The lives of Catullus and Horace overlap by a dozen years in the first century BC Yet though they are the undisputed masters of the lyric voice in Roman poetry Horace directly mentions his great predecessor Catullus only once and this reference has often been taken as mocking In fact Horace s allusion far from disparaging Catullus pays him a discreet compliment by suggesting the challenge that his accomplishment presented to his successors including Horace himself In Poetic Interplay the first book length study of Catullus s influence on Horace Michael Putnam shows that the earlier poet was probably the single most important source of inspiration for Horace s Odes the later author s magnum opus Except in some half dozen poems Catullus is not technically writing lyric because his favored meters do not fall into that category Nonetheless however disparate their preferred genres and their stylistic usage Horace found in the poetry of Catullus whatever its mode of presentation a constant stimulus for his imagination And despite the differences between the two poets Putnam s close readings reveal that many of Horace s poems echo Catullus verbally thematically or both By illustrating how Horace often found his own voice even as he acknowledged Catullus s genius Putnam guides us to a deeper appreciation of the earlier poet as well

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