TIBULLUS.
(1) LIFE.
Albius Tibullus (his praenomen was perhaps Aulus, which, from the abbreviation A. being followed by Albius, was lost in the MSS.) seems to have been born near Pedum in Latium. (1) Horace, in Ep. i. 4, 2, addressed to Tibullus, asks, ‘Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana?’ apparently referring to the ‘sedes avitae’ of Tibullus (Tibull. ii. 4, 53). (2) The Life contained in the best MSS., and probably to be attributed to Suetonius, calls him ‘Albius Tibullus, eques Romanus’ (codd. Paris. and Lips. ‘regulis’). Bährens (Tibullische Blätter) holds that Romanus is an erroneous correction of regulis, for which he proposes to read R. (= Romanus) e Gabis (= Gabiis). Gabii was within a short distance of Pedum.
The date of his birth can be fixed only by indirect evidence.
(1) The Life says ‘obiit adulescens,’ and the epigram of Domitius Marsus, found in the best MSS., calls Tibullus ‘iuvenis’ at the time of his death, which must have occurred about the same time as Virgil’s, in B.C. 19,
‘Te quoque Vergilio comitem non aequa, Tibulle,
mors iuvenem campos misit ad Elysios,
ne foret aut elegis molles qui fleret amores
aut caneret forti regia bella pede.’
(2) Ovid (Tr. iv. 10, 53) says of Tibullus,
‘Successor fuit hic tibi, Galle, Propertius illi.’
Since Gallus was born B.C. 70, and Propertius about B.C. 49, the birth of Tibullus must have fallen between those years.
(3) Tibullus accompanied Messalla when he left for Aquitania, B.C. 30 or 29, according to the Life: ‘Ante alios Corvinum Messallam oratorem dilexit, cuius etiam contubernalis Aquitanico bello militaribus donis donatus est.’ Cf. Tibull. i. 7, 9,
‘Non sine me est tibi partus honos; Tarbella Pyrene
testis et Oceani litora Santonici.’
Putting together these references we may place the date of Tibullus’ birth in B.C. 54. (The statement of the Life in the Codex Guelferbytanus, ‘Natus est Hyrtio et Pansa coss.’ is clearly wrong).
He was of equestrian rank, and at one time possessed considerable wealth, apparently inherited from a long line of ancestors; i. 1, 41,
‘Non ego divitias patrum fructusque requiro
quos tulit antiquo condita messis avo.’
Cf. ii. 1, 1; ii. 4, 53; Hor. Ep. i. 4, 7,
‘Di tibi divitias dederunt.’
His family property, however, had been greatly diminished; i. 1, 19,
‘Vos quoque, felicis quondam nunc pauperis agri
custodes, fertis munera vestra, lares:
tunc vitula innumeros lustrabat caesa iuvencos;
nunc agna exigui est hostia parva soli.’
Cf. i. 1, 5 and 37.
It has been supposed that Tibullus suffered these losses in the agrarian disturbances of B.C. 41, and that his lands, like those of Virgil and Propertius, were confiscated. No town in Latium, however, is mentioned by Appian as having its territory thus assigned. Tibullus’ property may possibly have been restored to him through the influence of Messalla.[65] Cf. Hor. Ep. i. 4, 11,
‘Et mundus victus non deficiente crumena’;
also Tibull. i. 1, 77,
‘Ego composito securus acervo
despiciam dites despiciamque famem.’
Of Messalla Tibullus always speaks with the greatest affection. He refused at first to accompany him to the East after the battle of Actium, but afterwards followed him, and was forced through illness to remain at Corcyra: i. 1, 53,
‘Te bellare decet terra, Messalla, marique,
ut domus hostiles praeferat exuvias:
me retinent vinctum formosae vincla puellae’;
i, 3, 3,
‘Me tenet ignotis aegrum Phaeacia terris.’
In the Aquitanian campaign he was Messalla’s contubernalis, and had military distinctions conferred on him (see [p. 186]).
No further particulars of Tibullus are known, save his love for his mistresses Delia and Nemesis, and the fact mentioned by Ovid, in a poem on his death, that his mother and sister survived him; Amor. iii. 9, 50,
‘Mater et in cineres ultima dona tulit.
Hinc soror in partem misera cum matre doloris
venit inornatas dilaniata comas.’
Delia’s real name was Plania (δῆλος = planus): cf. Apuleius, Apol. 10, ‘eadem igitur opera accusent ... Tibullum quod ei sit Plania in animo Delia in versu.’ She was a libertina, for the name is not known as a nomen gentilicium, and she had had a husband (i. 2, 41, ‘coniunx tuus’), who appears to have been serving with the army in Cilicia: i. 2, 65,
‘Ferreus ille fuit, qui te cum posset habere,
maluerit praedas stultus et arma sequi.
