DOCSLIB.ORG

Morales 1 Written for CLA 393 (Honors Thesis Writing) Submitted

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Morales 1 Written for CLA 393 (Honors Thesis Writing) Submitted Morales 1 Written for CLA 393 (Honors Thesis Writing) Submitted to the Undergraduate Writing Colloquium in the category of Humanities The Ponderous, Portentous Prick: Sociopolitical Invective in the Mamurra Poems of Catullus Mario G. Morales Class of 2011, B.A. History/Classics Morales 2 Analysis of Invective in the Mamurra Poems Nowhere is the sociopolitical dimension of Catullan poetry more present than in the poems attacking Mamurra, or, as Catullus eventually settles on calling him, Mentula. By all accounts a capable officer historically, Mamurra becomes a contrapositional figure to the speaker of the poems, whether that speaker is Catullus himself or a persona created in order to reinforce the invective character of the poems. The hyperbolic rhetoric used to describe his sexual, financial, and literary exploits further caricatures him, making him a near-farcical exaggeration of the quintessential vir – the ambitious and efficient man every good Roman aspired to be. This makes him the absolute opposite of Catullus, or at least of the Catullan persona, whose literary, intellectual, and moral concerns set him against the traditional idea of Roman virility. The obvious question to settle, then, is who Mamurra was in the first place. He was a member of the Roman equestrian class, hailing from Formiae, a town along the Appian Way and the site of Cicero's assassination in 43.1 In being of noble birth and a Roman citizen, he already presented an opposite figure to Catullus, who hailed from Transpadane Gaul, a province that would not acquire full Roman status until 49. Furthermore, the province was also known for a high percentage of settlers from Hellenized central Italy. Wiseman suggests that this Greek influence, combined with the traditional morality of rural communities, heavily influenced Catullus' poetry, not simply in his choice to adopt Hellenized forms but in the moral values he espouses through his invective.2 Since Catullus served as a staff officer to Memmius Piso, however, he must have at least obtained or received Roman citizenship, probably through his 1 Green, Peter. The Poems of Catullus: A Bilingual Edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. p. 289. 2 Wiseman, T.P. Catullus and His World: a Reappraisal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. pp. 110- 111. Morales 3 father's service as a magistrate in Verona.3 During his career, Mamurra served as an engineer to two of the triumvirs, first to Pompey during the Mithridatic War (66), then to Julius Caesar, both in Spain (61) and Gaul (58). During the latter campaign, he was made Caesar's praefectus fabrum (i.e., chief engineer) and performed efficiently enough to build a 1,500-foot bridge across the Rhine in ten days.4 His efficiency in service resulted in his amassing enough wealth to scandalize Cicero,5 though in Catullus he is most commonly portrayed as the decoctor Formianus – that is, the “bankrupt from Formiae”6 – in contrast to his general image of a wealthy young officer. Once again, this stands in direct opposition to Catullus, who, despite his service on Memmius Piso's staff in Bithynia, was apparently unable to acquire any impressive wealth,7 and who, unless emancipated from his father, would have been in potestate and thus living in Rome on an allowance.8 While Catullus seems to have resigned himself to poverty, such as in his humorous invitation to Fabullus in 13, he paints Mamurra as an insatiable machine, seeking only wealth that he then hastens to disintegrate. As Fordyce notes, however, Caesar was unlikely to have appointed such a spendthrift to serve as his chief engineer. The fact that Mamurra served as praefectus fabrum, particularly during a campaign like Caesar's conquest of Gaul, thus suggests that Catullus' 3 Konstan, David. "The Contemporary Political Context." A Companion to Catullus. Ed. Marilyn B. Skinner. Chichester: Blackwell, 2011. p. 72. 