Tibullus book 1 is the first of two books of poems by the Roman poet Tibullus (c. 56–c.19 BC). It contains ten poems written in Latin elegiac couplets, and is thought to have been published about 27 or 26 BC.[1]
Five of the poems (1, 2, 3, 5, 6) speak of Tibullus's love for a woman called Delia; three (4, 8 and 9) of his love for a boy called Marathus. The seventh is a poem celebrating the triumph in 27 BC of Tibullus's patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, following his victory in a military campaign against the Aquitanians. In 1, 5, and 10 he also writes of his deep love for life in the countryside and his dislike of war, a theme which both begins and ends the book.
The elegies of Tibullus are famous for the beauty of their Latin. Of the four great love-elegists of ancient Rome (the other three were Cornelius Gallus, Propertius, and Ovid), the rhetorician Quintillian praised him for being "the most polished and elegant".[2] Modern critics have found him "enigmatic"[3] and psychologically complex.[4]
Delia is thought to be a pseudonym. Apuleius states that her real name was Plania;[5] if this is correct (which is not certain), there is a word play with the Greek word Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: δῆλος (dēlos), which is the equivalent of Latin Latin: plānus "clear, plain". Like Catullus's Lesbia she takes her pseudonym from a Greek island: but the name Latin: Delia "the Delian" has a further resonance, since it is used in Latin poetry (for the first time in Virgil, Eclogue 7.29) for the beautiful goddess Diana, who was said to have been born on the island of Delos, and who was not only famed for her beauty but is also the sister of Apollo, the god of poetry. Propertius's pseudonym Latin: Cynthia for his girlfriend has the same meaning, since Cynthus is a mountain on Delos where Diana and her brother Apollo were born.[6]
Delia is described as having a "husband" in poem 1.2.43, but it appears from 1.6.67 to 68 that she does not wear the headband and long dress usual for respectable married Roman women. It is likely therefore that she was only the husband's concubine not his wife, and that her status was that of a freedwoman. In poem 5 she is said to have a "rich lover" (Latin: dives amator, 1.5.47)), while in poem 6 she has a lover she is concealing from Tibullus in the same way that she conceals Tibullus from her husband (1.6.5–8). If so, she may be thought of as being a courtesan such as Philocomasium in Plautus's Miles Gloriosus, Phronesium in Plautus' Truculentus, or Thais in Terence's Eunuchus, all of whom have a rich soldier lover as well as a less well off young lover. From poem 6 we learn that Delia has a mother who takes Tibullus's side, secretly opening the door and letting him into the house at night when the husband is asleep (6.57–64). Delia is not kept in seclusion, but attends dinner parties at which both Tibullus and the husband are present (1.6.15–30). She wears jewelled rings (1.6.25–26) and a décolleté style of clothing at dinner parties (1.6.18). In 1.5.43–44, she is described as having tender (i.e. delicate) arms and blond hair.
Tibullus's dream is to persuade Delia to come and live with him on his ancestral farm, but it appears he was unsuccessful, since in poem 5 she takes up with a rich lover (Latin: dives amator), and after poem 6 her name is not mentioned again.
It is thought that Marathus is also a pseudonym. In Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: μάραθος (marathos) (both "a"s are short), means "fennel". The name is suitable for a slave or freedman (one of Augustus's freedmen had this name).[7] Although various suggestions have been made about the choice of name, none has proved certain.[8] In the view of some scholars, Marathus was possibly not a real person but a literary fiction, allowing Tibullus to explore love from a different angle. He is said to have fallen in love with a girl called Pholoë, presumably also a courtesan, who visits him at night apparently escorted by Tibullus (1.8.55–66, 1.9.42). Despite his falling for a girl, he is depicted as very effeminate, wearing make up and constantly rearranging his hair, trimming his nails, and changing his clothes (1.8.9–12), as well as prone to burst into tears (1.8.67, 1.9.37).
Marathus turns out to be unfaithful to Tibullus. Unlike Catullus's Iuventius, who falls for the handsome but impecunious Furius,[9] Marathus, like Delia, takes up with an older, richer man, to Tibullus's indignation and fury.
The three Marathus poems are not unique in Latin literature of this period in depicting pederastic love.[10] Catullus, for example, as well as his great love Lesbia, also frequently writes about his love for a boy called Iuventius.[11] Virgil in his 2nd eclogue writes a humorous[12] song of an Arcadian shepherd Corydon who is trying unsuccessfully to woo a city boy called Alexis. Horace, in Epodes 11, declares that he is no longer in love with Inachia and is now smitten with a boy called Lyciscus; similarly in Odes 4.1, Horace declares that though formerly in love with a girl Cinara, he is now dreaming at night of a boy called Ligurinus. Propertius, though not pederastic himself, writes to a friend Gallus, who according to one poem is deeply in love with a girl, but in another is in love with a handsome boy.[13]
Book 1 of Tibullus has ten poems, the same number as Virgil's Eclogues and Horace's Satires 1, which were published within the same decade. The average length of the poems in book 1 (c. 81 lines) is nearly exactly the same as the average length of Virgil's Eclogues (c. 83 lines).[14]
R. J. Littlewood (1970) argues that the poems are not randomly arranged but symmetrically as follows:[15] [16]
1 – Introduction
2 – Separation from Delia
3 – Separation from Delia
4 – Genre poem (Priapus' advice)
5 – Delia's infidelity
6 – Delia's infidelity
7 – Genre poem (Ode to Messalla)
8 – Marathus' infidelity
9 – Marathus' infidelity
10 – Conclusion
Helena Dettmer (1980) agrees with this analysis, and in addition finds concentric patterns hidden in the number of lines in each poem; for example, poems 1 + 10 = 4 + 7 = 146/148 lines; 2 + 8 = 3 + 9 = 176/178 lines.[17] A similar symmetrical arrangement is found in poems 1–9 of Virgil's Eclogues, with a similar arithmetical pattern of lines.[18] However, the significance of such arithmetical patterns, if they are not a coincidence, is unknown.
