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Catullus 95

Catullus celebrates the publication, after nine years in the making, of C. Helvius  Cinna's (referred to in poem 10) mini-epic entitled Smyrna.

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

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Zmyrna mei Cinnae nonam post denique messem
...quam coepta est nonamque edita post hiemem.
milia cum interea quingenta Hortensius uno
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Zmyrna cavas Satrachi penitus mittetur ad undas,................5
...Zmyrnam cana diu saecula pervoluent.
at Volusi annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam
...et laxas scombris saepe dabunt tunicas.
[parva mei mihi sint cordi monimenta ...
...at populus tumido gaudeat Antimacho.].........................10

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Meter: elegiacs.
1. Zmyrna: subject of both coepta est and edita; 
post...quam: tmesis. 
3. cum interea: "meanwhile"; 
Hortensius: subject of a verb in line 4 which has been lost, perhaps edidit ; 
uno: sc. anno. 
5. Satrachus is a river in Cyprus; 
cavas: "deep-channeled"
7. Padua is a city in Northern Italy and the city associated with Volusius.
8. et...tunicas: i.e., his poems will be used to wrap fish. 
9. mihi...cordi: Double Dative (Respect and Purpose); 
mei: modifies sodalis.
10. tumido: in the sense of overly prolific, i.e. quantity over quality.
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last updated October 17, 2003
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