4 Green, p. 296. 5 Cic., Att. 7.7.6.: “Annorum enim decem imperium et ita latum placet? Placet igitur etiam me expulsum […] et Labieni divitiae et Mamurrae placent et Balbi horti et Tusculanum.” (“Do the ten years of command please [me], or that it was so borne? Then it pleases me to be exiled […] and the riches of Labienus and Mamurra please me, and the gardens of Balbus and his Tusculanian [estate].” Cited in Green, p. 296; Konstan, p. 74. 6 Catul. 41.4, 43.5. 7 Catul. 10.8-13. 8 Green, p. 2. Morales 4 depiction of the man is, at best, biased.9 At worst, it would have been bald hypocrisy: while Catullus righteously lobs invective verses at Mamurra for attempting to enrich himself through campaigning, he had before attacked Memmius Piso, his own superior, for preventing him from doing exactly that.10 It is hard to believe that Catullus would have been incognizant of the dissonance. Fordyce suggests that Catullus most likely took offense not to Mamurra's actual conduct or his political alignment with Caesar and Pompey. Rather, Mamurra attracted the poet's ire “by cutting a figure in society in Rome and in Cisalpine Gaul,” the latter of which becomes the provincia mentioned in 43.6.11 In other words, what Catullus found objectionable was Mamurra's own social persona, and refined his own persona in order to counter it. The poems that attack him, whether addressed to him or to his various relations, emphasize the contrasts between their author and their target. The Catullan portrait of Mamurra paints him as an undiluted appetite with no thought for the consequences of his licentiousness. He is relentless in his pursuit of wealth and sex, both markers of masculine power among Roman men involved in politics. Thus, to Catullus, he became much more than “a pretentious upstart,”12 though that may certainly have been the basis of the character who appears in the poems. He becomes instead an absurd, near- comedic exaggeration of the Roman vir. Catullus' barbs, written in the voice of a man demonstrably a failure in the same sort of endeavors, thus serve to mock this hyperbolic figure as an example of ambition gone wild. Catullus first mentions Mamurra in poem 29, as part of a longer iambic work usually 9 Fordyce, C.J. Catullus: a commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961. p. 160. 10 Fordyce, ibid. 11 Fordyce, ibid. 12 Fordyce, ibid. Morales 5 thought to be addressed to Caesar and Pompey. Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati, nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo, Mamurram habere quod Comata Gallia habebat ante et ultima Britannia? cinaede Romule haec videbis et feres? et ille nunc superbus et superfluens perambulabit omnium cubilia, ut albulus columbus aut Adoneus? cinaede Romule, haec videbis et feres? es impudicus et vorax et aleo. eone nomine, imperator unice, fuisti in ultima occidentis insula, ut ista vestra diffututa mentula ducenties comesset aut trecenties? quid est alid sinistra liberalitas? parum expatrauit an parum (h)elluatus est? paterna prima lancinata sunt bona, secunda praeda Pontica, inde tertia Hibera, quam scit amnis aurifer Tagus: nunc Galliae timetur et Britanniae. quid hunc malum fouetis? aut quid hic potest nisi uncta devorare patrimonia? eone nomine urbis o piissimi, socer generque, perdidistis omnia? Who can see this, who can suffer it, unless he were shameless, voracious, a gambler, that Mamurra holds what Transalpine Gaul and faraway Britain had before? Faggot Romulus, will you see this and put up with it? Now he, haughty and overflowing, will pass around the marriage beds of all, like some little white dove or Adoneus? Faggot Romulus, will you see this and put up with it? You are