Lesbia was the literary pseudonym used by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus ( c. 82–52 BC) to refer to his lover. Lesbia is traditionally identified with Clodia , the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer and sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher ; her conduct and motives are maligned in Cicero 's extant speech Pro Caelio , delivered in 56 BC.
4-496: Lesbia is the subject of 25 of Catullus' 116 surviving poems, and these display a wide range of emotions (see Catullus 85 ), ranging from tender love (e. g. Catullus 5 , Catullus 7), to sadness and disappointment (e.g. Catullus 72), and to bitter sarcasm (e.g. Catullus 8), following the often unsteady course of Catullus' relationship. The name evokes the poet Sappho , who was from the isle of Lesbos . Catullus's poem 35 celebrating his poet friend Caecilius of Novum Comum also mentions
8-476: A list of four such identities in court, to defend himself against the charge of hiding names under an alias: Apuleius' information is thought to have come from Suetonius ' de poetis , or Suetonius' most important source, a work on late Republican and Augustan period poets by Gaius Julius Hyginus . Thomas draws parallels between Lesbia and one of the Meleager 's lovers, Phanion. Catullus 85 Catullus 85
12-495: Is poem 51, which looks like it could be the first poem written to her. What makes this more likely is that the poem is an elegant translation of a poem by Sappho herself, which is still extant. She may have been a poet in her own right, included with Catullus in a list of famous poets whose lovers "often" helped them write their verses. The name Lesbia was chosen for several reasons, including its metrical match with her real name. The 2nd-century AD orator Apuleius of Madaura gave
16-476: The devotion of Caecilius' girlfriend, who is herself accorded a remarkable tribute as "girl more learned than Sappho's Muse" (lines 16–17: Sapphica puella / musa doctior ). This could well be Catullus' Lesbia before she became his own lover. It may be significant that a poem which looks like an envoi to Lesbia (Catullus 11) is written in the Sapphic metre; the only other poem in the collection composed in this metre
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