Editing Tibullus (section)

== Third book of poetry ==
The third book of the collection contains a miscellaneous collection of poems, and most scholars today believe that none of them are by Tibullus (even though one of them 3.19, seems to claim Tibullus as author). Sometime in the 15th century the book was split into two parts, so that poems 3.8 to 3.20 are sometimes referred to as 4.1 to 4.14.

===Lygdamus elegies===
{{main|Lygdamus}}
The third book opens with a set of six poems in elegiac couplets (290 verses) by a poet who calls himself "[[Lygdamus]]", all but the fifth celebrating his love for a woman called Neaera, whom he describes as "unfaithful, but all the same beloved" (3.6.56). In one line (3.5.18) he gives his own birthdate as the equivalent of 43 BC, using the same words as Ovid used in ''[[Tristia]]'' 4.10.6 to describe his own birthdate ("the year when both consuls fell by equal fate"). There are a number of other similarities between Lygdamus and Ovid, which are examined in an article by A. G. Lee.<ref>Lee, A. G. (1958). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44712408 "The Date of Lygdamus, and his Relationship to Ovid"]. In ''Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society'' (No. 5 (185), pp. 15–22).</ref> Lee comes to the conclusion that Lygdamus must have copied Ovid, not the reverse, and that his date may have been in the late 1st century AD. F. Navarro Antolín comes to the same conclusion, citing among other reasons certain words that were not generally used in poetry of the time of Tibullus.<ref>Navarro Antolín, F. (translated by Zoltowski, J. J.) (1996). [https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/2599 ''Lygdamus (Corpus Tibullianum III.1-6 Lygdami Elegiarum Liber)'']. ''Mnemosyne'', Supplements, Volume 154. Brill; p. 19.</ref>

Other scholars, however, noting the great overlap in vocabulary and stylistic features between Lygdamus and Ovid, have argued that the Lygdamus poems were written anonymously by the youthful Ovid himself.<ref>Radford, R. S. (1926). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/282770 "The Ovidian Authorship of the Lygdamus Elegies"]. In ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' (Vol. 57, pp. 149–180).</ref><ref>Baligan, G. & Paratore, E. (1950). [http://www.jstor.com/stable/25820127 "{{lang|it|Ancora su Ligdamo}}"]. ''Aevum'', 24 (Fasc. 3), 270–299; p. 282.</ref>

Unlike Tibullus's Delia and Nemesis, or Propertius's Cynthia, Lygdamus's Neaera appears not to have been a prostitute but is described as Lygdamus's "wife" ({{lang|la|coniunx}}) with respectable parents whom the poet knows. Radford and others take this as representing the situation of Ovid himself, whose second wife apparently divorced him.<ref>''Tristia 4.10.21–2; cf. Radford (1926), p. 150.</ref>

According to one theory, the six poems of Lygdamus were originally added by booksellers to book 2, to make up the very short length of that book, and only later transferred to book 3. This would have made book 1 and 2 of almost equal length (820 lines + 718 lines).<ref>Navarro Antolín, F. (translated by Zoltowski, J. J.) (1996). [https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/2599 ''Lygdamus (Corpus Tibullianum III.1-6 Lygdami Elegiarum Liber)'']. ''Mnemosyne'', Supplements, Volume 154. Brill; pages 27–28.</ref>

===''Panegyricus Messallae''===
{{main|Panegyricus Messallae}}
Poem 3.7, unlike all the other poems in the Tibullan collection, is written in [[dactylic hexameter]]s. It is a panegyric of [[Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus|Messalla]] (consul 31 BC), 212 lines long. There is no indication of the author, although, like Tibullus (1.1.41–43), the author complains that his family was once very wealthy but that their estate has been reduced to a small farm (3.7.181–191). It is thought by some scholars that the poem itself was probably written in 31, the year of Messalla's consulship, or soon afterwards.<ref name=Bright>Bright, D. F. (1984). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20538833 "The Role of Odysseus in the ''Panegyricus Messallae''"]. ''Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica'', 17(2), 143–154.</ref> Other scholars, however, view it as a [[pseudepigrapha|pseudepigraphical]] work written many years later.<ref>e.g. Fielding, I. (2015). [https://www.academia.edu/33427568/The_poetic_afterlives_of_the_Panegyricus_Messallae "The poetic afterlives of the ''Panegyricus Messallae''"] (Paper presented at Oxford University)</ref>

Although many scholars have criticised the style of the poem,<ref>"By common consent the least successful work in the {{lang|la|Corpus Tibullianum}}": Bright (1984), p. 143.</ref> it has also been called "brilliant, though excessively rhetorical".<ref>Radford R. S. (1926). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/282770 "The Ovidian Authorship of the Lygdamus Elegies"]. ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'', Vol. 57, (1926), pp. 149–180.</ref> Among its features are two long digressions, one (lines 48–81) detailing all the wanderings of [[Odysseus|Ulysses]] (Odysseus) up to his arrival on the island of Phaeacia, and the other (lines 151–176) describing the five climatic zones of the world. F. S. Bright demonstrates how these two digressions are in fact related and how both have relevance to Messalla.<ref name=Bright />

===Garland of Sulpicia===
{{main|Garland of Sulpicia}}
There follow five short elegiac poems (94 lines in all) concerning the love of Sulpicia for a certain Cerinthus. These are often known as the Garland of Sulpicia or the Cerinthus-Sulpicia cycle. Three of them (3.8, 3.10, 3.12) are composed in the voice of the poet; the other two (3.9 and 3.11) are replies by Sulpicia. The style of all them is similar and most scholars believe they are the work of a single author. Some scholars attribute them to Tibullus himself; but the validity of this attribution is uncertain. Cerinthus is thought to be a pseudonym, and is sometimes identified with Tibullus's friend Cornutus, who is addressed in 2.2.

