Who was Gaius Memmius in Catullus’s journey to Bithynia?

In the context of the poet Catullus, Gaius Memmius was the Roman governor of the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor. Around 57–56 BCE, Catullus traveled to the region as part of Memmius’s official retinue.1

It is important to distinguish this individual from the Gaius Memmius mentioned in other historical contexts, such as the political figure who was murdered during the consular elections of 99 BCE. The Gaius Memmius who served as Catullus's governor was a man of letters to whom the philosopher-poet Lucretius dedicated his work De rerum natura.231