CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

conjecture and proposed another reconstruction of 68.158 on the basis of a parallel in Agius. 194 It is evidently
a question of some importance for the establishment of the text of poem 68 whether Agius was imitating
Catullus or not; here the passages where he may be doing so are considered one by one.
1) Agius 37-40 quodcirca peto uos, carae sanctaeque sorores,
ut iam parcatis fletibus et lacrimis,
parcatis uitae uestrae, parcatis ocellis,
quos nimium flendo perditis omnimodo.
Cat. 3.16-18 o factum male! o miselle passer! 195
tua nunc opera meae puellae
flendo turgiduli rubent ocelli.
For topos that crying is bad for one’s eyes compare also Prop. 1.18.15f. tua flendo / lumina deiectis turpia
sint lacrimis and Ov. Am. 3.6.57 quid fles et madidos lacrimis corrumpis ocellos. As for ocellus, it is a
favourite word not only of Catullus (7x) but also of Propertius (18x) and Ovid in an elegiac mood (11x Am.,
3x A.A., 1x Her., 1x Fast., and nowhere else). Agius may be following Propertius rather than Catullus here,
but this is far from certain.
2) Agius 55-58 et nos hanc non ploremus, hanc non doleamus
et suspiremus uisceribus cupidis,
quae nostrae dulcedo simul uel gloria uitae,
in qua sunt una perdita tanta bona?
Nisbet and Trappes-Lomax compare Catullus 68.158 and try to emend that verse on the basis of this passage
of Agius’. 196 Here I quote Catullus 68.157f. as written in the principal MSS:
Cat. 68.157 et qui principio nobis terram dedit aufert
a quo sunt primo omnia nata bono
However, one should also compare the following passage:
194 Butrica 2007: 24; Trappes-Lomax 2007: 18.
195 Here I follow Mynors’ text; Goold’s proposals to alter it do not affect the echo.
196 Nisbet 1978: 106; Trappes-Lomax 2007: 18.
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