To find out about Catullus' life and works, click here.

Lesbia is the subject of 25 of Catullus' 116 surviving poems, and these display a wide range of emotions, ranging from tender love (e.g. Poems 5 & 7), to sadness and disappointment (Poem 72), and to bitter sarcasm (Poem 8), following the often unsteady course of Catullus' relationship with her. Lesbia's rather poetic name is considered by many to be a false name for the notorious Clodia Metelli - the woman laid into by Cicero in his defence of Caelius (see the Anthology extract entitled "Clodia").
The names Lesbia and Clodia are metrically interchangeable, and so when Catullus read aloud his poem to his girlfriend he could have used her real name, Clodia, but then could have easily substituted her nickname "Lesbia" when he published them.
One can estimate that this poem was probably written sometime between 67-57 BC when Catullus was aged around 20-30.

Oracles
Oracles are often said to have predicted the future. However, this is a misconception, or indeed "trap", that the oracles themselves would no doubt have wished people to fall into - for reasons in ascending order of popularity, prestige and pecuniary offerings... that's money (kerrr-ching!). Oracles couldn't predict the future - no-one can (can they?), they only gave advice and suggestions of what may occur which, on later reflection, may have seemed like a prediction! They were notorious for their ambiguity.
The most famous instance of this comes down to us through a Delphic prediction given to Croesus, king of Lydia. In 550 BC, Croesus was preparing to invade the Persian Empire when he consulted the Oracle about his chances for victory. After sacrificing 300 head of cattle to Apollo, he had gold and silver melted down into 117 bricks, which were sent to Delphi, along with jewels, statues, and a gold bowl weighing a quarter of a ton. With these gifts, Croesus sent his question of whether he should attack Persia.
The Oracle answered that, if he crossed a river, "Croesus will destroy a great empire." Encouraged by this response, he invaded Persia, only to suffer a decisive defeat. The Persians invaded and then conquered Lydia and captured Croesus, who thereafter bitterly denounced the Oracle. He sent his iron chains to Delphi with the question, "Why did you lie to me?" The Oracle answered that the prophecy had been fulfilled: Croesus had destroyed a great empire -- his own!

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as hendecasyllables.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.

To find out about Catullus' life and works, click here.

The poem is undoubtedly addressed to - although given the content probably never recited in person to - Catullus' girlfriend "Lesbia".
For analysis on "Lesbia", see the Anthology selection above entitled HOW MANY KISSES? (Catullus, Poem 7).

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as elegiac couplets.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.

To find out about Catullus' life and works, click here.

The poem - a famous and much-praised couplet - is undoubtedly addressed to Catullus' girlfriend "Lesbia".
For analysis on "Lesbia", see the Anthology selection above entitled HOW MANY KISSES? (Catullus, Poem 7).

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as elegiac couplets.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.

To find out about Martial's life and works, click here.

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as elegiac couplets.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.

Since the Anthology selection is just the beginning of a longer poem, you'll have to read the remainder (via the links below) to discover if Ovid gets his girl!

To find out about Ovid's life and works, click here.

Ovid's Amores ("Loves") was his first major work begun c.25 BC; only his revised 2nd edition survives, comprising 50 poems, divided into three books. The elegies (poems written in elegiac couplets) follow the ups and downs of the poet in love, the girl of his desires - although not named in this poem - is Corinna.
As you'll see in this extract, the poet-in-love (which we shouldn't necessarily regard as Ovid himself) is a slick talker with a great range of chat-up lines! And this is exactly what was original about the Amores: previous love elegies had shown the poet-in-love as a clumsy, shy, not-very-good-with-girls type of guy. Ovid's poet-in-love is a skilled operator in the field of "lurve".

It's a day at the incredibly popular races for our poet, and although not explicitly stated, it's the Circus Maximus he's off to.

CHARIOT-RACING & THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS.
Click the above link and scroll down for chariot-loads of images & info.

So, who's the girl?
In this delightful and vivid poem, the object of the poet's affections remains a mystery. Initially, she seems to be by herself, but she's neither a prostitute nor an easy-pick-up of low-morals - the poet's social respect for her indicates this. Neither would any respectable girl be at the races unchaperoned, nor would any married lady be so shockingly adulterous as to take her lover to such a public place. Given Ovid's sense of mischievous fun, there are perhaps two alternatives, both of which rely on the poet never in fact speaking any of his words out-loud - he's merely fantasizing:
1. The girl is a married and accompanied by her husband - whom the poet silently mocks in line 82: "Hey you, whoever you are(!)... You may be sitting on the other side of this lady, but just watch it...don't lean on her like that!" yep - Ovid's taking the p.
2. The girl is, in fact, the poet Ovid's wife. He's in love, besotted - even at the races! All together now...ahhhhh!
This interpretation is indebted to Peter Green.

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as elegiac couplets.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.

To find out about Horace's life and works, click here.

