TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS
CHAPTERS OF A BIOGRAPHY
H ^Dissertation
PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF BRYN MAWR COLLEGE IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
BY
BRYN MAWR, PENNSYLVANIA 1920
TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS
CHAPTERS OF A BIOGRAPHY
H Dissertation
PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF BRYN MAWR COLLEGE IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
BY
ALICE HILL BYRNE
BRYN MAWR, PENNSYLVANIA 1920
PRESS OF
THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER. PA.
ato
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION v
CHAPTER I. Atticus as Man of Business I
CHAPTER II. Atticus as Man of Letters 23
CHAPTER III. Atticus in Politics 52
INTRODUCTION.
In attempting a biography of Atticus, I have considered his life under its more significant aspects. The collection and col- lation from Cicero's letters of facts concerning his life has been admirably done by Drumann, and it would be super- fluous to give the results of an independent study where these coincide with results already published.
Atticus figures in the life of his time as a representative of the propertied classes with business interests, as a typical man of leisure and culture, a promoter of intellectual activity and himself a producer of a work in historical method, and, most significantly, as the political adviser of a man of greater genius than he, to whom he was able to supply balance and insight.
In the chapter on Atticus as a man of letters, I have thought it proper to introduce many of the conjectures made by scholars as to the scope and influence of Atticus' literary work. While few of these can be established, the impression made by the sum of them is probably a fairer representation of Atticus' position in the intellectual world than could be reached by con- sidering only the facts susceptible of proof.
The original sources for a life of Atticus are the brief biog- raphy of Nepos, the letters of Cicero to Atticus and certain dialogues of Cicero.1 These, with some mention of Atticus found in Cicero's letters to other correspondents,2 two letters from Brutus,3 three references in the work of Nepos outside the biography,4 Varro's presentation of the Epirot stock farmer in De Re Rustica, and the brief references of Valerius Maxi-
1 De Legibus, Brutus, Orator, Academica, De Finibus, De Senectute, De Amicitia.
2 Ad Fam. V. 4, i ; 5 ; VII. 30, 2; 31, 2; IX. 8, i ; 26, i ; XI. 29; XIII. i; 17; 18; XIV, 10; 14, 2; 19; XVI. 23; Ad. Q. F. II. 10, 2.
8 Ad Brut. I. 16, i ; 17.
* Vitae, Dedication; 24, 3, 5 ; 23, 13, I,
V
VI INTRODUCTION.
mus,5 Seneca,6 Pliny,7 Asconius,8 Quintilian,9 Tacitus,10 Sue- tonius,11 Pronto,12 Censorinus,13 Solinus14 and Charisius15 con- stitute the testimony of antiquity on the subject.16
The biography of Nepos was a complimentary monograph, written largely during the lifetime of Atticus. It has many of the characteristics of the modern journalistic write-up. It be- trays the defects of Nepos' biographical work in general, care- lessness in the presentation of facts,17 lack of psychological penetration, undiscriminating laudation.18 Nepos had a first- hand knowledge of Atticus and of some of his friends, and thus had a foundation of truth for the facts that he presents to an extent that he could not claim for any other biography, but his general statements are not always to be taken literally ; in fact, the sweeping negative statement is one of his manner- isms, and is often rhetorical rather than accurate.19 Both his facts and his characterizations must be discounted when they conflict with the evidence of the letters. Nevertheless there are passages in the biography that seem to be echoes of con- versation with Atticus, and may convey his own statement of motive or his own comments on his life.20
5 VII. 8, 5.
6 Ep. Mor. 21 and 07.
•*N. H. XXXV. II ; List of Sources for VII. and XXXIII. 8 On Pro Cornelio, p. 60 Stangl ; On In Pisonem, p. 18 Stangl. •VI. 3, 109; VIII. 3, 32.
10 Annals II. 43.
11 De Grammaticis 14 and 16 ; Tiberius 7.
12 Ep. I. 7, Naber, p. 20. " De Die Natali 2.
14 Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium I. 27.
15 I. 12, 6 Keil.
16 Plutarch mentions the correspondence of Brutus with Atticus, Cicero, 45.
17 His mistake of four years about Cicero's age is sufficient evidence of his carelessness in regard to facts easily ascertainable (Gellius, Noct. Att. XV. 28).
18 Cf . Schanz, Rom. Litt. I. 2, 160, Ein adaquates Lebensbild zu schaffen, dazu fehlte es ihm an philosophische Begabung.
19 Nemo aliud acrpama, 14, i, may be as dubious as Nulla lex, 18, 2, or as untrue as omnisque ejus pecuniae reditus, 14, 3.
20 E.g., 2, 5 ; 3, 3 ; 6, though in the last there are general statements that are too sweeping.
INTRODUCTION. Vll
The letters of Cicero constitute evidence of the highest value both for fact and for characterization. Many quotations from Atticus' own letters may be gleaned from them;21 many in- ferences as to Atticus' point of view may fairly be drawn from the explanations, protests or apologies that Cicero feels con- strained to make to him. The urbanity proper to the corre- spondence of two men of the world, the natural tendency to heighten in letter writing the significance of all that belongs to the correspondent, must be taken into consideration in drawing conclusions,22 but when all due discount has been made, the letters remain one of the most sincere and frank of extant human documents.
The evidence offered by Atticus' speeches in the dialogues of Cicero carries less weight and may be counted as convincing only when it reinforces conclusions drawn from the letters. Yet the care that Cicero used in choosing interlocutors, the effort that he made to assign to each man a part consonant with his ideas and not too far beyond his capacities,23 added to the fact that in the case of a living interlocutor a serious misrepresenta- tion of reality would have aroused unfavorable comment, make it a fair inference that Atticus was not made the mouthpiece of ideas at variance with his own and that the experiences to which he refers may be accepted as facts.
The studies of Atticus by Hulleman24 and Schneider25 pre- ceded the work of Drumann. Drumann's chapter on Atticus2* is a monument of painstaking erudition, invaluable as an index but of small value as an interpretation. The dissertation of Ungherini27 and the chapter on Atticus by Boissier28 are too
21 A collection of these has been made by Consoli, Attici Epistnlarum ad Ciceronem Reliquiae, 1913.
22 For instance, in writing of his provincial administration Cicero refers constantly to Atticus' counsels, though he had himself urged the same high standards upon his brother in 60.
23 See Ried's Introduction to the Aca-demica.
24 Diatribe in T. Pomponium Atticum, 1838. 23 De T. Pomponi Attici annali, 1839.
26 Geschichte Rows, V. 5-87 ; revised by Groebe.
27 Del carrot ere di T. Pomponio Attico, 1897.
28 Ciceron et ses amis, 1905.
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
much colored by the point of view of Drumann, who unduly magnifies and often misunderstands Atticus' commercial activi- ties. An excellent brief biography is given in Peter's Histori- corum Romanorum Reliquia, and good studies in the biog- raphies of Cicero by Strachan-Davidson and Sihler. On the literary work of Atticus the monographs of Miinzer are dis- tinguished for learning and penetration.
In the study of the letters, I am indebted to the work of Tyrrell and Purser to an extent that I cannot adequately acknowledge nor even measure.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS.
The extent and nature of Atticus' business interests are matters of inference rather than of knowledge. The evidence is scant, and many statements that appear in biographies of Atticus are unwarranted.
When about twenty-four years old,1 Atticus left Rome for Athens-, taking with him, as a counsel of prudence, the larger part of his inheritance. The date of his departure can not be exactly determined. Nepos implies that he left Italy in 87, while the contest between Cinna and Octavius was making life precarious for the partisans of both sides ;2 but in 87 Athens was actively involved in the Mithridatic war and by no means a refuge for a young man seeking security. It seems certain that Atticus did not enter it until some time after March of 86, when the city, after a long siege, fell into the hands of Sulla.3 He must then have left Italy when the government of Cinna had weathered its first storm ; that is, he did not avail himself of the pecuniary advantages that the members of his order reaped so greedily under Cinna's administration.4 He went to a city depleted by siege and confiscation : the island colonies, so largely the stimulus of Athenian trade, were forfeited; the slaves, who had formed the laboring class, were confiscated; commercially and industrially Athens was decadent.5 On the other hand, a Roman resident in a foreign state was in a posi- tion to take advantage of " the exclusive ability of the Italians
1 109 has been the date accepted for Atticus' birth, but Groebe, com- paring Nep. Att. 21 and Ad Att. IX. 5, i, where he retains the reading Natali, argues that if Atticus was ill for more than three months after completing his seventy-seventh year, and died in March of 32, he must have been seventy-seven in March of 33, and hence was born in na
2 Att. 2, 2.
3 So Sihler, p. 30; cf. Drumann, V. 7.
4 Asconius, On In Toga Candida, p. 69 Stangl.
5 Ferguson, Hellenistic Athens. The colonies were restored by Sulla in 84, but the commercial activity of the decade 100-90 did not revive.
1
2 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
to make loans to municipalities and to men resident outside their own towns, with the assurance that the Roman officials would permit or enable them to enforce their contracts."8
Nepos' account of Atticus' life during this period conveys the idea of a man of wealth and leisure, devoting himself largely to study, keeping an eye on his property, yet giving generously of his counsel and support to the unfortunate Athenians. According to Nepos, Atticus lent money to the Athenian state, which could not get easy rates on the market, refusing interest but insisting on prompt repayment of the prin- cipal, furnished free grain to the city, giving more than a bushel to each citizen, and acted as the state's unofficial adviser, consulted on all questions concerning the common weal.7 Now the patrimony that Nepos assigns to Atticus, 2,000,000 ses- terces,8 does not warrant the munificence chronicled. Unless Atticus inherited a larger sum or increased his patrimony by active and successful business, he must have been unable to make large loans or to give donations to municipalities.*
There is little information about Atticus' business affairs in the letters of 68 to 65. Besides a residence at Athens,10 he had a house in Rome, occupied by his mother and sister and the latter's husband, Quintus Cicero.11 Shortly before or during 68, he bought land in Epirus, near Buthrotum.12 In 67, he con- sidered buying a Neapolitan estate, but was anticipated in the purchase.13 The letters show friends in Rome acting for him in personal and business affairs — Cicero,14 Sextus Peducaeus,15
6 Ibid., p. 404.
7 Att. 2, 3.
8 Att. 14, 2.
9 It is possible that Nepos drew his statement about the gift of grain from a single instance belonging to the year 50 (VI. 6, 2) ; Cicero's comment on that instance shows that such gifts were not habitual with Atticus. See n. 72.
10 Near the Ilissus; De Fin. V. 96; De Leg. I. 3. "I. 8, i.
12 !• 5. 7 J perhaps this purchase was only an addition to an estate already in Atticus' possession ; if Varro avoids anachronism in De Re Rustica, Atticus had a well stocked farm and authoritative experience in farming in 67, the year to which Book II. is ascribed.
13 1. 6, i.
" I, 5, 4 and 5 ; 8, i ; etc. " I. 5, 4; 4, i.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 3
Sallustius16 — and an agent, Cincius, handling his money.17 There is a question of inheritance that involves Tadius,18 and a long discussion and controversy with Acutilius over some matter of bargain and sale.19 The only sign of Atticus' own activity is in his purchases for Cicero's Tusculan villa.20 Cicero thought Atticus, as compared with himself, a man of leisure ;21 and yet in 67, though he wanted Atticus' assistance in Rome in his candidacy for the praetorship, he felt that his friend's busi- ness affairs in Greece were too important to be left.22
The presumption from the evidence for these years, taken together with what we know of Atticus' activities after he left Athens, is that while he was pursuing the liberal arts in that city, incidental friendly loans to Athenians or to Italians travel- ling abroad gradually led him to develop a banking business. Doubtless his financial interests were furthered by the prestige that his knowledge of both the Greek and the Roman world conferred on him, and by his ability to advise in matters of law and business. During this same period he was investing in landed estates.
In buying an estate in Epirus, Atticus chose retirement and simplicity. Buthrotum was off the main routes of travel,23 and Atticus' estate was sheltered even from such currents of for- eign intercourse as agitated Corcyra.24 The region was noted for the growing of fruit and the breeding of horses and cattle.25 The place became a center of activity, probably not only as a
16 1. n, i ; cf. 3, 3.
11 1. 7, i ; 8, 2; cf. 20, 7, amicus tuus.
18 I. 5, 6 ; 8, i ; it seems to me out of harmony with the general tenor of the letters to suppose that Atticus was advising the defrauding of a ward. Either he simply stated his conception of the law or Tadius misunderstood him.
" I. 4, i ; 8, i ; 5, 4-
20 See ch. II. notes 45-49 ; it is likely that Atticus made further pur- chases for Cicero in his trip of 61-60 (II. I, u).
"I. 5, 4; 6, i.
22 I. 10, 6.
23 I. 5, 3- 2*111.7, i ; IV. 8, i.
25 Pliny, H. N. XV. 15 ; Gear. I. 59.
4 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
farm,26 but also as a station for extending the banking busi- ness.27 While Buthrotum was not traversed by the Roman legions on their way to Macedonia and Asia, it was a harbor and lay on one of the Roman coast roads, and thus gave facil- ities for reaching out into an unexploited neighborhood. At- ticus eventually made this estate his place of residence while in Greece, but seems still to have lived in Athens during the winter of 6S-6728 and to have spent some time there in 65.28 After 65, his residences were in Italy and Epirus.30
He may have intended to spend most of his life in Epirus, making occasional trips to Italy as he had done from Athens, but the desire of the two Ciceros for his political assistance kept him in Rome during much of the years 66-63 ; possibly he became so much involved during those years in business and personal relations as to spend more of his subsequent life in Rome than he had planned to do. However, he lived in Epirus for a large part of the time before he inherited his uncle's property; thereafter his enlarged fortunes doubtless enabled him to live in Rome according to his liking.31
26 In R. R. II. Varro assigns A., among other stock, eight hundred head of sheep — no large flock for an Epirot farm.
27 Cf. the agents in Corcyra, V. 9, I.
28 Cicero's commissions presuppose a residence in Athens.
29 I. I, 2, quoniam propius abes.
30 Nepos states his impression that Atticus went to Rome to live in 65 (Att. 4, 5). He had planned to go to Rome in January, 66, but' post- poned going (I. 3, 2). Later, Cicero urged him to hold to his plan of coming in July, to assist in Quintus' canvass for the praetorship (I. 4, l). As his friend Lucius Torquatus was standing for the consulship at the same time, it is likely that he went. There are no letters between the first half of 66 and the middle of 65 ; Atticus was probably in Rome during much of that time. In the summer of 65, Cicero asked him to come to Rome to help in the consular canvass, and he planned to be in Rome by January (I. 2, 2). It is likely that he finally gave up resi- dence in Athens in the latter half of 65.
81 Atticus' movements, so far as discoverable, may be summarized as follows :
Left for Epirus, December, 62 (I. 13, i ; cf. 12, 4) ; returned, Decem- ber, 60, probably (I. 18, I ; II. 2, 3; 3, 4).
Left for Epirus in 59, about May (II. 18, i) ; returned near end of 59 (II. 23, 3; 25, 2; III. 15, 4, leg em de collegiis'). I cannot find that Tyrrell has ground for heading III. 9, to Atticus on his way to Greece. Atticus seems not to have made the trip he planned for June i. Made
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 5
He announced and adhered to a policy of abstention from the great political-commercial prizes of the day, the provincial offices.32 The higher positions were not open to him except through a political career, but he had at his refusal staff posi- tions that he could have made very lucrative.33 In a letter of 61, he referred to the opportunities for enrichment, in the provinces and at Rome, that he had allowed to pass by. Even in 63, when he had at his command the influence of the most powerful magistracy in the state, he neither sought nor ac- cepted any post. At the risk of a family quarrel, he refused a place on the staff of Quintus Cicero when the latter went to Asia as propraetor. He had made his decision, as Cicero said, for a life of honorable retirement.34
Nevertheless he was not without business interests in the provinces. Early in 61, he left Rome on a business trip with Epirus as its base, and did not return until the end of 60. The major object of this trip was the " siege of Sicyon," that is, the collection of money lent in that city, probably to the municipal- ity.35 Whether this loan was an isolated case or one of many
brief visit to Dyrrachium, December, 58 (III. 25), if a me of III. 25, is to be retained. Sjogren retains it, Commentationes Tullianae, p. 86.
Left for Epirus, probably early in 57 (cessation of letters as evi- dence) ; certainly was in Greece in September (IV. i, i) ; was in Italy before January 28, 56 (IV. 4).
Left for Epirus and Asia Minor, May 10, 54 (IV. 14, i) ; returned, November, 54 (IV. 19, i).
Left for Epirus and Athens, end of 51 (V. 18, i ; 19, i ; 21, i ; VI. i, 19 and 24; 6, 2) ; reached Rome September 19, 50 (VI. 9, i).
Probably was in Epirus during the latter half of 49 (IX. 7,7; 12, i; X. 5, 3; 17, 4).
Planned trip to Epirus, July, 45 (XIII. 25, 3), July, 44 (XVI. 2, 6), but did not get away from Italy.
32 I. 16, 14; 17, 5 and 7; Nep. Att. 6.
33 Nep. Att. 6, 4; he accepted prefectures offered him by way of com- pliment, but refused active service.
34 I. 17, 5 ; Tyrrell, commenting on quae asperius actae videbantur (I. 20, i), says, "Atticus certainly did see something to complain of in the conduct of Cicero, else why did he recapitulate his services to Cicero and the chances that he had lost for his sake?" The passage referred to (I. 17, 5), shows only that Atticus defended himself against the charge — arising from whatever source— of personal animus in this par- ticular refusal to enter into active life, by referring to his uniform refusal even of most propitious opportunities.
35 I. 13, i ; certainly not, as Tyrrell suggests, by military coercion.
0 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
provincial investments, whether it represented Atticus' capital or that of his uncle or some other capitalist, we cannot say.
Atticus started on his journey armed with a letter from Cicero to Antonius, proconsul of Macedonia, containing a re- quest for assistance to Atticus in his business. The assumption that the business referred to was the collection of the Sicyonian debt is open to question :36 in the first place, Cicero's letter was so contemptuous and menacing as to make it probable that it was intended primarily as an expostulation and a warning to Antonius, Atticus' business being only an excuse for presenting the letter through an effective mediary;37 in the second place, as Cicero assumed that Atticus would go straight from Epirus to Sicyon and later, at some indefinite time, to Macedonia,38 the letter to Antonius was evidently not Atticus' prime reliance in the matter of the debt. It may be that Atticus had business in Macedonia in which he wanted Antonius' help. In 60, he asked Cicero to speak in his behalf to Octavius, the successor of Antonius, but again there is no evidence that the subject was Sicyon. Cicero answered that he had written to Octavius but had not interviewed him, because he felt that the business in question was not really a matter for a governor's considera- tion, and did not class his friend among the small usurers who were wont to be importunate for proconsular assistance.89
36 Achaia was probably erected into a province by Julius Caesar shortly before 45 (see Mommsen, Hermes, 1893,603). The Greek states were not formally subordinated to Macedonia before 57, when the Clodian law put them under the control of the Macedonian governor, at least for the period of Piso's administration (In Pisonem, yj and 95; De Domo. 60). Before that date, their position was ambiguous; theoretically, they were autonomous, but some of them paid tribute to Rome and their courts were probably controlled by the governor of Macedonia (so Hatzfeld, B. C. H. 1909, 222-225. Colin, Rome et la Greece, 668 f., ascribes to them a greater financial and judicial inde- pendence, while Groebe, Ath. Mitth. 1908, 135 ff., says without qualifi- cation that Achaia and Athens, in the early part of the century, belonged to Macedonia).
37 Ad Fam. V. 5. So Schiche, Z. G. 1904, II. 419. 8 I. 13, i.
89 II. I, 12. As objections to the traditional interpretation of this passage presented by Tyrrell may be offered ( i ) putabam and habebam should be treated as epistolary tenses; Tyrrell's translation would be
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 7
Whether on the same or on other business, Atticus still wanted to keep in touch with the. governor of Macedonia in 58. In the spring of that year, Cicero assumed that he would not leave Rome until the bill appointing the new proconsul had been passed.40
Atticus' experience with the Sicyonian debt shows that there was in some quarters of the senate a tender conscience with re- gard to Greece.41 Shortly before March of 60, Servilius, one of Cato's following, managed to insert quietly in a long decree a clause that evidently cut off some resource depended upon by money lenders in the collection of debts from the free states.42 Atticus at once found the collection of his money more difficult. In answer to his complaints, Cicero advised him not to hope for any repeal of the measure, for while there had been some meet- ings of protest, the clause when once passed had appealed to a certain idealism in the senate, some of it ill-natured, and the number of those adversely affected was too small for effective resistance.43
Atticus now had no recourse, wrote Cicero, save his own blandishments for coaxing money out of the Sicyonians.44 The matter by no means occupied all his time, for Cicero wrote of Atticus' life at this period as one of abundant leisure,45 but it
more natural for a pluperfect; (2) the translation of tocullionibus is strained ; money lending in Macedonia would not make Atticus more of a tocullio than money lending in Epirus or Sicyon ; (3) it is highly improbable that Cicero did not know definitely for what objects Atticus wanted his influence with Octavius used. For the interpretation of provincialia given above see Ad Q. F. I. I, 20, scientia provincialis, knowledge proper to a provincial governor, and cf. VI. 1,5; Pro Sest. 7 and 13, In Vat. 35.
40 III. i.
41 In 57, Cicero speaks of the Greek states as having been the property of the whole Roman state before Gabinius gave them into the hands of Piso (De Domo, 60, bona civium Romanorum). In 59, a law of Julius Caesar's expressly confirmed the rights of the so-called free states (In Pis. 37).
42 Tyrrell on I. 19, 9, conjectures that the decree forbade provincial governors to take cognizance of claims for debt against free states.
43 I. 19, 9; 20, 4; in the latter passage I read attribues with Lambinus, believing on other grounds that Atticus' answer to I. 19 had not reached Cicero when II. i was written. Cf. II. i, 10. See n. 35, Ch. II.
44 1. 19, 9.
45 I. 19,1.
8 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
was a strong interest, and he was reluctant to leave Greece without having accomplished the object of his journey.48 He was compelled to do so, but after reaching Rome he set on foot a new effort, probably that of obtaining from the senate letters advising the Sicyonians to pay. He had not yet obtained these in April of 59-47 Perhaps he had them before he left for Greece in the course of that year.48 There is no evidence to sihow whether he collected the debt ; in the year 58, however, Sicyon is known to have surrendered certain pictures from its public buildings because of insolvency.49
Cicero realized that his friend was becoming more and more involved in financial matters. In urging him to come home, he warned him jestingly that to arrive for the census just at the end of the period was too much like the act of a mere business man.50
From an early date the two Ciceros and Atticus were iden- tified in their class consciousness with the equites and were especially bound by professional and business interests to those members of their order who were engaged in tax-farming or in money lending in the provinces.51 It is likely that Atticus, with his long period of foreign residence and his numerous connections abroad, was of service to Cicero in building up his provincial clientage. His influence in the world of provincial business is indicated by Cicero's request for help in a matter that threatened, in 59, to embroil him either with the tax col- lectors or with the traders in Quintus' province. He asked Atticus to see the Greek traders, if they should come to Rome to protest against paying port duties on unsold goods, and to
46 II. 1,4. 47 II. 13,2. 48 II, 21, 6.
*9 Pliny, N. H. 35, 127. Mahafly (Silver Age of Greece) is not justi- fied in stating that it was Atticus who forced the lien on these pictures, which were a part of the extravagant display of the aedile Scaurus, but the inference is tempting.
60 1. 18, 8.
51 II. i, 10 ; VI. i, 5 and 10, tuum veterem gregem, and 15 ; XIV. 12, i.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 9
explain to them that Cicero did not think them liable for these duties.52
As early as 59, Atticus had money invested in public lands and challenged, on his own and others' behalf, what seemed to him excessive demands of the tax collectors.53
It is possible that during this period Atticus had some share in managing the investments of his uncle Caecilius, who was wont on occasion to lend money in Rome at high interest.54 Nepos testifies that while Caecilius repelled most people by his irritability and harshness, he found his nephew complaisant and obliging.55 The direction of a fortune larger than his own would help to account for the scope of Atticus' business interests.
In the latter half of 58, Atticus became the heir of three fourths of Caecilius' property, a fortune of 10,000,000 sesterces and a house on the Quirinal, noted for the beauty of its park.56 He seems to have occupied the house at once.
By 54, at latest, he had investments in Asia. On May 10 of that year he left Rome for Epirus, hoping to direct all his af- fairs in the East from that base, as he had agents in Asiia. Finding that his Asiatic affairs needed his personal attention, he started eastward, passing through Athens.57 His business was
62 Cicero himself promised to advocate their cause in the senate, and if it should prevail, to use his influence to conciliate the tax collectors, confessing that if he should fail in the latter effort, he would remain content with the goodwill of the province and the traders, which would be of value to him and Quintus (II. 16, 4). This interpretation of the passage follows the construction put upon discedamus and causa optima by Manutius and differs with that of Tyrrell. For discussion, see Tyrrell ad loc.
