circulate from friend to friend. Here is what Catullus writes in an epigram
in the form of letter addressed to his friend Calvus about a book of poems
which Calvus’s client, the poet Sulla, had given him, and which Calvus
in turn had given Catullus (14):
Ni te plus oculis meis amarem,
iucundissime Calue, munere isto
odissem te odio Vatiniano:
nam quid feci ego quidue sum locutus,
cur me tot male perderes poetis?
isti di mala multa dent clienti,
qui tantum tibi misit impiorum.
quod si, ut suspicor, hoc nouum ac repertum
munus dat tibi Sulla litterator,
non est mi male, sed bene ac beate,
quod non dispereunt tui labores.
di magni, horribilem et sacrum libellum!
quem tu scilicet ad tuum Catullum
misti, continuo ut die periret,
Saturnalibus, optimo dierum!
non non hoc tibi, false, sic abibit.
nam si luxerit ad librariorum
curram scrinia, Caesios, Aquinos,
Suffenum, omnia colligam uenena.
ac te his suppliciis remunerabor.(If I didn’t love you more than my eyes,
Calvus, you very funny fellow, because of this gift
I would hate you as much as Vatinius does.
What have I said or done
that you should kill me with so many poets?
May the gods give many curses to the client
who sent you so many abominations!
If, as I suspect, the critic Sulla gave you
this newly discovered gift,
then I’m not sad but happy and delighted
that you’ve not wasted your efforts.
Dear gods! What a horrible and monstrous book!
Which you, of course, had to send to your friend, Catullus,
so that he die immediately on that day,
the Saturnalia, the best of all days.
No, no, you won’t get away with it!
The moment it’s dawn, I’ll run
to the shelves of the bookshops for the likes of Caesius, Aquinus,
even Suffenus! I’ll collect all the poison
and pay you back for this torture.)The book (libellus)wasgivenasagift(munus) during the Saturnalia by his
client,Sulla,toCalvus,whohaddefendedhiminalawsuit,whosendsit(misti)
150 Books and Texts