Dedications and Status: Catullus 1 and Horace Epodes 1

Abstract

Catullus’ first poem foregrounds gift-giving as a poetic problematic not only for his own work but also for subsequent lyric collections. Reading Catullus 1 as participating in the larger context of elite gift-exchange and obligation casts light on Catullus’ choice of dedicatee and the reading of the second-to-last line. This focus on the problems of gift-giving contextualizes Horace’s use of Catullus’ poetry, notably in Epodes 1. Horace’s deployment of the nexus of relations between poet, patron, and readers to mitigate the problem of status builds on Catullus’ inversion of conventional Roman ideals of liberalitas.