A notable feature of Tibullus's poetry is the repeated use of the same words, phrases, and motifs in more than one poem, or sometimes within the same poem. The closest connections are found between the first and last poems (1 and 10) and again between the two central poems (5 and 6), where in each pair a series of echoes in vocabulary or theme link the two poems together. But links are also found connecting other pairs of poems in the collection.[19] For example, the description of the powers of a witch comes in both 2 and 8; a lovers' quarrel in both 6 and 10; the old lady guarding Delia and keeping her chaste occurs in both 3 and 6. Phrases such as Latin: mors atra "black death", Latin: liquida aqua "clear water", Latin: celeri rota / celeri orbe rotae "swift wheel", Latin: vincla detrahet / detrecto vincla "remove the fastenings" occur in more than one poem. In some cases these verbal echoes enable the reader to discover extra layers of meaning in the poems, as with the inhabitants of Tartarus in poem 3, who are shown by the intratextual links to be persons who have thwarted Tibullus's love life.[20]
An example of words repeated within a poem is Latin: laxo ... sinu "with loose fold" (1.6.18) and Latin: laxa sinu (1.6.40). The first refers to the loose, revealing clothing of Delia, the second to the foppish dress of her would-be suitor.[21] In the same poem Latin: at mihi ... credas (1.6.23) is picked up by Latin: at mihi ... credas (1.6.37), in both cases making the suggestion that the husband should entrust Delia to Tibullus. In poem 9 with Latin: liquidas ... aquas "clear water" (1.9.12) Tibullus expresses the hope that the gifts given to Marathus will be turned into water, while with Latin: liquida ... aqua (1.9.50) he hopes that his own poems will be washed away with water.
Often these internal verbal echoes create or reinforce a chiastic structure (ring composition) within a poem. For example, in Poem 1.5, the words Latin: celer...versat, furtivi...lecti, quaeso in the first eight lines are matched by Latin: versatur celeri, furtivus amor, quaeso in the last eight lines.[22]
Tibullus here combines some familiar themes: the contrast between the soldier and the farmer; the idealisation of the country life; the cruel girlfriend who refuses to admit her lover; and the thought that Death will come quickly. But he opens the poem in a striking way, only gradually letting the reader know where his thought is leading. He addresses his patron Messalla only in line 53, and Delia is not named until line 57. Putnam, in his article on this poem, calls the opening "audacious" and "daring".[23]
In lines 49–54 Tibullus writes about his rejection of the life of travelling overseas, looking for wealth and military spoils. The three couplets are linked together by an unusual series of rhymes, since the three pentameters end with the words Latin: pluvias, vias, exuvias "rain showers, roads, spoils", as if these three things are linked together in the poet's mind.[24]
As will become clear from poems 3 and 7, Tibullus (as might be expected of a young man from an equestrian family) had already travelled abroad as part of Messalla's entourage at least twice. On one of these journeys (see poem 3) he had fallen ill on the island of Corfu and had had to abandon the expedition.
In lines 19–22 Tibullus says that his father and grandfather had a much larger estate than he himself did at the time of writing the poem. This recalls similar statements in Virgil[25] and Propertius[26] in which both poets lament the loss of their family property. This is ascribed to the confiscations of 41–40 BC, when Octavian resettled his veteran soldiers following the battle of Philippi; but it is not known for certain whether Tibullus's land was lost in the same confiscations.[27] There is a similar passage in the Latin: [[Panegyricus Messallae]], (a poem of disputed date and authorship which forms part of book 3 of the Tibullan corpus), where the author states that some, but not all, of his family's ancestral land had been lost.[28] It has been inferred from Horace's Epistle 1.4.2 that Tibullus's family estate was at Pedum (believed to have been near Gallicano del Lazio, about 20 miles east of Rome).[29]
In the poem there are several echoes of Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics, especially Eclogue 1, which had been published about 37 BC.[30] [31] But the idealised Greek bucolic landscape of the Eclogues is here replaced by a much more realistic Roman one.
Lines 59–68, where Tibullus imagines Delia weeping at his funeral, have been compared to similar lines in Propertius 1.17.19–24 (published about 30 BC[32] or 28 BC[33]), where Propertius imagines his girlfriend Cynthia doing the same for him.[34] There seems to have been an exchange between the two poets: most scholars think Propertius book 1 was written first, answered (possibly with a hint of mockery) in Tibullus book 1, answered in Propertius book 2, and so on.[35]
Maltby (2002) notes how the opening of this poem (Latin: divitias alius ... congerat "let another man pile up riches") echoes a sentence in Cicero's Latin: de Amicitia 20, which begins Latin: divitias alii praeponunt "some men put riches before friendship".[36] The implication is that Tibullus takes the view that friendship is more important than wealth.
Structurally, the poem consists of two halves: 1–50 and 51–78. The first half mainly deals with Tibullus's desire for a simple life of farming, the second with his love for Delia. Each half is a ring (chiastic structure): both rings begin and end with Tibullus's rejection of the idea of travelling overseas in order to get rich. Within the first ring, the section from 25–44 itself has a ring structure. Poem 10, with which this poem is linked (see Poem 10 below), has a similar structure consisting of two rings with an internal ring inside the first.[37]
Some scholars, including Murgatroyd (1977) and Goold (1988, Loeb edition), argue that lines 25–32 of this poem are out of place, and were originally positioned between lines 6 and 7.[38] However, the ring structure of lines 25–44, as well as the series of points of connection between this poem and 1.10 (see below), both argue against this change.
