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The focus of this article is Cicero’s contacts in Athens. Marcus Tullius Cicero studied in Athens for six months in his mid-twenties and visited the city several times more. In his letters, speeches, and treaties, he mentions several important Athenians. Cicero corresponded with and wrote about famous philosophers like Antiochus of Ascalon, Phaedrus of Athens, and leading Athenian politicians like Herodes and Leonides. These men in Athens show a complex web of networks connecting them to the Roman world and among themselves. Herodes oversaw the education of Cicero’s son in Athens, regularly writing to elder Cicero about it; at the same time, he managed the building of the Roman Market, paid for by Julius Caesar. Phaedrus and his son Lysiades show even more complex connections. Phaedrus taught both Cicero and his close friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. His son Lysiades was a close associate of Cicero’s sworn enemy Marc Antony, while at the same time, he was a brother-in-law of Leonides, who was the teacher of Cicero’s son in Athens. Closely looking at these connections helps us see how the Athenian elite navigated the complex world of late Republican Rome. |
