Catullus 44: The Invulnerability of Not Caring to Be Included

Abstract

This paper argues that the address to the fundus in Catullus 44 reveals a poetic persona that rejects some values shared by other members of Rome's social elite. It reviews Catullus' self-presentation elsewhere, concluding that Catullus' pretensions of poverty privilege poetry over wealth, and then claims that Catullus' language in this poem specifically implies that the poet's detractors, not the poet, care about the name of Catullus' suburban neighborhood. The pragmatic function of this poem is thus to distance Catullus from such concerns and to underscore the importance of poetry over social status.