Catullus, who lived from about 84 to 54 BC, was one of ancient Rome's most gifted, versatile and passionate poets. Living at a time of radical social change at the end of the Roman Republic, he belonged to a group of young poets who embraced Hellenistic forms to forge a new literary style, the so-called 'neoterics'. This comprehensive edition includes the complete, unabridged and unbowdlerised poems and is the definitive student edition of Catullus' work. The extensive introduction covers topics including the role of Catullus' literary paramour Lesbia, the few biographical certainties known about Catullus' life and other figures from the contemporary political scene. In addition to this, there is a brief overview of the poems' textual history, discussion of Catullus' style across the collection and linguistic discussions of morphology, vocabulary, syntax and metre. The commentary notes include individual introductions and bibliographies to each poem, as well as line by line notes which translate difficult phrases and gloss obscure words. In addition to this, more detailed explanations of poetic, structural and contextual points are also provided.

This definitive edition of the complete poems by one of ancient Rome's most gifted, versatile and passionate poets includes a full introduction and extensive commentary notes

About the Author
Kenneth Quinn was a fellow of St Johns College, Cambridge and later became Professor of Classics in the University of Otago, New Zealand.


Book Information
ISBN 9781853994975
Author Gaius Valerius Catullus
Format Paperback
Page Count 334
Imprint Bristol Classical Press
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 526g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 26mm