Caius Valerius Catullus (87-54 B. C.) a Roman poet; he inherited a competent estate, and lived a life of pleasure. He was the earliest Latin lyric poet of any note. At an early age he went to Rome and enjoyed the society of the most celebrated men of the day, including Cicero, Caesar, and Pollio. On his arrival at the Imperial City he was possessed of considerable means, and this fact, together with his brilliant genius and vivacity, brought him at once into the society of men of the highest intellectual activity and refinement of the time, as well as of the most profligate of the luxurious city. Catullus, being a mere boy, accustomed to the simple habits of his native province, plunged at once into the deepest dissipation of the age. He soon squandered his patrimony and undermined his health, and died just when his genius should have been aripening. He was remarkable for the versatility of his imagination, the loveliness of his conceptions, and the facility of his expression. His earlier poems record the various stages of his passion for a woman named Lesbia, who finally proved unfaithful to him in her affections, as she had to his predecessor. His poetic narration of the events of his time is as reliable as current history of more pretentious tone. His longest poem is The Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, in hexameter verse. About 116 poems attributed to him are extant, most of which are short. Many of the poems are of an amatory character, with not unfrequently a tone of grossness. Catullus has been a favorite subject of translation. There is a literal prose rendering by Walter Kelley and several metrical versions ? or rather imitations ? by various authors.