142 E. P. Morris, 



gible and, by that fact, a strong bit of evidence that Lesbia was 

 a Hbertina, hke Cynthia. The poem is so used b}' Riese (Einl. p. 15) 

 in his argument against the Lesbia-Clodia identification. But this 

 way out of the difficulty is, in truth, impossible; the lines of con- 

 verging evidence are too many and too clear. Les]:)ia was Clodia, 

 and the interpretation of viii must accept the fact. 



In general, the editors of Catullus, taking the first part of the 

 poem as a serious and pathetic appeal to Lesbia-Clodia, are ob- 

 liged to reconcile it with vss. 14—18 by minimizing the force of 

 the latter. The details are in the commentaries and need not be 

 repeated here. Some editors {e. g., Ellis) pass over the difficulties 

 in silence, others face them and attempt special explanations. Thus 

 Baehrens thinks that the predictions of loneliness may refer to the 

 social isolation which may have threatened Clodia on account of 

 the suspicion that she had poisoned her husband. Friedrich, in 

 explaining the strangeness of cuius esse diceris ? addressed to 

 Clodia, reminds us, quite justly, that the very notoriety of such 

 an intrigue would probably have been an added attraction to her. 

 But these explanations do not cover the whole ground nor even 

 the most difficult points ; Clodia would still have her court of ad- 

 mirers ; and all editors are obliged to fall back upon the expedient 

 of saying that Catulhis was in truth quite in the dark in regard 

 to the position and character of his mistress. " Nimirum cur a 

 Lesbia desertus esset, Catullus adhuc nesciit " (Baehrens) ; " die 

 Stelle zeigt, dass dem C. keine Untreue Lesbias bekannt war " 

 (Riese) ; " he has as yet no notion that Lesbia's coldness to him- 

 self is connected with other intrigues'' (Merrill); "das ist begreif- 

 licherweise Selbsttauschung. Es traf, wie C. spater selbst einsah, 

 bei Clodia in keiner Weise zu " (Friedrich). Undoubtedly the 

 scholars who offer this explanation do so with a full understand- 

 ing of the fact that it leaves much to be desired. The credulity, 

 the unconsciousness, which it presupposes on the part of Catullus 

 is too great. Clodia had been a figure in Roman society before 

 Catullus came from Verona ; gossip had been busy with her name ; 

 it is hard to suppose that the young man ever believed himself to 

 be her first or her only admirer; the peculiar phrasing of xxxvii, 13, 

 pro qua tnilii sunt magna bella pugtiata, must be due to the recol- 

 lection of rivalries, not of the mere difficulties of meeting. But 

 this, after all, is not the main point. If we try to satisfy ourselves 

 by supposing that Catullus was unaware of Clodia's position and 

 surroundings, we have still to account for the fact that, in pre- 

 dicting the consequences of her coldness, he uses terms which so 



