20 25 A te sudor abest, abest saliua, Hanc ad munditiem adde mundiorem, Centum desine: nam satis beatu's. 24. O qui flosculus es Iuuentiorum, 25. nec: the negative is repeated as if noli spernere were ne sperne; cf. Plaut. Poen. 1129 mirari noli neque me contemplarier, and elsewhere. - putare parui: cf. 5. 3 n. 26. sestertia centum: somewhat less than $5000, no great sum for a young man at that time to borrow, when one remembers the fabulous amounts owed by such men as Caelius, Curio, and Caesar. - precari: construed ἀπό κοινοῦ with soles and desine. 27. satis beatu's (for beatus es): cf. Hor. Carm. II. 18. 14 satis beatus unicis Sabinis. See Crit. App. 24. To Juventius, a remonstrance on his intimacy with Furius; cf. Intr. 37. Metre, Phalaecean. I. flosculus: cf. 17. 14 n. Iuuentiorum: perhaps with a play upon the apparent etymology, as if the word were equivalent to iuue пит. 2. quot, etc. cf. 21. 2 n. 4. Not that Juventius was rich, nor that Furius had also tried to borrow money from him, but simply that the wealth of a Midas was to the mind of Catullus small in comparison with what Furius asked. Midae : Midas shared with Croesus among the more ancient worthies, and Attalus among the more modern, the honor of standing as the typical possessor of boundless wealth: cf. 115. 3 diuitiis Croesum superare; Mart. VI. 86. 4 heres diuitis esse Midae; Ov. Ex Pont. IV. 37 diuitis audita est 5 ΙΟ Isti cui neque seruus est neque arca, 'Quid? Non est homo bellus?' inquies. Est: Sed bello huic neque seruus est neque arca. Hoc tu quam libet abice eleuaque : Nec seruum tamen ille habet neque arcam. 25. Cinaede Thalle, mollior cuniculi capillo cui non opulentia Croesi? Hor. Carm. I. 1. 12 Attalicis condicionibus nunquam dimoueas. 5. isti cui, etc.: i.e. Furius; cf. 23. I. 7. quid: this familiar expression of surprise occurs also in 67. 37, and in slightly varied form in 62. 37 quid tum? 52. I, 4 quid est? - homo bellus cf. 22. 9 n. est: bellus often refers to mere superficial attractiveness, and the sarcastic echo bello huic (v. 8) precludes the idea that Catullus was acknowledging in earnest any real excellence of Furius (cf. also note above); he means Yes, he is a fine fellow, forsooth, this starveling beggar.' 9. hoc tu, etc.: i.e. excuse and extenuate the thing as you please, the ugly fact remains, and you, as well as he, must acknowledge it; and Catullus in the last verse rehearses the charge again to give it due effect. 25. On the thievery of a certain Thallus cf. 12 on a similar subject. Metre, iambic tetrameter catalectic. 1. Thalle nothing further is known of him, though unsatisfactory attempts have been made to identify him with Asinius Marruci nus of 12, by reason of the similar charge against him, and even with Juventius, by reason of the characterization in vv. 1-2. His thieving may have been carried on at the baths (cf. the Vibennius of 33), but to judge from the articles taken, he more probably, like Asinius and Hermogenes, found his opportunity at a dinner where he was a guest. -mollior: the traditional adjective to characterize the peculiar unmanliness here charged upon Thallus; cf. also 16. 4; Tac. Ann. XI. 2 Suillio postremum mollitiam corporis obiectante. cuniculi: the Spanish rabbit described by Martial in XIII. 60; cf. also Varr. R. R. III. 12. 6 tertii generis est, quod in Hispania nascitur, similis nostro lepori ex quadam parte, sed humilis, quem cuniculum appellant... cuniculi dicti ab eo, quod sub terra cuniculos ipsi facere solent, ubi lateant in agris; Plin. N. H. VIII. 217. Catullus had doubtless been instructed in Spanish matters by Veranius (cf. 9. 6–7). 2. anseris medullula: the delicate inner feathers of the goose; cf. Priap. 64. I quidam mollior anseris medulla. imula auricilla: the lobe of the ear; cf. Cic. Q. Fr. 5 Vel pene languido senis situque araneoso, II. 13. 4 auricula infima mollio- 4. idem: cf. 22. 3 n.- - rapacior: indicating bold robbery; cf. Cic. Pis. 27. 66 olim furunculus, nunc uero etiam rapax. 5. diua, etc.: the verse is unintelligible, and no satisfactory emendation has yet been suggested. The general meaning seems to be that Thallus does his thieving boldly, because there is nothing to fear, since he chooses an occasion when no one watches against thieves. If oscitantes be the correct reading, it must mean off their guard, rather than half-asleep, as the thefts were probably committed at dinners (see v. I n.). 6. pallium: a Greek garment, resembling somewhat the Roman toga, but square-cornered, freer in the arrangement of its folds, and often brightly colored. — inuolasti, pounced upon, when the wine went round, and the pallium had been thrown back from the shoulders of the wearer; cf. Mart. VIII. 59. 9-10 lapsa nec a cubito subducere pallia nescit, et tectus laenis saepe duabus abit. cata 7. sudarium Saetabum: cf. 12. 3 n., 14 n.; perhaps this was one of the set there mentioned. · graphos Thynos: the former word is so little used as to make impossible its sure interpretation here; nor is it certain even which of the two words is noun and which is adjective. But as catagraphi is used of outline drawings (in Plin. N. H. XXXV. 56), and as tablets were commonly made of box (Prop. IV. 23. 