Ille licet Cilicum victas agat ante catervas,’ etc.
A divorce had probably taken place, as she was not entitled to wear the distinctive dress of the Roman matron; i. 6, 67,
‘Sit modo casta, doce, quamvis non vitta ligatos
impediat crines nec stola longa pedes.’
Nemesis was a meretrix; ii. 4, 14,
‘Illa cava pretium flagitat usque manu.’
She appears to be the ‘immitis Glycera’ of Hor. Od. i. 33, 2, addressed to Albius (so Kiessling ad loc.). Both Delia and Nemesis are represented by Ovid as present at the funeral of Tibullus. Amor. iii. 9, 53,
‘Cumque tuis sua iunxerunt Nemesisque priorque
oscula nec solos destituere rogos.’
Tibullus was on friendly terms with Horace, who addressed to him Od. i. 33 and Ep. i. 4. Horace was doubtless attracted by the frank nature of Tibullus (Ep. i. 4, 1, ‘Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide iudex’), and by the community of taste which led them both to imitate the classical Ionic rather than the Alexandrian elegy. Horace corroborates the statement of Life i. (‘insignis forma cultuque corporis observabilis’) that Tibullus had a fine presence; ibid. 1. 6,
‘Non tu corpus eras sine pectore: di tibi formam,
di tibi divitias dederunt artemque fruendi.’
Ovid had met and admired him, and has numerous imitations of him in his poems; but the difference of age and the early death of Tibullus prevented any long acquaintance; Ovid, Tr. iv. 10, 51,
‘Nec amara Tibullo
tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.’
Of friendship between Propertius and Tibullus there is no evidence: they never mention one another.
(2) WORKS.
Four Books of elegiac poems are attributed to Tibullus, who ranks first among Roman elegists in the view of Quintilian, x. 1, 93, ‘Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus, cuius mihi tersus atque elegans maxime videtur auctor Tibullus.’
Book i., on the poet’s love for Delia and Marathus (El. 7 is to Messalla), was published by himself, and was apparently composed in the years B.C. 31-27. This agrees with Ovid, Tr. ii. 463,
‘Legiturque Tibullus
et placet, et iam te principe notus erat,’
if we assume that ‘principe’ refers to the title of Augustus.
Book ii., the chief subject of which is Nemesis, appears to have been written several years later. It is unfinished, not having received the author’s final revision, and was probably published soon after his death, certainly several years before Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (cf. A.A. 535 sqq.).
Book iii. (six Elegies) is professedly the work of Lygdamus. No poet of that name is mentioned in ancient literature, and it has been suggested that the author may have been a young relative of Tibullus who used a Greek adaptation of the gentile name Albius (λύγδος = white marble). He speaks as a man of good social position (iii. 2, 22). From the fact that he belonged to the circle of Messalla, his poems came to be added to those of Tibullus, whom he constantly imitates. There are also many reminiscences of Horace, Ovid, and Propertius. The six Elegies are addressed to Neaera, who was probably the poet’s cousin and was married or betrothed to him (iii. 1, 23; 2, 12). Lygdamus was born in the same year as Ovid, B.C. 43; iii. 5, 17,
‘Natalem primo nostrum videre parentes,
cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari.’
The remarkable coincidence between iii. 5, 15-20, and Ovid, A.A. ii. 669-70, Tr. iv. 10, 6, Amor. ii. 14, 23-4, is best explained by Hiller (Hermes, xviii. 360-1), who suggests that Lygdamus may have composed the poem in his earlier years merely to amuse Neaera, without publishing it, and that after Ovid’s works had appeared he may, to oblige a friend or patron (e.g. Messalinus), have published his collection of elegies, adding in the process of revision the lines copied from Ovid.
The remaining poems belong to Book iii. in the MSS., but in most editions are printed as a separate Book iv. iv. 1, in hexameters, is the Panegyricus Messallae, written in honour of Messalla’s consulship, B.C. 31. Its rhetorical exaggeration and want of taste forbid its being attributed to Tibullus, written, as it was, so shortly before he reached the summit of his powers. Its date puts Lygdamus out of question: doubtless it is by some young member of Messalla’s circle.
The rest of the Book has for its theme the love of Sulpicia, the daughter of Servius Sulpicius and Valeria, the sister of Messalla, for a young Greek named Cerinthus. El. 2-6 are apparently by Tibullus himself, who may have amused himself by turning into verse the letters of the young lovers. El. 7 is of disputed authorship; but it resembles the work of Sulpicia rather than that of Tibullus. El. 8-12 are by Sulpicia to Cerinthus. El. 13 purports to be by Tibullus. El. 14 is an epigram, of doubtful authorship.
Two Priapea are found in MSS. of Tibullus, but probably neither of them is by him.