He gives an account of his education in _Brut._ 306 _sqq._ In civil law he was a pupil, in B.C. 89, of Q. Scaevola the Augur, and afterwards of the pontifex of the same name (_de Am._ 1). In B.C. 88 he studied philosophy under Philo the Academic, and rhetoric under Molo of Rhodes. Dialectic he practised with the Stoic Diodotus, who lived and died in Cicero's house (B.C. 87-5). Other teachers of Cicero were the poet Archias (_pro Arch._ 1), the orator Antonius (_de Or._ ii. 3), the actors Roscius and Aesopus (Plut. _Cic._ 5), the rhetorician M. Antonius Gnipho (Sueton. _Gramm._ 7), and the philosophers Phaedrus and Zeno. After establishing a reputation at the bar by his defence of Quinctius and of Roscius of Ameria, he visited Asia to recruit his health and improve his oratorical style. On his way to the East he stayed six months at Athens, where he renewed his philosophical studies under Antiochus the Academic. In Asia he attended the leading rhetoricians, especially his old teacher Molo at Rhodes, who endeavoured to chasten the exuberance of his manner. At Rhodes he also made the acquaintance of the famous Stoic Posidonius (_de Fin._ i. 6). After an absence of two years he returned to Rome B.C. 77, and shortly afterwards married Terentia. Cicero, who had served in the Social War, B.C. 89 (_Phil._ xii. 27), began his official career in 75 as quaestor of the district of Lilybaeum in Sicily, where he won golden opinions from all classes (_pro Planc._ 64). He headed the poll at the election of aediles for 69, and of praetors for 66 (_in Pis._ 2); as praetor he presided over the court for the trial of cases of _repetundae_ (_pro Clu._ 147). His canvass for the consulship of 63 began as early as July 65 (_ad Att._ i. 1, 1); he was returned with C. Antonius as his colleague (_in Pis._ 3). His services to the State in 63 in the crushing of the Catilinarian conspiracy need not be dwelt on here: his activity as an orator in that year was great, and he passed a law against undue influence by candidates, 'Lex Tullia de ambitu' (_in Vat._ 37). He waived his right to a province, allowing Metellus Celer to take Gaul. In 58 the hostility of P. Clodius effected Cicero's banishment, on the ground that he had put the Catilinarian conspirators to death without trial. Retiring at first to Vibo, in Lucania, he moved successively to Sicily, Thurii, Tarentum, Brundisium, Dyrrhachium, Thessalonica, and Athens. At Dyrrhachium he resided from November 58 to August 57, when, after several unsuccessful efforts by his friends, a law was passed for his recall.