Born circa 87 B.C.; died circa 54 B.C. Roman lyric poet. Native of Verona.

Catullus belonged to the Neoterics, a literary group that derived its inspiration from Alexandrian poetry. Writing during the final crisis of the Roman Republic, Catullus turned from the world he could not accept to an ideal world of poetry, friendship, and love. His literary legacy consists of 116 works, including lyric verse, epigrams, epyllia, epistles, and epithalamiums. His work influenced the development of Roman and, much later, European lyric poetry.