Tibullus

Tibullus's chief friend and patron was Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, himself an orator and poet as well as a statesman and a commander. Messalla, like Gaius Maecenas, was at the centre of a literary circle in Rome. This circle had no relationship with the court, and the name of Augustus is found nowhere in the writings of Tibullus. About 30 BC Messalla was dispatched by Augustus to Gaul to quell a rising in Aquitania and restore order in the country, and Tibullus may have been in his retinue. On a later occasion, probably in 28, he would have accompanied his friend who had been sent on a mission to the East, but he fell sick and had to stay behind in Corcyra. Tibullus had no liking for war, and though his life seems to have been divided between Rome and his country estate, his own preferences were wholly for the country life.^[1]

The loss of Tibullus's landed property is attested by himself (i.1, 19), as a farmer "felicis quondam, nunc pauperis agri" ("of a once fruitful, now impoverished field"; cf. 41, 42). Its cause is only an inference, though a very probable one. That he was allowed to retain a portion of his estate with the family mansion is clear from ii.4, 53. Tibullus may have been Messalla's contubernalis in the Aquitanian War (Vita Tib. and Tib. i.7, 9 seq., a poem composed for Messalla's triumph), and may have received dona militaria (Vita Tib.).^[1]

Tibullus died prematurely, probably in 19,^[3] and almost immediately after Virgil. His death made a deep impression in Rome, as is clear from his contemporary, Domitius Marsus, and from the elegy in which Ovid^[4] enshrined the memory of his predecessor.^[1]

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Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus

Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus

Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was a Roman general, author, and patron of literature and art.

Gaius Maecenas

Gaius Maecenas

Gaius Cilnius Maecenas was a friend and political advisor to Octavian. He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Roman emperor but in spite of his wealth and power he chose not to enter the Senate, remaining of equestrian rank.

Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi), Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy. Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio (Latium), along the shores of the Tiber. Vatican City is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City". Rome is generally considered to be the "cradle of Western civilization and Christian culture", and the centre of the Catholic Church.

Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of 494,000 km2 (191,000 sq mi). According to Julius Caesar, who took control of the region on behalf of the Roman Republic, Gaul was divided into three parts: Gallia Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania.

Domitius Marsus

Domitius Marsus

Domitius Marsus was a Latin poet, friend of Virgil and Tibullus, and contemporary of Horace.

Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso, known in English as Ovid, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus banished him to Tomis, a Dacian province on the Black Sea, where he remained a decade until his death.

First book of poetry

Tibullus's first book consists of poems written at various times between 30 and 26. His first love, the subject of book i., is called Delia in the poems, but Apuleius^[5] reveals that her real name was Plania. As regards her station, it should be noticed that she was not entitled to wear the stola, the dress of Roman matrons (i. 6, 68). Her husband is mentioned as absent (i. 2, 67 seq.). She eludes the custodes placed over her (i. 2, 15 and 6, 7). Tibullus's suit was favoured by Delia's mother, of whom he speaks in very affectionate terms (i. 6, 57 seq.). For Tibullus's illness at Corcyra, see i. 3, I seq., 55 seq. The fifth elegy was written during estrangement (discidium), and the sixth after the return of the husband and during Delia's double infidelity. It is impossible to give an exact account of the intimacy. The poems which refer to her are arranged in no chronological order. Sometimes she appears as single, sometimes as married; but we hear nothing either of her marriage or of her husband's death. Yet it is clear that it was the absence of her husband on military service in Cilicia which gave Tibullus the opportunity to see her, and he continued to do so when the husband returned. Delia was clever in deception—too clever, as Tibullus saw when he found that he was not the only lover. His entreaties and appeals were of no avail; and after the first book no more is heard of Delia.^[1] In addition, several elegies in Book I concern themselves with Tibullus's love for a boy, who is named Marathus.^[6]

