shortly and neatly to turn the laugh against your antagonist, and so give some repose to the minds of the jurors and lead them away a little from sternness to a smile; to be able to take a wider sweep and transfer the argument from the particular man and the particular time to the consideration of the universal principle involved; to know how to give pleasure by a slight digression; to be able to stir the soul of the juryman to anger or to move him to tears, to carry him with you, this is the special prerogative of the orator, in whatever direction the case demands."
With the year 68 B.C. begins the great series of Cicero's letters; but they are at first brief and scanty; it is not until after his consulship that they become our main guide and authority for the history. This will be a good opportunity to speak of Cicero's chief friend and correspondent, Titus Pomponius Atticus.
The family of Atticus had held its place for generations in the equestrian order, but unlike that of Cicero it belonged from the first to the purely Roman stock.[1] He was closely connected with the tribune Sulpicius Rufus, who became the victim of Sulla in his first attack on Rome in the year 88. The young Pomponius is said to have been in some danger on this occasion, but this did not deter him from aiding the flight and supplying the needs of the younger Marius, who was proscribed at the same time by Sulla. Sick of the civic bloodshed, which
- ↑ These and the following details are derived from the Life of Atticus by his contemporary and friend Cornelius Nepos.
