Chapter IX: Front Matter (9)

The culmination of what may be termed the Booth and Bates period was in the year 1875, when the sales took place of Lord Dunmore's and William Torr's herds, which realized extraordinary prices. In that black year of farming, 1879, prices were declining, and they continued to do so till within the last few years of the close of the 19th century, when there set in a gradual revival, stimulated largely by the commercial prosperity of the country. The result of extremely high prices when line-bred animals were in fashion was a tendency to breed from all kinds of animals that were of the same tribe, without selection. A deterioration set in, which was aggravated by the overlooking of the milking properties. Shorthorn breeders came to see that change of blood was necessary. Meanwhile, for many years breeders in Aberdeenshire had been holding annual sales of young bulls and heifers from their herds. The late Amos Cruickshank began his annual sales in the 'forties, and the late W.T. Talbot-Crosbie had annual sales from his Shorthorn herd in the south-west of Ireland for a number of years. Many Aberdeen farmers emigrated to Canada, and bought Shorthorn calves in their native county to take with them. The Cruickshanks held their bull sales at that time, and many of their animals were bought by the small breeders in Canada. This continued until 1875, when the Cruickshanks had so much private demand that they discontinued their public sales. Subsequently, when Cruickshank sold his herd privately to James Nelson & Sons for exportation, the animals could not all be shipped, and W. Duthie, of Collynie, Aberdeenshire, bought some of the older cows, whilst J. Deane Willis, of Bapton Monar, Wilts, bought the yearling heifers. Duthie thereupon resumed the sales that the Cruickshanks had relinquished, his averages being L30 in 1892, about L50 in 1893-1894, and L80 in 1895. These prices advanced through English breeders requiring a little change of blood, and also through the increasing tendency to exhibit animals of great substance, or rather to feed animals for show. The success of this movement strengthened the demand, whilst an inquiry for his line of blood arose in the United States and Canada. A faithful contemporary history of the Shorthorn breed is to be found in _Thornton's Circular_, published quarterly since 1868; see also J. Sinclair, _History of Shorthorn Cattle_ (1907); R. Bruce, _Fifty Years among Shorthorns_ (1907); A.H. Sanders, _Shorthorn Cattle_ (Chicago, 1901).

The _Lincolnshire Red Shorthorns_ are the best dual-purpose cattle--for milk and meat--that possess a pedigree record, in the United Kingdom, and their uniform cherry red colour has brought them into high favour in tropical countries for crossing with the native breeds.

The _Hereford_ breed is maintained chiefly in Herefordshire and the adjoining counties. Whilst a full red is the general colour of the body, the Herefords are distinguished by their white face, white chest and abdomen, and white mane. The legs up to the knee or hock are also often white. As a protection against the sun in a hot climate dark spots on the eyelids or round the orbits are valuable. The horns are moderately long. Herefords, though they rear their own calves, have acquired but little fame as dairy cattle. They are very hardy, and produce beef of excellent quality. Being docile, they fatten easily and readily, and as graziers' beasts they are in high favour.

When the Bates' Shorthorn bubble burst in America about 1877, the Hereford gradually replaced the Shorthorn of the western ranches, and it is now the most numerous ranch animal in the United States and Canada. The bulls beat the bulls of all other breeds in "rustling" capacity.

In America the ranch-bred Herefords have got too small in the bone in recent years, and Shorthorns, chiefly of the Scottish type, are being introduced to increase their size by crossing. In the "feed lot" a well-bred Hereford steer feeds more quickly than either a Shorthorn or an Aberdeen-Angus.

In Queensland, Hereford cattle bred from the "Lord Wilton" strain by Robert Christison of Lammermoor have for years been triumphant as beef-producers in competition with the Shorthorn. When these are quartered in the ordinary butchers' fashion, the hind-quarters outweigh the fore-quarters, which is a reversal of the prevailing rule.

_North Devons_.--The "Rubies of the West," as they are termed from their hue, are reared chiefly in Devon and Somerset. The colour is a whole red, its depth or richness varying with the individual, and in summer becoming mottled with darker spots. The Devons stand somewhat low; they are neat and compact, and possess admirable symmetry. Although a smaller breed than the Shorthorn or the Hereford, they weigh better than either. The horns of the female are somewhat slender, and often curve neatly upwards. Being fine-limbed, active animals, they are well adapted for grazing the poor pastures of their native hills, and they turn their food to the best account, yielding excellent beef. They have not yet attained much celebrity as milch kine, for, though their milk is of first-class quality, with a few notable exceptions, its quantity is small. Latterly, however, the milking qualities have received more attention from breeders, whose object is to qualify the Devon as a dual-purpose breed.

The _South Devon_ or _South Hams_ cattle are almost restricted to that southern part of the county of Devon known as the Hams, whence they are also called "Hammers." With a somewhat ungainly head, lemon-yellow hair, yellow skin, and large but hardly handsome udder, the South Devon breed more resembles the Guernsey, with which it is supposed to be connected, than the trim-built cattle of the hills of North Devon. The cows are large, heavy milkers, and produce excellent butter. They are rarely seen outside their locality except when they appear in the showyards.

The _Sussex_ breed resembles the North Devon in many respects, but it is bigger, less refined in appearance, less graceful in outline, and of a deeper brown-chestnut colour than the "dainty Devon," as the latter may well be called when compared with them. As a hardy race, capable of thriving on poor rough pastures, the Sussex are highly valued in their native districts, where they were rapidly improved before the end of the 19th century. They are essentially a beef-producing breed, the cows having little reputation as milkers. By stall-feeding they can be ripened for the butcher at an early age. Sussex cattle are said to "die well," that is, to yield a large proportion of meat in the best parts of the carcase.

