Tiro
1.
A recruit. See
Tirocinium.
2.
M. Tullius. The freedman of Cicero, to whom he was an object of
tender affection. He appears to have been a man of very amiable disposition and highly
cultivated intellect. He was not only the amanuensis of the orator, and his assistant in
literary labour, but was himself an author of no mean reputation, and notices of several
works from his pen have been preserved by ancient writers. After the death of Cicero, Tiro
purchased a farm in the neighbourhood of Puteoli, where he lived until he reached his one
hundredth year. It is usually believed that Tiro was the inventor of the art of shorthand
writing (
notae Tironianae). (See
Notae.) He also did much to preserve, arrange, and publish the literary work of his
patron, especially his voluminous personal correspondence; and he was the author of a life
and vindication of the great orator (
Tac. Dial.
17;
Gell. iv. 10Gell. , xv. 16).
See Mitzschke,
Tullius Tiro (Berlin, 1875).
