93 Nil nimium studeo, Caesar, tibi velle placere, nec scire utrum sis albus an ater homo. 95 Zmyrna mei Cinnae nonam post denique messem quam coepta est nonamque edita post hiemem, 93 Catullus does not care to be on good terms with Caesar. The same hatred towards the great "Imperator" appears in Nos. 29, 54, 57, where the connection has given rise to Baehrens's conjecture that this passage and the others mentioned were written soon after the arrival of Caesar with his retinue at Verona after the campaign of 55 B.C., when the military licentiousness which naturally prevailed crossed the path of the poet's own private life at some point, perhaps in the pursuit of Ameana by the notorious Mamurra. 1. Nil nimium studeo: 'I am not particularly anxious.' Somebody has apparently tried to reconcile Catullus to Caesar. A similar use of nimis is a favorite with Catullus; cf. e.g. 64, 22:0 nimis optato saeclorum tempore nati heroes; cf. also Mart. 9, 81, 3: non nimium curo. - velle is superfluous, as in Cic. Mur. 25, 50: nolite a me commoneri velle. 2. scire utrum sis albus an ater: a proverbial phrase; cf. Cic. Phil. 2, 41: vide quam te amarit is, qui albus aterne fuerit ignoras; Apul. Apol. 16: libenter te . . . albus an ater esses, ignoravi ; cf. also Quint. II, I, 38. 95 On the appearance of the Zmyrna, a carefully elaborated poem by his friend C. Helvius Cinna, Catullus compares this work favorably with the attempts of three inferior poets. There is no need of separating vv. 9-10 from the rest of the poem. 1. Zmyrna: another name for Myrrha, whose unnatural love for her father, Cinyras, was the theme of the poem and gave it its name. The story is related in Ovid, Met. 19, 298 sqq. The inconsiderable fragments are collected in Baehrens's Frag. Poet. Rom., p. 324. nonam: cf. Quint. 10, 4, 4: Cinnae Zmyrnam novem annis accepimus scriptam. Horace is very likely alluding to this case when he rec 5 milia cum interea quingenta Hortensius uno Zmyrna cavas Satrachi penitus mittetur ad undas, at Volusi annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam ommends that a book (A. P., 2. edita: sc. est. 3. milia... quingenta: a mere hyperbole for an indefinitely large number. Cf. 9, 1: Verani, omnibus e meis amicis antistans mihi milibus trecentis. Hortensius: cf. Intr. to No. 65. What caused Catullus to feel so differently towards him at this time can only be conjectured. It may be remarked, however, in general, that to criticize the work of another poet is quite another thing from being invited to contribute one's own poetic effusions. — uno: anno, mense, and die have been suggested by different editors as probable nouns in the missing v. 4, which may be variously supplied. In any case, the idea must have been an unfavorable con ΠΙΟ trast between the rapid work of Hortensius and the carefully finished Zmyrna. Cf. Hor. Sat. I, 4, 9-16. 5. cavas: 'deep'; cf. 17, 4: cavaque in palude; Luc. 1, 396: cavo tentoria fixa Lemanno. Satrachi: the Satrachus was an obscure inland stream in Cyprus. It was in this region that the story of Zmyrna was located. — penitus: 'far inland.' 6. cana: hoary'; cf. Mart. 8, 80, 2: nec pateris, Caesar, saecula cana mori. - pervoluent: cf. Intr. § 43. 7. Volusi: the same tiresome versifier is referred to in No. 36. For an elaborate argument to identify him with Tanusius Geminus see Friedrich on this passage. - ipsam: the emphasis thus put upon Padua indicates this place as the home of Volusius, whose prosy verses will never travel farther than their birthplace, as contrasted with the imaginative work of Cinna, which is to penetrate to the remotest parts of the earth. 8. laxas: because the material is abundant. — tunicas: i.e. wrapping paper. The idea is borrowed by Martial (4, 86, 8): nec scombris tunicas dabis molestas. parva mei mihi sint cordi monumenta sodalis: IO at populus tumido gaudeat Antimacho. 96 Si quicquam mutis gratum acceptumve sepulcris quo desiderio veteres renovamus amores 95. 9. sodalis written by a 15th cent. hand at end of verse in R omitted in V. elegiac writers such poems as Nos. 14, 50, and 53 bear ample testimony. We see from Prop. 2, 34, 89, that Calvus himself wrote of his lost Quintilia. 1. Si quicquam: this conditional statement of immortality is paralleled often in Roman literature and inscriptions. Cf. Ovid, Am. 3, 9, 59; Cic. Ad Fam. 4. 5, 6; Tac. Agr. 46, 1; CIL. 10, 8131, 14: si sapiunt aliquid post funera Manes; CIL. 6, 6250: bene adquiescas, Hilara, si quid sapiunt inferi; also K. P. H. on "Conceptions of Death and Immortality in Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions," PAPA., Vol. 30, pp. xxviii-xxxi. 2. nostro i.e. of the living in general. 5 5 certe non tanto mors inmatura dolori est 99 Surripui tibi, dum ludis, mellite Iuventi, saviolum dulci dulcius ambrosia. verum id non inpune tuli: namque amplius horam suffixum in summa me memini esse cruce, dum tibi me purgo nec possum fletibus ullis tantillum vestrae demere saevitiae. 96. 5. dolori est D dolore est w dolor est VM dolorist Haupt doloreist Ellis. 6. quantum: i.e. gaudium. 99 Catullus protests against the torture inflicted upon him by Juventius in punishment for a stolen kiss. The series of poems connected with the fondness of Catullus for the pretty boy Juventius includes among others Nos. 15, 24, 48, 81. Some editors have argued that Juventius, as well as Marathus, the boy favorite of Tibullus, are mere literary fictions. It seems more probable that Juventius, at any rate, was a real person, who afforded some diversion for the poet's affections after he had finally cast off Lesbia as unworthy. 1. mellite: cf. 48, 1-3: mellitos oculos tuos, Iuventi, siquis me sinat usque basiare, usque ad milia basiem trecenta. 2. saviolum: a rare example of Catullus's favorite diminutive ΤΟ 15 nam simul id factum est, multis diluta labella guttis abstersisti omnibus articulis, ne quicquam nostro contractum ex ore maneret, quam quoniam poenam misero proponis amori, ΙΟΙ Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus 99. 8. abstersisti o abstersti O astersi GM. 7. id: the stealing of the kiss. 8. guttis: i.e. of water. - articulis fingers'; cf. Prop. 2, 34, 80: Cynthius inpositis temperat articulis. 9. contractum : cf. the Eng. 'contract a disease'; Plin. N.H. 36, 27, 69: pestilentiae quae obscuratione solis contrahitur. 10. Cf. 78, 8: savia conminxit spurca saliva tua. 11. Amori: i.e. as to an executioner. The offishness of Juventius made the flames of Catullus's love burn all the hotter. 14. tristi tristius: cf. v. 2, n. 15. Catullus shows philosophic insight into the boyish contrariness of Juventius, and meeting him on his own ground is likely to win the day. ROM. EL. POETS-8 101 Written on visiting his brother's tomb at Rhoeteum, and probably used as an epitaph there. This visit must have been made on his way to Bithynia with Memmius in 57 B.C., rather than on the return journey, and was indeed one of the principal motives that prompted him to go to the East at that time. Cf. 65, 5-11; 68, 19-24, 89-100; also Tennyson's familiar poem. I. per gentes: i.e. past their shores, while multa per aequora means 'over' many seas. Some of the seas were doubtless the Ionian, the Sicilian, the Cretan, the Myrtoan, the Aegean. To a landsman who had traveled little by either land or sea, this 113 |