Page "Catullus" Paragraph 4

Catullus appears to have spent most of his young adult years in Rome.

His friends there included the poets Licinius Calvus, and Helvius Cinna, Quintus Hortensius ( son of the orator and rival of Cicero ) and the biographer Cornelius Nepos, to whom Catullus dedicated a libellus of poems, the relation of which to the extant collection remains a matter of debate.

He appears to have been acquainted with the poet Marcus Furius Bibaculus.

A number of prominent contemporaries appear in his poetry, including Cicero, Caesar and Pompey.

According to an anecdote preserved by Suetonius, Caesar did not deny that Catullus's lampoons left an indelible stain on his reputation, but when Catullus apologized, he invited the poet for dinner the very same day.