Tibullus book 2

The book has a symmetrical or chiastic structure, as follows: :1 – The farmer's life :2 – In honour of Cornutus :3 – Complaint about Nemesis :4 – Complaint about Nemesis :5 – In honour of Messalinus :6 – The lover's life The poems are of differing lengths: 90, 22, 84, 60, 122, and 54 lines respectively. (Some lines are missing from poem 3; 80 lines of it survive.) If the length of each poem is added to its opposite, the following pattern emerges: :1 + 6 = 144 lines :2 + 5 = 144 lines :3 + 4 = 144 lines For this reason, although some scholars have conjectured that the book was left unfinished, or that part of poem 6 was lost, it is argued by Helena Dettmer that the book is complete as it is. ==Characters==

Nemesis and Phryne By the time Tibullus wrote these poems, Delia (Tibullus's girlfriend in book 1) had disappeared, and another woman called Nemesis had taken her place. Tibullus says he has been in love with her for a year (2.5.119). She is named after Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution. Like Delia, Nemesis appears to have been a high-class courtesan. Before she will sleep with anyone, she requires gifts (2.4.33). These include, for example, clothes made of Coan silk interwoven with gold threads; a retinue of black slaves; fabrics dyed with north African and Tyrian purple (2.3.50–78). Green emeralds and pearls are also welcome (2.4.27–30). Nemesis has a (a procuress) called Phryne who arranges encounters with other wealthier lovers and keeps Tibullus waiting outside (2.6.43–54). So rapacious is Nemesis that at one point Tibullus even contemplates selling his ancestral estate to pay for her (2.4.53). (According to Horace (Satires 1.2.55–56) a person called Marsaeus was notorious for doing exactly this.) Nemesis had a sister, of whom Tibullus had been very fond, but it seems that the sister had died after falling out of a high window (2.6.39). Cornutus Poems 2 and 3 are both addressed to a certain Cornutus, who in poem 2 is celebrating his birthday and not yet married. The identity of Cornutus is not certain, but may well be the M. Caecilius Cornutus who, according to an inscription of 21 BC (CIL VI 32338), was a member with Messalla of the Arval college, or possibly his son, mentioned in another inscription (CIL VI 2023a) as an Arval in AD 14. Several scholars have suggested that he is the same as the person mentioned under the pseudonym "Cerinthus" in the poems of Sulpicia and in the Garland of Sulpicia preserved in book 3 of the Tibullan collection: the phonetic similarity of the names, the false etymology linking "Cerinthus" to Greek (keras) 'horn', the equivalent of Latin , as well as the similarity of the situation described in 3.11 and 3.12, in which it appears that "Cerinthus" is about to marry Sulpicia, make this plausible but not certain. A complication is the similarity of his situation to that of "Cerinthus" addressed in Horace's Satire 1.2.81 (dated about 35 BC), to whom Horace gives the advice that it is better to have sex with a freedwoman than a rich aristocratic woman. It is not known if this is the same person. For Maltby, however, who argues that the Sulpicia poems and the Garland were not written in the time of Tibullus but much later, the persona of "Cerinthus" is a literary construct invented on the basis of Tibullus 2.2 and Horace. However, the Macer mentioned here is not thought to be the same poet as Aemilius Macer of Verona (mentioned in Ovid's 4.10.43–44) or the same as Pompeius Macer, another poet who is said to have written tragedies and epigrams in Greek. According to a suggestion made by Leah Kronenberg, Macer ('the thin one') might be a pen-name for the poet Valgius Rufus, a friend of Messalla and a member of his circle. In the Panegyricus Messallae 180, it is said that 'no one is nearer to Homer than Valgius' in language similar to that used by Ovid of Macer. Whether the phrase 'he is following the camp' means that Macer was really departing on a military campaign or whether it refers metaphorically to a change to writing epic poetry is unknown. ==Poem 1 – ==

