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Cerinthus' Pia Cura ([Tibullus] 3.17.1–2)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. C. Yardley
J. C. Yardley
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
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Extract

In a recent issue of CQ, N. J. Lowe refers to the ‘slyly Catullan appeal to the language of pietas’ in [Tib.] 3.7 (4.11) 1–2 (‘Estne tibi, Cerinthe, tuae pia cura puellae / quod mea nunc vexat corpora fessa calor’?). In this he follows Matthew Santirocco, who comments on these lines: ‘significantly, the expression for love here is not just cura as before [sc. in 3.16 [4.10] 3], but pia cura. We recall the pietas Catullus proclaimed in his affair with Lesbia (cf. 76.2,5) and perhaps also pius Aeneas and all that pietas meant to the Augustan age, and then we realise that Sulpicia is now concerned not so much with the mere fact of Cerinthus’ affection as with its quality.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , December 1990 , pp. 568 - 570
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1990

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References

1 ‘Sulpicia's Syntax’, CQ N.S. 38 (1988), 193–205, p. 200CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 ‘Sulpicia Reconsidered’, CJ 74 (1979), 229–39, p. 233Google Scholar.

3 On the ‘recalling of benefits’ as a topos of moral philosophy, see Powell, J. G. F., ‘Two Notes on Catullus’, CQ N.S. 40 (1990), 199–206CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Powell points to its occurrences in Cicero, but rightly sees that it is a case of Vulgarethik rather than literary influence. The same, of course, is true of beneficia vis-á-vis friendship and pietas. I am grateful to Dr Powell for sending me an advance copy of his article.

4 I owe this reference to Prof. W. J. Slater. It is significant that Xenophon uses the word φ⋯λος rather than ⋯ραστ⋯ς.

5 See further Phoenix 27 (1973), 185–6Google Scholar; SO 56 (1981), 63–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 See Millar, Fergus, The Emperor in the Roman World (London, 1977), p. 112 and n. 18Google Scholar.

7 The other is Ovid, , Her. 8.15Google Scholar where Hermione appeals to Orestes' sense of duty (cf. 16 ‘inice non timidas in tua iura manus’).

8 On comes in ‘travelling-together’ contexts, see SO 56 (1981), p. 64Google Scholar.