Chapter 18

C. xxviiii. v. 5. _Cinaede Romule_. The epithet is here applied in its grossest sense, which again is implied in the allusion to the spoil of Pontus; for this, as Vossius proves, can only be understood to mean the wealth obtained by Caesar, when a young man, through his infamous relations with Nicomedes, king of Pontus--as witness two lines sung by Caesar's own soldiers on the occasion of his triumph:

Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat, qui subegit Galliam; Nicomedes non triumphat, qui subegit Caesarem.

v. 13. _Defututa Mentula_ = a worn-out voluptuary. Mentula is a cant term which Catullus frequently uses for a libidinous person, and particularly for Mamurra.

v. 24. Pompey married Caesar's daughter, Julia, and is commonly supposed to be the "son-in-law" here meant; but Vossius argues with some force, that _socer_ and _gener_ apply, not to Caesar and Pompey, but to Caesar and Mamurra. Those words, and the corresponding terms in Greek, were often used in an unnatural sense, as for instance in an epigram on Noctuinus, attributed to Calvus, in which occurs this very line, _Gener socerque perdidistis omnia_.

C. xxxi. v. 1. As the Venice-Trieste railway runs along the southern bar of the pyriform narrow, Lago di Garda, with its towering mountains, whose heads are usually in the storm-clouds, and whose feet sink into the nearest vineyards, the traveller catches a sight of the Sirmio Spit, long and sandy. It is a narrow ridge boldly projecting into the lake (once called Benacus) which was formerly a marsh, but now made into an island by the simple process of ditch cutting: at the southern end is the Sermione hill and its picturesque Scottish-German Castle. To the north are some ruins supposed to be the old Villa of Catullus, but they seem too extensive to serve for the purpose.--_R. F. B._

C. xxxii. v. 11. Pezay, a French translator, strangely mistakes the meaning of the passage, as if it amounted to this, "I have gorged till I am ready to burst;" and he quotes the remark of "une femme charmante," who said that her only reply to such a billet-doux would have been to send the writer an emetic. But the lady might have prescribed a different remedy if she had been acquainted with Martial's line:

O quoties rigidâ pulsabis pallia venâ!

or with this quatrain of an old French poet:

Ainsi depuis une semaine La longue roideur de ma veine, Pour néant rouge et bien en point, Bat ma chemise et mon pourpoint.

C. xxxvii. v. 1. Taverns and Wine-shops in Rome were distinguished by pillars projecting into the streets, the better to catch the eye of the passenger, as sign-posts of inns do with us now; the tavern in question was a house of ill-fame, and we are told it was the ninth column or sign-post from the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

v. 2. It was customary to display on the fronts of brothels the names of the inmates, just as shopkeepers' names were inscribed over places of more reputable trade: this was called _inscriptio_ or _titulus_.

v. 10. _Scorpionibus_. Indecent inscriptions scribbled on the walls and door with burnt sticks.

v. 11. Catullus's mistress had, it seems, run away from him to a common brothel, in front of which it was the custom, not only for women but even for men, to sit down and offer themselves for prostitution.

v. 16. _Semitarii moechi_. Whoremongers who take up with common women who offer themselves at every corner of the streets for a mere trifle.

v. 20. _Hibera Urina_. We are assured by Strabo, _Lib._ 3, that this filthy custom prevailed greatly in Spain: teeth were not only washed in stale urine, the acid of which must necessarily render them white, but they were also rubbed with a powder of calcined human excrement. Persons sometimes even bathed their whole bodies in urine.

C. xxxxi. v. 3. _Turpiculo naso_. The kind of nose alluded to is such as sheep or goats have. Cf. Lucretius, _lib._ iv. v. 1152.

C. xxxxvii. v. 6. _In trivio_, i.e., in the most public places, in hopes of finding some host.

v. 7. This hunting for invitations does not, according to modern notions, place the two friends of Catullus in a respectable light; but it was a common and avowed practice at Rome.

C. liii. v. 5. _Salaputium_. A pet name for the male virile member. This word has been the subject of much debate among the learned. Some read _solopachium_, meaning a "mannikin eighteen inches high"; Saumasius proposes salopygium, a "wagtail"; several editors have _salaputium_, an indelicate word nurses used to children when they fondled them, so that the exclamation would mean, "what a learned little puppet!" Thus Augustus called Horace _purissimum penem_.

