Catullus and love in Rome

The decades before the assassination of Julius Caesar in 43 BC saw an explosion of creativity in Roman poetry that would change the course of western literary history. Sadly a great deal of this poetry was lost in the course of the Dark Ages, but by the miraculous preservation of a single manuscript Catullus survived and in him we have one of the brightest lights of genius from the generation of poets that immediately precede Vergil and Horace.

We possess 116 poems today, ranging from two lines to 400+, and each one is precious. Catullus was evidently some thirty years old when he died and there is considerable debate about the status of the collection, but there can be no doubt that he reflects the passions of a city that was about to undergo nothing less than a wholesale revolution from Republic to Empire. In this course we will study all that we have of Catullus closely, paying careful attention to the context of the poetry: this will include an overview of Ancient Greek poetry and earlier Roman poetry as well as the immediate social context.

Learning outcomes

1. to study the poems of Catullus closely;
2. to understand the context in which they were written;
3. to understand some terms of literary analysis.