This poem, taking up the image in poem 1.55–56, belongs to an established class of love poetry called the paraklausithyron, in which an excluded lover makes complaints to the locked door of his girlfriend's house.
At line 65 there are various interpretations as to who is meant by the hard-hearted lover. One possibility is that it refers to Delia's husband who has gone away to earn money soldiering abroad leaving Delia under guard in his house. Another possibility, however, is that Tibullus is chiding himself, since, as will emerge from the next poem, he himself at one stage left Delia to accompany his patron Messalla abroad and was reluctant to do so.[40]
As several scholars have pointed out, there are a number of parallels in this poem with situations in Roman comedy, for example the locked-out lover (Plautus's Curculio and Truculentus) and the old man who makes himself ridiculous by falling in love (Plautus's Asinaria, Bacchides, and Casina).[41] Griffin (1986) writes: “These resemblances between Comedy and Elegy are more than verbal echoes. They relate to central ideas and attitudes of the genre.”[42]
Poem 2 has a number of connections with 8. Both contain a description of the powers of a witch (1.2.41–52, 1.8.17–22); both contain descriptions of deceiving the guards and creeping around stealthily in the night (1.2.15–20, 1.8.57–60); both end by promising punishment for disrespecting the god of love (1.2.87–96, 1.8.77–78).[43]
But there are also links to 5 and 6: the image of Delia on Tibullus's farm in 1.2.70 is taken up again in 1.5.21. In 2 Tibullus encourages Delia to deceive the guards; in 6 he blames himself for teaching her how to deceive the guards (1.2.15, 1.6.9–10).
The structure of the poem is chiastic. The first and last sections speak of Tibullus's anguish and the times he has honoured the door and Venus. In the second and fourth sections Tibullus addresses Delia and speaks of his longing to be with her. The centrepiece of the poem (41–64) is a graphic description of the supposed powers of the witch that Tibullus has engaged to help him.
Tibullus writes this poem apparently from the island of Corfu (Corcyra), where he is ill. It appears that he went there as part of the entourage accompanying his patron Messalla on a journey to the Eastern Mediterranean, but was left behind because of his illness. According to Ronald Syme, Messalla probably succeeded Didius as governor of Syria in 30/29 or 29/28 BC.[44]
It was, it seems, common for young men of good family to accompany important men as part of their entourage on their journeys abroad. For example, Horace describes a journey he was required to make, along with Virgil, to accompany their patron Maecenas to Brundisium in 37 BC.[45] Another well known example is Catullus, who, along with the poet Helvius Cinna, accompanied his patron Gaius Memmius to Bithynia in 57–56 BC, but was disappointed not to be allowed to make any money there.[46] [47]
Tibullus refers to Corfu as Phaeacia, the last island visited by Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey before his return home, which was often identified with Corfu. With this name he identifies himself with Odysseus and Delia as an unlikely Penelope, waiting for him chastely at home.[48] [49] The description of the punishments of Tityos and Tantalus also appear to be taken from the Odyssey (11.576–592).[50]
This part of Tibullus's poem was imitated in Ovid's memorial poem on Tibullus (Ovid, Latin: Amores 3.9) as well as in a poem written when Ovid himself was in exile and seriously ill (Latin: Tristia 3.3).[51]
In line 3 Tibullus claims to be dying in Latin: ignotis terris 'unknown lands'. The repetition of this phrase in line 39 in connection with those who go abroad in search of money hints that Tibullus blames himself for choosing to go abroad to seek wealth, abandoning Delia; something which he had already criticised in poem 2.65.[52]
Poems 3 and 9, though ostensibly on different topics (Tibullus's illness on Corfu and Marathus's infidelity), have several points of contact.[53] For example, in poem 3 Tibullus claims to have committed no perjury (Latin: periuria (1.3.51); Venus will reward him and lead him to the Elysian fields (1.3.57–58), while those who violate his love will go to Tartarus (1.3.81). In poem 9, he reproaches Marathus for perjury (1.9.3), and he warns him that Venus will be harsh to those who violate love (1.9.19–20).
The description of what did not happen in the Golden Age in poem 3 (1.3.39–42) has a lot in common with the description of the effects of desire for wealth in poem 9 (1.9.7–10).:
Both 3 and 9 also describe an inscription on an imaginary monument, with very similar wording:
Latin: hic iacet immiti consumptus morte Tibullus (1.3.55)
'here lies Tibullus, consumed by cruel death'
Latin: hanc tibi fallaci resolutus amore Tibullus (1.9.83)
'Tibullus (dedicates) this to you, freed from a deceptive love'
Intratextual links with poems 1 and 5 are found in the description of Tartarus (lines 67–82). In this passage, as Joshua Paul points out, verbal echoes show that the various inhabitants of Tartarus are intended to represent the different persons who have violated or thwarted Tibullus's love life.[54] Thus the Fury Tisiphone, who chases an impious crowd of souls, represents the procuress of poem 5, who is driven mad like a Fury (Latin: furens) as souls flit around her and who is chased by a crowd of dogs (1.3.70, 1.5.51–56); Cerberus, who 'lies in front of the bronze doors', represents the doorkeeper, who 'sits in front of the hard doors' (1.3.72, 1.1.56). As for those being punished, Ixion, whose limbs are 'turned on a swift wheel', represents Delia's rich lover, whom Tibullus reminds that Fortune 'turns with her swift wheel' (1.3.74, 1.5.70); Tityos, 'stretched across nine acres of land' and plagued by 'assiduous birds', represents the soldier-farmer with his 'many acres of soil' who puts up with 'assiduous labour' (1.3.75–76, 1.1.2-3); the Danaids, punished for killing their husbands, represent Delia herself: the jars which they fill with the water of Lethe ('Forgetfulness') recall by their name Latin: dolia the name Delia, while Lethe recalls her ingratitude for Tibullus's devotion (1.5.17).[55]
The old woman who Tibullus hopes is guarding Delia in line 1.3.84 is apparently Delia's mother. She appears again, still called Latin: anus 'old lady', as Delia's mother in 1.6.57–66.
