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S25
THE ELEGIES OF
ALBIUS TIBULLUS
THE CORPUS TIBULLIANUM EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION
AND NOTES ON BOOKS I, II, AND IV, 2-14
BY
KIRBY FLOWER SMITH
PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK :- CINCINNATI ::- CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. ·
COPYRIGHT, 1913, IN GREAT BRITAIN.
SMITH. TIBULLUS.
W. P. I
TO
BASIL LANNEAU GILDERSLEEVE
Siede Tibullo a l'ombra
Ove docil da' colli un rio declina;
E di dolcezza ingombra
I sacri elisii l' armonia latina.
- CARDUCCI.
PREFACE
ST
LT
LU
This edition contains the first detailed commentary in
English upon the entire text of Tibullus, Sulpicia, and the
anonymous elegies of the fourth book. Whether the
edition has any further justification of its existence must
be left to the judgment of the reader.
The text coincides in the main with that of Hiller's
recension (1885, reprinted 1899). Changes are recorded
in the Appendix, and details of textual transmission, when-
ever they seem to be of sufficient importance, are discussed
in the Notes. The Panegyricus Messallae and the elegies
of Lygdamus are not dealt with in the Notes, and, owing
to the uncertainty of their pedigree, the two Priapea some-
times found in editions of Tibullus are not included in
the text. It is obvious, however, that intelligent and
profitable study of our poet must be accompanied by fre-
quent recourse to the entire Corpus Tibullianum as it now
stands. No portion therefore of the traditional text has
been omitted. The “Testimonia Veterum,” by which the
text is followed, contain whatever else antiquity has to say
of Tibullus's life and work.
In its present form the Introduction is the result of a
thorough revision in the interests of brevity and simplicity.
Not a little has been completely excised, discussion of the-
ories, and especially of untenable theories, has been reduced
as a rule to a passing reference, and a considerable body
of material in the chapter on the poet's art has been trans-
7
200776
PREFACE
ferred to the Notes. The section concerned with the in-
fluence of Tibullus upon the literatures of Modern Europe
is a mere sketch derived in large part from my own read-
ing. Prolonged and intelligent investigation is necessary
before the picture can be completed. I trust however
that I have outlined it with a fair degree of accuracy.
It will be observed perhaps that my critique of Tibullus
runs counter to some discussions of his art and some esti-
mates of his genius which just at present would appear to
be generally accepted. It was considered however with
the utmost care, and as yet I see no reason for revising it
in any essential particular. In this connection should be
mentioned two articles (R. Bürger, Beiträge zur Elegantia
Tibulls, and M. Pohlenz, Die Hellenistische Poesie und die
Philosophie) in the recent volume of studies to Professor
Leo (Xápites Friedrich Leo zum Sechzigsten Geburtstag
dargebracht, Berlin, 1911). I should have been glad to
consider these, but when they came to my hands the In-
troduction was already in final proof and no further changes
could be made. Bürger's discussion is a complete justifica-
tion of the illuminating statement of Plessis (La Poésie
Latine, p. 354, see my Introduction, p. 68) that Tibullus
belonged, in taste if not in fact, to the Attic School.
Pohlenz's discussion of Philetas (pp. 108–112) cannot be
ignored by those who assert that erotic elegy of the sub-
jective type was unknown to the Alexandrian poets.
In the preparation of the Notes I have not hesitated to
avail myself of whatever appeared to be of value, and it
is possible that through inadvertence I may have failed
in some cases to give credit to whom credit was due. I
hope however that special obligations have always re-
ceived special acknowledgment. The scope and character
PREFACE
of the Notes will be sufficiently clear to any one who has
read the Introduction. A recital of my aims and endeav-
ours, an account of my preparation for this work, would
be merely stating in another form what I conceive to be
the plain duty of any commentator who deserves the name.
I shall be content if scholars whose opinion I value shall
accord me the credit of an honest effort to perform that
duty to the best of my ability.
In its original form the Appendix contained a full appa-
ratus criticus, two or three notes on technical matters, and
a complete list of authorities consulted. Upon second
thoughts it seemed advisable to withhold all this material
from a book already in danger of becoming overgrown.
Moreover, the loss is largely, if not entirely, compensated
by the fact that the principal authorities or the sources
from which they may be derived are now mentioned in the
Notes or in the footnotes of the Introduction. So, too,
the essential details of textual tradition have already been
discussed, and the minutiae of the complete record are
easily accessible in the excellent critical editions of Hiller
and Postgate.
I was forced to prepare the Index even for my own use.
I may assume therefore that it will be useful to others.
I had thought of entering here the imitations and reminis-
cences of Tibullus gleaned from the later Roman poets by
various editors and special investigators. The majority of
these however are too vague to be conclusive. I have
recorded therefore only those which are mentioned in the
Notes.
This book has been enriched by the helpful suggestions,
more than one friend whose name is not recorded here.
PREFACE
The criticism of Professor E. P. Morris, supervising editor
of this series, has been at my service. Nor do I fail to
appreciate the generous coöperation of the publishers, and
especially of Mr. Everett E. Thompson. He has given
freely of his invaluable training and wide experience. My
old friend and colleague Professor Wilfred P. Mustard
has subjected the entire book to a rigid cross-examination,
and in its present form it owes much to his relentless
accuracy, his candid criticism, and his refined taste.
My obligations to Professor Gildersleeve — his examina-
tion and criticism of my Introduction is merely one of them
— cannot be estimated. By no means the least of these ob-
ligations was incurred when I determined at the beginning
of my long task that, so far as lay within my power, this
book should deserve the honour of dedication to the friend
whose living presence has enriched and inspired all my
academic life.
KIRBY FLOWER SMITH.
BALTIMORE.
IO
CONTENTS
.
.
.
·
·
·
.
·
·
INTRODUCTION :
1. Development of the Elegy . .
II. Life of Tibullus .
III. Later Tradition and Imitation.
IV. Criticism and Discussion . .
V. The Corpus Tibullianum .
VI. Textual Tradition . .
VII. The Poet's Art . . .
.
·
·
· · · · ·
·
.
·
.
·
·
.
·
·
TEXT:
.
.
.
·
·
107
134
.
·
.
· · · ·
.
.
·
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
·
. 159
.
·
.
Book I
Book II .
Book III .
Book IV . .
VITA TIBULLI . .
TESTIMONIA ANTIQUA
NOTES
APPENDIX . .
INDEX . . .
·
.
.
.
·
·
.
.
.
·
.
·
.
527
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
.
:
.
.
·
II
INTRODUCTION
I. DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELEGY
THE Roman elegy founded by Cornelius Gallus and perfected
by Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid was the culmination of an
aesthetic evolution the earliest stage of which in our surviving
record carries us as far back as the days when the kingdom of
Gyges and Kroisos still loomed large on the eastern horizon of
Hellenic civilization. Nor can it be claimed that even then
the elegy was in any respect rudimentary. On the contrary the
great typical moods of the department are all visible and the
elegiac distichº shows by its very perfection of technique that it
had already been subjected to artistic manipulation for a consider-
able length of time.
It is impossible here to discuss the question of origins3 at any
length. The matter was obscure even to the ancient critics, and
the solutions offered by modern scholarship are none of them en-
tirely satisfactory. It is important however to observe that the
traditional association of the elegy with the flute naturally points to
an ultimate origin in the sphere of those orgiastic cults with which
the flute itself was identified. The real significance of this state-
ment becomes evident as soon as we recall to mind that in a
i The only satisfactory account of the elegy as a whole is given by Crusius,
Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie, 5 (1905), pp. 2260-2307. The student is re-
ferred to it for further details and for the most important literature of the subject.
2 On the independent use of the pentameter see Usener, Altgriechischer Vers-
bau, p. 99; Immisch, Philologenversammlung zu Görlitz, 1889, p. 380; Kirby
Flower Smith, A. J. P. 22, pp. 165-194; P. Rasi, De Eleg. Lat., p. 36; Reitzenstein,
Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie, 6, p. 76, etc. On the origin of the distich see
also Zacher, Philologus, 57, pp. 18 f., etc.
3 Crusius, 1.6., pp. 2260 f. and ref.
4 Dümmler, Philol., 53, P. 201; Immisch, 1.C.; Rohde, Der Griechische Roman,
pp. 139 f., etc.
13
TIBVLLVS
primitive condition of society the expression of emotion soon
reaches the ecstatic or orgiastic stage, and that from that point,
whether the original motive was sorrow, patriotic fervour, religious
excitement, or love, the symptoms, whether in action or thought,
are very much the same. From this point of view therefore it
would seem most likely that, as Crusius says, the leading motives
of the elegy in its preliterary period were the lament for the
dead and the patriotic call to arms, a specific type of the hortatory
mood ( POTPETTIKń). We find both moods united in the oldest
surviving specimen of poetry animated by the lyrico-elegiac
spirit, the dirge in Iliad 24, 725 f. The connection therefore
of the flute with the elegy itself would appear to suggest that this
form of poetry, though refined and raised to artistic excellence at
an early period by the Ionians, sprang originally from the orgiastic
mood. It is true that the elegy was also recited at symposia and
to the accompaniment of the flute. This however involves no
contradiction. On such occasions joy and sorrow met quite as
naturally as they did in the orgiastic cults to which reference has
already been made.
On Greek soil the history of the elegy as a developed literary
form may be conveniently divided into two periods, the Old and
the New. The Old elegy (7th to 4th cent. B.C.) comprises the
old Ionian school, the Dorian school of the Peloponnese, Solon,
Theognis, and their contemporaries, and fourth, the Attic school.
The New elegy begins with the Age of Alexander the Great and,
at least for our present purpose, extends to Parthenios, the friend
and teacher of Cornelius Gallus, the founder of the Roman elegy.
The Ionian group (7th to 6th cent. B.C.), the earliest and greatest
period of the Old elegy, is represented, e..., by Archilochos of
Paros, Kallinos of Ephesos, Mimnermos of Kolophon.
It is interesting to observe how fully the tendencies of the
elegy yet to be are either foreshadowed or completely developed
1 The sympotic origin of the elegy is especially emphasized by Reitzenstein in
his Epigramm und Skolion.
14
INTRODUCTION
even in the scanty fragments of these early poets. The four lead-
ing moods --- threnodic, hortatory, erotic, didactic (Opnuntikń, mpo-
TPETTiKÝ, épwtiKÝ, Sidaktikń) – are all represented. Now too, as
throughout the entire history of the department, the poet's atti-
tude is preferably subjective, but the objective attitude of the epic
or dramatic poet as we see it in the narrative elegy had already
begun. Even the realistic vein of Asios (see Athenaios, 3, 125, D)
appeared again in the Alexandrian poets and certain of their Roman
imitators. The same is true of style and technique. These are
generally determined by the Ionian epic. Hence the certain
amount of elevation and dignity ever afterwards characteristic of
the type. So in their manipulation of the distich these old Ionian
masters exhibit the same tendency to develop an idea by parallel-
ism and antithesis which we find in the later poets, especially
Tibullus himself.
The overshadowing genius of this period is Archilochos of Paros,
but taking the subsequent history of the department as a whole,
the most interesting and by far the most important representative
of this school of elegy, perhaps even of the entire elegy, is
Mimnermos of Kolophon.
Mimnermos, like Kallinos, used the distich as a vehicle of
patriotic feeling. He also betrays a fondness for local legends.
But his most important contribution to elegiac art is the sen-
timental-erotic mood characterizing the poems to his beloved
Nanno. Equally important is the fact that he does not express
emotion after the manner of the Aeolic lyric. He either analyzes
it, presents it rhetorically, as in the old gnomic poetry, or illus-
trates it by a parallel taken from myth. These methods of de-
velopment, especially this peculiar and characteristic use of myth,
make the Nanno, as every student of Propertius knows, a proto-
type of the Hellenistic elegy (cp. Hor. Epist. 2, 2, 101 ; Propert.
1,9, 11).
A singer and a player of the flute as well as a poet, Mimnermos
was also especially notable for his use of epic forms. We might
15
TIBVLLVS
expect it of one so thoroughly steeped in the diction and style of
the Homeric poems. To the same cause has been traced that
tendency to idealize the past which is a specific aspect not only of
Mimnermos himself in his sentimental-erotic mood but after him
of the entire elegy.
To the period of Solon belongs the growth of the inscription in
distichs. The acknowledged classic is Simonides and the type
was continued by Aischylos and Phrynichos.
The period of Attic supremacy was marked by the rise of
prose and of the drama. For the time being the elegy was rel-
egated to the background as a mere parergon of writers whose
real fame was derived from their work in other fields. Neverthe-
less the Attic school — the best representatives of it were Ion,
Evenos, and Kritias — marks an advance. The influence of lyric
and tragedy and of the new rhetorical technique of the sophists
is to be felt in certain details.
The transition from the Old elegy to the New is represented by
Antimachos of Kolophon, and it is significant for the character of
the type soon to come that the intellectual and artistic pedigree
of its great precursor takes us back to his fellow townsman
Mimnermos. Upon the death of his beloved Lyde, Antimachos
consoled himself for his loss by composing elegies in her honour,
in which he retold from legend stories of those who like himself
had loved and lost. The Lyde was thus a special develop-
ment of the old, threnodic mood.' So too this use of myth, to
which as the author of a famous epic (the Thebais) he would
naturally be inclined, takes us back to Mimnermos. But this use
of myth which appears to have been only occasional even in
Mimnermos becomes in Antimachos for the first time a settled
principle of elegiac composition afterwards used to advantage by
the Hellenistic poets. His careful elaboration of details and his
more extensive use of metaphorical diction, for both of which he
was famous, also characterize him as a genuine forerunner of the
New elegy.
INTRODUCTION
A notable feature of Alexandrian literature was the prominence
and popularity of the elegy. Every function of the department
was cultivated and developed by authors whose names were de-
servedly famous in later times. In considering the elegy we must
include also the elegiac epigram. Historically there is no hard
and fast line between the two. The elegiac epitaph of Simonides,
for example, which is said to have been developed first by Anak-
reon has been derived from the old threnodic mood of the elegy.
But the characteristic Alexandrian epigram- erotic, sentimental,
ironical, and what-not--of which many examples are preserved in
the Greek Anthology, is even more closely related to the elegy.
In fact it is nothing more nor less than an elegy in miniature and,
as such, often the artistic development of themes already out-
lined, not only by the Attic poets and Theognis but even by the
old Ionian school. This type of Alexandrian epigram is often
imitated and subjected to rhetorical expansion by the Roman
elegiac poets, especially Propertius, but above all Ovid.?
The New elegy was a faithful reflection of the new culture.
The establishment of an imperial system with continental pos-
sessions was responsible for pronounced changes in Greek life and
thought. The new cosmopolitan ideal was strong both for good
and for ill. The oạtlook of the average man was perhaps wider
and more varied, but the conditions under which the great master-
pieces of the past were produced had disappeared forever. Like
all other private citizens, the poet was no longer concerned with
the policies of the state. He might attach himself to some court,
and many did so, but in any case his themes and his inspiration
were now more distinctly those of a cosmopolitan living in an age
of great learning and great intellectual and aesthetic refinement.
Certainly, too, the period was profoundly affected by the fact that,
with the growing importance of women which had followed the
1 The clear statement and exposition of this inportant fact are due to Reitzen-
stein, Epigramm und Skolion.
2 Hence, Jacoby's theory; see p. 23, n. I.
17
TIBVLLVS
fall of the old city state, gradual feminization of life, literature,
and art, with which we ourselves are not unfamiliar, had already
begun.
In fact the Hellenistic period might perhaps be called the Age
of Romanticism in Greek life. At all events it is in some ways
the prototype and parallel of our own Romantic movement which,
beginning with the nineteenth century, has profoundly modified
the intellectual and social atmosphere of to-day. Conventional
themes and methods of literary art give place to those which have
been overlooked, forgotten, or ignored in previous times. There
is a notable tendency to deal with ordinary men rather than with
distinguished persons, gods, and heroes, as in other days. The
shift of popular interest, by way of Euripides, from Die Leiden des
alten Prometheus to Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, with the re-
sulting change of tone, was as characteristic of the Alexandrian Age
as it was of Goethe's time.
· There was also a change in the point of view toward the literary
and artistic inheritance of the race. Then“as now we are in an
age of scholarship and of great libraries. Philology, philosophy,
natural science, the spirit of scientific investigation in general,
come to the front and affect literary productivity in both matter
and manner. As one might expect, the prevailing mood is the
sentimental and erotic, occasionally even the neurotic. But then
as now the idealist and the realist are side by side. Artistic
naturalism which, as in Herondas and in the comedy, deals with
ordinary and even with low life as it was, is opposed by the mood
of gallantry and of sentimental.eroticism which deals with high
life as it never has been. On the other hand the protest against
over-refinement finds expression in a reversion to the popular,
antique, and primitive, in the use of local legends and folklore, in
the deliberate archaism which prompted an author like Kallimachos
to revive in his Bath of Pallas what appears to have been an
old Dorian function of the elegy long since forgotten. But the
most characteristic literary evidence of this protest is furnished by
18
INTRODUCTION
the Idylls of Theokritos who expressly states that he was the friend
and pupil of Philetas of Kos, distinguished as a teacher, Homeric
scholar, philologist, and philosopher, but more distinguished, we
may guess, as the founder and, with the possible exception of Kalli-
machos, as the greatest representative of the Hellenistic elegy.
In his elegiac poem Anuýtup, Philetas related the Rape of
Persephone. A good idea of his probable style and method may
doubtless be gained from the charming stories of Hylas and of
Polyphemos and Galatea told by Theokritos. Indeed, as Crusius
well observes, these poems are themselves far more suggestive of
the narrative elegy than of the epyllion. The books of poems
dedicated to Bittis connect Philetas directly with the Lyde of
Antimachos and more remotely with the Nanno of Mimnermos.
Unfortunately the fragments are too slight to warrant any very
definite conclusions. Perhaps it is safe to say, however, that
Philetas had the idyllic touch and the tendency to genre remind-
ing one of Theokritos. His language and style were probably
simple and natural. It is likely also that the poems to Bittis were
essentially lyric and subjective (cp. Hermesianax in Athenaios, 13,
598 F).1
Hermesianax (three books of elegies to Leontion) and Phano-
kles ("Epwtes û Kano), younger contemporaries of Philetas, repre-
sent an archaistic type the inspiration of which appears to have
been the Hesiodic Catalogi. In Hermesianax we find the ironical
humour, in Phanokles the pursuit of poetic aſtia, which were both
characteristic of the age. As in Antimachos and others the per-
sonal note is expressed in inythic material.
The next step, for which Kallinos and Mimnermos had already
paved the way, was to make the myth itself the subject, and to
reduce the personal note to a minimum. The step was taken by
? If so, Jacoby's theory (see p. 23, n. 1) needs much revision. One could wish that
we knew more of this collection. But at all events his thesis is neither supported
nor protected by his assumption that the Bittis was an epikedeion or that it was
a series of poems of the Catalogue type. See esp. M. Pohlenz in Xápites Friedrich
Leo zum Sechzigsten Geburtstag dargebracht, Berlin, 1911, pp. 108-112.
TIBVLLVS
Alexander the Aetolian, the first great representative in this period
of the elegy as a vehicle for love stories (in his 'Atóllwv) and —
after the type of Kritias — for literary gossip (in his Mowoai).
The growth of narrative elegy was encouraged not a little by the
fact that both the poets and their readers were more interested in
the legends and tales of the people than in the well-worn heroic
myths. For such tales the traditional atmosphere of the elegy was
better suited than that of the epic. According to the rules of the
new school the story should be told briefly. Only the most effec-
tive incidents — for example the catastrophe -- were worked out in
detail, and as a matter of course the Romantic mood was em-
· phasized. A good example on the Roman side is the exquisite
Tarpeia elegy of Propertius (4, 4). The one long fragment of
Alexander's 'Atóllwv is a genuine novella of the Milesian type.
The style is simple and straightforward.
The many points of contact between the Roman elegy and the
New comedy, the mime, and Herondas suggest that one of the
Hellenistic contributions to our department was a type of elegy
animated by a certain amount of the satiric and realistic spirit.
This however is by no means certain. Moreover the Alexan-
drian poets generally prefer the epigram for the expression of this
mood. For example the instructions of the lena to her charge,
a stock theme in the Roman elegy — and as such the ancestor of
countless Renaissance productions like the Rettorica delle Puttane
of Pallavicino- are probably rhetorical expansions of such epigrams
belonging to the Hellenistic period. Even yet there was no real
distinction between the elegy and the epigram in distichs.
We now come to Kallimachos of Kyrene (310–240 ? B.C.),
the most voluminous writer perhaps of all antiquity, the great rep-
resentative of Alexandrian poetry, and according to later critics
the master of the elegy. His commanding position is partly due to
1 Crusius, 1.c. 5, p. 2283 and ref.; A. L. Wheeler, ' Erotic Teaching in Roman
Elegy and the Greek Sources,' Class Philol. 5, pp. 447 f. Here too, especially, the
direct influence of the véa is to be suspected.
20
INTRODUCTION
the clearness with which he stated his artistic programme, much
of which is embodied in his own famous saying, μέγα βιβλίον μέγα
kakov, i.e. no long epics, no poems on a large scale and following
the beaten paths, but small pieces characterized by attention to
detail and artistic perfection — miniatures, as one might say. The
practical demonstration of his views was the 'Ekáin, a short
epyllion, and the famous Artia, four books of elegies which may
have suggested, at least in some ways, the Fasti of Ovid and certain
poems in the last book of Propertius.
The Karà Aertów of his friend Aratos reminds one of the mis-
cellany by the same name attributed to the youthful Vergil, and in
any case to be closely associated with the literary circle of Messalla.
The example of the Airia was followed by Eratosthenes in his
'Hpcyóvn (Attic aetiological legends).
The. Θαυμάσια of Philostephanos and such works as the 'Οφιακά
of Nikander mark the natural outcome of the Alexandrian Age.
Of the elegies of Euphorion of Chalkis we know nothing except
that according to Diomedes (cp. Probus on Verg. E. 10,50), they
were imitated by Gallus. The fact however that with the exception
of one unimportant pentameter the five books of Gallus's elegies to
his Lycoris have completely disappeared makes discussion of this
subject peculiarly unprofitable.?
More important, or at all events more definite, is the relation
between Gallus and Parthenios of Nikaia, the last great elegiac
poet of the Alexandrian school. Brought to Rome as a prisoner
in 73 B.C., but soon after set free, he later became the friend and
teacher of Cornelius Gallus. Parthenios was especially famous for
his ’Etikýdela. He also wrote IIalyvia and epigrammata, which he
dedicated to Krinagoras. In other elegies he told, to quote his
own phrase, ιστορίαι ξέναι και άτριπτοι after the manner of Kalli-
machos and possibly of Euphorion. This was the type recom-
1 For the long fragment of Kallimachos (the story of Akontios and Kydippe, to
which, as it now appears, Ovid is not as much indebted as was thought) see Gren-
fell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VII, P. 25.
2 A case in point is F. Skutsch in his Aus Vergils Frühzeit and Gallus und Vergil.
21
TIBVLLVS
mended to his distinguished pupil, as we learn from his IIepi
'Epwrik@v IIaOnuárwv, 'On the Misfortunes of Lovers,' a little hand-
book addressed to Gallus and containing the bare plots of a number
of such stories to be used by him in the composition of future
elegies. Doubtless Gallus employed this work in the manner
suggested. Possibly too his elegies, to judge from the prevailing
mood of poetry at the time, were characterized by an idyllic strain
which would connect him directly or indirectly with the bucolic
poets of Greece, but this is incapable of definite proof.
Historically the elegy first enters Rome with the Hellenistic
epigram in distichs as cultivated by Catulus, Valerius Aedituus,
and their school at the end of the second century B.C.2 Much more
important however was the impulse which came in the next
generation through Catullus, Calvus, and the other veutepol, under
the leadership of Valerius Cato. The surviving work of Catullus
shows his ability to write genuine elegies, and the lost poems of
Calvus to his Quintilia (threnodic), and the collection entitled
Leucadia (erotic?) by Varro Atacinus, suggest that Catullus was
not the only representative of this department. The characteristic
work of the school however was really along other lines, and the
Roman critics were doubtless entirely justified in their view that
the real founder of their elegy as a great department of poetry was
Cornelius Gallus.
From what has been said above it will be seen that, taking the
elegy as a whole, the commanding figure in the department is
Mimnermos. His erotic-sentimental mood commended to the
Alexandrian Age by Antimachos becomes, when modified by the
idyllic propensities of Philetas, the prevailing mood of the de-
partment in later times. Every type however was cultivated in
1 See esp. Rohde, op. cit., pp. 113 f. Gallus's method of using this material
was probably similar to that which we see in Propertius.
2 See Büttner, Porcius Licinus und der Litterarische Kreis des Q. Lutatius
Catulus.
3 Crusius, p. 2292. Jacoby's statement that these were not elegiac is unproved
and unlikely; see, e.g., frag. 17 M., a pentameter. · The position of Quintilia or her
identity has no bearing on this question.
22
INTRODUCTION
the Alexandrian Age, and though all of them, even the purely
narrative type and the elegiac epigram, are both in matter and
form a natural growth from the elegy of earlier days, we may
nevertheless agree with the Romans that the flower of the elegy
on its native soil was during the Hellenistic period. :
1 The burning question here is the pedigree of the specific Roman type. The
first extant examples of the subjective erotic elegy occur among the Romans,
Was this an invention of their own, or had they been anticipated by the Alexan-
drian poets ? For the literature of the subject up to 1905 see Gollnisch, Quaes-
tiones Elegiacae, Diss., Breslau; 1905 (rev. by Jacoby, Berl. Phil. Wochenschr.
1905, p. 1208). The discussion first assumes importance with Leo, Plautinische
Forschungen, 1895, pp. 126 f.; see, also, Gött. Gel. Anz. 1898, p. 722, and his De
Horatio et Archilocho, Gött., 1900. Anong further contributions special promi-
nence should be given to R. Reitzenstein, Epigramm und Skolion, and his article
on the Epigram in P-W. 6, pp. 71-III; Jacoby, 'Zur Entstehung der Römischen
Elegie,' Rhein. Mus. 60, 38–105; A. L. Wheeler, Class. Philol. 5, 440-450 ; 6,
56–77; 5, 28-40. Mention should also be made of M. Rothstein, Einleit, zu
Properz, and Philol. 1900, p. 441; Hoelzer, De Poesi Amatoria a Comicis Atticis
exculta ab Elegiacis imitatione expressa, Diss , Marburg, 1899; Bürger, De Ovi-
dii Carm. Amat. etc., Braunschweig, 1901; Mallet, Quaest. Propert. 1882; M.
Heinemann, 'Epistulae Amat. quomodo cohaereant cum Elegiis Alexandrinis,' Diss.
Argentorat. 14, 3, Strassburg, 1910 (see Jacoby, Berl. Phil. Wochenschr. 1911,
pp. 169–173). The solution offered by Wheeler, 1.c, deserves particular considera-
tion, and his review and criticism of the discussion is timely and convincing.
A definite and final answer to the question is precluded by the practically
complete loss of the Alexandrian elegy. Two possibilities remain. One is the
references in later writers (Propertius and Ovid, Quintilian, Diomedes, etc.).
Experience has shown that these are of no value per se. Antique criticism is more
concerned with form and style than with content or genre. All that remains is to
collect the numerous passages in various types of Greek literature which parallel
or prefigure the characters, motives, and situations of Roman elegy (hence the
large number of such parallels collected during the past 15 years). Parallelism,
however, is neither a proof nor a test of immediate origin. If in a given case, as
Wheeler well says, 'the fact of influence has been demonstrated and the earliest,
i.e. the ultimate, Greek source has been pointed out, the most difficult question
still remains: By what channel did the Greek influence reach Roman elegy?'
Leo's view (I borrow Wheeler's brief outline) is that 'the many agreements
between Roman elegy and Roman comedy indicate that Greek New comedy is
the ultimate source of the comic motives in Roman elegy, for the Augustan ele-
gists did not read Plautus and Terence. But the Augustan elegists did not use
the véa directly, as the older scholars (e.g. Huschke, etc.) thought; rather the in-
fluence came indirectly through the medium of the Alexandrian poets, especially
the elegists, whom Propertius and Ovid acknowledge as their models. The Alexan-
drians had already taken over the motives of comedy, each poet modifying them
from personal experience and from life. The material of comedy appears in
23
TIBVLLVS
The characteristic vices of the Hellenistic elegy are suggested
by what has already been said of the period itself. They were
overmuch complication in structure, an excess of antiquarianism,
Lucian and Alciphron, who used comedy directly, and in Aristaenetus and Philo-
stratus, who did not know comedy directly but drew on Lucian and Alciphron or
on Alexandrian elegy. In single cases the Roman elegists may have been in-
fluenced directly by the véa, for they knew the plays, but the indirect relation is
the only natural one and is indicated by the diffusion of these motives in Greek
and Roman erotic literature and by the close connection between Greek and
Roman elegy as shown by the erotic epigram.'
It will be seen that Leo did not entirely exclude the véa as a direct influence.
It was left for his followers (notably Hoelzer) to narrow his view and to make the
Alexandrian elegy 'the clearing house for all Greek influence on Roman elegy.'
This of course is most unlikely. Much better was Gollnisch, who extended Leo's
theory so far as to show that the Romans were influenced directly by the epi-
gram, comedy, and mythological elegy, as well as by the assumed Alexandrian
prototype. Reitzenstein's most valuable contributions to this discussion have been
the emphasis he has given to rhetoric, especially rhetorical TOTOL as constructive
agencies, and to the fact that so far as the Greeks were concerned there was no hard
and fast line between the elegy and the elegiac epigram. Jacoby's theory is in
brief that the starting point and chief source of the Roman elegy is the Alexan-
drian erotic epigram, but that we should also consider, though in less degree, the
comedy, the mythological elegy, and the bucolic. Emphasis on these points is
timely, and the results are of great value. Isolated cases (see Jacoby, 1.c. p. 81)
of probably direct derivation from these sources have already been pointed out. We
cannot derive the Roman subjective erotic elegy as a whole from a single source.
Indeed irrespective of the testimony of the elegies themselves the theory of a
single source is rendered unlikely by the eclecticism so notably characteristic of
the Augustan poets. Finally, as noted by Jacoby and as more clearly and pre-
cisely stated by Wheeler, within the department itself the comparative prominence
of one or another of these sources above the rest appears to vary with the period
as well as with the individual. The importance of comedy as a direct source
seems to increase with time: bucolic (whether direct or indirect it is impossible to
say) is most prominent in Tibullus, the mythological tradition in Propertius,
comedy and formal rhetoric in Ovid.
The weakness of Jacoby, it seems to me, is the fact that he tries to prove too
much. He assumes that the Alexandrian erotic epigram is the starting point and
chief source of the Roman elegy. This may be true, but it is yet to be proved, and
I cannot see how it will ever be proved by the method which hc himself has used
in his last article, 'Tibulls erste Elegie, ein Beitrag zum Verständniss der Tibulli-
schen Kunst,' Rhein. Mus. 64, 601 f. and 65, 22 f.
Having made this assumption, Jacoby must either prove it from the Roman
elegy itself, which no one can do, or else protect it by annihilating the assumed
Alexandrian type of subjective erotic elegy (cp. his own naïve statement in Rhein.
Mus. 60, 57, n. 1). Pohlenz's discussion of Philetas (see p. 19, n. I, above) cannot
be ignored by those who agree with Jacoby.
24
INTRODUCTION
a tendency to obscure allusion, a fondness for recondite words and
syntax, and other peculiarities often found in authors whose
learning overshadows their critical and creative faculty. :
It will be observed that these vices are all formal and stylistic.
It may be added that the essential virtues of the type were in the
same sphere. The most striking aspect of this school of elegy
was its formal excellence. The genius of the great Alexandrian
poets was the genius of artistic form.
quamvis ingenio non valet arte valet
is Ovid's shrewd comment upon Kallimachos, the representative
poet of the age. If therefore Kallimachos was looked upon as the
great exemplar and patron saint of the Roman elegy, the criticism
of him by Ovid can only imply that it was by reason of his formal
excellence. This conclusion in turn suggests that the debt of the
Roman elegy to its Alexandrian prototype, about which there has
been so much discussion, was largely a matter of form. Indeed
merely on general principles the conclusion seems inevitable that
the interest of any Roman poet in his Greek model should be first
and foremost in the technical sphere, to learn not what he had
written, but how he had written; in short to discover and master
the secret of his art.
We have no reason to suppose that the Roman elegiac poets
were an exception to this rule, although the losses to the Alexan-
drian elegy have been so extensive that it is no longer possible to
follow out all the details. The Roman poets furnish examples of
most of the standard types developed by their predecessors. So,
too, many of their situations and motives, the commonplaces of the
department in general, are quite at home in the Alexandrian
Age, even though it is not always possible actually to prove that
they were inherited from that period by way of the elegy. The
same may be said of the literary references, of the favourite myths
and stories used for illustration, and of similar phenomena, espe-
cially in Ovid and Propertius.
We often get at the situation indirectly through the immediate
25.
TIBVLLVS
or secondary influence of the Hellenistic poets upon other literary
departments. From this point of view the Roman elegy de-
mands and repays constant comparison with the comedy and with
that belated echo of it, the rhetorical letter writers, Alkiphron and
Aristainetos. Another important source is the Greek Anthology,
and still another, the Hellenistic works of art discovered in Pom-
peii, Herculaneum, and elsewhere, many of which lay emphasis
upon the sentimental, erotic, idyllic, or genre. We may also add
Lukian, Philostratos, Quintus Smyrnaeus, Nonnos, the Roman
epigrammatists, even the rhetorical and philosophical discussions.
In one way or another they all echo the once large and particularly
interesting literature of the Hellenistic period.
How much on the other hand the Roman elegy owes to the
Romans themselves it is no longer possible to say. It is fair to
assume however that the debt is considerable. The elegy was a
late comer, and at that time Roman literary genius had long been out
of leading strings. In this matter little can be learned from the
atmosphere of the elegy itself. Developed and perfected in the
thirty-odd years preceding the Christian Era, the Roman elegy of
Gallus, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid was the product of an age
which in intellectual refinement and cultivation, even in the polit-
ical situation and its ultimate consequences, was in many ways a
replica of the period in which the elegy of Philetas and his suc-
cessors had been produced.
Indeed the ordinary Graeco-Roman life of the Augustan Age
was much the same as that of the Alexandrian Age. So far at
least as the elegy is concerned, the different classes of society and
their relations to each other, the occupations and ambitions of the.
jeunesse dorée, the entire mise-en-scène of polite verse dealing with
contemporary existence harmonize with the one almost as well as
with the other. Antique life was very conservative, especially in
the conduct of a love affair à la mode. The lover and his friends,
his mistress and her friends, his rival (always either a soldier of
fortune, or a rich parvenu, or both), the husband,' the lena, all
26
INTRODUCTION
are stock characters whether in comedy, elegy, epigram, or actual
life. They can be depended upon to appear in regular order, and
after some experience the resulting situations, moods, and obser-
vations can usually be predicted in advance.
The bacillus amatorius generally penetrates the poet by way of
his eyes, and the period of incubation is ridiculously short. Among
the first symptoms one of the most notable is an utter inability to
sleep. It is useless to struggle. The arrows of Dan Cupid are
unerring and burn to the bone. His victim is an ox at the plow,
and the worst is yet to come; he is a soldier detailed for special
service, always leading the forlorn hope. To overcome the girl's
disdain is only one of his troubles. Frequently there is a selfish
and tactless husband' in the way. Then follow all the varieties,
moods, and motives of an intrigue.
The emotional temperature is far above the danger point.
Clothes torn, hair forcibly removed, faces scratched, black and
blue spots — these are all marks of affection. As the observant
Parmeno remarks -
AL
in amore haec omnia insunt vitia: iniuriae,
suspiciones, inimicitiae, indutiae,
bellum, pax rursum, etc.
"A bitter-sweet passion at best,' says Burton, after consulting
all the books in and about Oxford-'dolentia delectabilis, hilare
tormentum - fair, foul, and full of variation.
Jove's book for recording lovers' oaths is running water. And
'la donna è mobile ? — her promises are sport for the winds and
seas. The poet is always poor. His mistress however is not
önly a pearl, but a pearl of price. He promises her immortality
in his verses; she is more concerned about her immediate future
in this life. He learns as did the Abbé Voisenon that —
Sans dépenser
C'est en vain qu'on espère
De s'avancer
Au pays de Cythère.
27
TIBVLLVS
He is therefore the natural enemy of wealth, greed, and present-
day luxury. His ideal is the Golden Age, when men were so
happy and so poor. He takes no part in politics, is not ambitious
to get on in affairs; war is as unpopular with him as seafaring and
similar short cuts to death. He observes omens, frequently con-
sults witch-wives and Thessalian moon specialists, and generally
makes them responsible for the sins of his mistress. She herself
has a decided leaning for ritualism. She is devoted to Isis and
sows dissension by her periodical attacks of going into retreat.
She is earnestly advised not to mar her great natural beauty by
artificial means. In the course of the affair she never fails to have
an illness. The poet nurses her and afterwards writes a poem
about it. He too falls ill. Maybe he is going to die. If so,
will she see to it that the following directions with regard to his
funeral are carried out?
Like Anakreon he must love, and is made to sing of love alone.
To expect him to write epic is quite out of the question. Indeed
the gods themselves sometimes serve notice on him to that effect.
But while the prevailing mood of the elegy is amatory and the
lighter aspects of contemporary life are much in evidence, the
poet may, and occasionally does, resort to the other traditional
themes and moods of his department.
The Roman elegy is generally erotic and sentimental; it favours
the idyllic, and has a fondness for genre. At the same time it is rarely
intense, and it shows a tendency to cultivated irony and persiflage.
This characteristic mood of Hellenistic poetry is especially notable
in Ovid, but it is also characteristic of Roman poetry in his time.
Matter and manner are in harmony with each other. The
Roman elegy demands and attains the highest standard of formal
excellence. From this point of view — and it was this point of
view that inspired the words — Quintilian's boast of elegia quoque
Graecos provocamus' was, we may be sure, fully justified.
1 In view of much recent criticism of the elegy as well as of other literary
departments this characteristic attitude of antique criticism cannot be too often
emphasized. See p. 72, n. I.
28
INTRODUCTION
As it was designed to be read, not sung, the Roman elegy was
more highly rhetorical and details of form were more carefully
considered than would otherwise have been necessary. The dis-
tich in particular, as we find it in the poems of Tibullus and his
successors, represents the greatest triumph of Roman genius in
the domain of verse technique, and may challenge comparison with
the best work of the Greek masters. Every detail of rhetoric and
style is wrought out with the utmost delicacy and care. The
theme, as we shall see, is developed in a typical fashion, and as
compared with the epigram the distich is constructed with greater
attention, and the language is more fastidious. Herein we have
a definite, clear distinction between the Roman elegy and the
Roman epigram in distichs.
But while the language of the elegy as opposed to that of the
epigram is always poetical, nevertheless it carefully avoids as a rule
the more elevated mood of epic and tragedy. This law is in
harmony with the ars celare artem, the apparent absence of any-
thing like artifice, the effect of unstudied ease and naturalness, for
which the elegy is especially distinguished. The ideal is dainti-
ness and grace rather than sublimity or the soaring moods and
aspirations of high poetry. The author repeatedly informs us that
his verse is of the lighter sort, mere ‘nugae' or 'opuscula,' and
though he sometimes forgets and tells the truth, he generally as-
sures us that he has no ambitions, that his poems are only meant
to win his lady-love, and that if they fail in this object they may all
go hang. Strange to say, modern scholars have often taken him
at his word.
These general laws, these standard rules and representative
tendencies of the Roman elegy as a whole, are most fully and
clearly illustrated by Albius Tibullus. To him in fact belongs the
distinction of having given artistic perfection to the department on
Roman ground.
12, 4, 13-20 n.
29
TIBVLLVS
IT IT
II. LIFE OF TIBULLUS
Our materials for the life of Tibullus are insufficient for restoring
even a bare outline of his career and personality. They consist
of a few slight references in his own works, certain passages in
the poems of his younger contemporary Ovid, two pieces addressed
to him by his friend Horace, and an anonymous vita which has
come down to us in some mss. of the author.
This vita, which is followed by an epigram ascribed to Tibullus's
contemporary Domitius Marsus, is brief, vague, and unsatisfactory.
It has some value however; for, although corrupted and abridged
to an indefinite extent, it probably goes back ultimately to a life
of Tibullus once found in the De Poetis, a section now lost of the
De Viris Inlustribus of Suetonius.
The epigram of Domitius Marsus, the leading poet of his type
in the Augustan Age, was doubtless quoted by Suetonius himself
in the text of the lost'vita Tibulli.' It was evidently occasioned by
the fact that the death of our poet was coincident with that of
Vergil. We know from trustworthy sources that the author of the
Aeneid died at Brindisi on the 22d of September, 19 B.C. We
must therefore suppose that the death of Tibullus occurred either
on that very day, which in itself is not impossible, or at a very brief
interval. Otherwise the epigram has no point, and Suetonius would
never have quoted it in this connection.
This is the nearest approach to a definite date in the life of our
poet. The date of his birth is unknown and can only be stated
approximately. The vita says that he died young ( obiit adules-
cens'), but immediately adds,'ut indicat epigramma supra scrip-
tum.' Perhaps these words are the addition of a later hand. If
1 For the most complete and detailed account of Tibullus with references to all
the important literature up to date, see Schanz, Geschichte der Röm. Litteralur,
II, 1, 3rd edit., Munich, Beck, 1911, p. 219. The most sympathetic and inspiring
account of Tibullus as a poet and man is given by Sellar, Horace and the Elegiac
Poets. See also, Plessis, La Poésie Latine, Paris, 1910, p. 336 f., and Duff's Literary
History of Rome, p. 546.
30
INTRODUCTION
'not, the statement of the vita is valueless; for Marsus himself says
iuvenis ' not'adulescens,' and every one knows that “iuvenis' is
as indefinite as encore jeune' or the lady's 'twenty-nine.
We may be sure however that Tibullus died before his time.
It is suggested by certain aspects of his second and last book and
by the fact that Horace (born 65 B.C.) speaks to him as to a
younger man. It is also implied by Ovid, Trist. 4, 10, 51 —
Vergilium vidi tantum; nec amara Tibullo
tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae,
but more definitely by the verses immediately succeeding, in
which he names the four great elegiac poets of Rome ending with
himself -
successor fuit hic tibi, Galle; Propertius illi;
quartus ab his serie temporis ipse fui.
The order here, as Ovid expressly states, is chronological, and
hence we have Gallus (born in 69), Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid
(born in 43). It is usual therefore to place the birth of Tibullus
at not far from 54 B.C. In that case he would be 35 at the
time of his death, quite old enough perhaps to find his age a
handicap to success in a love affair (Hor. Od. 1, 33, 3), but
whether still young enough to justify the definition of adulescens'
will depend to some extent upon the age of the definer.
The nomen gentile of Tibullus was Albius, and Horace, who fur-
nishes our only surviving examples of address to him in person
(Od. 1, 33, I ; Epist. 1, 4, 1), always so designates him. “Albius
Tibullus' occurs only in the old commentators on Horace (Acro,
Od. 1, 33, I; Epist. 1, 4, I ; Porph. Od. 1, 33, 1), in Diomedes
1 K. P. Harrington, Proceed. Am. Phil. Assoc. 33, pp. cxxxvii ff. For Cartault's
discussion see his edition of Tibullus, p. 5.
2 Baehrens, Tibullische Blätter, Jena, 1876, p. 7 (followed, e.g., by Postgate,
Selections from Tib. and Others, 1903, p. 179), tried to prove that our poet is not
the Albius of Horace. It is hardly worth while now to discuss and refute this
theory; see, however, e.g., Cartault, 'Horace et Tibulle,' Revue de Philol. 30,
210-217; Ullman, A.J.P.33, 149; Postgate, id. 377.
31
TIBVLLVS
(484, 17, K) a grammarian of the fourth century, the vita, and the
mss. Otherwise the poet's own rule of the simple cognomen
"Tibullus' (1, 3, 55; 1, 9, 83; 4, 13, 13) is followed invariably.
His praenomen has not survived.
The cognomen of Tibullus seems to be unique in the surviving
record of Roman nomenclature, and it cannot be shown that any
one of the handful of more or less obscure Albii now known to us
was even a distant connection of the poet. The vita however
says that he was a Roman knight, the class from which the literary
genius of Rome was at all periods so largely recruited, and he
himself informs us (1, 1, 19 ff. and 41 ff.) that his forbears were
rich landed proprietors, but that a large part of the property had
been lost. It is possible that as in the case of Vergil, Propertius,
and other contemporaries, the reverses to which he alludes were
occasioned by the famous confiscation of lands which Octavianus
was forced to make for the benefit of his veterans after Philippi in
42 B.C. There were however other confiscations of the same sort
in 36 and in 31, and as the poet himself suggests neither a cause
nor a date for the family misfortunes it seems useless to pursue the
subject further.
But whatever the earlier losses may have been, we learn from
the poet himself that his income though modest (cp. note on
paupertas, I, 1, 5, and the following lines) was quite enough to
supply all his wants, I, I, 77-8-
ego composito securus acervo
despiciam dites despiciamque famem.
1
On the other hand Horace (Epist. 1, 4, 7) says of him
di tibi divitias dederunt,
and those who maintain that the Albius to whom Horace refers is
not our Albius see in this statement a striking proof of their
theory. The definition of wealth however is largely a relative, not
to say a subjective, matter. It should be observed too that
32
. INTRODUCTION
further down (line 11) when Horace restates his previous assertion
as
et mundus victus non deficiente crumena,
he not only repeats with considerable accuracy the poet's own
estimate, but even appears actually to have had the words in mind.
It is probable that Tibullus was born on the ancestral estate.
Here (1, 10, 15-16) he passed his boyhood, and although like
most other Romans of his position and circumstances he doubt-
less had a house in town and spent some portion of his time
there, the evidence of his surviving works as a whole (esp. I, I;
1, 5, 20–34; 2, I; even 2, 4, 53 ff.) clearly suggests so far as
it goes that during his entire career he was never absent for any
extended period from his old home. Now at the time Horace
wrote his epistle to Tibullus (possibly, 21–20 B.C. — the date is un-
certain) our poet is described as sojourning 'in regione Pedana.'
Doubtless the old family place is referred to, and we are there-
fore safe in assuming that Tibullus was born there under the
shadow of the Sabine Hills not far from Pedum, an ancient Latin
town (Livy, 8, 13) which once stood on the Via Labicana be-
tween Tibur and Praeneste. Porphyrio (note on Hor. l.c.) says
that in his time it had entirely disappeared : 'Pedum oppidum
haud longe ab urbe fuit. Nunc non est, verum adhuc regio ipsa
Pedana dicitur.'
According to Baehrens's brilliant but disputed emendation of
the corrupt opening sentence of the vita (see p. 173) Tibullus
was from Gabii. This famous old town which however, even in
Cicero's time, had become the Sleepy Hollow of Latium," stood
on the left of the Via Praenestina near the modern Lago di Cas-
tiglione, about nine miles from Rome and only seven or eight from
Pedum. Hence the country seat to which Horace refers could
have been hardly more than a pleasant morning walk from either
place. However that may be, it is worthy of note that Tibullus is
i Cicero, Planc. 23; Horace, Epist. I, II, 7; Juv. 1o, 100 (with Mayor's note).
33
TIBVLLVS
one of the few great poets of Rome born in Latium itself and of
the old Latin stock.
The poet's family consisted of his mother and his sister (1, 3,
3 ff.), and we learn from Ovid, Amores, 3, 9, 49 ff., the famous
elegy upon his death, that they both survived him. As he never
mentions his father, we conclude that he must have died before his
son was old enough to retain any distinct impression of him(1,1,2 n.).
Like other boys of his position, he was doubtless sent to Rome
to acquire the usual rhetorical-legal education of the time. He
may even have taken some part, as did Horace, in university
life at Athens. All this however is mere surmise. For us, and ap-
parently for him, the most important fact in his entire career is
his connection with his lifelong patron and friend, M. Valerius
Messalla Corvinus (64 B.C.-8 A.D.).
This distinguished member of an ancient and most distinguished
family was as famous for his literary as for his administrative ability.
After the murder of Julius, Messalla sided with Brutus and Cassius,
and though barely twenty-two at the time, was made commander
of the right wing at Philippi. Upon the death of Brutus and Cassius,
and the utter rout of their army, the soldiers who had escaped
rallied to Messalla and chose him as their general. With rare but
characteristic good sense he persuaded them to surrender. He then
joined Antony, but was soon alienated by the conduct of Cleopatra,
and finally went over to Octavianus. He was at once admitted
to the fullest confidence by that wonderful judge of men, and
thenceforth supported him with unswerving loyalty to the end of
his days, first in Sicily in 36, then against the Salassi in 34, then at
Actium, where he commanded the centre of the fleet, having been
chosen consul in place of Antony.
Soon after the victory at Actium (Appian, B.C. 4, 38) he was
dispatched to Aquitania to quell a serious insurrection among the
i Trans. by Stepney, Johnson's English Poets, 17, 226. Another and better
version is that of Nichol (in Cranstoun's Trans. of Tibullus). The poem was not
intended to be biographical and should not be used for that purpose.
34
INTRODUCTION
native tribes. The expedition was a brilliant success, and on
Sept. 25, 27 B.C., he received the honour of a triumph ex Gallia.
Apparently his birthday fell at or near the same date. At all
events Tibullus's present to his patron on that occasion was a
congratulatory poem (now 1, 7), in which he describes the expe-
dition, and tells us that he himself took part in it. “Non sine me
est tibi partus honos' (1, 7, 9), 'I, too, contributed to the honour
which thou hast won,' he says very simply. Yet the vita tells us
that he was decorated for distinguished service — “militaribus donis
donatus est.'
Messalla was also sent out by Octavianus to settle the disturbed
affairs of the Orient. The poet was invited to take part in this
campaign as a member of Messalla's staff (1, 3), but fell sick at
Corcyra, and apparently did not proceed with the journey. It is
generally supposed that this is the expedition to which he refers in
I, I, but in which he had at that time refused to take part. This
however is quite incapable of proof. Nor can we say whether the
mission to the East occurred before or after the Aquitanian cam-
paign. It is to be hoped that we may yet discover inscriptional
evidence for this important question. If so, we might establish the
chronological sequence of 1, 1; 1,3; and 1, 7 and possibly of 1, 10.
Until then no further light can be shed upon the military career of
our poet. 1, 10 for example is addressed to no one, and refers to
no one. All we know is that he was on the eve of a campaign.
Is it the campaign ending with Actium, or was he thinking of the
expedition to Aquitania? Both have been suggested (see note on
1, IO, 25).
Messalla was equally distinguished as a man of affairs, Some-
time before his triumph he was commissioned by Augustus to repair
a portion of the Via Latina. He performed the work so thoroughly
that more than a century later (1, 7, 57, and notes) it was a
proverb of durability. A rare apotheosis for a road commissioner!
In 26 Augustus created the new and important office of praefectus
urbi. The first incumbent chosen was Messalla, but Hieronymus
35
TIBVLLVS
tells us that — 'sexto die magistratu se abdicavit, incivilem potes-
tatem esse contestans.' This view reflects his life-long attitude of
determined but loyal protest against the encroachments of imperial-
ism. Nor is it inconsistent with the fact that 24 years later (Sue-
ton. Aug. 58). it was he who proposed the title of Pater Patriae
for the Emperor. The ancient friend of Brutus and Cassius saw
the inevitable trend of the system, but since Antony's time he had
probably cherished no illusions, and he must perforce have admired
the personality and achievements of Augustus. In II B.C. the
Emperor created another important office, that of curator aquarum.
Again the first incumbent chosen was Messalla (Front. Aq. 99).
He died at 72 of a lingering disease, which to judge from the de-
scription of it (Pliny, N. H. 7, 90; Hier. Chron. 2027) must have
been very like the modern paresis.
Messalla was also distinguished as an author. He was considered
the foremost orator of his generation (Cic. Ad Brut. 1, 15, I;
Quint. 10, 1, 113), and he wrote some memoirs of his own time
occasionally quoted by later authors. A passage in the Catalepton
(11, 13 ff.) has been taken as a proof that he also wrote bucolics
(cp. Pliny, Epist. 5, 3, 5). If so, the fact is of peculiar interest
as suggesting one reason why Tibullus was encouraged to select a
type of elegy so evidently affiliated with this department.
But Messalla wisely chose to be a patron rather than a creator
of literature. As early as the beginning of the imperial régime
his house on the Palatine had become the centre of a literary
circle which in importance was second only to that of Augustus
and Maecenas, and which appears to have continued even into
the next generation as an established tradition of the family.
This fact has an important bearing on our discussion of the
Corpus Tibullianum as it now stands.
The relations between Messalla and Augustus were evidently
so cordial that it is only reasonable to suppose the literary friends
of the one to have been largely the same as those of the other;
but on this point no definite evidence is now available. Of
36
INTRODUCTION
those who, like Tibullus, have been set down as belonging more
particularly to Messalla's group, the most distinguished were
Valgius Rufus (4, 1, 181) and Aemilius Macer (2, 6, Int.), both
famous poets, but now known to us only at second hand, or
through a few slight fragments. Lygdamus, Sulpicia, and the
anonymous author of the Panegyricus Messallae (4, I) are known
to us only from the Corpus Tibullianum itself. Probably the
youthful Vergil should also be included, and certainly Ovid,
although his acquaintance with Messalla did not begin until after
the death of our poet (see esp. Ullman, A.J.P. 33, 162).
The position of Messalla in this circle was one for which he
was well fitted from every point of view. A Roman gentleman
of the highest and best type, and fastidious in all things, he
was sane and sensible, and possessed the unconventional ease
of assured position and of more than sixteen generations of
gentle blood. He was also a keen though kindly critic whose
standards of taste had been moulded by a stern discipline in
the domain of language and style. Quintilian for example
(10, 5, 2) tells us that, like Cicero, Crassus, and the elder
generation of pleaders, Messalla, simply to train himself in the
resources of his own tongue, had made written translations of
speech after speech of the Greek orators. He also wrote a
number of technical treatises on various questions of grammar
and style — quosdam totos libellos,' as Quintilian says (1,7, 35),
'non verbis modo singulis sed etiam litteris dedit'--- and we
are told by the Elder Seneca (Cont. 2, 4, 8) that he was
exactissimi ingenii in omnes studiorum partes, Latini utique
sermonis observator diligentissimus.'
Such was the critic and friend to whom Tibullus undoubtedly
read all his poetry, and the character and quality of it as it
now stands suggest that the function and influence of that
critic were far more important than is acknowledged by the
poet, or seems to have been generally recognized by his modern
readers. It is not implied of course that he was in any way
37
TIBVLLVS
careless or unappreciative of his patron. On the contrary it
would be difficult to name another great writer so entirely de-
voted to the interests of a single family. If from the sum total
of his surviving works we subtract his more or less literary
love affairs and the single poem addressed to Macer (2, 6),
the remainder, so far as it can be connected with any one at all,
is concerned either with Messalla or with his household.
This absorption is the more striking if we remind ourselves
that the period in question—in round numbers, from 30 to 20
B.C. — was the acme of the Augustan Age, and a decade which
for its contributions to the abiding literature of the world can
only be compared with the days of Perikles or Elizabeth.
The state was equally rich in men of rare distinction in other
walks of life, and it may be assumed that Tibullus was per-
sonally acquainted with the majority of his famous contem-
poraries. But we should never suspect it from his own works.
He mentions no one, not even Horace, and with Horace, we may
be sure, he was on terms of considerable intimacy.
Recent criticism has been inclined to emphasize the view that
the poet's silence was prompted by political opposition to the im-
perial government. The view derives some apparent support from
the fact that as a descendant of the small gentry of Latium Tibullus
would naturally be a republican, and, as Marx has pointed out,
that his attitude toward Cassius of Parma as a literary model (Hor.
Epist. 1, 4, 3) may indicate political sympathy with that last survi-
vor (Vell. 2, 87, 3) of the assassins of Julius. The explanation how-
ever is not so plausible as it appears at first sight. If the poet's
silence was in any sense due to politics, why is he equally silent
regarding all his predecessors, both Greek and Roman? Why is it
that his longest and most ambitious elegy (2, 5) is in honour of
the new régime? Moreover he had already proved his loyalty
by actual service in the field, here as elsewhere repeating the
attitude, certainly of Messalla, and probably of Messalla's circle.
The real literary centre of the opposition was not Messalla, but
38
INTRODUCTION
Pollio. Finally, why should we expect to find references to con-
temporaries or references to great authors past or present in that
idyllic erotic type of elegy of which Tibullus is the only surviving
example?
But irrespective of the reasons already given the circumstances of
Tibullus himself, and still more the essential character of the circle
in which he moved, are quite enough to explain his attitude toward
the contemporary world. Horace and Maecenas, Tibullus and
Messalla, each pair was an ideal example of the relation between
poet. and patron. But Horace, both by nature, training, and ne-
cessity, was a man of wide acquaintance and manifold interests.
Tibullus was not. Like Horace he was intensely loyal to a few old
and tried friends; but owing to his wealth, his temperament, and
his surroundings he was not driven to enlarge his sphere by necessity
nor led to it by inclination. In this respect the attitude of each
reflects to a certain extent the point of view of the circle to which
he belonged. The circle of Messalla was unconventional, refined,
delightful. But it was unofficial; it was not directly concerned
with national matters. Poetry was cultivated purely for its own
sake, and Messalla himself was revered and loved for his personal
qualities and as the head of a great patrician house, not as the
representative of national policies, not as the very impersonation
so to speak of the great present and the greater future of Rome.
It was not therefore that Tibullus and his friends loved Caesar
Augustus less, but that they loved Messalla Corvinus so very much
more.
Rivalry there may have been to a certain extent. Valgius,
highly praised by his contemporaries, might be called the Vergil
of the Messalla circle. The ten elegies of Tibullus's first book,
manifestly bucolic in their tradition and tendency, have been com-
pared with the ten eclogues of Vergil ; the elegy dealing with
Priapus (1, 4), with Horace's satire (1, 8) on the same subject.
The situation however is sufficiently explained by the common
phenomenon of a contemporary interest in certain themes and
39
TIBVLLVS
forms, and rivalry, even if we were obliged to grant its existence,
was not necessarily actuated by political preferences.
Our testimony for the character and personality of Tibullus is
for the most part indirect. The vita says that he was 'cultu
corporis observabilis. An unimportant detail perhaps in itself
and possibly due to a misunderstanding of such passages as
2, 3, 77 ff., but we can hardly doubt its literal truth. A man so
notoriously fastidious in his literary style is likely to have been
equally fastidious in everything else— from the set of a toga
to the choice of a friend. Nor does fastidiousness conduce to
rapid and extensive literary production, and Tibullus's plea for
fame, at all events as it now stands, is hardly more bulky than the
slim little booklet offered by his predecessor Catullus.
The testimony of his works—and it is confirmed by Horace - is
all to the effect that Tibullus was a man of unusual tenderness, re-
finement, and breeding. Even when subjected to such a severe
test as the treatment of those conventional themes of the elegy
with which he habitually deals, he rarely fails to ring true. From
this point of view no Roman poet could have been a more con-
genial companion to the gentle and high-souled Vergil in his
journey to the Elysian Fields. Without the same genius there
was nevertheless the same fastidiousness, sense of proportion, and
classic reserve, even the same tendency to live in the past and to
dwell upon the glory and the beauty of other days.
Praise of the mean that 'grees with country music best' is
of course characteristic of the elegy, above all of the idyllic type
affected by Tibullus. Nevertheless Horace's description of his
friend as
tacitum silvas inter reptare salubris
curantem quidquid (lignum sapiente bonoque est,
can only apply to a poet whose love for the simple life and sur-
roundings of his boyhood days is quite as genuine and unaffected
as his own words would have us believe.
40
INTRODUCTION
Not less characteristic of the elegy as a whole is that dislike
of war 1 to which our poet so often gives utterance. Here how-
ever he represented the opinion of practically every sane and
reasonable Roman who like himself had witnessed the car-
nival of violence and bloodshed from the death of Julius to
the accession of Augustus. Some have wondered at such senti-
ments from a man who was actually decorated for distinguished
service in the field, but the familiar and forceful arraignment
of war attributed to the late General Sherman is proof enough
- if proof were necessary — that a horror of carnage is by no
means incompatible with the record of a ruthless and determined
fighter, where ruthless and determined fighting is the only path to
peace.
The poet fought, and fought well; but his motives appear to
have been his duty to his country and his personal loyalty to
Messalla. Temperamentally he was opposed to warfare. A
man of contemplation rather than of action, he could be quite
happy in his own society, and conversely had no wide and
absorbing interest in the people and events of the great world
about him. Neither necessity nor inclination prompted him to
enter politics, affairs, or any other of the beaten paths to wealth
and fame.
It would be a mistake however to conclude, as so many seem
to have done, that he had no ambitions at all. We may fairly
suspect that Tibullus belonged to a type more or less charac-
teristic of a period of high cultivation. He would be the last to
tell us that the one absorbing ambition of his life was the name
and fame of a great elegiac poet. Nor should we need to be
informed by him that such was the case. Artistic masterpieces
are not written by persons indifferent to fame. Indeed the
fact is betrayed, not only by his own works, but to a certain
extent perhaps by his attitude towards his contemporaries.
The circle of Messalla was distinctly favourable to elegy, our
1 See Gerhard, Phoinix von Kolophon, Teubner, 1907, p. 15 f.
41
TIBVLLVS
poet's chosen field; the circle of Maecenas was apparently
less so. It may be worth noting too that in the one group.
he could be, and was, the greatest man, but that in the
other he was surpassed by at least two — the freedman's son
from Venusia, and the farmer's boy from beyond the Po.
Tibullus was generous and well balanced; but after all he was
also human, and doubtless possessed his share of the artistic
temperament. He can hardly have sympathized fully with the
perfervid admiration that greeted the appearance of the first
book of Propertius, and after his rival had been taken up by
Maecenas he might be pardoned for finding the official circle
less congenial.
The opinion that Tibullus cared nothing for literary fame in
the ordinary sense seems to be based largely upon a passage
in the second book (2, 4, 13-20, where see note), in which
being nearly distracted by his mistress, he exclaims in despair –
ad dominam faciles aditus per carmina quaero:
ite procul, Musae, si nihil ista valent.
It is a question whether any contemporary reader was ever de-
ceived by this statement. The attitude, as we have already seen
(p. 29), represents a time-honoured convention of the elegy, and
how much of a mere convention it really is may be seen from the
fact that it rests upon the quite incredible assumption that poetry
is actually able to win a woman belonging to the sphere within
which he and his elegiac confrères were supposed to confine
their affections. Tibullus was certainly enough a man of the
world to know that in that sphere his verses were a negligible
quantity as compared with his good looks, his neat appearance,
but, above all, his comfortable income. At all events if he
was not aware of the fact, it was not for lack of experience.
To judge from his elegies as they stand, his chief occupation
during the last ten or fifteen years of his life was —
Nasonis Kunst zu treiben
Und Noten beizuschreiben.
42
INTRODUCTION
As a source however for biographical data of this sort the
works of any poet are rendered peculiarly untrustworthy by the
fact that he is not necessarily a historian.
"Od's life! must one swear to the truth of a song,'
as Prior once said to his Chloe, and this protest applies with
especial force to the particular department of amatory poetry
in which Tibullus won his reputation. The Roman elegiac poet
is bound to be most horribly in love. This is de rigueur.
Usually the object of his affections is either a freedwoman or
a woman whose social or legal status places her in that class.
This rule is an old convention of erotic poetry and is in harmony
with the actual conditions of antique life.
When the elegies inspired by the joys and sorrows of his love
have reached a sufficient number the poet mingles with them for
the sake of variety such elegies on other subjects as he may care
to preserve, conceals the identity of his mistress under a pseudo-
nym, and publishes his book. Ostensibly founded upon his own
affair, the elegies to his mistress are in form biographical. The
poet however is of course free to interweave fact with fiction,
actual events with mere literary motives; and only those who are
in the secret can be sure which is which. The rest of the world
must be content to guess. As guessers however we must remem-
ber that the simple faith of the old commentators who, like Prior's
Chloe, took every reference at its face value, is not more unreason-
able than the sweeping incredulity of some of our modern critics.
As we shall see, Tibullus is peculiarly difficult to deal with from
this point of view. The first book was probably published soon
after Messalla's triumph in the fall of 27 B.C. The ten elegies it
contains were written at different times in the previous four or
five years. The order of their composition cannot be determined.
The order of their arrangement, however, doubtless goes back to
the author himself, and, as in the case of other antique collections,
was dictated by a desire for variety.
43
TÍBVLLVS
Five of these elegies (1, 2, 3, 5, and 6) are addressed to a girl
whom he calls Delia. Apuleius, writing about two centuries later
(Apol. 10), tells us that her real name was Plania. The statement
was probably derived from Suetonius, and doubtless goes back
ultimately to the literary gossip of the later Augustan Age. There
is no good reason however for doubting it. Along with the
Cynthia (Hostia) of Propertius, the Lesbia (Clodia) of Catullus,
and others, it forms the foundation of Bentley's well-known but
not necessarily infallible rule that the real name and the pseudo-
nym should be metrical equivalents. A scholar quoted by Passow
suggested that Plania : Delia :: planus : dñlos. It will be ob-
served however that Delia, like Cynthia, is an epithet of Diana.
It seems more likely therefore that the choice of Delia by Tibul-
lus, like the choice of Cynthia by Propertius, indicates his belief
that the charms of his mistress suggest those of the beautiful sister
of the god of song.
The gens Plania would naturally be obscure. At all events it
is not otherwise known, and 1, 6, 67–68 (where see note) can only
mean that Delia, though perhaps not a freedwoman, belonged de
iure to that class. Still more significant however is the actively
complaisant attitude of her mother with which the poet is so deeply
touched (1, 6, 57 ff.).
It is safe to assume that this affair, like others of its kind, passed
by the usual stages from ignition to refrigeration, but it would be
useless to seek for the details. The order of the Delia elegies is
not chronological. The poet himself deliberately warns us against
this assumption by interrupting the series with an elegy on a
totally different subject. In so doing he also calls attention to the
fact that, unlike Propertius for example, he never arranges elegies
in contrasted pairs nor does he group a number of them around a
single theme. On the contrary every elegy is complete in itself
and entirely independent of its fellows. It is clear that the Delia
elegies were never intended to tell a connected story, and they
cannot be induced to do so. The poet offers them merely as so
44
INTRODUCTION
many detached scenes in his love affair à la mode idyllique. We
have every reason therefore for considering these elegies in the
order prescribed by the poet himself.
In the first elegy it will be seen that the affair with Delia is well
on the way and that as yet the lover's sky is without a cloud.
To be sure Delia, who lives somewhere in the city — presumably
in the Subura – is closely watched by some person not named.
This however is the usual situation of the elegiac heroine. No
antique love affair could have lasted long without the help of the
lady's house door. The excitement of evading keen-eyed duennas,
jealous ‘husbands,' and similar spoil-sports, the occasional relief
of a rough and tumble squabble with the object of one's verses
(1. 74), or, in moments of uncontrollable exhilaration, of wrecking
the said house door altogether (1. 73), are details rarely absent
from the conventional programme of true love as set forth either
in elegy, epigram, comedy, or lyric.
To follow the drift of the second elegy we may imagine a
Roman supper room as the mise-en-scène. Several of the poet's
young friends are at the table drinking. The poet, who is highly
excited, calls for a stiff drink, proposes to drown his sorrows in
the traditional elegiac fashion, and then proceeds to unfold a piti-
ful tale to his friends.
It appears that Delia's 'coniunx'—often, as here, a euphemism
for the man who at the time happens to be furnishing the mis-
tress of the elegiac lover with a house door — has gone off to the
wars in search of plunder and incidentally of fame. He has left
orders however that Delia be closely guarded during his absence,
and the poet is distressed to find that they are effectual. Thanks
to the vigilance of the custodes, the house door is incorruptible
and refuses to open — in either direction. As the exclusus amator —
another character familiar to elegy — he naturally pauses to curse
the obstinate and unfeeling door, and in this way introduces his
individual variation of one of the most characteristic themes of
antique erotic poetry. This is the tapaklavoidupov, or woeful
45
TIBVLLVS
serenade of the lover to the closed door of his obdurate mistress
(see 1, 2, 7 ff. and note)."
All would be well however if Delia herself would only coöperate.
She should be brave, and in the following lines the poet tries to
hearten her with a number of familiar arguments, e.g. Venus
helps the hardy, true lovers are sacrosanct and have nothing to
fear. He has even consulted a saga — another familiar type-
and she has given him a charm .for to goe invisibell.' While de-
veloping this theme it occurs to him that his exceptional run of
bad luck may be due to some act of sacrilege. If so,' he will
gladly undergo any penance.
All this is very amusing to a modern reader, and as a matter
of fact one of the poet's hearers at this point is unkind enough
to laugh aloud; whereupon the aggrieved sufferer turns upon him
in wrath and closes with a parable ad hoc of The Young Scoffer
an Old Lover, or Pride goeth before a Fall,' the philosophy of
which is that love is a folly no man can escape, least of all a proud
man, for the gods hate pride. Love, like the measles, is an afflic-
tion of youth. Let us therefore expose ourselves to it betimes,
lest we live to illustrate the proverb of' no fool like an old fool.'
In the third elegy, mainly concerned with his sickness at
Corcyra and the topics suggested by it, the position, perquisites,
and liabilities of the 'coniunx' have devolved upon the poet him-
self. Upon the eve of his departure with Messalla for the East
Delia had consulted the sortes and other conventional methods
of learning the future. She had also prayed to Isis, gone into
retreat, and made vows for the safe return of her acknowledged
lover. He hopes to get well and to come back safe and sound,
and closes with a passage in which he imagines the scene.
It is late evening. The spinners, nodding over their work, are
grouped about the old duenna who is keeping them awake with
fairy tales. Then comes the master of the house suddenly and
1 See also Leo, Plaut. Forsch. p. 140; Crusius, Untersuchungen zu Herondas,
p. 124.
46
INTRODUCTION
unannounced, and his Delia, just as she is, with her hair down and
in her bare feet, flies to meet him. A passage none the less
beautiful because it reminds one of Lucretia and Collatinus rather
than of poor Delia and her present coniunx, the poet.
So far the happiness of the lovers has been undisturbed by any
fault of their own. The insertion of the intercalary fourth at this
place, like the favourite points suspensifs in a French novel, might be
taken to imply that time has elapsed and that things have hap-
pened. . At any rate the fifth elegy indicates that such is the
case.
In consequence of the tempting offers of a dives amator aided
and abetted by his agent, the lena, the lovers had a violent quarrel
and parted. Delia took up with her dives amator, and when at
the opening of this elegy the poet desires to return to her, he
finds himself a mere outsider. Moreover Delia herself -- untrue
to one, untrue to all — has already begun an intrigue with still an-
other lover. A pitiful situation, and by no means improved in the
sixth and last poem of the series.
Here Delia has a coniunx, and is intriguing with a lover-ap-
parently a later phase of the situation in the preceding elegy, but
not necessarily so. Tibullus feels aggrieved that Cupid should treat
him so unkindly. Delia is false. Of course she denies it, but he
cannot trust her word. He himself taught her to deceive, and now
his own instructions return to plague him. Then he turns to the
coniunx for help. Cherish me,' he says, 'if you wish to keep the
girl in order. I know her tricks, and I know every trick of a lover.
Have I not practised them all on you in my time? What business
have you with an attractive wife, if you cannot watch her ? Leave
her to me. I will see to it that she is guarded from the rest of the
world,' etc. A situation worthy.of Swift or of de Maupassant !
Finally, turning to Delia, the poet warns her that Bellona
threatens to punish her for her infidelity (to him !). He hopes
that the punishment will be light. Not however on your account,'
he adds, but for your good old mother. May you live long, dear
47
TIBVLLVS
old woman! I shall always love you, and for your sake, your
daughter. Whatever she does, she is still your blood. Teach her
to be true. I too promise to put up with the severest conditions.'
Then by way of a final parable to Delia the poet pictures the old
age of her who has been faithful to none.
Such is the brief outline of this famous love affair as related by
the poet himself. It will be seen that the poet's artistic reserve
and his deliberate programme of confining himself to the tra-
ditional motives of his department make it doubly difficult to de-
cide whether any given detail was drawn from his own experience
or from the literary record of his predecessors.
He tells us for example—and though he says it in an utterly con-
ventional manner we may well believe him — that Delia was beauti-
ful (1, 1, 55). But unlike Propertius he does not revel in her
beauty, he does not enumerate her separate charms as a miser
counts his gold. He grants that she is endowed with 'teneris
lacertis' (1, 5, 43). The adjective suggests the softness and
roundness of youth, and other pleasant but somewhat indefinite
associations belonging to the arms of almost any agreeable girl by
whom one is loved. In the same passage he observes that she has
golden hair - a suspicious detail in a land of brunettes, especially
in Delia's class, in which the peroxide blonde was very common.
She also reminds him of Thetis riding on the dolphin to her bride-
groom Peleus, in other words, of a Hellenistic fresco the like of
which was to be seen, at that time, in the dwelling of almost any
well-to-do householder in Italy.
Perhaps her hair was naturally golden, after all, and if we press
the comparison with Thetis, we may conclude that Delia had the
blue eyes characteristic of all sea goddesses in good standing, and
that the bare extremities alluded to in 1, 3, 92, recalled to her
lover the silver-foot' mother of Achilles.
He also says that her hair was long (1,3,91) -- a not uncommon
distinction in one of her age and sex, but in her case inevitably
suggesting the old German proverb which declares that-
48
INTRODUCTION
Die vrouwen haben langez hâr .
Unt kurz gemuete, daz ist wâr.
For though Delia is 'sweet,' and may have loved the poet as well
as she could love any one, her head is not strong, she has no real
stability, she is easily led. She does not belong to the aggressive
type of Cynthia. Without strong passions of any sort she belongs
to that widespread and generally popular class of women whom
one might describe as the passive recipients of attention. In
short the portrait of her is both conventional and typical, but how
much of the conventionality was inherent in the model, and how
much was due to the painter, it is impossible to say.
But while there is no chronological sequence of events in these
elegies, it is significant of the poet's art that, from the absolute
trust of the first to the complete disillusion of the last elegy, the
emotional sequence, the psychological development, and its effect
upon the persons concerned, are at once complete and convincing.
In the first three elegies Tibullus is tender as well as passionate.
Naturally refined and fastidious, he slurs over the ugly phases
of his affair so skilfully that we almost forget the real situation.
He pictures himself thinking of Delia, not only as a mistress but
also as a friend and helpmeet- in other words as a wife. If
this was the way that he really treated her, she was doubtless
pleased, but scarcely wise enough to appreciate it. Indeed to
judge from the probable training and surroundings of her early
life, she would be likely to end by finding the atmosphere
somewhat too rarefied for her real tastes. That women are
occasionally of a coarser and far more primitive fibre than they
had appeared to be is sometimes betrayed by the marriages they
make. So Delia, in addition to the mere excitement of an
intrigue to vary the monotony of what, it must be confessed,
would be a very dull life to us, may have found no little relief
in the brutal frankness, the material tastes, the limited range
of ideas, and the unlimited purse of the rich lover by whom
her separation from the poet was finally brought to pass.
49
TIBVLLVS
DTTTT
At any rate the Delia of the fifth elegy has sadly deteriorated
since we saw her last. Nor does the poet himself appear in an
enviable light. She has degenerated to a mere courtesan; he
is the slave of a now ignoble passion, and is quite willing to
be received upon her own terms. He still follows his charac-
teristic method of reproof indirectly by means of parables, but
for once the old tenderness rings false, and the appearance for
the first time of such a brutal phrase as
ianua sed plena est percutienda manu
is not only a sufficient indication of the change that has occurred,
but leaves us fully prepared for the deliberate mockery, the
flippant cynicism, of the next elegy.
The fourth, eighth, and ninth elegies of the first book are
concerned with one Marathus, a puer delicatus, ostensibly be-
longing to the poet. The boy's name is never mentioned by
Ovid nor by any succeeding writer, and it is likely that he is no
more real than those fair and fragile Hellenic damsels of
syllabled air that smile or frown upon us from the pages of
Horace. We must not forget however that the vices of the
Greeks had the same attraction for the Romans, especially for
the cruder type, that the lower life of Paris seems to have for so
many Americans.
The arrangement, as with the elegies to Delia, is chronological
in the artistic sense, and each is a separate entity. They are
among the most successful of the many well-written poems which
the Alexandrian Greeks and some of their Roman imitators chose
to waste upon a theme peculiarly repulsive to modern taste.
The fourth, a sort of general introduction to the series, might
be called 'Priapus de arte amandi.' As such it is the most im-
portant forerunner now existing of Ovid's Ars Amatoria, written
some 25 or 30 years later.
The setting of the piece is found in more than one repre-
sentation which has actually survived from antiquity-a garden
50
INTRODUCTION
or a large tree, with a suggestion of landscape, conventionalized
as a country scene by a figure of Priapus in the foreground:
Facing the little god is Tibullus who has come to him for
advice. How, he inquires, shall a formosorum amator conduct a
successful campaign? Priapus, more accessible and more oblig-
ing than the majority of his divine confrères, proceeds at once
to deliver a lecture on this subject (lines 9–72). At the close
of the discourse the poet takes the pains to explain that his only
object in seeking instruction was to oblige his friend Titius.
sed Titium coniunx haec meminisse vetat.
pareat ille suae !
*Titius has taken a wife and is disqualified. Let him therefore
love, honour, and obey, as every married man should.'
Others however may profit by this invaluable information.
The mere possession of it reminds the poet that he is now
qualified as a magister amoris, and may look forward to the
idyllic old age of a distinguished professor surrounded by an
admiring throng of enthusiastic students ~ a pleasant dream, from
which the sudden pang of 81-
heu heu quam Marathus lento me torquet amore,
is a rude awakening. Having thus turned the laugh upon himself,
Tibullus brings his poem to a close.
The two remaining elegies of this series are as it were a gloss
upon the general discourse of Priapus. In the eighth, which
is well conceived and distinctly amusing, it appears that the
boy Marathus, who had abused his master's weakness (1, 4,
81–84 = 1, 8, 71-76), has fallen in love with one Pholoe, but
that the coy damsel is quite unmoved by his airs and graces.
Tibullus lectures the precious pair, and incidentally brings home
to the despairing lover that, as the Scorner Scorned, he is now
. a striking example of the doctrine of Nemesis preached by
Priapus. Meanwhile the girl remains as cool and defiant as she
dares to be — a striking contrast to the boy, who, what with
51
TIBVLLVS
his vanity and his foppishness, has been reduced to a foun-
tain of tears. As Tibullus contemplates the pair there is a
decided twinkle in his eye. In fact it would be hard to find
a poem in which real kindliness and the thorough appreciation
of an amusing situation are so perfectly tempered by a certain
suggestion of the detachment belonging to an onlooker, and to
one who never forgets the difference between a Roman gentleman
and a couple of irresponsible slaves from the East.
The ninth is more powerful and less amusing. Marathus has
been carrying on an intrigue with a horrible old creature whose
only possible attraction is his money. The poet becomes aware of
the situation, taxes the boy with his perfidy, venality, and in-
gratitude, and casts him off.
Most of the motives in this group have already appeared in the
Delia cycle, and may be trusted to appear again in the next book.
The one important exception is the sudden prominence of the
idea of self-sacrifice. It is to be observed that in antiquity, so
far at least as literary art is concerned, this motive, like much
else which in the conventional range of modern Romantic love
we should call chivalrous, is specifically characteristic of the type
of eroticism which lies at the basis of this group of elegies.
The first elegy of the second book is a charming description of
a rustic merrymaking, and reveals the author in his happiest vein.
The second is a birthday poem to his friend Cornutus, a member
of the Messalla group, and by some identified with Cerinthus, the
lover of Sulpicia. The piece may be compared with the birthday
poem to Messalla in the first book as a striking example of the
poet's ability to handle this peculiarly difficult type of composition.
Neither of these poems can be dated, and the same is true of the
third and fourth.
In the fifth Tibullus makes his bow to the powers that be. It
is his longest piece, and the only one of a national character.
Even here however his absorption in the concerns of his old friend
is seen in the fact that the ostensible occasion of the poem is the
. . 52
INTRODUCTION
appointment of Messalinus, Messalla's eldest son, as one of the
XVviri sacris faciundis. The date cannot be fixed exactly, but the
fact that in a list of the XVviri belonging to the year 18 B.C.
the name of Messalinus comes last suggests that at that time the
appointment was still recent. If so the piece was composed not
long before the poet's death in 19.
The sixth elegy is addressed to the poet Macer on the eve of his
departure for a distant campaign. Assuming, as probably we may,
that this is the Aemilius Macer who died in Asia in 16 B.C., it
seems likely that the last poem of this book is also the last work of
its author. This and the fact that the book itself is smaller than
the average libellus favour the assumption of its posthumous publi-
cation. The theory however is of course incapable of proof, and
has been strenuously opposed.
• At any rate the poet's love affair with Nemesis, of which we
hear in the last four elegies (2, 3-6), must have ended not long
before his death. We hear of the usual lena in the usual way.
The girl also has a rich lover of the usual sort. Finally — and this
seems to be a bit of genuine history — we hear of her little sister
who early in the affair with Tibullus fell from an upper window,
and was killed. Otherwise Tibullus's story of his last love is
largely a jeremiad occasioned by his own woes.
The name of Nemesis, though occasional in actual life, was un-
doubtedly a pseudonym. As Marx has pointed out, Nemesis, like
Elpis, Eros, Pothos, etc., comes from the domain of Greek erotic
poetry. It typifies the idea of retaliation, of repayment in kind
for injuries received, of which we hear so much in the Anthology
(5, 273 : 9, 260, 405 : II, 326 : 12, 141), and which Tibullus
himself expresses in 1, 9, 79. Marx also observes that Nemesis
often appears in representations of Eros and Psyche (Baumeister,
3, 1425), and that when our poet writes (2, 6, 27)—
Spes facilem Nemesim spondet mihi sed negat illa,
he seems to be thinking of the opposition between Néueols and
’Entís which we still find in Anth. 9, 146, and in works of art.
53
TIBVLLVS
In other words, Tibullus's object in choosing the girl was to
'get even 'with Delia, and in christening her Nemesis he meant to
indicate that in his case she was the mortal instrument of the great
goddess of balance and of even-handed justice. If so, he found
as many others have found that his instrument of vengeance was
something of a boomerang.
As a successful courtesan of the higher class Nemesis is a young
person vastly superior to her predecessor in tenacity of purpose
and single-hearted devotion to the main chance. She has no illu-
sions, is not impressed by poetry, and does not enjoy. sentiment.
Her tastes are expensive, and she expects the poet to gratify them,
or else to cease from absorbing her valuable time. In short she is
the regular rapax meretrix of comedy, and the poet is her usual
lover. He is forever complaining of his bondage, and of her greed,
heartlessness, and infidelity — all stock themes, but, like the char-
acters themselves, too common in daily life to warrant the assump-
tion that the poet's inspiration is purely literary.
In the first elegy (2, 3) of the series Nemesis has left town
with her wealthy lover, and is now at his country place taking part
in the merriment of the vintage season. The poet was not invited,
but feels that he must go. This abject attitude however which
runs through the entire group, and which we have already observed
in one scene (1, 5) of the affair with Delia, is especially prominent
in the following elegy (2, 4). This piece has been termed a mere
verse exercise after the Alexandrian manner. I should agree
with Mr. Postgate that as an expression of genuine feeling it has
no equal in the work of Tibullus. Such however is subjective
criticism.
'Farewell forever,' he begins, 'to my former freedom. My fate
is sealed. My lot is a bitter bondage and every torture which
Love the slave-driver can invent. Oh, to lose the power of feel-
ing such agonies as mine how gladly would I be a stone on some
icy peak, or stand a beetling crag towering immovable against
the tempestuous winds and angry seas. As it is my days are
54
INTRODUCTION
bitter and my nights more bitter still. My verses avail me noth-
ing. She forever reaches out her hand and asks for money,
money, money! Begone then, ye Muses, since ye cannot help a
lover! Gifts she demands and gifts I must get or see her no
more. Anything but that !' etc.
The man is the slave of a degrading passion for an utterly un-
worthy object, and is keenly alive to the fact. In this respect the
piece is a striking parallel to the 76th of Catullus. Catullus how-
ever is struggling fiercely with his obsession, and though he him-
self despairs we feel that his youth and courage are going to win
the day. Not so Tibullus. The tragedy of Tibullus is the
tragedy of the used-up man who has no hope and has ceased to
struggle. As a picture of this depressingly pathological situation,
the elegy has few equals.
Was all this purely literary, or does the poet's persistent harping
on one note have something to do with his own condition at the
time? It is of course impossible to decide. Tibullus deals by
preference with traditional motives, we know almost nothing of
the models he may have had before him; nor'must we lose sight
of the fact, constantly attested by every great playwright, that an
author so wonderfully endowed with the dramatic instinct as was
Tibullus knows how to assume any character and to present it to
the life. Again as we compare and combine the several groups
of elegies to Delia, Marathus, and Nemesis, all different types, we
are tempted to conclude that, whatever his personal experience
may have been, the poet's plan, from the first, was to work out
methodically all the standard literary aspects of his department
and to rest his plea for fame on a complete cycle of the Erotic
elegy à la mode Alexandrienne.
In such a programme personal experience cannot be expected
to occupy a prominent place, and in fact it has been stated more
than once that the testimony of these elegies is quite at variance
with the poet's character and tastes as described by Horace in his
epistle (1, 4). Note however that the keen-eyed Horace does
55
TIBVLLVS
elsewhere gently task his friend with being too much the slave of
his affections. At least this is the literal meaning of Odes, 1, 33,
in which he refers to the 'woeful elegies' in which Tibullus 'con-
tinually harps' on the fact that ‘Glycera 'has deceived and slighted
him for a younger man. No one knows who Glycera was. It is
most reasonable to suppose however that she was either Nemesis
or, more likely, Delia. The term miserabiles elegi will apply to
either cycle.
It would be interesting if we knew more of the poet's physical
condition during the last five or ten years of his life. The elegiac
lover is always slight and delicate (see 2, 3, 9, and note); he is
not fit to endure exposure except when ordered to it by imperious
Love, and anything like manual labour blisters his hands at once.
Nevertheless Tibullus's reference to his 'tender hands' and
slender limbs' (2, 3, 9) is no doubt really descriptive of his per-
sonal appearance. At all events we naturally associate a slight
physique with a man of Tibullus's temperament.
So far as the question of his actual physical condition is con-
cerned, the elegies give no indication of the nervous excitability so
characteristic of Propertius. On the other hand we also fail to
find the superabundant vitality, the rude health, of Ovid. Indeed
we have no right to expect it. Probably the vitality of Tibullus
was low, and his constitution delicate. Otherwise he would not
have died at the early age of 35. The health of such people may
be good enough from day to day, but they are often prone to
dwell somewhat upon the details of the matter.
That this was the case with Tibullus himself is clearly indicated by
Horace's epistle to him. In this poem Horace begins by laying
special emphasis on the fact that his friend is a veritable Fortuna-
tus. He has everything that heart could wish — wealth, good
sense, genius, fame, a charming personality, good looks -- amongst
the rest, good health (valetudo).
This is not flattery. It is encouragement, and as such the
natural prelude to the bit of advice and warning which as usual
56
INTRODUCTION
the poet intends to convey. Hence the lines that immediately
follow — :
inter spem curamque, timores inter et iras
omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum:
grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora,
the plain implication of which is to the effect that in spite of every
reason to the contrary our poet is too inclined to despondency,
that he is upset by trifles — the besetting sin of a high-strung, fas-
tidious soul — that he worries too much over his health, and that
he is unreasonably haunted by the fear of death.
In other words, though strange to say Kiessling seems to have
been the first to observe it, Tibullus was a hypochondriac.
Horace had already seen more than enough of it in his friend
Maecenas. In the case of Tibullus it would be easily superin-
duced by his probably delicate childhood. If so, a mild form of
it may well have been fostered in later years by the anxious
ministrations of his devoted women folk at home.
The discovery of this peculiarity is more or less illuminating.
For example we know that the tendency to melancholy, the
tendency to dwell upon death, to luxuriate in the details of one's
prospective funeral, even the inability to struggle with a degrading
passion, are all elegiac commonplaces. But we also know that
they are in harmony with the poet's supposed condition. Here
then we are even less certain than before. On the other hand we
have good reason now to suspect that his illness at Corcyra was by
no means so serious as he thought it was. Even the word reptare
which Horace uses to describe his friend's habitual gait suggests a
man who is convinced that he must not overtax his strength.
Finally it is more than probable that Tibullus's tendency to
look upon the darker side had a direct influence on his point of
view regarding his own work. For example he would naturally
find, as Horace seems to have done, that the fussy, assertive
Propertius was not to his taste. Even his literary methods and his
artistic point of view were utterly at variance with those of Ti-
57:
TIBVLLVS
bullus. But Propertius was undoubtedly a poet of the first rank,
and with the publication of his first book the world made haste
to recognize the fact; he was taken up by Maecenas, his name
was in every one's mouth. Tibullus published his own first book
at about the same time. He knew its artistic merit, he knew
there were a few readers who would appreciate its superiority from
that point of view. But he also knew that with the larger public
it was overshadowed by the brilliant work of his rival. The effect
of such a disappointment upon a man of Tibullus's temperament
can be easily imagined. Indeed the very emphasis with which
Horace assures his friend that his literary glory is secure, is enough
to justify us in suspecting that the last years of our poet's brief life
destined never to realize his one consuming ambition, a perma-
nent place in the Roman Temple of Fame.
'III. LATER TRADITION AND IMITATION
In his own time however and for many years to come, the
reputation of Tibullus as a poet was the equal of his reputation
as a man. The tender verses of Domitius Marsus, whose bitter
1 Many of the same motives appear in Tibullus and Propertius (as also in Ovid),
and much attention has been given to the various coincidences in theme, thought,
conclusions are many of them, it seems to me, in need of considerable revision.
The first book of Propertius (see 2, 31) was perhaps published soon after October
of 28, the first book of Tibullus (see I, 7) about a year later. But attempts to
prove imitation, still more to prove which was the imitator, are not especially
profitable. No one for instance knows how long the poems of both were circul-
lated before publication. The first three books of Propertius had all been pub-
lished when Tibullus was writing his second book. But even here, as in the first
book, the loss of Gallus as well as of practically all the Greek background makes
it impossible to tell how many such resemblances are due to a common or a sim-
ilar source. Where the two poets have dealt with the same theme, they have de-
veloped it each in his own way. Which way is better is a matter of taste, and
nothing is gained by attempting to exploit either at the expense of the other. The
last book of Propertius was published, and some at least of the pieces in it were
written, after the death of Tibullus.
-58
INTRODUCTION
tongue was not always attuned to such a strain, are in themselves
an indication that the death of Tibullus, like that of Vergil, was
felt by the world at large almost as a personal bereavement.
So the loss to letters of Tibullus the poet made a similar impres-
sion upon all cultivated men. This is really the message of Ovid's
famous elegy upon his death. Elsewhere too this generous and
discriminating critic does ample justice to the genius of his great
predecessor.
Velleius Paterculus, writing in the time of Tiberius, brackets
Tibullus with Ovid as perfectissimi in forma operis sui.' It is
quite possible of course that the honest old campaigner had never
read Tibullus. The criticism however is doubtless an echo of the
prevailing opinion. Most valuable of all is the criticism of Quintilian
(see p. 179), written in the last decade of the first century. For
him Tibullus is of the four great elegiac poets the most consum-
mate artist. Nor is Quintilian his only admirer in this period.
We learn for example that at that time a copy of Tibullus was
considered a suitable present (apophoretum) for a guest at a
dinner party (Martial, 14, 193) -a sure sign that our poet was
looked upon as a standard author.
It is evident too that he was read as well as admired. The
allúsions to him in Statius and Martial (see pp. 179-180) presup-
pose a reading public thoroughly familiar with his poetry. Literary
reminiscences of his phrases suggest a similar assumption. From
this point of view the largest debtor to our poet is Ovid, who
is continually paying him the sincere tribute of imitation. Until
the age of the Antonines however, more especially perhaps in
Martial and Calpurnius, echoes of the Tibullian phrase, though
generally slight and often indefinite, are sufficiently frequent and
varied to imply in themselves a living tradition of the author.
Perhaps the best proof of Tibullus's real popularity among a wide
range of readers is the fact that echoes of him are not infrequently
heard in the ordinary metrical epitaphs of the Imperial period.
Strange to say however, if we exclude the few examples found
59
TIBVLLVS
in professional grammarians and commentators, there appears to
be but one direct quotation from his works in the entire literature,
This is made by Seneca (N. Q. 4, 2, 2 = Tib. I, 7, 26) and
evidently from memory, for he attributes the line to Ovid. That
a man so thoroughly conversant with the elegy could make this
particular mistake is in itself an indication of that overshadowing
popularity of Ovid which dated from the late Augustan Age, and
was destined to endure until well into the last century. It is evi-
dent too that the class of readers indicated by Quintilian's 'sunt
qui Propertium malint' was well represented in the time of Do-
mitian. Even in the metrical epitaphs mentioned above echoes of
the elegy are distributed in the significant ratio of Ovid, 125;
Propertius, 20; Tibullus, 12.
The status of Tibullus in the reign of the Antonines cannot
be deterinined with certainty. We learn from two poems (Anth.
Lat. 451-452) presumably written not far from this period that
the name itself of Delia had become a literary reminiscence.
This however is no proof of Tibullus's popularity at the time.
One may speak of a 'gay Lothario' without incurring the suspicion
of being acquainted with Nicholas Rowe even by name. The
second century was a bookish age, an age of fine critical editions
and large professional interest in philological and antiquarian re-
search. The cultivated public talked much of books and authors,
and was especially interested in literary gossip. It is no accident
that the De Viris Inlustribus, “The Lives of Distinguished Men,'
by Suetonius, an excellent scholar, and for some years the private
secretary of Hadrian, should belong to this age. The book con-
tained that life of Tibullus of which the vita in our mss. is prob-
ably a distant echo, and its appearance at that time doubtless
roused new interest in our poet. Many people however can con-
verse about a poet whom they have never read. The fact there-
fore that Apuleius can tell us who Delia really was is no sign in
itself that Tibullus was still well known at first hand.
There are no notable echoes of him in the literature of this
бо
INTRODUCTION
period. The literature however in which such echoes would
naturally be found, if found at all, has disappeared almost to the
last line. It is certain too that the important and far-reaching
revolution of taste represented by the archaistic school of Fronto
had a decided effect on the tradition of the great Augustan poets.
Yet here too we must remember that the Imperial reading public
was still too large, if not too independent, to be deeply affected
as a whole by any one school, however important. On the whole
therefore it is probably safe to say that Tibullus, though still a
popular author, was less read than in the previous period, and was
already entering the stage of being read about, and admired from
afar — the fate, as a rule, of the world's best books.
The march to oblivion in the third and fourth centuries was
considerably accelerated no doubt by the lack of professorial rec-
ognition, such as it was. At all events grammatical references to
Tibullus are unusually rare, and there is nothing to show that he
was ever paid the compliment of a commentary. To be sure an
occasional echo in poets like Nemesianus, Ausonius, and possibly
Paulinus Nolanus, indicates that even in this period Tibullus was
still read. But he can hardly have been known to the larger read-
ing public, and least of all, if we may believe Ammianus (28, 4,
14), to the Roman nobility. These degenerate representatives of
what had once been the most highly cultivated class in the Empire
he does not hesitate to describe as -- 'detestantes ut venena
doctrinas, Iuvenalem et Marium Maximum curatiore studio legunt,
nulla volumina praeter haec in profundo otio contrectantes. It
has even been urged that the reason why Hieronymus makes no
reference to Tibullus and Propertius in his Chronicle is because
he had never read either of them.
The last ancient author, and the first since Apuleius, to mention
our poet is Sidonius Apollinaris (fifth century). His information
(see p. 181) is without warrant in previous tradition, and his
works give no signs of a knowledge of Tibullus at first hand. A
careful examination of the elegies of Maximianus, written about
61
TIBVLLVS
550, suggests that he may have had a direct knowledge of Tibul-
lus, but the evidence is slight and not especially convincing (see 1,
2, 19–20 and note).
Here at last the tiny rivulet of Tibullian tradition finally dries
up. There are no citations from him in Priscian, and henceforth
until the Renaissance, if we exclude three or ſour mediaeval book
catalogues, all evidence of him is confined to the occasional quota-
tion of a passage which may always be traced either to one of the
mediaeval florilegia (see p. 89) or to a note of some ancient
grammarian or commentator.
With the Revival of Learning our poet, together with Catullus
and Propertius, once more came to the front, and for the time
being resumed his place in the territory over which Ovid had so
long reigned alone. Delia again becomes a familiar character; the
literary gossip of Apuleius and Sidonius is revived and enlarged.
Genuine literary echoes begin near the end of the fourteenth
century and until the sixteenth century occur with some frequency
in the poetry of the Humanists (Joannes Secundus, Sannazaro,
Baptista Mantuanus, Aleandro, Pontanus, etc.). Since then
Latin verse has reverted more or less to the manner and form of
Ovid.
The number of editions issued before 1700 is a good proof that
Tibullus must have been fairly well known to the more cultivated
reading public throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
It must be confessed however that there are no very striking proofs
of it in the vernacular literature of that period. In England for
example the tradition has always been slender. Jonson's Poetaster
numbers Tibullus among its dramatis personae ; Daniel's choice of
Delia as the title of a collection of amatory sonnets (1592) is an
early example of an allusion which since then has appeared again
and again ; occasionally Tibullus furnishes the tag of Latin regularly
i For details see R. Ehwald, Philologus, 46, p. 639 f.
2 The examples are noted by W. P. Mustard in his edition of Mantuan's
Eclogues, Baltimore, 1911, p. 57, n. 67.
62
INTRODUCTION
adorning the title page of Elizabethan books; occasionally too one
hears an echo of him in Spenser, and in certain lyric and dramatic
poets of this period. But there is no ‘Tudor translation of
Tibullus, no one piece of poetry inspired by him or showing a
deep and sympathetic study of his works.
Robert Herrick has been called the ‘English Tibullus. He
mentions Tibullus once, and has the same genuine love for the
country, but he does not imitate him, and it would be difficult to
find two writers more unlike in their ideas of poetic art. The
inimitable Burton does not exclude Tibullus from his unique
library on the subject of Melancholy, and traces of the poet
may be detected here and there in Cowley, Rowe, Walsh, and
other authors; but as a whole references to him in English of
the seventeenth century are more rare and less striking than in
the previous age.
The tradition of him in France of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries is much the same. He is referred to by Rabelais and
quoted a few times by Montaigne. Echoes of him are occa-
sional in the poets, especially in such poets of the Pléiade as
Ronsard, Belleau, and Baïf. Delia becomes, as in 'England,
a literary reminiscence. In 1655 de Maroles published a trans-
lation into French.
In Italy Tibullus was studied and admired from an early date.
Petrarch may have been acquainted with him, but the evidence
for it noted in his Italian works does not seem conclusive. The
same is true of Boccaccio. Dante was too early to have known
him, except in the tenuous tradition of the Middle Ages. From
the middle however of the fifteenth century, echoes of him occur
with considerable frequency. Among others may be mentioned
Sannazaro's Arcadia, the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, the Corte-
giano of Baldessar Castiglione, and the Aminta of Tasso. The
most striking example perhaps in the entire literature of Italy
is the Elegie of Luigi Alamanni, published in 1532. In his
dedicatory epistle the author speaks of Tibullus and Propertius
63
TIBVLLVS
as ‘i miei maestri,' and these pleasing and well-written poems
in terza rima -- among the first of their name in a modern
language — are an ample justification of this claim.
: The deliberate use of the literary echo together with a notable
enthusiasm for the Roman poets, formal classicism combined with
a growing tendency to the idyllic erotic, were all favourable to the
popularity of Tibullus in the eighteenth century. In this age of
Pope, Watteau, and Voltaire, of Dresden shepherdesses and pas-
toral operas, of petit-maîtres and caurs sensibles, the prominence
of Tibullus in the literatures of Europe was more marked than
it has ever been except in his own time. France, Germany,
Italy, England, Spain — each really deserves a chapter by itself.
The translation of 'Mr. Dart' in 1720 was followed by that
of James Grainger in 1759. Both are decidedly mediocre.
Apart too from the traditional echo, which becomes more fre-
quent, we now find occasional translations of favourite passages,
imitations' of Tibullus, poems written after the manner of
Tibullus,' and the like. Indeed James Hammond's (1710-1742)
poems to Delia' (Miss Dashwood) — practically all the verse
he ever wrote — owe their inspiration entirely to the elegies of
our author.
In France the indications of Tibullus's popularity are even
more marked. Among translations may be mentioned those
of Pezai (1771), de Longchamps (1777), Pastoret (1784),
Mirabeau (1798), and Mollevault (1808). There are also fre-
quent 'imitations' by La Harpe, Lebrun, Loyson, Andrieux, etc.
Bertin, like Hammond, owes a large share of his inspiration to
Tibullus alone. The élégie itself becomes more prominent and
the regular echo of our poet more frequent. Now too — and
apparently for the first time — we find, as in Voltaire,' entire
poems suggested by a single passage. Les Amours de Tibulle
by de la Chappelle (2d ed., 1732) is a sentimental romance
of Tibullus's life and adventures, in which is interspersed the
translation of his elegies. The book reminds one at once of the
INTRODUCTION
romances of Honoré d'Urfé, which at that time were especially
popular.
One of the most notable literary developments of the nine-
teenth century was the rise of the German elegy under Goethe and
his contemporaries. The great leader himself was most deeply
affected by Propertius, but a number of translations, among
others that of Johann Heinrich Voss (1810), and no less than
four annotated editions, are in themselves ample proof that the
interest of the German public in Tibullus at this time was un-
usually deep and widespread."
In France and Italy too the literary tradition of Tibullus was
continued, but on the whole, and especially in England during the
Victorian period, the interest in him during the nineteenth century
was less general than in the previous age. Tennyson shows
no traces of him. On the other hand Cranstoun's translation,
published in 1872, is the best complete version in English, and
the occasional renderings of Elton (1814) are still admireil.
Whiffen's versions (1829) are deservedly forgotten. The best
French translation is by Martinon (1895). Williams's translation
(Boston, 1905), so far as I know, is the first version by an Ameri-
can. Among modern writers who show traces of his influence
the most notable is Carducci.3
11
IV. CRITICISM AND DISCUSSION
It will be seen that the influence of Tibullus upon subsequent
thought has on the whole been considerable. And yet it has
probably been less than that of any other great Roman poet.
Literary echoes of him are rare, quotations from him are uncommon,
1 The influence of. Tibullus on German literature is now being studied by Dr.
R. B. Roulston, Associate in German in the Johns Hopkins University, and his
results will soon be published.
2 A few occur in Byron and Moore. The Lake Poets and their kind appear
to know nothing of the elegy.
3 See esp. his Juvenilia, 27 and 31.
65
TIBVLLVS
the one memory of him in the phraseology of modern English (see
1, 7, 26, n.) is ‘Jupiter Pluvius.'
A scanty record for one whom the greatest of Roman critics did
not hesitate to call 'tersus atque maxime elegans' among the
elegiac poets. How shall we explain this apparent incongruity ?
To answer this important question we must examine the qualities
of his genius, and get some vision of the peculiarities of his type
against the background furnished by his rivals in the same de-
partment.
For variety and scope of talent, for vivacity and sparkling wit,
for ease and grace, Ovid unquestionably bears the palm. As a
master of technique he has no peer. He can say in verse what-
ever he likes, and can express it as a poet should. But it is
Plessis who warns us, and in this connection (La Poésie Latine, p.
353), that 'wit and fluency are dangerous gifts for a poet.' The
man who follows across country that mischievous sprite, a ready
wit, is in danger of trampling upon the tender flower of sentiment.
Fluency and prolixity are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; the brilliant
and the facile easily pass over to the diffuse and the frivolous.
We feel that his taste really was on a level with his talent, that no
one was more capable than was he of recognizing the danger line
in the exercise of his own genius, and our' impression is confirmed
by Quintilian, who had read the lost Medea, and by an anecdote by
the Elder Seneca, who was personally acquainted with the poet
himself. Unfortunately however Ovid sometimes lacked the reso-
lution to discipline his genius instead of indulging it. To use
the expressive phrase of Quintilian, he was 'nimium amator ingenii
sui.'
But for a larger public his eminent virtues were never seriously
lowered by occasional lapses of this sort. Hence from his own
time until the present generation, as long in other words as the
Latin authors were really read by a larger public, Ovid was always
the most popular of the elegiac poets. His influence upon Euro-
1 Controversiae, 2, 2, 12 f.
66
INTRODUCTION
pean literature merely for the single century from 1550 to 1650
probably exceeds the sum of that exerted by both his rivals during
the entire nineteen centuries since their death.
Propertius is unique. In his personality as well as in his art he
is a fascinating puzzle of apparent paradoxes and inconsistencies.
An elegiac poet by nature and choice, he nevertheless disregards
practically every convention of the department. In an atmosphere
of half-ironical sentiment and cultivated persiflage he is for the
most part passionately serious and desperately sincere. In a de-
partment the ideal of which is clarity and unstudied ease he is a
proverb of abruptness, irregularity, startling contrasts, and ob-
scurity. Few Roman poets are so charged with literary rem-
iniscence. No Roman poet is more strikingly original. He did
not, nay, he could not, think as others have thought. His emo-
tional insight, his bizarre and powerful imagination, strain at the
leash of the distich, and tax every resource of his native tongue.
A lover of pleasure, yet with high ideals, a rapid thinker, but a slow
and painful composer, a cool head, but an ardent heart, always
young in years, yet, matured early as he was in the fierce sun of an
absorbing passion, never young in spirit, Propertius has imparted to
his poetry — if we may borrow from the most penetrating and
sympathetic of his modern crities --'a touch of harshness, the
suspicion as it were of a bitter after-taste, reminding one of fruit
that has ripened without sunlight, of hearts that have loved without
happiness.?! He is, and we should expect him to be, the favourite
in the cultivated world of to-day. His temperament and attitude
have much in common with the mood of the present generation ;
his abruptness, his tendency to exaggeration, his startling contrasts,
his very neglect of the conventional canons of classical style, in
themselves commend him to readers accustomed to the 'high re-
lief' of modern literary art. Not however that Propertius will
ever be known and admired by a large circle of readers. He is
far too difficult. But no one with the intelligence and training to
1F. Plessis, Étude sur Properce, pp. 297-298.
67
TIBVLLVS
master his poetry has ever failed to recognize his remarkable
genius.
Tibullus again belongs to an entirely different type. A stand-
ard example of the 'low relief of antique literary art, his most
notable quality is perfect simplicity. He is simplex munditiis, a
genuine representative, as Plessis has observed, of the Attic
school. As such his taste is simple to the point of severity. :
There is no apparent effort to impress the reader with his own
ability. He is not a man of brilliant passages, he furnishes practi-
cally no quotations for lovers of the striking or sententious, he
makes no attempt even to depart from the traditional themes and
motives of the elegy. So too there is no elaborate use of mytho-
logical lore, no deep and recondite learning, no signs of the close
and fervid study of specific literary models. His diction, though
famous for its beauty and delicacy, is always simple ; and the de-
velopment of his thought, though artistic to the last degree, gives
no hint of formality or premeditation. His style is notably sane
and sober; indeed as Sellar observes, the active power of his
imagination is perceptible rather in the collocation of his words
than in figures of speech' (i.e. metaphors). Finally his metrical
technique, dainty and artistic to the point of a proverb, neverthe-
less shuns the invariable application of certain less important
rules, as conducive to monotony and in itself savouring of affecta-
tion. In other words, thought and form are in perfect harmony
and are a faithful reflection in every particular of the Tibullian
standard of naturalness and simplicity.
Of course his simplicity is not artless. No competent critic in
these days, certainly no classical scholar worthy of the name,
needs to be reminded that in a literary masterpiece simplicity is
always deliberate and naïveté always artistic. Tibullus is a con-
scious artist.
It would appear too that, apart from the natural bent of his
1' Properz ist das grössere Talent, Tibull der grössere Künstler,' — F. Leo, Röm.
Lit. p. 350.
68
INTRODUCTION
own individual genius, he also had a definite ideal in view. At
all events it is significant to observe that, taken point by point,
Tibullus reflects faithfully, so far as we know it, the idyllic-erotic
elegy, the standard type of Mimnermos as modified by Philetas.
The ideal of Tibullus, the ideal of the traditional type of which
he is himself the only representative now surviving, is the art that
conceals art. The value and rarity of this style are not always
fully appreciated even by those who admire it most. It is pe-
culiarly liable to misinterpretation because, though full of reserves,
it betrays no indications of the fact. The reserves of literary art,
the things a poet ignores, not because he cannot say them, but be-
cause he does not choose to say them, are the last to be detected.
In our estimate of Tibullus it is well to keep this in mind. In
dealing with any poet, above all with a poet of the Tibullian type,
we are somewhat in danger of mistaking choice for necessity, pe-
culiarities and limitations of department for peculiarities and limi-
tations of individual genius.
For example it is frequently stated that the education of
Tibullus was probably nothing more than that, let us say, of an
average country gentleman in the time of Augustus. The state-
ment can only be derived from the fact that he makes no
great show of learning. If so, it rests on the naïve assumption
that a poet never fails to tell us all he knows. As a matter of fact
any display of learning would be quite out of place in the idyllic
elegy, above all, as Marx has observed, in poems ostensibly ad-
dressed to women of the people like Delia and Nemesis. That
here as elsewhere Tibullus is a conscious artist is proved, if proof
is needed, by the fact that in poems of a non-idyllic character
(like 1, 7 and 2, 5), evidences of special learning are by no means
absent.
So of the fact that he says nothing of the many great contem-
1 This point is in no way disturbed by Jacoby's adverse criticism, Rhein. Mus.
65, 68, n. 2. The matter is a question of dramatic propriety. From this point
of view whether the poem was actually written for Delia or not makes no differ-
ence. It is enough that it is addressed to her.
69
TIBVLLVS
poraries with whom he was doubtless on the best of terms, that
he never mentions or discusses the tradition of his department in
the past, that he makes no acknowledgement of literary inspira-
tion, no confession of literary faith — how shall we explain these
phenomena? The question is no longer capable of a final and
definite reply. It is perhaps worth observing however that all
these matters seem out of place in the strictly idyllic type. Even
the mollitia with which he has been charged and the absence of
certain more serious aspirations, though possibly due to individual
limitations, are nevertheless in harmony with the traditions of his
model. The conventional love affair of the elegy follows simple
lines, the beaten paths of antique as well as of modern sentiment
do not lead to the highest ground. Above all the idyllic mood
does not and should not mount to the lonely peaks of contempla-
tion and the wider outlooks of the spirit.
We must of course admit the claim that he does not show the
daring imagination of Propertius nor betray the same ardour of
temperament, but such passages as the awful picture of wolf-mad-
ness in 1, 5, 49 ff. (the more awful because merely suggested), the
sinister hint of 1, 2, 39-40, the infernal art of the invective in 1,
9, 53 ff., the emotional stress of 2, 4, 5 ff., are momentary
glimpses of a new Tibullus ; and they suggest a poet quite capable
of producing lights and shades of the most startling sort, if he had
chosen to transgress the self-imposed laws of his own literary code.
It is also beyond question that he does not possess the inex-
haustible vivacity and wit, the infectious animal spirits, of Ovid.
At the same time one of the notable characteristics of Tibullus is
his humour, and readers of Theokritos and the Bucolic poets will
not fail to perceive that the vein is that which was always more or
less characteristic of the idyllic mood throughout the Alexandrian
Age. The' gentle elegiac melancholy' of Tibullus, in reality one
of his less important moods, is still a commonplace of criticism.
It is hard to see however how any sympathetic reader can succeed
in missing the humour of the situation in 1, 2, the satire of 1, 4, the
70
INTRODUCTION
inimitable mockery of 1, 6, the twinkle of amusement in 1, 8, the
whimsical observation of 2, 1, 79-86, the affectionate raillery of
2, 2, the genuine Alexandrian persiflage of 2, 6, 1 ff.
It seems to be the general opinion that Tibullus lacked the
energy or the ambition, or possibly even the ability, to add those
last touches to his elegies that would have made them perfect
works of art according to his own standard. It is urged in sup-
port of this opinion that, clear as he is, he is not always clear, that
he sometimes repeats the same word too frequently, that there are
occasional freedoms in his versification which are not found to the
same extent in standard technique (i.e. in Ovid's technique), etc.
This may be true, but it is yet to be proved. Whatever our
modern point of view may be, the opinion remains a mere asser-
tion until we can show that the peculiarities cited in its support
actually were inconsistent with his own ideal of literary art.
A recent critic is inclined to place Tibullus among poets of the
second rank. This may be true. But it is difficult to define
accurately the genius of Tibullus, and even more difficult perhaps
to define just what constitutes a poet of the second rank. Mod-
ern criticism for example would doubtless award the first rank
to Browning, the second to Gray and Collins. More than one
reputable reader however would not exchange the Tibullian grace
of the 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' or the Simoni-
dean simplicity of · How Sleep the Brave' for all the verses
Browning ever wrote or was capable of writing.
Here however we are concerned, not with the position of Ti-
bullus in the wider domain of poetry as such, but merely with his
position in the elegy. This is also the question with which Quin-
tilian was concerned. His reply was, 'elegia quoque Graecos
provocamus, cuius mihi tersus atque elegans inaxime videtur
auctor Tibullus. sunt qui Propertium malint. Ovidius utroque
lascivior, sicut durior Gallus.'
i The best characterization is given by Sellar, 1.c. p. 237. An adequate discus-
sion of the views of Rothstein, Pichon, and especially Jacoby on this question
would require more space than can be given to it here.
71
TIBVLLVS
Until recent years modern critics, more especially the scholars of
the Renaissance and of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, fol-
lowed this estimate with such verbal literalness that in some instances
we may fairly suspect that the real meaning and application of it
was not understood. On the other hand the tendency of late
years to depreciate the worth of Tibullus occasionally supports it-
self by impugning Quintilian's ability to appreciate the best poetry.
In the majority of such instances we no longer suspect that he has
not been understood, we are sure of it. The criticism of Quin-
tilian, like that of Velleius, like that of Ovid, is largely if not en-
tirely concerned with the poet's technique and form, in short
with his art. In this respect not only Quintilian, but as a rule
antique criticism in general, is a faithful reflection of the poet's
own attitude toward his work. His standard and the goal of his
ambition was perfection of form. He rarely lost sight of the
essential unity of the plastic arts.
Judged from this point of view the superiority of Tibullus is
quite beyond dispute. We may grant that Ovid was capable of
surpassing Tibullus even in his own domain. Indeed after Quin-
tilian's words on Ovid's Medea we are sure of it. The fact re-
mains however that he did not, and that Tibullus showed better
taste and more literary self-control. We may grant too that Ti-
bullus did not possess the unique imagination of Propertius. We
think however that here again he sometimes showed better taste,
and we know that he wrote better verses. In short judged by his
own standard, which is the standard of antiquity in general, he is
• 1 See Rothstein, Einleit. zu Properz, p. xlvii; esp. Jacoby, Rhein. Mus. 65,
p. 79,'--statt zu konstatieren, dass wir mit ganz anderen Voraussetzungen an ein
Gedicht herantreten, wie die Rhetoren Velleius und Quintilian, denen jede Fähig-
keit mangelt, über die Komposition eines Kunstwerks zu urteilen, weil ihr eigenes
Schaffen sich ganz auf die Ausgestaltung der Einzelheiten erstrickt,' etc. Cp. p. 86,
'das Urteil an sich und für uns nicht kompetenter antiker Kritiker,' etc.
Surely Velleius and Quintilian are an ill-assorted pair to bracket as representa-
tives of any one thing in common. And I am constrained to register my protest
here that Quintilian was thoroughly acquainted with the great canons of criticism,
that they are immutable, and that we depart from them at our peril.
72
INTRODUCTION
just what Quintilian described him to be, 'tersus atque elegans
maxime,' or as Sellar puts it, in his art the most faultless, the .
most perfectly harmonious.'
Comparisons however are more or less futile, and are often mis-
leading. The three poets are really complementary rather than
parallel. The unique genius of Propertius, the sparkle, the
creative imagination, of Ovid, the Hellenic symmetry and reserve
of Tibullus — each represents an individual and important con-
tribution to our picture of the most artistic branch of poetry de-
veloped by Roman genius.
V. THE CORPUS TIBULLIANUM
The first book of Tibullus, as we have seen, was published not
far from 27 B.C., the second and last, either just before his death
or soon afterward. The resulting edition in two books appears to
have been the only one known to the Roman public until some
time after the reign of Domitian. It has also been suggested that
the same edition was used by the later grammarians or by their
authorities -- at any rate all their citations are confined to the
first two books. So too certain old library catalogues would ap-
pear to imply, though this is by no means as plausible, that copies
of it survived until well into the Middle Ages.
The text however which we know, and which was known to the
early mediaeval excerptors, is descended from another edition to
which a number of poems had been added, either as an appendix
to book 2 or as a third book. The further subdivision of this ap-
pendix into a third and fourth book is convenient, but it is due to
the Italian scholars of the fifteenth century, and has no authority in
tradition. Who was the editor of this collection? When was it
incorporated with Tibullus ? Had it ever been published before,
either in part or as a whole? Who and what were the authors of
the various pieces ? These are all questions which have been dis-
73 :
TIBVLLVS
cussed at great length, but to which it is no longer possible to give
a definite answer.
The first section of this series of miscellaneous poems is by an
author who calls himself Lygdamus (3, 2, 29). It consists of
six elegies addressed to Neaera. We conclude that the two had
once been married or betrothed (1, 23; 4, 60), but that after-
ward she was alienated from him. He however has always loved
her, and longs for a reconciliation. The poems are technically
correct, and throw considerable light on society in the Augustan
Age. They also indicate a man of rare generosity, tenderness,
and refinement of feeling ; we may grant, too, that criticism of his
art has certainly been too severe ; but it must be acknowledged that
we have here the work of an amateur, and one whose character as
a man was superior to his genius as a poet. He follows Tibullus
closely in both matter and form, and the mere presence of his
poems in this collection is in itself a proof that he was in some way
connected with the circle of Messalla.
His identity however is a puzzle. If his real name was Lygdamus,
he was of servile extraction, doubtless a learned freedman of the
house of Messalla, and we should have a foundation for Mr. Post-
gate's suggestion that he was the editor of the Appendix Tibulliana.
This however is by no means necessary. As a man of good
family — and surely this is the implication of 1, 2 and 6, 59-60 —
he would, like the Demophoon and the Lynceus of Propertius
(e.g. 2, 22, 2: 2, 34, 9), prefer to conceal his identity under a
pseudonym. That this was probably the case is further shown by
the fact that Neaera herself is of good family (4, 91 f. ; 2, 11).
As such she could hardly have been betrothed, much less married,
to a man whose real name was Lygdamus.
He states, or so at least the lines are usually interpreted, that he
was born in the year or possibly on the day that both consuls fell.
at Modena, i.e. 43 B.C. This effectually disposes of the old
theory that Lygdamus = the youthful Tibullus, but at the same
time introduces a problem for which no man can offer a satisfactory
74
INTRODUCTION
solution. The passage in question together with the context is
3, 5, 15 f.--
et nondum cani nigros laesere capillos,
nec venit tardo curva senecta pede.
natalem primo nostrum videre parentes,
cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari.
quid fraudare iuvat vitem crescentibus uvis
et modo nata mala vellere poma manu?
Now Ovid, also born in 43, uses incidentally the same line to
describe the date (Trist. 4, 10, 6) -
editus hic ego sum: nec non ut tempora noris,
cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari.
Note too that Lygdamus, lines 19-20 practically=Ovid, Amor. 2,
14, 23-24 —
quid plenam fraudes vitem crescentibus uvis
ponaque crudeli vellis acerba manu?
and that Lygdamus, line 16=Ovid, Ars. Amat. 2, 670–
iam veniet tacito curva senecta pede.
The coincidence is so close that we must assume one of the two
to be imitating the other. But which ? For either choice is
open to grave objection. It is most natural to suppose, and the
majority of scholars favour this view, that Lygdamus imitated
Ovid. If so, he imitated a passage (Trist. 4, 10, 6) published
not earlier than 11-13 A.D., and the poet who alludes so feelingly.
to his tender youth was between 55 and 60 years of age ! A
satisfactory explanation of this objection is yet to be offered. We
might say that he was writing nunc pro tunc, we might say that
the entire affair, except the date, was a dramatic fiction, but we
have no proof, and the probabilities are against us. On the other
hand if Ovid was the imitator, why for this particular fact did he
use the same line, and why was it that no less than three times in
1 Bürger, Hermes, 40, 321; Calonghi, Rivista di Filologia, 29, 273: Skutsch,
Pauly-Wissowa, 4, pp. 941, etc.
75
TIBVLLVS
thirty-odd years he betrayed so vivid a recollection of six lines in
the least important piece of an unimportant poet?
Much would be gained if it could be proved that ‘natalem primo'
(or “primum'), etc., rneant 'the first anniversary of one's birth,' in
other words that Lygdamus was born in 44, not 43. We could
then agree most heartily with the attractive theory recently taken
up by Plessis (Poésie Latine, p. 364) that Lygdamus was prob-
ably none other than the brother of Ovid. Ovid's brother (Trist.
4, 10, 9 ff.) was born exactly a year earlier, i.e. in 44, which
agrees with the date so gained for Lygdamus; he showed marked
ability, but more especially for the law, which accounts for the
quality of Lygdamus's verses; he died at the age of 20, which en-
tirely justifies the reference to youth in Lygd. Iines 19-20, and also
explains why Ovid himself returned so often to this particular pas-
sage of six otherwise unimportant verses. Finally, the two boys
were educated together in Rome, and it is reasonable to suppose
that he was, as was his brother Ovid at that time, a member of
the Messalla circle. Hence the presence of his poems in this
collection. Unfortunately this interpretation of ‘natalem primo,'
upon which all turns, though reasonable enough in itself, does not
seem to be supported by good parallels in actual Latin usage.
On the whole therefore our best answer to this question is non
liquet.'
The next piece of the collection (4, 1) is the so-called Pan-
egyricus Messallae, a highly laudatory poem of 212 hexameters, the
date of which (l. 122) has been placed between 31 and 27 B.C.
It is now unnecessary to prove that Tibullus was never responsible
for this poem. The author is unknown, and if Messalla was like
Sulla, he probably gave his enthusiastic panegyrist a goodly recom-
pense-on condition that he write no more.?
1 Tibullian authorship was denied first by Lachmann, Kl. Schr. 2, 149. For
the influence of the nomos here see Crusius, Verhand. d. Philologenvers. 39,
265 f.
2 Cicero, Arch. 25.
76
INTRODUCTION
The next eleven elegies (4, 2-12) on the contrary are by far
the best and the most interesting in the entire collection. They
tell us the charming story of the two young lovers, Sulpicia the
ward and probably the niece of Messalla himself, and the young
man whom she calls 'Cerinthus.' The elegies in question are our
only surviving documents in the case. As Gruppe was the first to
observe, they fall into two groups, 4, 2–6 and 4, 7-12, the first
by some sympathetic poet and friend, the second by the heroine
herself. Each is to a certain extent an independent version of the
same story, but the relation of the two is such that both are needed
to complete this romantic chapter in the history of Messalla's own
household
Sulpicia was the daughter of Servius Sulpicius (4, 10, 4), who
was doubtless the son of Cicero's old friend. If, as seems likely,
her mother (4, 6, 15) was Messalla's sister Valeria (Hieron. adv.
Iouin. 1,46), Servius had been dead for some time, and her uncle's
guardianship is explained. We are told that she was beautiful,
we know that she was accomplished and the possessor of remark-
able literary ability. She also possessed a large portion and one
of the longest pedigrees in the Empire. A veritable docta puella
and a most attractive young person withal, though considering the
loving care with which she was evidently surrounded and the fact
that she had been reared from childhood in the unconventional
atmosphere of the Messalla circle, it is fair to suspect that she was
somewhat wilful and, let us confess it, a trifle spoiled. At all
events she fell most desperately in love with her Cerinthus; in due
course he returned her affection, and for some time neither Mes-
salla nor her mother was aware of the situation. As we shall see
presently, the conclusion of the story is a matter of some doubt.
The first group is introduced by a copy of verses supposed to
accompany a present to Sulpicia from her friend the poet on the
first of March, the date of the Matronalia. As a tribute of warm
yet purely disinterested regard on a special occasion, this poem
has few equals. It is hard to believe that there was any member
77
TIBVLLVS
of Messalla's circle beside Tibullus himself who was capable of
writing a piece of this peculiarly difficult type, in which grace, deli-
cacy, and good breeding are so exquisitely blended.
The next piece, in which our poet assumes the person of
Sulpicia herself, is occasioned by the fact that her lover has
gone on a boar hunt. As we read the poem we are inevitably
reminded of Venus and Adonis, or of Phaidra and Hippolytos,
long familiar to the elegiac sphere as the traditional prototypes
of this particular situation.
The next elegy is occasioned by an illness of Sulpicia, and is
therefore addressed to Apollo, the god of healing. Cerinthus
thought we should expect him to speak in his own person
here, as Sulpicia has done in the previous elegy. Our poet
The girl writes the poetry, the youth has nothing to say; or at
all events his contributions to the literature of the affair, though
doubtless of a highly inflammable nature and treasured by the
recipient with corresponding care, were nevertheless in plain
prose, and as such have not survived. Whenever therefore
the feelings of Cerinthus require expression, our poet acts as
spokesman. Here however his dramatic aside to Cerinthus
(11. 15 f.) while addressing Apollo —
pone metum, Cerinthe : deus non laedit amantes.
tu modo semper ama: salva puella tibi est, etc. —
is quite as telling as anything written in the first person could
possibly be.
The next poem was occasioned by the birthday of Cerinthus,
and is written in the person of Sulpicia; the last of this group,
by the birthday of Sulpicia, and here as before the poet acts
as spokesian. The two poems are companion pieces, and
should be compared throughout.
A close examination of these five poems suggests that the
78
INTRODUCTION
actual foundation of them was the series next to be considered,
and possibly some facts in addition of which the writer had
personal knowledge. If so, not the least interesting feature of
this collection is the unique opportunity it offers to study the
methods pursued by an antique elegiac poet in the artistic use
of his material. It would also be interesting if we could name
the author. It is most natural — indeed on the whole it is
most logical — to suppose that his name was Tibullus. The
poems emanate from Messalla's circle, and are in no respect
unworthy of Tibullus. A detailed technical and stylistic com-
parison with the first two books reveals differences, but none
of sufficient importance to preclude the possibility of a common
authorship. On the other hand among the many resemblances
that might be cited not the least striking is the characteristic
objective attitude of our poet as compared with that of Tibullus
himself in 2, 2. Messalla's circle was to say the least ex-
ceptionally favoured, if it possessed a second elegiac poet so like
Tibullus in his poetical temperament and so nearly his equal in
genius. Tibullian authorship of these poems however is only a
matter of probabilities. It can neither be proved nor disproved.
The authorship of the second group is beyond question. It
consists of six short poems composed by Sulpicia herself, the
more interesting because they were apparently not written for the
purpose of telling her story after the artistic fashion of the elegy.
On the contrary with the possible exception of the first (4, 7),
which reads like an entry in her diary, these pieces are in the
form of brief notes addressed to Cerinthus himself, and it seems
evident that none of them was ever intended for publication.
No one can read these verses without being impressed with
the remarkable ability of their author. She certainly does not
rank among the great poets of the world, even her mastery of
technique occasionally suggests an amateur; and after her mar-
1 Reitzenstein, P-W. 6, p. 93. Bürger, Hermes, 40, 328, finds them echoing
the last book of Propertius, therefore not Tibullian. The argument is of no value.
70
TIBVLLVS
riage she probably never wrote another line. But, like Catullus
and a few of the chosen, this slip of a girl has that rarest of
all gifts, the gift of straightforward simplicity; and, unlike her
namesake in the next century, as well as some of her poetical
sisters in centuries nearer our own, she shows no trace of self-
consciousness and no sign of affectation. Moreover her per-
sonality is marked, and she writes from a full heart. The con-
sequence is that in a scant forty lines she has contrived to
impress herself upon us more deeply than many other writers
have done who have spent a lifetime pursuing the same object
by more sophisticated methods.
But, apart from their intrinsic interest and value, these pieces
claim attention as practically all we have left of the poetry
written by Roman women during the classical period. As such
they are regularly used to illustrate the theme of “Feminine
Latinity' so often discussed since Gruppe's time. I am in-
clined to think that this theme has been overworked, and
that between our enthusiasm of discovery and the limita-
tions of our knowledge we have emphasized some phenomena
which are not conclusive. It is not an easy matter even in
one's own tongue to acquire the feeling for those often deli-
cate and subtle distinctions of usage upon which an intelligent
and fruitful discussion of this question is so largely based.
Cicero for example (De Orat. 3, 45) makes Crassus say
that the speech of Laelia reminded him of Plautus and Naevius
(see also Pliny, Epist. 1, 16, 6), and it is still true to-day that
the language of women is more conservative than that of their
masculine contemporaries in the same class. 'Facilius enim,'
to quote Cicero's own words, mulieres incorruptam antiqui-
tatem conservant, quod multorum sermonis expertes, ea tenent
semper quae prima didicerunt.' The elegies of Sulpicia how-
ever afford nothing distinctively antique, and even if we found
anything of this sort, should we be able to justify our classifi-
cation of it as Feminine Latinity ?
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INTRODUCTION
The same may be said of the occasional traces of prosaic or
conversational usage (eg. 'cum digno digna,' 4, 7, 10; the double
dative, 4, 7, 2; the double negative, 4, 7, 8; the zeugma, 4, 7, 4;
the use of quiescas,' 4, 8, 5; quamvis' with the indic., 4, 8,8;
the meaning of 'cadam, 4, 10, 2; "aeque ac' with a sentence,
4, 12, 1-2). The majority of these occur in other poets, and
the remainder cannot be called distinctively feminine. So too of
an occasional vagueness or lack of strict logical connection
in the construction of a sentence (see 4, 9, 4; 4, 10, 5, and
notes), an occasional awkwardness in the formation of a distich,
etc. A sufficient explanation of these and similar peculiarities
is mere inexperience in literary and metrical technique. Inex-
perience in such matters is not distinctively feminine.
· Irrespective however of training, of environment, or of any
extraneous cause, mere sex in itself is clearly reflected in
habits of thought and points of view. A genuine woman reacts
so to speak to a given emotional stimulus in a way more or
less characteristic of every other genuine woman in the same
situation. In this respect nothing in all literature could be more
characteristically feminine than these elegies. Their charming
author is beyond all doubt a very woman. It is really for that
reason that her poetry is undeniably so difficult. Her way of
thinking is distinctively feminine, and though we may be familiar
with it in the modern sphere of our own personal experience,
it is less easy to follow in Latin, because Latin as we know it
in the surviving literature is distinctively and exclusively mas-
culine. She is feminine in what she says and in the way she
says it. On the other hand, and this is the real difficulty, she
is quite as feminine in what she does not say.
The present arrangement of the poems was evidently based
upon the usual plan of variety and importance, not upon chrono-
logical sequence. 4, 7, by which the series is introduced, really
marks the culmination of the affair. Chronologically, or at least
psychologically, the order is 4, 12; 4, 10; 4, 7; and as these
81
TIBVLLVS
2
three poems indicate a stage of development too acute to allow
for the intervention of birthday celebrations and such compara-
tively indifferent matters, we may perhaps arrange the six poems
thus: 4, 8 and 4, 9 in immediate succession ; 4, II before or
after 4, 8 and 4, 9; then 4, 12; 4, 10; 4, 7 in the order named.
From 4, 8 we learn that Sulpicia has been expecting to see
Cerinthus on her birthday. She now writes him that Messalla
has just announced his intention of taking her for an outing in
the country, with the object, it would seem, of making her
birthday an unusually pleasant occasion. Of course the fore-
most thought in her mind is that Cerinthus will not be there,
and the girlish keenness of her disappointment is seen in every
line. 'My hateful old birthday,' she exclaims, 'is coming, and
the dreary hours of it must be passed in the stupid country, and
without Cerinthus. The amusing side of the situation for the
onlooker is the fact that poor Messalla's extra effort to please
his niece was evidently coupled with a blissful ignorance of the
importance of Cerinthus in her scheme of life. Of course the
attention was well meant, but it was all the more irritating for
that very reason. Yet upon this piece are founded such solemn
assertions of earlier scholars as that Messalla was in love with
Sulpicia, that she disliked him, and that she hated the country.
Perhaps Messalla realized that for some occult reason his
niece showed no great interest in his suggestion. At any rate
in her next letter to Cerinthus (4, 9) Sulpicia writes that the
proposed journey has been given up, and that her birthday will
be spent at home as originally planned. It will be observed
that she no longer calls it her 'hateful old birthday.' Possibly
4, 5 and 4, 6, in the previous group, were originally suggested
by these two pieces. It is likely too that 4, 4 — the poem on
an illness of Sulpicia — is to be connected in a similar fashion
with 4, II, in which Sulpicia herself writes a touching letter to
Cerinthus on the same theme. The theme is traditional, and
the thoughts are not new; but for beauty, tenderness, and good
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INTRODUCTION
taste it is the model of its kind, and the poet of 4, 4 was particu-
larly successful in his interpretation of it.
In 4, 12 Sulpicia apologizes to Cerinthus for having left him
so abruptly the previous evening. She bitterly regrets now
that she was so young and foolish as to run away — and only
because she was afraid to show how much she loved him.' The
words suggest an advanced stage in the courtship of these two
young things. Indeed the characteristically feminine mixture
of motives responsible for the last two lines would occupy at
least a chapter in a modern psychological novel. As it stands
it is a revelation, the more eloquent because wholly unconscious,
of the girl's gentle nurture and essential innocence. She shrank
back instinctively from the prospect of complete surrender, for
of course this was the real motive, or rather the principal motive,
of her flight. The motive itself, and the fact that she does not
betray it except by inference, are both so feminine and so true
to nature, yet at the same time so rare in conventional literary
art, that we must believe these letters to be the astonishingly
faithful record of a genuine love affair.
4, 10, the most difficult, and perhaps the most thoroughly
characteristic of Sulpicia's letters, was evidently written and sent
to Cerinthus immediately after she had been told that his atten-
tions were being bestowed elsewhere. Every line palpitates with
the suppressed fury of a passionate, high-spirited Roman girl who
has been cut to the quick, not only in her love, but in her pride.
She is in no mood for euphemisms. Indeed the tone of the en-
tire communication, especially the biting irony of the clause of
'perverse purpose,' ne male inepta cadam' (see l. 2 and note),
may well have been associated with an only too vivid memory of
the scene of 4, 12 and a realization of the narrowness of her
escape.
The rising tide of wrath and scorn is marked by the sudden
shift from bitter irony in 1-2 to the passionate assertion of utter
indifference in 3-4, as expressed in the characteristic demand of
83
TIBVLLVS
Cerinthus to proceed as he has begun. On this side is the mere
common drudge, the lowest even in her own class; on this is
“Servi filia Sulpicia.' This is not a mere outburst of jealous fury.
There is no room for jealousy here. Nor is the fierce scorn for
the woman herself; she is not to blame. It is for Cerinthus, that
he could stoop so low; it is the bitter cry of her own humiliation.
To be sure the situation is slightly modified by the last two
lines (5-6), although no rigid and detailed interpretation of them
is altogether free from objection. The main drift however of
this truly feminine parting shot is clear enough, quite as clear at
least as the writer intended it to be. It is somewhat amusing to
observe that whatever interpretation we adopt, the sentence -
solliciti sunt pro nobis, quibus illa dolori est
ne cedam ignoto, maxima causa, toro —
is a naïve betrayal of the fact that the source of her information
regarding Cerinthus was only one of those persons interested in
her behalf' -- Cerinthus would have called him a rival — and that
under cover of the intentionally vague and impressive plural she
is really quoting part of what her informant told her on that oc-
casion. It is of course unnecessary to add that Sulpicia wished
at the same time to remind Cerinthus that she had plenty of ad-
mirers who appreciated her worth and who were ready to see to
it that she did not lack for consolation.
Probably the temporarily despised recipient of this missive
thought it best to call at once in person and explain. And as the
letter (cp.'ne ... cadam,'l. 2) was certainly written before 4, 7, we
know that on this occasion Cerinthus, though doubtless utterly be-
wildered, must have explained himself to her entire satisfaction.
Indeed who shall say that the dénouement of 4, 7 was not perhaps
precipitated by the inevitable revulsion of feeling arising from her
conviction that the accusation of 4, 10 was entirely unfounded ?
At all events 4, 7, the last of this series, was evidently written
just after the consummation of her love, for she is still in a highly
84
INTRODUCTION
exalted mood, and her naïvely joyous belief that for her complete
victory came only with complete surrender has yet to be assailed
by such afterthoughts as we find in 4, 5, 6–14, Ovid, Her. 18, 93,
and every similar affair since the world began.
Here, so far as Sulpicia is concerned, the story ends. Certainly
she has given a vivid picture of herself. From the nature of the
case however she has told us practically nothing of the kwpòv
mpóo wnov in this dramatic idyll of the Augustan Age. This was
done by the poet of the first group, and it is his most important
contribution to the history of the affair. His attitude of the inter-
ested observer and confidant, his humorous appreciation of the
situation and yet his entire sympathy with it, enable him to por-
tray the character of Cerinthus to the life. Cerinthus is a person
of deep feelings, but his inability to express them has reached the
point of a joke among his friends. In the face of strong emotion
he shows a marked tendency to remain silent. Much less is it
likely that he ever dreamed of relieving his feelings in verse.
Apart from 4, 4, 11-22, one of the most illuminating passages in
this connection is 4, 5, 17–18. The situation disclosed by these
lines is too, characteristic, too true to nature, to be anything but
a glimpse of the genuine history of this well-matched pair of
lovers -- he, the shy and reserved but deeply smitten youth of 4, 4.
(and 2, 2), she, the frank, ardent, impulsive maiden of the letters.
He is her natural quarry, and when once she sights him the final
outcome is a foregone conclusion. But it requires no special in-
sight to divine which of the two will be obliged to do the articu-
late wooing, if any is to be done at all. Hence the mere fact that
the ordinary conditions of the elegy are in this instance reversed
is in itself a good proof that we are dealing with realities. In-
deed setting aside the marked differences in the temperament of
the two, in a situation like that of 4, 5, 17–18 the shyness, even
the occasional gaucherie, of a boy of gentle birth and training is
too characteristic to require comment. On the other hand the
greater frankness and naïveté of Sulpicia in the same situation is
85
TIBVLLVS
quite as characteristic of her youth, her sex, and her essential
innocence. Having once given herself, she rejoiced in the
surrender.
The identity of Cerinthus is a mystery. We may however dis-
card at once the statement that he was a young Greek' of 'ob-
scure birth. Irrespective of the literary associations of the name,
the reversed conditions of the elegy so carefully observed by the
poet of the first group are proof enough that it was a pseudonym.
Further the mere fact that Cérinthus is Greek favours the assump-
tion that the real name was Roman. The assertion that he was
of humble birth is certainly not proved by 4, 10, 6, the passage
from which it is derived, and is rendered most unlikely, not only
by the poet's attitude toward him and by the fact that in the
Augustan Age hunting (4, 3), in which the poet makes him engage,
was distinctly a gentleman's pursuit, but also and above all be-
cause of his evidently intimate relations with the household of
Messalla. Equally groundless is the assertion based upon 4, 6,
15-16, that the girl's mother considered him an undesirable parti.
She simply had never thought of him at all in that connection.
Any other interpretation spoils the desired contrast between lines
15 and 16.
· The older Italian scholars (cp. the reading of 2, 2, 9, and 2, 3,
1) and some modern investigators (e.g. K. P. Schulze) do not
hesitate to identify Cerinthus with Cornutus, the newly married
young friend to whom Tibullus addressed 2, 3, and in honour of
whose birthday he wrote 2, 2. If this is true, it is impossible not
to identify the “uxor' of 2, 2, II with Sulpicia, and to see in this
charming poem the epilogue of her romance. One is sorely
tempted to believe it, the more so as we really have no evidence
against it. The circumstances and surroundings of Cerinthus and
Cornutus appear to have been identical ; the two names are metri-
cally equivalent ; above all it is hard to believe there were two
young men in the circle of Messalla at the same time so exactly
alike temperamentally as the shy and wordless, but sorely smitten,
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INTRODUCTION
Cerinthus of 4, 4, 11-22, and the shy and wordless, but sorely
smitten, Cornutus of 2, 2, 9-12. The question however is
incapable of a definite solution, and it is the part of wisdom to
leave it so.
Two pieces, 4, 13 and 4, 14, remain to be considered. The first,
which protests unalterable fidelity to some woman unknown, is
ostensibly signed by Tibullus himself (1. 13). The second and
last poem, also presumably by Tibullus, is an epigram of four lines.
They apparently belong to an earlier manner, and had probably
been rejected by the poet himself. Perhaps they were found
among his papers after his death. At all events the character and
contents of books 3 and 4 as a whole indicate clearly that we have
before us a collection of poems all emanating from the circle of
Messalla during the time when Tibullus was a member of it. This
and the fact that a number of pieces were evidently not intended
for general circulation suggest that the editor actually had access
to the archives of Messalla's household, and that he added all he
found there to the existing edition of Tibullus with the idea of
giving to the world the surviving record of whatever bore directly
or indirectly upon the poet's literary activity.
· Such being the case it seems likely that except for three or four
slight lacunae due to imperfect transmission the edition of Tibullus
now before us is not only complete, but contains some pieces which
he himself had not intended to publish.
VI. TEXTUAL TRADITION
It has already been observed that the tradition of Tibullus during
the Middle Ages is unusually slight. In fact it seems likely that
the preservation of our poet from the ninth to the thirteenth cen-
tury is due to France, and that here we owe a special debt of gratitude
to the literary tastes and personal influence of the famous Latin poet
and teacher Hildebert (died 1134). That a few mss. of our author
1 See Introd. to 4, 13 in the Notes.
87
TIBVLLVS
were to be found in various parts of France during this long period
is shown indirectly by contemporary catalogues of libraries long
since lost or dispersed. None however have survived. Indeed all
our mss. of the complete text appear to be descended directly or
indirectly from a single copy found in the fourteenth century,
transcribed, and then lost.
The oldest and best representative of it, and our principal
authority for the text now before us, is the Ambrosianus (R. 26,
sup.), a ms. of the fourteenth century, which at that time belonged
to Coluccio Salutato. As its name indicates, it is now in the
Ambrosian Library at Milan.
The Vaticanus 3270, belonging early in the fifteenth century, is
closely related to the Ambrosianus, and is next to it in order of
merit.
The Codex Eboracensis, dated 1425, to which Lachmann drew
special attention in his edition of 1829, is occasionally of some value.
Other mss. of this family still survive in large numbers, but they
have no independent value, and have all suffered more or less
severely from the corrections and emendations of the various
Italian scholars who from 1370 to 1450 were especially interested,
not only in Tibullus, but also in Catullus and Propertius.
The text of the Ambrosianus however is by no means of the
best, and although we find some traces of an older and a better
tradition, our record of it is only partial. Our most important
representative of it was the so-called Fragmentum Cuiacianum, a
ms. once belonging to the famous jurist Cujas (1522–1590). Un-
fortunately it did not begin until 3, 4, 65, and as it is now lost,
our knowledge of it for editorial purposes is limited to a collation
of it made by Scaliger, and entered by him on the margin of his
own copy of the Plantinian Tibullus (1569) now in Leyden.
1 These men are responsible for the various stop-gaps found in this family of
mss. at the four lacunae in the Corpus Tibullianum (1, 2, 25; I, Io, 26; 2, 3,
14 and 75); see R. Soldati, Riv. di Filologia, 28, 287.
A late ms. of Ovid and Tibullus (of no value) is reported by E. Gerunzi,
Atene e Roma, No. 66, p. 185.
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INTRODUCTION
In addition to this we derive occasional help from the mediaeval
florilegia to which reference has already been made. These are
the Excerpta Parisina and the Excerpta Frisingensia. The best
representatives of the former are the Parisinus 7647 of the twelfth
or thirteenth century and 17903 of the thirteenth century ; of the
latter, the Monacensis 6292 of the eleventh century. Both col-
lections, but especially the Excerpta Parisina, enjoyed a wide
popularity from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, and quota-
tions from Tibullus in the writers of that period, 6.9. in Vincent de
Beauvais, can usually be traced to one or the other of them. They
are collections for the most part of wise saws and modern in-
stances, and the editors do not scruple to Bowdlerize. It is evi-
dent however that the text from which they drew their elegant
extracts was better than that represented by the Ambrosianus.
It was claimed by Baehrens that the Guelferbytanus (fifteenth
century), discovered and collated by him in 1876, actually repre-
sented the text used by the editor of the Excerpta Parisina. The
claim cannot be supported. Rothsteinfor example made it rea-
sonably clear that the points of agreement between this ms. and
the Excerpta Parisina were due to editorial collation. At the
same time the exact position of the Guelferbytanus in our textual
tradition is not altogether certain.
The first dated edition of Tibullus (also containing Catullus,
Propertius, and the Silvae of Statius) appeared in 1472. The
commentary of Bernardinus Cyllenius' appears in the Roman
edition of 1475. It was reprinted in some later editions, and is
still of value. The best edition of the sixteenth century is the
second Aldine of 1515 (the first appeared in 1502); the most
famous is Scaliger's edition of 1577. The best commentary of
this period is by Achilles Statius, and it appeared first in the
Venice edition of 1567. It was reprinted along with the notes of
the Douzas, the commentaries of Scaliger, Muretus (Venice, 1544),
1 De Tibulli Codicibus, Berlin, 1880. A facsimile of g was published by Leo in
1910.
89
TIBVLLVS
Gebhardus, etc., in the variorum of J. G. Graevius (2 vols., Utrecht,
1680), the most notable edition of the seventeenth century.
The great editions of the eighteenth century are those of Janus
Broukhusius, Amsterdam, 1708, and of J. A. Vulpius, 2d edition,
Padua, 1749. Each is furnished with a complete index verborum ;
and their commentaries, though characteristically long and wordy,
are mines of information from which every succeeding editor has
extracted something of value. The text however was still dom-
inated more or less by the pernicious influence of Scaliger's wholly
unwarranted transpositions and redistributions.
The first really critical edition according to modern standards
was published by Lachmann in 1829. The important annotated
editions of this period are by J. H. Voss, Heidelberg, 1811; I. G.
Huschke, Rostock, 1814 ; Heyne-Wunderlich, 4th edition, Leipzig,
1817; and L. Dissen, Göttingen, 1835. All are of value, but
Dissen's is especially noteworthy. He was a critic of rare taste
and discrimination; his introduction has never been entirely
superseded ; and his commentary in spite of some peculiarities is
still the best complete commentary on Tibullus in modern times.
The text of Lucian Müller (Teubner, 1870) is marred by his ten-
dency here as elsewhere to transpose and emend where neither is
necessary. Baehrens's great service (Teubner, 1878) lay in dem-
onstrating the position and value in our textual tradition of the Am-
brosianus. But he set too high a value on the Guelferbytanus; and
his text, like every other text with which he had to do, is marred
by his inveterate habit of drastic and ill-considered emendation.
The best modern texts now available are those by E. Hiller,
Tauchnitz, 1885, with testimonia and index verborum ; by Haupt-
Vahlen, 6th edition, Leipzig, 1904; and J. P. Postgate, for the
Bibliotheca Classica Oxoniensis (1905), and for the 'Medici
Society, London, 1910.
The only modern commentaries on the complete Corpus
Tibullianum are by Philippe Martinon, Paris, 1895; and Geyza
Némethy, Budapest, 1905.
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INTRODUCTION
VII. THE POET'S ART
It would be impossible in the space at our command to give a
complete conspectus of the formal and stylistic qualities of Tibul-
lus's poetry. We must therefore content ourselves with a brief
treatment of a fews important points suggested by the general
statements already made in the preceding pages. For further de-
tails the student is referred to the notes.
One of the most characteristic and important features of
Tibullus's poetic art is his method of developing his theme.
Mindful of the artistic simplicity belonging to his own peculiar
type, he arranges his topics so skilfully and associates them by
transitions so natural and unaffected, that all idea of artifice or of
a deliberate scheme disappears in the mere pleasure of reading.
As soon however as under the leadership of Vahlen and Leol we
begin to consider these masterpieces of composition as they are
instead of as they were, after they had been disfigured by the
transpositions of Scaliger and the doctrinaires of 'strophic arrange-
ment,' we perceive that, as Sellar puts it, there is at once unity
and variety in every elegy- the unity of a dominant sentiment,
the variety of thoughts and pictures in keeping with it, arranged
in groups corresponding with one another, and succeeding one an-
other by gentle and natural transition.'
'I, 3, for instance, gives utterance to his feelings while ill at
Corcyra and apprehensive of death. What gives unity to the
poem is his memory of the love of Delia in the past, and his
longing for her in the immediate future. But with this feeling is
blended his love of home : and a vivid contrast is drawn between
the perils of war and foreign adventure and the ideal happiness of
the Saturnian Age. From these perils he passes to the thought of
his own imminent danger, and from that to describe the joys of the
1 Vahlen, Monatsber, der Berliner Akademie, 1878, p. 343 f.; F. Leo, Philolo-
gische Untersuchungen, II, n. I f. For later contributions see Schanz, 1.c. (p. 30,
n. I, above). For Jacoby's theories of the poet's art see op. cit. (p. 24, n., above).
His evidence lacks adequate support and his conclusions are unsound.
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TIBVLLVS
blessed in Elysium and the tortures of the damned in Tartarus;
among them he mentions last the punishment of the daughters of
Danaos,“ Danai proles Veneris quod numina laesit.” This thought
(carrying with it the characteristic parable of warning to Delia)
leads him back by the force of contrast to the brightest picture
which his imagination can paint in the world of the living, that of
Delia spinning among her handmaids, and of his own unexpected
return. There is no mechanical arrangement, but rather a har-
monious combination of his materials, their succession being regu-
lated sometimes by the suggestions of similarity, sometimes of
contrast. The peaceful joys of the country are in many of the
elegies set over against the dangers and the rough life of the
soldier, and the joy of youth and love is made more intense by
the thought of death. There is nothing forced or strained in his
manner of treatment: no undue emphasis or exaggeration of
colouring. He is impressive by the truth and simplicity of his
separate pictures, and their harmony with the moods to which he
wishes to give expression.
Often, as in 1, 3, he prefers to begin with the contrast, the
negative of his underlying theme, and to end with the positive
statement, having passed from the one to the other by a series
of conflicting views — a sort of echo of the dyúv, as Crusius ob-
serves, except that the opposing sentiments are in the speaker's
own breast.
In short the most characteristic feature of our poet's rhetorical
exposition is that it proceeds by parallelism, comparison, contrast,
by statement and counterstatement, desirable and undesirable,
negative and positive, running off from time to time into variations
which seem to halt like eddies in a flowing stream, albeit the
stream continues to flow steadily onward until it reaches the end.
To paraphrase the words of Vahlen, 'the poetry of Tibullus moves
like the waves of a summer sea. We sway in rhythmic cadence,
now forward, now backward, yet from time to time the crest of
some succeeding billow carries us insensibly a little farther on.'.
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INTRODUCTION
Let us take the introductory elegy of the first book as an
illustration. Tibullus has already seen active service as a soldier.
Now his friend and patron invites him to return to it. There is
hope of pecuniary reward, hence a chance to recoup the fallen
fortunes of his house; there is also a chance to win distinction.
None of these things is formally stated, they are merely men-
tioned in passing or to be inferred from the context (cp. 25-26,
5:3-54, 1-4, 41-42). Tibullus refuses to return, but not until
53-54 do we realize that he was refusing, and that the refusal
is addressed to Messalla ; and not until 55 ff., though we begin
to suspect it as far back as 45, does it become clear that the
elegy was really inspired by Delia and intended for her. Or to
put it another way :
1-6. Those who are willing to acquire wealth at the price of
toil and danger are welcome to it. My income is not large;
but the bubble reputation, the life of action, are nothing to
me so long as I can keep the humble but comfortable home I
now have.
7–24. Idyllic picture of that home, its associations, occupa-
tions, etc.
25–26. An exclamation which takes up 1-6 again, and adds
a new motive - Give me my quiet life ; I have had enough of
the other.
27-40. Second idyllic picture.
41-42. Again 1-6 with a new motive — Give me my quiet
life; I do not regret the loss of my ancestral fortune, my wants
are few.
43-48. Wants enumerated; new motive of the domina generally
stated.
49–52. Again 1-6, with the new motive suggested by the
domina just mentioned— The quiet life for me. I would not
win the wealth of Ormus or of Ind at the price of breaking a
girl's heart.
53 ff. War for honour (not wealth) becomes a man like
93
TIBVLLVS
Messalla. Here however I cannot choose ; for love is stronger
than ambition, and I am in love. (Note the compliment to
both Messalla and the girl, and how artfully we have been led
by a series of hints to this point.)
Now as if in reply to the implied reproach of the previous
lines he names the girl, and immediately adds — 'But fame
and fortune are nothing to me, Delia, if you will only love me
as long as I live. Death would be sweet after such a life.
Death however cuts off love, and old age makes it ridiculous.
Both come anon. Let us therefore make the most of youth
while it is yet ours. Here I am in my element. Here in
fact I have already taken service. Hence therefore,' etc., and
he ends on the keynote (1-6).
By way of comparison, let us examine the first elegy of
Propertius to Cynthia (1, 1).
1-8. Since I fell in love with Cynthią I have been utterly
helpless in her hands. She has ruined me, and I have no
redress.
9-18. The myth of Milanion and Atalanta the huntress, i.e.
(following the Alexandrian rule, see p. 15) the literary proto-
type of his own case. The transition from 8 to 9 has been
postponed to 16–18, so that he can sum up after his favourite
fashion, and proceed to his next topic by showing that the
prototype is not as complete as it appeared at first sight.
Preces' and 'benefacta' saved the day for Milanion, but his
wits were sharpened by adversity, mine, alas ! are paralyzed.
19–30. If these fakirs from Thessaly with their stale moon
trick could make her suffer as I suffer, I might believe anything
of them.
Help, friends! But no, it is too late.
Take me to the ends of the earth beyond the reach of woman-
kind. Only the happy should stay here. My case is desperate.
35 ff. Beware, ye lovers all, and shun the fault I fell in.
There is no carefully managed transition here as in Tibullus,
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INTRODUCTION
none of his anticipatory hints, no recurring notes with added
motives and variations. Propertius does not pause for transitions,
he does not anticipate, often the general statement is only to be
derived from a series of particulars, he does not end as Tibullus
does. “My case is pitiable — worse than its prototype — my case
is hopeless. Lovers, take warning ere you regret it.' Such is the
sum of his thought. In other words Propertius is highly emo-
tional, He even starts his melody as it were with a bang, like a
man whose feelings are already too much for him. Much of the
difficulty and not a little of the modernity of this great poet may
be traced to these emotional qualities of his style.
Still a different type is represented by Ovid. It varies accord-
ing to theme and mood, but it is usually characteristic of his neat
and orderly methods and reflects his rhetorical training. An ex-
treme case is Amores, 1, 9, really a suasoria in verse, beginning
with a statement of his theme-
militat omnis amans et habet sua castra Cupido:
Attice, crede mihi, militat omnis amans –
followed by a series of proofs and illustrations and ending with
the Q. E. D.—
qui nolet fieri desidiosus, amet!
As regards the once popular theory of strophic arrangement we
are probably safe in saying that so far as not only Tibullus but also
the entire elegy is concerned such regular recurrence as we ob-
serve is due simply to rhetoric. On general principles strophic
arrangement should not inhere in any types of poetry except those
with which the accompaniment of music or the dance is tradi-
tional and constant. The recurring strain of music, the recurring
figure of the dance, the opposition of chorus to chorus, of sex to
sex, of shepherd to shepherd, is the real and reasonable basis of
strophic arrangement and demonstrates its value and usefulness.
There is nothing now to show that it was characteristic even of
the earliest elegy which was accompanied by the flute. The
95
TIBVLLVS
13
Alexandrian development was away from the lyric toward the
narrative type. After and even before that time a musical ac-
companiment was not characteristic of the elegy. The Romans,
as we have seen, did not sing their poetry, but declaimed it."
Tibullus's peculiar method of developing his theme which has
been described above is one of the most notable marks of that
kinship with Mimnermos long ago observed by Gruppe and since
then commented upon by Sellar, Plessis, Leo, Crusius, and others.
It is also interesting to observe that this scheme of exposition is
in entire harmony with the traditional wave effect, the to and fro
of thought and emotion, produced by the distich itself.
Here too Tibullus was an artist of the first rank and went his
own way. For mastery of the distich we may pair Tibullus with
Ovid, Propertius with Catullus and probably with Gallus, whom
Quintilian describes as “durior.'
The general laws of the distich may be learned from any gram-
mar and are the same for both languages. As soon however as
we investigate details and variations of usage, we find that the
Roman distich as finally developed by the great masters is dis-
tinctly national. In tracing its growth on Roman soil and in de-
fining Tibullus's position in the process two laws of general appli-
cation should be kept in mind.
The first is that in every department of Roman poetry the
progress was always toward greater strictness of technique. Ex-
ceptional usage, whether inherited from the Greek norm or per-
mitted by Latin itself, has a tendency either to disappear or to be
confined by certain definite restrictions. Hence the most strik-
ing difference between Catullus the beginner, still too near his
Greeks, and Ovid the master, who had before him not only
Gallus, Propertius, and Tibullus, but many other poets since lost.
1
16. Lafaye, Catulle et ses Modèles; Teuffel-Skutsch, Gesch. der Röm. Litt.
245, 6 and ref. Crusius's theory of the influence of the nomos is not univer-
sally accepted; cp. Leo, Gött. Gel. Anz. 1898, p. 56: 'It is impossible to derive
a literary form from a musical form: the elegy has no more connection with the
nomos than the sonnet with the sonata.'
96
INTRODUCTION
The second is the law of department. The distich requires to
be handled with the utmost daintiness and skill. It is less toler-
ant of exceptional usage in the elegy than in the epigram. The
hexameter of the elegy for example is ostensibly the same as that
of the epigram, the epic, and the Horatian satire. But in freedom
of usage by departments there is a regular decrease in the order
- satire, epic, epigram, elegy. Hence the difference between the
hexameter of Ovid the elegiac, and Ovid the epic poet.
To the combined operation of both laws, the law of chronology
and the law of department, is due the apparent contradiction that
the hexameter of Horace the satirist is nearer to the verse of
Lucretius the epic poet than to the verse of Juvenal in his own
department, and that the distich of Martial the epigrammatist par-
takes less of his predecessor Catullus than of Ovid the elegist.
The multiplied pressure of both laws in the elegy itself greatly
accelerated the growth of the distich. Less than a generation
completed a process which in the case of the epic went on for
more than a century.
The main points to be considered in the hexameter are the
caesura, the cadence, the schemata, and the proportion of dac-
tyls. The details of Tibullian usage in these respects are men-
tioned in the commentary as they occur. Here it is enough to
say that Tibullus's fondness for the favourite Roman caesura semi-
quinaria (as, e.g., in 1, 1, 1) is less marked than that of Ovid.
His proportion of dactyls is also somewhat less and the slight in-
crease in his dactyls from 44.9 per cent in book 1 to 48.6 per cent
in book 2 seems to indicate that in this respect he was developing in
the direction of Ovid. The versus spondiacus however (i.e. a spondee
in the fifth foot) is never found. Ten occur in the elegy of Ca-
tullus, 6 in the elegy of Ovid, 7 in Propertius. In his cadence too
Tibullus is more careful even than Ovid. Propertius on the con-
trary, especially in his earlier work, drops back almost to the in-
experience of Catullus.
In the matter of dactyls the pentameter, generally speaking,
97
TIBVLLVS
follows the lead of the hexameter: in the direction of greater
lightness. In the matter of the schemata, i.e. the four possible
combinations of dactyls and spondees in the first two feet, the
Romans emphasized especially the Alexandrian fondness for DS,
and increased the proportion of DD at the expense of the other
two. In other words in the pentameter, as in the hexameter,
there was a growing fondness for a dactyl in the first foot.
But the most striking development of the Roman pentameter as
opposed to the Greek is the so-called law of the dissyllable, i.e.
the rapidly growing tendency which finally became fixed to end
the verse with an iambic word. For the Greeks there was more
freedom here than in the cadence of the hexameter, and there was
also no marked chronological development. The favourites are
words of two, three, or four syllables, and usage is about equally
divided. Monosyllables were not liked, but otherwise the choice
of a word here appears to have been determined largely by con-
venience. Words of five, six, or seven syllables are less common
here, but they are also less common in the language itself.
Turning now to Latin we find that Catullus, as usual, was fol-
lowing the Greeks, but there is already a decided tendency to the
dissyllable. Note too that the tendency is more marked in his
elegy than in his epigram. This difference, though less marked in
later times, was one that always remained. As compared with
Catullus, the work of Tibullus shows an enormous increase in favour
of the dissyllable. The difference however between the first and
second book is too slight to warrant the conclusion that he would
have gone farther in this direction if he had lived. The notable
freedom of Propertius in the first three books, which reminds one
of Catullus and probably brackets him in this respect with Gallus,
indicates inexperience or a subsequent change of heart. At all
events in his last elegies, written some years later, it has practi-
cally disappeared. Lygdamus, as usual, follows Tibullus. With
Ovid the law of the dissyllable finally became fixed.
Many regret the establishment of this rule. They see in-the
98
INTRODUCTION
final result an emasculated, monotonous sweetness which helped
to make the Ovidian elegy a finished product in both senses of
the word. Doubtless we should feel less regret if we could pro-
nounce Latin as Ovid did, for that this law is associated in some
way with the accentual system of Latin as opposed to Greek may
fairly be assumed. It may also be assumed that agreement of
word' accent and verse ictus was as desirable here as in the cadence
of the hexameter. But in that case we need oxytones, and
in the ordinary pronunciation of Ovid's time there were no
oxytones. .
Zielinski? however has shown that both poetry and oratorical
prose were not —and owing to conservatism, never had been -
pronounced according to the familiar rules of accentuation in the
time of Cicero and Augustus, but that on the contrary they retain
and echo the pronunciation of the time of Plautus, when they first .
reached artistic prominence. At all events 'forént' represents the
required accentuation of all iambic words at the close of a
Ciceronian clausula, and here perhaps we have the real explanation
of the law of the dissyllable at the close of the pentameter.
If both halves contain dactyls only and close with an iambic word
the result is a uniform cadence for both. The pre-Alexandrian
elegy made no effort to avoid this combination, but in the
surviving pentameters of Kallimachos it is very rare. Catullus
was not especially influenced by the norm of Kallimachos, but in
Tibullus the presence of only four such lines (1, 4, 4; 1, 5, 64;
2, 2, 22 ; 2, 5, 18) seems to indicate deliberate avoidance. The
same is true of Ovid, but to a less degree. Many of his examples
however as, e.g., Amores, 3, 3, 8-
longa decensque fuit: longa decensque manet -
are for special rhetorical effects. Propertius never paid any at-
tention to this refinement of technique ; see 2, 5, 18 n.
Elision was a law of the Latin language ; hence the only way to
-
1 Das Klauselgesetz in Ciceros Reden, p. 242; cp. A.J. P. 25, p. 462.
99
TIBVLLVS
avoid it was to avoid a concurrence of vowels. Frequency and
freedom in its use are therefore characteristic of ordinary speech,
and of comedy and satire, the literary departments most nearly
allied to ordinary speech. Vergil avoids harsh elision, but other-
wise is noted for his freedom. With Ovid the use of elision
diminished rapidly, and the process continued until in the late
poets it practically reached the vanishing point. Tibullus was
notably careful in this important matter; but the observations of
Hoerschelmann? show that there was considerable development
between books i and 2.
Synaloephe with est occurs in thesi at the close of the verse or
(less often) at a caesura, though at a semiternaria only in book 1.
It occurs in arsi only at the close of the verse. The one exception
is I, I, 22.
Hiatus is found only in 1, 5, 33, where see note.
Exceptions to the regular rules of prosody are rare, and more or
less characteristic of all contemporary poetry. Synaeresis occurs
but once (2, 1, 49), diaeresis, but twice (1, 7, 2 ; I, 7, 40).
Shortening of e in the third person plural of the perf. indic. act. ---
occasional in all dactylic verse - is to be found in 2, 3, 12 and
4, 5, 4. On procurare, I, 5, 13, choréae, I, 3, 59, and final o
in the present ind. act., 2, 6, 41, see the notes. Wölfflin's rule of
săcrā or sācră for Tibullus is not supported by the Ambrosianus
in 1, 3, 18 (see note). On lengthening of a final syllable not
in hiatu, but before a caesura, see 1, 10, 13, and 2, 2, 5 with the
notes.
Closely associated with metrical technique, as already discussed,
is the length, form, and arrangement of a sentence with relation to
the distich. Here however we must content ourselves with a few
general statements.
It may be said that on the whole the Greeks allowed the sentence
to run on with every variety of pause. Indeed for certain moods
the long sentence appears even to have been cultivated by some of
1 Philologus, 56, 355.
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INTRODUCTION
the Alexandrian poets. The Roman elegy, on the contrary is
marked by a rapidly growing conception of the distich as a unity.
Even in the elegies of Catullus, though sentences run through six,
eight, and ten distichs, we usually find at least a quasi-pause at the
close of the pentameter. In the developed elegy the long sen-
tence, comparatively speaking, is characteristic of Propertius.
Next comes Tibullus, and lastly Ovid. But in all three poets there
is always a pause at the end of the pentameter, and the sentence
itself is so arranged as to bring out the symmetrical relations of
distich to distich. Cp. Tib. I, I, 1-4 ; 25-28 ; 45-48 ; 2, 19-
22 ; 59-62 ; 66–74, etc.; Prop. I, I, 3-6 ; 19–26 ; 2, 1-6; 15–
22, etc. ; Ovid, Amor. I, 1, 21–24 ; 2, 1-4 ; 3, 7-14, etc.
But in harmony with the simplicity of his type the sentences of
Tibullus are rarely long, and never complex. His clauses are
direct and simple ; the thought is brought out more frequently by
coördination, or even by mere juxtaposition, than by the more
common Roman habit of grouping ideas in the perspective afforded
by the various relations of hypotaxis. Hence when connecting
particles occur they are more often coördinate than subordinate.
Not infrequently they are omitted altogether, especially between
distichs, and the connection, as so often in English, is left to the
reader. Here too should be reckoned the enormous use of
anaphora so characteristic of Tibullus. As Sellar (p. 245) well
says : "Tibullus fully recognizes the limits of the distich, and its
inadequacy to the expression of consecutive thought. Poetry
with him returns to something like its original function before it
was used as the organ of action and thought. It becomes in a
great measure again the simple expression of feeling in the form of
a prayer, a wish, or a regret.'
The sentence however is profoundly affected by the fact that
the distich is a unit, each half of which is the complement of the
other. We must therefore so arrange what we have to say between
the two halves of the distich as to balance and unite them, and yet
to distinguish them sharply by comparison, contrast, emphasis, etc.
IOI
TIBVLLVS
Otherwise we may develop the thought in one or two principal
ways.
1. Division of the idea into parts, unfolding it in continuous
sentences and clauses. Characteristic of Tibullus, and in a
different form, of Ovid. See Tib. I, I, 1-2 ; 3-4 ; 9-10 ; 11-
12, etc. This device runs through the elegy, and makes for
simplicity.
II. Amplification by repetition of the same idea in different
forms. Characteristic of Propertius and, in a different way, of
Ovid. This device — one of the best known and most common in
rhetoric — is of course used in various ways, e.g. positive, then neg-
ative ; literal, then figurative; general, then particular, etc. The
hexameter foreshadows the pentameter (hence the point of the
épigram is often in the pentameter), or the pentameter remodels
the hexameter, and adds something to it, comments on it, merely
echoes it for emphasis, etc., etc. Compare, e.g., Tib. I, I, 39-40 ;
43-44 ; 55-56 ; Ovid, Amor. I, 9, 1-2 ; 3-4 ; 21–22 ; 25–26 ;
31–32; 35-36 ; 41-42.
If the distich is filled by a single sentence, it is usual to divide
subject and predicate in some artistic way between the two
verses. For example we should avoid ending the grammatical con-
struction with the hexameter. In this way the two verses are at
once united and distinguished. Compare Tib. I, 1, 19-20 ; 23–
24 ; 31–32 ; 33-34 ; 35-36, etc.
Again a clause depending on an adjective or participle and
nearly or quite filling the pentameter is tacked on the sentence.
Very characteristic of Propertius; cp. I, 1, 1-2 ; 2, 19–20, etc.
So even of an entire distich, cp. I, 15, 25-29. The habit reflects
his highly emotional strain. The pentameter is a sigh, an echo, an
afterthought, a comment. Emotion is not periodic. If it must
express itself in long sentences, they naturally take such forms as
these. The only cases in Tibullus are 1, 5, 13-14 ; 1, 7, 2 f.; 1,
7, 28 f.; 1, 8, 72 ; 2, 5, 24, but all have the subject or object of the
1 Here Dissen is still of real value. See his Introd., p. LXII, f.
102
INTRODUCTION
first line at the beginning of the second, and are therefore quite
different from the characteristic form of Propertius, 1, 1, 1-2.
So if the distich is filled by a succession of sentences or clauses
it is usual to clamp the two halves by avoiding a too frequent pause
at the close of the hexameter. Tibullus often pauses near the
beginning of the pentameter, as in 1, 1, 34 and 40; 2, 4; 28;
34 ; 58; 88; 98, etc., but a full pause at the end of the fifth foot
of the hexameter, as in 1, 4, 27 and 63; 1, 5, 61 and 75; 1, 9,
II (not in book 2), was always rare in careful writers. Charac-
teristic of Tibullus here, as we should expect, is the special em-
phasis upon parallelism between the two verses. The thought falls
into two parts, and the fact is emphasized, e.g., by contrasting
negative and positive or vice versa (1, 1, 9-10; 37–38; 67-68;
2, 15-16; 23–24 ; 63-64 ; 4, 21-22, etc.). Less common in
Propertius, and usually modified and extended as in 1, 2, 15-22 ;
23–24, etc.
Another very common method of marking the relation was
by the use of contrasted epithets. This is of course charac-
teristic of the distich as a whole, but it is especially notable in
the distich of Tibullus (1, 1, 21–22 ; 45-46; 47–48; 2, 17-18;
4, II-I2; 49-50; 5, 67-68, and often).
All these aspects of the sentence within the distich are found
also in the versatile Ovid. But Ovid is not simple in the manner
of Tibullus, nor emotional in the manner of Propertius. He has
the grace, rapidity, and variety of one who was at once a highly
trained rhetorician and a natural story-teller. These qualities
are reflected in the variety of his sentences, but especially in
the brief, snappy sentence— the solution of a long period into
a series of separate statements without connecting particles
which is peculiarly Ovidian and foreshadows the rhetoric of the
Silver Age (Amores, 3, 4, 1-10; 2, 10, I ff.; Ars Amat. 2,
144-160, etc.).
The distich also had an equally strong influence upon the
arrangement of the words within the sentence itself. The full
103
TIBVLLVS
development of this art constitutes one of the most important
contributions of the Alexandrians to the technique of the dis-
tich. It was mainly caused by the fact that when the elegy
became descriptive it naturally returned to lyric, and borrowed
its bolder and more artful arrangement of words. The object
of all such arrangement was to bring out not only the relation
of hexameter to pentameter, but also, within each verse, of
hemistich to hemistich. Among these phenomena we may
mention -
1. The arrangement of a noun and its adjective at the ends
respectively of the two hemistichs, thus, 1, 1, 2 :
1. et teneat culti | iugera multa soli,
or 1, 1, 21:
tunc vitula innumeros | lustrabat caesa iuvencos,
(much more frequent in the pentameter than in the hexameter).
If the words belong to the same declension, the result is an
assonance which serves to impress the relation on the ear. The
frequency of this assonance in the Alexandrian poets is notable.
Of the 49 pentameters in the one long fragment of Herme-
sianax (Athen. 597), no less than 26 are examples of it. Prob-
ably Philetas belonged to the same class. In the hymn of
Kallimachos to Pallas 16 of the 25 pentameters so constructed
(out of a total of 71) contain assonance. A similar situation in
the elegies of Catullus shows his study of Alexandrian models.
The frequency of it in highly descriptive passages, e.g., 66, 13 ff.,
is also significant. After Catullus all the elegiac poets con-
stantly use this device. Of the threė, Tibullus is freest in
the pentameter, Propertius in the hexameter. With all, the ar-
rangement adj. — subst. is much more common than subst. — adj.
Rasi's figures for the pentameter are: Tibullus, adj. — subst.,
38.35 per cent; subst. — adj., 3.33 per cent. Propertius, adj. ---
subst., 38.01 per cent; subst. — adj., 7.28 per cent. Ovid,
Amores, adj. — subst., 24.61 per cent; subst. — adj., 11.48 per
104
INTRODUCTION
a bo
cent. In fact the frequency of such phenomena. as these might
well be responsible for the growth of rhyme in later poetry.
Often the verb is placed between. This serves to clamp,
.6.8., I, 6, 24.
Other less common but equally artistic methods of accomplish-
ing the same purpose are sufficiently explained by the following
examples :
2. spicea quae templi | pendeat ante fores.
3. maluerit praedas / stultus et arma sequi.
nam neque tunc plumae , nec stragula picta soporem.
4. totus et argento | contextus totus et auro.
5. pomosisque ruber | custos ponatur in hortis.
terreat ut saeva | falce Priapus aves.
No. 5 is especially common in Ovid. Note, e.g., Amores,
1, 2, 30,
et nộva captiva | vincula mente feram,
or Amor. 1, 2, 48 (a contrast by chiasmus),
tủ gravis alitibus | tigribus ille fuit,
or Amor. 1, 2, 52,
qua vicit victos | protegit ille manu,
or Amor. 1, 3, 15-16,
non mihi mille placent, non sum desultor amoris,
tu mihi, siqua fides, cura perennis eris.
Amores I, 9 deserves especial study in this connection..
It will be seen that this rhetorical aspect of the distich was
most fully developed by Ovid. He uses it to bring out the sharp
contrasts, the neat points, the swift lightness of touch for which
he is justly famous. Catullus is near the Alexandrians. Tibullus
shows his kinship with the Ionians. He is Mimnermos tempered
by Philetas (?).
105
TIBVLLVS
As we study these and similar details we see more and more
clearly that if one is to sing of love, of the old stories of other
days, of the great historic legends of Rome one needs a distich
more sonorous and ornate than the old gnomic type. It is cer-
tain therefore that the Roman elegiac poets did well to learn
the metrical art of the distich from the Alexandrians.
106
TIBVLLVS
LIBER PRIMVS
Divitias alius fuivo sibi congerat auro
et teneat culti iugera multa soli,
quem labor adsiduus vicino terreat hoste,
Martia cui somnos classica pulsa fugent:
me mea paupertas vita traducat inerti,
dum meus adsiduo luceat igne focus.
ipse seram teneraa matuto tenisore vites a
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.
.
nam veneror, seu stipes habet desertús in agris
seu vetus in trivio florida serta-lapis
et quodcumque mihi pomum novus educat annus,
libatum agricolae ponitur ante ueo.
15 flava Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona
spicea quae templi pendeat ante fores:
pomosisque ruber custos ponatur in hortis
terreat ut saeva falce Priapus aves.
vos quoque, felicis quondam, nunc par
20. custodes, fertis munera vestra, La
tunc vitula innumeros lustrabat car
nunc agna exigui est hostia pa
107
1, 1,23]
TIBVLLVS
?
".
1
.
ka
HAXH
.
*
YA
ASASI
*
S
agna cadet vobis quam circum rustica pubes
clamet ‘io messes et bona vina date.'
25 iam modo iam possim contentus vivere parvo
nec semper longae deditus esse viae,
sed Canis aestivos ortus vitare sub umbra
arboris ad rivos praetereuntis aquae.
nec tamen interdum pudeat tenuisse bidentem
aut stimulo tardos increpuisse boves,
non agnamve sinu pigeat fetumve capellae
desertum oblita matre referre domum.
at vos exiguo pecori, furesque, lupique,
parcite : dé magno est praeda petenda grege.
35 hic ego pastoremque meum lustrare quot annis
et placidam soléo spargere lacte Palem.
adsitis, divi, nec vos e paupere mensa
dona nece puţis sperriite fictilibus.
feslia antiquus primum sibi fecit agrestis
osuita
non ego divitias patrum fuetissue requiro
en quos tulit antiquo con dita alessistavo :
parva seges satis est, salis est requiescere lecto
... si licet et solito membra levare toro.
.quam iuvat immites ventos audire cubantem
et dominam tenero continuisse sinu
t, gelidas hibernus aquas cum fuderit Auster,
curum somnos imbre iuvante sequi!
ihi contingat: sit dives iure furorem ..
vris et tristes ferre potest pluvias.
est auri pereat potiusque smaragdi,
ob nostras ulla puella vias.
terra, Messalla, marique,
les praeferat exuvias :

