Chapter 1 - Who Was Lesbia?

Summary

The identification of Catullus’ Lesbia with Clodia Metelli was assumed by Ludwig Schwabe in 1862 and challenged in Catullan Questions (1969); its continued acceptance, most conspicuously in the translations of David Mulroy and Peter Green, is shown to be incompatible with the known dates of the poems. The suggestion in 1969 that Lesbia was one of the sisters of Clodia Metelli is also unlikely, given Catullus’ consistent use of the word puella; more probably Lesbia was one of the daughters of Ap. Claudius the consul of 54 BC, and therefore sister of the man who called himself ‘Pulcher Claudius’ (Catullus 79.1 ‘Lesbius est Pulcher’).