8 uulgari buxo sordida cera fuit), a Bithynian wood (cf. 4. 13 n.), it is quite possible that the objects referred to here were pugillares, carved or otherwise decorated on the outside, and so more valuable and tempting to a thief than was the ordinary kind. Perhaps they were a memento of the journey of Catullus himself to Bithynia. It would not be strange for the poet to bring his tablets to some dinner parties (cf. 50. 1-6). — Thynos: cf. 31. 5 n. 8. inepte, stupid, in expecting to be able to escape detection while flaunting his spoils openly: by the same word Asinius is addressed in 12. 4, but with a slightly different application. ΙΟ Quae nunc tuis ab unguibus reglutina et remitte, 26. Furi, uillula uestra non ad Austri 9. reglutina: as if whatever was touched by a thief's fingers stuck to them; cf. Lucil. XXVIII. 58-59 M. omnia uescatis manibus leget, omnia sumet, crede mihi; presse ut dicam, res auferet omnis. 10. laneum: a figure derived from the softness of wool; the meaning is doubtless the same as that of mollicellas, with a sneer at the unnatural mollitia of Thallus (v. 1-2), to which the sarcastic diminutives lend effect. as he tries with them to cover his back from the blows. manus: II. inusta: so Horace speaks of the burning of the lash in Epod. 4. 3 Hibericis peruste funibus latus; Ep. I. 16. 47 habes pretium, loris non ureris. turpiter: i.e. with the punishment of a slave. — conscribillent: perhaps with a play upon the word, in that the lashes threatened are really those of satiric verse (cf. 12. 10–11; 42. 1–6; and the figure in Hor. Carm. III. 12. 4 patruae uerbera linguae), and not those at the hands of the law; cf. Plaut. Pseud. 544-545 quasi quom in libro scribuntur calamo litterae, stilis me totum usque ulmeis conscribito. On conscribillo beside scribo see Lachmann on Lucr. I. 360. 12. aestues: i.e. bend into all sorts of shapes, like a school-boy flinching from the lash. - uelut etc. the poem, like several others in Catullus, ends with a comparison. - minuta nauis: so Cic. Att. XVI. 1. 3 minuta nauigia. 13. deprensa in mari: i.e. unable to make harbor before the storm breaks; cf. Verg. Aen. V. 52 Argolico mari deprensus; Hor. Carm. II. 16. 1 in patenti prensus Aegaeo. uesaniente uento: observe the effect of alliteration and final consonance. 26. By itself this poem might well be taken as a mere jest at a friend's expense, or, if, with G, nostra be read in v. I, at the expense of Catullus himself. But all other references to Furius are distinctly hostile in tone (cf. II; 16; 23; 24), and there is no reason for premising a period of friendship in which Catullus might jest with Furius. Vestra should therefore be read, and the poem grouped with 23 and 24 as satirizing the extreme poverty into which Furius had doubtless brought himself. - Metre, Phalaecean. 1. Furi: see Intr. 37. - uestra: i.e. of Furius and the two unpresentable members of his family whom Catullus does not mean to have him forget, his father and step-mother; cf. 23. 5-6. : 2. opposita with a play upon 5 Nec saeui Boreae aut Apeliotae, Verum ad milia quindecim et ducentos. O uentum horribilem atque pestilentem! 27. Minister uetuli puer Falerni 4. milia, etc.: the sum was no great one, when 10,000 sesterces was a reasonable rent for merely a house in Rome (cf. Cic. Cael. 7. 17); but as Furius was at the bottom of his pocket, it is probable that he had mortgaged his house for all that he could raise on it. Catullus is scornfully indicating, therefore, the meanness of the house itself. 5. o uentum, etc., O awful, fatal draft. 27. A drinking-song: the only, and a very admirable, poem of Catullus in the vein afterward so successfully worked by Horace. Metre, Phalaecean. 1. minister: so Horace (Carm. I. 38. 6) calls the puer (I. 38. 1) who serves him with wine. Falerni generally esteemed by the ancients as one of the best of the Italian wines; cf. Hor. Carm. II. 3. 8 interiore nota Falerni. 2. inger: for ingere; the only instance of the shortened imperative form of this verb (unless conger be right in Mart. VIII. 44. 9), though fer is the regular form both in the simple verb and in composition; cf. also dic, duc, fac. Ellis quotes other drinkers' abbreviations from Meineke Anal. Alex. p. 131, πîv for πίνειν and πῶ for πῶθι. amariores, more pungent, i.e. with no longer any admixture of water; so at the feast of Hor. Carm. I. 27 the drinking came at last to pure wine (cf. I. 27. 9 seueri Falerni) apparently by decree of the master of the feast: cf. a similar figure for unmixed wine in Hor. Carm. II. II. 19 pocula ardentis Falerni. 3. lex magistrae: a ruler of the feast was chosen (usually by lot), and his decrees were absolute concerning the proportion of water to wine in the mixing, and the proposal and drinking of toasts; cf. Hor. Carm. I. 4. 18 nec regna uini sortiere talis. Here, in the unwonted abandon of the occasion, a woman was ruler. 4. ebrioso, etc.: i.e. fuller of grape-juice than the grape itself is; so Damalis (Hor. Carm. I. 36. 13) was multi meri. With the collocation ebrioso ebriosioris cf. 22. 14 n. |