the very meanest, were well educated, and he
employed them to make copies.

Atticus married somewhat late in life. His only daughter was the first
wife of Agrippa, the minister of Augustus, and his grand-daughter was
married to Tiberius. Both of these ladies were divorced to make room for
a consort of higher rank, who, curiously enough, was in both cases
Julia, the infamous daughter of Augustus. Both, we may well believe,
were regretted by their husbands.

Atticus died at the age of seventy-seven. He was afflicted with a
disease which he believed to be incurable, and shortened his days by
voluntary starvation.

It was to this correspondent, then, that Cicero confided for about a
quarter of a century his cares and his wants. The two had been
schoolfellows, and had probably renewed their acquaintance when Cicero
visited Greece in search of health. Afterwards there came to be a family
connection between them, Atticus' sister, Pomponia, marrying Cicero's
younger brother, Quintus, not much, we gather from the letters, to the
happiness of either of them. Cicero could not have had a better
confidant. He was full of sympathy, and ready with his help; and he was
at the same time sagacious and prudent in no common degree, an excellent
man of business, and, thanks to the admirable coolness which enabled him
to stand outside the turmoil of politics, an equally excellent adviser
in politics.

One frequent subject of Cicero's letters to his friend is money. I may
perhaps express the relation between the two by saying that Atticus was
Cicero's banker, though the phrase must not be taken too literally. He
did not habitually receive and pay money on Cicero's account, but he did
so on occasions; and he was constantly in the habit of making advances,
though probably without interest, when temporary embarrassments, not
infrequent, as we may gather from the letters, called for them. Atticus
was himself a wealthy man. Like his contemporaries generally, he made an
income by money-lending, and possibly, for the point is not quite clear,
by letting out gladiators for hire. His biographer happens to give us
the precise figure of his property. His words do not indeed expressly
state whether the sum that he mentions means capital or income. I am
inclined to think that it is the latter. If this be so, he had in early
life an income of something less than eighteen thousand pounds, and
afterwards nearly ninety thousand pounds.

I may take this