60 65 70 et sedeo duras ianitor ante fores. non ego laudari curo, mea Delia: tecum dum modo sim, quaeso segnis inersque vocer. vincta, neque in tenero stat tibi corde silex. 129 lecto: 'my bier,' which would be 63-64. Cf. 1, 10, 59; Ovid, Am. 67. tu: cf. 1, 4, 39; Prop. I, 7, 25. manes ne laede: the spirit of the departed is represented as being pained by too great grief on the part of loved ones left behind; cf. Prop. 4, II, I. 69. dum. . . sinunt: cf. Prop. 1, 19, 25; 2, 15, 23: dum nos fata sinunt, oculos satiemus amore. — iungamus amores: cf. Cat. 64, 372: quare agite optatos animi coniungite amores. 70. iam for this use of the word cf. Lex. s.v. C. 3; cf. 2, 5, 56. Mors: the abstract idea is 75 iam subrepet iners aetas, neque amare decebit, dicere nec cano blanditias capite. nunc levis est tractanda Venus, dum frangere postes hic ego dux milesque bonus: vos, signa tubaeque, 3 Ibitis Aegaeas sine me, Messalla, per undas, 72. capite OP capiti w. here personified according to Roman habit; but the picture of the goddess thus formed inthe imagination of the poet does not correspond at all to the Greek god Thanatos, commonly represented as a youth sinking down in sleep, with a reversed torch. The idea of such a being was too indistinct at Rome to be represented in any regular Roman type. Horace (Sat. 2, 1, 58) may be intending to liken Mors to an evil bird of prey: Mors atris circumvolat alis. Perhaps the picture here painted by Tibullus takes its main characteristic of a veiled countenance from the Roman custom of concealing the face when applying the torch to a funeral pyre, or from the dim uncertainty shrouding the real nature of death and the future life. Cf. 1, 10, 34. 71. aetas senectus. 72. cano capite : abl. abs.; cf. for the construction 2, 6, 18; and for a similar idea, 1, 2, 90-92. blanditias: soft nothings.' 74. rixas: quarrels of rival lovers. inseruisse engage in.' 75. hic in this field'; cf. the opening verses of the elegy with these closing ones. On the ellipsis of sum cf. Deutsch, pp. 180181. 76. cupidis: i.e. for the opes of v. 77, viz. the same as described in vv. I-2. 78. Cf. Hor. Car. 2, 10, 5-8. I, 3 After the Aquitanian expedition (probably of 31 B.C.) Messalla was sent by Augustus to the East to settle affairs in Cilicia, Syria, and other districts. Tibullus, who had been in his retinue in Aqui me tenet ignotis aegrum Phaeacia terris: abstineas avidas, Mors precor atra, manus. 3. 4. Mors precor atra Yo Mors modo nigra O Mors violenta Codex Wittianus. tania, decided to accompany him thither also. But before he had proceeded far on his journey, the poet fell sick and Messalla was obliged to leave him behind on the island of Corcyra. This elegy must have been written there some time during the year 30 B.C., perhaps in the late summer or the fall, and is the earliest of the collection to which a definite date can be assigned. Sick and lonesome, Tibullus in characteristic fashion at one moment fears imminent death, and the next 'hopes for a joyful return to his home and his Delia. Three times do gloomy forebodings give way to hope, in each case the ground of his pleasant anticipations being a different one, approached in a very skillful man rule, war, the messenger of death, had been invented! But thou, Juppiter, shouldst save me, a religious man. 53-94: But if I must die, let me be duly honored, and let my spirit fly to Elysium. If any have taken advantage of my absence from my love, let his abode be amidst the horrors of Tartarus. But do thou, Delia, remain true to me: and oh! after all, may I live to return unexpectedly and find you waiting for me in your chaste home." 1. Ibitis although Messalla, his patron, stands alone for emphasis at the beginning of the elegy, the verb is in the plural referring to the idea of ipse cohorsque in the next verse; cf. Hor. Epod. I, I. 2. memores: sc. sitis, or vivatis; cf. 3, 5, 31. Such an omission is unusual, but begins to be more common in Tacitus. - cohors: retinue,' composed of not only the necessary officials, but also usually, in such a case, of many young men of rank, just getting thus their first taste of military life; cf. Intr. §§ 21 and 23. 