The phrase Latin: mors atra 'black death' links this poem to poem 10 (1.3.5, 1.10.33).
The poem is constructed as a chiastic ring in seven parts, with a contrast of Saturn's Golden Age with the Iron Age of Jupiter at its centre.[56] In the first section, Tibullus's disastrous departure from Delia is contrasted with his joyful return in the last; the Odysseus-like Tibullus is contrasted with the Penelope-like Delia in the last section; Tibullus prays (cf. Latin: precor 'I pray' in 5 and 93) to 'black Death' at the beginning and to 'white Dawn' at the end; the three women (mother, sister, Delia) mourning in the first section are balanced by the three women (old woman, maid, and Delia) spinning in the last; the sister's dishevelled hair of grief (8) in the first section matches Delia's dishevelled hair of joy (91) in the last.
In the second section (11–22) the Latin: omina dira 'dire omens' met with by Tibullus at the gate (Latin: in porta, 20) are matched in the sixth section by black Cerberus at the gate (Latin: in porta, 71) of Tartarus; an offence against Saturn (18) is matched by an offence against Juno (Saturn's daughter) (73).
In the third section (23–32) the goddess Isis (23) balances the goddess Venus (58) in the fifth section; and hair is again mentioned, together with the word Latin: insignis 'conspicuous', in 31–2 and 66; unkempt hair is mentioned again in line 69.[57]
In the central section (33–56), the words Latin: patrios (33) and Latin: pater (51) make a frame for the description of the two Ages. The Age of Saturn (35–48) is contrasted with that of Jupiter (49–50); Latin: vias 'ways' in 36 contrasts with Latin: viae in 52, and the mention of seafaring in 37 is picked up by the word Latin: mare 'sea' in 50.[58] As in the central sections in some other poems of Tibullus[59] there is a multiple anaphora (Latin: non ... non ... non ... non ... non ...). Another characteristic found in Tibullus's central sections is that they often consist of a digression on a general subject, as here, contrasting with the poet's personal concerns that come before and after them.[60]
The structure of the poem as a whole can thus be schematised as follows:
A 1–10 – Tibullus's departure and illness
B 11–21 – Delia weeps; sad omens for Tibullus
C 22–32 – Delia and Tibullus's prayers to Isis
D 33–48 – The Age of Saturn; no warfare
D' 49–56 – The Age of Jupiter; Tibullus's death
C' 57–66 – Venus escorts Tibullus to Elysium
B' 67–82 – Punishment in Tartarus of those who have harmed Tibullus
A' 83–94 – Tibullus's joyful homecoming
In this poem the god Priapus advises the poet how to catch a handsome boy. At the end despite priding himself on his wisdom in love affairs and his ability to instruct others, Tibullus reveals that he himself has been caught by a boy called Marathus.
The poem has been compared to Horace's Satires 1.8, in which a statue of Priapus complains about a pair of witches who have been holding ceremonies in his garden; and also to Propertius 4.2, which consists of a speech of the minor god Vertumnus.[61] Another comparable poem is Horace's Satires 2.5, in which the ghost of the prophet Teiresias gives ironic advice to Ulysses that the best way of recouping his fortunes is by legacy-hunting.[62] The Greek poet Callimachus too wrote a poem (only a fragment survives) in which Priapus speaks to a young man who is in love with a handsome youth.[63]
Scholars have debated whether Tibullus's affair with Marathus is based on real experience or whether it is merely a fictional poetic construct.[64] It has been noted that the activities mentioned by Priapus – horse-riding, boating, hunting – are more appropriate to aristocratic boys than the slaves who normally would be the object of attentions by Roman men.[65] Some, however, see them not as real boys but as literary creations, recalling those in the epigrams of the Greek poet Callimachus.[66]
It has been suggested that lines 1.73–74 where Tibullus teases his friend Titius for being under the thumb of his wife recall the situation in Catullus 50, where Catullus and his poet friend and age-mate Calvus exchange verses with one another as an amusement.[67] It is thought that Titius may be the same as the poet Titius mentioned in Horace, Epistles 1.3.9, who accompanied the future emperor Tiberius on a trip to Armenia. If this Titius was the son of Marcus Titius (suffect consul in 31 BC), he might well have been the same age as Tibullus and of similar social class.[68]
The unexpected twist at the end is reminiscent of the humorous ending of Horace's Satires 1.8, when the statue of Priapus suddenly splits with a loud noise and the witches run away. Another poem ending with an unexpected twist is Horace's Epode 2, where a long speech in favour of the country life is amusingly ended by the revelation that the speaker is Alfius, an urban money-lender.[69]
As Dettmer shows, there are several links between this poem and poem 7 (see below for details).
Structurally, the poem is a simple ring composition (showing chiastic structure or inverse parallelism).[70] The introduction (1–8) is balanced by the epilogue (73–84); Priapus's advice to Tibullus in 9–14 is balanced by his advice to the boys in 57–72; the observation that boys will yield given time in 15–20 is balanced by a similar observation in 53–56; Priapus's advice not to be afraid to swear falsely in 21–26 is balanced by advice to indulge the boy's whims in 39–52. Verbal echoes link together the corresponding sections: Latin: tenerae 'young' and Latin: puerorum 'boys' in 9 are matched by Latin: tener in 58 and Latin: pueri in 61, and Latin: colla 'necks' in 16 matches Latin: collo 'neck' in 56.
