Catullus and Sallust: Lampooning Corruption in the Roman Republic

I. Thesis Statement

Through his invective poetry lampooning the corrupt officials of the Roman Republic, Catullus communicates his grievances with the current state of the Republic, laments the loss of pietas, the defining value of Rome, and corroborates the Sallustian theory of decline.

II. Introductory Paragraph

In the 1995 thriller Seven, directed by David Fincher, two detectives discover a series of grisly murders and soon cross paths with a serial killer who targets people he believes to represent one of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. Much like the serial killer, Catullus, a Roman poet, targets people he believes are guilty of one of the cardinal sins. But instead of forcing these people to eat until their stomachs burst or horribly disfiguring their face and then giving them the choice to call for help with a phone superglued to one hand or to kill themselves with a bottle of pills superglued to the other, Catullus attacks them through his colorful invective poetry. And instead of being driven by a misguided sense of justice and a misguided sense of divine will, Catullus is driven by anguish at the loss of virtue in his Republic and a hope for a return to it.

The authors and works selected for this research paper include Sallust and his Bellum Catilinae and Catullus and his Carmina.

Through my interpretation of the themes and the texts in this paper, I hope to contribute an alternative view of the Sallustian theory of decline, corroborated by the Catullan corpus.

III. Sallust (Bellum Catilinae)

Sub-Intro 1A:

Gaius Sallustius Crispus, commonly known as Sallust, is one of the most enduring and influential authors of antiquity and his historical writings are some of the most studied Roman works by scholars. Sallust, after retiring from a political life fraught with scandal, went to live in the Horti Sallustii, the Gardens of Sallust, a famous property once owned by Julius Caesar, and devoted the rest of his life to writing. In 43 BC, Bellum Catilinae was published, Bellum Iugurthinum was published in 41 BC, and Historiae was supposedly written in 39 BC although it only remains in fragments. This paper will focus on Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae, which chronicles the Catilinarian conspiracy, a plot by Catiline and several other aristocrats to overthrow the consulship of Cicero, and the subsequent civil war which broke out after Cicero exposed the conspiracy in front of the Senate.

In Bellum Catilinae, Sallust is primarily concerned with the moral and political decline of the Roman Republic whose turning point he attributes to the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. The destruction of the city and thereby of all of Rome’s enemies lead to the breakdown of metus hostilis, which up to that point had served to unite the Roman people against a common enemy and strive for a common interest. Having destroyed Carthage and all their enemies, the Romans now found time for luxury and wealth in their lives as there was nothing to jeopardize it. Sallust claims that their increasing greed for power and greed for wealth led to internal conflicts which ultimately gave rise to a series of bloody civil wars and thereby the end of the Roman Republic.

Sub-Intro 1B:

In the tenth chapter of the Bellum Catilinae, Sallust explains his theory of decline attributing the decline of the Republic to the spread of vices, such as avarice and ambition, which he compares to a pestilence that slowly consumes the State from the inside, until it becomes a barren husk of its former self.

Passage Translation, and Analysis

Sed ubi labore atque iustitia res publica crevit, reges magni bello domiti, nationes ferae et populi ingentes vi subacti, Carthago, aemula imperi Romani, ab stirpe interiit, cuncta maria terraeque patebant, saevire fortuna ac miscere omnia coepit. Qui labores, pericula, dubias atque asperas res facile toleraverant, iis otium divitiaeque optanda alias, oneri miseriaeque fuere. Igitur primo imperi, deinde pecuniae cupido crevit: ea quasi materies omnium malorum fuere. Namque avaritia fidem, probitatem ceterasque artis bonas subvortit; pro his superbiam, crudelitatem, deos neglegere, omnia venalia habere edocuit. Ambitio multos mortalis falsos fieri subegit, aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in lingua promptum habere, amicitias inimicitiasque non ex re, sed ex commodo aestumare magisque voltum quam ingenium bonum habere. Haec primo paulatim crescere, interdum vindicari; post, ubi contagio quasi pestilentia invasit, civitas inmutata, imperium ex iustissumo atque optumo crudele intolerandumque factum.

Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 10

Translated by John Selby Watson

A. The origins of decline according to Sallust

The role of avaritia

Sed primo magis ambitio quam avaritia animos hominum exercebat, quodtamen vitium propius virtutem erat. Nam gloriam honorem imperium bonus etignavos aeque sibi exoptant; sed ille vera via nititur, huic quia bonae artes desunt, dolis atque fallaciis contendit. Avaritia pecuniae studium habet, quam nemosapiens concupivit: ea quasi venenis malis inbuta corpus animumque virilemeffeminat, semper infinita et insatiabilis est, neque copia neque inopia minuitur.

“At first, however, it was ambition, rather than avarice, that influenced the minds of men; a vice which approaches nearer to virtue than the other. For of glory, honor, and power, the worthy is as desirous as the worthless; but the one pursues them by just methods; the other, being destitute of honorable qualities, works with fraud and deceit. But avarice has merely money for its object, which no wise man has ever immoderately desired. It is a vice which, as if imbued with deadly poison, enervates whatever is manly in body or mind. It is always unbounded and insatiable, and is abated neither by abundance nor by want.”

“[I]f we assume that animos hominum in Sallust's earlier statement on the predominance of ambitio (primo magis ambitio quam avaritia animos hominum exercebat) refers to the people who were motivated by ambitio or avaritia rather than to the people against whom they acted, then the type of predominance which Sallust has in mind as a demarcating criterion would be predominance in men's motives, not necessarily predominance in effect upon victims. Thus, a time at which avaritia had become the ruling passion in only a small percentage of the population – even though this small group, because of their great and exclusive potentia, wreaked general devastation far out of proportion to their numbers – would still fall within the subperiod when magis ambitio quam avaritia animos hominum exercebat. This, I suggest, is precisely the situation in B. J. 41, where the avaritia in 41, 9 refers back to the nobilitas which is the subject of the preceding three sentences […] In other words, though avaritia existed in the first subperiod, primarily among the nobles, nevertheless ambitio predominated in the population as a whole until the time of Sulla” (Conley 1981, 381).

The role of ambitio

Ambitio multos mortalis falsos fieri subegit, aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in lingua promptum habere, amicitias inimicitiasque non ex re, sed ex commodo aestumare magisque voltum quam ingenium bonum habere.

“Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue; to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest heart.”

“Sallust believes in multiple motives for ambitio, only one of which gave rise to the ambitio mentioned in 10. 3. Sallust's basic definition of ambitio I take to be imperi cupido. Now power may be pursued either for its own sake, or for the sake of some other goal. It is plausible that in 10. 3 Sallust is thinking not of wealth and power as independent goals but rather of the pursuit of political power (and/or positions of military command) as a means to the end of acquiring wealth […] If this hypothesis of multiple motives for ambitio is accepted, then it becomes possible to read Sallust's second statement on avaritia and ambitio as a qualification, rather than a contradiction, of his first. In 10. 3 Sallust says, in effect, that ambitio grew following the growth of avaritia (the time interval is unspecified) and as a consequence of it. Now, if ambitio had sprung only from avaritia during the period of Rome's degeneration, then ambitio, since it was merely a means to fulfilling avaritia, would have been a less important motive than avaritia throughout the entire period” (Conley 1981, 123-4).

B. Catiline’s conspiracy as a microcosm of the systemic decline of the Roman Republic

Sallust’s authority on the subject

Sed ego adulescentulus initio sicuti plerique studio ad rem publicam latus sum, ibique mihi multa advorsa fuere. nam pro pudore, pro abstinentia, pro virtute audacia largitio avaritia vigebant. Quae tametsi animus aspernabatur insolensmalarum artium, tamen inter tanta vitia imbecilla aetas ambitione corruptatenebatur; ac me, quom ab reliquorum malis moribus dissentirem, nihilo minus honoris cupido eadem qua ceteros fama atque invidia vexabat.

“I myself, however, when a young man, was at first led by inclination, like most others, to engage in political affairs; but in that pursuit many circumstances were unfavorable to me; for, instead of modesty, temperance, and integrity, there prevailed shamelessness, corruption, and rapacity. And although my mind, inexperienced in dishonest practices, detested these vices, yet, in the midst of so great corruption, my tender age was ensnared and infected by ambition; and, though I shrunk from the vicious principles of those around me, yet the same eagerness for honors, the same obloquy and jealousy, which disquieted others, disquieted myself.”

