Titus Pomponius Atticus

Titus Pomponius Atticus (November 110 BC – 31 March 32 BC; later named Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus Atticus) was a Roman editor, banker, and literary patron, best known for his correspondence and close friendship with the famous Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. Atticus was from a wealthy family of the equestrian class and had close ties to many other Roman aristocrats, most prominently Cicero.

Cicero considered Atticus his dearest friend, and frequently turned to him for advice on personal, political, and literary matters. As a testament to their relationship, Cicero dedicated his treatise on friendship, de Amicitia, to Atticus. Their correspondence, often written in subtle code to disguise their political observations, is preserved in Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus) compiled by Tiro, Cicero's slave (later his freedman) and personal secretary. In addition to the Ciceronian correspondence, a key source for the life of Atticus is a biography written by the Roman historian Cornelius Nepos.

A philhellene, Atticus spent much of his adult life in Greece. Although personally connected to many of the major players in the civil wars that marked the end of the Roman Republic, Atticus always maintained his neutrality, a stance in keeping with his Epicurean philosophical allegiance. He thus managed to sustain a comfortable and peaceable existence during a turbulent period in Roman history, dying of natural causes at 77.