Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics: January (2006)
Abstract
It is well known that the tenth poem of the Vergilian Catalepton on Sabinus the Muleteer closely parodies Catullus Phaselus ille. The one poem elegantly describes the career of a sleek ship, its heroic voyages and its final retirement from service. The other humorously reports the career of a lowly mule driver named Sabinus, his business trips, his life in retirement. There is less certainty, however, and even less agreement, about who the Sabinus ille of the parody might be, if indeed the character is not a complete fiction. The identity of Sabinus is important not only because of its intrinsic interest to a better understanding of the poem itself, but also because of what a correct identity might suggest about the period and social context in which the parody was composed. Since most identities that have been proffered for the Sabinus of the tenth Catalepton have been rejected, any new suggestion might be useful in elucidating both of these problems.
Existing identifications have depended on the immediate influence of Catullus on the generation in which Vergil was composing. But the influential presence of the poet is also discernable in later ages. It is perhaps not without significance that one of the most powerful of these later echoes is to be found in Martial, the Flavian epigrammatist and satirical poet on whom the influence of Catullus is substantial—perhaps, indeed, the most substantial amongst Latin writers of later ages. Other possibilities are therefore open.
Brent D. Shaw
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics: January (2006)
Abstract
It is well known that the tenth poem of the Vergilian Catalepton on Sabinus the Muleteer closely parodies Catullus Phaselus ille. The one poem elegantly describes the career of a sleek ship, its heroic voyages and its final retirement from service. The other humorously reports the career of a lowly mule driver named Sabinus, his business trips, his life in retirement. There is less certainty, however, and even less agreement, about who the Sabinus ille of the parody might be, if indeed the character is not a complete fiction. The identity of Sabinus is important not only because of its intrinsic interest to a better understanding of the poem itself, but also because of what a correct identity might suggest about the period and social context in which the parody was composed. Since most identities that have been proffered for the Sabinus of the tenth Catalepton have been rejected, any new suggestion might be useful in elucidating both of these problems.
Existing identifications have depended on the immediate influence of Catullus on the generation in which Vergil was composing. But the influential presence of the poet is also discernable in later ages. It is perhaps not without significance that one of the most powerful of these later echoes is to be found in Martial, the Flavian epigrammatist and satirical poet on whom the influence of Catullus is substantial—perhaps, indeed, the most substantial amongst Latin writers of later ages. Other possibilities are therefore open.
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