CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

also result in an inadmissibly awkward construction (quisquis tepefiat frigida membra: a passive present
indicative would be used with an accusative of respect, where one would expect a present indicative active
with an object in the accusative). The Renaissance variants tepefecit and tepefiunt come from the wrong verb
and are not subjunctives, while tepefiunt would also yield a construction every bit as awkward as Schrader’s
tepefiat, and the same can be said of tepefiant, which Vossius claims to have found in an ‘optimus liber’ (I
have been unable to identify his source). tepefactet is certainly the best bet.
In any case, what does the word mean? tepefacto is, as we have seen, a hapax, but tepefacio tends to mean
‘to make tepid’, ‘to warm up (slightly)’. tepeo and its derivatives usually imply a positive, if moderate,
warmth; contrast however Lucan. 4.284 paulatim cadit ira ferox mentesque tepescunt. Here evidently the
cold limbs of the young men are brought to a tepor – but by what: love-making, or something else? In an
amorous context words from this root can stand for passion (Ov. Her. 11.26 nescio quem sensi corde tepente
deum and A.A. 2.359f. Helene, ne sola iaceret, / hospitis est tepido nocte recepta sinu, Petron. 135.15.5f.
nam quis concubitus, Veneris quis gaudia nescit? / quis uetat in tepido membra calere toro?, Stat. Silu.
1.2.139f. ipsam iam cedere sensi / inque uicem tepuisse uiro), for moderate passion (Hor. Od. 1.4.19f.
tenerum Lycidan … quo calet iuuentus / nunc omnis et mox uirgines tepebunt, Ov. Rem. 7 saepe tepent alii
iuuenes: ego semper amaui), for insufficient passion (Prop. 1.13.26 nam tibi non tepidas subdidit illa faces,
Ov. A.A. 2.445 fac timeat de te tepidamque recalface mentem and Rem. 692 quid iuuat admonitu tepidam
recalescere mentem?) and for no passion at all (Ov. Am. 2.2.53f. seu tepet … siue amat). The only fixed
ingredient is evidently a concept of tepor, of moderate warmth; for the rest the exact significance of the word
has to be inferred from its context. For this see further on 27-30.
30 ‘That is not shameful, Manlius; rather, it is sad’: Catullus deserves not reproaches but commiseration,
since he is not to be blamed for his present lack of amorous diversions.
The juxtaposition of turpis and miser is common, especially in speeches, in letters and in poetry of a
rhetorical bent: thus Cic. Vat. 21 turpissimo miserrimoque spectaculo, Att. 8.2.3 hoc miserius, hoc turpius
quicquam?, Q. fr. 1.3.6 in tam misera tamque turpi uita, etc.., Lucr. 4.1174f., Liv. 5.53.4 haec migratio nobis
misera ac turpis and 2.40.8 (speeches), Ov. Pont. 2.3.37 turpe putas abigi, quia sit miserandus, amicum, Am.
1.10.39f., Rem. 658f., Her. 9.19f., etc., Sen. Dial. 2.14.4, Pers. 1.3, Calp. Ecl. 3.86f., [Quint.] Decl. mai. 6.8,
Val. Max. 2.6.11, etc. For their contrast compare Cic. Quinct. 98 non turpis ad te sed miser confugit and Att.
7.18.1 sciremus utrum turpi pace nobis an misero bello esset utendum, Sen. Tro. 710f. nec turpe puta /
quicquid miseros fortuna iubet, and esp. Cic. Har. Resp. 49 miserum magis fuit quam turpe.
Here and in lines 32 and 34 below Catullus punctuates in the second half of the pentameter. As is pointed out
by Kroll, he does not do so anywhere else in the long poems, and in the epigrams only at 110.4. Even in its
metrical technique poem 68a is not exceedingly refined.
id This picks up not quod in line 27 (which is used in a loose epistolary construction and means ‘as to you
writing that ...’: see ad loc.), but the entire point made by Manlius, that is, all of Veronae ... cubili in lines 27-
140