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108
LIBER PRIMVS
· [1, 2, 5
:55: me retinent vinctum formosae vincla puellae,
et sedeo duras ianitor ante fores.
non ego laudari curo, mea Delia : tecum
dum modo sim, quaeso segnis inersque vocer,
te spectem, suprema mihi cum venerit hora,
60 · te teneam moriens deficiente manu.
flebis et arsuro positum me, Delia, lecto,
tristibus et lacrimis oscula mixta dabis.
flebis : non tua sunt duro praecordia ferro
vincta, nec in tenero stat tibi corde silex.
65 illo non iuvenis poterit de funere quisquam
lumina, non virgo, siccæ referre domum.
tu manes ne laede meos, sed parce solutis twix
crinibus et teneris, Delia, parce genis.
interea, dum fata sinunt, iungamus amores:
70 iam veniet tenebris Mors adoperta caput:
iam subrepet iners aetas, nec amaré decebit, -*-.
dicere nec cano' blanditias capite.
nunc levis est tractanda Venus, dum frangere postes
non pudet, et rixas inseruisse iuvat...
75. hic ego dux milesqúe bonus: vos, signa tubaeque,
. ite procul, cupidis vuſnera ferte viris :.
ferte et opes : ego composito securus acervo
despiciam dites despiciamque famem.
2
Adde merum vinoque novos compesce dolores,
occupet ut fessi lumina victa sopor :
neu quisquam multo percussum tempora Baccho
excitet, infelix dum requiescit amor.
nam posita est nostrae custodia' saeva puellae,
5
109
1, 2, 6]
TIBVLLVS
clauditur et dura ianua firma sera.
ianua difficilis domini, te verberet imber,
te Iovis imperio fulmina missa petant.
ianua, iam pateas uni mihi, victa querellis,
10 neu furtim verso cardine aperta sones.
et mala si qua tibi dixit dementia nostra,
ignoscas: capiti sint precor illa meo.
te meminisse decet quae plurimâ voce peregi
supplice, cum posti florida-serta darem.
15 ! tu quoque ne-timide custodes, Delia, falle ;
i audendum est : fortes adiuvat ipsa Venus.
illa favet, seu quis iuvenis nova limina temptat,
seu reserat fixo dente puella fores :
illa docet molli furtim derepere lecto,
20 illa pedem nullo ponere posse sono,
illa viro coram nutus conferre loquaces .
blandaque compositis abdere verba notis.
nec docet hoc omnes, sed quos nec inertia tardat
| nec vetat obscura surgere nocte timor.
25 en ego cum tenebris tota vagor anxius urbe,
30
25a nec sinit occurrat quisquam qui corpora ferro
vulneret aut raptā praemia veste petat.
quisquis amore tenetur eat tutusquę sacerque
qualibet : insidias non timuisse decet.
non mihi pigra nocent hibernae frigora noctis,
non mihi, cum multa decidit imber aqua.
- non labor-hic laedit, reseret modo Delia postes ,
et vocet ad digiti me taciturna sonum.
parcite luminibus, seu vir seu femina fiat
óbvia : celari vult sua furta Venus.
35 neu strepitu terrete pedum, neu quaerite nomen,
ΙΙΟ,
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 2, 67
50
neu propè fulgenti lumina ferte face.
si quis et imprudens aspexerit, occulat ille
perque deos omnes se meminisse neget:
nam fuerit quicumque loquax, is sanguine natam,
40 is. Venerem e rapido sentiet esse mari.
nec tamen huic credet coniunx tuus, ut mihi verax --
pollicita est magico saga ministerio.
hanc ego de caelo ducentem sidera vidi,
fluminis haec rapidi carmine vertit iter,
45 haec cantu finditque solum manesque sepulcris
elicit et tepido devocat ossa rogo:
iam tenet infernas magico stridore catervas,
iam iubet aspersas lacte referre pedem.
cum libet, haec tristi depellit nubila caelo:
cum libet, aestivo convocat orbe nives.
sola tenere malas Medeae dicitur herbas,
sola feros Hecatae perdomuisse canes.
haec mihi composuit cantus, quis fallere posses:
ter cane, ter dictis despue carminibus.
55 ille nihil poterit de nobis credere cuiquam,
non sibi, si in molli viderit ipse toro.
tu tamen abstineas aliis : nam cetera cernet
omnia : de me uno sentiet ille nihil.
quid credam? nempe haec eadem se dixit amores
60 cantibus aut herbis solvere posse meos,
et me lustravit taedis, et nocte screna
is concidit ad magicos hostia pulla deos.
non ego totus abesset amor, sed mutuus esset,
orabam, nec te posse carere velim.
65 ferreus ille fuit qui, te cum posset habere,
maluerit praedas stultus et arma sequi.
ille licet Cilicum victas agat ante catervas,
III
1, 2, 68]
TIBVLLVS
ponat et in capto Martia castra solo,
totus et argento contextus, totus et auro,
70 insideat celeri conspiciendus equo,
ipse boves mea si tecum modo Delia possim
iungere et in solito pascere monte pecus,
et te dum liceat teneris retinere lacertis,
mollis et inculta sit mihi somnus humo.
75 quid Tyrio recubare toro sine amore secundo
prodest, cum fletu nox vigilanda venit ?
nam neque tunc plumae nec stragula picta soporem
nec sonitus placidae ducere posset aquae.
num Veneris magnae violavi numina verbo,
80 et mea nunc poenas impia lingua luit ?
num feror incestus sedes adiisse deorum
sertaque de sanctis deripuisse focis ?
non ego, si merui, dubitem procumbere templis
et dare sacratis oscula liminibus,
85 non ego tellurem genibus perrepere supplex
et miserum sancto tundere poste caput.
at tu qui laetus rides mala nostra, caveto
mox tibi : non uni saeviet usque deus.
vidi ego qui iuvenum miseros lusisset amores.
90 post Veneris vinclis subdere colla senem
et sibi blanditias tremula componere voce
et manibus canas fingere velle comas:
stare nec ante fores puduit caraeve puellae
ancillam medio detinuisse foro.
95 hunc puer, hunc iuvenis turba circumterit arta,
despuit in molles et sibi quisque sinus.
at mihi parce, Venus: semper tibi dedita servit
mens mea : quid messes uris acerba tuas ?
II2
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 3, 30
5
10
15
Ibitis Aegaeas sine me, Messalla, per undas,
o utinam memores ipse cohorsque mei :
me tenet ignotis aegrum Phaeacia terris :
abstineas avidas, Mors precor atra, manus.
abstineas, Mors atra, precor: non hic mihi mater
quae legat in maestos, ossa perusta sinus,
non soror, Assyrios cineri quae dedat odores
et fleat effusis ante sepulcra comis,
Delia non usquam quae, me cum mitteret urbe,
dicitur ante omnes consuluisse deos.
illa sacras pueri sortes ter sustulit: illi
rettulit e trinis, omina certa puer.
cuncta dabant reditus: tamen est detcrrita numquam,
quin fieret nostras, respiceretque vias.
ipse ego solator, cum iam mandata dedissem,
quaerebam tardas anxius usque moras;
aut ego sum causatus, aves dant omina dira,
Saturni sacram me tenuisse diem.
o quotiei's ingressus iter mihị tristia dixi
offensum in porta signa dedisse pedem !
audeat invito ne quis discedere Amore,
aut sciat egressum se prohibente deo.
quid tua nunc Isis mihi, Delia, quid mihi prosunt
illa tua totiens aera repulsa manu,
quidve, pie dum sacra colis, pureque lavari
te (memini) et puro secubuisse toro ?
nunc, dea, nunc succurre mihi (nam posse mederi
picta docet templis multa tabella tuis),
ut mea votivas persolvens Delia voces
ante sacras lino tecťa fores sedeat
20
25
30
113
1, 3, 31]
TILVLLVS
35
40
45
bisque die resoluta comas tibi dicere laudes
insignis turba debeat in Pharia,
at mihi contingat patrios celebrare Penates
reddereque antiquo menstrua tura Lari.
quam bene Saturno vivebant rege, prius quam
tellus in longas est patefacta vias!
nondum caeruleas pinus contempserat undas,
effusum ventis praebueratque sinum,
nec vagus ignotis repetens compendia terris
presserat externa navita merce ratem.
illo non validus subiit iuga tempore taurus,
non domito frenos ore momordit equus,
'non domus ulla fores habuit, non fixus in agris
qui regeret certis finibus arva lapis.
ipsae mella dabant quercus, ultroque ferebant
obvia securis ubera lactis oves.
non acies, non ira fuit, non bellà, nec ensem
immiti saevus duxerat arte faber.
nunc Iove sub domino caedes et vulnera semper,
nunc mare, nunc leti mille repente viae.
parce, pater. timidum non me periuria terrent,
non dicta in sanctos impia verba deos.
quod si fatales iam nunc explevimus annos,
fac lapis inscriptis stet super ossa notis :
hic iacet immiti consumptus morte Tibullus,
Messallam terra dum sequiturque mari.'
sed me, quod facilis tenero sum semper Amori,
ipsa Venus campos ducet in Elysios. -
hic choreae cantusque vigent, passim que vagantes
dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aves,
fert casiam non culta seges, totosque per agros
floret odoratis terra benigna rosis:
50
55
60
114
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 3, 94
65
70
75
ac iuvenum series teneris immixta puellis
ludit, et adsidue proelia miscet Amor.
illic est cuicumque rapax Mors venit amanti,
et gerit insigni myrtea serta coma..
at scelerata iacet sedes in nocte profunda
abdita, quam circum flumina nigra sonant:
Tisiphoneque impexa feros pro crinibus angues
saevit, et huc illuc impia turba fugit:
tunc niger in porta serpentum Cerberus ore
stridet, et aeratas excubat ante fores.
illic Iunonem temptare Ixionis ausi
versantur celeri noxia membra roţa,
porrectusque novem Tityos per iugera terrae
adsiduas atro viscere pascit aves.
Tantalus est illic, et circum stagna: sed acrem
iam iam poturi deserit unda sitim:
et Danai proles, Veneris quod numina laesit,
in cava Lethaeas dolia portat aquas.
illic sit quicumque meos violavit amores,
optavit lentas et mihi militias.
at tu casta precor maneas, sanctique pudoris
adsideat custos sedula semper anus.
hace tibi fabellas referat positaque lucerna
- deducat plena stamina longa colo.
at irca gravibus pensis adfixa puella
paulatim somno fessa remittat opus.
tunc veniam subito, nec quisquam nuntiet ante,
sed videar caelo missus adesse tibị. .
tunc mihi, qualis eris, longos turbata capillos,
obvia nudato, Delia, curre pede.
hoc precor, hunc illum nobis Aurora nitentem
Luciferum roseis caudicid portet equis.
80
85
90
115
1, 4, 1]
TIBVLLVS
IO
"Sic umbrosa tibi contingant tecta, Priape,
: ne capiti soles, ne noceantque nives:
quae tua formosos cepit sollertia ? certe
non tibi barba nitet, non tibi culta coma est,
5 nudus et hibernae producis frigora brumae,
nudus et aestivi tempora sicca Canis.'
sic ego: tum Bacchi respondit rustica proles
armatus curva sic mihi falce deus.
'o fuge te tenerae puerorum credere turbae:
nam causam iusti semper amoris habent.
hic placet, angustis quod equum compescit habenis:
hic placidam niveo pectore pellit aquam:
hic, quia fortis adest audacia, cepit: at illi
virgineus teneras stat pudor ante genas.
15 sed ne te capiant, primo si forte negabit,
taedia : paulatim sub iuga colla dabit.
longa dies homini docuit parere leones,
longa dies molli saxä peredit aqua:
annus in apricis maturat collibus uvas,
20. annus agit certa lucida signa vice.
nec iurare time: Veneris periuria venti
irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt.
gratia magna Iovi: vetuit pater ipse valere
iurasset cupide quidquid ineptus amor:
25 perque suas impune sinit Dictynna sagittas
adfirmes, crines perque Minerva suos.
at si tardus eris, errabis : transiet aetas :
quam cito non segnis stat remeatque dies,
quam cito purpureos deperdit terra colores,
30 quam cito formosas populus alba comas!
116
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 4, 62
35
40
quam iacet, infirmae venere ubi fata senectae,
qui prior Eleo-est carcere missus equus!
vidi iam iuvenem, premeret cum serior aetas,
maerentem stultos praeteriisse dies.
crudeles divi! serpens novus exuit annos :
formae non ullam fata dedere moram.
solis aeterna est Baccho Phoeboque iuventas :
nam decet intonsus crinis utrumque deum.
tu, puero quodcumque tuo temptare libebit,
cedas : obsequio plurima vincit amor.
neu comes ire neges, quamvis via longa paretur
et Canis arenti torreat arva siti,
quamvis praetexens picea ferrugine caelum
venturam admittat nimbifer Eurus aquam.
vel si caeruleas puppi volet ire per undas,
ipse levem remo per freta pelle ratem.
nec te paeniteat duros subiisse labores
aut opera insuetas atteruisse manus,
nec, velit insidiis altas si claudere valles,
dum placeas, umeri retia ferre negent.
si volet arma, levi temptabis ludere dextra :
saepe dabis nudum, vincat ut ille, latus.
tum tibi mitis erit, rapias tum cara licebit
oscula: pugnabit, sed tamen apta dabit.
rapta dabit primo, mox offeret ipse roganti,
post etiam collo se implicuisse velit.
heu male nunc artes miseras haec saecula tractant:
iam tener adsuevit munera velle puer.
at tua, qui Venerem docuisti vendere primus,
quisquis es, infelix urgeat ossa lapis.
Pieridas, pueri, doctos et amate poetas,
aurea nec superent munera Pieridas.
50
55
60
117
1, 4, 63]
TIBVLLVS
65
carmine purpurea est Nisi coma: carmina ni sint,
ex umero Pelopis non nituisset ebur.
quem referent Musae, vivet dum robora tellus,
dum caelum stellas, dum vehet amnis aquas.
at qui non audit Musas, qui vendit amorem,
Idaeae currus ille sequatur Opis
et tercentenas erroribus expleat urbes
et secet ad Phrygios vilia membra modos.
blanditiis vult esse locum Venus ipsa : querellis
supplicibus, miseris fletibus illa favet.'
haec mihi, quae canerem Titio, deus edidit ore:
sed Titium coniunx haec meminisse vetat.
pareat ille suae : vos me celebrate magistrum,'.
quos male habet multa callidus arte puer.
*gloria cuique sua est: me qui spernentur amantes
consultent: cunctis ianua nostra patet.
tempus erit, cum me Veneris praecepta ferentem
deducat iuvenum sedula turba senem.
heu heu quam Marathus lento me torquet amore!
deficiunt artes, deficiuntque doli.
parce, puer, quaeso, ne turpis fabula fiam,
cum mea ridebunt vana magisteria.
75
80
Asper eram et bene discidium me ferre loquebar:
at mihi nunc longe gloria fortis abest.
namque agor ut per plana citus sola verbere turben
quem celer adsueta versat ab arte puer.
ure ferum et torque, libeat ne dicere quicquam
magnificum post haec: horrida verba doma.
parce tamen, per te furtivi foedera lecti.
118
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 5, 39
10
15
20
per Venerem quaeso compositumque caput.
ille ego, cum tristi morbo defessa iaceres,
te dicor votis eripuisse meis :
ipseque te circum lustravi sulfure puro,
carmine cum magico praecinuisset anus:
ipse procuravi ne possent saeva nocere
somnia, ter sancta deveneranda mola :
ipse ego velatus filo tunicisque solutis
vota novem Triviae nocte silente dedi.
omnia persolvi : fruitur nunc alter amore,
et precibus felix utitur ille meis.
at mihi felicem vitam, si salva fuisses,
fingebam demens, sed renuente deo.
rura colam, frugumque aderit méa Delia custos.
area dum'messes sole calente teret,
aut mihi servabit plenis in lintribus uvas
pressaque veloci candida musta pede.
consuescet numerare pecus, consuescet amantis
garrulus in dominae ludere verna sinu.
illa deo sciet agricolae pro vitibus uvam,
pro segete spicas, pro grege ferre dapem.
illa regat cunctos, illi sint omnia curae:
at iuvet in tota me nihil esse domo.
huc veniet Messalla meus, cui dulcia poma
Delia selectis detrahat arboribus:
et tantum venerata virum, hunc sedula curet,
huic paret atque epulas ipsa ministra gerat.
haec mihi fingebam, quae nunc Eurusque Notusque
iactat odoratos vota per Armenios.
saepe ego temptavi curas depellere vino:
at dolor in lacrimas verterat omne merum.
saepe aliam tenui: sed iam cum gaudia adirem,
25
30
35
119
1, 5, 40)
TIBVLLVS
40
45
55
admonuit dominae deseruitque Venus.
tunc me, discedens devotum femina dixit,
et pudet et narrat scire nefanda meam.
non facit hoc verbis, facie tenerisque lacertis
devovet et flavis nostra puella comis.
talis ad Haemonium Nereis Pelea quondam
vecta est frenato caerula pisce Thetis.
haec nocuere mihi, quod adest huic dives amator:
venit in exitium callida lena meum.
sanguineas edat illa dapes atque ore cruento
tristia cum multo pocula felle bibat:
hanc volitent animae circum sua fata querentes
semper, et e tectis strix violenta canat:
ipsa fame stimulante furens herbasque sepulcris
quaerat et a saevis ossa relicta lupis,
currat et inguinibus nudis ululetque per urbes,
post agat e triviis aspera turba canum.
eveniet: dat signa deus: sunt numina amanti,
saevit et iniusta lege relicta Venus.
at tu quam primum sagae praecepta rapacis
desere: nam donis vincitur omnis anor.
pauper erit praesto semper tibi: pauper adibit
primus et in tenero fixus erit latere :
pauper in angusto fidus comes agmine turbae
subicietque manus efficietque viam:
pauper ad occultos furtim deducet amicos
vinclaque de niveo detrahet ipse pede.
heu canimus frustra, nec verbis victa patescit
ianua, sed plena est percutienda manu.
at tu qui potior nunc es, mea fata timeto:
versatur celeri Fors levis orbe rotae.
non frustra quidam iam nunc in limine perstat
60
65
70
I 20.
LIBER PRIMVS.
[1, 6, 24
sedulus ac crebro prospicit ac refugit
et simulat transire domum, mox deinde recurrit
solus et ante ipsas exscreat usque fores..
75. nescio quid furtivus amor parat. utere quaeso,
dum licet: in liquida nat tibi linter aqua.
6
10
Semper, ut inducar, blandos offers mihi vultus,
post tamen es misero tristis et asper, Amor.
quid tibi saevitiae mecum est? an gloria magna est
insidias homini composuisse deum?
nam mihi tenduntur casses: iam Delia furtim
nescio quem tacita callida nocte fovet.
illa quidem tam multa negat, sed credere durum est:
sic etiam de me pernegat usque viro.
ipse miser docui quo posset ludere pacto
custodes: heu heu nunc premor arte mea.
fingere tunc didicit causas, ut sola cubaret,
cardine tunc tacito vertere posse fores:
tunc sucos herbasque dedi, quis livor abiret
quem facit impresso mutua dente Venus.
at tu, fallacis coniunx incaute puellae,
me quoque servato, peccet ut illa nihil.
neu iuvenes celebret multo sermone caveto
neve cubet laxo pectus aperta sinu,
neu te decipiat nutu, digitoque liquorem
ne trahat et mensae ducat in orbe notas.
exibit quam saepe, time, seu visere dicet
sacra bonae maribus non adeunda deae.
at mihi si credas, illam sequar unus ad aras :
tunc mihi non oculis sit timuisse meis.
15
20
I 21
1, 6, 25]
L
TIBVLLVS
25 saepe, velut gemmas eius signumque probarem,
per causam memini me tetigisse manum:
· saepe mero somnum peperi tibi, at ipse bibebam
sobria supposita pocula victor aqua.
non ego te laesi prudens: ignosce fatenti;
iussit Amor: contra quis ferat arma deos ?
ille ego sum, nec me iam dicere vera pudebit,
instabat tota cui tua nocte canis. ..
quid tenera tibi coniuge opus? tua si bona nescis
servare, frustra clavis inest foribus.
35 te tenet, absentes alios suspirat amores
et simulat subito condoluisse caput.
at mihi servandam credas: non saeva recuso
verbera, detrecto non ego vincla pedum.
tum procul absitis, quisquis colit arte capillos,
40 et fluit effuso cui toga laxa sinu :
quisquis et occurret, ne possit crimen habere,
stet procul ante alia, stet procul ante via.
sic fieri iubet ipse deus, sic magna sacerdos
est mihi divino vaticinata sono.
45 'haec ubi Bellonae motu est agitata, nec acrem
flammam, non amens verbera torta timet:
ipsa bipenne suos caedit violenta lacertos
sanguineque effuso spargit inulta deam,
statque latus praefixa veru, stat saucia pectus,
et canit eventus quos dea magna monet.
parcite quam custodit Amor violare puellam,
ne pigeat magno post didicisse malo.
attigerit, labentur opes, ut vulnere nostro
sanguis, ut hic ventis diripiturque cinis.'
55 et tibi nescio quas dixit, mea Delia, poenas :
si tamen admittas, sit precor illa levis.
I 22
LIBER PRIMVS
:
[1, 6, 86
60
non ego te propter parco tibi, sed tua mater
me movet atque iras aurea vincit anus.
haec mihi te adducit tenebris multoque timore
coniungit nostras clam taciturna manus :
haec foribusque manet noctu me adfixa proculque
cognoscit strepitus me veniente pedum.
vive diu mihi, dulcis anus: proprios ego tecum,
sit modo fas, annos contribuisse velim.
65 te semper natamque tuam te propter amabo :
quidquid agit, sanguis est tamen illa tuus.
sit modo casta, doce, quamvis non vitta ligatos
impediat crines nec stola longa pedes.
et mihi sint durae leges, laudare nec ullam
possim ego quin oculos appetat illa meos :
ét si quid peccasse putet, ducarque capillis
immerito pronas proripiarque vias.
non ego te pulsare velim, sed, venerit iste
'si furor, optarim non habuisse manus.
75 nec saevo sis casta metu, sed mente fideli:
mutuus absenti te mihi servet amor.
: at quae fida fuit nulli, post victa senecta
ducit inops tremula stamina torta manu
firmaque conductis adnectit licia telis
tractaque de niveo vellere ducta putat.
hanc animo gaudente vident iuvenumque catervae
commemorant merito tot mala ferre senem :
hanc Venus ex alto flentem sublimis Olympo
70
85
haec aliis maledicta cadant: nos, Delia, amoris
exemplum cana simus uterque coma.
123
1.7, 1]
TIBVLLVS
7
TO
Hunc cècinere diem Parcae fatalia nentes
stamina non ulli dissoluenda deo :
hunc fore Aquitanas posset qui fundere gentes,
quem tremeret forti milite victus Atax.
evenere: novos pubės Romana triumphos
vidit et evinctos bracchia capta duces :
at te victrices lauros, Messalla, gerentem
portabat niveis currus eburnus equis.
non sine me est tibi partus honos: Tarbella Pyrene
testis et Oceani litora Santonici,
testis Arar Rhodanusque celer magnusque Garumna,
Carnutis et flavi caerula lympha Liger.
an te, Cydne, canam, tacitis qui leniter undis
caeruleus placidis per vada serpis aquis,'
quantus et aetherio contingens vertice nubes
frigidus intonsos Taurus alat Cilicas ?
quid referam ut volitet crebras intacta per urbes
alba Palaestino sancta columba Syro,
utque maris vastum prospectet turribus aequor
prima ratem ventis credere docta Tyros,
qualis et, arențes cum findit Sirius agros,
fertilis aestiva Nilus abundet aqua?
Nile pater, quanam possim te dicere causa
aut quibus in terris occuluisse caput?
te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres,
arida nec pluvio supplicat herba Iovi.
te canit atque suum pubes miratur Osirim
barbara, Memphiten plangere docta bovem.
primus aratra manu sollerti fecit Osiris
et teneram ferro sollicitavit humum,
20
25
30
124
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 7, 62
35
45
primus inexpertae commisit semina terrae
pomaque non notis legit ab arboribus.
hic docuit teneram palis adiungere vitem,
hic viridem dura caedere falce comam:
illi iucundos primum matura sapores
expressa incultis uva dedit pedibus.
ille liquor docuit voces inflectere cantu,
movit et ad certos nescia membra modos :
Bacchus et agricolae magno confecta labore
pectora tristitiae dissoluenda dedit :
Bacchus et adflictis requiem mortalibus adfert,
crura licet dura compede pulsa sonent.
non tibi sunt tristes curae nec luctus, Osiri,
sed chorus et cantus et levis aptus amor,
sed varii flores et frons redimita corymbis,
fusa sed ad teneros lutea palla pedes
et Tyriae vestes et dulcis tibia cantu
et levis occultis conscia cista sacris.
huc ades et centum ludis Geniumque choreis
concelebra et multo tempora funde mero:
illius et nitido stillent unguenta capillo,
et capite et collo mollia serta gerat.
sic venias hodierne : tibi dem turis honores,
liba et Mopsopio dulcia melle feram.
at tibi succrescat proles quae facta parentis
augeat et circa stet veneranda senen.
nec taceat monumenta viae quem Tuscula tellus
candidaque antiquo detinet Alba lare.
namque opibus congesta tuis hic glarea dura
sternitur, hic apta iungitur arte silex.
te canit agricola, magna cum venerit urbe
serus inoffensum rettuleritque pedem.
50
55
60
125
1, 7, 63]
TIBVLLVS
at tu, Natalis multos celebrande per annos,
candidior semper candidiorque veni.
10
Non ego celari possum quid nutus amantis
quidve ferant miti lenia verba sono.
nec mihi sunt sortes nec conscia fibra deorum,
praecinit eventus nec mihi cantus avis :
ipsa Venus magico religatum bracchia nodo
perdocuit multis non sine verberibus.
desine dissimulare: deus crudelius urit
quos videt invitos succubuisse sibi.
quid tibi nunc molles prodest coluisse capillos
saepeque mutatas disposuisse comas,
quid fuco splendente genas ornare, quid ungues
artificis docta subsecuisse manu?
frustra iam vestes, frustra mutantur amictus
ansaque compressos colligat arta pedes.
illa placet, quamvis inculto venerit ore
nec nitidum tarda compserit arte caput.
num te carminibus, num te pallentibus herbis
devovit tacito tempore noctis anus?
cantus vicinis fruges, traducit ab agris,
cantus et iratae detinet anguis iter,
cantus et e curru Lunam deducere temptat,
et faceret, si non aera repulsa sonent.
quid queror heu misero carmen nocuisse, quid herbas?
forma nihil magicis utitur auxiliis :
sed corpus tetigisse nocet, sed longa dedisse
oscula, sed femori conseruisse femur.
nec tu difficilis puero tamen esse memento;
15
20
25
126
LIBER PRIMVS
{1, 8, 59
30
35
40
persequitur poenis tristia facta Venus.
munera ne poscas : det munera canus amator,
ut foveat molli frigida membra sinu.
carior est auro iuvenis cui levia fulgent
ora nec amplexus aspera barba terit.
huic tu candentes umero suppone lacertos,
et regum magnae despiciantur opes.
at Venus inveniet puero succumbere furtim,
dum tumet et teneros conserit usque sinus,
et dare anhelanti pugnantibus umida linguis
oscula et in collo figere dente notas.
non lapis hanc gemmaeque iuvant quae frigore sola
dormiat et nulli sit cupienda viro.
heu sero revocatur amor seroque iuventas,
cum vetus infecit cana senecta caput.
tum studium formae est: coma tum mutatur, ut annos
dissimulet viridi cortice tincta nucis :
tollere tum cura est albos a stirpe capillos
et faciem dempta pelle referre novam.
at tu dum primi floret tibi temporis aetas
utere: non tardo labitur illa pede.
neu Marathum torque: puero quae gloria victo est?
in veteres esto dura, puella, senes.
parce precor tenero : non illi sontica causa est,
sed nimius luto corpora tirigit amor.
vel miser absenti maestas quam saepe querellas
conicit et lacrimis omnia plena madent!
'quid me spernis ?' ait. 'poterat custodia vinci :
ipse dedit cupidis fallere posse deus.
nota Venus furtiva mihi est, ut lenis agatur
spiritus, ut nec dent oscula rapta sonum :
et possum media quamvis obrepere nocte
45
50
55
17T
127
1, 8, 60]
TIBVLLVS
60 et strepitu nullo clam reserare fores.
quid prosunt artes, miserum si spernit amantem
et fugit ex ipso saeva puella toro ?
vel cum promittit, subito sed perfida fallit,
est mihi nox multis evigilanda malis.
65 dum mihi venturam fingo, quodcumque movetur,
illius credo tunc sonuisse pedes.'
desistas lacrimare, puer: non frangitur illa,
et tua iam fletu lumina fessa tument.
oderunt, Pholoe, moneo, fastidia divi,
70 nec prodest sanctis tura dedisse focis.
hic Marathus quondam miseros ludebat amantes,
nescius'ultorem post caput esse deum :
saepe etiam lacrimas fertur risisse dolentis
et cupidum ficta detinuisse mora :
75 nunc omnes odit fastus, nunc displicet illi
quaecumque opposita est ianua dura sera.
at te poena manet, ni desinis esse superba.
quam cupies votis hunc revocare diem!
5
Quid mihi, si fueras miseros laesurus amores,
foedera per divos, clam violanda, dabas ?
a miser, et si quis primo periuria celat,
sera tamen tacitis poena venit pedibus.
parcite, caelestes : aequum est impune licere
numina formosis laedere vestra semel.
lucra petens habili tauros adiungit aratro
et durum terrae rusticus urget opus,
lucra petituras freta per parentia ventis
ducunt instabiles sidera certa rates :
10
128
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 9, 42
15
20
25
muneribus meus est captus puer. at deus illa
in cinerem et liquidas munera vertat aquas.
iam mihi persolvet poenas, pulvisque decorem
detrahet et ventis horrida facta coma,
uretur facies, urentur sole capilli,
deteret invalidos et via longa pedes.
admonui quotiens 'auro ne pollue formam :
saepe solent auro multa subesse mala.
divitiis captus si quis violavit amorem,
asperaque est illi difficilisque Venus.
ure meum potius flamma caput et pete ferro
corpus et intorto verbere terga seca.
nec tibi celandi spes sit peccare paranti:
est deus occultos qui vetat esse dolos.
ipse deus tacito permisit saepe ministro
ederet ut multo libera verba mero:
ipse deus somno domitos emittere vocem
iussit et invitos facta tegenda loqui.'
haec ego dicebam: nunc me ficvisse loquentem,
nunc pudet ad teneros procubuisse pedes.
tunc mihi iurabas nullo te divitis auri
pondere, non gemmis, vendere velle fidem,
non tibi si pretium Campania terra daretur,
non tibi si Bacchi cura Falernus ager.
illis eriperes verbis mihi sidera caeli
lucere et puras fulminis esse vias.
quin etiam fiebas : at non ego fallere doctus
tergebam umentes credulus usque genas.
quid faciam, nisi et ipse fores in amore puellae ?
sed precor exemplo sit levis illa tuo.
o quotiens, verbis ne quisquam conscius esset,
ipse cones multa lumina nocte tuli !
30
40
129
1, 9, 43]
TIBVLLVS
saepe insperanti venit tibi munere nostro
et latuit clausas post adoperta fores.
45 tum miser interii, stulte confisus amari:
nam poteram ad laqueos cautior esse tuos.
quin etiam attonita laudes tibi mente canebam,
et me nunc nostri Pieridumque pudet.
illa velim rapida Vulcanus carmina flamma
50 torreat et liquida deleat amnis aqua.
tu procul hinc absis cui formam vendere cura est
et pretium plena grande referre manu.
at te qui puerum donis corrumpere es ausus
rideat adsiduis uxor inulta dolis,
55 , et cum furtivo iuvenem lassaverit usu,
tecum interposita languida veste cubet.
semper sint externa tuo vestigia lecto,
et pateat cupidis semper aperta domus :
nec lasciva saror dicatur plura bibisse
pocula vel plures emeruisse viros.
illam saepe ferunt convivia ducere Baccho
dum rota Luciferi provocet orta diem :
illa nulla queat melius consumere noctem
aut operum varias disposuisse vices.
65 at tua perdidicit : nec tu, stultissime, sentis,
cum tibi non solita corpus ab arte movet.
tune putas illam pro te disponere crines
aut tenues denso pectere dente comas?
ista haec persuadet facies, auroque lacertos
vinciat et Tyrio prodeat apta sinu ?
non tibi, sed iuveni cuidam vult bella videri,
devoveat pro quo remque domumque tuam.
nec facit hoc vitio, sed corpora foeda podagra
et senis amplexus culta puella fugit.
60
70
130
LIBER PRIMVS
[1, 10, 19
75
huic tamen accubuit noster puer : hunc ego credam
cum trucibus Venerem iungere posse feris.
blanditiasne meas aliis tu vendere es ausus,
tune aliis demens oscula ferre mea ?
tum flebis, cum me vinctum puer alter habebit
et.geret in regno regna superba tuo.
at tua tum me poena iuvet, Venerique merenti
fixa notet casus aurea palma meos :
'hanc tibi fallaci resolutus amore Tibullus
dedicat et grata sis, dea, mente rogat.'
IO
Quis fuit horrendos primus qui protulit enses ?
quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit !
tum caedes hominum generi, tum proelia nata,
tum brevior dirae mortis aperta via est.
5 an nihil ille miser meruit, nos ad mala nostra
vertimus in saevas quod dedit ille feras?
divitis hoc vitium est auri, nec bella fuerunt,
faginus astabat cum scyphus ante dapes.
non arces, non vallus erat, somnumque petebat
10' securus varias dux gregis inter oves.
tunc mihi vita foret, vulgi nec tristia nossem
arma nec audissem corde micante tubam.
nunc ad bella trahor, et iam quis forsitan hostis
haesura in nostro tela gerit latere.
15 sed patrii servate Lares : aluistis et idem,
cursarem vestros cum tener ante pedes.
neu pudeat prisco vos esse e stipite factos:
sic veteris sedes incoluistis avi.
tunc melius tenuere fidem, cum paupere cultu
131
1, 10, 20]
TIBVLLVS
20
stabat in exigua ligneus aede deus.
hic placatus erat, seu quis libaverat uvam,
seu dederat sanctae spicea serta comae:
atque aliquis voti compos liba ipse ferebat
postque comes purum filia parva favum.
at nobis aerata, Lares, depellite tela,
?5
30
35
hostiaque e plena rustica porcus hara.
hanc pura cum veste sequar myrtoque canistra
vincta geram, myrto vinctus et ipse caput.
sic placeam vobis: alius sit fortis in armis,
sternat et adversos Marte favente duces,
ut mihi potanti possit sua dicere facta
miles et in mensa pingere castra mero.
quis furor est atram bellis arcessere Mortem?
imminet et tacito clam venit illa pede.
non seges est infra, non vinea culta, sed audax
Cerberus et Stygiae navita turpis aquae:
illic perscissisque genis ustoque capillo
errat ad obscuros pallida turba lacus.
quam potius laudandus hic est quem prole parata
occupat in parva pigra senecta casa!
ipse suas sectatur oves, at filius agnos,
et calidam ſesso comparat uxor aquam.
sic ego sim, liceatque caput candescere canis,
temporis et prisci facta referre senem.
interea Pax arva colat. Pax candida primum
duxit araturos sub iuga curva boves:
Pax aluit vites et sucos condidit, uvae,
funderet ut nato testa paterna merum: :
pace bidens vomerque nitent, at tristia duri
militis in tenebris occupat arma situs.
40
45
50
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[2, 1, 56
25 eventura precor: viden ut felicibus extis
significet placidos nuntia fibra deos?
nunc mihi fumosos veteris proferte Falernos
consulis et Chio solvite vincla cado.
vina diem celebrent : non festa luce madere
30 est rubor, errantes et male ferre pedes.
sed 'bene Messallam' sua quisque ad pocula dicat,
nomen et absentis singula verba sonent.
gentis Aquitanae celeber Messalla triumphis
et magna intonsis gloria victor avis,
35 huc ades aspiraque mihi, dum carmine nostro
· redditur agricolis gratia caelitibus.
rura cano rurisque deos. his vita magistris
desuevit querna pellere glande famem :
illi compositis primum docuere tigillis
40 exiguam viridi fronde operire domum :
illi etiam tauros primi docuisse feruntur
servitium et plaustro supposuisse rotam.
tum victus abiere feri, tum consita pomus,
tum bibit irriguas fertilis hortus aquas,
45 aurea tum pressos pedibus dedit uva liquores
mixtaque securo est sobria lympha mero.]
rura ferunt messes, calidi cum sideris aestu
deponit flavas annua terra comas.
rurė levis verno flores apis ingerit alveo,
compleat ut dulci sedula melle favos.
agricola adsiduo primum satiatus aratro
cantavit certo rustica verba pede
et satur arenti primum est modulatus avena
carmen, ut ornatos diceret ante deos,
55 agricola et minio suffusus, Bacche, rubenti
primus inexperta duxit ab arte choros.
135
2, 1, 57]
TIBVLLVS
huic datus a pleno, memorabile munus, ovili
dux pecoris curtas, auxerat hircus opes.
rure puer verno primum de flore coronam
fecit et antiquis imposuit Laribus.
rure etiam teneris curam exhibitura puellis
molle gerit tergo lucida vellus ovis.
hinc et femineus labor est, hinc pensa colusque,
fusus et apposito pollice versat opus:
65 atque aliqua adsiduae textrix operata Minervae
cantat, et applauso tela sonat latere.
ipse quoque inter agros interque armenta Cupido
natus et indomitas dicitur inter equas.
illic indocto primum se exercuit arcu :
ei mihi, quam doctas nunc habet ille manus !
nec pecudes, velut ante, petit : fèxisse puellas
gestit et audaces perdomuisse viros.
hic iuveni detraxit opes, hic dicere'iussit
limen ad iratae verba pudenda senem :
75 hoc duce custodes furtim transgressa iacentes
ad iuvenem tenebris sola puella venit
et pedibus praetemptat iter suspensa timore,
explorat caecas cui manus ante vias.
a miseri, quos hic graviter deus urget! at ille
80 felix, cui placidus leniter adflat Amor.
sancte, veni dapibus festis, sed pone sagittas
et procul ardentes hinc precor abde faces.
vos celebrem cantate deum pecorique vocate
voce : palam pecori, clam sibi quisque vocet.
.85 aut etiam sibi quisque palam : nam turba iocosa
obstrepit et Phrygio tibia curva sono.
ludite : iam Nox iungit equos, currumque sequuntur
matris lascivo sidera fupi choro,
136
LIBER SECVNDVS
[2, 3, 2
disky
postque venit tacitus furvis circumdatus alis
Somnus. et incerto Somnia nigra pede.
90
5
ا
می , ا
10
Dicamus bona verba : venit Natalis ad aras:
quisquis ades, lingua, vir mulierque, fave.
urantur pia tura focis, urantur odores
: quos tener e terra divite mittit Arabs.
ipse síos Genius, adsit visurús hónòrēs,
cui decorent sanctās mollia sertå comãs.
‘illius puro'destillent tempora 'nardo,
atque satur lībo sit madeatque mero,
adnuat et, Cornute, tibi quodcumque rogabis.
en age, quid cessas ? adnuit ille: roga.
auguror, uxoris fidos optabis amores:
iam reor hoc ipsos edidicisse deos.
nec tibi malueris totum quaecumque per orbem
fortis arat valido rusticus arva bove,
nec tibi, gemmarum quidquid felicibus Indis
nascitur, Eõi qua maris(undā rubet.
vota cadunt: utinam strepitantibus advolet alis
flavaque coniugio vincula portet Amor,
vincula quae maneant semper dum tarda senectus
inducat rugas inficiatque comas.
hic venjat Natālis švis' pròlēmque ministret,
ludat et ante tuos turba novella pedes.
15
20
Rura meam, Cornute, tenent villaeque puellam:
ferreus est, heu heu, quisquis in urbe manet.
137
2, 3, 3]
TIBVLLVS
5
ipsa Venus latos iam nunc migravit in agros,
verbaque aratoris rustica discit Amor.
o ego, cum aspicerem dominam, quam fortiter illic
versarem valido pingue bidente solum
agricolaeque modo curvum sectarer aratrum,
dum subigunt steriles arva serenda boves !
nec quererer quod sol graciles exureret artus,
laederet et teneras pussula rupta manus.
pavit et Admeti tauros formosus Apollo,
nec cithara intonsae profueruntve comae,
nec potuit curas sanare salubribus herbis :
quidquid erat medicae vicerat artis amor.
ipse deus solitus stabulis expellere vaccas
Io
10
14
148
15
20
et miscere novo docuisse coagula.lacte,
lacteus et mixtu subriguisse liquor.
tunc fiscella levi detexta est vimine iunci,
raraque per nexus est via facta sero.
o quotiens illo vitulum gestante per agros
dicitur occurrens erubuisse soror!
o quotiens ausae, caneret dum valle sub alta,
rumpere mugitu carmina docta boves !
saepe duces trepidis petiere oracula rebus,
venit et a templis irrita turba domum:
saepe horrere sacros doluit Latona capillos,
quos admirata est ipsa noverca prius.
quisquis inornatumque caput crinesque solutos
aspiceret, Phoebi quaereret ille comam.
Delos ubi nunc, Phoebe, tua est, ubi Delphica Pytho ?
nempe Amor in parva te iubet esse casa.
felices olim, Veneri cum fertur aperte
servire aeternos non puduisse deos,
25
7
30
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LIBER SECVNDVS
[2, 3, 60
fabula nunc ille est : sed cui sua cura puella est
fabula sit mavult quam sine amore deus.
at tu, quisquis is es cui tristi fronte Cupido
imperat, ut nostra sint tua castra domo
35
40
IN
45
ferrea non Venerem sed praedam saecula laudant:
praeda tamen multis est operata malis.
praeda feras acies cinxit discordibus armis:
hinc cruor, hinc caedes mors propiorque venit.
praeda vago iussit geminare pericula ponto,
bellica cum dubiis rostra dedit ratibus.
praedator cupit immensos obsidere campos,
ut multa innumera iugera pascat ove:
cui lapis externus curae est, urbisque tumultu
portatur validis mille columna iugis,
claudit et indomitum moles mare, lentus ut intra
neglegat hibernas piscis adesse minas.
at tibi laeta trahant Samiae convivia testae
fictaque Cumana lubrica terra rota.
heu heu divitibus video gaudere puellas:
iam veniant praedae, si Venus optat opes,
ut mea luxuria Nemesis fluat utque per urbem
incedat donis conspicienda meis.
illa gerat vestes tenues quas femina Coa
texuit, auratas disposuitque vias:
illi sint comites fusci quos India torret,
solis et admotis inficit ignis equis:
illi selectos certent praebere colores
Africa puniceum purpureumque Tyros.
50
55

nota loquor: regnum ipse tenet quem saepe
barbara gypsatos ferre catasta pedes
60
139
2, 3, 61]
TIBVLLVS
at tibi dura seges, Nemesim qui abducis ab urbe,
persolvat nulla semina certa fide.
et tu, Bacche tener, iucundae consitor uvae,
tu quoque devotos, Bacche, relinque lacus.
65 haud impune licet formosas tristibus agris
abdere: non tanti sunt tua musta, pater.
o valeant fruges, ne sint modo rure puellae:
glans alat, et prisco more bibantur aquae.
glans aluit veteres, et passim semper amarunt:
70 quid nocuit sulcos non habuisse satos ?
tunc quibus aspirabat Amor praebebat aperte
mitis in umbrosa gaudia valle Venus.
nullus erat custos, nulla exclusura dolentes
ianua: si fas est, mos precor ille redi.
75
horrida villosa corpora veste tegant.
nunc si clausa mea est, si copia rara videndi,
heu miserum, laxam quid iuvat esse togam?
ducite: ad imperium dominae sulcabimus agros:
non ego me vinclis verberibusque nego.
80
5
Hic mihi servitium video dominamque paratam :
iam mihi, libertas illa paterna, vale.
servitium sed triste datur, teneorque catenis,
et numquam misero vincla remittit Amor,
et seu quid merui seu quid peccavimus, urit.
uror, io, remove, saeva puella, faces.
ego ne possim tales sentire dolores,
mam mallem in gelidis montibus esse lapis,
insanis cautes obnoxia ventis,

140
LIBER SECVNDVS
[2, 4, 41
10
15
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naufraga quam vasti tunderet unda maris!
nunc et amara dies et noctis amarior umbra est:
omnia nunc tristi tempora felle madent.
nec prosunt elegi nec carminis auctor Apollo:
illa cava pretium flagitat usque manu.
ite procul, Musae, si non prodestis amanti:
non ego vos, ut sint bella canenda, colo,
nec refero solisque vias et qualis, ubi orbem
complevit, versis Luna recurrit equis.
ad dominam faciles aditus per carmina quaero:
ite procul, Musae, si nihil ista valent.
at mihi per caedem et facinus sunt dona paranda,
ne iaceam clausam flebilis ante domum:
aut rapiam suspensa sacris insignia fanis:
sed Venus ante alios est violanda mihi.
illa malum facinus suadet dominamque rapacem
dat mihi: sacrilegas sentiat illa manus.
o pereat quicumque legit viridesque smaragdos
et niveam Tyrio murice tingit ovem.
hic dat avaritiae causas et Coa puellis
vestis et e rubro lucida concha mari.
haec fecere malas: hinc clavim ianua sensit
et coepit custos liminis esse canis.
sed pretium si grande feras, custodia victa est
nec prohibent claves et canis ipse tacet.
heu quicumque dedit formam caelestis avarae,
quale bonum multis attulit ille malis !
hinc fletus rixaeque sonant, haec denique causa
fecit ut infamis sic deus esset Amor.
at tibi quae pretio victos excludis amantes
eripiant partas ventus et ignis opes:
quin tua tunc iuvenes spectent incendia laeti,
30
35
40
141
2, 4, 42]
TIBVLLVS
45
50
nec quisquam flammae sedulus addat aquam.
seu veniet tibi Mors, nec erit qui lugeat ullus,
nec qui det maestas munus in exsequias.
at bona quae nec avara fuit, centum licet annos
vixerit, ardentem flebitur ante rogum:
atque aliquis senior veteres veneratus amores
annua constructo serta dabit tumulo
et 'bene' discedens dicet 'placideque quiescas,
terraque securae sit super ossa levis.'
vera quidem moneo, sed prosunt quid mihi vera?
illius est nobis lege colendus amor.
quin etiam sedes iubeat si vendere avitas,
ite sub imperium sub titulumque, Lares.
quidquid habet Circe, quidquid Medea veneni,
quidquid et herbarum Thessala terra gerit,
et quod, ubi indomitis gregibus Venus adflat amores,
hippomanes cupidae stillat ab inguine equae,
si modo me placido videat Nemesis mea vultu,
mille alias herbas misceat illa, bibam.
11
L111
55
60
1
.
5
Phoebe, fave: novus ingreditur tua templa sacerdos:
huc age cum cithara carminibusque veni.
nunc të vocales impellere pollice chordas,
nunc precor ad laudes flectere verba novas.
ipse triumphali devinctus tempora lauro,
dum cumulant aras, ad tua sacra veni.
sed nitidus pulcherque veni: nunc indue vestem
sepositam, longas nunc bene pecte comas,
qualem te memorant Saturno rege fugato
victori laudes concinuisse Iovi.
10
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LIBER SECVNDVS
[2, 5, 42
15
20
25
tu procul eventura vides, tibi deditus augur
scit bene quid fati provida cantet avis,
tuque regis sortes, per te praesentit aruspex,
lubrica signavit cum deus exta notis:
te duce Romanos numquam frustrata Sibylla
abdita quae senis fata canit pedibus.
Phoebe, sacras Messalinum sine tangere chartas
vatis, et ipse precor quid canat illa doce.
haec dedit Aeneae sortes, postquam ille parentem
dicitur et raptos sustinuisse Lares:
nec fore credebat Romam, cum maestus ab alto
Ilion ardentes respiceretque deos.
Romulus aeternae nondum formaverat urbis
moenia, consorti non habitanda Remo,
sed tunc pascebant herbosa Palatia vaccae
et stabant humiles in Iovis arce casae.
lacte madens illic suberat Pan ilicis umbrae
et facta agresti lignea falce Pales,
pendebatque vagi pastoris in arbore votum,
garrula silvestri fistula sacra deo,
fistula cui semper decrescit arundinis ordo:
nam calamus cera iungitur usque minor.
at qua Velabri regio patet, ire solebat
exiguus pulsa per vada linter aqua.
illa saepe gregis diti placitura magistro
ad iuvenem festa est vecta puella die,
cum qua fecundi redierunt munera ruris,
caseus et niveae candidus agnus ovis.
'Impiger Aenea, volitantis frater Amoris,
Troica qui profugis sacra vehis ratibus,
iam tibi Laurentes adsignat Iuppiter agros,
iam vocat errantes hospita terra Lares.
30
35
so
143
2, 5, 43]
TIBVLLVS
45
50
55
illic sanctus eris, cum te veneranda Numici
unda deum caelo miserit indigetem.
ecce super fessas volitat Victoria puppes,
tandem ad Troianos diva superba venit.
ecce mihi lucent Rutulis incendia castris :
iam tibi praedico, barbare Turne, necem.
ante oculos Laurens castrum murusque Lavini est
Albaque ab Ascanio condita Longa duce.
te quoque iam video, Marti placitura sacerdos
Ilia, Vestales deseruisse focos,
concubitusque tuos furtim vittasque iacentes
et cupidi ad ripas arma relicta dei.
carpite nunc, tauri, de septem montibus herbas
dum licet : hic magnae iam locus urbis erit.
Roma, tuum nomen terris fatale regendis,
qua sua de caelo prospicit arva Ceres,
quaque patent ortus et qua fluitantibus undis
Solis anhelantes abluit amnis equos.
Troia quidem tunc se mirabitur et sibi dicet
vos bene tam longa consuluisse via.
vera cano: sic usque sacras innoxia laurus
vescar, et aeternum sit mihi virginitas.'
haec cecinit vates et te sibi, Phoebe, vocavit,
iactavit fusas et caput ante comas.
quidquid Amalthea, quidquid Marpesia dixit
Herophile, Phyto Graia quod admonuit,
quasque Aniena sacras Tiburs per fumina sortes
portarit sicco pertuleritque sinu
(haec fore dixerunt belli mala signa cometen,
multus ut in terras deplueretque lapis :
atque tubas atque arma ferunt strepitantia caelo
audita et lucos praecinuisse fugam,
65
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LIBER SECVNDVS
(2, 5, 106
75 ipsum etiam Solem defectum lumine vidit
iungere pallentes nubilus annus equos
et simulacra deum lacrimas fudisse tepentes
fataque vocales praemonuisse boves),
haec fuerant olim : sed tu iam mitis, Apollo,
prodigia indomitis merge sub aequoribus,
et succensa sacris crepitet bene laurea flammis,
omine quo felix et sacer annus erit.
laurus ubi bona signa dedit, gaudete coloni:
distendet spicis horrea plena Ceres,
85 oblitus et musto feriet pede rusticus uvas,
dolia dum magni deficiantque lacus:
ac madidus Baccho sua festa Palilia pastor
concinet: a stabulis tunc procul este lupi.
ille levis stipulae sollemnis potus acervos
90 accendet, flammas transilietque sacras.
et fetus matrona dabit, natusque parenti
oscula comprensis auribus eripiet,
nec taedebit avum parvo advigilare nepoti
balbaque cum puero dicere verba senem.
95 tunc operata deo pubes discumbet in herba,
arboris antiquae qua levis umbra cadit,
aut e veste sua tendent umbracula sertis
vincta, coronatus stabit et ante calix.
at sibi quisque dapes et festas exstruet alte
100 caespitibus mensas caespitibusque torum.
ingeret hic potus iuvenis maledicta puellae,
postmodo quae votis irrita facta velit:
nam ferus ille suae plorabit sobrius idem
et se iurabit mente fuisse mala.
105 pace tua pereant arcus pereantque sagittae,
Phoebe, modo in terris erret inermis Amor.
145
2, 5, 107]
TIBVLLVS
ars bona: sed postquam sumpsit sibi tela Cupido,
heu heu quam multis ars dedit illa malum!
et mihi praecipue. iaceo cum saucius annum
no et faveo morbo, cum iuvat ipse dolor,
usque cano Nemesim, sine qua versus mihi nullus
verba potest iustos aut reperire pedes.
at tu (nam divum servat tutela poetas)
praemoneo, vati parce, puella, sacro,
115 ut Messalinum celebrem, cum praemia belli
ante suos currus oppida victa feret,
ipse gerens lauros, lauro devinctus agresti
miles 'io' magna voce 'triumphe'canet.
tunc Messalla meus pia det spectacula turbae
120 et plaudat curru praetereunte pater.
adnue: sic tibi sint intonsi, Phoebe, capilli,
sic tua perpetuo sit tibi casta' soror.
Castra Macer sequitur: tenero quid fiet Amori?
sit comes et collo fortiter arma gerat?
et seu longa virum terrae via seu vaga ducent
aequora, cum telis ad latus ire volet? .
ure, puer, quaeso, tua qui ferus otia liquit,
atque iterum erronem sub tua signa voca.
quod si militibus parces, erit hic quoque miles
ipse levem galea qui sibi portet aquam.
castra peto, valeatque Venus valeantque puellae :
et mihi sunt vires et mihi facta tuba est.
magna loquor, sed magnifice mihi magna locuto
excutiunt clausae fortia verba fores.
iuravi quotiens rediturum ad limina nunquam!
ТО
146
LIBER SECVNDVS
[2, 6, 45
cum bene iuravi, pes tamen ipse redit.
15 acer Amor, fractas utinam tua tela sagittas
si licet exstinctas aspiciamque faces !
tu miserum torques, tu me mihi dira precari
cogis et insana mente nefanda loqui.
iam mala finissem leto, sed credula vitam
20 Spes fovet et fore cras semper ait melius.
Spes alit agricolas, Spes sulcis credit aratis
semina quae magno faenore reddat ager :
haec laqueo volucres, haec captat arundine pisces,
cum tenues hamos abdidit ante cibus :
25 Spes etiam valida solatur compede vinctum:
crura sonant ferro, sed canit inter opus:
Spes facilem Nemesim spondet mihi, sed negat illa :
ei mihi, ne vincas, dura puella, deam.
parce, per immatura tuae precor ossa sororis:
30 sic bene sub tenera parva quiescat humo.
illa mihi sancta est, illius dona sepulcro
et madefacta meis serta feram lacrimis,
illius ad tumulum fugiam supplexque sedebo
et mea cum muto fata querar cinere.
35 non feret usque suum te propter flere clientem:
illius ut verbis, sis mihi lenta veto,
ne tibi neglecti mittant mala somnia manes,
maestaque sopitae stet soror ante torum,
qualis ab excelsa praeceps delapsa fenestra
40 venit ad infernos sanguinolenta lacus.
desino, ne dominae luctus renoventur acerbi:
non ego sum tanti, ploret ut illa semel.
nec lacrimis oculos digna est foedare loquaces:
lena nocet nobis, ipsa puella bona est.
45 lena necat miserum Phryne furtimque tabellas
147
2, 6, 46]
TIBVLLVS
50
occulto portans itque reditque sinu:
saepe, ego cum dominae dulces a limine duro
agnosco voces, haec negat esse domi:
saepe, ubi nox promissa mihi est, languere puellam
nuntiat aut aliquas extimuisse minas.
tunc morior curis, tunc mens mihi perdita fingit,
quisve meam teneat, quot teneatve modis :
tunc tibi, lena, precor diras: satis anxia vivas,
moverit e votis pars quotacumque deos.
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LIBER TERTIVS
1Ο
Martis Romani festae venere kalendae:
exoriens nostris hic fuit annus avis :
et vaga nunc certa discurrunt undique pompa
perque vias urbis munera perque domos.
dicite, Pierides, quonam donetur honore
seu mea, seu fallor, cara Neaera tamen.
carmine formosae, pretio capiuntur avarae:
gaudeat, ut digna est, versibus illa meis.
lutea sed niveum involvat membrana libellum,
pumicet et canas tondeat ante comas
summaque praetexat tenuis fastigia chartae
indicet ut nomen littera facta meum,
atque inter geminas pingantur cornua frontes :
sic etenim comptum mittere oportet opus.
per vos, auctores huius mihi carminis, oro
Castaliamque umbram Pieriosque lacus,
ite domum cultumque illi donate libellum
sicut erit : nullus defluat inde color.
illa mihi referet, si nostri mutua cura est,
an minor, an toto pectore deciderim.
sed primum meritam larga donate salute
atque haec submisso dicite verba sono:
haec tibi vir quondam, nunc frater, casta Neaera,
mittit et accipias munera parva rogat,
teque suis iurat caram magis esse medullis,
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149
3, I, 26]
TIBVLLVS
sive sibi coniunx sive futura soror:
sed potius coniunx: huius spem nominis illi
auferet exstincto pallida Ditis aqua.'
5
Ιο
Qui primus caram iuveni carumque puellae
eripuit iuvenem, ferreus ille fuit.
durus et ille fuit qui tantum ferre dolorem,
vivere et erepta coniuge qui potuit.
non ego firmus in hoc, non haec patientia nostro
ingenio: frangit fortia corda dolor :
nec mihi vera loqui pudor est vitaeque fateri
tot mala perpessae taedia nata meae.
ergo cum tenuem fuero mutatus in umbram
candidaque ossa super nigra favilla teget,
ante meum veniat longos incompta capillos
et fleat ante meum maesta Neaera rogum.
sed veniat carae matris comitata dolore:
maereat haec genero, maereat illa viro.
praefatae ante meos manes animamque precatae
perfusaeque pias ante liquore manus,
pars quae sola mei superabit corporis, ossa
incinctae nigra candida veste legent,
et primum annoso spargent collecta Lyaeo,
mox etiam niveo fundere lacte parent,
post haec carbaseis umorem tollere velis
atque in marmorea ponere sicca domo.
illic quas mittit dives Panchaia merces
Eoique Arabes, pinguis et Assyria,
et nostri memores lacrimae fundantur eodem:
sic ego componi versus in ossa velim.
15
20
25
150
LIBER TERTIVS
[3, 3, 25
sed tristem mortis demonstret littera causam
atque haec in celebri carmina fronte notet :
Lygdamus hic situs est: dolor huic et cura Neaerae,
coniugis ereptae, causa perire fuit.'
30
5
10
Quid prodest caelum votis implesse, Neaera,
blandaque cum multa tura dedisse prece,
non ut marmorei prodirem e limine tecti,
insignis clara conspicuusque domo,
aut ut multa mei renovarent iugerą tauri
et magnas messes terra benigna daret,
sed tecum ut longae sociarem gaudia vitae
inque tuo caderet nostra senecta sinu,
tum cum permenso defunctus tempore lucis
nudus Lethaea cogerer ire' rate ?
nam grave quid prodest pondus mihi divitis auri,
arvaque si findant pinguia mille boves ?
quidve domus prodest Phrygiis innixa columnis,
Taenare sive tuis, sive Caryste tuis,
et nemora in domibus sacros imitantia lucos
aurataeque trabes marmoreumque solum ?
quidve in Erythraeo legitur quae litore concha
tinctaque Sidonio murice lana iuvat,
et quae praeterea populus miratur? in illis
invidia est : falso plurima vulgus amat.
non opibus mentes hominum curaeque levantur:
nam fortuna sua tempora lege regit.
sit mihi paupertas tecum iucunda, Neaera :
at sine te regum munera nulla volo.
o niveam quae te poterit mihi reddere lucem !
15
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25
151
3, 3, 26]
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DUIT
o mihi felicem terque quaterque diem!
at si, pro dulci reditu quaecumque voventur,
audiat aversa non meus aure deus,
nec me regna iuvant nec Lydius aurifer amnis
nec quas terrarum sustinet orbis opes.
haec alii cupiant; liceat mihi paupere cultu
securo cara coniuge posse frui.
adsis et timidis faveas, Saturnia, votis,
et faveas concha, Cypria, vecta tua.
aut si fata negant reditum tristesque sorores
stamina quae ducunt quaeque futura neunt,
me vocet in vastos amnes nigramque paludem
dives in ignava luridus Orcus aqua.
35
4.
Di meliora ferant, nec sint mihi somnia vera
quae tulit hesterna pessima nocte quies.
ite procul, vani, falsumque avertite visum :
desinite in nobis quaerere velle fidem.
divi vera monent, venturae nuntia sortis
vera monent Tuscis exta probata viris :
somnia fallaci ludunt temeraria nocte
et pavidas mentes falsa timere iubent.
et natum in curas hominum genus omina noctis
farre pio placant et saliente sale ?
et tamen, utcumque est, sive illi vera moneri,
mendaci somno credere sive volent,
efficiat vanos noctis Lucina timores
et frustra immeritum pertimuisse velit,
si mea nec turpi mens est obnoxia facto
nec laesit magnos impia lingua deos.
10
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LIBER TERTIVS
[3, 4, 48
20
25
30
iam Nox aetherium nigris emensa quadrigis
mundum caeruleo laverat amne rotas,
nec me sopierat menti deus utilis aegrae:
Somnus sollicitas deficit ante domos.
tandem, cum summo Phoebus prospexit ab ortu,
pressit languentis lumina sera quies.
hic iuvenis casta redimitus tempora lauro
est visus nostra ponere sede pedem.
non illo quicquam formosius ulla priorum
aetas, humanum nec videt illud opus.
intonsi crines longa cervice fluebant,
stillabat Syrio myrtea rore coma.
candor erat qualem praefert Latonia Luna,
et color in niveo corpore purpureus,
ut iuveni primum virgo deducta marito
inficitur teneras ore rubente genas,
et cum contexunt amarantis alba puellae
lilia et autumno candida mala rubent.
ima videbatur talis inludere palla:
namque haec in nitido corpore vestis erat.
artis opus rarae, fulgens testudine et auro
pendebat laeva garrula parte lyra.
hanc primum veniens plectro modulatus eburno
felices cantus ore sonante dedit :
sed postquam fuerant digiti cum voce locuti,
edidit haec dulci tristia verba modo:
'salve, cura deum: casto nam rite poetae
Phoebusque et Bacchus Pieridesque favent:
sed proles Semeles Bacchus doctaeque sorores
dicere non norunt quid ferat hora sequens:
at mihi fatorum leges aevique futuri
eventura pater posse videre dedit,
35
40
45
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3, 4, 49]
TIBVLLVS
50
55
65
quare ego quae dico non fallax accipe vates,
quodque deus vero Cynthius ore feram.
tantum cara tibi quantum nec filia matri,
quantum nec cupido bella puella viro,
pro qua sollicitas caelestia numina votis,
quae tibi securos non sinit ire dies
et, cum te fusco somnus velavit amictu,
vanum nocturnis fallit imaginibus,
carminibus celebrata tuis formosa Neaera
alterius mavult esse puella viri,
diversasque suas agitat mens impia curas,
nec gaudet casta nupta Neaera domo.
a crudele genus nec fidum femina nomen!
a pereat, didicit fallere si qua virum.
sed flecti poterit: mens est mutabilis illis :
tu modo cum multa bracchia tende fide.
saevus Amor docuit validos temptare labores,
saevus Amor docuit verbera posse pati.
me quondam Admeti niveas pavisse iuvencas
non est in vanum fabula ficta iocum:
tunc ego nec cithara poteram gaudere sonora
nec similes chordis reddere voce sonos,
sed perlucenti cantum meditabar avena
ille ego Latonae filius atque Iovis.
nescis quid sit amor, iuvenis, si ferre recusas
immitem dominam coniugiumque ferum.
ergo ne dubita blandas adhibere querellas:
vincuntur molli pectora dura prece.
quod si vera canunt sacris oracula templis,
haec illi nostro nomine dicta refer:
hoc tibi coniugium promittit Delius ipse:
felix hoc, alium desine velle virum.'
75
80
154
LIBER TERTIVS
[3, 5, 13
- 85
dixit, et ignavus defluxit corpore somnus.
a ego ne possim tanta videre mala.
nec tibi crediderim votis contraria vota
nec tantum crimen pectore inesse tuo:
nam te nec vasti genuerunt aequora ponti.
nec flammam volvens ore Chimaera fero
nec canis anguinea redimitus terga caterva,
cui tres sunt linguae tergeminumque caput,
Scyllaque virgineam canibus succincta figuram,
nec te conceptam saeva leaena tulit,
barbara nec Scythiae tellus horrendave Syrtis,
sed culta et duris non habitanda domus
et longe ante alias omnes mitissima mater
isque pater quo non alter amabilior.
haec deus in melius crudelia somnia vertat
et iubeat tepidos irrita ferre Notos.
90
95
Vos tenet Etruscis manat quae fontibus unda,
unda sub aestivum non adeunda Canem,
nunc autem sacris Baiarum proxima lymphis,
cum se purpureo vere remittit humus:
at mihi Persephone nigram denuntiat horam:
immerito iuveni parce nocere, dea.
non ego temptavi nulli temeranda virorum
audax laudandae sacra docere deae,
nec mea mortiferis infecit pocula sucis
dextera nec cuiquam trita venena dedit,
nec nos sacrilegi templis admovimus ignes,
nec cor sollicitant facta nefanda meum,
nec nos insanae meditantes iurgia mentis
10
155
3, 5, 14]
TIBVLLVS
15
20
1
impia in adversos solvimus ora deos.
et nondum cani nigros laesere capillos,
nec venit tardo curva senecta pede.
natalem primo nostrum videre parentes,
cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari..
quid fraudare iuvat vitem crescentibus uvis
et modo nata mala vellere poma manu?
parcite, pallentes undas quicumque tenetis
duraque sortiti tertia regna dei..
Elysios olim liceat cognoscere campos
Lethaeamque ratem Cimmeriosque lacus,
cum mea rugosa pallebunt ora senecta
et referam pueris tempora prisca senex.
atque utinam vano nequiquam terrear aestu!
languent ter quinos sed mea membra dies.
at vobis Tuscae celebrantur numina lymphae
et facilis lenta pellitur unda manu.
vivite felices, memores et vivite nostri,
sive erimus seu nos fata fuisse velint.
interea nigras pecudes promittite Diti
et nivei lactis pocula mixta mero.
25
Candide Liber, ades (sic sit tibi mystica vitis
semper, sic hedera tempora vincta feras),
aufer et ipse meum patera medicante dolorem :
saepe tuo cecidit munere victus amor.
care puer, madeant generoso pocula Baccho,
et nobis prona funde Falerna manu.
ite procul durum curae genus, ite labores:
fulserit hic niveis Delius alitibus.
5
156
LIBER TERTIVS
[3, 6, 40
10
15
20
25
vos modo proposito dulces faveatis amici,
neve neget quisquam me duce se comitem :
aut si quis vini certamen mite recusat,
fallat eum tecto cara puella dolo.
ille facit dites animos deus, ille ferocem
contudit et dominae misit in arbitrium,
Armenias tigres et fulvas ille leaenas
vicit et indomitis mollia corda dedit.
haec Amor et maiora valet. sed poscite Bacchi
munera : quem vestrum pocula sicca iuvant?
convenit ex aequo nec torvus Liber in illis
qui se quique una vina iocosa colunt :
convenit iratus nimium nimiumque severos :
qui timet irati numina magna, bibat.
quales his poenas qualis quantusque minetur,
Cadmeae matris praeda cruenta docet.
sed procul a nobis hic sit timor, illaque, si qua est,
quid valeat laesi sentiat ira dei.
quid precor a demens ? venti temeraria vota,
aeriae et nubes diripienda ferant.
quamvis nulla mei superest tibi cura, Neaera,
sis felix, et sint candida fata tua.
at nos securae reddamus tempora mensae:
venit post multos una serena dies.
ei mihi, difficile est imitari gaudia falsa,
difficile est tristi fingere mente iocum,
nec bene mendaci risus componitur ore,
nec bene sollicitis ebria verba sonant.
quid queror infelix ? turpes discedite curae:
odit Lenaeus tristia verba pater.
Gnosia, Theseae quondam periuria linguae
flevisti ignoto sola relicta mari:
30
35
40
157
3, 6, 41]
TIBVLLVS
45
50
sic cecinit pro te doctus, Minoi, Catullus
ingrati referens impia facta viri.
vos ego nunc moneo : felix, quicumque dolore
alterius disces posse cavere tuo.
nec vos aut capiant pendentia bracchia collo
aut fallat blanda sordida lingua prece.
etsi perque suos fallax iuravit ocellos
Iunonemque suam perque suam Venerem,
nulla fides inerit: periuria ridet amantum
Iuppiter et ventos irrita ferre iubet.
ergo quid totiens fallacis verba puellae
conqueror ? ite a me, seria verba, precor.
quam vellem tecum longas requiescere noctes
et tecum longos pervigilare dies,
perfida nec merito nobis inimica merenti,
perfida, sed, quamvis perfida, cara tamen!
Naida Bacchus amat: cessas, o lente minister ?
temperet annosum Marcia lympha merum.
non ego, si fugit nostrae convivia mensae
ignotum cupiens vana puella torum,
sollicitus repetam tota suspiria nocte.
tu puer i, liquidum fortius adde merum.
iam dudum Syrio madefactus tempora nardo
debueram sertis implicuisse comas.
55
158
LIBER QVARTVS
5
10
Te, Messalla, canam, quamquam me cognita virtus
terret: ut infirmae nequeant subsistere vires,
incipiam tamen. a meritis si carmina laudes,
deficiant: humilis tantis sim conditor actis,
nec tua praeter te chartis intexere quisquam
facta queat, dictis ut non maiora supersint.
est nobis voluisse satis, nec munera parva
respueris. etiam Phoebo gratissima dona
Cres tulit, et cunctis Baccho iucundior hospes
Icarus, ut puro testantur sidera caelo
Erigoneque Canisque, neget ne longior aetas.
quin etiam Alcides, deus ascensurus Olympum,
laeta Molorcheis posuit vestigia tectis,
parvaque caelestis placavit mica, nec illis
semper inaurato taurus cadit hostia cornu.
hic quoque sit gratus parvus labor, ut tibi possim
inde alios aliosque memor componere versus.
alter dicat opus magni mirabile mundi,
qualis in immenso desederit aere tellus,
qualis et in curvum pontus confluxerit orbem,
et vagus, e terris qua surgere nititur, aer,
huic et contextus passim fluat igneus aether,
pendentique super claudantur ut omnia caelo:
at quodcumque meae poterunt audere Camenae,
seu tibi par poterunt seu, quod spes abnuit, ultra
15
20
25
159
4, 1, 26]
TIBVLLVS
30
35
40
sive minus-certeque canent minus , omne vovemus
hoc tibi, nec tanto careat mihi carmine charta. "
nam quamquam antiquae gentis superant tibi laudes,
non tua maiorum contenta est gloria fama, .
nec quaeris quid quaque index sub imagine dicat,
sed generis priscos contendis vincere honores,
quam tibi maiores maius decus ipse futuris :
at tua non titulus capiet sub nomine facta,
aeterno sed erunt tibi magna volumina versu,
convenientque tuas cupidi componere laudes
undique quique canent vincto pede quique soluto.
quis potior certamen erit: sim victor in illis,
ut nostrum tantis inscribam nomen in actis.
nam quis te maiora gerit castrisve forove?
nec tamen hic aut hic tibi laus maiorve minorve,
iusta pari premitur veluti cum pondere libra,
prona nec hac plus parte sedet nec surgit ab illa,
qualis, inaequatum si quando onus urget utrimque,
instabilis natat alterno depressior orbe.
nam seu diversi fremat inconstantia vulgi,
non alius sedare queat: seu iudicis ira
sit placanda, tuis poterit mitescere verbis.
non Pylos aut Ithace tantos genuisse feruntur
Nestora vel parvae magnum decus urbis Ulixen,
vixerit ille senex quamvis, dum terna per orbem
saecula fertilibus Titan decurreret horis,
ille per ignotas audax erraverit urbes,
qua maris extremis tellus includitur undis.
nam Ciconumque manus adversis reppulit armis,
nec valuit lotos coeptos avertere cursus,
cessit et Aetnaeae Neptunius incola rupis
victa Maroneo foedatus lumina Baccho:
45
50
55
160
LIBER QVARTVS
[4, 1, 89
60
65
70
vexit et Aeolios placidum per Nerea ventos:
incultos adiit Laestrygonas Antiphatenque,
nobilis Artacie, gelida quos irrigat unda:
solum nec doctae verterunt pocula Circes,
quamvis illa foret Solis genus, apta vel herbis
aptaque vel cantu veteres mutare figuras :
Cimmerion etiam obscuras accessit ad arcis,
quis numquam candente dies apparuit ortu,
seu supra terras Phoebus seu curreret infra:
vidit, ut inferno Plutonis subdita regno
magna deum proles levibus discurreret umbris,
praeteriitque cita Sirenum litora puppi.
illum inter geminae nantem confinia mortis
nec Scyllae saevo conterruit impetus ore,'
cum canibus rapidas inter fera serperet undas,
nec violenta suo consumpsit more Charybdis,
vel si sublimis fluctu consurgeret imo,.
vel si interrupto nudaret gurgite pontum.
non violata vagi sileantur pascua Solis,
non amor et fecunda Atlantidos arva Calypsus,
finis et erroris miseri Phaeacia tellus.
atque haec seu nostras inter sunt cognita terras,
fabula sive novum dedit his erroribus orbem,
sit labor illius, tua dum facundia, maior.
nam te non alius belli tenet aptius artes,
qua deceat tutam castris praeducere fossam,
qualiter adversos hosti defigere cervos,
quemve locum ducto melius sit claudere vallo,
fontibus ut dulces erumpat terra liquores,
ut facilisque tuis aditus sit et arduus hosti,
laudis et adsiduo vigeat certamine miles,
quis tardamve sudem melius celeremve sagittam
75
80
- 85
iбi
4, I, 90]
TIBVLLVS
90 iecerit aut lento perfregerit obvia pilo,
aut quis equum celeremve arto compescere freno
possit et effusas tardo permittere habenas
inque vicem modo directo contendere passu,
seu libeat, curvo brevius convertere gyro,
95 quis parma, seu dextra velit seu laeva, tueri,
sive hac sive illac veniat gravis impetus hastae
amplior, aut signata cita loca tangere funda.
iam simul audacis venient certamina Martis,
adversisque parent acies concurrere signis,
100 tum tibi non desit faciem componere pugnae,
seu sit opus quadratum acies consistat in agmen,
rectus ut aequatis decurrat frontibus ordo,
seu libeat duplicem seiunctim cernere Martem,
dexter uti laevum teneat dextrumque sinister
105 miles sitque duplex gemini victoria casus.
at non per dubias errant mea carmina laudes:
nam bellis experta cano. testis mihi victae
fortis Iapydiae miles, testis quoque fallax
Pannonius gelidas pássim disiectus in Alpes,
110 testis Arupinis et pauper natus in arvis,
quem si quis videat vetus ut non fregerit aetas,
terna minus Pyliae miretur saecula famae.
namque senex longae peragit dum tempora vitae,
centum fecundos Titan renovaverit annos,
115 ipse tamen velox celerem super edere corpus
audet equum validisque sedet moderator habenis.
te duce non alias conversus terga domator
libera Romanae subiecit colla catenae.
nec tamen his contentus eris : maiora peractis
120 instant, compertum est veracibus ut mihi signis,
quis Amythaonius nequeat certare Melampus.
162
LIBER QVARTVS
[4, 1, 153
nam modo fulgentem Tyrio subtegmine vestem
indueras oriente die duce fertilis anni,
splendidior liquidis cum Sol caput extulit undis
125 et fera discordes tenuerunt flamina venti,
curva nec adsuetos egerunt flumina cursus,
quin rapidum placidis etiam mare constitit undis,
ulla nec aerias volucris perlabitur auras
nec quadrupes densas depascitur aspera silvas,
130 quin largita tuis sunt cuncta silentia votis.
Iuppiter ipse levi vectus per inania curru
adfuit et caelo vicinum liquit Olympum
intentaque tuis precibus se praebuit aure
cunctaque veraci capite adnuit: additus aris
135 laetior eluxit structos super ignis acervos.
quin hortante deo magnis insistere rebus
incipe: non idem tibi sint aliisque triumphi.
non te vicino remorabitur obvia Marte
Gallia nec latis audax Hispania terris
140 nec fera Theraeo tellus obsessa colono,
nec qua vel Nilus vel regia lympha Choaspes
profluit aut rapidus, Cyri dementia, Gyndes
aret Arectaeis haud una per ostia campis,
nec qua regna vago Tamyris finivit Araxe, .
145 impia nec saevis celebrans convivia mensis
(ultima vicinus Phoebo tenet arva) Padaeus,
quaque Hebrus Tanaisque Getas rigat atque Magynos.
quid moror ? Oceanus ponto qua continet orbem,
nulla tibi adversis regio sese offeret armis.
150 te manet invictus Romano Marte Britannus
teque interiecto mundi pars altera sole.
nam circumfuso consistit in aere tellus
et quinque in partes toto disponitur orbe.
163
4, 1, 154]
TIBVLLVS
atque duae gelido vastantur frigore semper:
155 illic et densa tellus absconditur umbra,
et nulla incepto perlabitur unda liquore,
sed durata riget densam in glaciemque nivemque,
quippe ubi non unquam Titan super egerit ortus.
at media est Phoebi semper subiecta calori,
160 seu propior terris aestivum fertur in orbem
seu celer hibernas properat decurrere luces:
non igitur presso tellus exsurgit aratro,
nec frugem segetes praebent neque pabula terrae:
non illic colit arva deus, Bacchusve Ceresve,
165 nulla nec exustas habitant animalia partes.
fertilis hanc inter posita est interque rigentes
nostraque et huic adversa solo pars altera nostro,
quas similis utrimque tenens vicinia caeli
temperat, alter et alterius vires necat aer:
170 hinc placidus nobis per tempora vertitur annus:
hinc et colla iugo didicit submittere taurus
et lenta excelsos vitis conscendere ramos,
tondeturque seges maturos annua partus,
et ferro tellus, pontus confinditur aere,
175 quin etiam structis exsurgunt oppida muris.
ergo ubi praeclaros poscent tua facta triumphos,
solus utroque idem diceris magnus in orbe.
non ego sum satis ad tantae praeconia laudis,
ipse mihi non si praescribat carmina Phoebus.
180 est tibi qui possit magnis se accingere rebus
Valgius : aeterno propior non alter Homero.
languida non noster peragit labor otia, quamvis
Fortuna, ut mos est illi, me adversa fatiget.
nam mihi, cum magnis opibus domus alta niteret,
185 cui fuerant flavi ditantes ordine sulci
164
LIBER QVARTVS
[4, 2, 2
horrea fecundas ad deficientia messis,
cuique pecus denso pascebant agmine colles,
et domino satis et nimium furique lupoque,
nunc desiderium superest: nam cura novatur,
190 cum memor ante actos semper dolor admonet annos.
sed licet asperiora cadant spolierque relictis,
non te deficient nostrae memorare Camenae.
nec solum tibi Pierii tribuentur honores:
pro te vel rapidas ausim maris ire per undas,
195 adversis hiberna licet tumeant freta ventis,
pro te vel densis solus subsistere turmis
vel parvum Aetnaeae corpus committere flammae.
sum quodcumque, tuum est. nostri si parvula cura
sit tibi, quanta libet, si sit modo, non mihi regna
200 Lydia, non magni potior sit fama Gylippi,
posse Meleteas nec mallem vincere chartas.
quod tibi si versus noster, totusve minusve,
vel bene sit notus, summo vel inerret in ore,
nulla mihi statuent finem te fata canendi.
205 quin etiam mea tunc tumulus cum texerit ossa,
seu matura dies celerem properat mihi mortem,
longa manet seu vita, tamen, mutata figura
seu me finget equum rigidos percurrere campos
doctum seu tardi pecoris sim gloria taurus
| 210 sive ego per liquidum volucris vehar aera pennis,
quandocumque hominem me longa receperit aetas,
inceptis de te subtexam carmina chartis.
Sulpicia est tibi culta tuis, Mars magne, kalendis :
spectatum e caelo, si sapis, ipse veni.
165
4, 2, 3]
TIBVLLVS
IO
hoc Venus ignoscet: at tu, violente, caveto
ne tibi miranti turpiter arma cadant.
5 illius ex oculis, cum vult exurere divos,
accendit geminas lampadas acer Amor.
illam, quidquid agit, quoquo vestigia movit,
componit furtim subsequiturque Decor.
seu solvit crines, fusis decet esse capillis :
seu compsit, comptis est veneranda comis.
urit, seu Tyria voluit procedere palla :
urit, seu nivea candida veste venit.
talis in aeterno felix Vertumnus Olympo
mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet.
15 sola puellarum digna est cui mollia caris
vellera det sucis bis madefacta Tyros,
possideatque metit quidquid bene olentibus arvis
cultor odoratae dives Arabs segetis
et quascumque niger rubro de litore gemmas
20 proximus Eois colligit Indus aquis.
hanc vos, Pierides, festis cantate kalendis,
et testudinea Phoebe superbe lyra.
hoc sollemne sacrum multos haec sumet in annos :
dignior est vestro nulla puella choro.
Parce meo iuveni, seu quis bona pascua campi
seu colis umbrosi devia montis aper,
nec tibi sit duros acuisse in proelia dentes :
incolumem custos hunc mihi servet Amor.
sed procul abducit venandi Delia cura :
o pereant silvae deficiantque canes !
quis furor est, quae mens, densos indagine colles
5
166
LIBER QVARTVS
[4, 4, 12
.
.
10
15
claudentem teneras laedere velle manus ?
quidve iuvat furtim latebras intrare ferarum
candidaque hamatis crura notare rubis ?
sed tamen, ut tecum liceat, Cerinthe, vagari,
ipsa ego per montes retia torta feram,
ipsa ego velocis quaeram vestigia cervi
et demam celeri ferrea vincla cani.
tunc mihi, tunc placeant silvae, si, lux mea, tecum
arguar ante ipsas concubuisse plagas:
tunc veniat licet ad casses, inlaesus abibit,
ne Veneris cupidae gaudia turbet, aper.
nunc sine me sit nulla Venus, sed lege Dianae,
caste puer, casta retia tange manu:
et quaecumque meo furtim subrepit amori,
incidat in saevas diripienda feras.
at tu venandi studium concede parenti,
et celer in nostros ipse recurre sinus.
20
5
Huc ades et tenerae morbos expelle puellae,
huc ades, intonsa Phoebe superbe coma.
crede mihi, propera : nec te iam, Phoebe, pigebit
formosae medicas applicuisse manus.
effice ne macies pallentes occupet artus,
neu notet informis pallida membra color,
et quodcumque mali est et quidquid triste timemus,
in pelagus rapidis evehat annis aquis.
sancte, veni, tecumque feras quicumque sapores,
quicumque et cantus corpora fessa levant:
neu iuvenem torque metuit qui fata puellae
votaque pro domina vix numeranda facit.
10
167
4, 4, 13]
TIBVLLVS
T TI
- interdum vovet, interdum, quod langueat illa,
dicit in aeternos aspera verba deos.
15 pone metum, Cerinthe : deus non laedit amantes.
tu modo semper ama : salva puella tibi est.
21 nil opus est fletu : lacrimis erit aptius uti,
si quando fuerit tristior illa tibi.
17 at nunc tota tua est, te solum candida secum
cogitat, et frustra credula turba sedet.
Phoebe, fave: laus magna tibi tribuetur in uno
20. corpore servato restituisse duos.
23 iam celeber, iam laetus eris, cum debita reddet
certatim sanctis laetus uterque focis.
25 tunc te felicem dicet pia turba deorum,
optabunt artes et sibi quisque tuas.
5
Qui mihi te, Cerinthe, dies dedit, hic mihi sanctus
atque inter festos semper habendus erit.
te nascente novum Parcae cecinere puellis ,
servitium et dederunt regna superba tibi.
uror ego ante alias : iuvat hoc, Cerinthe, quod uror,
si tibi de nobis mutuus ignis adest.
mutuus adsit amor, per te dulcissima furta
perque tuos oculos per Geniumque rogo.
mane Geni, cape tura libens votisque faveto,
si modo, cum de me cogitat, ille calet.
quod si forte alios iam nunc suspiret amores,
tunc precor infidos, sancte, relinque focos.
nec tu sis iniusta, Venus : vel serviat aeque
vinctus uterque tibi, vel mea viucla leva.
sed potius valida teneamur uterque catena,
TO
1
)
II
15
168

LIBER QVAT
[4, 7, 2
nulla queat posthac nos soluisse dies.
optat idem iuvenis quod nos, sed tectius optat :
nam pudet haec illum dicere verba palam.
at tu, Natalis, quoniam deus omnia sentis,
adnue: quid refert clamne palamne roget?
20
Natalis Iuno, sanctos cape turis acervos
quos tibi dat tenera docta puella manu.
tota tibi est hodie, tibi se laetissima compsit,
staret ut ante tuos conspicienda focos.
5 illa quidem ornandi causas tibi, diva, relegat:
, est tamen occulte cui placuisse velit.
at tu, sancta, fave, neu quis divellat amantes,
sed iuveni quaeso mutua vincla para.
sic bene compones: ullae non ille puellae
10 servire aut cuiquam dignior illa viro.
nec possit cupidos vigilans deprendere custos,
fallendique vias mille ministret Amor.
adnue purpureaque veni perlucida palla :
ter tibi fit libo, ter, dea casta, mero.
15 • praecipit et natae mater studiosa quod optet:
illa aliud tacita, iam sua, mente rogat.
uritur, ut celeres urunt altaria flammae,
nec, liceat quamvis, sana fuisse velit.
sis iuveni grata, et veniet cum proximus annus,
20 hic idem votis iam vetus adsit amor.
1
Tandem venit amor, qualem texisse pudori
quam nudasse alicui sit mihi fama magis.
169

