Tibullus

par Estelle Debouy, illustré par Mathieu la Mine.
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Dans ce livre, qui se présente comme un abécédaire humoristique, Estelle Debouy a imaginé des définitions de termes de tous les jours à partir de réflexions des poètes latins sur leur temps et sur leurs contemporains : si certaines font sourire, d’autres sembleront d’une étonnante actualité...

C’est donc aux poètes latins que l’auteur laisse la parole : ainsi, plutôt que de réviser des règles de grammaire, elle propose au lecteur qui a le désir de perfectionner son latin, de se replonger dans la lecture des auteurs de l’Antiquité latine. Afin de faciliter l’approche de la langue, elle a pris le parti, dans cet ouvrage, de proposer à la lecture un choix de courts extraits de poèmes latins en contexte.

Mêlant ainsi l’utile à l’agréable, comme dirait Horace, le lecteur, en traduisant ces quelques vers, pourra de façon plaisante réviser son latin : grâce aux remarques sur l’étymologie qui rendent perceptible la forte présence du latin dans notre langue, grâce aux notes de grammaire qui explicitent chaque extrait, et grâce à la traduction proposée en regard, il pourra facilement redécouvrir ces auteurs latins qui sont bien souvent à la source de notre littérature.

Le lecteur trouvera aussi, à la fin du volume, un index grammatical qui lui permettra, s’il le souhaite, de réviser telle ou telle notion de grammaire en relisant tous les extraits qui l’illustrent.

Détails et table des termes abordés sur http://www.safran.be/proddetail.php?prod=LCA29

Beginning with a short characterization of Tibullus 1.5, this essay asks the question: what does the erotic subject matter of Roman elegy tell us about the nature of language? It assesses a handful of approaches to this question from the standpoint of narratology and psychoanalysis (“scientific” approaches in the broadest sense of the word) all focusing on the Roman elegist Tibullus. Science is metaphysics (i.e. “forgetfulness of being”—Heidegger). The paper advises caution in the use of science, the prelude to thinking.

Il presente lavoro si propone di inserire i versi di Tibullo 1, 7 nella corrente culturale non allineata che, negli anni 27-26 a.C., ovvero nel periodo di composizione della stessa elegia, iniziò ad affiancare quella ufficiale e a vedere tra i principali protagonisti Messalla, destinatario del componimento poetico, e il suo circolo, l’unico a mantenere «una certa indipendenza politica».
Concorrono verso una simile lettura non solo il lungo excursus egizio, insolito per lunghezza (ben ventisei versi, sul totale dei sessantaquattro che compongono l’elegia) e per contenuto (inevitabile il richiamo alla guerra aziaca appena conclusa e alla "factio" antoniana), ma anche altri tratti dissonanti rispetto alla propaganda di Ottaviano e qui analizzati.

Tesina scritta per il corso universitario "Esegesi dei testi letterari latini" tenuto dal prof. G. Mazzoli nell'a.a. 2010-2011. Analisi e commento della dibattuta epistola 4 del primo libro oraziano, dedicata ad Albio e riguardante il modus vivendi e dell'amico e dell'autore.

Today it is relatively unquestioned that Sulpicia, the elegiac woman of [Tib.] 3.8-18, was a historical woman of the same name who lived and wrote Latin elegies in Augustan Rome, and that the poems attributed to her are autobiographical records of love, thereby making Sulpicia a Roman version of Sappho. However, if the extant evidence is given a closer look, a different picture emerges. Specifically, if one recognizes the generic conventions at play in the poems, there is no longer reason to date them to the Augustan period, nor to read the figure of Sulpicia as different than any other constructed elegiac woman, nor to read the poems as disconnected from the rest of the genre of Latin love elegy. Rather, the poems quite likely date to after the heyday of the genre, and thus they appear to be pseudepigrapha or chronological fakes, written to recall and respond to the work of the canonical elegists and the Greek roots of the genre. And, if this is their correct context, it follows that the figure of Sulpicia was specifically chosen by the unknown author to provide a particular interpretation and/or comment on the genre, not unlike the fictional figure of Diotima in Plato’s Symposium. The Sulpicia that then emerges is not a Roman Sappho in the sense that we would like her to be, but rather a purely literary figure such as she is portrayed in the first known post-classical construction of her by the humanist Giovanni Pontano. Though such a reading may result in the loss of what was previously thought to be the only extant work of a female Roman poet, this justifiably renewed line of research into male authorship for the poems brings with it much potential.