Catiline’s Conspiracy was the only event Sallust actually witnessed before writing about it and parallels can be drawn between the subject of the text and Sallust’s own life. Ironically, Sallust is very similar to Catiline based on the facts of his life (most of which have been exaggerated and may be false), such as his wealth, his expulsion from the Senate (which some attribute to his alleged affair with Milo’s wife), and his being accused of extortion. During his life, much like Catiline, he was mocked for his failure in politics and warfare, his ambition, his immorality, and his extravagance; this would seem to contradict the statements Sallust himself makes about Catiline throughout the text, calling him corrupt and criticizing him for his extravagance and it would seem that Sallust’s own life was a contradiction of his moralistic writings. Sallust explains this contradiction in the preface to the Bellum Catilinae by saying that he was young and impressionable and did not know how to resist and therefore was corrupted by ambition. Although Sallust may have been a failure politically and militarily, he certainly did better than Catiline and made better life choices. Perhaps his being so similar to Catiline is what gave him the authority to write about him, and write about him unashamedly; Sallust even makes Catiline seem dignified and admirable towards the end of the text as he is seen fighting with his men for a cause he truly believes in and believes is right.

Sempronia as a microcosm of political corruption

Sed in iis erat Sempronia, quae multa saepe virilis audaciae facinoracommiserat. Haec mulier genere atque forma, praeterea viro liberis satisfortunata fuit; litteris Graecis Latinis docta, psallere et saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae, multa alia, quae instrumenta luxuriae sunt. Sed eicariora semper omnia quam decus atque pudicitia fuit; pecuniae an famae minusparceret, haud facile discerneres; lubido sic accensa, ut saepius peteret viros quampeteretur. Sed ea saepe antehac fidem prodiderat, creditum abiuraverat, caedisconscia fuerat: luxuria atque inopia praeceps abierat. Verum ingenium eiushaud absurdum: posse versus facere, iocum movere, sermone uti vel modesto velmolli vel procaci; prorsus multae facetiae multusque lepos inerat.

“In the number of those ladies was Sempronia, a woman who had committed many crimes with the spirit of a man. In birth and beauty, in her husband and her children, she was extremely fortunate; she was skilled in Greek and Roman literature; she could sing, play, and dance, with greater elegance than became a woman of virtue, and possessed many other accomplishments that tend to excite the passions. But nothing was ever less valued by her than honor or chastity. Whether she was more prodigal of her money or her reputation, it would have been difficult to decide. Her desires were so ardent that she oftener made advances to the other sex than waited for solicitation. She had frequently, before this period, forfeited her word, forsworn debts, been privy to murder, and hurried into the utmost excesses by her extravagance and poverty. But her abilities were by no means despicable; she could compose verses, jest, and join in conversation either modest, tender, or licentious. In a word, she was distinguished by much refinement of wit, and much grace of expression.”

Sallust devotes one chapter of the Bellum Catilinae to a portrait of Sempronia, an aristocratic woman who ultimately is seduced by Catiline’s anarchical ideology and supports his conspiracy. Sempronia is a microcosm of political corruption in the late Roman Republic and Sallust’s description of her is meant to show the far-reaching corruption of the time, and how even the best can be brought down. Sallust contrasts Sempronia with another woman named Fulvia, who is a lover of one of the conspirators, but helps Cicero uncover the conspiracy by passing on information. He does this to show how the upper class, often considered to be the pillars of society, are sometimes not as virtuous as the plebs.

IV. Catullus (Carmina)

Sub-Intro 1A:

Gaius Valerius Catullus is one of the greatest poets of antiquity and despite the controversy surrounding his poems remains one of the most read of the Roman poets. Not very much is known about Catullus’ life and external information is limited, making knowledge about his life dependent on his own poems. Fortunately, one can divulge a great deal about the sort of man that he was and the sort of life that he led because most of his poems are concerned with actual moments, incidents, and personalities in his life. All 116 of his poems are preserved in three manuscripts which were copied from a lost one found in 1300. His collection of poems can be divided into three formal parts: short poems in varying meter, known as polymetra (1-60), eight longer poems (61-68), and epigrams (69-116). The polymetra and the epigrams can generally be divided into four groups: poems to and about his friends, erotic poems, invectives, and condolences. The eight longer poems include seven hymns and one epyllion, a short epic poem.