The Marathus cycle

The three poems centered on Marathus constitute the longest poetic project in Roman literature having homosexual love as theme.^[7] The first of these poems, 1.4, begins with an imprecation of the poet to the god Priapus, asking for advice on how to win over beautiful boys. The god advises patience and that the man in love yield to the beloved boy's every whim and perform a series of services if the boy demands it (1.4.15–53). At first the narrator of the poem presents himself as someone who is simply asking for advice from the god on behalf of a friend who fell in love with a boy but whose wife forbids such affairs (1.4.73). He later portrays himself as a teacher in the affairs of love, declaring that the doors of his house are open for other men in love with boys to ask his advice (1.4.78). In the end lines, however, he confesses to loving a boy named Marathus, who tortures him with "love's delay" (1.4.81) and whom the narrator can not conquer with his arts, causing other men to laugh at his lessons (1.4.83).

The cycle is resumed in poem 1.8, in which the narrator learns that Marathus is in love with a girl. The narrator advises the girl to treat Marathus with more leniency than Marathus treated the narrator himself (1.8.49). The narrator accompanies Marathus to the girl's house, carrying a torch to light the path at night, bribes her so that she meets Marathus, and talks the boy up to the girl (this is described in more detail the next poem, 1.9, lines 41–44). This poem can be seen as part of the narrator's efforts to win Marathus' goodwill by performing a series of humiliating tasks for him, exceeding the god's counsel to perform hard physical labors for the lad, by also helping him carry on an affairs with someone else.^[8]

In the poem that ends the cycle, 1.9, the narrator discovers that Marathus is in a relationship with a much older married man who buys the young man's affections through expensive gifts. Initially, the narrator asks the gods for compassion towards Marathus (1.9.5–6), who betrayed a promise he had made to the narrator, but soon love yields to bitterness, and he begins to express the desire that the gifts of the rival lover turn to ashes (1.9.11–12) and that the same happen to the poems that the narrator wrote to Marathus to win him over (1.9.48–49), of which he is now ashamed. He turns to the rival, taking revenge on him for having stolen her boyfriend by describing in detail the affair that the rival's wife is herself having with another boy (1.9.54–58 and 65–74). Finally, the poet addresses Marathus, telling him that he will cry when he sees the poet fall in love with another capricious lad (1.9.79–80), but declaring himself, for the moment being, finally released from unfaithful love.

Second book of poetry

About the second book, scholars can only say that in all likelihood it was published before the poet's death in 19 BC. It is very short, containing only 428 verses, and apparently incomplete. In the second book the place of Delia is taken by "Nemesis", which is also a fictitious name. Nemesis (like the Cynthia of Propertius) was probably a courtesan of the higher class; and she had other admirers besides Tibullus. He complains bitterly of his bondage, and of her rapacity and hard-heartedness. In spite of all, however, she seems to have retained her hold on him until his death.^[1]

Ovid, writing at the time of Tibullus's death, says:^[9] "Sic Nemesis longum, sic Delia nomen habebunt, / altera cura recens, altera primus amor." ("Thus Nemesis and Delia will be long remembered: one Tibullus' recent love, the other his first."). Nemesis is the subject of book ii.3, 4, 6. The mention of an Una (ii.6) settles her position. The connection had lasted a year when ii.5 was written (see ver. 109). It is worth noticing that Martial selects Nemesis as the source of Tibullus's reputation.^[10][11]

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Apuleius

Apuleius

Apuleius was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M'Daourouch, Algeria. He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya. This is known as the Apologia.

Cilicia

Cilicia

Cilicia is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilicia plain. The region includes the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye, along with parts of Hatay and Antalya.

Priapus

Priapus

In Greek mythology, Priapus is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism. He became a popular figure in Roman erotic art and Latin literature, and is the subject of the often humorously obscene collection of verse called the Priapeia.

Propertius

Propertius

Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium and died shortly after 15 BC.

Courtesan

Courtesan

Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other powerful person.

Martial

Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis was a Roman poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561 epigrams, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets.

