Wikibooks

The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus/106

< The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus
This page may need to be reviewed for quality.

Text & Translation

edit
Line Latin Text English Translation
1 Cum puero bello praeconem qui videt esse, What should one who sees an auctioneer with a fair boy,
2 quid credat, nisi se vendere discupere? believe, but that he is intending to sell himself?

Connotations of The Text

edit

Line 1

edit

praeconem - auctioneer

The joke here is that Juventius is selling himself to an auctioneer. i.e. at the best price he can get for his services.

Line 2

edit

vendere - to sell [himself]

Catullus suspects that his friend Juventius has been eloping with other men, as is mentioned in Poem 24 and Poem 81. Young boys were permitted to satisfy older men but a boy who sold himself was nothing more than a whore.

External Links

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Poetry_of_Gaius_Valerius_Catullus/106"