CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

the opportunity to study in surroundings that could hardly have been better. The Scuola Normale also
provided me with funds to do library research in Oxford, Cambridge, Rome, Venice and Florence, and to
consult the Hale-Ullman Papers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I have relied on the assistance of librarians in
all these places, and especially on that of Laura Baschieri in Pisa, who shepherded my inter-library loans. In
Chapel Hill I was given a warm reception by the members of the Department of Classics, in particular by
Sara Mack, James J. O’Hara, James B. Rives and Cecil Wooten. I should also thank Orlando Mack, who
conceded to me the use of her room.
Many people have helped me in less pragmatic ways. With admirable frankness, Ewen L. Bowie asked me
repeatedly whether there was any need at all for a new commentary on Catullus. He only desisted when he
found out that the best edition of Catullus was no longer that of Mynors. His skepticism reminded me of the
need to make a useful contribution of my own to Catullan scholarship. I could not be more grateful to
Zsigmond Ritoók and Ágnes Szalay-Ritoók for our long conversations on ancient literature and much else:
they have shown me that it is both possible and worthwhile to be a classical scholar in Central Europe.
Finally, I must thank my friends and my family for their help, support and encouragement. Most of all, I am
thankful to my parents, Paul ten Hagen and Zsófia Ruttkay, for their unfailing support.
Pisa, 28 January 2009
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