CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

(Fordyce), nor is there any need to write Vesta (Vossius, who had found veta in a MS then in Milan, now
probably lost), de aula (Baehrens) or de ducta (Postgate 1912: 15).
There is some controversy about what spelling should be used. dextra is a conjecture from the early 15 th
century; the principal MSS read deastra (O) or de astra (X). Given the fact that under the Republic median x
was also written as xs and as cs, Schwabe proposed dexstra, while Ellis conjectured decstra, which would
both be closer to the readings of the principal MSS than dextra. An interesting parallel is provided by 17.3,
where OGR write ac sulcis; Hand conjectured axulis, but Ellis proposed the spelling acsuleis. In both
passages the evidence of the primary MSS would seem to point towards the spelling cs. However, there seem
to be no examples of this in securely datable inscriptions from this period, which write the later median x
either as x (thus CIL 1.2.590, the Lex Municipi Tarentini from 89-62 B.C., has faxit at 9.4 and proxumeis at
9.8) or as xs (CIL 1.2.589, the Lex Antonia de Termessibus from 71 B.C., has deixserint in line 33, while CIL
1.2.592, the Lex de Gallia Cisalpina from 49 B.C., has 1.43 proxsume, 2.20 duxserit and 2.33 noxsiaue). On
the other hand, there are over 100 instances in which Catullus’ principal MSS write median x as x, which
makes it risky to reconstruct acsulis at 17.3 and decstra here. Such forms could, however, been introduced
by a later scribe with a misguided passion for archaisms.
144 This is very nearly a golden line (for the concept cfr. line 29n.); it is, if the participle fragrantem is
counted as an adjective.
fragrantem Assyrio … odore The house of the groom would have been fragrant with Oriental perfumes
during the wedding. For the practice compare 64.284 domus iucundo risit odore (a pleasant fragrance,
possibly of the flowers just mentioned, at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis) and Ciris 512 non thalamus
Syrio fragrans accepit amomo (i.e. Scylla never married). Perfumes were keenly appreciated by Catullus and
those of his generation (see Cat. 6.6-8, 13.11 and Cic. Cat. 2.5), but the use of fragrances to improve the air
within a building may have been restricted to temples and weddings.
It is hard to tell what substance would have caused the Assyrius odor. Commentators point out that Roman
poets use Syrius and Assyrius interchangeably when writing of Oriental spices and perfumes, though in fact,
Syria and Assyria were two quite distinct regions: the former the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean, the
latter what is now Eastern Iraq and Western Iran. The most obvious way to perfume the air of a building
would have been by burning incense (tus) or myrrh (murra, myrrha). However, these spices were resinous
materials imported not from the Levant or Iraq, but from the Yemen and the Horn of Africa, and no ancient
author appears to state that they come from Syria or Assyria. More promisingly, the use of Syrio … amomo
during a wedding is mentioned at Ciris 512 (see above). amomum can refer to a range of seeds or the oil
pressed from them (see Neue Pauly s.v. amomon). While they were imported from India and equatorial
Africa, they are often said to originate from Assyria: thus Verg. Ecl. 4.25 Assyrium uulgo nascetur amomum
(of the plant), Mart. 8.77.3f. Assyrio semper tibi crinis amomo / splendeat, Sil. 11.402 crinem Assyrio
perfundere … amomo and Stat. Silv. 2.4.34 Assyrio cineres adolentur amomo.
241