nobility himself. A man was noble who could reckon a Consul, a
Praetor, or an Aedile among his ancestors. Such was not the case with
Cicero. As he filled all these offices, his son was noble--as were his
son's sons and grandsons, if such there were.

It was common to Romans to have three names, and our Cicero had three.
Marcus, which was similar in its use to the Christian name of one of
us, had been that of his grandfather and father, and was handed on to
his son. This, called the praenomen, was conferred on the child when a
babe with a ceremony not unlike that of our baptism. There was but
a limited choice of such names among the Romans, so that an initial
letter will generally declare to those accustomed to the literature
that intended. A. stands for Aulus, P. for Publius, M. generally
for Marcus, C. for Caius, though there was a Cneus also. The nomen,
Tullius, was that of the family. Of this family of Tullius to which
Cicero belonged we know no details. Plutarch tells us that of his
father nothing was said but in extremes, some declaring that he had
been a fuller, and others that he had been descended from a prince who
had governed the Volsci. We do not see why he may not have sprung from
the prince, and also have been a fuller. There can, however, be no
doubt that he was a gentleman, not uneducated himself, with means
and the desire to give his children the best education which Rome or
Greece afforded. The third name or cognomen, that of Cicero, belonged
to a branch of the family of Tullius. This third name had generally
its origin, as do so many of our surnames, in some specialty of place,
or trade, or chance circumstance. It was said that an attestor had
been called Cicero from "cicer," a vetch, because his nose was marked
with the figure of that vegetable. It is more probable that the family
prospered by the growing and sale of vetches. Be that as it may, the
name had been well established before the orator's time. Cicero's