And kindly perch’d upon his tender lap.
His parents wondering at this strange event,
Took counsel of the soothsayers in this:
Who told them that these seven-fold eagles’ flight
Forefigurèd his seven times consulship.
And this version, with only another slight variation, is repeated rather happily in the invented narrative of the presage of Marius’ death:
Bright was the day, and on the spreading trees
The frolic citizens of forest sung
Their lays and merry notes on perching boughs;
When suddenly appeared in the east