Tibulle (in Latin Albius Tibullus ) is a Roman poet elegiac born towards 54 av. J. - C. and died in 19 av. J. - C.. With Virgile and Horace, it is one of the inventors of pastoral poetry.

Biography

All that one knows of Tibulle, it is what say to us its Élégies as well as a passage of Horace and a late anonymous biographical life.

It is born in Gabies, towards - 54 in a rustic and easy equestrian family, but whose fortune had been seriously chipped by the ground redistributions to the veterans in - 41, measurement which also touched Virgile, Horace and Properce. The family property was on the territory of Pedum, between Tibur and Préneste. It is supposed that it lost his father early and that it was high between his mother and her sister. Mr. Valerius Messalla Corvinus was his constant guard and did of him one of the favorites of his circle. Tibulle took share with the two military forwardings carried out by Messalla as a Gaulle and the East.

Its friendship with Horace is attested by the two parts that this last addressed to him: the ode I, 33 and epistle I, 4. Its death followed very close that of Virgile, and the quasi-simultaneity of these two disappearances did not fail to strike the spirits, as this epigram testifies some to a contemporary poet, Domitius Marsus:

quoque Te Vergilio comitem not aequa, Tibulle, Bit iuuenem campos misit AD Elysios, Drill aut reduced soft which fleret amores Aut caneret forti regia bleated fag.

“You also, Tibulle, to accompany Virgile there, An iniquitous death has you, in the flower of the age, envoy to the Fields-Elysées, So that it had there nobody any more to cry the tender loves in elegiac worms Nor to sing the wars of the kings on the heroic meter. ”

Was this tragedy coincidence the pure fruit of the chance? Some doubt it today, blaming the responsibility for the emperor. With regard to Tibulle, the suspicions are based particularly on the analysis of epistle I, 4 of Horace and elegy III, 9 of the Amores of Ovide.

That Tibulle was adverse mode augustéen and an assiduous follower of the cacozelia latens , or “secret writing” - practiced by Virgile, Horace, Properce and Ovide -, it is what comes out from an attentive reading of the two parts that Horace addressed to him. Epistle I, 4, for example, specifies that this poet considered tender and inoffensive owed, in its elegies, “to overcome the opuscules of Cassius of Parma”: however, Cassius of Parma was one of the assassins of Jules César, and its calame was worth a scraping-knife.

Let us add that Tibulle could forget with difficulty that Auguste had been the large project superintendent of spoliations of - 41.

Work

The Corpus Tibullianum transmitted to us under his name 4 books of elegies, of which only the two first are regarded today as authentic. The poet sings there his tumultuous loves for two successive women, Délie and Némésis, like for a young boy of the name of Marathus. Such is at least the alibi.

• Book I: 10 elegies. It was published into -26,-25.

• Livre II: 6 elegies (delivers unfinished). It was published in a posthumous way.
• Books III and IV: they belong to the Corpus Tibullianum and are apocryphal books.

Deliver I

It counts 10 elegies published of living of Tibulle, but which are not chronological. One cannot thus say which precedes the other:

• 5 elegies with Délie.
• 3 elegies with Marathus.
• 2 isolated parts: 1 elegy with Messala and 1 elegy against the war.

- Reduced 1 : Tibulle refuses the war and the richness which it gets. He preaches the ideal of a simple life, in the countryside, with Délie. This elegy is after the disease of Tibulle in Corfou. “It is necessary to be delighted, says it, because death can occur at every moment. ” (Cf Philosophy of the “Carpus diem”.)

- Reduced 2 : It is former to the first. It is the topic of the closed door ( Paraclausithuron ). Untie is married and cannot devote itself to Tibulle. This last would like well that Délie showed audacity, it which is protected by Venus. A magician will intervene for it. Untie is the only love of the life of Tibulle, love of which he is prisoner.

- Reduced 3 : She is former to the preceding one. Tibulle is alone in Corfou. It evokes death, in moral loneliness, and the Champs Elysées where Venus itself led the lovers.

