d
such reading as his leisure would allow. The letters contained in the first
book of those addressed to Atticus, which range over the years 68--62 B.C.,
afford many proofs of the abiding strength of his passion for literary
employment. In the earlier part of this time we find him entreating Atticus
to let him have a library which was then for sale; expressing at the same
time in the strongest language his loathing for public affairs, and his
love for books, to which he looks as the support of his old age[34]. In the
midst of his busiest political occupations, when he was working his hardest
for the consulship, his heart was given to the adornment of his Tusculan
villa in a way suited to his literary and philosophic tastes. This may be
taken as a specimen of his spirit throughout his life. He was before all
things a man of letters; compared with literature, politics and oratory
held quite a secondary place in his affections. Public business employed
his intellect, but never his heart.

The year 62 released him from the consulship and enabled him to indulge his
literary tastes. To this year belong the publication of his speeches, which
were crowded, he says, with the maxims of philosophy[35]; the history of
his consulship, in Latin and Greek, the Greek version which he sent to
Posidonius being modelled on Isocrates and Aristotle; and the poem on his
consulship, of which some fragments remain. A year or two later we find him
reading with enthusiasm the works of Dicaearchus, and keeping up his
acquaintance with living Greek philosophers[36]. His long lack of leisure
seems to have caused an almost unquenchable thirst for reading at this
time. His friend Paetus had inherited a valuable library, which he
presented to Cicero. It was in Greece at the time, and Cicero thus writes
to Atticus: "If you love me and feel sure of my love for you, use all the
endeavours of your friends, clients, acquaintances, freedmen, and even
slaves to prevent a single leaf from being lost.... Every day I find
greater satisfaction in study, so far as my forensic labours permit[37]."
At this period of his life Cicero spent much time in study at his estates
near Tusculum, Antium, Formiae, and elsewhere. I dwell with greater
emphasis on these facts, because of the idea now spread abroad that Cicero
was a mere dabbler in literature, and that his works were extempore
paraphrases of Greek books half understood. In truth, his appetite for
every kind of lite