12. A Roman coin called an as, showing Janus on the obverse, and the prow of a ship on the reverse. Note the inscriptions ROMA and C. FONT. The latter is short for Gaius Fonteius, who commissioned the coin series in 114 BCE. The name ‘Gaius’ was normally abbreviated with the letter C.

Explōrātiō Sexta (VI) Adventure Six

Where and When Are We Today?

Catullus

Catullus: Poem 5

The Dative Case

Indirect Objects

Uses and Translation of the Dative Case

Dative Singular Endings, Declensions 1-5

Review of Singular Case Endings, Declensions 1-5

Drill

Translating a Sentence with a Dative Word

Exercises 1-6

The Ablative Case

Ablative Singular Endings, Declensions 1-5

Review of Singular Case Endings, Declensions 1-5

Drill

Uses and Translation of the Ablative Case

Vocabulary

Translating a Sentence with a Preposition and Ablative Word

Exercises 7-15

Genitive, Dative, and Ablative Singular Personal Pronouns

Singular Personal Pronouns, All Case Forms

The Preposition cum with 1st and 2nd Person Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns

Singular Forms of the Interrogative Pronoun

Vocabulary

Exercises 16-27

Catullus: Poem 8

The Vocative Case

Catullus: Poem 8, Continued

Where and When Are We Today?

Mōns Palatīnus, Rōma

Mēnsis Iūnius

Cn. Pompeiō C. Caeciliō Metellō Piō Scipiōne cōnsulibus

Palatine Hill, Rome

June, 55 BCE

“Dōnum tibi habeō, I’ve got a gift for you,” she announced.

What is it?

“When you return from Rome, you never bring anything back home except memories and a notebook. I wanted to prevent you from thinking the past is just a hallucination or an occasional waking dream, so I brought you a coin from the city.”

It was a small piece, the size of a dime, made of bronze. The image on the front showed a head with two faces, one looking left and the other right, while on the back there was the prow of a ship. “The two-faced god is Janus or Ianus, the Roman god of transitions. This coin is called an as.”

How much is it worth?

“An as is one tenth of a denarius, and a denarius was the minimum daily wage of an unskilled worker in Rome. A few dollars, I’d say.”

No, I meant how much is it worth today.

“Today? Don’t ask questions like that. It’s a gift; it’s just an ordinary coin.”

So, she said: just an ordinary coin. But as soon as I rolled it through my fingers, we were suddenly, once again, in the ancient world…

Nox erat, sed lūx lūcēbat: It was night, but a light was shining. The full moon was peering through the windows of a dining room, overwhelming with its glow two oil lamps sputtering in the corner. Seven men and one woman were sprawled on a u-shaped arrangement of couches, nibbling the last olives from silver platters that had once been full. The men were visibly and audibly drunk, and the man at the head couch was holding forth for the others. Latinitas paraphrased his speech for me later – we were watching from the garden outside, taking care to go unobserved. He was expounding on the following rēs, or subject: how his wife should take care of his corpse, should he die suddenly, struck down by an assassin or the faithless goddess Fortune. He wanted to be embalmed in the style of the Egyptians, his mummy laid out in a chamber inside a specially-built pyramid. The pyramid should be at least 50 feet tall and made of precious Parian marble. The tomb was to have a secret entrance, for which only his wife had the key, and she was to visit every night at midnight, to make sure that all was in order, to bring an offering of cheese and mixed olives, and to drive away the witches that are especially active at such times. Each night, when her watch was over, she was to give his mummy a long kiss, lasting ten heartbeats – ‘and then you can have something more, if you want it’. With that remark all of his companions broke into uncontrollable laughter, which dragged out for minutes. As the laughter died down, and began to be replaced by low snores, he asked his wife – a dignified young woman, who sat in rigid silence through his whole speech – for a kiss, shoving his lips out through a greasy gray beard. His lips held there motionless, then softened into an open gape. Drawing in air by the mouthful, he expelled it in loud, erratic snores, asleep and unconscious, as the moon continued to throw its pale light on his cold, hard skin.

