Question

In “Catullus 8,” Catullus writes, “Wretched Catullus, stop this stupid tomfool stuff / and what you see has perished treat as lo st for good .” These lines show Catullus involved in what intellectual exercise that is crucial to his time period in Rome

Answer 1

In general these lines from Catullus shows the availability of women (prostitutes) during his time and how it distracted people like him from the tasks at hand and held them under their clutches.

In specific, he is talking about a woman, Lesbia in his poems who we could understand is Clodia Metelli an aristocratic woman who belonged to the Patrician family. He is one of the five people who were under her clutches and he was not able to decide whether she was in love or she was just using him because of her indifferent behaviour. This, he tells to himself and motivates himself to come out of that clutch and stay strong. He says that the women took him to different places thus distracting him from his duty. He says that all these are passing clouds that would lead him astray. So he at the end assures that would stay strong.