“Callimachean Allusions in Tibullus 4.” Aevum Antiquum 21, pp. 57–80. This paper discusses Tibullus I 4 with particular attention to three Callimachean intertexts, namely Iambus 9, Aetia fr. 41 and Iambus 3. Iambus 3 in particular proves to be a crucial intertext for the last portion of Priapus' lecture on love. The paper argues that Tibullus does not merely echo the Alexandrian text but reacts to it and dramatically alters its implications. The Roman poet places this allusion at a crucial point, that is, at the end of Priapus' lecture on homoerotic love. The appropriation and subversion of Callimachus' Iambus 3 has a central place in Tibullus' strategy of establishing the literary prestige of his own elegiac endeavor.

Il est traditionnel de présenter les élégiaques comme les tenants d’un mode de vie alternatif. Chantres de l’individualité, ils représenteraient une forme de subversion. Pourtant, les élégiaques décrivaient moins un mode de vie qu’un état psychique. Il est impératif de distinguer dans leurs vers ce qui relève du topos de la uox poetae, plus difficilement discernable. En bien des occasions, la littérature élégiaque se présente comme ludique et non comme incitative. Elle relève des permissivités que s’accorde toute société, dès lors qu’elle n’a d’expression que littéraire. C’est d’ailleurs peut-être parce que Tibulle est celui qui respecte le mieux les codes et l’esprit du genre qu’il fut perçu par les Anciens comme le plus grand des élégiaques. Toutefois, derrière les conventions littéraires, la voix de l’auteur finit parfois par se faire entendre, et avec elle, mezza voce, une certaine vision du monde émerge. Et si l’on veut bien faire leur part aux différences entre élégiaques, on s’aperçoit que le genre autorisait une pensée autonome et qu’il ne contraignait pas les desseins du poète, plus ou moins normatifs ou subversifs en fonction des cas. Properce est sans doute l’élégiaque qui a le mieux répondu aux injonctions de la morale traditionnelle. Chez lui, le portrait de l’exclusus amator a des vertus prophylactiques. Il est parvenu à réutiliser les différents codes élégiaques dans un discours cohérent et personnel au service d’une restauration morale. Ovide est sans conteste plus subversif car, non seulement sa morale est une morale du plaisir et du présent, mais, avec lui, la passion n’a plus rien de tragique. Bien plus, les femmes acquièrent dans son œuvre une volonté et des aspirations propres.

Usually, elegiac poets are portrayed as proponents of an alternative way of life. As heralds of individuality, they are considered as subversive personalities. However, elegiac poets described less a lifestyle than a psychic state. In their verses, a distinction has to be made between topos and uox poetae. Very often, elegiac literature is rather a play in which a kind of permissiveness is expressed, than an incentive discourse. Thus, Tibullus who respected the codes of this genre accurately, was considered as the greatest elegiac poet by the Ancients. However, behind literary conventions, we can sometimes detect the uox poetae and its vision of the world. Through elegy, each poet was able to express his own thought with his own sensibility. Poets could be more or less normative and subversive, depending on the particular case. Among the elegiac poets, Propertius is undoubtedly the one who upheld the most traditional morality. When he described the exclusus amator, he aimed at preventing the emergence of moral decline. Using a personal and coherent way, he succeeded in using elegiac codes, in order to contribute to moral restoration. Undoubtedly, Ovid is more subversive: not only because his morality was a morality of pleasure, but also because in his verses, passion was no more tragic and women had their own will and aspirations.

