v. 5. _Seni recocto_. Horace applies this epithet to one who has served the
office of _quinquevir_, or proconsul's notary, and who was therefore master
of all the arts of chicanery. These are his words, Sat. v. lib. 2:
_Plerumque recoctus_
_Scriba ex quinqueviro corvum deludit hiantem._
A seasoned scrivener, bred in office low,
Full often dupes and mocks the gaping crow. FRANCIS.
The modern Italians say of a man of this stamp, _Egli ha cotto il culo ne'
ceci rossi_. The phrase _seni recocto_ may imply one who enjoys a green and
vigorous old age, as if made young again, as the old woman was by wine, of
whom Petronius speaks, _Anus recocta vino_; or Æson, who was re-cooked by
Medaea. That witch, says Valerius Flaccus, _Recoquit fessos aetate
parentes_.
C. lvi. v. 6. _Trusantem_. Many read _crissantem_, which means the movement
of the loins in women; _ceventem_ being the like of a man. As the
expression refers to the lad, _crissantem_ cannot be correct.
v. 7. _Pro telo_. Alluding to the custom of punishing adulterers by
transfixing them with darts. The double-entendre of _Telo_ with _Mentula_
is evident, and makes clear the apology to Venus. See _lib._ 9 of Apuleius
for a similar passage.
C. lvii. v. 7. _Erudituli_. The accomplishments alluded to are not
literary, but Priapeian. It is in this sense Petronius calls Gito
_doctissimus puer_. Oezema, a grave German jurist, parodied a part of this
piece. His epigram can be read without danger of having one's stomach
turned.
Belle convenit inter elegantes
Dione's famulas, et eruditos
Antiquae Themidis meos sodales.
Nos jus justitiamque profitemur:
Illae semper amant coluntque rectum.
"There is a charming coincidence of sentiment between the fair votaries of
Venus and my learned brethren: we profess law and justice; they dearly love
the thing that is upright."
C. lviii. v. 1. _Caeli_. This is the same with Caelius Rufus, Catullus's
rival in the affections of Lesbia, or Clodia, according to Achilles
Statius; Plutarch calls her Quadrantaria; she was debauched by her own
brother, Publius Clodius; afterwards she became the mistress of Catullus,
and lastly the common strumpet of Rome.
v. 4. The meanest trulls frequented the public streets.
v. 5. _Glubit_. _Glubo_ = to husk (corn), hence it is tropically used to
denote masturbation. Cf. Ausonius, epigram 71.
C. lviiii. v. 1. _Fellat_. This refers to the complacent use by the female
of her lips in the act of connection.
v. 3. The half-starved women of pleasure attended at funerals in the hope
of picking up parts of the viands which were laid on the pile and burnt
with the body.
C. lxi. v. 22. _Myrtus Asia_. The Asia of Catullus was that marshy tract of
land near Mount Tmolus and the River Caystrus. Cf. Homer (_Il._ ii. 461)
for the "Ancient Meadow." It was said to be as famous for its myrtles as
for its cranes. Proper "Asia Minor" is the title first used by Oratius
(Orazius?) (1. 2.) in the IVth century. See the "Life and Works of St.
Paul," by Dr. Farrar (i. 465).--_R. F. B._
v. 54. _Timens_. Many more obscenely write _tumens_, thus changing the
"fear-full" bridegroom into the "swollen" bridegroom.
v. 123. It was usual for the mirthful friends of the newly married couple
to sing obscene songs called _Fescennine_, which were tolerated on this
occasion.
v. 124. _Nec nuces pueris_. This custom of throwing nuts, such as walnuts
or almonds, is of Athenian origin; some say it was meant to divert the
attention from the raptures of the bride and bridegroom, when in bed, by
the noise they, and the scrambling boys, made on the floor. For _nuces_,
referring to the use of boys, see Verg. Eclogue 8.
v. 125. _Concubinus_. By the shamelessness of this passage, it would seem
to be quite a usual thing amongst the youthful Roman aristocracy to possess
a bedfellow of their own sex.
v. 137. "This coarse imitation of the Fescennine poems," says Dunlop
(History of Roman Literature), "leaves on our minds a stronger impression
of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices than any other passage in the
Latin classics. Martial, and Catullus himself elsewhere, have branded their
enemies; and Juvenal, in bursts of satiric indignation, has reproached his
countrymen with the blackest crimes. But here, in a complimentary poem to a
patron and intimate friend, these are jocularly alluded to as the venial
indulgence of his earliest youth."
