Ethnic Identity in the Augustan Era: The Case of Propertius

Abstract

The paper analyses a selection of Propertius’ elegies in terms of their sense of ethnic identity. Starting with the two concluding elegies of the Monobiblos, which represent a break in the structure of the first book of elegies, the author presents the supposed associations of Propertius, familial and other, with the Etruscan people. This discussion is followed by an analysis of the Vertumnus elegy from Book 4: the myth of the Etruscan god of change is a paradigm for Propertius’ shifting allegiance to his original Umbrian homeland on the one hand, and – from a broader perspective – to the Roman Empire on the other.