Editorial note — Chapter XV

Schmidt supposes him to be the Alphenus Varus, the Jurist, to whom the 30th poem, written in a tone of tender reproach, is addressed. Catullus does not seem to address the same person by different names, unless Manius and Allius are the same. Thus M. Caelius Rufus is addressed as Rufus, the Caelius addressed in other poems being a native of Verona. As both Alphenus Varus and Quintilius Varus were natives of Cremona, Catullus was likely to have known both.