The Poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus; with Notes and a Translation
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THE POEMS OF GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS S'VCICK VKESS J dHAkLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. TO ALFRED S. WEST, M.A. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON THIS EDITION OF CATULLUS IS DEDICATED IN MEMORY OF A FRIENDSHIP OF MANY YEARS 495939 PREFACE few years ago, I brought out an SOMEedition of Catullus, designed for the use of those whose Latin, by lapse of time and stress of other occupation, had lost its freshness. The present book is intended for the same class of readers and will, I hope, more effectually fulfil its purpose. My previous book was, on the whole, kindly received by the reviewers: some, however, com- plained that I had annotated several poems that it would have been better to have left unexplained. It is a difficult question to decide what an editor's duties are in such cases; but, as these notes evidently gave offence, I have left them out. There is, of course, a wide difference between I annotating a poem and translating it, and think most people will agree with me that many of the poems of Catullus are not fit to be put into viii PREFACE English. Indeed, an English translation of these poems would give a very false view of Catullus and his circle. Many of the epithets that he poured upon his opponents and the charges he brought against them were mere abuse and well understood to be such by his contemporaries. Manners have changed, and no longer do we charge people, from whom we happen to differ in opinion, with perversion of the sexual in- stinct, either in jest or in anger. A politician of to-day accuses a Cabinet Minister of being willing to ruin the country in order to keep his place for another twelvemonth. His Roman predecessor would have accused him of incest. We know the present-day accuser means nothing and I don't suppose the Roman meant anything either. Happily for the peace of mankind, words spoken in anger very rarely do mean anything. As for poor Lesbia, she had against her the greatest of orators and the most virulent of poets. Anything that could be said against a woman, was said. I cannot help feeling that much of it was not true, and what was true, was exaggerated. I have not attempted to translate either the PREFACE ix 54th or the ii2th poem. As they stand in the MSS. they are nonsense, and 1 have not seen any emendation or explanation that made them other- wise. In the 54th, the text is, of course, corrupt: the 1 1 2th may perhaps have been quite plain to a Roman, who could recognize the allusion. In neither case do I think we lose much through our ignorance. The text printed is complete and every read- ing has been accepted by at least one of the recognized authorities on Catullus: such as Mueller, Palmer, Postgate, Owen, Ellis. Pro- fessor Ellis's Commentary has been at my side during the whole time that I have been engaged upon the translation and any streaks of scholar- ship to be found in my work are entirely due to his book. In 1795, Dr. Nott published a verse translation of Catullus and from this I have taken a great many renderings. The short sketch of Catullus and his Times is the same as in my former book. A writer in the " " Athenaeum found it full of cynical iconoclasm. The fault was unintentional. I feel the greatest admiration for the principal men of the day; not only for Cicero, Caesar and Pompey, but x PREFACE also for many of those whose names are but a footnote to history. Their task was the most difficult. The Republic was cracking on every side and any attempt to rivet its gaping fissures was fought against by the crowd of totally un- educated voters or by the financial cliques. There is no sadder reading in history than the last volume of Cicero's letters. Fighting for a lost cause; blind to the fact that although the muscles of the Republic still made involuntary movements, the spirit had fled; haranguing at Rome, when the centre of interest had moved elsewhere and no one cared twopence what Rome did or said, he laid aside all thoughts of self; day and night he strove to avert the im- pending ruin and, when the cause to which he had devoted his life lay crumbled into dust, he faced the executioner's sword with calmness and courage. We forget his petty vanities, we forget his more serious faults and see only the best of one of the world's greatest men. Truly, as " Augustus said, this was a good man, and he loved his country well." In writing the Sketch of the Times of Catullus, I made use of the chapters introductory to PREFACE xi the various volumes of Cicero's Correspond- ence, edited by Professor Tyrrell and the late Professor Purser: also of Professor Oman's " well-known and interesting book Seven Roman Statesmen." My cordial thanks are due to Mr. A. I. Ellis, M.A., late scholar of St. John's College, Cam- bridge, who kindly read through this book and made numerous suggestions for its im- provement, and also to Mr. A. S. West, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, who supplied the note on the Gall iambic metre, which I have inserted in my account of the lyrical metres, and revised the proof-sheets. Although it must be clearly understood that, for the faults and imperfections of the following pages, I alone am responsible, I may state that, but for their help, these would have been much more numerous and much more serious. CHA RLES STUTTAFORD. CONTENTS PAGE A SHORT SKETCH OF THE TIMES OF CATULLUS xv CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xxx PRINCIPAL MANUSCRIPTS OF CATULLUS . xxxi TEXT AND TRANSLATION i NOTES 213 LYRICAL METRES USED BY CATULLUS . 241 METRICAL INDEX 248 INDEX OF PERSONS AND PLACES . 251 INDEX OF FIRST LINES 283 A SHORT SKETCH OF THE TIMES OF CATULLUS history of the last century of the THERoman Republic records the breakdown of a constitution framed for and adequate to the government of a city, through an attempt to apply it, in a spirit of cast-iron conservatism, to the government of a world-wide empire. The weakness of the Roman constitution lay in its divided sovereignty: the aristocratic Senate, a nominated council, and the proletariat Comitia, a popular assembly, having equal powers in the initiation or obstruction of legis- lation. So long as Rome was fighting, first for life and then for the rule of the world, a common danger and a common aim made these two work together, the only way in which such a divided sovereignty could exist. The end of the last Punic war made Rome undis- puted mistress of the Mediterranean littoral, and assured her peace. With the advent of peace, patriotism degenerated into party poli- xvi A SHORT SKETCH OF tics, which are, at bottom, nothing more than the clash of class interests. In this particular case, the clash was brought about by an economic breakdown of the social organism : itself caused by an accentuation of the perennial and incurable disparity in the distribution of wealth. To lay aside the lan- guage of the political economist, Rome was " called upon to solve the problem : What are " we to do with the Unemployed ? Rome was, to a great extent, an agricultural community, and peace had made the vast and fertile fields of Northern Africa accessible to the Roman market. This alone would have crippled the farmer, but to add to his troubles, many of the Provinces paid their tribute in grain. The State, which has not to make a profit, in order to exist, became his competitor. The price of cereals fell to such an extent that farming no longer paid. The countryside be- came denuded of its population, which drifted into the towns, bringing in its train all the evils of urban overcrowding and a starving proletariat. Tiberius Gracchus (164?- 133 B.C.) was the first man to grapple with the difficulty. He brought forward an agrarian law which was to take away the estates of the landed gentry and hand them over, at a nominal rent, to the THE TIMES OF CATULLUS xvii Roman unemployed. The Senate, largely made up of these land-owners, refused to consent to be robbed of their property, and to be reduced, in many cases, to actual poverty. A dead-lock ensued. Tiberius broke through the restraints of the law and gained his end by inciting his adherents to drive his opponents from the assembly of the Comitia. In short, he founded in the Roman Republic a system of government riot from his time until by ; and, Augustus gained the day at Philippi, Rome, whose laws form the basis of jurisprudence throughout the modern world, passed through decade after decade of chaotic bloodshed. That not only the riotous proceedings of men so notable as Tiberius and his brother Caius Gracchus should have been possible in a civilized community, but that men so much below them in repute and power as Clodius and Milo, were allowed to make life in Rome un- safe by parading the streets with their bands of tipsy roughs, appears at first sight incomprehen- sible. But in order to ensure obedience to laws when made, the office of law-maker must be kept separate from the office of law-dispenser. The politician will certainly prove a partial, and most probably a venal, judge, and this fact the framers of the Roman constitution had never grasped.