Summary of poem 1 • 1 Tibullus calls on those present to bless the crops and fields in the traditional manner. He invokes Bacchus (god of wine) and Ceres (goddess of corn) and declares that no one must work on this day. No one who has had sexual relations the night before should approach the altars. • 15 A sacred lamb is going to the altars, followed by worshippers wearing wreaths of olive leaves. He prays to the ancestral gods to bless the farm and the farmers, and keep the crops and livestock safe. Then the farmer will heap logs on the fire and a crowd of home-born slaves will play in front of it. • 25 Tibullus declares that the omens of the sacrifice are good. He calls for fine wine: it is no shame to get drunk on such a day. Every one should drink to Messalla and celebrate his triumph over the Aquitanians. He calls on Messalla to be present. • 37 He sings of the gods of the countryside, who taught people how to build houses, plough, construct wagons, plant fruit, water their gardens, make wine, harvest corn, and collect honey. • 51 It was in the country that farmers first sang rustic songs and held dances for Bacchus, and boys first decorated the Lares with flowers. It was in the country also that women learnt how to spin and weave wool. • 67 Cupid himself is said to have been born among the herds; now he has grown more skilled and aims his bow at humans! Young men lose their wealth, old men make fools of themselves, girls walk at night to visit their lovers. Happy is he for whom Love is gentle! Tibullus calls on people to pray to the god for their flocks, and for themselves. • 87 Now Night is coming, and after her the stars. Sleep, silent on dark wings, and dreams follow. Notes on poem 1 A rural festival The poet sings a hymn celebrating a rural festival, probably the ("blessing of the farm"), taking on the role of a priest or ("seer"). The festival is sometimes said to be the Ambarvalia. However, there appears to be insufficient evidence to link Tibullus's description to any particular festival. The Messalla mentioned in this poem is Tibullus's patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, who at this period was the "most important literary patron after Maecenas". Among other people in his circle were the young Ovid. Messalla himself wrote memoires, philosophical and grammatical works, and, it seems, bucolic poetry in Greek. The song celebrating the countryside in lines 37–66 itself has a chiastic structure, in that the words in the first half are echoed by the same or similar words in reverse order in the second half, making a pleasing balance. The phrase 'with sure foot' (line 52) which ends the first half of the poem is echoed by 'with unsure foot' (line 90) which ends the second half. ==Poem 2 – ==

Summary of poem 2 • 1 The poet, acting as priest or as in 2.1, calls on the people to be silent and join in a sacrifice to celebrate a birthday; the "Genius" (guardian god) is invited to be present to receive the offerings of perfumed oil, honeyed cake, and wine. • 9 He tells Cornutus that the god is nodding favourably, and that he should now make a wish. Tibullus predicts that Cornutus has prayed for a faithful love, and that he will prefer this to any amount of land or jewels. • 17 Tibullus prays that the god of Love will bind Cornutus in the golden chains of marriage, and that these will last till he and his wife are old; and may a crowd of small children play around their feet. Notes on poem 2 This poem is of the type called genethliakon or birthday poem. Other examples are Tibullus 1.7, poems 3.11 and 3.12 in the Garland of Sulpicia and 3.14 and 3.15 in Sulpicia's poems in book 3 of the Tibullan collection. On the identity of Cornutus, see above. The poem as a whole is a ring composition, beginning and ending with the birthday god Natalis and the words 'he comes, may it come'. The central section of the poem (lines 11–16) is Tibullus's prediction that Cornutus will pray for a faithful wife who is to be preferred to vast estates and rubies and pearls. Helena Dettmer argues that this poem has several points of contact with poem 5, despite being much shorter, and appears to be an example of parallel writing (see below for details). ==Poem 3 – ==

Summary of poem 3 • 1 Tibullus complains to Cornutus that his girlfriend has gone to the country. Venus and Love (Cupid) have both gone to the country with her. He says he would be prepared to go and be a slave on her farm in order to have a chance to see her. He would not complain about the hot sun or about blisters on his hands. • 11 Even the god Apollo, when he was in love with Admetus, became a cowherd and learnt how to make cheese. His sister (Diana) was embarrassed to meet him; people consulted his oracle in vain; even his mother (Latona) was saddened to see his beautiful hair in disarray. But if a god is in love, it is better to be talked about than to lack love. • 33 He addresses