Catullus Wrote Obscene Ancient Poem

The Roman poet Catullus wrote Carmen 16 in the 1st century BCE, a poem so obscene that it shocked readers for nearly two millennia. Its opening line, "P?d?c?b? ego v?s et irrum?b?" ("I will sodomize you and face-fuck you"), directly attacked two critics of his earlier work. Because of its graphic language, full English translations were censored or avoided entirely until the 20th century, almost 2,000 years after its creation.

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