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effossos oculos voret atro gutture corvus,
intestina canes, cetera membra lupi.

5

109

Iucundum, mea vita, mihi proponis amorem
hunc nostrum inter nos perpetuumque fore.
di magni, facite ut vere promittere possit
atque id sincere dicat et ex animo,
ut liceat nobis tota perducere vita

aeternum hoc sanctae foedus amicitiae.

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5

116

Saepe tibi studioso animo venante requirens

carmina uti possem mittere Battiadae, qui te lenirem nobis, neu conarere

telis infestum mittere in usque caput,

hunc video mihi nunc frustra sumptum esse laborem,

Gelli, nec nostras hic valuisse preces.

contra nos tela ista tua evitamus amictu:
at fixus nostris tu dabi' supplicium.

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my tactics

6. hic in this respect.' 7. contra: adv.: are now changed, and I am prepared to defend myself and to strike home at your weak points. - amictu: i.e. the fold of the toga around the left arm is sufficient for defense, because your weapons are so harmless. Cf. Pacuv. 186: clamide contorta astu clupeat braccium; Petron. 80: intorto circa brachium pallio conposui ad proeliandum gradum.

8. dabi': the archaic elision of final s, which occurs frequently in Lucretius and in Cicero's early poetic attempts, occurs only here in their contemporary Catullus. Cicero already counsels its avoidance in Orat. 161. Cf. LSHLG, p. 36, n. 2.

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ALBII TIBVLLI ELEGIARVM

LIBER PRIMVS

I

Divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro et teneat culti iugera multa soli,

I, I

1. 2. multa GPM magna AVY.

Written probably in the early part of B.C. 29 (cf. Intr. § 23), perhaps on his country estate at Pedum. This elegy stands at the head of the collection, not chronologically, but as a typical representative of the work of Tibullus, setting forth his tastes and ideals, and serving as a kind of a dedication of Book I to Delia, who is here brought forward as the center of his hopes and joys. The poet signifies his preference for living in peaceful retirement on his family estates, enjoying the delights and freedom of rural life rather than encountering the hardships and perils of a soldier, even for the wealth that might be thus acquired. The acme of his hopes, however, is to be found in the continuance of the favor of his beloved Delia till his dying day.

Haase, Ribbeck, Baehrens, and

others, by their transposition of verses, have wrought havoc with the gentle ebb and flow of the poetic thought so characteristic of Tibullus, which is illustrated in this poem as well as in any. The theme, briefly stated in vv. 1–14, is twice repeated in reverse order (15-36, 37–50), and the third time (51-78) the erotic element in his longing for a quiet stay-at-home life is expanded to the end of the elegy. Cf. Vahlen, Monatsber. d. Ber. Akad. 1878, pp. 343 sqq.; Leo, pp. 28 sqq. For a more artificial analysis cf. K. P. H. in PAPA., Vol. 26 (1895), p. viii. For an appreciation of the genuineness of its feeling, cf. Reitzenstein in Hermes. 47 (1912), pp. 60-116.

1-14: Let another endure the hardships and risks of a soldier's life for the wealth that he may thus gain but let me rather pass my days in the quiet, humble

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