The little information we have about him derives from the Satires of Horace and some letters of Cicero.
From them we know that he was a Sardinian, a fine singer and a close friend of Julius Caesar.
Such identification was rejected by André Dacier, in his edition of the works of Horace, but few scholars agreed with him until Karl Kirchner presented a detailed argument for the interpretation of Dacier.
[2] According to Berthold Ullman however, the version of the scholiasts cannot be excluded, nor are Kirchner's arguments irrefutable.
Cicero spoke ill of Tigellius, stating "it is a clear gain to be free from the society of this Sardinian, who is even more pestiferous than his own homeland (pestilentiorem patria sua)".