Ibid. xi. 6. 16,—

⁵   B. Schmidt conjectures that the collection as we now have it was made after books were generally written in parchment. His whole collected poems would thus be more easily enclosed in a single volume, than when written on the old papyrus rolls.

⁶   Three poems formerly attributed to Catullus,—those between xvii and xxi,—are now omitted from all editions. On the other hand, one poem, lxviii, must, in all probability, be divided into two, and possibly some lines now attached to others are parts of separate poems.

⁷   Cf. B. Schmidt, quoting Bruner, Prolegomena, p. xcviii.

⁸   x. 6.

⁹   xvii. 7; liii. 1; lvi. 1.

¹⁰   ix.

¹¹   xxv, xl, xlii, etc.

¹²   Cf. viii, xxxviii, lxv, etc.

¹³   liii.

¹⁴   Cf. 'quae etiam aleret adulescentis et parsimoniam patrum suis sumptibus sustentaret.' Cic. Pro M. Caelio, 16, 38. Gellius, another of her lovers, was probably about the same age, or a year or two younger than Caelius. Cf. Schwabe, p. 112, etc.

¹⁵   B. Schmidt supposes that he did not die till 52 b.c., and that he must have been born in 82 b.c. The reasons he assigns for this belief are not convincing. He thinks that it was unlikely that Catullus should have been reconciled to Julius Caesar in the winter of 55-54 b.c., so soon after the offence was committed, which must have been after the first invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar in the summer and autumn of 55. He shows that the reconciliation could not have taken place in the winter of 54-3, as Caesar was absent in Transalpine Gaul. He supposes therefore that it must have taken place in the winter of 53-2. He thinks it probable that Catullus' reconciliation must have taken place about the same time or subsequently to that of Calvus, who was likely to have influenced Catullus' political action, and that Calvus could not have desired to be reconciled till after the autumn of 54, when he prosecuted Vatinius. It seems quite arbitrary to suppose that a considerable time must have elapsed between the offence and the apology of Catullus. If Catullus was in Verona in the winter of 55-4, and in his father's house, and Julius Caesar was then, as was his habit, living on intimate terms with and enjoying the hospitality of the father of Catullus, that of itself affords an explanation of their meeting and reconciliation. If Catullus required to be induced by any one to make an apology, it is more likely that his father's influence moved him to do so than the example and influence of Calvus.

¹⁶   Cf. x, xiii, xxvi, xli, ciii.

¹⁷   lviii. 3; lxxix. 2.

¹⁸   Cf. cx, xli.

¹⁹   Reading suggested by Munro.

²⁰   E.g. lxiv. 240-41:—

And this most characteristic feature of Alpine scenery,—lxviii^b. 17, etc.:—

²¹   For his influence on the art of the νεώτεροι cf. Schmidt, Prolegomena, p. lxii.

²²   Schmidt believes that Cinna was a native of Brescia; Prol. lxiii; but he does not there give his reason for his belief.

²³   Cf. xcv. 7:

²⁴   The epigram on Cominius (cviii) was probably written at Rome, as he was not of sufficient importance to have made an impression on the people of Verona. The accusation of C. Cornelius, which excited odium against him, was made in 65 b.c. But it does not follow that the poem was written by Catullus at that time. He may have become acquainted with him later, and avenged some private pique by reference to the unpopularity formerly excited by him. There is no direct reference to the trial of Cornelius in the poem, which appears among others referring to a much later date.

²⁵   lxviii. 15-18.

²⁶   In the 'docto avo' we have an allusion to the author of the 'Istrian War.'

²⁷   lxviii^b.

²⁸   The Caelius addressed in some of the poems is not M. Caelius Rufus, but a Veronese friend and confidant of Catullus—

Caesar, Bell. Civ. i. 2, mentions M. Caelius Rufus simply as M. Rufus, Cicero in his epistles addresses him as 'mi Rufe.'

²⁹   Among other indications the vow of Lesbia (xxxvi) throws light on her literary taste and accomplishment.

³⁰   On the whole question compare Mr. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations, etc., pp. 194-202.

It has been argued on the other side that public opinion would not have tolerated the publicity given to an adulterous intrigue, especially one with a Roman matron so high in rank as the wife of Metellus Celer. But the state of public opinion in the last years of the Republic is not to be gauged either by that of an earlier time, or by that existing during the stricter censorship of the Augustan régime. Catullus himself (cxiii) testifies to what is known from other sources, the extreme laxity with which the marriage tie was regarded in the interval between 'the first and second consulships of Pompey.' Perhaps, however, if Metellus Celer had survived Catullus, the Lesbia-poems might never have been publicly given to the world. After his death Clodia by her manner of life forfeited all claim to the immunities of a Roman matron.

³¹   lxviii^b. 105-6.

³²   The poem lxviii—

was addressed to Manlius just after Catullus had heard of his brother's death, i. e. probably late in the year 60, or early in the year 59 b.c. Manlius was himself suffering then from a great and sudden sorrow. The expressions in lines 1, 5, 6, 'casu acerbo,' 'sancta Venus,' 'desertum in lecto caelibe,' make it at least highly probable that this sorrow was the premature death of his young bride. If this generally accepted opinion is true, the Epithalamium must have been written some time before 59 b.c.

