Catullus' Bedspread: The Life of Rome's Most Erotic Poet

by Daisy Dunn

Overview

A vivid narrative that recreates the life of Gaius Valerius Catullus, Rome’s first modern” poet, and follows a young man’s journey through a world filled with all the indulgences and sexual excesses of the time, from doomed love affairs to shrewd political maneuvering and backstabbing—an accessible, appealing look at one of history’s greatest poets.

Born to one of Verona’s leading families, Catullus spent most of his young adulthood in Rome, mingling with the likes of Caesar and Cicero and chronicling his life through his poetry. Famed for his lyrical and subversive voice, his poems about his friends were jocular, often obscenely funny, while those who crossed him found themselves skewered in raunchy verse, sudden objects of hilarity and ridicule. These bawdy poems were disseminated widely throughout Rome. Many of his poems recall his secret longstanding affair with the seductive older Clodia.

While Catullus and Clodia made love in the shadows, the whole of Italy was quaking as Caesar, Pompey and Crassus forged a doomed alliance for power. During these tumultuous years, Catullus increasingly turned to darker subject matter, and he finally composed his greatest work of all—a poem about the decoration on a bedspread—which forms the heart of this biography, a work of beauty that will achieve immortality and make Catullus a legend.

Catullus’ Bedspread includes an 8-page color insert. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062317032
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/24/2018
Pages:	344
Sales rank:	799,095
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Daisy Dunn studied classics at the University of Oxford, earned a master’s degree in art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, and completed a doctorate in classics and art history at University College London. She writes for the Daily Telegraph, Newsweek, The Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement, and History Today. She lives in London, England.

Table of Contents

Maps xi

Author's Note xvii

Timeline xxi

Prologue 1

I In search of Catullus 15

II The house on the Palatine Hill 23

III An elegant new little book 41

IV Sparrow 57

V The rumours of our elders 73

VI The power of three 89

VII I hate and I love 105

VIII Farewell 121

IX A sea of mackerel 131

X Canvas 145

XI The boxwood Argo 169

XII Godly rumbling 189

XIII The Roman stage 203

XIV A flower on the edge of the meadow 223

Epilogue 237

Appendix: Poem 64 - Catullus' Bedspread Poem 245

Note on Currency and Measures 269

Notes 271

Select Bibliography 295

List of Illustrations 299

Acknowledgements 301

Index 303

Editorial Reviews

Superlative translation…Dunn’s beautifully written biography is a superb portrait of this most human of poets who leaps to life, hating and loving as ferociously as ever, before our 21st-century eyes.” — Sunday Times (London)

“Aficionados of lively, finely crafted biography are well-served…Weaving well-researched social history with a compelling account of political machinations in Rome, the picture here is not just of a libertine prone to writing of his obscene desires, but a soulful man at the heart of a remarkable age.” — The Guardian

“An amazing mixture of pacey biography and first rate literary analysis. Rome’s most famous bad boy poet comes alive as never before. Stunning!” — Boris Johnson, Member of Parliament and Mayor of London

“A haunting reminder of how little humanity has changed over two thousand years and a moving introduction to the greatest love poet of all time.” — Robert Harris, New York Times bestselling author of FATHERLAND, IMPERIUM, and DICTATOR (January, 2016)

“Catullus was not just Rome’s most erotic poet but also its best…Dunn carefully conjures his biography from his works and his relations with rich and powerful contemporaries, especially the clans vying to dominate the crumbling Roman republic, the Julians (led by Caesar) and the Pulchers, the family of Catullus’ lover.” — Booklist

“An excellent introduction to a fabulous, scurrilous poet, a poet who reminds modern readers how little humans have changed in the intervening millennia. . . . Classicist Daisy Dunn presents a lucid and provoking interpretation of one of Ancient Rome’s most fascinating and enduring literary figures.” — Shelf Awareness

“Marvelous…a remarkable telling of the life of Catullus through the poet’s own words… Dunn’s translations are clear, direct, and colloquial, full of double entendres… Dunn’s study of the life of Rome’s most erotic poet is likely to bring many other lovers to Catullus’ side.” — Kirkus, Feature

“Delves deep into the ancient Roman cultural and political climate in which the poet Gaius Valerius Catullus crafted his erotic poems…Well-researched…The author skillfully pieces together an uncensored portrait of her subject.” — Library Journal

