Social Commentaries

Carmen CXV (Burton)

by Gaius Valerius Catullus c. 84 – c. 54 BC

Translated by Sir Richard F. Burton (1894) · From The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus (1894)

Social Commentaries

Mentula! masterest thou some thirty acres of grass-land
Full told, forty of field soil; others are sized as the sea.
Why may he not surpass in his riches any a Croesus
Who in his one domain owns such abundance of good,
Grass-lands, arable fields, vast woods and forest and marish
Yonder to Boreal-bounds trenching on Ocean tide?
Great are indeed all these, but thou by far be the greatest,
Never a man, but a great Mentula of menacing might.

MLA

Catullus, Gaius Valerius. “Carmen CXV (Burton).” Translated by Sir Richard F. Burton. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/catullus/334/.

Chicago

Catullus, Gaius Valerius. “Carmen CXV (Burton).” Translated by Sir Richard F. Burton. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/catullus/334/.

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