SOURCE: "The Augustan Elegists: Ovid: Manilius," Collection Latomus, Vol. LXXXVIII, 1967, pp. 365-420.

In the following excerpt, Newman contends that Tibullus's popularity among ancient readers stemmed from reworking cliches, not in being sincere or autobiographical.

…Tibullus is a striking proof of Tronsky's thesis about the folly of trying to make elegy autobiographical. We know from Horace¹ that Tibullus was handsome, wealthy, with a taste for luxury and country life and mild philosophical speculation (tacitum silvas inter reptare salubres/Curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est—4-5). Tibullus's first book begins—

Divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro
       Et teneat culti iugera multa soli,
 Quem labor adsiduus vicino terreat hoste,
      Martia cui somnos classica pulsa fugent:
 Me mea paupertas vitae traducat inerti …

Later we read—

Nec tamen interdum pudeat tenuisse bidentem
      Aut stimulo tardos increpuisse boves…

The poet continues to harp on his poverty (19, 22, 33, 37, 41, 43, 49). At 51-2 he declares—

O quantum est auri...