Roman poet whose expressions of love and hatred are generally considered the finest lyric

poetry of ancient Rome. In 25 of his poems he speaks of his love for a woman he calls Lesbia,
whose identity is uncertain. Other poems by Catullus are scurrilous outbursts of contempt or
hatred for Julius Caesar and lesser personages.
Life
No ancient biography of Catullus survives. A few facts can be pieced together from external
sources, in the works of his contemporaries or of later writers, supplemented by inferences
drawn from his poems, some of which are certain, some only possible. The unembroidered,
certain facts are scanty. Catullus was alive 5554 bc on the evidence of four of his poems and
died young according to the poet Ovidat the age of 30 as stated by St. Jerome (writing
about the end of the 4th century), who nevertheless dated his life erroneously 8757 bc.
Catullus was thus a contemporary of the statesmen Cicero, Pompey, and Caesar, who are
variously addressed by him in his poems. He preceded the poets of the immediately
succeeding age of the emperor Augustus, among whom Horace, Sextus Propertius, Tibullus,
and Ovid name him as a poet whose work is familiar to them. On his own evidence and that
of Jerome, he was born at Verona in northern Italy and was therefore a native of Cisalpine
Gaul (Gaul This Side of the Alps); he owned property at Sirmio, the modern Sirmione, on
Lake Garda, though he preferred to live in Rome and owned a villa near the Roman suburb of
Tibur, in an unfashionable neighbourhood. According to an anecdote in the Roman biographer
Suetonius Life of Julius Caesar, Catullus father was Caesars friend and host, but the son
nevertheless lampooned not only the future dictator but also his son-in-law Pompey and his
agent and military engineer Mamurra with a scurrility that Caesar admitted was personally
damaging and would leave its mark on history; the receipt of an apology was followed by an
invitation to dinner the same day, and Caesars relations with the father continued
uninterrupted. (Suetonius cites the episode as an example of Caesars clemency.)
Catullus poetry reports one event, externally datable to c. 5756 bc, a journey to Bithynia in
Asia Minor in the retinue of Gaius Memmius, the Roman governor of the province, from
which he returned to Sirmio. It also records two emotional crises, the death of a brother whose
grave he visited in the Troad, also in Asia Minor, and an intense and unhappy love affair,
portrayed variously in 25 poems, with a woman who was married and whom he names
Lesbia, a pseudonym (Ovid states) for Clodia, according to the 2nd-century writer Apuleius.
His poems also record, directly or indirectly, a homosexual affair with a youth named
Juventius.
Such are the stated facts. The conjectural possibilities to be gleaned mostly from the internal
evidence of Catullus poetry extend a little further. It is accepted that Catullus was born c. 84
bc and that he died c. 54 bc. His fathers hospitality to Caesar may have been exercised in
Cisalpine Gaul when Caesar was governor of the province, but equally well at Rome
Suetonius does not indicate time or place. Catullus Roman villa may have been heavily
mortgaged (depending on the choice of manuscript reading of one poem). A yacht retired from
active service and celebrated in an iambic poem may have been his own, built in Bithynia, in
northwestern Asia Minor, and therefore available to convey him on his way home to Sirmio
after his tour of duty. His fellow poet Cinna may have accompanied him to Bithynia. For the
governor Memmius, himself a litterateur (to whom the Roman philosophic poet Lucretius
dedicated his poem on the nature of things, De rerum natura), such company might be
congenial, and it is possible to speculate that Cinna was on board the yacht. The brothers
grave could have been visited en route to or from Bithynia.

