This paper is approaching Prop. 1.16, a poem of paraclausithyron, from the standpoint of servitium amoris, the main theme of Propertius' first book, observing how it works in the poem, combined with exclusus amator. In the poem this combination is seen to be set up on three paradoxes; first, the excluded lover blames the door for answering him silence, while its monologue, in fact, occupies the whole poem; second, the lover boasts himself a first-class poet having polite manners, while the door regards lovers in general, including him, as drunken rowdies; third, domino, in the lover's song is that of servitium amoris, a hard and cruel lady to her lover, while the door expects her to be a noble and chaste mistress of its house-in the common sense of the word. These paradoxes, in which the poet exploits the conventional, and especially Roman motives and features of pamclausithyron-a door speaking, personified and worshipped, violence to the door and furtive love-, make the complaining concert between the door and the lover effective; the door complains-in monologue, therefore heavy with distress to which no vent is given, unlike Catullus' door telling lightly in dialogue an interlocutor of the scandal (Cat. 67)-that lovers hurt and disgrace it by doing violence, leaving filthy wreaths and torches, and, above all, singing and scribbling shrieking, obscene songs: the lover complains that the door prohibits his song, his best weapon to catch his domina's heart, from reaching her ears, that it answers him dead silence-this complaint comes from an extremely sentimental view, for a silent door itself is not always a bad thing but, far from that, will be very favorable to him when he is accepted furtively, as in Plaut. Cure. 20 ff., 90 f. and Tib. 1. 2. 10-, and that it denies him although he has never uttered any abusive word, unlike Tibullus who repents after cursing (Tib. 1.2.7-12, cf. ibid. 81-88), but paid due honors to it, addressing it in 2nd person, giving offerings and kissing it. Here in this poem Propertius, it seems to me, maintained, against the common view represented by the door's complaint looking down upon love and love poetry as lazy, mean and worthless, his ideal love by combining servitium amor is and exclusus amator, the two most important topoi in Roman love elegy, in which Propertius made the terms servitium and vigilatio synonyms for amor. The lover of Prop. 1. 16 embodies this ideal; he never resorts to violence when excluded by his domina, but tries to bend her mind to him by his poetry, because he, as a slave of love, has sworn absolute loyalty-fides-to her, who has a good understanding of poetry-docta puella, that is one of the most important characteristics of Propertius' domina, Cynthia. Here his faithfulness and love poetry are given the clear images of vigil on the threshold and of a serenade to the shut door. And these images seem to correspond to what Propertius termed blandi carminis obsequium, allegiance of enticing song (1. 8. 40).