“Dunn’s work is sure to entice intrigued readers to her worthy subject…Extracting insights about Catullus’ life from his poems, she places him expertly in his time and place…Dunn’s exploration provides fascinating nuggets of knowledge, social history, and poetry.” — Publishers Weekly

“An appreciative, informed biography of Rome’s first lyric poet. . . . A fresh, knowledgeable introduction to life, love, war, and rivalries in ancient Rome.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Dunn uses the poet Catullus as a lens through which to view late-republic Rome, with all its political intrigue, empire building, and, yes, sex...she places him expertly in his time and place...Dunn’s exploration provides fascinating nuggets of knowledge, social history, and poetry.” — Publishers Weekly

“Dunn extrapolates boldly from the poems in a quasi-novelistic manner…and weaves a circumstantial web around the elusive poet featuring prominent contemporaries such as Cicero, Julius Caesar…Dunn is at her strongest when concentrating on the crucial relationship of Catullus’ life…his agonizing love for the unreliable Clodia.” — Financial Times

“An appreciative, informed biography of…Rome’s first lyric poet…A fresh, knowledgeable introduction to life, love, war, and rivalries in ancient Rome.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Dunn does a brilliant job of recreating Rome in the first century BC as an everyday place…This is a triumph of modern classical scholarship made accessible through lucid writing.” — Independent (London)

“An amazing mixture of pacey biography and first-rate literary analysis. Rome’s most famous bad-boy poet comes alive as never before. Stunning!” — Boris Johnson, member of Parliament and mayor of London

“Dunn’s undoubted strength is as a sure-footed and elegant literary critic…CATULLUS’ BEDSPREAD is richly woven , and Dunn’s deep passion for her subject is patent, as she sifts through the smallest of hints to build up her picture.” — The Spectator

“A bold undertaking…Dunn has skillfully fashioned a full and persuasive biography from meagre records....but it is really only the poems that matter. Dunn loves them, and has translated and analyzed them acutely. Any reader of Catullus will want to have this book.” — Allan Massie, Literary Review

“The task of piecing together a biography from verse alone is one that Daisy Dunn performs with admirable creativity and diligence.” — The Times (London)

“For all those of us who love counting stars none burns brighter in the literary firmament than that of Gaius Valerius Catullus - Daisy Dunn’s brilliant new biography of the Roman master will shine beams of light on his darkly passionate poetry.” — Professor Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge

“Lyrical, playful and startlingly original…Breathes extraordinary new life into the classical world. An unforgettable journey into the high art and low life of ancient Rome.” — Dan Jones, New York Time bestselling author of THE PLANTAGENETS and MAGNA CARTA

“Simultaneously imaginative and learned, Daisy Dunn has written the perfect introduction to Catullus and his world.” — Tom Holland, author of DYNASTY: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE HOUSE OF CAESAR

“Dunn’s imaginative, enriching and quick-witted book reminds us that Catullus is a poet for all time...Her prose is Catullan in its versatility: she can be deliciously coarse and...lyrical.” — Standpoint Magazine

“In this hugely enjoyable study of Catullus’ life and work, Daisy Dunn lifts the lid on an era and world that remains engrossing two millennia on.” — Catholic Herald

“Catullus the poet and the scabrous, witty, ironic, sophisticated, competitive poetic world he inhabited does emerge—stimulating.” — Evening Standard (London)

“Bold…Dunn does not shrink from examining and translating anything and everything. As a result, she gives a far more complete and rounded picture of the poet…Any reader of Catullus will want to have this book.” — Ancient World

“With very little documentary evidence to go on, Dunn has crafted an imagined picture of Catullus’s life, recounting exactly what he thought and felt with creative abandon…Dunn writes beautifully and clearly adores her subject. She deserves plaudits for bringing this fine poet and his tumultuous times so vividly to life.” — Daily Mail (London)

From the Publisher

A haunting reminder of how little humanity has changed over two thousand years and a moving introduction to the greatest love poet of all time.

Robert Harris

An excellent introduction to a fabulous, scurrilous poet, a poet who reminds modern readers how little humans have changed in the intervening millennia. . . . Classicist Daisy Dunn presents a lucid and provoking interpretation of one of Ancient Rome’s most fascinating and enduring literary figures.

