1810:] 
buried on the promontory of Rhetium, 
once celebrated for the sepulchre of 
Ajax Telamon. Returning from Bithy- 
ma into Italy, he necessarily passed 
Rhetium; where, in love and veneration 
for the memory of his brother,* he 
stopped at his tomb, and offered a so- 
lemn oblation.+ 
The learned character of Catullus is 
acknowledged by writers, both ancient 
and modern, Tibullus,} Ovid,§ and 
Martial,]] give bim the appellation of 
Doctus. The elder Scaliger alone,§ 
among the moderns, disputes his prece:- 
Sions to that title, and asserts, on the 
contrary, that his poems are vulgar, bis 
thoughts low, and his expressions trivial, 
But he seems to have changed his opi- 
nion, when he pronounces his galliambic 
poem a noble composition; and de- 
élares, that the epithalamium on the 
marriage of Peleus and Thetis alinost 
Fivals the majesty of the Aneid. On 
what account he more particulariy 
obtained the epithet docfus, is uncertain; 
perhaps from being well versed in the 
Greek language, then considered a great 
accomplishment, and the proof of a 
hearned education. We know how 
neatly he has imitated an ode of Sappho, 
and an elegy of Callimachus; indeed, 
all his compositions appear to be formed 
on the Grecian model. Perhaps the 
distinction arose from the various metres 
in which he wrote his poems; or else 
from some peculiar literary talent, with 
which we are unacquainted, or some 
other works now lost. To those. who 
have been accustomed to consider him 
ouly as a trifling amatory poet, the 
epithet, no doubt, appears singularly 
applied. 
Catullus died some years after the 
age of 40, as Vulpius has satisfactorily 
roved.** 
Scholiasts have not agreed in what 
class the poet of Verona ought to be 
placed. Quintilian has placed him 
among the Iambics; though Horace 
boasts of having himself been the first 
* Carm. 62 and 65. 
+ Carm. 96. 
q Slee. 7, Tib'S. ~ 
§ Amor. Eley. 9, lib. 3. 
}] Epig. 62, lib. 1. 
@ Poetices, cap. 6, lib. 6. 
** See Vulp. Comment. on Carm. 50 and 
108; though Eusebius, in his Chronicle, 
affirms that he died at the age of 30, aboat 
the time that Virgil was a student at 
Cremona. 
Moxrniy Mas, No. 202. 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature.—-No, X XXI. 
~~ 
33 
to write Latin iambics.* - Others have 
considered him merely as a writer of 
epigrams; while a few have dignified him 
with the title of a jyric voet. But, 
perhaps, to neither of these in particular, 
does Catullus belong; it is probable, 
that he wrote many poems whose 
nature even is unknown to us, of which _ 
we have been deprived by time and 
accident, aml which very possibly con 
ferred upon him the distinction of 
learned, which we have alluded to 
above, Speaking of himself when 
young, he says, multu satis lusi;+ from 
which we may infer that his Muse exhi- 
bited herself in various kinds of poetry. 
It may be collected from Pliny the elder, | 
that le composed a something on incanta= 
tions, of which we have now no remaiis 5 
and according to Terentianus Maurus, | 
he wrote an Ithyphallic poem, and 
there is still left. a specimen of the 
Priapeian style in. which it was written. 
Asit is, the poems transmitted tous, and 
generally received as belonging to Ca- 
tullus, though some have doubted the 
originality of all, have been divided by 
many of his commentators into three. 
classes: the lyric, the heroic and elegiacy 
and the epiyrammatic. The volume, in 
general, includes a few others attributed 
to the same poet, of amore suspicious 
character. Of these, it may be doubted 
whether the Pervigilium Veneris be 
genuine. This beautiful piece, which 
ought rather to have been called A Hymn 
to the Spring, has been attributed to a 
variety of authors, whom it would be 
tedious to enumerate. Ausonius, L 
know not how justly, puts in his claim 
to the honour of having composed it; 
but it is, most probably, the production 
of some pen more modern than that of 
Catullus, or evenof Ausonius. Gyraldus 
asserts that he had never seen it, -and 
only heard that it was among the MSS. 
of Aldus Manutius, . : 
Whatever were the various walks in 
which Catullus exercised his muse, he 
was successful inall. In the voluptuous 
hess of amatory verse he excelled; in 
the galliambicf he was unique, and his 
* Epise. 19, lib. 4. 
+ Carm. 65. m 
} This was the metre in which the Galle, 
or priestesses of Cybele, are said to havesung ; 
hence it received its name. It is composed 
of six feet. The Atys of Catullus, which is 
probably of Grecian origin, will give the 
reader the best idea of this singular versifie 
cation, 
i satire - 
