2. In B.C. 60 he made a verse translation of the astronomical poems of Aratus, _ad Att._ ii. 1, 2, 'Prognostica mea ... propediem exspecta.' Quotations are given in _De Nat. Deor._ ii. 104 _sqq._ 3. In the same year he wrote a poem _De Suo Consulatu_, in three Books: _ad Att._ i. 19, 10, 'poema exspectato, ne quod genus a me ipso laudis meae praetermittatur.' A long passage from Book ii., spoken by the Muse Urania, is recited by Q. Cicero in _De Div._ i. 17 _sqq._ 4. Another poem in three Books, _De Temporibus Suis_, belonged probably to the year 55. Cicero writes to Lentulus in 54 (_ad Fam._ i. 9, 23), 'scripsi versibus tres libros de temporibus meis, quos iam pridem ad te misissem, si esse edendos putassem.' 5. In the letters to Quintus from June to December, 54, there is frequent mention of a poem _Ad Caesarem_. Quintus is consulted for information about Britain: _ad Q.F._ ii. 15, 2, 'mihi date Britanniam, quam pingam coloribus tuis, penicillo meo.' 6. A poem on Cicero's great townsman Marius is quoted, _De Div._ i. 106. Among others quoted are _Limon_, in which Terence was praised (see p. 51), and _iocularis libellus_ (Quint. viii. 6, 73). Translations from Greek poets occur in the philosophical works, e.g. _de Fin._ v. 49, from Homer, _Odys._ xii. 184-191; _Tusc._ ii. 23, from various parts of Aeschylus, _Prom. Vinct._ The ancient criticisms on Cicero's poetry are all unfavourable: _De Off._ i. 77, 'Illud optimum est, in quo invadi solere ab improbis et invidis audio: "Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi."' Juv. 10, 122, '"O fortunatam natam me consule Romam!" Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic omnia dixisset.' Tac. _Dial._ 21 (quoted p. 111). Quint. xi. 1, 24, 'In carminibus utinam pepercisset, quae non desierunt carpere maligni.' _Rhetorica ad Herennium_.--This treatise on rhetoric in four Books, addressed to the author's relative C. Herennius, is usually printed among Cicero's works, and is attributed to him by the MSS. and by Jerome and Priscian. But it is clearly not by Cicero, for (_a_) it does not agree with his own description of his early rhetorical writings as 'incohata ac rudia'; (_b_) the author's position, as described by himself, is not Cicero's. It is generally held that one Cornificius was the author; Quintilian (_e.g._ v. 10, 2) attributes to a person of that name several expressions found in the _ad Herennium_. He may have been the Q. Cornificius who opposed Cicero for the consulship in B.C. 64. The date of the treatise is probably B.C. 86-84. QUINTUS CICERO.