[Footnote 3:  See Class.  Phil. 1920, p. 113.]

The list of influential Romans who joined the sect during this period is remarkable, though of course we have in our incidental references but a small part of the whole number.  Here belonged Caesar, his father-in-law Piso, who was Philodemus’ patron, Manlius Torquatus, the consulars Hirtius, Pansa, and Dolabella, Cassius the liberator, Trebatius the jurist, Atticus, Cicero’s life-long friend, Cicero’s amusing correspondents Paetus and Callus, and many others.  To some of these the attraction lay perhaps in the philosophy of ease which excused them from dangerous political labors for the enjoyment of their villas on the Bay of Naples.  But to most Romans the greatest attraction of the doctrine lay in its presentation of a tangible explanation of the universe, weary as they were of a childish faith and too practical-minded to have patience with metaphysical theories now long questioned and incomprehensible except through a tedious application of dubious logic.

Vergil’s companions in the Cecropius hortulus, destined to be his life-long friends, were, according to Probus, Quintilius Varus, the famous critic, Varius Rufus, the writer of epics and tragedies, and Plotius Tucca.  Of his early friendship with Varius he has left a remembrance in Catalepton I and VII, with Varus in Eclogue VI.  Horace combined all these names more than once in his verses.[4] That the four friends continued in intimate relationship with Philodemus, appears from fragments of the rolls.[5]

[Footnote 4:  Cf.  Hor. Sat. i. 5.55; i. 10. 44-45 and 81; Carm. i. 24.]

[Footnote 5:  Rhein.  Mus., 1890, p. 172.  The names of Quintilius and Varius occur twice; the rest are too fragmentary to be certain, but the space calls for names of the length of [Greek:  Plo]tie] and [Greek:  Ou[ergilie] and the constant companionship of these four men makes the restoration very probable.]

Of the general question of Philodemus’ influence upon Varius and Vergil, Varus and Horace, the critics and poets who shaped the ideals of the Augustan literature, it is not yet time to speak.  It will be difficult ever to decide how far these men drew their materials from the memories of their lecture-rooms; whether for instance Varius’ de morte depended upon his teacher’s [Greek:  peri thanatou], as has been suggested, or to what extent Horace used the [Greek:  peri orgaes] and the [Greek:  peri kakion] when he wrote his first two epistles, or the [Greek:  peiri kolakeias] when he instructed his young friend Lollius how to conduct himself at court, or whether it was this teacher who first called attention to Bion, Neoptolemus, and Menippus; nor does it matter greatly, since the value of these works lay rather in the art of expression and timeliness of their doctrine than in originality of view.