Though the character of Tibullus the historical man is unclear, the character of his poetic persona is reflected in his works. He was an amiable man of generous impulses and unselfish disposition, loyal to his friends to the verge of self-sacrifice (as is shown by his leaving Delia to accompany Messalla to Asia), and apparently constant to his mistresses. His tenderness towards them is enhanced by a refinement and delicacy which are rare among the ancients. When treated cruelly by his love, he does not invoke curses upon her head. Instead he goes to her little sister's grave, hung so often with his garlands and wet with his tears, to bemoan his fate. His ideal is a quiet retirement in the country with the loved one at his side. He has no ambition and not even a poet's yearning for immortality. In an age of crude materialism and gross superstition, he was religious in the old Roman way. His clear, finished and yet unaffected style made him a great favourite and placed him, in the judgment of Quintilian, ahead of other elegiac writers. For natural grace and tenderness, for exquisiteness of feeling and expression, he stands alone. He rarely overloads his lines with Alexandrian learning. However, his range is limited. Tibullus is smoother and more musical, but liable to become monotonous; Propertius, with occasional harshnesses, is more vigorous and varied. In many of Tibullus's poems a symmetrical composition can be traced.^[1]

Specimens of Tibullus at his best may be found in i. I, 3, 89–94; 5, 19–36; 9, 45–68; ii. 6. Quintilian says,^[12] "Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus, cuius mihi tersus atque elegans maxime videtur auctor Tibullus; sunt qui Propertium malint; Ovidius utroque lascivior, sicut durior Gallus." ("In Elegy as well we rival the Greeks; of whom for me the author Tibullus seems the most polished and elegant; there are those who prefer Propertius; Ovid is more wanton than either, just as Gallus is more stern.")^[11]

Some of the genuine poems of Tibullus have been lost. On the other hand, much of the work attributed to him is that of others. Only the first and second books can uncontroversially claim his authorship. In both books occur poems which give evidence of internal disorder; but scholars cannot agree upon the remedies to be applied.^[1]

Third book of poetry

The third book contains 290 verses. The writer calls himself Lygdamus, and it is unknown when his poems were added to the genuine poems of Tibullus.^[1]

Fourth book of poetry

The separation of the fourth book from the third has no ancient authority. It dates from the revival of letters, and is due to the Italian scholars of the 15th century. The fourth book consists of poems of very different quality. The first is a composition in 211 hexameters on the achievements of Messalla, and is very poor. The author is unknown; but he was certainly not Tibullus. The poem itself was written in 31, the year of Messalla's consulship.^[1]

The next eleven poems relate to the loves of Sulpicia and Cerinthus. Sulpicia was a Roman lady of high station and, according to Moritz Haupt's conjecture, the daughter of Valeria, Messalla's sister. The Sulpicia elegies divide into two groups. The first comprises iv. 2–6, containing ninety-four lines, in which the theme of the attachment is worked up into five graceful poems. The second, iv. 7–12, consists of Sulpicia's own letters. They are very short, only forty lines in all; but they have a unique interest as being the only love poems by a Roman woman that have survived. Their frank and passionate outpourings are reminiscent of Catullus. The style and metrical handling was originally understood to be that of a novice, or a male poet appropriating female form. Later analysis has concluded that Sulpicia is an adept poet with a very high level of skill, playing upon gender norms in the celebration of her erotic relationship and play upon her "fama" as a poet and a woman of high status.^[13] The thirteenth poem (twenty-four lines) claims to be by Tibullus; but it is hardly more than a cento from Tibullus and Propertius. The fourteenth is a four-line epigram with nothing to determine its authorship. Last of all comes the epigram or fragment of Domitius Marsus already referred to.^[1]

Some scholars attribute iii. 8-12 - iv. 2–6 to Tibullus himself; but the style is different, and the validity of this attribution is uncertain. The direct ascription of iii. 19 – iv. 13 (verse 13, "nunc licet e caelo mittatur amica Tibullo" – "Now grant that a lover be sent from heaven to Tibullus") to Tibullus probably led to its inclusion in the collection and later on to the addition of the third book to the two genuine ones. For the evidence against the ascription, see Postgate.^[14][11]

