Gaius Valerius Catullus (Classical Latin: [ˈɡaːius waˈlɛrius kaˈtullus]; around 84 to around 54 BC), known as Catullus (/kəˈtʌləs/), was a Latin poet from the late Roman Republic. His remaining writings are still widely read today because they are often used in schools and because they include personal or romantic topics.

Life

Gaius Valerius Catullus was born into a wealthy family in Verona, which was part of a region called Cisalpine Gaul. His family’s high social status allowed his father to host Julius Caesar when Caesar was an official in charge of both Gallic provinces. In poem 31, Catullus describes returning joyfully to his family’s villa at Sirmio, a place on Lake Garda near Verona. He also owned a villa near Tibur, a town now known as Tivoli.

Catullus spent much of his early adult life in Rome. His friends included poets like Licinius Calvus and Helvius Cinna, Quintus Hortensius (son of a famous orator and rival of Cicero), and the writer Cornelius Nepos, to whom Catullus gave a collection of poems. It is unclear how this collection relates to the poems that survive today. He also knew the poet Marcus Furius Bibaculus. Many important people of his time appear in his poetry, including Cicero, Caesar, and Pompey. Cicero referred to Catullus’s group of poets as the “new poets” in a dismissive way. A story from Suetonius says that Caesar did not deny that Catullus’s harsh poems harmed his reputation, but he invited Catullus to dinner after the poet apologized.

The “Lesbia” in Catullus’s poems is usually believed to be Clodia Metelli, a well-educated woman from a noble family. She was the sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, a famous and controversial man, and the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, a Roman official who served as consul in 60 BC. In his poems, Catullus describes their relationship in stages: happiness, uncertainty, separation, and deep sadness. Clodia had other lovers, and poems mention at least five other men besides Catullus. There is also uncertainty about the death of Clodia’s husband in 59 BC, as Cicero’s speech Pro Caelio suggests he may have been poisoned. Despite Clodia’s lack of interest in a lasting relationship, Catullus remained deeply attached to her. His poems show strong emotions, shifting between loving devotion and angry criticism of her unfaithfulness. It is unclear exactly when Catullus and Clodia ended their relationship. His poems about her are known for their emotional depth and understanding of human feelings.

From summer 57 BC to summer 56 BC, Catullus worked for the Roman commander Gaius Memmius in Bithynia. During this time, he traveled to the Troad region to honor his brother’s memory, an event described in one of his poems.

No ancient writings about Catullus’s life have survived. Information about him comes from references in other ancient texts and his own poems. This makes it difficult to know his exact birth and death dates. One ancient writer, Jerome, claimed Catullus was born in 87 BC and died in Rome at age 30. However, his poems mention events from 55 BC. Because Roman records can be confusing, some scholars believe he was born in 84 BC and died in 54 BC, with his final poems published around the time of his death. Others suggest he died in 52 or 51 BC. Although Catullus mourned his brother’s death, saying their family was “buried” with him, the name Valerius Catullus continued to appear in historical records for many years. Some scholars, like T. P. Wiseman, suggest that Catullus may have married after his brother’s death, and the later Valerii Catulli may have been his descendants.

Poetry

Catullus's poems are preserved in an anthology of 116 carmina (the exact number may vary slightly in different editions). These poems can be divided into three groups based on their form: about sixty short poems in different meters, called polymetra; nine longer poems; and forty-eight epigrams written in elegiac couplets. Each group contains approximately 860, 1136, and 330 lines, respectively. Each group could fit on a single scroll.

Scholars do not agree on whether Catullus arranged the order of the poems himself. The longer poems differ from the polymetra and epigrams in both length and subject. Several of these longer poems focus on the theme of marriage. The longest poem, number 64, has 408 lines and includes two myths—the abandonment of Ariadne and the marriage of Peleus and Thetis—nested within each other. This poem was written in dactylic hexameter, a meter used in epic poetry. It shows a key feature of Neoteric poetry: events are not always presented in chronological order, and the focus is more on the structure of the poem than the sequence of events.

The polymetra and epigrams can be grouped into four main themes (many poems do not fit neatly into these categories):

• Poems about friends (e.g., poem 13, which is an invitation).
• Erotic poems, some about a boy named Juventius and others about a woman named Lesbia. Lesbia is likely the sister of Publius Clodius, a married woman named Clodia. Clodia was educated and well-mannered.
• Invectives, which are poems that criticize friends who betrayed him, other lovers of Lesbia, famous poets, and politicians (e.g., Julius Caesar and Cicero).
• Condolences, which express sympathy. For example, poem 96 comforts a friend grieving a loved one’s death, and poem 101 mourns the death of Catullus’s brother.

Catullus valued venustas, or charm, in his friends and acquaintances. This theme appears in many of his poems.

