IV. On his arrival at Athens[150] he became a hearer of Antiochus of Askalon, being pleased with the easy flow of his speech and his graceful manner, but he did not like his doctrinal innovations. For Antiochus was now seceding from what is called the New Academy, and deserting the sect of Karneades; whether it was that he was influenced by the evidence and by the senses, or as some say, through rivalry and differences with the followers of Kleitomachus and the partisans of Philo, he was changing to be a cultivator of the Stoic principle in most things. But Cicero liked the other doctrines better, and attached himself to them in preference, intending, if he should altogether be excluded from public affairs, to remove himself to Athens from the Forum and public life and live there in tranquillity with philosophy. But when news came that Sulla was dead, and his body being strengthened by discipline was attaining a vigorous habit, and his voice being now brought under management had become pleasant to the ear and powerful, and was suitably adapted to his habit of body, and his friends from Rome were sending him many letters and exhortations, and Antiochus strongly urged him to engage in public affairs, he began anew to fashion his oratorical power, as if it were an instrument, and to rouse afresh his political capacity, by exercising himself in the proper discipline and attending the rhetoricians of repute. Accordingly he sailed to Asia and Rhodes;[151] and among the Asiatic orators he attended the instruction of Xenokles of Adramyttium, and Dionysius of Magnesia, and Menippus of Caria; and in Rhodes, the rhetorician Apollonius, the son of Molo, and the philosopher Poseidonius. It is said that Apollonius, who did not understand the Latin language, requested Cicero to perform his exercises in Greek; and that Cicero readily complied, thinking that his faults would thus be better corrected. When he had finished his exercise, all the rest were amazed, and vied with one another in their praises, but Apollonius, while he was listening to Cicero, showed no approbation, and when Cicero had finished he sat for a long time wrapped in thought; and as Cicero showed his dissatisfaction, he said, "You indeed, Cicero, I commend and admire, but I pity the fortune of Greece, seeing that the only excellent things which were left to us have been transferred to the Romans by you, learning and eloquence."