[22] Syrias Britanniasque: the allusion suggests that the poem was composed in 55 B.C., for in that year Caesar invaded Britain and Crassus took command in Syria. Syria was proverbially a country of great wealth, and Britain was supposed to be so till the expedition of Caesar proved it otherwise (cf. Cic. Fam. 7.7.1 “in Britannia nihil esse audio neque auri neque argenti” (to Trebatius after the expedition); Att. 4.16.7 “Britannici belli exitus exspectatur; … etiam illud iam cognitum est, neque argenti scripulum esse ullum in illa insula neque ullam spem praedae nisi ex mancipiis” ). The plural is used to indicate, not the several parts of the countries themselves, but such rich countries as Syria and Britain; cf. Prop. 3.16.10 “alias Illyrias” .
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Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.
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