‘Quid referam Ticidae, quid Memmi carmen, apud quos
rebus adest nomen nominibusque pudor,
et quorum libris modo dissimulata Perillae
nomine nunc legitur dicta, Metelle, tuo?’
(b) C. Helvius Cinna was intimate with Catullus, who refers to him in c. 10 as being along with him in Bithynia in B.C. 57. See [p. 136]. From the reference to Gallia Cisalpina in Cinna, frag. I (Bährens), we might conclude that he was a countryman of Catullus,
‘At nunc me Cenumana per salicta
bigis raeda rapit citata nanis.’
In Sueton. Iul. 52, Cinna is spoken of as a partisan of Caesar: ‘Helvius Cinna tribunus plebis,’ etc.; and he is probably identical with the person mentioned ibid. 85, as put to death in mistake for a man of the same name shortly after the murder of Caesar: ‘Plebs statim a funere ad domum Bruti et Cassii cum facibus tetendit, atque aegre repulsa, obvium sibi Helvium Cinnam per errorem nominis, quasi Cornelius is esset, quem graviter pridie contionatum de Caesare requirebat, occidit caputque eius praefixum hastae circumtulit.’
Cf. especially Plutarch, Brut. 20, ἦν δέ τις Κίννας, ποιητικὸς ἀνὴρ, οὐδὲν τῆς αἰτίας μετέχων, ἀλλὰ καὶ φίλος Καίσαρος γεγονὼς, etc.[38]
Weichert (Poet. Lat. Rell. p. 157) thinks that Plutarch has confused the tr. pleb. with the poet, and that Virgil’s words (below) imply that Helvius Cinna was alive when the Eclogue was written (B.C. 41-39). The latest authorities, however, identify the two persons. Verg. Ecl. 9, 35,
‘Nam neque adhuc Vario videor nec dicere Cinna
digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser[39] olores.’
Cinna’s works were:
1. Zmyrna, on the incestuous love of Myrrha for Cinyras. Cinna spent nine years on this poem, which was very obscure. Catull. 95,
‘Zmyrna mei Cinnae nonam post denique messem
quam coeptast nonamque edita post hiemem.’