„Senes severiores”. Notes on „too-strict” translations of comparatives (Catul. V 2)

The paper includes some examples of the comparative usages within adjectives among Catullus’ poems for the introduction. The main assumption is to present a quite new point of view on the rendition of senes severiores, an expression mostly translated as “too strict / too stern old men”. The new interpretation is to be connected with Roman magistrates – censores. The article shortly examines different backgrounds (language, literature, culture) to prove the possibility, that the poet, saying ‘stern old men’ could have meant something more, than it appears at first sight.

Quaestiones huius operae in unius dicti (i. e. ‘senum severiorum’) nova interpretatione offerenda nituntur. Primum varii comparativi in Catulli carminibus usus expositi sunt. Deinde paucae interpretationes horum verborum nostra aetate propositae ostenduntur. Tertio gradu obiectum est, ut pro senibus severioribus ‘censores’ intellegere possemus. Dein coniectura ea aptioribus exemplis eorum subiectivorum (‘senes’, ‘censores’) apud priscos scriptores inveniendis probatur. Duae fa- cies censoris – castigatoris morum litterarumque conferuntur, et illam primam nostris studiis hoc loco (Catul. V 2) proponimus. Pauca etiam de Clodia ista et de aliis poetae Veronensis carminibus, quibus acerbiores contumelias effudit, dicta sunt.