shameless, and voracious, and a gambler. Was this why, O generalissimo, you were in the world's westernmost island, so this thoroughly-fucked-out prick of yours would eat two hundred or three hundred times? What is it if not improper generosity? Has he not gobbled enough or gone through enough? First he tore his inheritance to pieces, then the booty of Pontus, from there, third the Spanish treasure, as the gold-bearing river Tagus knows. Now he is feared in Gaul and Britain. Why do you cherish this evil man? What can he do except swallow oiled patrimonies? Was this why, you holier-than-thou citizens, father-in-law, son-in-law, destroyed everything? Written in a style reminiscent of Archilochean iambics, particularly at its opening, 29 is Morales 6 one of the more direct invective pieces in the Catullan corpus. Moreover, as the first poem to make any mention of Mamurra in the corpus, 29 serves as an introduction both to him specifically and to Catullus' more explicitly political poetry in general, and establishes Mamurra as the dominant character among those that populate this thematic division of his work.13 Elements first essayed in this poem recur throughout the later corpus. First, the word mentula will become directly associated with Mamurra in the epigrams. Second, the theme of Mamurra as an unstoppable appetite, always in pursuit of sex or treasure and careless of the cost he incurs in acquiring them, will appear in two different sets of poems. Mamurra's profligate habits14 lead Catullus to nickname him “bankrupt from Formiae” in poems 41 and 43, hurled at his mistress, Ameana. Much later in the published order of the corpus, when he is first addressed by the nickname Mentula, he is attacked for his adulterous habits,15 for his lack of poetic skill,16 and for the contrast between the wealth of his property and his inability to properly exploit it.17 The stark language of vituperation Catullus utilizes in this poem is difficult to overstate. First, and most obviously, Mamurra's relentless desire for money and land cast as an unfavorable reflection upon Caesar, to say the least.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Catullus, Caesar, and the Foundations of Roman Ideology
    Catullus, Caesar, and the Foundations of Roman Ideology I argue in this paper that Catullus’ attacks on Caesar in Poems 57 and 11 serve to link sexuality and empire by associating Caesar and Mamurra with both extravagant imperialist aggression and pathic receptivity (Konstan, 2000). Catullus implicitly critiques the decadence and corruption in Roman society and, at the same time, endorses the ethic of masculine aggression, epitomized by Caesar, Mamurra, and the Catullan lover himself. Indeed, Catullus attributes to Caesar and Mamurra the very qualities of wantonness and passivity associated throughout the Catullan corpus with the male narrator (Greene, 1995; Skinner, 1993). In assigning to Caesar some of the traits he reviles in himself, the speaker suggests not only a continuity between the spheres of the political and the erotic but also implies that his own subject position in relation to those spheres cannot be distinctly located. Catullus also suggests, I would argue, that Roman masculinity is a fundamentally unstable concept (Janan, 2001; Wray 2002). This is evident in the fact that the putatively weak male lover in Catullus typically asserts his own masculinity by threatening to feminize other men (Williams 1999). Poem 16 (pedicabo et irrumabo) is a notorious example of this. In fact, one of the central assumptions of the ideology of Roman masculinity is that a man’s status as vir is enhanced by his penetration of other males. By predicating the center of power in the Roman world on both domination and subordination, Catullus suggests that the perversion of traditional masculine and feminine roles may constitute a crucial dimension of Roman imperialist ideology.
