A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

5. L.AeliusTubero, an intimate friend of Cicero. He was a relation and a schoolfellow of the orator, had served with him in the Marsic war, and had afterwards served under his brother Quintus as legate in Asia. It is uncertain in what way he was related to Cicero. The Scholiast on the oration for Ligarius says (pp. 415, 417, ed. Orelli) that Tubero married the soror of Cicero. We know that Cicero had not a sister; but the brother of the orator's father may have had a daughter, who was married to Tubero; and hence we may understand soror to signify in this passage, as it frequently does, a first cousin, and not a sister. (Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. vi. p. 273.) On the breaking out of the civil war, Tubero, who had espoused the Pompeian party, received from the senate the province of Africa; but as Atius Varus and Q. Ligarius, who likewise belonged to the aristocratical party, would not surrender it to him, he passed over to Pompey in Greece. He was afterwards 'pardoned by Caesar and returned with his son Quintus to Rome. (Cic. pro Lig. 4, 7, 8, ad Q. Fr. 1.1.3, pro Planc. 41.) Tubero cultivated literature and philosophy. He wrote a history (Cic. ad Q. Fr. l.c.), and the philosopher Aenesidemus dedicated to him his work on the sceptical philosophy of Pyrrhon. (Phot. Bibl. 212.)