Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/95

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forward Atticus was on intimate terms both with Antony and Octavian; true to his usual practice he kept up his friendly relations with both till the end of his own life, though at that time the two were preparing for another civil war. Meanwhile he had accepted the interest of Antony to obtain for his daughter Cæcilia Attica the most splendid match in Rome. He married her to Agrippa, the prime friend and coadjutor of Octavian; and Atticus lived to see his little granddaughter Vipsania, the only issue of this marriage, betrothed in her cradle to Tiberius, the stepson and destined successor of Augustus. Their child again was Drusus, who was appointed the colleague of his father Tiberius, and who but for his premature death would himself have been emperor of the Romans. The high society of Rome considered it a blot on the nobility of Drusus, that there were men alive who could remember his great-grandfather, a simple Roman Knight.

But to return to Atticus himself. Can we forgive the man, who after enjoying for half a century the most endearing friendship with Cicero, could forget all and live on as the genial companion and favoured adherent of the men who had murdered him? Atticus might plead that he had never failed Cicero while he lived, and that he could do him no good now, whereas there were living friends whom he might still help and save. When once his own