Mai discusses at considerable length the question, To whom the treatise _De Republicâ_ was dedicated. The beginning of the proœmium to the first book, which might have determined this point, is lost; but the author says, “Disputatio repetenda memoriâ est, quæ mihi, _tibique quondam adolescentulo_, est a P. Rutilio Rufo, Zmyrnæ cùm simul essemus, complures dies exposita.” Cicero was at Smyrna in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and it is evident that his companion, to whom this treatise is dedicated, was younger than himself, as he says, “Mihi, _tibique_ quondam _adolescentulo_.” Atticus was two years older than Cicero, and therefore could not be the person. In fact, there is every reason to suppose that the treatise _De Republicâ_ was dedicated to its author’s younger brother Quintus, who, as we know from the proœmium of the last book, _De Finibus_, was with Cicero at Athens during the voyage, in the course of which he touched at Smyrna—who probably attended him to Asia,—and whose age suited the expression “mihi, tibique adolescentulo.” Add to this, that Cicero, when he mentions to his brother, (in the passage of the letter above referred to,) that he meant to alter the plan of his work, says, “Nunc loquar ipse _tecum_, et tamen illa quæ institueram ad te, si Romam venero, mittam(464).” The work in its first concoction, therefore, was addressed to Quintus, and, as the author, after some hesitation, published it nearly in its original form, it can scarcely be doubted that it was still dedicated to his brother.