[564] lxviii. 15-18.
[565] In the 'docto avo' we have an allusion to the author of the 'Istrian War.'
[566] lxviiib.
[567] The Caelius addressed in some of the poems is not M. Caelius Rufus, but a Veronese friend and confidant of Catullus—
'Flos Veronensum. .. iuvenum.'
Caesar, Bell. Civ. i. 2. mentions M. Caelius Rufus simply as M. Rufus. Cicero also, in his letters to Caelius, addresses him as mi Rufe, Ep. II. 9. 3, 12. 2.
[568] Among other indications the vow of Lesbia (xxxvi.) throws light on her literary taste and accomplishment.
[569] On the whole question compare Mr. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations, etc., pp. 194-202.
It has been argued on the other side that public opinion would not have tolerated the publicity given to an adulterous intrigue, especially one with a Roman matron so high in rank as the wife of Metellus Celer. But the state of public opinion in the last years of the Republic is not to be gauged either by that of an earlier time, or by that existing during the stricter censorship of the Augustan régime. Catullus himself (cxiii.) testifies to what is known from other sources, the extreme laxity with which the marriage tie was regarded in the interval between 'the first and second consulships of Pompey.' Perhaps, however, if Metellus Celer had survived Catullus, the Lesbia-poems might never have been publicly given to the world. After his death Clodia by her manner of life forfeited all claim to the immunities of a Roman matron.
[570] lxviiib. 105-6.