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Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes

by Marcus Tullius Cicero · English, Latin · Gutenberg #14945 · 346,441 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes

Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero

Annotator: James S. Reid

Editor: Francis W. Kelsey


        
Release date: February 7, 2005 [eBook #14945]
                Most recently updated: December 19, 2020

Language: English, Latin

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATO MAIOR DE SENECTUTE WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES ***




Produced by Ted Garvin, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.





M. TULLI CICERONIS

CATO MAIOR DE SENECTUTE

_WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES_

BY JAMES S. REID, M.L.

American Edition Revised

BY FRANCIS W. KELSEY

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

_Copyright, 1882_

PREFACE.

Three years ago Mr. James S. Reid, of Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge, prepared for the Syndics of the University Press editions of
Cicero's _Cato Maior de Senectute_ and _Laelius de Amicitia._ The thorough
and accurate scholarship displayed, especially in the elucidation of the
Latinity, immediately won for the books a cordial reception; and since then
they have gained a permanent place in the esteem of English scholars.

The present volume has the full authorization of Mr. Reid, and was prepared
with the design of presenting to American students, in a form best adapted
to their use, the results of his work. The Text remains substantially that
of Mr. Reid; while mention is made in the notes of the most important
variations in readings and orthography from other editions. The
Introductions have been recast, with some enlargement; the analyses of the
subject-matter in particular have been entirely remodelled. The Notes have
been in some instances reduced, in others amplified,--especially by the
addition of references to the standard treatises on grammar, history, and
philosophy. It was at first the intention of the American editor to
indicate by some mark the matter due to himself; but as this could hardly
be done without marring the appearance of the page, and thus introducing a
source of confusion to the student, it was not attempted. In the work of
revision free use of the principal German and English editions has been
made.

To some the notes of the present edition may appear too copious. The aim
throughout, however, has been not simply to give aid on difficult points,
but to call attention to the finer usages of the Latin, and to add also
whatever explanation seemed necessary to a clear understanding of the
subject-matter. Latin scholarship which shall be at the same time broad and
accurate, including not only a mastery of the language but also a
comprehensive view of the various phases of Roman life and thought, will,
it is believed, be best assured by the slow and careful reading of some
portions of the literature and by the rapid survey of others. Certainly of
the shorter Latin classics few would more fully repay close and careful
study of both language and thought than these charming colloquies on Old
Age and Friendship. While almost faultless in expression, they embody in a
remarkable degree that universal element which characterizes the literary
masterpiece, and makes it the valued possession not merely of an age or a
nation, but of all time.

FRANCIS W. KELSEY

LAKE FOREST, ILL., May, 1882.

       *       *       *       *       *

INTRODUCTION.

I. CICERO AS A WRITER ON PHILOSOPHY.

(i.) STATE OF PHILOSOPHY IN CICERO'S TIME.

In Philosophy the Romans originated nothing. Their energies in the earlier
years of the state were wholly absorbed in organization and conquest.
Resting in a stern and simple creed, they had little speculative interest
in matters outside the hard routine of their daily life. But with the close
of the Period of Conquest came a change. The influx of wealth from
conquered provinces, the formation of large landed estates, the excessive
employment of slave labor, and the consequent rise of a new aristocracy,
prepared the way for a great revolution. The old religion lost its hold on
the higher classes; something was needed to take its place. With wealth and
luxury came opportunity and desire for culture. Greece, with Art,
Literature, and Philosophy fully developed and highly perfected, stood
ready to instruct her rude conqueror.[1]

In Cicero's time the productive era of Greek Philosophy had well-nigh
passed. Its tendency was less speculative, more ethical and practical than
in the earlier time. There were four prominent schools, the New Academy,
the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean. The supporters of the
last-named advocated in Science the doctrine of the atom, in Ethics the
pursuit of pleasure, in Religion the complete inactivity of the gods.

