Of Cicero’s youth, we only know that he very early showed activity of: intellect, and soon began to write. His first tastes were poetical, the first things he wrote being poems in the old Roman form: (his “Pontius Glaucus” was written _versibus longis_.) In his poetry, he had all his life long the old Roman tinge, whereas his prose was altogether ahead of that of his age. What the first teaching then given in the schools was, one cannot quite tell: thus much only is certain, that instruction in the Greek literature and language was one of the earliest subjects in which youthful minds were trained; just as in Germany, in my time, children had first to learn French. Cicero came to Rome shortly before the outbreak of the Italian war, in his fourteenth or fifteenth year; the reason why his father sent him to Rome, was perhaps because Arpinum lay on the borders of the Italians. At Rome, he was much with Greek philosophers and rhetoricians, and with the most distinguished men of the republic: he was like one of the family in the house of both the Scævolas, and was connected with Crassus and others. He came in a time of the greatest excitement, which is one of the lucky circumstances of his life. It is very doubtful whether he was what we would call _aide de camp_ to Sylla: he does not mention the fact himself; at any rate, it can only have been for a short time, and this military career of his had no influence upon the rest of his life, as his was anything but a warlike mind. He also studied civil law with the great lawyer Scævola: young men would get leave to be present in the _Atrium_ of a jurisconsult, to listen to the legal decisions and advice which he gave there; just as in England one still learns the law to this day, and as was formerly done in France, a way of studying which is of infinite advantage for able minds. Although Cicero has been reproached with not having a systematic knowledge of the law, it was not an empty word of his when he said, “If I wished to get up the law, it would cost me only a few months;” for he knew an endless number of cases in point.