Throughout his Carmina, Catullus explores the theme of corruption and decline not only of the Roman republic and its politicians but also of love and friendship. More than two-thirds of his poems are invective poems, showing his frustration and anger at the world about him. Much like Sallust, Catullus seems to believe that corruption and the eventual decline of the Roman Republic, although he was not around to witness it, stemmed from the increasing greed for power and greed for wealth which came as a result of the end of metus hostilis.

Sub-Intro 1B:

In c. 57, Catullus lampoons Mamurra, Caesar’s military engineer, attacking his profligacy, his scandalous lifestyle, calling him “shameless and a glutton and a gambler,” as well as alleging that he had a homosexual relationship with Caesar. Through the poem, he communicates his grievances with how the Republic has fallen prey to greedy officials, such as Mamurra, and to corrupt officials who let men like Mamurra continue on without consequences.

Passage, Translation, and Analysis

Mamurrae pathicoque Caesarique.

Nec mirum: maculae pares utrisque,

urbana altera et illa Formiana,

impressae resident nec eluentur:

morbosi pariter, gemelli utrique,

uno in lecticulo erudituli ambo,

non hic quam ille magis vorax adulter,

rivales socii puellularum.

pulcre convenit improbis cinaedis.

Catullus, Carmina 57

“Beautifully it fits the shameless sodomites, Mamurra and sexually submissive Caesar. It's no wonder: they share like stains—the one from the City, the other, Formian—which stay deep-marked and they can not be washed off. Debauched twins each, both learned, both in one bed, one not more than the other the greater greedier adulterer, allied rivals of the girls. Beautifully it fits the shameless sodomites.”

Translated by Leonard C. Smithers

A. Catullus’s view on corruption and decline

Catullus’s relationship with Lesbia as a microcosm of the decline of the Roman Republic

Lesbius est pulcer. quid ni? quem Lesbia malit

quam te cum tota gente, Catulle, tua.

sed tamen hic pulcer uendat cum gente

Catullum

si tria notorum suauia reppererit.

“Lesbius is handsome. Of course, for Lesbia prefers him to you and all your clan, Catullus. But handsome is welcome to sell Catullus and his clan as slaves if he can get three kisses from those who know him.”

Catullus’ relationship with Lesbia can be seen as a microcosm of the decline of the Roman republic, in its passionate beginnings and violent ends. In his first poems about Lesbia, Catullus declares his love for her and his yearning to kiss her a “thousand kisses.” However, the relationship steadily deteriorates as he laments her infidelity, despite the relationship itself being adulterous. At one point he alleges that she prefers her brother to him, which gives further evidence that Lesbia is Clodia and Lesbius, who is Lesbia’s brother in the poem, is Clodius Metellus Pulcher. Later, in a string of abusive poems, Catullus attacks Gellius, accusing him of having incestuous affairs with his mother and sister and only later is it discovered that Gellius was Catullus’ friend with whom he had fallen out of favor for continuing to pursue Lesbia. The relationship with Lesbia ends with Catullus feeling betrayed and let down, for he truly believed her to be the love of his life.

Catullus and pietas

Si qua recordanti benefacta priora voluptas /est homini, cum se cogitat esse pium, /nec sanctam violasse fidem, nec foedere in ullo /divum ad fallendos numine abusum homines, /multa parata manent in longa aetate, Catulle, /ex hoc ingrato gaudia amore tibi. /nam quaecumque homines bene cuiquam aut dicere possunt /aut facere, haec a te dictaque factaque sunt: /omnia quae ingratae perierunt credita menti. /quare cur tu te iam amplius excrucies? /quin tu animo offirmas atque istinc teque reducis /et dis invitis desinis esse miser? /difficile est longum subito deponere amorem; /difficile est, verum hoc qua libet efficias. /una salus haec est, hoc est tibi pervincendum; /hoc facias, sive id non pote sive pote. /o di, si vestrum est misereri, aut si quibus unquam /extremam iam ipsa in morte tulistis opem, /me miserum adspicite et, si vitam puriter egi, /eripite hanc pestem perniciemque mihi! /hei mihi subrepens imos ut torpor in artus /expulit ex omni pectore laetitias. /non iam illud quaero, contra ut me diligat illa, /aut, quod non potis est, esse pudica velit: /ipse valere opto et taetrum hunc deponere morbum. /o di, reddite mi hoc pro pietate mea.

