Caelius' father brought his son to Cicero, as soon as he had taken his toga virilis, to study law and oratory, and Cicero was evidently attracted by the bright and lively boy; he never deserted him, and the last letter of Caelius to his old preceptor was written only just before his own sad end.

Sed infinita his similia apud Rhasin, Matthiolum, Mizaldum, caeterosque medicos occurrunt, quorum ideo mentionem feci, ne quis imperitior in hos scopulas impingat, sed pro virili

Octavius, to whom the poem is dedicated, is addressed Octavi venerande and sancte puer, a clear reference to the remarkable honor that Caesar secured for him by election to the office of pontiff when he was approaching his fifteenth birthday and before he assumed the toga virilis.

In the late Republic this usually took place between the fourteenth and seventeenth years; thus the two young Ciceros seem both to have been sixteen when they received the toga virilis, while Octavian and Virgil were just fifteen, and the son of Antony only fourteen.

Si quis nuptam stuprarit, virga virilis ei praeciditur; si mulier, nasus et auricula praecidatur.