Catullus

“Catullus’s name and poetry are traditionally associated with the neoteric revolution; indeed they are the most important documents of it. It is a
revolution in literary taste but also a revolution in ethics.”

Life: Gaius Valerius Catullus was born at Verona, In Gallia Cisalpina, to a family that was well-to do (Caesar was a guest in his house). The date of
his birth is not certain. Jerome, who relies on Svetonius, places it in 87 B.C.E. and places his death 30 years later, in 57.; but the poet was certainly
alive in 55, as is proved by his references to events of that year. Thus along with the date of death the date of birth, too, needs to be lowered, so that
we get something like 84-54 B.C.E. Details of C’s life come to us chiefly from his poems, although the biographical material based on C’s liber is
often elusive and blurred. At Rome - we do not know when C. arrived there- he knew and associated with people eminent in politics and literature,
from the famous orator Hortensius Hortalus to the poets Cinna and Calvus, from L. Manlius Torquatus to the jurist and future consul Alfenus Varus,
from Cornelius Nepos to Gaius Memmius. He also had a love relationship with a woman, the Lesbia of his poetry, who was probably the half-sister
of the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher and the wife of Q. Caecilius Metellus, consul in 60. Probably in 57 he went to Bithynia for a year as a member
of the entourage of the governor Memmius. During this trip he visited the tomb of his brother, who had died and been buried in the Troad.

Works: We have 116 poems of Catullus. Totaling nearly twenty-three hundred verses, C’s poems were collected in a liber that is customarily divided,
on the basis of meter into 3 sections.
The first group (1-60) is made up of generally brief poems of a light nature, known also as nugae “diversions”. These are in various meters,
especially phalaecean hendecasyllables but also iambic trimeters and scazons.
The second group (61-68) includes a limited number of poems, but ones of greater extent and stylistic effort. These are the so- called Carmina Docta,
“Learned Poems”.
The third section (69-116) consists of generally short poems in elegiac couplets, the so-called epigrams.

Rome and the Poetae Novi:: poetae novi is the scornful term with which Cicero refers to the innovative tendencies of his day, the modern poetic
taste that develops and becomes prominent in the first century BCE and marks a decisive turn in the history of Latin Literature. Neoteric poetry
marks the culmination in literature of a tendency perceptible for a while already in Latin Literature:

a. decreasing interest in a life spent in the service of the state (negotium/otium)

b. decreasing interest (opposition) in the venerable values of the tradition
c. love and poetry are the central emotions of life and gives form to a new style of life. The small universe of the individual is identified with
the very horizon of existence.

The new Poetics: The neoteric poets do not constitute a circle or a school; they are united by affinity of taste. The concern for form is the chief
distinctive trait of the new Callimachean Poetics. Just as Callimachus had attacked the followers of Homeric epic, mocking the prolixity of the long
poem, and had championed a new poetic style that aspired to brevitas (brevity) and ars (skill), so Catullus and the neoterics mock the tired imitators
of Ennius who celebrated the national glories but were alien to contemporary taste on account both of their carelessness of form and their obsolete
content.
 Lucretius

Life: Some manuscripts of Jerome place his birth in 96, others in 94. Accordingly the date of death varies between 53 and 51. Nothing concrete can
be asserted about the poet’s origin. The only reference to Lucretius in the works of Cicero comes in a letter to his brother Quintius (54) where he
writes that in the poems of Lucretius there are indeed the flashes of genius, but also the signs of great literary art.

Works: On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) in 6 books, dedicated to the aristocrat Memmius (probably Gaius Memmius), probably written
around 59.

