Catullus 63, the poem on Attis' self-castration, regret, and final subjection to the goddess Cybele, has been called 'the most remarkable poetical creation in the Latin language'. Scholarly debate has focused on the poem's relationship to the myths and cults of Attis and Cybele, its dependence on Hellenistic models, its meanings for a Roman audience, and its unusual language and metre. In the present volume these questions are being addressed by a team of specialists in religious history, Hellenistic poetry, Roman poetry and culture, and Latin linguistics. The volume not only sheds much new...

The reign of the Flavian emperors (69-96) saw the production of a large and varied body of Latin poetry: the epics of Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus and Statius, the Silvae of the same Statius, and the Epigrams of Martial. This poetry, long seen as derivative or decadent, is now increasingly appreciated for the daring originality of its responses both to the Latin literary tradition and to the contemporary Roman world. In the summer of 2003, the first-ever international conference on Flavian poetry, was held at Groningen, The Netherlands, bringing together leading scholars in the...