CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

68a that may support such an identification is how its addressee tries to alleviate his troubles by seeking
alternative sources of pleasure. This was in line with Epicurean doctrine, but it hardly proves that he was an
Epicurean, let alone that he was L. Manlius Torquatus. In short, poem 68a does not contain enough evidence
to enable us either to accept or to reject definitively the identification of the addressee with L. Manlius
Torquatus. The identification would be plausible, but nothing more. This need not trouble us too much: most
other poems of Catullus’ do not contain this type of information about the addressee either, and the addressee
of poem 68a has the additional misfortune of having a very common name. We cannot be certain about his
identity.
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