In the _Welsh_ breed of cattle black is the prevailing colour, and the horns are fairly long. They do not mature very rapidly, but some of them grow eventually into great ponderous beasts, and their beef is of prime quality. The cows often possess considerable reputation as milkers. As graziers' beasts Welsh cattle are well known in the midland counties of England, where, under the name of "Welsh runts," large herds of bullocks are fattened on the pastures or "topped up" in the yards in winter.

All the remaining strains of Welsh cattle were recognized as one breed in 1904, when the Welsh Black Cattle Society united into one register the Herd Books of North and South Wales.

The _Longhorn_ or "Dishley" breed of cattle is one of the most interesting historically. It was with Longhorns that Robert Bakewell, of Dishley, Leicestershire (1726-1795), showed his remarkable skill as an improver of cattle in the middle of the 18th century.[6] At one period Longhorns spread widely over England and Ireland, but, as the Shorthorns extended their domain, the Longhorns made way for them. They are big, rather clumsy animals, with long drooping horns, which are very objectionable in these days of cattle transport by rail and sea. They are slow in coming to maturity, but are very hardy. The bullocks feed up to heavy weights, and the cows are fair milkers. No lover of cattle can view these quaint creatures without a feeling of satisfaction that the efforts made to resuscitate a breed which has many useful qualities to commend it have been successful, and that the extinction which threatened it in the 'eighties of last century is no longer imminent. In 1907 there were twenty-two Longhorn herds containing about four hundred registered cattle located mainly in the English midlands and Man.

The _Red Poll_ breed, though old, has only come into prominence within recent years. They were known as the East Anglian Polls, and later as the Norfolk and Suffolk Polled cattle, being confined chiefly to these two counties. They are symmetrically built, of medium size, and of uniformly red colour. They have a tuft of hair on the poll. As dairy cattle, they are noted for the length of the period during which they continue in milk. Not less are they valued as beef-producers, and, as they are hardy and docile, they fatten readily and mature fairly early. Hence, like the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn, they may claim to be a dual-purpose breed. As beef cattle they are always seen to advantage at the Norwich Christmas cattle show, held annually in November.

The _Aberdeen-Angus_, a polled, black breed, the cows of which are often termed "Doddies," belongs to Aberdeenshire and adjacent parts of Scotland, but many herds are maintained in England and some in Ireland. The steers and heifers fed for the butcher attain great weight, make first-class show beasts, and yield beef of excellent quality. The cross between the Shorthorn and the Aberdeen-Angus is a favourite in the meat markets and at fat-stock competitions.

The _Galloways_ are named from the district, Kirkcudbright and Wigtonshire, in the south-west of Scotland, to which they are native. Like the Aberdeen-Angus cattle, they are hornless, and normally of a black colour. But, with a thicker hide and shaggy hair, suited to a wet climate, they have a coarser appearance than the Aberdeen-Angus, the product of a less humid region, though it approaches the latter in size. Galloways yield superior beef, but mature less rapidly than the Aberdeen-Angus. They make admirable beasts for the grazier, and the cross between the Galloway and the white Shorthorn bull, known as a "Blue Grey," is much sought after by the grazier and the butcher.

PLATE I. BREEDS OF ENGLISH CATTLE.

PLATE II. BREEDS OF ENGLISH AND WELSH CATTLE.

(From photographs by F. Babbage.)

PLATE III. BREEDS OF SCOTCH CATTLE.

PLATE IV. BREEDS OF IRISH AND CHANNEL ISLANDS CATTLE.

The comparative sizes of the animals are indicated by the scale of
reproduction of the photographs.

(From photographs by F. Babbage.)

The _West Highland_ or Kyloe breed are perhaps the most hardy and picturesque of British cattle. Their home is amidst the wild romantic scenery of the Highlands and the Western Isles of Scotland, though Highland bullocks with long, spreading curved horns may be seen in English parks. They have not made much progress towards early maturity, but their slowly ripened beef is of the choicest quality. The colour of their thick shaggy hair varies from white and light dun to tawny yellow of many shades, and black.

The _Ayrshires_ are the dairy breed of Scotland, where they have considerably overstepped the limits of the humid western county whence they take their name. They are usually of a white and brown colour, the patches being well defined. The neat, shapely, upstanding horns are characteristic. The Ayrshires are under medium size and move gracefully, and the females display the wedge-shape typical of dairy cows. They are a hardy breed, and, even from poor pastures, give good yields of milk, especially useful for cheese-making purposes. The milking powers of the breed are being improved under a system of milk-testing and records supported by the Highland and Agricultural Society.

The _Jerseys_ are graceful, deer-like cattle, whose home is in the island of Jersey, where, by means of stringent regulations against the importation of cattle, the breed has been kept pure for many generations. As its milk is especially rich in fat (so rich that it requires to be diluted with a little water before it can be safely fed to calves), the Jersey has attained a wide reputation as a butter-producing breed. It is a great favourite in England, where many pure-bred herds exist. The colours most preferred are "whole" fawns of many shades. The light silver-grey, which was in high repute in England in the early 'seventies of the 19th century, is out of favour. Browns and brindles are rarely seen. The grey zone surrounding the black muzzle gives the appearance designated "mealy-mouthed." The horns are short, and generally artificially curved inwards; the bones are fine. The best milch cows have a yellowish circle round the eye, and the skin at the extremity of the tail is of a deep yellow, almost orange colour. The cows are gentle and docile when reared in close contact with human beings, but the bulls, despite their small size, are often fierce.

_Guernsey_ cattle are native to the islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm. They are kept pure by importation restrictions. Herds of pure-bred Guernseys also exist in the Isle of Wight and in various counties of England and Scotland. They have not the refined and elegant appearance of the Jerseys, which, however, they exceed in size. They are usually of a rich yellowish-brown colour, patched with white, in some cases their colour almost meriting the appellation of "orange and lemon." The yellow colour inside the ears is a point always looked for by judges. The cows, large-bellied and narrow in front, are truly wedge-shaped, the greatly developed udder adding to the expanse of the hinder part of the body. They yield an abundance of milk, rich in fat, and are excellent butter-producers. The horns are yellow at the base, curved, and not coarse. The nose is flesh-coloured and free from black markings.

