[unclear: ems] of Catullus

[unclear: Raphael ]

[unclear: pe]. $8.10

Often, in Classical literature, an author [unclear: nentioned] in glowing terms by his con[unclear: poraries] and successors, but it is rare [unclear: t the] same author's work survives down [unclear: he] present day. Gaius Valerius Catullus [unclear: just] such a person but, in his case, the [unclear: option] to the above rule has occurred, [unclear: eronese] wine merchant decided for [unclear: ne] reason to stuff a copy of his works [unclear: o] an empty wine measuring vessel and [unclear: was] rediscovered in the 1400's. This [unclear: gle] manuscript became the source of [unclear: the] present manuscripts that exist but [unclear: s] not itself in perfect condition. So what [unclear: survived] is a fairly random selection of [unclear: ullus's] work.

About Catullus himself very little is known, [unclear: most] from his own work. He was born, [unclear: bibly], about 84 BC and, if we believe St [unclear: ome], died at the age of thirty. Hence [unclear: ullus] lived during the last years of the [unclear: man] Republic and the beginning of the [unclear: pire]. He was also, like Cicero, a bright [unclear: from] the provinces who made good [unclear: ongst] the smart set at Rome.

[unclear: Catullus] was influenced by his predec[unclear: sors] but especially by the Greek poets [unclear: m] which he drew extensively. Sometimes [unclear: se] poems would be modified to give a [unclear: le] more relevant to his own time, but of[unclear: if] they were effective enough, he would [unclear: ve] them as they were, simply translating [unclear: m] into Latin. One of his successors in [unclear: was] poem 51 'More godlike he seems [unclear: me]'; almost a direct plagarism from Sappho [unclear: other] of his major influences was the Alex[unclear: drian] school with it's sharp witty poems [unclear: h] as those of Sotades or of Callimachus. [unclear: ice] most of Cattullus's work would have [unclear: en] read out at parties and semi-formal [unclear: ners] it does not seem surprising that a [unclear: of] his poems are short and pointed, ra[unclear: er] than the long epics previously [unclear: compo- d].

The poems themselves are concerned with human events; very rarely is the idea of heroic sufferings on a grand scale pursued in Catullus. The subjects range from the trivia of everyday life to the great love affair of Catullus's life; his affair with Lesbia. They describe not only embarrasing moments and his feelings but also his, often savage, attacks on life as he saw it. In all of these poems Catullus speaks directly, with little ornament, and still manages to work in phrases and words which capture the precise emotions of the moment. When he describes the end of a love affair, for example, he says simply, "I drooped and fell for her, like an evening flower cut by a heedless plough, dead in an hour."

Elsewhere, in another peom (No 87) he uses the word "foedus" to mean "bond, agreement". Simple, on the face of it, but "foedus" also had legal overtones in Latin approaching our word "covenant". These two simple examples give some approximation of Catullus's technical skill. The Alexandrian influence is also present in the use of synonyms for simple terms; fortunately these are put in with taste and do not overload the poems as they do in Appolonius's 'Voyage of Argo'.

Since Cattulus wrote in Latin any translation into English is going to obscure some of his flavour. However the two translators Mrederick Raphael and Kenneth McLeish seem to have, on the whole, done a good job. There are objections that can be made over use of slang and metre which will age the translation more quickly than if they weren't used but the result of this usage is a greater accesibility to the present day reader. The introduction is very good in setting the background and covering many of the points that can't be descussed here, especially the pros and cons of the Lesbia poems and to what extent Catullus was a radical.

Finally I'd like to say that to attempt to read this book from cover to cover is a mistake, it's a book for dipping into from time to time and coming back to.

Peter Sullivan