TULLIUS1, TULLYUS, TULYUS. Tullius is the name of the Roman clan to which Marcus Tullius Cicero belonged. It was a medieval and Renaissance convention to refer to him familiarly as Tully or Tullius. The references to Tullius in The Tale of Melibee also appear in Le Livre de Mellibee et de Prudence, by Renaud de Louens (after 1336), and in Liber consolationis et consilii, by Albertanus of Brescia (1246). The quotations from Tullius in this tale are mostly from Cicero's De officiis. Dame Prudence quotes De senectute, VI.17, Mel 1165; the quotation from "the book," Mel 1176, is from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, III.30.73; Dame Prudence quotes De amicitia XXV.91 at Mel 1176; De officiis I.26.91 at Mel 1180; De officiis II.7.23 at Mel 1192; De officiis II.5.18 at Mel 1201; from De officiis I.9 at Mel 1221. Instead of Tullius, Dame Prudence quotes Seneca, De clementia I.19.6 at Mel 1339; she quotes Tullius, De officiis I.21.73 at Mel 1344. Instead of Tullius, she quotes Publilius Syrus, Sententiae 125 at Mel 1347. She quotes Tullius, De officiis II.5.16-17 at Mel 1355; De officiis III.5.21 at Mel 1585; De officiis II.15.55 at Mel 1621; De officiis I.25.88 at Mel 1860. The poet has been reading "Tullyus on the Drem of Scipioun" before he falls asleep, PF 29-35. Lady Philosophy quotes Tullius, Somnium Scipionis in De re publica VI.20.22, Bo II, Prosa 7.59-66. She refers to Cicero's De divinatione by name, Bo V, Prosa 4.3-5, where he discusses God's providence in Book II.8.20. [Cipioun: Macrobeus: Scithero]
The forms are spelling variants.