possible that its compiler may have taken some of his statements from Suetonius’s book De poetis. It is as follows: “Albius Tibullus eques R. (R. being the customary abbreviation for Romanus, the MSS. have the corruption regalis), insignis forma cultuque corporis observabilis, ante alios Corvinum Messalam Oratorem (MSS. Or., i.e. oratorem) ingenue (MSS. iginem) dilexit, cuius et contubernalis Aquitanico bello militaribus donis donatus est. Hic multorum iudicio principem inter elegiographos optinct locum. Epistulae
quoque eius, quamquam breves, omnino utiles sunt (the “letters” are
the Sulpicia elegies). Obiit adulescens, ut indicat epigramma superscriptum” (i.e. the one ascribed to Domitius Marsus. These
words seem to be a later addition to the Life). It is another moot
question of some importance whether our poet should be identified
with the Albius of Horace (Od. i. 33; Epist. i. 4), asis done by the Horatian commentator Porphyrio (A.D. 200–250) in his Scholia. Porphyrio’s view has been most recently examined by Postgate (Selections from Tibullus, appendix A). If it is rejected, the authority of the Life is considerably impaired.
Ovid, Trist, iv. 10, 53 seq., “successor fuit hic [Tibullus] tibi, Galle, Propertius illi, quartus ab his serie temporis ipse fui.” In the preceding couplet he had said, “Vergilium vidi tantum nee amara Tibullo tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.” Ovid, who was born in 43, would be only twenty-four at Tibullus’s death if it occurred in 19. The loss of Tibullus s landed property is attested by himself (i. I, 19 seq.), “Felicis quondam, nunc pauperis agri custodes” (cf. 41, 42). Its cause is only an inference, though a very probable one. That he was allowed to retain a portion of his estate with the family mansion is clear from ii. 4, 53. Tibullus may have been Messalla’s contubernalis in the Aquitanian War (Vita Tib. and Tib. i. 7, 9 seq., a poem composed for Messalla’s triumph), and may have received militaria dona (Vita).
Delia’s name (from δήλος) is a translation of Plania. As regards her station, it should be noticed that she was not entitled to wear the stola, the dress of Roman matrons (i. 6, 68). Her husband is mentioned as absent (i. 2, 67 seq.). She eludes the custodes placed over her (i. 2, 15 and 6, 7). Tibullus’s suit was favoured by Delia’s mother, of whom he speaks in very affectionate terms (i. 6, 57 seq.). For Tibullus’s illness at Corcyra, see i. 3, 1 seq., 55 seq. The fifth elegy was written during estrangement (discidium), and the sixth after the return of the husband and during Delia’s double infidelity.
Ovid, writing at the time of Tibullus’s death (Am. iii. 9, 31), says: “Sic Nemesis longum, sic Delia, nomen habebunt, altera cura recens, altera primus amor.” Nemesis is the subject of book ii. 3, 4, 6. The mention of a lena (ii. 6) settles her position. The connexion had lasted a year when ii. 5 was written (see ver. 109). It is worth noticing that Martial selects Nemesis as the source of Tibullus’s reputation (viii. 73, 7; cf. xiv. 193).
Specimens of Tibullus at his best may be found in i. 1, 3, 89–94; 5, 19–36; 9, 45–68; ii. 6. Quintilian says (Inst. x. 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.”
Charisius (pp. 66 and 105) quotes part of a hexameter which is not found in the extant poems of Tibullus.
Lygdamus is probably the real name of the author of the first six elegies in book iii., but little further is known about him. His elegies and the other poems in the third book (“third” and “fourth” books) appear to have been known to Ovid. There are agreements between iii. 5, 15–20, and three passages of Ovid, Ars. am. ii. 669 seq.; Tr. iv. 10, 6: “cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari” (Lygdamus and Ovid using word for word the same expression for the year of their birth, the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa) and Am. xi. 14, 23 seq., much too close to be accidental. We do not know when they were added to the genuine poems of Tibullus.
Most scholars since Lachmann have condemned the “Panegyric on Messalla.” It is an inflated and at the same time tasteless declamation, entirely devoid of poetical merit. The language is often absurdly exaggerated, e.g. 190 seq. The author himself seems to be conscious of his own deficiencies (1 seq., 177 seq.). Like so many of his contemporaries, he had been reduced to poverty by the loss of his estates (181 seq.). If we could set the question of poetical merit aside, it would not be impossible to identify him with Propertius as in fact is done by Némethy (op. cited below). The date is fixed by 121 seq. Sulpicia was the daughter of Servius Sulpicius (iii. 16＝iv. 10, 4), and she seems to have been under the tutelage of Messalla, her uncle by marriage (Haupt, Opuscula, iii. 502 seq.).
Some scholars attribute iii. 8–12＝iv. 2–6 to Tibullus himself; but the style is different, and it is best to answer the question, as Bährens does, with a non liquet.
