'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_