Catullus

Catullus, full name Gaius Valerius Catullus (84?-54?bc), Roman poet, often considered the greatest writer of Latin lyric verse. It is thought that Catullus was born in Verona and went to Rome about 62 bc, where he achieved prominence in a group of young poets who wrote Latin verse inspired by the Greek poets of the Hellenistic Age (4th century-1st century bc).

Among the most famous of Catullus's works are the so-called Lesbia poems, which variously express deep passion and devotion and hatred and scorn for a mysterious lady, identified only as Lesbia. It was usual for Hellenistic poets to address their lovers by pseudonyms, and scholars conjecture that Lesbia was in reality Clodia, a beautiful but unscrupulous married woman who had been unfaithful to the young poet when the two were lovers. Although the focus is on Lesbia, many of the poems express self-doubt, self-criticism, and self-pity. Whatever the exact facts of the affair may be, critics generally agree that the Lesbia poems rank among the most intense and effective expressions of passion in Roman literature. Interspersed with the Lesbia poems are epigrams attacking Catullus's rivals and enemies.

From 57 to 56 bc Catullus visited Asia Minor in the entourage of Gaius Memmius, governor of the Roman province of Bithynia. Catullus's popular ode with the line frater ave atque vale (“brother, hail and farewell”) was inspired by a visit to his brother's grave at the site of Troy. Upon his return about 56 bc, Catullus wrote his longest poem, on the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles. Toward the end of his life he wrote direct, personal attacks on Julius Caesar and Caesar's political associates. He is thought to have died young, perhaps at the age of 30.

Catullus's influence is seen not only in the love poetry of later Latin poets such as Ovid and Horace, but also in the marriage odes of English poets of the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) such as Robert Herrick, Ben Jonson, and Edmund Spenser.