Catullus 9

Catullus 9 is a Latin poem of eleven lines in Phalaecean metre by the Roman poet Catullus.[1]

Text
TranslationOriginal LatinLine

Veranius, preferred by me to three hundred thousand
Out of all the number of my friends,
have you then come to your own hearth
and your affectionate brothers and aged mother?
You have indeed. O joyful news to me!
I shall look upon you safe returned, and hear you
telling of the county, the history, the various tribes of the Iberians,
as is your way, and drawing your neck nearer to me
I shall kiss your beloved face and eyes.
O, of all men blest than other,
who is more glad, more blest than I?

Vērānī, omnibus ē meīs amīcīs
antistāns mihi mīlibus trecentīs,
vēnistīne domum ad tuōs penātēs
frātrēsque ūnanimōs anumque mātrem?
Vēnistī. Ō mihi nūntiī beātī!
vīsam tē incolumem audiamque Hibērum
narrantem loca, facta, nātiōnēs,
ut mōs est tuus, applicānsque collum
iūcundum ōs oculōsque suāviābor.
Ō quantum est hominum beātiōrum,
quid mē laetius est beātiusve?

9.1
9.2
9.3
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9.6
9.7
9.8
9.9
9.10
9.11

Analysis

E. T. Merrill calls the poem "an expression of joy" over the return of Veranius, the poet's friend, from Spain.[1] Such expeditions to the colonies on the part of young Romans of that day were common: compare Fabullus in Catullus 28.[2]

In his Victorian translation of Catullus, R. F. Burton titles the poem "To Veranius returned from Travel".[3]

References
  1. Merrill, ed. 1893, p. 19.
  2. Merrill, ed. 1893, pp. xxv, xliii.
  3. Burton; Smithers, eds. 1894, p. 15.

Sources
  • Burton, Richard F.; Smithers, Leonard C., eds. (1894). The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. London: Printed for the Translators: for Private Subscribers. pp. 15–16.
  • Merrill, Elmer Truesdell, ed. (1893). Catullus (College Series of Latin Authors). Boston, MA: Ginn and Company. pp. xxv, xliii, 19–20. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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