511-523.

Ventum erat ad templum, Libycis quod gentibus unum inculti Garamantes habent: stat sortifer istic Iuppiter, ut memorant, sed non aut fulmina vibrans, aut similis nostro, sed tortis cornibus Hammon. Non illic Libycae posuerunt ditia gentes templa: nec Eois splendent donaria gemmis : quamvis Aethiopum populis, Arabumque beatis gentibus, atque Indis unus sit Iuppiter Hammon, pauper adhuc deus est, nullis violata per aevum divitiis delubra tenens: morumque priorum numen Romano templum defendit ab auro. Esse locis superos, testatur silva, per omnem sola virens Libyen.

544-604.

Stabant ante fores populi, quos miserat Eos,
cornigerique Iovis monitu nova fata petebant
sed Latio cessere duci: comitesque Catonem
orant, exploret Libycum memorata per orbem
Numina, de fama tam longi iudicet aevi.
Maximus hortator scrutandi voce deorum
eventus Labienus erat. 'Sors obtulit,' inquit,
'et Fortuna viae tam magni numinis ora
consiliumque dei: tanto duce possumus uti
per Syrtes, bellique datos cognoscere casus.
Nam cui crediderim superos arcana daturos
dicturosque magis, quam sancto vera Catoni?
Certe vita tibi semper directa supernas

ad leges, sequerisque deum. Datur, ecce, loquendi
cum Iove libertas: inquire in fata nefandi
Caesaris, et patriae venturos excute mores :
iure suo populis uti, legumque licebit,
an bellum civile perit. Tua pectora sacra
voce reple: durae semper virtutis amator

ΙΟ

15

20

25

30

quaere quid est virtus, et posce exemplar honesti.'
Ille deo plenus, tacita quem mente gerebat,
effudit dignas adytis e pectore voces:

'Quid quaeri, Labiene, iubes? An liber in armis
occubuisse velim potius, quam regna videre?
an sit vita nihil, et longa? an differat aetas?
an noceat vis ulla bono? Fortunaque perdat
opposita virtute minas? laudandaque velle

35

45

sit satis, et numquam successu crescat honestum ? Scimus, et haec nobis non altius inseret Hammon. Haeremus cuncti superis, temploque tacente, nil agimus nisi sponte dei: nec vocibus ullis numen eget dixitque semel nascentibus auctor quidquid scire licet: steriles nec legit arenas, ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere verum : estque dei sedes, ubi terra, et pontus, et aer, et coelum, et virtus. Superos quid quaerimus ultra? Iuppiter est, quodcumque vides, quodcumque moveris. Sortilegis egeant dubii, semperque futuris casibus ancipites: me non oracula certum,

sed mors certa facit: pavido fortique cadendum est. Hoc satis est dixisse Iovem.' Sic ille profatur : servataque fide templi discedit ab aris, non exploratum populis Hammona relinquens. Ipse manu sua pila gerens, praecedit anheli militis ora pedes: monstrat tolerare labores, non iubet: et nulla vehitur cervice supinus, carpentoque sedens. Somni parcissimus ipse est, ultimus haustor aquae. Cum tandem fonte reperto indiga conatur laticis potare iuventus,

stat, dum lixa bibat. Si veris magna paratur fama bonis, et si successu nuda remoto

51

55

60

inspicitur virtus, quidquid laudamus in ullo

65

maiorum, Fortuna fuit. Quis Marte secundo,

quis tantum meruit populorum sanguine nomen?

Hunc ego per Syrtes, Libyaeque extrema triumphum ducere maluerim, quam ter Capitolia curru scandere Pompeii, quam frangere colla Iugurthae. Ecce parens verus patriae, dignissimus aris, Roma, tuis; per quem numquam iurare pudebit, et quem, si steteris umquam cervice soluta, tunc olim factura deum.

70

NOTES TO CATULLUS.

GAIUS

INTRODUCTION.

AIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS was born in Verona, in the year 84 B.C., probably of a wealthy senatorian or equestrian family. His father was one of the principal men of the province, and an intimate friend of Julius Caesar.

His native district, Gallia Cisalpina, was even at that time one of "the chief literary centres of Italy"; not a few of the Latin authors of this Golden Age of Roman literature were natives of it, among them Cornelius Nepos, the biographer, Bibaculus, a writer of satiric iambics, and later, Virgil, Livy, Cornelius Gallus, one of the eminent elegiac writers, Aemilius Macer, and other poets; and there, so far as is known, Catullus was educated.

With the exception of occasional visits to his villas - one at Sirmio on Lake Benacus, the other on the border of the Tiburtine and Sabine territory — and to Verona, his residence from about the year 61 B.C. was at Rome.

In this period of the ascendancy of the so-called first triumvirate the sympathies of Catullus, though he took no part in politics, were entirely and strongly with the party of the Republic, as not only his bold attacks upon Caesar, Mamurra, Piso, and others, but also his personal friendships (for the most part) bear witness. In the circle of his associates or acquaintances were the orator Hortensius, Cicero, the consulars Manlius Torquatus and Metellus Celer, Caelius Rufus, an orator and in public life, the poets Licinius Calvus, Helvius Cinna, and Asinius Pollio (who was however an adherent of Caesar), afterward very eminent also as an orator, historian, and patron of learning.

In the society of such friends as these, men of intellectual ability and culture, and of social and political prominence, Catullus devoted himself to poetic composition, and all or nearly all his extant poems were written after his removal to Rome.