τυπαῖς has ἔχοντα τύμπανα καὶ τυπάς: I had something to say on this; but shall refrain. The 'typanum ac typum' suits tua initia' better than 'typanum' by itself. ib. 74-77 Roseis ut hic labellis sonitus citus adiit geminas deae tam ad auris noua nuntia referens, ibi iuncta iuga resoluens Cybele leonibus laeuumque pecoris hostem stimulans ita loquitur. 74 hic. hinc V. citus addidit Bergk. sonus editus Froelich, Schwabe. perhaps sonus excitus. 75 deae tam ad scripsi, deorum ad V. 77 pecoris uetus correctio. pectoris V. In 74 perhaps Bergk's citus is the simplest diplomatic correction, tho' I am not certain that Catullus would have used citus as a partic. But Froelich's sonus editus is also an easy correction; as well as my sonus excitus, and Catullus elsewhere uses excitus no less than three times. In 75 not a few violent corrections have been made, which may be seen in the notes of various editions. I feel confident that Geminas comes from the poet himself: my dee tam for deorum is certainly not a violent change, when we bear in mind, what I have so often insisted upon, the almost chronic way in which our Mss. interchange o and e, t and r: When these sounds, uttered from his rosy lips, came bringing with them to the two ears of the goddess tidings so strange and novel'. With deae-Cybele' comp. 3 deae, 9 Cybelles. geminas auris is very idiomatic: 51 10 sonitu suopte Tintinant aures geminae1: Ovid has 'Auribus 1 I cannot enough wonder at Ellis' continued retention of the absurd gemina, and all to save the change of an a to an e in our Mas. e geminis', and 'geminas manus'; the Culex, which often imitates Catullus, 148 'geminas aures'; Virgil "Temporibus geminis': Martial 'geminas manus'. 64 1-28 Peliaco quondam prognatae uertice pinus cum lecti iuuenes, Argiuae robora pubis, 5 auratam optantes Colchis auertere pellem ausi sunt uada salsa cita decurrere puppi, caerula uerrentes abiegnis aequora palmis. diua quibus retinens in summis urbibus arces ipsa leui fecit uolitantem flamine currum, 10 pinea coniungens inflexae texta carinae. illa rudem cursu prima imbuit Amphitriten. quae simul ac rostro uentosum proscidit aequor, tortaque remigio apumis incanduit unda, emersere freti candenti e gurgite uultus, 15 aequoreae monstrum Nereides admirantes. illac (quaque alia?) uiderunt luce marinas mortales oculis nudato corpore Nymphas nutricum tenus extantes e gurgite cano. tum Thetidis Peleus incensus fertur amore, 20 tum Thetis humanos non despexit hymenaeos, tum Thetidi pater ipse iugandum Pelea sensit. o nimis optato saeclorum tempore nati heroes, saluete, deum gens, o bona matrum 23b progenies, saluete iterumque iterumque, bonarum : uos ego saepe meo uos carmine compellabo, 25 teque adeo eximie taedis felicibus aucte Thessaliae columen Peleu, cui Iuppiter ipse, 1 ipse suos diuum genitor concessit amores. 11 primam G. praeram: în marg. proram 0. 13 Tortaque Itali. Totaque V. 14 freti Schrader. feri V. 16 Illac (quaque alia?) scripsi. Illa atque alia V. uidere V. 23 gens schol. Veron. genus V, uulgo. matrum schol. Veron. mater: al. matre superser. G. mater O. 23 b om. V. Progenies saluete iter schol. Veron. 28 Nereine Haupt. nectine V. I have printed and will discuss only a few lines of this the longest and most elaborate poem of Catullus. His study of the Alexandrine poets would seem to have persuaded him that an epyllion was needed to make a body of poems complete; and he has therefore composed this poem which I have given reasons elsewhere for believing to be one of his very latest. Led no doubt by similar motives, his friend Gaius Helvius Cinna, who, as I have argued in my dissection of the 95th poem, was probably somewhat older than Catullus, wrote and published his laboured Zmyrna; and his intimate associate Gaius Licinius Calvus composed his epyllion Io. 1 and 15 are both imitated by Ovid am. II 11 1 Prima malas docuit, mirantibus aequoris undis, Peliaco pinus uertice caesa uias. 11: I am convinced that the proram of O is a mere delusion, designed or undesigned, of the scribe, which presented itself to his thoughts and pen in connexion with a ship: to my taste it destroys the beauty of the line and leaves Illa wholly without meaning. Can there be a doubt that Seneca, who has more than once as we have seen had Catullus before him in his tragedies, was thinking of this line when he wrote in Troad. 