Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Selections From Catullus: Edited With Introduction, Notes and Vocabulary
Little is known of the life of Catullus. Accord ing to Jerome he was born at Verona in the year 87 b.c. And died at Rome in his thirtieth year. But from the references in XI to Caesar's inva sions of Britain, he would appear to have been still alive in 54 B. 0. There is, however, no doubt that, like Burns, Byron, Keats, and Shelley, his lyrical compeers in anotherage and country, he died young, for Ovid (antares III. Ix. 61) imagines him among the blessed With ivy twined round his 'youthful brows'. His father must have been a leading citizen of Verona, for Suetonius tells us that he was frequently the host of Julius Caesar. That he was also wealthy is indicated by the fact that the poet, who was probably his younger son, owned landed property on the peninsula of Sirmio (xxxi) and a villa in the fashionable neighbour hood of Tibur (xliv). In manhood he settled at Rome. That is my home he tells us in LXVIII. 35, 'that is my residence, there I spend the years of my life.' As Horace retired to his Sabine farmstead when August provided too much work for Roman undertakers, so no doubt Catullus found refuge in his villa near Tibur. But he never lost his local attachment to the place of his birth.
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