To sum up: the third and fourth books appear in the oldest tradition as a single book, and they comprise pieces by different authors in different styles, none of which can be assigned to Tibullus with any certainty. The natural conclusion is that a collection of scattered compositions, relating to Messalla and the members of his circle, was added as an appendix to the genuine relics of Tibullus. When this "Messalla collection" was made cannot be exactly determined; but it was definitely not till after the death of Tibullus, 19 BC, and perhaps as late as the late 1st century AD. Besides the foregoing, two pieces in the collection called Priapea (one an epigram and the other a longer piece in iambics) have been attributed to Tibullus; but there is little external and no internal evidence of his authorship.^[15][1]

Charisius^[16] quotes part of a hexameter which is not found in the extant poems of Tibullus.^[11]

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Lygdamus

Lygdamus

Lygdamus was a Roman poet who wrote in Classical Latin. Six of his elegies, addressed to a girl named Neaera, are preserved in the Appendix Tibulliana alongside the apocryphal works of Tibullus. He belonged to the literary circle around Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus. In poem 5, he describes himself as young and gives his birth year as 43 BC. This line, however, is nearly identical to one in Ovid's Tristia from AD 11, which indicates that either Lygdamus is lying about his age or else Ovid was imitating him. It has even been suggested "Lygdamus" is merely a pen name used by the young Ovid.

Sulpicia

Sulpicia

Sulpicia was the author, in the first century BCE, of six short poems written in Latin which were published as part of the corpus of Albius Tibullus's poetry. She is one of the few female poets of ancient Rome whose work survives.

Catullus

Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus, often referred to simply as Catullus, was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His surviving works are still read widely and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.

Cento (poetry)

Cento (poetry)

A cento is a poetical work wholly composed of verses or passages taken from other authors, especially the Greek poet Homer and the Roman poet Virgil, disposed in a new form or order.

Hexameter

Hexameter

Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the Hymns of Orpheus. According to Greek mythology, hexameter was invented by Phemonoe, daughter of Apollo and the first Pythia of Delphi.

The value of the short Vita Tibulli, found at the end of the Ambrosian, Vatican and inferior manuscripts, has been much discussed. There is little in it that we could not infer from Tibullus himself and from what Horace says about Albius, though it is possible that its compiler may have taken some of his statements from Suetonius's book De Poetis. It is another moot question of some importance whether our poet should be identified with the Albius of Horace,^[17] as is done by the Horatian commentator Pomponius Porphyrion (AD 200–250) in his Scholia. Porphyrio's view was examined by Postgate.^[18][19]

The best manuscript of Tibullus is the Ambrosianus (A), which has been dated c. 1375, whose earliest known owner was the humanist Coluccio Salutati.^[20] Two early 15th-century manuscripts are Paris lat. 7989 (written in Florence in 1423) and the Vatican MS. Ottob. lat. 1202 (also written in Florence, 1426). These form only a small share of the over 100 Renaissance manuscripts. There are also a number of extracts from Tibullus in Florilegium Gallicum, an anthology from various Latin writers collected in the mid-twelfth century, and a few extracts in the Excerpta frisingensia, preserved in a manuscript now at Munich. Also excerpts from the lost Fragmentum cuiacianum, made by Scaliger, and now in the library at Leiden are of importance for their independence of A. It contained the part from 3.4.65 to the end, useful as fragments go as the other manuscripts lack 3.4.65. The Codex cuiacianus, a late manuscript containing Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius, is still extant.^[11]

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Coluccio Salutati

Coluccio Salutati

Coluccio Salutati was an Italian humanist and notary, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance Florence; as chancellor of the Republic and its most prominent voice, he was effectively the permanent secretary of state in the generation before the rise of the Medici.

Florence

Florence

Florence is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.

Munich

Munich

Munich is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and thus the largest which does not constitute its own state, as well as the 11th-largest city in the European Union. The city's metropolitan region is home to 6 million people. Straddling the banks of the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps, Munich is the seat of the Bavarian administrative region of Upper Bavaria, while being the most densely populated municipality in Germany with 4,500 people per km2. Munich is the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area, after the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history. He spent the last sixteen years of his life in the Netherlands.

