Background
Gaius was born in 85 B.C. in Rome, Italy.
Gaius was born in 85 B.C. in Rome, Italy.
Practically nothing is known of his life except that he was the friend of Catullus, whom he accompanied to Bithynia in the suite of the praetor Memmius. The circumstances of his death have given rise to some discussion. This points to the identity of Helvius Cinna the tribune with Helvius Cinna the poet.
He may be the Helvius Cinna who, we are told, was mistaken at Caesar's funeral for the conspirator Cornelius Cinna and killed. He spent nine years composing the Smyrna, a poem telling of the unnatural love of the girl Smyrna for her father, and of the birth of Adonis, their son. The Smyrna, extravagantly admired by Catullus, proved an inexhaustible mine for the researches of various Roman grammarians. A less famous poem, Propempticon Pollionis, a send-off to Asinius Pollio, is also attributed to Cinna. From the fragments of his work that survive, it appears that Cinna outdid his Alexandrian models, such as Lycophron, in both learning and obscurity.
