CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

Consequently I do not think that one should emend mira, but it may still be worthwhile to consider the
emendations that have been proposed. The humanistic conjecture nigra … nocte ‘in the dark of the night’
(first found in Calphurnius’ edition and in MS 7, both datable to 1481, and in MS 85, datable to around
1500) means the right thing, is supported by a number of parallels (Lucr. 4.537 perpetuus sermo nigrai
noctis ad umbram / aurorae perductus, Varro Men. frg. 489 Astbury anates … paludibus nocte nigra ad
lumina lampadis sequens and Verg. Aen. 7.414 iam mediam nigra carpebat nocte quietem, cfr. Lucil. 209
Marx noctis nigrore and Pacuv. trag. 412 tenebrae conduplicantur, noctisque et nimbum obcaecat nigror)
and is not too far palaeographically from the transmitted reading. It is advocated by Trappes-Lomax (2007:
240). Nicolaus Heinsius’ prima … nocte could mean ‘on the first night’ (as at Ter. Hec. 136 nocte illa prima
uirginem non attigit, Prop. 2.5.15 nec tu non aliquid, sed prima nocte, dolebis and compare 3.15.5, Ov. Fast.
5.111) or ‘early in the night’, ‘at the fall of night’ (thus Ter. Hec. 822, Hor. Od. 3.7.29 prima nocte domum
claude and Ov. Am. 2.19.38 incipe iam prima claudere nocte forem), but neither meaning would be suitable
here: the former would be superfluous, as the reader already knows that this was Catullus’ first night with
Lesbia, and the latter would not suit the context; one would expect only more respectable affairs to be
conducted just after dinner. It is not clear what would be the meaning of Schrader’s niuea. Landor (1842:
361) proposed mire or media: the adverb mire would leave nocte oddly without an epithet, but media …
nocte would be livelier, and there are some parallels: Pl. Curc. 4 si media nox est siue prima est uespera and
Amphitr. 514 heri uenisti media nocte, nunc abis as well as Tib. 1.8.59 ut possim media quamuis obrepere
nocte. Haupt’s rara ‘infrequent’ would not be possible after the perfect dedit; contrast rara uerecundae furta
feremus erae in line 136 and Pl. Truc. 49 si raras noctes ducit. Fröhlich (1849: 266) proposed mi Iro, but it is
not clear what this would mean. Heyse suggested muta, but this would not make a strong point, and muta
munuscula would be rather cacophonic. tacita, conjectured by Lain (1986), would yield an acceptable sense
(‘in the dead of the night’) and it would have a number of parallels – Tib. 1.6.6 nescio quem tacita callida
nocte fouet, Ov. Her. 18.78 et nitor in tacita nocte diurnus erat, Met. 9.474 me miseram! tacitae quid uult
sibi noctis imago? and Fast. 2.552 et tacitae questi tempore noctis aui and 4.651f. ille dabat tacitis animo
responsa quieto / noctibus – but it is hard to see how it could have yielded mira. And Thomson’s pura would
mean the wrong thing; he compares pura … sub nocte at Verg. Ecl. 9.44, but that means ‘on a cloudless
night’. While Landor’s media and Lain’s tacita deserve mention, the Renaissance conjecture nigra is
certainly the best substitute for mira that has been proposed to date – but no substitute appears to be required.
146 Lesbia has been ‘snatched from the very lap of her very husband’: Catullus boasts as if he had snatched
her himself in a feat of daring.
ipsius ex ipso The accumulation is strongly emphatic: compare 74.3f. hoc ne ipsi accideret, patrui
perdepsuit ipsam / uxorem as well as Pl. Pseud. 1142 tute ipsus ipsum praesens praesentem uides (where the
variant ipsus coram is surely inferior) and St. 373 tutin ipsus ipsum uidisti?, Ter. Andr. 532 adeo in ipso
tempore eccum ipsum obuiam and Cic. Brut. 84 nec mihi ceterorum iudicio solum uidetur, sed etiam ipsorum
inter ipsos concessu ita tributum fuisse.
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