The _Canadian_ breed, black with a narrow brown stripe down the back and a light ring round the muzzle, are descended from old Brittany cattle imported into Canada by French settlers three hundred years ago, and are in consequence related to the Channel Islands cattle. They are remarkably hardy and good milkers, and it is claimed they produce butter fat at 2 c. a lb. less cost than any other breed.

The _Kerry_ is a breed of small black cattle belonging to the south-west of Ireland, whence they have spread into many parts, not only of their native land, but of England as well. Although they are able to subsist on the roughest and scantiest of fare, and are exceedingly hardy, the cows are, nevertheless, excellent milkers, and have acquired celebrity as a dairy breed. The colour is black, but the cows sometimes have a little white on the udder. The horns are white, with black tips, and are turned upwards. The Kerry is active and graceful, long and lithe in body, and light-limbed. On the rich pastures of England it has increased considerably in size.

The _Dexter_ breed is reputed to take its name from one Dexter, agent of Maude, Lord Hawarden, who is credited with having established it by selection and breeding from the best mountain types of the Kerry. Until recently it was called the Dexter-Kerry. It is smaller and more compact than the Kerry, shorter in the leg, and intoed before and behind. Whilst valuable as a beef-making animal, it is equally noted for its milk-producing capacity. Black is the usual colour, but red is also recognized, with, in either case, a little white. When of a red colour, the appearance of the animal has been aptly compared to that of a grand Shorthorn viewed through the wrong end of a telescope. The Kerry and the Dexter are readily distinguishable. The Kerry has a gay, light, deer-like head and horn, light limbs and thin skin. The Dexter has coarser limbs, a square body, flat back, thick shoulder, short neck, and head and horn set on low.

A herd of _Dexter-Shorthorns_ was founded by Major Barton at Straffan, Ireland, in 1860, in which prominent characteristics of the two breeds have been permanently blended so that they breed true to type.

As milk-producers, and therefore as dairy cattle, certain strains of the Shorthorn (registered as well as non-pedigree), the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn, South Devon, Longhorn, Red Polled, Ayrshire, Jersey, Guernsey, Kerry and Dexter breeds have acquired eminence. Such breeds as the Shorthorn, Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn, South Devon, Welsh, Red Polled and Dexter are claimed as useful beef-makers as well as milk-producers, and are classified as dual-purpose animals. The others belong to the beef-producers. As regards colour, red is characteristic of the Lincolnshire Shorthorn, the Hereford, Devon, Sussex and Red Polled. Black is the dominating colour of the Welsh, Aberdeen-Angus, Galloway, Kerry and Dexter. A yellowish hue is seen in the West Highland, Guernsey and South Devon breeds. Various shades of fawn colour are usual in Jersey cattle and also appear among Highlanders. The Herefords, though with red bodies, have white faces, manes, and dewlaps, whilst white prevails to a greater or less extent in the Shorthorn, Longhorn and Ayrshire breeds. The Shorthorn breed is exceedingly variable in colour; pure-bred specimens may be red, or white, or roan, or may be marked with two or more of these colours, the roan resulting from a blending of the white and red. Black is not seen in a pure-bred Shorthorn. The biggest and heaviest cattle come from the beef-making breeds, and are often cross-bred. Very large or heavy beasts, if pure-bred, usually belong to one or other of the Shorthorn, Hereford, Sussex, Welsh, West Highland, Aberdeen-Angus and Galloway breeds. The Devon, Red Polled and Guernsey are medium-sized cattle; the Ayrshires are smaller, although relatively the bullocks grow larger than bulls or cows. The Jerseys are small, graceful cattle, but the smaller type of Kerries, the Dexters and the Shetlanders furnish the smallest cattle of the British Isles.

See generally the _Herd Books_ of the various breed societies.
(W. Fr.; R. W.)

_Rearing and Feeding._[7]--A calf at birth scales from one-twelfth to one-fourteenth the weight of the dam. A sucking calf of one of the large breeds should gain 3 lb. per day for the first month, 2.5 lb. for the second, and 2 lb. during the later calf period. Colostrum, or first-day milk after calving, contains more than five times the albuminoid compounds found in average cows' milk. In the course of three or four days it gradually becomes normal in composition, although the peculiar flavour remains a few days longer. Nature has specially prepared it for the young calf with extremely nourishing and also laxative properties, and it is of practically no value for any other purpose. Normal cows' milk has an albuminoid ratio slightly narrower than 1 : 4--colostrum 1 : .71. [The ratio is arrived at by adding to the percentage of milk-sugar, possessing about the food equivalent of starch, the fat multiplied by 2.268, and dividing by the total albuminoids--all digestible.]

Common nutrient ratios for older animals are stated in the following
table of food standards by Dr Emil Wolff:--

+-----------------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
| | Food Consumed per Day. |
| +---------------------+--------------------------+
| | Dry. | Digestible. |
| +------+-------+------+------+--------+----------+
| | Live |Organic|Albu- | |Carbo- |Albuminoid|
| |Weight|Matter |minoid| Fats |Hydrates| Ratio. |
+-----------------------------------+------+-------+------+------+--------+----------+
| | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. |
|Calves, growing, 2 to 3 months | 150 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 0.30 | 2.1 | 1 : 4.7 |
|Young cattle " 3 to 6 " | 300 | 7.0 | 1.0 | 0.30 | 4.1 | 1 : 5 |
| " " 6 to 12 " | 500 | 12.0 | 1.2 | 0.30 | 6.8 | 1 : 6 |
| " " 12 to 18 " | 700 | 16.8 | 1.4 | 0.28 | 9.1 | 1 : 7 |
| " " 18 to 24 " | 850 | 20.4 | 1.4 | 0.26 | 10.3 | 1 : 8 |
|Oxen in complete rest | 1000 | 27.5 | 0.7 | 0.15 | 8.0 | 1 : 12 |
| " fattening, 1st period | 1000 | 27.0 | 2.5 | 0.50 | 15.0 | 1 : 65 |
| " " 2nd period | 1000 | 26.0 | 3.0 | 0.70 | 14.8 | 1 : 5.5 |
| " " 3rd period | 1000 | 25.0 | 2.7 | 0.60 | 14.8 | 1 : 6 |
|Milch cows | 1000 | 24.0 | 2.5 | 0.40 | 12.5 | 1 : 5.4 |
+-----------------------------------+------+-------+------+------+--------+----------+

