So it is a written poem, rather than a piece for performance, which accompanies the letter to Manlius.
Lines 41-50 see a complete change of tone and approach - and new addressees - the Muses (deae).This address to the Muses signals a new beginning, possibly a new poem, and is a clear statement of intent: what follows is intended as a memorial to Allius and to his friendship. In view of the demands clearly made for convivial performance in lines 1-40, the most unusual aspect of this introduction is the reference to the poem’s status as memorial, and to a wide readership for it (41-6):
Ne fugiens saeclis obliuiscentibus aetas illius hoc caeca nocte tegat studium; sed dicam uobis, uos porro dicite multis milibus et facite haec carta loquatur anus.
Lest the passage of time and the forgetful generations cover his concern for me with the darkness of night. But I will tell you, you in turn tell many thousands and make this paper speak in its old age.
It is rare for Catullus to refer to his own poetry as widely read or as long-lasting. The only examples of references to a readership beyond the small circle of addressees are the first poem and the fragmentary 14b. Poem 1, addressed to Cornelius Nepos, merely expresses the modest-sounding wish that it should ‘‘last for more than one generation’’ - there is no mention here of thousands of readers, or many generations. 14b appears to be a fragment of a similarly modest introductory or dedicatory poem: si qui forte mearum ineptiarum/lectores eritis (‘‘if there will be any of you readers of my trifles,’’ 14b.1-2). Indeed, wide circulation and permanence are not envisaged for any poetry in the Catullan collection. The exception is Cinna’s poem Zmyrna, which will travel far as a book roll and last over several generations (95.6). In their assertion of both a long life and a readership of thousands, the opening lines of 68b are thus striking and unparalleled in the collection.15 We are used to assertions of longevity, and to the linking of poetry with built memorials, from the Augustan poets - but Catullus’ times are different, and the processes of circulation and ‘‘publication’’ not formalized in the way they became later (Kenney 1982; Starr 1987).16 It is therefore worth stressing how the reference to an audience of thousands and to a lifetime of several generations is quite an ambitious claim, and should be seen as a measure ofthe value the poet himself attaches to this poem.
The proem differentiates the Allius poem from other Catullan poems as one that is meant to be read. The unusual emphasis on circulation, and the device of asking the Muses to breathe life into the paper and make it speak, are connected to the fact that Catullus is writing from Verona - and thus removed, physically, from his usual circle of recipients. It is worth considering, too, that the only other instance of speaking paper is in another letter from Verona, c. 35, in which Catullus asks his papyrus to speak to Caecilius (uelim, Caecilio, papyre, dicas/Veronam ueniat, ‘‘I would like you, papyrus, to tell Caecilius to come to Verona’’). And so, in a way, these first lines of 68b lay the foundations for both the Augustans’ preoccupation with the permanence and wide readership of their work, and the personified letters of Ovid’s Tristia. They may also be the beginnings of the connection between writing and exile that dominates later Roman literature, and then reverberates through to modernity (Habinek 1998: 113). In writing away from Rome, and being unable to link his words to his person and his presence, Catullus becomes very aware of the difference between the spoken and the written word (Skinner 2003: xxxi). Writing in the wake of death, he may also want to remind us of the potential for poetry to overcome death - to stay perfect in the face of decay. When the poem returns to the praise of Allius at its close, it is offered as a gift which will ward off corrosion - the rust that will taint the name of Allius and his family without it: ne uestrum scabra tangat robigine nomen (‘‘lest the roughness of rust should touch your name,’’ 151). The passage of time, and the decay that comes with it, are relentless: haec atque illa dies, atque alia et alia (‘‘this day, and another, and another, and another,’’ 152) (see Skinner 2003: 31-2). There are more gifts for Allius, however: quae Themis olim/antiquis solita est munera ferre piis (‘‘those gifts which Themis once used to give to the faithful of old,’’ 153-4).
In wishing for the gifts of Themis, what Catullus bestows on Allius is nothing less than a return of the Golden Age - a reversal of that relentless passage of time, and a return to an age of divine epiphany untouched by decay and corrosion.17 Catullus will provide poetic immortality for Allius; the gods, he hopes, will do the rest.
World History