C. lxii. v. 39, _et seq._ Thus exquisitely rendered by Spenser, Faery
Queen, b. ii. c. 12:
The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay:
"Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see,
In springing flowre the image of thy day!
Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she
Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestie,
That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may!
Lo see soone after how more bold and free
Her bared bosome she doth broad display;
Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away!
"So passeth, in the passing of a day,
Of mortal life the leafe, the bud, the flowre;
Ne more doth flourish after first decay,
That erst was sought to deck both bed and bowre
Of many a lady, and many a paramoure!
Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime,
For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre;
Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time,
Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime."
C. lxiii. v. 23. Women devoted to the service of Bacchus or of Cybele; for
many things were common to the rights of both deities. The name is derived
from [Greek: mainesthai], to rave.
v. 28. _Thiasus_ is properly a chorus of sacred singers and dancers, living
in a community, like a college of dervishes, who, indeed, are an exact
counterpart of the Galli as regards their howling and dancing ritual, but
have the advantage of their predecessors in one important particular,
_i.e._, they are not castrated.
C. lxiiii. v. 65. The strophium was a band which confined the breasts and
restrained the exuberance of their growth. Martial apostrophizes it thus:
Fascia, crescentes dominae compesce papillas,
Ut sit quod capiat nostra tegatque manus.
"Confine the growth of my fair one's breasts, that they may be just large
enough for my hand to enclose them."
v. 377. _Circumdare filo_. That is, may you to-morrow prove that you are no
longer a virgin; for the ancients had an idea that the neck swelled after
venery; perhaps from the supposed descent of the procreative fluid which
they thought lodged in the brain. See Hippocrates and Aristotle upon this
subject. The swelling of the bride's neck was therefore ascertained by
measurement with a thread on the morning after the nuptials, and was held
to be sufficient proof of their happy consummation. The ancients, says
Pezay, had faith in another equally absurd test of virginity. They measured
the circumference of the neck with a thread. Then the girl under trial took
the two ends of the magic thread in her teeth, and if it was found to be so
long that its bight could be passed over her head, it was clear she was not
a maid. By this rule all the thin girls might pass for vestals, and all the
plump ones for the reverse.
v. 403. Semiramis is said to have done thus by her son Ninus.
C. lxv. v. 19. The gift of an apple had a very tender meaning; according to
Vossius it was _quasi pignus concubitus_, that is to say, it was the climax
To all those token flowers that tell
What words can never speak so well.
In one of the love epistles of Aristaenetus, Phalaris complains to her
friend Petala, how her younger sister, who had accompanied her to dine with
Pamphilus, her lover, attempted to seduce him, and among other wanton
tricks did as follows: "Pamphilus, biting off a piece of an apple, chucked
it dexterously into her bosom; she took it, kissed it, and thrusting it
under her sash, hid it between her breasts." Cf. note to C. ii. v. 12,
_ante._
C. lxvii. v. 21. _Languidior_. This expression, here obscenely applied, is
proverbial, from the flagging of the leaves of the beet; hence the Latin
word _batizare_, to droop, used by Suetonius, _in Augusto_. See Pliny on
this plant, Cap. xiii. _lib._ 9.
v. 28. _Zonam Solvere_. See the note to C. ii. v. 13.
v. 30. _Minxerit in gremium_. Horace uses the word _mingere_ in the same
sense:
_Dicitur ut formae melioris meïat eodem_.
Hor. Sat. vii. _lib._ 2.
and in like manner Persius
_Patriciae immeïat vulvae._
Pliny more than once uses the word _urina pro semine_.
C. lxviiii. v. 6. _Sub alarum_. Many would join these two words and form
one, which, however, is not authorised by any ancient writer. The
Spaniards, it is true, say _sobaco_, the armpit, but this does not justify
a new Latin coinage of any similar word. The smell alluded to in this line
has often been compared to that of a goat; it is called _capram_, _caprum_,
and _hircam_. Thus Horace, Epod. 12,
_Namque sagacius unus odoror_
_Polypus an gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in alis._
This tetterous complaint is peculiar to warm countries; we know scarcely
anything of it in our northern climate.
C. lxxiiii. v. 6. The reader will easily guess that one reason for the
uncle's inability to murmur was owing to the occupation which Gellius had
thrust on him.
C. lxxvii. v. 8. _Suavia comminxit_. This habit, which the filthy Rufus
adopts, is mentioned by Lucretius:
_Jungunt salivas_
_Oris, et inspirant pressantes dentibus ora._
Lucret. _lib._ 4.