A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TIBULLUS. TIBULLUS. 1125
the sacrifice of that household, which used to offer was enamoured (his poems have all the signs of
a calf chosen from among countless heifers. On real, not of poetic passion) of a certain Glycera.
this estate he had been brought up, as a child he He wrote elegies to soften that cruel beauty, whom
had played before the simple wooden images of there seems no reason to confound either with
the same Lares." Delia, the object of his youthful attachment, or
The first elegy shows likewise Tibullus already with Nemesis. Glycera, however, is not known to
on intimate terms with his great patron Messala, us from the poetry of Tibullus, but from the ode
to whom he may have owed the restoration in of Horace, which gently reproves him for dwelling
part of his paternal estate. But in his love of so long in his plaintive elegies onil the pitiless
peace, and the soft enjoyments of peace, he de- Glycera. Ovid, on the other hand, writing of the
dines to follow Messala to war, though that war poetry of Tibullus, names only two objects of his
was the strife for empire between Octavian and passion:
Antony, which closed with the battle of Actium. 6 Sic Nemesis longum, sic Delia nomen habebunt,
But when Messala immediately after that victory Altera cura recens, altera primus amor."
(in the autumn of B. C. 31), was detached by Amor.
Caesar to suppress a formidable insurrection which
had broken out in Aquitaine, Tibullus overcame The poetry of his contemporaries shows Tibullus
his repugnance to arms, and accompanied his friend as a gentle and singularly amiable man. He was
or patron in the honourable post of contubernalis beautiful in person: Horace on this point confirms
(akind of aide-de-camp) into Gaul. Part of the glory the sttong language of the old biographers. To
of the Aquitanian campaign (described by Appian, Horace especially he was an object of warm attachB. C. iv. 38) for which Messala four years later (B.C. ment. Besides the ode which alludes to his pas27) obtained a triumph, and which Tibullus cele- sion for Glycera (Hor. Carme. i. 33), the epistle of
brates in language of unwonted loftiness, redounds, Horace to Tibullus gives the most full and pleasing
according to the poet, to his own fame. He was view of his poetical retreat, and of his character:
present at the battle of Atax (Aude in Languedoc), it is written by a kindred spirit. Horace does
which broke the Aquitanian rebellion. Messala, homage to that perfect purity of taste which disit is probable, went round the province to receive tinguishes the poetry of Tibullus; he takes pride
the submission of all the Gaulish tribes, and was in the candid but favourable judgment of his own
accompanied in his triumphant journey by Ti- satires. The time of Tibullus he supposes to be
bullus. The poet invokes, as witnesses of his shared between the finishing his exquisite small
fame, the Pyrenean mountains, the shores of the poems, which were to surpass even those of Cassius
sea in Xaintonge, the Saone, the Garonne, and of Parma, up to that time the models of that kind
the Loire, in the country of the Carnuti (near Or- of composition, and the enjoyment of the country.
leans) (Eleg. i. 7. 9, foll.). In the autumn of the Tibullus possessed, according to his friend's nofollowing year (B. C. 30) Messala, having pacified tions, all the blessings of life-a competent fortune,
Gaul, was sent into the East to organise that part favour with the great, fame, health; and seemed to
of the empire under the sole dominion of Octa- know how to enjoy all those blessings.
vian. Tibullus set out in his company, but was The two first books alone of the Elegies, under
taken ill, and obliged to remain in Corcyra (Eleg. the name of Tibullus, are of undoubted autheni. 3), from whence he returned to Rome. ticity. The third is the work of another, a very
So ceased the active life of Tibullus: he retired inferior poet, whether Lygdamus be a real or fictito the peace for which he had yearned; his life is tious name or not. This poet was much younger
now the chronicle of his poetry and of those tender than Tibullus, for he was born in the year of the
passions which were the inspiration of his poetry. battle of Mutina, B. C. 43. The lines which convey
The first object of his attachment is celebrated this information seem necessary in their place, and
under the poetic name of Delia; it is supposed cannot be considered as an interpolation. (Eleg. iii. 5.
(Apul. Apolog. 106, but the reading is doubtful) 17.) The hexameter poem on Messala, which opens
that her real name was Plancia or Plautia, or, as the fourth book, is so bad that, although a successhas been plausibly conjectured, Plania, of which ful elegiac poet may have failed when he attempted
the Greek Delia was a translation. To Delia are epic verse, it cannot well be ascribed to a writer
addressed the first six elegies of the first book. of the exquisite taste of Tibullus. The. smaller
She seems to have belonged to that class of females elegies of the fourth book have all the inimitable
of the middle order, not of good family, but above grace and simplicity of Tibullus. With the ex.
poverty, which answered to the Greek hetaerae. ception of the thirteenth (of which some lines are
The poet's attachment to Delia had begun before hardly surpassed by Tibullus himself) these poems
he left Rome for Aquitaine. His ambition seems relate to the love of a certain Sulpicia, a woman of
to have been to retire with her, as his mistress, noble birth, for Cerinthus, the real or. fictitious
into the country, and pass the rest of his life in name of a beautiful youth. Sulpicia seems to have
quiet enjoyment. But Delia seems to have been belonged to the intimate society of Messala (Eley.
faithless during his absence from Rome; and iv. 8). Nor is there any improbability in supadmitted other lovers. On his return from Corcyra, posing that Tibullus may have written elegies in
he found her ill, and attended her with affectionate the name or by the desire of Sulpicia. If Sulpicia
solicitude (Eleg. i. 5), and again hoped to induce was herself the poetess, she approached nearer to
her to retire with him into the country. But first Tibullus than any other writer of elegies.
a richer lover appears to have supplanted him with The first book of Elegies alone seems to have
the inconstant Delia; and afterwards there appears been published during the author's life, probably
a husband in his way. The second book of Elegies soon after the triumph of Messala (B. C. 27). The
is chiefly devoted to a new mistress named Ne- birthday of that great general gives the poet an
mesis. Besides these two mistresses (Christian occasion for describing all his victories in Gaul and
morals command silence on another point) Tibullus in the East (Elegy i. 7), In the second book he
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