for sacrifice, and supposed to be impregnated with that colour by the waters of the river last mentioned.
Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus
Victima, saepe tuo perfusi fluorine sacro,
Romanos ad templa Deum duxere triumphos.—*Georg. ii.*
> And where thy sacred streams, Clitumnus! flow,
> White herds, and stateliest bulls that oft have led
> Triumphant Rome, and on her altars bled.—*Sotheby.*(188) His father is said by some to have been a Roman knight, and they add, that he was one of those who, when L. Antony was starved out of Perasia, were, by the order of Octavius, led to the altar of Julius Caesar, and there slain.
Nothing more is known with certainty, than that Propertius lost his father at an early age, and being deprived of a great part of his patrimony, betook himself to Rome, where his genius soon recommended him to public notice, and he obtained the patronage of Mecaenas.
From his frequent introduction of historical and mythological subjects into his poems, he received the appellation of “the learned.”
Of all the Latin elegiac poets, Propertius has the justest claim