Tempore quo primum vestis mihi tradita pura'st,
Iucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret,
Multa satis lusi: non est dea nescia nostri,
Quae dulcem curis miscet amaritiem.[564]
The early poems there referred to probably gained him his first reputation and attracted that notice of Cornelius Nepos, which is gratefully acknowledged in the dedication,—
Quoi dono lepidum novum libellum.
One or two of those which we still possess—the 'Ianua,' for instance, the 'O colonia quae cupis ponte ludere magno,' possibly also the 'Vesper adest: invenes consurgite'—may have been written before Catullus settled in Rome, and before his genius was fully awakened by his passion for Lesbia: but the great majority belong to a later date; and if he did write many love poems before leaving Verona, in the pleasant spring-time of his life, nearly all, if not all, of them were omitted from the final collection. Even the 'Aufilena poems,' which are based on an intrigue carried on at Verona, are shown to be subsequent to the liaison with Clodia by the lines in c.—
Cui faveam potius? Caeli, tibi, nam tua nobis
Per facta exhibitas't unica amicitia,
Cum vesana meas torreret flamma medullas.