“Non his tam lætor rebus, quam me abfore semper, Abfore me a dominæ vertice discrucior.” But though the poem of Callimachus may have been seriously written, and gravely read by the court of Ptolemy, the lines of Catullus often approach to something like pleasantry or _persiflage_: “Invita, O Regina, tuo de vertice cessi ... Sed qui se ferro postulet esse parem? Ille quoque eversus mons est, quem maximum in oris Progenies Phthiæ clara supervehitur; Quum Medi properare novum mare, quumque juventus Per medium classi barbara navit Athon. Quid facient crines, quum ferro talia cedant?” These lines seem intended is a sort of mock-heroic, and remind us strongly of the _Rape of the Lock_: “Steel could the labours of the gods destroy, And strike to dust the imperial towers of Troy; Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, And hew triumphal arches to the ground. What wonder, then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel The conquering force of unresisted steel?” The _Coma Earini_ of Statius(510), is a poem of the same description as the _Coma Berenices_. It is written in a style of sufficiently elegant versification; but what in Callimachus is a courtly, though perhaps rather extravagant compliment, is in Statius a servile and disgusting adulation of the loathsome monster, whose vices he so disgracefully flattered. Antonio Sebastiani, a Latin poet of modern Italy, has imitated Catullus, by celebrating the locks of a princess of San-Severino. The beauty and virtues of his heroine had excited the admiration of earth, and the love of the gods, but with these the jealousy of the goddesses. By their influence, a malady evoked from Styx threatens the life of the princess, and occasions the loss of her hair. The gods, indignant at this base conspiracy, commission Iris to convey the fallen locks to the sky, and to restore to the princess, along with health, her former freshness and beauty. 68. _Ad Manlium_. The principal subject of this elegy, is the story of Laodamia: The best parts, however, are those lines in which the poet laments his brother, which are truly elegiac— “Tu, mea, tu moriens, fregisti commoda, frater; Tecum unà tota est nostra sepulta domus; Omnia tecum unà perierunt gaudia nostra, Quæ tuus in vita dulcis alebat amor: Quojus ego interitu totâ de mente fugavi Hæc studia, atque omnes delicias animi.” Catullus seems to have entertained a sincere affection for his brother, and to have deeply deplored his loss; hence he generally writes well when touching on this tender topic. Indeed, the only remaining elegy of Catullus worth mentioning, is that entitled _Inferiæ ad Fratris Tumulum_, which is another beautiful and affectionate tribute to the memory of this beloved youth. Vulpius had said, in a commentary on Catullus, that his brother died while accompanying him in his expedition with Memmius to Bithynia. This, however, is denied by Ginguené, who quotes two lines from the _Inferiæ_—