4, 7, 3]
OVLLVS
5
V.
exorata meis illum Cytherea Camenis
attulit in nostrum deposuitque sinum.
exsolvit promissa Venus: mea gaudia narret,
dicetur si quis non habuisse sua.
non ego signatis quicquam mandare tabellis,
ne legat id nemo quam meus ante, velim,
sed peccasse iuvat, vultus componere famae
taedet: cum digno digna fuisse ferar.
10
Invisus natalis adest qui rure molesto
et sine Cerintho tristis agendus erit.
dulcius urbe quid est? an villa sit apta puellae
. atque Arretino frigidus amnis agro?
iam, nimium Messalla mei studiose, quiescas,
neu tempestivae saepe propinque viae.
hic animun sensusque meos abducta relinquo,
arbitrio quamvis non sinis esse meo.
5
7 give
Scis iter ex animo, sublatum triste puellae?
natali Romae, iam licet esse meo.
omnibus ille dies nobis natalis agatur,
qui nec opinanți punc tibi forte venit.
IO
Gratum est, securus multum quod iam tibi de me
permittis, subito ne male inepta cadam.
sit tibi cura togae potior pressumque quasillo
scortum quam Servi filia Sulpicią.
170
LIBER QVARTVS
[4, 13, 10
5
solliciti sunt pro nobis, quibus illa dolori est
ne cedam ignoto, maxima causa, toro.
II
Estne tibi, Cerinthe, tuae pia cura puellae,
quod mea nunc vexat corpora fessa calor?
a ego non aliter tristes evincere morbos
optarim, quam te si quoque velle putem.
at mihi quid prosit morbos evincere, si tu
nostra potes lento pectore ferre mala?
5
I2
. Ne tibi sim, mea lux, aeque iam fervida cura
ac videor paucos ante fuisse dies,
si quicquam tota commisi stulta iuventa
cuius me fatear paenituisse magis,
hesterna quam te solum quod nocte reliqui,
ardorem cupiens dissimulare meum.
5
5
13
Nulla tuum nobis subducet femina lectum:
hoc primum iuncta est foedere nostra Venus.
tu mihi sola places, nec iam te praeter in urbe
formosa est oculis ulla puella meis.
atque utinam posses uni mihi bella videri !
displiceas aliis : sic ego tutus ero.
nil opus invidia est, procul absit gloria vulgi:
qui sapit, in tacito gaudeat ille sinu.
sic ego secretis possum bene vivere silvis,
qua nulla humano sit via trita pede.
10
171
4, 13, 11]
TIBVLLVS
15
tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atra
lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis.
nunc licet e caelo mittatur amica Tibullo,
mittetur frustra deficietque Venus.
hoc tibi sancta tuae Iunonis numina iuro,
quae sola ante alios est mihi magna deos.
quid facio demens ? heu heu mea pignora cedo.
iurayi stulte: proderat iste timor.
nunc tu fortis eris, nunc tu me audacius ures:
hoc peperit misero garrula lingua malum.
iam faciam quodcumque voles, tuus usque manebo,
nec fugiam notae servitium dominae,
sed Veneris sanctae considam vinctus ad aras:
haec notat iniustos supplicibusque favet.
14
Rumor ait crebro nostram peccare puellam :
nunc ego me surdis auribus esse velim.
crimina non haec sunt nostro sine facta dolore:
quid miserum torques, rumor acerbe ? tace.
172
VITA TIBVLLI
(DOMITII MARSI)
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.
5 Albius Tibullus eques Romanus, insignis forma cultu-
que corporis observabilis, ante alios Corvinum Messalam
oratorem dilexit, cuius etiam contubernalis Aquitanico
bello militaribus donis donatus est. hic multorum iu-
dicio principem inter elegiographos obtinet locum.
10 epistolae quoque eius amatoriae, quamquam breves, om-
nino utiles sunt. obiit adolescens, ut indicat epigramma
supra scriptum. .
eques Romanus, y; eques Regalis, A; eques R(omanus) e Gabiis,
Baehrens. oratorem, y; originem, A.
173
DE TIBVLLI VITA ET POESI
TESTIMONIA ANTIQVA
HORATIVS, Oa. I, 33
('ad Tibullum vel 'ad Albium Tibullum'inscr. ‘Albium
Tibullum adloquitur elegiorum poetam' Porphyrio)
Albi, ne doleas plus nimio memor
immitis. Glycerae, neu miserabiles
decantes elegos, cur tibi iunior
laesa praeniteat fide.
EPIST. 1, 4
('ad Albium Tibullum' vel 'ad Albium elegorum scrip-
torem'inscr.)
Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide iudex,
quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana?
scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat,
an tacitum silvas inter reptare salubres,
curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est?
non tu corpus eras sine pectore : di tibi formam,
di tibi divitias dederunt artemque fruendi.
quid voveat dulci nutricula maius alumno,
qui sapere et fari possit quae sentiat, et cui
10 gratia fama valetudo contingat abunde,
et mundus victus non deficiente crumena?
inter spem curamque, timores inter et iras
omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum:
Y
I
174
TESTIMONIA ANTIQVA
15
grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora.
me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises,
cum ridere voles, Epicuri de grege porcum.
OVIDIVS, Amor. 3, 9
Memnona si mater, mater ploravit Achillem
et tangunt magnas tristia fata deas,
flebilis indignos, Elegeia, solve capillos:
a nimis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit. :
5 ille tui vates operis, tua fama, Tibullus,
ardet in exstructo, corpus inane, rogo.
ecce puer Veneris fert eversamque pharetram
et fractos arcus et sine luce facem.
aspice demissis ut eat miserabilis alis
10 pectoraque infesta tundat aperta manu.
excipiunt lacrimas sparsi per colla capilli,
oraque singultu concutiente sonant.
fratris in Aeneae sic illum funere dicunt
egressum tectis, pulcher Iule, tuis.
15 nec minus est confusa Venus moriente Tibullo,
quam iuveni rupit cum ferus inguen aper.
at sacri vates et divum cura vocamur:
sunt etiam qui nos numen habere putent.
scilicet omne sacrum mors importuna profanat,
20 omnibus obscuras inicit illa manus.
quid pater Ismario, quid mater profuit Orpheo ?
carmine quid victas obstipuisse feras?
'Aelinon' in silvis idem pater, 'Aelinon' altis
dicitur invita concinuisse lyra.
25 adice Maeoniden, a quo ceu fonte perenni
vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis:
hunc quoque summa dies nigro submersit Averno:
175
TIBVLLVS
30
35
defugiunt avidos carmina sola rogos:
durat opus vatum, Troiani fama laboris
tardaque nocturno tela retexta dolo.
sic Nemesis longum, sic Delia nomen habebunt,
altera cura recens, altera primus amor.
quid vos sacra iuvant? quid nunc Aegyptia prosunt
sistra ? quid in vacuo secubuisse toro?
cum rapiunt mala fata bonos, – ignoscite fasso
sollicitor nullos esse putare deos.
vive pius: moriere; pius cole sacra : colentem
mors gravis a templis in cava busta trahet;
carminibus confide bonis : iacet ecce Tibullus;
vix manet e toto parva quod urna capit.
tene, sacer vates, flammae rapuere rogales
pectoribus pasci nec timuere tuis ?
aurea sanctorum potuissent templa deorum
urere, quae tantum sustinuere nefas.
avertit vultus, Erycis quae possidet arces:
sunt quoque qui lacrimas continuisse negant.
sed tamen hoc melius, quam si Phaeacia tellus
ignotum vili supposuisset humo.
hinc certe madidos fugientis pressit ocellos
mater et in cineres ultima dona tulit;
hinc soror in partem misera cum matre doloris
venit inornatas dilaniata comas,
cumque tuis sua iunxerunt Nemesisque priorque
oscula nec solos destituere rogos.
Delia descendens 'felicius' inquit 'amata
sum tibi : vixisti, dum tuus ignis eram.'
cui Nemesis • quid' ait tibi sunt mea damna dolori?
me tenuit moriens deficiente manu.'
si tamen e nobis aliquid nisi nomen et umbra
45
50
176
TESTIMONIA ANTIQVA
60 restat, in Elysia valle Tibullus erit.
obvius huic venias, hedera iuvenalia cinctus
tempora cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo,
tu quoque, si falsum est temerati crimen amici,
sanguinis atque animae prodige Galle tuae.
65 his comes umbra tua est. si qua est modo corporis umbra,
auxisti numeros, culte Tibulle, pios.
ossa quieta, precor, tuta requiescite in urna,
et sit humus cineri non onerosa tuo.
Amor. I, 15, 27
donec erunt ignes arcusque Cupidinis arma,
discentur numeri, culte Tibulle, tui.
Ars Amat. 3, 333
et teneri possis carmen legisse Properti,
sive aliquid Galli, sive, Tibulle, tuum.
Ars Amat. 3, 535
nos facimus placitae late praeconia formae:
nomen habet Nemesis, Cynthia nomen habet.
Rem. Amor. 763
carmina quis potuit tuto legisse Tibulli,
vel tua, cuius opus Cynthia sola fuit?
quis poterit lecto durus discedere Gallo ?
et mea nescio quid carmina tale sonant.
Trist. 2, 445
non fuit opprobrio celebrasse Lycorida Gallo,
sed linguam nimio non tenuisse mero.
credere iuranti durum putat esse Tibullus,
sic etiam de se quod neget illa viro.
177
TIBVLLVS
460
fallere custodem dominum docuisse fatetur,
450 seque sua miserum nunc ait arte premi,
saepe, velut gemmam dominae signumve probaret,
per causam meminit se tetigisse manum,
utque refert, digitis saepe est nutuque locutus
et tacitam mensae duxit in orbe notam ;
455 et quibus e sucis abeat de corpore livor
impresso fieri qui solet ore docet:
denique ab incauto nimium petit ille marito,
se quoque uti servet, peccet ut illa minus.
scit cui latretur, cum solus obambulet ipse,
cui totiens clausas exscreet ante fores,
multaque dat furti talis praecepta docetque
qua nuptae possint fallere ab arte viros.
non fuit hoc illi fraudi, legiturque Tibullus
et placet, et iam te principe notus erat.
465 invenies eadem blandi praecepta Properti;
destrictus minima nec tamen ille nota est.
his ego successi —
Trist. 4, 10, 51
Vergilium vidi tantum, nec amara Tibullo
tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.
successor fuit hic tibi, Galle, Propertius illi;
quartus ab his serie temporis ipse fui.
Trist. 5, 1, 15
delicias si quis lascivaque carmina quaerit,
praemoneo, non est scripta quod ista legat.
· aptior huic Gallus blandique Propertius oris,
aptior, ingenium mite, Tibullus erit. .
atque utinam numero non nos essemus in isto!
ei mihi, cur umquam Musa iocata mea est?
178
TESTIMONIA ANTIQVA
VELLEIVS PATERCVLVS, 2, 36, 3
Paene stulta est inhaerentium oculis ingeniorum enu-
meratio, inter quae maxime nostri aevi eminent princeps
carminum Vergilius Rabiriusque et consecutus Sallustium
Livius Tibullusque et Naso, perfectissimi in forma operis
sui: nam vivorum ut magna admiratio, ita censura diffi-
cilis est.
INTILIAN
QVINTILIANVS, Inst. Or. 10, 1, 93
Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus, cuius mihi tersus
atque elegans maxime videtur auctor Tibullus. sunt qui
Propertium malint. Ovidius utroque lascivior sicut durior
Gallus.
STATIVS, Silv. 1, 2, 250
sed praecipui qui nobile gressu
extremo fraudatis opus, date carmina festis
digna toris. hunc ipse Coo plaudente Philetas
Callimachusque senex Umbroque Propertius antro
ambissent laudare diem, nec tristis in ipsis
Naso Tomis divesque foco lucente Tibullus.
MARTIALIS, 4, 6.
Credi virgine castior pudica
et frontis tenerae cupis videri,
cum sis improbior, Malisiane,
quam qui compositos metro Tibulli
in Stellae recitat domo libellos.
8, 70
Quanta quies placidi tanta est facundia Nervae,
sed cohibet vires ingeniumque pudor.
179
TIBVLLVS
cum siccare sacram largo Permessida posset
ore, verecundam maluit esse sitim,
Pieriam tenui frontem redimire corona
contentus famae nec dare vela suae.
sed tamen hunc nostri scit temporis esse Tibullum,
carmina qui docti nota Neronis habet.
8, 73, 5
Cynthia te vatem fecit, lascive Properti:
ingenium Galli pulchra Lycoris erat :
fama est arguti Nemesis formosa Tibulli :
Lesbia dictavit, docte Catulle, tibi.
non me Peligni nec spernet Mantua vatem,
si qua Corinna mihi, si quis Alexis erit.
14, 193
Ussit amatorem Nemesis lasciva Tibullum,
in tota iuvit quem nihil esse domo.
APVLEIVS, Apol. 10
Hic illud etiam reprehendi animadvertisti, quod, cum
aliis nominibus pueri vocentur, ego eos Charinum et
Critiam appellitarim. eadem igitur opera accusent C.
Catullum, quod Lesbiam pro Clodia nominarit, et Ticidam
similiter, quod quae Metella erat Perillam scripserit, et
Propertium, qui Cynthiam dicat, Hostiam dissimulet,
et Tibullum, quod ei sit Plania in animo, Delia in versu.
et quidem C. Lucilium, quamquam sit iambicus, tamen
improbarim, quod Gentium et Macedonem pueros directis
nominibus carmine suo prostituerit. quanto modestius
tandem Mantuanus poeta, qui itidem ut ego puerum
amici sui Pollionis bucolico ludicro laudans et abstinens
nominum sese quidem Corydonem, puerum vero Alexin
vocat.
180
TESTIMONIA ANTIQVA
DIOMEDES, P. 484, 17 K
Elegia est carmen compositum hexametro versu penta-
metroque alternis in vicem positis, ut
divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro
et teneat culti iugera multa soli.
quod genus carminis praecipue scripserunt apud Romanos
Propertius et Tibullus et Gallus imitati Graecos Cal-
limachum et Euphoriona. elegia autem dicta sive Tapà
το ευ λεγειν τους τεθνεώτας: fere enim defunctorum laudes
hoc carmine comprehendebantur : sive àÒ TOû éréov id
est miseratione, quod Opůvous Graeci vel élecia isto metro
scriptitaverunt. cui opinioni consentire videtur Horatius,
cum ad Albium Tibullum elegiarum auctorem scribens ab
ea quam diximus miseratione elegos miserabiles dicit hoc
modo:
neu miserabiles
decantes elegos.
SIDONIVS APOLLINARIS, Carm. 9, 259
non Gaetulicus hic tibi legetur,
non Marsus, Pedo, Silius, Tibullus,
non quod Sulpiciae iocus Thaliae
scripsit blandiloquum suo Caleno,
non Persi rigor aut lepos Properti.
Epist. 2, 10, 6
Certe si praeter rem oratoriam contubernio feminarum
poeticum ingenium et oris tui limam frequentium studi-
orum cotibus expolitam quereris obtundi, reminiscere
quod saepe versum Corinna cum suo Nasone complevit,
Lesbia cum Catullo, Caesennia cum Gaetulico, Argen-
taria cum Lucano, Cynthia cum Propertio, Delia cum
Tibullo.
181
NOTES
I, I
This poem is the first of the elegies to Delia, and also serves as an introduc-
tion to the book. The date is uncertain. On the form, etc., see Introd.
p. 93. This elegy has been much discussed. See the literature cited by
Schanz (cp. p. 30, n. above). Since then (1911) Jacoby's theories have
called out two important articles : J. J. Hartmann, 'De Tibullo Poeta,'
Mnemosyne, 39 (1911), pp. 369-411; R. Reitzenstein, Hermes, 47 (1912),
80-116. Pohlenz (Xápites, Friedrich Leo,' etc. Berlin, 1911, p. 104)
thinks Tibullus may have been influenced here by the Thalysia of Theokritos.
He opposes, very properly, Jacoby's assertion that our poet was imitating Hor.
Epode 2.
Imitated by La Harpe, Lebrun, Loyson, Parny, Blacklock; cp. too Baif's Du
Contentement. Luigi Alamanni, Felicità dell' Amore: Età dell' oro, echoes
this elegy, 1-28 and 1, 3, 35 ff. —
Chi desia d'acquistar terreno ed oro,
Sia pur le notti e i giorni al caldo e al gelo
Soggetto e inteso al marzial lavoro, etc.
Bertin, À Eucharis,' Amours, 1, 12, was also evidently inspired by some
passages in this poem and 1, 2, 65-74. The following lines of Nicholas
Grimald (1519–1562), Oxford Book of Verse, 42, might well be a summary of
our elegy-
Let some for honour hunt, and hoard the massy gold:
With her so I may live and die, my weal cannot be told.
Others are welcome to gold and lands if the toil and the peril of campaign-
ing are to be the price. Give me my modest competence, a life inglorious
and a cheerful home, the simple toil and the simple faith of the country-side.
My ancestral wealth is no more, but I am at peace, I observe the proper rites,
and such as I have I share with the old rustic gods. Nay, I care not for the
broad acres of my sires. A small crop is enough, it is enough to rest in my
own bed. How pleasant then with one's beloved to hear the cruel winds
outside, to drop away unconcerned to slumber, lulled by the pelting storm!
183
1, 1, 1]
TIBVLLVS
This lot be mine. Let him be rich — he deserves it - who can face the
frowning skies and the madness of the seas. Perish rather all the wealth of
Ind than that any girl should weep because I had taken to a soldier's life.
For you, Messalla, it is meet to wage war by land and sea and to hang your
house with trophies. I am chained at home a helpless thrall of love. But I
care not, dear Delia, for the praise of men.. So long as I am with you they
are welcome to say I am without energy and without ambition. May we be
together till death comes to part us, and may you follow my body with many
tears to the grave. Until then let us love while we may. Death comes anon,
anon palsied eld. Now is the time for lightsome love and for all the mad
pranks of thoughtless youth. In these wars I am good either to lead or to
follow. Be off then, ye alarums of war, bring wounds to greed, aye bring
riches too. With my little store I do not cread want and I do not desire
wealth.'
1-52. The quiet life and idyllic simplicity. The favourite motive of
Tibullus (cp. esp. 1, 10), and constantly recurring in antique literature, esp.
during and after the Alexandrian Age. See note on the Golden Age, 1, 3,
35-48; Hor. Epode, 2; Verg. G. 2, 493 ff.; Columella, Praefat. 7 ; Seneca,
Poetae Lat. Minores, IV, p. 74.B.; Mart. 10, 47; Propert. 1, 6; 3, 3, 41.
1-2. For the wish cp. 1, 10, 29 ff., for the conventional division of wealth,
2, 2, 13–16; Hor. Sat. 1, 2, 13, 'dives agris, dives positis in faenore nummis,'
etc. The lines are imitated by Ovid, Amor. 3, 15, 12; Fast. 3, 192; Pont.
4, 9, 86; Mart. 1, 85, 2; 116, 2; 6, 16, 2; perhaps Claud. In Ruf. 2, 134.
1. fulvo: poetic; cp. the “red gold' of our older literature, e.g. Of
red golde shone their weedes,' or, 'here's a red rogue to buy thee handker-
chers. The prose word is flavus, Mart. 12, 65, 6, 'an de moneta Caesaris
decem flavos,''ten yellow boys,' etc. — auro: ablat. instr., cp. opibus, 1, 7, 59.
So the ablat. is instr. with vivere in 25; decidere, I, 2, 30; perrepere and
tundere, 1, 2, 85–86; fieri, 4, 6, 14 and note; traducere, I, 5 below and note;
aperta, 1, 6, 18; ridere, I, 9, 54; crepitare, 2, 5, 81; exstruere, 2, 5, 99;
vetare, 2, 6, 36, etc.
2. culti ... soli: hence of course more valuable. There is no reference
here to the confiscations (Introd. p. 32). Indeed, Ullman, “Horace and
Tibullus,' A.J.P. 33, 160, shows that the losses to which the poet indirectly
refers were probably due to something more serious and personal than con-
fiscations. He suggests, in short, that the Albius whom Ilorace mentions as
having a mania for the collection of bronzes (Sat. I, 4, 28) –
hunc capit argenti splendor; stupet Albius aere,
was the father of Tibullus. If so, the shrinkage in the family fortune is
184
NOTES
(1, 1, 4
amply explained as well as the fact thai Tibullus never refers to the cause
of it. Moreover, the fact that Horace confines his illustrations to people who
have passed away (Sat. 2, 1, 39) suggests that at the time this Satire was
written, i.e. as early as 39 B.C., the elder Albius was already dead. This
would help to explain why Tibullus never refers to him. At that time the son
would be not over fifteen or sixteen years of age, and we may well agree with
Ullman that Horace (Sat. 1, 4, 109) —
Nonne vides Albi ut male vivat filius,
describes the condition of our poet at that time. If this is true, such expres-
sions as 1, 1, 38–41; 1, 10, 8; 1, 10, 17–20; 2, 3, 47-48 have an added sig-
nificance and pathos; and indeed, the fact that he had such a father and that
he lost even him when he was a mere boy may partly account for his later
melancholia. Finally, who shall say how far our poet's characteristic genius
and taste were due to the fact that he had just such a father and that his
home life from earliest childhood was intimately associated with the contem-
plation of artistic masterpieces ? - For the arrangement of adj. and subst. see
Introd. p. 104. For the thought cp. 2, 3, 41-42.
3-4. A favourite motive in antique poetry: Bacchyl. frag. 4, 12, Blass,
χαλκεάν δ' ουκ έστι σαλπίγγων κτύπος, ουδε συλάται μελίφρων | ύπνος από
Bledápwy, 1 å@los ös CálTEL KÉap: Plutarch, Nik. 9, TOùs év elpnun kabeúdovras
où oáziyyes, ál å lekt Puoves Out VÍCovol' Lucan, 4, 394, 'non proelia
fessos / ulla vocant, certos non rumpunt classica somnos'; Sil. Ital. 15, 48,
haud umquam trepidos abrumpet bucina somnos’; Propert. 3, 3, 41; Hor.
Epod. 2, 5 (with Keller's note), etc.
3. labor (móvos): regularly used in both poetry and prose of the hardships
of campaigning, such as foraging, digging trenches, fortifying camps, etc.
Tacitus, Ann. I, 65, gives a graphic description. — vicino terreat hoste :
Ovid writes from Tomi, Pont. 4, 9, 81,' quaere loci faciem Scythicique incom-
moda caeli, et quam vicino terrear hoste roga. So Percennius in Pannonia
says to his fellow-soldiers (Tac. Ann. I, 17), 'non obtrectari a se urbanas
excubias: sibi tamen apud horridas gentes e contuberniis hostem aspici.'
- hoste: for the ablat. cp. capite, 1, 72; acervo, 1, 77; metu, 1, 6, 75; causa,
1, 7, 23; triumphis, 2, 1, 33; timore, 2, 1, 77; donis, 2, 3, 52; comis, 4, 2,
10. — terreat and fugent are consecutive subjunctives.
4. somnos: the use of plural for singular, characteristic of poetry but by
no means confined to it, was largely extended by the Augustan writers and is
especially common in Ovid. Examples of it are more common in the first
book of Tibullus than in the second. They are encouraged, sometimes
necessitated, by the exigencies of metre, but they generally have a rhetorical
185
1, 1, 5]
TIBVLLVS
colour (as in the prose of the Silver Age) if not a distinctive meaning. More
unusual cases are sepulcra, 1, 3, 8; triumphos, I, 7, 5; rura, I, 5, 21; 2, 3,
1; sola, 1, 5, 3; sedes, 2, 4, 53; rivos, 1, 1, 28; regna, 1, 9, 80. Otherwise
the examples usually may be explained according to the general rules, e.g.
pluralizing of abstracts often makes them concrete, the plural is indefinite or
typical, distributive, indicates a series, action interrupted and resumed, parts
of the whole, species of the genus, analogy, etc. Moreover these divisions
are by no means exclusive, and as in English the specific meaning of the plural
is not always clearly impressed on the mind of the user. Here the plural
somnos appears to be distributive, 'one's sleep o' nights,' cp. “It seems his
sleeps were hinder'd by thy railings' (Shak.). In 1, 48 it is 'slumbers,' the
sleeper wakes from time to time but .drops off' again, at once roused and
lulled by the storm. So musta, I, I, 10; 1, 5, 24, is the 'must' year by year,
but musta, 2, 3, 66, is typical; cp. vina, 1, 1, 24; 2, 1, 29, and fructus, 1, 1,41:
aquas, 1, 1, 47 and often, is 'waters': ortus, I, I, 27; 2, 5, 59, like soles, 1, 4,
2, etc., is day by day, i.e. distributive : rivos, I, I, 28, emphasizes the parts
instead of the whole: nives, 1, 2, 50; 1, 4, 2, is snow-flakes or snow-storms,
etc. On the subject in general see Paul Maas, Archiv f. Lat. Lexikographie, 12,
p. 490 ff. —- classica: Servius on Verg. A. 7, 637, says 'classicum dicimus
et tubam ipsam et sonum. pulsa shows that here classica = tubae. - pulsa:
lit. ‘smitten,' applies of course only to stringed instruments, cymbals and the
like, as 2, 5, 3 ; 1, 3, 24; Ovid, Met. 10, 205, 'lyra pulsa manu.' The transfer
to wind instruments is occasional in Greek, e.g. Aristoph. Aves, 682 (cp.
Blaydes ad loc.), Simonides, 29, Crus. (cp. Smyth's note), and is attested by
Plutarch (Quaest. Conviv. 2, 4), but in the Latin authors I find no good
parallel. Huschke cites Claudian, Panegyr. Theod. 313, 'cui tibia flatu, i cui
plectro pulsanda chelys, but this may be explained by zeugma. The regular
military phrase is classicum canere.
5. me mea : grouping of pronouns at the beginning of the sentence is fre-
quent in the poets. So I, 1, 49; 1, 2, 43 ; 53 ; 65; 71; 89, etc., esp.
Ovid. Here the emphatic position of me marks its antithesis to alius in 1.
- paupertas: as Seneca, Epist. 87, 40 carefully defines it, is not poverty,
egestas, but parvi possessio. So Martial says (11, 32, 8), 'non est paupertas,
Nestor, habere nihil.' The estimate of what constitutes paupertas, a slender
income, is largely influenced by the personal equation, cp. lines 77–78 and
Introd. p. 32. For the line, cp. Culex, 97, 'securam placido traducit pectore
vitam.' — traducat: should be given its strict etymological meaning. So
Száyelv in Sophokles, Elektra, 782, xpóvos dñyé u'aièv ús Oavovuévny: cp.
Demosth. 18, 89; Xen. Rep. Lac. 1, 3. The metaphor of life as the path of
one's march to the grave is still further emphasized by the case of vita, ablat.
186
NOTES
[1, 1,9
of the route without a preposition — really instrumental, see note on auro,
line i above — with a verb of motion. Schulze cites Livy, 23, 24, 7, silva
qua exercitum traducturus erat.' The construction (mainly old-fashioned or
poetic) is not common, and extension to the sphere of metaphor is usually
supported as here by an adjective.
6. Referred to by Statius, Silvae, 1, 2, 255, divesque foco lucente Ti-
bullus,' and imitated in an ancient epitaph (Carm. Epig. 477, 10), 'tunc
meus adsidue semper bene luxit, amice, focus.' The line is also quoted by
three of the ancient grammarians.
The touch is characteristic of antiquity. The practical and sacred associa-
tions of the hearth and the hearth fire made them synonymous with home and
home life, cp. the 'focus perennis' of Mart. 10, 47, 4, also 2, 90, 7-10; Theok-
ritos, II, 51 (the well-to-do but unattractive Kyklops to his Galatea), ai
δέ τοι αυτός έγών δοκέω λασιώτερος ήμεν, | εντί δρυός ξύλα μου και υπό σπoδώ
åkámatov mūp: Aristoph. Pax 440 (the farmer's ideal of comfort), mà Ai, arx
έν ειρήνη διαγαγείν τον βίον, | έχονθ' εταίραν και σκαλεύοντ’ άνθρακας. Home
is no home without it, Mart. 11, 56, 4, et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus;'
Ovid, Trist. 1, 3, 44, going into exile, speaks of his .exstinctos focos,' cp.
Aisch. Choeph. 629, tlw s đ0 épuavtov eo tlav obuwv. He who has none is
poor indeed, Catullus, 23 and Martial's imit. 11, 32.
7. ipse: i.e. in person, which would be unusual in one of Tibullus's
position and emphasizes the old Roman simplicity of the lot preferred, cp. I,
2,71; 2, 6, 8 and the parallel of this passage in Propert. 3, 17, 15 ff. — teneras:
contrasted with grandia, see Introd. p. 103. In fact grandia is better as a
contrast than as an epithet of young fruit trees.
8. facili: i.e. ready,'' skilful,' cp. manu sollerti, 1, 7, 29. The shift of
adjectives from a usual passive to an unusual active or vice versa is a fre-
quent and characteristic device of poetry, cp. pigra, 1, 2, 29; ignotis, 1,
3, 3; tardas, 1, 3, 16; tristia, 1, 5, 50; fertilis, 1, 7, 22; felicibus, 2, 1, 25;
securo and sobria, 2, 1, 46; naufraga, 2, 4, 10; inulta, 1, 6, 48; innoxia,
2, 5, 63; amor, I, 4, 10 (see note), etc. — poma: for pomos, cp. 2, 1, 43,
"fruit trees.' On 'antique methods of planting vineyards and orchards see,
6.g., Varro, De Re Rust. 1, 7; Columella, 3, 13.
9. spes: not the goddess, though, as the verbs show, personified for the
moment. Hope and the husbandman are frequently associated; cp. 2, 6,
20 ff., and notes. — destituat: usually destitui spe or a spe. The absolute
use as here is so rare that Livy, 1, 41, I, si destituat spes,' has been called a
reminiscence, cp. 37, 7, 9, .si is destituat'; 45, 20, 3, 'spe destituta';
Lucan, 2, 728, “triumphis destituit Fortuna tuis' (so G, i.e. Ms. Bruxellensis
5330; see Hosius's text); 5, 298, ' quando pietasque fidesque destituunt.'
.187
1, 1, 10]
TIBVLLVS
10. musta: new wine, mustum, or oil, is still stored in these vats (lacus)
both in Italy and the East. A similar usage prevails in our cider mills of
the Northern States. The vintage month is October, cp. the Laus omnium
mensium 19 (PLM. IV, p. 291, Baehrens), 'conterit October lascivis calcibus
uvas | et spumant pleno dulcia musta lacu.' As the Italian October is mild,
Cato's advice, De Agri Cult. 113, is good, 'de lacu quam primum vinum in
dolia indito.' Other references to the vintage in Tib. are 1, 5, 23; 1, 7, 35;
2, 1, 45; 2, 5, 85; see also Cato, De Agri Cult. 120; Verg. G. 2, 6; Colu-
mella, 12, 19.
11-12. The worship referred to was characteristic of all antiquity and is
often mentioned. Theophrastos says of the superstitious man (Charact. 28,
Jebb) that he will pour oil from his fask on the smooth stones at the cross-
roads, as he goes by, and will fall on his knees and worship them before he
departs. Jebb quotes Lukian, Alexand. 30 ; Clemens Alex. Strom. 7, p. 302,
and Schulze cites Xen. Mem. I, I, 14. Cp. esp. Apuleius, Florida, 1, 1,
ut ferme religiosis viantium moris est, cum aliqui lucus aut aliqui locus sanc-
tus in via oblatus est, votum postulare, pomum adponere, paulisper adsidere
... neque enim iustius religiosam moram viatori obiecerit aut ara floribus
redimita, aut spelunca foribus inumbrata, aut quercus cornibus onerata, aut
fagus pellibus coronata, vel enim colliculus sepimine consecratus, vel truncus
dolamine effigiatus, vel caespes libamine fumigatus, vel lapis unguine delibu-
tus'; Propert. I, 4, 23–24; Ovid, Fast. 2, 641 (of the Termini).
11. nam: Tibullus never uses enim, cp. 1, 6, 21 n.
12. Imitated in Carm. Epig. 1135, 6, serta quod et tumulum florida saepe
ligant'; Mart. 8, 77, 4, 'splendeat et cingant florea serta caput.' — in trivio
lapis: the persistence of the tradition is seen in the fact that in modern
Italy the same spot is often occupied by a way-side shrine. Indeed the reli-
gious associations of the cross-roads — especially in the worship of Hekate -
may still be traced in various superstitions of mediaeval and modern times,
cp. 1, 5, 54 and note.
13. educat: 'bring to maturity,' Catull. 62, 41 'quem (i.l. flos) mul-
cent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber,' hence novus annus = “the (current)
season. For this conception of annus as in itself the cause of the year's
products, see 1, 4, 19; Livy, 4, 12, 7,'adversus annus frugibus'; Pervig. Ven.
51, 'Hybla, totos funde flores, quidquid annus adtulit'; Stat. Theb. 8, 301.
14. For the immeinorial custom of first fruits, cp. e.g. Pliny, H.N. 18, 8,
ac ne degustabant quidem novas fruges aut vina, antequam sacerdotes primi-
tias libassent.' - agricolae deo : purposely indefinite, so I, 5, 27 ; 2, 1, 36.
agricola as an adjective appears first in these three passages of Tib. and else-
where is found only in Propert. 2, 34, 74; Sidon. Epist. 4, 21, 6; Ovid. Met.
188 :
NOTES
[1, 1, 23
8, 276 ; Pont. 4, 14, 32; [Nux], 10; Prisc. Perieg. 181. 5 exx. with vir or
homo are quoted from the Vulgate, etc. --- ante : local here. Tib. likes ante
in this place, cp. I, 1, 16 and 56; 3, 72; 4, 14; 10, 8, 16 and 68; 2, 1, 24,
54 and 78; 4, 46; 5, 66 and 98 ; 6, 24 and 38; 4, 7, 8 (Sulpicia).
15. flava: a natural epithet of Ceres, goddess of the harvest, Verg. G. I,
56; Ovid, Amor. 3, 10, 3; cp. the đavon Anuńrnp of Iliad, 5, 500, etc. flava
coma or caesaries is a favourite colour for gods, heroes, and beautiful women,
1, 5, 44 ; Ovid, Amor. I, 13, 2; 1, 15, 35; 1, 1, 7; Met. 2, 749; 8, 275 ;
Hor. Od. 3, 9, 19, etc. Esp. in the Greek poets, Bacchyl. 12, 136, Blass;
Pindar, Nem. 10, 12; frag. 34, Christ; Hesiod, Theog. 947; Eurip. Medea,
834, etc.
17–18. Priapus : is here described in one of his principal functions, i.e., 'as
the scarecrow in gardens, cp. Introd. to I, 4; Verg. G. 4, 110-111.
17. ruber : so oſten of Priapos. On the ceremonial use of red (minium,
etc.) to paint the faces of the gods on holidays and on other special occa-
sions, see Pliny, H.N. 33, III; Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 98; Arnob. 6, 10;
Verg. E. 6, 22, and Serv. on Verg. E. Jo, 27. For its use in triumphs, see 1,
7, 5-8 n. and (the early actors) 2, 1, 55 n. Cp. Nestle, Philologus, 50, 501 ff.
(“Griechische Göttermasken ').
18. saeva falce: saeva here is mock-heroic, Priap. 11, 2, .saeva nec
incurva vulnera falce dabo'; 30, 1, ' falce minax — Priape'; Verg. A. 1, 138,
non illi imperium pelagi saevumque tridentem. On Priapos, cp. Introd. to
1, 4, below.
20. Lares: sc. compitales, guardians and protectors of the fields (custodes
agri) bordering on the compita and also of the dwellings situated in those
fields. The worship of the Lares Familiares is a development from that of
the Compitales (Wissowa) ; cp. 1, 10, 21 ff.
21-22. Probably the Ambarvalia is referred to ; cp. Introd. to 2, 1.
21. Mustard notes Sannazaro, Eleg. 1, 2, 36 —
ictus ad innumeras expiet agnus oves.
- tunc: Tibullus prefers this form to tum, cp. 1, 4, 7 n.; 1, 6, 21 n.
22. agna: the lamb is the poor man's sacrifice, Hor. Od. 2, 17, 32; Ovid,
Trist. I, 10, 43-44. As a sacrifice, however, vitula is not extravagant, Hor.
Od. 4, 3, 54, etc. Note the distinction between exigui and parva.
23. agna: anaphora in its various forms is characteristic of the elegy
and especially of Tibullus. With or without connective particles — 1, 4, 17;
1, 8, 19; 1, 4, 63; 2, 3, 31; 2, 3, 68; 1, 2, 7; 2, 6, 44; 1, 9, 7; 1, 3, 4; 1,
8, 43; 1, 10, 27; 1, 10, 45; 4, 4, 1; 2, 3, 36; 2, 1, 37; 2, 6, 25; 1, 7, 10.
Especially common with adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, particles - 1, 5,
189
1, 1, 24]
TIBVLLVS
61; 1, 2, 51; 1, 1, 59; 1, 4, II; 1, 2, 44; 1, 6, 81; 1, 5, 27; 1, 8, 13; 1, 2,
27; 1, 2, 29; 1, 3, 41; 1, 5, 25; 2, 1, 5; 2, 1, 17. With connectives, 2, 5,
100; 1, 4, 82; 1, 1, 78; 2, 5, 105; 2, 6, 9, etc. see 39 n. below, and for the
figure in Verg. and Ovid, L. Otto, De Anaphora, Diss. Marburg, i ff. 1907.
- quam circum: postposition with circum, praeter, propter, and, of course,
coram is invariable in Tib. So ante once (2, 5, 66) and ad (2, 1, 74),
see 2, 5, 66, note. Postposition of both prep. and attribute is seen in 1, 4, 26.
Separation of the preposition from its case beyond the distance allowable in
prose is seen in ad, 1, 2, 32; circum, 1, 5,51 ; contra, 1, 6, 30; post, 1, 9, 44;
sine, 4, 14, 3.
24. clamet: the shift of tenses is characteristic, cp. I, 1, 61–62; 1, 5, 29;
1, 7, 8; 2, 4, 46; 2, 6, 4; 4, 2, 10-12; 4, 3, 17-18; 4, 13, 5. — bona: prob-
ably to be taken with messes as well as with vina, see 1, 1, 75 n.
25–26. Now, if only now, I may live on my little in peace, etc. The
poet's wish is fervent but the hardships of former years prompt him to put it
in the form of a proviso. For emphatic iam iam separated by an intervening
word Schulze cites Ovid, Trist. I, I, 44, ‘hausurum iugulo iam puto iamque
meo '; Verg. A. 12, 179, “iam melior iam, diva, precor.'
25. modo : dum modo, as in 1, 2, 31; 1, 6, 64;. 2, 5, 106. See R. Methner,
Dum, dum modo und modo,' Glotta, 1, 245–261.
26. Supply opus sit or the like as suggested by possim, in 25. So e.g. Juv.
6, 17, 'cum furem nemo timeret | caulibus aut pomis et aperto viveret horto’;
Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 1-3; Cic. De Orat. 3, 52. - longae viae: here put for cam-
paigning in general as the greatest hardship of it. The Roman soldier carried
a heavy burden (Verg. G. 3, 347) and to reach the frontiers of the Empire
meant a transcontinental march. The touch is characteristic of Tibullus and
of the elegy, 1, 1, 52; 1, 3, 14 and 36; 2, 6, 3; Ovid, Amor. 199, 9, militis
officium longa est via'; 2, 16, 16; Ars Amat. 2, 235. Cp. also Hor. Od. 2,
6, 7, ‘sit modus lasso maris et viarum | militiaeque’; Epist. 1, 11, 6; Mart. 6,
43, 8; 9, 30, 4; 10, 36, 4; Stat. Theb. 3, 395; Tacitus, Ann. 2, 14. — deditus
esse: the only case in Tib. of attraction of the predicate into the nom. —
except of course with passive verbs of saying, etc., dici, 1, 2, 51; 1, 3, 10; 1, 5,
10; 1, 9, 59; 2, 1, 68; 2, 3, 18; 2, 5, 20; 4, 7, 6; videri, 1, 3, 90; 4, 12, 2;
argui, 4, 3, 16; ferri, 1, 2, 81; 1, 8, 73; 2, 1, 41; 4, 7, 10. The regular
preference for the personal construction is shown in every case except 2, 3,
29, where the shift is due to the impers. puduisse.
27-28. Anth. Pal. 16, 227, 5, xú tolun év Operol ueo außplody å yxbol
παγάς | συρίσδων, λασίας θάμνω υπο πλατάνου | καυμα δ' οπωρινοίο φυγών κυνός
aloos å uelyers | aŭplov. Horace's picture of Nature -- deep-lulled in noon'
(Od. 3, 29, 17-24); Thomson's ‘drowsy shepherd as he lies reclined | With
190
NOTES
[I, I, 29
half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade Of willows grey, close-crowding on
the brook, Gray's Elegy, 101 f. (cp. Lucret. 2, 29) and often.
The intense and supposedly baleſul heat of the dog-days and the idea still
entertained that the dog-star has an influence upon it are referred to again
and again, e.g. Homer, Il. 22, 26-31; Verg. A. 1o, 273; G. 2, 353; 4, 425;
Archil. 58, Crus.; Hor. Od. 3, 13, 9; I, 17, 17; Tib. I, 4, 6 and 42; 1, 7, 21;
3, 5, 2 (Lygd.); Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 231, etc.
27. ortus: see note on somnos, 4. The plural begins with Homer, cp.
Odyss. 12, 4, årtolal 'Helloco. The plural, as already explained, is distribu-
tive. Note too that, given the primitive habit of applying the singular to one
concrete instance, we must use the plural if we wish to generalize.
28. rivos: see 4 n. A running stream gives the impression of a plurality
of streams. So rivi in Juv. 6, 430; Hor. Od. 3, 13, 7, cp. loquaces lymphae,
15; rivi sanguinis, Verg. A. I1, 668; 9, 456; Schulze cites Homer, Il. 16,
229, üdatos goal; Odyss. 6, 216, goal totauoîo. So we say regularly ' floods'
of rain, streams' of blood, ‘banks," "shores,' seas,' 'woods,''waters,' etc.
29–32. Note tenuisse and increpuisse beside referre instead of rettulisse.
With impersonal verbs as here the present infin. is norinal throughout the
language. Replacement of it by the perfect infin. is a notable characteristic
of the Augustan poets (all learned in Greek) and especially of the elegy.
The Latin analogy was the old legal use with velle, cp. below, but the influ-
ence of the Greek aorist can hardly be doubted; cp. eg. Hor. A.P. 98, si
curat cor spectantis tetigisse querella.' In fact the Latin perfect really had
absorbed the form and the functions of the aorist. These forms occur most
frequently in the second half of the pentameter where their metrical conven-
ience is obvious; but in many cases the distinction is quite clear, and in dealing
with the remainder it is unsafe to urge mere metrical convenience as the sole
excuse, even when as here (cp. also 45 below, etc.), both perf. and pres. occur
side by side in the same sentence.
In Tib. the exx. of the perf. infin. as a subject are — with pudet, 1, 1, 29;
1, 10, 17; 1, 2, 94; 1, 9, 29; iuvat, I, 1, 46 and 74; 4, 7, 9; decet, 1, 2, 28;
paenitet, 1, 4, 47; piget, 1, 6, 52; 4, 4, 4; prodest, 1, 8, 9 and 70; nocet, 1, 8,
25; 2, 3, 70; gloria est, I, 6, 4; laus tribuetur, 4, 4, 20; sit fama, 4, 7, 1;
sit satis, 1, 10, 62; sit, 1, 6, 24; 4, 3, 3 (where see note).
The perf. infin. act. as an object is found more or less at all periods after
velle, which seems to have been a legal usage, so I, 4, 56; 1, 6, 64; 2, 5, 102
(where see note); 4, 6, 6 and 18. Otherwise mainly in the poets, queat, 1,
9, 64; 4, 5, 16; audeat, 2, 1, 9 (see note); gestit, 2, 1, 71; optarim, 1, 6, 74,
where, however, the distinction between perf. and pres. is clear.
The perf. infin. with verbs of saying and thinking offers nothing unusual.
191
1, 1, 31]
TIBVLLVS
SP
Here, as in 1, 3, 26, there is clearly a difference between the perfects and
the present, referre, though not of such a nature (' ashamed of having held,'
ashamed of holding') as to prevent metrical convenience from determining
the poet's choice.
31–32. 2, 3, 17; Hor. Epist. 1, 13, 12, 'sic positum servabis onus ne forte
sub ala | fasciculum portes librorum, ut rusticus agnum; ' Calpurn. 5, 39, 'te
quoque non pudeat cum serus ovilia vises, si qua iacebit ovis partu resoluta
recenti, / hanc umeris portare tuis natosque patenti / ferre sinu tremulos et
nondum stare paratos.'
31. ve . . . ve: doubled as in 2, 6, 52. For variation of disjunctive parti-
cles cp. aut . . . aut . . . ve, 1, 3, 17; nec ... ve, 1, 2,93; nec . . . ve ...
nec, 2, 3, 12; nec ... aut ... non ... ve ... ve, I, 1, 29.
32. Oblita matre : this is familiar to every shepherd; cp. Verg. E. I, 15.
33-34. For the thought see 4, 1, 187. The naïve tone of this prayer to
Pales (2, 5, 87-90 and note) is characteristic of paganism — and of human-
ity; Priap. 86, 19,' quare hinc, o pueri, malas abstinete rapinas. | vicinus prope
dives est negligensque Priapus: , inde sumite, semita haec deinde vos feret
ipsa; 'cp. the old German rhyme, *Heiliger Sankt Florian, | Spar' dieses
Haus, | Zünd' andres an!' and Atharva Veda, trans. by M. Bloomfield (Sacred
Books of the East, vol. 42, p. I f.), etc.
33. at: 'introducing startling transitions, lively objections, remonstrances,
questions, wishes,' is extremely common in Tibullus. He also uses it fre-
quently in his favourite figure of anaphora to introduce transitions, 1, 3,
33-34 and note, to give new points in a single description, 1, 3, 67, to con-
tinue the narrative, etc. — vos: a large use of personal and demonstrative
pronouns is encouraged both by the temper of the elegy and by the conditions
of the distich. Even personal pronouns with the imperative (colloquial or
solemn) are common, although, as here, they are usually separated from the
verb by intervening words, so I, 1, 37; 1, 1, 75; 1, 2, 15; 1, 2, 87; 1, 4, 75;
1, 5, 59; 1, 5, 69; 1, 6, 15; 1, 7, 63; 1, 8, 33 and 47; 2, 1, 18; 2, 1, 83; 2, 3,
64; 2, 5, 79 and 113; 4, 2, 3 and 21; 4, 3, 23; 4, 4, 16; 4, 5, 19; 4, 6, 7.
As here again they are usually introduced by at.-exiguo: cp. pauperis, 19.
- que ... que: doubling of que as suggested by its Homeric pedigree was
always more common in epic (Ennius, 2.3%, Vergil, 1.4%, Val. Flaccus,
1.15%, Statius, 1.4%) than in the distich (Tib. 0.23%, Propert. 0.25 %, Ovid,
1.3%, which, however, includes the Met.); Martial, 1.53%, etc. The exx,
in Tibullus are 1, I, 33; 1, 2, 27; 1, 5, 35; 1, 9, 72; 1, 10, 65; 2, 6, 46; so
too, (3, 3, 26; 4, 1, 11; 157; 188]. All but one, 4, I, II, acc. to the decided
preference of the entire language, occur in the second half of the verse. Six,
I, 1, 33; 1, 2, 27; 1, 5, 35; 1, 10, 65; 4, 1, 157 and 188 close the hexameter.
192
NOTES
[1, 1, 36
Not found in the first half of the pentameter except in Propertius (only 2 exx.).
Elision of either que is not found in the Corpus Tibullianum. The rule that
substantives so paired shall be in the same case is rarely broken (only Verg.
A.7,639; G. 3, 7; Ovid, Met. 3, 226; Sil. Ital. 9, 559; Hilarius, Macc. 313).
Adjectives paired occur but 46 times, predicative adjectives only 1, 2, 27;
Ovid, Trist. 5, 4, 43; Fast. 2, 758; Lucan, 1, 479; Stat. Silv. 2, 6, 52; Prisc.
1, 42. Verbs (176 times) are usually active and in the pres. indic. 3d sing.,
2, 6, 46. Different tenses are very rare, different persons only in Ovid, Met.
3, 446. Adverbs, once only (3, 3, 26) in the Corpus Tibullianum (elsewhere
58 times). Similarity of endings makes assonance very common. Alliter-
ation too is not infrequent, I, IO, 65 (popular?). Many are more or less
phraseological, e.g. furesque lupique here, cp. 4, I, 188; Eurusque Notusque,
1, 5, 35 (see note) is Homeric, see Verg. A. I, 85, otherwise only Stat. Theb.
6, 310; Silv. 3, 2, 45; remque domumque, 1, 9, 72; Ovid, Her. 17, 159; itque
reditque, 2, 6, 46; Verg. A. 6, 122; Ovid, Her. 15, 118; Trist. 5, 7, 14; Val.
Flaccus, 1, 725 (with Langen’s note); 8, 331; Sil. Ital. 13, 561; Stat. Theb.
1, 102; 8, 49; Anth. Lat. 352, 4 R; Martial, 1, 8, 42, etc.
For doubling of que with intervening words (not reckoned in the above
statistics) cp. 1, 2, 45; 5, 64; 6, 61 and 72; 7, II; 9, 20; 10, 37; 2, 3, 2.5;
5, 53; 6,9: 4, 5, 8. See Christensen, 'Que — que bei den Römischen Hex-
ametrikern,' Archiv f. Lat. Lexikographie, 15, 165-211. — lupi: 2, 1, 20;
Varro, De Re Rustica, 2, 9, 1, and often. The wolf still survives in both
Greece and Italy.
34. magno est: for the synaloephe see Introd. p. 100.
35. hic: the adv. refers in a general way to the situation suggested by
exiguo pecori. above, so hic in 75.- que ... et: "rare in early Latin, never
in Cicero, Caesar; begins with Sallust. Sallust and Tacitus (except twice)
always add the que to the pronoun, Livy and later prose writers, as here, to
the substantive.' que . . . que . . . et, 1, 2, 45; 2, 5, 53; que . . . et, 2, 4,
27; que ... et ... et ... que, 1, 5, 53. Other exx. are of a different type;
a favourite is illustrated by 1, 3, 25; 1, 5, 43; 1, 6, 49; 1, 9, 13 and 69; 1, 10,
43 and 67; 2, 1, 3 and 67; 2, 4, 3 and 6, 33. Frequency and variety in the
use of connectives is characteristic of Tibullus and of poetry in general. —
lustrare: 1, 2, 61; 1, 5, 11; Ovid, Fast. 4, 735; Verg. G. 1, 344; Cato, 141.
36. placidam: it seems better to explain not as proleptic but merely as a
complimentary epithet. On the libation of milk see 1, 2, 48 and note. —
Palem: an ancient pastoral divinity of the Roman people. Her festival, the
Parilia or Palilia, April 21, was reckoned the birthday of Rome and her wor-
ship is a favourite motive in descriptions of Roman country life, 2, 5, 87;
Propert. 4, I, 19; 4, 4, 75; Ovid, Fast. 4, 721; Persius, 1, 72, etc.
193.
1, 1, 37]
TIBVLLVS
37–38. The invitation to the gods to be present and take part is usual, and
in the age of faith was literally meant, 1, 7, 49; 2, 2, 5; Verg. G. 1, 347; A.
5, 62: Ovid, l'ast. 6, 305, etc. That the gods do not scorn the gifts e paupere
mensa is the teaching of all ages (Hor. Od. 3, 23; the 'widow's mite,' etc.);
that they actually prefer them is an exaggeration more characteristic of modern
times.
37. divi: the form is archaic and poetic, 1, 4, 35; 3, 4, 5; 1,8, 69; 1, 9, 2;
2, 5, 46 and 113; 4, 2, 5 and 6, 5. Similar archaic and poetic forms are deum,
2, 5, 77; idem for iidem, 1, 10, 15; quis for quibus, 1, 2, 53 and 1, 6, 13.
These, however, are found in the poetry of all periods. The temper of the
elegy does not allow any large usage of this sort; see Introd. p. 29. - nec
... nec: 1, 1,67 n.
38. puris: for antiquity cleanliness is not only next to godliness but (real
and ceremonial) an indispensable requisite of it; see 1, 3, 25 n.— fictilibus :
used in the early days (39-40) and retained in later times by ceremonial
conservatism. The locus classicus is Pliny, 35, 158, speaking of certain clay
figures of the gods, 'aurum enim et argentum ne diis quidem conficiebant.
durant etiam nunc plerisque in locis talia simulacra; fastigia quidem tem-
plorum etiam in urbe crebra et municipiis, mira caelatura et arte suique fir-
mitate, sanctiora auro, certe innocentiora. in sacris quidem etiam inter has
opes hodie non murrinis crystallinisve, sed fictilibus prolibatur simpulis,' etc.
So Ovid, Fast. 6, 310; Juv. 6, 342, etc. The phenomenon is characteristic of
all religious rites, especially of those from which the ideas and the point of
view of magic are descended. Hence, e.g., the ceremonial and magic signifi-
cance of bronze, of a flint ax for certain sacrifices, etc.
For the law of the iambic dissyllable at the close of the pentameter, see
Introd. p. 98. According to Postgate's figures (Hultgren's are incorrect),.
Tibullus has 27 exceptions in 1, 6%, 18 in 2, 81%, 1 in 4, 2–6, 15%, i in
4, 13: 81%; Sulpicia, 5%; Catullus has 199, 6117%; Propertius in 1, 128,
364 %, but in 4, only 6, 11%; Ovid has practically none except an occasional
example in the poems of the exile. Trisyllables are 12 in bk. 1, 9 in bk. 2,
quadrisyllables are 13 in bk. I, 9 in bk. 2, pentasyllables are 2 (1, 4, 84; 1, 2,
42). Next to the dissyllable the quadrisyllable is on the whole preferred
(Catull. 95; Propert. 87 in bk. 1).
39. fictilia : for the anaphora see 23 n. above. For a specific type with
connectives, see 1, 1, 78 and note; for anaphora with change of ictus, 1, 8,
13 and note, in combination with cyclus vera, 2, 4, 51; uror, 4, 5, 5; optare,
4, 5, 17, in combination, as here, with a species of epanastrophe; unda, 3,
5, 1; laurus, 2, 5, 117; Ovid, Met. 6, 376, quamvis sint sub aqua, sub aqua
maledicere temptant,' etc. Most common in the poets is the device, as here,
194
NOTES
[1, 1, 44
of repeating the last word of the line at the beginning of the next, 2, 3, 14 b;
3, 5, 1. So Homer, Il. 20, 371; 22, 127; Lucret. 5, 298, 950; Verg. E. 10,72;
11. 10, 180; Theokrit. 1, 29, etc.
40. composuitque : i.e. 'fictilia de . . . fecit composuitque. This dis-
placement (traiectio) of que or ve especially, as here, to the last dactyl of the
pentameter is unusually frequent in Tibullus, e.g. 1, 3, 38; 1, 3, 56; 1, 6, 54
and 72; 1, 4, 2; 1, 7, 62; 1, 10, 54; 2, 3, 12; 2, 3, 54; 2, 5, 22; 2, 5, 72;
2, 5, 86 and 90; 2, 6, 16 and 52, all these with verbs; with a particle, I, I,
51; with an adjective, 2, 3, 38; with a noun, 2, 4, 54. Tibullus was the first
to use this liberty. It is also common in Ovid, but there seem to be only 2
exx. in Propertius, 2, 20, 12; 3, 21, 16. Postponed with the second verb, as
here, 1, 3, 14 and 38; 1, 6, 54 and 72; 1, 7, 62; 2, 3, 54; 2, 5, 70, 72 and
90; 2, 6, 52; 4, 7, 4; Propert. 2, 20, 12. Or que is attached to a single verb
common to both words or expressions to be joined, 1, 3, 56; 1, 4, 2; 1, 10,
54; 2, 3, 38; 2, 5, 22 and 86; 2, 6, 16; 2, 3, 12; so occasionally in the hexam-
eters of Horace. Or with some other word common to both, potius, 1, 1, 51;
propior, 2, 3, 38, cp. iuvenum, 1, 6, 81. Somewhat similar are 2, 4, 54; 1,
10, 52; 1, 4, 25; 2, 5, 53. See E. Schünke, De traiectione coniunctionum et
pronominis relativi apud poetas Latinos, Diss. Kiel, 1906.
41-42. The personal reference, see Introd. p. 32, springs naturally from
the similar but general contrast between past and present in the preceding
distich.
42. avo: I see no reason why avus here should not be given its literal
meaning, i.e. the family fortune was still intact in his grandfather's time (see
Ullman, l.c. in 1, 1, 2 n.). Usually, however, avo is taken as a synonym
of patrum in 41. For similar cases of singular for plural, ore, 1, 3, 71; 4, 1,
71; compede, 1, 7, 42; 2, 6, 25; puer and iuvenis, 1, 2, 95; puella, 1, 3, 87;
stipula, 2, 5, 89; miles, 1, 7, 4; Syrus, 1, 7, 18; caput, 2, 1, 8 (note); pus-
sula, 2, 3, 10. For adjectives of multitude like multus, innumerus, densus
with a sing. noun, 1, 9, 68; 1, 3, 28; 2, 3, 42 and notes.
43. satis est, satis est: for chiasmus at the caesura see 2, 3, 58 and
Introd. pp. 104-105.
44. The pentameter here is a rhetorical amplification of the hexameter, cp.
Introd. p. 102; 1, 3, 71: 1, 6, 57; 1, 7, 13; 2, 1, 32; etc. toro and lecto
(ablat. instrum., cp. !, i n.) therefore are really equivalents and solito may be
taken, though not necessarily, with both.
'No bed so comfortable as one's own. A homely touch characteristic of the
Roman poets, Catullus, 31, 7,'o quid solutis est heatius curis, cum mens
onus reponit, ac peregrino | labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum | desidera-
toque acquiescimus lecto. I hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis;' Ovid
195
1, 1, 45]
TIBVLLVS
CO
in exile complains of his bel, Trist. 1, 11, 38; 3, 3, 39. The soldier of 1-4
slept on the ground as a matter of course, 'terra requiescit,' but in antiquity
even the peaceful traveller had to carry his own bed if he desired to sleep
comfortably.
45-46. 1, 2, 73–76; Ovid, Her. 19, 79 (Hero to Leander), “hic, puto, de-
prensus nil quod querereris haberes, , meque tibi amplexo nulla noceret
hiems. | certe ego tum ventos audirem laeta sonantis | et numquam placidas
esse precarer aquas'; Frag. Com. Graec. Adesp. 282, Kock, Égòv kaOEÚDelv TTY
épwuévnvěxwv. Schulze cites Goethe's imitation in his Röm. Eleg., 'So er-
freuen wir uns der langen Nächte, wir lauschen, | Busen an Busen gedrängt,
Stürmen und Regen und Guss.' These verses of Tibullus (together with 1,
2, 73–74) were also the probable inspiration of Évariste Parny, 'Ma Retraite'
(Poésies-Érotiques, 3) –
Je ne repose point sous un dais de rubis;
Mon lit n'est qu'un simple feuillage.
Qu'importe ? le sommeil est-il moins consolant ?
Les rêves qu'il nous donne en sont-ils moins aimables ?
Le baiser d'une amante en est-il moins brûlant,
Et les voluptés moins durables ?
Pendant la nuit, lorsque je peux
Entendre dégoutter la pluie,
Et les fils bruyans d'Orythie
Ébranler mon toît dans leurs jeux ;
Alors si mes bras amoureux
Entourent ma craintive amie,
Puis-je encor former d'autres voeux ?
Qu' irais-je demander aux dieux,
À qui mon bonheur fait envie ?
For a graceful poem founded on a combination of these lines of Tibullus
with the passage on Elysium (1, 3, 57-66) see Bertin, Amours, 1, 13, ' A
Eucharis.' In Sedley's poem, The Happy Pair, the passage beginning,
When clamorous storms and pitchy tempests rise, Cheek clings to cheek,'
etc. is perhaps an echo of our lines.
45. audire ... continuisse : see 29–32 n. The present audire is the steady
unbroken accompaniment so to speak of the perfect continuisse, while the
action of the perfect, as is suggested by the meaning of the word and by the
situation, is interrupted and resumed at intervals. Cp. the Gk. use with 'verbs
of gesture, expression, and the like, deồpa quévos, grimly gripping, kexnva, I am
all agape, Tetotħata. (II. 2, 90), they are all a-flutter, etc. (Gildersleeve,
Syntax of Class. Greek, par. 232).
196
NOTES
[1, 1, 49
46. dominam: a recognition of “Tyrannick Love' or, as Krafft-Ebing
would term it, of 'Masochismus,' which is found the world over. domina is a
slave's word for the mistress' (hence the force of 2, 3, 79; 2, 4, 1; Propert.
1, 7, 6 and often in the elegy); it is also used of goddesses (OLOTOlva, TOT VLA,
Our Lady'), then of the Empress (Julia Domna, etc.), then, as a polite form
of address, of any woman, and emerges as such in donna, dame, madame, and
other Romance derivatives. As here used it appears first in Catullus (68, 68
and 156) and then frequently in the elegy. The term was always a compli-
ment in classical times because the original associations of it were still kept
alive. That it was usual for girls to return the compliment in addressing
their lovers is shown by Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 11, et mihi blanditias dixit do-
minumque vocavit, 1 et quae praeterea publica verba iuvant' (" Yea, and she
soothed me up, and called me “Sir,'” – Marlowe), cp. Ars Amat. I, 314,
et dixit domino cur placet ista 'meo ?' The affectation of Greek in this
sphere was especially distasteful. Martial, 10, 68, 5, e.g., chides plain Roman
Laelia with, Kúplé uov, Mble uou, yuxń you congeris usque, pro pudor, Her-
siliae civis et Egeriae. | lectulus has voces, nec lectulus audiat omnis, , sed
quem lascivo stravit amica viro.'
47-48. With this distich (really a variation on the preceding) which for
more than one reader has evoked memories of childhood, cp. Soph. frag.
579 N., peũ bes, Tí ToÚToo x Aa: Leftop av hd pots | Too Yms T LỰCúc CMT8 vie
υπό στέγη | πυκνής ακούσαι ψακάδος ευδούση φρενί; where present comfort
and safety are heightened by the memory of past danger and exposure. See
also 1, 2, 78 n. That Tibullus, like Sophokles, was also thinking of the sea
is shown by the following distich, to which this, in fact, serves as a natural
transition. Johnson translates Tib. in the Rambler, No. 117.
47. fuderit: fut. perf. because the 'gelidae aquae' did not fall and were
not heard until after Auster had poured them out. For the figure, Ovid, Pont.
2, 1, 25, 'tu mihi narrasti, cum multis lucibus ante | fuderit assiduas nubilus
Auster aquas’; indeed on the Temple of the Winds at Athens, Notus (the Greek
equivalent of Auster) is represented with an urn, as iſ in the act of pouring.
The personification of Auster, as of all winds, is usual in antiquity. Auster is
usually spoken of as rainy or violent; but all winds are cold at times, so
frigidus Auster, Verg. G. 4, 261; Propert. 2, 26, 36; praefrigidus, Ovid,
Pont. 4, 12, 35.
48. somnos sequi: 'pursue one's slumbers,' 'go on sleeping,' cp. Soph.
quoted above, TUKVÔIs ákovo al Yakádos eúdovoy opevi. For the plur. somnos,
4 n.
49-50. The poet again returns to his theme (see Introd. p. 93), and adds
to it the perils of the deep. For this favourite motive of antique poetry, see I,
197
1, 1, 49]
TIBVLLVS
3, 37-40 n. Here, however, as the next distich shows, Tib. was not thinking
of the foolhardy trader who takes his life in his hand merely for greed of gain,
but of another source of danger and fatigue to the soldier. After the con-
quests of Caesar and Pompey, campaigning included long journeys by sea as
well as by land. Hence 53 and vias in 52.
49. hoc mihi. contingat: for similar transitions, 1, 10, 43; Ovid, Amor.
3, 2, 9, etc.
50. tristes : see 1, 5, 50 n.
51–58. The inspiration of Parny's · Le Voyage Manqué,' Poésies Érotiques,
Liv. 3, Abjurant ma douce paresse, 1 J'allais voyager avec toi; | Mais mon
caur reprend sa faiblesse; | Adieu, tu partiras sans moi,' etc.
51-52. Professor Mustard finds an echo of this distich in Joannes Secundus,
Eleg. 3, 2-
Crede mihi, non est armorum gloria tanti
ut fleat ulla tuas maesta puella vias.
51. quantum est auri: as an emphatic expression of totality, is confined
in Tib. to this passage. Not found at all in Propertius, nor have I been able
to discover it in any other Roman poet except Catullus, 3, 2 and 9, 10. Note,
however, Terence, Phorm. 853, 'o omnium, quantumst qui vivont, homo ho-
minum ornatissume,' and cp. Plaut. Aul. 785; Bacch. 1170; Capt. 836; Poen.
90; Pseud. 351; Rud. 706. Quite common, on the contrary, is the similar
use with quid, quidquid, and quodcumque, Tibullus, 1, 6, 3; 2, 2, 15; 2, 3,
14; 2, 4, 55 and 56; 4, 4, 7.-auri . . . smaragdi: this contrast to the
conventional division of possessions in 1, 1-2, suggested to the Romans
quite as clearly as it does to us “The wealth of Ormus and of Ind | Or where
the gorgeous East with richest hand | Showers on her kings barbaric pearl
and gold,' so 2, 2, 15; 3, 3, II; 4, 2, 19; Propert. I, 8, 39; 1, 14, II; 3, 4,
1; Seneca, Thyestes, 371; etc. In this way, of course, an Eastern campaign
is suggested, and we are thus prepared for the following distich. These pre-
liminary hints are characteristic of Tibullus. — potiusque: see note on com-
posuitque, 1, 40. que really connects auri and smaragdi.
52. The thought is a commonplace of the elegy and of all erotic poetry,
1, 2, 65-78 n.; Propert. 3, 20, 1-4, durus qui lucro potuit mutare pu-
ellam! | tantine ut lacrimes Africa tota fuit?' Hence the parting scene
here suggested is another regular theme of the elegy, 1, 3, 9 f.; Ovid, Rem.
Amor. 213 f., etc. — vias : refers, as shown by 49-50, to journeys by sea as
well as by land. On nostras for meas see 1, 2, II n.
53-54. New motive, war for fame, with which Messalla is naturally and
gracefully associated, rather than with war for gain.
198
NOTES
[1, 1, 54
53. te: as opposed to me in 55. Both are emphatic, cp. note on me in 5.
— Messalla : see Introd. p. 34.
54. exuvias : trophies and memorials of this sort were regularly placed in
the vestibulum, which was often very large. The custom is frequently referred
to; e.g. Cicero, Phil. 2, 68; Verg. A. 2, 504; Propert. 3, 9, 26; Ovid, Trist.
3, 1, 33; Sueton. Nero, 38; Sil. Ital. 6, 434; Juv. 7, 125. All such things
could be kept in the family only so long as it retained possession of the house
in which they had been set up, Pliny, H. N. 3, 7.
This first complimentary reference to his friend and patron is particularly
tactful, not only because M. was himself distinguished and had a long line of
distinguished ancestors, but also because he is known to have been unusually
proud of his pedigree, and especially interested in such matters. Pliny says,
loc., exstat Messallae oratoris indignatio quae prohibuit inseri genti suae
Laevinorum alienam imaginem,' etc.
Observe the three successive pentameters ending in pluvias, vias, exuvias.
The homoeoteleuton, however, is not sufficiently complete here to deserve the
modern name of rhyme. So far as the Roman elegiac distich of the classical
period is concerned examples of what we should term .rhyming' pentameters
are very rare, cp. Catullus, 83, 3-
mule, nihil sentis : si nostri oblita taceret,
sana esset: nunc quod gannit et obloquitur,
non solum meminit, sed, quae multo acrior est res,
irata est: hoc est, uritur et loquitur,
and the famous pentameters attributed to Vergil (Donatus, Vita Vergilii, 70) —
sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves.
sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves.
sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes.
sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves,
with each of which the introductory hexameter, 'hos ego versiculos feci : tulit
alter honorem,' was to be repeated. Terminal rhymes, though always rare in
the classical poets, are most frequent in the hexameter. The most strik-
ing cases are Cicero, De Consulatu, 50 (see Div. 1, 11, 2) and Modestinus
(3d cent. A.D.), Anth. Lat. 273, 5-11, Riese. Elsewhere, this type is for the
most part confined to couplets,' e.g. Lucret. 1, 265; 1,664; 1,734; 1, 961;
1, 1088; 2, 417; 2, 581; 2, 626; 5, 370; 5, 960; 6, 998; Verg. E. 4, 50;
9, II; G. 2, 500; A. 3, 656; 4, 256; 4, 331; 5, 385; 9, 182; 10, 804; 11, 886;
Ovid, Met. 2, 830; 7,677; 8, 360; Dirae, 20; Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 78; Epist. 2,
1, 41; 2, 3, 99; Juv. 7, 195; Martial (Phalaecians), 4, 43, 7; 10, 72, 8; Sen-
eca (senarii), Phaed. 469; 508; Ennius, Trag. 97, V. More common, though
:
199
1, 1, 55]
TIBVLLVS
not found in Tibullus, is the type represented by Ovid's well-known line
(Ars Amat. 1, 59) —
quot caelum stellas, tot habet tua Roma puellas.
This type foreshadows the leonine verses of the Middle Ages, cp. also Introd.
p. 104. The Roman tradition of rhyme is very ancient; it takes us back at
once to charms, saws, and old said sooth; hence, when used deliberately by
the classical poets it not infrequently echoes more or less faithfully t cantique
and popular sphere in which it had been rooted from time immemorial, cp.
Varro, De Re Rust. 1, 2, 27 (old charm), 'terra pestem teneto, salus hic
maneto'; Verg. E. 8, 8o, "limus ut hic durescit et haec ut cera liquescit,' etc.,
etc. Note, however, that rhyme was merely a rhetorical figure, and like any
other rhetorical figure, to be used occasionally in either poetry or prose; not
until after the loss of feeling for quantity does it become either a charac-
teristic or a determinant of poetic art as such. See Pietro Rasi, ‘Omeoteleuto
Latino,' Atti e Memorie della R. Accademia di Pailova, vol. 7 (1891);.
E. Wölffin, ALL. 1, 350-389; especially, E. Norden, Die Antike Kunstprosa,
2, 810-883, with references.
55-56. Third, last, and (rhetorically) principal reason for staying at home,
•I am in love and therefore cannot go.' The pentameter is a rhetorical
amplification of the hexameter, see 44 n.
55. formosae vincla puellae: another recognition of the tyranny of love
(cp. dominam, 46 n.) which is often found, 1, 9, 79; 2, 4, 1-6; 4, 5, 14;
Ovid, Her. 20, 85, 'sed neque compedibus nec me compesce catenis : / servabor
firmo vinctus amore tui'; Rem. Amor. 213; Fast. 4, 224; Verg. A. 8, 394;
Catull. 61, 33; Hor. Od. 1, 33, 14; etc. “And thy white arms shall be as
bands to me Wherein are mighty lordships forfeited.' - Chapman.
56. sedeo : of waiting at a door, 1, 3, 30; cp. 1, 5, 71 and 4, 4, 18. —
duras : i.e. hard-hearted, unfeeling, because the door will not open and let
him in. Personification of the house door is regular in this connection. -
ianitor : under the Republic the doorkeeper (always a slave) was chained to
his place, cp. Sueton. De Rhet. 3, L. Voltacilius Pilutus servisse dicitur atque
etiam ostiarius vetere more in catena fuisse'; so Ovid addresses him, Amor.
1, 6, I, “Ianitor, indignum, dura religate catena, | difficilem moto cardine
pande forem'; hence, the reſerence here in vincla (55) and the point of the
poet's half-humorous description of his parlous state. The lover haunts the
closed door of his mistress (Introd. p. 45), as a matter of course.
57. laudari: 2.as a soldier. He is thinking of Messalla in 53-54. —
Delia: Introd. p. 44. Note especially the arrangement and development of
the thought in the four distichs, 51-58. The poet works up to the mention
200
NOTES
(1, 1, 60
of Delia by way of a graceful compliment to Messalla in such natural and
unstudied fashion that we hardly realize the surpassing art upon which it all
rests.
59–68. Partly owing to Ovid's use of them in his famous elegy on the
poet's death (Amor. 3, 9, see p. 175) these were among the best-known lines
of Tibullus in later times. The poet looks forward to his own death and
pictures the scene. A typical motive of the elegy, cp. 1, 3, 4-8; 53–56; 3, 2,
10–30; Propert. I, 17, II; 2, 13, 17; 3, 16, 23, etc. Equally typical is the
.undesirable death as we find it, for example, in the address to the lena, cp. 1, 5,
49 f. n.
These lines were imitated by Baptista Mantuanus, Eclog. 3, 103-108 and
were the inspiration of Voltaire's verses to Madame du Deffant (written at
the age of 80). See also Parny, 'Ma Mort, Poésies Érotiques, Liv. 3.
59-60. The pathos is, as it should be, elegiac, not that which we feel, e.g.
in the words of the heart-broken Andromache, Il. 24, 743, oŮ yáp lloc Ovyo kwy
λεχέων εκ χείρας όρεξας, | ουδέ τι μου είπες πυκινόν έπος, ού τε κεν αιεί | μεμ-
výjuny vúkras te kal ňuara dákpu xéovoa. Cp: 11. 22, 426; Verg. A. 9, 483;
Stat. Silv. 5, 1, 140.
59. Ovid, Met. 7, 859, dumque aliquid spectare potest me spectat, et in
me infelicem animam nostroque exhalat in ore;' Stat. Silv. 2, 1, 148 (with
Vollmer's note).
60. Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 58; so Theano, who died in her husband's absence
(Anth. Pal. 7, 735), says to him, is opelov ye xelpi planu tv onu xeipa la-
Bollo a Daveîv. The characteristic comment of Voltaire, loc. is -
Je veux dans mes derniers adieux,
Disait Tibulle à son amante,
Attacher mes yeux sur tes yeux,
Te presser de ma main mourante.
Mais quand on sent qu'on va passer;
Quand l'ame fuit avec la vie,
A-t-on des yeux pour voir Délie
Et des mains pour la caresser ?
Dans ces momens chacun oublie
Tout ce qu'il a fait en santé :
Quel mortel s'est jamais flatté
D'un rendez-vous à l'agonie?
Délie elle-même à son tour
S'en va dans la nuit éternelle,
En oubliant qu'elle fut belle,
Et qu'elle a vécu pour l'amour.
201
1, 1, 61]
TIBVLLVS
61-62. In the poet's lively fancy the wish of the preceding distich is now
a certainty, hence he shifts to the indicative with flebis, etc. For other exx.
see 1, 1, 24 n.
61. flebis ... me : for thu accus. with verbs of emotion, 1, 3, 14 n. — posi-
tum ... lecto: lecto is used for feretro, as often in poetry and later prose.
Elsewhere in Tib. ponere and verbs of placing follow the usual rule of in with
the ablat.; for deponere in sinum, 4, 7, 4, see the note. The omission of prep-
ositions with the ablat. of the place where is generally phraseological (e.g.
terra marique as above) or characteristic of poetry. That here it is sometimes
a matter of convenience is suggested, e.g., by nostra domo, 2, 3, 34, but in tota
domo, 1, 5, 30; templis tuis, 1, 3, 28; in exigua aede, 1, 10, 20; in Iovis
arce, 2, 5, 26; secretis silvis, 4, 13, 9; olentibus arvis, 4, 2, 17; Arretino
agro, 4, 8, 4, but desertus in agris, I, I, II ; mersae in orbe ducere, 1, 6, 20,
but aestivo orbe convocare, 1, 2, 50 (though here time as well as place might
be considered); quibus in terris occulere, 1, 7, 24, but abdere tristibus agris,
2, 3, 66, where, however, the force of the old instrumental was felt for the .
moment, so pleno pinguia muusta lacu, 1, 1, 10, but plenis in lintribus uvas,
bore, 2, 5, 29.
63-64. The combination of steel and flint in this figurative use is proverbial
in both Greek and Latin, cp. I, 10, 59. Mustard cites Sannazaro, Eleg. 1, 9,
7-8-
non mihi circumstat solidum praecordia ferrum,
nec riget in nostro pectore dura silex.
63. flebis : on the anaphora, 23 n.
64. stat : perhaps suggests the idea of permanence, of resistance to out-
side pressure, already seen in 'duro praecordia ferro vincta,' cp. 2, 4, 8–10.
The kinship of stare and esse is shown, for instance, by the fact that when the
new system of perfects developed in the Romance languages the missing
participle of esse was supplied by stare. Note too that in Spanish estar
(stare) is used with the gerundive to make the progressive forms of the
active verb, as estoy hablando, 'I am speaking.' So also in Italian, e.g. 'sto
parlando. But in cases like the one before us, where esse might have been
used, the best general statement of the difference between the two seems to be
that esse is colourless, stare gives the picture. Cp. 1, 6, 49 ; 2, 4, 9 ; Verg.
E. 7, 53, 'stant et iuniperi et castaneae hirsutae'; A. 3, 210, 'Strophades
5, 199, “tanta stat praedita culpa (natura)'; 1, 564; 1, 747 ; our "he is ac-
quitted,' or 'he stands acquitted,' etc.
65-66. Note the artistic arrangement of the sentence. Professor Mustard
202
NOTĒS
[1, 1, 67
notes an evident echo of these lines in the Cortegiano of Baldessar Castiglione,
bk. 3, “tra quali non ſu alcuno, che a casa riportasse gli occhi senza lacrime.'
Underlying these verses is the popular idea that tears are a comfort to the
dead, therefore a tribute, an offering, to which they are entitled, cp. Ovid,
Her. II, 115, 'non mihi te licuit lacrimis perfundere iustis,' the ancient custom
of hired mourners at funerals, etc., etc. Doubtless this belief was the original
motive of our old saying, 'Blessed are the dead the rain rains on. See
Rohde, Psyche, 1, p. 223, n. 2; Leir, Philologus, 63, p. 55. Exx. are collected
Ly Pirrone, Epicedio di Cornelia, 1904 (cp. Schulze, Wochenschr. f. Klass.
Philologie, 21, p. 1396).
67-68. But while the dead desire and expect all proper and appropriate
attention (cp. the dream of Achilles, Il. 23, 65; Propert. 4, 7, etc.), they are
pained by immoderate grief, Propert. 4, II, I; Ovid, Fast. 2, 505; Stat. Silv.
2, 6, 96; 5, I, 179; Plato, Menex. 248 B, etc. “Moderate lamentation is the
right of the dead,' says Shakespeare, 'excessive grief the enemy to the living.'
67. ne: with the imperative ne was old-fashioned and popular. It occurs
but once in Livy (3, 2, 9) and never in Caesar, Cicero, and Sallust. It was
revived by the Augustan poets and their imitators, esp. Seneca in his tragedies,
the intention being (as was recognized by Servius on Verg. A.6, 544) to
give a touch of the antique and solemn, cp. I, 2, 15; 1, 9, 17; the continua-
tion is neve or neu, 1, 2, 35; 1, 8, 49; 4, 4, II, but nec or neque sometimes
is found, 1, 1, 37 ; I, 4, 21. non however with the imperative is cited only for
Ovid, and there it has been explained (Schmalz, p. 333) as a negative of the
entire sentence rather than of the verb alone. — solutis crinibus : the regular
custom at funerals, 1, 3, 8, and often. In his famous story of the Widow of
Ephesus' Petronius (111) says that she was 'non contenta vulgari more funus
passis prosequi crinibus aut nudatum, pectus in conspectu frequentiae plan-
gere,' etc. See 1, 3, 31 n.
In parce, etc., Tib, alludes to the custom of scratching the face and of cutting
off the hair or else of pulling it out, in proportion to the violence of one's grief at
the time. This sacrifice of beauty was an offering to the dead, Petron., 1.c., ‘at
illa ignota consolatione percussa laceravit pectus ruptosque crines super corpus
iacentis imposuit.', Sappho, Anth. Pal. 7, 489–
Τιμάδος άδε κόνις, ταν δή προ γάμοιο θανούσαν
δέξατο Φερσεφόνας κυάνεος θάλαμος,
ας και αποφθιμένας πάσαι νεοθάγι σιδάρω
άλικες μερτάν κρατός έθεντο κόμαν.
είδετε παρ' άκρας ως απέθρισεν τρίχας, | σώζουσα κάλλος και έστι δ ή πάλαι γυνή
says Elektra (Eurip. Orest. 128) when her keen eyes observe that Aunt Helen
203
1, 1, 69]
TIBVLLVS
has offered her hair in this way at the tomb of Agamemnon. Helen, however,
was then old enough, perhaps, to have her reasons for being conservative.
Tibullus would have Delia spare her beauty, cp. I, 5, 43. The touch of
tenderness is characteristic of him — and of the elegy.
69–74. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may !' The dominant note in the
music of Mimnermos which lingers in the elegy and finds a responsive echo in
the heart of age — and of the ages, cp. 1, 4, 27 f. and notes ; Propert. 2, 15,
23; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 669: Catullus, 5; Varro, Sat. Men. 87 B; Anth. Pal.
5, II; etc.
69–70. Cp. Carducci, 'A Neera' (Juvenilia, 31) –
E noi, Neera, il canto
De' morti udrem; noi sederem tra' fiori
De l'asfodelo. Intanto
Mesciamo i dolci e fuggitivi amori.
69. iungamus amores: 4, 13, 2; Catull. 64, 372; Ovid, Trist. 2, 536;
etc., i.e. the plural amores here is reciprocal, let us love each other,' cp. 'our
loves,' a favourite phrase of the Elizabethan poets, and the Ovidian iungere
oscula. For the plural of amores in anotber sense, 1, 3, 81 and note.
70. tenebris Mors adoperta caput : Ovid, Met. 2, 790, describes Inviaia
as 'adoperta ... nubibus atris’; Verg. A. 6, 866, 'sed nox atra caput tristi
circumvolat umbra' (cp. Odyss. 20, 351), but I find no complete parallel for this
curiously impressive phrase. 'Death that shroudeth his head in darkness' is
suggestive of some work of art or possibly, even, of the stage tradition of
Thanatos (as e.g. in the Alkestis). Perhaps the poet was thinking of the
Homeric "Aldos Kuvén, the famous “Cap of Darkness' which Hesiod, Scut.
227, describes as, Vuktos šopov alvově xovoa. Cyllenius (Venice, 1487) ex-
plains as "a nullo conspecta et a nemine intellecta. Death is unseen and
always a surprise, cp. Frag. Trag. Graec. Adesp. 127, douw do ápavtos
προσέβα | μακράς αφαιρούμενος ελπίδας | θνατών πολύμοχθος "Αιδας. Like the
ghost of Banquo in Macbeth, Death is invisible for all except the one to whom
he comes, cp. e.g. the Alkestis, 259 ff. Nor have I found any echo of this
Tibullian phrase in the modern languages. The Humanists, however, were im-
pressed by it. Mustard cites, e.g., Pontanus, Amor es, bk. 2 /magica ad depel-
lendum amorem') — .
tuque nigram tenebris Nox adoperta comam.
Joannes Secundus usually echoes Catullus. No less, however, than three
times he comes back to this line, cp. his Funera, 1, 10–
Nox tenebris incincta caput nigrantibus adsit.
204
NOTES
[1, 1, 74
Eleg. 1, 5 —
tali vernantem satiemus amore iuventam;
Mors venit aeterna cincta caput nebula.
Eleg. Solenn. I-
canaque subrepet taciturnis passibus aetas
Morsque tenebrosa nube revincta caput.
For a modern picture of Death which is suggestive of the Tibullian conception,
cp, the Fliegende Blätter, No. 3201, p. 254. — caput: the accusative of respect
is frequent in Tibullus, cp. 1, 2, 3; 1, 3, 31; 1, 3, 69; 1, 3, 91; 1,6, 18; 1, 6,
49; 1, 7, 6; 1, 8,5; 1, 10, 28; 1, 10, 55: 2, 1, 16; 2, 5, 5; indefinite, 1, 4,
40; 1, 6, 7, 16 and 71 ; 1, 9, 69; 2, 4, 51.
71. subrepet: the stealing steps' of age are proverbial; Juv. 9, 128,
dum bibimus, dum serta unguenta puellas | poscimus, obrepit non intellecta
senectus'; Seneca, Dial. 10, 9, 4, subito in illam inciderunt: accidere eam
cotidie non sentiebant.' -- nec amare decebit: 'turpe senilis amor, no
fool like an old fool' (1, 2, 89 f. and notes), is a well-worn theme in all de-
partments of literature. Maximianus, 1, 180 says of the old, o miseri, quorum
gaudia crimen habent.'
72. Cp. 1, 2,91, where the aged lover, one of the seri studiorum in this art,
rehearses his blanditiae beforehand. Greek was fashionable in this connection,
Lucret. 4, 1160–9; Martial, 10, 68; Juv. 6, 194. As an adjunct of love-
making (1, 4, 71; 9, 77 ; Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, II, etc.) the importance of
blanditiae was naturally emphasized by the observant and humorous Ovid,
e.g. as a (traditional) method of flirtation at the dinner-table, Ars Amat. I,
571, 'blanditiasque leves tenui perscribere vino | ut dominam in mensa se legat
illa tuam' (1,6, 19 n.). - cano capite: for the ablat. see hoste in 3 and note;
Plaut. Merc. 305, 'tun capite cano amas, senex nequissume ?'
73. levis : a favourite word in the amatory poets and used in a variety of
meanings. Here the insouciant gaiety of love (Venus often = love, cp. 4, 13,
2, etc.) is connoted, henceblithesome, cp. 1, 7, 44; Ovid, Fast. 4, 100, “si levis
absit amor.' — frangere postes : i.e. by the exclusus amator or else in mere
wantonness, Introd. p. 45. A commonplace of antique literature, 1, 10,
53-54 n.; Ter. Adel. 102; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 567; Amor. I, 9, 20; Hor.
Od. 3, 26, 6; Aristoph. Ekkles. 977; Theokrit. 2, 127; Herondas, 2, 65;
Anth. Pal. 12, 252, etc., etc.
74. rixas: not the “rixae rivalium ante fores' of Propert. 1, 16, 5; 2, 19, 5,
nor the strenuous attentions of Propert. 2, 15, 5, etc. but lovers' quarrels,
rixae amantium,' the literary (and practical) value of which has always been
appreciated, Ter. And. 555, ' amantium irae amoris integratiost'; Ovid, Amor.
205
1, 1, 75]
TIBVLLVS
1, 8, 95, 'non bene, si tollas proelia, durat amor,' etc. On the lovers' quarrel
as a theme of the elegy sée 1, 6, 73–74 and 2, 5, 101-4 with notes. — inse-
ruisse: 'intersperse.' So Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 7; Livy, 35, 17, 2; Tac. Hist.
1, 23, etc.
75. hic: "here,' i.e, on the field of love, 35 n. — dux milesque bonus : a
military phrase often repeated in various forms, indicating the highest
efficiency in a soldier, cp. the Homeric dupótepov Baoileús ráyabòs. kpatepós
' aixunts and e.g. in epitaphs, as Carm. Epig. 1525, 2, B., 'miles bonus, o
dea, duxque hic idem fuit,' perhaps a reminiscence of this line. —- bonus:
agrees with the nearest of its two nouns, so 1, 1, 24 ; 1, 5, 36 (see n.); plural
in 1, 4, 37. Cp. I, 3, 2 n.
77–78. Cp. Petrarch's allusion ('Eclog. 9, 206) to Tibullus as -
paupertas quem tutå iuvet, quem Delius ardor.
The line might have been suggested either by this distich or possibly by 5-6
above. Unfortunately, however, both distichs are contained in the Flori-
legia (Introd. p. 89). It is therefore still uncertain whether Petrarch ever
saw a complete MS. of our poet (Introd. p. 63).
77. acervo: for this meaning of the word, Hor. Od. 2, 2, 24; Epist. 1, 6,
35; Juv. 8, 100, etc.
78. Perhaps Horace, Epist. 1, 4, 11, had this line in his mind. See Introd.
p. 32. Pohlenz, p. 100 (l.c. in Introd. to 1, I, above), cites Theognis, 559;
Kallimach. vol. 2, p. 182, Schn.
The type of anaphora — so also 1, 4, 82; 1, 7, 64 ; 2, 5, 100 and 105;.
2, 6, 9; Ovid, Her. 4, 112, etc. - echoes what appears to have been a favourite
rhetorical device of the Alexandrian poets. So Theokrit. I, 132 (with
Fritzsche's note); 7, 35; 9, 17; 15, 5, etc.
1, 2
This elegy, with which the contributions of Propertius (1, 16) and Ovid
(Amores, 1, 6) to the same type should be compared, is an artistic variation
upon the old conventional motive of the napaklavo loupov; see 7-14, 1's low
and note. For the setting, see Introd. p. 45.
Imitated by Loyson and Parny.
"Fetch me more wine. I would sleep and forget my woes. My love is
closely watched and the heartless door is locked and barred. Thou churlish
door, may curses light upon thee! Nay, I spoke in my haste, I prithee forgive
me. Thou shouldst remember the many wreaths I have hung upon thee in
other days. You too, Delia, cvade your guards and ſear not. Venus favours
the fearless. She shows young men and maids the path to happiness and
: 206
NOTES
[1, 2, I
speeds them on the way. But not the faint-hearted, not such as fear to rise
by night. I wander whither I will in the dead of night, yet Venus protects
me from harın. Lovers are sacrosanct, they should never be dismayed. But
Venus also will have it that her stolen sweets remain concealed. He that
stumbles on a lover had best see no one, hear no one, remember nothing.
The blabber will find to his cost that Venus sprang from blood and the furious
sea. But your husband will not believe the man. I am assured of it by a
witch to whom all the feats of magic are but as child's play. She has given
me a charm by which you could escape. Chant it thrice, spit thrice, and no
one can make him suspect us at all, nay, he would not believe his own eyes
even if he saw us together. Note however that the charm will not work for
any one but me.
What am I to believe? The woman said she could charm me out of love.
I did not ask that; I asked that your love might equal mine. To be happy
without you, such a wish I could never entertain. Surely that fellow was an
unfeeling fool who when he might have you preferred war and plunder.
Well, he is welcome to fame and fortune. For me a humble shepherd's life, a
sylvan couch, and you, would be wealth untold. What is life without happy
love? He has no one but himself to blame. But pray what have I done to
be so miserable? Have I sinned against the gods in word or deed? If so,
I will shrink from no penance however severe.
'But as for you (suddenly turning on one of his unfeeling auditors) who
make a mock of my misfortunes, look to yourself anon! 'Tis a long lane
that has no turning. I once knew a man that had always made merry over
the misfortunes of lovers. In his age he became the abject thrall of a young
jade's caprice and furnished a pitiable illustration of “ Pride goeth before a fall."
*But do thou spare me, Venus; I have ever been thy devoted servant. Why
destroy that which is thine?'
1-25. The inspiration of Bertin, Amours, 1, 6.
· 1-6. The poet adopts the time-honoured custom (3, 6, 2; Propert. 3, 17, 1;
Hor. Epod. II; Ovid, Rem. Amor. 805; Her. 16, 231; Anth. Pal. 12, 49;
Alkiphron, 1, 35; etc.) not always successful (cp. I, 5, 37) of drowning his
troubles in drink so that he may fall asleep and forget them. The sooner the
better, hence he calls for merum ; otherwise he would have been content
with the usual proportion of water (the rules are given by Alkaios, 44 Crus. —
an illustrious drinker — see, too, Athen. 10, 430); cp. Ovid, Amor. I, 4, 51,
vir bibat usque roga; precibus tamen oscula desint, | dumque bibit furtim si
potes adde merum.
1. adde: the regular word used in asking the boy to fill one's glass, Mart.
14, 170, 2, 'decies adde Falerna, puer'; 9, 93, 1; 10, 98, 1; etc.
T
.
207.
1, 2, 2]
TIBVLLVS
2. lumina : 1.l. oculos. Tibullus is fond of this use, cp. I, 1, 66; 1, 2, 3.0;
1, 8, 68..
3-4. The adaptation of what seems to have been a proverbial saying, ch.
Theognis, 469-470, und eŭdo vt'étéYelpe, Equwvlon, ő lv' Q v ňutwv | Owpnx0évir'
οϊνω μαλθακός ύπνος έλη.
3. percussum: the strength of the metaphor reflects the intentions of 1-2.
Cp. too in the same connection percussit, Plaut. Cas. 640; quassa, Ovid, Rem.
Amor. 146; ictus, Hor. Sat. 2, 1, 24; saucius ; and in Greek such words as
TLT PÚO kw (Homer, Odyss. 21, 293; Eurip. Kykl. 422), oivon§ (Anth. Pal.
9, 323, 5), ovykepavvwoels (Archil. 74 Crus.). The more usual metaphor, cp.
1, 7, 50, is some verb of pouring and hence an early emendation perfusum is
adopted here by some modern editors.
4. Cp. Ibykos, frag. 1, 6 Crus., tuol děpos oudeulav karácoltos Öpav, etc.
5-6. The exclusus amator (at lacrimans exclusus amator limina saepe
floribus et sertis operit postisque superbos | unguit amaracino et foribus miser
oscula figit' - Lucret. 4, 1177) is a conventional figure of comedy, elegy, and
epigram, and these two lines contain the usual burden of his song. Refer-
ences are too numerous to deserve specific quotation. Ovid does not recom-
mend the despairing attitude of Tibullus, cp. Ars Amat. 2, 243, 'si tibi per
tutum planumque negabitur ire, , atque erit opposita ianua fulta sera, / at tu
per praeceps tecto delabere aperto, | det quoque furtivas alta fenestra vias.'
7-14. Tibullus's version of the tapaklavo loupov, cp. above. The earliest
and most beautiful example of the lover's woeful ballad at the closed door of
his mistress, obdurate or otherwise, is. Aristoph. Ekkles. 952 f. Others still
surviving are Plaut. Curc. 147 (cp. Merc. 408; Persa, 569); Theokrit. 3; 23;
Anth. Pal. 5, 23; 145; 164; 189; 191; 281; Hor. Od. 1, 25; 3, 10. Refer-
ences to the practice are frequent but the name itself is found only in Plutarch,
Amat. 8.
Alternating abuse and flattery of the door, as here, is of course to be ex-
pected in this situation and is rarely missing.
7. difficilis domini: perhaps this is the coniunx of 1, 6, 15, but see
Introd. p. 47. On the trials of these elegiac 'husbands' see. 1, 6; Ovid. Ars
Amat. 3, 611 f.
8. imperio: for the meaning and construction, cp. Verg. A. 5, 726,
'imperio Iovis huc venio,' with 747, 'et Iovis imperium et cari praecepta
parentis edocet.'
9. pateas: the pres. subj. 2d sing. (as an imperative), when used as
here of a definite person, is largely poetic. So 1, 3, 4; 1, 6, 75; 1, 7, 53;
I, 8, 29 and 67; 2, 6, 28 (see n.).
10. cardine : the antique cardo, ot popeús, unlike our hinges, usually turned
208
NOTES
[1, 2, 12
hard wood (Pliny, 16, 210), the ability to pass through the door without the
accompaniment of a vociferous squeak (Ovid, Amor. 1, 6, 49) was something
of an accomplishment, cp. 1, 6, 12; 1, 8, 60. Water was a common remedy
in antiquity, Aristoph. Thesm. 487; Plaut. Curc. 160; in the time of Eliza-
beth, Tourneur speaks of ‘here a dame, Cunning, nails leather hinges to a
door | To avoid proclamation.'
II. dementia nostra: this type of metonymy (abstract for concrete) is not
especially common in Tibullus, and is confined to such words as cura, I, 9, 34;
custodia, 1, 8, 55; 2, 4, 33; fabula, 2, 3, 31; fetus, 2, 5, 91; forma, I, 9, 17;
progenies, I, 10, 52; pubes, 1, 7, 27; I, 7, 5; 1, 1, 23; 2, 5, 95; sanguis,
I, 6, 66; senecta, I, 8, 42; turba, 1, 10, 38; 2, 1, 16 and 85; 2, 2, 22;
2, 3, 22; 2, 5, 119. Bolder and more frequent in Propertius. — nostra:
i.e. mea. The first plural instead of the first singular, the plural of
modesty,' of worthiness, reserve, shyness, as the case may be, appeared
first in Cicero. It was rooted in the language, but the extensive use of it
in literature is due to rhetoric. It is therefore very common in the elegy,
where rhetoric plays such an important part. Undoubtedly metrical conven-
ience is also a factor to be considered. The plural may lie in the pronoun as
here or in the verb. The use of the plural pronoun instead of the singular,
elegy. Even in Tibullus, with whom this is less frequent than with the more
rhetorical Ovid and Propertius, we have exx. in 1, 1, 15; 52; 1, 2, 5; 1, 3, 14;
1, 4, 78; 1, 6, 53; 1, 9, 43; 75; 1, 10, 14; 25; 2, 1, 35; 2, 3, 34; 2, 4, 52;
4, 3, 24; 4, 5, 6; 4, 5, 17; 4, 7, 4; 4, 10, 5; 4, 11, 6; 4, 14, 1 and 3. In
some of these exx. there is a distinction, e.g. 1, 1, 15 (the family); I, I, 52;
1, 3, 14 (the army); 2, 1, 35 (the company); 2, 3, 34 (the family); 4, 10,
5 (you and me), but the fact that elsewhere in Tibullus and often in Ovid and
Propertius no distinction can be set up, suggests that even here we must avoid
seeing too much. Sometimes the sing. and plural pronoun are used side by
side with no appreciable difference in meaning; so here, in 2, 4, 51; 4, 5, 6;
4, 7, 4; 4, 11, 6; and 4, 14, 1, and often in Ovid and Propertius.
The verb as an indicator of the plural of modesty, so far as the elegy is
concerned, is far less common; in Tib. only 1, 3, 53; 1, 5, 67; 2, 4, 5 and
without the distinctive shade of meaning more often felt by Ovid and Proper-
tius than in the case of pronouns. Indeed the use of sing, and plur. verb
side by side without any distinction of meaning, as in 2, 4, 5, must be very
rare. I have noted only Ovid, Her. 17, 141. Note that shift from plural to
singular in the same sentence is not uncommon in prose of the Silver Age.
12. capiti ... meo: és kepalyvool, Aristoph. Pax, 1063 ; eis kepalvvool
209
1, 2, 14]
TIBVLLVS
éppé, old amulet; ‘be it upon thine own head!''omnis in vile hoc caput I abeat
procella,' Seneca, Thyest. 996, and often. The origin of this imprecation,
common in all languages, seems to come from the idea of something falling or
cast down from above.
14. serta : when the lover is refused admittance, he takes the garlands
from his head and leaves them at the door where they may be seen the next
morning; references are numerous, e.g. Ovid, Amor. 1, 6, 67; Ars Amat. 2,
528; 3, 72; Rem. Amor. 32; Met. 14, 708; Catull. 63, 66; Propert. I, 16,
7; Anth. Pal. 5, 92; 145; 191; 281; Ephippos, frag. 3, Kock; Antiphanes,
2, 199, Kuck, etc. The use of perfumes, cp. Lucret. 4, 1177, is an Eastern
custom (P. Haupt, The Song of Songs, Chicago, 1902, p. 37, n. 18).
16. fortes ... Venus: an elegiac variation of the old alliterative
proverb, fortes fortuna adiuvat,' 'Fortune favours the brave' (Terence,
Phorm. 203, and often elsewhere). So Ovid, Iler. 19, 159, 'quod timeas
non est: auso Venus ipsa favebit '; Ars Amat. 1, 608, 'audentem Forsque
Venusque iuvat.' Mustard cites Lugo y Dávila, Teatro Popular, Novela 7
(Madrid, 1622), 'no gusta de cobardes Venus; antes ayuda los valerosos,
como sintió Tibulo “ Venus los fuertes ayuda.”! See also Mario Equicola,
Di Natura d'Amore, Venice, 1626, p. 300 b., 'Aiuta la fortuna gli audaci, e
Venere discaccia, e ha in odio i timidi.'
17. nova: .e. 'strange,' unfamiliar' (hence temptat), and therefore in-
volving greater risk.
18. We see by the houses in Pompeii that the street doors still generally
opened outward as late as the first century. The bar (sera, 6) by which the
door was fastened at night could not be removed nor the door opened even
by people inside without a key (fixo dente). This key was oſten kept by the
ianilor (Apuleius, Met. 9, 20, etc.) Hence falso for fixo in one late MS. of
Tibullus perhaps reflects the adultera clavis for instance of Ovid, Ars Amat.
3, 643; i.e. the girl unbolts the door with a duplicate key of her own.
19-20. For these accomplishments cp. 2, 1, 75–78; 1, 8, 57; 1, 9, 43;
4, 6, II; Ovid, Amor. I, 6, 7; 3, I, 49-52; Anth. Pal. 5, 294, etc.
Maximianus, 3, 27, says, 'atque superciliis luminibusque loqui, / fallere solli-
citos, suspensos ponere gressus , et muta nullo currere nocte sono,' the only
passage that might be called an echo of Tibullus. The thought, however, is
an elegiac commonplace, and the matter is rendered still more uncertain by
the fact that the same sort of thing is found in Ovid, with whom Maximianus
was evidently very familiar. Hence, though Maximianus had doubtless read
Tibullus, no certain evidence for it can be derived from his works. See
Introd. p. 61–2.
21-22. These two details of an intrigue, cp. I, 6, 19; 1, 8, 1, are often
210
NOTES
(1, 2, 252
mentioned together as here;.- Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 137; Amor. 1, 4, 17–20;
3, II, 23; Propert., 3, 8, 25; Anth. Pal. 5, 262, 1. So Naevius (75, R.)
says of a flirt,quase in choro ludens datatim dat se et communem facit. | alii
adnutat, alii adnictat, alium amat, alium tenet. 1 alibi manus est occupata,
alii percellit pedem, | anulum dat alii spectandum, a labris alium invocat, |
cum alio cantat, at tamen alii suo dat digito litteras'; as the old play says,
• A lady that will wring one by the finger, / Whilst on another's toes she
treads, and cries | “By gad, I love buť one and you are he.")
22. That is, conversing by a code of signals prearranged or easily under-
stood, cp. the exx. just noted; Ovid, Her. 17, 75 f.; Ars Amat. 1, 569 f.
Ovid, Amor. I, 4, 23, suggests a few details for use at a dinner, 'siquid erit de
me tacita quod mente queraris, | pendeat extrema mollis ab aure manus ; , cum
tibi quae faciam, mea lux, dicamve placebunt, | versetur digitis anulus usque
tuis! | tange manu mensam tangunt quo more precantes, | optabis merito
cum mala multa viro.'
25. tenebris : in the dark,' an old and popular word for night which
appears in all styles, c.g. Petron. 37 where the freedman gives the old proverb
as 'mero meridie si dixerit illi tenebras esse, credet'; Titinius, 100 R., ‘noc-
tem facere possit de die,' etc. For this ablat. of time without an attribute cp.
1, 6, 59; 2, 1, 76. The remaining exx, in Tibullus are pace, I, 10, 49; bisque
die, 1, 3, 31 (where we should expect in, see n.). With an attribute, 24, etc.
Note that in 1, 3, 67, in nocte profunda (where see note), and in 1, 10, 50, in
tenebris, the preposition (which appears only here with these words) indi-
cates that these two exx. were felt to be ablatives of place, 1, 1, 61 n., instead
of time. The same seems to be the case in the old proverb describing an
honest man as one, quicum in tenebris mices' (Cic. Off. 3, 77; Für. 2,
52; Petron. 44; etc.) where in is never omitted. This distinction however,
barring such exceptions as in iuventute, in hoc tempore, and their like, holds
good only for the classical period. The general idea of the missing pentam-
eter is doubtless very well represented by any one of various lines composed
by the early Humanists, e.g. Aurispa, 'securum in tenebris me facit esse
Venus'; Seneca, 'praesidio noctis sentio adesse deam'; Pontanus, 'ille deus
certe dat mihi signa viae,' or, ' usque meum custos ad latus haeret amor.'
252-26. For these nocturnal perils to the lover, Propertius, 3, 16, 5-20 (a
passage having much in common with this); Ovid, Amor. 1, 6, 9; Eleg. in
Maec. I, 29, nucte sub obscura quis te spoliavit amantem? | quis tetigit
ferro, durior ipse latus?' Hor. Sat. 1, 2, 42; Anth. Pal. 5, 25; 213, 3;
Plaut. Amphit. 154.
· For the dangers of the Roman streets after nightfall, Sueton. Nero, 26;.
Tacitus, Ann. 13, 25; esp. Juv. 3, 302.
2II
1, 2, 25a]
TIBVLLVS
25a. sinit occurrat: with the imperative of sino the complementary final
subjunctive without ut is common; with the finite forms of sino, as here and
in 1, 4, 25, it is rare and generally poetic, e.g. Ovid, Met. 3, 377; no exx. in
Propertius. After verbs of willing or demanding the subjunctive regularly
takes ut. In Tibullus however, this use of it is found only after imperare, 2,
3, 34 (122, 4, 2, 4 and 4, 10, 6; qui, 4, 6, 15). But if, as here, the idea of
wishing is emphatic, the simple subjunctive is used; so after orare, 1, 2, 64 ;
velle, 1, 9, 49; persuadere, 1, 9, 70 (very rare, see n.); rogare, 1, 9, 84; 4,
5, 8; malle, 2, 3, 32; vetare, 2, 6, 36; precari, 1, 2, 12; 1, 9, 40; 1, 3,
5,83 and 93 ; 1,6, 56, like docere, 1, 6, 67, may be explained as parenthetical.
If the verb of willing and wishing is used as a verb of saying and thinking, as
is often the case, the infinitive must of course be used. On the one example
of a simple subjunctive (complementary consecutive) after facio, see 1, 3,
54, n. -- corpora : the plural is generic.
26. This type of footpad (Gk. IwTodúas) is often mentioned; cp. the refer-
ences under 25a-26 above, and Alexis, frag. 107, K.; Soph.. frag. Eleg. 3 Crus.
The old Latin name for him was praemiator ; Naevius, 17, R., 'nam in scaena
vos nocturnos coepit praemiatores tollere.' He snatched the garments and
afterwards sold them for whatever price (praemium) he could get — generally
near nightfall and naturally to a class by whom no inconvenient questions
were likely to be asked. For such a scene see esp. Petron. 14. The weekly
market at Rome in the Campo dei Fiori used to be somewhat of this character.
27-28. Mustard cites Pontanus, Amores, bk. 2 (speaking of Amor) -
ille per oppositas secreto limite turmas
ducit, et hostiles praeterit insidias.
ille iter in tenebris explorat et obvia monstrat,
hoc duce per Syrtes fit via tuta mihi.
On the legal and religious associations of sacer, see the lexicons. The
lover is a devotee of Venus; he is therefore not only safe but sacrosanct;
cp. 1, 6, 51-54; 4, 4, 14-15; Propert. 3, 16, 11-14; Ovid, Amor. 1, 6, 9–14;
Anth. Pal. 5, 25; 5, 213, etc. A slight extension of the primitive and per-
sistent idea also frequently met in the amatory poets and elsewhere, that
poets, prophets, lunatics, or any persons subject to the ecstatic state are pos-
sessed by some god and therefore beings set apart, 2, 5, 113–114 n.
27. Note that the caesura is trochaic and that, unlike 35 for example, it is
not accompanied by conflict' in the first hemistich. Owing to the familiar
and invariable laws of Latin accent already established in Cicero's time the
law of conflict,' i.e. the avoidance of coincidence between metrical ictus and
regular word accent in the first four feet of the hexameter (usual in three or
212
NOTES
[1, 2, 27
two feet, demanded in at least one) is of great importance in the develop-
ment of this verse by the Roman poets. The observance of this law — the
effect and, therefore, the real artistic reason for which was to preserve, if
Zielinski is correct, the regular pronunciation of the period when artistic
poetry and prose were first developed — is seen especially in the doctrine
of the caesura, above all of the secondary (masculine) caesuras, the real
object of which must have been to produce that conflict' by which they are
always accompanied.
The favourite caesura, therefore, is the semiquinaria (i.e. , also known as
the penthemimeral and 'masculine' caesura), thus -
Divitias | alius || fulvo | sibi congerat auro.
Of the more than 200,000 Roman hexameters still surviving over 80% have
this caesura. The reasons for it are: 1, it is distinct; 2, it allows either a
dactyl or a spondee in the third foot; 3, it always produces conflict at that
point; 4, with it, conflict in the second and especially in the fourth foot is
most easily obtained (i.e. by making the end of any word but a monosyllable
coincide with the thesis (ictus) in each case, as in the example quoted).
Usually, therefore, the semiquinaria is accompanied by one, or both of these
secondary caesuras (semiternaria, , and semiseptenaria, 7). Nearly 80% of
Tibullus's hexameters have the semiquinaria; but large as it is, this proportion
is smaller than that of Propertius, and still smaller than that of Ovid, whose
fondness for this caesura is very marked. In the majority of cases the semi-
quinaria is accompanied by both secondary caesuras. Of the two secondary
caesuras the semiternaria is the more easily dispensed with, i.e. (and this, too,
is a general rule) agreement of ictus and regular word accent is more tolerable
in the first than in the second hemistich. Agreement in the second hemistich
is generally relieved by bucolic diaeresis, thus (1, 1, 7) –
ipse seram | teneras || maturo | tempore vites.
Still more is this the case when agreement extends to both hemistichs, thus
(1, 1, 21)—
tunc vitula innumeros || lustrabat | caesa iuvencos.
The only exception seems to be 1, 9, 83 —
hanc tibi fallaci || resolutus amore Tibullus.
The caesura katà Tpltov tpoxacov (the trochaic or 'feminine' caesura) was
the favourite with Homer and in the later Greek poets, esp. Nonnos and his
school, practically became universal.. By the Roman poets, on the contrary,
it was shunned for the same reasons that the sémiquinaria was cultivated. It
213
1, 2, 29]
TIBVLLVS
should be added, too, that rare as it is, the Roman trcatment of the feminine
caesura is rarely the same as that of the Greeks. The general rule is that
when the ſeminine caesura is used, it should be accompanied by both a semi-
ternaria and a semiseptenaria, thus (1, 1, 11) -
nam veneror | seu stipes | habet | desertus in agris.
The result, it will be seen, is really a tripartite verse in which the feminine
caesura in the middle is reduced, so to speak, to a minimum. Twenty per
cent (140 odd exx.) of Tibullus's verses, an unusually large number for a Ro-
man poet, have the feminine caesura. Nearly 81% of this number (III out
of 137) are accompanied by the two secondary caesuras. Of the two second-
ary caesuras the semiternaria is preferred, i.e., as before, agreement in the
first hemistich is more tolerable than in the second. So in the example be-
fore us, of which there are 25 exx. in Tibullus -
quisquis amore tenetur , eat | tutusque sacerque
in which eat, i.e. an iambic word following the caesura, illustrates the only
way in such circumstances of renewing conflict in the second hemistich. On
the other hand, 1, 10, 39 —
quam potius | laudandus | hic est quem prole parata
is the only example in Tib. in which the semiseptenaria is obscured. A femi-
nine caesura unsupported is never found in Tib. and is very rare elsewhere.
The caesura septenaria is very rare, and when it occurs it should be ac-
companied by a semiternaria, thus —
ferte et opes: 1 ego composito / securus acervo,
so I, 6, 33; 2, 5, 1 and 17; 2, 6, 11; 4, 10, 5.
Trochaic word end in the fourth foot is confined in the first book to 1, 9,
83. There are 6 cases, however, in bk. 2; and in Propertius — the same, too,
is true of Ovid - we find a steady growth in this direction.
29–30. Suggested by the previous distich. Exposure to the elements is
frequently mentioned, especialiy by the exclusus amator, Ovid, Amor. 1, 9, 15;
Propert. 1, 16, 23; Anth. Pal. 5, 23; 167; 189; etc. The lover is expected
to endure fatigue, privation, etc., 1, 4, 41 ſ.; Ovid, Amor. I, 9, 9 f.
29. non mihi: this type of anaphora is common (cp. 1, 1, 39), especially
in enumerations, illa, 1, 2, 17; 120n mihi, as here; 1, 2, 49; 1, 2, 51; 1, 2,
83: 1, 3, 49; I, 4, 5; etc. - pigra: 'numbing,' I, 1, 8, facili.— frigora:
the plural is concrete or distributive.
30. aqua: see auro, I, I, I n.
32. digiti sonum: for these signals, 1, 5, 74 n.
214
NOTES
[1, 2, 42
33. parcite luminibus : i.e. nolite aspicere, cp. Sueton. Dom. II; Verg.
A. I, 257; G. 2, 339; Ovid, Met. 2, 127; etc.
34. obvia: see 1, 5, 36 n. -celari ... Venus: for the idea — expanded
in the following verses — Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 607; Anth. Pal. 5, 4, 3; etc.-
furta: of intrigues, so often in the elegy; 4, 5, 7; Propert. 2, 2, 4; 2, 23, 22;
2, 30, 28; Ovid, Her. 18, 64; Ars Amat. I, 33; 2, 617 and 640; Trist. 2,
347; 432; 440; Fast. 3, 22; etc. Mustard cites Andrea Navagero, Ad
Noctem — 'ipse etiam sua celari vult furta Cupido: | saepius et poenas garrula
lingua dedit.'
35. neu . . . pedum : i.e. as suggestive of approaching danger or discovery
Soph. frag. 58, 3, N.; Apoll. Rhod. 3, 954; Verg. A. 2, 728. --- neu quaerite
nomen: for this and for the carrying of torches aſter nightfall, 1, 9, 42; Juv.
3, 283. On neu, 1, 1, 67 n.
39-40. The bitterness and cruelty of Venus when angered are proverbial,
and are illustrated by many antique legends; the women of Lemnos, Cupid
and Psyche, Hippolytos, etc. This is hinted at in the poet's sinister allusion
to the familiar story of her birth. The suggestion of 'e sanguine natam'is
of course clear, and filius Neptuni is a common Latin proverb of which
Gellius says, 15, 21, ‘ferocissimos et inmanes et alienos ab omni humanitate
tamquam e mari genitos Neptuni filios dixerunt'; Homer, Il. 16, 34; Lygd.
3, 4, 85; Seneca, Phaed. 274; Sedley, “Love still has something of the sea |
From whence his mother rose.'
39. loquax: the most famous example in antiquity of those who talked
too much was, perhaps, Anchises himself, Homer, Hymn to Venus, 281;
Hygin. Fab. 94; Servius on Verg. A. 1, 617; 2, 649; Graelent; Lanval
(Marie de France); Tantalos, and in the folklore of all nations. — sanguine :
the ablat. of origin strictly speaking is found only here in Tibullus. The
ablat. whence with ex, as in the next line, with de, as in 1, 1, 65, with ab, as
in 1, 7, 32, or the ablat. of source without a preposition as here, 1, 3, 9, and
oſten, is not infrequent.
40. rapido: 2.. 'fierce,' 'impetuous,' so often of the sea, Ovid, Met. 6,
399; Her. 7, 142; etc.
41. huic : i.e. is of 39. is (1, 2, 39 and 40; 1, 10, 66; 2, 3, 33; 4, 7, 8,)
generally yields to ille in the clactylic hexameter, and eius is especially rare
(cp. 1, 6, 25 and note). On the cadence, 1, 3, 5 n.
42. pollicita est : of the assurances of prophets, soothsayers, etc, promitto
is more common.— magico ministerio : by the aid of magic, i.e. the charm
described in 53-54. On the close of the pentameter, I, I, 38 and note. —
saga: a familiar figure in the elegy and in the everyday life of antiquity.
She was generally the lena, or go-betwecn, a trade which, owing to the
215
1, 2, 43]
TIBVLLVS
superstitions of antiquity included as a matter of course the brewing of
love potions and the practice of sorcery in all its branches. Lines 43-52
contain the catalogue of conventional feats frequently found in all departments
of Roman poetry; cp. 1, 8, 17; Ovid, Amor. I, 8, 5; 2, 1, 23; Her. 6, 83;
Propert. 4, 5, 9; Lucan, 6, 431; Seneca, Medea, 675; Macbeth's address to
the witches (4, 1, 52), etc. All these references to witchcraft in Tibullus,
as well as in other Roman poets, are regularly cited as authority by the writers
on magic, Remigius, Bodinus, de l'Ancre, le Loyer, Delrio, and others of their
kind, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. The use of anaphora is
notable and sounds like the woman's own advertisement; cp. I, 2, 30 and 1,
1, 23, etc.
43–52. Imitated by Sannazaro, Arcadia, p. 168, ed. Scherillo (Milan, 1888).
43. The poet refers to drawing down the moon’; cp. I, 8, 21, the most
famous and picturesque charm in all antiquity. It is mentioned first by
Aristoph. Nubes, 749, again and again by later writers, and still survives in
modern Greece. Menander made use of it for literary purposes in his com-
edy the Thettale (Pliny, H.N. 30, 7), also Theokritos in his second Idyll and
Vergil in his eighth Eclogue. See, too, Lukian, Philopseudes, 14, and the
strange story in Apuleius, Met. 2, 32–3, 19. It was always a love charm and in
its origin distinctly associated with Thessaly, a land of magic and magicians
in the estimation of antiquity. Pindar says that Venus taught the charm to
Jason. In the later tradition it is often associated with Medea. For a vase
painting of the process, see Roscher's Selene und Verwandtes, plate 3, and
for the charm in Theokritos and Vergil, M. Sutphen, Studies in Honor of
B. L. Gildersleeve, Baltimore, 1902, p. 315. — ducentem: for the participle
with vidi, see 1, 4, 34.
44. Another stock illustration of the power of magic over the elements.
As the Moon, even against her will, must come down from heaven to make
the love charm work, so rivers can be made to run backwards (vertit). Cp.
Propert. I, 1, 23; Ovid, Amor. I, 8, 6; 2, 1, 26; Verg. A. 4, 489; Apoll.
Rhod. 3, 532, etc. The reason, however, for this particular feat is never given.
45-48. The magic ceremony mentioned here is nekyomantia, i.e. summon-
ing the spirits of the dead in order to make them prophesy or answer ques-
tions. The locus classicus is Lucan, 6, 419–830. Among the most famous
instances of its use as a literary motive are Homer, Odyssey, II; Aischylos,
Persai (Ghost of Dareios); Lucan, 1.c. (Sextus Pompeius before Thapsus);
I Samuel, 28, 7 (Witch of Endor); Shakespeare, Macbeth, 4, 1. Laberius
also wrote a mimus called Necyomantia. The subject was much discussed by
cultivated people in Cicero's time. Among those who actually practised it
may be mentioned Vatinius (Cicero, Vat. 14), Libo Drusus (Tacitus, Ann.
216
NOTES
[1, 2, 46
2, 28), Nero (Sueton. Nero, 34, 4), Caracalla (Herodian, 4, 12, 3); cp. also
the horrible case of one Pollentianus in the fourth century, related by Ammi-
anus Marcellinus, 29, 2, 17.
45. finditque solum: a detail often mentioned in this connection. The
magician splits the ground so that the ghosts can hear his incantation (i.e.
be reached and affected by it) and then can come straight up to him from
Hades : cp., e.g., Seneca, Oedipus, 571, 6« audior” vates ait, / “ rata verba fudi:
rumpitur caecum chaos | iterque populis Ditis ad superos datur.” | ... subito
dehiscit terra et immenso sinu | laxata patuit — ipse torpentes lacus / vidi inter
umbras, ipse pallentes deos / noctemque veram; gelidus in venis stetit | hae-
sitque sanguis. saeva prosiluit cohors et stetit in armis omne vipereum
genus,' | etc.; Lucan, 6, 728, perque cavas terrae quas egit carmine rimas |
manibus inlatrat regnique silentia rumpit,' etc. Amateurs and even profes-
sionals who had not ſully mastered this interesting detail were usually content
to perform the regular ceremonial (described at some length in Seneca, 1.c.
560 f.; Odyssey, 11, 24, cp. Horace, Sat. 1, 8, 26, etc.) and to take the result-
ing convulsion of nature for granted.
46. elicit : the regular liturgical word; see dictt. and Ovid's story of Iuppi-
ter Elicius ( Fast. 3, 285). - devocat, etc. : she spirits away the bones of the
corpse before the funeral pile is cold; cp. Lucan, 6, 533, 'fumantis iuvenum
cineres ardentiaque ossa | e mediis rapit illa rogis ipsamque parentes , quam
tenuere facem nigroque volantia fumo | feralis fragmenta tori vestesque
fluentes / colligit in cineres et olentis membra favillas,' etc.; Claudian, In
Ruf. 1, 154, saepius horrendos manes sacrisque litavi | nocturnis Hecaten,
et condita funera traxi | carminibus victura meis,' etc.
Parts of the human body, above all when, as hcre, secured under exceptional
circumstances, have always been much sought by the witches; cp. the folk
tale told by Trimalchio in Petronius, 63; the strange story in Apuleius,
Met. 2, 21, etc. This is one of the principal reasons why, in all ages,
the corpse has been so carefully watched before burial. In this particular
case the ossa, esp. when so secured, would doubtless be considered in them.
selves a charm of power. Here, however, the connection shows that the
witch secures the ossa as a preliminary to securing the ghost of their late
owner, i.e. in accordance with the doctrine of sympathy the part (hair, nails
garments, or exuviae' of any sort), when aided by the appropriate ceremonial
can always draw the whole to itself. To get back a recreant lover, for exam-
ple, one needs first of all to possess something with which he has been inti-
mately associated. This universal law of magic plays a prominent part in the
love charm associated with drawing down the moon,' 43 n., 57-58 n.; cp.
Theokritos, 2; Verg. E. 8; the ludicrous story in Apuleius, 2, 32–3, 19.
217
1, 2, 47]
TIBVLLVS
TT
47. tenet: i.e. forcibly. Under normal conditions a ghost never returns
from Hades. If he does so, it is either because he is disquieted by some
condition on earth, cp. 1, 5, 51 n.; Pliny, Epist. 7, 27, 5; etc., or because he is
constrained by a charm; cp. Statius, Theb. 3, 143,‘nocte subit campos versatque
in sanguine functum | vulgus et explorat manis, cui plurima busto | imperet
ad superos: animarum maesta queruntur concilia, et nigri pater indignatur
Averni'; I Samuel, 28, 15, ‘And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou clis-
quieted me, to bring me up?' etc. - stridore : apart from their general and
olivious meaning, stridor and stridere are often used to describe the squeak-
ing and gibbering of the dead, to which the ancients so often refer (Hor. Sat.
1, 8, 40, singula quid memorem, quo pacto alterna loquentes | umbrae cum
Sagana resonarent triste et acutum’; Lucan, 6, 623, 'auribus incertum feralis
strideat umbra'; Statius, Theb. 7, 770, strident animae currumque secuntur';
Sil. Ital. 13, 600; Petron. 122, 137, 'ecce inter tumulos atque ossa carentia bus-
tis | umbrarum facies diro stridore minantur'; Claudian, In Ruf. I, 126; Ovid,
Fast. 5, 458; Verg. A. 6, 492; but esp. Homer, Odyss. 24, 5, tal de oplšovo au
έποντο· ώς δ' ότε νυκτερίδες μυχώ άντρου θεσπεσίoιο | τρίζουσαι ποτέονται:
ctc.). They are also regularly used, as here, to describe the powerful but
inarticulate charms of the magicians (cp., indeed, strix, striga, Ital. strega).
In such charms all the sounds of nature might be imitated; cp. Lucan, 6,
686 f. The genuine popular tradition, however, is probably seen most clearly
in Petron. 63, strigae stridere coeperunt: putares canem leporem persequi.'
Among charms efficacious for holding ghosts may be mentioned the
synochitis, Pliny, 37, 192. Unfortunately this precious stone is otherwise
unknown.
48. lacte: on the use of milk to remove a ban in this charm, Statius, Theb.
4, 544, ' Argolicas magis huc appelle precando | Thebanasque animas; alias
avertere gressus | lacte quater sparsas maestoque excedere luco, | nata iube';
Seneca, Oed. 562, decantat ore quidquid aut placat leves | aut cogit um-
bras; sanguinem libat focis | solidasque pecudes urit et multo specum | saturat
cruore; libat et niveum insuper lactis liquorem, fundit et Bacchum manu
laeva,' etc.
The use of milk in this connection, i.e. the offering by which the ghosts are
placated, seems to be one of those survivals of primitive ritual characteristic of
magic; cp. the offering of milk to Pales (1, 1, 36), a primitive rustic divinity;
to Romulus, again primitive; cp. Pliny, 14, 88, 'Romulum lacte, non vino,
libasse indicio sunt sacra ab eo instituta quae hodie custodiunt morem';
Ovid, Fast. 4, 369 (of Cybele), ““lacte mero veteres usi memorantur et herbis/
sponte sua siquas terra ferebat,” ait. ' “candidus elisae miscetur caseus
herbae, | cognoscat priscos ut dea prisca cibos,'' etc.
218
NOTES
5
[1, 2, 51
49–50. One of many references to the primitive belief — as characteristic
of Africa or Australia as it was of Greece and Rome -- that wizards can and
do influence the weather. The classical prototype is the bag of winds that
Aiolos gave to Odysseus (Odyss. 10, 20) and in the Middle Ages the same
method was still pursued by the witches (esp. of Lapland and Ireland): cp.
Webster,' henceforward I will rather trust | The winds which Lapland witches
sell to men’; Nashe, For, as in Ireland and in Denmark both, | Witches
for gold will sell a man a wind, | Which in the corner of a napkin wrapped |
Shall blow him saſe unto what coast he will’; Shak. Macbeth, 1, 3;
and often in the Elizabethan writers. References in the Roman poets, esp.
in the conventional list of magic feats, as here, are frequent, e.g. Ovid, Amor.
1, 8, 9, 'cum voluit, toto glomerantur nubila caelo; | cum voluit, puro fulget
in orbe dies'; Met. 7, 201; 424; 14, 368; Lucan, 6, 461 f. (a good ex, of
his characteristic exaggeration); Val. Flaccus, 8, 351, etc. In mediaeval Latin
such persons were known as tempestarii (see Ducange, s.v.) and came under
the ban of the law (so in the Capitularia of Charlemagne, 789 A.D., cp.
Codex Theodos. 9, 16, 5; Lex Rom. Visigoth, 6, 2, 3, etc.). As early as the
eighth century the matter attracted the attention of the Church (Decret. Syn.
Episc. 799 A.D.; Burchardus, Decret. 10, 8, etc.) and in the witch trials
which after the promulgation of Urban's famous bull of 1484, thanks to the
activity of Sprenger and his successors, went on continuously for a century
and a half, we hear much about this sort of magic.
50. The portent of snow in summer is seldom mentioned; see, however,
Diod. Sic. 5, 55.
51. malas herbas: malas here means 'baleful' and is not uncommon
in connection with magic, cp. the Kakà pápuaka of Odyss. 1o, 213 (Circe)
and elsewhere. — Medeae: a touch revealing the Medea of popular fancy, not
the Medea of Euripides, Apollonios, Ovid, and Valerius Flaccus, but Medea
ataupápua kos (Pind. Pyth. 4, 233), the arch enchantress of all antiquity. In
the time of the elegiac poets there were books purporting to contain her charms
and spells, just as in these days dream books and the like are still published
in which Osthanes, Zoroaster, etc., are the chief authorities quoted. Several
of the Greek papyri found in Egypt during the last few years contain material
of this sort; cp., too, Horace, Epod. 5, 61, 'cur dira barbarae minus / venena
Medeae valent'; 17, 4, 'per atque libros carminum valentium | refixa caelo
devocare sidera' (the moon charm, 43 n., was one of Medea's specialties) ;
Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 101,'non facient ut vivat amor Medeides herbae'; Amor.
I, 8, 5, illa (the witch) magas artes Aeaeaque carmina novit,' etc. The
prominence of Thessaly as a land of magic and magicians was popularly
ascribed (Aristides, 1, p. 76, Dindorf) to the fact that she emptied her box
219
1, 2, 52]
TIBVLLVS
of simples as she was flying over that country on her dragon after leaving
Jason.
52. Hecatae : the Dea Triformis (Selene in heaven, Artemis on earth,
Hekate in hell) was the great goddess of the magicians and was regularly
invoked by them, esp. in the moon charm, i.e. the charm by which she
herself as the moon goddess is forced to come down and do the magician's
will, cp. I, 8, 21-22 and notes. She is often called Trivia (see 1, 5, 16 n.),
* Diana of the Crossways,' because habitually worshipped at the trivia, cp. I,
5, 54 n. Of all the old gods her cult was perhaps the most persistent and
her memory the hardest to die. In the eleventh century Burchardus, Bishop
of Worms (Decreta, 10, 1) observes that, ' quaedam sceleratae mulieres ...
credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis cum Diana paganorum dea vel cum
Herodiade et innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super quasdam bestias
et multa terrarum spatia intempestae noctis silentio pertransire eiusque iussio-
nibus velut dominae oboedire et certis noctibus ad eius servitium evocari,' etc.
This is the witch ride which in connection with the witches' sabbath assumed
such importance in the prosecutions of the witches during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. The cross-roads are still uncanny. It is not so long
since suicides were buried there and a stake driven through their remains (to
prevent them from returning as vampires?), and to this day the fact that
those who fear spirits prefer to avoid the cross-roads after dark shows that
Trivia the queen of the ghosts is still to be reckoned with.
The whelps of Hekate are often mentioned. They always accompany her
and herald her approach: Apollon. Rhod. 3, 1216, duol dè tnvye | očely jakû
xObviol KÚVes péyyoutO; Theokritos, 2, 35; Verg. A.6, 257; Hor. Sat. 1, 8, 35;
Lucan, 6, 733; Seneca, Oed. 569; Medea, 840; Thyest. 675; Stat. Theb. 4,
429; etc. The basis of the idea is no doubt the well-known effect of moon-
light on dogs. It was (and to a certain extent still is) felt that they perceive
the approach of spirits and can see them better than we, cp. I, 5, 54 n., and
some ancient representations of Endymion in which the dog is highly excited
by the approach of the goddess to his sleeping master.
Greek words are rare in Tibullus and for the most part proper names (excep-
tions are e.g. smaragdus I, 1, 51 ; 2, 4, 27; catasta, 2, 3, 60; hippomanes, 2,
4, 58; cometes, 2, 5, 71).
According to our textual tradition the declension is now Greek, now Latin,
6.g. - nom. sing., Circe, 2, 4, 55; Delos, 2, 3, 27; Herophile, 2, 5, 68; Ilion,
2, 5, 22; Pholoe, 1, 8, 69; Tityos, 1, 3, 75; Tyros, 1, 7, 20; 2, 3, 58; gen.,
Hecatae, 1, 2, 52; accus., cometen, 2, 5, 71; Memphiten, 1, 7, 28; Pelea, 1, 5,
45; Nemesim, 2, 3, 61; 5, 111; 6, 27; Osirim, 1, 7, 27; vocat., Aenea, 2, 5,
39; Osiri, 1, 7, 43: gen. plural, Pieridum, 1, 9, 48; Cilicum, 1, 2, 67;
220
NOTES
[1, 2, 55
accus., Cilicas, 1,7 16; Pieridas, 1, 4, 61–62. On the subject in general see
Housman, Eng. Journ. of Philology, 31, 236-266. — perdomuisse: a genuine
perfect; note also the force of per.
53. Similar charms are mentioned by Propertius, 4, 5, 15, 'posset ut intentos
astu caecare maritos, | cornicum immeritas eruit ungue genas,' where the
actual blinding of the birds foreshadows the mental blinding of the mariti to
take place as soon as the proper charm is repeated; Juv. 6, 610,' hic magicos
adfert cantus, hic Thessala vendit | philtra quibus valeat mentem vexare
mariti | et solea pulsare natis.' The old Dutch traveller Linschoten (cited
by Broukhusius) relates that the women of Portuguese India accomplish this
result by means of the plant 'dutroa' (i.e. dhattura, see J. H. Van Linschoten,
Voyage to the East Indies, London, 1885, vol. 1, p. 210, and vol. 2, p. 68).
See 55-56 n. — composuit: the word reſects the universal idea that in all
charms exact wording is a condition of efficacy. - quis : on the form, I, I,
37 n.
54. ter: triple repetition adds power. The qualities of the number three
(first of the odd numbers) in all folklore are too well-known to require
comment, cp. I, 5, 14, etc. Anaphora of ter combined with asyndeton gives
greater solemnity. The imperatives really form the protasis of a conditional
sentence. — despue: the purpose of this charm is to avert something, hence
probably the additional ceremonial of spitting, which, like crossing one's self
in modern times, was habitually used in antiquity averrincandi causa. Refer-
ences are numerous, and in fact traces of the custom still survive, cp. 96 be-
low; Pliny, 28, 35, 'despuimus comitiales morbos, hoc est contagia regerimus.
simili modo et fascinationes repercutimus dextraeque clauditatis occursum.
veniam quoque a deis spei alicuius audacioris petimus in sinum spuendo, et
iam eadem ratione terna despuere precatione in omni medicina mos est atque
ita effectus adiuvare, incipientes furunculos ter praesignare ieiuna saliva.
mirum dicimus, sed experimento facile: si quem paeniteat ictus eminus com-
minusve inlati et statim expuat in mediam manum qua percussit, levatur ilico in
percusso culpa,' etc.; Theophrast. Charact. 16 (28 Jebb); Theokrit. 2, 62; 6,
39; 7, 127; 20, II; Petron. 131; Pers. 2, 33; Juv. 7, 112 (with Mayor's note);
etc., etc. The subject is treated at length by Nicholson, “The Saliva Supersti-
tion in Classical Literature,' Harvard Studies, 8, p. 23 f. — carminibus: the
charm has a number of parts or verses, hence the plural, as oſten. On the
close of the pentameter, 1, 1, 38 n.
55-56. The situation -- a favourite in the folk tales of all nations (see
esp. F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, Heilbronn, 1879, p. 135; G. Rua, Novelle
del Mambriano del Cieco di Ferrara, Turin, 1888, p. 107 and n.) – is de-
veloped by Ovid, Amor. 2, 2, 51; 3, 14, 43, from a point of view suggesting
221
1, 2, 55]
TIBVLLVS
that of Tibullus himself in 4, 14. Bandello, Parte 2, Novella 28, ends with
practically these words.
55. nihil : for the accus. of the inner object with neuter pronouns and
adjectives, cp. peccare, 1, 6, 16 and 71; 2, 4, 5; persuadere, 1, 9, 69; sonare,
1, 3, 60; canere, 1, 4, 73, etc. For similar usage — always characteristic of
poetry — see sonare, 2, 1, 33; iurare (of persons), 1, 4, 24; 4, 13, 15; (with
object clause of the fact sworn to) I, 9, 31; 2, 5, 104; 2, 6, 13; suspirare,
1, 6, 35 (see note); 4, 5, 11; tacere, 1, 7, 57; suadere, 2, 4, 25; manere,
1, 6, 61; 1, 8, 77; tremere, 1, 7, 4; evigilare, 1, 8, 64; adflare, 2, 4, 57;
frustrari, 2, 5, 15; vesci, 2, 5, 64; cogitare, 4, 4, 17-18, etc.
57–58. The naïve warning impresses the modern reader as a touch of
Tibullus's sly humour and it made the same impression on the cultivated
reader in the Augustan Age. It derives its authority, however, from the cardi-
nal principle of magic, and therefore of antique ritual, that a charm applies
only to those who are specifically mentioned in it by name. In the antique
and primitive conception-reflected e.g. in certain peculiar uses of the word
nomen (cp. 2, 5, 57 n.) — a name is a reality, it has an actual connection with
the thing it designates. Agreeably therefore to the doctrine of sympathy
(see 46 n.) if we have nothing more than the name of a person, we can reach
him with a charm or conversely protect him by means of one. Under such
circumstances it follows, of course, that the charm will not work unless we
have the right name. Hence the antique practice, especially in magic, oſ
addressing the deity invoked by every name known to the invoker, with the
idea, of course, that somewhere among them will be found the name of power
to which the god must respond; cp. 6.g. a magic hymn to Hekate in Abel's
Orphica, p. 289; the cautious Roman usually added some general phrase
intended to remedy any possible deficiency in this respect, e.g. in the old
formula of devotio (Macrob. Sat. 3, 9, 10),‘Dis Pater Veiovis Manes, sive quo
alio nomine fas est nominare,' etc.; Servius on Verg. A. 2, 351, et pontifices
ita precabantur “Iuppiter optime maxime, sive quo alio nomine te appellari
volueris," ' etc. Hence conversely, and this custom is found in some savage
tribes, the reason for keeping our real name to ourselves and using an alias
for the general public. To the same point of view is due the curious old tra-
dition regarding the name of Rome; cp. e.g. Macrob. Sat. 3, 9, 2, constat
enim omnes urbes in alicuius dei esse tutela, moremque Romanorum arcanum
et multis ignotum fuisse ut, cum obsiderent urbem hostium eamque iam capi
posse confiderent, certo carmine evocarent tutelares deos: quod aut aliter
urbem capi posse non crederent, aut etiam, si posset, nefas aestimarent deos
habcre captivos. nam propterca ipsi Romani et deum in cuius tutela urbs
Roma est et ipsius urbis Latinum nomen ignotum esse voluerunt. ... ipsius
222
NOTES
[1, 2, 62
vero urbis nomen etiam doctissimis ignoratum est, caventibus Romanis ne.
quod saepe adversus urbes hostium fecisse se noverant idem ipsi quoque hos-
tili evocatione paterentur, si tutelae suae nomen divulgaretur'; Pliny, 28, 18;
3, 65; Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 61, p. 279 A ; Servius on Verg. A. 1, 277; So-
linus, 1; Lydus, De Mensibus, 4, 73.
. 58. omnia : for the strong emphasis on omnia due to its position both
at the end of a clause and at the beginning of a verse cp. e.g. incipiam in
Verg. A. 2, 13.
59-62. Love, esp. inordinate love, is due to magic (the primitive concep-
tion) and therefore may be removed by magic, cp. Verg. A. 4, 487; Hor.
Epod. 5, 71; Od. 1, 27, 21; Nemes. 4, 62, and often. Removal of a charm
was often accomplished by reversing the original ceremony wholly or in part
and repeating it backwards, e.g. Ovid, Met. 14, 299 (Circe removing her
charm on the companions of Ulysses) spargimur ignotae sucis melioribus
herbae, | percutiturque caput conversae verbere virgae, | verbaque dicuntur
dictis contraria verbis,' etc. So perhaps to a certain extent in this charm,
which appears to be a removal of the moon charm. There the rhombos, turbo,
or witches' wheel,' wound up the magic thread as it was twirled to the in-
cantation (Theokrit. 2, 30); here the wheel is twirled in the opposite direc-
tion, i.e. the charm is unwound, cp. Hor. Epod. 17, 7, etc. See also note on
lustravit taedis below.
59. The sudden doubt really amounts to another covert warning, i.e. “per-
haps you had better not try the charm at all. I am not so sure of the woman's
infallibility for did she not promise me ? ' etc. The poet is still haunted by the
unpleasant possibility suggested by 57. — amores : on the plural, 2, 2, 11 n.
60. solvere : the idea of binding or constraining is inherent in a charm,
hence solvere, the opposite of vincire, is regularly used in this connection.
61. lustravit taedis: this method of removing the effects of magic is more
fully described by Nemesianus, 4, 62, 'quid prodest quod me pagani mater
Amyntae , ter vittis, ter fronde sacra, ter ture vaporo, | incendens vivo crepi-
tantes sulphure lauros, | lustravit cineresque aversa effudit in amnem, | cum
sic in Meroen totis miser ignibus urar?' On the use of sulphur here, Ovid,
Rem. Amor. 260, and Tib. 1, 5, 11-12 n. -- nocte serena: the moon charm
was tried only when the moon was full and visible, cp. Lukian, Philops. It
(speaking of a magician about to work the charm), ó o è aúčouévnu anpño as
την σελήνην -τότε γάρ ως επί το πολύ τα τοιαύτα τελεσιουργείται: Ηοι.
Epod. 5, 51; Theokrit. 2, 10, etc.
62. magicos deos: the gods invoked by the magician are more especially
the powers of darkness and of the underworld. The number and method
vary according to the character or solemnity of the charm to be worked.
223
1, 2, 63]
TIBVLLVS
Among interesting examples are Verg. A. 4, 510; Ovid, Met. 7, 192; Seneca,
Med. 740; Lucan, 6, 730. For a hymn to Hekate to be used in charms like
this see Abel's Orphica, p. 289. - hostia pulla : the rule is, dark victims to
the powers of darkness, light to the powers of light, palô på mèv oúpavlous
xbovlocs d'éval lykla xpouộ (cp. Euseb. Praep. Evang. 4, 9, 2). In this case
a black lamb was usual, the blood to be allowed to run into a trench previ-
ously prepared, e.g. Ovid, Met. 7, 244, 'haud procul egesta scrobibus tellure
duabus sacra facit, cultrosque in guttura velleris atri ..conicit et patulas per-
fundit sanguine fossas. | tum super invergens liquidi carchesia bacchi,' etc.;
the prototype is Homer, Odyss. 11, 24, and from then until now the ritual has
always been practically the same.
63-64. Cp. 4, 5, 5-6; 13–16; 4, 6, 7-9; Ovid, Met. 14, 23 (Glaucus to
Circe in the same situation), 'nec medeare mihi sanesque haec vulnera
mando, / fineque nil opus est : partem ferat illa caloris,' and often.
The touch of tenderness effects a skilful transition to the next point by
bringing out more clearly the contrast between Delia's two lovers further
developed in 65-78, cp. also Propertius, 3, 20.
63. On the caesura, etc., 27 and note.
64. velim: on the simple subjv. with orabam, 25a n.
65–78. The coarse perfidious dives amator — a conventional figure in elegy
and comedy and always the poet's rival — whose greed is greater than his
love, is contrasted with the poet, for whom love is above all things. A char-
acteristic application of a favourite theme, the aurea mediocritas (e.g. as in 1,
I and 10), the folly of pursuing wealth and fame at the expense of idyllic love.
65-74. The foundation of Bertin, Amours, 1, 12 (cp. 1, 1, 45-46 n.) and
(together with 1, 6, 1-14 and 2, 6, 51-52) of Amours, 2, 4.
65-66. Cp. I, IO, I ff.
66. maluerit: qui really gives the ground, hence the subjunctive.
67-68. Probably Tib. is thinking of Messalla’s expedition to the East
during which he subdued the turbulent Cilicians (1, 7, 16).
69-70. The rival's position present or expected is, of course, not referred to.
The case is hypothetical. “Though he win all the wealth and fame that war
can give I envy him not,' etc.
69. Quoted by Montaigne, 1, chap. 42, ' A la première strette que luy donne
la goutte, il a beau estre Sire & Majesté,
6Tutus et," ' etc.
- totus contextus: for this use of totus, Verg. A. 1o, 539, “totus con-
lucens veste atque insignibus albis '; C was a captain all covered with lace'
(Old Rhyme); etc. Antimeria, the use of adjective for adverb, imparts colour
and is a favourite device of the poets, e.g. violentus, 1, 6, 47; taciturnus, 1, 6,
224
NOTES
(1, 2, 72
60; serus, 1, 7, 62; 1, 9, 4; sedulus, 1, 5, 33 and 72; 2, 4, 42; demens, 1, 9,
78; perfidus, 1, 8, 63; invitus, 1, 8, 8, etc. — contextus: the transfer from
the garments to the wearer is not infrequent in poetry, cp. Ovid, Her, 12, 152,
adiunctos aureus urguet equos,' etc. So flava Ceres, 1, 1, 15, and often.
70. Martial, 9, 49, 4, "in hac ibam conspiciendus eques,' is quoted as an
echo; but cp. Ovid, Trist. 2, 114, 'conspiciendus eques.' - conspiciendus:
the observed of all observers,' a poetic word, cp. 2, 3, 52. The gerundive
as a predicate adjective with intransitive verbs is also found in 1, 2, 76; 2, 3,
52; 4, 6, 4; as a factitive predicate, 1, 6, 37; 1, 7, 40; 4, 3, 22; as carrying
a brief appositional clause or merely as an attribute often, e.g. 1, 5, 14; 1, 6,
22; 1, 7, 56; etc. On the dative with fatalis, 2, 5, 57 n. Gerundive forms
generally stand as here in the second half of the pentameter just before the
final dissyllable (of the 21 exx, in Tib. 16 are of this sort and the same
predilection is seen in Ovid).
71-78. Poverty with happiness (71-74) is set over against wealth with mis-
ery. A favourite theme in antiquity. Most frequently the moral is enforced by
comparing the past with the present, cp. I, 3, 35-48 n. Propertius, I, 14, 15 f.,
however, deserves special consideration in connection with Tib. here, 'nam
quis clivitiis adverso gaudet Amore? nulla mihi tristi praemia sint Venere ! |
illa potest magnas heroum infringere vires, | illa etiam duris mentibus .esse
dolor: | illa neque Arabium metuit transcendere limen, , nec timet ostrino,
Tulle, subire toro, i et miserum toto iuvenem versare cubili: i quid relevant
variis serica textilibus? | quae mihi dum placata aderit, non ulla verebor / regna
vel Alcinoi munera despicere.' For the same contrast treated from the point
of view of the philosophers, see esp. Seneca, Epist. 90, 41 ff.
71. ipse : see I, 1, 7 n. — si : 60 cases of a monosyllable before the
masc. caesura are found in Tibullus, 20 of them are est in synaloephe, see 1,
4, 77 n., 4 are elided with the preceding word (haec, 1, 2, 59 : , 1, 9, 69; et,
2, 4, 21; 4, 6, 19), 10 are parts of esse (5 of which are preceded by another
monosyllable), and of the 26 remaining all but 5 (si, 1, 2, 71 ; quas, 1, 6,
55 ; mors, 2, 4, 43; ad, 4, 3, 17; lux, 4, 12, 1) are preceded by another
monosyllable. In other words, in Tibullian usage, apart from est in syna-
loephe which comes under another head, two monosyllables instead of one
before a masculine caesura are preferred in the hexameter (75%) and are
invariable in the pentameter.
72. iungere et : et elides and acts as a final consonant between iungere
and in. This is most frequent in Propertius, but it is never common and
with an infinitive as here is very rare; only Lygdamus, 3, 2, 4 ; Propert. 1, 5,
20 ; 1, 17, 18; 2, 8, 32 ; 2, 29, 24 ; Ovid, Amor. 1, 9, 22 ; Ars Amat. 3,
784, all as here, in the first foot ; never in the second foot; in the fourth foot,
225
1, 2, 72]
TIBVLLVS
only Propert. 1, 3, 16; never in the third or fifth (the Ovidian distichs of
the exile were not examined). For que used in the same way, 1, 3, 34 and.
nole.
Next to Catullus the most notable of the elegiac poets for the number, variety,
and freedom of his elisions is Propertius. Tibullus is particularly strict and
hardly less sparing even than Ovid. But elision is only slightly less frequent
in Ovid's Carmina Amatoria than in Tibullus : the growing dislike of elision
is also seen in the fact that Ovid shows a tendency to confine it more to cer-
tain fixed phrases and combinations. The percentage of lines in which eli-
sion occurs is about as follows: Catullus, 39.5%; Propertius, 23%; Tibullus,
(1 and 2), 10.4%; Ovid, 8.9%. Of these the percentage of lines containing
two elisions is Catullus, 5.2%; Propertius, 1.8%; Tibullus, 0.47 % (1, 5, 39;
2, 1, 61, 65, and 67; 4, 5, 5; 4, 13, 16); Ovid, 0.35%, with a steady though
small diminution from the Amores to the Rem. Amor. (about 20 years).
6 lines with three elisions are found in Propertius and 2 in Catullus ; with
4 elisions only one each in Propertius and Catullus. On the whole, elision
is always freest in the first half of the verse. In the second hemistich of the
pentameter elision is most frequent (though still not common) in the end of
the last dactyl, but elision in the fiſth thesis, occasional in Propertius and
growing considerably in (vid, is never found in Tibullus. Elision is increas-
ingly more frequent in the hex. than in the pent., but the difference is never
very large.
As regards the quantity of the vowels concerned, the freest and most com-
mon is a short before a short. This must occur, of course, in the arsis of a
dactyl ; when in the first syllable of the arsis Tibullus usually confines it to
the first foot and as a rule to such extra light words as atque, saepe, que, ille,
etc. ; not as common in the second syllable, and except in the first foot with
a tendency to drop off in the second book. Elision of a short before a long
generally occurs before a monosyllable (independent or in composition), and
as a rule, ictus and word accent agree. Elision of a long before a long is also
subject to the same preference for the monosyllable, but in this case conflict at
the thesis is the rule. Only in Book I do we find elisions so abnormal fur
Tibullus as 1, 2, 58, de me uno,' and 1, 4, 56, ‘se jmplicuisse.' Elision of a
long before a short is harsh and generally found only in old, popular, or inex-
perienced poets. The only exx. in Tib, vidi ego, 1, 2, 89, and illi etiam, 2, 1,
41, both in the first short of the first dactyl. These, however, had already be-
come phraseological. We find them regularly in Ovid, and always in the same
place in the verse, e.g. vidi ego, Amor. 1, 2, 11, ; 2, 2, 47 ; 2, 12, 25; 3, 4,
13, etc. So too aequo animo, Amor. 2, 7, 12; certe ego, Her. I, 115, and
the like, which we never find in Tibullus. -- solito: for the touch, I, I, 43.
226
NOTES
[1, 2, 77
75. For the theme, 1,8, 39-46 ff. and note. Mustard quotes Sannazaro,
Eleg. I, 1, 61 —
quidve torus prodest pluma spectandus et ostro,
si non est gremio cara puella mea ?
si trahere infelix inter suspiria noctem
cogor et aeternos esse negare deos?
Cp. also Joannes Secundus, Eleg. 1, 2 -
quid Tyrius sine amore torus ?
– Tyrio toro: 2.e. covered with Tyrian purple. Further details are suggested
by 77.
76. vigilanda venit: see 70 n. on conspiciendus. The use of venire as
here, instead of esse or fieri, is surprisingly limited in classical Latin consider-
ing the frequency of such constructions in the Romance languages (viene
toccando, etc.). Tibullus himself goes back to the colourless esse in 1, 8, 64,
est mihi nox multis evigilanda malis.' But Propertius again, 3, 15, 2, 'nec
veniat sine te nox vigilanda mihi'; Ovid, Her. 5, 8, 'quae venit indigno poena,
dolenda venit”; Amor. 1, 10, 30, “sola locat noctes, sola locanda venit'; Fast.
3, 794, 'haec illa nocte videnda venit'; Plautus, Miles Glor. 891, ergo istuc
metuo quom venit vobis faciundum utrumque'; Seneca, Thyest. 7, 'lapis ges-
tandus umeris lubricus nostris venit ’; Dial. 2, 19, 2, “ ex quo solo sibi gau-
denda veniant,' cp. I, 8, 15; 4, 2, 12, etc. Inability to sleep is a reg-
ular aMiction of the unhappy lover, cp. 2, 4, 11 n. ; Propertius, 1, 1, 33, 'in
me nostra Venus noctes exercet amaras '; 1, 11, 5, ‘nostri cura subit memores
ah ducere noctes?' Cp. Shakespeare's 'as true a lover \. As ever sigh'd upon a
midnight pillow. It is also in itself a sign of love, cp. e.g. Ovid, Amor. I, 2, 1,
esse quid hoc dicam, quod tam mihi dura videntur | strata neque in lecto
pallia nostra sedent, / et vacuus somno noctem, quam longa, peregi, | lassaque
versati corporis ossa dolent? | nam puto. sentirem siquo temptarer amore. I
an subit et tecta callidus arte nocet ? | sic erit : haeserunt tenues in corde
sagittae, , et possessa ferus pectora versat Amor.
77. neque : elsewhere Tibullus always uses nec, cp. I, 6, 21 n. -- plumae :
zie. 'feather pillows,' cp. Propert. 3, 7, 50, 'et fultum pluma versicolore caput,'
and often. A conventional attribute of luxury, Mart. 12, 17, 7, 'circumfusa
rosis et nigra recumbit amomo, dormit et in pluma purpureoque toro';
Juv. 10, 362, 'et venere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli’; Pliny, 10, 54
(speaking of the white geese of Germany), 'pretium plumae eorum in libras
denarii quini. et inde crimina plerumque auxiliorum praeſectis a vigili statione
ad haec aucupia dimissis cohortibus totis: eoque deliciae processere ut sine
hoc instrumento durare iam ne virorum quidem cervices possint'; so the
227
1, 2, 78]
TIBVLLVS
freedman picturing the wealth and extravagance of his friend Trimalchio
(Petron. 38), 'vides tot culcitas: nulla non aut conchyliatum aut coccineum
habet, tanta est animi beatitudo,' etc. — stragula picta: another conventional
attribute of luxury which is often referred to, e.g. Clemens Alexandrinus, Paed.
2, 9, p. 216, says that slumber is not dependent on the rolurélelav Tv
ÚTOOTpwvouuévwv, Tås Xpvooráctous tanidas, etc. Frequent mention is made
of bedclothing of precious stuffs embroidered like tapestries with all sorts of
designs and pictures, cp. the desertion of Ariadne as feigned by Catullus, 64,
etc. As now the sick are sometimes troubled by a florid design in wall paper,
so in antiquity the physicians discouraged the use of these stragulae for the
same reason, cp. Lucret: 2, 34, nec calidae citius decedunt corpore febres, |
textilibus si in picturis ostroque rubenti | iacteris, quam si in plebeia veste
cubandum est.'
78. Sonitus aquae: the lullaby sung by running water was so thoroughly
appreciated by the Romans — a nation, it would appear, of poor sleepers -
that they often caused small streams to be passed through their sleeping
rooms, cp. Seneca, Epist. 100, 6, 'desit sane varietas marmorum et concisura
aquarum cubiculis interfluentium'; Dial. 1, 3, 1o, "feliciorem ergo tu Mae-
cenatem putas, cui amoribus anxio et morosae uxoris cotidiana repudia deflenti
somnus per symphoniarum cantum ex longinquo lene resonantium (cp. Hor.
Od. 3, 1, 21 f.) quaeritur ? mero se licet sopiat et aquarum fragoribus avocet,
et mille voluptatibus mentem anxiam fallat, tam vigilabit in pluma quam ille
(i.e. Regulus) in cruce'; N.Q. 3, 17, 2, 'quanto incredibiliora sunt opera
luxuriae ? quotiens naturam aut mentitur aut vincit ? in cubili natant pisces,'
etc.; Statius, Silv. 1, 3, 37, ‘miser an emissas per cuncta cubilia lymphas?'
Celsus, 3, 18 (of the care of the insane), 'confert etiam aliquid ad somnum
silanus iuxta cadens,' etc.
79–94. These lines, 1, 5, 19-36, and I, 10, 64, are the foundation of Bertin,
Amour's, 2, 1.
79–86. Tibullus wonders whether his misfortunes are due to the fact that in
some way he has incurred the anger of the gods. The thought is character-
istic of the naive idyllic type, as of course it was intended to be, cp. I, 3, 51;
2, 6, 17; 4, 4, 14; 3, 4, 15.
• Have I offended Venus in word (79-80); have I offended the gods in
deed (81-82)? If so I will atone (83-86).'
79. verbo: i.e. some blasphemous expression provoked by his misfortunes
in love, cp. 2, 6, 17. 1, 2, 39–40 is not referred to. For a similar naive fear
of verbal offence, see 1, 2, 7-14; 2, 6, 18 and note.
81. feror adiisse : 2.e. 'am I reported to,' etc. fertur in this meaning is
common in all styles; the first person, as here, seems to be poetic and very
228
NOTES
[1, 2, 86
rare; so 4, 7, 10; Ovid, Her. 6, 114; Verg. A. 10,631.— incestus: i.e. either
morally or ceremonially, 2, 1, 9-14 and notes.
82. deripuisse : the regular word for the removal of offerings from a tem-
ple, and the opposite of suspendere, i.e. ex-votos then as now were regularly
hung up.
The lover steals garlands which have been offered at a shrine in order to
give them to his mistress. This habit, fostered by motives of poverty or of
economy as the case may be, is best illustrated by 2, 4, 21-26.
83–84. Both acts are frequently mentioned, e.g. Propertius, 3, 8, 11, ' quae
mulier rabida iactat convicia lingua | et Veneris magnae volvitur ante pedes”;
Statius, Silv. 5, 1, 162, ‘nunc anxius omnibus aris 1 illacrimat, signatque
fores, et pectore terget limina'; Arnob. I, 49, 'cum per omnia supplices
irent templa, cum deorum ante ora prostrati limina ipsa converrerent osculis,'
etc.
83. procumbere templis : ad templa would have been the form in prose;
so too in poetry, cp. I, 9, 30; 2, 1, 74; 4, 13, 23, i.e. ad='at,' as also in 1,
1, 28; 1, 10, 38; 2, 5, 54; 2, 6, 4. The dative, however, is the most per-
sonal of all the cases, and lends itself with peculiar readiness to the needs of
a figurative style. The large extension, therefore, especially in the various
types under the general category of the dative of personal interest (e.g. the
dative with transitive and intransitive verbs, the dative of agent, the ethical
dative, the dative of reference, the dative of advantage and disadvantage,
the dativus energicus) is characteristic of the Augustan poets, and especially
of Tibullus. In fact one of the most striking peculiarities of Tibullus's style
is his extensive and picturesque use of the dative. Here for instance the
dative all but personifies for the moment the grim structures before which the
suppliant is grovelling.
So too of his large use of the dativus energicus instead of a genitive or a
possessive pronoun, cp. e.g. 1, 2, 96; 1, 1, 64; 1, 3, 31; 1, 4, 4; 1, 8, 47;
1, 8, 31; 1, 6, 40; 1, 10, 56; 2, 1, 78; 2, 2, 6; 2, 4, 4; 2, 5, 31 and 121;
2, 6, 38; 1, 4, 13; 4, 2, 4; 4, 9, 1.
85–86. These lines remind us of the mediaeval penance; in the poet's
time they suggested the worship of Isis, cp. 1, 3, 23–24 and notes; Seneca,
Dial. 7, 26, 8, cum sistrum aliquis concutiens ex imperio mentitur ... cum
aliquis genibus per viam repens ululat,' etc.; Juv. 6, 524 (of a superstitious
woman), “inde superbi | totum regis agrum nuda ac tremibunda cruentis
erepet genibus'; Ovid, Pont. 1, 1, 51, etc.; Cassius Dio, 43, 21, 2.
86. tundere poste caput: Cicero does not approve of this drastic method
of exhibiting sorrow or repentance, cp. Tusc. Disput. 3, 62, “illa varia et
detestabilia genera lugendi, paedores, muliebres lacerationes genarum, pec-
229
1, 2, 87]
TIBVLLVS
TY
toris, feminum, capitis percussiones,' but it was not at all uncommon, cp.
Augustus himself after the defeat of Varus, Sueton. Aug. 23, 'adeo denique
consternatum ferunt, ut per continuos menses barba capilloque summisso
caput interdum foribus illideret vociferans “ Quintili Vare, legiones redde.".
The best description of this orgiastic stage of mourning is perhaps Lukian,
De Luctu, 12, Oluwyal ÉTÈ TOÚTOLS kai KWKUTÒS yuvalkwv kai mapà Trávtwy
δάκρυα και στέρνα τυπτόμενα και σπαραττομένη κόμη και φοινισσόμεναι παρειαι·
και που και εσθής καταρρήγνυται και κόνις επί τη κεφαλή πάττεται και οι ζώντες
οικτρότεροι του νεκρού: οι μεν γάρ χαμαι κυλινδoύνται πολλάκις και τας κεφαλάς
αράττουσι προς το έδαφος, ο δε ευσχήμων και καλός και καθ' υπερβολήν εστεφα-
νωμένος υψηλός πρόκειται και μετέωρος ώσπερ ες πομπήν κεκοσμημένος.
87–88. Here the poet turns suddenly on some unfeeling scoffer in his
audience (laetus, ‘he jests at scars that never felt a wound') and takes refuge
in the universal folk doctrine of Nemesis or balance reflected in numerous
popular sayings, ''Tis a long lane that has no turning,'" Pride goeth before a
ſall, etc., and appearing again and again in antique authors, cp. 1, 5, 5-6 n.;
1, 5, 69-70 n.; Soph. Elektra, 915, al' plin, dá pouve' Tois aútoiol roul
oỦx aůtos alel daluówv trapao tatel, etc., cp. 2, 6, 19-20 n.
87. at: 1, 1, 33 n. — caveto : so timeto, 1,.5,69; esto, 1, 8, 50; servato and
caveto, 1, 6, 16 f.; caveto, 4, 2, 3; faveto, 4, 5, 9. The second imperative
outside of certain verbs is more or less old-fashioned and solemn, and is there-
fore not infrequent in the poets. Sometimes the distinction can be felt but not
always; e.g. faveto, 4, 5, 9, is immediately preceded by cape.
88. uni: for the (rare and poetic) dative with saevire cp. Ovid, Her. 4, 148
and 83 n. on templis. — usque: i.e. semper. This use of usque as an inde-
pendent adverb is characteristic of the folk speech (hence abundant in
Plautus and Terence) and of the poets, esp. of the elegy and of Martial;
every one remembers Catullus's · Egnatius qui candidos habet dentes | renidet
usque quaque. The use of usque thus in Livy is a mark of his poetical style.
Elsewhere in classical prose it is very rare, and only in certain phrases like
usque adeo, dum, donec, etc. In the elegiac poets this use of usque is especially
common in the pentameter, and in over 80% of the cases it begins the last
dactyl as here. Eleven, for example, are found in Tibullus (8 of them in the
pentameter), and all in the last dactyl (1, 2, 88; 3, 16; 5,74; 6, 8; 8, 36; 9,
38; 2, 4, 14; 2, 5, 32). Hence the tendency of certain cadences to become
fixed, e.g. usque moras, 1, 3, 16; Ovid, Fast. 3, 686; usque fores, 1, 5, 74; Ovid,
Amor. I, 4, 62; usque manil, 2, 4, 14; Ovid, Fast. 3, 872; Ibis, 424, etc.
In the hexameter the usual position of usque (though never so in Tibullus,
cp. 2, 5, 63 and 111; 2, 6, 35) is at the beginning of the fifth foot.
89-96. The application of this law of Nemesis to love runs all through
230
NOTES
[1, 2, 95
antique erotic poetry, see Introd. p. 46, and is the real basis of a number of
constantly recurring motives. The general substrate of the argument is, Love
cannot be avoided, at least the chances against it are infinitesimal. Postpone-
ment invites heavier punishment (Menander, 235 K. elt' où ubycotós éOTI TẬP
θεών "Έρως | και τιμιώτατος γε των πάντων πολύ ; | ουδείς γαρ ούτως έστι
φειδωλός σφόδρα | άνθρωπος ουδ' ούτως ακριβής τους τρόπους, ός ουχί τούτω
μερίδα τω θεώ νέμει | της ουσίας: όσοις μεν ούν πράως έχει, | νέοις έτ' ούσι
τούτο προστάττει ποιείν | οι δ' εις το γήρας αναβολάς ποιούμενοι, | ούτοι
TT poo amotivovo i Toll xpóvou Tókous; Propertius, 1 7, 26, "saepe venit magno
faenore tardus Amor'; Ovid, Her. 4, 19, 'venit amor gravius quo serius,' etc.).
Above all the bitter dregs of the cup are reserved by the angry gods for the
scoffer and the proud (1, 8, 71; Propert. 1, 9 and 1, 7; Anth. Pal. 12. 23,
etc.). Youth is the time for love — and youth is fleeting (1, 1, 69-74 and
notes). Conversely, “turpe senilis amor'; répwv épaots éo xáty Kak Tuxń.
Menander, 5ο9 K., ουκ αν γένοιτ' έρωντος αθλιώτερον | ουδέν γέροντος πλην
ËTepos yépwy épôv. Hence, to illustrate his law of Nemesis here the poet
paints a favourite figure of comedy and of erotic poetry, the aged lover (I, I;
71 n.); cp. also Anth. Pal. 5, 234, etc.
89-90. Cp. Thomas Lodge, Rosalynde, London, 1902, p. 139, Such (my
faire shepheardesse) as disdaine in youth desire in age ... Love while thou
art young, least thou be disdained when thou art olde.'
89. vidi ego: for the elision, 72 n. and for the naïve touch of quasi-
personal experience, 1, 4, 33–34 n.
go. senem : for the emphatic position, 2, 5, 93.
91. blanditias componere: see 1, 1, 72 n., and cp. Twelfth Night, 2, 5,
“He (Malvolio) has been yonder i’ the sun practising behaviour to his own
shadow this half hour.'
92. fingere: 'arrange,' cp. Propert. 3, 10, 14, 'et nitidas presso pollice
finge comas,' and often. -- velle : willing to,'' ready to,' cp. 1, 9, 32; 2, 6,
4: 4, 3, 8; Lucret. 2, 558, etc.
93-97. A realistic picture eminently suggestive of the comedy.
93. stare . . . puduit . . . detinuisse : the present emphasizes continu-
ance (1, 1, 45 n.), 'stand and wait,' for the perfect, I, I, 29-32 n.
95. hunc . . , hunc: on the anaphora, 1, 1, 39 n.— puer ... iuvenis :
on the singular, 1, 1, 42 n. — circumterit: the compound is confined to this
one passage and may perhaps be considered merely a temporary union. I have
so written it, however, in conformity with the MS. tradition and with the law
of agreement in the last two feet which Tibullus rarely breaks, see 1, 3, 5 n.
On the other hand, Tibullus is undeniably fond of using prepositions as
adverbs, and verbal compounds with circum are often so loose that it is a ſair
231
1, 2, 96]
TIBVLLVS
question whether they should be. written as such, hence some modern
editors, notably Haupt-Vahlen, give circum terit here instead of circumterit.
96. despuit: 54 n. despuere in sinum was a regular ceremonial at the
sight of lunatics or epileptics, cp. Pliny, 1.c., in 54 n.; Theophrast. Charact. 16
μαινόμενόν τε ιδών ή επίληπτον φρίξας εις κόλπον πτύσαι.
The poor old soul is such a pitiable example of mad folly that the crowd
cross themselves, as it were, at the sight of him. —et: for the position, 1, 3,
82; 4, 4, 26, etc.
97-98. Cp. 79 ff. and for the characteristically pagan (and human) ending,
Catullus, 63, 91, 'dea, magna dea, Cybehe, dea, domina Dindymi, | procul a
mea tuus sit furor omnis, era, domo: , alios age incitatos, alios age rabidos ';
Propert. 3, 7, 71–72; Tib. I, 1, 33–34 n.
98. quid messes, etc: proverbial; perhaps a variation of a saying more
nearly represented by Horace, Epist. 2, 1, 220,'ut vineta egomet caedam mea”;
the Greek has it (Frag. Com. Graec. Adesp. 564 K.) Tv aŭrds aŭtoû ydp Búpav
kpoúel Mlow, which seems to come near in meaning to our own expression,
"Why cut off your nose to spite your face ?'
I, 3
..
Messalla, called to the East by affairs of state, had invited Tibullus to ac-
company him as a member of his staff. The invitation was accepted, and the
poet proceeded as far as Corcyra. There, however, he fell sick and was
obliged to remain behind. For artistic reasons he represents himself as still
there and still in danger of death. The expedition to which he refers is usu-
ally dated in the fall of 31 B.C., i.e. soon after the battle of Actium, when
Octavianus sent out Messalla to settle the disturbed affairs of the Orient. The
date, however, has been disputed, and is by no means certain. See Introd.
p. 35. At any rate, the poem was written not long after the sickness.
Imitated by Loyson; Lygdamus, 3, 5; Ovid, Amor. 3, 9 (see p. 175). The
piece is a propemptikon, like Propert. I, 8; Ovid, Amor. 2, 11 and 12;
Horace, Epod. 1; Theokrit. 7, 52 ff. etc.
. You will go on your way without me, Messalla. I am sore sick in Phaea-
cia, a stranger in a strange land. Mother and sister are not here to perform
the last rites. Delia, too, is far away. Every omen ſavoured my departure,
yet she was ever loath to let me go, and I, too, made every excuse to linger.
Let my fate be a warning to all that would leave their lovers against the will
of Cupid.
“May Isis, the great goddess of healing, whom you worship, Delia, succour
me in my need, and bring me home safe and sound. How well men lived in
232
NOTES
[1, 3, 2
the golden days of good King Saturn! Then there was no seafaring and no
war, but continual ease and abundance, idyllic innocence and perfect peace.
In these days of Jove we have war and carnage and bloodshed without end,
the sea, and a thousand otlier short cuts to an untimely grave. Spare me,
father; I have done the gods no injury in word or deed. But if it so be that
my time has come, place a stone at my grave, and let it record that Tibullus
died while following Messalla over land and sea.
"And when I am dead Venus herself will lead me to the Elysian Fields.
In that paradise of eternal joy dwell the souls of all those who, like myself,
have been faithful lovers in life and willing servants of the goddess. Deep
down in the nethermost gloom lies the abode of the wicked, and black and
thunderous rivers encircle it. There Tisiphone forever drives before her a
throng of sinners, scuttling this way and that before her cruel scourge, and
the monster watching at the gate never sleeps. There are found Ixion, and
Tantalos, and Tityos, and the daughters of Danaos, traitors to love — may
they be joined by those who wrong me in my love and pray for my long
absence!
'I beseech you, Delia, be true, and remain modestly at home. Let me
appear unexpected and unannounced as though I had dropped from heaven.
Run then to my arms just as you are, with bare feet and your hair all un-
bound. That is my prayer, and may Lucifer, son of the morning, bring that
joyous day to me!'.
1. ibitis, Messalla : plural of the party (ie. 'ipse cohorsque'), singular
of the most notable person in it (Messalla), cp. Vergil, A. 9, 525, 'vos, o
Calliope, precor, adspirate canenti'; Homer, Odyss. 2, 310, and often.
2. o utinam: occurs here (acc. to Blase) for the first time, cp. Ovid, Met.
1, 363 ; Val. Flaccus, 1, 113; 7, 135; 8, 439. O si is more common, but does
not begin until Verg. A. II, 415. si alone, as e.g. in Petron. 8, “si scires
quae mihi acciderunt,' is very rare, and the use of this optative subjunc-
tive with no particle at all seems to be found only in Catull. 2, 9, tecum
ludere possem,' and Ovid, Her. 8, 34, posset ayus. utinam alone, as
in 2, 2, 17, and 6, 15, is common in all styles and periods. For omission
of the verb as here (occasional.in Cicero, cp. Ter. Adel. 518 ; Stat. Silv. 4, 6,
17; Tac. Ann. I, 58; etc.) see 43 n., and for atque utinam, 4, 13, 5 n.-
memores : the plural is afterward particularized and explained by ipse
cohorsque, cp. 1, 5, 36 n. — cohors : i.e. the cohors praetoria, the group of
friends, generally young men of distinguished family, taken along by the
proconsul or propraetor when he went to his province, or by the general on
his campaign. The practice of inviting poets and other literary men dates
from Ennius, who accompanied Fulvius Nobilior on his campaign against
233
1, 3, 3] :
TIBVLLVS
the Aetolians. Cp. also Catull. 10, 13; Hor. Epist. 1, 3, 6, and for the cohors.
of imperial times (hence, corte, cour, court'), Nero's cohors amicorum ;
Sueton. T'ib, 46, etc.
3-9. Imitated by Lygdamus, 3, 2, 9 ff. The poet dreads death in a strange
land as opposed to death at home and among kindred, the fitting close of a
life of happiness and peace, as in 1, 1, 59–68. The touching passage of
Ovid, Trist. 3, 3, 37 ff., 'tam procul ignotis igitur moriemur in oris,' etc., was
probably suggested by these lines. The feeling, however, is shared by, all
humanity, cp. e.g. Propert. 3, 7, 8 ff. and 63 ff. (to Paetus); Vergil, A.9,
485 ff.; Homer, Odyss. 24, 290 ff. and esp. Sophokles, Elekt. 1136 ff. (cp.
869). Epiktetos, 1, 27, 5, says, å Kotels Tŵv id.wtv Leybut wv 'Tálas ékeivos,
απέθανεν απώλετο ο πατήρ αυτού, ή μήτηρ εξεκόπη, αλλά και άωρος και επί
févns.'
Lines 3-4 are alluded to by Ovid in his elegy on the death of Tibullus
(Amor. 3, 9, 47), sed tamen hoc melius, quam si Phaeacia tellus | ignotum
vili supposuisset humo.'
3. ignotis terris: 1, 1, 8 n.; 1, 3, 39. Cp. Theokrit. Epig. II, 3, eŮ ulv
é Day av et aĉpol éri felvons Févov Vyta —'a stranger in a strange land'— though
the original of our expression is the less poetic words of Exod. 2, 22, nápol-
KOS ... év yn állotplą. — Phaeacia : Exepla, Homer's land of the Phaeacians,
was identified with the island of Corcyra (Kepkúpa, Herod., Thuk. and now;
Kopkúpa, early inscript., coins, Strabo; Corfù, the mediaeval name, is from the
Byz. Kopupal, the 'twin cliffs' upon it).
4. Greedy death (cp. 65) who lays violent hands on his victim is a popular
conception, cp. auferet Orcus,' abstulit cita Mors,' rapuit Fatum,' and
similar expressions common in the epitaphs. So too, Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 19,
'scilicet omne sacrum mors importuna profanat, | omnibus obscuras inicit illa
manus'; Kallimach. Epig. 2, 5; etc. — Mors atra: ater, which as opposed
to niger is symbolic as well as literal, is a common epithet of mors, see
Appendix.
5-8. The ashes of the dead were gathered up, sprinkled with wine and
milk, mixed with perfumes, and placed in an urn. The duty belonged to the
chief mourner, cp. the epitaph (Carm. Epig. 1149, 3, Buech.), ‘flevit prae-
sentem mater, flevere sodales, et mater tepido condedit ossa rogo’; Propert.,
for his father (4, I, 127), and he requests Cynthia to do the same for him
(2, 24, 49), reminding her, 'noli nobilibus noli conferre beatis : | vix venit
extremo qui legat ossa die | hi tibi nos erimus.' See also Propert. 2, 9, 9 ff.;
Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 49 ff.; Lygd. 3, 2, 17; Lucan, 9, 60; etc.
5. abstineas, etc. : 1, 2, 9 n. The epanalepsis serves here as the transi-
tion, as in 2, 4, 20. — hic mihi mater: it is a universal law of metrical art
234
NOTES
[1, 3, 5
that whatever liberties we may take with the beginning of a verse the type of
it must be clearly marked at the close. For this as well as for other reasons
the law or conflict' (1, 2, 27 n.) in the first four feet of the hexameter yields
to the law of agreement' in the last two. In that case (irrespective of spon-
daic lines which as they do not occur in Tib, need not be considered here)
the verse must end in a dissyllable or a trisyllable preceded by a single word
beginning not later than the fifth thesis nor earlier than the fourth arsis, thus,
9, mitteret urbe'; 13, deterrita numquam'; 7, 'dedat odores'; 15, 'man-
data dedissem'; 1,'Messalla, per undas’; 25, 'pureque lavari'; 61,'totosque
per agros'; 47,'bella, nec ensem'; 77, stagna: sed acrem. More than 90%
of all the Roman hexameters surviving conform to this rule. The possible
cadences remaining all involve some 'conflict' and are all exceptional. Agree-
ably therefore to the laws of chronology and of department (see Introd. p. 96)
they are most common in the early poets and the satire, least common in
the elegy. Of these exceptional cadences, hic mihi mater,' i.e. a monosylla-
ble followed by two dissyllables (where the monosyllable softens as much as
possible the objectionable conflict in the fifth foot) is decidedly the favourite
with Tibullus (1, 2, 95, see n.; 1, 2, 41 ; 3,5; 3, 23; 6, 33 ; 6, 57 ; 9, II;
9, 21; 9, 75 ; 10, 5 ; 2, 4, 51 ; 5, 61; 6, 3; 6, 7; 6, 27; 4, 3, 15; 5, 1),
less so with Propertius (14 exx.), still less with Ovid who reduces all excep-
tional usage to a minimum (only three exx. in the Amores, 1, 4, 67; 2, 13, 5;
2, 17, 21). As a rule, the first dissyllable is like mihi here, more or less
enclitic or proclitic in its nature. On the contrary, in five cases (1, 6, 1 ; 6,
63 ; 2, 4, 45; 4, 59 ; 1,111 — not mentioned above) Tib. neglects the law of
the monosyllable (only once, 2, 23, 15, in Propertius, never in Ovid, Amores).
To end the hexameter with a monosyllable was always bad. It was least
objectionable, however, when the last foot was filled out with another mono-
syllable, thus, 1, 4, 63, ‘carmina ni sint (the only ex, in Tib.); cp. Sulpicia, 4,
II, 5, and only four times in Ovid, Amores (1, 15, 5; 2, 4, 13; 3, 4, 5; 7, 55).
With Propertius, however, this is the decided favourite among exceptional
cadences (25 exx.).
The cadence represented by 'exhibitura puellis' occurs 19 times in Proper-
tius, II times in Ovid, Amores, but only 3 times in Tibullus, all in the second
book (1,61; 3, 73; 5, 93). The following exceptional cadences occur in
Propertius, but not in Tibullus nor Ovid — 2, 3, 45, aut mihi si quis' (cp.
Sulpicia, 4, 10, 1); 2, 24, 51, 'potius precor ut me'; 2, 27, 11 ; 3, 1, 9; 3, 8,
3; 3, 9, 59; 4, 5, 17; 'sub limine amor qui,' 2, 25, 17 (cp. the Vergilian 'prae-
ruptus aquae mons'); "mercede hyacinthos,' 4,7, 33; Oricia terebintho'(cp.
the Vergilian nitens elephanto'); 'fors et in hora,' 2, 9, 1; 3, 4, 19; 'increpi.
tarent,' 2, 26, 15; 1, 8, 35 (characteristic of Lucretius and the early poets).
235
1, 3, 6]
TIBVLLVS
6. maestos sinus: possibly hypallage (cp. Verg. A. II, 35, 'et maestum
Iliades crinem de more solutae'), no doubt, too, with a suggestion of nigra
vestis, the mourning garb — though this is not proved by Lygdamus's imitation,
3, 2, 17. For hypallage in Tib. see 1, 4, 10 n.
7. Assyrios : i.e. Syrios as in Catullus, 66, 12; Vergil, E. 4, 25; Horace,
Od. 2, 11, 16, and often. Perfumes were habitually known as Syrian because
the products of the East came overland by caravan and were shipped to Greece
and Rome from Syrian ports, more especially Petra and Gaza. Most of the
odores really came from Arabia, as Tibullus (cp. 2, 2, 3) was himself aware.
- odores : the use of perfumes and unguents for this purpose is often men-
tioned, cp. Aisch. Agam. 1311; Bion, 1, 70 ; Propert. 2, 13, 30; 3, 16, 23,
etc. Their use for the funeral fire itself — a vast expense much discussed and
criticized by the thinkers of antiquity — is another matter.
8. fleat: 1, 1, 65-66 n. — effusis comis: 1, 1, 67 n.-- sepulcra: for the
be indefinite or because the poet for the moment saw not only his own tomb,
but those of his kindred around it, cp. 1, 1, 4 n. Perhaps too sepulcra is
partly due to the analogy of funera, as in Propert. 2, 1, 56, 'ex hac ducentur
funera nostra domo,' and often, cp. “Come, therefore, and to Thasos send his
body: | His funerals shall not be in our camp.' — Shak.
9. non usquam: corresponds to and emphasizes the non hic of 5, cp. Hor.
Sat. 1, 6, 14; Livy, 8, 1, 7, etc. — mitteret: Catull. 66, 29, 'sed tum maesta
virum mittens quae verba locuta es'; Verg. A. II, 47, 'me conplexus euntem
mitteret in magnum imperium,' etc.
10. ante: adverbial.
11-12. Divination by sortes (cp. also 1, 8, 3; 2, 5, 13) was widespread in
Italy and prevalent from the earliest times. Their use was general in the
various temples (the most famous being the temple of Fortuna at Praeneste,
cp. also the famous sortes Vergilianae of a later date); but sortilegi also plied
their trade in the Circus and other crowded parts of the city (Hor. Sat. 1, 6,
114; 1,9, 30; Cicero, Div. 1, 132; Juv. 6, 583, etc.). The sortes were pieces
of wood or other material inscribed with some conveniently indefinite state-
ment. These were placed in an urn (situla, Plautus, Casina, 359 ff., etc.) and
shuffled. Then one, or one at a time, was drawn out and its meaning inter-
preted by the sortilegus (cp. the amusing passage in Apuleius, Met. 9, 8).
The two lines before us describe Delia's method of consulting the sortes to
find whether it will be safe for Tib. to go with Messalla. The process is not
entirely satisfactory. Adopting Muretus's trinis for the traditional triviis,
the plain meaning is that Delia herself drew a lot three times (for luck) in
236
NOTES
[1, 3, 15
succession and that in each case the boy drew a favourable conclusion from
the inscription. To a certain extent this reverses the regular procedure so
far as we know it from other sources. It was not usual for the person inter-
ested to draw the lot (unless Juv. 6, 583 is a case in point). Thanks to a
world-wide belief in the divining powers of little children, a small boy was,
and still is, preferred for that purpose; so Cicero, Div. 2, 86, of the temple at
Praeneste, 'quid igitur in his potest esse certi quae Fortunae monitu pueri
manu miscentur atque ducuntur ?' That the same was true in the Middle
Ages is shown, e.g., by Boiardo, Orl. Innam. 1, 1, 57; Ariosto, Orl. Fur. 30,
24. The same method is pursued to-day in selecting the winning numbers in
the Italian lottery, and with us in apportioning public lands under the home-
stead law. In short, except in the passage before us, the boy does not in-
terpret the lot, he draws it, and the interpretation is given by some one else,
or perhaps leſt to the ingenuity of the person interested.
11. ter: 1, 2, 54 n. - sustulit: the technical word for drawing lots.
13. dabant: i.e. 'foretold,' promised'; so of oracles and the like, cp.
Lucan, 5, 108, 'dedit ille minas impellere belli,' etc. —- reditus: I, I, 4 n. The
plural is distributive, i.e. the reply to each of Delia's inquiries (all sumnied up in
cuncta) was 'reditūs.' So often in the poets, e.g. Ovid, Fast. I, 279,'ut populo
reditus pateant ad bella profecto'; Her. 10, 103, 'nec tibi quae reditus
monstrarent fila dedissem'; Hor. Epod, 16, 35, etc. So of signa in 20 below.
-est deterrita: i.e. "prevented,' dissuaded,' hence the const, with quin
after the analogy of prohibeo, etc. So Plaut. Amphit. 560; Miles Glor. 332; etc.
14. fleret vias: for this accus. with verbs of emotion (often in the Augustan
poets) cp. I, 1, 61; 1, 10, 56; 2, 4, 46; 1, 9, 54; 1, 2, 87; 1, 4, 84; 1, 7, 27; 2, 5,
61.—respiceret: the traditional reading seems fully warranted by such passages
as Hirtius, B. G. 8, 27, 2, 'si tempore eodem coactus esset et externum sustinere
hostem et respicere ac timere oppidanos'; Caesar, B.C. 1, 5, 2, 'post octo
denique menses variarum actionum respicere ac timere consuerant'; Seneca,
Herc. Det. 656, sed non strictos respicit enses'; Tac. An12. I, 31, 'nec
apud trepidas militum auris, alios validiores exercitus respicientium,' lit. 'look
behind one,' i.e. view closely with alarm or anxiety.' — vias: I, I, 26 n.
15-20. On these lover's excuses for tarrying see esp. Ovid, Rem. Amor.
214, ' tu tantum, quamvis firmis retinebere vinclis, | i procul et longas carpere
perge vias! | flebis, et occurret desertae nomen amicae, / stabit et in media
pes tibi saepe via; , sed quanto minus ire voles, magis ire memento: , perfer
et invitos currere coge pedes! | nec pluvias opta, nec te peregrina morentur
sabbata nec clamnis Allia nota suis ; ( nec quot transieris, sed quot tibi, quaere,
supersint | milia, nec, maneas ut prope, finge moras; | tempora nec numera
nec crebro respice Romam, , sed fuge'; Her. 5, 49, etc.
.
1
237
1, 3, 15]
TIBVLLVS
15. solator : the formation and use of agent nouns of this type is char-
acteristic of the Roman poets, especially of the epic poets of the first century
who furnish a number of rarities of this sort. The small number of them in
Tibullus is quite in harmony with the studied simplicity of his style. solator
is distinctly poetic and was doubtless rare, so also consitor (2, 3, 63), but
otherwise we find only amator, auctor, cultor, ianitor, pastor, praedator, tex-
trix, and victor -- all in common use.
16. tardas : active, cp. 1, 1, 8 n. — usque: 1, 2, 88 n.
17. aut: introduces the alternative of the preceding line, i.e. 'quaerebam
... moras; ' aut ego sum causatus,' etc. - causatus: for the shift from direct
statement (“aves dant omina dira') to indirect statement (“me tenuisse,' etc.) in
the next line, cp. 2, 5, 71–78, and notes. Not uncommon, for instance, in the
speeches of Livy (23, 45, 7; 26, 13, 3; 26, 22, 8; 27, 40, 8, etc.). - aves :
omens good and bad from this source are constantly referred to, e.g. Val.
Max. 1, 4, 2, “Ti. Gracchus tribunatum adepturus pullariuin domi con-
suluit ab eoque ire in campum prohibitus est. sed cum pertinaciter pergeret,
sic illisit mox extra ianuam pedem, ut eius excuteretur articulus (cp. 19-20
below). deinde tres corvi prodeunti ei cum vocibus adversis involaverunt et
compugnantes tegulam ante pedes eius deiecerunt'; Theophrast. Charact. 16
(28 Jebb); etc.
18. Saturni diem: this happens to be the earliest literary reference now
surviving in Latin to the ancestor of our modern name Saturday. On the
Greek side, however, we learn from Cassius Dio that this name for the Jewish
Sabbath had already been in use for some years. In 49, 22, 4, writing of the
year 36 B.C. he says, cáÀO av uev Yap Tp6Tepot Lev oi !T+pToD Teukvous Toũ
θεού αμυνόμενοι, έπειτα δε και οι άλλοι εν τη του Κρόνου και τότε ημέρα
ů vouao uévn, cp. 37, 17, 3; 66, 7, 2 (Vespasian's capture of Jerusalem in 70
A.D.); Frontin. Strateg. 2, 1, 17, "Divus Augustus Vespasianus Iudaeos
Saturni die, quo eis nefas est quicquam seriae rei agere adortus superavit.
Why the Jewish Sabbath was called Saturni dies was a matter of doubt to
the investigators of the first century, cp. Tacitus, Hist. 5, 4, 'septimo die otium
placuisse ferunt, quia is finem laborum tulerit; dein blandiente inertia sep-
timum quoque annum ignaviae datum. alii honorem eum Saturno haberi,
seu principia religionis tradentibus Idaeis quos cum Saturno pulsos et con-
ditores gentis accepimus, seu quod de septem sideribus quis mortales
reguntur, altissimo orbe et praecipua potentia stella Saturni feratur ac plera-
que caelestium viam suam et cursus septenos per numeros compleant.'
The Jews began to make themselves felt in Rome soon after the eastern
conquests of Pompey in 63 13.C. By the time of Tibullus and Horace their
strict observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest was doubtless one of the
238
NOTES
[1, 3, 18
reasons why some of the more superstitious Romans were led to consider it a
dies ne fastus, a day upon which it was unlucky to begin any important under-
taking, cp. Horace, Sat. 1, 9, 69; Ovid, Rem. Amor. 220; Ars Amat. 1, 415;
Meleager, Arth. Pal. 5, 160 (written in the first century B.C.); Pers. 5, 184;
Juv. 14, 105; etc. Opposition, however, to sabbatarianism was steadly and con-
sistent until the very fall of the Western Empire, cp. Tacitus and Juvenal,
loc.; Rutil. Namat. 1, 381; etc. The genuine Roman objected to it as a for-
eign superstition, still more because it introduced so many days of idleness.
Tibullus was undoubtedly acquainted with our modern week of seven days,
each named for and under the sway of one of the seven planets. An inscrip-
tion found at Pompeii in 1901 (CIL. IV, 6779) has SATVRNI SOLIS
LUNAII MARTISSIOVIS VIINIIRIS, i.e. "Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, (Wednesday is illegible), Thursday, Friday. The presence in it of
QVI, i.e. Quintilis, the old name for July, suggests a date before or not long
aſter 44 B.C. At any rate this is the oldest contemporary reference to the
matter as yet discovered on Italian soil. The origin and growth of our mod-
ern week has been much discussed (the best and most recent authority is E.
Maass, Tagesgötter, Berlin, 1902). Cassius Dio, 37, 18 (and many modern
authorities follow him), says that our week originated in Egypt. The state-
ment is supported by the fact that the seven planets themselves are so inti-
mately associated with astrology and that the beginnings of astrology, so far
as we can now trace them, take us back to Egypt of the Ptolemies. Maass,
however, makes a strong plea for a somewhat different theory of origin. His
conclusions briefly stated are:
“The seven-day week without the planets is Jewish.'
"The seven planets as guds governing the destinies of mankind are
Assyrian.'
“The combination of these two ideas, i.e. the formation of our modern
week, is due to the Hellenistic Orient, starting from Ionian Asia Minor.'
"It is impossible as yet to name a date.'
The week of seven days is thus really a product of cosmopolitan Hellenisin
which, starting in the Greek East, spread over the entire Roman Empire and
was finally adopted by the Christians.'
The earliest reſerences to it on Italian ground are all confined to southern
Italy, cp. CIL. 1.C.; I?, p. 218 (found at Posillipo, now at the Johns Hopkins
Univ., early Empire, see H. L. Wilson, A. J. P. 31, 261), etc. A similar
seven-day calendar belonging to Trimalchio is described by Petron. 30.
Official recognition (statues of the seven gods, etc. in Rome) begins as early,
perhaps, as Trajan. Soon after it appears in Gaul, and Cassius Dio, loc., writ-
ing in the time of Septimius Severus, says that the practice of naming the
239
1, 3, 19]
TIBVLLVS
days after the planets was then general throughout the world, especially at
Rome itself. Maass points out that the Germanic days of the week go back
to at least as early as 300 A.D. The peculiarity of the Hellenistic week, as
seen from the Pompeian inscription quoted above, is that it began on Satur-
day. The change to Sunday was made by the Christians and is a return to
the old Jewish system. For the various objections of both Christians and
Pagans to this rival of the old Roman week of nine days, see especially
Maass, 1.c. with notes an.I references.
– sācrām: elsewhere, Tibullus scans this word either as sācră or săcrā, and
if we adopt Saturnive săcrām, the emended reading generally accepted since
Broukhusius, even this one exception is removed; hence Wölfflin's conclusion
(cp. Archiv f. Lat. Lexikographie, 8, 420; Wiener Stud. 7, 164) that this was
actually a rule of Tibullian usage. Rasi, however, in his searching examina-
tion of this aspect of our poet's art (De positione debili quae vocatur seu de
syllabae ancipitis ante mutam cum liquida usu apud Tibullum,' Rendiconti del
Reale Istituto Lombardico, 40, 653, cp. Tollkiehn, Berlin. Philoingische Wochen-
schrift, 32, p. 394; cp. also, G. Lupi, Bollettino di Filologia Classica, 9, 231), has
shown that Tibullus's usage here was a matter of accident not design. There is
no reason in the world why he should not have availed himself of the freedom
which his friends, Vergil and Horace, allowed themselves in the use of this
word (cp. e.g. Sat. I, 9, 1; 1, 5, 99; Od. 2, 13, 29; Carm. Saec. 4; Verg. G.
3, 334; A. 2, 525; 3, I; 10, 538; II, 533, etc.). The text of the Am-
brosianus in this distich is clear and satisfactory as it stands, and I have not
hesitated to follow Vahlen (Tibullus, Haupt-Vahlen, 6th edit. ff.) in
adopting it. — tenuisse : for retinuisse, see 44 n. But this is not uncommon
in Livy's prose, cp. 3, 2, 1, with H. J. Müller's note.
19-20. Stumbling has always been an evil omen, especially at the begin-
ning of anything (ingressus iter) and above all, on the threshold (in porta).
Ovid, Met. 10,452 (of Myrrha), 'ter pedis offensi signo est revocata, ter omen
funereus bubo letali carmine fecit '; Amor. I, 12, 3; Her. 13, 88; Trist. 1.
3, 55; Val. Max. 1, 4, 2 (quoted above); Verg. A. 2, 242 (with Forbiger's
note); Pliny, H. N. 2, 24, etc. Hence to prevent the possibility of stumbling,
the Roman bride was lifted over the threshold of her new home; see Catull.
61, 159 (with the notes of Riese and Ellis), and cp. Plaut. Cas. 815 (with a
comic application) 'sensim super attolle limen pedes, nova nupta; | sospes
iter incipe hoc, uti viro tuo , semper sis superstes, etc.
21–22. A general truth serving as the conclusion of lines 9–20. Delia's
real reason for anxiety (13–14) was love. Tibullus's real reason for lingering
- the others were merely alleged (causatus) — was love. Love alone was
plainly against a journey during which, as it turns out, the poet has fallen dan-
240
NOTES
[1, 3, 24
gerously ill. Love, then, was the real omen which both should have observed
and obeyed. Therefore, 'audeat invito ne quis,' etc. Another characteristic
illustration of the power of love, cp. 1, 2, 89–96, 1, 5, 1-6, and 1, 6, 29–30,
with notes.
23–24. The poet calls upon Isis for help, although, in spite of her obliga-
tions to Delia (23-26), he certainly has received none so far. If, however,
she will help — and her ability to help is well attested — Delia will do further
service. The naïve combination of doubt and fervent prayer accompanied by
flattery and ending with a bribe is characteristic.
The worship of Isis began to assume prominence in Rome as early as the
time of Sulla, and in spite of occasional opposition from the state continued to
thrive and spread until, by the third century A.D., it had penetrated to all
parts of the empire. In the time of Augustus it was especially popular with
women of Delia's class (hence tua, 23), which accounts for the frequent: ref-
erence to it in the elegiac poets. A century later the worship was recruited
from all ranks, and for many generations it was a most formidable rival of
Christianity. In fact, it has often been observed that in its ideas and symbols, its
ascetic regulations (cp. 1, 2, 85-86 n.) and ritual, it has much in common with
Christianity. The worship involved a complicated ritual, all sorts of symbolic
observances, fasting, mortification of the flesh, etc. (cp. 25 below). Through
strict observance of these the neophyte might rise to a better knowledge of
the secrets of the goddess. In return she promised her protection in this
world and a life of service in the world to come.
There was a regular morning and evening service (cp. 31) and also certain
yearly festivals, esp. the Isidis Navigium, which began March 5, and about
Nov. I a great festival, during which was enacted the well-known story of the
goddess — ending with eúpńkajev, ouixalpouev, etc. (Schol. on Juv. 8, 29;
Sen. Apocol. 13, etc.), the cry of joy given by the worshippers at the dis-
covery of the lost Sarapis-Osiris (Minuc. Fel. 22, 1, etc.).
24. aera: i.e. the sistrum or rattle which from time immemorial was asso-
ciated with the cult of Isis. The use of it was in itself an act of worship and
devotees regularly employed it (as here) during the long hours of prayer and
meditation in the temple, which was so characteristic of the worship of this
goddess that Florus, in the second century, speaks (p. 185, Rossb.) of taking
a journey to Egypt, ut ora Nili viderem et populum semper in templis otiosum
peregrinae deae sistra pulsantem. Such hours were in addition to the regular
services and were, of course, undertaken for some special purpose. Here
Delia is supposed to have been praying for her lover, cp. Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 33
(on the death of Tib.), 'quid vos sacra iuvant, quid nunc Aegyptia prosunt |
sistra, quid in vacuo secubuisse toro?'
241
1, 3, 25]
TIBVLLVS
TT
The sistrum was shaken, not struck, hence repulsa here shows an extension
of use similar - though less violent — to that of pulsa in 1, 1, 4 (cp. note).
But repulsa here is justified by the fact that with the more usual metonymy of
aera, i.e. cymbals, it is the proper word (as e.g. in 1, 8, 22). Moreover,
though the sistrum was shaken, the sound so produced is more suggestive of
striking. For the evidently iterative sense of repulsa cp. Ovid, Met. 3, 533,
etc.
25. quidve: supply prodest (from prosunt above) and construe lavari and
secubuisse with it. memini is parenthetical. For the combination of perf.
and pres. infin.'1, 1, 29–32 n.- lavari . . . secubuisse : these observances, one
or both, are immemorial in religious ritual, cp. Homer, Odyss. 17, 58, ý o údpn-
vauévn, kadapà xpot cipad' élowoa, | EŬXETO mãou Beoîol. 4, 750; Tib. 2, 1,
11-14; Propert. 3, 10, 13; Livy 5, 22, 4; Hor. Sat. 2, 3, 291; Cic.
Leg: 2, 24; Pers. 2, 15; etc. In the worship of Isis they were especially
prominent. Ceremonial bathing was very frequent (cp. Juv. 6, 522, etc.)
and was often accompanied by sprinkling with water from the Nile (Juv. 1.c.)
or its representative (Servius on Verg. A. 2, 116, etc.). The secubitus,
which is often mentioned by the elegiac poets (1, 6, 11; Propert. 2, 33, 1; 4,
5, 34; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8; 74; 2, 19, 42; 3, 9, -34; Juv. 6, 536; Apul. Met. II,
23; etc.), lasted ten days (Propert. 2, 33, 2, cp. the neuvaines of the modern
church), and the devotee usually went into retreat in the temple during this
period (Propert. l.c., etc.). They were a preparation for the 'sacri observan-
dique dies' (Juv. 6, 536), the festivals or special seasons devoted to the
goddess and her worship.
Isis is here addressed as the goddess of healing, one of the most important
of her many functions and frequently mentioned. The numerous ex-votos in
her temple, each the thank-offering of one who has been cured by her, are so
many testimonials to her power as a healer. Ex-votos of this class often con-
sisted of models of the diseased part and many have been found in the temple
of Isis at Pompeii and elsewhere. Paintings, however, piclae tabellae, were
habitually used for ex-votos of all sorts, but especially by those who hac
escaped the perils of the sea, cp. Cicero, N. D. 3, 89; Hor. A. P. 20; etc.;
hence, often in connection with Isis as the goddess of seafarers, e.g. Juv. 12,
28, pictores quis nescit ab Iside pasci ?'.
27. posse: supply te, cp. 1, 5, 73 n.; 2, 6, 13 n. The parenthetical excuse,
as it were, for the prayer is frequent and characteristic, cp. 51; Verg. A. 6,
117; Homer, Odyss. 4, 237, etc.
28. multa : 'many a' (so 2, 3, 42; 2, 5, 72) is a use characteristic of
poetry and post-Augustan prose, cp. 1, 1, 42 and 1, 9, 68 with notes..
29. ut: consecutive, i.e. Tib. promises that if Isis cures him Delia shall,'
1
242
NOTES
[1, 3, 33
etc. — voces : iie. 'prayers' (cp. Hor. Epist. I, 1, 34) or perhaps the laudes
of 31.
30. As a rule, the antique worshipper stood up. But the worshippers of
Isis, agreeably to their habits (cp. note on aera, 24), were provided with
seats. These benches (so in the temple of Isis at Pompeii) or cathedrae
(Mart. 2, 14, 8) were set before the altar (ante focos, Ovid, Pont. I, 1, 52)
where the occupants could contemplate the image of the goddess when the
sanctuary was opened (fores). Delia is for the time to become a devotee of
Isis, taking her place among the regular worshippers, lino tecta, 'dressed in
linen,' the wearing of which at all times was incumbent on the priests, cp.
Herod. 2, 37, and often.
31. bisque die, etc.: the two regular services of the day are here referred
to. The first — matins — was before sunrise and began with the apertio
templi, cp. Apuleius, Met. 11, 20, 'templi matutinas apertiones opperiebar. ac
dum, velis candentibus reductis in diversum, deae venerabilem conspectum
adprecamur et per dispositas aras circumiens sacerdos, rem divinam procurans
supplicamentis sollemnibus, de penetrali fontem petitum spondeo libat: rebus
iam rite consummatis inchoatae lucis salutationibus religiosi primam nuntiantes
horam perstrepunt.' The second service — vespers — began at two o'clock,
Mart. 10, 48, 1, 'nuntiat octavam Phariae sua turba iuvencae.' Details of the
ritual are not certain. — resoluta comas: i.e. because she is taking part in the
service to a god, cp. 2, 5, 66, hence the sorceress during her incantation is always
thus; Ovid, e.g-, speaking of Medea (Met. 7, 180), says 'postquam plenissima
fulsit | ac solida terras spectavit imagine luna, , egreditur tectis vestes induta
recinctas, nuda pedem, nudis humeris infusa capillis. So, too, when a
woman mourns for the dead (1,1, 67 n.), because this is really a sacrifice to the
manes. The reason according to Servius on Verg. A. 4, 518 (cp. 2, 134 and
6, 48) is because, 'in sacris nihil solet esse religatum.' See J. Heckenbach,
De nuditate sacra sacrisque vinculis, Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und
Vorarbeiten, Band 9, Heft 3, Giessen, 1911.
32. insignis : because of her beauty, also because she would be comata inter
calvos.' The priests of Isis shaved their heads, cp. Juv. 6,533; Herod. 2, 37, etc.
-- Pharia : i.e. Alexandrian, so Ovid (of the worship of Isis), Ars Amat. 3,635;
Pont. 1, 1, 38. The island, now Farillo, stands at the entrance of the harbour
and has always been famous for the lighthouse built upon it by Ptolemy II.
33-34. Transition to the next topic is introduced by our poet's favourite at,
so 1, 3, 67; 83; 87; 1, 2, 87; 1, 4, 27; 59; 67; 1, 5, 19; 59; 69; 1, 6, 15;
23; etc. For the Romans all the associations of our word home were in these
lines, cp. Catull. 31,8, ac peregrino | labore fessi venimus Larem ad nostrum';
9, 3, 'venistine domum ad tuos Penates,' etc.
243
1, 3, 33]
TIBVLLVS
33. celebrare : often approach,' i.e. may it be my lot to return home and
live long to enjoy it,' cp. I, 6, 17 n.
34. For this sacrifice cp. e.g. Cato, De Agri Cult. 143, 2, “kalendis, idibus,
nonis, festus dies cum erit, coronam in focum indat, per eosdemque dies Lari
familiari pro copia supplicet'; Propert. 4, 3, 53, omnia surda tacent, rarisque
assueta kalendis | vix aperit clausos una puella Lares,' etc. The Lares were thus
honoured (with tura, serta, uva, vinum, etc. — pro copia,' as Cato says) not
only on regular days and feast days as mentioned above, but on special family
occasions such as births, marriages, when some member of the family leſt or
returned home, upon moving into a new house, attainment of majority, death,
etc. — reddere : for which the simple dare sometimes occurs, is regularly used
of offerings to the gods (cp. Verg. E. 5, 75, etc.), so in Greek åmodedoval;
i.e. 'we return thanks,' 'reddimus quia debentur' (Servius on Verg. G. 2,
194), cp. 'render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' — reddereque :
a dactylic infinitive with que preventing elision appears to be very rare. I have
noted no other case in Tib., Propertius, or the Carmina Amatoria of Ovid.
Other dactylic words so used are 1, 6, 48; 1, 10, 26; 4, 3, 10; Lygd. 3,
2, 10; Propertius, 25 exx.; Ovid, Carm. Amat. 24 exx.
35–48. The Golden Age (cp. I, 10, 1 ; 2, 3, 71 ; esp. Ovid, Amor. 3, 8, 35)
was a favourite theme of antique literature. It is the antithesis of present dis-
comfort, the vision of unfulfilled desire reflected on the screen of the past. As
such the description of it, though remarkably conservative, varies with the
times, the department, and the setting of the episode. The earliest and most
famous.version is Hesiod, Works and Days, 109 ff. The idea was much
developed and elaborated by the Mystics of the sixth century B.C. and again,
at the second revival of Mysticism before and during Vergil's time (Orphic,
Sibylline, and magic books, etc.). Not only poets (Theognis, 1135, poets of
the Old comedy such as Kratinos and Teleklides, esp. Aratos, 105, etc.) develop
the theme, but historians and romancers (Dikaiarchos, F. H. G. vol. II, p. 233;
Dionys. Hal. 1, 36 ; Diod. Sic. 5, 66, etc.) and esp. philosophers (Empedokles,
128, Diels ; Plato, Polit. 271 E; Posidonius, in Scneca, Epist. 9o, etc.) who use it
as an exponent of their ideals and theories. On the Roman side some of the
'most notable references to the Golden Age or to its analogues in this world or
the next (the Hyperboreans, Elysium, the Isles of the Blest, etc.) are Vergil,
E. 4, 9; G. 1, 125; 2, 538; Hor. Epod. 16, 41; Ovid, Met. 1, 89; 15, 96;
Seneca, Phaedra, 525; Medea, 309 ; Octavia, 395; Juvenal, 6, 1; Claudian,
In Ruf. 1, 380 ; De Rapt. Pros. 3, 19; Boethius, Cons. Phil. 2, met. 5; etc.
Lucretius, 5, 925 ff., a famous passage often imitated by later writers, is the
most important presentation of the opposing view of those evolutionists of
antiquity, the Epicureans. For a more extensive discussion see my 'Ages of
244
NOTES
[1, 3, 37
the World (Greek and Roman)'in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics, Edinburgh, 1908, vol. I, pp. 192–200, with ref. Especially notable here
for the Alexandrian tradition of this theme as developed by Tibullus is the
fragment of an elegy found in Egypt (Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XIV). I give
the text of H. Weil, Révue des Études Grecques, 11, 241 —
[Τοίος έην θνητοίσι νόος, ρήστον βίον ευτε
ήλλάξαντ’ αιν]ής αντί γεωτομίης,
[οίος έην Γλαύκω Λυκίω, ότε σιφλός επειγε
[ανθ εκατομβοι]ων εννεάβοια λαβείν.
[πρίν δ' ούτις σ]μινύην, πέλεκυν π[αχύν ούτε δίκελλαν
χάλκευεν θη]κτήν αμφοτέρω στόμα[τι,
όφρα δίκην σκαπανήoς ορειτύπου εργάζηται
[άμπολέων γα]ίης έκρυβειν έδαφος,
[αύλακι δ' ου βάλλε]σκεν ένι σπόρον ούτε ν[έαινεν,
αλλ' ήνει Κρονίδου δώρα κυθηγενέος"
Γπάσιν άτερθε πόνοι]ο σαρωνίδας ούδας ένεΓγκε
και βαλάνους μερόπων δαιτα παλαιοτάτην.
Tibullus's description is brief and simple after his usual manner and as be-
and peace belongs to the tradition of his department. It is also in harmony
with his temperament besides being the artistic justification of the digression
at this point. The motives which he selects are all traditional, and as usual no
sign of any one specific model is to be detected. For an interesting imitation
(combined with motives from Ovid) see Luigi Alamanni, lic. in Introd: to 1, I.
35. Saturno rege: Saturnus = Kronos was an early equation in the Hel-
lenization of Italic mythology. One of the most notable features of the legend
of the Ages was the association of it with the great dynastic change of Olympos.
The Golden Age was under the sway of Kronos. Since then his son Zeus has
ruled the world in his stead. This primitive association of Kronos-Saturnus
with the Golden Age persisted until a late date, not only in the genuine folk
tradition to which it really belongs, but also to a large extent in the literature,
hence the frequency of such designations for it as Ý Kpóvou Baollela (Plato,
Polit. 276 A), Saturno rege, as here, Saturnia regna (Verg. E. 4, 6), cp. aureus
Saturnus (Verg. G. 2, 538), etc.
36. He is probably thinking of long marches in particular. The character-
istic touch is new in this connection and suggestive of his present state, cp. I,
1, 26 n.
37-40. One of the most conspicuous factors in the further development of
the legend of the Golden Age, especially after the time of Aratos, was the
245
1, 3, 38)
TIBVLLVS
idea, largely due to the Cynics and Stoics, that the downfall of man has been
accomplished largely by his own discoveries and inventions. The favourite
examples are those chosen by Aratos. They are the first sword (cp. I, 10,
I f., esp. 4.7. f. below and notes) and the first ship. Even outside, however, of
its use in this connection the diatribe on navigation was already fully devel-
oped in the poetry of Hesiod, it was a conventional theme of the Greek epi-
gram at all periods, a regular motive in the poetry of the Augustan age, and
by the first century of our era a mere rhetorical commonplace; cp. Stobaios,
57, and, among extended passages, Sophukles, Antigone, 332; Seneca, Medea,
301; 607; Ovid, Amor. 2, I1, I; Propert. I, 17, 13; 3, 7, 29; Statius, Theb.
6, 19; Achill. 1, 62; Claudian, De Rapt. Pros. I, Praefat. The argument ulti-
mately rests, for the most part, on the axiom that the gods createdl man to
live on the solid earth. “Terrestre animal homo,' says Columella, 1, Praefat.
8 (cp. Propert. 3, 7, 34; Ovid, Amor. 2, 11, 30; Statius, Silv. 3, 2, 62; Sil.
Ital. 11, 470; Lucan, 6, 401, etc.). In his natural state, therefore, i.e. in the
Golden Age, he remained on shore. Hence, as the poet says in this passage
(cp. 2, 3, 39), there was no seafaring in the Golden Age (Hesiod, W. and
D. 236; Aratos, 110; Ovid, Met. 1, 94; Propert. 3, 7, 31; Ovid, Amor. 3, 8, 43
and 49; Seneca, Phaed. 530; Medea, 329; N..Q.5, 18, 11; Verg. G. I, 130;
E. 4, 32; Hor. Od. 1, 3, 21; Epod. 16, 59; Manilius, I, 77, etc.). Sea-
faring, then, violates the law of nature and of the gods (Hor. Od. 1, 3, 23;
Propert. I, 17, 13; Columella, 1, Praefat. 8; Seneca, Medea, 328, etc.),
and is therefore impious (Seneca, Medea, 340; 605; 668; Lucan, 3, 193;
Val. Flaccus, 1, 605; 627; 800; Claudian, In Ruf. I, 219; Hor. l.c.;
etc.). Every ship is in itself an insult to the sea, a deliberate challenge to an
almighty power; cp. contempserat in 37 heightened by the equally foolhardy
act of 38; Ovid, Met. 1, 141, etc. Further, the motive of seafaring is greed
of gain (39-40; 1, 9, 9; 2, 3, 39; Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 410; Kallimach. frag.
111, Schn.; Sen. Med. 361; N. 0.5, 18, 14; etc.), an unworthy motive. So
one sin begot another, and this is the moral of Propert. 3, 7. Not only then
is death by the sea an unnatural death, being brought upon man by his own
device (50; Propert. 3, 7, 29; Seneca, N. l. 5, 18, 8; Ovid, Amor. 3, 8,
45; Verg. E. 4, 38; Pliny, H. N. 19, 5; etc.), but it is a punishment - often
exacted by the sea itself (Propert. 3, 7, 22 and 33). Indeed, the sea deliber-
ately seeks to entrap men through their sinful desires, ' natura insidians pon-
tem substravit avaris,' says Propert. 3, 7, 37 (after Lucretius, 2, 557; cp. 5,
1004), etc. The sea is greedy to destroy (Hor. Od. 1, 28, 18; 3, 29, 61;
Propert. 3, 7, 14 and 18) and utterly without mercy (Homer, Iliad, 16, 34,
γλαυκή δε σε τίκτε θάλασσα | πέτραι τ' ήλιβατοι, ότι τοι νόος εστίν απηνής:
Lucretius, 2, 1155; Lygd. 3, 4, 85). It is proverbially perilous (a favourite
246
NOTES
[1, 3, 40
theme of the Greek Anthology, cp. 7, 267; 271-274; 278; 10,65; etc.), treach-
erous, variable, violent. All the sons of Poseidon have the temper and the
morals of Polyphemos, and the Roman proverb for a liar, a perjurer, and a man
of wrath is Neptuni filius (cp. Gellius, 15, 21; Lucilius in Cicero, N. D. 1,63;
etc.). Hence the Argo marked a new era and one full of trouble for men
(Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 420; Ovid, Amor. 2, II, 1; Lucan, 3, 193; Seneca,
Medea, 365; 605; Val. Flaccus, 1, 800; Sil. Ital. 11, 470; etc.). The seafarer
is foolhardy, he tempts an almost certain fate, and is a warning to land-
lubbers (Anth. Pal. 9, 131; 133; 7, 264; 266; Soph. Antig. 333; Propert.
3, 7, 37; Manil. 1, 77, etc.). Therefore remain on land, learn to be content;
and die a natural death (Propert. 3, 7, 43; Ovid, Amor. 2, 11, 16; 30; etc.).
. 38. praebueratque : on the position of que, see 1, 1, 40 n.
39-40. Expands and completes the statement of 37-38, 2.e. the navita (=
mercator) invented navigation, and his motive was greed (compendia repetens);
cp. 1, 9, 9; Manilius, 1, 37 (describing the growth of civilization), 'et vagus
in caecum penetravit navita pontum | fecit et ignotis itiner commercia terris.'
The Graeco-Roman mercator, like his Phoenician prototype, literally did roam
the seas and push beyond the bounds of the known world in search of gain
(cp. Manil. 4, 167). He is, therefore, a familiar and a picturesque figure in
the poets, moralists, and rhetoricians, a representative type (Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 15;
A. P. 117; Verg. G. 2, 503; etc.), the stock illustration of the perils of sea-
faring (Hor. Od. 1, 1, 15; Juv. 14, 265; 12, 17), the personification of rest-
less energy, “indocilis pauperiem pati,' and prepared to endure any hardship,
exposure, or peril in order to avoid poverty (Hor. Od. 1, 1, 15; 1, 31, 13; 3,
24, 35; Sat. I, 4, 29; Epist. I, 16, 71; Pers. 5, 132; etc.), the characteristic
embodiment of modern civilization; and as such the antipodes of the home-
loving husbandman (Hor. Od. 1, 3, 13; Propert. 3, 7, 43; Plato, Anth. Pal.
7, 265, etc.) and primaeval simplicity. Hence, the Golden Age knew nothing
of him. On the traditional contrast between the farmer and the trader, see
1, 9, 7-10 n.
39. compendia: i.e. lucra (1, 9, 9), for this meaning, cp. Manil. 4, 19,
damna et compendia rerum'; :4, 175 (of the mercator), 'ingenium sollers,
suaque in compendia pugnax.'
40. externa merce: foreign wares, with the same associations as in modern
times. The mercator is at once the slave and the purveyor of the luxuries of
life, cp. 2, 3, 39; Manil. 4, 167, 'merce peregrina fortunam ferre per urbes , et
gravia annonae speculantem incendia ventis , credere opes orbisque orbi bona
vendere posse , totque per ignotas commercia iungere terras , atque alio sub
sole novas exquirere praedas | et rerum pretio subitos componere census'; cp.
Aratos, III. -
.
247
1, 3, 41]
TIBVLLVS
41. That is, no ploughing was done. Agriculture was unknown and un-
nécessary. A detail often mentioned in the development of this topic, cp.
2, 1, 41 n.; Ovid, Met. I, 10I; Amor. 3, 8, 41, etc. Our poet (cp. I, 9, 7)
pairs agriculture with navigation as an invention of greed and therefore counts
it as a curse, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. It was merely
a step in the natural process of evolution, acc. to the Epicureans, who did
not believe in a Golden Age at all ; cp. Lucretius, 5, 933, etc. According
to the Cynics and Stoics, for whom the Golden Age of the past was the ideal
simple life of the past, men subsisted by agriculture alone, i.e. lived a natural
life. Hence, in the version of Aratos, which is a revision of Hesiod under
the influence of Stoic doctrine, the element of marvel has disappeared, and
men are described as peaceful tillers of the soil with no knowledge of civil
striſe or of the vexations of the law. Moreover, they were far removed from
the perils of the sea; in those days there were no ships to bring the luxuries
of life from abroad. This version was especially welcome to the Romans, not
only on account of their temperamental Stoicism, but because it agreed more
nearly with their own tradition of early times and with the character and
attributes of Saturn (a god of agriculture and the reputed inventor of the
plough, cp. Macrob. 1, 7, 21; 1, 10, 19; etc.). before he was identified with
the Greek Kronos; cp. 1, 10, 7 f.; Propert. 3, 13, 25; Hor. Epod. 2, 2 f.; etc.
Important here is Verg. G. 1, 121. The primary purpose of this version was
to enhance the dignity of labour. The history of mankind is divided into two
periods — the Age of Saturn and the Age of Jove. The Golden Age, when
good old Saturn was king, agrees entirely with Hesiod. The second period,
however, is not an age of degeneration, but an age of reform. Jupiter, the
divine father of our race and of all our higher aspirations, purposely did away
with the far niente of the old régime, 'curis acuens mortalia corda, , nec
torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno,' being well aware that unless men have
difficulties to meet and overcome they can never grow strong in any sense.
In this characteristically noble conception Vergil has succeeded to a remark-
able extent in meeting the demands of contemporary thought without sacrific-
ing the traditional account of the Golden Age so dear to the poets.
42. That is, people lived naturally and therefore when they moved about
used • Shanks his mare,' nullus adhuc erat usus equi: se quisque ferebat,' as
Ovid says, Fast. 2, 297. — frenos momordit: champed the bit,' so Stat. Silv.
1, 2, 28; Lucan, 6, 398; Incerti Carm. Bucol. 37 (PLM. III, p. 64, Baehr.);
Sidonius, Epist. 9, 6, 2. Elsewhere, as in Greek, 'take the bit in one's teeth'
(either lit. or met.), cp.e.g. Cic. Fam. I1, 23, 2,‘si frenum momorderis peream';
Aisch. Prom. 1009; Eurip. Hippol. 1223; Xen. Equit. 6, 9, etc. The same
expression for two things so clearly distinguished in English is explained by the
248
[1, 3, 44
fact that mordere really does describe the action of the horse in both cases.
In the passage before us domito precludes any possibility of misunderstanding.
43-44. That is, everything was held in common, cp. Verg. G. I, 125, ante
Iovem nulli subigebant arva coloni: ( ne signare quidem aut partiri limite
campum fas erat: in medium quaerebant,' etc., and the discussion in
Seneca, Epist. 90, 36 ff. Any serious treatment of the Golden Age led inevi-
tably to the conclusion that the ideal condition of human society was com-
munism, cp. e.g. Plato, Kritias, 110 C, but esp. the Republic, 415; 417; 424;
451-465, with the notes and ref. in the edit. of Adam, Cambridge, 1902.
The same theme was developed at some length by Ephoros in his account of
the idealized nations of the North (Müller's FHG. vol. I, p. 256). Many
others emphasize the same point. Tibullus, as often, leaves it to be inferred
from the context, cp. 1, 9, 7–10 and notes.
43. non domus ulla fores habuit: no one was shut out — not even lovers,
cp. 2, 3, 73. Of course, too, there were no thieves -- this naïve touch
reappears in Juvenal, 6, 18, cum furem nemo timeret | caulibus et po-
mis, et aperto viveret horto. Others insist that there were not even any
houses in that perfect age of nature when spring was eternal, e.g. Ovid, Met.
et densi frutices et vinctae cortice virgae'; Seneca, Phaed. 539, silva nativas
opes et opaca dederant antra nativas domus'; Epist. 90, 41, 'illi quos aliquod
nemus densum a sole protexerat, qui adversus saevitiam hiemis aut imbris
vili receptaculo tuti sub fronde vivebant, placidas transigebant sine suspirio
noctes. sollicitudo nos in nostra purpura versat et acerrimis excitat stimulis:
at quam mollem somnum illis dura tellus dabat! non inpendebant caelata
laquearia, sed in aperto iacentes sidera superlabebantur et insigne spectaculum
noctium mundus in praeceps agebatur silentio tantum opus ducens.' Those
who like the Epicureans did not believe in an ideal state of nature or a fall
from grace made much of this point as an illustration of the hard and
wretched lot of early men, cp. Lucret. 5, 970; 982; Juv. 6, 2, etc. — non
fixus in agris, etc.: Verg. G. I, 126; Ovid, Met. I, 136; Iustinus, 43, 1, 3;
etc. — fixus : sc. est; omission of the copula with participles in independent
sentences is uncommon in the elegy. Elsewhere in Tib. only 2, 1, 43 and 2,
5, 57; 18 times in Propertius; 39 in Ovid (14 Carm. Amat., 19 Fasti — 14 in
books 4 and 5 alone ; 6 Tristia); never in Catullus. For omission with
utinam see 1, 3, 2 n., 1, 3, 49–50.
44. regeret : regere (for dirigere) fines is a legal phrase found in Cicero,
the Digest, and elsewhere. The use of the simple verb for the compound is
antique and therefore more or less characteristic of the conservative language
of religion and the law ; so too the literal meaning of the word is often best
e
249
1, 3, 45]
TIBVLLVS
preserved in the primitive. For these reasons it is often preferred by the
poets — esp. by the poets and the poetizing prose of the Silver Age — to
call the reader's attention to the metaphor involved. We find no large use
of this device, nor ought we to expect it, in the studied simplicity of Tibullus ;
cp. however mittere for dimittere, 1, 3, 9; tenere for retinere, 1, 3, 18; dare
for reddere, 1, 5, 16; ridere for arridere (?), 1, 8, 73; solari for consolari, 2,
6, 25; etc. On the other hand, concinuisse for cecinisse, 2, 5, 10 (where see
note).
45-46. The poet echoes here (cp. 61 below) one of the most persistent
and characteristic features of the old folk legend ; this is the belief that
in the Golden Age all the imaginable blessings •of life came of their own
accord. When treated seriously this motive led, as we have seen (43-44 n.),
to the theory of communism ; when treated by satirists or by people of a
less serious turn of mind, the same motive led quite as directly to one of the
most important and interesting developments in the literary history of this
legend. This is the treatment of the Golden Age or of its analogues in this
world or the next as a comic theme. It makes its first appearance in the
writers of the Old comedy, and was primarily intended by them to satirize
the peculiar tenets of the Orphics. It is really, however, a folk variation and
references to it turn up now and then from the Old comedy of Greece to the
present day. The one best known to us is given by the old Trouvère in his
lay of the ‘ Land of Cocagne. The comedy is usually produced by pushing
the automatous element, .occasionally too the theory of communism, to its
perfectly logical and yet at the same time its utterly absurd conclusion. Not
only do the sheep, as here, come home voluntarily to be milked (so e.g. Verg.
E. 4, 21 ; Hor. Epod. 16, 49 ; etc.), but roast pigs run about asking to be
eaten (Petron. 45) and we hear about rivers of wine (Verg. G. 1, 132), also
of milk and of nectar (Ovid, Met. 1, III), and even of broth, the last with
pieces of hot meat rolling along in the flood (Teleklides, frag. i Kock;
Lukian, Vera Hist. 2, 13, etc.), the table sets itself, the food passes itself to
the guests, etc. The result is a Lost Paradise of the bon vivant, the votary
of ease, and the irresponsible bachelor. Here Tib. contents himself with de-
scribing the kingdom of Saturn as a land flowing with milk and honey — a
proverb of abundance among the Greeks and Romans as well as among the
Hebrews (Eurip. Bacch. 141; Hor. Od. 2, 19, 10; Exod. 3, 8; Joshua, 5, 6, etc.).
45. ipsae : of themselves, cp. 2, 6, 14, i.e. without the intervening agency
of the bees. The allusion is to a widespread popular conception that honey,
the food of the gods, and one of their chief giſts to men, was the product of
the ether itself (aerii mellis caelestia dona,' Verg. G. 4, I; Médc dè TÓ
πιπτον εκ του αέρος και μάλιστα εν τοις των άστρων επιτολαίς και όταν
250
NOTES
[1, 3, 49
katao kńyn Ipus, Aristot. De Animal. Hist. 5, 22, 4; 'sive ille est caeli sudor
[cp. German Himmelschweiss=honey) sive quaedam siderum saliva, sive pur-
gantis se aeris sucus, Pliny, H. N., II, 30 ; etc.). It is thence precipitated in
the morning dew ('idemque [i.e. Celsus] ait, ex floribus ceras fieri, ex
matutino rore mella,' Columella, 9, 14, 20, etc.), and shows an especial fond-
ness for settling on the leaves of the oak (Theophrastos, frag. 18, De Melle,'
etc.). In No Man's Land, and, as here, in the Golden Age it was so abun-
dant that it dripped from the leaves (Verg. E. 4, 30; Ovid, Met. 1, 112;
Aetna, 13, etc.). But nowadays the honey is neither as abundant nor as
good (Pliny, 11, 31), and we must wait until the bees gather it for us from
the oaks (or, if we adopt Trimalchio's theory [Petron. 56), 'mel vomunt,
etiamsi dicuntur illud a love afferre,' a folk legend corresponding to the
Finnish idea that the bees fly up to midheaven and bring down honey from
the storehouse of the gods), cp. also 2, 1, 49-50 n.
46. securis: 1, 1, 8 n.
47–48. Note the skilful arrangement. The poet had gone to war and
was in danger of dying prematurely. This is the real theme of the elegy
which, for the moment, we had forgotten in our bright dream of other days.
We are roused by the poet's intentionally emphatic statement that there was
no such thing as horrible war in the Golden Age. , In this way we get a nat-
ural and easy return to the realities of the present. For the topic of war in
this connection, cp. I, 3, 37-40; 1, 10, 7-10, and notes; Ovid, Met. 1, 97;
Verg. G. 2, 539;. Juv. 15, 168; etc.
47. acies : cp. 2, 3, 37; the word brings up the whole picture of a battle-
field, the pomp and circumstance as well as the toil and peril of the opposing
hosts. Lucretius had already said, after describing the miseries of primaeval
man (5, 999), 'at non multa virum sub signis milia ducta , una dies dabat
exitio,' i.e. wretched they may have been, but at least they were spared the
wholesale butchery of a modern battlefield. -- nec ensem, etc. : a favourite way
(cp. 1, 3, 37-40 n.) of emphasizing the absolute peace of the Golden Age,
cp. I, 10, 1-14 and notes; Aratos, 13'1 ; Verg. G. 2, 540; Ovid, Met. I, 99;
Juv. 15, 168, etc.
49–50. It is, of course, understood that the contrast between the age of
Saturn and the age of Jove applies to every point in the description of 36-48.
But in view of the poet's present condition, it was quite sufficient and much
more artistic merely to mention those suggestive of premature death. Art
also demanded that he should reject, as he has done, the traditional succes-
sion of four ages, and adopt that form of the tradition (as e.go in Vergil, G. 1,
121, cp. n. on line 41 above), which merely divided the history of mankind
into Saturn's Age, the desirable past, and into Jove's Age, the undesirable
251
1, 3, 50]
TIBVLLVS
present. The thought of the distich is a commonplace of poetry and rhetoric;
cp. I, 10, 3-4; 2, 3, 37–38; Seneca Rhet. Controv. 7, 16,9; Seneca, Phaed.
475; Stat. Silv. 2, 1, 213, etc.
50. mille : so often, as in English, of an indefinitely large number, 2, 3,
44; 2, 4, 60; 4, 2, 14; 4, 6, 12; Lygd. 3, 3, 12; etc. — repente: modifies the
verbal force inherent in leti viae, 'a thousand ways of suddenly (i.e. pre-
maturely) meeting death'; cp. Livy, 22, 17, 3, quo repente discursu,' so,
deinceps,'22, 7, 11; 3, 39, 4; 21, 8, 5; 21, 52, 5; simul,' 41, 11, 5, and
often; procul,' Hor. Sat. 1, 6, 52; "furtim,' Tib. 2, 5, 53, where see note; etc.
51-52. For the prayer — to which 49-50 has effected the transition - see
1, 2, 79-86, and 1, 3, 27, with notes. The idea that diseases are sent by the
gods is, of course, world-wide.
51. periuria, etc.: 1, 4, 25–26 n.; 1, 9, 3.
53-56. 1, 1, 59-68 n. Transition to the episode of Elysium, 57 f.
53-54. Compare Ovid, Trist. 3, 3, 29 f., a passage much more pathetic
because more genuine than this.
54. fac ... stet: the subjunctive with facio which is more or less common
in the older literature had begun to diminish before the Augustan Age.
After the longer forms and esp. the passive — as e.g. the Ciceronian fieri
posse — the use of ut is preferred. But after fac, as here, the omission of ut
is, one may say, phraseological (so always in Cicero's speeches and essays
(5 cases) and with the exception of Ovid, Fast. 5, 690, in the elegy (21 cases).
In Plautus we have 29 without to it with ut, and in Terence 12 to 11.) See
1, 2, 25a n.
55-56. The epitaph is one of the most characteristic motives of the elegy,
cp. Propert. 2, 13, 33; 4, 7, 85; Lygdamus, 3, 2, 29; Ovid, Trist. 3, 3, 73; Her.
14, 129; Amor. 2, 6, 61.
Tibullus's epitaph is in regular form, cp. such actual exx. as Carm. Epig.
1064, 1, · Felicla hic misera consumptast morte puella'; 1185, 10, “per mare,
per terras subsequitur dominum’; 1845, 3, 'per freta per terras sedula dum
sequitur'; etc.
Pope seems to have been especially impressed by this epitaph. In a letter
to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu written in Nov. 1716 ( Works, ed. Courthope,
London, Murray, 1886, vol. IX, p. 363), he says, “But if my fate be such,
that this body of mine (which is as ill matched to my mind as any wife to
her husband) be left behind in the journey, let the epitaph of Tibullus be set
over it —
Here stopped by hasty death, Alexis lies,
Who crossed half Europe, led by Wortley's eyes.'
Cp. a previous letter to Caryll in 1713, vol. VI, p. 181.
252
NOTES
(1, 3, 57
57–66. What was said above (35-48 n.) of the Golden Age may also be
said of Elysium. Elysii Campi, 'Hlúolov med lov (Hom. Odyss. 4, 563), the
Isles of the Blest' (Hesiod, W. and D. 166; Plutarch, Mor. 565 F; Lukian,
Vera Hist. 2, 5, etc.), the Garden of the Hesperides,' where the Sun sets
(Eurip. Hippol. 742; Mimnermos, frag. 11 Crus. etc.); the 'Mountain of the
Gods' (Hom. Odyss. 6, 43; the Aeolian and Ionian version ?); the Garden of
the Gods' (Sophokles, frag. 297 N. etc.; the Dorian version ?); the ‘Garden
of Phoibos' (Stesich. frag. 6 Crus.; Soph. frag. 870 N.; Eurip. frag. 771, etc.),
- these are all different names which to a certain extent record varying tradi-
tions, but they all mean the same thing — the land of those who have gone
hence.' Nor is its location any more definite than its name (cp. Servius on
Verg. A. 5, 735; Verg. A. 6, 887; Lucan, 9, 10; etc.). Usually however it is
beyond the Ocean Stream where the sun sets, and always at the end of the
world. As a rule one reaches it by the gates of death, but in the speculations
of the folk there is no impassable barrier between our life and the life of those
beyond the grave. Odysseus had returned alive from Hades, and it is a well-
known historical fact that the gallant Sertorius was at one time actually on
the eve of setting sail for the Fortunate Isles in the Western Ocean, just as
many centuries later, Ponce de Leon took the same direction in his search for
the Fountain of Youth. Notable passage; in this connection besides those
already cited are Pindar, Olymp. 2, 62; frag. 129-130 B.; [Plato] Axioch.
371 C.; Lukian, De Luct. 2 (p. 923); Verg. A. 6, 540; 638; Val. Flaccus, I,
835; Carm. Epig. 1109; 1186; Aristoph. Ran. 154; 449, cp. n. on 45-46
above. For a sample of the numerous passages dealing with this theme in
mediaeval and modern authors cp. Ariosto, 6, 73.
Here, as in his episode of the Golden Age, Tib. has studied simplicity and
there are no traces of a definite model. He probably thought of his Elysium
as 'in medio Inferorum,' but a definite statement is impossible. Echoes
of him here are Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 59, and perhaps the epigram (p. 173 below)
of Dom. Marsus. Among more modern echoes cp. Baïf, ' Amours de Meline,'
Euvres, Lemerre, Paris, 1881, vol. I, p. 72, ‘Dans les champs Elysiens | Sont
les amants anciens,' etc.
57–58. Mantuanus, Eclog. 3, 108 (ed. Mustard, Baltimore, 1911, p. 75) —
sive ad felices vadam post funera campos.
Cp. also Marcantonio Flaminio, Carm. 3, 1 (echoing Ovid, loc.) -
ah liceat saltem Elysios invisere campos
et fortunatae regna beata plagae,
hic ubi cum molli Nemesis formosa Tibullo
ludit, et est vati Lesbia iuncta suo.
253
1, 3, 57]
TIBVLLVS
57. facilis: when used with the dat. (rare) as here = open to, suscep-
tible to.' The virtue is that of 1, 2, 97.
58. ipsa Venus: 2.e. instead of Hermes who is the usual yuxoTOUTTÓs. The
reason for the special favour is given. Moreover he is not destined to endure
the common lot. In an epitaph of the Flavian period apparently influenced
by this passage we have (Carm. Epig. B. 1109, 19), 'non ego Tartareas
penetrabo tristis ad undas, | non Acheronteis transvehar umbra vadis, non
ego caeruleam remo pulsabo carinam , nec te terribilem fronte timebo Charon,
nec Minos mihi iura dabit grandaevus et atris , non errabo locis nec cohi-
bebor aquis. : . . nam me sancta Venus sedes non nosse silentum | iussit et
in caeli lucida templa tulit,' cp. 2, 3, 3-4; 2, 6, 1-2. -- in Elysios: so Stat.
Silv. 5, 1, 193; Augustin. C. D. 10, 30, otherwise ad. Without a prep. Verg.
A. 6, 542.
59-64. Contrast the long home of the common man as described in 1, 10,
35–38. This is not a specific Lover's Elysium but a description of the life and
surroundings of lovers in Elysium, and the same is true of the beautiful parallel
passage in Propertius, 4, 7, 55 (cp. Culex, 261) which should be compared
with this. Acc. to Verg. A. 6, 441 which goes back through some Alexan-
drian source to Hom. Odyss. II, 225 (cp. 321 f. and the famous picture of Polyg-
notos described by Pausanias, 10; 28, 29) those who die for love occupy the
Lugentes Campi, cp. Ausonius's psem, 'Cupido Cruciatus,' Idyll 6. Tibullus,
like Propertius, loc., assigns the faithful but unfortunate lovers to Elysium itself.
The detail is characteristic of Greek erotic poetry, esp. of the Alex, Age, but I
have discovered no trace of it there. Among modern echoes cp. Rémy Bel-
leau, 'La Bergerie' (Euvres, Lemerre, Paris, vol. I, p. 311), and esp. Car-
ducci, 'A Neera' (Juvenilia, 31). Ronsard's Chanson, ' Plus estroit que la
vigne,' etc., also has some points in common. The passage is deliberately
imitated by Bertin, Amours, 1, 13 (cp. I, 1, 45-46 n.), and possibly by Gentil-
Bernard, L'Art d'Aimer, Liv. 3; but perhaps Vergil, 1.c., rather than Tibullus,
prompted Suckling to exclaim
O for some honest lover's ghost,
Some kind unbodied post
Sent from the shades below!
I strangely long to know
Whether the noble chaplets wear
Those that their mistress' scorn did bear
Or those that were used kindly, etc.
59. choreae cantusque : i.e. in honour of the gods. This traditional de-
tail was much emphasized by the philosophers, especially the mystics, and
has always occupied an important place in the inherited description of
254
NOTES
[1, 3, 67
heaven (Propert. 4, 7, 61 ; Verg. A. 6, 644 ; Pind. frag. 129 B.; Aristoph.
Ran. 155; [Plato] Axioch. 371 C.; Lukian, Vera Hist. 2, 5; etc.). -
choreae ; as in Verg. A. 6, 644; Propert. 2, 19, 15, otherwise chorēae, as
e.g. in 1, 7, 49.
60. aves: we hear of birds in Elysium in Lukian, Vera Hist. 2, 5 and 14. In
his elegy on the death of Corinna's parrot (Amor. 2, 6, 49) Ovid hopes there is
a place for the good birds in Elysium and proceeds to describe it. Birds and
their song are a touch in descriptions of nature characteristic of the elegiac
poets, cp. Ovid, Amor. 1, 13, 8; 3, 1, 4; Fasti, i, 155; 1, 441 ; 3, 17;
Trist. 3, 12, 8; Pont. 3, 1, 21; etc. In the numerous mediaeval and Renais-
sance descriptions of Paradise or Fairyland they are rarely forgotten.
61. casiam: so Verg. E. 4, 25, “Assyrium volgo nascetur amomum,' and
often. - non culta: for the significance of these words cp. lines 45-46 above
with note. — seges: i.e. ager, so 1, 10, 35; 4, 2, 18; Verg. G. I, 47 ; etc.
· 62. rosis: no other flower was so much loved in antiquity nor has any other
been adorned with so much symbolism by the classic fancy (see Charles Joret,
La Rose dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen Age). The flowers are rarely forgotten in
descriptions of Elysium, cp.e.g. Pind. Olymp. 2, 79; [Plato] Axioch, 371 C;
Greek epitaph. (Kaibel, 649, 3), ě vôa kat' 'Hlvolwv medlwv oklptwoa réyndas
1 o vocou v Malakocoi xaxûv ŠKTOO Dev árávtwy. Carm. Epig. B. 525, 5; Stat.
Silv. 5, 1, 257; etc. But it is especially fitting that in this place we should
find the rose which is the symbol of beauty, youth, and love, cp. Propert. 4,
7,60; Pind. frag. 129, 2; Lukian, Vera Hist. 2, 5 and 6; etc.
63-64. In Elysium one pursues the tastes and avocations of one's former
liſe undisturbed and without satiety, cp. esp. Verg. A. 6, 642; Pind. frag.
129 B. Hence the reward of the lover in this classical prototype of Mahomet's
Paradise is happy love according to the conventional ideal of earthly life as
set forth by the elegiac poets (e.g. 1, 10, 53-58; 1, 1, 73–74). Imitated by
Sannazaro, Arcadia, p. 107, ed. Scherillo (Milan, 1888).
64. proelia miscet: a military phrase. Amor stands near and directs the
campaign, hence, proelia instead of the more usual rixae, for which see 1, 1,
74 n., and the parallel of this distich, 1, 10, 57-58.
66. myrtea serta : the myrtle was sacred to Venus (Ovid, Fasti, 4, 139;
Serv. on Verg. É. 7, 62, etc.), hence, the appropriateness of it here, cp. Verg.
A. 6, 442 (Lugentes Campi). But the myrtle, perhaps for this very reason,
is more or less regularly associated with Elysium, cp. Carm. Epig. B. 492,
12, etc. The influence of some Orphic symbolism is possible and has been
claimed, cp. Aristoph. Ran. 156; Pherekrat. 108, 25, K. ..
67–82. Elysium, the reward of faithful lovers, suggests by contrast Tar-
taros, in which the poet hopes that a place is prepared for his rival. The
255
1, 3, 67]
TIBVLLVS
original and genuine folk conception of Elysium as specifically the home of
the gods is still clearly prominent in Homer. Mortals gain it not by merit
but through birth or family connection. Menelaos e.g. is promised Elysium,
oúvek' é xels 'ENévnu kal o Div yaußpos Alós tool. Otherwise, the last abode of
mortals, good or bad, is the House of Hades, évoa te vekpoi ảopadées valovor
Bpotwv elowla kambytwy. Beginning with the early Orphics we see the grad-
ual growth of the great idea of recompense beyond the grave. Hence Elysium
became more and more the reward of mortal virtue — or orthodoxy - Tar-
taros a specific place of punishment for the mortal wrongdoer. · This theory
of recompense begins as early as Pind. Olymp. 2, 65 ; frag. 132 Chr.; and
succeeding philosophers and poets develop the traditional topography of
Hades, locate the place of punishment there, and specify more or less clearly
the details of torture. With this passage of Tib. cp. esp. Ovid, Ibis, 173.;
Met. 4, 449. Other important passages are Aristoph. Ran. 145; Plato,
Phaedo, 108; Gorgias, 526; Rep. 10, 616; (Axioch.] 371 E; Lukian,
Nekyomant. 14; Vera Hist. 2, 29; Iuppit. Confut. 17 ; Verg. A. 6, 548;
Seneca, Herc. Fur. 664; Lucret. 3, 978–1023. In Homer (Il. 8, 14, cp. 481)
Tartaros is only the prison house of the Titans — terrifically deep, dark, and
strong. The same is true of Hesiod (Theog: 713) who however adds further
details.
67-68. Cp. Verg. A. 6, 577, “tum Tartarus ipse | bis patet in praeceps
tantum tenditque sub umbras, | quantus ad aetherium caeli suspectus
Olympum'; Hom. Il. 8, 13; Hesiod, Theog. 720.
In antiquity and at all periods the darkness of Tartaros is one of the
specific terrors of the world to come, cp. Lucret. 3, 1011, Cerberus et Furiae
iam vero et lucis egestas'; Seneca, Epist. 24, 18; Dial. 6, 19, 4; etc., esp.
Erinna, frag. 3 Crus., TOUT blev els 'Aldav keveå diav“xetal åxú. l olyà d' év
νεκύεσσι, το δε σκότος όσσε καταγρεί.
67. scelerata sedes: perhaps a more or less established name in Latin for
the Greek Tartaros, cp. Verg. A. 6, 563; Ovid, Met. 4, 456; Cic. Cluent.
171; Ovid, Ibis, 174; etc. scelerata of course = sceleratorum. --in nocte
profunda: cp. in tenebris, 1, 10, 50. In both exx. the preposition emphasizes
the conception as one of place, not time, cp. I, 1, 61 n.
68. flumina: Homer mentions no rivers in connection with Tartaros. The
idea is suggested in Hesiod, Theog. 736. Plutarch, Mor. 1130 C, quotes
Pindar's (frag. 130 Schr.) ě vdev TOY & Telpov épeúyovTAL OKOTOV BXnx pol dvope-
pâs vuitds Totauol. But see esp. Plato, Phaedo, 113. Verg. A. 6, 551 — not
yet written at the time Tib. composed this passage — and Seneca, Phaed. 1227
speak only of Phlegethon. Acc. to Plato, l.cu, flumind here would = Cocytus
and Pyriphlegethon, both of which surround. Tartaros, though running in
256
NOTES
[1, 3, 71
opposite directions and emptying into it on opposite sides. The fact that
Phlegethon rolls on in floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire does not
exclude necessarily the epithet of nigra. Milton's 'flames that give no light:
but rather darkness visible,' is a favourite figure of the Roman poets in the
description of things infernal. Tibullus's expression, however, is purposely in-
definite.
69–70. The conception of the Furies as tormentors of the wicked in Hades
appears even in Homer (Odyss. 20, 77, cp. Aisch. Eumen. 321), hence their
later name of Poinai. In the native Roman tradition this office seems to
have been intrusted to the spirits of the dead (Seneca, Apocol. 9; Pliny,
H. N. 1, Praefat. 31). In the Axioch. 371 C, they are already established as
the chief tormentors, and in later reſerences the torch and esp. the scourge
are rarely absent. The Roman poets usually agree with Tib. in representing
Tisiphone as the torturer par excellence. Pausanias, 1, 28, 6, says that Aischy-
los was the first to represent the Furies with snakes in their hair. The detail
, is rarely forgotten by the Roman poets, but in all cases it is either distinctly
stated that the snakes are intertwined with the hair, or else (as in Verg. A.
7, 329, and Ovid, Met. 4, 784, cp. 801), the matter is left undecided. Tibul-
lus's bold and striking expression with uncombed snakes in lieu of hair' clearly
reflects the idea that the Furies had no hair at all, but only a tangled snarl of
hissing serpents — which reminds one at once of the famous picture of Medusa
(once ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci) in the Uffizi Gallery.
70. Statius, Theb. I, 92 (of Tisiphone), “ilicet igne Iovis lapsisque citatior
astris | tristibus exsiluit ripis: discedit inane vulgus et occursus dominae
pavit.' The original model seems to be Hom. Odyss. II, 605 (of Herakles),
duol de Mev klavrn vekúw v ñv oiwvâv Ås távtor' åtuSOMÉvwv. - huc illuc:
this asyndeton is largely confined to the poets during the classical period.
Once only in Livy (7, 34, 9) and Cicero (Att. 9, 9, 2).
71-72. The usual tradition is (so e.g. Verg. A. 6, 417) that Kerberos is
met as soon as one leaves Charon's boat, and that the specific guardian of
Tartaros is his sister the. Hydra. scelerata sedes, however, is indefinite, and
Tib. gives no specific details of infernal topography.
71. tunc: i.e. whenever the impia turba flees before the scourge of Ti-
siphone, the warden Kerberos (first named in Hesiod, Theog. 311) frightens
them away from the door and prevents any from escaping. Kerberos devours
all whom he finds out of bounds. This explains Plutarch's remark (Mor.
1105 A) that any one would willingly be devoured by Kerberos if only he
might remain alive,' cp. also Hesiod, Theog. 769; Quintus Smyrn. 6, 261.-
serpentum ore: in the original conception and ultimate analysis Kerberos is
more dragon than dog, and he is usually represented in both art and litera-
257
1, 3, 72]
TIBVLLVS
ture, esp. in the Roman poets, with a number of snakes. These grow out of
his body, frequently about the neck (Plato, Rep. 588 C). So too his tail
often ends in a serpent's head (Verg. A. 6, 419; Culex, 220; Hor. Od. 3,
II, 17; Ovid, Met. 10, 21; Sil. Ital. 13, 594; esp. Seneca, Herc. Fur. 786,
etc.). — ore: for the sing. where we should use the plural see 1, 1, 42 n.
72. aeratas fores: so Homer, Il. 8, 15; Verg. A. 6, 552, and cp. Milton's
(P. L. 2, 655) "and thrice threefold the gates: three folds were brass, | Three
iron, three of adamantine rock, | Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire,
Yet unconsumed.' Bronze is a proverb of the invincible and the imperish-
able, cp. Horace's “robur et aes triplex,' Od. 1, 3, 9; "exegi monumentuin
aere perennius,' 3, 30, 1, etc. - excubat: 'stands on guard.' A military
word.
73-80. The poet names four of the five famous examples of sin and its
reward. Sisyphos is omitted. No description of Hades was complete with-
out two or more of these causes célèbres.
73–74. Ixion “bound to his own Iynx wheel' appears first in Pind. Pyth. 2,
21, cp. Soph. Phil. 680. Many later writers follow Pindar and locate the
punishment of Ixion in the upper air, cp. Philost. Apollon. Tyan. 6, 40 and
7, II, etc. Ixion and his wheel do not appear in Hades until the Alexan-
drian Age (first in Apoll. Rhod. 3, 62), but the change of place probably
goes back to the tragedy. Acc. to Hyginus, Fab. 62 (cp. e.g. the well-known
picture in the House of the Vettii at Pompeii) he was bound to the wheel by
Mercury, according to some (Schol. on Eurip. Phoeniss. 1185) it was of flames,
and once (Verg. G. 3, 39) the additional torture of a serpent is mentioned.
75–76. The punishment of Tityos is Homeric, and Homer's description
(Odyss. 11, 576) is closely followed by Lucretius (3, 984). Vergil's descrip-
tion (A. 6, 595) was influenced by the story of Prometheus and apparently
shows an attempt to meet the objection raised by Lucretius, 1.c.
75. novem iugera: the tradition is Homeric, so Propert. 3, 5, 44; Ovid,
Met. 4, 457; Ibis, 181; etc. Pausanias, 10, 4, 5, gives an explanation after the
manner of Euhemeros. Quintus Smyrn. 3, 396 says, TOULUTéle pos.
76. adsiduas aves: the aapnuévw yüme of Homer. It is doubtful, however,
whether adsiduas is to be taken literally, cp. Ovid, Ibis, 182, “visceraque
assiduae debita praebet avi'; Mart. Sp. 7, 2, ' Prometheus | adsiduam nimio
pectore pavit avem. One vulture instead of two appears first in Vergil, and
the change is perhaps due to contamination with the story of Prometheus.
But the Vergilian version seems to be confined to the Roman poets, and even
there is by no means general. Singular in Hor. Od. 3, 4, 77; Claud. De Rapt.
Pros. 2, 341. Plural in Propert. 2, 20, 31; Statius, Theb. ii, 14; 4.538.
Ovid and Seneca are inconsistent-singular in Ovid, Ibis, 182; Seneca, Herc.
258
NOTES
[1, 3, 79
Fur. 756; Agam. 18; Herc. Oet. 947; Phaed. 1233; Octav. 622: plural in
Ovid, Met. 10, 43; Ibis, 194; Seneca, Herc. Oet. 1071; Thyest. 10. The
variation combined with the extensive use of the poetic plural in these authors
shows that no certain conclusion can be drawn. In the famous painting of
Hades by Polygnotos (Pausan. 10, 29, 3) the vultures were not represented.
In some versions, now lost, serpents were tormentors instead of vultures (Hygin.
Fab. 55). — viscere: poet. and indef. for iecur, cp. Ovid, Met. 4, 457; Seneca,
Thyest. 1o, etc. For the sing. see dictt. The punishment fitted the crime,
for, as is well known, the liver, acc. to antique theory, was the seat of the
passions, cp. Hor. Od. 3, 4, 77, 'incontinentis nec Tityi iecur , reliquit ales,
nequitiae additus custos'; 4, 1, 12 (to Venus) si torrere iecur quaeris ido-
neum.' So often in the Elizabethan writers, e.g. 'Did all the shafts in thy
fair quiver | Stick fast in my ambitious liver, | Yet thy power would I adore |
And call upon thee to shoot more. (Fletcher's Nice Valour.) Apollodoros,
1, 23 says it was the heart of Tityos, not the liver.
77–78. No punishment is so often mentioned as that of Tantalos. Three
methods of punishment, designed respectively to produce thirst, hunger, and
mortal terror, are met with. The first two are described by Homer, Odyss. II,
582, q.v. Tibullus selects the first; so Propert. 2, 17, 5; 4, II, 24; Ovid,
Met. 10, 41; Hor. Sat. I, I, 68; Seneca, Medea, 745; Agam, 19 and 769;
Octav. 621; Stat. Theb. 4, 538; 8, 51, etc. Again, only the second is chosen,
as in Propert. 2, 1, 66; Hor. Epod. 17, 66, but this is not common. Most
frequently we have, as in Homer, the first two, cp. e.g. the characteristically
rhetorical description in Sen. Thyest. 152–175; others are Ovid, Met. 4, 457;
Amor. 2, 2, 43; Ibis, 179; Sen. Herc. Fur. 752; Herc. Oet. 1075; Petron.
82; Stat. Theb. 6, 280, etc. The third, the punishment of the overhanging
stone, is more characteristic of lyric and tragic poetry, appearing first (so
Pausan. 10, 31, 12) in Archilochos, cp. frag. 50 Crus.; Alkaios, frag. 76
Crus.; Pind. Olymp. 1, 56; Isthm. 8, 10; Eurip. Orest. 5; Plato, Kratyl. 395
D; Cicero, Tusc. Disput. 4, 35; Fin. 1, 60; Lucret. 3; 981; Seneca, Thyest.
76; etc.
All three were represented in the picture of Polygnotos (Pausan. 10, 31,
12) and each gave rise to popular proverbs or phrases, cp. e.g. Tavrálov
πωμα, δίψος, δίψα· δένδρεα Ταντάλου, Ταντάλου κήπους τρυγάν: ο Ταντάλου
Moos 'n èp Kepalas Talavteúetai, etc.
79-80. In the picture of Polygnotos this proverbially endless and bootless
task was given to the duuntoi, those who had neglected the rites of initiation
(Plato, Rep. 363 D; Gorg. 493 B, etc.). Christian superstition allotted the
same punishment to the unbaptized. It does not appear in connection with
the Danaides until the Axioch. 371 E. The identification rested on the idea
259
1, 3, 81]
TIBVLLVS
that marriage is itself a télos, a sacrament, and that the Danaides being false
to their vows (“Veneris quod numina laesit ') were really ayamol, and there-
fore, åuuntou. Moreover there was also a popular superstition that in Hades
the unmarried were condemned to carry water in sieves until the bath was
filled which they should have taken (the bath was a regular detail of the mar-
riage ritual). A striking parallel is the well-known superstition of the Eliza-
bethan Age that old maids are destined to 'lead apes in Hell. After the
third century, B.C., references to this punishment of the Danaides are extremely
numerous.
The reference to the Danaides, perjurers to love, serves as the transition to
81-82, and also points a moral for Delia which is applied in 83 ff. So Hor.
Od. 3, 11, 24, ends his description of Hades with the Danaides and then says,
'audiat Lyde scelus atque notas , virginum poenas et inane lymphae | dolium
fundo pereuntis imo seraque fata quae manent culpas etiam sub Orco.'
81–82. Such a man is unfaithful to love and therefore furnishes the neces-
sary contrast to his innocent victim, the faithful lover of 57-58. The gods
themselves declare that such sinners shall not be forgotten, says Tibullus in
another one of his favourite parables for the edification of Delia (1,6, 45-54);
cp. 1, 9, 4 and 19 addressed to Marathus. • The theme is well worn in the
elegy; cp. I, 8, 70; 1, 2, 87-88 and notes.
81. Calpurnius, 3, 88, ‘ilice, quae nostros primum violavit amores,' seems
to be an echo of this line. — violavit: 2.e. sinned against, desecrated (1,6, 51).
Love and the lover are sacrosanct; cp. 1, 2, 27–28 n. — amores: plural be-
cause reciprocated, cp. I, 9, 1; 1, 1, 69 n. Or amores may mean the loved
one, cp. 1, 6, 35 n. Either meaning will suit the context.
82. optavit : i.e. ' perhaps this is why I went on this unfortunate expedi-
tion. The real force of optavit here is derived from the universal maxim of
folk philosophy that a wish or a curse, being a manifestation of the will
and addressed to the gods, has a tendency to work automatically, cp. Ovid,
Met. 13, 48; Hor. Sat. 2; 7, 36; Cicero, Prov. Cons. 2; Mart. 8, 61; Taci-
tus, Hist. 1, 84, and often. Hence if one repents of one's hasty word one
withdraws it, or takes the consequences of it upon one's sell, cp. 1, 2, 12 n.;
1,6,85; etc. Couched in the proper words and accompanied by the requisite
formalities, such a curse becomes a devotio and is irresistible.
83-92. A genre picture in the poet's happiest vein and one of the best
portrayals of a situation which as a whole or in part is a favourite motive of
classical literature, Terence, Heaut. 275 (after Menander), but esp. the
story of Lucretia as told by Livy, 1, 57, 7, and Ovid, Fasti, 2, 725 f. See also
Propertius, 4, 3, 33–42; 3, 6, 15; 1, 3, 41; etc.
Delia is to be spending her evening in the traditional and approved manner
260
NOTES
[1, 3, 87 -
not only of the rustic housewife but also of the lady of position and refinement
in both Greece and Rome. As the revellers found Lucretia, so Hector had
found Helen, Il. 6, 323; cp. Plautus, Men. 797; Verg. G. I, 291 and 390; 4
334; esp. in the elegy, Propert. 1.c.; Ovid, Met. 4, 34. The garments of
Augustus were homespun, Sueton. Aug. 64. Other passages are Columella,
12, Praefat. 9; Tertull. Exhort. ad Cast. 12. The famous epitaph of Claudia
(Carm. Epig. 52 B) ends with, domum servavit, lanam fecit.' See Introd.
p. 46.
83. casta: i.e. faithful, so 1, 6, 75; Propert. 3, 12, 15 and often.
84. custos: prototype of the Spanish duenna and a conventional figure of
erotic poetry; cp. Anth. Pal. 5, 262; 289; 294, etc. Often she is the nutrix,
which in antiquity was a life position. As such she was the natural confidante,
aider, and abettor of her foster daughter's love affair, cp. the story of Phaedra
(Eurip. and Seneca) and of Myrrha (Ovid, Met. 10, 382) in which it is she
who precipitates the catastrophe. Hence no dives amator would think of
selecting the nutrix for this position. With the scene suggested by this line,
cp. Ovid, Her. 19, 15); Propert. 4, 3, 41. — sedula anus: not necessarily
Delia's mother whom the poet eulogizes in 1, 6, 57, much less the lena of
1, 5, 48. The elegies to Delia do not form a series, cp. Introd. p. 44.
85. fabellas referat: story telling on such occasions was as usual in
antiquity as it was in the days of the troubadours and trouvères, cp. Verg. G.
4, 345; Ovid, Met. 4, 32. It was here and in the nursery that one heard the
favourite folk tales of antiquity, such familiar types for example as Persius
alludes to in 2, 37, ‘hunc optent generum rex et regina, puellae | hunc
rapiant; quidquid calcaverit hic rosa fiat.' Among famous exx. still surviv-
ing may be mentioned the story of the werewolf in Petronius and of Cupid
and Psyche in Apuleius. The average opinion of them is perhaps well repre-
sented by Quintil. I, 8, 19; 1, 9, 2; cp. Tacitus, Dial. 29. -- positaque
lucerna: the words have been used to prove that it was now autumn, when :
the days were growing short. — posita: so Ovid, Her. 19, 14 and 151; Juv.
1, 90, etc. Sometimes apposita as in Propert. 2, 15, 3; Tac. Ann. 2, 31; etc.
86. colo: for the form colo instead of colu Neue-Wagener cite also Propert.
4, 1, 72 and 9, 48; Ovid, Amor. 2, 6, 46; Ars Amat. 1, 702; Verg. A. 8,
409; Stat. Theb. 6, 380; Iustin. 1, 3, 2; Auson. Parent. 12, 5; for colu,
Seneca, Herc. Oet. 563; Pliny, H. N. 8, 194; 21, 90; CIL. 10, 6785.
87–88. For the scene, Verg. A. 8, 408; Ovid, Fasti, 2,741. Spinners
are proverbially early risers, cp. Ovid, Amor. I, 13, 23, etc., and hence must be
expected to become sleepy early in the evening.
87. circa: on the use of circa and circum in Tibullus see 1, 6, 21 n.-
gravibus is literal, cp. Propert. 4, 7, 41; Ovid, Her. 10, 90, etc. —- pensis :
261
· 1, 3, 89]
TIBVLLVS
the portion of wool weighed out to each spinner for the day's work. The
word stint' in its old sense of an allotted task, and frequently in its old
form of 'stent' used to have the same special meaning in New England.
"Stint' = an allotted task seems to survive in the corrupted form 'stunt,' 'to
do a stunt,' cp. Plautus's pensum facere. — adfixa: i.e. intenta, cp. haerere, Ovid,
Met. 4, 35, etc.— puella : sing. for plural, cp. 1, 1, 42 n.; 1, 2, 95 n.; 1, 9, 68 n.
89-92. Imitated by Bertin, Amours, I, 9, ' L'Absence.'
89-90. Plutarch observes (Quaest. Rom. 9) that the Roman always sent a
messenger ahead to warn the family of his approach. Ovid, wiser in his gen-
eration than Tibullus, says (Ars Amat. 3, 245), 'quae male crinitast, custodem
in limine ponat orneturve Bonae semper in aede Deae. | dictus eram su-
bito cuidam venisse puellae: | turbida perversas induit illa comas. | hostibus
eveniat tam foedi causa pudoris, | inque nurus Parthas dedecus illud eat!'
go. caelo missus adesse : this is our 'dropped from the clouds. A Roman
proverb of the unexpected (usually pleasant) which is common in all types
of literary art.
91-92. Such would regularly be the costume of Delia while indoors.
91. capillos : for the accusative cp. 1, 1, 70.
93-94. The echo of this ending is heard in Ovid, Amor. 2, I1, 55, 'haec
mihi quam primum caelo nitidissimus alto | Lucifer admisso tempora portet
equo'; Trist. 3, 5, 55, 'hos utinam nitidi Solis praenuntius ortus , afferat
admisso Lucifer albus equo'; Consol. ad Liv. 281, 'hunc Aurora diem spec-
tacula tanta ferentem | quam primum croceis roscida portet equis.
93. hunc illum: i.e. 'this (hunc) day, the one I have been describing
(illum).' For this rare compendious use of hic ille cp. Verg. A. 7, 272,
hunc illum poscere fata et reor,' etc.; Cicero, Pro Flacco, 52, ‘huic illi legato,
huic publico testi patronum suum . . . tradidissent?' perhaps Invent. 2,
154, ‘hic ille naufragus ad gubernaculum accessit,' etc. In other cases ille is
· clearly predicative and the combination is merely due to the omission of the
copula, as e.g. Verg. A. 3, 558, nimirum haec illa Charybdis,' etc., or again,
of the copula and a relative, as in the more common combinations, ille ego,
ipse ego, etc., cp. 1, 5, 9 and note.
94. candida: connotes brightness, beauty, and good fortune, as well as
colour, cp. 1, 7, 58 and 64; Sophokles, Aias, 709; Aisch. Persai, 301, etc.
I, 4
This elegy is the first of the series concerned with Marathus. For the
argument and the setting see Introd. p. 50. The date of composition is quite
unknown.
0
262
NOTES
[1, 4
Priapos is an ancient divinity, hut his first important appearance as a god
in anything like an aristocratic milieu was when he figured in the famous
procession of Ptolemy described by Athenaios, 5, 201 C-D. This was in the
Alexandrian Age. His appearance in literature also dates from the Alex-
andrian Age and is especially characteristic of that period. Titles like the
IIplatos of Xenarchos, the IIplnotos of Sotades, and the IIpiátrela of Euphorios —
cp. also Theokrit. 1, 81 (with Schol.) and numerous references and traditional
matter in later authorities suggest how large the literature associated with
the name of Priapos must once have been. The remains of it now surviving
are confined to a number of epigrams in the Anthology (mostly in bks. 6, 10,
and 16). The marked revival of interest in Priapos as a literary theme in
the Augustan Age is still attested not only by this poem, but by its companion
piece, Hor. Sat.1, 8, and above all, by the collection known as the Priapea;
cp. also, such passages as Ovid, Fasti, 1, 391 ; 6, 319; Met. 9, 347; Trist.
1, 10, 26; Verg. G. 4, 110; E. 7, 33, and henceforth to the end of the literature,
6.5. Calpurn. 2, 95; Nemes. 2, 51; Mart. 6, 16; 49; 72; 73; 8, 40 ;
etc.
The serious worship of Priapos persisted for ages in spite of continued and
virulent attacks upon it by the Church Fathers, cp. Arnob. 6, 25; Lactant.
Div. 1, 21; Augustin. C. D. 6, 7 ; Prudent. Contra Symmach. 1, 102; etc.
An appropriate title for this piece would be “Priapus de Arte Amandi.'
The rest is merely framework. The ironical humour of the idea and of its
presentation is worthy of Ovid in his most mischievous mood. It is in fact
an important representative of that type of mock didactic literary art which
culminated a few years later in the Ars Amatoria of Ovid himself. For
another interesting example see Nonnos, Dionysiaka, 42, 209.
The appearance here of Priapos as a 'magister amoris' is unique so far as
the surviving literature is concerned, but the constant association of him with
Pan, who is traditionally a 'magister amoris' (cp. esp. Nonnos, 1.c.; Apul.
Met. 5, 25; Longus, 2, 7), as well as the tone of the piece itself suggest that
Priapos in this rôle is like Pan in the same rôle, a well-worn tradition of the
Hellenistic poets, and to be derived either from the bucolic or from some
department of literary art not far removed from it. It is worth noting, for
example, that the most considerable influence of our piece upon later Roman
poetry is to be seen in Nemesianus, 4, 55 ff. i.e. in the bucolic. .
Another type of Ars Amandi are the instructions of the lena to her charge,
a stock theme of the New comedy, then in the Roman elegy (Ovid, Amor.
I, 8; Propert. 4, 5) and finally reappearing long afterward in a series of
dreary compositions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The sly emphasis upon the pathetic and even upon the heroic in language
263
1, 4, 1]
TIBVLLVS
and thought is in itself sufficient indication of the poet's attitude toward his
subject.
1-2. The wish is eminently appropriate. As a god of the country-side in
general (flocks, bees, etc.) and of gardens, orchards, and vineyards in par-
ticular (1, 1, 17-18 n.), Priapos passes his entire existence out of doors.
Occasionally he has a little fane of his own (Anth. Pal. 6, 254; Priap. 1, 3;
14, 2; 82; 86, 8; Petron. 17), now and then he secures the shelter of a
tree (Priap. 83, 6), but for the most part he stands under the open sky and
has to take the weather (cp. lines 2 and 5-6 below) as it comes, cp. Priap.
14, 8; 63, 1 ; 83, 12; Hor. Sat. 1, 8, 37 ; etc.
Note that here as elsewhere in antiquity the address to the gods assumes
the character of a conditional sentence. The thing desired by the suppliant
is the condition, the wish that the god himself shall receive some benefit is the
conclusion — said conclusion to hold good in case the condition, i.e. the
prayer, is fulfilled ; a manifestation of the idea of quid pro quo' which finds
its most naive expression in the theory of ex-votos. So 2, 5, 121 and else-
where.
1. sic: so always. Tibullus never uses ita, cp. 1, 6, 21 n.
2. soles : 2.e the heat of the sun day-in and day out. The plural is dis-
tributive (1, I, 4 n.), the sun of each day is conceived of as a separate sun.
3-6. One should keep in mind the actual appearance of Priapos in order
to realize the full force of the question. One then sees that the humour of
the situation is heightened by the evident gentleness with which the poet,
always courteous and well-bred, alludes to what presumably might be a tender
point. Priapos however is not sensitive, he has no illusions regarding his ap-
pearance or accomplishments. He is made of wood (preferably fig or oak) in
the rough and ready fashion of primitive days, and is therefore far from hand-
some, cp. Priap. 10, 2; 39, 5; Hor. Sat. I, 8, 1; Anth. Pal. 6, 22, 5;
9, 437, 2. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 123, uses Odysseus to illustrate his contention
that eloquence is better than beauty. Priapos does not believe it. He him-
self is not eloquent and has no learning, cp. Priap. 3, 10; 68,1. He is just a
plain country god, good-natured (Theokrit. I, 81) and with no desire to ap-
pear dignified (Priap. 14). Indeed, Priapos and dignity are incompatible.
Hence, though worshipped in all seriousness, he always remained, at least
for literary purposes (in which the Alexandrian tradition of him is reflected),
something of a buffoon among the immortals; cp. Priap. 63, II; Arnob. 6, 25.
3. formosos: evidently a translation of kalós, a term regularly applied
by the Greek puerorum amator to his favourite, so often on drinking cups as
well as in the literature, cp. the "Epwtes | Kalol of Phanokles (Introd. p. 19).
Priapos appears as a puerorum amator in the early Alexandrian Age (cp.
264
NOTES
[1, 4, 9
Theokrit. 1, 81 and Schol., also Epig. 3, — which suggest that one of the
favourite stories at that time was the rivalry of Pan and Priapos ſor the ſavours
of Daphnis) and the characteristic Alex. tone of semi-sentimental mockery
persists, as here, in many of the later reſerences, e.g. Anth. Pal. 5, 200; 9,
338; 437; 16, 237; 240; 241; 243; Priap. 3; 5; 7; 11; 13; 15; Lukian,
Dial. Deor. 23; etc.
4-5. In surviving art the board of Priapos is usually thin and straggling.
He himself complains (Priap. 63, 5) that, 'et in capillos grandines cadunt
nostros / rigetque dura barba vincta crystallo.'
5. nudus: Priap. 14, 8; 16, 8. Probably to be taken literally, as the poet
appears to have in mind either the Herm-type or more likely the rough ſigure
of wood.
6. Cp. Hor. Sat. 2, 5, 39, seu rubra Canicula findet | infantis statuas.' On
the proverbial heat of dog-days, 42; 1, I, 27 n.
7. tum: Tibullus prefers tunic, cp. I, 1, 21; 1, 6, 21 and notes. — proles :
the pedigree of Priapos is unsettled, cp. Class. Dict. Tib. follows the most
common tradition, cp. Anth. Pal. 10, 2, 8; 15, 8; Diod. Sic. 4, 6, 1; etc.
The epithet rustica is frequent and eminently fitting, Anth. Pal. 6, 22, 5;
Ovid, Trist. 1, 10, 26; Priap. 14, 7; 68, 1; 81, I, etc.
8. sic: goes with respondit. The unusual distance is atoned for by the
fact that the displaced word begins the second hemistich and is therefore in
an emphatic position, cp. 1, 3, 56; 1, 6, 32 and 40; 1, 10, 6, 8 and. 16; 1, 9,
.24; 2, 1, 78; 2, 5, 14 and 96; 4, 5, 16; 4, 6, 6; 4, 11, 4. Less frequent in
Ovid, cp. Amor. I, 2, 14.
9-56. Priapus de Arte Amandi. Note the ironical exaggeration of the
didactic attitude, as seen for instance in the sly emphasis upon a systematic
arrangement and development of topics. Usually informal and certainly
never impressive in appearance, Priapos has suddenly assumed the role of the
conventionalized professor. As such he is dignified, formal, dogmatic, precise,
his pronouncements purposely axiomatic and familiar, his illustrations purposely
traditional and commonplace, although both are announced with all the air of
being great and useful discoveries. Note too the assumption of that intense
seriousness, oſ that almost reverential attitude toward an utterly trivial theme
- the characteristic attitude for example of the gastronomic expert - which
Ovid reproduced to perfection in his Ars Amatoria, the most brilliant satire
of its kind now existing. Indeed Wilhelm has noted the close parallelism
between the Ars Amatoria and this passage in the matter of topics and their
arrangement, e.g. 9–14 = A. A. 3, 381-384, cp. Amor. 2, 4, 10; 15-20 =
4. A. I, 469-478, cp. 2, I77-84; 25-26 = 4. A. I, 631-636; 27-28 = 4. A.
3, 59-80; 39-52 = A. A. 2, 177–232; 53-56 = A. A. I, 663-666; 57-60
265
1, 4, 9]
TIBVLLVS
A. 4. 2, 26I-272; 65-70 = 4. A. 2, 273-286, cp. 3, 533-552; 71-72 =
A. A. I, 659-663; 75-80 = A. A. 1, 739–744. But although Ovid was
thoroughly familiar with Tib. the similarity here noted is probably due to the
common use of quasi-technical sources (artes amatoriae, treatises trepikodakelas,
etc. cp. 40 below and n.). These topics and their illustrations are all traditional
commonplaces which we find repeatedly in the comedy, epigram, Alex-
andrian literature, philosophy, rhetoric, etc.
9-10. This rule of avoidance of temptation is preached by Sokrates, cp.
Plato, Charm. 155.
9. As befits the immense importance and value of his theme Priapos soars
into it from the upper realms of poetry. Note e.g. the passionate and pathetic
o (cp. I, 1, 51; 1, 3, 2 and 19; 1, 9, 41; 2, 3, 5; 17; 19; 67; 2, 4, 7; 27;
4, 3, 6) which coming as it does at the very •beginning of this cool pro-
fessional harangue might suggest the lyric cry' of one who like Pan had
more than once loved and lost, cp. 84 below and n. — fuge credere: the use
of fuge or of some imperative of similar meaning with an infinitive as a polite
form of prohibition is a Latin idiom apparently not found in Greek. The
imperative regularly used in all styles is noli. fuge for roli (ſor parce see 1, 6,
51 n., and for mitte, omitte, Gild.-Lodge, 271, 2, n. 2) is strictly poetic and very
rare. Beside the passage before us I find only Lucret. I, 1052; Hor. Od. 1,
9, 13; 2, 4, 22; Statius, Theb. 9, 139. PEÚYelv or Deúyelv uń with an infin.
is found for the most part in tragedy and elevated prose but is by no means
common. The development of an articular infin. is seen e.g. in Soph. 0. K.
1740. Other forms of fugio and fugito with an infin. are also occasional in
Latin, but only in the poets (esp. Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Statius).
10. A commonplace of erotic poetry in all ages, cp. 4, 2, 7-14 and n.;
Anth. Pal. 12, 93; 95; 198; 244; Plato, Charm. 154; Rep. 574 D, etc. —-
iusti: attracted to amoris but really belonging to causam, cp. Cicero, Phil. 2,
53, 'iusta causa,' 'good and sufficient reason,' etc. Hypallage epithetorum,
occasional even in prose, is a common device of the poets. A bold use of it
is one of the difficulties of Propertius, and the epic poets of the first century
afford many exx. Tib. is neither as bold nor as lavish in this respect as his
contemporaries. Less than a score of exx. occur and most of them are of
the ordinary type of 1, 7, 7, 'victrices lauros '; 2, 1, 69, “indocto arcu,' etc.
With our passage cp. esp. 1, 3, 6; 1, 4, 80; 1, 5, 56; 1, 8, 18; 4, 6, 1.
- amoris : i.e. of being loved.' The passive use, as it were, is easily derived
from the context. Elsewhere, however, this is determined by an accompany-
ing genitive, subjective or objective as the sense demands.
11-14. Priapos had just said that all types please. He now illustrates by
two contrasted exx. in four lines. The first pleases by his management of a
266
NOTES
[1, 4, 14
spirited horse (first hexam.), the second, as he breasts the mirrored waters
(first pentam.): the one, because he is bold and daring (second hexam.),
the other, because he is shamefaced and retiring (secund pentam.). Thus
within each distich hexameter is contrasted with pentameter: the first distich
contrasts two occupations, the second, two temperaments: the occupations
of the first distich anticipate and reflect the temperaments of the second dis-
tich in the same order, i.e. one is like three and two like four. In short, 1 + 2
parallels 3+4, 1:2:: 3:4, 1:3::2:4. This is an excellent example of that
strict observance of artistic symmetry and balance which characterizes the
entire elegy as a department and enters into the 'unaffected simplicity' of
Tibullus quite as much as into the passionate luxuriance of Propertius or the
point and sparkle of Ovid.
11-12. Two types of manly sport familiar to the literary tradition of both
Greece and Rome, Anth. Pal. 12, 192; Lukian, Amor. 45; Achill. Tat. 2,
35-38; Philost. Epist. 27; Veget. 1, 10; Slat. Silv. 5, 2, 113; Catull. 63, 64;
Hor. Od. 4, 1, 38; 1, 8, 5; 3, 7, 25; 3, 12, 7. In Rome, it will be observed,
this ancient motive of erotic poetry is naturally associated with the Campus
Martius and the Tiber, cp. Cicero, Pro Caelio, 36 (speaking to the notorious
Clodia), 'habes hortos ad Tiberim ac diligenter eo loco parasti quo omnis
iuventus natandi causa venit.
11. The boy's courage and dexterity are suggested by angustis and com-
pescit, which indicate a spirited horse under perfect control, cp. 4, 1, 91 ff.
-angustis : 'constraining,' i.e. 'tight,' close.' In this active (= angustans)
and metaphorical use, only here and occasionally in late prose, cp. however
Ovid, Met. 5, 410, angustis inclusum cornibus aequor.' The corresponding
passive use (= angustatus), also rare, occurs first in Varius, ap. Macrob. 6, 2,
19,' angusto prius ore coercens | insultare docet campis fingitque morando,'
cp., too, Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 274; Stat. Theb, 2, 594, etc.
12. The beautiful picture suggested by placidam and niveo indicates not
so much courage and dexterity as grace and beauty. Lygdamus's comparatively
colourless imitation (3, 5, 30) brings the exquisite art of Tib. bimself into
bolder relief. - placidam : the Tiber is meant, cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 386,
nec Tuscus placida devehit amnis aqua.'
13. quia: the only case of quia in Tibullus, cp. 1, 6, 21 n.
14. The innocence and shyness of a well-trained boy appealed with special
force to the ancients, cp. 4, 5, 17; Diog. Laert. 6, 2, 5; Seneca, Epist. II,
I; Juv. 10, 300; II, 154; esp. Plato, Charm. 158; Anth. Pal. 12, 96. —
stat ante: the phrase is unique in this connection and the figure intended is
not altogether certain. Such an ex. as Sueton. Nero, 48, 'ante faciem ob-
tento sudario,' suggests that stat ante here might='mantles' the conventional
267
TIBVLLVS
English word in this connection, as e.g. in Scott's “Though mantled in her
cheek the blood. Again if we take stare as merely giving the picture (1, 1,
64 n.) and as emphasizing the idea of permanence (so often sedere with ante),
as e.g. Seneca, Herc. Oet. 936, stabo ante ripas immemor, Lethe, tuas , et
umbra tristis coniugem excipiam meam') then stat ante here might ='bide
upon.' In that case the phrase would be a close parallel, as it ought to be,
of adest above and it would also be a variation of sedere and the like, which is
not uncommon in this connection, cp. Juv. 4, 74, "in quorum facie miserae
magnaeque sedebat | pallor amicitiae'; Ovid, Met. 2, 775; Trist. 3, 9,
18; esp. Pindar, Nem. 8, 1, "Spa ótvia, kapuč 'Appodltas , đußpooiây
pilotátwv, | áte tapdevnlous maldwv TÉOLGOLO a yepápois: Mosch. 1, 3, ÚT VOS
... Ble ápolo ivé olswv. Soph. Antig. 782, "Epws ...0's év malakais trapelais |
νεάνιδος έννυχεύεις (imitated by Hor. Οd. 4, 13, 8). Note that the μαλακαίς
15-16. For this rule cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 470; Propert. 2, 25, 15; Nemes.
4, 56.
15. negabit: so regularly to a lover, cp. 2, 6, 27; Propert. 1, 6, 9; Ovid,
Amor. 1, 8, 73, etc.
16. dabit: Owing to the absence of aspirates in early Latin dare from the
root da, 'to give' (Gk, old wur), and dare, 'to put,' set up,' 'place,' from the
form and coalesced. Hence the dare of historical times is really a 'mixed'
verb in the same sense that the ablative is a 'mixed' case and the perfect
indicative a mixed' tense. The prevailing member of the combination was
always dare, 'to give.' Occasionally however and esp. in the conservative lan-
guage of law, religion, and poetry, hence also in the popular speech, the
sleeping partner emerges and asserts its rights just as the instrumental does in
the ablative and the aorist in the perfect indic. Here for instance (and as a
rule with the construction dare aliquem or aliquid with a preposition or adverb)
dare means to put' or 'place,' cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 162, 'sub tenerum
scamna dedisse pedem'; Sil. Ital. 4, 511, 'Massylum ... alis castra sub ipsa
datis ’; Tac. Ann. 13, 39; more often with in, Ovid, Met. II, 784, 'se dedit
in pontum'; 15, 66, 'in medium discenda dabat'; frequently with super in
the medical writers, Celsus, 5, 28, 13, 'super plagam medicamenta danda sunt';
with retro, Ovid, Met. 1, 529; 3, 88, etc. No other good ex. of dare from dha
'to place' or 'put'construed as here occurs in Tib. (2, 4, 44 may be explained
which the dative may or may not represent an original cons. of the accus.
with in need not be considered here).
For other constructions in Tibullus in which dare from dha survives or is to
268
NOTES
[1, 4, 18
be suspected, cp. I, 4, 52; 1, 5, 16; 1, 9, 2; 2, 5, 91; 2, 5, 108, and notes.
The use of this dare (from dha) decreases in poetry in the order, epic, drama,
elegy. In elegy the largest use is found in Ovid, the least in Tibullus. In prose
mostly in those who ſavour the poels, like Livy, or in those who favour the
popular speech, like Celsus. For a full discussion of this subject see Thiel-
mann's Das Verbum Dare.
17–20. The statement that time accomplishes all things (a favourite theme,
cp. b.g. Ovid, Trist. 4, 6, 1-14; Plato, Anth. Pal. 9, 51; etc.) is illustrated by
two standard exx. arranged in two pairs, emphasized and distinguished not
only by the distichs themselves but by anaphora of longa dies in the one as
opposed to anaphora of annus in the other. Further the first pair show that
patience and persistence can surmount all odds: they therefore apply es-
pecially to the first half of 15-16. Again, the second pair show in addition
that progress is made even though we may fail to observe it from day to day:
they therefore apply especially to the second half of 15-16. See n. on 11-14.
17. Tasso, Aminta, 1, 2, 'La lunga etate insegna all'uom di porre | Freno
ai leoni,' seems to have had this line in mind.
The subjection of the beasts is an old locus communis of the poets taken up
as usual and cherished by the philosophers and rhetoricians as an illustration
of three favourite discussions — first, as a symptom of the deterioration of life
since the Golden Age, cp. I, 3, 41 n.; second, as an example of the tireless
energy and the wonderful inventive genius of man, cp. 2.8. Soph. Antig. 333,
Aisch. Prom. 460, etc.; third, to exemplify as here, the power of time and
perseverance, cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 471; Trist. 4, 6, 1-8, etc. The standard
exx, in all three are the horse and the ox. Tih, selects the lion to enforce
his point partly because the ex. of the ox was already suggested in 16, more
especially however because the lion is the fiercest and most intractable of
beasts, the greatest possible contrast to his tamer in physical strength and
power. Ovid's method of developing the same idea in the same connection
is an excellent ex. of rhetorical amplification and, incidentally, of Quintilian's
remark that Ovid was nimium amator ingenii sui,' cp. Trist. 4, 6, 5, and line
19 n. below. The essential homeliness of Tibullus's illustration is shown by
the popular use of it in other times and nationalities, cp. as an ex. of the sec-
ond discussion above, Uncle Remus's story of Mr. Lion.'
18. Constant dropping wears away the stone'is a proverb in Latin and
Greek as well as in English. The oldest form and the one most quoted is the
verse of Choirilos of Samos, méT PNU Kollalvel pavis üdatos évoelexelị, cp. also
Bion 2 (11); Plutarch, Mor. 2 D; Lucret. 4, 1286; 1, 313; Propert. 2, 25, 16;
4, 5, 20; Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 476; Pont. I, 1, 70; 2, 7, 40; 4, 10, 5; Lupercus
in Anth. Lat. 648, 9 Riese, etc. — molli saxa: the elegiac poets are fond of
269
1, 4, 19]
'T TTT
TIBVLLVS
emphasizing sharp contrasts by juxtaposition as here. In Ars Amat. 1, 475,
Ovid makes the same point by another method, 'quid magis est saxo durum,
quid mollius unda? | dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aqua.'
This ex. is frequently associated with the wearing away of rings and of the
ploughshare (Lucret. I, 313; Plutarch, l. C.; Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 474; Pont.
2, 7, 40; 4, 10, 5; Trist. 4, 6, 13), with the wearing of pavement by wheels
(Lucret. and Plutarch, 1.c.; Ovid, Pont. 2, 7, 40), and as here with the subju-
gation of animals. The homeliness of these illustrations suggests that their
ultimate source lies in the sphere of philosophical discussion.
19. Cp. Verg. E. 9, 49, “duceret apricis in collibus uva colorem. In
Trist. 4, 6, 9 (cp. 17 n. above) after citing the example of the horse, the ox,
the lion, and the elephant, Ovid continues with this example and expands it
thus, 'tempus ut extensis tumeat facit uva racemis | vixque merum capiant
grana quod intus habent; | tempus et in canas semen producit aristas, , et
ne sint tristi poma sapore cavet,' then completes the list with, 'hoc tenuat
dentem terram renovantis aratri, | hoc rigidas silices, hoc adamanta terit,'
and thus finally leads up to his point with, 'hoc etiam saevas paulatim miti-
gat iras, / hoc minuit luctus maestaque corda levat. cuncta potest igitur tacito
pede lapsa vetustas | praeterquam curas attenuare meas.'
20. The movement of the heavenly bodies is not used elsewhere in this
connection. For the idea cp. Manilius, 1, 109, attribuitque suas formas, sua
nomina signis, . quasque vices agerent certa sub sorte notavit.'
21-26. Swear and never flinch! Lovers' oaths are not registered above
and therefore may be broken with impunity,' cp. 4, 4, 15 n. end; Ovid, Amor.
1, 8, 85; esp. Ars Amat. 1, 631-658.
21. The lover's oath (Appodlocos ópkos, cp. Hesych. s.V.; Paroem.
Graeci, 1, 441; 221; 349; 2, 320 and notes) that never reaches the ears of
the gods, the lover's perjury borne away by the winds and seas, i.e. that was
ultered to no purpose (cp. 1, 5, 35 n.; Meleag. Anth. Pal. 5, 8, 5, etc.) and
therefore will never return to plague its inventor, is one of the best-known
proverbs of antiquity. It appears first in Hesiod, cp. 23 and n. below. Other
ref. are Frag. Trag. Graec. Adesp. 525; Plato, Phileb. 65 C; Symp. 183 B;
Cornut. Theol. Graec. 24; Publil. Syr. 38; especially Kallimach. Anth. Pål. 5,
6, ώμοσεν· αλλά λέγουσιν αληθέα τους εν έρωτα | όρκους μή δύσειν ούατ' ες αθα-
várwv, cp. Aristainet. 2, 20; Ovid, Amor. 2, 8, 19; Seneca Rhet. Controv. 2,
2; Propert. 2, 16, 47; Lygd. 3, 6, 49. Horace's ode to the flirt Barine (2, 8,
cp. esp. 1-16) is founded on this idea. Juvenal, 3, 145, applies it satirically
to the poor. All remember Juliet's ' yet, iſ thou swear'st, | Thou mayst prove
false : at lovers' perjuries, | They say, Jove laughs.' -- nec: 1, 1, 67 n.
22. freta summa: Lucan, 3, 702, 'summas remeabat in undas.'
270
NOTES
[1, 4, 25
23. The reference is to the story of Jupiter and Io accounting for the
origin of the 'Appodlolos opkos. It was first told in the Aigimios attributed
to Hesiod, cp. Rzach's Hesiod, frag. 187 with ref. Apollod. 2, 1, 5 in his
outline of Hesiod's version says that Zeus was surprised with lo by Hera.
Whereupon he instantly turned the girl into a white heifer, åtwubo ato dè
Taúty un ouveleiv. Therefore, as Hesiod himself says, ÉK TOû d' Ópkově Onkey
árolvinov å vēpcTOLOL | voo oldlwvé pywv TÉP. KÚT pidos. Ovid, Ars Amat. 1,631,
imitating Tib., refers to the same story, 'nec timide promitte : trahunt pro-
missa puellas : 1 pollicito testes quoslibet adde deos. | Iuppiter ex alto periuria
ridet amantum et iubet Aeolios inrita ferre Notos. | per Styga Iunoni falsum
iurare solebat | Iuppiter: exemplo nunc favet ipse suo.'
24. iurasset: for a future perf. indic., i.e. strictly anterior to valere after
vetuit. — cupide: i.e. in the heat of passion. - ineptus amor: the folly of
lovers is of course a proverb cp. Publil. Syr. 22, 'amare et sapere vix deo
conceditur'; Plaut. Merc. 381; Catull. 8, 1; 64, 143; etc. Indeed lovers
(cp. 1, 2, 27-28; 4, 4, 15 and notes), like lunatics, prophets, and poets (2, 5,
113–114 n.), are all inspired and therefore not responsible. Here then is the
real foundation of the old folk-belief that lovers' oaths are not registered
above.
25-26. Diana and Minerva are selected here for emphasis, i.e. they of all
the deities in the pantheon would have no inclination to pardon the sins of a
lover. .
Swearing by the attributes of the gods instead of by the gods themselves
was regular and characteristic, esp. among the people, cp. Juv. 13, 78, where
the perjurer doth protest too much, 'per Solis radios Tarpeiaque fulmina
iurat | et Martis frameam et Cirrhaei spicula vatis, | per calamos venatricis
pharetramque puellae | perque tuum, pater Aegaei Neptune, tridentem, | addit
et Herculeos arcus hastamque Minervae, | quidquid habent telorum armamen-
taria caeli. / si vero et pater est, “ comedam" inquit "flebile nati | sinciput
elixi Pharioque madentis aceto"); Ovid, Amor. 3, 3, 27; Hor. Od. 2, 8, 8;
Anth. Lat. 199, II R; etc. See also, 2, 6, 29 n. Quite the same was the
mediaeval habit which still survives in Catholic countries, of swearing by the
relics or attributes of the saints, by the parts of the body of Christ, or by
whatever pertained to his cross or passion.
Oaths may be general, e.g. 'per lovem' = 'if I forswear myself let Jove
punish me accordingly,' or specific, e.g. 'per Iovis fulmina' = 'if I forswear
myself let Jove strike me with his thunderbolt,' 'per Dictynnae sagittas' = :
* Diana, with her arrows'. (naturally, a woman's oath but not necessarily),
etc. In an oath taken in the name of a mortal the penalty is paid by the
person adjured and in the part or after the manner specified (the god who
271
1, 4, 25]
TIBVLLVS
exacts the penalty not being mentioned), cp. the amusing passage of Ovid,
Amor. 3, 3, 12. According to this conception perjury. per crines Minervae'
would logically involve loss of hair to the perjurer and at the same time the
integrity of Minerva's own locks is at least formally assailed by perjury in
their name. Hence the special force of this oath, for Minerva was very proud
of her hair, as we learn, e.g., from the story of Medusa, cp. Servius on Verg. A.
6, 289, etc. All agree that it was golden, cp. Pindar, Nem. 10, II; frag.
34; Bacchyl. 5, 92, Blass; Ovid, Amor. 1, 1, 7, etc.
25. sinit ... adfirmes: see 1, 2, 25a 11. — Dictynna: epithet of the
Cretan nymph Britomartis, but generally as here applied to Artemis with
whom she was more or less completely identified.
27-38. Don't slacken. Youth will pass, and once gone is gone forever,'
cp. I, 8,147 ff.
27. The connection between the two statements is supplied by the axiom
that love belongs only to youth, cp. 1, 2, 89–96 n.; 33-34 below; Anth. Lat.
24 R; “turpe senilis amor'; Oh youth I do adore thee, Oh age I do abhor
thee,' etc. — transiet: would be transibit acc. to the rule of futures in -ibo for
eo and its compounds and for queo and nequeo. Exceptions are largely con-
fined to compounds of eo and occur for the most part in Church Latinity and
trans, of the Bible. Exx. of transiet outside that sphere are extremely rare.
Neue cites only Seneca, N. Q. 3, 10, 3; Apul. Ascl. 28, p. 312; Charis. 127,9.
Indeed the ex. before us is the only case of such a form of any comp. of eo in
all classical poetry. — aetas: life,' 'lifetime,' may be specifically old age or
youth acc. to the connection. Here of course youth is meant, and so 1, 8, 47;
Propert. 2, 33, 33, 'vino forma perit, vino corrumpitur aetas'; Ovid, Ars
Amat. 3, 65; 571; etc.
The sentiment of this line, than which nothing is more common, cp. I, I,
69 n., is esp. characteristic of this particular sphere of eroticism, cp. Theokrit.
23, 32; Verg. E. 2, 17; Anth. Pal. 12, 29; 32; 234, etc. .
28–38. Note the artistic development of ideas by examples. One ex. (28)
paired with the general statement of 27 adding the idea of rapidity: then a
pair of exx. in one distich (29-30) adding the idea of beauty: then a pair of
exx. in two distichs (31-34) emphasizing the bitter contrast between youth
and age, the last line (34) forming a transition to the final detail (35-38),
youth and beauty are irrevocable. Hence briefly – 'lose no time, youth will
pass (27) and so soon (28), and not only youth but the beauty that goes with
it (29-30). Aye, and strength as well; for the old there is no strength, no
beauty, no love (31-34). Once gone they are gone forever. Only gods are
always young, always beautiful (35-38). Init. by Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 59-80,
cp. also Seneca, Phaedra, 761-776.
272
NOTES
[1, 4, 29
28. A natural and a favourite illustration in this connection, cp. Seneca,
Herc. Fur. 178; Hor. Od. 4, 7, 7; Mimnerm. 2, 7; etc. - stat remeatque :
lit. 'come to a stand and return,' cp. Hor. Od. 3, 28, 6, 'inclinare meridiem |
sentis ac, veluti stet volucris dies’; Seneca, Phaed. 315 (of Alkmena's three
nights in one), nec suum tempus tenuere noctes, et dies tardo remeavit ortu.'
The sun pauses when he reaches the Garden of the Hesperides at nightfall
(the day is done), then returns to be at the place of beginning at dawn (the
night is over), cp. 2, 5, 60 n. We generally say, using a different figure, ‘how
quickly the days come and go!' For still another, cp. Hor. Od. 2, 18, 15,
'truditur dies die'; Ammianus in Anth. Pal. 11, 13, ņws & hoûs mapam é umet A,
Elt', dueloúvtWv nuôv, tžaløvns čel ó Toppúpeos, etc. — dies = sol, as often.
Hence the sing., cp. too the verbs.
29-30. Exx, from this sphere are abundant in this connection and begin as
early as Homer, Il. 6, 146; 21, 464; cp. Simon. 69 Crus.: Mimnerm. 2,
I Crus.; Theokrit. 23, 28; 27, 10; Mosch. 3, 99; Rufin. Anth. Pal. 5, 74;
Aristainet. 2, 1, 4; Nemes. 4, 21; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 113; Seneca,
Phaed. 761; Propert. 4, 5, 59; Pliny, 21, 2; Anth. Pal. 12, 234; 29; 32: II,
53; 36; 374; Anth. Lat. 646 R.
29. The flowers soon fade and pass away. With this method of expressing
the idea, cp. 3, 5, 4; Culex, 70, 'florida cum tellus gemmantis picta per
herbas / vere notat dulci distincta coloribus arva'; Propert. I, 2, 9, “aspice
quos summittat humus formosa colores'; Catull. 64, 90, "aurave distinctos
educit vernae colores’; | Dirae, 21,'hinc Veneris vario fiorentia serta decore, |
purpureo campos quae pingit verna colore,' etc.
Note that Tibullus's phrase here is purposely so constructed as to furnish a
close and suggestive parallel with the freshness and colour of youth; hence the '
suppression of flowers in so many words and the substitution of colores which
suggests both flowers and youth, the use of deperdit which personifies terra
and finally the choice of the word purpureos which here as often connotes, as
does its Greek original, brightness and beauty rather than any definite colour,
and so used is a word constantly associated with youth and beauty, So in
English, 'rosy' and 'roseate,' cp. Byron's 'Oh Love! young Love! bound in
thy rosy band,' for which might be cited Val. Flacc. 8, 257, 'ipsi inter medio,
rosea radiante iuventa. Indeed, Gray's "The bloom of young Desire and
purple light of Love' was an avowed classicism for which he himself quoted
Phrynichos.
A characteristically rhetorical development of the Tibullian comparison in
this connection is Aristainet. 2, 1, yurñ & Olke lelucovi, kal Strep ékelvự tà avon,
ToDT6 Ye TaÚTm Tò cáÀNos. Teas Lều oũy h cóum (cp. con as in 1. 30) Tô
λειμώνι έπακμάζει και η χροιά των ανθέων, ήρος δε παρακμάσαντος πέπαυται
· 273
I, 4, 30]
TIBVLLVS
μεν τα άνθη ... ο δε λειμών γεγήρακε. γυναικός τε αν πάλιν ήν το είδος
παρέλθη και το κάλλος παραδράμη, τίς έτι καταλείπεται ευφροσύνη, ανανθεί
γάρ και απηνθηκότι σώματι ου πέφυκε προσιζάνειν ο "Έρως.
Often a number of flowers are named in succession. This as we might
guess is characteristic of the bucolic poets and their imitators, e.g. Theokrit. 23,
28, και το ρόδον καλόν έστι, και ο χρόνος αυτό μαραίνει: 1 και το ίoν καλόν έστιν
έν εΐαρι, και ταχύ γηρα·| λευκόν το κρίνον εστί, μαραίνεται ανίκα πίπτη: 1 &
δε χιών λευκά, και τακεται ανίκα παχθή. | και κάλλος καλόν εστι το παιδικόν,
állóliyov šộ • Mosch. 3, 106 (p. 92 Wilamow.); Nemes. 4,21; Verg. E. 2,
17; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 115; Anth. Pal. 5, 74; Anth. Lat. 24 R. The choice
of a single flower is especially common in the epigram, and in that case the
favourite is of course the rose, proverbially the symbol of fleeting beauty and
youth, cp. Paroem. Graeci, 2, p. 86, podov itapelouro umkéti SÝtel málw=
Publil. Syr. 690, quae defloruerit ne iterum quaeratur rosa '; Anth. Pal. 12,
234; II, 36, 4; 374, 7; 53; 5, 28; Philost. Epist. 17; Achill. Tat. I, 8; Pro-
pert. 4, 5, 57, 'dum vernat sanguis, dum rugis integer annus, | utere, ne quid
cras libet ab ore dies. , vidi ego odorati victura rosaria Paesti , sub matutino
cocta iacere noto,' cp. Dobson's poem, "The Rose in the garden slipped her
bud,' etc.; Auson. in Anth. Lat. 646 R. 31-50, esp. the last lines, collige
virgo, rosas, dum flos novus et nova pubes, i et memor esto aevum sic properare
tuum,' the original of Herrick's 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,' etc.
30. As 29 suggested the colour and freshness of youth soon to fade, so 30
suggests another prerogative of youth, beautiful and abundant hair (cp. 38
below), cut off at majority in the case of boys and in any event turning grey
or dropping out with age, cp. Seneca, Phaed. 761, "anceps forma bonum
mortalibus, exigui donum breve temporis, ut velox celeri pede laberis! | non
sic prata novo vere decentia | aestatis calidae despoliat vapor, saevit solstitio
cum medius dies et noctes brevibus praecipitant rotis | languescunt folio et
lilia pallido: , ut gratae capiti deficiunt comae et fulgor teneris qui radiat
genis | momento rapitur nullaque non dies | formonsi spolium corporis abstu-
lit '; Aristainet. l.C.; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 73, etc. The comparison is the
more apt because comae is regularly used of foliage, cp. I, 7, 34 and 2, I,
48 n. The white poplar was probably selected because of its beauty. It was
prized as a shade tree and was associated with Hercules in song and story,
cp. Verg. E. 9, 41; Hor. Od. 2, 3, 9; Verg. A. 8, 276.
Note that the flowers and leaves in 29–30, though fitly characterizing the
passing of youth and beauty, are nevertheless a contrast in that, unlike youth
and beauty, they do always return again. The point is made by Mosch. 3, 106
(cp. Mustard, A. J. P. 30, 279-282, and the charming variation in Halévy's
song, ‘Il est fini le temps des roses, etc.); Eleg. in Maec. 2, III; etc.
274
NOTES
[1, 4, 35
Indeed like the seasons (cp. Hor. Od. 4, 7) they were felt as the type of
resurrection (cp. the legends and the ritual of Dionysos, Adonis, etc.). Tib.
passes over the point here to make it further down (35 f.) in another way.
31-32. Rapidity of change has been exemplified in 29–30. The emphasis
now, shifts to the contrast between youth and age. Youth is strong and active,
age is weak and impotent. The ex. of the racehorse is a variation e.g. of
Ennius, Ann. 374 V., 'sicut fortis equus spatio qui saepe supremo | vicit
Olympia, nunc senio confectus quiescit,' and esp. of Ibykos, 2, 5 Crus. (cp.
Plato, Parmen. 137 A.). The real parallel, however, is seen in passages like
Dio Chrys. 6, 41; Plutarch, An seni, etc. 4 (785 D ), which acc. to Wila-
mowitz indicate Cynic sources. See Anth. Pal. 9, 19; 20; 21; Ovid, Her.
18, 166, ut celer Eleo carcere missus equus,' is an echo.
31. iacet: so often of illness, weakness, etc., cp. 2, 5, 109; Propert. I, 6,
25, etc. Explained by the following adjective infir mae.
32. prior: cp. I, 2, 69 n. Latin often, and Greek still oftener, esp. in
poetry, uses an adjective in the predicate where we prefer an adverb or an ad-
verbial expression. This process, esp. with adjectives denoting a temporary
condition, e.g. of inclination, knowledge, and their opposites, of time and
season, order and position (Gild.-Lodge, 325, R. 6), begins with Plautus and
grows steadily. For prior here, cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 218, qui meruit
caelum, quod prior ipse tulit’; Propert. 4, 5, 42, ‘nempe tulit fastus, ausa
rogare prior'; Xen. Vect. 4, 12, dokei de MOL kal ý mbles it por épa &uoù
Tauta <yvwkéval. Another case is stultos in 34 below. --- carcere: the
barriers.' In this use generally plural. The singular, as here (i.e. = bar-
riers'), is for the most part poetic. Ovid, Trist. 5, 12, 26, uses the plural but
once, otherwise always in the singular.
33–34. Illustration of a general truth by the (apparently) naïve and spon.
taneous citation of his own personal experience or that of some acquaintance.
Here, of course, it suggests and characterizes the didactic attitude. Used with
great effect by Ovid ; cp. Ars Amat. 2, 169; 493; 547; 3, 43; 487; 598;
Rem. Amor, I; 227; 311; 499; 555; 609; 621; 663; Propert. 4, 5, 57;
Theognis, 915; Soph. Elekt. 62; Aias, 1142; Eurip. Elekt. 369. In Tib.
always in connection with Nemesis, as here, 1, 2, 89; 1, 8, 71; 1, 9, 79;
so, too, Theokrit. 23, 33; Anth. Pal. 12, 12; 29; 30; 32; 35; 186; 197;
215; 224; 229; 234; 235; 251; etc.
34. stultos: adj. for adverb; cp. note on prior, above. stultos is the
pred. of praeteriisse; dies the subject, i.e. the days have passed foolishly, have
been wasted. praeteriisse, i.e. beyond recall (thus forming the transition to
the next distich), more fully in 1, 8, 41 ; cp. also 1, 2, 89; 1, 1, 71 and n.
35–36. The serpent's annual casting of his skin has always been a favourite
275
1, 4, 35]
TIBVLLVS
example of recurrent youth; cp. Aristot. De Animal. Hist. 8, 17; Nikand.
Ther. 137; Aristoph. Pax, 336; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 77; Met. 9, 266; Verg.
G. 3, 437; A. 2, 473; Stat. Theb. 4, 97, etc. Pliny, 29, 137, speaking of the
cast-off skin as used in medicine, calls it “senecta serpentium.'
35. crudeles divi: on this naïve criticism of the gods throughout all an-
tiquity, see esp. the long passage in Seneca, Ben. 2, 29; cp. also Carm. Epig.
B. 1212, 5. The abuse of the power invoked which characterizes modern
profanity in the Latin countries is a survival of the same naïve attitude.
36. non ullam: see 4, 6, 9 n.
37–38. For Bacchos and Apollo as the divine representatives of eternal
youth, cp. Ovid, Met. 3, 421, and often. Hence the epithet intonsus so often
applied to .both, e.g. to Bacchos, Ovid, Met. 4, 13; Mart. 4, 45; Val. Flacc.
1, 411; Seneca, Phaed. 754; Eurip. Kykl. 75, etc., but esp. to Apollo, cp.
2, 3, 12 n. The hair of boys was not cut off until their majority.
37. solis: 1, 5, 36 n.
39-56. 'Spare no pains to be complaisant and attentive.' This theme is
developed thus: First distich (39-40), general statement ; second and third
distichs (41-44), first illustration, travel by land ; fourth and fifth distichs
(45-48), second illustration, travel by sea; sixth distich (49–50), third illus-
tration, hunting; seventh distich (51-52), fourth illustration, fencing; eighth
and ninth distichs (53-56), general conclusion. For the theme, which goes
back to the Alex. Age, cp. esp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 179, a passage reminis-
cent of this; Amor. I, 9; etc. For a complete discussion with references,
see esp. Wheeler, Class. Philol. 5, p. 61.
40. obsequio is the theme in one word. Gallantry' is insufficient as a
translation. What is meant is unselfish devotion or at least the complete
semblance of it. The standard mythological illustration in erotic poetry is
the tale of Milanion and Atalanta the huntress; cp. 49-50 n. On the promi-
nence of it in this particular sphere, see the Introd. p. 52. The sports and
pastimes quoted here are all standard examples.
41-44. Cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 223-238; Amor. 1, 9. via longa, as we
have seen, I, I, 26 n., is often military. Here, however, as is shown by
42-44, it means a long walk. If he organizes a long walk (as such people are
likely to do, regardless of the weather), go with him. Never mind if it is hot
and dusty or, on the other hand, if it threatens to rain in torrents. All three
things are likely to be disagreeable, not only a long walk as such (your ele-
giac lover is no athlete, cp. Introd. p. 56), but the two extremes of weather
described. Hence, the compendious sentence, in which quamvis (43) appar-
ently corresponds to quamvis (41), and et (42) may = a paratactic 'and,' as
in English. Logically, however, the walk is the thing, the extremes of weather,
276
NOTES
[1, 4, 43
the attendant (and aggravating) circumstances, the contrast is between 42
and 43-44, quamvis in 43 corresponds to a quamvis to be supplied aſter et in
42, and et = 'even.' 'If he wishes to take a long walk, don't fail to go with
him — even though it be hot and dry, even though it threaten rain,' etc.
41. neu: 'and do not.' Corresponds to cedas, above. — comes ire : i.e.
comitari. This use of ire with some noun to represent the verbal idea sug-
gested by the noun runs through the language.
42. Cp. I, I, 27 n. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 231, nec grave te tempus
sitiensque Canicula tardet | nec via per iactas candida facta nives.'
43. ferrugine: a colour word which in both its literal and metaph. uses
is a close parallel of purpureus and caeruleus and is often coupled with
them, esp. with the latter. The various uses of ferruginus, ferrugineus, and
ferrugo being compared,' says Munro on Lucret. 4, 76, 'the colour denoted
would seem to be a dark violet like that of steel after it has been heated in
the fire and cooled : Plautus, Miles Glor, 1178,"palliolum habeas ferrugineum,
nam is colos thalassicust”; answering therefore to Homer's troppúpeos or olvoy
applied to the sea; as in certain weathers the Mediterranean has precisely
such a colour.' So too the word is used of Charon's boat (Verg. A. 6, 303),
of the garments of Pluto (Claud. De Rapt. Pros., 275) suggesting the
darkness of Hades, of the sun in eclipse (Verg. G. 1, 467, etc.), but never for
a storm as here. purpureus, however, is often so used and what has been
said shows that ferrugo is eminently suitable for that startling blackness of a
summer tempest driven on by a high wind such as Eurus. picea (an emen-
dation of the Itali) is frequently applied to storm clouds but is not found else-
where with ferrugo (cp. however, “ferrugine atra,' Ovid, Met. 15, 789).
Translate then 'praetexens,' etc., shrouding the sky with purple gloom.'
It should be noted that the Ambrosianus here reads, . quamvis praetexens
picta ferrugine caelum | venturam amiciat imbrifer arcus aquam. The text
is corrupt (certainly, e.g. amiciat and imbrifer) but I am not so certain that
arcus should be removed. The antique folklore of the rainbow is a com-
plete contrast to ours. For us, as for the Hebrews, it is the illuminated text
of God's own covenant written on the skies (cp. Gen. 9, 12-17), the bow of
promise, the herald of fair weather, heaven smiling as it were through her
tears. Not so the Greeks and Romans. For them the rainbow was a por-
tent (Homer, Il. 17, 547; Ovid, Met. I, 270), the herald of storm and dis-
aster (Empedokles, 50, Diels; Anaxag. in Schol. Iliad, l. C.; Aratos, 940;
Aëtius, Dox. Gr. Diels, 371; Plaut. Curc. 131 a, i.e. as we say, 'the sun is
drawing water’; Verg. G. I, 381; Ovid, Met. 1, 270; Propert. 3, 5, 32;
Lucan, 4, 81; Seneca, Oed. 316; Stat. Achill. 1, 220; Martial, 12, 29, 6; Anth.
Lat. 543-554; R.). See Roscher, s.v. Iris. It will be seen then that acc. to
277
1, 4, 44]
TIBVLLVS
the antique point of view the rainbow here expresses best the idea desired,
i.e. the imminence of a violent thunderstorm. imbrifer as an epithet of the
rainbow is not uncommon (e.g. Seneca, Oed. 315; Stat. Theb. 9, 405; Silv.
3, 3, 81). The difficulty with it here (irrespective of the fact that it practically
repeats the idea of venturam aquam') is that it necessitates arbitrary length-
· ening of the final syllable of the preceding verb, which, though occasional at
the end of the first hemistich of the pentameter, ought not to be found in
Tibullus. nimbi fer does not happen to occur as an epithet of arcus, but it
is near imbrifer and it expresses an association with the rainbow which is
familiar to antiquity. picta is also occasionally used to describe the colours
of the rainbow. If we retain it here, ferrugine portrays the colours of the
rainbow and is used like its close congener purpureus, Topoúpeos (Propert. 3,
5, 32; Homer, Il. 17, 547) in the same connection. We should then take
praetexens more in its original sense and the idea would be something like
'limning on the skies her (awesome) pageantry of colours. Note that the
metaphor which suggested the designation 'rainbow,' arcus' and which is so
familiar to Rome and the modern world, was to the Greeks not only foreign
but repugnant. Aischrion's line, ipis d'éhajye, kaldy oúpavoû Tógov, seems to
be the one surviving example (in the LXX, Genesis, 9, 14, etc., TO TOGOV v TÔ
vepén is merely a translation from Hebrew) and this was quoted by the
rhetoricians as a glaring instance of bad taste, cp. Rhetores Graeci, 3, p. 650
Walz.
44. admittat: acceleret, drives on at full speed, esp. of horses; cp.
dictt. and Dirae, 38, ' Eurus agat mixtam fulva caligine nubem.' — nimbifer
Eurus: the adjective is rare but fitting. Eurus is eminently a storm wind, cp.
such epithets for him in the poets as nubifer, aquosus, atrox, insanus, niger,
saevus, stridens, etc.
45. puppi : a rowboat of course is meant.
46. This is the transition to the next distich and illustrates the general
rule applying both to this and to the two following exx., that whatever the
sport may be you must give your beloved the better part of it.
47–48. See 2, 3, 5; 2, 3, 9-10 and notes; Propert. 4, 3, 23; Lygd. 3, 4,
65.
48. insuetas: the absolute use as here is not common, cp. Stat. Theb.
11, 94. — atteruisse : the only surviving ex. of this old perf. of attero (i.e.
terui instead of the later trivi; i.e. terivi) outside of Apuleius and the Itala.
49-50. 4, 3, 11-14 and notes; Plutarch, Mor. 52 B, etc. The standard
exx, in erotic literature are, on the one hand, Milanion and Atalanta the hunt-
ress, and on the other, Venus and Adonis, and Phaidra and Hippolytos.
Carrying the nets was a tiresome and a menial task (cp. Seneca, Phaed.
278
NOTES
[1, 4, 56
45) which the lover regularly offers to perform, cp. 4, 3, 11 n.; Ovid, Ars
Amat. 2, 189; Met. 10, 171; Plutarch, Mor. 52 B; Verg. E. 3, 74-75.
51-52. Cp. Plutarch, Mor. 58 E, who describes flatterers as regularly ÚTOTT-
TOUTES ¿v TẬ malalelv kal åmodeLT Ouevo Deóvrwv. Cp. too the amusing advice
of Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 203, and on fencing as an amusement, Cic. Sen. 58;
Manil. 4, 227. Val. Max. 2, 3, 2, says that it was first introduced into the
army by the consul C. Rutilius. See also Ovid, Met. 10, 167–173; Nonnos,
10, 339; 357–360; 373–375; 48, 124 f.; 159 f.
51. levi dextra: 'with a light, easy hand,' i.e. try not to hit hard,' cp.
Lucret. 5, 1067 (of dogs playing with their puppies), 'et catulos blande cum
lingua lambere temptant | aut ubi eos iactant pedibus morsuque petentes / sus-
pensis teneros imitantur dentibus haustus.' — temptabis : cp. dabis, 52, the
future for the imperative (not elsewhere in Tib.) reflects the tone of authority
cp., too, Gild.-Lodge, 243.
53–56. Endure, then pity, then embrace. A favourite motive in the liter-
ature of kissing, Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 663, quis sapiens blandis non misceat
oscula verbis? | illa licet non det, non data sume tamen! | pugnabit primo
fortassis et “improbe" dicet: | pugnando vinci se tamen illa volet’; Hor. Od.
2, 12, 25, 'cum flagrantia detorquet ad oscula , cervicem aut facili saevitia
negat, l quae poscente magis gaudeat eripi, | interdum rapere occupet.'
54. oscula apta : Ovid, Her. 15, 130, 'oscula ... aptaque consueras accipere,
apta dare.' These are the 'close' kisses of the Elizabethan poets, cp. Paulus,
Ex Fest. 18, 'aptus is qui convenienter alicui iunctus est.' apta here is ab-
solute; so I, 7, 60, and occasionally in the poets.
55. rapta dabit: i.e. let you snatch them. On the other hand, Ovid, e.g.,
uses the same expression of the snatcher, cp. Amor. 2, 4, 26, 'oscula cantanti
rapta dedisse velim'; Her. 15, 43, 'cantabam, memini (meminerunt omnia
amantes): | oscula cantanti tu mihi rapta dabas,' etc. The participle is indefi-
nite. According to circumstances, it may mean stolen from the subject,' or
stolen by the subject. The conditions however of a successful kiss are such
that the distinction between giving and receiving is more logical than real,
hence dare is regularly used of both in this connection. Strato (cp. Anth.
Pal. 12, 200, Mio duomeplannta pilňuata, kai daxicdels owvás) and doubt-
less others, do not prefer the type here mentioned, Others again are like the
girl in Saxe's poem who would not kiss because — 'The maid if rightly
understood | Feels as any Christian maiden should : | She'd rather suffer
wrong than do it. But while the point of view may differ the result is much
the same.
56. implicuisse : Neue-Wagener (3, 378) cites this perf. of implico from
Cicero, De Domo, 105; Hortensius, frag. 90 ; Seneca, Epist. 22, 3; 75, 11;
279
1, 4, 57]
TIBVLLVS
Ben. 5, 12, 2; Fronto, p. 24 N. The 21 exx. remaining, of which this is the
first to appear, are all from the poets (Lygd. 3, 6, 64; Propert. 3, 5, 20 ;
Ovid, Amor. 2, 18,9; 5 in Verg. ; 2 in Ovid, Met., etc.). se implicuisse illus-
trates the only way we can have elision in the first thesis of the second hemistich
of the pentameter without obscuring the caesura. Propert. 2, 14, 10, in-
mortalis ero si altera talis erit,' is the only ex. in the elegy (Tibullus, Proper-
tius, Ovid, Carm. Amat.) besides this. This is largely due to the fact that a
preceding elided monosyllable in thesi is generally to be avoided for obvious
reasons. The statistics for the elegy (excluding -que) are, — First thesis,
Catull. 65, 22; 67, 30; 68, 14 : Second thesis, Catull. 66, 7; 73; 76;
84; 67, 42; Tib. 1, 6, 59; 1, 2, 56; Propert. 2, 3, 21 ; 13,8; 19, 1; 20, 22;
21,8; 22, 21 ; 24, 31 ; 26, 1 ; 28,5; 29, 21 ; 34, 43; 3, 20, 11 ; 22, 15; 4, 4,
43; 7, 36; Ovid, Amor. I, 4, 57 ; 2, 1, 30; 19, 21; 3, 6, 80 ; 103; Her. 5,
85 ; 12, 195; 14, 55 ; 20, 229; Ars Amat. 3, 2 : Third thesis, Propert. 2,
15, 19, 'quin etiam si me ulterius provexerit ira; ' 2, 24, 15, 'a peream, si
me ista movent dispendia, si me,' Ovid, Her. 19, 29, 'utque rogem de te et
scribam tibi siquis Abydo': Fourth thesis, Catull. 67, 37, Propert. 3, 17, 19;
24, 19; 4, 2, 57; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 55; Ars Amat. 3, 749: Fifth thesis,
Catull. 66, 75; 68, 41; Propert. 2, 20, 27; 21, 7: Sixth thesis, elision here
occurs but twice (Tib. 2, 4, 17; Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 49), in neither case with
a monosyllable.
Elision of any sort in the caesura of the pentameter is of course very rare.
The only exx. found in the elegy examined were Catull. 68, 10; 82; 90. Cases
even in which this caesura falls on a word followed by enclitic que are confined
to Catull. 68, 56 and Propert. 3, 22, 10. Similar obscuration of the caesura
(semiquinaria) in the hexameter is also rare.
57-60. The question of presents, their character and value, would naturally
be taken up at this point; see e.g. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 261–272, who
throughout follows the arrangement of Tibullus, or possibly of treatises nepi
έρωτος ου περί κολακείας to which both may be indebted. Here for artistic
reasons the poet prefers merely to suggest the topic by the ever recurring
attack on avarice and venality — which we find in elegy, epigram, comedy,
late rhetorical echoes of the comedy like the Amores of Lukian and the letters
of Alkiphron, Aristainetos, etc., in short in any antique account of a love
affair whenever reference is made to the value of poetry or to those natural
enemies of the poet, the dives amator and his accomplice the lena. See 1, 5,
60 n.; 2, 4, 31-34 n. ; 1, 9, 11 and 52; Anth. Pal. 12, 42; 44; 212; 214;
Ovid, Amor, I, 10; etc.
59-60. Reminiscences of these lines, 2, 4, 31 f. and perhaps of Propertius
4, 5, 65 f. seem to be blended in Tasso, Aminta, 2, 1, 'O chiunque tu fosti,
280
NOTES
[1, 4, 61
che insegnasti | Primo a vender l'amor, sia maladetto | Il tuo cener sepolto,
e l'ossa fredde ; | E non si trovi mai pastore, o ninfa, | Che lor dica passando:
“ Abbiate pace;" | Ma le bagni la pioggia, e mova il vento, | E con piè
immondo la greggia il calpesti, | E'l peregrin. Tu prima svergognasti |
La nobilta d'Amor; tu le sue liete | Dolcezze inamaristi. Here of course Tib.
is aiming at the first, the original, sinner (dives amator or lena, cp. 1, 5, 47–48
n.). This method of cursing or blessing the original inventor or discoverer
of whatever it may be is very characteristic, cp. I, 10, I n.
59. Venerem: for this meaning, 1, 5, 40; 1, 9, 76; 4, 3, 18.
60. This curse is characteristic of the entire Graeco-Roman world, cp.
Seneca, Phaed. 1279, ‘istam terra defossam premat, | gravisque tellus impio
capiti incubet'; Tertull. De Anim. 4, 'terram gravem imprecaris et cineri
penes inferos tormentum'; Propert. 4, 5, I ff.; Eurip. Helena, 852, el ráp
εισιν οι θεοί σοφοί, | εύψυχον άνδρα πολεμίων θανόνθ' υπο | κούφη καταμπίσχου-
OLV év túußw xbovi, kakoîoi d'ëpua otepedvéußállovor yñs. Our own expres-
sion is ‘may you never rest easy in your grave !! For the contrasted blessing,
“sit tibi terra levis' (often reduced to s. t. t.l. in the old Roman epitaphs, cp.
our ‘R. I. P.'), cp. 2, 4, 49–50 n.; Propert. I, 17, 24; Eurip. Alkest. 461, koupa
001 | xowv émávwde TéOOL, yúval : Kallimach. Epig. 26; Meleag. Anth. Pal. 7,
461, cp. Martial, 5, 34, 9, etc. The idea is of course derived from the naive
but world-wide and persistent assumption that the comfort of the dead is
affected by the actual conditions of their last resting place, or by whatever may
happen to the corpse after death; cp. e.g. Propert. 4, 7 (the ghost of Cynthia
complaining to the poet), a good proportion of the wonderful collection of
curses in Ovid's Ibis, etc. See also, 1, 10, 37–38 n. -- infelix: QuotUxwv,
‘ill-omened,' so regularly of anything connected with the dead: Sophokles,
0. K. 402, kelvous ó túußos duotuXwv o ods Bapús: so for example in the old
legal formula of perduellio preserved in Livy, 1, 26, 6, if the accused loses
his appeal, the duoviri proceed with, "caput obnubito; infelici arbori reste
suspendito,' etc. Macrob. 3, 20, 3 (quoting Tarquitius Priscus), 'arbores
quae inferum deorum avertentiumque in tutela sunt, eas infelices nominant';
Pliny, H. N. 16, 108, ' damnatae religione (i.e. arbores) quae neque seruntur
umquam neque fructum ferunt.'
61-70. Poetry and poets versus giſts and givers. In the elegy the lover,
who is generally imposed upon, and the poet himself, who is always poor, are
usually and indeed conventionally, one and the same. Hence the ancient
theme of the glory of poetry and the superiority of the poet (Hesiod,
Theog. 81; Pind. Nem. 7, 12; Theokrit. 16, 22 ff.; Kallimach. Epig. 21, 5;
Hor. Od. 4, 8, 28; 4, 9, 26, etc.) when we reach the elegy is specialized as
poetry versus gifts, i,e, as the poet versus his rival the dives amator and
281
1, 4, 61]
TIBVLLVS
in this sphere developed from every possible point of view. Cp. eig. I, 5,
61-66; 2, 4, 13-20; 2, 5, 113–114 and notes; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2,
273–286; 3, 533-552; Amor. 3, 8; 1, 10, etc. The particular form of the
argument found here (61-66) -'cherish the poets above mere gain, for they
alone can confer immortality' - is the oldest and most widely spread not
only in poetry but in rhetoric, cp. Hes., Pind., Theokrit., Hor. l. C.; Propert. 3,
2, 15; Ovid, Amor. I, 10, 59; 1, 15; 3, 12, 21; but esp. the typical variation
of Ars Amat. 3, 547, valibus Aoniis faciles estote puellae : numen inest
illis, Pieridesque favent. l est deus in nobis, et sunt commercia caeli:
sedibus aetheriis spiritus ille venit. I a doctis pretium scelus est sperare
poetis : | me miserum! scelus hoc nulla puella timet.' Cp. also Amor. I,
8, 57-62; Propert. 4, 5, 54-56, etc.
For the direct command to cherish poets as described in 61-62, cp. 2, 5,
113–114 n.; Ovid, Ars Amat. 1.c.; Theokrit. 16, 29; etc.
61-62. Pieridas . . . Pieridas: on the declension, 1, 2, 52 n. An exag-
geration of this rhetorical device are the versus recurrentes of which quite
enough are preserved in the Anth. Lat. 38–80 R., cp. e.g (80), 'nil mihi mors
faciet: pro me monumenta relinquo. I tu modo vive, liber: nil mihi mors
faciet. Cp. too the versus anacyclici, id. 81, e.g. blanditias fera Mors
Veneris persensit amando, | permisit solitae nec Styga tristitiae. , tristitiae
Styga nec solitae permisit, amando / persensit Veneris Mors ſera blanditias.'
See such prototypes in Greek as [Simonides], Anth. Pal. 13, 30; [Timokreon), -
id. 13, 31.
The type represented by our example does not occur elsewhere in Tibullus.
See 2, 4, 15-20 n. Similar are such exx. as Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 167, pauper
amet caute, timeat maledicere pauper.'
61. doctos: 4, 6, 2 n. -- et: 2, 5, 22 n., and 1, 1, 51 n.
63-66. Tib. begins his argument that poetry immortalizes hy enforcing the
negative (63-64), t.e. without poetry all would be forgotten': so too Pind.
Nem. 7, 12-16; 9, 6; Hor. Od. 4, 9, 25; Propert. 3, 2, 15; Tac. Agric. 46;
Sil. Ital. 3, 145; etc.
The favourite method of developing is as here by examples: so Theokrit. 16,
29-60, by Antiochos, Aleuas, Skopas, all petty princelings — but friends of
Simonides; by the Lykians, the sons of Priam, etc. - but celebrated by
Homer; Hor. Od. 4, 8, 25, by Aeacus, Hercules, Castor and Pollux (cp. 4,
9, 26-28); Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 29, by Troy's Fall; Ovid, Amor. 1, 3, 21 by lo,
Leda, Europa, etc.
The negative of the argument in 63-64 is followed in 65-66 by the positive;
he whom the Muses commemorate survives all things: so Theokrit. 16, 29-33
and 58 f.; Ovid, Amor. 1, 10, 61, 'scindentur vestes, gemmae frangentur et
282
NOTES
[1, 4, 65
aurum : carmina quam tribuent fama perennis erit,' hence the regret of Pro-
pertius on parting with Cynthia, 3, 24, 4, 'versibus insignem te pudet esse
meis.' Often with exempla, as Propert. 3, 2, 15 (Pyramids, Temple of Zeus at
Elis, Mausoleum), etc.
63. Nisi coma: for the detailed story of Nisus see dictt. His daughter
was Scylla, and the story of the loss of his purple lock accounted for her meta-
morphosis. The Latin parallel is Tarpeia and Tatius as told by Propertius,
4, 4. The story of Nisus was especially popular during and after the Alex.
Age, and constantly mentioned. Nemesianus, Cynzeget. 44 mentions it as a
trite subject. It was told by Parthenios in his Metamorphoses, and by Kalli-
machos, probably in the Aitia. Among surviving versions are the Ciris and
Ovid, Met. 8, 1-151, cp. Amor. 3, 12, 21, Verg. G. 1, 405. — sint ...
nituisset : essent or fuissent ... nituisset would have been usual. But the
Ideal is not controlled by impossibility or improbability, and the lively fancy
of the Roman often employs the Ideal where we should expect the Unreal'
(Gild.-Lodge, 596, R. I), e.g. 'tu si hic sis aliter sentias,' Ter. Andria, 310.
More characteristic of early Latin, but occasional in all styles in the later lan-
guage. To the same liveliness of fancy is due the shift of conception from
ideal to unreal in the same sentence, as here. The only remaining ex. in
the elegy is 1, 8, 22. Others are Plaut. Aul. 523; Lucret. 5, 276; 1, 356;
2, 1033; Catull. 6, 2; Verg. G. 4, 116-123; A. 8, 568; Cicero, Div. 2, 122;
Fin. 4, 61; Livy, 6, 40, 17; Seneca, Herc. Oet. 1385; Mart. 5, 20, 1. Ex-
plained historically by Schmalz, Lat. Stilistik, p. 413. For similar exx. of
rapidly shiſting fancy see 4, 13, 5, and 2, 4, 7-8.
64. umero Pelopis : see dictt. s.v. Pelops. Appears first in Pindar, Olymp.
1, 40, where the Schol, says that it was also told by Bacchylides. Lukian,
Salt. 54, says that, ý IITOS Kpeovpyla kal ò élepártivos Wuos aútoŮ was a
favourite theme of the drama, and Vergil, G. 3, 6, mentions it as a trite subject,
cui non dictus Hylas puer et Latonia Delos | Hippodameque umeroque
Pelops insignis eburno, / acer equis?' Told by Ovid, Met. 6, 403; Nonnos, 18,
27; Hyginus, Fab. 83; Dio Chrys. 8, 28; Philost. Imag. 1, 30; Pliny, 28, 34;
Julian, Orat. p. 816.
65–66. Cp. the condition frequently found in old deeds, 'while wood grows
and water runs. These concrete examples of perpetuity, many of them
popular, and some like these quasi-proverbial, are much developed and
diversified by the poets and rhetoricians, - e.g. Verg. A. 1, 607, 'in freta dum
fluvii current, dum montibus umbrae | lustrabunt convexa, polus dum sidera
pascet, / semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt"; E. 5,76; Hor.
Epod. 15, 7; Ovid, Amor. I, 15, 9; Ibis, 135; Sil. Ital. 7, 476; Anth. Pal. 9,
821, 2, aŭdo el xpóvos alév, éws rólos áo tépas čiky. Certamen Hes. et Hom. 254,
283
1, 4, 67]
TIBVLLVS
Rzach, xalkén mapôévos elul, Mldew tri onuaros quai, I és t' dv údwp te ván
και δένδρεα μακρά τεθήλη, και ποταμοί πλήθωσι, περικλύζη δε θάλασσα, | ήέλιος
så viùv palun laurpá te celývn, I attoll tõde mévovoa, etc., cp. Bayard
Taylor's Bedouin Love Song Till the sun grows cold, | And the stars are
old, And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold.'
Much more common is the negative statement of the same sentiment, i.e.
the comparison ék toû å duvátou, as in Ovid, Pont. 4, 5, 41, 'nam prius umbrosa
carituros arbore montes, et freta velivolas non habitura rates, | fluminaque in
fontes cursu reditura supino | gratia quam meriti possit abire tui'; 4, 6, 45;
Trist. 1, 8, I; Her. 5, 29; Met. 13, 324; 14, 38; Propert. 2, 3, 5; 2,
15, 31; Catull. 61, 199; Sil. Ital. 5, 253; Claud. In Eutrop. I, 353; In Ruf.
1, 159; Verg. E. 1, 59; 3, 91; 8, 27; 52; Nemes. 1, 75; Dirae, 4 f. and 98 f.;
Hor. Epod. 16, 25; Od. I, 29, 10; 33, 7; A. P. 13; Seneca, Medea, 757; Phaed.
568; Homer, Il. 1, 234; Kallimach. frag. 209; Archil. 71 Crus.; Aristoph.
Pax, 1076; Eurip. Medea, 410; Theokrit. 1, 132; Herod. I, 165; 5,92a; Diod:
9, 10, 3; Plutarch, Arist. 25, etc. Cp. too a special poem in this line by
Eucheria, Anth. Lat. 390 R.; see too id. 440, and another poem by Licentius
in Wernsdorf's Poet. Lat. Min. 4, 533, 92 f. The motive is often found in
popular legends, e.g. “Tannhäuser and Pope Sylvester,' the prophecy to
Macbeth, etc., and is not infrequent in the writers of the Elizabethan period,
cp. e.g. Thomas Lodge, Rosalynde, London, 1902, p. 42 (Montanus' Passion'),
cp. id. p. 51. See also Amadis Jamyn (1538–1593), “Stances de l'Impossible,'
Oeuvres Poétiques, Paris, 1878, No. 143.
67–70. Dreadful as it really is this curse is quite in the manner of Priapos
and was intended to fit the crime. For similar curses, cp. e.g. Priap. 55, 6,
quae si perdidero patria mutabor, et olim ( ille tuus civis, Lampsace, Gallus
ero'; Ovid, Ibis, 453, attonitusque seces, ut quos Cybeleia mater | incitat ad
Phrygios vilia membra modos. , deque viro fias nec femina nec vir ut Attis, et
quatias molli tympana rauca manu. I inque pecus subito magnae vertare pa-
rentis, | victor ut est celeri victaque versa pede.' The curse is one of madness
as well; so of Attis, Catull. 63, see too 1, 5, 49-56; 2, 4, 39-50 and notes,
where we have as here the same naively didactic pairing per exempla of reward
and punishment.
68. Idaeae Opis: see Dictt. s.v. Cybele. Her worship which was highly
orgiastic (cp. 70) was associated with the neighbourhood of Pessinus in
Phrygia but gradually spread over the entire Roman empire and lasted until
the latest times. The goddess was regularly represented with a turreted
crown (hence, her epithets of turrigera, turrita, suggesting the strange aspect
of her native Phrygia) and seated in a chariot drawn by lions. Her priests,
the unt payúptai, later rálloi (Latin, Galli), were in the habit of travelling
284
NOTES
[1, 4, 69
.
about from town to town (69) with a 'float’ representing a small temple con-
taining a figure of the goddess. They also sang hymns (Galliambic) to the
wild Phrygian strains in honour of the Magna Mater, solicited contributions,
prophesied, sold charms, cure-alls, etc. (Dionys. Hal. Antiq. Rom. 2, 19;
Babrios, 141 Crus.; Anth. Pal. 6, 217; Lukian, Asin. 35; Apul. Met. 8,
24, etc.).
The special festival referred to in line 70 commemorated the death and
resurrection of her beloved Attis (i.e. of Spring). The effort of the Galli on
that occasion was to 'get the spirit' (évévolao uós, éKo Taois), hence their
fanatic dancing, their wild screeching and singing, amid the continual din of
certain instruments of a specifically Phrygian type (2, 1, 86 n.), showing
their sympathy with her joy by extravagant demonstrations and with her sor-
row by slashing themselves with knives and even by castrating themselves in
imitation of Attis himself, cp. Anth. Pal. 6, 234; Ovid, Fasti, 4, 221; Pro-
pert. 2, 22, 16; Mart. 11, 84, 3; Juv. 2, 115; Servius on Verg. A. 9, 115, etc.
Hence they wore women's clothes and their hair which they kept long was
perfumed and done up in feminine fashion (Anth. Pal. 6, 219; 234; 237;
Augustin. C. D. 7, 26, etc.). The general opinion, on the whole well-
founded, was that at the beșt they were a beggarly lot of effeminati, at the
worst, the lowest of the low. In short, they are a curiously complete prototype
of the begging friars of the Middle Ages. — currus: the plural is generic or
better still perhaps, distributive, i.e. now one, now another. The boy's curse
is aggravated by the suggestion that he is not even to remain with one gang
of priests but is so low even in such a class that he wanders from one to
another.
69. tercentenas urbes: the use of 300 for an indefinitely large number
(cp. mille and sescenti, 1, 3, 50 n.) is not uncommon, Catull. 9, 2; 12, 10;
48, 3; Hor. Sat. 1, 5, 12; 2, 3, 116; Mart. 2, I; 12, 70, 7, etc. tercenteni
however, being a multiple of three, has solemn ritual associations that com-
mend it here, cp. Verg. A. 4, 510, 'ter centum tonat ore deos,' etc.; 7, 275;
8, 716; 10, 182; G. I, 15; Hor. Od. 3, 4, 79, etc. urbes in this connection
(cp. too 1, 5, 55) suggests the arch wanderer who mollûv gi å vopurwv. Ydev
dotea kai vboy & you. The same traditional motive taking us back to Archi-
lochos and Homer is seen in Seneca, Medea, 20, vivat, per urbes erret
ignotas egens | exul pavens invisus incerti Laris, | iam notus hospes limen
alienum expetat.' -expleat: "fill out,' ' fill the tale of,' so Verg. A. 12, 763,
quinque orbes explent cursu'; Eurip. Orest. 54, levéva oè Nautilelov
ÉKT Impôv aláty. Otherwise, complere, Lucret. 2, 324, or implere, Ovid,
Met. 8, 166; Fasti, 2, 223, is preferred.
Moving about in strange lands in antiquity meant all sorts of perils and
285
1, 4, 70]
TIBVLLVS
privations not so common now. Odysseus himself assures Eumaios (15, 343)
that πλαγκτοσύνης δ' ουκ έστι κακώτερον άλλο βροτοίσιν. It is therefore a
favourite curse, e.g. Ovid, Her. 6, 161, cum mare cum terras consumpserit,
aera temptet: | erret inops, exspes, caede cruenta sua'; Ibis, 113, exul inops
erres, alienaque limina lustres, exiguumque petas ore tremente cibum.'
Most interesting here is the new fragment of Archilochos (?) which appears
to have been the model of Horace, Epod. 10. I subjoin the text as given in
Diehl's Supplementum Lyricum, 2d edit. Bonn, 1910, p. 1) -
κύματι πλα[ζόμενο[s
κάν Σαλμυδ[ησσ ]ω γυμνόν εύφρονέστατα :
θρήϊκες ακρό[κ]ομοι
λάβοιεν (ένθα πόλλ' αναπλήσει κακά,
δούλιον άρτον έδων).
ρίγει πεπηγότ' αυτόν, εκ δε του [ό]θου
φυκία πόλλ' επ[ε]χοι,
κροτέοι δ' οδόντας, ως [κύ]ων επί στόμα
κείμενος ακρασία
άκρον παρά ρηγμένα κυμάτω[νο]μού:
ταύτ' εθέλοιμ άν ιδείν,
δε μ' ήδίκησε, λ[α]ξ δ επ' ορκίοις έβη,
το πρίν έταιρος εών.
70. vilia : i.e. treated as such by him, so Ovid, Fasti, 4, 244; Ibis, 454;
etc.
71-72. The topic is traditional, cp. e.g. Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 659-663;
Propert. 1, 12, Ι6; 4, 5, 21-6ο; Ovid, Amor. Ι, 8, 23-Ιο8; Publil. Syr. 56;
Lukian, Tox. 13; etc.
71. ipsa : 2.e. if love is merely a matter of money what Venus herself
desires is no longer possible. There is no place for it. This ends the in-
structions of Priapos. They are fairly summed up in Propert. I, 1, 15, "ergo
velocem potuit domuisse puellam: | tantum in amore preces et benefacta
valent.'
73-74. Titio: the identity of this man and the reason for his presence here
have been much discussed. One important reason for his appearance is to
form a transition to 3 topics traditionally associated with this theme, viz. the
situation in 74, the magister amoris, 77–80, and physician, heal thyself, 81–84.
Otherwise the elegy would not only end tamely at 72 but it would also be
incomplete. Another and in itself a sufficient reason for Titius here was as
we shall see to mislead the reader for the time being. The theory that
Titius = 'John Doe' or 'Richard Roe,' i.e. the poet's imaginary friend' in
286
NOTES :
[1, 4, 75
whose behalf Priapos (as he was told) was being consulted falls to the
ground, first, because Titius, though not especially uncommon, is never used
in this way, second, if Titius were used in this way the passage on poets
61–76, traditional in this connection, could only mean either that Tibullus
(intentionally or unintentionally) forgot the dramatic situation and put his
own feelings in the words of Priapos, or else that Priapos had recognized the
blind' at once and had proceeded with the real patient accordingly. This
is all impossible because it would anticipate and therefore quite spoil the best
effect of the piece, the surprise in the last four lines. Hübner (cp. too
Broukhus. ad loc.) identifies Titius with the young poet who was a friend of
Horace (Epist. 1, 3, 9) and who went to Asia with Tiberius in 20 B.C. This
is probably correct. At all events he ought to be a poet and also a poet at
least fairly well known. To make this clear let us assume for the moment
the attitude of a contemporary reading this poem for the first time. "How is
it, Priapos, that in spite of your disadvantages you are so successful in love ?'
(1-6). Is the poet simply in search of general information or has he a per-
sonal motive ? Decision suspended until, ‘Boys, honour the poets,' etc.
(61 f.). Ah, Tib. was evidently asking for himself. No (73–74); the poet
was Titius, not Tibullus. Thus suspicion is allayed until 81, which brings the
surprise and also allows the poet to show naturally and artistically that this
poem belongs to the group concerned with Marathus.
73. quae canerem : i.e. in response to a statement to Priapos made to that
effect by the poet, but which for artistic reasons is suggested here instead of
being mentioned in the introductory address (1-6).- edidit ore: returns
for the moment to elevated diction. edere is used of oracles and solemn
utterances, and ore with verbs of saying is epic (over a score of exx. occur in
the Aeneid alone).
74. A traditional motive in this sphere, cp. Meleager, Anth. Pal. 5, 208,
and Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 682. Abuse of the bridegroom at his wedding was
regular and ceremonial (to avert the evil eye). He was regularly accused of
the tastes ascribed to him in 73, cp. Catull. 61, 126 ff.; Pliny, 8, 180; Quintil.
1, 2, 8; Dionys. Hal. Rhet. 2, 8. All which suggests that Titius may have
been just married.
75-80. The contrast between ille and me (75) serves to introduce the next
topic. Titius does not need this information after all. Thanks however
to Priapos, I am now a Magister Amoris and can help others.' So Ovid,
Ars Amat. 2, 733–743; Propert. 1, 7, 21; Aristainet. I, 4, end; Mosch.
6, 7.
75. pareat ille suae: in the sense bere used (cp. Catull. 1. c.) is perfectly
serious. It has nothing to do with the modern saying that ‘no man is master
287
:-1, 4, 76]
TIBVLLVS
7
in his own house' although that too was sometimes claimed even in antiquity,
cp. Anth. Pal. 10, 55, àv trávu KouTÁŠ??S mpoo Táyuaor un úTakoúelv | tins
yametñs, ampeis oủ ydp åto Opuds el, | oủ8' &TÒ TÉT pns, etc.; Plautus, Cas. 815
(comic epithal.), 'sensim super attolle limen pedes, nova nupta, / sospes iter
incipe hoc, uti viro tuo semper sis superstes, | tuaque ut potior pollentia sit
vincasque virum victrixque sies tua vox superet tuomque imperium: vir te
vestiat, virum despolies,' etc. — suae : 1, 5, 42 n. - celebrate: .e. 'resort to,'
“throng about,' cp. 1, 3, 33; 1, 6, 17; for celeber see 2, 1, 33 n.
76. male habet: 'vexes," harasses. The expression, which is not found
elsewhere in the elegy, was perhaps conversational, cp. Terence, And. 436
hoc male habet virum'; 940; Hec. 606; Plaut. Asin. 844; Caes. B. C. 1, 63.
Cp, note on bella, 1, 9, 71.
77. gloria cuique sua est: sounds proverbial. Similar expressions are
Plaut. Stich. 693, 'suom quoique decet '; Quintil. 10, 2, 22, 'suus cuique
decor est,' etc. The whole passage is of course satirical.
Synaloephe of est in Tib. is the general rule (50 out of 86). In the first
arsis 1, 5, 46, otherwise always in the thesis. The masculine caesura of the
hexameter (13 cases) or the end of the first hemistich in the pentameter
(9 cases) is preferred: then at the end of the verse (hex. 9, pent. 4), at the
second thesis (hex. 4, pent. 2) and finally at the fourth thesis 10 cases, all in
the hexameter. Synaloephe of es occurs 1, 9, 53 and 77 (2 cases out of 6)
both in the hexameter. Synaloephe of these forms is therefore much less
common in the pentameter (17-cases) than in the hexameter (39). The
vowels involved are a, 27 cases; i, 8; um, 6; 1, 4; 0, 4; U, I (1, 6, 45). --
spernentur: a lover's word, 1, 8, 55; Ovid, Amor. 3, 6, 65; Her. 4, 168;
Propert. 2, 18, 7; etc.
78. The line intentionally suggests the iuris consultus whose clients call
upon him for advice, a typical illustration in philosophical discussion, hence
common in rhetoric and satire, Hor. Sat. I, 1, 9, "agricolam laudat iuris
legumque peritus sub galli cantum consultor ubi ostia pulsat'; Ovid, Amor.
1, 13, 21, 'nec tu consulto, nec tu incunda diserto: , cogitur ad lites surgere
uterque novas'; Cicero, Mur. 22. Tibullus is now, so to speak, an amoris
consultus ready to give advice to clients.
79–80. The previous distich had suggested to his mind the picture of the
great teacher full of years and well-earned renown, escorted wherever he goes
by an admiring throng of young men listening with reverent attention to his
golden words on the subject of -- how to succeed in an intrigue. The satire
of course lies in the contrast between the assumed importance of the teacher
and the real insignificance of his theme.
79. tempus erit, cum: very solemn; the poet is rapt, as it were, by the
288
NOTES
[1, 4, 84
spirit of prophecy, cp., for instance, Theokrit. 23, 33, where the lover about to
hang himself, possessed of the second sight sometimes granted to those who
are entering the shadow of death, addresses his heartless beloved with ñše,
καιρός εκείνος, όπανίκα και του φιλάσεις, | ανίκα τάν κραδίαν οπτεύμενος αλμυρά
klaúoels, etc. — ferentem: the participle as usual in classical Latin is strictly
contemporaneous; while I discourse upon,' 'disclose,' 'report. He is
thinking of the habit of the antique philosophers (Sokrates, the Peripatetics,
etc.) of lecturing or answering questions while moving about. The picture
of the old man thus honoured is a favourite motive in the topic of old age,
the crown of a virtuous and useful life, cp. Kallimach. frag. 11, ympáo kel de
γέρων κείνος ελαφρότερον·| κούροι τον φιλέoυσιν, εάν δέ μιν οία γονία | χειρός
ÉTT' olkelny áxpus árovoi Qúpny • Lukian, Amor. 48; etc.
80. deducat: suggests the regular Roman custom of escorting distinguished
men on their way home or to the senate, etc., an honour much prized, cp. Cic.
Orat. 3, 133; Sen. 63; etc. Tib., however, is thinking of the teacher.
- senem: note the emphatic position and the juxtaposition with sedula
turba.
81-84. A beautiful dream -- from which the poet is wakened by a sudden
pang (heu heu) to the reality. A favourite device of Tibullus (cp. 1, 5, 35;
2, 4, 51-52 n.) and also of Horace (cp. the close of Od. 4, 1; 3, 26; etc.).
For the doubled interjection, 1, 6, 10; 2, 3, 2; 49; 2, 5, 108; and for
Marathus, Introd. p. 50. The name has been associated with mapalvw, cp.
Anth. Pal. 12, 234. The mention of him here places this elegy in the group
4, 8, 9, just as 2, 5, 109-112 places that elegy in the Nemesis group.
81. lento: prolonged,' with the accessory notion of “agonizing,' when
applied as here, to what is painful. So we speak of slow fires," "slow torture'
(lentis ignibus, Hor. Od. 1, 13, 8; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 573; etc.); Sueton.
Tib. 21,' miserum populum Romanum qui sub tam lentis maxillis erit.' Allied
to this is the meaning cold, unmoved,' 'unſeeling,' i.e. slow to feel com-
passion,' cp. 2, 6, 36.
82–83. On the arrangement deficiunt ... deficiunt cp. I, 1, 78 n. and on
fabula, 2, 3, 31-32 n.
84. magisteria : on the close of the pentameter see 1, 1, 38 n.
Note that 81-84 besides serving the purposes mentioned above also appear
to be a traditional illustration in this sphere of the idea contained in the say-
ing, ‘ Physician, heal thyself. As an example of his own doctrines Tibullus,
the would-be teacher, is a woeful failure, and what adds further point to the
whole piece is the well-known fact that Priapos also, as well as Pan, both tradi-
tionally 'magistri amoris,' were likewise both traditionally unfortunate in their
own love affairs.
289
1, 5, 1]
TIBVLLVS
I, 5
Tibullus and Delia have been separated for some time in consequence of a
serious quarrel. Now he longs for a reconciliation at any price. Meanwhile,
however, Delia has yielded to the more substantial arguments of a rich lover.
I said in my pride that our parting meant nothing to me. I pray you have
mercy upon me, I have been bitterly punished. Remember when you were
ill how I prayed for your recovery. Alas, a rival now reaps the benefit of my
prayers. I had looked forward to a happy life together when you would join
me in welcoming Messalla to our country home. All that was only an idle
dream. I turned to the wine cup, but sorrow changed the draught to tears.
I turned to other loves, but the thought of you left me cold. It is the rich
lover and his agent the cunning bawd that have been my ruin. May the
curse of bestial madness hound her shrieking and foaming to a pauper's
grave! Have done with her, Delia, and with her advice. Love and gifts
cannot live together. It is the poor lover, not the rich one, that renders you
the tribute of service and devotion. Alas, I sing in vain. Her door has no
ears except for the chink of gold. But you, you, I say, who just now are the
better man, look for my fate. The wheel of Fortune is never still. Indeed,
another man is already loitering about your door a great deal, dodging back
and forth, sauntering up and down, clearing his throat noisily from time to
time. Surely he has reasons for it. Something is on foot. Make the most
of your opportunities while you may. You are sailing in smooth seas.'
1-6. The slave of Cupid cannot escape from his bondage. The rebel learns
by bitter experience that many waters cannot quench love and that pride
goeth before a fall. Another illustration of the erotic poet's maxim that Love
is an invincible and a jealous god: see 1, 3, 21-22; 1, 2, 89-96 and notes;
cp. also 2, 6, 5; Propert. 2, 2, 1; 3, II, I; Philodem. Anth. Pal. 5, 24, and for
an amusing variant, Terence, Eun. 57. Ovid deals at large with this theme,
Rem. Amor. 53. Contrast his mock solemnity with the passionate fervor of
Catull. 76.
1. For the force of the imperfects cp. 20 and 35; 2, 5, 21.
2. Ovid, Met. 4, 649, 'vade procul, ne longe gloria rerum | quam mentiris,
ait, longe tibi Iuppiter absit.' – gloria fortis : lit. courageous boastfulness,'
2.e. boastful assumption of courage. “I said in my haste,' etc.
two young men, one whipping a top (Béußis) are pictured on an Attic drink-
ing cup of the fifth century B.C., now at the Johns Hopkins Univ., cp. also
Aristoph. Aves, 1461; Kallimach. Epig. 1,9 (Anth. Pal. 7,89); Persius, 3, 51.
290
: NOTES
[1, 5, 6
Verg. A. 7, 378 uses our poet's comparison to describe Amata driven by the
Fury, 'ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere turbo | quem pueri magno in
gyro vacua atria circum | intenti ludo exercent (ille actus habena curvatis
fertur spatiis; stupet inscia supra | inpubesque manus, mirata volubile buxum;
| dant animos plagae); Chrestien de Troyes (12th cent.) uses it in his Roman
de Cligés to describe his hero's sword in battle (3802), “S'est plus tornanz que
n'est la tronpe Que la corgiee mainne et chace. Theokrit. 2, 30, though
sometimes quoted, is not in point here, as he is not referring to the top, but
to the rhombos or witches' wheel (cp. I, 2, 59-62 n.). As soon as we per-
sonify the top we realize what an excellent simile we have for the helpless
victim of a mad passion. Less homely but not more striking is Sappho, frag.
35. Crus., "Epos ús á veuos karópos Opvolv tureOwv | opévas åduet épais érivačev.
3. sola : plural because the top hops from one spot to another as the whip
is applied. It occupies more than one solum, cp. rivos, I, I, 28; Catull. 63,
7 etiam recente terrae sola sanguine maculans'; id. 40, 'lustravit aethera
album, sola dura, mare ferum, etc. — turben: the old nom. turben here is
vouched for by Charisius (145, 8 K.). See Neue-Wagener, 1, p. 258.
4. ab arte: one would expect the simple ablative of manner. The addi-
tion of ab, phraseological but uncommon, is confined in prose to Varro, De Re
Rust. 1, 59, 2, 'quod spectaculum datur ab arte'; Vitruv, 5, 4, 3, 'harmoniae
ab arte conceptae’; 7, 5, 4; 5, 8. This is the first appearance of it in poetry,
where, as here, it is rarely without an attributive. The remaining exx. are 1,
9, 66; 2, 1, 56; Propert. 3, 24, 5; Ovid, Amor. 2, 15, 14; 4, 30; 12, 4; Ars
Amat. 3, 545; Fast. 2, 764; 3, 321 ; Trist. 2, 462; 4, 10, 16 (no attrib.);
Sil. Ital. 3, 278; Ilias Lat. 350; Stat. Theb. 6, 317; Anth. Lat. 359, 10
R.; Sidon. Carm. 23, 399 ; 2, 420; Inscript. Christ. Gall. 666. So ab insidiis,
Propert. 3, 24, 6 (only ex.); ab industria, Sidonius, Epist. 1, 7, 9; 3, 12, 5;
a solido, Greg. Turon. Hist. Franc. 2, 9; a fide, Quint. Decl. 269 (p. 99,
9 Ritter), etc.
5-6. Another application of the doctrine of Nemesis (1, 2, 89–96 n.) to
love. In any case, but above all here, boastfulness is a direct challenge to
the goddess of balance. Pride goes before a fall. See esp. 2, 6, 9–14; Ovid,
Her, 4, 150.
5. ure et torque : i.e. punish the slave of love as any other unruly slave is
punished. A commonplace of erotic poetry for which Tib. shows an esp.
fondness, cp. 1, 8, 5-6; 1, 9, 21 ; 2, 6, 5; esp. 2, 4, 1-6. For these and similar
punishments inflicted upon slaves cp.e.g. Hor. Epist. I, 15, 36; Propert. 4, 7, 35.
6. horrida verba : "harsh, rough words.' So e.g. Ovid, Rem. Amor. 664
(of a lovers' quarrel on the street), 'forte aderam iuveni. dominam lectica
tenebat : 1 horrebant saevis omnia verba minis,' etc.
291
1, 5, 7]
TIBVLLVS
7. per foedera lecti : the appeal is Homeric, cp. Il. 15, 39 (Hera to Zeus);
Soph. Aias, 493 (Tekmessa to Aias). · Much of the original dignity and
tenderness of the appeal is of course lost in the elegy. The appeal however
is a favourite one, Tib. 4, 13, 1; Propert. 3, 20, 15; Ovid, Her. 5, IOI; Met.
7, 709, etc. More in keeping perhaps is compositum caput, as in Propert. 2,
14, 22, cp. Ovid, Her. 3, 107 and Tib. 4, 5, 7. (For Arab lovers the floral
symbol of compositum caput is the almond blossom.) — per, of course, governs
foedera. This displacement and the position of te is usual in oaths and appeals,
cp. 4, 5,7; Terence, And. 289 (Spengel); Plaut. Capt. 977 (Lindsay); Hor.
Od. 1, 8, 1-2; Livy, 23, 9, 2 (Müller). The same is true of Greek, cp. eig.
Eurip. Hippol. 605, vai īpós oe Tſis oñs dečiâs. per occurs elsewhere in Tib.
with oaths, 1, 2, 38; 1, 4, 25–26; 1, 9, 2; 2, 6, 29. On per instr. 1, 6, 26 n.
9-18. Illness is a regular motive of the elegy, cp. 4, 4 and 11; Propert.
2, 9, 25; 2, 28; Ovid, Amor. 2, 13; Her. 20 and 21 ; esp. Ars Amat. 2, 315-
336 —
315
320
325
Saepe sub autumnum, cum formosissimus annus
plenaque purpureo subrubet uva mero,
cum modo frigoribus premitur, modo solvitur aestu,
aere non certo corpora languor habet:
illa quidem valeat, sed si male firma cubabit
et vitium caeli senserit aegra sui,
tunc amor et pietas tua sit manifesta puellae :
tum sere quod plena postmodo falce metas!
nec tibi morosi veniant fastidia morbi,
perque tuas fiant, quae sinet ipsa, manus,
et videat flentem, nec taedeat oscula ferre,
et sicco lacrimas conbibat ore tuas.
multa vove, sed cuncta palam, quotiensque libebit,
quae referas illi somnia laeta vide;
et veniat quae lustret anus lectumque locumque,
praeferat et tremula sulfur et ova manu:
omnibus his inerunt gratae vestigia curae;
in tabulas multis haec via fecit iter,
nec tamen officiis odium quaeratur ab aegra:
sit suus in blanda sedulitate modus!
neve cibo prohibe nec amari pocula suci
porrige: rivalis misceat illa tuus !
330
335
9. ille ego: see 1, 3, 93 n. ille with ego, tu, hic, is chiefly poetical. When
followed by a relative as e.g. in 1, 6, 31; Ovid, Trist. 4, 10, 1, etc. ille may be
explained as antecedent of the relative. Again, in exx. like Met. I, 757,
'ille ego liber ille ferox tacui'; Trist. 5, 7, 55, 'ille ego Romanus vates'; (cp.
•
292
NOTES
[1, 5, 12
to
Amor. 3, 8, 23, etc.), ille qualifies the noun in apposition. Here, however,
ille is the attributive of ego or in apposition with it; "that 1,' that self of
other days. No exact parallel for this is found in Propertius, and Burman's
Index quotes none from Ovid. For ille with a vocative, 2, 3, 74; 2, 4, 2. —
cum ... iaceres: cum circumstantial with the imperf. subj. as here occurs in
1, 2, 14; 65; 1, 3, 9; I, 4, 33; I, 5, 39; 1, 10, 16; 2, 5, 21; in 2, 3, 5 cum
nearly = if. With the pluperf. 1. 12 below. In 1, 3, 15 cum is perhaps con-
cessive. - defessa: an excellent description of the malarial troubles from
which the Romans suffered so much and which the poet has in mind; cp. 4,
4, 10; 4, 11, 2; Ovid, Ars Amat. l.6. 315 above; Hor. Carm. Saec. 64; etc.
10. votis: general. The particulars follow in 11-16. Under such circum-
stances vota were usual and, indeed, quite en règle on the part of one's friends.
Hence, in this motive of the elegy they are never lacking; cp. 4, 4; Ovid,
Ars Amat. 1.c.; Amor, 2, 13, 23; Propert. 2, 9, 25; 2, 28, 43 and 59, and we
usually hear of them in connection with the will hunters; cp. Juv. 12, 95, etc.
11-12. This ceremony, which combines magic with the use of practical dis-
infectants, rests primarily on the primitive theory of disease as a demon to be
exorcised. The two main details of the ceremony of lustration are mentioned
here. For fuller descriptions, cp. Nemes. 4, 62, quid prodest quod me pagani
mater Amyntae | ter vittis, ter fronde sacra, ter ture vaporo, ) incendens vivo
crepitantes sulphure lauros, / lustravit cineresque aversa effudit in amnem';
Claudian, VI Cons. Honor. 324, "lustralem tum rite facem, cui lumen
odorum sulphure caeruleo nigroque bitumine fumat, circum membra rotat
doctus purganda sacerdos | rore pio spargens, et dira fugantibus herbis numina
purificumque Iovem Triviamque précatus trans caput aversis manibus iacu-
latur in Austrum secum rapturas cantata piacula taedas'; Pind. Pyth. 3, 51;
Propert. 4, 8, 83, etc.
Both the Greeks and the Romans ascribed great healing and purifying
powers to sulphur, hence its regular use in lustration from the earliest times;
cp. Homer, Odyss. 22, 481; Il. 16, 228; Theokrit. 24, 94; Propert. 4, 8, 86;
Ovid, Rem. Amor. 260, 'nulla recantatas deponent pectora curas | nec fugiet
vivo sulfure victus amor'; Pliny, H. N. 35, 177, etc. See O. Gruppe, Griech.
Mythologie, Munich, 1906, p. 889, n. 4 with references.
12. praecinuisset: i.e. she uttered the incantation as she paced about the
sick bed and Tibullus followed with the sulphur. The word does not neces-
arily imply that she acted as a praecantatrix, i.e. that Tib. repeated the
charm after her. In Ovid, Ars Amat, 2, 329–330 above, she is apparently
unaided and, in fact, ipse here (= 'in person'; cp. 1, 1, 7 n.) twice repeated
emphasizes his special devotion, since this function was regularly performed
by the saga who was apt to call upon the girl's lover to furnish the materials.
293
1, 5; 13]
TIBVLLVS
Indeed this is one of the conventional methods used by the prudent meretrix
and her confidante, the saga, to extort a present from their victim; cp. Martial,
II, 50; 7, 54, etc. -- anus: 1.l. a saga (1, 2, 42 n.) who was always called.in
acc. to immemorial custom; cp. Homer, Odyss. 22, 481, etc. .
13. procuravi: a religious word. For the prosody, Ovid, Ars Amat. 1,
LA
consecutive sentences in Tib. are 4, 4, 5; 1, 9, 26; 2, 4, 38 (with ne and ut);
1, 3, 14 (quin); 4, 2, 15 (qui); with simple subjunct. 1, 3, 54 and note. —
saeva somnia: he is probably referring to the semi-delirious visions more
or less characteristic of malaria. Bad dreams may be sent by the manes
(2, 6, 37 n.), but more esp. by Trivia who is responsible for madness in all its
forms, cp. Hippokrates, 1, p. 592 K., ókboa dè deluata vukTds Traplotatai kai
φόβοι και παράνοιαι και αναπηδήσεις εκ της κλίνης και φεύξιες έξω “Εκάτης φασιν
elvai é ißoulás. Soph. Aias, 172; Eurip. Hippol. 141, etc. Hence mala
somnia are termed omina Lunae by Propert. 4, 4, 23. Trivia, therefore, is
asked to keep them away, and can do so, cp. 3, 4, 13; Statius, Theb. 9, 585;
etc.
14. ter: 1, 2, 54 n. - deveneranda: i.e. 'to be averted by prayer. So
apparently only in this passage (deveneror: veneror : : deprecor : precor).
For the passive meaning, which in deponents is largely confined to the par-
ticipial forms, cp. venerata, Hor. Sat. 2, 2, 124; Verg. A. 3, 460, etc.; vene-
randa, Tib. 1, 7, 56; operata, 2, 3, 36 and notes. — mola: i.e. the salsa mola,
the use of which was traditionally prescribed by Numa (Pliny, H.N. 18, 7).
Servius on Verg. E. 8, 82, describes the preparation of it by the Vestals. It
Praefat. 11). For its use in this connection, Martial, 7, 54, 5; Lygd. 3, 4,
10; Plautus, Amphit. 740; etc.
A common method in the case of ominous dreams was morning lustration
in running water, Propert. 4, 4, 24; Verg. A. 8, 69; Val. Flacc. 5, 332; Stat.
Theb. 9, 573; Pers. 2, 16; Juv. 6, 522, etc.
15-16. A sacrifice to Trivia for Delia's illness in general. The influence of
the moon on disease, esp. certain types of disease, is an article of faith more
or less well founded among all nations, cp. 2.8. Galen, 19, p. 188 K., voooi de
αι μεν κατά αφαίρεσιν φθίνοντος του μηνός συνεπισημαίνουσι προς το χειρον, αι
δε κατά περιουσίαν δε και πλημμυρίδα αυξανομένου πιέζουσι τά μάλιστα, and
often. Hence the sick call upon the moon goddess as a matter of course,
cp. Theognis, 13; Philippos, Anth. Pal. 6, 240, 3; etc. See Roscher's
Selene, p. 72..
15. velatus filo: covering of the head by the priest was ceremonial in
many Roman sacrifices, but the apex, or its old-fashioned substitute the hillet
294
NOTES
[1, 5, 22
(filum), was generally worn by the flamines or fetiales. --tunicis solutis: the
rule in any service to the gods, Ovid, Met. 1, 382, etc. See also I, I, 67 n.;
1, 3, 31 n.; 2, 1, 15-16 n.
16. vota dedi: i.e. vota reddidi, so Ovid, Pont. 2, 5, 13; Tib. I, 3, 44 n.;
I, 4, 16 n. -- novem: this multiple of three is ritualistic, and is often as
here associated with the worship of Hekate. — nocte silente: 1, 2, 61 n.
17–18. Transition to the next topic. For the naive complaint cp. Ovid,
Her. 6; 75, vota ego persolvam? votis Medea fruetur!'5, 59, 'votis ergo meis
alii rediture, redisti? | ei mihi, pro dira paelice blanda fui.? The motive of
9-16 is usually introduced as an illustration of ingratitude and Love's Labour's
Lost.
18. ille : Tib. is especially fond of a dissyllabic pronoun in this place (35
exx.; 4 in Lygdamus).
19–34. Another version of the poet's characteristic theme, cp. I, 1, 1-48;
2, 71–75; 3, 35-48; 10, 7-44; 2, 5, 25-48. For Bertin's imitation see 1, 2,
79-94 n.
19-21. The apodosis is involved in the oratio obliqua, i.e. ' fingebam mihi
felicem vitam futuram esse si salva fuisses,' cp. Sall. Jug. 25, 7, `timebat iram
(=ne irasceretur) senatus, ni paruisset legatis '; 'He was afraid of the anger
of the senate (that the senate would get angry) in case he did not (should
not have) obey(ed) the legates' (Gild.-Lodge, 601). Similar is 1, 4, 23,
vetuit valere quidquid iurasset,' cp. n. ad loc.
20. demens: quia spem in constantia mulieris habuerit,' says the old
commentator Cyllenius. - renuente deo: for the phrase, Ovid, Met. 8, 325;
Mart. 2, 14, 14.
21. rura: for the plural, cp. 2, 3, 1. — colam, etc.: the unheralded change
to direct quotation is characteristic of poetry and lively prose. — frugum
custos, etc.: the idyllic simplicity of the life proposed is constantly empha-
sized. Delia, a city-bred girl, is expected to play the part of a frugal and
prudent housewife of the old Italian pattern far from the madding crowd (!)
22. area: the area or threshing floor under the open sky, after the Homeric
(II. 20, 496) and Biblical fashion, and made acc. to the directions given by
Cato (91 and 129), Varro (1, 51), Vergil (G. 1, 178), etc., is still found, e.g.
in Tuscany, though now fast disappearing. Here the grain was often trodden
out by oxen as in Biblical times. But contrary to the Biblical rule (Deuteron.
25, 4) they were muzzled. — dum here is completely co-extensive, hence teret
follows the tense of the verb of the main clause, as in 1, 4, 65. With dum
partially coextensive, the rule of the present after all tenses is rarely broken,
cp. 2, 3, 19 n. - messes: the plural is frequent in the poets, cp. 1, 2, 98;
1, 1, 24; 2, 1, 47. Sing. 1, 1, 42; 2, 1, 19. --sole calente: characteristic of
295
1, 5, 23]
TIBVLLVS
the Italian harvest time, and of course desirable in this connection, cp. Verg.
G. 1, 298.
23-24. 1, 1, 10 n.; 1, 7, 35; 2, 1, 45. For more detailed descriptions of
the process, Cato, 120; Columella, 12, 19.
24. candida musta: for the adjective cp. Pliny 23, 29, musta differen-
tias habent naturales has, quod sunt candida aut nigra aut inter utrumque,
alia ex quibus vinum fiat, alia ex quibus passum.'
25-34. Note the marked use of the poet's favourite figure of anaphora in
this passage (1, 1, 23 n.). Further liveliness is insured by frequent demon-
stratives which enforce again and again the supreme importance of Delia and
incidentally of Messalla in this dream of idyllic happiness.
27. deo agricolae : 1, 1, 14 n.
The personal dative with verbs of motion (trans. or intrans.) is frequent in
the poets. It is sometimes an indirect object, occasionally even suggests the
object for which, more often some category under the dative of personal inter-
est. The relation is usually indicated by “for’ rather than 'to.'
With venire, 1, 1, 59; 1, 3, 65; 2, 4, 43; 1, 9, 43; 1, 10, 67, but 2, 5, 46,
Sad Troianos.' In one ex., 2, 1, 81, 'veni dapibus festis,' the dative is not per-
sonal but rather a dativus commodi. With mittere, 2, 6, 37; 4, 13, 13; por-
tare, 2, 2, 18; ferre, as here, 2, 6, 31.
28. pro segete spicas: acc. to L. Müller this and 1, 6, 34 are the only
exx. in the elegy of the lengthening of a short final vowel before two conso-
nants in the following word. Not uncommon in Vergil, cp. G. 1, 153; 164;
352; 371; etc. The vowel is usually as here in the thesis.
29–30. Emphatic summary suggested by the particulars previously men-
tioned. Note cunctos, omnia, tota, for Delia as opposed to nihil for himself.
Martial, 14, 193, writing verses to go with a copy of Tibullus to be given at
a dinner party (apophoretum) “ussit amatorem Nemesis lasciva Tibullum, | in
tota iuvit quem nihil esse domo.' As Nemesis was a later love Martial is per-
haps slyly commenting upon the poet's inconstancy by associating with her
a line which, as he and many of his readers must have known, belonged to
Delia. This seems more likely than to suppose that he confused the two.
So Ovid, Amor. 3, 9 (on the death of Tib.) 57, cui Nemesis “quid" ait “tibi
sunt mea damna dolori? | me tenuit moriens deficiente manu,'' gives to
Nemesis a line written for Delia (I, I, 60).
29. For the shift from future indicative to subjunctive (sciet ... regat, etc.)
see 1, 1, 24 n. -- illi sint curae: the double dative is on the whole a popular
construction. Tib. uses it only here and 2, 3, 43 (also with curae), cp. Sul-
picia, 4, 7, 2; 4, 10, 5, otherwise as in 1, 9, 51; 2, 3, 31; 4, 12, 1. For Pro-
pertius Hoerle cites only 2, 26, 31; 2, 15, 27; 4, II, 29; 2, 5, 30; 2, 26, 17.
296
NOTES
[1, 5, 36
1
32. detrahat arboribus: when personal interest is not involved Tib.
always uses the ablative with, or, as here, without a preposition, cp. 1. 66; I,
10, 60; 1, 5, 32; otherwise always the dative, cp. 1, 9, 35 n.
33. tantum : adjective. — venerata: of a guest as here, Sil. Ital. 13, 704.
The participle is causal, cp. 2, 4, 47. Cf. n. on deveneranda, l. 14, above. —-
virüm hunc: combines two exceptional freedoms of prosody. As a rule
both occur only before a caesura as in this example. Lengthening of a final
vowel in thesi irrespective of position is occasional, more especially in the
epic hexameter, down to and including Vergil. The same rule applies to
hiatus, of which Vergil furnishes the largest no. of exx. (40). But hiatus
with a syllable in m like this is excessively rare. This and two cases in
Propertius (2, 15, 1, 'o me felicem! o nox mihi candida! et o tu'; 2, 32, 45,
haec eadem ante illam impune et Lesbia fecit ') acc. to Müller (De Re Met.
p. 376), complete the record for the elegy. So Ennius, Ann. 271, 5: Manil.
1, 795. Juv. 8, 241, and the pentameters of Catull. 66, 48; 67, 44 and Mart.
3, 3, 4 are not entirely certain as to text. Other cases of arbitrary lengthening
of a final syllable in caesura are 1, 10, 13 and 2, 2, 5, where see the notes.
34. epulas: to be taken with both verbs. The line adds the last touch
of rustic simplicity, cp. I, 1, 7 n.; 1, 1,'29.
35–36. Express a popular Graeco-Roman proverb (“ventis loqui,' etc.)
or which the elegiac poets, above all Ovid, show an especial fondness, cp. I
4, 21; 4, 4, 7; 3, 4, 96; 3, 6, 27; 50. The winds are often pictured as
carrying the words away to the seas, to the clouds, or as here to the ends
of the earth. Armenios for the more usual Assyrios (1, 3, 7 n.) apparently
because Armenia is itself high and windy. The touch of the oriental and
remote is given by odoratos (“the place from which our perfumes come').
35. Eurusque Notusque: a general term ; 'the wild winds. No travellers
taking passage at Rome with either Eurus or Notus in its specific sense would
ever reach Armenia. The combination is Homeric, e.g. Il 2, 144, kúuara
μακρά θαλάσσης, | πόντου 'Ικαρίοιο, τα μέν τ’ Εύρος τε Νότος τε ώρoρ' έπαιξας
Tarpos Alós ék vedeláwv. 16, 765, cp. Verg. A. 1, 85.
36. iactat: the general rule that the common predicate of two or more
singular subjects shall be in the plural is frequently neglected in poetry, esp.
by Horace. The same rule is not infrequently neglected by our older English
writers, cp. e.g. Macbeth, 2, 3, 'Renown and grace is dead, etc. Tibullus
himself observes the rule but twice, 1, 10, 49, and 2, 4, 40. On the other
hand, in two parallel exx., the one before us and 2, 5, 49, the rule of the
nearest was perhaps encouraged by the exigencies of metre. Otherwise he
follows the general rule of the singular with subjects conceived of as acting
individually. This is frequently illustrated, e.g, in his favourite device of
297
1, 5, 37]
TIBVLLVS
using one predicate with a series of subjects stated without connectives as in
2, 3, 38; I, 7, 43-48 ; 2, 1, 63; 1, 3, 47. So too we have the usual rule
of the singular when the verb precedes or follows the first subject, as in 2, 4,
29-30. The chief rule, however, with Tib. is the rule of the nearest; the
verb is stated with one subject and to be supplied with the rest. This
is seen especially where plural and singular subjects are combined, as in
1, 2, 77 ; 1, 3, 23; 1, 3, 47; 1, 8, 1; 1, 10, 3 and 9; 2, 1, 89-90; 2, 3, 12 ;
2, 4, 13; cp. also 1, 10, 3 ; 2, 5, 73; 2, 4, I; 1, 2, 33. The adjective with
two nouns is plural in 1, 4, 37, cp. I, 3, 2 and n. In I, I, 75 it agrees
with the nearest (see n.), in 2, 5, 22 with the strongest (really the nearest,
see n. ad loc.).
37-40. Imitated by Bertin, Amours, 2, 11, ' Les Voyages.'
37–38. 1, 2, 1-6 n.
37. curas: of lovers' troubles, as often, e.g. 2, 3, 13; 2, 6, 51; 3, 2, 29;
Propert. I, 10, 17; 2, 18, 21; 3, 17, 4; Ovid, Amor. 2, 10, 12; 19, 43; Ars
Amat. I, 238, etc.
38. I have found no parallels for this pretty conceit. The lovelorn swain
in Calpurn. 3, 51 says, 'te sine, vae misero, mihi lilia nigra videntur nec
sapiunt fontes et acescunt vina bibenti,' and another one in Nemes. 2, 42,
omnes ecce cibos et nostri pocula Bacchi | horreo nec placido memini con-
cedere somno' (which is very much like Lord Chuniley's 'Can't eat, can't sleep,
can't smoke: must be in love'). — verterat: the pluperfect indicates resulting
condition in the past. The wine was tears when I came to drink it. Sorrow
had turned it,' etc. - omne merum: i.e. in every case, cp. oinnis amor in 60.
39–40. The motto and the suggestion of Goethe's Tagebuch. "Choquant
et de mauvais goût ... mais bien vrai,' is Martinon's comment on the lines.
Mario Equicola, Di Natura a'Amore, Venice, 1626, p. 257, refers also to these
lines in a review of the principal motives in Tibullus's poetry. On p. 301 he
observes dryly that “Ama Tibullo Delia, lascia · la per Nemesi, da Nemesi
corre a Neera, ed è si ardito che scrisse come la mente delle donne è mutabile.'
39. saepe aliam tenui: old established doctrine acc. to Cicero, Tusc. Disput.
4, 75,' etiam novo quidam amore veterem amorem tamquam clavo clavum eici-
endum putant, and highly recommended by Ovid, Rem. Amor. 441. Hence
the complete failure of it here indicates the more clearly the poet's hope-
less condition. None of the approved remedies avails. For tenere in this
sense, 1, 6, 35; Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 3; etc.
40. admonuit dominae: omission of the object (here me) in this cons.
of admoneo is very rare.
41. devotum: i.e. under a spell. The condition was, and in many
parts of Europe still is, habitually ascribed to magic, cp. Ovid, Amor. 3,
298
NOTES
[1, 5, 43
7, 27 (an elegy suggested by this motive), ‘num mea Thessalico languent
devota veneno | corpora? num misero carmen et herba nocent, | sagave poeni-
cea deſixit nomina cera , et medium tenuis in iecur egit acus?' etc., and again
79, aut te traiectis Aeaea venefica lanis | devovet, aut alio lassus amor venis'
(in which as we learn from actual defixiones Ovid is alluding to the most com-
mon method of procedure); Herod. 2, 181 ; often in the witch trials of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, etc.. See esp. J. Hansen, Quellen und
Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im
Mittelalter, Bonn, 1901, pp. 44; 97; 138; 142; 276; 283, etc.
42. et pudet et narrat: the phrase appears to be supported and sufficiently
explained by Ovid, Rem. Amor. 407, 'et pudet et dicam,' lit. 'I am ashamed
and at the same time I will say,''I say it with shame,' i.e. 'I am ashamed to
say it but I will’; Met. 14, 279, 'et pudet et referam'; Pont. 4, 15, 29, et
pudet et metuor.' 'And she is piqued and is telling,' etc. In her pique
she is telling that my mistress knows,' etc. devotum is what she told
Tibullus, the pentameter is the expansion of it which she retailed to others. —
nefanda: things accursed, too awful to be mentioned, i.e. la science maudite,
the black art. The impressively indefinite word suggests in itself the attitude
of the gossip at the time. — meam : sc. puellam or dominam, so 1, 4, 75;
2, 5, 103 ; 2, 6, 52 ; 4, 7, 8; Propert. I, 9. 22; Catull. 3, 6, etc. This use of
the possessive pronoun though occasional in the elegy is more characteristic
of the popular sphere. So ipse, ipsa (Greek attós) of the master or mistress,
as in Terence, And. 360 ; Plaut. Casina, 790; Verg. E. 3, 3 ; Catull. 64, 43 ;
Ovid, Met. 2, 390 (of Jupiter); Trist. 5, II, II; Petron. 63 (ipsimi nostri);
etc.
43-46. Reply to the gossip of 42. “Yes, Delia has laid me under a charm
(devovet, cp. devotum, 41) — but the charm is her beauty. For the descrip-
tion of Delia's charms see Introd. p. 48. The passage is echoed by Luigi
Alamanni, in his elegy, 'Ben mi credia poter senz'altra cura,' etc.
43–44. C'est une nouvelle preuve que les femmes sont grandes ennemies
de la science,' remarks the inimitable Jérome Coignard (Anatole France, la
Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque, p. 55) when these lines are quoted against
him in an argument. Tibullus gives a skilful turn to the old question of the
comparative merits of beauty and magic in a love affair. For another, 1,
8, 23. Afranius says (378 R., cp. Menander, 646 K.) si possent homines
delenimentis capi, | omnes haberent nunc amatores anus. , aetas et corpus
tenerum et morigeratio, | haec sunt venena formosarum mulierum: , mala
aetas nulla delenimenta invenit. When Olympias had seen and conversed
with a rival who had been accused of winning Philip's affections by witch-
craft, she is reported to have dismissed her with the remark (Plutarch, Mor.
299
1, 5, 43]
TIBVLLVS
141), xalpétwo:av ai diaßoral. Où ydp év geautỳ Tà pápuaka é xels. [Satyros
told the same story of the Queen of Hystaspes, see Oxyr. Pap.. 9 (1912), pp.
157-8.] Cp. also, Eurip. Androm. 205; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 105; Med. Fac. 35.
43. verbis: i.e. “incantations,' cp. Hor. Epist. I, I, 34, 'sunt verba et
voces quibus hunc lenire dolorem | possis'; Ovid, Met. 7, 203; etc. -- facie :
for the omission of an adversative particle before facie see 2, 1, 71; 2, 4, 19.
45-46. The marriage of Peleus and Thetis which appears to have been
told at length in a lost poem of Hesiod's was one of the most popular themes
of antique poetry. There were two versions. In the one (in a somewhat
modified form most familiar to us from Catull. 64) the marriage, the presence
of the gods, their gifts, etc. are emphasized. This is the epic type. The
other is the lyric and dramatic type, and the inain motive of it is how Peleus
lay in wait for Thetis and captured her exactly as Menelaos captured Proteus
(Odyss. 4, 450; Verg. G. 4, 387, etc.). This early version of the world-wide
tale of the Mermaid and her mortal Lover (clearly the popular version) is best
represented by Ovid, Met. II, 221–265. It was apparently this version which
Tibullus had in mind. At all events the work of art to which we have a pass-
ing reference in 46 seems to be the same as that which may have exerted an
influence upon the Ovidian version, cp. 1.Ci 229 —
Est sinus Haemoniae curvos falcatus in arcus,
bracchia procurrunt: ubi, si foret altior unda,
portus erat; summis inductum est aequor harenis
litus habet solidum, quod nec vestigia servet,
nec remoretur iter, nec opertum pendeat alga.
myrtea silva subest, bicoloribus obsita bacis.
est specus in medio, natura factus an arte
ambiguum; magis arte tamen : quo saepe venire
frenato delphine sedens, Theti nuda, solebas.
illic te Peleus, ut somno vincta iacebas,
occupat; et quoniam precibus temptata repugnas,
vim parat, innectens ambobus colla lacertis, etc.
See Val. Flaccus 1, 130 for another (real or imaginary) painting suggested by
the Catullian version but possibly influenced by the lines of Tibullus, hic
insperatos Tyrrheni tergore piscis | Peleos in thalamos vehitur Thetis, aequora
delphin | corripit, illa sedet deiecta in lumina palla nec love maiorem nasci
suspirat Achillen. I hanc Panope Dotoque soror laetataque fluctu / prosequitur
nudis pariter Galatea lacertis, / antra petens; Siculo revocat de litore Cyclops,'
etc.; see too Stat. Achill. 1, 221, ‘elicit inde fretis et murice frenat acuto |
delphinas biiuges, quos illi maxima Tethys | gurgite Atlanteo pelagi sub valle
sonora | nutrierat,' etc.
300
NOTES
[1, 5, 49
45. Nerēis : after Nipnls, so Catull. 64, 15; Culex, 300 and 345; Stat.
Achill. 1, 527, etc. Also Nereis, after Nmpels, Ovid, Met. 11,,259; 13, 749;
Sil. Ital. 14, 572; Stat. Achill. 1, 24, etc. The choice appears to be a mere
matter of metrical convenience.
46. caerula : a natural epithet of sea deities and of Thetis in particular,
cp. Hor. Epod. 13, 16; Stat. Achill. 1, 650; Propert. 2, 9, 15; Ovid, Met. 13,
288. He means of course that Thetis' eyes were blue, the colour of her
native element. The figure is not uncommon, cp. Hor. Epod. 16, 7, 'nec fera
caerulea domuit Germania pube'('her blue-eyed sons'); flava Ceres, 1, 1, 15
n., etc. For Neptune's blue eyes cp. Cicero, N. D. 1, 30, 83, "non pudet
igitur physicum, id est speculatorem venatoremque naturae, ab animis con-
suetudine imbutis petere testimonium veritatis? isto enim modo licebit
Iovem semper barbatum, Apollinem semper imberbem, caesios oculos
Minervae, caeruleos esse Neptuni.'
47–48. The dives amator comes ready made to the elegy from the New
comedy and is a leading figure in each. His model was the mercenary
soldiers with which the Macedonian period was crowded, 'typical soldiers of
fortune, with their coarse love of sensual pleasure — their coarse contempt of
everything that cannot be eaten, drunk, or handled' (Gildersleeve, Introd. .
Persius, p. 20). Famous literary examples are the Thraso of Terence and
the Pyrgopolinices of Plautus. See Introd. p. 45. For the topic of the dives
amator see, e.g. 1, 8, 29; 1, 9, 53; 2, 3, 59; Propert. 4, 5; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8,
23; 3, 8; and often. For his faithful agent the lena, I, 4, 59 (but see n. ad
loc.); 1, 9, 51; 2, 6, 44; Propert, and Ovid, l.C.; etc.
47. haec: plural because, although the construction changes after amator,
the poet is thinking of the lena as well as of the dives amator. - nocuere :
-ērünt or -ērē in the 3d pers. pl. of the perf. indic. seems to have been largely
determined by metrical convenience. The advantage, however, of the older
form in -ērě for dactylic verse is obvious, hence we have for Tibullus – forms
in -ērē, I, 4, 31; 1, 5, 47; 1, 7, 1; 1, 7, 5; 2, 1, 39; 2, I, 43; 2, 3, 21; 2,
4, 31; 4, 5, 3; forms in -ērunt, 1, 8, 69; 2, 3, 12; 2, 3, 69; 2, 5, 37; 2, 5, 71;
4, 5, 4. On the subject in general, see Wölfflin, Archiv f. Lat. Lexiko.
graphie, 14, 478, f.
49–56. The formal cursing of the lena (a favourite theme also of the
comedy, one too which appears occasionally in actual devotiones discovered
from time to time) is a regular section of this topic, cp. 1, 4, 59; 2, 6, 43;
Propert. 4, 5, 65; Ovid, Amor. I, 8, 113; etc. But thc black bitterness of this
passage and the awfulness of the scene suggested is rarely approached else-
where in Roman poetry.
49–50. That is, 'may her hunger (and poverty) be such that she will be
301
1, 5, 50]
TIBVLLVS
forced to devour raw meat wherever she finds it and mix her drink with gall
for want of the usual wine' (so Dissen). The explanation is not sufficient;
moreover the poet takes up the curse of hunger further down. To be sure,
like many of the traditional punishments of Hades, the curse figures the
crime. sanguineae dapes are a fitting reward for the death of the innocent
lovers whom her cruelty has murdered. So, too, the lovers' cup of gall is a
commonplace of erotic poetry, e.g. Plaut. Cist. 69,'amor et melle et felle est
fecundissimus,' the bitter-sweet of love, Sappho's YAUKÚT LKPOS " Epws, which
has been a proverb in all ages. But the reward of the lena shall be the cup
of gall untempered with sweet. The point, however, of this bizarre and
horrid curse is that the woman shall run mad. The mention here of blood
and gall rests upon the superstition that blood as well as gall when drunk
has just this effect. See the references in Oppenheimer's article (mentioned
below), and cp. Macbeth, 1, 5, 'Come to my woman's breasts, | And take my
milk for gall, you murdering ministers, / Wherever in your sightless sub-
stances | You wait on nature's mischief! For the most recent discussions of
this curse see Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 200, n. 3, and Oppenheimer,
* Apai, Wiener Studien, 1908, p. 146, with references.
50. tristia : the translation of tristis should be guided by the fact that in
one way or another the word usually suggests facial expression, cp. esp.
Verg. G. 2, 247. Here it is active (1, 1, 8 n.) and the picturesque substitute
of amarus; cups, as it were, that pucker one's face. So we may say a 'sour-
faced' man, i.e. a man whose expression suggests that he has just swallowed
something sour.
51. That is, the lovers who have been brought to death by her cruelty. The
ghosts of those we have injured come back from the grave to haunt us; cp.
2, 6, 37 n.; Hor. Epod. 5, 91, 'quin ubi perire iussus exspiravero, ) nocturnus
occurram Furor | petamque vultus umbra curvis unguibus, quae vis deorum
est manium, et inquietis adsidens praecordiis pavore somnos auferam';
Ovid, Ibis, 141; Verg. A. 4, 385; Val. Flacc. 3, 384; Stat. Theb. 3, 74; esp.
Ammian. Marcell. 14, 11, 17. — fata : 4, 4, 11 n.
52. e tectis ... canat: ominous to the last degree and much dreaded
by the Romans. Any owl is the herald par excellence of disaster, “foeda
volucris,' as Ovid says (Met. 5, 549), 'venturi nuntia luctus, | ignavus bubo
dirum mortalibus omen'; cp. e.g. "It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal
bellman, | Which gives the stern'st good-night.' — Macbeth. But the matter is
trebly ominous if, as here, the owl lights upon one's own roof; cp. e.g. Propert.
4, 3, 59, and esp. Pliny, 10, 34, 'bubo funebris et maxime abominatus publicis
praecipue auspiciis deserta incolit nec tantum desolata sed dira etiam et in-
accessa, noctis monstrum, nec cantu aliquo vocalis sed gemitu. itaque in
302
NOTES
[1, 5, 54
urbibus aut omnino in luce visus dirum ostentum est. privatorum domibus
insidentem plurium scio non fuisse feralem. volat numquam quo libuit, sed
transversus aufertur. See also Ovid, Ibis, 221; Propert. 2, 28, 38; Verg. A.
4, 462, etc. .
The most ominous variety of all, however, is, as here, the strix, or screech
owl (described by Ovid, Fast. 6, 131), because for the Romans the strix be-
longed quite as much to the kingdom of dreams as to the kingdom of birds
(sée esp. Pliny, II, 232, and Ovid, loc.). In the popular fancy of those days
witches could turn into striges (Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 13; the famous story in
Apuleius, Met. 3, 21 ff.), just as, in the Middle Ages, they turned into cats, or
as the devil preferred the form of a black dog or of a wolf. Hence one can
never be sure in any given instance whether the strix is a real strix or a
witch in the form of one (Ovid, Fast. 6, 141, etc.). Indeed, striges = 'witches,'
not 'screech owls,' occurs as early as Plautus, Pseud. 820 (cp. Propert. 4, 5, 17),
and the popular Latin form strigae of Petron. 63 and 134 survives in the
modern Italian streghe. See also Mantuanus, Eclog. 4, 48, and 8, 123, with
Mustard's note. The object of the witches' transformation is always
vampirism in some one of its various aspects. The strix, therefore, and occa-
sionally the bubo, is the Roman vampire (Pliny, 11, 232; Ovid, Fast. 6, 131;
Seren. Sammon. 1035; Plaut. Pseud. 820; Petron. 134, etc.). Any part of a
strix is valuable in a charm (Propert. 3, 6, 29; Ovid, Met. 7, 269; Hor. Epod.
5, 20; Seneca, Med. 733, etc.), and the very tree in which she builds her nest
is accursed (Ovid, Amor. I, 12, 20). — violenta: suggests very well the cry
of the bird; cp. e.g. Seneca, Thyestes, 692, 'letale carmen ore violento canit,'
and the Greek formula for banning the vampire (Festus, 314=Carm. Pop.
29 Crus.), otplyn ÅTOTOMITEV VUKTIßbav, otplyn' ånd lawv pulv å vwvvulav,
ωκυπόρους επί νήας.
53. herbasque sepulcris : to devour the growing plants is itself proverbial
of extreme hunger (Verg. A. 7, 758; Lucan, 6, 109, etc.), but to devour those
which grow in a graveyard invites the punishment of sacrilege (Ovid, Fast.
4, 750, etc.). Moreover, such plants can avenge themselves, for they contain
magic properties and hence are used in charms the world over; cp. Theokrit. 5,
121 (see Fritzsche's note); Propert. 4, 5, II; Hor. Sat. 1, 8, 22; Epod, 17,
47, etc. See Riess in the A.J. P. 24, 440, and Hartland's Legend of Perseues,
vol. I, pp. 151 and 165.
54. Ossa relicta lupis : i.e. in graveyards and lonely places, and possibly
remains of the unburied dead (Hor. Epod. 5, 98, etc.). Here is where she
wanders, driven thither by the haunting ghosts of 51. In antique folk-belief
no animal is so distinctly uncanny as the wolf. Nearly every part of him is
good in a charm (Ovid, Met. 7, 270; Lucan, 6, 688; Hor. Sat. 1, 8, 42;
1
303
1, 5, 56]
TIBVLLVS
Pliny, 8, 83; etc.), especially, however, the food snatched from his jaws
(Lucan, 6, 552) or from the jaws of a hungry dog (Hor. Epod. 5, 23).
The child who drinks dog's milk shall later bark like a dog (Ovid, Ibis, 169)..
and in Modern Greece, where, owing to Slavonian influence, werewolf and
vampire are combined in one, the person who eats a lamb killed by a wolf
shall aſterwards, become a vampire. So here the lena, driven to gnaw bones
covered with the slaver of an uncanny beast whose mad hunger and fury are
a proverb (Aristoph. Lysist. 629; Diogen. Paroen. Graeci 6, 20, and often),
finally comes as a matter of course to wolf-madness, or lycanthropy, for this
is plainly the affliction alluded to in 55. Hence the dogs (sacred to Hekate,
who was once her patron goddess, but who now leads the ghosts against her)
recognize her as something uncanny and hunt her from the cross-roads before
she can find time to devour the offering of food to Hekate ('Exátns dein vov,
see my Hekate's Suppers in Hastings' Cyclop. of Religion and Ethics,' s.v., and
cp. Aristoph. Plut. 596 and Schol.; Petron. 135; Lukian, Dial. Mort. 1, 1,
etc.). So at last shall be fulfilled the curse of the dead lovers. It was fore-
shadowed by the strix, it begins to work in 53, and through the agencies of
53-54 it finally culminates in lycanthropy, the most dramatic if not the most
awful of all the forms of madness. This disease, which still occurs here and
there, was widely prevalent in the days of the witch trials and not at all un-
common in antiquity. References to it are numerous and all agree with
Marcellus Sidetes, a physician of the second century who wrote a special work
on the subject, that persons so afflicted wander by night in lonely places,
about graves, etc., and howl like wolves. Like all forms of madness, it was
traced to Hekate and the unquiet dead; cp. 13 n.
· 56. post: always used as an adverb by Tibullus; local, as here, 1, 10, 24;
2, 1, 16; 89; temporal, 1, 2, 90; I, 4, 56; 1, 6, 2; 52; 77.
57-58. This staccato style is very characteristic of Ovid, cp. Amor. 2, 4,
35, 'haec habilis brevitate sua est, corrumpor utraque: conveniunt voto
longa brevisque meo, | non est culta : subit, quid cultae accedere possit.
ornata est : dotes exhibet ipsa suas,' etc.
57. eveniet, etc.: for the same naïve type of summary, 1, 7, 5; 2, 1, 25.
58. iniusta lege: “unfair,' because the bond was mutual and therefore
should be dissolved only by mutual consent, cp. 1, 2, 63; 1, 5, 7 n. Venus is
angry with the perjured party because the oath was taken in her name. The
whole passage is really a parable for Delia's benefit. This indirect method
of reproof is, as we have already seen, very characteristic of Tibullus.
59. sagae rapacis : i.e. the lena of 48; the two trades went together. She
is now urging the cause of the dives amator, and her praecepta form an im-
portant and characteristic though most unlovely topic of the elegy.
304
NOTES
[1, 5, 65
60. Cp. the roguish imitation of Ovid, Rem. Amor. 462, 'successore novo
vincitur omnis amor.'
Gifts are the specialty of the dives amator and the text of Tibullus is often
preached upon.in elegy, comedy, and epigram, 2, 4, 27; Ovid, Ars Amat.
2, 275; Anth. Pal. 5, 29; 30; 31; 217, etc., etc.
The poet's statement is less insulting to Delia from the fact that it immedi-
ately suggests the common Graeco-Roman proverb that even the gods are to
be won by gifts (Hesiod, frag. 272 Rzach, dwpa Deoùs Teloel, S@p' aidolovs
Baoilîas, cp. Diogen. 4, 21 and Leutsch's note in Paroen. Graeci, 1, p. 235;
Eurip. Med. 964; Plato, Rep. 390 E; Menand. 537, 9 K.; Ovid, Ars Amat.
3, 651; Petron. 137; etc.: often in the negative form of, 'Death only loves not
gifts,' Aisch. frag. 161 N; Eurip. Alkest. 973; Hor. Od. 2, 18, 34; Epist. 2,
2, 179; etc.).
61-66. "The poor lover cannot vie with his rich rival in the matter of gifts,
but he will do much for you, that Dives, having bought you body and soul,
would never think of doing. Partially imitated by Ovid, Amor. 3, II, 17.
An amusing commentary and variation upon it is Ars Amat. 2, 165, pauperi-
bus vates ego sum, quia pauper amavi: cum dare non possem munera, verba
dabam. , pauper amet caute, timeat maledicere pauper, , multaque divitibus
non patienda ferat,' etc., cp. also Amor. 1, 10, 57.
62. in . . . fixus ... latere; i.e. fastened to; emphatic for the more
usual ad latus or lateri with adfigo, haereo, etc. So Cicero, Div. I, 74, "arma
quae fixa in parietibus fuerant,' and in the metaphorical use, Verg. A. II,
507, 'oculos horrenda in virgine fixus '; 12, 70, 'figitque in virgine vultus,' etc.
63-64. One of the divitibus non patienda,' and not at all the usual thing
in antiquity when dealing with the class of society to which these elegiac
heroines belonged. Ovid recommends his lover to show this attention in
Ars Amat. 2, 209, and in Amor. 3, II, 17, after a quarrel with Corinna he
says, quando ego non fixus lateri patienter adhaesi, | ipse tuus custos, ipse vir,
ipse comes,' cp. Horace's advice to the will hunter, Sat. 2, 5, 94. The point
is that such duties were the office of slaves.
65–66. These are the dinners. more or less sub rosa (occultos) of which we
hear so much in comedy and elegy, cp. Ovid, Amor, 1, 4; Ars Amat. 1, 229,
etc. The women who attended such dinners have always been about the
same, or at all events, the point of view with regard to them has not varied
much. See e.g. Demosth. In Neuer. 1352; Hor. Od. 1, 27, 13; 4, II; Ovid,
Annor. 2, 5, 14; etc.
65. occultos furtim : tautology acc. to Dissen who quotes 1, 6, 60; 1, 8,
60; 1, 10, 34; 2, 1, 80; 2, 6, II; 45; etc. But occultos refers to the point
of view of the poet's gay but cautious young friends with regard to their
305
1, 5, 66]
TIBVLLVS
dinner, furtim to the fact that Delia must escape from home unobserved in
order to attend it. — deducet: here again as in 66 the poor lover takes the
place of a slave.
66. vincla: the sandals were regularly removed at dinner, cp Plato, Symp.
213 B; Hor. Sat. 2, 8, 77; Epist. 1, 13, 15; Mart. 3, 50, 3.
67. canimus frustra: proverbial, cp. Livy, 40, 8, 10; Paroem. Graeci,
Zenob. I, 72; etc.— verbis victa: the alliteration is perhaps intentional.
See 1, 10, 65 n. patescit: a favourite word with Vergil. Tibullus's use of
inceptives is sparing: outside the ordinary verbs we have only candesco, 1, 10,
43; succresco, 1, 7, 55.
68. A common (and brutal, cp. Introd. p. 50) variation of 60. Cp. 2, 4,
31-34 n. — plena manu: cp. 1, 9, 52; Hom. Odyss. 10, 42; II, 359; etc.
The meaning is clear, but perhaps there is also a play on the proverbial
plena maru = abundantly,' generously' (cp. percutienda). -- percutienda:
1, 2, 70 n.
69–76. These lines, 1, 9, 63–72, and motives from Propertius are echoed in
Bertin, Amours, 2, 6, 'A un rival.
69-70. "What goes up must come down,' cp. I, 2, 87; 1, 5, 5-6 n. Another
application of the law of Nemesis which is the favourite text of all antiquity.
Philosophers, moralists, poets, rhetoricians, dwell upon it, the Wheel of For-
tune is a pictorial embodiment of it, even the guests at a dinner find it a con-
genial topic (Petron. 55), but few have the courage of Vagellius in Seneca
(N. Q. 6, 2, 9) who said, “si cadendum est mihi e caelo cecidisse velim.' '
69. potior is often used, as here, of a successful rival in love, Hor. Od. 3,
9, 2; Sat. 2, 5, 76; Terence, Phorm. 533. Tibullus never uses rivalis, cp.
1, 6, 21 n.
70. The Wheel of Fortune was evidently a familiar conception in Cicero's
time, but In Pison. 22 is the earliest reference to it. Artistic representations,
a number of which have survived, are all later. Literary references begin
to be plentiful from the time of the elegiac poets (Propert. 2, 8, 8; Ovid,
Trist. 5, 8, 7; Pont. 2, 3, 56; 4, 3, 31; Hor. Od. 3, 10, 10; Seneca, Agam.
71; Tac. Dial. 23; Ammian. Marcell. 14, 11, 26; 26, 8, 13; 31, 1, 1; Claud. Bell.
Goth. 632: Boeth. Cons. Phil. 2, 1 and 2; etc.) and become extremely frequent
in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Representations were common in
the time of the Antonines (Fronto, 157 N.) and the symbolism had already
attached itself also to Nemesis and Tyche. It is probably not much older
than the third century B.C. and may have been suggested by the earlier Ball
of Fortune. The Ball of Fortune, which has the same symbolism and was also
frequent in art, has been carried back to Lysippos's famous picture of Kairos
(as described by Kallistratos, 6). But reference to it is largely confined to
!
306
NOTES
[1, 6
the Greek authors and disappears soon after the third century (Pacuvius, 366
R.; Kebes, 7, 1; Dio Chrys. 63, 7; etc.).
71-74. For the situation, Ovid, Her. 20, 129; cp. Amor. 3, 11, 15. Troilus
and Cressida, 3, 2, 'I stalk about her door, I Like a strange soul upon the
Stygian banks / Staying for waſtage.' Bertin, Amours, 1, 15, echoes Tib. here,
in 1, 6, 17 ff., 1, 6, 69-74 and 2, 6, 45-46.
71. iam nunc: 1, 3, 53; 2, 3, 3; 4, 5, 11.
72. ac: for Tibullus's use of ac and atque, see 1, 6, 21 n.
73. simulat transire: on the omission of the subject accus. with transiri,
1, 3, 27 n; 1, 9, 45; 2, 3, 42; 2, 4, 53; 2, 6, 13 and 48: 4, 8, 8.
74. Ovid, Trist. 2, 460, 'scit cui latretur cum solus obambulet ipse, cur
totiens clausas exscreet ante fores,' is a combined reminiscence of this line
and 1, 6, 32. --- exscreat: for this method of attracting attention cp. Ovid,
Her. 21, 24; Terence, Heaut. 373. “In the same situation,' says Martinon,
we should confine ourselves to coughing. Shakespeare, like Tibullus, is
more primitive, cp. Othello, 4, 2 (to Emilia), 'Shut the door; | Cough, or cry
“hem,” if any body come.'
75. utere: the implied object is to be derived from the preceding sentence,
cp. I, 8, 47; Propert. I, 13, 34; 4, 5, 57, etc.
76. in liquida, etc.: in this proverb the fickleness of the sea (1, 3, 37-40
n.) is used to illustrate the doctrine of Nemesis, cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 9;
Hor. Epist. I, 18, 87; Ovid, Fast. 4, 18. Fast, 2, 864, 'naviget hinc alia iam
mihi linter aqua,' appears to be a reminiscence of Tibullus.
: 1,6
The last of the elegies to Delia. See Introd. p. 47.
Why do you torture me so continually, Cupid. A trap is set for me. I
am sure that Delia has another lover. Of course she swears that it is false--
but when her husband questions her about me she does the same. Alas, it
was I that taught her to deceive and now my own inventions have returned
to plague me. Careless husband of the deceitful jade, give me your sup-
port if you wish her kept within bounds. I know all her devices. She
used them all to deceive you in my time. Put her in my charge. I will
guard her single-handed. Nothing shall make me neglect the responsibility.
Delia, the priestess of great Bellona has' laid a frightful curse upon any that
turn you from me. You too, Delia, were to be punished. I hope it may be
light. Not, however, for your own sake, but for the sake of your good old
mother. You are her daughter after all. Let her teach you to be faithful
though your station be humble. I too will submit to strict conditions. I ask
no mercy if I am suspected and may I never be so mad as to strike you! Be
307
1, 6, 1]
TIBVLLVS
true because you love me, not because you are afraid. For her that is faith-
less an old age of poverty and toil is in store. Old and young rejoice in her
misery, and Venus herself looking down from above tells her how bitterly she
punishes those that are untrue. But, Delia, may these curses fall upon others.
Let us remain to the end an example of true love.'
1-14. Imitated by Bertin, cp. 1, 2, 65-74 n.
1. For the cadence see 1, 3, 5 n. .
2. tristis : ‘stern,' 2, 3, 33, cp. 1, 5, 50 n.
3. quid tibi saevitiae mecum est: the impatient question clearly reflects
the language and the attitude of everyday life, also the attitude of primitive
man toward his gods which has always persisted more or less among the
Mediterranean peoples. Moreover, this Amor, despite the repeated asser-
tigns of the elegy and the epigram, is not the great god of earlier days, but
the Alexandrian type, the spoiled, mischievous child (Apoll. Rhod. 3, 91
ff.) who, dangerous as he is, should not be taken too seriously.
This is the only ex, of the construction est mihi aliquid cum aliquo in Tib.
For Propertius we have (Hoerle, p. 37) 2, 33, 20; 3, 8, 33; 3, 3, 15; and for
Ovid (Hau, p. 56), Amor. I, 7, 27; 2, 19, 57; 3, 2, 48; 3, 6, 87; Her. 14, 65;
Met. 1, 456; Fast. 1, 253; 2, 101; Trist: 2, 1. The naïve reproach —'Take
some one of your own size' — is characteristic, cp. I, 8, 49–50; Propert. 3,
7, 14, quae spolia ex illo tanta fuere tibi? | aut quidnam fracta gaudes,
Neptune, carina?' Anth. Pal. 5, 10, éxoalpw Tòv "Epwta' tl yap Bapus oºk
επί θήρας | όρνυται, αλλ' επ' εμήν ιοβαλει κραδίην; | τι πλέον, ει θεός άνδρα
kataOlével; HTC TO O ENVO v oncoas án éuñs à Olov & Xel kepalîs ; So Juno,
Verg. A. 4, 93, upbraiding Venus for the combination against Dido, ' egregiam
vero laudem et spolia ampla refertis , tuque puerque tuus: magnum et memo-
rabile nomen, una dolo divum si femina victa duorum est,' cp. Ovid, Met.
3, 654, and for another turn Rufinus, Anth. Pal. 5, 93. – gloria est com-
posuisse : for the infin. as subject with a substantive as here in the predicate,
cp. cura, 1, 8, 45; 1, 9, 51; furor, 1, 10, 33; 4, 3, 7; rubor, 2, 1, 31; fama,
4, 7, 2; laus tribuetur, 4, 4, 19; with neuter adjectives, durum, I, 6, 7;
aequum, 1, 9, 5; aptius, 4, 4, 21. See also, 1, 6, 24 and 4, 3, 3 with note.
4. insidias : snares and ambushes are often used to describe the methods
of Cupid, eg. Ovid, Her. 19, 45,'ut partem effugias, non omnia retia falles |
quae tibi quam credis plura tetendit Amor'; or of a rival, as in Propert. 3, 8,
37, 'at tibi qui nostro nexisti retia lecto | sit socer aeternum nec sine matre
domus. For the emphasis gained by position “id. homini ... deum' cp. 'me
... viro' in 8 below, etc.
6. nescio quem: possibly the rival of 1, 5, 69, though this is not necessary
and makes no great difference, cp. Introd. p. 44.
308
NOTES
[1, 6, 10
7. quidem: 'of course,' or 'to be sure. quidem often corrects a previous
statement, introduces another point of view, etc., and has to be translated
accordingly, sometimes, e.g., merely by emphasizing the preceding word. — tam
multa:. adverbial, “so many times (as she is asked). Explained by pernegat
usque which is the parallel of it in the next line.
8. pernegat usque: 1, 2, 88 n.
In Ovid's defence of his poetry, Trist. 2, the passage referring to Tibullus
is (447)
credere iuranti durum putat esse Tibullus,
sic etiam de se quod neget illa viro.
fallere custodem dominam docuisse fatetur,
450
seque sua miserum nunc ait arte premi,
saepe, velut gemmam dominae signumve probaret,
per causam meminit se tetigisse manum;
utque refert, digitis saepe est nutuque locutus,
et tacitam mensae duxit in orbe notam;
et quibus e sucis abeat de corpore livor,
impresso fieri qui solet ore, docet:
denique ab incauto nimium petit ille marito,
se quoque uti servet, peccet ut illa minus.
scit cui latretur, cum solus obambulet ipse,
cur totiens clausas exscreet ante fores
multaque dat furti talis praecepta docetque
qua nuptae possint fallere ab arte viros.
non fuit hoc illi fraudi, legiturque Tibullus
et placet, et iam te principe notus erat.
In this passage it will be observed that 447-448 is reminiscent of 1, 6, 7-8,
449-450 of 9-10, 451-452 of 25-26, 453-454 of 19-20, 455-456 of 13-14,
457-458 of 15-16, 459-460 of 31-32 and 1, 5, 74, 461-462 of 9 (cp. 1, 2, 15–24).
9-10. Speaking of the causes of jealousy in his Anatomy of Melancholy
(vol. III, p. 311, Shilleto), Burton quotes this distich and translates it —
Wretch as I was, I taught her bad to be,
And now mine own sly tricks are put on me.
9. ludere custodes : references to this aspect of a love affair are too
numerous to deserve citation, cp. 1, 2, 15; 2, 1, 75; etc.
10. Proverbial : Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 655,' neque enim lex aequior ulla est, 1
quam necis artifices arte perire sua'; Lukian, Dial. Mort. 8, bote o bolo na
Karà oautoll OUVT édelkas; Piscat. 7, and often in various forms the world over,
Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 646, ‘in laqueos quos posuere cadant; Macar. Paroen.
Graeci, 3, 85, év rois éjaUTOû OLKTúols álcoouai. Ovid, Her. 2, 48, 'heu patior
309
1, 6, 11]
TIBVLLVS
telis vulnera facta meis ’; Amor. 2, 18, 20, etc. See Aristainet. 1, 25; Aisch.
frag. 139, N and n.; Choeph. 221.
11. Compare 1, 3, 25 and note.
12. cardine tacito: 1, 2, 10 and note.
13. herbas : such herbae are not unfrequently mentioned by Pliny, e.g. 13,
125; 20, 24 and 240; 22, 155; 24, 93; 27, 18; 29, 33; 30, 28; 31, 65 and
129. The poet would naturally go to the saga, cp. I, 2, 53 n. — quis : I, I, 37.
14. A common motive in antique erotic poetry, cp. e.g. Propert. 4, 3, 25,
haec noceant potius, quam dentibus ulla puella | det mihi plorandas per tua
colla notas' (Arethusa writing to Lycotas); 4, 5, 39; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 98;
3, 14, 34; Hor. Od. 1, 13, 12.
15-39. The situation is unique and worthy of a Swiſt or of a de Maupas-
sant, cp. Introd. p. 47. In his address to the careless ‘husband,' Amor. 2,
19, 37, Ovid evidently had this passage in mind —
at tu, formosae nimium secure puellae,
incipe iam prima claudere nocte forem;
incipe quis totiens furtim tua limina pulset
quaerere, quid latrent nocte silente canes,
quas ferat et referat sollers ancilla tabellas,
cur totiens vacuo secubat ipsa loro;
mordeat ista tuas aliquando cura medullas,
daque locum nostris materiamque dolis !
ille potest vacuo furari litore harenas,
uxorem stulti siquis amare potest;
iamque ego praemoneo; nisi tu servare puellam
incipis, incipiet desinere esse meam.
15. coniunx: on these elegiac'husbands' see Introd. p. 45.
16. servato : note the mock solemnity of the legal imperative. See that
my interests are safeguarded. The poet is laying down a maxim of conduct.
See, however, 1, 2, 87.
17 ff. Imitated by Bertin (see 1, 5, 71-74 n.).
17. iuvenes celebret multo sermone : i.e. 'frequent the company of and
talk a great deal with,' 'spend a great deal of time in conversation with’; cp.
1, 3, 33 n. and e.g. Cicero, Prov. Cons. 22, 'cuius litteris, fama, nuntiis cele-
brantur aures cotidie meae novis nominibus gentium, nationum, locorum ?'
18. Ovid, Her. 16, 247. -- cubet: cubare instead of the usual accumbere
for reclining at table is occasional in both prose and poetry. — sinu : for the
metonymy, see 4, 7, 4 n. — neve : on the form see note on seu, 21 below.
19. neu . . . nutu: 1, 2, 21–22 n. — digitoque liquorem, etc.: a method
of flirtation to which Ovid often refers, e.g. Amor. I, 4, 19, 'verba superciliis
310
NOTES
[1, 6, 21
sine voce loquentia dicam: / verba leges digitis, verba notata mero'; 2, 5,
17; Ars Amat. 1, 500; 571; Her. 17, 87 (Helen to Paris), 'orbe quoque in
mensae legi sub nomine nostro, | quod deducta mero littera fecit : “amo." |
credere me tamen hoc oculo renuente negavi, i ei mihi, iam didici sic ego
posse loqui.' Cp. also 1, 10, 31-32 n.
21-22. On this and other stock excuses for leaving home cp. Ars Amat. 3,
633, 'quid faciat custos cum sint tot in urbe theatra, | cum spectet iunctos illa
libenter equos, cum sedeat Phariae sistris operata iuvencae, | quoque sui
comites ire vetantur eat, I cum fuget a templis oculos Bona Diva virorum |
praeterquam siquos illa venire iubet, cum custode foris tunicas servante puel-
lae celent furtivos balnea multa iocos'; Martial, 11, 7; Lukian, Amor.
42; 'In my conscience she went forth with no dishonest intent : for she did
not pretend going to any sermon in the further end of the city, etc. (Beau-
mont and Fletcher, The Woman Hater, 2, 1).
21. seu: Seven if.' For this use of seu without a correlative cp. 2, 4, 43;
Propert. 2, 26, 29; Catull. 82, 4; Seneca, Herc. Oet. 1260; Val. Flacc. I, 101,
etc. In such exx. seu or sive preserves ve in its old sense of que or et and
hence = et si. The form sive does not occur in Tibullus. Propertius, on
the contrary, uses one form as often as the other. As with seu and sive,
however, so with other words which exist in two different forms, it is more
or less characteristic of Tibullus to choose one and exclude the other. neu,
for instance, occurs twelve times, neve, but once (line 18 above, see Lease,
Class. Philol. 3, 302); atque, eleven times, ac (a prosaic form), but three
times (1, 3, 63; 1, 5, 72; 2, 5, 87); neque, in 1, 2, 77, elsewhere always nec
whether before vowels or consonants; ex virgis, 2, 1, 24, elsewhere always
e and a before consonants, ex and ab before vowels; circum, five times, circa
(rare in Cicero, never in Caesar), twice (1, 3, 87; 1, 7, 56); tum, eleven
times, tunc, twenty-six times. So always sic for ita ; nam for enim; quod
for quia (except 1, 4, 13); quamvis for quamquam, etc. There is also a
tendency to exclude exceptional usage in gender and declensional forms; to
reject diminutives, pet-names, and other words or uses of words suggestive
of the popular speech. In general, these and similar phenomena serve to
illustrate the self-evident fact that Tibullus was a purist, a fastidious man of
cultivated taste. In particular, they lend considerable support to Bürger's
contention that Tibullus belonged to the Analogists, that school of stylistic
theorists of which Julius Caesar was the greatest representative in prose. See
esp. R. Bürger, Beiträge zur Elegantia Tibulls, “ Xúpites, Friedrich Leo, zum
sechzigsten Geburtstag dargebracht,' Berlin, 1911, 371–394.
Bürger's method, however, of removing much of the exceptional usage
which contravenes his theory by emendation does not commend itself,
311
1, 6, 22]
TIBVLLVS
Haupt supported his theory of tuin for tunc in this same way. Speaking
in general, an ounce of manuscript, even when that manuscript is no better
than the Ambrosianus, is worth more than a hundredweight of conjecture, or
half a ton of theory.
22. The Bona Dea of Tibullus's time was apparently a combination of the
old Italic Fauna and Damia, a goddess of Magna Graecia whose worship was
brought to Rome probably not long after the fall of Tarentum in 272 B.C.
Founder's Day was May 1. The state sacrifice to her occurred early in Decem-
ber. Her temple was on the Aventine below the saxum, the rock from
which Remus took his augury, hence her occasional title of Subsaxana. That
her sacra were 'non adeunda viris' is frequently mentioned. Regulations in
this respect were painfully, even ludicrously, strict. The profanation of her
mysteries by Clodius in Cicero's time was a cause célèbre. For the elegiac
poets and doubtless for the public at large their reputation suffered from the
fact that the men knew nothing of them, and also because they were reckoned
with the worship of Isis, etc., among the pretexts used by women of Delia's
stamp to cloak other designs. But with the decay of moral and religious feel-
ing incident to the first century A.D. these mysteries must also have deterio-
rated. Even after all allowance has been made for his customary exaggeration,
especially in dealing with such a topic, we may fairly suspect that Juvenal's
savage arraignment in 6, 314 was not altogether unfounded.
23. ad aras: Tibullus would naturally stop at the limits of the temple
inclosure, cp. Propert. 4, 9, 53, 'parce oculis, hospes, lucoque abscede ve-
rendo: | cede agedum et tuta limina linque fuga. | interdicta viris metuenda
lege piatur quae se summota vindicat ara casa, etc. To go ad aras involved
sacrilege, hence the force of the following line.
24. Blindness was the traditional punishment for sacrilege in the case of
this goddess, and in spite of the recent exploit of Clodius the statement is
solemnly repeated by Cicero, Dom. 105 and Harusp. 37. This ancient super-
stition, however, is by no means confined to the Bona Dea. The blindness of
Tiresias was due to the fact that as a boy he had innocently seen Athena bathing,
cp. Kallimach. Hymn.5, 78, and the imitation in Tennyson's Tiresias, ' a dread-
ful light Came from her golden hair, her golden helm | And all her golden
armour on the grass, | And from her virgin breast, and virgin eyes Remain-
ing fixed on mine, till mine grew dark | Forever, and I heard a voice that
said | “Henceforth be blind, for thou hast seen too much, | And speak the
truth that no man may believe.") The idea underlying this and many similar
traditions is expressed in Kallimach. 1.c. 99 f., où vào Adavalą ylukepdv TÉNEL
όμματα παίδων | αρπάζειν • Κρόνιοι δ' ώδε λέγοντι νόμοι· 1 ος κέ τιν' αθανάτων,
έκα μή θεός αυτός έληται, | αθρήση, μισθώ τούτον ιδείν μεγάλω.
312
NOTES
[1, 6, 29
The same story is related of Erymanthos and Aphrodite in Ptol. Chennos, 1;
cp. the curse in Plaut. Asin. 770, "si quem alium aspexit, caeca continuo siet,'
and the idea in all these prototypes of 'Peeping Tom' still lingers in more
than one popular story and phrase. — sit timuisse : the perfect has its full
force. A subject infin. with esse unaccompanied by a substantival or adver-
bial predicate (cp. 3 n.) as here is rare. The only remaining ex, in Tib. is
4, 3, 3.
25-26. This motive (which still flourishes, no doubt, though yielding to
the superior advantages of palmistry) is not found elsewhere in the elegy.
For the comedy, however, cp. Naevius, frag. 78 R. (speaking of a flirt),'anulum
dat alii spectandum, a labris alium invocat,' etc.; Plaut. Asin. 778, spectan-
dum ne quoii anulum det neque roget.'
25. gemmas signumque is indefinite, but the jewels or the workmanship
in rings or bracelets is clearly meant. - eius: this form of is is very rare in
dactylic verse: Propert. 4, 2, 35; 4, 6, 67.
26. per causam: 'by means of an excuse,' 'under a pretext.' per
causam = 'under the pretext of,' occurs first in Cicero, Dom. 10 and 13, then
in Caes. B. G. 7, 9, 1; B. C. 3, 24, 1; 3, 76, 1; Bell. Alex. 49, 1; Bell. Afr.
32, 2; 73, 3; Livy, 2, 32, 1; 22, 61, 8; Sueton. Vesp, I; Otho, 3; all these
with a limiting genitive. With the pronominal equivalent of a genitive we
have Livy, 1, 49, 5; 44, 44, 8; Seneca, Ben. 4, 35, 2; Sueton. Iul. 2. In
poetry we have only this and two exx. in Ovid, the one a partial quotation,
the other an evident reminiscence, of the passage before us, cp. Trist. 2, 452
(quoted in 8 n.), and Her. 20, 139, dumque suo temptat salientem pollice
venan, candida per causam bracchia saepe tenet. The prose cons. would
have been memini me tetigisse manum per causam probandi,' 'bracchia
tenet per causam temptandi. But per causam here is an adverbial phrase
(a translation of dià apboaolv, or suggested by it?) suggested by the preced-
ing clause but limiting tetigisse (tenet in the Ovidian ex.).
27–28. For the scene suggested cp. Ovid, Amor, I, 4, 51, .vir bibat, usque
roga (precibus tamen oscula desint!) | dumque bibit, furtim, si potes, adde
merum ! , si bene compositus somno vinoque iacebit, / consilium nobis resque
locusque dabunt'; 2, 5, 13; Juv. 1, 57; Hor. Od. 3, 6, 25, etc.
28. sobria pocula: more common is the transferred epithet sobria with
aqua, cp. 2, 1, 46; Propert. 3, 17, II (sobria nox'); Stat. Silv. 4, 2, 37
(sobria rura'), etc. The pattern of it, výpovtos Deoû = 'water,' in Plato,
Leg. 773 D, was much criticized and discussed by the later rhetoricians, cp.
Plutarch, De Audiendis Poetis, 1 (Mor. 15 E, cp. 791 B), and esp. Longin.
De Sublim. 32, 7.
29-30. The details of the argument are — first, I did not injure you de-
313
1, 6, 30]
TIBVLLVS
liberately; second, a man who confesses his sin should on that account be
pardoned; third, besides, Love ordered it. Love is a god. The gods must
be obeyed. Ergo, etc. These three details, of which the first is clearly
open to question, the second a non-sequitur, and the third utterly fal-
lacious, form the ever ready and sufficient excuse of the comedy lover
which long before Tibullus's time had been used by the rhetoricians for an
illustration of their concessio per purgationem. Note e.g. Rhet. ad Heren.
2, 16, 23, 'concessio est, per quam nobis ignosci postulamus. ea dividitur in
purgationem et deprecationem. purgatio est, cum consulto a nobis factum
negamus. ea dividitur in necessitudinem, fortunam, inprudentiam' (Tibul-
lus pleads first, imprudentia, then, necessitudo, and, by implication, fortuna).
Of imprudentia the author says further down, si autem inprudentia reus se
peccasse dicet, primum quaeretur, utrum potuerit nescire an non potuerit;
deinde, utrum casu nescierit an culpa. nam qui se propter vinum aut amorem
aut iracundiam fugisse rationem dicet, is animi vitio videbitur nescisse, non
inprudentia (qui . . . dicet is the lover's excuse); qua re non inprudentia se
defendet, sed culpa contaminabit. ... loci communis in his causis : ...
defensoris, de humanitate, misericordia (Tib. ignosce fatenti): voluntatem in
omnibus rebus spectari convenire; quae consulto facta non sint (Tib. non ego
te laesi prudens), in ea fraudem esse non oportere.' But the best antique
criticism of the Tibullian argument is Seneca, Phaed. 195, where to her mis-
tress pleading the same excuse the nurse replies - deum esse amorem tur-
pis et vitio favens / finxit libido, quoque liberior foret | titulum furori numinis
falsi addidit,' etc.
Tibullus is, of course, quite aware that his excuse is insufficient. Indeed the
flippant insertion of the trivial commonplace as a prelude to the following
disclosures intensifies, as was intended, the cold mockery of the entire passage.
30. iussit Amor, etc.: 1, 2, 89-96 n.; Ovid, Her. 4, 11,'quidquid amor
iussit non est contemnere tutum: , regnat et in dominos ius habet ille deos';
Meleager, Anth. Pal. 12, 147.— contra quis, etc. : proverbial, cp. Theognis,
687; Eurip. frag. 491 N. ; Iphig. Aul. 1396 and 1408; Iphig. Taur. 1479; Kal-
limach. Hymn to Apollo, 25; Menand. Mon. 247; Ovid, Pont. 1, 1, 26; Cicero,
Tusc. Disput. 3, 60; Curt. 7, 6, 6, etc. The standing example and warning
was the Titans, Plaut. Persa, 28; Cicero, Sen. 5; etc., cp. I, 10, 60 n.
31-32. The dog who does not understand the situation (“nihil amanti moles-
tius,' says the good old commentator Achilles Statius) is a regular figure of the
elegy, cp. 2, 4, 32; Propert. 3, 16, 17; 4, 5, 73 ; Ovid, Amor, 2, 19, 40; Hor.
Epod. 5,58; Od. 3, 16, 2; Aristoph. Thesm. 417; Plaut. Asin. 184; Anth. Pal.
5, 30; etc. A dog who did understand the situation had the following epitaph
(attributed to du Bellay), latratu fures excepi, mulus amantes : , sic placui
314
NOTES
:
[1, 6, 37
domino, sic placui dominae.' Molière, Femmes Scavantes 1, 3 (cp. Plaut.
Asin. 184), "Et, pour n'avoir personne a sa flame contraire, | Jusqu'au chien
du logis il s'efforce de plaire. This distich of Tibullus may have been respon-
sible for Goethe, Röm. Eleg. 17; it may have inspired such an odd flight of
fancy as that of Amadis Jamyn in his Son. 26–
Malgré le Chien qui dans le ciel aboye,
Qui de Venus nous interdit la ioye,
Ie ne lairrois de prendre mes ébats.
33–34. The point of view is that of Catullus, 17, 12 ff., cp. also Ovid, Amor.
2, 19, 37 (quoted in 15–39 n.).
34. clavis : 1, 2, 18 n.; 2, 4, 31.
35-36. Mart. 11, 60, 7, 'at Chione non sentit opus nec vocibus ullis | adiu-
vat, absentem marmoreamve putes'; 104, II; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 685, 'odi
quae praebet quia sit necesse praebere, / siccaque de lana cogitat ipsa sua'; 3,
797; Anth. Pal. 5, 232 on the other hand, 'ITTOMÉvny pidéovoa, vbov at poo-
έρεισα Λεάνδρω | εν δε λεανδρείοις χείλεσι πηγνυμένη, η εικόνα την Ξάνθοιο
φέρω φρεσί· πλεξαμένη δέ | Ξάνθον, ες Ιππομένην νόστιμον ήτορ άγω. ( πάντα
τον έν παλάμησιν αναίνομαι άλλοτε δ' άλλον | αιέν αμοιβαίοις πήχεσι δεχνυ-
μένη | άφνειών Κυθέρειαν υπέρχομαι. ει δέ τις ημίν , μέμφεται, εν πενίη μιμνέτω
olováuw. 35 is quoted by Montaigne (3, 5) and 36 by Burton, 3, 318.
35. tenet: 1, 5, 39.-suspirat: for the accus. of the person or thing sighed
for (which brings back the original meaning of the word) cp. 4, 5, 11; Lydia,
3; Juv. II, 152; etc. French soupirer and Ital. sospirare are used in the same
way. — amores : plural = the one loved, cp. 1, 3, 81 n; 2, 2, II n.; 4, 5, II;
Propert. I, 20, 51; 4, 4, 37; Ovid, Amor. 3, 8, 59; Catull. 10, 1; 6, 16; 15, 1;
21, 4; 40, 7; 45, 1; 64, 27; etc.
36. 'En Gallorum nostrorum “vapeurs," says Heyne, writing a century
ago. Martinon writing now says 'nous appellons cela plus simplement une
migraine.' For the woman's excuse’ see also Ovid, Amor. 2, 19, II, 'a,
quotiens sani capitis mentita dolores cunctantem tardo iussit abire pede”;
1, 8, 73 (the lena to her charge), 'saepe nega noctes: capitis modo ſinge
dolorem, et modo quae causas praebeat Isis erit'; Plaut. Truc. 632; even
in the Middle Ages, see the old romance of Partonopeus de Blois, 7555, 'Et
bien lor dist ne lor soit grief: 1 Car ele a grant mal en son cielo
37–38 returns to 15-16 and thus ends the passage. The following lines
proceed on the assumption that the poet's request has been granted.
37. servandam: factitive predicate, so I, 7, 40 and 4, 3, 22. With dare
as in 1, 7, 40, this use of the gerundive appears as early as Plautus, Bacch.
338; with credere ( to intrust,' the analogy is dare) however this and Solin.
315
1, 6, 38]
TIBVLLYS
12, 7, 'delphina puer fragmentis panis primo illexit et in tantum consuetudo
valuit ut alendum se etiam manui ipsius crederet,' are the only exx, in the
literature. See also, 1, 2, 70 n. — non saeva, etc.: 1, 5, 5 n.; 1, 6, 72; 2,
3, 80; etc.
38. verbera ... vincla: cp. 1, 10, 65; 1, 9, 21; 2, 3, 80, and notes.
The revival of the old alliterative phrase,' vincula verbera' seems to be found
only here.
39–40. These are the belli homines for whom Martial had such an aver-
sion, cp. 1, 9, but esp. 3, 63, 3-
bellus homo est, flexos qui digerit ordine crines,
balsama qui semper, cinnama semper olet;
cantica qui Nili, qui Gaditana susurrat,
qui movet in varios bracchia volsa modos;
inter femineas tota qui luce cathedras
desidet atque aliqua semper in aure sonat;
qui legit hinc illinc missas scribitque tabellas,
pallia vicini qui refugit cubiti;
qui scit quam quis amet, qui per convivia currit,
Hirpini veteres qui bene.novit avos.
Nor is Ovid less severe, cp. Ars Amat. 3, 433, 'sed vitate viros cultum for-
mamque professos, quique suas ponunt in statione comas. quae vobis dicunt,
dixerunt mille puellis : |.errat et in nulla sede moratur amor. 1. . . sunt qui
mendaci specie grassentur amoris | perque aditus talis lucra pudenda pe-
tant. , nec coma vos fallat liquido nitidissima nardo | nec brevis in rugas
lingula pressa suas, nec toga decipiat filo tenuissima, nec si anulus in
digitis alter et alter erit. | forsitan ex horum numero cultissimus ille | fur sit
. et uratur vestis amore tuae,' etc.; Quintil. 12, 10, 47 (advice to the orator),
do tempori, ne hirta toga sit, non ut serica : ne intonsum caput, non in gra-
dus atque anulos comptum,' etc.
39. quisquis, etc. : for the distributive apposition, 1, 6, 86; 2, 2, 2; 4, 5, 15.
40. Wearing the toga as here described was always considered a flagrant
sign of dandyism, cp. 2, 3, 78; Hor. Epod. 4, 8; Seneca, Oed. 423; Macrob.
3, 13, 4 (who says that Hortensius was criticized for it); Ovid, Rem. Amor.
680, 'nec compone comas, quia sis venturus ad illam, nec toga sit laxo con-
spicienda sinu’; esp. Ars Amat. I, 505-524.
41-42. The exaggeration is of course intentional.
42. ante : local. - via: ablat. of place.
43-56. Episode of Bellona. The Bellona of the first century was more or
less a combination of the old Italic Bellona, the Greek Enyo, and a Cappado-
cian goddess from Comana (Bell. Alex. 66; Strabo, 12, 535), brought to
316
NOTES
[1, 6, 47
Rome during the first Mithridatic war in accordance with a dream of Sulla's
(Plutarch, Sulla, 9). Tibullus is here referring to the Cappadocian goddess.
Her temple in the Flaminian Circus possessed a grove and some artificial
mounds (CIL. 6, 2232; Tertull. Pall. 4) in imitation of her original Cappa-
docian home. But the statue of her which Tib. mentions (48) was in her
new temple, the aedes Bellonae Pulvinensis, near by. Her service, which
had much in common with that of Isis and of the Magna Mater, was in the
hands of a band of Cappadocian priests, ' fanatici de aede Bellonae Pulvinen-
sis' (Juv. 4, 123; CIL. 6, 490; etc.), or · Bellonarii' (Hor. Sat. 2, 3, 223).
Their services in the temple are best described here (the only passage in which
priestesses are mentioned), cp. also CIL. 6, 2233; Lucan, 1, 565; Juv. 4, 124
and 6, 511; Minuc. Fel. 30; Tertull. Apol. 9; Augustin. C. D. 4, 34; Seneca,
Vit. Beat. 26, 8; Ammian. Marcell. 21, 5. The priests slashed their arms and
shoulders as here, gave each other the blood shed in honour of the goddess to
drink, and then fell to prophesying amid the wild din of drums and trumpets.
The blood was also scattered over the worshippers who tasted it whenever
possible, as it was supposed to have purifying qualities. On holy days they
marched through the streets in much the same manner. Mart. 12, 57, 11,
mentions their noisy symptoms of inspiration among the many hindrances to
sleep in the city, cp. also Tertull. Pall. 4. The nature of the worship made
it popular with women, especially women of Delia's class and calibre, hence
no doubt the choice of it here, for this passage is of course the usual parable
for Delia's benefit.
43. deus: i.e. Amor. So frequently, e.g. 1, 2, 88; 1, 5, 20; 1, 8, 7; 56; 72.
45-50. Quoted by Bartolomé de Las Casas, in his Historia de las Indias, cap.57.
45-49. This self-inflicted torture is characteristic of the eccentric, orgiastic,
cults of the highlands of Asia Minor and will be familiar enough to those who
have witnessed the ceremonies (cp. esp. 49) marking the début of the braves
among our North American Indians. It is a well-known fact that under such
circumstances a genuine hysterical condition seems to act as an anaesthetic.
Seneca says that the cutting was not as serious as it appeared to be, Dial. 7,
26, 8, 'cum aliquis secandi lacertos suos artifex bracchia atque humeros sus-
pensa manu (cp. levi, 1, 4, 51 n.) cruentat.' Commodus (cp. Lamprid. 9, 5), a
stickler for religious form whenever any one could be hurt by it, insisted that
the cutting should be deep and genuine.
45. motu: 'inspiration,' so Ovid, Met. 6, 158.- nec: for nec followed by
non cp. I, I, 29; Propert. 3, 2, 11.
47. bipenne : for bipenni, as is demanded by the metre, so Commod.
Instr. 1, 17, 8; otherwise always bipenni (Neue-Wagener, 1, 328). On the
other hand, cp. clavim, 2, 4, 31.
317
1, 6, 48]
TIBVLLVS
48. inulta : i.e. 'with impunity,' without suffering the consequences,
unhurt. For this rare meaning (Scaliger compared the dowos of Demosth.
316, 18) see innoxia, 2, 5, 63 n.
49. stat : 1, 1, 64 n. — veru : the Indians run thorns or skewers through
portions of their flesh in the same way.
50. monet : 'foretells,' so Verg. E. 9, 15; A. 3, 712; 7, 41 ; etc.
51-54. A horrid prelude for such a trivial matter but we have the authority
of Juvenal that Bellona was not above giving advice on any occasion, 4, 123;
6,511. Cp. 1, 2, 27-28 n.
51. In Carm. Epig. 953 B., “si quis forte meam cupiet violare puellam, /
illum in desertis montibus urat amor' (Pompeian graffito), the cadence of the
hex, suggests Tib. On violare, 1, 3, 81 n. —- parcite violare : so also Lygd.
3, 5, 6, instead of the usual prosaic nolite violare, see 1, 4, 9 n. noli or
nolite with the infin, as a circumlocution for the imperative does not occur
in Tib., is not quoted for Ovid, and but two exx. are found in Propertius
(2, 18, 37; 2, 24, 49). In fact Tib. uses nolo only in the uncompounded
forms, i.e. non vis, non vult, etc., and only six exceptions to this rule are
quoted for Ovid (Her. 17, 24; 20, 100; Trist. 1, 2, 93 ; Fast. 4, 122 ; 5,471 ;
Met. 13, 863). Propertius has six, without the two just cited. For parcere as
here, Propert. has two cases, 1, 15, 26; 2, 5, 18. Nineteen are quoted from Ovid.
52. The old proverb that fools learn only by experience, put in the form of
a threat, Hom. II. 17, 32, sexoèv dé TE VÝTLOS ěyuw : Livy, 22, 39, 10, 'nec
eventus modo hoc docet --stultorum iste magister est'; the familiar, 'ex-
perientia stultos docet, etc..
53-54. For the symbolism cp. Soph. Aias, 1175, ei oé TLS otparol | Blą o?
αποσπάσεις τούδε του νεκρού, | κακός κακώς αθαπτος εκπέσοι χθονός, 1 γένους
äravtos plgav egnunuevos, | aŭtws OT WOTEP TÓvo" éyw TÉLvW Tlókov. That
which is done with appropriate ceremonial shall be repeated when, where,
and in the manner directed. This is a cardinal principle of magic and is
therefore frequent in prayers, curses, bans, and solemn ceremonial generally.
The old commentators here have in one or two instances noted that the
poet's curse is confined to "labentur opes,' the loss of wealth. The point is
well made, for the curse is aimed at the dives amator who without his money
would be nothing, cp. 2, 4, 39 and 1, 9, 13-16 n.
53. attigerit : for the omission of the conditional sign see 2, 4, 60 ; 1,
2, 54; 1, 10, 11.
55-56. Again exhibit the poet's characteristic dislike of attacking Delia
directly. 57 ff., gentle as they are according to the standard of his own time,
are the severest reproof, in verse, which he ever gave her. We should ex-
pect no less after the cool banter of 15 f.
318
NOTES
[1, 6, 63
- 55. nescið : for the prosody, 2, 6, 41 n..
56. 1, 9, 40.
57-58. We must suppose that mater here really means Delia's mother, not
the convenient euphemism for a lena which has been characteristic of all
ages, cp. 1, 3, 84 n.
58. aurea: a use of the word common in Latin and Greek and more or
less common in many other languages, Propert. 4, 7, 85; Hor. Od. 1, 5, 9
(cp. 4, 2, 39), etc. Cp. Golden slumbers kiss your eyes' (Lullaby in
Dekker's Patient Grissel). On the pentameter as a rhetorical amplification,
I, I, 44 n.
59-62. Chronologically 61-62 comes before 59-60. The old woman
waited secretly at the door until she heard Tib. coming, then brought Delia
to the door to meet him, cp. 1, 2, 19-20, etc. and esp. I, 9, 43. It is true of
course that a girl frequently went to the house of her lover (Trabea, frag. 1,
Ribbeck, etc.) and that adducere is sometimes used for deducere (Plaut. Curc.
138, etc.) in this sense, but the situation here is clear and we see what is meant;
see also 2, 1, 75 ff.
60. clam taciturna: 1, 5, 65 n.
62. Cyllenius remarks on the close relation implied, i.e. you must know a
man well before being able to recognize his step, cp. 1, 8, 65-66. — me
veniente: Tib. is fond of the ablative absolute with the pres. participle, so
I, 1, 48; 1, 3, 22; 1, 5, 20, 22 and 53; 1, 10, 30; 2, 3, 17; 2, 5, 120; 4, 5,
3: with the perf. part. 1, 2, 54; 1, 3, 21; 1, 3, 85; 1, 9, 56; 1, 10, 39; 1,
IO, 64; 2, 1, 6 and 39; 2, 5, 9 and 92: with adjectives and substant. 1, 3, 35;
2, 1, 75; 2, 3, 21; 2, 5, 15.
63-64. Carm. Epig. 995, 13, 'si pensare animas sinerent crudelia fata , et
posset redimi morte aliena salus, quantulacumque meae debentur tempora
vitae, / pensassem pro te, cara Homonoea, libens. Cp. id. 25, 'quodque
mihi eripuit mors inmatura iuventae, l id tibi victuro proroget ulterius';
Anth. Lat. 445, 3 R., “ablatus mihi Crispus est, amici, i pro quo si pretium
dari liceret, | nostros dividerem libenter annos. | nunc pars optima me mei
reliquit, | Crispus, praesidium meum, voluptas, | pectus, deliciae : nihil sine
illo | laetum mens mea iam putabit esse. | consumptus male debilisque
vivam : plus quam dimidium mei recessit.' Seneca, who might well be the
author of this anonymous epigram, makes a striking application of the idea
in Dial, 10, 14, 1, soli omnium otiosi sunt qui sapientiae vacant: soli vivunt.
nec enim suam tantum aetatem bene tuentur : omne aevum suo adiciunt.
quidquid annorum ante illos actum est, illis acquisitum est'; Propertius 4,
II, 95 (Cornelia to her surviving husband), 'quod mihi detractum est vestros
accedat ad annos’; Seneca, Dial. 10, 15, 1, 'horum nemo annos tuos conterit :
319
1, 6, 63]
TIBVLLVS
suos tibi contribuit. The thought is not as common in modern literature,
Note however Shak. Henry VI, Part I, Act 2, Sc. 5 (Richard to Mortimer)—
O uncle, would some part of my young years
Might but redeem the passage of your age!
63. mihi: for the ethical dative see 2, 2, 13; 2, 4, 2. -- tecum contribuisse :
2.c. cum tuis (annis). The cons. of contribuere with cum is unique (Caes.
B.C. 1, 60 is not a parallel, moreover the text is doubtful) and appears to
reflect the original meaning of contribuere, “to bring, place, or put together,'
when the force of cum in the compound was still felt.
56. sanguis : really = sanguins, hence the prosody, so Lucret. 4, 1050;
6, 1203; Verg. A. 10, 487 and occasionally in all periods, e.g. Ovid, Met. 10,
459; Fast. 6, 488; Lucan, 2, 338; 7,635; 10, 128; Sil. Ital. 9, 555; 10, 23;
Val. Flacc. 3, 234, etc. Confusion with other forms in -is had begun before
Vergil's time, cp. e.g. G. 3, 508; A. 2, 639; 5, 396. For the use of the word
in this figurative sense, cp. Horace, Carm. Saec. 50; Theokrit. 24, 71, etc.
67–68. The poet's only reference to Delia's social position, see Introd.
p. 44 and cp. 4, 10, 3.
The stola had been the exclusive privilege of matronae since as early at
least as the Second Punic War (Macrob. 1, 6, 13). It was not worn even by
ingenuae if unmarried. The vittae as a distinctive portion of a matrona's
costume are mentioned as early as Plaut. Miles Glor. 791. Marquardt quotes
passages to support his contention that unmarried girls, if ingenuae, could
wear vittae (though of a distinctive type). They could not be worn by
slaves, freedwomen, peregrinae, or meretrices (Afranius, 133 R.; Varro, Sat.
Men. 302 B.) All seems to point to the conclusion that Delia belonged either de
facto or de iure to the libertinae. Passages like Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 31; 2, 600;
3, 483; Fasti, 4, 134; Trist. 2, 247; Pont. 3, 3, 51, etc. show why quamvis
ff. is a natural and reasonable qualification of casta. The limitations of the
marriage law were such that no libertina could better her position by culti-
vating the ideal of pure womanhood or even by observing fidelity to one lover.
67. casta: 1, 3, 83 n. But in Martial's time it was curiously enough con-
sidered more disgraceful for a married woman to have one lover than to
possess several, cp. 6, 90; 3, 92; Sen. Ben. 3, 16, 3.
69–74. Imitated by Bertin, cp. 1, 5, 71–74 n.
69. durae leges: 1, 5, 7 n.; 2, 4, 52; Propert. 4, 8, 74, etc. — ullam: also
used as a substantive in 2, 1, 9.
70. oculos appetat: a conventional symptom of feminine jealousy and of
feminine anger generally, cp. Propert. 3, 8, 5; 3, 15, 14; 4, 8, 64; Ovid,
Her. 20, 82; Amor. 2, 7, 7; esp. Ars Amat. 2, 452.
320
NOTES
[1, 6, 77
71-72. 1, 5, 5 and 1, 6, 37 n. The severity of the punishment is of course
intentionally exaggerated. The treatment suggests that of the helpless in the
sacking of a city (e.g. Hom. Odyss. 22, 187; Aisch. S. T. 327) or of assault
with intent to kill (Achill. Tat. 5, 23, etc.).
72. immerito: i.e. even though I do not deserve it.' - proripiar vias :
this use of the accus. with verbs of motion is found only here in Tib. Hoerle
cites one ex. only from Propertius, 1, 20, 18, ‘ire viam'; Hau, the following
from Ovid, 'ambulare vias,' Fast. 1, 122; 'currere aquam,' Trist. 5, 7, 36;
"errare terras, Fast. 3, 655 and 4, 573; 'natare aquas,' Trist. 5, 2, 25 and
Ars Amat. 1, 48; navigare aequor,' Met. 15, 50; volare freta,' Met. II,
749. So 'currere aequor,' Verg. A. 3, 191; 'maria vecti,' 1, 524 and occa-
sionally in other poets. I have noted no other ex. of proripi used as here.
See 1, 2, 55 and 1, 3, 14 with notes.
73–74. The lover's quarrel in which the lover so far forgets himself as to
indulge in personal violence is a favourite motive of antique erotic poetry.
See e.g. I, 1, 74; 1, 3, 64; 1, 10, 53; 2, 5, 1or; Propert. 2, 5, 21; 4, 5, 31;
Ovid, Amor. 1, 7, 23; 1, 8, 95; Ars. Amat. 3, 568; Calpurn. 3, 70; Theokrit.
14, 34. A comparison of these passages will bring out the real superiority of
Tibi here to many of his contemporaries in gentleness and refinement. The per-
sistence of the motive is itself a commentary on the social position of the
woman in these affairs. Ovid says (Ars Amat. 3, 571) that such exhibitions of
temper are not becoming to a man of the world. Moreover as he says in
another place (Ars Amat. 2, 167) with an evidently playful turn on Tibullus,
1, 5, 61-66 (see note), a poor man cannot afford it, see also Propert. 4, 5, 31.
Ariosto, 5, 1-3 is an interesting variant on the classical motive.
73. iste: occurs also in 1, 9, 69; 2, 4, 20; 4, 13, 18. In conformity with
classical usage it is always a demonstrative of the second person or (as here
and in 4, 13, 18), directly associated with the person addressed (Kühner, 2,
p. 452, gives numerous exx.). The same is true of Ovid, but Propertius is
not always as careful to preserve this distinction and in later times it was
quite lost (see Schmalz, p. 444).
74. optarim: for the perfect subjunctive as a potential, see 4, 11, 4: the
second sing. occurs in 2, 2, 13, where see n.: for the imperf. subj. as a po-
tential of the past, see 2, 3, 26 and n.: for the potential in questions, 2, 6, 2
and n.
75-76. Both Propertius and Ovid dilate on the motive of a mens fidelis, à
true heart, as the sole guarantee of fidelity, Propert. 2, 6, 37; 4, 1, 145; esp.
Ovid, Amor. 3, 4.
77–84. The last parable to Delia, cp. 2, 4, 43 ff. and esp. Anth. Pal. 6, 283,
Η το πρίν αυχήσασα πολυχρύσοις επ' ερασταις, 1 η Νέμεσιν δεινήν ουχί κύσασα
1
321
I, 6, 77]
TIBVLLVS
θεόν, | μισθια νύν σπαθίοις πενιχροΐς πηνίσματα κρούει. | οψε γ' Αθηναίη Κύπριν
&anto ato: Hor. Od. 3, 15, 13, etc. Spinning is the conventional occupation
of poverty and of (voluntary or enforced) chastity; cp. Anth. Pal. 6, 284 and
285, the ex-votos of Philainion and Nikarete, two young persons who have
deserted Athena for Aphrodite. Frequent also in the comedy, Terence, And.
74; cp. 1, 3, 83-92 n.
This passage which is a genre picture in the poet's characteristic manner
(cp. 1, 2, 89-96; 1, 3, 83 f, etc.) and quite in harmony with the tradition of
the idyllic-erotic type, is one of the many variations on 'The Courtesan's Old
Age,' an unpleasant theme in which antiquity and, long afterwards, the writers
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (cp, e.g. du Bellay's Vieille Courtisane)
seem to have taken a special delight. Cp. e.g. Propertius, 3, 25, whose direct
attack upon Cynthia is as characteristic of him as is the indirect parable to
Delia of Tibullus. Especially bitter is the attack on Lais by the comic poet
Epikrates (Athen. 570 B.= Frag. Com. Graec. Adesp. 2, 282 K.). It was also a
conventional theme of lyric and of epigram, cp. Hor. Od. 1, 25; 4, 13; Anth.
Pal. 5, 21; 271; 273; 298; etc. The point of view is always that of the
iuvenes in 81-82. Bertin, Amours, 2, 7 is founded on this passage and 1, 8,
57-60.
77. fida nulli: adjectives with the dative occur as follows — facilis, 1, 3,
57; conscius, I, 7, 48 (see note); 1,9,41 (but with gen. 1, 8, 3); deditus, 1, 1,
26; difficilis, 1, 8, 27; mitis, 1, 4, 53; notus, 1, 8, 57; obvius, 1, 3,92; aptus,
4, 8, 3; gratus, 4, 6, 19; sacer, 2, 5, 30; sanctus, 1, 7, 18; proximus, 4, 2,
20; propinquus, 4, 8, 6 (see note). -- senecta : states the fact, tremula gives
the picture.
79. conductis: again adds the detail picturing inops in 78, cp. tremula
and senecta above.
80. tracta are the flocks of wool drawn out for spinning and putat is of
course to be taken in its rare literal sense.
82. senem: also used as an adjective in 1, 2, 90; 1, 7, 56; 1, 10, 44, but
this seems to be the only ex. of senex as an adj. in the feminine.
83-84. For the naïve picture of a god looking down upon men, cp. among
many other exx. Ovid, Amor. 1, 2, 39; Verg. G. 1,95; Sil. Ital. 1, 50; etc.
The tradition familiar to the tragedy and later art was inherited by the medi-
aeval Church, and is suggested to us in the old woodcuts for fables.
85. haec aliis, etc. : 1, 2, 11; 1, 3, 82; 4, 5, 15-16 and note. On this close
see Introd. p. 48, and cp. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy, 3, I -
I do hope we shall draw out
A long contented life together here,
And die both, full of grey hairs, in one day.
322
NOTES
[1,7
For a variant see Martial, 4, 13, 9 —
diligat illa senem quondam, sed et ipsa marito
tum quoque, cum fuerit, non videatur anus,
and Auson. Epig. 18, 2–
nec ferat ulla dies, ut commutemur in aevo,
quin tibi sim iuvenis tuque puella mihi.
I, 7
Messalla had been sent into Gaul to quell a serious outbreak among the
Aquitanians, returned successful, and was given a triumph Sept. 25, 27 B.C.
Soon after that date occurred the birthday for which this poem was written.
Introd. p. 35.
In a letter to the brothers Parny, written while taking a winter tour through
a part of the country referred to by Tibullus, Bertin says —
Je sais bien qu'autrefois Tibulle,
Entre les deux monts que voilà,
Comme moi, devers Nante alla;
Mais ce fut sous la canicule:
Il suivoit son cher Messalla.
La route alors étoit plus belle,
Car le préteur pouvoit venir;
Et l'intendant de la Rochelle
Avoit soin de l'entretenir.
Tibulle étoit couvert de gloire;
Il avoit dompté, tour à tour,
Le Var, la Garonne et l'Adour:
Il couroit soumettre la Loire,
Et l'appareil de la victoire
Trompoit les chagrins de l'amour.
Du souvenir de l'Italie
On cherchoit à le consoler :
Il eut partout la comédie;
Et s'il lui manquoit sa Délie,
Il pouvoit du moins en parler.
Then, relapsing into prose -— 'How everything,' he says, “must have changed
since the expedition of Tibullus and Messalla into Aquitaine and along the
Bay of Biscay! How many monuments destroyed, how many generations laid
to rest! Perhaps nothing survives from that time except the horses now being
harnessed to my carriage, and the postilion who is to drive them; for judging
by their extreme thinness and their apparently dying condition they may very
323
1, 7, 1]
TIBVLLVS
well be the same that about two thousand years ago were furnished to our
agreeable and distinguished travellers. I asked my guide whether this was not
actually the fact, at the same time giving him as good a description as I could
of the two Romans; and his denial of the imputation was so weak that my
guess has now become almost a certainty.'
This day was to rout the hordes of Aquitania, so sang the fatal Spinners
whose threads no god can unwind. Their words have come true and Rome
has seen the glorious triumph of Messalla. All Aquitania bears witness to
his fame, Cydnus, too, and Taurus, Palestine, Tyre, the mighty river with the
summer floods. Where dost thou hide thy head, Father Nile? Thanks to
thee, thy land makes no prayers to the great god of rain. Of thee thy strange
people sing, and of Osiris, who first tilled the field and planted the orchard,
who discovered the vine and first expressed the juice of the grape that drives
all care away. Sorrow and trouble have nought to do with thee, Osiris, but
always dance and song and lightsome love, flowers and music and festal attire.
Come then and join with us in doing honour to the birthday of Messalla.
May his children add lustre to his fame and be with him in his old age. Nor
shall his road, the enduring monument of an honest contractor, be forgotten
by Tusculum and Alba. The farmer who comes home in the dark without
stumbling shall call down blessings upon your head. May every birthday be
happier than the last!'.
1-2. The web of every man's life is woven by Destiny at the hour of his
birth. This idea appears as early as Homer (cp. Odyss. 7, 196; Seneca, Oed.
980; etc.) and is still firmly fixed in the consciousness of the Mediterranean
races. The Parcae (regularly identified with the Moirai) frequently perform
this function in the Roman poets and are therefore represented in art with the
volumen and the spindle. The accompaniment of prophetic song appears
first in the tale of Meleager (Ovid, Met. 8, 452; Apollod. I, 8, 2; Pausan. 10,
31, 4), also at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (Catullus, 64, 323, from a
Greek source), etc. Cp. 4, 5, 3; Verg. E. 4, 47; Ovid, Trist. 5, 3, 25, etc.
2. dissolüenda: so 40 below, the only other case in Tibullus. Diaeresis
with solvo and its compounds is not uncommon in the poets, though never
in Propertius and not quoted for Ovid.
3. hunc: sc. diem. For the figure cp. eig. Propert. I, 13, 25, 'una dies
omnis potuit praecurrere amores, etc., i.e. the day does the deeds of him that
was born upon it. — Aquitanas gentes: the Aquitania of Caesar lay between
the Garonne, the Pyrenees, and the Bay of Biscay. It therefore corresponded
generally to the Gascony and the Béarn of old France. — fundere gentes :
one of the numerous metaphors from verbs of pouring of which the language
is notably fond, cp. Ovid, Fast. 5, 578; Met. 6, 425; and often.
I
324
NOTES
[1, 7, 5
4. quem tremeret: 1, 2, 55 n.- Atax: the modern Aude. It rises in
the Pyrenees and enters the Mediterranean just above Narbo Martius, the
modern Narbonne. Rivers seem to have appealed to the Roman poets more
than did any other detail of natural landscape. The epithets they give them
usually betray genuine observation and they often describe them (cp. the
Mosella of Ausonius) con amore. The national point of view is often shown
for instance as here by the widespread practice of personifying a country or a
district, not by its geographical or ethnographical name, but by the living,
moving feature in its landscape, ie. by the principal river within its borders,
cp. lines 11, 12, 13, and 22, below, etc. So among the numerous allegorical
'floats' by which the gorgeous spectacle of a Ronan triumph was habitually
adorned a prominent place was always given to the rivers which had belonged
i
Ann. 2, 41; etc. See 2, 5, 116, n.
5-8. The triumph was not merely a military pageant. It was an act of
worship, the fulfilment of the vows which the triumphator had made to the
Capitoline Jove before starting upon his campaign. Indeed from that time
until his return to the Capitol he was actually the representative of the Capi-
toline Jove. The procèssion was formed outside the city as a rule and entered
by the Porta Triumphalis on the borders of the Campus Martius. Here it
was met by the senate and citizens and proceeded to the Capitol, which was
the goal of the ceremony. The procession was headed by the senate and
guished captives in chains, etc. (Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 213 f.), then the soldiers
roaring out ribald songs upon their general to protect him from the evil eye in
this hour of his dangerously good fortune, and finally the triumphator himself
with all the insignia of his divine prototype on the Capitol, in a chariot of gold
and ivory drawn by four white horses (1. 8 below; Propert. I, 16, 3; 4, 1, 32;
Livy, 5, 28; Sueton. Aug. 94, 6; etc., cp. also Gildersleeve, on Pindar, Pyth.
1,66) representing the quadriga lovis. His face was stained red (1, 1, 17 n.),
the ivory sceptre surmounted by an eagle was in his hand, and he wore the
triumphator's toga of purple and gold. Upon reaching the Capitol he dis-
mounted and walked up, or, if he was feeling sufficiently superstitious, crept
up, the steps to the shrine where he offered to the god his laurel crown (1. 7;
2, 5, 117; Ovid, Amor. 2, 12, 1; Consol. ad Liv. 334; etc.). Frequently too
he offered the fasces, the insignia of his rank, or a palm branch. Then
followed a sacrifice and afterward a banquet in the temple, in which the
senate and the officials of the state partook with the triumphator.
5. pubes: 'the people. An old-fashioned use for which cp. 1. 27 below;
325
1, 7, 6]
TIBVLLVS
Verg. A. 7, 219; Plaut. Pseud. 125 (pube praesenti); etc. — triumphos: the
plural is generic, cp. 1, 1, 4 n.
6. bracchia capta : for the figure, Ovid, Amor. 1, 14, 45; Met. 13, 667;
Trist. 4, 2, 21. Hypallage in Tibullus offers nothing especially difficult or
unusual for an Augustan poet, cp. I, 4, 1o n.
7. victrices lauros : i.e. a crown of laurel, so Ovid, Amor. 2, 12, 1; etc.
On the form lauros, 2, 5, 63 n.
8. portabat: note the graphic effect of the shift to the itemizing imperfect.
9. non sine me: Introd. p. 35. For the litotes (the only case in Tib.),
Propert. 2, 9, 50; Soph. 0. K. 723; etc. No especial emphasis is
intended. — Pyrene: the quantity is exceptional: otherwise Pyrene, like
Pyrenaeus (but Pyrenaeus, Lucan, 4, 83).
10. testis : for the use of this word with rivers, countries, etc. cp. Catull.
64, 357; Cicero, Pomp: 30; Hor. Od. 4, 4, 38; Eurip. Herakl. 219: etc.
For omission of the copula, 1, 3, 43 n.
The Santones (cp. mod. Saintes) were near the mouth of the Garonne.
II. celer : the swiftness of the Rhone is the most impressive feature of this
great stream from the time it leaves Lake Geneva, when it is as clear as
crystal, until it enters the Mediterranean, when it has long been a curious
shade of opaque white.
The Arar - no schoolboy ever forgets Caesar's description of it -- joins the
Rhone at Lyons, 'qua Rhodanus raptum velocibus undis , in mare fert Ararim'
(Lucan, 1, 433) and the two streams are the most notable feature of the city.
It is now called the Saône.
12. Carnutis ... lympha: an appositional phrase descriptive of the Loire.
- For flavi caerula, 1, 4, 18; 1, 8, 30 and notes, and for flavi, I, I, 15 n. --
caerula lympha Liger: cp. caeruleus of the Cydnus below. caerulus is often
best translated by “ blue,' but to speak of the 'blue Loire' is as vague, not to
say as misleading, a description of its actual colour as it is to speak of the
beautiful blue Danube,' although we might appeal to the authority of Tibullus
for the one, to the authority of Ovid (Pont. 3, 5, 2, ‘hinc ubi caeruleis iungitur
Hister aquis'; cp. 4, 10, 62) for the other (and to the authority of the picture
post cards for both). A perusal, however, of the Thesaurus shows that as a
designation of colour this word has a very wide range. It is glossed by glaucus,
lividus, kvá veov, kúavov, åépivov. Servius on Verg. A. 7, 198 defines it as viride
cum nigro, ut est mare.' It approaches viridis, viridatus, albus, even niveus.
On the other hand in the broader sense it suggests niger, fuscus, obscurus,
taeter, luridus, and hence the Underworld. The clue to the labyrinth seems
to be the fact that true to its derivation from caelum, caerulus is really the
colour of the skies. The sky is generically blue or grey, but no one colour
326
NOTES
[1, 7, 13
describes the sky as any one will realize who bas watched the Loire of a
summer's day shifting and shimmering from moment to moment according
to the colour of the medium it reflects. If water is to be caerula, 'sky colour,'
it must have no colour of its own, i.e. it must be clear; and as a matter of
fact the Loire under ordinary circumstances, and still more the Cydnus (see
below), is almost as clear as a mountain brook in Vermont. This and the asso-
ciations of lympha suggest that caerula here and caeruleus below connote
something like 'clear' or 'sparkling' rather than 'blue. As a sample of a
somewhat different point of view, cp. Martin Opitz, Schäferie von der Nymphen
Hercinie (1630), dann wirst du samt den Flüssen | Der gelben Loir' Angiers
und Tours und Blois begrüssen.' (Is this a confused echo of the Tibullian
line, i.e. did Opitz associate flavi with Liger instead of Carnūtis?). Our
interpretation of caerula is supported by the poet Guy de Tours (1562-1611)
who lived all his life within sight of the river, cp. his Souspirs, 2, 28 —
Loire qui vas de ton onde vitrée
Razant les murs de ma ville de Tours, etc.
Again, in his Paradis d'Amour he speaks of —
Toutes les nymphes
Qui de Loire et du Cher boivent les claires lymfes.
13 f. The poet now passes to Messalla's exploits in the East, cp. Introd. p.
35.
13-14. The surcharge of epithets, all emphasizing the calm stillness of the
Cydnus, is not common and has caused much discussion (esp. as regards
placidis aquis). See, however, 2, 1, 80; Propert. I II, II, “aut teneat
clausam tenui Teuthrantis in unda | alternae facilis cedere lympha manu’;
Hor. Od. 1, 31,7,'non rura quae Liris quieta | mordet aqua taciturnus amnis ';
Livy, 29, 25, 9; Ovid, Trist. 3, 10, 30, 'caeruleos ventis latices durantibus
Hister | congelat et tectis in mare serpit aquis.' Wilson and Hogarth (En-
cyclop. Brit., rith edit. 2, p. 758) say that “The Cydnus (Tersous or Tarsus
Chai) is formed by the junction of three streams that rise in Mt. Tarsus (Bul-
gar Dagh), and one of them flows through the narrow gorge known as the
Cilician Gates. After passing Tarsus, the river enters a marsh which occupies
the site of the ancient harbour. The Cydnus is liable to floods, and its de-
posits have covered Roman Tarsus to a depth of 20 feet.' Bunbury (Ency-
clop. Brit., roth edit. s.v. Cydnus) says that it is a “rapid river. The epithet
describes admirably the upper course of the stream, but it does not apply to
the lower portion, which Tibullus and antique writers in general seem to have
had in mind. Tarsus stands upon a plain. Small boats can still be used for
327
1, 7, 13]
TIBVLLVS
a short distance from the mouth of the Cydnus, and we may be sure that
Cleopatra's famous barge, which "like a burnished throne, Burned on the
water, never passed up through Tarsus and by Antony on a rapid river (Shak.
Antony and Cleopatra, 2, 2, 191 f.; Plutarch, Anton. 26, etc.).
13. Cydne: for the description generally as well as for the epithet caeruleus
see Curtius, 3, 4,8,: Cydnus non spatio aquarum, sed liquore memorabilis, quippe
leni tractu e fontibus labens puro solo excipitur nec torrentes incurrunt qui
placide manantis alveum turbent. itaque incorruptus idemque frigidissimus,
quippe multa riparum amoenitate inumbratus, ubique fontibus suis similis in
mare evadit'; Appian, Anab. 2, 4, 7; Dio Chrys. Orat. 33, 2; Lukian, Dom.
I; etc. The practical Xenophon (Anab. I. 2, 23) says that the river was 200
feet wide at Tarsus. — tacitis: for the epithet in this connection cp. Hor.
Od. I, 31, 8; Sil. Ital. 4, 350; etc.
14. caeruleus: both caeruleus and caerulus occur as early as Plautus and
Ennius and continue throughout the language. Older writers and their imi-
tators generally prefer the shorter form, but the limitations of dactylic verse
necessitate the use of caeruleus for the oblique cases or wherever the final
syllable is long. Later grammarians undertook to distinguish in meaning,
but the choice as here is merely a matter of convenience. The same is true
of many other adjectives existing in both a longer and a shorter form.-
vada: i.e. 'the bed of the river,' so 2, 5, 34; Ovid, Met. 1, 370; Fast. I, 501;
Seneca, Herc. Fur. 680; etc. For the plural see 1, 2, 50;' 1,52-3_and note,
15-16. Bulgar Dagh, the part of the Taurus range to which the poet refers,
is about 11,000 feet in height. Strabo says, however (520), that it was capable
of cultivation to the summit, which, even if not literally true, is enough to
justify Tibullus's use of alat here.
15. The only instance of hyperbole quoted from Tibullus.
16. alat: for alere thus used of mountains cp. Livy, 5, 40, 5; Anth. Pal. 5,
19, 5. — Cilicas: so always, see 1, 2, 52 n.
17-18. The white doves of Syria, which were sacred (hence intacta) to
Astarte, are often mentioned by the classical authors, e.g. Catull. 29, 8; Ovid,
Met. 2, 536; 4, 44; Mart. 8, 28, 13; esp. Diod. 2, 4, 6, and Lukian, De Dea
Syr. 14 and 54. Doves were also sacred to her Greek parallel Aphrodite,
cp. Alexis, 214 K., etc.
The heaping of adjectives here (intacta ... alba ... sancta) which
Latin habitually avoids is only apparent. intacta goes with volitet and sancta
stands for a clause with Palaestino Syro.
17. ut volitet: for indirect questions with ut='how,' cp. 19; 1, 8, 57 and
58; 2, 1, 15; 2, 1, 25 (see note); 2, 5, 72. Note the artistic variety of indirect
questions in this passage (13–24), 'quantus ... ut ... ut ... qualis ...
328
NOTES
[1, 7, 20
quanam ... quibus.' An indirect disjunctive question is found only in 4, 5,
20. For the indic. in indirect quest. see 2, 4, 17 n. — crebras urbes: i.e.
populous,' picturing the crowded streets characteristic of an Oriental city'
(Schulze). In other words crebras urbes is not, as it were, 'frequent cities,'
but cities frequented,' sc. with inhabitants. As a rule creber in this sense is
accompanied by a determining word. For the absolute use, however, the
Thesaurus s.v. cites Cic. Quint. Frat. 2, II, 4, (speaking of Philistus) 'creber,
acutus, brevis '; Quintil. 2, 5, 8, quam subtilis et crebra argumentatio';
Pliny, Epist. 1, 20, 22, 'orationem similem nivibus hibernis, id est crebram et
assiduam et largam. It will be observed, however, that in these exx. creber
is not literal and that it is used only to designate a quality of style.
18. Syro: as used by the classical writers Syria is a general term. When,
therefore, it was necessary to be specific, an adjective had to be added, as
here Palaestinus, so, e.g. Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 416; Pliny, 5, 66; 12, 80, etc..
19. The island of Tyre, like the island of Manhattan, was quite too small
for the enormous business carried on there together with the people who
chose to inhabit it. It was therefore famous for its high buildings, ware-
houses, palaces, etc., e.g. Strabo, 16, 757, évtaūda dé faoi tolvotéyous täs oi.
klas cote kai twv év 'Pour wallov. Tibullus's line seems to apply with pecu-
liar fitness to the city that rose tier upon tier from the blue waters of the
Midland Sea. For the wealth and power of the old city, cp. Ezekiel, 27
and 28. — maris aequor : aequor or aequora of the sea is always poetic from
Ennius down, though occasional in prose after Seneca the Elder. ponti or
maris aequor appears first with Lucretius (2, 781; Verg. A. I, 511; etc.).
maris aequor as a technical term = 'the level of the sea' is found in Colum.
8, 17, 3 and 4. Cases with a long final syllable are naturally excluded from
dactylic verse. The ablat. plural (once in Cicero) is used first by Tibullus
among the poets, 2, 5, 8o, then Propert. 1, 8, 20; 1, 54, 12; Hor. Od. 4, 4,
54; 8, 32, and occasionally later. The dat. plur. is extremely rare. Tennyson
(Morte d'Arthur) says 'shining levels of the lake,' after aequora ponti as in
Verg. G. I, 469; Lucret. 1, 8, etc. (Mustard). – prospectet turribus :
prospicere de caelo,' in 2, 5, 58. The use of a preposition in this cons. is
largely a matter of choice. -- turribus: for turres of high buildings or palaces,
cp. Propert. 3, 21, 15; Verg. A. 2, 460; Hor. Od. 1, 4, 14; Epod. 17, 70;
etc., the occasional use of “Towers' in the names of country places in
England, etc.
20. Reflects the fame of the old Phoenician navigators and is repeated
erf. by Lucan, 3, 217; Pliny, 5, 67; Curtius, 4, 4, 19; Dionys. Perieg. 907
(cp. Priscian, Perieg. 848). -- credere docta: the infinitive with adjectives
or participles is a Greek construction found in all the Augustan poets, esp.
329
1, 7, 21]
TIBVLLVS
Horace. Lucret. 5, 123, indigna videri, is the first ex. acc. to Schmalz.
The first adjectives so used were naturally verbal in their signif., as doctus,
scitus, nescius, etc. The cons, begins in prose with Val. Max. but is always
very rare. The remaining exx. in Tibullus are doctus, l. 28; 1, 9, 37; dig.
nus, 2, 6, 43; 4, 6, 10 (see note), but 3 times (35, 63, and 97) in the Pan.
Messallae alone; nescius, 1, 8, 72. Propertius uses doctus thus only in 2, 3,
20 and 4, 5, 5.
For .credere ratem ventis,' cp. 6.g. Anth. Lat. 268 R., 'crede ratem ventis,
animum ne crede puellis,' 'I'll trust my ship to a storm, my substance to a
broker citizen, before I'll credit any of you' (Shackerley Marmion, The
Antiquary).
21. For this expressive way of describing the heat and dryness of Italian
midsummer, cp. e.g. Ovid, Amor. 2, 16, 3; Met. 3, 152; Verg. G., 2, 353; A.
3, 141 ; Hor. Sat. 2, 5, 39, etc.
22. fertilis is active, cp. 1, 1, 8, n. - Nilus: the Nile begins to rise
about the middle of June and continues to overflow until the beginning of
October. As every one knows, Egypt, being an absolutely rainless country
(cp. 25-26), would be a mere desert without it.
23-24. The mystery of the source, which involved the mystery of the flood
- finally discovered in our own time by David Livingstone - was discussed
again and again in antiquity. Herod. 2, 19 is the most famous and the best
worth reading. Roman interest in the matter rested largely on the prolonged
discussions of the Alexandrian Greeks, cp. the long-winded episode of Lucan,
10, 193–331; Seneca, N. Q.4, 1; 6,8; etc.; Pliny, 5, 51; Claudian, Nilus ;
Thomson's Seasons, 'Summer,' 773, etc. For the antique discussion, see esp.
H. Diels, Abhand. d. Berlin. Akademie, 1885, pp. 1-54. It is quite possible
that Kallimachos dealt with the theme in his epyllion, the Io, and if so that
it may have reappeared in the Io of Calvus, see note on 28 below. .
25. te propter : propter is confined to this phrase in Tibullus, cp. 1, 6, 57
and 65; 2, 6, 35. Propertius, 4, 7, 25, me propter, otherwise regularly, 2, 8,
35; 9, 25; 3, 19, 19.
26. This line is quoted by Seneca, N. Q. 4, 2, 2 and attributed to Ovid, the
only passage of Tibullus quoted by any antique author except the grammarians,
see Introd. pp. 59-60.— pluvio Iovi: the epithet is rare. The only remaining
exx. of it in the entire literature (none occur in the inscriptions) are Stat. Theb.
4, 757, ‘nil humile est ; tu nunc ventis pluvioque rogaris | pro love'; Anth.
Lat. 395, 46 R., 'annua sulcatae coniecti semina terrae | pascit hiems: Pluvio
de Iove cuncta madent' (this carmen de mensibus was originally copied from
a stone kalendarium probably of the fourth century. Each month is accom-
panied by a tetrastich. The two lines just quoted belong to the month of
330
NOTES
.
[1, 7, 26
December). Both here and certainly in Stat. 1.c. it is fair to presume that
the epithet is a genuine echo of Tibullus. And the same is certainly true of a
passage from the Humanists just given me by Professor Mustard. In an
epigram on the Aqua Paula at Rome Girolamo Aleandro (1480-1542) says —
nullus ubi e caelo progignit Iuppiter imbres,
effusis agros Nilus inundat aquis.
nullùs ubi Nilus stagnanti exuberat anne,
demittunt pluvium nubila densa Iovem.
·neutrum Roma petit, munus namque implet utrumque
nomine quae lympha est, Paule, superba tuo.
These five examples of the phrase are the only ones I am able to quote from
Latin either ancient or modern. One would naturally expect to find a long
tradition for the phrase "Jupiter Pluvius' in our own language in view of the
fact that, certainly in this country if not in England, it is a Latin tag so familiar
that newspaper men often use it to adorn their account of the latest rain-
storm. But this does not appear to have been the case. Sir Richard Burton's
* Pluvian Jove' (see Murray's New English Dict. s.v. 6 Pluvian') is an un-
doubted echo of it. But this was as late as 1851, and the use of the Latin
phrase itself by an English writer is not cited for any one before George
Augustus Sala in 1862. As Sala was a newspaper man, this might account
for the frequency of the expression in the English newspapers to-day;
but it is as little likely that he is responsible for the widespread familiarity
with the phrase as that he himself derived it from any of the classical ex-
amples cited. In Germany, however, the situation is far clearer. There
too. Jupiter Pluvius' is a household word, but there the use of it undoubtedly
goes back, as Büchmann has observed in his Geflügelte Worte, to Goethe.
Goethe, a deep student of the Roman elegy, uses the expression twice, first, in
the Wanderers Sturmlied (1772) and long afterward in Epigram 22 (1790).
It seems likely, therefore, that it was really Goethe who has transmitted to us
the only Tibullian phrase to be found in the ordinary speech of modern times.
Iuppiter Pluvius is probably a translation of Zeùs 'TÉTLOS (first in Aristot. De
Mundo, 7). As Morgan observes, the designation of Jupiter here is literal.
Other epithets of Jupiter in this function are e.g. Imbricitor (Ennius, Ann.
444, V.; Apuleius, De Mundo, 37; Macrob. I, 17, 49; etc.); Pluvia(lis)
(CIL. 9, 234), etc. On Jupiter in this rôle see M. H. Morgan, “Rain Gods
and Rain Charms, Proceed. An. Phil. Assoc. XXXII, 83-109.
For the statement that the Nile takes the place of rain in Egypt see e.g.
Apoll. Rhod. 4, 269 ; Cicero, N. D. 2, 130 ; Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 647; Lucan,
8, 444; Val. Flacc. 5, 423; etc.
331
1, 7, 27]
TIBVLLVS
27. pubes : 1,7,5 n. — Osirim : Osiris (Egyptian Usiri) was the brother and
husband of Isis. The conflict between him and Set is the eternal conflict
between light and darkness, physical good and physical evil. Osiris iš van-
quished, cut in pieces, and thrown in the water. But he is reassembled, and
finally revives under the care of his sisters Isis and Nephthys, the wife of Set.
His son Horus avenges him and with the aid of Thoth vanquishes Set, but does
not destroy him. As the friend of mankind, he was the father of civilization,
of agriculture, of the vine, etc. (see below). But as the Greeks themselves
saw, the kinship with Demeter and Dionysos goes far deeper than that, and
they identified them at once. The worship of Osiris was more or less insep-
arable from that of Isis, and therefore spread enormously in later times.
Moreover Osiris shares with Isis the tendency to absorb and represent other
divinities.
28. The line, as Ernesti noted, is an echo of Kallimachos, frag. 176, Schn.
eidvîav pálcov taūpov inneuloal. As such (without including such turns as
'subducere lectum'in 4, 13, 1, where see n.) it is practically the only known
echo in Tibullus of a definite passage. If the Hellenistic poets could be
restored to us, we should doubtless be able to trace more, esp. in this elegy;
see Introd. p. 69. If this frag. of Kallimachos is from his To, the juxtaposition
here of 23–24 suggests the possibility that he discussed the same question in
that poem.
The bull Apis (H'api is also the Egyptian name of the Nile as a divinity)
is a sun god. Psammetichos I (663–610 B.C.) built a magnificent temple for
him at Memphis (Herod. 2, 153, etc.) with spacious pleasure grounds, etc.
(Ail. H. A. II, 1o, etc.). Apis was the reincarnation, the living emblem of
Osiris upon earth, and at his death became Sarapis, i.e. the dead Apis, who
has now become Osiris. The great extension of the worship of Sarapis dates
from the first Ptolemy, but rested on previous ideas. When an Apis died he
was buried with great pomp (Diod. I, 84), and the whole country mourned for
him (plangere bovein, etc.). The priests, in particular, wandered about shriek-
ing and exhibiting every conventional sign of grief, while they sought a new
Apis which could be certainly identified by a number of well-defined markings
(specified by Herod. 3, 28; Strabo, 17, p. 807; Pliny, 8, 184; Ail. H. A. II, 10;
etc.). During the theophania, the festival of five days which followed his
discovery, the new incarnation of Osiris was installed in his temple, and then
worshipped during his lifetime. For an account of the ceremonies attending
his installation, see e.g. Herod. 3, 27; Diod. I, 85; Ail. II, 10; Ammian.
Marcell. 22, 14; etc. The Schol. on Juv. 8, 29 says that 'populus Aegypti,
invento Osiri dicit: eúpýkajev, ouy xalpouev. Hence the point of Seneca's
words (Apocol. 13) describing how, when Claudius makes his appearance in
332
NOTES
[1, 7, 34
Hades, the ghosts of all the friends whom he had murdered 'cum plausu
procedunt cantantes : cúpń Kalev, OuyXalpojev.' See also 1, 3, 23-24 n.
29-48. The dawn of civilization and the development of the arts is a
favourite digression with the Roman poets. Tib., as usual, repeats himself else-
where, cp. 2, 1, 37 ff. This account of Osiris, given by Tib., shows a certain
kinship with Diod. I, 14 f.
29-30. In pure Greek tradition the invention of the plough was ascribed
to Demeter or Triptolemos. For Osiris as here, cp. Diod. 1, 29; Servius on
Verg. G. 1, 147; etc.
29. aratra: the plural is genuine. — manu sollerti: 1, 1, 8 n.
30. teneram humum: a good description of the fresh alluvial soil of
Egypt. See Cicero, N. D. 2, 130, 'Aegyptum Nilus inrigat et cum tota
aestate obrutam oppletamque tenuit, tum recedit mollitosque et oblimatos
agros ad serendum relinquit'; Verg. G. 2, 292; Ovid, Fast. 3, 357, etc. -
sollicitavit: i.e. stirred. The old-fashioned, literal use of poetry and
post-Augustan prose. · For its use in this connection, Verg. G. 2, 418, sollici-
tanda tamen tellus pulvisque movendus '; Ovid, Fast. 4, 396,‘quas tellus nullo
sollicitante dabat,' etc.
31. inexpertae : passive, cp. Ovid, Trist. 3, 8, 2, ‘nunc ego Triptolemi
cúperem consistere curru, misit in ignotam qui rude semen humum'; Val.
filacc. I, 69, ignaras Cereris qui vomere terras | imbuit et flava quercum
damnavit arista.' — commisit: i.e. the seed is a depositum for which the soil
is now responsible. This idea of the relation between the farmer and his
land is widespread in Latin, and is expressed in many different ways; cp. 2,
3, 62; Verg. G. 1, 223; 2, 460; Cic. Sen. 51; etc.
32. non notis : i e. hitherto not known.
33–34. Vine culture is described by two of its most important details,
adligatio and amputatio, training and pruning. The training of vines on
stakes or props was the ancient practice in Lower Italy (cp. Oivwtpla, the
ancient name for that country) and is now the rule e.g. in southern France
and elsewhere. More common among the Romans, and this may still be
observed e.g. in Umbria, was the use of elms or poplars for this purpose.
References literal and metaphorical to this method are constantly recurring,
Catull. 62, 49; Verg. G. 1, 2; etc. On pruning the vine see e.g. Verg. G.
2, 362, and on pruning in general as marking a stage (i.e. the cultivation of
fruits, etc.) in the development of civilization, cp. Lucretius, 5, 935. For
Osiris as discoverer of the vine see Diod. 1, 15, 8.
34. viridem : the juxtaposition with dura here suggests that the adjective
carries with it the idea of tender as well as green, cp. teneram ferro, 1. 30 and
1, 8, 30 n.- comam: a familiar figure in Latin but not tolerable in English.
333
1, 7, 35]
TIBVLLVS
The nearest approach to it is illustrated by such passages as Milton, P. L.
4, 135, “The champaign head | Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides |
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, | Access denied. In the way
of taste however all things are possible, 'I remember when I was a boy,'
says Dryden in his dedication to The Spanish Friar, 'I thought inimitable
Spenser a mean poet in comparison of Sylvester's Du Bartas, and was rapt
into an ecstasy when I read these lines —
“Now, when the winter's keener breath began
To crystallize the Baltic ocean;
To glaze the lakes, to bridle up the floods,
And periwig with snow the bald-pate woods.":
All which will serve to illustrate the rule that English trees may have heads
and even crowns and English mountains may be bald, but they never have
hair, and therefore wigs even in the seventeenth century should be taboo. See
2, 1, 48 n.; 1, 4, 30.
35-36. I, 5, 23–24 n.
36. incultis, pedibus: the emphasis on previous ignorance and inex-
perience throughout this passage (“inexpertae . . . non notis ... nescia')
suggests that incultis here means 'rude,' 'untrained' (and so among others,
Dissen and Haupt). On the other hand, incultis = sordidis, i.e. stained and
sticky with the juice of the grapes they are treading (not to mention con-
tributory matter from other sources) is a detail often noticed by the poets
and certainly warranted by the facts. Cp. Tihullus, 2, 5, 85 (whose tendency
to repeat himself often has been mentioned above); Propert. 3, 17, 18, 'et
nova pressantis inquinet uva pedes'; Ovid, Met. 2, 29, 'stabat et Autumnus
calcatis sordidus uvis,' etc. (so Schulze after Cyllenius, Gebhard, etc.) I can-
not find however that incultus is used elsewhere in this sense of sordidus and
should therefore prefer the meaning of rude,' untrained,' as demanded not
only by the usual meaning of the word but by the surroundings of it in this
particular passage.
37-42. Developed again in 2, 1, 51 from a slightly different point of view.
In the plain prose of the philosophers and literary critics the origin of music
and the dance is to be found in the harvest and vintage festivals of the coun-
try folk. The poets never weary of this theme. It might be observed too
that just about this time the Romans were especially interested in it. Varro
had discussed the matter not long before, Livy was soon to work it up for
his history (7, 2), and Tibullus's friend Horace for his Epistles (2, 1, 139, etc.).
It goes without saying that the equation Osiris = Bacchos, established be-
fore the time of Herodotos (2, 42) and thoroughly elaborated by the Alex-
andrian thinkers, was now an article of faith (Diodoros, 1, 16).
334
NOTES
[1, 7, 43
37. inflectere: words of bending, turning, etc., are regularly applied to
music, cp. our expression' he can't turn a tune.'
38. ad modos: so I, 4, 70, cp. 2, 3, 79. For the phrase ad modos, see
Ovid, Fast. 6, 692; Ammian. Marcell. 29, 1, 31, and often. Schulze cites
Hor. Od. 3, 30, 14; Epod. 14, 12; Epist. 1, 2, 31 and compares tpos puo uóv.
39-42. Wine (Bacchus, 39 and 41) drives dull care away (1, 2, 1-6 n.)
and even to the bond slave brings respite. The idea is far from new and as
a recipe for happiness has always been popular. Especially good are Pindar,
frag. 221 Schr., áellomódwv ' uév TLV' eúppalvoco lv ITT WV | Temal te kai oté-
φανοι, τους δ' εν πολυχρύσοις θαλάμους βιοτά: τέρπεται δε και τις επ’ οίδη
adlov vai boa ows diaotelßwv, and Bacchylides, frag. 18 Crus., yAukeữ åváyka
| σευομένα κυλίκων θάλπησι θυμόν | Κύπριδος δ' ελπίς διαβύσσει φρένας | άμ-
μιγνυμένα Διονυσίοισι δώροις. | ανδράσι δ' υψοτάτω πέμπει μερίμνας. | αυτίχο
μεν πόλεων κρήδεμνα λύει, | πάσι δ' ανθρώποις μουναρχήσειν δοκεϊ: 1 χρυσό δ'
ελέφαντί τε μαρμαίρουσιν οίκοι, | πυροφόροι δε κατ' αίγλάεντα πόντον | νέες
άγουσιν απ’ Αιγύπτου μέγιστον πλούτον» ώς πίνοντος ορμαίνει κέαρ. 1, 10, 51
pictures the result of a too enthusiastic attack upon dull care at one of these
country festivals.
39-40. Cp. Seneca, Dial. 9, 17, 8.
40. tristitiae: genitive of separation after dissolüenda. This genitive
with verbs of separating, depriving, etc. after the analogy of Greek (not else-
where in Tib.) is occasional in the poets, Plaut. Rudens, 247; Hor. Od.
2, 9, 17; 3, 17, 16; 3, 27, 70; Verg. A. 10, 441; Cicero, Leg. 2, 51; Sil.
Ital. 10, 84. The construction is not found in Propertius or Ovid. — disso-
lüenda : 1, 7, 2; 1, 6, 37; 1, 2, 70, and notes. — dedit: 1, 4, 16 n.
41-42. The Slaves' Song in William Cartwright's Royal Slave, I, I, ends
with-
Then drink we a round in despite of our foes,
And make our hard irons cry clink in the close !
42. compede: this word is usually plural, so always e.g. in Plautus. The
singular is poetic, so 2, 6, 25 (another version of this distich); Ovid, Trist.
4, 1, 5; Pont. 1, 6, 31. Two exx. of the plural are quoted from Ovid (Amor.
2, 2, 47; Her. 20, 85). The sing. is a favourite with Horace (Od. I, 33, 14;
4, 11, 24; Epod. 4, 4; Epist. 1, 3, 3) who uses the plural only in Epist. 1, 16,
77. The word is not used by Vergil or Propertius.
43--52. The Tibullian norm involves a very large use of copulative particles,
of anaphora and of similar devices which make for parataxis rather than hypo-
taxis (Introd. p. 101). This passage is an excellent ex. of his skill from this
point of view. — non . . . nec: sed [et . . . et] . . . sed [et] . . . sed [et
335
1, 7, 43]
TIBVLLVS
... et ... et]. huc . . . et [que] et ... et ... et [et]. Here we have not
only shifting connectives, but also anaphora (“sed . . . sed . . . sed: centum
... Geniumque'). [Connectives in square brackets belong merely to the
phrase introduced by the preceding particle.] Tibullus often indicates this
subordinate relation in such a passage by a change of particles, e.g. from que
to et, et to qile, etc.
43-44. Cp. Diodoros, 1, 18, elvai yåp Tov"Ooiptv piloyélwrá te kal xal-
porta uovo irû kal xopois. . . . oủ ydp moleULKOV elvai Tòr "Ooip.v, oùdè mapa-
Tátels ouvlotao lal kai klydúvous, etc.
44-45. Anaphora of sed is very uncommon (Vollmer, Stat. Silv. 2, 6, 9 n.),
cp. 1, 8, 25; Ovid, Met. 1, 595; 5, 17; Tac. Ann. I, 10. On sed as in 2, 5,
7, see n. ad loc.
44. levis amor: I, I, 73 n; 2, 5, 96 n.; Ovid, Amor. 3, 1, 41; Propert.
2, 12, 4; cp. Koûpos "Epws, Anth. Pal. 9, 443 etc. — aptus is predicative.
45-48. The lines suggest the progresses of Bacchos, the Dionysiac festival,
etc., so often mentioned in the poets, cp. Ovid, Met. 3, 554; Hor. Od. 2, 19,
17; Eurip. Bacchai; Diodoros, 1, 17, etc.
45. corymbis : the ivy was sacred to Bacchos. Hence his epithet of
corymbifer in Ovid, Fast. 1, 393, etc. Ovid, Fast. 3, 767 gives the reason.
46. lutea: yellow (luteus, croceus) is associated with Bacchos. It was the
colour worn by the temple girls; in fact in Greece, as in all the Orient, yellow is
worn by all dedicated to the god; so the Eunuchs of the Dea Syria (Apul.
Met. 8, 27, etc.), and to this day the Buddhist monks. The wearing of
yellow by the hetairai (e.g. in the comedy) would seem to have been an
inheritance from the hierodulai, but the right of Attic women in general to
wear the colour was acquired at an early date. Hence yellow, in later times
at least, may be called the festal colour, cp. Catull. 61, 10; 68, 134; Ovid,
Met. 10, 1; Seneca, Oed. 421; Pliny, 21, 46, etc. The conventional signifi-
cance of colours forms a long and curious chapter in the history of human
thought. - palla: the palla (cp. 4, 2, II and n.), sometimes worn by Apollo
and Hermes (Ovid, Met. 3, 556, etc.), was regularly worn by Bacchos,
Aristoph. Ran. 46; Propert. 3, 17, 32; Stat. Achill. 1, 262; Seneca, Herc.
Fulr. 475; Oed. 425 ; etc.
47. Tyriae vestes are of course festal, cp. 4, 2, 11 and n.; Ovid, Met. 3,
556; etc. — tibia : the tibia is regularly associated with Bacchos and festival
occasions, cp. Ovid, Met. 3, 533; 4, 392; Verg. A. 11, 737; Val. Flacc. 6,
142; Hor. Od. 4, 15, 30; etc. —cantu: for the ablat. with dulcis, cp. 54
below.
48. conscia : 'privy to,' 'a confidante of.' The cista contains the sacra
unknown to the public, and is therefore privy to them. For this use of
336
NOTES
[1, 7, 49
conscius, see 1, 8, 3; Propert. I, 10, 2; Seneca, Thyest. 632; Val. Flacc. 1, 5,
etc. For conscius with the dative occultis sacris (cp. 1, 6, 77 n.), cp.
Thesaurus s.v. The dative with conscius of things appears first in this pas-
sage (cista), or perhaps in Vergil, A. 4, 167. The two poets were writing
about the same time, and it is beyond doubt that they learned much from
each other. The remaining exx. are all from the poets except Ps. Quint.
Dec. 17, 4 (Seneca, Med. 6; Phaed. 107; Ovid, Her. 15, 138; Stat. Theb.
8, 206; 9, 422; Sil. Ital. 3, 399; 5, 23; Avien. Orb. Terr. 381; Carm. Epig.
110, 5; 1788, 7). The dative with conscius of persons begins with Cicero
(Verr. 4, 124; Cluent. 56; Att. 12, 19, 4) and afterwards only in Ovid,
Ars Amat. 1, 354; Met. 7, 194; Lucan, I, 20; Sil. Ital. 3, 393; Lactant.
Phoen. 58: Mart. Cap. I, 22 (verse); Carm. Epig. III, 17; Apul. Apol. 56.
— cista : the box in which the sacred objects were carried in the procession.
It was. of wicker work, hence levis. See Catull. 64, 259; Ovid, Ars Amat.
2, 609; Hor. Od. I, 18, 12; etc.
49-54. The genius (here the genius of Messalla) is the spirit which acc. to
antique and especially Roman belief was born with a man and attended him
through life, Menand. frag. 18 inc. Mein., ómavti daluwv åvopi ovuttaplota-
Tal | củlùs yevouévų uvotaywyds Toll Blov | åyabós · Hor. Epist. 2, 2, 188;
Censorinus, 3, ' genius est deus cuius in tutela ut quisque natus est vivit,' etc.
A woman's genius was called her Juno, 4, 6, 1, n.; 3, 6, 48; Pliny, 2, 16;
Petron. 25; Seneca, Epist. 110, 1; etc.
One's birthday is naturally as here the feast day of the genius natalis. Only
bloodless sacrifices were made to him because (Varro, in Censor. 1.c.) life
should not be taken on the day that life was given. The nature of the sacri-
fices offered, the ceremonial, etc., is fully described here, cp. also 2, 2, 1;
21-22; 4, 5, 19; Hor. Epist. 2, 1, 144, etc. A man's genius as such is
always good, the cause of happiness and of physical and spiritual health. It
is his good angel. But it is not infallible, and the genius of one man is often
stronger than the genius of another. Throughout life one's genius helps one
to whatever is good or pleasant, and also sympathizes with one in trouble,
and endeavours to warn one of impending danger, etc., cp. Plutarch, Brut.
36 and 48; Val. Max. 1, 7, 7; Ammian. Marcell. 21, 14; etc. The forehead
was sacred to him and one touched it in praying to him, Serv. on Verg. E.
6, 3; A. 3, 607. The idea that every man is attended by two spirits, a good
and a bad, comes not from the people but from the philosophers. On the
question of birthdays in antiquity see esp. W. Schmidt, Geburtstag im Altertum,
Giessen, 1908 ("Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten,' vol. 7,
part I).
49. huc ades: for the naïve invitation to Osiris, 1, 1, 37–38 n.; 2, 2, 5, etc.
337
1, 7, 50]
TIBVLLVS
For the displacement of que, 1, 1, 40 and 1, 1, 51 n., for chorēis, 1, 3, 59 n.,
and for centum of an indefinitely large number, Catull. 64, 389; Verg. G. 3,
18; Hor. Epod. 17, 39; Od. 3, 8, 14; Grat. Cyneget. 520; the Greek use of
'hecatomb,' etc.
50. concelebra: an old word but in the sense of join in doing honour
to (a god)' occurs here for the first time (so Thes.). The other exx. quoted
are Sil. Ital. 8, 221; Auson. 317, 9; Paulin. Nol. Carm. 27, 138; Arnob. 5,
39; Ambros. Abr. 1, 5, 38. — funde : 1, 2, 3 and 1, 7, 3, with notes.
51. unguenta : cp. 2, 2, 7, etc.
52. collo: Schulze compares Hor. Sat. 2, 3, 256, dicitur ex collo
furtim carpsisse coronas.' See also Cicero, Verr. 5, 27, coronam habe-
bat unam in capite, alteram in collo,' etc. The regular Greek word for these
garlands worn on the neck, so that one might enjoy the perfume of the
flowers, was Únoduuls, cp. Athen. 674 C.; Alkaios, 28 Crus.; Sappho, 43
Crus.; Anak. 38 Crus.
53. sic venias hodierne: in classical prose (exx. in Cicero occur only in
the letters to Atticus) the optative subjunctive in the second pers. pres. is
used only of an imaginary you. The older language, however, uses this
construction when a definite person is addressed. It was therefore taken up
as here by the poets of the Augustan Age. The remaining exx. in Tib. are
1, I, 37; 1, 2, 57; 1, 3, 4; 1, 4, 40: 1, 8, 67; 1, 9, 51; 1, 2, 9.
The vocative hodierne is used here as a predicate instead of the nominative.
“The Greeks were cautious, and in Vergil the vocative can be detached and
felt as such' (Gildersleeve, Persius, I, 123 n.). Propert. 1, 7, 24, 'ardoris
nostri magne poeta iaces'; 2, 15,8; Ovid, Her. 10, 6; Met. 10, 196; Verg.
A. II, 856,'huc periture veni'; 2, 282; 9, 485; 10, 327; 811; Statius,
Theb. 7, 777; Hor. Sat. 2, 6, 20; Od. 1, 2, 37; (Seneca;] Octav. 32; etc.
No other ex, is found in Tib. Some of the Roman poets overdo it, cp. e.g.
Pers. 3, 28, stemmate quod Tusco ramum millesime ducis. Old Latin macte
virtute esto has been cited as the analogy, cp. however such exx. as Theokrịt.
17, 66, 6ABLE, KOūpe, révolo, and Soph. Phil. 760, iù iw dúornve oú, dúornve
δητα διά πόνων πάντων φανείς.
The vocative is never used with o by Tibullus. Once in Lygd. 3, 6, 57,
oftener in the more passionate and rhetorical Propertius, 1, 20, 51; 2, 13, 50;
15, 1; 22, 4; 32, 3; 33, 31; 3, 5, 7; etc.
54. liba : 2, 2, 8; Ovid, Trist. 3, 13, 17; Auson. 4, 2, II, 'nec tus cre-
mandum postulo , nec liba crusti mellei'; Servius on Verg. A. 7, 109, etc.
The regular sacrificial cakes for which Cato, De Agri Cult. 75 gives the recipe.
- Mopsopio: i.e. Attic. Mopsopos was one of the mythical kings of Attika.
The honey of Hymettos was famous.
338
NOTES
[1, 7, 59
This use of Mopsopius for Attic (first in Tib.?) is quoted as Kallimachean
by Stephan. Byz. 458, 14, cp. Kallimach. frag. 351 Schn.
56. veneranda: passive, I, 5, 14 n. Amplifies the idea of 'quae facta
parentis augeat,''sons worthy of their sire.' A wish often expressed, Hor.
A. P. 24; Sen. Agam. 406; Naevius, frag. Trag. 15 R (quoted by Cicero,
Fam. 15, 6, I; 5, 12, 7; Tusc. Disput. 4, 67); Herod. I, 30 (the famous
story of Solon and Kroisos); etc.
57–58. Introd. p. 35. After the Civil Wars Augustus himself assumed the
task of repairing the Via Flaminia as far as Ariminum and apportioned others
to the different generals who had been given triumphs, the expense in each
case to be defrayed ex manubiali pecunia, the money realized from the spoils
of the campaign (Sueton. Aug. 30; Cassius Dio, 53, 22). Messalla's task
here referred to was a portion of the Via Latina which diverging to the left
after leaving the Porta Capena passed between Tusculum on the left and the
Alban Hills on the right and proceeded southward until it finally joined the
Via Appia at Beneventum.
57. taceat: agrees with the implied antecedent of quem. — monumenta
viae: for the genitive of specification cp. 2, 5, 33; 2, 6, 3; 1, 8, 47; 1,
10, 3; I, 4, 10; 1, 6, 86; 2, 4, 29; 4, 6, 5. In 2, 5, 43 Numicius is
felt to be a god, hence the gen. is possessive, monumenta may be used as
here of any memorial to one's self (monere), especially of public works,
Cicero, Mil. 17; Varro, L. L. 6, 49, etc. - quem detinet: 1, 3, 3. -- Tuscula
tellus: Mart. 9, 60, 2 uses tellus Tuscula.'
58. candida Alba: the grey limestone of the neighbourhood when seen in
the bright sunlight quite justifies the epithet. Servius on Verg. G. 3, 82,
'candidum, id est, quadam nitenti luce perfusum,' hence the favourite tropic
use as in 64 below. For candidus thus used of natural objects, Propert. 3,
16, 3, cp. Hor. Sat. 1, 5, 26; Epod. 1, 29, etc.
59-60. Vitruvius the engineer, a contemporary of Messalla himself, tells us
how a Roman road was made. “First the earth was levelled and rammed
down until it was solid: then came a layer of rough stones for a foundation,
with or without cement: above this a second layer of rubble, mixed with lime
(glarea, 59) and rammed down to a thickness of nine inches: on the top of
all was a layer of hard pavement stones (silex, 60, a general term for any hard
rock, cp. Juv. 6, 350, etc.) usually of basaltic lava, laid carefully on a bed
of hard cement' (Ramsay). This method which has made the Roman roads
deservedly famous in all succeeding times had already been followed for
generations in the time of Augustus, cp. Livy, 41, 27, 5 (174 B.C.).
Then as now the silices or paving stones (Ital. selci) were very nicely fitted
though often of irregular shape.
339
1, 7,60]
TIBVLLVS
60. sternitur : sternere, to'lay' a road (hence strata viarum, strata, Ital.
strada, our street), cp. e.g. Livy, 10, 47, 4.
61-62. The farmer in these lines reminds one of those who used to say in
the Tolbooth with such unction, 'God bless the Duke of Argyle!'
62. inoffensum: first apparently in Tib. and in this literal sense, without
stumbling,' extremely rare.
63. per: per of time is found only here in Tibullus.
64. candidior: on candidus = `joyous,''fortunate,' in this connection cp.
1, 3, 94; Ovid, Trist. 5, 5, 14; etc.
I, 8
This elegy belongs in the group concerned with Marathus. See Introd. p.
51. The scene here as in the fourth is very dramatic; in fact, nowhere are
the manifold relations between the elegy and the comedy more clearly dis-
played than in this particular type which with its blending of sentiment and
satire, and with its somewhat nearer approach to the language of everyday
life reflects the mood of the Hellenistic epigram.
Tibullus finds his boy Marathus and the girl Pholoe together, and having
already noted certain whisperings, becks, and smiles, ranges the two before
him and comes to the root of the matter at once.
1-26. “I am no inspired reader of signs and omens, Marathus, but I have
had a thorough course in the finishing school of Dame Venus and I cannot be
deceived as to the meaning of your symptoms. Don't try to hide it from me
-- you will find it a relief to give up struggling. All this care and pains which
you have been expending on your hair, your nails, your clothes, your tight
shoes, and what not, are of no help to you. The girl there can neglect
everything of the sort, and win you just the same. Can it be that some one
has cast a spell on you? Those old witches can do marvellous things. But
why in your case do I talk of spells? Beauty does not require the aid of spells.'
27-66. As for you, Pholoe, bear in mind not to coquet with the boy;
Venus punishes such conduct. Also don't ask for presents. Get them from
your grey-headed lover -- it is his duty. A lover that is young and strong
and handsome is more to be prized than gold. Jewels and precious stones
are cold comfort when a woman is old and lonely and no man makes love to
her. 'Tis too late to call back youth and love when hoary eld has settled
upon us. Then is when we study to be beautiful; then is when we
hide our years with dyes, pull out the white hairs, get ourselves new skins.
Enjoy your youth while you still have it. It will be gone anon. And don't
torment Marathus. Where is the glory in conquering a mere boy? If you
340
NOTES
[1, 8, 3
must be disagreeable, reserve it for the old sinners. Be gentle with him, I beg
of you. He is so young. Have you noticed how yellow he is? That's not
jaundice, it's love! You ought to hear his complaints in your absence-
and the whole place dripping with tears! He says that you spurn him and
that he doesn't see why, that you could get away to meet him if you wished,
and that he knows all the rules. He complains, however, that you make
promises but never keep them, that you agree to meet him but never appear.'
67-68. “There, my boy, don't cry any more. She doesn't care, and your
eyes are all red and swollen.'
69–78. “I warn you, Pholoe, the gods hate pride; it's no use laying gifts on
their altars. There was a time when this Marathus here pursued your tactics
and thought them very amusing. Little did he suspect that the avenger was
at his shoulder! Now he feels differently. Profit by his experience. It will
be yours unless you mend your ways.'
1-2. On these symptoms of a love affair in progress, cp. Propert. I, II, 13,
quam vacet alterius blandos audire susurros | molliter in tacito litore com-
positam, ut solet amota labi custode puella,' etc.; Hor. Od. 1, 9, 19, ‘lenesque
sub noctem susurri, etc., the bapo uol of the Greeks, e.g. Kallimachos, frag.
118 Schn. ý tais ñ katák ELOTOS | thv oi paol TEKOVTES | evvalous óaplouous
š xdelv loov on topw: 'Oapiotús, the title of Theokrit. 27, etc.
1. celari: has here the rare meaning of 'to have concealed from one,'
i.e. 'to be kept in ignorance of; to fail to perceive,' Ovid, Fast. 3, 491,
praecipue cupiam celari Thesea'; Bell. Alex. 7, 1, .quod neque celari
Alexandrini possent in apparanda fuga.' — nutus amantis: 1, 2, 21-22 and
1, 6, 19 with n.
2. ferant: 'convey.'
3-4. An evident echo of these lines is Shirley's Traitor, 4, 2, 'I profess no
augury, | I have not quartered out the heavens to take | The flight of birds,
nor by inspection of entrails made a divination; | But I must tell you, 'tis not
safe to marry.'
For the same opposition of prophecy (expressed as here) to plain practical
experience, cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 25 (but cp. 2, 493); Trist. I, 9, 49.
Typical, too, for this ironical way of saying that one can, so to speak, 'see a
hole through a ladder,' is Petron. 126.
On these three regular methods of divination, see 2, 5, 11-16 and notes;
Ovid, Trist. 1, 9, 49; Propert. 4, I, 103; Verg. A. 3, 359; Lucan, 6, 424;
Seneca, Oed. 390; Stat. Theb. 4, 406; etc.
3. conscia: only here with the gen. in Tib., cp. 1, 7, 48 n. The cons.,
however, is common enough. The remaining adjs. with the gen. in Tib. are
compos, 1, 10, 23; memor, 1, 3, 2; providus, 2, 5, 12; studiosus, 4, 8, 5.
341
1, 8, 4]
TIBVLLVS
4. praecinit eventus: 1, 6, 50.
5-6. Tibullus says he has learned by bitter experience to know the signs.
This is a favourite turn of Propertius, cp. 1, 9, 7, “me dolor et lacrimae merito
fecere peritum : , atque utinam posito dicar amore rudis '; 3, 8, 17.
· As we have seen (i, 5, 5 n., cp. 2. 4, 3; 2, 6, 5 and notes) the lover con-
stantly adopts the attitude of a slave, esp, of a slave undergoing torment at
the hands of Cupid, Venus, etc., cp. e.g. Propert. 3, 24, 13, 'correptus saevo
Veneris torrebar aeno, vinctus eram versas in mea terga manus' (where the
first line contains another favourite figure, that of love as a fire over which the
victim is cooked, Propert. 3, 6, 39; Anth. Pal. 12, 92, 9; a similar use of
'fry' in the old Eng. poets; etc.). Again the lover is a captive of Cupid and
adorns his triumph as in Ovid, Amor. 1, 2. Here the slave of love is bound
and scourged - the reflection of another common idea that Cupid himself is
utterly cruel and heartless, cp. 1, 3, 64; 1, 6, 2; 1, 10, 58 and notes.
5. magico nodo: the idea of binding runs all through sorcery, cp. such
details of ritual as 1, 3, 31; 1, 5, 15; 2, 1, 15-16 with notes; words like
ligare, defixere, solvere, etc. The most natural and striking symbolism of this
idea is knots; 'necte tribus nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores; , necte, Amarylli,
modo et " Veneri” dic “vincula necto, " , says the sorceress in Vergil, E. 8, 78,
a single ex. of the many that might be quoted. The 'true lover's knot'is
one of the last survivors. There is no trace, however, of an actual nodus
Veneris (cp. the nodus Herculis used in medicine and represented on the
caduceus of Hermes, Pliny, 28, 63; Sen. Epist. 87, 38; Macrob. 1, 19, 16;
Festus, 63; Cornut. Theol. Graec. 16, p. 22, Lang; Athen. II, 500 A, etc.)
although Venus was nevertheless a sorceress (1, 2, 43 n.). The peculiarity of
all magic knots is that one cannot untie them without knowing the necessary
charm. Hence magico here evidently means “strong,' "indissoluble, with a
suggestion perhaps of 'wondrous,' mysterious,' as in Ovid, Her. 4, 136, 'illa
coit firma generis iunctura catena | imposuit nodos cui Venus ipsa suos';
Lucret. 4, 1147–1148, non ita difficile est quam captum retibus ipsis , exire et
validos Veneris perrumpere nodos.' Similar exx, of magicus in an extended
sense appear to be very uncommon, cp. however Juv. 15, 5, dimidio magi-
cae resonant ubi Memnone chordae,' i.e. not far from our common use of
magical = 'wonderful,' mysterious.'
6. perdocuit: note the, force of the prep. Venus is fond of wielding the
scourge upon her slaves, 3, 4, 66; Hor. Od. 3, 26, 11,ʻregina (i.e. Venus),
sublimi flagello | tange Chloen semel arrogantem'; Mart. 6, 21, 9, dixit et
arcano percussit pectora loro'; Anth. Pal. 5, 254, 7; Nonnos, 4, 177; etc.
7-8. Another important article in the lover's creed ; cp. 2.. Eurip. Hippol.
443 (the Nurse to Phaidra) -
342
NOTES
[1, 8, 9
Κύπρις γάρ ου φορητός, ήν πολλή ρυή:
ή τον μεν είκονθ' ήσυχη μετέρχεται,
δν δ' αν περισσόν και φρονούνθ' εύρη μέγα,
τούτον λαβούσα, πώς δοκείς και καθύβρισεν.
A good ex. of the same idea subjected to rhetoric is Ovid, Amor. 1, 2, 9-
cedimus an subitum luctando accendimus ignem?
cedamus, leve fit quod bene fertur onus:
vidi ego iactatas mota face crescere flammas
et vidi nullo concutiente mori;
verbera plura ferunt quam quos iuvat usus aratri,
detractant prensi dum iuga prima boves;
asper equus duris contunditur ora lupatis,
...frena minus sentit quisquis ad arma facit.
acrius invitos multoque ferocius urget
quam qui servitium ferre fatentur Amor,
which helps us to appreciate Quintilian's criticism of Ovid as “ nimium amator
ingenii sui.'
This excuse is, of course, associated with several motives habitually used by
the antique lover (and others) to escape the responsibility of doing as he
pleases by shifting it to the gods, e.g. Love is sent by the gods; to oppose it
is pride ; pride goes before a fall (1, 2, 88; 1, 8, 75; etc.); or again, Love
is the will of the gods; to oppose their will is impious; the gods punish
impiety; hence the unwilling lover suffers the more (as e.g. in the passage
before us); or, again, Love is sent by the gods; the gods are all-powerful
(1, 2, 89; 1, 3, 21; 1, 4, 82; 2, 1, 79 ; 2, 3, 10); to oppose them is useless
(1, 6, 29–30 n.; 1, 5, 1-6 n.), hence, etc.
7. deus: 1, 6, 43 n.
9–14. In order to realize fully the art of this description one should com-
pare it with Ovid's advice (Ars Amat. I, 505) to a gentleman under the
same circumstances —
sed tibi nec ferro placeat torquere capillos,
nec tua mordaci pumice crura teras:
ista iube faciant quorum Cybeleia mater
concinitur Phrygiis exululata modis !
forma viros neclecta decet: Minoida Theseus
abstulit, a nulla tempora comptus acu;
Hippolytum Phaedra, nec erat bene cultus, amavit;
cura deae silvis aptus Adonis erat.
munditie placeant: fuscentur corpora Campo,
sit bene conveniens et sine labe toga;
343
1, 8, 9]
TIBVLLVS
linguam ne rigeant; careant rubigine dentes!
nec vagus in laxa pes tibi pelle natet,
nec male deformet rigidos tonsura capillos;
sit coma, sit scita barba resecta manu;
et nihil emineant et sint sine sordibus ungues,
inque cava nullus stet tibi nare pilus;
nec male odorati sit tristis anhelitus oris,
nec laedat naris virque paterque gregis!
cetera lascivae faciant concede puellae
et siquis niale vir quaerit habere virum,
See also Theophrastos, Charact. 19 (the slovenly man') and for women
Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 101.
One observes at once that Marathus overdresses - which indicates his
position; and that he is too feminine in his tastes — which indicates the puer
delicatus. All which of course helps to mark this affair, as the poet intended
it to do, as a tragedy of high life below stairs.
The resemblance to our passage of Paul. Silent. Anth. Pal. 5, 228, seems
too close to be a matter of mere accident -
Είπε τίνι πλέξεις έτι βόστρυχον, ή τίνι χείρας
φαιδρυνέεις ονύχων αμφιτεμών ακίδα;
ες τί δε κοσμήσεις αλιανθεί φάρεα κόχλη,
μηκέτι της καλής εγγύς ιών Ροδόπης και
όμμασιν οίς Ροδόπης ου δέρκομαι, ουδέ φαεινής
φέγγος ιδείν εθέλω χρύσεον Ηριπόλης.
9-10. The ancients, partly no doubt because they went bareheaded as a
rule (and the same is true of the modern Neapolitans), devoted a great deal
of attention to dressing their hair, cp. e.g. 1, 6, 39-40 n.; 1, 9, 67.
Marathus being a slave wore his hair long (1, 4, 37-38 n.), moreover as a
puler delicatus he apes the feminine style of coiffure and adopts the feminine
point of view with regard to it. Too much attention to the hair (Ovid, Ars
Amat. 1, 505 f. quoted above) was of course in bad taste and characterized the
overdressed exquisite of 1, 6, 39 (cp. note ad loc.; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 433,
etc.). The use of curling tongs was especially affected by persons of the
Marathus type, cp. Plautus, Asin. 627, 'cinaede calamistrate'; Curc. 577;
Cicero, Red. 12, cincinnatus ganeo'; Sest. 18, 'unguentis adfluens, cala-
mistrata coma'; etc.
9. quid prodest: for the implication, i.e. your object was to win the girl,
see 1, 9, 67–70 n.
10. On the coiffures best adapted to different styles of beauty see Ovid's
344
NOTES
[1, 8, 14
advice to women, Ars Amat. 3, 137. — saepe mutatas disposuisse: i.e.
saepe mutare et aliter disponere' (Dissen). For this compendious method
of expression cp. 1, 2, 2. Martial, 12, 82, 1o, 'dicet Achilleas disposuisse
comas,' is cited as an echo of this line.
II. fuco: but the epithet splendente (cp. purpureus = splendidus, 1, 4,
29 n.) is a clear indication that purpurissum, minium, or some other equiv-
alent of our modern rouge is referred to. The custom of painting the face
was practically universal in antiquity among the women, young and old and
in all classes, Plautus, Truc. 290; Most. 258; Propert. 3, 24, 8; Lukian,
Amor. 39; Aristoph. Ekkles. 878; etc. In imitating them, Marathus is again
following the custom of his kind; cp. Petron. 23; Apul. Met. 8, 27; etc.
12. artificis: the office of manicure was performed by the barber, Plautus,
Aul. 312, quin ipsi pridem tonsor unguis dempserat'; Hor. Epist. 1,7, 50;
Val. Max. 3, 2, 15; Mart. 3, 74, 3. Care of the nails is emphasized by Ovid,
Ars Amat. 1, 519, above; cp. also Theophrast. Charact. 26 (of the oligarch'),
και το μέσον δε της ημέρας εξιών και το ιμάτιον αναβεβλημένος και μέσην κουράν
Kekapuévos kai åkpußws & WVUXlO uévos, etc.; id. ibid. 19 (of the 'sloven') •
δε . δυσχερής τοιούτός τις, οίος λέπραν έχων και άλφόν και τους όνυχας μεγάλους
TEPLATEîv kal pñoal, tauta elval aůtý OvYyevirà áppwotýuara, etc. — sub-
secuisse: the verb is rare. For this use, cp. Ovid, Fast. 6, 230, 'non ungue,
ferro subsecuisse licet.'
13. frustra ... frustrá: anaphora as here with a change of stress is not
infrequent in the Roman poets, cp. e.g. Hor. Od. 2, 14, 1, eheu fugaces,
Postume, Postume, | labuntur anni?; Verg. E. 3, 79, et longum “ formose,
vale vale," inquit, “Iolla."); 6, 44, etc. The remaining exx. in Tib. are 1,
5, 29; 1, 9, 15; 2, 2, 3; 2, 3, 27. — amictus: cloaks (as in these days neck-
ties) were the principal article of masculine attire which could be had in the
most expensive materials and in a variety of brilliant colours. They were
therefore one of the most notable opportunities for extravagance and display in
dress and are constantly being mentioned, especially in the pages of Martial.
14. The Romans as well as the Greeks made much of a well-fitting shoe.
Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 516, 'ne vagus in laxa pes tibi pelle natet,' uses the same
expressive figure employed by Aristoph. Equit. 321, ě veově v tais čußáolv.
Theophrast. Charact. 4, says of the "rustic,'kal uelfw Toû Todds tà ÜToðnuata
popelv. and so Hor. Sat. 1, 3, 31, 'rusticius tonso toga defluit et male laxus
in pede calceus haeret.' Others are Propert. 2, 29, 40; Plato, Hipp. Maior,
294 A; Lukian, Pro Imag. 10; but the passage furnishing the best criticism of
Marathus here is Quintil. II, 3, 137, 'et toga et calceus et capillus tam nimia
cura quam neglegentia sunt reprehendenda.' – ansa: i.e. the loop on the side
of the sandal through which the latchet was passed. Elsewhere in this sense
345
1, 8, 157
TIBVLLVS
,
only in Pliny, 35, 85 (Val. Max. 8, 12, 3, telling the same anecdote uses the
diminutive ansula — which is more common, but this too occurs rarely).
15-16. A variation of the old theme of Beauty unadorned against the 'Adul-
teries of Art.' See e.g. Plautus, Most. 288; Propert. I, 2 (an elaboration
of the theme with parallels from nature and mythology); Philost. Epist. 22;
Poetae Lat. Minores, Baehrens, V, p. 391; esp. Anth. Lat. 458 R., 'semper
munditias, semper, Basilissa decores,' etc., the original of Ben Jonson's famous
song, Still to be neat, still to be dressed. See A.J.P. 29, 133–155. Wilhelm
cites Anth. Pal. 5, 26 and 260; Gollnisch cites Nonnos, 42, 87; Plaut. Most. 173.
15. venerit: on this use of a verb of motion, 1, 8, 64; 1, 2, 76 n.; 4, 2, 12.
16. tarda arte: the proverbial slowness of woman making her toilet, Ter.
Heaut. 240, 'non cogitas hinc longule esse? et nosti mores mulierum: , dum
moliuntur, dum conantur, annus est'; Propert. 1, 15, 6, et potes hesternos
manibus conponere crines et longa faciem quaerere desidia'; Mr.
Thompson adds Cicero, Mil. 28, paulisper, dum se uxor, ut fit, comparat,
commoratus est.' Cp. also, ' Les dames misent longuement | A faire lor afaite-
ment'; etc. (Partonopeus de Blois, 10640).
17–18. The suspicion (cp. Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 27) is founded on the fact that
love charms, pocula amatoria, actually were in common use at this time; cp.
1, 2, 59-62; 1, 5, 41 and notes. Hence diseases, especially nervous disorders,
the cause of which was not discernible to the popular mind, were habitually
ascribed to some such cause, as for instance Caligula's homicidal mania, pos-
sibly even the legend of the death of Lucretius (Hieron. Euseb. Chron.
A. U. C. 659); see also Pliny, 24, 167, etc.
17. pallentibus : active, 1, 1, 8 n.; Propert. 4, 7, 36, 'sensi ego cum
insidiis pallida vina bibi'; Pers. Prol. 4, 'pallida Pirene'; etc.
18. 1, 2, 59–62; 1, 5, 41 and notes.
19-22. Another catalogue of marvels like the one of 1, 2, 41 ff., see notes
ad loc.
19. The superstition referred to here is primitive, persistent, and world-
wide. It appears in the earliest traditions of Rome and played a prominent
part, for example, in the witch trials of the fifteenth to the eighteenth centu-
ries. Pliny, 28, 17, quotes from the Laws of the Twelve Tables, . qui fruges
excantassit,' and Serv. on Verg. E. 8, 99 adds, 'neve alienam segetem pel-
lexeris,' cp. also Augustin. C. D. 8, 19; Seneca, N. Q. 4, 7, 2. For the story
of Chresimus and his intensive farming see Pliny, 18,41, 'cum in parvo admodum
agello largiores multo fructus perciperet quam ex amplissimis vicinitas, in
invidia erat magna, ceu fruges alienas perliceret veneficiis: quam ob rem ab
Spurio Albino curuli aedile die dicta . . . instrumentum rusticum omne in
forum attulit ... postea dixit : “veneficia mea, Quirites, haec sunt, nec
346
NOTES
[1, 8, 22
possum vobis ostendere aut in forum adducere lucubrationes meas vigiliasque
et sudores."! Frequently mentioned as here in the poets, Propert. 4, 5, II;
Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 31; Rem. Amor. 255; Her. 6, 88; Met. 7, 204; 14,
406; Verg. E. 8, 99; A. 4, 491; Val. Flacc. 6, 443 ; Sil. Ital. 8, 501;
Claud. In Ruf. I, 158; etc. Agobardus of Lyons, De Tonitruis, 2 (Migne
Patrol. Lat., vol. 104, p. 147) says that in his time the belief was current
that the witches had formed a sort of trust and were transporting all the
crops in air-ships to the land of Magonia.'
20. Snake charming is frequently mentioned in these lists and elsewhere,
er. Manil. 5, 390; Lucan, 6, 487; Sil. Ital. 1,411; 3, 300; 5, 354; etc. This
charm could make snakes swell up till they burst, Lucil. 575, Marx; Ovid.
Amor. 2, I, 25; Met. 7, 203; Verg. E. 8, 71; Nemes. 4, 71; Pliny, 28, 19;
etc. Certain peoples were especially gifted in this direction, e.g. the Psylli,
Pliny, 7, 14; 21,78; 28, 30; Lucan, 9, 893; 922; Gellius, 16, 11, 3; etc.: esp.
the Marsi, cp. Lucil. 1.c.; Pompon. 118, Ribb.; Verg. A. 7, 750; Ovid, Med.
Fac. 39 ; Pliny, 7, 15; 21, 78 ; 25, II; 28, 19 and 30 ; Sil. Ital. 8, 495, etc.
aud regularly plied their trade in the Roman streets as the Hindu jugglers
do in ours, cp. Mart. I, 41, 7; Galen, 11, p. 143 K. etc. The great prototype
in mythology was Medea and the Dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece,
Apoll. Rhod. 4, 156 and Schol.; Varro of Atax, frag. 8 B.; Val. Flacc. 8, 68;
etc. - iratae anguis: the fem, as here is rare, Varro, 1.c.; Ovid, Med. Fac.
39; Cicero, N. D. I, 101 ; Val. Max. 1, 6, 4; I, 8, 19; Tac. Ann. II, II.
21-22. The charm of drawing down the moon is referred to, cp. 1, 2, 43
and notes. It was apparently a popular explanation of the eclipse, as was
well understood by the better informed of the ancients themselves, cp. Apoll.
Rhod. 3, 533, where the Schol. says that in ancient times the witches were
supposed to draw down (kalaipeiv) the sun and the moon. For that reason
until the time of Demokritos many called an eclipse a “ drawing down” (katal-
peous). He then quotes Sosiphanes (p. 819, Nauck), Mayois én woais tão a
Devoalis kópn 1 yeuons gelun aidépos kataißátis. But this explanation be-
longs specifically to Greece, or at least I have not found it elsewhere, cp. 22
below and note.
22. faceret . . . sonent: on the mixed cons. see 1, 4, 63 n. — faceret: 2.c.
deduceret. This use of facere, i.e. of the generic verb of action in place of the
specific (to avoid repetition, etc.), though never very common in Latin, is
found in all types of literary art. Elsewhere in Tib. only 1, 9, 73. —- aera
repulsa : refers to the widespread practice of beating drums, tom-toms,
etc., during an eclipse, the object being to make as frightful a din as possible
so as to scare away the cause of the eclipse, i.e. the monster who is pro-
ceeding to devour the luminary. Greek writers who are unaffected by
347
1, 8, 23]
TIBVLLVS
13
foreign influence show no sign of this theory nor do they ever mention the
beating of drums, etc., in connection with their own theory of witchcraft (men-
tioned in 21–22 n.). The use of drums as a countercharm to the eclipse con-
sidered as due to witchcraft seems to be confined to the Romans or to the
Greek writers of the Empire (Ovid, Met. 7, 207; Med. Fac. 41; Sen. Med. 795;
Mart. 12, 57, 16; Juv. 6, 442, etc. down to e.g. Sisebutus in the seventh
- century, Anth. Lat. 483, 18 R.). Perhaps the practice of drums, which certainly
belonged from the first with the theory of the eclipse as due to a devouring
monster, was afterward transferred to the more local theory of the eclipse as
due to witchcraft. For other ref. to drums in this connection see e.g. Livy,
26, 5, 9; Plutarch, Aemil. 17; Pliny, 2, 54; Tac. Ann. I, 28; Theokrit. 2, 36
Schol.; Livy, 44, 37; Seneca, Phaed. 793; Ovid, Met. 4, 333; Claud. Bell.
Goth. 233; etc. In the Middle Ages both church and state fought against the
belief, cp. Gregor. In Paenitent. 23; Theodoret. Paenitent. 27, 25; Audoenus,
Vita S. Eligii, 2, 15; Baeda, Rem. Pecc. 21; Capitularia Caroling. for the
year 743; Ducange, Lex. s.v. 'Vince-Luna,' etc. For the use of brazen instru-
ments (brass itself has magic qualities), bells, etc., to scare away demons cp.
Schol. on Theokrit. 2, 36; Lukian, Philops. 15; Schol. on Lykoph. 77;
Propert. 4, 7, 25; etc.
23. queror nocuisse : verbs of emotion take the infin. in 1, 4, 34; 1, 10,
56; 2, 3, 23, otherwise quod, 2, 3, 9; 4, 5, 5; 4, 10, 2; 4, 11, 2.
24. A famous line, cp. I, 5, 43-44 n.
25-26. Ovid, Amor. I, 4, 43; 3, 7, 10; 3, 14, 22; Her. 2, 58; Eurip. Medea,
679, and Schol.; Hesych. s.v. yuvaikes.
25. nocet: of magic, so Propert. 2, 19, 32; Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 28; Hor. Sat.
I, 8, 22, etc.; cp. Theokrit.9, 36, Tots & OUT, TOT 3 and aro Kpon, etc.
26. sed femori conseruisse femur: in discussing the declension of femur,
Charisius, p. 87 K., says, ' hoc femur, huius femoris, sed frequenter huius feminis
huic femini dictum (est et) pluraliter tam femina quam femora, ideoque (et
Tib)ullus hoc ipsum erudite custodit cum dicit implicuitque femur femini.'
Cp. p. 130, ' femini, Tibullus, implicuit (que) femur femini, non femori quasi sit
hoc femur huius femoris. If Charisius had our line in mind it follows either, that
his memory was surprisingly bad or else, that his text was surprisingly different
from ours. If he did not have it in mind he was either quoting from some
elegy of Tibullus now lost to us, or he had mixed his references and substituted
"Tibullus' for the name of some other poet whom it is no longer possible to
identify. This last seems to be the most reasonable solution of the problem and
it is now generally accepted.
27–28. A favourite version of the doctrine of Nemesis (1, 2, 87; 1, 5, 70;
I, 9, 20; etc.). The twinkle in the poet's eye is betrayed by the frequency
348
NOTES
[1, 8, 31
(cp. 69; 72; 77) and the emphasis with which he inculcates this doctrine
upon Pholoe.
27. difficilis : 'hard-hearted,' 'unyielding,' cp. I, 9, 20; Ovid, Ars Amat.
2, 566, 'nec Venus oranti, neque enim dea mollior ullast, I rustica Gradivo
difficilisque fuit.'
28. tristia facta : that make others dismal, i.e. unfeeling,' cp. Verg. A. 2,
548, 'illi, mea tristia facta | degeneremque Neoptolemum narrare memento,
where Dryden trans. "my foul deeds relate.'
29-38. Contrast between an old lover and a young lover for the purpose, of
course, of calling Pholoe's attention to the error of her ways.
29. munera ne poscas: 1, 4, 58; 1, 5, 67; 1, 9, 19; 2, 3, 49; 2, 4, 13.-
det munera canus amator: cp. 50 below. The half humorous, half cynical
solution suggested reflects the relative position of the advisor and the advised.
The tone is to a certain extent characteristic of this group of elegies, cp. esp.
30 ff. with notes. The solution suggested by the poet would be nothing new
to persons of Pholoe's class.
30. Crabbed Age and Youth cannot live together,' cp. 1, 9, 73–74; Aris-
tainetos, I, 18; Apul. Met. 5, 10. -- foveat: ‘cherish,' for this erotic use of the
word cp. 1, 6, 6; Propert. 2, 18, 9; Ovid, Her. II, 58; 19, 62, etc. -- molli
frigida : the contrast secured by juxtaposition indicates that frigida here con-
notes 'hard' and 'bony' as well as cold,' i.e. the opposite of molli here in
every sense. For this device of juxtaposition, often useful as here as a means
of interpretation, cp. 1, 1, 3; 8; 1, 3, 52; 57; 1, 4, 18; 1, 7, 30; 1, 10,
58; 64; 2, 1, 20,
More common still is the contrast between hexameter and pentameter by
means of epithets, cp. Introd. p. 103.
31-38. Again is suggested the freedom of one speaking to an inferior.
The details, however, are all traditional.
31. carior est auro: proverbial in Greek and Latin as elsewhere, cp.
Catull. 107, 3; Ovid, Met. 8, 79; Pont. 2, 8, 5: Ars Amat. 2, 299; Amor.
3, 8, 3; Aisch. Choeph. 372; Sappho, 122 B, etc. See Sutphen, A.J.P.
22, p. 15. Extremely popular in mediaeval Latin. The popular form
is seen in passages like Plautus, Epid. 411, 'non carus est auro contra';
Petron. 76, 'tunc erat contra aurum'; Seneca, Epist. 73, 5, 'auro pen-
sanda' (' worth their weight in gold'); etc., — levia ora: cp. e.g. Apoll.
Rhod. 1, 1236 (of the nymph rising up to kiss the boy Hylas as he leaned
over her spring), αυτίκα δ' ήγε | λαιόν μεν καθύπερθεν επ' αυχένος άνθετο
πήχυν | κύσσαι επιθύουσα τέρεν στόμα· δεξιτερη δε | αγκών έσπασε χειρί, μέση
do ¿vekáßbale divn. — fulgent: the glow of youth and its bright colour are
both suggested, cp. note on splendente, 11 above, and e.g. Stat. Silv. 3, 4, 65,
349
1, 8, 32]
TIBVLLVS
01
olim etiam ne prima genas anugo nitentes / spargeret.' The ordinary word
for smooth-faced boys was glabri, cp. Catull. 61, 135; Mart. 4, 28, etc.
The appearance of the beard was fatal to the vogue of persons like
Marathus, and hence is often mentioned in the poetry devoted to his kind, cp.
Anth. Pal. 12, 10; 21; 25-27; 31; 36, etc.
32. A detail more frequently referred to in everyday life than in literary art,
cp., however, Theokrit. 15, 130 (we should expect it in this sphere), oŮ KEVT ET
TÒ olanu, ět! Oi Tepi xelhea tuppá (of Adonis). — amplexus : sc, tuos = te
amplectentem. For the figure cp. I, 2, 11 n., and e.g. Ovid, Fast. 3, 496,
'amplexus inquinat illa tuos.'
Note that here as often the pentameter simply amplifies and emphasizes the
hexameter by restating the thought in the negative, cp. Introd. p. 102 and note
on 1, 1, 44.
33. huic: 1, 2, 83 and note.
34. More or less proverbial, cp. Hor. Od. 3, 9, I, donec gratus eram
tibi | nec quisquam potior bracchia candidae | cervici iuvenis dabat, | Persa-
rum vigui rege beatior'; 2, 12, 21; Mart. 2, 53, 10; Sappho, frag. 84 Crus.;
Anth. Pal. 11, 3; Aristainet. I, 10; Hybrias, p. 275, Crus.; etc.
35. Pholoe, who is jealously guarded in the usual way (cp. 55 f. below) by
her 'canus amator,' had made it the real or imaginary excuse for her failure to
turn up at various times and places appointed (61-66). This line, really a
brief statement of the boy's own complaint (55-60), which is the foundation
of it, is supposed to be a reply to her excuses, while the following lines
(35-38), designed especially for a person of her temperament and position,
are meant to emphasize as much as possible all that she loses by yielding to
her fears or her caprices as the case may be. — at Venus: 1, 3, 58 n.; 4, 7, 4 n.
-inveniet succumbere: a Greek construction, cp. e.g. Soph. 0. T. 120,
èv ydp ról'àv ¿čeúpol madeiv. — succumbere: únoxliveo at, cp. substernere.
Note that this is a drastic popular word, often used, for example, of animals,
cp. Varro, De Re Rust. 2, 10, 9; Mart. 13, 64, 1; 14, 201; Petron. 126;
Ovid, Fast. 2, 810; etc.
36. tumet: cp. Priap. 83, 43 (sometimes attributed to Tib.), 'et in-
quietus inguina arrigat tumor'; Hor. Sat. 1, 2, 116, 'tument tibi cum
inguina, etc.; 2, 7, 49, 'turgentis verbera caudae’; Verg. G. 2, 324; etc.
— conserit: i.e. consero consevi. This agricultural metaphor, inherent in
both Greek and Latin from the first, is not infrequent in this connection, cp.
Lucret. 4, 1105, denique cum membris collatis flore fruuntur , aetatis, iam
cum praesagit gaudia corpus , atque in eost Venus ut muliebria conserat
arva, adfigunt avide corpus iunguntque salivas | oris et inspirant pressantes
dentibus ora, etc.; Eurip. Phoeniss. 18 (the oracle to Laios), o go ETTĘv: 6
350
· NOTES
[1, 8, 39
OńBalo iv EÚLT TOLs évaš, i un oneipe TéKUWV áloka daivóvwv Blą. Aisch. S. T.
753; Soph. 0. 7. 1257; 1497; Antig. 569; etc. Drastic but for that very
reason the more in harmony with the entire passage. Note, moreover, that
this line throughout is the contrast of 30 above. — usque: i.e. as contrasted
with the canus amator of 30; cp. Parny, Les Déguisements de Venus, Tab. 4--
Leur impatiente jeunesse
Jouit et désire sans cesse.
usque is 'adverbial as in 1, 5, 74; I, 6, 8; etc. and qualifies conserit. -
sinus: muliebria arva, Tékvwv & loka, cp. Ovid, Fast. 5, 256, 'tangitur, et
tacto concipit illa sinu.'
37–38. 1, 6, 14 n.; Lucret. 4, 1108 above; 1193; Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 9;
3, 14, 23; Aristoph. Nubes, 51; etc.
39-46. The wealth so gained, no matter how great, is of no value. Youth
and love have been sacrificed and can never return. Old age is lonely and
unattractive, and what is wealth without love? The old lesson of 1, 4, 27 ff.
in another form, cp. also I, 2, 75 ff. An unknown author in the Anth. Pal. 9, 138
puts the dilemma in a way to be appreciated by many a modern business man
'Hv véos, åMlà névns vûv ympwv ilovolós elut,
ώ μόνος εκ πάντων οικτρός εν αμφοτέροις:
δς τότε μέν χρήσθαι δυνάμην, οπότ' ουδε εν είχον,
vûv ÓTÓTE xpno bai un dúvajal, Tót' ěxw.
39. lapis gemmaeque: a phraseological equivalent of great wealth, cp.
Hor. Od. 3, 24, 48, ‘gemmas et lapides, aurum et inutile,' where Orelli ob-
serves that when so combined gemmae usually = intagli and camei, and
lapides = 'pearls.' Usage, however, varies, and 'lapides et gemmae' is proba-
bly no more definite than our own phrase 'jewels and precious stones,' which in
fact was very likely derived from it. Here of course the phrase is peculiarly
apt, as the poet is addressing a woman in general and a Pholoe in particular. —
quae frigore sola, etc.: the traditional punishment of the old coquette, Hor.
Od. 1, 25; 4, 13; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 69, “tempus erit quo tu quae nunc ex.
cludis amantes | frigida deserta nocte iacebis anus, , nec tua frangetur nocturna
ianua rixa, 1 sparsa nec invenies limina mane rosa,' where Brandt quotes
Heine's Intermezzo, No. 48, 'Es liegt der heisse Sommer auf deinen Wänge-
lein! | Es liegt der Winter der kalte in deinem Herzchen klein. Das wird
sich bei dir andern, du Vielgeliebte mein! | Der Winter wird auf den Wangen,
der Sommer im Herzen sein. Add Sir Thomas Wyatt, To his Lute, stanza 6--
May chance thee lie wither'd and old
The winter nights that are so cold,
351
1, 8, 41]
TIBVLLVS
Plaining in vain. unto the moon:
Thy wishes then dare not be told :
Care then who list! for I have done.
Sappho, o Crus. says, AồUK uét ả cha va | ka? II maões, uểơ au 6+ | vÚ KTes,
mapå 'epxet' ápa, l yw de Móva kateúdw.— frigore: Ovid, Amor. 3, 5, 42,
‘frigidus in viduo destituere toro'; Her. 1, 7,‘non ego deserto iacuissem
frigida lecto'; Ars Amat. 3, 70 quoted above; Propert. 4, 76, et quererer
lecti frigida regna mei'; Catull. 68, 29, 'frigida deserto tepefactet membra
cubili'; etc.
For old age the avenger of infidelity cp. 1, 6, 77–84; 2, 4, 39-50 and notes.
41-42. 1, 4, 33–34 n. Combined by Bertin, Amours, 3, 7, with 1, 8, 61-66;
1, 8, 75-78; and 2, 1, 75–78.
41. sero: 1.6. 'too late. This use of the positive where we should use the
comparative is frequent and classical.
42. infecit: 2, 2, 20; Ovid, Trist. 4, 8, 2, etc.
43-46. Such descriptions of old age the avenger and destroyer of beauty
are especially frequent in this connection, cp. among many others Propert. 3,
25, 9-18; Anth. Pal. 5, 21; 271; 298.
43. tum studium, etc.: although quite useless, as few of the many who
mention it forget to say, cp. e.g. Lukian, Anth. Pal. 11, 408 —
Την κεφαλήν βάπτεις, το δε γηρας ούποτε βάψεις,
ουδέ παρειάων έκτανύσεις ρυτίδας.
μή τοίνυν το πρόσωπον άπαν ψιμύθω κατάπλαττε,
ώστε προσωπείον κουχί πρόσωπον έχειν,
ουδέν γάρ πλέον εστί τι μαίνεαι ; οϋποτε φύκος
και ψίμυθος τεύξει την Εκάβην Ελένην.
- mutatur: 1.c. in appearance --- by dyes, as explained in the next line.
For the anaphora of tum cp. I, 4, 53; 1, 6, 11; 1, 10, 3; 2, 1, 43; 2, 6, 51;
4, 3, 15.
44. Walnuts or possibly walnuts and acorns together are meant. At all
events among a number of recipes for hair dye (some of them unspeakable),
Marcellus Empiricus, 7, 10, gives the following: 'nuces iuglandes adhuc
virides et teneras et totidem glandes velles ex arbore adhuc virides et necdum
maturitate solidatas atque in pila contusas exprimes earumque suco ad infici-
endos canos, dum caput pectis, pectinem tingues. Pliny uses the word rufa-
tur of walnut dye, which would especially commend it here, since in the time
of Tibullus blonde hair was much in vogue especially among women like Pho-
loe, cp. 15, 87, 'tinguntur cortice earum lanae et rufatur capillus primum pro-
deuntibus nuculis : id compertum infectis tractatu manibus.'
: 352
NOTES
[1, 8, 50
45-46. Montaigne, I, chap. 40, quotes these lines in connection with his
remark, 'Qui n'a ouy parler a Paris de celle qui se fit escorcher pour seule-
ment en acquerir le teint plus frais d'une nouvelle peau ?
45. Propert. 3, 25, 13, 'vellere tum cupias albos a stirpe capillos. The
anecdote of Julia in Macrob. 2, 5, 7 suggests the apologue of Phaedrus, 2, 2.
46. dempta pelle: the story just quoted from Montaigne might suggest
that the poet literally meant by removing the skin.' Cp. too, Johnson, Ram-
bler, No. 133. pellis is especially used of animals, although in poetry it may be
used of human beings (instead of cutis). 'dempta pelle,' however, corresponds
to “tollere albos capillos' in the hexameter and hence pelle is here pejorative
(like our colloquial.hide'). Further the emphatic contrast with novam faciem
also aids in showing that pelle ('the wrinkled old hide') is really synecdoche,
2.e. the whole instead of the part evidently meant (and so Heyne). pelle then
would be equivalent to rugis. Doubtless too the phrase was suggested by the
idea that the serpent renews his youth when he sheds his skin, cp. 1, 4, 35-36 n.
Many recipes for removing wrinkles were in use. Pliny and Seren. Sammon.
recommend gum-mastic, cp. Pliny, 24, 43, ‘mastiche lentisci replicandis pal-
pebris et ad extendendam cutein in facie,' etc.; Seren. Sammon. 154, ‘rugarum
sulcos lentisci mastice tendens,' etc. It will be seen that the principle here, as
far as it goes, is the same as that of modern massage. The second and more
common method was not to try to remove the wrinkles but to conceal them.
The process in this case was, so to speak, 'to putty them up with various
concoctions, cp. lomentum in the dictt.; Apul. Met. 8, 27, ‘facie caenoso pig-
mento delita et oculis obunctis grafice'; Juv. 6, 461; Mart. 3, 42, 1, etc.;
6, 93, 9; Hor. Epod. 12, 10; Clemens Alex. Paid. 3, 2, 7; etc. These fore-
shadow the even more barbarous practice of 'enamelling' in modern times.
47–48. I, 1, 69–74; 1, 4, 27 and notes.
47. at tu: that is, in distinction from those persons above who followed your
present course until it was too late. The plain personal application of the
lesson is reserved till the end. It is thus more emphatic and at the same time
serves as a transition to the next point. This emphatic at is characteristic of
Tib., cp. I, 1, 33 n. - primi temporis aetas: the note on aetas in 1, 4, 27 will
show that there is no real pleonasm here; cp. also Propert. 1, 4, 7, 'formosi
temporis aetas'; 1,7,8, aetatis tempora dura’; Lucret. 1, 558, infinita aetas
anteacti temporis omnis,' etc.
49-50. The poet returns to the charge of 29–30 and proceeds in the fol-
lowing lines to develop it from a different point of view.
49. puero quae gloria, etc. : 1, 6, 3, n.
50. veteres senes: 'tough seniors,' hardened old sinners. veteres brings
out the contrast with puero above as well as with tenero below, “a congruent
353.
1, 8, 51]
TIBVLLVS
epitheton,' as Armado would say, 'appertaining to Marathus's young days.'
For a similar use of vetus to bring out the particular characteristic of age
demanded by the context cp. Hor. Epod. 8, 3, 'cum sit tibi dens ater et rugis
vetus , frontem senectus exaret'; Ter. Eun. 688, hic est vietus vetus veter-
nosus senex | colore mustelino'; Aristainet. I, I, kalyéportes el mála
Trpeo ßÛtal Davuá covoiv, etc.
51. sontica causa ; the sudden appearance of this unique variant of a
purely technical and very ancient legal phrase of course adds, as was in-
tended, to the evident humour of the situation. A morbus sonticus occurs
in the Twelve Tables as one of the legal causes for non-appearance in a
suit, but the essential meaning of sonticus was evidently a matter of doubt
even among the early commentators on Roman law. For example, Festus
(i.e. Verrius Flaccus) says, p. 290, 'sonticum morbum in XII significare ait
Aelius Stilo certum cum iusta causa ; quem nonnulli putant esse qui noceat,
quod sontes significat nocentes. In other words, Stilo seems to have antici-
pated the modern view of Clemm, Curtius, Vaniček, and Brugmann that sons
(with which of course sonticus is connected) is really the old pres. participle
of esse. A morbus sonticus then would be a "real, a genuine illness' (and
as such a sufficient excuse for the sufferer's failure to appear). This theory
is not universally accepted (see Walde's Lateinisches Etymologisches Wörter-
buch, p. 583, for modern authorities, theories, and discussion), but on the
whole, it is the best explanation of the later sortica causa. Later Roman
authorities, however, followed unanimously the theory (stated by Festus
above) that sons (on the analogy of insons) = nocens, hence that a morbus
sonticus is an illness injuring or incapacitating the sufferer from appearance,
cp. Festus, p. III, “insons, extra culpam, a quo dici morbus quoque existi-
matur sonticus, qui perpetuo noceat'; Lavolenus, Lib. 14 ex Cassio, Digest,
50, 16, 113, ' morbus sonticus est qui cuique rei nocet'; Iulianus, id. 42, I,
60,‘sonticus autem existimandus est, qui cuiusque rei agendae impedimento
est'; Gellius, 20, 1, 27,'morbum vehementiorem ... legum istarum scriptores
... morbum sonticum appellant.' Hence we have.sontica causa, the deriva-
tion and meaning of which is, as Festus himself says (p. 344), 'a morbo
sontico, propter quem, quod est gerundum, agere nequimus'; and so Naevius,
128 R. 'sonticam esse oportet causam, quam ob rem perdas mulierem';
Cato, frag. Orat. 58 Iord. sonticus is glossed by iustus in Paulus, Ex Fest. ·
291 M. and the complete disappearance of sontica causa at an early date is
doubtless due to the fact that it was replaced by the regular iusta causa,
'good and sufficient cause,' cp. 1, 4, 10. Here, however, causa, like altiov, of
which it is probably a translation, is a technical term of medicine meaning
the underlying cause of a disease, cp. Celsus, i, prooem. p. 3, 14, etc., then
354
NOTES
[1, 8, 54
the disease itself, and hence perhaps our case' (cp. the confusion of 'cause'
and 'case' among the lawyers). Tibullus's sontica causa then, 'a real case
for the doctor,' is a variant of sonticus morbus rather than a parallel of sontica
causa as found elsewhere. As such it is unique.
52. The paleness of brunettes (the prevailing type in Greece and Italy)
is more suggestive of yellow or even of green than of white. Hence luto
here really = our paleness' or 'pallor,' cp. Hor. Epod. 10, 16, pallor
luteus' (of extreme fright); Catull. 64, 100, quanto saepe magis fulgore
expalluit auri'; 81, 4, "inaurata pallidior statua'; Propert. 4, 7, 82, “pallet
ebur' (of ivory turning yellow with age); Stat. Silv. 4, 7, 15, 'pallidus
fossor redit erutoque | concolor auro'; Sil. Ital. 1, 233; Ovid, Met. 11, 145;
Lucret. 4, 336; Theokrit. 2, 88, kal yev xpws Mèv óuoios éylveto molláku Báyu.
Lukian, Somn. 30, quoĉos ylyvov tò xpua Xpuoơ TT POTETIKUS aŭtô, etc.; Mart.
I, 41, 4, 'pallentia sulphurata'; 8, 44, 10, 'superba densis arca palleat num-
mis,' etc. So of yellow violets, Verg. E. 2, 47, 'pallentis violas et summa pa-
pavera carpens'; Nemes. 2, 40, 'heu heu nulla meae tangit te cura salutis:
pallidior buxo violaeque simillimus erro'; Hor. Od. 3, 10, 14, 'nec tinctus viola
pallor amantium,' where Orelli quotes Petrarch, Son. I, 187,‘un pallor di viola
e d'amor tinto.' So too of green, esp. light green, as of grass or otherwise
modified, cp. Sappho, 2, 14, xawpotépa dè Tolas é jedll, and the regular use of
xawpós in this sense throughout the language, cp. e.g. 'Chlorus,' the nickname
of the Emperor Constantius. So in Latin, Verg. E. 3, 39, 'edera pallente';
5, 16, ‘pallenti olivae'; 6, 54, 'pallentis herbas ’; Culex, 405, pallente co-
rymbo'; 144,' pinguntque aureolos viridi pallore corymbos ’; Ovid, Med. Fac.
69, pallentes lupinos'; Met. 1, 373 (after the Flood),' ad delubra deae quorum
fastigia turpi , pallebant musco’; Martial, 5, 78, 10, 'pallens faba,' etc.
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale | At what it did so freely?'
Macbeth, 1, 7.
"The pale. complexion of true love' alluded to by Tibullus, the pallor
amantium (Hor. Od. 3, 10, 14 above) is traditional, indeed Ovid, Ars Amat. I,
729, insists upon it as de rigueur, 'palleat omnis amans: hic est color aptus
amanti: | hoc decet: hoc stulti non valuisse putent! 1... ut voto potiare
tuo miserabilis esto, ut qui te videat dicere possit “amas.”' Propertius
makes inuch of it, cp. 1, 1, 22; 1, 13, 7; 1, 5, 21; 3, 8, 28; etc. “I shall see
thee ere I die look pale with love,' Much Ado, 1, 1.
53. absenti: the dative with conicere occurs elsewhere only in Verg. A.
7, 346 and 456; II, 194; Sil. Ital. 14, 306; Vitruv. 7, Praefat. 9, all in the
literal sense. This is the one case in a tropic sense, cp.. the simple verb in
Propert. 2, 1, 77, “taliaque illacrumans mutae iace verba favillae.
54. Ovid, Her. 12, 64, invenit et lacrimis omnia plena meis'; 8, 75,
355
1, 8, 55]
TIBVLLVS
* omnia luctus, | omnia solliciti plena timoris erant'; Stat. Theb. II, 417,
cuncta madent lacrimis et ab omni plangitur arce'; Tasso, 19, 30, ogni
cosa di strage era già piena. So also in Greek, cp. Anth. Pal. 5, 275, 8, 'H 0°
ÚTTOT LMT danévn dákpuoLV ETTE Táde. Achill. Tat. 5, 15, dakpúwv & uten nouévos,
etc. — lacrimis plena: Tib. never uses the genitive with verbs and adjectives
of plenty and want.
55-66. Having first attempted to work upon her desire (27-38) by paint-
ing the attractions of a young lover (i.e. Marathus) and warning her that
her time for securing such a lover will soon be over, the poet again
(49-50) returns to the injunction of 27–28, and now attempts to work upon
her sympathies by quoting the boy's own story. This is especially artistic
because it not only reveals her and her eminently characteristic methods, but
also reveals the boy himself, the spoilt minion who considers himself a finished
man of the world, but whose vanity is such that he is left utterly bewildered
by the treatment which he has received.
55. poterat custodia vinci: 1, 2, 15; 1, 6, 9; 2, 1, 75; 4, 6, 11-12 and n.
The phrase suggests some of her own characteristic objections and excuses.
- poterat: the indicative here is idiomatic. The Latin language expresses
possibility and power, obligation and necessity, and abstract relations gener-
ally, as facts: whereas our translation often implies the failure to realize.
Such expressions are debeo — oportet — necesse est — possum,' etc. "The Im-
perfect, as the tense of disappointment, is sometimes used in these verbs to
denote opposition to a present state of things : debebam, I ought (but do
not); poteras, you could (but do not). These may be considered as con-
ditionals in disguise.' Gildersleeve-Lodge, 254, Rem. 1. So 1, 9, 46; Pro-
pert. 3, 7, 70; Ovid, Trist. 5, 1, 49; etc.
56. 4, 6, 11-12 n. -- dedit fallere posse: dare (= concedere) with object
clause (not elsewhere in Tib.) is poetic and usually of gods as here, cp. Ovid,
Met. 1, 487; 3, 338; 12, 558; 7, 692; Trist. I, 1, 34; 2, 518; etc. The
passive, on the contrary, with subject clause in the infin. is found in all styles. —
fallere: sc. custodiam or custodes, so without obj. expressed, 1, 2, 53; 4, 6, 12;
Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 616; 629, etc. - deus: i.e. Cupido, cp. 7 and 1, 6, 43 n.
57–60. For Bertin's imitation see 1, 6, 77–84 n.
57-58. An eminently natural touch, though I have not found it elsewhere
in elegy and epigram. For the situation, Anth. Pal. 5, 127; 294.
57. Venus furtiva : Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 275; Tib. 1, 2, 34; 4, 5, 7 and
notes, and for the scene suggested, 1, 2, 17; 2, 1, 75.
58. As opposed (through necessity) to the oscula legitima, oscula mille
sonent' is Claudian's wish (Epithal. Palladii et Celerinae, 131) — such a
clamorous smack | That at the parting all the church did echo.' However,
356
NOTES
[1, 8, 69
μακρά φιλεί Γαλάτεια και έμψυχα, μαλθακά Δημώ, | Δωρίς όδακτάζει. τίς
at léov éčepébel; is a dilemma the discussion of which Paul. Silent. (Anth. Pal.
5, 244) begins with the warning, očata un kpluwol pianuara. Elsewhere
(5, 219) he states his preference for the 'oscula rapta. In any case the
sound is said to have remarkable carrying qualities, cp. Soph. frag. 494 N.
59-60, 1, 2, 10; 1, 6, 12 and 59-62 and notes.
59. quamvis : modifies media nocte. This use of quamvis is found through-
out the language, in fact some authors, notably Caesar, Sallust, and Livy (ex-
cept in 2, 40, 7), always use it thus with adjectives or adverbs. Elsewhere in
Tib. with verbs, cp. 4, 8, 8 n.
61-66. For Bertin's imitation see 41-42 n.
61-62. 2, 4, 51.
63–66. 2, 6, 49-50 n. The rendez-vous manqué is a traditional theme,
Propert. 2, 17; 3, 17, 11; esp. 2, 22, 43, 'aut si es dura, nega: sin es non
dura, venito! | quid iuvat et nullo ponere verba loco? | hic unus dolor est ex
omnibus acer amanti, / speranti subito si qua venire negat, ' quanta illum toto.
versant suspiria lecto, , cum recipi quem non noverit illa putat’; Anth. Pal.
5, 119; 151; Catull. 32; Hor. Sat. 1, 5, 82; Ariosto, 7, 23; etc.
63–64. 2, 1, 76 n.; 1,6, 59-60; 1,9, 43; Propert. 2, 22, 43 (quoted above), cp.
Catull. 110, 5, aut facere ingenuae est, aut non promisse pudicae, | Aufilena, fuit,
indeed in her own way Pholoe is very much like Aufilena. She is not as polite
as Nemesis (2, 6, 49). The victim, however, is a Marathus, not a Tibullus.
63. promittit: semi-technical in this connection, 1zoctem is generally un-
derstood, cp. 2, 6, 49; Propert. 2, 17, 1; 2, 23, 4; 4, 5, 33 ; Ovid, Amor. 3,
2, 83; Ars Amat. 2, 523; 3, 461; Rem. Amor. 400; etc.
64. 1, 2, 76 n.;. Propert. 2, 17, 3-4; Anth. Pal. 5, 119; etc.
65-66. Cp. the fine passage in Ovid, Her. 19, 19-49 (Hero to Leander),
which Ariosto, 7, 24, evidently had in mind.
65. venturam: probably a participle here, not an infin., cp., however, 1,
5, 19-21 n.
66. illius: 2, 6, 31 n.
.67. The touch renders eloquent the dramatic pause which. preceded it and
prepares the way for the poet's last point, the appeal (68–74) to the girl's
superstition.
68. The puer delicatus is naturally treated as if he were a girl, cp. 2, 6,
43; Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 129, quid teneros lacrimis corrumpis ocellos?';
Catull. 3, 17; Juv. 6, 8; etc.
69 ff. The suggestion of Luigi Alamanni's sonnet, “ Ragion mi sforza,' etc.
69. 7-8 n.; 77; 1, 2, 89–96 n.; Anth. Pal. 5, 280, 7; Seneca, Herc. Fur.
385; Achill. Tat. 5, 12, and often throughout antiquity.
357
1, 8, 70]
TIBVLLVS
DIT
70. That is, the gods so angered cannot be appeased by gifts (in spite of
1, 5, 60 n.) because pride is impious and the law is (Cicero, Leg. 2, 22), impius
ne audeto placare donis iram deorum.'
71-76. The sudden and apposite use of Marathus himself as an example
(to our surprise as to his own) places the elegy in this series and takes us
back to 1, 4, 81 ff. Note that his own sins match point by point the very
ones of which he has been complaining in Pholoe.
72. 1, 9, 4 n.
73. lacrimas: for the dative (lacrimis is found in y) cp. Verg. A. 5,
358; Hor. Sat. 2, 3, 72.
74. Mart. 7, 93, 4, 'te iuvat et lenta detinuisse mora.'
75-78. For Bertin's imitation see 41-42 n. See also Sir Thomas Wyatt,
To his Lute.
75. nunc ... nunc: for the anaphora, 1, 3, 49; 1, 9, 29; 2, II, 2, 5,
3 and 7; 4, 13, 19.
76. I, 5, 71; 2, 1, 74.
77. Ends with the threat of 28 and 69.
1,9
The last elegy of the cycle concerned with the boy Marathus, see Introd.
p. 52. The vain and silly little popinjay has been carrying on a secret
intrigue with a horrible old creature whose only possible attraction is his money.
The poet becomes aware of the situation, taxes the boy with his perfidy,
venality, and ingratitude, and definitely casts him off.
'If you intended to be false, why did you swear to be true? Do you not
know that divine vengeance will surely overtake the perjurer at last ? And
yet have mercy, ye gods. When sinners are fair ye may justly overlook one
offence. The rustic toiling daily at his task, the sailor tossing on the shifting
seas, all men alike are in pursuit of gain. By gifts my boy was overcome.
May they turn to ashes and running water in his grasp! His punishment is
sure. Fatigue and exposure shall mar his attractions. How often did I
warn him: “Stain not your beauty with gold. For such a sinner Venus has
no mercy.” And then as my heart melted I added“ nay, goddess, rather pour
out thy wrath upon me than upon him. If you think of sinning," said I to
him, “don't hope that your sin will fail to be discovered. There is a god
who decrees that secret guilt shall not be hid. He causes the confederate
though sworn to silence to blab when in his cups, aye in their own despite men
blazon their guilty secrets in their sleep.” So I warned you then — and to
think that I shed tears the while and cast myself at your feet! And then
358
NOTES
[1, 9, I
you swore to be true with oatbs strong enough to make me believe there
were no stars in heaven and no glow in lightning. Nay, you even wept, and
I, guileless that I was and all too ready to believe, wiped your tears away.
What can I do — if you were not in love with a girl — but may she be as
fickle as you have been! How often, hoping you would appreciate it, I have
helped you to meet her! I should have known better. Nay, I even sang your
praises. Now I am ashamed of myself and of my verses. Would they were
in the fire or else in the river !
"Away with you all, ye bawds and seducers. And as for you who have
dared to debauch the boy with bribes may your wife laugh in your face for a
cornute dull and blind, and fool you to the top of her bent! May she even
surpass your sister, that ribald votary of both Bacchos and Venus, your sister,
whom, they say, the star of morning sees still at her cups. Really, however,
Sur wife has nothing left to learn — though you are too stupid to read the
signs. Do you imagine her daily attention to her hair, her jewellery, her cos-
tumes for the street, and all that, is on your account ? Not, however, that any
one blames her. Any woman of taste would flee from such a human ruin as
you are, honeycombed with gout and tottering with age !
Yet this is the man on whom my boy has bestowed himself. You shame to
yourself and me, disgraced, degraded, forsworn! You will weep when you
see another in your place. But your pain shall be my pleasure, and a golden
palm dedicated to Venus and inscribed with my story shall record my gratitude
for having escaped the slavery of a lying love.'
1–50. Imitated by Bertin, Amours, 2, 10.
1. fueras laesurus : the tense, like the subjunct. of the past, is a future
of the past. It gives an action which from the point of view of dabas
was prospective, but the time of which for that reason is now over. The
longer periphrasis with the future participle (i.e. fui for sum and fueram
for eram) was always very uncommon and in the classical period it is gen-
erally avoided. fueram for eram with a real difference of meaning is as-
serted for the only case in Cicero (Att. 4, 17, 4), for Livy, 10, 11, 4; 35, 42,
3; 45, 27, 7; for Pliny, Epist. 5, 16, 7; for Iustinus, 13, 5, 7; 27, 1, 8; and
as a rule for later Italic and Gallic Latin. fueram as a mere substitute for
eram without a distinction of meaning first appears, according to Blase, in
Ter. And, 543 and 587. In addition he cites Ovid, Met. 2, 504; 9, 513; 14,
72, and notes that the use is frequent in the African writers. He also cites
our passage as an example. Note, however, that, though fueras is metrically
convenient; "eras laesurus-dabas' would mean 'why did you swear if (at that
very moment) you were intending to forswear yourself, but that fueras
laesurus-dabas' on the contrary means 'why did you swear if you had already
359
1, 9, 2]
TIBVLLVS
determined to forswear yourself.' Certainly the distinction in meaning seems
to be clear despite the fact that, as in the choice of a present or perfect infin.
with pudet and the like (cp. I, I, 29-32 n.), the final result is the same in
either case. --- laesurus amores: for laedere in this connection, 1, 3, 79; Ovid,
Her. 7, 57-60, 'nec violasse fidem temptantibus aequora prodest : ) perfidiae
poenas exigit ille locus, ' praecipue cum laesus amor, quia mater Amorum |
nuda Cytheriacis edita fertur aquis.'
2. foedera : for foedera of lovers, cp. 1, 5, 7 n., and for dabas, vómov Tidéval,
and 1, 4, 16 n.
3. miser: anticipates the horror of the boy's punishment and suggests
pity for his wretched state. The interjection a, cp. 1, 10, 59; 2, 1, 79; 4, 11, 3
(Sulp.), is seldom used by Tibullus and for that reason is especially em-
phatic. — periuria : 1, 4, 25-26 n.
4. That is, 'sera venit Poena sed tamen venit . . . tacitis pedibus,' cp. Stáť.
Theb. 5,689, sed videt haec, videt ille deum regnator, et ausis / sera quidem,
manet ira tamen.'
Vengeance slow but sure dogs the sinner's footsteps and always overtakes
him at last. The Tibullian version of this grim metaphor of Nemesis is so
nearly that of Livy, 3, 56, 7, 'pro se quisque deos tandem esse et non neglegere
humana fremunt, et superbiae crudelitatique etsi seras non leves tamen venire
poenas,' that Stacey is probably right in his belief that the historian here is
echoing the poet. Voltaire's verse, 'La peine suit le crime: elle arrive à pas
lents,' has also been cited as an echo of Tibullus. Other exx. of this favourite
antique conception are 1, 8, 28; 72; 77; Hor. Od. 3, 2, 31, 'raro antecedentem
scelestum | deseruit pede Poena claudo,' where Keller quotes Prudent. Contra
Symmach. 2, 181,‘rara reos iusta percellit paena securi’; Otto, Sprichwörter
der Römer, p. III, cites Seneca Rhet. Controv. 10, Praefat. 6, sunt di
immortales lenti quidem, sed certi vindices generis humani'; Val. Max. I, 1,
ext. 3, 'lento enim gradu ad vindictam sui divina procedit ira'; Curt. 3, 13,
17, 'dii seri saepe ultores'; Juv. 13, 100, lenta ira deorum est'; Lactant.
Div. I, 1; Macar, 6, 85, byè Deûv åléovor uúlol, åléovor dè lettá (hence
Longfellow's “Though the mills of God,' etc.); Zenob. 4, 11, ZEŃs kateide
xpbvlos els tès Ocpoépas, and compares Eurip. Ion, 1615. Sutphen (A.
J. P. 22, 122) adds Eurip. frag. 979, 3 N., “ Alkn ... iya kal Bpadel trooil
otelyovo a nápyeL TOUS Kakoús, őt av túxn. Others are Seneca, Herc. Fur. 385,
'sequitur superbos ultor a tergo deus’; Propert. 2, 30, 7 (of Cupid, the relent-
less), 'instat semper Amor supra caput’; Soph. Antig. 1272; Aisch. Pers. 825;
Paul. Silent. Anth. Pal. 5, 300, 8; Aisch. Choeph. 383, úO TEPOTT OLVOV drav.
Frag. Trag. Graec. Adesp. 564 N, ÓLO BOTOUS dikn. Strato, Anth. Pal. 12, 229,
2, ÚO TEPÓTOUV . . . Némeo LV• Mesomedes, Hymn. in Nem. 9, ańdovo a dè ràp
1
360
NOTES
[1, 9, 6
πόδα βαίνεις • Suidas, Ποιναι Τιμωροί τους κακούς ακολουθούσιν ουχ ώς σκιαι .
oumaoi almolov, allå kal by è toll xpóvou · Cornutus, Theol. Graec. 13 (of
Opis as a name of Nemesis), *OTIS dè ånd Toù lavo ávovoa kal őO TEP Trapa-
κολουθούσα όπισθεν και παρατηρούσα τα πραττόμενα υφ' ημών κολάζειν τα
Koldoews džia · Eurip. frag. 223; Grat. Cyneget. 455, “discet commissa quantum
deus ultor in ira | pone sequens valeat.' The genuinely popular form is seen
in Petron. 44, 'dii pedes lanatos habent'; Porphyr. on Hor. Od. 3, 2, 32;
Macrob. 1, 8, 5. The homely and expressive parallel in modern Italy is,
'Iddio non fa i conti ogni sabbato,' "God does not balance accounts every
Saturday.'
Martinon truly observes that Tibullus here is inconsistent with himself in
I, 4, 21. See, however, lines 5-6, below. Moreover, as has already been
observed (see Introd. p. 44), each elegy of Tibullus is meant to be dealt with
as an independent work of art. Finally, who expects lovers to be consistent ?
'incerta haec si tu postules / ratione certa facere,' says Parmeno (Ter. Eun. 61),
nihilo plus agas , quam si des operam ut cum ratione insanias' -- the origin
apparently of Voltaire's definition of metaphysics as 'L'art de s'égarer avec
raison.'
On the artistic arrangement of epithets in this line, cp. 2, 3, 40 n.
5-12. The touch of compunction which forms an artistic transition to the
next topic is eminently characteristic of the kindly and generous poet, cp. b.g. .
1, 5, 41 ; 1, 6, 55 ; 69 ; 85 ; 1, 10, 61 ; 2, 6, 41. But there are real and
therefore artistic limits, and here shame has combined with sorrow to produce
a situation not to be compared with the last of the elegies to Delia (1, 6),
still less with any other poem of Tibullus. Here alone the characteristic im-
pulse to condone occurs only at the beginning and then completely disappears
before the crescendo of anger and disgust which accompanies the poet's
growing realization of the boy's real character as well as of his own folly.
5-6. The plea is characteristic, cp. e.g. Propertius, 2, 28, 49 (in a prayer
that Cynthia who is ill may be spared), sunt apud infernos tot milia formosa-
rum: | pulchra sit in superis, si licet, una locis,' and on the other hand, in
quite a different mood, the rhetorical and irreverent Ovid, Amor. 3, 3, 29,
nobis (i.c.'us men') flexibiles curvantur Apollinis arcus, | in nos alta Iovis
dextera fulmen habet : | formosas superi metuunt offendere laesi | atque
ultro, quae se non timuere timent. . . . . quid queror et toto facio convicia
caelo? | di quoque habent oculos, di quoque pectus habent! | si deus ipse
forem, numen sine fraude liceret femina mendaci falleret ore meum: 1 ipse
ego iurarem verum iurare puellas , et non de tetricis dicerer esse deus.'
6. semel, etc.: a genuinely popular touch, cp. e.g. Ovid, Amor. 2, 14, 43,
di faciles, peccasse semel concedite tuto : et satis est ; poenam culpa secunda
361
1, 9, 7]
TIBVLLVS
ferat'; Terence, Eun. 853, unam hanc noxiam amitte: si aliam admisero
umquam occidito’; Phorm. 141, ‘nunc amitte quaeso hunc: ceterum / posthac
si quicquam, nil precor'; Petron. 49, 'deprecari tamen omnes coeperunt et
dicere : “solet fieri: rogamus mittas : postea si fecerit, nemo nostrum pro illo
rogabit.”! “This time don't count,' as Rip Van Winkle says.
7-10. The plea is really the solet fieri of Petronius just quoted, i.e. • All
men are greedy of gain, therefore Marathus deserves mercy. The poet pre-
fers to suggest it per exempla instead of stating it in so many words. The
prototype of Tibullus here is such passages as Solon, frag. 12, 41 Crus. —
ει δέ τις άχρήμων, πενίης δέ μιν έργα βιάται,
κτήσεσθαι πάντως χρήματα πολλά δοκεί.
σπεύδει δ' άλλοθεν άλλος · ο μεν κατά πόντον αλάται
εν νηυσίν χρήζων οίκαδε κέρδος άγειν
ιχθυόεντ', ανέμοισι φορεύμενος αργαλέοισιν,
φειδωλήν ψυχής ουδεμίαν θέμενος·
άλλος γην τέμνων πολυδένδρεον εις ενιαυτόν
λατρεύει, τoίσιν καμπύλ’ άροτρα μέλει etc.
A few of the standard pursuits of mankind are constantly used by the poets,
rhetoricians, and philosophers for purposes of illustration. The most com-
mon are the farmer, merchant, soldier, and iuris consultus, cp. 6.g. the famous
dramatic passage of Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 4-22, in which all four play their traditional
parts. Pairing of the farmer with the soldier as contrasts or as here with the
trader is frequent and always for the purpose of emphasizing some marked
contrast between the simple life (idealized or not according to the author's mood
and apart from the usual ambitions of the world at large) as opposed to the pur-
suit of fame and fortune by the soldier, or simply of a large bank account by
the trader, in both cases at the peril of life and limb. The contrast is nearly
always to the advantage of the simple life, cp. the vignette of 1, 10, 39-44 ;
1, 2, 65-75, and esp. I, 1, and 1, 10, both elaborations of the theme that the
idyllic peace and happiness of the simple. country life are better than the sol.
dier's feverish career of toil and danger. A favourite contrast between the
farmer and the trader (cp. also 1, 3, 39-40 n.) is illustrated by Hor. Od. 1, 1,
11 (cp. Sat. 1.c.), 'gaudentem patrios findere sarculo | agros Attalicis condi-
cionibus , nunquam demoveas, ut trabe Cypria | Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet
mare. | luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum , mercator metuens otium et oppidi |
laudat rura sui: mox reficit rates 1 quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati.' Another
point often made is illustrated by Propertius, 3, 7, 43,' quod si contentus patrio
bove verteret agros, ' verbaque duxisset pondus habere mea, | viveret ante suos
dulcis conviva penates, I pauper, at in terra nil ubi flare potest.'
362
NOTES
[1, 9, 10
Most frequently, however, the contrast is suggested by or used in connection
with the traditional discussion of the Ages of man. The theory — even in
Hesiod (cp. W. and D. 236), but esp. since Aratos (Phain. 108) - was that
husbandry was man's normal occupation, and hence that it was the only occupa-
tion during the Golden Age. Other occupations are abnormal and contrary
to nature, esp. navigation, the first and the worst of those inventions of human
greed through which the happy past was made to yield to the unhappy pres-
ent. For these and further details see 1, 3, 37 ff. and notes. On the greed
of gain, a favourite topic of philosophers and rhetoricians as well as poets, see 1,
10, 7-8 n. The standard example of it is the trader, cp. 1, 3, 39-40 n. ; and on
these typical occupations, esp. E. Norden, Jahrb. Phil. Suppl. 18 (1891),
p. 293 f., and Heinze, De Horatio Bionis Imitatore, Bonn, 1889, p. 17, n. 2.
In the present passage the farmer and the trader typify the contrast between
safe but grinding toil for a bare living and the pursuit of a possible fortune at
the imminent risk of losing all. In this way a single statement tells us not
only that all men are greedy of gain (cp. note on lucra petens below) but also
that they are willing to endure anything to secure it. Thus the reader by the
time he reaches the case of Marathus is disposed to be as lenient as possible.
-78. On the husbandman as an unremitting toiler, etc. cp. 2, 1, 5-6;
Ovid, Amor. 1, 13, 15 (addressing Aurora), 'prima bidente vides oneratos
arva colentes, | prima vocas tardos sub iuga panda boves’; Verg. G. 2, 401–
402 ; Calvus, frag. 2 M., 'durum rus fugis et laboriosum,' etc.
7. lucra petens: the anaphora, i.e. the introd. of the first example by
lucra petens and the second by lucra petituras gives prominence to each
illustration and at the same time indicates them as merely selected examples
of a totality.
9. petituras : for the future part. as attrib. I, 4, 44; 1, 10, 14 ; 2, 1, 61;
2, 3, 73; 2, 5, 35; 51. — freta per parentia ventis: (cp. Shakespeare's
always wind-obeying deep' - Com. of Errors, 1, 1) emphasizes the peril
and uncertainty of the sea, instabiles rates, the ships ever pitching and toss-
ing, as contrasted with the fixed, unmoving stars above by which they are
guided on their way. Note too that the active use here of certa, i.e. ' quae
certam viam monstrant,' is also suggested, cp. Hor. Od. 2, 16, 3, neque certa
fulgent | sidera nautis, but Manilius, 1, 465, "contenta et stellis ostendere
sidera certis,' where, as in 1, 479, et certis quod legibus omnia parent,' certis
means 'fixed' as here in Tibullus.
10. instabiles : of ships as here, Ovid, Met. 2, 163, 'utque labant curvae
iusto sine pondere naves | perque mare instabiles nimia levitate feruntur';
Verg. G. 4, 195, ut cumbae instabiles fluctu iactante,' etc, On dubiae in the
same connection see 2, 3, 40 and note.
363 ·
1, 9, 11]
TIBVLLVS
11-12. 1, 4, 67; 1, 6, 53; 2, 4,40; Propert. 2, 16, 43 ; etc. See Wheeler,
Class. Phil. 6, 68.
II. muneribus captus, etc. : the parallelism with 'lucra petens . . . lucra
petituras' above is obvious. Thus the poet suggests by mere juxtaposition
that Marathus is no exception to the rule, and at the same time we are now
ready for the natural and apparently unstudied transition (at deus ... aquas ')
to the next topic.
12. cinerem et aquas : an evidently popular curse upon ill-gotten gain
which suggests that the old folk tale of fairy gold' was as familiar to the
ancients as it is to us, cp. Ovid, Ainor. 3, 8, 66, 'o si neclecti quisquam deus
ultor amantis , tam male quaesitas pulvere mutet opes'; Propert. 2, 16, 43,
sed quascumque tibi vestes, quoscumque smaragdos quosve dedit flavo
lumine chrysolithos, | haec videam rapidas in vanum ferre procellas, quae tibi
terra velim, quae tibi fiat aqua,' where the last line appears to be an echo
of Homer, Il. 7, 99, ållllueis MÈV Trávtes úowp kai yaia yévolo de levou
aüličkaOto årplot, åkleds aŭtws. For variations cp. 49–50 below (“ fire and
water,' cp. Dirae, 102); 2, 4, 40 ( wind and fire '), and the solemn symbol-
ism of 1, 6, 53. Note, however, that in these variations the old element of
marvel disappears, and that in its place we have a substitute suggested by the
context and echoing the actual disasters of storm, fire, and flood by which
property is regularly destroyed in the ordinary course of human experience.
'Fire, water, woman, are man's ruin,' as Mat. Prior remarks.
13-16. The point is seen by comparing 1, 4, 41-53 (the services of the
lover), i.e. the boy's punishment may be safely left to the senex himself since
the old brute will insist upon having him with him at all times. Note that
here as elsewhere (cp. e.g. 1, 6, 53-54 n.) the poet selects a punishment to fit
the crime. The boy is an example of vulgar greed, he is therefore cursed
with the loss of his ill-gotten gain ; he is inordinately vain of his personal
appearance, he is therefore threatened with the loss of his beauty through
excessive toil and suffering. Then too the poet naturally dwells upon the
beauty of his former favourite, cp 1, 8, 68 n.
14.. et ventis . . . coma : 1, 8, 9-10 n. The whole phrase is the second
subject of detrahet.
15. uretur ... urentur sole : sole goes with both. For this arrangement
cp. I, 1, 24 n.
For the anaphora with change of stress cp. 1, 8, 13 n., and for the thought,
Nemes. 4, 45, tu quoque, saeve puer, niveum ne perde colorem | sole sub
hoc, etc.
16. As if addressing a woman, cp. Propert. 1, 8, 8, 'tu pedibus teneris
positas fulcire pruinas, | tu potes insolitas, Cynthia, ferre nives'; Verg. E.
• 364
NOTES
[1, 9, 23
10, 48 (Gallus to Lycoris), ‘a, te ne frigora laedant! | a, tibi ne teneras
glacies secet aspera plantas !
17. admonui : e.g. 1, 4, 67 f. — auro, etc.: 2, 4, 31–34 n.
19-20. 1, 8, 28, cp. 1, 9, 4 n.
21-22. Quoted by Montaigne, II, chap. 12. For the attitude of the slave
here, cp. 1, 5, 5; 1, 6, 37 and 71–72; 2, 4, 1-6; 2, 6, 5 and notes. Note that
these lines belong to the poet's speech of that earlier time. They do not
represent his present point of view.
21. flamma . . . ferro: see 1, 10, 65 n. The original form of this old
alliterative phrase, “ferri flammae vis,' is found in Cicero, Planc. 71, elsewhere
without asyndeton, cp. Cat. 2, I; Mur. 85; Sull. 83; Sest. 90 ; Pro Flacco,
97; 102; Sall. Hist. 1, 48, 10; Livy, 1, 29, 2, etc. ; Ovid, Her. 12, 181 ;
Ars Amat. 2, 379; Tac. Ann. 1, 51; Ammian. Marcell. 17, 1, 4, etc. Re-
versal, as here (cp. our 'fire and sword '), was later, and due to euphony
or metrical convenience, cp. Cicero, Att. 1, 14, 3; Cat. 3, 1 ; Prov. Cons.
24; Verr. 4, 78; Div. I, 21; Florus, 2, 6, 14; Sidon. Carm. 4, 249.
23–28. Another theme familiar to popular and philosophical discussion as
well as to the poets, cp. Lucret. 5, 1154, nec facilest placidam ac pacatam
degere vitam | qui violat factis communia foedera pacis. / etsi fallit enim
divum genus humanumque, perpetuo tamen id fore clam diffidere debet; |
quippe ubi se multi per somnia saepe loquentes , aut morbo delirantes pro-
traxe ferantur et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse'; Cic. Fin. 1, 50, si
vero (improbitas) molita quippiam est, quamvis occulte fecerit, numquam tamen
id confidet fore semper occultum. plerumque improborum facta primo suspicio
insequitur, dein sermo atque fama, tum accusator, tum index: multi etiam, ut te
consule, ipsi se indicaverunt'; Top. 20, 75 (enumerating trustworthy sources
of testimony), 'cuius generis etiam illa sunt, ex quibus verum non numquam
invenitur, pueritia, somnus, inprudentia, vinolentia, insania. nam et parvi
saepe indicaverunt aliquid, quo id pertinerit ignari, et per somnum, vinum,
insaniam, multa saepe patefacta sunt'; Ariosto, 6, 1-
Miser chi mal oprando si confida
Ch' ognor star debbia il maleficio occulto;
Chè, quando ognaltro taccia, intorno grida
L'aria, e la terra istessa in ch' è sepulto:
E Dio fa spesso che'l peccato guida
Il peccator, poi ch' alcun di gli ha indulto,
Che se medesmo, senza altrui richiesta,
Innavedutamente manifesta.
23-24. A version of the proverbial “Murder will out. Many exx. are
collected by Otto (Sprichwörter der Römer) and Sutphen (A. J. P. 22,
365
1, 9, 23]
TIBVLLVS
p. 378), s.v. Tempus, 5: cp. Pindar, Olymp. 1, 62; Soph. frag. 280 N.;
Isokrat. Demon. 16; Plautus, Capt. 313; Cicero, Deiot. 18; Verg. A. 1, 542;
Seneca, Epist. 97, 13; Gell. 12, II; Ammian. Marcell. 29, 2, 12; etc. See
Gerhard, Phoinix von Kolophon, p. 78.
23. Tib. uses the gerund only in the genitive as here, 2, 3, 77; 4, 3, 5; 23;
4, 6, 12.
25-26. A frequent variation of the proverbial “in vino veritas,' although
this familiar form of the thought is not classical (perhaps a translation of the
Greek proverb as given by Zenob. 4, 5, év olvự álňoela, although the usual
Greek form is οίνος και αλήθεια (Diogen. 7, 28) or rather οίνος και αλάθια,
cp. Alkaios, frag. 79 and 18 Crus.; Theokrit. 29, 1; and Otto and Sutphen, 1.c.
s.v. Vinum, 2). Other variations are Homer, Odyss. 14, 463; Theognis,
500; Athenaios, 37 E ff.; Hor. Od. 3, 21, 14; Seneca, Epist. 83, 9 (which
shows that this was a regular theme for declamation in the schools). .
27-28. For dreams as betrayers of secrets, see Lucret. 5, 1154, and Cicero,
Top. 20, 75, quoted above, also Lucret. 4, 1018,‘multi de magnis per somnum
rebus loquuntur | indicioque sui facti persaepe fuere. Cp. Macbeth, 5, I,
unnatural deeds | Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds | To their
deaf pillows will discharge their secrets’; also, Othello, 3, 3, 416 ff. The
dénouement of Byron's Parisina hinges, as every one knows, upon this motive,
cp. 69, 'But fevered in her sleep she seems, | And red her cheek with trou-
bled dreams, | And mutters she in her unrest | A name she dare not breathe
by day,' etc. Leigh Hunt (Autobiog. 1860, p. 252) says that he himself sug-
gested the idea to Byron. A similar case in this country was noted by the
newspapers a short time ago.
29-30. For this eminently natural motive of wounded pride, cp. 47-50.
This is the motive of Ovid, Amor. 3, 11, cp. also Propert. 3, 24 and 25.
31-34. For the regular division of wealth, 1, 1, 1-2 and n.
31. divitis auri: 1, 10, 7 n.
32. pondere: for the ablat. of price see also 2, 4, 39; 2, 6, 22.
33. The fertility of Campania was, and still is, proverbial, cp. Propert. 3,
5, 5; Ovid, Pont. 4, 15, 17; Pliny, 18, III; Florus, 1, 11, 3 Rossb.; Verg.
G. 2, 224.
34. Stat. Silv. 2, 2, 4,' qua Bromio dilectus ager, collesque per altos | uritur
et prelis non invidet uva Falernis’; Hor. Od. 2, 6, 15-20.-Bacchi cura : for
the genitive, 1, 2, 89; 1, 9, 74; 2, 2, II; 2, 3, 79; 2, 5, 113.
35-36. These are poetical versions of two of the so-called å dúvara — a type
of the superlative dear to the popular mind of all nations (cp. our 'He could
make one believe that the moon was made of green cheese '), and regularly
developed by the antique rhetoricians. The purely popular form of the first
366
NOTES
.
[1, 9, 36
is seen, e.g., in Petronius, 37, 'mero meridie si dixerit illi tenebras esse,
credet'; Titinius, 100 R., 'quod ea parasitus habeat, qui illum sat sciat
delicere et noctem facere possit de die’; Propert. 4, I, 143, illius arbitrio
noctem lucemque videbis,' etc. Every one remembers the conversation of
Petruchio and Katharine, 'I say it is the moon. “I know it is the moon.'
"Nay, then you lie: it is the blessed sun,' etc. So on the contrary of one
whose word no man relies on, as in Plautus, Bacchides, 699, “si tu illum
solem sibi solem esse diceres, se illum lunam credere esse et noctem qui
nunc est dies.'
35. Lit. “ With those words you might wrest from me that (i.e. my belief
that) the stars of heaven shine and that the path of thunderbolts is bright,'
i.e.'convince me that the stars of heaven do not shine, etc. No other
example of eripere with an object clause appears to be quoted. For the
passive with a subject clause cp. Ovid, Met. 2, 483, ' posse loqui eripitur,' i.e.
the ability to speak, the power of speech, was taken away. For a clause with
quin (analogy of prohibere) cp. Hor. Sat, 2, 2, 23, 'vix tamen eripiam ...
quin velis,' etc. More common with an object clause as here is adimere, but
this too is rare and poetical, cp. (Thes.) Ovid, Pont. I, 7, 47, 'nec vitam nec
opes, nec ademit posse reverti'; Hor. Epist. 1, 19, 9; Sil. Ital. 9, 160; 425;
Tertull. De Anim. 17; Plautus, Miles Glor. 588. So occasionally in Pindar and
the tragedy, cp. Pindar, Isthm. 1, 60, távra óě ŠELTEîv . . . åpalpeitai Bpaxù
uét pověxwv yuvos. Soph. Phil. 1302, Tíu á vopa Todulov exopov r' åpellou
un kraveîv tóČOLS uo îs ; Eurip. Troad. 1146; Androm.913; Hippol. 1207; etc.
36. puras: 'clear,' bright,' but here, as in all similar connections (as de-
manded by its real meaning), always with the accessory notion of undimmed,'
unclouded,' cp. 4, I, 10,'ut puro testantur sidera caelo,' i.e. in the un-
clouded, cloudless sky— when they can be seen; Hor. Od. 3, 29, 43, 'cras vel
atra | nube polum pater occupato, vel sole puro' (so Byron describing the sun
of the South in his Curse of Minerva says “Not as in northern climes obscurely
bright, | But one unclouded blaze of living light'); 2, 5, 18,'non Chloris, albo
sic umero nitens, | ut pura nocturno renidet | Luna mari,' where pura is
defined by the old Schol. as 'habens serena nocte lumen integrum.' In these
phrases, therefore, the proper negative of puras would be nebulosas, or better
still obscuras —and this is really what the poet is thinking of, because the ordi-
nary form of the thought would not be wrest from me (the conviction) that
the path of the thunderbolt is bright (1.e. undimmed)'but rather convince me
that it is dim,' cp. e.g. the description of this phenomenon as a prodigy by
Lucan, 5, 630, 'lux etiam metuenda perit, nec fulgora currunt | clara, sed
obscurum nimbosus dissilit aer.' --- vias: the plural is distributive, cp.. somnos,
I, 1, 4 and note.
367
1, 9, 37]
TIBVLLVS
.
37. fallere doctus: 1, 7, 20 n.
39. Note that we have here in lieu of a regular apodosis a passionate
rhetorical question in which the tense of faciam indicates that the question
is practically independent, i.e. that the protasis was really an afterthought.
The unusual syntax is an admirable reflection of the poet's high tension and
of the rapid shiſt of mood so characteristic of his race, cp. 4, 13, 5-6 n.
The cool logical statement would have been something like "I should
punish you as you deserve unless you were,' etc. But the poet is not cool.
quid faciam,' he cries, for the moment thinking of nothing else. Then
comes a protasis the entire regularity of which reflects the calming effect of a
thought which in his rage he had failed to consider. What shall I do with
you? But no: you yourself are in love with a girl — therefore I spare you.'
- et ipse: kai aúrós, here not 'you too,' but you yourself are also,' i.e. ‘in
spite of your other affair you are,' etc. - fores: for esses, cp. I, 10, II and note.
The rule in Catullus and very frequent in the Augustan period, esp. in the
poets, notably in Ovid, cp. also Propert. 3, 14, 33; 2, 15, 46; 3, 8, 36; 24, 8;
1, 10, 20; 2, 25, 35; 29, 28; 4, 5, 74. Preferably as here in the protasis of
an unreal condition, cp. Ovid, Met. 8, 46, 'sed nisi bella forent, numquid
mihi cognitus esset?' Hor. Sat. I, 5. 59; Plautus, Trin. 1127; 832; etc.
(See Blase, in Stolz, Hist. Gram. der Lat. Spr. 2, p. 280.) – in amore
puellae: ¿.e. nisi puellam amares,' the gen. is objective. If puellae were
subjective gen. as e.g. in Script. Hist. Aug. Had. 2, 7, ‘fuitque (Hadrianus)
in amore Traiani,' or if puellae were dative as e.g. in Cicero, Verr. 4, 3, 'quae
(civitas) tibi una in amore atque in deliciis fuit,' then 'nisi. . . puellae would
=ʻnisi a puella amareris. Note however that in any case the ambiguity is
more apparent than real, since in the phrase "esse in amore (or amicitia)
alicuius, alicui, cum aliquo,' although emphasis may be laid on one side or the
other according to the construction selected, the state of mind indicated is
always mutual, 'mutuo amant amantur' - which of course adds a special
sting to the wish of 40. The puella here is usually identified with the Pholoe
of 1, 8.
40. nisi ... puellae ' had cooled the poet's wrath. But the mere mention
of the girl instantly suggested another catalogue of wrongs. Hence the
second burst of wrath in 40 which leads us to the enumeration of them. But
I pray she may learn the lesson of fickleness from you,' Qu'elle soit, pour ta
peine, autant que toi traîtresse,' says Martinon.
41-44. Two more examples of the obsequiunt inculcated by Priapus, cp. I,
4, 39 f. and notes.
· 41-42. In antiquity (cp. 1, 2, 35 and notes), as e.g. in mediaeval London,
the streets were not regularly lighted, hence, after dark, wayfarers were
368
NOTES
[1, 9, 46
habitually accompanied by one or more linkboys, cp. e.g. Propert. 1, 3, 9
(coming home late and in his cups), 'ebria cum multo traherem vestigia
Baccho , et quaterent sera nocte facem pueri.' Constantly in the elegy as well
as in everyday life the lanternarii, as they were called, are associated with
illicit love affairs (hence the bitter sneer of Cicero, In Pison. 20, 'cum altero
Catilinae lanternario consule ') whether urged with unnecessary élan by the
roystering blade (as in Herondas, 2, 69; Hor, Sat. 1, 4, 49, etc.) or conducted
by an intriguer for whom as here (on account of the girl who is in the usual
situation of the elegiac heroine, cp. Introd. p. 45) secrecy is a sine qua non.
The office was servile and the wonderful escape of Antonius (Val. Max. 6, 8,
I) merely emphasized the rule that slaves cannot be trusted (cp. e.g. lines
25-26 above). By way of precaution, therefore, Tib. had taken the place of
the usual lanternarius. This habit among friends of 'playing gooseberry'
(for which, by the way, the modern Italian expression is tenere il moccolo,
holding the candle') appears to have been not uncommon, cp. e.g. Propert.
1, 10.
41. verbis : 2. e. between Marathus and the girl. For conscius with the
dative see 1, 7, 48 n.
43-44. That is, Marathus goes to her house and the girl, who has already
stolen her way (venit) to the door and is waiting for him inside, lets him in,
her practical reason being to prevent the necessity of knocking or of anything
else likely to cause detection. For the same reason, while waiting she con-
ceals herself as much as possible (latuit adoperta) both from those within and
from those who may be without. Her part of the programme is pictured
in such scenes as 1, 2, 18-20 (where see notes); 1, 6, 59; 2, 1, 75; 4, 6, 11.
43. munere: here “service,' favour.'
45. confisus amari: certain of being loved.' The present infin. with
confido does not begin until Cicero, cp. e.g. Fam. 7, 14, 2, 'nosque a te amari
cum volumus tum etiam confidimus,' and was never common afterwards. In
a considerable proportion, even of these cases, confido is followed by posse
with a pres. inſin., as log. in Lucret. 5, 390, 'confido siccare posse,' and in
Phaed, 1, 18, 6, 'confido finiri posse,' the only remaining exx. from the poets
quoted by the Thesaurus. As, however, posse with the pres. infin. really =
the future infinitive, all such examples are not to be included here. Hence,
the Tibullian confisus amari appears to be unique in Latin poetry. For
omission of the subject accus., also unique in this use with confido, cp. 1, 3,
27 n.
46. poteram: 1, 8, 55 n. — ad: i.e. 'toward, with regard to.' cautus
with ad is very rare. With the exception of Livy, 24, 32, 3 (not given by the
Thesaurus, 3, 642, 35 f.) the usage appears only in the very late writers, viz.
369
1, 9, 47]
TIBVLLVS
Lamprid. Aler. 44, 2; Ammian. Marcell. 30, 9, 4; Explanat. in Donat.
Gramm. Lat. 4, 507, 20 K; Claud. De Cons. Stilich. 1, 291. For ad itself
in this not uncommon meaning cp. 2, 1, 31. ,
47–48. 29–30 n. The genitive with impersonal verbs of emotion is also
found in 4, 12, 4.
47. attonita mente: attonitus, lit. “thunderstruck' (ad + tonare), hence,
like its parallel fußpburntos, used of any state of mind suggested by the more
or less complete coma of one who has been so exposed, cp. Servius on Verg.
A. 3, 172, ' proprie attonitus dicitur, cui casus vicini fulminis et sonitus toni-
truum dant stuporem. Bewildered,'. confounded,' stupefied,' smitten,' cp.
wußpóvtnTE OÚ, 'thou gaping fool,' Aristoph. Ekkles. 793; so frequently as here,
of the upsetting, demoralizing effect of an overpowering passion, Ovid, Met.
10, 153, 'inconcessisque puellas | ignibus attonitas'; Seneca Rhet. Controv.
10, 3, 10, 'mulier praeceps, temeraria, insano flagrans amore et attonita';
Fronto, 20, 1 N. 'stupidum et attonitum ardente amore?; Ovid, Ars Amat.
2, 295 (advice to all lovers), ‘sed te, cuicumquest retinendae cura puellae, /
attonitum forma fac putet esse sua' (1.6. utterly overcome, 'flabbergasted').
This word is a marked favourite with Ovid (43 exx.), and occurs 10 times in
Vergil with whom it appears first in poetry, but in Hor. and Tib. only once,
and in Propert. not at all. Fondness for the word in prose begins with
Livy (16 times).
48. me nostri ... pudet: in spite of the proximity of me, nostri might be
a mere rhetorical plural for mei (1, 2, II and n.). It is more likely, however,
that the poet -- as well he may - is including Marathus. — Pieridum : in its
ultimate analysis the poet's thought is that he is ashamed of having written
the verses and of the inspiration by which they were prompted. The
personification, however, is practically complete (cp. 1, 4, 61 and 4, 7, 3 n.)
and should be so indicated in translation. For Pierides = Musae, 4, 2, 21 n.
49-50. Cp. 12 n. and for this specific 'curse of fire and water, Martial, 5,
53, 2, 'materia est, mihi crede, tuis aptissima chartis, | Deucalion, vel si non
placet hic, Phaethon' (imit. by Lucillius, Arth. Pal, il, 214); Catull. 36, 7;
Hor. Od. 1, 16, 1-4; Juv. 7, 25; Isokrat. Panath. 281; Galen, 7, p. 507, K.; etc.
51-52. Addressed to Marathus. Here for the moment the discussion con-
cerning Marathus comes to an end - as usual, on the keynote, his common
venality.
52. plena manu: of course intentionally drastic here as in 1, 5, 68, where
see note.
53–74. Tibullus now turns on the old man. The passage is not pleasant,
but it is undoubtedly a masterpiece of its kind. See Introd. p. 52.
53. te rideat adsiduis dolis : the addition of an instrumental) ablative
370
NOTES
[1, 9, 61
CY
to ridere in this sense does not seem to occur elsewhere. The analogy is
such expressions as Terence, Andria, 583, dolis ut me deluderes' (quoted
as 'deridere dolis' by Wunderlich ad. loc. and afterwards by Dissen and
Némethy). As developed by Tibullus the expression becomes a work of art
in the way of insult, May she make you her laughing stock, may she rejoice
in making you contemptible, with her unceasing intrigues -- and never fare
the worse for it. The implication is that an utter contempt for him shall be
one of her leading motives for infidelity — a touch of genuine human nature.
55-56. Priapea, 47, 'quicunque vestrum qui venitis ad cenam, | libare nullos
sustinet mihi versus, ) illius uxor aut amica rivalem | lasciviendo languidum,
precor, reddat, . et ipse longa nocte dormiat solus | libidinosis incitatus erucis.'
55. usu: i.e. “Veneris usu,' cp. Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 3 and 49; Rem. Amor.
357; etc.
56. Propert. 3, 21, 8, 'vix tamen aut semel admittit, cum saepe negarit: |
seu venit, extremo dormit amicta toro’; 2, 15, 6; Lukian, Dial. Mer. 11, 4;
Hor. Epod. 3, 22; etc.
57. externa vestigia, etc. : Livy, 1, 58, 7 (possibly an echo of this pas-
sage, acc. to Stacey), 'vestigia viri alieni, Collatine, in lecto sunt tuo';
Propert. 2, 9, 45; 2, 29, 35; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 97; Cicero, Verr. 3, 34, 79; etc.
58. pateat semper aperta: 'may your house be always open and acces-
sible.' semper goes with aperta, but really qualifies the complex. — cupidis :
i.e. amatoribus, so 1, 8, 56; etc.
59. The reference to strong drink in this connection is especially insulting
because it at once puts the man's sister in the class with the lenae, sagae, and
içeretrices, and at the same time suggests that she is no longer young. The
fondness of old women of this type for drink is constantly being mentioned,
cp. Propert. 4, 5, 2; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, I; Hor. Od. 1, 36, 13; Plautus,
Curc. 96–126; Anth. Pal. 7, 329; 353; etc.
60. emeruisse : ironical euphemism, i.e. 'bene meruisse de,' bene fecisse,'
so always when emereo takes an accus. of the person after the analogy of
demereo (rare; beside this ex. Harper quotes only Ovid, Trist. 4, 8, 52;
Amor. 2, 8, 24; Her. 6, 138).
61-64. A re-statement, with rhetorical amplification, of the preceding dis-
tich, 61-62 of the hexameter (59), 63–64 of the pentameter (60).
61-62. The touch of high poetry seen in the circumlocution for the dawn is
of course satiric. So Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 3 (of Dipsas the lena), 'ex re nomen
habet: nigri non illa parentem Memnonis in roseis sobria vidit equis. For
the motive cp. Martial, 1, 28, ‘hesterno faetere mero qui credit Acerram | falli-
tur: in lucem semper Acerra bibit.'
61. convivia ducere: i.e. continue, keep up her revels.' The accessory
371
1, 9, 62]
TIBVLLVS
notion of prolongation; protraction, beyond the necessary or regular time is
suggested by the context rather than inherent in the verb itself, cp. Hor. A.
P. 376, poterat duci quia cena sine istis,' because a dinner could be con-
ducted, could continue, without those things. So of trahere in the same
connection, as in 2, 3, 47. So too of Cicero's ducere aetatem litteris,' of
Vergil's 'ducere vitam,' even of his producere vitam' (cp. our own expres-
sion 'to lead a sedentary life,' etc.). In many of these exx. the idea at the
bottom is the continuity of the action or state. Cp. e.g. 1, 4, 5, hibernae
producis frigora brumae' (in which hibernae frigora brumae' is really an
expression of time) with Ter. Adel. 591, cyathos sorbilans paulatim hunc
producam diem.'
62. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 456, quod tepidum vigili provocet ore diem”; Pont.
I, 4, 58, 'quam primum roseo provocet ore diem.' — rota Luciferi : Lucifer,
or Phosphoros, brightest and most glorious of all the stars (Ovid, Trist. 1, 3,
72; Met. 2, 723), rises from the Eastern Sea (Fast. 6, 474; Pont. 2, 5, 50)
and summons (hence provocet here) the Day, putting to flight the throng of
lesser stars (Met. 2, 115). He is constantly referred to (as here) as the
Herald of the Dawn (so regularly in the Anth. Pal.; cp, 12, 114, 1, 'Hous
dyyele, xalpe, paco pópe. Ovid, Her. 18, 112, praevius Aurorae'; etc.).
He is given wings by Ion, frag. 7 Crus. 'Aolov åepopolnav dotépa , uelvwuev
åellou LEUKOTTÉpura apodpouovº cp. Ovid, Amor. I, 6, 65, quoted below,.etc.
According to another and probably later conception, he rides a horse, Ovid,
Amor. 2, II, 56, etc., quoted in 1, 3, 93-94 n.; Met. 15, 189, cumque albo
Lucifer exit | carus equu'; Stat. Theb. 6, 240; Claud. 8, 562; De Rapt. Pros.
2, 122; etc. The attribute of a chariot, which is doubtless Hellenistic, but
occurs here (cp. also 1, 3, 94) for the first time, is confined to the Roman
poets and is not supported by the remains of antique art; cp. Ovid, Amor.
1, 6, 65, iamque pruinosus molitur Luciſer axes, I inque suum miseros ex-
citat ales opus' (why does a winged god incommode himself with a chariot ?);
Eleg. in Maec, 132; etc. See C. Pascal, Bollettino di Filologia Classica, 15,
p. 114. — rota: i.e.' chariot.' For the poetic singular (cp. I, 1, 42 n.) and
for the figure (pars pro toto), Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 230; Met. I, 448; Propert.
2, 25, 26; etc.
63. illa: for the ablat. with comparatives, see also 1, 8, 31; 4, 8, 3. —
queat: potential, “ no one could, etc., better than she.' — consumere ... dis-
posuisse : 1, 1, 29–32 n. Possibly no conscious distinction was made in this
instance. Note, however, that the perfect disposuisse here would, if felt,
emphasize the completion of the list and therefore be more insulting. melius
is to be taken with both verbs.
64. Operum vices: oxýuara ouvovo las; cp. note on modis, 2, 6, 52, and
372
NOTES
[1, 9, 73
for disponere in this connection, Ovid, Amor. 3, 7, 64, 'quos ego non finxi
disposuique modos.'
65. at: corrects the statement of 63, 'illa nulla queat,' etc. — tua: sc.
uxor; cp. I, 5, 12 n.- perdidicit: note the insulting force of per. The
implied object of the verb is the accomplishments of the old man's sister,
described in 63–64; hence the force of 66. —- nec tu, etc.: so Catullus, 17,
20 (of a stupid man in the same situation), .tantundem omnia sentiens quam
si nulla sit usquam | talis iste meus stupor nil videt, nihil audit'; 83, 3,
mule, nihil sentis,' etc.
66. non solita, etc.: 1, 5, 4 n. The implication is indirectly explained by
. 67-74. For an antique variant, cp. Anth. Pal. 5, 175.
. 67–70. On this dressing for the street parade — pro aliquo (or pro aliqua,
.cp. 1, 8, 9 f.) -- see 2, 3, 51-58; Propert. 1, 2; etc.
67. disponere crines: 1, 8, 9-10 n.
68. denso dente: the meaning, as often with circumlocutions of this type,
is plainly indicated in the verb. dente of course = dentibus. This com-
paratively uncommon type of the poetic singular is rarely without an attribu-
tive (denso here; innumerus, 2, 3, 42; esp. multus, 1, 3, 28 and n.; 1, 4, 76;
2, 5, 72) or some other word by which its actual value as a plural is clearly
defined (e.g. circum or circa; cp. 1, 2, 95; 1, 3, 87 and notes). For denszes
with a singular, as here, cp. Ovid, Amor. 3, 13, 7 (arbor); Fast. 2, 165 (ilex);
Met. 2, 557 (ulmus); Verg. A. 10, 361 (vir); Juv. I, 120 (lectica); 14,
144 (oliva); etc.
69–76. For Bertin's imitation see 1, 5, 69-76 n.
70. The simple subjunctive (vinciat ... prodeat') with persuadeo is
cited elsewhere only from Sallust, Jug. 35, 2, "huic Sp. Albinus ... persuadet
... regnum Numidiae ab senatu petat. More common with suadeo, Plaut.
Asin. 644; Petron. 35; Nepos, Con. 4, 1; etc. See 1, 2, 25a n. - prodeat:
used regularly of women 'going out' (cp. Hor. Od. 2, 8, 7, etc.), so also
incedere, cp. 2, 3, 52; 4, 2, II and notes. So 'Tyrio sinu,' i.2. Tyria palla,
is part of the conventional street costume for ladies, cp. 4, 2, il n. — sinu:
for the figure, I, 6, 18; Propert. 3, 8, 8; Ovid, Her. 5, 71, and often.
71. tibi: for the dative of reference cp. 2, 6, 31; 4, 13, 4; 5; 16.—
bella: this popular equivalent of pulchra belongs rather in the sphere of the
epigram. Its presence here is symptomatic of this type of elegy, cp. 4, 13,
5 n.
72. remque domumque tuam : your fortune and your family. For the
phrase cp. e.g. Ovid, Her. 17, 159, 'resque domusque'; Hor. Epist. 1, 2, 51,
sic domus et res'; etc.
73-74. The point of view (in this case quite excusable) is that of Psyche's
373
1, 9, 73]
TIBVLLVS
sister in Apul. Met. 5, 10,' ego vero maritum articulari etiam morbo complica-
tum curvatumque ac per hoc rarissimo Venerem meam recolentem sustineo,
plerumque detortos et duratos in lapidem digitos eius perfricans, fomentis oli-
dis et pannis sordidis et faetidis cataplasmatibus manus tam delicatas istas
adurens, nec uxoris officiosam faciem sed medicae laboriosam personam sus- :
tinens'; Catull. 71, “Si quoi iure bono sacer alarum obstitit hircus, , aut si
quem merito tarda podagra secat, | aemulus iste tuus, qui vestrum exercet
amorem, mirifice est a te nactus utrumque malum. nam quotiens futuit, to-
tiens ulciscitur ambos : | illam adfligit odore, ipse perit podagra’; esp. the
famous epigram of Hedylos in the Anth. Ρal. II, 414, λυσιμελούς Βάκχου και
λυσιμελούς Αφροδίτης | γεννάται θυγάτηρ λυσιμελής Ποδάγρα.
Perhaps Robert Greene was thinking of this passage of Tibullus when he
wrote in his Mamillia (1583), “How can a young woman fixe her affection
vppon an olde man who in the night time in steed of talke telleth the clocke,
crieth out of the gout, complaineth of the Ciatica, is combred with crampes,
and troubled with the cough, hauing neither health to ioy himselfe, nor youth
to enioy her.'
73. facit: 1, 8, 22 n. — foeda podagra : the antique remedies, bandages,
and poultices regularly used for gout made the sufferer especially repulsive,
cp. Apul. above; Verg. G. 3, 299, where Servius says of turpisque podagras :
“respexit ad curam, quae sine pannis et medicaminibus sordidis non fit';
esp. Celsus, 4, 24 (31, Daremberg). Doubtless too foeda here was also meant
to suggest the appearance of the sufferers, cp. Ovid. Pont. I, 3, 23, 'tollere
nodosam nescit medicina podagram’; Hor. Epist. 1, 1, 31, etc.
74. senis amplexus : 1, 8, 30 n. — culta puella : i.e. elegais, venusta,
'a girl of refinement,' .a cultivated woman of the world,' (together with the
manners, dress, and appearance in harmony with that character). A favourite
word of Ovid's, cp. e.g. Ars Amat. 1, 97, sic ruit in celebres cultissima
femina ludos'; 2, 175, “proelia cum Parthis, cum culta pax sit amica'; 3, 51,
ócultas ne laede puellas,' etc. "A woman of fashion,' 'the smart set' are
partial equivalents.
75. accubuit : from accumbo and for concubuit. A rare use. The The-
saurus records only Propert. 2, 3, 30; 3, 15, 12, and without the dative,
Propert. 2, 32, 36; Apul. Flor. 49; Vulg. Gen. 19, 33.
76. The evident adaptation of an even more drastic popular expression.
77. blanditias meas: i.e. belonging to me, cp. Ovid, Her. 20, 145,
'iste sinus meus est, mea turpiter oscula sumis,' etc.; Achill. Tat. 4, 8, oủ
LotxcÚơ Taf uoc Tà ºthuama, etc.
79-80. The conventional atmosphere of the elegy to which we return
with this naïve threat is preserved until the close of the piece.
374
NOTES
[1, 10
79. flebis ... me iuvet: "you will be sorry--but I shall be pleased,' i.e. the
situation hitherto existing will be reversed. — vinctum: 1, 1,55; 2, 4, 3 ; etc.
80. geret regna: a poetic variation of the regular prose usage gerere
rempublicam, potestatem, magistratum, etc. — regno regna: 'lord it in your
domain. For the immediate repetition of the substantive see 4, 7, 10 n.
Observe however that here the substantive is repeated in another sense, i.e.
regnum = 'kingdom' (a common use in the erotic sphere, cp. 2, 3, 59; 4,
5, 4 n.) and regna, the poetic plural here = 'rule,' sovereignty' (Propert. 4,
7, 50 ; 4, 10, 18; Ovid, Rem. Amor. 15; etc.). This is an artistic but un-
common development of the figure.
81-82. 1, 3, 33–34 and notes. The palm wreath or branch was a symbol
of victory, hence its significance here.
.83–84. The votive inscription, like the epitaph (cp. 1, 3, 55-56 n.), is a
regular motive of the elegy. So eig. Propertius 2, 14, 27, 'has pono ante tuas
tibi, diva, Propertius aedis , exuvias, tota nocte receptus amans'; 2, 28, 43,
pro quibus optatis sacro me carmine damno: scribam ego “Per magnum est
salva puella Iovem”?; 4, 3, 72; Ovid, Amor. I, II, 27; 2, 13, 25; etc.
83. Maximianus, 1, 61, has been quoted here as an echo, but the statement
seems more than doubtful. The distich is sed mibi dulce magis resoluto vi-
vere collo | nullaque coniugii vincula grata pati,' cp. 1, 2, 19–20 n. and
Introd. p. 61–62. For the cadence, see 1, 2, 27 n.
84. grata sis mente: for the ablative of quality, cp. I, 3, 71; 1, 6, 86;
1, 7, 8; 2, 5, 104; 1, 3, 54. grata is of course active, cp. 4, 6, 19 and Anti-
pater Thess. Anth. Pal. 6, 209 —
Βιθυνις Κυθέρη με τεης ανεθήκατο, Κύπρι,
μορφάς είδωλον λύγδινον εύξαμένα.
αλλά συ τη μακρη μεγάλην χάριν αντιμερίζου,
ως έθος αρκείται δ' ανδρός ομοφροσύνα.
- rogat: on rogare with the simple subjunctive see 70 and 1, 2, 25a with
notes.
I, IO
See Introd. p. 35. The poet has been called to military service. As a con-
trast between war and carnage, as opposed to peace and the quiet country
life, this poem has much in common with the first and third of this book.
The date cannot be determined (cp. I. 25 below with n.), although the fact
that no love affair is mentioned has led to the conclusion that it was prior to
the affair with Delia, if not to the composition of the group to Marathus.
Imitated by Loyson and Andrieux, translated by Morell into Greek.
“Who was it that first invented the sword? Surely, a savage, a veritable
375
1, TO, 1]
TIBVLLVS
man of iron. Or have we misused a gift that was meant for a protection
against the beasts? All is due to our greed of gold. There was no war in
primaeval times when luxury was unknown. Would I were living in those
times. I would not now be going to war, and, who knows, perhaps to my
death. Protect and preserve me, Lares, even as when I was a little boy and
played at your feet. Ye good old gods, I give you the simple worship of my
fathers. Ah, those were better days, those days of simplicity and of peace.
Let others win fame on the bloody field. To hear them rehearse their deeds
over the wine is enough for me. What madness it is to summon Death by
violence. At best he comes upon us all too soon, and then the barren world.
below is forever ours, the joyless realm of dust and shadow. How much better
a good old age, with one's wife and boys, in a happy country home. May
this be my fate, and may Peace bestow her blessings upon us all.' .
1-14. The characteristic diatribe on war, cp. 1, 2, 65; 1, 3, 47-48 and note.
Cp. Cowley's Sylva, Ode 5, 'Curst be that wretch (Death's factor sure) who
brought | Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught | Smiths, who
before could only make | The spade, the ploughshare, and the rake, | Arts in
most cruel wise | Man's life t'epitomize. | Then men (fond men alas) rid post
to th' grave, | And cut those threads, which yet the Fates would save. | Then
Charon sweated at his trade, | And had a bigger ferry made, / Then, then the
silver hair, | Frequent before, grew rare, etc.
1-2. For a punning trans. see Steele in the Guardian, No. 143. Professor
Mustard finds an echo of this distich in Joannes Secundus, Eleg. 3, 2-
ah, pereat duros primum qui protulit enses,
ille fuit ferro durior ipse suo.
1. protulit: so Propert. 2, 6, 31; Hor. A. P. 58 and 130, and often.
For this interest in the discoverers and inventors of things see Leo, Plaut.
Forsch. p. 138 (2d edit. 1912, p. 151), etc.
2. ferus et ferreus: this alliterative quasi-punning phrase finds its
prototype as early as Ennius, Ann. 183-184 V, "feroque ornatur ferro,' cp.
Cicero, Quint. Frat. 1, 3, 3, .quem ego ferus ac ferreus e complexu dimisi
meo.' The phrase is, perhaps, an echo from the popular speech, cp. 1, 10, 65
n., and note that it is not repeated in Lygdamus's imitation of this distich
in 3, 2, 1--2.
3-4. 1, 10, 33; 1, 3, 49-50 n. On mortis via, 1, 3, 50. dirus (= delvós)
is a Sabine word (Servius on Verg. A. 3, 235) applied to prodigies (Festus,
69). Note that nata (neut. plur.) does duty for the missing nata (fem.
sing.) with caedes, and that est (aperta est') does duty for the missing
copula with both, cp. 1, 5, 36 n.
5-6. This rhetorical question states a maxim of the philosophers which is
an,
376
NOTES
[1, 10, 8
often repeated, cp. bog. Seneca, N.Q. 5, 18, 15, nihil invenies tam manifestae
utilitatis quod non in contrarium transeat culpa,' Frequently as here in con-
nection with the sword because the first sword often introduces the topic of
war so frequently dwelt upon in discussing the history of mankind, cp. 1, 3,
37-40 n. For Tibullus and for the poets in general who believe (at least for
purposes of their art) in a fall from grace the first sword and the first ship
mark the beginning of our long downward path since the Golden Age. A
fragment of Parthenios, SOTIS ég á vopúrovs &vo ev alyavény, indicates how
faithful our poet is here to the traditional themes of the idyllic erotic elegy, cp.
also Ovid, Met. 15, 106 f. Opponents of the fall from grace (i.e. esp. the
Epicureans) contended that the sword merely marked an important .
period in the long. chronicle of homicide. It succeeded the club and the large
rough stone, cp. Lucret. 5, 968,"missilibus saxis et magno pondere clavae ';
Hor. Sat. 1, 3, 100, mutum et turpe pecus glandem atque cubilia propter
unguibus et pugnis, dein fustibus, atque ita porro | pugnabant armis quae
post fabricaverat usus '; Val. Flacc. 5, 145 (of the Chalybes); Plato, Rep.
358 E, etc.
6. in feras: for in = 'towards, i.e. against,' cp. I, 3, 52; 1, 8, 50; 4, 4,
14. For in = 'into' (of place), note esp. 1, 3, 6; 36; 80; 1, 5, 38; 1, 9,
12; 4, 7, 4 (see n.). Of time, 'for,' only 4, 2, 23. Of purpose, 'for,' 1, 5,
48; 2, 4, 44; 4, 3, 3. See 1, 10, 29 n.
7-10. In 1, 1, 5 f. Tibullus described the life he desired to lead; in 1, 2,
71 f., the life he would be happy to lead with Delia; in 1, 3, 35 f., the Golden
Age; in 1, 5, 19 f., the life he had once hoped to lead with Delia here, the
simple life of old Rome, cp. 2, 5, 21 f.; and in 1, 10, 39, of to-day, cp. 2, 1, 47 f.
So far as his personal experience enters into this characteristic multiplicity of
variations upon a single theme, the model before him, we may be sure, was
the happy days of his own childhood. For this favourite contrast of the de-
sirable past with the undesirable present, cp. 1, 3, 35 f. with notes.
7-8. Vergil's 'auri sacra fames quid non mortalia cogis pectora'(A. 3, 56)
is a theme of which the ancients never tire; cp. Lucret. 5, 1423; Seneca,
Phaedra, 527; Rutilius, I, 357, etc. The most of our troubles are due to it,
above all navigation (1, 3, 37-40 n.) and war (1, 3, 47-48 n.); cp. I, I, I; I, I,
49; 1, 1, 75; 2, 3, 37; Plato, Rep. 373 D; Phaedo, 66 D; Aristot. Pol.
Ath. 8, etc. We usually find it as here, cp. 1, 3, 47, etc., connected with the
preachment of old-fashioned simplicity as contrasted with the present luxury,
cp. Propert. 2, 20, 25; 3, 2, 19; 3, 5, 4; Sen. Phaedra, 483-564; Boeth. Cons.
Phil. 2, met. 5, etc.
7. divitis auri: for the figure, I, 9, 31; 3, 3, II; Manilius, 5, 16; etc.
8. faginus: beechen cups are often associated with the idyllic life of other
1
377
1, 10, 10]
TIBVLLVS
days; cp. Ovid, Met. 8, 659; Fasti, 5, 521; Val. Max. 4, 3, 5; Seneca, Herc.
Oet. 653; Pliny, 16, 185; Sil. Ital. 7, 193; Mart. 2, 43, 10.
10. The picture is Homeric, cp. Odyss. 4, 413 (of Proteus), nézeta. év
Mégonoi voueùs Ởs Tbeol uniwv.- varias oves : cp. Verg. G. 3, 387; Varro,
De Re Rust. 2, 2, 4; Columella, 7, 3. — dux gregis : in antiquity, as in the
Orient at the present day, the sheep follow their shepherd, cp. Apoll. Rhod.
1, 575; Ovid, Fasti, 4, 786; etc. Of the old theory that dux gregis here
means the ram (as e.g. in Ovid, Met. 7, 311) Martinon effectually disposes
with the dry observation, ainsi quand les béliers dormaient tranquillement
les hommes étaient heureux,'
11-12. Henri Estienne, Apologie pour Hérodote, chap. 4 (Comment et
pourquoy aucuns poëtes ont fort regretté le premier siècle') quotes this dis-
tich and translates -
Las pleust à Dieu que j'eusse esté né lors,
Sans essayer de Mars les durs efforts,
Et sans ouïr la trompette sonner,
Qui de frayeur me fait tout frissonner.
II. foret: on foret here instead of esset, cp. 1, 9, 39 n., and on the omission
of the conditional sign, 1, 6, 53 n.; and e.g. Pliny, Epist. 1, 12, 8, dedisses
huic animo par corpus, fecisset quod optabat.' The use of the imperfect foret
instead of fuisset, “denotes opposition to a general statement which holds
good both for Past and for Present' (Gild.-Lodge, 597, R. 1), 2.e. 'I did
not and do not live, never have lived, in that time,' cp. Seneca, Epist. 29,
10, si pudorem haberes, ultimam mihi pensionem remisisses'; if you had
(= you had not, as you have not) any delicacy,' etc. — yulgi: apparently =
duri militis of 49. For this use of vulgus Schulze quotes Ovid, Met. 13, 1,
'consedere duces et vulgi stante corona surgit . . . Aiax'; Livy, 22, 30, 7, dein
litteris non magis ipsorum imperatorum quam volgo militum ex utroque exer-
citu adfirmata”; Tac. Hist. I, 25, 'vulgus et ceteros'; Nepos, Alcib. 8, 2,
‘ibique praesente vulgo agere coepit’; Curtius, 7, 2, 33, 'carus principibus,
vulgo militum acceptior.' Cp. id. 3, 6, 19, "militari gratiora vulgo.' The
usage is rare, but the passage from Ovid suggests that the reading of the
Ambrosianus here is probably sound.- tristia arma: for the phrase, 1, 10,
49; Verg. E. 6, 7; Hor. A. P. 73.
12. corde micante: for the expression in this connection cp. Ovid, Ars
Amat. 3, 722; Fasti, 6, 338. Cyllenius quotes a satiric variation from Juv. 14, 199.
13. nunc ... iam: 'now (as it is)'...'now (at this very moment).'
For “iam ... nunc' see I, 5; 71 n.; for nunc . . . nunc, 1, 8, 75 n.;
for 'iam ... iam,' 1, 1, 70; 1, 2, 47; 2, 5, 41; 4, 4, 23; 'huc ... illuc,' 1,
3, 70 n.; 'interdum ... interdum,' 4, 4, 13. — trahor et: 1, 5, 33 n., cp. 2,
378
NOTES
[1, 10, 17
2, 5. Return to the original long vowel at the caesura is more common when
et or aut follows, i.e. words like et or aut serve to emphasize the pause. —
quis forsitan hostis: quis for aliquis after si, seu, ne, neu, nisi, etsi, is
common in all styles and periods (so Tib. except here). Otherwise quis for
aliquis is found for the most part with relatives (but this, too, is rare, only 8
times, e.g. in the orations of Cicero). The reinaining cases are usually in depend-
ent clauses with particles like quo (Cic. Vat. 37; Cluent. 144; 148), quod
(Verr. 5, 168), quamvis (Phil. 2, 44), ut (Acad. 1, 7), quotiescumque (Fin.
5, 29), cum (Prov. Cons. 5), etc. In exx. like Hor. Sat. 1, 3, 63, 'simplicior
quis et est ...“molestus"... inquimus'; Cicero, Paradox. 44, 'filiam quis
habet, pecunia est opus; duas maiore’; Terence, Eun. 252, negat quis : nego;
ait: aio,' the sentence is really conditional (i.e. si quis negat, etc.). quis for
aliquis in principal sentences as here is occasional in the older authors (see
dictt.), but otherwise it is very rare. In the orations and the philosophical
writings of Cicero we find only Fin. 3, 71, “alienumque a sapiente non modo
iniuriam cui facere verum etiam nocere,' and Fin. I, 53; Of. 3, 76; 102; 110,
the phraseological quis dixerit. Still more rare is the Tibullian combination
here of quis with an appositive (hostis). Possibly the influence of forsitan is
to be considered (quis forsitan = TÚXwv Tis), hence gerit indic. instead of
subjunctive (cp. however Ovid, Rem. Amor. 419, ‘forsitan haec aliquis (nam
sunt quoque) parva vocabit.')—forsitan: Leo (Seneca, Trag. 1, p. 63)
notes the rarity of this word with the present indicative. Ovid, Amor. 1, 6,
45; Her. 2, 103; 20, 136; Trist. 1, 1, 69; 5, 10, 40; Pont. 4, 1, 27; 4, 13,
tragedies, but not uncommon in his prose, especially in his letters.
14. haesura : 1,9, 9 n.—nostro: for nostro (for meo) as compared with trahor
above cp. 1, 2, 11 n.- latere : a word of far wider application than the English
of a mortal wound as here, cp. Ovid, Met. 9, 412, 'cognatumque latus Phegeius
hauserit ensis'; Seneca, Herc. Oet. 1165; Eleg. in Maec. 30; etc. In such
cases we naturally think of 'heart' or 'vitals' rather than .flank.' Some-
times, esp. in Ovid, latus stands for virility or masculine vigour. In such
cases a favourite Elizabethan equivalent is back.'
16. 2, 2, 22.
17-18. Hardwood gods, like the beechen cups of 8, are conventionally
associated with primaeval simplicity, cp. 20; 2, 5, 28 n.; Juvenal, 11, 115; etc.
The preference for them and the continuation of the type long after the art
of the statuary was fully developed is an interesting illustration of Roman
conservatism.
17. e stipite : for the ablative of material with ex, cp. 2, 1, 24; 2, 5, 97;
379
I, 10, 18]
TIBVLLVS
with de, I, 1, 40; 2, 1, 59. ex is used of the whole, 2, 6, 54, and of origin,
1, 2, 40, otherwise local.
18. veteris avi; cp. antiquo avo, 1, 1, 42. Tibullus's fondness for vetus,
antiquus, priscus, and synonyms has often been observed.
20. exigua aede: the lararium. — deus: 1, 6, 43 n.; 2, 5, 30, etc.
21–24. 1, 1, 20; 1, 3, 34 and notes.
21. placatus erat: imperfect, i.e. placatus is an adjective, not a participle.
22. Martial, 7, 63, 4, 'credis et Aoniae Bacchica serta comae,' also Ovid,
Amor. 3, 10, 36; Fasti, 4,616 are quoted here as imitations; cp. also 1, 3, 66.
23-24. Ovid, Fasti, 2, 652, 'stat puer et manibus lata canistra tenet, | inde
ubi ter fruges medios immisit in ignis, | porrigit incisos filia parva ſavos.'
23. atque: connects with the previous sentence, que the two parts of the
sentence introduced by atque. So‘atque ... et,' 2, 1, 65; 2, 2, 8; 2, 4,
47, 'et ... que,' 1, 9, 48, etc. Doubled atque is found only in 2, 5, 73. —
liba : 1, 7, 54 n.
25. Voss sees in aerata here a reference to the bronze weapons of the
Celts of Aquitania. If so, the coming campaign referred to here would be the
one which the poet afterwards described in 1, 7, 3 f. See below.- nobis : for
the dative, 4, 4, I n.
26. The line is very troublesome as it stands. Some, e.g. Ramsay, (cp.
also, Korn, Rhein. Mus. 20, 168; Wilhelm, Jahrb. Phil. 1895, p. 125) con-
strue hostia, etc., with Lares as a second subject of depellite (i.e. both the Lares
and the pig offered to them are asked to protect the worshipper). Others,
e.g. Schulze, supply an erit vobis with hostia and make que = 'and then' (as
in Ovid, Amor. 3, 13, 16; Met. 10, 252), i.e. depellite, etc. = the protasis and
hostia (erit vobis), etc. = the apodosis of a conditional sentence. The impera-
tive as a protasis is not uncommon, but I find no parallel for the combination
of such a protasis with an apodosis consisting of a mere nominative and modi-
fiers hanging in mid-air. It seems far better therefore to follow the Itali
and such modern editors as Baehrens and Postgate in indicating a lacuna
between 25 and 26. aerata tela plainly indicates" barbarous weapons,'
as Postgate remarks, but the reference is not clear enough as it stands. We
need, and Tibullus would naturally write, a pentameter giving the epithet
more definite form and perhaps even adding some detail sufficient to identify
the particular enemy referred to. 26 is best explained as the end of a sen-
tence (describing some detail of sacrifice to the Lares) the beginning of which
has been lost. If so at least two lines have dropped out, the original pen-
tameter with 25, and the original hexameter with 26.
On the offering of a pig to the Lares (a favourite victim with the Romans)
· cp. Plautus, Rud. 1208; Hor. Od. 3, 17, 15; 23, 4; Sat. 2, 3, 165; etc.
0
380
NOTES
[1, 10, 34
27. pura cum veste : 1, 1, 38; 1, 3, 25 and notes; Servius on Verg. A.
4, 683; 12; 169; etc. The ablat. of attendance takes cum as here except in
4, 2, 11 where see note. On myrtle for the Lares cp. e.g. Hor. Od. 3, 23, 16.
29–30. The wish is that of 1, 1, 1 f. etc.
29. fortis in armis: in, of condition, only here. Otherwise the regular
ablative of respect without a preposition as in 2, 3, 68; 5, 62; 75; 105; with
adjectives, 4, 2, 24; 1, 7, 47; 4, 3, 7; 1, 6, 40; 4, 2, 22; 4, 4, 2; with com-
paratives, . I, 9, 63 and note. See also 1, 10, 6 n.
For the consecutive clause with ut, cp. 2, 6, 42; with qui, 1, 1, 3; 1, 6, 13;
1, 2, 53; with quin, 1, 6, 70.
31–32. This touch of nature appealed especially to Ovid, cp. Her. 1, 29
(the fine passage describing the soldier's return from Troy) —
mirantur iustique senes trepidaeque puellae,
narrantis coniunx pendet ab ore viri,
atque aliquis posita monstrat fera proelia mensa
pingit et exiguo Pergama tota mero:
"hac ibat Simois, haec est Sigeia tellus,
hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis;
illic Aeacides, illic tendebat Ulixes,
hic lacer admissos terruit Hector equos.” .
For a variation see also Ars Amat. 2, 131 f. (Ulysses telling his story to
Calypso). Ramsay quotes Voltaire's lines on the old soldier -
Et le vieux nouvelliste une canne à la main,
Trace au Palais Royal Ypre, Farne et Denain.
Plutarch calls attention to the habit, Mor. 630 B (Quaest. Conviv. 2, 2), did kal
περί χώρας αποίκου και ξένης θαλάττης εθών τε βαρβαρικών και νόμων οι
πεπλανημένοι και πεπλευκότες ήδιον έρωτώνται, και προθύμως διηγούνται και
διαγράφoυσι κόλπους και τόπους, οιόμενοι και χάριν τινά των πόνων ταύτην
kal tapauvélav kouíšeobal.cp. Macrob. 7, 2, 6 (discussing Vergil's 'forsan et
haec olim meminisse iuvabit'), 'nec non et qui obierunt maria et terras
gaudent cum de ignoto multis vel terrarum situ.vel sinu maris interrogantur,
libenterque respondent et describunt modo verbis modo radio loca, gloriosum
putantes quae ipsi viderint aliorum oculis obicere. With us, the grave-digger
in Hamlet is the classical illustration of the inability of the untrained man to
tell a story at all without diagrams.
For the use of wine to write on the table cp. also 1, 6, 19 n.
33–34. That is, in any case, Death is upon us, etc. Note the picturesque-
ness here of imminet.
34. tacito pede: the “stealing steps' of Death (1, 1, 70 n.), like those of
381
1, 10, 35]
TIBVLLVS
Age (1, 1, 71 n.), and of Retribution (1, 9, 4 n.), are proverbial. The
ancients had a very keen perception of these relentless figures, dogging our
footsteps unseen, unheard, unsuspected, and, when they finally reach us,
always a surprise.
35–38. This is the Hades which recurs again and again in the classical
poets from Homer down, the abode of dust and shadow, the place of Death
worse than Death himself, cp. Seneca, Herc. Fur. 697—
AMPH. Estne aliqua tellus Cereris aut Bacchi ferax ?
THES. Non prata viridi laeta facie germinant
nec adulta leni fluctuat Zephyro seges;
non ulla ramos silva pomniferos habet:
sterilis profundi vastitas squalet soli
et foeda tellus torpet aeterno situ ..
immotus aer haeret et pigro sedet
nox atra mundo: cuncta inaerore horrida
ipsaque Morte peior est Mortis locus.
So too Milton, P. L., 2, 618-
Through many a dark and dreary vale
They passed, and many a region dolorous,
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death,
A universe of death ...
Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable and worse
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras dire.
For Elysium and Tartaros, see 1, 3, 59 f. and notes.
35. seges: 1, 3, 61 n.; Seneca, quoted above, etc. — infra: natural
enough in this connection but extremely rare. I find no other case. More
usual is ad or apud inferos, apud Orcuin, and the like. — audax : found only
here of Kerberos but describes well the Dog of Hades who recks of naught,
cp. improbus applied to him by Propertius, 4, II, 25. For Kerberos see 1, 3,
71 n.
36. navita turpis : Charon, the boatman of the Styx, is póst-Homeric
(Eustath. 1666, 36). He appeared first in the epic Minyas and was aſter-
ward represented in the famous picture of Hades by Polygnotos (cp. 1, 3,
69-70; 77-78; 79-80, and notes) in the Lesche at Delphi (Pausan. 10, 28, 2.).
He is a favourite figure in the comedy and in Lukian (e.g. Aristoph. Ran.
183; Lysist. 606; Plut. 278; Eurip. H. F. 432; Alkest. 254 and 361;
382
NOTES
[1, 10, 38
Hermesianax ap. Athen. 13, 597 B, 3; Seneca, Herc. Fur. 764; Juv. 3, 266,
etc.), frequently occurs in the epitaphs, is a striking figure in the remains of
Etruscan art, and among the modern Greeks, by whom he is called Charos or
Charontas, he has usurped the place and functions of Hades himself. turpis
as an epithet of him is found only here, but both literature and art unite in
attesting the fitness of it. See, for example, Vergil, A. 6, 298 -
Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
canities inculta iacet, stant lumina flamma,
sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.
ipse ratem conto subigit velisque ministrat
et ferruginea subvectat corpora cumba,
iam senior; sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.
The inner man is mirrored in his outward semblance and hence turpis,
alo xpós, foul' (in its old and new sense), may apply to personal appearance
as well as to personal character.
37–38. That is, the ghosts bear upon them traces of the funeral fires by
which their mortal parts were destroyed. Sometimes the face is pictured as
flattened or disfigured by the waters of Lethe (i.e. the ſeatures are blurred more
or less by decomposition). The two ideas together give a touch of peculiar
horror to Propertius, 4, 7, 7 (the dead Cynthia appearing to her lover in a
dream) -
eosdem habuit secum quibus est elata capillis,
eosdem oculos; lateri vestis adusta fuit,
et solitum digito beryllon adederat ignis,
summaque Lethaeus triverat ora liquor.
So wounds or any mutilation by which a man came to his death reappear
upon his shade in the other world or when he returns thence to appear
to us in our dreams, cp. e.g. 2, 6, 39; Verg. A. 2, 274; 6, 450; 495; Ovid,
Met. 10, 49; 11, 691; Sil. Ital. 12, 547; etc. This naïve idea is universal.
We cannot disassociate the appearance of people in the other world
from their appearance in this world at death or after death and interment.
The risen Redeemer bears the scars of his sufferings upon him, the ghost of
one foully murdered shows the gaping wound forever dripping blood, he
wears white because the corpse traditionally wears white, he is pale because
the dead are pale, etc. The idea is firmly fixed among the Chinese, and is
said to be the reason why they inflict such horrible mutilation upon their
criminals. See I, 4, 60 n.
38. obscuros ... lacus: Edgar says in King Lear, 3, 6, ' Frateretto calls
me; and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.'
383
I, 10, 39]
TIBVLLVS
39-44. The peaceful idyllic old age of the aurea mediocritas is a favourite
theme. One of the best examples is Claudian's epigram on the Old Man of
Verona (Carm. Min. 20) so often translated by our eighteenth century
poets. See also Anth. Lat. 433 R. 'est mihi rus parvum, fenus sine crimine
parvum; | sed facit haec nobis utraque magna quies,' etc.; Seneca, Herc. Fur.
196, 'me mea tellus | lare secreto tutoque tegat. / venit ad pigros cana
senectus, | humilique loco sed certa sedet | sordida parvae fortuna domus: 1
alte virtus animosa cadit’; especially, however, Hor. Epod. 2, 39 f., 'quod si
pudica mulier in partem iuvet , domum atque dulcis liberos, / Sabina qualis
aut perusta solibus / pernicis uxor Apuli, sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis
focum lassi sub adventum viri | claudensque textis cratibus laetum pecus 1
distenta siccet ubera et horna dulci vina promens dolio | dapes inemptas
apparet,' etc.
39. hic ... quem: so‘hic . . . qui,' I, 5, 35; 'ille . . . qui,' 1, 2, 65;
1, 6, 31; 2, 3, 55; 'ipse . . . qui,' 2, 2, 5; 2, 3, 59. Reversed, 'qui ...
ille,' 1, 4, 67; qui ... is,' 1, 10, 66; qui . . . hic, 4, 5, 1 (where see n.)
- hic: so Lucret. 2, 387; 1066; 6, 9; Verg. A. 4, 22; 6, 791. These ap-
pear to be the only examples in the classical poets (Postgate).- prole parata:
for the alliteration see 65 n.
40. occupat: “takes possession of.' So used of old age, e.g. by Hor. Epist.
I, 20, 18.
The homoeoteleuton in this line (four cases of final a in succession) has been
illustrated by Propert. 4, 10, 20,' et galea hirsuta compta lupina iuba,' and
Verg. G.4, 366, 'omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra.' But the monotony
is visual rather than audible. In all three lines two are long and two, at
least, are short, as well as unstressed, and in Propertius the first (galea) is
elided. In Cicero's unfortunate line, 'o fortunatam natam me consule
Romam !'' what a consolation my consulship was to the nation!' (G.),
which the critics never forgot, there was no escape. Moreover, the fault was
aggravated by the nasal n and by the ill-advised jingle.
41. For the division of labour, which in a general way still holds good in
country districts, cp. e.g. Eurip. Kyklops, 27 f. Achilles Statius quotes Kalli-
mach. frag. 127, Schn.
43. For the alliteration, see 65 n.- canis: i.e. canis capillis,' cp. Ovid,
Met. 3, 516; Seneca, Herc. Fur. 1249; Anth. Pal. 5, 76, 3, ñaláxon dè xpóvų
kai ypač kal olcaiol, etc., and our own expression 'to grow grey.'
44. Since Homer's Nestor the fact that old men like to talk of the past
remained more or less of a commonplace, not only of poetry, but of rhetoric
and philosophical discussion, cp. 3, 3, 31; 3, 5, 26; Hor. A. P. 173; Aristot.
Rhet. 2, 13, 12, kai füol Tŷn uvun uâllov i rî érld. Toû ydp Blou To MÈV
384
NOTES
[I, , 47
λοιπόν ολίγον το δε παρεληλυθός πολύ, έστι δε η μεν ελπίς του μέλλοντος, ή
δε μνήμη των παροιχομένων, όπερ αίτιον και της άδολεσχίας αυτοίς· διατε-
λούσι γάρ τα γενόμενα λέγοντες· αναμιμνησκόμενοι γάρ ήδονται.
45-63. The praises of Peace - a favourite theme, but one which had a
peculiar significance just at this time because the poet is addressing the gen-
eration to which Tacitus refers when he described Augustus (Ann. I, I) as
the one .qui cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa nomine principis sub imperium
accepit.' Among the most striking passages on this subject are Eurip. Bacch.
413; Theokrit. 16, 88; Philippos, Anth. Pal. 6, 236 (quoted in 49-50 n., be-
low). We also owe to Stobaios (chap. 53) Eurip. 453 N.; 369 N.; Suppl.
481; Aristoph. 109 K.; 387 K.; Philemon, 71 K., esp. Bacchylides, frag.
4, Blass, with which Tib. has some points in common
Τίκτει δέ τε θνατοϊσιν ειρήνα μεγάλα
πλούτον μελιγλώσσων τ' αοιδών άνθεα,
δαιδαλέων τ’ επί βωμών
θεοίσιν αίθεσθαι βοών ξανθαι φλογί
μηρί’ ευτρίχων τε μήλων,
γυμνασίων τε νέοις
αυλών τε και κώμων μέλειν.
εν δε σιδαροδέτοις
πόρπαξιν αιθαν αραχναν ιστοί πέλονται:
έγχεά τε λογχωτά ξίφεα τ' άμφάκεα
δάμναται ... ευρώς.
χαλκεάν δ' ουκ έστι σαλπίγγων κτύπος,
ουδέ συλάται μελίφρων
υπνος από βλεφάρων,
αώιος δς θάλπει κέαρ.
συμποσίων δ' έρατών
βρίθοντ’ άγυιαι, παιδικοί θ' ύμνοι φλέγονται.
It will be observed that in this passage of Tibullus Peace practically performs
the tasks, etc., ascribed to Osiris in 1, 7, 29 f. and to the rustic deities in 2, 1, 37 f.
45. candida: i.e. dressed in white, cp. 68; 2, 1, 16; etc.
46. Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 318, ‘iussit et inmeritam sub iuga curva trahi';
Pont. 1, 8, 54, ducam ruricolas sub iuga curva boves.'
For a similar detail in descriptions of Peace, cp. Αristoph. frag. 387, 4 Κ.
47–48. Philemon, frag. 71, 9 K. speaks of Peace as the giver of wine.
From a different point of view, cp. Hor. Οd. 2, 14, 25, absumet heres
Caecuba dignior | servata centum clavibus et mero | tinguet pavimentum
superbo, I pontificum potiore cenis.'
385
1, 10, 19]
TIBVLLVS
49-50. A favourite detail in descriptions of Peace, cp.e.g. Bacchyl. frag. 4,
8 quoted above ; Eurip. 369 N., kelo iw dópu uot ultov áu LTNÉKelv åpáx vais,
Met à d' nouxías rol@ yńpg OUVOLKOInu (cp. Eustath. Odyss. 1793, 40); Theokrit.
16, 96 (cp. Odyss. 8, 280), ápáxvia dels Órl' ápáxval | NetTÀ diaotħO ALVto:
Ovid, Fast. 4, 928, sarcula nunc durusque bidens et vomer aduncus, ruris
opes, niteant; inquinet arma situs. I conatusque aliquis vagina ducere ferrum,
| astrictum longa sentiat esse mora'; Hor. Sat. 2, 1, 43; Seneca, Thyest.
565; Sil. Ital. 7, 533; etc. Mustard, Classical Echoes in Tennyson, p. 23,
quotes Maud, 3, 6, 2, 'And the cobweb woven across the cannon's throat |
Shall shake its threaded tears in the wind no more,' and Ben Jonson, Prince
Henry's Barriers, 'shields and swords cobwebbed and rusty.' He also notes
for the cobweb as an ancient type of desolation or disuse, Homer, Odyss. 16,
35; Hesiod, W. and D. 475; Plaut. Äul. 84; Catull. 13, 8; Propert. 4, 6, 83.
Among the • Emblems' of Alciati, a book immensely popular in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, one of the special favourites was the one represent-
ing Peace, a swarm of bees issuing from a soldier's helmet. References to it
are numerous, cp. e.g. The True Trojans, 1, 1 (Dodsley's Old Plays, XII,
p. 453), 'Hang up thy rusty helmet, that the bee | May have a hive, or
spiders find a loom. Here, too, should be included Mustard's citations from
the 'sonnet'appended to Peele's Polyhymnia, ‘His helmet now shall make
a hive for bees,' and Lyly's Campaspe, 4, 3, 'Bees to make their hives in sol.
diers' helmets. The prototype of Alciati's idea is seen in passages like
Philippos, Anth. Pal. 6, 236, 1-
"Eußoda xalkoyéveld, Pilón loa teúxea vnwv,
'Ακτιακού πολέμου κείμενα μαρτύρια
ηνίδε σιμβλεύει κηρότροφα δώρα μελισσών,
έσμό βομβητη κυκλόσε βριθόμενα.
Καίσαρος ευνομίης χρηστή χάρις· όπλα γάρ εχθρών
καρπούς ειρήνης αντεδίδαξε τρέφειν.
51-52. Ends what was originally the brief description of a rural merry-
making in honour of the gods, cp. Bacchylides quoted above; 2, 1.- This
amusing picture may have been partially responsible for Ovid, Fasti, 6, 785,
'ecce suburbana rediens male sobrius aede , ad stellas aliquis talia verba
iacit’; etc. A state of exhilaration such as that to which Tibullus alludes
was, one might almost say, de rigeur on these occasions; cp. 2, 1, 29-30 n.;
Hor. A. P. 224; etc.
51. luco: i.e. the grove by which an ancient temple was usually surrounded;
cp. Propert. 4, 6, 71; Verg. A. II, 740; Hor. Od. 1, 4, II; Quintil. 10, 1, 88;
and often. Schulze notes that as e luco is practically one word, the displace-
386
NOTES
[I, 10, 57
ment of que (cp. I, I, 40 n.) is not as extreme as would appear at first sight.
- male sobrius: 'anything but sober,' i.e. very drunk. male is often used
with things desirable in the sense of a polite but decided negative; cp. e.g.
male sanus, ' far from being in his right mind,' the suggestion being that as a
matter of fact the man is stark, staring mad, male fidus, male gratus, etc.; so
we say, 'I can ill afford,' etc. male in this use betrays the personal equation
of the speaker, it emphasizes the prominence or the desirability of the thing
negatived. On the other hand, male with things undesirable often acts as a
superlative; cp. male raucus,-'cireadfully hoarse,' me male odit, ' he hates me
horribly,' male metuo, 'I am much afraid. Compare our expression to be
badly scared,'' badly hurt,' and the like. For adverbs with adjectives as here,
2, 6, 53; 4, 10, 2.
53-66. Lovers' quarrels, 'rixae, pax, et oscula,' also belong to the piping
times of peace, cp. Ι, Ι, 74; Ι, 6, 73-74 and n. ; 2, 5, 1οΙ.
53-54. scissos capillos ... perfractas fores: no antique love affair of
the type referred to seems to have been complete without these somewhat
primitive diversions, cp. Introd. p. 45; 1, 1, 74 n.; Propert. 2, 5, 21; 3, 8, 1;
Ter. Adel. 101, 'non est flagitium, mihi crede, adulescentulum scortari neque
potare: non est : neque fores | ecfringere,' and often whenever a love affair
à la mode is mentioned. It is interesting, however, to observe that then, as
now, an indemnity for such nocturna bella' was sometimes demanded in the
police court the next morning, cp. e.g. Herondas, 2, 63, where the plaintiff
one Battaros, a leno, addressing the jury, says — .
πυξ επλήγην, ή θύρη κατάρακται
της οικίας μευ, της τελέω τρίτην μισθόν,
τα υπέρθυρο οπτά. δεύρο Μυρτάλη και σύ:
δείξον σεωυτήν πάσι· μηδέν αισχύνου:
νόμιζε τούτους ούς ορής δικάζοντας
πατέρας αδελφούς εμβλέπειν. ορήτ’, άνδρες,
τα τίλματ’ αυτής και κάτωθε κάνωθεν
ως λεία ταύτ' έτιλλεν αναγής ούτος,
80' είλκεν αυτήν καβιάζετ’ – & Γήρας,
σοι θυέτω επεί το αίμ' αν εξεφύσησεν,
ώσπερ Φίλιππος έν Σάμο κοτ’ ο Βρέγκος.
55. et ipse: for et = 'even, or too, cp. Ι, Ι, 77 % 1, 7, 39; Ι, 9, 39; Ι,
10, 28; 2, 1, 63.
57–58. As in Hor. Od. 2, 8, 13, and in the Lovers' Paradise, cp. 1, 3,64 n.
so here Amor sits by unmoved (lentus) and eggs on the combatants, knowing
from long observation what the end will be, and mindful of the proverbial
387
1, 10, 57]
TIBVLLVS
'amantium irae amoris redintegratiost'; cp. also Ovid, Amor. 2, 19, which
deals at length with the principle that unless the honey of love is dashed with
the piquancy of an occasional quarrel the emotional digestion cannot absorb
it beyond a certain point.
57. Thomas Watson tells us himself in a note that his verse, 'Love is a
wanton Childe and loves to brawl' (Passionate Centurie of Love, 89, 11) is
an imitation of this line.
58. lentus: Cupid himself is a proverb of heartlessness; cp. 2.g. Anakreont.
31 Crus.; Ovid, Amor, I, 2, 8; 3, 1, 20; Propert. 1, 1, 6; Seneca, Phaedra,
334; etc.
59-60. Cp. Ariosto (who in the midst of treating this favourite theme of
the elegy, says, O. F. 5, 3)—
Parmi non sol gran mal, ma che l'uom faccia
Contra natura, e sia di Dio ribello,
Che s' induce a percotere la faccia
Di bella donna, o romperle un capello.
59. a, lapis, etc. : 1, 1,63–64 n. The interjection a is very emphatic; cp.
1, 9, 3; 2, 1, 79; Lygd. 3, 4, 61; 62; 82; 6, 27; Sulp. 4, 11, 3.
60. That is, he is impious; cp. Ariosto above. An allusion to the Titans, a
proverb of impiety; cp. 1, 6, 30 n.
61-66. The contrast of 53-60 and the comment upon them; cp. 1, 6, 73–
74 and notes. Hence rescindere, 'pull off or open' (without tearing, hence
tenuem still further emphasizes the gentleness of the chastisement recom-
mended) in lieu of the usual destruction of raiment; ornatus dissolvere, mere
disarrangement of coiffures (the plural is generic) in lieu of the lamentable
scissos capillos of 53; lacrimas movere, merely "starting' her to crying, in
lieu of the melancholy spectacle of teneras subtusa genas in 55. Note that
the perfects here, dissoluisse and movisse, despite the fact that the present,
as e.g. in the case of rescindere (cp. I, I, 29-32 n.), might have been used,
nevertheless, have their full force, be it enough when you have,' etc.; i.e.
"let it go no further.'
63-64. Cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 447, 'o quater et quotiens numero compren-
dere non est | felicem de quo laesa puella dolet, quae simul invitas crimen per-
venit ad aures, I excidit, et miserae voxque colorque fugit! | ille ego sim cuius
laniet furiosa capillos; | ille ego sim teneras cui petat ungue genas, ' quem
videat lacrimans, quem torvis spectet ocellis, ' quo sine non possit vivere,
posse velit!'; Catull. 83, 3, .si nostri oblita taceret, | sana esset: nunc quod
gannit et obloquitur, non solum meminit sed, quae multo acrior est res, I
irata est, hoc est, uritur et loquitur'; cp. 92; Propert. 3, 8; etc. All this is
388
NOTES
[1, 10,65
:
old-said sooth. Better tears, or even rage, than indifference. As Charles
Webbe (1678) says —
Give hopes of bliss or dig my grave:
More love or more disdain I crave.
For Bertin's imitation see 1, 2, 79-94 n.
63. quater ille beatus: the traditions and flavour of this phrase suggest
the epic in an exalted mood; cp. Odyss. 5, 306, Tpls páxapes Aavaoi kai tet pákis,
etc.; Verg. A. 1, 94, 'o terque quaterque beati quis ante ora patrum,' etc.;
Propert. 3, 7, 6, obruis insano terque quaterque mari'; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2,
447, quoted above, etc. In the midst of a comparatively trivial subject this
sudden rise to the dignity and solemnity of epic is a sly touch showing that
the poet is not as serious as he would have us believe.
64. quo irato: ablative absolute standing for a clause.
65. scutumque sudemque: this alliterative combination is doubtless pop-
ular. The remaining exx. quoted by Wölfilin are Juv. 6, 248, quem cavat
adsiduis sudibus scutoque lacessit'; Livy, 22, 1, 8 (which is not a parallel).
The phrase is one of the few in Tibuļlus illustrating alliteration in the
sense demanded by Wölmin's investigation (Sitzungsberichte der Bayerische
Akademie zu München, 1881, p. I f.), i.e. as applying to the combination
or parallelism of similar parts of speech, of members syntactically coördi-
nated. We generally have nouns as here, so 'caput collum,' 1, 7, 52 (cp.
Seneca, Dial. 1, 6, 8; Gellius, 10, 12, 3), 'caedes cruor,' 2, 3, 38 (cp. Ovid,
Trist. I, II, 32; Fasti, 6, 599; Seneca, Agam. 47), ' ferro flamma,' 1, 9, 21
(frequent in prose and poetry), 'vincla verbera,' 2, 3, 80 (see n.); cp: 'cho-
rus et cantus,' 1, 7, 44, and cithara carminibusque,' 2, 5, 2; then adjectives,
as, ' ferus ferreus,' 1, 10, 2; occasionally adverbs (as 'satis superque'); rarely
verbs (“ vivo valeo,' sentire sapere,' etc.). Such combinations are usually in
pairs; three of a kind (e.g. 'veni, vidi, vici, quod felix faustum fortunatum
sit') is naturally rare, and four or more, extremely so. The words may be
synonyms; they may be different but belonging together and together extend-
ing and emphasizing a single concept, or lastly, they may form two links in a
chain of ideas or represent the beginning and end of a series and thus include
all between. The Tibullian exx. all appear to belong to the second class.
As in many other languages this type of alliteration is frequent in popular
speech, in proverbs and proverbial phrases, even in proper names (“Titus
Tatius,' 'Iuno Iuga," "John Jordan Jenkins,' etc.), but above all in Latin it
is characteristic of the old formal speech of law and religion and here it is
always asyndetic (i.e. 'fortis fidelis,' etc.). The use of connectives is due to
the influence of later literary art. -que -que as here, and -que et are especially
389
1, 10, 66]
TIBVLLVS
.
characteristic of poetry. The order of the words has a strong tendency to
remain fixed. Changes begin with the classical writers, in whom they are
dictated by a finer feeling for euphony, and in the poets, with whom the in-
fluence of metre is to be considered.
Archaic Latin was the period of its greatest popularity. But even Plautus
uses it far more than Terence, and fondness for it diminished rapidly at the
end of the Republic, although Cicero appears to have invented some new
phrases which he bequeathed to later prose. The avoidance of it as a rule
by Tacitus and even by Quintilian (a great lover of Cicero) shows that many
such expressions had been done to death by over-use. New life was given by
Fronto and the Archaists, and it always clung to the folk speech, cp.
Tertullian, who in the use of such expressions is the most notable of all the
Church Fathers.
Alliteration, however, as a distinctive ornament of poetry covers a much
wider field. Here one of the most interesting phenomena is the use of triple
alliteration in the second half of the hexameter (see Wölfflin, Archiv f. Lat.
Lexicographie, 14, 515-523). The single example in the elegy is Tib. I, 10, 43,
'caput candescere canis.' This device was, characteristic of the Saturnian
(cp.obliti sunt Romae loquier latina lingua,' one of three similar verses in the
four lines of Naevius's epitaph), was taken over from thence by Ennius for the
artistic epic and thus became a tradition of the higher style in later times.
The comparative frequency of it in the Aeneid is merely another indication
of Vergil's well-known Ennian proclivities. Wölfflin cites no less than 14 exx.
from the Aeneid (2, 303; 28; 3, 58; 183; 4, 29; 7, 189; 482; 486; 8, 603;
9, 563; 635; 10, 95; 194; II, 348), and the feeling for it at this time is
shown by the fact that Ovid never uses it except in passages for which a
flavour of the antique and solemn is appropriate (e.g. Met. 2, 77; 6, 667; 10,
492; 723; 3, 481; 5, 473; 13, 84; 93; 15, 24). But it was already fading
out and the occasional reappearance of it in the later epic is more due to
Vergil than'to Ennius (e.g. Lucan, 1, 353; Val. Flacc. 3, 441, of solemn ritual;
3, 33; Sil. Ital. 5, 324; Stat. Theb. 2, 584, cp. 2, 443; 10, 193 and 375;
Avienus, 2, 573). Servius on Verg. A. 3, 183, says, 'haec compositio iam viti-
osa est quae maioribus placuit,' (cp. Mart. Capella, 171, 22 Eyssenh. 'vitanda
sunt ab isdem litteris incipientia '). As Wölfflin suggests, this note of Servius
was occasioned by one of these lines, and he doubtless refers to this type
rather than to alliteration in general. That Tibullus should supply the
single example to be found in the entire elegy is an interesting illustration of
his conservatism and still another proof of his kinship with Vergil. Perhaps
this type is more or less distantly responsible for the tendency of alliteration
(as Keller has observed) to appear in the last two feet of the verse. This
390
NOTES
[2, I
is not especially common in Tibullus, cp., however, the ex. before us ; 'prole
parata,' 1, jo, 39; I, I, 53 ; 1, 2, 55; 57 ; 1, 3, 41 ; 1, 4, 83; 1, 5, 17;
55; 1, 6, 45 ; etc. (not all of which were necessarily deliberate). See also
1, 6, 38; 1, 9, 21; 2, 3, 80; 2, 4, 32, and notes.
For other types see 2, 4, 50 ; 2, 5, 2, 70, and 120; 2, 6, II, and for the
subject in general, consult, in addition to the authorities already cited, Norden,
Die Antike Kunstprosa, p. 59, ff.
66. sit procul : for the adverbial predicate with esse, 2, 5, 64 and 122 ;
2, 6, 20 ; 4, 4, 18.
67-68. The description of Peace follows closely the conventional repre-
sentations of her in art. Cp. also Kallimach. Hymn to Ceres, 44 ; Theokrit.
7, 156 ; Ovid, Fasti, 4, 407, etc..
2, I
The setting of this charming elegy is the celebration by the country folk
of some regular feast day of the Roman year. Which feast day, however, is
not beyond dispute. Preller and most modern commentators of Tibullus
contend for the Ambarvalia (early in May), Marquardt and some more recent
authorities, for the Feriae Sementivae or Paganalia (late in January). . It
seems clear that our choice lies between these two, but every attempt to
reach a more definite conclusion is met by the facts that our knowledge of
both is incomplete, that Tibullus's description cannot be made to agree at
all points with either, and that either is in itself attended by certain difficulties
of interpretation (see the notes on 1-26).
The Ambarvalia as a sacrum privatum (which would be its character here)
occurred early in May when the crops had begun to ripen and bad weather
and blight were most likely to be fatal (18-20 n.). The ceremony is most fully
described by Cato, De Agri Cult. 141, cp. also Verg. G. 1,338, and Servius ad loc.
The most important detail is pictured in the name itself. This was the pro-
cession of victims along the boundaries of the land to be purified followed by
the throng of worshippers crowned with olive (16 n.). The procession went
around the field three times (lustramus, I n.). At the end of the third round
the victims were led to the altar, sacrificed, and a regular prayer offered (15-
24 notes). The full quota of victims consisted of a pig, sheep, and bullock
(bence 'suovetaurilia '), but a single victim could be and apparently often was
substituted for three (agnus, 15 n.). The regular Ambarvalia for the purifi-
cation of the Roman state -- which still survives in Italy as the formal Litania
Maior' of Rogation Week — was performed by the Fratres Arvales, and though
modified in at least one respect by the growth of Rome from a village commu-
nity to an empire, remained to the last a magnified copy of the primitive rite,
391
2, 1]
TIBVLLVS
The Feriae Sementivae or Paganalia occurred not far from Jan. 25 (the date
was not fixed) and marked the pause in farm work before the appearance of
the crops. The best and most complete description of it is given by Ovid,
Fasti, 1, 663-696, which is appended here for purposes of comparison. The
student will observe that the similarity to certain passages in the account of
Tibullus is close enough to suggest imitation. Imitation, however, is no
proof in itself that Tibullus was describing the Paganalia, nor is it at all certain
that the details common to both accounts refer to the ritual of either festival
as opposed to the other.
State coronati plenum ad praesaepe iuvenci:
cum tepido vestrum vere redibit opus.
665 .
rusticus emeritum palo suspendat aratrum:
omne reformidat frigida volnus humus.
vilice, da requiem terrae, semente peracta :
da requiem terram qui coluere viris.
pagus agat festum: pagum lustrate, coloni,
et date paganis annua liba focis.
placentur frugum matres, Tellusque Ceresque,
farre suo gravidae visceribusque suis.
officium commune Ceres et Terra tuentur:
haec praebet causam frugibus, illa locum.
consortes operis, per quas correcta vetustas,
quernaque glans victa est utiliore cibo:
frugibus immensis avidos satiate colonos,
ut capiant cultus praemia digna sui.
vos date perpetuos teneris sementibus auctus,
nec nova per gelidas herba sit usta nives.
cum serimus, caelum ventis aperite serenis:
cum latet, aetheria spargite semen aqua.
neve graves cultis Cerialia dona, cavete,
agmine laesuro depopulentur aves.
vos quoque, formicae, subiectis parcite granis:
post messem praedae copia maior erit.
interea crescat scabrae, robiginis expers,
nec vitio caeli palleat aegra seges.
et neque deficiat macie, neque pinguior aequo
divitiis pereat luxuriosa suis.
et careant loliis oculos vitiantibus, agri,
nec sterilis culto surgat avena solo.
triticeos fetus passuraque farra bis ignem
hordeaque ingenti faenore reddat ager!
haec ego pro vobis, haec vos optate coloni,
efficiatque ratas utraque diva preces.
392
NOTES
[2, 1, I
Let all be silent! We purify our fields and crops after the ancient tradi-
tional rite. Come to us, Bacchos, and thou too, Ceres. On this holy day let
all work cease and let every one don festal garb and do honour to the god.
"See, the sacred lamb is approaching the altar, and behind it walks the
throng clad in white and crowned with olive.
Gods of our fathers, we purify field and ſolk; do ye banish all mischief from
our bounds, and grant that our grain be abundant, that our sheep be safe from
the wolves. Then shall all be hopeful, happy, and prosperous.
"My prayers are answered. See the favouring signs in the victim's liver.
Now bring the old Falernian. 'Tis a holiday, therefore drink deep and
never flinch, drink till all goes round.
D
Aquitaine, the glory of his ancient house. Do thou be with us in spirit and
inspire my song of thanksgiving to the rustic divinities. They lifted us from
savagery and taught us agriculture and the arts, the orchard, the garden, the
vineyard. In the country are the cornfields and the bees; in the country the
Lares received their first offering. Aye, it was none other than the farmer in
his respite from toil that to do honour to his gods upon their holy days in-
vented song and music, also the dance from whence our drama sprang. Here
too grew the fleece, and here was discovered by woman her specific task of
spinning and weaving.
· Even Cupid himself, they say, was a country lad reared in the fields and
amid the flocks. There he made his first attempts at archery. Ah me, his
aim is unerring now, nor does he practise on the flocks alone as of old. He
loves to transfix the girls, he delights in humbling the proud spirit of men.
Happy are those upon whom he looks with favour. Holy one, come now
and partake of our cheer. But, prithee, leave thy arrows and thy torches
behind thee. Invoke him, all of you, - openly for the flocks, secretly for
yourselves. Nay, speak out even for yourselves. In all this noise no one will
hear you.
Let joy abound! Night yokes her steeds anon, and the golden Stars dance
merrily along behind their mother's chariot. And after them comes Sleep
poised amid his tawny pinions and sable Dreams scarce conscious of their
steps.?
1. quisquis adest, faveat: the poet who as head of his house acts as
chief priest begins the ceremonial with the regular favete linguis, favete voci.
even the chance utterance of some word of ill omen upon such an important
occasion, cp. e.g. Servius on Verg. A. 5, 71, 'in sacris taciturnitas necessaria
est, quod etiam praeco magistratu sacrificante dicebat “favete linguis favete
393
2, 1, 2]
TIBVLLVS
vocibus," hoc est bona omina habete aut tacete'; Macrob. I, 16, 3, 'cum
hostia caeditur, fari nefas est, inter caesa et porrecta fari licet, rursus, cum
adoletur, non licet.' The phrase frequently occurs, cp. 2, 2, 1-2; Hor. Od.
3, 1, 2; Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 268; Cicero, Div. 2, 40, 83, and often. The
corresponding phrase used by the Greeks for the same purpose was eủonuEîte,
cp. e.g. Iliad, 9, 171; Eurip. Bacch. 70; Aristoph. Thesm. 39; etc.
2. prisco avo: see I, I, 42 n. and cp. 1, 10, 18. Usually explained as
• ancestor.' So occasionally in the poets (the Thes. cites Vergil, A. 7, 220 ;
12, 164; Val. Flacc. 6, 518, al.; Propert. 2, 34, 56). The plural in this sense
(also poetical) is much more common.
3. cornibus: symbolizing fertility and masculine strength. Hence, the
river gods are frequently represented with the horns of a bullock. The horns
of Bacchos appear to have been given him in the Alexandrian Age and he is
frequently thus represented on the coins of the Diadochi. Plutarch, De Is.
et Osir. 35 (Mor. 364 F) says that in his time this conception of Dionysos
was common in Greek art, cp. also Philost. Imag. I, 15; etc. Among the
occasional references in the Roman poets may be mentioned Hor. Od. 2, 19,
30; Ovid, Met. 4, 19; Propert. 3, 17, 19; Stat. Silv. 3, 3, 62; etc.
4. spicis: Ovid, Amor. 3, 10, 3; Tib. I, 1, 16, and often. Offerings
to the gods (cp. uva) are regularly suggestive of their attributes or of the
worshipper's wants at the time.'
5-12. Imitated by Sannazaro, Arcadia, p..35, ed. Scherillo (Milan, 1888).
5-10. The injunction that all work shall cease upon a holy day was a nota-
ble article, as Plutarch observed (Quaest. Rom. 25), of the old Roman religion.
It was felt that the day belonged to the god and to his service. Another reason
and this is characteristically pagan - was that if the officiating priest hap-
pened to see any one at work upon that day he became ceremonially unclean,
and therefore the sacrifice lost its virtue, cp. Servius on Verg. G. I, 268,
sunt enim aliqua quae si festis diebus fiant ferias polluant : qua propter
et pontifices sacrificaturi praemittere calatores suos solent (see dict. s.v.
' praecia' and 'praeclamitator') ut, sicubi viderint opifices adsidentes opus
suum, prohibeant ne pro negotio suo et ipsorum oculos et caerimonias deum
attaminent: feriae enim operae deorum creditae sunt (cp. Tib. 9). sane feriis
terram ferro tangi nefas est, quia feriae deorum causa instituuntur.' Theo-
logical discussion - of which considerable survives — was mainly concerned,
as in the case of the Jewish sabbath, with just what might or might not
be done, cp. e.g. Cato, 2, 4 and 138; Verg. G. 1, 268; esp. Macrob. I,
16, 10, who among other things quotes the opinion of Scaevola that “si bos
in specum decidisset eumque paterfamilias adhibitis operis liberasset, non est
visus ferias polluisse' - an interesting prototype of Matthew, 12, 11 ; Luke, 14, 5.
.
394
NOTES
[2, 1, 15
5-6. Cp. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 665, quoted above. The antique plough was so
light that it could be and regularly was hung up when not in use. The same
thing may still be seen in the remoter districts of Italy, but it is now rapidly
disappearing.
7-8. The oxen, being sacred to Ceres (Varro, De Re Rust. 2, 5, 4, etc.),
always had these privileges at the Ambarvalia. In the same way the mules
had their day off' at the Consualia (Dionys. Hal. 1, 33, etc.), and on the day
sacred to Vesta the ass that turned the mill rested from his toil (Propert. 4, 1,
21; Ovid, Fasti, 6, 311; Lactant. 1, 21, 26; etc.). Plutarch, Mor. 276, calls
especial attention to this pretty custom.
7. iugis: the simple ablative with solvere is uncommon, cp. Verg. A. 1, 562
(echoed by Sil. Ital. 12, 324); Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 237; Phaed. 3, 7, 20; etc.
Cp. 28 n.
9-86. These lines and 2, 3, 1-10 are imitated by Bertin in his Amours, 3, 5.
9. audeat imposuisse : the perf. infin. with audeo is very rare. The
Thes. quotes only Lucan, 1, 258; 8, 552; Statius, Theb. 12, 101; Ammian.
Marcell. 14, 5, 6; 27, 2, 9; 28, 1, 14; Macrob. 5, 1, 4, and omits this
example. All are perfect forms of audeo as well except Lucan, 8, 552;
Macrob. loc. The derivation of audeo (cp. avidus) suggests that the cons. is
due to the analogy of verbs of wishing, esp. velle and nolle, which often take
perf. infin., cp. I, I, 29–32 n. Note that in all the exx. above cited the perf.
is emphatic. -- non: to be taken with ·ulla (= nulla) rather than audeat
(potential). --- ulla : subst., see 1, 6, 69 n.
10. Auson. 15, 4, 4, 'fama pudicitiae lanificaeque manus'; 15, 18, 4,
'morigerae uxoris lanificaeque manus,' are quoted as echoes of this line.
12. Traces of restrictions like this are to be found all over the world, see
Fehrle, p. 65 (1. C. 2, 5, 64 n.) - cui: for incorporation of the antecedent cp. I,
2, 13; 1, 4, 65; 1, 5, 35; 2, 1, 79 and 80; 2, 3, 31.
13–14. Quoted on the title page of the first edition of England's Helicon
(1600).
13. casta placent superis : sums up the details of 11-14 just as 'omnia
sint operata deo' (9) sums up the details of 5-10. On pura cum veste' and
'manibus puris' see 1, 3, 25 n.; Hesiod, W. and D. 724; Soph. 0. K.
469; etc.
15-16. The procession to the altar. The sacer agnus (ambarvalis,' cp.
Macrob. 3, 5, 7) had previously been thrice led around the poet's estate, cp.
e.g. Verg. G. I, 345, 'terque novas circum felix eat hostia fruges, | omnis quam
chorus et socii comitentur ovantes et Cererem clamore vocent in tecta.'
The poet omits it here because too much detail would have detracted from
the artistic effect. The lamb was led by a loose rope (Juv. 12, 5; Servius
395
2, 1, 16]
TIBVLLVS
on Verg. A. 2, 134, etc.) because there should be no knots in a sacrifice, cp.
1, 1, 67; 1, 3, 31; 1, 5, 15 notes.
16. candida turba : at the Cerealia white was prescribed (Ovid, Fasti, 4,
619, etc.), and of the matter, in general, Cicero says (Leg. 2, 18, 45), color
autem albus praecipue decorus deo est quom in cetero tum maxime in textili:
tincta vero absint nisi a bellicis insignibus. He is translating Plato, Leges, 12,
956 A.
On the importance of colours in religion see 1, 7, 46 n.
17–24. The company is now assembled at the altar, and the poet offers the
prayer by which the sacrifice was regularly preceded. The actual prayer to be
used on this occasion is preserved by Cato, De Agri Cult. 141, 2. It will be
observed that in its general drift, the poet's prayer (esp. of course, 17-20) cor-
responds to the form prescribed by Cato, 'Agrum lustrare sic oportet. impera
suovitaurilia circumagi, “cum divis volentibus quodque bene eveniat, mando
tibi, Mani, uti illace suovitaurilia fundum agrum terramque meam, quota ex
parte sive circumagi sive circumferenda censeas, uti cures lustrare." Ianum
Iovemque vino praefamino, sic dicito, “Mars pater, te precor quaesoque uti
sies volens propitius mihi domo familiaeque nostrae, quoius rei ergo agrum
terram fundumque meum suovitaurilia circumagi iussi, uti tu morbos visos invi-
sosque, viduertatem vastitudinemque, calamitates intemperiasque prohibessis
defendas averruncesque; utique tu fruges frumenta vineta virgultaque grandire
beneque evenire siris, pastores pecuaque salva servassis duisque bonam salutem
valetudinemque mihi domo familiaeque nostrae: harumce rerum ergo, fundi
terrae agrique mei lustrandi iustrique faciendi ergo, sicuti dixi, macte hisce
suovitaurilibus lactentibus inmolandis esto: Mars pater, eiusdem rei ergo macte
hisce suovitaurilibus lactentibus esto,"' etc. Tibullus is imitated by Sannazaro,
Arcadia, p. 44, ed. Scherillo (Milan, 1888).
17. di patrii: a genuine liturgy, as we have just seen, would have been
rigidly specific. Bacchos and Ceres (3 and 4) are necessarily included, also the
Lares (1, 1, 19–24; 1, 10, 15), and doubtless Mars (Cato). — purgamus ...
purgamus: Schulze observes that anaphora at the trithemimeral and hephthe-
mimeral caesuras of the hexameter is not uncommon, and cites Catullus, 67,
I; Verg. E. 10, 54; Hor. A. P. 269; Hom. Il. 24, 516; Odyss. 4, 149.
18. Cp. Cato's'uti tu morbos visos invisosque, viduertatem vastitudinemque,'
etc., quoted above. — pellite for depellite (1, 10, 25) belongs more or less to the
language of poetry and religion, cp. e.g. Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 379; Hor. Epist. 2,
1, 136, etc., and on the use of the simple verb for the compound, 1, 3, 44 n.
19. The metaphor is gladiatorial, cp. also Verg. G. 1, 225, “sed illos ex-
spectata seges vanis elusit avenis’; Propert. 2, 15, 31, “terra prius falso partu
deludet arantis,' etc.
396
NOTES
[2, 1, 24
20. For the prayer against wolves, I, I, 33. — celeres tardior: for the
contrast by juxtaposition, 1, 8, 30 n.
21-24. A general reference to the rustic merry-making by which the Am-
barvalia and other religious festivals of a similar nature were regularly accom-
panied; cp. 1, 10, 51; 2, 5, 95; the charming Pervigilium Veneris; Verg.
G. 2, 527; esp. in this connection, Ovid, Fasti, 3, 523 —
Idibus est Annae festum geniale Perennae.
haud procul a ripis, advena Thybri, tuis
525
plebs venit ac virides passim disiecta per herbas
potat, et accumbit cum pare quisque sua.
sub Iove pars durat, pauci tentoria.ponunt,
sunt quibus e ramis frondea facta casa est;
pars, ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis,
530
desuper extentas imposuere togas.
sole tamen vinoque calent, annosque precantur,
quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt.
invenies illic, qui Nestoris ebibat annos,
quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos.
535
illic et cantant quidquid didicere theatris,
et iactant faciles ad sua verba manus;
et ducunt posito duras cratere choreas,
cultaque diffusis saltat amica comis.
cum redeunt, titubant et sunt spectacula volgi,
540
et fortunatos obvia turba vocat.
occurri nuper : visa est mihi digna relatu
pompa: senem potum pota trahebat anus.
22. Bonfires are meant; cp. eig. Verg. G. 2, 527, 'ipse dies agitat festos
fususque per herbam, | ignis ubi in medio, et socii cratera coronant, etc.
Those who think the Paganalia (i.e. a winter festival) is referred to take
22–24 as an indoor scene in which the vernae are little slave children who
play at 'making houses' (casae, cp. Hor. Sat. 2, 3, 247) in front (ante) of the
fire on the hearth (foco); see e.g. Postgate ad loc.
23. Here for a moment emerges the practical Roman. One is reminded
of the Elder Cato's advice to the prospective purchaser of a place (De Agri
Cult. I, 2), 'vicini quo pacto niteant, id animum advertito; in bona regione
bene nitere oportebit'; cp. Seneca, Epist. 66, 23, alioqui hoc erit ex servo-
rum habitu dominum aestimare'; Hor. Epod. 2, 65, 'positosque vernas,
ditis examen domus, circum renidentis Laris,' etc.
24. ex virgis : the only exception to the rule of e and a before consonants
in Tibullus, see 1, 6, 21 n.- ante: i.e. ante focum. — casas: the temporary
shelters against sun, etc., regularly built for use on such occasions. The
397
2, 1, 25]
TIBVLLVS
casae here, for example, are the umbracula of 2, 5, 97, the casne and tentoria
of Ovid, Fasti, 3, 523 f. quoted above, the casae of the Pervig. V'en. 5, 'cras
amorum copulatrix inter umbras arborum | implicat casas virentis de flagello
myrteo'; cp. 42, "iam tribus choros videres feriantis noctibus , congreges
inter catervas ire per saltus tuos | Aoreas inter coronas, myrteas inter casas.'
25-26. Meanwhile, i.e. between 24 and 25, the lamb (15) is sacrificed, and
with 'eventura precor,' etc., the poet announces that the signs are all favour-
able.
25. viden ut significet: the form viden it does not occur in Propertius
or Ovid (?). For the subjunctive significet, cp. e.g. Sil. Ital. 12, 713. Catul-
lus (61, 77; 62, 8) and Vergil (A. 6, 779) use the indicative, and the indica-
tive after ut in this construction is on the whole more common. Tib. always
uses the subjunctive, as here; cp. 2, 1, 15; 1, 7, 17 and 19; 1, 8, 57; 2, 5, 72.
- felicibus : active; cp. I, I, 8 n. - extis: cp. 1,8, 3-4; 2, 5, 14 and notes.
They were examined by the haruspices, who derived the attitude of the gods
on the given occasion from the shape of these parts, their size, position, etc.
The elaborate complication of the doctrine is in itself an indication of
Etruscan influence. For religious purposes the exta were the liver, gall
sack, lungs, omentum, and after the time of Pyrrhus (Pliny, 11, 186) the
heart. In a sacrifice like this, i.e. a sacrificium consultatorium in quo
voluntas dei per exta disquiritur' (Trebatius ap. Macrob. 3, 5, I) the gods
were asked whether the sacrifice was acceptable. The haruspices examined
the exta, and if they were normal answered in the affirmative. By far the
most important of the exta from this point of view was the liver, i.e. by
eminence the nuntia fibra of 26; cp. 1, 8, 3; Propert. 4, I, 104, 'fibra locuta
deos, etc. It was divided into a pars familiaris and a pars inimica.
Unusual size of the former portended good, of the latter, bad luck (Cicero,
Div. 2, 12, 28, etc.). A fissura or division on either side was of special
importance here (Cicero, Div. 2, 13, 32, etc.), also the caput, or protuberance
on the right lobe. Complete absence of it was a very bad sign, etc.; see
esp. the exx. in Pliny, II, 189 and 28, it. If the examination of the exta
(the technical word is litare) portended a favourable result, they were care-
fully prepared – again by a complicated process — and then sacrificed to the
gods upon the altar. The viscera, i.e. the flesh of the animal, was eaten; cp.
Serv. on Verg. A. 6, 253.
27–34. 21–24 contained a general reference to rustic jollity. It was
artistically interrupted by 25–26, which opens the way for the announcement
(27 f.) of the merry-making on this particular occasion.
27. fumosos: the old Romans, esp. of the Republican era, in order to
secure the even and slightly raised temperature requisite for the proper
°398
NOTES
[2, 1, 31
ripening of their wine, sealed the jars carefully and placed them where the
heat of the hearth fire could reach them. As a matter of course, the smoke
reached them also. fumosos, which is therefore suggestive of age, applies
to the appearance of the jar, and also to the taste of the wine. In the
Augustan Age this smoky flavour, as in our own time the “reek' of Scotch
whisky (originally due to the same cause), was much admired; cp. Columella,
1, 6, 20, 'apothecae recte superponuntur his locis unde plerumque fumus
exoritur: quoniam vina celerius vetustescunt quae fumi quodam tenore
praecocem maturitatem trahunt.' In Martial's time (10, 36) the reek was
less admired, owing to the fact that the vintners of Gaul, and esp. of Marseilles,
had long been flooding the market with inferior wines to which this method
of development had been applied with too great rapidity.-veteris consulis :
wine was dated by the name of the consul for the year in which it was made,
cp. Hor. Od. 3, 21, 1; 3, 8, 9; etc. Hence vinum consulare in Martial's time
corresponded in value and rarity to old Madeira of the twenties and thirties
in our day.
Varro, De Re Rust. 1, 65, writing in Cicero's time, classes Falernïan among
those wines . quae quanto pluris annos condita habuerunt tanto cum prompta
sunt fructuosiora.' Pliny, however, was a far better judge, for writing a full
century later he says (23, 34) of Falernian that 'media eius aetas a XV annis
incipit”; cp. also, Athen. 26 C. In that case Tibullus's fine old Falernian
would hardly be old enough to remember Caesar's campaigns in Gaul.
Chian was a mild vintage often mixed at table with the somewhat strong
and heady Falernian, cp. Hor. Sat. 1, 10, 24, ‘suavior ut Chio nota si com-
mixta Falerni est’; Pliny, 14, 97; etc. — Falernos : supply cados from cado
below.
28. solvite vincla: Schulze compares Archil. 4, 2 Crus. Kollw at Guard
& pelke kádwv, and Theokrit. 7, 147, lowv årelúeto kpards & legap. For the
simple ablative, cado, cp. 2, 1, 7 and note.
29–30. For the sentiment and point of view see 1, 10, 51-52; 2, 5, 87;
Ovid, Fasti, 3, 539, above; Livy, 40, 14, I, 'non est res qua erubescam,
pater, si die ſesto inter aequales largiore vino sum usus'; Macrob. I, II, 39,
viros plurimo vino provocaverunt diem festum apud se esse simulantes.'
30. errantes et male ferre pedes: Volpi (1749) translates by the expressive
Italian phrase andare a spinapesche, 'walking à la herring-bone (stitch).'
31. bene Messallam : sc. valere iubeo, so Plaut. Stich. 709; Ovid, Fasti,
2, 637, etc. With the dative, as e.g. Ovid, Ars Amat. I, 601, et “bene" dic
“ dominae," sit is to be supplied (if anything). — sua ad pocula: a good
English parallel for ad here is the use of at' in expressions of time, e.g. 'at
ten o'clock,' i.e. when it is or was ten o'clock. Hence ad sua pocula dicat is
399
2, 1, 32]
TIBVLLVS
equivalent to quotiens biberit totiens dicat,' the idea of repetition being
furnished by pocula, a distributive plural like soninos, cp. 1, 1, 4 n.
32. Except for absentis, which adds the information that Messalla is not
present, the pentameter amplifies the hexameter simply by repeating the con-
tent of it in another form. nomen absentis' = 'bene Messallam,' singula
verba sonent' =! quisque dicat. singula therefore really = cuiusque. This
use of an adjective instead of a genitive is common in the poets. The familiar
ex. in ordinary prose is aes alienuin, 'other people's money,' i.e. debt. For
this type of amplification in the pentameter, see 1, 1, 44 n.
On the custom of drinking to the absent, see esp. Theokrit. 14, 18 f. Accord-
ing to the old Scholiast ad loc. unmixed wine was taken, and as it was poured
on the ground the name of the absent friend or sweetheart was uttered aloud,
cp. Hor. Od. 3, 19, 9; Alexis, 2, 336 K.; Argentar. Anth. Pal. 5, 110;
Meleager, Anth. Pal. 5, 136 and 137; etc. The famous words of Theramenes,
Kpitla Toût' čoTW TQ kalộ (Xen. Hell. 2, 3, 56; cp. Cicero, Tusc. Disput.
1, 96), refer rather to the game of kottabos and are not a parallel here.
33. celeber: here = clarus. Perhaps the earliest example of the word in
this sense so familiar to us. In classical prose it is very rarely used of persons
as here, cp. also 1, 3, 33; 1, 6, 17 and notes. — triumphis: see for the plural
1, 7, 5 n. The use of the genitive with triumphus is not uncommon in prose,
cp. Livy, 6, 7, 4; 33, 37, 10; etc.
For the event referred to see Introd. p. 35, and 1, 7.
34. intonsis avis : often applied to the old Romans, esp. by the poets, cp.
Ovid, Fasti, 2, 30; 6, 264; Hor. Od. 1, 12,41; 2, 15, 11; Plutarch, Romul. 16;
etc. Varro, De Re Rust. 2, II, 10, and Pliny, 7, 211, tell us that the first
barbers came to Rome in 300 B.C.
The dative with a substantive (gloria avis) is used by Tib. only here.
More common in Vergil and Propertius.
35–86. Now that the festivities announced in 27 f. are on the way and
that a neat compliment to Messalla has been turned, the poet proceeds with
his next topic, the formal announcement of which is rura cano rurisque deos.'
In the lines which follow he again displays his surpassing gift of concealing
the utmost care and skill of development under the garb of unstudied sim-
plicity. As usual, too, the theme was already well worn. Lines 35-36 serve,
while paying another compliment to Messalla, as the transition. .
36. agricolis: the reference is purposely indefinite and the word returns
to its rare adjectival use, see 1, 1, 14; 1, 5, 27 and notes.
37. Here the poet again takes up a favourite theme with the antique
poets and thinkers, the growth of civilization, cp. I, 7, 29-48; 1, 3, 35 ff. and
notes; Ovid, Amor. 3, 10, 9; etc.
400
NOTES
[2, 1, 47
38. querna glande: refers to the widespread tradition in antiquity that
acorns formed the staple food of primaeval man, cp. 2, 3, 69 and e.g. Ovid,
Amor. 3, 10, 9; Fasti, 1, 676; 4, 399 ; Verg. G. 1, 8 and 159; Pliny, 16, 1; etc.,
etc. desuevit, etc., is therefore tantamount to stating that the invention of
agriculture was due to the rural gods, cp. Juvenal's method of stating the
same thought (14, 181), 'panem quaeramus aratro, | qui satis est mensis :
laudant hoc numina ruris, l quorum ope et auxilio gratae post munus aristae
contingunt homini veteris fastidia quercus.
39-40. The negative desuevit, etc., in lieu of the positive, 'agriculture was
discovered' (37–38), is followed (39–40) by the reverse arrangement, i.e. the
positive, ‘men lived in houses' in lieu of the negative, ‘men ceased to live in
caves, etc. On the theory of primaeval men as cave dwellers, cp. e.g. Lu-
cret. 5, 956 and 1012; Ovid, Met. I, 121; Juv. 6, 1, f.; etc. On the develop-
ment of domestic architecture see e.g. Vitruv. 2, 1. The ancient thinkers had
a strong tendency to attach all inventions to some definite name. Here e.ge
Pliny reports, 7, 194, that 'laterarias ac domos constituerunt primi Euryalus
et Hyperbius fratres Athenis. . . . tegulas invenit Cinyra Agriopae filius. For
altia as a theme of elegy see Introd. p. 19
41. 1, 3, 41 n.; Pan. Messal. 4, 1, 171; Aisch. Prom. 462.
42. A homely detail, but marking one of the most important epochs in the
history of civilization. I find no mention of it elsewhere. For the phrasing
cp. Vergil, A. 2, 235, 'accingunt omnes operi pedibusque rotarum subiciunt
lapsus,' etc. The invention of four-wheeled vehicles was ascribed to the
Phrygians, Pliny, 7, 199, etc.
43. 1, 3, 43 n.
44. Antique methods of irrigation are described by Vergil, G. 1, 106 f.
It was common in Homer's time, cp. Iliad, 21, 257 f.— irriguas : active." So
e.g. Verg. G. 4, 32, cp. 25 n. above.
45-46. 1, 5, 23–24 n.
45. aurea uva: the epithet suggests that the poet's vineyards yielded a
variety of white wine like those which are still to be had in the immediate
neighbourhood, otherwise aurea must be taken as in 1, 6, 58, where see n.
46. securo : active (cp. irriguas, 44 above), as in Verg. A. 6, 715, which
refers to the river of Lethe, cp. Plato's name for Lethe (Rep. 10, 621 A)
Tov 'Auéanta TotaMóv, where the adjective is used in the same way. See
also Ovid, Pont. 2, 4, 23, 'securae pocula Lethes.' -sobria: 1,6, 28 n. Vergil,
G. I, 9, also refers to this discovery as a stage in the evolution of civilization.
Pliny, 7, 199, says that this invention is attributed to Staphylus, the son of
Silenus.
47–48. 1, 5, 21.
401
2, 1, 48]
TIBVLLVS
48. Mother Earth has her hair .cut, i.e. of course, the grain is reaped. A
variation of the more common coma = the foliage of the trees, cp. 1, 7, 34 n.
Tibullus is followed e.g. by Ovid, Amor. 3, 10, 11, 'prima Ceres docuit tur-
gescere semen in agris | falce coloratos subsecuitque comas. In the Pervig.
Ven. 4, we have another version of it,' vere concordant amores, vere nubunt
alites, et nemus comam resolvit de maritis imbribus.? "The beautiful uncut
hair of graves' (perpetrated by Walt Whitman, Song of Myself') illustrates
the effect of the figure used by Tibullus when appearing in English. — annua:
i.e.quotannis, adjective for adverb. This use of the adjective (poetical) is simi-
lar to that of verno in the next line.
49-50. Regarding honey and the nature and habits of bees see 1, 3, 45 n.
In tbis passage flores stands of course for sucus florum. The bees do not carry
off the flowers, they extract something from the flower. We should say of
course that that something was the honey, and the following lines would
appear to indicate that Tibullus agrees with the modern view, which indeed
had already been promulgated before his time. Another view, however, was
widely disseminated. It is clearly set forth e.g. by Aristotle, De Animal Hist.
5, 22, 4 (passage quoted in 1, 3, 45 n.). According to this view the combs
were made from the flowers, the honey fell from the skies, cp. also Verg. G. 4,
39; Pliny, 11, 11 ff.
49. verno: the work of the bees at this period and in the fall is discussed
at length by Columella, 9, 14 and Palladius, 7, 7.- alveo: pronounced here as
a dissyllable. The only case of synaeresis in Tibullus, cp. Introd. p. 100.
51-58. Here, too, among rustics inspired by their desire to do honour to
their gods on holy days are to be found the beginnings of music, song, and
the dance, from which the tragedy was afterward developed, cp. 1, 7, 37-42 n.
The subject was much discussed at this time, and the statements and con-
clusions of the Roman scholars, especially as regards the origin and develop-
ment of their own drama, have given rise to much discussion in the last few
years. For a thoroughgoing examination and criticism of the destructive
theories of Leo and Hendrickson, see Charles Knapp, A.J.P.33 (1912), 125 ff.
The substance of Varro's account probably survives in Diomedes (Com. Dor.
p. 57, Kaibel), 'Tragoedia, ut quidam, a Tpáyw et von dicta est, quoniam olim
auctoribus tragicis Tpáyos, id est, hircus, praemium cantus proponebatur qui
Liberalibus die festo Libero patri ob hoc ipsum immolabatur quia, ut Varro
ait, depascunt vitem; et Horatius in Arte Poetica (220) et Vergilius in
Georgicon 2 (380). . . alii autem putant a faece, quam Graecorum quidam
Tpúya appellant, tragoediam nominatam, per mutationem litterarum v in a
versa, quoniam olim, nondum personis a Thespide repertis, tales fabulas per-
uncti ora faecibus agitabant, ut rursum est Horatius testis (A. P. 275-277).
402
NOTES
[2, 1, 57
alii a vino arbitrantur, propterea quod olim Tpúš dictitabatur, a quo tpúyntos
hodieque vindemia est, quia Liberalibus apud Atticos, die festo Liberi patris,
vinum cantoribus pro corollario dabatur, cuius rei testis est Lucilius in 12
(437 Marx).'
51. That is, on feast days in the spring and fall, the only times when he had
leisure and also occasion to develop in the direction indicated. Aristotle says
(Eth. Nik. 8, 9, 6), ai ydp ápxała. Ovo lai kai oúvodol palvovrat ylveo dal met à tás
των καρπών συγκομιδάς, οίον απαρχαι· μάλιστα γάρ εν τούτοις έσχόλαζον τοις
kalpois, see also Hor. Epist. 2, 1, 139, etc.
52. certo pede: the development of regular rhythm in song which was
followed by the invention of an instrument by which it might be accompanied
when sung to the gods in their holiday attire (ornatos), i.e. on feast days,
cp. I, 7, 49-54 n.; 2, 1, 3; etc.
53. That is, the fistula or syrinx, described more particularly in 2, 5, 31. In
Greek mythology its invention was ascribed to Pan (story in Ovid, Met. 1,
690). Hence its modern name of 'Pan's pipe. The line itself is suggestive
of Vergil, E. 1, 2, "silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena,' which is variously
imitated by the later poets.
55. Here as in 1, 1, 17 and 1, 7, 5-8 (see notes) the use of red paint was
ceremonial. On this primitive ancestor of the mask, which was afterwards
used in the old satyr drama (from which the tragėdy in its artistic form was
finally developed) see Diomedes above. If Tibullus was thinking of a similar
use of wine lees in this connection he followed Horace, A. P. 275, in confusing
the origins of comedy with those of tragedy.
56. ab arte: 1, 5, 4 n. — choros: ie. the combination of dancing with
the music and poetry which had previously been developed. The poet is
probably thinking of the dithyramb, to which Aristotle rightly traced the
origin of tragedy (Poet. 4).
57–58. Tibullus evidently has in mind the conventional explanation of
Tpáyös in tragoedia as the goat given as a prize to the victorious poet. It
was also accepted by Horace, A. P. 220, cp., too, Dioskorides, Anth. Pal. 7,
410, and the first sentence of Diomedes quoted above. The explanation
now generally accepted is that tpáros refers rather to the costume of the
actors in the primitive satyr drama, cp. Aisch. frag. 207 N.; Etymol. Mag.
764, 6, τραγωδία ότι τα πολλά οι χοροί εκ Σατύρων συνίσταντο, ούς εκάλουν
Tpáyous. I find no tradition of this explanation in the Roman writers.
Among recent discussions of this subject see esp. A. Dieterich, ' Entstehung
der Tragödie,' Archiv f. Religionswissenschaft, 1908, p. 163, ff.
Here, of course, dur pecoris = hircus. For this generic use of ovile
(goat-house' as well as "sheep-fold ) cp. e.g. Ovid, Met. 13, 828, sunt,
403
2, 1, 58]
11
TIBVLLVS
TV
fetura minor, tepidis in ovilibus agni, | sunt quoque, par aetas, aliis in ovilibus
haedi.'
58. auxerat, A (hauxerat); hauserat, V. curtas . . . opes, Waardenburg,
Opusc. 180; hyrcus . . . oves, A; dux hircus pecori : duxerat hircus oves, y.
Robert and Knaack, Hermes, 19, 480 and 341, suggest, the former, ' dux peco-
ris: vites roserat ille novas,' the latter, 'dux pecoris vites hauserat hircus
olens. Both these emendations are suggested by the hauserat of V, and are
due to the theory that Tibullus was thinking here of the reason why goats were
sacrificed to Bacchus,quia, ut ait Varro, vitem depascunt' (see Diomedes,
quoted in 51-58 n.). This reason, which seems to have often been men-
tioned in Tibullus's time, is traced by Maass to the Erigone of Eratosthenes (see
Hygin. Astronom. 2, 4; Verg, G. 2, 376; Anth. Pal. 9, 99). The emendation
would be more satisfactory if we knew whether the hauserat of V really goes
back to Tibullus or is merely a guess suggested by the hauxerat of A, or,
finally, was itself due to some unknown predecessor of Robert, Knaack and
Maass in the interpretation of this line. See Schulze, Beiträge, II, p. 20 f.
59-60. The mention of puer here is probably meant to suggest the well-
known significance of the Lares for the entire slave population. The Lares,
in distinction from Vesta and the Penates, extended their protection to the
entire household, i.e, to the familia in its widest sense — which included the
slaves. The Lares were the most important figures in the old Roman religion.
Their worship embodied and supported the unity and integrity of home life
and the household.
On flowers as an offering to the Lares see e.g. Juv. 9, 138; 12, 87; Pliny,
21, II; Plaut. Trin. 39; esp. Cato, De Agri Cult. 143, who tells us that
upon the day set apart for that purpose (cp. 1, 3, 34 n.) it was the duty
of the vilica (a slave) to crown the Lar Familiaris and pray to him for the
prosperity of the family.
61-66. It was to country folk that Minerva first taught her arts. Here
woman first undertook her own peculiar tasks of spinning (63–64) and weav.
ing (65-66).
63–64. This method of spinning with the distaff (colus) and spindle (fusies)
was universal in antiquity. It is still common in Greece and Southern Italy
and lasted even in Great Britain until the present generation. The locus
classicus is Catullus, 64, 312, cp. also 1, 6, 78 above, and Claudian, In Eutrop.
2, 381. The distaff with the mass of wool at the top was held in the left
hand. The right hand was held palm uppermost and the fingers gradually
shaped the fibres which the twirling of the spindle formed into thread. The
spindle was set in motion by the thumb of the right hand turned downwards,
This is Tibullus's' fusus et apposito pollice versat opus,' cp. also Ovid, Her, 19,
404
NOTES
[2, 1, 67
37, 'tortaque versato ducentes stamina fuso'; Met. 4, 34, 'aut ducunt lanas
aut stamina pollice versant', etc. The impetus given to the spindle
was prolonged by a weight at the bottom. As the new thread lengthened,
the spindle of course approached the ground. At convenient intervals
therefore the new thread was wound up on the spindle and the process re-
peated as before. The spinning wheel of our grandmothers was more rapid
and convenient, but the process was very much the same.
For pensa see 1, 3, 87 n.
65-66. The ancient loom was vertical and the tela or warp hung down
from the upper cross beam. Sinkers (pondera, Sen. Epist. 90, 20, here lateres
because made of baked clay) were attached to the several threads to keep
them taut and equidistant. Every time a thread of the woof was driven
home by the comb or 'lay' (pecten, 'woof' is subtemen) the lateres of course
rattled against each other, hence .applauso tela sonat latere.' For a com-
plete description of the process see Ovid, Met. 6, 54.
65. For Minerva as the patroness of spinning cp. Propert. 2, 9, 5; Ovid,
Met. 4, 32; Hor. Od. 3, 12, 5; Verg. A. 5, 284; 8, 409; etc.
66. cantat: 2, 6, 26 n. The classic writers contain many references to
women singing at their work. The prototype is Homer, Odyss. 5, 61 (Ka-
lypso); 10, 221 (Kirke). See also, among other references, Eurip. Iphig.
Taur, 221; Theokrit, 24, 74; Leonid. Tarent, Anth. Pal. 7, 726; Verg. G.
1, 293; Ovid, Trist. 4, 1, 5; etc. Cp. Twelfth Night, 2, 4 -
"O, fellow, come, the song we had last night.
Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain ;
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love,
Like the old age.'
67–82. Ceres, Bacchos, the Lares, Minerva, have all received their due
mention. The poet reserves his surprise for the end, although the reference
to woman's work in the preceding lines effects an easy transition to it
Cupid, too, was born in the country and served his apprenticeship there.'
In this way Tibullus returns to the conventional atmosphere of the erotic
elegy and then (81 f.) to the festivities of the day and his conclusion. In
tone, as well as in thought, the passage has touches which remind one by
turns of the epigram, the comedy, and the pastoral, as well as of the elegy itself
as a department. Here, too, should be reckoned the Pervigilium Veneris.
67-69. Cp. William Cartwright, Love's Convert, 3, 7, “Thus then Love
405
2, 1, 67]
TIBVLLVS
whether he be found i' the fields l 'Mong beasts (where some think he was
born, and as | He grew up practised shooting upon them) | Or else,' etc.
67–68. Pervig. Ven. 76, 'rura fecundat voluptas, rura Venerem sentiunt: 1
ipse Amor puer Dionae rure natus dicitur, | hunc ager cum parturiret, ipsa
suscepit sinu, | ipsa florum delicatis educavit osculis' (cp. Plato, Symp. 196 A).
67. agros armenta : " flocks and fields,' cp. I, 10, 65 n.; Stat. Theb. 5, 334.
68. indomitas equas: 2, 4, 57; Verg. G. 3, 266.
69–72. The power of love over the animal creation was a favourite theme
with the poets and the philosophers, cp. e.g. Soph. 855, 9 N.-
εισέρχεται μεν ιχθύων πλωτή γένει,
χέρσου δ' ένεστιν εν τετρασκελεί γονή:
νωμα δ' εν οιωνοίσι τούκείνης πτερόν,
έν θηρσίν, έν βροτοίσιν, εν θεοίς άνω.
So also Antig. 785; Eurip. Hippol. 1272; Lucret. I, 19; Verg. G. 3, 242 ;
Anth, Pal. 5, 10.
The graceful, half-humorous, half-sentimental turn which Tibullus gives to
this old theme strongly suggests the atmosphere of the Alexandrian idyll or
epigram at their best. Cupid first practised on the small game about him.
But, like every other born hunter, the ambition for larger game kept pace
with his increasing skill. It is thus that the once unsophisticated country boy
has become the redoubtable archer who spares no living thing, and never
misses his aim; cp. esp. Seneca, Phaedra, 277–357.
70. “Great Cupid, | Archer of archers both in men and women'(Chap-
man); “Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim' (Shak.) ; Seneca, Phaedra,
277, 'iste lascivus puer et renidens tela quam certo moderatur arcu'; Mele-
ager, Anth. Pal. 16, 213, etc. -- ille: the frequency of pronouns, esp. of
personal and demonstrative pronouns, is characteristic of the elegy in general
and of Tibullus in particular. ego occurs 43 times; tu, 39; vos, 8; nos, 3.,
The demonstrative pronouns are also lively and dramatic, and are especially
needed in the type of sentence development commended by the emotional
attitude of the poet and the construction of the distich. ille occurs not less
than 100 times; hic, 87; iste, 5; is, but 4; ipse, 35. The derived adverbs
are also common.
71-72. Alkaios, Anth. Pal. 5, 10—
'Εχθαίρω τον "Έρωτα· τί γάρ βαρύς ουκ επί θήρας
όρνυται, αλλ' επ' εμήν ιοβολεϊν κραδίην;
τί πλέον, ει θεός άνδρα καταφλέγει ; ή τι το σεμνόν
: oncoas åt' éunis å Olov é xel kepalns;
Oppian, Halieut. 4, 11 ff., etc.
406
NOTES
[2, 1, 73
72. gestit perdomuisse : for the tense, see 2, 1, 9; I, I, 29-32 and notes.
I have found no other case with gestio. The analogy is volo, etc. The tense
here appears to emphasize the process; "he delights in taming,' as well as the
completion of it, he is delighted whenever he has,' etc.
73–74. The prodigal lover is a stock character of the comedy. Occasion-
ally, like Philolaches in the Mostellaria, he has only his own fully and
thoughtlessness to blame. For the most part, however, his substance is
gradually appropriated by the girl and her household, notably the lena, in
the form of gifts. All this is stock material for the elegy and epigram.
2, 3, 47 f. is an excellent commentary on the line; cp. also 1, 5, 61-68 with
notes; Hor. Od. 2, 8; esp. the fine passage of Lucret. 4, 1121 —
adde quod absumunt viris pereuntque labore,
adde quod alterius sub nutu degitur aetas.
labitur interea res et Babylonica fiunt,
languent officia atque aegrotat fama vacillans.
unguenta et pulchra in pedibus Sicyonia rident
scilicet et grandes viridi cum luce zinaragdi
auro includuntur teriturque thalassina vestis
assidue et Veneris sudorem exercita potat.
et bene parta patrum fiunt anademata, mitrae,
interdum in pallam atque Alidensia Ciaque vertunt.
eximia veste et victu convivia, ludi,
pocula crebra, unguenta coronae serta parantur,
nequiquam, quoniam medio de fonte leporum
surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat,
aut cum conscius ipse animus se forte remordet
desidiose agere aetatem lustrisque perire,
aut quod in ambiguo verbum iaculata reliquit
quod cupido adfixum cordi vivescit ut ignis,
aut nimium iactare oculos aliumve tueri
quod putat in vultuque videt vestigia risus, etc.
The old man of 74 has already been illustrated, cp. the dramatic scene of
1, 2, 89 f., where see the notes.
73. detraxit . . . iussit: gnomic perfects (denoting that which has been
and shall be). The usage begins with Catullus, under the influence of the
Greek gnomic aorist ; cp. 62, 42, ‘multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae,
| idem cum tenui carptus defloruit ungui, , nulli illum pueri nullae optavere
puellae.' Cp. also Verg. A. II, 582; Ovid, Met. 3, 353; Cicero, Div. I, 14
(trans. from Greek).
The Roman gnomic perfect, however, is not a mere Grecism. The major-
ity of the examples, which, as Blase (p. 165, cp. Brugmann, Indogerm. Forsch.
11
407
2, 1, 75]
TIBVLLVS
1885, p. 200) points out, occur in descriptive passages, are due to the rapidly
shifting point of view of the narrator (enallage temporum) and fall under
categories idiomatic to Latin. Here for example we have petit and gestit,
picturesque presents (habitual), then detraxit and iussit, a question of experi-
ence (he has always done it), finally venit and praetemptat, again presents as
before; cp. e.g. Propert. 3, II, 5, 'melius praesagit navita mortem, | volneri-
bus didicit miles habere metum'; Ovid, Her. 19, 109, quis enim securus
amavit?' (i.e. 'who has ever '); Ars Amat. 1, 412; Hor. Od. 1, 34, 16; 3, 29,
16; Epist. 1, 2, 48; 2, 1, 102; Juv. 10,7; etc. This the only case in Tibullus.
The construction belongs to poetry and rhetorical prose. In prose it begins
with Sallust and is especially common in Seneca. For enallage temporum in
Tibullus see 1, 1, 24 n.).
75-78. 1, 2, 19–20 n.; 1, 6, 59-62 n. Imitated by Bertin, Amours, 3, 3
and 3, 7 (cp. I, 8, 41-42 n.).
75. iacentes : i.e. buried in slumber.' The girl has to step over the
guards and feel her way on tiptoe through the dark to her lover.
76. Goldbéry cites here as an imitation Voltairę, Isabelle et Gertrude -
Cependant elle hésite, eļle approche en tremblant,
Posant sur l'escalier une jambe en avant,
Étendant une main, portant l'autre en arrière,
Le cou tendu, l'oeil fixe, et le cour palpitant,
D'une oreille attentive avec peine écoutant,
77–78. “These two lines,' says Ramsay, "give not a narrative but an
attitude. It may be added that this influence of art is characteristic of
antique poetry – especially after the Alexandrian Age. We are continually
finding passages which suggest the statuesque and descriptions which remind
us of e.g. the Hellenistic frescoes, cp. 1, 5, 45 f. and notes. For this motive
see e.g. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 425, 'surgit amans, animamque tenens vestigia furtim
suspenso digitis fert taciturna gradu’; 2, 336; Met. 10, 455; Ciris, 208;
79. Eurip. Hippol. 443, Kúpis yàp où popntós, Mv olin øvn, and often.
80. For the figure in this connection cp. Theokrit. 12, 10, cio' oualoi
TT VEÚg elav &q? åupor épolo iv "EpwTES , vwly · Ovid, Rem. Amor. 13, si quis
amat quod amare iuvat, feliciter ardet, / gaudeat et vento naviget ille suo';
Propert. 2, 25, 27; so also the proverb in 1, 5, 76 and note.
81-82. Pervig. Ven. 28, 'it puer comes puellis, nec tamen credi potest |
esse Amorem feriatum, si sagittas vexerit. | ite, Nymphae, posuit arma,
feriatus est Amor, | iussus est inermis ire, nudus ire iussus est, | neu quid arcu,
· neu sagitta, neu quid igne laederet. / sed tamen, Nymphae, cavete, quod
408
NOTES
[2, 1, 87
Cupido pulcher est : | totus est in armis idem, quando nudus est Amor'; cp.
2, 5, 105-6; Spenser, The Faerie Queene, l, Prol. 3–
And thou, most dreaded impe of highest Jove,
Faire Venus sonne, that with thy cruell dart
At that good Knight so cunningly didst rove,
That glorious fire it kindled in his hart;
Lay now thy deadly heben bowe apart,
And, with thy mother mylde, come to mine ayde, etc.
The torch, bow, and quiver are standing attributes of Cupid throughout
Hellenistic and Roman poetry. They appeared in art somewhat earlier than
the fourth century B. C.
81. dapibus : not a mere substitute for ad with the accus. The force of the
dative here as often is better rendered by “for' than 'to,' cp. pecori below.
In other words, 'veni dapibus festis' is not only an invitation to come but
also to take part. Or again, as e.g. in Propert. I, 15, 8,'ut formosa novo quae
parat ire viro,' i.e. go to, and become his, cp. 2, 5, 44 n.; 1, 5, 27 n. dapibus
here is probably a dativus commodi rather than a dative of the object for
which.- pone: for depone, cp. I, 3, 44 n.
83–84. The invitation to Cupid (81-82) naturally brings the poet back
from his long digression to the festal scene before him.
83. Vos: 1, 1, 33 n. — celebrem : i.e. 'to whom many resort,' cp. 1, 3, 33;
1, 6, 17; 2, 1, 33 and notes. — vocate voce, i.e. call aloud upon, old-fash-
ioned and formal, cp. n. on edidit ore, I, 4, 73.
84. clam, etc.: according to antique belief a prayer (like a charm, which
is really the same thing) must actually be uttered (or written) in order to
reach the ears of the gods. Hence, 1, 2, 45, where see n., and the naïve
practice to which the poet here alludes of making one's 'vota parum honesta'
in a whisper, so that one's fellow worshippers may be none the wiser, cp. Hor.
Epist. I, 16, 60, 'labra movet metuens audiri: “pulchra Laverna, i da mihi
fallere, da iusto sanctoque videri, , noctem peccatis et fraudibus obice nu-
bem!” Persius, 2, 6; Seneca, Epist. 10, 5, quanta dementia est hominum!
turpissima vota dis insusurrant: si quis admoverit aurem, conticescent et, quod
scire hominem nolunt, deo narrant,' etc.
86. tibia: the Phrygian tibia was a straight tube of wood with a curved piece
of horn or metal (Kodwr) at the end. Hence, the epithet curva here. It was
much used in the orgiastic worship of Kybele (1, 4, 68 n.) and hence would
be an able second to the noisy merriment of the crowd in drowning the sound
(obstrepit) of prayers to the gods.
87-90. Tibullus shows at his best in these exquisite lines which remind one
409.
2, 1, 87]
TIBVLLVS
so strongly of some dainty Hellenistic fresco of the best period. They are,
moreover, eminently fitting here since they suggest the stillness and peace of
night as the fitting close of a long day of innocent enjoyment.
87-88. The chariot and horses of Night are common enough both in
art and literature, cp. Aisch. Choeph. 660; Verg. A. 5, 721; and often. The
stars are the children of Night in Eurip. Elekt. 54, û vùš mélaiva, xpuoéwv
&GT pov Tpopể• Orphic Hyuzzs, 7, 3, ảo Tepes oỦpavlot, NUKTÒs Aa T6Kva.
chariot of Night (cp. Ion, 1150, Meldur en los dè Nog ågelputov guyoîs öxnue?
štallev, dot pa d'úuáptel dea), and the idea reappears in Theokrit. 2, 165,
xa.peTe 8 &AAot | dơ Tepes, eỦch oto KaT &UTUỴa PUKros ở đồok. But, so far as
I can discover, the combination of both ideas, as in this passage, is unique.
The touch of quaint tenderness thus gained is very characteristic of our poet.
Interesting by way of comparison is the conceit of Ariosto, O. F. 12, 68,
describing the dawn as the time when, 'The Stars had cast their veils about
their head, | Departing from their revels in the sky.'
89-90. Sleep too is usually esteemed the son of Night (Hesiod, Theog.
The Gardener's Daughter —
Night slid down one long stream of sighing wind,
And in her bosom bore the baby, Sleep.
Wings are not mentioned in connection with Sleep until the Alexandrian Age
(Kallimach. Hymn to Apollo, 234), but after that time they occur regularly
in art and literature. Tibullus's description suggests a majestic figure more
or less enveloped (circumdatus) in his own great pinions. The picture is
striking and very unusual, since the wings conventionally ascribed to Sleep are
small and more or less suggestive of the talaria of Hermes, cp., too, Fronto
in his charming allegory of the creation of Sleep (trans. by Pater in his
Marius the Epicurean), 229 N., 'post id Iuppiter alas 'non ut Mercurius
talares sed ut Amori humeros exaptos Somno adnexuit. non enim te solis
aut talari ornatu ad pupulas hominum et palpebras incurrere oportet curruli
strepitu et cum fremitu equestri, sed placide et clementer pinnis teneris in
modum hirundinum advolare, non ut columbae alis plaudere' (which suggests
the åndovlov attepòv "Tu vou of Nonnos, 5, 411; etc.).
Tibullus, however, or some predecessor, leaves one with the impression
that he has added appropriate wings to the Hypnos of Hesiod, Theog: 762, that
majestic but gentler brother of Death, who yaiav te kai eủpéa vậta Baldoons /
nouxos åvo Tpépetal kai veldixos åv pútTOLOL cp. also the Orphic Argonautica,
1007 -
410
NOTES
. [2, 2, 1
κοιμήσας δ' όγε φύλα πανημερίων ανθρώπων
και ζαμενεις ανέμων πνοιας και κύματα πόντου
πηγάς τ' αενάων υδάτων ποταμών τε ρέεθρα
θηράς τ’ οιωνούς τε τά τε ζώει τε και έρπει
ευνάζων, ήμειψεν υπό χρυσέαις πτερύγεσσιν.
89. furvis alis: cp. e.g. the nigras alas of Sleep in Claudian, In Ruf. 2,
325, and the epithet Kvavón tepos in Nonnos, 31, 175.
go. Dreams, too, are the children of Night (Hes. Theog. 212; Eurip. Hek.
70; Ovid, Fasti, 4, 662; etc.). They also accompany Sleep as here in e.g.
Ovid, Met. 11, 613, and Stat. Theb. 10, 112, two famous passages often imi-
tated in mediaeval and modern poetry. Cp. also Lukian's 'Isle of Dreams'
(Vera Hist. 2, 32) in which Sleep is king. But apparently nowhere else do
Sleep and Dreams follow the chariot of Night. The picture with which
Tibullus closes this elegy is, so far as I know, unique in classical literature. —
incerto pede: the phrase is apparently meant to convey the unsubstantial
quality, the confused and confusing unreality of dreams. Lukian, loc., says
of the ‘Isle of Dreams,' eixe dè kai aútń Tu Tois óvelpois tapainoLov• ÚTTEX-
ρει γάρ προσιόντων ημών και υπέφευγε και πορρωτέρω υπέβαινε.
2, 2
This piece was occasioned by a birthday of the poet's young married friend
Cornutus. Is he to be identified with the Cerinthus of 4, 2-12 ? If so, this
would probably be the ideal epilogue of an unusually interesting love affair,
see Introd. p. 86.
Tibullus assumes the character of the officiating priest at the regular sacri.
fice to the Genius on this occasion and pretends to interpret his will.
"Let us utter words of good omen. The Genius comes to his altar. Let
all be silent until he has received his full meed of sacrifice and praise.
May he grant you whatsoever you ask, Cornutus. — There, why do you
hang back? He says he will. Ask him!
'I prophesy that you are going to ask that your wife's love may always be
yours. By this time, methinks, the gods. themselves have learned that request
of yours by heart. Aye, rather her love than all the wealth of Ormus and of
Ind!
Your wish is granted. May you both be lovers still when both of you are
old and grey, and may the omen thou hast given, Natalis, prove true and ere
long bring little folk to play about thy feet.
1. bona verba : i.e. ' of good omen. So often in ceremonial usage, cp.
e.g. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 72, ‘prospera lux oritur. linguis animisque favete ! | nunc
411
2, 2, 2] .
TIBVLLVS
dicenda bona sunt bona verba die’; Trist. 5, 5, 6; esp. Cicero, Div. 1, 102,
'neque solum deorum voces Pythagorici observitaverunt, sed etiam hominum,
quae vocant omina. quae maiores nostri quia valere censebant, idcirco
omnibus rebus agendis “ quod bonum faustum felix fortunatumque esset”
praefabantur, rebusque divinis quae publica fierent, ut “faverent linguis”.
imperabatur inque feriis imperandis, ut "litibus et iurgiis se abstinerent.”
itemque in lustranda colonia ab eo qui eam deduceret, et cum imperator
exercitum, censor populum lustraret, bonis nominibus, qui hostias ducerent
eligebantur, quod idem in delectu consules observant ut primus miles fiat
bono nomine,' etc.
For the caesura cp. 1, 2, 27 n. Of the 25 cases in Tibullus no less than
four (1; 3; 9; 21) occur in this elegy.
2. 1, 6, 39 n. — vir mulierque: i.e. 'omnes quisquis ades,' cp. e.g. Ovid,
Ibis, 118, gaudeat adversis femina virque tuis.' This method of emphasizing
the idea of totality by enumerating the factors of which it is composed is an
interesting paragraph in the history of any language. Such combinations are
generally phraseological. In a vast number of cases the choice of the factors
is determined by alliteration, cp. I, 10, 65 n. Again the influence of some
metaphor, etc., is to be considered.' The order of arrangement is generally
due to considerations of euphony and offers a strong resistance to change.
Our arrangement, for example, of faith, hope, charity' (1 Cor. 13, 13), is
fixed, and corresponds to that of both Greek (TT LOTIS, é is, árárn) and Latin
('fides, spes, caritas '). ' Cp. also “men, women, and children,' gentle and
simple,''bond and free,'' all sorts and conditions, etc.
3-8. 1, 7, 49-54 n.
3. Martial's 'pia tura' in 8, 8, 3 is cited by Friedländer as an imitation of
this line. — úrantúr ... urántur: 1, 8, 13 n.
4. tener Arabs: the classical writers habitually ascribe effeminacy to the
Orientals, cp. Catull. 11, 5; Verg. G. I, 57 (with the note of Servius); Manil.
4, 654; etc. On Arabia as the land of perfumes see 1, 3, 7 n.; 4, 2, 17–18.
-- divite: i.e. 'the possessor of riches,' not fertilis. The Arabian has the
proverbial wealth of the Oriental, cp. I, 1, 51 n.
5. Geniūs: 1, 10, 13; 1, 5, 33 and notes. — adsit: I, I, 37–38 n. -
visurus: this use of the future participle active to express purpose appeared
as early as C. Gracchus, acc. to Gellius, II, 10, 4, who cites ' qui prodeunt dis-
suasuri' from one of his speeches. But although exx. like Cicero, Verr. 1,
56, Servilius adest de te sententiam laturus' (which is much like the ex.
before us) may be called an extension of the periphrastic conjugation, it
points the way, as Schmalz says, to the regular use especially with verbs of
motion which begins to show itself in prose with Sallust, increases with
412
NOTES
[2, 2, 18
Livy, and henceforth remains a genuine and valuable possession of the lan-
guage. Unless we include 1, 10, 46 (which seems to me not certain) this is
the only ex. in Tibullus.
8. atque ... et: 1, 10, 23 n.
9-10. The poet pretends to interpret the will of the Genius. Note the
conversational language and tone of 10, and for similar dramatic touches cp.
1, 5, 75; 1, 6, 3; 4, 4, 15; Hor. Od. I, 27, 10; etc.
11. amores: cp. 1, 2, 59. This idiomatic emotional plural (cp. our word
"feelings ') is found in prose as well as in poetry, cp. e.g. Verg. A. 4, 28,
‘ille meos primus qui me sibi iunxit amores | abstulit,' and Thes. s.v. Some-
times this plural is due to the idea of reciprocity as in 1, 3, 81, where see n.
Or, again, this plural involves a number of incidents, manifestations, etc., as
eg. in Plaut. Merc. 2, 'meos amores eloquar,' i.e. 'my love affair.'
12. That is, the gods have already heard you make the prayer so often. -
edidicisse : compounds of disco always retain the reduplication of the perfect.
13-16. For the conventional division of wealth, I, 1, 1-2 n.
13. tibi : 1, 6, 63 n. — malueris : potential subjunctive, cp. 4, 11, 4; 1; 6,
74 n. The perf. subjunctive as a potential seems to have been very rare in
early Latin. Cicero extended the usage slightly and employed more persons;
thus, first person plural and second singular occur first in Cicero. From
Cicero's time the usage spreads, perhaps under the influence of the Greek
aorist. It was always rare with deponents and passives.' Gildersleeve-Lodge,
257, 2, n. 1. Blase (p. 205) quotes no other ex, of the second pers. as here,
from the elegy. In Ovid, Met. 10, 560, ' forsitan audieris,' the perfect has its
full force.
14. valido : a common epithet of the ox, but perhaps in this passage
intended also to suggest a heavy and unusually fertile soil.
15-16. 1, 1, 51 n.
16. The Mare Rubrum, 'Epvopn Oálatta, of the classical writers is not
the Red Sea of modern parlance, but the Persian Gulf, cp. Strabo, p. 1086–7
Mein., etc. unda rubet shows that Tibullus accepted (at least for poetical
purposes — which indicates his good taste) the traditional explanation of the
name. He doubtless knew better, as did the more important authorities of
his time, cp. 6.g. Strabo, l.C., etc. It was commonly believed that in that part
of the world the beach was strewn with jewels and pearls cast up by the sea,
cp. 2, 4, 30 ; 4, 2, 19-20; Propert. 4, 5, 21, si te Eoa Dorozantum iuvat
aurea ripa'; Curt. 8, 9, 19, ‘gemmas margaritasque mare litoribus infundit,'
etc.
17. vota cadunt: 2.e, rata sunt, cp. 1, 5, 57 ; 1, 6, 85; etc.
I§. flava vincula: flava here is usually interpreted as = lutea, the colour
413
2, 2, 19]
TIBVLLVS
of festivity, of weddings, etc., and thus as betokening happiness and good
fortune, cp. I, 7, 46 n.- coniugio : your union,' both husband and wife are
meant. This seems better than Postgate's explanation of coniugium = con-
iunx, despite the fact that Lygdamus (3, 4, 74 and 79) uses coniugium in
this not unusual sense.
19. tarda senectus : 1, 10, 40; 1, 1, 8 n.
21-22. I wish you a long life (avis), children (prolemque ministret), and
grandchildren (22).
22. turba novella: the adjective is regularly applied to the young of ani-
mals, ' a brood of little ones.'
2, 3
This poem, though addressed to Cornutus (2, 2, 9), really belongs to the
group (3-6) concerned with Nemesis; see Introd. p. 52–53. This young
person has left town with a wealthy lover and is now at his country place tak-
ing part in the merriment of the vintage season. The poet was not invited.
· The condition of the text has given rise to the theory (far from proved)
that this elegy was still unfinished at the time of the poet's death.
Imitated closely by Ercole Strozzi, Amor. I, 'Ad Petrum Bembum de dis-
cessu amicae ab urbe.'
"My Nemesis has gone to the country. Is there any man unfeeling enough
to stay in town now? Venus has moved to the fields and Cupid is acquiring
the ploughman's vocabulary. Oh, if I might look upon my mistress I would
not shrink from toiling like the veriest hind! Did not Apollo do as much for
Admetos? His glorious beauty, his wonderful music, availed him nothing,
nor could the divine healer heal himself -- love will not yield to physic. This
god milked cows and made cheese with his own hands. Many a time his
sister flushed with mortification at the sight of him carrying a calf across the
fields. . Many a time while he was singing in some deep dell did his bovine
audience drown out the divine singer with their bellowing. He neglected
his duties as a prophet, which brought dismay to men; he neglected his per-
sonal appearance, which nearly broke his mother's heart. Love bade him
dwell in a lowly hut, and what to him was all the world beside?
"Ah, those were happy days when even the immortal gods were not ashamed
to be the slaves of Venus! A scandalous story now. Yes, but better to be
a scandal with love than to be even a god without it. — [All for love and the
world well lost — that was the Golden Age, indeed.] -- This heartless Age of
Iron is all for lucre and love well lost — lucre, the cause of battle, murder,
and sudden death; lucre, the discoverer of peril by sea; lucre, the nurse
of mad extravagance.
414
NOTES
[2, 3, 5
Can't you be content with simplicity, Nemesis? - Alas, women prefer
wealthy lovers, I see that. — So be it, then. She shall blaze with jewels at
my expense; she shall be brave in Coan silk and Tyrian purple wrung from my
estate.
• Every one knows 'tis all they care for. Otherwise she would not be at the
beck and call of that foreign boor who time and again has been knocked
down to the highest bidder — and proved a poor investment.
You take Nemesis away from the city. May your crops never grow and
your wine never be fit to drink! If the girls will only keep away from the
country, the fruits of the field are welcome to go and we will return to acorns
and spring water, the diet of primitive man. Ameagre diet, perhaps, but
they loved where they pleased, and without hindrance. Their garments were
plain; but if my love is to be thwarted, fine clothes are a poor consolation.
Away then to the country, and to the life of a slave, since my mistress has
willed it so.
1-10. Imitated by Bertin, Amours, 3, 5 (cp. 2, 1, 9-86 n.).
1. rura villaeque: 'villas and country places.' The plural is indefinite
and typical. He really means the particular rus and villa of ipse in 59.
2. ferreus: 1, 10, 2; 1, 2, 65. — heu heu: cp. I, 4, 81; 1, 6, 10; 2, 3, 49; 2,
5, 108; 4, 13, 17. Geminatio, common in modern Italian, is correspondingly
uncommon in literary Latin, where it is most frequently found in interjections
as here. It is therefore much more emphatic even than in English. Hence,
the very exaggeration here may lead us to suspect that the poet is not so serious
after all as he would have us believe. For the well-worn theme of the lover
as a slave, see 1, 5, 5, with notes and references.
3. The gods accompany their favourites as in 1, 3, 58 (where see n.); 2, 6,
2; Verg. E. 5, 25; etc. — iam nunc: 1, 5, 71 n.
4. Cp. 2, I, 67 f. For the motive of Cupid as a ploughman, see esp.
Moschos, 8 (=6 Ahrens, 4 Wilamowitz) (trans. by Poliziano and André
Chénier) —
Λαμπάδα θείς και τόξα βοηλάτιν είλετο ράβδον
και ζεύξας ταλαεργών υπό ζυγόν αυχένα ταύρων
έσπειρεν Δηούς αύλακα πυροφόρον.
είπε δ' άνω βλέψας αυτώ Διί: πλησoν αρούρας,
μή σε τον Ευρώπης βούν υπ' άροτρα βάλω.'
monplace of the elegy, cp. I, 4, 39-56 and n.; Ovid, Amor. I, 9, 9; etc. —
o ego: very emphatic, cp. 2, 4, 7; Hor. Epod. 12, 25, etc. — cum aspicerem :
for the elision of a monosyllable in thesi, which is rare, see 1, 4, 56 n. —cum:
415
2, 3, 6]
TIBVLLVS
what time I might,' i.e. 'if meanwhile I might.' The temporal particles
cum, quando, and (the locative) ubi are used to indicate conditional relations
in which the idea of time or space is involved (Gild.-Lodge, 590, n. 3), cp. I,
5, 9 n. No other cases of this use occur in Tibullus.
6. valido pingue: a strong hoe for a fertile soil (which was esteemed the
best soil for vines, cp. Verg. G. 2, 184, etc.).
7. modo: “in the manner of.' --curyum : i.e. because the plough stock
(buris) is curved (Verg. G. 1, 170).
8. arya serenda : 1, 2, 70 n.
9-10. Introd. p. 56. The ideal lover of the elegy is not endowed with an
especially strong physique, partly, no doubt, because great bodily strength or
rude health is suggestive of those who have to work for a living and are there-
fore no better than slaves, cp. Ovid, Trist. 1, 5, 72, 'invalidae vires ingenuae-
que mihi'; Martial, 3, 46, 6, 'invalidum est nobis ingenuumque latus'; 10,
47, 6, etc.
So too sunburn and blistered hands are mentioned here not only because
they suggest pain and discomfort as well as great bodily fatigue, and imply
work which no man of the poet's position would think of doing, but also
because the lover's appearance is injured by them. The elegiac lover should
be pale (1, 8, 52 n.), and his hands should be delicate, cp. e.g. Ovid, Amor.
3, 8, 19 (reproaching his mistress for preferring a rich rival), ‘cerne cicatrices
veteris vestigia pugnae : 1 quaesitumst illi corpore quidquid habet.'
9. quererer quod: 1, 8, 23 n.
11-32. This characteristically Alexandrian version of the old story of
Apollo and Admetos began with Rhianos (Schol. on Eurip. Alkest. 1) and
henceforth became one of the most common illustrations, as here, of the
power of love, cp. Kallimach. Hymn. 2, 49; Ovid, Her. 5, 151; Met. 2, 680;
etc. The Church Fathers often use it in their attacks on the old gods, cp.
Minuc. Fel. 23, 5; Augustin. C. D. 18, 13; Lactant. 1, 10, 3; etc.
The older version was that Apollo was ordered by Zeus to serve Admetos
one year (Eurip. Alkest. 8) as a punishment for having slain the Kyklopes
(Hesiod, Val. Flacc. I, 444), the sons of the Kyklopes (Pherekydes), or the
Python (Alexandrides of Delphi). Many echoes of Tibullus's version are
found in Carducci, Juvenilia, 27 (A Febo Apolline'). For a fine modern
variation of the theme see George Meredith's poem, Phoebus with Admetus.
11. Nemes. 2, 72, 'di pecorum pavere greges, formosus Apollo, | Pan
doctus, Fauni vates et pulcher Adonis,' is cited as a reminiscence of this line.
12–13. That is, neither his music nor his beauty helped him to win Admetos,
nor, when he saw that to win was impossible, did (13) his knowledge of
physic help him to cure himself.
416
NOTES
[2, 3, 142
12. cithara: Apollo is the divine musician, cp. 2, 5, 2–10 n. — intonsae
comae: the chief glory of Apollo's immortal youth and beauty is constantly
referred to, cp. I, 4, 37-38 n. The frequency of this particular reference in
Tibullus himself is esp. noticeable. — profuěrunt: i.e. to win Admetos, cp. I,
8, 9; 2, 4, 15; etc. For the prosody cp. 4, 5, 4. érunt for ērunt in the
perf. indic. act., as here, 'though it is in the classical and later period more
prominent in Dactylic Poetry than in other verse, owing to its suitableness.
for the dactylic metre, is not by any means unknown in the older (and later)
dramatists. ... Plautus appears, however, to use it only at the end of a
line or hemistich, so must have regarded its use as a licence to be resorted
to under metrical necessity. It does not appear to have been used in
Tragedy, nor by the earlier Epic writers like Ennius, and not very frequently
by Lucretius (cp. Munro on 1, 406), which points to its having been a pro-
nunciation of colloquial Latin that won its way only gradually into the higher
literature' (Lindsay, Latin Language, p. 532). - ve: for the position, I, I,
40 n.
13-14. Thus Apollo, the divine healer (4, 4, i f.), becomes in himself a
striking illustration of the old maxim that Love will not yield to physic;
cp. Theokrit. II, I, Ojdèy TOT' Tov špura TEQÚKEL øápuakov allo, Nekla, oŬt'
& YXPLOTOV, éuiv dokei, oőt' ÉTlTaoTOV, 1 A Tal Illepldes. Philetas, the old shep-
herd in Longus, 2, 7, 7, also represents the traditional atmosphere of the
bucolic. He sums up a lifetime of experience with, "EpwTos yàp oudèv pápua-
κον, ου πινόμενον, ουκ εσθιόμενον, ουκ εν ωδαίς λαλούμενον, ότι μή φίλημα και
Tepißoly kal ovykatakdidîval youvois owuari. Ovid, Her. 5, 149, has 'me
miseram, quod amor non est medicabilis herbis'; Met. 1, 523, 'ei mihi quod
nullis amor est sanabilis herbis, etc. See also 1, 5, 43-44 n.; 1, 2, 59-62 n.
Theokritos's prescription of the Muses and Philetas's homoeopathy have both
been the theme of inany epigrams, ancient and modern. Cp. the echo of
Tibullus in Carducci (1.C., 11-32 n.) -
Né bastò l'arte medica
Verso la cura nova :
Ahi, sol di furie e lacrime
Il nostro iddio si giova.
14. quidquid artis : for this emphatic expression of totality, see I, 1, 51 n.
14a-16. The remains of a passage on the making of cheese as first taught
by Apollo himself at this time. It was, doubtless, brought in here to em-
phasize the ancient conception of Apollo the divine Herdsman as seen, for
example, in the Homeric hymn to Hermes.
For a detailed account of the antique methods of making cheese, see esp.
Columella, 7, 8, 1 f.
C
417
2, 3, 14b]
TIBVLLVS
TYTT
14b. docuisse : evidently depends on some word like dicitur in the missing
line above. — coagula: srennet'; cp. eg. Columella, 6.c.,‘id (lac) plerumque
cogi agni aut haedi coagulo; quamvis possit et agrestis cardui flore conduci,
et seminibus cneci, nec minus ficulneo lacte quod emittit arbor si eius viren-
tem saucies corticem. verum optimus caseus est qui exiguum medicaminis
habet.'
15. Nemes. I, 1, dum fiscella tibi fluviali, Tityre, iunco | texitur,' etc., is
cited as an imitation of this line. -- fiscella: Columella, 1.c., 'confestim cum
concrevit liquor, in fiscellas aut in calathos vel formas transferendus est. nam
maxime refert primo quoque tempore serum percolari, et a concreta materia
separari. quam ob causam rustici nec patiuntur quidem sua sponte pigro
humore defluere, sed cum paulo solidior caseus factus est, pondera superponunt
quibus exprimatur serum,' etc.
16. rara: 2.1. ‘wide, free,' i.e. the iunci are rari, set far apart so as to
allow for interstices and thus give passage (via) for the whey. For this use of
rarus cp. Varro, De Re Rust. 3, 9, 6 (of windows in a henhouse), 'e'vimini-
bus factae raris, ita ut lumen praebeant multum, neque per eas quicquam ire
intro possit quae nocere solent gallinis'; Martial, 13, 3, 6, 'si tibi tam rarus
quam mihi nummus erit,' 'if pennies are as "far apart" with you as they are
with me,' etc.
17–18. Any country boy knows that neither gods nor men can carry a calf,
much less drive one, and retain their dignity. Imagine the horror of the
fastidious Artemis ! The touch of comedy is quite lost, as of course it should
be, in the epic imitation of Val. Flacc. I, 447, 'a quotiens famulo notis soror
obvia silvis flevit, etc.
19-20. Another comic touch, which appears to be unique. The divine
yirtuoso cannot even hold the attention of his audience. The old shepherd
Philetas, in Longus, 2,7 (13-14 n. above), was no less unfortunate, although his
cattle were either more sympathetic or else had a far better ear for music,
κατέκλων τάς σύριγγας, ότι μοι τάς μεν βούς έθελγον, 'Αμαρυλλίδα δ' ουκ ήγον.
Undoubtedly too, the music of Philetas was far less classical than that of Apollo
and therefore the more likely to please the audience addressed. Carducci
echoes Tibullus (1.C., 11-32 n. above) —
Tu d'amor gemi, ed orride
Co'l muggito diverso
Rompon le vacche tessale
La dotta voce e il verso.
19. ausae: for the omission of sunt, see 1, 3, 43 n. — caneret dum : the
subjunctive is iterative and dum caneret really = cum caneret. Schmalz (par.
418
NOTES
[2, 3, 27
306, 2) cites Phaed. 1, 4, 2, 'carnem dum ferret natans vidit, Livy, Val. Max.,
Iustinus, the poets, even inscriptions, and late Latin. No other example
occurs in Tibullus. Not found in Propertius. – valle sub alta : Ovid, Met.
11, 277, sub opaca valle'; Simonides, 74, I Crus., dlppvos éduñonuev ÚTÓ
Tituxi, -an extension apparently of the ordinary 'sub monte,' ÚTÒ Tucra
(II. 2, 866), etc., suggested by the overhanging rocks or trees of a glen, cp.
the bold use of antrum in Propert. 4, 4, 3, 'lucus erat felix, hederoso conditus
antro, ) multaque nativis obstrepit arbor aquis,'cp. I, I, II; 1, 2, II; 4, 9, 33.
20. carmina docta boves: note the emphasis on boves by placing it at the
end of the line (1, 2, 90; 1, 4, 80; 2, 5, 93 and n.) and placing in juxtaposi-
tion the contrasted docta (1, 8, 30 n.). — docta : 4, 6, 2 n.
21-22. The god of prophecy neglected his own oracles.
21. trepidis rebus: might be either ablative or dative. In Verg. G. 4,
449, 'hinc lassis quaesitum oracula rebus,' Conington decided in favour of
the dative. The regular phrase is 'in trepida re' or 'in trepidis rebus'; see
dict. Cp. 1, 6, 62 n.
22. irrita turba : i.e. 'disappointed,' without a response.'
23-26. The beautiful god even neglected his own personal appearance.
23. A touch of nature. Latona's pride in her children is Homeric; cp.
e.g. Odyss. 6, 106; Hymn. 3 (to Apollo), 12; 126; 204; etc.
24. noverca : Juno.
26. aspiceret ... quaereret: every one who saw ... must have
asked,' etc. Potential subjunctive, imperfect because in the past (Gild.-Lodge,
258); cp. Cicero, Pomp. 31, 'hoc tantum bellum ... quis umquam arbitrare-
tur ... ab uno imperatore confici posse,' 'who ever supposed then,' etc.;
Livy, 34, 9, 4, 'miraretur qui tum cerneret,' any one who saw it then must
have been astonished,' etc. No other ex. of this use of the potential occurs in
Tibullus; cp. I, 6, 74 n.
27-28. That is, the splendour and fame of Apollo's two great shrines of
Delos and Delphi weigh as nothing against the behests of almighty Love, cp.
1, 2, 75 f. So in Ars Amat. 2, 235 f. (cp. Tib. 1, 4, 41; Paul. Silent.
Anth. Pal. 5, 31, etc.). Ovid uses this story of Apollo as an illustration of
his favourite theme (cp. Amor. I, 9, etc.) of the kinship between the lover
and the soldier -
nox et hiemps longaeque viae saevique dolores
mollibus his castris et labor omnis inest;
saepe feres imbrem caelesti nube solutum
frigidus et nuda saepe iacebis humo.
Cynthius Admeti vaccas pavisse Pheraei
fertur et in parva delituisse casa.
419
2, 3, 29]
TIBVLLVS
29-30. The clause with cum (really olim cum non pudebat') is incor-
porated with the verb of saying, cp. 2, 5, 19 n. on postquam ; 2, 3, 17, 'quo-
tiens dicitur erubuisse'; 1, 5, 9 n.
31–32. fabula : “a scandal,'' a byword,' the talk of the town.' So often,
cp. 1, 4, 83 ; Ovid, Amor. 3, 1, 21, etc.; cp. Propert. 3, 25, 1-2.
32. Leo compares the Pompeian graffito (Carm. Epig. 937 B.) 'scribenti
mi dictat Amor mostrat que Cupido : ) a peream, sine te si deus esse velim.' —
sit mavult : 1, 2, 25a n. — deus : for the emphatic position cp. 20 n. above.
33. at tu: the dives amator of 59 f. tu is the subject of some verb in
the missing portion of the incomplete sentence. The general drift of it is
suggested by such parallel addresses to the victorious rival as 1, 5, 69–70 — in
this case, however, modified by the fact that in order to be consistent with
his preceding argument that love is invincible the poet must acknowledge —
and 'cui tristi fronte Cupido imperat,' etc. indicates that he did — that his
rival is no more to blame than was Apollo, therefore that the real fault is the
greed of Nemesis. So different from the Golden Age, a brief reference to
which must have occurred at the close of the lacuna, cp. 'ferrea saecula' below
and n. -- is : the subject of es. es instead of est, because is is the representative
of tu. A shift to the third person in cases like this is attributed by Schmalz
(par. 27) to the influence of Greek.
34. nostra domo : 1, 1, 61 n.
35. ferrea saecula : the Iron Age, the unhappy present, as opposed to the
Golden Age, the happy past, cp. 33 n. above. For the theme see 1, 3,
35-50 and notes. The final conclusion was that the one great cause of the
fall of man has been his greed. So Tibullus has worked it out here, and his
choice of praeda to represent the idea was peculiarly apt. The main motive
of warfare is greed - gratified by praeda, “rapine '— cp. I, I, I and
notes. The stock example of the praedator (41) is the conventional rival of
the elegiac poet, the dives amator (1, 5, 47-48 n.), the rich parvenu whose
wealth is acquired by means more or less accurately described by the word
praedator. Thus while addressing himself to Nemesis (47–48 f.) the poet
manages at the same time to score his rival. The contrast between Venerem
and praeda sounds like a far-off echo of the theory of Empedokles that
Aphrodite not Kronos was the ruler of the Golden Age.
36. Operata : Tibullus's use of operari is confined to the second book.
The best general translation of the word seems to be something like to be
concerned with. Thus 2, 1, 9'to be concerned with the god,' i.e. to do him
honour (so 2, 5, 95); 2, 1, 65'to be concerned with busy Minerva,' i.e. 'de-
voted to,''engaged in'; here, 'concerned with,' i.e. “involved with,' carry
with itself,' whence the later meaning of cause,' effect,' etc., is easily derived,
420
NOTES
[2, 3, 43
cp. Aetna, 383 (quoted by Postgate), ‘magnis operata rapinis | flamma mi-
cat,' etc. -- malis : of course is dative.
37. cinxit: Verg. A. II, 536, 'nostris nequiquam cingitur armis'; 2,
749, etc. Outside of Tibullus this extended usage seems to be largely Vergilian.
38. mors propior : i.e. 'nearer,' sooner than is natural,' 'accelerated.'
For the idea in this connection cp. 1, 10, 33–34 n. ; 1, 3, 49-50 n., etc. —,
venit : 1, 5, 36 n.
39. vago : never still,' 'restless,' "tossing,' cp. 2, 6, 3, etc., and dubiis
ratibus in the next line. — geminare: the meaning is explained in 40, i.e.
naval warfare is to court death twice over.
40. Note the artistic arrangement in this line ; the two adjectives in the
first hemistich, their two nouns in the second - and arranged chiastically.
So 1,9, 4; 1, 10, 14 ; 2, 6, 16 and 40. — bellica rostra : i.e. 'beaks,'' rams.'
Their operation is described by Sil. Ital. 14, 489 f. -— dubiis : used literally,
unsteady,' unstable,' cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 514 ; I, 558; Trist. 3, 2,
15; Pont. 2, 5, 62, etc., and instabiles rates I, 9, 10 n.
41-46. These are all favourite themes, cp. among many other passages in
point, Hor. Od. 2, 18, 17 f.
41-42. The desire to own land was a marked characteristic of the Roman
temperament and is often mentioned, cp. Pliny, 18, 35 f.; Seneca, Epist. 89,
20; Quintil. Decl. 13, 2; Hor. Od. 1, 1, 9; 16, 40, etc.
The gradual absorption of land into latifundia (Verg. G. I, 507; Pliny,
18, 35; Petron. 37; Juv. 9, 54, etc.), vast estates worked by gangs of half-
savage slaves for a few proprietors, had already attained alarming proportions
in the time of Augustus. In some respects the economic conditions by
which it was produced were not unlike those of our own time, such as the
rapid growth of urban life, etc.
42. innumera ove: for the poetic singular ove cp. I, 1, 42, and for in-
numerus with the singular (1, 3, 28; 1, 9, 68 and notes) cp. Ovid, Trist. 5,
12, 20; Her. 16, 366; Pont. 1, 8, 18; Met. 8, 808; Pliny, 18, 239; 9, 29;
Lucan, 7, 485; Mart. 8, 55, 2, etc.—pascat: the only ex. quoted for this rare
transitive use is Verg. A. II, 318, vomere duros | exercent colles atque
horum asperrima pascunt,' where, however, Conington cites Martial, 1o, 58,
9,dura suburbani dum iugera pascimus agri' (but see Friedländer's note).
A better parallel is 9, 80, 2, ' uxorem pascit Gellius.' depascere, as in Verg.
G. 1, 112, is more common for this meaning.
43-44. The building fever which set in soon after the middle of the first
century B.C. was for many generations a marked feature of Roman life and
constantly referred to by contemporary writers, cp. Pliny, 18, 35 f.; Hor. Od.
2, 15, I, f.
421
2, 3, 43]
TIBVLLVS
43. cui curae est : for the double dat. 1, 5, 29 n. cui is also to be taken
with portatur and claudit. — lapis externus: refers to that well-known
fondness for expensive marbles of different colours most of which were brought
from a distance (externus, cp. Hor. Od. 2, 18, 3; Propert. 3, 2, 11; Seneca,
Thyest. 646; Phaed. 496; Stat. Silv. 1, 3, 35; 1, 5, 36; etc.), a taste which
made Rome magnificent and which, it is interesting to observe, has recently
been revived in our own country by the recurrence for the first time since
then of a similar age of wealth and luxury. - urbisque tumultu: ablative of
manner, cp. 1, 2, 20, 'pedem ponere nullo sono '; 1, 7, 13, 'fluere tacitis
undis'; 1, 8, 60, 'strepitu nullo reserare'; 15, “inculto ore venire'; 2, 3, 33,
* tristi fronte imperare,' etc.
The reference here and in the following line is to the transportation of
great loads of stone and timber through the narrow and crowded streets of
Rome, a constant source of noise, confusion, and danger. The famous,
passage in point is Juv. 3, 254, 'longa coruscat | serraco veniente abies, atque
altera pinum | plaustra vehunt; nutant alte populoque minantur. / nam si pro-
cubuit qui saxa Ligustica portat axis et eversum fudit super agmina montem
| quid superest de corporibus,' etc.; Seneca, Epist. 90, 9, “felix illud saeculum
ante architectos fuit, ante tectores: ... non enim tecta cenationi epulum re-
cepturae parabantur, nec in hunc usum pinus aut abies deferebatur longo
vehiculorum ordine vicis intrementibus, ut ex illa lacunaria auro gravia
penderent'; Mart. 5, 22, 7, 'vixque datur longas mulorum rumpere mandras |
quaeque trahi multo marinora fune vides’; Pliny, Pan. 51, 1, "idem tam
parcus in aedificando quam diligens in tuendo. itaque non ut ante immanium
transvectione saxorum urbis tecta quatiuntur; stant securae domus nec iam
templa nutantia' (cp. Seneca, N. l. 6, 22, 1; Lucret. 6, 548); Hor. Epist.
2, 2, 72; etc.
In 45 B.C. (CIL. I, p. 121) Caesar passed an ordinance that no "heavy
teaming' should be allowed in the streets of Rome between sunrise and two
hours before sunset, i.e. during the hours of congestion for foot passengers.
An exception (among others) was made in favour of public works and demoli-
tion projects. The object of the law was effected, and it seems to have held
good not only in the time of our poet but for at least the first two centuries
of the empire, but the result must have been that, thanks to the heavy traffic
for public works allowed by day and for private individuals by night, the roar
in the business section of Rome was practically continuous from sun to sun.
Hence the law of Hadrian (Spart. Script. Hist. Aug. 1, 22, 6, vehicula cum
ingentibus sarcinis urbem ingredi prohibuit ') is taken to mean an extension
of Caesar's ordinance to a prohibition of heavy traffic by night. Some day
perhaps a few modern towns will rise to that altitude of civilization.
422
NOTES
[2, 3, 46
44. columna: might be taken as a case of singular for plural (1, 1, 42 n.)
What the poet really sees, however, is a single great monolith drawn through
the streets of Rome by a thousand yoke of oxen, a pardonable exaggeration
in view of the fact that Hadrian himself, for example, when he moved the
Colossus of Nero used 24 elephants, cp. Spart. op. cit. 19, 12, 'transtulit et
colossum stantem atque suspensum per Decrianum architectum de eo loco in
quo nunc templum urbis est, ingenti molimine, ita ut operi etiam elephantos
viginti quattuor exhiberet.' This interpretation of our passage seems more
picturesque than to take columna as a collective singular and mille simply as
emphasizing the number of such loads.
For mille of an indefinitely large number cp. 1, 3, 50 n., and for iugum =
'yoke' (to use our own country phrase) of cattle, cp. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 564;
Verg. A. 5, 147; Cicero, Verr, 2, 3, 120, etc.
45-46. The reference is to the piscinae or vivaria, the private ponds for
salt-water fish made by shutting off a portion of the sea by a wall or break-
water (moles). Directions for their construction are given in the Geoponica,
20, I f. The first and most famous one was built near Naples by Lucullus
(Varro, De Re Rust. 3, 17, 9; Pliny, 9, 170, etc.). Possible remains of such
piscinae (e.g. the ‘Bagno della regina Giovanna') among the ruins of the
villa of Vedio Pollione' (the local tradition of the name) on the Punta di Sor-
rento are still to be seen. Stat. Silv. 2, 2, 29, describing the villa of Pollius
Felix (the villa just mentioned?) at Sorrento, shows that in his time such
piscinae were the ordinary thing in connection with any seashore villa. The
favourite diatribe on extravagance often selects as an example this eminently
sensible and comparatively speaking inexpensive device, largely it would seem to
score the rhetorical point that the solid earth is not enough for these builders,
they must needs encroach on the sea — which is unnatural and therefore impious
(1, 3, 37–40 n.). So here (45) the mole (built by the hand of man merely
for fish) is said to 'cage the tameless sea'; cp. Hor. Od. 2, 18, 19, struis
domos / marisque Bais obstrepentis urges / submovere litora, / parum locuples
continente ripa '; Seneca, Tran. 3, 7; Hor. Od. 3, 1, 33 f., etc.; Manil. 4,
263; Cassiodor. Var. 9, 6, 4; Paulin. Nol. Carm. 24, 31; Seneca, Epist. 89,
21; Apoll. Sidon. Carm. 2, 57; Petron. 119, 88; Seneca, Thyest. 459; etc.
45. lentus: "unmoved,' 'indifferent,' 'undisturbed.' A purposely naive
assumption that fish have a human fear of the stormy sea. Another point
of view in the same connection is represented by Hor. Od. 3, 1, 33, 'contracta
pisces aequora sentiunt | iactis in altum molibus.'
46. neglegat: disdain,' 'care nothing for.' The word harmonizes with
minas, which in itself personifies the blustering winter sea. An object clause
with neglego is not frequent, but occurs in all styles.
423
2, 3,:47]
TIBVLLVS
47–48. The inexpensive though handsome ware of Samos and Cumae,
generally red and often decorated in some way, was commonly used by many
Romans of the middle class who through moderate means or old-fashioned
conservatism did not incline to silver. Samian ware — the name describes
the type, not the place of manufacture — is according to circumstances an
illustration of miserliness (Plautus, Capt. 291; Cicero, Mur. 36, 75), of pov-
erty (Plautus, Stich. 694; Lucil. 445 Marx), or as here, of simplicity, cp. Rhet.
ad Heren. 4, 64; Auson. Epig. 8; Lactant. I, 18, 21; Mart. 13, 7. The
ware of Cumae is highly praised by Pliny, 35, 164. These lines therefore are
a direct invitation to Nemesis to choose a simple life, i.e. a life with the poet.
After a dramatic pause Tibullus, as if in response (49) to her wordless reply
in the negative, proceeds with his next point. It may be observed that this
association of simplicity and terra cotta had a long tradition in literature,
cp. e.g. Bacchyl. frag. 21 Blass :
Ου βοών πάρεστι σώματ’, ούτε χρυσός,
ούτε πορφύρεοι τάπητες,
αλλά θυμός ευμενής,
Μουσά τε γλυκεία, και Βοιωτίοισιν
εν σκύφοισιν οίνος ήδύς.
47. trahant convivia : 1, 9, 61 n.
48. lubrica terra : the adjective is peculiarly descriptive of wet clay in its
natural state.
49. heu heu: 2, 3, 2 n.
50–58. The poet is resigned to his fate.
51. luxuria fluat: 'fluentes luxu,' Livy, 7, 29, 5, is cited by Stacey as a
possible echo of this line. But Cicero, Tusc. Disput. 2, 52, had said 'fiuimus
mollitia,' cp. Off. I, 106, diſfuere luxuria,' and 1, 7, 3 n.
52. incedat: especially used of a measured, proud, or graceful gait, of
walking as an accessory of beauty or dignity. A favourite word with Proper-
tius, cp. 2, 2, 5, 'fulva coma est longaeque manus, et maxima toto corpore,
et incedit vel Iove digna soror, aut cum Munychias Pallas spatiatur ad aras,'
etc.; cp. Verg. A. 1,46, 'ast ego quae divom incedo regina'; Propert. 3, 13,
11, “matrona incedit census induta nepotum | et spolia opprobrii nostra per
ora trahit’; 2, 1, 5, "sive illam Cois fulgentem incedere cogis,' where the
reference is to 1, 2, 1, 'quid iuvat ornato procedere, vita, capillo et tenues
Coa veste movere sinus ?' procedo is esp. used of women who don their
finery and go out, cp. 4, 2, 11 ; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 165, “femina procedit
densissima crinibus emptis, etc. For prodire in the same sense, 1, 9, 70 n.;
Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 131 (with Brandt's n.); Lukian, Dialog. Mer. 6, 2, etc.
424
NOTES
.
[2, 3, 53
The ancients very properly made much of a graceful and appropriate gait.
Ovid's advice to women is (Ars Amat. 3, 298) —
discite femineo corpora ferre gradu:
est et in incessu pars non contempta decoris;
allicit ignotos ille fugatque viros.
haec movet arte latus tunicisque fluentibus auras
accipit extensos fertque superba pedes;
illa velut coniunx Umbri rubicunda mariti
ambulat ingentis varica fertque gradus.
sed sit ut in multis, modus hic quoque : rusticus alter
motus, concesso mollior alter erit.
So in the old epitaph of Claudia (Carm. Epig. 52 B.) it is recorded that
she was sermone lepido, tum autem incessu commodo'; again in the frag-
ment of a Greek historian (FHG. 2, 259) our attention is called to the
graceful carriage of the Theban women, ai dè yuvaikes aút v Tols Meyébeol,
πορείαις, ρυθμούς εύσχημονέσταται τε και ευπρεπέσταται των εν τη Ελλάδι
yuvalv. For the 'concesso mollior' type cp. Propert, 2, 4, 5, 'nequiquam
perfusa meis unguenta capillis, | ibat et expenso planta morata gradu';
Petron. 126, ‘incessus arte compositus et ne vestigia quidem pedum extra
mensuram aberrantia'; Catullus, 42, 8, etc. — conspicienda: 1, 2, 70 n.
53. vestes tenues quas femina Coa: the first to mention silk in the Occi-
dent is Aristotle (De Animal. Hist. 5, 19,6), and the first time the Romans ever
saw it was in the banners of the Parthians at Carrhae (Florus, 1, 46,8). They
never had a general name for it, but knew it in the three varieties of Coa, bom-
bycina, and serica. The Coa (i.e. from Cos) was made from a local variety of
silk-worm which fed on the terebinth (Pliny, 11, 77). It was enormously
popular at Rome in the time of Augustus and until the latter half of the first
century A.D. (cp. 2, 4, 29; Propert. 1, 2, 1; 2, 1,5; 4, 2, 23; 4, 5,23; Ovid, Ars
Amat. 2, 298; Hor. Od. 4, 13, 13; etc.). It appears to have been very much
like our chiffon or · Liberty' silk and it was very expensive (Propert. 4, 5, 56;
etc.). The general Greek word for all such garments was the expressive
diapava (Menand. Fab. Incert. 241, Mein.), cp. tenues here; Hor. Sat. 1, 2,
101, 'Cois tibi paene videre est, ut nudam'; Propert. 1, 2, 2, et tenuis Coa
veste movere sinus'; Eubulus, 67 K., tEdv Dewpňoavti ar pds Tėvýcov | youràs
εφεξής επί κέρως τεταγμένας | εν λεπτοπήνοις ύφεσιν έστώσας, οίας | Ηριδανός
åyvois údao KITTEÚEL Kbpas, etc. "Coan vestments' were therefore particularly
affected by the demi-monde, and hence when adopted by ladies of fashion
were the theme of numerous denunciations, cp. e.g. Seneca, Ben. 7, 9, 5,
'video sericas vestes, si vestes vocandae sunt, in quibus nihil est quo defendi
aut corpus aut denique pudor possit; quibus sumptis (mulier) parum liquido
425
23, 54]
TIBVLLVS
nudam se non esse iurabit. hae ingenti summa ab ignotis etiam ad com-
mercium gentibus accersuntur, ut matronae nostrae ne adulteris quidem plus
sui in cubiculo quam in publico ostendant'; Martial, 8, 68,7,femineum lucet
sic per bombycina corpus, / calculus in nitida sic numeratur aqua’; Seneca,
Epist. 90, 20, 'quid, si contigisset illi videre has nostri temporis telas, quibus
vestis nihil celatura conficitur, in qua non dico nullum corpori auxilium, sed
nullum pudori est?' Seneca Rhet. Controv. 2, 7 (p. 239 Kiessl.), 'infelices
ancillarum greges laborant ut adultera tenui veste perspicua sit et nihil in
corpore uxoris suae plus maritus quam quilibet alienus peregrinusque cogno-
verit' (an interesting passage because it shows that here as elsewhere the
principal reason why we hear so much of this theme in the later writers is
because it entered the rhetorical schools at an early date).
54. auratas ... vias: disposed upon them paths of gold is a literal
translation. The occurrence elsewhere of viae in this connection is confined
to Servius on Verg. A. 8,660, where he explains virgatis lucent sagulis as 'quae
habebant in virgarum modum deductas vias.' The only parallel in Greek and
the only occurrence of the word in that sense is the oluoi, the viae or paths of
gold, tin, and kyanos inlaid in the famous breastplate of Iliad, 11, 24. In the
passage before us disponere presupposes regular patterns of some sort, and
the suggestion of viae is that these patterns were traced in a line or band of
embroidery in gold, i.e. a path, a street as it were, of gold running wherever
dictated by the pattern. The dictionaries translate by stripes. In that
case the pattern in question would be narrowed down practically to parallel
bands of embroidery, let us say for example, three or four around the bottom
of the skirt. But this is too definite. The ol mol of Homer were arranged in
parallel bands, hence the translation of 'stripes' is accepted and appropriate.
•Stripes, however, is derived from the known details of the pattern; it is not
inherent in oluoi itself (so far as we know). Hence viae here, even though,
as may well be the case, it was derived through translation or otherwise from
the Homeric prototype itself, does not involve the restriction to stripes. In-
deed it would appear that Servius at least did not so interpret the word,
otherwise he would hardly have added 'in virgarum modum,' 'in the manner
of rods, i.e. stripes,' to describe the pattern suggested by deductas vias.
There is a kindred but obscure use of via as an architectural term (unique) in
Vitruvius, 4, 3, 6.
55-56. Coloured attendants were a luxury especially affected by women like
Nemesis largely because, as in England and France during the 17th and 18th
centuries, they suggested the fortune and the position of foreign potentates,
nabobs, etc., cp. e.g. Terence, Eun. 165 (to Thais), 'nonne ubi mi dixti
cupere te ex Aethiopia | ancillulam, relictis rebus omnibus quaesivi ?'
426
NOTES
[2, 3, 59.
56. On this antique idea that the heat of the tropics is due to an increased
proximity of the sun, and therefore that the farther we go, the hotter it grows,
cp. e.g. Hor. Od. 1, 22, 21, ' pone sub curru nimium propinqui | solis, in terra
domibus negata'; Seneca, Oed. 121, promit hinc ortus aperitque lucem ,
Phoebus et flamma propiore nudos | inficit Indos'; Thyest. 602, “Medus et
Phoebi propioris Indus’; Macrob. Somn. Scip. 2, 10, 11,' Aethiopes ... quos
vicinia solis usque ad speciem nigri coloris exurit,' but esp. Vergil's description
of the five zones, G. 1, 231 f.
57–58. For an interesting enumeration and discussion of the colours worn
by women in the time of Tibullus, see Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 169 f. The brilliant
colours, such as those mentioned here, were more or less characteristic of
women like Nemesis. In the second century, for example, Artemidoros, the
interpreter of dreams, says (2, 3) that γυναικί δε ποικίλη και ανθηρά εσθής
συμφέρει, μάλιστα δε εταίρα και πλουσία.
The shades of purple (a colour much used in antiquity) varied from scarlet
to deep violet. The purpureum or purple proper (i.e. the deep violet) was
made by the Tyrians as here stated, and from the murex. puniceum or scar-
let is said to be supplied by Africa because it was manufactured by the Car-
thaginians; it is called puniceum or Punic because Carthage was a Phoenician
colony. It was made from cochineal extracted, not from nopal, which was
first discovered long afterward in Mexico, but from the berries (coccum,
KOKKOS, Arab. kermes) of the scarlet oak (Pliny, 22, 3 f.). Since the discovery
of aniline dyes the great industries of Tyre and her daughter have'ceased
to have anything but an historical interest.
57. certent praebere: certare with the infinitive begins with Lucretius
and remains a poetical construction.
58. For the chiasmus, see 1, 1, 43 n. The lacuna between 58 and 59 may
have contained or may have closed with some variant of the statements made
in 35 or 49. At least this would form a logical transition to 59-60.
59. regnum tenet: 1, 9, 80 n. -- ipse : "the very man whom,' etc.
- quem ... pedes: this sneer at the dives amator is conventional though
often enough no doubt well founded, cp. Propert. 4,5,51 (advice of the lena to
her charge), 'nec tibi displiceat miles non factus amori, | nauta nec attrita si ferat
aera manu, , aut quorum titulus per barbara colla pependit, caelati medio cum
saluere foro'; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 63, nec tu, si quis erit capitis mercede redemptus,
| despice: gypsati crimen inane pedis '; cp. Ars Amat. 2, 275, "carmina lau-
dantur sed munera magna petuntur: , dummodo sit dives, barbarus ipse placet,'
etc. He is a barbarian and has been a slave (barbara catasta; gypsati pedes).
Moreover, even as a slave he was inferior and a bad investment, otherwise he
would not have been put up for sale so often (saepe) and so publicly.
427
2, 3, 60]
TIBVLLVS
60. catasta: a high revolving platform on which slaves were put up
for sale (Q. Cicero, De Pet. Cons. 2, 8; Stat. Silv. 2, 1, 72). The slave
was completely stripped so that no bodily defect might be concealed,
cp. Seneca, Epist. 80, 9, 'detrahis vestimenta venalibus ne qua vitia corporis
lateant. ... mangones quidquid est quod displiceat aliquo lenocinio abscon-
dunt: itaque ementibus ornamenta ipsa suspecta sunt: sive crus alligatum sive
bracchium aspiceres, nudari iuberes et ipsum tibi corpus ostendi'; Mart. 6,66;
9, 59, 3; Sueton. Aug. 69; etc. The slave was also expected to give proofs
of his training both physical and mental (Propert. 4, 5, 52, etc.). If he was
imported, i.e. a barbarian, his feet were whitened with chalk or gypsum (gyp-
satos pedes), cp. Pliny, 35, 199, 'sed vilissima (creta), qua ... pedes vena-
lium trans maria advectorum denotare instituerunt maiores, etc.; Juv. I, 111.
61. tibi: i.e. dives amator, the ipse of 59. The curse on crops is one
of the most frequent and characteristic in the annals of witchcraft, cp. 1, 8, 19 n.
62. persolvat, etc.: 1, 7, 31 n.; 2, 6, 21-22.
63-64. The appeal to Bacchos derives especial force from the fact that
cultivation of the vine has always been one of the principal industries of Italy.
64. devotos: "accursed,' is explained by 65-66. — lacus : cp. 1, 1, 10 n.
65. haud : the only occurrence of the word in Tibullus. Propertius uses it
only in 2, 18, 20; 2, 22, 22; 3, 5,13; 46; 3, 7, 35; 3, 15, 7.— tristibus: 'gloomy,'
lonely,'cp. 1,5; 50 n. For the moment the poet of the country is a genuine cit.
66. non tanti ... puellae : indicate that Nemesis had gone to the coun-
try at harvest time for the alleged purpose of taking part in the merry-
making of that season. If this is the result of agriculture,' says the poet,
let us give it up and return to first principles. In this way he gets back
once more to his theme of the Golden Age (69–76), which for his present
purpose is an idealization of the native Roman tradition as well as of the
Epicurean view rather than a return to the Hesiodic norm (1, 3, 35-50 and:
notes). 'They had no agriculture then. But they did have love, and love
was unconfined — and inexpensive — all which made that a Golden Age as
compared with this.' -- tanti: so 2, 6, 42. The genitive of rating in Tib. is
confined to these two exx.
67. ne sint modo : for modo in conditional wishes, cp. 1, 2, 31; 1, 6, 64;
67 ; 2, 5, 106.
68. On acorns and water (instead of fruges and tua musta) as the diet of
primaeval men see 2, I, 38 n.; Lucret. 5, 939–947. Goldbéry quotes here
as an imitation, Voltaire, Le Mondain-
Dessous un chêne ils soupent galament,
Avec de l'eau, du millet et du gland.
Le repas fait, ils dorment sur la dure:
Voilà l'état de la pure nature.
428
NOTES
[2, 3, 69
69. et passim semper amarunt: enlarged upon in 71–76. For the theme
see 1, 3, 63-64 n. The Epicureans use it to illustrate their theory of the
utterly savage condition of primitive man, cp. Lucret. 5, 962, et Venus in
silvis iungebat corpora amantum ; | conciliabat enim vel mutua quamque
cupido | vel violenta viri vis atque impensa libido | vel pretium, glandes
atque arbuta vel pira lecta'; Hor. Sat. I, 3, 109, 'quos venerem incertam
rapientis more ferarum | viribus editior caedebat ut in grege taurus'; A.P.
396, ' fuit haec sapientia quondam | publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis
| concubitu prohibere vago, dare iura maritis, etc.
Tibullus grants the primitive condition but makes it idyllic; cp. the same
theme and point of view in Propertius, 3, 13, 25—
felix agrestum quondam pacata iuventus, .
divitiae quorum messis et arbor erant !
illis munus erant decussa Cydonia ramo,
et dare puniceis plena canistra rubis,
nunc violas tondere manu, nunc mixta referre
lilia virgineos lucida per calathos,
et portare suis vestitas frondibus uvas
aut variam plumae versicoloris avem.
his tum blanditiis furtiva per antra puellae
oscula silvicolis empta dedere viris.
hinnulei pellis totos operibat amantis,
altaque nativo creverat herba toro,
pinus et incumbens lentas circumdabat umbras;
nec fuerat nudas poena videre deas, etc.
From the idyllic to the comic is but a step, and doubtless in this case the
step was actually taken in the Old comedy. For us, however, the motive so
treated seems to be confined to the more modern authors. The old Trouvère,
for instance, tells us that in that wondrous Land of Cokaigne (Way's trans.) -
Strife, and ire, and war were not;
For all was held by common lot;
And every lass that sported there
Still was kind and still was fair;
Free to eachi as each desir'd,
And quitted when the year expir'd;
For, once the circling seasons past,
Surest vows no more might last.
So, too, Lovelace exclaims —
Thrice happy was that golden age,
When compliment was constru'd rage,
429
2, 3, 70]
TIBVLLVS
And fine words in the centre hid;
When cursed no stain'd no maid's bliss,
And all discourse was summ'd in yes,
And nought forbad, but to forbid.
- amarunt: the remaining exx. of syncopation in Tibullus are optarim, I,
6, 74; 4, 11, 4; portarit, 2, 5, 70; iurasset, 1, 4, 24; peccasse, 1,6,71; 4, 7, 9;
nudasse, 4, 7, 2; audissem, 1, 10, 12; finissem, 2, 6, 19; nossem, 1, 10, II;
petiere, 2, 3, 21; abiere, 2, 1, 43; redierunt, 2, 5, 37 — a smaller number than
is usual in the dactylic poets of his time. On the other hand, unsyncopated
forms in the same sphere (tenses of the perfect stem in the first and to a less
extent in the fourth conjugation) are confined to lassaverit, 1, 9, 55; liba-
verat, 1, 10, 21; formaverat, 2, 5, 23. adiisse, 1, 2, 81; praeteriisse, I, 4,
34; subiisse, 1, 4, 47 are usual in dactylic verse. In other words, so far as
the first and fourth conjugations are concerned Tibullus makes a surprisingly
small use of those tenses and persons in which syncopation is usually per-
missible at will, but if he does use them he prefers the syncopated form.
The type, for instance, represented only by lassaverit, libaverat, and formaverat
is much used by some poets (esp. epic and satiric) to fill out the fifth foot of
the hexameter. At the same time forms of verbs ending in a dactyl or readily
combining with the following word to form a dactyl are thoroughly appreci-
ated. These are especially common of course in the second and third con-
jugations. Perfect infinitives, for example, of the type represented by incre-
puisse are obviously valuable esp. in the pentameter, but their frequency in
Tibullus practically amounts to a mannerism. 176 cases in books 1, 2, and
4, 2-14.)
70. nocuit: for the infinitive as subject see 1, 8, 25; 1, I, 29–32 n.
71-72. See Propert. 3, 13, 25 f. quoted above; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 621
(primitive modesty),'tunc quoque, cum solem nondum prohibebat et imbrem
tegula, sed quercus tecta cibumque dabat, | in nemore atque antris, non sub
Iove, iuncta voluptas : | tanta rudi populo cura pudoris erat. This conven-
tional background of a love affair al fresco is characteristic of the idyllic mood,
and already had a long tradition in Tibullus's time, not only as here to illus-
trate the simple life of other days, an ever recurring theme, but also in con-
nection with certain causes célèbres, notably Phaidra and Hippolytos, Venus
and Adonis, and their like, see 4, 3, 15-16 n. Numberless characteristic il-
lustrations of the scene are furnished by paintings, engravings, etc., from the
Renaissance to the close of the 18th century.
71. quibus aspirabat Amor: for the thought, phrase, and construction,
cp. 2, 1, 80; 2, 4, 57.
73–74. The thought of the preceding distich suggests by the poet's favourite
430
NOTES
[2,4
device of contrast the specific sorrows of his present situation as the exclusus
amator, with its well-worn illustration of the ianua or house door, cp. 1, 1, 73;
1, 2, 5-6; 7-14 and notes.
73. That is, ' erat nulla ianua dolentes exclusura.' The future participle is
the attribute of ianua (1, 9, 9, n.). "There was no watchman then, no door
destined to,' etc.
74. mos ille : for ille with the vocative, cp. is in 2, 3, 33 n.
75. The thought of the missing hexameter may be restored with a fair de.
gree of certainty. It seems clear that 76 qualified 75 in the same way that 70
does 69, and that 78 does 77, i.e, in each case a disadvantage is set over
against an advantage. Further, 76, the raiment of primitive man, is con-
trasted with 78, the dress of the modern exquisite. The missing 75, therefore,
ought to be a contrast with 77. The contrast with 77 is practically the
thought of 73–74. The thought, therefore, of the missing line was doubtless
a recapitulation of 73-74 — and this, moreover, is a very common device
with our poet.
78. laxam togam: on this habit of the ultra-fashionable Roman, see 1, 6,
-40 n. A sharp contrast with 76 is intended. The rude garments of primaeval
man, with love satisfied (75–76), are better than the most fashionable clothes
of to-day, with love thwarted. The logic is that of 32 above, and the argu-
ment upon which it rests is that, for instance, of 1, 2, 75 f.
79-80. The poet ends on his key-note, acknowledgment of his complete
slavery and of resignation to his fate.
79. ad imperium : 1, 7, 38 n.
80. 1, 6, 37–38 n.; 1, 5, 5 n. For the construction me vinclis nego, cp. 6.g.
Ovid, Trist. 5, 8, 13, 'vilia qui quondam miseris alimenta negarat,' etc. The
effect of the construction is to personify the datives vinclis and verberibus.
— vinclis verberibusque: see 1, 6, 38; 1, 9, 21; 1, 10, 65 and notes.
Wölffin cites Cicero, Orat. I, 194; Phil. 11, 7; Pomp. 11; Leg. 3,6; frag.
in Augustin. C. D. 21, 11; Lactant. 5. 18; Orosius, 1, 21; Querolus, 13,
10 Peiper.
2, 4
Tibullus describes and deplores his misery as a lover of Nemesis. He
pictures himself as the slave of a degrading passion for an utterly unworthy
object and as keenly alive to the fact. See Introd. p. 54.
Farewell forever to my former freedom. My fate is sealed. A bitter
bondage is my lot, and every torture which Love the slave-driver can invent.
Oh, to lose the power of feeling such agonies as mine how gladly would I be
à stone on some icy peak, a beetling crag towering immovable against the
431
2, 4, 1]
TIBVLLVS
tempestuous winds and angry seas ! Now, my days are bitter and my nights
more bitter still. My verses avail me nothing. She forever reaches out her
hand and asks for money, money, money! Begone then, ye Muses, since ye
cannot help a lover. She demands gifts, and gifts I must get or see her no
more. Anything but that! -though I get them by bloodshed and crime,
aye even by sacrilege — and thou, Venus, shalt be the first to suffer, for the
sin will be due to thee.
'Accursed be the discoverers of jewels and Tyrian dyes, of Coan silks and
Orient pearls! These it is that have corrupted womankind, that have locked
the door and put a watch-dog there. Bring a long purse and the very dog
will be your friend. Beauty and Greed are an ill-assorted pair and give Love
a bad name.
"As for you who are hard and grasping, may your ill-gotten gains be swept
away by wind and fire, and no one lift a finger to help, and when you die you
shall be unwept and unremembered. Not so the girl who was kind and
generous. Though she live an hundred years the tears shall flow when she is
laid in grave, and some grizzled oldster just for old sake's sake shall every
year lay flowers on her tomb, and as he turns to go shall say—“Sleep well,
and may earth rest lightly on thy bones!”
"My words are true, but how am I profited thereby ? 'Tis as she says, not as
I would have it. Nay then, if she wills it, iny old home shall be sold under
the hammer. Give me all the brews of Circe and Medea, all the potions
Thessaly can supply, and if Nemesis will only be kind I will drink them
down.'
1-2. 1, 6, 37–38; 1, 5, 5 and notes. The poet's mood is that of 2, 3,
79-80, but he is even more hopeless.
1. dominam : to be taken, of course, in its literal sense. - paratam: goes
with both servitium and dominam, but agrees with the nearer, cp. 1, 5, 36 n.
This concord is more common in poetry (esp. Horace) than in prose, but
no definite rule can be formulated.
2. mihi : 1, 6, 63 n. — illa : that is, 'former,' 'of other days.' For the
vocative cp. 2, 3, 74; 2, 3, 33 and note.
3-6. Give the details of 1--2.
3. sed : 'nay, more,''yes, and —ie, not only servitium, but triste (“harsh,'
dismal') servilium is my lot. I am kept in chains, and Amor never eases
them. For this corrective use of sed see 2, 5, 7 n.
5-6. A dramatic touch. As the slave of Love the poet is not only chained
(4) but burned. In 6 the torturer Amor and his able assistant Nemesis are
applying torches to various sensitive portions of the victim's anatomy. This is
the ure et torque of I, 5, 5 n. The same variety of torture in the Middle
432
NOTES
[2, 4, 8
Ages is often represented in contemporary prints. A final touch to the picture
is given by iol — the victim's shout of agony as the torch is forced against the
live flesh.
5. merui . . . peccavimus: on the shift to the plural see 1, 2, 11 n.
7-10. The sufferer becomes articulate and thereafter discusses with the
calmness of despair the details of his situation. The formation of the sen-
tence reflects the agony of the speaker – (1) the exclamatory o ego (cp. 2, 3,
5); (2) the desire to be free, which is the first articulate thought ; (3) yes, at
any price (hence ne ... possim, final subjunctive), “to be incapable of feel-
ing such torture'; (4) 'how gladly would I have been even,' etc. (quam
mallem, optative subjunctive of the wish with adverse decision, cp. Gilder-
sleeve-Lodge, 261 Rem., and 4, 13, 5 n.).
7. Carm. Epig. 1211, 9, 'sed quoniam multi talem sensere dolorem,' is
cited as an imitation.
8–10. The storm-beaten crag by the sea is a proverb of adversity, cp. e.g.
Soph. 0. K. 1240. More often the tall rock,' as the old play says, that
maintains majestic state, | Though Boreas gallop on the tottering seas, |
And tilting spit his froth out, spurging waves | Upon his surly breast' (cp.
Shirley's “rock that bids | Defiance to a storm, against whose ribs | The inso-
lent waves but dash themselves in pieces, | And fall and hide their heads in
passionate foam') is a proverb of one who stands firm against adversity, the
shock of battle, etc., cp. Homer, Il. 15, 618; Verg. A. 7, 586; 10, 693;
Ovid, Met. 9, 40; Seneca, Vit. Beat. 27, 3; etc. But rock is also a proverb
of the hard and the unfeeling, cp. 1, 1,63–64 n. The phrases ne . . . dolores'
in 7 and 'gelidis ... lapis'in 8 indicate that this was the point of the poet's
comparison here. This turn to the old simile is comparatively uncommon, cp.
however Hor. Epod. 17, 54 (which Tib. may possibly have had in mind),
'non saxa nudis surdiora navitis | Neptunus alto tundit hibernus salo'; Ovid,
Pont. 1, 2, 31, “felicem Nioben, quamvis tot funera vidit, quae posuit sen-
sun, saxea facta, mali! | vos quoque felices, quarum clamantia fratrem cortice
velavit populus ora novo. | ille ego sum lignum qui non admittar in ullum: 1
ille ego sum frustra qui lapis esse velim.... vivimus, ut numquam sensu
careamus amaro, 1 et gravior longa fit mea poena mora.'
8. The simile is not common, cp., however, Thomas Edward Brown,
Jessie, 12–
O thou my heart! O thou my useless heart!
Would God that thou wert dead -
A clod insensible to joys or ills —
A stone remote in some bleak gully of the hills!
Guy de Tours, Souspirs, 1, 29, seems to be echoing Tibullus —
433
2, 4, 9]
TIBVLLVS
T
Je voudrois estre, au profond de la mer,
Ou sur un mont, quelque roche insensible;
Je voudrois estre une souche impassible
A celle fin de ne pouvoir aymer.
Pour aymer trop et pour trop estimer
Une beauté rigoureuse au possible,
Je souffre au coeur un torment si terrible
Qu'il n'en est point là bas de plus amer.
9. stare: 1, 6, 49; 1, 1, 64 n.
·10. naufraga: active, cp. 1, 1; 8 and note; Ovid, Met. 14, 6; Hor. Od.
1, 16, 10; Val. Flacc. Į, 584 ; etc. — vasti maris: “the vasty deep. The
idea of desolate, insatiable, as well as of enormous, is involved. — tunderet
unda: cp. Horace quoted in 8-10 n.; Catull. 11, 3, "litus ut longe resonante
Eoa | tunditur unda,' etc. "The sound,' as Postgate observes, “echoes the
sense, giving the boom and thunder of the sea.'
11. nunc ... nunc: 1, 8, 75 n. — noctis amarior: on the noctes amarae
(of lovers) cp. 1, 2, 76 n.; Propert. 2, 7, 11; 4, 3, 29; Ovid, Her. 13, III;
etc. In a similar situation Fontenelle exclaims -
Je ne dors ni nuit ni jour,
Le Diable emporte l'Amour,
Ses petits frères, et sa mère,
Tous ses parens, jeux et ris,
Toute l'isle de Cythere, .
Et qui plus est, mon Iris.
12. omnia tempora madent: i.e. I have drunk the cup of bitterness to
the dregs. I am drunk with sorrow. The expression is usual to describe the
effect of wine taken in large quantities, cp. 1, 2, 3 n. ; 1, 7, 50; Hor. Od. 1,
7, 22, 'uda Lyaeo tempora, etc. — tristi: on tristi here and on the lover's
cup of gall see 1, 5, 50 and notes.
13–20. This variation of the theme of 2, 3, 35-60 is itself the combination
of three themes of frequent occurrence -(1) the conventional purpose of the
elegy; (2) the contrast between epic and elegy ; (3) the burning question of
the relation of gifts to the course of true love. The epic (16-18) is the accepted
standard of high poetry and of serious literary endeavour, the elegy (and ama-
tory poetry in general, cp. e.g. Hor. Od. 1, 6 and often) of the lighter vein
(cp. e.g. Ovid, Amor. 1, 1; 3, 1; 2, 1, 11-38 ; 2, 18; Propert. 3, 3; etc.).
The epic poet writes for the ages and to win glory, the elegiac poet writes for
his mistress and to win her favour (as here, cp. also Propert. 1, 8, 39 ; 2, 13;
3, 3, 47; Ovid, Amor. 2, 1; 3, 1, 41; etc.) — although he sometimes forgets
and tells the truth (cp. Introd. p. 20). Generally, however, he has to ac-
knowledge its inefficiency in these times of vulgar greed (as here, cp. 2, 3,
434
NOTES
[2, 4, 16
·
35-60, etc.), when gifts are the only attentions that count (1, 5, 61-68 ; 1, 8,
29; 1, 9, 51; 2, 3, 49; Propert. 4, 5, 53; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 57-68; 3, 8;
Ars Amat. 2, 273; 3, 551; etc.).
13. prosunt: i.e. to gain Nemesis, cp. 15-20, below.
14. cara manu: the beggar's gesture, cp. Sueton. Aug 91; Vesp. 23;
etc.— pretium: as Martinon truly observcs, est vif, mais cava manu est san-
glant.' Of course; they are meant to be. And the sudden appearance of
similar language to Delia in 1, 5, 68 f. (where see n.) was an indication that
in the poet's opinion the mistress he had once idealized had fallen to the
level of Nemesis and her kind, i.e. of the rapax meretrix, who like other
stock characters of the elegy is equally prominent in the allied departments
of comedy and its echo, the rhetorical letter writers, the satire, the epigram,
and even the Horatian lyric. The type of Nemesis seems not unlike that of
Philumena for example (Alkiphron, 1, 40), who writes to her lover as follows,
-Why do you make yourself miserable with all these letters of yours? I
don't want letters; I want fifty gold-pieces. If you love me, give them, if you
are stingy, stop bothering me. Good-bye. Similar descriptive passages re-
ferring to this type are e.g. Menander, 537 K.; Plautus, Asin. 165-242; Truc.
23-94; Trabea, p. 36 R.; Alkiphron, 1, 35 and 36; Aristainet. I, 14;
Philost. Epist. 19 and 23; Hor. Epist. 1, 17, 55; Anth. Pal. 5, 29–34; 113;
217; Mart. 11, 50; 12, 65; Petron. 137, etc.
The sphere of pretium as a word to describe the poet's view of the situa-
tion is seen e.g. in Ovid, Amor. I, 10, 63, also to a mistress, 'nec dare, sed pre-
tium posci dedignor et odi'; cp., in lighter vein, Ars Amat. 3, 551, 'a doctis
pretium scelus est sperare poetis. | me miserum, scelus hoc nulla puella timet,'
and esp. 2, 275-280 (often imitated by the Elizabethan poets). Naturally the
lena does not mince matters, cp.e.g. Propert. 4, 5, 53; Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 57-68.
Némethy quotes as perhaps the suggestion of this line Anth. Pal. 12, 212,
3, την χέρα μου κοίλην προσενήνoχας: ως απόλωλα. | μισθόν ίσως αιτείς.
15–20. Note that this paragraph begins and ends with practically the same
line. This striking rhetorical device is an extension of that already observed
in 1, 4, 61-62, where see note. Note too the arrangement of topics within
the paragraph itself, i.e. 15, the reference to the Muses, followed (16-18) by
a negative, what he does not care for; then reversing the order and contrast-
ing the positive, what he does care for (19), followed by the repeated refer-
ence to the Muses.
16. ut sint canenda: i.e. not 'to write epic,' which would be ut bella
canantur, but the passive periphrastic, 'with the idea that I am to write epic,'
that epic must be my theme. The construction is not common in a clause
of this type. -- bella canenda : i.e. epic, cp.Verg. A. I, 1,ʻarma virumque cano”;
435
2, 4, 17]
TIBVLLVS
T
forradto.
Vergil's epitaph, 4, 'cecini pascua, rura, duces,' i.e. Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid;
Dom. Marsus, 4, 'aut caneret forti regia bella pede'; Lucan, 1, 1, .bella
per Emathios plus quam civilia campos -- canimus'; Hor. Od. I, 6, 1-4.
Lines 17-18 show that in this instance the specific type represented by Homer
and Vergil is referred to.
17–18. The Homeric epic was mentioned in the previous line. In these
lines the poet names two conventional subjects in the sphere of didactic epic,
cp. the work of Empedokles, Aratos, Lucretius, Manilius, the mythical Mu-
saios and Orpheus, and such references as Verg. A. I, 740-746; E. 6, 31;
G. 2, 477; Propert. 3, 5, 25; Apoll, Rhod. I, 496; Orphic Argon. 205;
Manil. 1, 99; Ovid, Met. 15, 71; Hor. Epist. 1, 12, 16; etc.
17. refero vias et qualis, etc. : for the change of construction after the
same verb, cp. 1, 7, 17. — qualis ... recurrit: this single example in Tibullus
of the indicative in an indirect question follows the construction frequent in old
Latin. It disappeared in the classical historians (Caesar, Livy, Tacitus, etc.),
but survives in the classical poets, Catullus, Vergil, Ovid, and esp. Propertius,
who does not hesitate to use both moods side by side, cp. 2, 16, 29, 'aspice
quid donis Eriphyla invenit amaris, / arserit et quantis nupta Creusa malis ';
2, 34, 34,'ut fluxerit . . . ut errat : . . qualis fuerit'; 52, 'cur laboret ...
si restabitur . . . si tonent'; esp. 3, 5, 25–46, which contains a series of 24
indirect questions, 8 of which take the subjunctive and 16 the indicative.
After Propertius the tendency increases (Vitruvius, Petronius, Pliny, the poets,
the Archaists of the second century, etc.) and finally in Late Latin the indica-
tive becomes the rule.
19-20. See 13–20 n.
20. ista: 1, 6, 73 n.
21-23. The poet will be obliged to resort to murder and crime or, worse
yet, to sacrilege. This illustration of the power of love is practically identi-
cal with that of Plato, Rep. 574 D, where we are told that after such a des-
perate slave of his passions has wasted his own property, the property of his
parents, and possibly even has laid violent hands upon them, où apÔTOV MÈV
οικίας τινός εφάψεται τοίχου ή τινος οψε νύκτωρ ιόντος του ιματίου, μετά δε
ταύτα ιερόν τι νεωκορήσει.
22. That is, as an exclusus amator, cp. I, 2, 5-6 n.; Martial, 10, 13, 7, 'ad
nocturna iaces fastosae limina moechae, et madet heu, lacrimis ianua surda
tuis,' etc. - flebilis : active, cp. 1, 1, 8 n.
23. Cp. 1, 2, 81–82. As in Plato the climax of crime is reached with
sacrilege. Cicero, Leg. 2, 9, 22, quotes the old law, 'sacrum sacrove com-
mendatum qui clepsit rapsitve parricida esto. The later Lex Tulia included
sacrilegium under the head of peculatus. In the Digest, 48, 13, our most
436
NOTES
[2, 4, 28
important source for the legal aspect of this crime, we have a passage from
Ulpian, De Officio Proconsulis, 7, in which he says, Sacrilegii poenam debebit
proconsul pro qualitate personae proque rei condicione et temporis et aetatis
et sexus vel severius vel clementius statuere. et scio multos et ad bestias
damnasse sacrilegos, nonnullos etiam vivos exussisse, alios vero in furca
suspendisse. sed moderanda poena est usque ad bestiarum damnationem
eorum, qui manu facta templum effregerunt et dona dei in noctu tulerunt.
ceterum si qui interdiu modicum aliquid de templo tulit, poena metalli
coercendus est, aut, si honestiore loco natus sit, deportandus in insulam est.'
Widespread of course was the popular belief that the sacrilegus was pun-
ished by the god himself, and this is really all that Tibullus is thinking of both
here and in 1, 2, 81-82. Punishments meted out by the outraged divinity
appear to vary, e.g. oculis membrisque captum exspirare'in a case reported
by Pliny, 33, 83; a series of misfortunes ending in assassination acc. to
Iustinus, 39, 2, 5, cp. 24, 6, 4; suicide acc. to Demosthenes, Contra Timokr.
121 (738), etc. Important references to sacrilege are, among others, Juv. 13,
147; Arnob. 6, 20; Val. Max. 1, 1, 18; Ail. Var. Hist. 1, 20.
24-26. For somewhat similar illustrations of the naïveté of antique belief
cp. 1, 6, 3 and n.; Propert. 3, 7, 13; etc.
27 f. For this lecture on greed and extravagance with which 2, 3, 35 f. and
Propert. 3, 13, 1-14 have much in common, cp. I, 9, 17; Propert. I, 2; 3, 7; etc.
The greed of women is caused by the desire for expensive luxuries.
Expensive luxuries are illustrated by four standard examples - emeralds,
Tyrian purple, Coan vestments, and pearls. The construction of the two
sentences is due to the fact that the poet curses the purveyor of the first two,
then, in 29, gives his reason, and finally adds the last two as an afterthought.
Hence Coa vestis and concha as well as hic (i.e. the quicumque of 27) are
subjects of dat. quicumque is the grammatical subject of both legit and
tingit (hence hic), although logically the dyer of Tyrian purple and the col-
lector of jewels would be two different persons. The distinction, however, is
a matter of no consequence in this connection.
27. smaragdos: I, I, 51 n. Pearls (lucida concha) and emeralds were
much worn in Tibullus's time. Pliny, 9, 117, says that the emeralds and pearls
worn on ordinary occasions by the empress Lollia Paulina were worth
40,000,000 sesterces, i.e. nearly 2,250,000 dollars.
28. Tyrio murice : 2, 3, 57-58 n.-ovem : i.e. fleece. The whole for
the part or vice versa is a common device of poetry, cp. concha'below, i.e. the
shell for the pearl it contains; rota, 1, 9, 62 n. The only parallel, however,
for ovis = lana as here is cited by Wunderlich from Soph. Trachin. 696,
TO ydp kátayua ... j tñs oibs, but the line is bracketed in modern editions,
437
2, 4, 29]
TIBVLLVS
and it is to be observed that when Lygdamus echoes his master with 'tinctaque
Sidonio murice lana iuvat’ (3, 3, 18) he does not venture upon the figure.
29-30. Coa vestis: 2, 3, 53 n. '
30. rubro lucida: this appeal to the visual imagination by the mere juxta-
position of colour effects is common in Tibullus, cp. snow-white and royal
purple in 28 above; blue and gold in 1, 7, 12 (where see note), etc. — rubro
mari: 2, 2, 16 n.; 4, 2, 19; etc.
31-34. "Gold finds the way.' The passage may possibly be an echo of
Antipater Thess. Anth. Pal. 5, 30-
IIávta kalūs, TÓ ye unv, xpuoñv oti thu 'Appodltyv,
έξοχα και πάντων είπεν ο Μαιονίδης.
ήν μεν γάρ το χάραγμα φέρης, φίλος, ούτε θυρωρός
έν ποσίν, ούτε κύων εν προθύροις δέδεται.
ήν δ' ετέρως έλθης, και ο Κέρβερος. ώ πλεονέκται,
άπληστοι, πενίην ως αδικείτ’ άνομοι.
The same motive is also visible, though to a less degree, in Propert. 4, 5, 47
(advice of the lena), “ianitor ad dantis vigilet: si pulset inanis, surdus in
obductam somniet usque seram'; Ovid, Amor. 3, 8, 63 (cp. 31 f.), 'me pro-
hibet custos, in me timet illa maritum : | si dederim, tota cedet uterque domo.'
The passage, unlike Tibullus as a rule, has too much of the flavour and
sting of the Alexandrian erotic epigram to have escaped an occasional echo
in the modern poets. The most striking is a song by the celebrated Abbé de
Voisenon (Air: "Tout va cahin, caha') -
Sans dépenser,
C'est en vain qu'on espère
De s'avancer
Au pays de Cythère;
Femme en courroux,
Mari jaloux,
Grilles, verroux,
Tombent sur vous ;
Le chien vous poursuit comme loups :
Le temps n'y peut rien faire.
Mais si Plutus entre dans le mystère,
Grille, ressort,
Tombent d'abord ;
Le chien s'endort,
Le mari sort,
Femme et soubrettes sont d'accord;
Un jour finit l'affaire.
438
NOTES
[2, 4, 32
For the power of gold in this department cp. also 1, 5, 68 n.; 1, 4, 67;
Plautus, Asin. 182, and often in the Anth. Pal. eg. 5, 31; 32; 33; 113; 217.
31. clavim : the form is attested for this passage by the grammarian
Charisius (p. 126, 4 K.). This is really the proper form, although its occur-
rence elsewhere (Neue, I, p. 306) is confined to Plautus, Most. 425. See 1,
6, 47 n.
32. canis: 1, 6, 31-32 n.
Alliteration in the sense demanded by the investigations of Wölfflin has
already been treated in 1, 10, 65 n.; cp. also 1, 6, 38; 1, 9, 21; 2, 3, 80 and
notes. But alliteration in a wider and freer sense is an ornament of poetry as
such, and the particularly skilful use of it by Tibullus has not a little to do with
the wonderful music of his verse. This type therefore does not and should
not impress itself upon the ear as alliteration. The main object of it is to
impart ease and harmony, to produce verses the mere music of which shall
charm the ear we know not why. Here, for instance, we have a triple allitera-
tion of this type. It is true, of course, that in Roman antiquity the three main
stumbling blocks in the course of true love (clavis, custos, canis) happen to
be alliterative. It may be, too, that this was the best way to express the
thought of the line irrespective of alliteration. This, however, has nothing to
do with the effect produced by the alliteration, and a score of similar pen-
tameters and as many hexameters in Tibullus shows that the device was not
always due to accident or necessity. In many cases triple alliteration of this
type is accompanied by a fourth in the companion verse, cp. as here, 1, 4, 2;
2, 1, 32; 2, 3, 8; 2, 5, 120; 1, 4, 61; 2, 4, 47; 2, 6, 47: or with one pair, as
in 1, 1, 10; 48; 1, 2, 20; 1, 4, 12; 2, 4, 50; 4, 4, 10; 1, 5, 41; 1, 8, 7; 2,
3, 39; 71; 4, 4, 3: or with two pairs, as in 1, 6, 35; 1, 10, 39, etc.; cp. also
1, 3, 76; 1, 9, 13; 1, 10, 65; 2, 1, 51; esp. 2, 3, 8.
Another type is represented by 1, 2, 54, which is meant to echo but not too
closely the hocus pocus of an old popular charm, cp. 1, 3, II; 1, 5, 13:
another, by 1, 2, 90; 1, 6, 36; 1, 8, 30; 2, 5, 90; 4, 5, 3, etc. .
Alliteration between two words is extremely common and is often rein-
forced by a third, or e.. by a second alliterative pair in the companion line,
etc., cp. 1, 7, 13; I, 8, 31; 2, 4, 44; 1, 1, 33; 1, 7, 47; 2, 1, 77; 2, 4, 26;
4, 3, 13; and 1, 2, 33; 1, 3, 29; 1, 4, 21; 2, 1, 45; 1, 6, 37. In 1, 6, 28 and
1, 6, 72 we have quadruple alliteration, two in each line.
In nearly every instance these alliterations indicate or emphasize some
relation, not only syntactical, but rhetorical (comparison, contrast, chiasmus,
etc.). Very common too is the use of this device to emphasize the metrical
construction of the distich (see Introd. p. 104). Juxtaposition, for example,
a favourite method of marking contrasts, comparisons, etc., is most frequent at
439
2, 4, 35]
TIBVLLVS
the main caesura, esp. of the pentameter, cp. I, 10, 40; 1, 6, 72; 1, 8, 32;
2, 4, 44; 1, 10, 52; 2, 1, 45 and 46; 2, 4, 23; 26; 4, 4, 10, etc.: or again,
at the beginning and end of the second hemistich, as in 1, 2, 26; 1, 4, 21;
23; 82; 1, 5, 8; 1, 9, 51; 2, 6, 12; 4, 5, 3, etc.: or at the close of the first
and second hemistichs, as in 1, 1, 60; 72; 1, 2, 42; 1, 3, 29; 2, 1, 8; 2, 5,
58; 4, 3, 14; 4, 6, II; etc.: or at the beginning of the first and second
hemistichs, as in 1, 7, 12; 2, 6, 25; etc.: or at the beginning and end of the
line, as in 2, 1, 51, etc.: cp. esp. 2, 1, 46, where we have alliteration at the
caesura and also at the caesura of the hexameter.
35. caelestis: the use of this adjective as a substantive in the nominative
singular appears to be unique. A similar use in the accusative (which is
much less bold) is found in Ovid, Fasti, 6, 574, 'caelestemque homini concu-
buisse pudet.'
38. fecit ut: 1, 3, 54 n.
39-50. Cp. 1, 4, 65-70; 1, 9, 11 f., and esp. I, 6, 51-54 and 77–84 with notes.
The prophecy is the more valid and impressive because it rests on the assump-
tion that the lover, like the poet and the lunatic, is sacer, cp. 1, 2, 27-28 n.
39–40. Cp. Propert. 2, 16, 43-46 for a similar passage suggested by the
same situation.
39. pretio victos : i.e. who are unable to pay your price, or rather perhaps
to compete with the prices offered by rich rivals. Cp. Hor, Od. 3, 6, 32,
dedecorum pretiosus emptor.'
40. partas opes: i.e. the only thing you have ever really cared for, cp. I,
6, 53-54 n. — ventus et ignis: 1, 9, 12 n.; 1, 9, 49-50 n.
42. addat aquam: regular for putting out a fire, cp. Ovid, Pont. 1, 8, 46;
Rem. Amor. 552; etc.; and for this use of addere, 1, 2, 1.
43-44. On the significance of these attentions to the dead cp. 1, 1, 65-66
n.; 2, 6, 32.
43. seu: 2.1. vel si. On this old-fashioned use of seu without a correlative
cp. 1, 6, 21 n.
44. munus: such, for instance, as casting more or less expensive per-
fumes on the funeral fire, cp. 1, 3, 7 n.; Nemes. 1, 64 f., etc. One of the
most remarkable instances from this point of view in Roman history was the
funeral of Sulla, cp. Plutarch, Sulla, 38. The dead craved these attentions as
well as the tribute of tears and in a more primitive era they were given not
only as a tribute of affection but also that the departed might rest in peace,
i.e. without returning to plague the living. So, for example, the ghost of
Cynthia appears to Propertius in a dream (as did Patroklos to Achilles) and
reproaches him for his neglect of these duties, 4, 7, 31, 'cur ventos non
ipse rogis, ingrate, petisti ? | cur nardo flammae non oluere meae ? | hoc
440
NOTES
[2, 4, 51
etiam grave erat, nulla mercede hyacinthos | inicere et fracto busta piare
cado.'
45. That is, quae bona fuit nec avara.' nec =“and ... not'or but ...
not' is idiomatic, cp. e.g. Ter. Eun. 249,'est genus hominum qui esse primos
se omnium rerum volunt , nec sunt: hos consector'; Cic. Off. 3, 41, quod
utile videbatur neque erat,' etc. Here perhaps we may best translate by
(without being.'
46. flebitur: i.e. the company, all hands,' cp. Ter. And. (also of a funeral)
100, "funus interim | procedit; sequimur; ad sepulcrum venimus; | in ignem
impositast; fletur,' etc. It is also implied of course that the company will be
a large one, i.e. as opposed to “nec . . . ullus' (43), “not a single one.' Note
that the poet's lively fancy here shifts from the fervent wish of 'eripiant ...
spectent ... addat' to the prophetic certainty of "erit . . . flebitur ...
dabit . . . dicet. For similar exx. of a shifting point of view cp. I, 1, 24 n.
47. atque ... et: 1, 10, 23 n. — aliquis: here a substantive in apposi-
tion with senior, not an attribute of it; hence aliquis, not aliqui, is demanded
(Gildersleeve-Lodge, 314, Rem. I). - veteres veneratus amores: his love
of other days, where amores, like our own word love in such a connection,
might mean either his love, cp. 2, 2, II n., or the object of it, i.e. his sweet-
heart, cp. 1, 6, 35 n. In the former case "veteres veneratus amores' would
not be far from ‘for old sake's sake,' in the latter, 'honouring the memory of
his old sweetheart.' The use of vencer atus shows that the latter is meant.
48. annua serta : 2,6, 32; Propert. 4, 7, 43; Ovid, Fasti, 2, 535 f. Besides
the regular parentalia (Feb. 13-21), the anniversary of the death (parentalia
privata), etc., there were two special Decoration Days' in May or June,
known as the rosaria and the dies violae, at which this attention might be
shown. — constructo: the adjective is meant to suggest that the tomb itself
had been carefully built and taken care of.
49-50. For this naive and touching wish see 1, 4, 60 n. and cp. the variation
of Martial, 5, 34, 9 (on his little slave girl Erotion), 'mollia non rigidus caespes
tegat ossa, nec illi, | Terra, gravis fueris: non fuit illa tibi,' which is far better
than Meleager's epigram Els Alouyévny Tivà EÚtels Bivo avta (Anth. Pal. 7,
461) —
παμμήτορ γη, χαίρε συ τον πάρος ου βαρύν εις σε
Αίσιγένην καυτή νύν επέχoις αβαρής.
49. Carm. Epig. 541, 12 B., “hic ego sepultus iaceo placidusque quiesco,'
is quoted as an echo of this line.
51-52. The bitter confession brings us back again to the subject of the
elegy. For the same device cp. 1, 4, 81-84 (and n.); 1, 5, 67; 1, 5, 35; 2,5, 39.
441
2, 4, 53]
TIBVLLVS
puellae, , et pone ante oculos omnia damna tuos. / “illud et illud habet nec ea
contenta rapina est : / sub titulum nostros misit avara Lares, | . .." haec tibi
per totos inacescant omnia sensus : , haec refer, hinc odii semina quaere tui.'
53. On selling the Lares cp. e.g. Propert. 4, 7, 47; Juv. II, 17. A semi-
proverbial synonym of the last extremity of want or extravagance. The Eng-
lish parallel (as in the case of Charles Surface) would be the family portraits.
- sedes: the plural, of one place, is found in prose as well as in poetry.
54. sub imperium, etc.: i.e. at auction. imperium, i.e. magisterial
authority, a custom dating from the time when the auctio was specifically the
public sale of booty taken in war. Hence the expression sub hasta or sub
corona venire for auctio.
55-60. The poet is even willing to drink down every known love charm,
i.e. resign the last chance of escape from his thraldom, si modo,' etc. There
was a large trade in love charms, pocula amatoria, and they actually were
often administered (1, 8, 17–18 n.). The specialist in this line was the lena
(1, 2, 42 n.). People in the condition described by our poet as his own were
often thought, and doubtless with reason, to be the victims of them, cp. 1,
2, 59-62 n.; Propert. 4, 7, 72, 'sed tibi nunc mandata damus, si forte mo-
veris, , si te non totum Chloridos herba tenet,' etc.
55-56. An echo of these lines is pointed out by Traube in Kyd's Spanish
Tragedy, 2, 5 end (Hieronimo's last speech in this act, which he gives in
Latin). Lines 5-6 are “ipse bibam quicquid meditatur saga veneni, | quic-
quid et herbarum vi caeca nenia nectit.'
Circe and Medea are named together as here by Propert. 2, 1, 53, seu
mihi Circaeo pereundum est gramine, sive Colchis Iolciacis urat aena focis';
Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 103; Claud. In Ruf. 1, 153, etc. Circe (cp. Hom. Odyss.
10, 210; Apoll. Rhod. 3, 311; 4, 487-689; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 103; Hor.'
Epod. 17, 17; Val. Flacc. 6, 445; Claud. In Ruf. 1, 154, etc.) and Medea
(1, 2, 51 n.) are the two great enchantresses of antiquity and the stock ex-
amples of the type. — quidquid: for quidquid with the genitive see 1, 1, 51 n.
55. habet Circe, etc.; the present tense suggests that the poet was think-
ing of those books current in his own time purporting to contain all the
charms of these great specialists, cp. 1, 2, 51 n. — veneni: used here in the
old sense (cp. herbarum, 56; herbas, 60; 1, 2, 51 n.) of potion, philtre,
charm, cp. a similar development of meaning in pápuakov. The distinction
between a drug, a poison, and a magic philtre tends to disappear as we ap-
proach the primitive stage of popular belief.
56. Thessala terra: for Thessaly, the land of marvels, see 1, 2, 51 n.;
Propert. I, 5, 6; Lucan, 6, 438; Pliny, 30, 6 and often.
442
NOTES
[2, 5
57. ubi adflat: ubi of iterative action is found only here in Tib. Other-
wise, only with the perf. indic. of antecedent action, 1, 4, 31; 1, 6, 45; 2, 4,
17; 2, 5, 83; 2, 6, 49. - indomitis gregibus : cp. 2, 1, 68; Verg. G. 3, 266–
270; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 487, etc.—adflat amores: 2, 1, 80; 2, 3, 71 and
notes. Némethy quotes Theokrit. 17, 51, nãou ó ñecos ñ de Bpotols Malakous
μεν έρωτας | προσπνείει, κούφας δε διδοί ποθέοντι μερίμνας.
58. hippomanes: this charm was doubtless popular and probably very old.
It is first mentioned by Aristotle, De Animal. Hist. 6, 18, 4, who discusses at
some length the two or three charms known by this name, cp. also Verg. G.
3, 280, 'bic demum, hippomanes vero quod nomine dicunt | pastores, lentum
destillat ab inguine virus, | hippomanes, quod saepe malae legere novercae |
miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba,' a passage (cp. too 3, 266,
• scilicet ante omnes furor est insignis equarum , et mentem Venus ipsa
dedit') which may have been the source of Tibullus here. See also Ovid,
Amor. 1, 8, 8; Med. Fac. 38; Propert. 4, 5, 18. The idea of its efficacy is
derived from the same principle as that which, e.g., prompted the horrible scene
of Hor. Epod. 5. For the better-known charm by this name cp. Aristotle
1.C.; Verg. A. 4, 516; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 100; Juv. 6, 133, etc.
59. Hor. Od. 4, 3, 1, quem tu, Melpomene, semel / nascentem placido
lumine videris.'
60. Propert. 2, 24, 25 (in a similar situation), “si libitum tibi erit, Lernaeas
pugnet ad hydras i et tibi ab Hesperio mala dracone ferat, / taetra venena
libens et naufragus ebibat undas, , et numquam pro te deneget esse miser.' -
mille : 1, 3, 50 n. — misceat: for the omission of the conditional sign see
note on attigerit, 1, 6, 53.
2,5
This is the longest of Tibullus's poems, and the only one of a national
character. The immediate occasion of it was the fact that Messalinus (line
115), the eldest son of Messalla, had been made one of the XVviri sacris
faciundis. The date cannot be fixed exactly, but the fact that in a list
of the XVviri belonging to the year 17 B.C. (Ephemeris Epig. 8, 233) the
name of Messalinus comes last suggests that at that time his appointment was
still recent, and, therefore, that this poem was written not long before the
poet's death in 19 B.C.
The worship of Apollo, the first of the Hellenic divinities to be adopted by
the state, came to Rome by way of Cumae in the time of the Tarquins. It
continued to grow in importance until, finally, with the reign of Augustus
Apollo became, as it were, the guardian and protector of the Empire. This
443
2, 5]
TIBVLLVS
was largely due to the fact that the splendid temple on the Palatine (line I;
Propert. 2, 31; 4,6; Hor. Carm. Saec. 65, etc.) which was built by the Emperor,
and on Oct. 9, 28 B.C. dedicated by him, was a thank offering to his divine
patron (and, as many believed, his own father) for the victory at Actium
(Propert. 4, 6, etc.) and for the restoration of peace and stability for which
men had been longing (Hor. Od. 1, 2, etc.) ever since the death of the great
Dictator.
All the various Sibyls (67–80 n.) were closely associated with Apollo and his
worship, and it was universally believed that their prophecies were inspired by
him (15 n.). Hence the supreme importance attached to the Libri Sibyllini
from the first appearance of them together with the worship of Apollo himself
until nearly the fall of the Western Empire. The books of Oracula which, ac-
cording to the well-known story (Servius on Verg. A.6, 72, etc.), Tarquin bought
of the Sibyl Amalthea were deposited by him in a stone chest underneath the
temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Here they remained until their destruction at
the burning of the temple in 83 B.C. The temple was rebuilt in 78 B.C. Two
years after, the Senate (Lactant. Div. 1, 6, 4) sent a commission to Erythrae
and to various other cities of Italy, Sicily, and Africa (Tac. Ann. 6, 12) to
collect whatever Sibylline oracles might still be in existence. About 1000
verses, for the most part derived from individuals, were brought back to Rome.
After careful sifting the residuum was placed in the new Capitol. Later, this
residuum was again revised by Augustus, and, at the same time, nearly 2000
books of oracles, then current among the people, were examined. Whatever
was considered genuine was transcribed by the XVviri and deposited in two
coffers under the statue of the Palatine Apollo. The remainder was burned.
According to Suetonius, Aug. 31, this took place in 12 B.C. when Augustus
became pontifex maximus, but from this poem, line 17 f. (cp. Cassius Dio, 54,
17.; Verg. A. 6, 72), it is clear that the date was certainly previous to 19 B.C.
A similar inquisition of the Sibylline oracles was made by Tiberius in 19 A.D.
(Cassius Dio, 57, 18) and again in 32 A.D. (Tac. Ann. 6, 12). In 363 A.D.
they were still in the temple on the Palatine (Ammian. Marcell. 23, 3), but
soon after 400 they were finally destroyed by Stilicho (Rutilius, De Red. 2, 51,
etc.). The extant collection known as the Oracula Sibyllina has little or
nothing to do with the old Libri Sibyllini.
The Libri Sibyllini were looked upon and used, not as a collection of
prophecies of the future, but rather as an authority for the course to be pur-
sued in the case of special and dreadful prodigia (Cicero, Div. 2, 112, etc.)
not otherwise provided for. They were, therefore, consulted only on rare
occasions. The care of them was originally intrusted to a board of two
patricians (* duumviri sacris faciundis '). In accordance with a law introduced
444
NOTES
[2, 5
by the tribunes and passed in 367 B.C. the number was increased to ten, five
patricians and five plebeians (Livy, 6, 37, 12 f.). . The increase to fifteen was
due to Sulla, and it is first mentioned by Cicero, Epist. 8, 4, 1 (51 B.C.). Caesar
raised the number to sixteen (Cassius Dio, 43, 51, 9) and in later times,
owing to the imperial privilege of electing supra numerum, the board, though
always known as the XVviri sacris faciundis, often consisted of twenty or even
more (Cassius Dio, 51, 20, 3). Throughout the empire the YVviri were of
great importance, and appointments to the board were often given, as in the
case of Messalinus, to promising young men of good family. The Libri
Sibyllini were never seen except by the XVviri (Cicero, Div. 2, 112, etc.) and
their contents could not be divulged. The XVviri had the sole right of ap-
proaching and examining the books, but they could exercise it only when so
authorized by a special decree of the Senate (Cicero, Div. 2, 112; Dionys.
Hal. 4, 62, 5). Such a decree, as stated above, was usually occasioned
by the occurrence of prodigies for which the ordinary methods of expiation
were felt to be insufficient or unsuitable (Livy, 22, 9, 8, etc.). In such cases
the XVviri examined the Libri Sibyllini and brought back a responsum, a
written report of their findings, upon which the Senate proceeded as it saw fit
(Livy, 42, 2, 3, etc.).
The form of this elegy (which reflects the poet's characteristic methods of
composition and in spite of all argument to the contrary impresses me as a
complete unity just as it stands) is largely due to the influence of two con-
siderations — first, the fact that the poem is an elegy (hence, e.g., the intro-
duction of the erotic element, 105 f.), second, the far more important fact that
the real subject of the poem is not the election of Messalinus to the XVviri
but the topics suggested by it.
These topics, which were all of national interest, are — first, the victory of
Augustus over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. The father of Messalinus
commanded a division in that battle, and the victor was very properly regarded
as the saviour of his country (Hor. Od. I, 31; Propert. 3, II, 29). The
second is the prodigies indicating the wrath of the gods at the death of
Julius Caesar, a murder which, from the first, both for personal and political
reasons, Augustus made it his peculiar business to avenge. The third is the
legend of Aeneas and the destiny of Rome, the theme of the great national
epic which, though it is not mentioned, was being written at this time and is
evidently referred to.
The appointment of Messalinus naturally suggests Apollo, Actium, the
Sibyl. The Sibyl in turn brings up the prodigies for which her books were
consulted and the destiny of Rome which she foretold to Aeneas. The
vision of Rome in the days of primaeval simplicity is suddenly interrupted by
O-
445
2, 5, 1]
TIBVLLVS
the prophecy of the Sibyl (39 f.), and the thought that the prodigies attending
the death of Caesar are all a thing of the past leads naturally to the favourite
idyllic picture of 81. This brings us by an easy transition to Nemesis and
his own elegiac sorrows, then back to Messalinus again, and thus the poem
1. sacerdos: i.e. Messalinus, now one of the XVviri.
II, 165) indicates the famous Apollo Kitharoidos of Skopas, which Augustus
had recently placed in the temple on the Palatine. Propertius says after see-
ing it there (2, 31, 5), ' hic equidem Phoebo visus mihi pulchrior ipso | mar-
moreus tacita carmen hiare lyra.' The Apollo Musagetes now in the Vatican
is probably an imitation of it.
Apollo is invoked not only as the kitharoidos, the singer and the patron of
poets, but as the god to whom the triumph at Actium (5 n.) was due, and
finally as the god of prophecy (11 f.).
2. age : So 2, 2, 10. — cithara carminibusque : I, 10, 65 n.
3. Imitated in Carn. Epig. 489, 3 B., 'vox ei grata fuit, pulsabat pollice
cordas.'— nunc ... nunc: 1, 8, 75 n.- pollice: of playing the cithara,
Ovid, Met. 5, 339; Amor. 2, 4, 27, and often.
4. precor: rare with the accus, and infin., cp. Ovid, Her. 5, 158; 19, 82;
Pont. 1, 7, 6; Val. Flacc. 7, 353; Pliny, 18, 131. This appears to be the first
case. - flectere: 1, 7, 37 n. For ad laudes cp. 1, 7, 38 n.
5. triumphali lauro: 1, 7, 5-8 n. The laurel crown on the Apollo of
Skopas was evidently meant to suggest the song of triumph after the fight
with the Titans to which Tibullus himself alludes in 9-10. The fight with
the Titans is throughout the divine prototype and analogy of the fight with
the Lords of Misrule at Actium. When, therefore, the Apollo of Skopas be-
came the Apollo of the Palatine, the laurel crown symbolized the triumph at
Actium as well as its Olympian prototype. — tempora : 1, 1, 70 n.
6. cumulant aras: generally completed with some such ablative as donis,
cp. Verg. A. 8, 284; II, 50; 12, 215; etc. The indefinite subject 'they' is
found only here in Tibullus and is extremely uncommon in classical Latin
except with verbs of saying, thinking, and calling.
7. sed: yes, and ...' This use of sed, in which the adversative force
has nearly disappeared, belongs to the language of conversation, but is found
in all types of composition, cp. e.g. 2, 4, 3; Martial, 1, 117, 7 (with Friedländ-
er's note); Juvenal, 5, 147 (with Mayor's note); Catullus, 21, 13; Caesar,
B.C. I, 83, 2; Cicero, Off. 1, 135; etc. Esp. frequent in Martial. —
vestem: i.e. the palla, regularly worn by Bacchos, cp. 1, 7, 46 and n.
It was part of the singer's costume (cp. the famous story of Arion, Herod. 1,
446
NOTES
[2, 5, 10
24; Ovid, Fast. 2, 107; Gellius, 16, 19) and very expensive, cp. 6.g. Rhet, ad
Heren. 4, 60, 'uti citharoedus cum prodierit optime vestitus, palla inaurata in-
dutus, cum chlamyde purpurea, coloribus variis intexta,' etc. Hence regularly
worn-- as in the statue of Skopas - by Apollo Kitharoidos, cp. Hom. Hymn.
3 (to Apollo), 184 and 203; Kallimachos, Hymn. 2 (to Apollo), 32; Propert.
2, 31, 16; Ovid, Met. 3, 556; II, 166: and esp. Amor. 1, 8, 59, where the lena
instructing her pupil that gifts must always be demanded, says 'ecce, quid iste
tuus praeter nova carmina vates | donat ? amatoris milia multa leges. ipse
deus vatum palla spectabilis aurea | tractat inauratae consona fila lyrae.'
8. sepositam: “laid aside' (i.e. for special occasions). For this naïve
touch, reflected, e.g., in the universal habit of dressing up the images of the
gods on feast days, cp. Hor. Od. 3, 28, 2; Epod. 9, 1; Sat. 2, 6, 84; Tac.
Germ. 29; etc. So as here the gods are expected to dress themselves for such
occasions, cp. 4, 6, 13; Stat. Silv. 2, 7, 5; Claud. Epithal. Pallad. 100; etc.
9-10. No reference to this detail of the well-known story is now found in
Greek literature. Perhaps the authority of Skopas (note on 5 above) was
some tragedy now lost, cp. Seneca, Agam. 338 (to Apollo), 'licet et chorda
graviore sones, | quale canebas cum Titanas fulmine victos | videre dei,' etc.
No other references in Latin are quoted. Ariosto, O. F. 3, 3, 3, seems to be
a blended reminiscence of both Seneca and Tibullus, cp..quella cetra | Con
che tu, dopo i gigantei furori, | Rendesti grazia al regnator de l'etra' (that
noble lyre | Which sounded at your touch the Thunderer's praise, What
time the Giants sank in penal fire,' as Rose translates it).
The Romans had viewed with horror the imminent prospect of seeing
Cleopatra and her horde established in their city and the recent defeat at
Actium was in every one's mouth, cp. Hor. Od. 1, 37; Propert. 4, 6; Manilius,
1, 914 (a long passage suggested by the themes developed by Tibullus in this
elegy), 'necdum finis erat : restabant Actia bella | dotali commissa acie, repeti-
taque rerum | alea et in ponto quaesitus rector Olympi; | ſemineum sortita
iugum cum Roma pependit | atque ipsa Isiaco certarunt fulmina sistro.' The
analogy with that Olympian prototype, the rout of the Titans, was already
familiar through the statue of Skopas himself and was very likely developed
in some one of the many lost poems of the time (e.g. Varius, Pan. Augusti?).
Note that in this period the war with the Titans was a stock theme for epic,
cp. Propert. 2, 1, 19; 3, 9, 47; Ovid, Amor. 2, 1, 11, implies that he himself
once began to write a poem on this subject.
10. concinuisse : i.e. cecinisse, cp. I, 3, 44 n. For this use of concino for
cano, cp. e.g. Hor. Od. 4, 2, 33; Auson. Mosell. 443, etc. Here, however, as
elsewhere, the compound may have been suggested by the idea of accom-
paniment, cp. line 88 below.
447
2, 5, 11]
TIBVLLVS
11-16. Apollo was first addressed as the god of song. He is now addressed
as the god of prophecy (cp. 2, 3, 21-22; Ovid, Met. 1,517; Stat. Theb. 1, 706;
Aisch. Eumen. 19, etc.) in general (11). The poet then mentions the ſour
kinds of divination used and recognized by the Romans. These are augury
(11-12), sortes (13), aruspicina (13-14), and the Libri Sibyllini (15-16).
course, only the fourth, the one with which Messalinus is concerned, is of im-
portance. By placing it last a natural and easy transition is found for the
topics upon which the poet wishes to enlarge.
II-12. The college of Augurs, raised to fifteen by Sulla and to sixteen by
Caesar (as in the case of the X Vviri mentioned above), continued until well
into the fourth century A.D. The disciplina which has been derived from
Latium and Central Italy instead of Etruria is traditionally associated through
the well-known episode in the story of Romulus and Remus with the very
beginnings of Rome itself. The augurs were the official representatives of
the science of auspicia, a method of divination peculiar to the Romans, the
object of which, as with the Libri Sibyllini, was not to discover the secrets
of the future but to gain the sanction of the gods for the given matter in hand.
For all the meticulous details of procedure the student is referred to any good
classical dictionary s.v. Augur. The 'auspicia ex avibus' to which Tibullus
here refers had practically ceased to be considered as early as Cicero's time.
Originally, however, as the word auspicium itself implies, they were the only
ones with which the augurs concerned themselves at all.
12. fati: for the gen. with providus cp. 1, 8, 3 n.; Ovid, Met. 12, 18, at
veri providus augur,' etc. First in Cicero. The use of adjectives with a geni-
tive of reference, limited in early times, was considerably extended in the
classical period. The construction is characteristic of poetry and was there-
'fore common in the rhetorical poetizing prose of later times.
13. sortes: 1, 3, 11-12 n. — aruspex . . . exta: 2, 1, 25 n.
14. lubrica: probably literal, referring to the smooth, slippery exta (Post-
gate). — notis : so Ovid, Met. 7, 600; Lucan, 1, 619; Seneca, Oed. 352 and
often. The Greek equivalent of this technical term is onueiov, see loßós in
Suidas and Hesychios.
15. Sibylla : there were a number of Sibyls, and the extremely difficult
question of their identity and of their relations to each other had been
thoroughly discussed by Varro a few years before these lines were written
(see esp. Lactant. I, 6, 10). They are all associated, however, with the
worship of Apollo; the institution, so to speak, spread with the cult, and an
examination of their geographical distribution carries us back to Asia Minor
in the vicinity of the Troad. The multiplication of Sibyls is the multiplica-
2
NOTES
[2, 5, 19
tion of shrines at which the presence of a Sibyl is expected. Strictly speak-
ing, therefore, Sibyl was not a common noun used to designate one of a type,
but a proper noun, the original Sibylla, used to designate her representative
elsewhere. Indeed, one of the favourite methods of explaining the multiplic-
ity of Sibyls was to assume that they were in reality one and the same, i.e.
that the original Sibyl had made her appcarance in the given place and had
remained there for a time. The tradition, for example, that the Cumaean
Sibyl was the Erythraean Sibyl, i.e. that she came to Cumae from Erythrae,
is as old as Aristotle, Mirabilia, 95. It was accepted by Varro, and Livy, I,
7, 8, shows that it must have been current in Tibullus's time. Varro also
repeats the opinion that it was the Cumaean Sibyl who sold the books to
Tarquin, i.e. the Sibyl to whom Tibullus is here referring. After discussing
the various Sibyls, Varro says, 'harum omnium Sibyllarum carmina et feruntur
et habentur praeterquam Cumaeae cuius libri a Romanis occultantur nec eos
ab ullo nisi a XVviris inspici fas est' (cp. Tib. 17–18). That it was also the
Cumaean Sibyl who prophesied to Aeneas would naturally be stated by
Tibullus (19 and n.); this had already been adopted by Vergil for his great
national epic, the sixth book of which was undoubtedly familiar to our poet.
16. senis pedibus: the oracles of the Sibyl were all in Greek hexame-
ters. For this paraphrase of hexametris cp. Hor. Sat. 1, 10, 59, 'mollius ac
siquis pedibus quid claudere senis.' --- canit: i.e. they still exist and are con-
sulted, cp. note on habet, 2, 4, 55.
17-18. A passage in Vopiscus, Aurel. vit. 19, says that the XVviri
handled the Libri Sibyllini 'velatis manibus,' but the method of selection is
naturally not known. Niebuhr's theory that verses were selected at random
per sortes receives some apparent support from line 69 and from Lactant. 1,
6, 12, in which the oracles of the Sibyl are called sortes (but see n. on 69–70).
Cicero, Div. 2, 111, and Varro (in Dionys. Hal. 4, 62) tell us that all genuine
oracles of the Sibyl were acrostic (cp. an ex. in the Oracula Sibyllina, S, 217-
250 Rzach). But that the acceptedly genuine oracles of the Sibyl were
marked by this comparatively recent invention in the art of versification is
unlikely in itself and would certainly be unknown to Cicero, Varro, or any one
else except the X Vviri themselves.
17. sacras chartas: i.e. the Libri Sibyllini now in the temple on the
Palatine.
18. Note that the two halves of the pentameter are alike, i.e. the first hemi-
stich like the second consists of two dactyls and ends in an iambic dissyllable.
This is rare in Tibullus, see Introd. p. 99.
19. haec dedit Aeneae sortes : i.e. the Sibylla of line 15, where see note.
Vergil located the prophecy of the Cumaean Sibyl at Cumae and some
449
2, 5, 19]
TIBVLLVS
modern editors make Tibullus do the same. But the plain inference of 'nec
ſore credebat, etc. (21-22), following immediately upon `postquam ... Lares'
(19-20) seems to be that the Sibyl gave her prophecy to Aeneas, not when he
reached Cumae at the end of his long journey, but just after he had escaped
from Troy and was preparing to set out, i.e. the Sibyl herself had not yet
gone on to Cumae. That this was what the poet had in mind is rendered
the more plausible by the fact that the Erythrae from which the Cumaean
Sibyl originally came was, according to a theory discussed in Tibullus's time
(Dionys. Hal. 1, 55; Pausan. 10, 12), located on Mt. Ida, in other words in
the very neighbourhood with which it is the constant tradition that Aeneas was
in some way associated during the very period suggested by 19-20, the inter-
val between his escape from Troy and his departure for Italy. The old ver-
sion was that the prophecy to Aeneas was given before his departure by the
Sibyl of Marpessos. See Roscher's Lex., s.v. “Sibylla'; Maass, Hermes, 18,
327; and Robert, id. 22, 454; Leo, Phil. Unters. 2, 6. - sortes: 3.e. proph-
ecies in general, as in 69 and often. So in the parallel passage of Vergil, A.
6, 71, Aeneas says to the Sibyl —
Te quoque magna manent regnis penetralia nostris:
hic ego namque tuas sortes arcanaque fata,
dicta meae genti, ponam lectosque sacrabo,
alma, viros,
referring of course to the Sibylline books (sortes), their preservation (pene-
tralia), and the care of them by the XVviri (lectos viros). — postquam
dicitur sustinuisse: i.e. 'postquam sustinuit, ut dicitur. The clause has
been incorporated with the verb of saying, cp. I, 5, 9; 2, 3, 29-30 and notes.
– parentem . . Lares: these two details of the Aeneas legend (Vergil, A. 1,
378; 2, 707; 4, 598; etc.) had been widely known for many generations in
both art and literature, e.g. on numerous coins (the oldest of which is a coin
of Aeneia from the sixth century B.C.), in the “Tabula Iliaca' which depicts the
legend as told by Stesichoros (630-550 B.C.), in his Iliupersis, in the Iliuper-
sis of Arktinos, etc. A frag. of the Laokoon of Sophokles (344 N.), quoted
by Dionys. Hal. 1, 48, gives us the scene -
νύν δ' εν πύλαισιν Ανέας και της θεού
πάρεστ' επ' ώμων πατέρ' έχων κεραυνίου
νώτου καταστάζοντα βύσσινον φάρος,
κύκλο δε πάσαν οικετών παμπληθίαν·
συνοπάζεται δε πλήθος ουχ όσον δοκείς,
οι τήσδ' έρωση της αποικίας Φρυγών.
The corresponding passages in Naevius and Ennius have not survived.
450
NOTES
[2, 5, 23
20. Lares: the Penates are meant, but as these two classes of household
gods were worshipped side by side, the confusion is not infrequent, cp. Plaut.
Rud. 1206; Cicero, Quinct. 85; etc.
21. nec credebat cum respiceret: as,' i.e. when(ever) he looked
back he could not believe,' cp. 1, 5, 9 n.
22. ardentes: to be taken of course with both Ilion and deos, cp. I, 1, 24;
1, 5, 36 n. For the displacement of que, see I, I, 40 n. - deos: i.e. 'templa
deorum,' a not uncommon use, cp. Vergil, A. 3, 275, et formidatus nautis
aperitur Apollo'; 3, 552; 4, 671; 2, 742; Ovid, Fast. 6, 437; etc. So
even of men, A. 2, 311; etc. Much more frequent, however, is deus = statua
dei, cp. 1, 6, 48; 1, 10, 20; 2, 5, 27 and 28; Propert. 2, 6, 36; 4, 1, 5;
Ovid, Her. 12, 70; Hor. Od. 2, 18, 27; 4, 4, 48; Sat. 1, 8, 3; Sen. Herc. Oet.
173; Juv. 8, III; etc. Indeed a number of curious superstitions show
that according to cominon belief the gods actually did inhabit their statues.
Even the Fathers did not deny it in many cases. They merely insisted that
the tenants were not gods, but demons. Doubtless many of the masterpieces
of antiquity were destroyed for this reason. The most famous case of the
survival of this belief is the mediaeval story of the 'Ring of Venus.'
23-38. It is already time for the Sibyl's prophecy, but the poet's allusion to
the long sea voyage not only makes it clear that the prophecy did take place
before Aeneas set out, but also leads us as it were unconsciously into a favourite
topic with the writers of his time. This is the contrast between old and new
Rome, cp. Verg. A. 8, 357; Propert. 4. I; esp. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 509 (which also
illustrates, our poet's device here of postponing the main issue in favour of a
digression).
The device here has often been criticized. As a matter of fact, however,
this is not a digression except in outward form. The poet's object is to con-
trast Rome the primitive hamlet with Rome the mistress of the world. The
digression, springing naturally from what precedes, furnishes the one, the Sibyl's
prophecy pictures the other. Reversal would not only have destroyed the
natural rhetorical order of the two contrasted descriptions, but also would
have interfered with an easy transition to the following topics.
23. aeternae urbis: the first occurrence of this famous title of Rome.
We find it a few years later in Ovid, Fasti, 3, 72 (also speaking of Romulus),
Siam modo qua fuerant silvae pecorumque recessus, urbs erat : aeternae cum
pater urbis ait,' etc., and then long afterward in Ausonius, 22, 4, 1, urbis et
aeternae deductam rege Quirino | annorum seriem,' etc. The idea, however,
which is associated with that of Rome as mistress of the world (57–60 n.) and
appears as early as Cicero, Phil. 2, 51, first became prominent in the early years
of the imperial régime when these lines were written, and when Vergil
451
2, 5, 24]
TIBVLLVS
was composing his deneid, cp. c.g. A. I, 276, where Jupiter says, “Romulus
excipiet gentem et Mavortia condet | moenia Romanosque suo de nomine
dicet. | his ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono: | imperium sine fine
dedi,' etc. See also Livy, 4, 4, 4; 6, 23, 7; 28, 28, 11; Tiberius (in Tac.
Ann. 3, 6), 'principes mortales rem publicam aeternam'; Sulpicia, Sat. 33;
Sil. Ital. 7, 476; esp. the fine passage in Rutil. Namat. Itin. 47-140. The
emperor Hadrian built a temple to Venus and Rome and dedicated it on
April 21, the birthday of the city. At that time aeter na became an official
title of Rome, and we begin to find • Urbs Roma Aeterna' or 'Roma Aeterna'
on coins. — formayerat: .e. shaped,'traced,' cp. e.g. Verg. A.9, 80, 'tem-
pore quo primum Phrygia formabat in Ida | Aeneas classem.' See also 2, 3,
69 n. on amarunt.
24. Alluding, of course, to the old legend that Remus was slain by his
brother for leaping over the wall of the new town. The story was told by
Ennius, cp. Ann. 99 V (Romulus to Remus), 'nec pol homo quisquam faciet
inpune animatus | hoc nisi tu: nam mi calido das sanguine poenas.' See also
Cicero, Off. 3, 41; Hor. Epod. 7, 17; Propert. 3, 9, 50; Livy,'I, 7; Ovid,
Fasti, 4, 837; 3,69 (softened); etc. — consorti: may be used in the sense of
brother (Ovid, Met. 11, 347; 13, 663; Pont. 3, 2, 48; etc.) as well as of co-
heir (Minuc. Felix, 31, 8, etc.). Remus was both (Verg. A. 1, 292; Propert.
4, 1, 9; etc.). Strictly speaking, habitanda should go with urbis. Agreement,
however, with moenia is natural enough, and in this case is dictated by metri-
cal convenience.
25–26. A favourite detail in these descriptions, cp. Propertius, 4, 1, 1, .hoc
quodcumque vides, hospes, qua maxima Roma est, / ante Phrygem Aenean
collis et herba fuit; , atque ubi navali stant sacra Palatia Phoebo, | Evandri
profugae concubuere boves. fictilibus crevere deis haec aurea templa, , nec
fuit opprobrio facta sine arte casa,' etc.; 3, 9, 49–50; Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 119,
quae nunc sub Phoebo ducibusque Palatia fulgent, | quid nisi araturis pascua
bubus erant?'; Fasti, 1, 243, hic ubi nunc Roma est incaedua silva vire-
bat, , tantaque res paucis pascua bubus erat'; 1, 199 f.; 5, 91, etc.
25. pascebant: takes here its more usual cons. as in Verg. G. 3, 143; 4,
181, etc. See 2, 3, 42 n. Note the succession of picturesque imperfects in
this passage (25-34). — Palātſă : 1, 1, 4 n. The plural is due to the exigencies
of metre. The singular is possible only when the final syllable can be elided
before 'a short vowel (in this period generally undesirable). Even in the
plural the genitive, dative, and ablative (Palātiorum, Palātiīs) are quite im-
possible. So of Capitolia and of all other nouns of the first and second de-
clensions in which the final syllable is preceded by a trochee.
26. 'in Iovis arce: i.e. 'in Capitolio.' The memory of these casae was per-
452
NOTES
[2, 5, 31
petuated by the so-called · Casa Romuli' built of reeds. It was often burned
down, but as often renewed in later times; cp. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 199; 3, 183;
Verg. A. 8, 653; Vitruv. 2, 1, 5; etc.
27. lacte: a regular offering to rustic divinities, to Pan, as here, Theokrit.
5, 58, etc.; to Pales, 1, 2, 48 n.; Ovid, Fasti, 4, 745; to the Camenae, Servius
on Verg. E. 7,21; to Bacchos, Valgius Ruf. frag. 5 B.; to Priapos, Verg. E. 7.
33; to Daphnis, Verg. E. 5, 67; to Silvanus, Hor. Epist. 2, I, 143; etc. For
its use in magic (due to conservatism) see 1, 2, 48 n. - ilicis : the ilex, the
beech, and esp. the pine were all trees sacred to Pan, and a statue of him
was often set up, as here, beneath one; cp. Longus, 2, 23 and 24; Anth. Pal,
16, 12; 13; etc.
28. Pales: 1, 1, 36 n. The rough-hewn wooden gods of the country and
of earlier days are often referred to, cp. I, 10, 17–18 n.; 1, 10, 20; Propert. 4,
2, 59 (Vertumnus loq.), 'stipes acernus eram properanti falce dolatus ante
Numam grata pauper in urbe deus’; Culex, 86, illi falce deus colitur non
arte politus. The conventional representative of this type is Priapos; cp. 1,
4, 3-6 n. and references.
29. pendebat in arbore: for the prep. cp. I, 1, 6r n. — vagi: the word is
peculiarly applicable to shepherds, esp. about the Mediterranean, owing not
only to pasture, but also to the fact that sheep cannot endure extremes of heat
and cold. Hence they have always been driven to the hills in the spring and
back again to the valleys in the fall, cp. Varro, De Re Rust. 2, 2, 9, 'longe
... et late in diversis locis pasci solent, ut multa milia absint saepe hibernae
pastiones ab aestivis . . . nam mihi greges in Apulia hibernabant quae in
Reatinis montibus aestivabant. See also Hesiod, W. and D. 516; Soph.
0. T. 1137; Columella, 7, 5 and 6; Dio Chrys. 7, 13; etc.
30. silvestri deo: perhaps Pan, or more likely Silvanus (silvestri = Silva-
nus) is meant. See, however, I, 1, 14 n.; 1, 5, 27; 2, 1, 37.— fistula: for the
fistula as a rustic ex-voto, cp. Verg. E. 7, 24, ‘hic arguta sacra pendebit fistula
pinu' (to the Nymphs); Nemes. I, 13, ‘nunc album caput et veneres tepuere
sub annis, | iam mea ruricolae dependet fistula Fauno'; Longus, 1, 4 (describ-
ing the grotto of the Nymphs), 'AVÉKELVTO dè kal yavdol kai aŭlol Táyli kal
oúpiyyes kai kála pol, a peo BUTÉpWV TOLÉvwv åvaðnuata4, 26 (Daphnis about
to give up the life of a shepherd), ovva@polo as távra td TOLMEVLKà KTÝ uara
διένειμεν αναθήματα τους θεούς, το Διονύση μεν ανέθηκε την πήραν και το
δέρμα, το Πανί τήν σύριγγα και τον πλαγίαυλον, την καλαύροπα ταις Νύμφαις
kal Toùs yavlovs ous aủTOS ÉTEKTývato. — sācră: on the prosody, see 1, 3, 18 n.
31–32. The distich is unnecessary, and the pentameter, as has been noted
is an unusually weak dilution of the hexameter. The poets, however, rarely
miss an opportunity to describe this ancient prototype of the mouth organ.'
453
2, 5, 31]
TIBVLLVS
See e.g. Verg. E. 2, 36; 3, 25; Ovid, Met. I, 711; 8, 189; 13, 783; Calpurn.
4, 149; 4, 59; Achilles Tat. 8, 6, 6; Nemes. 3, 14; 1, 58; Pollux, 4, 9, 5,
etc.; Theokrit. 8, 18; Plato, Rep. 399. The invention of it is usually ascribed
to Pan (hence the modern name of Pan's pipes') and connected with the
story of the nymph Syrinx, cp. Verg. E. 2, 32; Lucret. 4, 588; Ovid, Met. 1,
705; Val. Flacc. 4, 384; Achill. Tat. 8, 6; Longus, 2, 34, who explains the
differing length of the pipes by saying that Pan tous kanámous knpó ouvonoas
å vloous, kad' kaló épws åvloos aútois. Theokritos and Optatianus (PLM.
Wernsdorf, 2, 388) wrote poems in the shape of a syrinx.
31. arundinis: for the collective singular, see 1, 1, 42 n.
33. Velabri: the fiat marshy ground between the Capitoline, Palatine,
and Aventine hills somewhere between the Vicus Tuscus and the Forum
Boarium. It was often overflowed by the Tiber (Hor. Od. 1, 2, 13, etc.),
and, in fact, Varro, L. L. 5, 7, 43, derived the word from vehere, because it
was supposed that in early times transportation was as described here by
water, cp. Propert. 4, 2, 7, "hac quondam Tiberinus iter faciebat, et aiunt |
remorum auditos per vada pulsa sonos’; 4, 9, 5, 'qua Velabra suo stagnabant
flumine quaque | nauta per urbanas velificabat aquas '; esp. Ovid, Fasti, 6,
405, 'qua Velabra solent in Circum ducere pompas, | nil praeter salices cas-
saque canna fuit. | saepe suburbanas rediens conviva per undas / cantat, et ad
nautas ebria verba iacit '; etc.
34. pulsa: of oars; cp. I, 4, 12; Propert. 4, 2, 7, above; Catull. 64, 58;
Ovid, Trist. 4, I, 10; Pont. 4, 10, 33; etc. — linter: a dugout, the most
primitive type of boat. The word is masculine here and also in Velleius, 2,
107, 2. In Ovid, Fasti, 2, 864 the reading is uncertain. Elsewhere, the
gender where it can be determined is ſeminine.
36. iuvenem : i.e. the magistro above. — festa die : 'on a holiday.' The
Parilia has been suggested, but of course no specific holiday is meant.
The poet is intentionally indefinite.
37-38. The munera ruris are all characteristic, cp. e.g. Copa, 17; Ovid,
Met. 13, 830; Calpurn. 2, 69 f. etc.
38. niveae candidus: for the juxtaposition of epithets cp. 1, 7, 12 n.
39-64. The poet bad apparently lost himself for the moment in his idyllic
picture of other days. He is suddenly awakened by the prophecy of the
Sibyl (postponed since 19). For this characteristic device cp. I, 4, 81–84;
2, 4, 51-52 and notes. The abrupt beginning of the Sibyl's prophecy is
entirely in keeping with her condition when inspired by the god, cp. 65 anđ
66 n. For the sudden change of speakers cp. Propert. 4, 1, 71, and for
similar prophecies, Verg. A. 6, 851; Propert. 4, 1, 53; Ovid, Met. 15, 439;
Fasti, 1, 523.
454
NOTES
[2, 5, 43
39. impiger: the epithet is descriptive of Aeneas's whole life. So of
Hercules, Hor. Od. 4, 8, 30, etc. — Aenea: for the form, cp. 1, 2, 52 n.
- frater Amoris : surely there was never a greater difference between two
sons of the same mother. It is easy to see why the relationship is so rarely
emphasized by the poets (Verg. A. 1, 667; Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 13; Her. 7, 31;
Pont. 3, 3, 62) and also why it is less incongruous to call Cupid the brother
of Aeneas than Aeneas as here the brother of Cupid. Like Tibullus and
Vergil, however, Guy de Tours, Souspirs, 2, 5, says -
Tu conseillois à ta germaine Elise
D'aymer le frère du petit Cupidon
Qui des fureurs du Dolope brandon
Dessus son dos sauva son père Anchise, etc.
40. See 19 n.; Verg. A. 2, 293; Hor. Od. 4, 4, 54; Ovid, Her.7, 80; Met.
13, 624; etc.
41-42. iam : note the frequent repetition of iam throughout this prophecy.
The seeress calls attention to each picture as it passes before her.
41. Laurentes agros: on the left bank of the Tiber where the Trojans first
landed and Aeneas (Verg. A.7, 157, etc.) founded the town of Laurens Castrum
(49 below), cp. Livy, 1, 1, 4, 'Aeneam . . . ab Sicilia classe ad Laurentem
agrum tenuisse. Troia et huic loco nomen est'; Verg. A. 7, 63; Dionys. 1,
63.
42. hospita terra: referring to the treaty with Latinus, cp. Livy, 1, 1, 6;
etc.
43-44. For this famous story see esp. Ovid, Met. 14, 580 ff.
The Numicius or Numicus, once a large stream (Servius on Verg. A. 7,
150), now generally identified with a tiny rivulet known as the Rio Torto,
empties into the sea just south of Lavinium. It had an important religious
significance both for Lavinium and for all Latium. The water used in the
worship of Vesta at Lavinium was taken from it (Servius on Verg. A. 7, 150)
and hence was in itself possessed of miraculous powers (44 n.). There was
an old sanctuary at the mouth of the stream still standing in Tibullus's time
(Dionys. I, 64) where the pontifices and the consuls performed a sacrifice
once a year (Scholia Veron. Verg. A. 1, 259). All authorities agree that the
deity worshipped here was a deus indiges (see below). As the Trojan origin
of Lavinium was already accepted by Timaios the identification of Aeneas
with the old deus indiges of the Numicius must have begun as early as the third
century B.C. So probably Ennius in his Annales (Servius on Verg. A. 6,777)
and certainly Cato (234-149 B.C.), cp. Servius on Verg. A. 4, 620, Cato dicit,
iuxta Laurolavinium cum Aeneae socii praedas agerent proelium commissum in
455
2, 5, 43]
TIBVLLVS
quo Latinus occisus est, fugit Turnus : et Mezentii auxilio conparato renovavit
proelium quo victus quidem est ab Aenea; qui tamen in ipso proelio non con-
paruit.' non or nusquam comparuit (cp. and he was not, for God took him')
is regularly used of those who become gods at death. All agree also that he
died near the Numicius, cp. Cassius Hemina, frag. 7, apud Numicium parere
desiit ... patris Indigetis ei nomen datum.' So Varro (Augustin. C. D. 18,
19), Diodoros, and Cassius Dio, cp. Verg. A. 4, 620; Ovid, Met. 14, 597. But
the doubt of the younger annalists (e.g. Sisenna, frag. 3 P.) regarding the
subsequent divinity of Aeneas is reflected in Iustinus, 43, 1, 10; Appian,
Rom. Hist. I, I; Servius on Verg. A. 1, 259. It is referred to by Dionys. lIal.
1, 64 and has affected Livy, 1, 2, 6, 'secundum inde proelium Latinis, Aeneae,
etiam ultimum mortalium operum fuit. situs est quemcumque eum dici ius
fasque est, super Numicum fluvium, Iovem Indigetem appellant. The very
uncertainty thus produced regarding the ultimate fate of Aeneas lends addi-
tional power to Dido's famous curse, A. 4, 612-620, the close of which is,
nec cum se sub leges pacis iniquae | tradiderit, regno aut optata luce
fruatur, sed cadat ante diem mediaque inhumatus harena.' Nor does Vergil
himself remove the uncertainty in so many words until A. 12, 794. Later
the account was embellished with further details indicative of Aeneas's
approaching divinity (Ovid, Met, loc.; Origo Gentis Romanae, 14, 2).
43. veneranda unda miserit: an allusion to the belief that it was through
the holy water of the Numicius itself that Aeneas was prepared for immor-
tality. So Juvenal, 11, 63 (speaking of Aeneas and Hercules), Walter aquis
alter flammis ad sidera missus'; Ovid, Met. 14, 598, etc. — Numici: so
Lavini (49) and Servi (4, 10, 4). The later gen. in iż of -10- stems is
not frequent until Propertius. As Numicius is felt to be a god the gen. is
possessive, cp. 1, 7, 57 n.
44. deum indigetem: the precise functions of a deus indiges and the
meaning of the word itself were not clear to the scholars of the Augustan
Age and have been discussed at great length in modern times. Most con-
vincing perhaps is R. Peter (Roscher's Lexikon, etc., 3, 137), 'Indiges (from
indu + ag) describes a god whose power is exerted solely and entirely upon
one specific mortal activity, or only in certain definite circumstances, or only
in a certain given place,' etc. Hence Iuppiter Indiges, afterward Aeneas
Indiges, as the specific deity of the Numicius. This theory of divine speciali-
zation was pontifical rather than popular (cp. Servius on Verg. A. 2, 141, 'pon-
tifices dicunt singulis actibus proprios deos praeesse '). It was carried out to
the utmost degree of minuteness, and the deity in each case received a name
which described his one specific function, e.g. Abeona, the goddess who pro-
tects children the first time they leave the house, but Adeona, the goddess
456
NOTES
[2, 5, 47
who guards their return home on that same occasion, Aescolanus, the god
of copper money, but Argentinus, the god of silver money, etc. -- caelo
miserit: the use of the dative to denote the place whither begins with
Accius and is occasional afterward, esp. in the Augustan poets. As a poetical
construction it seems to have sprung from personification (Gild.-Lodge, 358).
In most cases as probably here (“sent to High Heaven') the personification had
an actual historical basis in the popular point of view and was still felt. The
old popular form caelus (cp. Petron. 45, etc.) for caelum suggests a god as
well as a place; and the dative here as, e.g., in Vergil's famous 'it caelo
clamorque virum clangorque tubarum,' 11, 192, may be called a revival of the
idea iſ not an actual record of the fact that it still existed. Cp. also Hor.
Od. 1, 2, 1, "iam satis terris nivis atque dirae | grandinis misit pater’; esp.
Verg. A. 6, 126, facilis descensus Averno,' where the dative is due to the
fact that Avernus, like Mors, is really a synonym of Orcus, and Orcus, like
Hades in Greek, is always a person, not a place (note that in modern Italian
fairy tales 'Orco' = the Devil). Brugmann calls all these examples locatives.
45-46. Victoria hovers above (super') the side she intends to favour.
While making up her mind she flies between the two sides, cp. Ovid, Met.
8, 13, 'iter utrumque volat dubiis Victoria pennis.' She usually has wings, as
here, cp., however, the famous Nike Apteros. As a Roman goddess she ap-
pears as early as 294 B.C. (Livy, 10, 33, 9).
For 46 cp. Ovid, Met. 14, 572, “tandemque Venus victricia nati | arma
videt, Turnusque cadit.'
47-48. A burning of the camp of the Rutuli is not mentioned elsewhere.
This is certainly the natural interpretation, though the occasional use of
incendia = faces, 'torches' (e.g. Verg. A. 9, 71; Ovid, Met. 14, 539) lends
some support to the suggestion that the Sibyl is referring to the well-known
story of Turnus's attempt to fire the Trojan ships (Verg. A. 9, 71; Oviil, Met.
14, 530), i.e. she sees the glare of the torches in the camp of the Rutuli as
they are preparing for the deed. Vergil says in the parallel passage (9, 71),
classem ... invadit sociosque incendia poscit ovantes , atque manum pinu
flagranti fervidus implet.' But Tibullus is rarely obscure so far as his lan-
guage is concerned, and with only his own line before us we should never put
such an interpretation upon it. It seems better, therefore, to adopt the solu-
tion of the difficulty just offered by Deutsch, ‘Notes on the Text of the Corpus
Tibullianum,' Univ. of California Pub, in Class. Phil. Vol. 2, No. 9 (June,
1912), pp. 210–214. He calls attention to the fact that the reading of AV
- our best MS authority — is not Rutulis but rutilis (cp. also Achilles
Statius, Comm. in Tib. ad loc., and Carlo Pascal, Rivista di Filologia, 17,
452). rutilus is frequently used as an epithet of fire, and the extension of it
457
2, 5, 48]
TIBVLLVS
to objects merely reddened by fire seems fairly justified by such passages as
Hor. Od. 1, 2, 2-4, and Verg. G. 3, 358,359, especially when accompanied,
as here, by lucent and incendia in the same line. In other words, castris is
the camp (and fleet) of Aeneas, and what the Sibyl sees is the very event to
which Vergil refers.
48. barbare: i.e. cruel, savage,' cp. Propert. 3, 16, 14; Ovid, Amor, I,
7, 19, etc., not the Greek use, though ultimately derived from the same point
of view. The suggestion that the Sibyl is speaking here as a Greek is too
learned and exotic, not to say in too bad taste for Tibullus. — necem : the
death of Turnus is the closing scene of the Aeneid.
49. Laurens castrum: see 41 n.- Lavini: Lavinium was the second
town founded by Aeneas after his treaty with Latinus and marriage
with Lavinia (Livy, I, I, II; Verg. A. I, 258 ; Dionys. Hal. I, 59 f.).
Like Alba Longa it was closely associated with the religious life of the
Roinan state, esp. with the worship of Vesta and the Penates (43-44 n.).
After the destruction of Alba Longa and the dissolution of the old
Latin League, and esp. after the intrusion of the Aeneas legend, Lavinium
was considered the mother city of Rome. The Penates of both were there-
fore the Penates which Aeneas brought from Troy and they were worshipped
at regular intervals by official representatives of the Roman state. Even the
fire on the altar of Vesta at Lavinium and therefore at Rome was supposed
to go back to the fire of the Trojan Vesta, cp. Dionys. Hal. 2, 65; Propert.
4, 4, 69 ; Ovid, Met. 15, 730 ; Fasti, 1, 528, etc. — est: on the singular verb
with three subjects see 1, 5, 36 n.
50. Alba Longa: 30 years after the death of Aeneas founded by Ascanius,
cp. esp. Verg. A. I, 267, etc. For the prodigy of the sow and thirty pigs
connected with it cp. Verg. A. 8, 43; Varro, De Re Rust. 2, 4, 18, etc. For
further particulars see Livy, 1, 3; Dionys. Hal. 1, 66; etc. One ancient ex-
planation of the name is given by Livy, 1.c., ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis
Alba Longa appellata'; another by Varro, L. L. 5, 144, 'ab sue alba nomi-
natum' (then relating the prodigy of the sow). The name, however, is cer-
tainly not Latin, possibly Ligurian and = the mountain town' (Helbig).
Practically every available situation on the Lago di Albano has been selected
by some modern scholar for its site. The latest, I believe, is Castel Gandolfo
(Ashby) and on the whole this seems the best.
Doubtless Tibullus follows Vergil in identifying Ascanius with the son of
Aeneas's Trojan wife. This was the usual version. Livy, however, 1.c., refers
to an account which made him the son of Aeneas and Lavinia.
51-54. The story of Ilia, the Vestal who was the mother by Mars of
Romulus and Remus, was told by Naevius in his epic and doubtless too in
458
NOTES
[2, 5, 51
his play the Alimonium Romuli et Remi. It was told at length by Ennius
in his Annales. A fine passage from it, the dream of Ilia, is quoted by Cicero,
Div. I, 40 (Ann. 35-51 V.). The detailed narrative of Ovid, Fasti, 3, 9 f. (cp.
Amor. 3, 6, 45) probably goes back to Ennius and should be read in this con-
nection, cp. also Verg. A. I, 274 ; 7,659 ; Hygin. Fab. 252 ; Livy, I, 4, 1;
Dionys. Hal. 1, 76; Plutarch, Rom. 3; Konon, 48 ; Festus, 267 M.; etc.
The name Ilia seems to be due to the intrusion of the Aeneas legend. In
the old Italic version she is known as Rea Silvia. In the elder version
followed by Naevius and Ennius, Ilia is the daughter of Aeneas. In Ennius
she has a half sister, the daughter of the Trojan wife of Aeneas's youth. She
herself, therefore, is the daughter of Aeneas and Lavinia. A more careful study,
however, of chronology disclosed a gap of at least 300 years between the
foundation of Alba and the period of Romulus and Remus. Ilia was then
made a daughter of Numitor, a scion of the Silvii, i.e. the long line of shadowy
Alban kings sprung from Aeneas and Lavinia with which the gap had been
filled. Note that Tibullus follows Vergil (A. 1, 274) in passing directly from
the foundation of Alba to the story of Ilia. This, however, was merely for
artistic reasons. Vergil names some of the intervening Alban kings in
another place (A. 6, 756). Tibullus's treatment of this story as a picture of
the future passing before the prophetic vision of the Sibyl is esp. skilful and
artistic.
She had gone to the river for water, as usual, early in the morning (cp.
Ovid below) and having just left the altar was, as a matter of course, wearing
her vitta (53), i.e. a part of her costume as a Vestal. deseruisse implies that
she was never to return. Upon reaching the river she fell into a sort of super-
natural slumber, during which she was approached by the god. So Ovid,
Fasti, 3, 116
Silvia Vestalis - quid enim vetat inde moveri ?
sacra lavaturas mane petebat aquas.
ventum erat ad molli declivem tramite ripam: .
ponitur e summa fictilis urna coma:
fessa resedit humo, ventosque accepit aperto
pectore, turbatas restituitque comas.
dum sedet umbrosae salices volucresque canorae
fecerunt somnos et leve murmur aquae.
blanda quies furtim victis obrepsit ocellis,
et cadit a mento languida facta manus.
Mars videt hanc, visam que cupit, potiturque cupita,
et sua divina furta fefellit ope.
somnus abit, iacet illa gravis, iam scilicet intra
viscera Romanae conditor Urbis erat.
459
2, 5, 53]
TIBVLLVS
languida consurgit, nec scit cur languida surgat,
et peragit talis arbore nixa sonos:
'utile sit faustumque, precor, quod imagine somni
vidimus. an somno clarius illud erat?
ignibus Iliacis aderam, cum lapsa capillis
decidit ante sacros lanea vitta focos.
inde duae pariter, visu mirabile, palmae
surgunt. ex illis altera maior erat,
et gravibus ramis totum protexerat orbem,
contigeratque sua sidera summa coma.
ecce meus ferrum patruus molitur in illas:
terreor admonitu, corque timore micat.
Martia, picus, avis gemino pro stipite pugnant
et lupa. luta per hos utraque palma fuit.'
dixerat, et plenam non firmis viribus urnam
sustulit. implerat dum sua visa refert, etc.
Here, too, should be quoted the frag. (Ann. 35 V.) from Ennius -
Et cita cum tremulis anus attulit artubus lumen.
talia tum memorat lacrimąns exterrita somno:
• Euridica prognata, pater quam noster amavit,
vires vitaque corpus meum nunc deserit omne.
nam me visus homo pulcher per amoena salicta
et ripas raptare locosque novos: ita sola
postilla, germana soror, errare videbar
tardaque vestigare et quaerere te neque posse
corde capessere: semita nulla pedem stabilibat.
exim compellare pater me voce videtur
his verbis : "ognata, tibi sunt ante gerendae
aerumnae, post ex fluvio fortuna resistet."
haec effatus pater, germana, repente recessit
nec sese dedit in conspectum corde cupitus,
quamquam multa manus ad caeli caerula templa
tendebam lacrumans et blanda voce vocabam.
vix aegro cum corde meo me somnus reliquit.'
The relation between these two accounts is not at all clear. It may be
noted however that Tibullus, as a representative of the conventional erotic
elegy, would have followed closely in the footsteps of Ovid if he had told this
story in detail. The main motive of the Ovidian account (violation during
slumber) is esp. characteristic not only of Hellenistic narrative poetry (as
echoed e.g. in Nonnos), but also of Hellenistic art.
53. furtim : qualifies concubitus, cp. 1, 3, 50 n.
54. ripas: 'banks,' plural for singular, as often in English.arma relicta :
460
NOTES
[2, 5, 55
1
the legend was that Mars came down from heaven in full armour; cp. Juv. 11,
107; Claud. Cons. Prob. 99, both of which passages describe representations of
this scene in art. In surviving objects of art he is generally represented with
shield, helmet, and lance (Friedländer, Juv. II, 103-107, and rel.).
55-56. Having now reached the foundation of Rome, the climax of her
prophecy and the final fruition of Aeneas's long toil and suffering, the Sibyl is
skilfully made to spare details by referring to, and then reaching, the idyllic
picture of 23–38. She then, herself, adds as a climax where it belongs (57–
62) that completion of the picture which the poet himself would have come
to in a moment if he had not (apparently) been interrupted by her at 39 f.
55. septem montibus: Varro, De Lingua Latina, 5, 7, 41 (written in the
time of Cicero), says that the old name of the present site of Rome was
Septimontium —'ubi nunc est Roma, Septimontium nominatum ab tot
montibus quos postea urbs muris comprehendit'-and proceeds to discuss
the names of the clifferent montes. This appears to be the earliest reference
in Roman literature to the Seven Hills' of Rome as such. There was, how-
ever, an old festival known as the Septimontium which lasted until far down
into the Empire, and the association of it with di indigetes (or a teus indiges)
carries the idea back to at least as early as the Second Punic War, 2.2. to the
time when the pontifices ceased from making gods of this type. See R. Peter
in Roscher's Lexikon, 2, 222, 46 ff., and Goetz and Schoell's edit. (Leipzig,
1910) of Varro, L.L. 6, 24 and the ref. in n. ad loc., also Wissowa, Ges. Abhandl.
2. röm. Relig. und Stadtgesch. 1904, p. 240 n. Literary reference to Rome as
the City of the Seven Hills' first becomes prominent in the Augustan poets.
Tibullus is preceded a few years by Verg. G. 2, 534 (cp. A. 6, 783) -
scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma,
septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces,
and also by Propert. 3, 11, 57 —
septem urbs alta iugis toto quae praesidet orbi.
Two years after our poet's death we have Hor. Carm. Saec. 7-
dis quibus septem placuere colles,
and twenty years later, Ovid, Trist. 1, 5, 69 —
dis quibus
sed quae de septem totum circumspicit orbem
montibus, imperii Roma deumque locus.
Among later references may be noted, Mart. 4, 64, 11; Stat. Silv. I, 2, 191;
4, 1, 6; Claud. Cons. Prob. 176; l'escenn. 19; Bell. Gildon. 104; De Cons.
Stilich. 3, 135; esp. Prudentius, Peristeph. 10, 413–
461
2, 5, 56]
TIBVLLVS
divum favore cum puer Mavortius
fundaret arcem septicollem Romulus.
It is impossible to say from which, if any, of these passages was derived our
own familiar designation of Rome as the City of the Seven Hills.'
56. With this line cp. Ovid, Fasti, 2, 280, ‘hic ubi nunc urbs est tum locus
urbis erat.'
57-60. The poet rises well to the Sibyl's splendid vision of the destiny of
Rome. The idea of Rome as the mistress of the world (23 n.), at once the
cause and the result of a more definite conception of her real position in the
history of civilization, was very much in men's minds at this time, and was
never afterward forgotten; cp. Ovid, Met. 15, 877; Fasti, 1, 85; 2, 136; 4,
831; Hor. Od. 3, 3, 45; and so on down to Rutil. Namat. I, 55 f. Part
of the greatness of Vergil lies in the fact that he embodied this idea for all
time, and as no other man has ever done; cp. e.g. A. I, 276; 6, 782; and
such modern versions as Macaulay's 'Prophecy of Capys.
57. nomen: i.e. Rome. In the antique conception the name of a thing
not only has a power of its own, but is more closely associated with, more
actually identical with, the thing itself, than is the case with us (cp. Ovid, Met.
1, 201; Trist. 2, 221). The world-wide idea of the power of a name in
magic is derived from this conception. — regendis : the only ex. of this use
in Tibullus. The dative of the gerund and gerundive after words of decree-
ing and appointing, to give the purpose, is restricted in early Latin, but in-
creases in the poets, and after Livy, in prose. It is often used technically.
58. Cp. in the same connection Ovid, Fasti, 1, 85, 'Iuppiter arce sua totum
cum spectet in orbem, | nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet'; 2, 138,
quodcumque est alto sub Iove Caesar habet’; Hor. Carm. Saec. 9, 'alme
Sol, curru nitido diem qui promis et celas aliusque et idem nasceris, possis
nihil urbe Roma | visere maius. Tibullus's choice of Ceres here and of
arva brings out the wealth and fertility of the Empire as well as its extent.
– prospicit: the simple ablative with prospectare is used in 1, 7, 19.
59-60. Cp. Ovid, Fasti, 2, 136, 'hoc duce Romanum est solis utrumque
latus '; 4, 832, sitque sub hac oriens occiduusque dies'; Rutil. Namat
1, 55, 'nam solis radiis aequalia munera tendis, qua circumfusus fluctuat
Oceanus. , volvitur ipse tibi qui continet omnia Phoebus, eque tuis ortos
in tua condit equos . . . . dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris, | urbem
fecisti quod prius Orbis erat.'
.59. quaque patent ortus: the poet apparently has the same idea of the
Gates of Dawn' that we find in Ovid, Met. 2, 112, 'ecce vigil rutilo patefecit
ab ortu | purpureas Aurora fores et plena rosarum atria : diffugiunt stellae,'
etc., i.e. the goddess opens the gates to let the Sun through. Elsewhere only
462
NOTES
[2, 5, 63
in Quintus Smyrnaeus, 2, 665, Tỉs o’&pa IIAniádes apótepai to av. ý dè kal
aŭth | aldeplas óiče rúhas, écédao ởe d’álp áxlúv. The idea, however, is very
old, cp. c.g. Ludwig, Rig Veda, 2, 15.
60. amnis: i.e. Oceanus, the Homeric Ocean Stream surrounding the
earth, Il. 14, 245; Odyss. II, 639, etc. The poets habitually return to this
conception (Verg. G. 4, 233; Ovid, Met. 1, 30 ; Fasti, 5, 82, etc.), and esp. in
this connection, since all the old folk ideas of sunrise and sunset presuppose it.
The Sun and his steeds rise from Oceanus at dawn (Odyss. 3, I, etc.), and
in so doing are bathed in his life-giving waters (Aisch. frag. 192 N., etc.).
At evening he sinks kată xbovos 'nkeavóvde (Hom. Hymn to Hermes, 68)
and he and his steeds are again bathed, as here, cp. Stat. Theb. 3, 407;
Nonnos, 12, 1; etc. He enters the realm of darkness by the Gates of the
Sun, 'Helloco múla(Odyss. 24, 12), and there beyond the Ocean Stream is
set the Bolbou alaids Kîros (Soph. frag. 870 N.), the ancient Garden of
the Sun, which is the same as the Garden of the Hesperides (Mimnermos,
u Crus.). Some put it to the east, some to the west, but this is immaterial, for
the Sun has two abiding places (Seneca, Herc. Oet. 2, etc.), one in the east
and one in the west, and in each of them his horses rest and are fed
(Eurip. frag. 771 N.; Alkest. 592; Ovid, Met. 4, 214, etc.). The ques-
tion of his return to the east was answered by the story of the Cup of
the Sun' (passages collected in Athenaios, 11, 468-470). At sunset he and
his horses enter the golden cup made for him by Hephaistos, and all night long
they are on the Ocean Stream sailing back again to the east (Stesich. 6 Crus.).
61. se: i.e. Rome, the reincarnation of Troy, cp. Propert. 4, 1, 53,
"vertite equum, Danai, male vincitis ! Ilia tellus vivet, et huic cineri Iup-
piter arma dabit,' and 87, 'Troia cades, et Troica Roma resurges. One of
the primary conceptions of the Aeneid.
62. Cp. Propert. 4, I, 39, ‘huc melius profugos misisti, Troia, Penates’;
Hor. Carm. Saec. 37, "Roma si vestrum est opus Iliaeque | litus Etruscum
tenuere turmae, | iussa pars mutare Lares et urbem sospite cursu, cui per
ardentem sine fraude Troiam castus Aeneas patriae superstes liberum
munivit iter, daturus | plura relictis. Lit. "you (8.. Aeneas and his com-
panions) were of good counsel in so long a journey,' i.e. 'were wise to take
so long a journey. via is an ablat. of specification.
63. sacras : i.e. to Apollo. The idea that chewing the leaves of the laurel
brings about the condition of inspiration (poetic or prophetic) is very old, cp.
Soph. frag. 811 N., dáovnu paywy odbuti npie to otója. Schol. on Hesiod,
Theog. 30, " đápvn #veprez TpÒs Tots #vo Laơ LosLykophron, 6, 6pvnbayos
=one inspired, upon which the Schol. remarks, clúdaolu ol Mávtels dáovas
a poco Olelv. Lukian, Bis Accus. I.
463
2, 5, 63]
TIBVLLVS
The Sibyl's statement implies that this use of laurel leaves was for some rea-
son considered perilous. If, however, as generally agreed, the laurel of an-
tiquity, Apollo's laurel, is to be identified with the bay or sweet laurel (Laurus
nobilis, Linn.), neither this idea nor the belief in their efficacy for inspiration
can be derived from any real, inherent qualities of the plant itself. The
leaves when crushed are aromatic and slightly bitter, but perfectly harmless.
Modern physicians describe them as stimulant and narcotic, and among
primitive races any stimulant or narcotic is associated with the divine frenzy,
but the bay possesses these qualities to so slight a degree that they do not
suggest a solution of the problem. Moreover, as Ogle notes (A. J.P. 31, 302),
Pliny even when he writes of plants used to produce visions (24, 160) makes
no reference to any intoxicating property of laurel nor do any of the writers
on medicine. More likely, and perhaps more in keeping with a primitive
point of view, is the suggestion (Rohde) that the spirit of Apollo was supposed
to reside in his tree and that the priestess became inspired with it in this way.
Aristotle attributes the gift of prophecy or of prophetic inspiration to a
large amount of black bile' near the brain, cp. Problem. 30, 1, rolloi dè xal
διά το εγγύς είναι του νοερού τόπου την θερμότητα ταύτην νοσήμασιν αλίσκονται
μανικοίς, και ενθουσιαστικούς, όθεν Σίβυλλαι και Βάκιδες και οι ένθεοι γίνονται πάν-
τες, όταν μή νοσήματι γένωνται, αλλά φυσικη κράσει.
63. innoxia : passive, cp. I, 1, 8 n., “unharmed,'' without being harmed.?
- laurus: Tibullus uses this form of the accus. plur. of laurus only here. Neue
also quotes Catull. 64, 289; Lucan, 1, 287; Val. Flacc. 1, 209; Pliny, 17, 96;
Stat. Silv. 4, 3, 118; 4, 6, 98; 5, 1, 105; Theb. 7, 707 and 784; Martial, 1,
108, 3; 3, 58, 46; 8, 50, 5; Claud. IV Cons. Honor. 25; VI Cons. Honor. 38
and 120; Optat. 18 (19), I M. For lauros, 1, 7, 7; 2, 5, 117, Neue quotes Verg.
E. 6, 83; 8, 13; 8, 82; A. 3, 360 (all the Verg, passages have laurus as a
variant); Ovid, Amor. 2, 13, 18; Pliny, 17, 88; Stat. Silv. 1, 2, 181; 4, 2, 9;
4, 8, 19; Theb. 7, 351; Juv. 10, 65; Claudian, De Cons. Stilich. 1, 384.
64. vescar: with the accusative as here is rare even in early Latin. I find
no exx. in the poets (except this) from Lucretius to Juvenal. Draeger, I,
570 cites Pliny, 10, 113; 11, 281; 28, 170; Tac. Agric. 28. Exx. like Phae-
drus, 1, 31, 11; Sallust, Hist. 3, 38, Mauren. indicate its survival in the popu-
lar speech. — aeternum: 1, 10, 66 n. This adverbial accus. aeternum is
poetical and is most common in Vergil and Statius and Silius Italicus. Taci-
tus, Ann. 3, 26 and 12, 28 are the first exx, in prose, then Script. Pan. 9, 26
and CIL. 5, 3496. See Propert. 2, 28, 57; 3, 8, 38; Hor. Epist. 1, 10, 41;
Ovid, Met. 6, 369; Trist. 5, 3, 41. — virginitas: popularly supposed (more
or less among all nations) to be a condition of the power to prophesy, cp. e.g.
Geopon.' I1, 2, 4 (story of Daphne), tnv ydp kopny Ewopórny óvouá Govol,
464
NOTES
[2, 5, 67
.
TÒ Xono uwdeev yapék owopooúvns a poépxetai Plutarch, NIor. 435 D. For
the story of the Cumaean Sibyl in this connection, see Aristotle, Mirab, 95;
Ovid, Met. 14, 120–153, and on the subject in general, E. Fehrle, “Die
Kultische Keuschheit im Altertum,' Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und
Vorarbeiten, Bd. 6.
65. et te sibi: et is not to be taken in the sense of and then. In point
of time 'haec cecinit' comes last. The Sibyl called the god and then, as in
all such cases, had to go through the more or less agonizing process of
getting the spirit' (66) before prophesying at all. When the condition of
second sight' is once reached, the seer proceeds quietly to the end, cp.
Kassandra in Aisch. Agam. 1072 f.; Seneca, Agam. 710 f.; and esp. the
Vergilian account of the Sibyl, A. 6, 45, 'ventum erat ad limen cum virgo,
“poscere fata | tempus," ait “deus, ecce, deus !” cui talia fanti | ante fores
subito non voltus, non color unus, non comptae mansere comae: sed pectus
anhelum et rabie fera corda tument: maiorque videri nec mortale sonans,
adflata est numine quando | iam propiore dei.' The state continues during
the prayer of Aeneas (56–76) and even then (77), 'at Phoebi nondum
patiens immanis in antro | bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit | excus-
sisse deum: tanto magis ille fatigat | os rabidum, fera corda domans fingitque
premendo. If Tibullus had mentioned these preliminaries in their regular
place, the artistic effect of the sudden interruption at line 39 would have been
lost. He therefore adds them here with the appearance as it were of an
afterthought.
66. A regular symptom of the frenzy of inspiration. The sufferer tosses
her head so violently and rapidly that her hair flies in every direction, even
hanging down in front of her face as here, cp. Seneca, Oed. 230; Ovid, Met.
3, 726; Eurip. Iphig. Aul. 757, etc. Sometimes the expressive verb rotare
is used of the hair, cp. Lucan, 1, 566; Val. Flacc. I, 209; 5, 170; Stat.
Theb. 10, 173; Juv. 6, 316; esp. Quintil. 11, 3, 71 (warning the young orator
against too much nodding), 'iactare id et comas excutientem rotare fanaticum
est. Again, the hair stands on end (as in extreme fright), cp. Seneca, Agam.
712, etc. -- caput ante: anastrophe of ante as of ad in 2, 1, 74, is found
only here in Tibullus. In prose anastrophe of ante is found only with the
relative (Schulze). In Tibullus anastrophe is invariable with circum, praeter,
propter, and of course coran. Postposition of both preposition (per) and
attribute, I, 4, 26. Separation of the preposition from its case beyond the
distance allowed in prose is illustrated by ad, 1, 2, 32; circum, 1, 5, 51; 2012-
tra, 1, 6, 30; post, 1, 9, 44; sine, 4, 14, 3.
67–80. The conclusion of the Sibyl's vision in which she sees Rome mistress
of the world brings the poet back again to the present, and with it to the
465
2, 5, 69]
TIBVLLVS
theme, already touched upon (5-10), of the Civil Wars, which for years had
threatened to destroy the chief glory of that prediction. Other Sibyls — and
their words were only too true — foretold the horrors of that time. But all
that is past now.'
The identity of the various Sibyls had been so much discussed and so many
different conclusions reached (15 n.) that one cannot be sure which ones the
poet means by the names he uses. Servius on Verg. A. 6, 72, for instance,
says that Amalthea ('Aualdala, Suidas ; 'Auáldela, Lydus) was the Sibyl
who sold the books to Tarquin, and others add (Lydus, De Mens. 4, 47) that
the books she offered were the oracles of the Cumaean Sibyl. Varro identified
this Amalthea with the Sibyl of Cumae, who, he adds, had also been called
Herophile or Demophile. See line 19 n. "Marpesia Herophile' (cp. Lactant.
1.C.; Suidas, s.v. 'Hpoplan and Elßulla; Pausan. 10, 12, 2) would be the Trojan
Sibyl born at Marpessos, but claimed by Erythrae (see her epitaph in Pausan.
l.c. and the dispute of the two towns with regard to it). Her grave was in
the close of Apollo Smintheus in the Troad. On her prophecy to Aeneas see
Dionys. Hal. 1, 55, 4. She was also claimed for Klaros, Samos, Delos,
Delphi, and even Cumae. Indeed it was she, according to some, who sold
the books to Tarquin. "Phyto Graia' (i.e. in distinction from Herophile, who
was Trojan) was the Sibyl of Samos (Lydus, l.C.; Schol. on Plato, Phaidros, 244
B; Clemens: Alex. Strom. I, 399 P.). It will be seen that no really satisfactory
conclusion can be reached. The definite point in mentioning these Sibyls
here (four, including Albunea in 69–70), is that, whatever may have been
their identity in the poet's mind, they represent the Sibyls whose oracles had
been accepted by the commission of 76 B.C. and included in the new collec-
tion at that time.
69–70. Thel Sibyl of Tibur (Tiburs) is Albunea, the Carmentis of Vergil,
A. 8, 336, the prophetess of Tibur, nyinph of the Aquae Albulae, rising in the
modern Lago della Solfatara and emptying into the Anio. Somewhere upon
it was the oracle of Faunus (Verg. A. 7, 81). The Grotto of Albunea,
Horace's' domus Albuneae resonantis' (Od. 1, 7, 12) was probably near the
waterfall or perhaps nearer the Anio. Modern tradition identifies it with the
Cave of the Sibyl. When the cult of the Sibyls came to Latium, Albunea
became a Sibyl and Lactant. 1.c. says that she was worshipped as a goddess
on the banks of the Anio at Tibur. Hence probably the famous “Temple of
the Sibyl ' at Tivoli on the edge of the precipice below the falls of the Anio.
The miracle mentioned by our poet was doubtless a local legend of Tibur
(Tivoli) and it is also evidently referred to by Lactant. (i.e. Varro) 1, 6, 12,
decimam (Sibyllam) Tiburtem nomine Albuneam quae Tiburi colatur ut dea
iuxta ripas amnis Anienis, cuius in gurgite simulacrum eius inventum esse
466
NOTES
[2, 5, 71
dicitur tenens in manu librum; cuius sortes senatus in Capitolium trans-
tulerit.'
69. quasque : 2.1. 'quodque admonuit quae,' etc. — Aniena flumina: this
adjective (Anienus) is Vergilian, cp. G. 4, 369, unde pater Tiberinus, et
unde Aniena fluenta. The remaining exx. quoted by the Thes. are confined
to Propertius, I, 20, 8; 3, 16, 4; Stat. Silv. 4, 4, 17.
70. portarit pertuleritque: for the combination Postgate quotes Seneca,
Ben. 3, 37, I, “Aeneas tulit illum per ignes et (quid non pietas potest?)
pertulit.' - portarit: see 2, 3, 69 n.
71-78. These prophecies of the Sibyls mentioned all the portents by which
the death of Julius and the Civil Wars were attended. It hardly seems neces-
sary to suspect a lacuna between 70 and 71. The poet has just dealt at length
with the Sibyl and the prophecy of paramount importance for his present
purpose. The Sibyls of 65-70 were all important to Messalinus as one of the
XVviri, but for this poem their only use is to introduce the Civil Wars, that
Valley of the Shadow through which Rome has just struggled to the new
régime, and with Apollo's help to the final realization of that ancient proph-
ecy to the great ancestor of the reigning emperor. The topic of the Civil
Wars should be brief and not too prominent, as befits elegy in general and
the subject, character, and object of this elegy in particular.
As the Libri Sibyllini were mainly consulted with regard to portents it was
natural to develop the theme of the Civil Wars from this point of view. Be-
sides, the portents attending the Civil Wars and the death of the great dictator
were especially frightful and were remembered for generations. Apart from
this passage of Tibullus we also have Vergil, G. I, 463-488; Ovid, Met. 15,
782-800; Manilius, 1, 905 f.; Obsequens, 68 (which probably represents the
passage in Livy); Horace, Od. 1, 2, 1-20; Appian, B.C. 4, 4, 14; Cassius Dio,
45, 17 (cp. 41, 14); Petron. 122; Lucan, 1, 524; Plutarch, Caes. 63 and 68.
The long parenthesis serves to explain and restrict the sweeping statement
of 67–70. See 79 n. below.
71. haec: fem. plur. subject of dixerunt, i.e. the Sibyls just mentioned.
The form is not common but Schulze cites it for Catullus, 64, 320; and for the
Augustan period Neue (II, 417) cites Vergil, G. 3, 305; Ovid, Fasti, 3, 684;
cp. also Juv. 6, 569; 592; etc.
It has been the general belief the world over that comets portend change
or disaster for the people at large, especially war, plague, or the death of
rulers. “When beggars die there are no comets seen, | The heavens them.
selves blaze forth the death of princes,' says Calpurnia to Caesar himself, cp.
Verg, A, 10, 272; Tac. Ann. 14, 22; Sueton. Nero, 36; Lucan, 1, 529; Manil.
1,876; Pliny, 2, 92; Lydus, De Ostentis, 10; Milton, P. L. 2, 708, and often.
467
2, 5, 72]
TIBVLLVS
The particular comet here referred to is probably the famous “Stella Crinita,'
the “Star of Caesar' (see Vergil, E. 9, 46 and A. 8, 681, with the notes of
Servius; Horace, Od. 1, 12, 47), the appearance of which in July of 44 coin-
cided with the first celebration by Octavianus of the Ludi Veneris Genetricis
in commemoration of Caesar's death. Pliny, 2, 93, quotes the words of
Octavianus himself with regard to it, cp. also Obsequens, 68; Sueton. Iul.
88; Plutarch, Caes. 68; Cassius Dio, 45, 17, 4: Vergil, G. 1, 487 implies
more than one comet, and so Pliny, 2, 93; Manil. 1, 907. There were also an
unusual number of faces, lajnádes, i.e. shooting stars, cp. Ovid, Met. 15, 787.
One in particular is mentioned by Cassius Dio, 45, 17, 4 (cp. Obsequens,
68). A similar comet appeared before Pharsalia (Pliny, 1.c.) and this too was
accompanied by shooting stars :(Petron. 122, 139; Lucan, 1, 526).
72. Showers of stones on this occasion seem to be mentioned elsewhere
only by Appian, B. C. 4, 4, 14. The portent, not infrequent in volcanic
Italy, is often mentioned by Livy and others. The Senate usually decreed a
novemdiale. -- ut deplueret: sc. fore. On the displacement of que see 1, 1,
40 n. depluere is rare. - lapis: for this collective singular with multus cp.
I, I, 42 n.; 1, 3, 28 n.; I, 4, 76; 1, 9, 68 n.; 2, 3, 42.
73. At this point the poet drops the cons. with dixerunt and with it all
direct reference to the Sibyls and proceeds with ferunt, “it is reported that,'
etc. The shift in the point of view both here and at 75–76 is natural and
dramatic. It is not implied of course that only the first two portents were
foreseen by the Sibyls, but only that in the excitement of telling the story of
these famous portents the poet ceases after the first two lines to emphasize
the connection of the Sibyls with them.
This dreadful portent was generally reported, cp. Verg. G. 1, 474, “armorum
sonitum toto Germania caelo | audiit, insolitis tremuerunt motibus Alpes';
Ovid, Met. 15, 783, 'arma ferunt inter nigras crepitantia nubes , terribilesque
tubas auditaque cornua caelo | praemonuisse nefas '; Appian, B. C. 4, 4, 14,
ανδρών τε μεγάλαι βοαι και κτύπος όπλων και δρόμος ίππων ουχ όρωμένων
ń Kobeto · Obsequens, 69 (Livy), 'C. Pansa A. Hirtio consulibus . . . armorum
telorumque species a terra visa cum fragore ad caelum fieri,' cp. Plutarch,
Caes. 63, which reappears in Shakespeare's J. C. 2, 2, as —
Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds :
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol ;
The noise of battle burtled in the air,
Horses did neigh and dying men did groan.
The same portent occurred before Pharsalia, cp. Obsequens, 65; Petron.
122, 134; Lucan, I, 578. — atque ... atque: see 1, 10, 23 n. On the
468
NOTES
(2, 5, 78
concord of audita (sc. esse) with arma and tubas, 1, 5, 36 and notes. On
the omission of esse, 1, 3, 43 1.
74. That is, the voices of the gods in their sacred groves foretold defeat to
Roman arms. So in this connection, Verg. G. 1, 476; Ovid, Met. 15, 792;
Obsequens, 69,' oraculo Apollinis vox audita, “lupis rabies hieme, aestate fru-
mentum non demessum." Also after Pharsalia, Petron. 122, 179; Lucan, 1,570.
75–76. Note that by dropping the cons, with ferunt for the moment this
most frightful of all the portents following the death of Caesar is, as it were,
set off by itself and thus made more prominent. References to this portent
are numerous, cp. Pliny, 2, 98, 'funt prodigiosi et longiores solis defectuus,
qualis occiso dictatore Caesare et Antoniano bello totius paene anni pallore
continuo. Plutarch, Caes. 68, also says that the sun was pale and ghastly
for the entire year and gave out so little light and heat that the crops did not
ripen at all. Obsequens, 68, 'soles tres fulserunt circaque solem imum corona
spiceae similis in orbem emicuit, et postea in unum circulum sole redacto
multis mensibus languida lux ſuit' (this Livian account reappears in Cassius
Dio, 45, 17, 5, and in an abbreviated form in Appian, B. C. 4, 4, 14). Seo
also Ovid, Met. 15, 785; Verg. G. 1, 466, where Servius says that a total
eclipse of the sun lasting from the sixth hour until night, took place on the
Ides of May following Caesar's murder.
The cause of this phenomenon, and probably of the showers of stones and
of the noise of battle in the skies, was doubtless a terrific eruption of Aetna
just before Caesar's assassination, cp. Verg. G. 1, 472, where Servius quotes
from Livy, 'tanta flamma ante mortem Caesaris ex Aetna monle defluxit ut
non tantum vicinae urbes sed etiam Regina civitas afflaretur. It is well
known that the great volcanic disturbances in the Pacific in 1883 upset the
normal condition of the atmosphere throughout practically the entire world.
In the United States, at least, the appearance of the sun that year, esp. during
August and September, was the same as that recorded for the summer of
44 B.C. So, too, during the entire summer of 1906, after the great eruption of
Vesuvius, the Italian sun was noticeably dimmer than usual.
77–78. Returns (fudisse, etc.) to the cons. with ferunt (Schulze). De-
pendence, however, on vidit seems to offer no difficulty.
77. A portent frequently mentioned and always carefully recorded by the
priests, Apollon. Rhod. 4, 1284; Verg. A. 2, 173; Cicero, Div. 1, 74; 98;
99; Livy, 43, 13, 4; Augustin. C. D. 3, II; etc. In this connection, Verg. G.
1, 480; Ovid, Met, 15, 792; Appian, B. C. 4, 4, 14, — deum: on the form,
I, I, 37 n.
78. vocales : i.e. here, ‘in human speech. Also mentioned by Verg. G.
1, 478; Appian, 4, 4, 14. For the same portent on other occasions, cp. e.g.
469
2, 5, 79]
TIBVLLVS
Livy, 3, 10, 6; 35, 21, 4; 43, 13, 3; Obseq. 15; 26; 43; 53; Val. Max.
1, 6, 5; Lucan, I, 561; Pliny, 8, 183, “est frequens in prodigiis priscorum
bovem locutum, quo nuntiato senatum sub diu haberi solitum.'
79-80. Sums up all the prophecies of the Sibyls in 67-70 (i.e.quid-
quid admonuit Amalthea, Herophile, Phyto, Albunea') as limited by the
parenthetical 71-78. Hence (67–79), 'all the predictions of the Sibyls
(67–70)- I mean their predictions of the disasters of the Civil Wars (71-78)
- these came to pass in other days now gone by.' The prayer to Apollo,
the divine patron of the Empire, to do away with such horrors forms the
transition to the next and contrasted topic, the prosperity which he is asked
to bestow upon the new régime. This gives the poet an opportunity of re-
turning to his favourite theme (81-104, cp. 2, 1; 1, 10, 39, etc.), an idyllic pic-
ture of country life in the piping times of peace, as illustrated by the festal
celebration in honour of the rustic divinities.
79. haec fuerant olim : i.e. previous to the new régime which at the time
of writing had already been an accomplished fact for some time, hence the
pluperfect fuerant, cp. 1, 5, 38 n. If the poet had been reckoning from the
time of writing, fuerunt (2, 3, 12 n.) would have been used. The marked
tendency of the pluperfect, more esp. of esse, to encroach on the perf. and
imperf. in the folk speech was welcomed by the poets for its metrical con-
venience and is not at all uncommon in Propertius and Ovid. Cp. e.g.
Propert. 1, 12, 11, 'non sum ego qui fueram: mutat via longa puellas,' i.e.
"before she went away and had a change of heart'; Ovid, Amor. Epig. 1,
qui modo Nasonis fueramus quinque libelli | tres sumus,' i.e. previous to
the revision. So Her. I, 115; Met. 2, 570; Trist. 3, 11, 25, etc.; Propert.
1, 10, 2; 1, 11, 29; Verg. A. 5, 397 (one ex.); Catull. 64, 158 (one ex.).
Except for Seneca and Vitruvius this use is very rare in prose until the African
writers. The tendency of the folk speech to confuse the three tenses of the
past (already seen in Vitruvius) continued to grow until by the beginning of
the sixth century such a writer as Fulgentius evidently had no clear idea
of the distinction between imperf., perf., and pluperfect. — tu: 1, 1, 33 n.
80. The universal belief in the purifying powers of the sea (or of running
water, cp. 4, 4, 8) is abundantly exemplified in a number of religious rites,
cp. Seneca, De Ira, 1, 15, 2; Lucan, 1, 589; etc. So even in medicine and
law (derived of course from a religious conception and sometimes symbolic),
cp. e.g. Homer, Iliad, 1, 313 f.; Cicero, Rosc. Am. 70; Invent. 2, 149; Val.
Max. I, 1, 13 (punishment of parricides). The custom here alluded to of
casting prodigia into the sea was regularly resorted to in the case of monstrous
births, cp. Livy, 31, 12, 8; Obsequens, 22; 25; 26; 27; 32; 34; 36; 47-48;
50; 57; etc. Hence the pertinence of Postgate's suggestion that we have
470
NOTES
[2, 5, 85
here a further allusion to Actium. "To the Roman, esp. at this time, Egypt
was a land of monstrosities. Cp. Propert. 4, 6; Hor. Od. 1, 37, 9-21;
Juv. 15; esp. the Graeco-Roman proverb, cp. Pliny, 8, 42 (of Africa), “ideo
multiformes ibi animalium partus ... unde etiam vulgare Graeciae dictum,
“ semper aliquid novi Africam afferre" (del pépel TL Aißún KALVÒv kakov,
Zenob. 2, 51).
81-82. The extent to which laurel crackles when it burns is proverbial, cp.
Melçova Boộ dáovns xlwpâs Kalouévns (Diogen. 6, 52; Suidas, s.v.); Lucret.
6, 154, nec res ulla magis quam Phoebi Delphica laurus / terribili sonitu
flamma crepitante crematur'; Ovid, Fasti, 1, 343; Pliny, 15, 135; etc. The
method of divination by means of it to which Tibullus refers was regularly
practised, not only in sacrifices, but in magic. Cp. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 344; 4,
742; etc. In magic esp. in the moon charm, cp. Theokrit. 2, 24; Verg. E.
8, 82; Propert, 2, 28, 36; Nemes. 4, 65; Geopon. II, 2, 4, állà kai év tais
μαντείαις καίοντες αυτήν παράστασιν προφητείας δοκούσιν ευρηκέναι. Ogle
suggests (A. J. P. 31, 296) that as the crackling is simply an indication that
the fire had caught, perhaps the omen in the first place depended upon
whether the fire burned or went out. This is to be inſerred from Theokrit.
2, 23 f. : the good omen consists in the fact that the laurel was entirely
consumed and left no ashes ; in the same charm as given by Vergil, E. 8,
106–7 the flame after dying down, suddenly brightens again. We see from
Propert. 2, 28, 35-6 that the reverse was a bad omen.' It is probable,
too, that we may trace here the influence of the same idea as that referred to
in 63 n. above.
This passage of Tib. is referred to by Rabelais, 3, 18 (after the visit to the
Sibyl of Panzoust), 'Vous (dist Epistemon) ne respondez a ce que le rameau
de laurier... brusloit sans bruyt ne grislement aulcun. Vous sçavez que c'est
triste augure et signe grandement redoubtable, comme attestent Properce,
Tibulle, Porphyre philosophe argut, Eustathius sus l’iliade Homericque, et
aultres. Vrayment (respondit Panurge) vous me alleguez de gentilz veaulx.
Ilz feurent folz commes poetes, et resueurs comme philosophes : autant pleins
de fine follie, comme estoit leur philosophie.'
82. omine : for the ablat. cp. 2, 6, 36.
84 f. It is noted that the poet touches upon the three motives of prosper-
ity (increase of crops, flocks, and the family) regularly referred to by the
Greek authors, e.g. Hesiod, W. and D. 232; Herod. 3, 65; Aisch. Eumen.
907 ; Soph. 0. T. 172; Aristoph. Pax, 1320, etc.
85–86. I, 1, 10 n;. 1, 5, 23–24 n.; 1, 7, 35–36; 2, 1, 45-46. Cato, 113,
says, ' de lacu quam primum vinum in dolia indito. post dies XL diffundito
in amphoras.'
471
2, 5, 86]
TIBVLLVS
.
86. dum : 'until,' cp. I, 9, 62 ; 2, 2, 19.
87-90. A brief reference to the Parilia suggested by the preceding, after
which (91 f.) the theme of 86 is again resumed.
The Parilia (Palilia), i.e. the festival of Pales (1, 1, 36 n.), the old rustic
god of Latium, was celebrated April 21, the birthday of the city (Vell. 1, 8,
4; Varro, De Re Rust. 2, 1, 9; Ovid, Met. 14, 774 ; Propert. 4, 4, 74;
Censor. 21, 6; Plutarch, Rom. 12; etc.). Tib, had already referred to the
Parilia, 1, 1, 33 f. The best description of it is given by Ovid, Fasti, 4, 721-
783, cp. also Dionys. 1, 88 f. ; Propert. 4, 4, 73. It was distinctively pro partu
pecoris,' the shepherds' festival, cp. sua festa, 87; pastoria sacra, Ovid, loc.
723; Plutarch, Rom. 12, and marked the beginning of the shepherds' calen-
dar (CIL. I, p. 315). First of all every one went to the Atrium Vestae and
procured from the Vestals the suffimenta or required means of purification, viz.
ashes of the calves burned at the Fordilicia (April 15), blood of the October
horse' (Propert. 4, 1, 19; etc.), and bean straw. At the first peep of dawn
the ceremonial of lustration began. The stables were thoroughly cleaned
and trimmed with flowers and green branches, and both flocks and stables
were sprinkled with a branch of laurel dipped in water and fumigated with
sulphur and fragrant herbs. Then says Ovid, Fasti, 4, 741, 'ure mares
oleas taedamque herbasque Sabinas, et crepet in mediis laurus adusta focis
(cp. 81-82 n.). | libaque de milio milii fiscella sequetur: | rustica praecipue est
hoc dea laeta cibo. I adde dapes mulctramque suas, dapibusque resectis | sil-
vicolam tepido lacte precare Palem. In the following lines Ovid gives the
prayer to be offered. It probably follows the prescribed ritual with tolerable
fidelity. Some idea of the character and phraseology of that ritual may be
seen by comparing the prayer at the Ambarvalia prescribed by Cato, 141, 2
(quoted in 2, 1, 17–24 n.). The prayer dictated by Ovid (l.c. 747–783) is –
'consule' (dic) pecori pariter pecorisque magistris :
effugiat stabulis noxa repulsa meis.
sive sacro pavi, sedive sub arbore sacra,
pabulaque e bustis inscia carpsit ovis : (I, 5, 53 n.)
si nemus intravi vetitum, nostrisve fugatae
sunt oculis nymphae semicaperve deus :
si mea falx ramo lucum spoliavit opaco,
unde data est aegrae fascina frondis ovi:
da veniam culpae. nec dum degrandinat, obsit
agresti fano supposuisse pecus.
nec noceat turbasse lacus. ignoscite, nymphae,
mota quod obscuras ungula fecit aquas.
tu, dea, pro nobis fontes fontanaque placa
numina, tu sparsos per nemus omne deos.
472
NOTES
[2, 5, 91
nec dryadas, nec nos videamus labra Dianae,
nec Faunum, medio cum premit arva die. (Theokrit. I, 17)
pelle procul morbos. valeant hominesque gregesque,
et valeant vigiles, provida turba, canes.
neve minus multos redigam quam mane fuerunt,
neve gemam referens vellera rapta lupo. (cp. 88 ; I, I, 33)
absit iniqua fames : herbae frondes que supersint,
quaeque lavent artus, quaeque bibantur aquae
ubera plena premam, referat mihi caseus aera,
dentque viam liquido vimina rara sero. (2, 3, 15-16)
sitque salax aries, conceptaque semina coniunx
reddat, et in stabulo multa sit agna meo.
· lanaque proveniat nullas laesura puellas,
mollis et ad teneras quamlibet apta manus.
quae precor eveniant, et nos faciamus ad annum
pastorum dominae grandia liba Pali.'
His dea placanda est: haec tu conversus ad ortus
dic quater, et vivo perlue rore manus.
tum licet adposita, veluti cratere, camella
lac niveum potes purpureamque sapam :
moxque per ardentes stipulae crepitantis acervos
traicias celeri strenua membra pede.
expositus mos est.
As soon as the prayer was finished it was a part of the ceremonial for
every one to drink as much as he could hold of the specific beverage pre-
scribed for this occasion, viz. sapa (new wine boiled down thick) mixed with
new milk and set out in large wooden bowls (camellae). When the required
point of ceremonial hilarity had been reached (87) the last and most im-
portant portion of the ritual was performed. Heaps of hay and straw were
lighted and every one proceeded to leap through the fire three times (89–90;
Ovid above; Persius, 1, 72 and Schol.; Dionys. 1, 88, 1; Probus on Verg.
G. 3, I; Propert. 4, 1, 19; 4, 77, etc.). This famous old custom of lustration
by fire has been practised all over Europe as well as in the Orient, and in
more than one locality still survives. After this was over the company, as in
all such rustic festivals, devoted the rest of the clay to merry-making (95-104).
91-94. Completes the theme interrupted at 86.
91. fetus dabit: this is dare from the root of Tidéval, cp. I, 4, 16 n.
Regular is fetus edere, e.g. Verg. G. 4, 199, etc., or in the ordinary speech,
facere : subolem facere, e.g. in the Script. R. R. is regular of animals, cp.
TOLEîV, TEKVOTTOLÓS. No other ex. of dare in this connection is found in
Tibullus. Not infrequent in Lucret., Vergil, and Ovid, esp. of animals, plants,
and things. fetus, of human beings, is very rare.
473
2, 5, 92]
: TIBVLLVS
92. This apparently rustic and half playful variation on the ancient
ceremonial was known to the Greeks as the xút pa (Pollux, 10, 100) or jug'
kiss, i.e. the person for whom the kiss was intended was first taken by the
ears and his head held up by them as a jug is held up by the two handles. Of
little children as here, Plutarch, Mor. 38 C., oi te molloi tà ulkpà maiola
καταφιλούντες αυτοί τε των ώτων άπτονται κακείνα τούτο ποιείν κελεύουσιν.
See also, Aristainet. I, 24 (Musarion concluding her letter to her lover),
μηδέν μελλήσας ηκέ μοι φίλημά τι μόνον αποκομίζων, καγώ των ώτων λαβομένη
Tpls oe piañow · Theokrit. 5, 132, oºk é par Anklas, ŐTL ME IT pâv oŮk éolange |
TÛV ÓTWV kabelois' oka ol Tàv páoo avědwka (echoed in Ronsard and Baif. cp.
A. J. P. 30, 254); Plautus, Asin. 668; Poen. 375. The method survived in
Italy and is traditionally known as the Florentine' kiss. See especially Gio.
Francesco Loredano, Bizzarrie Academiche, Venice, 1642, p. 230 ( Che cosa
sia un bacio alla Fiorentina, e da che habbia havuto origine'). In this amus-
ing chapter Loredano quotes practically all the passages cited above. He also
refers to the discussion of this subject in Lilio Giraldi, Dialog. 9, and cites
from the commentary of Achilles Statius on Catullus the statement that,
* Romae apud Episcopum Capranicensem in veteri monumento dis manibus
Zosime sacro Cupido alatus, comprensis auribus, Zosimen ipsam deosculatur.'
Several theories of origin are discussed, but, for his own part, Loredano be-
lieves that the original reason for its use was 'perchè l'orecchia è consagrata
alla memoria. Volevano dunque baciando in questa maniera avvertire l'
orecchie a non perdere la rimembranza del diletto delle labra. It is called
the ‘Bacio Fiorentino,' he continues, because it is used more in Florence
than in any other place. 'I Fiorentini però per quanto m'afferma il Padre
Gio. Battista Torretti, ammirabile, e nei Pulpiti, e nell' Academie, lo chiariano
quasi tutti bacio alla Francese.'
93-94. So far as I know this touch is unique in antique literature.
93. advigilare: i.e. his little grandson is asleep in the cradle. When he
wakes the old man amuses the child - and, incidentally, himself — with
balba verba. The position of senem is emphatic (cp. 1, 2, 90). "Grandfather
will not consider it a hardship — old as he is.'
This is the first ex. of advigilare with the dative. The others are Stat.
Theb. 1, 147; Claud. 20, 419; 22, 140 (Manil. 1, 80). The verb is rare.
94. balba verba : i.e. baby talk.' 'A very reprehensible habit,' says
Augustinus, In Iohannis Evang. 23, 'vidimus enim et nutrices et matres des-
cendere ad parvulos: etsi norunt Latina verba dicere, decurtant illa et quas-
sant quodam modo linguam suam ut possint de lingua diserta fieri blandimenta
puerilia : quia si sic dicant, non audit infans, sed nec proficit infans. et di-
sertus aliquis pater, si sit tantus orator ut lingua illius fora concrepent et tribu-
474
NOTES
. nalia concutiantur, si habeat parvulum filium, cum ad domum redierit seponit
forensem eloquentiam quo adscenderat et lingua puerili descendit ad par-
vulum'; cp. also Contra Faust. 22, 46.
95-104. This rustic merry-making - the poet's favourite theme — has much
in common with 1, 10, 51 f. and 2, 1, 21 f., where see the notes.
95. Operata : 2, 3, 36 n. — pubes: as in 1, 7, 5, where see note.
96. levis umbra: i.e. "easily moving,' shifting,' cp. Propert. I, 18, 21
(Rothstein), teneras sub umbras ’; Ovid, Met. 5, 336, nemorisque levi
consedit in umbra'; Verg. E. 5, 5, .sub incertas Zephyris motantibus umbras.'
See 2, 6, 8, ' levem aquam,' note; Ovid, Met. 11, 6, ' leves auras,' etc.; Tib. I,
1, 73 n.; 1, 7, 44.
98. coronatus calix: it has been affirmed that this custom of crowning
one's cup with flowers at feasts, etc., so often mentioned by the Roman poets,
is due to a literal but mistaken interpretation of the Homeric koûpol uèv kpn-
qñpas &TTEOTÉY AUTO OTOîo, i.e. 'filled to the brim,' not actually crowned with
flowers. See Leaf on Iliad, 1, 470, and cp. 6, 256.
100. Quoted on the title page of Geo. Daniel's third Eclogue.
101-104. The old theme of lovers' quarrels, I, 1, 74; 1, 3, 64; 1, 6, 73–74;
1, 10, 53–66 and notes.
101. potus: I, IO, 51-52; 2, 1, 29-30 and notes.
102. irrita facta velit: 'the perf. infin. pass., generally with esse omitted,
is used after energetic expressions of will (generally volo, less often nolo,
malo, cupio) in all periods. As esse was usually omitted it was easier to take
e.g. facta here for a participle than for an infinitive, -1, because the par-
ticiple is used oftener than the infinitive, 2, because it is more characteristic
cause the perf. part. pass. is older than its descendant the perf. infin. pass.'
(Schmalz, Lat. Styl., etc., 296). Hence the Romans of Quintilian's time
parsed facta here as a participle (cp, 9, 3, 9, utimur ... participio pro
verbo: “volo datum")) irrespective of its origin or previous history.
103. suae : 1, 5, 42 n. To be taken with ferus (not with plorabit as
in Harper's Lex.), cp. Hor. Od. 3, 4, 33, “visam Britannos hospitibus feros'
(quoted by Postgate).
104. mente mala: i.e. 'not in his right mind,' the opposite of bona mente,
cp. Catullus, 40, 1, ' quaenam te mala mens, miselle Ravide’; Seneca Ben. 3,
27, 2. For the ablat. of quality, 1, 9, 84 n.
105–106. 2, 1, 81-82 n.
105. pace tua: 1, 1, 3 and 72; 1, 6, 86; 1, 8, 76.
107-108. 2, 1, 70 and notes.
475
.
2, 5, 108]
TIBVLLVS
108. heu heu: 2, 3, 2 n. — dedit malum: 1, 4, 16 n. Both Tidévai and
διδόναι are used with κακόν, άλγεα, and the like, by Homer, but Thielmann
points out that with sidóval the subject is always a god, but that with tloéval
mortals and things as well as gods may be subject. Th. shows that in Latin
also the same distinction holds good for the popular phrase malum dare.
109-112. The reference to Nemesis and to his own troubles to which the
poet has brought us so skilfully is a concession to the fact that he is a writer
of amatory elegy.
109–110. That love is a disease (cp. 4, 6, 18 and often), that it is a pleas-
ing pain, and therefore that the patient makes no effort to recover, are all
commonplaces of erotic poetry in every age, cp. Hor. Od. 1, 27, 11; Seneca,
Epist. 39, 6. 'O, out alas !' says Robert Jones (Musical Dream, 1609), 'I
cannot long endure it, | And yet, alas! I care not when I cure it.'
110. cum iuvat: cum causal with the indicative (always in Plautus) is old-
fashioned. This is the only case in the elegy.
111. usque : 1, 2, 88 n. On the cadence, 1, 3, 5 n.
The idea that the poet's beloved is really the inspiration of his verses (cp.
also 2, 4, 13-20 n.) is often repeated, cp. e.g. Ovid, Amor. 1, 3, 19; 2, 17, 33;
3, 12, 15; Trist. 4, 10, 59; Propert. 2, 30, 40; esp. 2, 1, 1-16; Mart. 8, 73, 3.
113–114. Transition to the concluding topic. A half playful reference to
the general opinion that poets, as well as prophets and lunatics, not to men-
tion lovers (1, 2, 27), are inspired and protected by the gods. See e.g. Ovid.
Amor. 3, 9, 17; Ars Amat. 3, 403 and 547; Fasti, 6, 5; Pont. 3, 4, 93; Hor.
Od. 4, 9, 28; Cicero, Orat. 2, 194; Tusc. Disput. I, 64; Div. I. 80; Plato,
Phaidros, 245 A., etc.
115-120. The poet died in 19 B.C. Thirty years afterward (11 A.D.) his
prophecy was fulfilled, cp. Ovid, Pont. 2, 2, 75 f. (a description evidently in-
fluenced by this passage) and esp. Velleius, 2, 112.
116. oppida victa : one of the many references to the 'floats' (1,7, 4 n.)
which were regularly carried in triumphs and which naturally added much to
the spectacular effect of the pageant, cp. e.g. Cic. In Pison. 60,‘simulacra oppi-
dorum'; Quintil. 6, 3, 61, 'in triumpho Caesaris eborea oppida’; Tac. Ann.
2, 41 (triumph of Germanicus), vecta spolia, captivi, simulacra montium,
fluminum, proeliorum'; Florus, 2, 13, 88, Caesar in patriam victor invehitur,
primum de Gallia triumphum trahens: hic erat Rhenus et Rhodanus et ex
auro captivus Oceanus. altera laurus Aegyptia: tunc in ferculis Nilus Arsinoe
et ad simulacrum ignium ardens Pharos, etc. ; Cicero, Phil. 8, 18; Livy,
26, 21, 7; Ovid, Trist. 4, 2, 20; Pont. 2, 1, 37; 3, 4, 105; Ars Amat. 1, 223;
Propert. 3, 4, 16; Claud. 24, 22. The third day of Caesar's great triumph in
29 B.C. was devoted to Egypt. There were numerous floats, but the special
476
NOTES
[2, 6
feature of the occasion was a figure of the dying Cleopatra on a couch, cp.
Cassius Dio, 51, 21, 7.
117. The use of laurel in triumphs as here is often mentioned. Like the
phallus, the ribald songs of the soldiers, and the triumphator's purple robe,
the laurel was prophylactic. There were spirits abroad and it was for protec-
tion against them that these precautions were taken. The fact, as Ogle ob-
serves (A. J. P. 31, 292) that the soldiers also wore laurel suggests that the
spirits most feared were the avenging ghosts of the warriors slain in battle
(and so Masurius in Pliny, 15, 135).- lauro agresti: so Pliny, 15, 133, 'Ro-
manis praecipue laetitiae victoriarumque nuntia additur litteris et militum lan-
ceis pilisque fasces imperatorum decorat.' The triumphator himself used the
*Delphica laurus,' cp. Pliny, 15, 127.
118. io triumphe: Ovid, Amor. I, 2, 34 ; Trist. 4, 2, 52; Hor. Od. 4, 2,
49, etc.; Varro, L. L. 6, 68, sic triumphare appellatum quod cum imperatore
milites redeuntes clamisant per urbem in Capitolium eunti: io triumphe.'
119–120. The wish was not realized, see Introd. p. 36.
121. intonsi capilli: 2, 3, 12 n.
122. casta: cp. note on virginitas, 64.
2, 6
Tibullus addresses this elegy to his friend Macer, probably the poet Aemilius
Macer of Verona (cp. i n. and Introd. p. 53).
Macer is off to the wars. What is to become of Love ? Can he trail the
puissant pike? Will he shoulder his kit, drop into line, and trudge along
beside his friend ? Fetch back the deserter, boy, make the hardened recre-
ant smart for his defection! Or, do you spare those who join the ranks of
Mars? If so, here is another recruit, able-bodied and quite willing to wait on
himself. Venus and the girls may go their way and — be welcome. I don't
mind fighting at all, I enjoy it!
‘Hear me boast! And the mighty words die on my lips at the mere sight
of her closed door. How oflen I have sworn by all the powers, never, never
to return, and then my feet have always walked straight back! Cruel Love,
would that your arrows were broken and your torches put out. You torture
me, you drive me to dreadful blasphemies. I would have put an end to my
misery ere now were it not that Hope bids me live. “To-morrow,” she always
says, “ to-morrow will be better.” Hope is the optimist, we all hope for some-
thing! The farmer hopes for a crop, else why should he sow, the prisoner
for freedom, else why should he sing to the clank of his chains, the fisherman
hopes for the fish, the fish hopes for the bait. I too have hoped ; I hoped
477
2, 6, 1]
TIBVLLVS
that Nemesis would be kind; but Nemesis says no. Impious girl, Hope is a
goddess.. Would you overrule a goddess ? Spare me, I beg, for your dead
sister's sake. Poor little girl, I will take sanctuary at her tomb, I will place
offerings there, and I will tell her my wrongs. She will not allow her suppli-
ant to be abused by you all the time. Beware! the neglected dead might
send you evil dreams and your sleep be haunted by your sister's form as she
was when she fell headlong from that lofty window and came all bloody to
the shadow world. Nay, no more, lest my mistress's bitter grief be roused
anew. What am I that she should spoil those speaking eyes with one tear
for me. 'Tis the lena who is to blame, the girl is good. How often have I
cursed the hag. May every curse come to pass !!
1-4. This picture -- which reminds one of a Hellenistic fresco - is more
Alexandrian in tone and manner than is usual with Tibullus.
1. castra sequitur: i.e. 'serve in the army,' .be off to the wars'; not un-
common esp. in poetry, cp. Propert. 2, 10, 19; Ovid, Amor. 3, 8, 26; Pont.
2, 2, II; Met. 5, 128; Lucan, 10, 407; etc. — Macer: the identity of this
friend of Tibullus is not certain. The poem tells us that he was starting on a
campaign, and lines i and 5 suggest that he may have been an elegiac poet.
There were at least two Macers in this period and both were poets. It is
most probable, however, that Tibullus refers to Aemilius Macer of Verona, a
friend of Vergil (Philargyrius on E. 5: 1) and of Ovid (Trist. 4, 10, 43) and
the author of several didactic poems (Ornithogonia; Theriaca; De Herbis)
which were long famous. Hieronymus tells us that he died in Asia Minor
in 16 B.C. This was perhaps during a military campaign and possibly the
very campaign for which he was starting when this elegy was written. -
quid fiet: 'what will become oſ, happen to. This use of fieri with the dative
is found in all styles and periods. The point of the question is that after all
Cupid is essentially a god of peace and ease, cp. 5; Propert. 3, 5, 1; esp. Ovid,
Rem. Amor. 136 f.
2. sit ... gerat: the question is rhetorical and the potential (1, 6, 74 n.)
serves to suggest a negative answer on the part of the poet — and we agree
with him as soon as we too get the vision of that little figure loaded down
with the heavy equipment of a Roman infantry soldier ('iniusto sub fasce'
Verg. G. 3, 347) and trudging along all day beside his friend non passibus
aequis.' For the omission of an interrogative particle cp. 1, 9, 69. — collo,
etc.: Plautus, Trin. 595, "actumst de collo meo, | gestandust peregre clu-
peus, galea, sarcina. Cp. the proverbial collo suo ligna portare' (Petron. 38).
We should say 'shoulders, 'or 'back.'
3. longa via : 1, 1, 26 n. — vaga aequora: i.e. shifting,' as in 2, 3, 39;
and often.
478
NOTES
[2, 6, 11
4. volet: on the shiſt, cp. I, 1, 24 n.
5-6. Proposes the alternative. The poet thinks it more likely (cp. 'sit
... gerat'above), and in fact this is Cupid's method of dealing with all
such cases, cp. line it below, and often.
5. ure: 1, 5, 5 n.-tua otia : cp. Ovid, Rem. Amor. 139, otia si tollas,
periere Cupidinis arcus, etc. — ferus: i.e. 'untamed,'.' rebellious,' cp. 1, 5, 5.
6. Returns for the moment to the time-honoured association of Love and
War, 'militat omnis amans et habet sua castra Cupido,' Ovid, Amor. I, 9, 1;
cp. 2, 9, 3; and often. Hence erronem, 'the runaway' (generally of slaves)
here = 'the deserter,' cp. Ovid, Her. 19, 157, 'in tua castra redi, socii desertor
amoris !'
7-10. The thought, however, that Cupid may make an exception in favour of
soldiers sheds a momentary gleam of hope on his own case. Indeed, in his
flash of enthusiasm the poet drops into the conversational idiom.
7. erit hic quoque miles: this deictic use of hic = ego (usually with homo)
belongs to the common speech and is largely confined to comedy, cp. Plautus,
Bacch. 640; Curc. 248; Epid. 141; Trin. 172; 1115; Ter. Adel. 906;
And. 310; Heaut. 356; etc. The one case in the satire seems to be Hor.
Sat. 1, 9, 47, ' haberes magnum adiutorem posset qui ferre secundas, | hunc
hominem velles si tradere,' where it is to be noted that the speaker is the
vulgar bore. In Greek, on the contrary, the corresponding use (89€ årp,
åvnp 88€, 88€) is esp. frequent in tragedy; cp. also Herod. I, 108; Antiphon,
6,9; etc.
8. ipse: i.e. he will gladly serve as the most ordinary soldier who has to
wait on himself—a special hardship in a slaveholding country, cp. I, 1, 7 n.
- levem aquam: i.e. shifting,' ' easily moving,' nimble,' cp. 2, 5, 96 n.;
Hor. Epod. 16, 47, montibus altis | levis crepante lympha desilit pede '; Ovid,
Fasti, 5, 662,"levis cursum sustinuistis aquae'; etc.
For this use of the helmet – a natural touch — cp. Propert. 3, 12, 8, ‘pota-
bis galea fessus Araxis aquam'; Eleg. in Maec. 58; Lucan, 9, 502; Claud.
III Cons. Honor. 49.
10. Ovid, Her. 16, 352, 'finge tamen, si vis, ingens consurgere belluin: ||
et mihi sunt vires, et mea tela nocent'; Trist. 1, 3, 83, 'te sequar et coniunx
exulis exul ero, | et mihi facta viast, et me capit ultima tellus.'
11. magna loquor: i.e. lines 9-10. For the situation and the sentiments
cp. I, 5, 1-6, where see the notes. See also 1, 2, 89-96 and notes. The
expression is found in all styles and periods, and as here generally il-
lustrates the thought that pride goeth before a fall, cp. Sen. Herc. Fur. 295,
magna sed nimium loquor'; 436, tenebrae loquentem magna Tartareae
premunt’; Ovid, Her. 4, 150; Verg. A. 10, 547; Hor. Od. 4, 6, 1; etc. So
479
2, 6, 12]
TIBVLLVS
in Greek and usually in the same connection, Theokrit. 10, 20, un on ué ya uudell.
Soph. Elekt. 830, undèv Miéy' đúons, etc., and this is often the moral of
the tragedy itself; cp. Soph. Antig. 1350;. Aisch. Prom. 362 f.; etc.
Note that the idea of 'magna loquor' is given all possible emphasis in this
line. The humorous exaggeration brings out the more sharply the con-
trasted and yet such a little thing as the “clausae fores,”' etc. For the
same device cp. e.g. Ter. Eun. 64:
et quod nunc tute tecum iratus cogitas,
'egon illam, quae illum, quae me, quae non ... sine modo,
mori me malim : sentiet qui vir siem':
haec verba ea una mehercle falsa lacrimula
quam oculos terendo misere vix vi expresserit,
restinguet, et te ultro accusabit, et dabis
ultro ei supplicium.
See also Ovid, Amor. 2, I, 15.
12. excutiunt: 'shake out. The metaphor is taken from shaking clothes
in order to get out anything that may be concealed in them, Greek, éko eleLv.
A favourite word with Seneca and Persius (1, 49, Gildersleeve); cp. Seneca,
Troad. 575, 'magnifica verba mors prope admota excutit,' upon which his own
words, Epist. 82, 7, are a comment, 'magna verba excidunt cum tortor popos-
cit manum, cum mors propius accessit'; cp. also Cicero, Sull. 24, 'excutient
tibi istam verborum iactationem'; Domo, 76; Phil. 2, 73; etc. Aisch.
Prom. 360, is a slightly different figure. Propertius, 1, 5, 13, says in this con-
nection, 'quotiens ad limina curres, cum tibi singultu fortia verba cadent.'
13-14. Cp. 1, 5, 1-2; Propert. 2, 25, 20, 'ultro contemptus rogat et peccasse
fatetur | laesus, et invitis ipse redit pedibus'; Hor. Epod. 11, 20, 'iussus abire
domum ferebar incerto pede'; Ovid, Rem. Amor. 216; 785; etc.
13. rediturum: for omission of the subject accusative, 1, 5, 73 n; 1, 3,
27 n. Extremely common in the comedy, found everywhere in the historians
and ordinary enough in epistolary style. Frequency of it in the poets, esp. of
the. Augustan Age, is due to the influence of the older writers or to metrical
convenience. Most uncommon, because the omitted subject is not to be re-
ferred to the subject of the governing verb, are 1, 3, 27; 2, 6, 48; 4, 8, 8.
This is the only ex. in Tibullus of the future infin. so used.
14. ipse : 'of its own accord,' cp. 1, 3, 45 n.; Propert. 2, 25, 20.
15-16. Cp. 2, 5, 105-106; 2, 1, 81-82. A variation is the actual threat to
disarm Cupid or to disable him in some other way. This motive has been
popular in modern art and literature since the Renaissance, and it is so sug-
gestive of Alexandrian poetry, especially of bucolic and epigram, that one
would expect to find it equally popular in the later literature of Antiquity. I
480
NOTES
[2, 6, 17
have found, however, only Meleager, Anth. Pal. 5, 179; Lukian, Dial. Deor.
11, 1; Ausonius, Cupido Cruciatus; Modestinus, Anth. Lat. 273 R. -
forte iacebat Amor victus puer alite somno
myrti inter frutices pallentis roris in herba.
hunc procul emissae tenebrosa Ditis ab aula
circueunt animae, saeva face quas cruciarat.
'ecce meus venator,' ait hunc' Phaedra 'ligemus!'
crudelis 'crinem'clamabat Scylla 'metamus!'
Colchis et orba Progne numerosa caede: 'necemus!'
Dido et Canace: 'saevo gladio perimamus!'
Myrrha : 'meis ramis,' Euhadne: ‘igne crememus!'
hunc Arethusa 'in aquis,' Byblis 'in fonte necemus!'-
ast Amor evigilans dixit: 'mea pinna, volemus.'
See also Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde, London, 1902, p. 32 (“Rosalynde's
Madrigall '); esp. p. 173 —
O Love! thou guide in my uncertaine way,
Woe to thy bow, thy fire, the cause of my decay,
which is perhaps on echo of Tibullus's lines. John Dickenson's song, Cupid's
Journey to Hell' (in his Arisbas, Euphues amidst his slumbers, 1594) was
evidently suggested (probably indirectly) by Ausonius, loc. Another favourite
type is represented by Lyly's ' Arraignment of Cupid' (in his Galathea, 1592).
15. acer Amor: i.e. ' fierce,' so 4, 2, 6. The epithet as applied to Cupid
is not found elsewhere. The epithet, however, as well as the entire passage
is yet another illustration of the old commonplace that Cupid is himself
utterly cruel and heartless, cp. 1, 3, 64; 1, 6, 2; 1, 10, 58; 2, 4, 5–6 note.-
utinam: 1, 3, 2 n.
On the arrangement of the line cp. Ovid, Met. 2, 616, nec non arcumque
manumque | odit cumque manu temeraria tela, sagittas”; 13, 401, 'vela dat
ut referat Tirynthia tela, / sagittas'; Verg. E. 3, 3, infelix o semper ovis
pecus’; G. 4, 168, “ignavum fucos pecus,' etc.
16. aspiciamque: 1, 1, 40 n. — faces: 2, 1, 81-82 n.; 2, 4, 6; 4, 2, 6.
17. mihi dira precari: 1, 3, 82 n. To appreciate the force of this expres-
sion we must remind ourselves that in antique folk belief a curse or any other
invocation of the gods has a tendency to perform its mission automatically.
Its efficiency is not affected by the character or desert of him who pronounced
the curse, nor by his point of view at the time, nor even by the fact that he
afterward changed his mind. The essential power of the curse lies in its
form. If the form is correct — for words (cp. nomen, 2, 5, 57 n.) have a real
entity, a real relation to the things they represent — the curse becomes a
charm and the power invoked is obliged to obey.
481
2, 6, 18]
TIBVLLVS
18. That is, talk impiously, and thereby incur the danger of being punished
by the gods for blasphemy, cp. esp. 1, 2, 7–12. We frequently meet with this
same fear of verbal offence, cp. esp. 1, 2, 79 n.; 1, 3, 51; 4, 4, 14; Lucret. 5,
1224; Eurip. H. F. 757; etc. - nefanda loqui: 1, 5, 42.
19-28. This rhetorical digression on Hope had an evident influence on
Ovid, Pont. I, 6, 29 —
Haec dea cum fugerent sceleratas numina terras
in dis invisa sola remansit humo.
haec facit ut vivat fossor quoque compede vinctus,
liberaque a ferro crura futura putet.
haec facit ut, videat cum terras undique nullas,
naufragus in mediis bracchia iactet aquis.
saepe aliquem sollers medicorum cura reliquit,
nec spes huic vena deficiente cadit.
carcere dicuntur clausi sperare salutem,
atque aliquis pendens in cruce vota facit.
haec dea quam multos laqueo sua colla ligantis
non est proposita passa perire nece!
me quoque conantem gladio finire dolorem
arguit, injecta continuitque manu, etc.
Especially interesting in this connection is a poem on Hope in the Anth. Lat.
415 R. (PLM. 4, p. 65 B.). It contains some good verses, is founded on the
two passages of Ovid and Tibullus, and is illustrated by a number of well-
worn rhetorical examples. One of the most striking passages on this subject
among the Greek poets is Semonides, 1, 6-19 Crus. The author of a poem
(* The Lover in great distresse comforteth himselfe with hope ') in “The
Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions' (London, 1578) may have had this
passage of Tibullus in mind, cp.
In hope a Kinge doth go to warre,
In hope the Lover lyves full longe,
In hope the Marchaunt sayles full farre,
In hope most men doo suffer wronge:
In hope the Ploughman soweth much seede,
Thus hope helpes thousands in their neede.
Then faynt not hart amonge the rest,
What ever chaunce hope thou the best.
Though wit biddes will to blowe retrayte,
Wyll cannot worke as wit would wish
When that the Roche doth taste the bayte:
To late to warne the hungry fishe, etc.
482
NOTES
[2, 6, 23
19-20. 'Hope springs eternal in the human breast: | Man never is, but
always to be blest'; Apollodoros, 9 K., oỦdétror' åbuueîv TÒV kaks pártovta
dei, / å vòpes, tå Beltiw dè mpoo dokâv åel: cp. Soph. 862 N.; Menander,
Mon. 643 M., etc. For characteristic rhetorical amplifications see Ovid above
and Anth. Lat. 415, 1 f. R.
The choice of the homely old proverb, ‘cras erit melius,' to express the
thought is esp. artistic, cp. the shepherd Corydon in Theokrit. 4, 41, Qapoelv
χρή, φίλε Βάττε· τάχ' αύριον έσσετ’ άμεινον. | ελπίδες εν ζωοίσιν, ανέλπιστοι
de Davóvres, etc. No other case of the proverb in this form is quoted from
Latin, cp. however, Petron. 45, 'quod hodie non est cras erit.
Carm. Epig. 949 B. is quoted as a possible echo of Tib. ‘si potes, et non
vis, cur gaudia differs / spemque foves et cras usque redire iubes?' etc.
21-22. On the imagery, 1, 7, 31 n.; 2, 3, 62; Ovid, Rem. Amor. 173; and
often. For the farmer as an illustration of hope cp. Anth. Lat. 415, 51, 'sperat
qui curvo sulcos perrumpit aratro, sperat qui ventis vela ferenda dedit, ...
spes sequitur gravibus rastris mala rura domantem, | in nova se nulla cum
ratione parat’; Menander, 641 K., Ó Tŵv yewprwv dovnu čxel Blos, tais
ÉTTLOlv tål yelva tapauvdoúuevos Philem. 82 K., del yewpros els véwta
TT loúolos. Mustard notes Andrea Navagero, Vota Cereri pro terrae fru-
gibus —
sed quae credidimus bene cultis semina campis
uberius largo faenore reddat ager.
Gio. Francesco Loredano, Bizzarrie Academiche, Venice, 1642, p. 217 ff.
quotes these lines of Tibullus, as well as many other passages from ancient
and modern authors, in his long chapter, Della Speranza.
23–24. Sometimes the hunted are described so to speak as “ Prisoners of
Hope,' cp. e.g. Seneca, Epist. 8, 3, 'ad omne fortuitum bonum suspiciosi
pavidique subsistite : et fera et piscis spe aliqua oblectante decipitur.'
Writers of dactylic verse generally mention fowling and fishing together as
here and in much the same words, cp. Ovid, Her. 19, 13; Rem. Amor, 207;
Met. 8, 855; 15, 473; etc.
The snaring of small birds for food is still to be seen all over Italy, and
nowadays seems to be esp. characteristic of that country.
23. captat: not catch' or 'take, but seek to catch,' i.e. it is hope
(haec) that prompts men to hunt and fish, cp. Anth. Lat. 415, 53 R., 'spes
hamis pisces, laqueo captare volucres / erudit.' Indeed the hopefulness of the
fisherman under difficulties has long been proverbial, cp. Plautus, Rud. 310
(Trachalio to the fishermen), salvete, fures maritumi, conchitae atque hamio-
tae, | famelica hominum natio. quid agitis? ut peritis?' To which the reply
is,'ut piscatorem aequumst, fame sitique speque falsa.'
483
2, 6, 25]
TIBVLLVS
25-26. Ovid, Pont. 1, 6, 31-32 (quoted in 19-28 n.); Anth. Lat. 415, 21,
"captivus duras illa solante catenas | perfert et victus vincere posse putat;
noxius infami districtus stipite membra | sperat et a fixa posse redire cruce. |
spem iussus praebere caput paloque ligatus, cum micat ante oculos stricta
securis habet. | sperat et in saeva victus gladiator harena, | sit licet infesto
pollice turba minax: , et cui descendit iugulato in pectora mucro, / spem
quamvis lecto iam referatur habet. spem recipit carcer ſoribus praeclusus
aenis, | spes et in horrendo robore parva manet,' etc.
In 1, 7, 42, of which this distich is merely a variant, the slave is cheered
not by hope but by wine. The allusion in both passages and also in Ovid,
l.c., seems to be to the common practice at the time of working the latifundia
(2, 3, 41-42 n.) with gangs of slaves in chains.
25. compede: 1, 7, 42 n.
26. sed canit inter opus: 2, 1, 66 n. Varro, Sat. Men. 363 B., 'homines
rusticos in vindemia incondita cantare, sarcinatrices in machinis'; Marius
Victor. 6, 122 K. speaks of the songs of the Calabrian shepherds; and Anth.
Lat. 388 a, R. is a boatman's song from a Berlin MS. of the seventh to the
eighth century. It begins: ..
Heia, viri, nostrum reboans echo sonet heia!
arbiter effusi late maris ore sereno
placatum stravit pelagus posuitque procellam,
edomitique vago sederunt pondere fluctus.
heia, viri, nostrum reboans echo sonet heia! etc.
It has often been remarked that the Italians no longer sing at their work as
they did even less than a generation ago.
27–28. In this distich (the real motive for the digression on hope) the
poet plays on the literary and popular tradition of the eternal conflict between
the goddess Nemesis and the goddess Elpis or Spes, cp. Introd. p. 53, and
Auth. Pal. 9, 46, EATO a cau Nếuen tv E vous Tapà Bolby TeUỆa, | The Men
lv 1875. Try siva undèvěxos.
28. ne vincas: the comic poets used the second pers. sing. present of the
optative subjunctive when addressing a definite person. In the classical
period this is rare and poetic. The remaining exx. in Tib, are 1, 6, 75 and 1,
8, 29. Otherwise the use may be explained in one of two ways — the definite
person represents a type as in 1, 4, 41 (perhaps, too, I, 6, 75), or the sentence
is elliptical. — deam: there were several temples to Spes in Rome. The
oldest and most important stood in the Forum Holitorium. It was built by
Atilius Calatinus after the First Punic War, burned in 31 B.C., restored by
Germanicus in 17 A.D.
484
NOTES
[2, 6, 41
29.: immatura : naturally, of course, goes with sororis. But this type of
hypallage is common enough in all poetry.
For the oath by the bones or ashes of the dead, cp. Hor. Od. 2, 8, 9;
Propert. 2, 20, 15; Cic. Quinct. 97; Verg. A. 6, 458; etc., cp. I, 4, 25-26 n.
30. 2, 4, 49-50 and notes; Ovid, Amor. 3, 9, 68; Trist. 3, 3, 76; etc.
31-32. 2, 4, 48 n.
31. illius : so 1, 8, 66; 2, 2, 7. illius 1, 7, 51; 2, 4, 52; 2, 6, 33; 36.
33-34. The slave of love (cp. 17; 1, 5, 5 n., etc.) like other slaves when
driven desperate by cruel usage, will take sanctuary and appeal to the higher
powers, cp. 4, 13, 23. It is common for the weak and helpless when in
extremity to appeal to the dead, cp. b.g. Aisch. Pers. 221; Choeph. 332;
Soph. Elekt. 453; etc.
33. sedebo: the usual attitude of suppliants, 4, 13, 23; Verg. A. 9, 4;
Soph. 0. T. 2; etc.
34. Cp. e.g. Catull. 101, 3, .ut te postremo donarem munere mortis | et
mutam nequiquam adloquerer cinerem.' — cum querar: this cons. with queri
(cp. dicere cum, 2, 5, 94) is occasional in all styles, cp. Ovid, Met. 1, 733, 'cum
Iove visa queri est'; Trist. 3, 8, 39; etc. Cp. orare cum aliquo, to plead
with a person (also occasional in all styles). Apparently this is the cum of
inearness or association (e.g. 'duos tamen pudor cum eo tenuit,' Livy, 2, 10, 5)
and hence nearly = apud or coram, cp. Cicero, Att. 5, 21, 13, 'queritur apud
me per litteras.
35. clientem : i.e. in the Roman sense. In line 33 Tibullus has voluntarily
become a cliens of the little sister. This method was called applicatio and
was not unfrequent, cp. Ter. Eun. 886, ego me tuae commendo et committo
fide: , te mihi patronum capio'; Gellius, 5, 13, 2; etc. If the tender was
accepted (at ego in fidem recipio') the applicant became a cliens and his
patronus became his protector.
36. illius ut verbis : i.e. 'as if in her words.' Plautus, Miles Glor. 913,
'anulum ... quem ego militi porro darem tuis verbis,' etc. - sis lenta veto:
the simple subjunctive with veto is also cited for Hor. Od. 3, 2, 26. See 1,
2, 25a n.
37. mala somnia: 1, 5, 13 n. The dead regularly manifest their displeas-
ure in this manner (cp. 1, 5, 51 n.), and 38-40 is an example of what is meant
by a malum somnium, cp., too, Ovid, Fasti, 3, 639; Soph. Elekt. 410; Lo-
beck, Aglaoph. 1, 302.
39. 1, 10, 37–38 n.
40. lacus: this use of lacus to designate the rivers of Hades is a favourite
with Vergil, cp. also Propert. 2, 28, 40, etc.
41. desino: 1, 6, 55 n. nescio quis, quid is the rule even in the scenic
485
2, 6, 42]
TIBVLLVS
poets. Otherwise ŏ final in verbs is first noticeable in Vergil, is more frequent
in Ovid, and increases somewhat in later poets, but never becomes a general
rule. It begins with iambic forms (volo, Catull. 6, 16; dabo, 13, 11) and on the
whole is most common with them. Next come cretic forms like the one be-
fore us, i.e. forms impossible in dactylic verse unless the final o is shortened,
cp. nūntið, Verg. A. I, 391; aūděč, 11, 503; dixeró, Hor. Sat, 1, 4, 104;
obsecro, Epist. 1, 7, 95; caedito, Propert. 4, 5, 77; etc. Least common is
final in spondaic words (finio, Propert. 3, 9, 35; more frequent in Ovid).
42. Ovid, Trist. 2, 209,'non sum tanti renovem ut tua vulnera'; Her. 7,
45, 'non ego sum tanti (quidni cuncteris, inique?) | ut pereas dum me per
freta longa fugis.'- tanti: 2, 3, 66 n.
43. nec digna est: "nor is it meet for her to spoil,' etc. See 4,6, 10 n. -
oculos loquaces: "speaking eyes' is a bold and uncommon metaphor
in antique poetry. Only a few good exx. besides this can be quoted.
Meleager, Anth. Pal. 12, 159, 4, val ydp on tà oá, koûpe, tà kal kwooloi
AatcGvr a | But-ara • I2, I22, 4, ka? TYây duaơ : TGPT và Aated: Alcimus, Math.
Lat. 714 R., O blandos oculos et infacetos , et quadam propria nota loquaces! |
illic et Venus et leves Amores , atque ipsa in medio sedet Voluptas. Cicero,
Leg. 1, 9, 27, has the idea, 'nam et oculi nimis arguti, quem ad modum animo
affecti simus loquuntur,' cp. also Ovid, Amor, 2, 5, 17, non oculi tacuere
tui,' etc.
44. The lover regularly lays the blame on the lena, cp. I, 5, 47 f.; Plautus
Asin. 145; etc. — nobis : the plural really includes Nemesis.
45-54. The poet ends with abusing the lena — a favourite topic, cp. I, 4,
59-60; 1, 5, 49-56 and notes.
45-46. For Bertin's imitation, see 1, 5, 71-74 n.
45. Phryne: a significant name historically. One remembers Hyperides'
famous argumentum ad homines (Quintil. 2, 15, 9; Athen. 13, 590 E, etc.).
On lenae as letter carriers, Ovid, Amor. 2, 19, 41; Ars Amat. 3, 621; etc.
For the tabellae as a theme see esp. Propert. 3, 23; Ovid, Amor. I, 12. —
furtim occulto: 1, 5, 65 n.
46. itque reditque: the phrase is Vergilian, cp. A. 6, 122; cp. Val. Flacc.
1, 725; Mart. 6, 10, 8; Auson. Cent. Nupt. 3, 32.
47–48. For the amusingly modern situation cp. the anecdote of Ennius
related by Cicero, Orat. 2, 276.
48. Martial, 5, 22, 10, ' negat lasso ianitor esse domi.' On the omission of
the subject accus. with esse, 2, 6, 13 n. — domi: the only locative in Tib., cp.
Romae, 4, 9, 2.
49–50. 1, 8, 63–66 n., cp. Ovid, Amor. 1, 8, 73 (advice of the lena), saepe
nega noctes: capitis modo finge dolorem (cp. I, 6, 36 n.) | et modo quae
486
NOTES
[4, 2
causas praebeat Isis erit (1, 3, 25 n. and 1, 6, II) | mox recipe, ut nullum
patiendi colligat usum, neve relentescat saepe repulsus amor. Amor. 2, 19
is devoted to this point, cp. also Ars Amat. 3, 579 f.
50. aut aliquas extimuisse minas: 1, 8, 55; Ovid, Amor. 2, 19, 19, 'tu
quoque quae nostros rapuisti nuper ocellos, / saepe time insidias, saepe
rogata nega | et sine me ante tuos proiectum in limine postis | longa pruinosa
frigora nocte pati,' and the dramatic variant, Ars Amat. 3; 597 f.
51-52. For Bertin's imitation, see 1, 2, 65-74 n.
52. meam: 1, 5, 42 n. - teneat: 1, 5, 39 n. — modis : i.e. figúrae amoris,
cp. vices, 1, 9, 64 n; Ovid, Amor. 2, 8, 28; Ars Amat. 2, 679; 3, 772; Trist.
2, 523; Propert. 2, 6, 27; Pliny, 35, 72; etc.
53. precor diras: as e.g. in 1, 5, 47 f. — satis anxia ... deos: an ideal
conditional sentence, the conditional sign with noverit being inherent in
quotacumque : you would find trouble enough in your life were any portion
whatever of my prayers to succeed in rousing the gods to action. The
threat is intensified by understatement (i.e. satis, and the ideal instead of the
logical condition).
54. e votis pars: this cons. with pars (instead of the genitive) is ex-
tremely rare, cp. Cicero, Caec. Div. 57, 'ex illa pecunia magnam partem ad
se verrit’; Pliny, 35, 90, ' tantumque eam partem e facie ostendit quam totam
poterat ostendere.' de is a trifle more common, cp. Ovid, Trist. 2, 101, 'nec
mihi pars nocuit de gurgite parva'; Trist. 2, 324, pars mihi de multis una
canenda fuit'; Fasti, 5, 164,"pars Hyadum toto de grege nulla latet'; Cicero,
Quinct. 38, 'de suis commodis aliquam partem velit committere'; Verr. 4,
139,'de Heraclii hereditate quam palaestritis concessisset multo maximam
partem ipsum abstulisse' (where the influence of the verb is doubtless to be
considered); Script. Hist. Aug. 13, 3, 6, partes de cena miserat.' - quota-
cumque: this pronoun is extremely rare.
4, 2
On the Fourth Book in general and on this group of elegies in particular
see Introd. p. 77 ff.
This graceful little poem which introduces the ‘Garland of Sulpicia' (2-6)
is supposed to accompany a present to her on the first of March (tuis
kalendis), the date of the Matronalia. This festival of the women (femineae
kalendae, Juv. 9, 53, etc.) was a sort of feminine counterpart of the Saturnalia,
e.g. at the Saturnalia the slaves were ſeasted by their masters, at the Matrona-
lia, by their mistresses, cp. Macrob. I, 12, 7. On this day the women put on
gala attire (2, 5, 8 n. etc.), hence the emphasis on dress in this poem, and
sacrificed to their own goddess, Juno on the Esquiline. A notable feature
487
4, 2, 1]
TIBVLLVS
was the presents from husbands, lovers, and other available males. These
presents were always expected, cp. Lygd. 3, I (a poem on a similar occa-
sion); Plaut. Miles Glor. 691; Mart. 5, 84, II; Sueton. Vesp. 19; Digest, 24,
1, 31, 8; etc.
"Sulpicia has arrayed herself, Mars, for your kalends. You will do well
to come down and look at her — Venus won't mind. Take heed, though,
lest you find yourself disarmed. When Love desires to inflame, he lights his
two torches at her eyes. Beauty is her handmaid and never leaves her side.
She is like Vertumnus; everything becomes her. Sing her praises, Apollo
and ye Pierian maids. May she see many returns of this festal day. No girl
is more worthy of your tuneful company.'
See especially, the elegy of Luigi Alamanni, Flora in Campagna.
1-2. Note the graceful compliment to Sulpicia gained by a skilful varia-
tion of the thought. The regular habit of dressing up on feast days is pre-
sented to Mars as a personal matter (tibi culta). Then the conventional
invitation to the divine recipient of the courtesy to be present (2, 5, 5, etc.)
is coupled with the suggestion that it will be worth his while, cp. 4, 4, 3–4.
1. Sulpicia : Introd. p. 77.
2. spectatum: the only ex. of the supine in Books 1, 2, and 4. — si sapis :
conversational.
3. hoc Venus ignoscēt: Propert. 2, 28, 33 (asking Jupiter to take pity on
Cynthia who is ill), 'hoc tibi vel poterit coniunx ignoscere Iuno: / frangitur
et Iuno siqua puella perit.' For the prosody, 1, 10, 13 n. — violente: this
epithet of Mars is found elsewhere only in Seneca, Troad. 185.
4. That is, Mars is in danger of falling in love with his worshipper. For this
conventional symptom of the process cp. Propert. 4, 4, 21 (Tarpeia at the
first sight of Tatius), obstupuit regis facié et regalibus armis | interque
oblitas excidit urna manus'; Ovid, Her. 16, 253, 'dum stupeo visis (nam
pocula forte tenebam), ) tortilis a digitis excidit ansa meis'; Met. 14, 349,
quae simul ac iuveneni virgultis abdita vidit, obstipuit. cecidere manu
quas legerat herbas : | flammaque per totas visa est errare medullas '; etc.
5-6. 'Eyes of fire' are not uncommon, cp. Anakreont. 15, 18 Crus. (direc-
tions to the painter), Tò đề BAếua vôi ôs | Giò Toũ TUpos Tong 09
Propert. 2, 3, 14, 'non oculi, geminae sidera nostra faces'; Ovid, Met. I,
498, videt igne micantes | sideribus similes oculos.'
Doubtless the pretty variation given here was conventional enough, but I
have not yet found it elsewhere in antiquity. It appeared early in English
(doubtless as an echo of our poet) and seems always to have been more or
less popular, cp. Rosalynde's Description' in Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde
(published in 1590), London, 1902, p. 82—
488
NOTES
[4, 2, 7
Nature her selfe her shape admires,
The Gods are wounded in her sight,
And Love forsakes his heavenly fires,
And at her eyes his brand doth light;
Shakespeare, Sonnet 153 (first published in 1609) -
But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
Ben Jonson, Underwoods, 'A Nymph's Passion' -
But he hath eyes so round and bright,
As make away my doubt,
Where Love may all his torches light
Though hate had put them out.
See also Rowe's Ambitious Stepmother, Act 3, Scene 1, 'The God of Love
stands ready with his torch To light it at thy eyes, but still in vain, | For ere
the flame can catch, 'tis drown'd in tears'; Aphra Behn, Song (to Love),
* From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurl'd';
Guy de Tours, Pourtrait de son Ente, 3; Remy Belleau (Seconde Journée de
la Bergerie), '.qu'il prend des feux ardans de vos chastes prunelles, | Yeux,
ou naissent d'Amour les vives étincelles. Even in these days we find James
Branch Cabell saying (“The Awakening,' Smart Set, 12, 1904, p. 75), “I
won't tell you, with Propertius, that her complexion reminded me of roses
swimming in milk ... nor am I going to insist, with Ovid, that her eyes had
a fire like that of stars, nor proclaim, with Tibullus, that Cupid was in the
habit of lighting his torch from them.'
6. lampadas: i.e. his faces or torches, cp. 2, 1, 81-82 n.; 2, 4, 6; 2, 6,
16.—acer Amor: 2, 6, 15 n.
7-14. For this inexhaustible motive of erotic poetry ancient and modern
(i.e. all shapes please) cp. 1, 4, 10 n.; esp. Propert. 2, 1, 5; 4, 2, 21; Ovid,
Amor. 2, 5, 43; 2, 4, 10; Ars Amat. 2, 295; Met. 8, 25; Plautus, Most. 173;
Paulus Silentiarius, Anth. Pal. 5, 260 —
Κεκρύφαλοι σφίγγουσι τεήν τρίχα; τήκομαι οίστρα,
Ρείης πυργοφόρου δείκελον είσορόων.
ασ κεπές εστι κάρηνον; εγώ ξανθίσμασι χαίτης
έκχυτoν εκ στέρνων εξεσόβησα νόον.
αργενναΐς οθόνησι κατήορα βόστρυχα κεύθεις ;
ουδέν ελαφροτέρη φλόξ κατέχει κραδίην.
μορφήν τριχθαδίην Χαρίτων τριάς αμφιπολεύει:
πάσα δέ μοι μορφή πυρ ίδιον πρoχέει.
1
489
4, 2, 7]
TIBVLLVS
Burton (see 7-10 n. below) takes up this important question at great length
and fortifies it as is his wont by many quotations.
Sometimes this same catholicity of taste is made the excuse for inconstancy,
cp. Ovid, Amor. 2, 4; Propert. 2, 22; etc. Or, thanks to an unexpected com-
pliment, the very weakness itself becomes as it were a virtue, as in Sedley's —
All that in woman is adored
In thy dear self I find —
For the whole sex can but afford
The handsome and the kind.
Why then should I seek further store,
And still make love anew ?
When change itself can give no more,
'Tis easy to be true!
- 7-10. Burton quotes these lines in his · Symptoms of Love' (Anat. Mel.
Part III, Sect. II, Mem. III, Subsect. I) and translates :
What e'er she doth, or whither e'er she go,
A sweet and pleasing grace attends forsooth;
Or loose, or bind her hair, or comb it up,
She's to be honoured in what she doth.
vestem induitur, formosa est; exuitur, tota forma est,' he continues (trans-
lating from Aristainetos, Epist. 1, 1, évô eduuévn MÈV Eům poo wrotárn éotiv,
Érduoa è öln apbowTov palvetai), let her be dressed or undressed, all is
one, she is excellent still, beautiful, fair, and lovely to behold. Women do
as much by men, nay more, far fonder, weaker, and that by many parasangs,'
etc. Herrick says —
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
The liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see
That brave vibration, each way free,
O, how that glittering taketh me!
8. componit: lit. 'arrange,' 'set in order, i.e. 'adorn. Derived from
the use of componere to describe the feminine toilet, cp. e.g. Ovid, Met. 4, 318
(of Salmacis upon seeing Hermaphroditos), 'nec tamen ante adiit etsi pro-
perabat adire, 1 quam se composuit, quam circumspexit amictus, et finxit
vultum, et meruit formosa videri,' etc. Decor here is thought of as the maid
who makes her mistress presentable under all circumstances and accompanies
her (subsequitur) without our knowledge (furtim). Possibly we hear the
echo of this passage in Quintil. I, II, 19, neque enim gestum oratoris com-
490
NOTES
[4, 2, 16
poni ad similitudinem saltationis volo sed subesse aliquid ex hac exercitatione
puerili unde nos non id agentes furtim decor ille discentibus traditus prose-
quatur.'
9-10. The anaphora + chiasmus is characteristic of Ovid, cp. Amor. 2, 5,
43, spectabat terram: terram spectare decebat: | maesta erat in vultu :
maesta decenter erat'; Ars Amat. I, 195, 'cum tibi sint fratres, fratres ulcis-
cere laesos | cumque pater tibi sit, iura tuere patris ’; 2, 297; 303; 199; etc.
In 11-12 (as often in Ovid) the poet returns to parallelism.
Note that the arrangement of the theme in 9-12 is also chiastic — 9, no
coiffure, i.e. indoor costume (1, 3, 91-92 n.) and simplicity, as contrasted with
10, elaborate coiffure, 2.e, outdoor costume (e.g. Propert. 1, 2, 1, 'quid iuvat
ornato procedere, vita, capillo, et teneras Coa veste movere sinus?' etc.)
and art: 11, the palla and brilliant colours, i.e. outdoor costume and art
(procedere, 2, 3, 52 n.), 12, plain white, i.e. indoor costume and simplicity.
11-12. voluit . . . venit: for the shift of tense cp. I, 1, 24 n.
II. palla : regularly worn on the street by the Roman women. The
palla worn by the gods (1, 7, 46 n.) and by kitharoidoi (2, 5, 7 n.) was of
another type. Tyria suggests, though not necessarily, the festive occasion,
see 15 below. The omission of cum with the ablative of attendance is found
only here in Tib. (1, 10, 27 n.). In such cases the noun is accompanied as
here by an attribute.
12. venit: 1, 2, 76 n.
13. Vertumnus: a comparison frequently made in this connection. The
aptness of it is due to the fact that Vertumnus could assume any attractive
form he chose, cp. esp. Propert. 4, 2, 21 f.; Ovid, Met. 14, 642; etc.
14. Burton (1.c. in 7-10 n.) quotes this line and adds • Let her wear what
she will, do what she will, say what she will,
quidquid enim dicit, seu facit, omne decet.
He applauds and admires everything she wears, saith, or doth.' — mille: 1, 3,
50 n.
15-20. For these standard illustrations of luxury and expense in female
costume (Tyrian stuffs, Oriental perfumes, jewels) see 2, 4, 27-30 and notes.
15. digna est cui: 1, 5, 13 n.
16. bis madefacta: 2, 3, 57-58 n. The ordinary prose word is dibapha.
The poet means to indicate the best and most expensive of Tyrian stuffs (so also
Hor. Epod. 12, 21; Od. 2, 16, 35; Cicero, Fam. 2, 16, 7, etc.), but this was
really a survival from earlier conditions and a different point of view, cp. e.g.
Pliny, 9, 137, written about a century later. He quotes Cornelius Nepos
(died in the reign of Augustus) for the statement that in his boyhood, vio-
491
4, 2, 17]
TIBVLLVS
lacea purpura vigebat cuius libra denariis centum venibat, nec multo post
rubra Tarentina. huic successit dibapha Tyria quae in libras denariis mille
non poterat emi. Further down Pliny adds 'dibapha tunc (i.e. Cicerone
consule) dicebatur quae bis tincta esset, veluti magnifico impendio, qualiter
nunc omnes paene commodiores purpurae tinguuntur.'
17–18. On Arabia the land of perfumes cp. 1, 3, 7 and note.
19-20. 1, 1, 51; 2, 2, 16; 2, 4, 30 and notes.
21. vos: includes the two vocatives Pierides and Phoebe. — Pierides for
Musae (1, 4, 61; 1, 3, 48; Lygd. 3, 1, 5; 3, 4, 44) appears first in Lucretius,
1, 926 and 4, 1, cp. Varro, Sat. Men. 467 B.; Juv. 4, 36; Ennod. I, I, 37;
Claud. 3, 24; Carm. Min. 31, 61; Append. 2, 1; PLM. III, 62: otherwise
in the Age of Augustus only, and for the most part in Ovid and Vergil,
never in Horace, and only once in Propertius (2, 10, 12), never in epic. The
five exx. from Vergil are all in the Eclogues, and of the fifteen exx. from
Ovid all but two (Amor. 1, 1, 6; Ars Amat. 3, 548) are confined to the
period of his exile.
•
4, 3
This poem is ostensibly written by Sulpicia herself (Introd. p. 78) and
occasioned by the fact that her lover Cerinthus has gone off on a boar hunt.
The theme, its development, the atmosphere, are all highly characteristic of
the erotic elegy, cp. e.g. Phaidra and Hippolytos (Euripides, Ovid, etc.),
Venus and Adonis (Bion, Ovid, etc.), Milanion and Atalanta the Huntress
(Propert. I, I; Ovid, Ars Amat. 2, 185, etc.), all favourite themes since the
beginning of the Alexandrian Age, and all laying stress on most of the ideas
presented here. See Maass, Hermes, 24, 526; F. Wilhelm, Rhein. Mus. 61, 95.
There was an extensive literature in antiquity on the subject of hunting in
all its branches. The most important remains are, on the Greek side, the
Kynegetikos of Xenophon, a prose tract, and the Kynegetika of Oppian, a
poem in four books; and on the Roman side, the Cynegetica of Grattius and
another poem of the same name by Nemesianus. The best poetical descrip-
tion in Latin of a hunt is Seneca, Phaedra, 1-84. Among the Romans hunt-
ing was distinctly a gentleman's pursuit, see Introd. p. 86.
Prithee, savage boar, spare my beloved wheresoever he meeteth thee.
Accursed be hunting and all that pertains to it! What madness it is to
choose a sport so full of toil, discomfort, and danger! And yet, Cerinthus, if
I might be with you I would carry the nets myself, I would track the swift
deer, I would hold the dogs in leash. Nay, blessed be the wild wood did
you but embrace me there. Surely the boar if he saw us then would go away
492
NOTES
[4, 3, 7
unharmed and unharming. Though I shall not be there, yet think of me.
Better still, leave the hunters to go their way and come straight back to my
arms.'
1-3. Of the animals which the Greeks and the Romans hunted for amuse-
ment, the boar was proverbially the most dangerous. Best description in
Xen. Kyneget. 10, I, f. Sulpicia asks the boar to have mercy on her young
lover. Her fear is intensified by the unspoken but inevitable reflection that
in the case of Venus and Adonis, the literary prototype of this situation, the
boar did not spare his beautiful victim, cp. Ovid, Met. 10, 705 f.; Propert. 2,
13, 53; Bion, I; etc.
1-2. For similar poetical references to the haunts of the boar see e.g. Hor.
Sat. 2, 4, 40; Od. 3, 12, 4; Ovid, Amor. 3, 10, 40; Ars Amat. 1, 45; etc.
Xenophon, himself an experienced hunter, says (Kyneget. 10, 6), more defi-
nitely that the trail of the boar generally takes the dogs into a thickly wooded
locality, "for the animal regularly has his resting place in such spots, as they
are warm in winter and cool in summer;' so Ovid, Met. 8, 334 (of the Caly-
donian boar), concava vallis erat quo se demittere rivi | assuerant fluvialis
aquae : tenet ima lacunae | lenta salix ulvaeque leves iuncique palustres | vimi-
naque et longa parvae sub harundine cannae. | hinc aper excitus,' etc.
1. quis ... colis: for the use of quis with a verb of the second person, 2,
3, 33, and 2, 3, 74 and notes.
2. devia montis: this construction instead of devios montes) begins with
Lucretius and increases in the Augustan poets and their successors, the poets
and the poetizing prose of the Silver Age (hence, common in Livy and Taci-
tus). It occurs with tolerable frequency in Sallust, but never in Nepos, and
only occasionally in Cicero and Caesar (Schmalz).
3. nec sit acuisse : 1, 6, 3 and 24 with notes. The boar's habit of whet-
ting his tusks is often mentioned, e.g. Ovid, Met. 8, 369; Seneca, Phaed. 346.
5. Delia: it hardly seems necessary to assume (with Postgate) a lacuna be-
tween 4 and 5. The transition is suggested at once by the traditional contrast
and opposition between Diana (Delia) and Venus (cura venandi, and Amor),
cp. e.g. Hor. Od. 1, 1, 25, ‘rnanet sub Iove frigido | venator tenerae coniugis
immemor, seu visa est catulis cerva fidelibus, seu rupit teretes Marsus aper
plagas'; esp. the story of Phaidra and Hippolytos. — cura: ablat. of means
with venandi.
6. canes: Xenophon, 1.c., says that for hunting the wild boar one should
have dogs of the Indian, Cretan, Locrian, and Spartan breeds — and they
must be carefully selected in order that they may be ready to light the beast.'
7-8. The hunters with the aid of nets, etc., shut in (claudentem) the quarry
by forming a cordon (indagine). References to this process, which was of
493
4, 3, 8]
TIBVLLVS
course toilsome (cp. teneras laedere, etc.), are frequent, cp.e.g. Verg. A.4, 121,
* dum trepidant alae saltusque indagine cingunt'; G. 3, 411; Sil. Ital. 2, 419;
esp. Xen. Kyneget. 10, 7 f.
8. teneras laedere manus: 2, 3, 9-10 n. — velle : 1, 2, 92 n.
9-10. Sulpicia thinks of the danger of hunting, cp. Propert. I, 1, 12
(Milanion's courtship of Atalanta the huntress), “ibat et hirsutas ille visere
feras, etc. In 10 (cp. 8) she again returns to the discomforts of the chase,
cp. Varro, Sat. Men. 296 B., "sin autem delectationis causa vena'mini, quanto
satius est salvis cruribus in circo spectare quam his descobinatis in silva
cursare.' The discomfort of briars for bare arms and legs is often referred to,
Ovid, Met. 1, 508, 'ne prona cadas indignave laedi | crura notent sentes,' etc.
The epithet candida, hinting at the loss of beauty as well as of comfort, might
be expected of a girl of Sulpicia’s state of mind with regard to her young lover.
11-14. The desire to accompany one's lover on the hunt had been a regular
motive in erotic poetry since the Hippolytos of Euripides, cp. e.g. Eurip.
Hippol. 208; Seneca, Phaedra, 110; 395; Tib. I, 4, 49-50; Propert. 1, 1,
10-12; Ovid, Met. 10, 533; Her. 4, 37; 97; 5, 13–20; etc.
11. sed tamen: i.e. despite the discomforts just mentioned as well as the
toil referred to in 12–14.
12. retia : regularly used to complete the cordon and prevent the quarry
from escaping, cp. plagas, line 16. For a detailed description of hunting nets,
varieties, materials, etc., see Xen. Kyneget. 2, 4; Grat. Cyneget. 25; Nemes.
Cyneget. 299. Careful directions with special reference to the boar hunt are
given by Xen. 1.c. 10, 7. Seneca, Clem. I, 12, says, “sic feras lineis et pinna
clusas contineas,' where pinna refers to the feathers regularly attached to the
nets to frighten or confuse the quarry, cp. e.g. Nemes. Cyneget. 305; Grat. 1.c.
75. As carrying the nets was not only a tedious but a menial duty, the lover
regularly undertakes it or offers to do so, cp. I, 4, 49-50 n.; Ovid, Her. 5,
19; Verg. E. 3, 75, etc.
13-14. Eurip. Hippol. 215 (Phaidra), TTÉUTTETÉ ii els Õpos elul após örav !
και παρά πεύκας, ίνα θηροφόνοι | στείβουσι κύνες βαλιαϊς ελάφοις έγχριμπτόμε-
ναι» | προς θεών, έραμαι κυσί θαύξαι | και παρά χαίταν ξανθάν ρίψαι | Θεσσαλον
Oprax', élloyxově xovo' | év xelpi Béros · Ovid, Her. 4, 41 (Phaedra), 'in
nemus ire libet pressisque in retia cervis | hortari celeris per iuga summa
canes | aut tremulum excusso iaculum vibrare lacerto | aut in graminea ponere
corpus humo,' etc.
14. Sulpicia offers here to play the part of the Kuvaywybs, cp. Xen. l.c.
9, 2 (hunting the deer, line 13) and 10, 4 (hunting the boar); Ovid, Met. 8,
331; 7, 769; Propert. 2, 19, 20; esp. Seneca, Phaedra, 31, etc.
494
NOTES
[4, 4
15-16. 2, 3, 71–72. The motive is traditional, cp. Phaidra in Eurip. Hippol.
208, αι, αι, | πως αν δροσεράς από κρηνίδος καθαρών υδάτων πώμ' αρυσαίμαν, !
ÚTTÓ valyelpois ěv te kouýrn I lequwvl klidelo' åvaravoaluav. Ovid, Her. 4,
44; 5, 13; Met. 10, 555, etc.
The sentence is an ideal condition, the forest would please me if, etc.
The point of view reflects her own words, 4, 7, 9, where see note.
15. lux mea: used once by Sulpicia herself (4, 12, 1), but does not occur
elsewhere in the Tibullian corpus. Perhaps the use of it in a poem written in
her name was meant to be reminiscent of her style. Tibullus himself never
uses pet names at all; indeed, except in 2, 5, 114, and 2, 6, 28, Nemesis is not
even addressed directly (cp. 1, 6, 21 n.). The comparative frequency of
these expressions in Propertius is characteristic and possibly temperamental,
cp. lux mea, 2, 14, 29; 28, 59; 29, 1; vita, 1, 2, 1; 8, 22; 2, 5, 18; 19, 27;
20, 17; 24, 29; 30, 14; mea vita, 2, 3, 23; 20, II; 26, 1. Ovid uses mea
lux, Amor. 1, 8, 23; 2, 17, 23; Ars Amat. 3, 524, scilicet Aiaci mulier
maestissima dixit | “lux mea" quaeque solent verba iuvare viros?’; | Trist.
3, 3, 52; mea vita, Amor. 2, 15, 21. The frequency and variety of such
epithets in any given department vary inversely with the distance of it from
the language and style of ordinary life.
17-18. That is, Sulpicia hopes that in his love for her Cerinthus will give
up the original object of his expedition altogether. All for love, so to speak,
and the boar well lost.
17. abibit: for the shift from the subjunctive see 1, 1, 24 n. To the girl's
lively fancy the situation pictured in 15-16 has become real.
19. sine me sit nulla Venus: quoted by Moore for his song, "Sympathy.'
22, diripienda: 1, 2, 70 n.
23. parenti: it is impossible to guess who is meant, cp. Introd. p. 86.
Probably however parenti = patri.
24. Propert. 3, 20, 10, ' fidus ero: in nostros curre, puella, toros.?
4, 4
A poem on an illness of Sulpicia, perhaps the same illness to which she her-
self refers in 4, II. On this conventional theme of the elegy see 1, 5, 9-19 n.
Apollo is addressed, of course, as the god of healing.
“A lovely girl is ill. Come hither, Apollo, we beseech thee, make haste
with thy remedies, lay thy healing hands upon her, and make her well again.
Do not torture her lover. He is distraught with anxiety and is making vows
innumerable.
Courage, Cerinthus, the gods have lovers in their keeping. Just go on
495
4, 4, 1]
TIBVLLVS
loving her, she is in no danger. There is no occasion for tears —- 'twere
better to save them until one of those days when she is cross with you. Just
now she is all yours and thinks of naught else,
• Have mercy, Apollo : thus thou wilt have performed the miracle of saving
two by curing one. So shalt thy fame be lauded to the skies by their grateful
prayers until the very gods themselves shall covet thy wondrous skill.'
James Thomson's Verses to Amanda, in imitation of Tibullus, also Guy
de Tours, Souspirs, 3, 14, were suggested by this elegy. Cp. Carducci, Juve-
nilia, 27 ('A' Febo Apolline') -
Fama è però che memore
Tu de l'incendio antico
A gli amorosi giovini
Nume ti porgi amico.
E i voti a te salirono
Del buono Cerinto grati,
Quando immaturi pressero
L'egra Sulpizia i fati:
Tu al bel corpo le mediche
Mani applicar godesti,
Tu al giovinetto cupido
Integra lei rendesti.
I. huc ades: 1, 7, 49 n. — morbos expelle: the use of morbum, pesten
etc., with expellere (Hor. Epist. 2, 2, 132, etc.), depellere (Verg. A. 9, 328;
Caes. B.G. 6, 17; etc.); pellere (Ovid, Rem. Amor. 115, etc.), and the like
(cp. our expression 'to drive out a cold') reflects that primitive theory of
disease as a possession which justified the use of magic in the practice of medi-
cine, cp, I, 5, II-12 n.; Speratus, Laus Philomelae, 7, .dic age, num cantu
poteris depellere pestem?' etc. — puellae : dative of personal interest — our
poet's invariable rule with verbs of this nature, cp. 1, 10, 25; 2, 1, 73; 2, 4,
40; 2, 5, 91; 2, 6, 12. So often in all departments, cp. e.g. Afranius, 154 R.,
'et iam depellis mihi manum paternam perpalaestricos,' etc.. When the idea
of personal interest is not involved, the ablative with or without a preposition
is necessary, cp. 1, 5, 66; 2, 3, 14a. As we have seen, Tibullus is fond of the
dative, and shows a marked tendency to extend its use, cp. 2, 1, 81; 2, 2, 6;
2, 6, 1; lines II and 16, below; etc.
2. intonsa coma: I, 4, 37-38 and 2, 3, 12 notes.
3. crede mihi: this was the order of ordinary conversation, so always, e.g.,
in Petronius, occasionally in the letters of Cicero's correspondents and in his
own letters to Atticus. It is usual in the poets by reason of its dactylic
496
NOTES
[4, 4, 11
rhythm, so e.g. in Propertius (7 times) and for the most part in Ovid (22 cases)
and Martial (12 cases). So Lucilius, 797 Marx, etc. The favourite position
is at the beginning of the verse as here (only 2 exceptions in Propertius, 2,
II, 3, and 2, 33, 18; 4 in Ovid; 5 in Martial). In the Phalaecian, of course, it
can only occur in the second foot. Horace alone among the poets never uses
crede mihi, but always mihi crede (Sat. 1, 7, 35; 2, 3, 75; 2, 6, 93); and mihi
crede (to avoid the dactylic rhythm) is the rule of higher prose, and ap-
parently even of cultivated speech. So always'e.g. in the orations and essays
of Cicero and even in his Fam. — nec te, etc.: the poet suggests to
Apollo, as he did to Mars (4, 2, 1-2 n.), that it will be worth his while.
This technical use of applicare in medicine is cited elsewhere only from Sil.
Ital. 6, 96, 'sopor sua munera tandem applicat,' and Pliny, Med. Praef.
singulis membris sua remedia applicabimus. Huschke cites Pindar, Pyth.
4, 272, χρή μαλακάν χέρα προσβάλλοντα τρόμαν έλκεος αμφιπολεϊν. Volpi
cites xelpoupyeiv; cp. Priap. 37, 4, 'chirurgamque manum miser timerem.'
The best parallel, perhaps, is Solon, 12, 63 Crus. — TÒV OÈ kakais vouoouo.
κακούμενον αργαλέαις τε | αψάμενος χειρούν αίψα τίθησ’ υγιή.
5. occupet: Hor. Od. 3, 27, 53, antequam turpis macies decentis | occupet
malas,' and for the thought, Seneca, Herc. Oet. 119, ‘nos turpis macies et
lacrimae tenent.'.
6. informis: i.e. the unlovely, unnatural pallor of disease.
7-8. 2, 5, 80 n. Euphemistic.
9. sapores : "juices'; cp. Verg. G. 4, 267, ‘proderit et tunsum gallae ad-
miscere saporem.' This meaning is a natural result of the enormous use of
plants in antique medicine.
10. cantus: 1, 5, 11-12 n.; Hom. Odyss. 19, 457; Val. Flacc. 6, 275, and
often. Many such charms are preserved, esp. in Cato, Pliny, and Marcellus.
Cp.e.g. Marcellus, 7, 190, varulis id est hordiolis oculorum remedium tale fa-
cies: anulos digitis eximes et sinistrae manus digitis tribus oculum circa tenebis
et ter despues terque dices : rica rica soro. si in dextro oculo varulus erit
natus, manu sinistra digitis tribus sub divo orientem spectans varulum tenebis
et dices: nec mula parit nec lapis lanam fert nec huic morbo caput crescat
aut si creverit tabescat. cum haec dixeris isdem tribus digitis terram tanges
et despues idque ter facies.' — corpora fessa: 1, 5, 9 n.
II. fata: death.' So 1, 5, 51; Propert. 2, 15, 54, 'forsitan includat cras-
tina fata dies’; 3, 22, 38; 4, 11, 63; Ovid, Her. 19, 118; etc. — puellae :
for this dative with metuo + an object, cp. Afranius, 40 R., 'orbitatem tuae
senectuti malam metui'; Hor. Od. 2, 8, 21, 'te suis matres metuunt iuvencis.?
So with timere, Juv. 6, 17, 'cum furem nemo timeret | caulibus et pomis';
Pliny, 14, 101; Quintil. 4, 1, 9; II, 1, 75; etc. The absolute use of timeo
497
4, 4, 12]
TIBVLLVS
and metro with this dative is fairly common, Plautus, Amphit. 1113; Verg.
G. 1, 186; 2, 419; A. 10, 94; etc.
12. vota: 1, 5, 10 n.
13-14. 1, 2, 79-86; 1, 3, 51-52; 2, 6, 17; 18 and notes.
13. quod : quod causal with the subjunctive occurs here and in 2, 3, 9,
otherwise (8 times) with the indicative.
15. deus non laedit amantes : 1, 2, 27-28; 1, 6, 51-54 and notes. For
another and a famous variation of the same idea, see 1, 4, 21 f. and notes.
16. The half smile of the poet is suggested by the conversational character
of the line, e.g. the subject pronoun with the imperative (1, 1, 33 n.), the
abrupt, brief sentences, and esp. the use of salvus est with the dative of the
personal pronoun; cp. Plautus, Trin. 593, 'siquidem ager nobis salvos est';
Pseud. 1068, ‘minae viginti sanae et salvae sunt tibi’; Ter. Adel. 298; Heaut.
160; Hec. 643; etc.
22. tristior : "cross,' in a bad humour,' cp. Propert. 1, 6, 9, illa minatur
quae solet ingrato tristis amica viro '; 1, 10, 21; Plaut. Casina, 230, ‘heia,
mea Iuno, non decet esse te tam tristem tuo Iovi’; 282; Afran. 120 R.,
mihi erit tristior'; etc.
17. te secum cogitat: "she only thinks you to herself,' every thought of
her mind is you. cogitare aliquem lays stress on the verb; cp. Pliny, Epist.
4, 2, 2, 'Regulum cogita,' i.e. 'imagine,'' picture. The construction is occa-
sional in Cicero and fairly frequent in Silver prose, but so many forms of this
verb involve a cretic that it is always very rare in dactylic verse. cogitare secum
or cum animo and the like is antique for the most part and popular. The
example before us seems to be practically the only one in higher poetry, the
first in poetry of cogitare aliquem, and with the exception of Seneca Rhet.
Controv. 10, 2, 3, the only example in the literature of both constructions at the
same time. — candida: i.e. with no thought of guile, frankly.
18. The picture suggested is the reception room filled with lovers of Sul-
picia, who sit waiting to hear of her condition, each easily persuaded (credula)
that he is the favoured one. The best comment on credula is Ovid, Rem.
Amor. 685 (explaining why men find it so hard to retire from a love affair),
desinimus tarde quia nos speramus amari: | dum sibi quisque placet, credula
turba sumus?
19-20. Under the same circumstances Ovid says, Amor. 2, 13, 15, "huc
adhibe vultus et in una parce duobus! | nam vitam dominae tu dabis, illa
mihi'; cp. Propert. 2, 28, 41, ‘si non unius, quaeso, miserere duorum, vivam
si vivit : si cadit illa cadam'; Ovid, Her. 20, 233, ‘iuncta salus nostrast: mise-
rere meique tuique, | quid dubitas unam ferre duobus opem'; Met. 3, 473; 11,
388; etc.
498
NOTES
[4, 5, I
19. laus ... tribuetur ... restituisse : instead of quod restitueris is due
to the analogy of verbs of emotion, with which the infinitive was the original
and in some cases always the favourite construction, cp. Verg. A. 2, 585, 'ex-
stinxisse neſas tamen et sumpsisse merentis | laudabor poenas”; Pers. 1, 86,
doctas posuisse figuras | laudatur'; Propert. I, 7, 11, 'me laudent doctae
solam placuisse puellae'; etc.
23. debita : i.e. vota, see 1, 3, 34 n.
24. uterque : Sulpicia and Cerinthus, for her recovery.
26. optabunt quisque : the only other exx. of the cons. ad sensum in the
Tibullian corpus are certainly non-Tibullian, viz. Lygd. 3, 4, 10; Pan.
Messal. 4, 1, 187. Quisque never takes a plural verb in Propertius or Horace
and acc. to Burman's Index the only exception in Ovid is Ars Amat. I, 109, 're-
spiciunt oculisque notant sibi quisque puellam.' Such exx. as Amor. 3, 2, 18,
vincamus dominae quisque favore suae' are not parallels. So in Vergil the
one good ex. seems to be A. II, 185. The cons. ad sensum (never common
with quisque, nemo, etc.) is most frequent in ante- and post-classical
writers and in Livy.
4, 5
This poem like 4, 3 is written in the person of Sulpicia. The occasion is
her lover's birthday. The piece was perhaps suggested by 4, 8, verses by
Sulpicia herself referring possibly to the same occasion (see however notes ad
loc.). Elegies 5 and 6 are complementary and should be compared through-
out.
This day shall ever be the day of days for me, Cerinthus, for it gave me
you. The Fales decreed at your birth that you should sway the hearts of
womankind. More than all others I burn for you — but I care not. Nay, I
welcome the smart if only your flame answers mine. Oh Genius, I beseech
thee, make him love me as I love him! Only let him thrill whenever he
thinks of me, and I will make thee vows and offerings without stint. But if
he is now sighing for another love, disown the traitor and desert him! And
do thou, Venus, be just : either make him mine as I am his or else set me
free. Nay rather bind us with an adamantine chain that shall outlast time.
'His desires chime with mine but he is less outspoken, he is too shy to say
the words of his prayer aloud. But thou, Natalis, art a god and knowest all
our thoughts, therefore grant his petition. What matter whether he speak it
aloud or no ?'
1. qui . . . hic: inversion of the normal order of relative and correlative
serves to emphasize the statement in each clause and the relation between
499
4, 5, 3]
TIBVLLVS
them; cp. I, 4, 67; 1, 10, 65; 4, 13, 8; Propert. 2, 13, 35; 32, 1 and 47;
4, 3, 13; 7, 39; etc. The more usual correlative in such cases is is or ille.
hic here indicates that the poem was ostensibly written on the day itself.
3. 1, 7, 1-2 n. — novum: 'wondrous,''new,' in the sense of being beyond
previous experience.
4. deděrunt: 2, 3, 12 n. — regna: a favourite idea in amatory poetry;
cp. I, 9, 80 n.; 2, 3, 59; Propert. 2, 16, 28; Ovid, Amor. 2, 17, 11; etc.
5-6. 1, 2, 63-64 n. and esp. 4, 6, 7 f. Like many other “young females'
in her state of mind, Sulpicia takes it for granted that all the girls must be in
love with her Cerinthus (3-4). She loves him more than any of them can
possibly do (5), but she is glad of it if in her own case he loves in return.
The limitation is, of course, to be expected, and springs naturally from what
has preceded. This use of de in de nobis is not uncommon; cp. e.g. 4, 10, 1;
Plautus, Pseud. 122, 'de istac re in oculum utrumvis conquiescito'; Caes.
B. G. 6, 36, 1.
.6. mutuus ignis: love in return, i.e. love to equal mine: cp. 4, 6, 8;
1, 2, 63; etc. The thought, which naturally is very much on her mind,
is repeated and emphasized in the following lines.
7. adsit: 1, 4, 13. On the simple subjunctive with rogo, cp. 1, 2, 25a n.
On the position of per, 1, 5, 7 n., and on furta, stolen sweets,' 1, 2, 34 n.
For the oath, 1, 5, 7 n.
8. per tuos oculos: the appeal is characteristic of this sphere, cp. Ovid,
Amor. 3, 3, 13, 'perque suos illam nuper iurasse recordor / perque meos
oculos: et doluere mihi'; Amor. 2, 16, 44; 3, 11, 48; Lygd. 3, 6, 47; etc. —
per Genium: the oath is eminently appropriate to the occasion (the birthday of
Cerinthus) and forms an easy and natural transition to the next topic. Other-
wise it appears to have been esp. characteristic of freedmen, so always, e.g.,
in Petronius and in the one in ex. Horace (Epist. 1, 7, 94). See Ter. And.
289; Plautus, Capt. 977.
9. mane Geni: 1, 7, 49–54 note. mane (from mānus = bonus, see
lex.) is rare and apparently obsolete in Tibullus's time. So, however, the
best MS. tradition, and sacerdotal conservatism is a sufficient explanation of
its survival as a specific epithet of the Genius.
10. ille: on the position, 1, 5, 18 n.- calet: of love, only here in the
Tibullian corpus. Not uncommon elsewhere, but always with some qualifying
word such as flamma, amore, puella.
11. quod si: 1, 3, 53; 2, 6, 7; Lygd. 3, 4, 77; Pan. Messal. 202. Prosaic.
-- iam nunc: 1, 5, 71 n. — suspiret amores: 1, 6, 35.; 2, 2, 11 and notes.
12. The meaning and force of this curse may be gathered from 1, 7, 49–
54 n. Sulpicia's appeal is also prompted by the fact that the genius natalis
500
NOTES
[4, 5, 19
was also the genius of the lectus genialis, and therefore that in view of her
relations with Cerinthus (cp. 'clulcissima ſurta,' 7), infidelity to her was also
a sin against the Genius; cp. 6.g. Juv. 6, 22 (describing adulterers), 'sacri
genium contemnere ſulcri.'
13-14. 4, 5, 6–7; 6, 7–8; 1, 2, 63-64 n.; Ter. Eun. 91, 'O Thais, Thais
utinam esset mihi | pars aequa amoris tecum ac pariter fierct | et aut hoc tibi
doleret itidem ut mihi dolet | aut ego istuc abs te factum nili penderem';
Catull. 76, 23; Ovid, Met. 14, 24; Amor. 1, 3, 2; Propert. 2, 15, 25; Anth.
Pal. 5,88; Aristainet. I, 16, etc. So Congreve says to his 'pious Selinda'—
Would thou couldst make of me a saint,
Or I, of thee, a sinner!
In view of the large number of parallels, Petrarch, Son. 49, 'non prego già,'
etc., cannot be called an echo of our passage.
Antique, as well as modern, poetry is full of references to the joy of love
returned in equal measure: 'mutuis animis amant amantur,' says Catullus
(45, 20); 'iam nec spes animi credula mutui,' says Horace (Od. 4, I, 30),
with a sigh which has been echoed more than once the world over. The
figure suggested here of a well-matched team, each performing his part, is a
favourite with Horace and Propertius; cp. Hor. Od. 3, 9, 17; 1, 35, 28; Epod.
15, 13; Propert. 1, 5, 2; 3, 25, 8; Theokrit. 12, 15.
13. nec sis iniusta Venus: well thought of if we may believe Hor. Od.
I, 33, 10, sic visum Veneri, cui placet impares | formas atque animos sub
iuga aenea | saevo mittere cum ioco.'
14. On the pentameter see Hilberg, Zeitschr. f. Oest. Gymn. 1896, pp.
865-873.
15-16. I, 6, 85 n.; Propert. 2, 15, 25; Ovid, Amor. 1, 3, 17, tecum
quos dederint annos mihi fila sororum | vivere contingat teque dolente
mori.'
· 15. teneamur uterque: 1, 6, 39; 4, 4, 26 n.
16. soluisse : 1, I, 29–32 n., 'may no day in the future be able to put us
asunder. The perfect emphasizes attainment, Propert. I, 1, 15 (commenting
on Milanion's strenuous, but finally successful, courtship of Atalanta the hunt.
ress), 'ergo velocem potuit domuisse puellam,' and thus was he able at last
to achieve the taming of the swift-footed maid’; cp. 1, 17, 1; 2, 16, 3; Ovid,
Amor. 3, 2, 30; etc.
17-18. On the situation cp. Introd. p. 85, and 1, 4, 14 n.
18. 2, 1, 84 n.
19. Natalis : the Genius of 9 above. quoniam is found only here in
Tibullus.
501
4, 6, 1]
TIBVLLVS
4, 6
This poem is in honour of Sulpicia's birthday. It is the complement of the
preceding, and should be compared with it throughout. Again Cerinthus is
represented by the sympathetic poet and friend.
Oh, Juno Natalis, accept the incense offered thee by the fair hands of a
gifted girl. She has joyously arrayed herself for thee, that she may stand be-
fore thy altar to-day, the observed of all observers. She says 'tis all for thy
sake, this dressing in her best. Nevertheless, Goddess, there is also another
whom, in her heart, she would be very glad to succeed in pleasing. Be
gracious, holy one, to this pair; let no one part them, and make them
love each other in equal measure. He only is worthy of her and she of him.
May her watchful duenna never discover them, and Love furnish a thousand
ways of eluding detection! Grant this, O Goddess, and come hither in thy
festal attire. Her fond mother dictates the prayer she is to make, but the
girl knows her own mind, and in the stillness of her heart utters quite a
different one. She is sore sick with love, and would not be well if she could.
May she find favour in his eyes, and this day year may their old love be re-
newed.' Imitated by Luigi Alamanni, in his elegy, Natale di Cintia.
1. Natalis Iuno: a woman's genius was known as her Juno, and she wor-
shipped her Juno in the same manner and on the same occasions that a man
worshipped his genius. For the feminine oath per Iunonem meam = the
masculine per Genįum meum, see 4, 13, 15 n.
2. docta : connotes, in general, a person of literary training and ability; in
particular - esp. since Catullus's time - a person who can write poetry. In
this more restricted sense it is an evident attempt to translate the Greek
copós as an epithet of poets (cp. Solon, 12, 52 Crus.; Bacchyl. frag. 9 Crus.).
The poet is wise,' but' his wisdom is the result of acquired skill as well as
native ability; it is 'wisdom in the art of the theme, and in the art of the.
treatment' (Gildersleeve, Introd. Pind. p. 36). So the doctus is the native
genius thoroughly trained in the resources of his department; in short he is
the literary artist in the highest sense of that word. Tibullus uses the
word of the Muses, 1, 4, 61; cp. Lygd. 3, 4, 45; Catull. 65, 2; Propert. I, 7,
11; 2, 13, II; Ovid, Amor. 2, 4, 17; Ars Amat. 2, 281; Mart. 7, 69, 10, etc.
The Elizabethan translation of learned' is insufficient.
4. conspicienda : 1, 2, 70 n.
5. relegat: 'ascribes.' So occasionally in this sense, but generally taking
ad or in with the accus. of the person. I find the dative only here. delegare
in this sense is not uncommon in prose, and always takes the dative.
6. placuisse : 1, 1, 29-32 n.
502
NOTES
[4, 6, 15
7-8. 4, 5, 6 and 13-14 with notes.
9. bene compones : i.e. 'join,' 'match,' cp. 4, 5, 13-14 n.; Ovid, Ars
Amat. 2, 385, ' hoc bene compositos, hoc firmos solvit amores'; Consol, ad
Liv. 301, etc. — ullae . . . viro : 'there is no maid whose service is more
meet for him, no man for her. Apparently a paraphrase of Sulpicia's own
words in 4, 7, 10. — ullae : for ulli. The only case in the entire literature
(Neue, 2, 520), and the one exception in the Tibullian corpus to the rule of
-ius and -¿ for words of this class. The remaining exx. in the elegy are nullae
(of which ullae non here is really the equivalent), Propert. 1, 20, 35.; toto,
Propert. 3, 11, 57; Ovid, Amor. 3, 3, 41:
10. dignior : dignus with the infin, is found elsewhere only in 2, 6, 43 (see
also 1, 7, 20 n.). Never in Propertius. Frequent in Ovid.
11-12. 1, 2, 15 and 19; 1,6, 9; 2, 1, 75 and notes. Cp. also dulcissima
furta,' in 4, 5, 7, and 4, 5, 12 n.
12. mille: 1, 3, 50 n.
13. 2, 5, 7; 1, 7, 46; 4, 2, 11 and notes. -- perlucida: i.e. dlapavńs, 'trans-
parent,' which suggests Coan vestments' (2, 3, 53 n.). Heyne hastens to
justify Juno's appearance in Venus's favourite costume by remarking that
superiniecta illa erat tunicae, plerumque etiam aliis vestimentis interioribus,'
and Némethy comes to the rescue with perlucida = valde lucida, nitida, can-
dida, for which he quotes Cicero, Div. I, 130, illustris et perlucida stella”;
Mart. 12, 38, 3, “crine nitens, niger unguento, perlucidus ostro, ) ore tener,
latus pectore, crure glaber.' Surely, however, from the antique point of view,
Sulpicia's little Juno Natalis needs no such deſence. Even the great Juno
contended for the golden apple. Why should she flinch from Coan vestments
on a festal day?
14. ter: 1, 2, 54 n.; 1, 3, 11. — fit: facere or (impers.) fieri = sacra fa-
cere or sacrificare, with the dative of the god (expressed or understood) and
the ablative of the offering (as here) is occasional in the literature, e.g. Plau-
tus, Stich. 251; Verg. E. 3, 77; Columella, 2, 21. It is esp. characteristic,
however, of sacerdotal speech, cp, such fixed phrases occurring again and
again in the Acta Fratrum Arvalium as 'perfectoque sacrificio omnes ture
et vino fecerunt: quae in verba Iunoni reginae bove aurata vovi esse futu-
rum,' etc. -- libo : 1, 7, 54; 2, 2, 8; 1, 10, 23 n.
15. praecipit, etc. : i.e. the usual suggestions of a ſond mother on such an
occasion, the point being that she is blissfully ignorant of the fact that her
daughter has any preferences of her own. Neither here nor elsewhere is it
implied that the mother.considered Cerinthus an undesirable parti, but sim-
ply that she did not think of him at all in that connection. Any other inter-
pretation spoils the point of the contrast between 15 and 16. See Introd.
503
4, 6, 16]
1
TIBVLLVS
p. 86, and cp. iam sua : i.e. 'iam sui iuris,' her own mistress, able and disposed :
to think for herself, no longer dependent as her mother imagines. This use
of the possessive is not common. Némethy cites Plautus, Pers. 472, 'ita
ancilla mea quae fuit hodie, sua nunc est.'
16. tacita mente rogat: Sulpicia repeats aloud the litany suggested by her
mother, but her real prayer is unspoken and for something quite different, cp.
4, 5, 20; 2, 1, 84 n.
17–18. 4, 7, 9-10; 4, 5, 5-6; 2, 5, 109-110 n.
19-20. 4, 5, 9-10.
4, 7
On this group of poems (7-12), the work of Sulpicia herself, see Introd. p.
79. The arrangement is editorial, and, as usual, is based on variety rather than
chronology, otherwise this poem would have been the last instead of the first of
the series. All are in the epistolary form, although this one reads more like an
extract as it were from her own diary and was ostensibly written just after the
consummation of her love, for she is still in a highly exalted mood. She has
yet to be assailed by the afterthoughts inevitable in such an affair. These are
touched upon by the poet of the first group (2-6), cp. 4, 5, 6-14, who, as we
have seen, adds some further details and alludes to later stages. Assuming
that these poems are the record of a genuine love affair, Sulpicia belongs to a
type certain to be variously judged, not only by her contemporaries, but by her
readers. Dissen, a commentator of unusual sympathy and insight, says of
this poem, and I should prefer to agree with him: 'Sulpicia experta furtim
oscula et amplexus Cerinthi non habet turpe quod passa erat, utpote puri
castique amoris sibi conscia, ceteroquin magna in affectu secum loquens nec-
dum ad sedatiorem statum animi reversa. ac poeta exhibet virginem magni
animi, puris sensibus, at in summo ardore puellari.' Less sentiment or more
knowledge of the world, or both, might incline one rather to agree with Mar-
tinon's 'Ou Dissen avait-il l'esprit pour attribuer un pareil morceau à une fille
chaste, puris sensibus, qui s'exalte pour un baiser furtif ? Heyne lui-même
n'est pas si naïf.' A third critic might be cruel enough to reconcile the Gaul
and the Teuton by remarking that sincerity does not necessarily imply con-
stancy, and that of all coquettes there is none so dangerous and destructive
as the one who is absolutely in earnest — at the time. Of course still another
solution is quite possible. We might suggest that these verses are not the record
of a genuine affair, but merely a series of literary exercises written, it is true, by
Sulpicia, but merely the record, let us say, of her own contribution to a theme
proposed and worked upon in concert in the inner circle of Messalla's poetical
friends. In that case the question would settle itself by ceasing to exist.
504
NOTES
[4, 7, 7
1-2. That is, sit mihi fama pudori magis texisse quam nudasse alicui
qualem amorem,'' and such a love — the report that I have concealed it would
shame me rather than that I have disclosed it to some one.' -- pudori sit
mihi: 1, 5, 29.
3. illum: Dissen's contention that illum = Amor above, i.e. 'ardor ama-
torius cum gaudiis suis,' is not supported by his citation from Pind. Nem. 8,
6, nor by his objection that Cerinthus is not named in the poem. For a
young person in Sulpicia's state of mind there can be but one ‘him,' cp.
meus below. Besides she is intentionally indefinite. — Cytherea : 1, 3, 58 n.
– Camenis : i.e. 'songs,' 'verses,' though here as elsewhere the personifica-
tion (cp. exorata) is clearly felt, cp. Pan. Messal. 24 and 192. Rare outside
of Horace (Od. 1, 12, 39; 4, 6, 27; 9, 8; Epist. I, I, I; 1, 19, 5; A. P.
275). Elsewhere in the elegy only Ovid, Pont. 4, 13, 33. The model is the
similar use of Holloa in Greek, cp. Pind. Nem. 3, 49; Aisch. Eumen. 308;
etc.
4. attulit, etc. : 'brought him to my arms and laid him there. For this
function of Venus see 1, 8, 35 and 1, 3, 58 n. afferre does not take in +
accus. except with comitium, senatum, and the like, where `into' is obviously
needed to express the idea. The regular cons. is ad + accus. The regular
cons. with deponere is in + ablat. Finally neither verb can take the regular
cons. of the other and retain the meaning demanded here. The choice of
in + accus, here is justified by the fact that both verbs are really coincident
and represent a single action ( brought and put') and that in sinum is not
only naturally suggested by the complex, but also by the fact that the original
and literal meaning of sinus (i.e. a fold,' cp. I, 3, 6, etc.) encourages it in
the derived meanings to stand in the accus, with in (' into') after verbs of
approaching, cp. 4, 3, 24; Ovid, Her. 13, 148; Met. 4, 596; etc. -- sinum:
we should say “arms' in a case like this, cp. 4, 3, 24; Lygd. 3, 3, 8; Ovid,
Ars Amat. 2, 360; Her. 3, 114; 13, 157; Met. 4, 596; etc.
6. sua : sc. gaudia. The naïve imprecation' mea gaudia . . . sua' might
seem a contradiction of 1-2. The subjunctives sit, velim, ferar (2, 8, and
10), however, represent Sulpicia's inclinations, not her intentions.
7.-8. “I could wish that I might never seal one letter to my love because
I feared that any one, I care not who, would read it first.' — non: goes with
mandare not with velim, and the clause 'ne . . . ante' depends upon 'sig-
natis . . . tabellis,' more esp. upon signatis.' That is, 'I have to seal my
letters to him for fear of discovery. How I wish no such necessity existed!
I am so proud of my love and my lover, so happy in them both, that I
would it were known to all the world !! These lines are prominent in the
old discussion of Feminine Latinity,' and their undeniable difficulty has been
: 505
4, 7, 7]
TIBVLLVS
more than once traced to the writer's incomplete command of literary form.
The difficulty, however, is not a matter of inexperience, but a matter of sex.
Sulpicia is a woman, she realizes, as only a woman can, the consequences of
exposure, she dreads them, as only a woman can and should; hence, for ex-
ample, the intrusion of fama in the first distich, which constitutes the real
difficulty of the first sentence, and which a man would probably not have
used. Nor has she any idea of running the risk of detection; the subjunctives,
as we have seen, indicate inclination, not intention. On the other hand, is her
love an overpowering passion for one to whom she is glad and proud to
belong. Here are two master motives. What could be more natural and
more distinctively feminine, especially in a poem intended for the eyes of her
lover alone, than that Sulpicia should measure the depth of her love in terms
of her dread of the consequences if it were discovered? She would like; she
tells him, to cast prudence to the winds. If she does not, it is entirely be-
cause she cannot, not because she is ashamed of what she has done; on the
contrary, she glories in it. All this underlies the whole poem, though it does
not come out clearly until the last distich. Apart from this the difficulties
of interpretation as a rule are due to the fact that, womanlike, Sulpicia chose
to state her wishes not as the positive, so to speak, of what she would like to
do, but as a negative of what she is obliged to do. The underlying thought,
e.g., of 1-2 is, ‘if I told any one, I should be ruined,' of 5-6, “if any one tells
on me, I am ruined,' of 7-8, 'if any one at all ever reads one of my letters,
I am ruined' (the haunting dread of this thought accounts for the extreme
emphasis of the negative 'ne . . . ante').
Ugo Foscolo (Discorso sul testo del poema di Dante, par. 153), discussing
the fact that Francesca, not Paolo, tells the story of their love, quotes the
first and last distich of our poem and remarks that, 'Women are not prone
to tell the secrets of their hearts; when however their life, their fair fame,
every thought of their hearts, has yielded to love alone, then they tell them
freely and with pride. Whence it appears to me that these verses have been
justly ascribed to a woman. The citation of Sulpicia here is not so apposite
as the famous passage (which he also cites) in the letters of Héloise to
Abélard. Foscolo, however, had an inferior text of the first distich before
him, and he seems to have taken it for granted, as did many of the older
scholars, that Sulpicia here was actually taking the reading public (really or
ostensibly) into her confidence.
7. tabellis : tablets of wood coated with wax to receive the impress of the
stylus. One of the most common forms -- still used as late as the eighteenth
century — was the diptych, i.e. two tabellae made to close upon each other
like the covers of their lineal descendant, the folding slate. The diptych
506
NOTES
[4, 7, 9
furnished two pages of writing surface, i.e. the inside of each tabella, and
the edge of each was slightly raised so as to prevent contact between the two
pages when the diptych was closed. The insertion of a third tabella made a
triptych, a book as it were of two covers and one leaf which furnished four
pages of writing surface. To fasten tabellae together a cord was passed
through two or more holes in the frame and tied; and if it was advisable or
necessary, a seal was attached, hence sigiratis here. Either the diptych or the
triptych was regularly used for love letters, as here, cp. also 2, 6, 45; Ovid,
Ars Amat. I, 437; Amor. 1, 11, 7; and often. It was customary for the
recipient to use the sanie tabellae for reply and thus return them to the
owner, cp. Catull. 42; Propert. 3, 23; etc. They could then be cleaned and
used anew. Persons with a heavy hand' were apt to leave a permanent
record of former letters on the wood itself, hence the force of Ovid's warn-
ing, Ars Amat. 2, 395, 'et quotiens scribes totas prius ipse tabellas | inspice:
plus multae quam sibi missa legunt.
8. ne ... nemo: the negative is doubled for emphasis as in Greek, as in
Latin down to Catullus, and as always in the popular idiom of most languages.
In Latin itself the afterthought that two negatives make an affirmative holds
good only for the classical period. Even then, however, poetry is freer than
prose, and prose itself is far from being without exceptions, cp. e.g. Cicero,
Verr. 2, 60, debebat Epicrates nummum nullum nemini’; Livy, 32, 26, 18;
43, 13, 1; Bell. Afr. 8; etc. Note too the inherent tendency of all verbs
of fearing to confuse negatives (Gildersleeve-Lodge, 553), non vereor ne
non,' etc. and all through the Romance languages, ‘guardarsi di non credere,'
temo che non sia,' etc. A close parallel to Sulpicia here is Propert. 2, 19,
32, "absenti nemo ne nocuisse velit,' cp. also Ovid, Pont. I, 1, 66, 'ne non
peccarim mors quoque non faciet,' etc. where perhaps the Greek usage of
un oủ has had an influence. — quam meus ante : for the arrangement see
Propert. 2, 25, 26, 'septima quam metam triverit ante rota'; 2, 18, 9, 'illum
saepe suis decedens fovit in undis , quam prius adiunctos sedula lavit equos,'
etc. antequam occurs only here in the Tibullian corpus; magisquam, 4, 7, 2;
priusquam, 1, 3, 35; potiusquam, I, I, 51. — meus: 1, 5, 42 n.
9. sed : 'on the contrary. The opposition, however, of sed ... taedet’is
not to the preceding distich as a whole, but to the thought suggested by signatis
ne ... ante,' i.e. the possible insinuation that her fear of discovery is due to
regret for what she has done and to the fact that her desire for secrecy is her
own choice. — vultus componere famae: lit. 'to conform appearance to
good report, i.e. 'to study the outward semblance in harmony with a fair
name.' componere of studied effects in word or appearance is a favourite with
Tacitus, cp. e.g. Ann. 1, 7, ‘falsi ac festinantes, vultuque composito ne laeti
507
4, 7, 10]
TIBVLLVS
excessu principis neu tristiores primordio'; 2, 34, 6; 3, 44, 4; etc. - famae:
the usual cons. with componere is ad + accus. The dative (rare and poetic
with this verb) tends to personify famae, 'for Mrs. Grundy'; Lucan, 3, 596,
semper venturis componere carbasa ventis,' (the winds are all gods in antique
folk belief); 3, 717, 'me quoque mittendis rectum componite telis.'
10. cum ... fuisse : Varro, L. L. 6, 80, 'violavit virginem pro vitiavit
dicebant; aeque eadem modestia potius cum muliere fuisse quam concubuisse
dicebant.' The euphemism (cp. Greek, ouveîval) occurs throughout the
language. — cum digno, etc. : the wish echoes the pride of a patrician (cp. 4,
10, Introd. and 3-4 n.) and is nowhere stated with greater terseness and
simplicity, cp. Ovid, Her. 17, 49 (Helen speaking of Leda), “illa bene erravit
vitiumque auctore redemit: 1 felix in culpa quo love dicar ego ?' Hor. Od. 1,
27, 15, 'non erubescendis adurit | ignibus ingenuoque semper | amore
peccas.' — cum digno digna : i.e. 'one worthy of me as I am worthy of him.'
This rhetorical device (1, 9, 80 n.) of immediately repeating the substantive,
1.8. ' like to like," when Greek meets Greek,' etc., is not esp. common in
English. The object of it is to state the thought with brevity, point, and
emphasis. It emphasizes the idea of equivalence or equality, it is a short cut
to the striking statement of reciprocity or mutuality, etc. Latin is rich in
such expressions and they occur in all types of literary art, cp. e.g. Verg. G.
2, 327, 'magnus alit magno commixtus'; Catull. 34, 5, 'o Latonia, maximi |
magna progenies Iovis'; Hor. Od. 1, 16, 1, 'o matre pulchra filia pulchrior?;
etc. They are especially characteristic however of the antique and the
homely, as 6.g. in proverbs, 'manus manum lavat'; in conversational tags,
amicus amico'; in literary departments like the comedy, and in the old
writers in general, Plautus, Asin. 31, 'nam me illuc ducis ubi lapis lapidem
terit ?'; Rudens, 434, quam hostis hosti commodat'; Most. 1075, 'adsum
praesens praesenti tibi'; Amphit. 726, immo vigilans vigilantem'; 786,
'nunc si patera pateram peperit omnes congeminavimus'; etc. The one form
of the word generally follows immediately upon the other as here, and as a
rule the nominative (rarely the accusative) precedes. The chief references
on this subject are Wölfflin, Archiv f. Lat. Lexikographie, 2, 323; Buecheler,
Rhein. Mus. 46, 243; Kiessling, id. 23, 411; Leo, Plaut. Forsch. 235;
Kellerhoff, Studemunds Stud. 2, 58. — ferar: 1, 2, 81 n.
4, 8
Sulpicia had been expecting to see Cerinthus on her birthday. She now
writes him that Messalla has just announced his intention of taking her off for
an outing in the country with the idea, it would seem, of giving her an especial
508
NOTES
[4, 8, 6
treat on her birthday. The complete details of the situation are not given
and are no longer available. But the foremost idea in her own mind is clear
enough. Cerinthus will not be there, and the girlish keenness of her disap-
pointment is reflected in every epithet. “My hateful old birthday,' she says,
· 'is coming, and the dreary hours of it must be passed in the stupid country
and without Cerinthus.'
2. sine Cerintho: i.e., probably, sine te, cp. 4, 10, 4; 9,1; II, 1. This use
of the name in address where we should expect the pronoun of the first or
second person is esp. characteristic of lovers and children. It is emphatic or
dramatic, often pathetic, tender, or appealing. The most notable among the
Greek poets for its use is Theokritos, cp. 1, 103; 135; 5, 9; 15; 19; 7, 55;
96; 10, 38, cp. also Hom. Il. I, 240; Odyss. 9, 369. No one employs it so
frequently as Catullus with whom it often gives the effect of a survival from
the naïveté of his childhood, cp. 8; 1, 'miser Catulle, desinas ineptire'; 8, 12,
'vale, puella, iam Catullus obdurat’; 8, 19; II, 1; 13, 7; 14, 13; 38, 1;
44, 3; 46, 4; 49, 4; 51, 13; 52, 1 and 4; 56, 3; 58, 2; 68, 27; 135; 72, I;
79, 2 and 3; 82, 1; 76, 5. Occasional in Propertius, cp. 2, 8, 17; 2, 34, 93;
3, 3, 17; 3, 10, 15; 4, 1, 71. Ovid, Rem. Amor. 71; Fasti, 5, 377;. Her. 1,
84; 4, 74, notably in the Tristia and the Ex Ponto where it usually gives a
touch of pathos, cp. Trist. 3, 10, 1, 'siquis adhuc istic meminit Nasonis
adempti'; 4, 4, 86; 5, 3, 49; Pont. 1, 7, 69; 1, 8, 30; etc. In the Tibullian
corpus it is esp. characteristic of Sulpicia. The only example outside of her
poems is 4, 13, 13.
3-4. See 2, 3, 64-67. The reason for the point of view, however, is suffi-
ciently evident in both passages. Line 4 shows that the country place of
Messalla to which S. is referring was not far from the picturesque old hill
town of Arretium (Arezzo) in Etruria. The amnis is the Arno which rises in
the Apennines (Monte Falturna) near Arezzo, flows S. E. through the valley
of Carentino until it reaches Arezzo, where it turns to the N. W.
4. frigidus: just now the river is a cold, disagreeable old thing. None of
these epithets is to be taken seriously.
5. nimium ... studiose: 'quite too solicitous for me,' i.e. over-anxious
to be doing something for me. The amusing side of the situation for the
onlooker is that Messalla's special effort to please his niece is evidently coupled
with a blissful ignorance of the importance of Cerinthus in her. scheme of life.
Of course the attention was well meant. For that very reason it was all the
more irritating. Hence Sulpicia's impatient ‘iam quiescas,' now do be still,'
a colloquial use of the word frequent, e.g., in Plautus (Most. 1173; etc.) but
not found elsewhere in the elegy. — mei studiose: 1, 8, 3 n.
6. The text is doubtful and no explanation is wholly satisfactory. The
509
4, 8, 7]
TIBVI.LVS
reading here adopted has the merit of involving no drastic emendation and
the translation of it as always on the eve of some untimely journey' seems an
entirely natural development of the thought of the preceding line. Naturally
the phrase is not to be taken literally nor (as some of the old commentators
seem to have supposed) is it at all descriptive of Messalla's actual habit. It
is merely the overstatement of temporary irritation on account of this one
particular journey.— neu tempestivae : really = the compound intempestivae.
propinque: “near to,'' on the point of,' i.e. vocative of the adjective referring
postquam castra duces pugnae iam mente propinqui | imposuere iugis' has
been quoted, but Lucan's use elsewhere suggests that pugnae may go with
mente and hence that propinqui is literal, cp. 9, 225, 'quorum unus aperta |
mente fugae tali compellat voce regentem.' — viae : is taken here as the
genitive with propinque, a Greek construction for which Wunderlich cites
εγγύς είναι τινός.
7. The thought, which is characteristic of lovers the world over, is an
especial favourite with Plautus, cp. Aul. 18i, 'nam egomet sum hic, animus
domi est'; Cist. 211, ubi sum ibi non sum, ubi non sum ibi est animus';
Merc. 589, si domi sum foris est animus, sin foris sum animus domist';
Amphit. 1081, etc.; Lutat. Catulus ap. Gell. 19, 9, 14, 'aufugit mi animus;
credo, ut solet, ad Theotimum | devenit. sic est: perfugium illud habet.'
- animum sensusque: my mind and heart, all of me that thinks and feels,
cp. Cicero, Sest. 47, at alii dicerent animos hominum sensusque morte
restingui'; Orat. 3, 67; Pliny, 35, 98, 'is omnium primus animum pinxit
et sensus hominis expressit quae vocant Graeci xon.'
8. arbitrio meo: 'at my own disposal,' 'to do as I wish,' cp. Publilius
Syrus, 5; "amor animi arbitrio sumitur, non ponitur'; Caes. B. G. 7, 75, 5,
se suo nomine atque arbitrio ... bellum gesturos,' etc. — quamvis, etc. :
i.e. at least my heart is free and I leave it here with Cerinthus, although you,
Messalla, do not allow,' etc. — quamvis: with the indicative as here and
Lygd. 3, 6, 29 (not elsewhere in the Tib. corpus) is occasional in Lucretius
and Varro, the Augustan poets (Propert. I, 18, 13; 2, 8, 27; 24, 37; 3, 19,
28; more frequent in Ovid, e.g. Amor. 1, 15, 14; 2, 5, 60; 3, 13, 5; and
Her. 7, 29; 13, 119; 18, 50; Ars Amat. 2, 213; Met. 2, 782 etc: (Verg. E. 3,
84; A. 5, 542; 7, 492; etc.), Petronius, Seneca, and Late Latin. Cicero and
the Scriptores Historiae Augustae always use the subjunctive. Some authors,
e.g. Caesar, Sallust, and Livy (except 2, 40, 7, once and with the indic.),
avoid quamvis altogether with verbs. -- esse : for the omission of the subject
see 2, 6, 13 n.
510
NOTES
[4, 10
4, 9
A note to Cerinthus telling him that the outing mentioned in the preceding
letter has been given up and that the birthday, she hopes (agatur), will be
celebrated at home.
1. “Do you know that that dreary journey has been taken off your girl's
heart,' cp. our colloquial off one's mind' -- as of a burden removed -- and
e.g. Hor. Epist. I, 5, 18 (of wine), “sollicitis animis onus eximit. For this
use of tollere with ex, cp. Propert. I, II, 8, 'an te nescio quis simulatis ignibus
hostis | sustulit e nostris, Cynthia, carminibus?' Cicero, Amicit. 47; Seneca,
Agam. 620, etc. For this meaning of tollere, cp. Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 718, and
often. — puellae : dative, cp. 4, 4, 1 n.; Propert. 3, II, 36, “tollet nulla dies
hanc tibi, Roma, notam'; Ovid, Pont. 3, 5, 58; etc. For puellae = mihi cp.
4, 11, 1 and 4, 12, 1. This lovers' usage is a variety of the figure discussed in
4, 8, 2 n.
2. Romae: cp. domi, 2, 6, 48 n.
3. omnibus nobis agatur: 2.e. Cerinthus will now be present, cp. 4, 8, 2
above. The use of the dative of the agent with the tenses of continuance, as
here and in Lygd. 3, 5, 29, is poetical or admits of a different explanation
(Gildersleeve-Lodge, 354 n. 1). More common in Propertius (1, 7, I and 9;
1, 8, 11 and 31; 2, 1, 1; 2, 23, 15; 2, 34, 58; 3, 15, 41) and very frequent
in Ovid (more than 100 examples). — agatur: optative.
4. "Which now, perhaps, comes to you as a surprise.' qui refers grammat-
love affair, is the last thing to be a surprise 'to Cerinthus. The surprise can
only be the fact that her birthday is to be celebrated at home after all, and
that she hoped to see him then, a pleasure which since the receipt of her last
letter.(4, 8) he would naturally have given up. In other words, qui = quod,
attracted to the gender of dies but referring to the statement of 3 as a whole.
It is observed that the line suggests 1, 9, 43. — nec opinanti: the sphere
of this word in poetry is the comedy and Lucretius, never in the Augustan
poets except here, nor in Catullus, nor, except Phaedrus, 5, 7, 8, in the poets
of the first century. In prose it is never used by Caesar and by Cicero only
in Fam. 15, 4, 6. On the other hand inopinans, always used by Caesar, is
never found in Cicero. The favourite form with the Augustan poets and their
successors is inopinus.
4, 10
This most difficult and characteristically feminine of Sulpicia's letters was
written and sent to Cerinthus immediately after she had been told that his
511
4, 10, 1]
TIBVLLVS
attentions were being bestowed elsewhere. Language, syntax, and arrange-
ment betray the writer's state of mind. Every line palpitates with the sup-
pressed fury of a passionate, high-spirited Roman gentlewoman who has been
cut to the quick, not only in her love, but in her pride. Probably the recip-
ient thought it best to call at once, and as this letter (cp.'ne ... cadam,' 2 n.)
was certainly written before the consummation of 4, 7, we know that, though
doubtless utterly bewildered, he must have explained himself to her entire
satisfaction. Indeed, one might reasonably suspect that the situation of 4, 7,
was itself the more or less immediate result of her passionate reaction in his
favour on this occasion. Burton (Anat, Mel. III, III, I, II), refers to this
poem with 'Cerinthus rejected Sulpicia, a nobleman's daughter, and courted
a poor servant maid.'
1-2. These lines have been variously interpreted. They are quite clear,
however, if we bear in mind that Sulpicia has naturally chosen to express her
thought in the form of bitter irony. In the positive form of cooler statement
the thought is, 'You feel so sure of me now that you allow yourself to do
very much as you please; if you had set out deliberately to cure me of my
love for you, you could not have selected a more effective method. In the
ironical form dictated by her passion of jealousy, wounded pride, and dis-
prized love Sulpicia says, ' I owe you a genuine debt of gratitude for being
so sure of me now that you allow yourself the utmost freedom so far as I am
concerned -- lest, forsooth, I might be such a fool of a sudden as to tumble
into your arms!'
1. gratum est: i.e. 'gratias ago. Ironical. — multum tibi permittis :
Ovid, Trist. 2, 356, plus sibi permisit compositore suo'; Her. 8, 39; Propert.
4, 4, 67; Juv. 6, 457, 'nil non permittit mulier sibi, turpe putat nil,' etc. —
de me: the regimen is not certain. 'securus de me' would be most natural
(cp. 'mutuus de nobis,' 4, 5, 6 and note), and securus in this sense is not
unfrequently followed by de. The distance, however, of de me from securus
suggests that S. may have been thinking of the complex, 'securus . . . per-
mittis. In that case in me would have been more common.
2. ne... cadam: has no point unless we suppose that the consumma-
tion of 4, 7, is still in the future. The clause is a clause of 'perverse purpose
running into consequence,' a usage especially characteristic of caustic
language; Cerinthus has no idea of losing Sulpicia's love — she herself
has just said it (securus) — still less is he trying to lose it. Such being
the case his action is so foolish that the inevitable result of that action, the
loss of her love, seems nothing short of a deliberate purpose. For a good
parallel cp. Caesar's caustic remark in B. G. 5, 31, 5, omnia excogitantur
quare nec sine periculo maneatur et languore militum et vigiliis periculum
512
NOTES
"[4, 10, 3
augeatur,' they took the pains to think up every possible thing that was cal-
culated to prevent their remaining without danger and to increase that dan-
ger by wearing out the soldiers, etc. That is, their plans were so foolish that
their destruction seemed a calculation.' Nipperdey saw the point here, but
succeeding commentators seem to have missed it altogether. Sometimes
these clauses seem to express the totally unexpected and most unwelcome, as
e.g. ‘he came home to die,' where the irony of the purpose clause is so to
speak the irony of Fate. — male : 1, 10, 51 n. — cadam: the evident sphere
and significance of cadere here are perfectly familiar in popular English and
might be abundantly illustrated from our old plays, ballads, and songs. It is
therefore the more surprising to find that in Latin this example is practically
unique. Plautus, Persa, 656 (Dordalus to Virgo), “libera eris actutum, si
Seneca Rhet., Controv. 1, 3, 7, has been emended. cadere = peccare, of yielding
to any sinful inclination, belongs to Ecclesiastical Latin, and our frequent use
of 'fall’ in the same sense was probably derived from that sphere. The only
non-ecclesiastical example in Latin seems to be Manil. 5, 114, 'et minimum
cecidisse malum est.' Our example is also included here by the Thesaurus.
But cadam here does not = peccen. Sulpicia is practically literal and specific
because she is particularly drastic. This is demanded by the bitter irony, by
the fact that it carries and emphasizes the thought of the clause of perverse
purpose in which the temporarily despised Cerinthus is presented with a point
of view worthy of him. Sulpicia is in no mood for euphemisms (cp. 3–4),
among other things perhaps being more humiliated than she would like to
confess by an unusually vivid realization of the narrowness of her escape on
that previous occasion alluded to in 4, 12 (where see notes). This use of
cadere -- which is 'tumble' (cp. e.g. Ophelia's song) rather than 'fall' — is
doubtless popular and possibly more or less characteristic of feminine usage.
3-4. The rising surge of wrath and scorn is marked by the sudden shift
from bitter irony in 1-2 to the passionate assertion of indifference in 3-4, as
expressed in her characteristic demand of Cerinthus to proceed as he has
begun. So Dido says to Aeneas, A. 4, 381, ‘i, sequere Italiam ventis, pete
regna per undas,' etc.
Note the biting contrast between the two halves of the sentence: here, the
niere common drudge, the lowest even in her own class; there, “Sulpicia the
daughter of Servius. This is not a mere outburst of jealous fury, there is no
room here for jealousy. Nor is the fierce scorn for the woman herself; she is
not to blame. It is for Cerinthus that he could stoop so low, the exceeding
bitter cry of her own humiliation. It would be hard to find in literary art a more
scathing rebuke, a more brief and telling expression of outraged love and pride.
513
4, 10, 3]
TIBVLLVS
3. That is, 'cura togae et scortum quasillo pressum sit tibi potior quam,' etc.
-togae: genitive, I, 9, 34. For the implication see 1, 6, 67-68 n. Sulpicia
here uses it as a scornful designation of the lower demi-monde in general, and
then passes at once to the specific 'pressum quasillo scurtum.' — quasillo:
the quasillum was the basket containing the regular stint of wool given to
the spinner for a day's work, cp. e.g. Propert. 4, 7, 41 (Cynthia speaking of
her rival and successor), 'et graviora rependit iniquis pensa quasillis, 1 garrula
de facie siqua locuta mea est,' etc. By pressum quasillo, ' loaded with her
basket of wool, S. refers graphically to a quasillaria or 'basket-wench,' the
spinning girl, who in distinction from the regular ancillae of a household had
to endure the opprobrium of being obliged to spin for a living. The hours were
long (from daylight to bedtime, cp. Ovid, Amor. I, 13, 23; Tib. 1, 3, 87, etc.),
the work tedious and unremunerative (Anth. Pal. 6, 39; 284 and 285), hence,
the character given her in this passage, like the character regularly ascribed
to the laundress in our old plays, reflects a prevailing opinion more or
less well founded, cp. Petron. 132, 'mulier ... convocat omnes quasillarias
familiaeque sordidissimam partem,' etc.
4. See Introd. p. 77. .
5-6. There are those interested in our behalf whose greatest cause for con-
cern is the fear lest I may be slighted for a base-born paramour.'
5. solliciti, etc. : the sentence suggests that the original source of her infor-
mation regarding Cerinthus was one of those persons interested in their behalf'
(Cerinthus would have called him a rival), and that under cover of the inten-
tionally vague and impressive plural she is really quoting a part of what her
informant told her on that occasion. — nobis: probably a genuine plural, i.e.
Cerinthus and herself. — dolori est: i.e. quibus illa maxima causa dolori est ne,'
etc. Rigler's doloris here (adopted by Haupt-Vahlen, etc.) for dolori est'
seems unnecessary, as the double dative (cp. 4, 7, 1 and 1, 5, 29 n.) with causa
is attested by Tacitus, Ann. 16, 14, 3, eamque causam multis exitio esse,' and
Pliny, Epist. 6, 28, 1, 'scio quae tibi causa fuerit impedimento.'
6. toro : this passage is ambiguous, and on the whole the most troublesome in
Sulpicia's poems. Many translate ne ignoto toro cedam' by `lest I may yield
to, i.e. be persuaded into, an obscure marriage,' and cite the phrase so inter-
preted in support of the theory that Cerinthus was of low birth. There is
nothing, however, to show that C. was of low birth, and even granting that he
was, can we believe that even in her present state of mind S. would have taunted
him with it? On the contrary it is reasonable to assume that he was a Roman
of birth and position, see Introd. p. 86. It seems better therefore to take
cedere in its common sense of 'give way to,' i.e. retire before,' 'give up the
field to. In that case, ignoto toro means the quasillaria, not Cerinthus, and
514
NOTES
.
[4, 11, 3
toro might be taken in the sense of mistress,' as in Pliny, 35, 87, 'nec torum
tantum suum sed etiam adfectum donavit artifici. At all events it is evident
that in this truly feminine announcement — which is doubtless quite as clear
as the writer intended it to be — there was the suggestion that she had plenty
of admirers who appreciated her worth and were anxious to see to it that she
did not lack for consolation.
4, II
Evidently used by
Sulpicia is ill and writes a touching letter to her lover.
the author of 4, 4.
Shenstone quotes 3-4 as the text of his song -
On every tree, in every plain,
I trace the jovial spring in vain!
A sickly languor veils mine eyes,
And fast my waning vigour flies.
Nor flowery plain, nor budding tree,
That smile on others, smile on me;
Mine eyes from death shall court repose,
Nor shed a tear before they close..
What bliss to me can seasons bring?
Or what the needless pride of spring?
The cypress bough, that suits the bier,
Retains its verdure all the year.
'Tis true my vine so fresh and fair
Might claim awhile my wonted care;
My rural store some pleasure yield;
So white a flock, so green a field !
My friends, that each in kindness vie,
Might well expect one parting sigh;
Might well demand one tender tear;
For when was Damon.insincere ?
But ere I ask once more to view
Yon setting sun his race renew,
Inform me, swains; my friends, declare,
Will pitying Delia join the prayer ?
A characteristic production of the man and of his time.
1. tuae puellae: 4, 9, i n. -- pia cura: loving thought' (Postgate).
The following lines define the phrase more fully.
2. fessa :. 4, 4, 10; 1, 5, 9 n.
3. morbos: cp. 5 and 4, 4, 1. The plural of this word instead of the
515
4, 11, 4]
TIBVLLVS
sing. is very common in poetry. Possibly, however, as certainly below, the
plural is generic, 1.c. S. means not this illness alone, but any illness. For
evincere of diseases cp. expelle, 4, 4, I and note.
4. optarim: 1, 6, 74 n.
6. lento: i.e. unfeeling,'' unsympathetic.' The answer seems to be 4, 4,
11-14.
4, 12
Sulpicia apologizes to her lover for having left him so abruptly the previous
evening. She bitterly regrets now that she was so young and foolish as to
run away -- just because she was afraid to show how much she loved him.'
See Introd. p. 83.
1. mea lux: 4, 3, 15 n. - aeque ... ac: not uncommon in the old
drama and in prose, esp. as here with a negative. In poetry the only exx. be-
side this seem to be Lucret. 4, 755 (a dogmatic passage); Horace, Sat. 2, 3,
47. Followed as here by a complete clause, the usage appears to be confined
to Plautus, Cas. 129; Terence, Phorm. 581; Varro, De Re Rust. 3, 8; Livy, 31,
45, 2. — cura: i.e. the object of the lover's cura,' his sweetheart,' beloved,' cp.
Propert. I, I, 35, “sua quemque moretur , cura '; 2, 25, 1; 2, 34, 9; Ovid,
Amor. 1, 3, 16; 3, 9, 32; Ars Amat. 1, 512 and 555; etc.
2. videor: middle, as I feel myself to be.' -- ante: ago.'
3. tota commisi stulta iuventa : an odd expression, but clearly meant to be
an emphatic avowal of youth, inexperience, and folly, all in one, lit. 'if I have
done anything foolish (stulta, adj. for adv.) in my entire youth (iuventa, ablat.
of time) for which I could confess greater regret than the fact that,' etc., i.e.
'if among all the youthful follies of which I am guilty there is any for which
I might confess a greater regret than the fact that,' etc.
5. te solum reliqui : the next line shows that she means an abrupt de-
parture from her lover, not as some have interpreted it, the failure to keep a
tryst. On the situation, and on the chronology of these elegies see Introd.
p. 81.
4, 13
On the last two poems in this collection see Introd. p. 87.
In the poem now before us Tibullus (see 13 and note) swears eternal fidel-
ity and professes unalterable devotion to some girl who is nameless.
The unusual attention given to this poem during the last few years is due
'for the most part to Professor Postgate's elaborate discussion of its authen-
ticity. Briefly stated, his thesis is that this poem is not by Tibullus. Setting
aside the test of statistics, which, as he justly says, is of no definite value in a
piece as short as this, Professor Postgate supports his contention by a thor-
516
NOTES
[4, 13
ough examination of the poem from every point of view. His main argu-
ments are
1. Inferiority. Throughout the poem the thought or, what is not less
noteworthy, the turn of the thought, is either trivial or else different from
what we look for in Tibullus.
2. Coincidences in phrase, etc., with the known work of Tibullus show
nothing characteristic of the poet. The Tibullian note of distinction is al-
ways wanting.
Differences in vocabulary Professor Postgate very wisely makes light of.
The test is of more than doubtſul value.
mechanical repetition of words (except perhaps sanctae 23 and sancta 15).
.4. Numerous coincidences with Propertius and without the individual
touch of Tibullus.
5. The signature (13). The obtrusion of the writer's name is unlike
Tibullus. So far from this being a proof of his authorship, this is the sign
manual either of a deliberate forger or more likely of some person, presum-
ably a member of Messalla's circle, who had no idea of addressing a public,
much less of mystifying it, when he wrote this literary exercise after the
manner of the great master.
6. The fact that the woman is not named. Defenders of Tibullian author-
ship explain by terming the poem a juvenile production anterior to the affair
with Delia or Nemesis. But if the previous arguments are valid, the poem, if'
by Tibullus, could not be a juvenile production.
One may well hesitate to disagree with so eminent a scholar, one too so
thoroughly acquainted with this particular subject, and I venture to do so
with the greater regret because lack of space forces me to appear dogmatic.
I may note first of all that the tone and the language of this piece suggest
with 14 (which is unmistakably an epigram) is perhaps an indication that
the editor of this miscellaneous collection was quite aware of the fact. The
presence of the two pieces here also suggests, as all agree, that, whatever their
authorship, they were two stray poems associated in some way with the Mes-
salla circle.
There are beautiful lines in this poem, lines, I may add, which appear to
have had a longer and more vivid tradition in English poetry than anything
else in the entire Corpus Tibullianum, but as Professor Postgate says, 'one
swallow does not make a summer,' and I cheerfully agree that the poem is
would have published the piece. Inferiority, however, certainly the inferiority
.517
4, 13]
TIBVLLVS
of this piece as demonstrated by the tests of Professor Postgate or of any one
else, is no criterion of authenticity. Are a poet's critical and creative facul-
ties always to remain stationary, shall he learn nothing with age and experi-
ence, shall he be unaffected by mood, by department, by theme, by a dozen
different things? quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus,' the history of poets
and of poetry the world over is full of proofs to the contrary. It is interest-
ing to observe with Professor Postgate that this or that phrase is 'uncomfor-
table,' or 'infelicitous,' or a 'weak variation of something, we may observe
with him that coincidences with the acknowledged work of our author lack
the Tibullian ‘note of distinction,' we may admit for the sake of argument
the coincidences with Propertius and that the same is true also of them, we
may acknowledge that 'Tibullus' in 1, 3, 55, and 1, 9, 83 is more in keeping
than ‘Tibullo' in 4, 13, 13: but the sum total, even if we admit it, serves to
indicate why Tibullus never published the piece rather than to prove that he
never wrote it at all. One may agree also with Professor Postgate that Ti-
bullo' in 13 is a presumption of genuineness rather than a proof. It is a
presumption, however, which is quite unaffected by any argument founded
upon inferiority as a criterion. The fact that the person to whom the piece
is addressed does not happen to be named has no bearing upon the question
either of its genuineness or of its date. The long line of commentators who
have tried to identify her with Delia or Nemesis or Glycera or some one else
have busied themselves with a task as fruitless as it is unnecessary. Any
poet at any time may and, to judge from the past, often does address verses
to a woman whom he does not name. She may be high or low, real or
imaginary; he may be old or young, married or single, in love with a dozen
women or in love with none. The assertion that this could not be an early
production of Tibullus is not supported by any of Professor Postgate's argu-
ments. The piece is technically mature, but metrical technique, especially for
a poet with a keen sense of form, is learned more easily and quickly than is
rhetorical technique. The absence of displaced que from this piece need not
detain us. Though eminently characteristic of Tibullus, it is nevertheless
absent from some of his published elegies (1, 2; 5; 8 and 9). The same
may be said of the absence in this poem of the type of repetition to which
Professor Postgate calls attention in his 'Poems of Tibullus and Others,
p. xxviii. 'It is remarkable,' he says, 'how often, if he uses a word more
than once, he will use it twice in the same poem and then maybe never again;
and not merely the same word but exactly the same form of it. This peculi-
arity, however, is not confined to Tibullus; it is more or less characteristic
of any one who writes. 'Every writer knows,' says Beeching (see Verity,
Shakespeare, Coriolanus, 3), 'the perverse facility with which a phrase once
518
NOTES
[4, 13, 3
used presents itself again : and Shakespeare seems to have been not a little
liable to this literary habit. It is not uncommon for him to use a word or
phrase twice in a single play and never afterwards. Lastly of the resem-
blances to Propertius (for details see notes on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 18, 21)
Professor Postgate says, “The reader has them before him and can judge for
himself whether the resemblances taken as a whole are or are not too close
and too frequent to be due to accident. I confess I cannot see as many
coincidences here as does Professor Postgate. What is of greater importance,
however, I fail to see how the settlement of this question either for or against
has any necessary connection with the genuineness of this poem.
On the whole, therefore, I am inclined to believe that this poem was the
work of Tibullus. The relation of the idyllic erotic elegy of Tibullus to the
Alexandrian erotic epigram has already been discussed (Introd. p. 23).
This poem suggests so strongly the influence of Catullus and the Alexandrian
type just mentioned that we may fairly class it as itself an epigram. It is also
manifestly inferior to our poet's best published work. It seems most reason-
able therefore to suppose that it is a chance survivor from an earlier stage
of his development, and that it was kept back by the author himself because
it did not measure up to the higher standards of his critical and creative
maturity.
Imitated by Croxall and by Bertin, Amours, 1, 7.
1. Lit. “No woman shall steal your couch (i.c. your love) from me.' The
choice of this expression instead of the more commonplace no woman shall
win me away from you,' was dictated by the poet's desire to lay all possible
emphasis on the supreme value to him of her love as a possession. He there-
fore states his infidelity in terms as it were of the loss of her love. subducere
lectum, which does not occur elsewhere in Latin, is (as noted by the old
commentator Achilles Statius) clearly an echo of Soph. Elekt. 113 (speak-
ing of the Erinnyes), ai tous ådlaws Ovo kovras ópão', | ai Toùs eůvàs ÚTOK NETTO-
uévous, the only echo of which even on the Greek side seems to be Libanios,
4, 598, 24, rls ydp å v eủvnu kakÊS ÚTOKNÉTTELVÉTI Toruńo elev. Propertius
says (1, 8, 45), 'nec mihi rivalis certos subducit amores,' but we cannot
assume that he had this line in mind; on the other hand it is sufficiently clear
that Tibullus was not borrowing from Propertius. --subducet: only here in
the Tibullian corpus; Propertius, 1, 8, 45; 3, 2, 23 in this sense. — lectum:
Eůvý, cp. 1, 5, 7 n. ; for toro cp. 4, 10, 6; etc. .
2. These ideas are characteristic of the entire elegy, cp. 1, 5, 7; 1, 6, 69
and notes. For Venus, 1, 4, 59 n.; 1, 9, 76; 14 below; etc.
3. tu mihi sola places: the exact words occur in Propert. 2, 7, 19, 'tu
mihi sola places: placeam tibi, Cynthia, solus : , hic erit et patrio sanguine
519
4, 13, 4]
TIBVLLVS
.
pluris amor,' and in Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 42, "dum licet et loris passim potes ire
solutis, | elige cui dicas “tu mihi sola places.” | haec tibi non tenues veniet
delapsa per auras : quaerenda est oculis apta puella tuis' (cp. the echo of
Ovid in Petrarch, Son. 172, 'A cu' io dissi “Tu sola mi piaci."'). "Formula
est quae proverbii speciem referat,' said Broukhusius, ad loc. over two cen-
turies ago, and the same is urged now by some of Professor Postgate's critics
and with a great appearance of probability. If so, no significance can be
attached to its reappearance. Moreover when Professor Postgate says that
these words are found first in Propertius' he begs his own question. The
priority of Propertius to this poem is yet to be proved. More important,
however, is his contention (Introd. to his edit. p. xlviii) that Ovid's distich
is a combination of this expression with 13 below (but see n. ad loc.). Ovid's
borrowing here,' he says, 'is obvious,' and he finds in the fact a proof that
this last book was published before the date of the Ar's Amatoria, i.e. before
B.C. 2, hence that it was Ovid who imitated Lygdamus, not Lygdamus who
imitated Ovid (Introd. p. 74). Even if we grant, however, for the sake of
argument that Ovid had this passage before him, it by no means follows that
he saw it in the published miscellany now before us, it does not follow that
the piece had ever been published at all at that time. Ovid himself had been
a member of Messalla's circle (Introd. p. 37) and could have easily seen the
verses there. As long, however, as Professor Postgate clings to his theory that
our poem is a mere forgery in the name of Tibullus written after the appear-
ance of Propertius he must establish a terminus post quem for its composition
or find himself quite unable to answer the uncomfortable question, which
was Ovid, the imitator or the imitated?' The question is then exactly the
same as that which confronted us in the case of Ovid and Lygdamus and we
are no nearer a solution than before. The presence of 'tu mihi sola places'
here, in Propertius, and in Ovid, may possibly be due to an association of
some sort, but it can hardly be said to have any bearing on the authen-
ticity of this poem.— praeter: only here in the Tibullian corpus, never in
Propertius.
4. Professor Postgate thinks this line is an imitation of Propert. 4, 4, 32,
et formosa oculis arma Sabina meis' (again assuming that his thesis of
Propertian priority is proved). Surely a phrase as simple if not as common-
place as this is incapable of being borrowed, cp. Catullus, 86, 1, Quintia for-
mosa est multis. Moreover, the reading formosa in Propertius is anything
but certain ( famosa, NFL, Phillimore, Rothstein, etc.).
5-6. Væux qu'une femme acceptérait difficilement même sans être Celi-
mène,' says Martinon, dryly, thinking of the famous scene in Molière's
Misanthrope. 'Hoc vero ruis est merum,' says Broukhusius, 'ac rusticum
A
520
NOTES
. [4, 13, 7
optare ut tua puella soli tibi sit formosa, aliis autem omnibus deformis ac
foeda habeatur. quid enim possis crudelius inprecari mulieri quam ut ne
placeat nisi uni viro ? aut quid aliud quaerunt operosae illae molitiones nisi
ut formosae videantur etiam iis quos ipsae amare nec volunt nec possunt ?
delectant etiam castas praeconia formae.
cuius formam inpune contemneres ? quaeve sibi deformis videretur ?' 'It
is more polite,' he says further down, 'to leave this wish to a girl rather than
to her lover,' and he quotes a long passage from the interminable d'Urfé
which ends with —
Car je ne veux, me disoit elle,
Ressembler belle qu'à tes yeux.
The thought has always been popular, cp. 2.8. the variation of Ausonius, Epig.
80 --
Deformem quidam te dicunt, Crispa : ego istud
nescio. mi pulchra es iudice me: satis est.
quin etiam cupio iunctus quia zelus amori est,
ut videare aliis foeda, decora mihi.
- For line 6 one may compare e.g. Propertius, 1, 2, 26,‘uni si qua placet culta
puella sat est.' For 5 Volpi cites Kallimach. Epig. 29, 2, kalds ó rais, 'Axel We,
linu kalós: el dé tis oúxi i onolv, élo Taluny Moûvos ływ tå kalá.
tius (9 exx.) and Ovid. — posses . . . displiceas : the sudden shift from
posses (optat. subjunctive, imperfect of the wish with adverse decision, Gilder-
sleeve-Lodge, 261 R.) to displiceas (optative present subjunctive without
adverse decision) reflects the lover's varying moods of hope and despair and
is not uncommon in poetry and in the animated discourse of a quick-witted
and impressionable race, cp, 1, 4, 63'; 2, 4, 7–10 and notes. — uni mihi : i.e.
soli mihi.' So always in the undisputed work of Tibullus but never in
Lygd. and the Pan. Messal. The frequency of unus in Propertius (over
70 exx.) amounts to a personal peculiarity, but with him unus = solus is
comparatively rare. — bella: see 1, 9, 71 n.; Ovid, Amor. I, 9, 6. formosus
is found in all styles, bellus is popular, and its presence here suggests the
epigram and Catullus.
6. Propertius, 2, 13, 14, "nam domina iudice tutus ero.' But the repetition
of such tags as 'tutus ero' or 'meis oculis' above, phrases which display no
specific peculiarity of usage in themselves, is not a good proof of deliberate
imitation.
7. That is, the common man though he desires a constant mistress, never-
521
4, 13, 8].
TIBVLLVS
theless likes to have others admire her, because their envy of his good fortune
flatters his vanity ; 'prorsus quasi silentium damnum pulchritudinis esset,'
says Iustinus, 1, 7, in his account of Kandaules, the traditional ex. of this
type. So Martial to a certain Lesbia (1, 34, 3, “et plus spectator quam te
delectat adulter | nec sunt grata tibi gaudia si qua latent').
Fornil opus invidia est' see 4, 4, 21, and for 'gloria vulgi,' 1, 10, 11, with
note. Professor Postgate thinks the use of these phrases here is ‘uncom-
fortable. invidia of course is the more dangerous because the very word
carries with it the suggestion of the evil eye and hence the possibility that
one's good fortune, if people know of it, may actually be destroyed by magic,
cp. Propert. 2, 25, 30 (quoted below), etc.
8. in tacito gaudeat sinu: gaudere in sinu is proverbial, cp. Cic. Tusc.
Disput. 3, 51; Sen. Epist. 105, 3; Hom: Odyss. 22, 411; etc. Ridicule,
however, is never involved, as in 'to laugh in one's sleeve,' sich ins Faust-
chen lachen. The wise man keeps his good fortune to himself. An English
equivalent sometimes seen in our old plays is 'he (i.e. the fool) cannot fare
well without crying roast meat. Propertius says (2, 25, 30), tu tamen
interea, quamvis te diligat illa, in tacito cohibe gaudia clausa sinu ...
invidiam quod habet non solet esse diu.' But the addition of tacito as here
to a common proverbial saying hardly needs to be explained by imitation.
Close congeners e.g. are Plautus, Epid. 651, 'quod boni est id tacitus taceas
tute tecum et gaudeas'; Ter. Hec. 106, haud propterea te rogo, ut hoc
proferam, sed tacita ut mecum gaudeam' (Volpi). The thought, of course,
is continually recurring. The classical example of the wisdom of our poet's
choice is the story of Gyges and Kandaules ; see also Ovid, Ars Amat. 1, 741,
ei mihi, non tutumst quod ames laudari sodali ! | cum tibi laudanti credidit
ipse subit,' a commentary on his own elegy, Amor. 3, 12, 7 f.
9-12. No doubt it is partly due to Cowley that these lines, esp. the last
two, seem to be well known to the English poets. In his essay on Solitude
he says, 'When they are in love with a niistress, all other persons are importu-
nate and burdensome to them. Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam lubens.'
He then quotes these four lines and translates —
With thee for ever I in woods could rest,
Where never human foot the ground has prest,
Thou from all shades the darkness canst exclude,
And from a desert banish solitude.
He had already imitated 7-12 in The Wish, the last stanza of which is —
How happy here should I,
And one dear She live, and embracing die!
She who is all the world, and can exclude
522
NOTES
[4, 13, 12
In deserts solitude,
I should have then this only fear,
Lest men, when they my pleasures see,
Should hither throng to live like me,
And so make a city here.
William Walsh says in the Preface to his Poems, “I am satisfied that Catullus,
Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid were in love with their mistresses when they
upbraid them, quarrel with them, threaten them, and forswear them: but I
cannot believe Petrarch in love with his. ... I am pleased with Tibullus
when he says he could live in a desert with his mistress where never any hu-
man footsteps appeared, because I doubt not but he really thinks what he says.'
9-10. secretis : 'solitary,' 'remote,' is not found elsewhere in the Tibul-
lian corpus, and humanus is confined to Lygd. 3, 4, 26.
II-12. Parallels of these striking lines are numerous, e.g. Meleager, Anth.
Pal, 12, 60, hp =vào dịpova Tà Támơ ôpô• đề Tà TaeTa | BAểVu, Thuốc
de uń, Tåur ally oudèy opó. Propert. I, 13, 36, 'et quodcumque voles, una sit
ista tibi'; Mart. 12, 21, 10, 'Romam tu mihi sola facis,' etc. Propertius, 1,
11, 23, ‘tu mihi sola domus tu, Cynthia, sola parentes, | omnia tu nostrae tem-
pora laetitiae,' is an echo of Homer, Il. 6, 429, cp. Ovid, Her. 3, 51.
Professor Postgate compares Hood's “The sun may set: but constant love
Will shine when he's away, | So that dull night is never night, | And day is
brighter day.' Suffolk in Henry VI (Second Part, 3, 2, v. 360) says to the
Queen -
A wilderness is populous enough,
So Suffolk had thy heavenly company:
For where thou art, there is the world itself,
With every several pleasure in the world,
And where thou art not, desolation.
11. nocte vel atra lumen: Professor Postgate finds the turn of nocte vel
atra' prosaic and quotes Propertius, 4, 1, 143, 'illius arbitrio noctem lucemque
videbis' a 'similar thought (i.e. to “lumen nocte vel atra") poetically ex-
pressed. The connection, however, shows that Propertius here has simply
furbished up a particularly homely and forcible proverbial phrase for being
completely under one's thumb, cp. note on tenebris, 1, 2, 25, and 2.8. Petron.
37 (the freedman describing Fortunata's hold on Trimalchio), 'ad summam,
mero meridie si dixerit illi tenebras esse, credet.'
12. solis locis: this · Propertian turn of language,' as Professor Postgate
terms it, occurs in all styles and at all periods, cp. Plautus, Rud, 205; Lucret.
6, 396; Cicero, Div. 1, 59; Quintil. 5, 13, 28; Ovid, Her. 11, 84, etc. The
line is repeated in a late inscription, CIL, 10, 378.
523
4, 13, 13]
TIBVLLVS
13-14. Professor Mustard reminds me that these lines are echoed by
Sannazaro, Eleg. 1, 3, 1-2—'nulla meos poterit mulier praevertere sensus,
| ipsa licet caelum linquat et astra Venus.'
13. 1, 3, 89-90 is regularly quoted here, indeed Professor Postgate (again
assuming that his theory of priority is proved) says that the writer seems to
be awkwardly imitating a beautiful distich of Tibullus, 1, 3, 89 f.' The par-
90, and e caelo mittatur here. But caelo missus in 1, 3, 90 (to express the
totally unexpected, cp. our "dropped from the clouds') is one of the com-
monest proverbial phrases in the Latin language (cp. note ad loc.). One
does not imitate proverbs. As a matter of fact, too, e caelo mittatur in our
passage has nothing to do with the proverbial caelo missus. The meaning is
‘if a mistress were fetched me from heaven itself,' etc., i.e.'a goddess instead
of a mortal woman such as you are,' a type of hyperbole common enough
among lovers, cp. Ovid, Met. 7, 800, ‘mutua cura duos et amor socialis habe-
bat, , nec Iovis illa meo thalamos praeferret amori, nec me quae caperet,
non si Venus ipsa veniret, ulla erat'; Catull. 72, 1, 'dicebas quondam solum
te nosse Catullum, | Lesbia, nec prae me velle tenere Iovem'; Ovid, Her.
4, 35, “si mihi concedat Iuno fratremque virumque, | Hippolytum videor prae-
positura Iovi'; Plautus, Casina, 323, 'negavi enim ipsi me concessurum
Iovi, , si is mecum oraret'; Catull. 70, I, 'nulli se dicit mulier mea nu-
bere malle | quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat”; “But might I of
Jove's nectar sup, I would not change for thine,' etc. The idea of hav-
ing a mistress sent down from heaven,' continues Professor Postgate, 'is used
much more appropriately by Apuleius,' Met. 2, 8, 'si cuiuslibet eximiae pul-
cherrimaeque feminae caput capillo spoliaveris et faciem nativa specie nuda-
veris, licet illa caelo deiecta, mari edita, fluctibus educata, licet inquam Venus
ipsa fuerit, . . . placere non poterit nec Vulcano suo.' But caelo deiecta, the
words italicized by Professor Postgate, have nothing whatever to do with the
idea of e caelo mittatur, 'a mistress sent from the clouds,' still less with caelo
missus, the proverbial 'dropped from the clouds. As the connection shows,
as the participle deiecta in itself suggests, Apuleius is simply referring to the
well-known legend of the birth of Venus herself, the phrase is merely one of
the three items in his description of her. — Tibullo: 4, 8, 2 n.
14. deficietque Venus : cp. 'deseruitque Venus' in 1, 5, 40 in a some-
what similar connection, in fact deficio with a personal subject as here =
desero. 1, 5, 40 is undoubtedly superior; experience is more impressive than
protestation, the thought itself is more striking. The significance of it de-
pends upon what theory we adopt regarding 4, 13. If it is an earlier piece
Tibullus improved as he grew older, if, as Professor Postgate claims but has
524
NOTES
[4, 14
not proved, it is a later imitation, we might agree with him that 4, 13, 14 is a
weak variant' or rather a weaker variant of 1, 5, 40.
15. For the oath see 4, 5, 7 ; 4, 6, I and notes. iuro with two accusatives
(Verg. A. 6, 324 ; Cicero, Fam. 7, 12, 2, etc.) is found only here in the Ti-
bullian corpus, never in Propertius, never in Ovid (so Burman's Index).
17–18. Ovid, Ars Amat. 3, 486, ' pignora nec puero credite vestra novo';
Her, 21, 204, 'ei mihi, quod sensus sum tibi fassa meos.'
17. cedo: i.e. 'give up. The transitive use of cedo occasional in prose
and comedy is very rare in poetry- only Lucret. 5, 986; Manil. 2, 585;
Seneca, Herc. Oet. 1282; Lucan, 3, 423 (Thes.).
18. proderat iste timor : 'that fear of yours was of value to me, i.e. the
fear that he might be unfaithful to her; he calls it his pignora because it
constitutes his hold upon her. He has confessed that her fear was ground-
less, hence pignora cedo. The poet refers to an old rule of procedure in a
love affair which we find echoed e.g. in Propert. 2, 14, 19, ' hoc sensi prodesse
magis : contemnite amantes,' etc. Cressida says (Troilus and Cress. 3, 2) –
I was won, my lord, with the first glance that ever -- pardon me — | If I
confess much, you will play the tyrant. / ... See, we fools! | why have I
blabb'd ? Who shall be true to us, | when we are so unsecret to ourselves ?'.
19. ures : 1, 5, 5; 1, 6, 37 and notes.
21-22. The lover as usual looks upon himself as a slave, cp. ures above ;
2, 3, 80; Propert. 1, 4, 3-4; 1, 18, 25; etc.
21. Professor Postgate finds that (he adopts Müller's facias for faciam)
the “resemblance to Propertius, 1, 15, 30-32 is considerable,' 'annus et in-
versas duxerit ante vices | quam tua sub nostro mutetur pectore cura ; | sis
quodcumque voles, non aliena tamen.'
23. The slave's refuge, cp. 2, 6, 33–34 n.; Eurip. Suppl. 267 ; Livy, 27,
17, 13.
24. Cp. 1, 8, 6; Hor. Od. 3, 26, II ; Nonnos, 4, 177.
4, 14
In this epigram the author would be spared the knowledge of the infidel-
ities of his mistress.
Ovid, Amor. 3, 14, has developed the theme into an elegy. See also Luigi
Alamanni, Elegia a Flora -
Spesso mi è detto (o dura aspra novella
Ben sorde volentier le orecchie avrei)
Flora è men casta assai che vaga e bella.
Taci omai, vulgo, che parlar non dèi
Di donna, a cui bellezza e leggiadria
Dieron si larghi al suo venir gli Dei, etc.
525
4, 14]
TIBVLLVS
Franklin drew a number of the verses for his . Poor Richard's Almanac') no.
449 has-
The town reports the falsehood of my dear;
To which I cry, Oh that I could not hear !
I love her still : peace then, thou babbler Fame;
And let me rest, contented, in my shame.
DOMITII MARSI EPIGRAMMA
Byron's translation in his “Hours of Idleness' is -
He who, sublime, in epic numbers roll'd,
And he who struck the softer lyre of Love,
By Death's unequal hand alike controllid,
Fit comrades in Elysian regions move!
526
APPENDIX
ABBREVIATIONS
A = Ambrosianus, R. sup. 29 (cent. XIV).
V = Vaticanus, 3270 (cent. XV).
g= Guelferbytanus, Ms. Aug. 82, 6 fol. (cent. XV).
y = Other Mss. or the Itali (cent. XV).
Fr. = Excerpta Frisingensia, 6292 (cent. X).
Par. = Excerpta Parisina, 7647 and 17903 (cent. XI).
The text of this edition coincides with that of Eduard Hiller (Berlin, Tauch-
nitz, 1909) except in the following passages. .
1, 2, 88. non uni, y; non unus, A; et iratus, Par.; non in me, Hiller.
1, 3, 4. Mors precor atra, y; Mors modo nigra, AV; Rothstein, De Tibulli
Codicibus, p. 62; Zingerle, Kl. Phil. Abhandlungen, 2, p. 99; "Mors nigra'
does not seem to occur in the poets, Mors atra' is common (see Carter,
Epitheta deorum quae apud poetas Latinos inveniuntur, s.v. 'Mors').
1, 3, 12. trinis, Muretus ; triviis, A; see note and Leo, Seneca, 1, p. 12;
Neméthy retains triviis with Hiller, but his explanation is not convincing.
1, 3, 14. respiceretque, A; see note; respueretque, y; despueretque,
Haupt; Schulze, Beiträge, 1, 19 and 2, 17; F. Wilhelm, Jahrb. f. Phil. 145,
618; G. Friedrich, Hermes, 43, 639; Martial, 14, 177.
1, 3, 17. aves dant, A; aves aut, y; see note.
1, 3, 18. Saturni, A; Saturnive, most modern editors since Broukhusius;
see note.
1, 3, 86. colo, A Par.; colu, Fr.
I, 4, 44. nimbifer, y; see note,
1, 4, 59. tua, y; tu, A.
1, 5, 42. et pudet et narrat, A; see note; a pudet et narrat, L. Müller,
Hiller, Postgate.
1, 6, 7. tam multa, A; see note; mihi cuncta, Hiller; iurata, Heyne, fol-
lowed by Postgate ; cp. Ovid, Trist. 2, 447.
1, 6, 72. pronas, y; proprias, A; in medias propriasque, Hiller ; see
Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Wundererzählungen, 158, n. 2.
527
TIBVLLVS
1, 7, 49. centum ludis, y; centum ludos, A.
1, 8, 35. inveniet, y; invenit, A; succumbere, y; concumbere, A.
1, 8, 36. tumet, 4; timet, A.
1, 9, 40. sed ... sit, y; sit ... sit, A; sit ... sed, V.
1, 10, 25 and 50. lacuna; see notes.
2, 1, 65. adsiduae ... Minervae, y; adsidue ... Minervam, A; Buecheler,
Rhein. Mus. 43, 291; Schulze, Beiträge, 1, 20.
2, 1, 67. ipse quoque inter agros, A; greges, V; ipse interque greges,
Hiller; Maurenbrecher, Philologus, 1895, p. 440.
2, 2, 21. hic ... avis, A; hac ... avi, Hiller ; haec ... avis, y.
2, 3, 14 C. mixtu subriguisse, Lachmann; mixtis obriguisse, y; mixtus
obriguisse, A.
2, 3, 34. lacuna; so Lachmann.
2, 3, 47. tibi, A; mihi, Par.
2, 3, 58. lacuna.
2, 3, 59. nota, A; vana, Rossbach, Hiller; ipse, A; ille, g, Guyetus, Hiller;
iste, Haupt-Vahlen.
2, 4, 38. sic, Heinsius, nunc, Broukhusius, Hiller; hic, A.
2, 5, 71. haec, A; hae, y; Schulze, Beiträge, 1, 21, Neue-Wagener, 2, 409.
2, 5, 108. illa, y; ista, A.
2, 6, 45. Phryne, y; phirne, A; recipi, y.
3, 1, 10. pumicet, A; pumex, y.
3, 4, 3. vani, A; vanum, y.
3, 4, 26. humanum nec videt illud opus, A.
3, 5, 11. sacrilegi, Cuiacianus ; sacrilegos, A.
4, 1, 1. me, Cuiacianus ; tua, s; mea, A.
4, 1, 72. rapidas, y; rabidas, A.
4, 1, 82. nam, APar.; iam, y.
4, 1, 166. rigentes, A, first hand; rigentem, y.
4, 2, 23. sumet, A; sumat, y.
4, 4, 6. pallida, A; candida, 4.
4, 6, 15. praecipit et, A; praecipiat, y.
4, 6, 19. iuveni ... et, A; Iuno . . . ut, Hiller, after Eberz.
4, 7, 1. pudori, A; pudore, A.
4, 8, 6. saepe propinque, A.
4, 10, 5. dolori est, A; doloris, Rigler ; see note.
528
INDEX
References to the Notes are by Book, elegy, and line, and to the Introduction by page.
advigilare with the dative, 2, 5, 93.
Aeneas: death of, 2, 5, 43-44.
a, interjection, 1, 9, 3; 1, 10, 59.
fight from Troy, 2, 5, 19.
ab and a, 1, 6, 21.
frater Amoris, 2, 5, 39.
ab arte, 1, 5, 4.
aeque ac, 4, 12, 1.
Ablative: absolute, 1, 6, 62.
aequor, 1, 7, 19.
of attendance, 1, 10, 27.
aera repulsa, 1, 8, 22.
with comparatives, 1,
aetas, 1, 4, 27.
instrumental, 1, 1, 1; 1, 1, 5.
aeternum, 2, 5, 64.
of manner, 2, 3, 43.'
a fjerre in, 4, 7, 4.
of material, 1, 10, 17.
Agent nouns, 1, 3, 15.
of origin, 1, 2, 39.
Ages of man, 1, 3, 35-48; 37-40.
of place, 1, 1, 61.
Age the avenger, 1, 8, 43–46.
of price, 1, 9, 32.
agricola as adjective, 1, 1, 14.
of quality, 1, 9, 84.
Agriculture, 1, 3, 41.
of respect, 1, 10, 29.
Aischylos, p. 16.
of time, without attribute, 1, 2, 25. aitla, p. 19.
Abstract for concrete, 1, 2, 11.
Alamanni, Luigi, p. 63; 1, 1, Introd.; 1, 3,
ac and atque, 1, 5, 72; 1, 6, 21.
35-48; 1, 5, 43-46; 1, 8, 69 ff. ; 4, 2,
accumbere for concumbere, 1, 9, 75.
Introd. ; 4, 6, Introd. ; 4, 14, Introd.
Accusative: with verbs of emotion, 1, 1, 61; | Alba, candida, 1, 7, 58.
1, 3, 14.
Alba Longa, 2, 5, 50.
inner object, 1, 2, 55.
mythical kings of, 2, 5, 51-54.
with verbs of motion, 1, 6, 72.
Albunea, 2, 5, 69–70.
of respect, 1, 1, 70.
Alciati's emblems, 1, 10, 49-50.
acervus, 1, 1, 77.
Aleandro, Girolamo, 1, 7, 26.
acies, 1, 3, 47.
alere, of mountains, 1, 7, 15-16.
Acorns, food of primitive men, 2, 1, 28; 2, Alexander the Aetolian, p. 20.
3, 68.
Alexandrian period, characterized, pp. 17-
addere merum, 1, 2, 1.
18.
adflat amores, 2, 4, 57.
aliquis, use of, 2, 4, 47.
ad imperium, 2, 3, 79.
Alkipbron, pp. 24 n., 26.
Adjectives : active and passive, 1, 1, 8; 1, Alliteration, 1, 5, 67; 1, 6, 38; 1, 9, 21; 1,
2, 29; 1, 3, 16; I, 4, 11; 1, 7, 22; 10,65; 2,2, 2; 2, 3, 80; 2, 4, 32; 2,5, 2.
31; 1, 9, 84; 2, 1, 25; 44; 2, 4, 10; | Ambarvalia, 1, 1, 21-22; 2, 1, Introd.
22, 2, 5, 63.
prayer at the, 2, 1, 17-24.
for adverbs, 1, 2,69;1,4,31 ; 34; 2, 1, 48. Ammianus Marcellinus, p. 61.
concord, 1, 1, 75.
Amor, acer, 2, 6, 15.
with the dative, 1, 6, 77.
mutuus, 4, 5, 6.
for the genitive, 2, 1, 32.
amores : plural and singular, 1, 2, 59; 1, 6,
with the genitive, 2, 5, 12.
35; 2, 2, 11.
with the infinitive, 1, 7, 20.
reciprocal, 1, 1, 69; 1, 3, 81.
as substantives, 2, 1, 27; 2, 4, 35. amplexus, 1, 8,
as neuter substantives with the genitive, | Anakreon, pp.
4, 3, 2.
Anaphora, 1, 1, 23; 39; 78; 1, 2, 29; 42;
admittere, 1, 4, 44.
1, 4, 17-20 ; 82-83; 1, 5, 25-34; 1,7,
ad modos, 1, 7, 38.
44-45; 1, 8, 43; 75; 1, 5, 7; 2, 1, 17.
ad sua pocula, 2, 1, 31.
with change of stress, 1, 8, 13.
å duvara, popular and rhetorical use of, for Anastrophe, 2, 5, 66.
emphasis, 1, 4, 65-66; 1, 9, 35. Andrieux, p. 64; 1, 10, Introd.
Adverbs: with nouns, 1, 3, 50; 2, 5, 53. /anguis, feminine, 1, 8, 20.
predicative, with esse, 1, 10, 66. | Aniena flumina, 2, 5, 69.