Digestible albuminoid nitrogen is the scarcest and consequently the
costliest ingredient in food-stuffs, but, since the introduction of
vegetable proteid made by Mitchell's process from the castor bean, an
easy and inexpensive means of balancing cattle food ratios is
available. By this means the manurial value of the excrement is
increased. The calculations necessary in arriving at a ratio are
simplified by the employment of Jeffers's calculator (Plainsboro,
N.J.).

There are three common methods of rearing calves, (1) The calf sucks its mother or foster-mother. This is the natural method and the best for the show-yard and for early fattening purposes; but it is the most expensive, and the calves, if not handled, grow up wild and dangerous. Store stock may be also raised by putting two calves to one cow and weaning at three months old; a second pair in turn yielding place to a single calf. (2) Full milk from the cow at about 90 deg. F. is given alone until the latter part of the milk period; then the calf is trained to eat supplementary foods to preserve the calf-fat after weaning. A large calf at first receives daily three quarts of milk at three meals. The amount is increased to 2 gallons by the end of the fourth week, and to 2-1/2 gallons at 3 months, when gradual weaning begins. Linseed cake meal is specially suitable for such calves. (3) The calf receives full milk from the mother for one to two weeks, or better, for three to four weeks; then it is slowly transferred to fortified separated milk or milk substitutes. Cod-liver oil, 2 oz. daily, is a good substitute for butter fat. In America cotton-seed oil, 1/2 oz. to the quart of milk, or an equivalent of oleomargarine heated to 110 deg. F. and churned with separated milk, has produced a live-weight-increase of 2 lb. daily. Linseed simmered to a jelly and added to separated milk gives good results. Moderate amounts are easily digested. Oatmeal or maize meal containing 10% of linseed meal does well, later, at less cost. Milk substitutes and calf meals require close attention in preparation, and would not fetch the prices they do if feeders possessed the technical knowledge necessary to select and mix common foods. Ground cake or linseed meal is, after a time, better given dry than cooked, being then better masticated and not so liable to produce indigestion.

Grass or fine hay in racks is provided when the calf can chew the cud. As cattle get older, live-weight-increase grows less. Smithfield weights[8] show that a good bullock up to a year old will increase 2 lb. daily, a two-year-old 1-3/4 lb., and a three-year-old a little over 1-1/2 lb.

Cattle feeding on a farm consume crude produce that is inconvenient to market, and make farmyard manure; but there is frequently no profit left. To secure the balance on the right side the inlaid price per live cwt. requires to be 5s. less than the sale price--say 32s. per cwt. for lean cattle, and 37s. per cwt. for the animal when sold fat and capable of producing 60% of dressed beef. The ordinary animal yields only about 57%. A well-bred fattening bullock begins with 2 lb. of cake and meal per day, increasing to 8 lb. at the end of five months (6 lb. on an average), and receives 3/4 cwt. of roots and 12 lb. of straw; at an average cost of about 4s. 3d. per imperial stone or 50s. per cwt. of dressed carcase. Heifers feed faster than bullocks, and age tells on the rate at which an animal will mature: a three-year-old will develop into prime beef more quickly and easily than a two-year-old. It is difficult to produce "baby beef" at a profit, and it can only be done with picked animals of the best flesh-producing breeds, which cannot be bought at a price per cwt. below the finished sale price, for animals producing baby beef must from start to finish (under two years old) be at all times fit to go to the fat market. It is true that a very young animal can give a better account of food than an older one, but this advantage is counterbalanced by the tendency to grow rather than to fatten. (See also AGRICULTURE.)

In cold and stormy districts cattle thrive best in covered courts, but in a mild climate they do equally well in open yards with shelter-sheds. The more air they get the less liable they are to tuberculosis--example Lincolnshire and the drier south-eastern counties. The ideal method of house-feeding cattle is singly in boxes 10 ft. square, where they are undisturbed, and where the best manure is made because it is not washed by rain.

On the finest British grazing lands two lots of cattle are fed in one season. The first is finished early in July, having, without artificial feeding, laid on eight to nine stones of beef. The second lot requires three or four pounds of undecorticated cotton cake each towards the end of September and in October when grass begins to fail. (R. W.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rev. J. Storer, _The Wild White Cattle of Great Britain_ (1879).

[2] See Wallace's _Farm Live Stock of Great Britain_ (1907), Low's
_Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Isles_ (1842,
illustrated, and 1845), and E.V. Wilcox's _Farm Animals_ (1907), an
American work.

[3] Shorthorn Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1822). Sec. E.J.
Powell, 12 Hanover Square, London, W.

[4] C.J. Bates, "The Brothers Colling," _Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc._
(1899).

[5] C.J. Bates, _Thomas Bates and the Kirklevington Shorthorns: a
Contribution to the History of Pure Durham Cattle_
(Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1897).

[6] Housman, "Robert Bakewell," _Jour. Roy. Agric. Soc._ (1894).

[7] See E. Wolff, _Farm Foods_, by H.H. Cousins (1895); A.D. Hall,
_Rothamsted Experiments_ (1905); R. Warington, _Chemistry of the
Farm_ (15th ed., 1902); W.A. Henry, _Feeds and Feeding_ (1907); H.W.
Mumford, _Beef Production_ (1907); H.P. Armsby, _Animal Nutrition_
(2nd ed., 1906); T. Shaw, _Animal Breeding_ (1903); R. Wallace, _Farm
Live Stock of Great Britain_ (4th ed., 1907).

