Cicero manages his library

Cicero had one of the best private libraries of all time. His collection would have probable started the time he began school and continued to grow throughout his life time. He had been able to obtain large blocks of books from his friend Atticus who acted as an agent on his behalf to purchase those books for him. Cicero also may have had the entire collection of Faustus Sulla, a collection which contained the original writings of Aristotle. Procuring Sulla's librarian, Tyrannio was one of the best moves Cicero made for managing his library considering how pleased he was once Tyrannio finished arranging his library.

It is not know whether Cicero had lost the collection he obtained from Faustus Sulla , but his intimacy with that collection would have made him familiar with the arrangement of those books which he could have implemented for the rest of his collection. The size and scope of Cicero's library required a specialist in the area of library management. Cicero would have the opportunity to procure Tyrannio to arrange his library for him. Tyrannio had arranged Sulla's library, thus he would have been especially familiar with the books that Cicero had and would have remembered how the books were formerly arranged. Cicero was so pleased with the work of Tyrannio that he urged Atticus to visit:

It will be delightful of you to pay us a visit. You will find that Tyrannio has made a wonderful job of arranging my books. What is left of them is much better than I had expected. And I should be grateful if you would send me a couple of your library clerks to help Tyrannio with the gluing and other operations, and tell them to bring a bit of parchment for the labels, sittybae as I believe you Greeks call them.

Even though Cicero did not seize a cache of books from a military campaign he did manage to build a considerable collection beginning with the books he would have already had from his studies in Athens and Rhodes. He would also rely on his friends to help him to obtain a large collection books for him. Cicero writes to his friend Atticus, a savvy book collector himself, in order to secure a library that has been put up for sale:

I should be grateful if you would see that I get the articles which you say you have bought and have ready for me as soon as possible. And please give some though to how you are to procure a library for me as you have promised.