"11. 15,4.
" I. 12, I ; cf. Val. Max. VII. 8, 5.
55 Nep. Att. 5, i ; cf. Ad Q. F. I. 2, 6.
56 III. 20, i; Nep. Att. 13, 2; cf. XII, 45, 2; De Leg. I. I, 3. An inscription found in the sixteenth century (C. I. L. 6, 1492) shows that the palace of a prominent Pomponius — not of course a descendant — stood in the vicinity in Trajan's time (Jordan-Hiilsen, Topographic der stadt Roms, 406).
57 IV. 14, i and 2; 15, 2; 16, 7; 17, i. See Schiche, Z. G. 1908, II. 58 ff., for assumption, based on reading Patavium for putare (IV. 14, i), that Atticus went north on leaving Rome, with chances of seeing Caesar and Quintus.
10 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
quickly concluded; on August 9, he wrote from Ephesus; towards the end of November, he was nearing Rome on his homeward journey.68
Slight indications of Atticus' transactions are found in the visits and commissions mentioned by Cicero during the jour- neys to and, from his province. He was entertained by Atticus' agents at Corcyra and the Sybotian Islands.69 In Athens, he visited the Epicurean Xeno, who appears later as Atticus' agent.60 On reaching Ephesus, he interviewed Thermus, the propraetor, in Atticus' behalf, commending to his good offices Seius,61 Xeno of Apollonia and Philogenes, Atticus' freed- man.62 He found that agents of Atticus had been in Ephesus before his arrival and had received assurances of good will from Thermus.63 He investigated, apparently for Atticus, the financial standing of Egnatius of Side.64 The letters of the year show that Atticus had a number of slaves on commissions in Asia.65
On his journey to Cilicia, Cicero saw at Delos accounts de- posited there by Atticus, a further proof of business transac- tions in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean.66
During the spring and summer of 51, Atticus kept planning a trip to Epirus67 and Athens ;68 this was postponed from time to time and not begun until late in the year.68 Replying to a letter of the early summer, Cicero took for granted that one cause for the delay was that Atticus wanted to see Pompey, whose return from Ariminum he was awaiting.70 Whether his
58 IV. 18, 5 ; 19, i.
58 V. 9, i; VII. 2, 3.
««V. 10, 5; XV. 21, 2; XVI. i, 5; 3, 2.
61 Probably a Roman knight; cf. XII. 11 ; Ad Fam. 7X. 7, i.
62 For Philogenes as Atticus' representative in Asia, cf . V. 13, 2 ; 20, 8; VI. 2, i.
68 V. 13, 2.
64 VI. i, 23. «B VI. i, 13. "V.i2,i; IX. 9, 4- "V.2,3. ••VI. i, 24.
69 V. 20, 8 and 9; cf. VI. i, i ; Tyrrell seems to be wrong in his note on IX. 9, 4; Cicero saw merely the accounts.
70 V. 19, i.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 11
business with Pompey had to do with Cicero's affairs or with his own we can not say.
This trip was made at least in part for the sake of a quiet winter residence.71 It included a visit to Athens, where Atticus made a gift of grain to the citizens. Cicero showed by his jest- ing protest that acts open to the charge of demagogism were not in favor with the two friends, but conceded that the gift might be regarded simply as the courtesy of a guest to his hosts.72
In the meantime, Atticus built up a banking business in Rome. The first indication is a reference to a disastrous loan ;73 a few other loans are mentioned, notably one of fifty talents to Caesar74 and a small one to Quintus, the non-payment of which seems to have been peculiarly irritating to Atticus ;75 however, there are far fewer references to Atticus' debtors than to those of Cicero, whose numerous loans show that money lending was by no means confined to the bankers.76 More light on the bank- ing business is gained from references to Atticus' handling of other people's pecuniary affairs — collecting debts,77 supervising the quality of coin in payments,78 witnessing and executing wills,79 attending or conducting sales,80 making purchases or in- vestments,81 placing loans with other bankers,82 issuing bills of exchange.83 He acted as agent for the Ciceros, Cato, Horten- sius, Aulus Torquatus,84 Paetus.85 Perhaps most of this service was gratuitous ; at any rate, Atticus put much personal interest
" V. 21, i.
72 VI. 6, 2.
« IV. 7, 2.
"VI. 1,25.
"VII. 18,4; X. ii, i ; 15,4-
'«E.g., X. 15, i ; XI. 3, 3J XII. 47-
"XII. 13, 2; 18, 3; etc.
"II. 6,1 ; 16,4; XII. 6.
"XI. 13,3; XIII. 6.
«« XII. 50; 51, 2; XIII. 25, i; XV. 3, i.
81 XI. 13,4.
82 V. i, 2; XV. -20, 4; XVI. 2, 5.
83 V. 15, 2.
8* Nep. Att. 15, 3. 85 I. 20, 7.
12 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
and toil into the discharge of commissions. The revenues of the bank were probably derived largely from interest on loans. There is no proof that Atticus handled government funds, but he may have had his share of these, as well as of the sums that poured into Rome from campaigns and governorships abroad. Convincing evidence that banking was for Atticus a serious business is found in the jests of Cicero ; during the elections of 54, for instance, he accused Atticus of regarding with unpa- triotic complacency the rise of interest from four to eight per cent.86
The largest transaction recorded is the advance to Buthro- tum, in 46, of the sum that Caesar required from that town as an alternative to the confiscation of its lands. This loan threat- ened to be disastrous from a financial standpoint, and Atticus was compelled to set in motion all the political machinery in his power to save his investment.87
Atticus' place in the banking world was one of security and cordial relations. Many of his business connections developed friendships and mutual hospitality.88
Atticus was interested in real estate at Rome. In a quip that he took care to brand as such, Cicero exonerated him from all obligation to Pompey in 49, because Pompey had brought down the value of real estate in the city.88 It is likely that he was interested, not only as an owner, but also as a banker with money invested by borrowers ; Cicero, for instance, had tene- ments for rent.90
Atticus invested some of his money outside the city in the
86 IV. 15, 7. A passage in IV. 17, 4, Nam profecto spent habes nullam haec negotia multarum nundinarum fore, has been construed to mean that Atticus profited by political disturbances; Sternkopf, Hermes, 1905. 32, offers a more probable interpretation: At this rate, the state can not stand ; he compares X. 8, 6 and 7.
87 See ch. III. notes 225-227, 269-275.
88 XII. 4, 2, tui convivae doubtless including Oppius and Balbus ; XII. 47a, i; etc. VII. 2, 3, Ad Fam. VII. 30, 2, Curius; IV. 19, i; 3, Ves- torius; V. 10, 5; n, 6, Xeno.
•• VII. 17, 1. 80 XV. 17, i.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 13
purchase of farms. He owned one near Momentum, just out- side Rome, and one at Arretium;91 the place at Ficulae men- tioned by Cicero in planning a visit may have been the same as the Nomentanum of Nepos.92 The assertion of Nepos that Atticus had no other source of revenue than his estates in Epirus and his property in Rome*3 is incorrect, as it excludes the banking business and is otherwise at variance with the im- plication of the letters. In 56, he was looking for a country place, with a house, at Antium.94 Discussing an abortive plan of Atticus' for buying a place at Lanuvium, Cicero mentions his habitual caution in buying farms, his questions about the income to be expected and the productivity of the soil.95 The mention of the ledger at Delos suggests that he was wont to buy land in the East as well as in Italy ; if so, his purchases probably centered in Epirus and were practically an extension of his original estate there ; when Cicero said that Atticus could leave whomever he pleased in charge of Thesprotia and Cha- onia,96 he was of course exaggerating the size of the domain, but it is not improbable that Atticus had extensive possessions both north and south of the Thyamis.*7
The importance of this estate as a source of income is shown by the length and frequency of Atticus' visits to it, and by the amount of attention that the Epirus mail and the reports of his steward Alexio claimed from him.98
In the merchandise that passed through Atticus' hands, we find, in 56, a number of gladiators and fighters with beasts." Atticus and Cosconius sold some of these to Cato for use as a bodyguard.100 They evidently had still others, in whose success
81 Nep. Att. 14, 3.
»2XII.34,i. 83 Nep. Att. 14, 3. 8* IV. 8, x. 85 IX. 9, 4-
»6 VI. 3, 2.
« De Leg. II. 7.
os XII. 53 J XIII. 25, 3-
88 IV. 4a, 2.
100 Q. F. II. 4, 5. This was C. Cato, the tribune of 56.
14 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
they were interested after they had sold them for exhibition.101 They seem not to have contemplated keeping the lot in their possession and letting them for exhibition.102
One of Atticus' sources of profit was the breeding and train- ing of slaves for skilled employment. Nepos says that the num- ber was small, limited to those bred on his own estates, but that not one of these was left without training in some art or trade ; that while some of this training aimed at the care of his houses and estates, his specialty was readers and librarians.103 In spite of Nepos' statement, it is likely that Atticus bought some slaves ; the transaction in gladiators shows that human com- modities sometimes came into his possession in the course of business ; besides, Cicero ascribes to him an interest in the market for slaves of exceptional musical or literary ability.104
Among those trained for Atticus' immediate service were the agents who transacted his business in Italy, Greece and Asia, and the messengers who acted as subordinates to these. The agents were usually freedmen, emancipated in recognition of services. Philogenes, after travelling widely in Asia as Atticus' agent, appears later acting as agent in Rome.103 Eutychides, who was emancipated in 54, was acting as a steward in Epirus in 5 1.106
The literary slaves were trained first as readers ; Salvius was one of the slaves preferred for reading to the guests at din- ner.107 Possibly Atticus let out his readers to furnish enter- tainment at other people's dinners, but there is no evidence.
Some of the slaves were so highly cultivated as to be com- panions and assistants in literary and historical work. Alexis, who was Atticus' secretary and amanuensis, must have had marked literary ability, as Cicero compared him to Tiro.108
i°i IV. 8, 2. 102 IV. 43, 2.
103 Nep. Att. 13, 3.
104 IV. 17, 6.
105 VII. 5, 317, 2. ">« IV. 15, i ; V. 9, I. 107 XVI. 2, 6.
"8 VII. 2, 3; XII. 10.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 15
Nicanor was given over to Cicero for secretarial work during the latter's proconsulate.109 Dionysius, emancipated some time before Eutychides, also accompanied Cicero to Cilicia as tutor of the young Ciceros and as a literary companion for the pro- consul himself, who had already recognized his abilities in . warm tributes.110 Thallumetus shared with Atticus the read- ing of De Re Publica.111 Syrus, Satyrus and Antiochus were* capable of assisting in historical research by looking up points of detail.112 Athenodorus Calvus, a freedman, drew up for Cicero, when the De Officiis was in preparation, an abstract of Posidonius' work on a like subject.113
From an early period, certain slaves were trained in the care of books. Atticus began collecting books while living in Greece, and by 67 had accumulated a library that aroused Cicero's envy, evidently with the intention of selling it.114 He built up in time a large library of his own, but may also have bought books for others.115 His slaves were expert librarians. In 60, on receiving by gift the library of Servius Claudius, Cicero commissioned Atticus to have the manuscripts trans- ported to his house.116 In 56, Atticus' workmen were employed to rehabilitate the library of Cicero at Antium after the latter's return from exile. Tyrannio,117 Dionysius and Menophilus directed the work, and we know of one of these, what was
»°» V. 3, 3-
110 V. 3, 3 ; IV. 15, i ; 8a, i ; 15, 10.
i" V. 12, 2.
"2 XII. 22, 2; XIII. 33, 3-
"8 XVI. 11,4; 14, 4-
114 It may be, as St'rachan-Davidson assumes, that this library con- sisted of manuscripts produced by Atticus' copyists. Cicero feared that it would be sold and begged to have it reserved until he could buy it (I. 10, 4; ii, 3).
115 In 59, Cicero offered payment for a copy of Serapion that Atticus sent him, though he knew that it might be considered as a gift (II. 4, i). He also had copied out by his own slaves a book that Atticus lent him and returned the original (II. 20, 6; 22, 7).
118 I. 20, 7; II. i, 12.
117 For an identification of this Tyrannio with the scholarly freedman of Lucullus, see Usener, Unser Platontext.
16 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
doubtless true of the other two, that he was qualified by his wide acquaintance with literature to arrange a library.118
Certain slaves were expert in the copying of manuscripts; in fact, the copying establishment amounted to an independent business; it is impossible to say how early it was organized. It may have been an outgrowth of work done in the early col- lecting of Greek manuscripts, or it may have grown out of Atticus' interest in the circulation of Cicero's works.
These works were regularly submitted to Atticus for crit- icism, but at the outset it is not certain that he was their pub- lisher. In 61, we find him reading and criticizing a collection of Cicero's orations ; these had been put into book form, pos- sibly by Cicero's slaves, for the benefit of the younger genera- tion of orators, and were perhaps already in circulation.11' Ftfrther works were promised later, orations and the Prognos- tica.*20 In 60, in sending the memoir on his consulate, Cicero made Atticus responsible for the sale of it in Greece ; as he had already sent a copy to Posidonius, it seems improbable that Atticus was the editor.121 In 57, however, Cicero said, in promising to Atticus the manuscript of De Dovno, that it should be put at once into the hands of the students of oratory ;122 the I presumption that Atticus was to attend to the work of copying and distribution is very strong. He seems to have controlled the publication of Cicero's work in 56, when Cicero asked \ whether he would permit the circulation of a recent poem ;128
the question may, however, imply nothing more than that he was an authority on the political expediency of such publication.
The first conclusive evidence that Atticus published books is in a letter of 55, in which Cicero told him that he might pro- ceed with the copying of De Oratore; even this might conceiv- ably mean only that Atticus made a copy for himself.124
»" iv. 43, 155, 3; 8, 2.
«»I. 13,5; 14,3; II. 1,3.
120 1. 16, 18; II. i, 3 and u. 121 1. 19, 10; II. i, 2.
122 IV, 2, 2. "3 IV. 8a, 5.
124 IV. 13, 2. In September of 54, Cicero in writing to Quintus said that any work of his was destined to be known among the very school- boys, showing that all his work was published (Ad Q. F. III. I, li).
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 17
For the next decade, there is adequate evidence for Atticus' publication of contemporary works. In 46, he reviewed and published the Orator.125 In May of 45, Cicero sent him two books of the Academica and one of De Finibus; in June, on changing the plan of the Academica, he asked to have the first edition abandoned and a new one begun.126 In July, Atticus had three copyists, Pharnaces, Antaeus and Salvius, making a number of copies of the Pro Ligario; Cicero asked to have the three instructed as to a correction.127 In July of 44, Cicero sent the manuscript of De Gloria, which he asked to have copied out in handsome style on large sheets ; two weeks later, he realized that he had sent with it a preface that he had used in the Academica, and asked Atticus, taking for granted that by the time his letter reached Atticus from Vibo, the early part of the work would be done, to dry off the preface from the roll and glue on another one.128 In October, he sent the second Philippic, with the agreement that it should not be published while Antony's power was unimpaired; in November, he and Atticus were discussing corrections to be made in the original.129
The only work other than Cicero's which we are certain that Atticus published is Hirtius' Anti-Cato, the mansucript of which was sent directly to his copyists by Cicero.130 Possibly Brutus' Cato had already been put out by the same establish- ment.131 Atticus may have published the recent speech of his kinsman Quintus Celer which Cicero asked to have forwarded to him in Asia.132
The volume of portraits published by Atticus133 was doubt-
125 XIII. 6; a correction in all copies was entrusted to his slaves.
«« XIII. 32, 35 13, I.
127 XIII. 44, 3; the correction was not made (Pro Ligario, 33).
««XVI. 2, 6; 3, i ; 6, 4.
*2»XV. 13, i and 7; XVI. xi, i and 2.
«« XII. 40, i ; 48, i.
131 Atticus reviewed it, sending his criticisms to the author ; Cicero's comments on the ensuing correspondence may imply that Brutus had " sent the work to Atticus as a publisher rather than a critic and conse- quently did not welcome criticism (XII. 21, i).
"2 VI. 3, 10. 133 Pliny, H. N. 35, n.
'18 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
less the work of his own copyists. Proceeding from this as- sumption, Leo ascribes to Atticus' publishing house such works as the illustrated manuscripts of Terence and the Vatican illus- trations of Vergil.134
Atticus evidently had competitors in the business of publish- ing. Cicero praised his astuteness in promoting the sale of the Pro Ligario and promised to entrust all further works to his auctioning;135 this does not sound as if Atticus had previously held a monopoly contract for the publication and sale of Cicero's works. Moreover, when Cicero discovered that a tentative edition of De Finibus which was in Atticus' handsl had been copied by Balbus and that Caerellia had also procured a copy, doubtless from the same source, he showed in his protest that there were other places at which his writings might be pub- lished, and that Atticus' establishment was simply the preferred one of its class.136
There is no evidence as to the distribution of profits between author and publisher. Probably the author got no money ; on the other hand, he seems to have taken no risks ; when the first edition of the Academica was condemned, Cicero apparently assumed that Atticus would bear the loss.137
Our only measure of Atticus' standards of honor in business must be taken from Cicero's estimate. While Cicero spent money freely and had a tendency to run into debt, he had a strong sense of the elementary business obligations ; he con-
134 Rhein. Mus. 38, 317-347.
»« XIII. 12, 2.
138 Atticus apologized for this indiscretion, excusing himself on the ground of the pressure from Balbus, whom he could hardly disoblige ; Cicero recognized this excuse as valid. About the provenience of Caerellia's copy, or indeed about the existence of the copy, we know nothing. XIII. 2ia, i and 2; 22, 3.
137 For the value of a manuscript that Atticus had edited, cf. Pronto, Ep. i, 7. Naber, p. 20. For identification of Atticus with the Atticus of Lucian, irpdj rbv dvalSevrov, 2 and 24, and for a theory that Atticus edited Demosthenes, Isocrates and Plato, using the library of Aristotle that Sulla brought to Rome, and issuing a text to compete with that issued in Alexandria, see Usener, Unser Platontext, Gott, Nachr., 1892, 195. For bibliography of the discussion, see Dziatzko, P. W.,
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 19"
sidered it a disgrace for him not to pay his debts and for other people not to pay theirs ; he wished not to get the better of the other side in his business relations and he dreaded the ap- pearance of doing so. In several cases where he felt that he was in danger on the latter point, he committed the affair to Atticus' management, asking that his interests should be sac- rificed rather than his honor called in question. He assumed that Atticus* anxiety on this point was at least equal to his own.138
The financial aspect of the lifelong connection between Cicero and Atticus calls for special mention. Cicero was indebted to Atticus for long years of business services, some of them doubtless paid by commission, but many of them representing a personal sacrifice of time and toil. Atticus was indebted to Cicero for the reinforcement of his efforts-, in times when his financial interests were at the mercy of official decisions, by all the prestige of the consular.139 However, Atticus' stewardship of Cicero's affairs was on a business basis. Nepos says that when Cicero was exiled Atticus gave him 2,500,000 ses- terces ;140 this may be true ; it is certainly true that on coming into his inheritance, Atticus begged Cicero to draw on this for- tune to any extent and to prefer his assistance to that of any one else,141 that at that time and always afterwards, Cicero felt that if ever his own resources really failed him, Atticus stood ready to help him, that in 48, when Philogenes' peculations threatened his credit, he realized that if a legacy had not saved the situation, Atticus would have done so,142 that when Tullia's fortunes were involved by his losses, he committed her to At- ticus' care.143 Yet there is abundant evidence in the letters that, apart from political crises involving utter helplessness, Cicero did not ask nor avail himself of Atticus' generosity, but
138 V. 8, 2 and 3 ; XII. 19, 4; 21, 3, cui tu es consdus; cf. I. 17, 5.
139 Cf . the Buthrotum affair. "<M«. 4, 4.
i« III. 20, 2.
1*2 XI. 2, I ; cf . 24, 3.
i« XL 7, 6; 9, 3; 17; 25, 3-
20 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
maintained his financial integrity even when he felt himself sorely pressed for money.
The letters of 51 furnish direct evidence on Atticus' attitude towards thost great fields of exploitation, the provinces. His program for Cicero's administration of Cilicia shows that he was eager to see these run on a sound business basis. While Cicero claimed that he had strong convictions on the subject himself, cherished indeed and professed through many years,144 and that the practice of the required virtues gave him unex- ampled pleasure,145 he still constantly referred to Atticus as the inspirer and critic of his efforts.146 It was under Atticus' advice that he decided not to grant a prefecture to anyone en- gaged in money lending in the province, a rule observed even in the face of requests from Pompey and others with a strong personal claim upon him.147 Atticus' ideas may be further drawn from the accounts that Cicero rendered to him: in travelling through the province, he and all his staff refused, with a single slight exception, to accept from the provincials even the provision allowed by the Julian law, itself strict;148 his administration of the courts was just, serious and merci- ful ;149 and the whole system of closet influence was done away with;160 Ariobarzanes, the client prince of Cappadocia, was so protected from the harpies preying upon him and so stimulated to the payment of his just debts as to become quite a respectable figure in his kingdom ;151 no requisitionary letters were sent to the citizens of the province, no soldiers were billeted, no money was extorted by the threat of billeting ; the grateful provincials were allowed to express their enthusiasm only in words, statues and shrines being forbidden as a drain on their resources.152
144 Cf. Ad Q. F. I. i, and the orations passim.
i« V. g, i ; 20, 6.
146 V. 15, 2; 22,6; VI. i, 8; 2,8.
147 VI. i, 6.
148 V. 16, 3 ; 21, 5 ; etc. 148 V. 20, i.
180 VI. 2, 5. 151 V. 20, 6. ' 162 V. 21, 7.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF BUSINESS. 21
After one such enumeration Cicero expressly said, " Endure my recital of my merits, for it was you that wished me to act thus."153 With like confidence in Atticus' satisfaction he wrote about his treatment of the various foreign elements in the prov- ince : after the failure of the harvest, by the weight of his prestige and by his persuasive eloquence, without commands or threats, he induced the Greeks and Romans who had cor- nered the market to relax their hold on the grain ;154 the Greeks were allowed to have courts of their own under their own laws, and felt as if they were autonomous;155 the publicani were humored and kept within bounds, so as to injure no one; they were the creditor class, against whom Cicero was struggling to keep down interest to 12 per cent., but he followed a policy of compromise that might have been a leaf from Atticus' own book, pronouncing that debts paid within a certain time should bear a 12 per cent, interest, while those running on should be subject to whatever interest was written in the contract;156 the Greek magistrates were persuaded by a friendly pressure to reimburse the state for their peculations of the preceding dec- ade, thus making possible the payment of taxes long in arrears ; Cicero anticipated Atticus' pleasure in the deliverance or par- tial relief of the cities from their crushing weight of debt.157 Atticus responded enthusiastically to these accounts, showing an anxious interest in the practicability of such high ideals.158 The position that Atticus took during this very year in the Salaminian affair seems to belie these honorable sentiments ; in his eagerness to see Brutus enabled to collect a debt from the Salaminians, he^recommended that Cicero should assign a troop of horse to Brutus' agent, the ruffian who under Appius' proconsulate had laid siege to the senate of Salamis and starved five of the members to death.109 However, Atticus did not
"3 V. 21, 7.
«* V. 21, 8. »5VI. i, 15. "•VI. i, 16. i" VI. 2, 4 and 5. «8 VII. i, 5; 3. 8. 159 VI. i, 6; 2, 8.
22 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
know the facts ; his information came from Brutus, who was probably himself ill informed as to the character and proceed- ings of his middleman, and dependent for his estimate of the situation on the representations of unscrupulous agents ; he may have been somewhat ashamed of his 48 per cent, bond and somewhat ambiguous about it, for when Cicero first wrote of the Salaminian affair he did not know that Brutus was a principal in the transaction. Writing on February 24, he put Atticus in possession of all the facts; there is no indication that Atticus protested after he learned these.180
The testimony of these letters gives weight to Nepos' state- ments about the conduct of Atticus toward the Athenians. He evidently had a humane interest in the provinces and dependent cities, as well as the interest of a sound business man in their prosperity, and believed their salvation to lie in bringing them- selves— or, if the initial steps were too difficult, in being brought — into a condition of financial integrity and responsibility.
160 VI. I ; 2; 3; it is true that Cicero wrote a second letter of protest against Atticus' request, but it is most unlikely that he had received from Atticus any answer to his letter of February 24 before writing VI. 2 in early May or VI. 3 in June. Cicero answered, for example, on February 24, in Laodicea, a letter from Atticus dated December 29, and though a letter could cover the longer distance from Rome to Cybistra in 47 days (V. 19, i), it is likely that letters between Atticus in Epirus, often removed from the routes of travel, and Cicero in Cilicia took two months to reach their destination. The internal evi- dence of the letters makes it practically certain that Cicero had no answer from Atticus on the subject before writing VI. 2 and 3; if there had been an intervening letter from Atticus, so long a letter as VI. 2 would give numerous evidences of it, whereas it gives none. Contra, Gurlitt, B. P. IV., 1900, 1422, with intent to account for varia- tions between VI. i, 5, and VI. 2, 7, on the ground that Cicero made two different propositions. Gurlitt takes Ais Brutum cupere aliquid perdere as proof that Brutus sent a message through Atticus after the two had discussed the subject on the basis of Cicero's representations; the context at this point seems to me especially to preclude the idea of an exchange of comment on the subject.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS.
