CATULLUS

From Agepedia

CATULLUS, Caius Valerius, a famous Roman poet, born, B. C. 86, at Verona 'according to some, at Sirmium, a small town on a peninsula of lake Benacus, now lago di Garda), of rich and respectable parents, went, in his youth, to Rome, where his accomplishments soon won him the favor of those who adorned that splendid era. He was the friend of Cicero, of Plancus, Cinna, and Cornelius Nepos; to the last he subsequently dedicated the collection of his poems. This collection is not of great extent, but shows what he was capable of doing in several kinds of poetry, had he preferred a steady course of study to pleasure and travelling. Probably a part of his poems have not come down to us. Of the merit of his productions, there has been but one opinion among the ancients as well as modems. Tibullus and Ovid eulogize him; and Martial, in one of his epigrams, grants to him alone a superiority over himself. In sportive composition and in epigrams, when he keeps within the proper limits of that species of poetry, he is a model. He succeeded, also, in heroic verse, as in his beautiful episode of Ariadne, which appears to have inspired the poet who afterwards sung of Dido. He was the first of the Romans who successfully imitated the Greek lyric poetry. The four odes of his that remain to us make us feel a lively regret for the loss of the others. A weighty objection, however, against most of his writings, is their licentiousness and indelicacy. The common opinion is, that he died 57 B. C, in the 30th year of his age. Scaliger maintains, but without sufficient proof, that he died in his 71st year. The edition of his works by Volpius (Padua, 1737), and that of Doling (Leipsic, 1788-90, 2 vols.), deserve honorable mention. His poems are usually published with those of Tibullus and Propertius.