Imperial Geographies in Tibullan Elegy

This paper explores the extent and significance of “imperial geographies” in Tibullan elegy. I document the contemporary currency of the toponyms of Mediterranean geography in Tibullus’ elegies 1.3, 1.7, 2.2, and 2.3 and argue that Tibullus’ invocation of these sites is intimately correlated with both Roman imperialism and the poet’s own Callimachean commitments. By incorporating non-Latin vocabulary into its artistic matrix, Tibullus’ poetry participates, in its very linguistic texture, in the larger imperial projects of Augustan Rome while simultaneously illustrating its aesthetic engagement with Alexandrian poetics.