M. Valerius Corvinus defeated a gigantic Gaul in single combat.

During the struggle a raven {corvus) is said to have perclied upon Corvinus's helmet, and to have lent him assistance by flying in the face of his antagonist ; whence the surname Corvinus.
18. perduzisse : sc. studia agri colendi, — continued the pur- suits offarming.
19. cum esset . . . coleret : still remaining on the farm and cultivating it after his life was already spent ; aetas here covers tlie period of an ordinary lifetime, corresponding to our " tliree score years and ten." For the c?n>i-clauses, sce note on p. 8, 1. 13; for acta aetate we sliould have expected exacta aetate.
20. primiun et sextum consulatum : Corvinus's lirst consul- ship was in 349 b.c, his sixth in 299. Cicero's reckoning, there- fore, betrays an error.
22. maiores : supply in sense nostri.
ad senectutis initium : up to the heginning of old age, i.e. from birth. Old age (seiiectiis) properly began at sixty, but Cicero is here tliinking rather of tlie aetas seniorum, tlie time when men became exempt from military service ; this was at forty-six.
esse voluenmt : alloioed, lit. xoished to be.
23. cursus honorum : the technical expression denoting official career, inckiding all offices from the quaestorship to the consulship,
huius extrema aetas : the latter part of his life.
24. hoc : explained by the clause quod habebat. auctorltatis : influence.
100 (JATO MAIOR DE SENECTUTE
25. apez: the croroning glory ; apex prinuirily designated the pointed piece of wood inserted in the top of the cap worn by the flainens.
20. fuit : sc. auctoritas.