Catullus

His wife, Clodia Quadrantaria, rose to go to her bedroom. She woke up her maid and asked her to take out two poems that her sometime lover, the poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, had sent. Clodia kept them hidden from her husband, the Roman general Metellus, but many of Catullus’ friends, as well as friends of his friends, had read them. They became still better known years later, when Catullus and Clodia were long dead and gone, and Catullus’ talent was reaffirmed by later poets and readers who found the passion and impact of his poetry undeniable. Clodia’s maid (who, like her mistress, was literate) read out loud for her, and Latinitas translated for me. Practice reading the poem aloud. You can probably figure out some of the Latin now:

Catullus: Poem 5

Latin	English
Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus, rūmōrēsque senum sevēriōrum omnēs ūnīus aestimēmus assis!	Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, and let’s assign all of the rumoring of mean old men the value of one as.

Sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt: nōbīs cum semel occidit brevis lūx, nox est perpetua ūna dormienda.

Suns are able to set and rise again; for us, light is short, and once it sets we’re forced to sleep one never-ending night.

Dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum, dein mīlle altera, dein secunda centum, deinde usque altera mīlle, deinde centum.

Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred, then yet another thousand, then a hundred.

Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerimus, conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus, aut nē quis malus invidēre possit, cum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.

Then, once we’ve made it several thousands, we’ll mix those thousands up to keep ourselves from knowing, and to keep some no-good man from bearing us a grudge, once he finds out how many were our kisses.

She held still for a minute; then, perhaps because the memory was too warm and she preferred, for now, the cold discipline of dolor, of pain, she asked that a different poem be read. It began Miser Catulle, and clearly it upset her. When the maid reached the end of it, Clodia repressed a sob, and buried her face deep in her pillow.

What did that one say? I asked.

“Come this way. You will understand the Latin better after a little more study.” Latinitas gestured me away from the house, towards a clearing behind the garden that overlooked the river Tiber. She hung an oil lamp from the branch of an apple tree – a shower of petals fell off its blossoms – and had us sit down on a broken marble pillar.

The Dative Case

Indirect Objects

“When I gave you that coin earlier, there were three things involved: me, you, and the coin. I was the subject. The coin was what I gave – the object of the verb – which, as you already know, goes in the accusative case. You were the person I gave the coin to. This role can also be thought of as a secondary or indirect object of the verb. Here is a sentence containing both a direct object (accusative case in Latin) and an indirect object:”

English Example of Direct Object and Indirect Object

I (subject) give (verb) a coin (direct object) to you (indirect object).

“This English sentence could also be reordered like this:”

English Example of Direct Object and Indirect Object, Different Word Order

I (subject) give (verb) you (indirect object) a coin (direct object).

Uses and Translation of the Dative Case

“In Latin, there is a case to indicate the secondary or indirect object. It is called the dative case. The name is based on the verb dō, dare, to give. In the English example above, the indirect object ‘to you’ (or, in the reordered sentence, the indirect object ‘you’) would be pronoun ‘you’ in the dative case. The dative case is also used in certain other expressions where English uses ‘to’ or ‘for’: I did this for you, I am a friend to you (in Latin, ‘for you’ and ‘to you’ would be the pronoun ‘you’ in the dative case). The dative case is most often translated into English by adding the prepositions ‘to’ or ‘for’ before the noun or pronoun.”

“The dative singular form for nouns consists of the noun stem plus the following endings:”

Dative Singular Endings, Declensions 1-5

Declension	Ending	Stem + Ending	Translation
1st declension	-ae	vi-ae	to/for the road
2nd declension	-ō	amīc-ō	to/for the friend
3rd declension	-ī	rēg-ī	to/for the king
4th declension	-uī	man-uī	to/for the hand
5th declension	-eī	r-eī	to/for the thing

“Here is a review of the singular forms of the four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative) for all five declensions that we have so far learned:”

Review of Singular Case Endings, Declensions 1-5

	1st decl.	2nd decl.	3rd decl.	4th decl.	5th decl.
Nom.	vi-a	amīc-us	rēx	man-us	r-ēs
Gen.	vi-ae	amīc-ī	rēg-is	man-ūs	r-eī
Dat.	vi-ae	amīc-ō	rēg-ī	man-uī	r-eī
Acc.	vi-am	amīc-um	rēg-em	man-um	r-em
Abl.

“We’ll soon learn the last case, the ablative.”

Drill

“Provide the genitive, dative, and accusative singular forms of the following nouns, which are given in the nominative singular form. To do so, first identify the declension to which the noun belongs (see How to Identify the Declension of a Noun in Explōrātiō IV), then identify the stem of the noun based on the genitive-stem rule (see Explōrātiō IV), and finally add the correct case ending to the stem.”

