[Glenn Wright]

Thanks for the fascinating background, Susan. The research that you and Carl provide make reading the poem a much richer experience. I wondered when the poem says “nunc Celtiber es” in line 17 whether he meant “Now since you are a Spaniard,” or “Now you are [acting like] a Spaniard.” There were a number of highly civilized and refined Romans who came from Hispania, although many lived 100-150 years after Catullus. Martial comes to mind as well as Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. I wonder if Egnatius was actually of Hispanic origin and if inhabitants of Hispania (many of whom might be suspect because of their Carthaginian ancestry) were considered unrefined in Catullus’ day. Catullus himself came from Verona in Cisalpine Gaul, so he might want to be careful about calling his rival’s lack of urbanitas into question.

I put some thought into choosing a meter and rhyme scheme. The Latin original is in choliambic or “limping iambic,” one of Catullus’ favorites, so-called because the last foot of (in this case) hexameter substitutes a trochee for the iamb and seems to trip at the end of the line. I decided on elegiac quatrains in IP, but this is a rather neutral background. I thought I could add some enjambments to roughen it up a bit, but couldn’t really find a way to make that happen except in lines 5-6 and lines 20-21.

Thanks again for helping me to understand the poem better, Susan.
Glenn