A Fresh Approach to Catullus 29.23

The communis opinio is that opulentissime at Catullus 29.23 is corrupt.1 The superlative adjective is problematical for two reasons. First, the third syllable violates the pure iambic trimeter in which the poem appears to be written.2 Second, the vocative urbis opulentissime, which must refer to Crassus, introduces a third person at the end of the poem;3 such an intrusion disturbs the obvious symmetry in which the recipients of vv. 1-10 (Pompey) and of w. 11-20 (Caesar) are addressed jointly in the final four verses.4 Most attempts to repair opulentissime involve reading an interjection o and a masculine plural superlative adjective to agree with socer generque in verse 24. A recent critic, however, appears to be driven to despair over healing the passage; he proposes that "the MS reading opulentissime reflects a gloss [which] makes restoration of the line a fruitless endeavor."5 This paper will suggest that the