CATULLUS 68 - Scuola Normale Superiore

poem through several stages of transmission, it is hard to see why no forms of this name have appeared in the
text and the marginalia.
Since the origin of this title is unclear, all the available evidence has to be taken into account if one wants to
identify the addressee of poem 68a. This is done in the Introduction (pp. 34-43).
1-10 ‘You are writing to me about your troubles and turn to me for help; I am happy that you consider me
your friend and seek the gifts of Venus and the Muses from me.’ Catullus recapitulates the contents of
Manlius’ letter (lines 1-8) and gives his immediate reaction (lines 9-10).
The initial period continues through ten lines; it receives structure from the fact that each elegiac distich
coincides with one single thought element (cf. Kroll on line 1), or in lines 7f. and 9f. with several closely
connected ones. In Catullus’ poems periods of similar length are found not only in an epistolary context
(65.1-8), but also outside it, where they are “no longer excused by the epistolary style” (“nicht mehr durch
den Briefstil entschuldigt”, Kroll on line 1; thus lines 51-62 and 70-76 below, as well as 64.1-7 and 66.1-
14). Ellis and Kroll put a colon after line 10 and let the sentence go on for another four lines, but a full stop
seems preferable, as lines 11-14 constitute a section of their own.
The fact that Manlius’ letter is recapitulated through eight lines strongly suggests that whether or not
consciously, the poet was writing not only for him but also for the general reader, who is informed about the
outlines of the situation that has given rise to the poem, though not nearly about every detail of Manlius’
predicament. Tellingly, the very first distich indicates that this poem is a letter written in response to another
one – and Manlius will hardly have needed to be told as much (see further the Introduction, pp. 45-47). But it
is important to view these lines from the perspective of the addressee as well. Catullus recapitulates his letter
in attentive detail, apparently taking care not to touch upon any particular that could re-open a fresh wound
or be potentially embarrassing upon publication; indeed he allegorizes Manlius’ erotic sufferings as the result
of divine intervention (lines 5f.). Having recapitulated his friend’s request, the first thing that he says about it
is that it is a compliment to him (lines 9-10).
It is sometimes suggested that the description of Manlius’ troubles in lines 3-8 contains quotations of some
sort from Manlius’ epistolium, that the recapitulation picks up the metaphors (Kroll on 68.4) or “the
extravagant language” (Quinn on 68.1-10) of the original letter, possibly with a hint of reproach. But there is
a simple reason for which these lines cannot contain extensive direct quotation from Manlius’ letter: if they
did, it would have had to be a verse letter written in the same metre, but if one changes the verbs in line 4
(subleuem and restituam) from the first to the second person singular, the metre is ruined. As for the
imagery, it is no more extravagant than in many other passages that are certainly of Catullus’ own making –
compare 75.16-20, 95.2, and especially 68.21-24 below. The metaphor of shipwreck in lines 3f. is given such
an important place that it could conceivably pick up on something (not necessarily more than a word or two)
that Manlius had written, and the hint in the words in mortis limine (line 4) that Manlius is near death is so
radical that Catullus may not have invented it himself, but none of this is certain; these lines evidently pick
up the contents of Manlius’ letter, but not necessarily any of the words through which it was expressed.
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