Chapter 45

'Cumque tuis sua iunxerunt Nemesisque priorque oscula nec solos destituere rogos.'

Tibullus was on friendly terms with Horace, who addressed to him _Od._ i. 33 and _Ep._ i. 4. Horace was doubtless attracted by the frank nature of Tibullus (_Ep._ i. 4, 1, 'Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide iudex'), and by the community of taste which led them both to imitate the classical Ionic rather than the Alexandrian elegy. Horace corroborates the statement of Life i. ('insignis forma cultuque corporis observabilis') that Tibullus had a fine presence; _ibid._ 1. 6,

'Non tu corpus eras sine pectore: di tibi formam, di tibi divitias dederunt artemque fruendi.'

Ovid had met and admired him, and has numerous imitations of him in his poems; but the difference of age and the early death of Tibullus prevented any long acquaintance; Ovid, _Tr._ iv. 10, 51,

'Nec amara Tibullo tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.'

Of friendship between Propertius and Tibullus there is no evidence: they never mention one another.

(2) WORKS.

Four Books of elegiac poems are attributed to Tibullus, who ranks first among Roman elegists in the view of Quintilian, x. 1, 93, 'Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus, cuius mihi tersus atque elegans maxime videtur auctor Tibullus.'