“If there is any pleasure in a man's recalling the good deeds of the past, when he knows that he is pious and has not violated any sacred trust or abused the divinity of the gods to deceive men in any pact, great store of joys awaits you during your length of years, Catullus, from this thankless love of yours. For whatever people can say or do well for someone, such have been your sayings and your doings, and all your confidences have been squandered on a thankless mind. So then why do you torture yourself further? Why don't you strengthen your resolve and lead yourself out of this and, since the gods are unwilling, stop being miserable? It is difficult suddenly to set aside a love of long standing; it is difficult, this is true, no matter how you do it. This is your one salvation, this you must fight to the finish; you must do it, whether it is possible or impossible. O gods, if it is in you to have pity, or if ever you brought help to men in death's very extremity, look on pitiful me, and if I have lived my life with purity, snatch from me this canker and pest! Ah! like a numbness creeping through my inmost veins it has cast out every happiness from my breast. Now I no longer pray that she may love me in return, or (what is not possible) that she should become chaste: I wish but for health and to cast aside this foul disease. O gods, grant me this in return for my piety.”

If Catullus’s Carmina, as a whole, had a message, it would be pietas, which can loosely be translated to devotion, duty, and pity. Catullus believed it to be the defining value of Rome and believed the violation of it to be Rome’s undoing. Catullus lived by it in his devotion to Lesbia, his brother, and his friends. However, he is not rewarded for it as Lesbia rejects him, his brother dies, and he loses friends. The fall of the Roman republic can be accredited to the loss of pietas. The loss of devotion and duty led to decades of civil strife and civil war, where no one could be trusted, where even one’s closest friends and allies could become traitors. Although Catullus frequently attacked Julius Caesar, his assassination clearly marked the end of pietas and thereby of the Roman republic.

“In the opening lines of this poem we have, if not a definition of pietas, at any rate an enumeration of some at least of the qualities which justify a man in regarding himself as pius. First and foremost he must be a man of honour, a man of his word; secondly, he must never speak of, nor act towards, others with unkindness or want of consideration. And Catullus claims for himself that he has fulfilled these two conditions […] In his LXIVth poem, when he has described the visit of the gods to the celebration of the marriage of Thetis to Peleus, he indulges in a reflection upon the contrast between the old days and the times in which he was living. Then the gods did not disdain to come to earth in person and appear amongst the worshippers on days of rejoicing and festival, but now they are seen no more. The reason, according to him, is that now spreta pietate, now that pietas has been treated with contempt, the gods no longer deign to mingle with men who have profaned, as in such numbers they have done, the laws of the family and of society […] [T]he poet enumerates in ten lines the breaches of pietas which have driven them away: the growth of injustice and greed, fratricide, the loss of respect for parents, incest: all these have repelled the justifica mens of the gods, and they think it now to be beneath them to mingle with crowds of worshippers whose pietas has departed” (Henry 1950, 65-6).

B. Catullus and the sinners

Mamurra as a contributor to the decline of the Republic

Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati, /nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo, /Mamurram habere quod comata GaIlia /habebat ante et ultima Britannia? /Cinaede Romule, haec videbis et feres? /et ille nunc superbus et superfluens /perambulabit omnium cubilia /ut albulus columbus aut Adoneus? /cinaede /Romule, haec videbis et feres? /es impudicus et vorax et aleo. /eone nomine, imperator unice, /fuisti in ultima occidentis insula, /ut ista vestra diffututa mentula /ducenties comesset aut trecenties? /quid est alid sinistra liberalitas? /parum expatravit an parum elluatus est? /paterna prima lancinata sunt bona; /secunda praeda Pontica; inde tertia /Hibera, quam scit amnis aurifer Tagus. /nunc Galliae timetur et Britanniae. /quid hunc malum fovetis? aut quid hic potest /nisi uncta devorare patrimonia? /eone nomine urbis opulentissime /socer generque, perdidistis omnia?

“Who can see this, who can stand it, save the shameless, the glutton, and gambler, that Mamurra Mentula should possess what long-haired Gaul had and remotest Britain had before? You sodomite Romulus, will you see this and bear it? Then you are shameless, a glutton and a gambler. And will he now, proud and overflowing, saunter over each one's bed, like a little white dove or an Adonis? You sodomite Romulus, will you see this and bear it? Then you are shameless, a glutton and a gambler. For such a name, Generalissimo, have you been to the furthest island of the west, that this love-weary Mentula of yours should squander twenty or thirty million? What is it but a skewed liberality? Perhaps he spent too little, or perhaps he was washed clean? First he wasted his patrimony; second the loot from Pontus; then third the loot from Spain, which even the goldbearing Tagus knows. Now he is feared by Gauls and Britain. Why do you indulge this scoundrel? What can he do but devour well-fattened inheritances? Was it for such a name, most wealthy father-in-law and son-in-law, that you have destroyed everything?”

