C. lviiii. v. 1. Fellat. This refers to the complacent use by the female of her lips in the act of connection.
v. 3. The half-starved women of pleasure attended at funerals in the hope of picking up parts of the viands which were laid on the pile and burnt with the body.
C. lxi. v. 22. Myrtus Asia. The Asia of Catullus was that marshy tract of land near Mount Tmolus and the River Caystrus. Cf. Homer (Il. ii. 461) for the "Ancient Meadow." It was said to be as famous for its myrtles as for its cranes. Proper "Asia Minor" is the title first used by Oratius (Orazius?) (1. 2.) in the IVth century. See the "Life and Works of St. Paul," by Dr. Farrar (i. 465).—R. F. B.
v. 54. Timens. Many more obscenely write tumens, thus changing the "fear-full" bridegroom into the "swollen" bridegroom.
v. 123. It was usual for the mirthful friends of the newly married couple to sing obscene songs called Fescennine, which were tolerated on this occasion.
v. 124. Nec nuces pueris. This custom of throwing nuts, such as walnuts or almonds, is of Athenian origin; some say it was meant to divert the attention from the raptures of the bride and bridegroom, when in bed, by the noise they, and the scrambling boys, made on the floor. For nuces, referring to the use of boys, see Verg. Eclogue 8.
v. 125. Concubinus. By the shamelessness of this passage, it would seem to be quite a usual thing amongst the youthful Roman aristocracy to possess a bedfellow of their own sex.
v. 137. "This coarse imitation of the Fescennine poems," says Dunlop (History of Roman Literature), "leaves on our minds a stronger impression of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices than any other passage in the Latin classics. Martial, and Catullus himself elsewhere, have branded their enemies; and Juvenal, in bursts of satiric
indignation, has reproached his countrymen with the blackest crimes. But here, in a complimentary poem to a patron and intimate friend, these are jocularly alluded to as the venial indulgence of his earliest youth."
C. lxii. v. 39, et seq. Thus exquisitely rendered by Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. c. 12: