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CBITICISMS  AND  ELUCIDATIONS 


OF 


CATULLUS 


BY 

H.    A.    J.    MUNRO 


CAMBRIDGE: 

DEIGHTOK,   BELL  AND   CO. 

LONDON:  GEOEGE  BELL  AND  SONS. 

1878 

[All  Rights  reserved.] 


CatnBttUge : 

PRINTED    BY   C.    J.    CLAY,   M.A. 
AT   THE    UNrVEESITY   PRESS. 


INTEODUCTION 


Catullus,  after  two  centuries  of  comparative  neg- 
lect, has  of  late  received  from  scholars  his  due  share 
of  attention.  Even  within  the  last  year  and  half,  or 
two  years,  have  appeared  the  important  critical  edition 
of  Aemilius  Baehrens  and  the  long  and  elaborate  exe- 
getical  commentary  of  Robinson  Ellis.  Not  to  go  more 
than  fifteen  years  back,  we  have  had  within  that  time, 
in  addition  to  the  works  just  mentioned,  first  the 
learned  and  painstaking  '  Quaestiones '  of  Schwabe, 
which  throw  such  a  flood  of  light  on  the  history  of 
Catullus  and  of  his  friends  and  enemies ;  next  Schwabe's 
critical  edition  of  the  text,  followed  successively  by 
Ellis'  and  Lucian  Mueller  s ;  and,  beside  all  these  works, 
two  excellent  translations  into  English  verse- 

Although  the  field  may  be  thought  to  be  already 
sufficiently  preoccupied,  I  flatter  myself  that  this  httle 
book  will  not  prove  altogether  useless  either  for  the 
criticism  or  for  the  elucidation  of  our  poet.  For  the 
manuscript  material  I  am  wholly  indebted  to  the  suc- 
cessive labours  of  Schwabe,  Ellis  and  Baehrens.  It 
behoves  me  therefore  to  be  modest  when  dealing  with 
that  for  which  I  am  altogether  dependent  upon  the  di-r 
ligence  of  others.  With  respect  however  to  the  general 
principles,  from  which  Catullian  criticism  has  to  start, 
there  is  no  room  for  doubt  or  hesitation.  All  critics 
are  now  agreed — even  Ellis  I  believe,  tho'  some  of  his 


iv  CATVLLVS 

reasonings  are  not  easy  to  reconcile  with  such  an  as- 
sumption— that,  except  in  the  case  of  one  poem,  the 
62nd,  the  whole  of  our  manuscript  material  is  derived 
from  one  single  codex,  which  reappeared  at  Verona  in 
the  beginning  of  the  14th  century  and  was  afterwards 
lost  to  the  world  once  more.  The  two  main  and  inde- 
pendent representatives  of  this  lost  original  are  the 
Paris  codex  Germanensis,  copied  from  that  original  in 
1375,  and  the  Oxford  codex,  which  appears  to  have 
been  written  about  the  same  time.  Following  Ellis 
and  Baehrens,  who  have  alone  collated  O,  I  call  the 
one  G,  the  other  O ;  and  after  the  example  of  all  the 
editors  I  designate  by  Y  the  reading  of  the  lost  origi- 
nal, when  that  reading  can  be  satisfactorily  made  out. 
Resting  on  the  seemingly  complete  collation  of  these 
two  Mss.  given  by  Baehrens,  I  follow  him  in  looking  to 
them  almost  alone  in  order  to  determine  what  V  was. 

Diffidence  being  as  I  have  said  incumbent  on  me, 
where  I  am  reaping  the  fruits  of  others'  industry,  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  decide  whether  G  or  O  is  on  the 
whole  the  better  manuscript.  There  are  very  many 
passages  in  which  O,  and  0  alone,  gives  the  undoubted 
words  of  the  poet :  often  on  the  other  hand  it  is  very 
corrupt,  where  G  is  right  or  less  wrong.  Nor  shall  I 
pronounce  upon  the  question  whether,  beside  these 
two,  all  other  existing  manuscripts  are  derived  directly 
or  indirectly  from  G,  Baehrens  strenuously  maintaining 
that  they  are,  Ellis  as  strenuously  denying  it.  But  of 
this  I  feel  no  doubt  whatever,  that  if  G  and  O  come 
directly  from  the  original  codex — and  this  Ellis  does 
not  seem  to  call  in  question — then  he  very  greatly 
overrates  the  value  of  the  Datanus,  which  was  not 
written  till  1463.  I  have  much  difficulty  in  catching 
the  drift  of  the  argrument  about  this  codex  in  his  first 


INTRODUCTION  V 

volume,  an  argument  which  is  partially  reproduced  in 
his  commentary.  But  G  and  O  proclaim  with  a  loud 
voice  that  the  strange  and  uncouth  phenomena  of  the 
Datanus  are  figments  and  interpolations.  It  is  vain  to 
appeal  to  the  authority  of  Lachmann  who  was  ignorant 
of  G  and  O  alike.  Nor  is  it  easy  quite  to  grasp  the 
principle  from  which  Ellis  starts,  when  in  his  commen- 
tary on  meae  in  167  34  he  writes :  '  The  valuable  Brit. 
Mus.  Ms.  a  has  uice  for  meae ;  possibly  Catullus  wrote : 
Brixia  Veronae  mater  amata  uicem'.  When  G  and  O, 
and  apparently  every  other  Ms.,  have  mee,  how  can  we 
conceive  that  this  was  not  the  reading  of  V?  how  can 
a,  written  as  Ellis  tells  us  elsewhere  in  1460,  have  got 
this  uice  directly  or  indirectly  from  V?  how  can  it  be 
anything  but  a  stupid  interpolation,  designed  or  unde- 
signed ?  Again  in  64  249  O  has  '  Que  tii  prospectans'; 
G  has  *  tamen'  in  full,  and  had  originally  *  prospectans' ; 
but  the  pr  is  erased  and  o  clianged  to  a ;  later  Mss.  fol- 
low this  correction  and  read  'tamen  aspectans'.  AU 
the  old  editions  which  I  have  examined  before  Lach- 
mann's  have  'Quae  tum  prospectans',  and  so  have  the 
recent  editions  of  Schwabe  and  Baehrens.  Ellis  in  the 
Academy  (Aug.  19,  1876)  writes:  'Are  we  then  to  con- 
clude with  M.  Baehrens  that  the  right  reading  is  '  Quae 
tum  prospectans'?  Is  there  any  critic  who  could  hesi- 
tate to  prefer  'Quae  tamen  aspectans'?'  When  we  now 
learn  from  O  that  V  had  '  Que  tri  prospectans',  I  should 
have  been  disposed  rather  to  say  *  Is  there  any  critic 
who  could  hesitate  to  prefer  'Quae  tum  prospectans'?' 
This  is  merely  putting  tu  for  tii,  a  u  for  an  n,  no  two 
words  being  oftener  confused  than  timi  and  tamen  in 
consequence  of  their  abbreviations  being  so  very  similar. 
Certainly  what  strikes  me  as  one  of  the  weaknesses 
of  Ellis'  commentary,  as  of  his  first  volume,  is  the  difii- 


vi  CATVLLVS 

culty  he  seems  to  find  in  taking  up  tlie  right  position 
and  point  of  view  in  controverting  opinions  which  differ 
from  his  own :  he  will  attack  for  instance  the  conclu- 
sions of  others  by  arguing  against  them  from  his  own 
premisses,  instead  of  shewing  either  that  the  premisses 
are  wrong  on  which  those  conclusions  are  grounded,  or 
that  the  conclusions  do  not  follow  from  those  premisses. 
The  54th  poem,   of  seven  lines,  he  severs  into  three 
different  fragments,  and  assumes  a  lacuna  of  5  lines 
between  the  first  and  second  of  these,  and  a  lacuna  of 
one  line  between  the  second  and  third.     I  have  now 
reprinted  a  short  article,  written  a  few  years  ago  for 
the  Journal  of  Philology,  in  which  I  try  to  shew  that 
this  poem  as  it  stands  in  the  Mss.  forms  a  perfect  and 
satisfactory  whole.     Ellis  in  his  cormnentary,  while  he 
speaks  of  me  in  terms  for  which  I  feel  most  grateful, 
tho'  ashamed,  controverts  my  views  and  adheres  to  his 
own.    I  on  the  other  hand  have  appended  to  my  article 
some  remarks,  tending  as  I  think  to  strengthen  my  own 
argument  and  to  invalidate  his.    Which  of  the  two  has 
most  reason  or  probability  on  his  side,  it  is  of  course 
for  others  to  determine.     But  what  I  would  speak  of 
now  is  the  method  of  his  reasoning.     He  draws  up  four 
formal  arguments,  headed  1,  2,  3,  4,  to  prove  me  to  be 
wrong  and  the  poem  to  be  fragmentary,  all  of  which  I 
have  touched  on  elsewhere.     But  I  will  here  take  the 
4th  for  a  specimen :  '  (4)  Nothing  is  gained  by  inter- 
preting the  poem  as  a  complete  whole.     Everything 
shows  that  the  Ms.  of  Catullus  from  which  all  extant 
Mss.  spring  was  imperfect.   Why  should  we  deny  here', 
and  so  on.     Can  he  not  see  that  this  is  no  argument  at 
all,  but  a  mere  assertion  that  he  is  right  and  I  am 
wrong  ?     If  the  poem  is  a  complete  whole,  then  surely 
something  is  gained  by  interpreting  it  as  a  complete 


INTBODUCTION  VU 

whole.  If  it  is  a  heap  of  fragments,  then  of  course  no- 
thing is  gained  by  so  doing,  but  on  the  contrary  the 
labour  is  thrown  away.  Let  others  judge  between  us ; 
but  such  a  mere  assertion  has  no  more  force  of  demon- 
stration than  if  one  of  two  litigants  were  to  asseverate 
in  court  that  he  is  right  and  his  adversary  wrong.  Then 
as  to  what  he  says  here  of  the  imperfection  of  our  Mss., 
the  whole  of  my  book  will  prove  that  I  quite  go  along 
with  him ;  tho'  the  onus  probandi  presses  heavily  on 
him,  who  maintains  that  they  have  thus  tossed  to- 
gether into  one  apparent  whole  a  congeries  of  incoherent 
fragments.  But  Ellis  can  take  on  occasion  quite  a 
different  view  of  our  Mss.  After  64  23,  a  passage  which 
I  have  discussed  in  its  place,  the  Veronese  scholia  of 
Virgil  give  us  the  commencement  of  a  verse  which  has 
disappeared  from  the  Mss.  of  Catullus,  a  verse  which 
no  modern  editor,  except  ElHs,  for  a  moment  hesitates 
to  assign  to  Catullus.  But,  says  Ellis,  '  the  weight  of 
the  Veronese  Scholia,  imperfect  and  full  of  lacunae  as 
they  are,  is  not  to  be  set  against  our  Mss.'  And  yet  he 
does  not  even  attempt  to  shew  that  Mai  and  after  him 
Keil  have  not  rightly  deciphered  every  letter  of  the 
words  *saluete  deum  gens,  o  bona  matrum  Progenies 
saluete  iter... '  And  if  they  are  right,  how  should  there 
be  any  doubt  of  the  genuineness  of  these  words,  when 
we  cannot  even  conceive  any  motive  for  interpolation, 
and  can  so  readily  conceive  the  dropping  out  of  a  line 
in  the  Ms.  from  which  all  the  others  are  derived  ? 

Where  I  have  attempted  to  correct  the  text  of  Ca- 
tullus, I  have  tried  to  bear  in  mind  the  very  pertinent 
remark  of  Schwabe  that  no  successful  or  convincing 
emendations  have  been  made  in  that  text,  which  de- 
part widely  from  the  Ms.  reading.  Again  and  again  I 
have  had  to  call  attention  to  the  singular  peitinacity 


viii  CATVLLVS 

with  which  G  or  O,  or  both  of  them,  interchange  certain 
letters ;  most  of  all  perhaps  e  and  o ;  then  r,  t  (c),  rt 
and  ti' ;  so  and  s ;  n  and  r;  n  and  u;  /and  s;  and  final 
m  and  s.  I  have  reprinted  two  or  three  longer  and  as 
many  shorter  articles  which  have  appeared  at  intervals 
in  the  Journal  of  Philology  during  the  last  ten  years. 
It  was  not  possible  to  remodel  them  without  confusing 
times  and  circumstances.  I  have  appended  to  each  of 
them  remarks  and  criticisms,  designed  in  some  cases  to 
confirm,  in  others  to  modify  what  I  had  said. 

I  have  been  a  good  deal  surprised  to  see  how  often 
Schwabe,  Ellis  and  Baehrens  alike  have  retained  the 
barbarous  spellings  of  our  Mss.  which  are  of  much  too 
late  a  date  to  have  any  authority  in  questions  of  ortho- 
graphy. A  good  lesson  on  this  head  is  read  to  us,  if  in 
the  62nd  poem  we  compare  with  the  other  Mss.  the 
Paris  codex  of  the  9th  century  which  contains  that 
poem :  it  offers  the  correct  spellings — iucunda,  iucun- 
dior,  conubium,  conubia — ;  while  the  other  Mss.  have 
the  corrupt  spellings — iocunda,  iocundior,  connubium, 
connubia.  Nay,  in  100  4  'sodalicium'  of  Y,  the  only 
genuine  form  of  the  word,  is  changed  to  'sodalitium'  by 
Schwabe,  by  Baehrens,  and  by  Ellis  in  his  text,  tho' 
the  last  has  corrected  the  mistake  in  his  commentary. 
This  will  help  to  increase  the  uncertainty  which  already 
exists,  especially  in  our  country,  where  the  minds  of 
scholars  appear  to  be  so  very  unsettled  with  regard  to 
Latin  orthography ;  tho*  the  spelling  of  classical  Latin, 
if  we  only  allow  for  that  amount  of  variety  which  certain 
periods  of  transition  admitted,  is  now  fixed  and  known. 

Trinity  College  Cambridge  :  December  1877. 


fi 


^\ 


p.  144 :  64,  14  dele  comma  at  end. 

p.  181,  L  6  from  end,  for  '  105  and  106  '  read  *  145  and  146'. 


Quoi  dono  lepidum  nouum  libellum 
arido  modo  pumice  expolitum  ? 
Cornell,  tibi :  namque  tu  solebas  : 

meas  esse  aliquid  putare  nugas, 
5  iam  turn  cum  ausus  es  unus  Italorum 
omne  aeuum  tribus  explicare  cartis 
doctis,  luppiter,  et  laboriosis. 
quare  habe  tibi  quicquid  hoe  libelli, 
qualecumque  quidem  patronei  ut  ergo 
10  plus  uno  maneat  peremie  saeclo. 

9  quidem  Itali.  quod  V.  patroni  ut  ergo  Bergk.  patrona  mrgo  V.  Qua- 
leoomque ;  quod,  o  patroua  .uirgo  uulgo.. 

I  tbink  it  worth  while  to  offer  the  following  re- 
marks on  this  short  and  simple  poem,  even  at  the'  risk 
of  what  I  say  appearing  to  have  in  it  little  that  is 
new  and  important.  All  recent  Editors  adopt  in  the 
last  line  but  one  what  seems  the  simple  and  obvious 
correction  of  the  Mss. :  Qualecumque,  quod  o  patrona 
uirgo.  I  would  here  observe  in  the  first  place  that 
'  quicquid  hoc  qualecumque '  can  hardly  come  together 
without   a   connecting   particle :    thus   several   of  the 

M.  c.  1 


2  CATVLLI 

older  Editors  add  et  after  lihelli.  So  Tacitus  ann.  xiv 
55  has  *quidquid  illud  et  qualecumque  tribuisset'. 
But  this  correction  the  rhythm  of  Catullus  "will  not 
admit  of.  If  the  common  reading  therefore  be  right, 
surely  we  must  join  'Qualecumque  quod'  (i.e.  quod 
qualecumque),  just  as  Martial  has  'Hoc  qualecum- 
que' in  VII  26  3,  a  poem  which  contains  another 
imitation  of  Catullus. 

But  the  'patrona  uirgo'  offers  more  difficulty. 
Who  is  she  ?  JVlinerva,  some  say.  Impossible.  The 
Muse,  say  others  and  with  more  reason.  That  in  a 
certain  sense  the  Muse  may  be  called  the  patron  of 
a  poet,  I  would  not  deny,  though  the  two  authorities 
cited  by  EUis,  in  which  the  poet  is  said  conversely  to 
be  the  client  of  the  Muse  or  Muses,  are  neither  of 
them  of  much  weight.  But  why  the  strangely  vague 
*  patrona  uirgo '  with  nothing  to  point  its  meaning  ? 
Why  could  he  not  have  written  'patrona  Musa'? 
And  if  the  Muse  be  the  poet's  patron,  surely  she  is 
so  in  the  sense  of  being  his  helper,  his  inspirer  and 
mouthpiece.  She  dictates  the  verses  and  must  see 
to  it,  that  they  be  worthy  of  long  life.  Thus  the 
spurious  Sulpicia,  quoted  by  Ellis,  bids  the  Muse 
come  down  and  help  her  cHent.  A  sorry  volume,  a 
'  quicquid  hoc  libelli',  a  *  quod  qualecumque '  would  be 
her  disgrace,  as  much  as  the  poet's.  It  is  a  different 
patron  that  would  have  to  nurse  into  fame  such  a 
production. 

It  is  in  such  a  sense  as  this  that  the  poets  always 
call  on  the  Muses  to  dictate  the  words  which  they 
cannot  find  for  themselves :  aetSe,  Oed :  avSpa  fxoL 
evuene,  Movaa :  Musa,  uelim  causas  memores  :  Pandite 
nunc  Helicona,  deae,  cantusque  mouete.  And  so 
Catullus  himself:  Non  possum  reticere,  deae,  qua  me 


CARM.    1  3 

Allius  in  re  luuerit Sed  dicam   uobis,  uos  porro 

dicite  multis  Milibus,  and  so  on.  Catullus  tells  the 
Muses  what  he  owes  to  AlKus ;  they  put  what  he  tells 
them  into  verse  that  will  last  for  ages. 

The  corrections  I  have  adopted  in  v.  9  are  not  so 
violent  as  they  may  at  first  sight  seem  to  be :  quod, 
quid,  and  the  like  appear  in  the  Mss.  of  Catullus  in 
abbreviated  forms  often  so  difficult  to  distinguish,  that 
I  am  not  sure  that  the  old  1 5th  century  correction 
quidem  is  so  much  more  improbable  than  the  quod  o  of 
Palladius.  Then  as  to  Bergk's  patronei  ut  ergo,  which 
ever  since  I  knew  it  has  .always  struck  me  as  most 
plausible,  it  is  clear  that  in  the  lost  archetype  a  must 
have  greatly  resembled  ei:  thus  in  7  9  V  had  hasiei 
for  hasia,  and  in  65  14  O  gives  asumpta  for  dbsumptei. 

Surely  we  thus  get  a  much  apter  conclusion.  A 
poem  so  short  as  this  at  all  events  should  be  consistent 
with  itself:  seruetux  ad  imum  Qualis  ab  incepto  pro- 
cesserit,  et  sibi  constet.  My  little  book  I  give  to  you, 
Cornelius,  who  once  before  deigned  to  comnxend  my 
trifles.  Take  it  then,  poor  as  it  is,  that  for  its  patron's 
sake  it  may  last  some  ages.  The  tone  of  sejf- deprecia- 
tion is  thus  entirely  in  place,  while  it  would  hardly  be 
in  good  taste  if  addressed  to  the  Muse  who  would 
have  at  least  to  share  the  blame  with  the  poet.  Again, 
when  Nepos  has  been  the  sole  theme  of  the  first  eight 
verses  and  has  been  addressed  throughout  in  the  second 
person,  to  turn  so  abruptly  in  the  last  two  lines  to  the 
Muse,  if  Muse  it  be,  or  to  Minerva  as  others  would 
have  it,  strikes  me  as  a  violation  of  all  art  and  good 
taste. 

And,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  I  can  bring  forward 
some  external  testimony  to  support  what  I  have  said. 
It  is  natural  that  the  introductory  poem  of  so  popular 

1—2 


CATVLLI 


a  poet  as  Catullus  should  be  much  quoted  and  imitated. 
For  my  present  purpose  however  I  confine  myself 
chiefly  to  Martial,  one  of  the  most  ardent  admii-ers  of 
our  poet.  If  I  should  appear  needlessly  diffuse,  let  my 
readers  understand  that  there  is  a  meaning  in  my  te- 
diousness.  Imitations  of,  or  allusions  to,  one  or  other 
of  the  first  four  verses  occur  in  the  following  passages 
of  Martial :  we  find  *lepidos  libeUos'  in  xi  20  9,  and  in 
VIII  3  19,  where  the  right  reading  surely  is  'Romano 
lepidos  sale  tinge  libellos' :  i  113  6  Per  quem  perire 
non  licet  meis  nugis;  ll  1  6  Nee  tantum  nugis  seruiet 
ille  meis;  iv  10  1  Dum  nouus  est,  rasa  nee  adhuc  mihi 
fronte  libellus...I,  puer,  et  caro  perfer  leue  munus 
amico  Qui  meruit  nugas  primus  habere  meas;  82  1  Hos 
quoque  commenda  Yenuleio,  Rufe,  libellos...  Non  te- 
trica  nugas  exigat  aure  meas;  v  80  3  Dum  nostras 
legis  exigisque  nugas ;  vi  1  1  Sextus  mittitur  hie  tibi 
libellus ;  vii  26  7  Quanto  mearum  scis  amore  nugarum 
Flao-ret :  in  v.  3  there  is  an  imitation  of  v.  9  in  Catul- 

o 

lus :  VIII  72  1  Nondum  murice  cultus  asperoque  Morsu 
pumicis  aridi  politus...libelle;  xii,  in  prose  preface, 
'  de  nugis  nostris  indices' ;  xm  2  4  Non  potes  in  nugas 
dicere  plura  meas. 

As  vss.  5,  6  and  7  of  Catullus'  poem  refer  merely 
to  a  particular  work  of  Nepos,  we  cannot  look  for  any 
allusions  to  them.  To  come  to  the  last  three  vss.,  v.  8, 
as  Ellis  has  shewn,  is  clearly  imitated  by  Censorinus  i 
Quodcumque  hoc  libri  est  meis  opibus  comparatum  na- 
tahcii  titulo  tibi  misi.  Baehrens'  reading  appears  to  be 
confuted  by  this,  as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  'quale- 
cumque'  seems  never  to  be  joined  with  a  genitive,  as 
'quidquid'  and  'quodcumque'  are.  If  it  be  said  that 
Censorinus  wrote  in  the  third  century  and  that  Catul- 
lus was  interpolated  before  this  time,  I  would  appeal 


CARM.    1  5 

to  Martial  iil  1  1  Hoc  tibi  quidquid  id  est  longinquis 
mittit  ab  oris  Gallia,  which,  coming  as  it  does  at  the 
opening  of  a  book,  strikes  me  as  a  clear  reference  to 
this  verse  of  Catullus. 

For  the  last  two  vss.  I  would  first  of  all  compare 
Martial  v  60  5  Qualiscumque  legaris  ut  per  orbem,  the 
rhythm  of  which  reminds  me  of  v.  9  of  Catullus  as  I 
have  given  it.  Then  look  at  Martial's  prose  dedication 
of  viii  to  Domitian :  Omnes  quidem  libelli  mei,  domine, 
quibus  tu  famam,  id  est  uitam  ded'isti,  tibi  supplicant, 
et  puto  propter  hoc  legentur.  For,  as  our  poem  was  so 
much  in  Martial's  thoughts,  the  last  words  recall  to  my 
mind  the  *  patroni  ut  ergo  cet.'  Compare  also  the  end 
ot  Statins'  dedication  of  Siluae  ii :  Haec  qualiacumque 
sunt,  Melior  carissime,  si  tibi  non  displicuerint,  a  te 
publicum  accipiant :  sin  minus,  ad  me  reuertantur. 
For  here  too  I  catch  an  allusion  to  the  end  of  our 
poem  as  I  have  given  it.  Domitian  and  Melior  take 
the  place  of  Nepos.  Last  of  all  look  at  Martial  iii  2,  a 
short  poem  manifestly  modelled  on  Catullus'  poem.  It 
thus  commences :  '  Cuius  uis  fieri,  libelle,  munus?'  after 
Catullus'  *Cui  dono  lepidum  nouum  libellum?'  Mar- 
tial continues  '  Festina  tibi  uindicem  parare':  then  in 
V.  6  '  Faustini  fugis  in  sinuni?  sapisti'.  The  poem  thus 
concludes  *  Illo  uindice  nee  Probum  timeto',  taking  up 
V.  2  and  6  exactly  as  Catullus,  if  we  are  right,  would 
take  up  V.  3  '  Corneli  tibi'  with  *  patroni  ut  ergo  cet.', 
uindex  too  having  much  the  same  meaning  as  jpatronus. 
All  these  points  when  taken  together  appear  to  me  not 
to  be  without  significance. 


CATVLLI 


[Beprinted  from  the  Journal  of  Philology  vol.  i  p.  241  242] 

Passer,  deliciae  meae  puellae, 
quicum  ludere,  queni  in  sinu  tenere, 
quoi  primuni  digitum  dare  adpetenti 
et  acris  solet  incitare  morsus, 
5  cum  desiderio  meo  nitenti 
carum  nescio  quid  libet  iocari, 
et  solaciolum  sui  doloris 
credo  ut  cum  grauis  acquiescet  ardor  : 
tecum  ludere  sicut  ipsa  possem 
10  et  tristis  animi  leuare  curas  ! 

This  delightful  little  poem  would  seem  to  have 
been  written  while  the  love  of  Catullus  and  Lesbia  was 
yet  according  to  the  notions  of  the  time  comparatively 
innocent.  All  is  clear  except  in  vss.  7  and  8  which  are 
manifestly  corrupt.  The  latter  has  been  altered  in 
various  ways :  Credo  ut  tum  (ut  iam,  uti)  grauis  acqui- 
escat  ardor.  A  change  would  seem  to  be  required  in 
V.  7  as  well,  and  very  old  critics  have  suggested  in  or 
ut  for  et ;  ad  too  might  be  proposed.  Lachmann  indeed, 
followed  by  Haupt,  Schwabe  and  others,  keeps  et  and 
refers  us  to  38  7  Paulum  quid  lubet  allocutionis.  But 
in  this  he  is  quite  mistaken :  it  may  be  seen  from  the 
very  large  number  of  instances  collected  by  Neue  (ii 
pp.  485  486),  that  the  best  writers  continually  use 
libere,  licere  and  oportere  as  personal  verbs,  but  in  a 
very  pecuhar  way,  with  the  neuters  of  pronouns  such 
as  id,  ea,  ista,  quid,  quod,  quae,  quidquid,  and  of  cer- 


CARM.    2  7 

tain  kinds  of  adjectives,  omnia,  quantum,  multum, 
multa ;  and  so  Catullus  in  61  42  has  quae  licent,  as 
well  as  paulum  quid  luhet,  quoted  above.  But,  as 
Neue  observes,  in  the  whole  of  classical  Latinity  these 
verbs  never  have  a  substantive  for  their  subject ;  and 
solaciolum  lihet  is  quite  solecistic.  Ellis  keeps  et  and 
reads  in  8  Credo,  et  cum  grauis  acquiescit. 

But  though  Editors  alter  three  or  at  least  two 
words,  none  of  their  readings  appears  to  me  to  give  a 
suitable  sense  :  they  seem  all  to  take  doloi'  and  grauis 
ardor  to  be  synonymous  or  nearly  so,  while  I  believe 
them  to  be  used  in  decided  opposition  to  each  other : 
dolor  denotes  the  grief  and  aching  void  which  the 
heart  feels  in  the  absence  of  a  loved  object,  which  it 
desires  to  have  with  it:  comp.  Propert  i  20  32  A!  dolor 
ibat  Hylas  ibat  Hamadryasin:  which  is  imitated  by 
Ovid  in  Heroid.  13  104  Tu  mihi  luce  dolor,  tu  mihi 
nocte  uenis,  by  which  Laodamia  expresses  her  ever- 
present  yearning  for  Protesilaus.  Then  see  Catullus 
himself,  50  16,  Hoc,  iucunde,  tibi  poema  feci.  Ex  quo 
perspiceres  meum  dolorem;  by  which  he  denotes  his 
longing  desire  for  the  company  of  his  friend  Calvus, 
whose  wit  and  conversation  he  so  regretted  that  he 
could  not  sleep  or  rest.  Whereas  grauis  ardor  express- 
es that  furious  storm  of  passion  which  could  not  last 
long  at  one  time  without  destroying  its  possessor,  but 
which  while  it  did  last  would  put  any  other  gratifica- 
tion, except  that  of  the  passion  itself,  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. This  ardor  a  Medea  could  feel  in  the  presence  of 
lason:  Et  iam  fortis  erat,  pulsusque  recesserat  ardor; 
Cum  uidet  Aesoniden,  extinctaque  flamma  reuixit : 
Erubuere  genae  to  toque  recanduit  ore  (Ovid  Metam. 
VII IQ):  Catullus  too  felt  it  himself  often  enough:  Cum 
tantum  arderem  quantum  Trinacria  rupes  Lymphaque 


B  CATVLLI 

in  Oetaeis  Malia  Thermopylis  (68  53).  As  well  attempt 
to  quench  a  conflagration  with  a  squirt,  as  allay  the 
grauis  ardor,  the  Aetna-like  fire,  of  a  Medea,  a  Lesbia, 
a  Catullus  by  the  antics  of  a  bird.  The  grauis  ardor 
must  destroy  itself  for  the  time  by  its  own  intensity 
before  the  dolor  remaining  behind  could  find  rehef  in 
playing  with  a  sparrow.  I  feel  convinced  therefore 
that  these  two  verses  are  to  be  transposed,  transposi- 
tion being  one  of  the  simplest  remedies  in  the  case  of  a 
text  resting  finally  on  a  single  manuscript;  and  that 
we  are  to  read 

credo  ut,  cum  grauis  acquiescet  ardor, 
sit  solaciolum  sui  doloris : 

'when  the  bright  lady  of  my  longing  love  is  minded  to 
try  some  charming  play,  for  a  sweet  solace  of  her  heart- 
ache, I  trow,  whenever  the  fierce  storm  of  passion  shall 
be  laid'. 

'Cum  acquiescet'  is  in  Catullus'  manner:  5  13  Cum 
sciet,  another  cum  preceding  in  v.  10,  as  here  in  v.  5  ; 
13  13;  64  344,  346,  350,  351;  esp.  236  ut,..Agnoscam, 
cum  te  reducem  aetas  prospera  sistet. 


I  have  little  to  add  to  this  notice  which  was  printed 
six  years  ago.  I  still  look  upon  it  as  a  more  satis- 
factory arrangement  of  the  beautiful  poem  than  any 
which  Catullus'  Editors  have  offered,  tho'  Ellis  through- 
out his  commentary  makes  not  the  slightest  reference 
to  it,  and  Baehrens  thus  prints  7  and  8  :  In  solaciolum 
sui  doloris  (Credo,  turn  grauis  acquiescet  ardor).  Not- 
withstanding all  I  have  said,  Ellis  in  commenting  on  7 
still   holds  that  Lachmann  may  be  right  in  making 


CARM.   2,  4  9 

'solaciolum'  a  2nd  nominative  to  'libet',  and  refers  to 
38  7,  as  if  I  had  not  shewn  that  that  passage  has  no- 
thing to  do  with  the  point  in  question,  'paulum  quid' 
coming  under  the  rule  which  permits  'lubet'  to  be 
person  ah  Nor  does  Ellis'  long  comment  on  the  three 
lines,  attached  in  the  Mss.  to  our  poem,  help  me  in  the 
least  to  see  how  they  can  in  any  way  belong  to  it. 
They  seem  clearly  a  fragment  of  some  other  poem.  In 
my  note  on  7  Cum  acquiescet,  I  should  have  stated 
that  in  5  13  V  has  'Cum  sciat';  but  *Cum  sciet',  as 
Buecheler  suggests,  should  I  think  be  read. 


[Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  Philology,  vol.  4  p.  231 — 240] 

This  poem  is  a  fascinating  example  of  the  gentler 
manner  of  Catullus.  Though  it  will  not  bear  com- 
parison with  some  of  his  more  impassioned  pieces,  it 
has  an  exquisite  beauty  and  finish  m  its-  own  style, 
which  will  not  be  readily  matched  in  Latin  or  any 
other  language.  Fortunately  too  the  blunders  of  the 
manuscripts  are  so  plain  and  have  been  corrected  with 
such  success  by  the  older  critics  that  there  are  only 
two  words  in  the  whole  poem,  about  which  there  is  any 
difference  of  opinion  :  uocaret  in  1.  20,  for  which  Lach- 
mann,  followed  by  Haupt,  reads  uagaret,  and  nouissime 
in  1.  24  for  which  many  Editors,  old  and  recent,  read 
nouissimo.  In  both  cases  I  keep  the  manuscript  read- 
ing, in  the  former  with  a  good  deal  of  hesitation,  in  the 
latter  with  an  absolute  conviction  that  the  change 
adopted  by  so  many  seriously  interferes  with  the  right 
understanding  of  the  poem.  Clear  and  limpid  how- 
ever as  the  language  may  appear  at  first  sight,  when  it 


10  CATVLLI 

is  more  carefully  examined,  its  right  interpretation  is 
found  to  be  by  no  means  so  simple,  and  seems  to  have 
been  often  missed;  for  Catullus  here,  as  in  his  other 
pure  iambic  poem,  owing  perhaps  to  the  restrictions  of 
the  metre,  is  very  abrupt  and  allusive  and  requires 
much  expansion  in  order  to  be  fully  apprehended. 
Believing  that  a  minute  dissection  of  the  poem  and  a 
careful  comparison  of  it  and  the  tenth  elegy  of  the 
first  book  of  the  Tristia,  which  Ovid  has  written  with 
Catullus  in  his  mind,  probably  in  his  hands,  will  clear 
up  much  that  is  obscure,  I  offer  the  following  remarks, 
first  printing  the  Latin,  as  precision  is  needed  and 
careful  punctuation  is  of  importance. 

Phaselus  ille  quem  uidetis,  hospites, 
ait  fuisse  nauium  celerrimus, 
neque  ullius  natantis  impetum  trabis 
nequisse  praeter  ire,  siue  palmulis 
5  opus  foret  uolare  siue  linteo. 
et  hoc  negat  minacis  Hadriatici 
negare  litus,  insulasue  Cycladas 
Rhodumque  nobilem  horridamque  Thraciam 
Propontida,  trucemue  Ponticum  sinum, 

10  ubi  iste  post  phaselus  antea  fuit 
comata  silua  :  nam  Cytorio  in  iugo 
loquente  saepe  sibilum  edidit  coma. 
Amastri  Pontica  et  Cytore  buxifer, 
tibi  haec  fuisse  et  esse  cognitissima 

1 5  ait  phaselus ;  ultima  ex  origine 
tuo  stetisse  dicit  in  cacumine, 
tuo  imbuisse  palmulas  in  aequore ; 
et  inde  tot  per  impotentia  freta 
erum  tulisse,  laeua  siue  dextera 

20  uocaret  aura,  siue  utrumque  luppiter 


CARM.    4  11 

slmul  secundus  incidisset  in  pedem ; 
neque  uUa  uota  litoralibus  dels 
sibi  esse  facta,  cum  ueniret  a  marei 
nouissime  hunc  ad  usque  limpidum  lacum. 
25  sed  haec  prius  fuere :  nunc  recondita 
senet  quiete  seque  dedicat  tibi, 
gemelle  Castor  et  gemelle  Castoris. 

In  these  verses  Catullus  represents  himself  as 
pointing  out  and  praising  to  some  guests,  who  were 
with  him  at  his  villa  in  Sirmio,  the  phaselus,  now  laid 
up  beside  the  Benacus  or  Lago  di  Garda,  which  had 
carried  him  from  Bithynia  to  Italy.  This  at  least  is 
the  sense  in  which  Catullus'  words  have  been  almost 
universally  understood.  But  one  of  his  latest  expositors 
Westphal  in  his  translation  and  commentary,  pp.  170 
■ — 174,  says  that  the  poem  contains  much  that  is 
obscure  (viel  Dunkles),  and  proceeds  to  explain  it  very 
differently.  The  ship  had  to  cross  the  sea ;  it  was  not 
therefore  a  mere  *  barke ' ;  it  could  hardly  then  have 
come  up  the  Po  and  Mincio  to  the  Lago  di  Garda ; 
Catullus  too  seems  first  to  have  gone  on  board  at 
Bhodes,  and  to  have  performed  the  first  part  of  the 
journey  by  land ;  the  ship  therefore  was  not  his  own ; 
he  only  hired  a  passage  on  it  from  Rhodes ;  the  eru7n 
of  V.  19  was  the  owner  or  master  of  the  ship ;  the 
limpidus  lacus  was  not  the  Benacus,  but  a  saltwater 
bay  of  the  Adriatic,  perhaps  on  the  Grecian  shore  ;  the 
hospites  were  not  Catullus'  guests,  but  the  hosts  who 
entertained  him  on  his  landing  on  the  coast.  This 
explanation  gives  a  very  lame  and  impotent  meaning 
to  the  piece,  the  'viel  Dunkles'  of  which  we  will 
endeavour  to  clear  up  in  a  different  way,  partly  by  the 
assistance  of  Ovid.     The  phaselus  was  unquestionably 


12  CATVLLI 

built  for  Catullus  or  purchased  by  him  in  Bithynia, 
and  must  have  been  a  light  galley  constructed  for 
great  speed  and  provided  with  both  sails  and  oars. 
It  need  not  have  been  of  any  great  size  :  a  friend  of 
mine  during  the  war  with  Kussia  went  to  the  Baltic, 
cruised  there  for  some  time  and  returned  to  England 
in  a  yacht  of  seven  tons ;  and  we  know  from  a  late 
memorable  trial  that  the  '  Osprey '  of  66  tons,  built  for 
mere  trading  purposes,  could  circumnavigate  more  than 
half  the  globe,  whether  or  not  it  bore  in  addition  the 
weight  and  fortunes  of  Sir  Boger.  And  what  feats  of 
discovery  were  performed  of  old  by  heroes  like  Baffin 
in  their  craft  of  40  tons  I  We  shall  probably  not  be 
wrong  in  assuming  that  our  phaselus  was  of  a  burden 
somewhere  between  20  and  50  tons,  and  that  this 
would  be  the  size  of  Ovid's  ship  too,  of  which  we  are 
now  going  to  speak. 

Ovid  on  his  sad  journey  to  Tomoe  had  come  by 
sea  to  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth ;  he  there  quitted  the 
ship,  crossed  the  Isthmus  and  purchased  a  vessel  at 
Cenchreae,  which  wa&  to  convey  him  and  all  his  pro- 
perty to  his  final  destination.  He  sailed  in  it  as  far  as 
the  entrance  of  the  Hellespont,  where  he  seems  to 
have  encountered  contrary  winds  and  been  obliged  to 
beat  about,  and  to  have  been  carried  back  first  to 
Imbros  and  then  to  Samothrace,  where  he  made  up  his 
mind  to  send  on  his  own  vessel,  doubtless  with  all  his 
impedwienta  and  most  of  his  servants,  through  the 
Hellespont,  the  Propontis,  the  Bosporus,  and  along  the 
left  shore  of  the  Euxine  to  Tomoe ;  while  he  himself, 
weary  of  the  sea,  crossed  over  to  Thrace  and  performed 
the  rest  of  his  journey  by  land.  All  this  he  tells  us  in 
the  elegy  already  spoken  of,  which  was  written  while 
he  was  staying  in  Samothrace.     It  is  the  most  cheerful 


CARM.    4  13 

in  the  whole  series  of  the  '  Tristia '  and  the  '  Ex  Ponto'. 
The  poet  finds  himself  in  a  cultivated  place  after  the 
dangers  and  discomforts  of  the  sea  and  before  he  had 
learnt  what  Tomoe  really  was,  or  rather  the  aspect  it 
assumed  to  his  diseased  imagination  which  succeeded 
in  persuading  him,  though  fresh  from  the  astronomical 
studies  of  the  Fasti,  that  a  town,  in  the  latitude  of 
Florence,  lay  far  within  the  Arctic  circle.  Were  it  not 
for  Ovid's  minute  diffuseness,  his  meaning  would  per- 
haps have  been  more  obscure  to  us  than  the  curt 
and  allusive  language  of  Catullus,  which  we  will  now 
endeavour  to  illustrate,  partly  from  this  elegy. 

The  first  five  lines  of  our  poem  we  will  thus  trans- 
late :  '  That  yacht,  my  friends,  which  you  see,  claims  to 
have  been  the  fastest  of  ships ;  no  spurt  of  aught  which 
swims  of  timber  built  but  she  could  pass,  she  says, 
whether  need  were  to  fly  with  blades  of  oars  or  under 
canvas'.  These  verses  are  thus  imitated  by  Ovid, 
who  shews  himself  here  too  'nimium  amator  ingenii 
sui'  and  pushes  to  hyperbole  the  simple  thought  of 
Catullus  : 

Est  mihi  sitque  precor,  flauae  tutela  Mineruae, 
nauis,  et  a  picta  casside  nomen  habet. 

siue  opus  est  uelis,  minimam  bene  currit  ad  auram, 
siue  opus  est  remo,  remige  carpit  iter. 

nee  comites  uolucri  contenta  est  uincere  cursu, 
occupat  egressas  quamhbet  ante  rates. 

We  will  next  take  vss.  6 — 21  of  Catullus :  'And 
this  the  shore  of  the  blustering  Adriatic  will  not,  she 
says,  gainsay ;  no  nor  the  Cyclad  isles  and  Rhodes 
renowned  and  the  rough  Thracian  Propontis ;  no  nor 
the  surly  Pontic  gulf,  where,  afterwards  a  yacht,  she 
was  before  a  leafy  wood ;  for  often  on  Cytorus'  ridge 


1 4  CATVLLl 

with  her  talking  leaves  she  gave  a  whispering  forth. 
To  you,  Amastris-upon-Pontus,  and  to  you,  box-clad 
Cytorus,  these  facts,  the  yacht  declares,  wei*e  and  are 
known  right  well :  from  her  earliest  birthtime  on  your 
top  she  stood,  she  says ;  in  your  waters  handselled  her 
blades  ;  and  next  she  carried  her  master  over  so  many 
raging  seas,  whether  on  her  left  the  breeze  invited  or 
on  her  right,  or  Jupiter  propitious  had  fallen  at  once 
on  both  her  sheets'.  In  these  lines  Catullus  twice 
over  in  his  very  rapid  manner,  with  the  simplest 
copulae,  indicates  the  voyage  of  his  yacht  from  the 
time  it  was  launched  in  the  Pontus,  probably  at 
Amastris  or  perhaps  at  Cytorus,  till  it  reached  the 
shores  of  Italy:  first  in  6 — 9,  and  again  in  17 — 21. 
In  the  former  verses  the  voyage,  as  the  commentators 
have  observed,  is  described  in  reversed  order  by  one 
looking  back  on  it  from  Italy.  It  is  divided  into  three 
main  sections  by  the  particle  ue,  as  I  have  tried  to 
indicate  by  the  punctuation  of  both  my  text  and  my 
translation.  The  yacht  was  built  in  Amastris  or  in 
Cytorus,  the  town  and  hill  having  both  the  same  name. 
These  two  great  emporia  for  the  box  and  other  woods 
of  the  Cytorian  mount  are  mentioned  together  in  the 
Iliad  (B  853)  Ol  pa  KvToypov  ex^^  '^^^  XTJcrafiov  (old 
name  of  Amastris)  dfji,(f)evefiovTo.  This  part  of  Paph- 
lagonia,  of  which  Amastris  was  the  capital,  now  be- 
longed to  the  province  of  Bithynia,  and  it  was  natural 
that  Catullus  should  get  his  yacht  there.  But  when 
he  left  Bithynia  in  the  year  B.C.  56,  he  was  in  Nicaea 
far  down  to  the  south-west  and  not  far  from  the 
Propontis :  comp.  46  4  Linquantur  Phrygii,  Catulle, 
campi  Nicaeaeque  ager  uber  aestuosae :  Ad  claras 
Asiae  uolemus  urbes.  It  is  pretty  certain  then  in  itself 
that  Catullus  would  not  make  the  long  and  almost 


CARM.    4  15 

impracticable  hill -journey  from  Nicaea  to  Amastris 
or  Cytorus;  and  this  will  appear  more  clearly  from 
what  will  be  said  presently.  He  would  order  his 
yacht  to  be  brought  round  along  the  *  surly '  Pontus, 
through  the  Bosporus  into  the  Propontis,  and  would 
embark  with  all  his  belongings  either  at  Cios,  which 
Mela  (l  100)  calls  'Phrygiae  opportunissimum  em- 
porium ',  or  at  Myrlea  (Apamea),  to  both  of  which 
there  was  a  short  and  easy  road  from  Nicaea. 

Then  in  7 — 9  'insulasue — Propontida',  Catullus 
briefly  indicates  the  second  division  of  the  yacht's 
voyage,  he  himself  being  now  on  board.  It  coasted 
along  the  Propontis,  then  through  the  Hellespont,  and 
along  the  shore  of  Mysia,  Lydia,  etc.,  or  the  islands 
Lesbos,  Chios,  etc.  to  Rhodes,  which  the  poem  inti- 
mates to  have  been  the  most  eastern  point  to  which  he 
went.  He  would  thus  probably  visit  the  most  famous 
towns  of  the  province  of  Asia :  Ad  claras  Asiae  uolemus 
urbes:  so  Ovid  'Te  duce  magnificas  Asiae  perspeximus 
urbes'.  The  yacht  of  course  with  his  property  and 
servants  would  be  coasting  along  all  the  time.  It  is 
likely  enough  that  he  himself  would  sometimes  travel 
by  land :  it  was  probably  on  this  occasion  that  he 
visited  his  brother's  tomb  in  the  Troad,  and  doubtless 
cities  like  Ephesus  and  Halicarnassus  were  not  passed 
over.  But  Rhodes  would  seem  to  be  specially  desig- 
nated not  only  on  account  of  its  celebrity,  but  also 
because  it  was  the  farthest  point  in  his  voyage  home- 
wards. He  would  then  make  straight  for  the  'insulas 
Cycladas',  visiting  perhaps  Delos;  for  they  lay  directly 
between  Rhodes  and  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth,  over 
which  Catullus  no  doubt  had  his  yacht  transported. 
It  would  be  carried  across  by  the  Diolcos  in  a  few 
hours  ;  and  it  is  almost  certain  that  he  would  not  make 


16  GATVLLI 

the  long  and  dangerous  voyage  round  Cape  Malea.     In 
fact  his  words,  as  we  have  said,  short  and  allusive  here 
as  elsewhere,  seem  to  point  out  his  course.     "We  now 
come  to  the  last  part  of  the  sea- voyage,  denoted  by  the 
'minacis  Hadriatici  litus',  which,  indicates  briefly  liis 
coasting   along  the  Grecian  shore,   crossing   over   the 
Hadriatic,  and  then  running  along  the  Italian  shore. 
What  we  have  said  of  his  joining  his  yacht  in  the  Pro- 
pontis  seems  implied  not  only  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
but  also  in  the  poet's  own  words  (v.  18)  'inde  tot  per 
impotentia  freta  Erum  tuUsse';    and  that  he  did  not 
personally  know  the  first  part  of  the  yacht's  voyage 
might  appear  from  his  appeal  to  Amastris  and  Cytorus : 
all  this,  the  growth  of  the  wood,  the  first  launching  of 
the  ship,  you,  Amastris  and  Cytorus,  know,  it  says,  and 
know  full  well,  even  if  I  do  not.     That  the  e^mrn  tulisse 
is  emphatic,  I  will  try  to  shew  from  Ovid  too;  but  first 
I  will  speak  of  the  concluding  lines  of  the  poem  (22 — 
27),  as  Ovid  will  perhaps  illustrate  them  also. 

*And  not  a  vow  had  been  offered  for  her  to  the 
guardian  gods  of  the  shore,  when  last  of  all  she  came 
from  the  sea  as  far  as  this  limpid  lake.  But  this  is 
past  and  done  :  now  she  ages  in  tranquil  retirement 
and  dedicates  herself  to  you,  twin-brother  Castor  and 
Castor's  brother  twin'.  The  yacht  at  v.  22  had  reached 
the  mouth  of  the  Po,  its  sailing  qualities  being  such 
that  it  had  never  been  in  danger  enough  for  a  single 
vow  to  be  offered  up,  until  it  was  quite  clear  of  the  sea. 
The  oratio  obhqua  renders  this  sentence  a  little  obscure, 
as  it  does  not  shew  whether  'esse  facta'  is  the  perfect 
or  the  pluperfect :  the  oratio  recta  would  be  plain 
enough :  neque  ulla  uota  dis  Htoralibus  mihi  facta  erant 
tum,  cum  nouissime,  mari  relicto,  ueni  ad  hunc  usque 
lacum:  ultima  ex  origine  of  15,  e^  iiide  of  18,  and  cum 


CARM.    4  17 

nouissime  of  23  and  24,  answer  to  each  other  just  as  in 
Plancus'  letter  to  Cicero  (ad  fam.  x  42  2),  we  have  pri- 
mum — deinde — nouissime,  as  well  as  in  Seneca  de  ira 
III  5  2  :  Quintilian  has  primum — post  hcvec— nouissi- 
me; prius — ti(,m — nouissime;  maodme — turn — nouissime: 
[Varro  Bimarcus  viii  (25)  Cum  nouissime  putaret,  quan- 
tum sumpti  fecerit:  the  precise  expression  of  CatuUus]. 
Cicero,  a  purist  in  such  matters,  admonished  doubtless 
bj  Aelius  Stilo,  as  GelUus  tells  us  (x  21),  seems  never 
to  use  the  adverb  nouissime,  and  once  only  in  a  some- 
what early  oration  the  adjective  oiouissimus,  though  his 
correspondent  Plancus  twice  uses  the  former  and  Cas- 
sius  and  Galba  both  employ  the  second  word  in  letters 
to  him;  and  GeUius  says  that  Cato,  Sallust  and  others 
of  that  age  'uerbo  isto  promisee  usitati  sint':  the  ad- 
verb occurs  three  times  in  Sallust's  Catihne  and  lu- 
gurtha.  Those  Editors  therefore,  old  and  recent,  who 
change  the  manuscript  reading  to  nouissime,  in  my 
judgment  spoil  Catullus.  He  is  injured  too  by  those 
who  put  a  comma  after  Thraciam  in  v.  8 ;  for  though  I 
would  not  assert  with  Lachmann  that  Catullus  or  Lu- 
cretius could  not  have  used  Thraciam  as  a  substitute 
for  Thracam  or  Thi'acen,  the  poem  as  I  have  explained 
it  seems  to  require  Thraciam  to  be  an  epithet  of  Pro- 
pontida.  The  yacht  too  must  have  hugged  the  Asiatic 
coast  and  quite  avoided  Thrace,  and  finally  '  horridam 
Thraciam  Propontida'  is  symmetrical  with  '  trucem  Pon- 
ticum  sinum'.  As  for  uocavet  in  v.  20,  when  Lachmann 
(Lucret.  p.  178)  says  he  does  not  understand  it,  he 
knew  of  course  such  passages  as  Klotz  and  Ellis  cite 
from  Virgil  and  Statins,  or  such  a  one  as  I  have  noted 
down  from  Ovid  (Heroid.  13  9)  et  qui  tua  uela  uocaret, 
Quern  cuperent  nautae,  non  ego,  uentus  erat:  a  favour- 
able breeze  springs  up  and  invites  the  ship  or  the  sails 
M.  c.  2 


18  CATVLLT 

to  come  out  of  port  and  take  advantage  of  It.  In  the 
passage  from  Ovid's  Remedium  quoted  by  Ellis,  you 
are  told  to  let  the  oar  follow  the  current,  *  qua  fluctus 
uocant'.  It  is  not  easy  then  to  see  the  appropriateness 
of  the  word  here,  where,  as  Lachmann  observes,  a  shift- 
ing wind  is  spoken  of  I  sometimes  picture  to  myself 
the  poet  thinking  of  the  yacht  as  becalmed  or  using  its 
oars,  and  then  of  a  wind  suddenly  springing  up  and 
inviting  it  to  spread  its  sails;  but  that  hardly  agrees 
with  the  'raging  seas'  of  the  preceding  line.  Lach- 
mann (Lucret.  p.  178)  then  may  perhaps  be  right  in 
reading  'uagaret',  which  well  suits  the  context. 

The  erum  tulisse  of  v.  19  seems,  as  I  have  shewn 
above,  to  be  emphatic  and  to  imply  that  Catullus  did 
not  himself  make  the  voyage  from  the  Pontus  round 
to  the  Propontis:  these  words  have  a  bearing  too  on 
22 — 24,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  and  indicate  that  Catul- 
lus, when  he  had  safely  reached  the  Itahan  coast,  did 
not  accompany  his  yacht  in  the  very  tedious  voyage  up 
the  Po  and  then  the  Mincio  into  the  Lago  di  Garda, 
which  would  have  been  made  for  the  most  part  against 
a  very  powerful  stream  partly  by  sailing,  partly  by 
rowing,  but  mainly  I  presume  by  towing  from  the 
bank.  Of  course  this  would  be  the  most  convenient 
way  for  his  heavy  effects  and  part  of  his  attendants  to 
go.  If  the  Mincio  in  Catullus'  time,  as  is  said  to  be 
the  case  now,  was  not  navigable  where  it  joins  the  Po, 
the  yacht  must  have  been  transported  there,  as  at  the 
Isthmus.  But  great  changes  may  have  taken  place 
between  those  days  and  ours  in  the  river's  course.  He 
himself  in  all  probability  started  by  some  quicker  and 
more  convenient  route  for  Sirmio,  to  which  the  31st 
poem  shews  that  he  hastened,  as  soon  as  he  returned 
from  Bithynia.     He  may  indeed  have  quitted  his  ship 


CARM.    4  19 

at  Brundusium,  and  not  been  in  it  during  its  coasting 
voyage  from  thence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Po. 

Now  this  and  much  else  that  I  have  said  above 
seem  to  be  confirmed  by  Ovid  in  the  elegy  spoken  of : 
comp.  V.  9  foil. 

ilia  Corinthiacis  primum  mihi  cognita  Cenchreis 
fida  manet  trepidae  duxque  comesque  uiae, 

perque  tot  euentus  et  iniquis  concita  uentis 
aequora  Palladio  numine  tuta  fuit. 

In  the  first  two  of  these  verses  there  appears  to  be  an 
allusion  to  w.  1 4 — 1 6  of  our  poem :  Ovid''s  ship  was 
'primum  cognita'  to  him  at  Cenchreae,  where  he  pur- 
chased it,  while  Catullus  traces  his  back  to  its  origin 
on  Cy torus;  and  in  the  last  two  lines  Ovid  manifestly 
refers  to  the  'tot  per  impotentia  freta'  of  Catullus. 
Ovid  then  continues 

nunc  quoque  tuta,  precor,  uasti  secet  ostia  Ponti, 
quasque  petit,  Getici  Ktoris  intret  aquas : 

and  he  goes  on  to  describe  how  the  ship  had  got  into 
the  Hellespont  and  then  was  forced  back  to  Imbros, 
until  in  V.  20 

Threiciam  tetigit  fessa  carina  Samon. 
saltus  ab  hac  terra  breuis  est  Tempyra  petenti : 

hoc  dominum  tenus  est  ilia  secuta  siiiim. 
nam  mihi  Bistonios  placuit  pede  carpere  campos : 

Hellespontiacas  ilia  relegit  aquas : 

and  then  he  proceeds  tediously  to  describe  in  18  lines 
the  ship's  voyage  to  Tomoe,  through  the  Hellespont, 
Propontis,  Bosporus  and  along  the  left  shore  of  the 
Euxine,  enumerating  nine  or  ten  towns  which  it  would 
Iiave  to  pass;  while  he  tells  us  nothing  further  of  his 

2—2 


20  CATVLLI 

own  journey  by  land,  after  he  has  said  that  he  would 
cross  over  to  Tempyra  on  the  mainland  and  then  travel 
through  Thrace.  He  manifestly  felt  that  the  ship  was 
carrying  his  property  and  household-gods ;  it  was  there- 
fore the  main  object  of  his  solicitude.  Now  in  the  line 
printed  in  Italics  there  is  a  clear  reference  to  Catullus' 
erum  tulisse;  and  from  this  I  should  infer  that  Ovid 
understood  the  other  poet's  meaning  to  be  that  he  too 
only  accompanied  his  yacht  on  this  part  of  the  voyage. 
Ovid,  anxious  for  the  safety  of  his  vessel,  says  (v.  43) 
that  if  the  ship  reaches  Tomoe, 

hanc  si  contigerit,  meritae  cadet  agna  Mineruae : 
non  facit  ad  nostras  hostia  maior  opes: 

this  too  looks  like  an  allusion  to  the  *  neque  uUa  uota 
litoralibus  dels  cet.'  of  Catullus.  Ovid  not  knowing  the 
issue  of  the  voyage  makes  this  vow :  Catullus  had  been 
with  his  yacht  while  it  was  crossing  the  sea,  and  would 
have  been  able  at  any  moment  to  offer  up  vows  if  neces- 
sary. When  the  ship  reached  land,  all  cause  for  anxiety 
was  now  over.     The  next  verses  of  Ovid  also 

uos  quoque,  Tyndaridae,  quos  haec  colit  insula  fratres, 
mite,  precor,  duplici  numen  adeste  uiae: 

altera  namque  parat  Symplegadas  ire  per  artas, 
scindere  Bistonias  altera  puppis  aquas 

appear  to  be  suggested  by  Catullus'  three  last  verses: 
Catullus  says  that  all  is  now  over  and  the  yacht  is  laid 
up  and  dedicated  to  Castor  and  Pollux  :  Ovid  begs 
their  protection  chiefly  for  his  own  ship  which  has  yet 
to  make  its  voyage,  but  also  for  the  ship  which  has  to 
carry  him  in  person  from  Samothrace  over  to  the  main- 
land. 

As  the  manuscripts  of  Catullus  uniformly  give  ph(t- 
sellus,  it  is  not  improbable  that  this  spelling  is  his  own. 


CAUM.    4  21 

on  the  analogy  perhaps  of  qu^rella,  Wquella,  luella,  m^ 
delta :  thus  Cicero  and  some  others  seem  to  have  writ- 
ten cdmellus.  Something  in  the  pronunciation  of  the 
words  led  it  may  be  to  this.  In  v.  4  L.  Mueller  rightly 
prints  praeter  ire,  which  is  required  by  the  metre :  in 
29  22  Catullus  no  doubt  wrote  '  Nisi  uncta  de  uorare 
patrimonia':  in  his  day  this  separation  of  the  monosyl- 
labic preposition  from  its  verb  was  common  enough,  as 
we  see  from  inscriptions.  In  Catullus'  iambics  and  sca- 
zons,  which  have  the  hephthemimeral  caesura,  the  end 
of  the  second  foot  must  coincide  with  the  end  of  a 
word,  as  in  *Neque  uUius  J  natantis  j  impetum  trabis'. 
The  same  law  is  observed  in  the  Virgilian  catalecta  and 
by  Martial  in  his  many  hundred  iambic  lines,  chiefly 
scazons,  except  that  in  catal.  3  and  4  we  find  *  Generque 
Noctuine',  and  '  Superbe  Noctuine',  and  once  in  Martial 
(vi  74  4),  *Mentitur,  Aefulane:  non  habet  dentes':  a 
proper  name  forming  the  sole  exception  in  so  many 
hundred  verses  would  seem  to  confirm  the  rule. 


Ellis  has  devoted  a  good  deal  of  criticism  to  my 
analysis  of  the  poem,  printed  six  years  ago :  some  parts 
of  it  he  accepts,  some  he  rejects.  I  will  now  make  a 
few  remarks  on  his  remarks.  I  adhere  entirely  to  the 
general  exposition  I  gave  of  Catullus'  voyage  home : 
none  of  Ellis'  objections  touches  the  real  points  at  issue, 
and  some  of  them  I  hope  to  shew  are  altogether  irre- 
levant. My  main  reason  of  course  for  arguing  that 
Catullus  himself  got  on  board  his  yacht  in  the  Propon- 
tis  was  this :  he  started  homewards  from  Nicaea,  from 
which  there  was  most  ready  access  to  the  Propontis. 
Had  he.  gone  to  Cy torus  or  Amastris,  he  would  have 


22  CATVLLI 

had  to  make  a  most  difficult  and  laborious  land-journey, 
solely  to  add  to  the  length  and  annoyance  of  the  sea- 
voyage.  He  may  have  had  special  motives  for  so  doing; 
but  I  have  endeavoured  to  shew  that  the  poet's  very 
curt  and  allusive  language  supports  my  conclusions. 
It  is  plain  enough  that  if  a  man  wants  to  go  to  the 
Phasis,  he  must  enter  the  Euxine ;  but  Catullus  says 
nothing  of  Phasis  or  Argo,  and  why  Ellis  should  bring 
Propertius  and  his  friend  Tullus  into  the  discussion,  I 
do  not  see.  But  Ellis  follows  *  the  ordinary,  certainly 
the  natural,  view,  which  makes  inde  local'.  It  may  be 
the  ordinary;  but  why  it  should  be  the  natural  view, 
I  cannot  comprehend.  My  exposition  leaves  the  Ms. 
reading  intact;  EUis',  which  is  the  ordinary  one,  re- 
quires a  change  in  it.  And  inde  as  often  refers  to  time 
as  to  place:  not  only  does  Catullus  use  it  in  the  one 
sense  as  often  as  in  the  other;  but  all  the  best  writers, 
such  as  Cicero  and  Caesar,  equally  recognise  both 
senses :  Caes.  B.  C.  iii  9  7  has  a  sentence  much  resem- 
bling Catul.  29  16  and  17,  inde  having  the  same  force 
in  both  passages:  and  Catullus'  metre  both  here  and  in 
29  demands  Et  inde,  not  Et  deinde.  In  the  catalecta 
*  Et  inde'  seems  to  denote  time  at  least  as  naturally  as 
place;  and  the  'praeter  hoc  nouissimum'  can  refer  to 
time  alone,  supporting  therefore  the  Ms.  ^nouissime'. 
Ovid's  elegy  bears  much  more  than  '  points  of  resem- 
blance' to  our  poem;  but  here  let  me  say  that  through- 
out my  argument  I  only  bring  Ovid  in  to  help  to 
confirm  what  Catullus*  words  suggest  to  my  mind ;  not 
to  give  them  an  unnatural  twist,  as  Ellis,  taking  up 
his  own  point  of  view  instead  of  mine,  tries  to  shew,  I 
think  without  success. 

1 :  Comp.  Mart,  ii  57  1  Hie  quem  uidetis.    8 :  Ellis, 
in  separating  'horridamque  Thraciam'  and  'Propontida', 


CAiiM.   4  23 

among  all  Editors  since  Lachmann  inclusive  is  left  in  a 
minority  of  one :  I  have  no  doubt  that  here  I  am  right 
and  he  is  wrong.  He  now  interprets  the  'horridam 
Thraciam'  to  mean  the  genial  and  cultivated  Cherso- 
nese, whose  shore  is  more  West  than  North  of  the  Hel- 
lespont. 

20  uocaret:  I  would  gladly  recall  what  I  have 
written  on  this  word;  but  alas!  'httera  scrip ta  manet': 
Ellis  however  only  makes  matters  worse,  Lachmann  I 
fear,  with  all  his  virtues,  was  no  better  than  a  Berliner 
land-lubber ;  and  all  the  combined  nautical  knowledge 
of  Ellis  and  myself  is  needed  to  bring  the  yacht  safely 
from  the  Propontis,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Euxine. 
Years  ago  1  saw  that  I  had  missed  the  point  of  Catul- 
lus' expression,  and  my  friend  Sir  Henry  Thring  wrote 
to  me :  *  laeua  siue  dextera  Vocaret  aura'  has  nothing 
to  do  with  a  '  shifting  wind ' ;  on  the  contrary  it  means 
*  whether  sailing  on  the  left  or  the  right  tack  with  the 
same  wind — a  cross  wind':  in  other  words  she  bore  her 
master  equally  well  whether  sailing  with  a  cross  wind 
on  either  tack,  or  sailing  straight  before  the  wind. 

22 — 24  :  Of  my  elucidation  of  this  passage  Ellis 
says :  '  This  seems  to  give  an  unnaturally  pluperf.  sense 
to  esse  facta,  while  it  forces  sibi  and  leaves  usque  with 
little  meaning'.  Let  us  see:  first  of  all  the  sibi  has  no 
bearing  whatever  on  the  general  argument :  I  translated 
sibi  *for  it'  not  *by  it*,  because  at  the  time  it  struck  me 
as  an  unnecessary  hyperbole  to  say  the  vows  were 
offered  by  the  yacht  itself;  a  far  greater  hyperbole  than 
the  *  seque  dedicat  tibi'  of  26.  Catullus  I  grant,  tho' 
the  usage  was  very  rare  in  his  time,  could  write  sibi  for 
a  se)  as  37  13  Pro  qua  mihi  sunt  magna  bella  pugnata: 
but  take  it  either  way,  it  comes  to  exactly  the  same 
thing.     Then  as  to  the  pluperfect,  I  maintain  tliat  esse 


24  CATVLLI 

facta  Is  just  as  much  a  pluperf.  as  a  perfect,  esse  being 
the  infin.  of  cram  as  much  as  of  sum;  and,  more  than 
that,  it  must  be  here  a  pluperf.  even  if  you  read  *  No- 
uissimo';  for  surely  the  vows  would  only  have  been 
made  'litorahbus  dels'  while  the  ship  was  on  the  sea  in 
danger  of  shipwreck,  not  while  it  was  in  the  Po,  Mincio 
and  Garda:  Votaque  seruati  soluunt  in  litore  nautae 
Glauco  et  Panopeae  et  Inoo  Melicertae.  At  least  I 
assert  this  to  be  the  natural  not  the  *  unnatural'  mean- 
ing of  Catullus:  10  10  Respondi,  id  quod  erat,  nihil 
ueque  ipsis  Nee  praetoribus  esse  nee  cohorti :  here  too 
esse  is  rat.  obi.  of  erat,  not  est.  Ellis'  quotation  from 
Seneca  gives  to  'nouissime'  precisely  the  meaning  I 
give  to  it;  and  his  own  explanation  of  the  word  is  only 
an  imperfect  reproduction  of  mine.  But  I  leave  usque 
'with  little  meaning':  indeed!  surely  usque  is  well  said 
of  a  yacht  undertaking  the  long  tedious  voyage  from 
the  sea  *even  as  far  as  this  limpid  lake';  or  else  I  can- 
not appreciate  the  force  of  words.  Let  others  judge 
how  I  have  answered  ElUs'  objections:  I  have  now  two 
or  three  more  observations  to  make  on  our  poem. 

2  ait...celerrimus:  *a  not  very  common  attraction' 
Ellis  observes.  Ovid  however  is  fond  of  it;  I  have  col- 
lected from  him  many  instances  hke  met.  xiii  141  quia 
rettulit  Aiax  Esse  louis  pronepos :  and  CatuUus  was 
not  the  first  who  '  ventured  on'  it :  Plant,  asin.  634 
Quas  hodie  adulescens  Diabulus  ipsi  daturus  dixit. 
Ellis  might  have  illustrated  too  the  second  form  of  *  at- 
traction' in  the  verse:  with  *nauium  celerrimus'  comp. 
Cic.  de  nat.  ii  130  Indus  uero  qui  est  omnium  fluminum 
maximus;  Pliny  xviii  79  hordeum  frugum  omnium  mol- 
lissimum  est;  Hor.  sat.  i  9  4  dulcissime  rerum;  Ov.  her. 
4  125,  ars  i  213  and  met.  viii  49  pulcherrime  rerum. 
12:  '  "  The  yacht  gave  a  rustling  with  the  voice  of  her 


CARM.  4,  6  25 

tresses"  is  a  combination  which  would  probably  have 
been  avoided  by  Virgil :  it  is  on  faults  of  this  kind  that 
the  indifference  of  Horace  for  Catullus... was  probably 
grounded'  Ellis.  Cultivated  language  is  made  up  of 
inconsistent  metaphors,  which  time  has  smoothed  over. 
Ellis'  translation  I  think  caricatures  Catullus:  Kojxr)  was 
used  by  Homer  for  the  foliage  of  a  tree,  and  to  Catullus 
I  believe  coma  had  much  the  same  meaning  ihsit  foliage 
has  to  us.  A  poet  like  him  would  drink  in  the  myste- 
rious beauty  of  the  wind's  rustling  through  the  trees, 
whose  leaves  were  their  organ  of  speech;  whose  voice 
was  this  very  rustling.  If  Horace  had  been  able  to 
commit  *  faults'  like  this,  he  would  have  been  a  greater 
poet  than  he  is.  27:  this  verse  expresses,  not  *  allu- 
sively' but  directly,  just  the  opposite  of  what  Ellis  says 
it  does:  it  separates  as  distinctly  as  possible  the  two 
brothers  and  means  'Castor,  gemine  frater,  et  Pollux, 
gemine  frater  Castoris':  similarly  in  the  prologue  of  the 
Menaechmus  Plautus  says  of  the  two  brothers :  Nunc 
ille  geminus...uenit  cum  seruo  sue  Hunc  quaeritatum 
geminum  germanum  suum. 


Flaui,  delicias  tuas  CatuUo, 
ni  sint  illepidae  atque  inelegantes, 
uelles  dicere  nee  tacere  posses, 
uerum  nescio  quid  febriculosi 
5  scorti  diligis  :  hoc  pudet  fateri. 
nam  te  non  uiduas  iacere  noctes — 
nequiquam  tacitum — cubile  clamat 
sertis  ac  Syrio  fragrans  oliuo 
puluinusque  peraeque  et  hie  et  ille 
10  attritus  tremulique  quassa  lecti 


26  CATVLLT 

argutatio  inambulatioque. 
Mani,  stupra  uales  nihil  tacere. 
cur  ?  non  tarn  latera  ecfututa  pandas, 
nei  tu  quid  facias  ineptiarum. 
15  quare,  quidquid  habes  boni  malique, 
die  nobis,     uolo  te  ac  tuos  amores 
ad  caelum  lepido  uocare  uersu. 

6  noctes — Nequiquam  taciturn — cubile  sic  interpunxi.  8  ac  Syrio  uuVjo. 
asirio  V.  et  Syrio  Baehrens.  12  Mani,  stupra  uales  scripsi.  Nam  inista  (or 
ui  ista)  preualet  V.  Nam  ni  stupra  ualet  Scaliyer.  N.  nil  Haupt,  lam  nil 
Btupra  uales  Schwabius  '  aliquando'. 

There  are  several  points  in  this  poem  which  none  of 
the  commentators,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  has  brought 
into  view  or  explained.  In  the  first  place  it  must  be 
observed  that  Catullus  pictures  himself  as  peering  about 
his  friend  Flavins'  bedroom  and  addressing  him  there. 
He  notes  the  bed  reeking  with  unguents,  and  the  worn 
pillows;  he  it  is  who  rocks  the  bed  and  makes  it  creak 
and  dance  about.  Flavins  in  vain  attempts  to  conceal 
the  truth,  which  all  the  things  about  him  proclaim  with 
a  loud  voice. 

I  now  proceed  to  vss.  6  and  7,  which  not  one  of 
the  Editors  whom  I  have  come  across  explains  in  a 
satisfactory  manner ;  but  which  by  a  better  punctuation, 
unless  I  am  mistaken,  I  have  made  quite  clear:  taciturn 
is  not  an  adjective  here,  but  the  passive  participle,  in 
apposition  with  the  preceding  verse.  This  use  of  taci- 
tus  is  quite  as  classical  as  the  other :  the  common 
Lexicons  give  abundant  examples,  from  Cicero,  Livy, 
Plautus,  Virgil  and  others:  Quis  te,  magne  Cato,  taci- 
tum  aut  te,  Cosse,  relinquat?  'For  that  you  do  not 
pass  solitary  nights — a  fact  vainly  concealed  by  you — 
the  bed  proclaims,  perfumed  with  garlands  and  Syrian 


CARM.   6  27 

oil,  etc'  I  may  just  observe  that  'bed',  not  'bedcham- 
ber', is  the  common  meaning  of  cuhile  in  Catullus  :  see 
64  163;  G6  21;  68  29.  Then  in  12  it  is  clear  to  me 
that  Nam  is  meaningless,  and  that  ualet  cannot  be 
right ;  for  everything  cries  out,  instead  of  trying  to  hide 
what  it  knows,  except  Manius  himself  We  must  read 
then  uales;  and  it  strikes  me  that  the  strangely  corrupt 
commencement  of  the  line  is  best  explained  by  reading 
Mani  for  Nam  ni  (or  ini) :  thus  29  3  the  Mss.  have 
Nam  murram  for  Mamurram;  28  9  Omnem  mi  for  0 
Memmi,  proper  names  being  a  habitual  source  of  cor- 
ruption in  Mss.  See  how  in  the  two  parts  of  68  the 
names  of  ManHus  and  of  Allius  are  variously  corrupted. 
Manius  Flauius  therefore  would  be  the  friend's  name. 
With  ualet  for  uales,  a  usual  corruption  in  Mss.  like 
ours,  compare  68  2  mittis  0,  mittit  G,  10  petis  O,  pe- 
tit G,  7  4  iacet  G,  iaces  0;  41  8  solet  et  V  for  solet  es 
(i.e.  aes),  61  119  taceatis  V  for  taceat,  64  384  Nereus 
V  for  Heroum  et,  where  we  see  too  the  confusion  so 
extraordinarily  common  in  our  Mss.  of  o  and  e:  thus 
too  in  110  7  I  read  'est  furis'  for  the  'efficit'  of  Mss., 
the  sentence  demanding  an  est. 

12  is  thus  an  emphatic  repetition  of  6  foil.:  'no, 
Manius,  you  cannot  at  all  conceal  your  amours'.  Every- 
thing about  you  is  a  tell-tale,  nay  (13  foil.)  your  own 
haggard  appearance.  Say  out  then  all  you  have  to 
disclose,  that  I  may  wed  you  and  your  love  to  immortal 
verse. 

In  3  the  imperfects  I  think  may  be  defended :  I 
do  not  follow  Heinsius  and  Baehrens  in  changing  them 
into  present  subjunctives.  7  1  cannot  comprehend  why 
Editors  retain  the  nequicquam  or  7iequidquam  of  our 
barbarous  Mss.  instead  of  reading  nequiquam,  the  sole 
classical  form.     8  I  keep  the  vulgate  ac  Syrio  for  asirio 


28  CATVLLI 

of  Mss.  and  do  not  with  Baehrens  read  et  S.,  as  s  for 
sc  is  a  very  common  blunder  in  our  Mss. :  46  3  silesit 
O,  60  2  silla  V,  61  139  simus  O,  66  73  diserpent  V, 
88  4  sis  0:  on  the  other  hand  sc  for  s  is  just  as  com- 
mon. I  shall  have  to  return  to  this  and  similar  cor- 
ruptions. In  9  too  I  prefer  hie  et  ille  to  hie  et  illic :  o 
and  e  must  have  been  almost  indistinguishable  in  our 
Mss. :  this  I  shall  recur  to  again  and  again. 

10  :  I  have  yet  to  say  a  word  about  quassa,  which 
I  do  not  change,  tho'  its  precise  force  is  far  from  clear 
and  I  cannot  at  all  discern  the  drift  of  Ellis'  explana- 
tion and  illustration.  Quintilian  xii  10  29,  speaking  of 
the  harsh  sound  of  F,  says  that  this  harshness  of  sound 
is  '  quassa  quodammodo ',  shattered,  broken,  when  a 
vowel  immediately  follows,  it  being  much  more  harsh, 
when  it  on  the  other  hand  precedes  and  so  '  frangit ' 
any  of  the  consonants,  as  in  the  word  'frangit'.  Quin- 
tilian thus  shews  that  quassa  can  be  applied  to  a  sound, 
and  has  much  the  same  meaning  as  Jracta.  Perhaps 
therefore  in  Catullus  it  denotes  the  broken,  unequal 
creaking  of  the  bed,  which  had  become  tremulus  or 
rickety  by  the  use  to  which  it  had  been  put. 

I  have  not  much  to  remark  upon  the  poems  which 
come  between  6  and  10.  In  8  9,  the  end  of  which  is 
lost  in  the  Mss.,  I  much  prefer  Avantius'  completion, 
adopted  by  niost  Editors, 

nunc  iam  ilia  non  uult,  tu  quoque,  iwpotens,  noli 
to  Scaliger's,  which  the  latest  Editor  Baehrens  adopts, 
'  tu  quoque  inpote/is  ne  sis ',  because  there  seems  to  me 
to  be  a  manifestly  designed  parallelism  in  this   verse, 
corresponding  with  the  similar  one  just  above: 
ibi  ilia  multa  tum  iocosa  fiebant, 
quae  tu  uolebas  nee  puella  nolebat. 


CARM.    G,    10  29 

V.  14  cum  rogaberis  nulla:  this  use  of  mdlus  with  the 
sense  of  omnino  7ion,  prorsum  non,  I  have  illustrated 
in  my  note  on  Lucretius  i  377  (and  ii  53)  and  com- 
pared with  the  similar  adverbial  use  of  totus  and  omnis, 
so  very  common  in  the  best  authors.  As  Cicero  and 
Lucretius  employ  mdlus  in  this  way,  there  can  be  no 
reason  for  refusing  the  same  liberty  to  CatuUus.  Ellis 
observes  that  Holtze  quotes  no  instance  of  this  use  of 
mdlus  with  passive  verbs.  I  have  quoted  1.  1.  from 
Cicero  *  consilium  quod  capi  nullum  potest ',  as  well  as 
this  passage  of  Catullus.  There  too  I  have  cited  Cicero's 
*  repudiari  se  totum  putabit ',  which  has  much  analogy 
with  Catullus'  expression.  Livy  employs  ullus  in  the 
same  way :  viii  35  4  quae  in  discrimine  fuerunt,  an  ulla 
post  banc  diem  essent. 

Of  the  chronological  inferences  which  Ellis  draws 
from  our  9th  poem  I  will  speak  after  I  have  discussed 
the  10th  and  12th.  9  2  :  To  the  illustrations  from 
Cicero  given  by  Ellis,  which  I  had  myself  noted  down, 
add  Brutus  191  Plato  enim  mihi  instar  est  centum  mi- 
lium. 4  anumque  matrem  :  Mart,  xi  23  14  sed  quasi 
mater  anus  ;  xiii  34  anus  coniunx  :  Plautus  has  'anus 
uxor',  'sacerdos  anus',  *  mater  lena'.  9  os  oculosque  : 
Cic.  phil.  VIII  20  ante  os  oculosque  legatorum;  Aen.  viii 
152  ille  OS  oculosque  loquentis  cet. ;  Ovid  Ibis  155  ante 
OS  oculosque  uolabo :  the  sound  has  evidently  brought 
the  two  words  thus  together. 


10 

Varus  me  meus  ad  suos  amores 

uisum  duxerat  e  foro  otiosum, 

scortillum,  ut  mihi  tunc  repente  uisum  est, 


30  CATVLLI 

non  sane  illepidum  neque  inuenustum. 
5  hue  ut  uenimus,  incidere  nobis 

sermon  es  uarii,  in  quibus,  quid  esset 

iam  Bithynia,  quo  modo  se  haberet, 

ecquonam  mihi  profuisset  aere. 

respondi  id  quod  erat,  nibil  neque  ipsis 
10  nee  praetoribus  esse  nee  eoliorti. 

cur  quisquam  caput  unctius  referret? 

praesertim  quibus  esset  irrumator 

praetor  nee  faeeret  pili  eohortem. 

*  at  eerte  tamen '  inquiunt,  *  quod  illie 
15  natum  dieitur  esse,  comparasti 

ad  leetieam  homines',     ego,  ut  puellae 

unum  me  faeerem  beatiorem, 

'  non'  inquam  '  mihi  tam  fuit  maligna, 

ut,  prouincia  quod  mala  incidisset, 
20  non  possem  octo  homines  parare  rectos'. 

at  mi  nuUus  erat  neque  hie  neque  ilHc, 

fractum  qui  ueteris  pedem  grabati 

in  collo  sibi  collocare  posset. 

hie  ilia,  ut  deeuit  einaediorem, 
25  '  quaeso '  inquit  *  mihi,  mi  Catulle,  paidum 

istos:  commodum  enim  uolo  ad  Sarapim 

deferri'.     'mane  me'  inquio  puellae; 

'istud  quod  modo  dixeram  me  habere, 

fugit  me  ratio :  meus  sodalis 
30  Cinna  est  Gains  :  is  sibi  parauit. 

uerum,  utrum  illius  an  mei,  quid  ad  me  ? 

utor  tam  bene  quam  mihi  paratis. 

sed  tu  insulsa  male  et  molesta  uiuis, 

per  quam  non  licet  esse  neglegentem'. 

10  cohorti.  Cur — referret?  sic  interpunxi.  cohorti,  Cur — referret,  mhZ^o. 
27  mane  me  is  corrupt,  mane  Statins,  minime  Pontamis.  mi  anime  Bergk. 
Perhaps  meminei.    32  paratis  Statius.    pararim  V,  uulgo. 


CARM.    10  31 

There  are  several  points  I  think  it  worth  while  to 
dwell  upon  in  this  striking  poem,  than  which  there 
does  not  exist  in  the  whole  compass  of  Latin  literature 
a  finer  example  of  terse  idiomatic  expression,  of  which 
Catullus  and  Terence  are  such  consummate  masters. 

I  will  begin  with  vss.  5 — 14.  The  first  lines  are 
clear  enough  :  it  is  only  in  9 — 13  that  any  difficulties 
have  been  found.  These  difficulties,  unless  I  am  greatly 
mistaken,  I  have  removed  by  a  better  punctuation,  by 
dividing  the  passage  into  two  distinct  sentences,  with- 
out departing  in  one  word  from  the  genuine  Ms.  read- 
ing. For,  if  we  compare  G  and  O,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  in  9  neque  ipsis  and  in  13  nee,  and  not  non,faxieret, 
are  right.  I  am  amazed  that  none  of  the  commentators 
has  made  this  simple  change.  Some  of  them  have  re- 
sorted to  violent  alterations  of  text,  others  to  explana- 
tions which  they  themselves  feel  to  be  unsatisfactory. 
Thus  the  latest  Editor  Baehrens  partly  rewrites  the 
passage ;  while  Ellis  appends  to  his  first  comment : 
*  Yet  there  is  something  illogical  etc'  and  goes  to  an- 
other '  conceivable '  one.  A  full  stop  and  a  mark  of  in- 
terrogation will  make  the  logic  run  quite  smoothly. 

*When  we  came  to  Varus'  house',  says  Catullus, 
'  various  subjects  of  conversation  were  started.  One  of 
them  was,  how  Bithynia  was  now  ofi",  what  was  its  con- 
dition, whether  I  had  made  any  money  out  of  it.  I 
told  them  in  reply,  what  was  the  simple  truth,  that 
there  was  nothing  at  all  for  people,  or  for  praetors  or 
for  praetor's  staff'.  And  here  the  sentence  ends,  tho' 
all  the  Editors  carry  it  on  with  a  most  perplexing  re- 
sult. Is  it  that  they  have  not  apprehended  the  fact, 
that  in  an  interrogative  sentence  *  cur  referret '  is  the 
right,  and  the  only  right,  mood  and  tense  for  oratio 
obliqua  ?   If  proof  of  this  be  asked,  I  need  only  refer  to 


32  CATVLLI 

Madvlg's  Opuscula  and  Grammar.  At  the  risk  how- 
ever of  being  tedious  I  will  quote  the  following  pas- 
sages from  Caesar,  as  they  so  precisely  illustrate  the 
turn  of  our  sentence  :  B.  G.  i  40  2  Ariouistum  se  con- 
sule  cupidissime  populi  Komani  amicitiam  appetisse. 
cur  hunc  tarn  temere  quisquam  ab  officio  discessiirum 
iudicaret  ?  B.  C.  i  72  Caesar  in  earn  spem  uenerat,  se 
sine  pugna  et  sine  uolnere  suorum  rem  conficere  posse, 
quod  re  frumentaria  aduersarios  interclusisset.  cur 
etiam  secundo  proelio  aliquos  ex  suis  amitteret  ?  cur 
uulnerari  pateretur  optime  de  se  meritos  milites  ?  cur 
denique  fortunam  periclitaretur  ?  praesertim  cum  non 
esset  minus  imperatoris  consilio  superare  quam  gladio. 
B.  G.  IV  16  2  responderunt  populi  Romani  imperium 
Bhenum  finire.  si  se  inuito  Germanos  in  Galliam  trans- 
ire  non  aeqvium  existimaret,  cur  sui  quicquam  esse 
imperii  aut  potestatis  trans  Bhenum  postularet  ?  These 
sentences  illustrate  Catullus  in  every  point :  observe 
the  cur  in  every  case  introducing  the  question,  with  no 
connecting  particle,  and  follow^ed  by  an  imperfect  sub- 
junctive; the  quisquam  and  quicquam,  the  praesertim, 
the  responderunt. 

'  Why  should  any  of  us  bring  home  our  persons  in 
gayer  trim,  especially  when  our  praetor  was  a  dirty  fel- 
low and  cared  not  for  his  staff  one  straw  V  The  plur. 
quihus  referring  to  the  indefinite  quisquam  is  a  very 
usual  construction:  comp.  too  102  3  illoimm,  referring 
back  to  Jido  ab  amico,  and  111  2  Nuptarum  referring 
back  to  contentam  uiuere. 

On  vss.  14 — 20  there  is  a  good  note  in  the  Hueti- 
ana  (p.  207 — 210  ed.  Amst.  1790):  Huet  anticipates 
what  Haupt  tells  us  in  the  Hermes,  and  quotes  Probus 
from  the  Juvenal  scholia.  He  remarks  too  that  in  the 
Delphin  Manilius  of  1679  he  had  said  what  is  said  five 


CARM.     10  33 

years  later  in  Vossius'  Catullus ;  and  observes  that 
these  verses,  taken  together,  shew  Catullus  to  have 
meant  that  the  *  lectica  octophorus '  was  invented  and 
first  used  in  Bithynia. 

1 4  inquiunt :  '  somebody  said '  Ellis  :  rather  *  say 
they '  i.  e.  Varus  and  the  woman,  for  we  are  not  to  sup- 
pose any  one  else  present.  The  mistress  speaks,  and 
Varus  by  his  looks  takes  part,  as  it  were,  in  the  speech. 
Thus  when  Francesca  has  alone  spoken,  Paolo  standing 
by  weeping,  Dante  says :  Queste  parole  da  lor  ci  fur 
porte. 

17  unum  beatiorem  :  scarcely  'a  particularly  lucky 
fellow '  with  Ellis.  The  more  common  turn  is,  as  Ca- 
tullus elsewhere  has  it,  Quis  me  uno  uiuit  felicior;  Cic. 
epist.  VII  16  3  neminem  te  uno  Samarobriuae  iuris  pe- 
ritiorem  esse.  When  the  itnus  is  in  the  same  case  as 
the  comparative,  the  object  of  comparison  must  either 
be  expressed,  as  in  the  passage  of  Horace  which  Ellis 
quotes,  and  in  Ter.  hecyra  861  Vt  unus  omnium  homo 
te  uiuat  numquam  quisquam  blandior:  comp.  too  Plant. 
Amph.  1046  Qui  me  Thebis  alter  uiuit  miserior  ?:  or  be 
understood,  as  here :  beatiorem  quam  ceteram  cohortem, 
as  at  once  follows  from  what  precedes.  He  had  just 
said  there  was  nothing  at  all  for  praetor  or  staff.  Now, 
wishing  to  brag,  he  says  :  '  to  make  myself  out  to  the 
lady  to  be  the  one  man  rich  or  fortunate  above  all  the 
rest*,  facere  is  used  again  by  Catullus  in  the  same 
sense :  97  9  et  se  facit  esse  uenustum. 

24 — 27:  'Then  she  like  an  impudent  little  minx 
says,  Pray,  my  dear  Catullus,  lend  me  them  for  a  little ; 
for^I  want  presently  to  be  carried  to  Sarapis's'.  ut 
dec.  cin. :  Priap.  66  2  ut  decet  pudicam.  I  am  surprised 
Ellis  should  feel  any  doubt  of  the  meaning  of  '  cinae- 
diorera':    Catullus  surely  points  to  the  impudence  of 

M.  c.  3 


34  CATVLLI 

the  request.  As  commodd  nam  is  impossible  in  Catul- 
lus, Hand's  commodum  enim,  tho'  quite  uncertain,  gives 
a  suitable  sense  and  has  been  generally  adopted  by  the 
later  editors.  The  omission  of  an  imperative  da  or  the 
like  is  idiomatic  enough  :  comp.  55  10  Camerium  mihi, 
pessimae  puellae  ;  Mart,  iv  43  5  Iratam  mihi  Pontiae 
lagonam,  Iratum  calicem  mihi  Metili.  Perhaps  com- 
mode enhn  is  nearer  the  Ms.  reading,  as  a  and  e  are  so 
often  interchanged  in  our  Mss. ;  and  it  would  give  a  suit- 
able sense  :  *I  want  to  be  carried  comfortably':  comp. 
Cic.  ad  Att.  xvi  6  1  Ego  adhuc.magis  commode  quam 
strenue  nauigaui.  But  Doering  I  see  suggests  Istos 
da :  tnodo  nam  :  now  before  I  observed  this,  I  had 
thought  of  Istos  da  modo.  nam  uolo ;  because  I  per- 
ceived that  da  modo  might  easily  in  the  Mss.  fall  into 
the  more  natural  prose  arrangement  modo  da,  and  this 
get  changed  to  commoda ;  and  because  I  felt  that  modo 
would  add  force  both  to  paulum  and  du  :  comp.  Plaut. 
rud.  1127  Cedo  modo  mi,  uidulum  istum:  Cic.  de  orat. 
Ill  196  si  in  his  paulum  modo  offensum  est ;  epist.  i  5  b 
2  si  Pompeius  paulum  modo  ostenderit  sibi  placere ; 
Nepos  Ham.  1  4  si  paulum  modo  res  essent  refectae ; 
SaU.  lug.  60  3  ubi  hostes  paulum  modo  pugnam  remi- 
serant ;  93  4  paulum  modo  prona  ;  Catil.  52  18  si  pau- 
lulum  modo  uos  languere  uiderint ;  Ter.  heaut.  316 
Vbi  si  paululum  modo  quid  te  fugerit.  Ellis  well  de- 
fends the  accusative  Sai'apim. 

27 — 30 :  manl^  me  is  surely  not  admissible  in  Ca- 
tullus, nor  do  the  words  appear  to  have  any  satisfactory 
meaning :  manl^  inquio  is  good  metre  and  good  sense 
and  is  adopted  by  several  of  the  best  editors,  and  so  is 
the  minime  of  Pontanus,  Lachmann,  Haupt  and  others. 
Again  Bergk's  mi  anime  is  enticing.  But  when  that 
which  follows  is  kept  in  view,  meminei,  which  in  Catul- 


CAKM.    10  35 

lus'  Mss.  might  easily  pass  into  mane  me,  a  and  e  being 
so  often  confused,  strikes  me  as  not  at  all  improbable. 
I  prefer  inquio  of  the  old  editors  and  Baehrens  to  in- 
quii  of  most  recent  editors ;  for  it  seems  to  have  as 
much  indirect  evidence  to  its  existence  as  inquii  has, 
and  is  as  near  to  inquid,  as  inquii  is  to  inquit ;  and 
elsewhere  in  the  poem  we  have  the  presents,  inquiunt, 
inquit,  inqvam. 

The  following  sentence  appears  to  me  to  be  rightly 
understood  by  none  of  the  commentators.     They  all 
take  quod  for  the  relative,  whereas  it  surely  is  the  con- 
junction.    This  has  led  Lachmann,  Haupt  and  others 
to  assume  a  lacuna,  and  Ellis'  explanation  is  to  me  very 
unsatisfactory.     This  peculiar  use  of  the  conjunction 
quod,  to  denote  the  effect  rather  than  the  cause,  I  have 
illustrated  at  great  length  in  my  note  on  Lucretius 
IV  885    from    Cicero,    Ovid,   Virgil    and   others.     The 
phrase,  I  have  there  said,  is  elliptical  and  the  full  ex- 
pression is  seen  in  Catull.  68  33  Nam  quod  scriptorum 
non  magna  est  copia  apud  me,   Hoc  fit  quod  Romae 
uiuimus.     So  here  the  full  expression  would  be  '  Istud 
quod  modo  dixeram  me  habere,  hoc  factum  est  quod 
me  ratio  fugit'.     To  the  very  many  passages  I  have 
given  in  my  note  on  Lucretius  I  here  add  the  following : 
Phaedr,  ii  4  8  Nam  fodere  terram  quod  uides  cotidie 
Aprum  insidiosum,  quercum  uult  euertere ;  Mart,  viii 
213  placidi  numquid  te  pigra  Bootae  Plaustra  uehunt, 
lento  quod  nimis  axe  uenis?;  ib.  82  2  Nos  quoque  quod 
domino  carmina  parua  damns,  Posse  deum  rebus  pariter 
Musisque  uacare  Scimus,  et  haec  etiam  serta  placere 
deo. 

With  meminei  then,  the  passage  is  plain  enough : 
'Now  I  bethink  myself:  when  I  said  just  now  that  I 
had  them,  I  forgot  myself  for  the  moment :  my  dear 

3—2 


36  CATVLLI 

friend  Gaius  Cinna,  he  it  was  who  bought  them ' :  iatud, 
the  thing  in  question,  the  chair  and  its  eight  men;  just 
hke  'quod  natum'  above.  Though  the  general  sense  of 
the  words  *  mens — parauit'  is  clear  enough,  their  exact 
construction  is  not  so  certain:  are  they  to  be  punctu- 
ated as  I  have  punctuated  with  most  of  the  editors?  or, 
what  is  perhaps  better,  are  we  with  Baehrens  to  put  a 
comma  after  sodalis,  and  Gaiusi  Nay,  as  Cinna  was 
not  an  uncommon  name,  it  strikes  me  as  not  improbable 
that  Catullus  meant  to  say :  '  meus  sodalis  Cinna — est 
Gaius — is  s.  p. :  '  my  friend  Cinna — Gaius  I  mean  (not 
Gnaeus  or  Lucius) — he  it  was  who  bought  them':  comp. 
Mart.  IX  87  3  dicis  *  modo  liberum  esse  iussi  Nastam — 
seruolus  est  mihi  patemus — Signa*.  One  might  sug- 
gest the  omission  of  est ;  but  it  should  be  observed  that 
throughout  this  poem  we  find  spondees  alone  in  the 
first  foot.  With  27 — 29  I  would  compare  the  writer 
ad  Herenn.  ii  40,  which  might  perhaps  favour  my  me- 
minei:  in  mentem  mihi  si  uenisset,  Quirites,  non  com- 
misissem  ut  in  hunc  locum  res  ueniret:  nam  hoc  aut 
hoc  fecissem;  sed  me  tum  ratio  fugit. 

In  V.  32  Ellis  tries,  in  my  opinion  without  success, 
to  defend  the  pararim  of  Mss.  Because  the  best  writers 
often  use  tamquam  for  tamquam  si,  because  some  good 
writers,  Livy  for  instance,  not  unfrequently  use  uelut 
for  uelut  si,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  tarn  bene,  qiiam 
can  pass  for  tarn  bene,  quam  si:  none  of  Ellis'  examples, 
Latin,  Greek  or  English,  helps  in  the  least  to  prove 
this.  But  if  the  omission  of  si  were  conceded,  can  the 
tense  be  defended  ?  this  has  always  struck  me  as  deci- 
sive. The  poet  is  surely  speaking  of  a  matter  past  and 
gone:  Cinna  bought  them,  I  did  not;  they  are  his,  not 
mine.  Surely  then  you  want  'quam  si  mihi  parassem', 
not  *  pararim' :  '  I  have  the  same  use  of  them  as  if  I  had 


CARM.    10  37 

bought  them  myself.  If  this  be  so,  Baehrens'  ceu  for 
quam,  for  other  reasons  improbable,  wiU  not  help  mat- 
ters. Now  Statins'  paratis  is  not  so  violent  a  correction 
as  some  might  at  first  sight  think  it  to  be;  for  final  m 
and  s  are  perpetually  interchanged  in  our  Mss.  evi- 
dently because  some  original  of  them  all  expressed  both 
by  abbreviations  not  easy  to  distinguish.  Of  this  I  will 
speak  more  at  length  when  I  come  to  the  12th  poem. 
If  paratim  then,  a  non-existent  word,  were  once  writ- 
ten, it  would  pass  immediately  into  pararim;  for  ?•  and 
t  were  also  not  easily  distinguished  in  our  archetype. 
Of  this  too  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  later  on:  I 
have  copied  down  some  thirty  cases  in  which  V,  or  else 
G  or  O,  put  Q'  for  t,  or  t  for  r, 

33  :  On  this  verse  I  should  hardly  have  thought  of 
dwelling,  if  it  had  not  been  for  Baehrens'  most  infeli- 
citous alterations,  '  Set  tu,  mulsa,  mala  et  m.  u. '.  No 
verse  in  Catullus  less  needs  correction  than  this:  the 
use  of  male  =  ualde,  to  denote  an  aggravation  of  an  evil, 
is  well  illustrated  from  Horace  by  Bentley  on  od.  in 
14  11,  where  he  reads,  perhaps  rightly,  *  male  inomina- 
tis':  he  cites  'male  dispari'  and  other  instances.  The 
instance  most  resembling  ours  that  I  can  find  is  Tibull. 
(Sulpicia)  IV  10  2  ne  male  inepta  cadam.  The  usage  is 
very  similar  to  the  often  recurring  '  male  aeger',  *  male 
(peius,  pessime)  odi,  metuo,  timeo,  formido,  uror,  perdo', 
and  the  like.  We  might  compare  with  7nale  insidsus, 
ineptus.  Homer's  Bvcrdfxixopo^,  Empedocles'  SucrawX^o?, 
Sophocles'  Sfcra^Xtos,  SvcraXyT^ros,  and  the  like.  I  be- 
lieve Martial  had  this  line  in  his  mind,  when  he  wrote 
(xii  55  1)  Gratis  qui  dare  uos  iubet  puellae,  Insulsissi- 
mus  improbissimusque  est,  where  the  two  superlatives 
are  synonymous  with  the  two  adjectives  of  CatuUus 
strengthened  by  male.    At  the  same  time  I  take  it  that 


38  CATVLLI 

the  poet  intended  his  reader  to  infer  that  these  words 
were  spoken,  not  to  the  girl's  face,  but  like  a  stage 
aside,  as  Catullus  was  turning  away  from  them.  The 
rudeness  would  otherwise  be  in  glaring  contrast  to  the 
polite  tone  of  the  rest  of  the  poem.  Such  asides  are 
common  alike  in  the  ancient  and  modern  drama :  Tri- 
nummus  40  Vxor,  uenerare  ut  nobis  haec  habitatio 
Bona  fausta  felix  fortunataque  euenat — Teque  ut  quam 
primum  possim  uideam  emortuam. 

When  I  have  first  discussed  some  points  in  the  12th 
poem,  I  will  say  a  few  words  about  the  date  of  C.  Mem- 
mius'  propraetorship,  words  which  I  should  have  deemed 
altogether  superfluous,  if  Ellis  had  not  broached  and 
developed  what  appears  to  me  to  be  a  singular  paradox 
on  the  subject. 


12 


Marrucine  Asini,  manu  sinistra 
non  belle  uteris  in  ioco  atque  uino  : 
tollis  lintea  neglegentiorum. 
hoc  salsum  esse  putas  ?   fugit  te,  inepte 
5  quamuis  sordida  res  et  inuenusta  est. 
non  credis  mihi  ?    crede  Pollioni 
fratri,  qui  tua  furta  uel  talento 
mutari  uelit :    est  enim  leporum 
disertus  puer  ac  facetiarum. 

10  quare  aut  hendecasyllabos  trecentos 
expecta  aut  mihi  linteum  remitte ; 
quod  me  non  mouet  aestimatione, 
uerum  est  mnemosynum  mei  sodalis. 
nam  sudaria  Saetaba  ex  Hiberis 

15  miserunt  mihi  muneri  Fabullus 


CARM.    10,    12  39 

et  Veranius :    haec  amem  necesse  est 
ufc  Veraniolum  meum  et  Fabullum. 

9   Disertus  seems  corrupt.    Dissertus   0.      Differtus  Passeratius,    Vossnis, 
Baehrens.     perhaps  Ducentum. 

This  Asinius,  brother  of  the  famous  C.  Asinius  Pol- 
lio  Cn.  fil.,  is  mentioned  nowhere  except  in  this  poem  of 
Catullus.  He  was  probably  a  man  of  little  worth,  and 
may  have  soon  disappeared  from  a  world  which  he  did 
not  greatly  adorn.  Ellis  calls  him  '  Asinius  Polio, 
an  elder  brother  of  the  friend  of  Horace  and  Virgil'. 
Though  there  is  no  direct  evidence  to  the  point,  I  am 
disposed  to  think  he  was  the  elder  of  the  two ;  but  I 
feel  sure  his  cognomen  was  not  Pollio.  I  rest  my  argu- 
ment on  the  following  grounds. 

The  family  belonged  to  Teate,  the  capital  of  the 
Marrucini.  It  was  plebeian  and  like  so  many  other 
plebeian  families,  such  as  the  Memmii  and  the  Antonii, 
appears  to  have  had  no  cognomen.  Gnaeus  Asinius, 
father  of  the  two  in  question,  had  left  his  native  place 
and  come  to  settle  in  Rome.  Wishing,  we  may  pre- 
sume, to  do  at  Rome  as  the  Romans  did,  he  called  one 
son  C.  Asinius  Pollio.  Whence  this  surname  was  derived, 
is  altogether  unknown.  Had  this  been  his  eldest  son, 
he  would  doubtless  in  compliance  with  the  usual  fashion 
have  given  him  his  own  praenomen  Gnaeus,  and  not 
Gains.  I  infer  therefore  that  the  other  was  the  elder 
and  was  named  Cn.  Asinius.  But  not  Pollio ;  else 
Catullus  would  not  in  v.  6  have  said  *crede  Pollioni 
fratri',  in  order  to  distinguish  the  two.  It  was  very 
usual  at  this  period  for  the  same  family  to  use  different 
cognomina :  thus  the  father  of  Catullus'  friend  C.  Li- 
cinius  Calvus  was  named  C.  Licinius  Macer.  I  believe 
therefore  that  we  have  here  the  youth's  actual  name, 


40  CATVLLI 

and  that  the  father  called  him  Cn.  Asiiiius  Marrucinus 
in  order  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  their  native 
country,  as  this  son  may  have  been  born  before  the 
father  had  migrated  from  Teate  to  Rome,  The  very- 
common  cognomina  Marsus,  Sabinus,  Latinus,  Gallus, 
Afer,  Hispanus  and  so  many  others  doubtless  had  a 
similar  origin.  The  history  of  Pollio's  family,  which 
ends  with  his  grandsons,  would  illustrate  and  confirm 
what  has  been  said.  He  called  his  eldest  son  C,  Asinius 
Gallus  Saloninus,  giving  him  his  own  praenomen,  but 
not  his  cognomen,  and  naming  him  Gallus,  because  he 
was  bom  in  Gallia  Cisalpina;  Saloninus  to  commemorate 
his  OMTi  chief  exploit,  the  capture  of  Salonae.  This  ill- 
fated  son  had  five  sons  of  his  own,  and  gave  a  difierent 
cognomen  to  each:  see  Drumann  ii  p.  1.  The  eldest 
was  C.  Asinius  Saloninus  and  had  his  father's  prae- 
nomen ;  the  next  was  Asinius  Gallus ;  the  third  C. 
Asinius  Pollio  ;  the  fourth  M.  Asinius  Agrippa,  so  called 
after  his  grandfather  M.  Agrippa ;  the  fifth  was  Asinius 
Celer.  All  this  will  confirm  I  believe  what  I  have  in- 
ferred about  Cn.  Asinius  Marrucinus :  the  name  of  Pollio 
it  will  be  seen  recurs  once  only. 

7  is  I  think  quite  correct :  tho'  the  expression  is 
unusual,  the  sense  seems  clear :  *  Who  would  gladly  have 
your  thefts  redeemed  even  at  the  cost  of  a  talent', 
would  gladly  give  so  much  that  your  thefts  had  never 
been  committed.  The  common  meaning  of  'res  acre 
mutatur '  is  *  a  thing  is  sold  for  so  much  money'.  But 
in  certain  writers  the  sense  is  occasionally  just  the  op- 
posite: 'The  thing  is  bought  for  so  much  money'.  Thus 
Hor.  sat.  ii  7  109  *puer  uuam  Furtiua  mutat  strigili' 
means  '  the  lad  gives  a  scraper  for  a  bunch  of  grapes ' : 
tho'  elsewhere  he  has  *  nee  Otia  diuitiis  Arabum 
liberrima  muto '  with  the  opposite  and  more  usual  con- 


CARM.    12  41 

struction.  Sallust  lug.  38  10  quae  quamquam  grauia 
et  flagitii  plena  ei'ant,  tamen,  quia  mortis  metu  muta- 
bantur,  sicuti  regi  lubuerat  pax  conuenit  :  by  accepting 
these  conditions  they  were  freed  from  the  fear  of  death  : 
the  more  common  construction  would  be  'his  rebus 
mortis  metus  mutabatur'.  Id.  orat.  Philip.  7  quorum 
nemo  diurna  mercede  uitam  mutauerit :  *  none  of  whom 
would  give  up  his  daily  pay  to  save  his  life':  more 
usually  'nemo  diumam  mercedem  uita  mutauerit'.  Some 
editors,  to  get  this  construction,  insert  non  after  nemo 
without  necessity.  The  construction  in  Catullus  re- 
sembles those  just  quoted. 

9  '  Disertus '  must  I  think  be  corrupt :  the  genitives 
cannot  without  an  epithet  be  genitives  of  quality  ;  nor 
do  I  see  how  they  can  be  governed  by  '  disertus' :  ElHs 
cites  no  parallel  case  whatever.  'Differtus',  tho'  it 
might  possibly  enough  govern  a  genitive,  I  do  not  like, 
as  it  seems  elsewhere  to  have  a  bad  sense,  'crammed 
full  of.  To  one  who  examines  the  Mss.  of  Catullus 
my  '  Ducentum '  will  not  appear  so  harsh  a  change.  I 
have  spoken  above  at  10  30  on  the  frequency  with 
which  our  Mss.  interchange  final  m  and  s  on  account 
of  some  compendium  not  easy  to  distinguish :  indeed 
s  for  m  is  more  common  than  m  for  s :  5  13  tantus  for 
tantum;  64  126  tristes  for  tristem  ;  384  Nereus  for 
Heroum ;  49  7  patronus  O,  patronum  G  ;  55  1  molestns 
es  V  for  molestum  est :  therefore  I  incline  to  keep  in  39  9 
the  old  correction  monendus  es  for  monendum  est, 
and  not  to  read  te  est  or  est  te  with  the  later  editors. 
From  the  unmeaning  ducentus  it  would  be  an  easy  step 
to  disertus  :  I  might  give  fifty  instances  of  c  and  s  con- 
fused in  V,  or  else  in  G  or  O  :  dissidium  for  discidium ; 
disserpunt  for  discerpunt ;  illos  for  illoc,  quisquam  for 
quicquam ;  pectus  for  pestis  ;  scis  for  sis  ;  simus  for  sci- 


42  CATVLLI 

mus  etc.  etc.  and  so  with  n  and  r :  nide,  nisi  for  ride, 

n 

risi,  uertur  for  uenter ;  herue  (?  here)  for  hene;  iuuerit 
G,  inuenit  O  ;  ab  rupto  G,  abin  nupto  0 ;  externata  0, 
extenuata  G ;  etc. 

I  am  induced  to  think  of  '  ducentum '  chiefly  be- 
cause it  seems  likely  that  Horace,  od.  iv  1  1 5  Et  cen- 
tum puer  artium,  had  our  verse  in  his  mind.  He  uses 
naturally  in  an  ode  the  more  stately  *  centum '  for  an 
indefinitely  large  number,  whereas  Catullus  would  em- 
ploy the  ducenti  of  common  life,  which  we  find  no 
fewer  than  five  times  in  Horace's  satires.  '  Ducentum ' 
may  be  either  the  gen.  plural,  which  occurs  also  in  Varro ; 
or  else  the  indeclinable  ducenticm,  which  is  found  in  Lu- 
cilius  more  than  once  and  elsewhere.  The  trecentos  of 
V.  10  is  to  my  mind  rather  in  its  favour  than  against  it. 

In  V.  14  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  old 
correction  '  ex  Hiberis '  for  '  exhibere '  is  true  ;  but  I 
would  remark,  as  an  interesting  confirmation  of  this, 
that  Catullus'  great  admirer  Martial  twice,  iv  55  8  and 
X  65  3,  ends  a  hendecasy liable  in  the  same  way  with 
the  words  'ex  Hiberis'.  5  quamuis  sordida  cet. :  Ca- 
tullus himself  once  again  has  quamuis  in  this  sense : 
103  2  esto  quamuis  saeuus  et  indomitus. 

From  the  joint  testimony  of  Tacitus  (dial.  34)  and 
of  Jerome,  that  is  of  Suetonius,  we  may  assume  that 
Pollio  was  born  in  76  b.  c.  It  is  strange  that  scholars 
like  Lachmann  and  Haupt  should  have  taken  no  account 
of  this  well-attested  date,  when  they  fixed  76  for  the 
year  of  Catullus'  birth.  Catullus  could  not  have  spoken 
of  Pollio  in  the  way  he  does,  if  their  ages  were  the  same. 
The  poet  must  have  been  a  grown  up  man  when  he 
thus  wrote  of  Pollio.  Ellis  draws  attention  to  this  point 


CARM.    12  43 

in  p.  XLVi  of  his  commentary.  I  had  argued  this  ques- 
tion in  a  letter  now  before  me  which  I  wrote  to  Pro- 
fessor Sellar  more  than  a  year  before  the  appearance  of 
Ellis'  volume,  having  indeed  noted  it  down  many  years 
ago  :  I  advert  to  this  fact  solely  for  the  confirmation 
thus  afforded  by  two  independent  testimonies  in  a  case 
in  which  scholars  like  Lachmann  and  Haupt  are  con- 
cerned. 

Schwabe  (p.  300)  assigns  this  and  the  following  poem 
to  about  60  B.C.  on  grounds  probable  enough.  PoUio 
would  be  then  about  16,  and  we  cannot  I  should  say 
think  of  him  as  younger  than  16  or  1 7  ^ :  the  Paulus 
Maximus  whom  Horace  terms  'centum  puer  artium' 
must  have  been  quite  20,  the  age  too  of  Marcellus 
whom  Virgil  calls  both  '  puer '  and  '  iuuenis  '.  Horace 
and  Virgil  however,  when  they  so  wrote,  were  much 
older  men  than  Catullus.  But  with  the  Romans  *puer' 
and  'iuuenis'  were  both  of  them  very  elastic  terms, 
like  the  French  'gar§on'. 

From  the  manner  in  which  Catullus  in  several  poems 
speaks  of  Veranius  and  Fabullus,  it  is  clear  that  they 
were  intimate  associates  of  one  another  and  dear  friends 
of  his.  They  were  young  men,  probably  of  equestrian 
rank,  belonging  either  to  equestrian  or  senatorian  fami- 
lies. One  would  infer  from  9  4  that  the  father  of 
Veranius  was  already  dead.  What  they  were  about 
during  their  joint  sojourn  in  Spain  Catullus  does  not 
tell  us.  They  may  have  been  on  the  staff  of  a  provin- 
cial governor,  or  they  may  have  been  engaged  in  one 
or  other  of  the  many  lucrative  employments  of  which 
the  Equites  had  the  monopoly  in  the  provinces,  among 

1  This  by  the  way  is  another  indication  that  Asiuius  Marrucinus  was  the 
elder  brother,  as  he  would  not,  if  he  were  the  younger,  have  been  allowed  at  so 
tender  an  age  to  frequent  the  parties  of  grown  men. 


44  CATVLLI 

the  wealthiest  of  which  in  this  age  were  the  Spains. 
There  was  so  little  opening  at  this  time  in  Rome  itself 
for  needy  men  of  family — and  it  would  seem  from  what 
Catullus  says  in  the  47th  poem  that  these  youths  were 
needy — that  they  flocked  to  the  provinces,  and  to  Spain 
as  much  as  any,  since  it  was  both  wealthy  and  easily 
reached  from  Rome.  A  few  years  after  this,  in  B.C.  57, 
at  the  very  same  time  that  Catullus  was  with  his  pro- 
praetor Memmius  in  Bithynia,  they  were  again  together 
on  the  staflP  of  L.  Piso  Caesoninus  proconsul  of  Mace- 
donia, so  well  known  to  us  by  the  embittered  invective 
of  Cicero. 

At  least  I  had  believed  that  Schwabe  had  trium- 
phantly demonstrated  that  this  Piso  and  no  other  could 
be  the  one  in  question,  so  precisely  do  times  and  cir- 
cumstances fit  together,  so  exactly  do  the  few  lines  in 
which  Catullus  depicts  him  agree  with  the  more  ela- 
borate portrait  which  Cicero  draws.  But  Ellis  has 
broached  a  novel  theory,  which  is  one  of  the  oddest 
instances  I  know  of  straining  at  a  gnat  and  swallowing 
a  camel ;  a  theory  which  carries  havock  into  many  of 
the  facts  and  dates  in  Catullus'  life  which  Schwabe  has 
established  and  to  which  Ellis  himself  apparently  gives 
credit.  I  shall  here  be  brief,  as  I  feel  certain  that  Ellis 
will  not  find  one  scholar  to  back  him  up  in  his  argu- 
ment. His  sole  difficulty  in  accepting  Schwabe's  state- 
ment arises  from  the  fact  that  Yeranius  and  Fabullus 
would  in  that  case  have  made  two  journeys  together ; 
to  my  mind  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world.  He  argues 
therefore  for  the  following  combination.  There  was 
a  Gnaeus  Piso,  an  accomplice  of  Catiline,  whom  the 
senate,  to  rid  themselves  of  a  very  dangerous  man, 
sent  out  to  Hispania  Citerior  in  65  with  the  unusual 
title  of  Quaestor  pro  Praetore.    He  was  murdered  there 


CARM.    12  45 

by  his  native  escort  before  the  summer  of  64^.  This 
man  Schwabe  just  mentions,  to  point  out  that  he  could 
not  be  the  Piso  in  question.  But  Ellis  maintains  on  the 
contrary  that  Veranius  and  Fabullus  went  with  him  as 
members  of  his  cohort.  Yes,  but  they  were  with  their 
Piso  at  the  same  time  that  Catullus  was  in  Bithynia 
with  his  praetor  Memmius^.  And  as  Memmius  was 
Praetor  in  58,  he  must  have  gone  to  his  province  as 
Propnietor  in  57,  at  the  time  Piso  Caesoninus  went 
as  Proconsul  to  Macedonia.  No,  Ellis  argues,  at  the 
same  time  that  Cn.  Piso  was  specially  sent  by  the 
senate  as  Quaestor  pro  Praetore,  Memmius  may  have 
been  sent  with  the  same  extraordinary  title  to  Bithynia. 
But  it  was  a  most  unusual  thing  for  the  senate  or  people 
to  send  any  one  out  with  this  exceptional  title.  The 
strange  case  of  Cato  who  was  dispatched  to  Cyprus 
in  58  through  Clodius'  intrigues,  and  the  earlier  one  of 
Lentulus  Marcellinus  commissioned  to  settle  the  affairs 
of  the  Cyrenaica,  are  the  only  two  instances  besides 
that  of  Cn.  Piso  which  Marquardt  (Handb.  2*^  ed.  i  p. 
390)  can  cite  during  the  existence  of  the  Bepublic. 
Why  then  should  Memmius  be  selected  for  such  a  dis- 
tinction ?  why,  if  he  had  been  so  selected,  should  we 
never  hear  of  it  ?  how  could  such  an  appointment  be 
made  at  the  very  time  when  Pompey  was  exercising 
supreme  power  over  all  the  East  by  virtue  of  the  Mani- 
lian  law  ? 

But  Ellis  (p.  l)  has  another  hypothesis  at  com- 
mand :  '  Or  again  he  may  have  been  appointed  directly 
by  Pompeius,  as  Marius  left  his  quaestor  Sulla  "pro 
praetore"  (lug.   103),  as  Trebonius*,  etc.     But  in  the 

^  See  Mommsen  in  Hermes  i  p.  47. 

•  C.  Memmius  L.  f,  Galeria  had  no  cognomen ;  yet  Ellis  persists  in  calling 
him  G.  Memmius  Gemellus.  Again  C.  not  G.  is  the  symbol  of  Gains,  as  Cn.  is 
of  Gnaeus. 


46  CATVLLI 

three  instances  mentioned  here  by  Ellis,  as  well  as  in 
that  of  Albinus  (Sail.  lug.  36)  who  goes  off  to  Rome 
'  Aulo  fratre  in  castris  pro  praetore  relicto',  the  gover- 
nor or  general  having  died  in  office  or  being  called  away 
by  a  sudden  emergency,  by  the  necessity  of  the  case 
his  quaestor  for  the  time  being  takes  his  place.     But 
this  cannot  apply  to  Memmius;  for  Catullus  (28  7)  dis- 
tinctly states  that  he  went  out  in  his  suite  from  Rome: 
'  qui  meum  secutus  Praetorem' :  secutiis,  like  the  prose 
prosecutus,  has  this  meaning :  Mart,  vii  45  5  *  Hunc  tu 
per  Siculas  secutus  undas'  is  the  same  as  ib.  44  5  '  Ae- 
quora  per  Scyllae  magnus  comes  exulis  isti,  Qui  modo 
nolueras  consulis  ire  comes'.     And  it  would  have  been 
absurd  for  Catullus  to  assail  as  he  does  a  mere  subordi- 
nate, and  not  their  common  chief  Pompeius,  on  whom 
the  blame  would  rest,  if  blame  there  was. 

But  if  w^e  adopt  Ellis'  theory,  what  results  do  we 
obtain  ?     The  Pollio  of  our  poem  would  be  a  child  of 
eleven  or  twelve  years  of  age,  to  whom  such  an  appeal 
as  Catullus  here  makes  could  not  possibly  be  addressed. 
But,  more  than  this,  the  whole  fabric  which  Schwabe 
has  built  up  with  so  much  pains  and  learning,  is  shaken 
to  its  foundations,   in  portions  of  it  too  which  Ellis 
appears  to  accept.     In  his  later  volume,  tho'  he  had 
doubted  it  in  his  earlier,  he  admits  the  theory,  which 
I  too  firmly   believe  in,  that   Lesbia  is  the  notorious 
Clodia.     One  of  the  main  props  of  this  theory  is  the 
assumption  that  the  fierce  invectives,  launched  at  Rufus 
for  pretending  to  be  the  poet's  intimate  friend  and  then 
robbing  him  of  what  was  dearer  to  him  than  life,  must 
have  reference  to  the  intrigue  of  M.  Caelius  Rufus  with 
Clodia  59  and  58  B.C.  about  which  Cicero  in  his  speech 
for  Caelius  gives  us  such  copious  information.     In  59 
therefore  and  perhaps  later  Catullus,  tho'  he  had  lost 


CARM.    12  47 

his  esteem  for  Lesbia,  was  still  inflamed  with  the  full 
fervour  of  his  consuming  passion.  Turn  now  to  the 
65th  and  to  both  parts  of  the  68th  poem.  In  these 
we  find  Catullus  bitterly  lamenting  the  recent  death 
of  his  brother;  and  from  both  divisions  of  G8  we  learn 
that  he  had  not  yet  lost  his  passion  for  Lesbia,  tho'  he 
was  fully  aware  of  her  inconstancy  to  him.  Some  time, 
probably  a  year  or  two,  after  this,  either  on  his  way 
to  Bithynia,  as  Ellis  argues ;  or  on  his  return  from  it, 
as  Schwabe  holds — and  I  am  disposed  to  agree  with 
the  latter,  because,  as  I  observed  above,  I  believe  that 
Catullus  went  from  Rome  to  Bithynia  in  the  praetor's 
suite — the  poet  stopped  at  Bhoeteum  to  perform  the 
last  offices  for  his  dead  brother.  Before  his  journey  to 
Bithynia  he  had  utterly  renounced  Lesbia  as  a  common 
harlot  and  streetwalker :  Nunc  in  quadriuiis  et  an- 
giportis  cet.  If  therefore  he  went  to  his  province  at 
the  beginning  of  65,  he  must  have  assailed  his  dearest 
friend  with  insult  and  outrage  for  robbing  him  of  his 
life's  happiness  at  least  six  years  after  the  time  when 
he  had  finally  cast  her  off  as  an  abandoned  strumpet. 

I  will  say  no  more  on  these  questions,  as  I  regret 
the  length  to  which  my  remarks  have  already  run ;  but 
I  could  not  make  my  meaning  clear  in  fewer  words. 

Of  the  six  poems  between  the  12th  and  the  22nd  I 
have  not  much  to  say.  The  industry  of  the  latest  editor 
Ellis  has  anticipated  me  in  most  of  the  illustrations 
which  I  had  jotted  down,  especially  from  the  old  scenic 
writers,  from  Cicero  and  Martial. 

13  14  Totum  ut  te  faciant,  Fabulle,  nasum :  with 
reference  to  Ellis'  note  I  would  observe  that  this  ad- 
verbial use  of  totum,  which  belongs  equally  to  te  and 
7iasum,  *  to  make  you  wholly '  *  nothing  but'  '  nose',  is 


48  CATVLLI 

exceedingly  common  in  Latin.  Above  at  8  1 4  rogahens 
nulla  I  have  referred  to  my  note  on  Lucr.  i  377  where 
I  have  given  abundant  examples.  I  might  give  here 
as  many  more  ;  such  as  Cic.  (Caelius)  epist.  viii  8  10 
Curio  se  contra  eum  totum  parat ;  ix  16  8  neque  est 
quod  in  promulside  spei  ponas  aliquid,  quam  totam 
sustuli ;  XI  29  2  totum  te  ad  amicitiam  meam  contu- 
listi ;  XVI  12  6  ut... totum  te  susciperet  et  tueretur; 
ad  Q.  fr.  ii  10  (12)  3  multa  dixi  in  ignobilem  regem 
quibus  totus  est  explosus.  quo  genere  commotus,  ut 
dixi,  Appius  totum  me  amplexatur...sed  ille  scripsit  ad 
Balbum  fasciculum  ilium... totum  sibi  aqua  madidum 
redditum  esse ;  Suet.  Caes.  46  ULllam...quia  non  tota 
ad  animum  ei  responderat,  totam  diruisse :  very  like 
Catullus  is  Martial  xii  84  3  Talis  eras,  modo  tonse 
Pelops,  positisque  nitebas  Crinibus,  ut  totum  sponsa 
uideret  ebur. 


14     12—20 

Di  magni,  horribilem  et  sacrum  libellum, 
quern  tu  scilicet  ad  tuum  Catullum 
misti,  continuo  ut  die  periret 

1  5  Satumalibus  optimo  dierum  ! 

non  non  hoc  tibi,  salse,  sic  abibit : 
nam,  si  luxerit,  ad  librariorum 
curram  scruiia,  Caesios,  Aquinos, 
Suffenum  omnia  colligam  uenena, 

20  ac  te  his  suppliciis  remunerabor. 

14  continuo  can  only  have  the  sense  it  so  often  has 
in  the  old  idiomatic  writers :  '  at  once  without  an  in- 
terval, straight  on  end' :  Cic.  Verr.  iv  48  ille  continuo 
ut  uidit  non  dubitauit  illud...tollere.     Calvus  sent  it 


CARM.  12,  U,  17,  21  49 

on  the  morning  of  the  Saturnalia,  to  poison  at  once  the 
poet's  happiness.  With  the  apposition  comp.,  besides 
the  excellent  illustration  quoted  by  Ellis,  Livy  xxx 
39  8  Cerealia  ludos  dictator  et  magister  equitum  ex 
senatus  consulto  fecerunt;  and  Virgil's  'aras  Ecce  duas 
tibi,  Daphni,  duas  altaria  Phoebo':  with  the  position 
of  the  words  Mart,  x  30  1  0  temperatae  dulce  Formiae 
litus,  and  Virgil's  'Vina  nouum  fundam  calathis  Ariusia 
nectar'.  16  salse  seems  right;  not  false,  as  Baehrens 
reads :  Hor.  sat.  i  9  65  male  salsus  Kidens  dissimulare. 
In  19  both  rhythm  and  sense  in  my  judgment  shew 
Suffenum  to  be  the  gen.  plur.  and  not  the  sing,  as  EUis 
now  takes  it  to  be  with  some  other  editors. 

17  2  inepta :  Cicero  again  and  again  in  his  Orator 
opposes  aptus  to  solutus,  diffluens,  etc. :  228  quod  multo. 
maiorem  habent  apta  uim  quam  soluta ;  233  uidesne 
ut...ad  nihilum  omnia  recidant,  cum  sint  ex  aptis  dis- 
soluta.-.Efficitur  aptum  illud,  quod  fuerit  antea  difflu- 
ens  ac  solutum.  As  then  in  the  de  orat.  i  17  he  defines 
ineptus  as  one  who  is  not  aptus,  cannot  inepta  in  Ca- 
tullus be  non  apta  i.  e.  dissoluta,  soluta  ? 

21  mens  stupor:  Petron.  62  homo  meus  coepit  ad 
Stellas  facere...iacebat  miles  meus  in  lecto  tamquam 
bonis  ;  63  baro  autem  noster  :  with  this  we  may  comp. 
13  6  uenuste  noster,  tho'  that  is  friendly  banter. 

21  1  Aureli,  pater  esuritionum :  A  curious  expres- 
sion ;  but  I  would  refer  to  Mart,  xii  53  6  which  is  just 
as  singular  and  obscure  :  Sed  causa,  ut  memoras  et  ipse 
iactas,  Dirae  fiHus  es  rapacitatis.  Ecquid  tu  fatuos  ni- 
desque  quaeris,  lUudas  quibus  auferasque  mentem  ? 
Huic  semper  uitio  pater  fuisti.  7  nam  insidias  mihi 
instruentem  Tangam  te  prior  :  Tho'  the  two  words  for 

M.  c.  4 


50  CATVLLI 

a  well-known  reason  might  easily  be  confused  in  Mss. 
and  tho'  *  struere  insidias '  is  the  more  usual  phrase,  yet 
I  would  not  with  E-ibbeck  and  Baehrens  read  here  st')no- 
entem :  all  the  editors  leave  untouched  in  Livy  vi  23 
6  quern  insidiis  instruendis  locum?  xxiii  35  14  et 
inter  id  instraendae  fraudi  intentior. 

9  atque  id  si  faceres  satur,  tacerem  : 
nunc  ipsum  id  doleo  quod  esurire 
me  me  puer  et  sitire  discet. 

Of  the  corrupt  Me  me  of  v.  11  many  corrections  have 
been  made.  Both  the  Mellitus  of  EUis  and  the  Tenel- 
lus  of  Baehrens  seem  to  me  improbable,  first  for  diplo- 
matic reasons,  next  because  to  my  mind  they  strike  a 
false  chord,  not  in  unison  with  the  rest  of  the  poem. 
Keeping  in  view  9  id  si  faceres  satur,  tacerem  :  I  think 
*  A  te  mei  puer '  would  be  a  correction  simple  in  itself 
and  excellently  suited  to  the  context :  so  77  3  mei  V. 


22 

Suffenus  iste,  Vare,  quem  probe  nosti, 
homo  est  uenustus  et  dicax  et  urbanus 
idemque  longe  plurimos  facit  uersus. 
puto  esse  ego  illi  milia  aut  decem  aut  plura 
5  perscripta,  nee  sic  ut  fit  in  paHmpsesto 
relata :  cartae  regiae,  noui  libri, 
noui  umbilici,  lora  rubra,  membranae. 
derecta  plumbo  et  pumice  omnia  aequata 
haec  cum  legas  tu,  bellus  ille  et  urbanus 
10  Sufienus  unus  caprimulgus  aut  fossor 

rursus  uidetur :   tantum  abhorret  ac  mutat. 
hoc  quid  putemus  esse  ?    qui  modo  scurra 


CARM.  21,  22  51 

aut  siquid  hac  re  tersius  uidebatur, 

idem  infaceto  est  infacetior  rure, 
15  simul  poemata  attigit;  neque  idem  umquam 

aeque  est  beatus  ac  poema  cum  scribit : 

tam  gaudet  in  se  tamque  se  ipse  miratur. 

nimirum  idem  omnes  fallimur,  neque  est  quisquam 

quem  non  in  aliqua  re  uidere  Siiffenum 
20  possis :  suns  cuique  attributus  est  error, 

sed  non  uidemus,  manticae  quod  in  tergo  est. 

5  palimpsestos  Baehrens.  palimpsestum  Heinsius.  palimpseston  Lachmann. 
7  membranae.  membrana  all  editors  who  join  it  with  wliat  follows.  13  tersius 
scripsi.    tristiua  V.  tritius  uulgo. 

Besides  reprinting  below  wKat  I  had  written  in  the 
Journal  of  Philology  on  v.  13,  I  have  to  discuss  some 
other  points,  which  seem  to  me  not  unimportant,  in 
this  very  bright  and  witty  poem.  3  :  Mart,  x  76  6 
cuius  unum  est,  Sed  magnum  uitium,  quod  est  poeta. 
4  Baehrens  reads  '  ad  decem ' ;  but  '  aut — aut '  =  aut — 
aut  etiam:  so  68  131  Aut  nihil  aut  paulo  =  aut  certe 
paulo  :  comp.  with  our  passage  Cic.  phil.  13  2  si  aut 
ciuis  aut  homo  habendus.  We  have  the  full  form  in 
Cic.  Verr.  rv  14  homines  qui  aut  non  minoris  aut  etiam 
pluris  emerint ;  Ov.  her.  14  41  Aut  sic  aut  etiam  tre- 
mui  magis,  and  often.  5  in  palimpsesto  Relata :  this 
can  scarcely  be  Latin  :  in  the  passage,  which  Ellis  after 
Hand  cites  from  Cicero,  no  editor  I  think  would  retain 
*  in  codice '  with  *  in  codices '  and  '  in  codicem '  almost 
in  the  same  sentence.  Baehrens*  palimpsestos  is  perhaps 
to  be  preferred  to  the  singular.  Relata  seems  genuine  ; 
else  '  in  palimpsesto  Artata '  would  not  be  a  harsh  cor- 
rection :  25  1 1  insula  V  for  inusta  :  *  T  et  I  et  L  baud 
raro  permutantur'  Baehrens  p.  xnv.  Mart,  i  2  3  Hos 
eme,  quos  artat  breuibus  membrana  tabellis ;  xii  5  1 

4—2 


52  CATVLLI 

Longior  undecimi  nobis  decimlque  libelli  Artatus  labor 
est;  XTV  190  Pellibus  exiguis  artatur  Liuius  ingens. 

6  Everytbing  is  on  tbe  grandest  scale,  reams  of 
royal  papyrus,  new  uolumina  or  rolls  made  up  from  tbis 
papyrus :  see  Ellis.  7,  wben  a  single  roll  is  in  ques- 
tion, umbilicus  in  tbe  sing,  is  used  to  denote  tbe  wooden 
cylinder  witb  projecting  bosses;  or  umbilici  in  tbe  plur. 
to  signify  tbe  ornamental  bosses  at  eacb  end.  As  several 
rolls  are  spoken  of  bere,  it  is  uncertain  wbicb  of  tbe 
two  meanings  tbe  word  bas.  Tbe  meaning  of  '  lora 
rubra '  is  not  clear  :  witb  Ellis  I  sbould  bave  taken 
tbem  to  be  some  sort  of  fastening  for  tbe  uolumen : 
Marquardt  v  pt  2,  p.  396,  says  tbey  are  tbe  i7idex 
attacbed  to  tbe  roll :  Et  cocco  rubeat  superbus  index. 
Tben  membranae  are  tbe  parcbmenb  wrappers,  one  for 
eacb  of  tbe  libri  or  uolumina,  coloured  generally  witb 
purple,  sometimes  witb  saffron :  besides  tbe  passages 
cited  by  Ellis  see  tbe  locus  classicus  at  tbe  beginning 
of  tbe  Tristia :  5  Nee  te  purpureo  uelent  uaccinia  fuco  ; 
Mart.  I  117  16  purpuraque  cultum.  Martial  bad  tbis 
line  and  its  rbytbm  in  bis  mind  wben  be  wrote  i  66  11 
Nee  umbilicis  cultus  atque  membrana :  be  bas  tbe  sin- 
gular because  be  is  speaking  of  a  single  roll :  Catullus 
bas  tbe  plural  because  be  is  speaking  of  more  tban  one. 
In  neitber  is  tbere  any  epitbet,  as  tbe  wrapper  was 
understood  to  be  ornamental  in  itself. 

But  now  I  come  to  tbe  point,  on  account  of  wbicb 
I  bave  dwelt  at  sucb  lengtb  on  tbis  locus  classicus  for 
tbe  bistory  of  an  ancient  book.  To  my  abiding  amaze- 
ment every  editor  from  tbe  poet's  fellow  townsman,  old 
Auantius  of  Verona,  in  January  1502  down  to  tbe  very 
latest  brings  bopeless  confusion  into  our  passage  by 
cbanging  tbe  membranae  of  Mss.  to  membrana  and  join- 
ing tbe  word  on  witb  wbat  follows.     Let  us  see  :  Ellis 


CARM.  22  53 

in  hl3  copious  commentary  takes  memhrana  to  be  the 
wrapper  of  the  roll ;  and  it  can  of  course  have  no  other 
meaning ;  for  in  Catullus'  days  the  Komans  used  only 
papyrus,  never  parchment,  for  a  regular  liber  or  uolu- 
men.  Books  made  up  like  ours  and  written  on  parch- 
ment seem  to  have  come  into  use  about  Martial's  time ; 
and  even  if  they  had  been  known  to  Catullus,  to  take 
the  word  here  in  this  sense  would  make  nonsense  of 
the  context.  Now,  that  plumbo  denotes  the  small  round 
plate  of  lead  which,  instead  of  pencil  or  stylus,  the 
ancients  employed  with  a  regula  to  rule  straight  lines 
along  the  page,  we  all  know :  see  Hich  s.  v.  and  Beck- 
man  whom  he  cites.  Ellis  quotes  nine  passages  from 
the  Greek  anthology  to  illustrate  the  word  and  con- 
cludes that  'Derecta  plumbo'  is  a  condensed  expression 
for  'plumbo  notata  lineis  ductis  ad  regulam'.  But 
not  one  syllable  does  he  say  as  to  the  purpose  or  the 
meaning  of  scoring  over  these  purple  or  saffron-coloured 
wrappers  with  'lineis  ductis  ad  regulam*;  nor  do  I 
believe  any  explanation  can  be  given. 

Well,  and  what  then  are  the  '  pumice  omnia  ae- 
quata'  ?  omnia  must  include  all  the  objects  mentioned 
in  6  and  7.  Thus  Suffenus,  after  getting  his  bright- 
painted  bosses,  his  scarlet  lora,  his  purple  wrappers, 
must  have  employed  his  pumice  it  would  appear  to 
scrub  them  clean  of  all  their  ornament,  in  this  shewing 
himself  indeed  *infaceto  infacetior  rure'. 

Tho'  Auantius,  Guarinus,  Statins,  Muretus,  Scali- 
ger,  Graeuius,  Vossius,  Doeringius,  Silligius,  Lachman- 
nus,  Hauptius,  Bossbachius,  Schwabius,  MueUerus,  El- 
lisius,  Baehrensius,  are  there  to  check  my  presumption, 
I  feel  no  doubt  that  v.  8  is  to  be  joined  with  what 
follows  :  *  When  you  read  these  thousands  of  verses, 
kept   so   straight   by   the   lead  and   evened   all   with 


54  CATVLLI 

pumice,  yon  fine  and  well-bred  gentleman  Suifenus 
turns  out  a  common  hind  or  ditcher'.  If  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  sentence  be  called  in  question,  I  would  refer 
to  my  note  on  Lucr.  v  789  where  I  have  given  5  like 
passages  from  him  :  take  iv  430  Tecta  solo  iungens 
atque  omnia  dextera  laeuis  Donee  in  obscurum  coni 
conduxit  acumen :  take  too  Cat.  66  65  Yirginis  et 
saeui  contingens  namque  leonis. 

8  pumice  om.  aeq. :  the  precise  import  of  these 
words  may  be  questioned;  but  in  all  the  Latin  passages 
which  EUis  cites  here,  and  in  1  2  *  pumice  expohtum', 
he  has  mistaken  the  meaning.  In  these,  as  well  as  in 
Ov.  trist.  II  1  13  Quod  neque  sum  cedro  flauus  nee 
pumice  leuis ;  Mart,  i  66  10  pumicata  fronte  si  qviis  est 
nondum;  117  16  Rasum  pumice,  there  is  no  reference 
whatever  to  preparing  the  papyrus  for  writing.  They 
one  and  all  mean  that  after  the  uolumen  was  completed 
and  rolled  up,  both  ends  of  the  closed  roll  were 
smoothed  and  polished  with  pumice :  Ovid's  '  geminae 
poliantur  pumice  frontes '  shews  this  clearly ;  but  so  do 
the  other  passages,  tho'  not  so  directly,  as  in  most  of 
them  it  accompanies  their  receiving  their  purple  cover. 
In  our  passage  the  words  I  think  mean  that  after  the 
verses  had  been  all  fairly  written  out  on  their  ruled 
lines,  the  pumice  was  applied  to  remove  all  inequalities 
in  the  writing,  all  blots,  portions  of  ill-made  letters 
and  the  like.  For  we  must  remember  that  in  ancient 
writing  the  pen  used  was  coarse  and  thick,  the  letters 
were  large  and  irregular  compared  with  our  print.  For 
the  contrary  case  of  blots  being  left  from  neglect  comp. 
Prop.  V  3  3  Siqua  tamen  tibi  lecture  pars  oblita  dent, 
Haec  erit  e  lacrimis  facta  litura  meis  ;  Ov.  her.  Ill 
Siqua  tamen  caecis  errabunt  scripta  lituris,  Obhtus  a 
dominae  caede  libellus  erit ;  trist  i  1  13  Neue  litura- 


CARM.  22  55 

rum  pudeat  cet. ;  ml  15  Littera  suffusas  quod  liabet 
maculosa  lituras,  Laesit  opus  lacrimis  ipse  poeta  suum. 
Suffenus  would  not  neglect  his  blots. 

It  can  hardly  I  think  refer  to  the  previous  smooth- 
ing of  the  papyrus,  by  which  the  letters  would  lie  more 
smoothly  on  the  surface.  Ellis  says  *  the  inequalities 
of  surface  produced  by  the  fibres  of  the  papyrus  were 
removed  by  pumice  stone'.  This  may  have  been  so, 
tho'  he  gives  no  authority  for  his  statement,  his  cita- 
tions, as  I  have  said,  referring  to  something  totally 
different.  Pumice  was  applied  indeed  in  subsequent 
ages  to  prepare  parchment  for  writing,  as  I  find  in  a 
passage  of  Hildebert  of  Tours,  the  reference  to  which 
I  have  got  from  the  English  Cyclopaedia :  sermo  xv 
col.  733  ed.  1708  'Scitis  quid  scriptor  solet  facere : 
primo  cum  rasorio  pergamenum  purgare  de  pinguedine 
et  sordes  magnas  auferre ;  deinde  cum  pumice  piles 
at  neruos  omnino  abstergere.  quod  si  non  faceret, 
littera  imposita  nee  ualeret  nee  diu  durare  posset, 
postea  regulam  apponit  cet. '. 

As  so  much  has  been  written  at  various  times  on 
the  Ancient  Book  and  as  the  above  passage  is  a  '  locus 
classicus'  on  the  subject  and  as  the  alteration,  first 
made  by  Auantius  and  adopted  after  him  by  every 
editor  down  to  the  present  day,  has  introduced  no 
small  amount  of  confusion  into  the  question,  I  have  not 
hesitated  to  discuss  the  matter  with  some,  tho'  I  hope 
not  unreasonable,  prolixity.  I  shall  be  surprised  and 
mortified  if  I  be  thought  not  to  have  estabhshed  the 
main  points  of  my  argument :  I  have  external  Ms.  au- 
thority, I  believe  I  have  also  intrinsic  truth  and  reason, 
on  my  side.  I  will  add  a  few  more  remarks,  which 
may  be  looked  on  as  supplementary  to  EUia'  copious 
commentary. 


56  CATVLLI 

9  cum  legas  tu :  this  use  of  the  2nd  pers.  sing, 
potent,  is  so  common  and  has  been  iUustrated  by  me 
elsewhere  at  such  length,  that  I  will  just  cite  here, 
merely  because  he  chances  to  use  the  same  word,  Mart. 
II  27  Laudantem  Solium  cenae  cum  retia  tendit  Accipe, 
slue  legas  sine  patronus  agas.  10  unus  caprimulgus : 
this  use  of  unus,  taken  it  would  seem  from  the  conver- 
sational idiom  of  common  life  and  so  characteristical  of 
•the  manner  of  Catullus,  has  been  illustrated  so  copi- 
ously by  Holtze  i  p.  412,  Wagner  aulul.  563  and 
others,  that,  tho'  I  have  collected  examples  from  authors 
of  various  ages,  I  will  quote  only  one  passage  from  the 
antiquarian  Arnobius,  because  when  he  wrote  it  he 
may  have  had  our  passage  in  his  thoughts,  and  because 
i  want  to  bring  him  forward  again  in  support  of  a  read- 
ing in  the  next  poem:  Adu.  nat.  iv  35  in  bubulei  unius 
amplexum. 

1 1  tantum  abhorret  ac  mutat :  '  so  unlike  himself, 
so  altered  is  he'  EUis,  who  then  gives  many  illustra- 
tions of  this  very  common  intransitive  sense  of  mutat, 
and  I  could  add  many  more.  But  he  does  not  supply 
a  single  example  of  abhorret  for  abhorret  a  se ;  and 
this  needed  illustration  much  more  than  mutat  did ; 
and  I  am  unable  to  offer  any,  tho'  this  would  seem  to 
be  the  meaning  called  for.  Comparing  Cic.  de  orat.  li 
85  sin  plane  abhorrebit  et  erit  absurdus;  and  Livy  xxx 
44  6  qui  tamen  [risus]  nequaquam  adeo  est  intempes- 
tiuus,  quam  uestrae  istae  absurdae  atque  abhorrentes 
lacrimae  sunt :  I  would  ask  whether,  as  in  those  two 
passages,  so  here  too  abhorret  may  not  be  synonymous 
with  absurdus  est,  13  tersius  :  I  reprint  below  my 
former  paper  in  favour  of  tersius  (or,  tertius),  which  I 
feel  little  doubt  is  what  the  poet  wrote.  Baehrens  has 
adopted  the  same  reading :  Ellis  does  not  condescend 


CARM.  22  57 

to  notice  it,  but  sticks  to  the  old  correction  tHtius,  tho' 
he  brings  nothing  in  support  of  it  but  the  *  tritae 
aures',  which  I  tried  to  shew  was  nothing  to  the  point. 
14  rure,  12  modo  scurra,  2  urbanus  :  Plaut.  most.  15 
Tu  urbanus  uero  scurra,  deliciae  popli,  Kus  mihi  tu 
obiectas  ?  21  manticae  quod  in  tergo  est :  *  the  half  of 
the  wallet  which  is  on  his  back' :  Livy  in  14  3  iuniores, 
id  maxime  quod  Caesonis  sodalium  fuit;  xxi  52  2  quod 
inter  Trebiam  Padumque  agri  est;  xxii  4  1  quod  agri 
est  inter  Cortonam  urbem  Trasumennumque  lacum ; 
XXX  20  5  quod  roboris  in  exercitu  erat ;  Aen.  ix  274 
campi  quod  rex  habet  ipse  Latinus  ;  Lucr.  jv  372  quod 
liquimus  eius ;  Ter.  heaut.  1048  quod  dotis  dixi. 


[Eeprinted  from  the  Journal  of  Philology,  vol.  5  p.  305] 

22  12  and  13 

Scurra  has  the  same  meaning  here  which  it  has  in 
Plautus :  a  townbred  fine  gentleman,  the  opposite  of 
one  brought  up  in  the  infacetum  rus  :  *  Urbani  assidui 
cives  quos  scurras  uocant';  *Tu  urbanus  uero  scurra, 
deliciae  popli,  Rus  mihi  tu  obiectas'.  The  *homo  ue- 
nustus  et  dicax  et  urbanus'  of  v.  2,  and  the  *bellus  ille 
et  urbanus'  of  9  are  expressions  synonymous  with 
scurra :  [Cic.  pro  Quinct.  1 1  nam  neque  parum  facetus 
scurra  Sex.  Naeuius  neque  inhmnanus  praeco  est  imi- 
quam  existimatus  :...libertate  usus  est  quo  impunius 
dicax  esset].  Compare  too  Pliny  epist.  iv  25  3,  who 
is  imitating  Catullus,  though  the  scurmliter  there  has 
at  the  same  time  the  bad  sense  which  it  afterwards 
acquired :  quid  hunc  putamus  domi  facere,  qui  in  tanta 


58  CATVLLI 

re  tarn  serio  tempore  tarn  scurriliter  ludat,  qui  denique 
in  senatu  dicax  et  urbanus  est  ?  It  is  plain  from  the 
whole  context  that  the  tnstius  of  manuscripts  in  our 
passage  is  quite  out  of  place,  and  nearly  all  critics  and 
editors  have  adopted  Pontanus'  conjecture  tHtius.  But 
tritius  seems  to  me  hardly  more  appropriate  than  tris- 
tius :  at  first  sight  the  *  tritae  aures '  of  Cicero  might 
appear  somewhat  in  point ;  but  that  only  means  *  ears 
much  practised'  on  some  subject.  The  scurra  is  the 
very  opposite  of  what  is  trite  and  commonplace.  The 
latest  editor  Mueller  is  not  satisfied  with  tritius,  and 
reads  scitius. 

There  is  a  word  which  seems  to  me  exactly  suited 
to  the  context  and,  when  rightly  explained,  as  near 
perhaps  to  the  manuscript  reading  as  tritius.  Lexicons 
quote  from  Quintilian  'indicium  acre  tersumque';  'ele- 
giae  tersus  atque  elegans  auctor';  and  the  hke  from 
him  and  others.  He  uses  too  the  comparative :  'multum 
eo  est  tersior  ac  purus  magis  Hora tins'.  Nonius  quotes 
Varro  and  Cato  for  the  older  form  tertus.  Thus  Lucre- 
tius hsiS  Jlctus  for  Jixus,  and  artus,  fartus,  sartus,  tortus 
always  retained  the  t.  Catullus  then  wrote,  I  believe, 
tertius,  and  s  was  written  over  the  t  to  explain  the 

8 

meaning  :  thus  tertius  would  readily  pass  into  tristiu^. 


23  7—11 

Nee  mirum :  bene  nam  ualetis  omnes, 
pulcre  concoquitis,  nihil  timetis, 
non  incendia,  non  graues  ruinas, 
non  furta  impia,  non  doles  ueneni, 
non  casus  alios  periculorum. 

10  farta  Uaupt.  facta  V. 


CARM.  22,  23  59 

This  poem,  of  which  I  have  quoted  5  out  of  27  lines, 
tho'  its  subject  leaves  no  room  for  the  highest  quaHties  '* 
of  Catullus'  poetry,  is  a  most  finished  and  witty  speci- 
men of  light  and  airy  banter,  of  easy  yet  vigorous  ver- 
sification. This  Furius  and  Aurelius,  the  companion 
with  whom  he  is  joined  in  the  11  th  and  16th  poems, 
are  among  the  most  enigmatical  of  all  the  associates 
whom  Catullus  commemorates.  They  would  appear  to 
have  been  needy  men,  more  or  less  parasites  and  de- 
pendents of  Catullus  among  others,  yet  at  the  same 
time  with  some  pretensions  to  fashion  and  breeding:  in 
the  next  poem  Furius  is  called  a  *bellus  homo'  or  fine 
gentleman.  Why  were  they  selected  in  the  memora- 
ble 11th  poem  to  carry  the  poet's  last  message  to  Les- 
bia?  was  it  because  that  poem,  probably  one  of  his  latest 
and  written  with  direct  reference  to  the  51st,  perhaps 
his  very  earliest,  was  designed  in  this  point  too  to 
stand  in  glaring  contrast  with  the  other?  were  Furius 
then  and  Aurehus  to  carry  the  11th  poem  to  Lesbia, 
because  M.  Tullius  Cicero  had  carried  to  her  the  51st  ? 

I  am  somewhat  surprised,  and  an  accomplished 
scholar  has  likewise  expressed  to  me  his  surprise,  at 
the  interpretation  which  Ellis  has  put  on  this  23rd 
poem.  *The  attack'  he  says  *is  unusually  fierce  even 
from  Catullus  and  we  may  doubt  whether  the  object  of 
its  unsparing  sarcasm  ever  forgave  the  injury*.  '  Even 
to  one  familiar  with  Catullus'  habit  of  assaulting  his 
most  intimate  friends  most  violently,  and  who  had  him- 
self experienced  something  of  this  scurrility  in  16,  the 
personalities  of  23  must  have  seemed  to  go  beyond  the 
licence  naturally  conceded  to  poets;  they  could  not  be 
treated  as  merely  jocose'.  Elsewhere,  p.  376,  he  places 
this  poem  among  the  three  or  four  coarsest  of  all  that 
Catullus  has  written.     I  regard  it  in  a  much  more  in- 


60  CATVLLI 

nocuous  light :  I  can  fancy  Furius  taking  it  philosophi- 
•wcally  enough  and  being  more  than  consoled  by  a  dinner 
or  a  sum  of  money  much  smaller  than  he  asks  for  at  the 
end  of  our  poem.  However,  as  I  have  said,  he  is  to  me 
an  enigmatical  personage,  and  many  people  no  doubt 
would  find  the  poet's  banter  offensive  enough. 

To  come  now  to  the  verses  which  I  have  quoted 
above  :  in  10  Haupt'sy^M'to  seems  to  me  a  certain  cor- 
rection, just  as  in  68  140  I  take  the  generally  accepted 
furta  to  be  a  certain  correction  of  the  facta  of  V :  see 
Haupt  quaest.  Cat.  p.  9 — 12,  who  well  supports  his 
emendation.  But  I  would  likewise  call  in  the  antiqua- 
rian Arnobius  iv  28  praecellere  in  furtorum  dolis:  these 
words  may  very  well  be  a  reminiscence  of  '  Non  furta 
impia,  non  doles  ueneni',  as  his  *unius  bubulci'  a  few 
chapters  later  may  recall  the  *unus  caprimulgus'  of  the 
preceding  poem.  Why  should  not  this  constant  imi- 
tator of  Lucretius  occasionally  have  the  contemporary 
Catullus  in  his  thoughts?  Take  too  Seneca  Agam,  673 
(708)  Non  quae  tectis  Bistonis  ales  Residens  summis 
impia  diri  Furta  mariti  garrula  deflet :  the  fact  that 
Seneca  here  is  on  quite  another  topic  rather  strengthens 
the  supposition  that  he  had  Catullus'  'furta  impia'  in  his 
mind,  the  more  so  that  just  before  he  may  have  been 
thinking  of  some  other  verses  of  Catullus,  65  12 — 14, 
as  well  as  of  Virgil ;  and  most  certainly  a  few  lines  be- 
low *fluctu  leuiter  plangent e  sonent',  he  had  in  his 
thoughts  Cat.  64  273  leuiterque  sonant  plangore  ca- 
chinni,  confirming  0  and  Baehrens  against  nearly  all 
recent  editors. 

1 1  casus  ahos  periculorum  :  besides  Cicero  quoted 
by  Doering,  comp.  Cic.  epist.  v  16  5  casum  incommo- 
dorum  tuorum ;  bell.  Alex.  7  1  ut  ad  extremum  casum 
periculi  omnes  deducti  uiderentur;  bell.  Gall,  viii  34  1  ~ 


CARM.  23,  25  61 

simllem  casum  obsessionis ;  Suet.  Claud.  25  ad  arcendos 
incendiorum  casus.  In  the  last  line  *  sat  es  beatus'  is 
surely  a  certain  correction  for  'satis  beatus'  of  Mss.  : 
Ellis  should  not  in  his  first  volume  have  adopted 
Bergk's  *beatu's':  this  archaic  elision  of  the  vowel  in  es 
and  est  together  with  that  of  s  in  the  preceding  word 
was  unknown  to  Cicero  and  Lucretius  even,  who  yet 
elide  the  final  s  so  much  more  freely  than  Catullus 
does.  I  much  doubt  whether  even  Lucilius  admitted 
such  a  licence. 


[Eeprinted  from  the  Journal  of  Philology,  vol.  5  p.  306] 

25  4—7 

Idemque  Thalle  turbida  rapacior  procella, 

cum  diua  mulier  arios  {or  aries,  or  aues)  ostendit  osci- 

tantes, 
remitte  pallium  mihi  meum,  quod  inuolasti, 
sudariumque  Saetabum  catagraphosque  Thynos. 

The  second  line  in  this  extract  is  one  of  the  most 
desperate  in  Catullus  :  fifty  conjectures  have  been  made 
by  critics  and  editors,  old  and  recent ;  not  one  of  which 
I  believe  has  found  much  acceptance.  All  the  explana- 
tions of  diua  for  instance  strike  me  as  thoroughly  un- 
satisfactory. Though  I  do  not  think  that  the  conjecture 
I  am  going  to  offer  is  likely  to  be  received  with  more 
approbation  than  former  ones,  I  yet  venture  to  give  it, 
in  the  hope  that  it  may  perhaps  present  the  question 
in  a  new  light.     This  then  is  what  I  propose  : 

Conclaue  com  uicarios  ostendit  oscitantes. 

What  suggested  the  reading  to  my  mind  was  first  the 
very  common  substitution  in  manuscripts  of  d  for  cl  a& 


62  CATVLLI 

in  Catullus  7  5  ora  dum  for  or  actum ;  68  43  sedis  for 
saeclis ;  and  next  the  frequency  with  which  our  arche- 
type confuses  a  and  co  ;  many  instances  of  which  con- 
fusion 1  have  given  in  p.  23  of  the  third  number  of  our 
journal.  Thus  coticlaueco  might  pass  into  condaua,  com 
diua;  and  then  muicarios  into  mulierarios  or  some- 
thing else  that  looked  like  Latin. 

Conclaue  was  a  room  that  could  be  locked  up,  if  ne- 
cessary, and  might  be  used  for  a  storeroom,  a  bedroom, 
a  diningroom,  or  the  like.  The  uicarii,  who  are  often 
spoken  of  by  writers  and  in  inscriptions,  were  the  slaves 
of  slaves  and  were  employed  in  any  menial  capacity. 
Probably  then  at  some  feast  these  uicarii  would  have 
charge  of  such  articles  as  are  mentioned  here,  and  when 
they  were  off  their  guard,  Thallus  would  take  the  oppor- 
tunity of  pouncing  upon  the  things  in  question.  It  has 
always  seemed  to  me  more  probable  that  they  should 
be  stolen  in  such  a  way  as  this,  than  taken  from  the 
person  of  their  owner. 


On  the  above  verse  more  conjectures  appear  to  have 
been  made  than  on  any  other  line  in  Catullus  :  Schwabe 
records  eleven,  which  exhibit  the  most  astonishing  di- 
versity of  meaning  and  language.  Ellis  and  Baehrens 
add  to  the  number.  By  the  way  I  do  not  know  whether 
Ellis  can  support  his  gduias :  my  feeling  and  impres- 
sion are  certainly  for  gcXuias  ;  but  as  I  have  no  evidence 
one  way  or  the  other,  I  will  not  argue  the  question. 
I  have  ventured  to  reprint  what  I  wrote  some  years 
ago ;  because  it  strikes  out  a  new  sense  and  situation, 
different  from  those  given  by  any  of  the  other  multitu- 
dinous conjectures.     But  I  feel  now,  as  indeed  I  felt  at 


CARM.  25  G3 

the  time,  that  my  reading  is  far  too  venturesome,  espe- 
cially in  tampering  with  the  genuine-looking  *  Cum 
diua'.  It  seems  clear  from  the  Fasti  Maffeiani,  Dec.  21, 
C.  I.  L.  I  p.  307  and  the  Fasti  Praenestini,  Dec.  21, 
with  Mommsen's  supplements,  C.  I.  L.  i  p.  319,  that 
the  mysterious  Angerona,  with  mouth  closed  and  sealed, 
who  knew  and  must  not  reveal  the  hidden  name  of 
Bome,  might  be  called  Diua :  comp.  with  this  Pliny  iii 
65  non  alienum  uidetur  inserere  hoc  loco  exemplum 
religionis  antiquae,  ob  hoc  maxime  silentium  institutae. 
namque  diua  Angerona,  cui  sacrificatur  a.  d.  xii  kal.  Ian., 
ore  obhgato  obsignatoque  simulacrum  habet :  comp.  too 
Macrob.  sat.  l  10  7  and  lanus'  note.  Adhering  there- 
fore to  the  general  sense  of  what  I  have  proposed  above, 
I  would  suggest 

Cum  Diua  mi  [or,  iam]  uicarios  ostendit  oscitantes. 

But  when  O  and  G  are  examined,  it  would  appear 
that  aries  is  the  oldest  form  of  the  corruption,  and  that 
aueSf  alios,  arios  are  rude  attempts  to  correct.  I  assume 
then  that  (except  ostendet  for  ostendit)  the  words  mulier 
aries  alone  call  for  emendation,  and  I  still  believe  that 
the  oscitancy  of  servants  and  not  of  guests  is  referred 
to,  as  all  the  property  stolen  is  Catullus'  own.  No  one 
seems  to  have  thought  of  the  goddess  Murcia,  and  yet 
she  would  be  in  point:  August,  ciu.  dei  iv  16  deam 
Murciam  quae  praeter  modum  non  moueret  ac  faceret 
hominem,  ut  ait  Pomponius,  murcidum,  id  est  nimis 
desidiosum  et  inactuosum.  I  dont  know  what  might 
be  thought  of  the  following  attempt : 

Cum  diua  Murcia  atrieis  ostendit  oscitantes. 

Comp.  too  Arnob.  iv  9  quis  [praesidem]  segnium 
Murcidam  :  so  the  sole  codex  :  Murciam  Sabaeus.  In 
Catullus  atrieis  is  a  very  simple  correction  for  aries: 


64  CATVLLX 

I  have  observed  already  on  10  32  with  what  exceeding 
frequency  his  Mss.  confuse  r  and  t  :  let  me  here  men- 
tion, as  most  in  point,  36  12  uriosq ;  O  utriosq ;  G, 
w4th  *  al  uriosq;'  written  above  ;  14  18  Curram.    Cura 

0  Cur  tam  G ;  66  4  certis  G  ceteris  0 ;  63  27  Attis. 
atris  y ;  12  1  Marrucine.  Matrucine  Y :  es  for  eis  I 
need  not  illustrate.  From  whatever  part  of  the  house 
Thallus  stole  these  things,  whether  it  were  the  dining- 
room  or  another  chamber  or  the  Atrium  itself,  he  would 
have  to  pass  thro'  this  Atrium  to  get  to  the  door,  and 
in  it  servants  would  naturally  be  posted  to  observe 
what  was  doing. 

As  our   passage  is  so  notorious   a  Catullian  crux, 

1  will  not  hesitate  to  quote  nearly  the  whole  of  Martial 
VIII  59.  The  epigram  is  upon  a  thievish  guest,  and 
Martial  could  hardly  fail,  when  writing  on  a  similar 
subject,  to  remember  one  whom  he  loved  so  dearly  and 
knew  so  well  as  Catullus. 

Aspicis  hunc  uno  contentum  lumine... 
5  hunc  tu  conuiuam  cautus  seruare  memento  : 

tunc  furit  atque  oculo  luscus  utroque  uidet. 
pocula  soUiciti  perdunt  hgulasque  ministri 

et  latet  in  tepido  plurima  mappa  sinu. 
lapsa  nee  a  cubito  subducere  pallia  nescit 
10      et  tectus  laenis  saepe  duabus  abit. 

nee  dormitantem  uernam  fraudare  lucema 

erubuit  fallax,  ardeat  ilia  licet, 
si  nihil  inuasit,  puerum  tunc  arte  dolosa 

circuit  et  soleas  surripit  ipse  suas. 

If  our  poem  was  in  Martial's  thoughts  when  he 
wrote  this  epigram,  we  might  fancy  from  v.  9  that  he 
supposed  the  pallium  to  have  been  stolen  from  Catullus' 
person.     But  then  v.  1 1  might  well  be  a  reference  to 


CARM.  25,  26  65 

some  such  reading  as  I  have  given  to  Catullus.  What 
the  *  catagraphi  Thyni '  were  I  have  not  the  least 
notion;  but  the  poem  seems  to  imply  that  all  the 
articles  were  stolen  at  the  same  time,  and  it  is  not  likely 
that  they  were  all  taken  from  Catullus'  person  or  even 
from  the  dining-room.  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  the 
'  Si  nihil  inuasit '  of  v.  13  is  a  reminiscence  of  our '  quod 
inuolasti',  the  force  of  the  two  expressions  is  so  similar. 
If  the  *  oscitantes '  be  the  guests,  one  might  suggest 
*  Murcia  ebrios' :  ebrios  first  becoming  eurios. 

12  minuta :  a  popular  homely  word,  like  so  many 
others  found  in  Catullus.  Besides  Cicero's  *  minuta  naui- 
gia',  I  have  noted  down  from  Plautus  *  curculiunculos 
minutes ',  Terence  *  pisciculos  minutes',  Vitruuius  '  mi- 
nutum  theatrum' :  in  the  Bellum  Africae  and  the  Bel- 
lum  Hisp.,  both  written  in  a  very  plebeian  style,  I 
have  found  6  or  7  instances  of  '  minutus '  or  *  minu- 
tatim'.  The  latter  Virgil  admits  once  in  imitation  of 
Lucretius ;  but  very  many  writers  reject  the  word 
entirely.  If  the  examples  too  which  are  given  in  the 
lexicons  be  examined,  it  will  be  found  I  think  that  the 
writers  employ  a  homely  plebeian  style  ;  or  else  Cicero, 
like  Catullus,  is  either  adopting  the  popular  style,  as 
in  his  letters  to  Atticus,  or  is  using  the  word  in  a 
disparaging  contemptuous  sense.  Hence,  as  in  so  many 
analogous  cases,  bellus  and  pulcher  for  instance,  while 
paruus  has  disappeared,  we  find  minuto,  Tnenu,  etc. 
in  the  different  Romance  languages. 

26 

1  The  uestra  of  O  and  nostra  of  G  leave  us  un- 
certain which  reading  was  in  V.  Baehrens  follows  O  ; 
Ellis  argues  for  nostra',    while   Schwabe,   tho'   unac- 

M.  c.  6 


66  CATVLLI 

quainted  with  O,  prefers  to  take  nostra  even  on  con- 
jecture. Furius  is  so  shadowy  a  personage  and  I  am 
so  unable  to  decide  how  much  or  how  httle  truth  there 
may  be  in  Catullus'  banter,  that  I  feel  reluctant  to  pro- 
nounce a  decided  opinion  one  way  or  the  other.  But 
on  the  whole  my  feeling  is  for  uestra,  as  I  think  that 
Catullus,  tho'  he  would  readily  jest  with  a  dear  friend 
like  Fabullus  on  his  own  poverty  (as  in  13  8),  would  be 
more  likely  to  jeer  at  a  butt  like  Furius  for  his  lack  of 
means  (as  he  does  in  23),  than  to  expose  his  own. 
Catullus'  contemporary  Furius  Bibaculus,  a  poet  too  of 
the  same  school,  who  elsewhere  laughs  at  the  famous 
grammarian  Valerius  Cato  for  his  abject  poverty,  writes 
a  poem  on  Cato's  mortgaged  Tusculan  villa,  which  de- 
pends, like  our  poem,  wholly  on  a  pun  for  its  point : 

Catonis  modo,  Galle,  Tusculanum 

tota  creditor  urbe  uenditabat. 

mirati  sumus  unicum  magistrum, 

summum  grammaticum,  optimum  poetam, 

omnes  soluere  posse  quaestiones, 

unum  deficere  expedire  nomen. 

en  cor  Zenodoti,  en  iecur  Cratetis ! 

Whether  we  read  uestra  or  nostra,  our  poem  has  pro- 
bably some  reference  to  the  request  of  Furius  referred 
to  in  23  26. 


27  3  and  4 

Vt  lex  Postumiae  iubet  magistrae 
ebrioso  acino  ebriosioris. 

In  4  O  and  G  have  ehriose :  the  letters  o  and  e  are 
so  often  interchanged  in  our  Mss.  that  in  V  or  some 


CARM.  26,  27  67 

predecessor  of  Y  they  must  have  been  almost  mdlstin- 
guishable.  I  have  collected  50  instances  and  more  of 
this  confusion :  not  seldom,  as  we  shall  see,  0  rightly 
offers  e  where  G  perversely  has  o;  from  which  it  would 
follow  that  in  V  the  two  letters  must  often  have  been 
difficult  to  distinguish.  I  have  touched  upon  this  al- 
ready at  6  9  ;  and  I  shall  have  to  recur  to  it  again  and 
again. 

That,  as  G  and  O  indicate,  Catullus  wrote  '  Ebrioso 
acino'  I  have  little  doubt.    Gellius  vi  20  6  has  a  curious 
comment  on  this  line.     The  Mss.  of  Gellius  are  very 
corrupt  there;  but  Haupt  (Ind.  lect.  aest.  1857:  opusc. 
II  p.  121)  proves  clearly  that  Gellius  meant  to  say  the 
genuine  reading  in  Catullus  was  *Ebria  acina',  with  a 
pleasing  hiatus  of  the  two  a*s ;  tho'  some  assigned  to 
Catullus  'Ebriosa  acina*,  others  'Ebrioso  acino'.     But, 
while  Baehrens  accepts  '  Ebria  acina'  as  the  genuine 
reading,  Haupt  rejects  it  as  a  vain  fancy  of  Gellius  and 
reads  with  most  of  the  Editors  '  Ebriosa  acina'.    I  doubt 
the  existence  of  acina  at  all,  and  unhesitatingly  foUow 
the  lead  of  our  Mss.  in  the  persuasion  that  Gellius  is 
pursuing  a  mere  chimerical  crotchet  with  no  more  foun- 
dation for  it  in  fact  than  for  what  he  says  of  Virgil  just 
before.     I  do  not  therefore  look  upon  this  verse  as  giv- 
ing any  indication  that  the  text  of  Catullus,  as  found 
in  our  Mss.,  had  been  designedly  tampered  with  in  or 
before  or  after  the  time  of  GelUus  :  Gellius  knew  of  the 
reading  *  Ebrioso'  as  well  as  of  '  Ebria'.     Again  in  37 
18  I  accept  without  demur  the  'Cuniculosae'  of  V,  in 
the  belief  that  Priscian  who  twice  quotes  that  verse, 
wrote  down,  through  some  odd  negligence  or  hallucina- 
tion, *  Celtiberosae  Celtiberiae',  and  then  in  one  of  the 
two  passages  copied  down  what  he  had  written  in  the 
other. 

5—2 


68  CATVLLI 

29 

[Eeprinted  from  the  Journal  of  Philology,  vol.  2  p.  2 — 34] 

My  present  design  is  to  examine  at  length  and 

dissect  a  single  poem  of  Catullus,  the  29th,  from  a  wish 
to  abate  some  shameful  scandals  which  have  attached 
themselves  to  the  fame  of  the  greatest  of  the  Komans, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  try  to  rescue  from  obloquy  a 
humbler  man,  who  yet  appears  to  have  been  a  most 
efficient  servant  to  two  of  the  first  generals  in  history  : 
perhaps  also  to  mitigate  our  censure  of  Catullus  himself 
who  has  propagated  these  scandals,  by  shewing  that 
what  looks  like  foul  insult  is  three  parts  of  it  meant 
only  in  jest. 

But  first  a  word  or  two  about  the  name  and,  what 
is  of  more  importance  for  our  immediate  purpose,  the 
date  of  the  poet.  The  unadulterated  testimony  of  ma- 
nuscripts calls  him  merely  Catullus  Veronensis,  but  we 
know  from  Suetonius  and  others  that  his  gentile  name 
was  Valerius.  Though  there  has  been  more  doubt 
about  his  praenomen,  I  thought  that  Schwabe  had  set- 
tled the  question;  but  I  see  that  Ellis  regards  it  as  still 
open.  Jerome,  copying  Suetonius'  words,  names  him 
Gains  Valerius  Catullus,  the  word  Gains  being  written 
at  full  length,  so  as  to  preclude  all  possible  error  in  the 
case  of  a  writer  whose  Mss.  are  so  very  valuable  and  so 
independent  as  those  of  Jerome :  a  scarcely  less  weighty 
authority  than  Suetonius,  Apuleius  terms  him  in  his 
Apologia  C.  Catullus :  what  is  there  to  set  against  such 
overwhelming  testimony  ?  And  yet  Scaliger,  Lachmann, 
Haupt,  Mommsen  and  other  distinguished  scholars  de- 


CARM.  29  69 

cide  for  Quintus,  mainly  on  the  authority  of  a  passage 
of  Pliny,  XXXVII  6  §  81.  But  there  the  best  Mss.  and 
the  latest  editor  have  Catullus,  not  Q.  Catullus ;  and 
the  Q.  I  wager  will  never  appear  in  any  future  critical 
edition.  In  the  other  four  places  where  he  mentions 
the  poet,  Pliny  calls  him  simply  Catullus.  But  the 
important^,  though  very  late  codex  D  designates  him 
as  Q.  Catullus,  and  a  few  other  less  important  Mss. 
have  the  Q. ;  but  clearly  D  and  the  rest  have  taken 
this  Q.  from  Pliny  who  was  a  most  popular  author 
when  they  were  written ;  and  the  Q.  got  into  the  in- 
ferior codices  of  Pliny  from  a  common  confusion  with 
Q.  Catulus  so  often  mentioned  by  him.  As  then 
Catullus  was  not  at  the  same  time  both  Gains  and 
Quintus,  Scaliger's  conjecture  of  Quinte  for  qui  te  in  67 
12  can  have  no  weight  whatever  against  the  convincing 
evidence  of  Suetonius  and  Apuleius,  though  it  has  been 
adopted  by  Lachmann,  Haupt,  Ellis  and  others  :  the 
poet  always  calls  himself  simply  Catullus. 

His  age  has  to  be  decided  by  the  testimony  of  Je- 
rome, corrected  by  that  oiBTered  by  his  own  poems. 
Intense  personal  feeling,  the  odi  or  amo  of  the  moment, 
characterises  so  many  of  Catullus'  finest  poems,  that 
dates  are  of  the  greatest  importance  for  rightly  appre- 
hending his  meaning  and  allusions,  much  more  so  indeed 
than  in  the  case  of  Horace's  more  artificial  muse.  Je- 
rome under  the  year  corresponding  to  B.C.  87  records 
his  birth :  *  Gains  Valerius  Catullus  scribtor  lyricus  Ve- 
ronae  nascitur' :  under  that  answering  to  B.C.  57  he  says 
'Catullus  XXX  aetatis  anno  Bomae  merit ur'.  Here  I 
have  little  doubt  that  he  has  accurately  taken  down 
Suetonius'  words  in  respect  of  the  place  of  birth  and 

1  fWith  my  present  knowledge,  I  should  put  'wortlUess'  in  the  place  of 
'importaut'.] 


70  CATVLLI 

death  and  of  the  poet's  age  when  he  died.  But,  as  so 
often  happens  with  him,  he  has  blundered  somewhat  in. 
tr.an8ferring  to  his  complicated  era  the  consulships  by 
which  Suetonius  would  have  dated ;  for  it  is  certain 
that  many  of  the  poems,  and  among  them  the  one  we 
are  about  to  consider,  were  written  after  b.c.  57.  Lach- 
mann  hit  upon  an  escape  from  the  difficulty  which  once 
approved  itself  to  many  :  in  52  3  we  have  '  Per  consu- 
latum  peierat  Vatinius':  now  Vatinius  was  consul  for  a 
few  days  at  the  end  of  b.  c.  47  ;  and  hence  Lachmann 
mfers  that  Catullus  at  all  events  was  then  living.  He 
supposes  therefore  that  Jerome  has  confounded  the 
Cn.  Octavius  who  was  consul  in  87  with  one  of  the 
same  name  who  was  consul  in  76;  and  that  Catullus 
was  bom  in  76  and  died  in  46.  This  is  ingenious,  but 
hardly  can  be  true.  Schwabe,  following  in  the  track  of 
more  than  one  scholar,  has  shewn  that  it  is  by  no 
means  necessary  to  assume  that  Catullus  saw  Vatinius 
consul.  He  has  cited  more  than  one  most  striking  pas- 
sage from  Cicero  to  prove  that  this  creature  of  Caesar 
and  Pompey,  marked  out  by  them  for  future  office,  was 
in  the  habit  of  boasting  of  his  consulship  to  come,  as 
early  as  B.C.  56  or  even  62:  Catullus  therefore  in  the 
line  quoted  need  only  mean  that  Vatinius  used  to  say, 
'  as  I  hope  to  be  consul,  I  swear  it  is  so';  and  the  verse 
thus  carries  with  it  far  more  point.  Again  76  is  too 
late  a  date  for  his  birth  :  it  is  plain  that  as  early  as  62, 
when  he  would  thus  be  only  14  years  old,  he  had  be- 
come entangled  with  Lesbia,  who  was  no  other  than 
the  formidable  Ciodia,  the  Clytemnestra  quadrantaria, 
the  Medea  of  the  Palatine^.     When  the  reference  to 

^  [This  date  is  disproved  quite  as  decisively  by  12  9,  where  Pollio,  who  was 
born  iu  that  very  year  or  at  the  latest  in  75,  is  spoken  of  as  a  j^iier :  see  my 
remarks  on  that  poem.] 


OARM.    29  71 

Vatiiiiua  has  been  explained  as  above,  we  find  that 
several  of  his  most  personal  poems  allude  to  events 
which  took  place  in  55  and  54  :  this  will  be  seen  more 
in  detail  when  we  come  to  consider  our  29th  poem: 
but  the  latest  event  which  can  be  dated  is  the  refer- 
ence to  his  friend  Calvus'  famous  denunciation  of  Yati- 
nius  which  took  place  in  August  of  54.  As  the  years 
then  which  immediately  followed  were  full  of  moment- 
ous events  which  must  have  stirred  the  feelings  of 
Catullus  to  their  inmost  depths,  we  can  scarcely  con- 
ceive him  as  writing  after  this  period.  We  may  well 
suppose  then  that  towards  the  end  of  54,  feeling  the 
approach  of  early  death  which  his  poems  seem  more 
than  once  to  anticipate,  he  collected  and  pubhshed 
them  with  the  dedication  to  Cornelius  Nepos  ^. 

In  a  Greifswald  index  Scholarum  published  some 
months  ago  and  transmitted  to  me  by  the  courtesy  of 
the  writer,  Mr  F.  Buecheler  tries  to  prove,  p.  15 — 17, 
that  the  two  Ciceros  had  the  poems  of  Catullus  in 
their  hands  before  June  of  this  year  54  and  that  Catul- 
lus must  therefore  refer  to  some  earlier  speech  of  Calvus 
against  Vatinius.  Cicero  ad  Q.  fratrem  ii  15  4  has 
these  words  'tu,  quemadmodum  me  censes  oportere 
esse...,  ita  et  esse  et  fore  auricula  infima  scito  mollio- 
rem':  this,  Buecheler  says,  is  an  allusion  to  the  25th 
poem  of  Catullus  *Thalle  mollior...uel  imula  auricilla'. 
I  am  disposed  to  think  both  Cicero  and  Catullus  are 
alluding  to  some  common  proverbial  expression,  as  I 
have  pointed  out  in  my  Lucretius  that  Cicero,  who  so 
often  speaks  of  older  poets  Greek  and  Latin,  never 

1  [I  now  see  that  the  '  libellus ',  which  Catullus  dedicated  and  presented  to 
Nepos,  can  hardly  have  contained  the  whole  or  any  thing  like  the  whole  of  his 
extant  poems :  see  Ellis'  notes  on  the  1st  poem  and  Bruner's  essay  to  which  he 
refers.  But  when  that  poem  was  wiitten,  and  what  poems  were  Bent  with  it,  I 
am  quite  unable  to  decide.] 


72  CATVLLI 

quotes  any  contemporary  verses  except  his  own,  never 
mentions  the  name  of  Catullus,  and  speaks  of  Calvus 
only  as  an  orator,  not  as  a  poet.  But  granting  that 
Cicero  does  allude  here  to  Catullus,  this  will  tell  us 
nothing  as  to  the  time  when  he  published  his  'hber': 
it  is  plain  from  the  dedication  to  Nepos,  from  such 
pieces  as  the  54th  which  refers  to  the  publication  of 
the  29th,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  that  Catul- 
lus must  have  given  many  of  his  occasional  pieces  to 
the  world  at  the  time  they  were  written  and  that 
Cicero  may  have  had  in  his  hands  the  piece  in  question 
years  before  the  whole  collection  was  made  pubhc.  For 
what  I  now  proceed  to  state  will  prove  that  the  body 
of  poems  we  now  have  could  not  have  been  completed 
very  much  before  the  end  of  54  :  I  have  shewn  in  my 
note  to  Lucretius  iii  57  how  often  Catullus  has  imi- 
tated him  in  one  section  of  his  longest  work,  the  mar- 
riage of  Peleus  and  Thetis.  Now  the  De  Rerum  Natura 
was  not  published  before  the  commencement  of  54;  and 
Catullus  must  have  studied  it  before  he  wrote  the  long 
episode  of  Theseus  and  Ariadne  which,  as  I  there  ob- 
serve, though  beautiful  in  itself,  singularly  interrupts 
the  thread  of  the  narrative.  Being  then  formally  a  fol- 
lower of  the  Alexandrines,  though  so  widely  differing 
from  them  in  genius,  he  must  have  thought  his  varied 
collection  would  be  imperfect  without  an  epyllion.  He 
therefore  wrote  or  completed,  and  inserted  in  the  mid- 
dle of  his  book  this  brilliant  and  exquisite,  but  unequal 
and  ill-proportioned  poem^.  A  generation  had  yet  to 
pass,  before  the  heroic  attained  to  its  perfection ;  while 
he  had  already  produced  glyconics,   phalaecians   and 

^  [I  now  seo  that  this  25th  poem  may  have  been  puhKshed  in  an  earlier 
'  libellus ',  perhaps  in  that  which  he  sent  to  Nepos,  and  that  the  epyllion  may 
not  have  appeared  till  after  his  death,] 


CARM.  29  73 

iambics,  each  *one  entire  and  perfect  chrysolite',  *cun- 
ningest  patterns'  of  excellence,  such  as  Latium  never 
saw  before  or  after,  Alcaeus,  Sappho  and  the  rest  then 
and  only  then  having  met  their  match. 

If  therefore  he  died  in  54  at  the  age  of  30,  he  was 
probably  born  in  84,  the  year  of  Cinna's  4th  consulship, 
Jerome  as  Schwabe  suggests  having  confounded  it  with 
87,  when  Cinna  was  first  consul :  for  him  a  very  pro- 
bable error.  But  Schwabe  prefers  to  take  87  as  the 
year  of  his  birth  and  to  make  him  33  years  old  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  The  other  alternative  I  much  pre- 
fer, as  it  appears  to  me  to  fulfil  every  requisite  con- 
dition of  the  problem :  he  evidently  died  in  youth : 
*  Obuius  huic  uenias,  hedera  iuuenalia  cinctus  Tempera 
cum  Caluo,  docte  CatuUe,  tuo'.  He  would  thus  be 
about  22,  when  he  first  met  his  fate  in  the  ox-eyed 
Lesbia  or  Clodia,  the  ySowTrts  of  Cicero  and  Atticus. 
She  was  some  ten  years  older ;  but  her  Juno-like  beauty 
would  then  be  in  its  prime ;  and  those  terrible  lenocinia 
needed  time  for  their  fiill  development ;  for  she  was  a 
Juno  to  whom  Aphrodite  had  lent  her  own  cestus  :  evff 
evL  fxev  (f)L\6rr]^,  iv  8'  liJLepo^,  ev  S'  oa/awrrv?  Ila/a^atrts,  tJt' 
eKketpe  voov  nvKa  irep  ^poveovroiv.  If  such  allurements 
made  captive  in  a  moment  the  Olympian  himself,  how 
were  they  to  be  resisted  by  a  youth  of  twenty-two, 
that  youth  a  poet,  that  poet  Catullus?  *  Haec  bona 
non  primae  tribuit  natura  iuuentae,  Quae  cito  post  sep- 
tem  lustra  uenire  solent',  says  the  teacher  of  the  art  of 
love ;  and  Lesbia  was  then  in  her  seventh  lustrum. 
She  was  a  fearful  woman,  but  she  has  also  been  fear- 
fully outraged  and  maligned.  Seldom  can  an  unfortu- 
nate lady  have  had  the  luck  to  incur  the  burning  hatred 
of  two  such  masters  of  sarcasm  as  Cicero  and  CatuUus. 
She  destroyed  the  luckless  poet ;  yet  we  owe  her  some 


74  CATVLLI 

gratitude ;  for  she  gave  us  one  of  the  great  lyric  poets 
of  the  world. 

But  at  present  I  will  dwell  no  longer  on  these  mat- 
ters :  I  will  come  at  once  to  my  more  special  subject, 
the  29  th  poem,  of  which  I  have  so  much  to  say  that  I 
shall  probably  tire  out  my  readers'  patience.  And  first 
I  will  print  the  piece  at  length,  leaving  the  words 
spaced  in  the  only  four  places  where  there  is  any  doubt 
as  to  the  reading  :  these  I  will  discuss  as  I  come  to 
them  in  my  dissection  of  the  poem. 

Quis  hoc  potest  uidere,  quis  potest  pati, 

nisi  impudicus  et  uorax   et  aleo, 

Mamurram  habere  quod  comata  Gallia 

habebat  cum  te  et  ultima  Britannia? 
5  cinaede  Bomule,  haec  uidebis  et  feres  ?^ 

et  ille  nunc  superbus  et  superfluens 

perambulabit  omnium  cubilia, 

ut  albulus  Columbus  aut  ydoneus? 

cinaede  Romule,  haec  uidebis  et  feres? 
10  es  impudicus  et  uorax  et  aleo. 

eone  nomine,  imperator  unice, 

fuisti  in  ultima  occidentis  insula, 

ut  ista  nostra  defututa  mentula 

ducenties  comesset  aut  trecenties  ? 
15  quid  est  alid  sinistra  liberalitas? 

parum  expatrauit  an  parum  helluatus  est  ? 

paterna  prima  lancinata  sunt  bona : 

secunda  praeda  Pontica :  inde  tertia 

Hibera,  quam  scit  amnis  aurifer  Tagus. 
20  hunc  Galliae  timet  et  Britanniae 


^  [Auantius,  followed  by  Statius  and  most  of  the  older  editors,  and  recently 
by  L.  Mueller  and  Baehrens,  have  added  here  v.  10,  Es  impudicus  cet. :  this 
repetition  adds  greatly  to  the  symmetry  of  the  poem  and  is  probably  right.] 


CARM.   29  75 

quid  hunc  malum  fouetis  ?  aut  quid  lilc  potest 
nisi  uncta  deuorare  patrimonia? 
eone  nomine  urbis  opulentissime 
socer  generque,  perdidistis  omnia  ? 

But  before  I  begin  to  examine  more  minutely  the 
poem  itself,  I  must  from  love  of  Caesar  and  indeed  of 
Catullus  himself  endeavour  to  shew  that  in  their  days, 
and  indeed  long  before  and  after,  the  most  offensive 
and  indecent  personahties  meant  something  very  dif- 
ferent from  what  they  would  mean  in  the  present  day. 
Had  it  not  been  so,  civilised  society  could  hardly  have 
gone  on  in  ancient  Greece  and  Kome  during  their  most 
briUiant  and  energetic  times,  or  in  the  Middle  Ages 
down  indeed  to  a  quite  recent  period.  Just  think,  to 
take  two  conspicuous  and  widely  distant  examples,  of 
the  appalling  personalities  of  Aristophanes  and  Dante  ! 
Pubhc  opinion  craved  for  and  found  such  vents  for  the 
relief  of  its  pent  up  feelings  towards  the  great  ones 
of  the  earth,  whether  demagogues,  popes  or  kings. 
Coupled  with  this  love  of  personality  there  was  a  ten- 
dency, which  to  us  seems  strange  and  almost  incompre- 
hensible, towards  outrageous  indecency  and  buffoonery. 
There  was  more  in  this  than  can  be  explained  on  any 
ordinary  principles  of  human  conduct.  When  in  old 
Greece  the  majestic  beauty  of  epic  poetry  came  into 
being  together  with  the  erotic  licence  of  lyric,  elegiac 
and  iambic  poetry ;  when  side  by  side  with  the  august 
solemnity  of  tragedy  was  seen  the  old  comedy  rioting 
in  a  liberty  which  turned  into  ridicule  gods  and  men 
alike,  the  belief  clearly  was  that  gods  and  men  ahke 
dreaded  Nemesis  and  wished  by  such  sacrifices  of  dig- 
nity to  appease  that  awful  power.  We  must  give  a 
similar  interpretation  to  the  scenes  witnessed  in  the 


76  CATVLLI 

cathedrals  of  Cliristendom  daring  those  ages  when  men 
had  faith,  if  they  ever  had  it,  and  yet  at  stated  seasons 
of  the  year  parodies  went  on,  the  most  blasphemous 
and  obscene,  of  all  that  was  held  most  sacred.  Appa- 
rently from  long  use  and  wont  this  curious  love  of  in- 
decency continued  till  quite  recent  times  to  infest  the 
light  literature  of  jest  books  and  the  embittered  po- 
lemics of  angry  adversaries.  In  the  middle  of  last  cen- 
tury Voltaire's  calumnies  upon  Frederick  of  Prussia  are 
quite  as  revolting  to  our  sense  as  those  of  Catullus 
against  Caesar,  or  Calvus  and  Clodius  against  Pompey, 
and  they  were  meant  too  more  in  earnest. 

In  ancient  Italy  the  union  of  indecency  with  bitter 
personality  was  very  rife,  the  latter  being  fostered  as 
in  Greece  by  the  fierce  struggles  of  party  in  the  free 
communities,  the  former  by  curious  religious  supersti- 
tion. As  in  Greece  and  throughout  the  East,  so  in 
Italy  the  evil  eye,  the  fascinum,  was  believed  to  have 
an  extraordinary  influence,  and  this  influence  it  was 
thought  could  best  be  averted  by  obscene  symbols  and 
obscene  verses:  thus  'fascinum'  became  a  synonyme 
for  'ueretrum'.  The  evil  eye  was  most  efiicacious 
where  human  happiness  appeared  to  be  greatest :  in 
three  cases  therefore  it  was  especially  guarded  against, 
in  the  case  of  children,  of  a  marriage,  and  of  a  triumph 
when  man  was  supposed  to  stand  on  the  highest  pin- 
nacle of  glory  and  felicity.  Therefore,  as  Varro  tells  us 
in  the  de  ling.  Lat.  vii  97,  puerulis  turpicula  res  in 
collo  quaedam  suspenditur,  ne  quid  obsit ;  and  there  is 
a  striking  passage  in  Pliny  xxviii  4  §  39  quamquam 
illos  [infantes]  religione  tutatur  et  fascinus,  imperato- 
rum  quoque,  non  solum  infantium  custos,  qui  deus  inter 
sacra  Romana  a  Yestalibus  colitur  et  currus  triumphan- 
tium,  sub  his  pendens,  defendit  medicus  inuidiae,  iubet- 


CARM.  29  77 

que  eosdem  respicere  similis  medicina  linguae,  ut  sit 
exorata  a  tergo  Fortuna  gloriae  carnifex.  A  similar 
protection  against  Fortune,  the  executioner  of  glory 
and  happiness,  was  afforded  from  the  earliest  times  by 
the  Fescennine  songs,  connected  in  meaning  and  origin 
with  this  fascinum :  the  indecent  ridicule  thrown  thereby 
on  the  great  or  the  fortunate  was  behoved  to  turn  aside 
the  evil  eye.  While  patrimi  and  matrimi  were  ad- 
dressing the  gods  in  pure  and  lofty  strains,  with  regard 
to  other  religious  solemnities  we  have  Ovid  in  the  fasti 
III  675  saying.  Nunc  mihi  cur  can  tent  superest  obscena 
puellae  Dicere:  nam  coeunt  certaque  probra  canunt; 
and  695  Inde  ioci  ueteres  obscenaque  dicta  canuntur, 
Et  iuuat  banc  magno  uerba  dedisse  deo^.  In  marriage 
as  might  be  expected  the  evil  eye  was  greatly  dreaded ; 
and  therefore  the  fescennine  verses  were  a  vital  part  of 
the  ceremony,  as  important  as  the  invocation  of  Hymen 
Hymenaeus.  Look  at  the  long  episode  of  the  *  fescen- 
nina  iocatio'  which  comes  in  the  midst  of  the  epithala- 
mium,  and  mars  so  rudely  to  our  feehng  the  exquisite 
grace  and  delicacy  of  Catullus'  61st  poem.  It  is  strange 
but  true  that  this  address  to  the  *concubinus'  was 
meant  as  a  compliment  to  the  beautiful  Aurunculeia 
and  the  highborn  and  accomplished  Torquatus  :  it  was 
not  meant  to  be  taken  seriously,  but  was  only  a  sacri- 
fice to  Fortune  the  carnifex.  If  this  be  doubted,  I 
would  appeal  to  Seneca's  Medea  107  foil,  where  the 
chorus,  celebrating  lason's  marriage  with  Creusa,  says 

*Concesso,  iuuenes,  ludite  iurgio Rara  est  in  dominos 

iusta  Ucentia. . .  .Festa  dicax  fundat  conuicia  fescenninus : 
Soluat  turba  iocos.  tacitis  eat  ilia  tenebris,  Siqua  pe- 
regrine nubit  fugitiua  marito':  meaner  mortals  like  the 

1  [On  obscenity  in  feasts  of  Liber,  to  avert  'fascinatio',  comp.  August,  ciu. 
dei  VII  21.] 


78  CATVLLI 

runaway  Medea  may  marry  in  quiet ;  but  a  Creusa.  or 
an  Aurunculeia  has  a  claim  to  be  honoured  in  being 
thus  degraded  by  the  fescennine  licence.  When  Cato 
and  Marcia  married  for  the  second  time  amid  the  gloom 
of  civil  war,  after  the  death  of  Hortensius  to  whom  she 
had  been  made  over,  Lucan  mentions  among  the  signs 
of  mourning  that  '  Non  soliti  lusere  sales,  nee  more  Sa- 
bino  Excepit  tristis  conuicia  festa  maritus'.  But  on 
their  first  marriage  doubtless  the  fescennina  iocatio  had 
sounded  as  loudly  as  Hymen  Hymenaee  in  honour  of 
the  then  youthful  Cato. 

The  car  of  the  conqueror  could  not  escape,  and  we 
know  from  Livy  and  others  that  on  every  triumph  the 
victorious  commander  was  followed  by  his  legions  sing- 
ing ridiculous  fescennine  verses.     The  greater  he  was 
and  the  more  adored  by  his  soldiers,  the  greater  would 
be  the  sacrifice  demanded  by  Fortuna  and  the  more 
ribald  the  fun  in  honour  of  their  much-loved  general. 
Caesar,  as  we  shall  see,  has  suffered  grievously  by  this ; 
he  has  suffered  also  as  well  as  his  successor  in  another 
way.     During  their  reigns  the  licence  of  invective  was 
quite  unrestrained,   as  we  may  learn  from  the  well- 
known  speech  of  Cremutius  Cordus  in  Tacitus :  *  sed 
ipse  diuus  lulius,  ipse  diuus  Augustus  et  tulere  ista  et 
reliquere':  but  the  consequence  he  draws  was  hardly 
true  in  the  case  of  Julius.     Tiberius  however  in  old 
age,  wearied  with  the  burden  of  redressing  the  world 
and  driven  wild  by  the  treachery  of  his  most  trusted 
friends,  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to  this  limitless  '  scanda- 
lum  magnatum'.     Though  its  open  display  was  thus 
checked,  it  went  on  in  secret  with  more  rancour  than 
ever.     He  himself  has  bitterly  paid  for  this ;  and  so  has 
Julius,  as  in  the  days  of  Suetonius  and  Dion  Cassius 
people  had  forgotten  that  in  his  time  the  abuse  meant 


CARM.  29  79 

little  or  nothing ;  and  these  two  writers  have  taken  lite- 
rally, what  soldiers  said  in  boisterous  good-humour,  or 
Catullus  and  the  hke  from  temporary  pique  or  some 
equally  frivolous  motive^. 

But  wdth  the  cessation  of  virulent  personalities  the 
custom  of  writing  light  licentious  verses  did  not  come 
to  an  end  :  Catullus  had  said  in  thorough  good  faith 
*  Nam  castum  esse  decet  pium  poetam  Ipsum,  uersiculos 
nihil  necesse  est,  Qui  tum  denique  habent  salem  ac 
leporem,  Si  sunt  molliculi  ac  parum  pudici'.  These 
lines  the  younger  Pliny,  a  man  of  sterling  worth  and 
indefatigable  industry,  repeats  with  approbation;  and 
in  another  place,  epist.  v  3,  he  reckons  the  writing 
such  poems  among  'innoxiae  remissionis  genera',  for 
which  'Homo  sum'  is  all  the  defence  needed;  and  he 
draws  up  a  formidable  list  of  predecessors  who  have 
indulged  in  this  pardonable  recreation:  among  others 
Tully,  Calvus,  Pollio,  Messala,  Hortensius,  M.  Brutus, 
Sulla,  Catulus,  Scaevola,  Varro,  the  Torquati,  Gains 
Memmius,  Lentulus  Gaetulicus,  Seneca;  diuus  lulius, 
diuus  Augustus,  diuus  Nerua,  Titus :  a  Nero  could  not 
degrade  this  noble  art  which  had  been  practised  by 
Virgil  and  Nepos,  and  before  them  by  Ennius  and 
Accius.  Apuleius  quotes  the  same  words  of  Catullus, 
and  to  PHny's  hst  adds  the  name  of  diuus  Hadrianus 
who  composed  many  such  trifles  and  wrote  for  a  friend 
this  epitaph  *Lasciuus  uersu,  mente  pudicus  eras'.  Ca- 
tullus therefore  had  once  a  goodly  band  of  brothers  to 

*  [We  ought  never  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  great  poeta 
and  writers,  who  were  contemporaries  of  Caesar  and  transmitted  their  sentiments 
to  succeeding  generations,  belonged  to  the  '  boni'  or  '  Opposition  '.  Now  in  such 
an  age  of  pulling  down  and  building  up  opposition  meant  frantic  hatred  and 
antagonism.  This  to  my  mind  accounts  for  a  certain  ill-omened  air  which 
seems  to  hang  about  the  Dictator's  memory  in  the  pages  of  Lucan,  Tacitus  and 
Suetonius,  and  which  in  justice  belonged  more  to  his  successor  than  to  him. 
Cromwell's  fate  much  resembles  Caesar's  in  this  respect.] 


80  CATVLLI 

keep  him  in  countenance,  though  he  is  now  almost  the 
sole  representative  of  them  left. 

At  last  I  turn  to  our  special  poem,  which  is  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  most  powerful  and  brilliant  of  our 
author's  satirical  pieces.  For  fully  understanding  the 
allusions,  it  is  of  importance  to  know  the  time  when 
it  was  written,  and  this  is  not  difficult  to  determine. 
Some  of  the  older  editors,  Scaliger  among  them,  have 
gone  absurdly  wrong,  referring  for  instance  the  '  pi-aeda 
Pontica*  and  'Plibera'  to  Caesar's  latest  conquests,  after 
the  death  of  Pompey ;  though  the  poem  (see  vss.  13, 
21 — 24)  plainly  speaks  of  the  latter  joining  with  Caesar 
in  pampering  their  unworthy  favourite  Mamurra.  It 
was  written  after  Caesar's  invasion  of  Britain,  as  the 
poem  itself  plainly  declares,  probably  therefore  at  the 
end  of  55  or  beginning  of  54,  when  Caesar  was  in 
Cisalpine  Gaul,  having  returned  from  his  first  invasion 
late  in  the  preceding  summer  ;  hardly  after  the  second 
invasion  which  took  place  in  the  summer  and  autumn 
of  54,  as  the  poet,  we  saw,  appears  to  have  died  by  the 
end  of  that  year.  In  the  latter  case  there  would 
scarcely  have  been  room  for  the  events  which  must 
have  occurred  afterwards,  Catullus  too,  as  Jerome  in- 
forms us,  having  died  in  Pome.  Clearly  therefore  our 
poem,  together  perhaps  with  the  leas  important,  though 
more  ofiensive  57th,  is  what  Suetonius  refers  to  in  the 
well-known  passage,  lulius  73  Valerium  CatuUum,  a 
quo  sibi  uersiculis  de  Mamurra  perpetua  stigmata  im- 
posita  non  dissimulauerat,  satisfacientem  eadem  die 
adhibuit  cenae  hospitioque  patris,  sicut  consuerat,  uti 
perseuerauit.  At  Verona  therefore  where  Catullus' 
father  resided  Caesar  must  have  asked  the  poet  to 
dinner,  and  in  the  winter  cf  55 — 54;  for  after  the  re- 


CARM.    29  81 

conciliation  Catullus  for  some  reason,  perhaps  mere 
WMitonness,  must  have  again  declared  war,  as  appears 
by  the  obscure  but  offensive  attack  of  the  54th  piece, 
the  concluding  lines  '  Irascere  iterum  meis  iambis  Im- 
mereiitibus,  unice  iraperator'  plainly  referring  to  the 
'imperator  unice'  of  our  poem.  Angry  no  doubt  he  was 
at  the  repetition  of  such  waspish  and  ludicrously  un- 
founded insults ;  but  of  his  many  imperial  qualities  none 
was  more  glorious  to  himself  or  more  salutary  to  the 
world  than  his  practice  of  the  art  not  to  be  angry  over- 
much :  his  clemency  cost  him  his  life;  yet  made  his 
memory  what  it  is.  But  the  *  perpetua  stigmata '  meant 
both  to  Caesar  and  Catullus  something  very  different 
from  what  Suetonius  seems  to  imply:  Catullus  could 
not  have  dared  so  to  beard  the  irresponsible  proconsul 
in  his  own  province,  who  with  a  breath  could  have 
swept  from  off  the  earth  *  te  cum  tota  gerite,  Catulle, 
tua'.  What  such  insults  really  implied  will  I  trust  be 
presently  shewn.  Though  I  feel  no  doubt  that  our 
poem  was  written  at  this  time,  I  see  no  weight  in  the 
argument  of  Haupt  and  Schwabe  that  it  must  have 
been  composed  in  the  lifetime  of  Julia  who  died  during 
Caesar's  second  expedition  to  Britain,  as  otherwise  the 
*socer  generque'  of  the  last  line  could  not  have  been 
used.  Whatever  the  legal  meaning  of  these  terms, 
Caesar  and  Pompey  in  history  were  always  '  socer  ge- 
nerque':  those  eminent  scholars  refjite  themselves  by 
Virgil's  *  Aggeribus  socer  Alpinis  atque  arce  Monoeci 
Descendens,  gener  aduersis  instructus  eois'.  BecoUect 
too  Cicero's  reply  to  Pompey 's  question  'Where  is  your 
son-in-law?'  'with  your  father-in-law':  Lucan  a  dozen 
times  over  plays  with  this  favourite  antithesis,  as  in 
*  socerum  depellere  regno  Decretum  genero  est'  ^. 

^  [Cicero  again,  ad  Att.  x  4  3  alter  (Pompeius)...eIapsus  e  sooeri  manibnn  ao 
ferrn,  belluin  terra  et  mari  comparat.J 

M.  c.  6 


82  CATVLLI 

At  the  time  our  poem  was  written  the  league  be- 
tween Caesar  and  Pompey  had  lasted  about  five  years, 
since  the  consulship  of  Caesar  in  59,  and  had  given 
them  absolute  power  in  Rome  and  throughout  the  em- 
pire, whenever  they  chose  to  exert  it ;  for  what  could 
the  constitutionalists  or  '  boni'  do  against  the  masters 
of  20  legions  or  more?  Crassus  had  just  started  on  his 
disastrous  expedition  and  was  otherwise  of  small  ac- 
count. It  was  a  despotism,  tempered  only  by  their 
own  moderation  and  by  epigrams,  such  as  these  poems 
of  Catullus  and  the  confidential  letters  of  Cicero :  in  his 
public  speeches  he  had  to  praise  without  stint.  Not- 
withstanding Caesar's  unprecedented  successes  in  Gaul 
Pompey  with  the  vulgar  was  still  the  greater;  but 
acute  observers  like  Catullus  and  Cicero  saw  that  the 
other  had  already  got  '  the  start  of  the  majestic  world\ 
though  he  did  not  yet  'bear  the  palm  alone'.  Pompey 
could  be  thwarted  and  bullied  even  by  a  Clodius;  be- 
fore Caesar's  will  all  must  bend.  The  letters  to  At- 
ticus,  which  may  be  looked  on  as  soliloquies  by  an 
impassioned  nature  of  more  than  Itahan  fervour  of 
temperament,  give  a  singular  picture  of  Cicero's  feehngs 
towards  Caesar.  Caesar  behaved  to  him  as  an  enemy 
with  a  kinder  courtesy  than  Pompey  shewed  him  as  a 
friend ;  he  forgave  him  every  offence  before  he  had  time 
to  ask  forgiveness;  compelled  his  subordinates  Antony, 
Balbus  and  the  rest  to  treat  him  when  a  declared  op- 
ponent with  punctilious  deference.  Yet  for  all  this, 
perhaps  because  of  all  this,  admiring  as  he  could  not 
but  do  Caesar's  social  and  personal  quahties,  he  felt  all 
his  aspirations  so  nipped  and  kept  under  by  the  other's 
commanding  genius,  that  hatred  the  most  intense  took 
possession  of  his  mind:  'hoc  Tcpas  horribili  est  uigi- 
lantia,  celeritate,  dihgentia'  was  his  constant  feeling. 
Yet  he,  thinking  and  speaking  in  earnest,  never  dreamed 


CARM.    29  83 

of  fastening  on  Caesar  any  of  these  ridiculous  scandals 
of  Catullus.  Head  the  letters  written  to  Atticus  after 
those  ides  of  March  on  which  he  received  his  own 
death-warrant:  he  glories  in  that  day;  but  soon  finds 
that  he  has  got  nothing  '  praeter  laetitiam  quam  oculis 
cepi  iusto  interitu  tyranni';  that  the  tyrant  dead  is 
worse  than  the  tyrant  living ;  that  he  could  speak  with 
less  danger  *uiuo  tyranno  quam  mortuo;  ille  enim  nescio 
quo  pacto  ferebat  me  quidem  mirabiliter:  nunc — *.  At 
last  in  XV  4  we  have  this  outbreak:  'if  things  go  on 
thus,  I  like  not  the  ides  of  March.  For  he  should 
never  have  come  back  after  death,  nor  fear  compelled 
us  to  ratify  his  acts;  or  else — heaven's  curse  light  upon 
him,  dead  though  he  be — so  high  was  I  in  his  favour 
that,  seeing  the  master  is  slain  and  we  are  not  free,  he 
was  a  master  not  to  be  rejected  at  my  time  of  life.  I 
blush,  believe  me:  but  I  have  written,  and  will  not 
blot  it  out'.  For  these  awful  words  neither  Cicero  nor 
Caesar  is  to  blame,  but  the  fortune  of  Kome:  they 
must  express  the  feeling  of  the  'boni'  generally  who 
could  not  see  that  old  things  had  passed  away. 

But  though  Catullus  would  take  advantage  of  such 
feelings,  with  him  it  was  always  as  I  have  said  the  odi  or 
amo  of  the  moment  that  constrained  him  to  write  and 
made  him  the  poet  he  was ;  and  his  unabashed  candour 
and  cynical  eJBTrontery  lay  bare  to  us  the  motives  which 
impelled  him  to  this  attack  on  Caesar  and  Mamurra. 
The  41st  and  43rd  poems  shew  us  that  the  latter  had 
by  his  wealth  supplanted  him  in  the  affections  of  a  pro- 
vincial beauty,  'Decoctoris  amica  Formiani',  a  phrase 
repeated  for  effect  in  both  the  poems  just  mentioned. 
This  Formian  spendthrift  is  our  Mamurra  of  whom  I 
will  now  speak  more  at  length.  Though  he  was  a  man 
of  some  mark  in  his  day,  he  would  have  passed  into 

6—2 


84  CATVLLI 

oblivion  but  for  the  unenviable  notoriety  Catullus  has 
given  him.  Owing  solely  to  this  notoriety  he  is  spoken 
of  by  Pliny  in  xxxvi  6  §  48,  a  passage  to  which  we 
shall  recur  more  than  once :  he  tells  us  on  the  autho- 
rity of  Cornehus  Nepos  that  Mamurra  was  born  at 
Formiae,  was  a  Roman  knight  and  was  praefectus  fa- 
brum  to  C.  Caesar  in  Gaul.  Horace  as  we  know  de- 
notes Formiae  by  the  name  of  *urbs  Mamurrarum', 
whether  with  reference  to  Catullus  or  because  the 
family  was  really  very  important  there.  Caesar,  it  may 
be  on  account  of  his  annoyance  at  such  attacks,  never 
once  mentions  his  name,  which  twice  occurs  in  Cicero; 
once  in  the  well-know^n  account  which  he  gives  Atticus 
of  Caesar's  dining  with  him  in  December  45,  where  he 
says  that  Caesar  *  de  Mamurra  audiuit'  without  chang- 
ing countenance.  This  is  perhaps  rightly  now  explained 
to  mean  that  he  heard  of  Mamurra's  death;  but,  as 
'  uultum'  is  omitted  in  the  best  Ms.,  perhaps  Manutius' 
interpretation  is  right,  that  a  sentence  against  Mamurra 
for  transgressing  the  sumptuary  law,  which  Caesar 
strictly  enforced,  was  read  to  him;  and  he  let  it  stand 
as  it  was :  nothing  else  is  known  as  to  the  time  when 
Mamurra  died.  The  other  passage  is  more  important 
for  our  purpose :  Cicero  is  writing  to  Atticus,  vii  7,  in 
the  year  50:  he  is  greatly  disgusted  with  the  state  of 
affairs,  with  Caesar's  ever-growing  power  and  resistless 
energy,  and  thus  quotes  and  replies  to  a  question  of 
his  correspondent :  *  Annorum  enim  decem  imperium  et 
ita  latum  placet?'  placet  igitur  etiam  me  expulsum  et 
agrum  Campanum  perisse  et  adoptatum  patricium  a 
plebeio,  Gaditanum  a  Mytilenaeo,  et  Labieni  diuitiae  et 
Mamurrae  placent  et  Balbi  horti  et  Tusculanum.  Here 
Cicero  is  referring  to  things  most  obnoxious  to  him, 
carried   by  the  joint  power  of  Caesar,    Pompey  and 


CARM.   29  85 

Crassus  during  late  years.     You  ask  me  whether  I  like 
the  imperium  given  to  Caesar  for  ten  years  and  in  such 
a  way.     Why,  if  I   like  that,  then   I  like   my   own 
banishment,  the  loss  to  the  state  of  the  revenue  from 
the  Campanian   ager,  the   adoption   of  the   patrician 
Clodius  by  a  plebeian,  of  a  Gaditane  by  a  Mytilenaean; 
the  riches  of  Labienus  and  of  Mamurra;  Balbus'  gar- 
dens and  Tusculan  villa.     The  first  four  of  these  ob- 
noxious measures  were  carried  conjointly  by  the  three 
dynasts,  Varro's  TpLKdpavo<s:  the  adoption  of  the  bland 
Phoenician  L.  Cornelius  Balbus  by  Pompey's  trusted 
friend  and  client  Theophanes  of  Mytilene  must  have 
been  solely  Pompey's  doing,  as  he  gave  to  both  of  them 
citizenship  and   wealth   and  influence:    the  riches  of 
Labienus  would  come   of  course   from   Caesar   alone; 
those  of  Mamurra,  as  we  shall  see  presently  from  Ca- 
tullus, from  both  Pompey  and  Caesar:  the  gardens  and 
villa  of  Balbus  probably  from  Pompey  alone,  as  he  was 
long  his  patron,  and  it   was  late  that  Balbus,  when 
forced  to  choose  sides,  took  that  of  Caesar  who  nobly 
allowed  him  to  nurse  Pompey's  property  during  the 
civil  war. 

Catullus  himself  I  repeat  tells  us  that  Mamurra  got 
his  riches  from  Pompey  as  well  as  Caesar :  with  reference 
to  this  I  will  examine  vss.  17—19  of  our  poem.  In 
the  offensive  13th  line  nostra  refers  to  the  two:  he  goes 
on  to  say  that  first  of  all  he  squandered  his  patrimony, 
that  of  a  Boman  knight  as  Pliny  tells  us  in  the  passage 
I  quoted:  next  the  booty  of  Pontus:  this  beyond  all 
question  was  the  spoil  gained  by  Pompey  in  the  Mith- 
ridatic  war,  as  Haupt  and  others  have  seen.  I  cannot 
conceive  how  Mommsen  in  his  history  (bk.  5  ch.  8  near 
the  end)  can  maintain  that  this  was  the  booty  taken 
at  the  capture  of  Mytilene  in  80  or  79,  where  Caesar 


86  CATVLLI 

then  a  youth  distinguished  himself  under  the  praetor 
M.  Thermus.  Next  was  wasted  the  Iberian  booty 
which  the  Tagus  knows:  this  was  the  spoil  gained  in 
60  by  Caesar  as  propraetor  in  Spain  from  the  Lusitani. 
And  now  says  the  poet  he  is  to  have  the  wealth  of 
Gaul  and  Britain;  and  was  it  to  pamper  a  profligate 
like  this,  father-  and  son-in-law,  that  you  have  ruined 
between  you  the  world?  From  all  this,  coupled  with 
what  Pliny  tells  us,  we  learn  that  Mamurra  was  a  man 
of  good  birth;  that  he  was  Caesar's  chief  engineer  in 
Gaul  where  operations  were  on  so  gigantic  a  scale ;  he 
must  therefore  have  been  a  man  of  distinguished  pro- 
fessional merit;  high  too  in  Caesar's  confidence,  as  he 
had  served  years  before  under  him  in  Spain;  nay  years 
before  that  he  had  served  in  some  similar  capacity 
under  Rome's  other  great  general  Pompey,  when  en- 
gineering works  must  have  been  on  an  equally  great 
scale;  and,  as  Pompey  had  the  whole  of  Lucullus'  army 
handed  over  to  him,  it  is  more  than  probable  that 
Mamurra  was  with  Lucullus  before.  From  all  this  it 
follows  necessarily  that  in  the  year  54  he  was  a  man 
of  mature  age  and  of  high  professional  distinction.  It 
would  appear  that  in  Pome,  as  in  some  other  countries, 
members  of  the  scientific  corps  of  the  army  had  a  diflS- 
culty  in  emerging  from  under  the  *  cold  shade  of  the 
aristocracy' ;  but  one  who  had  been  so  long  the  trusted 
officer  of  Caesar  and  Pompey  must  have  had  eminent 
merit,  though  he  would  not  readily  attain  to  the  social 
consideration  of  a  Labienus  or  Antony.  It  is  likely 
enough  from  what  CatuUus  and  Pliny  tell  us,  that  he 
was  fond  of  display  and  enjoyment,  and  that  his  riches 
lightly  came  and  lightly  went.  But  what  Catullus 
says  in  other  pieces  of  his  success  with  women  would 
seem  to   contradict  the  most  ofiensive  things  in  our 


CARM.  29  87 

poem,  which  on  all  considerations  are  incredible.  Nay 
it  is  clear  that  by  this  fescennine-like  raillery  the  poet 
simply  means  'you  have  cheated  me,  my  fine  fellow, 
out  of  my  mistress,  and  you  and  your  two  mighty 
patrons,  who  have  given  you  the  means  to  do  it,  shall 
bitterly  smart  for  this'. 

And  now  I  will  turn  to  other  such-Hke  charges 
which  can  be  she^Ti  I  believe  to  be  as  utterly  baseless 
as  this  Mamurran  banter :  Catullus,  though  he  will  not 
let  Pompey   escape,  directs  the  main  force  of  his  in- 
vective against  Caesar  as  Mamurra's  more  immediate 
patron:  in  vss.    2   and   10  he  calls  him  'impudicus', 
which  in  Latin  has  a  peculiarly  offensive  meaning,  being 
a  synonyme  of  the  *cinaede'  which  he  appHes  to  him 
in  5  and  9 ;  and  in  the  brief  but  yet  more  impudent 
57th  poem  he  begins  with  'Pulcre  conuenit  improbis 
cinaedis,  Mamurrae  pathicoque  Caesarique',  and  goes 
on  in  the  like  insulting  strain.     Suetonius  was  an  in- 
defatigable collector  of  anecdotes  and  facts  concerning 
the  early  Caesars;  but,  removed  from  them  a  century 
and  a  half  in  time  and  still  further  in  feeling,  for  reasons 
some  of  which  we  have  touched  upon  above,  and  per- 
haps from  the  Boswell-like  character  of  his  mind,  he  is 
often  unable  to  distinguish  between  what  was  meant 
in  earnest  and  mere  joking  or  conventional  invective. 
Yet,  while  in  a  passage  we  have  already  referred  to  he 
gives  as  one  instance  of  Caesar's  exceeding  placability 
his  ready  forgiveness  of  Catullus,  though  he  avowed 
that  these  verses  about  Mamurra  had  set  upon  him  a 
perpetual  brand,  in  ch.  49  he  proves  that  these  very 
verses  meant  little  or  nothing.     For  there  he  tells  us 
*  pudicitiae  eius  famam  nihil  quidem  praeter  Nicomedis 
contubemium  laesit,  graui  tamen  et  perenni  obprobrio 
et  ad  omnium  conuicia  exposito';  he  then  gives  a  list 


88  CATVLLI 

of  these  '  omnes'  to  which  I  shall  presently  refer.  But 
first  for  the  story  itself:  Caesar  when  a  boy  shewed 
that  in  Sulla's  words  he  had  many  Marii  in  him ;  when 
he  was  but  eighteen  he  refused  to  divorce  his  wife 
Cornelia,  by  whom  he  was  already  father  of  Julia,  and 
preferred  to  wander  about  a  proscribed  fugitive  in 
hourly  peril  of  his  life,  though  Pompey  had  at  once 
obeyed  the  dictator's  commands.  He  then  escaped  to 
Asia  and  served  under  M.  Minucius  Thermus,  was  sent 
by  him  on  a  confidential  mission  to  Nicomedes  of  Bithy- 
nia,  successfully  performed  it,  returned  and  took  part 
in  the  capture  of  Mytilene  and  received  a  civic  crown 
for  saving  the  life  of  a  soldier.  It  was  in  consequence 
of  this  visit  to  Nicomedes  that  the  absurd  and  scanda- 
lous story  took  its  rise  at  some  time  or  other.  From 
a  long  list  of  angry  opponents  or  bantering  jesters  who 
20  or  30  years  later  taunted  Caesar  about  this  matter 
Suetonius  singles  out  Gains  Memmius  as  making  the 
charge  in  a  definite  shape ;  *  C.  Memmius  etiam  ad 
cyathum  et  uinum  Nicomedi  stetisse  obicit  cum  reli- 
quis  exoletis  pleno  conuiuio,  accubantibus  nonnuUis  ur- 
bicis  negotiatoribus  quorum  refert  nomina'.  This  then 
Memmius  must  have  learnt  or  pretended  to  learn  more 
than  twenty  years  after  the  event  when  he  was  praetor 
in  Bithynia.  But  supposing  the  memories  of  these 
merchants  of  the  place  did  not  play  them  false,  what 
does  the  story  mean  ?  A  young  noble  of  the  highest 
birth,  of  distinguished  bravery,  energy  and  talent,  the 
representative  of  Bome  at  a  king's  court,  first  foully 
disgraces  himself  with  that  king  and  then  gratuitously 
parades  his  degradation  before  a  large  company.  A 
circumstantial  He  is  often  the  most  self-convicting  of 
lies.  It  is  possible  enough  that  the  story  may  have 
arisen   from    the   handsome   and   accomplished   youth 


CARM.   29  89 

having  taken  part  in  some  court  pageant  or  frolic :  a 
guilty  secret  would  have  stood  in  the  way  of  such  con- 
descension. It  may  be  asked  how  would  so  many  emi- 
nent orators  and  others  make  a  charge  they  knew  to 
be  unfounded  ?  Why,  every  Greek  and  Boman  orator, 
as  a  pa,rt  of  his  art,  made  charges  against  an  antagonist 
which  he  knew  to  be  false  as  well  as  the  opponent 
himself  did.  Such  attacks  on  Caesar  meant  no  more 
than  the  terms  of  abuse  or  endearment  used  by  a  cab- 
man or  coalheaver  in  the  streets  of  London  or  Paris ; 
or  than  the  threats  of  Catullus  towards  his  Furius  and 
Aurelius.  The  poet,  to  shew  his  contempt  for  his 
would-be  patron  Memmius,  in  two  pieces  makes  mean- 
ingless imputations  on  him,  more  foul  than  this  of 
Memmius  upon  Caesar.  But  Caesar,  whose  self-respect 
would  suffer  by  this  one  foolish  story  turning  up  so 
often  a  generation  after  its  fictitious  date,  must  have 
been  enraged  by  the  acrimonious  turn  given  to  it  by 
the  foul-mouthed  Memmius;  for  Suetonius  tells  us  that 
he  replied  in  writing  to  his  virulent  speeches  *non 
minore  acerbitate'.  But  he  soon  forgave  him,  as  he 
knew  his  scurriHty  was  a  mere  fashion  of  speech. 

To  confirm  my  view  of  the  case  I  will  adduce  the 
evidence  of  Pompey  and  Augustus.  Pompey,  left  by 
the  coalition  to  coerce  the  city,  by  his  unskilful  manage- 
ment at  once  irritates  the  *  boni '  and  exposes  himself 
to  their  contempt.  How  do  they  avenge  themselves  ? 
Calvus,  as  an  orator  second  only  to  Cicero,  as  a  poet 
only  to  Catullus,  at  once  indites  this  epigram,  'Magnus 
quem  metuunt  omnes  digito  caput  uno  Scalpit  :  quid 
credas  hunc  sibi  uelle  ?  uirum' :  this  is  more  offensive 
even  than  the  attacks  on  Caesar.  Clodius  next  quarrels 
with  Pompey,  takes  his  troops  of  ruffians  with  him, 
and  standing  in  a  conspicuous  spot  asks,  as  Pompey  is 


90  CATVLLI 

passing,  rt?  icrTcv  avTOKparoyp  aKoXacrro^  (imperator  im- 
pudicus) ;  rt?  avrfp  avhpa  t^'qrei  ;  rts  kvl  8a/crv\a>  Kvarai 
TYjv  Ke(f)akriv ',  And  they  answer  in  chorus  to  each  ques- 
tion '  Pompey  to  be  sure'.     Now  this  is  the  very  wan- 
tonness of  insult,  as  Pompey  by  universal  consent  was 
acknowledged  as  a  man  of  simple  and  exemplary  do- 
mestic habits,  so  attached  to  his  family  and  his  succes- 
sive wives  as  to  be  quizzed  for  uxoriousness ;  while  at 
the  same  time  his  conversation  and  manners  are  said  by 
Plutarch  to  have  been  most  attractive  to  clever  women. 
Cicero,  out  of  humour  with  himself,  with  Pompey  and 
with  the  world,  in  his  very  curt  comment  on  his  death 
to  Atticus  (xi  6  5)  remarks  *non  possum  eius  casum 
non   dolere ;    hominem   enim   integrum   et   castum   et 
grauem  cognoui':  this  is  what  Cicero  thinks  of,  not  his 
deeds  in  war  or  peace.     But  if  Suetonius  had  written 
his  life,  we  should  have  had  all  these  assaults  on  his 
*  pudicitia '  enumerated  at  length,  as  we  have  in  the 
case  of  Augustus  :  in  the  68th  chapter  of  his  life  he 
gives  a  set  of  most  fatuous  and  ribald  charges  made  by 
his  fiercest  antagonists,  Sextus  Pompey  and  the  two 
Antonies  :  '  pudicitiam  dehbatam  a  Caesare,  Aulo  etiam 
Hirtio  in  Hispania  trecentis  milibus  nummum  substra- 
uerit'!! — worthy  parallels  to  the  Nicomedes  and  Ma- 
murra  tales ;  but  gravely  narrated  by  the  biographer, 
who  solemnly  records  how  the  people  in  the  theatre 
pointed  at  Augustus  when  this  verse  was  recited  of  a 
gallus  with  his  tambourine,  *  uidesne  ut  cinaedus  orbem 
digito  temperat'.     But  as  Cremutius  Cordus  says,  'ipse 
diuus  lulius,  ipse   diuus  Augustus   et  tulere  ista  et 
reliquere'. 

When  Caesar  triumphed,  Fortuna  had  to  be  pro- 
pitiated by  an  unwonted  display  of  the  'fescennina 
iocatio'.     Some  joker  of  jokes  hit  of  course  upon  Nico- 


CARM.    29  91 

medes  and  composed  for  his  soldiers  the  famous  'Gallias 
Caesar  subegit,  Nicomedes  Caesarem'  and  the  rest ;  as 
weU  as  the  'Vrbani,  seruate  uxores  moechum  caluom 
adducimus':  but  nothing  about  Mamurra  who  doubtless 
was  in  the  conqueror's  suite.  Dion  Cassius  tells  us  (43 
20)  how  Caesar  was  gratified  by  the  freedoms  of  his 
soldiers,  because  it  shewed  they  knew  he  would  take 
them  in  good  part;  but  expressed  annoyance  at  the 
Nicomedes  chaunt  and  swore  the  story  was  a  he ;  upon 
which  the  soldiers  laughed  the  louder.  That  laugh 
merely  meant  to  say,  'General,  we  only  wished  to  shew 
our  love  to  you  and  avert  the  ten  thousand  envious 
eyes,  fixed  on  you  and  us  as  we  passed  through  the 
streets'.  I  have  yet  a  word  to  say  of  the  twice  recur- 
ring 'Cinaede  E,omule'  and  the  'imperator  unice'  re- 
peated in  another  poem.  Up  to  Caesar's  conquest  the 
Gauls  were  looked  upon  as  a  standing  menace  to  Italy 
and  the  empire  :  from  Cicero's  laudatory  speech  '  de 
prouinciis  consularibus',  spoken  more  than  a  year  be- 
fore our  poem  was  written,  we  see  what  boundless  en- 
thusiasm his  exploits  had  caused ;  Gauls,  Helvetians, 
Germans  had  been  crushed;  nations  not  known  from 
books  or  even  rumour,  '  has  noster  imperator  nosterque 
exercitus  et  populi  Komani  arma  peragrarunt' ;  Provi- 
dence had  placed  the  Alps  between  Gaul  and  Italy,  else 
Rome  had  never  become  the  seat  of  empire ;  but  now 
these  Alps  may  sink  down,  for  there  is  nothing  between 
them  and  the  ocean  that  Italy  need  dread.  And  now 
the  invasion  of  Britain  had  added  to  the  enthusiasm, 
and  the  unprecedented  honour  was  decreed  of  a  thanks- 
giving of  twenty  days.  It  is  probable  that,  like  other 
saviours  of  their  country,  he  had  been  styled  in  the 
official  announcement  of  this  a  second  Romulus,  a  *  uni- 
cus  imperator' ;  to  which  Catullus  gives  this  malicious 


92  CATVLLI 

turn,  though  mingling  with  the  banter  is  a  half-betrayed 
admiration  for  the  '  Caesaris  monimenta  magni'.  In  the 
bitter  and  powerful  speech  of  the  consul  Lepidus,  pre- 
served among  the  fragments  of  Sallust,  Sulla  with  like 
irony  is  styled  'scaeuus  iste  Ronaulus' ;  and  Quintilian 
(ix  3  89)  records  that  Sallust  thus  addressed  Cicero, 
*  0  E/Omule  Arpinas':  in  Livy  we  find  'unicus  impera- 
tor',  'dux',  'consul'  or  the  like  a  dozen  times,  and 
more  than  once  said  with  bitter  irony. 

The  words  '  et  uorax'  which  follow  in  both  lines  the 
'impudicus'  afford  me  a  welcome  opportunity  to  repel 
another  scandal  which  has  fixed  on  Caesar's  memory  an 
ignominious  vice ;  a  scandal  however  of  quite  modem 
origin  which  has  arisen  through  misapprehending  two 
words  of  Cicero.     The  charge  so  often  made  I  find  thus 
stated  in  Macmillan's  Magazine,  vol.  17  p.  526,  by  Gold- 
win  Smith  in  his  able  and  sympathising,  yet  moderate 
defence  of  'the  last  Hepublicans  of  Rome'  against  the 
unmeasured  scorn  and  abuse  which  have  been  recently 
heaped  upon  them  :  'We  find  the  great  man,  when  he 
is  the  guest  of  Cicero,  preparing  himself  for  the  plea- 
sures of  the  table  in  the  Roman  fashion  by  taking  an 
emetic.     These  be  thy  Gods!'     The  writer  refers  to 
the  dinner  which  Cicero  gave  to  Caesar  and  describes 
to  Atticus  in  the  last  letter  of  the  13  th  book.     The 
dinner  took  place  it  would  appear  on  the  21st  of  De- 
cember 45,  in  Cicero's   Formian   villa,  a  few  months 
before  Caesar's  murder.     It  was  the  3rd  day  of  the 
Saturnalia,  a  time  of  universal  relaxation  and  feasting. 
How  was  it  spent  by  the  heavy-laden  master  of  the 
world  ?     He  had  come  the  evening  before  to  the  house 
of  Philippus  with  a  large  retinue :  there  he  spent  the 
day  working  hard  at  his  accounts  with  Balbus  till  one 
o'clock  ;  then  he  walked  on  the  shore ;  at  two  he  took 


CARM.  29  93 

a  bath  ;  then  he  heard  about  Mamurra,  whether  it  was 
of  his  death  or  his  transgression  of  the  sumptuary  law  ; 
was  anointed,  sat  down  to  dinner ;  and  as  he  intended 
that  night  to  take  an  emetic  {ifxeTLKTlv  or  rather  e/xert/cov 
agebat),  he  ate  and  drank  without  fear  and  in  good 
spirits.  The  dinner,  Cicero  tells  us,  was  sumptuous  and 
served  in  good  style  ;  and  not  only  that  but,  in  the 
words  of  Lucilius,  'with  good  talk  well  dressed,  well 
seasoned,  and,  if  you  would  know,  to  his  heart's  con- 
tent  I    shewed    myself  a  man:   yet   he    is  not   a 

guest  to  whom  you  would  say,  Pray  let  me  see  you 
when  you  come  again  this  way  :  once  is  enough.  No 
poUtics  in  the  conversation,  much  literary  talk.  In 
short  he  was  delighted  and  thoroughly  enjoyed  himself. 
The  two  words  I  have  cited  in  the  original  admit  I 
believe  no  sense  but  that  which  I  have  given  them: 
the  paraphrase  in  Macmillan  is  plainly  untenable.  Me- 
dical practice  appears  in  old  times  to  have  gone  through 
much  the  same  phases  as  in  our  days.  A  generation 
ago  the  taking  of  emetics  before  going  to  bed  was  an 
infliction  which  many  had  to  submit  to  :  it  is  now  I 
fancy  out  of  fashion  and  superseded  by  homoeopathy, 
the  cold  water  cure  and  the  like,  whether  rightly  so  or 
not,  I  do  not  know.  In  Caesar's  time  the  *  uomitus '  was 
a  common  prescription  :  by  and  bye  Antonius  Musa 
cured  Augustus  by  means  of  cold  water  or  with  the 
help  of  nature,  and  made  the  former  all  the  rage. 
Horace  had  to  shiver  for  it  in  the  depth  of  winter ;  but 
soon  to  the  gain  of  invalids,  tho'  to  the  world's  loss, 
Musa  killed  off  Marcellus  the  heir  of  the  empire  and 
extinguished  the  new  fashion.  Celsus  (i  3)  approves 
of  an  emetic  in  certain  cases :  it  is  of  more  use  in  winter 
he  says  than  in  summer ;  and  Caesar  was  with  Cicero 
in  midwinter.     The  latter  himself  speaks  of  it  on  this 


94  CATVLLI 

occasion  and  also  in  the  pro  Deiotaro,  addressed  to 
Caesar,  as  quite  an  ordinary  matter.     Celsus  tells  you, 
if  the  emetic  is  taken  at  night,  not  to  eat  much  at  the 
meal  preceding,  to  take  yesterday's  bread,  rough  dry 
unmixed  wine,  roast  meat  '  cibisque  omnibus  quam  sic- 
cissimis'.     I  daresay  Caesar  followed  these  rules  as  far 
as  Cicero's  cook  would  let  him ;  for  all  accounts  repre- 
sent him  as  utterly  indifferent  to  the  pleasures  of  the 
table.     Even  his  enemies,  says  Suetonius  ch.  53,  did 
not  deny  that  he  was  most  sparing  in  his  use  of  wine ; 
and  his  confidential  friend  Gains  Oppius  relates  that  he 
was  so  utterly  careless  as  to  what  he  ate  '  ut  quondam 
ab  hospite  conditum  oleum  pro  viridi  adpositum,  asper- 
nantibus  ceteris,  solum  etiam  largius  appetisse  scribat, 
ne  hospitem  aut  neglegentiae  aut  rusticitatis  uideretur 
arguere'.  Well  does  Velleius  (ii  41)  say  of  him  'Magno 
illi  Alexandre,  sed  sobrio  neque  iracundo,  simillimus'. 
He  was  indeed  the  high-bred  and  kindly  gentleman, 
the  same  Suetonius  telling  us  that  he  sent  his  baker  to 
prison,  because  he  had  dared  to  put  before  him  a  finer 
bread  than  he  had  given  to  his  guests.     *  These  be  thy 
Gods!'  I  would  echo  in  a  different  sense;  for  Mr  Smith 
a  few  pages  later  says  most  justly  of  Cicero,  that  '  his 
vast  intellectual  industry  implies  a  temperate  life'.  But 
how  much  greater  even  than  Cicero's  was  the  industry 
of  Caesar  during  the  last  15  years  of  his  life,  who  during 
that  time  went  through  an  amount  of  work  physical 
and  intellectual,  taking  quantity  and  quality  together, 
such  as  mortal  man  probably  never  performed  before  or 
since  !    Emperor,  minister,  generahssimo,  lawgiver,  cen- 
sor, restorer  of  lost  rights  and  creator  of  new  idesis,  he 
was  at  the  same  time  destroying  with  his  right  hand 
the  world  that  was  and  building  up  in  his  mind  the 
world  that  was  to  be.     Any  excess  in  any  direction 


CARM.  29  95 

must  have  destroyed  his  delicate  organisation.  Marl- 
borough began  his  great  career  after  middle  hfe,  and 
his  letters  to  his  wife  shew  how  soon  his  work  began  to 
tell  on  his  head  and  to  sow  probably  the  seeds  of  that 
sad  disease  which  afterwards  overtook  him.  Suetonius 
in  ch.  86  tells  us  that  some  of  Caesar's  friends  were 
persuaded  that  he  did  not  want  to  live  longer  and 
therefore  despised  all  omens  and  the  warnings  of  his 
friends.  Perhaps  the  huge  strain  upon  his  brain  had 
destroyed  the  buoyancy  of  feeling  and  enthusiasm  of 
spirit  which  alone  would  make  life  worth  having  to 
such  a  man. 

Of  Catullus'  next  words  *et  aleo'  I  will  just  say 
that  the  same  term  was  applied  to  Augustus,  because 
he  used  to  give  the  members  of  his  family  small  suras 
of  money  and  then  play  with  them  for  shilling  points 
during  the  Saturnaha  and  on  other  feast-days,  as  we 
learn  from  Suetonius  who  in  ch.  71  quotes  two  inter- 
esting letters  of  Augustus  to  Tiberius  on  this  subject. 
Cicero  throughout  his  confidential  correspondence  with 
Atticus  puts  the  worst  construction  he  can  on  every 
public  act  of  Caesar  and  will  not  be  persuaded  that 
he  is  not  going  to  prove  in  the  end  a  Sulla  or  Cinna ; 
but  he  never  breathes  a  whisper  against  his  private  life, 
either  before  or  after  his  death,  never  hints  he  was 
'impudicus'  'uorax'  or  *aleo';  while  throughout  these 
letters  and  in  his  philippics  he  charges  on  Antony  over 
and  over  again  such  like  enormities.  Surely  this  is  of 
importance :  the  prodigy's  sleepless  vigilance  and  in- 
dustry appal  him ;  Antony's  licentious  habits  disgust 
him. 

A  few  remarks  have  now  to  be  made  on  the  only 
four  places  in  our  poem  where  there  is  any  critical  dif- 


96  CATVLLI 

ficulty :  the  first  in  v.  4  will  not  detain  us  long :  for  tlie 

*  Habebat  cum  te '  of  Mss.  many  editors  including  Sillig, 
Doering,  Heyse,  and  both  Schwabe  and  Ellis  adopt 
Faernus'  emendation  'Habebat  uncti' :  Lachmann,  Haupt 
and  Mommsen  read  after  Statins  '  Habebat  ante',  which 
I  am  disposed  to  prefer  for  the  following  reasons :  it 
comes  at  least  as  near  to  the  Ms.  reading ;  for  I  observe 
that  some  original  of  all  our  Mss.  often  put  co  for  a: 
thus  in  48  4  we  find  'inde  cor'  for  'uidear';  64  212 
'moenico'  for  'moenia';  67  42  'conciliis'  for  'ancilHs'; 
75  3  *  uelleque  tot'  for  '  uelle  queat',  c  and  t  being  con- 
tinually confused;  and  on  the  other  hand  36  14  'alcos* 
for  '  Golgos';  &^  45  'atque'  for  'cumque  (conque)':  thus 
ante  might  at  once  become  con  te  =  cum  te.  Again  I 
prefer  it  for  the  sense;  as  'quod  uncti'  strikes  me  as 
somewhat  affected  and  not  quite  like  '  uncta  patrimonia' 
and  'unctius  caput',  in  both  of  which  cases  the  meta- 
phor is  very  obvious.  Lastly  the  passage  of  Pliny,  xxxvi 
6  48,  already  referred  to,  '  Mamurra — quem,  ut  res  est, 
domus  ipsius  clarius  quam  Catullus  dixit  habere  quid- 
quid  habuisset  comata  GaUia',  gives  no  intimation  of 
any  uncti;  and  'quidquid  habuisset'   quite   expresses 

*  quod  habebat  ante'. 

In  V.  8  ^  Vt  albulus  columbus  aut  ydoneus'  Statins 
and  Scaliger  read  'aut  Adoneus'  and  are  followed  by 
Lachmann,  Doering,  Haupt,  Mommsen,  and  Ellis  among 
others.  I  have  some  doubt  whether  Catullus,  a  tech- 
nical pupil  of  the  Greeks,  would  have  said  Adoneus  for 
Adonis:  it  is  true  Plautus  has  it;  but  in  the  same  line 
he  has  Catameitus  for  Ganyniedes,  which  Catullus  would 
hardly  have  used,  any  more  than  Melerpanta  or  Patri- 
coles  for  Bellerophontes  or  Patroclus :  I  should  not 
demur,  if  the  Mss.  gave  us  that  form,  but  they  do  not. 
Again  I  should  like  to  know  any  Latin  writer  who  as- 


CARM.   29  97 

signs  to  Adonis,  born  of  the  wood  and  bred  in  the  woods, 
the  character  which  a  modem  hairdresser  connects  with 
him  and  which  would  suit  Catullus'  picture  of  Mamurra : 
the  ancient  conception  of  him  seems  rather  to  be  Shake- 
speare's :  *  Hunting  he  loved,  but  love  he  laughed  to 
scorn':  thus  Ovid,  ars  i  509,  'Forma  uiros  neglecta  de- 
cet :  Minoida  Theseus  Abstulit,  a  nulla  tempora  comptus 
acu:  Hippolytum  Phaedra,  nee  erat  bene  cultus,  ama- 
uit :  Cura  deae  siluis  aptus  Adonis  erat' :  and  certainly 
you  could  not  couple  Theseus  or  Hippolytus  with  an 
'albulus  Columbus'.  Mamurra  is  effeminate  and  worn 
out  by  debauchery :  Adonis  is  a  beautiful  boy,  the  very 
reverse  of  effeminate :  in  Bion  he  is  mourned  for  by  his 
hounds  and  the  mountain-nymphs,  by  the  hills  them- 
selves, the  woods  and  waters;  while  Theocritus  mates 
him  with  Agamemnon  and  Ajax,  Hector,  Patroclus  and 
Pyrrhus,  and  yet  older  and  rougher  heroes.  I  would 
therefore  with  Heyse  and  Schwabe  follow  Sillig  in 
adopting  what  is  really  the  Ms.  reading  *  haut  idoneus' ; 
with  which  might  be  compared  Horace's  *  Vixi  puellis 
nuper  idoneus'  and  '  Si  torrere  iecur  quaeris  idoneum', 
though  probably  it  has  in  Catullus  a  more  offensive 
sense  illustrated  by  v.  13.  It  is  really  I  repeat  the  Ms. 
reading:  [I  have  noted  some  50  instances  in  which  G 
and  O  quite  indifferently  have  y  for  i,  or  i  for  y.~\ 
Again  'aut'  and  'haut'  are  the  same;  for  not  only  do 
our  Mss.  and  therefore  their  archetype  omit  or  wrongly 
prefix  the  initial  h  in  so  many  cases  that  it  would  be 
idle  to  enumerate  them ;  but  in  the  two  or  three  places 
where  Catullus  uses  haut  (haud),  we  find  66  35  aut  in 
all  Mss. :  and  ib.  16,  if  any  of  the  corrections,  lUaque 
haut  alia.  Ilia  atque  haut  alia,  Illaque  hautque  alia. 
Iliac  hautque  alia,  of  various  editors  be  right,  haut  pro- 
bably passed  into  aut  in  the  process  of  corruption  ;  but 
M.  c.  7 


98  CATVLLI 

for  the  *  Ilia  atque  alia'  of  Msa  I  propose  '  Iliac  (quaque 
alia?)  uiderunt  luce'  aa  a  better  rhythm  and  an  easy 
correction. 

We  now  come  to  the  very  corrupt  v.  20,  though  the 
sense  required  is  plain  enough.  Is  Mamurra  to  have 
what  long-haired  Gaul  and  farthest  Britain  had?  Was 
it  to  feed  his  lust,  O  general  without  peer,  you  the 
other  day  were  in  the  outmost  island  of  the  west  ?  He 
then  in  his  increasing  wrath  joins  with  Caesar  his  bro- 
ther-tyrant Pompey  who  first  pampered  the  wretch  : 
*  Vt  ista  nostra  cet. ' :  his  gormandising  and  wantonness 
nothing  can  appease  :  fijrst  went  his  own  patrimony  ; 
next  the  spoils  taken  from  Mithridates  by  Pompey ; 
thirdly  the  booty  got  by  Caesar  in  Further  Spain : 
what  next  ?  he  will  now  have  the  riches  of  Gaul  and 
Britain,  opened  up  only  yesterday. — But  many  and  va- 
rious have  been  the  methods  tried  to  get  the  required 
pure  iambic,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  critical  notes  of 
Schwabe  and  Ellis :  Time  Britannia,  hunc  timete  Gal- 
liae :  Timete  Galliae,  hunc  time  Britannia :  etc.  etc. 
none  of  them  satisfying  in  sense  or  keeping  near  to  the 
Ms.  reading.  And  Schwabe  with  reason  remarks  that 
no  convincing  emendations  have  been  made  in  Catullus, 
where  this  has  not  been  closely  adhered  to.  He  ad- 
mits himself  that  a  pure  iambic  verse  would  be  very  far 
preferable  to  any  other,  if  a  satisfactory  one  could  be 
devised;  but  despairing  of  this  he  gives  us  one  which 
suits  the  sense  and  context  excellently :  Nunc  Galliae 
timetiw  (timet")  et  Britanniae.  But  a  pure  iambic 
appears  to  me  not  only  desirable,  but  necessary ; 
Ellis  too  requiring  a  pure  iambic  reads  'Neque  una 
Gallia  aut  timent  Britanniae'  :  I  will  state  my  objec- 
tions to  this  :  it  departs  rather  widely  from  the  Mss.  ; 
nor  do  I  think  the  plural  Britanniae  could  have  been 


CARM.  29  99 

used  by  Catullus,  as  lie  is  speaking  of  the  one  island, 
a  comer  of  which  was  invaded  a  few  months  before : 
Pliny  IV  16  §  102  says  'Britannia  insula  clara  Graecis 
nostrisqvie  monimentis....  Albion  ipsi  nomen  fuit,  cum 
Britanniae  uocarentur  omnes  de  quibus  mox  paulo  dice- 
mus' :  and  then  he  names  a  large  number  of  islands,  40 
Orcades,  7  Acmodae,  30  Hebudes,  Mona,  Vectis,  etc. 
etc. :  a  curious  passage,  but  it  will  not  I  think  support 
the  plural  in  Catullus,  any  more  than  his  own  '  Mauult 
quam  Syrias  Britanniasqne',  which  means  of  course 
'prefers  to  Syrias  and  Britains',  as  we  say  'to  whole 
worlds'  r  Ellis  might  of  course  read  '  timet  Britannia' ; 
but  then  with  '  Gallia*  and  *  Britannia'  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  the  ae  of  all  Mss.  could  have  come  into  both 
words:  of  course,  if  it  were  in  one,  by  attraction  it 
could  get  into  the  other.  The  sense  too  he  gives  the 
verse  seems  to  me  very  unsuitable  :  Neque  enim  Gallia 
tantummodo  aut  Britanniae  Mamurram  timent ;  quod 
post  commemoratas  ex  Ponto  atque  Hiberia  praedas 
iure  uidetur  additum.  But  surely  Catullus  does  not 
mean  to  say  that  Pontus  and  Hiberia  fear  they  are 
going  to  be  plundered,  because  Gaul  and  Britain  fear 
it:  they,  if  they  ever  feared  him,  must  like  his  own 
patrimony  have  long  ceased  to  do  so;  as  he  had  long 
ago  spent  all  that  could  be  got  from  them.  The  poet 
plainly  means  that  the  newly  acquired  lands,  Gaul  and 
Britain,  seeing  he  has  already  spent  his  own  means  and 
the  spoil  of  Pontus  and  Hiberia,  are  now  going  to  be 
drained  to  satisfy  his  greed ;  or  something  like  it. 

And,  while  on  this  subject,  I  would  say  that  Ellis 
in  another  passage,  II  11,  appears  to  me  to  have  done 
our  island  scant  justice  by  reading  *  Gallicum  Rhenum, 
horribilem  insulam  ultimosque  Britanrws',  for  the  *  hor- 
ribiles'  or  *  horribilesque  ultimosque'  of  Mss. :  Caesar  a 

7—2 


100  CATVLLI 

few  months  before  had  opened  Britain  up  to  the  ex- 
pectant Romans :  what  they  then  dreamt  of,  as  we  see 
from  Cicero  and  others,  was  nothing  more  dreadful  than 
gold,  pearls,  captives,  etc.  And  surely  the  landscape 
would  not  have  looked  horrible  in  English  August 
weather,  any  more  than  Cuba  or  Jamaica  to  the  first 
Spanish  invaders.  But  what  would  and  did  look  hor- 
rible was  the  stormy  channel,  the  'beluosus  oceanus', 
between  the  Gallic  Ehine  and  the  Britons :  if  then 
'horribilesque'  represents  the  archetype,  Haupt's  'hor- 
ribile  aequor'  is  excellent :  if,  as  seems  probable,  que  is 
a  clumsy  interpolation  to  help  the  metre,  I  do  not  sur- 
render my  former  conjecture  in  the  old  Journal,  vol.  4 
p.  289,  *  horribilem  salum' :  that  is,  as  there  explained, 
for  'horribilesultimosque',  'horribilesaltiultimosque', 
Ennius  having  'undantem  salum'  and  the  Greek  word 
being  craXos.  Ellis  similarly  explains  his  reading  as  a 
corruption  from  *  horribile  isula  ultimosque',  '  quum  ex- 
cidissent  litterae  uld  propter  insequentes  uV  :  but  long 
before  this  contraction  and  corruption  could  have  taken 
place  in  Mss.,  the  form  'horribileis'  was  utterly  un- 
known and  could  not  mediate  between  two  readings. 

And  now  I  will  try  to  recommend  my  own  later 
correction  of  v.  20 :  Ellis  having  postponed  it  to  his 
own  put  me  somewhat  out  of  conceit  with  it,  when  I 
was  again  encouraged  by  a  flattering  sentence  in  a 
paper  read  by  Dr  W.  Wagner  before  the  philological 
society  on  Dec.  20,  1867:  he  says  *I  am  convinced 
Mr  Munro's  emendation  as  mentioned  by  Mr  B.  Ellis 
obviates  all  dijOficulties'.  If  we  are  to  have  a  pure  iam- 
bic, it  seems  pretty  clear,  unless  very  violent  changes 
be  made,  that  Hunc  represents  a  lost  amphibrachys 
{^-^) :  leaving  this  for  a  moment,  I  divide  into  words 
in  a  different  way  from  our  Mss.  and  therefore  their 


CARM.    29  101 

lost  archetype  the  continuous  letters  of  some  original, 
immediate  or  not,  of  that  archetype :  this  original  had 
I  assume  *  galliaetmetetbritannia'  i.  e.  *  Gallia  et  metet 
Britannia' :  our  Mss.  after  their  archetype  give  '  GaUiae 
timet  et  Britanniae'  :  Britanniae  from  the  attraction 
of  Galliae,  I  have  collected  from  our  Mss.  a  hundred 
instances  of  absurd  corruptions  owing  to  a  v^rong  ar- 
rangement of  undivided  syllables :  a  few  that  seem  to 
apply  to  the  present  case  I  will  give  here :  28  9  Om- 
nem  mi  [for  O  Memmi),  44  7  expulsus  sim  (expuli 
tussim),  44  19  Sestirecepso  (Sesti  recepso),  54  5  seniore 
cocto  (seni  recocto),  93  2  si  saluus  (sis  albus),  98  1  in- 
quam  quam  (in  quemquam),  108  1  Sic  homini  (Si  Co- 
mini),  14  9  si  ilia  (Sulla),  17  24  potest  olidum  (pote 
stolidum),  57  5  nece  luentur  (nee  eluentur),  61  198 
Pulcre  res  (Pulcer  es),  63  23  menade  sui  (maenades  ui), 
63  47  estuanter  usum  (aestuante  rusum),  65  3  dulcissi- 
mus  harum  (dulcis  musarum),  QQ  8  Ebore  niceo  (E  Be- 
roniceo),  66  11  Quare  ex  (Qua  rex),  69  3  Nos  ilia  mare 
(Non  si  illam  rarae),  79  1  quid  inquam  (quidni  quem) ; 
and  many  more  besides.  Now  that  we  have  so  much 
of  our  verse,  the  rest  wiU  soon  follow :  out  of  Hunc  we 
have  to  get  a  dative  referring  to  Mamurra  and  a  con- 
necting particle :  the  particle  shall  be  et  which  so  often 
comes  into  or  falls  out  of  the  beginning  of  a  verse ; 
thus  in  61  211  we  have  *  Et  ludite'  for  '  Ludite'.  The 
dative  shall  be  huicne :  '  Et  huicne  Gallia  et  metet 
Britannia?'  'and  now  shall  Guul  and  Britain  reap  for 
him?':  *Et  huicne'  exactly  as  in  v.  6  *Et  ille'.  Plau- 
tus,  so  different  in  some  respects,  is  Catullus'  own  bro- 
ther in  love  of  familiar  idiom;  and  he  shall  illustrate 
our  metaphor:  mercat.  71  *Tibi  aras,  tibi  oocas,  tibi 
seris :  tibi  item  metes,  Tibi  denique  iste  pariet  laetitiam 
labos' ;  mostell.  799  *  Sibi  quisque  ruri  metit' ;  epid.  ii 


102  CATVLLI 

2  80  *  Milii  IbUc  nee  seritur  nee  metitur,  nisi  ea  quae  tu 
uis  nolo'.  Huicne  I  prefer  to  Huice  which  I  am  not 
sure  Catullus  would  have  used  :  '  hicne,  haecne,  hocne, 
huncne,  hacne,  hasne',  one  or  the  other,  I  have  met 
with  not  only  in  Cicero  and  the  Fronto  palimpsest ;  but 
in  Propertius,  Statins,  and  again  and  again  in  Seneca's 
tragedies,  where  the  metre  confirms  them ;  and  huicne 
is  nearer  the  hunc  of  Mss. 

And  now  for  our  final  critical  difficulty:  I  may 
mention  by  the  way  that  all  recent  editors  in  v.  21 
make  rn/dum  agree  with  hunc :  though  I  should  hesi- 
tate to  contradict  them,  I  must  say  that  I  have  always 
thought  it  more  emphatic  as  an  interjection:  'why,  the 
mischief,  do  you  pamper  him,  both  of  you?'  his  wrath 
ever  rising  and  now  involving  in  it  Pompey.  In  inter- 
rogative sentences  this  use  of  *  malum'  is  very  common 
in  Plautus,  not  uncommon  in  Cicero  and  the  most  idio- 
matic writers:  'qui,  malum,  bella  aut  faceta  es?'  'quae 
haec,  malum,  impudentia  est?'  and  the  like.  Then  in 
V.  23  for  the  corrupt  '  opulentissime'  many  conjectures 
have  been  made  which  may  be  seen  in  Schwabe  aud 
Ellis ;  but  since  Lachmann  most  have  adopted  his  cor- 
rection 'o  piissime',  as  completed  that  is  to  say  by  Haupt 
who  reads  'orbis,  o  piissimei  Socer  generque,  p.  o.' :  This 
has  never  seemed  to  me  quite  convincing,  though  I  hesi- 
tate to  reject  what  so  many  great  scholars  have  sanc- 
tioned :  but  it  is  the  united  force  of  several  diJQferent 
objections  that  weiglis  with  me :  '  o  piissimei'  is  not 
very  wide  of,  and  yet  not  so  very  near  the  Ms.  reading ; 
then  it  involves  a  second  alteration  of  '  urbis '  to  *  orbis', 
slight  enough  in  itself;  but  thus  we  have  two  changes, 
one  in  a  word  which  seems  genuine:  then  I  must  say 
the  '  Socer  generque'  is  to  my  mind  much  weakened  by 
havmg  an  epithet  attached;  still  more  is  the  force  of 


CARM.    20  103 

*  perdidistis  omnia'  impaired  by  *orbis'  being  joined 
with  it :  we  can  see  from  the  letters  to  Atticus  that 
this  was  a  favourite  phrase  of  the  'boni*  during  the 
three-headed  tyranny:  thus  il  21  1  *iracundiam  atque 
iiitemperantiam  illorum  sumus  experti,  qui  Catoni  irati 
omnia  perdiderunt' ;  i  1  65  *uel  perire  maluerint  quam 
perdere  omnia';  xiv  1  1  'quid  quaeris?  perisse  omnia 
aiebat';  14  3  * nonne  meministi  clamare  te  omnia  perire, 
si  ille  funere  elatus  esset':  [comp.  too  Cato  ad  M.  filium: 
et  hoc  puta  uatem  dixisse,  quandoque  ista  gens  suas 
litteras  dabit,  omnia  conrumpet;  (Cic.)  epist.  ad  Brut,  i 
3  1  et  certe,  nisi  is  Antonium  ab  urbe  auertisset,  peri- 
issent  omnia.]  How  greatly  the  moral  emphasis  of  these 
words  *  perdidistis  omnia'  is  weakened  by  the  addition 
of  orbis,  may  be  seen  from  such  a  passage  as  this  of 
Livy,  praefat.  12,  where  he  is  contrasting  the  present 
with  the  good  old  times  :  '  nuper  diuitiae  auaritiam,  et 
abundantes  uoluptates  desiderium  per  luxum  atque  libi- 
dinem  pereundi  perdendique  omnia  inuexere ' :  by  Mar- 
tial too,  *  Omnia  perdiderant'  is  employed  with  much 
effect.  Moreover  we  cannot,  to  say  the  least,  be  sure 
that  Catullus  would  have  ventured  to  use  *  piissimus', 
when  ten  years  later  Cicero  can  say  in  philip.  xiii  43 

*  tu  porro  ne  pios  quidem,  sed  piissimos  quaeris,  et  quod 
uerbum  omnino  nullum  in  lingua  Latina  est,  id  propter 
tuam  diuinam  pietatem  nouum  inducis' :  later  it  came 
more  into  use,  and  indeed  Pompeiua  comm.  Donat.  ap. 
Keil  V  p.  154  says  that  Caper  'elaborauit  uehementis- 
sime  et  de  epistulis  Ciceronis  collegit  haec  uerba,  ubi 
dixerat  ipse  Cicero  jpiissUnus' ;  but  this  is  very  indirect 
evidence,  and  Pompeius  seems  to  blunder  about  this 
philippic,  and  the  word  is  not  now  found  in  Cicero's 
letters.  Lastly  the  allusion  in  the  Catalecta  3  5  *  Vt 
iste  uersus  usquequaque  pertinet,  Gener  socerque,  perdi- 


104  CATVtLI 

distis  omnia'  seems  to  me  to  speak  strongly  for  the  ab- 
sence of  an  epithet  in  Catullus.  Ellis,  whether  for  such 
reasons  or  others  I  do  not  know,  does  not  accept  this 
reading  and  gives  us  *  (urbis  o  pudet  meae) '.  By  this 
he  means  I  presume  Rome,  not  Verona,  though  Caesar 
probably  was  in  Verona  at  this  time:  Catullus  would 
naturally  so  term  what  was,  to  use  Cicero's  phrase,  his 
patria  naturae  or  loci;  but  for  the  poet  to  speak  of 
Rome,  his^a^na  ciuitatis  or  iuris,  thus  famiharly,  strikes 
me  as  at  least  strange. 

What  I  propose  to  read  is  this :  *  Eone  nomine, 
urbis  ob  luem  ipsimae  (issimae),  Socer  generque,  per- 
didistis  omnia?'  When  ipsimae  became  issimae,  as  I 
shall  presently  shew  it  would  be  likely  to  do  in  Mss. 
such  as  those  of  Catullus,  it  is  manifest  how  readily 
obluemissimxxe  would  pass  into  opulentissime :  we  have  al- 
ready given  above  examples  more  than  enough  of  words 
perversely  divided  in  our  Ms. :  just  as  common  is  it 
either  to  divide  one  word  into  two  or  more :  so  29  3  Nam 
murram  (Mamurram);  41  1  A  me  ana  (Ameana),  etc. 
etc. :  or,  as  I  assiune  here,  to  make  two  or  more  words 
into  one:  21  5  exiocaris  (es  iocaris),  44  11  minantium 
(in  Antium),  45  17  sinistrauit  (sinistra  ut),  68  139  co- 
tidiana  (concoquit  iram),  68  124  Suscitata  (Suscitat  a), 
68  129  tuorum  (tu  horum),  76  11  instincteque  (istinc 
teque),  76  26  proprietate  (pro  pietate),  116  4  mittere- 
musque  (mittere  in  usque),  etc.  The  prose  Catullus, 
Petronius,  who  like  him  at  one  and  the  same  time 
carries  the  language  to  the  highest  pitch  of  grace  and 
refinement  and  riots  in  the  utmost  licence  of  popular 
idiom,  will  illustrate  our  ipsimae:  ch.  63  'ipsimi  nostri 
dehcatus  decessit';  and  75  *tamen  ad  delicias  femina 
ipsimi  annos  quattuordecim  fui:...ego  tamen  et  ipsimae 
satis  faciebam.     scitis  quid  dicam :  taceo,  quia  non  sum 


CARM.   29  105 

de  gloriosis:  ceterum,  quemadmodum  di  uolunt,  domi- 
iius  in  domo  fact  us  sum,  et  ecce  cepi  ipsimi  cerebellum': 
ipsimus  ipsiTiia  therefore  =  dominus  domina.  Buecheler 
illustrates  it  with  much  learning:  his  note,  p.  74,  I 
will  here  give  the  substance  of:  ipsa  is  thus  used  by 
Catullus  of  Lesbia's  sparrow  *suamque  norat  Ipsam' 
"dominam;  and  in  the  Casina  of  Plautus  the  sema 
says  'ego  eo  quo  me  ipsa  misit';  and  Buecheler  believes 
with  much  reason  that  in  Catullus'  *mea  dulcis  Ipsi- 
tilla,  Meae  deliciae'  the  name  is  a  diminutive  of  Ipsa^ 
to  express  fondness.  As  ipse  is  a  pyrrhic  in  the  old 
scenic  writers,  the  p  seems  to  have  been  scarcely 
sounded,  as  in  uolUptate,  and  the  vulgar  pronunciation 
appears  to  have  been  isse ;  for  Augustus  superseded  a 
legatus  consularis  *  ut  rudi  et  indocto'  for  writing  issi 
for  ipsi:  Martial  i  109  has  an  epigram  on  a  lapdog  Issa, 
where  seven  times  over  the  inferior  Mss.  read  ipsa;  and 
Martial  plays  on  the  similarity  of  sound:  'Hanc.Picta 
Publius  exprimit  tabella.  In  qua  tam  similem  uidebis 
Issam,  Vt  sit  tam  similis  sibi  nee  ipsa*:  and  on  the 
walls  of  Pompeii  and  on  funeral  urns  are  found  '  euge 
Issa',  'Aprodite  issa',  *issa  haue',  *issae  suae',  'issulo 
et  delicio  suo',  terms  aU  of  familiar  endearment.  Ca- 
tullus would  not  perhaps  have  hesitated  to  use  such  a 
familiar  expression,  as  ipsimae  or  issimae  ;  for  we  find 
50  expressions  Hke,  *  carta  loquatur  anus',  *fama  lo- 
quetur  anus',  *sacer  hircus',  *ut  decuit  cinaediorem', 
*  inepta  crura  ponticuli',  *  suppemata  securi',  *  iste  mens 
stupor',  *  pater  esuritionum',  'tuis  ab  unguibus  reglu- 
tiiia',  *  cum  isto  Vappa',  *  quidquid  est  domi  cachinno- 
rum',  *  cacata  carta',  *  scabies  famesque  mundi',  *  uetuli 
Falerni',  *salaputium  disertum*;  and  in  our  poem  'ista 
nostra  defututa  mentula',  'lancinata  sunt  bona',  *  uncta 
deuorare  patrimonia'. 


106  CATVLLT 

*Vrbis  ipsimae'  then  =  dominae  urbis  or  dominae 
Komae:  Ovid  has  'dominae  conditor  urbis',  *domina  re- 
tinebit  in  urbe',  'dominam  uenietis  in  urbem';  Martial 
*  domina  in  urbe*  and  * domina  ab  urbe';  Horace  'donii- 
naeque  ExDmae ',  Martial  '  dominae  fastidia  Romae  \ 
'Moenia  dominae  pulcherrima  Romae',  '  septem  dominos 
montes':  for  luem  compare  Seneca's  *luem  tantam  Troiae 
atque  Achiuis',  'Helena  pestis  exitium  lues  Vtriusque 
populi',  'ista  generis  infandi  lues',  'sacra  Thebarum 
lues',  *iste  nostri  generis  exitium  ac  lues':  CatuUus 
therefore  means  '  ob  Mamurram,  istam  pestem  dominae 
urbis' :  after  shewing  that  he  has  ruined  or  is  ruining 
one  province  after  another,  he  finishes  with  this  bit- 
terest of  his  taunts :  '  Was  it  then  on  his  account,  for 
this  plague-sore  of  the  mistress  Town,  O  father-  and 
son-in-law,  that  ye  have  ruined  all?'  It  now  remains  to 
point  out  what  Catullus  probably  refers  to,  and  I  must 
quote  at  length  the  passage  of  Pliny  twice  before  spoken 
of:  XXXVI  6  §  48  '  primum  Eomae  parietes  crusta  mar- 
moris  operuisse  totos  domus  suae  in  Caelio  monte  Cor- 
nehus  Nepos  tradit  Mamurram  Formiis  natum,  equitem 
Romanum,  praefectum  fabrum  C  Caesaris  in  Gallia,  ne 
quid  indignitati  desit,  tali  auctore  inuenta  re  ;  hie 
namque  est  Mamurra  Catulli  Veronensis  carminibus 
proscissus  quem,  ut  res  est,  domus  ipsius  clarius  quam 
Catullus  dixit  habere  quidquid  habuisset  comata  GalHa. 
namque  adicit  idem  Nepos  primum  totis  aedibus  nullam 
nisi  e  marmore  columnam  habuisse,  et  omnis  solidas 
e  Carystio  aut  Limensi':  in  these  words  Pliny,  who 
dearly  loved  a  scandal  and  was  like  his  nephew  a  great 
admirer  of  their  '  conterraneus'  Catullus,  makes  up  his 
story  by  uniting  with  the  poet's  abuse  Nepos'  narrative 
of  facts.  It  is  natural  enough  that  Mamurra's  wealth 
and  extravagance,  combining  with  that  scientific  and 


CAKM.    29  107 

mechanical  skill  which  Caesar's  chief  engineer  officer 
must  have  possessed,  would  induce  him  to  indulge  in 
architectural  display  and  in  the  invention  of  new  forms 
of  construction  and  ornament ;  and,  as  Catullus'  very 
abuse  proves  him  to  have  been  many  years  in  the  en- 
joyment of  great  wealth,  that  already  he  had  begun 
the  house  which  Nepos  and  Pliny  speak  of.  Other 
kinds  of  extravagance  or  pretension  may  have  joined 
to  rouse  the  jealous  and  supercilious  feelings  of  Catul- 
lus' coterie  towards  the  newly  enriched  upstart,  as  they 
might  regard  him  in  their  antagonism  to  Caesar  and 
Pompey:  this  would  explain  and  point  Catullus'  last 
and  bitterest  taunt,  that  he  was  the  'lues'  of  the  mis- 
tress town.  The  last  I  say;  for  to  my  taste  the  force 
and  beauty  of  the  poem  are  greatly  impaired  by  placing 
either  with  Mommsen  the  four,  or  with  Schwabe  the 
two  concluding  verses  after  v.  10,  or  by  changing  with 
Ribbeck  the  order  throughout ;  nor  do  I  agree  with 
Schwabe  that  the  position  which  the  last  verse  has  in 
the  poem  of  the  Catalecta,  is  no  argument  whatever 
that  it  had  the  same  place  in  our  piece :  the  force  and 
point  of  the  parody  surely  in  some  measure  depend 
upon  that. 

Our  argument  might  have  been  illustrated  by  an 
examination  of  other  poems  directed  against  Caesar  or 
Mamurra  or  both.  I  have  referred  above  to  the  obscure 
54th,  the  close  of  which  is  a  manifest  reference  to  our 
poem:  the  93rd,  consisting  of  only  two  lines,  is  written 
in  a  defiant  tone  towards  Caesar,  probably  much  about 
the  same  time  as  our  29th.  Towards  the  end  there  are 
four  obscure,  unimportant  and  uninteresting,  but  most 
insulting  elegiac  epigrams,  addressed  to  Mamurra  under 
the  name  of  Mentula  which  the  1.3th  line  of  our  poem 
must  have  fastened  upon  him  among  the  *  boni' :  these 


108  CATVLLI 

four  with  some  other  of  the  later  elegiac  pieces  the 
world  would  willingly  have  let  die.  To  one  only  of 
them  shall  I  refer  in  conjunction  with  the  57th :  the 
latter  attacks  both  Caesar  and  Mamurra  in  a  tone  that 
would  be  even  more  offensive  than  that  of  our  29th,  if 
its  very  excess  of  ribaldry  did  not  loudly  attest  that  it 
was  only  meant  for  petulant  banter,  one  part  of  it  flatly 
contradicting  the  other  if  taken  in  earnest.  I  shall  con- 
descend to  say  a  word  on  two  verses  only,  6  and  7, 
which,  illustrated  by  what  we  know  of  Caesar,  we  shall 
thus  interpret:  he  and  his  first  scientific  officer,  at  the 
end  of  the  year  55  and  beginning  of  54,  used  to  be 
closeted  together  for  hours  every  day  in  Verona,  map- 
ping out  Gaul  and  arranging  the  march  of  the  legions 
and  the  movements  of  the  fleet,  so  that  all  should  be 
assembled  at  the  right  moment  in  the  Portus  Itius  for 
the  second  invasion  of  Britain;  relaxing  themselves  at 
times  by  sketching  out  plans  for  draining  the  Pomptine 
marshes  and  enlarging  Rome  by  changing  the  course  of 
the  Tiber.  The  105th  poem  is  as  follows:  'Mentula 
conatur  Pipleum  scandere  montem  :  Musae  furcillis  prae- 
cipitem  eiciunt';  which  rightly  interpreted  would  mean 
that  Mamurra  not  only  possessed  the  special  acquire- 
ments befitting  Caesar's  chief  engineer;  but  had  a  taste 
for  general  literature  and  poetry  as  well ;  and  perhaps 
retorted  the  insults  of  Catullus  with  less  success,  but 
equal  goodwill,  and  let  him  know  what '  Ameana  puella' 
thought  of  him.     But  enough. 


I  have  but  little  to  add  to  the  long  exposition,  re- 
printed above  and  written  about  ten  years  ago.  Thanks 
to  Grote  and  others  we  have  now  got  over  the  habit. 


CARM.    29  109 

which  once  prevailed,  of  building  our  judgments  of 
Athenian  statesmen  on  the  libels  of  Aristophanes  or 
Eupolis^.  But  we  do  not  seem  to  have  yet  completely 
learnt  to  extend  the  same  justice  to  Romans,  greater 
than  Cleon  and  equals  at  the  least  of  Pericles,  and  to 
treat  with  merited  contempt  the  calumnies  of  Catullus 
and  Calvus,  which  have  even  a  smaller  basis  of  reality 
than  the  scurrilous  jests  of  Aristophanes.  Catullus  how- 
ever belonged  to  one  of  the  latest  generations  to  which 
law  and  opinion  conceded  this  unbridled  Hcence  :  he 
himself  can  write  with  jaunty  self-complacency  'Nil 
nimium  studeo,  Caesar,  tibi  uelle  placere  Nee  scire 
utrum  sis  albus  an  ater  homo' ;  and  he  would  have 
been  anything  but  flattered,  if  he  could  have  read  what 
the  grave  Quintilian  says  of  him  in  xi  1  38,  negat  se 
magni  facere  aliquis  poetarum,  utrum  Caesar  ater  an 
albus  homo  sit,  insania  :  uerte,  ut  idem  Caesar  de  illo 
dixerit,  adrogantia  est.  Of  course  the  almost  unre- 
stricted licence  of  assailing  living  personages  whicli 
Aristophanes  and  Catullus  possessed  or  usurped  gave 
life  to  their  attacks;  and  the  strongest  proof  of  Martial's 
unrivalled  genius  for  epigram  is  the  never-failing  vigour 
and  fecundity  which  his  poems  exhibit  in  dealing  with 
wholly  fictitious  persons  and  incidents :  cum  salua  in- 
fimarum  quoque  personarum  reuerentia  ludant ;  quae 
adeo  antiquis  auctoribus  defuit,  ut  nominibus  non  tan- 
tum  ueris  abusi  sint,  sed  et  magnis. 

I  have  to  make  a  few,  and  only  a  few,  criticisms  on 
the  criticisms  which  have  been  made  on  me.  4  ante  : 
I  am  surprised  to  see  Ellis  still  argue  for  uncti.  8  haut 
idoneus  :  this,  the  virtual  reading  of  Mss.,  I  still  look 
upon  as  giving  the  most  satisfactory  sense  ;  and  I  can- 
not, tho'  the  latest  editor  Baehrens  accepts  '  Adoneus ', 

*  KticoKKoirevKat'  ToiyapoOf  jnirup  faei. 


110  CATVLLI 

see  any  suitableness  in  the  comparison  of  the  Catullian 
Mamurra  with  the  beautiful  and  chaste  Adonis.  1  do 
not  deny  that  this  or  that  passage  may  be  found — in 
Greek,  not  Latin — where  one  may  be  called  an  Adonis 
for  his  beauty  and  youth  alone.  But  Mamurra  had 
neither  youth  nor  beauty :  Ellis  actually  quotes  *  niueum 
Adonem '  from  Propertius  where  the  poet  is  talking  of 
Adonis'  death  by  the  boar's  tusk ;  but  Mamurra  was 
not  '  niueus '  and  was  not  killed  by  a  boar.  20  Et 
huicne  GalKa  et  metet  Britannia:  1  am  vain  enough 
still  to  prefer  this  conjecture  to  any  that  has  been  made 
before  or  after  it.  Ellis  still  argues  for  his  own  con- 
jecture, which  wanders  away  from  the  Mss.  and,  as  I 
have  endeavoured  to  shew  above,  yields  no  proper  sense. 
But  a  word  on  his  criticisms  of  my  reading :  it  *  has 
always  seemed  to  me  unlike  Catullus,  not  only  in  the 
position  of  ne,  but  in  the  place  of  metet,  and  the  only 
half-obscured  assonance  Gallia  Britannia*.  The  '  half- 
obscured  assonance '  i»  too  refined  for  my  ear,  tho',  as  I 
have  observed  elsewhere,  I  might,  but  would  not,  write 

*  et  metent  (metet)  Britanniae'.  Then  as  to  the  ne  I 
protest  it  has,  if  not  the  only,  yet  far  the  best  place  it 
can  have  in  the  verse  :  it  cannot  be  annexed  to  ^t.  I 
could  cite  100  examples  from  all  the  best  writers  of  ne 
having  a  position  such  as  it  has  in  Horace's  Praeter 
cetera  me  Romaene  poemata  censes  Scribere  posse  ?  but 
I  will  confine  myself  to  two  o-r  three  examples  which 
closely  resemble  Et  huiene :  Ter.  Andr.  492  aut  itane 
tandem  cet. ;  eun.  848  Sed  estne  hie  Thais?  hec.  81 
Sed  uideon  Philotimum  ?  Plant,  most.  522  Sed  tu  etiam- 
ne  rogas  ?  vrill  this  suffice  ?  But  the  place  of  metet  ? 
I  presume  he  means  that  the  natural  position  would  be 

*  et  Britannia  metet' :  so  it  would  be,  but  tho'  Catullus 
does  not  so  often  indulge,  as  Harace  does,  in  these  and 


CARM.    29  111 

much  more  irregular  arrangements  of  words,  yet  not 
only  have  I  cited  from  him  elsewhere  several  very  much 
harsher  collocations,  such  as:  Non,  ita  me  diui,  uera 
gemunt,  iuerint :  an  excessively  strange  and  awkward 
sentence;  but  in  the  very  next  poem,  30  3  lam  me  pro- 
dere,  iam  non  dubitas  fallere,  perfide  ?  and  also  5  Quom 
tu  neglegis  ac  me  miserum  deseris  in  malis,  as  I  read, 
exactly  resemble  our  passage  :  the  first  of  the  two  Ellis 
must  accept  as  a  parallel.  And  surely  to  a  criticism 
like  this  a  tu  quoque  is  allowable :  well,  this  is  Ellis' 
own  verse  *Neque  una  Gallia  aut  metent  Britanniae' ! 
As  I  said  above,  I  cannot  believe  Catullus  would  have 
used  the  plur.  '  Britanniae'. 

21  malum :  I  proposed  above  with  hesitation  to 
take  this  for  the  interjection:  '  why,  the  mischief:  this 
usage  is  common  enough  in  Cicero,  and  I  had  marked 
down  a  passage,  de  ojff.  il  53,  which  I  observe  is  quoted 
by  Ellis,  beginning  '  quae  te,  malum  !  ratio',  where 
Cicero  is  translating  a  royal  address  of  Philip  to  his 
son  Alexander.  But,  says  Ellis,  '  to  me  this  seems  be- 
neath the  dignity  and  the  indignation  of  the  poem'. 
In  proceeding  to  comment  on  the  other  half  of  the 
verse :  quid  hie  potest  Nisi :  he  says  it  is  a  *  comic 
formula' :  thus  in  one  and  the  same  verse  an  expression 
which  Cicero  thinks  not  beneath  the  dignity  and  the 
indignation  of  Philip,  sober  and  angry,  is  beneath  the 
dignity  and  indignation  of  this  verse;  while  a  comic 
formula  is  not.  Truly  EUis  applies  a  different  standard 
to  his  neighbour  and  to  himseK  The  strongest  argu- 
ment perhaps,  and  one  not  mentioned  by  Ellis,  for  mak- 
ing Tnalum  the  adjective,  comes  from  Catullus  himself, 
64  175  Nee  malus  hic.hospes:  but  there  the  subst. 
makes  a  decided  difference ;  and  the  repetition  here  of 
'quid  hie '  seems  to  me  in  favour  of  '  Quid  himc,  malum !' 


112  CATVLLI 

But  as  I  said  above,  I  look  on  the  point  as  a  doubtful 
one.  23  :  No  one  I  fear  will  ever  decide  what  is  to  be 
read  here ;  and  I  shall  add  nothing  to  what  I  have 
already  said.  It  strikes  me  now,  as  it  struck  me  before, 
to  be  a  positive  inanity  for  Catullus  to  say  of  Rome 
*urbis  o  pudet  meae',  as  Ellis  makes  him  say;  nor  can 
I  accept  the  conjecture  of  the  latest  editor  Baehrens. 

24  Socer  generque :  there  is  certainly  much  to  be 
said  for  Baehrens'  Gener  socerque,  as  Virgil  has  it  in 
his  parody.  At  the  same  time  it  does  not  strike  me  as 
certainly  true :  the  poet  is  thinking  much  more  of  Caesar 
than  Pompey,  and  might  thus  be  disposed  to  put  *  Socer' 
first ;  while,  as  Pompey  was  the  elder,  another  might 
be  disposed  to  name  him  first ;  and  in  the  Aeneid  '  Ag- 
geribus  socer  cet.'  the  socer  coming  first  is  to  me  not 
without  weight. 

I  would  now,  with  somewhat  more  knowledge  on  the 
subject,  add  a  very  few  words  to  what  I  have  said  above, 
p.  68,  69,  about  the  poet's  praenomen  and  the  time 
of  his  birth.  Ellis  is,  I  verily  believe,  the  one  scholar 
living  who  still  maintains  his  first  name  was  Quintus, 
and  not  Gains.  Ellis  appeals  to  the  authority  of  Lach- 
mann  and  Mommsen,  as  well  as  Scaliger.  Lachmann, 
whom  Mommsen  followed,  was  ignorant  of  both  G  and 
O ;  and  took  the  interpolated  Datanus  for  his  chief 
authority.  This  codex,  written  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
1 5  th  century,  with  one  or  two  satellites,  calls  the  poet 
Q.  Catulus,  on  the  authority  I  believe  of  some  inter- 
polated Mss.  of  Pliny  xxxvii  81.  But  there  not  one  of 
Detlefsen's  codices  recognises  this  *Q.',  which  is  now 
banished  for  evermore  from  the  text  of  Pliny.  But, 
says  Ellis  (p.  liv),  'if  the  scribe  of  the  Datanus  w^as 
sufficiently  educated  to  take  the  praenomen  from  Pliny, 
it  is  not  likely  that  he  would  have  made  the  mistake  of 


CARM.   29  113 

writing  Catuli  for  Catulli*.  Why,  of  the  3  best  out  of 
the  four  Mss.  whose  readings  Detlefsen  gives  us  in  this 
part  of  Pliny,  one  has  Catulius,  the  other  two  Catulus ; 
and  we  find  Catidlus  almost  everywhere  called  Catulus 
in  mediaeval  times.  *  Besides,  if  the  Q.  was  taken  from 
Pliny,  we  might  expect  to  find  in  some  one  of  the  Mss. 
of  Catullus  a  G.  or  C.  taken  from  Jerome,  of  which 
there  is  no  trace' :  this  argument  I  cannot  even  appre- 
hend ;  much  less  can  I  answer  it. 

I  still  hold  it  to  be  more  probable  that  he  was  born 
in  84  than  in  87  B.C.  Professor  Sellar,  in  his  interest- 
ing account  of  Catullus  in  the  Encycl.  Britan.,  observes 
with  justice  '  that  the  age  at  which  a  man  dies  is  more 
likely  to  be  accurately  remembered  than  the  particular 
date  either  of  his  death  or  of  his  birth.  The  common 
practice  of  recording  the  ages  of  the  deceased  in  sepul- 
chral inscriptions  must  have  rendered  a  mistake  less 
likely  to  occur  in  that  respect  than  in  respect  of  the 
consulship  in  which  he  was  born'.  Mr  Sellar  argues 
too  that  the  '  iuuenalia '  in  the  passage  from  Ovid  which 
I  have  cited  above,  p.  73,  is  better  suited  to  the  age 
of  30  than  of  33  ;  and  this  also  I  think  with  reason. 
For  tho*  iuuenis  is  a  very  elastic  term,  and  tho'  Domitius 
Marsus  in  his  elegy  on  Tibullus,  who  died  about  the 
age  of  35,  calls  him  iuuenem,  yet  we  must  remember 
that  Marsus  was  about  the  same  age  as  Tibullus.  But 
Ovid,  when  he  wrote  his  epicedium  on  Tibullus,  in  which 
the  word  in  question  occurs,  was  only  about  25  ;  and  a 
man  of  25  does  not  see  youth  with  the  same  eyes  as  an 
older  man  does.  And  to  my  ear  '  iuuenalia '  has  a  more 
youthful  ring  than  '  iuuenis.' 


M.  c. 


114  CATVLLl 


30  1—6 


Alfene  inmemor  atque  unanimis  false  sodalibus, 
iam  te  nil  miseret,  dure,  tui  dulcis  amiculi  ? 
iam  me  prodere,  iam  non  dubitas  fallere,  perfide  ? 
nee  facta  impia  fallacum  hominum  caelicolis  placent. 
quom  tu  neglegis  ac  me  miserum  deseris  in  malis, 
eheu  quid  faciant,  die,  homines  cuiue  habeant  fidem? 

5  qupm  scripsi.  que  V.     6  dico  V.  dice  Ellis,  perhaps  rightly. 

The  only  change  which  I  have  made  on  my  own 
account  in  these  verses,  the  last  four  of  which  have 
occasioned  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  to  editors  and  in- 
duced some  of  them  to  make  various  transpositions  and 
changes  in  the  text,  is  in  5  to  read  Quom  for  Que,  and 
to  connect  it  closely  with  the  next  line  :  this  seems  to 
me  to  remove  every  difficulty.  I  assume  that,  e  and  o, 
as  I  have  said,  bemg  almost  indistinguishable  in  some 
predecessor  of  our  Mss.,  que  was  copied  from  it  instead 
of  quo :  thus  96  3  Que  O,  Quo  G,  Quom  Guarinus, 
rightly  I  think  :  66  79  quern  V,  quom  Haupt  rightly 
(Corradinus  de  Allio) :  if  Ellis'  dice  in  6  be  the  poet's, 
it  is  another  example  of  o  and  e  confused.  4  I^ec  for 
no7i,  so  common  in  the  older  writers,  I  have  illustrated 
very  fully  on  Lucr.  it  23  :  it  has  here,  as  often,  the 
force  of  *  not  at  all'.  Ellis'  defence  of  Quae  shews  that 
he  hardly  thinks  it  can  be  defended. 


31   7—14 

O  quid  solutis  est  beatius  curis, 

cum  mens  onus  reponit,  ac  peregrino  . 

labore  fessi  uenimus  nostrum  ad  larem 


CARM.   30,  31  115 

10  desideratoque  acquiescimus  lecto? 

hoc  est  quod  unum  est  pro  laboribus  tantis. 
salue,  o  uenusta  Sirmio,  atque  ero  gaude : 
gaudete  uosque,  o  uiuidae  lacus  undae : 
ridete,  quicquid  est  domi  cachinnorum. 

13  aosqae  o  uiuidae  seripsi,    nos  quoque  lidie  V. 

This  bright  poem  is  in  most  parts  as  pellucid  as  its 
own  beautiful  lake.  In  1  the  rare  paene  insula  or  paen- 
insula  is  illustrated  by  Caes.  bell.  Gall,  vi  36  2  paene 
obsessionem ;  and  Yictorius  Uar.  lect.  ix  9  is  worth  com- 
paring on  Ocelle  in  2.  8  peregr.  Lab., '  labour  under- 
gone in  foreign  parts*,  in  contrast  with  'lai*em  nostrum ' 
seems  quite  capable  of  defence :  Baehrens  reads  'Ab 
orbe'  for  'Lahore'.  But  comp.  Mart*  xiii  29  Pruna 
peregrinae  carie  rugosa  senectae  Sume  :  'age  acquired 
in  foreign  parts':  Livy  iii  16  4  id  malum. »*tum  quoque 
peregrino  terrore  sopitilm  uidebatur :  *by  terror  arising 
from  foreigners';  just  as  ib.  §  3  *  terror  seruilis'  means 
'terror  caused  by  slaves',  tho'  it  might  mean  'terror 
felt  by  slaves':  comp.  too  'praetor  peregrinus'  with 
'  mulier  peregrina '  '  uir  peregrinus'. 

1 3  has  given  occasion  to  nearly  as  many  conjectures 
as  25  5  :  '  uosque  o  lucidae',  '  Umpidae',  '  uos  quoque  in- 
citae',  have  all  been  proposed,  and  may  any  of  them  be 
right.  But  neither  Scaliger's  '  ludiae '  nor  Lachmann's 
'  Libuae '  seems  to  me  admissible  ;  nor  again  '  Lydiae' ; 
for  the  transference  of  the  epithet  to  '  undae '  is  very 
unUke  Catullus,  as  well  as  the  obtrusive  antiquarian 
reference,  the  parts  hereabout  once  on  a  time  having 
belonged  to  the  Etruscans,  and  the  Etruscans  being 
supposed  to  have  come  from  Lydia.  My  reading  was 
suggested  by  Mart,  x  30  11  Hie  summa  leni  stringitur 
Thetis  uento.  Nee  languet  aequor,  uiua  sed  quies  ponti 

8—2 


116  CATVLLI 

Pictam  phaselon  adiuuante  fert  aura.  My  'iiiuidae'  is 
the  same  as  the  *  Nee  languet '  and  *  uiuae '  of  Martial, 
and  is  surely  as  appropriate  to  the  Benacus  as  to  the 
Formian  coast.  Diplomatically  too  it  is  as  near  V,  as 
any  of  the  other  readings  except  *  Lydiae'. 


37 

9  Atqui  putate:  namque  totius  nobis 
frontem  tabernae  sopionibus  scribam. 

Is  sopionibus  corrupt,  as  it  would  appear  to  be  ?  and, 
if  so,  is  any  of  the  numerous  conjectures  that  have  been 
made  plausible  enough  to  be  received  ?  One  must  first 
of  all  bring  into  comparison  with  it  the  often  cited 
passage  in  Petron.  22  cum  Ascyltos  tot  malis  in  som- 
num  laberetur,  ilia  quae  iniuria  depulsa  fuerat  ancilla 
totam  faciem  eius  fuligine  longa  perfricuit  et  non  senti- 
entis  labra  umerosque  sopitionibus  pinxit.  The  two 
contexts  are  so  much  alike,  that  it  is  a  most  singular 
*  lusus  codicum',  if  there  is  no  real  connexion  between 
the  two  corrupt  or  apparently  corrupt  words.  If  there 
is  such  connexion,  the  word  we  want  must  express 
either  the  instrument — and  a  very  simple  instrument — 
or  the  material  employed.  The  material  must  have 
been  black  to  paint  the  lips  ;  as  the  preceding  '  fuligine' 
too  implies,  scipionibus  can  hardly  be  right ;  for  why 
the  plural ;  nor  scorpionibus  ;  for  it  is  absurd  to  imagine 
the  man's  lips  painted  with  scorpions.  Whether  we 
may  assume  an  unknown  word,  as  sopionibus  with 
Vossius  (or  ?  sopitonibus)  for  '  sopitis  carbonibus',  I  will 
not  attempt  to  decide. 

But  the  whole  resemblance  may  be  a  mere  lusus, 
and  the  editors  of  Petronius  may  be  right  in  taking 


CARM.  31,  37  117 

sopitionihus  for  the  fragments  of  two  words.  This,  as 
might  be  expected,  is  a  very  common  phenomenon  in 
Petronius :  thus  in  the  preceding  line  the  corrupt  *fu- 
ligine  longa'  may  represent  something  like  *  ivMginis 
linea  longa':  in  45  at  beg.  I  would  read  *  modo  sic, 
modo  sic,  inquit  rusticus  suario  cum  [uarium  codices] 
porcum  perdiderat' :  h.  e.  suarius;  nam  rusticus  in  aheno 
malo  libentius  quam  in  suo  philosophari  solet :   in  77 

*  interim  dum  Mercurius  uigilat,  aedificaui  banc  domum. 
ut  scitis,  caecus  career  erat  [cusuc  erat  codices],  nunc 
templum  est : '  in  46  perhaps  '  nee  uno  loco  consistit. 
scit  bene  [uene]  itidem  [set  uenit  dem  codices]  lit t  eras, 
sed  non  uult  laborare.' 

If  Catullus  then  and  Petronius  are  quite  independ- 
ent of  one  another,  I  will  add  one  more  conjecture  to 
the  many  that  have  been  made  on  this  uncertain  verse : 
namque  totius  nobis  Frontem  tabemae  pusionibus  scri- 
bam  :  uobis  is  then  the  abl.  in  apposition  with  pusioni- 
hus  :  '  I  wiU  scribble  over  the  front  of  the  whole  tavern 
with  you,  nice  young  sparks' — ^probably  both  with  their 
names  and  caricatures  of  their  persons.  2310  b  of  the 
Pompeian  wall-inscriptions  *  Euplia  hie  cum  hominibus 
bellis',  and  comp.  ib.  1473  MartiaUs  uos  irrum — with 
V.  8  of  our  poem.  Perhaps  Catullus  would  write :  Lesbia 
hie  cum  beUis  hominibus,  Egnatio,  cet.  and  might  give  a 
caricature  of  Egnatius  with  his  teeth  and  beard,  pu- 
sionibus would  be  the  same  as  the  '  pusilli  et  semitarii 
moechi'  of  v.  16 :  Apul.  met.  ix  7  at  uero  adulter,  belhs- 
simus  ille  pusio ;  Cic.  pro  CaeHo  36  (speaking  to  Clodia) 
minimum  fratrem,...qui  te  plurimum  amat,  qui... tecum 
semper  pusio  cum   minore  sorore  cubitauit.     In  v.  5 

*  hircos '  can  only  mean  '  ohdos  hircos':  comp.  the  line, 
applied  to  tjie  *  hirsute  atque  olido  seni'  in  Suet.  Tib. 
45  hircum  uetulum  Capreis  naturam  liguroire.     *  Catul- 


118  CATVLLI        " 

lus'  says  Ellis,  'after  upbraiding  the  taberna  and  its 
frequenters  for  lewdness,  would  scarcely  contrast  them 
with  an  animal  which  is  a  type  of  this  very  quality'. 
I  hardly  catch  the  meaning  of  this  :  it  is  not  Catullus 
who  'contrasts'  them  ;  but  these  fine  feUows  who  draw 
the  contrast  themselves. 


42 

Adeste,  hendecasyllabi,  quot  estis 
omnes  undique,  quotquot  estis  omnes. 
iocum  me  putat  esse  moecha  turpis 
et  negat  mihi  uestra  reddituram 
5  pugillaria,  si  pati  potestis. 

persequamur  eam,  et  reflagitemus. 
quae  sit  quaeritis  ?     ilia  quam  uidetis 
turpe  incedere,  mimice  ac  moleste 
ridentem  catuli  ore  Gallicani. 
10  circumaistite  eam,  et  reflagitate 
*moeoha  putida,  redde  codicillos, 
redde,  putida  moecha,  codicillos'. 
non  assis  facis?   o  lutum,  lupanar, 
aut  si  perditius  potes  quid  esse. 

15  sed  non  est  tamen  hoc  satis  putandum. 
quod  si  non  aliud  pote,  ut  ruborem 
ferreo  canis  exprimamus  ore, 
conclamate  iterum  altiore  uoce 

*  moecha  putida,  redde  codicillos, 
30  redde,  putida  moecha,  codiciUos'. 

sed  nil  proficimus,  nihil  mouetur. 
mutanda  est  ratio  modusque  nobis, 
siquid  proficere  amplius  potestis: 

*  pudica  et  proba,  redde  codicillos', 

16  pote,  Bt  tcripsi.   potest  V.  17  ore,  Conclamate  scripsi.  ore.   Concl.  uulgo> 


CAitM.  37,  42  119 

I  have  printed  the  whole  of  this  lively  and  humor- 
ous poem,  not  that  I  have  anything  to  say,  in  addition 
to  what  has  been  said  by  others,  on  the  greater  part  of 
it ;  but  because  I  have  long  felt  that  there  is  a  hitch 
in  one  portion,  and  wish  to  make  my  reasons  clear  for 
attempting  to  remove  that  hitch.  I  entirely  go  with 
EUis  in  thinking  that  Lesbia  cannot  be  the  object  of 
attack. 

With  vss.  11,  12  and  19,  20  I  would  compare  Plant, 
most.  600  Mihi  faenus  reddat,  faenus  actutum  mihi... 
Cedo  faenus,  redde  faenus,  faenus  reddite.  Daturin  estis 
faenus  actutum  mihi  ?  Daturne  faenus  ?  14  1  keep 
the  potes  of  G  and  O,  that  is  of  V :  Cic.  ad  Att.  xi  18  2 
sed  hoc  perditius,  in  quo  nunc  sum,  fieri  nihil  potest ; 
XIV  1  1  nihil  perditius,  shew  *  perditius*  not  to  be 
'unique'.  8  Turpe :  surely  not  *  strictly  an  adverb', 
but  the  neut.  ace.  of  the  adjective,  so  often  joined  by 
the  poets  with  verbs  denoting  any  bodily  action,  as 
*Perfidum  ridens  Yenus' :  in  one  of  the  passages  which 
Ellis  quotes  from  Cicero  all  editors  now  read  'turpi 
pace';  in  the  other  the  adverb  is  'hilare'  from  'hilarus'. 
13  o  lutum,  lupanar :  Cic.  in  Pis,  62  o  tenebrae, 
lutum,  sordes. 

16  the  manuscript  reading  here  seems  to  me  to 
interrupt  the  simple  and  natural  progress  of  the  poem : 
the  words  would  properly  mean:  'if  nothing  else  can 
extort  a  blush  from  her  brazen  face'.  But  even  assum- 
ing they  can  mean  :  '  if  nothing  else  can  be  done,  let  us 
extort  a  blush':  even  thus  the  plain  purport  of  this 
very  simple  poem  is  thwarted.  The  extorting  a  blush 
must  surely  be  the  same  as  shaming  her  into  doing 
what  we  want.  But  in  that  case  there  is  a  most  awk- 
ward stop  at  the  end  of  17  ;  and  18  proceeds  as  if  there 
was  nothing  between  15  and  it.     Westphal  seems  to 


120  CATVLLI 

have  sought  to  remedy  this  by  putting  16  and  17  after 
23,  and  reading  Qvo,  si  for  Quod  si :  my  remedy  is 
much  simpler  and  I  think  more  efficacious  :  I  change  a 
single  letter  only  and  alter  the  punctuation  after  ore: 
*  if  nothing  else  can  do  so,  in  order  to  extort  a  blush 
from  her  brazen  face,  bawl  out  once  more  in  louder 
tones'.  Catullus,  like  the  older  writers  generally,  em- 
ploys pote  ioT  potest  very  freely;  as  17  24,  45  5,  etc. 
We  might  retain  potest  and  read  :  Ferreo  ut  cards  ex- 
primamus  ore,  ConcL ;  but  I  prefer  the  other  remedy. 


45 

Acmen  Septimius  sues  amores 
tenens  in  gremio  *mea'  inquit  'Acme, 
ni  te  perdite  amo  atque  amare  porro 
omnes  sum  assidue  paratus  annos 
5  quantum  qui  pote  plurimum  perire, 
solus  in  Libya  Indiaque  tosta 
caesio  ueniam  obuius  leoni'. 
hoc  ut  dixit.  Amor  sinistra  ut  ante 
dextram  sternuit  approbationem. 

10  at  Acme  leuiter  caput  reflectens 
et  dulcis  pueri  ebrios  ocellos 
illo  purpureo  ore  sauiata 
*sic'  inquit,  *mea  uita  Septimille, 
huic  uni  domino  usque  seruiamus, 

15  ut  multo  mihi  maior  acriorque 
ignis  mollibus  ardet  in  medullis'. 
hoc  ut  dixit,  Amor  sinistra,  ut  ante, 
dextram  sternuit  approbationem. 
nunc  ab  auspicio  bono  profecti 

20  mutuis  animis  amant  amantur. 


CARM.  42,  45  121 

unam  Septimius  misellus  Acmen 
mauult  quam  Syrias  Britanniasque : 
uno  in  Septimio  fidelis  Acme 
facit  delicias  libidinisque. 
25  quia  ullos  homines  beatiores 

uidit,  quis  Venerem  auspicatiorem? 

8  at  ante  is  corrupt.    Perhaps  sinister  astans.    9  Deztra  V. 

The  whole  of  this  poem  too,  the  most  charming 
picture  in  any  language  of  a  light  and  happy  love,  I 
have  printed,  in  order  to  make  clear  the  view  I  take  of 
its  action  and  motive,  which  seem  to  me  not  to  have  been 
quite  rightly  apprehended  even  by  those  editors,  Scaliger, 
Vossius,  Baehrens,  etc„  who  have  seen  that  v.  8  is  corrupt. 
The  ut  ante  has  probably,  as  Baehrens  says,  come  from 
17,  and  may  have  displaced  something  quite  different, 
such  as  'sinister  ipse',  or  'manu  sinistra'  but  my  sug- 
gested 'sinister  astans'  gives  the  sense  that  is  required. 
The  scene  which  the  poet  paints  is  quite  distinct  to 
my  mind,  while  from  Ellis'  notes  I  cannot  gather  how 
he  represents  the  situation  to  himself;  and  Baehrens* 
'  sinistra  ab  Acme',  as  well  as  his  punctuation  of  17, 
is  not  compatible  with  my  view  of  the  matter. 

Septimius  is  resting  on  a  couch  of  some  kind  and 
is  leaning  with  his  right  side  against  it :  Acme  is  re- 
clining on  his  bosom.  They  are  both  therefore  looking 
more  or  less  towards  the  left.  Septimius  declares  that 
he  loves  her  as  dearly  as  mortal  man  can  love.  The 
moment  he  has  said  this.  Love  weU-pleased,  standing 
on  their  left,  sneezes  at  them  approval  towards  the 
right  (as  he  must  do,  being  as  he  is  on  their  left).  Then 
Acme,  slightly  bending  back  her  head  and  kissing  the 
sweet  boy's  eyes  drunken  with  passion  (which  he  would 
hold  down  to  meet  her  lips),  protests  that  her  passion 


122  CATVLLI 

is  much  stronger  than  his.  The  moment  she  had 
spoken  this,  Love  on  the  left  hand,  just  as  before, 
sneezed  at  them  approval  towards  the  right.  The 
twice-repeated  omen  encouraged  them  in  their  passion : 
*  Now  starting  from  so  fair  an  augury,  soul  answering 
soul,  they  love,  are  loved  again'. 

The  poem,  thus  explained,  is  surely  simple  enough 
and  keeps  clear  of  all  the  *  difficulty'  in  which  Ellis  in- 
volves himself  and  it.  3  te  perdite  amo :  '  amare  coepit 
perdite'  occurs  twice  in  Terence,  amare:  this  is  more 
emphatic  than  Froelioh's  conjecture  '  amore',  accepted 
by  Schwabe:  'te'  then  belongs  to  *amo',  to  'amare' 
and  to  'perire';  for,  since  Catullus  has  in  35  12  Ilium 
deperit  inpotente  amore,  and  in  100  2  'depereunt' 
with  the  accus.  simply  and  without  'amore',  and  as 
Plautus  Poen.  iv  2  135  has  the  less  usual  'hie  alteram 
efilictim  perit',  also  without  '  amore',  there  seems  no 
reason  to  refuse  to  Catullus  the  same  construction 
'perire  te';  and  '  amore'  without  an  epithet  would  cer- 
tainly be  weak.  With  the  change  of  word  in  '  amare 
...Quantum  qui  potejpmre',  I  would  compare  Mart,  x 
86  1  Nemo  noua  caluit  sic  inflammatus  arnica,  Flagrauit 
quanto  Laurus  amore  pilae.  There  is  even  a  greater 
hitch  in  Cat.  96  5  non  tanto  mors  inmatura  dolorist 
Quintiliae,  quantum  gaudet  amore  tuo.  12  comp. 

Apul.  apol,  403  oris  sauia  purpurei. 


54 

[Beprinted  from  the  Journal  of  Philology,  vol.  5  p.  301—304] 

The  lost  manuscript  of  Catullus,  from  which  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  all  the  others  are  derived,  would 
appear  to  have  handed  down  this  trivial  and  uninter- 


CARM.   45,   54  123 

esting  poem  in  the  following  shape,  if  we  take  no 
account  of  two  verses  repeated  without  meaning  from  a 
former  poem,  or  of  the  heading  which  belongs  to  the 
next  poem  and  has  been  wrongly  inserted  in  this  one : 

Otonis  caput  oppido  est  pusillum 
et  eri  rustice  semilauta  crura 
subtile  et  leue  peditum  libonis 
si  non  omnia  displicere  uellem 
tibi  et  sufficio  seniore  cocto 
irascere  iterum  meis  iambis 
inmerentibus  unice  imperator. 

In  the  third  number  of  our  Journal  I  examined  at 
some  length  the  29  th  poem  in  which  Caesar  and  his 
friend  Mamurra  are  assailed  with  so  much  wit  and  tru- 
culent virulence.  The  last  two  lines  of  our  present 
poem  contain  a  direct  reference  to  the  other,  the  unice 
imperator  here  distinctly  pointing  to  the  imperator 
unice  there.  It  is  however  for  critical  purposes  only 
that  I  now  discuss  this  54th  poem,  not  for  any  his- 
torical or  personal  references,  which  are  altogether  un- 
known and,  if  they  were  known,  would  probably  turn 
out  to  be  of  no  importance  whatever. 

Three  slight  and  manifest  corrections  were  soon 
made  in  the  manuscript  text :  Otonis^  at  once  became 
Othonis;  for  sufficio,  which  does  not  appear  to  be  a 
Latin  name,  from  the  time  of  Scaliger  Fuficio  or  Fu- 
fecioy  a  well-known  name,  has  been  generally  read ;  and 
seni  recocto  soon  took  the  place  of  the  unmeaning  and 

^  Otonis  I  take  to  be  the  reading  of  the  archetype,  not  the  Octonis  of  most 
of  the  existing  Mss.  The  Latin  ct  became  t  or  tt  in  Italian;  and  for  thia 
reason  an  Italian  would  instinctively  translate  his  own  tt  back  into  ct :  Giotto 
calls  himself  loctus.  For  otonia  then  a  scribe  would  at  once  write  octonis, 
which  he  would  know  to  be  a  Latin  word.  For  similar  reasons  I  beheve  the 
archetype  had  eri,  not  heri,  in  the  second  line.  [Catullus  probably  wrote 
*  Otonis',  as  Baehrens  now  prints  it.] 


124  CATVLLI 

unmetrical  seniore  cocto,  Scaliger  clinching  this  emen- 
dation by  these  words  :  *  glossarium  interpretatur  aire- 
<f)0ov  yepovra  cum  hunc  locum  in  animo  haberet'. 

But  after  these  obvious  changes  have  been  made, 
most  of  the  critics,  old  and  new,  look  upon  the  poem  as 
mutilated  and  unintelligible.  Yictorius  speaks  of  its 
Cimmerian  darkness ;  Muretus  says  that  a  Sibyl  alone 
could  interpret  it,  that  it  manifestly  consists  of  muti- 
lated fragments  of  different  epigrams,  incapable  of  being 
understood  or  corrected.  Scaliger' s  emendations  are 
clumsy  and  his  explanations  wrong.  Of  recent  editors 
two  of  the  most  eminent,  Lachmann  and  Haupt,  as- 
sume two  lacunae,  one  after  the  third,  the  other  after 
the  fifth  line.  I  will  quote  the  poem  in  the  shape  in 
which  it  is  presented  to  us  by  the  two  most  recent  cri- 
tical editions.     Ellis  prints  it  thus  : 

Othonis  caput  oppido  est  pusillum  ; 
•fet  Heri  rustice,  semilauta  crura, 
subtile  et  leue  peditum  Libonis. 


at  non  effugies  meos  iamhos 


si  non  omnia  displicere  uellem 
tibi  et  Sufficio  seni  recocto 

irascere  iterum  meis  iambis 
inmerentibus,  unice  imperator. 

The  verse  in  Italics  is  a  fragment  of  Catullus  which 
Ellis  supposes  to  belong  to  this  poem ;  which  in  Lucian 
Mueller's  edition  becomes  two  poems  and  assumes  the 
following  shape  : 


CARM.   54  125 

LIIII. 

Othonis  caput  oppidost  pusillum 

«  «  » 

Neii  rustica  semilauta  crura, 

subtile  et  leue  peditum  Libonis. 

*  *  ♦ 

si  non  omnia  displicere  uellem 
tibi  et  Fuficio  seni  recocto 

LIIII^ 

Irascere  iterum  meis  iambis 
inmerentibus,  unice  imperator. 

Though  I  dissent  with  diffidence  from  so  many 
eminent  authorities,  I  cannot  conceal  my  belief  that 
the  poem  is  quite  entire  and  unmutilated,  and  that  the 
change  of  one  other  letter  will  render  it  perfectly  intel- 
ligible, dispel  the  Cimmerian  darkness  and  enable  us  to 
dispense  with  the  Sibyl's  assistance.  Before  offering 
any  further  explanations  I  will  print  the  poem  as  I 
think  Catullus  may  have  written  it : 

Othonis  caput  (oppido  est  pusillum) 
et,  trirustice,  semilauta  crura, 
subtile  et  leue  peditum  Libonis, 
si  non  omnia,  displicere  uellem 
tibi  et  Fuficio  seni  recocto : — 
irascere  iterum  meis  iambis 
inmerentibus,  unice  imperator. 

The  proper  interpretation  of  the  whole  poem  ap- 
pears to  me  to  depend  primarily  on  the  right  under- 
standing of  the  words  si  non  omnia ;  and  for  this 

uia  prima  salutis, 
quod  minime  reris,  Graia  pandetur  ab  urbe ; 


126  CATVLLI 

or  rather,  I  should  say,  not  from  a  Greek  city,  but 
from  the  city  of  the  Trojan  Antenor.  It  is  not  known 
who  Otho  or  Libo  or  Fuficius  was,  but  it  is  plain  that 
the  poet  means  to  say  that  Otho  and  Libo  were  fa- 
vourites of  Caesar  and  Fuficius,  standing  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  former  as  he  had  scurrilously  described 
Mamurra  as  doing  in  the  29th  poem.  I  could  wish,  he 
says,  that  Otho's  head  (right  puny  it  is)  and,  you  tho- 
rough clown,  those  half-washed  legs  of  his,  and  Libo*s 
offensive  habits,  if  not  everything  else  about  them, 
should  disgust  you.  Then  pretending  to  recall  his  for- 
mer quarrel  with  Caesar,  he  breaks  off  abruptly  with 
the  words,  '  you  will  be  enraged  a  second  time  with  my 
innocent  iambics,  O  general  without  peer'. 

Vulpius  of  Padua  saw,  as  I  have  said,  that  this  was 
the  meaning  of  si  non  omnia,  and  he  has  illustrated  the 
expression  from  Cicero  pro  Sestio  §  7  ut  ille...si  non 
omnem,  at  aliquem  partem  maeroris  sui  deponeret.  But 
the  phrase  may  be  illustrated  by  other  passages  which 
I  have  given  in  my  note  on  Lucretius  iii  406  Si  non 
omnimodis,  at  magna  parte  animai  Priuatus ;  ii  1017 
Si  non  omnia  sunt,  at  multo  maxima  pars  est  Consi- 
milis;  LucU.  i  33  Muell.  Si  non  amplius,  at  lustrum  hoc 
protolleret  unum.  The  at  in  these  passages  makes  the 
antithesis  more  distinct,  but  it  can  hardly  be  necessary 
in  a  style  like  that  of  Catullus. 

Schwabe,  and  before  him  Doering,  accept  the  expla- 
nation of  Vulpius,  but  like  most  of  the  editors  they 
make  more  than  one  quite  unnecessary  alteration  in  the 
text.  Thus  nearly  all  omit  the  est  of  v.  1 ;  but  the  pa- 
renthesis appears  to  me  to  add  force  to  the  expression  ; 
and  parentheses  are  a  very  marked  feature  of  most 
Latin  styles,  as  I  have  shewn  in  my  Lucretius.  With 
our   present  passage    compare  Seneca  Hippol.   35   At 


CARM.   54  127 

Spartanos  (genus  est  audax  Auldumque  ferae)  nodo 
cautus  Propiore  liga.  Then  in  v»  2  Schwabe  with  most 
others  changes  rustice  to  rustica ;  but  the  vocative  is 
much  more  spirited  and  emphatic,  the  semilauta  crura 
marking  the  coarse  rustic.  Of  course  I  do  not  pretend 
that  my  reading  'Et,  trirustice'  is  more  than  plausible; 
but  I  change  but  a  single  letter,  and  T  and  E  are  among 
the  letters  most  frequently  confused.  With  tmrusticus 
I  would  compare  not  only  trigeminus,  but  also  Plautus 
trifur,  trifarcifer,  triparcus,  tritienefica.  It  is  possible 
Catullus  wrote  ter  rustice ;  it  is  quite  possible  too  that 
a  new  name  lurks  in  the  manuscript  reading,  such  as 
Heiiy  which  many  adopt.  But,  I  confess,  I  think  that 
the  passage  is  more  spirited  without  this  third  name, 
and  that  it  is  more  probable  Catullus  should  speak  of 
Caesar  and  Fuficius  as  having  the  same  relations  with 
the  same  two  persons  than  with  the  same  three.  This 
point  however  must  remain  uncertain  :  on  the  general 
meaning  of  the  whole  poem  I  feel  no  uncertainty  what- 
ever ;  or  rather  I  would  say  that  I  should  have  felt 
none,  if  so  many  distinguished  scholars  had  not  found 
it  so  unintelHgible. 


I  have  not  much  to  add  to  what  I  have  reprinted 
above.  The  latest  editor  of  the  text  Baehrens  believes 
it  like  me  to  be  one  poem;  but  I  confess  he  makes 
changes  in  the  text  which  seem  to  me  to  be  unneces- 
sary. Ellis  adheres  to  his  former  opinion:  he  gives  four 
pleas  for  rejecting  my  arrangement,  the  third  of  which 
I  will  first  examine:  'Even  if  we  allow  the  first  five 
lines  to  be  consecutive,  the  aposiopesis  before  'Irascere 
iterum'  is  immeasurably  harsh,  not  to  say  unintelli- 
gible'.    I  deny  that  there  is  any  'aposiopesis'  at  all; 


128  CATVLLI 

and  I  affirm  that,  so  far  from  the  transition  being  harsh 
or  unintelligible,  on  it  depends  the  main  point  of  the 
poem  :  the  poet  in  the  first  five  lines  makes  his  charge ; 
and  then  bethinking  himself  of  the  similar  charges  he 
had  made  in  29,  and  of  the  proconsul's  wrath  which  it 
had  excited,  he  says  :  Irascere  iterum  meis  iambis  In- 
merentibus,  unice  imperator:  the  last  words  at  once 
recalling  that  poem  and  its  imperator  unice.     What  is 
there  that  is  harsh  or  unintelligible  here  ?     Take  the 
following  transition,  with  an  '  aposiopesis'  as  well,  in 
Cic.   pro  Mil.    33:    De   nostrum   omnium — non  audeo 
totum  dicere.     uidete  quid  ea  uitii  lex  habitura  fuerit, 
cuius  periculosa  etiam  reprehensio  est.    There  you  have 
something  harsh  and,  if  not  unintelhgible,  yet  not  to 
be  cleared  up  by  any  one  now  livmg,  while  I  think  I 
have  made  Catullus'  meaning  clear  enough.    Take  again 
Mart.  X   9  Yndenis  pedibusque  syllabisque  Et  multo 
sale,  nee  tamen  proteruo,  Notus  gentibus  ille  Martialis 
Et  notus  populis — quid  inuidetis  ?     Non  sum  Andrae- 
mone  notior  caballo.    Is  that  less  harsh  than  our  poem? 
His  fourth  plea  is  this :  *  Nothing  is  gained  by  in- 
terpreting the  poem  as  a  complete  whole':  my  answer 
is  that  I  think  something  is  gained.     His  first  plea, 
like  the  fourth,  seems  merely  to  be  a  plea  in  mitigation 
of  his  own  most  singular  arrangement :  the  Mss.  'repeat 
here  (as  is  by  no  means  unusual  with  them)  two  lines 
which  belong   to   another  poem;  therefore   they  may 
have  also  perpetrated  the  other  enormities  which  he 
takes  them  to  be  guilty  of;  but  from  which  I  have 
rescued  them.  The  second  plea  does  not  touch  at  all  my 
general  argument:  'The  Mss  point  to  a  proper  name'. 
I  have  fully  admitted  that  they  may;  but  my  reasons 
for  thinking  they  did  not  were  a  quite  subordinate,  or 
rather  a  quite  indifferent,  point  in  the  general  argu- 


CARM.  54,  55  129 

merit.  But  why  Et  eriy  the  reading  of  V,  should  not 
come  as  easily  from  Et  tn  rustice,  as  from  a  proper 
name,  I  confess  I  do  not  see.  The  reason  I  have  given 
above  for  my  reading  is  'that  it  is  more  probable  Catul- 
lus should  speak  of  Caesar  and  Fuficius  as  having  the 
same  relations  with  the  same  two  persons  than  with 
the  same  three'.  I  now  go  farther,  and  think  it  likely 
that  Catullus,  using  a  peculiarity  of  syntax  common  in 
Latin,  meant  to  say  that  Caesar  had  such  relations  with 
Otho  alone;  Fuficius  with  Libo  alone:  comp.  Mart,  ii 
2  1  Creta  dedit  magnum,  mains  dedit  Africa  nomen, 
Scipio  quod  uictor  quodque  Metellus  habet;  vi  13  7 
Vt  Martis  reuocetur  amor  summique  tonantis  A  te 
luno  petat  ceston  et  ipsa  Venus;  xi  48  Silius  haec 
magni  celebrat  monimenta  Maronis,  lugera  facundi  qui 
Ciceronis  habet.  Heredem  dominumque  sui  tumulique 
larisque  {so  Mss.  ue-ue  editions)  Non  alium  mallet  Nee 
Maro  nee  Cicero. 

I  cannot  say  I  approve  of  Baehrens'  correction  of 
V.  1 :  is  not  '  pusillum  os'  at  the  end  of  it  an  elision 
unexampled  in  Catullus?  His  correction  of  4  is  cer- 
tainly not  an  obvious  one :  to  confirm  my  own  reading 
I  would  cite,  in  addition  to  those  given  above,  Cic. 
epist.  XVI  24  1  A  Flamma,  si  non  potes  omne,  partem 
aliquam  ueHm  extorqueas :  where,  as  in  Catullus,  at  is 
absent. 


55  1,  2  and  7—10 

Oraraus,  si  forte  non  molestum  est, 
2  demonstres  ubi  sint  tuae  tenebrae.... 
7  femellas  omnes,  amice,  prendi, 

quas  uultu  uidi  tamen  sereno. 
M.  c. 


130  ■      CATVLLI 

h  liel  t©  sic  ipse  flagitabam: 
10  'Camerium  milii,  pessimae  puellael* 

8  sereno.  serena  V.     9  ipse,  perhaps  usque,  inde  Baehrens. 

I  will  examine  one  sentence  only  of  this  involved 
and  stiff  poem,  as  nearly  all  the  editors  seem  to  have 
introduced  unnecessary  and  hurtful  changes  there.  7  'I 
seized  hold  of  aU  the  wenches,  whom  I  saw  notwith- 
standing wear  an  untroubled  countenance  :  ah,  even  so 
I  continued  to  demand  you  of  them :  Camerius  I  want, 
you  naughty  girls',  sereno  in  8  is  the  simplest  cor- 
rection: comp.  too  Mart,  ii  11  1  Quod  fronte  SeHum 
nubila  uides,  Bufe.  9  I  keep  the  Ms.  reading,  which 
editors  have  changed  in  very  various  ways.  If  any 
change  is  needed,  I  would  simply  read  '  A !  te  uel  sic': 
but  this  interposition  of  te  between  uel  and  sic  is  not 
T  think  unidiomatic:  comp.  Tib.  (Sulpicia)  iv  11  3  A! 
ego  non  aliter  tristes  euincere  morbos  Optarim  quam  te 
si  quoque  uelle  putem ;  Mart,  iv  1  9  12  Nee  sic  in  Tyna 
sindone  cultus  eris:  i.e.  ne  in  Tyria  quidem  sindone 
sic:  IX  8  9  Dilexere  prius  pueri  iuuenesque  senesque; 
At  nunc  infantes  te  quoque,  Caesar,  amant :  quoque  has 
such  a  position  more  than  once  in  Lucretius :  lUud  in 
his  quoque  te  rebus,  tamen :  though  I  thus  seized  upon 
them,  they  were  quite  untroubled,  as  if  they  knew 
themselves  to  be  innocent.  But  Baehrens  seems  to  me 
right  in  asserting  that  ipse  has  no  meaning:  Elhs  says: 
*with  my  own  lips';  but  how  else  could  he  ask?  my 
usque  suits  the  im^ert  Jlagitabam  well.  10  to  illustrate 
the  omission  of  the  verb,  see  my  note  on  10  25. 


CARM.   55,  57  131 


57 


Pulcre  conuenit  improbis  cinaedis, 

Marnurrae  pathicoque  Caesarique. 

•     nee  mirum :   maculae  pares  utrisqne, 

urbana  altera  et  ilia  Formiana, 
5  impressae  resident  nee  eluentur : 
morbosi  pariter,  gemelli,  utrique 
lino  in  lecticulo,   erudituli  ambo, 
non  hie  quam  ille  magis  uorax  adulter, 
riuales  soeiei  puellularum. 
10  pulcre  conuenit  impjobis  cinaedis. 

7  lecticulo  0  Baehrens.  iectulo  G  uulgo. 

This  short  poem  is  on  the  same  theme,  and  displays 
the  same  amazing  impudence,  as  the  29  th.  All  that  I 
have  to  say  on  the  personal  and  historical  questions 
with  which  they  deal  has  been  discussed  so  fully  in  my 
comments  on  that  29th  poem,  that  I  can  wholly  dis- 
miss them  here.  I  think  it  well  worth  while  however 
to  examine  the  structure  of  the  poem  itself,  as  by  a 
better  punctuation  I  can,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  both 
add  to  its  point  and  do  away  with  all  occasion  for 
tampering  with  the  text  which  appears  to  be  perfectly 
sound. 

And  first  I  would  say  that  in  v.  7  the  lecticulo  of 
0  seems  to  me,  as  to  Baehrens,  to  be  almost  certainly 
right,  and  to  be  one  of  the  many  gains  for  the  text  of 
Catullus  which  we  owe  to  O  and  to  O  alone.  I  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  the  prosody  of  lectuld  is  impossible ; 
but  no  scholar  will  deny  I  think  that  lecticulo  gives  us 
a  rhythm  far  more  in  accordance  with  the  technical 
rules  which  Catullus  observes  in  his  h^ndecasyllables. 

9—2 


132  CATVLLI 

But  the  form  of  tlie  word  ?  The  two  first  declensions 
form  their  diminutives  as  a  rule  by  the  addition  of 
'Ul :  uillula,  mannulus,  paruulus,  pallidulus,  puellus 
(puerulus),  and  a  multitude  of  like  forms :  therefore 

*  lectus,  4,  lectulus  ;  pannus,  -i,  pannulus '.  The  third 
adopts  a  lengthened  form,  -iculy  sometimes  -ecul :  cau- 
liculus,  colliculus,  tristiculus,  nubecula,  uulpecula  and 
the  like.  The  fourth  declension  in  this  as  in  many 
other  points  follows  the  laws  of  the  third :  uersiculus, 
articulus,  quaesticulus,  anicula,  manicula,  corniculum. 
Now  we  learn  from  the  lexicons  that  *  pannibus '  is 
quoted  from  Ennius  by  Charisius,  from  Pomponius  by 
Nonius  :  it  was  therefore  once  of  the  4th  as  well  as  the 
2nd  decL,  and  consequently  we  find  *panniculus'  as 
well  as  'pannulus'.  Ussing  on  Plant.  Amph.  509  (513) 
cites  Priscian  vi  73,  who  quotes  Cornificius  for  the 
nom.  plur.  lectus,  and  this  passage  of  Plautus  for  the 
gen.  sing,  lectus,  and  he  is  supported  in  this  by  the 
Mss.  of  Plautus :  lectus  therefore  was  once  of  the  4th 
decL  and  conformably  with  this  Catullus  uses  *  lecti- 
culo'. 

6  and  7  :  The  exact  force  and  meaning  of  these  two 
verses  I  have  brought  out  by  a  punctuation  differing 
from  that  of  all  the  editors,  who  join  'gemelli  utrique', 
or  else  have  recourse  to  conjecture,  Haupt  reading 
tenelli,  Baehrens  macelli,  for  the  quite  genuine  gemelli. 

*  Tainted  alike,  true  twin-brothers,  both  together  on  a 
single  sofa,  most  learned  witlings  both'.  Horace  in  his 
satires  and  epistles  uses  gemellus  with  much  the  same 
sarcastic  force  as  Catiillus  and  may  have  had  him  in  his 
thoughts:  we  should  compare  too  100  3  hoc  est,  quod 
dicitur  illud  Fratemum  uere  dulce  sodalicium ;  which 
shews  the  expression  to  be  proverbial,  utr.  uno  in  lect. : 
Cic.  in  Pis.   67   Graeci  stipati,   quini  in  lectis,  saepe 


CARM.  57,  59  133 

plures,  ipse  solus;  Mart,  iv  40  5  Tecum  ter  denas  nu- 
meraui,  Pontice,  brumas ;  Communis  nobis  lectus  et 
unus  erat. 

I  would  strengthen  my  argument  on  tbese  two 
verses  by  calling  in  one  whose  aid  I  have  often  in- 
voked already.  Martial  knew  Catullus  so  thoroughly 
that  I  feel  he  had  their  words  and  rhythm  in  his  mind 
when  he  wrote  the  last  two  lines  of  his  ironical  epigram, 
XII  40;  the  last  7  verses  of  which  I  will  cite:  Succurras 
misero,  precor,  furori  Et  serues  aliquando  neglegenter 
Illos  qui  male  cor  meum  perurunt,  Quos  et  noctibus  et 
diebus  opto  In  nostro  cupidus  sinu  uidere,  Formosos, 
niueos,  pares,  gemellos,  Grandes,  non  pueros,  sed  uni- 
ones. 

On  V.  2  Ellis  says :  '  The  quSy  joined  as  it  is  with 
pathico  and  thus  standing  between  Mamurrae  and 
Caesarique,  distributes  the  vice  equally  to  both':  I  am 
quite  unable  to  see  how  que  does  this ;  it  seems  to  me 
a  simple  instance  of  que  joined  with  the  2nd  instead  of 
the  1st  word  of  the  clause,  a  usage  not  uncommon  in 
Lucretius  and  some  other  writers:  comp.  also  7Q  11 
atque  istinc  teque  reducis.  I  doubt  too  whether  Catul- 
lus meant  pathico  to  refer  at  all  to  Caesar,  tho'  Schwabe 
also,  quaest.  p.  189,  maintains  it  does.  1:  Comp. 
Petron.  94  et  ego  iracundus  sum  et  tu  libidinosus : 
uide  quam  non  conueniat  his  moribus. 


59 

1 :    If  rufulum  is  the  true  correction  of  the  Ms. 
rufum,  I  would  read 

Bononiensis  rufa  rufulum  fellat 
uxor  Meneni.  > 


134  '      CATVLLI      ■ 

•I  feel  pretty  sure  that  rufa  is  an  epithet,  not  a  name  ; 
for  what  point  is  there  in  the  two  names  being  the 
same  ?  rufus  was  a  common  term  of  reproach :  Ter. 
heaut.  1061  rufamne  illam  uirginem,  Caesiam,  cet. ; 
Plant,  asin.  ii  3  20  Macilentis  mahs,  rafulus,  aliquan- 
tum  uentriosus,  cet.;  Mart,  ii  32  Cur  non  basio  te, 
Philaeni?  calua  es:  Cur  non  basio  te,  Philaeni?  rufaes: 
cet.  with  a  point  at  the  end  which  recalls  our  verse, 
like  the  Pompeian  inscription  2421  rufa,  itauale,  quare 
bene  felas :  Mart,  xii  32  4  uxor  rufa  crinibus  septem ; 
54  Crine  ruber,  niger  ore,  cet. :  Catullus  himself,  67  46 
.ne  tollat  rubra  supercilia.  riifuliim  I  thought  of  long 
ago;  and  Ellis  too  I  see  refers  to  this  word,  tho'  he 
retains  the  proper  name.  These  rufidi,  a  peculiar  kind 
of  'tribuni  militum',  were  often  appointed  through  mere 
favour  by  generals  or  consuls ;  often  too  they  were  idle 
young  men  of  fashion.  I  was  prepared  to  illustrate  the 
subject;  but  its  elaborate  treatment  by  Marquardt,  2nd 
ed.  II  p.  353  foil.,  supersedes  the  necessity  of  doing  this. 
I  think  it  however  not  improbable  that  the  poet  wrote 
*Rufum  anuf  fellat':  the  aniif  might  easily  fall  out 
between  um  andy!  3  comp.  Ter.  eun.  491  E  iBamma 
petere  te  cibum  posse  arbitror. 


61 


What  I  chiefly  wish  to  dwell  upon  at  present  in 
this  long  and  charming  epithalamium  is  a  question 
'with  regard  to  its  metre,  a  question  not  without  inter- 
est, as  much  of  the  beauty  of  the  poem  depends  on  its 
gay  and  elastic*  rhythm.  One  of  the  most  striking 
characteristics  of  this  and  of  that  other  glyconic  poem. 


CARM.   59,  61  135 

the  34th,  written  in  stanzas  of  four  lines,  is  their  strict 
observance  of  the  Greek  law  of  the  synaphia.  Every 
verse  of  the  stanza,  except  the  last  which  ends  with  a 
long  or  short  at  pleasure  and  takes  no  account  what- 
ever of  what  follows,  must  end  with  a  long  syllable,  and 
a  final  vowel  or  m  must  not  remain  unelided  before  a 
vowel  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  verse.  The  obser- 
vance of  this  law  by  Catullus  gives  to  his  glyconics 
much  of  their  charm  and  spirit;  and  its  neglect  by 
Horace  is  in  my  opinion  one  of  the  gravest  defects  in 
his  glyconics  and  asclepiads.  It  will  be  seen  however 
that  in  his  fourth  book  his  rhythm  does  not  depart  so 
widely  from  this  law,  as  in  his  earlier  books. 

The  34th  poem  offers  no  metrical  difficulty;  but  in 
our  61st  all  the  recent  editors  without  exception,  obey- 
ing a  ukase  of  Lachmann,  have,  greatly  I  think  to  the 
detriment  of  the  poem,  divided  the  stanza  of  five  lines 
into  two  of  three  and  two  lines  respectively.  The  rea- 
son for  so  doing  is  the  following:  according  to  most  of 
their  texts,  in  no  less  than  10  instances  between  v.  116 
and  182 — and  in  one  other  case  of  which  I  will  speak 
farther  on — this  law  would  otherwise  be  violated :  mo- 
dum  I  0;  abstine  |  O;  eat  |  O;  seruiat  |  O;  annuit  | 
O;  forem  |  O;  tibi  |  O;  magis  |  O;  uiri  |  O;  puellulam 
I  O.  In  these  verses  too  they  change  no  less  than  22 
times  the  Ms.  io  into  o :  if  this  be  right,  it  points  to  de- 
signed interpolation  in  our  Mss.,  the  motive  for  which 
is  not  easy  to  detect.  I  would  moreover  call  attention 
to  the  fact,  that  in  vss.  4,  5,  39,  40,  49,  50,  59,  60; 
as  well  as  in  vss.  5,  10,  19,  25,  31,  38,  48,  and  (jQ  of 
the  other  epithalamium,  the  62nd  poem,  in  all  of  which 
the  metre  requires  o  before  Hymen  or  Hymenaee,  the 
Mss.  always  give  us  o,  never  io.  I  would  further  ob- 
serve that  if  in  the  ten  instances,  enumerated  above, 


136  CATVLLI 

nunc  we  will  say  were  substituted  for  io,  the  rule  of  the 
synaphia  and  of  the  long  final  syllable  would  be  observ- 
ed in  every  case:  if  too  in  the  line  which. always  follows 
each  of  those  ten  lines  specified,  as  well  as  in  v.  1 43 
(150),  this  nunc  took  the  place  of  Io,  the  collision  be- 
tween io  I  O  would  be  avoided.  For  mark  this :  while 
in  34  the  last  line  of  the  stanza,  and  in  our  61  every 
5  th  line,  end  quite  indifferently  with  a  long  or  a  short 
syllable:  Luna,  Hymenaee,  nuptS,  etc.:  this  is  never 
the  case  with  the  third  verse  of  the  stanza  in  61 :  here 
the  nunc  would  always  restore  the  synaphia  in  fulP. 

I  come  now  to  the  main  point :  in  all  the  22  verses, 
affected  by  it,  I  substitute  Jo  for  Io  as  Dawes  suggest- 
ed long  ago,  at  the  commencement;  but  I  would  not 
do  this  at  the  end  of  any  verse :  for  example 

Tollite,  o  pueri,  faces: 
flammeum  uideo  uenire. 
ite,  concinite  in  modum 
jo  Hymen  Hymenaee  io, 
jo  Hymen  Hymenaee. 

If  this  jo  be  conceded,  all  difficulty  will  disappear. 
Of  course  io  (tw)  follows  as  a  rule  the  Greek  usage ; 
and  yet  I  believe  that  traces  are  to  be  found  in  popular 
and  idiomatic  Latin  of  the  word,  in  conformity  with 
Latin  organs  of  speech,  having  become  a  monosyllable 
jo  at  the  beginning  of  a  line  or  a  phrase.  The  word  is 
not  a  common  one  in  the  popular  styles :  it  does  not 

*  EUis  and  Baehrens  retain  the  io,  but  yet  both  of  them  divide  the  stanza 
into  two :  Ellis  observes :  *  Sed  primtun  io  monosyllabam  esse,  bisyllabum 
alteram  docent  Dawesius  Misc.  Grit.  p.  33,  Vmpfenbachius  in  Melet.  Plant, 
p.  23.  cf.  Quid.  Met.  v  625  Et  bis  io  Arethusa  uocauit  io  Arethusa.  Mart,  xi  2  5 
Clamant  ecce  mei  io  Saturnalia  uersus'.  What  Ellis'  precise  notion  of  the  word 
is,  I  don't  quite  catch :  in  the  line  he  quotes  from  Ovid,  as  elsewhere  in  that 
poet,  to  is  a  dissyll. 


CARM.   61  137 

occur  in  Terence;  and  is  found  I  believe  in  only  two 
passages  of  Plant  us:  Pseudolus  702  and  703  is  thus 
given  in  the  Mss.  io  |  lo  tete  turanne  te  rogo  qui  im- 
peritas  Pseudolo :  Ritschl  arranges  the  passage  thus : 

io 
t^,  io  te,  turdnne,  te  uoc6,  qui  inperitas  Pseiidolo : 

would  not  the  following  be  nearer  the  Mss.  and  more 

energetic  ? 

io, 
j6  te  te,  turd-nne,  te  rog6,  qui  imperitas  Pseudolo^. 

The  word  occurs  again  in  the  Casina  iv  3  3  and  10 : 
from  lack  of  proper  manuscript  material  I  can  say- 
nothing  of  1 0 ;  but  3  seems  to  stand  thus  in  the  codices : 
To  Hymen  Hy menace  io  Hymen  quid  agis  mea  salus: 
I  would  propose 

J(5  Hymen  Hymenade,  jo  jo  H^men !  |  Quid  agis,  mda 
salus. 

In  Ribbeck's  Com.  frag.  p.  273  we  have  a  line  of 
Aprissius  (?),  preserved  by  Varro,  which  rhythm  and 
alliteration  surely  require  to  be  written,  as  I  have 
written  it :  Vt  quiritare  urbanorum,  sic  iubilare  rusti- 
corum:  itaque  hos  imitatus  Aprissius  ait 

Jo  biicco!  I  quis  me  jiibilat?  |  uicinus  tuus  antfquus. 

Another  popular  phrase,  found  in  Petronius  58  and 
Inscrip.  Pompei.  2005  a,  was  'io  Saturnalia':  now  Mar- 
tial writes  in  xi  2  5  Clamant  ecce  mei  *jo  Saturnalia' 
uersus :  for  the  conjectures,  uos,  iam,  bona,  are  all  weak 
and  improbable.     No  doubt  the  Latins  observed  the 


*  I  have  just  got  the  new  analecta  Flantina :  p.  169  Loewe's  reading  of  A 
gives  to  it  rogo,  not  uoco, ^and  supports  the  te  te  of  FZ  against  the  te  tete  of 
BCD.    Perhaps  we  should  read  'jo  te  r6go',  which  would  improve  the  rhythm. 


138  CATVLLI 

general  rule  of  representing  a  Greek  t  by  i;  but  io, 
having  been  so  long  in  popular  use,  may  have  come  to 
be  regarded  almost  as  a  Latin  word.  And  Horace  at 
the  beginning  of  a  verse  turns  into  a  j  the  first  syllable 
of  the  Greek  lulus:  Jule,  ceratis  ope  daedalea;  while 
the  Romans  did  not  hesitate  so  to  treat  foreign  words, 
which  came  into  Latin  through  the  Greek,  as  Judaeus. 

Another  thing  is  worth  noting  in  regard  to  io  :  V 
all  the  11  times  that  the  line  'Io  Hymen  Hymenaee' 
recurs,  added  at  the  end  another  '  io ',  This  is  strange, 
because  it  is  not  likely  to  have  been  interpolated  in 
any  manuscript  which  was  written  at  a  time  when 
metre  was  understood ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  when 
our  archetype  V  was  written,  the  world  was  so  entirely 
ignorant  of  CatuUus'  lyrical  metres,  that,  tho'  a  scribe 
might  by  accident  have  taken  it  from  the  preceding 
verse  once  or  twice,  he  is  not  likely  to  have  done  so 
consistently.  But  another  equally  curious  fact  is  to  be 
observed  :  all  the  four  times  that  the  verse  '  O  Hymen 
Hymenaee '  recurs,  V  added  '  Hymen '  at  the  end.  I 
am  disposed  to  explain  this  curions  double  phenomenon 
as  follows:  this  *io'  and  this  'Hymen',  thus  placed 
extra  inetnnn,  perhaps  were  added  in  this  way  to  mark 
the  fact  that  after  each  stanza  ending  with  *  O  Hymen 
Hymenaee'  and  with  'Jo  Hymen  Hymenaee',  the 
chorus  made  a  pause,  and  shouted  in  the  one  case 
'  Hymen ',  in  the  other  '  io ',  it  may  be  in  a  louder  tone, 
it  may  be  more  than  once. 

This  too  makes  it  impossible  in  my  opinion  to  main- 
tain that  our  stanza  of  five  lines  is  really  two  stanzas, 
of  three  and  two  hnes  respectively  :  one  of  the  essential 
properties  of  these  glyconic  odes  is  that  the  stanza  end 
with  a  completed  sentence,  the  final  syllable  being 
quite  independent  of  the  stanza  following.     The  same 


CARM.    61  139 

general  ~  principle  holds  good  in  tliat  tliird  glyconic 
poem,  the  17th,  in  which  each  of  the  long  lines  is  really 
a  stanza  of  two  lines,  the  first  of  which  is  subject  to 
the  laws  of  synaphia,  the  latter  is  quite  independent  of 
them  :  Liuidissima  maximeque  |  est  profunda  uorago. — 
Insulsissimus  cet.  Now  not  only  does  the  synaphia 
hold,  as  we  have  observed,  between  the  3rd  and  4th  vss. 
of  our  stanza ;  but  where  the  same  refrain  is  repeated 
four  times  over  in  the  two  last  lines  of  the  stanza, 
it  is  introduced  each  time  with  exactly  the  same  general 
run ;  as  for  instance  in  the  first  of  these  stanzas : 
Qui  rapis  teneram  ad  virum  Virginem,  o  Hymenaee 
Hymen,  O  Hymen  Hymenaee,  the  stanza  thus  as  it 
were  ostentatiously  proclaiming  itself  to  be  one  and 
indivisible. 

The  sole  exception,  or  apparent  exception,  that  re- 
mains to  be  considered,  is  in  the  last  stanza  but  two  : 

Sit  suo  similis  patri 
Manlio  et  facile  insciis 
noscitetur  ab  omnibus 
et  pudicitiam  suae 
matris  indicet  ore. 

•Dawes  cures  this  by  transposing  omnibus  and  insciis : 
it  is  possible  Catullus  may  have  lengthened  the  em- 
phatic syllable  of  the  verse,  as  Virgil  has  so  often  done 
with  -us ;  it  is  possible  too  that  some  one  of  the  cor- 
rections that  have  been  made,  such  as  obuiis  or  aditenis, 
may  be  the  true  reading ;  for  omnibus  does  not  strike 
.me  as  well  suited  to  its  place,  and  obuiis  for  instance 
-might  readily  pass  into  an  abbreviation  of  omnibus : 
compare  the  double  reading  obuia  and  omnia  of  G  in 
64  109.     Anyhow  one  apparent  exception  in  nearly  50 


140  CATVLLI 

stanzas  is  in  my  judgment  quite  insufficient  to  establish 
or  to  upset  any  law. 

Years  ago  I  was  surprised  to  see  the  last  two  lines 
of  the  stanza  just  quoted  quite  misunderstood  in  Ellis' 
translation :  *  Mother's  chastity  moulded  in  Features 
childly  reveaUng'.  The  true  meaning  ought  to  be  be- 
yond dispute  :  however,  as  a  confirmation  of  that  mean- 
ing, I  jotted  down  Martial's  imitation,  vi  27  3,  Est 
tibi,  quae  patria  signatur  imagine  uoltus.  Testis  ma- 
temae  nata  pudicitiae ;  and  this  passage  I  afterwards 
found  was  given  by  Mr  Cranstoun  in  illustration  of  his 
correct  and  spirited  translation.  My  surprise  is  now 
increased  to  find  these  very  hnes  cited  by  Ellis  in  sup- 
port of  his  wrong  explanation,  to  which  they  are  quite 
irrelevant :  '  Suae  is  emphatic,  a  mother  truly  his  own, 
perhaps  with  some  notion  of  the  son  repeating  the  mo- 
ther's features,  as  the  daughter  the  father's,  Lucr.  iv 
1226'  :  the  words  of  course  mean  simply  :  let  him  bear 
witness  to  his  mother's  chastity  by  shewing  in  his  face 
a  strong  likeness  to  his  father  and  thus  proving  himself 
to  be  his  father's  son.  His  note  too  on  201  is  not  cor- 
rect, and  his  illustrations  are  irrelevant :  *  Subducat 
prius  qui  uolt '  is  not  '  unusual '.  There  is  no  protasis 
and  apodosis  here,  and  Subducat  is  not  a  '  strict  sub- 
junctive', but  a  simple  imperative  :  *Let  him  who  wOls 
to  reckon  up  your  joys,  first  take  the  tale  of  the  sands 
and  the  stars'.  114  ToUite,  o  pueri:  surely  o  should 
be  added,  not  en  with  Baehrens :  it  is  only  another  in- 
stance of  the  ever-recurring  confusion  of  e  and  o  in  our 
Mss.  to  which  I  have  so  often  drawn  attention :  in  the 
very  next  line  0  has  uido  for  uideo,  where  the  e  is  ab- 
sorbed in  o. 


CARM.   61,  63  141 


63  1—11 

Super  alta  uectus  Attis  celeri  rate  maria 
Phrygium  ut  nemus  citato  cupide  pede  tetigit 
adiitque  opaca  siluis  redimita  loca  deae, 
stiraulatus  ibi  fiirenti  rabie,  uagus  animi, 
5  deuolait  ilei  acuto  sibi  pondera  silice. 

itaqiie  ut  relicta  sensit  sibi  membra  sine  uiro, 
etiam  recente  terrae  sola  sanguine  maculans    , 
niueis  citata  cepit  manibus  leue  typanum, 
typanum  tubam  Cybelles,  tua,  mater,  initia, 
10  quatiensque  terga  taurei  teneris  caua  digitis 
canere  baec  suis  adorta  est  tremebunda  comitibus. 

5  Deuolsit  Haupt.  Deuoluit  V.  ilei  acato  Bergk.  iletas  acuto  V.  pondera 
Auantim.  pondere  V.  9  tubam  corrupt,  perhaps  ac  typum.  tuom,  Cybebe 
Lachmann. 

5  has  been  brought  into  its  present  shape  by  the 
corrections,  in  different  ages,  of  Auantius,  Bergk  (Lach- 
mann) and  Haupt,  and  has  been  rightly  I  think  ac- 
cepted by  Mueller,  Schwabe  and  Baehrens.  To  adopt, 
with  Haupt  and  Ellis,  Lachmann's  He  is  to  give  to  the 
word  an  unauthorised  sense,  nor  can  Deuoluit  I  think 
stand,  tho'  Ellis  retains  it:  the  *  iletas  acuto'  of  Mss. 
would  seem  to  have  come  from  the  doubling  of  the  syll. 
€ic  in  acuto.  I  shall,  when  I  come  to  the  65th  poem, 
give  many  other  examples  of  this  trick  from  our  Mss. 
Not  only  does  the  verse  in  this  form  yield  a  most  ap- 
propriate sense;  but  it  receives  very  great  support 
from  a  passage  in  the  fourth  book  of  the  Fasti,  in 
writing  which  Ovid  must  have  had  5  and  6  of  our 
poem  in  his  mind.  He  is  telling  at  length  the  story 
of  Attis  and  Cybele,  of  the  *  Phryx  puer  in  siluis,  facie 
spectabilis,   Attis':  then   in   v.   237   we  come  to:  Ille 


1 42  CATVLLI 

etiam  saxo  corpus  laniauit  ac?«?o... Voxque  fuit  'merui 
...A!  pereant  partes  quae  nocuere  mihi' :  'A!  pereant' 
dicebat  adhuc:  onus  imjuinis  aufert,  Nullaque  sunt 
subito  signa  relicta  uin. 

9  *  tubam'  carries  no  sense  with  it  to  my  mind, 
either  in  its  literal  meaning,  or,  as  Ellis  takes  it,  in  a 
metaphorical:  again  it  is  not  very  obvious  how  'tuom, 
Cy belle'  would  pass  into  'tubam  Cybelles'.  '  Typanum 
ac  typum  Cybelles'  has  occurred  to  me  from  seeing 
how  often  the  two  words  are  joined  together:  Dionys. 
Antiq.  II  19  (oanep  avrot?  edo<;,  tvttou?  re  TrepiKeLfievoL 
TOL<s  crTride(Ti...KaX  rvjjiTravcL  KpoTovvTe<s  :  see  too  Polybius 
cited  by  Suidas  s.  u.  FaXXot :  napa  "AttiSos  kol  Barra- 
Kov  TQ)u  eK  Il€(T(TLUovuTO<s  lepioiv  Trjq  M7)Tpo<s  TQju  OeoJv, 
e)(ovTe^  Trpoa-rrjOiZia  koX  tvttov;:  ibid.  dTrecrTeiKe  veavi- 
aKOV<;,  Stao"/cevacras  et?  TaXkov^,  fxer  avXrjTOJV  iv  yvvai- 
/ceiats  crroXatg  ej^ovras  Tvixnava  koL  tvttov?  :  comp.  too  the 
very  odd  story  told  of  Anacharsis  by  Herodotus  vi  9 : 
TTJv  oprrjv  iraaav  eVeTeXet  rfj  Oeqi,  TVjXTravd  re  e)((ov  /cat 
iKSy)(rdix€vo<s  ayctX/Aara,  and  the  imitation  by  Clemens 
Alex,  quoted  by  WesseHng.  The  plural  tvitol  is  used 
of  the  Galli;  and  I  infer  that  the  tvttol  were  chiefly 
medallions  of  Cybele  and  Attis.  Now  Attis  naturally 
would  wear  only  a  medallion  of  Cybele,  which  he  would 
hang  round  his  neck  or  perhaps  on  his  left  wrist:  comp. 
Suet.  Domit.  4  certamini  praesedit...capite  gestans  coro- 
nam  auream  cum  effigie  louis  ac  lunonis  Mineruaeque, 
adsidentibus  Diali  sacerdote  et  collegio  Flauialium  pari 
habitu,  nisi  quod  illovum  coronis  inerat  et  ipsius  imago, 
typos  is  found  in  Cic.  ad  Att.  i  10  3,  written  67  B.C.: 
jLhe  strange  typum  or  tupum  would  naturaUy  be  cor- 
rupted into  a  Latin  word:  thus  in  Cic.  1. 1.  M  has  lypos, 
which  lenson's  edition  turns  into  lippos;  and  in  Pliny 
XXXV  151  the  Bamb.  has  ty rum  for  typum.  Suidas  s.  u. 


CARM.  63  143 

TVTrats  has  e^ovra  TVjxirava  kol  rvrras:  I  had  something" 
to  say  on  this ;  but  shall  refrain.  The  '  typaiium  ac 
typum'  suits  'tua  initia'  better  than  'typanum'  by 
itself. 


ib.  74—77  * 

Koseis  ut  hie  labellis  sonitus  citus  adiit 
geminas  deae  tarn  ad  auris  noua  nuntia  referens, 
ibi  iuncta  iuga  resoluens  Cybele  leonibus 
laeuumque  pecoris  hostem  stimulans  ita  loquitur. 

74  hie.  hinc  V.  citus  addidit  Bergh.  sonus  editus  Froelich,  Schwahe. 
perhaps  sonns  excitus.  75  deae  tarn  ad  scripsi,  deonim  ad  V.  77  pecoria 
uetun  correctio.  pectoris  V. 

In  74  perhaps  Bergk's  citus  is  the  simplest  diplo- 
matic correction,  tho'  I  am  not  certain  that  Catullus 
would  have  used  citus  as  a  partic.  But  Froelich' s  sonus 
editus  is  also  an  easy  correction;  as  well  as  my  sonus 
excitus,  and  Catullus  elsewhere  uses  excitus  no  less  than 
three  times.  In  75  not  a  few  violent  corrections  have 
been  made,  which  may  be  seen  in  the  notes  of  various 
editions.  I  feel  confident  that  Geminas  comes  from  the 
poet  himself:  my  dee  tarn  for  deorum  is  certainly  not 
a  violent  change,  when  we  bear  in  mind,  what  I  have 
so  often  insisted  upon,  the  almost  chronic  way  in  which 
our  Mss.  interchange  o  and  e,  t  and  r:  'When  these 
sounds,  uttered  from  his  rosy  lips,  came  bringing  with 
them  to  the  two  ears  of  the  goddess  tidings  so  strange 
and  novel'.  With  'deae — Cybele'  comp.  3  deae,  9 
CybeUes.  geminas  auris  is  very  idiomatic:  51  10  sonitu 
suopte  Tintinant  aures  geminae^:  Ovid  has  'Auribus 

*  I  cannot  enough  wouder  at  Ellis'  continued  retention  of  the  absurd 
gemina,  and  all  to  save  the  change  of  an  a  to  an  />  in  our  Mss. 


144  CATVLLT 


e  geminis',  and  'geminas  maims';  tlie  Culex,  whicli 
often  imitates  Catullus,  148  'geminas  aures';  Virgil 
*  Temporibus  geminis' :  Martial  'geminas  manus'. 


64  1—28 

Peliaco  quondam  prognatae  uertice  pinus 
dicuntur  liquidas  Neptuni  nasse  per  undas 
Phasidos  ad  fluctus  et  fines  Aeeteos, 
cum  lecti  iuuenes,  Argiuae  robora  pubis, 
5  auratam  optantes  Colchis  auertere  pellem 
ausi  sunt  uada  salsa  cita  decurrere  puppi, 
caerula  uerrentes  abiegnis  aequora  palrnis. 
diua  quibus  retinens  in  sum  mis  urbibus  arces 
ipsa  leui  fecit  uolitantem  flamine  currum, 

10  pinea  coniungens  inflexae  texta  carinae. 

ilia  rudem  cursu  prima  imbuit  Amphitriten. 
quae  simul  ac  rostro  uentosum  proscidit  aequor, 
tortaque  remigio  spumis  incanduit  unda, 
emersere  freti  candenti  e  gurgite  uultus, 

15  aequoreae  monstrum  Nereides  admirantes. 
iliac  (quaque  alia?)  uiderunt  luce  marinas 
mortales  oculis  nudato  corpore  Nympbas 
nutricum  tonus  extantes  e  gurgite  cano. 
tum  Thetidis  Peleus  incensus  fertur  amore, 

20  tum  Thetis  humanos  non  despexit  hymenaeos, 
tum  Thetidi  pater  ipse  iugandum  Pelea  sensit. 
o  nimis  optato  saeclorum  tempore  nati 
heroes,  saluete,  deum  gens,  o  bona  matrum 
23**    progenies,  saluete  iterumque  iterumque,  honwi^m : 

uos  ego  saepe  meo  uos  carmine  compellabo, 
25     teque  adeo  eximie  taedis  felicibus  aucte 

Thessaliae  columen  Peleu,  cui  luppiter  ipse, 


CARM.   64  145 

ipse  sues  diuum  genitor  concessit  amores. 
tene  Thetis  tenuit  pulcherrima  Nereine? 

11  primam  G.  praeram:  in  7nar<7.  proram  0.  13  Tortaqne  ItoK.  Totaque 
V.  14  freti  Schrader.  feri  V.  16  Iliac  (quaque  alia?)  scripsi.  Ilia  atque  alia  V. 
uidere  V.  23  gens  schol.  Veron.  genus  V,  uulgo.  matriun  schol.  Veron.ra&tex: 
al.  matre  superscr.  G.  mater  0.  23  b  om.  V.  Progenies  saluete  iter  «cftoJ.  Veron. 
28  Nereine  Haupt.  nectine  V. 

I  have  printed  and  will  discuss  only  a  few  lines  of 
this  the  longest  and  most  elaborate  poem  of  Catullus. 
His  study  of  the  Alexandrine  poets  would  seem  to  have 
persuaded  him  .that  an  epyllion  was  needed  to  make  a 
body  of  poems  complete;  and  he  has  therefore  composed 
this  poem  which  I  have  given  reasons  elsewhere  for 
believing  to  be  one  of  his  very  latest.  Led  no  doubt 
by  similar  motives,  his  friend  Gaius  Helvius  Cinna, 
who,  as  I  have  argued  in  my  dissection  of  the  95  th 
poem,  was  probably  somewhat  older  than  Catullus, 
wrote  and  published  his  laboured  Zmyma;  and  his  in- 
timate associate  Gaius  Licinius  Calvus  composed  his 
epyllion  lo.  1  and  15  are  both  imitated  by  Ovid  am. 
II  1 1  1  Prima  malas  docuit,  mirantibus  aequoris  undis, 
Peliaco  pinus  uertice  caesa  uias.  11:1  am  convinced 
that  the  proram  of  O  is  a  mere  delusion,  designed  or 
undesigned,  of  the  scribe,  which  presented  itself  to  his 
thoughts  and  pen  in  connexion  with  a  ship :  to  my  taste 
it  destroys  the  beauty  of  the  line  and  leaves  Ilia  wholly 
without  meaning.  Can  there  be  a  doubt  that  Seneca, 
who  has  more  than  once  as  we  have  seen  had  Catullus 
before  him  in  his  tragedies,  was  thinking  of  this  line 
when  he  wrote  in  Troad.  215  Inhospitali  Telephus  regno 
inpotens... /2wc?em  cruore  regio  dextram  inbuiti  the 
very  construction  of  Catullus,  which  Martial,  cited  by 
Ellis,  also  has:  so  too  Val.  Flacc.  i  69  ignaras  CereHs 
qui  uomere  terras  Imhuit;  who  also  imitates  the  syntax 

M.  c.  10 


146  CATVLLI 

of  Catullus,  and  was  probably  thinking  of  him,  as  the 
ig^iaras  has  the  exact  force  o£  rudem:  *She  first  hand- 
selled by  this  run  the  maiden. and  untried  Amphitrite'. 
Ov.  met.  I  1 4  probably  got  his  Amphitrite  from  Catul- 
lus. 

13  Tortaque  remigio,  and  7  Caerula  uerrentes  abi- 
egnis  aequora  palmis:  comp.  Aen.  in  207  remis  insur- 
gimus :  baud  mora  nautae  Adnixi  torquent  spumas  et 
caerula  uerrunt:  the  2nd  v.  is  repeated  in  iv  583:  if 
there  is  one  certain  correction  in  Catullus,  Torta  for 
Tota  must  be  right.  13  incanduit  unda,  14  candenti 
e  gurgite,  18  a  gurgite  cano :  Lucr.  ii  764  Cur  ea... 
Marmoreo  fieri  possint  candore  repente,  767  canos  can- 
denti marmore  fluctus,  771  Continuo  id  fieri  ut  candens 
uideatur  et  album :  the  repetitions  m  the  two  poets  are 
very  much  ahke :  Ciris  320  candentes  canos.  lA  freti 
forfeH  seems  to  me  the  simplest  correction  of  this  verse, 
which  surely  needs  correction;  iovfeH  cannot  stand  and 
uultus  must  be  an  accus.;  not  a  nom.  in  appos.  with 
Nereides.  To  be  sure,  tho'  emersus  and  emergere  se  are 
indisputable,  *  emergere  uultus'  is  not  so  certainly  ad- 
missible. Yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  author 
of  the  Dirae  in  56  and  57  is  imitating  Catullus  and  that 
corpora  must,  Hke  uultus  here,  be  the  accus.  not  the 
noroin.  which  would  be  very  bald :  Monstra  repentinis 
terrentia  saepe  figuris  Cum  subito  emersere  furenti  cor- 
pora ponto:  for  thus  Haupt  punctuates;  and  the  posi- 
tion of  Cum  is  a  good  parallel  to  22  9.  freti  for  feri  is 
an  easy  correction,  as  r,  t,  tr,  rt,  as  we  have  again  and 
again  had  reason  to  shew,  are  among  the  letters  most 
frequently  confounded  in  our  Mss.  16  Iliac  (quaque 
alia  ?) :  this  I  think  is  a  more  elegant  correction  and 
gives  a  better  rhythm  than  Schwabe's,  or  older  correc- 
tions, tho'  Ellis  takes  no  notice  of  it :  t  and  c  are  often 


CARM.    64  147 

interclianged  in  our  Mss.  and  all  Mss.  alike  are  apt  to 
omit  one  syll.  of  a  word  like  quaque:  36  14  we  find 
Colisque  for  Colis  quaeque:  'on  that  day — and  on  what 
other  in  all  time? — did  mortal  men  cast  eyes  on  the 
naked  nymphs,  as  they  rose  breast-high  out  of  the  hoar 
deep'.  I  must  say  both  Mueller's  and  Baehrens'  violent 
corrections  to  my  taste  greatly  spoil  the  picture. 

23 :  The  Virgilian  scholia  of  the  Verona  palimpsest 
give  us  in  a  correct  form  the  end  of  this  line  and  half 
of  the  next,  which  has  disappeared  entirely  in  our  Mss. 
Ellis  alone  among  recent  editors  has  rejected  this  gift 
with  contumely  :  'The  weight  of  the  Veronese  Scholia' 
he  says,  *  imperfect  and  full  of  lacunae  as  they  are,  is 
not  to  be  set  against  our  Mss. ;  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
any  mode  of  filling  up  the  lacuna  which  would  not 
either  be  weak  or  load  the  sentence  unnecessarily'.  It 
is  thus  he  can  find  in  his  heart  to  speak  of  what  was 
once  one  of  the  most  glorious  codices  that  have  come 
down  from  ancient  times,  written  in  the  full  blaze  of 
the  old  classical  world.  Not  to  be  set  against  our  Mss. ! 
bad  transcripts  all  of  an  archetype  written  when  the 
gloom  of  mediaeval  barbarism  was  at  its  deepest:  and 
where  too  it  preserves  a  line  which  they  have  lost,  tho' 
Ellis  does  not  hesitate  to  impeach  these  very  Mss.  of 
scandalous  absurdity,  in  the  way  of  omission,  when  he 
is  dealing  with  our  5  4th  poem.  It  is  true  these  scholia 
are  now  in  a  very  tattered  state ;  but  both  Mai  and 
after  him  Keil  print :  Catullus,  Saluete  deum  gens 
o  bona  matrum  Progenies  saluete  iter:  without  a  hint 
that  there  is  any  doubt  about  any  one  of  the  magni- 
ficent letters  of  the  original.  Of  the  genuineness  of 
this  half  verse  I  have  no  more  doubt  than  of  that  of 
any  other  verse  whatever  in  Catullus.  Nay  more,  I  do 
not  see  why  all  editors  reject  its  'deum  gens'  for  the 

10—2 


148  CATVLLI 

*  genus '  of  V ;  as  I  feel  pretty  sure  that  Virgil  had 
CatuUus  in  mind,  when  he  wrote  *  deum  gens,  Aenea'. 
*matrum'  too  must  be  the  poet's  :  nay  the  double  read- 
ing 'mater'  and  'matre'  in  G  indicates  that  the  final 
letters  were  obscured  in  Y  or  in  Y's  predecessor.  Nor 
do  I  think  it  'diflScult'  to  fill  up  the  verse  as  the  poet 
may  have  written  it ;  tho'  none  of  the  editions  satisfies 
my  mind :  for  the  'bona  matrum'  has  no  point  unless 
the  next  line  contained  an  epithet  of  matrum,  which 
was  as  emphatic  as  bona,  or  more  so.  My  reading  then 
surely  gives  us  what  we  want:  'right  worthy  progeny  of 
right  worthy  mothers'.  The  joining  of  the  mothers 
with  the  fathers  is  not  without  a  purpose  ;  for  Catullus 
may  well  have  thought  as  Euripides  did  in  his  Meleager : 
Stob.  OB  12  'qyrjadfx'rjv  ovv  el  Trapa^ev^eie  tl<s  Xpiycrrft) 
TTOinqpov  XeKTpov,  ovk  av  evre/cvetv,  'Ecr^XotP'  8'  air  a/A^otv 
iaOXov  av  <f)vvaL  yovov.  I  have  never  comprehended 
Ellis'  defence  of  mater.  28  Nereine :  this  is  nearer  the 
Mss.  and  in  other  respects  far  preferable  to  the  very 
suspicious  Neptunine.  All  the  patronymics  quoted  by 
Ellis  are  from  Greek  words  :  Neptunus  is  a  pure  Latin 
word. 

31  optatae  finite,  optato  finite  G,  optato  finite  O: 
another  of  the  many  many  proofs  of  o  and  e  being 
almost  indistinguishable  in  our  Mss. :  this  fact  makes 
Guarinus'  correction  in  309  'roseae  niueo'  for  the  'roseo 
niuee'  of  Y  highly  probable. 

48  Indo  quod  dente  politum  :  'which  formed  of  the 
Indian  tusk  and  finely  wrought'.  Comp.  Yirgil's  'pictas 
abiete  puppes*. 

82  quam  talia  Cretam  Funera  Cecropiae  nee  fimera 
portarentur:  comp.  Ov.  met.  viii  231  At  pater  in- 
felix  nee  iam  pater  'Icare'  dixit:  the  nee  seems  really 
the  same  as  non,  of  which  I  have  spoken  at  30  4  :  it 


CARM.  64  149 

may  therefore  perhaps  be  compared  with  the  '  per  non 
medium*,  the  *a  non  sensu'  and  the  like  which  I  have 
illustrated  in  my  note  on  Lucr.  i  1075. 

ib.  105—11 

Nam  uelut  in  summo  quatientem  bracchia  Tauro 
quercum  aut  conigeram  sudanti  cortice  pinum 
indomitus  turbo  contorquens  flamine  robur 
eruit  (ilia  procul  radicitus  exturbata 
prona  cadit  lateque  comeis  obit  obuia  frangens), 
sic  domito  saeuum  prostrauit  corpore  Theseus 
nequiquam  uanis  iactantem  cornua  uentis. 

109  comeis  obit  oboia  scripsi,    emu  eias  obtiia  Y. 

I  confess  to  setting  some  store  on  my  emendation 
of  109,  on  which  so  many  conjectures  have  been  made. 
comeis  might  pass  at  once  into  cum  eiits,  especially 
when  the  latter  was  written  compendiously,  as  it  is  in 
O  at  all  events ;  and  obit  might  readily  be  absorbed  in 
obuia:  nay  it  may  represent  the  double  reading  'omnia 
in  G:  comp.  my  emendation  obit  for  omnia  (ouit  for  om) 
in  Lucil.  xxvii  35  m.  Whoever  has  seen  a  tree  fall  to 
the  ground  with  its  leaves  on,  must  have  marked  the 
sweep  and  crash  made  by  them  as  they  first  come  into 
contact  with  the  ground  and  spread  themselves  out. 
With  105  bracchia,  and  109  comeis,  comp.  Aen.  xn  209 
posuitque  comas  et  bracchia  ferro ;  Georg.  il  368  tum 
stringe  comas,  tum  bracchia  tonde. 

ib.  272,  273 

Quae  tarde  primum  dementi  flamine  pulsae 
procedunt  leuiterque  sonant  plangore  cachinni. 

leuiterq ;  sonant  0,  leviter  sonant  G.     leni  resonant  uulgo. 


150  CATVLLI 

That  O  here  too  is  right  against  G  and  other  Mss. 
we  have  a  strong  confirmation  in  Sen.  Agam.  680  Hcet 
Alcyones  Ceyea  suum  Fluctu  leuiter  plangente  sonent: 
see  my  note  on  23  10  for  this  and  other  apparent 
reminiscences  of  Catullus'  language  in  Seneca. 

Catullus  must  have  taken  great  pains  to  improve 
the  rhythm  and  prosody  of  his  two  hexameter  poems, 
as  we  may  see  if  we  compare  him  with  any  of  his  pre- 
decessors, such  as  Ennius  or  Cicero.  In  respect  of 
elisions  he  is  much  less  harsh  than  he  is  either  in  his 
hendecasyllables  or  in  his  elegiacs ;  and  comes  much 
nearer  in  these  two  poems  to  the  rules  which  prevailed 
after  his  time.  This  is  very  remarkable  and  contrary 
to  the  usage  of  subsequent  masters,  Virgil  for  instance, 
if  he  be  compared  with  Ovid  and  Martial.  It  is  another 
proof  too,  in  addition  to  those  which  I  have  given  in 
my  Lucretius,  that  64  is  one  of  his  latest  poems.  In 
liis  elegiacs,  even  in  the  last  half  of  the  pentameter,  he 
has  the  very  harshest  rhythms  and  elisions,  such  as 
*perdito  amore  fore'.  In  his  hendecasyllabic  poems, 
even  in  the  sweetest  of  them,  his  elisions  are  quite  as 
harsh,  judged  by  the  standard  of  Martial  and  Statins: 
even  in  his  45th  he  does  not  balk  at  such  rhythms  as 
*Ni  te  perdite  dmo  dtque  amare  porro',  where  a  long 
vowel  is  elided  before  the  accentuated  short  syllable  of 
an  iambus,  while  the  final  syllable  of  this  very  iambus 
is  elided  before  another  accentuated  syllable.  When 
we  observe  how  cautious  Martial  is  in  his  elisions,  it 
is  a  strong  proof  of  the  charm  of  Catullus  that  even 
these  excessive  harshnesses,  as  they  must  have  been 
to  Martial's  ear,  do  not  seem  to  have  lessened  in  the 
least  his  love  for  his  great  master.  StiU  more  striking 
will  this  love  and  admiration  appear,  when  we  remem- 
ber that  to  Martial  the  first  foot  of  a  hendecasyllable 


CARM.    64  151 

must  be  a  spondee,  wliile  Catullus  most  freely  substi- 
tutes for  it  both  trochees  and  iambi.  We  are  used  to 
learn  our  hendecasjllables  from  Catullus,  our  elegiacs 
from  Ovid:  therefore  we  look  on  Catullus'  elegiacs  as 
excessively  harsh  in  rhythm  and  prosody ;  but  do  not 
feel  his  hendecasyllables  to  be  so.  This  is  the  mere 
result  of  habit :  to  Martial  and  Statins  the  rhythms 
and  elisions  of  the  one  class  of  poems  were  just  as 
harsh  as  those  of  the  other,  while  the  elisions  of  the 
hexameter  poems  would  have  seemed  much  more 
modern  and  regular.  So  intolerable  to  the  prosaic 
Pliny  the  elder  was  an  iambus  for  the  first  foot  of  the 
hendecasyllable  that,  in  quoting  a  verse  from  the  first 
poem  of  Catullus,  he  coolly  transposes  the  words  and 
writes  :  Nugas  esse  aUquid  meas  putare^. 

1  hist,  praef.  1  'namque  ta  solebas  Nugas  esse  aliquid  meas  putare',  ut 
obiter  emolliam  [so  Barbarus,  Gronovius,  Mommsen  in  Hermes  i  p.  128,  and 
others:  obicere  molliam  codices]  Catullum  eonterraueum  meum  (agnoscis  et 
hoc  eastrense  nerbum).  ille  enim,  ut  scis,  permutatis  prioribus  syllabis 
duriusculum  se  fecit  quam  uolebat  existimari  a  Veraniolis  suis  et  Fabullis. 
Pliny  *  softens  in  passing  the  harshness  of  his  conterraneus  Catullus '  by  trans- 
posing meas  and  nugas.  *For  he,  as  you  know,  by  his  way  of  changing  the 
quantity  of  one  or  other  of  the  two  first  syllables  of  the  verse,  shewed  himself 
in  this  to  be  somewhat  more  rough  than  he  would  have  liked  to  be  accounted 
by  his  dear  Veranioli  and  Fabulli '.  It  will  be  seen  that  Detlefsen's  Mss.,  which 
are  all  late  in  this  part  of  Pliny,  while  they  give  the  'namque  tu  solebas',  which 
would  be  also  the  prose  order  of  the  words,  without  any  variation,  all  arrange 
the  following  line  in  a  way  which  is  not  verse,  and  each  of  them  has  a  different 
arrangement.  This  is  a  proof  that,  finding  the  words  in  what  struck  them  as  a 
most  unnatural  order,  they  tried  each  in  its  own  way  to  give  them  a  more 
natural  arrangement :  see  my  note  on  Lucil.  ii  22,  Journ.  Philol.  vii  p.  298, 
where  I  simply  read  '  quae  nunc  ego  praecanto  Aemilio  [quae  ego  nunc  Aemilio 
praecanto  codices]  atque  exigo  et  excanto'.  Haupt's  very  obvious  correction 
therefore  seems  to  me  almost  a  certain  one.  When  Baehrens  on  Catullus  1. 1. 
gives  to  Pliny  'Istas  esse  aliquid  putare  nugas',  he  appears  to  me  to  depart 
more  widely  from  the  Mss.  than  Haupt  and  Mommsen  do.  Again  I  do  not  see 
the  necessity  of  his  'primoribus';  for  'prioribus'  I  think  signifies  'the  two  first 
Byllablea'  of  the  verse;  just  as  Lucil.  xxviii  7  uses  ' posterioribus  aroixftots'  to 
express  the  'last  two'  in  contradistinction  to  the  other  two  elements. 

Ellis  in  his  first  volume  has  an  excursus  on  this  passage  of  Pliny,  to  which 
he  still  adheres  in  Lis  commentary.    He  follows  an  antiquated  reading,  which 


152  CATVLLI 

Catullus  has  done  much  to  improve  the  cadences 
of  the  Latin  hexameter,  if  the  small  compass  of  his 
poems  be  taken  into  consideration;  and,  tho'  all  his 
innovations  may  not  be  improvements,  Virgil's  obliga- 
tions to  him  are  by  no  means  insignificant.     That  he 
has  effected  these  improvements  mainly  by  a  careful 
study,  and  by  a  partial  adoption,  of  the  rhythm  of  the 
Greek  heroic,  will  not  escape  any  competent  observer. 
I  will  call  attention  here  to  one  point  only,  which  I 
have  never  seen  noticed  by  any  one  else.     One  of  the 
most  striking  features  of  the  Greek  hexameter,  which 
marks   the   verses  of  all  poets   alike  from  Homer  to 
Nonnus,  is  the  free  use  of  trochaic  cadences  in  the  first 
half  of  the  verse  and  the  systematic  avoidance  of  them 
in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  dactyl :  Avrts  |  eireira  \  ire- 
SopBe  j  KvXivheTo  Xaas  avatSry?.     Virgil  and  other  careful 
writers   of  Latin   verse  employ  this  trochaic  rhythm 
very  much  less  than  the  Greeks  do,  in  the  first  part 
of  the  verse.     But  on  the  other  hand  they,  most  of 
them,  do  not  shun  this  trochaic  rhythm  in  the  middle 
of  the  fourth  dactyl :  auditque  uocatus  Apollo — uolu- 
crique  simillima  somno ;  tho'  the  Greeks,  unless  in  the 
most    exceptional   circumstances,    entirely   reject  this 
cadence.    And  Catullus  too  never  once  admits  it  in 
his  two  hexameter  poems,  containing  between  them 
474  verses.     Ennius  is  careless  enough  in  this  as  in 
many  other  matters:  he  has  this  cadence  some  25  times 
in  about  500  verses.     Lucretius  avoids  it  most  in  his 


ia  much  farther  from  the  Mss.  than  Mommsen's;  and  his  whole  explanation 
thwarts  completely  in  my  judgment  the  plain  sense  of  Pliny's  words.  By 
'agnoscis  et  hoc  castrense  uerbum'  Pliny  simply  means  'in  this  term  con,' 
terraneus  too  (as  in  other  terms  which  I  have  employed  in  former  letters  to 
you)  you  will  recognise  a  word  of  the  camp'.  Again,  tho'  to  us  Catullus' 
elegiacs  may  be  harsher  than  his  hendecasyllables,  it  does  not  follow  that  they 
were  so  to  Pliny. 


CARM.  64,  65  153 

most  poetical  and  most  carefully  written  parts.  Cicero, 
unless  I  am  mistaken,  throughout  about  750  verses 
always  observes  this  Greek  rule,  except  once  only : 
Cum  caeloque  simul  noctesque  |  diesque  feruntur:  and 
*noctesque  diesque'  may  be  almost  regarded  as  a  single 
word.  Ovid  uses  this  cadence  very  freely,  much  more 
freely  than  Virgil:  he  has  70  instances  in  the  778  lines 
of  Metam.  l.  Perhaps  the  more  careful  Latin  poets  so 
often  employ  this  cadence,  because  they  dislike,  or 
seldom  use,  what  is  with  the  Greeks  the  most  favourite 
of  all  rhythms :  Aeternum  frangenda  bidentibus :  omne 
leuandum;  and  words  like  'bidentibus',  'simillima*,  etc. 
can  hardly  be  brought  into  the  verse,  without  employ- 
ing one  or  other  of  these  two  rhythms.  Where  how- 
ever he  has  Greek  names  to  deal  with,  Virgil  luxuriates 
in  this  Greek  cadence:  in  Geor.  iv  336 — 343  he  has 
four  instances  of  it  within  eight  verses,  and  again  in 
463  Atque  Getae  atque  Hebrus  et  Actias  Orithyia^. 


65  1—18 

Etsi  me  assiduo  defectum  cura  dolore 

seuocat  a  doctis,  Ortale,  uirginibus, 
nee  potis  est  dulcis  Musarum  expromere  fetus 

mens  animi  (tantis  fluctuat  ipsa  mahs  : 

^  We  can  hardly  be  wrong  in  assuming  that  Catullus,  in  respect  of  the 
hexameter  as  well  as  of  his  other  metres,  would  take  counsel  with  Cinna  and 
Calvus.  Pseudo-Probus  p.  226  5  KeU :  is  syllaba  nominatiui  casus  breuis  est 
masculino  sine  feminino  genere  atque  communi...:  feminine,  ut  Caluus  in  lo 
'Frigida  iam  celeris  uergatur.  uistinis  ora':  so  the  Ms.  'oeleri  peragrata 
Borysthenis  ora'  Parrhasius.  ^fortasse  celeri  superata'  Keil.  This  makes 
Calvus  violate  the  law  which  Catullus  observes  so  carefully.  Why  not  rather 
'celeri  superatur  Bistonis  ora',  or  something  such?  By  this  we  shall  also  save 
the  credit  of  the  poor  grammarian,  whom  the  other  readings  impeach  of  most 
scandalous  ignorance,  as  a  feminine  nominative  is  the  cause  of  his  quoting  the 
verso. 


154  CATVLLI 

5  namqiie  mei  nuper  Lethaeo  gurgite  fratris 
pallidulum  manans  alluit  unda  pedem, 
Troia  Rhoeteo  quern  subter  litore  tellus 

ereptum  nostris  obterit  ex  oculis. 
numquam  ego  te  prhnae  mihi  ademptum  in  Jiore 
iuuentae, 
10       numquam  ego  te,  uita  frater  amabilior, 
aspiciam  posthac.     at  certe  semper  amabo, 
semper  maesta  tua  carmina  morte  canam, 
qualia  sub  densis  ramorum  concinit  umbris 
Daulias  absumpti  fata  gemens  Itylei) : 
15  Bed  tamen  in  tantis  maeroribus,  Ortale,  mitto 
haec  expressa  tibi  carmina  Battiadae, 
ne  tua  dicta  uagis  nequiquam  credita  uentis 
effluxisse  meo  forte  putes  animo. 

1  confectum  G.  2  Seuocat  Itali,  uulgo.  Sed  uacat  V.  Deuocat  Baehrem. 
3  dulcissimus  hanuu  Y.    9  om.  V.    12  morte  canam  Itali.  morte  tegam  V. 

The  Ortalus  here  addressed  is  probably  the  famous 
orator  Q.  Hortensius  Ortalus,  the  friend  and  rival  of 
Cicero,  whose  name  Hortensius  by  some  strange  freak 
of  chance  has  got  mixed  up  with  our  95th  poem.  Our 
present  poem  must  have  been  composed  much  about 
the  same  time  as  68  a,  and  probably  at  Verona,  where 
that  poem  was  written,  in  his  father's  house  we  may 
surely  assume.  He  has  no  books  to  send  to  Manhus 
and  will  not  write  him  love-poems.  But  we  see  he  is 
ready  to  divert  his  sorrow  by  translating  for  Ortalus 
Callimachus'  Coma  Berenices. 

9  :  The  verse  I  have  given  probably  comes  pretty 
near  the  sense  of  the  one  which  is  lost :  if  its  com- 
mencement was  the  same  as  10,  its  falling  out  can 
readily  be  accounted  for.  The  strange  'Datanus'  has  a 
barbarous  ungrammatical  interpolation :   Alloquar,  au- 


CARM.    65  155 

diero  numquam  tua  loqiientem :  which  Ellis  in  my 
opinion  vainly  tries  to  explain.  12  morte  canam  :  this 
seems  a  certain  correction  of  the  Ms.  'morte  tegam': 
from  the  great  similarity  of  letters  canam  became  cam, 
and  the  te  of  morte  was  attached  to  it  to  make  a  word. 
This  phenomenon  is  common  in  our  and  in  all  Mss. : 
comp.  3  'dulcissimus  harum'  for  'dulcis  Musarum':  still 
better  76  11  animum  offirmas :  animo  offirmas  V:  I 
might  give  20  instances  of  syllables  wrongly  doubled : 
see  68  91  where  I  propose  'Quae  taetre'  for  'Que  uetet' 
of  Mss.:  58  5  magnanimi  Kemi :  magTia  amiremini  O. 
Plaut.  Trin.  540  Sues  moriuntur  angina  acerrime  :  ?  an- 
gina taeterrime:  first  'teterrime'  became  'terrime';  and 
then  the  a  of  angina  attached  itself  to  make  a  word  ^. 

I  am  really  sorry  to  see  Ellis  retain  'tegam':  this  is 
his  note :  *  tegam,  I  will  muffle  or  veil  in  silence.  That 
this-  is  the  meaning  is  shown  by  the  comparison  with 
the  nightingale  singing  veiled  from  sight  amid  the 
leaves'.  As  if  the  nightingale  ever  muffled  or  veiled  in 
silence  its  song,  or  as  if  'tegam  carmina'  had  any 
meaning  at  all.  Why,  the  shrill  ringing  out  of  the 
nightingale's  notes,  their  filling  the  air  with  sound,  is 
the  prime  notion  the  poets  connect  with  its  music  : 
Qucdis  populea  maerens  philomela  suh  umbra  Amissos 
queritur  fetus... a.t  ilia  Flet  noctem  ramoque  sedens 
miserabile  carmen  Integrat  et  maestis  late  loca  questi- 
hus  implet:  comp.  this  with  12  and  13  of  our  poem. 
Nay  Homer,  whom  Catullus  had  in  mind,  refutes  him 
too  :  oir)Ba>v  Kakov  OLeLh7)(TLV,..AevBp€(ov  iv  ireroiXoLaL 
KaOei^ofieuT)  trvKivolcriv,  Hre  6afia  rpcoTrcocra  x^€.i  no- 
\v7))(^ia  <f)0)VTJv,  IlatS*  oko^vpoixeirq  \tv\ov  ^Ckov. 
'muffle  or  veil  in  silence'!:  comp.  too  Sen.  Agam.  670; 
Here.  Get.  199. 

*  Comp.  my  '  Iliac  quaque '  for  •  Ilia  atque '  in  64  16. 


156  CATVLLI 


66  15—18 


Estne  nouis  nuptis  odio  Venus?  an  quod  auentum 

frustrantur  falsis  gaudia  lacrimulis, 
ubertim  tlialami  quas  intra  limina  fundunt  ? 

non,  ita  me  diui,  uera  gemunt,  iuerint. 

15  an  quod  auentum  scripsi.  atque  parentum  V.  anne  parentum  uulgo. 
anne  pauentes  Baehrens. 

There  is  mucli  that  is  harsh  and  obscure  in  this 
poem,  the  translation  of  an  original  which  no  doubt 
was  itself  somewhat  involved.  I  intend  however  to 
touch  only  on  a  very  few  points.  15  :  That  parentum 
has  no  place  here  is  to  me  a  self-evident  fact,  which 
Baehrens  has  rightly  acknowledged;  tho'  I  think  his 
correction  by  no  means  a  happy  one.  Manifestly,  the 
*  husbands'  must  take  the  place  of  the  'parents';  and 
my  correction  is  I  think  really  nearer  V  than  is  the 
vulgate  *anne  parentum':  I  have  over  and  over  again 
called  attention  to  the  astonishing  frequency  with  which 
0  and  e  are  interchanged  in  our  Mss. :  the  confusion  be- 
tween d  and  p,  which  occasionally  occurs,  probably  goes 
back  to  some  original  written  in  uncials  or  in  capitals : 
16  1  and  14  Pedicabo.  Dedicabo  V.  21  9  id  si.  ipsi  V. 
64  104  succepit.  succendit  V:  this  correction  by  Statins 
is  adopted  by  all  recent  editors  except  Ellis  alone. 
10  7  quomodo  se.  quomo  posse  O. 

This  an  quod  {an  quia)  is  an  elliptical  expression 
for  a7i  eofit  quod,  much  resembling  the  quod  for  quod... 
hoc  fit  quod,  which  I  have  explained  and  illustrated  at 
10  28.  It  recurs  below  in  v.  31  Quis  te  mutauit  tan- 
tus  deus  ?  an  quod  amantes  Non  longe  a  caro  corpore 
abesse  uolunt  ? :  the  phrase  is  a  favourite  one  with 


CARM.  66  157 

Terence  :  hec.  662  Censen  te  posse  reperire  ullam  miili- 
erem  Quae  careat  culpa?  an  quia  non  delincunt  uiri? 
784  Quid  mihi  istaec  n arras  ?  an  quia  non  tute  dudum 
audisti?  Phorm.  602;  eun.  907:  inheaut.  505  we  have 
the  full  form  :  an  eo  fit,  quia  re  in  nostra  aut  gaudio 
Sumus  praepediti  nimio  aut  aegritudine  ?  1 8  is  one 
of  those  very  harsh  collocations  of  words,  of  which  I 
have  given  other  examples  from  Catullus,  as  below, 
vss.  40  and  41. 

77    Quicum  ego,  dum  uirgo  quondam  fuit,  omnibus 
expers 
•  unguentis,  una  milia  multa  bibi. 

I  have  never  felt  much  doubt  that  the  sole  corrup- 
tion in  these  two  verses  lies  in  the  word  expers,  for 
which  we  want  a  word  with  the  exactly  opposite  mean- 
ing, *  abounding '  *  steeped  in '.  Of  the  numerous  cor- 
rections which  have  been  made,  the  best  seems  to  be 
Doering's,  who  often  takes  a  straightforward  common- 
sense  view  of  a  corrupt  passage :  omnibus  explens  Se 
unguentis :  perhaps  '  explens  Vnguentis  se '  would  be 
slightly  nearer  the  Mss.  :  'una'  I  think  should  cer- 
tainly not  be  tampered  with. 

93     Sidera  corruerint,  utinam  coma  regia  fiam  I 
proximus  Hydrochoi  fulgeret  Oarion. 

93  corruerint  Lachmann.  cur  iterent  V. 

EUis  rightly  states  the  essential  meaning  of  these 
verses  ;  but  I  don't  think  he  explains  correctly  the  con- 
struction, in  which  there  is  nothing  irregular  :  *  Tho'  the 
stars  shall  all  have  to  tumble  down  for  it,  I  pray  I  may 
become  again  a  royal  lock.  Orion,  if  he  liked,  might 
then  shine  next  to  Aquarius ' :  aU  the  stars  between 


158  CATVLLI 

them  having  fallen  down,  to  let  the  lock  make  its 
escape  among  them,  fulgeret  is  an  instance  of  that  use 
of  the  imperf.  and  pluperf.  subj.  which  Madvig  (de  fin. 
II  35)  illustrates  from  Cicero  and  others,  and  of  which 
I  have  collected  numerous  examples  from  Yirgil  and 
Ovid  :  Obruerent  Rutuli  telis  !  animam  ipse  dedissem  ! 
Atque  haec  pompa  domum  me,  non  Pallanta,  referret ! : 
corruerent  cannot  well  be  right,  fulgei^et :  v.  6 1  fulge- 
remus  :  Lucr.  varies  the  conjugation  in  the  same  way  : 
Virgil  in  the  inf.  has  onlj  fulgere,  effulget'e,  feruere. 


67 

O  dulci  iucunda  uiro,  iucunda  parenti, 

salue,  teque  bona  luppiter  auctet  ope, 
ianua,  quam  Balbo  dicunt  seruisse  benigne 

olim,  cum  sedes  ipse  senex  tenuit, 
5  quamque  ferunt  rursus  uoto  seruisse  maligne, 

postquam  es  porrecto  facta  marita  sene : 
die  agedum  nobis,  quare  mutata  feraris 

in  dominum  ueterem  deseruisse  fidem. 

*  non  (ita  Caeciho  placeam  cui  tradita  nunc  sum) 
1 0       culpa  mea  est,  quamquam  dicitur  esse  mea, 

nee  peccatum  a  me  quisquam  pote  dicere  quicquam; 

uerum  astu  populi  ianua  quippe  facit. 
qui,  quacumque  aliquid  reperitur  non  bene  factum, 

ad  me  omnes  clamant :  ianua,  culpa  tua  est'. 
15  non  istuc  satis  est  uno  te  dicere  uerbo, 

sed  facere  ut  quiuis  sentiat  et  uideat. 
*qui  possum  ?  nemo  quaerit  nee  scire  laborat'. 

nos  uolumus  :  nobis  dicere  ne  dubita. 

*  primum  igitur,  uirgo  quod  fertur  tradita  nobis, 
20       falsum  est.     non  illam  uir  prior  attigerit, 


CARM,  GQ,  67  159 

languidlor  tenem  cui  pendens  sicula  beta 

numquam  se  mediam  sustulit  ad  tunicam  : 
sed  pater  illius  gnati  uiolasse  cubile 

dicitar  et  miseram  conscelerasse  domum, 
25  siue  quod  impia  mens  caeco  flagrabat  amore, 

seu  quod  iners  sterili  semine  natus  erat, 
ut  quaerendum  unde  unde  foret  neruosius  illud, 

quod  posset  zonam  soluere  uirgineam'. 
egregium  narras  mira  pietate  parentem, 
30       qui  ipse  sui  gnati  minxerit  in  gremium. 

'  atqui  non  solum  hoc  dicit  se  cognitum  habere 

Brixia  chinea  suppositum  specula, 
flauus  quam  molli  percurrit  flumine  Mella, 

Brixia  Yeronae  mater  amata  meae, 
35  sed  de  Postumio  et  Cornell  narrat  amore, 

cum  quibus  ilia  malum  fecit  adulterium. 
dixerit  hie  aliquis  :  qui  tu  isthaec,  ianua,  nosti, 

cui  numquam  domini  limine  abesse  licet, 
nee  populum  auscultare,  sed  hie  suffixa  tigillo 
40       tantum  operire  soles  aut  aperire  domum  ? 
saepe  illam  audiui  furtiua  uoce  loquentem 

solam  cum  ancillis  haec  sua  flagitia, 
nomine  dicentem  quos  diximus,  ut  pote  quae  mi 

speraret  nee  linguam  esse  nee  auriculam. 
45  praeterea  addebat  quendam,  quem  dicere  nolo 

nomine,  ne  toUat  rubra  supercilia. 
longus  homo  est,  magnas  quoi  lites  intulit  olim 

falsum  mendaci  uentre  puerperium'. 

5  maligne  0.  maligno  G.  6  es  Itali.  est  V.  12  astu  scripsi.  istius  V. 
qiiippe  scripsi.  qui  te  V.  27  Vt  Girard,  Ellis,  quaerendum  unde  unde  Statins. 
quaerendus  unde  V.  is  unde  Lachmann.  31  hoc  dicit  se  0,  Baehrens.  se  dicit 
G-.  hoc  se  dicit  uulgo.    32  is  corrupt.    37 — 40  Schwabe,  Baehrens  give  to  Catullus. 

This  oddly  humourous  poem  has  greatly  perplexed 
the  commentators.     Muretus  says  :  stultum  est,  quae 


160  CATVLLI 

ita  scripsit  Catullus  ut  ne  turn  quidem  nisi  a  paucis 
quibus  hae  res  cognitae  essent  uoluerit  intelligi,  ea  se 
quemquam  hodie  credere  coniectura  assecuturum  ;  while 
Turnebus  adv.  xvi  1  calls  it  '  aeque  ac  folium  Sibyllae 
obscurum  et  tenebricosum'  and  refers  it  to  Clodia  and 
her  husband  Caecilius  Metellus !  Schwabe  i  p.  346 
quotes  the  words  I  have  cited  and  admits  their  truth  : 
he  does  not  expect  to  clear  away  the  difficulties  of  the 
poem :  nos  non  id  agimus  ut  tenebras  omnes  nostris 
exphcationibus  dispellamus,  sed  ut  non  nullos  saltem 
errores  quos  interpretes  superiores  non  euitarunt  effu- 
gere  conemur :  and  certainly  his  theory  strikes  me  as 
involved  and  improbable.  Ellis  begins  by  saying  '  that 
the  obscurities  which  surround  this  poem  are  so  con- 
siderable that  it  seems  hopeless  to  do  more  than  sketch 
in  outline  the  story  which  it  contains,  leaving  the  sub- 
ordinate points  undecided' ;  and  his  comments  through- 
out shew  his  utter  embarrassment. 

I  may  be  under  a  strange  hallucination;  but  for 
years  the  poem  has  seemed  to  me  quite  simple  and  in- 
telligible. Two  lines,  12  and  32,  the  former  of  which 
I  have  attempted  to  correct,  the  latter  I  have  left  un- 
touched, are  so  corrupt  that  the  text  must  remain  un- 
certain ;  but  they  do  not  obscure  in  the  least  the  general 
meaning  of  the  poem.  I  will  first  briefly  state  its  sub- 
ject; next  I  will  give  a  paraphrase  of  the  whole,  which 
will  mask  the  coarsenesses  without  detriment  to  the 
sense;  I  will  then  add  such  critical  and  exegetical  com- 
ments as  may  seem  advisable.  I  may  say  that  I  have 
now  before  me  a  letter,  in  which  two  years  ago  I  gave 
to  Professor  Sellar  the  same  explanation  as  that  which 
I  now  ofier. 

This  is  a  dialogue  carried  on  in  Verona  between  the 
poet  and  the  door  of  a  house  in  that  city.     This  house 


CARM.   67  IGl 

had  been  in  good  repute,  while  it  was  owned  by  a  worthy 
widower,  Caecilius  Balbus  the  elder,  now  dead.  It  was 
now  in  the  possession  of  his  son  and  heir,  Caecilius 
Balbus  the  younger.  He  was  a  worthy  man  like  his 
father ;  but  the  house  had  forfeited  its  good  name ;  for 
this  Caecilius  had  married  after  his  father's  death.  The 
wife  had  lived  in  Brixia  with  a  former  husband;  but 
when  she  entered  Caecilius'  house  in  Verona,  she  was 
believed  to  be  a  maid.  It  was  not  so :  the  former  hus- 
band it  is  true  had  not  consummated  the  marriage ;  but 
that  husband's  father  had  debauched  his  own  daughter- 
in-law,  either  through  foul  lust  or  from  a  wish  to  get 
an  heir  for  his  son.  Brixia  saw  and  can  tell  of  this; 
yes,  and  of  many  other  deeds  of  shame.  The  door  learnt 
all  this  by  often  overhearing  her  recounting  to  her  maids 
these  enormities. 

1 — 8 :  (Catullus)  0  door,  may  heaven  shower  aU  its 
blessings  upon  you,  door,  well-pleasing  to  the  husband 
and  master  of  the  house,  well-pleasing  too  to  his  father 
before  him :  you  are  reported  to  have  served  old  Balbus 
well  and  faithfully  erewhile,  when  he  was  master  in  the 
house ;  but  then  on  the  other  hand  it  is  told  of  you  that 
you  have  carried  out  but  scurvily  his  wish  and  prayer, 
when  the  old  man  was  in  his  coffin  and  you  had  come 
to  be  a  bridal  door.  Tell  us  why  you  are  so  changed, 
it  is  said,  as  to  have  renounced  your  old  loyalty  to  your 
lord. — 9 — 14  (Door  loq.)  As  I  hope  to  please  Caeci- 
lius to  whom  I  now  belong,  the  fault  is  not  mine,  tho' 
it  is  said  to  be  mine;  and  no  man  can  pretend  that  I 
have  done  any  wrong ;  and  yet  through  the  people's  un- 
derhand  malice  the  door  forsooth  is  brought  in  guilty. 
For  when  aught  is  found  anyhow  to  turn  out  wrong, 
they  all  call  out  at  me  'Door,  the  fault  is  yours'. — 15 
and  16  (C.)  It  won't  do  merely  to  say  that;  you  must 

M.  c.  11 


162  CATVLLI 

make  the  world  feel  it  and  see  it  too. — 17  (D.)  How 
can  I?  nobody  asks  or  cares  to  know. — 18  (C.)  Yes,  I 
do:  don't  hesitate  to  tell  me.— 19— 28  (D.)  Well  then, 
to  begin  with  this,  the  story  is  false,  that  she  was  hand- 
ed over  to  us  a  maid.  Her  first  husband,  it  is  true,  is 
not  likely  to  have  touched  her,  for  he  was  incapable; 
but  the  father  of  that  husband  is  said  to  have  violated 
the  bed  of  his  son  and  to  have  plunged  into  guilt  the 
unblest  house,  either  because  his  sinful  mind  burned 
with  unlawful  passion,  or  because  he  wished  to  beget 
an  heir  for  his  son. — 29  and  30  (C.)  An  exemplaiy 
feither  this,  of  whom  you  tell,  to  cuckold  his  own  son ! — 
31 — 48  (D.)  Yes,  and,  Brixia  tells  us,  this  is  not  the 
only  sin  of  that  woman's  which  she  has  espied  from  her 
o'erlooking  height,  Brixia  whom  the  yellow  Mella  tra- 
verses with  his  gentle  stream,  Brixia  loved  mother  of 
Verona  mine.  She  has  to  speak  of  Postumius  as  well, 
and  of  the  intrigue  with  Cornelius,  with  both  of  whom 
the  woman  committed  foul  adultery.  Should  any  one 
ask,  '  Door,  how  do  you  know  all  this,  who  never  may 
be  away  from  your  master's  threshold,  nor  overhear  the 
people;  but,  fastened  here  to  the  post,  have  for  sole 
duty  to  open  up  or  close  the  house?'  my  answer  is  that 
I  have  often  heard  her  talking  in  stealthy  tones,  alone 
to  her  maids,  of  these  scandals  of  hers,  and  mentioning 
by  name  those  whom  I  have  mentioned,  hoping  the 
while  that  I  had  neither  tongue  nor  ear.  To  these 
lovers  she  used  to  join  one  more,  whom  I  do  not  choose 
to  name,  lest  he  up  with  his  red  eyebrows.  He  is  the 
long  fellow  who  got  ere  while  into  such  a  costly  law- 
business  by  that  trumped  up  case  of  lying  in  with  its 
mendacious  birth. 

I  do  not  know  how  this  statement  of  the  case  may 
strike  others  :  to  me  it  is  quite  simple  and  intelligible. 


CARM.  Q7  163 

I  must  now  append  some  comments  and  explanations. 
1  iucunda  to  me  of  course  is  not  'ironical'.  5  mallgne : 
another  great  and  undoubted  service  which  O  has  con- 
ferred on  Catullus.  As  I  have  already  so  often  observed 
and  shall  hereafter  have  cause  to  observe,  no  letters  are 
so  perpetually  confused  in  our  Mss.  as  o  and  6 :  77  1 
amice  O,  rightly,  amico  G;  7Q  11  instincteque  O,  in^ 
stinctoque  G:  istinc  teque  I  believe  is  to  be  read,  uoto 
I  think  is  right,  tho'  Froelich's  nato  may  be  simpler, 
and  a  and  o,  u  and  n  are  often  confused.  I  take  uoto 
to  express  the  old  man's  dying  wish.  Baehrens'  con- 
jecture  7iatae  proves  he  does  not  apprehend  the  poem 
as  I  do.  6  marita  :  Schwabe  well  illustrates  this  from 
Livy  XXVII  315  per  maritas  domos :  comp.  too  Mart, 
X  19  12  Sed  ne  tempore  non  tuo  disertam  Pulses  ebria 
ianuam  uideto. 

12  Every  one  I  presume  will  have  his  own  conjec- 
ture for  this  verse.    Certainly  the  older  corrections,  in- 
cluding Lachmann's,   are  far  too  venturesome:    istius 
and  qui  te  the  metre  declares  to  be  corrupt;  all  the 
other  words  in  the  line  appear  to  me  quite  genuine. 
Tho'  I  offer  my  own  corrections  with  diffidence,  I  do  not 
think  they  are  wide  of  the  Ms.   reading :  with  astu 
comp.  Plant.  Pers.  148  praecipe  astu  filiae  Quid  fabu- 
letur :  if  quippe  be  written  with  one  p  it  will  readily 
pass  into  qui  te  :  comp.  14  15  oppinio  O  for  optima,  62 
54  apsi  T  for  at  si,  64  tuignare  T  £or  pugnare.  Compare 
with  its  use  here  some  words  from  the  striking  passage 
in  Cic.  pro  Mil.  33  mouet  me  quippe  lumen  curiae,  said 
in  bitter  irony  of  Sex.  Clodius.     Baehrens'  est  uox  and 
cuncta  are  rather  wide  of  the  Mss.     Ellis'  est  os  cannot 
mean  sermo  est :  in  the  passage  from  Cicero  which  he 
cites  in  his  1st  volume,  os  means  '  impudence'  'face' : 
a  common  sense,  as  Mart,  ix  94  2  os  hominis!     In  the 

11—2 


'1'^  CATVLLI 

passage  from  Persius  *  os  populi  meruisse '  means  *  me- 
ruisse  in  ore  populi  esse',  'to  be  in  the  mouths'  *on  the 
tongues  of  men' :  quite  another  thing.  As  I  hold  it  to 
be  certain  that  Catullus  was  named  Gaius,  not  Quintus, 
of  course  I  think  Quinte  false  :  it  is  in  vain  to  appeal  to 
Scahger,  Lachmann  and  Haupt,  as  they  were  without 
the  convincing  evidence  which  we  possess.  But  this 
question  of  name  has  been  fully  discussed  elsewhere, 
facit :  facio  is  used  thousands  of  times  in  Latin  without 
an  object :  in  my  Lucretius  I  have  given  many  examples: 
comp.  too  Virgil's  Me  me  adsum  qui  feci;  Sen.  controu. 
I  1  19  non  feci;  7  14  sciebam  enim  piratas  non  facturos; 
Martial's  witty  epigram  ix  1 5  Inscripsit  tumulis  septem 
scelerata  uirorum  Se  fecisse  Chloe;  x  75  13  fecit;  xii 
63  8  Ferrem,  si  faceret  bonus  poeta. 

27  this  reading,  which  Ellis  has  adopted,  seems  to 
me  too  the  best :  querendus  for  quaerendum  is  an  in- 
stance of  that  very  common  confusion  in  our  Mss.  be- 
tween final  tn  and  s  of  which  I  have  already  spoken 
more  than  once.  32-  the  reading  must  remain  uncer- 
tain here,  as  no  one  can  tell  whether  chinea  is  corrupt; 
or,  if  it  be  corrupt,  what  word  we  are  to  substitute  for 
it :  specula  must  denote  some  height,  with  or  without  a 
watch-tower  on  it,  which  overlooked  Brixia.  But  sup- 
posita  cannot,  as  ElHs  will  have  it,  be  followed  by  an 
abl.  instead  of  a  dative  :  the  commonly  accepted  '  sup- 
posita  speculae '  is  not  a  very  violent  correction.  Yet 
I  feel  that  an  abl.  too  is  wanted,  and  that  chinea  is 
probably  the  corruption  of  some  simple  epithet.  If  so, 
cannot  a  dat.be  then  understood?  'supposita  ei  speculae', 
*  Brixia  uicina  suppositS  ab  [au]  specula'  would  not  be 
so  wide  of  the  Ms.  'chinea  suppositu  specula':  Virgil 
has  *  specula  ab  alta'  twice.  On  the  next  two  verses, 
about  the  present  or  past  course  of  the  Mella,  why 


CARM.    Q"?  165r 

Brixia  m  called  Verona's  mother,  I  have  nothing  new 
to  tell ;  but  can  only  refer  to  Ellis,  to  Yulpius  and  the 
multitudinous  older  Italian  authorities  whom  the  latter 
appeals  to.  The  scholars  of  Verona,  of  Padua  and  other 
Venetian  cities  looked  on  it  as  a  piece  of  impertinence 
for  a  second-rate  Lombard  town  like  Brescia  to  claim 
to  be  mother  of  their  own  Verona.  , 

34  the  door  may  well  say  *  Veronae  meae';  and  yet 
perhaps  Catullus  was  unconsciously  thinking  of  himself. 
35  and  36  Ovid,  speaking  there  of  Catullus,  had  the 
language  and  the  meaning  of  these  two  verses  in  his 
thouofhts,  when  he  wrote  trist.  ii  429  Nee  contentus 
ea,  multos  uulgauit  amores  In  quibus  ipsa  suum  fassus 
adulterium  est :  in  the  second  line  he  adopts  the  Catul- 
lian  rhythm,  and  not  his  own  :  Fassus  adulteriumst  in 
quibus  ipse  suum. 

37 — 40  are  given  to  Catullus  by  Schwabe,  followed 
by.Baehrens;  but  I  prefer  the  old  arrangement  which, 
leaves  them  to  the  door.  44  Speraret:  grammar  and 
metre  alike  call  for  this  reading,  which  G  and  O  in- 
directly point  to:  'speret'  ought  not  to  be  defended. 
46  comp.  Petron.  91  supercilium  altius  sustulit.  rubra: 
this  refers  to  the  colour  of  the  hair,  so  common  a  re- 
proach with  the  Romans  :  comp.  59  1  Bononiensis  rufa, 
and  my  illustrations  there,  and  Mart,  xil  54  Crine 
ruber,  niger  ore,  breuis  pede,  lumine  laesus. 

47  and  48  :  see  Ellis,  who  means  I  presume  that  a 
vexatious  action  was  brought  against  the  man  for  the 
'stuprum'  of  a  free  virgin  or  widow.  Before  the  Julian 
law  on  the  subject,  proceedings  at  Rome  against  a  man 
for  'stuprum'  were  so  uncertain  and  variable,  that  I  am 
loth  to  give  any  opinion.  Certainly  a  Roman  had  such 
perfect  liberty  to  own  or  disown  a  child,  that  none 
could  be  fathered  on  him  against  his  will ;  and  I  do  not 


166  CATVLLI 

see  for  instance  what  all  this  parade  of  a  fictitious  lying 
in  could  effect,  more  than  the  simple  oath  of  the  woman 
or  of  others  that  she  had  been  debauched  or  outraged. 
Upon  the  other  theory  which  Ellis  combats,  we  might 
imagine  it  to  be  a  trick  for  evading  the  lex  Voconia : 
either  the  man's  father  and  mother,  having  no  son,  in 
order  not  to  forgo  the  property  of  the  mother's  father 
had  got  up  this  fictitious  lying  in  and  asserted  the  sup- 
posititious child  was  their  own ;  or  else  this  man  was 
the  father  who,  with  his  wife,  played  the  same  trick  in 
order  to  keep  the  property  of  the  wife's  father.  In 
either  case  the  'gentilis'  or  nearest  agnate  would  bring 
the  action,  and  Cat.  68  120 — 123  would  be  in  point : 
Yna  caput  seri  nata  nepotis  alit.  Qui  cum  diuitiis  uix 
tandem  inuentus  auitis  Nomen  testatas  intulit  in  tabu- 
las,  Impia  derisi  gentilis  gaudia  toUens.  olim  perhaps 
tells  for  the  first  of  these  two  hypotheses,  uetiter  has 
the  meaning  which  it  has  in  Horace,  quoted  by  Ellis. 


68  a       ' 

Quod  mihi  fortuna  casuque  oppressus  acerbo 

conscriptum  hoc  lacrimis  mittis  epistolium, 
naufragum  ut  eiectum  spumantibus  aequoris  undis 

subleuem  et  a  mortis  limine  restituam, 
5  quern  neque  sancta  Venus  moUi  requiescere  somno 

desertum  in  lecto  caehbe  perpetitur, 
nee  ueterum  dulci  scriptorum  carmine  Musae 

oblectant,  cum  mens  anxia  peruigilat : 
id  gratum  est  mihi,  me  quoniam  tibi  dicis  amicum 
10       muneraque  et  Musarum  hinc  petis  et  Veneris, 
sed  tibi  ne  mea  sint  ignota  incommoda,  Manli, 

neu  me  odisse  putes  hospitis  officium, 


CARM.  67,  68  167 

accipe,  quis  merser  fortunae  fluctibus  ipse, 
ne  amplius  a  misero  dona  beata  petas. 
15  tempore  quo  primum  uestis  mihi  tradita  pura  est, 
iucundum  cum  aetas  florida  uer  ao^eret, 
multa  satis  lusi :  non  est  dea  nescia  nostri, 

quae  dulcem  curis  miscet  amaritiem. 
sed  totum  hoc  studium  luctu  fratema  mihi  mora 
20       abstulit.     o  misero  frater  adempte  mihi, 
tu  mea  tu  moriens  fregisti  commoda,  frater, 
tecum  una  tota  est  nostra  sepulta  domus, 
omnia  tecum  una  perierunt  gaudia  nostra, 
quae  tuus  in  uita  dulcis  alebat  amor. 
25  cuius  ego  interitu  tota  de  mente  fugaui 
haec  studia  atque  omnes  delicias  animi. 
quare,  quod  scribis  'Veronae  turpe,  CatuUe, 
esse,  quod  hie,  quisquis  de  meliore  notast, 
friglda  deserto  tepefecit  membra  cubili': 
30       id,  Manh,  non  est  turpe,  magis  miserum  est. 
ignosces  igitur  si,  quae  mihi  luctus  ademit, 
haec  tibi  non  tribuo  munera,  cum  nequeo. 
nam,  quod  scriptorum  non  magna  est  copia  apud  me, 
hoc  fit,  quod  Komae  uiuimus :  ilia  domus, 
35  ilia  mihi  sedes,  illic  mea  carpi tur  aetas: 
hue  una  ex  multis  capsula  me  sequitur. 
quod  cum  ita  sit,  nolim  statuas  nos  mente  maUgna 

id  facere  aut  animo  non  satis  ingenuo, 
quod  tibi  non  utriusque  petenti  copia  praestost: 
40      ultro  ego  deferrem,  copia  si  qua  foret. 

11  lifanli.  mali  V.  27  CatiiUe  V,  rightly.  CatuUo  all  editors.  28  nota 
est  Perrcius.  nota  V.  29  tepefecit  scripsi.  tepefacit  V.  tepefaxit  tiel  tepefactet 
uulgo.  30  Manli.  mali  V.  39  praesto  est  Froelich.  posta  est  Y.  facta  uel  parta 
ttel  porcta  ttel  aperta  alii, 

I  have  not  hesitated  to  print  the  whole  of  this  poem 
as  well  as  the  next  and  longer  one,  because  T  believe 


168  CATVLLI 

that  I  have  somethiDg  to  say  about  them  worth  saying 
in  addition  to  so  much  that  has  been  already  well  said 
by  others,  and  that  these  two  poems  are  of  some  mo- 
ment for  determining  the  question  who  Lesbia  was. 
Two  years  back  from  the  time  I  am  now  writing  I  in- 
terchanged a  series  of  letters  with  Professor  Sellar  of 
Edinburgh  about  this  and  some  other  of  Catullus'  poems. 
Both  his  letters  and  my  own  are  now  before  me :  in  mine 
I  argued  with  some  fulness — and  this  argument  I  in- 
tend to  repeat  and  develop  here — that  Manhus  had 
written  to  Catullus,  not  from  Bome  as  the  commenta- 
tors generally  assume,  but  in  all  probability  from  Baiae. 
This  I  state  at  once,  because  Ellis  in  his  comment  on 
V.  27  of  our  poem,  after  dilating  upon  the  common  theory 
observes:  'Prof  Jowett  has  suggested  to  me  an  entire- 
ly different  interpretation.  He  supposes  AUius  to  re- 
monstrate with  Catullus  on  remaining  at  Verona,  when 
he  might  imitate  the  example  of  the  fashionable  world 
by  takhig  a  course  of  hot  baths,  L  e.  at  Baiae  or  some 
other  well-known  watering  place*.  And  in  an  excursus 
appended  to  the  next  poem  he  remarks:  'It  is  not  how- 
ever necessary  to  suppose  Baiae  alluded  to.  There  were 
hot  sulphur  springs  near  Verona,  etc'  It  is  gratifying 
to  me  that  Professor  Jowett  and  I,  thus  independently 
of  one  another,  should  have  hit  upon  Baiae,  tho'  in 
other  respects  we  completely  diverge  from  one  another, 
my  theory  having  nothing  to  do  with  the  hot  baths, 
which  Ellis  emphasises  by  Italics. 

Nearly  every  commentator  of  CatuUus  is  now  agreed 
that  this  68  th  poem  forms  two  entu-ely  distinct  poems, 
addressed  respectively  to  two  quite  different  persons, 
1 — 40  to  a  Manlius,  41 — 160  to  an  Allius:  external 
and  internal  evidence  ahke  demand  this  separation. 
The  fact  of  the  Mss.  joining  them  together  tells  abso- 


CARM.  68  169 

lutely  nothing  against  this,  as  a  large  portion  of  the 
poems  are  similarly  thrown  together  without  any  sepa- 
ration in  our  Mss.  In  my  judgment  Schwabe  (Quaest. 
p.  340 — 344)  has  proved  so  convincingly  that  this  Man- 
lius  is  L.  Manlius  Torquatus,  the  bridegroom  of  the  epi- 
thalamium,  the  friend  of  Cicero  and  the  epicurean  cham- 
pion in  the  De  Finibus,  who  was  slain  in  Africa  in  46 
B.  c.  at  the  close  of  the  civil  war  there,  that  I  can  add 
nothing  to  his  demonstration  nor  hope  to  convince  any 
one  who  may  question  it.  In  61  16  V  has  mallio;  215 
G  has  Manlio,  O  Maulio;  68  11  and  30  V  has  mall  for 
Manli:  such  corruptions  are  intelligible  enough,  as  Mss. 
perpetually  confound  Manlius,  Mallius,  Malms:  if  it 
be  argued  that  external  evidence  is  for  Mallius  or 
Malius,  I  should  demur  to  this ;  but  if  it  be  so,  then 
Mallius  or  Malius  must  be  only  another  form  of  Manlius. 
But  says  Ellis  *I  assume  here  what  it  seems  out- 
rageous to  deny,  that  the  Mallius  of  the  first  part  is  the 
AUius  and  Mallius  of  the  second '.  I  doubt  whether  he 
is  not  the  one  scholar  in  the  world  who  would  deny 
that  it  is — well,  bold  to  assert  that  any  one  in  Catul- 
lus' days  could  have  borne  two  gentile  names.  Alhus 
and  Mallius  are  both  common  nomina  and  an  AUius 
Mallius  or  Mallius  AUius  is  not  less  odd  than  an  AUius 
TuUius  Cicero,  or  a  MaUius  lulius  Caesar.  Or  are  we 
to  resort  to  the  hypothesis  that  some  AUius  had  adopt- 
ed MaUius,  or  some  MaUius  "had  adopted  AUius,  and  that 
in  the  same  poem  CatuUus  calls  the  man  by  his  new 
and  his  old  name?  just  as  if  somebody  in  one  page  had 
chosen  to  speak  of  the  younger  Africanus  sometimes  as 
Cornelius,  sometimes  as  AemUius,  or  to  name  his  brother 
at  one  time  AemUius,  at  another  Fabius.  But  my  a- 
mazement  is  increased  when  I  find  EUis  writing  thus 
in  the. Academy  (March  24,  1877):  *The  Cujacianus  is 


170  CATVLLI 

now  before  me :  if  I  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  tra- 
dition Q.  Valerii  Catulli,  I  must  also  doubt  that  of 
the  Sexti  Aurelii  Propertii  Nautae,  which  it  equally 
contains';  as  if  every  scholar  but  himself  did  not  scout 
the  'Aurehi  Propertii'  or  'Propertii  Aurelii',  and  the 
*Nautae'  to  boot,  as  absurd  figments;  as  if  the  poet  had 
any  other  known  names  besides  Sextus  Propertius;  as 
if  Mommsen  and  Haupt  had  not  proved  the  *Aurelius 
Propertius'  to  have  passed  from  a  forged  inscription  into 
some  interpolated  Mss. ;  as  if  the  testimony  of  the  Cuja- 
cianus  were  worth  the  material  on  which  it  is  written. 
This  is  ominous  indeed  for  his  'Q.  Valerius  Catullus'. 

With  the  exception  of  some  of  the  shorter  epigrams 
this  is  to  me  one  of  the  least  pleasing  of  all  Catullus' 
poems :  it  strikes  me  as  prosaic,  ill-conceived  and  ill- 
put  together.     He  seems  to  be  unhinged  by  grief  for 
the  loss  of  his  brother;  under  some  constraint  too  per- 
haps; for  he  was  surely  living  with  his  father,  a  man 
of  importance   in  Verona,  whose    hospitality  Caesar, 
when  proconsul  of  the  Gauls,  did  not  disdain.     I  can- 
not help  also  fancying  that  he  had  hardly  caught  the 
fiill  meaning  of  Manlius'  epistle,  which   I  believe  to 
have  been  written  in  elegiac  verse  and  to  have  been 
perhaps   somewhat  obscure.     Our  poem  produces   on 
my  mind  the  impression  of  some  degree  of  coarseness 
in  the  character  of  Manlius,  tho'  Cicero  extols  so  highly 
his  accomphshments.     Manlius,  suffering  from  the  loss 
of  his  wife  Aurunculeia,  had  written  to  Catullus  that 
he  found  no  pleasure  in  the  old  poets,  probably  the 
Greeks;  that  he  wanted  him  to  send  love-poems  of  his 
own,  as  well  as  any  such-like  productions   of  others 
which  he  had  with  him.     Cicero  tells  us  of  Manlius' 
great  love  of  poetry.    But  evidently  I  think  Manlius' 
main  purpose  in  writing  was  to  entice  him  away  from 


CARM.   68  171 

Verona  to  Baiae,  or  wherever  he  himself  then  was,  by- 
exciting  his  passion  and  jealousy  with  tales  of  Lesbia's 
infidelities.  Else  why  should  he  lacerate  his  feelings 
by  dwelUng  on  so  torturing  a  theme?  The  poet,  being 
probably  as  I  have  said  under  some  paternal  constraint 
and  also  preoccupied  by  his  grief  for  his  brother,  will 
not  see  this,  will  not  quit  Verona,  and  employs  himself 
in  parrying  what  were  perhaps  only  feints  on  the  part 
of  Torquatus.     At  least  I  so  read  the  poem  :  let  us  see. 

5  foil.  Schwabe  has  well  shewn  that  *sancta  Venus' 
and  'in  lecto  caehbe'  refer  to  the  death  of  Vinia  Aurun- 
culeia,  the  heroine  of  the  epithalamium :  the  very  fact 
that  there  must  have  been  a  great  intimacy  between 
the  poet  and  the  Manlius  Torquatus  of  that  poem,  and 
between  the  poet  and  the  Manlius  of  this,  while  all 
other  circumstances  chime  in  so  well,  makes  the  identity 
of  the  two  to  my  mind  more  than  probable.  7  and 
8,  19,  25  and  26  recall  Ovid  trist.  v  12  1  Scribis  ut 
oblectem  studio  lacrimabile  tempus,  Ne  pereant  turpi 
pectora  nostra  situ.  Difficile  est  quod,  amice,  mones. 
quia  carmina  laetum  Sunt  opus  et  pacem  mentis  habere 
uolunt.  10  refers  back  to  7:  'you  ask  from  me  here 
(hinc)  what  you  do  not  find  in  your  own  library,  love- 
poems  of  my  own  and  of  others' :  'musarum  et  Veneris' 
seems  to  me  almost  a  hendyadis. 

17  Multa  satis  lusi:  *I  wrote  light  love-poems 
enough' :  the  'hoc  studium*  of  19,  the  'haec  studia'  of  26. 
That  this  is  the  meaning,  the  whole  poem  proves  to  me : 
no  doubt  they  were  the  result  of  his  experience  of  love- 
intrigues.  Compare  too  the  many  similar  expressions, 
some  probably  allusions  to  Catullus :  Mart,  i  1 1 3  1 
Quaecumque  lusi  iuuenis  et  puer  quondam,  Apinasque 
nostras  quas  nee  ipse  iam  noui  cet. :  the  last  line  'Per 
quern  perire  non  licet  meis  nugis'  is  also  a  reminiscence 


172  CATVLLI 

of  Catullus :  IX  26  9  Ipse  tuas  etiam  uerltus  Nero  dici- 
tur  aures,  Lasciuum  iuuenis  cum  tibi  lusit  opus :  to 
Nerva  of  Nero's  poetry  which  Martial  admired :  I  have 
other  passages  of  Martial  at  hand,  as  well  as  of  Ovid : 
comp.  for  instance  trist.  v  1  7  Integer  et  laetus  laeta 
et  iuuenalia  lusi;  i  9  61  Scis  uetus  hoc  iuueni  lusum 
mihi  carmen ;  Virgil  Carmina  qui  lusi  pastorum  audax- 
que  iuuenta:  Catullus  himself  50  2  and  5.  20 — 24, 
compared  with  91 — 96,  three  in  each  set  being  word 
for  word  the  same,  prove  that  the  two  sets  cannot 
have  belonged  to  the  same  poem:  nay,  as  the  poems 
must  have  been  written  nearly  about  the  same  period, 
they  can  hardly  have  been  addressed  to  the  same  man. 
26  Haec  studia:  the  writing  of  love-poems,  spoken  of 
above. 

26 — 29:  following  the  Mss.  I  preserve  here  the 
oratio  recta :  all  editors  from  the  very  earliest  to  the 
very  latest  turn  the  sentence,  I  know  not  why,  into 
the  oratio  obliqua  by  reading  'Catullo',  and  make  it 
to  me  unintelligible.  First  as  to  the  grammar:  is  it 
not  odd  that  esse  should  do  double  duty:  'turpe  esse 
Veronae  esse  ?  turpe,  like  sucme,  nee  mirum,  pote,  etc. 
the  old  writers  often  use  without  est;  but  could  they 
write  'scribis  turpe'  for  'turpe  esse'?  In  that  case  too 
the  simplest  correction  of  28,  notast  for  nota,  is  made 
impossible,  as  sit  is  called  for-^.  Then  hie  must  mean 
at  Verona,  where  Catullus  was,  just  as  in  10  Amc,  in 
36  Hue  both  refer  to  Verona;  and  this  Baehrens  takes 
it  to  mean  here,  tho'  to  me  that  is  out  of  the  question. 
With  my  reading  hie  of  course  refers  to  the  place  from 
which  ManUus  is  writing:  therefore  when  you  write, 

1  Because  Lucretius  uses  'unum — primum — summum  quicquid — qua  quic- 
quid'  for  'quicque',  Ellis  should  not  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  Catullus 
could  use  'quisquis'  for  'every  body'  in  a  totally  different  connexion. 


CARM.  G8  173 

*  it  is  a  shame  Catullus  to  be  at  Verona,  because  here 
where  I  am  whoever  is  a  man  of  fashion  has  been 
warming  his  limbs  on  the  bed  you  have  abandoned': — 
this,  ManHus,  is  no  shame,  but  rather  a  cruel  sorrow. 
As  I  have  already  remarked,  I  believe  that  Manlius' 
letter  was  in  verse  and  that  Catullus  is  quoting  his 
actual  words.  But  if  this  be  disputed — for  of  course 
there  is  no  positive  evidence  for  it  or  against  it — surely 
it  will  not  be  disputed  that  the  poet  could  put  his 
words  into  verse,  and  prosaic  verse  enough,  and  yet 
profess  to  be  quoting  him.  Thus  Mart,  ix  70  1  Dix- 
erat  *o  mores  !  o  tempora'  Tullius  olim:  but  Tullius  at 
the  beginning  of  his  Catilines  really  said  *o  tempora! 
o  mores!':  ii  41  1  'Ride,  si  sapis,  o  puella  ride'  Paelig- 
nus,  puto,  dixerat  poeta:  but  Martial  did  not  mean 
that  Ovid  wrote  in  hendecasyllables  :  Phaedr.  iii  Intr. 
27  Sed  iam  quodcumque  fuerit,  ut  dixit  Sinon  :  but 
Sinon  said  'fuerit  quodcumque'. 

Most  take  hie  of  28  to  be  Rome  where  Manhus 
then  was.  This  cannot  surely  be  right :  how  then  could 
the  poet  say  what  he  says  in  33 — 36 :  *  I  have  no  books 
to  send  you  because  I  usually  live  at  Rome  :  that  place 
is  my  home  and  abode'  ?  First  of  all  he  would  hardly 
express  himself  as  he  does  to  one  then  in  Rome:  Ro- 
mae — ilia — ilia — :  by  ista  or  some  other  turn  of  phrase, 
he  would  let  that  be  known.  Most  certainly  too  he 
would  not  say  '  I  cannot  send  you  books  from  Verona, 
because  all  my  books  are  at  Rome' :  he  would  have 
said  '  my  books  are  at  Rome,  where  you  are ;  go  to  my 
hbrary  and  choose  what  you  want'  :  on  every  consider- 
ation a  simpler  affair  than  sending  books  from  Verona 
to  the  very  place  where  his  friend  was,  and  that  place 
Rome,  the  library  of  the  world.  We  see  how  Cicero 
uses  his  friends'  libraries  as  freely  as  if  they  were  his 


174  CATVLLI 

own,  in  town  and  country  alike.  But,  as  I  have  already 
argued,  what  Manlius  really  wanted  was  to  get  Catul- 
lus to  come  to  him,  where  Lesbia  too  was. 

By  and  bye  I  will  return  to  this  question ;  but,  as- 
suming for  the  moment,  what  I  firmly  believe  to  be  the 
fact,  that  Lesbia  is  the  notorious  Clodia,  I  conjecture, 
as  I  said  in  my  letters  to  Professor  Sellar,  that  hie  is 
Baiae.     That  it  denotes  some  place  which  was  neither 
Borne  nor  Verona,  I  have  no  doubt.     I  refer  to  nume- 
rous passages  in  Cicero's  speech  for  Caelius,  which  shew 
that,  when  Clodia  was  away  from  Bome,  Baiae  was  her 
favourite  resort ;  there  she  pursued  her  pleasures,  there 
she  used  'alere  adolescentes',  'entretenir'  her  favourites 
such  as  Caelius.     I  need  only  refer  to  the  pro  Caelio 
§  32  foil,  such  as  38  quae  se  omnibus  peruulgaret,  quae 
haberet  palam  decretum  semper  aliquem,  cuius  in  hor- 
tos,  domum,  Baias  iure  suo  libidines  omnium  commea- 
rent,   quae  etiam  aleret  adolescentes  et  parsimoniam 
patrum  suis  sumptibus  sustentaret :  since  many  refer- 
ences will  be  found  in  Schwabe,   and  Ellis  has  now 
quoted  at  length  the  main  passages  in  an  Excursus, 
p.  344.      28  'qu.  de  mel.  notast'  will  then  be  these 
'adolescentes*,  young  men   of  fashion:    (Curius)   Cic. 
epist.   VII  29  Sulpicii  successori  nos  de  meliore  nota 
commenda ;  Petron.  83  ut  facile  appareret  eum  ex  hac 
nota  litteratorum  esse  quos  odisse  diuites  solent;  116 
urbanioris  notae  homines  ;  126  ex  hac  nota  domina  est 
mea;  132  seuerioris  notae  homines.  29:  Ov.  her. 

I  7  Non  ego  deserto  iacuissem  frigida  lecto ;  Stat.  sil. 

II  6   4  deserti  praerepta  coniuge  partem   Conclamare 
tori. 

32  Haec  munera  :  *  the  love-poems',  the  *  Haec  stu- 
dia'  of  26,  the  *hoc  studium'  of  19,  the  'Multa  satis 
lusi'.      33   Nam :  he  now  passes  to  the  demand  for 


CARM.  68,  68**  175 

books  of  amatory  poetry,  in  addition  to  poems  of  his 
own :  of  this  I  have  said  enough  above.  This  elliptical 
force  of  nam  in  passing  from  one  topic  to  another :  '  but 
to  leave  that,  and  come  to  the  matter  of  books'  :  is  very 
common  in  Latin.  I  have  collected  very  many  exam- 
ples; but  vp^ill  refer  to  Draeger  hist.  synt.  i  p.  154  for 
Cicero.  The  usage  is  common  in  that  storehouse  of 
idiom,  the  supper  of  Trimalchio  :  52  habeo  capides  M, 
quas  reliquit  patrono  meo  Mummius,  ubi  Daedalus  Nio- 
bam  in  equum  Troianum  includit.  nam  Hermerotis 
pugnas  et  Petraitis  in  poculis  habeo.  quod — Hoc 

est  quod  E,.  uiuimus  :  this  is  the  full  form  of  that 
idiom  which  I  illustrated  above  at  10  28  Istud  quod 
cet.  :  if  he  had  omitted  *  Hoc  est  quod',  he  would  have 
expressed  exactly  the  same  thing ;  but  the  fuller  phrase 
is  in  harmony  with  this  stiff  and  prosaic  poem. 

39  utriusque  :  this  on  the  other  hand  is  a  very  brief 
and  obscure  way  of  expressing  '  utriusque  rei  quam  pe- 
tisti',  both  the  poems  and  the  books  :  this  has  induced 
Baehrens  to  accept  Parthenius'  petiti  for  petenti. 
praestost  (pstost)  seems  to  me  better  in  sense  and 
nearer  to  the  Ms.  reading  than  any  of  the  many  other 
conjectures  offered ;  for  2>osta  est  of  Mss.  has  no  sense. 
40  I  would  grant  both  requests  without  any  asking,  if 
I  had  the  means. 


68  b 

Non  possum  reticere,  deae,  qua  me  AUius  in  re 
iuuerit  aut  quantis  iuuerit  officiis, 

ne  fugiens  saeclis  obliuiscentibus  aetas 
illius  hoc  caeca  nocte  tegat  studium  ; 
45  sed  dicam  uobis,  uos  porro  dicite  multis 


176  CATVLLI 

milibus  et  facite  haec  carta  loquatur  anus 

notescatque  magis  mortuus  atque  magis, 
nee  tenuem  texens  sublunis  aranea  telam 
50       in  deserto  AUi  nomine  opus  faciat. 

nam,  mihi  quam  dederit  duplex  Amathusia  curam, 

scitis  et  in  quo  me  torruerit  genere, 
cum  tantum  arderem  quantum  Trinacria  rapes 

lymphaque  in  Oetaeis  Malia  Thermopylis, 
55  maesta  neque  assiduo  tabescere  lumina  fletu 

cessarent  tristique  imbre  madere  genae, 
qualis  in  aerii  perlucens  uertice  montis 

riuus  muscoso  prosilit  e  Japide, 
qui,  ciun  de  prona  praeceps  est  ualle  uolutus, 
60       per  medium  densi  transit  iter  populi, 
dulce  uiatori  lasso  in  sudore  leuamen, 

cum  grauis  exustos  aestus  hiulcat  agros. 
hie,  uelut  in  nigro  iactatis  turbine  nautis 

lenius  aspirans  aura  secunda  uenit, 
65  iam  prece  Pollucis,  iam  Castoris  implorata  : 

tale  fuit  nobis  Allius  auxilium. 
is  clausum  lato  patefecit  limite  campum 

isque  domum  nobis  isque  dedit  dominae, 
ad  quam  communes  exerceremus  amores. 
70       quo  mea  se  molli  Candida  diua  pede 

intulit  et  trito  fulgentem  in  Kmine  plantam 

innixa  arguta  constituit  solea, 
coniugis  ut  quondam  flagrans  aduenit  amore 

Protesilaeam  Laudamia  domum 
75  incepto  a !  frustra,  nondum  cum  sanguine  sacro 

bostia  caelestis  pacificasset  eros. 
nil  mihi  tam  ualde  placeat,  E-bamnusia  uirgo, 

quod  temere  inuitis  suscipiatur  eris. 
quam  ieiuna  pium  desideret  ara  cruorem, 


CARM.  68''  177 

80       docta  est  amisso  Laudamia  uiro, 

coniugis  ante  coacta  noui  dimittere  coUum 

quam  ueniens  una  atque  altera  rursus  hiemps 
noctibus  in  longis  auidum  saturasset  amorem, 

posset  ut  abrupto  uiuere  coniugio, 
85  quod  scibant  Parcae  non  longo  tempore  abesse, 

si  miles  muros  isset  ad  Iliacos  : 
nam  tum  Helenae  raptu  primores  Argiuorum 

coeperat  ad  sese  Troia  ciere  uiros, 
Troia,  nefas,  commune  sepulcrumAsiae  Europaeque, 
90       Troia  uirum  et  uirtutum  omnium  acerba  cinis, 
quae  taetre  id  nostro  letum  miserabile  fratri 

attulit — (ei  misero  frater  adempte  mihi, 
ei  misero  frater  iucundo  e  lumine  adempte, 

tecum  una  tota  est  nostra  sepulta  domus ; 
95  omnia  tecum  una  perierunt  gaudia  nostra, 

quae  tuus  in  uita  dulcis  alebat  amor ; 
te  nunc  tam  longe  non  inter  nota  sepulcra 

nee  prope  cognates  compositum  cineres, 
sed  Troia  obscena,  Troia  infelice  sepultum 
100      detinet  extremo  terra  aliena  solo) : — 

ad  quam  tum  properans  fertur  simul  undique  pubes 

Graeca  penetralis  deseruisse  focos, 
ne  Paris  abducta  gauisus  libera  moecha 

otia  pacato  degeret  in  thalamo. 
105  quo  tibi  tum  casu,  pulcherrima  Laudamia, 

ereptum  est  uita  dulcius  atque  anima 
coniugium  :  tanto  te  absorbens  uertice  amoris 

aestus  in  abruptum  detulerat  barathrum, 
quale  ferunt  Grai  Pheneum  prope  Cylleneum 
110       siccare  emulsa  pingiie  palude  solum, 

quod  quondam  caesis  mentis  fodisse  medullis 

audit  falsiparens  Amphitryoniades, 
tempore  quo  certa  Stymphalia  monstra  sagitta 
M.  c.  12 


1.78:  CATVLLI 

perculit  imperio  deterioris  eri, 
115  pluribus  ut  caeli  tereretur  ianua  diuis, 
Hebe  nee  longa  uirginitate  foret. 
sed  tuus  altus  amor  barathro  fuit  altior  illo, 

qui  tuum  domitum  ferre  iugum  docuit. 
nam  nee  tam  carum  confecto  aetata  parent! 
120       mia  caput  seri  nata  nepotis  alit, 

qui,  cum  diuitiis  uix  tandem  inuentus  auitis 

nomen  testatas  intulit  in  tabulas, 
impia  derisi  gentilis  gaudia  tollens 
suscitat  a  cano  uolturium  capiti ; 
125  nee  tantum  niueo  gauisa  est  uUa  columbo 
compar,  quae  multo  dicitur  inprobius 
oscula  mordenti  semper  decerpere  rostro 

quam  quae  praecipue  multiuola  est  mulier. 
sed  tu  horum  magnos  uicisti  sola  furores, 
130       ut  semel  es  flauo  concilia ta  uiro. 

aut  nihil  aut  paulo  cui  turn  concedere  digna 
lux  mea  se  nostrum  contulit  in  gremium, 
quam  circumcursans  bine  illinc  saepe  Cupido 
fulgebat  crocina  candidus  in  tunica. 
135  quae,  tamenetsi  uno  non  est  contenta  Catullo, 
rara  uerecundae  furta  feremus  erae, 
ne  nimium  simus  stultorum  more  molesti. 

saepe  etiam  luno,  maxima  caelicolum, 
coniugis  in  culpa  flagrantem  concoquit  iram, 
140       noscens  omniuoli  plurima  furta  louis. 

at  quia  nee  diuis  homines  componier  aequm  est, 


ingratum  tremuli  telle  parentis  onus, 
nee  tamen  ilia  mihi  dexstra  deducta  paterna 
fragrantem  Assyrio  uenit  odore  domum, 
145  sed  furtiua  dedit  muta  munuscula  nocte, 


CARM.  68*'  179 

-  ipsius  ex  ipso  dempta  uiri  gremlo. 

quare  illud  satis  est,  si  nobis  is  datur  unis, 

quern  lapide  ilia,  dies,  candidiore  notat. 
hoc  tibi,  quo  potui,  confectum  carmine  munus 
150       pro  multis,  Alii,  redditur  officiis, 

ne  uestrum  scabra  tangat  rubigine  nomen 

baec  atque  ilia  dies  atque  alia  atque  alia.  : 

hue  addent  diui  quam  plurima,  quae  Themis  olim 
antiquis  solita  est  munera  ferre  piis. 
155  sitis  felices  et  tu  simul  et  tua  uita 

et  domus,  in  qua  nos  lusimus  et  domina; 
et  qui  principio  nobis  te  et  eram  dedit  Afer, 

a  quo  sunt  primo  mi  omnia  nata  bona ; 
et  longe  ante  omnes,  mihi  quae  me  carior  ipso  est, 
160       lux  mea,  qua  uiua  uiuere  dulce  mihi  est. 

43  Nei  Baehrens.  Nee  V.  50  alii  0.  all  G.  52  torruerit  Turnehus. 
comierit  V.  65  lumina  uulgo.  numiila  G.  nQmula  0.  pupula  Baehrens  from 
Ellis'  conj.  66  Cessare  ne  tristiq;  V.  60  densi  seems  corrupt,  sensim  Haupt 
Schwabe  Baehrens.  61  uiatorum  O,  perhaps  rightly,  lasso  uulgo.  basso  V. 
uiatorum  crasso  Baehrens.  65  implorata  Itali.  implorate  V.  implorati  (-ei) 
uelimj^loiatn  alii.  66  allius  0,  in  margin  manllius.  manlius  G.  68  dominae 
Froelich.  dominarti  V.  75  Incepto  a  scripsi.  Incepto  Froelich  Baehrens. 
Incepta  V.  Inceptam  uulgo.  85  abesse  Itali.  abisse  V.  91  Quae  taetre  id 
scripsi.  Que  uetet  id  V.  Quaene  etiam  Heinsius  Haupt  etc,  102  Graia  L, 
Mueller.  118  tuum  domitum  corrupt,  tamen  indomitam  Heyse,  perhaps  rightly. 
128  Quam  quae  Vossius.  Quamquam  V.  139  concoquit  iram  Lachmann.  coti- 
diana  0,  qnotidiana  G.  140  furta  Itali.  facta  Y.  141  At  quia  Itali.  Atq ;  V. 
Atqui  alii :  post  hunc  desunt  duo  uersus.  145  muta  Heysius.  mira  V.  148  dies 
V.  diem  uulgo.  149  quo  Muretus.  quod  V.  150  Alii  Scaliger.  aliis  V.  156  nos 
Itali.  am.  V.  157  te  et  eram  scripsi,  terram  V.  Afer  scripsi.  aufert  V.  Anser 
Heysius,    168  mi  Haupt.  om.  V. 

The  whole  of  this  long  poem  1  have  printed,  not  that 
I  intend  to  comment  on  every  part  of  it,  which  would 
only  defeat  the  purpose  I  have  in  view;  but  because  I 
shall  thus  be  able  to  set  forth  most  simply  and  clearly 
what  I  have  to  contribute  towards  its  criticism  and 
illustration.     It  must,  as  we  have  shewn,  be  entirely 

12—2 


IfijO  CATVLLI 

separated  from  the  preceding  poem :  that  was  addressed 
to  the  well-known  friend  of  Cicero,  L.  Manlius  Torqua- 
tus ;  this  to  one  AUius,  a  man  of  position  as  the  poem 
itself  declares,  but  known  to  posterity  by  it  alone.  Ca- 
tullus has  given  him  the  immortality  he  promised,  tho' 
but  a  shadowy  and  not  altogether  enviable  one.  That 
an  Allius  Mallius  or  Mallius  Allius  was  an  impossible 
monster  in  repubhcan  Rome,  history  and  its  best  expo- 
sitors all  declare.  The  evidence  of  our  Mss.  forces  on 
us  the  same  conclusion:  while  in  the  last  poem  they 
offered  a  corrupt  form,  clearly  pointing  to  the  Manlius 
of  the  epithalamium ;  in  this  one  O,  our  most  trusty 
guide,  gives  us  in  two  of  the  four  places  where  his  name 
occurs  the  precise  form  Allius,  in  the  other  two,  corrup- 
tions which  just  as  plainly  indicate  the  true  form,  while 
G  is  misleading  in  one  case  only. 

Very  conflicting  are  the  judgments  which  have  been 
passed  on  the  merits  of  our  poem.  While  Muretus  and 
some  modern  critics  have  extolled  it  as  one  of  the 
grandest  productions  of  the  Latin  Muse,  the  poet's  ac- 
complished translator  Theodore  Martin  declares  it  to 
be  far  inferior  to  the  letter  to  Manlius,  to  be  'hopelessly 
obscure  in  many  of  its  allusions  and  clumsy  in  construc- 
tion': 'its  illustrations  are  far-fetched  and  the  style 
generally  inferior  to  the  other  serious  efforts  of  Catullus. 
Its  merits  scarcely  repay  the  labour  of  construing  it'. 
My  judgment  refuses  to  accept  either  of  these  extreme 
views.  The  poem  strikes  me  as  awkwardly  and  inarti- 
ficially  put  together;  I  see  no  excellence  in  the  arrange- 
ments and  transitions  of  the  conflicting  episodes ;  but  a 
carelessness  often  amou.nting  to  downright  clumsiness. 
I  do  not  know  whether  it  be  owing  to  want  of  practice 
or  want  of  power;  but  the  beauty  of  the  Peleus  and 
Thetis  is  somewhat  marred  by  a  like  disproportion  in 


CARM.    68**  181 

its  parts.  At  the  same  time  I  look  upon  this  as  vastly 
above  the  preceding  poem.  That  was  written  at  Ve- 
rona, probably  in  his  father's  house,  under  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  household  then  mourning  for  the  death  of 
his  brother.  To  Manlius'  importunities  about  Lesbia  a 
single  line  (30)  serves  for  his  curt,  almost  peevish  an- 
swer. 

Here  we  find  all  changed :  a  vein  of  coarseness  in- 
deed runs  through  this  as  through  the  last,  but  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind.  The  'amour-passion',  what  phlegmatic 
Verulam  flouts  at  as  'the  mad  degree  of  love',  is  once 
more  master  of  his  soul.  This  mighty  force  is  able  to 
purify  and  sublimate  his  furious  passion  for  a  tainted 
adulteress,  false  even  to  her  paramour.  We  almost  ex- 
cuse the  outrage  of  his  likening  her  to  so  pure  and  noble 
a  heroine  as  Laodamia;  we  almost  forgive  his  unmeasured 
praises  of  a  man  guilty  of  as  base  an  action  as  a  gentle- 
man could  well  commit,  who  lent  his  house  to  conceal  an 
adulterous  intrigue  between  a  woman  of  high  rank  and 
a  vicious  youth,  and  covered  with  dishonour  one  of  the 
noblest  and  most  virtuous  patricians  of  the  time.  When 
and  where  this  poem  was  composed,  there  is  nothing  to 
shew:  I  cannot  think  it  was  written  in  Verona,  in  tone 
and  colour  it  differs  so  much  from  the  last.  I  feel  that 
it  is  somewhat  later  in  time,  tho'  probably  not  much 
later,  than  that  other;  for  the  lines  about  his  brother, 
common  to  both,  have  a  more  artificial  collocation  here 
than  they  have  there, — at  least  that  is  the  impression 
on  my  mind.  Vss.  105  and  106  are  no  proof  to  me  that 
the  husband  was  living  at  the  time,  as  they  refer  en- 
tirely to  the  past.  I  proceed  now  to  comment  on  par- 
ticulars. 

41 — 50  sufficiently  declare  AUius  to  have  been  a 
man  of  rank.     43  Baehrens   correction  of  Ne  (Nei)  for 


182  CATVLLI 

Nec  of  Mss.,  when  once  made,  seems  so  certain  that 
one  wonders  it  was  not  thought  of  long  before :  in  Mss. 
like  ours  the  change  is  nothing:  comp.  103  Ne  G,  Nec 
O;  6  14  Ne.  Nec  V;  99  9  Ne.  Nec  V;  114  4  Nequi- 
qiiam.  Nec  quicquam  O,  Ne  quicquam  G.  I  cannot 
pass  in  silence  the  favours  Allius  has  shewn  me,  lest 
this  kindness  of  his  should  be  forgotten ;  but  I  will  tell 
them  to  you,  Muses  etc.  With  Nec  43  and  44  utterly 
destroy  the  connexion.  ElUs'  remark  that  tegat  is  a 
potential,  *nor  can  time  conceal',  doesnt  help  me  at  all. 
If  the  thing  do  not  prove  itself,  I  would  appeal  to 
the  exact  parallel  in  149  folL:  Hoc  tibi...Pro  multis, 
AUi,  redditur  officiis,  Ne  uestrum  scabra  tangat  rubigine 
nomen  cet.  46:  with  this  and  78  10  comp.  Mart,  xii 
4  4  Fama  fuisse  loquax  cartaque  dicet  anus:  Martial  is 
fond  of  this  adjectival  use  of  the  word.  49  and  50  I 
take  to  refer  to  the  nomina  and  tituli  written  under  the 
waxen  masks  or  imagines  in  the  atrium:  see  Mayor  on 
Juv.  8  1  and  Marquardt  v  (1)  p.  247,  and  the  many 
passages  they  cite.  The  neglect  of  these  imagines  would 
indicate  the  decay  of  the  family. 

51 — 54:  'You  know  what  pain  the  wily  Amathu- 
sian  gave  me,  and  in  what  a  fashion  she  burnt  me  up, 
when  I  felt  as  fierce  a  heat  as  the  Trinacrian  hill  or  the 
Malian  weUs  in  Thermopylae  of  Oeta'.  51  'duplex' 
must  surely  have  the  meaning  it  has  in  Horace's  'du- 
phcis  Vlixei':  this  might  be  illustrated  not  only  from 
the  Greek  SittXovs  and  from  Ovid  cited  by  Ellis  after 
Fore,  but  also  by  Plant,  true,  iv  3  6  edico  prius,  Ne 
duplicis  habeatis  linguas,  ne  ego  bilinguis  uos  necem. 
Vossius'  explanation,  quoted  by  Ellis,  is  preposterous; 
for  of  course  the  poet  is  speaking  and  can  be  speaking 
only  of  Lesbia,  52,  tho'  Lucr.  uses  'corruere'  as  an 
active,  there  can  be  no  question  that  'torruerit'  is  to 


CARM.  68*'  .  183 

be  read.  Our  Mss.  are  of  small  weight  on  such  a 
point:  100  7  torreret  0,  correret  G.  in  quo  genera: 
quo  is  not  the  relative,  as  in  the  passages  quoted  by 
Ellis :  it  is  here  the  indirect  interrogative,  and  just  as 
*in  omni  genere'  for  instance  is  often  synon.  with  'onini 
ratione':  Cic.  ad  Q.  fr.  ii  2  4  innumerabiles  enim  res 
sunt,  in  quibus  te  cotidie  in  omni  genere  desiderem: 
so  here  *in  quo  genere'  equals  'quali  ratione'.  53  rupes: 
61  27  Thespiae  rupis,  for  the  large  hill  of  Helicon.  55 
the  ductus  litterarum  of  lumina  are  nearer  than  those 
o£ pupula  to  numula,  espec.  if  we  compare  64  32  Adu- 
enere.  Adlenire  V;  183  lentos  O,  uentosG;  332  Leuia 
G,  Venia  O:  and  in  56  'Cessarent'  is  nearer  the  Mss. 
than  'Cessaret'.  "With  the  rhythm  compare  99  12Non 
cessasti  onmique  excruciare  modo. 

60  *densi'  can  hardly  be  right.  I  know  nothing 
better  than  Haupt's  'sensim',  so  generally  accepted,  but 
it  is  not  convincing  to  me.  The  poet  appears  to  de- 
scribe the  stream  as  flowing  across  the  path.  But  in 
'the  neighbourhood,  if  not'  in  'the  actual  streets  of  a 
town'  this  could  scarcely  be  the  case.  Again  the  stream 
must  have  had  some  volume  of  water,  which  seems  a- 
gainst  'sensim'.  In  the  next  v.  too  O  and  G  leave  the 
question  imdecided  between  uiatoii  and  uiatoinim,  tha' 
I  dont  like  to  give  up  la^so  for  crasso.  65  implorata.: 
this,  the  old  vulgate,  appears  to  me  better  than  the  other 
conjectiu-es :  e  and  a  are  so  often  confused  in  our  Mss. 

67 — 69  'Allius  it  was  who  threw  open  a  fenced 
field  and  made  a  broad  way  through  it ;  who  gave  to 
me,  who  gave  to  my  lady,  a  house  in  which  we  might 
indulge  our  loves  together' :  'lato  limite'  seems  prover- 
bial :  Aen.  ix  123  lato  te  limite  ducam;  x  513  latum- 
que...  limit  em  agit  ferro.  68  refers  to  and  is  referred 
to  by,  explains  and  is  explained  by  156  Et  domus  in 


184  CATVLLI 

qua  nos  lusimns  et  domina  :  where  nos  is  a  far  simpler 
supplement  than  any  other:  here  as  there,  and  147 
nobis  unis,  and  157  nobis,  the  plural  is  Catullus  alone 
as  opposed  to  Lesbia :  he  seems  to  have  thought  it 
more  tender  than  the  singular.  He  loves  to  oscillate 
between  nos  and  ego,  as  in  the  impassioned  107  3  nobis 
quoque...mi  cupido :  in  8  5  Amata  nobis,  tho'  in  the 
rest  of  the  poem  it  is  tu,  te,  tihi,  Catulle.  How  any 
critic,  after  it  has  once  been  offered  to  him,  can  refuse 
dominae  for  dominam,  a  change  so  simple  with  Mss. 
like  ours,  I  do  not  understand :  128  they  have  Quam- 
quam  for  the  unquestionably  right  Quam  quae,  tho' 
that  too  Ellis  will  not  see  :  dominam  has  absolutely  no 
place  here.  Admitting  it  would  seem  in  theory,  he 
wiU  not  sufficiently  recognise  in  practice  the  glaring 
fact  that  our  Mss.,  where  not  interpolated,  come  one 
and  all  from  a  single  obscure  ill-written  codex,  in  which 
the  ends  of  words  times  without  number  were  illegible 
or  already  corrupt.  One  might  fancy  he  was  dealing 
with  Virgil  or  Horace. 

These  words  reveal  to  us  the  inestimable  service  for 
which  the  poet  sounds  so  loudly  the  praises  of  Allius. 
Allius,  a  man  of  rank,  and  his  wife  (155  et  tu  simul  et 
tua  uita) — for  he  must  of  course  have  had  a  wife,  and 
a  consenting  wife,  to  make  the  service  possible — had 
opened  his  house  for  Catullus  and  Lesbia  to  meet.  It 
was  no  doubt  a  very  great  act  of  friendship,  whatever 
else  we  may  say  of  it ;  for  the  social,  if  not  the  legal, 
penalties  attached  to  being  found  out  must  have  been 
serious.  It  proves  too  beyond  dispute  that  Lesbia  was 
a  woman  of  position ;  for  of  course  in  such  a  case  it  was 
the  woman,  not  the  man,  who  had  to  be  considered. 
To  a  woman  of  the  position  to  which  some  would  re- 
duce Lesbia  Rome  must  have  offered  many  accessible 


CARM.  68**  185 

resorts.  On  the  other  hand  women  of  rank,  so  long  as 
their  character  was  of  any  account  to  them,  had  to  be 
exceedingly  circumspect  in  their  conduct ;  but  it  must 
have  been  open  to  them  to  visit  a  lady  of  respectabiHty 
and  of  rank  equal,  or  not  much  inferior,  to  their  own. 
To  appreciate  the  service  rendered  by  AUius,  comp. 
Tac.  ann.  xi  4  uocantur  post  haec  patres,  pergitque 
Suillius  addere  reos  equites  Romanos  illustres  quibus 
Petra  cognomentum.  ac  causa  necis  ex  eo  quod  domum 
suam  Mnesteris  et  Poppaeae  congressibus  praebuissent. 
In  Athens  too  the  consequences  might  be  serious : 
AcTraorta  ^lktjv  €(f)evyeu  acre/Setas  ^FipfxCmrov  tov  KcofKoSo- 
TTOLOv  Blcokovto^  kol  7rpo(rKaTrjyopovj/TO^,  (o<s  UepiKkel  yv- 
voLKas  eXevdipa^  els  to  avro  <f)OLT(ji(ras  VTroSe^otro  (Plutarch 
Per.  32).  Dates  and  his  own  reiterated  hints  prove 
beyond  any  reasonable  doubt  that  Ovid's  disaster  was 
connected  with  the  detection  of  the  younger  Julia. 

70 — 76  *  Thither  my  lustrous  goddess  entered  with 
soft  step,  and  planted  her  bright  foot  on  the  well- trod 
threshold,  as  she  pressed  on  her  creaking  sandal :  just 
as  of  yore  came  Laodamia  to  the  house  of  Protesilaus, 
burning  with  love  for  her  spouse,  love  handselled  alas  I 
in  vain,  since  the  burnt-sacrifice  had  not  yet  atoned 
the  lords  of  heaven  with  its  offered  blood'.  70  Can- 
dida: transfigured,  verklaert,  with  the  sheen  of  divinity 
on  her:  the  epithet  of  a  god  or  a  deified  mortal:  133 
Cupido  Fulgebat  crocina  candidus  in  tunica ;  Virg.  eel. 
V  56  Candidus  insuetum  miratur  limen  Olympi  Sub 
pedibusque  uidet  nubes  et  sidera  Daphnis.  72  arguta: 
Statins  and  Ellis  are  surely  right ;  the  poet  seems  to 
have  taken  the  creaking  for  a  good  omen  :  '  Their  black 
and  neat  slipper  or  stertup  with  the  creaking  aUureth 
young  men'  A.  Willet  cited  by  Todd  in  Johnson.  The 
epithet   thus   greatly    intensifies   the   evepyeua   of  the 


186  CATVLLT 

scene.  Theocr.  vii  25  ws  rev  ttoctI  vLacrofievoio  Ild(ra 
\C0o^  TTTatotcra  ttot  ap^vkiheacriv  detSet.  75  Incepto  a  : 
this  is  as  near  the  Ms.  reading  as  hiceptam,  and  surely 
gives  a  better  meaning,  as  what  follows  seems  clearly 
to  refer  frustra  to  'incepto  amore' :  rj^i,re\rj<i  in  its  true 
meaning  cannot  come  into  question ;  tho'  I  do  not  deny 
the  poet  may  have  misunderstood  the  word.  Catullus 
is  fond  of  a  \  and  it  is  not  otiose  here :  I  propose  in  76 
10  Quare  cur  te  iam  a!  amplius  excruciem,  as  a  simple 
and  good  correction.  These  six  verses  are  sweet  in 
their  flow  and  rhythm,  beautiful  and  impassioned  in 
their  diction;  as  indeed  is  much  else  in  the  poem, 
which  on  the  whole  is  more  flexible  and  easy  in  its 
movement,  and  less  harsh  in  its  elisions  than  most  of 
the  poet's  elegies :  it  makes  us  see  that  the  Ovidian 
elegiac  has  lost  much,  while  gaining  more. 

If  we  fancy  ourselves  in  the  poet's  place,  we  can 
well  imagine  how  this  scene  would  stamp  itself  on  his 
soul  for  ever,  and  give  inspiration  to  his  verse  when 
the  occasion  came  for  describing  it.  While  he  was  able 
to  see  her  only  perhaps  at  rare  intervals  and  under  all 
the  restraints  of  social  decorum  in  her  husband's  house, 
his  love  had  risen  to  the  pitch  of  delirium ;  he  had  ad- 
dressed to  her  some  of  his  most  impassioned  verse  such 
as  the  second  poem,  and  the  translation  from  Sappho 
in  which  he  exaggerates  the  frenzy  of  his  original : 
Ille,  si  fas  est,  superare  diuos.  He  had  come  to  look 
on  her  as  his  lawful  bride  ;  and  he  now  saw  her  face  to 
face  with  nothing  between  them  and  fruition.  If  she 
was  Clodia,  as  I  believe  she  was,  he  saw  before  him 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  accomplished  women  of 
the  day,  not  yet  branded  with  infamy.  If,  as  is  pro- 
bable, her  husband  was  now  consul,  he-  saw  before  him 
the  first,  lady  in  the  world,  to  whom  queens  and  kings' 


CARM.  68**  187 

daughters  would  hasten  to  yield  place.  No  wonder  the 
poet's  imagination  should  transfigure  her  into  a  glorified 
divinity. 

79 — 130:  There  may  be  some  subtle  symmetry  and 
refinement  of  proportion  pervading  this  part  of  the 
poem,  in  which  the  poet  commences  the  story  of  Lao- 
damia,  passes  to  the  Trojan  war,  from  it  to  his  brother's 
death,  then  back  to  Troy,  from  it  once  more  to  Lao- 
damia's  love,  which  he  compares  with  the  abyss  of 
Pheneus,  drained  by  Hercules,  and  so  on  to  Hercules 
and  Hebe;  and  then  compares  the  same  love  to  a 
grandfather's  for  a  grandson  born  unexpectedly,  and 
next  to  that  of  a  dove  for  its  mate,  and  finds  it  greater 
than  all  these — there  may  be  some  Callimachean  har- 
mony running  through  all  this;  but  my  sense  is  too 
obtuse  to  perceive  it.  I  will  only  touch  on  a  few  points 
of  this  part  of  the  poem,  which  does  not  strike  me  as 
very  successful. 

84  abrupto:  'the  idea  seems  to  be  that  of  a  thread 
broken  oft"  Ellis:  most  certainly  not;  abrupto  is  the 
older  form  of  abrepto:  thus  Plautus  has  'subruptum, 
subrupias,  and  subrupuisse' :  see  Wagner  Plant,  aul.  39 ; 
see  too  my  note  on  Lucr.  iii  1031  :  the  antiquarian 
Fronto  has  *corruptus'  and  'surrupuisse'  and  their  best 
Mss.  shew  that  both  the  Senecas,  and  even  that  hater 
of  archaisms  Martial,  all  use  the  same  form.  If  any 
one  be  unreasonable  enough  to  deny  to  Catullus  this 
form,  then  he  must  read  abrepto,  not  with  Baehrens 
absumpto:  com  p.  below  106  Ereptum  est  uita  dulcius 
atque  anima  Coniugium;  Ov.  met.  vii  731  desiderioque 
calebat  Coniugis  abrepti.  85  abisseV:  I  am  convinced 
this  word  cannot  stand  here  for  'fore  ut  abiret':  the 
examples  quoted  from  Draeger  by  Ellis  of  the  rhetori- 
cal use  of  the  perfect  for  the  future  in  Cicero  and  Livy 


188  CATVLLl 

are   such  as  any  language  could  parallel,  and  to  my 
mind  quite  different  from  our  passage.     Nor  can  ahisse, 
I  think,  in  a  sentence  like  this  take  the  place  of  pemsse, 
tho'  I  know  that  in  certain  combinations  ahire  and  ire 
have   nearly   the    meaning   of  'to  perish'.     Baehrens' 
ohisse  obviates  this,  but  not  the  other  difficulties.     Nor 
does  Mueller's  scirant  improve  matters;  for  surely  scis- 
cere  cannot  be  thus  followed  by  an  infinitive,  notwith- 
standing the  solitary  passage  which  lexicons  cite  from 
Silius,   to  which  I  know  no  parallel.     It  seems  to  me 
that  the  old  correction  ahesse  is  the  simplest  and  best; 
for  Quod  most  naturally  refers  to  'abreptum  coniugium' 
*  the  loss  of  her  husband':  'which  loss  the  Fates  well 
knew  was  not  far  away,  if  once  he  went  as  a  soldier  to 
the  Ilian  walls'.     The  use  of  'non  longo  tempore'  to 
express  duration  of  time  is  known  to  the  best  writers : 
Georg.  Ill  565  nee  longo  deinde  moranti  Tempore;  Ov. 
ars  I  38  ut  longo  tempore  duret  amor;  Mart,  x  36  7 
Non  uenias  quare  tam  longo  tempore  E-omam,  Haec 
puto  causa  tibi  est;    Juv.  9   16  quem  tempore  longo 
Torret  quarta  dies;  11   152  Suspirat  longo  non  uisam 
tempore  matrem:  even  Cicero  has  'tempore  infinite'  in 
this  sense :  see  my  note  on  Lucr.  v  1 6 1 :  and  Mart,  i 
88   8  Hie  tibi  perpetuo  tempore  uiuet  honor;  i  36  5 
Diceret  infernas  et  qui  prior  isset  ad  umbras,  Vine  tuo, 
frater,  tempore,  uiue  meo.     I  could  say  something  for 
apiscei;  a  conjecture  of  my  own;  but  will  surrender  to 
ahesse.     If  scirant  be  adopted,  I  would  suggest  'Quod 
— scirant  Parcae — non  longo  tempore  abesset'. 

91  Quae  taetre  id:  this  I  read  for  'Que  uetet  id'  of 
Mss.  Heinsius'  *  Quaene  etiam',  which  many  accept, 
never  commended  itself  to  me.  If  my  reading  be 
approved,  comp.  the  very  similar  case  of  65  12  'morte 
canam',  a  certain  correction  of  the  Ms.  reading  'morte 


CARM.  68^  189 

tegam*,  in  which  one  bjW.  is  doubled,  another  lost, 
through  similarity  of  form :  see  my  illustrations  there. 
I  have  already  more  than  once — see  my  notes  on  25  5 
and  10  32 — spoken  of  the  frequency  with  which  r,  t, 
tr,  etc.  are  interchanged  in  our  Mss. ;  and  this  confusion 
would  still  more  readily  arise  through  contractions  at 
the  end  of  words  :  comp.  50  12  Versarer.  Versaretur  V; 
12  7  Fratri.  Frat  O.  With  the  expression  comp.  99 
Troia  obscena,  Troia  infelice  sepultum:  comp.  too  Cic. 
de  diuin.  i  60  multaque  facere  impure  atque  taetre; 
ad  Att.  VII  12  2  nam  istum  quidem... omnia  taeterrime 
facturum  puto.  102  Graeca :  *immo  Graia,  ut  infra 
109,  supra  QtQ  58.  neque  enim  Catullus  magis  quam 
plerique  poetarum  in  mythis  huius  populi  referendis 
Graecorum  uocabulo  usus  est'  L.  Mueller;  and  perhaps 
he  is  right.  118:  It  is  clear  to  me  that  in  this  corrupt 
verse  Laodamia  is  made  to  bear  the  yoke,  and  that 
ElHs  and  Baehrens  are  wrong  in  referring  it  to  the 
husband.  Throughout  the  whole  of  this  long  and  in- 
volved episode  it  is  the  consuming  love  of  the  heroine 
which  is  glorified:  comp.  espec.  119 — 130.  It  is  indeed 
a  strange  incongruity  of  this  intricate  story,  that  the 
transcendent  beauty  of  Laodamia  is  compared  with 
Lesbia's  beauty ;  but  her  overpowering  passion  for  her 
husband  illustrates  the  poet's  love  for  Lesbia,  not 
Lesbia's  for  him.  To  my  mind  the  best  of  all  correc- 
tion is  Heyse's :  Qui  tamen  [tii]  indomitam  f.  i.  d. : 
tamen  is  more  than  once  corrupted  in  Catullus :  '  but 
your  deep  love  was  deeper  than  that  abysm,  the  love 
which  taught  you,  tho'  indomitable,  to  bear  the  yoke'. 
This  use  and  position  of  tamen  is  very  idiomatic :  Lucr. 
Ill  553  Sed  tamen  in  paruo  licuntur  tempore  tabe:  and 
see  my  illustrations  there  which  I  could  now  add  to : 
for  instance  Plant.  Stich.  99  quom  tamen  absentis  uiros 


190  CATVLLI 

Proinde  habetis,  quasi  praesentes  sint.  128  Quam 
quae:  this  must  surely  be  read:  EUis  devotes  a  long 
note  to  inprohius ;  but  it  is  in  the  absurdly  irrelevant 
Quamquam  that  the  hitch  lies :  the  diplomatic  change 
is  very  shght:  see  my  note  on  68  dominae. 

131 — 134:  After  this  very  long  digression  he  now 
takes  up  again  what  he  quitted  at  70 — 72,  and  pictures 
her  as  advancing  from  the  door,  until  the  lovers  are  in 
each  other's  arms,  in  verses  almost  rivalling  those  earlier 
ones.  131  Aut  nihil  aut  paido:  22  4  we  had  aut — aut 
for  aut — aut  etiam:  here  they  mean  aut — aut  ceHe,  a 
usage  quite  as  common  as  the  other:  Cic.  diu.  in  Caec. 
41  aut  nemo  aut  pauci  plures  causas  defenderint;  i 
Yerr.  31  aut  nuUi  aut  perpauci  dies  ad  agendum  futuri 
sunt.  But  tho'  the  expression  is  not  'curious',  it  does 
strike  me  as  curious  that  he  should  admit  the  possibility 
of  his  divinity  being  a  little  inferior  to  any  heroine 
whatever. 

135  foil.:  But  now  a  vein  of  coarseness  comes  to 
trouble  our  enjoyment.  136  and  137:  Catullus  is  in  a 
state  of  exaltation,  in  glaring  contrast  with  the  depres- 
sion and  constraint  of  the  last  poem :  comp.  with 
these  lines  the  plaintive  'Id,  Manli,  non  est  turpe,  magis 
miserum  est'  of  the  other  poem.  136 :  A  sort  of  paral- 
lelism runs  through  much  of  this  unequal  and  strangely 
constructed  poem:  here  'Bara  uerecundae  furta  erae' 
answers  word  for  word  to  'omniuoK  plurima  furta  louis': 
we  will  bear  with  the  few  transgressions  of  our  decorous 
mistress,  since  Juno,  tho'  she  knows  the  many  and  many 
transgressions  of  Jove  who  lusts  after  all  aUke,  yet 
digests  the  rage  excited  by  his  infidelity.  137:  The 
feeling  of  this  line  is  well  illustrated  by  his  contempo- 
rary Lucretius:  iv  1188  Nequiquam,  quoniam  tu  animo 
tamen  omnia  possis  Protrahere  in  lucem  atque  omnis 


CARM.    68**  191 

inquirere  risus,  Et,  si  bello  animost  et  non  odiosa,  uicis- 
sim  Praetermittere  et  humanis  concedere  rebus:  comp. 
too  Ov.  am.  II 2  7  cur  non  liceat  quaerenti  reddita  causa 
est,  Quod  nimium  dominae  cura  molesta  tua  est.  Si 
sapis,  o  custos,  odium  (mihi  crede)  mereri  Desine.  139 
concoquit  iram:  This  conjecture  of  Lachmann  exactly 
hits  the  meaning  and  probably  gives  the  actual  words 
of  the  poet.  liOfui^ta,  even  more  than  in  23  10,  is  a 
certain  correction  of  facta.  Baehrens'  concipit  and  per- 
Jida  facta  in  my  opinion  ruin  the  point  of  the  antithesis. 

141:  That  two  verses  are  lost  here,  and  not  more 
than  two,  is  clear  to  my  mind:  nee  might  possibly,  tho' 
not  probably,  be  for  non)  but  there  must  have  been  a 
Catulle  in  what  is  lost,  to  make  tolle  intelligible.  But 
to  assume  with  Ellis  a  lacuna  of  18  vss.  would  be  an 
insufferable  drag  on  the  poem  which  has  at  length  done 
with  its  tiresome  episodes,  and  can  have  nothing  now 
to  say  to  *pius  Aeneas'  or  to  his  wife  and  father.  Here 
we  are  concerned  with  Aeneas'  brother,  not  with  Aeneas 
himself;  with  his  mother,  not  with  his  wife  or  father. 
As  quia  would  be  written  compendiously.  At  quia  seems 
the  best  correction  of  Atq; :  in  the  next  verse  tolle  must 
have  the  usual  sense  of  this  imperative:  'away  with' 
*have  done  with':  a  sense  so  common  as  to  need  no 
illustration.  *But,  as  mortals  should  not  be  compared 
with  gods,  [and  as  Juno's  wrongs  too  are  far  greater  than 
mine,  do  not  indulge,  Catullus,  in  bootless  complaints, 
and]  have  done  with  the  thankless  task  of  an  over- 
anxious father':  tremulus  is  a  very  favourite  word  with 
Catullus:  here  it  seems  to  have  much  the  sense  it  has 
in  61  51  Te  suis  tremulus  parens  Inuocat:  'tremulous 
with  anxiety'.     Give  her  the  liberty  she  wishes. 

143:  Yes,  and  besides  all  this,  remember  too  that  I 
have  not  the  claims  of  a  lawful  spouse:  'she  came  not 


192  CATVLLI 

to  my  house,  led  thither  hy  her  father's  hand'.  Ellis 
quite  misapprehends  the  meaning  of  'Nee  tamen',  and 
Baehrens  reads  tandem,  which  ruins  the  sense.  I  have 
illustrated  this  use  of  tamen  at  length  in  my  note  onLucr. 
V  1177  (and  i  1050);  and  I  could  here  add  many  more 
instances,  as  Cic.  epist.  x  1  3  et,  praeterquam  quod  rei 
publicae  consulere  debemus,  tamen  tuae  dignitati  ita 
fauemus  cet. :  where  Wesenberg  changes  tamen  to  etiam, 
as  other  editors  do  or  wish  to  do  in  more  than  one  of 
the  passages  which  I  have  quoted  in  my  Lucretius. 
145:  'But  she  gave  me  stealthy  favours  in  the  silent 
night,  snatched  from  her  own  lord's  very  bosom',  muta 
seems  to  me  unquestionably  right:  I  have  spoken  again 
and  again  of  the  repeated  confusion  in  our  Mss.  of  t  and 
r;  and  mira  has  to  me  no  meaning:  comp.  64  138  mi- 
serescere.  mirescere  O,  mitescere  G.  147  nobis  unis; 
i.e.  mihi  uni:  so  above  in  68  nobis:  below  in  156  and 
157  nos,  nobis:  he  must  have  felt  some  charm  of  pathos 
in  this  use  of  the  plural,  which  he  so  strangely  mixes 
up  with  the  singular.  See  the  107th  poem,  in  which 
he  expresses  ecstatic  delight  at  an  unexpected  revival 
of  Lesbia's  love:  Quare  hoc  est  gratum  nobis  quoque — 
carius  auro.  Quod  te  restituis,  Lesbia,  mi  cupido.  Res- 
tituis  cupido  atque  insperanti,  ipsa  refers  te  Nobis,  o 
lucem  candidiore  nota !  :  a  seeming  reminiscence  of  our 
passage :  'Therefore  1  am  content,  if  to  me  alone  is  given 
one  happy  day,  which  my  lady  marks  with  a  whiter  stone 
than  usual'.  148:  Tho'  diem  is  a  simple  correction 
generally  adopted,  I  choose  to  keep  dies,  because  to  my 
taste  the  involved  sentence  adds  a  piquancy,  and  is  not 
alien  to  Catullus'  style :  44  8  Non  inmerenti  quam  mihi 
mens  uenter,  Dum  sumptuosas  appeto,  dedit,  cenas; 
66  18  Non,  ita  me  diui,  uera  gemunt,  iuerint;  40  adiuro 
teque  tuumque  caput,  Digna  ferat  quod  siquis  inaniter 


CARM.  68^  193 

adiurarit:  Lucan  i  13  much  resembles  our  passage  but 
is  harsher:  quantum  terrae  potuit  pelagique  parari  Hoc, 
quern  ciuiles  hauserunt,  sanguine,  dextrae. 

149  — 152  refer  back  to  the  first  ten  lines;  as  in- 
deed this  part  of  our  poem  generally  has  a  parallelism 
with  the  first  part.  155 — 160 :  *  A  blessing  on  you  aU, 
you  and  her  who  is  dear  to  you  as  life,  your  wife  ;  and 
on  your  house  in  which  my  mistress  and  I  have  toyed  ; 
and  on  Afer  who  in  the  beginning  gave  to  me  you  and 
my  lady,  him  from  whom  all  the  happiness  of  my  life 
was  first  derived ;  and  first  and  chiefest  on  her,  who  is 
dearer  to  me  than  my  own  self,  my  light,  who  while 
she  lives  makes  it  sweet  to  me  to  live'.  155  tua  uita  : 
the  countenance  of  the  wife  was  all-important,  nos: 
see  my  note  on  68,  to  which  this  v.  refers.  156  Either 
Ellis  is  or  I  am  much  out  here.  157  te  et  eraif}i  is  got 
readily  from  terrmn,  and  I  think  gives  a  fuller  meaning 
than  other  corrections  :  Afer  of  course  is  uncertain,  but 
it  comes  very  easily  from  aufert,  and  is  a  known  name  ; 
tho'  I  am  quite  ready  to  surrender  it  for  Anser :  '  qui 
principio  nobis  terram  dedit,  aufert'  would  occur  very 
naturally  to  the  pen  of  a  monk,  dreaming  that  it  re- 
ferred to  our  Maker.  By  introducing  Catullus  and 
also  Lesbia  to  Allius,  Afer  may  truly  be  said  to  have 
first  given  to  Catullus  both  Allius  and  Lesbia :  eram : 
so  'erae'  in  136.  The  ehsion  te  et  oxtm  is  a  very  easy 
one ;  as  the  strictest  metrists,  such  as  Ovid,  freely  ehde 
me,  te,  se  before  short  vowels :  in  Catullus  himself  comp. 
8  16  te  adibit;  12  4  te  inepte;  14  3  te  odio;  66  25  at 
te  ego  certe ;  1 1 4  2  in  se  habet :  all  before  short  vowels. 
Whether  the  pronoun  be  emphatic  or  not,  makes  not 
the  slightest  difference:  6  16  uolo  te  ac  tuos  amores; 
66  75  quam  me  afore  semper.  Afore  me  a  dominae; 
Aen.  XI  410  Nunc  ad  te  et  tua,  magne  pater,  consulta 
M.  c.  13 


194  CATVLLI   68^ 

reuertor ;  Ter.  Phor.  442  Gnatus  qui  me  et  se  hisce  im- 
pediuit  nuptiis.  158  mi  is  necessary  to  metre  and 
sense.  159  :  surely  Ellis  quite  misapprehends  the  con- 
struction here. 


LESBIA 

This  seems  a  not  unsuitable  place  to  say  a  few 
words  on  the  question  who  Lesbia  was.  I  have  already 
more  than  once  in  the  preceding  pages,  in  the  article 
for  instance  which  was  written  for  the  Journal  of  Phi- 
lology ten  years  ago  and  is  now  reprinted,  expressed 
my  firm  belief  that  she  was  no  other  than  the  notorious 
Clodia.  This  belief  was  held  in  the  16th  century  by 
such  scholars  as  Victorius,  Muretus  and  Achilles  Sta- 
tins ;  but,  like  much  else,  was  suffered  to  lie  in  abey- 
ance until  it  was  again  revived  in  the  present  genera- 
tion, especially  by  the  '  Quaestiones'  of  Schwabe,  in 
which  this  question,  as  well  as  others  appertaining  to 
the  life  of  Catullus,  has  been  discussed  with  elaborate 
fulness.  Since  then  it  has  been  accepted  by  the  ma- 
jority of  scholars,  tho'  impugned  by  more  than  one 
German  critic  who  has  flattered  himself  that  he  has 
disproved  or  at  least  invalidated  it.  My  belief  in  it 
has  remained  quite  unshaken,  nay  has  acquired  new 
strength ;  tho'  I  frankly  admit  the  prima  facie  unlike- 
lihood of  a  lady  of  Clodia's  exalted  rank  having  been 
the  mistress  of  a  young  poet — an  unlikelihood  however 
which  Clodia's  life  and  character  vastly  lessen  the  force 
of.  The  question  no  doubt  will  still  remain  a  dispu- 
table one:  Mr  Nettleship  says  for  instance  with  refer- 
ence to  it,  in  the  short  but  excellent  notice  which  he 


LESBIA  105 

has  given  in  the  Academy  of  Ellis'  commentary :  *  We 
confess,  in  spite  of  the  authority  against  us,  to  having 
our  doubts  on  this  point'.  I  shall  be  as  concise  as  I 
can,  both  for  the  sake  of  clearness  and  because  I  rest 
of  necessity  mainly  on  the  authorities  so  fully  cited  by 
Schwabe  and  on  the  inferences  which  he  and  others 
draw  from  these  authorities ;  tho'  I  may  be  able  to  set 
one  or  two  matters  in  a  different  point  of  view  which 
may  help  to  throw  some  fresh  light  upon  them. 

Lesbia,  Ovid  tells  us,  and  we  should  all  have  sur- 
mised it  for  ourselves,  was  a  feigned  name.  Where 
did  Catullus  get  the  name  from?  all  will  answer  with 
Vossius,  from  his  love  and  study  of  Sappho.  But  on 
this  I  would  say  one  thing  more.  No  one  can  doubt 
that  his  51st  poem,  the  translation  of  Sappho's  famous 
ode,  is  among  the  earliest  of  his  extant  poems  and  was 
conceived  and  done  in  the  rapture  of  first  love,  when 
he  saw  his  divinity  through  the  golden  haze  of  yet  un- 
satisfied passion.  The  only  two  poems  referring  to 
Lesbia  which  we  can  well  suppose  to  be  as  early  as,  or 
earlier  than,  this  one,  the  2nd  '  Passer  deUciae',  and 
the  3rd  *  Lugete  o  Veneres',  contain  neither  of  them 
Lesbia' s  name.  May  we  not  then  conceive  that,  even 
as  his  ecstasy  had  impelled  him  to  heighten  his  original 
by  the  '  Ille,  si  fas  est,  superare  diuos',  so  in  continuing 
his  version  it  may  have  struck  his  fancy  how  far  better 
the  burning  words  of  passion  which  Sappho  squanders 
so  sadly  on  her  Lesbian  girl,  her  'mistress  minion*, 
would  fit  themselves  to  his  own  bright  goddess?  He 
would  then  write  down  *  nam  simul  te,  Lesbia,  aspexi', 
and  she  would  become  once  and  for  ever  his  '  Lesbian 
maid'. 

The  bond  which  connects  Lesbia  with  Clodia' ap- 
pears to  me  not  to  be  formed  by  a  series  of  Hnks,  the 

13—2 


196  CATVLLVS 

failure  of  one  of  which  renders  the  whole  chain  useless, 
but  rather  to  consist  of  several  quite  independent  chains, 
some  of  greater,  some  of  less  strength,  which  severally 
attach  the  two  together,  and  mutually  strengthen  and 
are  strengthened  by  each  other.  Apuleius  acquaints  us 
with  the  important  fact  that  Lesbia's  actual  name  was 
Clodia.  This  may  go  but  a  little  way  to  prove  her  to 
be  the  Clodia  we  want ;  and  yet  the  mere  name  is 
something  I  think,  and  for  the  following  reasons.  The 
father  Appius  Claudius  Pulcher  and  his  two  eldest  sons 
spelt  their  name  in  the  traditional  manner :  why  the 
youngest  son  Publius  and  the  three  daughters  were 
called  or  called  themselves  Clodius  and  Clodia,  I  do  not 
know.  But  clearly  after  this  the  form  Clodius  and 
Clodia  became  more  common  among  liheHi  and  libertae; 
tho'  of  course  there  were  Clodii  before  this ;  and  Cicero 
in  his  speech  for  Cluentius  speaks  of  a  L.  Clodius,  an 
itinerant  quack-salver  of  Ancona.  I  may  observe  that 
Lesbia  cannot  be  either  of  the  two  sisters  of  the  more 
famous  Clodia,  as  one  was  dead  and  the  other  already 
divorced  and  prosecuted  by  her  husband  at  a  time 
when  Lesbia  was  still  Hving  with  her  husband. 

With  the  79th  poem  however  we  make  an  impor- 
tant, to  my  mind  a  quite  decisive,  advance  towards 
the  identification  of  the  Clodia  in  question  : 

Lesbius  est  pulcher  :  quid  ni  ?  quem  Lesbia  malit, 
quam  te  cum  tota  gente,  Catulle,  tua. 

sed  tamen  hie  pulcher  uendat  cum  gente  Catullum, 
si  tria  notorum  sauia  reppererit. 

4  notomm  0.  natonun  G. 

*  Lesbius  is  a  pretty  fellow :  no  doubt,  since  Lesbia 
prefers  hun  to  you,  Catullus,  with  all  your  kith  and 


LESBIA  197 

kin.  But  this  pretty  fellow  is  welcome  to  sell  Catullus 
with  kith  and  kin,  if  he  can  manage  to  get  three  kisses 
of  acquaintances '.  notorum  of  O  is  clearly  right :  no- 
tiis  is  often  used  as  a  substantive :  Caes.  B.  C.  i  74 
hi  suos  notos  hospitesque  quaerebant. 

There  can  be  but  one  meaning  to  this  :  Lesbia  was 
a  Clodia,  therefore  Lesbius  must  be  a  Clodius.  The 
poem  points  to  foul  charges  of  incest  between  Lesbius 
and  Lesbia,  resembling  those  which  were  current  against 
Publius  Clodius  and  his  sister  Clodia :  the  last  Kne 
points  to  still  fouler  charges,  the  same  as  those  which 
Cicero  does  not  hesitate  to  bring  against  Clodius. 
Then  the  *pulcher':  surely  this  points  to  Clodius'  cog- 
nomen Pulcher,  and  recalls  Cicero's  repeated  jests  on 
the  same  name  :  surgit  pulchellus  puer — furor  Pulchelli 
— Pulchellum  nostrum — postquam  speculum  tibi  alla- 
tum  est,  longe  te  a  pulchris  abesse.sensisti.  When  we 
compare  the  2nd  v.  with  58  2  Ilia  Lesbia,  quam  Catul- 
lus unam  Plus  quam  se  atque  suos  amauit  omnes :  the 
two  passages  would  seem  to  refer  to  one  another,  and 
to  something  which  the  poet  had  said  to  Lesbia  in 
the  heyday  of  their  passion.  It  is  possible,  not  I  think 
probable,  that  the  Clodius  here  alluded  to  is  Sextus, 
whose  character  Cicero  paints  in  much  the  same  colours 
as  that  of  Publius.     Anyhow  a  Clodius  it  was. 

I  would  now  again  call  attention  to  the  poem  68  b, 
on  parts  of  which  I  have  just  discoursed  at  such  length. 
If  that  poem  does  not  prove  Lesbia  to  have  been  a 
woman  of  position,  I  have  no  more  to  say  on  the  whole 
question.  Who  then  was  she,  if  she  were  not  Clodia, 
wife  of  Q.  Metellus  Celer  ?  Dates,  as  I  have  already 
said,  declare  that  she  was  not  either  of  Clodia's  two 
sisters.  And  this  I  need  not  follow  out,  as  both  the 
sisters  were  married  to  men  of  equal  rank  with  Metel- 


158  CATVLLVS 

lus,  to  L.  Luoullus  and  to  Marcius  Rex  respectively, 
and  no  one  will  resort  to  either  of  these,  who  rejects 
the  third.  What  other  woman  of  rank  was  there  in 
Rome,  named  Clodia  ?  I  look  through  the  lists  of  the 
Appii  Claudii  and  the  Claudii  Marcelli  and  find  that, 
before  P.  Clodius  and  his  sisters,  they  were  one  and  all 
called  Claudius,  tho'  once  or  twice  a  coin  or  inscription 
may  casually  present  the  vulgar  form  Clodius. 

I  now  go  on  to  another  indication  :  in  more  than 
one  poem  Catullus  inveighs  fiercely  against  one  Rufus, 
whom  the  poet  had  believed  to  be  among  his  dearest 
friends,  but  who  had  in  some  way  atrociously  wronged 
him.  Turn  especially  to  the  77th  poem  :  Rufe  mihi 
frustra  ac  nequiquam  credite  amice: — Frustra?  immo 
magno  cum  pretio  atque  malo —  Sicine  subrepsti  mi 
atque  intestina  perurens  JEi!  misero  eripuisti  omnia 
nostra  bona  ?  Eripuisti,  eheu  nostrae  crudele  uenenum 
Vitae,  eheu  nostrae  pestis  amicitiae.  Look  at  the 
whole  of  this  ;  compare  the  words  in  Italics  with  G8  b 
157  Et  qui  principio  nobis  te  et  eram  dedit  Afer,  A 
quo  sunt  primo  mi  omnia  nata  bona  :  Rufus  had  taken 
from  him,  what  Afer  had  first  given,  the  greatest  bless- 
ing of  his  life — surely  nothing  else  but  the  love  of 
Lesbia. 

Now  Cicero's  speech  in  defence  of  M.  Caelius  Rufus, 
from  which  we  learn  so  much  about  Clodia,  true  or  false, 
lets  us  see  that  the  orator  and  would-be  politician,  M. 
Caelius  Rufus,  a  man  a  year  or  two  younger  than  Car 
tullus,  a  friend  and  correspondent  of  Cicero,  his  letters 
occupying  the  whole  of  the  8th  book  of  the  Epistles, 
was  entangled  in  a  long  intrigue  with  Clodia,  lodged 
in  her  house  on  the  Palatine,  and  finally  came  to  an 
internecine  quarrel  with  her.  These  events  took  place 
from  about  the  end  of  59,  soon  after  the  death  of  Clo- 


LESBIA  199 

dia's  husband,  to  57  B.C. ;  and  during  this  period  of 
time  the  poet  must  have  gone  through  the  various 
phases  of  estrangement  from  Lesbia  and  of  reconciliation 
with  her,  until  the  final  rupture  took  place  before  his 
departure  for  Bithynia  in  the  beginning  of  57.  Was 
not  Rufus  then  M.  CaeHus  Rufus  ? 

I  would  finally  appeal  to  my  dissection  of  68  a : 
Catullus  informs  us  that  he  was  writing  from  Verona. 
Manlius,  we  have  proved,  could  not,  as  is  usually  main- 
tained, have  written  from  E-ome.  He  was  writing  from 
some  place  where  there  were  many  people  of  fashion, 
'  de  mehore  nota'.  Lesbia  was  there,  and  unfaithful  to 
Catullus.  May  not  this  place  have  well  been  Baiae, 
the  favourite  haunt  of  Clodia  and  the  scene  of  her  pro- 
fligacy, whenever  she  was  away  from  Rome  ? 

But  many  scholars  I  am  aware  feel  the  same  as 
Mr  Nettleship  feels  when  he  says :  '  Can  Clodia  ever 
have  sunk  so  low  as  the  triuia  and  aiigiporti  of  Rome? 
Does  Cicero,  in  all  his  invective,  ever  hint  as  much  as 
this?'  Well,  Cicero  and  her  sometime  lover  Caelius 
Rufiis  both  called  her  'Quadrantaria';  and  that  smacks 
very  much  of  the  triuia  and  angiporti:  nay,  Catullus 
himself  never  taunts  Lesbia  with  being  a  mercenary 
prostitute,  like  the  Ameana  puella.  We  must  not  for- 
get too  the  poet's  passionate  nature,  and  how  he  often 
convicts  himself  in  his  envenomed  attacks  on  those 
who  have  offended  him.  Take  for  instance  the  91st 
and  116th  poems:  if  Gellius  was,  and  was  known  to 
Catullus  to  be,  so  abandoned  a  profligate  and  villain, 
why  did  Catullus  degrade  himself  by  trying  so  hard  to 
gain  his  friendship  ?  If  he  was  not  such  a  man,  then 
the  poet's  inhuman  invective  is  no  less  ignominious  for 
himself.  But  in  truth  Clodia  would  seem,  like  many 
other  women  of  high  rank  in  ancient  Rome,  as  in  the 


200  CATVLLVS 

Italy  and  France  of  the  15th  and  16th  and  the  Russia 
of  the  18th  century,  when  her  husband's  death  had 
freed  her  from  constraint,  to  have  drained  every  pleasure 
to  the  dregs,  and  finding  them  one  after  the  other  to 
be  but  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit,  to  have  come  to 
*  feed  on  garbage'  in  the  very  recklessness  of  satiety. 
Seneca  in  his  Hippolytus  (206)  well  depicts  such  a  state 
of  things : 

Tunc  ilia  magnae  dira  fortunae  comes 
subit  Hbido  :  non  placent  suetae  dapes, 
non  tecta  sani  moris  aut  uilis  cibus. 
cur  in  penates  rarius  tenues  subit 
haec  delicatas  eligens  pestis  domos  ? 
cur  sancta  paruis  habitat  in  tectis  Venus, 
mediumque  sanos  uulgus  afiectus  tenet  ? 

I  have  dwelt  longer  on  this  question  than  I  had 
intended  to  do ;  but  at  the  risk  of  being  tedious  I  will 
bring  into  the  comparison  with  Clodia  two  ladies,  one 
of  them  her  equal,  the  other  even  higher  in  rank  ;  one  of 
them  belonging  to  the  same,  the  other  to  the  next  gene- 
ration. It  is  not  an  embittered  poet,  but  the  philo- 
sophical historian  Sallust  who  (Catil.  25)  thus  paints 
the  character  of  Sempronia,  the  mother  of  Decimus 
Brutus :  haec  mulier  genere  atque  forma,  praeterea 
uiro,  liberis  satis  fortunata  fuit ;  htteris  Graecis  et 
Latinis  docta,  psallere  saltare  elegantius  quam  necesse 
est  probae,  multa  alia  quae  instrumenta  luxuriae  sunt, 
sed  ei  cariora  semper  omnia  quam  decus  atque  pudi- 
citia  fuit ;  pecuniae  an  famae  minus  parceret,  haud 
facile  discerneres  ;  lubido  sic  accensa,  ut  saepius  peteret 
uiros  quam  peteretur...uerum  ingenium  eius  haud  ab- 
surdum :  posse  uersus  facere,  iocum  mouere,  sermone 
uti  uel  modesto  uel  molli  uel  procaci ;  prorsus  multae  fa- 


LESBIA  201 

cetiae  multusqiie  lepos  inerat.  Take  away  tlie  'liberis', 
and  you  have  Clodia  here  painted  to  the  life ;  even  the 
fine  dancing  and  the  verse-making  suit  her. 

The  other  lady  is  Julia,  the  only  child  of  Augustus, 
*dis  genita  et  genitura  deos',  married  three  times  suc- 
cessively, the  first  and  second  time  to  the  two  destined 
heirs,  the  third  time  to  the  actual  heir  of  the  empire,  the 
mother  of  many  children,  marked  out  to  be  emperors  or 
mothers  of  emperors,  a  lady  who  retained  the  love  of 
the  Koman  people  even  to  her  cruel  end.  Macrobius 
(Saturn,  ii  5),  following  some  old  authority,  describes 
her,  as  she  was  in  her  thirty-eighth  year,  speaks  of  her 
as  a  strange  compound  of  vice  and  excellence,  winning 
the  afiections  of  all  by  her  'mitis  humanitas'  and  her 
varied  accomplishments.  But  hear  now  what  Seneca, 
a  younger  contemporary,  says  (de  breuit.  uitae  4  6) : 
filia  et  tot  nobiles  iuuenes,  adulterio  uelut  sacramento 
adacti,  iam  infracti  [Augusti]  aetatem  territabant.  The 
angry  poet  in  his  bitterest  lampoon  is  not  more  merci- 
less to  Lesbia,  than  the  angry  old  father  shews  himself 
towards  his  only  child  in  the  public  edict  which  he  made 
the  Praetor  read  before  the  Senate,  and  which  Seneca 
(de  benef  vi  32)  has  preserved  for  us.  When  the  deed 
was  past  recall,  and,  with  his  daughter's,  he  had  laid 
his  own  honour  in  the  dust,  he  deplored  his  headstrong 
folly,  and  often  cried  out :  'horum  mihi  nihil  accidisset, 
si  aut  Agrippa  aut  Maecenas  uixisset'.  But  read  his 
own  words:  Admissos  gregatim  adulteros,  pererratam 
noctiu-nis  comissationibus  ciuitatem,  forum  ipsum  et 
rostra,  ex  quibus  pater  legem  de  adulteriis  tulerat, 
filiae  in  stupra  placuisse,  cotidianum  ad  Marsyam  con- 
cursum,  cum  ex  adultera  in  quaestuaHam  uersa  ius 
omnis  licentiae  sub  ignoto  adultero  peteret.  Does  not 
the  first  part  of  this  edict  remind  us  of  the  'salax  taber- 


202  CATVLLVS 

na  uosque  contubernales',  the  'boni  beatique'  and  'omnes 
pusilli  et  semitarii  moechi'  of  our  37th  poem?  Both 
Augustus  and  Catulhis  are  really  speaking  of  young 
men  of  fashion  about  town.  And  do  not  the  words 
printed  in  Itahcs  paraphrase  in  language  rather  less 
coarse  the  'Nunc  in  quadriuiis  et  angiportis  Glubit 
magnanimi  Remi  nepotes'  of  our  58th  poem? 


71 

Siqua  iure  bono  sacer,  o  Rufe,  obstitit  hircus 
aut  siqua  merito  tarda  podagra  secat, 

aemulus  iste  tuus,  qui  uestrum  exercet  amorem, 
mirifice  est  a  te  nactus  utrumque  malum. 
5  nam  quotiens  futuit,  totiens  ulciscitur  ambos: 
illam  affligit  odore,  ipse  perit  podagra 

1  Siqua  V.  Siquoi  uulgo.  iure  Palladius.  uiro  V.  sacer  o  Eufe  scripsi. 
sacrorum  G.  sacratorum  0.  sacer  alarum  uulgo.  2  siqua  scripsi.  siquam  V. 
siquem  uulgo. 

In  order  to  apprehend  the  meaning  of  this  unat- 
tractive poem,  one  should  consult  Haupt's  Quaest.  p.  9 1 
foil,  tho'  I  do  not  agree  with  all  he  says,  and  he  himself 
indeed  in  his  edition  has  withdrawn  his  Ate.  I  have 
tried  hard,  but  have  been  quite  unable  to.  understand 
and  realise  Ellis'  conception  of  the  poem.  I  have  a 
strong  suspicion  that  it  is  addressed  to  Rufus,  as  the 
69th  is  expressly  and  the  73rd  no  less  certainly.  West- 
phal  somewhere  draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  Catul- 
lus not  unfrequently  thus  alternates  poems  on  the  same 
persons  or  on  similar  subjects  with  others  of  quite  a 
different  complexion:  comp.  for  instance  3,  5  and  7  ; 
16,  21  (only  17  intervenes)  and  23;  41  and  43.  My 
correction  sacei',  o  Riife  of  the  sacrorum  (scvcratorum) 


LESBIA,   CARM.    71  203 

of  Mss.  is  not  so  harsh  as  it  might  appear  at  first  sight 
to  be;  and  I  avoid  two  or  three  further  changes  made 
by  the  editors.  As  I  have  ah-eady  so  often  remarked, 
final  m  and  s  are  again  and  again  interchanged  in  our 
Mss.  from  having  been  written  with  very  similar  co7n- 
pendia :  f  and  f  are  often  nearly  undistinguishable,  and, 
as  e  and  o  are  oftener  confused  than  any  other  two 
letters  in  our  Mss.,  sacer  o  Rufe  ohstitit  might  easily 
pass  into  scicrorum,  quite  as  easily  I  think  as  sax^er 
alarum.  It  may  be  said,  Rufus  need  not  be  named 
here  any  more  than  in  73.  But  there  is  a  great  differ- 
ence between  the  two  cases:  73  tells  its  tale  clearly 
enough;  but  71  would  be  pointless  and  unintelligible 
without  a  name.  Haupt,  Mueller  and  Schwabe  most 
properly  I  think  accept  hire  for  the  Ms.  iiiro :  e  and  o, 
as  I  have  so  often  repeated,  being  perpetually  confused, 
the  ductus  litterarum  are  almost  the  same.  I  do  not  at 
all  like  Virro  of  Parthenius,  which  both  Ellis  and  Baeh- 
rens  adopt;  for  hono  has  then  no  meaning  to  me;  and  I 
much  doubt  Virro  in  Catullus:  he  writes  Naso,  while 
Ovid  always  says  Nas6.  The  'sacer  hircus'  is  of  course 
the  same  thing  as  the  *trux  caper'  of  69  6.  Haupt  I.e. 
p.  92  quotes  Isidore's  illustrations  of  sacer  in  its  bad 
sense:  *leno  sacer'  et  'sacer  hircus',  and  with  some  rea- 
son concludes  that  Isidore  is  referring  to  our  verse. 
This  would  go  far  to  disprove  alarum,  as  otherwise 
alarum  too  would  naturally  have  been  quoted  to  com- 
plete the  phrase;  just  as  he  cites  in  illustration  oi  sacer 
in  a  good  sense  'inter  flumina  nota  et  fontes  sacros', 
and  'Auri  sacra  fames'  and  'sacrae  Panduntur  portae' 
for  its  bad  sense  ^. 

^  At  the  same  time  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Isidore  may  refer  to  Georg,  ii 
395  stabit  sacer  hircns  ad  aram :  espec.  if  we  compare  380  Non  aliam  ob  culpam 
Baccho  caper  omnibus    aris  Gaeditur :    oven   if  he  is  forcing  Virgil's  words. 


204  CATVLLI 

In  V.  1  I  keep  the  Siqua  of  Mss.  while  all  editors  read 
Siquoi ;  and  in  2  my  siqua  merito  is  a  somewhat  slighter 
change  than  the  siquem  of  all  editions.  The  omission  of 
the  object  in  these  two  lines  seems  to  add  point  to  the 
expression :  '  If  in  any  way,  Bufus,  the  accursed  he- 
goat  has  with  full  justice  given  offence,  or  if  in  any 
way  the  laming  gout  deservedly  scourges,  your  rival 
has  with  marvellous  adroitness  caught  from  you  both 
mischiefs  :  for  he  thus  punishes  both, — himself  and  her ; 
her  he  stifles  with  the  smell,  he  is  martyred  himself 
with  the  gout':  the  last  two  verses  are  rightly  ex- 
plained by  Haupt  1.  c.  p.  92.  1  o  Rufe :  Catullus 
generally  omits  o ;  but  87  5  o  Gelli :  for  the  meaning 
of  ohstitit  comp.  Aen.  vi  64  quibus  obstitit  Ilium  et 
ingens  Gloria  Dardaniae,  and  Plautus  cited  by  Ellis, 
where  too  the  object  is  omitted  as  here.  Manifestly 
I  think  the  vague  generality  which  the  absence  of  an 
object  gives  to  the  first  two  lines,  improves  their  point, 
such  as  it  is  ;  because  it  is  the  woman  who  is  offended 
in  1,  the  man  who  is  scourged  in  2 ;  and  yet  the  poet 
does  not  wish  to  reveal  that  till  the  last  line  :  in  4  too 
a  te,  which  most  editors  alter,  seems  to  me  quite  neces- 
sary to  the  point  of  the  epigram.  If  this  poem  be 
addressed  to  Bufus,  i.e.  M.  Caelius  Rufus,  then  the 
'uestrum  amorem'  of  3  would  seem  to  be  Lesbia,  and 
the  'Aemulus  iste  tuus'  one  of  her  many  lovers.  This 
and  69  would  then  have  been  written  at  a  later  time 
than  7'S  and  77,  which  express  the  first  anguish  of 
jealousy  and  of  friendship  betrayed.  In  the  last  line 
of  69  the  fugiunt  of  Mss.  should  I  believe  he  fugiant ; 
for  the  best  writers  always  employ  the  indie,  after  *mi- 
rari,  admirari  si,  quod'  but  the  subjunct.  after  'cur': 

Anyhow  Virgil  would  help  to  shew  that  '  sacer  hircus '  was  a  marked  expression ; 
and  it  is  more  emphatic  without  'alarum'. 


CARM.  71,  73,  76  205 

the  'downriglitness  and  coarseness'  wLich  'the  indie, 
adds,'  I  do  not  apprehend. 


73  3  and  4  I  would  thus  complete  : 

Omnia  sunt  ingrata,  nihil  fecisse  benigne 

iam  iuuat :  immo  etiam  taedet  obestque  magis. 

My  lam  iuuat  would  be  more  likely  to  fall  out 
before  the  similar  letters  that  follow,  than  either  Pro- 
dest  of  most  editions  or  Baehrens'  luuerit  :  I  feel  little 
doubt  that  the  lost  word  or  words  belong  to  what  pre- 
cedes; not  to  what  follows,  as  Haupt,  and  some  others 
assume.  My  lam  seems  to  have  force,  when  we  con- 
sider the  Desine  of  1,  and  the  modo  of  6. 


7Q 

Siqua  recordanti  benefacta  priora  uoluptas 

est  homini,  cum  se  cogitat  esse  pium 
nee  sanctam  uiolasse  iidem  nee  foedere  in  ullo 
diuum  ad  fallendos  numine  abusum  homines  : 
5  multa  parata  manent  iam  in  longa  aetate,  Catulle, 
ex  hoc  ingrato  gaudia  amore  tibi. 
nam  quaecumque  homines  bene  cuiquam  aut  dicere 

possunt 
'  aut  facere,  haec  a  te  dictaque  factaque  sunt : 
omnia  quae  ingratae  perierunt  credita  menti. 
10       quare  cur  te  iam  a !  amplius  excrucies  ? 

quin  tu  animum  offirmas  atque  istinc  teque  reducis 

et  dis  inuitis  desinis  esse  miser  ? 
'difficile  est  Ion  gum  subito  deponere  amorem  *. 
difficile  est,  uerum  hoc  qualubet  efficias  : 


206  CATVLLI 

15  una  salus  haec  est,  hoc  est  tibi  peruincendum, 
hoc  facias,  sine  id  non  pote  siue  pote. 
o  di,  si  uestrum  est  misereri,  aut  si  quibus  iimquam 

extrema  iam  ipsa  in  morte  tulistis  opem, 
me  miserum  aspicite  et,  si  iiitam  puriter  egi, 

20  eripite  hanc  pestem  perniciemque  mihi. 
heu  !  mihi  subrepens  unos  ut  torpor  in  artus 

expulit  ex  omni  pectore  laetitias  I 
non  iam  illud  quaero,  contra  me  ut  diligat  ilia 
aut,  quod  non  potis  est,  esse  pudica  uelit: 
25  ipse  ualere  opto  et  taetrum  hunc  deponere  morbum. 
o  di,  reddite  mi  hoc  pro  pietate  mea. 

5  manent  iam  in  longa  scripsi.  manetu  inlonga  0,  manenti  *  in  longa  G. 
manent  in  longa  uulgo.  manent  cum  longa  Baehrens.  10  cnr  te  iam  a  ami^lius 
scripsi.  a  om.  V.  iam  te  cnr  uulgo.  cur  te  iam  iam  Baehrens.  11  Qnin  tu 
animum  offirmas  Statius.  Qui  tui  animo  ofQrmas  V.  Quidni  animum  Baehrens. 
istinc  teque  Heinsms.    instincteque  O,   istinctoque   G.     18  ipsam   morte  V. 

21  Heu  Meleager.  Seu  Y.    23  me  ut  Heyse.  me  ut  me  V.  ut  me  uulgo. 

No  other  poem  of  Catullus  brings  more  vividly 
before  us  the  fierce  earnestness  of  his  impassioned  na- 
ture, which  made  him  one  of  the  great  lyric  poets  of 
the  world.  We  heard  him  above,  in  68  70 — 72, 
dwelling  with  rapt  enthusiasm  on  the  moment,  which 
had  stamped  itself  on  his  memory  for  ever,  when  Les- 
bia  appeared  on  the  threshold  of  AUius'  house,  and 
there  was  now  no  barrier  of  convention  between  him 
and  her.  We  saw  how,  by  his  total  absorption  in  self, 
he  could  regard  himself,  the  paramour,  as  an  innocent 
bridegroom,  and  her,  the  faithless  wife,  as  a  jDure  and 
virgin  bride.  Just  so  in  our  present  poem  he  can  pic- 
ture himself  to  his  own  heart  as  the  virtuous  and  out- 
raged husband,  and  Lesbia  as  the  well-beloved  and 
traitorous  wife  of  his  bosom  :  '  Such  tricks  hath  strong 
imao-ination ' — when  it  belonfys  to  a  Catullus.     To  no 


CARM.  7G  207 

other  of  his  poems  may  we  more  justly  apply  the  words 
of  an  accomplished  writer  in  the  North  British  Review 
(vol.  36  p.  232)  :  'He  is  one  of  the  very  few  writers  in 
the  world  who,  on  one  or  two  occasions,  speaks  directly 
from  the  heart.  The  greater  number  even  of  great 
poets  speak  only  from  the  imagination;... but  this  one 
speaks  as  nature  bids  him  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  his 
own  heart' :  a  criticism  at  once  original  and  most  true. 
I  heartily  agree  with  all  that  Ellis  writes  in  praise 
of  this  poem ;  but  I  do  not  feel  that  'it  must  have  been 
written  late ' ;  it  may  have  been  written  late ;  but  so 
fiercely  vacillating  were  the  moods  of  the  poet's  mind, 
that  I  am  not  at  all  sure  it  was  composed  much  later 
than  the  two  parts  of  68.  This  and  many  similar  cases 
I  acknowledge  myself  totally  unable  to  decide  upon. 

5 :  my  reading  here  is  I  think  nearer  the  Mss.  than 
others  which  have  been  proposed :  iam  is  by  no  means 
otiose.  10  my  insertion  of  a  is  a  very  simple  correc- 
tion :  Catullus  is  fond  of  this  interjection ;  which  is 
unelided,  as  here,  in  Hor.  epod.  5  71  A,  a  solutus;  Tib. 
(Lygdamus)  iii  4  82  A  ego  ne;  (Sulpicia)  iv  11  3  A  ego 
non  aliter.  11  animum  offirmas:  this  I  take  to  be  a 
quite  necessary  correction  of  'animo  off.';  the  absorp- 
tion of  um  in  the  like  letters  which  precede,  and  the 
doubling  of  o  exactly  resemble  the  examples  given  at 
65  12  morte  canam.  The  instances  cited  by  Ellis  of 
offirmo  followed  by  an  infin.,  occurriDg  too  only  in 
Plautus  and  Terence,  scarcely  warrant  'animo  offirmas' 
here :  I  suspect  too  that  Ovid  was  thinking  of  Catullus 
when  he  wrote  met.  ix  745  Quin  animum  firmas  teque 
ipsa  recolligis,  Iphi,  Consiliique  inopes  et  stultos  excu- 
tis  ignes:  which  might  support  'Quin  tu'  as  well  as 
'animum'.  istinc  teque:  this  I  am  convinced  is  the 
right  reading  here:  for  the  position  of  qi(e  comp.  my 


208  CATVLLI 

note  on  57  2  Mamurrae  pathicoque:  in  our  passage 
indeed  que  could  not  well  have  any  other  position  :  for 
que — Et  comp.  102  3  Meque...Et,  by  no  means  a  rare 
combination  in  Latin.  18  'ipsa  in  morte'  and  'ipsa 
morte'  are  equally  near  the  'ipsam  morte'  of  V:  twice 
in  Virgil  we  find  'Extrema  iam  in  morte',  and  he  was 
perhaps  more  likely  to  omit  the  prepos.  than  Catullus : 
tho'  Virgil  has  also  'extrema  hora'.  21  Heu,  milii  s. 
(not  Heu  mihi,  s.)  seems  the  simplest  correction  of  >Sew : 
68  12  Neu  O,  Seu  G.  23  tne  ut  me  of  Y  for  ut  me 
resembles  110  3  quod  promisisti  milii  quod  V. 


92 

Lesbia  mi  dicit  semper  male  nee  tacet  umquam 
de  me :  Lesbia  me  dispeream  nisi  amat. 

quo  signo?  quia  sunt  totidem  mea:  deprecor  illam 
assidue,  uerum  dispeream  nisi  amo. 

If  Gellius  had  not  chanced  to  preserve  the  last  two 
verses,  we  should  have  depended  on  O  alone  for  them; 
one  instance  out  of  so  many  in  which  it  shews  its 
superiority  over  G.  3  sunt  totidem  mea:  Ellis'  sug- 
gestion that  'the  expression  is  perhaps  drawn  from  the 
language  of  games'  is  probable  enough.  However  that 
may  be,  the  quite  parallel  expression  in  Hor.  sat.  ii  298 
Dixerit  insanum  qui  me,  totidem  audiet  atque  Respi- 
cere  ignoto  discet  pendentia  tergo,  helps  to  shew  that 
Catullus'  words  are  not  to  be  tampered  with,  tho'  no 
one  has  given  a  precise  explanation  of  either  Catullus 
or  Horace. 


CARM.   92,  95  209 


95 

Zmyma  mei  Cinnae,  nonam  post  denique  messem 

quam  coepta  est  nonamque  edita  post  hiemem, 
milia  cum  iiiterea  quingenta  Hatrianus  in  uno 

uersiculorum  anno  putidiLS  euomuit, 
5  Zmyma  cauas  Satrachi  penitus  mittetur  ad  undas, 

Zmjmam  cana  diu  saecula  peinioluent : 
at  Yolusi  annales  Paduam  morientur  ad  ipsam 

et  laxas  scombris  saepe  dabunt  tunicas, 
parua  mei  mihi  sint  cordi  monumenta  Phalaeci : 
10       at  populus  tumido  gaudeat  Antimacho. 

3  Hatrianus  in  {uel  is)  scripsi.  Hortensius  V.  4  hunc  u.  addidi :  om.  V. 
9  Phalaeci  addidi :  om.  V.  sodalis  Atiantius,  uulgo. 

Haupt  first,  at  the  end  of  his  Quaestiones,  and 
next  Schwabe  in  his  most  elaborate  dissection  of  this 
difficult  and  corrupt  poem  (Quaest.  p.  278 — 288)  have 
dispelled  much  of  the  darkness  which  long  rested  on  it. 
I  flatter  myself  lean  make  some  further  contribution 
to  its  criticism  and  elucidation.  I  regret  to  add  that 
either  I  am  quite  wrong  in  this  assumption,  or  else 
Ellis  in  his  commentary,  instead  of  advancing,  has  made 
a  step  backward,  especially  in  his  defence  of  the  absurd 
*  Hortensius*.  This  unlucky  word  has  caused  Lach- 
mann,  and  after  him  Haupt,  to  separate  vss.  9  and  10 
from  the  rest,  and  make  them  into  a  distinct  poem. 
Schwabe  has  clearly  proved  that  they  cannot  form  a 
complete  whole,  and  that  *  Hortensius'  must  be  corrupt. 
I  will  state  as  briefly  as  I  can  what  Haupt,  Schwabe 
and  others  have  already  made  clear,  and  will  then  go 
on  to  what  I  have  to  add  of  my  own. 

The  Zmyma  or  Myrrha  is  an  epyllion,  or  short 
hexameter  poem,  of  his  friend  Gains  Heluius  Cinna, 

M.c.  14 


31 Q  CATVLLI 

mentioned  above  in  our  10th  poem,  on  the  story  of 
Myrrha,  the  daughter  and  paramour  of  Cinyras  and 
the  mother  of  Adonis.  Catullus  throughout  presents 
this  short  but  excellent  epic  in  contrast  with  the  vo- 
luminous but  worthless  *Yolusi  annales'.  These  'an- 
nales'  were  a  long  chronicle  in  hexameters  written  by 
Volusius,  a  pseudonym  for  one  Tanusius  Geminus,  as 
has  been  demonstrated  beyond  dispute  from  a  passage 
in  Seneca.  Already  in  his  36th  poem  Catullus  has 
mercilessly  jeered  at  these  'annales  Yolusi',  whether 
with  fuU  justice  or  not,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  say. 

To  judge  from  their  punctuation  and  comments,  all 
previous  editors  would  seem  to  make  the  sentence  end 
with  the  lost  4th  line.  This  cannot  be  so  ;  for  Catullus 
certainly  would  not  use  edita  for  edita  est:  the  5th 
verse  takes  up  the  *  Zmyma'  of  the  first :  '  The  Zmyrna 
of  my  Cinna,  published  ten  summers  and  ten  winters 
after  it  was  begun,  when  all  the  time  the  putid  Hatrian 
has  been  belching  forth  verses  at  the  rate  of  500,000 
a  year,  the  Zmyrna,  I  say,  will  be  sent  as  far  as  the 
waters  of  the  Satrachus ;  Zmyrna  the  hoar  ages  will 
long  peruse :  but  the  annals  of  Volusius  will  perish  be- 
fore they  get  across  the  Padua  and  will  many  a  time 
furnish  roomy  coats  for  mackerel'.  Catullus'  first  coup- 
let, and  this  nine  years'  incubation  over  a  poem  of  a 
few  hundred  lines  became  proverbial:  not  only  Quin- 
tilian,  but  also  Philargyrius  and  Seruius  on  EcL  ix  35, 
and  Porphyrion  and  Pseudo-Acron  on  the  Ars  poet. 
388  speak  of  this  nine  years  travail:  Philargyrius  1.  1. 
refers  to  Catullus  and  to  Quintilian,  and  adds  that 
Horace's  '  nonumque  prematur  in  annum '  is  said  to  be 
an  allusion  to  it.  3  ;  Of  the  *  Hatrianus'  I  will  speak 
presently :  my  supplement  must  give  the  general  sense, 
some  decided  antithesis  to  the  first  couplet.    The  'milia 


CARM.   95  211 

quingenta'  was  proverbial  perhaps  for  a  large  number; 
for  Trimalchio  in  liia  laughable  way  talks  of  ^sublata 
in  horreum  ex  area  tritici  milia  medium  quingenta'  in 
a  single  day  from  his  Cuman  estate. 

5  is  well  explained  by  Haupt  who  shews  from  seve- 
ral ancient  authorities  that  Satrachus  was  the  name  of 
a,  town  and  river  in  Cyprus,  and  Zmyma  or  Mjrrrha 
belonged  to  Cyprus.  Cinna's  Zmyrna  will  get  as  far  as 
the  distant  home  of  the  heroine  herself,  i.  e.  will  have 
a  world-wide  fame;  and  (6)  will  live  through  long  ages. 
I  have  little  doubt  that  'cauas  Satrachi  undas'  is 
taken  from  Cinna's  poem,  because  Catullus  imitates 
him  in  6  as  well.  For  Cinna  (Suet,  de  gramm.  11)  says 
in  like  manner  of  Valerius  Cato's  Diana :  Saecula  per- 
maneat  nostri  Dictynna  Catonis.  Catullus'  *  saecula 
cana'  for  remote  posterity  seems  a  strange  use  of  the 
phrase :  Ellis  remarks,  what  I  had  myself  noted,  that 
Martial  uses  it  in  its  more  natural  sense  of  ages  long 
gone  by:  X  19  16  he  uses  'saecula  posterique'  to  ex- 
press what  Catullus  says  here:  yet  Catullus'  follower, 
the  author  of  the  Ciris,  in  v.  41  clearly  imitates  our 
verse  :  Nostra  tuum  senibus  loqueretur  pagina  saeclis. 
They  seem  to  have  anticipated  Bacon's  philosophical 
remark  :  mundi  enim  senium  et  grandaeuitas  pro  anti- 
quitate  uere  habenda  sunt ;  quae  temporibus  nostris 
tribui  debent,  non  iuniori  aetati  mundi,  qualis  apud 
antiques  fuit. 

I  now  come  to  v.  7  :  Haupt  1.  1.,  followed  by  the 
later  commentators,  rightly  observes  that,  as  Satrachus 
is  a  river,  the  antithesis  requires  that  Padua  shall  be 
also  a  river :  what  river  it  is  he  proves  by  quoting,  after 
an  older  critic,  Polyb.  ii  1 6  o  Se  IlaSos  axj-t^erai  eU  hvo 
fJi-ipr]  Kara  tov<s  Trpoarayopevofievov?  Tpiya/36Xov<;.  TovTOiv 
8fc   TO   fxev   €T€pov   cTTo/xa   rrpoaovop.a.^'E.Tdi   ITaSoa,   to  Se 

14—2 


212  CATVLLI 

€Tepov  "0\ava :  my  reason  for  repeating  all  this,  will 
appear  presently.  Polybius  says  that  the  two  streams 
into  which  the  Po  divides  below  Ferrara,  are  named 
the  IlaSoa  and  the  "OXava.  If  we  compare  with  him 
Pliny  III  119  foil.,  it  will  appear  that  Smith's  Diet,  of 
Geogr.  is  wrong  in  identifying  the  IlaSoa  with  the 
Padusa,  mentioned  in  the  Aeneid.  The  Padusa,  Pliny 
tells  us,  was  the  name  given  to  the  mouth  of  the 
'Augusta  fossa',  an  artificial  cut,  and  that  the  older 
name  of  this  mouth  was  Messanicus.  Then  enume- 
rating the  different  mouths,  beginning  with  the  most 
southern,  he  comes  to  '  dein  Volane,  quod  ante  Eolane 
uocabatur' :  now  whether  *  Eolane'  should  or  should  not 
be  '  Olane',  we  must  connect  this  name  with  Polybius' 
*OXai/a.  Pliny,  still  advancing  northward,  says  the  lar- 
gest and  most  northern  branch  was  called  at  its  mouth 
*  Septem  Maria',  no  doubt  from  the  seven  mouths  look- 
ing like  so  many  seas:  omnia  ea  [ostia]  fossa  Flauia, 
quam  primi  a  Sagi  fecere  Tusci,  egesto  amnis  impetu 
per  transuersum  in  Atrianorum  paludes  quae  Septem 
Maria  appellantur,  nobili  portu  oppidi  Tuscorum  Atriae 
a  quo  Atriaticum  mare  ante  appellabatur  quod  nunc 
Hadriaticum.  This  'fossa  Flauia'  carried  the  super- 
fluous water  from  the  other  mouths  northward  into  the 
'Septem  Maria';  and  these  were  the  mouths  of  the 
northern  or  chief  branch  of  the  Po,  and  were  also  called 
the  '  Atrianorum  paludes',  from  Atria,  the  only  place  of 
importance  among  these  'paludes',  already  in  Catullus' 
time  greatly  decayed,  tho'  it  had  once  been  a  famous 
emporium  of  the  Etruscans,  before  the  Gauls  had  broken 
their  power  in  those  parts;  and  by  the  testimony  of 
Greek  and  Koman  authors  alike  it  had  given  name  to 
the  *ASpta?  or  Hadriatic. 

It  foUows  then  that  Polybius'  naSoa  and  Catullus' 


CARM.  95  213 

Padua  was  the  larger  and  northern  branch  of  the  Po ; 
for  as  Catullus  wrote  just  midway  in  time  between 
Polybius  and  Pliny,  what  was  common  to  the  Po  in 
their  time,  must  have  existed  in  his :  it  follows  too 
that  Volusius,  or  Tanusius  Geminus,  was  born  or  re- 
sided near  it;  belonged  therefore  to  Atria  or  its  vicinity, 
the  marshy  district  between  the  Padus  and  the  Athesis. 
The  poet  therefore  says  his  annals  will  perish  before 
they  have  been  able  to  get  across  the  Padua.  As  now 
the  symmetry  of  the  poem  requires  Volusius  to  be 
named  in  3,  I  have  ventured  to  write  there  Hatrianus, 
*the  native  of  Hatria';  an  admissible  form  I  think,  since 
it  gave  name  to  the  'Hadriaticum  mare';  which  always 
had  the  aspirate  in  Catullus'  time ;  though  Atria  is  the 
usual  name  of  the  town  :  see  Mommsen  Inscr.  L.  v  p. 
220.  I  may  assume  too  that  the  a  is  short ;  for  Pro- 
pertius  writes  'Hadriae  mare',  and  'Hadrianus'  is  the 
emperor's  name,  which  he  derived  however  from  the 
Hadria  or  Atria  of  Picenum. 

We  now  come  to  the  last  two  vss. :  *Be  it  for  me  to 
find  enjoyment  in  the  short  works  of  my  own  Phalaecus ; 
for  the  people  to  delight  in  their  bulky  Antimachus'. 
In  these  two  vss.  the  antithesis  is  still  maintained  be- 
tween Cinna  and  Volusius.  All  commentators  admit 
that  the  'bulky',  or  it  may  be  'turgid,  long-winded,  re- 
dundant', 'Antimachus'  is  Volusius:  for  the  reasons 
why  he  should  be  so  called  see  Ellis.  To  me  it  is  equally 
clear  that,  to  produce  the  due  antithesis,  we  need  a 
name,  and  the  name  of  a  Greek  poet,  in  the  imperfect 
9  th  verse.  This  has  been  seen  by  more  than  one  critic, 
and  'Philetae'  and  'Phanoclis'  have  both  been  pro- 
posed: certainly  the  'sodalis'  of  most  editors  and  the 
'Cinnae'  of  Baehrens  are  very  pointless.  I  prefer  my 
'Phalaeci'  to  anything  else:  Cinna  must,  I  should  infer. 


214  CATVLLI 

have  been  somewhat  older  than  Catulkis  and  Calvus ; 
for  he  had  just  pubhshed  his  epyllion  after  nine  years' 
elaboration.  Now  his  very  scanty  fragments  shew  that^ 
besides  this  epylhon  and  the  'Propempticon  Pollionis' 
which  must  have  been  written  many  years  later,  he 
wrote  Phalaecian  hendecasyllables,  scazons  and  elegiac 
epigrams.  Catullus  had  not  I  believe  at  this  time 
finished  his  own  epyllion ;  and,  if  he  had,  he  could  not 
have  taken  Cinna's,  which  was  only  just  published,  for 
a  model.  He  had  however  written  just  in  those  other 
metres  in  which  we  know  that  Cinna  too  wrote.  If 
Cinna  then  were  their  senior,  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  Catullus  and  Calvus  looked  up  to  him  as  one  of 
their  teachers  in  poetry.  We  learn  from  the  equally 
scanty  fragments  of  Phalaecus  that  he  not  only  wrote 
and  gave  name  to  the  Phalaecian  hendecasyllable,  but 
also  composed  elegiac  epigrams  and  verses  which  have 
much  the  halting  effect  of  the  scazon.  There  can  hardly 
be  any  doubt  then  that  Phalaecus  was  a  prime  model 
for  all  the  three  friends.  What  more  natural  now  than 
that  Catullus  should  fondly  call  Cinna  his  own  Pha- 
laecus 1 

Scholars  have  proved — for  a  good  summary  of  the 
arguments  see  Teuffel's  Eom.  Lit. — that,  in  spite  of  the 
exact  comcidence  of  name  and  Plutarch's  odd  rts  KtWas 
TTOLTjTiKoq  dv7]p,  the  tribuuc  C.  Heluius  Cinna  who,  as 
Yal.  Maximus,  Suetonius,  Appian,  and  Plutarch  twice 
over,  tell  us,  was  murdered  by  mistake  at  Caesar's 
funeral,  cannot  have  been  our  Cinna,  who  clearly  lived 
beyond  that  time.  Else  the  'tear  him  for  his  bad 
verses,  tear  him  for  his  bad  verses'  of  the  mob  would 
have  been  a  grimly  humorous  revenge  for  Catullus'  sneer 
at  their  love  for  their  favourite  Tanusius,  who  must  at 
least  have  been  easier  to  understand  than  Cinna  was. 


CARM.  95,  96,   102  215 


96 

Si  quicquam  muteis  gratum  acceptumque  sepulcris 

accidere  a  nostro,  Calue,  dolore  potest, 
quom  desiderio  ueteres  renouamus  amores 
atque  olim  amissas  flemus  amicitias, 
5     certe  non  tanto  mors  inmatura  dolorist 
Quintiliae,  quantum  gaudet  amore  tuo. 

3  Quom  Guarinus.  Quo  G.  Que  V.    4  olim  amissas  Statius,  olim  missaa  V. 

3  Quom:  this  I  think  a  necessary  correction:  we 
see  once  more  in  0  and  G  the  perpetual  confusion  be- 
tween e  and  o:  comp.  too  my  note  on  30  5,  where  I 
read  Quom  for  Que  of  V.  4  1  see  no  occasion  for  any 
of  the  more  violent  corrections  that  have  been  made  in 
this  verse:  the  simple  correction  of  Statius  puts  all 
straight :  mitt  ere  often  has  the  meaning  of  omittere,  as 
in  Lucretius  again  and  again ;  and  this  is  its  sense  in 
the  passage  which  Ellis  quotes  from  Seneca;  but  it 
never  I  believe  has  the  force  of  amittere,  which  is  what 
we  want  here.  5  and  6:  See  my  note  on  45  3  with 
respect  to  the  somewhat  involved  construction.  Surely 
we  need  not  feel  any  doubt  that  Quintilia  is  Calvus' 
wife. 


102 

Si  quicquam  tacite  commissum  est  fido  ab  amico 

cuius  sit  penitus  nota  fides  animi, 
meque  esse  inuenies  illorum,  iure  sacratum, 

Corneli,  et  factum  me  esse  puta  Harpocratem. 

1  tacite  Aid.  1515.    tacito  V. 


216  CATVLLX 

*  If  aught  has  been  confided  m  secrecy  by  a  trusty 
friend  whose  sincerity  of  soul  is  thoroughly  proved,  you 
will  find  me  to  belong  to  that  order,  consecrated  with 
full  right,  and  you  may  rest  assured  that  I  have  become 
the  god  of  silence  incarnate'.  1  tacite:  once  more  the 
never-ceasing  interchange  of  e  and  o ;  for  I  am  convinced 
that  this  old  correction  is  necessary,  and  I  am  surprised 
that  it  has  been  rejected  by  all  the  modem  editors. 
With  t(jx,ito  the  construction  is  intolerably  harsh,  as  may 
be  seen  by  looking  at  EUis'  forced  interpretations ;  who 
is  obliged  to  refer  both  Cuius  and  illorum  to  tacito.  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  this  acceptance  of  e  for  o 
both  here  and  in  so  many  other  passages  is  virtually  no 
departure  from  the  Mss.  at  all ;  thus  I  have  no  doubt 
we  should  read  studiose  in  116  1. 

3  illorum  has  now  a  plain  and  simple  meaning :  my 
trusty  friend  CorneHus  will  find  me  as  trusty  as  him- 
self, and  one  of  his  own  order,  regularly  initiated  in  the 
guild:  the  plural  has  reference  to  the  generic  notion 
contained  in  'fido  amico',  just  as  in  111  Aufilena,  uiro 
contentam  uiuere  solo  Nuptarumst  laus  e  laudibus  exi- 
miis:  see  my  note  on  10  12  quibus.  For  Meque — Et 
comp.  76  11  teqiLe — Et  and  my  note  there. 

I  will  here  refer  back  to  a  note  of  Ellis  on  99  6 
uestrae:  'not  =  tuae^  but  of  you  and  others  like  you, 
your  boyish  cruelty... t^es^er  is  never  =  tuus  in  Catullus'. 
\i  uestrae  is  not  for  tuae  here;  if  *  uestrae  saeuitiae'  is 
not  the  particular  rage  of  luuentius  alone  at  being 
kissed,  without  the  least  notion  of  any  other  boy  in  the 
world  having  any  share  in  this  rage,  then  it  seems  to 
me  any  tuus  in  the  language  might  be  made  out  to  be 
really  a  uester.  Again  in  39  20  'uester  dens'  is  surely 
the  tooth  of  Egnatius  alone  of  all  people  in  the  world. 
To  v.  2  of  this  99th  poem,  Plant,  true,  ii  4  19  (Phr.) 


CARM.  102,  107,  no  217 

Complectere.  (Di.)  Lubens.  heia,  hoc  est  melle  dulci 
dulcius:  would  be  even  a  closer  parallel  than  the  one 
cited  by  Ellis. 

107  1—6 

Si  quid  cui  cupidoque  optantique  obtigit  umquam 
insperanti,  hoc  est  gratum  animo  proprie. 

quare  hoc  est  gratum  nobis  quoque — carius  auro, 
quod  te  restituis,  Lesbia,  mi  cupido. 

restituis  cupido  atque  insperanti,  ipsa  refers  te 
nobis. 

1  quid  qaoi  Baehrens.  quid  quid  0,  qtiicqiiid  G.    cnpidoque  Itali.  capido  Y. 

By  a  better  punctuation  I  have  preserved  the  Ms. 
reading  in  3,  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  have  augment- 
ed the  emphasis:  'Wherefore  this  is  welcome  to  me — 
ay,  dearer  than  gold':  with  the  asyndeton  I  would 
compai'e  my  correction  of  110  7  est  furis — plus  quam 
meretricis  auarae.  The  various  alterations  which  critics 
have  made  seem  to  me  only  to  weaken  the  force  of  the 
expression,  nobis — mi  cupido — cupido — insperanti— 
nobis  :  comp.  my  notes  on  68  68  and  147. 

To  go  back  to  104  2  Ambobus  mihi  quae  carior  est 
oculis:  he  loves  dearly  this  comparison;  but  the  *  Am- 
bobus' adds  to  its  pathos;  as  Apul.  apol.  p.  402  Hoc 
mihi  uos  eritis  quod  duo  sunt  oculi.  'When  these  two 
things  were  desired,  the  Ambassador  told  us,  It  was  to 
ask  his  Master's  two  eyes,  to  ask  both  his  eyes,  asking 
these  things  of  him'  O.  CromweU  (Carlyle  ii  p.  422). 

110 

Aufilena,  bonae  semper  laudantur  amicae: 
accipiunt  pretium,  quae  facere  instituunt. 


218  CATVLLI 

tu,  promisisti  mihi  quod  mentita,  inimica  es: 
quod  nee  das  et  fers  saepe,  faeis  facinus, 
5  aut  faeere  ingenuae  est,  aut  non  promisse  pudicae, 
Aufilena,  fuit:   sed  data  compere 

fraudando  est  furis — plus  quam  meretricis  auarae, 
quae  sese  toto  corpore  prostituit. 

3  Tu,  promisisti  mihi  quod  scripsi.  Tu  quod  promisisti  mihi  quod  V.  Tu 
quod  promisti,  mihi  quod  uulgo.  4  et  fers  B.  Guarinus.  nee  fers  Y.  7  est  furis 
scripsi.  efficit  V. 

Tills  is  not  a  poem  which  one  would  care  to  study 
much  except  for  purposes  of  criticism.  But,  on  examin- 
ing it  for  such  purposes,  I  seemed  to  myself,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  to  see  some  points  in  it  which  had  escaped  the 
editors  and  commentators.  The  following  appears  to 
be  the  plain  and  indisputable  sequence  of  the  argument: 
'Aufilena,  honest  and  kind  mistresses  are  ever  praised: 
they  receive  the  recompense  of  what  they  agree  to  do. 
You,  in  having  made  to  me  feigned  engagements,  are 
unfriendly  and  unfair :  in  not  granting  your  favours  and 
yet  taking  money  for  them  again  and  again,  you  are 
guilty  of  a  crime.  On  the  one  hand  to  fulfil  engage- 
ments is  the  course  pursued  by  a  candid  woman ;  on  the 
other  hand  not  to  have  made  them  at  all  would  have 
been  that  of  a  modest  woman :  but  to  get  hold  of  what 
is  tendered  by  robbery  and  cheating  is  the  conduct  of  a 
thief, — yes,  worse  than  the  behaviour  of  a  grasping 
strumpet  who  yields  to  every  form  of  degradation'. 
This  seems  to  me  the  simple  exposition  of  a  simple 
thought;  which  every  edition,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  more 
or  less  obscures,  some  no  doubt  more  than  others.  The 
last  four  lines  are  a  comment  on  the  first  four :  the  first 
portion  of  these  last  lines  being  an  elucidation  of  the 
first  three  verses;  the  last  portion  explaining  v.  4.    Nor 


CABM.    110  219 

do  I  think  that  my  corrections  are  more  violent  than 
those  made  by  others :  but  of  these  I  will  speak  sepa- 
rately. 

2  fac.  instit. :  Cicero  pro  Gael.  49  si  quae  non  nupta 
mulier...uirorum  alienissimorum  conuiuiis  uti  institue- 
rit:  so  that  instituo  is  here  almost  synon.  with  statuo 
or  coiistituo.  3 :  my  correction  of  this  v.  by  the  omis- 
sion of  the  first  quod  is  as  simple  as  to  read  with  all 
editors  'quod  promisti';  for  it  is  natural  that  a  scribe 
should  insert  a  quod  in  its  more  natural  position  before 
the  verb;  so  76  23  me  ut.  me  ut  me  V:  and  my  read- 
ing I  think  is  necessary  for  the  syntax  of  the  sentence, 
as  I  cannot  believe  that  Catullus  would  say  'quod 
mentita'  for  *quod  mentita  es':  the  partic.  mentitus  is 
as  often  passive  as  active.  Ellis  I  think  is  right  in 
saying  that  inimica  is  the  opposite  of  bona  arnica;  but 
his  text  and  his  explanation  of  it  I  cannot  comprehend : 
he  will  not  even  accept,  what  every  other  modern 
editor  accepts,  etfers  for  necfers;  and  wUl  not  see  that 
4  is  a  rise  upon,  and  the  due  climax  to,  3.  Thus  he 
interprets:  'But  you,  in  making  me  a  promise,  in  dis- 
appointing me  as  only  a  false  mistress  can,  in  refusing 
either  to  give  or  take,  are  outraging  me  continually': 
da^  SLiidfers,  he  says,  are  correlative  'give  and  take',  as 
in  Most,  'feram  siquid  datur'.  This  is  to  me  all  a 
riddle.  If  there  is  anything  clear  in  this  poem,  it  is 
that  das  has  the  sense  which  it  so  often  has  in  Martial, 
of  a  woman  granting  her  favours;  and  that  fcrs  must 
have  the  meaning  of  receiving  money  for  granting  or 
promising  them ;  and  saepe  surely  goes  with  what  pre- 
cedes, not  with  what  follows;  and  even  so,  how  could 
the  words  mean  'you  are  continually  outraging  me'? 
To  me  'saepe'  has  force;  and  'facis  facinus'  is  more  em- 
phatic without  an  epithet  such  as  turpe:  comp.  Caes. 


220  CATVLLI 

B.  G.  VI  20  2  falsis  rumoribus  terreri  et  ad  facinus 
impelli;  Cic.  pro  Mil.  43  cruentis  manibus  scelus  et 
facinus  prae  se  ferens  et  confitens.  The  making  a 
promise  and  not  fulfilling  it  is  an  offensive  act;  but  to 
take  money  and  then  not  give  what  was  bargained  for 
is  an  enormity.     6  fuit:  see  Madvig  gramm.  348  anm. 

6 — 8  is  an  amplification  of  4.  7  est  cannot  be 
omitted :  some  place  it  at  the  end  of  the  verse ;  others 
where  I  have  put  it :  the  many  many  corrections  which 
have  been  made  of  this  verse  I  will  not  mention,  as 
there  seems  to  me  a  hitch  in  them  all:  Haupt  and 
Mueller  simply  leave  it  as  corrupt.  My  est  (e)  furis 
for  the  Ms.  efficit  is  simpler  than  it  looks :  twice  already, 
23  10  and  68  140,  the  Mss.  have  jTocto  for  furta,  and 
on  6  12  I  have  given  many  examples,  from  G  or  O  or 
both,  of  final  t  for  s.  Of  course  Catullus  can  call  the 
woman  a  *fur',  the  word  having  no  feminine,  just  as 
Plautus,  quoted  in  the  lexicons,  says  to  two  women 
*fures  estis  ambae'.  And  surely  the  epigram  -requires 
at  the  close  some  such  point  as  I  have  given  to  it :  else 
what  is  the  force  of  the  last  line  ?  The  poet  now  says : 
you  are  a  thief — ^you  are  worse  even  than  the  strumpet 
who  for  gain  submits  to  any  degradation :  she  does  not 
cheat  you,  she  'et  dat  et  fert',  gives  the  service  for 
which  she  took  your  money.  The  asyndeton  seems 
here  emphatic :  est  furis — [est,  inquam,J  plus  quam  cet. : 
comp.  107  3  Quare  hoc  est  gratum  nobis  quoque — carius 
auro.  For  the  force  of  plus  take  two  passages,  cited  by 
Hand:  Cic.  phil.  2  31  confiteor  eos,  nisi  Hberatores 
populi  Komani  conseruatoresque  rei  publicae  sint,  plus 
quam  sicarios,  plus  quam  homicidas,  plus  etiam  quam 
parricidas  esse;  Livy  x  28  4  primaque  eorum  proeUa 
plus  quam  uirorum,  postrema  minus  quam  feminarum 
esse,     Ellis  surely  wrestles  here  in  vain  :  what  resem- 


CARM.   110,   114,   115  221 

blance  either  in  the  arrangement  of  words  or  in  the 
force  of  the  epithet  between  for  example  *perfidia  plus 
quam  Punica'  and  'plus  quam  meretricis  auarae'?  I 
could  comprehend  for  instance  'meretrix  plus  quam 
quaestuaria*.     And  then  the  omission  of  est  ? 

114 

Firmano  saltu  non  falso  Mentula  diues 

fertur,  qui  tot  res  in  se  habet  egregias, 
aucupia  omne  genus,  piscis,  prata,  arua  ferasque. 
nequiquam:  fructus  sumptibus  exuperat. 
5  quare  concedo  sit  diues,  dum  omnia  desint: 
saltum  laudemus,  dum  modo  ipse  egeat. 

1  Firmano  saltu  Auantim.  Firmanus  saluis  V.  3  Aacupia  omne  genns, 
Statius.  Aucupia  G.  An  cupia  0.  Aucupium,  omne  genus  uulgo.  6  mo<10 
ablative, 

115 

Mentula  habet  instar  triginta  iugera  prati, 

quadraginta  arui:  cetera  sunt  nemoris. 
cur  non  diuitiis  Croesum  superare  potis  sit, 

uno  qui  in  saltu  tot  moda  possideat, 
5  prata,  arua,  ingentis  siluas  saltusque  paludesque 

usque  ad  Hyperboreos  et  mare  ad  Oceanum? 
omnia  magna  haec  sunt,  tamen  ipsest  maximus,  ut  re 

non  homo,  sed  uero  mentula  magna  minax. 

1  instar  corrupt :  perhaps  tonsi.  2  nemoris  scripsi.  maria  V.  4  moda.  bona 
Auantiui :  perhaps  Tot  qui  in  saltu  uno  commoda  possideat.  7  maximus,  ut 
re  scripsi.     maximus  ultor  V.    ultro  uulgo. 

These  two  strange  poems  were  perhaps  left  by  the 
poet  in  an  unfinished  state.  T  have  printed  them 
both  together,  because  the  one  throws  much  hght  on 
the  other,  the  point  of  both  being  the  same.     If  the 


222  CATVLLI 

various  editions  and  commentaries  be  examined,  it  will 
be  seen  how  widely  scholars  differ  in  opinion  about  the 
text  and  the  meaning.  Much  has  hitherto  been  left 
unexplained  :  whether  my  comment^s  will  throw  any 
new  light  upon  them,  let  others  decide. 

Mentula,  it  is  agreed  on  all  hands,  is  Caesar's  friend 
Mamurra  of  whom  so  much  has  been  said  above.  This 
offensive  name  must  have  been  fixed  upon  him  by  the 
'ista  nostra  diffututa  mentula'  of  29  13,  where  the 
word  is  already  half  a  proper  name.  This  and  the 
*  mentula  magna  minax'  of  115  8  make  it  doubtful  to 
me  whether  Catullus  would  in  our  present  poems  have 
joined  the  word  to  an  epithet  that  declared  itself  to  be 
masculine  :  diues  has  the  requisite  ambiguity.  For 
this  and  other  reasons  I  avoid  in  v.  1  Firmanus,  and 
at  the  beginning  of  115  I  do  not  accept  noster. 

Firmum  was  a  town  of  Picenum,  far  away  from 
Formiae  the  *  urbs  Mamurrarum '.  We  might  fairly 
then  infer  I  think  that  Mamurra  got  his  'Firmanus 
saltus'  by  the  favour  of  Caesar.  "We  find  in  the  Gro- 
matici  uet.  (Hb.  col.  i  p.  226  Lach.)  this  statement:  Ager 
Firmo  Piceno  limitibus  triumuiralibus  in  centuriis  est 
per  iugera  ducena  adsignatus.  If  the  triumvirs  made 
this  assignation,  it  is  likely  enough  that  Caesar  may 
have  intended  to  do  something  of  the  same  kind ;  and 
he  may  well  have  bestowed  by  special  grace  on  the 
favoured  Mamurra  an  *ager  uiritanus';  for  the  meaning 
of  which  see  Marquardt  up.  148.  Yarro,  cited  in  the 
lexicons,  tells  us  that  'saltus'  was  the  technical  name 
for  an  assignation  of  land  of  800  iugera.  Ellis  only 
quotes  the  passage  to  say  that  this  is  not  the  sense 
which  it  bears  here.  I  believe  that  it  has  some  such 
meaning ;  else  the  two  poems  become  even  more  ob- 
scure than  they  are  at  present,  and  the  saltusque  of 


CARM.   114,   115  223 

115  5  looks  like  nonsense.  Mamurra's"  extravagant 
habits  and  the  words  of  Catullus  make  it  probable  that 
this  saltus  was  used  for  sport  rather  than  for  profit ; 
and  I  can  see  no  point  in  the  hyperbole  of  the  2nd 
poem,  unless  we  assume  that  Mamurra  had  got  in  ad- 
dition to  his  saltus  of  800  iugera  or  so  a  large  tract  of 
uncultivated  hill-  and  forest-land,  on  which  no  'uectiga- 
lia'  could  be  raised  and  which  would  therefore  be  of  little 
or  no  value  to  the  state  or  to  a  private  cultivator. 
Cicero's  bitter  taunt,  ad  Att.  vii  7  6  Et  Labieni  diui- 
tiae  et  Mamurrae  placent :  might  suggest  that  this 
saltus  too  came  from  Caesar.  I  will  now  shew  what 
my  conception  is  of  the  whole  :  the  one  poem  illustrates 
the  other : 

114  :  'Mentula  with  truth  is  accounted  rich  in  his 
Firman  saltus,  which  contains  so  many  choice  things, 
winged  game  of  every  sort,  fish  of  every  kind,  meadow- 
land,  ploughland  and  wild  animals.  All  in  vain :  he 
exceeds  his  profits  by  his  expenses.  Therefore  I  am 
ready  to  grant  he  is  rich,  if  only  at  the  same  time  all 
things  are  wanting  :  I  am  willing  we  should  praise  his 
saltus  (and  its  proportion),  if  at  the  same  time  he  him- 
self lack  all  due  measure  and  proportion'.  115:  '  Men- 
tula  has  thirty  iugera  of  meadow,  forty  of  arable  land  : 
aU  the  rest  consists  in  forest.  Why  should  he  not 
exceed  Croesus  in  riches,  since  in  a  single  saltus  he 
possesses  so  many  commodities,  meadow,  ploughland, 
vast  forests  and  lawns  and  pools  reaching  to  the  Hy- 
perboreans and  the  Ocean  ?  All  these  are  great ;  yet 
he  himself  is  greatest  of  all,  being  as  he  is  in  fact  no 
man,  but — '. 

114  3  (and  115  5)  :  here  we  have,  besides  arua  and 
prata,  the  '  aucupium  piscatus  uenatio '  mentioned  by 
Cicero  and  Celsus,  quoted  by  Ellis :  the  ferae  would 


224  CATVLLI 

be  chiefly  *  boars '  and  *  deer ',  Virgil's  *  pingiiis  ferina '. 
But  the  prata  and  arua  mentioned  in  both  poems,  more 
particularly  in  the  2nd,  seem  to  shew  he  cannot  be 
using  saltus  in  the  non-technical  sense  of  the  word : 
comp.  Gallus  Aelius  ap.  Fest.  p.  302  saltus  est,  ubi 
siluae  et  pastiones  sunt,  quorum  causa  casae  quoque : 
siqua  particula  in  eo  saltu  pastorum  aut  custodum 
causa  aratur,  ea  res  non  peremit  nomen  saltus.  But 
here  '  eae  res '  make  up  a  most  essential  portion  of  the 
saltus.  Comp.  with  both  poems  the  Digest,  quoted  by 
Marquardt  1. 1. :  forma  censuali  cauetur  ut  agri  sic  in 
censum  referantur :  nomen  fundi  cuiusque  :  et  in  qua 
ciidtate  et  in  quo  pago  sit:...et  aruum,  quod  in  decem 
annos  proximos  sectum  erit,  quot  iugerum  sit :...pratum, 
quod  intra  decem  annos  proximos  sectum  erit,  qiwt  ivr- 
gerum :  pascua,  quot  iugerum  esse  uideantur :  item 
siluae  caeduae... locus  qnoque  piscatonos  cet. :  Hyginus 
too  (Gromat.  p.  205  Lach.)  speaks  of  '  arui  primi,  arui 
secundi,  prati,  siluae  glandiferae,  siluae  uulgaris  pas- 
cuae\  The  poet  refers  with  a  kind  of  pedantry  to 
the  things  printed  in  Italics,  as  if  he  were  speaking  of 
some  formal  estate.  In  the  *  siluae  glandiferae'  boars 
would  be  fed,  in  those  'uulgaris  pascuae'  deer  and 
other  animals. 

114  3  *omne  genus',  indeclinable  as  so  often  in  Lu- 
cretius, refers  I  think  to  both  *Aucupia'  and  'piscis'. 

5  and  6  must  be  compared  with  7  and  8  of  115:  dum 
has  the  limiting  force  so  common  in  Latin :  oderint, 
dum  metuant :  you  may  call  him  rich  in  name,  if  you 
allow  that  his  extravagance  leaves  him  without  a  penny. 

6  modo,  the  adverb,  would  suit  neither  sense  nor  metre: 
I  take  the  point  of  the  verse  to  lie  in  the  double  sense 
of  modus  :  the  Gromatici,  or  agri  mensores,  often  speak 
of  the  modus  or  measure  of  land  which    differed    in 


CARM.  114,  115  225 

different  places  ;  and  Varro  de  R.  R.  i  1 1  observes :  in 
modo  fundi  non  animaduerso  lapsi  sunt  multi,  quod 
alii  uillam  minus  magnam  fecerunt  quam  modus  pos- 
tulauit,  alii  maiorem,  cum  utrumque  sit  contra  rem 
familiarem  ac  fructum.  maiora  enim  tecta  et  aedifica- 
mus  pluris  et  tuemur  sumptu  maiore,  and  so  on.  Well, 
Mamurra's  saltus  has  a  fine  enough  modus :  it  is  he  him- 
self lacks  a  due  modus,  i.e.  a  modus  in  the  metaph.  sense 
of  'ratio*,  *moderatio':  Cic.  pro  Marc.  1  tantum  in 
summa  potestate  rerum  omnium  modum,  tam  denique 
incredibilem  sapientiam  ac  paene  diuinam  tacitus  prae- 
terire  nuUo  modo  possum;  pro  Cluent.  191  quibus 
finem  aliquando  non  mulieris  modus,  sed  amicorum  auc- 
toritas  fecit;  de  fin.  ii  27  ergo  et  auarus  erit,  sed  finite, 
et  adulter,  uerimi  habebit  modum-,  Hor.  sat.  ii  3  265  o 
ere,  quae  res  Nee  modum  habet  neque  consilium  ration  e 
woc?oque  Tractari  non  uult:  Cicero  and  Horace  almost 
play  on  the  word,  as  Catullus  does.  This  line  then  ex- 
presses much  what  115  8  does :  Mamurra  has  no  modus, 
no  standard  of  moderation ;  he  is  in  fact  not  a  human 
being,  but,  as  his  name  implies,  a  big  menacing  'men- 
tula',  modo  I  think  may  be  shortened  without  elision 
in  Catullus  like  *uale  ualS  inquit'  and  other  hke  cases: 
in  10  27  *man6  inquio'  is  not  improbably  right;  but 
modd  unelided  must  not  be  fathered  on  Catullus. 

115  1  habet  instar:  is  this  metre  possible  in  Catullus? 
again  I  do  not  comprehend  the  syntax  of  the  sentence : 
in  the  passage  of  Yelleius,  quoted  by  Ellis,  instar  is 
followed  by  a  genitive,  and  of  course  scores  of  like  ex- 
amples might  be  given:  but  'instar  iugera*?  iuxta  may 
be  right;  tonsi,  as  a  <  precedes  and  a  tri  follows,  is  not 
a  violent  diplomatic  alteration:  the  'pratum  quod... 
sectum  erit',  i.  e.  the  best  meadow-land,  cut  by  the 
scythe,  suggested  the  word  to  me.       2  sunt  nemoris :  if 

M.  c.  15 


226  CATVLLI    115 

the  ne  were  absorbed  in  swit  (comp.  G8  56  Cessare  ne 
for  Cessarent),  the  moms  might  easily  pass  into  maria : 
w/xria  I  believe  to  be  quite  untenable ;  nor  can  I  grasp 
Ellis'  elucidations.  Pliny's  *septem  maria'  refer  to  the 
sea-like  mouths  of  the  Po ;  and  Catullus  is  now  speaking 
of  an  upland  country.  The  'cetera'  must  contain  siluae 
and  saltus  and  all  kinds  of  game,  birds  and  beasts,  as 
well  as  pascua  :  now  the  *sunt  nemoris'  will  include  all 
this :  comp.  the  *uariae  uolucres  nemora  auia  peruoli- 
tantes'  the  *ad  satiatem  terra  ferarum  Nunc  etiam 
scatit  et  trepido  terrore  repleta  est  Per  nemora  ac 
montes  magnos  siluasque  profundas '  of  Lucretius  ;  the 
famous  'Nemus  Dianae'  of  Aricia;  the  '  Te  nemus  Angi- 
tiae,  uitrea  te  Fucinus  unda,  Te  liquidi  fleuere  lacus'. 

4  'totmoda'  is  generally  declared  to  be  barbarous: 
Auantius'  *  tot  bona '  may  be  right ;  yet  as  com  is 
often  expressed  by  a  short  symbol,  'commoda'  might 
easily  become  'moda',  and  occasion  *tot'  and  *uno'  to 
change  places :  Tot  qui  in  saltu  uno  commoda  possideat, 
gives  a  good  sense  and  a  good  verse.  5 :  The  poet  may 
perhaps  have  meant  'salfcusque'  to  have  some  point,  as 
one  only  of  the  things  contained  'uno  in  saltu';  the 
'cetera  sunt  nemoris'  comprising  the  'ingentis  siluas 
saltusque  paludesque',  which  contain  the  birds,  beasts 
and  fish  respectively.  But  the  precise  point  of  the 
huge  hyperbole  in  the  6th  verse  I  cannot  say  I  catch. 
7 :  I  do  not  see  the  meaning  of  ultro  which  so  many 
editions  have  at  the  end  of  this  verse.  Ellis  says  Yarro 
joins  ultro  with  ipse.  But  it  by  no  means  follows  that, 
where  ipse  is  in  place,  uUqv  should  also  be  so.  Again  I 
think  maximus  should  stand  alone  and  not  be  joined 
with  homo ;  for  he  is  maximus  just  because  he  is  not 
homo.  When  we  reflect  how  very  very  often  o  and  e  are 
interchanged  in  our  Mss.,  my  ut  re  will  not  seem  a  violent 


CATVLLVS  AND  HORACE  227 

correction,  and  offers,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  a  most  ap- 
propriate meaning.  And  indeed  the  sed  uero  of  8,  for 
which  Ellis  most  aptly  cites  Lucr.  iv  986  No7i  homines 
solum,  sed  uero  animalia  cuncta,  requires  I  think  some- 
thing like  re  to  precede  it.  The  first  line  of  the  next 
and  last  poem  seems  to  furnish  another  example  of  this 
confusion  of  o  and  e :  Saepe  tibi  studiose  [B.  Guarinus : 
studioso  V]  animo  uenante  requirens  Carmina  uti  pos- 
sem  mittere  Battiadae :  for  by  this  change  alone  does 
the  sentence  gain  proper  symmetry.  Martial  in  i  100 
seems  to  imitate  115  6  and  8:  Mammas  atque  tatas 
habet  Afra,  sed  ipsa  tatarum  Dici  et  mammarum  maxima 
mamma  potest.  This  qualifying  use  o^  ut,  'seeing  that 
he  is',  is  common  enough:  Cic.  epist.  xv  3  2  mihi,  ut  in 
eiusmodi  re  tantoque  bello,  maximae  curae  est  ut  quae 
cet.  With  the  last  v.  comp.  Marius  Plotius  p.  462  1 
Keil :  non  est  homo  sed  ropio  (?). 


CATVLLVS  AND  HORACE 

Ten  years  ago  my  much-honoured  friend  the  late 
Professor  Conington  pubHshed  a  lecture  on  'the  style 
of  Lucretius  and  Catullus  as  compared  with  that  of  the 
Augustan  poets',  since  reprinted  among  his  miscellane- 
ous writings.  This  lecture,  composed  throughout  in 
the  kind  and  courteous  language  which  his  candid  and 
generous  temper  imperiously  dictated  to  him,  is  a  criti- 
cism of  certain  remarks  of  mine  which  occupy  less  than 
a  page  in  the  second  edition  of  my  Lucretius.  My 
remarks  on  Catullus  and  Horace  are  contained  in  about 
a  dozen  lines:  his  criticism  of  these  lines  extends  over 
five  or  six  pages.     Obviously  a  dozen  lines  admitted  of 

15—2 


228  CATVLLVS 

no  more  than  a  most  hurried  and  allusive  reference  to 
the  points  in  dispute,  my  main  topic  being  of  course 
Lucretius.  I  thought  then,  and  still  think,  that  the 
critic  of  my  criticism  had  sought  to  join  issue  on  far  too 
limited  a  subject-matter.  I  was  waiting  for  a  suitable 
opportunity  to  tell  him  so ;  when  his  lamented  death 
within  two  years  of  the  publication  of  his  lecture  stop- 
ped for  a  season  even  the  desire  to  speak  out;  until  the 
time  for  speaking  at  all  seemed  to  have  passed  away 
for  ever.  The  subject  had  thus  dropped  altogether  out 
of  my  thoughts,  when  the  present  occasion  induced  me 
to  take  it  up  once  more.  To  prevent  the  controversy 
running  uselessly  off  into  the  a-rreipov,  I  will  endeavour 
as  much  as  possible  to  confine  myself  to  the  points 
which  he  has  raised;  but  in  justice  to  myself  and  to 
Catullus  I  must  be  allowed  here  and  there  a  greater 
freedom  of  range. 

I  will  begin  by  quoting  in  full  the  few  sentences  of 
mine  to  which  I  refer,  as  they  are  not  to  be  found  in 
the  last  edition  of  my  Lucretius:  Tor  Lucretius'  sake 
I  am  not  sorry  to  find  Catullus  put  by  his  side  and  de- 
clared to  be  as  much  below  Horace  as  Lucretius  is  below 
Virgil.  Though  Catullus'  heroic  poem  was  I  believe 
one  of  his  latest,  I  do  not  look  on  it  or  his  elegiacs  as 
the  happiest  specimens  of  his  genius;  but  his  lyrics 
to  my  taste  are  perfect  gems,  unequalled  in  Latin,  un- 
surpassed in  Greek  poetry.  Horace,  when  he  wrote 
his  epodes  and  earlier  odes,  was  probably  older  than 
Catullus  was  when  he  died.  Yet  in  the  metres  com- 
mon to  them  both,  in  the  iambic  for  instance  and  the 
glyconic,  who  will  say  that  the  former  with  all  his 
labour  and  care  has  obtained  the  same  mastery  over 
them  which  Catullus  displays,  who  would  seem  to  have 
thrown  them  off  at  once  without  effort  according  as  the 


AND  HORACE  229 

odi  or  the  amo  constrained  him  at  the  moment  to  write? 
His  language  is  as  undefiled  a  well  of  Latin  as  that  of 
Plautus,  and  is  withal  the  very  quintessence  of  poetry'. 
Though  I  do  not  repudiate  one  single  syllable  of  what 
I  have  said  here,  I  should  not  have  wished  that  these 
few  allusive  sentences  should  have  been  made  the  whole 
battle-ground  in  a  comparison  between  the  merits  of 
Catullus  and  Horace.  Not  only  has  Conington  done 
this,  taking  up  as  he  had  a  right  to  do  his  own  position 
and  point  of  observation;  but  he  has  still  further  nar- 
rowed the  ground  by  assuming  that  I  wished  to  exclude 
virtually  from  the  comparison  things  which  I  look  upon 
as  quite  essential  to  its  completeness :  much  of  Catullus' 
highest  poetry  is  contained  in  his  hexameters  and  ele- 
giacs; tho'  from  the  nature  of  the  case  the  full  perfec- 
tion of  form  and  substance  is  seen  only  in  what  are 
generally  termed  his  lyrics.  Again  when  I  mentioned 
*the  iambic  for  instance  and  the  gly conic',  I  meant  to 
pit  Catullus'  three  glyconic  poems,  one  of  which  is  more 
than  200  Hnes  in  length,  against  all  the  glyconics  and 
asclepiads  of  every  kind  whatever  in  Horace ;  and  the 
scazons  and  pure  iambics  of  the  former  against  all  the 
latter's  epodes  and  some  of  his  odes  as  well.  Nay  fur- 
ther, developing  my  'for  instance',  I  sought  to  compare 
Catullus'  hendecasyllables,  scazons,  glyconics  and  sap- 
phics  with  the  whole  of  Horace's  lyrical  productions, 
and  to  maintain  their  immense  superiority, — immense 
I  mean  of  course  according  to  my  taste  and  judgment. 
But  Conington  has  still  further  restricted  the  main 
controversy  to  an  elaborate  comparison  between  a  stanza 
or  so  of  Catullus'  translation  of  Sappho  and  a  couple 
of  lines  in  a  sapphic  stanza  of  Horace.  On  this  ground 
too  I  will  essay  to  meet  him ;  but  I  must  first  be  allowed 
to  take  a  somewhat  wider  and  ampler  view  of  the  case. 


230  CATVLLVS 

Another  fundamental  point  of  difference  between 
Conington  and  me  is  this :  he  reasons  on  the  assumption 
that  in  every  kind  of  poetry  alike  form  and  language 
attained  their  highest  perfection  in  the  Augustan  age  ; 
that  all  which  preceded  that  age  was  immature  and 
imperfect,  all  that  followed  it  overripened  or  rotten.  I 
cannot  express  too  strongly  how  widely  I  dissent  from 
him  in  this.  None  can  admire  more  ardently  than  I 
fancy  that  I  do  what  is  great  in  the  Augustan  age,  the 
consummate  perfection  for  example  of  Virgil's  language 
and  rhythm.  Nay,  I  believe  I  go  farther  than  Coning- 
ton himself  went,  in  thinking  that  Livy's  style  is  on  the 
whole  perhaps  the  greatest  prose  style  that  has  ever 
been  written  in  any  age  or  language.  At  the  same 
time  I  do  not  hesitate  to  express  my  firm  belief  that 
Terence,  who  died  at  the  age  of  26  it  would  seem,  nearly 
a  century  before  Virgil  was  bom,  has  attained  to  an 
excellence  of  style  and  rhythm  in  his  verse  which  has 
never  been  surpassed  in  Latin  or  perhaps  in  any  other 
language,  and  that  it  would  be  the  very  extreme  of 
bigotry  and  injustice  to  maintain  that  Horace's  iambics 
can  abide  a  moment's  comparison  with  those  of  Terence. 
Look  on  the  other  hand  at  what  Martial  did,  notwith- 
standing the  manifold  disadvantages  of  his  position.  If 
we  take  the  epigram  in  the  Latin  and  modem  sense  of 
the  term,  do  all  the  epigram-mongers  of  the  whole 
world  put  together  display  a  tithe  of  his  exuberant 
wit  and  humour,  his  fancy,  his  perfection  of  form  and 
style?  It  is  only  natural  that  Latin  should  observe 
in  these  respects  the  law  which  prevails  in  all  culti- 
vated languages.  One  might  very  well  hold  the  opi- 
nion that  the  rhymed  verse  of  Dryden  or  of  Pope  was 
superior  to  that  of  half  a  century  or  a  century  before 
them,  without  being  bound  to  maintain  that  the  dull 


AUTD  HORACE  231 

and  colourless  blank  verse  of  Thomson  or  Young  was 
superior  or  even  equal  to  that  of  Shakespeare  or  Mar- 
lowe.    Tho'  I  have  said  what  I  have  said  of  Livy,  I  do 
not  shut  my  eyes  to  the  equal  perfection  of  Caesar's 
prose,  or  of  Cicero's  many  styles  as  exhibited  in  his  ora- 
tions, treatises,  and  above  all  in  his  letters  to  Atticus, 
the  very  counterpart  in  style  of  Catullus'  more  familiar 
manner.     In  times  of  transition,  when  a  mighty  move- 
ment is  going  on  in  any  literature,  and  great  poets  are 
pushing  on  their  art  in  different  directions  and  forging 
the  instruments  suited  for  the  various  forms  of  that  art, 
it  will  always  happen  that  inventive  minds  will  advance 
farther  in  some  kinds  than  in  other.     Catullus  then  I 
say  has  reached  perfection  in  his  lyrics ;  from  the  force 
of  circumstances  he  has  fallen  short  of  it  in  his  hexame- 
ters and  elegiacs,  tho'  in  some  of  the  latter,  such  as  the 
76th  poem  and  portions  of  the  second  part  of  the  68  th, 
he  has  sounded  depths  and  reached  heights  of  inspira- 
tion, which  Propertius  himself  has  failed  to  attain. 

Horace  I  believe  to  have  been  a  thoroughly  modest 
man,  and  to  have  meant  what  he  said,  when  he  de- 
scribes himself  as  laboriously  gathering  honey  like  the 
Matinian  bee ;  declining  that  is  to  set  himself  up  as  a 
rival  of  the  Greek  masters,  while  he  is  piecing  together 
his  elaborate  and  more  or  less  successful  mosaics.  To 
match  the  perennial  charm  of  the  Catullian  lyric  we 
must  abandon  the  soil  of  Latium  and  betake  ourselves 
to  Alcaeus  or  Sappho,  ay  and  join  with  him  or  her  the 
Muse  of  Archilochus  as  well ;  or  else  jump  over  the 
ages  and  come  at  once  to  Burns  and  Goethe.  With 
Catullus  there  is  no  putting  together  of  pieces  of  mo- 
saic: with  him  the  completed  thought  follows  at  once 
upon  the  emotion,  and  the  consmnmate  form  and  ex- 
pression rush  to  embody  this  thought  for  ever.     In 


232  CATVLLVS 

observing  that  *  Horace,  when  he  wrote  his  epodes  and 
earlier  odes,  was  probably  older  than  Catullus  was  when 
he  died',  I  did  not  wish  to  grudge  Horace  his  longer 
and  matured  life :  I  meant  to  say  that  his  colder  genius 
ripened  slowly,  while  inspired  and  impassioned  natures, 
like  Catullus,  seem  to  leap  at  once  to  perfection  in  con- 
ception and  expression  alike.  How  much  of  all  that  is 
best  in  the  lyrics  of  Goethe  was  thought  and  written 
before  he  was  thirty,  even  if  it  did  not  appear  in  its 
final  shape  until  a  much  later  period  of  his  hfe;  and 
Shakespeare's  lyrical  genius  can  never  have  been  greater 
than  at  the  time  when  he  conceived  his  Bomeo  and 
Juliet. 

I  could  confirm  my  estimate  of  Catullus  by  the  tes- 
timony both  of  ancient  and  modern  times.  That  owing 
to  temporary  and  social  causes  Horace  had  a  certain 
jealousy  of  Catullus,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  tho'  he  is 
at  the  same  time  his  frequent  imitator.  Virgil  had 
studied  him  much,  as  is  shewn  alike  in  his  very  earliest 
poems  and  in  his  Aeneid ;  while  Ovid,  the  most  candid 
and  unenvious  of  men,  set  no  bounds  to  his  admiration. 
That  in  the  age  which  followed  the  Augustan  Horace 
*  had  the  cry',  we  might  perhaps  infer  from  the  constant 
imitation  of  his  language  which  we  meet  with  in  the 
Senecan  tragedies ;  perhaps  too  from  what  Quintilian 
says,  tho'  when  he  is  speaking  of  Horace,  he  is  not 
thinking  of  Catullus  as  a  lyric  poet  at  all.  With  Mar- 
tial on  the  other  hand,  who  belonged  almost  to  the  last 
age  in  which  Boman  literary  judgment  was  of  much 
value,  Catullus  was  supreme.  Martial,  obeying  the 
irreversible  verdict  of  his  countrymen,  freely  acknow- 
ledged Yirgil  as  sovereign  of  Latin  poetry ;  yet  he 
seems  to  worship  him  at  a  distance,  and  his  first  and 
second  loves,  his  Delia  and  his  Nemesis,  are  Catullus 


AND  HORACE  233 

and  Ovid:  Tantum  magna  suo  gaudet  Verona  Catullo, 
Quantum  parua  suo  Mantua  Vergilio.  And  yet  there 
must  have  been  much  in  Catullus'  somewhat  archaic 
rhythms  and  prosody  to  displease  Martial  with  his  mo- 
dem tastes,  so  antipathetical  to  all  that  was  obsolete. 
From  more  recent  times  one  might  select  a  myriad  of 
witnesses  for  Catullus :  I  will  content  myself  with  a 
very  few.  Fdnelon  is  not  one  whom  we  should  expect 
to  find  among  the  chief  admirers  of  our  poet ;  and  yet 
he  can  speak  of  him  in  the  following  terms,  selecting  in 
support  of  them  a  poem  of  two  lines  which  a  common 
observer  might  easily  pass  over  :  Catulle,  qu'on  ne  pent 
nommer  sans  avoir  horreur  de  ses  obscdnitds,  est  au 
comble  de  la  perfection  pour  une  simpUcitd  passionnde : 

Odi  et  amo.  quare  id  feiciam  fortasse  requiris  : 
nescio,  sed  fieri  sentio  et  excrucior. 

Combien  Ovide  et  Martial,  avec  leurs  traits  ingdnieux 
et  fagonnds,  sont  ils  au  dessoux  de  ces  paroles  ndgligdes, 
oh.  le  coeur  saisi.  parle  seule  dans  une  espece  de  ddses- 
poir.  Coleridge  near  the  beginning  of  his  Biographia 
tells  us  of  the  inestimable  advantage  which  he  owed 
to  his  old  master  who  habituated  him  to  compare 
Lucretius,  Terence,  and  above  all  the  chaster  poems  of 
Catullus,  not  only  with  the  Boman  poets  of  the  silver 
and  brazen  ages,  but  with  even  those  of  the  Augustan 
era,  and  on  grounds  of  plain  sense  and  universal  logic 
to  see  and  assert  the  superiority  of  the  former  in  the 
truth  and  nativeness  both  of  their  thoughts  and  diction. 
There  are  few  who  have  loved  the  great  Greek  and 
Boman  writers  more  than  Macaulay :  it  is  thus  he 
speaks  of  Catullus  (Life  ii  p.  448):  'I  have  pretty 
nearly  learned  all  that  I  like  best  in  Catullus.  He 
grows  on  me  with  intimacy.    One  thing  he  has — I  do 


234  CATVLLVS 

not  know  whether  it  belongs  to  him  or  to  something  in 
myself — but  there  are  some  chords  of  my  mind  which 
he  touches  as  nobody  else  does.  The  first  lines  of  Miser 
CatuUe;  the  lines  to  Cornificius,  written  evidently  from 
a  sick  bed ;  and  part  of  the  poem  beginning  '  Si  qua 
recordanti'  affect  me  more  than  I  can  explain  ;  they 
always  move  me  to  tears'.  And  again  (i  p.  468)  : 
'Finished  Catullus  August  3,  1835.  An  admirable 
poet.  No  Latin  writer  is  so  Greek.  The  simplicity, 
the  pathos,  the  perfect  grace,  which  I  find  in  the  great 
Athenian  models,  are  all  in  Catullus,  and  in  him  alone 
of  the  Romans'.  It  would  have  been  better  to  put 
'  Greek'  in  the  place  of  '  Athenian'.  I  have  cited  above 
some  words  of  an  eloquent  writer  in  the  North  British 
Review;  here  are  a  few  more:  '  Of  what  he  has  written, 
almost  everything  that  is  valuable  appeals  to  feelings 
that  survive  all  changes  of  times  and  circumstances 
and  are  common  to  civilised  men' ;  they  *  are  as  intelli- 
gible and  moving  now,  as  they  were  to  the  Romans 
who  heard  them  first'  :  'some  of  these  poems  have 
been  so  often  imitated  that  we  are  a  little  apt  to  forget 
in  reading  them,  how  much  freshness  and  originality 
and  force  of  thought  they  really  display':  'no  love 
poems  yet  written  are  more  exquisite' : — none  so  exqui- 
site to  my  mind. 

But  I  am  running  off  into  that  aireipov  which  I 
sought  to  eschew.  Conington  begins  by  criticising  the 
epithalamium  of  ManUus  Torquatus  and  Yinia  Aurun- 
culeia.  'The  fault  of  Catullus'  says  Conington,  'as  I 
conceive  it,  like  that  of  Lucretius,  is  a  certain  redun- 
dancy, now  tending  to  luxurious  ornamentation  now  to 
rustic  simplicity ;  but  in  a  poem  like  the  epithalamium 
these  qualities  happen  to  be  exactly  in  place.  It  is 
written  throughout  in  a  style  of  which  the  diminutives 


AND  HORACE  235 

which  abound  in  it  (a  characteristic  feature  these  of 
Catullus'  diction)  are  a  type  and  sample :  there  is  a 
vein  of  v7roKopL(rfji6<s,  as  the  Greeks  called  it,  running 
through  the  piece,  a  petting,  affectionate  tone,  which  as 
little  hears  to  be  criticised  by  ordinary  rules  as  the 
*'  Little  Language"  of  Swift's  letters  to  Stella'.  It  is 
only  the  halo  thrown  over  this  'Little  language'  by  the 
love  of  the  man  now  in  years  for  the  blooming  woman 
evoking  the  remembrance  of  the  love  of  that  man  in 
his  youth  for  the  half-articulate  prattle  of  that  woman 
in  her  infancy,  which  saves  this  *  Language*  from  being 
denounced  as  pure  idiocy.  The  epithalamium  of  Ca- 
tullus contains  some  of  the  best  and  sweetest  poetry 
which  this  world  has  produced,  clothed  in  language 
of  unfading  charm  ^.  So  at  least  I  think :  and  yet 
Conington  can  find  nothing  better,  to  extenuate  the 
'  fault'  of  Catullus  who  is  as  fresh  and  modern  to  us  as 
he  was  to  Calvus  and  Cinna,  than  the  obsolete  cranks 
and  whimsies  of  the  poetaster  Herrick.  I  hold  it  to  be 
one  of  the  most  grievous  defects  of  the  literary  diction 
established  in  the  Augustan  age,  that  it  almost  banished 
from  the  language  of  poetry  those  diminutives  which 
are  a  characteristic,  not  only  of  Catullus'  diction,  but  of 
the  letters  to  Atticus,  and  of  the  verse  of  Plautus  and 
Terence :  it  made  the  lyric  of  the  heart  impossible. 
The  same  has  happened  in  the  Enghsh  of  Hterature; 
and  the  true  lyric  seems  to  have  vanished  from  English 

^  Torquatus  uolo  paruulus  Matris  e  gremio  suae  Porrigens  tenoras  manua 
I)ulce  rideat  ad  patrem  Semhiante  labello:  this,  and  much  else  like  it,  then  as 
little  bears  to  be  criticised  as :  And  so  Dood  moUah,  Little  sollah,  and  that  is 
for  the  rhyme  :  or,  I  assure  oo  it  im  vely  rate  now :  but  zis  goes  tomorrow,  and 
I  must  have  time  to  converse  with  own  deerichar  MD.  Nite  dee  deer  soUahs ! : 
or,  O  Kold,  dlunken  srut,  drink  Pdfr's  health  ten  times  in  a  morning!  You  are 
a  whetter.  Faith,  I  sup  MD's  fifteen  times  evly  molning  in  milk  porridge. 
Lelc'B  fol  oo  now,  and  lele's  fol  u  lUttle,  and  evly  kind  of  sing. 


236  CATVLLVS 

too  since  the  seventeenth  century.  Some  indeed  would 
persuade  us  that  the  metallic  resonance  of  that  drink- 
ing-song, tho'  *  Twas  at  the  royal  feast  for  Persia  won', 
the  '  Happy,  happy,  happy  pair  !  None  but  the  brave, 
None  but  the  brave,  None  but  the  brave  deserves  the 
fair'  has  the  genuine  ring  of  the  lyric,  and  is  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  those  divine  stanzas  which  make  immortal 
the  three  peasants  who  get  drunk  over  their  ale :  *  O 
Willie  brewed  a  peck  o'  maut' ;  or  to  that  other  lyric  no 
less  divine  which  sheds  an  undying  lustre  over  that 
fuddled  old  barbarian  the  King  of  Thule.  These  two 
songs  have  much  of  the  '  petting  affectionate  tone', 
which  'Philip's  warlike  son'  disdains  to  bestow  on 
*  lovely  Thais'  by  his  side. 

Conington  in  his  plea  for  Horace  versus  Catullus 
selects,  as  he  has  a  right  to  do,  for  the  matter  of  his 
main  argument,  one  of  the  only  two  Sapphic  odes  which 
appear  among  the  poems  of  Catullus:  this  poem  he 
quotes  in  full  and  dissects.  I  will  state  by  and  bye 
why  this  appears  to  me  to  bear  hard  upon  the  older 
poet,  and  I  will  then  enter  into  the  minutiae  of  his 
criticism.  Meanwhile,  keeping  strictly  to  those  pas- 
sages in  which  Horace  is  imitating  or  thinking  of  Catul- 
lus, I  will,  to  put  the  controversy  on  what  is  I  think  a 
fairer  ground,  cite  at  length,  well  known  as  it  is,  the 
whole  of  that  ode,  two  lines  of  which  Conington  brings 
forward  to  demonstrate  their  superiority  over  the  words 
of  the  elder  poet : 

Integer  uitae  scelerisque  purus 
non  eget  Mauris  iaculis  neque  arcu 
nee  uenenatis  grauida  sagittis. 
Fusee,  pharetra. 


AND  HORACE  237 

slue  per  Syrtes  iter  aestuosas 
siue  facturus  per  inhospitalem 
Caucasiim  uel  quae  loca  fabulosua 

lambit  Hydaspes. 
namque  me  silua  lupus  in  Sabina, 
dum  meam  canto  Lalagen  et  ultra 
terminum  curia  uagor  expeditis, 

fugit  inermem: 
quale  portentum  neque  niilitaris 
Daunias  latis  alit  aesculetis, 
nee  lubae  tellus  generat  leonum 

arida  nutrix. 
pone  me  pigris  ubi  nulla  campis 
arbor  aestiua  recreatur  aura, 
quod  latus  mundi  nebulae  malusque 

luppiter  urget; 
pone  sub  curru  nimium  propinqui 
solis  in  terra  domibus  negata, 
dulce  ridentem  Lalagen  amabo, 

dulce  loquentem. 

This  ode,  from  which  Conington  has  selected  his 
chief  weapon  of  attack,  is  certainly  not  in  my  judgment 
one  of  Horace's  best.  I  see  no  inward  bond  of  con- 
nexion between  the  four  first  most  prosaic  stanzas  one 
with  the  other,  nor  between  them  and  the  last  two; 
and  the  wolf,  more  terrible  than  any  Hon  or  wild  boar, 
savours  more  of  nervousness  than  of  inspiration.  But  I 
would  direct  attention  at  present  on  the  last  two  stanzas. 
Whether  Lalage  was  ever  a  girl  of  flesh  and  bone,  with 
a  heart  beating  within  her  ribs,  or  was  merely  a  doll 
stuffed  with  sawdust,  I  do  not  pretend  to  decide.  But 
what  poet  of  high  genius  would  ever  imagine  himself 
as  actually  wandering  about  amid  Arctic  ice  and  fogs, 


238  CATVLLVS 

or  again  beneath  the  suns  of  the  burning  zone,  and  con- 
tinuing the  while  to  love  his  sweetly  laughing  Lalage? 
Did  he  dream  that  'sighing  like  furnace'  would  give 
him  the  heat  too  of  a  furnace,  fired  perchance  by  the 
inspiration  of  some  'woful  ballad  made  to  his  mistress' ' 
— laugh?  but  then  the  torrid  equatorial  suns?  Horace 
never  really  conceived  the  situation :  he  was  simply 
trying  to  outdo  what  he  remembered  in  his  Catullus : 

Acmen  Septimius  sues  amores 
tenens  in  gremio,  *mea*  inquit  'Acme, 
ni  te  perdite  amo  atque  amare  porro 
omnes  sum  assidue  paratus  annos 
quantum  qui  pote  plurimum  perire, 
solus  in  Libya  Indiaque  tosta 
caesio  ueniam  obuius  leoni'. 

Bead  the  whole  of  this  transcending  45th  poem:  it  will 
be  felt  and  known  to  have  come  in  one  gush  from  the 
mind  of  its  creator.  Note  the  perfect  unity  and  har- 
mony of  the  thought,  the  magnificent  motion  of  the 
rhythm.  But  turn  more  especially  to  the  lines  just 
quoted :  there  you  have  truth  and  reality.  Septimius, 
made  immortal  by  his  love,  cannot  conceive  even  of 
change  in  himself  or  in  her;  feels  that  his  bliss  will 
never  end;  and  so  to  enhance,  if  he  may,  this  bhss,  he 
pictures  to  himself  what  of  horrible  he  can,  and  offers, 
if  his  love  should  ever  end,  to  go  and  encounter  a  lion 
on  the  torrid  plains  of  India  or  Africa,  knowing  right 
well  that  this  can  never  be. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  part  of  the  poem  that  Ho- 
race has  been  thinking  of.  There  is  a  neat  enough 
mosaic  of  his,  very  much  better  than  the  ode  quoted 
above,  the  'Donee  gratus  eram',  in  which  the  poet  and 
Lydia  outbid  one  another;  tho'  there  too   I  miss  all 


AND  HORACE  239 

lyrical  passion  and  sweetness.  Horace,  wHen  he  was  a 
favoured  lover,  was  happier  than  the  king  of  Persia; 
Lydia,  ere  Chloe  was  preferred  to  her,  was  more  famous 
than  Roman  Ilia.  But  what  is  there  in  the  dull  cold 
splendour  and  isolation  of  a  Persian  king  to  attract  a 
real  lover?  And  the  fame  of  Roman  Ilia!  what's  Iha 
to  her  or  she  to  Ilia,  that  Lydia  should  think  her  fame 
worth  pitting  against  true  love  ?  But  hear  now  Catul- 
lus: 

Nunc  ab  auspicio  bono  profecti 

mutuis  animis  amant  amantur. 

unam  Septimius  misellus  Acmen 

mauult  quam  Syrias  Britanniasque : 

uno  in  Septimio  fidelis  Acme 

facit  dehcias  libidinesque. 
Here  again  you  have  the  ring  of  true  passion.  At  the 
moment  when  the  poem  was  written  Caesar  was  invad- 
ing Britain,  and  Crassus  was  off,  *partant  pourla  Syrie', 
to  annihilate  the  Parthians.  The  youth  of  Rome  were 
flocking  West  and  East,  some  to  share  in  the  conquest 
and  pillage  of  the  new  America;  others  to  sack  the 
gold  and  jewels  of  Asia.  Septimius  heeds  it  not :  his  is 
not  the  self-conscious  and  therefore  unreal  passion  which 
can  affect  postures  and  grimaces  and  fine-drawn  senti- 
ments: 'I  could  not  love  thee,  dear,  so  much.  Loved 
I  not  honour  more'.  What  is  gain  and  glory  to  him, 
when  Acme  is  on  his  bosom?  Then  the  true  poet  can 
conceive  of  nothing  higher  for  Acme,  than  to  dote  for 
ever  on  her  own  Septimius.  Roman  Ilia  indeed !  The 
whole  of  this  exquisite  poem  well  illustrates  the  fine 
observation  of  Hermogenes :  tJ  Se  yXvKvrrjs  oXov  koXXos  ti 
tt}?  d^eXetas  eVrt.  Sweetness  is  the  never-absent  charm 
which  Catullus  throws  over  the  simple  beauty  of  those 
poems,  in  which  sweetness  can  have  place. 


240  CATVLLVS 

Before  I  return  to  Catullus'  translation  of  Sappho,  I 
would  just  direct  attention  to  the  short  ode  (i  21) 
'Dianam  tenerae  dicite  uirgines'  in  which  Horace  imi- 
tates the  34th  poem  of  Catullus  'Dianae  sumus  in  fide': 
the  whole  of  the  two  odes  should  of  course  be  read  to- 
gether ;  but  take  one  stanza  as  a  sample  of  each  ;  and 
first  Catullus : 

Montium  domina  ut  fores 

siluarumque  uirentium 

saltuumque  reconditorum 

amniumque  sonantum. 

And  now  take  a  stanza  of  Horace : 

Vos  lactam  fluuiis  et  nemonim  coma, 
quaecumque  aut  gelido  prominet  Algido, 
nigris  aut  Erymanthi 
siluis  aut  uiridis  Cragi. 

If  Catullus  does  not  surpass  Horace  here  alike  in  the 
simple  vigour  of  the  thought  and  in  the  majestic  march 
of  the  rhythm,  then  I  confess  myself  to  be  no  judge 
of  Latin  or  any  other  poetry. 

I  now  come  back  to  the  Sapphic  ode  which  Coning- 
ton  has  selected  to  join  the  main  issue  on,  to  the  manifest 
disadvantage  of  Catullus.  This  translation  bears  on 
its  face  the  stamp  of  being  one  of  the  very  earliest  of 
his  compositions  ;  of  having  been  written  at  a  time  when 
he  could  only  adore  his  Lesbia  at  a  distance.  It  is  the 
translation  too  of  a  very  difiicult  original,  which  would 
lose  all  its  point  by  paraphrase  and  dilution.  And  yet 
surely  this  version  has  much  merit ;  and  other  judges 
have  thought  better  of  it  than  Conington  does.  *  No- 
thing' says  Landor,  cited  by  Th.  Martin,  'can  surpass 
the  graces  of  this'.  However  that  may  be,  Catullus 
seems  to  have  decided  that  the  sapphic  was  not  suited 


AND   HORACE  241 

to  the  genius  of  the  Latin  language,  or  a;t  all  events 
not  to  his  own  genius,  and  to  have  abandoned  it  alto- 
gether in  favour  of  the  phalaecian  hendecasy liable  which 
he  made  his  own  once  and  for  ever.  The  11th  poem, 
his  only  other  sapphic  ode,  was  written  late  in  his  life 
and  with  direct  and  meditated  reference  to  the  51st; 
and  but  for  that  earlier  poem  would  never  have  been 
written  at  all.  Horace  took  up  the  sapphic  which 
Catullus  had  allowed  to  drop  from  his  hands,  cultivated 
it  with  the  diligence  of  the  Matinian  bee,  made  it  one 
of  his  most  favoured  metres  and  gave  to  it  that  easy 
and  monotonous  flow  which  it  retained  ever  after. 
Whoever  examines  the  too  scanty  remains  of  Sappho, 
will  I  think  agree  with  me  that  Horace  in  his  elabora- 
tion of  the  metre  has  entirely  changed  its  character. 
Sappho's  is  a  grand  and  mighty  rhythm:  TloiKiKoBpov 
aOdvar  *A^poStra,  Hat  Atos,  SoXoTrXo/ce,  Xtorcro/u,at  ere : 
.Sappho  meant  to  unite  the  stately  march  of  the  trochee 
with  the  majestic  sweep  of  the  dactyl;  while  the  Greek 
Alcaic  has,  together  with  the  dactyl,  a  large  admixture 
of  the  more  prosaic  iambus.  Whether  Horace  has  or 
has  not  obtained  an  altogether  enviable  success  in  his 
transformation  of  the  Sapphic,  I  will  not  presume  to 
decide :  manifestly  he  was  not  quite  satisfied  himself; 
and  in  his  fourth  book  and  his  *  carmen  saeculare '  he 
has  sought  to  introduce  more  variety  by  a  greater  ad- 
mixture of  the  weak  caesura ;  tho'  he  has  only  suc- 
ceeded in  increasing  the  stijShess  without  lessening  the 
monotony  of  his  metre.  But,  if  we  grant  him  any 
amount  of  credit  for  his  elaboration  of  the  Latin  Sap- 
phic, I  affirm  that,  when  this  facility  has  once  been 
gained,  a  very  mediocre  poet  might  chance  upon  the 
two  verses,  selected  by  Conington  for  praise :  Dulce  ri- 
dentem  Lalagen  amabo,  Dulce  loquentem. 

M.  c.  16 


242  CATVLLVS 

And  I  for  one  find  much  more  than  Conlngton  does 
in  the  sterner  and  more  stately  version  of  Catullus  : 
Qui  sedens  aduersus  identidem  te  Spectat  et  audit 
Dulce  ridentem.  He  by  no  means  shirks  altogether  the 
*  speaking' :  the  love-intoxicated  stripling  has  before 
him  his  *  ox-eyed'  Juno;  spectat,  sees  an  Olympian  smile 
steahng  over  her  face  ;  auclity  hears  accents  worthy  of  a 
goddess  falling  from  her  parted  lips. 

The  identidem  of  the  3rd  line  may  have  occurred  to 
Catullus  for  reasons  such  as  Conington  hints  at ;  and  I 
would  remark  that  its  repetition  in  the  other  sapphic 
has  a  calculated  reference  to  our  ode,  and  is  meant  to 
point  at  Lesbia  in  her  degradation,  as  it  marks  her  here 
in  her  splendour.  It  is  a  grand  enough  word,  and  its 
rejection  by  the  Augustan  poets  is  quite  conventional. 
Accius  has  a  noble  style ;  and  his  '  Scindens  dolore 
identidem  intonsam  comam'  is  worth  a  good  many  lines 
of  some  Augustan  poets  ^. 

1  Whether  'lingna  sed  torpet '  is  '  eommonplaee '  or  not,  I  dont  know ;  but 
it  is  a  literal  translation  of  about  the  saane  number  oi  words  in  Sappho,  this  part 
of  whose  ode  consists  of  short  isolated  clauses ;  for  which  a  competent  translator 
must  provide  something  of  the  same  nature.  Whether  these  words  be  or  be 
not  inferior  to  'Cur  facnnda  parum  decoro  Inter  uerba  cadit  lingua  silentio ', 
such  a  sentence  would  be  ridiculously  out  of  place  in  Catullus'  version  or  any 
version  of  Sappho.  I  scarcely  know  how  to  take  Coningtcai's  '  argumentum  ad 
inuidiam'  about  eius,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  in  some  perplexity  himself. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Horace  uses  enis,  not  in  a  'solitary  place  \  but  twice  in  his 
odes,  and  twice  in  his  satires;  Catullus  has  it  only  once  in  one  of  bis  lightest 
elegiac  epigrams.  Bentley,  the  chief  critic  who  makes  a  'tumult',  objects  to 
eius  in  the  3rd  book,  not  because  it  is  eius,  but  because  it  adds  nothing  to  the 
context.  The  same  critic  commends  it  in  the  4th  book,  because  there  it  ia 
emphatic  he  says.  Neither  in  Catullus  nor  in  the  odes  of  Horace  do  we  meet 
with  huius :  c\mi8  we  find  once  in  the  whole  of  Catullus,  once  in  the  epodes  of 
Horace,  nowhere  else  in  his  odes.  Virgil  employs  both  these  words  freely 
enough.  Is  it,  I  would  ask,  anything  but  the  merest  convention  which  makes 
one  or  other  of  these  three  words  more  or  less  displeasing  than  the  third  to  a 
modern  ear  or  judgment?  or  is  Virgil  wrong  or  right  for  using  two  of  them 
freely,  and  are  Catullus  and  Horace  right  or  wrong  for  abstaining  from  one  of 
these  words  altogether,  and  using  the  other  only  once  ?  or  in  fact  is  it  a  law  of 
the  higher  criticism  that  Virgil  and  Horace  shall  always  be  in  the  right,  whether 


AND   HORACE  "  243 

To  turn  for  a  moment  to  that  other  sapphic  ode : 
it  has  much  of  the  Greek  cadences,  and  lacks  much  of 
the  Horatian  flow.  What  the  exact  import  may  be  of 
his  commission  to  Furius  and  Aurelius,  that  enigmatical 
pair,  I  have  never  been  able  to  make  out ;  but  on  the 
whole  I  very  decidedly  prefer  this  poem  to  any  sapphic 
ode  of  Horace.  Listen  to  the  noble  swell  of  many  of  the 
verses :  Litus  ut  longe  resonante  Eoa  Tunditur  unda... 
Sine  trans  altas  gradietur  Alpes,  Caesaris  uisens  moni- 
menta  magni,  GaUicum  Khenum,  horribile  aequor  ulti- 
mosque  Britannos.  How  feeble,  compared  with  this,  is 
Horace's  elegant  imitation ;  for  he  is  again  treading  in 
Catullus'  footprints  with  his  'Septimi  Gades  aditure 
mecum'.  And  what  is  there  in  Horace  like  the  pathos, 
worthy  of  Burns,  which  pervades  the  *  Qui  illius  culpa 
cecidit  uelut  prati  Vltimi  flos  praetereunte  postquam 
Tactus  aratro  est'?  I  will  not  stop  to  compare  the 
world-stirring  movements,  shadowed  forth  by  the  one 
poet,  with  the  somewhat  meagre  and  quite  personal 
argument  of  the  other  poet. 

In  what  has  been  here  said,  I  have  wished  to  shew, 
not  that  I  love  Horace  less,  but  that  I  love  Catullus 
more.  I  know  well  under  what  disadvantage  I  lie, 
when  I  attempt  to  controvert  the  terse  and  eloquent 
exposition  of  Conington.  But  I  have  always  thought 
that  he  based  this  exposition  on  far  too  narrow  grounds. 
Rightly  or  wrongly,  I  look  on  Catullus  as  the  peer  of 
Alcaeus  and  Sappho ;  to  Horace  I  assign  a  different 
rank. 

they  do  or  do  not  employ  any  word ;  Catnllns  shall  always  be  in  the  wrong 
whether  he  does  not  or  does  employ  such  word?  I  seem  to  myself  to  see  more 
of  humour  and  narrowness  of  judgment  in  Conington's  onslaught  on  the  defence- 
less  Catullus,  than  in  any  other  of  his  criticisms  which  I  have  read. 


INDEX 


a !  186,  207 

abhorret  ao  mutat  56 

abruptus  =  abreptus  187 

admirari  cur  fugiant  204 

Adoneus  96,  97, 109, 110 

AUius  168,  169,  180—185 

Amastris  14 

ambobus  ocolis  217 

an  quod  (quia)  ?  156,  157 

anus  29 

ardor  7,  8 

argutus  185 

Amobius  imitates  (?)  Catullus  60 

artatus  51,  52 

Asinius  Marrucinus  39,  40,  43 

asyndeton  217,  220 

attraction  of  case  24 ;  of  gender  24 

aut— aut  51, 190;  and  haut  confused 
97 

Baiae  168,  174, 199 

Balbus,  Cornelius  85 ;  Caecilius,  father 
and  son,  161,  162 

Brixia  162,  164,  165 

Caesar,  libels  on,  78,  79, 80, 81, 85—95, 
107—109,  123,  126,  127,  128,  129, 
131 — 133;  his  invasion  of  Britain 
80,  239;  and  Pompey,  their  des- 
potism, 82  ;  and  Cicero  82 — 85, 
92—94 ;  takes  emetics  92—95 

caesura  of  the  iambic  in  CatuUus, 
Virgil  and  Martial  21 

Calvus,  C.  Licinius,  145,214,  215;  his 
lo  amended  153 

candidus  185 

casus  periculorum  60,  61 


Catullus,  age  42,  43,  69—73,  113; 
birth  and  death  69—73,  113  ;  prae- 
nomen  68,  69,  112,  113,  164,  170 ; 
at  Verona  168 — 174;  voyage  from 
Bithynia  to  Sirmio  11 — 24;  visits 
his  brother's  tomb  47 ;  imitates  the 
Alexandrians  145  ;  imitated  in  the 
Dirae  146;  by  Horace  42,  210, 
236 — 243 ;  compared  with  Horace 
227 — 243;  want  of  form  in  long 
poems  180,  187;  his  glyconics 
134—140,  229,  240;  his  heroic 
150—153;  his  elisions  150,  151, 
193 ;  his  manuscripts  iv — ^vii ;  words 
and  syllables  wrongly  divided  in 
them  101, 104 ;  wrongly  doubled,  or 
not  doubled,  143,  146, 147,  155, 188, 
207 

Censorinus  imitates  Catullus  4 

Cinna  36,  145,  209—214 

Clodia  46,  47,  70,  73,  174,  181—202 

Clodius  Pulcher  196,  197 

Coleridge  on  Catullus  233 

coma  of  trees  25,  149 

connexion  in  syntax  of  things  dis- 
joined in  sense  129 

constructions,  involved,  49,  54,  110, 
111,  122,  157,  192,  193,  215 

continuo  48 

cum  legas  56 

Cytorus  14 

diminutives  in  poetry  234 — 236 

Diua  63 

do  219 

dolor  7,  8 


246 


INDEX 


ducentum  42 

dum  224 

duplex  182 

emersere  uiiltus  146 

esse  facta  pluperf.  16,  23,  24 

est    omitted  172 ;    not  omitted  210, 

219 
facio    33;    used   absolutely    164;    f, 

facinus  219,  220 
F^nelon  on  Catullus  233 
fero  219 

Fescennine  licence  76 — 78,  91 
Firmanus  222 
fulgeret,    fulgeremus    158;    sense    of 

imp.  subj.  157,  158 
Furius  and  Aurelius  59,  60;    Furius 

66 ;  Furius  Bibaculus  66 
furta  and  facta  confused  60,  191 
Gellius  cites  Catullus  67 
gemelli  132 

geminae  aures  143,  144 
genere,  in  quo,  183 
glyconic  metre,  rules  of,  134 — 140 
Hatrianus  210—213 
haut  idoneua  97,  109;  haut  and  aut 

confused  97 
hircus  117 

Horace  imitates  Catullus  42,  210,  236 
—243  ;  compared  with  Catullus  227 
—243 

huicne  101,  102,  110 

imbuo  145 

imperative  omitted  34,  130 

inde  of  time  16,  17,  22 

ineptus  49 

inquio  35,  inquiunt  33 

instituo  219 

jo  for  io  135—138 

ipsimae  urbis  104 — 106 

Julia,  daughter  of  Augustus,  201,  202 

iuuenalis  73,  113 

lato  limite  183 

lecticulus  131,  132 

Lesbia  46,  47,  70,  73,  168,  171,  174, 
181—202,  206,  208  ;  origin  of  the 
name  195 

Lesbius  196,  197 

letters  interchanged;  a,  co  62,  96;  a 


(am),  e  143,  183,  184,  190  ;  a,  ei  3  ; 
c,  r  60,  220 ;  c,  s,  sc  28,  41 ;  o,  t 
146,  182,  183;  d,  cl  61,  62;  d,  p 
156 ;  e,  o  28,  66,  67,  114,  140,  143, 
148,  166,  163,  203,  215,  216,  226, 
227 ;  i,  y  97  ;  1,  n,  u  183 ;  m,  s  final 
37,  41,  164,  203  ;  n,  r  42  ;  r,  t,  rt,  tr 
37,  64,  143,  146,  189,  192,  220  ;  p,  t 
163  ;  s,  f  203  ;  s,  t  27,  220 

libet  personal  6,  7,  9 

lora  lubra  52 

lusi  multa  171,  172 

Macaulay  on  Catullus  233,  234 

male  insulsa  37 

malum !  102,  111 

Mamurra  80,  83—87,  93,  97,  98,  106— 
108,  131—133,  222—227 

Manlius  Torquatus  168—175,  180 

marita  ianua  163 

Martial  imitates  Catullus  2,  4,  5,  22, 
37,  42,  49,  64,  65,  133,  140,  171, 
172,  182,  227 ;  his  genius  109,  230  ; 
his  love  of  Catullus  232,  233 

membranae  52 — 55 

Memmius,  propraetor,  45,  46 ;  attacks 
Caesar  88 

meto  huic  101,  110 

mens  stupor  49 

miha  quingenta  211 

minutus  65 

mitto  215 

modo  with  paulmn,  and  with  imper. 
34 

modus  224,  225 ;  modo  uneUded  225 

Murcia  63 

mutari  talento  40,  41 

nam  in  transitions  175 

nec=non  114,  148 

nemus  226 

Nicaea  14,  15,  21 

nos  for  ego  184,  192,  217 

noster  and  uester  confused  65,  66 

nota,  de  meliore,  172,  174 

nouissime,  cum,  17 

nullus  =  omnino  non  29 

obstitit  204 

omnia  perdidistis  103 

oratio  obliqua  in  questions  31,  32 


INDEX 


247 


Ortalna  (Q.  Hortensius  ?)  164,  200 

OS  oculosque  29 

Ovid  imitates  Catullus  10,  12,  13,  19, 

20,  22,  141,  142,  146,  165,  171,  207 ; 

his  banishment  185 
Padua  210—213 
parentheses  126 
pater  esuritionum  49 
patrona  uirgo  2,  3 
perditius  119 
peregrine  labore  115 
perire  =  amare  122 
personalities  in  Greece  and  Rome  73 

—79 
Petronius  amended  117 
Phalaecus  213,  314 
phasellus  20,  21 
piissimus  102,  103 
Piso  44—46 

Pliny  84,  96,  106,  107,  151,  152,  212 
plumbo  dcrecta  53 

plural  referring  to  indef.  sing.  32,  216 
plus  quam  220,  221 
PoUio  and  his  family  39,40;  his  age 

42,  43,  46 
Pompey  82,  85—87,  89,  90 
pote  120 

Priscian  cites  Catullus  67 
proper  names  corrupted  27 
Propertius'  name  170 
puerperium  falsum  165,  166 
pumice  aequata  53 — 55 
pusiones  117 
qualecumque  1 — 5 
quassa  of  sound  28 
que  comes  3rd  in  a  clause  133,  207, 

208 ;  que— et  208,  216 
quicquid  hoc  libelli  1 — 5 
quod  manticae  57 
quod  conj.  denotes  effect  35,  175 
rufulus  134 

rufus,  term  of  reproach,  1 34 
Eufus  (?  M.  CaeUus)  46,  47,  198,  199, 
202—204 


rupcs  183 

sacer  hirons  203 

saecula  cana  211 

saltus  222—226 

Satrachus  210,  211 

scurra  57 

Sempronia  200,  201 

Seneca  trag.  imitates  Catullus  60,  145, 

150,  155 
si  non  omnia  125,  126,  129 
sibi  esse  facta  16,  23 
socer  generque  81,  102,  112 
sopionibus  116,  117 
Statius  (?)  imitates  Catullus  5 
struo  insidias  50 
tacitus  partic.  26 
taetre  189 

tamen  189,  190,  192 
tempore,  non  longo,  188 
tersior,  tertior  56,  57,  58 
toUe  191 
tonsi  prati  225 
totidem  mea  208 
totmoda  226 
totus  adverbial  47,  48 
tremulus  191 
trirustice  127 
typum  Cybelles  142,  143 
uel  te  8ic=:uel  sic  te  130 
Veranius  and  Fabullus  43 — 45 
uester  =  tuus  216 
uicarius  61 — 63 

Virgil  imitates  Catullus  146,  148,  155 
uiuidae  lacus  undae  115,  116 
ullus=omnino  29 
umbilicus  52 

unicus  imperator  91,  92,  128 
Tmnm  beatiorem  33 ;  imus  caprimulgua 

56 
nscaret  aura  9,  17,  18,  23 
Volusius  (Tanusius)  203 — 214 
ut  re  227 
Zmyma  209—211 


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