Catullus 49

Catullus 49 uses superlatives and formal language and adopts a tone of self-deprecation and homage to a great speaker, but these may belie an ironic subtext. For example, commentators have differed as to whether optimus omnium patronus should be taken as a serious compliment, since the phrase can have a double meaning: “best advocate of all (advocates)”, or “best advocate of all (people)”, suggesting that Cicero would defend anybody and everybody. Cicero was known to change sides when politically expedient; it has also been thought that when he was preparing for publication, his speeches were regularly altered to suit the political circumstances of the time of publication, rather than the time of delivery.

There are other reasons why readers have read an ironic tone in this poem. Cicero had been criticised for his longwindedness and his “Asian” style in oratory, especially in his younger days, whereas Catullus favoured new forms and content in his writing and rejected traditional styles. In addition, Cicero early acquired a reputation as a bad poet, and appears at times to have had serious poetic ambitions. Catullus’ poems show him to have had a vigorous contempt for bad poets and pretentious wanna-bes, and we can imagine him inviting his friends round for a good session of vituperative anti-Ciceronian invective.