a friend of Cicero's, whom the orator represents as particularly deserving of his esteem. He therefore recommended the son of Hippius, C. Valgius Hippianus, who had been adopted by a member of the Valgian family, and had purchased a portion of the demesne of Fregellae, to the magistrates of that town. (Cic. Fam. 13.76.) This letter conveys indirectly some curious information. Fregellae, once the chief town of a considerable district, became a Roman colony in B. C. 328. (Liv. 8.22; Strab. v. p.238.) In B. C. 122-121 it was destroyed by the praetor, L. Opimius (Rhet. ad Herenn. iv. 9; Vell. 2.6; V. Max. 2.8); and in the age of Augustus it was little more than an open village (Strab. l.c.; Plin. Nat. 3.5). But Cicero's letter (l.c.) shows that it retained its demesne-land and its full complement of local magistrates.