A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. The sister of T. Pomponius Atticus, was married to Q. Cicero, the brother of the orator. The marriage was effected through the mediation of M. Cicero, the great friend of Atticus, B. C. 68, but it proved an extremely unhappy one. Pomponia seems to have been of a quarrelsome disposition, and the husband and wife were on bad terms almost from the day of their marriage. Their matrimonial disputes gave Cicero great trouble and uneasiness. His letters to Atticus frequently contain allusions to the subject. His friend naturally thought his sister ill used, and besought Cicero to interpose on her behalf; but the latter as naturally advocated the cause of his brother, who really seems to have been the least in fault. In a letter which Cicero wrote to Atticus in B. C. 51 he gives an amusing account of one of

their matrimonial squabbles, of which he was an eye-witness (ad Att. 5.1). When their son, young Quintus, grew up, he endeavoured to reconcile his parents, and was encouraged in his filial task by both his uncles; but he did not meet with much success; and Q. Cicero, after leading a miserable life with his wife for almost twenty-four years, at length divorced her at the end of B. C. 45, or in the beginning of the following year. (Corn. Nep. Att. 5; Cic. Att. 1.5, 5.1, 7.1, 5, 14.10, et alibi, ad Q. Fr. 3.1, &c.)