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How many epigrams by Catullus survive?
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Catullus
Catullus, bust in Sirmione, Italy.
The collection of work attributed to the Roman poet Catullus includes 48 epigrams written in the elegiac distich.1
While these 48 epigrams are categorized within the broader collection, it is important to note that the total number of surviving poems by Catullus is subject to scholarly debate. Depending on how individual poems are divided, it is estimated that 113 or 114 poems survive in total, though early editors included three additional poems (numbered XVIII to XX) without definitive proof of Catullus's authorship, bringing the common printed total to 116. The surviving body of work remains incomplete and mutilated, with evidence from ancient citations suggesting that at least five more poems once existed.1