GATT] WAIL. See KAT'ITWAlt, ante.
CATIIL'Ll7S, VALE'MUS, a celebrated Roman lyrist, was b. at Verona, 87 B.C. His father was an friend of Julius Ctesar, and the young poet must have frequently met the great warrior at the paternal residence, when the latter was on his way to Gaul. In early life, he went to Rome, where his career was that of an Epicurean, and the expense of this kind of living soon involved him in pecuniary difficulties. To release himself from these, he followed the praetor Memmius to Bithynia, with the intention, like his superior, of wringing a fortune out of the provincials. This fashionable but felonious method of acquiring money did not succeed in C.'s case, mainly, however, through the more dexterous cupidity of Memmius. After his return, C. appears to have lived mostly in Rome, and in very straitened circumstances. When he died is unknown. His poems, 116 in number, chiefly consisting of lyrics and epigrams—first brought to light by Benvenuto Campesani of Verona in the beginning of the 14th c.—have always
been justly admired for their exquisite grace and beauty of style; but are, in many places, grossly indecent. In higher styles of writing, C. was equally successful, especially in his odes, of which, unfortunately, only four have been preserved. His heroic or narrative poem on the marriage of Pelcus and Thetis—consisting of more than 400 hexameter lines—and the wild enthusiastic poem entitled Atys, arc especially worthy of notice. Most of the earlier editions of C. include the works of Tihullus and Proper tins. The best modern editions are by Sillig (1823), Lachmann (1829), and Ellis (1867 and 1878). There are English translations by Lamb (1821), Martin (1861), Cranstoun (1867), etc. See Munro's Criticisms (1878).