ve. venustiorum: B. 240, 1; A. & G.
291, a. The expression describes those who possess qualities of grace
and charm, and implies that they can appreciate such qualities. 3.
puellae: probably Clodia, wife of Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, to whom
under the name of 'Lesbia' Catullus addressed a number of poems. His
attachment for her was the 'one all-absorbing passion of the poet's
life.' 6. mellitus: a honey. suamque: his lady. Catullus speaks of the
sparrow in language appropriate to a lover. 11. iter tenebricosum: the
shadowy journey to Hades. 12. Cf. _Hamlet_, 3. 1:

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns.

13. At...tenebrae: Evil be to you, evil shadows! 17. tua opera: for you,
i.e. for the sparrow, ablative of cause. 18. turgiduli...ocelli: my
girl's pretty eyes are so red and swollen.

_4._ 2. antistans...trecentis: worth a million of the rest to me.
milibus: depends on antistans, B. 187, III, 1; A. & G. 370. 4. Anum:
aged, used as an adjective. 5. mini: B. 188, c; A. & G. 378, 1. nuntii:
plural, though for a single message. 6. Hiberum: genitive plural. 7.
facta: deeds. 8. adplicansque collum: i.e. with arm about your neck
drawing you to me. 10. Cf. 1, 2 and note on venustiorum. Translate O! of
happy, happy mortals. 11. quid: a 'neuter not very rare in Latin in
similar sweeping appeals.'--Merrill.

_5._ Date, 56 B.C. 1. egelidos: in which there is no chill. 4. Catullus
is at the end of a year of absence in Bithynia on the staff of Memmius
the governor, and is about to return to Italy. Phrygii campi: the plains
about Nicaea. 6. claras Asiae urbes: the famous Greek cities on the
western coast of Asia Minor, as Ephesus, Smyrna. 7. praetrepidans:
tremulous with anticipation. 9. comitum: the other members of the
governor's staff, or cohors. 11. diversae variae: separate and varied.

_6._ Date, 56 B.C. Sirmione (Sirmio) is a peninsula--at high water an
island--extending into the Lago di Garda (Lacus Benacus). An ancient
ruin here of Constantine's time was long known as Catullus' villa. Cf.
with this and the ninth selection Tennyson's '_Frater, Ave atque Vale_':

Row us out from Desenzano, to your Sirmione row!
So they row'd and there we landed--'O venusta Sirmio!'
There to me thro' all the groves of olive in the summer glow,
There beneath the Roman ruin where the purple flowers grow,
Came that 'Ave atque Vale' of the poet's hopeless woe,
Tenderest of Roman poets nineteen hundr