[8] E. J. Powell, _History of the Smithfield Club from 1798 to 1900_
(1902).

CATULLUS, GAIUS VALERIUS (?84-54 B.C.), the greatest lyric poet of Rome. As regards his names and the dates of his birth and death, the most important external witness is that of Jerome, in the continuation of the Eusebian _Chronicle_, under the year 87 B.C., "Gaius Valerius Catullus, scriptor lyricus Veronae nascitur," and under 57 B.C., "Catullus xxx. aetatis anno Romae moritur." There is no controversy as to the gentile name, _Valerius_. Suetonius, in his _Life of Julius Caesar_ (ch. 73), mentions the poet by the names "Valerium Catullum." Other persons who had the _cognomen_ Catullus belonged to the Valerian gens, e.g. M. Valerius Catullus Messalinus, a _delator_ in the reign of Domitian, mentioned in the fourth satire of Juvenal (l. 113):--

"Et cum mortifero prudens Veiento Catullo."

Inscriptions show, further, that _Valerius_ was a common name in the native province of Catullus, and belonged to other inhabitants of Verona besides the poet and his family (Schwabe, _Quaestiones Catullianae_, p. 27). Scholars have been divided in opinion as to whether his _praenomen_ was _Gaius_ or _Quintus_, and in the best MSS. the volume is called simply _Catulli Veronensis liber_. For _Gaius_ we have the undoubted testimony, not only of Jerome, which rests on the much earlier authority of Suetonius, but also that of Apuleius. In support of _Quintus_ a passage was quoted from the _Natural History_ of Pliny (xxxvii. 6, 81). But the _praenomen_ Q. is omitted in the best MSS., and in other passages of the same author the poet is spoken of as "Catullus Veronensis." The mistake may have arisen from confusion with Q. Catulus, the colleague of Marius in the Cimbric War, himself also the author of lyrical poems. Allusions in the poems show that the date of his death given by Jerome (57 B.C.) is wrong, and that Catullus survived the second consulship of Pompey (55 B.C.) (cf. lv. 6, cxiii. 2), and was present in August of the following year at the prosecution of Vatinius by Licinius Calvus (cf. liii.). The allusion in lii. 3--

"Per consulatum peierat Vatinius,"

does not prove that Catullus must have lived to see the consulship bestowed on Vatinius in the end of 47 B.C. but only that Vatinius, after being praetor in 55 B.C., was in the habit of boasting of the certainty of his attaining the consulship, as Cleopatra was in the habit of confirming her most solemn declarations by appealing to her hope of one day administering justice in the Capitol (cf. Haupt, "Quaestiones Catullianae," _Opuscula_, vol. i. 1875). There is then nothing to prove that Catullus lived beyond the month of August 54 B.C. Some of the poems (as xxxvii. and lii.) may have been written during his last illness. If he died in 54 B.C. or early in 53 B.C., Catullus must either have been born later than 87 B.C., or have lived to a greater age than thirty. Catullus is described by Ovid as "hedera iuvenalia cinctus Tempora" (_Amor_. iii. 9. 61),--a description somewhat more suitable to a man who dies in his thirtieth year than to one who dies three or four years later. Further, the age at which a man dies is more likely to be accurately remembered than the particular date either of his death or of his birth, and the common practice of recording the age of the deceased in sepulchral inscriptions must have rendered a mistake about this less likely to occur. It seems, therefore, on the whole, most likely that Jerome's words "xxx. aetatis anno" are correct, and that Catullus was born in 84 B.C.

The statement that he was born at Verona is confirmed by passages in Ovid and Martial. Pliny the elder, who was born at Como, speaks of Catullus in the preface to his _Natural History_, as his "countryman" (_conterraneus_), and the poet speaks of Verona as his home, or at least his temporary residence, in more than one place. His occasional residence in his native place is further attested by the statement of Suetonius (_Julius Caesar_, 73), that "Julius Caesar accepted the poet's apology for his scurrilous verses upon him, invited him to dine with him on the same day, and continued his intimacy with his father as before." As this incident could only have happened during the time that Julius Caesar was pro-consul, the scene of it must have been in the Cisalpine province, and at the house of the poet's father, in or near Verona. The verses apologized for were those contained in poems xxix. and lvii., the former of which must have been written after Caesar's invasion of Britain, so that this interview probably took place in the winter of 55-54 B.C. The fact that his father was the host of the great pro-consul, and lived on terms of intimacy with him, justifies the inference, that he was, in wealth and rank, one of the principal men of the province. The only other important statement concerning the poet's life which rests on external authority is that of Apuleius, that the real name of the Lesbia of the poems was Clodia. Another, which concerns the reputation which he enjoyed after his death, is given in the _Life of Atticus_ by Cornelius Nepos (12. 4). It is to the effect that he regarded Lucretius and Catullus as the two greatest poets of his own time.

The poems of Catullus consist of 116 pieces, varying in length from 2 to 408 lines, the great mass of them being, however, short pieces, written in lyric, iambic or elegiac metre. The arrangement cannot be the poet's; it is neither chronological nor in accordance with the character of the topics. The shorter poems, lyric or iambic, are placed first, next the longer epithalamia, (most being written in hexameters) amongst which the _Attis_ is inserted and then those written in the elegiac metre. But, though no chronological order is observed, yet internal evidence enables us to determine the occasions on which many of the poems were written, and the order in which they followed one another. They give a very vivid image of various phases of the poet's life, and of the strong feelings with which persons and things affected him. They throw much light also on the social life of Rome and of the provincial towns of Italy in the years preceding the outbreak of the second civil war. In this respect they may be compared with the letters of Cicero.

