CATULLUS. Gaius Valerius Catullus, c. 84-c. 54 B.C., was born at Verona and died in Rome. He went to Rome about 62 B.C., and there he fell in love with a woman he calls Lesbia, who appears to have been Clodia, wife of Metellus Celer; Apuleius says that Lesbia was named Clodia. This love affair inspired much of his poetry.

Lady Philosophy reminds Boethius that many men who sit in the chair of dignity are wicked, as Catullus found in the consul Nonius, Bo III, Prosa 4.11. She says that Catullus called Nonius postum or boch, that is, an abcess. Boethius's struma, a "scrofulous tumor," refers to Carmen lii.2. [Nonyus]