Catullus’ indignation with Roman society is caused mainly by the laissez-faire attitude of Roman political leaders towards provincial governors like Mamurra, whose indulgence and profligacy particularly enrage Catullus as it does nothing but hurt the state. Catullus’ anger at the corrupt provincial system is an example of his belief that the loss of pietas is the downfall of society. To him the only solution is reform, which he calls for in c. 29 and which, sadly, never comes to fruition: after Catullus’ death, Rome quickly falls victim to internal strife and civil wars due to a number of causes including the assassination of Caesar. Pietas was the only thing that kept the Republic together and the loss of it, as exemplified by the corrupt provincial system, led to the rise of avaritia and thereby the death of the Republic.

Caesar as a contributor to the decline of the Republic

Mamurrae pathicoque Caesarique. /Nec mirum: maculae pares utrisque, /urbana altera et illa Formiana, /impressae resident nec eluentur: /morbosi pariter, gemelli utrique, /uno in lecticulo erudituli ambo, /non hic quam ille magis vorax adulter, /rivales socii puellularum. /pulcre convenit improbis cinaedis.

Catullus believed that Rome’s decline could be attributed to the perversion of morals, and specifically of pietas and his indignation at the violation of traditional Roman values is shown in his scurrilous attacks on Caesar and Mamurra. Catullus continually lampoons Mamurra for his profligacy, both sexual and financial, and blames it on Caesar and Pompey, the men in power who let Mamurra do as he pleases. The only explanation for Mamurra’s actions being devoid of consequences is that he must be having a homosexual relationship with Caesar. According to Catullus, with men like Pompey and Caesar in power, corrupt men who tolerate people like Mamurra, Rome has fallen from grace and become a city of “catamites.”

V. Synthetic Analysis

A. The Sallustian theory of decline in the Catullan Corpus

Catullus v. Mamurra

Catullus devotes two of his poems, XXIX and LVII, to Mamurra, Caesar’s military engineer, attacking his reckless extravagance, his dishonorable lifestyle, and charging him of having a homosexual relationship with Caesar. Following the Sallustian theory of decline, Catullus seems to believe that corruption and the eventual decline of the Roman republic, although he was not around to witness it, stemmed from the increasing greed for power and greed for wealth which came as a result of the end of metus hostilis. Mamurra having become extremely rich from his military service in Gaul, exemplifies this perfectly. With the Gauls having been subjugated and the fear of a common enemy having been subdued, Mamurra like many other Romans now found time for luxury and wealth in their lives as there was nothing to jeopardize it. This in turn led to greed and corruption.

Sempronia and Lesbia

Catullus’s Lesbia and Sallust’s Sempronia are very similar both in their descriptions and their attraction to corruption, with Sempronia taking part in Catiline’s conspiracy despite her social status and Lesbia being a serial adulterer and alleged incestophile. This becomes more reinforced if Lesbia is in reality the Clodia who was attacked by Cicero in his speech Pro Caelio, who was married to Metellus Celer who held the praetorship in 63 BC and the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul in 62 BC, who was notorious for her sexual licence, and who was even rumored to have murdered her husband Metellus by poison. Even if Lesbia is not Clodia, both she and Sempronia support the Sallustian theory of decline, as they succumb to avaritia, and show just how rampant corruption was in the final stages of the Republic: even women, who were thought to be the upholders of virtue in Roman society, were affected.

B. Mamurra and Catiline as foils for Catullus and Sallust respectively

Mamurra as a foil for Catullus

Salve, nec minimo puella naso /nec bello pede nec nigris ocellis /nec longis digitis nec ore sicco /nec sane nimis elegante lingua, /decoctoris amica Formiani. /ten provincia narrat esse bellam? /tecum Lesbia nostra comparatur? /o saeclum insapiens et infacetum!

“Hail, girl with nose not the smallest, and with foot not lovely, and with eyes not black, and with fingers not long, and with mouth not dry and with tongue not so very elegant, the wench of the bankrupt Formian. And the province declares you to be lovely? With you our Lesbia is to be compared? O generation witless and unmannerly!”