Traditionellerweise werden die Elegiker als Anhänger eines alternativen Lebensstils angesehen. Als Sänger der Individualität stünden sie für eine Form von Subversion. Tatsächlich aber beschrieben die Elegiker weniger einen Lebensstil als einen Seelenzustand. So ist es wichtig, in ihren Versen zwischen dem Topos und der vox poeta zu unterscheiden, wobei letztere schwieriger zu erkennen ist. Häufig erscheint die elegische Dichtung als spielerisch, nicht als anspornend. Sie zeugt von Regelverletzungen, die es in jeder Gesellschaft gibt, auch wenn diese vor allem in literarischer Form zum Ausdruck gebracht werden. Es ist übrigens möglicherweise aus dem Grund, da er die Regeln und den Geist des literarischen Genres am klarsten respektierte, dass Tibull bei den Alten als der größte der elegischen Dichter galt. Jedenfalls kann man hinter den literarischen Konventionen schließlich zuweilen die Stimme des Dichters selbst vernehmen, und mit ihr wird, mezza voce, eine bestimmte Vision der Welt erkennbar. Und wenn man Unterschiede zwischen den Elegikern sehen möchte, erkennt man, das dieses literarische Genre autonomes Denken zuließ und die Absichten des Dichters nicht einengte: diese waren, von Fall zu Fall, mehr oder weniger normativ oder subversiv. Properz ist ohne Zweifel der Elegiker, der am klarsten den Erwartungen der traditionellen Moral entsprochen hat. Bei ihm besitzt der exclusus amator geradezu prophylaktische Qualitäten. Dem Dichter gelingt es, die verschiedenen Codes der Liebesdichtung in einem kohärenten und persönlichen Diskurs im Dienste einer restaurativen Moral einzusetzen. Ovid ist ohne Zweifel subversiver, da die Leidenschaft bei ihm nichts Tragisches mehr besitzt. Zudem erhalten die Frauen bei ihm einen eigenen Willen und eigene Interessen.

My PhD Thesis scrutinized with the symbolic aspects of space in Latin Augustan love elegy and particularly with two main topics: urban space, related with 'urbanitas' as a cultural and literary model, and travel, often related to warfare and greed for money.

This paper questions the assumption that the female persona in the Sulpicia elegies ([Tib.] 3.8–18) places the poems in the margins of their genre and warrants a focus on the biography of their author. When we consider the historical context and literary conventions involved in the rest of the genre, this trend may signify a modern desire for a Roman Sappho and, subsequently, a modern construction of such projected into the past. As such, this paper suggests that the standard readings of Sulpicia are themselves peripheral, and that the research priority should be on the poetic context of these elegies.

Статья посвящена обсуждению литературноrо контекста «Сельской элегии» Е. А. Баратынского. В Приложении приводится параллели к тексту элегии из произведений русских, французских и латинских авторов. // This article attempts to estabish the literary context for Baratynsky's “Country Elegy”. The Appendix summarizes Russian, French and Latin parallels to the text under consideration.

This article is devoted to the Codex Tomacellianus, a privately owned manuscript of the poems of Propertius, Catullus and Tibullus (along with the rest of the Corpus Tibullianum). Those of Propertius and Catullus were copied by Leonte Tomacelli, while those of Tibullus were copied by Lucio da Visso. It is argued here that Lucio copied Tibullus between ca. 1432 and his imprisonment and death in 1439-40, and that he probably did so somewhere in Italy other than Naples. Meanwhile, Leonte copied Propertius and Catullus in Naples some time between 1448 and 1458. It has already been argued by Butrica that Leonte copied the poems of Propertius from a manuscript that had been taken to Naples by Gioviano Pontano; here the same case is argued for those of Catullus, partly on account of the marginal notes they contain. Lucio presented his copy of Tibullus to Marino Tomacelli, while Leonte left his Propertius and Catullus to his brother when he passed away; and Marino had the three authors bound together in Naples, probably before 1465. The resulting manuscript not only serves as an “edition” of the three poets known as the tresuiri amoris, but also as a monument for Marino’s brother and his tutor, both of whom died at an early age.

Note 1: The file uploaded here contains a pre-publication version of the article. The final version that appeared in the journal contains a number of significant changes. A PDF is available from the author on request.

Note 2: I no longer believe that there is a 'terminus post quem' of ca. 1448 for the part of the Codex Tomacellianus that contains Propertius and Catullus.