Leiden

Leiden

Stadstimmerwerf – the city carpenter's yard or construction yard (1612), built by Lieven de Key. The former residence of the city's master carpenter is open to the public and is in use as an art gallery of a local visual artists collective.

Tibullus was first printed with Catullus, Propertius, and the Silvae of Statius by Vindelinus de Spira (Venice, 1472), and separately by Florentius de Argentina, probably in the same year. Amongst other editions are those by Scaliger (with Catullus and Propertius, 1577, etc.), Broukhusius (1708), Vulpius (1749), Heyne (1817, 4th ed. by Wunderlich, with supplement by Dissen, 1819), Huschke (1819), Lachmann (1829), Dissen (1835). Among more modern editions Emil Baehrens (1878, the first of the modern critical editions) has outlived his contemporaries Lucian Müller (1870), Heinrich Dittrich (1881),^[21] Edward Hiller (1885) and John Percival Postgate (1905).^[22] Guy Lee's edition and translation of books 1-2 (Cambridge, 1975) is based on a fresh collation of A. Of the commentaries Heyne's and Huschke's are still of value. The greater part of the poems are included in Postgate's Selections (with English notes, 1903). A history of later contributions is given in Augustin Cartault's A propos du corpus Tibullianum (1906; not quite complete); see also his Tibulle et les auteurs du Corpus Tibullianum (Paris, 1909).^[11]

For further information see the accounts in Teuffel's History of Roman Literature (translated by Warr), Martin Schanz's Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, and F. Marx's article s.v. "Albius", in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopädie.^[11]

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Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history. He spent the last sixteen years of his life in the Netherlands.

Joan van Broekhuizen

Joan van Broekhuizen

Joan van Broekhuizen, Latinised as Janus Broukhusius, Dutch classical scholar and poet, was born to simple parents in Amsterdam on 20 November 1649. His father died when he was very young, and his uncle placed him at the Latin school, where he showed great promise. His uncle later apprenticed him to an apothecary, with whom he lived several years. Not liking this employment, he entered the army, and in 1674 was sent with his regiment to America, in the fleet under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, but returned to Holland the same year.

Giovanni Antonio Volpi

Giovanni Antonio Volpi

Giovanni Antonio Volpi (1686–1717) was an Italian editor, publisher and poet.

Ernst Karl Friedrich Wunderlich

Ernst Karl Friedrich Wunderlich

Ernst Karl Friedrich Wunderlich was a German classical philologist born in Westerengel, a village near Trebra. He was the father of legal scholar Agathon Wunderlich (1810-1878).

Immanuel Gottlieb Huschke

Immanuel Gottlieb Huschke

Immanuel Gottlieb Huschke was a German classical philologist.

Karl Lachmann

Karl Lachmann

Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann was a German philologist and critic. He is particularly noted for his foundational contributions to the field of textual criticism.

Georg Ludolf Dissen

Georg Ludolf Dissen

Georg Ludolf Dissen was a German classical philologist who was a native of Groß Schneen, a village in the District of Göttingen.

Emil Baehrens

Emil Baehrens

Paul Heinrich Emil Baehrens was a German classical scholar.

Lucian Müller

Lucian Müller

Lucian Müller was a German classical scholar.

John Percival Postgate

John Percival Postgate

John Percival Postgate, FBA was an English classicist, professor of Latin at the University of Liverpool from 1909 to 1920. He was a member of the Postgate family.

Guy Lee

Guy Lee

Arthur Guy Lee, known informally as Guy Lee, was a British Classical scholar and poet. He was particularly notable as a Latinist for his work on the Roman poets Ovid, Propertius, and Catullus; he also translated Virgil's Eclogues, Tibullus, and Persius.

Martin Schanz

Martin Schanz

Martin Schanz was a German classicist and Plato scholar. He was a Dozent and Professor at the University of Würzburg from 1867 to 1912, and is especially known for his history of Roman literature and his ground-breaking, critical edition of Plato's dialogues.

Scholar Francis Cairns regards Tibullus as "a good poet but not a great one";^[23] Dorothea Wender similarly calls him a minor poet but argues there is "grace and polish and symmetry" to his work.^[24]