LIFE AND WORKS OF CICERO

CICERO'S BOYHOOD, THE FIRST SIXTEEN YEARS OF HIS LIFE, 106 TO 90 B.C.

1. Rome at the Birth of Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero, the celebrated orator, belonged to the equestrian order of Roman aristocracy, but no member of the family had ever held a curule office. He was born on the third of January, 106 B.C., at or near Arpinum in Latium, the birthplace of Gaius Marius, the famous general and reformer. The Roman republic was already on the eve of great events. Pompey, who was destined to play an important part in its subsequent history, was born that very year; Marius, then in Numidia, was soon to defeat King Jugurtha and lead him in chains to Rome to grace his triumph; the barbarian hordes of the North, the Cimbri and the Teutones, were already threatening the city, but were destined soon. to suffer a terrible defeat at the hands of Marius; Lucius Cornelius Sulla, soon to be the formidable rival of Marius, was rapidly rising to influence and power; Gaius Julius Caesar was born six years later. Cicero, Caesar, Pompey, Marius, and Sulla are famous names in the history of the last century of the republic.

2. Early Education. - Young Cicero was early sent to Rome that he might enjoy all the educational advantages that the capital could afford. Lucius Crassus, the orator, superintended his education and procured for him the

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ablest teachers of the day. One of these was the I Archias, who seems to have won the lasting gratitude his pupil, if we may judge from the oration pronoun many years after in his defense. Under the guidance these teachers, most of whom were Greeks, Cicero c pleted the regular curriculum of studies then deer essential for the education of a Roman gentleman, incl ing grammar, rhetoric, the Greek language and literat

CICERO'S EARLY MANHOOD, TO THE TWENTY-SIXTH YE OF HIS AGE, 90 To 81 B.C.

3. Professional Studies. At the age of sixteen, on suming the manly gown, the toga virilis, Cicero was plac under the care of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the Aug the famous lawyer and jurist, under whose guidance entered at once upon a special course of education a training for the bar and the Forum. He continued studies in Greek literature, devoting himself especially the Greek poets and orators. He frequented the cou of justice and the Forum, where he heard the gr advocates and orators of the day, Crassus, Antoni Sulpicius, and others.

4. Military Service. One or two campaigns in t field were considered an essential part of the educati of every candidate for a public career at Rome. Acco ingly, in the year 89 B.C., in the midst of the Social Wa we find Cicero, then in his eighteenth year, serving his fi campaign under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, the father Pompey the Great.

5. He resumes his Studies. Returning to Rome aft this brief experience of military service, which he regard

as an unfortunate interruption of his favorite studies, he resumed with pleasure his quiet student life, and for the next five or six years we find him devoting himself untiringly to the preparation for that high position of usefulness and honor to which he was looking forward with so much confidence. He determined that he would make himself an orator and a statesman; that his voice should be heard in defense of the right in courts of justice and in the Forum. No sacrifice of time or labor would be too great if thereby he could achieve success. Indeed, the record of these years of preparation reminds us of the remarkable accounts which have come down to us in regard to the severe course of training and discipline to which Demosthenes is said to have subjected himself in preparing for the bema, where he achieved such wonderful success. Cicero, like Demosthenes, had certain defects to overcome. He accordingly labored untiringly to cultivate his voice, to acquire graceful movements, and to increase his physical strength, which was by no means equal to the strain of the Forum. He studied the action of the great leaders of the Roman stage, thus pressing into his service the best lessons of the histrionic art. In this part of his work the famous actors Aesop and Roscius were his teachers and his models.

6. His Favorite Studies.-Cicero, in accordance with his theory of the extensive demands of the orator's art, strove to compass in a general way all the departments of human knowledge then known to the Roman world, but rhetoric, logic, philosophy, and law were his favorite studies. Rome was already beginning to be the home of Greek culture and refinement, and abounded in learned teachers who were ready to impart instruction in all the branches

of a liberal education. Cicero gladly availed himself the learned instruction thus fortunately brought within reach. Molo of Rhodes, the renowned rhetorician, came his special instructor in oratory, while Phaedr Philo, and Diodotus initiated him into the leading d trines of the three great schools of Greek philosophy

CICERO AT THE BAR, TO THE THIRTY-SECOND YEAR OF AGE, 81 To 75 B.C.

In the

year 81 B

7. He delivers his First Oration. Cicero, then in his twenty-sixth year, delivered the first his extant orations. It was in defense of Publius Qui tius in a civil suit, in which the opposing counsel w the renowned Hortensius, then at the head of the Rom bar.

8. His First Criminal Suit.. -In the year 80 B.C. Cice then in his twenty-seventh year, appeared for the first ti in a criminal suit. He defended Sextus Roscius, a her act on the part of the young advocate, as the plaintiff w a favorite of Sulla, who had become perpetual dictat and held Rome firmly in his grasp. Roscius was unjus accused of having murdered his own father, and Cice procured the acquittal of his client by proving positive that there was not a particle of evidence to support t charge. It seems probable that the murdered man w one of the victims of the terrible proscription ordered the dictator himself. Accordingly, the courageous a triumphant defense of the unfortunate son attracted pub attention to the youthful advocate, and assured his succe at the bar.

9. Foreign Travel and Study. But finding his heal