Si tamen e nobis aliquid nisi nomen et umbra
restat, in Elysia valle Tibullus erit:
obvius huic venias, hedera iuvenalia cinctus
tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo.
Ovid, Amores, 3. 9. 59-62.
Tenderest of Roman poets…
Sweet Catullus.
Tennyson, 'Frater, Aae atque Vale.'
Catullus is the greatest lyric poet of Roman literature.
With the exception of c. 61, it is in his shorter poems that Catullus achieves his greatest success. The poet does not handle dactylic measures quite easily; on the other hand, he is masterly in the lighter lyrical forms. The harmony of substance and form, the refinement and transparent clearness of the thoughts, are incomparable, as are the grace, strength, and warmth of feeling in the shorter pieces.
Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman Literature, vol. 1, p. 391 ff.
Catullus, born at Verona in Cisalpine Gaul, came early to Rome, where most of his short life was spent. He has left us about 116 poems, most of them brief, but a few of considerable length. The ultimate preservation of these depended upon the fortunate rediscovery at Verona of a single copy. Several of them imitate the learned and artificial style of the Alexandrine school of Greek poetry. It is on this account that Ovid applies to him the epithet doctus.
For Reference: Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, chapter 15;
Robinson Ellis, A Commentary on Catullus (2d edition, Oxford, 1889);
Merrill, Catullus (Boston, 1893); Ellis, Translation of Catullus
(London, 1871).
Metres: Phalaecian, A. & G. 623, 624, 625. 11: Selections 1, 3, 4, 5.
Choliambic, A. & G. 618, a, b, c: Selection 6. Elegiac, B. 369, 1, 2;
A. &. G. 616: Selections 2, 7-9.
1. 2. oppositast: equals opposita est. The joke turns on the double meaning of opponere, to expose and to mortgage. We may render the passage as,—My little farm is not exposed to the drafts of the south wind…but to a draft for, etc. 3. Apeliotae: a Greek word for east wind, meaning from the sun, i.e. from the region where the sun rises. For declension see B. 22; A. & G. 44. 4. ducentos: sc. sestertios. The sestertius was worth from four to five cents. 5. O ventum…pestilentem: O unhealthy draft!
2. Latin did not naturally use h at all with consonants nor favor its use before vowels. Greek, however, frequently employs the aspirated consonants ch, ph, and th as well as the rough breathing; and, though in earlier times the Romans were satisfied to take Greek words over into their language without aspirating, e.g. Corintus for [Greek: Korinthos], in later times aspirating became a fashion. Of this fashion Arrius is an unskilful follower, who, while believing himself to be achieving a fine reputation for good form, makes himself a target for the ridicule of Catullus.