the pontifex Scaevola who commended the verses (Legg. 1, 1, 2) is not
quite certain: on general chronological probability it might have been
the pontifex, but a daughter of the augur was married to the younger
Marius (Plut. Mar. 35).

Some time ¹ in 86 probably, it was, that Cicero's bosom friend
T. Pomponius left Rome and went to Athens, removing from the
seething vortex on the Tiber not only his person but also his
fortune. Sulla took Athens by storm on March 1; it must
have been some time after this date that Pomponius established
himself by Parthenon and Lykabettos. Though but twenty-
three years old at this time, the self-exiled comrade of young
Cicero (whom from now on we will call Atticus) took a step
then, which exhibited remarkable clearness of judgment in so
young a man. He had lost his father early and seems to have
derived greater independence and self-reliance from this bereave-
ment. Ostensibly he went away to study, and in time no doubt
became the most cultured Roman financier of his day; mainly,
however, he migrated to the banks of the Ilissos to keep aloof from
entanglement in the civic broils and furious partisanship of which
he saw no end. He was a shrewd capitalist and marvellously
adroit in maintaining for his person amicable relation with men
of all parties and with characters of every type.

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