Tibullus

Tibullus

-0054 – -0018

Albius Tibullus (tɪˈbʌləs; BC19 BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins.
Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a few references to him by later writers and a short Life of doubtful authority. Neither his praenomen nor his birthplace is known, and his gentile name has been questioned. His status was probably that of a Roman equites (so the Life affirms), and he had inherited a considerable estate. Like Virgil, Horace and Propertius, he seems to have lost most of it in 41 BC in the confiscations of Mark Antony and Octavian.Postgate 1911
Scholar Francis Cairns regards Tibullus as "a good poet but not a great one"; Dorothea Wender similarly calls him a minor poet but argues there is "grace and polish and symmetry" to his work.