The Roman Poets of the Republic Part 54

[Footnote 37: Cf. poems x. 30, etc., and xcv.]

[Footnote 38: Cf. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus, p. 214.]

[Footnote 39: An entirely different interpretation has recently been given to this poem (Schmidt, Prolegomena, x.x.xix, 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

'pessimus omnium poeta;'

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 const.i.tutional 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 pa.s.sed 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.]

[Footnote 40: Cf. xxiv. 7:--

Qui? non est h.o.m.o bellus? inquies. Est.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 42: Horace contrasts the 'dirge of Simonides'

('Ceae retractes munera neniae') with the lighter poetry of love.]

[Footnote 43: Cf. Munro's Lucretius, p. 468, third edition.]

[Footnote 44: lxxii. 5-8:--

Nunc te cognovi: quare etsi impensius uror, Multo mi tamen es vilior et levior.

Qui potis est? inquis. Quia amantem iniuria talis Cogit amare magis, set bene velle minus.]

[Footnote 45: lx.x.xv. 1.]

[Footnote 46: xi. 23.]

[Footnote 47: lxxvi.]

[Footnote 48:

'Calvus, if those now silent in the tomb Can feel the touch of pleasure in our tears For those we loved, who perished in their bloom, And the departed friends of former years: Oh then, full surely thy Quintilia's woe, For the untimely fate that bade ye part, Will fade before the bliss she feels to know How very dear she is unto thy heart.'--Martin.]

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

Dii magni, salaputium disertum.]

[Footnote 50: xii.]

[Footnote 51: x.x.xviii.]

[Footnote 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_.]

[Footnote 53: lxxvi. 1-4.]

[Footnote 54: Cf. lxiii. 12:--

Neu me odisse putes hospitis officium.]

[Footnote 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.']

[Footnote 56: lxxvi. 19.]

[Footnote 57: xvi. 5-6.]

[Footnote 58: lx.x.xiv. Cicero also was afflicted by a bore of the same name, who stayed away from Rome in order 'that he might pa.s.s 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 Cra.s.sus ('qui fuit M. Cra.s.si 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 Cra.s.sus in his Syrian province. The poem would thus be written about the end of 55 B.C. Schmidt.]

[Footnote 59: Hor. A. P. 437-38:--

Quintilio si quid recitares, Corrige, sodes, Hoc aiebat et hoc.

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.]

[Footnote 60: vii. 7-8.]

[Footnote 61: xi. 22-24.]

[Footnote 62: xvii. 12-15 and 15-16.]

[Footnote 63: E.g.

Litus ut longe resonante Eoa Tunditur unda.]

[Footnote 64: 'Criticisms and Elucidations,' etc. p. 73.]

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

[Footnote 66: x.x.xiv. 7-12:--

Quam mater prope Deliam Deposivit olivam, Montium domina ut fores Silvarumque virentium Saltuumque reconditorum Amniumque sonantum.]

[Footnote 67: lxi. 122-46.]

[Footnote 68: lxiv. 89-90.]

[Footnote 69:

'Soon my eyes shall see, mayhap, Young Torquatus on the lap Of his mother, as he stands Stretching out his tiny hands, And his little lips the while Half open on his father's smile.

'And oh! may he in all be like Manlius his sire, and strike Strangers when the boy they meet As his father's counterfeit, And his face the index be Of his mother's chast.i.ty.'--Martin.]

[Footnote 70: Cf. Mr. Ellis's notes on the poem.]