R.M. Newton: Catullus 4599 Acme and Septimius Recounted: Catullus 45 Rick M. Newton Carmen 45 is a remarkable poem in the Catullan corpus. An erotic dialogue between two lovers who appear only here in the collection, the duet of Acme and Septimius stands apart from Catullus' other amatory epigrams. Belonging neither to the Lesbia cycle nor to the Juventius cycle, die idylUc account of this hyperbolically blissful couple contrasts sharply with the emotional intensity and earnestness of Catullus' other expressions of love. As E. Havelock observes, this "little lovedrama " is one of only two poems in the entire corpus which "are detached from the immediate concerns of [the poet's] daily Ufe."1 A. Wheeler classifies the piece with the few Catullan "ideal or purely fanciful poems . . . which have no basis in reaUty."2 In a similar vein, M. Skinner reads this "cool, stylized, and detached" idyll as "differ[ing] radically from the Lesbia sequence."3 But the poem is remarkable also for its careful and meticulous form. Its tripartite structure, consisting of two stanzas of nine Unes each followed by a closing stanza of eight lines, has been Ukened to die arrangement of verses in Greek tragic choruses: critics have applied the terms strophe, antistrophe, and epode to the piece.4 Especially remarkable is the arrangement of the nine occurrences of the names of Acme and Septimius. The opening sequence "Acmen-Septimius-Acme" in lines 1-2 is repeated in the final 1 The Lyric Genius ofCatullus (New York 1929) 95. 2 Catullus andthe Traditions ofAncient Poetry (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1964) 241. 3 Catullus' Passer: The Arrangement of the Book ofPolymetric Poems (New York 1981) 77. 4 See, for example, H. Comfort, "Analysis of Technique in Catullus 45 (Septimius and Acme)," TAPA 69 (1938) xxxiii; CJ. Fordyce, Catullus: A Commentary (Oxford 1961) 202; J.B. Ferguson, Catullus (Lawrence 1985) 129-32. 100Syllecta Classica 7 (1996) sequence "Acmen-Septimio-Acme" in lines 21-23.5 Within this outer frame, the names "Acme" in line 9 and "Septimius" in Une 21 form an inner frame around die diminutive vocative Septimille. Standing at the end of Une 13, this hapax Iegomenon occupies the center position not only of the arrangement of names but also of the entire twenty-six line poem. However detached Catullus may be from these two individuals, dierefore, it is clear that he lavishes great care and numerical precision on the poem he writes for them. As the lovers vie to quantify their mutual affection, the poet himself engages in the activity of counting. It may therefore be worthwhile to read carmen 45 within the context of odier Catullan poems in which love and the activities which express it are measured and quantified. Specifically, c. 45 invites comparison with cc. 5 and 7, which count Lesbia's kisses; with cc. 1 1 and 37, which number Lesbia's lovers; and widi cc. 8, 58 and 87, in which Catullus declares that Lesbia is the most beloved woman in die world. The first indication that c. 45 may be read in the light of these other poems appears in the opening words, "Acmen Septimius." The beloved Acme bears a Greek name which suggests that she is the "end, peak, or limit" of the world's desirable women. Her lover is prepared to go to the ends of the earth—to Libya or India—to prove the boundlessness of his affection. In line 22 Acme is preferred to the most remote regions of the ancient world, namely all the "Syrias and Britains."6 Septimius himself belongs to a gens whose name suggests the number seven. As if drawing attention to the numerical aspect of this name, Catullus consistently juxtaposes Septimius with another Roman number. In line 21 "poor little Septimius prefers only Acme" (unam Septimius misellus Acmen mavult), and in line 23 "faithful Acme takes her delight in Septimius alone" (uno in Septimiofidelis Acme facit delicias). Acme's vocative phrase, mea vita Septimille, in Une 13 is immediately followed by her oath that they will forever serve Amor as their "single master" (Septimille, huic uni domino usque serviamus). When Septimius vows that he will face a tiger in the...