Chapter 2, Always Be the Best, My Boy, The Bravest, From Arpinum to Rome, 106-82 B.C. Summary and Analysis

Cicero was born into a rising aristocratic family in Arpinum, a small town around seventy miles south of Rome. His grandfather was a local politician and his father a scholar; their family rose through intermarriages with Roman elites. The also maintained an increasingly impressive villa in the countryside where Cicero himself would return during difficult times.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on January 3rd, 106 B.C. History knows little of Cicero's mother, Helvia, since women were expected to remain largely silent and hidden from public view. Cicero's father held absolute power in their family, though this was normal for Roman households. Cicero's father had high ambitions for him and his younger...