18 ( GAI VALERI CATVLLI LIBER expecta aut mihi linteum remitte ; quod me non movet aestimatione, \_verumst mnemosynum mei sodalis. nam sudaria Saetaba ex Hiberis? iniserunt mihi muneri Fabullus et Veranius: haec amem necessest ut Veraniolum meum et Fabullum. XIII Cenanis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus, si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam cenam, non sine candida puella et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis. hace si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster, cenabis bene: nam tui Catulli plenus sacculus est aranearum. sed contra accipies meros amores seu quid suavius elegantiusvest : 10 nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque, quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis, totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum, XIV Ni te plus oculis meis amarem, iucundissime Calve, munere isto odissem te odio Vatiniano: nam quid feci ego quidve sum locutus, cur me tot male perderes poetis? isti di mala multa dent clienti, qui tantum tibi misit impiorum. ‘ Or ex Hibere ; exhibere codd. fe Saas Deore YucelsTHE POEMS OF CATULLUS XHI-XIV hundred hendecasyllables, or send me back my napkin—which does not concern me for what it is worth, but because it is a keepsake from my old friend; for Fabullus and Veranius sent me some Saetaban napkins as a present from Hiberia. How can I help being fond of these, as I am of my dear Veranius and Fabullus ? XII You shall have a good dinner at my house, Fabullus, in a few days, please the gods, if you bring with you a good dinner and plenty of it, not forgetting a pretty girl and wine and wit and all kinds of laughter. If, I say, you bring all this, my charming friend, you shall have a good dinner ; for the purse of your Catullus is full of cobwebs. But on the other hand you shall have from me love’s very essence, or what is sweeter or more delicious than love, if sweeter there be; for T will give you some perfume which the Venuses and Loves gave to my lady; and when you snuff its fragrance, you will pray the gods to make you, Fabullus, nothing but nose. XIV Irv I did not love you more than my own eyes, my dearest Calvus, I should hate you, as we all hate Vatinius, because of this gift of yours ; for what have I done, or what have | said, that you should bring destruction upon me with all these poets? May the gods send down all their plagues upon that client of yours who sent you such a set of sinners. But if, as 1920 | GAI VALERI CATVLLI LIBER qued si, ut suspicor, hoc novum ac repertum munus dat tibi Sulla litterator, non est mi male, sed bene ac beate, 10 quod non dispereunt tui labores. i magni, horribilem et sacrum libellum, quem tu scilicet ad tuum Catullum misti, continuo ut die periret Saturnalibus, optimo dierum ! non non hoe tibi, salse, sic abibit: nam, si luxerit, ad librariorum curram stiinia, Caesios, Aquinos, Suffenum, omnia colligam venena, ac te his suppliciis remunerabor. 20 vos hine interea valete abite illuc, unde malum pedem attulistis, aecli incommoda, pessimi poetae X1Va Siovt forte mearum ineptiarum lectores eritis manusque vestras non horrebitis admovere nobis XV Commenno tibi me ac meos amores, Aureli. veniam peto pudenter, ut, si quicquam animo tuo cupisti, quod castum expeteres et integellum, conserves puerum mihi pudice, non dico a populo: nihil veremur istos, qui in platea modo hue modo illue in re praetereunt sua occupati:THE POEMS OF CATULLUS XIVa-XV I suspect, this new and choice present is given you by Sulla the schoolmaster, then I am not vexed, but well and happy, because your labours are not lost. Great gods! what a portentous and accursed book !: And this was the book which you sent your Catullus, to kill him off at once on the very day ! of the Saturnalia, best of days. No, no, you rogue, this shall not end so for you. For let the morning only come—I will be off to the shelves of the booksellers, sweep to- gether Caesii, Aquini, Suffenus, and all such poisonous stuff, and with these penalties will I pay you back for your gift. You poets, meantime, farewell, away with you, back to that ill place whence you brought your cursed feet, you burdens of our age, you worst of poets. XIVa (a fragment) . O my readers—if there be any who will read my nonsense, and not shrink from touching me with your hands... . XV To you, Aurelius, I entrust my all, even my loved one, and I ask a favour of you, a modest favour. If you have ever with all your soul desired to keep anything pure and free from stain, then guard my darling now in safety—I don’t mean from the vulgar throng; I have no fear of such as pass to and fro our streets absorbed in their own business. ’Tis you I 1 Or (continuo adj.) “the very next day”: of. Ov. Fast. V. 734, v1. 720. Or “that very day, the Saturnalia,” &c. 21