Tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
  Ait phaselus:  ultima ex origine
  Tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine,
  Tuo imbuisse palmulas in aequore,
  Et inde tot per inpotentia freta
  Erum tulisse, laeva sive dextera
  Vocaret aura, sive utrumque Iuppiter
  Simul secundus incidisset in pedem;
  Neque ulla vota litoralibus deis
  Sibi esse facta, cum veniret a mari
  Novissimo hunc ad usque limpidum lacum. 
  Sed haec prius fuere; nunc recondita
  Senet quiete seque dedicat tibi,
  Gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.

Vergil’s parody,[4] which substitutes the mule-team plodding through the Gallic mire for Catullus’ graceful yacht speeding home from Asia, follows the original phraseology with amusing fidelity: 

  Sabinus ille, quem videtis, hospites
  Ait fuisse mulio celerrimus,
  Neque ullius volantis impetum cisi
  Nequisse praeterire, sive Mantuam
  Opus foret volare sive Brixiam. 
  Et hoc negat Tryphonis aemuli domum
  Negare nobilem insulamve Caeruli,
  Ubi iste post Sabinus, ante Quinctio
  Bidente dicit attodisse forcipe
  Comata colla, ne Cytorio iugo
  Premente dura volnus ederet iuba. 
  Cremona frigida et lutosa Gallia,
  Tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
  Ait Sabinus:  ultima ex origine
  Tua stetisse (dicit) in voragine,
  Tua in palude deposisse sarcinas
  Et inde tot per orbitosa milia
  Iugum tulisse, laeva sive dextera
  Strigare mula sive utrumque coeperat

* * * * *

  Neque ulla vota semitalibus deis
  Sibi esse facta praeter hoc novissimum,
  Paterna lora proximumque pectinem. 
  Sed haec prius fuere:  mine eburnea
  Sedetque sede seque dedicat tibi,
  Gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.

[Footnote 4:  See Classical Philology, 1920, p. 114.]

The other epigram referred to (Catalefton II) also attacks a creature of Antony’s, Annius Cimber, a despised rhetorician who had been helped to high political office by Antony.  Again Cicero’s Philippics (XI. 14) serve as our best guide for the background.

  Corinthiorum amator iste verborum,
  Iste iste rhetor, namque quatenus totus
  Thucydides, Britannus, Attice febris! 
  Tau Gallicum min et sphin ut male illisit,
  Ita omnia ista verba miscuit fratri.

It might be paraphrased:  “a maniac for archaic words, a rhetor indeed, he is as much and as little a Thucydides as he is a British prince, the bane of Attic style!  It was a dose of archaic words and Celtic brogue, I fancy, that he concocted for his brother.”