This novel, which I first read back in 1965, is excellent and powerful. Its candid look at the corruption of Rome is impressive and reminds us very much of the present ("the government's words are lies"), and its delineation of Catullus' love for Clodia is intense and heartbreaking. I cried at the end. Of course I was only 20 years old at the time. I don't cry when I read it now, but.... The scene when the crowd calls for the elephants in the arena to kill their hunters is overwhelming.