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  • 8 - Predecessors

  • from PART III - LATE REPUBLIC
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 173-177

  • Summary

    The short poems of Catullus, which he himself calls nugae 'trifles', confront the critic with a paradox: poetry of obviously major significance and power which belongs formally to a minor genre. Aulus Gellius and Cicero have preserved five short epigrams by a trio of accomplished amateurs, Valerius Aedituus, Porcius Licinus and Qyintus Lutatius Catulus. These are freely adapted from Hellenistic Greek originals, most of which can be identified in the Greek Anthology. Cicero is a more important figure in the history of Latin poetry than is commonly acknowledged. For one of the hallmarks of the new school of poets was their insistence on careful and exact craftsmanship. Cicero's hexameters, flat and lifeless as they read, are technically much more like those of Catullus than those of Ennius or even Lucretius. The precise part played by Cicero in the development of Latin poetry is bound to remain obscure, given the fragmentary nature of the evidence.