===Sulpicia epigrams===
{{main|Sulpicia}}
The next group (3.13–3.18) is a set of six very short elegiac poems (40 lines in all) apparently written to or about Cerinthus by Sulpicia herself. The style of these is markedly different from the preceding group of poems. Her syntax has been described as "convoluted" and in some parts (e.g. 3.16) the meaning is not clear.<ref>For a sensitive analysis, see: Lowe, N. J. (1988). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/639219 "Sulpicia's syntax"]. ''The Classical Quarterly'', 38(1), 193–205.</ref> Although there are some dissenting voices, most scholars accept that these six poems are genuinely written by a female poet, [[Sulpicia]], the only Roman female poet whose work has survived. Their frank and passionate outpourings are reminiscent of [[Catullus]]. The style and metrical handling was originally understood to be that of a novice, or a male poet appropriating female form. Later analysis has concluded that Sulpicia is an adept poet with a very high level of skill, playing upon gender norms in the celebration of her erotic relationship and play upon her {{Lang|la|fama}} as a poet and a woman of high status.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3296856|jstor=3296856|last1=Santirocco|first1=Matthew S.|title=Sulpicia Reconsidered|journal=The Classical Journal|year=1979|volume=74|issue=3|pages=229–239}}</ref>

===Poem 3.19===
Poem 3.19 (24 lines) claims to be by Tibullus, but its authorship has been doubted.{{sfnp|Postgate|1911|p=930}} Radford (1923) believed it to be by Ovid, calling it an "exquisite 'imitation' of Tibullus which has itself been imitated and admired by so many English poets."<ref>Radford, R. S. (1923). [http://www.jstor.org/stable/289641 "Tibullus and Ovid: The Authorship of the Sulpicia and Cornutus Elegies in the Tibullan Corpus"]. ''The American Journal of Philology'', Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 1–26; p. 12.</ref> However, in a recent assessment of the poem, Stephen Heyworth (2021) believes that Tibullan authorship cannot be ruled out, and that it may even be a fragment from the lost ending of book 2.<ref>Heyworth, S. J. (2021). [https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e0cc0c2e-c389-4c8b-bace-0c28ff8bd272/download_file?safe_filename=Heyworth_2021_Author_of_Tibullus.pdf&file_format=pdf&type_of_work=Book+section "The author of [Tibullus] 3.19 and 3.20: anonymous or Tibullus?"]. Cambridge Philological Society.</ref>

In this poem the poet promises his (unnamed) girlfriend that no other girl will ever take her place. He swears this by Juno, the goddess he reveres most. He will never cease to be a slave at the altar of Venus, the goddess of love.

The poem appears twice in the main manuscript, the 14th-century Ambrosianus, once after 3.6 and again after 3.18.

===Poem 3.20===
3.20 is a four-line epigram with nothing to determine its authorship. It complains about a rumour that the author's girlfriend has been unfaithful, but he tells the rumour to be quiet. The word {{lang|la|tacē!}} "be quiet!" appropriately brings the collection of poems to a close.

===Epitaph===
At the end of the book comes the epigram of the poet [[Domitius Marsus]], a contemporary of Tibullus, commemorating the fact that both Tibullus and Virgil died about the same time (19 BC), Tibullus being only a young man at the time.<ref>For a critical appreciation of this epitaph see: Morgan, L. (2001). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44696760 "Metre matters: some higher-level metrical play in Latin poetry"]. ''The Cambridge Classical Journal'', 46, 99–120; pages 108–111.</ref>

To sum up: the third and fourth books appear in the oldest tradition as a single book, and they comprise pieces by different authors in different styles, none of which can be assigned to Tibullus with any certainty. The natural conclusion is that a collection of scattered compositions, relating to Messalla and the members of his circle, was added as an appendix to the genuine relics of Tibullus. When this "Messalla collection" was made cannot be exactly determined; but it was definitely not till after the death of Tibullus, 19 BC, and perhaps as late as the late 1st century AD. Besides the foregoing, two pieces in the collection called ''[[Priapea]]'' (one an epigram and the other a longer piece in iambics) have been attributed to Tibullus; but there is little external and no internal evidence of his authorship.<ref>Cf. Hiller, E. (1883). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4471871 "Die Tibullische Elegiensammlung"]. ''Hermes'', 343–361.</ref>{{sfnp|Postgate|1911|p=930}}