In the ninth elegy of his third book Propertius withstands the encouragements of Maecenas, who has urged him to attempt heroic themes.

He declares himself unequal and unsuited to the task: different minds have different aptitudes; Lysippus excels in one craft, Calamis in another; some race afoot and some in chariots;

So far his weapons of defence are taken from a common armoury; but in the next verses he develops the argumentum ad hominem which was foreshadowed in ‘eques’ and ‘intra fortunam qui cupis esse tuam.’ Such promptings, says he, come strangely from Maecenas, whose own discreetness and self-repression will be famous in history, and whom he is resolved, so far as in him lies, to imitate.