[sect. 8]
Later years. Relations with Caesar.
[37]
37. But even Sirmio could not long detain him from his loved Rome.
His reappearance among his old friends is marked by a single poem
(c. 10), whose gay and charming humor shows
that even the vicinity of Lesbia had lost its power constantly to
embitter his thoughts. And to the passion for Lesbia now appears to
have succeeded that for a boy, Juventius, with the charms of whose
company Catullus perhaps attempted to drive out the thoughts of his
former love. How the intimacy began we cannot tell. The Juventian
gens sprang from Tusculum, but inscriptions
(C. I. L. vol. V. passim) show that people of
that name also lived in the neighborhood of Verona. It may be,
therefore, that the boy came to Rome under the guardianship of
Catullus, as perhaps Catullus, years before, under that of Nepos But
nothing further is known of him beyond what may be inferred from the
poems of Catullus that concern him (cf. introductory
note to c. 15). His history is interwoven with that of a pair
of friends, Aurelius and Furius, both at first friends of Catullus, to
the former of whom the poet at one time was led to entrust temporarily
the care of his ward (c. 15). The result
might have been anticipated. Juventius learned to prefer them to
Catullus, and in consequence Catullus vented his wrath upon them in a
group of bitter poems (cc. 16,
21, 23,
26), though for Juventius he had only sorrowful
remonstrance (cc. 24, 81).
[38]
38. Yet all this experience appears to have touched him in no wise
deeply. It was but a passing diversion, and his jealousy not the
bitter passion felt against his rivals with Lesbia. With far more
earnestness did he throw himself into the political quarrel of his
time. The year of his return from Bithynia (56
B.C.) had witnessed the so-called renewal of the triumvirate at
Luca, and Caesar appeared to have won everything. In accordance with
the agreement made at the Luca conference, Pompey and Crassus were
consuls a second time for the year 55, and the
senatorial party was at its wits' end. Catullus was apparently not an
active political worker, but he did not hesitate to join his political
friends in personal attacks upon the foe. Perhaps his earlier shafts
were those aimed against Mamurra (cf.
73), Caesar's notorious favorite (cc. 29,
41, 43,
57), whom Catullus
sometimes celebrates under the nickname of Mentula
(cc. 94, 105,
114, 115), and these
opened the way for the direct attack upon Caesar himself (cc. 54, 93). But
whatever the order of attack, that Caesar was piqued by it we know
from Suetonius (Iul. 73). That he made
a successful effort to win over Catullus, as he did Calvus, we are
also assured from the same source. Caesar understood better than most
Romans that political power in that city and that day must rest
largely upon personal popularity, and he was not above exerting
himself to win the good will of individuals of high or low degree. And
aside from the fascination due to his great political and military
success, he had personal traits that gave him a power over young men.
It was the mysterious influence of a natural leader of men; and in
many more than these two instances the number of his friends was
recruited from the ranks of the younger of his fiercest foes. There
was another element also that must have tended to promote the
reconciliation between Caesar and Catullus. The father of Catullus
was resident at Verona within the limits of Caesar's Cisalpine
province. He may not have taken an active part in politics, but at any
rate he was a personal friend of Caesar, and often his host (Suet. l.c.). This intimacy may well have led
him to see clearly what the result of the approaching struggle for
supremacy in Rome was likely to be, and to desire the more eagerly to
see his son arrayed for Caesar and not against him.
[39]
39. At all events, the reconciliation was brought about, and the
lively pen of Catullus ceased to lampoon the great commander. Some
have thought, however, that Mamurra was not included in the peace, and
that the utmost Caesar could effect in his favorite's behalf was that
his personality should be thereafter thinly veiled under the pseudonym
Mentula.
[40]
40. But Caesar was not to profit greatly from his new ally. Up to
the end of the year 55 B.C. Catullus displays
only hostility to Caesar and the Caesarians. The reconciliation
apparently took place at the house of the father of Catullus at Verona
during the winter visit of the governor to the nearer province in the
early part of the year 54
(Caes. B. G. 5.1). The only poem that shows the change of
feeling toward Caesar is c. 11, and this is connected
with another marked incident in the life of the poet.
[41]
41. Catullus was now the friend of Caesar. The great commander was
entertained at his father's house, and perhaps even there was making
his plans for future campaigns. The fortunes of the poet were
rising. What might he not hope for from his great patron, and why
should others not share in his success? Furius and Aurelius, scorned
by him since their faithlessness in the matter of Juventius, were
eager to crawl back into his favor. And they fancied they could bring
him a message that would be joyfully greeted, and would secure them
the favorable reception they sought for their own advances: Lesbia was
willing to recall her recalcitrant lover. She had once before been
successful when making the first advances herself (cf.
19). Why should she fear defeat now? But both she and her
ill-chosen emissaries were speedily undeceived. The broken chain of
the old love could never be welded again. Catullus had won by absence,
by self-discipline, and most of all, perhaps, by real knowledge of
facts in the case, the freedom from his passion for which he had
prayed (c. 76). He could once more believe in the
friendship of Caelius Rufus, and to him acknowledge, with pain,
indeed, but no longer with unavailing torture his true view of
Lesbia's character (c. 58). And these proffers now made
to him through, and by, Furius and Aurelius were definitely and
disdainfully rejected (c. 11), -with a manly, not a
petulant disdain, for Catullus could not even then forget that he had
loved Lesbia.
[42]
42. This manly utterance was almost the last of the poet's life. A
few scattered verses there may have been, closing perhaps with the
touching appeal written from Verona (cf.
56) to his brother-poet, Cornificius, for a word of consolation,
but that was all; and sometime in the year 54
B.C., in his beloved Rome, so says the chronicler, the swiftly
burning candle of his life burned itself out.
[43]
43. With him died the clearest, if not the richest, poet-voice
ever lifted in Rome. He lacked the lofty grandeur of Lucretius, the
polished stateliness of Vergil, the broad sympathies of Horace. For
on the one hand, he was no recluse to be filled with heavenly visions,
and on the other, his personality was too intense to allow him to
cultivate a tolerant spirit. He delighted in life with a vigorous
animal passion. Not without charm to him was nature in her sylvan
aspect (cf. e.g. 34.9
ff.) yet his highest enjoyment was in the life of men. And this
life he did not study, as did Horace, from the standpoint of a
philosopher. Indeed, he did not study it at all, but simply felt it.
For he was not outside of it, but a part of it to the fullest degree,
swayed by its ever-changing emotions. Such a nature must of necessity
ever remain in many essential aspects the nature of a child. And such
was the nature of Catullus throughout his brief life,--warm in quick
affections, hot in swift hatreds, pulsing with most active red blood.