The father of Atticus was a man of scholarly pursuits and intellectual associations1 who considered his son's education a matter of prime importance.2
Among the schoolmates of Atticus, Nepos mentions Lucius Torquatus, Gaius Marius the younger and Marcus Cicero.8 It is safe to attribute to the education of Atticus a considerable similarity to that of Cicero, and there are many points at which the training of the two proves to be identical. The instruction under schoolmasters included the subjects set forth by Cicero in De Oratore, music, mathematics, poetry, history, elocution, debate.4 A few more specific details may be gathered.
There is no direct evidence that Atticus studied under Stilo, but as Stilo added to his grammatical, literary and philosoph- ical studies a strong interest in Roman legal antiquities,5 the references made by Cicero in De Legibus to common boyhood studies in this field,8 together with the antiquarian interest in Roman law ascribed to Atticus as interlocutor in the same book,7 are strong presumptive evidence that Atticus shared with Cicero8 the instruction of Stilo, and that he like Varro drew from Stilo his interest in Roman antiquities, legal, his- torical and literary.9 The boys learned by rote the Twelve
1 A work on civil law was dedicated to him by his friend Junius (De Leg. III. 49), commonly identified with the Junius Gracchanus of Pliny, N. H. XXXIII. 35, and by Cichorius with Junius Congus, whom he considers identical with Gracchanus. Untersuchungen zu LuciUus, 123-124.)
2 Att. I, 2.
*Att. i, 4.
4 1. 187; for a presentation of the evidence on Cicero's education, see Sihler, Cicero of Arpinum, ch. I.
5 He edited the Axamenta Saliorum and the Twelve Tables. * II. 9 and 59 ; cf . Brut. 99. MI. 45,43;III.47ff.
8 Brut. 207.
9 Ibid. 205-207.
23
24 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
Tables, a practice out of date forty years later.10 They read such speeches of Roman statesmen as were extant, even learn- ing some by heart. In this connection there are mentioned speeches of Fannius,11 Curio,12 Galba,13 Fimbria.1* From references less definitely assigned to boyhood may be added those of Cato, Lepidus, Africanus, Carbo,15 Crassus16 and Scaevola17 This course of reading probably extended beyond the years of study under Stilo. Besides ancient Roman ora- tory, the boys studied Greek oratory. Atticus' enthusiasm for Lysias18 may go back to this period. Hierocles and Menocles, models of the late and florid Asiatic school, were also set before them.19
Atticus undoubtedly shared with Cicero, probably under Stilo's teaching, that enthusiastic study of Ennius, Naevius and Lucilius which had recently become a feature in education. He may also have drawn nearer to the drama of the elder day through conversation with Accius.20
It was probably in the group of Stilo's pupils that Atticus showed the superiority in declamation mentioned by Nepos,21 and doubtless here was formed his lasting preference for the literature of the Greeks. .
On the evidence of the Brutus, Atticus attended the courts in his youth to hear the great orators plead. As interlocutor in that dialogue, he discusses the cultivation, voice, pronunciation, choice of words and gestures of Titus Flamininus, Catulus, Cotta, Sisenna22 and passes judgment from his own impres-
10 De Leg. II. 59.
11 Brut. 99.
12 Ibid. 122. "Ibid. 127. " Ibid. 129. 16 Ibid. 292 ff. « Ibid. 161. " Ibid. 164.
18 Ibid. 293.
19 Brut. 325.
20 Suet., De Gram. 2; Brut. 107.
21 Att. 1,3.
22 Brut. 258 ff .
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 25
sions on Crassus and Antony, and, doubtless with the same basis, on Sulpicius and Caelius.23 He counted Sisenna among his personal friends.24
Like Cicero, Atticus frequented the house of the augur Scae- vola,25 who admitted young men to his audiences that they might build up a knowledge of law from his answers to those who consulted him.26 As his attendance on Scaevola was at least in part contemporaneous with that of Cicero, which began about 89," we may suppose that he was pursuing the study of law at nineteen or twenty. It is likely that with Cicero he lis- tened daily in 88 to the speeches of his kinsman by marriage, the tribune Sulpicius.28 f
As the lectures of the philosopher Philo in Rome began before the end of 88, it is possible that Atticus attended them with Cicero before leaving Italy for Greece.29
In Athens, Atticus probably developed at once that enthu- siasm for the monuments and traditions of the city which Cicero ascribes to him,30 and steadily widened his acquaintance with Greek literature and antiquities.31 Sulla, who was in Athens during the winter of 84-83, was charmed with his reci- tation from the Greek and Latin poets.32
Sometime before 79, Atticus began to frequent the gardens of Epicurus, where Phaedrus and Zeno were then lecturing.33 The Epicureans had at the time small social recognition ; they had never enjoyed a high repute as men of letters.34 Phaedrus was doubtless a man of outstanding ability among them.35 If
23 Brut. 292 ft. 2* Brut. 260.
25 De Leg. I. 13.
26 Brut. 306.
27 De Amicitia, l. Brut. 306.
28 Brut. 306.
29 Ibid. Acad. Pr. II. n and 12; cf. Reid's Introduction.
30 De Leg. II. 4; De Fin. V. 4; De Sen. I.
31 Ad Fam. VII. 31, 2; XIII. I, 5.
32 Nep. Att. 4, i.
33 De Leg. I. 21 ; De Fin. V. 3 ; Nat. Dear. I. 21, 59. 3* Tusc. II. 7 and 8; Ad Fam. XV. 19, 2; In Pis. 70. 35 Nat. Deor. I. 93 ; Phil. V. 13.
26 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
Cicero's early admiration for Phaedrus, tempered later by at- tendance on the lectures of Philo,36 grew out of hearing Phae- drus lecture in Rome, as has been supposed,37 then it is most probable that Atticus also heard him in Rome and that the en- thusiasm then awakened led him to enroll himself among the Epicureans in Athens.
In 79 there was gathered in Athens a group of five young Romans,38 Marcus Cicero, his brother Quintus, his cousin Lucius, Marcus Pupius Piso and Titus Pomponius, who was even then so far an Athenian in spirit that Cicero, writing of the time, said that he was likely to have bestowed on him the cognomen Atticus.39 The five attended in the Ptolemaeum the lectures of Antiochus of Ascalon, the disciple and successor of Philo in the Academic school.40 Cicero testifies that his own attendance on the lectures lasted six months.41 In De Legibus, he makes Atticus confess to having been almost led away from the Epicurean gardens by the teaching of Antiochus, with whom he formed a warm friendship.42
Both Atticus and Cicero were initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. Atticus is represented in De Legibus*3 as defend- ing the mysteries — at least as practised at Athens — from the imputations of the writers of comedy, and eliciting from Cicero a tribute to their spiritual import. In 67, he was consulted by the poet Thyillus about the customs of the priestly family of the Eumolpidae.44
By 67, the second year represented in the extant correspond- ence, he had become a connoisseur in objects of art. He se- lected for Cicero's Tusculan villa Megaric seals,45 herms of
™Ad Fam. XIII. 1,2.
37 So, e.g., Tyrrell on Ad Fam. XIII. I, 2.
3" De Fin. V. i.
s» De Fin. V. 4.
**De Fin. V. i.
« Brut. 315.
42 I- 54-
43 II. 35-36. "1.9,2; 16, 15. 45 I. 4, 3-
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 27
Pentelic marble with bronze heads,46 bas reliefs,47 embossed well covers,48 a Hermathena.49 He was a student of landscape gardening and developed his grounds at Buthrotum, preserving the natural beauty of its streams and plane trees, and dedicating a part of the gardens to the nymph Amalthea,50 so as to arouse the emulation of Cicero, who pressed for instructions as to how he should make an Amaltheum at Arpinum.51 He was a master too in the arrangement of a library ; his system of well- ordered shelves, probably his own device,52 and of title cards attached to the rolls, served both convenience and beauty.83 In 55, he was called upon to arrange the statues and pictures in the theatre that Pompey was about to dedicate ;54 about twenty years later, Augustus employed him to restore the temple of Jupiter Feretrius.55
Atticus had stored in his house on the Quirinal a library which Cicero used in the composition of his philosophical works.58 Doubtless both men's libraries contained the older Greek classics ; Cicero seems to have drawn upon Atticus espe- cially for Alexandrian and contemporary writers. The fol- lowing books are mentioned in the correspondence :
Atticus received from Cicero TOTro6f(Tia Miseni et Putcolormn (I. 13, 5). Demetrius Magnes (IV. u, 2).
Cicero received from Atticus
46 I. 8, 2.
47 I. 10, 3.
48 I. 10, 3.
49 I. 4, 3-
50 On the question whether the Amaltheum was a small basilica or merely a part of the gardens adorned with statues, etc., see O. E. Schmidt, Neue Jahrb. Ill, 1899, 340 ff. ; Schiche, Z. G. 1904, II. 375, reviewing a paper of Lorenzina Cesano ; F. G. Moore, Class. Phil. I. 1906, 121 ff. Wernicke, P. W. I. 1723, considers the Amaltheum an estate.
51 1. 16, 18.
52 IV. 8, 2, tua pegmata; so Tyrrell.
63 IV. 43, I J 8, 2.
54 IV. 9, I.
B5Nep. Att. 20, 4.
56 IV. 14, I ; XV. 27, 2 ; De Fin. II. 67.
28 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
Poems or histories about Amalthea (I. 16, 18).
Serapion on geography (II. 4, i ; 6, i).
Poems of Alexander of Ephesus on geography (II. 20, 6;
22, 7). Writings of Varro: a work not specified (IV. 14, i) ; a
laudatio (XIII. 48, 2) ; a dialogue (XV. 13, 3). Demetrius Magnes' On Concord (VIII. n, 7; 12, 6; IX.
9,2).
Tyrannio's On Accents (XII. 2, 2 ; 6, 2). Dicaearchus' On the Soul and The Descent (XIII. 31, i ;
32,2).
Brutus' epitome of Caelius Antipater (XIII. 8). Panaetius' irepi irpovoias (XIII. 8). Phaedrus' On the Gods (XIII. 39). Cotta's historical monograph (XIII. 44, 3). Cicero discusses with Atticus or refers to
Dicaearchus' On Pallene, Corinth, Athens (II. 2, 2).
Procilius' On Geography (II. 2, 2).
Theophrastus' On Ambition (II. 3, 4).
Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Tyrannic on geography (II.
6,1).
Vennonius' Annals (XII. 3, i). Antisthenes' Cyrus (XII. 383, 2). Aristotle's letter to Alexander (XII. 40^2). Theopompus' letter to Alexander (XII. 40, 2).
Varro's 7rc7rXoypa<£ia XVI. II, 3.
Annals of Libo and Casca XIII. 44, 3.
Panaetius and Posidonius on Duty XVI. n, 4. From the nature of the comments it may be concluded that Atticus also read most of the books on these lists. He was a diligent reader of Timaeus57 and of Dicaearchus, whom he championed in his advocacy of the life of action against Cicero's favorite Theophrastus, who praised the life of reflection.58
67 Cicero calls Timaeus tuus familiaris in writing to Atticus, VI. 1, 18.
58 II. 16, 3; VI. 2, 3. The debate was purely academic, as both men led busy lives and it was Cicero who had chosen the career allowing less leisure.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 29
References imply that he was familiar with the politico-philo- sophical works of Theopompus59 and Heraclides.60 His use of Apollodorus in matters of chronology is stated in the letters,81 that of Polybius implied.62
As the references to books in the letters are nearly all con- nected with Cicero's literary labors, they are limited to philos- ophy, politics and history. Atticus' own reading seems to have been especially in the realm of politics and history.63 Further evidence on the scope of his historical reading may be gathered from the dialogues. These imply that he was widely read in the Greek historians ; Cicero makes him speak with enthusiasm of Philistius, Thucydides and the orator Lysias,64 and criticize Stratocles and Clitarchus for their romantic tendency, citing the superior authority of Thucydides.65 Again, he appears as a reader and critic of the Roman annalists ; Cicero assigns to him a series of brief comments on these, including Fabius Pictor, Cato, Piso, Fannius, Vennonius, Caelius Antipater, Claudius, Asellio, Licinius Macer and Sisenna ;66 these com- ments give him opportunity to express his strong preference for the style of the Greek historians. In De Legibus, he refers to his reading of augural books.87
The dialogues give evidence of Atticus' deep enthusiasm for Plato, whom he upholds against the criticism of the Epicurean school68 and whose irony he discusses with keen appreciation.89
Evidence for the range of Atticus in the field of poetry and the drama may be found in the quotations that Cicero makes in
59 II. 6, 2.
«<»XV. 4, 3-
61 XII. 23, 2.
•« XIII. 30, 2; cf. De Rep. II. 27.
63 E.g., he seems not to have read the works of Posidonius and Panaetius referred t'o in XVI. n, 4.
64 Brut. 293 f.
65 Brut. 41 ft.
66 De Leg. I. 5 ff. «7 II. 32.
«s De Leg. III. I.
69 Brut. 292, 299 ; cf . Hirzel, Untersuchung zv, Ciceros Philosophischen Schriften II. 367-369.
30 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
the letters, most of them without reference to the author, many of them so brief as to require a knowledge of the context in order to catch their implication. Of these quotations eighteen are from the Iliad and twelve from the Odyssey, in both cases from the whole range of the poems. There are besides quota- tions from Hesiod, Stesichorus, Archilochus, Epicharmus, Pin- dar, three, Aristophanes, Sophocles, at least three, Euripides, twelve, Strattis, Rhinthon, Menander, Leonidas of Tarentum, Ennius, four, Lucilius, five, Pacuvius, Atilius, Afranius, Ter- ence, three. Other quotations in the letters have not been placed, and there are numerous proverbs both Latin and Greek. Cicero especially mentions the admiration of Atticus for Sopho- cles.70 Atticus seems to have detected the incorrect citation of Eupolis for Aristophanes in the Orator.71
Atticus was a lover of learning. Cicero addressed him as the companion and inspirer of that life of study and philosophic calm with which he tried to solace himself on his enforced with- drawal from political life.72 He ascribes to him in the di- alogues broad and profound ideas; in De Legibus, Atticus appreciates and seconds the attempt to reach a philosophical basis for jurisprudence ;73 in his disparagement of the Latin historians it is evidently not only the grand manner of the Greeks but also their philosophical treatment of the subject that he misses.74 At the same time, he was a careful worker in details ; to his patience and care was entrusted such chrono- logical and genealogical investigation as Cicero needed in his writing.75
The letters show Atticus a purist in speech, passing judg-
70 II. 7, 4-
" XII. 6, 3.
"II. 16,3; 17, i.
73 I. 15, 17-
M De Leg. I. 5 ff .
75 XII. sb; 20, 2; 22, 2; 23, 2; 24, 2; XIII. 30, 2; 32, 3; 4, i; 5, i; 6a; 33, 3J XVI. I3b, 2; VI. 2, 3. Atticus is found in error in VI. I, 18; XII. sb. Editors comment on the fact that the elliptical question about Servius Galba (XII. sb) presupposed great familiarity with the subject on the part of Atticus.
ATTICUS AS MEN OF LETTERS. 31
ment especially on the form of Greek names used in Latin writing78 and on the selection of Latin equivalents for Greek philosophical terms.77 Occasionally he contested with Cicero the use of a Latin word or the choice of a cadence.78 In the dialogues, his judgment is invoked for approval of the Latin used in philosophical treatises drawn from the Greek ;79 in an encomium on the oratory of Caesar he appears as the champion of purity, freshness and distinction in speech.80
Cicero expressed his appreciation of Atticus' style in letter writing — of the realism that reproduced the very shifting of ideas and of talk81 and brought Rome before the eyes more vividly than the living voice of a lively young guest could do,82 of the graciousness of correction and advice in letters that were enhanced in value by their length as were the iambics of Archilochus in the eyes of Aristophanes of Byzantium,83 of the distinguished and polished style of others.84 His most convincing tribute to Atticus' ability and discretion as a letter writer was his request that Atticus send letters in his name whenever he thought it advisable.85
Cicero employed Atticus as the constant critic of his writ- ings, usually before their publication. He found his orations nearer to their Attic models if they were approved by Atticus,86 whom he counted as his Aristarchus ;87 even in the last years of his life he professed to feel uneasy about his work until it had passed the censorship of Atticus with credit.88 Brutus also
76 VI. 2, 3; VII. 3, 10. "XII. 52,3; XVI. 11,4; 14,3. 78XIII.2i,3; XVI. 11,2. "*• De Fin. V. 96.
80 Brut. 252-261.
81 H. 15, i.
82 II. 12, 2; Cf. 12, 4. S3 XVI. 11,2.
8* XVI. I3a, I.
ss III. 15,8; 21 ; XI. 5, 3; 7,7; 12,4.
86 I- 13, 5-
8TI. 14, 3; cf. II. I, I, end.
88 XVI. n, I. Atticus' criticisms were concerned with historical ve- racity and political discretion as well as with style. For a mistake that escaped his notice, see Gellius, Noct. Att. XV. 6, Ajax for Hector in
32 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
submitted work to Atticus for approval, but seems not to have welcomed general criticism and perhaps wanted only the veri- fication of his facts.89
Much literary work was produced in the circle of Atticus' friends, no small part of it under his advice and stimulus. At his dinners there was no other entertainment offered, says Nepos, than the reading of masterpieces by a well trained slave.90 The presentation on such occasions of carefully chosen excerpts from contemporary work must have served as a powerful incentive to the author's assembled friends.91
The speeches of Atticus as interlocutor exhibit him as eager to have Cicero turn his abilities to the composition of history, the subject in which he was most interested and in which he felt most keenly the poverty of Roman production.92 He urged historical writing upon Nepos and suggested subjects ; a monograph on Cato, distinct from that in the Lives, was written by Nepos at his request.93 He probably exhorted Brutus and other friends to the same effect.
In the case of Cicero, however, the letters show that Atticus recommended writing sometimes as an escape from mental unrest, chiefly as a substitute for political action when the latter was- out of the question; the work that he suggested was in most cases of apolitical sort designed to influence contemporary thought and to promote Cicero's career or enforce his ideas when other means to that end were lacking.94 His enthusiasm over De Re Publica doubtless arose from its bearing on ques-
t'he second book of De Gloria. For a conjecture as to another error, rectified in composition but not in publication, see Norden, Aus Ciceros Werkstatt, Sits. Pr. Ak. 1913, 2-3.
89 XII. 21, i; cf. ch. I. n. 131.
90 Att. 14, i.
"XII. 4, 2; XVI. 2,6.
92 De Leg. I. 5-7.
93 Nep. Vit. 24, 3, 5.
94 The geographical work that he suggested in 59 does not yet show this tendency, and seems rather a makeshift to distract Cicero ; it was probably suggested to Atticus by his reading in Dicaearchus. by his prac- tical interest in topography, or by the previous work of Varro in the same field.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 33
tions of statesmanship. His suggestions for the historical background of one political treatise show that he was scrupu- lous about historical accuracy in dealing with the speakers and that he had applied imagination to the past, investing its char- acters with personality.95
In the last decade of his life, the literary and historical re- sources of Atticus were drawn upon by Augustus, who is said in his absences from Rome to have corresponded assiduously with Atticus, consulting him as an authority on antiquities and poetry.96
Of the literary monuments with which writers were wont to compliment their friends, Atticus had his share. Demetrius Magnes dedicated to him his work On Concord before the out- break of the Civil War.97 Cicero introduced him into a num- ber of his dialogues. In De Legibus, the first draft of which was probably written in 52, Atticus appears with Marcus and Quintus Cicero, and has assigned to him some quite lively dis- course on philosophy and politics together with a critical re- view of Roman historical writing. In the Brutus, written in 46, in which he appears with the author and Brutus, he crit- icizes Roman oratory both ancient and contemporary and is referred to as an authority on chronology. While he is asso- ciated with Cicero and Varro in the second draft of the Aca- demica, written in 45, he has practically no share in the di- alogue in the extant part of this work.98 He forms one of the group of five young students in the fifth book of De Finibus, written in 45, but again he has no considerable share in the dialogue. Cicero dedicated to him De Senectute and De Ami- citia, written in 44. Varro dedicated to him his four books De Vita Popull Romani™ and his book De Numeris,™0 and made
95 See n. 243.
86 Nep. Att. 20, 1-3.
97 VIII. ii, 7; 12, 6.
•» XIII. 14, i; 19, 3; 22, i; Ad Fam. IX. 8, i. Hirzel, Der Dialog, I. 522, conjectures that Atticus may have given in Acad. Post, the expo- sitions of Epicureanism suggested in Acad. Pr. 19, 79, 80, 82, 101, 106.
"Charisius, Gram. Lot. I. 126 (Keil).
100 Censorinus, De Die Natali, 2.
34 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
him an interlocutor in the second book De Re Rustica, where he appears among a group of Epirot stock fanners as an au- thority on sheep rearing and herd dogs. Tyrannio dedicated to him his book On Accents in 46.101 Nepos, within a few years of Atticus' death, dedicated to him his De Illustribus Viris, departing from precedent in including a biography of Atticus in the book.
Atticus had some influence in deciding the dedications and interlocutors of Cicero's works. As early as 54 he urged that Varro be introduced in a dialogue102 and renewed the recom- mendation nine years later with such effect that Cicero worked over the Academica, which was already in course of publica- tion, to make Varro a principal speaker and to dedicate the work to him.103 He suggested Cotta for the expression of sceptical thought, but Cicero did not act on this suggestion.104 It was at Atticus' request that De Finibus was dedicated to Brutus,105 and doubtless the admiration of Atticus for Brutus accounts in part for the great number of Cicero's works dedi- cated to the young Stoic during the years 46 to 44.106
The group to which Atticus belonged represented all shades of philosophical opinion. Torquatus and Saufeius, among his friends, were exponents of Epicureanism. The nature of Atticus' attachment to Epicureanism is matter of debate. In writing to Memmius, Cicero disclaimed for Atticus any strict adherence to the school, claiming that his friend's studies had been too liberal to permit such an alignment, and representing his attachment as personal, a result of his affection for Patro and his devotion to the memory of Phaedrus.107 In the di- alogues, and the letters, he is always quizzical about Atticus' Epicureanism, sometimes recognizing it as a sort of tag,108 "i XII. 6, 2.
102 IV. 16, 2.
103 XII. 44, 4; XIII. 12, 3; 13, I ; 14, i ; 16, I ; 19, 3 and 5. 10* XIII. 19, 3.
105 XIII. 12, 3.
io« Brutus, Orator, Paradoxa Stoicorum, De Finibus, Tusculanae Dis- Putationes, De Natura Deorum. ™* Ad. Fam. XIII. i, 5. 108 IV. 6, i ; XIV. 20, 5 ; XV. 4, 2.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 35
sometimes referring to it as a discipleship to Phaedrus;109 he takes pleasure in making Atticus, as interlocutor, subscribe to non-Epicurean doctrines, such as the immanence of the gods,110 or take issue with his school, as in regard to Plato.111 He in- dulges in a skit on the scientific writing of the Epicureans,112 but he really joins battle with them on the doctrine of self- interest, which he makes the cardinal point of all their teach- ing.113 From the absence of all real controversy between the friends on this point,114 as well as from the tributes that Cicero pays to Atticus' moral enthusiasm,115 it is clear that he did not classify Atticus with the confessed hedonists that he counted as representative of the school.
Yet Atticus himself was doubtless quite serious in his pro- fession of Epicureanism. The scientific interpretation of the universe, doing away with the polytheistic idea of divine " in- terruption and interference " probably appealed to his practical and rationalistic mind. Unquestionably the teaching of Epi- curus concerning personal life, with " its strict checks on ambi- tion, its stern repression of sensual desire, its insistence on the supreme duty of preserving tranquillity of soul," had com- manded Atticus' allegiance in his youth and thereafter gov- erned the whole course of his life. Cicero shows that Atticus' consistent aloofness from the struggles imposed by ambition resulted from the adoption of a principle : " I have never felt that there was a difference between you and me except in our chosen course of life, in that I am led by ambition — if you wish
109 De Leg. I. 53; De Fin. V. 3; cf. Atticus' own expression, si a Phaedro nostro esses, XVI. 7, 4.
110 De Leg. I. 21, where Atticus' assent is qualified by a jesting pro- test; in De Leg. II. 32-33, the assent is given probably only to the latter and more sceptical part of the discussion on the validity of divination.
