Catullus

Poet

Catullus was an ancient Roman poet who lived in the 1st century BC. He was known for his passionate and direct love poetry, which revealed the depths of emotion that could be evoked by love and loss. His surviving works consist of a collection of 116 poems, including 56 addressed to his lover, Lesbia. He wrote with a distinctive combination of candor, wit, and passion, which has earned him enduring popularity among readers of all ages. Catullus’ polemical satire and biting wit sometimes resulted in direct attacks on contemporaries, but at its best, his work could also convey a rich emotional life. He was both a playboy and a scurrilous social critic, expressing his feelings about love and politics with equal intensity. He reveled in life’s joys, but was also painfully sensitive to its setbacks. His occasional political outbursts may have cost him the patronage of Julius Caesar, who never appreciated the poet’s affiliation with his mortal enemies. Catullus crafted his verse almost exclusively in Latin, which was the language of Roman law, politics, and literature at the time. He wrote extensively about his own life and the people who inhabited it. At times he wrote with self-mocking humor, but his tones could range from the playful to the bitter. His writing was often deeply personal, conveying his feelings about life and love with an unmistakably human voice. Catullus has remained an important figure in literature for almost two thousand years. His poems are still acclaimed as some of the best examples of Latin love poetry and remain influential to this day. His eminently quotable lines linger on in popular culture, preserved in the memories of those who recognize the sentiments expressed in his work. Scholarly and popular interest in Catullus has only grown over the years, and his verse will continue to be admired and celebrated for generations to come.