Caius Valerius Catullus

Caius Valerius Catullus

The great Latin lyric poet, born at Verona, a man of wealth and good standing, being, it would seem, of the equestrian order; associated with the best wits in Rome; fell in love with Clodia, a patrician lady, who was the inspiration, both in peace and war, of many of his effusions, and whom he addresses as Lesbia; the death of a brother affected him deeply, and was the occasion of the production of one of the most pathetic elegies ever penned; in the civic strife of the time he sided with the senate, and opposed Cæsar to the length of directing against him a coarse lampoon (84-54 B.C.).