Catullus: A Poet in the Rome of Julius Caesar

Aubrey Burl

ISBN 10: 0786714727 / ISBN 13: 9780786714728

Published by Basic Books (edition First Edition), 2004

About this Item

With dust jacket. It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting.

Seller Inventory # 0786714727-11-1-29

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Catullus: A Poet in the Rome of Julius Caesar
• Publisher: Basic Books (edition First Edition)
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786714727
• ISBN 13: 9780786714728
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

Surveying the times in which the extraordinarily popular poet Catullus thrived—ca. 84–54 B.C., the golden days of the Roman Republic—Aubrey Burl reconstructs the life of a man who epitomized an era. Catullus demonstrated a genius for the epigram, as well as the lyric, for heartfelt love songs and moving elegies. Nor did Catullus leave himself out of his pungent, spare, ironic, and superbly crafted verses, reflecting not only his personal temperament but also his perceived values, and often disparages, in a Rome increasingly beset by civil war, moral laxity, and social unrest. This book takes Catullus from his native Verona, where he grew up in wealth and influence, to Rome and to fame. A well-liked, sociable man, he entertained his friends in the lavish fashion of his day while he amused and shocked his public with urbane poetic trifles. He intrigued his public with love poems addressed to Lesbia—in reality, a married woman named Clodia—with whom he had a tempestuous affair. Though brilliant by any standard, these intimate lyrics would not save Catullus from centuries of obscurity, although they would eventually emerge in a lone third generation copy of a book in the fourteenth century, in his hometown of Verona.

About the Author

Aubrey Burl has published books on prehistoric stone circles, a history of the Albigensian Crusade, and two biographies, one of an eighteenth-century pirate, Bartholomew Roberts, and another about the medieval French poet, Francois Villon. Married, he lives in Birmingham surrounded by books.