_Lambebat medios improba lingua viros_.
v. 8. _Ilia, et emulso_. Lucretius uses the word _mulgere_ in the same
sense in lib. 4.
C. lxxxiiii. v. 2. The first notice in the classics of our far-famed 'Arry,
whose female is 'Arriet.--_R. F. B._
C. lxxxviiii. v. 1. The good condition and number of the relations of
Gellius are assigned as the causes of his macilency, Gellius being an
adulterer of the most infamous kind. Thus Propertius, on the amorous
disposition peculiar to those of a spare make,
What tho' my slender shape enervate seem,
Think not that vigour flies my meagre frame;
At Venus' rites I ne'er was known to fail,
Th' experienc'd fair can this dear truth reveal.
Proper., _Eleg._ 22. _lib._ 2.
C. lxxxx. v. 6. _Omentum_. The sages used to draw omens from the entrails
of sacrificed beasts as they were burning; but more particularly from the
_omentum_, or _caul_, that apron of fat which covers the abdominal viscera.
C. lxxxxiiii. v. 1. There is a double meaning in the original, and the
translator can give but half of it. _Mentula_, synonymous with _penis_, is
a nickname applied by Catullus to Mamurra, of whom he says (cxv.) that he
is not a man, but a great thundering _mentula_. Mahérault has happily
rendered the meaning of the epigram in French, in which language there is
an equivalent for Mentula, that is to say, a man's name which is also a
popular synonym for what characterizes the god Priapus. "Jean Chouard
fornique; eh! sans doute, c'est bien Jean Chouard. C'est ainsi qu'on peut
dire que c'est la marmite qui cueille les choux." Achilles Statius
interprets this _distich_ thus, "It is the flesh that is guilty, and not I
who am guilty; so is it the pot that robs the garden, and not the thief
that robs the pot-herbs."
v. 2. _Ipsa olera olla legat_. This may have been a cant proverb of the day
containing a meaning which is now unknown to us. Parthenius interprets it
"A libidinous man is apt in adultery, as a vessel is suited to hold its
contents."
C. lxxxxvii. v. 1. There is in the Greek Anthology a similar epigram by
Nicarchus, which has thus been translated by Grotius:
Non culo, Theodore, minus tibi foetida bucca est
Noscera discrimen sit sapientis opus.
Scribere debueras hîc podex est meus, hic os;
Nunc tu cum pedas atque loquare simul,
Discere non valeo, quid venerit inde vel inde;
Vipera namque infra sibilat atque supra.
v. 7. Few are ignorant of what Scaliger here gravely tells us: _fessi muli
strigare solent, ut meiant_. Vossius reads _defissus_, in a different
sense.
C. lxxxxviiii. This poem shews beyond contradiction that Catullus himself
was not free from the vice of paederasty, so universal amongst the Roman
youth.
v. 10. _Lupae_. The infamous, fetid harlot is called _lupa_ (a she-wolf)
from the ravenousness of the wolf answering to the rapacious disposition of
the generality of courtezans: but Servius, _Aen._ 3, assigns a much more
improper and filthy reason.
C. c. v. 1. Again the Roman paederasty shews itself in Caelius's affection
for Aufilenus.
C. ciii. It appears that Catullus had given a sum of money to the pander
Silo to procure him a mistress. He did not perform his engagement, but kept
the money, and abused our sinning bard when he reproached him with the
cheat.
C. cv. There are not wanting commentators who give a very obscene turn to
this epigram against Mamurra.