We have seen that when Cicero found it too late to withdraw the first edition of the Academica from circulation, he affixed a prooemium to each book, Catulus being lauded in the first, Lucullus in the second.  From the passages above quoted, and from our knowledge of Cicero’s habit in such matters, we can have no difficulty in conjecturing at least a portion of the contents of the lost prooemium to the Catulus.  The achievements of the elder Catulus were probably extolled, as well as those of his son.  The philosophical knowledge of the elder man was made to cast its lustre on the younger.  Cicero’s glorious consulship was once more lauded, and great stress was laid upon the patronage it received from so famous a man as the younger Catulus, whose praises were sung in the fervid language which Cicero lavishes on the same theme elsewhere.  Some allusion most likely was made to the connection of Archias with the Catuli, and to the poem he had written in Cicero’s honour.  Then the occasion of the dialogue, its supposed date, and the place where it was held, were indicated.  The place was the Cuman villa of Catulus[226].  The feigned date must fall between the year 60 B.C. in which Catulus died, and 63, the year of Cicero’s consulship, which is alluded to in the Lucullus[227].  It is well known that in the arrangement of his dialogues Cicero took every precaution against anachronisms.

The prooemium ended, the dialogue commenced.  Allusion was undoubtedly made to the Hortensius, in which the same speakers had been engaged; and after more compliments had been bandied about, most of which would fall to Cicero’s share, a proposal was made to discuss the great difference between the dogmatic and sceptic schools.  Catulus offered to give his father’s views, at the same time commending his father’s knowledge of philosophy.  Before we proceed to construct in outline the speech of Catulus from indications offered by the Lucullus, it is necessary to speak of the character and philosophical opinions of Catulus the elder.

In the many passages where Cicero speaks of him, he seldom omits to mention his sapientia, which implies a certain knowledge of philosophy.  He was, says Cicero, the kindest, the most upright, the wisest, the holiest of men[228].  He was a man of universal merit, of surpassing worth, a second Laelius[229].  It is easy to gather from the De Oratore, in which he appears as an interlocutor, a more detailed view of his accomplishments.  Throughout the second and third books he is treated as the lettered man, par excellence, of the company[230].  Appeal is made to him when any question is started which touches on Greek literature and philosophy.  We are especially told that even with Greeks his acquaintance with Greek, and his style of speaking it, won admiration[231].  He defends the Greeks from the attacks of Crassus[232].  He contemptuously contrasts the Latin historians with