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Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life Gāius Valerius Catullus was born to a leading equestrian family of Verona, in Cisalpine Gaul. The social prominence of the Catullus family allowed the father of Gaius Valerius to entertain Julius Caesar when he was the Promagistrate (proconsul) of both Gallic provinces. In a poem, Catullus describes his happy homecoming to the family villa at Sirmio, on Lake Garda, near Verona; he also owned a villa near the resort of Tibur (modern Tivoli). Catullus appears to have spent most of his young adult years in Rome. His friends there included the poets Licinius Calvus and Helvius Cinna, Quintus Hortensius (son of the orator and rival of Cicero), and the biographer Cornelius Nepos, to whom Catullus dedicated a '' libellus'' of poems, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poetry Of Catullus
The poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus was written towards the end of the Roman Republic in the period between 62 and 54 BC. The collection of approximately 113 poems includes a large number of shorter epigrams, lampoons, and occasional pieces, as well as nine long poems mostly concerned with marriage. Among the most famous poems are those in which Catullus expresses his love for the woman he calls Lesbia. Dates of the poems If Catullus's girlfriend Lesbia is, as is usually assumed, a pseudonym for Clodia, the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, it may be that he first met her in 62 BC, when her husband was governor of Cisalpine Gaul. In poem 83 Metellus is spoken of as being still alive (he died in early 59 BC). It is thought that the earliest poems were written in this period. In 57 BC Catullus went abroad for a year as part of the entourage of the governor of Bithynia, Gaius Memmius. Poem 10 was evidently written after his return, as well as 28, in which he reports in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Licinius Macer Calvus
Gaius Licinius Macer Calvus (28 May 82 BC – ) was an orator and poet of ancient Rome. Son of Licinius Macer and thus a member of the '' gens Licinia'', he was a friend of the poet Catullus, whose style and subject matter he shared. Calvus's oratorical style opposed the "Asian" school in favor of a simpler Attic model: he characterized Cicero as "" (loose and nerveless), while Cicero described him as "" (bloodless and dry). However, there was no enmity between these two, and Cicero praised Calvus highly. Tacitus mentions twenty-one of his speeches, including several speeches against Publius Vatinius. Calvus likely prosecuted Vatinius multiple times, in 58 BC and then later in 54 BC, where he was defended by Cicero. One of these trials (probably the second) is described in Catullus's poem 53. At the trial one of the bystanders caused Catullus to laugh by crying out "Great gods, what an eloquent !". The meaning of the rare word has been disputed, but it has been suggested that it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyric Poetry
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the Greek lyric, which was defined by its musical accompaniment, usually on an instrument known as a kithara, a seven-stringed lyre (hence "lyric"). These three are not equivalent, though song lyrics ''are'' often in the lyric mode and Ancient Greek lyric poetry ''was'' principally chanted verse. The term owes its importance in literary theory to the division developed by Aristotle among three broad categories of poetry: lyrical, dramatic, and epic. Lyric poetry is one of the earliest forms of literature. Meters Much lyric poetry depends on regular meter based either on syllable or on stress – two short syllables or one long syllable typically counting as equivalent – which is required for song lyrics in order to match lyrics wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sirmione
Sirmione (Brescian: ; ) is a comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy (northern Italy). It is bounded by Desenzano del Garda (Lombardy) and Peschiera del Garda in the province of Verona and the region of Veneto. It has a historical centre which is located on the Sirmio peninsula that divides the lower part of Lake Garda. History The first traces of human presence in the area of Sirmione date from the 6th–5th millennia BC. Settlements on palafitte existed in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Starting from the 1st century BC, the area of the Garda, including what is now Sirmione, became a favourite resort for rich families coming from Verona, then the main ancient Rome, Roman city in north-eastern Italy. The poet Catullus praised the beauties of the city and spoke of a villa he had in the area. In the late Roman era (4th–5th centuries AD) the city became a fortified strongpoint defending the southern shore of the lake. A settlement existed also after the Lombards, Lombar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helvius Cinna
Gaius Helvius Cinna (died 20 March 44 BC) was an influential neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic, a little older than the generation of Catullus and Calvus. He was lynched at the funeral of Julius Caesar after being mistaken for an unrelated Cornelius Cinna who had spoken out in support of the dictator's assassins. Overview Cinna possibly came from Brescia. Cinna's literary fame was established by his magnum opus "Zmyrna", a mythological epic poem focused on the incestuous love of Smyrna (or Myrrha) for her father Cinyras, treated after the erudite and allusive manner of the Alexandrian poets. He was a friend of Catullus ( poem 10, 29–30: ''meus sodalis / Cinna est Gaius''). When "Zmyrna" was completed in about 55 BC, Catullus hailed it as a great achievement, nine harvests and nine winters in the making. The poem has not survived. Catullus's poem is the key information to survive about his life, together with a passage in the ''Suda'' about the Augustan period poet P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sirmio
