Gaius Valerius Catullus (c.84 BCE - c.54 BCE) was one of the most influential Roman poets of the 1st century BCE.

Of Catullus' life little is known for sure. Most sources agree (Suetonius) that he was born in or near Verona, though the Palatine hill of Rome has been mentioned as an alternative nati loci. He was an offspring of a leading family from Verona, but lived in Rome most of his life. In 57 BCE, he accompanied his friend Memmius to Bithynia, where Memmius had received a propraetor's post. Catullus' only political office was one year on the staff of the governer of Bithynia.

His poetry was greatly influenced by the Greek neoteroi, especially by Callimachus, who propagated a new style of poetry, deliberately turning away from the classical epic poetry in the tradition of Homer. Their poems no longer described the feats of ancient heroes and gods but concentrated on small-scale personal themes. Although these poems sometimes seem quite superficial and their subject often are mere everyday concerns, they nevertheless are accomplished works of art.

The work of Catullus was handed down as an anthology of 116 carmina (presumably not arranged by the author), which can be divided into three formal parts: 60 short poems in varying metres, called [[polymetra]], 8 longer poems and 48 epigrams.

The longer poems differ from the polymetra and the epigrams not only in length but also in their subjects: They are hymns and one mini-epic.

The polymetra and the epigrams can be divided into three major thematical groups (ignoring a rather large number of poems eluding such categorization):

• poems to and about his friends (e.g. invitations).
• erotic poems: some of them imply homosexual penchants, but most are about women, especially about one he calls "Lesbia" (in honor of the poetess Sappho of Lesbos, source and inspiration of many of his poems); philologists have taken considerable efforts to discover her real identity, and many concluded that Lesbia was Clodia, sister of the infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher, a woman known for her generous sexuality, but this identification rests on some rather fragile assumptions.
• invectives: some of these often quite rude or downrightly obscene poems are targeted towards ex-friends, but many well known poets, politicians (e.g. Julius Caesar) and rhetors get their thrashing, too.

All these poems describe the rather Epicurean lifestyle of Catullus and his friends, who lived withdrawn from (though not oblivious to) politics. They were mainly interested in poetry and love, and the ancient Roman concept of virtus (i.e. of virtue that had to be proved either by a political career or by military valor), which Cicero propagated as the solution to the societal problems of the late Republic, meant nothing to them.

But it is not actually the traditional notions Catullus rejects, but merely their monopolized application to the vita activa of politics and war. Indeed, he tries to reinvent these notions from a personal point of view and to introduce them into human relationship. For example, he applies the word fides, which traditionally meant faithfulness towards one's political allies, to his relationship to Lesbia and reinterprets it as unconditional faithfulness in love. So, despite his seemingly frivolous lifestyle Catullus measured himself and his friends by quite ambitious standards.

Catullus was an admirer of Sappho, and is the source for much of what we know or infer about that almost legendary poetess of the 7th century BCE. Catullus 51 is a direct verse translation of Sappho 31, and Catullus 61 and Catullus 62 are certainly inspired by and perhaps translated directly from lost works of Sappho. 61 and 62 are Epithalamia, a form of laudatory or erotic wedding-poem that Sappho had been famous for but that had gone out of fashion in the intervening centuries. In fact, Catullus may have brought about a substantial revival of the form in Rome.

It isn't known for sure when Catullus died; some ancient sources tell he died from exhaustion at the age of 30. Subsequently, his poems were appreciated by other poets and intellectuals, but politicians like Cicero despised them because of their amorality, and Catullus was not considered one of the canonical school authors. Nevertheless, he greatly influenced later poets like Ovid, Horace and even Virgil and after his rediscovery in the Middle Ages, he again found admirers. Still his sometimes quite explicit writing style was shocking to many readers, both ancient and modern, and until recently it was not easy to find an equally explicit translation of some of his poems. Jacob Rabinowitz has since remedied this.

Contents

1 Works 1.1 Polymetra (Book 1) 1-60 1.2 Book 2 61-64 1.3 Epigrams (Book 3) 64-116 2 External links

Works

See Carmina for some of the texts in latin until this page is completed. When completing articles about the following poems, please use something similar to

==Latin text==
==English translation==
==Meter/scansion==
==General comments==
==Sources==

as a template for consistancy.

Polymetra (Book 1) 1-60

• Catullus 1
• Catullus 2
• Catullus 2b
• Catullus 3
• Catullus 4
• Catullus 5
• Catullus 6
• Catullus 7
• Catullus 8
• Catullus 9
• Catullus 10
• Catullus 11
• Catullus 12
• Catullus 13
• Catullus 14
• Catullus 14b
• Catullus 15
• Catullus 16
• Catullus 17

Carmen 18-20 were included in a 17th century publication, but were later found not to be writen by Catullus.

• Catullus 21
• Catullus 22
• Catullus 23
• Catullus 24
• Catullus 25
• Catullus 26
• Catullus 27
• Catullus 28
• Catullus 29
• Catullus 30
• Catullus 31
• Catullus 32
• Catullus 33
• Catullus 34
• Catullus 35
• Catullus 36
• Catullus 37
• Catullus 38
• Catullus 39
• Catullus 40
• Catullus 41
• Catullus 42
• Catullus 43
• Catullus 44
• Catullus 45
• Catullus 46
• Catullus 47
• Catullus 48
• Catullus 49
• Catullus 50
• Catullus 51
• Catullus 52
• Catullus 53
• Catullus 54
• Catullus 55
• Catullus 56
• Catullus 57
• Catullus 58
• Catullus 58b
• Catullus 59
• Catullus 60

Book 2 61-64

• Catullus 61
• Catullus 62
• Catullus 63
• Catullus 64

Epigrams (Book 3) 64-116

• Catullus 65
• Catullus 66
• Catullus 67
• Catullus 68
• Catullus 69
• Catullus 70
• Catullus 71
• Catullus 72
• Catullus 73
• Catullus 74
• Catullus 75
• Catullus 76
• Catullus 77
• Catullus 78
• Catullus 78b
• Catullus 79
• Catullus 80
• Catullus 81
• Catullus 82
• Catullus 83
• Catullus 84
• Catullus 85
• Catullus 86
• Catullus 87
• Catullus 88
• Catullus 89
• Catullus 90
• Catullus 91
• Catullus 92
• Catullus 93
• Catullus 94
• Catullus 95
• Catullus 95b
• Catullus 96
• Catullus 97
• Catullus 98
• Catullus 99
• Catullus 100
• Catullus 101
• Catullus 102
• Catullus 103
• Catullus 104
• Catullus 105
• Catullus 106
• Catullus 107
• Catullus 108
• Catullus 109
• Catullus 110
• Catullus 111
• Catullus 112
• Catullus 113
• Catullus 114
• Catullus 115
• Catullus 116

External links

• Catullus' work in Latin and over 25 other languages at Catullus Translations: http://www.negenborn.net/catullus/

• Find other Catullus-minded people and discuss his works with them at the Catullus Forum: http://www.negenborn.net/catullus/forum/

• The complete poems of Catullus at The Latin Library: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/catullus.html