The Roman poet CATULLUS (84-54 BCE) ranks among the great lyric poets, one whose writing has echoed down the centuries and remains as relevant and interesting today as it was in its own time. His poems are fashioned out of intense feeling that still thrills, moves, shocks, entertains and delights.

This selection of poems from his small extant body of work aims to show how - whether he composes a tender love lyric to his mistress or a boyfriend, an abusive attack on a politician or literary rival, an address to an intimate friend, a vitriolic or obscene satire, or an occasional piece on some small incident of social life - Catullus is deeply engaged with his subject, a writer passionate about his craft, and fully in touch with the centuries of Greek and Roman poetry that came before him.