Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/109

Rh birthday, the poet gives, partly from eyewitness and partly from report (for he did not get further than Corcyra in 30, on his voyage with his patron on his Asiatic expedition), a sketch of the localities of Messala's victories, which may thus be represented in English:—

It was ill-health of a serious kind, if we may judge from his misgivings in the opening of the third elegy of the first book, which cut short his second campaign at Corcyra; and there may probably have been as much justification for his step in a natural delicacy of constitution, as predisposition to it in his singularly unwarlike tendencies. At any rate, when he turned his back upon Corcyra, it was to say adieu for ever to the profession of arms; and thenceforth, though mentally following his patron's fortunes with affectionate interest, which often finds vent in song, he seems to have