[5-6] The point of these two parenthetical verses (cf. the verse introduced by credo in Catul. 2.8) seems to be that this super-aspiration was considered to be a characteristic of low-born and uneducated people (Gell. 13.6.3); and as the relations cited are all on the mother's side, it looks as though the ancestry of Arrius in the female line had already been the subject of jest among his acquaintances (cf. Cicero's remark concerning him in Cic. Brut. 243 “infimo loco natus” ). The point of liber as an adjective and not a proper name is then clear, if infimo loco be understood of the condition of slavery: his maternal uncle (perhaps only one of his uncles on that side) was a libertus, and the social standing of the entire family is thus indicated.
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Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.
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