CATULLUS.
The poet’s full name, C.[35] Valerius Catullus, is got from Jerome and other authorities quoted below, as also his birthplace, Verona, to which Catullus himself refers (c. 67, 34, ‘Veronae meae’; 68, 27; 100, 2). The dates of his birth and death are uncertain. Jerome gives them as B.C. 87-58.
Yr. Abr. 1930 = B.C. 87, ‘Gaius Valerius Catullus scriptor lyricus Veronae nascitur.’
Yr. Abr. 1959 = B.C. 58, ‘Catullus xxx. aetatis anno Romae moritur.’ His early death is referred to by Ovid, Am. iii. 9, 61,
‘Obvius huic [Tibullo] venias hedera iuvenilia cinctus
tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo’;
but it is quite certain that the year of his death given by Jerome as B.C. 58 is wrong. In c. 113, 2, the second consulship of Pompeius in B.C. 55 is referred to, and cc. 11 and 29 were written after Caesar’s expedition to Britain in B.C. 55. C. 52 used to be taken as referring to B.C. 47, from l. 3, ‘per consulatum perierat Vatinius,’ but, as shown below, was written in B.C. 55 or 54. As no clear reference is found to any event after B.C. 54 (a highly important time, which would have been likely to produce some sarcastic poetry from Catullus), it is best to accept the view that Catullus lived from 87 to 54 or 53 B.C. B. Schmidt (ed. mai. 1887, prolegomena), on the other hand, fixes the dates as 82-52 B.C. (accepting Jerome’s account of Catullus’ age), and attributes c. 38 (to Cornificius) to the latter year.
Catullus’ family was wealthy and of good position, as is seen from his having estates at Sirmio (c. 31) and Tibur (c. 44), and from the fact that his father was a friend of Julius Caesar.
Sueton. Iul. 73, ‘Hospitioque patris eius [Catulli], sicut consueverat, uti perseveravit.’
Catullus went to Rome early, and there, as Schmidt thinks, was taught by the grammarian Valerius Cato, to whom c. 56 is probably addressed. From c. 68, 34-5, we see that he was settled at Rome.
‘Romae vivimus: illa domus,
illa mihi sedes, illic mea carpitur aetas.’
Catullus wrote love-poetry soon after taking the toga virilis; c. 68, 15,
‘Tempore quo primum vestis mihi tradita purast,
iucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret,
multa satis lusi.’
Catullus’ love for Lesbia is the outstanding fact of his life. Her real name was Clodia, the sister of P. Clodius, nicknamed for her immorality ‘quadrantaria.’
Apuleius, Apol. 10, ‘Accusent C. Catullum quod Lesbiam pro Clodia nominarit.’
Ovid, Trist. ii. 427,
‘Sic sua lascivo cantata est saepe Catullo
femina, cui falsum Lesbia nomen erat.’
The name Lesbia (which scans like Clodia) may be got from Sappho, the Lesbian poetess, on whom c. 51 (probably the first addressed to Clodia) is modelled. The facts known about Clodia all fit in with what Catullus tells us of Lesbia. For Lesbia’s beauty, cf. cc. 43 and 86; Clodia was called βοῶπις from her large and lustrous eyes (Cic. ad Att. ii. 9, 1; 12, 2, etc.). For her relations with her husband, cf. Cic. ad Att. ii. 1, 5 (written B.C. 60), ‘Est enim seditiosa: cum viro bellum gerit.’ A hint of the real name is got from c. 79, where the Lesbius mentioned is Clodius, just as Lesbia is Clodia,
‘Lesbius est pulcer: quid ni? quem Lesbia malit
quam te cum tota gente, Catulle, tua.’
It is probable that the acquaintance began in B.C. 61. In B.C. 62 Clodia was the wife of Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer (Cic. ad Fam. v. 2, 6), and in that year Metellus was governor of Gallia Cisalpina. Now from c. 83 it is evident that Lesbia’s husband was in Rome when she began to be annoyed by Catullus’ attentions. We may conclude from c. 30 that P. Alfenus Varus introduced Catullus to Lesbia. In that poem Catullus blames Varus for leading him on and then leaving him in the lurch. M’. Allius is next mentioned (c. 68) as a friend in whose house Catullus met Lesbia; and cc. 2, 3, 5, and 7 probably belong to this fortunate period of the poet’s love. C. 8 speaks of Lesbia’s leaving him (cf. c. 92), probably on account of her husband’s suspicions. Cf. c. 5, 1,
‘Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
rumoresque senum severiorum
omnes unius aestimemus assis.’