    [Show full text]
  • Cas Cl 230: the Golden Age of Latin Literature
    CAS CL 230: THE GOLDEN AGE OF LATIN LITERATURE In Workflow 1. CASCL Chair ([email protected]; [email protected]) 2. CAS Dean ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; jessmroh; lcherch; [email protected]; [email protected]) 3. GEC SubCommittees ([email protected]) 4. University Gen Ed Committee Chair ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) 5. Final Approval ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) Approval Path 1. Mon, 30 Oct 2017 14:00:40 GMT MEGHAN ELIZABETH KELLY (mekel): Approved for CASCL Chair New Proposal Date Submitted: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 12:21:14 GMT Viewing: The Golden Age of Latin Literature Last edit: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 12:21:14 GMT Changes proposed by: mekel Section One – Provenance of Proposal Proposer Information Name Title Email School/College Department Name Leah Kronenberg Assoc. Prof. [email protected] CAS Classical Studies Section Two – Course or Co-Curricular Activity Identifiers What are you proposing? Course College College of Arts & Sciences Department CLASSICAL STUDIES Subject Code CAS CL - Classical Studies Course Number 230 Course/Co-curricular Title The Golden Age of Latin Literature Short Title Gold Latin Lit This is: A New Course Did you participate in a CTL workshop for the development of this activity? No Bulletin (40-word) Course Description An in-depth exploration in English of some of the greatest poets from Ancient Rome, including Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid. Examines the Romans' engagement with Greek literature and the development of their own "Classics," from personal love poetry to profound epic. Prerequisites,
    [Show full text]
  • Catullus, Memmius, and Bithynia
    Catullus, Memmius, and Bithynia Gaius Memmius was the son-in-law of Sulla, an orator who won backhanded praise from Cicero (Brut. 247), seducer of the wife of Marcus Lucullus (Cic. Att. 1. 18. 3) and a fierce adversary of his brother (Plut. Cat. Mi. 29. 5-8), a poet whose immodesty impressed Ovid (Tr. 2. 433), a praetor (Cic. Q. fr. 1. 2. 16), a candidate for the consulship, a disgraced exile, the probable but imperfect patron of Lucretius, and a perfect villain for Catullus, and a successful military commander, hailed by his troops as “Imperator.” The last is evidenced by a denarius (427 Crawford). The obverse presents the head of Ceres, facing right, with C∙ MEMMI C ∙ F ∙ reading downwards. On the reverse is a trophy and a kneeling captive with hands tied behind his back; reading downwards on the left is the title IMPERATOR and on the right C ∙ MEMMIUS. To my knowledge this remarkable coin is never brought up in discussions of Catullus, despite the fact that Catullus would have been serving in the cohors of Memmius at the time he was acclaimed imperator. Crawford and others date the coin to 56, following the consensus that Memmius was governor of Bithynia in 57. This presents a problem, for it seems unlikely that Memmius could have engaged in any significant military campaign nine years after the province had been pacified (Cic. Agr. 2. 47) and a full five years after Pompey’s settlement of the East. It is much more likely that Memmius’ victory was earlier, at a time when there was still potential unrest in the area of Bithynia following Mithradates’ resurgence in 67.
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Goddess, Neoteric Poetry, and Menippean Satire
    The Great Goddess, Neoteric Poetry, and Menippean Satire Most scholars assume that Catullus’ Attis poem (63) inspired Maecenas to compose a poem on the same topic and in the same meter: Maecenas is one of only three Romans authors who wrote galliambics, the meter special to Cybele and her cult, and since other fragments of Maecenas’ poetry clearly imitate Catullus’ hendecasyllables, the logical conclusion is that Maecenas’ galliambics were another attempt to imitate his more successful neoteric predecessor. As I will show, however, Catullus was not the only source of inspiration for galliambic meter, just as the Magna Mater was not a topic confined to neoteric poets. It is true that among the many qualities that define neoteric poetry of the late Roman republic, a salient one is the subject of the Great Mother, or Cybele, whose myth was possibly first rendered as a mannered miniature epic or epyllion by some Hellenistic poet, though that original does not survive. In addition to his own poem on the subject in which the recent convert Attis regrets his decision to serve the goddess as a eunuch priest, we learn from Catullus (35) that his friend Caecilius was writing a poem about the Magna Mater, which, if it was ever completed, might have also been in galliambic meter. But neoteric poets were not the only ones concerned with the Great Goddess’ myth and the bizarre, frenzied practices that surrounded her cult. The polymath Marcus Terentius Varro also took up the theme, writing about the establishment of her cult at Rome in the De Lingua Latina (6.15) and other works.
