(3) Tibullus accompanied Messalla when he left for Aquitania, B.C. 30 or 29, according to the Life: 'Ante alios Corvinum Messallam oratorem dilexit, cuius etiam contubernalis Aquitanico bello militaribus donis donatus est.' Cf. Tibull. i. 7, 9, 'Non sine me est tibi partus honos; Tarbella Pyrene testis et Oceani litora Santonici.' Putting together these references we may place the date of Tibullus' birth in B.C. 54. (The statement of the Life in the Codex Guelferbytanus, 'Natus est Hyrtio et Pansa coss.' is clearly wrong). He was of equestrian rank, and at one time possessed considerable wealth, apparently inherited from a long line of ancestors; i. 1, 41, 'Non ego divitias patrum fructusque requiro quos tulit antiquo condita messis avo.' Cf. ii. 1, 1; ii. 4, 53; Hor. _Ep._ i. 4, 7, 'Di tibi divitias dederunt.' His family property, however, had been greatly diminished; i. 1, 19, 'Vos quoque, felicis quondam 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 (δῆλος = _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,