Catulluss

Catulluss, commonly spelled Catullus in classical and modern scholarship, refers to Gaius Valerius Catullus, a Latin lyric poet of the late Roman Republic. Although exact biographical details are uncertain, most scholars place his birth around 84 BCE and his death around 54 BCE. He was active in Rome and the Italian peninsula, producing a small, highly personal corpus of poems.

His principal work is the Carmina, a collection of about 116 poems written in various lyric meters, especially hendecasyllables. The poems address intimate love for a woman named Lesbia (widely identified with Clodia Metelli), friendships, and a range of satirical and invective pieces directed at public figures and rival poets. The Lesbia poems are among his best known and reveal intense emotional shifts, from ardent affection to biting irony.

Catullus's verse is noted for both its emotional directness and its technical craft. He helped define the neoteric movement in Latin poetry, favoring concise expression, vivid imagery, and refined wordplay. His influence extends to later Latin poets such as Propertius, Ovid, and Horace, and his work has continued to be read for its psychological insight and stylistic innovation.

Manuscripts transmitted his work into the Renaissance, where editions formed the basis of modern Catullan scholarship. His place in Latin poetry rests on his willingness to fuse personal feeling with formal discipline, making him a central figure in the study of classical lyric.