Catullus

Catullus (Gaius Valerius Catullus),
the Roman poet, came from a distinguished propertied family of Verona but spent most of his life in Rome. The dates of his life are incorrectly transmitted in the Chronicle of Jerome but can be approximately reconstructed. He was probably born in 84 BC or a little earlier, and probably died in 54 BC: at any rate, there is no trace in his work of events subsequent to 55 BC. Since he was sent to Rome as a young man, his family were probably thinking of a political career, but he seems to have had no great ambitions in this area. His only public activity, so far as we know, was service on the staff of the propraetor Gaius Memmius, who was governor of Bithynia in 57–56 BC. In general, the political events of the turbulent decade he passed in Rome are little mentioned in his work. On one occasion his politically active friend Gaius Licinius Calvus involved him in a literary campaign against the triumvirs, especially [The entire page is 1165 words long]

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