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The well-known line which provoked the ridicule of critics like Juvenal and Quintilian, because of the unlucky jingle peculiarly unpleasant to a Roman ear: "O fortunatam natam me consule Romam!" expresses the sentiment which rhyme or no rhyme, reason or no reason he was continually repeating in some form or other to himself and to every one who would listen.
He also wrote three books of a poem on his Consulate, and sent them to Atticus; of which we have a fragment of seventy-five lines quoted by himself, and four or five other lines including that unfortunate verse handed down by Quintilian, "O fortunatum natam me consule Romam" unless, indeed, it be spurious, as is suggested by that excellent critic and whole-hearted friend of the orator's, M. Guéroult.
Not he; the man continued to strut about his library, in a huge toga as big as the Times newspaper, singing out, 'Oh! fortunatam natam me Consule Romam! and he mentioned the fact at all only for the sake of Natural Philosophers or of the curious in old women.
VIDERETUR: sc. esse; the infinitive is often omitted thus after verbs of desiring, thinking etc., also verbs of speaking and hearing; cf. Lael. 18 eam sapientiam interpretantur; ib. 29 quam natam volunt; ib. 64 homines ex maxime raro genere iudicare; Acad. 2, 12 viderenturne ea Philonis. HESIODUM: see n. on 54.
Yet again like his master, he fondly believed that he enjoyed the special inspiration of the Muses. Pliny, unfortunately for his reputation, gives us a few samples, which are quite as lame and jingling as the famous "O fortunatam natam, me Consule, Romam!" which had made generations of Romans smile.
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