* Mnemosynus, presumably meaning a keepsake or aide-memoire, only appears in Poem 12 of Catullus ' Carmina.

The first literary reference to Attis is the subject of one of the most famous poems by Catullus but it appears that Attis was not worshipped at Rome until the early Empire.

Wiseman argues that after the brother's death Catullus could have married, and that, in this case, the later Valerii Catulli may have been his descendants.

Above all other qualities, Catullus seems to have valued venustas, or charm, in his acquaintances, a theme which he explores in a number of his poems.

In fact, Catullus may have brought about a substantial revival of that form in Rome.

The short love lyrics of Catullus have never been surpassed in emotional intensity.

With the exception of a few major writers, such as Cicero, Caesar, Lucretius and Catullus, ancient accounts of Republican literature are glowing accounts of jurists and orators who wrote prolifically but who now can't be read because their works have been lost, or analyses of language and style that appear insightful but can't be verified because there are no surviving instances.

Silphium as Laserpicium makes an appearance in a poem ( Catullus 7 ) of Catullus to his lover Lesbia ( though others have suggested that the reference here is instead to silphium's use as a treatment for mental illness, tying it to the ' madness ' of love ).

Many erotic poems have survived from Ancient Greece and Rome, the authors including the Greeks Straton of Sardis, Sappho of Lesbos ( lyrics ); and the Romans Automedon ( The Professional and Demetrius the Fortunate ), Philodemus ( Charito ), Marcus Argentarius, Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, Martial and Juvenal and the anonymous Priapeia.

However, because all three sisters possessed the name Clodia, difficulties arise in proving that Catullus ’ s lover must have been the Clodia Metelli featured in the Pro Caelio.

Moreover, scholars have widely assumed that the characters Caelius and Rufus who feature in several poems of Catullus should be identified with the defendant of the Pro Caelio, Caelius Rufus.

On the contrary, Wiseman proves that Caelius Rufus could not have been Catullus ’ Caelius because the latter was Veronese while the former was certainly not.

pp. 287-293 ), from which it is difficult to see how ancient critics could have regarded him as the master of Ovid or Catullus.

Though homoeroticism can differ from the interpersonal homoerotic — as a set of artistic and performative traditions, in which such feelings can be embodied in culture and thus expressed into the wider society — some authors have cited the influence of personal experiences in ancient authors such as Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius in their homoerotic poetry.

The epyllion was a popular style of composition which seems to have developed in the Hellenistic age ; surviving examples can be found in Theocritus and Catullus.

She may have been a poet in her own right, included with Catullus in a list of famous poets whose lovers " often " helped them write their verses.

The poem Coma Berenices by Greek poet Callimachus ( lost, but known in a Latin translation or paraphrase by Catullus ), apparently refers to her killing of Demetrius: " Let me remind you how stout-hearted you were even as a young girl: have you forgotten the brave deed by which you gained a royal marriage?

– Catullus is not the only poet who translated Sappho ’ s poem to use for himself: Pierre de Ronsard is also known to have translated a version of it.

As an alternative Festus suggests a connection with fascinus, the Latin word referring to a phallus-shaped amulet used to ward off the evil eye, either because the Fescennina were regarded as a protection against evil influences ( see Munro, Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus, p. 76 ) or because the phallus, as the symbol of fertility, would from early times have been naturally associated with harvest festivals.

The most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64.

David Campbell has briefly summarized some of the most arresting qualities of Sappho's poetry: Clarity of language and simplicity of thought are everywhere evident in our fragments ; wit and rhetoric, so common in English love-poetry and not quite absent from Catullus ' love poems, are nowhere to be found.

Cerinthus was most likely a pseudonym, in the style of the day ( e. g. Catullus ' Lesbia, Ovid's Corinna ).

If we except Catullus and Simonides, it might be hard to match and it would be impossible to overmatch the flawless and blameless yet living and breathing beauty of his most perfect elegies, epigrams or epitaphs.

The most common evidence for this connection is the implied charge of incest usually detected in Catullus 79 in comparison to the charges of incest against Clodia Metelli in the Pro Caelio.

The main historical landmark of Sirmione is the so-called Grotto of Catullus ( Grotte di Catullo ), the most striking example of a Roman private edifice discovered in northern Italy.

The most significant surviving Latin Neoteric is Catullus.

As scholar and poet John Swinnerton Phillimore has noted, " The charm of this poem, blurred as it is by a corrupt manuscript tradition, has made it one of the most famous in Catullus ' book.

The last words, " Hail and Farewell " ( in Latin, ave atque vale ), are among Catullus ' most famous ; an alternative modern translation might be " I salute you ... and goodbye ".

One of Catullus's fiercer examples, expunged from most post-classical collections of his work until the 20th century, is Catullus 16, written against two critics:

* The 20th-century Irish poet Louis MacNeice references Catullus in his poem " Epitaph for Liberal Poets ," where he mentions Catullus as amongst the first liberal poets-" Catullus / went down young ," mentioning him in the context of the death of the individual and recognising his and the universal plight.

The story tells of Catullus, a lovesick young man who falls in love with Lesbia, a woman who does not remain faithful to him.

He continued his teaching and retired from the university in 1920, spending the next eight years conducting research on a manuscript of Catullus he discovered in Rome in 1896.

It was probably in Rome that Catullus fell deeply in love with the " Lesbia " of his poems, who is usually identified with Clodia Metelli, a sophisticated woman from the aristocratic house of patrician family Claudii Pulchri and sister of the infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher.

The edition with works by Tibullus, Catullus, and Propertius was printed in 1746 ( Typis Salamonii, Rome ).

He is credited with introducing Hellenistic epigram to Rome and fostering a taste for short, personal poems that comes to fruition with the lyric oeuvre of Valerius Catullus in the 50s BC.

Catullus: A Poet in the Rome of Julius Caesar.

" Napkins in Ancient Rome were handmade and therefore far more valuable than they are today ; also, Catullus has a sentimental attachment to the napkins, as they were a gift from two close friends, Fabullus and Veranius.

* Catullus, LXIV.

Gaius Valerius Catullus ( ca.

Catullus came from a leading equestrian family of Verona in Cisalpine Gaul, and according to St. Jerome, he was born in the town.

In one of his poems Catullus describes his happy return to the family villa at Sirmio on Lake Garda near Verona.

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.

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.

In his poems Catullus describes several stages of their relationship: initial euphoria, doubts, separation, and his wrenching feelings of loss.

There survives no ancient biography of Catullus: his life has to be pieced together from scattered references to him in other ancient authors and from his poems.

Though upon his elder brother's death Catullus lamented that their “ whole house was buried along ” with the deceased, the existence ( and prominence ) of Valerii Catulli is attested in the following centuries.

After his rediscovery in the late Middle Ages, Catullus again found admirers.

Indeed, Catullus was never considered one of the canonical school authors, although his body of work is on the reading lists for American Ph. D. programs in the classics, and is still taught at secondary school level in the United Kingdom.

There is no scholarly consensus on whether Catullus himself arranged the order of the poems.

* condolences: some poems of Catullus are solemn in nature.

All these poems describe the lifestyle of Catullus and his friends, who, despite Catullus's temporary political post in Bithynia, lived their lives withdrawn from politics.

But it is not the traditional notions Catullus rejects, but rather their particular application to the vita activa of politics and war.

So, despite seeming frivolity of his lifestyle, Catullus measured himself and his friends by quite ambitious standards.

Catullus and Callimachus did not describe the feats of ancient heroes and gods ( except perhaps in re-evaluating and predominantly artistic circumstances, e. g. poems 63 and 64 ), focusing instead on small-scale personal themes.