The poets Clodia may have been a patrician, one of the three Clodia sisters of Ciceros foe
Publius Clodius Pulcher, all three the subject of scandalous rumour, according to Plutarch. If
so, she was most probably the one who married the aristocrat Metellus Celer (consul 60 bc,
died 59 bc), who in 62 bc was governor of Cisalpine Gaul. It may have been at that time that
the youthful poet first met her and possibly fell under her spell. She is accorded a vivid if
unflattering portrait in Ciceros Pro Caelio, in which the orator had occasion to blacken her
character in order to defend his client against Clodias charge that as her lover after her
husbands death he had tried to poison her. The client was Marcus Caelius Rufus, conceivably
the Rufus reproached by Catullus in poem LXXVII as a trusted friend who had destroyed his
happiness (but if so, the Caelius of poem C is a different person). This identification of
Clodia, suggested by an Italian scholar of the 16th century, has found support in some
uncertain inferences from the Lesbia poems: the poets mistress besides being married
perhaps moved in society, enjoyed fashionable amusements, was cultivated and witty, and was
licentious enough to justify Ciceros attack. On the other hand, the poet twice appears to have
included the protection of his own rank among the gifts he had laid at her feet.
The poetry
A consideration of the text of Catullus poems and of its arrangement is of unusual interest. Its
survival has been as precarious as his biography is brief. Not being part of the school syllabus,
from roughly the end of the 2nd century to the end of the 12th century, it passed out of
circulation. Knowledge of it depends on a single manuscript discovered c. 1300, copied twice,
and then lost. Of the two copies, one in turn was copied twice, and then it was lost. From the
three survivorsin the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Bibliothque Nationale in Paris, and
the Vatican Library in Romescholars have been able to reconstruct the lost archetype.
Incorrect transcription in the preceding centuries (some 14 instances are beyond repair),
however, has invited frequent and often uncertain emendation. Depending on whether one
poem is divided or not, 113 or 114 poems survive. In the printed total of 116, numbers XVIII
to XX were inserted by early editors without proof that they were written by Catullus. In 14
instances gaps are visible (eight of these of one or more lines), and in possibly six poems
fragments of lost poems have been left attached to existing ones. Ancient citations indicate the
existence of at least five more poems. The surviving body of work is therefore mutilated and
incomplete and (in contrast to the Odes of Horace) cannot in its present published form
represent the intentions of either author or executors, despite the elegant dedication to the
historian Cornelius Nepos that heads it. With these qualifications, it permits the reconstruction
of a poetic personality and art unique in Latin letters.
The collection is headed by 57 short poems, ranging in length between 5 and 25 lines
(number X, an exception, has 34) in assorted metres, of which, however, 51 are either
hendecasyllabicthat is, having a verse line of 11 syllables (40 such)or iambicbasically
of alternate short and long syllables (11). These rhythms, though tightly structured, can be
characterized as occasional or conversational. There follow eight longer poems, ranging
from 48 lines to 408 (number LXV, of 24 lines, is prefatory to number LXVI) in four different
metres. The collection is completed by 48 epigrams written in the elegiac distich, or pair of
verse lines, and extending between 2 and 12 lines, a limit exceeded only by two poems, one of
26 lines and the other of 16.
This mechanical arrangement, by indirectly recognizing the poets metrical virtuosity and
proposing three kinds of composition, justly calls attention to a versatility disproportionate to

