Catullus, about 84-54 B. C.—His life—The book of poems—The longer poems—The shorter poems—Minor poets—Gnæus Matius—Lævius—Sueius—Gaius Licinius Calvus, 87-47 B. C.—Gaius Helvius Cinna—Varro Atacinus, 82 to after 37 B. C.—Publius Valerius Cato—Marcus Furius Bibaculus—Gaius Memmius, proprætor in 57 B. C.—Ticidas—Quintus Cornificius—Cornelius Nepos—Marcus Tullius Cicero—Quintus Cicero. The greatest lyric poet of the Ciceronian period is Gaius Valerius Catullus. [Sidenote: Life of Catullus.] The exact dates of his birth and death are uncertain. According to Jerome he was born in 87 B. C., and died in 57 B. C., at the age of thirty years. But in one poem[33] he refers to Pompey’s second consulship (55 B. C.), and in two others[34] he mentions Cæsar’s expedition to Britain (55 B. C.). It is therefore evident that his death can not have taken place in 57 B. C. But as his poems contain no references to any event later than 55 or 54 B. C., it is reasonably certain that he died not much after the latter date. As he is known to have died young, his birth may be assigned to about 85 B. C., or perhaps a year or two later. His birthplace was Verona, and his family was wealthy and of good position. He went to Rome while still hardly more than a boy, and began to write love poems soon after taking the _toga virilis_, that is to say, at the age of seventeen. Rome was then a brilliant capital, in which Greek culture, with all its intellectual vivacity and all its vices, had taken firm root. The family connections of the young Catullus, whose father was a friend of Julius Cæsar, introduced him to the aristocratic society of the capital, and his personal qualities doubtless contributed to make him a prominent figure among the gay youth of the city. [Sidenote: Lesbia.] About 61 B. C. began his passionate love for the brilliant but dissolute woman whom he has immortalized in his poems under the name of Lesbia. Her real name was Clodia, and when he met her she was the wife of Quintus Cæcilius Metellus Celer. For a time she seemed at least to return the love of her young adorer, but almost immediately after her husband’s death, which took place in 59 B. C., she is reproached by Catullus for faithlessness. In the spring of 57 B. C., Catullus went to Bithynia as a member of the staff of the proprætor C. Memmius, and by this time his connection with Clodia seems to have been at an end. In the spring of 56 B. C., Catullus returned to Rome, after visiting the tomb of his brother, who had died in the Troad. From this time on his poems are still in part poems of love, but they lack the passionate fire of the lines addressed to Lesbia. Most of the poems belonging to the last years of his life, when they contain personal allusions, are inspired rather by the political events of the time than by love.