529
TIBVLLVS
Bacchos : 63 ; 2: 5.9is.
Animals, the domestic, given holidays, 2, | Ausonius, p. 61; 2, 1, 10.
1, 7-8.
Auster, 1, 1, 47.
animus sensusque, 4, 8, 7.
Avarice and venality, attack on, 1, 4, 57-
annus, 1, 1, 13.
60.
ansa, 1, 8, 14.
avus, 1, 1, 42.
ante, position in verse, 1, 1, 14.
Antecedent incorporated, 2, 1, 12.
antequam, 4, 7, 8.
Anthologia Palatina, p. 26.
Antimachos, pp. 16, 19.
Bacchos, progresses of, 1, 7, 45-48.
Antipater Thessalonicus, 1, 9, 84.
Baif, p. 63; 1, 3, 57–66.
Antonines, Age of, and Tibullus, p. 60.
balba verba, 2, 5, 94.
'Appodíolos opkos 1, 4, 21; 23.
Baptista Mantuanus. See Mantuanus.
Apis, 1, 7, 28.
barbarus, 2, 5, 48.
Apodosis involved in oratio obliqua, 1, 5,
| Barbers in Rome, 2, 1, 34.
19-21.
Bathing, ceremonial, 1, 3, 25.
ÅTÒ KOLVOÛ, 1, 1, 24.
Beard, appearance of, 1, 8, 31.
Apollo: and Admetos, 2, 3, 11-32. Beasts, subjection of, as a rhetorical topic,
the herdsman, 2, 3, 14a-16.
1, 4, 17.
Kitharoidos, 2, 5, 2-10.
Beaumont and Fletcher, 1, 1, 1; 1, 6, 85.
the musician, 2, 3, 12.
Beauty, loss of, as a curse, 1, 9, 13–16.
Palatinus, 2, 5, Introd.
against magic, 1, 5, 43-44.
the physician, 2, 3, 13-14.
as a plea for pardon, 1, 9, 5-6.
the prophet, 2, 5, 11-16.
unadorned, praise of, 1, 8, 15–16.
and the Titans, 2, 5, 9-10.
Beechen cups, 1, 10, 8.
applicare, 4, 4, 3.
Behn, Aphra, 4, 2, 5-6.
Apposition, 1, 7, 12.
bella canenda, 2, 4, 16.
distributive, 1, 6, 39.
Belleau, Remy, 4, 2, 5-6.
årpoodókntov, 1, 4, 81-84; 1, 8, 71–76.
belli homines, 1, 6, 39–40.
Aquitania, 1, 7, 3.
Bellona, 1, 6, 43-56.
Arabia, the land of perfumes, 2, 2, 4; 4, bellus for pulcher, 1, 9, 71; 4, 13, 5.
2, 17–18.
bene Messallam, 2, 1, 31.
Arar, 1, 7, 11.
Bertin, p. 64;1, 1, Introd.; 1, 1, 45-46; 1,
Aratos, p. 21.
2, 1-25; 1, 2, 65-74; 1, 2, 79–94; 1, 3,
arbitrio suo esse, 4, 8, 8.
59–64; 1, 3, 89–92; 1, 5, 19–34; 1, 5,
Archaic forms, 1, 1, 37.
37-40; 1, 5, 69–76; 1, 5, 71-74; 1, 6, .
Archilochos, pp. 14; 15; 1, 4, 69.
1-14; 1, 6, 17 f.; 1, 6, 69–74;1,6, 77–
area, 1, 5, 21.
84;1, 7, Introd.; 1,8, 41-42; 1, 8, 57-
Ariosto, Ludovico, p. 63; 1, 8, 65-66 ; 60; 1, 8, 61-66; 1, 8, 75-78; 1, 9, 1–
1, 9, 23–28; 1, 10, 59-60; 2, 1, 87–
50; 1, 9, 69-76, 1, 10, 63-64; 2, 1, 9-
88; 2, 5, 9-10.
86; 2, 1, 75–78; 2, 3, 1-10; 2, 6, 45-
Aristainetos, pp. 24 n., 26.
46; 2, 6, 51-52; 4, 13, Introd.
arma strepitantia caelo, 2, 5, 73.
Binding in magic, 1, 8, 5.
Arms, rusty in peace, 1, 10, 49–50. bis madefacta, 4, 2, 16.
Arretinus ager, 4, 8, 3-4.
Black victims sacrificed to the Di Inferni,
Art, influence of, 1, 5, 45-46 ; 2, 1, 77–78. 1, 2, 62.
artes amatoriae, 1, 4, 9–56.
blanditiae, 1, 1, 72; 1, 2, 91; 1, 4, 71–72.
Arts, development of the, 1, 7, 29-48; 2, meae, 1, 9, 77.
1, 37.
Blasphemy, 1, 2, 79–86; 1, 3, 51-52; 2, 6,
Ascanius, 2, 5, 50.
Asios, p. 15.


