CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius, Roman poet: b. Verona 87 or 84 a.c.; d. probably 54 B.C. He is deemed by some to be Rome's greatest lyric poet, by others to be second only to Horace. His family seems to have had social standing and at least moderate means; for his father often entertained Julius Caesar, and the poet apparently never had to earn his living. While still a youth he could go to Rome and there complete an excellent education. It was in the expensive metropolis, too, that he chiefly re sided, although his native town and his villa at Sirmio on the Lago di Garda, and another not far from fashionable Tivoli would from time to time claim his presence. His one trip abroad may have been a financial venture, but it was perhaps mainly to visit the storied cities of the East that he joined the staff of Memmius, who governed Bithynia in 57-56 B.c. The provincials proved too poor to yield profit even to an un scrupulous official, much less to one of his suite, and Catullus vented his spleen in lampoons that contrast strikingly with the eulogies of the other great contemporary poet, Lucretius, who revered Memmius as his patron. Catullus' trip did, however, allow a visit to the grave in the Troad of his only brother. His expressions of inconsolable grief are among the most affecting in Latin literature. In lively contrast are the two inimitable poems that voice his joy at re turning home. The year's absence had at least quenched the last embers of his passion for Les bia, who had been for some years the curse and inspiring genius of his life. According to the generally accepted theory, Lesbia is his pseu donym for perhaps the most remarkable woman of the day, Clodia, the sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher. She was at least 7, and perhaps 11, years older than Catullus, and in 61 a.c., when he fell in love with her, was the wife of Metel lus Celer, a consul-elect. Apparently even Cicero did not wholly escape the fascination of this beautiful though utterly dissolute queen of the Roman "fast set.' The course of the poet's liaison may be traced in a series of poems that expose his inmost feelings with a power and vividness that critics deem almost unequaled. To the period of difficult courtship belong madly passionate lyrics and the dainty "spar row-songs.° Next a lovers' quarrel and recon ciliation engage our sympathies. Soon, how ever, the poet's faith in Lesbia's fidelity wanes, and with it all purer love, although his passion grows only the wilder and more intense. The poems in which he assails successive rivals, be ginning with the brilliant but disreputable Callus Rufus, are marvels of invective. It is only after his return from Bithynia that Catul lus seems fully to appreciate the hopeless in famy of his former mistress, when he sends a scalding reply apparently to a proffer of recon ciliation. While it is this cycle of love poems• that has immortalized Catullus, he wrote ad- • mirably on other subjects. In spite of a life of pleasure, he had energy to study thoroughly the early Greek lyric poets, and especially the technical achievements of the Alexandrine which began now to have great influence upon tin poetry. Although some direct trans
lations from the Greek also attest his interest in these models, Catullus remained peculiarly independent. No matter how much his lyrics may show the results of his studies, they were primarily an outlet for feelings that compelled utterance, and not, like Horace's odes, a purely intellectual performance. He is less original in some of his long poems. The longest is an epithalamium, in Alexandrine style, upon the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, introducing also the story of Theseus and Ariadne. While Catullus work in mythological epic no doubt made that of later writers, including Virgil, easier, his daring dithyrambic poem on Attis has remained unique. On the other hand, his epithalamia are the forerunners others in Latin literature, as also of the marriage poems of Spenser, Jonson and Herrick. Horace also often appears in his odes the poet's debtor, though in artistic form his superior. In epigram Martial is ready to concede the palm to Catullus as well as Marsus, though himself the acknowledged master of that form. Fur thermore, in the leading elegiac writers, Tibul Propertius and Ovid, we clearly see their obligations to Catullus and often read his praises. He enjoyed, too, the admiration of contemporary writers, and not alone those of his own school of poetry, like Calvin and Cinna; for the historian Nepos seems to have started him auspiciously in his literary career. To him he gratefully dedicated a partial edi tion of his poems. Other famous Romans that receive kindly mention are Asinius Pollio, Hor tensius, Cicero's great rival in oratory, and Cicero himself. Caesar, however, is attacked with a fearlessness as amazing as the language is shocking. But in judging Catullus' obsceni ties, his liaison with Clodia, and other even less creditable relations, moderns are charitable in proportion to their knowledge of the standards of that age. Even the severest are won to sym pathy, if not affection, by happier glimpses of the poet's character. In an age of insincerity every word of his rings perfectly true. His gentler side appears in his verses on babies, flowers and the beauties of nature, in his affec tion for his brother and his friends, and even in the better aspects of his love for Lesbia. Be sides the English poets already named, Prior, Gray, Byron, Landor and Tennyson have shown especial admiration of Catullus. Among numerous excellent editions of the poet, the text edition of Ellis (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1904) may be named; also the editions of Bahrens (Leipzig 1885) ; Merrill (Boston 1893); and Friedrich (Leipzig 1908). Besides the com mentary by Ellis (second edition 1889), the English reader has thepoetical translations of Theodore Martin (1861), those in prose by Francis W. Cornish (Cambridge University Press 1912), and perhaps, best of all, Hugh Macnaghten's (The Story of Catullus.'