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Among the many accolades that critics bestow on Catullus, one is often absent: metrical revolutionary. This is strange, for we know of no other Roman poet who combined so many poetic forms across so many genres for so many purposes. In what, by other standards, was a brief poetic career – perhaps not even a decade long – we find no fewer than fourteen different metrical forms, two of which may well have been his own innovation. And far from this being an incoherent medley of disparate metres for variety’s sake, it emerges as a coherent and inventive collection curated by a masterful hand. The purpose of this chapter is to survey the range of Catullus’ deployment of metrical forms and to demonstrate the nuanced flair of his practice.
This opening chapter surveys the broad range of critical responses to the difficulties presented by DRN 1.44–9 (on the immortality and tranquility of the gods) from Renaissance accounts to the most recent discussions of the problem. The status of the passage as a locus nondum sanatus and its high-profile appearance in the poem’s proem render these verses the most difficult passage for the Lucretian editor. The present discussion weighs complex theories about the verses’ purpose against text-critical theories about the work’s composition and transmission.