On the Nature of Things: Summary

Books 1 & 2: Physics

1. hymn to Venus
principles of Epicurean physics (atomistic theory- the atoms are indestructible, immutable, and infinite, minimal parts of matter, moving in
the infinite void, join together in different ways and give rise to all the realities that exist. Birth and death are constituted by this
continuous process of aggregation and disintegration)
review of the doctrines of other natural philosophers, Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras.
2. theory of clinamen (a minimal swerve interferes with the movement of the atoms, permitting a great variety of aggregations and accounting
for human free will).
Books 3 & 4: Anthropology
3. body and soul are both constituted of aggregated atoms but are different in forms.
Those making up the soul are lighter and smoother.
Thus the soul can not escape from the process of disintegration that attacks all realities that consists of atoms.
4. theory of simulacra (simulacra are thin membranes, made of atoms, that preserve the form of the bodies to which they belong. They detach
themselves from the bodies and reach the sense organs. Hence the testimony of the senses is always truthful, and error can derive
only from a mistaken interpretation of it).
Books 5-6: cosmology
5. mortality of our world. Movement of the stars and its causes.
Origin of mankind
6. physical explanation of various physical phenomena such as earthquakes.
Description of various catastrophic events, culminating in the terrible plague of Athens in 430. – Abrupt end

Epicureanism and Rome: In the first century E. had succeeded in spreading itself within the higher levels of Roman society. We know of Epicurean
leanings of Atticus and Caesar. By many, though, Epicureanism is seen as the dissolver of Roman tradition, chiefly because by posing pleasure at the
highest good and urging the pursuit of tranquility (lathe biosas-live unnoticed), it tends to withdraw the citizen from political engagement on behalf of
the institutions. The wise man should give up useless wealth, keep his distance from the tensions of political life and devote himself to the study of
nature.

Epicureanism and Lucretius: In order to popularize the Epicurean doctrine, L. chose the form of the epic-didactic poem. This must have aroused
wonder because Epicurus had condemned poetry, above all Homeric poetry, on account of its close connection with myth that kept readers away from
a rational understanding of reality. Some critics have also noticed a gap between the serenity of Epicurus’ credo and Lucretius’ pessimism (see for
example end of book 4—the folly of love; end of book 6—the plague.

Literary genre: there was a long tradition in Greek Literature of didactic poetry. Hesiod (Work and Days), Parmenides, Empedocles, Aratus (ca
320-25, Phenomena and Weather signs), Nicander ( second century, Alexipharmaca and Theriaca). In Latin Literature, before Lucretius we know of
Ennius who wrote his Epicharmus in septenarii.
Lucretius’ main model , though, seems to have been Empedocle’s Peri Physeos (see end of first book of DRN).

Literary models: L. shows a wide knowledge of Greek Literature. See Aeschylus (description of Iphigenia), Thucydides (description of the plague
of Athens).
 HORACE

Dates: 65 B.C. (December) – 8 B. C. (27 November)

Life. (Main sources: H's own poetry, Vita attributed to Suetonius.)

Born at Venosa (Latin Venusia) in Apulia. Father a freedman, worked as a coactor argentarius (middleman who handled financial side of auctions).
Social background very humble, but H's father may have been fairly comfortable; he sent H. to school in Rome because the local schools seemed
unacceptable. [See David Armstrong in TAPA 1986 for argument that H. was an eques as early as his twenties.] Studied philosophy in Athens, there
met Brutus who had fled to Greece after assassination of Julius Caesar and joined his forces; held rank of tribunus militum and took part in battle of
Philippi (42 B.C.), where Brutus' army routed (cf. C. 2.7). H. returned to Rome, worked as a quaestor's assistant for some years and began to write
poetry ca. 40 B.C. Introduced to Maecenas (??-8 B.C.) by Virgil, ca. 38 B.C., soon afterward received from M. an estate in the Sabine country not far
from Rome (the "Sabine farm"). Thereafter H. seems to have spent his time predominantly or exclusively on poetry. Through Maecenas H. became
familiar with Augustus and to some extent took on the role of a "poet laureate." A. commissioned H. to write the ode for the Ludi Saeculares of 17
B.C.; the poem (called the Carmen Saeculare) survives, as does an inscription recording H.'s authorship. Augustus is also said to have asked H. to
compose poems celebrating triumphs of his son Drusus and adopted son Tiberius (C. 4.14 and 4 respectively).

Works. (in chronological order of completion)

Satires (Sermones, or "conversations") In two books (10 and 8 poems respectively); Book I completed ca. 35, Book II ca. 30. Meter: hexameter
(deliberately informal). Discursive, personal poems mildly satirizing moral and literary foibles of contemporary society.

Epodes. One book, 17 poems, composed ca. 40-31 B.C. Meter: varied iambics (either iambics alone or in combination with dactyls). Mostly short
poems, often in an abusive style, on personal, erotic, and political subjects (1 and 9 are addressed to Maecenas and are connected to the
battle of Actium; they may be among the latest in the collection).

