uondam nunc pauperis agri
custodes, fertis munera vestra, lares:
tunc vitula innumeros lustrabat caesa iuvencos;
nunc agna exigui est hostia parva soli.'

Cf. i. 1, 5 and 37.

It has been supposed that Tibullus suffered these losses in the
agrarian disturbances of B.C. 41, and that his lands, like those of
Virgil and Propertius, were confiscated. No town in Latium, however,
is mentioned by Appian as having its territory thus assigned.
Tibullus' property may possibly have been restored to him through the
influence of Messalla.[65] Cf. Hor. _Ep._ i. 4, 11,

'Et mundus victus non deficiente crumena';

also Tibull. i. 1, 77,

'Ego composito securus acervo
despiciam dites despiciamque famem.'

Of Messalla Tibullus always speaks with the greatest affection. He
refused at first to accompany him to the East after the battle of
Actium, but afterwards followed him, and was forced through illness to
remain at Corcyra: i. 1, 53,

'Te bellare decet terra, Messalla, marique,
ut domus hostiles praeferat exuvias:
me retinent vinctum formosae vincla puellae';

i, 3, 3,

'Me tenet ignotis aegrum Phaeacia terris.'

In the Aquitanian campaign he was Messalla's _contubernalis_, and had
military distinctions conferred on him (see p. 186).

No further particulars of Tibullus are known, save his love for his
mistresses Delia and Nemesis, and the fact mentioned by Ovid, in a
poem on his death, that his mother and sister survived him; _Amor._
iii. 9, 50,

'Mater et in cineres ultima dona tulit.
Hinc soror in partem misera cum matre doloris
venit inornatas dilaniata comas.'

Delia's real name was Plania (+delos+ = _planus_): cf.
Apuleius, _Apol._ 10, 'eadem igitur opera accusent ... Tibullum quod
ei sit Plania in animo Delia in versu.' She was a _libertina_, for the
name is not known as a _nomen gentilicium_, and she had had a husband
(i. 2, 41, 'coniunx tuus'), who appears to have been serving with the
army in Cilicia: i. 2, 65,

'Ferreus ille fuit, qui te cum posset habere,
maluerit praedas stultus et arma sequi.
Ille licet Cilicum victas agat ante catervas,' etc.

A divorce had probably taken place, as she was not entitled to wear
the distinctive dress of the Roman matron; i. 6, 67,

'Sit modo casta, doce, quamvis non vitta ligatos
impediat crines nec stola longa pedes.'

Nemesis was a _meretrix_; ii. 4, 14,

'Illa cava pretium flagitat usque manu.'

S