THE ELEGIES OF TIBULLUS
BEING
THE CONSOLATIONS OF A ROMAN LOVER
DONE IN ENGLISH VERSE
BY THEODORE C. WILLIAMS
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
(The Riverside Press Cambridge)
1908
TO WILLIAM COE COLLAR
HEAD MASTER OF THE
ROXBURY LATIN SCHOOL
Did Mentor with his mantle thee invest,
Or Chiron lend thee his persuasive lyre,
Or Socrates, of pedagogues the best,
Teach thee the harp-strings of a youth's desire?
PREFACE
Albius Tibullus was a Roman gentleman, whose father fought on Pompey's side. The precise dates of his birth and death are in doubt, and what we know of his life is all in his own poems; except that Horace condoles with him about Glycera, and Apuleius says Delia's real name was Plautia.