QOOA
Blindness, produced by charms, 1, 2, 53.
Assonance, p. 104.
as punishment for sacrilege, 1, 6, 24; 2,
Assyrius, confused with Syrius, etc., 1, 3, 7. | 4, 23.
at, 1, 1, 33; 1, 3, 33–34.
Boar, the, 4, 3, 1–3.
Atax, 1, 7, 4.
Boccaccio, p. 63.
atque, 1, 10, 23.
Bona Dea, 1, 6, 22.
and ac, 1, 5, 72; 1, 6, 21.
bona verba, 2,
utinam, 4, 13, 5.
boves vocales, 2, 5, 78.
Attendants, coloured, 2, 3, 55–56.
Boys, their shyness, 1, 4, 14; 4, 6, 17-18.
atteruisse, 1, 4, 48.
Bridegroom, ceremonial abuse of, 1, 4, 7
attonitus, 1, 9, 47.
Bronze, a proverb of the invincible, 1, 3, 7
Auctions, 2, 4, 54.
Brown, Thomas Edward, 2, 4, 8.
audat, of Kerberos, 1, 10, 35.
Browning, p, 71.
audeo, with the perfect infinitive, 2, 1, 9. Bürger, p. 42.
Augury, 2, 5, 11-12.
Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, 1, 6, 9-10;
aurea uva, 2, 1, 45.
35–36; 4, 2, 7-10; 4, 10, Introd.; pp.
aureus, metaphorical use, 1, 6, 58.
27, 63.
18.
530
INDEX
Byron, p. 65, n. 2; 1, 9, 27–28; 1, 9, 36; | Chiasmus, 2, 3, 58; 2, 4, 15-20; 4, 2, 9-10;
p. (526).
at the caesura, 1, 1, 43.
cineres et aquas, curse, 1, 9, 12.
cingere, 2, 3, 37.
circa and circum, 1, 3, 87; 1, 6, 21.
Cabell, James Branch, 4, 2, 5-6.
Circe, 2, 4, 55-56.
cadere, 'tumble,' 4, 10, 2.
circumterere, 1, 2, 95.
caelestis, substantive, 2, 4, 35.
cista, 1, 7, 48.
caelo missus, 4, 13, 13.
classica, 1, 1, 4.
caerula, 'blue-eyed,' 1, 5, 46.
clavim, 2, 4, 31.
caeruleus, the colour, 1, 7, 12.
Cleanliness, ceremonial, 2, 1, 13.
and caerulus, the form, 1, 7, 14.
Cleopatra, Roman dislike of, 2, 5, 9-10.
Caesura, p. 97; 1, 2, 27.
cliens, 2, 6, 35.
of pentameter, elision at, 1, 4, 56
Cloaks, men's, 1, 8, 13.
preceded by a monosyllable, 1, 2, 71. Coan vestments, 2, 3, 53; 2, 4, 29–30.
synaloephe at, 1, 2, 71.
Cocagne, Lai de, 2, 3, 69.
calere, of love, 4, 5, 10.
cogitare secum, 4, 4, 17.
Calpurnius, p. 59; 1, 3, 81,
cohors praetoria, 1, 3, 2.
Calvus, p. 22.
Coiffures, 1, 8, 10.
Camenae, 4, 7, 3.
Collins, William, p. 71.
Campania, a proverb of fertility, 1, 9, colo, for colu, 1, 3, 86.
33.
Colours, contrasted, 1, 7, 12.
candidus, 1, 3, 94.
epithets, used as, 2, 4, 30.
canis, for canis capillis, 1, 10, 43.
significance attached to, 1, 7, 46; 2, 2,
carcer, sing. for plural,' the barriers,' 1, 4,
a1 1. 4.
18.
32.
worn by women, 2, 3, 57-58.
cardines, 1, 2, 10.
coma, of foliage, 1, 4, 30; 1, 7, 34; 2, 1,
Carducci, pp. 6, 65; 1, 1, 69–70; 1, 3, 59- | 48.
64; 2, 3, 11-32; 2, 3, 13-14; 2, 3, 19 Comedy, 1, 2, 93-97.
-20; 4, 4, Introd.
and elegy, p. 20.
Carmina Epigraphica, 1, 1, 6; 1, 1, 12; 1, comes ire, 1, 4, 41.
1,75; 1, 3, 55-56; 1, 4, 35; 1, 6, 51; Comets, as portents, 2, 5, 71.
2, 3, 32; 2, 4, 7; 2, 4, 49; 2, 5, 3; 2, committere, agricultural use,
6, 19-20; 4, 13, 12.
Communism, 1, 3, 43-44.
Cartwright, William, 1, 7, 41-42; 2, 1, 67– compede, sing. for plural, 1, 7, 42.
69.
compendią, for lucra, 1, 3, 39.
casa, of a temporary shelter, 2, 1, 24. Compendious expressions, 1, 8, 10.
Casa Romuli, 2, 5, 26.
componere, of charms, 1, 2, 53.
Cassius of Parma, p. 38.
of the toilet, 4, 2, 8.
casta, 'faithful,' 1, 6, 67.
vultus, etc., 4, 7, 9.
Castiglione, Baldessar, p. 63; 1, 1, 65-66. concelebrare, 1, 7, 50.
castra sequi, 2, 6, 1.
concessio per purgationem, 1, 6, 29-30.
castus, 1, 3, 83.
concino, for cano, 2, 5, 10.
Catalepton, the Vergilian, p. 21.
Concord, 2, 4, 1; 2, 5, 49; 73; 4, 3, 1.
catasta, 2, 3, 60.
of adjectives, 1, 5, 47.
Cato, Valerius, p. 22.
in the predicate with two or more singu-
Catullus, p. 22.
lar subjects, 1, 5, 36.
Catulus, p. 22.
Conditional sentence, disguised, 1, 8, 55.
causa, medical use of, 1, 8, 51.
irregular, 1, 9, 39.
cautes, 2, 4, 8-10.
mixed, 1, 4, 63; 1, 8, 22.
cautus ad, 1, 9, 46.
sign omitted, 1, 6, 53; 1, 10, 11; 2, 4,
cava manu, 2, 4, 14.
60.
Cave dwellers, 2, 1, 39-40.
Confiscations of land, p. 32; 1, 1, 2.
cedere aliquid, 4, 13, 17.
confisus amari, 1, 9, 45.
celari, 1, 8, 1.
Congreve, William, 4, 5, 13–14.
celeber, 2, 1, 83.
conicere, with the dative, 1, 8, 53.
and clarus, 2, 1, 33.
coniugium, 2, 2, 18.
centum, indefinite, 1, 7, 49.
coniunt, the elegiac 'husband,' p. 47; 1, 2,
Cerinthus, pp. 85–87.
7.
certare with the infinitive, 2, 3, 57.
conscius, with the dative, 1, 7, 48.
Chapman, George, 1, 1, 55; 2, 1, 70. conserere, metaphorical use, 1, 8, 36.
Charms, 4, 4, 10.
consors, 'brother,' 2, 5, 24.
how removed, 1, 2, 59-62.
Construction, according to sense, 4, 4, 26.
Charon, 1, 10, 36.
shift of, 2, 4, 17; 2, 5, 73.
Cheese, making of, 2, 3, 14a-16.
Contrast by juxtaposition, 1, 4, 18.
Chénier, André, 2, 3, 4.
contribuere cum, 1, 6, 63.