The poems extend over a period of seven or eight years, from 61 or 62 till 54 B.C. Among the earliest are those which record the various stages of the author's passion for Lesbia. It is in connexion with this passion that he is generally mentioned, or alluded to, by the later Roman poets, such as Propertius, Ovid, Juvenal and Martial. Her real name, as we learn from Apuleius, was Clodia. The admiration of Catullus for Sappho, the Lesbian poetess, which is clearly indicated by the imitation of her language in his fifty-first and sixty-second poems, affords an obvious explanation of the Greek name which he gave to his Roman mistress. Clodia was the notorious sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, and in the year 56 she charged M. Caelius Rufus, after tiring of him, as she had of Catullus, with an attempt to poison her. It was in defence of Rufus that Cicero described the spell she exercised over young men, in language which might have been applied to her previous relations with the youthful poet, as well as those with the youthful orator and politician.

Poems concerning Lesbia occur among both the earliest and the latest of those contained in the series. They record the various stages of passion through which Catullus passed, from absolute devotion and a secure sense of returned affection, through the various conditions of distrust and jealousy, attempts at renunciation, and short-lived "amoris integrationes," through the "odi et amo" state, and the later state of savage indignation against both Lesbia and his rivals, and especially against Caelius Rufus, till he finally attains, not without much suffering and loss, the last state of scornful indifference. Among the earliest of the poems connected with Lesbia, and among those written in the happiest vein, are ii. and iii., and v. and vii. The 8th, "Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire," perhaps the most beautiful of them all, expresses the first awakening of the poet to a sense of her unworthiness, before the gentler have given place to the fiercer feelings of his nature. His final renunciation is sent in a poem written after his return from the East, with a union of imaginative and scornful power, to his two butts, Furius and Aurelius (xi., "Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli"), who, to judge by the way Catullus writes of them, appear to have been hangers-on upon him, who repaid the pecuniary and other favours they received by giving him grounds for jealousy, and making imputations on his character (cf. xv., xvi., xviii., xxiii.).

The intrigue of Caelius Rufus with Lesbia began in 59 or 58 B.C. It was probably in the earlier stages of this liaison that the 68th poem was written, from which it appears that Catullus, at the time living at Verona, and grieving for the recent death of his brother in the Troad, had heard of Lesbia's infidelity, and, in consideration of her previous faithlessness in his favour, was not inclined to resent it very warmly. Two other poems in the series express the grief which Catullus felt for the death of his brother,--one, the 65th, addressed to the orator Hortensius, who is there, as in some of Cicero's letters, called Hortalus or Ortalus, and sent to him along with the _Coma Berenices_ (lxvi.), a translation of a famous elegy of Callimachus. The other poem referring to this event (ci.) must have been composed some years later, probably in 56 B.C., when Catullus visited his brother's tomb in the Troad, on his return from Bithynia. Between 59 and 57 B.C. most of the lampoons on Lesbia and her numerous lovers must have been written (e.g. xxxvii., xxxix., &c.). Some, too, of the poems expressive of his more tender feelings to her, such as viii. and lxxvi. belong also to these years; and among the poems written either during this period or perhaps in the early and happier years of his liaison, some of the most charming of his shorter pieces, expressing the affection for his young friends Verannius and Fabullus (ix., xii., xiii.), may be included.

In the year 57 the routine of his life was for a short time broken by his accompanying the propraetor C. Memmius, the friend to whom Lucretius dedicates his great poem, as one of his staff, to the province of Bithynia. His object was probably to better his fortunes by this absence from Rome, as humorous complaints of poverty and debt (xiii., xxvi.) show that his ordinary means were insufficient for his mode of life. He frankly acknowledges the disappointment of these hopes, and still more frankly his disgust with his chief (x., xxviii.). Some of the most charming and perfect among the shorter poems express the delight with which the poet changed the dulness and sultry climate of the province for the freedom and keen enjoyment of his voyage home in his yacht, built for him at Amastris on the Euxine, and for the beauty and peace of his villa on the shores of Lake Benacus, which welcomed him home "wearied with foreign travel." To this period and to his first return to Rome after his visit to his native district belong the poems xlvi., ci., iv., xxxi. and x., all showing by their freshness of feeling and vivid truth of expression the gain which the poet's nature derived from his temporary escape from the passions, distractions and animosities of Roman society. Two poems, written in a very genial and joyous spirit, and addressed to his younger friend Licinius Calvus (xiv. and l.), who is ranked as second only to himself among the lyrical poets of the age, and whose youthful promise pointed him out as likely to become one of the greatest of Roman orators, may, indeed, with most probability be assigned to these later years (xiv.). From the expression "Odissem te odio Vatiniano," in the third line of xiv., it may be inferred that the poem was written not earlier than December (the "Saturnalia") of the year 56 B.C., as it was early in that year, as we learn from a letter of Cicero to his brother Quintus (ii. 4. 1), that Calvus first announced his intention of prosecuting Vatinius. The short poem numbered liii. would be written in August 54 B.C. The poems which have left the greatest stain on the fame of Catullus--those "referta contumeliis Caesaris," the licentious abuse of Mamurra, and probably some of those personal scurrilities addressed to women as well as men, or too frank confessions, which posterity would willingly have let die, may well have been written in the last years of his life, under the influence of the bitterness and recklessness induced by his experience. It cannot be determined with certainty whether the longer and more artistic pieces, which occupy the middle of the volume--the _Epithalamium_ in celebration of the marriage of Manlius Torquatus, the 62nd poem, written in imitation of the Epithalamia of Sappho, "Vesper adest: iuvenes, consurgite"; the _Attis_, and the Epic Idyll representing the marriage festival of Peleus and Thetis--belong to the earlier or the later period of the poet's career. If the person addressed in the first part of the 68th is the Manlius of the _Epithalamium_, and the lines from 3 to 8--

