er quotes them, though, when discussing Cicero's projected
defence of Catiline, he could hardly have failed to do so, if he had
known them. The first author who quotes them is Seneca. It is,
therefore, probable that they were not published by Atticus himself, who
died 32 B.C., though his hand may be seen in the suppression of all
letters written by himself, but that they remained in the possession of
his family and were not published until about A.D. 60. At that date they
could be published without expurgation of any kind, whereas in the
letters _ad Familiares_ the editor's hand is on one occasion (iii. 10.
11) manifest. Cicero is telling Appius, his predecessor in Cilicia, of
the measures which he is taking on his behalf. There then follows a
lacuna. It is obvious that Tiro thought the passage compromising and
struck it out. In the letters to Atticus, on the other hand, we have
Cicero's private journal, his confessions to the director of his
conscience, the record of his moods from day to day, without alterations
of any kind.

Cicero's letters are the chief and most reliable source of information
for the period. It is due to them that the Romans of the day are living
figures to us, and that Cicero, in spite of, or rather in virtue of his
frailties, is intensely human and sympathetic. The letters to Atticus
abound in the frankest self-revelation, though even in the presence of
his confessor his instinct as a pleader makes him try to justify
himself. The historical value of the letters, therefore, completely
transcends that of Cicero's other works. It is true that these are full
of information. Thus we learn much from the _de Legibus_ regarding the
constitutional history of Rome, and much from the _Brutus_ concerning
the earlier orators. The speeches abound in details which may be
accepted as authentic, either because there is no reason for
misrepresentation or on account of their circumstantiality. Thus the
_Verrines_ are our chief source of information for the government of the
provinces, the system of taxation, the powers of the governor. We hear
from them of such interesting details as that the senate annul a
judicial decision improperly arrived at by the governor, or that the
college of tribunes could consider the status at Rome of a man affected
by this decision (_Verr._ II. ii. 95-100). We have unfolded to us the
monstrous system by which the governor could fix upon a remote place
for the delivery of corn, and so