the rival lover (...). The current age of iron is ruled by desire for booty, which causes people to go to war and even to fight on the sea. Booty-hunters care only for seizing extensive estates for sheep, importing huge columns of foreign stone into the city, and building fish-ponds in the sea. • 47 Tibullus himself would be content to eat off pottery dishes. But alas, girls like costly things. Let his Nemesis make her way through the city adorned with Tibullus's gifts: clothes of Coan silk, dark skinned Indian slaves, and fabrics dyed with Tyrian purple! • 61 He prays that the corn may fail, which has taken away his Nemesis. May Bacchus also abandon the wine vats. People who hide beautiful girls in the countryside deserve to be punished. Let people eat acorns and drink water, like they did in the past. In those days love was free, and there were no guards or doors to shut the lover out. (...) Let them wear skins as clothing. • 77 But if he has no opportunity to see her, what is the point of wearing an elegant toga? He decides to go to the country and submit to the rule of his mistress. Notes on poem 3 Tibullus and Virgil Julia Gaisser (1977) points out that line 11: : :'Even the beautiful Apollo pastured the bulls of Admetus' is an imitation of the following line in Virgil's 10th eclogue (Ec. 10.18.): : :'even the beautiful Adonis pastured sheep near rivers' In Eclogue 10 Virgil depicts the poet Gallus as grieving for his girlfriend Lycoris, who has gone off with a rich soldier. With this imitation Tibullus puts himself in the same situation as Gallus in that poem. The fact that this poem is addressed to Cornutus perhaps indicates that Tibullus is warning his friend of the ruinous expense of keeping a courtesan, and reinforcing his advice in 2.2 to get married. Structure As with other poems in this book, the structure is chiastic: the first 32 lines and the last 20 (61–80) speak of the countryside, framing the central part (33–60), which speaks of non-rustic matters, namely a denunciation of the poet's wealthy rival and Tibullus's despair that Nemesis demands such expensive gifts. In both the first ten lines and the last four Tibullus speaks of his willingness to work as a slave in the fields, provided that he can get a glimpse of Nemesis. The words , and are common to both sections. In the second section Tibullus recounts Apollo's sufferings in the countryside, and addresses the god Phoebus Apollo; in the corresponding section in the second half of the poem Tibullus curses the countryside and addresses the god Bacchus. The words (11, 65), (19, 72), and (28–29, 71–72) link these parts. There are two central sections, one dealing with the wealth desired by men (estates, palaces, fish farms) and the other with the wealth desired by women (Coan silk, black slaves, purple fabrics). Each of these sections has an anaphoric passage: in the first and in the second. Similar anaphoric patterns are also found in the central sections of other Tibullan elegies, such as the repeated of poem 2.6 or of poem 1.10. Within the overall chiastic structure, the Apollo section (11–32) is itself chiastic, with the words occurring at beginning and end, the blushing sister (18) matching the grieving mother (23), the anaphora of (17, 19) matching that of (21, 23), and Apollo's learned songs (20) matching his oracles (21). ==Poem 4 – ==

Summary of poem 4 • 1 Tibullus laments his status as a slave of love. He is burning so much with love that he wishes he was a rock on the cold mountains or a cliff battered by the waves. • 13 His poems are doing no good. If they can't give him access to his mistress, he has no need of the Muses. • 21 The only way open to him is to get money by murder and crime; or to steal the offerings in Venus's temple. Emeralds, wool dyed with purple, Coan silk, pearls from the Red Sea have created his problems and caused the door of his mistress to be shut. But if you bring a valuable gift, the door is opened and even the dog stops barking. • 39 Tibullus warns his mistress that in view of her greed for expensive gifts her house might burn down, and no one will help her; or she may die, and no one will mourn her. • 45 But a good girl who is not greedy, even if she lives a hundred years, will have plenty of mourners. • 51 As things are, however, he is forced to submit to her rule, and even sell his ancestral estate if need be. • 55 Whatever magical potion she prepares for him to enslave him, if only Nemesis will look on him kindly, he will drink it. Notes on poem 4 Links with poem 3 Helena Dettmer points out the parallel arrangement of words and ideas in this poem and poem 3. The centre of the poem according to this scheme is lines 39–44, in which Tibullus warns Nemesis that she will be punished bitterly in future if she only gives love in return for presents. ==Poem 5 – ==

