f of oblivion. The 'river of death' which the brother of
Catullus has just crossed (Catullus says forded) to return no more, is
called Lethaean (Greek [Greek: lethe], 'forgetfuluess'), since the dead
forget the living, and the living the dead. 6. pallidulum: poor, pallid
foot. 7. Rhoeteo: Rhoeteum was a promontory of the Troad. 8. obterit:
crushes. 13. Daulias: the nightingale, lit. the (transformed) woman of
Daulis. Catullus has taken this name from the legend of Tereus (see
_Harper's Classical Dictionary_, 'Tereus'), while he has followed the
myth as it appears in Odyssey, 19. 518 ff., where the plaintive song of
the nightingale is represented as the lamentation of Aedon for her child
Itylus, whom before her transformation into the nightingale 'she slew
unwittingly with the bronze.' 15. haec expressa carmina Battiadae: these
verses translated from Callimachus. Callimachus of Cyrene, 'the son of
Battus,' was a Greek poet of the Alexandrine school. His death occurred
about 240 B.C. 16. nequiquam...ventis: i.e. ineffectual.

_9._ 'An invocation accompanying offerings at the tomb of the poet's
brother.'--Merrill. Catullus probably made this visit to the Troad on
his Bithynian journey. Date, probably 57 B.C. 2. miseras ad inferias:
for these sad offerings. The inferiae, or offerings to the dead,
consisted of wine, milk, blood, honey, flowers, etc. 4. nequiquam: no
answer would be returned. 6. indigne: wrongfully, because his death was
premature. 7. Nunc tamen interea: But now while I thus am sorrowing,
interea, as in 14. 21, 36. 18, and _Ciris_, 44 ff., marks the transition
from reflection upon a situation to the act which that situation demands
at the moment. 9. multum manantia: drenched. 10. ave atque vale: the
formula of farewell to the dead, spoken at the conclusion of the funeral
ceremonies. Cf. Vergil, _Aeneid_, 11. 97 ff.

IV. VERGIL.

70-19 B.C.

Roman Vergil, thou that singest
Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire,
Ilion falling, Rome arising,
Wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;

Thou that singest wheat and woodland,
Tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;
All the charm of all the Muses
Often flowering in a lonely word;

Poet of the happy Tityrus
Piping underneath his beechen bowers;
Poet of the poet-satyr
Whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;

I salute thee, Mantovano,
I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest meas