Born: Gaius Valerius Catullus, c. 84 BC; father a citizen of Verona. Career: Lived in Rome, and probably had a villa near Tivoli; also owned property at Sirmio (now Sirmione); friend of Cicero and other important men; accompanied C. Memmius Gemellus on visit to Bithynia, Asia Minor, 57-56 bc. Died: c. 54 bc.
Publications Verse
[Verse], edited by R.A.B. Mynors. 1958, revised edition, 1972; also edited by Henry Bardon, 2nd edition, 1973, D.F.S. Thomson, 1978; edited and translated by G.P. Goold, 1983; translated by Frederick A. Wright, 1926; also translated by Jack Lindsay, 1929; Horace Gregory, 1956; Frank Copley, 1957; R.A. Swanson, 1959; C.H. Sisson, 1966; Peter Whigham, 1966; Reney Myers and Robert J. Ormsby, 1972; James Michie, 1972; Frederic Raphael and Kenneth McLeish, 1978; Charles Martin, 1979; Guy Lee, 1990; commentaries by Robinson Ellis, 1876; Elmer T. Merrill, 1893, reprinted 1951; C.J. Fordyce (in part), 1961; Kenneth Quinn, 1970, revised edition, 1973; and J. Ferguson, 1985; as Catullus: Poems 61-68, edited and translated by John Godwin, 1995; as Catullus: The Shorter Poems, edited and translated by John Godwin, 1999.
Critical Studies:
Catullus and His Influence by Karl P. Harrington, 1923; Catullus in English Poetry by E.S. Duckett, 1925; Catullus and Horace: Two Poets in Their Environment by Frank Tenney, 1928; Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry by A.L. Wheeler, 1934; Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry by E.A. Havelock, 1939, revised edition, 1967; Catullus in Strange and Distant Britain by J.A.S. McPeek, 1939; The Catullan Revolution, 1959, revised edition, 1969, and Catullus: An Interpretation, 1973, both by Kenneth Quinn, and Approaches to Catullus edited by Quinn, 1972; Enarratio Catulliana by C. Witke, 1968; Style and Tradition in Catullus by David O. Ross, Jr., 1969; Catullan Questions, 1969, and Catullus and His World, 1985, both by T.P. Wiseman; Studies in Catullan Verse by Julia W. Loomis, 1972; Interpreting Catullus by G.P. Goold, 1974; Catullus’ Indictment of Rome: The Meaning of Catullus 64 by David Konstan, 1977; Catullan Self-Revelation by E. Adler, 1981; Catullus’ ”Passer”: The Arrangement of the Book of Polymetric Poems by M.B. Skinner, 1981; Sexuality in Catullus by Brian Arkins, 1982; Three Classical Poets: Sappho, Catullus, and Juvenal by Richard Jenkyns, 1982; Catullus 68: An Interpretation by John Sarkissian, 1983; Catullus: A Reader’s Guide to the Poems by Stuart P. Small, 1983; Catullus by John Ferguson, 1988; The Student’s Catullus by David H. Garrison, 1989; The Abhorrence of Love: Studies in Rituals and Mystic Aspects in Catullus’ Poem of Attis by Britt-Mari Nasstrom, 1989; Roman Catullus and the Modification of the Alexandrian Sensibility by J.K. Newman, 1990; Catullus by Charles Martin, 1992; Catullus and His Renaissance Readers by Julia Haig Gaisser, 1993; ”When the Lamp Is Shattered": Desire and Narrative in Catullus by Micaela Janan, 1994; Martial’s Catullus: The Reception of an Epigrammatic Rival by Bruce W. Swann, 1994; Catullan Provocations: Lyric Poetry and the Drama of Position by William Fitzgerald, 1995; The Child and the Hero: Coming of Age in Catullus and Vergil by Mark Petrini, 1997; The Catullan Revolution by Kenneth Quinn, 1999; Catullus in English, edited by Julia Haig Gaisser, 2001; Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance by Brian A. Krostenko, 2001.
Catullus’ poems are traditionally divided into three distinct groups: the short polymetric poems (1-60), the long poems (61-68), and the epigrams (69-116). Whether this arrangement, and that of the poems within each group, were Catullus’ own work is much disputed; some, for example, believe that he intended 65-116 as a group, since they are all written in elegiacs. At present, the weight of scholarly opinion favours the view that at least the majority of the polymetrics were arranged in their present order by the poet, though some interference by a later editor is generally accepted to be evident.