"Naufragum ut eiectum ... pervigilat,"

refer to the death of Vinia, it would follow that the first Epithalamium was written some time before that poem, and thus belongs to the earlier time. While the translations of Sappho,--

"Ille mi par esse deo videtur,"

and of Callimachus (lxvi.),--

"Omnia qui magni dispexit lumina mundi,"

belong to the earlier period, the _Attis_ and the _Peleus and Thetis_; although perhaps suggested by the treatment of the same or similar subjects in Greek authors, are executed with such power and originality as declare them to be products of the most vigorous stage in the development of the poet's genius. That his genius came soon to maturity is a reason for hesitation in assigning any particular time between 62 and 54 B.C. for the composition of the _Attis_ and of that part of the _Epithalamium_ ("Peliaco quondam prognatae vertice pinus") which deals with the main subject of the poem. But the criticism of Munro in his edition of Lucretius, which shows similarities of expression that cannot be mere casual coincidences, between the Ariadne-episode in the _Epithalamium_ of Catullus (from line 52 to 266) and the poem of Lucretius, leaves little doubt that that portion at least of the poem was written after the publication of the _De rerum natura_, in the winter of 55-54 B.C.

No ancient author has left a more vivid impression of himself on his writings than Catullus. Coming to Rome in early youth from a distant province, not at that time included within the limits of Italy, he lived as an equal with the men of his time of most intellectual activity and refinement, as well as of highest social and political eminence. Among those to whom his poems are addressed, or who are mentioned in them, we find the names of Hortensius, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Licinius Calvus, Helvius Cinna and Asinius Pollio, then only a youth (xii. 8). Catullus brought into this circle the genius of a great poet, the social vivacity of a vigorous nature, the simplicity and sincerity of an unambitious, and the warmth of an affectionate disposition. He betrays all the sensitiveness of the poetic temperament, but it is never the sensitiveness of vanity, for he is characterized by the modesty rather than the self-confidence which accompanies genius, but the sensitiveness of a heart which gives and expects more sympathy and loyalty in friendship than the world either wants or cares to give in return. He shows also in some of his lighter pieces the fastidiousness of a refined taste, intolerant of all boorishness, pedantry, affectation and sordid ways of life. The passionate intensity of his temperament displays itself with similar strength in the outpourings of his animosity as of his love and affection. It was, unfortunately, the fashion of the time to employ in the expression of these animosities a licence of speech and of imputation which it is difficult for men living under different social conditions to understand, still more difficult to tolerate. Munro has examined the 29th poem--

"Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati,"

the longest and most important of the lampoons on Caesar and Mamurra, and shown with much learning and acuteness the motives and intention of Catullus in writing them. Had Julius Caesar really believed, as Suetonius, writing two hundred years afterwards, says he did, that "an eternal stigma had been cast upon him by the verses concerning Mamurra," we should scarcely apply the word magnanimity to his condonation of the offence. But these verses survive as a memorial not of any scandal affecting Julius Caesar which could possibly have been believed by his contemporaries, but of the licence of speech which was then indulged in, of the jealousy with which the younger members of the Roman aristocracy, who a little later fought on the side of Pompey, at that time regarded the ascendancy both of the "father-in-law and the son-in-law," and the social elevation of some of their instruments, and also, to a certain extent, of the deterioration which the frank and generous nature of Catullus underwent from the passions which wasted, and the faithlessness which marred his life.

The great age of Latin poetry extends from about the year 60 B.C. till the death of Ovid in 17 A.D. There are three marked divisions in this period, each with a distinct character of its own: the first represented by Lucretius and Catullus, the second by Virgil and Horace, the last by Ovid. Force and sincerity are the great characteristics of the first period, maturity of art of the second, facility of the last. The educating influence of Greek art on the Roman mind was first fully experienced in the Ciceronian age, and none of his contemporaries was so susceptible of that influence as Catullus. With the susceptibility to art he combined a large share of the vigorous and genial qualities of the Italian race. Like most of his younger contemporaries, he studied in the school of the Alexandrine poets, with whom the favourite subjects of art were the passion of love, and stories from the Greek mythology, which admitted of being treated in a spirit similar to that in which they celebrated their own experiences. It was under this influence that Catullus wrote the _Coma Berenices_, the 68th poem, which, after the manner of the Alexandrines, interweaves the old tale of Protesilaus and Laodamia with the personal experiences of the poet himself, and the _Epithalamium_ of Peleus and Thetis, which combines two pictures from the Greek mythology, one of the secure happiness of marriage, the other of the passionate despair of love betrayed. In this last poem Catullus displays a power of creative pictorial imagination far transcending that displayed in any of the extant poetry of Alexandria. We have no means of determining what suggested the subject of the _Attis_ to Catullus, whether the previous treatment of the subject by some Greek writer, some survival of the myth which he found still existing during his residence among the "Phrygii Campi," or the growth of various forms of Eastern superstition and fanaticism, at Rome, in the last age of the Republic. Whatever may have been its origin, it is the finest specimen we possess, in either Greek or Latin literature, of that kind of short poem more common in modern than ancient times, in which some situation or passion entirely alien to the writer, and to his own age, is realized with dramatic intensity. But the genius of Catullus is, perhaps, even happier in the direct expression of personal feeling than in artistic creation, or the reproduction of tales and situations from mythology. The warmth, intensity and sincerity of his own nature are the sources of the inspiration in these poems. The most elaborate and one of the finest of them is the _Epithalamium_ in honour of the marriage of a member of the old house of Manlius Torquatus with Vinia Aurunculeia, written in the glyconic in combination with the pherecratean metre. To this metre Catullus imparts a peculiar lightness and grace by making the trochee, instead of the spondee as in Horace's glyconics and pherecrateans, the first foot in the line. His elegiac metre is constructed with less smoothness and regularity than that of Ovid and Tibullus or even of Propertius, but as employed by him it gives a true echo to the serious and plaintive feelings of some of his poems, while it adapts itself, as it did later in the hands of Martial, to the epigrammatic terseness of his invective. But the perfection of the art of Catullus is seen in his employment of those metres which he adapted to the Latin tongue from the earlier poets of Greece, the pure iambic trimeter, as in iv.--

