III. LUCIUS OCTACILIUS PILITUS is said to have been a slave, and,

according to the old custom, chained to the door like a watch-dog ; until, having been presented with his freedom for his genius and devotion to learning, he drew up for his patron the act of accusation in a cause he was prosecuting. After that, becoming a professor of rhetoric, he gave instructions to Cneius Pompey the Great, and composed an account of his actions, as well as of those of his father, being the first freedman, according to the opinion of Cornelius Nepos , who ventured to write history, which before his time had not been done by any one who was not of the highest ranks in society.