Love in a time of bankruptcy: Catullus and the literature of debt

Abstract Debt and mutual lending connected members of the Roman elite in the late Republic, as part of (and in tension with) the bonds of friendship and political support. This article offers a fresh approach to understanding economics in Catullus’ Carmina , arguing that the poems show a consistent attention to the ubiquity of debt in the lives of their characters. By close readings of C. 5, 23, 41 and 103, I argue that Catullus shows us the effects of economic hierarchy on amicitia, but he also depicts his own persona trapped in a mindset of acquisition, profit and loss. Rather than constructing an urbane world sealed from financial pressures, Catullus’ poetry dramatises the transformative impact of debt on lives and emotions in the 50s b.c.e .