Baseado na premissa de que o procedimento alusivo é um recurso central na poesia augustana, investiga-se no presente estudo um caso identificado por Hollis (1977) e Sharrock (2002) de alusão na Arte de Amar. O peculiar manual erótico ovidiano, localizado cronologicamente ao final da tradição elegíaca romana, é construído em constante tensão e diálogo com a tradição que o precede. Com isto em mente, busca-se explorar alguns possíveis efeitos que uma tal alusão poderia produzir na leitura da Ars por um leitor familiarizado com as elegias de Propércio e Tibulo. Antes da abordagem do poema, faz-se um breve panorama teórico sobre intertextualidade em literatura – sobretudo no que concerne à Antiguidade clássica.

Η θέση που επιχειρείται να θεμελιωθεί στην εργασία αυτή είναι πως η ελπίδα καθίσταται, κατά την περιγραφόμενη στο συγκεκριμένο είδος ερωτική διαδικασία, απαραίτητος όρος για την παραμονή του ελεγειακού εραστή στο ερωτικό servitium και επομένως (στο λογοτεχνικό πεδίο) βασικός συντελεστής για τη δημιουργία του ελεγειακού συνθέματος. Η έννοια της ελπίδας εξετάζεται ως προς τη συμβολή της στην εκδίπλωση των δευτερευόντων ελεγειακών μοτίβων που απαρτίζουν τον κορμό της συνήθους ελεγειακής θεματικής. Η έννοια μελετάται ως προς τον ρόλο της στη διατήρηση του εραστή–πρωταγωνιστή ως δέσμιου του ερωτικού του πάθους για την ελεγειακή ηρωίδα, ώστε να παραμένει (παρά τις συνεχείς αποτυχίες) στον αγώνα εκπλήρωσης ενός έρωτα που είναι προδιαγεγραμμένο πως θα μείνει χωρίς ανταπόκριση.

Identification and discussion of specific passages in Tibullus that appear to have been written with Hellenistic Greek authors, texts, and issues in mind. The influence of the Alexandrians on Roman elegiac poetry.

[[Comment by Francis Cairns reviewing Robert Ball 'Tibullus the Elegist' in 'Classical Review' 37 (1987) 180-2

"Recent Tibullan scholarship, if it has achieved anything, has revealed how thoroughly steeped Tibullus was in Hellenistic learning, so that any curt denial of Callimachean influence is dangerous; and it was A. W. Bulloch's masterly paper 'Tibullus and the Alexandrians', PCPhS 119 (1973), 71-89 (the very work offering the conclusion dismissed by B.), which swung the balance of scholarly opinion decisively in this direction."]]

This paper is the translation, and reworking, of a chapter of my book, La mort de Virgile d'après Horace et Ovide (2d ed., Paris, 1999), pp. 157-171, where I argue that Horace in these two epistles denounces the murder of Virgil and Tibullus on Augustus' order.

Our record of Roman love-poetry, from Catullus on into Propertius and Tibullus and finally Ovid, shows a preference for ‘countercultural’ idioms. These authors switch between voices and vocabularies, as does Horace, the other great first-person poet of the Augustan period. But the love-poet persona builds heavily on subverting the idioms deemed appropriate for freeborn elite Roman males (military language, triumphal imagery, prayer formulas, legalese), and embracing alternative modes of expression (emotional outbursts, passive or submissive behaviour, metaphors of slavery and torture). The techniques of Roman rhetorical training might seem to belong in the first category. However, I propose that we include a different, more scurrilous brand of ‘rhetoric’ in the second category: that of the "praeco" (herald or auctioneer).

"Budapest, Országos Széchényi Library, Codex latinus medii aevi 137 is a parchment codex from the 15th century that contains the poems of Catullus and Tibullus. It has a twin in Cologny, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, MS. Bodmer 141, which contains the poems of Propertius; the two manuscripts were copied together and once constituted a two-volume „edition“ of the three poets. The subscription of the volume in Cologny shows that both were copied in 1466 in Florence by Joannes Petrus de Spoleto. They were soon acquired by Antonello Petrucci (?-1487), secretary to King Ferdinand of Naples, and after Petrucci’s execution they entered the royal library. It is not clear what happened to the second volume when the library was scattered around AD 1500, but the first volume appears to have remained in Italy: in the early 16th century it was owned by one Iuuarius Indicus or Indico or Íñigo de Guevara, who presented it to his tutor Iacobus Antonius Placidius Ubertus in 1529, as is shown by an owner’s note and an epigram by Iacobus Antonius on the front flyleaf of the codex. Then we lose track of the first volume as well.
The descent of the text of Propertius in the second volume has already been studied by Butrica, who noted that the codex was a sibling of the Codex Memmianus (Parisinus lat. 8233) and of Urbinas lat. 641. The stemma of Tibullus is not known well enough for us to be able to locate the first volume within it. However, it can be demonstrated that the text of Catullus in this volume descends indirectly from Siena H.V.41, and ultimately from R (Vatican, Ottobonianus lat. 1829); and that for Catullus too the volume is a sibling of the Memmianus, and of Urbinas lat. 641."

