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Who was Titus Pomponius Atticus, Cicero’s closest correspondent?

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Marble bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero, shown with short hair and draped clothing, displayed against a black background. — Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero, detail of a marble bust; in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.

Titus Pomponius Atticus (110–32 BCE) was a wealthy Roman of the equestrian order and a lifelong friend of the statesman Marcus Cicero. Unlike Cicero, Atticus was nonpolitical, famously maintaining neutrality and diplomatic relationships with major figures across the Roman political spectrum, from Gaius Marius to Octavian.1

Atticus served as Cicero’s financial adviser and publisher, utilizing his own educated slaves to copy and distribute many of Cicero’s philosophical and oratorical works. He is best known today for his immense correspondence with the orator, preserved in the Letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticum), which serves as a vital historical source for the period.12

Though he professed adherence to Epicureanism—a philosophy that encouraged distancing oneself from active politics—Cicero regarded him as a connoisseur of Roman history and memorabilia. Atticus also authored several historical works, including the Liber annalis, though none of his writings have survived. He eventually became linked to the new regime through his daughter's marriage to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa before his death by suicide in 32 BCE.1