Catullus was a first century BC Roman elegiac poet. He is particularly known for his poems written to win the affection of Lesbia, a pseudonym probably for Clodia, the wife of the statesman Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer. Catullus’ poems often attacked rivals who sought her attention and he regularly used explicit language to slander them. He also wrote eight poems in which he declared his love for a young male Roman citizen named Juventus. These verses display much more compassion and insecurity in the matters of love, with none of the aggression and posturing seen in his poems to Lesbia.