nsulatum perierat Vatinius' means 'Vatinius perjures himself by his
hope of the consulship' (his name stood on the list agreed on at Luca,
which is mentioned by Cic. _ad Att._ iv. 8_b_, 2); and l. 2, 'Sella in
curuli struma Nonius sedet,' cannot refer to B.C. 47, as the only
ordinary curule magistrates in that year were P. Vatinius and Q.
Fufius Calenus. Among other poems against personal enemies are c. 98,
against Vettius, and c. 108, against Cominius, both of them informers;
and c. 84, against Arrius, who aspirated his words wrongly, and who,
from l. 7, 'hoc misso in Syriam,' is supposed to have gone out to
Syria as _legatus_ to Crassus in B.C. 55. C. 49 is an attack on Cicero:

'Disertissime Romuli nepotum,
quot sunt quotque fuere, Marce Tulli,
quotque post aliis erunt in annis,
gratias tibi maximas Catullus
agit, pessimus omnium poeta,
tanto pessimus omnium poeta
quanto tu optimus omnium patronus.'

The sting lies in the _double entendre_ in the last two lines, which
really mean 'so much the worst poet of all poets, as you are the best
advocate of all clients, good and bad.' So Cicero is called in a good
sense _omnium patronus_ by Caecina in Cic. _ad Fam._ vi. 7, 4. The
poem has special reference to B.C. 54, when Cicero defended Vatinius
(whom he had reviled two years before in the speech _Pro Sestio_),
when prosecuted by Catullus' friend, Calvus (cf. c. 14, 1-3); and
thanks Cicero ironically for some criticism he had passed on his
poems. Catullus attacks several contemporary poets; so in c. 22,
Suffenus, who in c. 14 is coupled with Caesius and Aquinus; Volusius
in cc. 36 and 95; cf. 36, 1, 'Annales Volusi, cacata charta.'[36]

Among Catullus' friends were Veranius and Fabullus (cc. 9, 28, etc.);
P. Alfenus Varus of Cremona (cc. 10, 22, 30), consul B.C. 39, and a
famous _iurisconsultus_. C. 61 celebrates the marriage of L. Manlius
Torquatus (who was praetor B.C. 49) and Vinia Aurunculeia. Several
poems are addressed to brother poets; c. 35 is to Caecilius of Novum
Comum; c. 38 to Cornificius, a writer of slight love poems (Ovid,
_Trist._ ii. 436) who died B.C. 41; c. 95 is on Cinna's _Zmyrna_; cc.
14, 50, and 96 are addressed to C. Licinius Calvus; c. 56 to Valerius
Cato (see above); c. 65 to Hortensius Ortalus, who asked Catullus to
translate Callimachus; c. 1, and possibly c. 102, to Cornelius Nepos.

_Catullus' longer poems._--These, unlike the shorter personal poems,
are mostly due to Alexan