Note: The attached file contains a pre-publication version of the text of the article.

A study on some passages of Tibullus I 1 shows that some Tibullan topics are not mere "poetical" passages but that they share important ideas and themes with the philosophical literature of the 1st century BC, particularly with texts of Philodemus.

This article argues that the figure of Macer, who is characterized as a poet
with elegiac and epic interests in Tibullus (2.6) and Ovid (Am. 2.18, Pont.
2.10, 4.16), is a pseudonym (“the lean lover”) for Valgius Rufus. The usual
candidates for Macer’s identity, Aemilius Macer and Pompeius Macer,
have nothing to recommend them but their name and status as poets. In
contrast, the information we learn about Valgius Rufus from Horace Carm.
2.9, the Panegyricus Messallae, and his surviving elegiac and hexametric
fragments fits extremely well with the portrait of Macer that emerges from
Tibullus and Ovid.

The sanctuary of Apollo on the Palatine is one of the most important Augustan buildings. Situated very close to the first emperor's private residence, it is central for our understanding of Augustan culture. As one of its main functions, from at least 12 BCE the temple of Apollo accommodated the libri Sibyllini, one of Rome's most precious religious possessions. Another part of the sanctuary was a prestigious library that featured a Latin and a Greek section and played an important role in the lives of the contemporary poets. By means of an interdisciplinary approach, I demonstrate that the combined influence of these two functions of the Palatine sanctuary can still be recognized today in the fact that the Augustan poets started to call themselves vates. It will be shown that a combination of historical, archeological, and philological research can lead to a better understanding of this interesting phenomenon of the Augustan epoch which until now has almost only been approached from a philological point of view.

[ITA] In questo articolo si analizza la lunga sezione sulle feste popolari presente nella problematica elegia II 5 di Tibullo, nella prima parte della quale si rileva la fitta presenza di materia virgiliana. La descrizione dei Palilia (vv. 87-90) viene confrontata con quella fornita da Properzio e soprattutto da Ovidio nel IV libro dei Fasti. Nella scena dell'inti-mità familiare (vv. 91-94) si evidenzia l'importanza del modello omerico (Il. V 406-409), dal quale, come qui si dimostra, deriva l'espressione balba ... dicere uerba di v. 94. Infine, ipotizzata una lacuna nel testo, si propone di individuare nei vv. 95-104 un momento non dei Palilia ma della festa di Anna Perenna, di cui finora si credeva di avere un'illu-strazione solo in Ovidio (Fasti III 523-540).

[ENG] This article analyzes the long section on popular festivals present in the problematic Tibullus' elegy II 5, in the first part of which we note the dense presence of Virgilian matter. The description of the Palilia (vv. 87-90) is compared with that provided by Propertius and especially by Ovid's Fasti IV. In the scene of family intimacy (vv. 91-94) the A. highlights the importance of the Homeric model (Il. V 406-409), from which, as he here demonstrates, the expression balba ... dicere uerba of v. 94 derives. Finally, assuming a lacuna in the text, he proposes to identify in vv. 95-104 a moment not of the Palilia but of the Anna Perenna's feast, of which until now they believed to have an illustration only in Ovid (Fasti III 523-540).

This paper was presented as part of a reading class on Tibullus 3, organized by Laurel Fulkerson and Stephen Heyworth at Oxford in Trinity Term 2015. I enjoyed writing it and have thought about revising it for publication, but I am not sure that I will do so now.