his own family. On this foundation, as has been well
said,[771] a superstructure of intellectual culture might be built
securely without destroying it, and this was exactly what did take
place, both for Scipio and for that circle of friends of his which has
become so famous in Roman history. In very early life he became the
intimate friend of Polybius, whose account of their first unreserved
intercourse is one of the most delightful passages in all ancient
literature;[772] and from Polybius he doubtless learnt to think. He must
have learnt to understand the real nature of the Roman empire, to
appreciate the forces which had called it into being,[773] the qualities
which had preserved it through the fearful struggle with Hannibal, and
the duty of a noble Roman in regard to it. From Polybius, indeed, it is
not likely that he gained much light on matters either of religion or
morality; but that statesman and historian must inevitably have
accustomed him, in the course of their long intercourse, to think more
deeply than Roman had ever yet thought, about the world in which he
lived and was to act for many years the leading part. Thus he was well
prepared for the friendship of a more spiritual guide.

Panaetius, who was probably about the same age as Scipio, had the
advantage, as a visitor at Rome, of being a Rhodian, _i.e._ a citizen of
the one Greek State which had been almost continuously on good terms
with Rome, and of great value to her. He was also a scion of an old and
honoured family in that city, and was thus in every way a fit friend and
companion for a great Roman noble. When their friendship began we do not
know for certain; but it is a fact that he lived for some two years,
together with Polybius, in the house of Scipio, and these years were
probably between 144 and 141 B.C., after Scipio's return from the
conquest of Carthage.[774] When Scipio in 141 was commissioned by the
Senate to go and set things in order in the eastern Mediterranean, he
took Panaetius with him,[775] and brought him home to live with him
again as a guest, perhaps until he left for the Numantine war in 134,
after which it is not likely that they met again before Scipio's sudden
death in 129. I am particular about the extent of their intimacy,
because I wish to make it clear that this was no ordinary or fleeting
friendship between a commonplace Greek philosopher and an average Roman
statesman. Both statesman and philosopher were far above th