Page:The academic questions, treatise de finibus, and Tusculan disputations.djvu/40



following account of the two Books of the Academics is extracted from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, edited by Dr, W. Smith:—

“The history of this work, before it finally quitted the hands of its author, is exceedingly curious and somewhat obscure; but must be clearly understood before we can explain the relative position of those portions of it which have been transmitted to modern times. By comparing carefully a series of letters written to Atticus, in the course of 45 (Ep. ad Att. xiii. 32; 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, ACAD. ETC.