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 occasion to say something about Cicero’s property, a matter which is, in its way, a rather perplexing question.  In the case of a famous advocate among ourselves there would be no difficulty in understanding that he should have acquired a great fortune.  But the Roman law strictly forbade an advocate to receive any payment from his clients.  The practice of old times, when the great noble pleaded for the life or property of his humbler defendants, and was repaid by their attachment and support, still existed in theory.  It exists indeed to this day, and accounts for the fact that a barrister among ourselves has no legal means of recovering his fees.  But a practice of paying counsel had begun to grow up.  Some of Cicero’s contemporaries certainly received a large remuneration for their services.  Cicero himself always claims to have kept his hands clean in this respect, and as his enemies never brought any charge of this kind against him, his statement may very well be accepted.  We have, then, to look for other sources of income.  His patrimony was considerable.  It included, as we have seen, an estate at Arpinum and a house in Rome.  And