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Notes on Catvllvs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Tenney Frank
Affiliation:
Johns Hopking University

Extract

CATVLLVS LXVIII. 157 contains a crux in the last word which has continued to defy editors. In ending his long elegy to Manlius, Catullus showers his gratitude upon him and all who have served him in his first efforts to meet Lesbia:

Sitis felices et tu simul et tua uita

et domus, in qua nos lusimus, et domina

et qui principio nobis terram dedit aufert

a quo sunt primo omnia nata bona.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1926

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References

page 201 note 1 With Baehrens, , Schoell, and Muenzer, (Pauly-Wiss. III. 1267)Google Scholar I prefer to identify the Caelius of Carm. C. with the well-known Caelius Rufus. Whatever one does the verb in C. 1. 2, has to be emended.

page 202 note 1 The first five houses on the south side of the Cliuus Victoriae (facing the Forum) seem to fit house. into the map as follows:(1) Seius, (Cic. de domo 115)Google Scholar; (2) Clodius (ibid. 116); (3)Metellus, and Clodia, (Cic. pro Cad. 59)Google Scholar; (4) Catulus (ibid.);(5) Caelius. Facing these and standing on the narrow strip between the Cliuus Victoriae and the Noua Via were the porticus of Catulus (opposite Metellus and Clodius) and the house of Cicero. This house Clodius destroyed in order to get an open space in front of his own house.

page 202 note 2 The poem does not place Manlius precisely, revealing only that he was a Torquatus and belonged to the nobility. The intimate tone of LXI. and LXVIII. leaves little room for doubt that this is the Manlius of LXVIII., and Cicero's, description of his poet friend, the Epicurean protagonist of De Finibus I. 13Google Scholar, completes a strong chain of probabilities.