³³   That of Westphal.

³⁴   Schmidt supposes that poems ix, xii, xiii belong to a later date, 56 b.c., when he thinks that Veranius and Fabullus were with some otherwise unknown Piso in the Province of Hispania Citerior, and that the poems xxviii,

and xlvii,

belong to the same period.

But not to speak of the fact that the character imputed to Piso, in the phrase 'duae sinistrae,' and in the words 'vappa,' 'verpa,' 'verpus,' applied to him, are in exact accordance with that ascribed to him in the virulent invective of Cicero (In L. Calpurnium Pisonem Oratio), it is difficult to see how the words in xxviii,

could apply to either the climate or the condition of Hispania Citerior at that time. But they closely coincide with the words of Cicero applied to the government by Piso of his province of Macedonia (17-40), 'An exercitus nostri interitus ferro, fame, frigore, pestilentia?' On the other hand, the words in ix,

would be applicable to the adventures and dangers of Julius Caesar in further Spain in 61 b.c. There is no difficulty in supposing that the two young friends went together on two different occasions on the staff of two different provincial governors. The tone of the two different sets of poems is so different, the one set so bright and happy, the other so savage and bitter, that it is almost inconceivable that they belong to the same time and the same circumstances.

³⁵   Schmidt supposes that the person to whom this letter is written is the same as the Allius of lxviii^b; that the lines beginning

are a continuation of what used to be thought a separate poem,

that Manlius was the praenomen of Allius, and that he is addressed in the first part of the poem by the praenomen, in the latter by the gentile name. But the letter to Manlius clearly indicates the recent loss of his bride, or some distress connected with his marriage (lines 1, 5, 6), whereas at the end of the letter to Allius he says, 'Sitis felices et tu simul et tua vita;' lxviii. 155.

³⁶   There is some uncertainty both as to the reading and interpretation of the lines (lxviii. 15-19). The most generally accepted view is that Manlius had written to let Catullus know that several fashionable rivals were supplanting him in his absence. Mr. Munro supposes that the letter was written from Baiae, and that the hic is so to be explained. Another view of the passage is that Manlius had, without any reference to Clodia, merely rallied Catullus on leading a dull and lonely life at Verona, a place quite unsuitable for the pleasures of a man of fashion.

³⁷   Cf. poems x. 30, etc., and xcv.

³⁸   Cf. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus, p. 214.

³⁹   An entirely different interpretation has recently been given to this poem (Schmidt, Prolegomena, xxxix, etc.). It is supposed not to be complimentary, but bitterly sarcastic. It is said that Catullus could not, except in irony, have described himself as

and if those words applied to himself as a poet are irony, so must the words applied in strong contrast to Cicero as an advocate (tanto—quanto) be equally ironical. In that case the omnium in the last line must not be taken in connexion with optimus, but with patronus. Cicero's readiness to be 'omnium patronus' is sarcastically commented on with immediate reference to his defence of Vatinius, which startled some of his best friends among the constitutional party. The formal address 'Marce Tulli' is also ironical. (If that is so, probably also the 'Romuli nepotum' is used in mock heroic irony, like the 'Remi nepotum' in lviii.) What then is the favour for which Catullus writes these ironically complimentary thanks? Schmidt supposes that Cicero had expressed either publicly or privately a very poor opinion of Catullus' poems, and that Catullus revenges himself by professing to agree with him, to be most grateful for the criticism (gratias tibi maximas Catullus agit), and to repay it by heaping ironical coals on his head.

It is just possible that the poem might have been so understood in the set to which Catullus belonged, if we were certain that it was written at the time when Cicero defended Vatinius. But the general public could hardly have understood it so, and it is not surprising that it never occurred to any one to understand it in that sense till within the last year or two. It is not in keeping with Catullus' straightforward, outspoken vituperation, nor with the manners of the time (as shown in Cicero's speeches), to write an epigram which would leave the object of it in doubt whether it was written in earnest or derision. No doubt Catullus did not seriously think himself 'the worst of living poets,' worse for instance than Volusius. But there is an irony of modest self-depreciation, as that of Virgil when he applies to himself the words 'argutos inter strepere anser olores,' as well as of insulting banter. The change in the construction of the 'omnium' in the two consecutive lines would be at least startling. That Catullus, a young man, not intimate with Cicero, should address him as Marce Tulli is not perhaps more remarkable than that a young poet of the present day should in writing to a man of great eminence, twenty years his senior, address him as Mr. ——. Cicero writes banteringly and good-naturedly to one of his correspondents, Volumnius, probably a much younger man (Fam. vii. 32): 'Quod sine praenomine familiariter, ut debebas, ad me epistolam misisti, primum addubitavi, num a Volumnio senatore esset, quorum mihi est magnus usus.' There is no reason for supposing that Cicero ever passed any criticism favourable or unfavourable on Catullus, though in his letters he twice uses his phrases; and if he did, it was not in Catullus' way to retaliate without making it perfectly clear what he was retaliating for. Cicero was constantly in the way of doing kindnesses to all sorts of people, in the law-courts or by recommending them to some of his influential friends. He especially says that he had always done what he could to foster the genius of poets. He was attracted to young men like Catullus (he was not of the 'grex Catilinae'); and of his friend Calvus he writes with genuine appreciation. It is more natural as well as more pleasant to think of these two men of genius, in so far as they came in contact, having agreeable relations with one another, than to believe that the poet wrote these apparently straightforward, kindly appreciative lines in revenge for some real or fancied disparagement of his verses.

