This kind of argument, taken from the old familiar stories of one's childhood and one's parents, could be only used to a dear and familiar friend.

Such was Tiro, though still a slave, to the two brothers.

Roman life admitted of such friendships, though the slave was so completely the creature of the master that his life and death were at the master's disposal.

This is nearly all that is known of Cicero's father and mother, or of his old home.
There is, however, sufficient evidence that the father paid great attention to the education of his sons--if, in the case of Marcus, any evidence were wanting where the result is so manifest by the work of his life.

At a very early age, probably when he was eight--in the year which produced Julius Caesar--he was sent to Rome, and there was devoted to studies which from the first were intended to fit him for public life.
Middleton says that the father lived in Rome with his son, and argues from this that he was a man of large means.