Abstract
T HE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER iS to place the term aridal in Catullus 1 in the context of Catullus' stylistic and programmatic language. This is partly a matter of establishing the semantic range and stylistic associations of the term, but, since this term (unlike doctus, for instance) never became a standard stylistic term among the next generation of poets, it is also a matter of considering the origins and experimental nature of Catullus' programmatic language. In the dedication poem for Catullus' libellus, Catullus 1, a description of the external appearance of the papyrus role performs a programmatic function;2 that is, by metaphor and metonomy it locates the qualities of Catullus' poetry within the aesthetic ideals of Callimachean poetry: lepidum, novum, libellum, expolitum, and nugas refer to the polish and charm, innovation and refinement which the Neoterics prized. Similarly, the dedicatee, Cornelius Nepos, is associated, albeit with some irony,3 with another set of terms, which repeat or complement the values that are revealed in and by
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