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TibullusandtheAlexandrians
A.W.Bulloch
TheCambridgeClassicalJournal/Volume19/January1973,pp7189
DOI:10.1017/S0068673500003631,Publishedonline:28February2013

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TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS'

Horace once described Tibullus, in a letter addressed to the elegiac poet, as 'silently
strolling through the healthy woods, pondering on the problems that matter most'
(Ep. i. 4. 4-5 taciturn silvas inter reptare salubris \ curantem quidquid dignum sapience
bonoque est), and this is a view of Tibullus which underlies, in some form or another,
most modern approaches to his poetry. After all, Tibullus is singularly dedicated to
his concerns of love and the countryside, expressed with directness and simplicity
in a style which is, as Quintilian says (x 1. 93), particularly 'polished and elegant'
(elegia quoque Graecos provocamus, cuius mihi tersus atque elegans maxime videtur auctor
Tibullus).
Of his own activity as a poet, and how he saw himself in relation to other writers,
he says very little. At 2. 4. 13ff.,in one of love's despairs, he exclaims:
nee prosunt elegi nee carminis auctor Apollo :
ilia cava pretium flagitat usque manu.
ite procul, Musae, si non prodestis amanti
ad dominam faciles aditus per carmina quaero:
ite procul, Musae, si nihil ista valent.
And more summarily in 2. 5. m - 1 2 :
usque cano Nemesim, sine qua versus mihi nullus
verba potest iustos aut reperire pedes.
And that is about all.
Even this protestation ' poetry is for the expression of love' is something of a convention of Roman elegy, to be found again in Propertius and Ovid (cf. Prop. 2.1.1-16,
2. 30. 40; Ovid, Am. 1. 3. 19, 2. 17. 33, 3. 12. 15; Mart. 8. 73. 3). How much more
Propertius has to say about himself as a poet. Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philetae
(3. 1. 1ff.):he is the Roman Callimachus, the first to drink from that pure source, and
to other lovers he recommends the imitation of Philetas and the dreams of Callimachus who wrote without bombast (2. 24. 31-2 tu satius memorem Musis imitere
Philetan | et non inflati somnia Callimachi). Again and again he talks of poetic inspiration in Callimachean terms, writing of'the narrow wheel' (2. 34. 43), 'the broad
highway' (3. 1. 14), and rejecting the whole idea of epic writing in favour of 'the
water of Philetas' (3. 3). His fourth Book is devoted largely to Callimachean topics:
sacra diesque canam et cognomina prisca locorum (4. 1. 69).
What a contrast the simplicity of Tibullus is to the erudite and allusive Propertius,
full of sudden transitions and 'tortured syntax' (L. P. Wilkinson, Entretiens Fondation Hardt n (1953), 219). Indeed at 2. 3. 19-20 Tibullus seems almost to be mocking
1
A version of this paper was read to the Cambridge Philological Society on 26 April 1973, and
I am grateful to members of the audience for many helpful remarks made in the discussion afterwards.

72

A. W. BULLOCH

the Callimachean-Propertian style: describing Apollo serving as shepherd for his

beloved Admetus he remarks
o quotiens ausae, caneret dum valle sub alta,
rumpere mugitu carmina docta boves.
So much for carmina docta. Is this not in strong contrast to the explicit aesthetic of
Propertius' Philetas and Callimachus?
This has certainly been the view in recent years of most writers on Tibullus. In
1959 Georg Luck emphasised Tibullus' dependence on the Alexandrian tradition in
the first edition of The Latin Love Elegy1 (chapter 5,' Alexandrian themes in Tibullus')
but his has been a lone voice. Contributors to the annual conference at the Fondation
Hardt one year later were more or less unanimous in rejecting Alexandrian poetry as a
significant influence on Tibullus' writing; F. Solmsen spoke of 'the pre-eminently
Roman character of Tibullus' poetry, as contrasting, so to speak, with the fundamentally Hellenistic character of Propertius' elegies' (Entretiens vn, 294 f.) and
warned against ' over-estimation of the Callimachean influence in Tibullus'; A. La
Penna stated ' ci6 che rende difficile l'indagine sulla cultura di Tibullo e che egli, al
contrario di Virgilio, Orazio, Properzio, non ama il gioco "allusivo", non riecheggia
precisamente parole, immagini, movimento' (p. 300); and P. Grimal proclaimed
'Tibulle n'est pas du tout hellenistique '(p. 293). In 1962 F. Solmsen made his point
more emphatically {Hermes 90. 316) stating that Tibullus' elegies 'embody sublime
and magnificent conceptions presented in a style which would have been anathema for
a poet committed to the Hellenistic tradition'. And so, for example, Wendell Clausen
speaking in 1964 of 'the poetic triumph of Callimachus.. .in Rome' mentions
'Cinna, Calvus, Catullus, Gallus, Virgil, Propertius' ('Callimachus and Latin
Poetry', Greek, Roman and By\. Stud, v (1964), 181 = K. Quinn (ed.), Approaches to
Catullus (1972), p. 269) - but no Tibullus.
My own reading of Tibullus suggests a very different perspective: Tibullus' superficially uncomplicated style is thoroughly informed, it seems to me, by the writings of
his Hellenistic predecessors. Often the most immediate indication of this literary
context is a local mode of expression, a momentary stance:
2. 5. 23-6

Romulus aeternae nondum formaverat urbis

moenia, consorti non habitanda Remo:
sed tune pascebant herbosa Palatia vaccae
et stabant humiles in Iovis arce casaej

cf. Callimachus, Hymns 1 1821

AcxScov ccAA' ovhrco ulyccc ippsev oOS' 'EpuuccvQoc,
AEUKOTOCTOC TTOTOCPCOV, ITI 5" 6(3poxoc f)v caroccoc

'AjTjvk HEAAEV SI U6A' suuSpoc KaAeEcfoxi

aCrric- ETTEI TT\n6c6e, 'PET| OTE AUCCCTO nrrpriv...
1

Second edition 1969. The most extensive treatment before Luck of the Alexandrian background is in Mauriz Schuster, Tibull-Studien (Vienna (1930), 35-56), which contains some useful
remarks about general style but no detailed examination of the relevant Greek material (much of
which was not then available); Schuster concludes (p. 56) that Tibullus was not very deeply influenced by the Alexandrian writers.

TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS

73

Romulus.. .nondum: A&Scov...ovmo; sed tune: ITI 5'J notice the additional prospective non habitanda Remo, a characteristically Alexandrian piece of incidental description, just like the prospective UEAAEV 51 U6A' ewBpoc... in Callimachus.
Again, consider another passage, i. 7. 13-22:
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, arentes cum findit Sirius agros,
fertilis aestiva Nilus abundet aqua?
The articulation of anaphoric questions - ' shall I s i n g . . . o r . . . why should I recount
h o w . . . and h o w . . . ? ' - would be well in place in a hymnal or pseudo-hymnal narrative. The landscape detail of the river creeping with calm waters is paralleled, for
example, in the 'Sicilian Cities' narrative in Callimachus, Aetia 11 fr. 43. 42:
91^03 Koci Kocudpivocv iv' "lirrrapic dyKuAoc Ipiret
(notice in this passage the anaphora: v. 42 qvneco, v. 46 ol6a, v. 50 olSa). And the fullness
of incidental pastoral detail is thoroughly Callimachean: cf. fr. 277:
dxvQea ur|Koov6c Te KC<1 f|voTroc irvp6v
Reference to a place by mention of a local religious belief or practice (the sacred
white dove) is particularly Callimachean: cf. Aetia fr. 186. 8-10:
ulec 'YuEpPopecov
'Pnraiou TTEUTTOUCIV COT' oupeoc, ifyi H&AICTOC
TEpTTOuciv Amapori OoT|3ov 6vocq>ocyfoa.
Description (in Tibullus, of Tyre) through a straightforward, though full, main
clause, which is then extended by an equally weighted subordinate clause adding
information not directly relevant to the purpose of the description this is a marked
feature of Callimachean style. Cf. Apollo's description to Cydippe's father of the
distinction of Acontius' family in Aetia in fr. 75. 32-7:
KoSpelSnc cu y ' OVGO8SV 6 TrevEp6c, avrrdp 6 KEIOC

yocu|3p6c 'ApicTafou Zr|v6c cp' tepEcov

'IKUIOU olci UEUTIAEV ETT' oupEOc duptb

T6 5' &T|ua trapal Ai6c cf> TE 0aueivof

Xiviaic 5pTuyEc EV veq>EXaic.
And finally v. 22 looks remarkably like Callimachus fr. 384. 27:
0T)AUTCXTOV

Ki

NEIAOC

fiyow IviaOciov uScop.

One could give many more examples and analogies of this kind, but the Alexandrian
background is not evident only through stylistic analogies. Tibullus' contemporaries

74

A. W. BULLOCH

and immediate literary predecessors were widely read in Hellenistic poetry and deeply
influenced by writers such as Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius, Theocritus, Aratus,
Euphorion. W e have to remember that for the Roman writers this was a contemporary
living tradition forcefully represented by Parthenius, the Greek teacher in Rome of at
least Cornelius Gallus and Vergil. Catullus, Vergil, Propertius, Horace, Ovid - all
constantly demonstrate the importance of the Greek background by imitation and
reminiscence, and it would be a feature of considerable importance in Roman poetry
if Tibullus really 'n'est pas du tout hellenistique'.
So far as I am aware there is no up-to-date survey of the extent to which Tibullus
drew, or may have drawn, on the Hellenistic writers in his own poetry. Georg Luck
examined two poems ( i . 7 and 1. 4) in The Latin Love Elegy, pp. 83-99, m t n e c o n "
text of Alexandrian poetry, but his conclusions have been challenged by F. Solmsen, 1
and I think that some literary book-keeping may be useful at this point. I offer in the
following pages a list of all those passages where Tibullus seems almost certainly to be
writing in reminiscence of a Hellenistic text. Sixteen instances which have been suggested by various modern scholars seem to me to be very plausible, and I have added
another eight instances which, so far as I know, have not been noted before. In addition I have listed with a query eight instances where a particular reminiscence seems
highly likely but more questionable; I have also noted in brackets a number of
passages which are almost certainly directly Hellenistic in origin and where reminiscence of a particular author is possible but where the actual source may have been
another Greek text n o w lost. (There has been some confusion recently about which
scholar is responsible for noting which instance, and for what the record is worth I
have added an attribution after each passage.) 2
I

1. 3. 4

abstineas avidas Mors modo nigra manus.

Call. E. 2. 5-6
cd 8e TSOCI JCOOUCIV &TIS6VEC, ?|CIV 6 TTAVTCOV

<5tpTTaicn>)c 'A(6T]C OUK STTI xpa (3o^ei.

Smith
II

37-42

nondum caeruleas pinus contempserat undas,

effusum ventis praebueratque sinum,
nee vagus ignotis repetens compendia terris
presserat externa navita merce ratem.
illo non validus subiit iuga tempore taurus,
non domito frenos ore momordit equus.

(Aratus 110-14)
ocurcoc 5' sjcoov xa^irn 8' cVniKEi-ro OAAotccoc,
Kcd piov OOTTCO vfjsc &n&npof)tv f|y{vecKov,
dXAd |36ec KCCI SpoTpa KOCI CCOTI^, Tr6Tvict \au>v,
uupfa TT&VTC! -irapElxe A(KT), ScoTEipa 6iKaicov.
Smith

1
In Entretiens Fondation Hardt vn (i960), 295 Solmsen records that a Cornell University seminar found cogency in only one of Luck's 'echoes' (1. 7. 27-8 = Call. fr. 383. 16).
1
'Ernesti', 'Pfeiffer', 'Gow', 'Smith', and 'Achilles Statius' refer to those editions of Callimachus, Theocritus, and Tibullus ad loc. Other authors cited are: C. M. Dawson, 'An Alexandrian prototype of Marathus?', AJP LXVII (1946), 1-15, R. Kassell, Rhein. Mus. CXII (1969),
99 ff., A. Meineke, Anakcta Alexandrine. (Berlin, 1843), p. 262, M. Pino, 'Echi callimachei in
Tibullo', Maia xxtv (1972), 63-5.
P. Waltz, Melanges G. Glot^ (Paris, 1932), n, 889-97 suggested that Tib. 2. 4. 27-38 imitates
Antipater Thess. A.P. 5. 30 (vi in Gow-Page, GP); I think it much more likely myself that Antipater wrote after Tibullus.

TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS

III

47-8

non acies, non ira fuit, non bella, nee ensem

immiti saevus duxerat arte faber.

75

(Aratus 1 0 8 - 9 )
OOTTCO XsvyaXEOV T6TE VE(KEOC f|irfcTavTo
OU6E 8iotKpfcioc i

Smith
IV

i . 4. 16

Call. E. 45. 2 - 3

paulatim sub iuga colla dabit.

f)X8Ev 6 poOc Crrr' apoTpov EKOOCIOC.

AWB
V

58

iam tener adsuevit munera velle puer.

? Call. fr. 695

TriTrpi!|CKEi 6' 6 KoAdc TT&VTOC Trpis ApyOpiov.
AWB

VI

61-6

Pieridas, pueri, doctos et amate poetas,

aurea nee superent munera Pieridas.
carmine purpurea est Nisi coma: carmina ni sint,
ex umero Pelopis non nituisset ebur.
quern referent Musae, vivet, dum robora tellus,
dum caelum Stellas, dum vehet amnis aquas.

? Call. fr. 202. 5 7 - 7 0

^TIC "HcpalcTEia VIKI^ICEJ KaXd.
airrlKa xpuc6v HEV "IV6I|KOI KOVEC

pUCc60EV MOpHTlKEC o|[!cOU]d TTTEpOlC"

TTOAX&KIC Kai <paOXov ojtKi'iCEt 86pov
Xpuc6c, depxexfouc 6' drin|i'|CEi [

]c*

Kai AIKTIV Kal Zfjva Kal | [... ] 91/ a , a c

CnrTlCjJ TTOtlcaVTEC Sv6|pOOTTOl TT08f

Xpv/c6v atvricouci T(MI|OV K

].