531
TIBVLLVS
Conversational tone, 2, 2, 9-10; 4, 2, 2; | ethical, 1, 6, 63.
4, 4, 16.
extension of, in Tibullus, 1, 2, 83.
Copula, omission of, 1, 3, 2; 43; 2, 3, 19; of the place whither, 2, 5, 44.
2, 5, 73.
with saevire, 1, 2, 88.
Coquettes, traditional punishment of, 1, with substantives, 2, 1, 34.
8, 39.
with verbs, 1, 5, 27 ; 1, 8, 53.
Corcyra, p. 46.
with verbs of depriving, 4, 4, 1; 4, 9, 1.
Cornutus, p. 86.
with verbs of fearing, 4, 4, 11.
coronatus calix, 2, 5, 98.
Dawn, the Gates of, 2, 5, 59.
corpora, 1, 2, 25a.
Dead, ashes of the, how treated, 1, 3, 5-8.
Corpus Tibullianum, the, pp. 73–87.
disturbed by immoderate grief, 1, 1, 67–
Correption, 2, 3, 12; 2, 6, 41.
68.
Courtesan's old age, the, i, 6, 77–84.
offerings to the, 2, 4, 48.
Cowley, Abraham, p. 63; 1, 10, 1-14; 4, spirited away by the magician
13, 9-12.
Death, greedy, etc., 1, 3, 4.
Cranstoun, p. 65.
deducere, 1, 4, 80.
creber, 1, 7, 17.
De la Chappelle, p. 64.
crede mihi, 4, 4, 3.
Delia, elegies to, pp. 44-50.
Crops, transferred by magic, 1, 8, 19.
as a literary reminiscence, p
Crossways, the, 1, 1, 12; 1, 2, 52.
63.
Crusius, pp. 13, 14, 19, 96.
her mother, 1, 6, 57–58.
cubare, for accumbere, 1, 6, 18.
her position, 1, 6, 67–68.
culta puella, 1, 9, 74.
cum, causal with the indicative, 2, 5, 110.
De Longchamps, translator, p. 64.
circumstantial, 1, 5, 9.
De Maroles, translator, p. 63.
dempta pelle, 1, 8, 46.
conditional, 2, 3, 5.
Cupid, his attributes in art, 2, 1, 81–82.
de nobis, 4, 5, 5-6.
disarmed, 2, 6, 15–16.
dens, plural for singular, 1, 9, 68.
invincible and jealous, 1, 5, 1-6.
Deponents used passively, 1, 5, 14.
as a ploughman, 2, 3, 4.
deponere in, 4, 7, 4.
his power illustrated, 1, 2, 89–96; 1, 3, derepere lecto, 1, 2, 19-20.
21-22.
deripere, of removing, ex-votos, 1, 2, 82.
cupidus, substantive, 1, 9, 58.
destituere, absolute, 1, 1, 9.
cura, of one's beloved, 4, 12, 1.
deterrere quin, 1, 3, 13.
Curling tongs, 1, 8, 9–10.
deus: with agricola, indefinite, 2, 1, 36.
currus, plur. for singular, 1, 4, 68.
indiges, 2, 5, 44.
Curses, 1, 4, 60; 1, 9, 49–50; 4, 5, 12. specific, 1, 6, 43.
to fit the crime, 1, 4, 67–70; 1, 6, 53–54. | for templum, 2, 5, 22.
of crops, etc., 2, 3, 61.
devia montis, 4, 3, 2.
popular, 1, 9, 12.
Diaeresis, p. 100; 1, 7, 2.
work automatically, 1, 3, 82; 2, 6, 17. Dickenson, John, 2, 6, 15–16.
custodes, p. 45; 1, 3, 84.
Dictynna, 1, 4, 25.
ludere, 1, 6, 9.
dies, 1, 7, 3.
Cydnus, 1, 7, 13.
difficilis, 1,8, 27.
Cynthia, p. 49.
digiti sonus, 1, 2, 32.
digno digna, 4, 7, 10.
dignus with the infinitive, 4, 6, 10.
Digressions, artistic use of, 2, 5, 23–38.
Danaides, 1, 3, 79-80.
Di Inferni, sacrifice to, 1, 2, 62.
Daniel, George, 2, 5, 100.
Dinner parties of the elegy, 1, 5, 65-66.
Daniel, Samuel, p. 62.
Diodoros and Tibullus, 1, 7, 43-44.
Dante, p. 63.
dirus, 1, 10, 3-4.
dare, a mixed verb, 1, 4, 16.
Disease, sent by the gods, 1, 3, 51-52.
from the root of Toéval, 1, 9, 2; 2, 5, 91. Dissyllable, law of the, pp. 98-99.
malum, 2, 5, 108.
Distich, arrangement of words in the,
of oracles, 1, 3, 13.
pp. 99-101.
vota, 1, 5, 16.
development of, p. 13.
with object clause, 1, 8, 56.
and sentence, p. 100.
Dart, translator, p. 64.
Tibullus's mastery of the, p. 96.
Dative: with adjectives, 1, 3, 57; 1, 6, dives amator, the, 1, 2, 65-78; 1, 5, 47–48;
77.
2, 3, 35.
of agent, with passive tenses of con- divi, 1, 1, 37.
tinuance, 4, 9, 3.
Divination, methods of, 1, 8, 3-4; 2, 1, 25.
commodi, 2, 1, 81.
Dobson, Austin, 1, 4, 29.
with conscius, 1, 7, 48.
doctus, of poets, 4, 6, 2.
double, 1, 5, 29; 4, 7, 1–2; 4, 10, 5. Dogs, and the lover, 1, 6, 31-32.
est mihi cum aliquo, 1, 6, 3.
and the moon, 1, 2, 52.

