Editorial note — Chapter XV

was addressed to Manlius just after Catullus had heard of his brother's death, i. e. probably late in the year 60, or early in the year 59 b.c. Manlius was himself suffering then from a great and sudden sorrow. The expressions in lines 1, 5, 6, 'casu acerbo,' 'sancta Venus,' 'desertum in lecto caelibe,' make it at least highly probable that this sorrow was the premature death of his young bride. If this generally accepted opinion is true, the Epithalamium must have been written some time before 59 b.c.