Tibullus Aulus Albius

, a Roman knight celebrated for his poetical compositions. He followed Me ala Corvinus into the island of Corcyra, but he was soon di atisfied with the toils of war, and retired to Rome, where he gave himself up to literary ease, and to all the effeminate indolence of an Italian climate. His first composition was to celebrate the virtues of his friend Me ala; but his more favourite study was writing love verses, in praise of his mistre es Delia and Plautia, of Nemesis and Neæra, and in these elegant effusions he showed himself the most correct of the Roman poets. As he had espoused the cause of Brutus, he lost his po e ions when the soldiers of the triumvirate were rewarded with lands; but he might have recovered them if he had condescended, like Virgil, to make his court to August us. Four books of elegies are the only remaining pieces of his composition. They are uncommonly elegant and beautiful, and po e ed with so much grace and purity of sentiment, that the writer is deservedly ranked as the prince of elegiac poets. Tibullus was intimate with the literary men of his age, and for some time he had a poetical contest with Horace, in gaining the favours of an admired courtesan. Ovid has written a beautiful elegy on the death of his friend. The poems of Tibullus are generally published with those of Pro pert i us and Catullus, of which the best editions are that of Vulpius, Patavii, 1737, 1749, 1755; that of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1755; and that by Heyne, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1776. Ovid , bk. 3 , Amores , poem 9; Tristia , bk. 2 , li. 487 .— Horace , bk. 1 , ltr. 4 ; bk. 1 , ode 33, li. 1 .— Quintilian , bk. 10 , ch. 1 .