MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 



FROM u. C. 647 TO 711 ; A. c. 107 TO 43. 



WE now turn to consider the political character, oratorical talents, 

 and philosophical writings of one who has already come before us in 

 our poetical division. 



Marcus Tullius Cicero was bora at Arpinum, the native place of 

 Marius, 1 in the year of Rome 647, (A.C. 107,) the same year which 

 gave birth to the Great Pompey. His family was ancient and of 

 equestrian rank, but had never taken part in the public affairs of 

 Rome, 2 though both his father and grandfather were persons of con- 

 sideration in the part of Italy to which they belonged. 3 His father, 

 being himself a man of cultivated mind, determined to give his two 

 sons the advantage of a liberal education, and to fit them for the 

 prospect of those public employments which a feeble constitution 

 incapacitated himself from undertaking. Marcus, the elder of the Birth and 

 two, soon displayed indications of a superior intellect, and we are told education, 

 that his schoolfellows carried home such accounts of his talents, that 

 their parents often visited the school for the sake of seeing a youth 

 who gave such promise of future eminence. 4 One of his earliest 

 masters was the poet Archias, whom he defended afterwards in his 

 consular year : under his instructions he made such progress as to 

 compose a poem, though yet a boy, on the fable of Glaucus, which 

 had formed the subject of one of the tragedies of JEschylus. Soon 

 after he assumed the manly gown, he was placed under the care of 

 Scaevola the celebrated lawyer whom he introduces so beautifully into 

 several of his philosophical dialogues ; and in no long time he gained 

 a thorough knowledge of the laws and political institutions of his 

 country. 5 



This was about the time of the Social war ; and, according to the 

 Roman custom, which made it a necessary part of education to learn 

 the military art by personal service, Cicero took the opportunity of 

 serving a campaign under the Consul Pompeius Strabo, father of 

 Pompey the Great. Returning to pursuits more congenial to his Early 

 natural taste, he commenced the study of philosophy under Philo the ""Pjjj 1 * 

 Academic, of whom we shall speak more particularly hereafter. 6 But A. c. 89. ' 

 his chief attention was reserved for oratory, to which he applied 



1 De Legg. ii. 3. 2 Contra Bull. ii. 1. 



3 De Legg. ii. 1, 3, 16 ; de Orat. ii. 66. 4 Plutarch, in Vita. 



5 Middleton's Life, vol. i. p. 13, 4to ; de Clar. Orat. 89. Ibid. 