Two types of poem, by virtue of their frequency, dominate the polymetrics and epigrams. First, there are roughly three dozen poems of invective (e.g., 28-29, 39, 69, 71, 94), which very often employ obscene language (incest is a recurrent theme) and of which several are directed at a single target (thus 74, 88-91, 116 against one Gellius). Second, and most famously, there are between two dozen and 30 poems which relate to Catullus’ love affair with Lesbia (the exact number is uncertain because she is named explicitly in only 13). This woman (”Lesbia” is a pseudonym) is usually identified with Clodia, the wife of Q. Metellus Celer who was consul in 60 BC and died the following year.
These two main types of poem are interspersed with a refreshing variety of others: e.g., poems on homecoming (4, 9, 31, 46), homosexual love (e.g., 15, 48, 81, 99), his dead brother (101) the death of a friend’s wife (96), and literature (e.g., 35, 50, 95); there are mock hymns (36, 44) and a real hymn (34); and there is vers de societe (e.g., 10, 12-13, 25, 55, 84, 103), sometimes of a risque nature (e.g., 6, 32, 56, 110). As for the group of long poems, there are two on weddings (61-62); one (63) on the fanatical cult of the goddess Cybele, depicting the self-castration of her devotee Attis; an epyllion (miniature epic) on the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (64); a translation into Latin of Callimachus’ ”Lock of Berenice” (66), together with its epistolary introduction in verse (65); a dialogue with a door (67); another verse letter, on the death of his brother (68A); and an elegy which combines the themes of his brother’s death and his love for Lesbia with a complicated series of mythological illustrations (68B) (these last two are written as a single poem in the MSS and are still so regarded by many scholars). Of these long poems, 63 is one of the most remarkable poems in Latin on account of its theme; 64 is the only epyllion which survives from the literature of the late republic and early empire; and 68B is the forerunner of the poetry, of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. On these grounds alone, Catullus’ work would be significant; but his principal achievement lies elsewhere.
Such long poems as 64, 68, and 68B are characterized above all by the doctrina (learning, scholarship) which was dear to the other novi poetae (new poets) of Catullus’ generation and which was inspired by the work of the Greek librarian-poet Callimachus (ft. 250 BC). Until fairly recently it was often thought that there were, so to speak, ”two Catulluses”: the scholar-poet of the long poems, whose obscure and allusive verse was very much an acquired taste; and the simple poet of the polymetrics and epigrams, whose direct and passionate language had impressed centuries of readers. Yet this myth has been exploded by more recent scholarship, which has shown that learning, allusive-ness, and technical refinement are not restricted to the long poems but permeate much of the other poetry too. Indeed it is precisely in the area where doctrina interacts with the portrayal of emotion that Catullus holds most fascination for the reader who knows Latin and Greek and is prepared to put his knowledge to good use. For it is by no means easy to fully appreciate the poetry written by Callimachus and his followers, and many of Catullus’ polymetrics and epigrams require considerable effort for their understanding. Six examples, which appear to reflect his love affair from its beginning to its end, will make this clear.
Poem 51 is an expression of Catullus’ love for Lesbia, yet the poem is a translation and adaptation of a famous poem by Sappho (31); and the fact that Catullus has troubled to clarify the meaning of his exemplar suggests that he expected his readers, including Lesbia, to be aware of the problems raised by Sappho’s poem and to notice his own view of their solution. Poems 7 and 70 both have a ”twin” (5 and 72 respectively), which suggests that all four poems reflect episodes in the poet’s affair and are thus heavily biographical; yet 7 is full of learned allusion to the life and works of Callimachus, quite apart from treating us to a virtuoso display of oral imagery, while 70 is actually an adaptation of an epigram by Callimachus (25), which Catullus has completely transformed. Poem 85 is a two-line epigram of deceptive simplicity; yet its first three words (Odi et amo, ”I hate and love”) recall a theme which echoes back to the beginnings of Greek personal poetry, and the remainder of the couplet is a superb example of the arrangement and suggestiveness of apparently simple words. Poems 8 and 11 reflect the end of the affair, with all its bitterness; yet the former seems inspired by a soliloquy from the comic playwright Menander’s Samia (The Girl from Samos), and in the latter Catullus finds time to demonstrate his knowledge of the vernacular name for Egypt, of the original name for the Nile, and of the etymology of the word ”Alps” (we must remember that Callimachus’ most famous work was entitled Origins and that another work dealt with the foundations of islands and cities and their changes of name).
To the modern reader, these and countless other instances of doctrina may seem strange; but it is vital to appreciate that they in no way detract from, but rather enhance, the conviction with which Catullus expresses himself. He achieved that fusion of form and emotion which many believe to be the quintessence of poetry and which has made his work everlastingly memorable.