Nominative Singular	Genitive Singular	Dative Singular	Accusative Singular
vīta
populus
puer
lēx
senātus
spēs
urbs
familia
inimīcus
labor

“Any questions?”

I think I got it.

Translating a Sentence with a Dative Word

“In Latin sentences a dative word can be placed anywhere, often in the middle of a sentence. When you mark up a sentence, label any dative word ‘dat.’; when you translate, add ‘to’ or ‘for’ before any dative word.”

Translating a Latin Sentence with a Dative Word: Example

I. Rēx lībertātem populō dabit.

II. Rēx (nom. sg. m.) lībertātem (acc. sg. f.) populō (dat. sg. m.) dabit (3rd sg. fut.).

III. The king (nom. subj.) will give (3rd sg. fut.) freedom (acc. obj.) to the people (dat.).

“Remember: sometimes in English the indirect object comes after the verb and before the direct object, with no preposition – no ‘to’ or ‘for’: ‘I give you (indirect object) a coin (direct object)’.”

Translating an English Sentence with an Indirect Object: Example

I. The country (subj. nom.) owes (3rd sg. pres.) the senate (i.o. dat.) trust (d.o. acc.).

II. patria, patriae, f.. : dēbeō, dēbēre : senātus, senātūs, m. : fīdēs, fīdeī, f.

III. Patria fīdem senātuī dēbet. “Other word orders are fine too.”

Exercises 1-6

1. Cōnsul senātusque lībertātem populō dabant.

2. Senātuī aliquid et cōnsulī dabimus.

3. Fēmina fīdem neque virō neque rēgī dēbēbat.

4. The son and daughter give the god and goddess nothing.

5. I was preparing a law for the king and the country.

6. The enemy will prepare fear and death for the senate.

The Ablative Case

“The last of the five common cases in Latin is the ablative case. The ablative case is used to indicate when, where, why, or how something is accomplished, or where it came from.”

“The ablative singular endings are distinctive because they are all single vowels: ā, ō, e, ū, ē. All the vowels are long, except the e for the 3rd declension, which is short:”

Ablative Singular Endings, Declensions 1-5

Declension	Ending	Stem + Ending
1st declension	-ā	vi-ā
2nd declension	-ō	amīc-ō
3rd declension	-e	rēg-e
4th declension	-ū	man-ū
5th declension	-ē	r-ē

“Here is a review of the singular forms of all five cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative) for all five declensions that we have so far learned:”

Review of Singular Case Endings, Declensions 1-5

	1st decl.	2nd decl.	3rd decl.	4th decl.	5th decl.
Nom.	vi-a	amīc-us	rēx	man-us	r-ēs
Gen.	vi-ae	amīc-ī	rēg-is	man-ūs	r-eī
Dat.	vi-ae	amīc-ō	rēg-ī	man-uī	r-eī
Acc.	vi-am	amīc-um	rēg-em	man-um	r-em
Abl.	vi-ā	amīc-ō	rēg-e	man-ū	r-ē

Drill

“Provide the genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative singular forms of the following nouns, which are given in the nominative singular form. To do so, first identify the declension to which the noun belongs (see How to Identify the Declension of a Noun in Explōrātiō IV), then identify the stem of the noun based on the genitive-stem rule (see Explōrātiō IV), and finally add the correct case ending to the stem.”

Nominative Singular	Genitive Singular	Dative Singular	Accusative Singular	Ablative Singular
patria
populus
vir
vōx
senātus
fīdēs
urbs
vīta
deus
lībertās

Uses and Translation of the Ablative Case

“An ablative word is often, though not always, preceded by a preposition, making a prepositional phrase. When an ablative word and a preposition form a prepositional phrase, you simply translate according to the meaning of the preposition. These are the most common prepositions that take ablative words to form prepositional phrases. Put these in your vocabulary.”

Vocabulary

Latin Preposition + Case	English Meaning	Latin Examples	English Translations
in + ablative	in; on; in the case of	in urbe in virō	in the city in the case of the man
cum + abl.	with	cum cōnsule	with the consul
sine + abl.	without	sine timōre	without fear
ā, ab + abl.	away from; from	ā deō ab urbe	away from the god away from the city
dē + abl.	about; from	dē morte	about death
ē, ex + abl.	out of; from; based on	ex urbe ē mōre	out of the city based on custom

Why do some have different spellings? I asked.

