[556] liii.
[557] 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.
[558] Cf. x, xiii, xxvi, xli, ciii.
[559] lviii. 3; lxxix. 2.
[560] Cf. cx, xli.
[561] Reading suggested by Mr. Munro.
[562] E.g. lxiv. 240-41:—
And this most characteristic feature of Alpine scenery.—lxviiib. 17, etc.:—
[563] 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.
[564] lxviii. 15-18.
[565] In the 'docto avo' we have an allusion to the author of the 'Istrian War.'
[566] lxviiib.
[567] The Caelius addressed in some of the poems is not M. Caelius Rufus, but a Veronese friend and confidant of Catullus—
Caesar, Bell. Civ. i. 2. mentions M. Caelius Rufus simply as M. Rufus. Cicero also, in his letters to Caelius, addresses him as mi Rufe, Ep. II. 9. 3, 12. 2.
[568] Among other indications the vow of Lesbia (xxxvi.) throws light on her literary taste and accomplishment.
[569] On the whole question compare Mr. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations, etc., pp. 194-202.
It has been argued on the other side that public opinion would not have tolerated the publicity given to an adulterous intrigue, especially one with a Roman matron so high in rank as the wife of Metellus Celer. But the state of public opinion in the last years of the Republic is not to be gauged either by that of an earlier time, or by that existing during the stricter censorship of the Augustan régime. Catullus himself (cxiii.) testifies to what is known from other sources, the extreme laxity with which the marriage tie was regarded in the interval between 'the first and second consulships of Pompey.' Perhaps, however, if Metellus Celer had survived Catullus, the Lesbia-poems might never have been publicly given to the world. After his death Clodia by her manner of life forfeited all claim to the immunities of a Roman matron.
[570] lxviiib. 105-6.
[571] 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.
[572] That of Westphal.
[573] 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.
[574] Cf. poems x. 30, etc., and xcv.
[575] Cf. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus, p. 214.
[576] Cf. xxiv. 7:—
[577] 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.
[578] Horace contrasts the 'dirge of Simonides' ('Ceae retractes munera neniae') with the lighter poetry of love.
[579] Cf. Munro's Lucretius, p. 468, third edition.
[580] lxxii. 5-8:—
[581] lxxxv. 1.
[582] xi. 23.
[583] lxxvi.
[585] Compare also his humourous notice of the compliment which he heard in the crowd paid to the speech of Calvus against Vatinius—
[586] xii.
[587] xxxviii.
[588] 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.
[589] lxxvi. 1-4.
[590] Cf. lxviii. 12:—
[591] lxxvi. 19.
[592] xvi. 5-6.
[593] lxxxiv.
[594] Hor. A. P. 437-38:—
[595] vii. 7-8.
[596] xi. 22-24.
[597] xvii. 12-13 and 15-16.
[598] E.g.
[599] 'Criticisms and Elucidations, etc.' p. 73.
[600] The pride of Roman nationality, is perhaps, unconsciously betrayed in such phrases as 'Romuli nepotum,' in the lines addressed to Cicero.
[601] xxxiv. 7-12:—
[602] lxi. 122-46.
[603] lxiv. 89-90.
[605] Cf. Mr. Ellis' notes on the poem.
[606] 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. 730-06.
[608] 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.
[609] 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.
[610] 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.
[611] The lines immediately following these are in the worst style of learned Alexandrinism.
[613] 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.