1–8 – Introduction: Tibullus questions Priapus
9–14 – Priapus's advice to Tibullus: don't trust boys!
15–20 – Boys will yield in time
21–26 – Advice: Don't be afraid to swear falsely
26 – Minerva's hair
27–36 – Warning: life passes quickly!
37–38 – Bacchus and Phoebus's hair
39–52 – Advice: Work hard to indulge the boy's whims
53–56 – Boys will yield in time
57–72 – Priapus's advice to boys: poetry is better than gifts
73-84 – Epilogue: Tibullus reveals that he is in love with a boy
The centre of the poem is the section from lines 27–36, a warning that life passes quickly. The words Latin: aetas 'age' and Latin: dies 'day' stand at the beginning and end of this section, and in between these the phrase Latin: quam cito 'how swiftly!' three times repeated. Such anaphoric repetition is common in Tibullus's centre pieces; examples are 2.1.47–59 (repeated Latin: rura/rure), 2.3.35 (repeated Latin: praeda), 2.6.20 (repeated Latin: spes).[71] The central panel is framed by mention of Minerva's hair (Latin: crines) in 26 and Bacchus and Phoebus's hair in 37–38.
The neat chiastic structure makes it clear that Günther's (1997) proposal to make the sequence of thought more logical by moving 39–56 to follow line 20 is to be rejected.[72]
Several scholars have analysed this poem as a ring or chiastic structure in seven parts. Cairns's analysis is as follows:[74]
A 1–8 – Tibullus' pangs of unrequited love
B 9–18 – Tibullus' past unsuccessful services for Delia
C 19–36 – His unfulfilled wishes about a future life with Delia
D 37–46 Delia's beauty makes a substitute impossible
C' 47–58 – Tibullus' wishes for the procuress, which will be fulfilled
B' 59–68 – The pauper (i.e. Tibullus)'s future services for Delia
A' 69–76 – The wheel of fortune will turn and Tibullus will displace his rival
Among the verbal links in this poem, the anaphoric Latin: ipse ... ipse ... ipse 'I myself' in section B (11–15) corresponds to the similarly anaphoric Latin: pauper ... pauper ... pauper 'a poor man' in B' (61–65), making it clear that the pauper represents Tibullus.
Another link is Latin: renuente deo 'though the god refused' at the beginning of section C (line 20), corresponding to Latin: dat signa deus 'the god is giving a sign', at the end of section C' (line 57). Section C is framed by the phrase Latin: (haec) mihi fingebam 'I was imagining these things' in lines 19–20 and 35.
In the final section, it is not specified who is meant by the word Latin: quidam 'a certain person' who keeps standing outside the door (line 71). Cairns takes it as referring to Tibullus, however. Ovid refers to the passage in Tristia 2.460, and linking it to the barking dog in 1.6.32, also implies that it was Tibullus.[75]
Several scholars, beginning with Scaliger (1577), have suggested that the last six lines of this poem (71–76) are misplaced in the manuscripts, and they propose that they originally came between lines 32 and 33 of poem 6; Ovid's linking of 1.6.32 with these lines in Tristia 2.460 (see above) is one of the arguments cited as supporting the transposition.[76] However, the existence of a series of verbal echoes which link the first eight lines of the poem and the last eight, namely Latin: celer ... versat (4), Latin: furtivi lecti (7) and Latin: quaeso (8), corresponding to Latin: versatur celeri (70), Latin: furtivus amor (75), and Latin: quaeso (75), makes the proposed transposition unlikely.[77]
The final line 'for your boat is floating on clear water' is explained as meaning 'everything is going well for you for now (but soon things will change; the sea will grow rough)'.[78]
The phrase Latin: liquida ... aqua 'clear water' in line 72 links this poem with 1.9.12 and 1.9.50 where the phrase recurs. The image of Tibullus escorting Delia at night to her secret male friends (line 65) also recurs in 1.9.42, where Tibullus claims to have led a girl Pholoë secretly to Marathus at night.
There are also numerous intratextual links between this poem and poem 6 (see below).
Both poem 5 and poem 6 are concerned with Delia's unfaithfulness, and as with poems 1 and 10, there are several verbal links and thematic echoes between them, for example:[79]
The words Latin: asper "harsh" and Latin: gloria "boast" are applied to Tibullus in 5 and to Cupid in 6 (1.5.1–2, 1.6.2–3); Tibullus speaks of his and Delia's Latin: furtivi lecti "furtive bed" in 5, and of Delia's having sex Latin: furtim "furtively" with another man in 6 (1.5.7, 1.6.5–6); in 5 Tibullus remembers how he restored Delia to health, in 6 how he taught her how to deceive the guards (1.5.9–17, 1.6.9-14); the phrase Latin: ille ego 'I am the one (who did that)' is found in 5.9 and in 6.31.
In 5, Tibullus drinks wine to overcome his depression, in 6 he gives it to the husband to send him to sleep (1.5.37, 1.6.27); in 5 Tibullus has sex with a prostitute, while thinking of Delia, in 6 Delia has sex with her husband while thinking of Tibullus (1.5.39–40, 1.6.35).
In both poems Tibullus consults a woman (in one a prostitute, in the other a prophetess) who advises him (1.5.41–42, 1.6.51–55); in 5 he curses the procuress who introduced the rival to Delia, in 6 he blesses the mother who introduced Tibullus to Delia (1.5.47–60, 1.6.63–68).
In 5 he promises to untie the fastenings (Latin: vincla) of Delia's feet, in 6 he promises not to undo the fastenings (Latin: vincla) of his own feet which he wears like a slave (1.5.66, 1.6.38); in 5 he says the door needs to be struck with his hand, in 6 he says he would rather lose his hands than strike Delia (1.5.68, 1.6.73–74); in 5 he warns the rival to fear him, in 6 he wants Delia not to fear him (1.5.69, 1.6.75); in 5 he predicts that the rival will not enjoy Delia for long, in 7 he begs Delia to stay with him till old age (1.5.75–76, 1.6.85–86).