The six poems Catullus wrote concerning Mamurra (c. 29, c. 57, c. 94, c. 105, c. 114, and c. 115) should be considered together because of their linear arrangement as well as the verbal and thematic echoes that exist between them. The position of the poems are meant to convey the idea that Mamurra acts as a foil for Catullus. This can be seen in c. 28 and c. 29, two poems in which Catullus compares his provincial experiences with those of Mamurra, as well as in c. 43, a poem in which Catullus compares his mistress (Lesbia) to Mamurra’s mistress (Ameana). In all three poems he makes the contrast between himself and Mamurra as stark as possible. Catullus believed pietas to be the defining value of Rome and believed the violation of it to be Rome’s undoing. Since Catullus characterized himself through pietas and because Mamurra is the foil to Catullus, he is devoid of pietas and, therefore, corrupt. The loss of pietas led to the increase in avaritia and thereby the decline of Rome.

Catiline as a foil for Sallust

Sallust, although he did not wage war against the Republic, was nonetheless similar to Catiline, both in his beginnings as a failed politician and his being enticed by the allure of power and wealth. The similarity between the two is what gives Sallust authority to write about the conspiracy given that he had been in a somewhat similar situation and position as Catiline. However, the similarities stop there. Sallust went down in history as a successful author whereas Catiline went down in infamy, often alluded to when describing hell and its rings (Catiline would be in the ninth ring of hell, reserved for traitors, if following the model of Dante). By comparing and contrasting himself with Catiline, Sallust effectively elevates his virtue while showing how even the best of people can become corrupted, such as Sallust himself. The end of metus hostilis facilitated the growth of corruption and greed, of which Sallust and many others were victims, and led to the end of the Republic.

VI. Conclusion

Catullus, anguished at the loss of pietas in the society in which he lived, expressed his grievances with the greedy and the corrupt, corroborated Sallust’s view on decline, and called for political reform, all through his colorful invective poetry.

Brief summary of main points of paper:

Introduce authors and works

Analyze Sallustian views on decline in the Bellum Catilinae

Analyze Catullan views on decline throughout his corpus

Analyze Catullan views on pietas

Qualify and corroborate the Sallustian theory of decline using the Catullan corpus

Whenever someone encounters injustice, they are encouraged and obliged to speak up in whatever way they are able. This is as true today as it was in antiquity and much like modern reformists, Catullus sought to speak up and change what he thought was a detrimental aspect of his society. He did this through his invective poetry which can be compared to modern day satirical shows, such as SNL, as both lambast politicians who are often lacking a moral compass. This research is significant because it traces resistance to antiquity and firmly establishes it as a part of human nature. Without resistance movements in any form, we would no doubt be stuck in a totalitarian regime where injustice is a fact of life.

Many consider present day to finally be the harbinger of perpetual justice and an end to corrupt and abusive governments. However, with a recent political swing to the far right in the U.S., where morality and sensibility is questionable, this seems far from the case. Instead of looking to the future, one should look to the past as it often holds all the answers. The quest for justice already started 2000 years ago with revolutionaries such as Catullus.

Works Cited

Catullus. The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus. Leonard C. Smithers. London. Smithers. 1894.

Conley, Duane F. “The Interpretation of Sallust Catiline 10. 1-11. 3.” Classical Philology 76, no. 2 (1981): 121-25.

Conley, Duane F. “The Stages of Rome's Decline in Sallust's Historical Theory.” Hermes 109, no. 3 (1981): 379-82.

Deuling, Judy K. "Catullus and Mamurra." Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, 52, no. 2 (1999): 188-94.

Fratantuono, Lee M. "Nivales socii: Caesar, Mamurra, and the snow of Catullus C. 57." Quaderni Urbinati Di Cultura Classica, New Series, 96, no. 3 (2010): 101-10.

Henry, R. M. “‘Pietas’ and ‘Fides’ in Catullus.” Hermathena, no. 75 (1950): 63-68.

Scott, William C. "Catullus and Caesar (C. 29)." Classical Philology 66, no. 1 (1971): 17-25.

Sallust. Conspiracy of Catiline. Translated by Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A. New York and London. Harper & Brothers. 1899.

Essay: Catullus and Sallust: Lampooning Corruption in the Roman Republic

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