Introduction

Three contemporary poets progress Catullan and Horatian principles within the context of the failure of a Republic and establishment of an Empire: Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid establishes the impotency poem as capable of exploring the psychological impact. There, again, is the term 'nihil', as used in Propertius's elegy to explore the utterly damaging effects of love. His final book of elegies, supposedly 'taking up the challenge', appears, at the same time. By comparing the solider to the lover, in order to argue that they are the same thing, Ovid draws the reader's attention to the values on which these roles function. Here then Ovid uses his combination of the militia and servitium principles to highlight the subjection to another's authority that both love and war implies. However, even as Ovid's central importance as influence is registered on Renaissance re-workings of the tradition which explain some of the key innovations French and English Renaissance writers make to the form.