external text
Marius (Cicero)
Cicero's Marius
also: Mario, Marium
Cicero's own poem celebrating the Arpinate Gaius Marius, several lines of which (the eagle-omen at the Marian oak) are quoted at the opening of De Legibus.
Reading notes
- On Divination §1.106 in your own poem, the \textit{Marius}
Cicero's youthful poem on his fellow-townsman Gaius Marius, from which Quintus quotes the eagle-and-serpent omen. The poem (now fragmentary) is also drawn on in De Legibus.
- On the Laws §1.2 the Marian oak
An oak at Arpinum from which, in Cicero's youthful poem Marius, an eagle (the bird of Jupiter) flew up as an omen. The dialogue opens with a debate over whether the poet's oak and the real one are the same, framing the difference between poetic and historical truth.