Catullus and Horace are traditionally read together in sequence as the two major practitioners of Latin lyric poetry. For most first-time readers who encounter them in this fashion, it could be said that Catullus appeals primarily to the heart, while Horace appeals more to the mind. Catullus certainly feels more passionate, accessible, and immediate, speaking directly as he does to universal human emotions such as love, hatred, jealousy, and grief. Students frequently fall in love with Catullus for precisely this reason, although some will choose to resist what they regard as his overwrought representations of turbulent but essentially ephemeral bursts of feeling. Only later do both groups begin to appreciate the tightly controlled poetic craft that Catullus uses to produce these seemingly spontaneous expressions of his inner state of mind. Horace, by contrast, strikes his readers as more overtly literary from the start. After some initial struggles with his complicated stanzas and learned allusions, most will eventually become attuned to the sounds, images, and structures of his polished, smoothly flowing verse. Some grow to admire Horace for his subtlety, while others continue to view his poems as being rather too careful and cerebral to be particularly endearing (see, e. g., comments in Shorey 1960; cf. Fraenkel 1957). In either case, students of Horace tend to engage with him on a largely intellectual level, as they explore his skillful poetic treatments of topics in politics, society, moral philosophy, and the classical literary tradition.
As a result, it is not unheard of for beginning readers of Catullus and Horace to champion one or the other fiercely, as if they were being forced to choose between two diametric opposites: some will embrace Catullus for his passionate expression of raw human feeling; others will declare their preference for Horace’s cool and elegantly composed lines. Needless to say, the vigilant instructor must stand ready to correct any such false dichotomy by reminding students that Catullus and Horace both deploy virtuosic craftsmanship in the service of intricate and self-conscious poetic expression, and that their many clear differences in style and tone should not be mistaken for some fundamental dissimilarity. Both men, of course, operated in a
Wide and disparate array of genres and forms (Catullus in lyric, iambic, epigram, love elegy, and the epyllion or ‘‘miniature epic,’’ Horace in lyric, iambic, satire, and epistolary verse), so that to consider them solely in terms of their lyric output is to pass over some of their finest compositions and obscure their full artistic versatility and range. As such, it is helpful to approach Catullus and Horace in tandem with an eye to the totality of their poetic corpuses, as a way of discerning more clearly the underlying patterns of their literary interaction with each other. Indeed, many significant connections of genre, language, and theme can be traced between and across their works, underscoring the extent to which Horace should be recognized as having engaged with Catullan literary models throughout his career in a trans-generational poetic dialogue that is noteworthy for its exceptional complexity, richness, and depth.
World History
