Words and Silence: Atticus as the Dedicatee of de Amicitia

Cicero and Atticus, the author and the dedicatee of de Amicitia, have always been considered, in ancient and modern tradition, as an example of ideal friendship. But this model should not be accepted unquestioningly. Is it really possible to consider a friend "as a second self" and to let him know all our thoughts? And is it always right to love the friends of our friend and to hate his enemies? We should not search for models of ideal behavior in the ancients, but rather interpret their experience critically, comparing it with our own.