It afterward passed into the hands of Crassus the rich, and now became the property of Cicero.

We shall hear how it was destroyed during his exile, and how fraudulently made over to the gods, and then how restored to Cicero, and how rebuilt at the public expense.

The history of the house has been so well written that we know even the names of Cicero's two successors in it, Censorinus and Statilius.[217] It is interesting to know the sort of house which Cicero felt to be suitable to his circumstances, for by that we may guess what his circumstances were.

In making this purchase he is supposed to have abandoned the family house in which his father had lived next door to the new mansion, and to have given it up to his brother.

Hence we may argue that he had conceived himself to have risen in worldly circumstances.