the slim size of the extant work. The occasional-verse metres and the elegiac distich had been
introduced into Latin before his day. Traditionally both forms, as practiced by Greek writers
after the 4th century bc and their Roman imitators, had served for inscriptions and dedications
and as verse of light occasions, satirical comment, and elegant sentiment. Catullus and his
contemporaries continued this tradition; but in some 37 instances the poet uniquely converts
these verse forms to serve as vehicles of feelings and observations expressed with such beauty
and wit, on the one hand, or such passion, on the other, as to rank him, in modern terms,
among the masters of the European lyricthe peer of Sappho and Shelley, of Burns and
Heinebut exhibiting a degree of complexity and contradiction that the centuries-later
Romantic temperament would scarcely have understood. The conversational rhythms in
particular, as he managed them for lyric purposes, achieved an immediacy that no other
classic poet can rival.
In his longer poems Catullus produced studies that deeply influenced the writers and poets of
the Augustan Age: two charming marriage hymns; one frenzied cult hymn of emasculation;
one romantic narrative in hexameters (lines of six feet) on the marriage of Peleus with the sea
goddess Thetis; and four elegiac pieces, consisting of an epistle introducing a translation of an
elegant conceit by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus, followed by a pasquinade, or scurrilous
conversation, between the poet and a door (of poor quality, perhaps a youthful effort), and
lastly a soliloquy (unless indeed this be two poems) addressed to a friend and cast in the form
of an encomium, or poem of praise. The Augustan poet Virgil is content to imitate Catullus
without naming him, even going so far, in the Aeneid, as thrice to borrow whole lines from
him. Horace both imitated Catullus and criticized him. Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, and later
Martial both imitate and affectionately commemorate him.
Assessment
In his lifetime, Catullus was a poets poet, addressing himself to fellow craftsmen (docti, or
scholarly poets), especially to his friend Licinius Calvus, who is often posthumously
commemorated along with him. It is now fashionable to identify this coterie as the poetae
novi, or Neoterics (the modern term for these new poets), who preferred the learned
allusiveness and mannered and meticulous art of the Alexandrian poets to the grander but
archaic fashion of Ennius, the father of Roman poetry. The school was criticized by Cicero
and by Horace, who names Calvus and Catullus. To the degree that Catullus shared such
conceptions of what might be called poetic scholarship, he is to be numbered in the company
of Gerard Manley Hopkins, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound rather than with the Romantics.
For the general reader, the 25 Lesbia poems are likely to remain the most memorable,
recording as they do a love that could register ecstasy and despair and all the divided
emotions that intervene. Two of them with unusual metre recall Sappho, the poetess of the
Aegean island of Lesbos, as also does his use of the pseudonym Lesbia. As read today, these
two seem to evoke the first moment of adoring love (number LI, a poem that actually
paraphrases its Sapphic model) and the last bitterness of disillusionment (number XI). On the
other hand, the poems of invective, which spare neither Julius Caesar nor otherwise unknown
personalities, male and female, may not have received the critical attention some of them
deserve. Their quality is uneven, ranging from the high-spirited to the tedious, from the
lapidary to the laboured, but their satiric humour is often effective, and their obscenity reflects
a serious literary convention that the poet himself defends. Between these two poles of private
feeling lie a handful of transcendent and unforgettable compositions: the lament at his
brothers grave; the salute to Sirmio his beloved retreat; the exchange of vows between Acme

and Septimius; his elegy for the wife of Calvus; and even that vivid mime of a moments
conversation in a leisured day, in which the gay insouciance of a few young persons of
fashion, the poet included, going about their affairs in the last days of the Roman Republic, is
caught and preserved for posterity.
Eric Alfred Havelock
Additional Reading
Verse translations include The Poems of Catullus, trans. by Frederic Raphael and Kenneth
McLeish (1978); The Poems of Catullus, trans. by Charles Martin (1979, reissued 1990); and
The Poems of Catullus, ed. and trans. by Guy Lee (1990). A prose translation, The Poems of
Gaius Valerius Catullus, trans. by Francis Warre Cornish, 2nd ed., rev. by G.P. Goold (1988,
reprinted with corrections, 1995), is part of The Loeb Classical Library series.
Kenneth Quinn (ed.), Catullus: The Poems, 2nd ed. (1973); and D.F.S. Thomson (ed.),
Catullus (1997, reissued 2003), comment on all poems.
Works that are useful for understanding the poet and his context include Kenneth Quinn, The
Catullan Revolution, 2nd ed. (1999), and Catullus: An Interpretation (1970); David O. Ross,
Jr., Style and Tradition in Catullus (1969); T.P. Wiseman, Catullus and His World: A
Reappraisal (1985, reissued 2000); John Kevin Newman, Roman Catullus and the
Modification of the Alexandrian Sensibility (1990); William Fitzgerald, Catullan
Provocations: Lyric Poetry and the Drama of Position (1995); and David Wray, Catullus and
the Poetics of Roman Manhood (2001). Collections of essays include Kenneth Quinn
(compiler), Approaches to Catullus (1972); Julia Haig Gaisser (ed.), Catullus (2007); and
Marilyn B. Skinner (ed.), A Companion to Catullus (2007).
Roman poet expresii ale cror de iubire i ur sunt n
general considerate cele mai frumoase poezia liric de la Roma
antic. n 25 din poeziile sale, el vorbete despre dragostea
lui pentru o femeie, el numete Lesbi, a crei identitate este
incert. Alte poezii de Catullus sunt izbucniri injurios de
dispre sau ur pentru Iulius Cezar i personaje mai mic.
Via
Nr biografie antic a Catullus a supravieuit. Cteva fapte
poate fi pieced mpreun din surse externe, n lucrrile de
contemporanii si sau de scriitori mai trziu, completate de
deducii extrase din poemele sale, dintre care unele sunt
anumite, unele doar posibile. Nebrodate, anumite fapte sunt
rar. Catullus a fost viu 55-54 .Hr. pe dovezile a patru dintre
poemele sale i a murit tnr, n conformitate cu poetul
Ovidiu-la vrsta de 30 de dup cum se menioneaz de ctre Sf.
Ieronim (scris, cu privire la sfritul secolului al 4-a), care
cu toate acestea, datat lui de via n mod eronat 87-57 .Hr..
Catullus a fost, aadar, un contemporan de stat Cicero, Pompei,
i Cezar, care sunt variat abordate de el n poemele sale. El a
precedat poei a urmat imediat vrsta de mprat Augustus,
printre care Horace, Sextus Propertius, Tibullus, i Ovidiu