These links, apart from the ninth (Latin: vincla 'shackles'), come in the same order in both poems, showing that they are written in a parallel fashion, just as poems 1 and 10.
In several cases the images in 6 are the inverse or opposite of those in 5, and it appears to be a more optimistic ending than poem 5. However, there is no indication that Tibullus's pleas to Delia were successful, and her name is not mentioned again in the book.
The image of Delia spinning and weaving to make ends meet in her old age (1.6.77–82) takes up again the image of Delia spinning in poem 3 (1.3.85–88), but the context is completely different.[80] The old lady (i.e. Delia's mother) that Tibullus desires to keep her chaste (67) recalls the old lady for whom he has the same prayer in 3.83. His desire to restrain himself from slapping her in anger with his hands is found again in 10.56 and 65.
Structurally, the poem is a lopsided ring. Between 29–42 and 55–76 there are several verbal echoes (such as Latin: non ego te 'not I ... you' (29, 57, 73), Latin: nocte/noctu 'at night' (32, 61), Latin: foribus 'doors' (34, 61), Latin: absentes ... amores / absenti ... amor 'absent ... love(s)' (35, 76), Latin: saeva 'cruel' (37, 75), Latin: pedum/-es 'feet' (38, 62, 68), Latin: capillos/-is 'hair' (39, 71), Latin: procul 'far' (39, 42, 61)) which frame and highlight the section describing the Priestess of Bellona, which thus serves as the centre of the chiasm. There are also other echoes (Latin: laxo ...sinu ~ laxa sinu 'with loose fold' (18, 40), Latin: mihi ... credas 'trust me' (23, 37), Latin: torta 'twisted' (46, 78)) which connect different parts of the poem but are not chiastically placed.
In this poem, a genethliacon (birthday ode) for his patron Messalla, Tibullus celebrates Messalla's military conquests in Gaul, his triumphal procession following them, as well as his mission to Syria and Egypt and his public road-building works in Italy. The chronology of the Aquitanian campaign is uncertain. Messalla was appointed consul in 31 BC, in place of Mark Antony, and took part in the Battle of Actium in that year. According to the historian Appian, Octavian sent Messalla to Gaul following the battle. The historian Ronald Syme believed that Messalla became governor of Syria in 30/29 or 29/28, being succeeded as governor in 27 BC by Marcus Cicero junior, son of the orator. The triumphal procession is known to have been held in September 27 BC. A view held by many historians is that the Aquitanian campaign took place early in 27, after the Syrian governorship and immediately before the triumph. An alternative view, however, argued by Knox, is that Messalla carried out the Aquitanian campaign before his governorship of Syria, and delayed his triumph until after his return from Syria.[81] This journey to Syria and Egypt was presumably the journey on which Tibullus fell ill in Corfu, as described in poem 1.3.
Several scholars have noted that the poem forms a symmetrical or chiastic scheme. Ball (1975) describes the poem as follows:[82]
A 1–8 – Proclamation of the happy occasion
B 9-22 – Address to Messalla, with praise of his foreign exploits
C 23–28 – Transition: apostrophe to the Nile
D 29–48 – Hymn to Osiris/Bacchus
C' 49–54 – Transition: apostrophe to Osiris
B' 55–62 – Address to Messalla, with praise of his domestic exploits
A' 63–64 – Exhortation of the Birthday-Spirit
A similar chiastic construction has been noted in other poems of Tibullus, such as 2.5, written in honour of Messalla's son Messallinus, as well as in the Latin: [[Panegyricus Messallae]], a poem which similarly praises the achievements of Messalla.[83]
Van der Riet (1998) has a similar scheme, but ends the first section at line 4, the 4th section at line 42, and the 5th section at line 48. He points out that the words Latin: gerentem, nitidis, honos 'wearing, shining, honour' in lines 7, 8, 9 are reflected in Latin: nitido, gerat, honores in lines 51, 52, 53.[84]
In lines 9–12, if the text Latin: non sine me 'not without me' is correct,[85] Tibullus appears to be claiming that he himself had accompanied Messalla on the Aquitanian campaign. An alternative view is that Tibullus is honouring Messalla's conquest by celebrating it in poetry, rather than participating in the campaign.[86]
The author of the anonymous Latin: [[Panegyricus Messallae]] (107–110) describes his participation in an earlier campaign of Messalla in Illyria in very similar language, leading some scholars to support the view that the Latin: Panegyricus was written by Tibullus; most scholars, however, on the grounds of style, reject Tibullus's authorship.[87]
In this poem the Nile, Osiris, and Bacchus seem to be identified with each other, and Osiris in turn is in some ways also identified with Messalla: both wear garlands (1.7.7 and 45), both are the subject of the song (1.7.27 and 61), both have benefitted mankind, especially farmers (1.7.31–44 and 57–62).[88]
Timothy Moore (1989) points out that many of the elements which are treated negatively elsewhere in Tibullus (military campaigns, the invention of agriculture and seafaring, Tyrian purple, the making of roads, and so on) are praised in this poem and presented in a positive light. In this way Tibullus removes the distance between himself and his patron and somehow reconciles contradictory attitudes.[89]
Although poem 4 and poem 7 are ostensibly on quite different subjects, Helena Dettmer (1980) shows that there are nonetheless links between them. Both poems concern gods: Priapus, who is the son of Bacchus (1.4.7) and Osiris, who is identified with Bacchus (1.7.39 and 41). The image of Messalla as an old man surrounded by his children (1.7.56) recalls the image of Tibullus as an old man surrounded by young men who come to him for advice (1.4.80).
