Love in a time of bankruptcy
Catullus and the literature of debt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19230767 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Uden (0000-0002-8770-446X, Yale University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-22 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Roman Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0075-4358 • E-ISSN: 1753-528X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0075435826101683 |
| OpenAlex | W7165013932 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 48 |
Debt and mutual lending connected members of the Roman elite in the late Republic, as part of (and in tension with) the bonds of friendship and political support. This article offers a fresh approach to understanding economics in Catullus’ Carmina , arguing that the poems show a consistent attention to the ubiquity of debt in the lives of their characters. By close readings of C. 5, 23, 41 and 103, I argue that Catullus shows us the effects of economic hierarchy on amicitia, but he also depicts his own persona trapped in a mindset of acquisition, profit and loss. Rather than constructing an urbane world sealed from financial pressures, Catullus’ poetry dramatises the transformative impact of debt on lives and emotions in the 50s b.c.e
Debt · Elite · Friendship · Mindset · Poetry · Politics · Transformative learning · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods
The Roman Elite and the End of the Republic
The Birth of Critical Thinking in Republican Rome
Rome's Economic Revolution
Money in Imperial Rome
Situating Catullus
Catullus and Roman Comedy
Rent Control Measures in the 40s BCE
Downward Mobility
The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy
Catullus, Cicero, and a Society of Patrons
Comparative Studies in Republican Latin Imagery
Julius Caesar and the Roman People
Slave Theater in the Roman Republic
Catullus and the Poetics of Roman Manhood
Observations on Catullus 5
Catullus, Carmen V
Caesar's Civil War
Caesar, Cicero and the Problem of Debt
M. Furius Bibaculus and Catullus
Catullus' Basia Poems (5, 7, 48)*)
Martial 12.32
Catullus and Mamurra
Being Beatvs in Catullus’ Poems 9, 10, 22 and 23
Cicero's Catilinarians
Catullus and Furius Bibaculus
Catullus’ Furius
The Margins of Satire
Catullus’s Ameana Cycle as Literary Criticism
Crediting Pseudolus
Power and Public Finance at Rome, 264-49 BCE
Friendship, politics, and literature in Catullus
Cicero and Milo
Style and Tradition in Catullus
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |