Catullus –fratri suo

Carmen 101

multās per gentēs et multa per aequora vectus

adveniō hās miserās, frāter, ad inferiās,

ut tē postrēmō dōnārem mūnere mortis

et mūtam nēquīquam alloquerer cinerem,

quandoquidem fortūna mihi tētē abstulit ipsum, 5

heu miser indignē frāter adempte mihi.

nunc tamen intereā haec, prīscō quae mōre parentum

trādita sunt tristī mūnere ad inferias,

accipe frāternō multum mānantia flētū

atque in perpetuum, frāter, avē atque vale. 10

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Notes
Catullus addressing the grave of his brother, after a long journey. Meter: elegiac couplets
1 vectus – participle of veho6 adimō, adimere, adēmī, ademptum: to take away, deprive.Note that adempte with the short ‘e’ is vocative, whereas indignē with long ‘ē’ is the adverb.7 haec – the traditional grave-side offerings of wine, milk, honeypriscus, -a, -um: olden, primitive, ancient, antiqueparentum is genitive plural; mōs māiōrum or, more poetically, parentum, is the tradition of the ancestorsintereā here = ‘anyhow’, said with some resignation8 trādita sunt – present perfect of trādōad inferiās, ad + accusative expressing purpose: offerings are prescribed by tradition ‘for the last rites’9 multum is an adverb modifying mānantia, present participle of mānō

Funerary stele of a warrior