70

Draeger, 2, p. 162; Tib. 1, 7, 12, n.

- leonis: Zeus was responsible for the metamorphosis of the famous Nemean lion, slain by Hercules, into the constellation Leo, the fifth sign of the zodiac.

66. Callisto: dat.; but one of several irregular forms in the decl. of this word. Her history is variously told, the adj. Lycaoniae here having patronymic force. As attendant of Artemis in Arcadia she became by Zeus mother of Arcas, was changed into a bear, and later, either after death, or to escape death, into a constellation, this being one of the many identifications explanatory of the origin of Ursa Major. — iuncta: 'next to.'

"inasmuch as the constellation is in a perpendicular position, occupies some time, whereas his rising is rapid, being effected in a horizontal position."

69. quamquam belongs to restituit as well as to premunt; the principal clause begins at v. 75-premunt vestigia divum: cf. Arat. 359: θεῶν ὑπὸ ποσσὶ φορεῖται ; Manil. (1, 803) adopts this phrase.

70. Tethyi: to whom, rather than to her husband Oceanus (cf. v. 68), the maidenly modesty of the Coma prefers to represent herself as surrendered for the passage by day (lux) back around the earth to her next rising. Cf. Tib. 2, 5, 59-60.

71-74. Parenthetical.

71. Rhamnusia virgo: Nemesis, so called from her temple at Rhamnus in Attica, whose province it was to punish presumptuous words. Cf. 68, 77; 50, 20: ne poenas Nemesis reposcat a te.

73. nec: sc. tegam. Only if tum, or some other emphatic word, were expressed, should we think quidem. This verse is an emphatic reiteration of the

nec = ne

68

Many editors have believed this elegy made up of two or more separate poems, and it appears accordingly in various editions as 68a (vv. 1-40), 686 (41-160), or 68" (41-148), and 68°(149–160). The arguments for such mutilation are shrewdly stated by Riese in his annotated edition of 1884, and by Merrill (1893). For the defense of the poem's unity, however, see Magnus, in Bursian's JB., Vol. 87 (1887), pp. 151 sqq., and Vol. 126 (1906), pp. 139 sqq., and Jahrbücher f Phil. u. Päd., Vol. 3 (1875), pp. 849 sqq.; Kiessling, Analecta Catulliana (Greifswald Program, 1877); Harnecker, Das 68 Gedicht des Catullus (Friedeberg Program, 1881); Friedrich (who, however, puts the worst construction upon it); Schanz, and his bibliography; etc. The difficulties of interpretation do not seem to be removed, but rather enhanced, by the proposed division; and the elegy is best considered as one, a carefully evolved and acutely involved product of the poet's Alexandrian period.

The hopeless confusion, in the Mss., of the name of the person

to whom the elegy is addressed may be most simply explained by adopting Lachmann's conjecture that he was M'. Allius. It is then very easy to see how the title Ad Mallium, and the various readings in vv. II, 30, 41, 66, arose. For an acute discussion of the origin of these variants, cf. Friedrich, pp. 44 sqq. No editor has ventured to follow the Mss. implicitly in this matter. In the main part of the elegy (vv. 41-148) Allius is spoken of in the third person as the subject of the eulogy which is pronounced upon him for his friendly services; in the introduction (vv. I-40) it is not unnatural, but in harmony with the direct (second personal) address of the epistolary style employed, that the more familiar praenomen Manius should be used. But in v. 150 of the epilogistic close (vv. 148-160) the same name would naturally be employed as that to which reference is made in the same sentence by the word nomen (v. 151).

From the passage beginning at v. 27 it is seen that Catullus was at Verona, while Allius was doubtless at Rome, as was also Lesbia. It can scarcely be doubted that the poet expected, nay, probably in

tended, the elegy to come to the attention of his mistress; and it should be read with this in mind.

Briefly, the argument of the poem is developed as follows: 1-10: 'You write that you have neither love nor poetry which soothes your sorrowing heart, and ask for both these sources of comfort from me; 11-32: but you do not know that my brother's death has plunged me into such grief that I am in no mood to write of love's dalliance, and my sadness is enhanced by what write of my you mistress's faithlessness; 33-40: neither can I send you any other poems, for they are all at Rome; you must not blame me then for not doing what I cannot. 41-69: I must not, however, let the opportunity pass to hand down to eternal fame the name of such a friend as Allius, and his kind offices in opening to Lesbia and me a home for our lover's meetings; 70-130: thither came my mistress, aflame with a love like that of Laodamia for her bridegroom when that short-lived home was established upon which the Fates had already caused to fall the blighting spell of Troy, accursed Troy, which has taken from me too all joy, as it did from her, whose love was deeper than the storied abyss by Pheneus,

more joyous than the grandsire's on the birth of his anxiously awaited heir, fonder than a dove's for her mate; 131-148: thus came Lesbia; and if sometimes she has wavered in her devotion, I will bear it as Juno does the fickleness of Jove, and will remember the wondrous joys of those golden days. 149-160: Such is the gift of poetic praise which I could offer, my friend; may the gods bless thee too, and thine, and mine, who is still the light of my life!'

1. Quod . . . mittis: this prosaic epistolary form occurs thrice in this part of the poem, appearing again in vv. 27 and 33. - casu... acerbo speculation has been rife as to its nature, whether political or domestic: cf. v. 6, n.

2. lacrimis instrumental. The hyperbole may be considered as quoted from the letter of Allius to Catullus. - epistolium: this Gk. diminutive occurs nowhere else in Lat. before Apuleius.

3. naufragum: shipwreck as a figure of ruined fortunes is a literary commonplace.

4. Cf. Plin. N. H. 7, 44, 143: a limine ipso mortis revocatus ; Culex, 224: restitui superis leti iam limine ab ipso.

5-8. These verses evidently are the reasons given by Allius for his request.