CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

man (and a Roman citizen), that is, as a very different kind of sexual agent. „Die heißblütigen Südländer
begannen gleich darauf mit Liebschaften“, “hot-blooded Southerners began their love-affairs straight away”,
as Kroll remarked in 1923: in 21 st -century Europe this haste looks less unfamiliar.
The passage implies that Catullus was well past his teens when he wrote poem 68a.
16 Catullus describes the joys of his youth in a verse with strongly intertwined word-order, the daring
artificiality of which seems to resemble the vigour of his amorous adventures.
Cicero Top. 32 dismisses a legal definition that is too general with the words hoc est quasi qui adulescentiam
florem aetatis, senectutem occasum uitae uelit definire: evidently it was commonplace to speak of youth as
‘the flower of one’s lifetime’ or else as here as ‘the flowery age’. This has its roots in Greek (note Il. 13.484
×βη! νψο!, Solon frg. 25.1 W. ×βη! ⁄ρατο⇑!ιν ⁄π νψε!ι, Theogn. 994 πα⇑! καλ∫ν νψο! ƒξϖν, Xen.
Smp. 8.14 ⊄ρα! νψο! etc.) and recurs frequently in Latin, often with erotic overtones (Porc. frg. poet. 3.4
FPL 3 ob florem aetatis suae, Cic. Cael. 9 in illo aetatis flore and Phil. 2.3 gratiam non uirtutis spe sed
aetatis flore conlectam, Lucr. 3.770 and likewise 5.847 cupitum aetatis tangere florem and see further TLL
6.1.934.60-935.40; thus Cat. 17.14 uiridissimo nupta flore puella and cfr. 100.2). On the other hand,
references to youth as the springtime of one’s life is relatively rare in Greek (only in a series of speeches:
Hdt. 7.162.1, Pericles ap. Arist. Rhet. 1.7.34 = 1365a32f. and 3.10.7 = 1411a2-4, and also Demades frg. 68
De Falco ap. Athen. 3.99d), but becomes common in Latin (thus Lucr. 5.888 puerili aeuo florente iuuentas,
5.1074 equus florenti aetate iuuencus, 3.1008 aeuo florente puellas, Cic. Sen. 20 temeritas est uidelicet
florentis aetatis, Hor. A.P. 115f. maturusne senex an adhuc florente iuuenta / feruidus, Liv. 30.12.17 forma
erat insignis et florentissima aetas, Eleg. Maec. 7 iuuenes prima florente iuuenta, CE 1240.3 prima florente
iuuenta and see further TLL 6.1.922.72-82). floridus is rarer than florens, but is a favourite word of Catullus’
(also at 61.21 and 63.66, and used for youthful beauty at 61.57 floridam … puellulam and 61.186 ore
floridulo nitens, with florens only found at 64.251); the other attestations of florida aetas are of uncertain
date or late (CLE 473.2 cum frui debueram aetate florida luce; Vulg. prov. 17.22 animus gaudens aetatem
floridam fecit, for καρδ⇔α ε⎡φραινομϒνη ε⎡εκτε⇑ν ποιε⇑ in the Septuagint; Cassiod. in psalm. 24.6 p.
178B Migne iuuentutem uero non tantum floridam aetatem posuit, sed praecipitationis audaciam).
Here uer ageret means “was keeping its springtime” (Fordyce). The vocabulary of this verse appears
strongly conventional: compare Lucr. 6.359 cum tempora se ueris florentia pandunt.
17 multa satis lusi ‘I have had my share of fun’.
multa satis Not attested elsewhere, this phrase is the inversion of the standard prose usage where satis
precedes a case of multi (at Cat. Agr. 32.2; Cic. Verr. 2.1.36, Clu. 202, Sest. 1, Mil. 92, De Orat. 1.264, Top.
1 and 90, Rep. 2.70, Luc. 147, Fin. 2.59, Off. 1.151 and 3.33, Fam. 6.4.4 and 9.15.1, Att. 11.25.3 and 14.14.1,
Q.fr. 2.1.3; Varro L.L. 6.97; Cels. 3.6.9 and 5.26.21c; Col. 5.5.16; Liv. 23.18.6; Sen. Ep. 19.1 and 81.3; Val.
Max. 3.2.24 and Tac. Dial. 32.7; in poetry only satis multas at Ov. Pont. 3.5.10). satis, nimium and ualde go
before the adjective that they qualify (this is generally true of Latin adverbs qualifying any type of word).
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