⁴⁰   Cf. xxiv. 7:—

⁴¹   Two of the four poems connected with Calvus allude to his antagonism to Vatinius, which went on actively between the years 56 and 54 b.c. In none of them is there any allusion to Lesbia, who was never out of Catullus, thoughts or his verse till after his Bithynian journey.

⁴²   Horace contrasts the 'dirge of Simonides' ('Ceae retractes munera neniae') with the lighter poetry of love.

⁴³   Cf. Munro's Lucretius, p. 468, third edition.

⁴⁴   lxxii. 5-8:—

⁴⁵   lxxxv. 1.

⁴⁶   xi. 23.

⁴⁷   lxxvi.

⁴⁸  

⁴⁹   Compare also his humorous notice of the compliment which he heard in the crowd paid to the speech of Calvus against Vatinius—

⁵⁰   xii.

⁵¹   xxxviii.

⁵²   Mr. Munro, in his Elucidations (pp. 209, etc.), shows that the whole point of the poem consists in the contrast drawn between the 'Zmyrna' of Cinna and the 'Annals of Volusius.' Baehrens admits the reading 'Hortensius' into the text, but adds in a note on the word, vox corrupta est.

⁵³   lxxvi. 1-4.

⁵⁴   Cf. lxviii. 12:—

⁵⁵   Att. vii. 7. 6: 'Placet igitur etiam me expulsum et agrum Campanum perisse et adoptatum patricium a plebeio, Gaditanum a Mytilenaeo, et Labieni divitiae et Mamurrae placent et Balbi horti et Tusculanum.'

⁵⁶   lxxvi. 19.

⁵⁷   xvi. 5-6.

⁵⁸   lxxxiv.   Cicero also was afflicted by a bore of the same name, who stayed away from Rome in order 'that he might pass whole days discussing philosophy with Cicero at Formiae.' The Arrius of this poem is supposed to be Q. Arrius, Praetor in 73 b.c., whom Cicero speaks of as having been in the habit of acting as a kind of Junior Counsel along with Crassus ('qui fuit M. Crassi quasi secundarum'), and having, though a man of the lowest origin and without either culture or natural ability, got into a considerable practice. The words 'Hoc misso in Syriam' are supposed to imply that he was sent as a legatus to join Crassus in his Syrian province. The poem would thus be written about the end of 55 b.c.

Schmidt.

⁵⁹   Hor. A. P. 437-38:—

Schmidt supposes him to be the Alphenus Varus, the Jurist, to whom the 30th poem, written in a tone of tender reproach, is addressed. Catullus does not seem to address the same person by different names, unless Manius and Allius are the same. Thus M. Caelius Rufus is addressed as Rufus, the Caelius addressed in other poems being a native of Verona. As both Alphenus Varus and Quintilius Varus were natives of Cremona, Catullus was likely to have known both.

⁶⁰   vii. 7-8.

⁶¹   xi. 22-24.

⁶²   xvii. 12-15 and 15-16.

⁶³   E.g.

⁶⁴   'Criticisms and Elucidations,' etc. p. 73.

⁶⁵   The pride of Roman nationality is, perhaps, unconsciously betrayed in such phrases as 'Romuli nepotum,' in the lines addressed to Cicero.

⁶⁶   xxxiv. 7-12:—

⁶⁷   lxi. 122-46.

⁶⁸   lxiv. 89-90.

⁶⁹  

⁷⁰   Cf. Mr. Ellis's notes on the poem.

⁷¹   Cf. Plaut. Pseud. 147:—

Mr. Ellis, in his Commentary on Catullus, p. 226, mentions that both the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and the legend of Ariadne, were common subjects of ancient art. He points out also that the idea of the quilt on which the Ariadne story was represented was borrowed from Apollonius, i. 730-66.

⁷²  

⁷³   E.g. 'Argivae robora pubis'—'decus innuptarum'—'funera nec funera,' etc., etc. Mr. Ellis's commentary largely illustrates the influence exercised by the phraseology of the Greek poets,—especially Homer, Euripides, Apollonius—on the poetical diction of Catullus in this poem.

⁷⁴   This monotony, as is pointed out by Mr. Ellis, is, in a great degree, the result of the coincidence of the accent and rhythmical ictus in the last three feet of the line.

⁷⁵   Westphal, pp. 73-83, has given an elaborate explanation of the principle on which the various parts of the poem are arranged and connected with one another.

⁷⁶   The lines immediately following these are in the worst style of learned Alexandrinism.

⁷⁷  

⁷⁸   This parallel was first pointed out by the writer of an excellent article on Catullus in the North British Review, referred to by Mr. Munro in his 'Criticisms and Elucidations,' p. 234.

THE END.