Tfjv 'A6T)VCX(TIC 6E Kal ET|EPWV 66ciy,

KahrEp EO cuiXriciv
6 irpdcco <poiTECOv
f) 5' i\ir\ TT) iraiSl KaXX(|crT| S6cic,
ICT' E^6V yEVEiov dyvEiin | Tptx<ic
Kal 4p(<poic xaipcociv apTr|ccy[EC X]0K[O]I
AWB

VII

65-6

(Certamen Hes. et Horn. 266-8)

SCT' a v OSoop TE vdr) Kal 6v8pEa |jaKpd TEOI'IXTI
Kal iroTaiiol ITXT'|0C<JCI, TTEptKXOjTj SE 6dXacca,
^EXIOC 5 ' dvicbv (palvn Xanirpd TE CEXI^VTI.

Smith
VIII

67-70

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.

Call. fr. 193. 35-8

<t>pOy[a] Trp[6c] aOX6v f|
"A6co[v]iv aiat, TTJC 6EOO T6V av6pcoTrov,

Dawson
IX

1. 4. 75, 79

pareat ille suae: vos me celebrate magistrum.

tempus erit, cum me Veneris praecepta
ferentem...

(Call. fr. 57O

aI0E y a p & Koupoiciv ETT' 60naTa X(/va ^povTEC,
"Epxloc cbc inxiv cISpicE 7rai8o<piXEtv,
C56E VEOOV Ep6c{)TE- ir6Xiv K' EuavSpov f x ' T 6 -

Pfeiffer

76

A. W. BULLOCH

79-80

Call. fr. 41

tempus erit, cum me Veneris praecepta

ferentem
deducat iuvenum sedula turba senem.

ynpacKEi 6* 6 yipcov KEIVOC Aaq>p6TEpov,

Koupoi T6V qnAEouciv, J6v Si piv 0I0 yovfja
\Eip6c ETT' OIKE{T|V fixpic fiyouci 60pr|v.

XI

Call. E. 1. 9 - 1 0

Achilles Statius
1.5.

3-4

namque agor ut per plana citus sola verbere

turben
quem celer adsueta versat ab arte puer.

ol 6' &p' Cnri TrAtiyfjci 0oac p|a{3iKac EXOVTEC

Jcrptipov EvpEfrj TTOISEC Ivl Tpi66co.

XII

? Call. fr. 530

49-50

AWB

sanguineas edat ilia dapes atque ore cruento

tristia cum multo pocula felle bibat.

XoArj 6' lea yEvra Tracaio.

XIII

Alcaeus of Messene A.P.j. 10. 3 - 4

( = G - P HE 40-1)

1. 6. 3-4

quid tibi saevitiae mecum est? an gloria magna

est
insidias homini composuisse deum?

Prfeiffe

T( TTAEOV EI 6E6C fivSpa KaraipA^yEi, t^ T( T 6

^

(5ar' Sufjc

x ^

;
Smith

XIV

(Meleager A.P. 5. 177. 8 ( = G - P

HE4197))

nam mihi tenduntur casses.

\tf\ TTOU w v vjA^atc fiXAa TlOr|ct Afva.

XV

Theocr. 12. 11

AWB
85-6

haec aliis maledicta cadant: nos, Delia, amoris

exemplum cana simus uterque coma.

vwiv,

XVI 1. 7. 1-2

? Call. fr. 202. 9

6E

AWB
\i\j[

Hunc cecinere diem Parcae fatalia nentes

stamina, non ulli dissoluenda deo.

Pfeiffer
? Call, v 103-4

XVII

T& UEV oO traAivAypeTov av/9i

Ipyov, ETTEI Moipfiv &S' tntvr\ce Afva.
AWB
XVIII

22

fertilis aestiva Nilus abundet aqua?

Call. fr. 384. 27

6r|A\iTaTOv Kal NEIAO[C <S]ycov eviaOciov 06cop.
Pfeiffer

XIX

24

? Call. fr. 384. 31

aut quibus in terris occuluisse caput?

K]al TTOUAOC, 8v ouS* 6SEV OI6EV 65SUCO.

XX

? A.R. 4. 269-71

Pfeiffer
25-6

te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres,

arida nee pluvio supplicat herba Iovi.

Kal TTOTati6c Tphxov eupuppooc ^ OTTO iraca

'HEpfri, AI66EV Si niv OOTTOTE 8EOEI

c - fiAtc Trpoxofjciv avacrraxOouciv

apoupai.
Smith

TIBULLUS AND THEALEXANDRIANS

XXI

28

Memphiten plangere docta bovem.

77

Call. fr. 383. 16

etSutoti 9oXi6v Taupov tr|Asn(ccci.
Ernesti

XXII

1.7.

51-2

illius et nitido stillent unguenta capillo,

et capite et collo mollia serta gerat.

Call. fr. 7. 12
... AIT' 6crX(yycov 8' alev &Ai9a f>h\.
Pfeiffer
(cf. Call. 11 3 8 - 9 )
al 8E K6UCH 9U6EVTCC TriScp Aeipov/civ SAaioc
ou Xhroc 'ATT6AACOVOC <SrrocT<ijouciv 20Eipai.
AWB

54

XXIII

liba et Mopsopio dulcia melle feram.

? Call. fr. 709

Steph.Byz. v. M04/'OTT{O(,

f\ 'ATTIKI^, 6TT6

Pfeiffer

TTOC. Ko(XXl|iG()(OC.

XXIV

1. 8.

5-6

Call. fr. 67. 1

ipsa Venus magico religatum bracchia nodo

perdocuit multis non sine verberibus.
10
XXV

A0T6C "Epcoc J8(6a6;EV

saepeque mutatas disposuisse comas

TTOAAAKI TC<V CCOT^CV 81c uETE&r|KE K6HCCV.

'AK6VTIOV.

Kassell
Call, v 22
anon, apud Ernesti

31-2

XXVI

T h e o c r . 15. 1 3 0

carior est auro iuvenis, cui levia fulgent

ora nee amplexus aspera barba terit.

oO KEVTEI T 6 <plArm** 2TI o l TTEpl xeiAea TTU

XXVII

Call. fr. 193. 30

1. 9. 37

at non ego fallere doctus...

ppd.
Smith

v[--]..x?-[-]y K P 1T/ucoc

ETTOIBEOOTIV.

Dawson

XXVIII 1. 10. 1-2, 5-6

Parthenius fr. 5 M

Quis fuit, horrendos primus qui protulit enses?

quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit!

6CTIC ETT' dvOpcbirouc I^UCEV alyovEac.

an nihil ille miser meruit, nos ad mala nostra

vertimus, in saevas quod dedit ille feras?

(cf. Call. fr. n o . 48-50)

Meineke
XaX0|3cov we <5OT<5AOITO yEvoc,
O6V q>vn:6v, o! \xw Z<pr\vav
TUTTISGOV ?<ppacav 4pyacfr|V.
AWB

XXIX

2.

I.

ritus ut a prisco traditus extat avo.

Call, v 36-7
we SOoc 'ApyEfcoc TOOTO TroAaioT^pcoc
AWB

XXX
35^5
hue ades aspiraque mihi, duni carmine nostro
redditur agricolis gratia caelitibus.