“When the next word starts with a vowel or an h, Latin speakers use ab or ex. This keeps the vowel in the preposition from blending into the vowel of the noun. It’s just like ‘an’ in English, which replaces ‘a’ before a word that begins with a vowel: ‘a person’, but ‘an apple’.”

“Notice that the ablative often has a sense of separation. This is where it gets its name from: the Latin word ablātīvus, meaning ‘carried away from’.”

Translating a Sentence with a Preposition and Ablative Word

“When you mark up a sentence, underline the preposition and the ablative word in Latin, or, in an English sentence, the preposition and the noun or pronoun that it goes with.”

Translating a Sentence with a Preposition and Ablative Word: Example

I. With fear the consul (subj. nom.) changes (3rd sg. pres.) the republic (d.o. acc.).

II. cum + abl. : timor, timōris, m. : cōnsul, cōnsulis, m. : mūtō, mūtāre : rēs pūblica, reī pūblicae

III. Cum timōre cōnsul rēm pūblicam mūtat.

Exercises 7-15

7. Puerum cum amīcō vidēbāmus.

8. Movē inimīcum senātūs a patriā!

9. Rēx vōs in urbe manēre iubēbit.

10. Fīlium et fīliam e viā parēns movēbat.

11. Ego dē rē pūblicā et senātū cōgitō, tū dē vītā atque lībertāte.

12. Vir fēminaque sine spē manent, sine fīdē nihil amant.

13. I will need to move you away from the city.

14. Based on a fear of the people the consul gives me to death.

15. There is madness in the voice of the king.

Genitive, Dative, and Ablative Singular Personal Pronouns

“The Latin personal pronouns have genitive, dative, and ablative singular forms, in addition to the nominative and accusative singular forms you have already learned.”

Singular Personal Pronouns, All Case Forms

Case	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person (m., f., n.)
Nominative	ego	tū	is, ea, id
Genitive	meī	tuī	eius, eius, eius
Dative	mihi	tibi	eī, eī, eī
Accusative	mē	tē	eum, eam, id
Ablative	mē	tē	eō, eā, eō

Singular Personal Pronouns, All Case Forms, Translated

Case	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person
Nominative	I	you	he, she, it
Genitive	of me	of you	his, hers, its
Dative	to/for me	to/for you	to/for him, her, it
Accusative	me	you	him, her, it
Ablative	prep. + me	prep. + you	prep. + him, her, it

“In the first poem we heard, Catullus wrote dā mī bāsia mīlle, ‘give me (dative) a thousand kisses’, using a shortened form of the dative singular mihi.”

Translating a Sentence with a Personal Pronoun: Example

I. Manum tibi dabam.

II. Manum (acc. sg. masc.) tibi (dat. sg.) dabam (1st sg. imperf.).

III. I was giving (1st sg. imperf.) a hand (acc. d.o.) to you (dat. i.o.).

The Preposition cum with 1st and 2nd Person Pronouns

“The ablative forms mē and tē combine with the preposition cum in an odd way: the pronoun comes first, and cum is attached at the end.”

cum with 1st and 2nd Person Pronouns

Latin Form	Translation
mēcum	with me
tēcum	with you

Interrogative Pronouns

“The pronoun quid, if you remember, means ‘what?’. It has a partner, quis, which introduces a question and means ‘who?’. These words are called interrogative pronouns. An interrogative pronoun introduces an interrogātiō, a question.”

Singular Forms of the Interrogative Pronoun

“Both quis and quid have forms for all five cases in the singular. The forms of quis can be either masculine or feminine; the forms of quid are neuter.”

Singular Interrogative Pronouns

Case	Latin Pronoun (m., f.)	English Meaning	Latin Pronoun (n.)	English Meaning
Nominative	quis	who?	quid	what?
Genitive	cuius	whose?; of whom?	cuius	of what?
Dative	cui	to/for whom?	cui	to/for which?
Accusative	quem	whom?	quod	what?
Ablative	quō	prep. + whom?	quō	prep. + what?

Translating a Sentence with an Interrogative Pronoun: Example

I. Quem vidēs?.

II. Quem (acc. sg. masc./fem.) vidēs (2nd sg. pres.)?.

III. Whom (acc. d.o.) do you see (2nd sg. pres.)?.

“You might want to review Word Order in Questions, Explōrātiō III.”

