7 h 9 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 9 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Love burns, friendship bites, and grief cuts through the wit of a Roman poet who rarely hides his feelings.
In The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus, private feelings become sharp, personal verse. Catullus writes of Lesbia, the woman at the heart of a love affair that goes wrong. Tenderness turns to jealousy; longing sits beside anger. His voice feels close because he lets its contradictions show.
The collection moves from playful short poems through longer works on myth and marriage to brief, pointed verse. A dedication to Cornelius Nepos opens the book; wedding songs widen its world. Friends such as Fabullus and Veranius receive poems, rivals feel its sting, and the death of a brother brings grief into the same intimate space.
What you’ll discover
- Love without a shield Meet Lesbia through poems where desire and jealousy leave little room for calm.
- Wit with sharp edges Follow jokes among friends and quarrels with rivals, sometimes deliberately crude and always personal.
- Marriage, myth, and song Step beyond the short lyrics into wedding songs and longer poems shaped by myth.
- Grief close at hand Encounter the loss of a brother in a collection that rarely conceals its feelings.
- Kisses beyond counting Discover images of kisses counted like coins or grains of sand.
Who will love it
Readers who love passionate short poems, sharp humor, and the voice of a real person speaking across two thousand years will find a friend here. It also suits anyone curious about Roman love, friendship, politics, and myth.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young poet from Verona offers his trifles
- Lesbia enters the book through sparrows and kisses
- Love sours into hurt, anger, and a double feeling
- Friendship fills the book with warmth and jokes
- His insults turn verse into a weapon
- Even Julius Caesar is not safe from him
- Two wedding songs mix praise, teasing, and hope
- Frenzied gods and humble gods share the stage
- A wedding tapestry holds the grief of Ariadne
- A brother's death sits at the center of the book
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The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus
A Roman poet mourns a sparrow, begs for a thousand kisses, and curses the woman he cannot stop loving.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
Imagine a man in Rome writing a funeral song for a sparrow. The same man writes in rage at a woman who swore she wanted no one but him, and in grief at his brother's grave.
The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 40 min3 h 40 min fast, 5 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 66,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young poet from Verona offers his trifles
The book opens with a dedication. Catullus hands his freshly polished little book to Cornelius Nepos and calls his poems trifles. Yet he asks his patron goddess that they may outlast more than one generation.
Catullus came from Verona and made his life in Rome. He also served on a governor's staff in Bithynia and came home no richer. Poem ten jokes about it, as he claims to have eight sturdy litter bearers and cannot produce one.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
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Cite this edition
Gaius Valerius Catullus. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-carmina-of-caius-valerius-catullus.
Gaius Valerius Catullus. (2026). The carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-carmina-of-caius-valerius-catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-carmina-of-caius-valerius-catullus.
@book{catullus2026carmina,
author = {Gaius Valerius Catullus},
title = {The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-carmina-of-caius-valerius-catullus}
}
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What is Catullus Carmina about?
It is a collection of one hundred and sixteen Latin poems on love for a woman called Lesbia, friendships, quarrels, politics, weddings, gods, myth, and the death of the poet's brother, all in a lively personal voice.
Who was Lesbia in Catullus poems?
Lesbia is the name Catullus gives the woman he loves. Readers have long identified her with Clodia, a Roman noblewoman, though the poems never say so plainly. She is tender and cruel in turn.
What does I hate and I love mean?
It is poem eighty-five, a two-line epigram. It says the poet hates and loves the same person at once, cannot explain why, and only knows that he feels it and suffers.
The author
Gaius Valerius Catullus
83 BC–53 BC · Ancient Roman lyric poet
Lyric Latin poet of the Roman Republic.
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