happen, and I am tormented.” This line was taken from a famous poem by one of Rome’s

greatest poets, Gaius Valerius Catullus.

Catullus is a Latin poet of whom little is known except that which has been extracted from his writings. Having lived from circa 84 BC to circa 54 BC he was able to write poems of adoration, grief, and vulgar abuse. It is believed that he was born into a wealthy and distinguished family in Verona, Italy. From there, he came to Rome in about 62 BC, as did many young men when they were of age.

In Rome, he not only gained a traditional education but he acquired a caustic wit as well. He became involved in a small group of poets who were considered to be as good as some of the famous Greek and Egyptian poets, such as Sappho. He began to write Latin verse that is believed to be inspired by the Greek poets of the Hellenistic Age (4th century- 1st century BC). With these verses, he began to achieve a name for himself among circles of poets as well as the Roman people in general.

Of all his works, only 113 of his poems are still in existence today. Fifty-seven of these are short poems that range between 5 lines and 25 lines long, with the exception of one that is 34 lines long. The collection of his existing works also contains 8 longer poems that are between 48 and 408 lines in length, written in 4 different meters.

The collection then ends with 48 epigrams, which are very brief poems that consist of anywhere between 2 lines to 12 lines. The content of his poems covers a wide range of subject matter, and they vary in tone and subject matter. A few of his poems even portray his views and opinions of the political standing of his time, and they sometimes attack certain political leaders, such as Julius Caesar.

The most famous works include the “Lesbia poems”, in which Catullus expresses deep passion, devotion, hatred, and scorn towards a rather obscure woman, referred to only as Lesbia. Lesbia was in fact Clodia, the sister of Catullus’s archenemy, Clodius Pulcher. She was believed to be a “beautiful but unscrupulous married woman who had been unfaithful to the young poet when the two were lovers” (Encarta).

Catullus almost made a religion for himself of his love for Clodia; “for him, she was a divinity,someone in whose service, or servitude, a life could be well spent” (Grolier).With these poems focusing on his deep contempt, hostility, desire, and dedication toward Lesbia, they actually reveal his skepticism, criticism, and pity towards himself. It is a general consensus among critics that the “Lesbia poems” are “among the most intense and effective expressions of passion in Roman literature” (Encarta).

During his lifetime, Catullus mastered several forms of poetry. He was one of the first great lyric poets and modeled his style from that of the Greeks. His poems range from genuine accounts of his affections toward Lesbia and toward his dead brother, t o his biting wit aimed at his political enemies.

Another form of poetry Catullus chose was that of the epigram. This form was originally a witty observation in a verse, but Catullus manipulated it into a terse satire verse that contained a twist at the end. This word’s meaning was later stretched to have the meaning equivalent to that of a cliche, a commonly used phrase. This great poet was also known to have been one of the first to use a literary form called the elegy. It was chiefly formed of couplets, and usually contained grief as its subject, although politics and love were later incorporated.

The Greek influence is also expressed through a great number of Catullus’ work. He was especially fond of Callimachus and Sappho, who were both renowned Greek poets. Catullus often tried to imitate their styles through his writing. He expressed Greek style just as much as he expressed his love for Lesbia, and it was said that he “wrote with one eye on his mistress and the other on the Greek poets” (Grolier).

Predominantly based on philosophical ideas, early Roman poetry was usually educational and informative, teaching about the country, its leaders, and the good of the people. Dissimilarly, Catullus chose to write about new and different values, such as flamboyance, affairs with lovers, social gatherings, and his own individual pleasure. This mockery of Roman values also demonstrated Catullus’s life of eccentricity and overindulgence.

From about 57 BC to about 56 BC Catullus traveled to Asia Minor in the company of Gaius Memmius, who was the governor of the Roman province of Bithynia. Here he visited his brother’s gravesite at Troy and was inspired to write one of his most famous odes with the line frater ave atque vale (“brother, hail and farewell”). When he returned from Asia Minor, he wrote one of his longest poems, which was about the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles.

Catullus is thought to have died in 54 BC after leading a short life of perhaps only thirty years. His influence, however, lived on. This influence is not only seen in the love poetry of later Latin poets, such as Ovid and Horace, but it can also be found in the marriage odes of English poets of the Renaissance, such as Robert Herrick, Ben Johnson, and Edmund Spenser. His works can be regarded as literary sensations. They give his views and insight into the life of a middle-classman during a lifetime of great confusion in the Republic. Although many accounts concerning this topic have been written, Catullus’s versions are unique in the sense that they also incorporate his love and heartache. Having to put up with this may have accounted for his brief life.

Written by Amanda and Kendall

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