A Tibullus Reader: Seven Selected Elegies

Albius Tibullus, considered along with Ovid and Propertius one of the canonical elegists of the Augustan period, was in antiquity deemed the most accomplished of the three. Quintilian sums it up nicely: “In my opinion Tibullus is a very elegant and concise author. There are those who prefer Propertius.” Modern critics, however, have not always been as favorable. The dreamlike quality of Tibullus’s text is sometimes cited as evidence that his poems are smooth or soft, and lacking formal integrity. Paul Allen Miller argues instead for seeing them as a complex tissue of related, interwoven, and sometimes contradictory themes. Miller’s commentary, informed by modern scholarship, accepts the challenge of elucidating the often complex logic of the selected poems.

This edition offers seven complete Tibullan elegies, selected from across the poet’s range of topics: poems on rural life, on Delia, and on homoerotic themes. The commentary provides grammatical and historical information along with detailed explanations to aid in understanding and better appreciating the poet’s unique style.

Special Features

• Introduction to Tibullus’s poetry and the selected elegies, the poet’s life, and the elegiac meter
  
• 596 lines of unadapted Latin text of seven complete Tibullus poems: 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.9, 2.1, 2.3
  
• Notes at the back, complete vocabulary, and suggested readings
  
• Glossary and index of technical terms, two illustrations