111 De Leg. III. i ; Brut. 292. 112 II. 3, 2.
113 VII. 2, 4, and the dialogues passim.
"*Cf. XIII. 38, I.
115 I. 17, 5. I recognize and appreciate the nobility, the generosity of your nature. ... In integrity, in devotion to duty, I count neither myself nor anyone else superior to you. Cf. XIII. 20, 4, Atticus' de- fence of a good conscience as against reputation.
36 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
to name it so — to the pursuit of a political career, and you by a different but not less elevated theory of life to an honorable abstinence from politics."116
Atticus' Epicureanism was less a matter of dialectic than a rule of practice. So far as the controversy of the schools was concerned, he probably had, as Cicero represents, a tolerant • spirit and an open mind.
LITERARY WORKS.
Inscriptions. — Atticus' first literary production of which we have any knowledge is a series of epigrammatic verses on Cicero placed in the Amaltheum in 61 or 60 ;117 there may have been also verses on other distinguished men. These verses may be identical with the metrical eulogies which Nepos speaks of as composed by Atticus and placed under the portraits of the subjects, setting forth the achievements and magistracies of these in not more than four or five verses each.118 To this identification the objection is made that Cicero's mention of Thyillus and Archias in connection with Atticus' verses is evi- dence that the latter were written in Greek, while the presump- tion is that the metrical eulogies were in Latin.119
The Imagines. — Atticus published a volume of portraits which may with more probability be identified with the work mentioned by Nepos, the more so as Varro's volume, spoken of by Pliny in connection with that of Atticus, was a combina- tion of portraits and biography.120
The Memoir. — During his stay in Epirus in the winter of 61-60, Atticus composed a Greek memoir on Cicero's consulate, which he despatched to Cicero at the moment when Cicero was
116 I. 17, 5. For the Epicurean attitude toward the life of ambition, cf. Lucretius, De Rer. Nat. II. 1-61 ; cf. Nep. Ait. 6, i, which I take to be an echo of Atticus' own conversation.
J« I. 16, 15.
118 Nep. Alt. 18, 5 ; so Drumann, Gesch. Rants V. 87.
119 Moore, Class. Phil. I. 1906, 121 ff.
120 Pliny, N. H. XXXV. 11 ; for theory that Atticus merely published the Imagines of Varro, see Usener, Unser Platontext, p. 201.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 37
sending a similar work to him. The only extant comment on it is Cicero's acknowledgment: "Your style seems to me to lack smoothness and elegance, yet it has, after all, the merit of simplicity."121 Pliny cites Atticus as one of the authorities that he used for books VII. and XXXIII. of the Natural His- tory, and it seems likely that the succinct and significant ac- count of Cicero's consulship in VII. 116-117 and the emphasis on Cicero's membership in the equestrian class and his services to the class during his consulate in XXXIII. 34, were drawn either from the memoir or from a brief summary thereof ap- pearing in the Annals of Atticus.
Genealogies. — According to Nepos, Atticus made family trees for several Romans of distinguished stock, indicating not only the names of ancestors but also the magistracies held by these, with dates.122
The family tree of the Marcelli was made at the request of a Claudius Marcellus ;123 this was doubtless the Gaius Marcellus who was consul in 50, the brother-in-law of Augustus.124 At- ticus' work may have been used by Augustus in his funeral speech for the son of this Marcellus, which began with praise of the race.125
The genealogies of the Fabii and Aemilii were made at the request of Cornelius Scipio and Fabius Maximus.126 These probably formed, as Nepos' statement implies, one elaborate work, including the Fabii, Aemilii, Scipios and Metelli, for Fabius Maximus represented the Fabii, the Cornelii and the Aemilii, and Cornelius Scipio, commonly known as Metellus Scipio, was the last scion of the Cornelian Scipios and had
121 II. i, i; Nepos mentions this memoir, Alt. 18, 6.
122 Att. 18, 3.
123 Ibid. 18, 4.
124 So Nipperdey, Nepos, ad loc., arguing that Nepos failed to distin- guish this Marcellus from the other consular Marcelli because at the time when the genealogy was made he was the only survivor ; this theory dates the composition between 45 and 40; see Schanz, I. 2, 123.
125 So Miinzer, who compares also Plut. Marcellus 30, Hor. Carm. I. 12, 45, Prop. III. 18, 33, Aeneid VI. 855 ff.
126 Nep. Att. 18, 4.
38 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
been adopted by the Metelli.1" Cicero may have drawn upon this genealogy in Brutus 212; if he used it also in De Dotno 123, delivered in 57, the passage may be taken also as evidence that Atticus traced maternal as well as paternal ancestors.128
The genealogy of the Junian family was made at the request of Marcus Brutus;129 it was doubtless the ^iXor^ijija. that Cicero speaks of seeing in the " Parthenon," in which Ahala and the elder Brutus appeared in the ancestral line.130
It has been charged that these genealogies padded or falsi- fied the meager ancient records for the sake of flattering the subjects with a long tradition of illustrious ancestry, and made in some instances an unwarranted connection between the con- temporary scion of a plebeian family and ancient patrician bearers of the same name.131 This charge, which involves all
127 Munzer, as cited below, 93-100, where he also supports the as- sumption that after the elections of 58, Metellus and Fabius employed Atticus to write up their ancestors, whom they wished to glorify during their curule aedileship in 57 ; in this case, however, it is strange that Metellus in his consulate in 52 should have made the mistake of ascrib- ing a censorship to his greatgrandfather (VI. I, 17).
Bibliographical Note. — On the literary work of Atticus and the ques- tions of chronology and genealogy arising from it, see Mommsen, Romische Chronologic. 2nd, 145-148, and ch. VIII. ; Matzat, Romische Chronologic, 1883, 147-150; Seeck, Kalendartafel der Pontifices, 1885, 83-^9; Cichorius, Leipziger Studien, 1887, De Fastis Consularibiis Anti- quissimis, 249-259 ; Soltau, Romische Chronologic, 1889, 424-429 ; Unger, Der Glaubwurdigkeit der Capitolinischen Consultafeln, Jahrbuch, 1891 ; Wachsmuth, Einleitung in das Studium der Alterthums Geschichte, 1895, 142-145, 300-391, 630^535; Munzer, Hermes, 1905, 50-100, Atticus als Geschichtschreiber ; Peter, Historicorttm Romanorum Reliquiae, 1906, 11.20-29; WahrheitundKunst,ign; Leuze, Die Romische Jahrsdhlung, 1909; Frick, B. P. IV., 1910-1911, Varroniana; Kornemann, Klio, u, Die Alteste Form der Pontificalannalen; Holzapf el, Klio, 1912, Zu Romische Chronologic; Schanz, Litteraturgeschichte, under Atticus ; Schon, Pauly- Wissowa, Fasti, and articles listed in the notes.
128 So Munzer, loc. cjt. ;9 Nep. Alt. 18, 4.
130 XIII. 40, i ; the Junian tree, if referred to here, was made before the summer of 45. Munzer places it late, saying that Atticus came into close relation with Brutus only after the civil war, but VI. I, 3, shows that Atticus' enthusiasm for Brutus antedated Cicero's departure for his province in 51 ; cf. Ad Fam. III. 4, 2. Drumann is probably right in supposing that Atticus' friendship with Brutus dates from the latter's marriage into the family of Clodius in 54. The monograph may be dated between 54 and 45.
131 So Seeck, MatzaC Cichorius, Wachsmuth, Schon.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 39
of Atticus' genealogical work, including that in the Annals, is especially urged against the Junian genealogy.132 In this very case, however, it is demonstrable that the tradition connecting the later Bruti with the consul of 509 dated back several gene- rations ; it was recognized in the time of Decimus Brutus, con- sul in 138, in whose honor Accius wrote his tragedy Brutus ;133 it was publicly cited as a reproach against the dissolute son of Decimus Brutus by the orator Crassus;134 by the time of Atticus it had a prescriptive right which no historian of that day would have challenged in a genealogical work.
While Atticus can not be credited with originating the con- nection between his friend and the enemy of kings, it is quite possible that he influenced the career of Brutus and the course of history by bringing the connection into new prominence in the public mind.
As none of the genealogies can be dated with certainty, it is impossible to say whether they preceded or followed the An- nals.™5 In either case, it is certain that Atticus in his genea- logical work had access to valuable unpublished materials that widened his knowledge of Roman history. Families such as the Fabii and the Scipios had records of the magistracies of their ancestors, copies of laws issued during those magistracies, laudations pronounced at funerals, inscriptions belonging to their ancestral images. Whether or not the Annales Maximi had been published, they must have been comparatively dif- ficult of access, and it may have been in connection with his genealogical work that Atticus first used them. They certainly
132 E.g., Miinzer, who thinks that XIII. 40, I, and Brutus 62 may be quips on the elaborate and not strictly historical production.
133 Scholium on Archias XI. 27 (Stangl, 179). It is evident that in 59 the elder Brutus and Servilius Ahala were used as names to conjure with in revolutionary circles (II. 24, 3).
134 DC Oratore, 225; Cichorius' conjecture that Posidonius, whom Plutarch (Brutus, i) cites as his authority in tracing the connection, used the genealogy of Atticus, is therefore superfluous.
185 Schon, loc. cit, conjectures that the genealogies were gifts made by Atticus in return for the kindness of members of old families who opened their archives to him to further his studies for the Annals.
40 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
formed a background for his more extensive work, the An- nals.136
THE ANNALS.
Atticus had made so careful a study of antiquity, says Nepos, that he set it forth in its whole course in the volume in which he listed the magistrates in their order, there was no law, no treaty of peace, no war, no illustrious act pertaining to Rome that was not therein noted at its proper time; an element of the work exacting still more research was the tracing of fam- ily lines, showing the descendants of the great men of the past.137
Nepos' statement is doubtless exaggerated as to the content of the Annals, but as to their scope it is well sustained by other references to them and by such traces1 of them as may be found.
Cicero gives the following characterizations of the Annals:
The book in which Atticus has included, briefly and ac- curately, the entire record of history.138
The book offered me much that was new, and gave me this practical advantage, which I was in search of, that with the epochs of the past set in order, I could see everything at a glance.139
The orator should acquire knowledge of great events and of the traditions of the past in chronological order, not only those of our own state but those also of imperial peoples and illus- trious kings ; this labor Atticus has lightened for us by his own labor, since in investigating and recording chronology he has presented the record of seven hundred years without omitting any illustrious events.140
136 Seeck, loc. cit., p. 89, discusses as follows the use of the Annales Maximi in antiquity: Varro and writers who compiled from him, Cen- sorinus, Macrobius, Solinus, do not mention the Annales Maximi. Cicero and Verrius Flaccus are the only writers to show a first-hand knowledge of them. Quintilian's reference may be traced to Cicero, those of Festus, the Vergilian commentators and their derivatives to Flaccus. Both these streams may be traced back to Atticus.
137 Att. 18. 1-2. iasBrut. 14.
139 Brut. 15.
140 Orator, 120.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 41
These references add to the account of Nepos the facts that Atticus limited his work to the period of Roman history and yet recorded important events in the history of other peoples.1*1 The first must be qualified by the testimony of a scholiast to the effect that Atticus agreed with Varro in saying that Aeneas carried his father from burning Troy, but differed about the Penates, which he said came to Italy from Samothrace ;142 the Annals must then have contained, by way of introduction, a reference to the origin of the Roman race.
By direct testimony, we know that the Annals contained the following events, with their dates : the founding of Rome,141 the death — or some event late in the life — of Coriolanus,144 the death of Hannibal,145 the embassy of the philosophers from Athens in I55;146 and the following facts, doubtless in connec- tion with dates : Aeneas saved his father from burning Troy ; the Penates were brought into Italy from Samothrace ;147 two tribunes were chosen at the time of the first secession of the plebs ;148 the son of king Antiochus, when a hostage in Rome, had a house built for him at the public expense.149 In addi- tion, we have the testimony of Pliny that Atticus was one of the sources that he drew upon for the seventh and thirty-third books of the Natural History.150 For less direct but yet con-
141 A comparison of De Rep. II. 28, De Or. II. 154, and Brut. 40, leads Miinzer to the conclusion that the facts on Homer and Lycurgus were drawn in these three instances from the same source, Timaeus; that is, that Cicero could not use the Annals for the period antedating 753 ; so Wachsmuth, loc. cit., I. ch. IV. From the fact that the Chro- nographer of 354 says of the year 49, "Up to this point there were dictators," Cichorius conjectures that the Annals, which he takes to be the source of the Chronograph, ended with 49; it seems probable enough that they ended with the Civil War.
142Schol. Veron. ad Aen. II. 717; the scholiast does not refer ex- plicitly to the Annals.
i**Brut. 72; Solinus I. 27.
144 Brut. 41-42.
145 Nep. Hann. 13, I. "• XII. 23, 2.
147 See note 3.
148 Asconius, On Pro Cornelia, p. 60, Stangl.
149 Asconius, On In Pisonem, p. 18, Stangl.
150 See p. 37.
42 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
vincing testimony, we have the evidence of those works of Cicero that were written after the appearance of the Annals.
It is a reasonable inference that Atticus' work on the Annals followed the publication of De Re Publica in 51. As inter- locutor in the Brutus, Atticus says that the De Re Publica had aroused and stimulated him to a comprehensive presentation of the facts of Roman history.151 He read De Re Publica in Rome in the summer or fall of 51 ;152 he went to Greece at the end of the year and was absent from Italy until .September of 50; it is likely that he did not begin work on the Annals until after his return, as he could not command materials for re- search outside of Rome. The book must have been finished before the end of 47, as Cicero seems to have received it at about the same time as a letter from Brutus153 which reached him in mid-September of that year.154 Probably Atticus' work was a part of that literary movement which after 48 formed a refuge for the Pompeians, excluded as they were from political life.155 This approximate dating at least shows in what works of Cicero's traces of the Annals may be looked for.156
Before the appearance of the Annals Cicero had written De Oratore, De Re Publica and De Finibus. Of De Re Publica less than half is extant. De Oratore is rhetorical, De Finibus philosophical in its interest, so that historical material is not to be demanded in either. Yet when a comparison is made with the later works of the same type, it becomes apparent that in his later writing Cicero developed a pleasure in historical di- gression not manifest in the earlier works ; these show too an
161 Brut. 19. «2V. 12, 2; VI. i, 8. 183 Brut. ii.
164 The date is a well-founded inference of Schmidt's, Briefwechsel, 32 f . and 230.
155 Compare Cicero's exhortation to Varro in 46 (Ad Fam. IX. 2, 5). To this period probably belong Brutus' epitomes of Fannius and Caelius. Unger, loc. cit, comments on Cicero's citation of Cotta, Libo and Casca (XIII. 44, 3), three Pompeians who had laid down the sword for the pen.
156 For this study of material from the Annals in the dialogues, I am greatly indebted to the article of Miinzer's cited above.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 43
absence of the dates and synchronisms that appear in the later works. The writer must have had at hand, in the later period, a manual which made it easy to place people and events chrono- logically and to reckon the interval between events. In a few instances,167 the dates or facts can be traced directly to the Annals; in others we can only say that nothing else seems so probable a cause for the change in Cicero's manner as the pos- session of the Annals.158
In De Re Publica, Cicero accepts the Polybian date for the founding of Rome, 750, and acknowledges Polybius as his au- thority in chronology ;159 in the Brutus he uses 753 as the date of founding, expressly referring to Atticus as his authority in chronology.160
In De Re Publica161 De Oratore1*2 and the Tusculan Dispu- tations,163 Cicero speaks of the embassy of Athenian philos^ ophers without indicating the date; in the Academica,16* in relating an anecdote from Clitomachus, he dates the embassy by the consuls of the year and adds the praetor ship, the subse- quent consulship and the historical monograph of Albinus. The date of the embassy he learned from the Annals195 and it is likely that the facts about Albinus were found there also.168
"» See p. 41.
iss por bibliography of discussion on individual works see Schanz and Miinzer. The latter, calling attention to the great difference in historical material between De Oratore and De Senectute, both with speakers of an earlier generation, conjectures that De Senectute was dedicated to Atticus as the return for the Annals promised in Brutus 15, and that its wealth of allusion is a tribute to the value of Atticus' work.
159 De Repf ii. iS; cf. 27, and Dion. Hal. I. 74, 3.
160 Brut. 72; cf. Solinus, I. 27, Romam placet conditam. . . . Pom- ponio Attico et Marco Tullio Olympiadis sextae anno tertio.
"» III. 9.
M*II. I54f.
i«3 IV. 5.
i«4 II. 137.
»•« XII. 23, 2.
166 On learning from Atticus that Aulus Postumus Albinus was one of Mummius' legates, Cicero promptly placed him as colleague in the consulship of Lucius Lucullus (XIII. 32, 3), doubtless from the Annals, which he then had at hand. He must also have known then that Albinus was the writer of a Greek monograph on Roman, history
44 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
In De Re Publica,™7 Cicero refers to Plato's visit to Archy- tas of Tarentum ; in De Senectute,™* he dates the visit by the consuls of the year and brings in a reference to the battle of the Caudine Forks, dating that also by consuls.
In the orations against Verres, Cicero refers to the Cal- purnian law de repetundis without mentioning the date;169 in the Brutus"0 the law is dated by consuls ; in De Officiis,171 it is dated as 1 10 years after the speech of Pontius that is so care- fully dated in De Senectute.1™
From Cicero's easy manner of reckoning from one event to another, it may be concluded that the Annals contained dates at frequent intervals, such as the ten year intervals of the Con- sular Fasti.173
A comparison of the sketch of Greek oratory in De Ora- tore17* with that in the Brutus175 shows in the latter the addi- tion of Solon, Peisistratus, Kleisthenes, Themistocles and Kleon, a better arrangement of the later orators and less cer- tainty about the survival of Pericles' speeches. These new points are probably drawn from synchronistic notes in the Annals.
If these differences between the earlier and the later works are due to the Annals, it is reasonable to suppose that other his- torical allusions with a chronological element found in the later books are drawn from the same source. An analysis of the
(Brut. 81 ; Acad. II. 137), as he rejoiced in finding a legate so well adapted to a scholarly discussion of politics (XIII. 32, 3; 30, 2) ; his reiteration of the point indicates that it was a bit of special knowledge ; it probably came from the Annals, as the writing of a Greek memoir by a Roman would be of special interest to Atticus. Cicero may have drawn the notice of Albinus' praetorship from Libo.
167 I. 16.
168 39, 41.
169 III. 195; IV. 56.
170 I. 106. 171 II. 75.
1 III. 39, 41, by the speech of Archytas. 178 Munzer, loc. cit., citing De Sen. 14, and De Am. 96. 174 II. 93-95- 176 II. 26-37.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 45
material to be found in passages to be referred with more or
less certainty to the Annals is submitted:176
Important events, Brut. 60.
Campaigns, De Sen. 10.
Battles, De Sen. 10.
Repeated consulships, De Sen. 10, 14, 19.
Censorships,177 De Sen. 42 ; Brut. 60.
Laws, De Sen. 10 and 14 ; De Am. 96.
Names of advocates or opposers of laws, De Sen. 14 ; De Off.
III. 109.
Speeches, De Sen. 14; De Off. III. 109. Biographical notes.
Minor magistracies.178
Cognomina.179
Filiation.180 Literary notices.181
Birth of Ennius, Brut. 72.
Birth of Naevius and Plautus, Brut. 60.
176 Compiled from Miinzer's article. Miinzer assumes that where Cicero digresses from pure pleasure in historical names and dates, where he easily reckons time between two events, where he shows exact information on the genealogies or magistracies of distinguished men, use of the Annals may be predicated. If out of a group of passages that show signs of interdependence, one contains a point that may surely be traced to the Annals, he assumes that the material of the others may be assigned to the same sources ; he does not claim the validity of proof for the evidence thus offered.
177 Two at least are given, perhaps all. They would be in place be- cause of their chronological significance.
178 Probably given only incidentally and by reason of special signifi- cance or biographical interest. There is no complete list of praetors or tribunes, for Cicero was often at a loss about these after he began using the Annals (XII. sb ; XVI. isb, 2; XIII. 30, 2; 32, 3).
179 Cf. the citation of Nepos, Hann. 13, i.
iso if Brut. 78 was drawn from Varro, there are no convincing in- stances. Brutus 77 and 79, however, give genealogical notes showing special knowledge and probably drawn from filiation in the Annals.
181 The dating of Livius' first play is the result of a critical study and correction of the testimony of Accius on the subject; as the same matter is presented by Gellius (Noct. Att. XVII. 21, 42 f.) and ascribed by him to Varro, the critical study was probably made by Varro and used by Atticus. The other literary notices showing the use of dida- scalia were perhaps also the result of Varro's investigations.
46 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
Date of Livius Andronicus' first play, Brut. 72 ; De Sen. 50.
Production of the Thyestes and death of Ennius, Brut. 78. Synchronisms,182 De Sen. 39 ff. ; Brut. 39-49; De Am. 42.
The most significant well attested fact about the Annals is that they departed from the chronology previously accepted, and published, perhaps for the first time, the chronology of the so-called Varronian Era, the distinguishing feature of which was the adoption of 753, instead of the Polybian 750, as the date of the founding of Rome.183
Priority in the fixing of this date has been variously ascribed to Varro and Atticus. So far as extant reference shows it first appeared in the Annals of Atticus. However, Varro was work- ing on chronology at this period,184 and the Julian calendar was being prepared.185 Solinus in his Collectanea Rerum Memora- bilium™6 cites Atticus and Cicero as authorities for the date 753 ; Censorius, in De Die Natali, cites Varro's work De Nu- meris, and again refers to Varro's system.187
It is not only in the date for the founding of the city that Atticus and Varro agree; such scant references as are extant seem to indicate like reckonings for the duration of the king- ship and the dating of events.188 The two must have worked,
182 Except for Plato's visit, these synchronisms are merely approxi- mate and could have been taken over from Greek writers without adaptation. Atticus was interested in such synchronisms (Brut. 42 £.).
183 Up to the middle of the first century B.C., the Polybian date was in use; the Chronica of Nepos, adapted from Apollodorus, published before 54, reckoned from it. Cicero's change to an earlier date and the substantial harmony of Cicero, Livy and the Capitoline Fasti there- after, show that some important work must have appeared to modify the accepted chronology (Mommsen, loc. cit, Matzat, loc. cit).
184 Acad. Post. I. 9.
186 Unger, Matzat and Seeck claim a determining influence for the investigations of Tarutius ; Leuze shows that all the citations concern- ing Tarutius imply merely that he calculated constellations for a given year, the year being probably supplied by someone else ; so also Momm- sen, loc. cit. Cicero refers to Tarutius' calculations in 51 (De Rep. I. 25, by implication), but without being affected by any conclusions thereby reached, and again in 44, when he had ascribed the new dating to Atticus (De Div. II. 08).
188 I. 27.
187 I. 2; 21, 4-7.
188 Miinzer, loc. cit.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 47
either independently or together, over the discrepancies of the traditional chronology, assembling the evidence afforded by the existing annals and fasti, the tradition of the founding of the Capitoline temple, the records drawn from the cloves, and the Greek synchronisms, agreeing finally upon a method of re- ducing the material to a system. The personal and literary friendship between the two, together with the absence from the letters of any reference to controversy, makes ft probable that they did some work in common. It is likely that Varro, with his wide antiquarian range and his less diversified occupation, took the lead, and that Atticus was the first publisher.189
For some years before he began work on the Annals, Atticus had felt that there was an obligation upon Romans to con- tribute to the writing of history. Rome was increasingly con- scious of a great destiny, and consequently increasingly moved to recall her own past ; such consciousness of race was prob- ably increased in Atticus by his years of foreign residence and of contact with a race to a high degree conscious of its own history. Passages in the letters and the dialogues serve to show what conception of history and of the use of sources At- ticus brought to his work as an analyst. As to the standards that he set for investigation, we have mis meticulous criticism of Cicero's work,190 his painstaking research in preparation for the dialogues. The criticism of the early analysts in De Legibus is rhetorical rather than historical, perhaps Ciceronian rather than Attican.101 In the Brutus, however, Atticus criticizes with pleasant irony that system of fabrication by which a great man's story was given a romantic turn, or the fate of an ancient
189 Mommsen, Soltau and Matzat assumed that Atticus fixed the date and that Varro adopted his conclusions in the work De Gente Populi Rotnani, published not earlier than 43; Sanders, A. J. P., 1902, 308., called attention to Acad. Post. I. 9, showing that Varro had worked on chronology before that time ; the point has been developed by Leuze and Frick. Leuze assumes the priority of Varro. Frick argues uncon- vincingly for Atticus. The conclusion given above is that of Holzapfel, Klio, 1912.
«»VI. 1,8, etc.
191 1. 5 ff. ; cf . p. 26.
48 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
Roman made to match that of an ancient Greek.102 As Atticus was Cicero's authority in matters of chronology, it is fair to refer to his influence a passage like Brutus 16, in which Cicero bewails the duplicated consulships and fictitious triumphs that had crept into the historical lists. He refers to Atticus as a most scrupulous authority on Roman history.193 At the begin- ning of De Legibus, in the dialogue on Harms' oak tree, he seems to satirize in his friend a too great literalness, an ex- cessive devotion to fact.
