This introduction is currently available in English.
Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84–54 BC) was a Roman poet associated with the neoteric movement of the late Republic. His short, varied poems move between love, friendship, invective, mourning, mythological narrative, and formal experiment. The collection’s intimate voice and sharp shifts of register made it central to later Latin lyric poetry; Jerome represents the poems as a canonical collection.