TIBULLUS, ALBIUS. 



TICKNOR, GEORGE. 



shouted out the words of the Psalmist, " Thou shalt trample on the asp 

 and basilisk, and on the lion and dragon shalt thou set thy foot." He 

 then gave orders to behead Tiberius, Loontius, and Heraclius. Jus- 

 tinian II. reigned till 711. The Greeks gave him the surname of 

 Ithiuotmetus, that is, ' he whose nose is cut off.' Tiberius Absiinarus 

 had two sons, Theodore and Constantino, who probably perished with 

 their father. It is said however that Theodore, who is also called 

 Theodosius, survived his father, and became bishop of Epbesus, and 

 one of the leaders of the Iconoclasts; but this is doubtful. 



(Theophanes ; Cedrenus ; Zonaras ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall ; Le 

 Beau. Histoire du Has Empire.) 



TIBULLUS, A'LBIUS, lived in the time of Augustus, and was a 

 friend and contemporary of Horace. He was of equestrian rank, and 

 originally possessed considerable property, of which he lost the greater 

 part (Tibull., L 1, 19, &c. ; iv. 1, 128, &c.), probably, as it is conjectured, 

 in consequence of the assignments of lands among the veterans of 

 Augustus ; and this supposition is rendered still more probable by 

 the circumstance that Tibullus never celebrates the praises of Augus- 

 tus, like the other poets of his time. He was not however reduced to 

 absolute poverty ; the estate on which he resided at Pedum (Horace, 

 ' Ep.,' i. 4), a town between Prseueste and Tibur, appears to have been 

 his own, and to have descended to him from his ancestors. (Tibull., 

 i. 10, 15, &c.) Here he passed the greater part of his time in the 

 enjoyment of a quiet country-life, which had for him the greatest 

 charms. He left it however to accompany his patron, Valerius Mes- 

 salla, into Aquitania, aud was present with him through the campaign, 

 either in B.C. 28 or 27. (Tibull., i. 7, 9.) He afterwards set out with 

 him to Asia, but was taken ill at Corcyra ; but that he died at Corcyra, 

 as is stated by some modern writers, is only a conjecture, unsupported 

 by any ancient authority, and is directly contradicted by what Ovid 

 says. It appears from au epigram of Domitius Marsus (in Tibull., iv. 

 15), who lived in the age of Augustus, that Tibullus died soon after 

 Virgil ; and as Virgil died in B.C. 19, we may perhaps place the death 

 of Tibullus in the following year, B.C. 38. It has been already men- 

 tioned that Tibullus was the friend of Horace ; two poems have come 

 down to us addressed to him by the latter (' Carm., i. 33 ; ' Epist.,' i. 

 4). Ovid too laments his death in a beautiful elegy, frooi which it 

 appears that his mother and sister were present at his death (' Amor./ 

 iii. 9). 



It is difficult to determine at what time Tibullus was born ; and we 

 can but at best make some approximation to it. In the epigram of 

 Domitius Marsus, already referred to, he is called juvenis, aud Ovid 

 deplores his untimely death. We must not however be misled by 

 the expression juvenis into supposing that he was quite a young man, 

 in our sense of the word, at the time of his death, since the ancients 

 extended the meaning of juvenis to a time which we consider to be 

 that of mature manhood. Several circumstances tend to show that 

 he could not be much less than forty at his death. Ovid speaks of 

 Tibullus as preceding Propertius, and of Propertius as preceding 

 himself; and as Ovid was born B.C. 43, we must place the birth of 

 Tibullus a few years at least before that time. Again, Horace in the 

 first book of his Odes addressed Tibullus as an intimate friend, which 

 hardly allows us to suppose that Tibullus was a mere youth at the 

 time. If Bentley's supposition is correct, that the first book of the 

 Odes was published about B.C. 30 or 28, Horace was then about 35, 

 and Tibullus may have been a few years younger. Moreover he does 

 not appear to have been a very young man when he accompanied 

 Messalla into Aquitania in B.C. 28 or 27. We may therefore perhaps 

 place his birth at about B.C. 57. There are indeed two lines in Tibullus 

 (iii. 5, 17, 18), which expressly assign his birth to B.C. 43, the same 

 year in which Ovid was born ; but these are, without doubt, an inter- 

 polation derived from one of Ovid's poems ('Trist.,' iv. 10, 6). 



We have thirty-six poems of Tibullus, written, with one exception, 

 in elegiac metre, and divided into four books. The first two books 

 are admitted by all critics to have been written by Tibullus, but of 

 the genuineness of the last two, considerable doubts have been raised. 

 J. H. Voss and others attribute the third book to a poet of the name 

 of Lygdamis, but the style and mode of treating the iiubjects resemble 

 the other elegies of Tibullus, and there do not appear sufficient reason 

 for doubting that it is his composition. There are however stronger 

 grounds for supposing the first poem in the fourth book, written in 

 hexameters, not to be genuine. It differs considerably in style and 

 expression from the other poems, and is attributed by some writers to 

 Sulpicia, who lived under Domitian, by others to a Sulpicia of the 

 age of Augustus; but we know nothing with certainty respecting its 

 author. Of the other poems in this book, almost all bear traces of 

 being the genuine works of Tibullus. 



The elegies of Tibullus are chiefly of an amatory kind. In the 

 earlier period of his life Delia seems to have been his favourite, and 

 afterwards Nemesis, and their names occur most frequently in his 

 poems. Several of his elegies are devoted more or less to celebrating 

 the praises of his patron Messalla, but these are the least pleasing 

 parts of his works, for he does not appear to have excelled in 

 panegyric. 



