Albius Tibullus (Tibullus)
Albius Tibullus (Tibullus)
Circa 55-19 b.c.e.
Soldier, poet
Expressions of Love. Tibullus was born in the 50s B.C.E. into a family of knights who may have lost their lands in the expropriations of 41-40 B.C.E. He joined the entourage of Messalla Corvinus, whom he followed on one of his campaigns. He published his first book consisting often elegies in 26 or 25 B.C.E. In it he expresses his love for a woman he calls Delia and a boy he names Marathus. This work established him as the major figure in the circle of poets surrounding Messalla Corvinus; his friends’ work was collected under Tibullus’s own name in his third and fourth book. In his second, authentic collection of just six poems, he addressed a new woman called Nemesis. This book was published around the year 18, shortly before the poet’s death.
Sources
Francis Cairns, Tibullus. A Hellenistic Poet at Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).
F. Solmsen, “Tibullus as an Augustan Poet,” Hermes, 90 (1962): 295-325.