CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

compare 61.155, 64.350, 66.70 (translated from Callimachus), 95.6 and 108.1. Here “cano increases the
impietas” (“cano steigert die impietas”, Kroll).
uolturium Here and at 108.4 lingua exsecta auido sit data uolturio Catullus uses uolturius rather than
uoltur, which is found only from the Augustan period onwards. In this period the word was written as
uolturius and not uulturius (Cremona 1958: 408f.).
This was a common term of abuse: compare Pl. Capt. 844 uolturi (voc.), Mil. 1044 uolturio plus humani
credo est and Trin. 101 sunt alii qui te uolturium uocant, Scaur. orat. 9f. nefarius uolturius, patriae parricida
and 10 uolturius rei publicae, Cic. Sest. 71 duo uolturii paludati and Pis. 38 appellatus est hic uolturius illius
prouinciae, si dis placet, imperator. Catullus’ use of it for a legacy-seeker is especially apt, as vultures feed
on carcasses. The same image (though not the word) is used later by Seneca at Ben. 4.20.3 ingratum uoco,
qui aegro adsidit, quia testamentum facturus est, cui de hereditate uel de legato uacat cogitare. faciat licet
omnia, quae facere bonus amicus et memor offici debet: si animo eius obuersatur species lucri, captator est
et hamum iacit; ut aues, quae laceratione corporum aluntur, lassa morbo pecora et casura ex proximo
speculantur, ita hic imminet morti et circa cadauer uolat.
125-128 An image from Roman society is followed by one from the animal world: Laodamia’s passion is
compared to the delight of a dove in her partner – and the dove ‘is said’ (dicitur, a self-conscious note) to be
much more eager in kissing than an especially passionate woman.
Doves were considered to be passionate but monogamous: thus Prop. 2.15.27f. exemplo iunctae sibi sint in
amore columbae, / masculus et totum femina coniugium and Pliny N.H. 10.104 pudicitia illis prima et neutri
nota adulteria. coniugi fidem non uiolant communemque seruant domum; nisi caelebs aut uidua domum non
relinquit; see further RE 4A2.2489.29-2490.9 and Otto 88f. They were proverbial kissers, witness also
Matius frg. 12.2 FPL 3 columbulatim labra conserens labris, Ov. Am. 2.6.56 oscula det cupido blanda
columba mari, Pliny N.H. 10.32 illam exosculationem [sc. coruorum], quae saepe cernitur, qualem in
columbis esse, Martial 1.109.2 purior osculo columbae and also the fragment uincit columbos osculis that is
attributed to Lucilius by the humanist Nicolaus Perottus (in Mart. 1.109.2 at Cornu Copiae fol. 668 = c.
1028; the fragment is dismissed as spurious by Mueller on p. 164 of his edition and is omitted by Marx,
perhaps undeservedly).
125 niueo … columbo On white doves compare 29.7f. perambulabit omnium cubilia / ut albulus
columbus aut Adoneus and Alexis frg. 217.1 CAF λευκ∫! Αφροδ⇔τη! ε⇒μ⇐ γ ρ περι!τερ〉! (doves in
general were sacred to Aphrodite: thus Verg. Aen. 6.193 with Servius ad loc., Prop. 3.3.31, Ov. Met. 15.386
and Nero frg. 2.1 FPL 3 ). Before the development of synthetic whiteners completely white animals (and
clothes, such as the toga candida of electioneering politicians) were held in greater renown than they are
today.
224