D
532
INDEX
Dog-star, baleful influence of the, 1, 1, 27- | Emphasis, by position in verse, 1, 2, 58;
28.
90; 1, 4, 50; 2, 3, 20; 32; 2, 5, 93.
'heat of the, 1, 4, 6; 1, 7, 21.
Enallage temporum, 1, 1, 24; 1, 1, 61-62;
domina, 1, 1, 46.
1, 5, 29; 1, 7, 8; 2, 4, 46; 2, 6, 4; 4,
Domitius Marsus, pp. 30, 58–59.
2, 11-12; 4, 3, 17; 4, 13, 5.'
his epigram trans. by Byron, p 526. Endearment, terms of, 4, 3, 15.
Doves, sacred to Astarte, 1, 7, 17-18. England's Helicon, 2, 1, 13-14.
Drama, development of, 2, 1, 51-58. Epic, conventional themes of, 2, 4, 17-
Dreams, 1, 5, 13.
18.
betray secrets, 1, 9, 27–28.
and elegy, conventional distinction
the children of Night, 2, 1, 90.
between, 2, 4, 13-20.
Dress, taste in, 1, 8, 9-14.
Epigram, Alexandrian, p. 17.
Drinking to the absent, 2, 1, 32.
and elegy, p. 17.
Dryden, 1, 7, 34.
Epitaph, as an elegiac motive, 1, 3, 55–56.
dubius, of ships, 1, 9, 10; 2, 3, 40.
‘metrical, p. 59.
ducere convivia, 1, 9, 61.
Epithets, contrasted, 1, 1, 7; 2, 1, 20.
dum, with the subjunctive, 2, 3, 19.
contrasted and emphasized by juxta-
d'Urfé, p. 65; 4, 13, 5-6.
position, 1, 4, 18; 1, 7, 34; 1, 8, 30;
dux gregis, 1, 10, 10.
2, 3, 20; 2, 5, 38.
cumulation of, 1, 7, 13–14.
C
Equicola, Mario, 1, 2, 16; 1, 5, 39-40.
Eratosthenes, p. 21.
Eclipse, explanation of the, 1, 8, 21–22. eripere, with object clause, 1, 9, 35.
Ecstatic state, caused by the gods, 1, 2, esse cum aliquo, euphemistic, 4, 7, 10.
27-28.
Estienne, Henri, translator, 1, 10, 11-12.
edidicisse, 2, 2, 12.
Eternal City, the, 2, 5, 23.
edidit ore, 1, 4, 73.
Euphorion of Chalkis, p. 21.
educate, 1, 1, 13.
'Evpňuara, 2, 1, 39–40.
Eighteenth century and Tibullus, p. 64. Euripides, p. 18.
eius, rarity of, in dactylic verse, 1, 6, Eurus, 1, 4, 44.
25.
Eurusque Notusque, 1, 5, 35.
Elegiac lover,, conventional appearance of, eveniet, 1, 5, 57.
p. 56.
Evenos, p. 16.
Elegies, arrangement of, in Tibullus and ex and e, 1, 6, 21; 2, 1, 24.
Propertius, p. 44.
Exclusus amator, p. 45; 1, 2, 5-6.
Elegy, the Alexandrian, pp. 17-19.
excutere, 2, 6, 12.
the Attic school, p. 16.
Exempla, rhetorical, artistic arrangement
conventional purpose of, 2, 4, 13-20. of, 1, 4, 11-14; 17–20; 28-38.
development of, pp. 13-29.
exiguus and parvus, 1, 1, 33.
Dorian school, pp. 14, 18.
explere, for complere, etc., 1, 4, 69.
influence of epic upon the, pp. 15-16. exscreare, 1, 5, 74.
and the elegiac epigram, pp. 17-20. exta, doctrine of, 2, 1, 25.
the Hellenistic, pp. 24-25.
Extravagance, 2, 4, 27.
Ionian school, p. 14.
Ex-votos, doctrine of, 1, 4, 1-2.
narrative type, pp. 19-20.
Eyes of fire, 4, 2, 5-6.
periods of the, p. 14.
development of the Roman, p. 22.
pedigree of the Roman, pp. 23–27, 23,
n. 1.
fabellae, 1, 3, 85.
Roman and the New comedy, p. 23, n. facere, for sacrificare, 4, 6, 14.
with the simple subjunctive, 1, 3, 54.
Roman, as biography, p. 43.
facilis, with the dative, 1, 3, 57.
Roman, heroines of, p. 43.
Falernos, substantive, 2, 1, 27.
types of, p. 14.
Falernus ager, 1, 9, 34.
Roman, standards of language and form, Farmers, as rhetorical exempla, 1, 9, 7-10.
pp. 28-29.
ſata, of death, 4, 4, 11.
Roman, stock characters and themes, pp. Feather pillows, of luxury, 1, 2, 77.
26-28.
felix, active use, 2, 1, 25.
Elevated diction, 1, 4, 73; 79.
Feminine Latinity, pp. 80–81.
elicere, liturgical use of, 1, 2, 46.
feror, 1, 2, 81.
Elision, p. 99; 1, 2, 72...
ferrugo, of color, 1, 4, 43.
of monosyllables, 1, 4, 56; 2, 3, 5. fertilis, active, 1, 7, 22.
Elton, translator, p. 65.
ferus et ferreus, 1, 10, 2.
eludere, gladiatorial, 2, 1, 19.
suae, 2, 5, 103.
Elysium, 1, 3, 57-66.
fictilia, 1, 1, 38.
lovers in, 1, 3, 59-64.
filum, 1, 5, 15.
emeruisse, 1, 9, 60.
findere solum, 1, 2, 45.
1.

