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.’