A noticeable feature of this poem is that Tibullus nowhere mentions Octavian (or Augustus, as he became in 27 BC), nor indeed anywhere in his poetry, even though Octavian had conquered Egypt only four years earlier. From this it has often been assumed that Tibullus was not a supporter of Augustus.[90]
In this poem it appears that Marathus of poem 4 has fallen in love with a girl. However, Tibullus teases the reader by revealing the situation only gradually; it would be easy for a reader to imagine that the person addressed in lines 1–14, and who is chided for fussing over their hair, clothes, and make up, is female. It is only in line 27 that it becomes clear that the person Tibullus has been talking to is a boy, and it is not until line 49 that we learn that the boy is Marathus. In line 69 we learn that his girlfriend is called Pholoë. Tibullus alternates his advice between the boy and the girl, speaking to each in turn.
As Erika Damer points out, line 8.10 clearly imitates the meaning and even the rhythm and sound (e.g. the syllables dis and comas/koman in the same place in each line) of a line in Callimachus's Hymn "On the Bath of Pallas", in which Callimachus contrasts Pallas Athena's simple beauty with the goddess Aphrodite's artificial adornment.[91] A reader who recognised the imitation could therefore easily be misled at first into thinking that Tibullus is talking to a girl. Tibullus's line is:
Latin: saepeque mutatas disposuisse comas
"and often to have changed and rearranged one's hair"
imitating Callimachus's line:
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: πολλάκι τὰν αὐτὰν δὶς μετέθηκε κόμαν[92]
"and often she altered the same strand of hair twice"
Although some critics have denied that Tibullus was influenced by Callimachus and other Alexandrian poets, Bulloch (1973) notes more than 30 places where scholars have seen echoes of Alexandrian poems, mostly from Callimachus.[93]
From Marathus's tearful complaint it would appear that he has been waiting at home for the girl to visit him, an impression which is confirmed in poem 9, when Tibullus claims to have escorted the girl to Marathus's door.[94]
With its "relaxed, often ironical tone", McGann judges the poem to be "a French: jeu d'esprit, intended to appeal to the keen wits and worldly sophistication of the reader".[95] Verstraete judges this to be "the masterpiece of the Marathus elegies".[96]
Tibullus speaks to an unnamed male person, chiding him for being unfaithful. Gradually it becomes clear that the person addressed is a boy. The information that he formerly had a girlfriend links this poem to the preceding one, and the mention of gifts links it to 1.4, allowing the reader to guess that it is Marathus. It has also been speculated that the "grey-haired lover" of poem 8.29 and the rival are the same person, that the wife is Pholoë, and the young man she sleeps with is Marathus, but this is not made explicit.[99]
According to Murgatroyd (1977), in the juxtaposition of poems 8 and 9 we see an amusing contrast between Tibullus's role as a detached adviser and the reality of his personal involvement.[1] In Booth's judgement, the two poems "offer ample evidence of sharpness and originality in one who is conventionally regarded as the most anodyne and boring of the Latin elegists".[100]
Poem 9 is structured in a very similar way to poem 8 and shares a lot of vocabulary.[101] Both poems begin with a reproach of Marathus, each contains a complaint by Marathus himself (1.8.55–66, 1.9.31–36), one in indirect speech, the other direct; both end in tears. Both poems end with a warning of punishment.
Vocabulary items common to both poems include Latin: celari/celat (1.8.1, 1.9.3), Latin: difficilis (1.8.27, 1.9.20), Latin: auro (1.8.32, 1.9.17), Latin: poena (1.8.77, 1.9.81), Latin: superba (1.8.77, 1.9.80), Latin: illa = "the girl" (1.8.15, 1.9.40).
In both 8 and 9 Marathus is referred to as both Latin: puer "boy" and Latin: iuvenis "young man".
Structurally, van der Riet analyses the poem as consisting of two large rings or chiastic patterns: 1–44 and 45–68. In the first ring, the two outer panels (1–14 and 29–44) both contrast war and peace, while the two inner panels consist of prayers to the household gods (Lares). The second ring begins and ends with praises of peace (Latin: pax), with an account of lovers' wars in between.[102] As in poem 1, which with this poem is linked, the first ring deals mainly with Tibullus's desire for a simple life on the farm, and second with affairs of love (in this poem, the quarrels that may arise between husband and wife).
A 1–14 The horrors of war
B 15–24 Prayer to the Lares for protection
B' 25–28 Prayer to the Lares for protection
A' 29–44 War contrasted with peace (divided 29–38, 39–44)
C 45–50 In praise of Peace
D 51–58 A quarrel between a farmer and his wife
D' 59–66 Tibullus's advice on such quarrels
C' 67–68 Prayer to Peace
The opposite parts of each ring are linked together by verbal echoes. In the first ring, the words Latin: quis fuit, mortis, bella (lines 1, 4, 6) are echoed in Latin: quis furor, bellis, mortem in line 33; Latin: non ... non, dux, oves, arma in 9–12 are echoed by Latin: armis, duces, non ... non, oves in 29, 30, 35, 41. In section C, the word Latin: Pax (four times in 45–50) is reflected in 67, and in section D Latin: Veneris, scissos capillos, flet, manus in lines 51–58 are reflected in the same words or words of similar meaning in section D' (lines 59–66). Van der Riet suggests that also Latin: verba ministrat (57) is echoed in Latin: verberat (60) because of the similarity of sound.