Tibullus is placed by Quinctilian at the head of the Roman elegiac 

 poets ('Inst. Orat.,' x. 1). His poems are distinguished by great ten- 

 derness of feeling, which sometimes degenerates into effeminacy, but 

 they at the same time excite our warmest sympathies. He seems to 



have been of a melancholy temperament, and to have looked at things 

 from a gloomy point of view; hence we find the subject of death 

 frequently introduced, and the enjoyment of the present interrupted 

 by dark forebodings of the future. He constantly describes the 

 pleasures of a country-life and the beauties of nature, for which he 

 had the most exquisite relish; and there is in these descriptions a 

 naturalness and truthfulness which place him above his contemporary 

 Propertius. His style too is not of the artificial character which 

 distinguishes the elegies of Propertius ; and his subjects are not, like 

 the latter, mere imitations or translations of the Greek poets, but 

 essentially original works. 



Tibullus was formerly edited together with Catullus and Proper- 

 tius, the earlier editions of which are mentioned under PROPERTIUS. 

 The principal separate editions are by Brockhusius (Amst., 4to, 1708), 

 Vulpius (Padua, 4to, 1749), Heyne (Leipz. 8vo, 1777, often reprinted, 

 of which the fourth edition, containing the notes of \\ r underlich and 

 Dissen, appeared in 1817-19, 2 vols. 8vo, Leipz.), J. H. Voss (Heidel- 

 berg, 8vo, 1811), Bach, (Leipz., 8vo, 1819), Goldbery (Paris, 8vo, 1826), 

 Lachmann (Berlin, 8vo, 1829), and Dissen (Gottingen, 2 vols. 8vo, 

 1835), of which the two last contain the best text. 



Tibullus has been translated into English by Dart (1720), and 

 Grainger (1759). There are modern German translations by J. H. 

 Voss (Tubingen, 1810), Gunther (Leipz., 1825), and Richter (Magde- 

 burg, 1831). There are also French and Italian translations. 



Respecting the life of Tibullus and the Roman elegy in general, the 

 reader may consult with advantage Gruppe's ' Die Rb'inische Elegie,' 

 Leipzig, 1838. 



TICKELL, THOMAS, an English poet of unblemished mediocrity, 

 was born in 1686, at Bridekirk in Cumberland. He was sent to 

 Queen's College, Oxford, and he took his degree of Master of Arts in 

 1708. Two years afterwards he was chosen fellow of his college, and 

 as he did not comply with the statutes by taking orders, he obtained a 

 dispensation from the crown for holding his fellowship, till ho 

 vacated it by marrying in 1726. His praises of Addisoii were so 

 acceptable that they procured him the patronage of that writer, who 

 "initiated him," says Johnson, "into public affairs." When the queen 

 was negociating with France, Tickell published ' The Prospect of 

 Peace,' in which he raised his voice to reclaim the nation from the 

 pride of conquest to the pleasures of tranquillity. This, owing 

 perhaps to Addison's friendly praises of it in ' The Spectator,' had a 

 rapid sale, and six editions were speedily exhausted. On the arrival 

 of King George I. Tickell wrote ' The Royal Progress,' which was 

 printed in the ' Spectator.' Johuson says of it that " it is neither 

 high nor low," a very equivocal criticism, considering Johnson's 

 habitual tastes. 



The translation of the first book of the 'Iliad' was the most im- 

 portant thing in Tickell's poetical career, having been published in 

 opposition to Pope's ; both appeared at the same time. Addison 

 declared that the rival versions were both excellent, but that Tickell's 

 was the best that was ever made. Strong suspicions of Addisoii him- 

 self being the translator have been thrown out by Pope, Young, and 

 Warburton. Dr. Johnson says, <l To compare the two translations 

 would be tedious ; the palm is now universally given to Pope. But I 

 think the first lines of Tickell's were rather to be preferred; and Pope 

 seems since to have borrowed something from them in connection 

 with his own." 



During the dispute on the Hanoverian succession Tickell assisted 

 the royal cause with his ' Letter to Avignon,' of which five editions 

 were sold. Addison now employed him in important public business, 

 and when, in 1717, Addison himself rose to be secretary of state, he 

 made Tickell under secretary. On Addison's death, Tickell published 

 his works, to which he prefixed an elegy on the author, which Johnson 

 pronounces to be equal for sublimity and elegance to any funeral poem 

 in the English language. Considering that we have the ' Lycidas ' of 

 Milton, this sounds oddly : on turning to this elegy, we are forced to 

 admit, with Steele, that it is only " prose in rhyme," and occasionally 

 very bad prose too. In 1725 Tickell was made secretary to the Lords 

 Justices of Ireland, a place of honour in which he continued till his 

 death, on the 23rd April 1740. 



* TICKNOR, GEORGE, a distinguished American scholar and 

 writer, was born on the 1st of August 1791, at Boston, Massachusetts, 

 and was educated at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, where he 

 graduated in 1807. He entered upon the study of the law, and was 

 called to the bar in 1813 ; but his' time and thoughts continued to be 

 mainly given to literature, and in 1815 he finally abandoned the law 

 and proceeded to Europe in order to fit himself for the more con- 

 genial occupation to which he now fully devoted himself. After 

 remaining a couple of years in the University of Gottingen he visited 

 successively the cities of Paris, Rome, Madrid (where he spent several 

 months in the year 1818), Lisbon, Edinburgh, and London. During 

 the four years which he stayed in Europe Mr. Tickuor had zealously 

 prosecuted his philological studies, his chief attention being given to 

 the living languages of Europe, and he had made himself intimately 

 acquainted with the literature of the middle ages. Among the many 

 eminent literary men whose friendship he at this time acquired, were 

 Southey and Sir Walter Scott, both of whom were delighted with 

 his stores of old Spanish reading Scott in writing to Southey 

 in April 1819 (Lockhart'a 'Life,' c. xliv.), calls him a "wondrous 



