MMHG, MARCUS TULLIUS, was born at Arpinum on the 3rd of January, ac. 106, in the consulship of Q. Servilius Clepio and C. Attila, Bernina", end was thus a few months older than Pompey, who was born on the last day of September in the same year. The family seat was on the south bank of the little stream Fibrenus (flume dells posts), near its junction with the Liris (Gariglano), where the stream of the lIbrenek dividing, forms an island and cascade, the scenery of which is the subject of the dialogue at the beginning of the second book ' De Legibos.' The villa Ciceroni, is now occupied as a Domini can convent The grandfather of Cicero was living here at the time of the birth of Marcus Tullius, and appears to have been is man of influence at Arpinum, where, on a petty scale, the political disputes formed a counterpart to those at Rome. The old man seems to have cuter tained the same views of public polity as his son, and vehemently opposed the introduction of the vote by ballot into the municipal pro ceedings at Arpioum, when a law to that effect was proposed by one Grated's., whose family was intimately connected with the Marii, and whose sister, it my be observed, was the wife of old Cicero, and con sequently the grandmother of the orator. The matter in dispute was referred to the consul Somme at Rome, who expressed his regret that • man of old Cicero's energy should have preferred to exert his talents In • petty corporation rather than on the greet theatre at Rome. There is likewise a characteristic saying of his recorded by his grand ma, that the men of his day were like Syrian slaves,—" the more Greek they knew the greater kueves they were,"—an observation probably aimed at his opponent Gratidius, who was well acquainted with that language. This Marcus Cicero bad two sons, Marcus and Lucius. The younger of these, together with his uncle Gratidius, who was killed there, served under Antony the orator in his government of Ctlieie Lucius left a son of the same name, to whom his cousin Cicero was much attached, and whose death he deplores in one of hie earliest letters to A ttioua.
Marcus Cicero, the father of the orator, though he was on intimate terms with the leading men of the timee, was compelled by the delicacy of his health to live in retirement ; but this enabled him to pay the more attention to the education of his two eons, Marcus and Quintus. His wife Ilelvia had a brother, Aculoo, the intimate friend of L Crassus, a man equally distinguished for his oratory and the publio offices ho had held; and the two tons of Aculeo, with their cousins the young Cicero', received their education together under teachers selected by Creams. It Is to this circumstance probably that we must attribute the special direction of Cicero's talents to the study of oratory. He was afterwards removed by his father to Rome, where he had the assistance of Greek instructors, more particularly the poet Archias, who was living under the roof of L. Lucullus. As soon as he had exchanged the boys drew for the toga ho was placed under the care of Q. Mucius Saevola, the augur, and father-in-law of his father's friend Cruses. and upon his death attached himself to the poutifex of the earns name, who excelled all his contemporaries in his kuowlodgo of law, and added to his other acoomplishments considerable powers of eloquence. NVIelle Cicero was thus preparing himself for the forum, he relieved the severity of his legal and philosophical studies by an intermixture of poetry. Even as a boy he had composed ft poem called ' Pontius Olaucus,' which was extant in Plutarch 's time, and he now translated the ' Phenomena' of Aratus into Latin verse, besides writing two original poems, one celled ' Marius,' in honour of his fellow-townsman, which received the commendation of &revels, and another "untied' Limon.' But he was now arrived (ac. 89) at the age when he was called by the laws of his country to the military feasion, and he served his first campaign in the Mamie war under Pompeian Strube, the father of the great Pompey, and was present when Sella captured the Samnite camp before Nola. The termination
of the Music war in the following year gave Cicero an opportunity of attend* the lectures of two distinguished Greek philosophers; first Philo, who then presided over the Academy, and soon after Apollonius Mole of Rhodos, who had been driven from their homes by the arms of Mithridataa This prince had beeo long watching for an opportunity of attacking the authority of Rome. The late civil war in Italy had induced him to throw off all disguise. lie had overrun the Roman province of Asia, and was already master of nearly all Greece, when the Romans concluded the war with their Italian allies, with the Intention of oppoeing their formidable enemy in the east. But unhappily that which should have led to • union of their strength was the cause of divisions still more disastrous. The oommand of the war against Mithridates was disputed between old Marius and Sulk, and led to • series of civil commotions. Sulk however, who was at the timo consul, had tho important province of that war allotted to him. The appointment excited the furious opposition of the Marian party, and Sulla was unable to nanintaiu the euperiority of his party at Rome but by bloodshed and proscription. Ilia departure for the Mithridatio war was the signal for re-action, and Marius re-entered Rome (p.c. 87) with the support of the consul Cinna, and put to death all the most distinguished leaders of the aristocratic party, who were unable to make their escape to Sulla's army in Attica. Cicero's school fellow Pomponius was probably one of the fugitives, for lie left Rome about this period, and by a twenty residence in Athens acquired the surname of Attieue Of Cicero b pursuits during the three or four next years little more is known than that he wrote some rhetorical works, which dissatisfied his waterer judgment; probably the work entitled 'De Inventione,' besides translating the ' CEconomics ' of Xenophon, and mayoral dialogues of Plato. He was also iu the habit of declaiming both in Greek and Latin, and received instruction in philosophy and logic from the stoic Diodotus, whom we find after wards living under his roof, where in fact be died, leaving his property to Cicero. He had also a second opportunity of hearing Mole at Rome, when the philosopher was eent on in embassy to remind the situate of the services of his countrymen in the late war against Ilithridates. In his twenty-sixth year (n.c. 81), when Sulla had extinguished all the democratio elements of the Roman constitution, Cicero made his first appearance as an advocate. The speech in favour of Quituithes, though not tho first he delivered, is the earliest of those which are now extant. In the following year his voice was first heard in the forum in defence of Sextus Itoscius of Ameria on a charge of parricide. The subject matter of the trial was intimately mixed up with the late civil dissensions, so that it attracted much public attention. Cicero fully prepared himself for the occasion, and produced so powerful an impression that, to use his own worries, the publio voice at once placed him among the first orators of Rorie. When he had spout two years in the severe duties of his profession, the delicacy of his health led him to withdraw for a time from Rome. Ile first visited Athens (n.c. 79), where he devoted six months to Antiochus of Ascalon, the most distinguished philosopher of the old Academy. He also attended Pluedrue and Zeno of the Epicurean school, in company with his friend Atticus, and practised declamation under the directions of au able rhetorician named Diogenee of Syria. He next traversed the whole Roman province of Asia, still cultivating his favourite pursuit of oratory under the first teachers of that country ; and then crossed over into Rhodes, where for the third time he placed himself under Melo, and derived considerable benefit from hie instruction, in correcting the redundancy of his style and moderating the vehemence of his voice and action. He studied philosophy likewise under Posidonius.