Editing Cicero (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Porta Saturno, Quartiere Colle,Arpino .jpg|thumb|[[Arpino]], Italy, birthplace of Cicero|left]]
[[File:The Young Cicero Reading.jpg|thumb|''[[The Young Cicero Reading]]'' by [[Vincenzo Foppa]] (fresco, 1464), now at the [[Wallace Collection]]|left]]

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106&nbsp;BC in [[Arpinum]], a hill town {{convert|100|km|mi|sp=us}} southeast of Rome.<ref>{{cite book |contributor-last=Shackleton Bailey |contributor-first=D. R. |contribution=Introduction |author=Cicero |title=Letters to Atticus |volume=1 |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1999 |translator-last=Shackleton Bailey |translator-first=D. R. |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |page=3 |quote=Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106 BC at his family home near the hill town of Arpinum (still Arpino) about seventy miles to the east of Rome. }}</ref> He belonged to the ''[[Roman tribe|tribus]]'' Cornelia.<ref>''Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum'', [http://www.attalus.org/docs/sig2/s747.html 747] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303225208/http://www.attalus.org/docs/sig2/s747.html |date=3 March 2018 }}.</ref> His father was a wealthy member of the [[equestrian order]] and possessed good connections in Rome. However, not being of robust health (he experienced poor digestion and inflammation of the eyes<ref>{{cite book |last1=Petersson |first1=Torsten |title=Cicero a biography |date=1963 |publisher=Biblo and Tannen |location=New York |isbn=0-8196-0119-5 |page=97}}</ref>), he could not enter public life and studied extensively to compensate. Little is known about Cicero's mother Helvia, but Cicero's brother [[Quintus Tullius Cicero|Quintus]] wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife.<ref>Rawson, E.: ''Cicero, a portrait'' (1975) pp. 5–6; Cicero, ''Ad Familiares'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Fam.+16.26.2 16.26.2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511161442/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Fam.+16.26.2 |date=11 May 2008 }} (Quintus to Cicero)</ref>

Cicero's [[cognomen]], a hereditary nickname, comes from the Latin for [[chickpea]], {{lang|la|cicer}}. [[Plutarch]] explains that the name was originally given to one of Cicero's ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=19, citing {{harvnb|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=1.3–5}} }} The famous family names of [[Fabia gens|Fabius]], [[Lentulus (disambiguation)|Lentulus]], and [[Calpurnia gens#Calpurnii Pisones|Piso]] come from the Latin names of beans, lentils, and peas, respectively. Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this deprecatory name when he entered politics, but refused, saying that he would make ''Cicero'' more glorious than ''[[Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (consul 115 BC)|Scaurus]]'' ("Swollen-ankled") and ''[[Catulus]]'' ("Puppy").{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=1.3–5}}

At the age of 15, in 90&nbsp;BC, Cicero started serving under [[Pompey Strabo]] and later [[Sulla]] in the [[Social War (91–87 BC)|Social war]] between Rome and its Italian allies.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=27}} When in Rome during the turbulent [[plebeian tribunate]] of [[Publius Sulpicius Rufus]] in 88&nbsp;BC which saw a short bout of fighting between the Sulpicius and Sulla, who had been elected consul for that year, Cicero found himself greatly impressed by Sulpicius' oratory even if he disagreed with his politics.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|pp=27–28}} He continued his studies at Rome, writing a pamphlet titled ''On Invention'' relating to rhetorical argumentation and studying philosophy with Greek academics who had fled the ongoing [[First Mithridatic War]].{{sfn|Tempest|2011|pp=xi, 28}}

=== Education ===
During this period in Roman history, Greek language and cultural studies were highly valued by the elite classes. Cicero was therefore educated in the teachings of the [[ancient Greek philosophers]], [[Ancient Greek literature|poets]] and [[Hellenic historiography|historians]]; as he obtained much of his understanding of the theory and practice of [[rhetoric]] from the Greek poet [[Aulus Licinius Archias|Archias]].{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=34}} Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience. It was precisely his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=35}}

Cicero's interest in philosophy figured heavily in his later career and led to him providing a comprehensive account of Greek philosophy for a Roman audience,<ref>De Officiis, book 1, n. 1</ref> including creating a philosophical vocabulary in Latin.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|pp=253–55}} In 87 BC, [[Philo of Larissa]], the head of the [[Platonic Academy]] that had been founded by [[Plato]] in Athens about 300 years earlier, arrived in Rome. Cicero, "inspired by an extraordinary zeal for philosophy",<ref>Rawson: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p. 18</ref> sat enthusiastically at his feet and absorbed [[Carneades]]' [[Academic skepticism|Academic Skeptic]] philosophy.<ref>J.P.F. Wynne, "Cicero's Skepticism" in ''Skepticism: From Antiquity to the Present'' Bloomsbury Academic 2018 p. 93</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Krebs |first=Christopher B |date=2009 |title=A Seemingly Artless Conversation: Cicero's ''De Legibus'' (1.1–5) |url=https://www.academia.edu/2434123 |journal=Classical Philology |volume=104 |issue=1 |pages=90–106 |doi=10.1086/603575 |s2cid=163218114 |issn=0009-837X |access-date=20 October 2022 |archive-date=20 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220142217/https://www.academia.edu/2434123 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome,{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=2.2}} affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under [[Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur|Quintus Mucius Scaevola]].{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=3.2}} Cicero's fellow students were Gaius Marius Minor, [[Servius Sulpicius Rufus]] (who became a famous lawyer, one of the few whom Cicero considered superior to himself in legal matters), and [[Titus Pomponius Atticus|Titus Pomponius]]. The latter two became Cicero's friends for life, and Pomponius (who later received the nickname "Atticus", and whose sister married Cicero's brother) would become, in Cicero's own words, "as a second brother", with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=35}}

In 79 BC, Cicero left for Greece, [[Asia Minor]] and [[Rhodes]]. This was perhaps to avoid the potential wrath of [[Sulla]], as Plutarch claims,<ref>Haskell, H.J.: "This was Cicero" (1940) p. 83</ref>{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=3.2}} though Cicero himself says it was to hone his skills and improve his physical fitness.{{sfn|Cic. ''Brut.''|loc=313–314}} In [[Athens]] he studied philosophy with [[Antiochus of Ascalon]], the 'Old Academic' and initiator of [[Middle Platonism]].{{sfn|Cic. ''Brut.''|loc=315}} In Asia Minor, he met the leading orators of the region and continued to study with them. Cicero then journeyed to Rhodes to meet his former teacher, Apollonius Molon, who had taught him in Rome. Molon helped Cicero hone the excesses in his style, as well as train his body and lungs for the demands of public speaking.{{sfn|Cic. ''Brut.''|loc=316}} Charting a middle path between the competing [[Atticism|Attic]] and [[Asiatic style]]s, Cicero would ultimately become considered second only to [[Demosthenes]] among history's orators.<ref>Gesine Manuwald, Cicero: Philippics 3–9, vol. 2, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007, pp. 129ff</ref>