His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes.

The social prominence of the Catullus family allowed the father of Gaius Valerius to entertain Julius Caesar when he was the Promagistrate (proconsul) of both Gallic provinces.

His friends there included the poets Licinius Calvus and Helvius Cinna, Quintus Hortensius (son of the orator and rival of Cicero), and the biographer Cornelius Nepos, to whom Catullus dedicated a libellus of poems,[3] the relation of which to the extant collection remains a matter of debate.

[5] The "Lesbia" of his poems is usually identified with Clodia Metelli, a sophisticated woman from the aristocratic house of patrician family Claudii Pulchri, sister of the infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher, and wife to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (consul of 60 BC).

There is also some question surrounding her husband's mysterious death in 59 BC: in his speech Pro Caelio Cicero hints that he may have been poisoned.

However, a sensitive and passionate Catullus could not relinquish his flame for Clodia, regardless of her obvious indifference to his desire for a deep and permanent relationship.

[8] Though upon his elder brother's death Catullus lamented that their "whole house was buried along" with the deceased, the existence (and prominence) of Valerii Catulli is attested in the following centuries.

Cicero called these local innovators neoteroi (νεώτεροι) or "moderns" (in Latin poetae novi or 'new poets'), in that they cast off the heroic model handed down from Ennius in order to strike new ground and ring a contemporary note.

Catullus and Callimachus did not describe the feats of ancient heroes and gods (except perhaps in re-evaluating and predominantly artistic circumstances, e.g. poem 64), focusing instead on small-scale personal themes.

Some stories he refers to are the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the departure of the Argonauts, Theseus and the Minotaur, Ariadne's abandonment, Tereus and Procne, as well as Protesilaus and Laodamia.

Catullus wrote in many different meters including hendecasyllabic verse and elegiac couplets (common in love poetry).

[citation needed] Catullus 5, the love poem Vivamus mea Lesbia atque amemus, in the translation by Ben Jonson, was set to music in 1606, (lute accompanied song) by Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger.

][citation needed] Catulli Carmina is a cantata by Carl Orff dating from 1943 that sets texts from Catullus to music.