Odes I-III, composed ca. 30-23 B.C. (earliest datable ref. in 1.37, to Cleopatra defeated at Actium). 88 poems (by book, 38-20-30) Meters: a variety
of meters used in "classical" Greek poetry, principally Alcaics (37 poems), Sapphics (25 poems), and several forms of Asclepiad (34
poems)

Epistles I, composed ca. 23-20 B.C. 20 poems, mostly short (100 lines or less). Meter: hexameter. Relaxed essays on varied subjects (with
friendship a recurring theme) in the form of letters to friends and acquaintances; in some ways a return to the subjects of the Satires but in a
more urbane manner and with a slightly greater infusion of philosophical content.

Carmen Saeculare, composed for the Ludi Saeculares of 17 B.C. A Sapphic ode (76 lines) in the form of a prayer to Apollo and Diana.

Epistles II, composed ca. 19-15 B.C. Three long hexameter poems in the form of letters to Augustus, Florus, and a Piso along with his two sons. The
subject is literature, and poetry in particular.: the last of the set, traditionally called the Ars Poetica, offers views (mainly on the writing of
epic and tragedy)

Odes IV, completed ca. 13 B.C. 15 poems in same metrical forms as first three books. Contains some of H.'s greatest single poems (e.g., 1 and 7),
but as a whole does not recapture the range and vitality of the first collection.

Lost works. None (apparently).

 Virgil

Life: Born in Mantua (70 BCE) to small landholders. He was probably educated in Rome and Naples. In 41, when the country around Mantua
suffered great land confiscations, intended to compensate the veterans of the battle of Philippi, a notice originating in the classical period has it that V.
himself had lost his family farm in the confiscations and then gotten it back through the intervention of Asinius Pollio, Gallus and Alfenus Varus and
Ocatvian. All of Virgil’s life is lacking in external events. Apparently soon after finishing the Bucolics he joined the circle of Maecenas and began to
work on the Georgics which he read to Augustus in 29. From here onwards the poet was entirely absorbed in the composition of the Aeneid. . Virgil
lived long enough to read some parts of this poem to Augustus (2, 4, and 6), but he never regarded the work as finished. The poem was published
after his death (19) at Augustus’ behest.

Works:
Bucolics: 10 brief poems in hexameters, also called Eclogues written between 42-39.
Georgics: a didactic poem in 4 books completed in 29 (see handout on Georgics).
Aeneid: epic poem in 12 books written in hexameters (see handout on Aeneid).

Bucolics:

Poem 1: dialogue between 2 shepherds, Tytirus and Meliboeus. Contrast of destinies: the former, helped by a divine young man at Rome, will enjoy
his tranquil life; the latter dispossessed, will wander far and wide.

Poem 2: Love complaint of the shepherd Corydon consumed with love for the young man Alexis

Poem 3: Poetic contest between two shepherds conducted in alternating songs.

Poem 4: Prophetic song for the birth of a child who will witness the coming of a new and happy cosmic age

Poem 5: Lament for the death of Daphnis a deified pastoral hero.

Poem 6: The aged Silenus sings a catalogue of mythical and naturalistic scenes, reaching a climax in the poetic consecration of the great elegiac poet
Cornelius Gallus.

Poem 7: Meliboeus recounts a duel between two poets, the Arcadian shepherds Thyrsis and Corydon.

Poem 8: Singing contest dedicated to Asinius Pollio and divided into two stories of unhappy love: the lament of Damon, who will choose death, and
the magical practices of a woman in love.

Poem 9: dialogue between two shepherds with references to the expropriations that followed the Civil Wars.

Poem 10: Consolation by the bucolic poet Virgil for the love pangs of the elegiac poet Cornelius Gallus.

The Bucolics --- literary models

The main models for Virgil’s Bucolics are Theocritus’ Idylls. The poetry of the Idylls looks to the nostalgic and learned reconstruction of a pastoral
world. Shepherds are protagonists of the action, and along with them a rich but static countryside, with everything suspended in a everyday existence
that is rarefied and brightened by poetry. The language of the Idylls is Doric.