Call, v 55-6
Tr6ivt' 'A9otvafa, cO \iv

6' iyco TI
AWB

78

A. W. BULLOCH

XXXI

71-2

nee pecudes, velut ante, petit: fixisse puellas

gestit et audaces perdomuisse viros.

Alcaeus of Messene A.P. 5. 10. 1-2

( = G-Pyy.fi 38-9)
'ExSocfpco T6V "EpcoTce T( y i p papOc OUK 4TTI
opvuTai, &AV ITT' k\it\v
Smith

8o

XXXII

Theocr. 12. 10

felix, cui placidus leniter adflat Amor.

16' 6uaAol TrveOcEiav tn' <&n<poTepoiciv "EpcoTEc.

XXXIII

Call, v 137-9

Smith

83

vos celebrem cantate deum pecorique vocate.

IpXET1 "A6avafa vuv irrpadc- &XA& SEXEC8E

TOT 6E6V, &> Koopai, T&Spyov 6caic HEAETOH,
cuv T ' suayoplqt cOv T* eOyyaci cOv T' 6AoXuyatc.

XXXIV
87-90
ludite: iam Nox iungit equos, currumque
sequuntur
matris lascivo sidera fulva choro,
postque venit tacitus furvis circumdatus alis
Somnus et incerto Somnia nigra pede.

Call. fr. n o . 53-4

AWB

XXXV

2.2. 11-16

ISTO KUKAcbcac fJaAidc TTTEpd efjXuc di^TTjc,

itnjofc] Ioj6vou AoKpfSoc 'Apciv6r|c.
AWB

Call. fr. 75. 4 4 - 8

auguror, uxoris fidos optabis amores:

iam reor hoc ipsos edidicisse deos.
nee tibi malueris, totum quaecumque per orbem
fortis arat valido rusticus arva bove,
nee tibi, gemmarum quidquid felicibus Indis
nascitur, Eoi qua maris unda rubet.

ou cs SOK^CO TTIMOOTOC, 'AK6VTIE, VUKT6C 4KE(VTIC

XXXVI

Theocr. 2. 15-16

2.4.55-6

quidquid habet Circe, quidquid Medea veneni,

quidquid et herbarum Thessala terra gerit.

<5IVT( KE, TTJ nfTpr

oO c<pup6v 'I<P(KXEIOV
ou6' & KEAaiviTnc EKTE(4TICTOM(ST|C

AWB
qxipUOCKa TOUT' IpSoica xEf*fova UI^TE TI Ktpxac
nr|TE TI Mr|5E(ac IJLI'ITE etv6ac ITEpiii^Sac.
Gow

XXXVII

2. 5- 64

et aeternum sit mihi virginitas.

? Call, i n 6
A6c poi irapGEvfTiv atcoviov.
Pino

XXXVIII

2. 6. 19-20

iam mala finissem leto, sed credula vitam

spes fovet et fore eras semper ait melius.

Theocr. 4. 412
SapcElv xpi"l. <?lte B i n s ' T(kx' aOpiov SCCET'
EV jcoolciv,

6E 6OV6VTEC.

Smith
I will comment briefly on some of these instances.
C. M. Dawson pointed out in AJP LXVII (1946), 12 f. that this poem, a conversation with Priapus, looks back to works like Callimachus' Iambus ix fr. 199, a discussion between Priapus and the lover of a handsome youth Philetadas, and Aetia

TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS

79

fr. 114 in which the statue of Delian Apollo converses about himself; since Dawson's
article Georg Luck has discussed the general Alexandrian background of i. 4 in The
Latin Love Elegy, 93-9.1 However it is worth examining the nature of some of the
direct reminiscences, since close analysis shows that Tibullus is not just handling a
Greek theme in Hellenistic style, but echoing specific passages throughout Callimachus' works in the Iambi, Aetia and Epigrams.
iv. A striking image in an analogous context is the basis of this reminiscence. In
E. 45 Callimachus remarks contentedly that he knew Menecrates, the ipcouevoc he was
pursuing, would give in eventually of his own accord within 20 days: ' on the tenth
day the ox came to the plough willingly'; Tibullus has Priapus advise him not to
worry if the object of his affections does not submit immediately: paulatim sub iuga
colla dabit.
vi. The topic of the plea for respect for poetry and poets, who offer the only
opportunity for real immortality as against the transience of material wealth, is most
extensively expressed in Theocritus 16, an appeal for the patronage of Hiero; but one
of the most beautiful examples is Call. Iambus xn, fr. 202, which describes the
seventh-day birth-celebration of the divine princess Hebe. All the gods bring gifts
of beautifully worked toys, etc., but Apollo brings a song, most beautiful of all
gifts. 'After all,' says Apollo, 'wealth is indiscriminate and often has no regard for
virtue or morality' and other gifts 'time passing on will tarnish. But mine is the most
beautiful gift to the child, as my cheek is smooth from hair and as ravening wolves
delight in kids..." In 1.4.5 7 ff. Tibullus laments the venality of the time: young boys
have no regard for anything but wealth however wealth cannot outlive poetry
dum robora tellus, | dum caelum stellas, dum vehet amnis aquas. The examples in the
final list of dcSuvcrToc are different, but the underlying pattern of thought and the syntactical construction (ecr*..., dum... dum...) are identical, and Horace certainly
had this passage in mind in Epode 15, nox erat, 7 ff. dum pecori lupus. . .infestus...
intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos. This passage deals with a conventional
sentiment, but Tibullus' expression of it probably looks to a particular Alexandrian
text.
Another passage from Callimachus' Iambi, this time m, fr. 193. 35-6. In the
reference to Iambus xn Tibullus converted a relatively high-minded (we might say
cultured) attitude of Apollo to a typically more self-concerned sentiment. In Iambus
in Callimachus' situation is closer to that of Tibullus: he has been deserted by a
beautiful pupil in favour of a rich man, and comments disconsolately that he might as
well be a eunuch. Once again Tibullus converts the sentiment and directs it, viciously,
against the young boy who prefers hard cash to Tibullus' poetry: 'if you sell your
love you'll be punished by castration'. In phraseology both passages are extremely
VIII.

1
Luck (p. 94) suggests two reminiscences of Callimachus in vv. 21-6 which seem to me unconvincing: E. 25 has no direct contact with Tibullus and the theme is a common one in the
Greek Anthology; Artemis' standard attributes as a huntress certainly do not have to be derived
from fr. 96. Dawson's suggestion that vv. 834 echo Call. fr. 195. 30 seems unlikely since there
is no similarity in phraseology (&, pf\ UE TTOII'ICIJC ysXco, cum mea ridebunt vana magisterial), and Luck
(p. 99) is mistaken in his assumption that Callimachus' situation is, as with Tibullus, that of the
helpless lover (far from it - he is a scurrilous critic).

