Nor was I content only with practice in the art of speaking.

In the following year Varius had to go, condemned by his own enactment; and at this time, in working at the civil law, I gave much of my time to Quintus Scaevola, the son of Publius, who, though he took no pupils, by explaining points to those who consulted him, gave great assistance to students.

The year after, when Sulla and Pompey were Consuls, I learned what oratory really means by listening to Publius Sulpicius, who as tribune was daily making harangues.

It was then that Philo, the Chief of the Academy, with other leading philosophers of Athens, had been put to flight by the war with Mithridates, and had come to Rome.

To him I devoted myself entirely, stirred up by a wonderful appetite for acquiring the Greek philosophy.