Vocabulary

“To wrap up, add these nouns and adverbs to your vocabulary:”

First Declension Nouns

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
cūra, cūr-ae	f.	care; concern “Not ‘cure’!”
īra, īr-ae	f.	anger
puella, puell-ae	f.	girl

Second Declension Noun

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
animus, anim-ī	m.	mind (singular); passions (plural)

Third Declension Nouns

Latin Noun	Noun Gender	English Meaning
amor, amōr-is	m.	love
dolor, dolōr-is	m.	pain
lūx, lūc-is	f.	light
nox, noct-is	f.	night

Adverbs

Latin Adverb	English Meaning
deinde, dein	then
iam	now; already
nunc	now

Exercises 16-27

16. Dā aliquid mihi, sī fierī potest.

17. Cūra et īra neque mē neque eum movent

18. Quid in animō cōnsul habet?

19. Cuius vōx nōs ab lūce in noctem vocābat?

20. Iam dolōrem atque mortem timet; date spem eī.

21. Dē quō cōgitās? Quem amās? Nihilne animum mūtābit?

22. Puellam in urbe manēre neque movēre fēmina iubēbat.

23. Amor patriae rēgem movēbat cum populus nihil speī habēbat.

24. The king will give freedom to the people and you.

25. Without fear of the people the consul was changing the republic.

26. I was hoping when I was with you. But now love of you moves care, anger, pain.

27. To whom does the light of life not give pain, then anger?

Catullus: Poem 8

“Now let’s go through the other poem we heard. First we will read the Latin aloud, then make sense of it section by section. I’ll let you complete the English yourself, with some help.”

Miser Catulle, dēsinās ineptīre,

et quod vidēs perisse perditum dūcās.

Fulsēre quondam candidī tibi sōlēs,

cum ventitābās quō puella dūcēbat

amāta nōbīs quantum amābitur nūlla.

Ibi illa multa cum iocōsa fīēbant,

quae tū volēbās nec puella nōlēbat,

fulsēre vērē candidī tibi sōlēs.

Nunc iam illa nōn vult: tū quoque impotēns nōlī,

nec quae fugit sectāre, nec miser vīve,

sed obstinātā mente perfer, obdūrā.

Valē puella, iam Catullus obdūrat,

nec tē requīret nec rogābit invītam.

At tū dolēbis, cum rogāberis nulla.

Scelesta, vae tē, quae tibi manet vīta?

Quis nunc tē adībit? Cui vidēberis bella?

Quem nunc amābis? Cuius esse dīcēris?

Quem bāsiābis? Cui labella mordēbis?

At tū, Catulle, dēstinātus obdūrā.

Miser	Catulle,	dēsinās	ineptīre,
et	quod	vidēs	perisse	perditum	dūcās.

Miserable	Catullus,	you should cease	to be naïve,
	what		has gone,	gone (acc. d.o.)	you should consider.

The Vocative Case

I stopped her: Why is he called Catūlle here?

“When you address someone by name in Latin, you use a form called the vocative case. The vocative form is usually identical with the nomative form: ō Catilīna, ō Clōdia. But for names or other forms of address belonging to the 2nd declension that end their nominative singular form in –us, the vocative singular ending is –e:”

Examples of the Vocative Case for 2nd Declension Words (Nominative Form –us)

Vocative Example	English Meaning
Ō Menaechme!	Oh Menaechmus!
Catulle!	Catullus!

“And for names or other forms of address belonging to the 2nd declension that end their nominative singular form in –ius, the vocative singular ending is –ī:”

Examples of the Vocative Case for 2nd Declension Words (Nominative Form –ius)

Vocative Example	English Meaning
Ō Terentī!	Oh Terentius!
Iulī!	Julius!
Salvē, Gaī!	Hello, Gaius!
Salvē, fīlī!	Hello, son!

“Latin proper nouns are always rendered in English as the nominative form of the name, so translate Catulle as ‘Catullus’.”

Catullus: Poem 8, Continued

Fulsēre	quondam	candidī	tibi	sōlēs,
cum	ventitābās	quō	puella	dūcēbat
amāta	nōbīs	quantum	amābitur	nūlla.