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A. W. BULLOCH

close, and if we had more of Iambus m (and indeed of the other Iambi) we should
probably find that Tibullus draws extensively on Callimachus throughout i. 4.
1. 5

xi. A shared image suggested by the general similarity of the context. Tibullus'
reference to himself in love at the beginning of 1. 5 as feeling emotionally like a top
being whipped is very close verbally to Callimachus' famous epigram; although
Callimachus' top does not refer to an emotional condition, the poem concerns a man
who is in doubt as to which girl to marry.
1. 6

xni and xv. Each instance involves a topic shared with a Greek text (an exclamation
against the god Love, and the wish for eternal fame for a pair of lovers) and similar
phraseology between Greek and Latin. These themes and sentiments are not uncommon in Greek and Roman love-poetry, and one is initially reluctant to see direct
reminiscence in Tibullus. However, both Alcaeus' epigram and Theocritus 12 are
referred to again in Tibullus, and once again both in the same poem, 2. 1. 71 and 80
(xxxi and xxxn). As 1. 6, 2. 1 recalls Alcaeus and Theocritus with closely similar
topics and phraseology, and the lines recalled separately in 1.6 and 2.1 are consecutive
in Alcaeus and Theocritus. These are simply two Greek poems which Tibullus found
memorable, memorable enough for them to be recalled twice in poems which may have
been written with some lapse of time between them.

This victory poem for Messalla is full of reminiscences of Callimachus. The epinicion
may have been a very common genre in Greek poetry, but Callimachus was the first or at least the most influential writer to compose non-choral elegiac epinicia, and for
Tibullus celebrating his patron, Callimachus' Nemean Victory (fr. 383) and Sosibius'
Victory (fr. 384) were obvious models to turn to. Fragmentary as these two poems now
are their influence is clear, and their full recovery would doubtless show Tibullus
relying very heavily on Callimachus. Most of these instances have been well discussed by Georg Luck (pp. 8692), but one should note in particular that in xxi
Tibullus extends Latin usage in reproducing the Greek: docta with an infinitive can be
understood only by reference to elSuIon in Callimachus.
1. 8

xxiv. One of the most famous episodes in Callimachus' Aetia was the story of
Acontius and Cydippe in Book m, and it is no surprise to find that the opening line is
picked up here by Tibullus: ipsa Venus.. .perdocuit.
xxv. Tibullus is attempting to bludgeon his boy-friend Marathus into deserting his
girl: he echoes Callimachus, almost in passing, converting a description of Aphrodite
coquettishly adjusting her hair into a taunt that Marathus has wasted his efforts
dandifying himself.
xxvi. Again, Marathus with bright smooth lips and no rough beard to his cheeks

TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS

8l

could be the eighteen-year-old Adonis depicted with his mistress Aphrodite on

Theocritus' royal tapestry. (I wonder if there is any significance in the fact that the
affair between Adonis and Aphrodite was an unnatural one and concluded by the
violent death of Adonis.)1

Tibullus' complaint against the treachery of Marathus seems to have its prototype in
Callimachus' Iambus m, fr. 193 which combines a complaint at the venality and greed
of contemporary society with criticism of his handsome pupil Euthydemus who has
broken all promises and gone ofF with a rich rival lover: see C. M. Dawson, AJP
LXVII (1946), 11-15. Tibullus' choice of expression seems to have been influenced at at
least one point (XXVII), and further preservation of the Greek would probably reveal
many other local similarities.
1. 10

The context of Parthenius fr. 5M is not easy to determine, but A. Meineke

plausibly suggested that the Bias poem was a lament for a friend killed in battle,
fr. 9 being part of a general protestation against the horror and bloodshed of war:
'(cursed be) the person who (first) shaped the javelin for use against men'. This corresponds closely with the tone and theme of the opening of 1. 10, and if there is a
corresponsion here this is another piece of evidence, however slight, of the influence of
Parthenius on the Roman writers.2

XXVIII.

2. 1

This mock festival poem is of a Hellenistic type with famous precedents in Callimachus; the division of the poem into three sections (1-36 a general invocation of the
gods to come to the festival, 37-80 a central section celebrating the origins of the
festival, and 81-90 a concluding invocation to the god and an address to the celebrants) particularly recalls Callimachus' Bath of Pallas? Not surprisingly, therefore,
we find that Tibullus echoes the Fifth Hymn at several points.
xxix. Taken by itself the similarity of Callimachus' reassurance to Athena that the
festival is being conducted according to ancient custom, and Tibullus' identical
statement in v. 2, might be dismissed as coincidence: however, not only is Tibullus'
statement followed by the invocation in v. 3 Bacche, veni, just as Callimachus' reassurance is preceded and followed, in vv. 33 and 43, by the invocation 6iO" 'AQocvocioc,
but also other reminiscences emerge later in the poem.
xxx. Tibullus has turned at the end of the first invocatory section to the absent
Messalla, and in a transition passage he asks his patron to come {hue ades) and inspire
1
C. M. Dawson, AJPLXVII (1946), 14 suggested ah echo in 1. 8. 77 of Callimachus fr. 195. 22:
the papyrus is too fragmentary and Tibullus' phraseology not close enough to enable one to
infer a reminiscence.
2
C. M. Dawson, loc. cit. 14 f., also compared 1. 10. 11 and Call. fr. 193. 1; however, the context of Callimachus' line remains very uncertain.
3
P. Postgens, Tibulls Ambarvaliengedicht (Diss. Miinster: Wurzburg-Anmuhle, 1940), 64 ff.
compares 2. 1 and Callimachus n.

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A. W. BULLOCH

him while he sings the next section of his poem; so too Callimachus completes his
invocation of Athena with a transition passage asking the goddess to come out (cO UEV
?i6i) while he tells the story of Teiresias. Tibullus' poem is not addressed as a whole
to Messalla, but the literary parallelism at this point between Messalla and Athena is a
fine compliment.
xxxi, XXXII. See above on x m and xv.
XXXIII. The closing invocatory section with its address to the celebrants has obvious
affinities with Callimachus: if this were the sole point of contact between the two poems
one would not, of course, press the similarity, but in view of the other passages one
can reasonably see a reminiscence here.
xxxiv. The poem ends with one of Tibullus' finest passages: the celebrants have
been told to pray to the god Amor to visit the flocks, indeed to invoke the god for
themselves - at v. 87 the tone becomes more personal, and the celebrants are advised
to enjoy themselves, for night is approaching. This is the time for pleasure, and the
playful chorus of stars which follows Night's chariot mirrors the band of celebrants:
but the mood becomes more introspective and the image almost symbolic, for after
the stars comes Sleep, silent and enveloped in dark wings and accompanied by the
uncertainty of black dreams. Sleep comes tacitus furvis circumdatus alis: the description is a striking one and I wonder if it was suggested by Callimachus' description of
Zephyr who carried off the lock of Berenice. Zephyr comes 'circling his dappled
wings': here too the phrase is unusual (and much imitated later by Nonnus: see
Pfeiffer ad loc.) and although KVKAGOCCCC denotes an action different from the notable
circumdatus, the two images are related; Zephyr comes' gently' (QfjAuc) as Sleep comes
'silently' {tacitus)-, the wings of one are 'dappled', of the other 'dusky'; and as Sleep
follows the horses of Night and the stars, so Zephyr is himself a horseman and is about
to carry the lock up to the stars.
2.

