Ryan S. Olson at The Hedgehog Review:
What set Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) apart from the many other political climbers of his day? A magisterial biography by Andrew R. Dyck makes the case that the answer lies in his extraordinary formation. An education in the tradition of the Greek enkyklios paideia (a general, liberal education) was his birthright, but one he took up voraciously and, in his law career, deployed dazzlingly.
Cicero hailed from Arpinum, southeast of Rome, from a noble family well established in local affairs. Being a provincial, Cicero “would have to forge an identity for himself and decide how to balance loyalties” in the great capital. His family had only become involved in Roman politics in his father’s generation, making him a relative newcomer—a novus homo, or “new man,” in the parlance of the day. This was a status that presented difficulties even for a man of Cicero’s brilliance and skill. And these challenges were heightened unimaginably in an era that turned out to be, in hindsight at least, the late Roman Republic. That historical fact points ahead to Cicero’s second education, in power.
More here.
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