Quo tua Romanæ vindex clarissime linguæ Silva loco melius surgere jussa viret Atque Academiæ celebratam nomine villam Nunc reparat cultu sub potiore Vetus: Hic etiam adparent lymphæ non ante repertæ Languida quæ infuso lumina rore levant. Nimirum locus ipse sui Ciceronis honori Hoc dedit hac fontes cum patefecit opes Ut quoniam totum legitur sine fine per orbem Sint plures oculis quæ medeantur, aquæ. Father of eloquence in Rome, The groves that once pertained to thee Now with a fresher verdure bloom Around thy famed Academy. Vetus at length this favoured seat Hath with a tasteful care restored; And newly at thy loved retreat A gushing fount its stream has poured. These waters cure an aching sight; And thus the spring that bursts to view Through future ages shall requite The fame this spot from Tully drew. _Elton._ The correspondents of Cicero included a number of eminent men. Atticus was the least interesting, for his politic caution rendered him unstable and insincere; but there was Cassius the tyrannicide; the Stoical Cato of Utica; Cæcina, the warm partisan of Pompey; the orator Cælius Rufus; Hirtius and Oppius, the literary friends of Cæsar; Lucceius the historian; Matius the mimiambic poet; and that patron of arts and letters,[863] C. Asinius Pollio. Pollio was a scion of a distinguished house, and was born at Rome B. C. 76.[864] Even as a youth he was distinguished for wit and sprightliness;[865] and at the age of twenty-two was the prosecutor of C. Cato. He was with Cæsar at the Rubicon, at Pharsalia, in Africa, and in Spain; and was finally intrusted with the conduct of the war in that province against Sextus Pompey. On the establishment of the first triumvirate, Pollio, after some hesitation, sent in his adhesion; and Antony intrusted him with the administration of Gallia Transpadana, including the allotment of the confiscated lands among the veteran soldiers. He thus had opportunity of protecting Virgil and saving his property. In B. C. 40, Octavian and Antony were reconciled at Brundisium by his mediation. A successful campaign in Illyria concluded his military career with the glories of a triumph,[866] and he then retired from public life to his villa at Tusculum, and devoted himself to study. He enjoyed life to the last, and died in his eightieth year. He left three children, one of whom, Asinius Gallus,[867] wrote a comparison between his father and Cicero, which was answered by the Emperor Claudius.[868]