[2] Catulus found his task impractical, because there were multiple passes and he would have to divide and weaken his army; he decided to retreat to a more defensible position.
[3] During the retreat Catulus became worried the Cimbri would corner his army; therefore he decide to attempt to score a minor victory in order to extricate his troops from the region.
[5] When night fell Catulus attacked the Cimbri, then used the chaos this caused to cross a stream and continue his march southwards.
The Cimbri, who had advanced into the Po Valley, were eventually defeated on the Raudine plain, near Vercellae, by the combined armies of Catulus and Gaius Marius.
Despite their joint success, the two commanders regarded each other as bitter rivals and after the war built competing temples to demonstrate divine favour.
He is credited with introducing the Hellenistic epigram to Rome and fostering a taste for short, personal poems that comes to fruition with the lyric oeuvre of Valerius Catullus in the 50s BC.
Among his circle of literary friends, who ranged widely in social position and political sympathies, were Valerius Aedituus, Aulus Furius, and Porcius Licinius.
[13] Pliny lists him among distinguished men who wrote short poems that were less than austere (versiculi parum severi).
Cicero preserves one of Catulus's couplets on the celebrated actor Roscius, who is said to make an entrance like a sunrise: "though he is human, he seems more beautiful than a god.
"[15] The other epigram, modelled directly after Callimachus, is quoted by Aulus Gellius and may be paraphrased in prose as follows:[16] My mind escapes me; I imagine it's decamped to the usual place: Theotimus.
Cicero lauded Catulus for the panegyric he delivered on the death of his mother, describing it as the first time a Roman matron had been so honoured.
When fighting the Cimbri his senior legate, Sulla, forces him, on threat of mutiny, to retreat to a more defensible position.