Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/64

52 scale may be counted the names of learned and witty contemporaries—known like himself to fame—with whom Catullus was in familiar intercourse. Foremost perhaps we should set Cornelius Nepos and Cicero: the former, because to him Catullus dedicates his collected volume; the latter, for the very complimentary terms in which he rates the chief of orators, albeit the sorriest of poets. Lest there should be any doubt in the face of internal evidence as to the identity of Cornelius with him of the surname familiar to schoolboys, it may be noted that this is set at rest by a later poet, Ausonius; but the verses of dedication evince a lively interest in the historian and biographer, whose 'Epitome of Universal History' has not survived the wreck of ages, whilst the lives which we read, with the exception of that of Atticus, are simply an epitome of the work of Nepos. The gracefully-turned compliment of the poet, however, will show the store he sets by his friend's literary labours and erudition—and it is best represented by Theodore Martin:—