_i.e. hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Romae bonorum optimum fuisse virum
virorum_. Ritschl thus completes the _elogium_ of Atilus, by comparison
with others still preserved: _dictator_ (ending the second line), _Consul,
censor, aedilis hic fuit apud vos_. But Cicero's words (_nolum ...
sepulcro_) seem to imply a longer inscription than one of three lines; the
analogy of the Scipionic inscriptions points the same way. The older
monumental inscriptions of Rome were written in the Saturnian metre, which
depended partly on accent. The normal line ran thus:

v -' v - v -' v' | -' v - v -' v'

but there were many deviations. -- UNUM: intensifies _primarium_, 'the very
first'; cf. the common use of _unus_ with a superlative adjective, for
which see n. on Lael. 1 _unum_ etc. -- ESSET CONSENTIENS: cf. n. on 26
_agens aliquid_. -- NUPER: like _modo_ (see n. on 27) _nuper_ is loosely
used, and has its meaning defined by the context. Cf. n. on Lael. 13. In
Plin. Ep. 1, 2, 2 the orator Calvus, a younger contemporary of Cicero, is
said to have existed _nuper_. -- LEPIDUM: _pontifex maximus_ from 180 B.C.,
consul in 187 and in 175; censor in 179; he is said to have been chosen
_princeps senatus_ by six sets of censors in succession. He died in 152. --
PAULO: see 29 _L. Aemilius_ with n. -- MAXIMO: see 10 _et seq_. --
SENTENTIA: _i.e._ a set speech in the senate. Cf. De Or. 1, 38 _is non
accurata orationis copia, sed nutu atque verbo libertinos in urbanas tribus
transtulit_. -- HONORATA: see n. on 22.

62. IN OMNI ORATIONE: 'everywhere throughout my speech'. _Tota oratione_
would have meant 'my speech viewed as a whole'. -- DEFENDERET: the tense is
accommodated to that of _dixi_, according to Latin custom; see n. on 42
_efficeret_. -- CANI: _sc. capilli_; the same ellipsis is found in Ovid.