Abstract

As he concludes poem 1.12, Propertius romantically asserts that Cynthia was prima and will be the finis. This article explores the supplemental readings that open up if we focus not on the temporal but on the geographical meaning of the word finis, a move invited by the poem itself and by the poems with which it belongs interpretively, all containing several allusions to space. Drawing on both Lacanian and cartographic theory, I suggest that the poet's engagement with questions of fines reveals Propertius' response to a growing awareness and concern with issues of physical space and empire in the Augustan period.