Atticus

Atticus, TITUS POMPONIUS, was born in Rome 109 B.C., or three years before the birth of Cicero, along with whom and the younger Marius he received a good education. In 85 B.C. he withdrew to Athens, glad to be separated from the political distractions of his native land. After 65 B.C., when Sulla induced him to return to Rome, he still devoted himself chiefly to study and the pleasures of friendship, and refused to take any part in politics. Yet he was by no means without influence on public affairs, as he lived on terms of familiar intercourse with several leading statesmen, and freely gave his counsel, which was generally sound and wholesome, while it was always benevolent. He was a man of great wealth, having been left a large inheritance by his father and his uncle, which he greatly increased by judicious speculations. His mode of life was frugal. In 32 B.C. he was informed that a disorder under which he was labouring was mortal, and died after five days of voluntary starvation. An Epicurean in philosophy, he was intimately acquainted with both Greek and Roman literature, and his taste was so good that Cicero used to send him his works for the benefit of his revision. None of his own writings have been preserved, but we have a series of 396 epistles addressed to him by Cicero, ranging from the years 68 to 44 B.C. His life by Cornelius Nepos is unfortunately a panegyric rather than a biography.