of sacrificed beasts as they were burning; but more particularly from the
_omentum_, or _caul_, that apron of fat which covers the abdominal viscera.

C. lxxxxiiii. v. 1. There is a double meaning in the original, and the
translator can give but half of it. _Mentula_, synonymous with _penis_, is
a nickname applied by Catullus to Mamurra, of whom he says (cxv.) that he
is not a man, but a great thundering _mentula_. Maherault has happily
rendered the meaning of the epigram in French, in which language there is
an equivalent for Mentula, that is to say, a man's name which is also a
popular synonym for what characterizes the god Priapus. "Jean Chouard
fornique; eh! sans doute, c'est bien Jean Chouard. C'est ainsi qu'on peut
dire que c'est la marmite qui cueille les choux." Achilles Statius
interprets this _distich_ thus, "It is the flesh that is guilty, and not I
who am guilty; so is it the pot that robs the garden, and not the thief
that robs the pot-herbs."

v. 2. _Ipsa olera olla legat_. This may have been a cant proverb of the day
containing a meaning which is now unknown to us. Parthenius interprets it
"A libidinous man is apt in adultery, as a vessel is suited to hold its
contents."

C. lxxxxvii. v. 1. There is in the Greek Anthology a similar epigram by
Nicarchus, which has thus been translated by Grotius:

Non culo, Theodore, minus tibi foetida bucca est
Noscera discrimen sit sapientis opus.
Scribere debueras hic podex est meus, hic os;
Nunc tu cum pedas atque loquare simul,
Discere non valeo, quid venerit inde vel inde;
Vipera namque infra sibilat atque supra.

v. 7. Few are ignorant of what Scaliger here gravely tells us: _fessi muli
strigare solent, ut meiant_. Vossius reads _defissus_, in a different
sense.

C. lxxxxviiii. This poem shews beyond contradiction that Catullus himself
was not free from the vice of paederasty, so universal amongst the Roman
youth.

v. 10. _Lupae_. The infamous, fetid harlot is called _lupa_ (a she-wolf)
from the ravenousness of the wolf answering to the rapacious disposition of
the generality of courtezans: but Servius, _Aen._ 3, assigns a much more
improper and filthy reason.

C. c. v. 1. Again the Roman paederasty shews itself in Caelius's affection
for Aufilenus.

C. ciii. It appears that Catullus had given a sum of money to the pander
Silo to procure him a mistress. He did not perform his engagement, but kept
the money, and abused our sinning bard