A Log Cabin Out of Stone: - Dartmouth College

Much of the voice of rap music fights against societal hierarchies, the rap stars are
proclaimed 'overcomers' whose raps emphasize the plights of Black-Americans; the
typical rap superstar comes from a "ghetto" neighborhood with a lack of education,
surrounded by gang violence and broken homes, all of which the rapper has overcome
and now writes and sings about in his or her art. The key issue that the genre raises in
translating Catullus is the class and origins of the author. Although Catullus complains of
not having enough money to host his own dinner, and jokes about eating dinner at his
friend’s house, he does not represent the marginalized communities of ancient Rome. His
company is quite aristocratic and he suggests in his poems that he takes part in a
luxurious lifestyle: prostitutes, friends, wine. Many of the people mentioned in his poetry
are known to be members of the upper classes. 8 To equate him to a rapper would be to
mislead the audience. Catullus is not a gangster from modest beginnings. He represents
mainstream Roman culture. His family was “notable enough to entertain Julius Caesar”
and Catullus “himself was wealthy in spite of temporary embarrassments…made friends
with fashionable society.” 9 Catullus certainly was not on the outskirts of Roman high
society- but very much a part of it.
There was a great deal of controversy surrounding Billy Blythe’s translation. He
had posted it on Wikipedia, but then someone with the username of Alexwoods took
down the translation. 10 After Billy Blythe tried to defend his translation, and Alexwoods
criticized it, Billy Blythe was eventually banned from ever posting on Wikipedia again. 11
8
Wiseman, T.P. Catullus & His World, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
9
Oxford Classical Dictionary, 175.
10
Billy Blythe, Removing Gangsta Rap from Catullus 16, (15 August 2006) January 2008,
11
Wikipedia Administrators, Archive 129. January 2008,