C. liiii. I find it an impossibility to make any sense out of this poem.

v. 5. _Seni recocto_. Horace applies this epithet to one who has served the office of _quinquevir_, or proconsul's notary, and who was therefore master of all the arts of chicanery. These are his words, Sat. v. lib. 2:

_Plerumque recoctus_ _Scriba ex quinqueviro corvum deludit hiantem._

A seasoned scrivener, bred in office low, Full often dupes and mocks the gaping crow. FRANCIS.

The modern Italians say of a man of this stamp, _Egli ha cotto il culo ne' ceci rossi_. The phrase _seni recocto_ may imply one who enjoys a green and vigorous old age, as if made young again, as the old woman was by wine, of whom Petronius speaks, _Anus recocta vino_; or Æson, who was re-cooked by Medaea. That witch, says Valerius Flaccus, _Recoquit fessos aetate parentes_.

C. lvi. v. 6. _Trusantem_. Many read _crissantem_, which means the movement of the loins in women; _ceventem_ being the like of a man. As the expression refers to the lad, _crissantem_ cannot be correct.

v. 7. _Pro telo_. Alluding to the custom of punishing adulterers by transfixing them with darts. The double-entendre of _Telo_ with _Mentula_ is evident, and makes clear the apology to Venus. See _lib._ 9 of Apuleius for a similar passage.

C. lvii. v. 7. _Erudituli_. The accomplishments alluded to are not literary, but Priapeian. It is in this sense Petronius calls Gito _doctissimus puer_. Oezema, a grave German jurist, parodied a part of this piece. His epigram can be read without danger of having one's stomach turned.

Belle convenit inter elegantes Dione's famulas, et eruditos Antiquae Themidis meos sodales. Nos jus justitiamque profitemur: Illae semper amant coluntque rectum.

"There is a charming coincidence of sentiment between the fair votaries of Venus and my learned brethren: we profess law and justice; they dearly love the thing that is upright."

C. lviii. v. 1. _Caeli_. This is the same with Caelius Rufus, Catullus's rival in the affections of Lesbia, or Clodia, according to Achilles Statius; Plutarch calls her Quadrantaria; she was debauched by her own brother, Publius Clodius; afterwards she became the mistress of Catullus, and lastly the common strumpet of Rome.

v. 4. The meanest trulls frequented the public streets.

v. 5. _Glubit_. _Glubo_ = to husk (corn), hence it is tropically used to denote masturbation. Cf. Ausonius, epigram 71.

C. lviiii. v. 1. _Fellat_. This refers to the complacent use by the female of her lips in the act of connection.

v. 3. The half-starved women of pleasure attended at funerals in the hope of picking up parts of the viands which were laid on the pile and burnt with the body.

C. lxi. v. 22. _Myrtus Asia_. The Asia of Catullus was that marshy tract of land near Mount Tmolus and the River Caystrus. Cf. Homer (_Il._ ii. 461) for the "Ancient Meadow." It was said to be as famous for its myrtles as for its cranes. Proper "Asia Minor" is the title first used by Oratius (Orazius?) (1. 2.) in the IVth century. See the "Life and Works of St. Paul," by Dr. Farrar (i. 465).--_R. F. B._

v. 54. _Timens_. Many more obscenely write _tumens_, thus changing the "fear-full" bridegroom into the "swollen" bridegroom.

v. 123. It was usual for the mirthful friends of the newly married couple to sing obscene songs called _Fescennine_, which were tolerated on this occasion.

v. 124. _Nec nuces pueris_. This custom of throwing nuts, such as walnuts or almonds, is of Athenian origin; some say it was meant to divert the attention from the raptures of the bride and bridegroom, when in bed, by the noise they, and the scrambling boys, made on the floor. For _nuces_, referring to the use of boys, see Verg. Eclogue 8.

v. 125. _Concubinus_. By the shamelessness of this passage, it would seem to be quite a usual thing amongst the youthful Roman aristocracy to possess a bedfellow of their own sex.

v. 137. "This coarse imitation of the Fescennine poems," says Dunlop (History of Roman Literature), "leaves on our minds a stronger impression of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices than any other passage in the Latin classics. Martial, and Catullus himself elsewhere, have branded their enemies; and Juvenal, in bursts of satiric indignation, has reproached his countrymen with the blackest crimes. But here, in a complimentary poem to a patron and intimate friend, these are jocularly alluded to as the venial indulgence of his earliest youth."

