bum.
O di, reddite mi hoc pro pietate mea.'

It is probable that the separation between the lovers occurred not
later than B.C. 58; otherwise Catullus would not have left for
Bithynia in the next year. In c. 11, the last poem that refers to
Lesbia, which, from the reference to Britain in l. 12, cannot have
been written before B.C. 55, we see that Catullus is cured of his
passion; cf. ll. 21-4,

'Nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,
qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati
ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam
tactus aratro est.'

In the spring of B.C. 57 Catullus went to Bithynia on the staff of the
propraetor C. Memmius (cc. 10 and 28). From c. 10, 29, 'meus sodalis
Cinna est Gaius,' we see that C. Helvius Cinna accompanied him. In c.
46, 9 he speaks of the pleasant meetings of the staff, 'O dulces
comitum valete coetus.' C. 46 shows that Catullus left Bithynia in the
spring of the following year: ll. 1-4,

'Iam ver egelidos refert tepores ...
Linquantur Phrygii, Catulle, campi.'

The dirge in c. 101 shows that Catullus, on his way to Italy, visited
his brother's tomb in the Troad, and paid the last rites to it. C. 4,
written soon after his return to Sirmio, tells us how he made his way
home again. About the same time was composed the address to Sirmio in
c. 31; c. 10 proves that he soon went back to Rome.

The poems against Caesar's party belong to the years B.C. 55 and 54.
In cc. 41 and 43 Catullus calls a Transpadane girl 'decoctoris amica
Formiani,' the reference being to Mamurra, 'the bankrupt from
Formiae,' who had been Caesar's _praefectus fabrum_ in Gaul, and who
may have been a successful rival of Catullus in love. C. 29, written
probably in B.C. 54, attacked Mamurra, and also his patrons, Caesar
and Pompey. From l. 24, 'socer generque, perdidistis omnia,' it is
clear that the poem was written before Julia's death in September,
B.C. 54; and from ll. 11-12,

'eone nomine, imperator unice,
fuisti in ultima occidentis insula,'

that it was written after Caesar's first expedition to Britain in B.C.
55. The poem is referred to by Sueton. _Iul._ 73, 'Valerium Catullum,
a quo sibi versiculis de Mamurra perpetua stigmata imposita non
dissimulaverat, satis facientem eadem die adhibuit cenae hospitioque
patris eius sicut consueverat uti perseveravit.'

C. 52 (against Vatinius) was written B.C. 55 or 54. It used to be
assigned to B.C. 47, when Vatinius was consul, but l. 3, 'per
co