CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

following lines, which make much of the preservation of his name. Since the addressee is evidently Allius,
Scaliger’s emendation Alli is palmary.
redditur Not ‘is given back’ but ‘is given in return’, ‘is rendered’, as at 64.157 talia qui reddis pro dulci
praemia uita and 76.26 o di, reddite mi hoc pro pietate mea: cfr. OLD s.v. reddo, 9.
151f. Catullus would like to prevent Allius’ name from being forgotten. Here he makes the same point as in
lines 49f., but in a different way, referring no longer to the name of the individual Allius, but to the name of
the gens Allia. Allius’ discreet and potentially disreputable act of having provided a house for the poet and
his mistress is to result in glory for his whole family. Most Roman families will have hoped for claims to
fame of a different sort; but Catullus had unusual standards, and so did his friends, perhaps.
Fröhlich (1849: 264 and 266) deleted 151f. and used 151 for his supplement of line 47. However, there is
nothing suspicious about these two verses, and his supplement is quite unconvincing: see further on line 47.
151 uestrum … nomen Catullus uses uester for tuus at 99.6 and possibly also at 39.20 (see Fordyce ad
loc.), but here uestrum should be taken as a true plural referring to the addressee’s family name, his nomen
gentilicium, that is, the name Allius. nomen uestrum ‘the name of your family’ appears to have been a
formula with a pathetic ring, witness Cic. Scaur. 30 quod si te omen nominis uestri forte duxit and Ov. Tr.
2.65 inuenies uestri praeconia nominis illic.
scabra … robigine ‘With rough rust’, i.e. ‘with rust that makes it rough’. The name is conceived of as a
metal object that rusts if it is not maintained properly. For the image of rust compare 64.42 squalida desertis
robigo infertur aratris. In Greek literature its use to characterize non-use, neglect or idleness is apparently
found only at Theocr. 16.16f. π ! ... ψρε⇑ / ργυρον, ο⎡δϒ κεν ⇒∫ν ποτρ⇔χα! τιν⇐ δο⇔η (cfr. Gow
1950 ad loc.). In Latin it becomes more common: compare Cato, carmen de moribus ap. Gell. 11.2.6 nam
uita humana prope uti ferrum est. si exerceas, conteritur; si non exerceas, tamen robigo interficit, Ov. Tr.
5.12.21 ingenium longa robigine laesum and Stat. Theb. 3.582 fessa putri robigine pila.
scaber is connected to scabĕre ‘scratch’ and indicates what is scaly or rough by nature or especially owing to
a disease (scabies). robigo can refer to the ‘rust’ affecting a metal, a crop or even a part of a body (see
below) and is conceptually similar to scabies. Later the accumulative phrase scabra robigo comes to be
attested frequently in all the senses of robigo, especially in poetry: thus Verg. Geo. 1.495 exesa … scabra
robigine pila and note 2.220 scabie et salsa laedit robigine ferrum, Ov. Met. 8.802 scabrae robigine fauces,
Pont. 1.1.71 roditur ut scabra positum robigine ferrum (cfr. Gaertner 2005 ad loc.) and Fast. 1.687f. crescat
scabrae robiginis expers … seges, Lucan. 1.243 scabros nigrae morsu robiginis enses and Petron. 124.274
stabant aerati scabra robigine dentes; later also in prose at Col. 3.1.9 incrementa uirentium ueluti quadam
scabra robigine coerceat (of an inferior soil damaging the shoots of the grapevines) and Plin. N.H. 16.20
item quod aliis subest tunica robigine scabra (i.e. glandibus). I suspect that we may be dealing with a set
phrase, even though some of its occurrences in poetry (in particular, Verg. Geo. 1.495 and Ov. Pont. 1.1.71,
where the two words are in the same position within the verse as here) can be due to Catullan influence.
246