3. Phaeacia: this mythical isle of Homer's Odyssey was identified by later writers with Corcyra. It was a terra incognita to the poet's friends; cf. Ovid, m. 3, 9, 47. 4. Mors... atra: cf. 1, 10, 33. abstineas, Mors atra, precor: non hic mihi mater et fleat effusis ante sepulcra comis, Delia non usquam; quae me cum mitteret urbe, dicitur ante omnes consuluisse deos. illa sacras pueri sortes ter sustulit, illi rettulit e trinis omina certa puer. cuncta dabant reditus: tamen est deterrita numquam, 12. trinis Muretus triviis 0. omina over an erasure ▲ omnia Y, apparently V. 5. For the repetition cf. I, I, 43, n. Similar chiastic repetition in Ovid, Ex P. 1, 2, 58. non hic: cf. Ovid, Trist. 1, 2, 53: est aliquid. . . mandare suis aliqua et sperare sepulcrum. 6. For the details of the ossilegium, which it was the duty of the nearest relative to perform, cf. 3, 2, 9-26 and nn. = 7. Assyrios Syrios, by a common confusion due partly to the similarity in sound, and partly to the haziness of geographical knowledge at Rome. All the products of the East were frequently called Syrios, because shipped to Rome from Antioch, or other Syrian ports. So "Port" wine from Oporto; see Taylor, Words and Places, p. 282; cf. Cat. 68, 144; Prop. 2, 13. 30. — dedat: 'devote.' 8. sepulcra poetic plural. 9. cum mitteret: with conative force when she was trying to make up her mind to let me go.' 11. pueri sortes: little tablets of wood or bronze which would be managed by a puer sortilegus; they were inscribed with some sentiment and drawn one at a time, as a method of divination. All sorts of fortune tellers, astrologers, and soothsayers flourished at Rome, plying their trade especially in certain quarters of the city; cf. Hor. Sat. 1, 6, 113: fallacem circum vespertinumque pererro saepe forum; adsisto divinis ; Cic. De Div. 2, 41. ter: to make the matter sure. 12. rettulit: interpreted.' trinis referring to ter in v. II; the word is not a distributive here. 13. cuncta: referring not only to omina in the preceding verse, but also to the omina implied in v. Io. dabant: foretold.' — reditus : the plural refers to the repeated instances where a safe return was prophesied; cf. 1, 1, 4, n; Ovid, Fast. 1, 279: ut populo reditus pateant ad bella profecto. 15 20 quin fleret nostras respiceretque vias. aut sciat egressum se prohibente deo. 14. respiceretque O respueretque o despueretque Haupt. 17. aves aut waves dant 0. 18. Saturnive accepted by Broukhusius from a certain scholar Saturni 0. 22. sciat O sciet Doering. 15. solator: the appositive is here equivalent to a concessive clause: though I tried to console her'; cf. Madv. 220. — mandata : 'parting injunctions'; cf. Ovid, Trist. 1, 3, 59. 16. tardas: in the active sense; cf. Hor. Sat. 1, 9, 32: tarda podagra. 17. Cf. Ovid, Her. 5, 49–52; Met. 9, 767; Ter. Phorm. 705 sqq. 18. Saturnive . . . diem: subject of tenuisse. The Jewish Sabbath (the seventh day of the week) was known to the Romans as Saturn's day (Saturday). Of this use of the term in literature this is one of the earliest instances, perhaps the earliest. Many passages show that Jewish customs had their share of respectful observance at Rome along with the host of foreign superstitions by this time introduced into Roman life; cf. Edwin Post in Meth. Rev., Vol. 79 (1897), p. 81; Ovid, A. A. 1, 415: quaque die redeunt rebus minus apta gerendis culta Palaestino septima festa Syro; Rem. Am. 219; Hor. Sat. 1, 9, 69. — săcram: Tibullus's rule in regard to this word's quantity seems to be that when one syllable is long the other is short; cf. e.g. sacra in v. 25. But cf. BPW., Vol. 32 (1912), Sp. 394. 22. sciat: i.e. let him learn' from sad experience like my own. - deo: Amore: i.e. even if the gods seem propitious, here is a really opposing divinity. - 23. tua... Isis: the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis had become common at Rome, and was especially popular among women. As the patroness of navigation there would have been particular appropriateness in her being besought by Delia to give Tibullus a safe return. |