We should infer from this testimony that Atticus worked with the object of handing down a pure tradition and straight- ening out confusions. On the other hand, it was his purpose to present a systematic and complete record; if his sources were confused and contradictory, he had to make choices or combinations; if they were defective, he had either to leave gaps or to fill them in with the conjecture offering most prob- ability.194
While Atticus represented a protest against the romantic and moralizing tendencies that had been operating for more than a generation to turn history into fiction, and while, like Varro, he strove to restore a pure and sound tradition by working upon such antiquities as survived in his day, he was probably more susceptible than Varro to the personal element in the his- torical interests of his own generation ; among men who had lived through the civil wars, a new significance was attached to
192 42 ff. At ille ridens, ' Tuo, vero,' inquit, ' arbitratu ; quoniam quidem concessum est rhetoribus ementiri in historiis, ut aliquid dicere possint argutius ; . . . hanc enim mortem rhetorice et tragice ornare potuerunt, ilia mors volgaris nullam praebebat materiem ad ornandum. ....'' Sit sane,' inquam, ' ut libet, de isto ; et ego cautius posthac historiam attingam te audiente, quern rerum Romanarum auctorem laudare possum religiosissimum.'
193 Brut. 44.
>194Soltau (W. K. P., 1910, 526-534) and Schwarz (Pauly-Wissowa, Diodorus) ascribe the fabrication of the dictator years to an older tra- dition ; Niese, to Varro and Atticus ; Leuze contends that the dictator years did not appear in chronology before the time of Varro and At- ticus. but that these scholars, finding the records defective, merely left gaps which were filled in with the dictatorships by less learned or less scrupulous writers.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 49
the individual career; the class consciousness of the nobles grew with the growth of the powers that defied them, and led them to emphasize the claims of the antiquity and the illustrious services of their families. Atticus responded to the resulting demand for the conservation of the personal and hereditary element in Roman history by his work on genealogy, filiation and magistracies. In this field he must again have met con- fusions, contradictions, and double versions. As to his method of settling them, there is no conclusive evidence.195
The last extant citation made from the Annals by name oc- curs in Asconius. They had perhaps disappeared by the time of Suetonius, who refers to Atticus not as an author but as the correspondent of Cicero.196 Evidences of the use of the book may be traced with more or less certainty for a few genera- tions after its publication.
Cichorius and Matzat have revived in this generation the conjecture107 that the Annals of Atticus were the source of the Capitoline Fasti, which were carved upon the marble wall of the Regia between 36 and 30 B.C. Cichorius cites the follow- ing features as common to the Annals and the Fasti : Names of dictators, magistri equitum and censors included as
well as names of consuls ; praetors and tribunes omitted. Cognomina given, sometimes two or three. Genealogical notes. Notes on rise of acquired cognomina. Mention of events, e. g., wars. Dates ab urbe condita every ten years. Date of founding of Rome, 753.
It is dear that one purpose of the Fasti was to establish a chronology,198 and this chronology seems consonant with that
195 Cichorius remarks, Neque tamen malo dolo fecisse putandus est redactor, sed bona fide ut utriusque memoriae haberet rationem gemi- nata cognomina effecit.
198 De Grammaticis 16 ; Tiberius 7 ; so Schanz ; however Pliny, who cited Atticus as an authority, refers to him merely as Atticus ille Ciceronis (H. N. XXXV. 11).
197 Advanced earlier by Pighe and Voss.
198 So Schon and Wachsmuth.
50 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
of Atticus. However, too many of the conclusions about the contents of the Annals are conjectural to permit the founding of a further conclusion upon them.189
It is suggested that the chronological and genealogical work of Atticus and Varro may have been transmitted to Livy through Tubero, one of their circle.200
The special knowledge of chronology and history shown by Verrius Flaccus may be traced to Atticus.201 Flaccus is sup- posed to be the author of the Fasti Triumphorum,202 and is known to have published a calendar. It is probable that the library of Atticus was inherited by his daughter and hence was accessible to Flaccus, who was the tutor of Caecilia's grand- son.203
Efforts have been made to trace influences from Atticus in the work of Velleius Paterculus.204 Pernice,205 following the work of Kritz, listed a number of genealogical notices206 and some bits of special information207 which may have been drawn from the genealogies of Atticus. Hirschfeld208 would like to trace to Atticus a passage in which Velleius defends the con-
199 Matzat' remarks that of the list of contents given for the Annals by Nepos, only two, leges and paces, are wanting in the Capitoline Fasti. Peter (Hist. Rom. Rel.) reserves judgment on the derivation of the Fasti from the Annals of Atticus.
200 Soltau, Neue Jahrb., 1897, 415-417.
201 Seeck, Kalendertafel, 88 ff.
202 Seeck, loc. cit. 92 ; Schon, loc. cit.
203 jhe library doubtless passed through the hands of Agrippa's heirs into the imperial library, where Seneca had access to the letters (Seeck).
204 Sauppe, Schweizerisches Museum, 1837, 133-181, does not mention Atticus as a source used by Velleius, but refers to Atticus' genealogical work as developing in history the personal note that was overworked by Velleius.
205 De M. V. P. Fide Historica Commentatio, Leipsic, 1862. Kaiser, De fontibus V. P., 1884, cited by Maurenbrecher, C. Sallusti Crispi Historiarum Reliquiae, 1901, 12, decides that Velleius used Atticus for the republican period up to II. 48. Maurenbrecher agrees, but thinks that Livy was also used. For bibliography, see Maurenbrecher and Hirschfeld, Kleine Schriften.
206 II. i, 4; 2, i ; 3, i ; 8, 2; 10, 2, 3; 16, 2; 17, 2; 21, 5; 29, 2; 41, 2; 59,2.
207 II. 5, i, 2; 8, i.
208 Kleine Schriften, 778-779.
ATTICUS AS MAN OF LETTERS. 51
duct of the Romans in Athens at the time when the city was besieged by Sulla.209 It is conceivable that the affection of At- ticus for his adopted city and his desire to promote a good understanding between Athens and Rome moved him to insert such a passage in the Annals.
The question arises how a work so convenient and so val- uable as Atticus' handbook fell so soon into oblivion, and that too without having stimulated the production of others of its kind. Peter answers it by saying that the rapid rise of Rome to world dominion so widened the scope of historical interest as to withdraw attention from a book of so narrow a range.210 It may be added that Roman history so soon fulfilled the hopes of Atticus by taking its place as a literary form that in the midst of stylistic interests, imitations and rivalries, a meager and un- adorned work like the Annals might easily fail of appreciation.
209 II. 23. Schoene, Die Elogien des Augustus jorum und der liber de viris illustribus, 1895, cited by Schanz under Aurelius Victor, con- jectures that Augustus employed Atticus for the composition of the elogia inscribed under the statues that he placed in the Forum, and that 47 chapters of De Viris Illustribus may be traced to this source. The source of this work, however, is a matter of much controversy, and Schon is not supported in tracing it to Atticus. See Schanz, loc. cit. See also Schanz, Atticus, for Hirschfeld's suggestion of traces of At- ticus in Florus.
210 Wahrheit und Kunst.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS.
Atticus was born to equestrian rank and never rose to a higher station. The corruption and violence of the political world of his youth made him decide that it was the part of dig- nity and prudence to turn away from that path of advance- ment.1 The choice may have been instinctive, based on a con- sciousness of his own strength and weakness, but it was doubt- less reinforced by his study of the teachings of Epicurus.2 It by no means involved indifference to the fortunes of his coun- try, nor did it preclude a lively interest in the political career of Cicero.
He must have listened daily, as Cicero did in 88, to the public speeches of Sulpicius, whose fortunes were the more in- teresting to him because of a family connection.3 Because of this connection, the tribune's fall caused him alarm as well as sorrow, and probably was, as Nepos implies, the strongest factor in his decision to leave Italy.4
In Athens, he refused the citizenship offered to him but was none the less energetic in facing the financial and administrative problems of the city, making himself by his services an inval- uable member of the community.5
On his return from the East by way of Athens, Sulla saw in the cultivated and courteous young knight a desirable adherent and pressed him to return to Rome. Atticus, not dazzled by the invitation, begged that he should not be forced to align him- self against his friends of the anti-Sullan party, pleading that
1 1. 17, 5; Nepos, 6; Boissier is wrong in pronouncing this choice a defection from patriotic duty. Cicero uses the same word for the political position of the knights in general as for that of Atticus, otium, Pro. Rab. Post. 7, 16.
2 See p. 35.
3 Brut. 306.
*Att. 2, 2.
6 Nep. Ait. 2 and 3.
52
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 53
he had left Rome to avoid joining those very friends against Sulla. His excuses were amiably accepted, and he was loaded with gifts on Sulla's departure.6
During his long residence abroad, Atticus kept up an inti- mate connection with men and affairs in Rome. He probably returned regularly for the census, in order to keep his status as a citizen.7 The fact that after twenty years of foreign resi- dence he was urged and expected to come to Rome to assist his friends in their canvasses for office shows that he had retained his position as a prominent member of the equestrian order and that through personal ties and business interests he had maintained a sphere of influence.8 Besides his visits to Rome, his residence in Athens gave him opportunities for making or renewing friendships with Romans ; the knights with financial interests in Asia, the provincial governors with their quaestors, prefects, secretaries, the army officers quartered in the eastern provinces, must have kept up a stream of travel through the Aegean. Well adapted as Atticus was by temperament, expe- rience and enthusiasm to serve as guide and host in Athens and as adviser to those embarking on financial ventures in the East, he must have been sought out by many of those who went through Athens on their journey.9
65-58.
" My candidacy for the consulship, which I know is a matter of supreme interest to you," Cicero wrote in a letter of 65. l° He was justified in the assumption; it was probably this in- terest that restored Atticus to Rome as a resident citizen. At- ticus maintained this interest throughout Cicero's life, acting as counsellor at every point and finding in his friend's activity an expression for his own political ideas. It is almost entirely
6 Nep. Att. 4, I and 2.
7Cf. I. 18, 8; II. i, ii.
8 I. 10, 6; 4, 1 5 Nep. Att. 4, 3-5-
• Cf. I. i, 2.
10 I. i. i.
54 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
through his exchange of ideas with Cicero that his life as a citizen must be studied.
Cicero hoped to have in his political career the support of the equites, Atticus' class and his own. He stood for the consulate at a time when the equites were conscious of power and had heavy interests lying under the arbitrament of the government. Their policy centered in the support of Pompey, who had proved himself a complacent friend ; he had been instrumental in restoring the juries to them in 70, and in reinstating in the province of Asia essential features of that Gracchan system of taxation which had proved so profitable to them before the re- forms of Sulla j11 he was at this time engaged in a war which they hoped would — as it actually did — add Syria to the Roman provinces and open there a similar field for investment. Cicero had made himself their spokesman in support of the democratic movement for the appointment of Pompey to the command in this war. Since that time, the democratic party had begun to show elements of radicalism and sedition that tended to estrange the equites, and Cicero with them. The class formed a middle party between optimates and democrats, holding the balance of power. The critical question for Cicero was whether he was able really to lead them, or whether his policy would prevail with them only so far as they thought it in harmony with their immediate interests.
With this class Atticus was identified, but not in an exclusive or narrowly partisan spirit. During his candidacy, Cicero asked him to exert his influence among those who were travel- ling between Italy and the East in connection with Pompey's campaigns.12 These were probably for the most part members of his own class, but it was with his friends among the opti- mates that Cicero wanted him to work when he urged him to come to Rome for the year 64.13 Atticus' personal friendships among the nobles accordingly date back to the time of his resi-
11 Frank, Roman Imperialism, 311. 12 1. I, 2. 18 1. 2, 2.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 55
dence in Greece, some of them, perhaps, to his school days. There is record of his intimacy with Hortensius14 and with the Claudian family,15 there are traces of friendship with the Lu- culli, and it is inherently probable that these great connoisseurs in literature and the arts valued his learning and his fine dis- crimination.16
As Cicero, writing of his consulate in the years immediately following, ascribed to Atticus a large share in the framing and upholding of his policies,17 the developments of the consulate ought to throw light on Atticus' political tendencies. These developments were not so much the outcome of a constructive policy as a reaction to events. The revolutionary elements in the democratic party came increasingly to the fore during the course of the year, which was inaugurated with the agrarian bill of Rullus, in Cicero's eyes nothing else than a measure of spoliation, and closed with Catiline's abortive attempt at mas- sacre and proscription. Cicero, who had hoped to keep on friendly terms with all parties, was forced by the end of the year to rely upon a coalition of senators and equites for the defense of the government. It cannot be doubted that Atticus, whose dread of disorder and violence had in his youth driven him to expatriation, was profoundly influenced by these reve- lations, presented in the first years of his political life in Rome, of the destructive tendencies inherent in the democratic party. Whatever his attitude to that party may have been before 63, he regarded it afterwards with deep distrust. As interlocutor in De Legibus, he gives a scarcely qualified assent to Quintus' diatribe against the tribunate and professes a lifelong dislike for all popular movements ;18 these words doubtless expressed his true sentiments.
14 Nep. Att. 5, 5 ; II. 25, i ; V. 2, i ; 9, 2.
15 II. 7, 2; 9, i and 3 ; II. 22, 4 and 5.
16 L. Lucullus was a friend of Caecilius (Nep. Att. 5 ; Vol. Max. VII. 8, 5) ; he is mentioned in De Legibus as a friend of the interlocu- tors. For M. Lucullus, cf. I. 19, 10.
17 I. 17, 6 and 10; 18, i.
18 III. 26 and 37.
56 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
The events that estranged Cicero from the democracy ce- mented more closely his connection with his own class. It may be demonstrated that neither Cicero nor Atticus contemplated such a policy of leadership as would secure the devotion of the equites by unscrupulous class legislation,19 and if the field had been open for an aggressive policy on the part of that class, the year might have estranged them from their consular represen- tative. As it was, he was brought to look upon them as the upholders of government and they upon him as the defender of property;20 under his leadership, they broke completely with the democracy and formed with the senate the union known as the concordia.
In the formation of the concordia Atticus undoubtedly played an important part ; his warm friendships and his business con- nections among both the component elements must have given him great influence in promoting harmony; his long absence from Rome and consequent aloofness from the quarrels that had divided the two orders further qualified him for media- tion, while his natural tendency to compromise and conciliation inevitably disposed him to enthusiasm for a movement to unite the two social classes that bounded his sympathy and his in- terests. Cicero pictures him as standing on the slope of the Capitoline on that memorable Nones of December, " the stand- ard-bearer of the equites"21 It seems to have been the only occasion in his life when his political feelings developed heat enough to produce a public demonstration ; it was probably the only opportunity ever afforded him to support with some pros- pect of success a cause in which he thoroughly believed.
Thenceforth the political life of Atticus was destined to be a fruitless opposition, so that it is interesting to inquire what his program was at this period when he held a real leadership in his party. Combining the evidence of 63 and 62 with that of
19 Cf. II. i, 7 and 8.
20 1. 19, 4; II. i, 8 and n ; Ad Fam. V. 6, 2; Ad Q. F. I. i, 6; cf. Pliny, H. N. XXXIII. 34- 21 II. i, 7-
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 57
51, a year in which he again had occasion to express positive ideas,22 we should conclude that his governmental ideals had to do with sound administration rather than with constructive reform. He believed in just administration, in legislation pro- moting commerce without arousing class antagonism by fa- voritism, in the cultivation of contentment and a spirit of peace among all classes. In his leadership of the equites, he doubt- less urged a policy of moderate demands, efficient public serv- ice, honest gains. On the other hand, his distrust of demo- cratic tendencies cut him off from investigating the causes of discontent and from considering methods of economic reform ; we have no evidence as to how he was affected by the misery of the poor in Rome, but we know that on grounds both of humanity and of sound business he deprecated the unhappy condition of the provinces. His program for amelioration, however, was limited to a correction of abuses under the ex- isting system. He believed that much could be done for the ailing members of the body politic by teaching them and ap- plying to them honest and vigorous business methods. He went no further.
Atticus believed in the right of private property and in the duty of the government to defend that right. Doubtless to him as to Cicero, schemes for the relief of debtors that were based on repudiation, schemes for the relief of poverty that were based on confiscation or heavy taxation, seemed immoral and subversive of the ends of government.23 His adherence to this economic position made him a conservative and a defender of the existing system.
For a statement of the political theory to which Cicero and Atticus had now committed themselves, with its attendant ad- vantages, we may quote Cicero's summary of a speech that he made in the senate in February of 61 : " The authority of the senate, harmony with the equites, cordial support from Italy,
22 See end of ch. i.
23 For a statement of this position, see De Officiis, II. 72-85.
58 TITUS POMPOtflUS ATTICUS.
the suppression of anarchy, low prices, peace — such was the substance of my thunderings."2*
To Atticus' political and patriotic interests25 we owe the in- formation on political subjects that rilled Cicero's letters to him. The letters are especially rich in discussion for the period of Atticus' long absence in 61 and 60, when the friends still hoped for the perpetuation of the concordia and analyzed ac- cordingly every influence that became manifest in the field of politics.
The burning question was how Pompey, the erstwhile cham- pion of democrats and equites, would face the new alignment of parties on his return. Both Cicero and Atticus were looking eagerly for the TroAmicos avjp, the genuine statesman.26 Atticus seems to have been sceptical from the beginning. Before the end of January, 61, he expressed his opinion that Pompey had given public approval to Cicero's consulate only after realizing that unfavorable criticism would be impolitic.27 Cicero's own impression was disappointing ; he found the great general feel- ing his way, timid about espousing any cause, slow and secre- tive in forming plans, unwilling to pronounce upon measures taken in his absence.28 Cicero was not, of course, Atticus' only informant on affairs at Rome, and often assumed that Atticus had earlier news than that in his letters.29 At any rate, by the end of the year, Atticus seems to have made up his mind not to put his trust in Pompey. Cicero had written to him in July that there was, to all appearance, a close alliance between him- self and Pompey, implying that it went no farther, on his part, 'than the producing of an effect on the public;30 he showed in this letter his despair of an effective championship of the con- cordial We do not know Atticus' answer, but when, in De-
24 1. 14, 4. For Atticus' devotion to the concordia, see De Leg. Ill, 37.
26 I. 16,7; 19, I.
28 1. 18, 6.
27 1: 13, 4.
28 1. 13,4-
»I. 12, 3; 16,4; 17, 8; II. 19, 5.
80 1. 16, ii.
81 1. 16, 6.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 59
cember, Cicero confessed to a real approximation toward Pom- pey for the sake of security, he added, "I anticipate your warning and I shall guard against the dangers involved."32 He received the expected protest at the end of May, 60, in a letter that Atticus wrote on February 15 : "As to affairs of state, you write at once like a friend and like a wise counsellor. My own chosen course is not at variance with your recommendations. It is true that I ought to maintain the dignity of my own posi- tion, that I ought not to entrust my honor and safety to an- other's hands, and that he of whom you write has no adequate and elevated policy, and is of a temper to receive orders and to bid for popular approval." He defended his closer relation with Pompey on the ground that he exerted the greater influ- ence and did more than Pompey to stamp their joint policy, thus benefiting the state by elevating Pompey toward his own level.33 He had already, in a letter of March 15, advanced the plea that his union with Pompey was determined by patriotic motives.34 We do not know what effect this plea had upon Atticus, for when Cicero wrote to the same effect in June, he was answering a letter written before even the letter of March 15 was received.35
During the spring of 60 there is indicated for the first time in the letters a quotation from Euripides that Atticus used a number of times in charging Cicero not to forsake his peculiar post in the State — "Zirdprav eXa^es, ravrav Ko<r/m. Whether or not Atticus' conception of this peculiar province changed with the years, the quotation always indicates his conviction that Cicero had public obligations from which he had no right to withdraw. In this case the " Sparta " in question seems to be the supporters of the concordia, senators and equites both. Cicero wrote, " As to my comrades in the good cause, of whom
82 1. 17, 10.
83 1. 20, 2; cf. II. I, 6.
84 1. 19, 7.
35 II, I, 6. When Atticus last wrote, Cossinius, bearer of the March letter, had not yet reached him (I. 19, 10 and 15; II. i, i).
60 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
you remind me, and that political sphere which you say is my province, be assured that I shall never abandon them; nay, further, that if they fall away from me, my convictions and purposes will still remain unchanged."36
The truth is that Atticus was giving advice from a distance, and that Cicero was at some pains to make him realize how changed were the possibilities of the situation — a situation the essential instability of which he had grasped but slowly him- self. In July of 61, writing of "that political status effected by the combination of all the better elements in the state " as already fallen, perhaps irretrievably, he attributed this break- down of effective government to the Clodian trial, that is, to the forces of disorder and corruption;87 but by December, at least, he began to apprehend an element of disruption within the optimate party. There was a small senatorial group of a virtue too severe to tolerate the frankly acquisitive tendencies of the equites. Cicero was himself disgusted with the impu- dence of his order, their demand for impunity in political cor- ruption, their clamor to be released from an unlucky tax con- tract ; yet he felt himself bound to further demands of which he disapproved rather than disregard the mutterings of discon- tent that he detected among the equites, and to exert all his elo- quence in the senate on their behalf. "Thus I do my best to save our chosen policy from ruin, and defend, as best I can, the union that I brought into being." But his sympathy was with the champions of morality : " our hero Cato " — thus he spoke of their leading spirit, and up to this point he showed no irritation at their disregard of expediency.38 In February of 60, however, when describing that disorganization of which he grew more and more sensible, he named among the causes the abortive efforts of the senate to put through legislation against bribery and judicial corruption, leaving the senate irritated and the equites estranged. In placing responsibility for the state of
38 1. 20, 3. 37 1. 16, 6. 88 I. 17, 9 and 10.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 61
affairs, he reviewed the leaders, scoring the pompous silence of Pompey, the contemptible facility of Crassus, and then show- ing for the first time a profound discontent with the optimate party. " You know the others, the muddleheads who think that their fishponds may be safe even after the state has fallen. There is but one who has the public weal at heart, and he, I am inclined to think, is contributing to the cause more character than brains, more loyalty than discretion ; he has been keeping the poor tax farmers, who were devoted to him, on the rack for three months."39
Atticus must have received this letter before sending the one that Cicero received on June I, but we find him in that letter reluctant to accept Cicero's view of the case or to endorse his handling of it. He evidently pleaded with Cicero to maintain the policy and alliances that he had held before Pompey's re- turn, and especially to remain in cooperation with Cato. Cicero again protested the impossibility of such steadfastness where all was in flux, and again pleaded for his policy of compromise. " Even if I had no enemies, if all supported me who ought to do so, even then the use of remedial rather than surgical treat- ment for the body politic would be commendable ; but with the equites alienated from the senate, with our nobles feeling that happiness is attained when the bearded mullets in their fish- ponds will feed from their hands, and indifferent to all else, do not I seem to you to render a real service if I blunt the will to harm in those who have the power ? Your love for Cato is not greater than mine ; but it must be confessed that with the most admirable intentions and the most unswerving fidelity he often does the commonwealth harm. He talks as if he were in the Republic of Plato rather than in these dregs of Romulus' city. What more proper than that the receiver of bribes should be prosecuted? So Cato proposed, and the senate followed his lead. The consequence is war of the equites with the senate — not with me; I voted to the contrary. What more shameless
8» I. 18.
62 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
than the tax farmers' repudiation of their contract? But we ought to have suffered the loss of money rather than lose the equites. Cato opposed concessions and carried his point. As a result, with one consul in prison, in the face of uprisings, we are utterly unsupported by the men whose assistance I and my successors employed in the defense of the state. 'Well,' you will say, ' are we to hire them with pay ? ' What are we to do, if we cannot secure them otherwise? Are we to place ourselves under the heel of our f reedmen — of our slaves ? '40
By the middle of the year Atticus must have known the his- tory of the agrarian bill that Pompey and Caesar were trying to put through — how Cicero, realizing the futility of attempt- ing to flout its powerful backers, had worked out a compromise that removed such features as threatened the peace of Italy, and how the senate had rejected his leadership and in their distrust of Pompey had refused to consider any agrarian bill of any sort.41
In spite of all these reasons for changing his position, the indications are that Atticus held his ground. Judging by the manner of his correspondence as a whole, we may say with certainty that Cicero wrote the second of his December letters with the confidence of Atticus' approval. In it he names the courses open to him with regard to a new agrarian law — a manful resistance, difficult, dangerous, but honorable; a tacit consent, which meant nothing else than a retirement from pub- lic lif e ; a cordial support, which Caesar was cleverly taking for granted. He pictures the flattering prospect held out to him — a close alliance with Pompey, with Caesar, too, if he liked, reconciliation with old enemies, immunity from attacks of the democracy, an easy old age — then puts it from him, quoting from his poem on his consulate the passage in which Calliope admonished him to hold steadfastly by the policy of that glor- ious year. The absence of deprecation and apology in the
40 II. i, 7 and 8; cf. 10, with n. 43, ch. i. Cf. the attitude ascribed to Atticus in De Leg. III. 26 and 37. 41 1- 19, 4-
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 63
letter makes it certain that Calliope voiced the sentiments of Atticus.42
While the advice of Atticus was that of an absentee, so that it must not be judged by the same standard as if he had been face to face with the facts, it is valuable evidence on his civic ideas and standards. His attitude toward government is re- vealed as a matter of sentiment rather than of practical politics ; his point of view was not that of a money lender operating in the great web of trade and centering his interests therein. When a breach was threatened in the concordia, his sympathy was not with his own class. This may have been due partly to personal predilections: his natural preference for distinction attached him to the sphere of old traditions' and high breed- ing;43 besides, he was a man of strong enthusiasms, and could not readily yield in his admiration for either Cicero or Cato, nor see without sorrow a breach between them. The deciding factor, however, was his type of patriotism — a reverence for and idealization of the old aristocratic tradition in government, the conception of a governing class distinguished for personal honor. It was partly his fastidiousness on the point of honor that had kept him from going into political life as a young man,44 and his lack of experience had enabled him to carry into middle age the ideals of his youth. Cato's impractical opposi- tion pleased him more than Cicero's well directed opportunism.
