Catullus and Julius Caesar knew one another, Suetonius tells us (Jul.73). The relationship must have been interesting, since Catullus wrote a number of poems attacking Caesar and his associate Mamurra (whom he calls “Mentula”, “the Prick”). In this mild example, Catullus has a go at four other probable members of Caesar’s circle.
Othonis caput oppido est pusillum;
Hirri rustica, semilauta crura,
subtile et leve peditum Libonis,
si non omnia; displicere vellem
tibi et Fufidio seni recocto …
irascere iterum meis iambis
immerentibus, unice imperator.
“Otho’s head is pathetically small, Hirrus has legs that are still half-covered in country mud, Libo’s fart is light and subtle, but not everything else about him; I want to offend you and that warmed-over old codger Fufidius … you are going to be angry at my iambics once again, sole Imperator (Caesar), though they don’t deserve it.”
Suetonius says that Catullus apologised to Caesar, who did not bear a grudge and invited him to dinner on the same day. If this is true, Caesar was very forgiving, as Catullus’s poems accuse him and “Mentula” of gross and shameful things including addiction to the passive role in gay sex and paedophilia with little girls. One wonders whether Suetonius’s anecdote, a hundred and fifty years on, was completely accurate; and if so, whether Caesar had seen all the poems that we have. These poems are not on PantheonPoets.com, though many other wonderful Catullus pieces are, at Latin Poetry/Latin Poets. If you want to check them out elsewhere, the main Caesar poems are 29, 57 and 93 and the ones referring to Mamurra “the Prick” are 94, 105, 114 and 115.
The text of Catullus is a bit of a mess and the little poem above is one of the most corrupted bits. More in another post about Catullus’s text and how it came to us.