[119] See xix. 5-9, and lxxvi.
[120] Especially in the Attis.
[121] Ov. Amor. iii. 9, 62, docte Catulle. So Mart. viii. 73, 8. Perhaps satirically alluded to by Horace, simius iste Nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum. S. I. x.
[122] The first foot may be a spondee, a trochee, or an iambus. The licence is regarded as duriusculum by Pliny the Elder. But in this case freedom suited the Roman treatment of the metre better than strictness.
[123] A trimeter iambic line with a spondee in the last place, which must always be preceded by an iambus, e.g. Miser Catulle desinas ineptire.
[124] E.g. in C. lxxxiv. (12 lines) there is not a single dissyllabic ending. In one place we have dictaque factaque sunt. I think Martial also has hoc scio, non amo te. The best instance of continuous narration in this metre is lxvi. 105-30, Quo tibi tum—conciliata viro, a very sonorous passage.
[125] E.g. Perfecta exigitur | una amicitia (see Ellis. Catull. Prolog.), and Iupiter ut Chalybum | omne genus percut, which is in accord with old Roman usage, and is modelled on Callimachus's Zeu kater, os chalybon pan apoloito genos.
[126] This has been alluded to under Aratus. As a specimen of Catullus's style of translation, we append two lines, Hae me Konon eblepsen en aeri ton Berenikaes bostruchon on keinae pasin ethaeke theois of translation, we append two lines, which are thus rendered, Idem me ille Conon caelesti munere vidit E Bereniceo vertice caesariem Fulgenlem clare, quam multis illa deorum Levia protendens brachia pollicitaest. The additions are characteristic.
[127] clxviii.
[128] Ca. clxi: lxii.