numele de el, ca un poet a carui opera este familiar pentru ei.

Pe dovezi propriu i c a Ieronim, el a fost nscut la Verona,
n nordul Italiei i a fost, prin urmare, originar din Galia
Cisalpin (Galia de aceast parte a Alpilor); el a
proprietilor la Sirmio, Sirmione moderne, pe malul lacului
Garda, dei el a a preferat s triasc n Roma i a deinut-o
vil n apropierea suburbie roman de Tibur, ntr-un cartier
demodat. n conformitate cu o anecdot n viaa roman biograf
Suetonius "lui Iulius Cezar, tatl Catullus" a fost prietenul
lui Caesar i de gazd, dar fiul, cu toate acestea, nu numai
lampooned viitorului dictator, dar i pe fiul su socru Pompei
i agentul su i inginer militar Mamurra , cu o josnicie Cezar
a admis c a fost personal duntoare i ar lsa amprenta
asupra istoriei; primirea unei scuze, a fost urmat de o
invitatie la cina ", n aceeai zi," i relaiile lui Cezar cu
tatl a continuat nentrerupt. (Suetonius citeaz episod ca un
exemplu de graiere lui Cezar.)
Poezie Catullus "rapoarte de un singur eveniment, pe plan
extern databil la C. 57-56 .Hr., o cltorie la Bitinia din
Asia Mic, n suita de Gaius Memmius, guvernatorul roman al
provinciei, de la care sa ntors la Sirmio. De asemenea,
nregistreaz dou crize emoionale, moartea unui frate al
crui mormnt a vizitat n Troada, de asemenea, n Asia Mic,
precum i o afacere intens i nefericit dragoste, portretizat
diferite moduri in 25 de poezii, cu o femeie care a fost
cstorit i pe care el nume Lesbi , un pseudonim (Statele
Ovidiu) pentru Clodia, n conformitate cu 2a-Apuleius secolul
scriitor. Lui poezii, de asemenea, de nregistrare, n mod
direct sau indirect, o afacere cu un homosexual tineret numit
Juventius.
Astfel de fapte declarat. Posibiliti conjuncturale de a fi
deduse cea mai mare parte din dovezile interne de poezie
Catullus "extinde un pic mai departe. Este acceptat faptul c
Catullus sa nscut C. 84 .Hr. i c el a murit C. 54 .Hr..
Ospitalitatea tatlui su a lui Cezar s fi fost exercitat n
Galia Cisalpin cnd Cezar a fost guvernator al provinciei, dar
la fel de bine la Roma-Suetonius nu indic moment sau de loc.
Vila Catullus "roman poate s fi fost n mare msur ipotecat
(n funcie de alegerea de a citi manuscris de o poezie). Un
iaht sa retras din serviciul activ i a srbtorit ntr-un poem
iambic putea s fi fost al su propriu, construit n Bitinia,
n nord-vestul Asia Mic, i, prin urmare, disponibile pentru a
transmite-i n drum spre cas s Sirmio dup turneului su de
taxe. Poetul tovarii si Cinna poate fi nsoit el s
Bitinia. Pentru Memmius guvernator, el nsui un litterateur
(la care poetul roman filozofic Lucretius dedicat poemul su cu
privire la natura lucrurilor, De rerum natura), astfel de
companie ar putea fi favorabil, i este posibil s se specula
c Cinna a fost la bordul yacht. Mormntul fratele lui ar fi