    [Show full text]
  • LATIN POETS in ENGLISH 01:190:315 Spring 2006 Mon, Thurs 11:30-12:50 Pm (3Rd Period) Murray Hall-204 CAC
    LATIN POETS IN ENGLISH 01:190:315 Spring 2006 Mon, Thurs 11:30-12:50 pm (3rd Period) Murray Hall-204 CAC Leah Kronenberg Ruth Adams Bldg. 006 (DC) Department of Classics 732-932-9600 Office Hours: Thurs. 3:00-4:00 pm [email protected] Course Description In this course we will read selections from three of the most famous Latin poets of the “Golden Age” of Roman literature, namely Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid. While each poet has a distinct style and subject matter, which ranges from the shockingly obscene to the impossibly learned and refined, it is possible to trace a continuous line of influence from Catullus to Virgil to Ovid. Thus, this course will aim not only to study each poet on his own but to examine the connections between them. We will focus in class on close interpretation of the texts which, while often not long (as short as 2 lines), are dense and require careful reading. We will primarily study these texts in their own cultural context—namely the Roman world of the “Late Republic” and “Early Empire” (ie 1st century BC-early 1st century AD)—though we will also look at how these poets have been reinterpreted and retranslated through the ages. Course Website The course website is accessible through the WebCT homepage. Go to https://webct.rutgers.edu and follow the instructions for logging in as a student. You will need to have a NetID and password to access the website. Required Texts (available at Rutgers Ferren Mall Bookstore) 1. Catullus: The Complete Poems.
    [Show full text]
  • Ariadne's Transformation
    Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2020 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2020 Ariadne’s Transformation: Presenting Femininity From Roman Poetry to Modern Opera Xinyi Wang Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2020 Part of the Classics Commons, and the Music Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Wang, Xinyi, "Ariadne’s Transformation: Presenting Femininity From Roman Poetry to Modern Opera" (2020). Senior Projects Spring 2020. 165. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2020/165 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ariadne’s Transformation: Presenting Femininity From Roman Poetry to Modern Opera Senior Project Submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College by Xinyi Wang Annandale-on-Hudson, New York May 2020 Acknowledgments To my advisor Lauren Curtis, for her warm and inspiring presence, for guiding me through this project with constructive suggestions and valuable input, and for spending incredible time on polishing my thoughts and writing. To my tutor Emily Giangiulio, for her warm support, and for carefully helping me with grammar.
    [Show full text]
  • Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature ADDRESS
    1 CURRICULUM VITAE: JOSEPH DUFFIELD REED 8 February 2018 POSITION: Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature ADDRESS: Department of Classics [email protected] Brown University [email protected] Macfarlane House 48 College Street Providence, RI 02912 EDUCATION: B.A. magna cum laude, Classics (Greek and Latin), May 1987, Yale College A.M., Classics, June 1991, Stanford University Non-degree, Keble College, Oxford, Fall 1991 Ph.D., Classics, June 1993, Stanford University FIELDS OF SCHOLARLY INTEREST: Special fields: Augustan poetry, Greek bucolic poetry, Adonis myth and cult General fields: Roman poetry, Hellenistic poetry, early modern Latin poetry ACADEMIC HONORS AND AWARDS: Friedrich Solmsen Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin at Madison (1996-97) Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching-Research Fellow, Andrew D. White Center for the Humanities, Cornell University (1997-98) Fellow of the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla (since 2007) Director’s Guest, Civitella Ranieri (June 2016) TEACHING: Stanford University Teaching Fellow, Classics, 1991-93 The Ohio State University Instructor, Classics, 1993-96 Cornell University Mellon Teaching-Research Fellow, 1997-98 Hutton Assistant Professor, Classics, 1998-2001 2 The University of Michigan Assistant Professor of Greek and Latin, 2001-07 Associate Professor of Greek and Latin, 2007-09 Brown University Professor of Classics, from 2009 Professor of Comparative Literature, from 2010 Undergraduate teaching includes intermediate and advanced courses on Herodotus, Greek bucolic, Lucretius, Cicero, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Seneca; lecture courses on Roman Civilization, Greek and Roman literature, mythology, ancient epic, ancient novel; beginning Greek and Latin (including intensive courses) Graduate teaching includes seminars on Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, Latin Love Elegy, Hellenistic poetry, Bucolic poetry, the epyllion; Latin literature survey; Greek and Latin prose composition Dissertation Committees (Chair): K.