Another example, like xxxiv, of related topics and similar articulation of phrasing.
Tibullus asks Cornutus what he would pray for on his birthday and suggests that he
would rather have the perpetual love of his wife than all the rich farmland in the
world and all the jewels of India; similarly Callimachus suggests that Acontius on his
wedding-night would not have accepted in exchange either the miraculous powers of
Iphicles or all the wealth of Midas. The specific examples in these two priamels are
different, but note that they are of the same type: Iphicles runs across fields of corn an agricultural image-and the second examples are alternative periphrases for 'all
the wealth in the world'. The phraseology of each passage is very similar: ou CE SOKECO
. . . dcvrf
SE^OCCOOCI, nee tibi malueris; and in each case it is the poet who rhetorically
supposes that Acontius and Cornutus would not have exchanged their love for anything.
2.5

This poem celebrating the appointment of Messalla's son Messalinus to the board
responsible for the Sibylline Books is again a fine compliment: for it seems to be

TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS

83
1

modelled in general construction on Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo. In both poems

Apollo is summoned to a festival occasion, v. 7 nitidus pulcherque, v. 36 del KCXW>C KCCI
del vioc, and the central section of each poem turns to local patriotic lore: the foundation and early history of Cyrene (the apparent setting of Hymn 11) and the foundation
and early legends of Rome - note that Tibullus recounts the early history of Rome
through the thoroughly Hellenistic device of a prophecy.
I hope I have said enough to demonstrate that Tibullus was just like any of his contemporaries in at least one very important respect: as an educated cultured Roman he
drew his inspiration and intellectual support as an artist from the poetic tradition, that
which comes through the main Hellenistic writers. And he took for granted that his
readership would be thoroughly acquainted with authors like Callimachus or Theocritus, and probably - had we the material - Euphorion and Parthenius too. 2
Callimachus was apparently the central figure of the Alexandrians for Tibullus, and
the reasons are obvious: quite apart from the fact that he was historically the most
influential writer, the highly innovative Aetia recommended itself through its characteristically episodic form, full of rapid and fluent interchanges not just of topic, situation and mood, but also from objective narrative to personal, even 'biographical*
comment, from direct address to cool impersonality. The first books of the Aetia
were written in the superficially continuous form of a conversation between the poet
and the Muses, but effectively they were no less discontinuous than books 111 and iv
which move abruptly from episode to episode, and to any writer of elegiacs composing
a collection of poems on diverse themes and situations the monumental achievement
of the Aetia, in more than 7,000 lines, was unavoidably His Master's Voice.
The Roman elegists stood at the beginning of their own tradition, and it is understandable that they should have looked for so much guidance to Greek culture.
Their own elegies may have focused on material apparently more directly personal
than Callimachus' Aetia, but here the Iambi were obviously of great importance.
Papyrus discoveries have shown that the Hipponactean tradition, in which Callimachus firmly placed himself, was satirical, scurrilous, abusive, and above all personal: even from the wreckage which is all that now survives of the Iambi we can see
that Callimachus too wrote in a much more personal and direct tone on themes with
which readers of Roman elegy are thoroughly familiar - love affairs, poverty, personal quarrels, Paradise Lost, the problems of being a writer, the celebration of a birth1
In general see L. Alfonsi, Riv. di Fil. xxii-xxm (1944-5), 130-7 (extending A. Rostagni,
Poeti Alessandrini (Turin, 1916), pp. 375-82); also G. Pasquali, Quaestiones Callimacheae (Gottingen, 1913), pp. 153 ff. and B. Riposati, L'eiegia a Messalino di Albio Tibullo (Milan, 1942).
M. Pino, Mala xxiv (1972), 63-5, points out that 2. 5. 2, 6, 7 veni may be compared with Call.
v 33, 43, 44 ?i9t: this is not specific reminiscence, of course, but a shared characteristic of hymnal
invocation. I do not find convincing Pino's suggestion that 2. 5. 7 echoes Call, v 31-2, nor that
1. 10. 17-20 is based on Call. fr. 100.
2
Mr E. J. Kenney points out to me that the absence of Asclepiades and Posidippus from the list
of authors whose influence on Tibullus can be traced is noteworthy. Certainly, so far as I can see
there are no direct reminiscences of these epigrammatists, but 1. 2, for example, contains much
that is generally owed to their style of poetry (cf., e.g., Asclep. XI, xn, xvi in Gow-Page, HE)
even though the tone of Tibullus' poem is very different.

6-2

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A. W. BULLOCH

day. And even from the fragmentary remains we can see that these Iambi were poetry
of very high quality and well likely to be influential amongst later writers.
One famous Greek writer I have not so far mentioned - Philetas. Was he important
to Tibullus? The answer to that question is doubly difficult, because not only does
Tibullus never mention the name of any other writer, Greek or Roman, but virtually
nothing of Philetas' poetry survives: a sum total of about 40 lines, consisting mostly
of odd couplets, lines and half-lines. However, one's suspicions are aroused. Propertius mentions Philetas a number of times as one of the great elegists with whom he
would himself like to be numbered, and my feeling is that he protests too much. I
would hazard that Tibullus and Propertius and all other Roman poets too - had
probably read less Philetas than any reader of this paper. Propertius mentions Philetas
four, possibly five, times: in each instance but one the name is bracketed with that of
Callimachus to represent the elegiac canon (2. 34. 31., 3. 1. 1, 4. 6. 3 f., ?y. 9. 44?) and
in the remaining instance (3. 3. 51 f.) Philetas is mentioned as the source of poetic
inspiration in the last couplet of the poem just as Callimachus was similarly referred to
in the opening couplet. Ovid mentions Philetas four times: twice bracketed with
Callimachus as representing the teneripoetae (A A 3. 329, RA 760), and twice as a poet
who had celebrated his mistress Battis (Trist. 1. 6. 2, Ex Ponto 3. 1. 57 f.). Statius
Silv. 1. 2. 252 ff. names Philetas once as a love poet in a list with Callimachus and
Propertius. Thereafter the only other mention is in Quintilian x 1. 58 who says that in
elegy Callimachus is the leader while Philetas was reckoned to come second {secundas
confessioneplurimorum Philetas occupavii). Quintilian surely gives the game away with
that aorist.
Can we really come to any other conclusion than that the Romans knew Philetas
only as a name on a list, together with minimal information such as could be found in
any encyclopaedia that he came from Cos and celebrated his mistress in his poetry?
A manuscript of his poetry might have survived for a while in Alexandria, but even
that is not necessary: the surviving fragments come mostly from Stobaeus, who was
doubtless relying on earlier anthologies, occasionally from the early Antigonus
Carystius, from scholarly works like Hesychius, Stephanus of Byzantium, and the
ancient commentaries to Apollonius Rhodius, Theocritus and Homer, the grammarians and the Etymologicum Magnum (all of which are inevitably recessive), and
Athenaeus, who, like Strabo, will have relied on earlier anthologies. Only Parthenius
might have read some of his poetry: ch. 2 of hispwTiKaTrcx8f|uccTa summarises Philetas'
Hermes (and thereby made it unnecessary for the original to be read if it did survive),
but he too could well have been relying on a summary such as might have been found
in the catalogue of the Library at Alexandria or Pergamon. There are clear indications
that Philetas' scholarly work survived only through quotation in other authors after
200 years or so, and the same could well have happened to his poetry: it is often the
fate of forerunners that they are made obsolete by those whom they enable to supersede them.1
1
Wilamowitz, Textgesch. der griech. Bukol. 152, argued that the scholion to Theocr. 7. 5-9k
implies that Nicanor of Cos wrote a commentary to Philetas' poetry; however the scholion to
7. 5-90 suggests rather that Nicanor's work concerned Theocritus himself.
G. Kuchenmtiller, Philetae Coi Reliquiae (Diss. Berlin, 1928), 28-35, also concludes that the

TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS

85

An author to whom Tibullus does seem to have responded is Theocritus, and indeed
we would be surprised if this were not so, but between the two authors the differences
are more apparent, to my mind, than the similarities. Tibullus is often described as a
great pastoral poet, and one modern scholar has gone so far as to say that he shows' a
true peasant's feeling for the Italian countryside'.1 Now if there is one thing which the
sophisticated Tibullus is not it is surely a 'true peasant'; Theocritus is no peasant
either, but his rustic characters are definitely of peasant stock.
The essential feature of Theocritus' pastoral poems (and many of the non-pastoral
poems too) is that they are aimed at creating an illusion - sophisticated and transient,
but none the less an illusion of an actual landscape. They were written for the appreciation of a socially superior city readership, and to that extent they are not true
'popular' poetry, but none the less Theocritus' pastoral world is not an idyllic
Arcadia: certainly the success of the Bucolica depends on a tactful balance between a
convincing presentation of rural life and the temporary suspension of the harsher unpleasant aspects which in reality disturb the tranquillity of the countryside, but in
Theocritus farm-workers reap the corn, sweat and tire as they do so, retreat gratefully to the small shade of a tree while the sun is at its hottest and converse about boiled
beans and their lecherous affairs.
Tibullus' countryside has no clear definition: it is a place where an old stone or a
half-forgotten tree stump has been garlanded by an unknown traveller (i. r. n-12).
In Theocritus people work: for Tibullus labour is something quite extraordinary. In
1. 1. 29ff.,for instance, expressing his contentment with modest means and country
produce the poet thinks he will not be ashamed to go hoeing and herding cattle: to be
more correct, of course, one should say that he hopes he will not be ashamed, for the
whole poem is a wish in the subjunctive mood. That subjunctive, non.. .pudeat, is
not just a stylistic feature. In 2. 3 rura meant, Cornute, where Tibullus laments that
Nemesis has gone off to the country, the poet comments that love would even persuade him to work in thefields:just as Apollo demeaned himself working as a shepherd
for his beloved Admetus (vv. 5-28). An indication of Tibullus' passionate feelings for
Nemesis would be blisters on the hands!
Tibullus' rustic world is a safe dream-world, a place of plentiful food and wine, cosy
festivals and country-dancing: it is an area of betwixt and between where, with the
poetic imagination as our intermediary, we may regain the Paradise Lost. The essential
implausibility and Utopian nature of Tibullus' rusticism indicates the danger of trying to read his poetry in the perspective of the pastoral tradition. Tibullus' fundamental divergence from the pastoral writers is best pointed up by a comparison with
Theocritus. Consider, for example, Theocritus 16. 88-97 and Tibullus 1. 10. 45-54:
&TEOC 8 1 TTpOTEpOlCl TT&AlV VOtfolTO TTOAfTCClC,
6UCHEVCOV oca XE'PC Aco|3i'|cavTO KOCT' aKpac

dypouc 5' epydjoivro xeQocAdTac" al 6' &vapi6uoi

uf|Acov x^iaSEC poTava 6Krmav6e!ccu
Roman elegists had not read Philetas, though some of his arguments and other conclusions are less
acceptable.
1
F. K. Quinn latin Explorations (London, 1963), p. 136.

86

A. W. BULLOCH
ocu TTE6(OV pXrix^VTO, (J6EC 5" dyAT)86v k cc&Xiv

ipx^uEvai a<vi9atov femcrrE\i8oiv 65(TOV

VElol 5 ' ^KTTOVfolVTO TTOTl CTTdpOV, dv(KCC TETTl

eVSfouc TrecpuAocyuEVoc C/vf/66i 8lv8pcov

Iv dxpEudvEcav dp&xvia 6' Etc 6TTA' dpdxvai
AEirrd Siotcn^caivTO, poac 6" tri ur|8' 6vou* ein.
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.
rusticus e lucoque vehit, male sobrius ipse,
uxorem plaustro progeniemque domum.
sed veneris tune bella calent, scissosque capillos
femina, perfractas conqueriturque fores.
Theocritus looks forward to the security which the success of Hieron's military
efforts might bring to Syracuse: Tibullus, horrified to have received his call-up for
military service, exclaims at the folly of war when life is so short and hopes that he may
grow old enjoying life in the country. Superficially these passages are similar, describing the agricultural prosperity which peace allows when the weapons of war are put
away to accumulate cobwebs and rust. But look carefully at the detail: first, although
Theocritus expresses his vision of peace as a prayer, Tibullus formulates part of his
account as a historical catalogue in praise of peace - the future benefits of peace may
be at only one remove rhetorically, but they are not expressed directly. Secondly,
Theocritus' description is rich in landscape particulars: the sheep Heat across the
plain, cattle are herded back to their homestead, the cicada chirps in a tree looking
down (notice the way the reader is actually taken into a specific view of the scene) on
shepherds working in the mid-day sun - not just sheep, cattle, and trees, but the sounds
and the heat too; Tibullus, on the other hand, describes oxen ploughing and the vines
producing wine in brief terms with all the insubstantiality of conventional expression.
Tibullus' armour is taken over by rust: Theocritus watches the living spider setting
up itsfinewebs (vv. 96-7 dpdxvia AEirrd). The most vigorous part of Tibullus' passage
is the emphasis on continued security: v. 48 wine made by the father will be enjoyed
by the son; Tibullus expresses this in terms of the family situation, but for Theocritus
the continuity is implied in the cyclical work by which the farmer plans for the next
season: v. 94 the fields are ploughed in the summer, for sowing (next autumn, for the
harvest the following year). Finally, the travellers making for destinations in the evening complete the contrast: Tibullus' farmer is jovially drunk even before he drives
home; in what is surely the most expressive part of Theocritus' description the traveller meets the cattle going back to the homestead and knows that twilight will soon be
night so that he must hurry - the encounter is not only vivid, it actually demonstrates
the power of peace when sheep and cattle can be taken out to pasture and the traveller
can go abroad in safety.
The intense actuality of Theocritus' landscape reveals better than anything else, I
think, that the pastoral aspect of Tibullus' poetry is sentiment - mood and sentiment.

