Catullus
Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic
Catullus belonged to a circle of "new poets" who wrote elegant, allusive poems on love and mythology.[1] Because of their popularity as instructional texts, Catullus's surviving poems are still extensively read.[2]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Gaius Valerius Catullus
- Born
- c. 84 BC
- Birthplace
- Verona, Italy, Roman Republic
- Died
- c. 54 BC (age 29–30)
- Place of death
- Rome, Italy, Roman Republic
- Occupation
- Poet
- Language
- Latin
- Genre
- Lyric poetry
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
His friends there included the poets Licinius Calvus and Helvius Cinna, and the biographer Cornelius Nepos.[3] He spent the year from summer 57 to summer 56 BC in Bithynia on the staff of commander Gaius Memmius.[4] The "Lesbia" of his poems is usually identified with Clodia Metelli, a sophisticated woman from the aristocratic house of Claudii Pulchri.[5] The majority of Catullus's early adulthood was apparently passed in Rome.[3]
Apuleius, a Roman author, identified Lesbia as a woman named Clodia.[5][6] An anthology of 116 carmina preserves Catullus's poems; this collection is divided into polymetra, longer poems, and epigrams, though the exact count can differ between editions.[7]
What the cited sources add
Later, during the empire, Catullus became the model for Martial’s epigrams.[6] The Encyclopedia of World Biography records that Catullus's friends included the poets C. Licinius Macer Calvus, Furius Bibaculus, and C. Helvius Cinna.[1]
References
- "Encyclopedia of World Biography". facts only, no text reused. bookrags.com
- Wikipedia, "Catullus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Skinner, "A Companion to Catullus", Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, p. 481 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Catullus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Encyclopedia of World Biography"; M. Skinner, "Authorial Arrangement of the Collection", pp. 46–48, in: A Companion to Catullus, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Catullus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Encyclopedia of World Biography" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Catullus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Gaius Valerius Catullus", poetryfoundation.org (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Gaius Valerius Catullus", poetryfoundation.org. facts only, no text reused. poetryfoundation.org
- Wikipedia, "Catullus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Catulle, "C. Valerii Catulli Carmina", e typographeo Clarendoniano, 1991 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Catullus (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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