At the end of 60, Atticus returned to Rome and probably acquired a very different view of the situation. The first three months of Caesar's consulate sufficed to end his hope of suc- cess for any constructive policy or even for active opposition. He turned at once to counsels of prudence. Writing ten years later, Cicero said, " While I make duty my standard of action, I yet recall your counsels. If I had followed them, I should have escaped the misery of that period. I remember the advice you gave me after sounding Theophanes and Culleo, and indeed
42 II. 3, 3 and 4. « Cf. I. 19, 6. *« Nep. Att. 6, 2.
64 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
I have often recalled it with groans. Let me now therefore return to the old calculations that I then rejected, so as to adopt plans that ensure — honor? yes, but safety too."45 It is not pos- sible to tell exactly what the advice of Atticus was, but its tendency can be gathered from the points in which Cicero fol- lowed it.
What we know is that in April Cicero was making a tour of his villas; that he had for the time being abjured political life and was anxious that his action should be so interpreted ; that on his return to Rome he did not resume his political activi- ties ; that in this almost ostentatious retirement he kept making a real effort to divorce his mind from its political interests, and that in furtherance of this end Atticus tried to distract and stimulate him, and especially to divert his energy into literary channels.46 He also kept him informed about the situation in Rome by almost daily letters.47
There is nothing to indicate how far Cicero was influenced by Atticus in the crucial decisions of the first months of 59, when the offer of a place in the triumvirate48 must have meant to him not a mere vulgar temptation to desert the good cause, but a possible chance to maintain a balance of power between the rising individualists and the senate. Did Atticus,- who seems never to have trusted that point of view, persuade him to abandon it ? Or was Cicero himself, as the plans of Caesar and Pompey were unfolded, shocked into a thoroughgoing op- position? What seems probable from the tone of the corre- spondence is that the plan of retirement was worked out be- tween the two friends. The letters show an effort to reassure Atticus, as if he had set the task at which Cicero was working.49
We may take as the motive of the retirement a statement of Cicero's written a few months later : " I had hoped, as I often
46 VIII. 12, 5.
46 II. 4, i and 3 ; 6, i and 2; 7, i ; 12, 3 ; cf. 14, 2.
47 II. 5, 2; 8, i; ii, i ; 12, 2 and 4; 15, i.
48 De Prov. Cons. 41. 40 II. 4, 2 and 4; 13, 2.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 65
said in talking with you, that the revolution in the state would prove to have been already accomplished, and so quietly that we could scarcely hear the sound of it, scarcely mark the im- press of its passage ; and so it would have been, if people could have awaited the passing of the storm."50 His references to Cato's mistaken course,51 the bitter feeling that he betrays against the optimates,52 show that he had retired in despair of leading an effective resistance to the unconstitutional forcing through of the triumvirs' schemes. But Atticus seems to have urged strongly the motive of prudence53 and to have been anxious to keep his friend suppressed; he discouraged even social activities of a public character.54 On coming back to Rome in June, Cicero was assiduous in his professional labors, which were profitable in their development of personal rela- tions, with Atticus apparently urging him on and recommend- ing clients to him.55 He took pains to assure Atticus, who had pressed the point, that he did not go beyond this sphere of activity.56
" Safety in seclusion " seems then to have been the idea de- veloped in the walks and talks that followed Atticus' return to Rome. In the meantime, the old optimate policy was still cher- ished as an ideal and Cato's judgment respected as the standard of righteousness.57 Fear of estrangement from the optimates was the cogent reason for Cicero's refusal of the proffered place on the agrarian commission.58 Dislike of the dynasts' policy increased in both friends as the year advanced;59 both men were convinced that their ultimate aims were revolution
60 II. 21, 2; cf. 19, 3. 51 II. 9, I and 2. « II. 9, 3 ; 16, 2. " II. 19, i.
54 II. 8, 2; 10; as Tyrrell remarks, the taunts of Clodius had much to do with Cicero's sensitiveness about Pompeii (I. 16, 10).
55 II. 20, i.
66 II. 23, 3.
67 II. 5, i.
58 II. 19, 4; that courage was needed for refusing this offer from Caesar is shown by IX. 2a, I.
59 II. 7, 2 and 3 ; 8, i ; 24.
66 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
and despotism.60 There were slight differences in their points of view. Of the two, Atticus had more of the enthusiasm cher- ished by the optimates for the obstructive tactics of Bibulus.61 On the other hand, Cicero was susceptible to an influence that Pompey's presence exerted on him, an influence that operated powerfully at several critical points in his life; he was probably affected too by loyalty to an old enthusiasm. Atticus remained cold.62
Cicero began to realize the danger that threatened him from Clodius at least as early as June of 6o.63 When Atticus left for Epirus in the summer of 59, it was with the promise to return at a summons from Cicero if his help should be needed in the face of that danger.6* During his absence, Cicero felt the loss of advantages on which he had been able to count while Atticus was in Rome; Atticus' ability to keep track of the doings of Clodius, and even his influence upon that violent democrat,65 his influence in the sphere of Pompey through Theophanes66 and Varro.67 The influence of Atticus on Clo- dius probably existed only in Cicero's fancy, and it is a question whether the information that Atticus got was not at times a blind trail on which Clodius placed him. Apparently, however, if Clodius deceived Atticus he deceived Curio also,68 and per- haps the impressions that Atticus formed really represented the erratic course of Clodiius' shifting decisions. As to Pom- pey, Cicero felt that if Atticus were in Rome, the malign in- fluence of Crassus on his fellow triumvir might somehow be counteracted.69 As the elections, which had been postponed to
60 II. 14, i ; 17, i ; 18, i.
61 II. 15, i (the interpretation of iste as a demonstrative of the second person must not be pushed in the letters, but seems unavoidable here) ; 19, 2} 21, 5; cf. VI. 8, 5.
62 II. 19, 2; 21, 3 and 4; 23, r ; 20, i.
63 II. i, 4. 6* II. 15, 2.
65 II. 4, 2; 7, 2 and 3; 8, i ; 9, i ; 22, i, 4 and 5. 86 II. 5, i ; 17, 3. •» II. 22, 4. 88 II. 8, i. 89 II. 22, 5.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 67
mid-October, drew near, he sent an imperative summons to Atticus, begging him to come home, if not for the elections, at least for Clodius' tribunate.70 Atticus reached Rome, perhaps by the earlier date, certainly by the later, for he persuaded Cicero not to oppose the tribune's bill for the restoration of the clubs.71
5&-SEPTEMBER, 57.
When Clodius proposed, toward the end of March, 58, a bill condemning to exile anyone who had put Roman citizens to death without trial, Atticus took fright, as did most of Cicero's friends.72 When an appeal to Pompey failed to elicit any as- surance of protection,73 Cato alone, it seems, advised a bold stand.7* Following the counsel of the others, Cicero appealed to the people73 and finally left the city. He afterwards blamed Atticus for furthering so pusillanimous a policy.
Cicero expected and urged Atticus to follow him, promising himself protection under Atticus' convoy and on his estate at Buthrotum against such of his enemies as were in Greece.76 By mid- July, however, he was content to have Atticus stay in Rome, realizing that his services there were indispensable.77
After doing what he could to promote the safety and com- fort of Cicero's journey,78 Atticus began working for a repeal of the decree of exile. He had an audience with Pompey, who seems to have spoken with vague friendliness, not in a tone that approved itself to Cicero as sincere.79 Under stimulus from Atticus, Varro kept up more or less active efforts for the recall.80 Atticus kept in touch with Pompey, who eventually
70 II. 23, 3. « III. 15, 4-
« Dio 38, 17; cf. III. 8, 4; 15, 5 and 7; IV. I, I ; cf. De Leg. III. 45. "HI. 15, 4 ;X. 4,3-
74 III. 15, 2; Plutarch says Lucullus; Cotta gave a judicial opinion to the same effect (De Leg. III. 45).
"111.15,5.
7« III. 2; 7, I.
« III. 12, 3.
78 III. 7, i ; Ad Fom. XIV. 4, 2; cf. V. 21, 10; VI. i, 6.
7» III. 9, 2; 19, 31 cf. Ad Q. F. I. 3, 9-
«« III. 8, 3; 15-3-
68 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
professed to be waiting only for Caesar's permission to act.81 At the same time, he aimed at action in the assembly through friendly tribunes, whose plans he revised and criticised. These efforts resulted in a bill introduced by eight tribunes on Octo- ber 29, but without effect.82 New efforts were concentrated upon the magistrates-elect, both consuls and tribunes. Through the influence of Atticus, Metellus Nepos, who had quarrelled with Cicero in 62, was brought to acquiesce in the movement for his recall.83 Cicero's expectancy and excitement were at this time so great that he urged Atticus to hire adherents in order to meet opposition with force.84 Both his commissions and his criticisms during this year show that Atticus was the manager of the campaign for recall.85 In January of 57, the measure was successful in the senate, but the efforts of Clodius for some months prevented action in the assembly. Atticus left for Epirus early in the year, and was still there when Cicero finally returned to Rome in September.86
When Quintus came back from his province in the summer of 58, it was feared that his enemies would take advantage of the diminished prestige of the family to attack his administra- tion in the courts. Atticus kept track of the movement and used his influence against it ; in fact, Quintus wrote to Marcus that Atticus was his sole support.87
SEPTEMBER 57-51.
Cicero felt more than ever, on resuming his life in Rome, the need of Atticus' diligence and sagacity in the management of his affairs and, still more, in the planning of his political course. Within a few days after his return, gratitude to Pompey had swept him into movements that puzzled and
81 III. 14, i ; 13, i ; 15, 3; 18, i.
82 III. 15, 5; 19, 2; 20, 3; 23, i, 4 and 5.
83 III. 22, 2; 23, i ; cf. Ad Fatn. V. 4. 8* III. 23, 5.
85 III. 24, i ; 25. 88 IV. i, I. « III. 17, 3.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 69
troubled him ; he found himself advocating extra-constitutional powers for Pompey88 and rejoicing in the success of his side in the violent wrangling of the elections,89 without being able to take the measure of the situation or to find a place for himself in the new rule of force. " Life has begun for me on different terms," he wrote, in begging Atticus to return and advise him.90 A passage in one of the first letters seems to show that before he left Greece he and Atticus had worked out a policy leaving Cicero in a somewhat detached position and excluding active participation in the political struggle.91
On January 30 of 56, Atticus had already landed in Italy.92 During the next few months, Cicero regained for a short time his sense of leadership. Success in two cases that had a strong political bearing93 encouraged him to challenge the policy of the dynasts by proposing a reconsideration of the Campanian land question. This attempt served only to show him how powerless he was. Pompey checked him by appealing to a promise of good behavior that Quintus had made on his behalf to Caesar during the exile, and he was made to feel that the meeting of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus at Luca cemented an alliance of impregnable power. It is apparent that in this at- tempt to rally the optimate party against the dynasts he was acting against the advice of Atticus. Writing a short time afterward from Antium, whither he retired after the sharp check placed upon his political efforts, he announced to Atticus a definite break with the senatorial party, by whom he now felt himself completely betrayed. "I have come to my senses at last," he wrote, " with you to enlighten me."94
The advice of Atticus, then, when based on direct observa-
88 IV. I, 6.
89 IV, 3, 3-5. »» IV, i, 8.
91 IV. 2., 6. The reading utilitates meae has been confirmed by Sjogren. Commentationes Tullianae, p. 158. 92 IV. 4.
03 Pro Sestio and In Vatinium. 94 IV. 5, i.
70 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
tion of the situation, proves the opposite of what he gave in 60, when he was still cherishing theories. It is true that the strength of one party and the weakness of the other had re- ceived ample demonstration since that time, so that it did not require superhuman perspicacity to draw conclusions, and yet Cicero, who had just held the role of absentee, thought at first that the situation was still hopeful. Atticus was somewhat in- fluenced at this time, it appears, by gratitude for the help that Pompey had given towards the recall of Cicero. At a later time, he did not estimate this so highly, but for the moment, doubtless in the flush of Pompey's genuine pleasure when the cause prospered, he developed an enthusiasm for Pompey that was destined to influence him later. It is not likely that he had given to Pompey any such promises for Cicero's future conduct as Quintus gave to Caesar, but he felt that there was a tacit obligation.
Cicero wrote about this time a document that committed him to association with the dynasts. He was somewhat ashamed to show it to Atticus, though he realized that Atticus would welcome it as the entrance on a course that he had himself recommended,95 perhaps in almost the words used by Cicero: " Since the weaklings will have none of me, I shall attach my- self to the strong." In fact, we learn from a letter of Oc- tober, 50, that Atticus had advised Cicero to attach himself to both Pompey and Caesar, to Pompey because of obligation, to Caesar simply from prudence, because of his commanding posi- tion.96 In the same letter, Cicero speaks again of his resistance to Atticus' advice, doubtless referring to these months after his return from exile. In his act of submission, however, he feared that he had made the step too marked for Atticus' ap- proval. " You will say that what you advised and urged was a course of conduct, not a compromising piece of writing."87
96 IV, 5, 3 ; this was doubtless a letter to Caesar, and not, as Momm- sen thought, the speech De Provinciis Consularibus; see Tyrrell's argu- ment ad loc.
86 VII. I, 2;cf. VIII. 3, 2.
•' IV. 5, 2; cf. for this period, Phil. II. 23.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 71
Atticus may have been too cautious to advise the avowal of a new allegiance, or he may still have hoped that Cicero could approach the dynasts without entirely surrendering his inde- pendence ; and yet in his next letter, Cicero held Atticus respon- sible for the policy of subordination which he found so bitter in the working out. "Am I then to be a henchman, when I refused to be a leader ? So it must be, for such I see is your decision."98
On the other hand, it was in accordance with Atticus' ad- vice that Cicero rejected the tempting idea of peace in retire- ment; he quoted the old exhortation, Siraprav cAa^es, ravrav Kooym, as expressing the only course that his friend's plan left open to him, and, while shrinking from the ignoble acqui- escence which that course seemed to involve, he settled down to plan it out seriously, trusting to Atticus to reinforce his de- termination during a visit to Antium.8!> The use of the Euripi- dean verse is significant, for it shows that while Atticus was advising cooperation with the triumvirs — subordination to them, if need be — he still felt that Cicero had a peculiar prov- ince in the state. If it no longer involved cooperation with the men whom he had trusted in 60, it is likely that it still held for him a moral significance and an appeal to patriotic feeling. As a high-minded and clean-handed statesman, Cicero was bound not to slip out of public life, but in whatever way was feasible to keep a footing there and make his ideals felt. Writing in the autumn of this year, Cicero said, " I shall follow your ad- monition to retain my place as a public man and yet to make no rash moves ; but more prudence is needed, and I shall look to you for it, as always."100
Atticus urged Cicero at this time to write on Hortensius, whether in a friendly or a hostile spirit the text does not show.
98 IV. 6, 2.
•• IV. 6, 2.
100 iv. 8a, 4; Tyrrell's translation for iroXmiccii, with moderation, is not adequate ; et . . . et requires an antithesis. The word is used in the same sense as in IV. 6, i, though there it denotes interest, not ac- tivity, in public affairs ; cf . I. 18, 6 ; V. 12, 2.
72 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
Tyrrell is doubtless right in assuming that Atticus' intentions, as usual, made for peace, and that Cicero's refusal wasi based on a conviction that even a pacific pamphlet could not be written without raking up old quarrels.101
The letters of 55 are confined to four preserved from Cicero's spring tour of his villas and one written from Tusculum in No- vember. They show on Cicero's part distrust of Pompey,102 hatred of Crassus,103 and reluctance under the yoke of adhesion to the triumvirs.104
The letters for the summer of 54, when Atticus was in the East, show nothing of his policy except its extreme caution. Cicero expected a protest when he confessed that he had taken part in the efforts made in the senate to push the prosecutions for bribery ; it galled him to think that at the next meeting he would not be one of the few to speak out their convictions freely, but he felt the demand of Atticus for silence, though he could not promise to respect it completely.105 Atticus appears by this time to have lost faith in the policy of Cato, who was still opposing the triumvirs.100 At the same time one feels the sympathy that Cicero appealed to after his enforced and humil- iating defense of Gabinius, when in answering Atticus' sup- posed questions, " How did you conduct yourself ? " and " How did Pompey accept your independent attitude ? " he insisted on the decency of his personal position, but went on with an out- pouring of grief over the failure of the republic and the menace of a dictatorship, and concluded with an appeal for the pres- ence of Atticus, as the person who of all the world most deeply shared his feelings.107
This year was marked by most significant advances on the part of Caesar.108 There are two hints of Atticus' feeling
10* IV, 6, 3.
102 IV. 9, i, ut loquebatur.
108 IV. 13, 2.
10* IV. 13, i.
105 IV. 17, 3 and 5.
106 IV. 18, 4.
107 IV, 18, i and 2.
108 IV. 15, 10.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 73
about Cicero's gratified but dignified response, but both are obscure. "And so Caesar's friends — Oppius and I, I mean, though you may burst with scorn " — Cicero wrote in October, but the scorn imputed to Atticus may refer not to Cicero's con- nection with Caesar but to his cooperation with the parvenu Oppius.109 Toward the end of the year, after extolling Caesar's generous friendship as the one plank that he had saved from the shipwreck, Cicero exclaimed, " Will you not love him? Whom then will you choose to love?"110 This is in line with what he revealed later as to the feeling of Atticus — that he valued Caesar only for his power to help or hurt, and had no liking for him.111
51-50.
Atticus was again left in charge of Cicero's political in- terests during the latter's proconsulate. His first activity was to promote the passage of a bill for the increase of the military quotas in Syria and Cilicia, by influencing the consul Mar- cellus, whose colleague was blocking the bill.112 He used his influence to further Cicero's desire for a prompt return, notably with Hortensius, who had recently been reconciled to Cicero.113 He still kept track of Pompey's plans through Varro.114 He passed upon Cicero's letters to the senate before they were presented.115 Cicero placed the greatest confidence in his in- fluence, and insisted that everything depended on his presence in Rome.116
The first letters of this period show that both Cicero and Atticus realized how seriously the state was menaced by the threatened break between Caesar and the senate.117 While in
109 IV. 17, 7.
110 IV. 19, 2.
in VII. i, 2.
n2V. 4, 2; Ad Fam. III. 3, i.
"'V. 2, i; 9, 2; VI. i, 13-
114 V. ii, 3.
115 V. 18, i.
118 V. 15, 3 ; 18, 3 ; 20, 7. 117 V. 2,3:3, i; 4, 4-
74 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
54 Atticus had urged Cicero to cultivate the friendship of Caesar, in 51 his effort was to withdraw him from that con- nection, and he seems to have ranged himself definitely among the friends of Pompey. Cicero himself showed at this time a greater confidence in Pompey than he had felt at any time since the latter's return from the Mithradatic war. During the three days of daily visits before he left for his province, he was really edified by Pompey's conversation on matters of state, and wrote as if he expected Atticus to share his enthusiasm with none of the earlier scepticism.118 In fact, he suggested, apropos of a tribute paid by Atticus to Pompey, that they with- draw their charge of insincerity.119 " Our Pompey," Cicero wrote during this year, and notably, in contrast to his refer- ences to Caesar, "ours," without mention of Pompey's name.120 Atticus postponed his trip to Epirus in the summer to await Pompey's return from Ariminum; in the latter part of 50, he called on Pompey at Naples to sound him on the sub- ject of Cicero's interests and on affairs of state, and had a most satisfactory conversation.121
Both Atticus and Cicero had come definitely to regard Caesar as dangerous ; the first letters after Cicero's departure asked anxiously about Caesar's movements, and Cicero assured At- ticus that Pompey was commendably ready to resist the threat- ened attack on the state.122 By the beginning of 50, Atticus felt that all hope of peace lay in Pompey.123 In the late sum- mer, he wrote of Caesar's expected arrival at Placentia with four legions, expressing an alarm that Cicero fully shared.124
In* accordance with this new position Atticus urged Cicero to pay a debt of 800,000 sesterces that he owed to Caesar, and took on himself the raising of the money.125 All the pressure
118 V. 6, i ; 7 ; VI. 2, 10.
119 VI. i, ii.
120 VI. i, 3; V. n, 2. 181 V. 19, i ; VII. 2, 5. «2 V. 2, 3 ; 7.
123 VI. i, ii.
124 VII. i, i. «'V. 5, 254,3.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 75
for payment seems to have come from the side of Atticus and Cicero, for Caesar would probably have been glad to keep Cicero in his debt. Part of the debt was still unpaid when Cicero returned, and both he and Atticus were more than ever eager to be quit of it, definitely speaking of Caesar as a polit- ical opponent and wanting to remove every obstacle to inde- pendence of action.126
Atticus had great hopes that the relegation of Cicero to a province would prove to be the opening for him of a new ave- nue of advance, that the just and merciful administration which he had reason to expect from Cicero would win him new friends both in his province and at Rome and arouse old en- thusiasms.127 The administration was all that he could desire, but he must have realized long before Cicero came back that the political field was for the present closed to that form of achievement. He was ambiguous on the question of Cicero's applying for a triumph, probably fearing a rebuff.128 He had some reason to fear that Cicero would spoil the good report of his administration by handing over his post to the irascible Quintus, but his guarded warning was so reinforced by Cicero's own misgivings that the plan was at once abandoned.129
OCTOBER, SO-DECEMBER, 50.
The letters that Cicero received from Atticus at various points on his journey homeward showed that conflict between Caesar and Pompey was imminent, and challenged him to a de- cision.130 His first impulse was to assure Atticus that he would ultimately take the side of Pompey ; he did so in terms implying that the strong moral feelings of Atticus were on that side. He went back to the quotation that meant to him always the vindication of his honor before the world, aiSeo/wu
"6 VII. 3, ii;8»5.
127 VI. i, 7 and 8; et passim.
128 VI. 3, 356,459,2; VII. 3, 2. »'VI. 6, 3; 9, 3-
130 VII. I, 3.
76 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
assigning to Atticus the role of sternest critic once assigned to Cato.131 Atticus' first advice was of a practical sort, that Cicero should keep the imperium that he was then holding with a view to a triumph, whether for the sake of his personal safety or in the hope of his playing such a pacificatory part as Cicero fondly prefigured for himself.132
It may be that Cicero was overstraining the indications of Atticus' preference for Pompey, but the citations from the letters show that Atticus was at least arguing against Caesar. While assuring Cicero that he had the utmost confidence in his patriotism, he combatted the personal claims of Caesar by suggesting that his favors to Cicero were after all slight in comparison with his powers and Cicero's deserts.133 He depre- cated the influence of Caelius upon Cicero, setting over against the young man's heady Caesarianism the weight of two con- sulars.134 Finally, he referred to the statue of Minerva that Cicero had placed in the Capitol, using it as a reminder of his duty toward his country.133 A week or two later he was still urging upon Cicero the authority of the optimates in Rome, declaring that they placed great hopes in him and did not doubt his allegiance to their cause.136 Cicero felt the pressure of Atticus' question, "How shall you vote in the senate?" On December 16 he answered, " I shall vote for nothing without your approval,"137 and on the next day, " I really disapprove of opposing Caesar, but my vote shall go with Pompey,"138 and a few days later he phrased his decision thus, "I vote with Gnaeus Pompey, that is, with Titus Pomponius."139
"1 VII. 1,4; cf. II. 5, i.
132 VII. 3, 2 and 3.
«3 VII. 3, 3.
is* VII. 3, 3 and 6 ; whether Volcacius and Sulpicius had declared for Pompey or merely for neutrality we cannot tell; their later course leaned toward neutrality.
i35 VII. 3, 3.
