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120

miles 'io' magna voce 'triumphe' canet. tum Messalla méus pia det spectacula turbae

et plaudat curru praetereunte pater.

adnue: sic tibi sint intonsi, Phoebe, capilli,
sic tua perpetuo sit tibi casta soror.

6

Castra Macer sequitur: tenero quid fiet Amori?
sit comes et collo fortiter arma gerat?

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This, perhaps the last elegy composed by Tibullus, has a peculiar simplicity of beauty, and illustrates excellently the poet's gentle nature and tender heart.

ROM. EL. POETS-12 177

His resolve to drown the sorrows of unsatisfied love in the sterner scenes of war is soon broken, and after confessing how a groundless hope had so often disappointed him, and after appealing once more to his Nemesis, by her love for her lost sister, to look upon him in pity, he closes by affirming repeatedly that after all his beloved is not herself hard-hearted, and that he does not wish to cause her a moment's pain.

1-14: 'Macer is going to war; why not I, too? Yes! I will bid farewell to love, and be a warrior. Empty words! How often I have sworn to go, but all in vain! 15-28: Cruel Cupid! Perish thy darts! I am tormented continually and should have perished long since but for the kind goddess Hope. Do not try to thwart her, my beloved! 29-40: Be merciful, I beg, by the memory of thy unhappy sister, the favor of whose shade I shall seek in my behalf! 41-54: After all, I would not

5

ΙΟ

et seu longa virum terrae via seu vaga ducent

aequora, cum telis ad latus ire volet?

ure, puer, quaeso, tua qui ferus otia liquit,

atque iterum erronem sub tua signa voca.
quod si militibus parces, erit hic quoque miles,
ipse levem galea qui sibi portet aquam.
castra peto, valeatque Venus valeantque puellae:
et mihi sunt vires, et mihi facta tubast.
magna loquor, sed magnifice mihi magna locuto
excutiunt clausae fortia verba fores.

6. 8. levem AV levi G. 10. facta O flata Cornelissen laeta Postgate.

cause my mistress pain. It is not she, but the old hag that guards her, who grieves me. Curses upon the wretch!'

1. Macer: probably Aemilius Macer of Verona, who, as a friend and contemporary of Vergil, would have been also a friend of Tibullus. He wrote poems on various subjects connected with natural history.

2. sit: G. 259; R. 1610. The answer expected is, of course, a negative one. Cf. Wolff, De Enuntiatis Interrogativis, p. 26.

3. vaga: 'inconstant.' Cf. 2, 3, 39: praeda vago iussit geminare pericula ponto.

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num praecipuos ; also oồɛ in Greek drama, and Eng. slang, "You don't catch this chicken," etc.

8. ipse Tibullus proposes to enlist merely as a private, and would perform every service, however menial, for himself. - levem : in the same sense in which the word is used of food, i.e. easy to digest'; so the plain, hard fare of a soldier's life is thought of. Cf. Hor. Od. 1, 31, 16; cichorea levesque malvae. — galea: the handiest cup a soldier had; cf. Prop. 3, 12, 8: potabis galea fessus Araxis aquam.

10. facta tubast: i.e. not only have I strength in general, but an especial opportunity now open, to go.

11. magna: cf. Ovid, Met. 1, 751: quem quondam magna loquentem; 6, 151: cedere caelitibus, verbisque minoribus uti.

12. fores: i.e. of the house of Nemesis; to find her door closed against him takes all the starch out of his brave resolve.

15

20

25

iuravi quotiens rediturum ad limina numquam!
cum bene iuravi, pes tamen ipse redit.
acer Amor, fractas utinam tua tela sagittas,
si licet, extinctas adspiciamque faces!
tu miserum torques, tu me mihi dira precari
cogis et insana mente nefanda loqui.
iam mala finissem leto, sed credula vitam
Spes fovet et fore cras semper ait melius.
Spes alit agricolas, Spes sulcis credit aratis

semina, quae magno fenore reddat ager:
haec laqueo volucres, haec captat arundine pisces,
cum tenues hamos abdidit ante cibus:
Spes etiam valida solatur compede vinctum
(crura sonant ferro, sed canit inter opus):

14. bene: 'finely,' i.e. with great apparent bravado. Cf. Plaut. Pers. 495: bene dictis tuis bene facta aures meae auxilium exposcunt. iuravi: H. 599, I. — pes . . . ipse: for the reverse idea cf. Prop. 2, 25, 20: invitis ipse redit pedi

bus.

15. acer Amor: cf. 4, 2, 6. sagittas... faces: H. & T. § III.

16. adspiciamque: on the position of the copula cf. 2, 5, 72, n.

