At sixteen the work of education was _not_ finished--no more than it is with us when a lad at Oxford becomes "of age" at twenty-one; nor was he put beyond his father's power, the "patria potestas," from which no age availed to liberate a son; but, nevertheless, it was a very joyful ceremony, and was duly performed by Cicero in the midst of his studies with Scaevola.
At eighteen he joined the army.

That doctrine of the division of labor which now, with us, runs through and dominates all pursuits, had not as yet been made plain to the minds of men at Rome by the political economists of the day.

It was well that a man should know something of many things--that he should especially, if he intended to be a leader of men, be both soldier and orator.

To rise to be Consul, having first been Quaestor, AEdile, and Praetor, was the path of glory.

It had been the special duty of the Consuls of Rome, since the establishment of consular government, to lead the armies of the Republic.