1, 2. Paene insularum…ocelle: pearl of all peninsulas. Paene is used as an adjective by a Greek construction, A. & G. 321, c. Cf. Ovid, Heroides, 15.357, paene puer. ocelle: cf. Milton, Paradise Regained, 4. 240, 'Athens, the eye of Greece.' 3. fert…Neptunus: twin-realmed (Cranstoun) Neptune upholds in lakes or sea. fert: Poseidon, according to Homer, is the earth-upholding. Cf. Exodus 20.4 'the water under the earth.' uterque: i.e. as god of stagna (lakes) and of mare. 5. Thyniam: the part of Bithynia on the shore of the Thracian Bosporus. 6. liquisse: the poets are fond of using uncompounded forms of verbs. Cf. 5, 4, linquantur. 7. O…curis: 'The form of expression suggests that the cares now past are, as past, actual pleasures.'—Ellis. 8, 9. peregrine labore: the toil of travel. larem: the home, lit. the household god. 11. Hoc…tantis: This it is that of itself is a compensation for so great labors. 12. venusta: Ellis praises 'the beauty of Sirmio, with its high cliffs descending into the transparently blue water, and the exquisite color of the surrounding land and sky.' ero gaude: be glad for thy master, i.e. thy master bids thee 'Rejoice!' 13. Lydiae: the shores of the lake were once occupied by Etruscans, and they were said to have come originally from Lydia. The epithet is transferred from lacus to undae. 14. quidquid…cachinnorum: the clause is to be taken as a vocative.
7. 2. Calve: Calvus was an accomplished orator and poet. Of his literary work almost nothing remains. He was Catullus' intimate friend and is often mentioned with him. 3. desiderio: yearning, in apposition to dolore, defining and specializing it. 4. olim missas: lost in by-gone days, missas equals amissas. Cf. Selection 6, 6 and note. 6. Quintiliae: Calvus' young wife. Calvus himself wrote elegies in her memory.
8. This poem was sent to Hortensius introducing a translation from the Greek poet Callimachus (which is possibly Carmen 66 and of the Coma Berinices). 2. Ortale: Q. Hortensius Ortalus, Cicero's chief rival as an orator. virginibus: the Muses. 3. fetus: fruitage. 4. mens animi: my thoughtful soul. Cicero, De Republica, 2.40.67, describes the mens as pars animi. 5, 6. Lethaeo gurgite manans unda: the wave slow-streaming from the gulf of oblivion. The 'river of death' which the brother of Catullus has just crossed (Catullus says forded) to return no more, is called Lethaean (Greek [Greek: lethe], 'forgetfuluess'), since the dead forget the living, and the living the dead. 6. pallidulum: poor, pallid foot. 7. Rhoeteo: Rhoeteum was a promontory of the Troad. 8. obterit: crushes. 13. Daulias: the nightingale, lit. the (transformed) woman of Daulis. Catullus has taken this name from the legend of Tereus (see Harper's Classical Dictionary, 'Tereus'), while he has followed the myth as it appears in Odyssey, 19. 518 ff., where the plaintive song of the nightingale is represented as the lamentation of Aedon for her child Itylus, whom before her transformation into the nightingale 'she slew unwittingly with the bronze.' 15. haec expressa carmina Battiadae: these verses translated from Callimachus. Callimachus of Cyrene, 'the son of Battus,' was a Greek poet of the Alexandrine school. His death occurred about 240 B.C. 16. nequiquam…ventis: i.e. ineffectual.
9. 'An invocation accompanying offerings at the tomb of the poet's brother.'—Merrill. Catullus probably made this visit to the Troad on his Bithynian journey. Date, probably 57 B.C. 2. miseras ad inferias: for these sad offerings. The inferiae, or offerings to the dead, consisted of wine, milk, blood, honey, flowers, etc. 4. nequiquam: no answer would be returned. 6. indigne: wrongfully, because his death was premature. 7. Nunc tamen interea: But now while I thus am sorrowing, interea, as in 14. 21, 36. 18, and Ciris, 44 ff., marks the transition from reflection upon a situation to the act which that situation demands at the moment. 9. multum manantia: drenched. 10. ave atque vale: the formula of farewell to the dead, spoken at the conclusion of the funeral ceremonies. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid, 11. 97 ff.
IV. VERGIL.
70-19 B.C.
Roman Vergil, thou that singest
Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire,
Ilion falling, Rome arising,
Wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;
Thou that singest wheat and woodland,
Tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;
All the charm of all the Muses
Often flowering in a lonely word;
Poet of the happy Tityrus
Piping underneath his beechen bowers;
Poet of the poet-satyr
Whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;
I salute thee, Mantovano,
I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest measure
Ever molded by the lips of man.