Gaius Valerius Catullus (c.84–c.54 BCE) was a Roman lyric poet best known for his 116 love poems, elegies, and satirical epigrams.
Much of Catullus’s enduring poems explore the extremes of his heartbreaking affair with Claudia Metelli “Lesbia,” a notorious, attractive woman in Rome. She was the sister of a disreputable senator and the wife of an influential Roman aristocrat. Catullus’s turbulent relationship with Claudia provided him with substance for an extensive and complex poetic analysis of love and its significance.
Now regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets in literature, Catullus transformed Roman and Western poetry. He switched the heroic and epic style and subject with an emotive personal voice. His writing influenced generations of writers and thinkers—from Ovid, Horace, and Virgil to Thornton Wilder and Louis MacNeice.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Catullus
The vows that woman makes to her fond lover are only fit to be written on air, or on the swiftly passing stream.
—Catullus
I write of youth, of love, and have access by these to sing of cleanly wantonness.
—Catullus
Topics: Youth
Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill-bred it is.
—Catullus
Topics: The Past
What a woman says to her lover should be written on air or swift water.
—Catullus
Topics: Women
There is nothing more silly than a silly laugh.
—Catullus
It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion.
—Catullus
Topics: Love
What a woman says to her avid lover should be written in wind and running water.
—Catullus
Topics: Promises
Away with you, water, destruction of wine.
—Catullus
Topics: Wine, One liners
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