Gāius Valerius Catullus was born to a leading
equestrian family of
Verona, in
Cisalpine Gaul. The social prominence of his family allowed his father to entertain
Julius Caesar when he was the
Promagistrate (proconsul) of both
Gallic provinces. In poem 31, Catullus describes his happy homecoming to the family villa at
Sirmio, on
Lake Garda, near Verona; he also owned a villa near the resort of
Tibur (modern Tivoli). He appears to have been acquainted with the poet
Marcus Furius Bibaculus. A number of prominent contemporaries appear in his poetry, including Cicero, Caesar and
Pompey. Cicero called Catullus' group of poets the "new poets" in scorn. According to an anecdote preserved by
Suetonius, Caesar did not deny that Catullus's lampoons left an indelible stain on his reputation, but when Catullus apologized, he invited the poet for dinner the very same day. The "
Lesbia" of his poems is usually identified with
Clodia Metelli, a sophisticated woman from the aristocratic house of patrician family Claudii Pulchri, sister of the infamous
Publius Clodius Pulcher, and wife to
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (consul of 60 BC). The Roman writer Apuleius said that Lesbia was a certain Clodia within the Roman Empire He spent the year from summer 57 to summer 56 BC in
Bithynia on the staff of the commander
Gaius Memmius. While in the East, he traveled to the
Troad to perform rites at his brother's tomb, an event recorded in a moving poem (101). However, Catullus's poems include references to events of 55 BC. Since the Roman
consular fasti make it somewhat easy to confuse 87–57 BC with 84–54 BC, many scholars accept the dates 84–54 BC, Though upon his elder brother's death Catullus lamented that their "whole house was buried along" with the deceased, the existence (and prominence) of
Valerii Catulli is attested in the following centuries.
T. P. Wiseman argues that after the brother's death Catullus could have married, and that, in this case, the later
Valerii Catulli may have been his descendants. ==Poetry==