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eliding monosyllables; and that Lygdamus leads in avoiding hiatus, not exhibiting a single instance of that phenomenon.1 Similarly interesting studies can be made with reference to the arrangement of words in the verse as a whole, or in different parts of the verse.2 Diaeresis is particularly common in solvo and its compounds.

In other matters, e.g. prosody, progress will be noted after Catullus. Lengthening the final short syllable in the thesis occurs rarely in Tibullus.3 Shortening final -o in verbs is the opposite phenomenon. In the treatment of quantities before a mute and liquid Tibullus is quite orthodox.1

1Cf., on the hiatus in Catullus, Friedrich's note on Cat. 3, 16. Cartault thinks Tibullus shows greater looseness in elision in Book 2 than in Book I as well as in other metrical matters; but Hörschelmann undertakes to show a distinct advance in these respects in Book 2 (cf. elision tables in Hosius, p. 180).

2 Cf. Braum, De Monosyllabis ante caesuras hexametri Latini collocatis, Marburg, 1906; Isidor Hilberg, Die Gesetze der Wortstellung im Pentameter des Ovid; Hornstein, Die Wortstellung im Pentameter des Tibull und Ps.- Tibull, Czernovitch, 1909; Petrus Rasi, De Elegiae Latinae Compositione et Forma, Padua, 1894; Smith, pp. 103 sqq.

3 For the instances of the same in Propertius cf. Hosius, p. 184.

4 Cf. Rasi, de positione debili, etc.; Brenner, Die prosodischen Funktionen inlautender muta cum liquida im Hexameter und Pentameter des Catull, Tibull, und Properz; Winbolt, Latin Hexameter Verse, 1903.

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CATVLLI CARMINA

65

Etsi me adsiduo confectum cura dolore sevocat á doctis, Ortale, virginibus, nec potis ést dulcis musarum expromere fetus mens animi: tantis fluctuat ipsa malis:

65

65. I. confectum G defectu 0.

The Ortalus to whom this elegy is addressed was probably the celebrated orator, Quintus Hortensius (H)Ortalus, the friend and rival of Cicero. It was written to accompany some other poem or poems, particularly, as seems most likely, No. 66. Written about 60 B.C. For Hortensius as a poet cf. 95, 3 (written at a later period); Gell. 19, 9, 7; Ovid, Trist. 2, 441 ; Plin. Ep. 5, 3, 5.

The elegy is in one long paragraph, with parenthetical address to his brother, who has lately died. Catullus is in no mood to write in his usual vein, he says; but, that Ortalus may not think him forgetful of his request, he sends the accompanying translation from Callimachus.

1. Etsi: the apodosis begins at v. 15; cf. Ciris, 1-11.

2. doctis. . . virginibus: the Muses; cf. 35, 16: Sapphica puella musa doctior; Tib. 3, 4, 45 ; Ovid, Am. 3, 9, 62; Mart. 1, 61, I. At this (Alexandrian) period of his poetry Catullus with special fitness calls his muse "doctus"; cf. Intr. § 16.

3. potis est: for other examples of the uncontracted form of potest cf. 76, 24; Lachmann's Lucr. 5, 880. fetus: for the same idea of literary creations cf. Quint. 10, 4, 2: scripta nostra tamquam recentes fetus.

4. mens animi: cf. Lucr. 3, 615; Cic. De Fin. 5, 36: animi partis, quae princeps est, quaeque mens nominatur. -On the form of this verse and v. 8 note Intr. § 42, II (6).

5

ΙΟ

namque mei nuper Lethaeo gurgite fratris
pallidulum manans adluit unda pedem,
Troia Rhoeteo quem subter litore tellus

ereptum nostris obterit ex oculis.

adloquar, audiero numquam tua facta loquentem,
numquam ego te, vita frater amabilior,
adspiciam posthac. at certe semper amabo,

semper maesta tua carmina morte canam,
qualia sub densis ramorum concinit umbris

9. omitted in VR adloquar audiero numquam tua loquentem Dw the lacuna between tua and loquentem variously supplied as facta (D man. sec.), verba, fata w. Lachmann, followed by Haupt- Vahlen, believed there was a lacuna in ▼ of seven verses after 8, and supplied before 9 six verses from 68, 20-24, and 92-96. II. at D aut V. 12. canam or legam w tegam VR (in R the verse reads: semp mesta tua carmine morte tegam).

5. Lethaeo gurgite: best taken as abl. of source; cf. v. 6, n. This seems to be the first reference to the Lethe myth in Roman poetry; cf. Tib. 3, 3, 10. —fratris : probably an older brother. He died in the Troad, and was buried there; cf. 68, 90-100; 101.

6. pallidulum: a pathetic diminutive, implying fond tenderness; probably either coined by Catullus or borrowed from the speech of everyday life; not used elsewhere before the silver Latin period; cf. Intr. § 17; Juv. 10, 82; Platner, Dimin. in Catull.

manans: Catullus's conceptions of underworld geography were probably at least as hazy as those of all the Roman poets with regard to terrestrial geography (cf. 66, 12, n). He may have pictured his brother as fording Lethe, or being ferried over in a skiff

(Charon's); but the emphasis of manans adluit is best preserved if we assume that he meant that, escaping from its ordinary bounds, the flood of Lethe, this stray wave had borne the innocent youth all too early to the waters of oblivion.

7. Rhoeteo: celebrated also as the site of the grave of Ajax. subter: the use of this preposition with the abl. is very rare, hardly occurring elsewhere except in Vergil ; cf. Verg. Aen. 9, 514.

9. audiero: sometimes a fut. perf. is used with no appreciable difference in meaning from that of the fut.; cf. Prop. 2, 5, 22; Plaut. Most. 526; Tib. 1, 1, 29, n. 10. numquam belongs to both adloquar and audiero.

II. posthac seems to indicate that his brother's death was quite recent.

15

20

Daulias absumpti fata gemens Ityli:
sed tamen in tantis maeroribus, Ortale, mitto
haec expressa tibi carmina Battiadae,

ne tua dicta vagis nequiquam credita ventis
effluxisse meo forte putes animo,

ut missum sponsi furtivo munere malum
procurrit casto virginis e gremio,

quod miserae oblitae molli sub veste locatum,
dum adventu matris prosilit, excutitur:

14. Daulias = Procne, or, according to another myth, Philomela, from Daulis, the scene of the Tereus myth. - Ityli: according to a Homeric myth, Itylus, son of Zethus and Aëdon, was killed by his mother by mistake, and she became a nightingale. When the Tereus myth was developed, the name of the boy was given as Itys. As the two myths are essentially one, it is not strange that the name of the former should be transferred to the latter, perhaps under the idea that it was a diminutive of Itys; cf. German Willychen,

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Callimachus in this collection except No. 66. — Battiadae: the celebrated elegiac poet Callimachus, who claimed to be a descendant of Battus, the founder of Cyrene. It was certainly true in a general sense, as Callimachus was a native of Cyrene; cf. 116, 2.

17. tua dicta implies a previous request on the part of Ortalus for some poem, whether a translation from Callimachus or something else. nequiquam : best taken with credita; cf. 30, 10; the usual medium of communication by sound is "ventis."

19. malum: the most common gift of lovers; cf. Verg. Ec. 3, 64: malo me Galatea petit; 71: aurea mala decem misi; Prop. 1, 3, 24: furtiva cavis poma dabam manibus; the myth of the apple of discord, etc.

20. Cf. the Latin proverb quoted by Festus, p. 165: nec mulieri nec gremio credi oportet; quod plerumque, he adds, in gremio posito, cum in oblivionem venerunt propere exsurgentium, procidunt.

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