533
TIBVLLVS
First fruits, 1, 1, 14.
| gestire, with the perfect infinitive, 2, 1,
First offenses pardonable, 1, 9, 6.
72
Fish ponds, 2, 3, 45–46.
Ghosts, marked by the funeral fire, 1, 10,
fistula, as a rustic ex-voto, 2, 5, 30.
37-38.
described, 2, 5, 31–32.
why they return, 1, 2, 47.
and Pan, 2, 1, 53.
squeak and gibber, 1, 2, 47.
Flaminio, M., 1, 3, 57-58.
Gifts, the topic of, 1, 4, 57-60; 2, 4, 13-20.
flavus, as an epithet, 1, 1, 15.
Glycera, p. 56.
golden-haired, 1, 7, 12.
Gods, accompany their favorites, 1, 3,
Fliegende Blätter, 1, 1, 70.

58; 2, 3, 3.
Floats, use of in triumphs, 1, 7,4; 2,5, 116. criticism of the, 1, 4, 35; 1, 6, 3.
Florilegia, mediaeval, p. 62.
do not scorn humble gifts, 1, 1, 37-38.
Flowers, as, offerings, 2, 1, 59-60.
dress for holidays, 2, 5, 8.
symbolism of, 1, 4, 29; 1, 5, 7.
invited to attend their sacrifices, 1, 1, 37-
fluere luxuria, 2, 3, 51.
38; 1, 7, 49; 4, 2, 1-2.
focus, associations of, 1, 1, 6.
looking down on men, 1, 6, 83–84.
foedera, amatory use, 1, 9, 2.
rough-hewn, 2, 5, 28.
lecti, per, 1, 5, 7.
wooden, 1, 10, 17-18,
Fontenelle, 2, 4, 11.
Goethe, 1, 1, 45-46; 1, 6, 31-32; 1, 7, 26.
Footpads, see praemiatores, 1, 2, 26.
and the German elegy, p. 65.
fore, for esse, 1, 9, 39.
Gold, greed of, 1, 10, 7-8.
foret, for esset, 1, 10, 11.
the power of, 2, 4, 31-34.
formosus, 1, 4, 3.
Golden Age, as a comic theme, 1, 3, 45-46.
forsitan, with the indicative, 1, 10, 13. Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions, 2, 6,
Fortune, Wheel of, 1, 5, 70.
19-28.
Foscolo, Ugo, 4, 7, 7-8.
Gout, remedies for, etc., 1, 9, 73-74. .
fovere, 1, 8, 30.
Grainger, James, translator, p. 64.
Fowling and fishing, 2, 6, 23-24.
Graveyard plants, 1, 5, 53.
France, Anatole, 1, 5, 43-44.
Gray, Thomas, p. 71.
frigora, 1, 2, 29.
Greek words in Tibullus, declension of, eto.
fulvus, and flavus, 1, 1, 1.
1, 2, 52.
fumosos, of wines, 2, 1, 27.
Greene, Robert, 1, 9, 73–74.
Funerals, the elegiac, 1, 1, 59-68.
Grimald, N., 1, 1, Introd.
offerings at, 2, 4, 43-44.
Gruppe, O., p. 77.
Furies, the, 1, 3, 69-70.
Gyges and Kandaules, 4, 13, 8.
furta, 1, 2, 34.
gypsati pedes, 2, 3, 60.
furtim concubitus, 2, 5, 53.
Tuture indicative, for imperative, 1, 4, 51.
Hades, 1, 10, 35-38.
haec, feminine plural, 2, 5, 71.
Gabii, p. 33.
Hair, of youth and beauty, 1, 4, 30.
Gait, a graceful, much admired, 2, 3, 52. dyes, 1, 8, 44.
Gall, drinking of, as a curse, 1, 5, 49-50. | Hammond, James, p. 64.
the lover's cup of, 2, 4, 12.
haud, 2, 3, 65.
Galli, priests of Kybele, 1, 4, 68.
Head, the, in imprecations, 1, 2, 12.
Gallus, Cornelius, pp. 14, 21-22.
Headache, the woman's excuse, 1, 6, 36.
Garlands, left at the door, 1, 2, 14. Healths, drinking, 2, 1, 31.
stolen from shrines, 1, 2, 82.
Heine, 1, 8, 39,
gaudere in sinu, 4, 13, 8.
Hekate, 1, 2, 52.
Geminatio, 1, 1, 25-26; 1, 4, 81–84; 2, 3, 2. Hellenistic art, and the Roman elegy, p. 26.
Genitive, with adjectives, 1, 8, 3.
poets, influence of, on other depart
in -iz- of stems in -20-, 2, 5, 43.
ments, p. 26.
with words of plenty and want, 1, 8, 54. Hermesianax, p. 19.
with quantum, etc., 1, 1, 51.
Herondas, pp. 18, 20.
of rating, 2, 3, 66.
Herrick, Robert, p. 63; 4, 2, 7-10.
of separation, 1, 7, 40.
Hesiod, Catalogi, p. 19.
of specification, 1, 7, 57.
Hexameter, cadence of, 1, 3, 5.
with verbs, 1, 5, 40; 1, 7, 40; 1, 9, 47- | Hiatus, p. 100.
48.
hic, for ego, 2, 6, 7.
Genius, oath by one's, 4, 5, 8.
hic ille, 1, 3, 93.
discussed, 1, 7, 49-54.
Hieronymus, p. 61.
Gentil-Bernard, 1, 3, 59-64.
Hildebert, p. 87.
Gerund, 1, 9, 23.'
hippomanes, 2, 4,
Gerundive, construction, and position in Holidays, cessation of work upon, 2, 1, 5-
the verse, 1, 2, 70.
10.
as a factitive predicate, 1, 6, 37. | Homoeoteleuton, 1, 10, 40.

534
INDEX
Honcy, antique theories of, 1, 3, 45. | inofensus, literal, 1, 7, 62.
and bees, 2, 1, 49–50.
Inscriptions in distichs, p. 16.
Hood, Thomas, 4, 13, 11-12.
inserere, 'intersperse,' 1, 1, 74.
Hope, as a theme, 2, 6, 19–28.
insidiae, 1, 6, 4.
Horace and Tibullus, pp. 31; 31, n. 2; | instabilis, of ships, 1, 9, 10.
1, 1, 2; 78.
Interjections, 1, 9, 3.
Horns, attribute of gods, 2, 1, 3.
intonsi avi, 2, 1, 34.
Horseback riding, 1, 4, 11.
intonsus, of Apollo and Bacchos, 1, 4, 37-
Horses, white, 1, 7, 5-8.
38; 2, 3, 12.
House door, the, p. 45; 2, 3, 73–74. Intoxication, ceremonial, 2, 1, 29-30.
broken down, 1, 1, 73.
inulta, 'with impunity,'1, 6, 48.
open outward, 1, 2, 18.
inveniet succumbere, 1, 8, 35.
personified, 1, 1, 56.
Inventions, 1, 3, 37-40; 2, 1, 39-40.
Houses, invention of, 2, 1, 39–40.
io triumphe, 2, 5, 118.
huc illuc, 1, 3, 70.
Ion, p. 16.
humanus, 4, 13, 9-10.
ipse, 1, 1, 7.
Iron Age, the, 2, 3, 35.
nets, 4, 3, 12,
Irrigation, 2, 1, 44.
as an erotic motive, 1, 4, 49-50.
irriguas, active, 2, 1, 44.
Hypallage, 1, 3, 6; 1, 4, 10; 1, 7, 6. is, 1, 2, 41.
Hyperbole, 1, 7, 15.
of the second person, 2, 3, 33.
Isis, 1, 3, 23–24.
iste, usage of, 1, 6, 73.
itque reditque, 2, 6, 46.
iacere, of illness, 1, 4, 31.
Iuno Natalis, 4, 6, 1.
iactare comas, 2, 5, 66.
Iuppiter Pluvius, 1, 7, 26.
janitor, 1, 1, 56.
iurare, with two accusatives, 4, 13, 15.
Idyllic life, as a theme, 1, 1, 1-52; 1, 5, iuris consultus, as an illustration, 1, 4, 78;
19-34.
1, 9, 7-10.
ignotis terris, 1, 3, 3.
Ivy, sacred to Bacchos, 1, 7, 45.
ilex, sacred to Pan, 2, 5, 27.
Ixion, 1, 3, 73–74.

4, 2, 5-6.*?
K
ille, 1, 5, 18.
with the vocative, 2, 3, 74; 2, 4, 2.
Illness, as a motive, 1, 5, 9-18.
Jacoby, pp. 23, n. ; 69, n. 1.
Imperative, with ne, 1, 1, 67.
Jamyn, Amadis, 1, 4, 65-66; 1, 6, 31-32.
polite forms of the, 1, 4, 9; 1, 6, 51. Jewels, cast up by the sea, 2, 2, 16.
with personal pronoun expressed, 1, 1, 33. Johnson, Samuel, 1, 1, 47-48; 1, 8, 46.
as a protasis, 1, 2, 54.
Jones, Robt., 2, 5, 109-110.
second, use of the, 1, 2, 87.
Jonson, Ben, 1, 8, 15-16; 1, 10, 49–50;
Imperfect indicative, 1, 5, 1.
Jug kiss, the, 2, 5, 92.
implicuisse, 1, 4, 56.
Juxtaposition of epithets, 1, 7, 34; 1, 8, 30.
Impotence and magic, 1, 5, 41.
in, use of, 1, 10, 6..
in amore alicuius, 1, 9, 39.
incedere, 2, 3, 52.
Kallimachos, pp. 18, 20.
Incorporation of clause with a verb of echoed, 1, 7, 28.
saying, 2, 3, 29–30; 2, 5, 19.
Ovid's estimate of, p. 25.
Indicative, in indirect questions, 2, 4, 17. and Tibullus, 1, 7, 54.
for subjunctive, in verbs of possibility, Kallinos, pp. 14, 19.
1, 8, 55.
Kerberos, 1, 3, 71.
inexpertus, passive, 1, 7, 31.
Keys, 1, 2, 18.
infeliz, 'ill-omened,' 1, 4, 60.
Knots, 1, 8, 5.
Infidelity, old age the avenger of, 1, 6, 77–| significance of, 2, 1, 15-16.
84; 1, S, 39.
Krinagoras, p. 21.
Infinitive, with adjectives, 1, 7, 20. Kritias, pp. 16, 20.
with verbs of emotion, 1, 8, 23.
Kybele, 1, 4, 68.
subject of esse, 1, 6, 24.
Kyd, Thomas, 2, 4, 55–56.
as subject with a substantive, 1, 6, 3.
with subject omitted, 1, 3, 27; 1, 5, 73;
2, 6, 13; 2, 6, 48; 4, 8, 8.
perfect, 1, 1, 29–32; 1,1, 45; 1,2, 52; 1, labor, of campaigning, 1, 1, 3.
2, 93; 1, 6, 24; 1, 9, 63; 1, 10, 61- | Lacunae in Tibullus, 1, 2, 25.
66; 2, 1, 9; 2, 1, 72; 4, 5, 16. lacus, of the rivers of Hades, 2, 6, 40.
inflectere, of the voice, 1, 7, 37.
wine vats, 1, 1, 10.
infra, for apud inferos, 1, 10, 35.
| laedere, of lovers, 1, 9, 1.
535
TIBVLLVS
La Harpe, p. 64.
prodigal, 2, 1, 73–74.
Lamb, the poor man's sacrifice, 1, 1, 22. their quarrels, 1, 1, 74; 1, 6, 73–74; 1,
Lanternarii, 1, 9, 41-42.
10, 53-56; 2, 5, 101-104.
lapis externus, 2, 3, 43.
safe and sacrosanct, 1, 2, 27-28.
lapis gemmaeque, 1, 8, 39.
are slaves, 1, 1, 46; 1, 1, 55-56; 1, 8,
Lares, 1, 1, 20.
5-6.
and Penates confused, 2, 5, 20.
cannot sleep, 1, 2, 76.
sacrifice to the, 1, 3, 34.
selling the, 2, 4, 53.
Loyson, imitates, p. 64; 1, 10, Introd.
worship of by slaves, 2, 1, 59-60. Lucifer, his attributes, 1, 9, 62.
Las Casas, Bartolomé de, 1, 6, 45-50. lucos praecinuisse, 2, 5, 74.
latifundia, 2, 3, 41-42.
Lugo y Dávila, 1, 2, 16.
latus, 1, 10, 14.
Lukian, pp. 24, n.; 26.
Laurel, crackling of, an omen, 2, 5, 81-82. lumina, for oculi, 1, 2, 2.
and inspiration, 2, 5, 63.
Lustration, 1, 1, 35; 1, 2, 61.
in triumphs, 2, 5, 117.
in illness, 1, 5, 11-12.
Laurentes agri, 2, 5, 41.
luteus, 'pale,' 1, 8, 52.
laurus, form, 2, 5, 63.
lux mea, 1, 6, 21; 4, 3, 15.
Lavinium, 2, 5, 49.
Lycanthropy, 1, 5, 54.
laza toga, 2, 3, 78.
Lygdamus, pp. 74-76; 1, 3, 3-9.
Lebrun, p. 64.
Lyly, John, 1, 10, 49–50; 2, 6, 15-16. ,
lectus, 1, 1, 44.
Lena, 1, 2, 42.
M
cursed, 1, 5, 49-56; 2, 6, 45-54.
instructions to her charge, p. 20; 1, 5, 59. | Macer, Aemilius, p. 53; 2, 6, 1.
lentus, 1, 4, 81; 2, 3, 45.
Madness, due to Hekate, 1, 5, 13; 54.
Leo, F., pp. 23, n. 1; 91 and a.
Magic, doctrine of sympathy, 1, 2, 46.
levia ora, 1, 8, 31.
feats, catalogues of, 1, 2, 42.
levis, 1, 1, 73.
magicus, 'wonderful,' 1, 8, 5.
amor, 1, 7, 44.
Magister Amoris, p. 51; 1, 4, Introd.; 1,
aqua, 2, 6, 8.
4, 75-80; 84.
dextra, 1, 4, 51.
magna loqui, 2, 6, 11.
umbra, 2, 5, 96.
liba, 1, 7, 54.
mala mente, 2, 5, 104. .
linter, masculine, 2, 5, 34. .
somnia, 2, 6, 37.
Litotes, 1, 7, 9.
Liver, seat of the passions, 1, 3, 76.
Livy, imitates (?), 1, 1, 9; 1, 9, 4; 1, 9, mane Geni, 4, 5, 9.
57; 2, 3, 51.
Manicures, 1, 8, 12.
Manly sports, 1, 4, 11-12.
Lodge, Thomas, 1, 2, 89–90; 1, 4, 65-66; Mantuanus, Baptista, p. 62; 1, 3, 57-58;
2, 6, 15-16; 4, 2, 5-6.
1, 5, 52.
Loire, the blue, 1, 7, 12.
Manuscripts of Tibullus, pp. 88–89.
longa via, 1, 1, 26; 1, 1, 49-50.
Marathus, elegies to, pp. 50-52.
Longfellow, 1, 9, 4.
name, 1, 4, 81-84.
Loquacity, punished, 1, 2, 39.
Marbles, transportation of, through the
Loredano, Francesco, 2, 5, 92; 2, 6, 21-22. streets of Rome, 2, 3, 43; 44.
Love, a disease, 2, 5, 109–110.
Mare Rubrum, 2, 2, 16.
due to magic, 1, 2, 59-62.
Martial, p. 59'; 1, 5, 29–30; 1, 10, 22; 2,
idyllic pictures of, in early times, 2, 3, 2, 3.
69; 71–72.
Martinon, p. 65.
is almighty, 2, 1, 69–72.
Marx, pp. 38, 53, 69.
mutual, 4, 5, 13-14.
Matronalia, 4, 2, Introd.
and war, 2, 6, 6.
Maximianus, pp. 61-62; 1, 2, 19–20; 1,
will not yield to physic, 2, 3, 13–14.
9, 83.
Love affair, indications of a, 1, 8, 1-2. Medea, 1, 2, 51.
Love charms, 1, 8, 17-18.
Meredith, George, 2, 3, 11-32.
Lovelace, Richard, 2, 3, 69.
Merry-makings, rustic, 2, 1, 21-24.
Lovers, aged, 1, 1, 71; 1, 2, 89–96; 2, 1, Messalinus, p. 53 ; 2, 5, Introd.
73–74.
Messalla, pp. 21, 34-37; 1, 1, 54.
the elegiac, not strong, 2, 3, 9-10.
expedition to the East, 1, 3, Introd.
endure hardships, 1, 2, 29-30; 2, 3, 5. the literary circle of, p. 36.
their excuses, 1, 3, 15–20; 1, 8, 7-8. messes, plural for singular, 1,5
lunatics, etc., inspired, 1, 4, 24.
Military language, 1, 1, 75; 1, 3, 64; 1,
their oaths, 1, 4, 21.
3, 72; 1, 6, 4.
old and young contrasted, 1, 8, 29–38. Milk, as an offering, 1, 1, 36; 1, 2, 48; 2,
should be pale, 1, 8, 52.
5, 27.

536
INDEX
mille, indefinite, 1, 3, 50.
| nomen, antique conception of, 2, 5, 57.
Milton, 1, 1, 51; 1, 7, 34; 1, 10, 35-38. Nominative, in predicate by attraction,
Mimnermos, pp. 14, 15, 19, 22, 69, 96.
1, 1, 26.
Minerva, her hair, 1, 4, 25-26.
Nomos, connection with the elegy, p. 96,
Mirabeau, translator, p. 64.
n. 1.
Mock-heroic, 1, 1, 18.
Nonnos, p. 26.
Modestinus, 2, 6, 15-16.
nolis, 1, 2, 21–22.
modi, figurae amoris, 2, 6, 52.
notis, in augury, 2, 5, 14.
modo, for dum modo, 1, 1, 25.
Numbers, association with, 1, 4, 69; 1, 5,
mola, 1, 5, 14.
14; 1, 5, 16; 1, 7, 49
Molière, 1, 6, 31-32; 4, 13, 5-6.
Numicius, 2, 5, 43-44.
Mollevau!t, translator, p. 64.
nutus loquaces, 1, 2, 21-22.
Monosyllables, before the caesura, 1, 2, 71.
Montaigne, p. 63; 1, 6, 35–36; 1, 8, 45–
46; 1, 9, 21-22.
Moon, drawing down the, 1, 2, 43; 61; 0, passionate and pathetic, 1, 4, 9.
62; 1, 8, 21-22.
ö, final, in verbs, 2, 6, 41.
influence of, on disease, 1, 5, 16.
Oaths, philosophy of, 1, 4, 25–26.
Moore, Thomas, p. 65, n. 2; 4, 3, 19. per cineres mortuorum, 2, 6, 29.
Mopsopos, 1, 7, 54,
per Genium, 4, 5, 8.
morbi, plural and singular, 4, 11, 3.
per oculos, 4, 5, 8.
morbos expellere, 4, 4, 1.
Obiect, omitted, 1, 5, 75; 1, 8, 56.
mordere frenos, 1, 3, 42.
obsequium, 1, 4, 40; 1, 9, 41-44.
Morell, 1, 10, Introd.
Occupations, as exempla, 1, 4, 78; 1, 9,
Mors, 1, 1, 70.
7-10.
Music and the dance, origin of, 1, 7, 37–42. oculi loquaces, 2, 6, 43.
Mustard, W. P., p. 62, n. 2; 1, 1, 21; 1, oculi, oath by, 4, 5, 8.
1, 51-52; 1, 1, 63-64;' 1, 1, 70, 1, Old age, peaceful and idyllic, 1, 10, 39-44.
2, 16; 1, 2, 27-28; 1, 2, 34; 1, 2, 75; men, talk of the past, 1, 10, 44.
1, 4, 30; 1, 5, 39-40; 1, 5, 52; 1, 7, Omens, from birds, 1, 3, 17.
26; 1, 10, 1-2; 1, 10, 49–50; 2, 1, 59--| operari, use of, 2, 3, 36.
90; 2, 5, 92; 2, 6, 21–22; 4, 13, 13-14. Opitz, Martin, 1, 7, 12.
Myrtle, 1, 3, 66.
Oratio recta, shift to, 1, 5, 21.
Myth, parallel from, use of, pp. 15, 16. and obliqua, shift between, 1, 3, 17
Orgiastic worship and the flute, p. 14.
N
Orientals, proverbially effeminate, 2, 2, 4.
proverbially wealthy, 2, 2, 4.
mam, 1, 1, 11; 1, 6, 21.
ortus, 1, 1, 27.
Name, instead of pronoun, 4, 8, 2; 4, 9, 1. | oscula apta; 1, 4, 54.
value of one's, in magic, 1, 2, 57-58. rapia, 1, 4, 55.
naufragus, active, 2, 4, 10.
tacita, 1, 8, 58.
Navagero, Andrea, 1, 2, 34; 2, 6, 21-22 Osiris, 1, 7, 27.
Navigation, diatribe on, 1, 3, 37-40.
and Bacchos, 1, 7, 37–42.
ne, with the imperative, 1, 1, 67.
discoverer of the vine, 1, 7, 33–34.
continued by nec, neque, 1, 1, 67. Ovid, pp. 17, 28, 59, 62; 1, 3, 93-94; 1,
nec, neque, for neu, 1, 1, 67.
4, 28-38; 1, 6, 8.
ne cadam, 4, 10, 2.
and the comedy, p. 24, n.
nec and neque, 1, 2, 77; 1, 6, 21.
criticized, p. 66.
nec opinanti, 4, 9, 4.
Fasti, p. 21.
nefanda, la science maudite,' 1, 5, 42. and Kallimachos, p. 25.
negare, a lover's word, 1, 4, 15.
imitates, 1, 10, 22.
me, 2, 3, 80.
rhetorical development of, p. 95;
Negative, the double, 4, 7, 8.
elegy on the death of Tibullus, p. 34, and
Nekyomantia, 1, 2, 45-48.
n. 1.
Nemesianus, p. 61, 2, 3, 11 ; 2, 3, 15. ovile, 2, 1, 57-58.
Nemesis, doctrine of, 1, 2, 89–96; 1, 5, 5-ovis, lana, 2, 4, 28.
6; 69–70; 1, 8, 27-28.
Nemesis, elegies to, p. 53.
and Elpis, 2, 6, 27-28.
vectepou, p. 22.
Paganalia, 2, 1, Introd.
neque and nec, 1, 2, 77; 1, 6, 21.
Painting the face, 1, 8, 11.
Night, attributes of, 2, 1, 87-88.
Palatia, plural, 2, 5, 25.
Nikander, p. 21.
Pales, 1, 1, 36.
Nile, the source and the flood, 1, 7, 23–24. palla, worn by gods, 1, 7, 46.
Nine, popular conception of, 1, 5, 16.
worn by the litharoidos, 2, 5, 7.
Nisus and Scylla, 1, 4, 63.
worn by women, 4, 2, 11.
nocere, of magic, 1, 8, 25.
Pallavicino, p. 20.


537
TIBVLLVS
pallens, active for passive use, 1, 8, 17. | Phrygia tibia, 2, 1, 86.
Pallor, words for, i, 8, 52.
Phryne, 2, 6, 45.
Panegyricus Messallae, p. 76.
Phrynichos, p. 16.
napakaavoidupov, pp. 45–46; 1, 2, Introd. ; Pierides, for Musae, 4, 2, 21.
1, 2, 7-14.
Pig, offered to the Lares, 1, 10, 26.
Parcae, 1, 7, 1-2.
Planting, metaphors of, 1, 7, 31.
Parenthesis, in prayers, 1, 3, 27.
plena manu, 1, 5, 68; 1, 9, 52.
Parilia, , 2, 5, 87–90.
Plessis, pp. 67, 68, 96.
Parny, Évariste, 1, 1, 45-46; 1, 1, 51-58; Ploughs, antique, 2, 1, 5-6.
1, 1, 59-68; 1, 8, 36.
Pluperfect indicative, extension of, 2, 5,
Parody, 1, 9, 61-62; 1, 10, 63.
79.
pars e votis, 2, 6, 54.
of resulting condition, 1, 5, 38.
pro toto, 1, 9, 62.
Plural, distributive, 2, 1, 31.'
Parthenios, pp. 14, 21-22.
of modesty, 1, 1, 52; 1, 2, 11; 2, 4, 5.
Participles, causal, 1, 5, 33.
poetic, 1, 1, 4; 1, 1, 27; 1, 1, 28; 1, 2,
future, as attributive, 1, 9, 9.
25a; 1, 2, 29; 1, 2, 54; 1, 2, 59; 1,
future, to express purpose, 2, 2, 5.
3,8; 1, 3, 13; 1, 3, 81; 1, 4, 2.
Particles, copulative, 1, 7, 43–52.
reciprocal, 1, 1, 69.
disjunctive, variation in, 1, 1, 31.
for singular, 1, 4, 68; 1, 5, 3; 1, 5, 21;
Parting scene, an elegiac theme, 1, 1, 52. 1, 7, 5; 2, 1, 33.
pascere, transitive, 2, 3, 42.
typical, 2, 3, 1.
Passive, impersonal, 2, 4, 46.
pocula amatoria, 1, 8, 17–18; 2, 4, 55–60.
Pastoret, translator, p. 64.
poena sera, 1, 9, 4.
Paulinus Nolanus, p. 61.
Poetical technique, Roman laws of, pp.
paupertas, defined, 1, 1, 5.
96–97.
Peace, praises of, 1, 10, 45–63.
Poetry, versus gifts, 1, 4, 61–70.
Pearls, 2, 4, 27.
Poets, inspired, 2, 5, 113-114.
pedem ponere nullo sono, 1, 2, 20.
verse of, inspired by their beloved, 2, 5,
Pedum, p. 33.
111.
Peleus and Thetis, 1, 5, 45–46.
Poliziano, 2, 3, 4.
pellere, for depellere, 2, 1, 18.
poma, for pomos, 1, 1, 8.
of wind instruments, 1, 1, 4.
ponere, for deponere, 2, 1, 81.
Pelops, 1, 4, 64.
Pontanus, p. 62; 1, 2, 27-28.
pensum, á stint, 1, 3, 87.
Poor lover, his plea, 1, 5, 61-66,
Pentamcter, amplifies hexameter, 1, 1, 44; Pope, Alexander, 1, 3, 55–56.
1, 1, 55-56; 1, 8, 32; 2, 1, 32. Portents, attending the Civil Wars, 2, 5,
law of dissyllable, 1, 1, 38.
71–78.
rhyming, 1, 1, 54.
Positive, for our comparative, 1, 8, 41.
uniform cadence avoided, p. 99.
post, always adverbial in Tibullus, 1, 5,
per, in oaths, 1, 5, 7.
56.
of time, 1, 7, 63.
poterut custodia vinci, 1, 8, 55.
per causam, 1, 6, 26.
praecinere, 1, 5, 12.
percutere, of drink, 1, 2, 3.
Prayers, naïve, 1, 1, 33–34; 1, 2, 97-98.
Perfect, the gnomic, 2, 1, 73.
must be uttered, 2, 1, 84.
indicative, third plural in ě, 2, 3, 12. precor, with the infinitive, 2, 5, 4.
indicative, in crunt or ere, 1, 5, 47. Prepositions, anastrophe of, 1, 1, 23.
infinitive pass., with verbs of will, 2, 5, distance from case, 1, 1, 23.
102.
pretium, 2, 4, 14.
Perfumes, use at funerals, 1, 3, 7.
Priapos, p. 50; 1, 1, 17–18; 1, 4, Introd. ;
Periphrastic conjugation, 1, 9, '1.
1, 4, 3-6.
Perjury, 1, 3, 51; 1, 9, 3.
Prior, Matthew, p. 43; 1, 9, 12.
perlucida, 4, 6, 13.
Priscian, p. 62.
Perpetuity, rhetorical illustrations of, 1, procurare, 1, 5, 13.
4, 65-66.



prodire, of going out, 1, 9, 70.
Personal experience as a motive, 1, 4, 33– Profanity, Latin, 1, 4, 35.
Professor, the old, as a motive, 1, 4, 80.
persuadere, with the subjunctive, 1, 9, promittere, 1, 8, 63.
70.
Pronouns, compendious use of, 1, 3, 93.
Perverse purpose, clauses of, 4, 10, 2.
frequency of, in elegy, 2, 1, 70
Petrarch, p. 63; 1, 1, 77-78; 4, 13, 3. possessive, used substantively, 1, 5, 42.
Pezai, translator, p. 64.
relative and demonstrative, combined,
Phaeacia, 1, 3, 3.
1, 10, 39.
Phanokles, p. 19.
Propertius, pp. 15, 17, 20, 21, 48.
Philetas, pp. 19, 22, 69.
criticized, p. 67.
Philostephanos, p. 21.
and the mythological elegy, p. 24, n.
Philostratos, pp. 24, n.; 26.
propinquus, 4, 8, 6.
Pholoe, p. 51.
propter, 1, 7, 25.
34.
538
INDEX
Progody, 1, 5, 13; 1, 5, 28; 1, 5, 33; 1, Reitzenstein, R., pp. 14, n. 1; 17, n. 1;
5, 45; 1, 6, 66; 1, 7, 9; 1, 7, 49; 24, n. 1.
1, 10, 13; 2, 2, 5; 2, 3, 12.
Relatives, concord of, 4, 9, 4.
of illius, etc., 2, 6, 31.
relegare, 4, 6, 5.
Prosperity, motives of, 2, 5, 84.
Remus, 2, 5, 24.
Protraction, 2, 2, 5; 4, 2, 3.
Rendez-vous manqué, 1, 8, 63-66.
Proverbs, 1, 1, 63-64; 1, 2, 3–4; 1, 2, 16; repente, 1, 3, 50.
1, 2, 98; 1, 3, 90; 1, 4, 18; 1, 4, 21; 1 respicere, 1, 3, 14.
1, 4, 7
: 1. 5. 35–36: 1. 5. 60: I. 5. resoue domusóue 1. 9. 72.
67; 1, 5, 76; 1, 6, 10; 1, 6, 30; 1, Rhetorical and philosophical themes, p. 26.
8, 31; 1, 8, 34; 1, 9, 4; 1, 9, 23-24; Rhone, 1, 7, 11.
1, 9, 25-26; 1, 9, 33; 34; 2, 6, 19-20; Rhyme, 1, 1, 54.
4, 13, 8; 4, 13, 11.
ridere, with the ablative, 1, 9, 53.
providus fati, 2, 5, 12.
Rings, examination of, a lover's excuse, 1,
Pseudonym, Bentley's law of the, p. 44.
6, 25–26.
pubes, 1, 7,5; 2, 5, 95.
Rivers, importance of, 1, 7, 4.
puer delicatus, 1, 8, 9–14; 1, 8, 68.
run backwards, 1, 2, 44.
pulsa, of oars, 2, 5, 34.
rivos, 1, 1, 28.
puniceus, 2, 3, 57–58.
Roads, Roman, how made, 1, 7, 59-60.
Punishments, to fit the crime, 1, 9, 13-16. rogare, with the subjunctive, 1, 9, 84; 4,
Purple, Tyrian, 2, 3, 57-58.
5, 7.
purpureus, 1, 4, 29; 43.
Rome, contrast between old and new,
purus, 1, 1, 38; 1. 9, 36.
2, 5, 23-38; mistress of the world, 2,
5, 57-60.
the reincarnation of Troy, 2, 5, 61.
Ronsard, Pierre, p. 63; 1, 3, 59-64.
quamvis, 1, 8, 59.
Roses, 1, 3, 62; 1, 4, 29.
with the indicative, 4, 8, 8.
rota, chariot, 1, 9, 62.
Quantity of syllables, exceptional, p. 100. Roulston, R. B., p. 65, n. 1.
quasillaria, 4, 10, 3.
Rowe, Nicholas, p. 63; 4, 2, 5-6.
quater ille beatus, 1, 10, 63.
ruber, 1, 1, 17.
que, displacement of, 1, 1, 40.
Rutuli, 2, 5, 47-48.
doubled, 1, 1, 33.
... et, 1, 1, 35.
S
queri cum, 2, 6, 34.
Questions, indirect, 1, 7, 17.
sacra, prosody, 1, 3, 18.
quiescas, 4, 8, 5.
Sacrilege, 1, 2, 79-86 ; 2, 4, 23.
quia and quod, 1, 4, 13; 1, 6, 21.
saevire, with the dative, 1, 2, 88.
qui . . , hic, etc., 4, 5, 1.
saga, p. 46; 1, 2, 42; 1, 5, 12.
Quindecimviri, 2, 5, Introd.
Samian ware, 2, 3, 47-48.
Quintilian, p. 59.
Sanctuary, taken by slaves, etc., 2, 6, 33-34.
as a critic, p. 72 and n. 1.
Sandals, removed at dinner, 1, 5, 66.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, p. 26.
Sannazaro, pp. 62, 63; 1, 1, 21; 1, 1, 63–
quis, for aliquis, 1, 10, 13.
64; 1, 2, 43-52; 1, 2, 75; 1, 3, 63-64;
for quibus, 1, 2, 53.
2, 1, 5-12; 2, 1, 17—24; 4, 13, 13-14.
colis, 4, 3, 1.
Santones, 1, 7, 10.
quisque, with plural verb, 4, 4, 26.
sapores, 4, 4, 9.
quod si, 4, 5, 11.
Saturni dies, 1, 3, 18.
quoniam, 4, 5, 19.
Saturnus, 1, 3, 35.
quotacumque, 2, 6, 54.
Satyros (Life of Euripides), 1, 5, 43–44.
Quotation from Tibullus, range of, pp. 59– Scaliger, J., p. 91.
60; 1, 1, 6.
scelerala sedes, 1, 3, 67.
Schemata of the distich, pp. 97, 98.
Sea, in purification, etc., 2, 5, 80.
perils of, 1, 3, 37-40.
Rabelais, p. 63; 2, 5, 81-82.
secretus, 4, 13, 9-10.
Racehorse, the, as a rhetorical example, secubitus, 1, 3, 25.
1, 4, 31-32.
Secundus, Jo., 1, 1, 51-52; 1, 1, 70; 1,
Rapax meretrix, 2, 4, 14.
2, 75; 1, 10, 1–2.
rapidus, of the sea, 1, 2, 40.
securus, active, 2, 1, 46.
rarus, 2, 3, 16.
de me, 4, 10, 1.
Red, ceremonial use of, 1, 1, 17; 2, 1, 55. sed, anaphora of, 1, 7, 44-45.
redder eque, 1, 3, 34.
conversational use of, 2, 5, 7.
reditus, plural, 1, 3, 13.
corrective use, 2, 4, 3.
regere, for dirigere, 1, 3, 44.
Sedley, Sir Charles, 1, 1, 45-46; 1, 2, 39-
regna, 4, 5, 4.
40; 4, 2, 7–14.
regno, 1, 9, 80.
Self-sacrifice, as a motive, p. 52.


539
TIBVLLVS
Sellar, W. Y., pp. 73, 91, 96, 101.
stare ante, 1, 4, 14.
senex, feminine, and adjective, 1, 6, 82. and esse, 1, 1, 64; 1, 4, 14
senis pedibus, 2, 5, 16.
Stars, the children of Night, 2, 1, 87–88.
seposita vestis, 2, 5, 8.
Statius, p. 59; 1, 1, 6.
Serpents, casting of their skin, 1, 4, 35–36. Steele, Sir Richard, 1, 10, 1-2.
seu = et si. and without a correlative, 1, 6, sternere, 1, 7, 60.
21; 2, 4, 43.
stipes, 1, 1, 11-12.
Seven Hills, the, 2, 5, 55.
stola, 1, 6, 67-68.
Shakespeare, 1, 1, 67–68; 1, 2, 76; 1, 2, Stones, showers of, 2, 5, 72.
91; 1, 3, 8; 1, 5, 36; 1, 5, 49–50; Story telling, with diagrams, 1, 10, 31-32.
1, 5, 71-74; 1, 5, 74; 1, 7, 13-14; 1, stragula picta, 1, 2, 77.
9, 9; 1, 9, 27-28; 1, 10, 38; 2, 1, Stress, change of, 'in anaphora, 1, 8, 13;
66; 2, 5, 71; 2, 5, 73; 4, 2, 5–6; 4, 1, 9, 15.
13, 11-12; 4, 13, 18.
stridor, magic, 1, 2, 47.
Shenstone, William, 4, 11, Introd.
strir, 1, 5, 52.
Ships, invented by the Tyrians, 1,7 Strophic arrangement, pp. 95–96.
Shirley, James, 1, 8, 3-4; 2, 4, 8–10. Stumbling, ominous, 1, 3, 19-20.
Shoes, 1, 8, 14.
subducere lectum, 4, 13, 1.
Sibyl, prophecy to Aeneas, 2, 5, 19; 39-64. Subjunctive, consecutive, 1, 1, 3.
Sibyllae, 2, 5, Introd.; 2, 5, 15; 2, 5, optative, 2, 4, 7-10; 2, 6, 28.
67-80.
potential, 1, 6, 74; 2, 2, 13; 2, 3, 26.
Sibylline Books, 2, 5, Introd.
2d sing. present, 1, 2, 9; 1, 7, 53.
oracles, how consulted, 2, 5, 17-18. subsecuisse, 1, 8, 12.
sic, position, 1, 4, 8.
succumbere, 1, 8, 35.
sic and ita, 1, 4, 1; 1, 6, 21.
Suckling, Sir John, 1, 3, 59-64.
Sidonius Apollinaris, p. 61.
Suetonius, pp. 30; 60.
Silk, 2, 3, 53.
Sulphur, 1, 2, 61; 1, 5, 11-12.
Simonides, pp. 16, 17.
Sulpicia, pp. 77-87; 4, 7, Introd.; 4, 7,
simulacra deum lacrimas fudisse, 2,
7-8.
Sin, cannot be hid, 1, 9, 23–28.
Sun, his journey, 1, 4, 28.
sinere, followed by the simple subject, 1, obscuration of the, 2, 5, 75–76.
2, 25a.
Sunrise and sunset, 2, 5, 60.
Singing, at one's work, 2, 1, 66; 2, 6, 26. Supine, 4, 2, 2.
Singular, for plural, 1, 1, 42; 1, 2, 95; 1, 1 suspirare aliquid, 1, 6, 35.
3, 28; 1, 4, 32; 1, 7, 42; 1, 9, 62; Sutphen, M. C., 1, 8, 31.
1, 9, 68; 2, 1, 2; 2, 3, 42.
Swearing by attributes, etc., 1, 4, 25-26.
collective. 2, 5, 31; 2, 5, 72.
Swimming, 1, 4, 12.
sinus, 1, 8, 36; 4, 7, 4.
Sword, invention of, 1, 3, 47; 1, 10, 5-6.
sistrum, of Isis, 1, 3, 24.
Sylvester, J., 1, 7, 34.
sit tibi terra levis, 2, 4, 49-50.
Symmetry in the elegy, 1, 4, 11-14.
Skopas, 2, 5, 2-10.
Sympathy, doctrine of, in magic, 1, 2, 57–
Slaves, punishment of, 1, 5,5; 1, 9, 21-22; 58.
2, 4, 5-6.
Synaeresis, 2, 1, 49.
Sleep, 2, 1, 89-90.
Synaloephe, p. 100; 1, 1, 34; 1, 2, 71;
Snake charming, 1, 8, 20.
1, 4, 77.
Snow in summer, 1, 2, 50.
Syncopation of verbs 2, 3, 69.
sobria pocula, 1, 6, 28.
Syria, a general term, 1, 7, 18.
sola, plural for singular, 1, 5, 3.
Soldiers, as rhetorical exempla, 1, 9, 7–10.
soles, 1, 4, 2.
solet fieri, as an excuse, 1, 9, 7-10.
tabellae, 4, 7, 7.
sollicitare, literal use of, 1, 7, 30.
as a theme, 2, 6, 45.
Solon, p. 14.
tacito pede, 1, 10, 34.
solutis crinibus, 1, 1, 67; 1, 3, 8; 1, 3, 31 ; Tantalos, 1, 3, 77–78.
1, 5, 15.
Tartaros, 1, 3, 67-82.
solvere, with the ablative, 2, 1, 7.
Tasso, Aminta, p. 63; 1, 4, 17; 1, 4, 59-60.
in magic, 1, 2, 60.
Taurus, 1, 7, 15-16.
Sons, worthy of their sire, 1, 7, 56. tautology, 1, 5, 65; 1, 8, 47.
sontica causa, 1, 8, 51.
Tears, craved by the dead, 1, 1, 65-66; 1,
Sophokles, 4, 13, 1.
3, S.
sortes, 1, 3, 11-12; 2, 5, 19.
Temples, kissing the thresholds of the,
Spenser, Edmund, p 63; 2, 1, 81-82.
1, 2, 83–84.
Spes, 1, 1, 9; 2, 6, 28.
tempus erit, cum, 1, 4, 79.
Spinning, 2, 1, 63–64.
tenebris, 1, 2, 25.
and chastity, 1, 6, 77-84.
tener, of soil, 1, 7, 30.
Spitting, superstition of, 1, 2, 54; 96. Tennyson, p. 65; 1, 7, 19; 1, 10, 49-50;
Staccato style, 1, 5, 57–58.
2, 1,89–90.



540
INDEX
tercentenas, 1, 4, 69.
triumphi, plural, 1, 7, 5; 2, 1, 33.
testis, of rivers, 1, 7, 10.
Triumphs, 1, 7, 5-8.
Textual tradition, pp. 87-88.
Trophies, etc., 1, 1, 54.
Theme, Tibullus' method of developing Tropics, heat of the, 2, 3, 56.
his, pp. 91-96.
True Trojans, The, 1, 10, 49–50.
Theognis, pp. 14, 17.
tumere, 1, 8, 36.
Theokritos, p. 19.
tu mihi, 4, 13, 3.
Thessaly, magic, 1, 2, 51; 2, 4, 56.
tunc and tum, 1, 1, 21; 1, 4, 7; 1, 6, 21.
Thompson, E. E., 1, 8, 16.
tundere caput, 1, 2, 86.
Three, 1, 2, 54; 1, 3, 11; 1, 5, 16. turba vernarum, 2, 1, 23.
tibia, 1, 7, 47.
turben, 1, 5, 3.
Tibullus, his ambition, p. 42.
Tyre, 1, 7, 19.
ancient editions of, p. 73.
Tyria vestis, etc., 1, 7, 47; 4, 2, 16.
and Augustus, p. 38.
authorship of 4, 13, discussed, 4, 13,
U
Introd.
Book 1, pp. 43-52.
ubi, 2, 4, 57.
and the bucolic, p. 24, n.
ullae, for ulli, 4, 6, 9.
character and personality, pp. 40-42. úrodyuís, 1, 7, 52.
criticised, etc., pp. 55, 65-73.
ure et torque, 1, 5, 5.
editions, pp. 89-90.
usque, 1, 2, 88.
education, p. 69.
Usus, 1, 9, 55.
his father, 1, 1, 2.
utinam, 1, 3, 2.
formal and stylistic qualities, pp. 91–
106.
fragment of, in Charisius, 1, 8, 26.
and German literature, p. 65, n. 1. vada, 1, 7, 14.
a hypochondriac, p. 57.
Vahlen, pp. 91, 92.
bis ideal, p. 69.
Valeria, p. 77.
kinship with Mimnermos, p. 96.
Valgius, p. 39.
lacunae, p. 88, n. 1.
Vampires, 1, 5, 52.
later tradition and imitation, pp. 58–65. variae oves, 1, 10, 10.
life of, pp. 30-58.
Varro Atacinus, p. 22.
and Messalla, p. 37.
ve, 1, 1, 31.
and the 19th century, p. 65.
Velabrum, 2, 5, 33.
and Propertius, pp. 57-58, and n. Velleius Paterculus, p. 59.
quoted by the writers on magic, 1, 2, | venena, charms, 2, 4, 55.
42.
venire, for esse, 1, 2, 76.
his rank, p. 71.
Venus and Adonis, 4, 3, Introd.
rhetorical development of, pp. 93-97. her cruelty, 1, 2, 39-40.
title pages, quoted in, p. 63; 4, 14.
escorts her favourites, 1, 3, 58.
Time brings all things to pass, 1, 4, 17 scourges her slaves, 1, 8, 6.
20.
as synonym of love, 1, 4, 59.
Titans, the fight with, the prototype of verba, 'incantations,' 1, 5, 43.
Actium, 2, 5, 5.
Verbs of emotion, with the infin., 1, 8, 23.
proverbial, of impiety, 1, 10, 60.
inceptive, 1, 5, 67.
Titius, 1, 4, 73–74.
simple for compound, 1, 3, 18; 1, 3,
Tityos, 1, 3, 75–76.
44; 2, 1, 18; 2, 1, 81.'
toga, demi-monde, 4, 10, 3.
of willing and wishing, 1, 2, 25a.
tollere, of lots, 1, 3, 11.
versus recurrentes, 1, 4, 61-6
Tops, 1, 5, 3-4.
spondiacus, p. 97.
Torches, use after nightfall, 1, 2, 35. Vertumnus, 4, 2, 13-14.
torus, 4, 10, 6.
vescor, with the accusative, 2, 5, 64.
Totality, phraseological equivalents of, 2, vetare sis, 2, 6, 36.
2, 2.
vetus, 1, 8, 50; 1, 10, 18.
Tours, Guy de, 1, 6, 12; 2, 4, 8; 2, 5, 39; | viae, 'stripes,' 2, 3, 54.
4, 2, 5-6; 4, 4, Introd.
vices operum. 1, 9, 64.
tracta, flocks of wool, 1, 6, 80.
Victoria, 2, 5, 45-46.
Trader, as a rhetorical type, 1, 3, 39–40: viden ut, 2, 1, 25.
1, 9, 7-10.
videre, with pres. part., 1, 2, 43.
traducere, 1, 1. 5,
vincula, of love, 1, 1, 55.
Traffic. in the streets of Rome, 2, 3. 43. Vine, culture of, 1, 7, 33–34.
tragoedia, 2, 1, 57-58.
Vineyards and orchards, 1, 1, 8.
trahor et, 1, 10. 13.
Vintage, 1, 1, 10.
transiet, 1. 4, 27.
violentus, 1, 5, 52; 4, 2, 3.
Translations of Tibullus, p. 63-65.
virginitas and prophecy, 2, 5, 64.
tristis, 1, 5, 50.
vir mulierque, 2, 2, 2.

541
TIBVLLVS
viscere, 1, 3, 76.
Wheels, invention of, 2, 1, 42.
villa, 1, 6, 67–68.
Whiffen, p. 65.
vocare voce, 2, 1, S3.
Wbite, use and significance of, 2, 1, 16.
Vocative, in the predicate, 1, 7, 53.
Whitman, Walt, 2, 1, 48.
Voisenon, p. 27 ; 2, 4, 31–34.
Williams, translator, p. 65.
Voltaire, p. 64; 1, 1, 59-68; 1, 1, 60; 1, Winds, personified, 1, 1, 47.
9, 4; 1, 10, 31-32; 2, 1, 76.
Wine, Chian, dating by consuls, 2, 1, 27.
Voss, p. 65.
mixed with water, 2, 1, 46.
vota cadunt, 2, 2, 17.
press, the, 1, 5, 23-24.
vota in illness, 1, 5, 10.
to drown woe, 1, 2, 1-6.
Votive inscriptions, 1, 9, 83-84.
vice of old women, 1, 9, 59.
vulgus, miles, 1, 10, 11.
writing on the table with, 1, 6, 19.
Wolves, 1, 1, 33; 1, 5, 54.
W
Women, excuses, 1, 6, 21-22; 36.
indoor costume, 1, 3, 91–92.
Walsh, William, p. 63; 4, 13, 9-12.
slow to dress, 1, 8, 16.
Wandering, as a curse, 1, 4, 69.
Wrinkles, 1, 3, 46.
War, dislike of, an elegiac topic, p. 41; | Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 1, 8, 39; 1, 8, 75–78.
1, 3, 37-40; 47–48; 1, 10, 1–14.
Water, running, 1, 2, 78; 1, 5, 14.
Watson, Thomas, 1, 10, 57.
Wealth, conventional division of, 1, 1, 1- | Yellow, associations of, 1, 7, 46; 2, 2, 18.
2; 2, 2, 13-16.
Youth is fleeting, 1, 4, 27.
of the East, 1, 1, 51.
Weather, influenced by magic, 1, 2, 49–50.
Weaving, 2, 1, 65-66.
Webbe, Chas., 1, 10, 63-64.
Zeugma, 1, 1; 26; 4, 7, 4.
Week, days of the, 1, 3, 18.
Zielinski, p. 99.
Wheeler, A. L., p. 23, n. 1.

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