18. nefanda: not merely such as have just been spoken (vv. 15– 16), but more serious blasphemies. Cf. 3, 5, 14; 4, 16.

19. finissem: we should expect nisi Spes vitam foveret; but the apodosis becomes an indicative clause, to state the fact more emphatically. Cf. Ovid, A. A. 3, 43 : nunc quoque nescirent! sed me Cytherea docere iussit.

20. cras: a scrawler on the walls of the basilica at Pompeii evidently had this verse in mind when he wrote (CIL. 4, 1837): cur gaudia differs spemque foves et cras usque redire iubes.

22. magno fenore: this modal ablative is really more exact than the corresponding abl. of accomp. in Ovid, Rem. Am. 173: semina

quae tibi cum multo faenore reddat ager; for the original seed is not itself returned to the sower with others at all, but comes back to him only by the 'increase.' Cf. I Ep. to the Corinthians 15, 36-38.

24. tenues: 'slender,' i.e. in comparison to the creatures which are caught on them.

26. crura sonant ferro: the sub

ject is different in English: 'the iron fetters clank upon his legs.'

30

35

Spes facilem Nemesim spondet mihi, sed negat illa.
hei mihi, ne vincas, dura puella, deam.
parce, per inmatura tuae precor ossa sororis :
sic bene sub tenera parva quiescat humo.
illa mihi sancta est, illius dona sepulcro

et madefacta meis serta feram lacrimis,
illius ad tumulum fugiam supplexque sedebo
et mea cum muto fata querar cinere.

non feret usque suum te propter flere clientem:
illius ut verbis, sis mihi lenta veto,

ne tibi neglecti mittant mala somnia manes,

-canit: the subject is violently changed to a personal one easily imagined from the context (vinctum).

27. Nemesim: see Intr. § 24. 28. deam: Spes.

29. inmatura: 'not yet due to death,' so untimely." ossa: by metonomy for mors. Cf. Prop. I, 19, 1, n. — sororis : this rather shadowy person is nameless, but from the definiteness of the details given below seems to be real rather than fictitious.

30. sic. . . quiescat: cf. 2, 5, 63, n.. - sub tenera . . . humo: the petition will be that the ground shall rest tenderly upon the ashes of her dead sister as if it had consciousness to appreciate the conventional request, sit tibi terra levis. The belief that the soul of the dead rested eternally in the grave, while by no means universal among the Romans, is clearly indicated in many epitaphs.

Cf.

K.P.H. in PAPA., Vol. 30 (1899),

p xxx.

31. dona: besides garlands, these included offerings of blood, oil, milk, honey, and perfumes. B.G., p. 521; H. & T. § 3. - sepulcro: not a terminal dat. ; in honor of her tomb.'

34. cum: the word implies the poet's expectation of finding sympathy with him in his woes. — muto equivalent to a concessive clause.

35. clientem: he claims her as a patroness, just as in v. 33 he has played the part of a fugitive slave seeking refuge at her tomb.

36. illius ut verbis: as if I were using her own words.'- sis : the rare subjv. instead of the regular inf. with veto. H. 642, 5. lenta: indifferent.'

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45

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maestaque sopitae stet soror ante torum,
qualis ab excelsa praeceps delapsa fenestra

venit ad infernos sanguinolenta lacus.
desino, ne dominae luctus renoventur acerbi:
non ego sum tanti, ploret ut illa semel.
nec lacrimis oculos digna est foedare loquaces:
lena nocet nobis, ipsa puella bonast.

lena necat miserum Phryne furtimque tabellas
occulto portans itque reditque sinu:

saepe, ego cum dominae dulces a limine duro
agnosco voces, haec negat esse domi:

saepe, ubi nox promissa mihi est, languere puellam nuntiat aut aliquas extimuisse minas.

tum morior curis, tum mens mihi perdita fingit,

45. necat G vetat AV vocat Lachmann suggests.

dreams. 'Her sweet forgotten puellae flendo turgiduli rubent shade' (Williams).

:

39. qualis cf. I, 10, 37, n. 40. lacus cf. Verg. Aen. 6, 134: bis Stygios innare lacus.

41. desino: the only instance of the short final syllable in this word. Tibullus has also nescio. Similar shortenings are rare up to the time of Ovid. Cf. L. 2443. · luctus over her sister's untimely death.

42. Cf. 1, 1, 51, 52. The standpoint of 1, 10, 63-64 is a different one. Cf. also Ovid, Trist. 2, 209: nam non sum tanti, renovem ut tua vulnera.

43. digna est: 'it is not meet that she.' - foedare loquaces: cf. Cat. 3, 17: tua nunc opera meae

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ocelli.

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