215 Inhospitali Telephus regno inpotens... Rudem cruore regio dextram inbuit? the very construction of Catullus, which Martial, cited by Ellis, also has: so too Val. Flacc. 1 69 ignaras Cereris qui uomere terras Imbuit; who also imitates the syntax M. C. 10 of Catullus, and was probably thinking of him, as the ignaras has the exact force of rudem: 'She first handselled by this run the maiden and untried Amphitrite'. Ov. met. I 14 probably got his Amphitrite from Catullus. 13 Tortaque remigio, and 7 Caerula uerrentes abiegnis aequora palmis: comp. Aen. III 207 remis insurgimus: haud mora nautae Adnixi torquent spumas et caerula uerrunt: the 2nd v. is repeated in IV 583: if there is one certain correction in Catullus, Torta for Tota must be right. 13 incanduit unda, 14 candenti e gurgite, 18 e gurgite cano: Lucr. II 764 Cur ea... Marmoreo fieri possint candore repente, 767 canos candenti marmore fluctus, 771 Continuo id fieri ut candens uideatur et album: the repetitions in the two poets are very much alike: Ciris 320 candentes canos. 14 freti for feri seems to me the simplest correction of this verse, which surely needs correction; for feri cannot stand and uultus must be an accus.; not a nom. in appos. with Nereides. To be sure, tho' emersus and emergere se are indisputable, 'emergere uultus' is not so certainly admissible. Yet I cannot help thinking that the author of the Dirae in 56 and 57 is imitating Catullus and that corpora must, like uultus here, be the accus. not the nomin, which would be very bald: Monstra repentinis terrentia saepe figuris Cum subito emersere furenti corpora ponto: for thus Haupt punctuates; and the position of Cum is a good parallel to 22 9. freti for feri is an easy correction, as r, t, tr, rt, as we have again and again had reason to shew, are among the letters most frequently confounded in our Mss. 16 Illac (quaque alia?): this I think is a more elegant correction and gives a better rhythm than Schwabe's, or older corrections, tho' Ellis takes no notice of it: t and c are often interchanged in our Mss. and all Mss. alike are apt to omit one syll. of a word like quaque: 36 14 we find Colisque for Colis quaeque: 'on that day-and on what other in all time?-did mortal men cast eyes on the naked nymphs, as they rose breast-high out of the hoar deep'. I must say both Mueller's and Baehrens' violent corrections to my taste greatly spoil the picture. 23: The Virgilian scholia of the Verona palimpsest give us in a correct form the end of this line and half of the next, which has disappeared entirely in our Mss. Ellis alone among recent editors has rejected this gift with contumely: 'The weight of the Veronese Scholia' he says, 'imperfect and full of lacunae as they are, is not to be set against our Mss.; it is difficult to imagine any mode of filling up the lacuna which would not either be weak or load the sentence unnecessarily'. It is thus he can find in his heart to speak of what was once one of the most glorious codices that have come down from ancient times, written in the full blaze of the old classical world. Not to be set against our Mss. ! bad transcripts all of an archetype written when the gloom of mediaeval barbarism was at its deepest: and where too it preserves a line which they have lost, tho' Ellis does not hesitate to impeach these very Mss. of scandalous absurdity, in the way of omission, when he is dealing with our 54th poem. It is true these scholia are now in a very tattered state; but both Mai and after him Keil print: Catullus, Saluete deum gens o bona matrum Progenies saluete iter: without a hint that there is any doubt about any one of the magnificent letters of the original. Of the genuineness of this half verse I have no more doubt than of that of any other verse whatever in Catullus. Nay more, I do not see why all editors reject its 'deum gens' for the |