When Elegy Dares to Pronounce the Eulogy of the Prince. Cleopatra by Propertius (III. 11): Is She a Historical Figure or an Elegiac Domina?

Why wonder that I am submitted to a woman, when mythology as well as history are bringing up plenty of comparable examples ? Propertius is mentioning the historical figure of Cleopatra at the end of a long list of conqueror mistresses, whose lovers are pitiful personages, and so the Egyptian queen becomes a figure of the elegy. Arousing terror as well as pity, she allows the development of a strange rhetoric of the “big language”, allowing the poet to praise the glory of the new master in Rome. Far away from being used for a propagandistic discourse, the elegy presents itself as the better genre to write down the portrait of Cleopatra. The staging has historical and literary purposes. Recent history is asked to embody the potentialities of a allegedly minor genre. Cleopatra is also a creature in the hands of Propertius, which allows him to glorify his poetical aims, as well as the victory of Caesar.