The Roman Poets of the Republic Part 53

[Footnote 11: xxv, xl, xlii, etc.]

[Footnote 12: Cf. viii, x.x.xviii, lxv, etc.]

[Footnote 13: liii.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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 a.s.signs 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.]

[Footnote 16: Cf. x, xiii, xxvi, xli, ciii.]

[Footnote 17: lviii. 3; lxxix. 2.]

[Footnote 18: Cf. cx, xli.]

[Footnote 19: Reading suggested by Munro.]

[Footnote 20: E.g. lxiv. 240-41:--

Ceu pulsae ventorum flamine nubes, Aerium nivei montis liquere cac.u.men.

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

Qualis in aerii perlucens vertice montis Rivos muscoso prosilit e lapide, etc.]

[Footnote 21: For his influence on the art of the [Greek: neoteroi] cf. Schmidt, Prolegomena, p. lxii.]

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

[Footnote 23: Cf. xcv. 7:

At Volusi Annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 25: lxviii. 15-18.]

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

[Footnote 27: lxviii^b.]

[Footnote 28: The _Caelius_ addressed in some of the poems is not M. Caelius Rufus, but a Veronese friend and confidant of Catullus--

'Flos Veronensum ... iuvenum.'

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

[Footnote 29: Among other indications the vow of Lesbia (x.x.xvi) throws light on her literary taste and accomplishment.]

[Footnote 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 _regime_. 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.]

[Footnote 31: lxviii^b. 105-6.]

[Footnote 32: The poem lxviii--

Quod mihi fortuna casuque oppressus acerbo--

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.]

[Footnote 33: That of Westphal.]

[Footnote 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,

Pisonis comites, cohors inanis,

and xlvii,

Porci et Socration, duae sinistrae Pisones, etc.,

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,

Satisne c.u.m isto Vappa frigoraque et famem tulistis?

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,

Visam te incolumem audiamque Hiberum Narrantem loca, facta, nationes,

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 circ.u.mstances.]

[Footnote 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

Non possum reticere

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

Quod mihi fortuna, etc.,

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.]

[Footnote 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 pa.s.sage 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.]