The direct ascription of iii. 19＝iv. 13 (verse 13, “nunc licet e caelo mittatur amica Tibullo”) to Tibullus probably led to its inclusion in the collection and later on to the addition of the third book to the two genuine ones. For the evidence against the ascription, see Postgate, Selections, app. C.
Manuscripts.—The two best MSS. of Tibullus are the Ambrosianus (A), of date about 1374, and the Vaticanus (V), of the 15th century. Besides these we have a number of extracts from Tibullus in Florilegium Parisinum, an anthology from various Latin writers which probably goes back to the 11th century, and the Excerpta frisingensia, preserved in an 11th-century MS. now at Munich, unfortunately very few in number. Also excerpts from the lost Fragmentum cuiacianum, made by Scaliger, and now in the library at Leiden. It only contained the part from iii. 4, 65 to the end. The Codex cuiacianus, a late MS. containing Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius, is still extant.
Editions.—Tibullus was first printed with Catullus, Propertius, and the Silvae of Statius by Vindelinus de Spira (Venice, 1472), and separately by Florentius de Argentina, probably in the same year. Amongst other editions we may mention' those by Scaliger (with Catullus and Propertius, 1577, &c.), Broukhusius (1708), Vulpius (1749), Heyne (1817, 4th ed. by Wunderlich, with supplement by Dissen, 1819), Huschke (1819), Lachmann (1829), Dissen (1835). Among more recent texts Bährens (1878, the first of the modern critical editions), L. Müller (1880, with a useful introduction), Hiller (1885, with index verborum), Postgate (1905). Of the commentaries Heyne’s, Huschke’s and Dissen’s are still of value. The most recent (with Latin notes) is Nemethy’s (1905–1906). The greater part of the poems are included in Postgate’s Selections (with English notes, 1903). For further information see the accounts in Teuffel's History of Roman Literature (translated by Warr), Schanz’s Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, and Marx’s article s.v. “Albius,” in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie. A history of recent contributions is given in A. Cartault’s A propos du corpus Tibullianum (1906; not quite complete); see also his Tibulle et les auteurs du Corpus Tibullianum (Paris, 1909). The following translations into English verse are known—by Dart (London, 1720), Grainger (1739, with Latin text and notes), Cranstoun (1872). An Essay towards a New Edition of the Elegies of Tibullus, with a Translation and Notes (London, 1792), contains only i. 1 and 7, 29–48. C. A. Elton’s Specimens of the Classic Poets (London, 1814; xii. 141–171) contains 1. 1; ii. 4; iii. 2–4; 6, 33 to end; iv. 2, 3. To these should probably be added Tibullus, with other Translations from Ovid, Horace, &c., by Richard Whiffin (London, 1829). Cranstoun’s is the only complete version of merit; but it is far inferior to the translations by Elton. (J. P. P.)
TIBUR (mod. Tivoli, q.v.), an ancient town of Latium, 18 m.
E.N.E. of Rome by the Via Tiburtina (see Tiburtina, Via).
It is finely situated at the point where the Anio forms its celebrated falls; it is protected on the E., N., and N.W. by the river and it commands the entrance to its upper course, with an extensive view over the Campagna below. The modern town is in
part built upon the terraces of a large temple of Hercules Victor,
the chief deity of Tibur, of which some remains exist: many small
votive objects in terra-cotta were found in the gorge of the Anio
below the town on the north-west in 1898. Below it, on the cliffs
above the Anio, is a large building round a colonnaded courtyard
in opus reticulatum built over the Via Tiburtina (which
passes under it in an arched passage), generally known as the
villa of Maecenas, but shown by the discovery of inscriptions
to have been in reality the meeting place of the Herculanei
Augustales, connected probably with the temple.
In an ancient hall at one side of the modern cathedral two mensae ponderariae—marble tables with holes in them for measuring solids—erected by one M. Varenus Diphilus, a freedman, a magister herculaneus, were found in situ in 1883, and in 1902 two vases of statues erected by Diphilus, as inscriptions showed, in honour of his patron, and a bas-relief of a bearded Hercules entirely draped in a long tunic with a lion's skin on his shoulders.
Remains of two small temples—one circular, with Corinthian columns, the other rectangular with Ionic columns—stand at the north-east extremity of the town, above the waterfalls. They are traditionally, but without foundation, attributed to Vesta and the Sibyl of Tibur (Varro adds Albunea, the water goddess worshipped on the banks of the Anio as a tenth Sibyl to the nine mentioned by the Greek writers.
The so-called Tempio della Tosse, an octagonal domed structure just below the town, is probably a tomb of the 4th century A.D. Two Roman bridges and several tombs were found above the falls in 1826.
Tibur was a favourite place of resort in Roman times, and both Augustus and Maecenas had villas here, and possibly Horace also. It is certain that a house was shown as being his in the time of Suetonius; and this has been identified with a villa of the Augustan period, the site of which is now occupied by the monastery of S. Antonio. In his poems he frequently mentions Tibur with enthusiasm. Catullus and Statius, too, have rendered it famous by their poems. The abundance of
