The Invulnerability of Outsider Status in Catullus 44

Wells S. Hansen (Milton Academy, ΜΑ)

When commentators attempt to explain the connection of the opening lines of Catullus 44 with the rest of the poem, they often argue that the address to the fundus performs the function of revealing the social stance of Catullus’ poetic persona: he wants to be included in elite circles and is vulnerable to injury by exclusion from the same (esp. George, David B. (1991) AJP 112: 247-250; Quinn (1970)). also. In this paper I take the opposite view: the poem flows more naturally if read as a humorous anecdote that dismissively rejects the pursuits of social climbers and aligns Catullus with a literary circle in which independence and taste are more important than social stature or property.

With his desire to be at Sestius’ dinner and reading of the Oratio in Antium, the poet exposes himself to two accusations: flattery and social climbing. The story Catullus tells in his defense illustrates that his desire for inclusion, though genuine, does not lead him to flattery, and that he stops short of abasing himself; he cannot stomach the literary concession required in order to secure an invitation. Catullus’ stance has been likened to the scurra in Roman comedy (Sandy (1978) Phoenix v. 32. 1. 68-73). However, Catullus’ relationship to elite society is more complex than that. Far from being a genuine parasitus, he can be included in elite society as an equal, but remains, at least in respect to his poetic persona, an outsider.

A poetic persona characterized by a simplistic desire to be regarded as a member of elite circles on equal footing with the wealthiest Romans would be at odds with the jocular quest for invitations in which Catullus portrays himself and his friends as routinely engaged elsewhere in his poems, and which is also operative in poem 44. The social landscape of the corpus is one of an “outsider with access” (my term) independently judging the powerful and common alike. It is not the voice of an insider spewing venom toward equally powerful enemies. The outsider stance is confirmed throughout the corpus and present here in the poet’s openness to either of two adjectives describing his property.

Catullus portrays himself as unconcerned with status labels through his willingness to accept the description of his fundus as either Tiburs or Sabinus. The concern over the name of the fundus is located not in Catullus’ heart, but rather in the intentions of those who want to harm, or not to harm, Catullus. That is to say: the inclusion of both vocatives (Sabine aut Tiburs) guarantee that the barb intended by those who call the property Sabinus does not sting the poet.

The poet angled for an invitation, read the speech, and might have praised it were the speech not so toxic that it caused him a sickness and induced him not only to thank the fundus for not having avenged his fault, but also to publish a poem ridiculing, not flattering, Sestius. It was the visceral reaction to bad prose that stopped the poet in his pretentious course and the forgiving fundus with its simple herbal curatives that restored him to his true self --a self surely not rustic, but located just outside the city and, symbolically, just out of reach of its poisonous social and political concerns.