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[7] catagraphos Thynos: the former word is so little used as to make impossible its sure interpretation here: nor is it certain even which of the two words is noun and which is adjective. But as catagraphi is used of outline drawings (in Plin. NH 35.56), and as tablets were commonly made of box ( Prop. 4.23.8vulgari buxo sordida cera fuit” ), a Bithynian wood (cf. Catul. 4.13n.), it is quite possible that the objects referred to here were pugillares, carved or otherwise decorated on the outside, and so more valuable and tempting to a thief than was the ordinary kind. Perhaps they were a memento of the journey of Catullus himself to Bithynia. It would not be strange for the poet to bring his tablets to some dinner parties (Catul. 50.1ff.).


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Bithynia (Turkey) (1)

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