Cicero was an extremely talented student
It is a fact that Cicero was an extremely talented student. According to Plutarch, Cicero was a gifted student whose knowledge drew attention from all throughout Rome, allowing him to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Years later, a young Marcus Caelius Rufus and other young lawyers would learn with Cicero; such a relationship was seen as a great honor by both teacher and pupil. Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Lucius Licinius Crassus, supporters of his family, both backed him up. Cicero looked up to him as both an orator and a statesman.
Cicero fell in love with philosophy in the late 90s and early 80s BC, and it would play a significant part in his life, eventually leading to his adoption of Academic Skepticism. He would eventually transmit Greek philosophy to the Romans and develop a Latin philosophical vocabulary for it. When he visited Rome in 91 BC, the first philosopher he met was the Epicurean philosopher Phaedrus.
Cicero continued his studies while on a tour of Greece, Asia Minor, and Rhodes in the years 79-78 BC. Some believed Cicero fled to Greece to evade Sulla's wrath: Sulla was enraged by Cicero's support of Sextus Roscius in the Pro Roscio Amerino in 80 BC, according to Plutarch. Cicero, on the other hand, claims that he left to polish his oratory talents and, in particular, to strengthen his body, which was dangerously fragile at the time. He studied philosophy in Athens with Antiochus of Ascalon, the 'Old Academic' and founder of Middle Platonism. In Asia Minor, he met the region's best orators and continued to study with them.
