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Nescio Quid Febriculosi Scorti A Note on Catullus 6

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. Gwyn Morgan
M. Gwyn Morgan
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
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Extract

Catullus 6 is a short poem addressed to a certain Flavius, otherwise unknown. Flavius, so we are told, refuses to say anything about his girlfriend, and the poet can explain this only by assuming that he has taken up with a mistress who is singularly unrefined (lines 1–5). It is certainly clear that Flavius is not spending his nights alone; the state of his bedroom proves that much (lines 6–11). But, says Catullus, there is no reason for Flavius to remain silent, no matter what folly he is engaging in. He should confide in the poet, whose only wish is to praise him and his mistress in witty verse (lines 12—17).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , December 1977 , pp. 338 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1977

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References

page 338 note 1 For conjectures see Neudling, C. L., A Prosopography to Catullus (1955), pp. 67 f. I wish to thank Professor Carl Rubino for reading and commenting on this paper; he is not, of course, to be held responsible for the views expressed.Google Scholar

page 338 note 2 See especially Ilse Schnelle, , Unter-suchungen zu Catulls dichterischer Form (1933), pp.3 ff.Google Scholar; Quinn, K., The Catullan Revolution 2 (1969), pp.62 f.Google Scholar; Tracy, S. V., Argutatiinambulatioque (Catullus 6.11)’, CP 64 (1969), 234–5.Google Scholar

page 338 note 3 For the topos see Leo, F., Plautinische Forschungen 2 (1912), p.145Google Scholar; Jacoby, F., ‘Drei Gedichte des Properz’, RhM 69 (1914), 398 ff., esp. 402 ff.Google Scholar; Wheeler, A. L., Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry (1934), p.227.Google Scholar

page 338 note 4 Merrill, E. T., Catullus (1893), ad loc. Like many other editors of Catullus, he claims wrongly that this is the first occurrence of the word (see below).Google Scholar

page 338 note 5 Quinn, , Cat. Rev. 63 (polysyllable), and Catullus: the Poems (1970), ad loc.; pejorative)Google Scholar; cf. Schnelle, , op. cit., p.6.Google Scholar

page 338 note 6 Riese, A., Die Gedichte des Catullus (1884)Google Scholar, ad loc. Whatever is to be made of Celsus 4.28, there is evidence enough to show that syphilis existed in Europe before 1492 (Holcohn, R. C., ‘The antiquity of congenital syphilis’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 10 (1941), 148–77Google Scholar; Wells, C., Bones, Bodies and Disease (1964), pp.100–5)Google Scholar, even though it is difficult to find specific examples in the ancient world (but see Carney, T. F., ‘The Death of Sulla’, Act. Class. 4 (1961), 64–79). Nevertheless, malaria remains more likely (see below).Google Scholar

page 338 note 7 Ellis, R., A Commentary on Catullus 2: 1889), ad loc.Google Scholar

page 338 note 8 Kroll, , C. Valerius Catullus 2 (1929), id loc.Google Scholar; de Gubernatis, M. Lenchantin, I1 libro di Catullo 2 (1933), ad locGoogle Scholar. For fuller argumentation see Passalacqua, Marina, ‘Plaut. Cist. 406’, RFIC 98 (1970), 302–3Google Scholar, and for a discussion of malaria in ancient Italy, Brunt, P. A., Italian Manpower 225 B.C.-A.D. 14 (1971), pp. 611 ff.Google Scholar

page 339 note 1 Baehrens, A., Catulli Veronensis Liber (1885), ad loc.Google Scholar

page 339 note 2 Piautus, , Cist. 405–8 (cf. Poen. 265 ff.); see also Passalacqua, loc. cit.Google Scholar, and Opelt, Ilona, Die lateinischen Schimpfworter and verwandte sprachliche Erscheinungen (1965), p.107 and n.83.Google Scholar

page 339 note 3 Quinn, Catullus: the Poems, ad loc., comments on scorti diligis that ‘the blunt scorti sharpens the oxymoron’. By this he presumably refers to the fact that Catullus elsewhere can use diligere to connote more than sexual passion alone. But though this is true of 76.23 and 81.2, the mode of expression Catullus employs at 72.3–4 shows that this connotation could not be taken for granted.

page 339 note 4 Jacoby, , op. cit., p.406Google Scholar; cf. Friedrich, G., Catulli Veronensis Liber (1908), ad loc.Google Scholar; Quinn, K., Catullus: an Interpretation (1972), p.226.Google Scholar

page 339 note 5 The same failure to argue the case has bedevilled understanding of Catullus 32: see Morgan, M. G., ‘Ipsithilla or Ipsicilla? Catullus, c. 32 again’, Glotta 52 (1974), 233–6.Google Scholar

page 339 note 6 On Roman sensitivity to insult see the very interesting remarks of Kelly, J. M., Studies in the Civil Judicature of the Roman Republic (1976), pp.93 ff.Google ScholarCicero, , pro Cael. 6 is clearly disingenuous.Google Scholar

page 340 note 1 For full discussion see Herter, H., ‘Die Soziologie der antiken Prostitution im Lichte des heidnischen and christlichen Schrifttums’, Jb. Ant. Chr. 3 (1960), 70–111, especially 85 ff.Google Scholar That a back-alley was a possible site for a rendezvous is worth emphasizing, since Quinn interprets Catullus 58.5 on other lines (Catullus: the Poems, ad loc.; but see Penella, R. J., Hermes 104 (1976), 118–20).Google Scholar Nor were the Romans the only ones to avail themselves of such a site: see Pottle, F. A. (ed,), Boswell's London Journal 1762–1763 (1950), pp.262 and 272 f.; cf. also pp.227, 230 f., 237, 240 f., 255 f., and 280.Google Scholar

page 340 note 2 Cf. Schnelle, , op. cit., p.4Google Scholar; Quinn, , Cat. Rev., p.63.Google Scholar

page 340 note 3 So Quinn, Catullus: the Poems, ad loc.

page 340 note 4 Kroll, C. Valerius Catullus, ad loc. (cf. Wheeler, , loc. cit.), citing A.P. 5.175 (Meleager), 12.71 (Callimachus), and 5.87 (Rufinus), to which may be added 12.135 (Asclepiades).Google Scholar

page 340 note 5 Line 8 I take as did Baehrens, ad loc.: ‘manifesta concubitus facti indicia prae se fert cubile sparsis ubique sertorum reliquiis et efflans adhuc acres odores.’

page 340 note 6 On lines 10–11 see Tracy, loc. cit.; on line 9 see Fuchs, H., ‘Zu Catulls Gedicht an Flavius (c. 6)’, Mus. Helv. 25 (1968), 54–6.Google Scholar

page 340 note 7 Catullus may have used a similar technique in Poem 17; see Rudd, N., ‘Colonia and her Bridge: a note on the Structure of Catullus 17’, TAPA 90 (1959), 238–42.Google Scholar Here, however, Catullus is unable to maintain the personification; in line 13 Flavius is credited with tam latera ecfututa.