Marcus Tullius Cicero (filius)

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 9.6 §1 the toga of manhood at Arpinum

  The toga virilis (toga of manhood) was assumed by a Roman boy, usually around age fifteen or sixteen, to mark his coming of age; Cicero's son Marcus was due to take it. Cicero had meant to hold the ceremony at the family's ancestral Arpinum, and thought of using it as a pretext to avoid meeting Caesar at Rome.

• Ad Atticum 9.17 §1 give my Cicero his white toga

  The toga virilis (or toga pura), the plain white toga assumed by a Roman boy at coming of age, replacing the purple-bordered toga praetexta of childhood. Cicero performs this rite for his son Marcus, then about sixteen, at Arpinum since Rome is closed to them.

• Ad Atticum 9.19 §1 I gave my Cicero his white toga at Arpinum

  Cicero performs the toga virilis ceremony, marking his son Marcus's passage to manhood, at the family seat of Arpinum because Rome was barred to them; the rite was normally a public Roman occasion, so its displacement underscores the dislocation of civil war.

• Ad Atticum 12.7 §1 on the matter of young Cicero

  Cicero's son Marcus, then about eighteen, who wanted to go to Caesar's army in Spain and to receive a larger allowance. His father feared the political censure of sending his son to fight on the Caesarian side after laying down arms himself.

• Ad Atticum 13.1 §1 to Cicero

  Cicero's son Marcus, then studying (or about to study) at Athens; Atticus had written the young man a letter of admonition that Cicero here praises for its firm but measured tone.

• Ad Atticum 13.24 §1 he had seen Cicero at Corcyra

  'Cicero' here is the orator's son, Marcus the younger, then travelling to study in Athens. Corcyra (Corfu) lay on the sea route from Italy to Greece.

• Ad Atticum 13.29 §2 I have sent Cicero's letter back to you

  "Cicero" here is the orator's son, young Marcus, studying in Athens; his letters home were forwarded between Cicero and Atticus. The plea about "his straits" in the next section is the young man's request for money.

• Ad Atticum 14.7 §2 From my son

  Young Marcus Cicero, then about to study at Athens; Cicero, pleased by the boy's polished Greek letter (Greek pinos, "polish"), urges Atticus to keep him amply supplied.

• Ad Atticum 15.13 §6 to Cicero our son

  Marcus Cicero the younger, the orator's son, then studying philosophy at Athens; Cicero is here composing the treatise De Officiis ("On Duties"), cast as a father's address of moral instruction to him.

• Ad Atticum 15.15 §4 Our Cicero

  Marcus Cicero the younger, the orator's son, then a student in Athens; the letter arranges to have his yearly allowance transferred there, Cicero being touched that the modest young man had not asked for money directly.

• Ad Atticum 15.16 §1 a letter-carrier from Cicero

  "Cicero" here is the orator's son, Marcus Cicero the younger, then studying rhetoric and philosophy at Athens; his progress (and expenses) is a recurring worry of these months.

• Ad Atticum 16.1 §5 Let young Cicero's accounts be sorted

  Cicero's son Marcus, then studying in Athens; much of this letter concerns his allowance and expenses, including the meagre sums doled out to him by the agent Xeno.

• Ad Atticum 16.3 §2 About young Cicero

  Marcus Cicero the younger, the orator's son, then studying philosophy at Athens; his conduct and allowance are a recurring worry in these letters, and the planned voyage is partly to look in on him.

• Ad Atticum 16.15 §5 Most modestly Cicero had asked this

  "Cicero" here is the orator's son, Marcus the younger, then studying in Athens; he had modestly asked his father to guarantee Montanus's debt on his honour.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.5 §3 co-opted into your college

  Cicero wants his son Marcus (serving under Brutus in Macedonia) elected to the college of augurs; augurs were the priestly board that interpreted omens, and membership was for life, making the position a mark of high social distinction.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.6 §1 He has been ordered to lead the cavalry from Ambracia through Thessaly

  Young Marcus Cicero was serving as a cavalry officer under Brutus in Greece; Ambracia was a port city in Epirus, and the route through Thessaly led northward into Macedonia where Brutus was concentrating his army.

• Ad Familiares 8.15 §2 Greetings to young Cicero

  Cicero's son Marcus, then about sixteen; the closing 'Ciceroni f. s. d.' is a formulaic greeting passed to the younger Cicero, who was with his father.

• Ad Familiares 12.14 §8 he had already gone off into winter quarters with the cavalry

  Cicero's son, young Marcus, was then serving with M. Brutus's cavalry in the Balkans, having left his studies at Athens for the republican army.

• Ad Familiares 12.16 §1 your son devoted to the best studies

  Cicero's son Marcus, then about eighteen, was studying philosophy and rhetoric at Athens, the standard finishing education for young Roman aristocrats.

• Ad Familiares 14.11 §1 send our Cicero to Caesar, and Gnaeus Sallustius with him

  Cicero planned to send his teenage son Marcus to intercede with the victorious Caesar, escorted by his friend Gnaeus Sallustius; the embassy was meant to secure the family's safety after the Pompeian defeat.

• Ad Familiares 14.15 §1 to send our Cicero to meet Caesar, but we have changed the plan

  The same scheme floated in Fam. 14.11 to send young Marcus as an intercessor to the victorious Caesar; it was dropped because no firm news of Caesar's return to Italy had reached Brundisium in mid-47 BC.

• Ad Familiares 16.25 §1 my father is forever writing me

  The writer is the orator's son, young Marcus, studying in Athens in 44 BC; 'my father' is Cicero himself. The note coaxes Tiro, the family's freedman secretary, to write more often.