the margins of
a dominant male ideology. This idea of woman as a reflection of the
male observers desires conforms with Golds reading of Cynthia as a
relational other, a foil for the lover.43 Greene (1995) shows how the lovers gaze upon Cynthia in 1.3 creates an idealized depiction of him playing various heroic parts; further, she argues that Cynthia is shown to be
most desirable when she is completely subject to the male gaze (that is,
asleep) and thus devoid of voice and agency, and that the lover treats
the sleeping Cynthia as a mannequinlike figure, arranging garlands
and apples around her.
In 4.2 the passive statue of Vertumnus is adorned with fruit and
other offerings like the feminine figure in 1.3, and the first form he is
given is constructed by the erotically charged silks usually associated
with Cynthia. The gaze of the observer, who is dressing the statue as he
(the observer) sees fit, defines Vertumnus nature, in this case as a prostitute.44 Since Vertumnus is a programmatic figure, many of his forms
are relational, depicting the subjects and narrators that Propertius
wishes to address. Thus, since Vertumnus sometimes appears to speak
as the poet but is also the object of the poets gaze, he is both agent and
object of specularization. Here the poets gaze upon Vertumnus allows
him to depict the gender and roleswitching the poet undertakes
through the new narrators of book 4, and Vertumnus gaze upon the
people around him discloses the abiding importance of amatory matters
in this book.
Let us pull all this information together. The Plautine passages
discussed in the early pages of this essay lay the groundwork for a
metaphysical topography that associates the Vicus Tuscus with prostituMoi 1985, 13235 and n. 8; Wyke 1994.
See above, note 37.
44 We should recall that Horaces boy/book discloses his interest in prostitution by
his gaze at the statue of Vertumnus (Ep. 1.20.1, spectare).
42
43

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tion.45 The three passages presented from Horace are also significant,
given Propertius frequent allusions to his older contemporary.46 In 4.2
Vertumnus emphasizes that the Vicus Tuscus is his favorite spot because of the people who frequent it, and on the two occasions when
Vertumnus refers to the passersby on the Vicus Tuscus, he does so with
the word turba, echoing Horaces Tusci turba impia vici. The Vicus Tuscus and its turba of pimps, prostitutes, and their clients clearly belong to
the world of amatory themes. This one specific verbal reminiscence of
Horace triggers a more general allusion to Horaces association of Vertumnus with prostitution: in Epistles 1.20 his lascivious boy/book wants
to see Vertumnus. In Propertius elegy Vertumnus in turn wants to see
the crowd on the Vicus Tuscus. Meanwhile the statue of Vertumnus also
boasts of his ability to change into a variety of forms, beginning with
that of a prostitute and including a peddler, a figure notoriously as promiscuous as the slave boy or the lecher in Horace. Thus the subject of
Propertius first national, patriotic, aetiological poem stands on a street
corner in Romes equivalent of a redlight district, sometimes dresses
up as a prostitute, sometimes as a lascivious peddler, and says he likes
his location because of the people there.
Oliensis (1995, 21215) observes that Horaces poetic envoi in
Epistles 1.20 actually contains the message stay rather than go and
highlights the poets anxiety at the reception his book will receive both
immediately and over time. In contrast, there is little sense of anxiety in
Propertius poem. Vertumnus, who represents the variety of narrators,
and therefore the book, is filled with delight at the surrounding turba. It
is not initially clear whether this represents a change in attitude from
Horace, or if Vertumnus speaks more from the perspective of the adventurous book than from that of the nervous author. Recent studies
suggest that Propertius shows a clear awareness of the shared interests
of the ambitious author and the bawd who pimps his mistress, because
the mistress is the book.47 The marketing of the book/woman to many
readers/lovers is in the poets interest. The bawd is therefore an alter
ego of the lover/narrator. Thus each poet can have conflicting feelings
about the popularity of his work as it necessarily involves the prostitu45 Propertius awareness of and allusions to Comedy have been described in Yardley 1972 and 1987. See also McKeown 1979; Konstan 1983, 3031, 8283; Norwood 1932,
56.
46 Hubbard 1974, 42, 8790, 94, 1058.
47 Sharrock 1994, 8486; Myers 1996; ONeill 1998.

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tion of that work. The poetry he initially wrote for his own, jealous enjoyment is now offering its charms to many. The forms that Vertumnus
takes, the puella and the merchant, certainly align him with those who
have an interest in prostitution and promiscuity. In contrast with the
Horatian poem, however, the book is here represented by a god rather
than by a beloved but mortal boy or girl. As a result there is no fear of
aging and rejection.48 This god of change will stay the same, surrounded
through the ages (per aevum, 55) by the same commerce in books and
flesh. Through the perspective of a narrator separated from the anxiety
of the author, the poet is able to express his pleasure in the marketing
of his poetry. The destabilized gender and identity of Vertumnus allow
him to be poet and poem. They also permit him to be pimp, prostitute,
and peddler. Thus here on the Vicus Tuscus he finds happiness in the
company of his Roman peers.
By explicitly rejecting a more respectable location and by choosing his statue which stands on the Vicus Tuscus, Vertumnus enters the
world of amatory elegy. He resolves the false tension between the amatory and aetiological programs, which the two halves of 4.1 construct as
diametric opposites, by accepting a role in both. The changing forms of
Vertumnus make this poem programmatic for the changing narrators
of the book, and the combination of the amatory and the aetiological is
programmatic for the intermingling between the two worlds which pervades book 4. Through the forms that Vertumnus takes and the promiscuous company he prefers, the Propertian god of metamorphosis embarks on a poetic discourse which seeks throughout book 4 to negotiate
the birth of a new kind of elegy from two apparently incompatible
generic parents.49
COLBY COLLEGE
email: knoneill@colby.edu

48 Of course, Horace was not always so pessimistic about the longevity of his work.
See Odes 3.30.
49 I am most grateful to the Editor of AJP and to the anonymous referee for their
comments and helpful suggestions.

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