Catullus VIll. 151 



scholars would take, connecting- viii with a detinite point in the 

 intrigue, is, I am convinced, an error, hi fact, there runs through 

 much of the interpretation of Catullus a mistaken and even harm- 

 ful desire to connect every poem with some particular event and 

 give it a place in the chronology of Catullus. But it is plain 

 that there are important sides of Catullus' life — c. g., his re- 

 lation to his father — which are not in any way alluded to in 

 his poetry, and we cannot properly draw from his silence such 

 conclusions as Ferrero has drawn (Engl, transl., Vol. ii, p. 47 f ). 

 I am not seeking to lessen the value of the elaborate and pains- 

 taking structure of inference that Schwabe has reared in his Ouacs- 

 iioncs, liut only to point out that such inferences should be very 

 painstaking. The suggestion in an excellent commentar}' on Ix 

 that this was " perhaps the last verse penned by Catullus as his 

 strength failed him and death came on," illustrates the danger ot 

 the method. For this collection of poems and verses is not a 

 methodical record of a life. Catullus was a poet, not a diarist, 

 and the interpretation of his writings must be founded upon the 

 motives, the traditions, and the ideals of a poet. This is partic- 

 ularl}'' true of the Lesbia poems. In a relation so agitated, so un- 

 even, between persons so vehement, it may be said to be certairi 

 that there were many ups and downs. As Parmeno sa3's (Eun. 

 57 f.). 



Quae res in se neque consilium neque modvmi 

 habet ullum, earn consilio regere non potes. 



To attempt to connect viii with an}^ particular period in that 

 history and especially with some period of estrangement is wrong- 

 in method. All that can be said of it is that Catullus once paid 

 Lesbia the compliment of admitting her dominion over him b}' a 

 humorous portrayal of himself in the character of a lover trying 

 to touch her heart by the vain threat of leaving her. Quite cer- 

 tainl}' Lesbia appreciated both the humor and the compliment. 



Yale University, E. P. Morris. 