C. 107 speaks of an unexpected reconciliation (celebrated in c. 36). C. 107, 5,
‘Restituis cupido atque insperanti, ipsa refers te
nobis. O lucem candidiore nota!’
When Catullus, on account of his brother’s death, left Rome for Verona, he already knew that Lesbia had other lovers (c. 68, ll. 27 sqq., 135 sqq.). There are many poems against his rivals: c. 82, against Quintius; c. 40, against Ravidus; cc. 74, 80, 88-91, 116, against Gellius; c. 77, against Rufus, who is attacked also in cc. 59 and 69 (this is M. Caelius Rufus, the orator, who intrigued with Clodia: Cic. pro Cael. 17, etc.); c. 79, against Lesbius (see above). After Catullus returned to Rome, he found that he had lost Lesbia’s affections. C. 70 was then written,
‘Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat.
Dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti,
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.’
The words of this poem show that it must have been written after the death of Clodia’s husband Metellus, which took place in B.C. 59, and it was probably written soon after that event, when Catullus had returned to Rome from Verona.
Nos. 72, 85, and especially 58, show increasing bitterness, and must, with the possible exception of 58, be assigned to the years B.C. 59 or 58. In c. 76 he prays for power to give Lesbia up; cf. ll. 23-6,
‘Non iam illud quaero, contra ut me diligat illa,
aut, quod non potis est, esse pudica velit:
ipse valere opto et taetrum hunc deponere morbum.
O di, reddite mi hoc pro pietate mea.’
It is probable that the separation between the lovers occurred not later than B.C. 58; otherwise Catullus would not have left for Bithynia in the next year. In c. 11, the last poem that refers to Lesbia, which, from the reference to Britain in l. 12, cannot have been written before B.C. 55, we see that Catullus is cured of his passion; cf. ll. 21-4,
‘Nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,
qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati
ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam
tactus aratro est.’
In the spring of B.C. 57 Catullus went to Bithynia on the staff of the propraetor C. Memmius (cc. 10 and 28). From c. 10, 29, ‘meus sodalis Cinna est Gaius,’ we see that C. Helvius Cinna accompanied him. In c. 46, 9 he speaks of the pleasant meetings of the staff, ‘O dulces comitum valete coetus.’ C. 46 shows that Catullus left Bithynia in the spring of the following year: ll. 1-4,
‘Iam ver egelidos refert tepores ...
Linquantur Phrygii, Catulle, campi.’
The dirge in c. 101 shows that Catullus, on his way to Italy, visited his brother’s tomb in the Troad, and paid the last rites to it. C. 4, written soon after his return to Sirmio, tells us how he made his way home again. About the same time was composed the address to Sirmio in c. 31; c. 10 proves that he soon went back to Rome.
The poems against Caesar’s party belong to the years B.C. 55 and 54. In cc. 41 and 43 Catullus calls a Transpadane girl ‘decoctoris amica Formiani,’ the reference being to Mamurra, ‘the bankrupt from Formiae,’ who had been Caesar’s praefectus fabrum in Gaul, and who may have been a successful rival of Catullus in love. C. 29, written probably in B.C. 54, attacked Mamurra, and also his patrons, Caesar and Pompey. From l. 24, ‘socer generque, perdidistis omnia,’ it is clear that the poem was written before Julia’s death in September, B.C. 54; and from ll. 11-12,
‘eone nomine, imperator unice,
fuisti in ultima occidentis insula,’
that it was written after Caesar’s first expedition to Britain in B.C. 55. The poem is referred to by Sueton. Iul. 73, ‘Valerium Catullum, a quo sibi versiculis de Mamurra perpetua stigmata imposita non dissimulaverat, satis facientem eadem die adhibuit cenae hospitioque patris eius sicut consueverat uti perseveravit.’
