Tibulliana

Abstract

I. I. 37–40 adsitis, diui, neu uos e paupere mensadona nec e puris spernite fictilibus.fictilia antiquus primum sibi fecit agrestispocula, de facili composuitque luto. The comma after pocula in line 40 is the accepted punctuation. But fictilibus in line 38 is a noun and the same word immediately repeated in a different case must naturally be taken by any reader as a noun too. Therefore comma after agrestis; the pentameter is then a line like 1. 3. 38 effusum uentis praebueratque sinum (for such displacement of -que see Platnauer, Latin elegiac verse, p. 91). The movement of thought is from generic fictilia to specific pocula. For this compare 2. 1. 59–60 rure puer uerno primum de flore coronamfecit et antiquis imposuit Laribus.