putut fi vizitate n drum spre sau de la Bitinia.

Poetului Clodia poate s fi fost un patrician, una dintre cele
trei surori Clodia duman al lui Cicero Publius Clodius
Pulcher, toate cele trei obiectul zvonurilor scandaloase, n
funcie de Plutarh. Dac este aa, ea a fost cel mai probabil
.Hr., care sa cstorit cu un aristocrat Metellus Celer
(consul 60 .Hr., a murit 59), care, n 62 .Hr. a fost
guvernator al Cisalpin Galia. Se poate s fi fost la vremea
respectiv c poetul tineresc primul ntlnit-o i, eventual, a
czut sub vraja ei. Ea este atribuit o vie n cazul n care,
n portret unflattering lui Cicero Pro Caelio, n care orator
avut ocazia de a ponegri caracterul ei n scopul de a-i apra
clientul su fa de taxa de Clodia c, n calitate de iubitul
ei dup moartea soului ei, el a ncercat s otrava ei.
Clientul a fost Marcus Caelius Rufus, conceivably Rufus reproa
de Catullus n poemul LXXVII ca un prieten de ncredere, care
au distrus fericirea lui (dar n caz afirmativ, Caelius a
poemului C este o alt persoan). Aceast identificare a
Clodia, sugerat de un savant italian din secolul al 16-lea, a
gsit sprijin n unele inferente incerte din poemele Lesbi:
amanta poetului, dincolo de a fi cstorit, probabil, sa mutat
n societate, sa bucurat de amuzament la mod, a fost cultivate
i spiritual, i a fost licenios suficient pentru a justifica
atacul lui Cicero. Pe de alt parte, poetul de dou ori pare s
fi inclus de protecie de rang propria printre darurile el a
pus la picioarele ei.
Poezia
Un luarea n considerare a textului de poeme Catullus "i de
aranjament sale este de interes neobinuit. Supravieuirea
acesteia a fost la fel de precare ca biografia lui este scurta.
Nu face parte din programa colar, aproximativ de la sfritul
secolului al 2lea pn la sfritul secolului al 12-lea, acesta
a trecut din circulaie. Cunoaterea c depinde de un singur
manuscris descoperit C. 1300, copiat de dou ori, i apoi a
pierdut. Dintre cele dou exemplare, unul la rndul su a fost
copiat de dou ori, iar apoi a fost pierdut. Din trei
supravieuitori n Biblioteca Bodleiana la Oxford, Bibliothque
Nationale din Paris, i Biblioteca Vaticanului din Roma-savani
au fost capabile s reconstituie pierdut "arhetip." Incorrect
transcrierea n secolele anterioare (circa 14 cazuri sunt
dincolo de reparaii ), cu toate acestea, a invitat frecvente
i, adesea, nesigure emendation. n funcie de faptul dac o
poezie este mprit sau nu, 113 sau 114 poezii supravieui. n
total tiprite de 116, numere XVIII la XX au fost introdusa de
editori nceputul anului, fr o dovad c acestea au fost
scrise de Catullus. n 14 lacune cazuri sunt vizibile (opt
dintre aceste unul sau mai multe linii), i, eventual, n ase
fragmente de poezii de poezii pierdute au fost lsate ataat la