- Reduced 4 : It is devoted to Marathus. Tibulle addresses an art to him to like in miniature in which it speaks in praise of poetry. It is the most invaluable homage which one can keep for the homosexual love.

- Reduced 5 : The rupture with Délie is consumed: it accepted the offers of a rich person admiror. Tibulle evokes, n the other hand, the happy love in the countryside.

- Reduced 6 : Last elegy délienne. Untie was made courtesan. Her husband cannot any more control it nor to avoid his overflows. Tibulle still believes in a shared love.

- Reduced 7 : Tibulle addresses a praise to Messala at the time of a birthday. It then evokes Osiris, god of Egypt, whose Messala was the governor, like Isis.

- Reduced 8 : Tibulle addresses its praise to Marathus. This last does not like Tibulle, but Pholoé, young girl who does not like Marathus, but another… Tibulle is addressed to Pholoé in the incentive to gather the pinks of the life and by honouring it with its love.

- Reduced 9 : Marathus was let corrupt by an old man who has money. Made indignant Tibulle announces to him that all is finished between them.

- Reduced 10 : This elegy is after -29, year when Tibulle is falls ill in Corfou. The author speaks there about the horror of the war, the fear of died and spoken there in praise of the love.

Deliver II

Book II seems unfinished, at the end of the sixth elegy. But the pieces of poetry are written in the chronological order.

- Reduced 1 : This rustic part evokes the purification of the fields: it is an anthem in the countryside, its divinities and Amour.

- Reduced 2 : It is devoted to certain Cornutus, to which Tibulle addresses its elegy at the time of its birthday and of its marriage. Tibulle says to him that his wife will be faithful. There is undoubtedly irony…

- Reduced 3 : It is devoted to Némésis, this woman venal who will make suffer Tibulle. He dream to be a slave rustic, rural, to be near it which is in Rome.

- Reduced 4 : It is again devoted to Némésis. Tibulle expresses its revolt and its despair in front of the cupidity and the coldness of the young woman. It is ready to be done criminal and to fly of gold, if it is needed, to allure it.

- Reduced 5 : It is a national elegy addressed to the oldest son of Messala at the time of his election as a to quindecimuir , with the college of the Omens, which had the aim of preserving the sibylline books that the Senate was to consult only in the event of major force.

- Reduced 6 : This elegy is, last once, devoted to Némésis, lasts courtesan who will cause the despair of Tibulle.

Deliver III

It contains: - 6 elegies of Lygdamus - 6 burning tickets of Sulpicia the young niece of Messalla - elegies of Tibulle

Deliver IV

3 important parts are distinguished:

• part 1: panegyric with Messala.
• parts 2 to 6: they are apocryphal books.
• parts 7 to 16: Sulpicia sings its beloved whom it will end up liking in spite of him and Lérinthus sings Neaera that he will lose.

Style

A pure and elegant style, a tender and tinted heart religiosity, where passion in love is linked with a sincere love of nature, such would be, according to the tradition, the clean marks of the genius tibullien. But it is there only part of the truth, or rather it is only one face of the medal.

Because beside tender Tibulle, there is violent and even furious Tibulle. Beside pious Tibulle, there is the blasphemer. Beside elegant and polished Tibulle, it there with the coarse and vulgar man. Beside in love with the countryside, there is the townsman who crushes of his contempt people and the things of the ground.

It is not to return justice in Tibulle only to want to be unaware of these deep disparities or systematically to minimize them by putting them at the account of alleged a variatio which does not explain anything. Another solution consists in on the contrary tracking without kindness all the dissonances which strew this poetry, until revealing the invisible diagram which governs the succession of the elegies, namely alternation of two irreconcilable speakers, the Ego-Poet and the Ego-Prince. A diagram preciously sanctioned by a strict numerical equality between these two votes, as it is the case for the elegies of Properce. It is only from this point of view that this poetry can start to reveal its secrecies, whereas a reading punt and undifferentiated can only affadir it and betray it.