Summary of poem 5 • 1 Tibullus calls on Phoebus (Apollo) to be present while a new priest is installed in Apollo's temple. He asks the god to come in his finest clothes and with his long hair well combed. Apollo has the power of prophecy, and guides augurs and diviners and sibyls to make their predictions. Tibullus prays that Apollo may allow Messalinus to touch the sacred document and teach him to understand it. • 19 A sibyl gave a prophecy to Aeneas, after Aeneas fled from Troy carrying his father and his gods. – At that time Romulus had not yet founded Rome; cows grazed on the Palatine Hill; shepherds hung their votive offerings on trees; boats used to pass through the Velabrum often carrying girls, who, after pleasing their young men, would return to the city with some cheese or a lamb. – • 39 The sibyl told Aeneas that Jupiter was assigning him the farmland of Laurentum. She predicted that one day Aeneas would be worshipped as a god; that the Trojans would have victory over the Rutulians; and that the Rutulian leader Turnus would be killed. She also predicted the founding of Alba Longa by Aeneas's son Ascanius, that Ilia, the mother of Romulus, would be raped by Mars, and that a great city called Rome would grow up on the seven hills and have an empire stretching across the world from East to West. • 65 This was the Sibyl's prophecy, inspired by Phoebus. Four other sibyls prophesied a comet and other signs of a terrible war: the noise of weapons and trumpets in the sky, the dimming of the sun, statues of the gods weeping, and oxen bellowing. • 79 But all this is now in the past. May the bayleaves crackle on the sacred flames as a good omen for the year. Whenever the bayleaves have given a good sign, the barns will be full of corn and the vats full of wine; and shepherds also will celebrate their festival to Pales. Wives will give birth, grandparents will never tire of playing with their little grandchildren. • 95 After the sacrifice, the young people will lie in the shade of trees or awnings and make a feast lying on the turf. Then a drunk young man will quarrel with his girlfriend and say things he will regret. • 105 May Love wander in the world unarmed! Tibullus himself has been wounded by Love's arrows for a year now, singing songs of Nemesis. He begs his girlfriend to spare him so that he can sing of Messalinus when in future he celebrates his triumph; and may Messalinus's father Messalla give entertainments to the crowd and applaud as his son's chariot passes by. Tibullus prays that Phoebus may allow this to happen. Notes on poem 5 Messalinus Poem 2.5 honours Messalinus, eldest son of Tibullus's patron Messalla, on the occasion of his appointment to the , a college of priests whose main function was to guard the prophetic Sibylline books. The year of this appointment is not known for certain but was argued by Syme to be 21 BC. Messalinus is also addressed in a poem written by Ovid in exile after Messalla's death (Ex Ponto 1.7). Messalinus was eventually to receive triumphal honours, but not until AD 12, after his father's death. At the time this poem was written, he was only about 16 or 17. Imitation of Virgil In the poem there are many references to Virgil's Aeneid, especially in the sibyl's prophecy (2.5.39–64) but also elsewhere in the poem. (A full list of these is given in Ball.) It would seem that, although the Aeneid was only officially published after Virgil's death in 19 BC (which was also the year of Tibullus's death), yet Tibullus must have got knowledge of its contents earlier, possibly from Virgil's own recitations, which Aelius Donatus informs us he often gave. Unlike Virgil, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid, Tibullus nowhere mentions or praises Augustus either in this poem or elsewhere, which has been taken by some as indicating that he was not a supporter of Augustus. Acrostics As Leah Kronenberg (2018) points out, there are two acrostics hidden in the poem. The words 'hear me!' are picked out by the first letters of the pentameters from 2.5.16 to 2.5.26; and the word 'may you love!' in the first letters of the last four pentameters of the poem (2.5.116–122). The