"Phaselus ille quem videtis hospites,"

the scazon iambic, employed in viii. and xxxi.--

"Paeninsularum, Sirmio, insularumque,"

and the phalecian hendecasyllabic, a slight modification of the Sapphic line, which is his favourite metre for the expression of his more joyful moods, and of his lighter satiric vein. The Latin language never flowed with such ease, freshness and purity as in these poems. Their perfection consists in the entire absence of all appearance of effort or reflection, and in the fulness of life and feeling, which gives a lasting interest and charm to the most trivial incident of the passing hour. In reference to these poems Munro has said with truth and force: "A generation had yet to pass before the heroic attained to its perfection; while he (Catullus) had already produced glyconics, phalecians and iambics, each 'one entire and perfect chrysolite,' 'cunningest patterns' of excellence, such as Latium never saw before or after,--Alcaeus, Sappho, and the rest then and only then having met their match."

The work of Catullus has not come down to us intact, as is shown by
lacunae and quotations in ancient writers which cannot now be found in
his poems. Out of the MSS. only three have claims to intrinsic
importance. The oldest and best appears to be the Bodleian (Canon.
30). But little inferior is the _Sangermanensis_ (Par. 14137). Of the
third, the _Romanus_, we shall be better able to judge when its
discoverer, Prof. W.G. Hale, has published his collation. None of
these MSS. are older than the 14th century. One poem, 62, is, however,
preserved in a MS. of the 9th century (the _Thuaneus_, Par. 8071).
Prof. R. Ellis's discovery of the Bodleian MS. and E. Baehrens's
recognition of its value opened a new chapter in the history of the
text. Ellis's contributions comprise an indispensable commentary (ed.
2, 1889), an elaborate critical edition (ed. 2, 1878) and an English
translation (1871) in the metres of the original. The text in the
Oxford series, published in 1905, is inferior to those specified
below. Baehrens's edition, 2 volumes (text 1876, the second edition by
K.P. Schulze is a misnomer; and Latin commentary 1885) is still of
value. Amongst other editions with critical or explanatory notes or
both may be mentioned those of A. Riese (1884), L. Schwabe (1886, with
_index verborum_), B. Schmidt (1887), J.P. Postgate (1889, text
differing little from that in the new _Corpus Poetarunt_), E. Benoist
and E. Thomas, with French translation by Rostand (2 vols.,
1882-1890), S.G. Owen (1893, an _edition de luxe_), W.T. Merrill
(1893, Boston, U.S.A., with succinct English notes), A. Palmer (1896,
one of the best of this scholar's works); M. Haupt's text of the three
poets Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius, edited by J. Vahlen, reached
its sixth edition in 1904. Of the numerous contributions to the
textual and literary criticism of the poems may be named the papers in
M. Haupt's _Opuscula_, L. Schwabe's _Quaestiones Catullianae_ (1862),
B. Schmidt's _Prolegomena_, H.A.J. Munro's _Criticisms and
Elucidations of Catullus_ (1878; second edition by J.D. Duff, 1905).
Translations into English verse by J. Cranstoun (1867), Sir T. Martin
(1861, 1876), R. Ellis (above); a recent version in prose with the
Latin text by F.W. Cornish (1904). For further information see
Teuffel's _History of Roman Literature_ (tr. by Warre), S 214, or the
more recent accounts by M. Schanz, _Geschichte der romischen
Litteratur_, i. SS 102-106, and Frederic Plessis, _La Poesie latine_
(1909), pp. 143-173. (W. Y. S.; X.)

CATULUS, the name of a distinguished family of ancient Rome of the gens Lutatia. The following are its most important members.

1. GAIUS LUTATIUS CATULUS, Roman commander during the First Punic War, consul 242 B.C. He was sent with a fleet of 200 ships to Sicilian waters, and almost without opposition occupied the harbours of Lilybaeum and Drepanum. A hurriedly equipped fleet sent out from Carthage under Hanno was intercepted by the praetor Publius Valerius Falto and totally defeated (battle of the Aegates Islands, March 10, 241). Catulus, who had been wounded at Drepanum, took no part in the operations, but on his return to Rome was accorded the honour of a triumph, which against his will he shared with Valerius. (See PUNIC WARS: First, ad fin.).

2. QUINTUS LUTATIUS CATULUS, Roman general and consul with Marius in 102 B.C. In the war against the Cimbri and Teutones he was sent to defend the passage of the Alps but found himself compelled to retreat over the Po, his troops having been reduced to a state of panic (see MARIUS, GAIUS). In 101 the Cimbri were defeated on the Raudine plain, near Vercellae, by the united armies of Catulus and Marius. The chief honour being ascribed to Marius, Catulus became his bitter opponent. He sided with Sulla in the civil war, was included in the proscription list of 87, and when Marius declined to pardon him, committed suicide. He was distinguished as an orator, poet and prose writer, and was well versed in Greek literature. He is said to have written the history of his consulship and the Cimbrian War after the manner of Xenophon; two epigrams by him have been preserved, one on Roscius the celebrated actor (Cicero, _De Nat. Deorum_, i. 28), the other of an erotic character, imitated from Callimachus (Gellius xix. 9). He was a man of great wealth, which he spent in beautifying Rome. Two buildings were known as "Monumenta Catuli": the temple of _Fortuna hujusce diei_, to commemorate the day of Vercellae, and the Porticus Catuli, built from the sale of the Cimbrian spoils.

See Plutarch, _Marius, Sulla_; Appian, _B.C._ i. 74; Vell. Pat. ii.
21; Florus iii. 21; Val. Max. vi. 3, ix. 13; Cicero, _De Oratore_,
iii, 3. 8, _Brutus_, 35.