186 VII. 7, 5.
137 VII. 5, 5-
138 VII. 6, 2. «» VII. 7, 7.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 77
Unfortunately the letters of December were nearly all written before news could have reached Rome of the investing of Pompey with unlimited military authority by Marcellus,140 so that they do not show whether Atticus was shocked by the readiness of the Pompeian side to resort to arms or merely thought that the crisis demanded extra constitutional meas- ures. The only letter written after he knew of these develop- ments was one in which he asked Cicero, who was to have an interview with Pompey, whether there was hope of peace. After the interview Cicero replied that there was not even the desire for it.141
JANUARY, 49-FEBRUARY, 49.
For a period of three weeks, the last days of December and the first half of January, Cicero was apparently near Rome with his lictors and in communication with Atticus. During this interval Caesar presented his demands to the senate and was refused, was declared an enemy by a senatits consultum ultimum and began his march against Rome. The correspond- ence was resumed when Cicero was swept along with the rush of the senate and consuls from the city, following Pompey's refusal to defend it on January 17. Cicero's first letter is a cry of disgust over the movement, at once stupid and reckless, in which he was involved.1*2" He wrote later that he had seen Pompey's display of timidity on the seventeenth of January, and that he had never been satisfied with him since. 14:!
It is probable that his displeasure was heightened by the fact
140 Holzapfel, Die Anfdnge des Burgerkrieges, KHo, 1903, and Nissen, cited by Holzapfel, date this not later than December 2, considering that the news was conveyed by Atticus in a letter that Cicero received on December 6 (cf. VII. 3, i) ; internal evidence of this is lacking. Schmidt, Cicero beim Ausbruch des Burgerkrieges, Neue Jahrb., 1891, 121-130, argues convincingly for a date after the installation of the tribunes. He places Pompey's assumption of command at Luceria about December 16, and the arrival of the news in Rome about Decem- ber 19.
141 VII. 8, 4.
"2 VII. 10.
143 IX. 10, 2.
78 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
that Pompey's action invalidated the moves toward peace in which Cicero was already active. There is testimony to the effect that he had urged the acceptance of the terms that Caesar had proposed to the senate through Curio on January 7,144 and that he later moved in the senate the sending of an embassy to Caesar.145 From the time of his return he had been approached by Caesar with conciliatory messages,1*6 which he discounted as mere blandishments; in the second week of January, however, he had had a night visit from Caelius, who came as Caesar's representative.147 He and Atticus must in- evitably have been influenced in their decisions of the next few months by the fact that Caesar had in a sense summoned Cicero to the position of peacemaker and had tried to use his influence with the senate, whereas Pompey had taken the direc- tion of affairs out of the hands of the senate and had prevented negotiations between the senate and Caesar.148
The fact that Pompey abandoned Rome and the suspicion that he would leave Italy seem to have affected the attitude of Atticus also. On January 21 he wrote, " Let us see what Gnaeus does and how he frames his plans. If he leaves Italy, he will act wrongly and to my mind very foolishly. In that case — but not before that time — we must form other plans."149 His advice on this point remained consistent, though the tor- tured conscience of Cicero sometimes read into his friend's letters a reproof of his absence from Pompey. .
Following the correspondence from January 17 through the fall of Corfinium to Pompey's withdrawal from Luceria to Brundisium, we get some light on Atticus' estimate of Caesar, on his attitude toward Pompey's policy, and on his plan — tenta- tive and undeveloped, but still a plan — for Cicero.
144 Plut. Caes. 31 ; Pomp. 59-
145 Plut. Pomp. 60; App. B. C. II. 36; Holzapfel, loc. cit., thinks that this refers to the second embassy.
"6 VII. 3, ii.
147 Ad. Fam. VIII. 17, I.
148 Holzapfel, loc. cit. »« IX. 10, 4.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 79
As previous letters indicated, he distrusted Caesar pro- foundly, fearing that he would prove an unbridled despot, a Phalaris.150 In early February, he wrote of dreading proscrip- tions ;151 a week or two later he seems to have put the question to Cicero, " Could you bear to look upon the tyrant? " — though Cicero was mistaken in thinking the question a counsel to flight ; " the body of this death," " this sink of filth," so he spoke by anticipation of the country destined to fall into the hands of Caesar and his ravenous crew.152 Both he and Cicero were influenced in their judgment of Caesar by their scorn for the flighty and venal young men of their acquaintance who had joined Caesar, in whose truculent talk, moreover, the nature and purposes of Caesar were misrepresented, and also by that association of base elements with revolutionary movements which had remained fixed in their minds since the days' of the Catilinarian conspiracy.153 But the conduct of Caesar after the capture of Corfinium made a deep impression on Atticus. On March 5, while Caesar was marching down the coast to Brundisium and Cicero was shuddering at the thought of Pom- pey's being intercepted, Atticus wrote, "If Caesar continues to act as he has begun, with honesty, moderation and discretion, I shall review the situation and consider carefully what is to our advantage."154 For Pompey's withdrawal before Caesar, he had nothing but condemnation. It is probable that, like Cicero, he failed to appreciate the military advantage that Pompey would derive from a base of operations in the East. The idea of abandoning Italy seemed to him mere senseless folly, of a piece with the withdrawal from Rome ; he thought of it usually not as a strategic measure but as a flight. " If he leaves Italy, what end will there be of wandering?"165 He warned Cicero not to involve himself in an uncertain and perilous flight,166
150 VII. 12, 2. 18! VII. 22, I. 152 IX. 10, 9; cf. 23, 2.
iss Cf . VII. 3, 5-
1M IX. 10, 9 ; cf . 2a, 2.
155 IX. 10, 4.
156 VII. 23, 2.
80 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
and protested that it was base for the optimates to consider flight.157 When he did consider the withdrawal as a war meas- ure, his condemnation was even more severe ; it amounted to nothing else, he thought, than setting the world on fire. "If Pompey remains in Italy," he wrote late in January, " and efforts at peace fail, the conflict will be, I think, all too long; but if he leaves Italy, he will to my mind be saddling an atro- cious war on our posterity."158
The advice that Atticus gave to Cicero shows him prudent, as always, watching the turn of events, but, more than that, clinging tenaciously, in the teeth of circumstances, to his old idea of Cicero's holding an independent position of influence. On January 23 he expressed his opinion that if Pompey left Italy Cicero should return to Rome.159 On February 7, in ad- vising against a participation in Pompey's flight, he wrote, " To go would be to incur the utmost danger without benefiting the state, and you can be of service to the state later on, if you stay."160 Cicero appreciated the canny element in Atticus' ad- vice, and at times, in his unrest and distress, took a perverse pleasure in emphasizing it.161 At other times he estimated more fairly the large idea that lay under Atticus' caution.162
157 IX. 10, 6; this was written on February n, when Atticus still hoped that Pompey would advance to the relief of Domitius. Cf. VIII. 12, 3.
"8 IX. 10, 5.
159 IX. 10, 4; the phrase did not then mean to him gratifying Caesar.
«° IX. 10, 5.
»« VIII. 12, 5.
162 In fact it was from the conscience of Atticus that he most feared judgment upon his own caution. A chance expression from Atticus would set him to condemning his politic course. Atticus seems to have suggested that there was some danger in staying in Italy, in case Pom- pey should be victorious (Jovi ipsi iniquum, VIII. 15, 2) ; Cicero con- cluded at once that Atticus thought that his duty lay with Pompey. He charged himself, in his moments of remorse, with a calculating motive in staying. This motive was a most justifiable bit of prudence and might well have proceeded from Atticus, though it seems not to have done so. In fact, Cicero confessed it to him somewhat shamefacedly, though he had avowed it manfully to Pompey (VIII. uD, 7) : he did not wish to be caught again at enmity with one of the dynasts in case the two came to terms with each other (X. 8, 5).
A difficulty with regard to Cicero's position at this period arises from
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 81
"Your advice approves itself to me," he wrote on February 23, " as honorable and at the same time safe. I am not influ- enced by the decisions of Lepidus and Tullus. Their past does not demand) from them what mine does from me. But your counsel influences me profoundly, for there is in it a chance of security in the present and of reestablishment in the future."163 On February 28, in asking for advice, he wrote, " Tell me what part you think it seemly for me to play, where you feel I could be of most service to the state, whether there is room for a peacemaker or whether the whole field is filled by war."164 On March I, moved doubtless by the clemency of Caesar at Cor- finium, Atticus wrote that he still had hopes of an interview between Caesar and Pompey with peace as its result.163
Atticus had no desire to see Cicero remain in Rome alone and unsupported ; he wanted him to represent an idea and head
the apparent' contradiction between Ad Fam. XVI. n, 3; Ad Att. VII. n, 5, and IX. nA, 2. The passages bearing on this have been studied by Sternkopf (Quaestiones Chronologicae 46, and W. K. P., 1899, 486), O. E. Schmidt (Briefwechsel, 116, Neue Jahrb., 1891, 121-130), Bardt (Ausgewdhlte Brief e, 1896), Sjogren (Charlies, Adnotationes Criticae), with fairly uniform results. Ad Fam. XVI. n, 3, refers to a command conferred by the senate at the time of the senatus consultum ultimum and laid down by Cicero at the time of the decretum tumultus, when the retention of such a command would have been equivalent to an acceptance of war. "Cicero rejected Capua, after January 17, in the interests of peace, making it his object to reconcile Caesar and Pom- pey."—Sjogren. The passages VII. 11, 5; 14, 3; VIII. iiB, i ; Ad Fam. XVI. 12, 5, refer to an oversight of the western coast, hardly military. VIII. nD, 3, and 12, 2, refer to a summons from Pompey to come to Capua and take part in recruiting. Cicero complied so far as to go to Capua, but not to recruit (so Sjogren). He was therefore justified in telling Caesar that he had not joined either side after the outbreak of war (IX. 1 1 A, 2) and in claiming afterwards that he had made unre- mitting efforts for peace (Ad Fam. VI. 6, 5 ; Phil. II. 23-24; Brut. 266). It is notable that Caesar kept trying until Pompey actually left Italy to get an interview with him, and that Cicero wrote to Caesar about March 19 urging peace, not knowing that Pompey had already sailed. Atticus and Cicero were not then indulging impractical speculations when they hoped that there was still a chance for Cicero to mediate.
"'VIII. 9, 3; cf. IX. 12, i.
1C* VIII. 12, 4.
IBS VIII. 15, 3 ; cf . Atticus' advice to Cicero to let the ladies of his family remain in Rome and not to send the boys away (VII. 16, 3 ; 17, i).
82 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
a following, not to bear witness to a cause by martyrdom. In spite of illness, he kept in touch with such optimates as were left in the city and watched over Cicero's reputation among them.166 He was apprehensive lest Cicero's inactivity should be construed as favorable to Caesar.167 He told Cicero of crit- icisms of his course that circulated among the optimates,168 but spared him the comments of the extremists.169 His hope was that a stand for peace could be made within the optimate party.
There was no wavering in his adherence to that party.170 He did not think of Cicero's stay in Italy as an ultimate acqui- escence in Caesar's triumph. He wrote on February 22, "If Lepidus and Volcacius are staying, I think that you should stay too, with this idea, that if Pompey makes his escape and makes a stand somewhere, you should leave this carrion and choose defeat in battle with him rather than power at Caesar's side in the sink of filth which we can foresee here."171 Again, on March 5, he wrote of the possibility of Cicero's joining Pom- pey later if there were need of it: "Your coming. will be all the more welcome to him then/'172
Atticus had reached Rome in September of 50 ill with fever, and remained subject to attacks of quartan ague throughout the winter.173 This illness must have simplified decision about
lee VIII. 2, i; ii, 7; 12, 6; etc.
"7 VII. 26, 2.
IBS VIII. 2, 2 ; Cicero construed the letter here quoted info an unqual- ified advocacy of the cause of Pompey and an admonition to join him (VIII. 2, 2 and 4). He was wrong in both interpretations, especially in the second, for Atticus reiterated in his letters his disapproval of the 'flight.' On February 19 he wrote, " Nulla epistula significavi, si Gnaeus Italia cederet, ut tu una cederes, out si significavi, non dico fui inconstant, sed dement" (IX. 10, 6) ; cf. IX. 10, 8; VIII. n, 4; IX. 10, 9, with their dates ; these prove that Cicero is again wrong when he says on February 23 that Atticus thinks his duty is with Pompey (VIII. 7,2).
169 Cicero was shocked when he learned these from Philotimus (VIII. 16, I).
170 Cf. VII. 25, litteras hilariores; 26, i, Quotient exorior; 23, i, In quo tu quoque ingemiscis.
171 IX. 10, 7; this was written before Atticus knew of the clemency displayed at Corfinium. 172 IX. 10, 9. "3 VI. 9, i; VII. 12, 6; VIII. n, 7; IX. 7, 7; X. 16, 6.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 83
his own course of conduct. Cicero, however, on January 22, challenged him to a decision : " You and Peducaeus must con- sider what you are going to do. You hold, both of you, a posi- tion of such prominence and dignity that you have the same obligations as the most illustrious men in the state."174 In a letter of March 3, Atticus seems to have discussed the possi- bility of leaving Rome, but the text is obscure.175 After hear- ing, the news from Corfinium, however, he was content to await Caesar's further action with suspended judgment.
MARCH, 49.
After Pompey's withdrawal to the coast, Atticus still kept postponing the moment of decision for Cicero by urging him to await the outcome of events at Brundisium.176 As Cicero said, there was nothing to await but Pompey's flight and Caesar's return to Rome,177 but Atticus seems to have hoped that chance would make some break in the dreadful impasse by which he felt his friend confronted. He evidently expressed his sense of the hopelessness of the situation in a long and com- prehensive letter that Cicero answered on March 13, in words that summarize Atticus' estimate of the crisis : " I cannot say that your letter gave me new life, but it did the next best thing, for I no longer aim at a happy outcome of these events. I see clearly that while Caesar and Pompey are alive — nay, even if Caesar survives alone — there is no hope for the republic ; and so I have ceased to hope for a life of peace. I am ready to face disappointment and hardship. My only fear is lest I may act ignobly — lest I have acted ignobly."178
In the meantime, Atticus gave practical advice for the imme- diate situation. He consistently recommended Cicero to stay at Formiae179 and occupy a position of genuine neutrality. He
"4 VII. 13, 3-
178 VIII. 15, I. He planned a trip to Epirus for this spring (IX. 7, 7; X. 16, 6). "«IX. 13,2; 15,3. i" VIII. 16, 2. »« IX. 7, i. "»IX. 2a, i; 7, 2; 9, I.
84 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
tried to fortify him against the remorse he felt at not being with Pompey, reiterating his own approval and that of Sex- tus,180 admitting apparently that Pompey was likely to feel aggrieved at his absence,181 but combatting that exaggerated sense of obligation by which Cicero felt at times over- whelmed.182 Even in praising Cicero for putting away all bit- terness in remembering the wrongs that Pompey had done him, he made a list of those wrongs longer than Cicero's own.188 On the other hand, he wished Cicero to make no concession to Caesar. He disapproved of Cicero's proposal to go to Arpi- num, where he would be off the path of Caesar's victorious return to Rome.184 While he recognized that even by staying in Formiae Cicero incurred the danger of pleasing Caesar too well, and being reckoned his friend, he thought it better than running away.185 He never considered the possibility of Cicero's going to Rome and lending himself to Caesar's de- signs; it would be base, he said, for Cicero even to be present in a senate that legislated to Pompey's hurt, criminal for him to sanction such legislation.186 His suggestion was that Cicero should ask for Caesar's consent to his staying away from the city and holding a non-partisan attitude, abstaining from op- posing Pompey as he had abstained from opposing Caesar.187 In a letter of March 13, he adjured Cicero, when it came to a meeting with Caesar, to treat with him on an equal footing, without undue recognition of Caesar's power and with con- fidence in his own position.188 In a significant but too com- pressed passage written on the same day, Cicero refers to the
180 IX. 2a, i; 7, 2; 10, 10.
181 IX, 23, 2.
182 IX. 7,4; 13, 3; Cicero's own family thought that it was disgraceful for him to be away from Pompey (IX. 6, 4), and it is probably true that it was Atticus' consistent and confident advice that held him at Formiae (IX. 10).
«a IX. 9, x. 18« IX. 6, i ; 7, 2. 188 IX. 5, i. 18« IX. 2a, i. «'IX. 7, 3; 9, i. 188 IX. 9, 2.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 85
plan that Atticus suggested in case Caesar should refuse to allow him an independent position. The plan seems to be that Cicero should take upon himself the responsibility of nego- tiating for peace with Caesar in the name of the Pompteian party. Cicero realized the danger of the step, as he knew that his views concerning peace would not please Pompey, but he felt that of all the dangers confronting him it was the one to be incurred with honor.189
In the meantime, Atticus continued to discuss the possibilities of Cicero's escape from Italy, largely by way of pointing out the impracticability of an immediate departure, yet recogniz- ing escape, apparently, as the ultimate choice.190
Atticus' intercourse was largely with the optimates in Rome,191 and his sympathies were with their cause. Cicero quoted Atticus' own phrase when he wrote that with the with- drawal of Pompey from Italy the sun seemed to have fallen from heaven.192 It is probably excessive sensitiveness to the criticism circulating among the optimates, themselves inactive and irresolute, that is reflected in Atticus' comment on the man- ful letter in which Cicero expressed to Caesar his hope of peace and offered to act as mediator ;103 they considered a men- tion of Caesar's "admirable wisdom" unduly flattering, and felt that Cicero had betrayed his own side in admitting that Caesar had been wronged.194
As to Caesar, Atticus' feeling seems still to show the modi- fication produced by the ' clemency ' of Corfinium. He still feared the greedy and unscrupulous pack who were helping to win Caesar's victories,195 but he had less distrust of the victor himself. He was confident that Caesar would acquiesce in
189 IX. 7, 3-
190 IX. 5, i ; 7, 5 ; 9, i ; 12, i. "» IX. 3, i ; 5, 3 ; etc. 192 IX. 10, 3. "3 ix. 1 1 A.
194 VIII. 9, i ; for the dating of this letter, about March 29 instead of February 25, see Bardt, Festschrift fur O. Hirschfeld, 1903, 11-15; Schiche, Z. G., 1908, II. 6; Sternkopf, Bursian, 1908, 28.
195 IX. 9, 4-
86 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
Cicero's neutrality188 and he probably hoped that peace would be forwarded by an interview between the two, and for that reason insisted on their meeting. He by no means gave Caesar a full confidence, however, for Cicero felt that there was some- thing less than frank in the intention of such good optimates as Atticus and Peducaeus to go out as far as the fifth mile- stone to meet the returning Caesar. " I do not criticise you," he wrote, "but in these days there is confusion among the standards whereby we are wont to tell genuine goodwill from pretence."197
The suspense of the month had its climax for both friends in the meeting between Cicero and Caesar at Formiae on March 28. Cicero congratulated himself on having followed the ad- vice of Atticus in both its important points: he had been so little complaisant as to deserve Caesar's respect rather than his gratitude, and he had maintained his refusal to go to Rome.198 He had found no complaisance in Caesar; Atticus' hope for the victor's consent to an independent stand was completely disappointed. It remained for Cicero to challenge Atticus anew for that decisive word which he had postponed until they should know the result at Brundisium.198
APRIL-MAY, 49.
Atticus cheered Cicero with cordial praise, both from him- self and from Peducaeus, for his conduct in the interview with Caesar.200 Cicero's answering compliment on his friends' con- duct in the crisis, " You and Sextus have held the same digni- fied position as you prescribed for me," makes it doubtful whether they had gone out to meet Caesar, as they had once considered doing.201
J»« IX. aa, i ; 18, i. !»7 VIII. 9, 2. «s ix. 18, i ; 19, 4- »• IX. 18, 4. 200 X. i, i.
i, 4;cf. VIII. 9, 2.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 87
The demand for a decision found Atticus still reluctant. He asked Cicero to wait to see what action Caesar's first senate would take.202 Though he seems to have regarded Caesar's initial measures with censure and alarm,203 and to have dis- trusted the projects for peace negotiations,204 he still hoped — with no evidence, as he admitted, except his own feelings — that Cicero would be summoned to Rome to act as mediator.205
With Caesar's failure to secure his position by constitu- tional means and his departure for Gaul on April 6, Atticus' hopes of a composition were ended, and yet he was reluctant to see Cicero leave Italy ; he now urged him to wait until some- thing decisive happened in Spain.208 Even when he planned a departure for Cicero, he did not feel it imperative that he should join Pompey ; and while Cicero fluctuated between join- ing Pompey and expatriating himself in Athens, Epirus or Malta, there is no sign that Atticus tried to determine his de- cision.207 In fact, he found out through Balbus whether Caesar would favor Cicero's retiring to Malta.208
We have no letters between April 22 and May 2, and after that interval there are constant veiled reference to a plan of action that Atticus wanted Cicero to carry out after leaving Italy. It was to be such a stroke as would redeem in the eyes of the optimates and in his own Cicero's long hesitation.209 Sicily seems to have been the field proposed for it,210 and it is likely that the cooperation of Curio was hoped for, especially in case Caesar should not be successful in Spain.211 A stand- ard was to be set up, and Atticus advised a bold and open initial movement.212 Great secrecy had to be preserved while Cicero
202 X. i, 2.
203 X. i, 2. 2<»* X. i, 4.
206 X. I, 3.
2<>«X. 8, i.
20* IX. 7, 7; 12, I ; X. I, 2; 7, I ; 9, I ; 18, 2.
2°8 X. 18, 2.
209 X. i2a, 2.
2" X. 12, 2.
211 X. 7, 3 ; 10, 3 ; 12, 2 ; 13, 3 ; cf . for Curio's friendship, X. 4. 7-10.
212 X. 15, 2.
88 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
was still in Italy, but there were other parties to the con- spiracy. As Cicero was not the only person considered for the leadership,213 it may be that the plan did not originate with Atticus, but was hatched among the optimates in Rome. At- ticus, however, was deeply interested in seeing it tried.21* But the scheme never matured. By the time Cicero left Italy on June 7, Sicily was firmly in the hands of the Caesarians. Cicero probably went to Atticus' estate in Epirus, joining Pom- pey later in the year.
Atticus had for some time considered going to Epirus215 and probably carried out his plan in the summer. While in Rome, he accommodated himself to the Caesarian regime and called on Caesar at the pontifical palace, with what object we do not know.21"
48-47.
By January of 48, Atticus was in Rome, though the ex- tremists in Pompey's camp were threatening him with con- fiscation of his estates for his failure to join them.217 In the late autumn, after the defeat of Pompey, Cicero in desperation returned unaccompanied to Brundisium, to cast himself on Caesar's mercy. Atticus seems to have been startled by this bold move, but took up Cicero's cause with the Caesarians in the city,218 at the same time cultivating favorable sentiment among the optimates.219 He was really powerless to advance Cicero's reconciliation with Caesar. Nepos says that Caesar was so grateful to Atticus for his passivity during the civil war that he spared him the requisitionary letters which he sent to other rich men, and because of Atticus' intercession gave their freedom to Quintus and his son.220 The evidence of the letters,
213 X. 15 3.
21*X. I2a, 2; 14, 3; 15, 2; 16, 4.
2« Cf. IX. 7, 75 12, i; X. 5, 3; 17,4.
216 x. 3a, i.
217 Cf. XI. 6, 2 and 6.
218 XI. 6, 3 ; 7, i ; 8, i and 2 ; 14, 2 ; i;a, 2 ; 18, 2. 2*» XI. 6, 2.
220 Ait. 7, 3.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 89
however, shows that Atticus did not feel free to ask favors directly from Caesar.221 His policy was now one of concilia- tion; he no longer counselled independence, but talked of the necessity of adapting countenance and speech to changed cir- cumstances and reminded Cicero of the passive acquiescence that had been necessary to secure one's life in the days of Sulla.222
On his return to Italy in September, Caesar welcomed the advances of Cicero, who at once journeyed toward Rome.223
4&-4S-
The letters of 46 and 45 show that Atticus lived on cordial terms with the victorious Caesarians without becoming a par- tisan of Caesar.224 The fact is that the world was Caesarian. With Brutus holding a military and Varro a literary commis- sion under Caesar, Atticus would have been hard put to it to form a circle of steadfast Pompeians from among his old friends.
While it is still apparent that he could not make the claims of a party man on Caesar's favor,225 the urgency of his interest in the threatened confiscation of land from Buthrotum prompted him to prepare a petition which Cicero presented to Caesar. This was cordially received ; a requisition was substi- tuted for the confiscation. Atticus advanced to the Buthro- tians the money that they needed to meet this requisition.228 When he discovered that colonists were nevertheless gathering for Buthrotian lands, he expressed his anxiety to Caesar, and received reassurance that after the colonists were out of Italy they would be directed to another spot for settlement.227
221x1. 12, 4; 18, 2; 25, i.
222 XI. 16, i ; 24, 5 ; 21, 3.
223 Cf. Phil. II. 5-
22* XII. 2, 2; 4, 2; XIII. 7; 14, 4; 19, 2; 47», i.
