William Turpin, Florian Shah, Katya Lyubivaya
Dickinson College Commentaries
This site contains a Latin text of the love elegies of Sulpicia, which are preserved in the Appendix Tibulliana,
along with notes, vocabulary lists, and audio recordings. It is
intended for readers of Latin, so no translation is given. The notes
focus on matters of Latin idiom and try to elucidate Sulpicia's
sometimes difficult syntax, with the goal of relatively expeditious
reading. Those interested in more in-depth interpretation should consult
Laurel Fulkerson's A Literary Commentary on the Elegies of the Appendix Tibulliana
(Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 268–294, from which we
occasionally quote. All students of Sulpicia will benefit from N.J.
Lowe's seminal article, “Sulpicia’s Syntax,” Classical Quarterly 38 (1988): 193–205, to which this edition is indebted. Our text is based on J.P. Postgate's Loeb edition, Catullus. Tibullus. Pervigilium Veneris
(Harvard University Press, 1913) as revised by G.P. Goold in 1987, the
lone exception being that at 3.14.8 we accept the main manuscript's
reading quamvīs nōn sinis, rather than the emendation quam vis non sinit,
which is accepted by Goold and printed in Postgate's Oxford Classical
Text. We have added macrons over long vowels and initial capitals for
words beginning a sentence.
William Turpin, Scheuer Family Chair of Humanities and Classics at Swarthmore College, drafted the notes in 2023. Ashley Roman Francese,
Adjunct Faculty in Classical Studies at Dickinson, extensively revised
and supplemented them. During the revision process Ashley worked closely
with two high school students who had participated in the Dickinson
College Commentaries Summer Online Internship Program. In spring and summer 2026 Florian Shah (Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, Pennsylvania) read through the Latin and notes three times and suggested notes. Katya Lyubivaya
(Walter Johnson High School, Bethesda, Maryland) edited the English
sections and read through the edited Latin notes over the summer of
2026. The introduction combines material from Christopher Francese and
R. Scott Smith, Ancient Rome: An Anthology of Sources (Hackett,
2014), which includes my English translation of these poems, with
remarks by William and Ashley. I created the vocabulary lists using the Commentarius, a tool created by Raana Thacker, another veteran of the DCC high school internship program. Keziah Armstrong,
who teaches Latin at Shenendehowa Highschool East in Saratoga, New
York, created the lovely audio recordings of the poems. I am deeply
grateful to all the contributors for their work on what I trust will be
very useful resource for all lovers of Latin poetry.
Christopher Francese, Dickinson College, October 16, 2026
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