first acrostic begins with the word 'hidden things' just after the Sibyl has been described as prophesying; the second (which appears to be a message to Nemesis herself) begins just after Tibullus has referred to himself as 'seer' in line 2.5.114. As Cicero points out in his book (2.111–112), acrostics were a regular feature of Sibylline oracles. Structure In Murgatroyd's (1994) analysis the poem, like others in this book, has a chiastic ring structure, as follows: :A 1–18 – Prayer to Phoebus to bless the installation of Messalinus :B 19–64 – The early days of Rome and the Sibyl's prophecy :C 65–78 – Other sibylline prophecies and omens of civil war :B' 79–104 – An omen at the present rite for a prosperous year ahead :A' 105–122 – Prayer to Phoebus to help him in his amatory troubles with Nemesis, so that he can one day celebrate Messalinus's triumph His scheme thus differs from that of Ball (1975), who also considers the poem to be chiastic, but puts the Sibyl's prophecy at the centre. Ball points out that Tibullus 1.7, written in honour of Messalinus's father, has a similar ring structure (see Tibullus book 1). ==Poem 6 – ==

Summary of poem 6 • 1 Macer is off to war. What about the god of Love? Should the god follow along as an armour-bearer? Tibullus calls on the god to recall Macer to his own camp. Or if being a soldier means being spared by Love, Tibullus would like to be a soldier too! • 11 But the closed door of his girlfriend has made that idea impossible for him. Although he has often sworn never to go again, he finds he keeps returning to her doorstep. He addresses the god Love, and wishes he could see the god's arrows broken and his torches extinguished! He chides the god for making him pray for terrible things. • 19 Tibullus would already have ended his life were it not for the hope that things might improve tomorrow. Hope encourages farmers to sow, causes birds and fish to be captured, and consoles chained slaves. Hope promises Nemesis to him, but she keeps refusing. • 29 Tibullus addresses Nemesis and begs her to spare him, for the sake of her sister who died young. Tibullus reveres the sister and says he will bring her gifts and flee as a suppliant to her tomb. The sister, who protects Tibullus, would not wish Nemesis to cause him to weep! He prays that the sister may come and haunt Nemesis in her dreams, looking as she did when she fell to her death from a high window. But he does not wish to make Nemesis unhappy. He says it is the procuress who is causing him grief: Nemesis herself is good. • 45 It is the procuress Phryne who is killing Tibullus, by arranging assignations for Nemesis with other men. Often the procuress pretends that Nemesis is not at home when Tibullus can plainly hear Nemesis' voice inside; or when Tibullus has been promised a night with Nemesis, the procuress tells him she is ill or makes some other excuse. Then Tibullus is tormented by the thought of what the rival is doing inside. He curses the procuress and wishes her a miserable life. Notes on poem 6 General This poem belongs to the type known as a paraclausithyron (a complaint made by a lover outside a mistress's locked door), which was common in ancient love-poetry. Another example in Tibullus is poem 1.2. The opening words of the poem ( "Macer is following a camp") are taken by Murgatroyd literally: Macer, a friend of Tibullus, is about to depart to the army. Helena Dettmer points out a similarity between this poem and poem 2.4 in the descriptions of the mourning which is given to a "good, not greedy" girl in 2.4.45–50 and to Nemesis's sister in 2.6.29–34. There are also several thematic connections to poem 1.10, for example, the theme of military warfare contrasted with amatory warfare. As often, this central section contains general truths, while the passages on either side mention personal concerns, with an appeal to Love in section 2 balanced by an appeal to Nemesis in section 4. The first and last sections balance the actions of Macer against those of Phryne the ('procuress'), and describe Tibullus's reactions. Overall the poem has fewer chiastic verbal echoes than poems 1 to 5, although there are some, for example (line 8) vs (46), (11) vs (43). Within the overall scheme there are other echoes making smaller rings: for example, at the beginning and end of section 1, at the beginning and end of section 2, at the beginning and end of section 3, near the beginning and end of section 4, and at the beginning and end of section 5. ==See also==