¹ Merrill, E. T., Catullus (Boston, 1893CrossRefGoogle Scholar), ad loc:

² Quinn, K., The Catullan Revolution (Melbourne, 1959), 34–35Google Scholar. Quinn’s interest in the meaning of Carmen 31 is apparently abandoned by the time of Catullus: An Interpretation (London, 1972), 157–160Google Scholar. Here Sirmio is useful as social commentary on Catullus’ travels. Quinn finds difficulty in calling Sirmio ‘home’ in the face of other residence poems (e.g., poems 44 and 68). ‘Clearly, arrival at Sirmiomeant arriving home … But home in what sense? The villa can hardly have belonged to Catullus’ (158).

³ Putnam, M. C. J., ‘Catullus’ Journey (Carm. 4)’, CP 57 (1962), 11Google Scholar.

⁴ Putnam, 10.

⁵ Putnam, 12ff. His treatment of Sirmio as mistress owes much to Havelock, E. A., The Lyric Genius of Catullus (Oxford, 1939), 120Google Scholar. The feminizing of Sirmio is the cause of Putnam’s search for evidence of language with sensual implication in Carmen 31. But his parallels (50.14 and 63.35–36) are not convincing.

⁶ Elder, J. P., ‘Notes on Some Conscious and Unconscious Elements in Catullus’ Poetry’, HSCP 60 (1951), 128–131Google Scholar, comments on Catullus’ use of domus (Carmen 68) as ‘the concrete harbor of his affection and love — a family symbol.’ See also Putnam, M. C. J., ‘The Art of Catullus 64’, HSCP 65 (1961), 183Google Scholar and note 37.

⁷ Baker, R. J., ‘Catullus and Friend in Carm. XXXI’, Mnemosyne 23 (1970), 38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸ Baker, 40, also proposes: ‘Subconsciously at least in poem 31 Catullus is seeking in Sirmio more than the domus of homecoming; he is also seeking a replacement for the domus with which, in poem 68, his brother and Lesbia are both associated … and for the gaudium taken from him, along with his domus, by his brother’s death.’

⁹ Witke, C., ‘Verbal Art in Catullus 31’, AJP 93 (1972), 239–251Google Scholar. But see McCaughey, J., ‘The Mind Says By Its Trouble: Catullus 31’, Arion 9 (1970), 362–65Google Scholar: ‘The poem unwinds as the mind unwinds, moving from complication to simplicity. Purging itself of the slightly manic exuberance of the opening, it moves to its elegant conclusion’ (364).

¹⁰ Witke, 243.

¹¹ Witke, 244, expands the theme of domus and its potential betrayal: ‘… Catullus knows the abiding power of curae, onus, labores. The brother’s death surely lies hidden among these. So too more explicitly does his own task of writing poetry, and both Neptunes’ task.’ Witke’s interpretation of verses 12–14 follows G. P. Goold’s argument in favor of Bergk’s emendation in verse 13 of gaudete to gaudente, ‘A New Text of Catullus’, Phoenix 12 (1958), 94Google Scholar.

¹² Witke (above, note 9), 241 and note 9, discusses the nuances of oeelle.

¹³ Neither Veranius nor Sirmio may be names well-known outside Catullus’ circle. On Veranius, see Syme, R., ‘Piso and Veranius in Catullus’, C & M 17 (1956), 129–134Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Delatte, L., ‘Uterque Neptunus’, AC 4 (1935), 45–47Google Scholar.

¹⁵ O mihi nuntii beati (5)! Perhaps the exclamatory nominative plural; for several verifications of Veranius’ arrival would add greater credence and intensity to the expectant air.

¹⁶ Fordyce, C. J., Catullus: A Commentary (Oxford, 1961Google Scholar), ad loc, restricts unanimos to ‘loving’, but not the sharing of thoughts. This limited sense is not supported by its usage at 30.1 and 66.80.

¹⁷ Quinn, K., Catullus: The Poems (London and Basingstoke, 1970Google Scholar), ad loc.

¹⁸ The physical embrace is poignant in that it suggests Catullus’ need to reassure himself that dream is now become reality.

¹⁹ Quinn (above, note 17), 186, treats this as: ‘a piece of learned word-play … we expect therefore a jingle (Thyniam atque Bithyniam) but C. varies the formula, and, by delaying campos, tricks us into supposing for a moment he means the people (Bithyni), not the place.’

²⁰ Quinn, Fordyce and Witke (above, note 11) accept Bergk’s reading of verses 12–13: … atque ero gaude/gaudente; vosque etc. ‘Hail, lovely Sirmio! Rejoice in your master’s joy! And you, ye waters of the Lydian lake, ripple forth all the merriment there is at home!’ (Goold). There seems little to recommend the interruption of four imperatives, especially when gaudente reiterates the obvious.

²¹ On venustus in the polymetrics, see Axelson, B. A., Unpoetische Wörter (Lund, 1945), 61Google Scholar; and Ross, D. O., Style and Tradition in Catullus (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), 104–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Professor T. N. Ballin has drawn my attention to the fact that Early Iron Age burials under the Forum reveal cremation urns in the shape of primitive houses: Boëthius, A. and Ward-Perkins, J. B., Etruscan and Roman Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1970), 15Google Scholar, figure 6. This strongly suggests religious associations with the house. If Sirmio is like Venus, it is in her role as genetrix, earth mother. Catullus himself connects homecoming with his return to the Lares within Sirmio; he is the symbolic master of paterfamilias.