225 XIII. 20, i; 21, i; 45, 2.
226 XII. 6, 4 ; XVI. i6a, 4 and 5 ; the loan was probably an act of com- passion on the part of Atticus, as Cicero represents it.
22* XVI. i6a, 5.
90 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
His attitude on various questions with a political bearing shows that he no longer concerned himself anxiously about opinion among the Pompeians, but was on his guard, though not to the point of subserviency, against the disapproval of the Caesarians.228
Atticus was not willing to have Cicero retire from public life. Scarcely a month after the death of Tullia, he began try- ing to arouse him from the despair into which his loss plunged him, urging upon him statesmanship as his fyyrjprjiM, the em- ployment of his old age, and warning him that his political leadership might suffer through excessive indulgence in grief.229
Failing to persuade his friend to return to the Forum, At- ticus suggested that he should write political articles, advising first a letter of counsel to Caesar, such as Aristotle and Theo- pompus had written to Alexander, and acquiescing, apparently, when that plan failed,230 in the substitution of a literary essay, the letter on Caesar's Anti-Cato.231 He next helped Cicero to plan a political treatise in dialogue form, but this project also was abandoned.232 Considering, besides these abortive at- tempts, the works actually produced in 46, the Brutus and the Cato, with their fearless expression of republican sentiment,233 one may feel that Atticus' ideal for Cicero's writing is well ex- pressed in Cicero's words to Varro, written in the spring of the same year, " Let us be ready, in case we are summoned, to work, whether as architects or merely as masons, on the struc-
228 XII. 7, i ; 45, 2; XIII. 10, 2; 39, 2; 42, i. In deciding how to treat Dolabella and the younger Quintus it was necessary to consider the political situation.
228 XII. 14, 3; 20, i ; 21, 5; 383, i; 40, 2; see Tyrrell, ad loc., with comparison of XII. 29, 2, and Plut. Cato, 24.
230 XII. 40, 2 ; XIII. 26, 2; 27, i ; 28, 2 and 3.
231XIII.47; 50, i; cf. 19,2.
232 XIII. 30, 2; 32, 3; 33, 3; 6a; for the significance of this projected work and for bibliography on it, see Miinzer, Hermes, 1914, pp. 204-210.
233 cf. Tyrrell's citations and his discussion on Schmidt's theory (Prog, on M. Brutus, p. 172), also Brut. 4-6, 21, 157, 248, 250 f., 266, 280, 324, 328 ff. Cf. also Cicero's defense of himself against the impli- cation of subserviency in his letter to Caesar (XIII. 51, i).
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 91
ture of the state; but if there is no call for our services, let us write or read on political subjects, and in literary works, if not in the senate house and in the Forum, let us, like the most learned ancients, guide the state and be its pathfinders in ques- tions of morals and law."23*
We have unfortunately no record of Atticus' opinions for the period when Cicero's faith in Caesar was at its highest, the autumn of 46. From the letters of 45, it appears that Cicero was more restive than Atticus under the limitations imposed on free speech and free political action;235 but Atticus was subject to alarm, filled with distrust.236 The two friends, however, discussed without bitterness Cicero's plan for meeting Caesar on his return from Spain ; they had settled down to limited expectations.237
44-
The next letters to Atticus follow the assassination of Caesar. Whatever may have been the first reaction of Atticus to the shock of that event, he joined the group of those who openly rejoiced in it,238 and was apparently present at the early con- ferences at which further plans for the tyrannicides were dis- cussed. He favored a bold stand, and exclaimed that if a pub- lic funeral was accorded to Caesar, the cause was lost.239 Later on, in his discontent with the precarious amnesty under which the tyrannicides were living in uneasy passivity, he found fault with the first action of the senate,240 the compro- mise by which, on March 7, amnesty was granted to the tyran- nicides and the acta of Caesar were declared valid. When Cicero, by pushing responsibility farther back, forced him to
234 Ad Fam. IX. 2, 5.
235 XII. 21, 5 ; 23, i ; 25, 2 ; XIII. 27, i ; 28, 2 ; 31, 3 ; 49, 2.
236 XIII. 44, i ; 10, i.
237 XIII. 50, 4; their hopes might be expressed in Cicero's summing up of Caesar's visit, Zvovdaiov ovdiv, in sermone, 01X6X070 tnulta (XIII. 52, 2).
238 XIV. 22, 2 ; so 13, 2. 23» XIV. 10, I ; 14, 3. 2*° XIV. 10, i.
92 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
a defense of the Bruti and Cassius, Atticus insisted, evidently, that the friends of the conspirators should either have absented themselves on that day or have spoken freely. Cicero re- minded him that the senate had been beset by Caesar's vet- erans.241 After it became evident that no positive action or leadership was to be expected from Brutus, he watched the course of events, looking for signs of public or official favor or hostility toward the " heroes."242 Before the end of April, he adopted Cicero's formula of resignation, " We must be con- tent with the great deed itself."248
Yet he did not give himself up to inaction. After. Brutus, in mid- April, went into semi-retirement at Lanuvium, Atticus ran down often from the city to confer with him and Cassius on the next steps to be taken.244 He realized that the safety of Brutus depended on the tolerance of Antony.245 Perceiving that Antony was really hostile, he was glad to see him opposed by any one in a less precarious position than Brutus.248 Whether it was action or caution that he recommended to Brutus at this time, he did what lay in his power to rally a party around him.
His first effort was of course to bring about a close com- bination between Brutus and Cicero. When Brutus and Cas- sius were preparing the edict which they were to put forth, in accordance with their agreement with Antony, to disperse the groups of partisans gathered in the towns for their support, Atticus tried to bring Cicero into cooperation by getting him to prepare a draft for the edict247 and to outline a policy to be
241 XIV. 14, 2.
242 XIV. i, 152, i;3, 2; 5, i;6, i. 2«XIV. 14,3.
244 XIV. 20, i ; 21,1 ; 22, 2; XV. 4, 2; 9, 2; 20, 2; for Atticus' coopera- tion with Brutus at a still earlier time, see XIV. 8, 2. 2« XIV. 6, i ; 7, 1 5 8, i ; 10, i ; 14, 7 ; XV. 9, i.
246 XIV. 15, i and 2; cf. Phil. I. 5 and 30; XIV. 16, 2; 19, i ; 20, 4; Ad Fam. XII. i.
247 XIV. 20, I and 3; Brutus followed his own plan rather than Cicero's, but as Atticus wrote from Lanuvium it is likely that he passed upon the edict before it was issued.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 93
followed after the publication.248 About a week later, writing that the courteous tone of the edicts gave him confidence and hope,249 he sent a request from Brutus that Cicero meet and advise him before June i,250 the day appointed for the meeting of the senate. He tried to persuade Cicero to further the cause by political writing, advising first a history of the times, ex- posing to posterity the ruthless masters of the state,251 next the embodiment of the same material in a book of anecdotes,252 next a contio for the use of Brutus, and, when Cicero pointed out the thanklessness of that task,253 an ideal oration purport- ing to be spoken by Brutus after the assassination of Caesar.254 Upon Cicero's protest that such an oration would be a reflec- tion on the speech that Brutus had actually delivered and had afterwards circulated, Atticus only pressed his request for a piece of writing more strongly, varying the terms ; " something in the manner of Heracleides," he urged.255 Cicero promised to consider such a pamphlet, but asked leave to wait until he was less out of humor with the political situation.256 Atticus must have accepted the postponement with regret, since it was just because the times were "out of joint" that he wanted Cicero to write. At parting from Atticus in July, Cicero prom- ised to begin work on the pamphlet on reaching Brundisium.257 Besides, Atticus kept in touch with his old friends among the Caesarians,258 and doubtless seconded, if he did not sug- gest, the efforts of Brutus and Cassius to form a party among them.259 He seems finally to have assented, however, to the
2« XIV. 20, 4-
249 XV. i, 3; the plural shows that Antony had replied.
250 XV. I, 5.
251 XIV. 14, 5-
252 XIV. 17, 6.
253 XIV. 20, 3 ; XV. 2, 2. 2" XV. 3,2; cf. la, 2. 265 XV. 4, 3.
256 XV. 4, 3.
257 XV. 27, 2.
"8 XVI. 2, 5 ; 3, 5 ; Ad Fam. XI. 29.
25» XIV. 20, 4; XV. 5, i; 6, i; for Atticus advising Cassius, see XIV. 19, I.
94 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
judgment that Cicero passed upon them, specifically upon Hir- tius and Balbus, "They are afraid of peace" — a phrase aptly conveying the essential instability of a state in which large property holdings res-ted on confiscation.260
During the latter part of April and the whole of May, such reports of Antony's plans261 were current that toward the end of May Atticus confessed that he could not advise the tyran- nicides,202 and Cicero, when appealed to, wrote that he also was devoid of counsel.263 The pacific protest of Brutus and Cas- siusi284 brought them no reassurance from Antony, and they did not venture to appear in Rome. After the ineffectual meet- ing of the senate on June i and the pushing through of An- tony's designs on Gaul in the assembly on June 2, when it began to be reported that the provinces of Brutus and Cassius would be discussed in the senate on June 5, Atticus was sum- moned to a special conference at Lanuvium, but was unable to go.263 He was not present at the conference of the same sort that Cicero attended at Antium on June 8, where the question was discussed whether Brutus and Cassius should allow them- selves to be removed from Italy as commissioners of grain.266
One result of these conferences was that Brutus decided to celebrate his praetorial games, in order to keep his cause before the public. As his friends thought it too imprudent for him to appear in Rome, the preparations and the actual production had to be administered by others, and for these Atticus was largely responsible. He spared no labor, as Brutus spared no expense, in his efforts to interest and please the spectators. He watched the production and its effect, and sent accounts to Cicero at Puteoli and to Brutus, who was tarrying in the island
260 XIV. 6, i ; 10, 2 ; 21, 2 and 4 ; XV. 2, 3 ; 22.
261 XIV. 14, 4; 21, 2; 22, 2; XV. 4, I-
262 XV. 4, 2.
263 XV. 5, i. ™*AdFam. XI. 2. 2«sXV. 9, 2 ;io, i.
266 XV. 9, i; n, i; Atticus and Cicero were at Lanuvium together at least once during this period (XV. 20, 2).
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 95
of ISiesis hoping that the games would produce some mani- festation in his favor.267
In the meantime, the position of Atticus was complicated by the recurrence of the Buthrotian trouble. Caesar's death had left uncompleted the plan to deflect the colonists to another place of settlement, and the matter had to be taken up afresh with those in control of affairs. The case was clear and well attested and its equity was evident,268 but there was reason to fear that much depended on the caprice of the consuls. At- ticus' fortune, as well as his reputation for influence in the politico-financial world, was at stake,269 and he consequently feared to antagonize Antony. It was probably on account of Buthrotum that Cicero, who answered Atticus' earnest appeals by protesting an equal interest in the cause,270 in late April gave a favorable reply to Antony's request about the return of Sex- tus Clodius, deeply as he disapproved of Antony's action.271 Atticus hoped for action in the senate on June i, and urged Cicero to attend even after Cicero pointed out the impossibility of accomplishing anything in the senate when Antony was steadily gathering troops.272 Atticus evidently gave up the hope of senatorial action during the last days of May, for Cicero in those days decided against going to Rome, though he held himself in readiness, until the last moment, to start at a summons from Atticus.273 After the execution of Caesar's acta was put into the hands of the consuls by the plebescite of June 2,27* Atticus submitted to them the case of Buthrotum; they gave a favorable answer at once.275
26TXV. 10, i; ii, 2; cf. 12, i; 18, 2; 21, 2; 24; 28; XVI. i, i ; 2, 3; 5, 3; Phil. I. 36.
268 XIV. 12, I.
2«» Cf . XVI. i6A, 7.
270 XIV. 10,3; XV. 2, i;4, 3-
2" XIV. 13, 6; XV. i, 2.
272 XIV. 14, 6; 17, 2; 19, 4; 20, 2; XV. i, 2; 2, 2; 4, i and 3.
2" XV. 8, i.
274 XVI. i6C, ii.
275 See XV. 12, i, written on June 9 or 10; in his first letter to Plancus (XVI. i6A, 6), Cicero says that the case was submitted to the consuls and favorably passed on by them after they had been entrusted
96 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
By the middle of June, however, when Atticus was already burdened with the preparation for Brutus' games, he found that Lucius Antony was obstructing the settlement of the Buthrotian affair, and, later, that the case had to be referred to a decemvirate of land commissioners ;276 he confessed that he was in despair. He and Cicero brought every possible influ- ence to bear upon the consuls, and Cicero wrote repeatedly to Plancus, the leader of the colonists, to members of Plancus' suite, and to Oppius.277 About the end of the first week in July, Atticus was able to report that the matter was settled.278 A week or two later, he met Antony at Tibur, and pocketing all the grievances that he cherished on behalf of his friends, thanked him warmly for his assistance in the affair of Buthro- tum. He wrote apologetically of this dissimulation to Cicero, who answered with unqualified approval: "As you say, our fortunes will be with us when the constitution has fallen to pieces."279
Atticus now planned a trip to Epirus,280 and Cicero and Brutus were both considering retiring to Greece. Cicero sub- mitted1 to Atticus the question whether it was honorable, pos- sible and expedient for him to leave the country, declaring his willingness to stay until he had done all in his power for Brutus.281 It was agreed between them that Cicero might well go, with the proviso that he should return by January i, when Antony's consulate would be ended and there might be hope for constitutional government.282 He left during the last week in July.283
with the execution of the acta by a senatus consultum, i.e., after March 17; the evidence of the letters shows that the statement to Capito is more accurate.
«« XV. 15, i ; 19, i.
277 XV. 17, i ; 19, i ; 14, 2; 27, 2; XVI. 2, 5; 16, A-F.
"8 XVI. 2, i and 5.
27» XVI. 3, i.
28o XV. 27, 2; XVI. 2, 6.
282 XVI. i, 352, 4 and 6; 6, 2. 283XV. 27, 2;XVI. 6.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 97
As it turned out, neither Brutus nor Atticus left Italy at that time. When Cicero, thrown back upon Italy by contrary winds, came into contact with Roman affairs again, he found that the position of the tyrannicides wore a more positive and promis- ing aspect.284 It was a most unwelcome surprise to him to find Atticus criticising his absence from the country, saying that Cato would hardly have approved it. He answered that At- ticus would have served as his Cato, then as always, if he had only expressed such opinions earlier.285 Evidently either Cicero had) misinterpreted Atticus' letters informing him of public sentiment in favor of his going, not sufficiently weigh- ing, in his eagerness, the persistence of certain reservations that Atticus had expressed at the first, or Atticus had been in- fluenced, during Cicero's absence, by sentiment in the circle of Brutus' friends — where there seems indeed to have been a new activity — and had really changed his mind about Cicero's right to be absent.
When Cicero returned he declared against assuming political leadership, as Brutus wanted him to do.286 Two months later he opened a letter by concurring with Atticus' decision, " Our role is not to lead a party or even to form one, but to co- operate where we can." The same letter committed the sec- ond Philippic to the care of Atticus, leaving with him the de- cision as to when it should be published. Atticus was still postponing a break with Antony. He even talked of an under- standing between him and Cicero, but Cicero felt that silence, i. e., the temporary suppression of the second Philippic, was a more feasible policy. Both felt that they would gain by wait- ing until Antony was no longer consul, and that in the mean- time events might favor them. The progress of Sextus Pom- pey in Spain still gave foundation for hope, but Antony was
zs* XVI. 7, i and 7; Ad Fom. XI. 3; Phil. I. 10.
zss XVI. 7, 2-5. In view of this letter, one must take the magna po-irfi of XVI. 5, 4, as simply the facts given in Atticus' letter, showing the dangers gathering in Italy.
28«XVI. 7, 7: cf.Phil.V.20.
98 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
landing legions from the East ; it was no moment to defy him. Cicero felt a strong impetus to write the Heracleidean pam- phlet, and asked Atticus, who still desired it eagerly, to decide on its nature and plan.281
One reason, doubtless, why Atticus held back from action was that he questioned the wisdom of using the one instru- ment against Antony that was at hand, Octavian. In spite of the conspicuous deference which that youth had shown to Cicero from the time of his arrival in Italy in April,288 Atticus remained sceptical. He had disliked Octavian's first contio, delivered in May, had disapproved of his games in honor of the victory of Pharsalia,289 and had been pleased when his efforts to display insignia of Caesar were thwarted and con- demned.290 Cicero at first suspended judgment,291 but by No- vember Octavian's assiduity in consulting him forced him into a reluctant sponsorship for the young man's advance to Rome with his soldiers.292 He realized that the absence of Brutus left the opponents of Antony dependent on Octavian for de- fense.293 Atticus still resisted this conviction.294 Though Octavian showed an admirable intention to defer to the sen- ate295 and constantly urged the leadership of his party on Cicero,296 Atticus, even while recognizing that the battle was on between Octavian and Antony and that the issue pressed for a decision,297 warned Cicero that Octavian's accession to power would mean an even more unassailable ratification of Caesar's acta than Antony had achieved, and that the result
28? XV. 13.
288 XIV. II, 2J 12,2.
289 XV. 2, 3.
290 XV. 3, 2.
291 XV. 12,2; XVI. 8, i;9.
292 XVI. 8, 2 ; cf . 9, consilio tuo. 203 XVI. 8, i and 2.
294 Cicero was probably influenced by Atticus in his desire not to commit himself to Octavian's cause without good backing. Cf. XVI. 9, Nil sine Pansa tuo volo.
295 XVI. 9J ",6.
29«XVI. 9: n,6.
297 Cf. XVI. 133,2; 14, i.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 99
would be pernicious for Brutus.298 A contio in which Octa- vian praised Caesar added to his distrust.299 He besought Cicero to move slowly, cautiously,300 reminding him that the overthrow of Antony would not in itself guarantee a free state, and calling his attention to the fact that Casca's candidacy for the tribunate, on which Octavian would have to take a stand by December 13, offered them an adequate test of his real in- tentions with regard to the tyrannicides.301
When Cicero submitted to Atticus the question of his com- ing to Rome before January i, alleging again and again his fear that some valiant stroke would be struck while he was ingloriously absent,302 Atticus first deflected him from his in- tention of reaching Rome on November I5,303 sending him down to Arpinum instead,304 and in early December was still holding him there300 until the issue of events should be more clear. It seems, however, that he had outlined a policy which was merely postponed until the time should be ripe, a policy in which Cicero promised to follow his lead, depending upon his assistance.806
Curiously enough, Cicero closed the last letter to Atticus with a despairing abnegation of all patriotic interests, and a declaration that his only concern was for his threatened finan- cial reputation.307 This letter, dated early in December, was followed by his return to Rome and by that struggle against Antony in which he proved his patriotism by the activities of
298 XVI. 14, I.
299 XVI. 15, 3-
»°o XVI. 14, 2.
aoi XVI. 15, 3 ; Cicero had already, in conversation with Oppius, post- poned a decision until this test should be applied (XVI. 15, 3). If Ad Brut. I. 16 and 17 be counted as genuine, and if in 17, 6, Octavius be read for Antonius, there is evidence that by May of 43 Atticus was willing to vouch for the sincerity of Octavian's professions.
3<>2 XVI. 12; 10 ; I3b, i.
303 XVI. 13, 2.
*o« XVI. 13, 2.
aos XVI. 15, 6.
306 XVI. 13, i.
3<>* XVI. 15, 4-6-
100 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
his last days. The return to Rome, which took place on De- cember 9,308 was necessitated by business difficulties,30* but it is likely that Atticus gave the signal for the opening of the struggle. Antony had left Rome on November 28, and news must soon have reached the capital of his failure to regain con- trol of his mutinous troops. The publication of the second Philippic was Cicero's declaration of war.310
On the later years of Atticus information is very slight. Nepos says that he never financed a political movement, and that even when the friends of Brutus proposed raising a fund to support the cause of the tyrannicides, Atticus refused to co- operate.311 No conclusion can be drawn from this instance, as we do not know who were the proposers nor what was Atticus' estimate of their ability to handle money, yet it is probable that the determination not to stake his fortune on a political hazard was a part of the program of neutrality that Atticus had adopted for his personal course early in life, and that nothing but a combination of belief in a party and confidence in its management such as was vouchsafed to him only once would have tempted him to depart from his rule.
Another principle that Atticus adopted early and adhered to tenaciously was that of political amnesty. Even after the death of Cicero and Brutus, Atticus lived on good terms with the victors.312 If this was due partly to regard for his own safety, it was doubtless partly determined by the conviction, formed in his earliest experience in Rome and strengthened by his ob- servation in Greece, that a state which suffered the perpetua-
308 Ad. Fam. XI. 5, I.
309 XVI. 15, 5 and 6.
310 Our only information on Atticus' position during the rest of Cicero's life is the evidence of Ad Brut. 16 and 17. If these are genuine, At- ticus was still trying to promote harmony between his friends and urging on Brutus the support that he owed to Cicero.
811 Att. 8, 3. It was Flavius who asked Atticus to head the movement.
312 At least eventually ; Nep.^tt. 19; the betrothal of Caecilia through Antony's mediation probably took place in 36. It may have been An- tony's expression of gratitude for Atticus' kindness to Fulvia. Dru- mann, V. 89. Groebe conjectures 37 as the date of the betrothal. It must have come before the final break between Antony and Octavius.
ATTICUS IN POLITICS. 101
tion of political grievances was neither fit to live in nor des- tined to survive.
His quiescence was not servile. He always maintained his privilege of serving the vanquished. Nepos gives a long list of victims of party defeat whom Atticus assisted with money — the younger Marius in his flight from Rome,313 Cicero at the time of his exile,314 Brutus on his withdrawal from Italy,315 various Antonians, among them Fulvia, after the battle of Mutina,316 the expatriated republicans after Philippi.317 It satisfied not only his generosity but also his fastidious sense of honor to prove the disinterestedness of his friendship by serv- ing those whom it was unprofitable and perhaps dangerous to serve.318
Atticus' counsel, like his money, served best in hours of de- feat. Cicero felt that he could rely on the shrewdness of At- ticus to measure the difficulties of a situation and to decide whether it called for action or submission. He trusted Atticus' insight in regard to character and motive. In a great measure this confidence was justified, yet the judgment of Atticus was by no means unerring. He was sometimes influenced by sen- timent, though less so than Cicero. In the case of Caesar, his estimate seems to have been too much determined by old dis- trust, second-hand impressions, rumors, too little by an open minded observation of the man's development. While he ad- mired bold initiative action, his temperamental caution kept him from recommending it ; even at times when he longed to see it tried, he could not make large or effective plans for it.
The greatest value of his counsel lay in its constant moral stimulus. If he could not advise great action, he could advise great renunciations. Whether he could have steeled himself to recommending martyrdom if he had thought cause and oc-
313 Alt. 2, 2. 3" Ibid. 4, 4- »« ibid. 8, 6.
. , .
316 Ibid. 9, 3 and 4.
317 Ibid, ii, I ; cf. 12, 3 and 5.
318 -
, , 318 Ibid. 2, 3-5.
102 TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.
casion worthy it is not possible to say; he certainly did not want Cicero to suffer martyrdom for the sake of Pompey, nor Brutus at the hands of Antony. But there was in him strength to advise Cicero to put aside proffered advancement for the sake of principle, to insist on work in smaller spheres when he had thus closed to himself the great avenues to prosperity and honors, and through years of such work to supply him with patience, courage and a sense of accomplishment.
VITA.
I was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1876. My father was John Hill Byrne, my mother Mary Reinhold Byrne. I received my early education in the public schools of Lancaster and the Millersville State Normal School, from which I was graduated in 1894.
In the summer of 1904 I took courses in Latin and Greek at Cornell University under Professor Bennett, Mr. Durham and Professor Bristol. In November, 1906, I received permission through a special ruling of the Council of Wellesley College to pass off courses by examination. After completing three years of work by the presentation of papers and by examina- tion, I entered the college as a resident student in September, 1907, and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1908.
I taught various subjects, principally Greek and Latin, in the Union High School, Coleraine, Pennsylvania, 1894-1896, 1899- 1900, in Mrs. Blackwood's School, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1896-1899, 1900-1901, in Miss Stahr's School, afterwards the Shippen School, Lancaster, 1901-1909, in Miss Hills' School, Philadelphia, 1909-1911, and in the Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1911-1917. In the year 1917-1918 I have been Associate Professor of Latin and Greek in trie West- ern College for Women, Oxford, Ohio.
During the years 1909-1916, I studied at Bryn Mawr Col- lege, taking graduate courses in Latin under Dr. Wheeler and Dr. Frank, in Greek under Dr. Sanders and Dr. Wright. To all these professors I wish to express my indebtedness. The work on my dissertation has been done under the direction of Dr. Frank, to whom especially I owe gratitude for stimulus and counsel.
I took the preliminary examinations required of candidates for a doctorate of philosophy in December, 1915 and January, 1916, the final examination in June, 1918.
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