Cicero, like Julius Caesar, had grown up in a time of civil unrest and war.

Sulla’s victory in the first of a series of civil wars has led to a new constitutional framework that undermines libertas (liberty), the fundamental value of the Roman Republic.

His reforms have nonetheless strengthened the position of the equestrian class, contributing to that class’s growing political power.

Cicero is both an Italian eques and a novus homo, but he is, more importantly, a Roman constitutionalist.

His social class and loyalty to the Republic ensure that he will "command the support and confidence of the people as well as the Italian middle classes."

The fact that the optimates faction never truly accepts Cicero will undermine his efforts to reform the Republic while preserving the constitution.

He is able nevertheless to successfully ascend the Roman cursus honorum, holding each magistracy at or near the youngest possible age, becoming, at age thirty-one, quaestor in 75; he spends the year in Sicily.