Catullus's tone has changed one again. He starts this poem off in the past tense, with emphasis on dicebas and quondam - he talks about things that Lesbia used to do, things that once were. She used to value him so much that she would even choose him over Jupiter. But this is all in the past. Clearly, something big has gone down.
In the next couplet, Catullus discusses two different kinds of love - a kind of love that a common man would hold for his mistress, and the kind of love that a father would have for his sons and sons-in-law. The second kind is different in that it encompasses respect and admiration. Catullus asserts that he loved Lesbia in both kinds of ways, yet now that she has (most likely) cheated on him, the second kind of love is gone.
He also says something interesting - such an insult compels him as a lover to love her more. Perhaps it has made her more unreachable, and that is why he doesn't walk away from her. However, he still claims that respect and admiration are gone from their relationship.
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