An anecdotal jesting compliment to the oratorical power of Calvus,
as
Catul. 50.1ff. was a compliment to
his poetical talent. Tacitus (
Tac. Dial.
21) speaks of the orations of Calvus against Vatinius
as still read, “
praecipua secunda ex iis
oratio”, as if there were at least three of them. He
also says (
Tac. Dial. 34) that
Calvus was not much more than 22 years old when he attacked
Vatinius
iis orationibus quas hodie quoque cum
admiratione legimus. This remark may well apply to
the prosecution mentioned by Cicero (
Cic.
Vat. 14) as occurring in 58 B.C., when Calvus was 24
years old. No records exist of any further prosecution of
Vatinius by Calvus until that of August, 54 B.C., when Cicero
appeared for the defence. But when Cicero in 56 B.C.
cross-examined Vatinius (see
In Vatinium
) while conducting the defence of Sestius, Calvus promised
to indict Vatinius, apparently at once (
Cic. Quint. Fr. 2.4.1), and the
trial may well have come off speedily, though doubtless an
acquittal was secured by the same influences that immediately
gave Vatinius the praetorship for 55 B.C., and hurried him into
office (
Cic. Quint. Fr. 2.7.3）
to escape further prosecution. At this unrecorded trial in 56
B.C. the famous second speech of Calvus was probably delivered,
and to it Catullus doubtless refers here.— Meter,
Phalaecean.
corona: a circle of
auditors, especially at a trial; cf.
Cic. Flac. 28.69
“a iudicibus oratio avertitur, vox in
coronam turbamque effunditur”
;
Hor. Ep. 1.18.53
“scis quo clamore coronae proelia
sustineas campestria.”
[2]
Vatiniana: the
adjective is here equivalent to an objective genitive, while
in Catul. 14.3 it is subjective.
[4]
manus tollens: the
instinctive gesture of amazement: cf.
Cic. Acad. 2.19.63
“vehementer admirans … ut
etiam manus saepe tolleret”
.
[5]
di magni: cf. Catul. 14.12
[5]
Salaputium: apparently
a comical slang word, referring to the short stature of
Calvus; cf.
Ov. Trist. 2.431
“exigui licentia Calvi”
; Sen. Contr. 7.4 erat
enim [Calvus] parvulus statura, propter quod etiam Catullus
in hendecasyllabis vocat illum ‘salaputtium
disertum.’ Except in these two places the word
nowhere occurs, though Salaputis is found as a man's name in an
African inscription (CIL 8.10570). The
etymology is uncertain.
