Marcus Tullius Cicero

He was born on January 3 106 BC in Arpinum, Roman Republic and was murdered and died on
December 7 49 BC on the age of 62 in Formia, Roman Republic.

Ciceros Family, though aristocratic, was not one of them, nor did it have great wealth. But Cicero had a
great deal of political ambition; at a very young age he chose as his motto the same one Achilles was
said to have had: to always be the best and overtop the rest. Lacking the advantages of a proper
ancestry, there were essentially only two career options open to him. One was a military career, since
military success was thought to result from exceptional personal qualities and could lead to popularity
and therefore political opportunity. Cicero, however, was no soldier. He hated war, and served in the
military only very briefly as a young man.