C. 52 (against Vatinius) was written B.C. 55 or 54. It used to be assigned to B.C. 47, when Vatinius was consul, but l. 3, ‘per consulatum perierat Vatinius’ means ‘Vatinius perjures himself by his hope of the consulship’ (his name stood on the list agreed on at Luca, which is mentioned by Cic. ad Att. iv. 8b, 2); and l. 2, ‘Sella in curuli struma Nonius sedet,’ cannot refer to B.C. 47, as the only ordinary curule magistrates in that year were P. Vatinius and Q. Fufius Calenus. Among other poems against personal enemies are c. 98, against Vettius, and c. 108, against Cominius, both of them informers; and c. 84, against Arrius, who aspirated his words wrongly, and who, from l. 7, ‘hoc misso in Syriam,’ is supposed to have gone out to Syria as legatus to Crassus in B.C. 55. C. 49 is an attack on Cicero:
‘Disertissime Romuli nepotum,
quot sunt quotque fuere, Marce Tulli,
quotque post aliis erunt in annis,
gratias tibi maximas Catullus
agit, pessimus omnium poeta,
tanto pessimus omnium poeta
quanto tu optimus omnium patronus.’
The sting lies in the double entendre in the last two lines, which really mean ‘so much the worst poet of all poets, as you are the best advocate of all clients, good and bad.’ So Cicero is called in a good sense omnium patronus by Caecina in Cic. ad Fam. vi. 7, 4. The poem has special reference to B.C. 54, when Cicero defended Vatinius (whom he had reviled two years before in the speech Pro Sestio), when prosecuted by Catullus’ friend, Calvus (cf. c. 14, 1-3); and thanks Cicero ironically for some criticism he had passed on his poems. Catullus attacks several contemporary poets; so in c. 22, Suffenus, who in c. 14 is coupled with Caesius and Aquinus; Volusius in cc. 36 and 95; cf. 36, 1, ‘Annales Volusi, cacata charta.’[36]
Among Catullus’ friends were Veranius and Fabullus (cc. 9, 28, etc.); P. Alfenus Varus of Cremona (cc. 10, 22, 30), consul B.C. 39, and a famous iurisconsultus. C. 61 celebrates the marriage of L. Manlius Torquatus (who was praetor B.C. 49) and Vinia Aurunculeia. Several poems are addressed to brother poets; c. 35 is to Caecilius of Novum Comum; c. 38 to Cornificius, a writer of slight love poems (Ovid, Trist. ii. 436) who died B.C. 41; c. 95 is on Cinna’s Zmyrna; cc. 14, 50, and 96 are addressed to C. Licinius Calvus; c. 56 to Valerius Cato (see above); c. 65 to Hortensius Ortalus, who asked Catullus to translate Callimachus; c. 1, and possibly c. 102, to Cornelius Nepos.
Catullus’ longer poems.—These, unlike the shorter personal poems, are mostly due to Alexandrian influence, to which Catullus may have been introduced by his teacher, Valerius Cato. To these poems Catullus owes his title doctus (Tibull. iii. 6, 41; Martial, i. 62, 1, etc.). They include: c. 66, ‘coma Berenices,’ from Callimachus; cf. c. 65, ll. 15-6,
‘Sed tamen in tantis maeroribus, Ortale, mitto
haec expressa tibi carmina Battiadae’;
c. 68 to Allius, also Alexandrian; c. 64, the ‘Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis,’ l. 30 of which,
‘Oceanusque, mari totum qui amplectitur orbem,’
is from Euphorion, fr. 158 (Meineke), Ὠκεανὸς, τῷ πᾶσα περίρρυτος ἐνδέδεται χθών; c. 63, the ‘Attis’ in Galliambic metre; c. 62, a translation of a Sapphic epithalamium. C. 51, and possibly some parts of c. 61, are from Sappho. Catullus was the first Roman to use the Sapphic measure (in cc. 11 and 51).
Publication of the Poems.—From the arrangement of the poems, which accords neither with chronology nor with subjects, and from the large number of lines extant (2286), which does not suit libellus (c. i. 1), it is highly probable that they were not left by Catullus as we find them. C. 2, beginning ‘Passer, deliciae meae puellae,’ was the first of a series of short poems. Cf. Martial, iv. 14, 13,
‘Sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus
magno mittere passerem Maroni’;[37]
the book being named from its first word, like Arma virumque of the Aeneid. C. 1 (to Cornelius Nepos) is the first of another series of short pieces (cf. the epithet nugae in l. 4). Catullus doubtless published his larger pieces together. The traditional arrangement, due to a later hand, is as follows: (1) The lyric poems in various metres; (2) the larger poems and the elegies; (3) the shorter poems written in elegiacs. Catullus began to be popular as soon as his works were published; cf. Nep. Att. 12, 4 (quoted [p. 124]). He is imitated in the Priapea, in Ovid, in Ausonius, in the Ciris, in Martial, etc. C. 4 is closely parodied in Verg. Catal. 8.