It accords with this charming picture to be told that the pupil, dying
in youth, left his property to his old tutor, and that the latter handed
it over to the kinsfolk of the deceased, keeping for himself the books
only.




CHAPTER II.

A ROMAN UNDERGRADUATE.


In the last chapter we had no particular "Roman Boy" in view; but our
"Roman Undergraduate" will be a real person, Cicero's son. It will be
interesting to trace the notices which we find of him in his father's
letters and books. "You will be glad to hear," he writes in one of his
earliest letters to Atticus, "that a little son has been born to me, and
that Terentia is doing well." From time to time we hear of him, and
always spoken of in terms of the tenderest affection. He is his
"honey-sweet Cicero," his "little philosopher." When the father is in
exile the son's name is put on the address of his letters along with
those of his mother and sister. His prospects are the subject of most
anxious thought. Terentia, who had a considerable fortune of her own,
proposes to sell an estate. "Pray think," he writes, "what will happen
to us. If the same ill fortune shall continue to pursue us, what will
happen to our unhappy boy? I cannot write any more. My tears fairly
overpower me; I should be sorry to make you as sad as myself. I will say
so much. If my friends do their duty by me, I shall not want for money;
if they do not, your means will not save me. I do implore you, by all