C. lxii. v. 39, _et seq._ Thus exquisitely rendered by Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. c. 12:

The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay: "Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see, In springing flowre the image of thy day! Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestie, That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may! Lo see soone after how more bold and free Her bared bosome she doth broad display; Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away!

"So passeth, in the passing of a day, Of mortal life the leafe, the bud, the flowre; Ne more doth flourish after first decay, That erst was sought to deck both bed and bowre Of many a lady, and many a paramoure! Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime, For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre; Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time, Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime."

C. lxiii. v. 23. Women devoted to the service of Bacchus or of Cybele; for many things were common to the rights of both deities. The name is derived from [Greek: mainesthai], to rave.

v. 28. _Thiasus_ is properly a chorus of sacred singers and dancers, living in a community, like a college of dervishes, who, indeed, are an exact counterpart of the Galli as regards their howling and dancing ritual, but have the advantage of their predecessors in one important particular, _i.e._, they are not castrated.

C. lxiiii. v. 65. The strophium was a band which confined the breasts and restrained the exuberance of their growth. Martial apostrophizes it thus:

Fascia, crescentes dominae compesce papillas, Ut sit quod capiat nostra tegatque manus.

"Confine the growth of my fair one's breasts, that they may be just large enough for my hand to enclose them."

v. 377. _Circumdare filo_. That is, may you to-morrow prove that you are no longer a virgin; for the ancients had an idea that the neck swelled after venery; perhaps from the supposed descent of the procreative fluid which they thought lodged in the brain. See Hippocrates and Aristotle upon this subject. The swelling of the bride's neck was therefore ascertained by measurement with a thread on the morning after the nuptials, and was held to be sufficient proof of their happy consummation. The ancients, says Pezay, had faith in another equally absurd test of virginity. They measured the circumference of the neck with a thread. Then the girl under trial took the two ends of the magic thread in her teeth, and if it was found to be so long that its bight could be passed over her head, it was clear she was not a maid. By this rule all the thin girls might pass for vestals, and all the plump ones for the reverse.

v. 403. Semiramis is said to have done thus by her son Ninus.

C. lxv. v. 19. The gift of an apple had a very tender meaning; according to Vossius it was _quasi pignus concubitus_, that is to say, it was the climax

To all those token flowers that tell What words can never speak so well.

In one of the love epistles of Aristaenetus, Phalaris complains to her friend Petala, how her younger sister, who had accompanied her to dine with Pamphilus, her lover, attempted to seduce him, and among other wanton tricks did as follows: "Pamphilus, biting off a piece of an apple, chucked it dexterously into her bosom; she took it, kissed it, and thrusting it under her sash, hid it between her breasts." Cf. note to C. ii. v. 12, _ante._

C. lxvii. v. 21. _Languidior_. This expression, here obscenely applied, is proverbial, from the flagging of the leaves of the beet; hence the Latin word _batizare_, to droop, used by Suetonius, _in Augusto_. See Pliny on this plant, Cap. xiii. _lib._ 9.

v. 28. _Zonam Solvere_. See the note to C. ii. v. 13.

v. 30. _Minxerit in gremium_. Horace uses the word _mingere_ in the same sense:

_Dicitur ut formae melioris meïat eodem_. Hor. Sat. vii. _lib._ 2.

and in like manner Persius

_Patriciae immeïat vulvae._

Pliny more than once uses the word _urina pro semine_.

C. lxviiii. v. 6. _Sub alarum_. Many would join these two words and form one, which, however, is not authorised by any ancient writer. The Spaniards, it is true, say _sobaco_, the armpit, but this does not justify a new Latin coinage of any similar word. The smell alluded to in this line has often been compared to that of a goat; it is called _capram_, _caprum_, and _hircam_. Thus Horace, Epod. 12,

_Namque sagacius unus odoror_ _Polypus an gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in alis._

This tetterous complaint is peculiar to warm countries; we know scarcely anything of it in our northern climate.

C. lxxiiii. v. 6. The reader will easily guess that one reason for the uncle's inability to murmur was owing to the occupation which Gellius had thrust on him.

C. lxxvii. v. 8. _Suavia comminxit_. This habit, which the filthy Rufus adopts, is mentioned by Lucretius:

_Jungunt salivas_ _Oris, et inspirant pressantes dentibus ora._ Lucret. _lib._ 4.

