A History of Roman Literature

-Gaius Licinius Calvus, 87-47 B. C.-Gaius Helvius Cinna-Varro Atacinus, 82 to after 37 B. C.-Publius Valerius Cato-Marcus Furius

in 57 B. C. But as his poems contain no references to any event later than 55 or 54 B. C., it is reasonably certain that he died not much after the latter date. As he is known to have died young, his birth may be assigned to about 85 B. C., or perhaps a year or two later. His birthplace was Verona, and his family was wealthy and of good position. He went to Rome while still hardly more than a boy, and began to write love poems soon after taking t

her husband's death, which took place in 59 B. C., she is reproached by Catullus for faithlessness. In the spring of 57 B. C., Catullus went to Bithynia as a member of the staff of the propr?tor C. Memmius, and by this time his connection with Clodia seems to have been at an end. In the spring of 56 B. C., Catullus returned to Rome, after visitin

mies, and with the experiences of his life. These are followed by seven longer poems in imitation of Alexandrian originals, and the rest of the collection consists of short pieces, all in elegiac verse. This arrangement is doubtless due to some editor, not to Catullus himself, but gives the book a certain artisti

bride is escorted to her new home, the first part by a chorus of maidens, the second by youths. Such songs were traditional among the Greeks as well as among the Romans, and there is little originality in the subject or its general treatment, but the brilliant versification and the charming tender passages it contains make this the most attractive of all the longer poems of Catullus. The second ep

other long poems. The longest poem of all describes in hexameter verse the marriage of Peleus with the sea-goddess Thetis. This is not in any sense a lyric poem, but an epyllion, or little epic. It contains passages of great beauty, but offers little opportunity for the display of the peculiarly lyric genius of Catullus, and is, on the whole, the least successful of his poems. This is followed by The Lock of Berenice, a translation of a poem of the same name by the Alexandrian Callimachus. Queen

ce forever hus

earer far than

never? But i

thee, as in

gh my songs sh

eath, sad as i

gled boughs

woful Daulian

ead her wail throu

is an elegy on the death of the poet's brother, joined with the praises of his friend M'. Allius and of his beloved. This poem is r

ick strokes of his invectives or to the passionate outpourings of his love. One of his favorite metres is the "hendecasyllable" or eleven syllable verse, which, by its quick movement, helps to create an impression of great swiftness of thought and flashing outbursts of emotion. At the same time, the numerous diminutive suffixes employed give a light and graceful, almost playful, tone to the verse. Some of the lines directed against those whom Catullus hated or despised,

let us li

count it

farthing

reybeards cho

hat set an

again ano

as set our

t sleep one

kisses gi

then a th

give a hun

housands o'

we'll mix th

e count, and

o evil en

g that the sum

attractive poem is the pla

fill the re

elow and Po

my belove

of her hea

that she u

s her own b

girl her

pretty bir

pping, chir

r lap was n

t to that g

no travel

e thou, in

rk of all t

bird to t

once more

and red with

eyes, and all

country. His joy in returning to his country seat on the pe

thmuses and i

ater's children

cean; with

e, Sirmio! O

once again m

oked its last on

eets to me tha

rops her burden

st-our own c

the pillow o

ought that cheer

irmio! Joy, th

waters of th

ll ye laughter-

ready been mentioned (p. 30). Matius, L?vius, Sueius. Gn?us Matius, who appears to belong to this time, wrote mimiambics in the manner of Herondas and other Alexandrian poets-lively reproductions of scenes of ordinary life-in choliambic verse, that is, iambic t

a appears to have come, like Catullus, from northern Italy, but of his life little is known beyond the fact that he was with Catullus on the staff of Memmius in Bithynia. His chief work was a poem entitled Smyrna, which, although it was of moderate length, occupied him for nine years. The subject was the unnatural love of the maiden Smyrna for her father a

e Sequani, and some satires, probably in the manner of Lucilius, In his thirty-fifth year he is said to have turned to the study of the Greek poets, and it is probably about this time that he translated into Latin hexameters the Argonautica of the Alexandrian epic p

s were grammatical treatises, poems, and a revision and correction of the works of Lucilius. The poem entitled Dir?, which is contained in manuscripts of Virgil, and really consists of two distinct poems, Dir? and Lydia, has been ascribed with some probability to Cato. In the first poem the writer curses a veteran named Lycurgus, who has deprived him of his property and his beloved Lydia; in the second he addresses a touching farewell to Lydia, who has remained in t

cultivated by many of the younger men in the Ciceronian period. Through their efforts the various styles and metres of the Greek poets, especially

CE

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