They shone	once	white (nom. pred.)		the suns (nom. subj.),
	you were going	where		was leading,
beloved	by us	as much as	will be loved	no woman (nom. subj.).

“The Latin word order of the first of these lines is: verb, ‘they shone’; then ‘once’; then the predicate, ‘white’; then the dative pronoun; and finally the subject. This should be reordered in English: ‘Once the suns shone white tibi.’”

Ibi	illa	multa	cum	iocōsa	fīēbant,
quae	tū	volēbās	nec	puella	nōlēbat,
fulsēre	vērē	candidī	tibi	sōlēs.

There	those	many		games	were taking place,
which		were wanting			was not wanting,
they shone	truly	white		the suns.

“In the first line, cum comes late, but in English it needs to be translated near the start: ‘There, cum those many games were taking place.’ (You saw this happen in our sentence from Cato in Explōrātiō II: cum was the second word in the clause, praedium cum parāre cōgitābis.).”

Nunc	iam	illa	nōn	vult:	tū	quoque	impotēns	nōlī,
nec	quae	fugit	sectāre,	nec	miser	vīve,
sed	obstinātā	mente	perfer,	obdūrā.

		that woman(nom. subj.)		wants;			powerless	don’t want,
	she who	flees,	chase (impv.),		miserable	live (impv.),
	with obstinate	mind	carry on (impv.),	be tough (impv)!

“In the last line, obstinātā mente is in the ablative, but without a preposition. The words mean, ‘with an obstinate mind’, or ‘with mind made up’.”

Valē	puella,	iam	Catullus	obdūrat,
nec	tē	requīret	nec	rogābit	invītam.

		he will seek back			unwilling (acc. d. o.).

“Notice that tē in the second line is accusative, and it refers to Lesbia; invītam is also accusative, so it is she who is unwilling.”

At	tū	dolēbis,	cum	rogāberis	nulla.
Scelesta,	vae	tē,	quae	tibi	manet	vīta?

But		will feel pain,		you will be asked	never.
Bad woman,	woe to	;	what sort of (nom.)			?

“Notice that the word quae in the second line is nominative: it goes with the other nominative word in that line – can you identify that second nominative word?”

Quis	nunc	tē	adībit?	Cui	vidēberis	bella?
Quem	nunc	amābis?	Cuius	esse	dīcēris?
Quem	bāsiābis?	Cui	labella	mordēbis?
At	tū,	Catulle,	dēstinātus	obdūrā.

			will go to?		will you seem	pretty?
					will you be said?
	will you kiss?		lips	will you nibble?
But	,	,	determined (nom. pred.)	(impv.).

I don’t understand something: why does Catullus call Clodia Lesbia?

“‘Lesbia’ is Catullus’ name for Clodia in his poetry. By giving her a code-name, he could carry on the affair and write poems about it that circulated without getting into trouble. He chose ‘Lesbia’ as her name for two reasons. Many fans of poetry believe that of all the old Greek love poets, Sappho from the island of Lesbos was the best of all. Catullus himself translated Sappho into Latin – one translation that he made begins, Ille mī par esse deō vidētur, ‘That man seems to me to be equal to a god’. Now Lesbia in Latin means ‘woman from Lesbos’. So, by choosing that name it meant that he loved Clodia as much as he loved Sappho. The other reason for his choice is that ‘Lesbia’ has the same number of letters and syllables as ‘Clodia’: six, and three. That was the rule for picking a nickname in poetry.”

What happened to Clodia? What about her and Metellus?

“The full story is lost to time, but other poems of Catullus communicate that their marriage was rocky. Clodia had at least one more lover, a young man named Caelius, who was charged in court with attempted murder. He was defended by none other than Cicero. Cicero spent a good part of his speech, the Prō Caeliō, smearing Clodia’s reputation, to separate his client from her, and tried to make her seem like a prostitute. You can read the speech to find out more about her, but be careful – it’s all slander and smears. You can also read Catullus’ poems to and about her – but they are the work of love, hardly objective. Perhaps we can trust Catullus enough to believe that their love was indeed mutual, for a time, and sweet? But Clodia no longer has a voice, and not even the gods,” she added, shaking her head, “know what any human being truly feels in her heart, or his heart.”

13. A Roman mosaic from the first-century CE showing two amātōrēs or lovers. Note the attendants, who are probably servī, enslaved persons, engaged in various tasks.