cele existente. Citatii Ancient indic existena a cel puin

cinci mai multe poezii. Organismul supravieuitor de lucru
este, prin urmare, mutilat i incomplet i (n contrast cu
Odes de Horace) nu poate n forma sa actual a publicat
reprezint inteniile fie autor sau executanti, n ciuda
dedicarea elegant de a istoricului Cornelius Nepos c efilor
acesta. Cu aceste calificri, ea permite reconstrucia o
personalitate poetic i de art unice n litere latine.
De colectare este condus de 57 "poezii scurt", variind n
lungime ntre 5 i 25 linii (numrul X, o excepie, are 34), n
metri asortate, din care, cu toate acestea, 51 sunt fie
endecasilabic-care este, cu o linie de verset din 11 silabe (40
astfel de)-sau iambic-supleant n esen, n silabe scurt i
lung (11). Aceste ritmuri, dei bine structurate, pot fi
caracterizate ca ocazional sau conversaie. Nu urmai poezii
opt "mai mult", variind de la 48 linii la 408 numrul LXV (, de
24 de linii, este prefaator la numrul LXVI), n patru metri
diferite. Colectia este completata de 48 "epigrame", scris n
distih elegiac, sau pereche de linii de versuri, i extinderea
ntre 2 i 12 de linii, o limit de depit doar de doua
poezii, unul din 26 de linii i a altor 16.
Acest aranjament mecanice, prin indirect, recunoscnd
virtuozitate poetului metrice i propune trei tipuri de
compoziie, pe bun dreptate atrage atenia la o versatilitate
disproporionat fa de mrimea subire de munc existente.
Ocazionale-metri versuri i distih elegiac au fost introduse n
limba latin nainte de ziua lui. n mod tradiional ambele
forme, astfel cum a practicat de scriitori greci, dup .Hr.
secolul al 4 si imitatori lor roman, au servit pentru
inscripii i dedicaii i ca versuri de ocazii lumina,
comentarii satirice, i sentimentul elegant. Catullus i
contemporanii si au continuat aceast tradiie, dar n unele
cazuri 37 poetul unic transform aceste forme verset pentru a
servi ca vehiculele de sentimente i observaiile exprimat cu o
astfel de frumusee i de spirit, pe de o parte, sau de astfel
de pasiune, pe de alt parte, n ceea ce rang-l, n termeni
moderni, printre comandanii lirice europene-peer de Sappho i
Shelley, de Burns i Heine-, dar care prezint un grad de
complexitate i contradicia care secole mai trziu
temperamentul romantic-ar fi greu de neles. Ritmurile de
conversaie, n special, ca el le-a reuit n scopuri lirice, a
atins un iminena c nici un alt poet classic poate rivale.
n mai sale poezii Catullus produse studiile care a influenat
profund scriitori i poei din epoca augustan: dou imnuri
fermector cstorie; un imn apucat de cult din neputin; o
povestire romantic n hexameters (linii de ase picioare) cu
privire la cstoria Peleus cu marea zeita Thetis, precum i
patru piese elegiac, constnd dintr-o epistol introduce o

