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- Sirmio on Lake Garda should not be confused with Sirmium in Pannonia
Sirmio is a promontory at the southern end of Lake Garda, projecting 21 miles into the lake. It is celebrated from its connection with Catullus, for the large ruins of a Roman villa on the promontory have been supposed to be his country house. Catullus, upon his return home from a long voyage, joyously describes Sirmio as "Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque ocelle" (jewel of islands and of peninsulas) in his Carmen XXXI, Ad Sirmionem insulam. A post-station bearing the name Sirmio stood on the high-road between Brixia and Verona, near the southern shore of the lake. On the shore below is the village of Sirmione, with sulfur baths.
In 1880, the poet Tennyson visited what he called "Sweet Catullus's all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio," in his poem, "Frater Ave atque Vale," this referring to the last line of a famous elegy of Catullus, on the death of his brother.
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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