Pyrrha - whose name means "fiery-red" - seems to Horace representative of the type of beautiful and deceptive woman who was dangerous to him in his youth, and this poem is the result of that recognition.
Note how Horace plays with contrasting sensations of light and dark, dry and wet, warmth and cold, as well as employing what first appear as two contradictory images of Pyrrha, first as flame and then as a storm out at sea. Horace's susceptibility to Pyrrha is reinforced by the use of complementary metaphors for his own experience (shipwreck) and Pyrrha's nature (beautiful but treacherous weather). In addition, in using images of moisture to describe both the boy who is perfusus liquidis ... odoribus ("drenched with liquid perfumes") in the first stanza, and the uvida ... vestimenta ("wet clothes") of Horace's own shipwreck in the last stanza, Horace links himself with the boy.
For more insights look at the following link, from which this note takes its ideas.

flavam religas comam: In classical times, a girl tying up her hair was a sexual come-on; today, in western society the opposite action is a provactive signal - i.e. shaking your hair out - preferably in slow motion!

Sailors who survived shipwreck sometimes dedicated clothes they were rescued in to Neptune and commemorated this event on a votive tablet.
The following votive tablets, while not dedicated to Neptune by sailors, are good examples of the types and sophistication of classical votive tablets...

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as Asclepiads.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.

Ovid, Metamorphoses XI, lines 415-429, 439-443

To find out about Ovid's life and works, click here.

The Anthology extract tells of Ceyx, king of Thessaly, and Alcyone his loving wife who despairs at his decison to set out on a long, dangerous sea-voyage. Alcyone's hysterical reaction can be appreciated when you realise that in classical times, a sea-voyage was a highly dangerous means of travel... a brief explanation why can be found on the following link:

While Alcyone's and Ceyx's love for each other is touching, the real tragedy of the story (and the requisite "metamorphosis" that allows Ovid to include the story in his poem) lies in the continuation of the tale after the Anthology extract - you can read the full version in the following link:

In summary, Ceyx's ship is shipwrecked and, tragically, he is drowned. Alcyone dreams her husband's death and on waking rushes to the seashore and finds his body borne in on the tide. Distraught, she is pitied by the gods and transformed into a halcyon (an ancient play on the name Alcyone and hals the Greek for "sea") - a bird known today as the kingfisher. The gods also resurrect Ceyx, and turn him into a kingfisher too. Alcyone and Ceyx, as two kingfishers, fly together eternally.

The phrase "halcyon days" - meaning a happy and carefree time - derives from Alcyone's name and refers to the ancient belief that for seven or fourteen days each December, around the winter solstice, the seas became calm to help halcyons lay their eggs in their floating nests

Roman beliefs on kingfishers
Pliny the Elder in his Natural History Book 10, 47, writes a rather contorted description of halcyons or kingfishers. You can read the full version below, but a summary would be: "Kingfishers, slightly larger than a sparrow and azure-blue in colour, with a long, slender beak. They are rarely seen except at the setting of the Pleiads and around midsummer and midwinter. The time at which they breed is called the "halcyon days"; at this time the sea is calm and navigable, particularly so around the island of Sicily. The build their nests seven days before the shortest day, and lay their eggs seven days after it".

Pliny - reflecting other Greek and Roman beliefs, as evidenced in the myth of Alcyone and Ceyx - apparently mixes up the characteristics of the Common Kingfisher with another distinct type of kingfisher, the Pied Kingfisher.

Alcyone & Ceyx: alternative version
A slightly later, alternative account of the tragic couple appears in the collection of myths called the Bibliotheca by "Apollodorus":
Alcyone was married to Ceyx, son of Lucifer. They perished by reason of their pride; for he said that his wife was Hera, and she said that her husband was Zeus. But Zeus turned them into birds: her he made a kingfisher (alcyon) and him a gannet (ceyx). [Bibliotheca 1.7.4]

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as dactylic hexameters.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.

Up to 57 fragments of Latin prose and poetry have been attributed to Petronius, the author of the satirical novel The Satyricon. There is no standard numbering sequence to the fragments but, for reference, the fragment selected for the Cambridge Latin Anthology is numbered LIII (53) in the widely-available Peguin translation.

To find out about Petronius' life and works, click here.

English Translation by H.E.Butler, 1909
I lay on my bed and began to enjoy the silence of the night scarce yet begun, and was yielding my wearied eyes to sleep, when fierce Love laid hold of me, and, seizing me by the hair, aroused me, tore me, and bade me wake. 'Canst thou, my servant,' he cried, 'the lover of a thousand girls, lie thus alone, alone, hard-hearted?' I leapt from my couch, and barefoot, with dishevelled robe, started on my errand, yet never accomplished it. Now I hurry forward, now am loth to go; now repent me that I have returned, and feel shame to stand thus aimless in mid-street. So the voices of men, the murmur of the streets, the song of birds, and the trusty watchdogs all are silent; and I alone dread the slumbers of my couch and follow thy behest, great god of love.

"If this is not great poetry, it is at least one of the most perfect specimens of conventional erotic verse in all ancient literature. If we except a very few of the best poems of Propertius, Latin Elegiacs have nothing to show that combines such perfection of form with such exquisite sensuous charm. It breathes the fragrance of the Greek Anthology.
Quoted from H.E.Butler, Post-Augustan Poetry (1909).

This poem is written in a poetic form or "meter" known as elegiac couplets.
Find out more in the section LATIN POETRY: Meters, Rhythms & Scansion on the Verse Authors page.