text: After the Seven Years' War, the Prussian military acquired a formidable reputation across Europe. Esteemed for efficiency and success in battle, it became a model emulated by other European powers, particularly Russia and France. Frederick continues to be held in high regard as a military theorist and has been described as representing the embodiment of the art of war.
  Later years and death
  Near the end of his life, Frederick grew increasingly solitary. His circle of close friends at Sanssouci gradually died off with few replacements, and Frederick became increasingly critical and arbitrary, to the frustration of the civil service and officer corps. Frederick was immensely popular among the Prussian people because of his enlightened reforms and military glory; the citizens of Berlin always cheered him when he returned from administrative or military reviews. He was nicknamed  (The Old Fritz) by the Prussian people, and this name became part of his legacy. Frederick derived little pleasure from his popularity, preferring instead the company of his pet Italian greyhounds, whom he referred to as his "marquises de Pompadour" as a jibe at the French royal mistress. Even in his late 60s and early 70s when he was increasingly crippled by asthma, gout and other ailments, he rose before dawn, drank six to eight cups of coffee a day, "laced with mustard and peppercorns", and attended to state business with characteristic tenacity.