C. lxxx. v. 6. Martial has a similar expression,

_Lambebat medios improba lingua viros_.

v. 8. _Ilia, et emulso_. Lucretius uses the word _mulgere_ in the same sense in lib. 4.

C. lxxxiiii. v. 2. The first notice in the classics of our far-famed 'Arry, whose female is 'Arriet.--_R. F. B._

C. lxxxviiii. v. 1. The good condition and number of the relations of Gellius are assigned as the causes of his macilency, Gellius being an adulterer of the most infamous kind. Thus Propertius, on the amorous disposition peculiar to those of a spare make,

What tho' my slender shape enervate seem, Think not that vigour flies my meagre frame; At Venus' rites I ne'er was known to fail, Th' experienc'd fair can this dear truth reveal. Proper., _Eleg._ 22. _lib._ 2.

C. lxxxx. v. 6. _Omentum_. The sages used to draw omens from the entrails of sacrificed beasts as they were burning; but more particularly from the _omentum_, or _caul_, that apron of fat which covers the abdominal viscera.

C. lxxxxiiii. v. 1. There is a double meaning in the original, and the translator can give but half of it. _Mentula_, synonymous with _penis_, is a nickname applied by Catullus to Mamurra, of whom he says (cxv.) that he is not a man, but a great thundering _mentula_. Mahérault has happily rendered the meaning of the epigram in French, in which language there is an equivalent for Mentula, that is to say, a man's name which is also a popular synonym for what characterizes the god Priapus. "Jean Chouard fornique; eh! sans doute, c'est bien Jean Chouard. C'est ainsi qu'on peut dire que c'est la marmite qui cueille les choux." Achilles Statius interprets this _distich_ thus, "It is the flesh that is guilty, and not I who am guilty; so is it the pot that robs the garden, and not the thief that robs the pot-herbs."

v. 2. _Ipsa olera olla legat_. This may have been a cant proverb of the day containing a meaning which is now unknown to us. Parthenius interprets it "A libidinous man is apt in adultery, as a vessel is suited to hold its contents."

C. lxxxxvii. v. 1. There is in the Greek Anthology a similar epigram by Nicarchus, which has thus been translated by Grotius:

Non culo, Theodore, minus tibi foetida bucca est Noscera discrimen sit sapientis opus. Scribere debueras hîc podex est meus, hic os; Nunc tu cum pedas atque loquare simul, Discere non valeo, quid venerit inde vel inde; Vipera namque infra sibilat atque supra.

v. 7. Few are ignorant of what Scaliger here gravely tells us: _fessi muli strigare solent, ut meiant_. Vossius reads _defissus_, in a different sense.

C. lxxxxviiii. This poem shews beyond contradiction that Catullus himself was not free from the vice of paederasty, so universal amongst the Roman youth.

v. 10. _Lupae_. The infamous, fetid harlot is called _lupa_ (a she-wolf) from the ravenousness of the wolf answering to the rapacious disposition of the generality of courtezans: but Servius, _Aen._ 3, assigns a much more improper and filthy reason.

C. c. v. 1. Again the Roman paederasty shews itself in Caelius's affection for Aufilenus.

C. ciii. It appears that Catullus had given a sum of money to the pander Silo to procure him a mistress. He did not perform his engagement, but kept the money, and abused our sinning bard when he reproached him with the cheat.

C. cv. There are not wanting commentators who give a very obscene turn to this epigram against Mamurra.

C. cx. v. 4. The word _dare_ has here an erotic sense.

v. 8. _Tota corpore prostituit_. Some commentators think that this alludes to such women as not only submit to prostitution, but are in every way subservient to the lascivious caprices of depraved appetites. Vossius inclines to such an interpretation.

C. cxii. v. 2. _Multus_. Some commentators read _moltus_ in an obscene sense, _à molendo_. Vossius understands by _descendere in sese_ the same act as is alluded to in C. lxxxviii., hence the force of the word _multus_, meaning _cum feminâ_, which he jeeringly applies to Naso as though he would ironically exclaim: _Et tu feminâ! tu solus es, aut sine feminâ_. He writes the epigram thus:

_Multus homo est, Naso, neque secum multus homo qui_ _Descendit? Naso, multus es et pathicus?_

THE END