rn which had been
laid upon him. Servilia calmly remarks she will have the commission
removed from the decree of the senate (_Att._ xv. 11. 2).

(v.) _Miscellaneous._--It is not necessary to dwell upon the other forms
of literary composition attempted by Cicero. He was a fluent versifier,
and would write 500 verses in one night. Considerable fragments from a
juvenile translation of Aratus have been preserved. His later poems upon
his own consulship and his exile were soon forgotten except for certain
lines which provoked criticism, such as the unfortunate verse:

"O fortunatam natam me consule Romam."

He wrote a memoir of his consulship in Greek and at one time thought of
writing a history of Rome. Nepos thought that he would have been an
ideal historian, but as Cicero ranks history with declamation and on one
occasion with great _naivete_ asks Lucius Lucceius (q.v.), who was
embarking on this task, to embroider the facts to his own credit, we
cannot accept this criticism (_Fam._ vi. 2. 3).

(vi.) _Authenticity._--The genuineness of certain works of Cicero has
been attacked. It was for a long time usual to doubt the authenticity of
the speeches _post reditum_ and _pro Marcello_.[12] Recent scholars
consider them genuine. As their rhythmical structure corresponds more or
less exactly with the canon of authenticity formed by Zielinski from the
other speeches, the question may now be considered closed.[13] Absurd
suspicion has been cast upon the later speeches _in Catilinam_ and that
_pro Archia_. An oration _pridie quam in exsilium iret_ is certainly a
forgery, as also a letter to Octavian. There is a "controversy" between
Cicero and Sallust which is palpably a forgery, though a quotation from
it occurs in Quintilian.[14] Suspicion has been attached to the letters
to Brutus, which in the case of two letters (i. 16 and 17) is not
unreasonable since they somewhat resemble the style of _suasoriae_, or
rhetorical exercises, but the latest editors, Tyrrell and Purser, regard
these also as genuine.

_Criticism_. (i.) _Ancient._--After Cicero's death his character was
attacked by various detractors, such as the author of the spurious
_Controversia_ put into the mouth of Sallust, and the calumniator from
Whom Dio Cassius (xlvi. 1--28) draws the libellous statements which he
inserts into the speech of Q. Fufius Calenus in the senate. Of such
critics, Asconius (in _Tog. Cand._ p. 95) well says that it is best to