Cicero started his career as a lawyer

It is a fact that Cicero started his career as a lawyer. Cicero began his legal profession between 83 and 81 BC. The pro-Quinctio, a private dispute from 81 BC given when Cicero was 26 years old, is the oldest known case. However, his defense of Sextus Roscius on the allegation of parricide in 80 BC was the first significant public case in which a written record still exists. Taking up this issue was a brave move for Cicero; parricide and matricide were regarded as heinous crimes, and the people Cicero accused of murder, the most prominent of whom was Chrysogonus, were Sulla's favorites. Sulla might easily have had Cicero murdered at this time because Cicero was scarcely known in the Roman courts.

Cicero's successful argument was an indirect challenge to the dictator Sulla, whom he addressed again in a later speech defending Arretium's disenfranchised population. According to Plutarch, Cicero fled to Greece, Asia Minor, and Rhodes in 79 BC, frightened of Sulla's wrath following Roscius' acquittal. However, a year's wait, during which Cicero also married, hardly suggests a panicked flight, and Cicero's own clear explanation of poor health appears far more credible. His brother Quintus, cousin Lucius, and most likely Servius Sulpicius Rufus accompanied him on his expedition.