Sirmio is a promontory at the southern end of Lake Garda, projecting 3.3 kilometers (2.1 mi) into the lake. It is celebrated in connection with the Roman poet Catullus, as the large ruins of a Roman villa known as the Grottoes of Catullus on the promontory have been supposed to be his country house. Catullus, upon his return home from a long voyage, joyously describes Sirmio as ''Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque ocelle'' ("Sirmio, jewel of peninsulas and of islands") in his Carmen XXXI, ''Ad Sirmionem insulam''. A post station bearing the name Sirmio stood on the highroad between Brixia (modern Brescia) and Verona, near the southern shore of the lake. On the shore below is the village of Sirmione, with sulfur baths. In 1880, the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson visited what he called "Sweet Catullus's all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio" in his poem "Frater Ave Atque Vale", the title referring to the last line of a famous elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil war, a civil war. He subsequently became Roman dictator, dictator from 49 BC until Assassination of Julius Caesar, his assassination in 44 BC. Caesar played a critical role in Crisis of the Roman Republic, the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. In 60 BC, Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Crassus, and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, an informal political alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass political power were opposed by many in the Roman Senate, Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the private support of Cicero. Caesar rose to become one of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic through a string of military victories in the G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neoteric
The Neoterikoi (Ancient Greek: '; Latin: ', "new poets") or Neoterics were a series of avant-garde Latin poets who wrote in the 1st century BCE. Neoteric poets deliberately turned away from classical Homeric epic poetry. Rather than focusing on the feats of ancient heroes and gods, they propagated a new style of poetry through stories that operated on a smaller scale in regard to themes and setting. Although the poems of the Neoterics may seem to address superficial subjects, many scholars view their work as subtle and accomplished works of art. Neoteric poetry has frequently been compared to the Modernist movement of the late 19th through the 20th century, as well as the Imagist movement. Neoterics Influenced by the Greek Hellenistic poets, the Neoterics rejected traditional social and literary norms. Their poetry is characterized by tight construction, a playful use of genre, punning, and complex allusions. The most significant surviving Neoteric works are those of Catullus. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Furius Bibaculus
Marcus Furius Bibaculus (1st century BC) was a Roman neoteric poet who flourished during the last century of the Republic. Life According to Jerome, he was born at Cremona, in 103 BC; however, scholars believe that this date is much too early and that he seems to be a contemporary of Catullus. Like Catullus, he wrote satirical poems in the same style. It is conjectured that he is the friend whom Catullus jokingly satirises in poems 16, 23, and 26.Quinn, L. (1973) ''Catullus: The Poems'', p. 161. He wrote satirical poems after the manner of Catullus, whose bitterness he rivaled, according to Quintilian (''Instit.'' x.i.196), in his iambics. He even attacked Augustus (and perhaps Caesar), who treated the matter with indifference. He was also author of prose '' Lucubrationes'' and perhaps of an epic poem on Caesar's Gallic Wars (''Pragmatia Belli Gallici''). Otto Ribbeck attributes to him one of the shorter poems usually assigned to Virgil. It is doubtful whether he is the person r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin Poetry
The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models. The verse comedies of Plautus, the earliest surviving examples of Latin literature, are estimated to have been composed around 205–184 BC. History Scholars conventionally date the start of Latin literature to the first performance of a play in verse by a Greek slave, Livius Andronicus, at Rome in 240 BC. Livius translated Greek New Comedy for Roman audiences, using meters that were basically those of Greek drama, modified to the needs of Latin. His successors Plautus ( 254 – 184 BC) and Terence ( 195/185 – 159? BC) further refined the borrowings from the Greek stage and the prosody of their verse is substantially the same as for classical Latin verse. Ennius (239 – 169 BC), virtually a contemporary of Livius, introduced the traditional meter of Greek epic, the dactylic hexameter, into Latin literature; he substituted it for the jerky Saturnian meter in which Livius had been composing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornelius Nepos
Cornelius Nepos (; c. 110 BC – c. 25 BC) was a Roman Empire, Roman biographer. He was born at Hostilia, a village in Cisalpine Gaul not far from Verona. Biography Nepos's Cisalpine birth is attested by Ausonius, and Pliny the Elder calls him ''Padi accola'' ("a dweller on the River Po (river), Po", ''Naturalis historia'' III.127). He was a friend of Catullus, who dedicates his poems to him (I.3), Cicero and Titus Pomponius Atticus. Eusebius places him in the fourth year of the reign of Augustus, which is supposed to be when he began to attract critical acclaim by his writing. Pliny the Elder notes he died in the reign of Augustus (''Natural History'' IX.39, X.23). Works ''De viris illustribus'' Nepos's ''De viris illustribus'' consisted of parallel lives of distinguished Romans and foreigners, in sixteen books. It originally included "descriptions of foreign and Roman kings, generals, lawyers, orators, poets, historians, and philosophers". However, the sole surviving book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Garda
Lake Garda (, , or , ; ; ) is the largest lake in Italy. It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, between Brescia and Milan to the west, and Verona and Venice to the east. The lake cuts into the edge of the Eastern Alps, Italian Alps, particularly the Alpine List of mountain groups in the Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps, sub-ranges of the Garda Mountains and the Brenta group, Brenta Group. Glaciers formed this alpine region at the end of the Last Glacial Period, last ice age. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the provinces of Province of Brescia, Brescia (to the south-west), Province of Verona, Verona (south-east) and Trentino (north). Etymology In Roman times the lake was known as ''Benacus'' and by some it was revered as god Benacus, the personification of the lake, sometimes associated with the cult of Neptune (mythology), Neptune. Today it is better known as Lake Garda, a toponym of Germanic origin attested since the Middle Ages and de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
