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Catullus 31

“There is no place like home.” A poem written to express his joy at returning home from Bithynia in the summer of 56 BC.

Click on the words in the poem below to get vocabulary information.

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Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque
ocelle, quascumque in liquentibus stagnis
marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus,
quam te libenter quamque laetus inviso,
vix mi ipse credens Thuniam atque Bithunos.................5
liquisse campos et videre te in tuto.
o quid solutis est beatius curis,
cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,
desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?..............................10
hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.
salve, o venusta Sirmio, atque ero gaude
gaudente, vosque, o Lydiae lacus undae,
ridete quidquid est domi cachinnorum.

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Meter: limping iambics.
1. Sirmio: modern day Sirmione, a long narrow peninsula in Lago di Garda (Lacus Benacus).
3. uterque Neptunus: as god of both fresh and salt water.
4. quam: "how!"
5. Thuniam...tuto: indirect statement with credens: subject of indirect statement is mi (Dative with credens).
9. peregrino labore: Ablative of Cause.
11. quod unum: "the one thing that".
13. Lydiae: Etruscan.
14. cachinnorum: Partitive Genitive; 
domi: not "at my home," but "at your disposal," "at your command," "in stock"; cf. Fr. chez vous.
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last updated October 17, 2003
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