CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

29. What is ‘sad rather than shameful’ is not Manlius’ writing about something, but the situation that he is
writing about.
Manli See line 11n.
magis ‘Rather’, ‘instead’, ‘on the contrary’. Usages such as this “show how readily magis could become in
later Latin an adversative particle, the ancestor of Ital. ma and Fr. mais” (Fordyce on 73.4). Thus also Sall.
Hist. 3.48.17 M. neque ego uos ultum iniurias hortor, magis uti requiem cupiatis, Verg. Ecl. 1.11 non
equidem inuideo, mirror magis, Prop. 2.3.53 quem non lucra, magis Pero formosa coegit, Pl. Bac. 130, Ter.
Hau. 895, Varro Antiquitates Rerum Humanarum 25 frg. 1 Semi ap. Gell. 17.3.4, Cic. de Orat. 2.253, Sall.
Iug. 85.49 and 96.2, [Sall.] Rep. 1.8.9, Sen. Suas. 5.2, Quint. Inst. 11.2.5 and 11.3.162 and decl. min. 364 =
p. 396.14 Ritter. It becomes common in late antiquity: see further TLL 8.60.22-78. Its use at Cat. 73.4 immo
etiam taedet obestque magis (thus the Aldine edition: magisque magis MSS), accompanied by the connective
–que, is less radical.
31f. ‘So you will forgive me if I do not provide you with the gifts that my mourning has deprived me of, as
I am unable to do so.’ igitur attaches this couplet the preceding run of thought (‘I am out of practice in love
myself, and cannot help you to it’, lines 15-26), while nam quod in line 33 picks up a new argument that has
not been discussed (see ad loc.). Catullus has explained why he has no love-life to speak of at present (lines
15-26) and in a digression he has cleared himself from Manlius’ accusation that it was shameful for him to
lead a cloistered existence in Verona (lines 27-30), so now he is able to ask Manlius to excuse him for not
providing him with the munera Veneris. The point is missed by Most (1981: 121f.), who takes nam in line 33
to indicate a relationship of cause and effect and concludes that in lines 31f. “Catullus rejects both requests”.
31 The verse is echoed by Prop. 1.11.19f. ignosces igitur si quid tibi triste libelli / attulerint nostri: culpa
timoris erit, a poem in which Catullus 68 is imitated more often: see further on line 22 and on line 69
communes.
ignosces ‘You will forgive me if…’: a formula of apology in which the fact of being forgiven is already
taken for granted. It appears for the most part in polite or very polite letters (Cic. Fam. 5.13.5 and 15.17.1,
Att. 3.15.4 and 10.4.6, and Q. fr. 2.13.3, Caesar ap. Cic. Att. 9.6a, Trebonius ap. Cic. Fam. 12.16.3, and also
in compositions that are in letter form at Prop. 1.11.19, which echoes this passage – see the previous note –,
Ov. Pont. 2.2.126 and Plin. N.H. praef. 4); in conversation that is either genuinely polite (Cic. de Orat. 2.39)
or ironically so (Horace Sat. 1.9.72); and also in speeches (Quint. declam. min. 288 = p. 155.21 Ritter and
sarcastically at Martial epigr. 4.26.4).
luctus The word can stand both for the formal act of mourning and for the state of mind (see OLD s.v.).
ademit See on line 20 adempte.
32 The verse is echoed by Ov. Her. 14.124 quaeque tibi tribui munera, dignus habes.
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