Encounters in Friendship with Nepos, Cicero, Atticus, and Rex Stem

Abstract This article offers a critical appraisal of approaches to ‘friendship’ (amicitia) in Cornelius Nepos’s Atticus and Cicero’s De Amicitia, as found in the scholarship of Rex Stem and Grant Nelsestuen. In light of the former’s untimely passing in 2020, it uses an exchange of personal correspondence in 2019 between these two scholars – as well as John Alexander Lobur’s 2021 book on Nepos – as a basis for sketching new approaches to the role that friendship plays in Nepos’s biographies. Friendship thus turns out to be both an important aspect of Nepos’ political thought and a crucial means for advancing scholarly understanding of Nepos’ project in Atticus and his other biographies.