Aulus Gellius records an epigram of the Roman consul Q. Lutatius Catulus (Noctes Atticae 19.9.14 = fr. 1 Blänsdorf/Courtney):

This is a version of an epigram by Callimachus, 41 Pf. (= Anth. Pal. 12.73):

In their recent book Callimachus in Context Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Susan Stephens bring out the Platonic element in the Greek poem, with its evocation of the divided soul, driven by rational and appetitive forces, and note the loss of this in the Latin version.Footnote ¹ However, some complications arise from a phrase introduced by Catulus that recalls a rather different text. As was noticed by Giovanni Pascucci,Footnote ²ad Theotimum deuenit is drawn from Plautus, Bacchides 318 deuenit ad Theotimum.Footnote ³ The name Theotimus, which Plautus takes from the Menandrean original (Dis Exapaton line 55), occurs nowhere else in extant Latin literature; given its sense (‘honoured by the gods’), it is not an obvious name for an eromenos.Footnote ⁴ Whether or not there was a name in the garbled phrasing at the start of verse 4 of the Callimachus epigram, Catulus had a free choice both on whether to include a name and on what it might be.Footnote ⁵ Moreover, he has marked the presence of the echo, as happens often later in Latin,Footnote ⁶ by the use of solere. The chosen and precisely similar phrasing, combined with this marker, suggests the intertextuality should be more than inert. What point does the original context suggest? The scene from which the tag is drawn has the seruus callidus Chrysalus reporting a false taleFootnote ⁷ to the old master Nicobulus about how the young master Mnesilochus was nearly tricked out of 1,200 gold philippics by Nicobulus' banker in Ephesus, Archidemides. Having avoided a pirate attack arranged by Archidemides, they deposited the money with Theotimus, the priest of Diana and admired public figure, for safe-keeping in the temple (Bacch. 306–13). Theotimus thus provides a place of safety for the gold, akin to the perfugium he grants the soul in Catulus' poem. Next (315) Nicobulus asks whether they brought none of the money home, and Chrysalus replies that they have brought some, but he does not know how much, going on to explain the reason (317–20):

Nicobulus then tries to define more precisely the fractions of the gold left with Theotimus and brought home, first asking at 321 Etiam dimidium censes? (‘Do you reckon it was actually a half?’). Dimidium here deserves attention: Catulus' allusion to a context that contains the Latin for half looks pointed in a version that has omitted any reference to the ἥμισυ so emphasized by Callimachus' opening line. Finally, at 325–6, Chrysalus tells his master that he will himself have to go to Ephesus to regain the remaining gold, a suggestion picked up by ibimus quaesitum in line 5 of the epigram:

There are further verbal coincidences between the epigram and the play. Sic est Footnote ⁸ is found in verse 2 of Catulus' poem and at Bacchides 468 and 1108, of which the former is perhaps worth notice: Lydus asserts of Pistoclerus ‘your friend has perished’ (periit tibi sodalis); Mnesilochus prays to the gods that this is not true (ne di sirint), and Lydus then confirms and explains his assertion, starting sic est ut loquor. More significant, however, is the broader context. The Bacchides is a play that explores the seductive power of the life of love, as can be seen in two matching early scenes: first 40–100, where Pistoclerus is persuaded by Bacchis to arrange a party at her house against his better judgement. He describes her promise of a drink and a kiss as ‘pure birdlime’ (uiscus meru' uostra est blanditia, 50) in its power to ensnare him; nothing, he says, is more enticing to a young man than ‘night, a woman, and wine’ (nox, mulier, uinum, 88). Though Catulus' word formidare does not appear in the scene, Pistoclerus repeatedly expresses his fears in other ways: he uses the verb metuere in verse 53 quia, Bacchis, bacchas metuo et bacchanal tuom (‘Because, Bacchis, I'm afraid of the Bacchants, and your Bacchic shrine’), and it then recurs in 54, 55, 65, 78, 92.

The next scene (109–69) has Pistoclerus now returning from market to provide the food and other things needed for the party, and rejecting the sober advice of his old paedagogus, Lydus. He identifies the inhabitants of Bacchis' house as Amor, Voluptas, Venu', Venustas, Gaudium, | Iocu', Ludus, Sermo, Suauisauiatio (115–16), and contrasts the wisdom he used to find in Lydus (wiser than Thales then, 122) with the folly he sees in him now. Not surprisingly, the language of education is prominent, e.g. ludus (129 ‘school’, but playing on the sense ‘play’, found in 116, and on the name Lydus, as in 138, where the name is set against paedagogus), disciplina (135), magister and discipulus (152–3, 163–4), docere (163–4). Master and pupil bandy sententiae (118, 129, 151), historical and mythical exempla (111, 155–7), and tags from Homer (128 = Il. 2.489) and Pindar (144 = Ol. 13.104); they engage in comic versions of philosophical discussion, on the nature and names of divinity (115–24), on epistemology (145), and throughout on proper behaviour (placet, 125–6; addecet, 128; conuenit, 129; prodest, 135; non par uidetur neque sit consentaneum, 139). Note especially the tutor's words at 132–3:

Reason points out the proper course,Footnote ⁹ but desire sends the young man in a different direction. In other words the comedy dramatizes the Platonic division of the soul by representing Pistoclerus in debate with two characters who clearly symbolize the lustful and rational elements within him.Footnote ¹⁰ It is likely that the scenes go back to the Menandrean model, the Dis Exapaton, which also had Lydus as a character (1.14).Footnote ¹¹

Lydus tries to forbid Pistoclerus to go to Bacchis' (cf. interdixem, Catulus 1.3), and the notion of slavery developed by Catulus in fugitiuum is present in the Bacchides scene too, especially when Pistoclerus asks ‘am I your slave or you mine?’ (tibi ego an tu mihi seruos es?, 162). Over the course of the play Pistoclerus will be followed into the house of ill-repute briefly by Lydus, who departs in disgust,Footnote ¹² but then by his friend Mnesilochus, and their fathers Nicobulus and Philoxenus. Both Lydus and Philoxenus regard Mnesilochus as a figure of sobriety and restraint (453–98, 1084–6), but he has already been seduced by the Samian Bacchis. The two fathers carry the stamp of reason with their years, but when they encounter the Bacchides in their search for their lustful sons, they too will be exposed to their beguiling behaviour and they too will be caught: the equivalence of their capture to that of Pistoclerus at the start is nicely encapsulated in Philoxenus' tactus sum uehementer uisco (‘I'm completely caught by the birdlime’, 1158, echoing 50).Footnote ¹³ In Nicobulus' case he enters in pursuit of half – not of his soul but – of his gold (dimidium auri, 1184, 1189). He too at the end expresses his fear as he follows his son, and verse 1196 for a final time illustrates the duality of the male soul.

NIC.: What am I to do? PHI.: What are you to do? Do you even ask? NIC.: I want to and I'm scared. BAC.: What are you scared of?

It may be no coincidence that the line opens with a deliberative quid ago? Footnote ¹⁴ This produces a third precise echo in Catulus' epigram, one that occurs, aptly, in the final line of the poem. Catulus turns his question to an addressee with the following da, Venus, consilium.Footnote ¹⁵ Plautine editionsFootnote ¹⁶ attribute the next words quid agas? rogitas etiam? to Philoxenus, but 1191–1206 is otherwise apparently an exchange between Nicobulus and Bacchis, and I can see no reason for the momentary change of speaker here, especially as Catulus seems to have seen or read the play with a response from Bacchis, apotheosed into Venus in his version. He need not tell us what advice Venus will give: asking such a prejudiced advisor can elicit only encouragement to follow the animus. In any case readers of the epigram are expected to have seen the outcome when Bacchis' final line (1206) marks the entrance of the old men into the house in words that will be echoed in Catulus's ipsi teneamur:

It appears then that by using a rare name and a precise echo Catulus was inviting readers to notice the connexion of his poem with a familiar play and then to consider the reasons behind it. He had seen in Bacchides concern with the duality of reason and desire, and realised that this matched the duality of the soul briefly explored in Callimachus' epigram. Given the way Cicero in Books 2–3 of De oratore celebrates his interest in Greek philosophy,Footnote ¹⁷ it is even conceivable that Catulus was aware of the Platonic background, such as it is.