any dress a little unfamiliar. So in Plaut. Miles 4, 4, 41 (1177 R) _ornatus nauclericus_. 60. IMPEDIT: _sc. nos_; with this construction the pronoun is always omitted. -- VALERIUM: when a young man, in 349 B.C., he engaged in combat with a Gaul, in sight of the Roman and Gallic armies, and came off victor by the aid of a raven, _corvus_; hence the name Corvinus (Liv. 7, 26). His first consulship was in 348, his last in 299; Cic. has miscalculated. Valerius was also twice dictator and is said to have held altogether 21 terms of curule offices. -- PERDUXISSE: _sc. agri colendi studia_. Cf. Lael. 33 _quod -- perduxissent_. -- ESSET: cf. n. on 21. -- AETATE: here = the vigorous period of life; cf. _bona aetas_ in 48. -- CURSUS HONORUM: 'official career'. -- HUIUS: _ille_ and _hic_ are not often found in the same sentence referring to the same person. _Eius_ would have been more regular here. -- MEDIA: cf. n. on 33 _constantis aetatis_. P. 26. -- APEX: 'the crown', 'the highest glory'. The word meant originally 'knot', being connected with _ap-tus ap-isci ap-ere_ and other words containing the idea of binding fast or grasping. It was properly applied to the olive-twig bound round with wool, which was stuck in the cap worn by the _flamines_ and _salii_. It is sometimes employed to translate διαδημα (a word originally of similar meaning), the royal _insigne_, as in Horace, Odes, 3, 21, 20 _regum apices_, with which cf. Odes, 1, 34, 14. The word is scarcely found elsewhere in a metaphorical sense. Our passage is imitated by Ammianus Marcellinus (a great imitator of Cicero) 27, 7, 2 _Rufinus velut apicem honoratae senectutis praetendens_. 61. METELLO: see n. on 30. -- A. ATILIO CALATINO: consul in 258 B.C. and again in 254; dictator in 249, censor in 247. Cicero classed him with old heroes like Curius and Fabricius (Planc. 60). His tomb was on the _via Appia_ outside the _Porta Capena_, close to the well-known tomb of the Scipios (see Tusc. 1, 13). -- IN QUEM ... ELOGIUM: 'in whose honor there is the inscription'. With _in quem = de quo_ cf. the occasional occurrence of κατα τινος in the sense of περι τινος. -- ELOGIUM: Greek ελεγειον (so Curtius): for the representation of ε by _o_ cf. _oliva_ with ελαια, and Plautus' lopadas for λεπαδας. But cf. Roby, 929, d. -- HUNC etc.: the inscription (which is quoted by Cicero also in Fin. 2, 116) is strikingly like that on the tomb of _Scipio Barbatus_ which has actually come down to us, and thus begins (Ritschl's recension): _honc oino ploirime cosentiont Romai_ _duonoro optumo fuise viro viroro_