TIBULLUS AND THE ALEXANDRIANS

87

Much of what survives of Theocritus' poetry, therefore, was of little interest to Tibullus (unlike his contemporary Vergil): for example, the conversational poems like
Idylls 4 and 5. However, we should not forget that Theocritus was important as the
creator of the dramatised love poem such as Id. 2 'The Pharmaceutria' or 12 'The
Loved One', which take the form of 'monologue love situations', and also wrote a
paraclausithyron (3) and in 11' Cyclops' a semi-narrative wooing. In these love poems
success depends on the reader being at least to some extent external to the poet and the
situation about which he is writing and thus in a position to appreciate the irony or the
wit with which the poet handles and comments on his material: Tibullus' main concern is the feelings which a situation generates, and his poetry is successful in proportion to the degree to which he can involve his reader. There is a fundamental difference, therefore, but none the less Theocritus provides the means which enable
Tibullus' style of poetry to be written.
We should also remember how little we know about what happened after Theocritus;
doubtless other poets continued to write 'monologue love situation' poetry (two
examples are pseudo-Theocritus 23 and the so-called Alexandrian Erotic Fragment
(J. U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina 177-80)). And we should not forget that
according to the Suda Theocritus wrote 'EAEyefccc KCCI '16CH|3OUC (S.V. 06Kprroc).
Elegies by Theocritus! How much we would give for that roll of papyrus.
In Tibullus' description of the pastoral benefits of peace to which I have just
referred (1. 10. 45-54), when the drunken farmer has driven home the evening is
spent in lovers' brawls and energetic paraclausithyra. To the reader of Theocritus
such a bald, even thoughtless, transition may seem vapid and perhaps laughable.
Certainly the theme of pastoral security is not handled to much morally serious effect
(however much Tibullus himself may genuinely and deeply have felt the war-weariness shared by many of his generation), but we must be careful to note the significance
of the juxtaposition of the pastoral with the love scene; Tibullus has moved away from
the Hellenistic emphasis on situation to a style of poetry concerned with sentiment,
and what the simple country existence and the passion of a love affair have in common is
that they both belong to the lost innocence of paradise. And even though he uses
the orthodox Hellenistic themes and treatment without the imaginative flair and intensity which distinguishes Propertius, Tibullus seems to me to be remarkable for a
quality which is not very often emphasised by modern critics psychological tact.
This manipulative deftness links Tibullus fundamentally with the Hellenistic
author by whom he was most extensively influenced, Callimachus. Such a coupling of
one of the most intellectually brilliant and perverse of Greek authors with the mild
and orthodox Tibullus may seem initially improbable. However, Callimachus, with
all his erudition and literary connoisseurship, is particularly remarkable for the ease
with which he breaks restlessly from one topic to another, constantly changing tone,
direction and tempo, with the continuous scrutiny of a devastating sardonic and
ironical wit: such a combination of qualities would be disastrous without the overriding control of a notable psychological insight into the mood of the reader. Tibullus
has the same insight even though his concerns as a poet are radically different from
those of Callimachus.

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i. i divitias alius is justly admired for the tactfulness with which he expresses unwillingness to join Messalla at war: the procedure, through the presentation of sentiments about the value of the simple life in rustic tranquillity, the need for loyalty to his
mistress, and his desire to breathe his last in Delia's arms, is deft to say the least.
Messalla is beautifully complimented and Delia is reminded of her obligations to the
poet: whatever the historical situation may have been in which this poem was written,
the one person whose interests and standing are enhanced by it is Tibullus.
But the most outstanding example of Tibullus' adroitness is surely i. 8 non ego
celari. This is not, to my mind, a poem displaying 'real kindliness' or'the thorough
appreciation of an amusing situation', and the situation is surely not one involving 'a
Roman gentleman and a couple of irresponsible slaves from the East' (K. F. Smith,
p. 52): this is a wounding poem, sharp and canny. From the start Marathus is exposed,
found out: his signals and whispers indicate that he is in love with the girl (1-2).
Marathus must feel guilty, and/or Tibullus spiteful. In two couplets reminiscent of
Callimachus E. 43. 5-6 the poet emphasises how exact his knowledge is and reveals
his own interest in the situation, as Marathus' lover (3-6). Marathus should admit to
his affair: Tibullus stresses the agony of love (7-8), and then not only taunts Marathus
for having tarted himself up so much (9-14) but also harps on the boy's feelings of
frustrated love by pointing out that she, by contrast, made no effort to beautify herself (\ 5-16). Marathus' feelings are played on further with a final insult: the poet considers a generous explanation for Marathus' infatuation, that he was won over by
magic spells (and not therefore responsible) (17-22), but rejects this for the more
damaging conclusion that physical pleasure was the cause. In 25-6 Tibullus dwells
on the sensual details of that pleasure, which the girl now denies Marathus. So much to
discomfort the boy.
Tibullus turns to the girl (27). She must not be difficult and demand gifts
(which she obviously has been doing). (The emphasis in 31-2 on Marathus' youth,
his smooth lips and cheeks, slyly reminds the boy of the reason why Tibullus appreciates him, and implicitly suggests the advice of all Hellenistic paederastic poetry
that the boy should make full use of the short time during which he is attractive to a
male lover.) In the guise of encouraging the girl Tibullus again (33-8) stresses the
sensual details of their lovemaking (another dig at Marathus) and urges her not to be
grasping: avarice leads to solitude (39-40) and later she will regret the missed opportunities for enjoyment. Tibullus details carefully the unattractiveness of old age and
its need for the disguise of make-up (41-6).
Most of this has been implicitly critical and explicitly discomforting to the girl, and
Tibullus now draws the conventional Hellenistic moral from the theme ' youth soon
passes, so enjoy yourself, but framed so as to discomfort Marathus again: 'stop
torturing the boy' (49-52). What follows is maliciously logical: a lengthy report of
Marathus' despair, in Marathus' own words, of the girl's fickleness and evasiveness
and his own failure as a lover (53-66). The poet apparently offers comfort, but
expressed so as to mock the boy: she is incorrigible and his eyes look puffy from
crying (67-8). Tibullus pretends to reprimand Pholoe (69-70), but more lines are
devoted to the irony that once it was Marathus himself who used to be so disdainful

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of his lovers (71-4). (Note the ironical fertur in 73.) The penultimate couplet notes
how little Marathus likes his own treatment applied to himself (75-6), and even
though the final two lines are addressed to Pholoe the message is one from Tibullus to
Marathus: 'don't be haughty, or you'll regret it' (77-8).
This is a miniature tour de force. The material is mostly conventional, but its
composition into an emotional taunting of Marathus designed to bludgeon him back
to his lover-poet recalls the psychological acuteness with which Callimachus mockingly narrates the embarrassment of Erysichthon's bourgeois parents at their son's
plight in Hymn vi; both writers have the capacity to be rather vicious.
Tibullus was highly valued by later generations, and although we may be surprised that he should have been so much preferred over Propertius, the simplicity
and directness of Tibullus was obviously a great advantage. More important, one
suspects, was the fact that his writing is so polished and well turned: to a society which
was becoming increasingly concerned with style and rhetorical presentation, Tibullus'
instinctive awareness of how to achieve a particular effect with psychological impact
but with little formal disruption was doubtless a considerable recommendation.
Together with this stylistic elegance went a penchant for attractive sentiment,
pleasingly morbid and rather self-centred, but nothing too provocative or disturbing.
And finally he was quite patently cultured and well educated and thoroughly versed
in the best Greek authors.
KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

A. W. BULLOCH