whose praenomen is altogether omitted in many MSS., while several, with Apuleius (Apolog.), designate him as Caius, and a few of the best with Pliny (Plin. Nat. 37.6) as Quintus, was a native of Verona or its immediate vicinity, as we learn from the testimony of many ancient writers (e. g. Ov. Am. 3.15. 17 ; Plin. l.c.; Martial, 1.62, 10.103, 14.195; Auson. Drep. &c.). According to Hieronymus in the Eusebian Chronicle, he was born in the consulship of Cinna and Octavius, B. C. 87, and died in his thirtieth year, B. C. 57. The second date is undoubtedly erroneous, for we have positive evidence from his own works that he survived not only the second consulship of Pompey, B. C. 55, and the expedition of Caesar into Britain, but that he was alive in the consulship of Vatinius, B. C. 47. (Carm. lii. and cxiii.) We have no reason, however, to conclude that the allusion to Mammurra, contained in a letter written by Cicero (Cic. Att. 13.52) in B. C. 45, refers to the lampoon of Catullus; we can attach no weight to the argument, deduced by Joseph Scaliger from an epigram of Martial (4.14), that he was in literary correspondence with Virgil after the reputation of the latter was fully established ; and still less can we admit that there is the slightest ground for the assertion, that the hymn to Diana was written for the secular games celebrated by Augustus in B. C. 17. He may have outlived the consulship of Vatinius, but our certain knowledge does not extend beyond that period.
Valerius, the father of Catullus, was a person of some consideration, for he was the friend and habitual entertainer of Julius Caesar (Suet. Jul. 73), and his son must have possessed at least a moderate independence, since in addition to his paternal residence on the beautiful promontory of Sirmio, he was the proprietor of a villa in the vicinity of Tibur, and performed a voyage from the Pontus in his own yacht. On the other hand, when we observe that he took up his abode at Rome and entered on his poetical career while still in the very spring of youth (68.15), that he mingled with the gayest society and indulged freely in the most expensive pleasures (ciii.) of the metropolis, we need feel no surprise that he should have become involved in pecuniary difficulties, nor doubt the sincerity of his frequent humorous lamentations over the empty purses of himself and his associates. These embarrassments may have induced him to make an attempt to better his fortunes, according to the approved fashion of the times, by proceeding to Bithynia in the train of the praetor Memmius, but it is clear from the bitter complaints which he pours forth against the exclusive cupidity of his chief, that the speculation was attended with little success.
The death of his brother in the Troad--a loss which he repeatedly deplores with every mark of heartfelt grief, more especially in the affecting clegy to Hortalus--is generally supposed to have happened during this expedition. But any evidence we possess leads to a different inference. When railing against the evil fortune which attended the journey to the East, he makes no allusion to any such misfortune as this; we find no notice of the event in the pieces written immediately before quitting Asia and immediately after his return to Italy, nor does the language of those passages in which he gives vent to his sorrow in any way confirm the conjecture.
That Catullus plunged into all the debauchery of his times is evident from the tone which pervades so many of his lighter productions, and that he enjoyed the friendship of the most celebrated literary characters, seems clear from the individuals to whom many of his pieces are addressed, along whom we find Cicero, Alphenus Varus, Licinius Calvus, the orator and poet, Cinna, author of the Smyrna, and several others. The lady-love who is the theme of the greater number of his amatory effusions is styled Lesbia, but her real name we are told by Apuleius was Clodia. This bare fact by no means entitles us to jump to the conclusion at which many have arrived, that she was the sister of the celebrated Clodius slain by Milo. Indeed the presumption is strong against such an inference. The tribute of highflown praise paid to Cicero would have been but a bad recommendation to the favour of one whom the orator makes the subject of scurrilous jests, and who is said to have cherished against him all the vindictive animosity of a woman first slighted and then openly insulted. Catullus was warm in his resentments as well as in his attachments. No prudential considerations interfered with the free expression of his wrath when provoked, for he attacks with the most bitter vehemence not only his rivals in love and poetry, but scruples not on two occasions to indulge in the most offensive imputations on Julius Caesar. This petulance was probably the result of some temporary cause of irritation, for elsewhere he seems fully disposed to treat this great personage with respect (111.10), and his rashness was productive of no unpleasant consequences to himself or to his family, for not only did Caesar continue upon terms of intimacy with the father of Catullus, but at once accepted the apology tendered by the son, and admitted him on the same day as a guest at his table. (Suet. Jul. 73.)
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