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SOURCE: "Martial's Catullus" in Martial's Catullus, Heorg Olms Verlag, 1994, pp. 33-46.
In the following excerpt, Swann calls attention to Martial's numerous references to Catullus, especially those allusions in which the younger poet names Catullus as his chief literary model.
Gi; naming Catullus =~ Snaming Catullus
… Martial names a 'Catullus' at least twenty-five times and, though there is doubt in five cases as to which 'Catullus' Martial meant, in twenty of the cases it is clear.5 Six times the association is with Lesbia (6.34.7; 7.14.3; 8.73.8; 12.44.5, 59.3; 14.77.1); five times it is with the word passer (twice at 1.7.3-4; 1.109.1; 4.14.13; 11.6.16); and twice it is with Verona (10.103.5; 14.195.1). Three times Martial links Catullus with the epithet doctus (7.99.7; 14.100.1, 152.1), three times with Marsus (pref. 1; 2.71.3; 5.5.6), and once Martial simply compares himself to Catullus (10.78.16).6 In these passages Martial consistently treats Catullus as a Roman poet, some of whose works were more well known than others, but a poet who, as Martial indicates...
This section contains 5,755 words (approx. 20 pages at 300 words per page) |
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