we do not have a single line or fragment of surviving poetry written by Aquinus. [1, 2]

He is an entirely "lost" Roman author, preserved in name only through the mockery of his contemporaries. [1]

Who was Aquinus?

The quote you provided comes from Catullus 14, a humorous poem where Catullus vows to get revenge on his friend Calvus for sending him an anthology of notoriously awful poetry as a Saturnalia prank. Catullus threatens to run to the bookshops at dawn and gather up the ultimate literary "poisons" to inflict back on Calvus: the works of Caesius, Aquinus, and Suffenus. [1, 2, 3]

While Suffenus gets ripped apart at length by Catullus in a separate piece (Poem 22), and Caesius is a total mystery, we do have one other tantalizing historical footprint for Aquinus: [1, 2, 3]

• Cicero's Confirmation: In his Tusculan Disputations (5.63), Marcus Tullius Cicero lists him under the slightly altered name variant Aquinius. [1]
• Cicero corroborates Catullus’ low opinion of his talent, famously writing:

  "Adhuc neminem cognovi poetam... et mihi fuit cum Aquinio amicitia, qui sibi non optimus videretur."
  ("To this day I have never known a poet—and I was actually friends with Aquinius—who did not think his own work was absolutely magnificent.")

  [1, 2, 3]

Because all copies of his manuscripts have vanished, Aquinus remains trapped in classical history as the absolute archetype of a aggressively bad, yet blissfully self-satisfied, poetaster. [1]

If you are exploring the "Bad Poets Society" of ancient Rome, I can share what Catullus says about Suffenus's terrible writing habits or break down the satirical context of Catullus 14. Which direction would you like to take? [1, 2, 3]