CHAPTER V.
_CICERO AS QUAESTOR._ Cicero was elected Quaestor in his thirtieth year, B.C.76.

He was then nearly thirty-one.

His predecessors and rivals at the bar, Cotta and Hortensius, were elected Consul and Praetor, respectively, in the same year.

To become Quaestor at the earliest age allowed by the law (at thirty-one, namely) was the ambition of the Roman advocate who purposed to make his fortune by serving the State.

To act as Quaestor in his thirty-second year, AEdile in his thirty-seventh, Praetor in his forty-first, and Consul in his forty-fourth year, was to achieve, in the earliest succession allowed by law, all the great offices of trust, power, and future emolument.