‘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.