traducere a unei vanitate elegant, de ctre Callimah poet

alexandrin, urmat de un pamflet, conversaie sau injurios,
ntre poet i o usa (de proast calitate, probabil, un efort
tineresc) , precum i n cele din urm un monolog (excepia
cazului n care ntr-adevr acest lucru s fie dou poeme),
adresat unui prieten i exprimate n forma unui panegiric, sau
poezie de laud. Poetul augustan Virgil se mulumete s imite
Catullus, fr a numi el, chiar i merge pn n prezent, n
Eneida, ca de trei ori pentru a mprumuta linii ntregi de la
el. Horace att Catullus imitat si a criticat el. Tibullus,
Propertius, Ovidiu, iar mai trziu Martiale att imita i de
afectuos comemora el.
Evaluare
n timpul vieii sale, Catullus a fost un poet poetului,
adresndu-se la artizani colegi (docti, poei sau tiinifice),
n special pentru prietenul su Licinius Calvus, care este de
multe ori post-mortem srbtorit mpreun cu el. Acum este la
moda de a identifica aceast bisericu ca Novi poetae, sau
"Neoterics" (termenul modern pentru aceste poei noi), care a
preferat allusiveness nvat i manierat i arta meticuloas a
poei alexandrin la mre, dar moda arhaic al Ennius, tatl
poeziei romane. coala a fost criticat de Cicero i de ctre
Horace, care au nume Calvus i Catullus. Pentru a msura n
care astfel de concepii Catullus n comun a ceea ce ar putea
fi numit de burse de poetic, el trebuie s fie numerotate n
cadrul companiei de Gerard Manley Hopkins, TS Eliot, Ezra Pound
i, mai degrab dect cu romanticii.
Pentru cititorul general, cele 25 de poezii Lesbi sunt de
natur s rmn cele mai memorabile, de nregistrare ca fac o
iubire care ar putea nregistra ecstasy i disperarea i toate
emoiile divizate care intervin. Dou dintre ele, cu
neobinuite rechemare Sappho metru, poeta a insulei Lesbos din
Marea Egee, astfel cum a face, de asemenea, utilizarea lui de
pseudonimul Lesbi. Ca citit astzi, aceste dou par a evoca
primul moment de adorare dragoste (numr LI, o poezie care de
fapt parafrazeaza modelului su Sapphic), precum i amrciunea
ultima deziluzie (numrul XI). Pe de alt parte, poeme de
insult, care de schimb nici Iuliu Cezar, nici personalitati
altfel necunoscut, brbai i femei, nu pot fi primit atenia
critice unele dintre ele merit. Calitatea lor este inegal,
variind de la aprig la plictisitoare, de la lapidare pentru a
ostenit, dar umorul lor satiric este adesea eficiente, precum
i obscenitate lor reflect o convenie grave literare c
poetul nsui apr. ntre aceti doi poli de sentiment privat
se afl o mn de transcendent i compoziii de neuitat:
lamenta la mormntul fratelui su, salutul Sirmio s se retrag
pe iubita lui, schimb de jurminte ntre Acme i Septimius; lui
elegie pentru soia lui Calvus; i chiar mim c vii de

conversaie un moment ntr-o zi tihnit, n care insouciance gay

de cateva persoane tinere de moda, poetul a inclus, mergnd cu
privire la afacerile lor n ultimele zile ale Republicii
Romane, este prins i conservate pentru posteritate.
Eric Alfred Havelock
Reading suplimentare
Traduceri Versetul includ Poezii de Catullus, trad. de Frederic
Raphael i Kenneth McLeish (1978); Poezii de Catullus, trad. de
Charles Martin (1979, 1990 reemis) i Poezii de Catullus, ed.
i Trans. de Guy Lee (1990). O traducere proza, poezii de Gaius
Valerius Catullus, trad. de Francis Warre Cornish, 2nd ed.,
rev. de G.P. Goold (1988, retiprit cu corecturi, 1995), face
parte din seria clasice Loeb Bibliotec.
Kenneth Quinn (ed.), Catullus: Poezii, 2nd ed. (1973); i
D.F.S. Thomson (ed.), Catullus (1997, republicat 2003),
observaii cu privire la toate poezii.
Lucrri care sunt utile pentru nelegerea poetului i
contextul su includ Kenneth Quinn, Revoluia Catullan, 2nd ed.
(1999), i Catullus: o interpretare (1970); David O. Ross, Jr.,
Stil i tradiie n Catullus (1969); TP Wiseman, Catullus i
lumea lui: o reevaluare (1985, 2000 reemis); John Kevin
Newman, Roman Catullus i modificarea sensibilitii
Alexandriei (1990); William Fitzgerald, provocri Catullan:
Versuri Poezie i drama Position (1995); i David Wray,
Catullus i Poetica romane brbia (2001). Colecii de eseuri
includ Kenneth Quinn (compilator), abordri pentru a Catullus
(1972); Julia Haig Gaisser (ed.), Catullus (2007); i Marilyn
B. Skinner (ed.), o companie pentru Catullus (2007).