CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

If a wealthy Roman male 122 was desperate for sex and for sex only, why should he have asked a friend in a
distant town to come and fulfil his desires? After all, he would have had plenty of possibilities to satisfy his
natural drives with an obliging slave or with a professional. 123 Travel would have been time-consuming and
exhausting, and possibly too much to ask from a person that he was not particularly close to: and Catullus
does not appear to have been very close to Manlius (see line 9n.). Moreover, it is doubtful whether a well-todo
young Roman male would readily have seen a peer as an object of desire in the first place. We do get
evidence for Catullus and peers of his other pursuing other freeborn young men – Catullus and Aurelius are
after Juventius, while Caelius goes for Aufillenus – but Juventius is a puer, apparently only a teenager, and
Aufillenus need not have belonged to Catullus’ generation either. 124 His poems suit well the stereotypical
picture that the sexuality of adult Roman males was directed either at a woman or at a young boy. Ancient
homosexuality was different from its modern counterpart: there seem to be hardly any examples of a mature
Roman male expressing desire for another man of his age, and there may be none at all in what survives of
Latin love poetry. 125 It may never have occurred to Manlius that he could view Catullus as a potential sexual
partner.
munera Veneris, then, stands not for the act of love-making itself, but for something related to it – something
that brings it on, presumably. One should note especially the words quae mihi luctus ademit, / haec tibi non
tribuo munera in lines 31f.: the gifts that Catullus cannot give to Manlius are identical to those he lost when
his brother died and his gallant adventures came to an abrupt end. This suggests that munera Veneris should
be taken as a general term for erotic adventures, rather than as a euphemism for ‘a partner’, ‘a prostitute’ or
the like – but one should be cautious here: munera Veneris is Catullus’ term, and not necessarily Manlius’,
and we do not know whether Manlius asked Catullus to undertake any particular action (to find him a
girlfriend, a prostitute, adventures or whatever else), or just to help him in any way that he saw fit to make
his love-life more successful. As has been said, a wealthy Roman male could use a prostitute or a slave to
obtain sexual satisfaction – but Manlius may have been looking for more, for an emotionally fulfilling
122 Whether or not Manlius was not the same person as the L. Manlius L. f. L. n. Torquatus, who came from a domus
potens et beata (61.149f.), he was rich enough to read many books and to correspond by mail.
123 Slaves: Cat. 61.119-141; professionals: Cat. 6.5f., 10.1-4, 55.6-12. Horace recommends these as readily available sex
objects in Sat. 1.2 – note esp. 117f. ancilla aut uerna … puer, impetus in quem / continuo fiat.
124 Catullus and Aurelius pursuing Juventius: carmina 15, 21, 24, 48, 81 and 99. Caelius pursuing Aufillenus: 100.1f.
Juventius is a puer (not a slave, but a free youth): 21.11. On the consular Juventii see RE 10.1.1361f., on Catullus’
favourite Cic. Att. 1.16.6, 13.21a.4 and 13.28.4 with Shackleton Bailey 1965-68 ad loc. and RE 10.1.1370f. s.v.
Juventius Thalna (27).
125 Note that Horace touches only briefly upon boys and nowhere atyll upon men in his discussion of the variety of
partners available at Sat. 1.2.
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