Catullus was influenced by the poetry of the Hellenistic Age, especially by Callimachus and the Alexandrian school. These poets created a new style of poetry that moved away from the grand, heroic themes of classical epic poetry, such as those found in Homer’s works. Cicero called these poets "neoteroi," or "moderns," because they avoided traditional heroic models and focused on personal, contemporary themes. Catullus and Callimachus wrote about small, personal topics rather than ancient heroes and gods (except in poems like 64, which reimagines myths in artistic ways). Though some of these poems seem simple, they are carefully crafted works of art. Catullus called his work "expolitum," meaning "polished," to show that his language was carefully composed.

Catullus admired Sappho, a poet from the seventh century BC. Poem 51 partly translates and imitates Sappho’s poem 31. Some scholars think poems 61 and 62 may have been inspired by lost works of Sappho, but this is not certain. These poems are epithalamia, a type of wedding poem that Sappho was known for. Catullus used a meter called the Sapphic stanza, which Sappho was famous for, in poems 11 and 51. This may have influenced later poets like Horace.

Like many poets of his time, Catullus was influenced by Greek and Roman myths. His longer poems, such as numbers 63, 64, 65, 66, and 68, reference myths in various ways. These include stories about the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the journey of the Argonauts, Theseus and the Minotaur, Ariadne’s abandonment, Tereus and Procne, and Protesilaus and Laodamia.

Catullus wrote in many different meters, including hendecasyllabic verse and elegiac couplets (common in love poetry). Much of his poetry expresses strong emotions, especially in poems about Lesbia (e.g., poems 5 and 7). His love poems are passionate and still feel relatable today. He describes Lesbia as having many suitors and showing little affection for him. He also used humor, as seen in poem 13.

Musical settings

The Hungarian-born British composer Mátyás Seiber created a musical piece called Catullus 31 (Sirmio) for a mixed chorus without accompaniment in 1956. The American composer Ned Rorem composed a song titled “Catullus: On the Burial of His Brother” that uses poem 101 with a voice and piano.

Dominick Argento, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer, set verses from Catullus to music for a mixed chorus and percussion in 1981. His work I Hate and I Love includes about 50 lines of text across eight movements, using the composer’s own English translation. The Dale Warland Singers, who asked for the piece, recorded it, as did Robert Shaw with his Festival Chorus.

Catullus Dreams (2011) is a song cycle by David Glaser that uses texts from Catullus, written for a soprano and eight instruments. It premiered at Symphony Space in New York, performed by soprano Linda Larson and the Sequitur Ensemble. Carmina Catulli is a song cycle by American composer Michael Linton, arranged from 17 of Catullus’s poems. The cycle was recorded in December 2013 and premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in March 2014, performed by French baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer and pianist Jason Paul Peterson.

Thomas Campion composed a lute-song titled “My Sweetest Lesbia” in 1601, using his own translation of the first six lines of Catullus 5 followed by two of his own verses. Richard Crashaw’s translation of the same poem was set to music in a four-part glee by Samuel Webbe Jr. It was also set to music in a three-part glee by John Stafford Smith.

Catullus 5, the love poem Vivamus mea Lesbia atque amemus, was translated by Ben Jonson and set to music in 1606 as a lute-accompanied song by Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger. Dutch composer Bertha Tideman-Wijers used Catullus’s text in her composition Variations on Valerius’s “Where that one already turns or turns” (1929). Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson set Catullus 85 to music, titled Odi Et Amo, which appears on his album Englabörn. The song uses a vocoder and is performed by a string quartet and piano. Catulli Carmina is a cantata by Carl Orff from 1943 that sets texts from Catullus to music. Finnish jazz singer Reine Rimón has recorded poems of Catullus set to standard jazz tunes.

Cultural depictions

• The 1888 play Lesbia by Richard Davey shows the relationship between Catullus and Lesbia, based on events from Catullus’s poems.
• In the 1953 historical novel Farewell, Catullus by Pierson Dixon, Catullus is the main character. The story describes problems in Roman society.
• Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita includes many direct and indirect references to Catullus’s work.
• In the 1957 novel The City of Libertines by W. G. Hardy, a fictional story about Catullus and a love affair during Julius Caesar’s time is told. The Financial Post called the book “an authentic story of an absorbing era.”
• In the 1963 film Cleopatra, a poem by Catullus is read to Cleopatra when Julius Caesar visits her. Cleopatra and Caesar discuss Catullus, and Caesar recites other poems by him.
• In 1969, the American poet Louis Zukofsky created translations of Catullus’s poems in English. These translations focused on copying the sound of the original poems rather than their meaning. Zukofsky’s work influenced many modern poets, including Robert Duncan, Robert Kelly, and Charles Bernstein.
• In his 1965 novel Clodia, Robert de Maria wrote a fictional story about Catullus’s life.
• Catullus was mentioned by Baxter Slate in Joseph Wambaugh’s 1975 novel The Choirboys.
• Catullus is the main character in Tom Holland’s 1995 novel Attis.
• Catullus appears in Steven Saylor’s 1995 novel The Venus Throw as the bitter former lover of Clodia, the sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, whom Catullus calls Lesbia.
• In Thornton Wilder’s 1948 novel The Ides of March, both Catullus and Clodia are major characters. The book includes several excerpts from Catullus’s poems.