BEFORE PSEUDO-VIRGIL. ANONYMITY, PSEUDEPIGRAPHY, AND AUTHORSHIP IN CATALEPTON*

Abstract

SVMMARIVM – Quindecim poemata, quae sub titulo Catalepton nomineque Vergilii tradita
sunt, a compluribus doctis hominibus non iniuria iudicantur ψευδεπίγραφα esse, scienter
composita ut libellum ab illo poeta adhuc iuuene scriptum formare uideantur. Rationem
cum Vergilio aliqua tantum carmina (scilicet 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15) palam habent, cetera
uero (2, 3, 6, 10, 12, 13) minime, quae autem alios homines saepe hostiliter commemorant.
Haec poemata primum sine nomine uulgata, Maroni deinde adtributa esse demonstrantur;
illa alia, quorum auctor Vergilii personam liquido gerit, cum his crebro connecti et ex his
that by the end of the 1st century AD Catalepton had taken its definitive form. On the
earliest evidence of the circulation of poems of the Appendix Vergiliana, see F. Zogg, Ut
Homerus, sic Vergilius. Zur Vergil-Zuschreibung der im 1. Jh. N. Chr. bezeugten Gedichte
aus der Appendix Vergiliana, «MH» 72, 2015, 207-219.

fortasse composita esse. Carmina ergo libelli Catalepton aegre omnia unius auctoris calamo
condita uidentur.

ABSTRACT – Recent scholars rightly believe that the fifteen poems transmitted under the
title Catalepton and attributed to Virgil are pseudepigrapha, which were deliberately composed
to appear as a youthful work by him. However, direct connections with Virgil are only
present in some poems (1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15) and are missing in others (2, 3, 6, 10, 12,
13), which instead refer, often polemically, to other people. The article argues that this latter
series of poems may have initially circulated anonymously and only later been attributed to
Virgil. The other poems, whose author clearly wears Virgil’s mask, interact with these texts,
and were perhaps composed from them. Therefore, the poems of Catalepton hardly appear to
have all been written by the pen of a single author.