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Dunmore,HelenCounting the StarsIn the heat of Rome’s long summer, thepoet Catullus and his older married lover,Clodia Metelli, meet in secret. Livingat the heart of sophisticated, brittleand brutal Roman society at the timeof Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar,Catullus is obsessed with Clodia, theLesbia of his most passionate poems. Heis jealous of her husband, of her maid,even of her pet sparrow. And Clodia?Catullus is ‘her dear poet’, but possiblynot her only interest...Their Rome is acity of extremes. Tenants are packedinto ramshackle apartment blocks whilepalatial villas house the magnificence ofthe families who control Rome. Armedstreet gangs clash in struggles for politicalpower. Slaves are the eyes and ears ofeverything that goes on, while civilizationand violence are equals, murder is theeasy option and poison the weapon ofchoice. Catallus’ relationship with Clodiais one of the most intense, passionate,tormented and candid in history. Inlove and in hate, their story exposes thebeauty and terrors of Roman life in thelate Republic.22