Shelf Awareness

Superlative translation…Dunn’s beautifully written biography is a superb portrait of this most human of poets who leaps to life, hating and loving as ferociously as ever, before our 21st-century eyes.

Sunday Times (London)

Catullus was not just Rome’s most erotic poet but also its best…Dunn carefully conjures his biography from his works and his relations with rich and powerful contemporaries, especially the clans vying to dominate the crumbling Roman republic, the Julians (led by Caesar) and the Pulchers, the family of Catullus’ lover.

Booklist

Aficionados of lively, finely crafted biography are well-served…Weaving well-researched social history with a compelling account of political machinations in Rome, the picture here is not just of a libertine prone to writing of his obscene desires, but a soulful man at the heart of a remarkable age.

The Guardian

An amazing mixture of pacey biography and first rate literary analysis. Rome’s most famous bad boy poet comes alive as never before. Stunning!

Boris Johnson

Catullus was not just Rome’s most erotic poet but also its best…Dunn carefully conjures his biography from his works and his relations with rich and powerful contemporaries, especially the clans vying to dominate the crumbling Roman republic, the Julians (led by Caesar) and the Pulchers, the family of Catullus’ lover.

Booklist

For all those of us who love counting stars none burns brighter in the literary firmament than that of Gaius Valerius Catullus - Daisy Dunn’s brilliant new biography of the Roman master will shine beams of light on his darkly passionate poetry.

Professor Paul Cartledge

A bold undertaking…Dunn has skillfully fashioned a full and persuasive biography from meagre records....but it is really only the poems that matter. Dunn loves them, and has translated and analyzed them acutely. Any reader of Catullus will want to have this book.

Allan Massie

Dunn’s undoubted strength is as a sure-footed and elegant literary critic…CATULLUS’ BEDSPREAD is richly woven , and Dunn’s deep passion for her subject is patent, as she sifts through the smallest of hints to build up her picture.

The Spectator

The task of piecing together a biography from verse alone is one that Daisy Dunn performs with admirable creativity and diligence.

The Times (London)

Dunn extrapolates boldly from the poems in a quasi-novelistic manner…and weaves a circumstantial web around the elusive poet featuring prominent contemporaries such as Cicero, Julius Caesar…Dunn is at her strongest when concentrating on the crucial relationship of Catullus’ life…his agonizing love for the unreliable Clodia.

Financial Times

With very little documentary evidence to go on, Dunn has crafted an imagined picture of Catullus’s life, recounting exactly what he thought and felt with creative abandon…Dunn writes beautifully and clearly adores her subject. She deserves plaudits for bringing this fine poet and his tumultuous times so vividly to life.

Daily Mail (London)

In this hugely enjoyable study of Catullus’ life and work, Daisy Dunn lifts the lid on an era and world that remains engrossing two millennia on.

Catholic Herald

Dunn does a brilliant job of recreating Rome in the first century BC as an everyday place…This is a triumph of modern classical scholarship made accessible through lucid writing.

Independent (London)

Simultaneously imaginative and learned, Daisy Dunn has written the perfect introduction to Catullus and his world.

Tom Holland

Bold…Dunn does not shrink from examining and translating anything and everything. As a result, she gives a far more complete and rounded picture of the poet…Any reader of Catullus will want to have this book.

Ancient World

Dunn’s imaginative, enriching and quick-witted book reminds us that Catullus is a poet for all time...Her prose is Catullan in its versatility: she can be deliciously coarse and...lyrical.

Standpoint Magazine

Catullus the poet and the scabrous, witty, ironic, sophisticated, competitive poetic world he inhabited does emerge—stimulating.

Evening Standard (London)

Lyrical, playful and startlingly original…Breathes extraordinary new life into the classical world. An unforgettable journey into the high art and low life of ancient Rome.

Dan Jones

Dunn extrapolates boldly from the poems in a quasi-novelistic manner…and weaves a circumstantial web around the elusive poet featuring prominent contemporaries such as Cicero, Julius Caesar…Dunn is at her strongest when concentrating on the crucial relationship of Catullus’ life…his agonizing love for the unreliable Clodia.

