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 [Greek:
diadema] (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
[Greek: kata tinos] in the sense of [Greek: peri tinos]. -- ELOGIUM: Greek
[Greek: elegeion] (so Curtius): for the representation of [Greek: e] by _o_
cf. _oliva_ with [Greek: elaia], and Plautus' lopadas for [Greek: lepadas].
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_

_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) _nup