    [Show full text]
  • Index Locorum
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00312-5 — Author and Audience in Vitruvius' De architectura Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols Index More Information Index Locorum Appian ., Bella Civilia .., ., Aristotle ., Poetics b, ORF .–, Politics b, ., Asconius ., In Scaurianam, – ., , ., – ., Bibaculus ., , , – .–, .–, ., , – ., , , .–, ., –, –, ., ., – Bion of Borysthenes Catullus FA, , FA.–, , , – FA., ., FA.–, .–, FA.–, ., FA., .–, F–, ., F, ., Biton ., – Kataskeuai .–, – ., ., Caesar .–, Bellum Gallicum .–, ., ., .–, .–, ., Callimachus , , , Aetia .–, ., Hymn to Apollo –, , , , Cato the Elder .–, De agri cultura ., ., ., , , , , ., ., ., ., ., .–, ., , , © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00312-5 — Author and Audience in Vitruvius' De architectura Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols Index More Information Index Locorum .–, .b, , .., , –, .., ., , ..–, ., – .., ., .., ., , .., ., ..–, .–, – ., , –, .., .–, .., Cicero .., Brutus , .., , Epistulae ad familiares ., –, Epistulae ad Quintum frater ., De domo sua , In Pisonem , De inventione .–, In Verrem , De lege agraria ., , De legibus .–, , De officiis ., ., .–, – ., ., ., ., .–, .–, ., ., , –, – ., .–, , ., ., , ., ., –, Orator –, ., , Paradoxa Stoicorum , ., , Pro Caecina , De oratore .–, Pro Cluentio , ., Pro Murena , , Pro Sestio , ., , – ., , ., CIL ., ., De republica ., ., , – De senectute , ., Epistulae
    [Show full text]
  • {PDF} Caesar Ebook Free Download
    CAESAR PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Colleen McCullough | 864 pages | 07 Aug 2003 | Cornerstone | 9780099460435 | English | London, United Kingdom Caesar (title) - Wikipedia A series of successful military and political maneuvers, along with the support of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus known as the richest man in Rome , helped Caesar get elected as senior Roman consul in 59 B. The union terrified the Roman Senate who knew that a partnership between three such powerful men would prove unstoppable. They were right, and the triumvirate soon controlled Rome. Caesar was appointed governor of the vast region of Gaul north-central Europe in 58 B. During the subsequent Gallic Wars, Caesar conducted a series of brilliant campaigns to conquer and stabilize the region, earning a reputation as a formidable and ruthless military leader. But his great successes in the region caused Pompey to resent him and complicated the already-strained relationship between Pompey and Crassus. As Caesar conquered Gaul, the political situation in Rome became increasingly volatile, with Pompey its lone consul. Caesar refused and, in a bold and decisive maneuver, directed his army to cross the Rubicon River into Italy, triggering a civil war between his supporters and those of Pompey. Caesar and his armies pursued Pompey to Spain, Greece and, finally, Egypt. Caesar became her lover and partnered with her to overthrow Ptolemy and make her ruler of Egypt. The pair never married but their long-term affair produced a son, Ptolemy XV Caesar, known as Caesarion. In 46 B. Many people still consider Caesar a great leader with keen insights into human nature.