Further echoes connect the two halves of the poem: Latin: primus (1), Latin: ferreus (2), Latin: tristia ... arma (11–12), Latin: bella (7, 13), Latin: aluistis (15) and Latin: spicea (22) in sections A and B are echoed in Latin: primum (45), Latin: aluit, alma (47, 67), Latin: tristia ... arma (49–50), Latin: bella (53), Latin: ferrum (59)and Latin: spicam (67) in sections C and D; and Latin: calidam 'hot' (42) and Latin: uxor 'wife' (42) in section A' are reflected in Latin: uxorem (52) and Latin: calent (53) in section C.[103]
Van der Riet points out that the last part of the first ring, section A' (lines 29–44), is itself a ring, with a number of verbal echoes or contrasts linking together the two halves; for example, Latin: sic, dicere facta, aquae in lines 29, 31, 36 are echoed by Latin: aquam, sic, facta referre in 42, 43, 44; the lack of corn and vines in the underworld (35) is contrasted with presence of sheep and lambs in the living world (41); and the burnt hair of the dead (37) is contrasted with the white hair of the living (43).[104] Section A is also chiastic, contrasting war (1–4), peace (5–12), and war (13–14).[105]
The centre piece of the poem, with its four-times repeated anaphora of the word Latin: pax 'peace', is section C (lines 45–50). Similar anaphoric centre pieces are found in poems 3 (repeated Latin: praeda 'loot') and 6 (repeated Latin: spes 'hope') of book 2.[106]
As well as its internal links, the this poem is also linked thematically and verbally to other poems in the collection. Poems 1 and 10, which deal with similar topics, are particularly close, showing a series of parallels in more or less the same order:[107]
Desire for gold leads to warfare (1.1.1–4; 1.10.1–8); war drives away sleep, lack of war enables it (1.1.4, 1.10.10); gods made out of a tree trunk (Latin: stipes 1.1.11, Latin: stipite 10.17); a garland of corn spikes (Latin: corona spicea 1.1.15–16, Latin: spicea serta 1.10.22); the Lares addressed (1.1.20, 1.10.15/25); the sacrifice of a lamb or a pig to the Lares (1.1.23, 1.10.26); praise of a herdsman's life (1.1.25–36, 1.10.39–44); making war in love or in reality (Latin: bellare 1.1.53, Latin: bella 1.10.53); the lover locked out by the door (1.1.56), doors broken down (1.10.54); weeping (Latin: flebis ... flebis 1.1.61–63, Latin: flet ... flet 1.10.55–56); a soldier of love (1.1.75) versus a real soldier (1.10.65–66).
These parallels make it clear that the transposition of lines 25–32 in poem 1 to follow line 6 of poem 1, adopted by some editors,[108] is unlikely to be correct.
Poem 10 is also linked to poem 6 by the account of the lovers' quarrel (1.6.69–76, 1.10.53–66).
The image of a farmer coming home has already occurred in poem 7 (1.7.61–62, 1.10.51–52). But in this poem the farmer has taken his wife and children to a religious festival in a sacred grove (Latin: lucus line 51) and has had too much to drink, whereupon a quarrel breaks out with his wife.
In line 11, Latin: vulgi doesn't make much sense. Some editors[109] have proposed changing it to Latin: Valgi (vocative of Valgius, another poet and friend of Messalla), translating "in that age would I have lived, Valgius". Leah Kronenberg conjectures that the Macer addressed in the final poem of book 2 is a pseudonym for the same Valgius.[110] But O'Hara argues that it is better to adopt the Renaissance conjecture Latin: dulcis, translating it "then life would be sweet for me", a similar sentiment to the phrase "then my fates will be sweet" in the fragment of the poetry of Cornelius Gallus discovered in Egypt.[111]
It has been noted above that one of the characteristics of Tibullus's style is the frequent repetition of words and phrases in different contexts, linking poems together. Julia Gaisser writes: "Tibullus does not develop his ideas in a smooth forward progression of narration or description. Rather, he composes a series of separate and more or less self-contained episodes or sections whose important relation is not necessarily to each other but to a main theme. It is a part of Tibullus' skill to connect these sections by subtle transitions and by recurring motifs and images. The arrangement of ideas in the elegies often seems to violate the laws of both logic and simple time sequence. The connection between sections is not always obvious; the poet's thoughts range from present to future to past and back again in defiance of chronology." She characterises Tibullus as "a master of the vignette, skilled in the presentation of vivid and memorable scenes within the compass of a very few lines."[112]
His style has been called "immediate, unpretentious, but deceptively simple".[113]
Maltby (1999) points out several features of Tibullus's linguistic style. He notes how Tibullus compared with Propertius adopts a purity of style, avoiding diminutives such as Latin: ocellus "little eye" and compound words such as Latin: liniger "linen-wearing", and only rarely using Greek borrowings. Seneca the Elder reports that Tibullus's patron Messalla was a stickler for pure Latin: Latin: Latini ... sermonis observator diligentissimus (Contr. 2.4.8),[114] which may explain these preferences. Occasionally, however, Tibullus varies his style, for example in the speech of Priapus in elegy 4, which he introduces with mock-epic language and adds to the humour by using rather pompous language in the speech itself, as though Priapus were a professor.[115]
Although on the whole Tibullus avoids Greek vocabulary, he does adopt some Greek mannerisms, such as "echoic" verses in which a word or phrase is repeated within the same couplet (e.g. 1.4.61–2).[116]
Putnam (2005) notes Tibullus's clever use of assonance and alliteration, for example, where fic ... fec... fac and til ... cul ...cil ... quel make a pleasing sound:[117]
Latin: Fictilia antiquus primum sibi fecit agrestis<br /> Pocula, de facili conposuitque luto.[118]
"The ancient farmer first made for himself earthenware
cups, and fashioned them from easily worked clay."
Hoffer (2007) notes that there are also several places where Tibullus uses adjective interlacing to good effect, for example 1.7.16, 18, and 22.[119] An example is:
Latin: fertilis aestiva Nilus abundet aqua[120]
"The fertile Nile abounds with water even in summer"