Financial Times

05/09/2016
With its quirky, mildly titillating title, Dunn’s work is sure to entice intrigued readers to her worthy subject, but anyone looking for salacious tales of Roman excess should look elsewhere. Instead, Dunn uses the poet Catullus (c. 82–53 BCE) as a lens through which to view late-republic Rome, with all its political intrigue, empire building, and, yes, sex. Extracting insights about his life from his poems, she places him expertly in his time and place, contextualizing what little is known about him today. Catullus is often overshadowed in the text by more famous and vivid figures such as Cicero, Julius Caesar, and Pompey. Also prominent is his married lover, Clodia, and his stormy relationship with her as evoked in his poems. Throughout, Dunn examines the corrupt, unsettled times that Catullus lived in and commented on while also giving insight into his literary choices and subject matter. A newcomer to Roman history may have difficulty following all the threads Dunn weaves together, but for those interested in the subject, Dunn’s exploration provides fascinating nuggets of knowledge, social history, and poetry. 8-page color insert. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Associates Ltd. (U.K.). (July)

Publishers Weekly

Dunn’s imaginative, enriching and quick-witted book reminds us that Catullus is a poet for all time...Her prose is Catullan in its versatility: she can be deliciously coarse and...lyrical.

Standpoint

05/01/2016
Classicist Dunn's (editor, Argo magazine) book delves deep into the ancient Roman cultural and political climate in which the poet Gaius Valerius Catullus crafted his erotic poems. The author's well-researched prose vividly meanders through Catullus's privileged, well-connected life. According to Dunn, Catullus's work influenced the development of the Latin love elegy, with his verse in the back pocket of greats such as Ovid and Tibullus. His poetry is described as being urbane—with his observations springing forth from profound experiences with the world around him, akin to "those of an elevated being." Although the writing tends toward the tangential at times, the author skillfully pieces together an uncensored portrait of her subject. The boy who eavesdropped on Julius Caesar grew into the artist who fell in love with Clodia and the man who mourned his brother's passing. The work includes a time line and an appended Poem 64 (bedspread poem). VERDICT Recommended for students of classical Roman literature and classical Roman history.—Nerissa Kuebrich, Chicago

Library Journal

Dunn’s impressionistic life of Catullus, the passionate and often obscene Roman poet, gets a smart and engaging reading from Mike Grady. (Note: Graphic sexual references abound.) Grady’s deep, rough, yet velvety voice and his well-measured, almost rhythmic, pacing could sweep listeners along if he read the back of a cereal box. He brings intelligence and a rich emotional sense to the text and the many quotations from the poetry. The latter are delivered in a regional British accent, probably to suggest a “hick” accent for Catullus, who came from the Gaulish north of Italy. Though a thoughtful and intriguing choice, the difference in accents between the narrative and quotes from Catullus sometimes distracts. Still, this program engages the mind and the senses, affording the listener rich pleasure. W.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-04-11
The short life of Rome's first lyric poet.Journalist and classicist Dunn (translator: The Poems of Catullus, 2016) reveals the "uncertain and turbulent times" of ancient Rome in this appreciative, informed biography of Catullus. Dying before he was 30, Catullus produced 117 poems "full of emotion, wit, and lurid insight into some of the key Roman personalities." Melding many literary genres, his poems' "apparent simplicity…often masks far greater, deeper sentiment and subtlety of thought," and he influenced later writers, including Ovid, Virgil, Horace, and Roman satirists. Central to Dunn's study is Catullus' longest poem, which she appends to this biography. She calls it his "Bedspread Poem" because it describes in detail the myths incorporated into the sumptuous wedding bedspread of one of Jason's Argonauts. "The bedspread," she writes, "was a visual web of words" that evoked history and mythology to create "a miniature epic." Dunn constructs her narrative around Catullus' verse, which she has translated from the Latin. "I see this very much as a joint venture: Catullus provides the poetry; I offer something of the world that informed it." That world was peopled by Cicero, the wealthy orator and statesman, who sought to bolster stability by strengthening Rome's Senate; ambitious Julius Caesar, a friend of Catullus' father, who "cemented his claim to Rome through dictatorship"; and the poet's beloved, Clodia Metelli, a married woman of at least 35 who appeared to him as a "shining goddess." He gave her the pseudonym Lesbia and made her the subject of a spate of erotic love poems. Lesbia became the poet's "raison d'etre." Among many revelations about Roman culture, Dunn speculates that because their affair produced no child, either Clodia or Catullus might have used some method of herbal or barrier contraception. A fresh, knowledgeable introduction to life, love, war, and rivalries in ancient Rome.

Kirkus Reviews