    [Show full text]
  • Catullus and Roman Dramatic Literature Christopher Brian Polt a Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the University of North
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository Catullus and Roman Dramatic Literature Christopher Brian Polt A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classics. Chapel Hill 2010 Approved by, James J. O‟Hara Sharon L. James Werner Riess Robert G. Babcock Mario Erasmo © 2010 Christopher Brian Polt ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Christopher Brian Polt: Catullus and Roman Dramatic Literature (Under the direction of James J. O‟Hara) This dissertation examines how Roman drama, and Roman Comedy in particular, informs the poetry of Catullus. It argues that Latin drama continued to play a significant role in Roman thought and literature after the second century BCE and offered a shared cultural vocabulary through which authors could communicate private ideas about love, friendship, and rivalry. It argues that many of Catullus‟s poems contain meaningful intertextual allusions to Roman Comedy whose presence contributes additional layers of complexity to his work. It also argues that reading Catullus with an eye towards theatricality and performativity reveals new ways in which his poetry can be understood, from both ancient and modern perspectives. Chapter One outlines evidence for ongoing interest in the Roman stage in the first century BCE, including scholarly and antiquarian study, large scale public performance, and private entertainment at aristocratic dinner parties and literary recitations. Chapter Two examines Catullus‟s engagement with Plautus and Terence in his erotic epigrams and argues that the Catullan speaker consistently invokes the figure of the young lover from Roman Comedy.
    [Show full text]
  • Mamurra, Eques Form/Anus
    MAMURRA, EQUES FORM/ANUS The recent attempt by Paul Thielscher to idendfy Mamurra with Vitruvius, author of the De architectura, has given Caesar's praefectusfabrum new interest. 1) Before thathis claim to farne (or notoriety) had been a result of Catullus' vitriolic attack. He has little deserved the attention thus paid to him. In the course of discussion of the corpus Catullianum a career has been outHned for hirn which will not bear intensive scrudny. Some elements in the poet's comments are clearly factual, and Mamurra's prodigality and wealth, his unscrupulous aetions and immoral character cannot be seriously quesdoned. However inferences, especially from the twenty-ninth poem, are so speculadve that a career rather different from the accepted version is probable2). References, other than those of Catullus, are scanty. The earliest are two in Cicero's letters to Atticus. Among other ills due to Caesar's actions in the fifdes were et Labieni divitiae et Mamurrae ... et Balbi horti et Tusculanum 3). These three men had I) Cf. RE s v. "Vitruvius," cols. 419-426; 427-489 (1961). Cited below as PT. A refutation of this posthumous article is headed "0 M Pauli Thielscher doctoris": P.Ruffel et J.Soubiran, "Vitruve ou Mamurra?" Pallas 11 (1962 [1964]) 123-179. Cited below as RS. Cf. my Supplementary Note. 2) Editors and critics dealing with Catullus have comments on Ma­ murra beyond his just due. These items, a few among many, are useful: H. A. J. Munro, CriJicisms and ElucidaJions 0/ CaJullus (Cambridge, 1878) notes on 29,57, II4f.; G.Q.Giglioli, NoJ.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poems of Catullus As They Went to the Printer for the first Time, in Venice 400 Years Ago
    1.Catullus, Poems 1/12/05 2:52 PM Page 1 INTRODUCTION LIFE AND BACKGROUND We know very little for certain about Catullus himself, and most of that has to be extrapolated from his own work, always a risky procedure, and nowadays with the full weight of critical opinion against it (though this is always mutable, and there are signs of change in the air). On the other hand, we know a great deal about the last century of the Roman Republic, in which his short but intense life was spent, and about many of the public figures, both literary and political, whom he counted among his friends and enemies. Like Byron, whom in ways he resembled, he moved in fashionable circles, was radical without being constructively political, and wrote poetry that gives the overwhelming impression of being generated by the public aªairs, literary fashions, and aristocratic private scandals of the day. How far all these were fictionalized in his poetry we shall never know, but that they were pure invention is unlikely in the extreme: what need to make up stories when there was so much splendid material to hand? Obviously we can’t take what Catullus writes about Caesar or Mamurra at face value, any more than we can By- ron’s portraits of George III and Southey in “The Vision of Judgement,” or Dry- den’s of James II and the Duke of Buckingham in “Absalom and Achitophel.” Yet it would be hard to deny that in every case the poetic version contained more than a grain of truth.
    [Show full text]