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Early life

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106 BC in Arpinum, a hill town 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Rome. He belonged to the tribus Cornelia. His father was a wealthy member of the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome. However, being a semi-invalid, he could not enter public life and studied extensively to compensate. Little is known about Cicero's mother Helvia, but Cicero's brother Quintus wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife.

Cicero's cognomen, a hereditary nickname, comes from the Latin for chickpea, 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. The famous family names of Fabius, Lentulus, and 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 Scaurus ("Swollen-ankled") and Catulus ("Puppy").

At the age of 15, in 90 BC, Cicero started serving under Pompey Strabo and later Sulla in the Social war between Rome and its Italian allies. When in Rome during the turbulent plebeian tribunate of Publius Sulpicius Rufus in 88 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. 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.