The Stoics and Peripatetics were divided by comparatively unimportant
differences. In Ethics, considered by them as almost the whole of
Philosophy, which was itself defined as 'the art of living', the main
question between the two schools was the amount of importance to be
attributed to Virtue,--the Stoics declaring that in comparison with Virtue
all other things sink into absolute insignificance, while the Peripatetics
maintained that these have a certain though infinitesimally small
significance. The New Academy taught at this time no complete philosophical
system. It simply proclaimed the view that in the field of knowledge
certainty is unattainable, and that all the inquirer has to do is to
balance probabilities one against the other. The New Academic, therefore,
was free to accept any opinions which seemed to him to have the weight of
probability on their side, but he was bound to be ready to abandon them
when anything appeared which altered his views of the probabilities. He not
only might be, but he could not help being, _eclectic_; that is, he chose
such views promulgated by other schools as seemed to him at the moment to
be most reasonable or probable. Cicero called himself an adherent of this
school. On most points however, although eclectic, he agreed with the
Peripatetics, but with a decided leaning toward the Stoic ethical system.
The Stoic opinion that it is the duty of the wise man to abstain from
public life, which the Peripatetics contested, Cicero decisively rejected.
With the Epicureans he had absolutely no sympathy. Up to this time these
schools and their teachings were known to the Romans only through the
medium of the Greek. The only Latin philosophical literature was Epicurean,
and, excepting the poem of Lucretius (_De Rerum Natura_), scarcely famous
as yet, consisted entirely of books rudely written, although considerably
read.

(ii.) THE MISSION OF CICERO IN PHILOSOPHY.

Cicero made no claim to originality as a philosopher, nor even to complete
acquaintance with every detail of the Greek systems.[2] In early life he
had studied with enthusiasm and success all the learning of the Greeks, but
especially in the two departments of Rhetoric and Philosophy, then closely
connected, or rather hardly distinguished. He not only sought the society
of learned Greeks, but spent considerable time in study at Rhodes and
Athens, which had become not merely the 'school of Greece', as Thucydides
makes Pericles call her, but the school of the civilized world.[3] When, by
reason of political troubles, he was forced to retire to private life, he
began to carry out a great plan for interpreting the best philosophical
writings of the Greeks to his fellow-countrymen. For this work his liberal
views as a New Academic peculiarly fitted him. His usual method was to take
one or two leading Greek works on the subject with which he was dealing,
and to represent freely in his own language their subject-matter,
introducing episodes and illustrations of his own. He thus presented to the
Romans in their own tongue the most significant portions of the Greek
Philosophy; and in his writings there has come down to us much, especially
of the Post-Aristotelian Philosophy, that was doomed to oblivion in the
original Greek. But further than this, to Cicero more than to any other
Roman is due the formation of a Latin philosophical vocabulary, by which
the language was enriched and fitted for the part it has since taken as the
Language of the Learned. While on many points Cicero's own views can hardly
be determined with perfect exactness, the exalted sentiments and the
exquisite literary finish of his philosophical writings have always won
admiration; and through them he has exerted no small influence on the
literature and life of modern times.[4]

(iii.) THE PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF CICERO.

During the whole of an exceptionally busy public life Cicero devoted his
spare moments to reading and to the society of the learned. After his exile
in 58 and 57 B.C. his political career, except for a brief period just
before his death, was over, and it is at this time that his period of great
literary activity begins, In 55 he produced the work _De Oratore_, in 54
the _De Re Publica_, and in 52 the _De Legibus_, all three works, according
to ancient ideas, entitled to rank as philosophical.[5]

From 51 to 46 B.C., owing first to his absence in Cilicia, then to the
civil troubles, Cicero almost ceased to write. But in the latter year he
was reconciled with Caesar, and as the Senate and law courts were closed
against him on his refusal to compromise his political principles, he
betook himself with greater devotion than ever to literature. The first
work written in 46 was the _Hortensius_, or _De Philosophia_, now lost. It
was founded on a lost dialogue of Aristotle, and set forth the advantages
of studying Philosophy. During the same year Cicero completed several
oratorical works, the _Partitiones Oratoriae_, the _Brutus_, or _De Claris
Oratoribus_, and the _Orator_, all of which are extant.

Early in 45 Cicero lost his beloved daughter Tullia. He passed the whole
year in retirement, trying to soothe his grief by incessant writing. In
quick succession appeared

_De Consolatione_, an attempt to apply philosophy to the mitigation of his
own sorrow and that of others;

_Academica_, an exposition of the New Academic Philosophy, advocating
probability rather than certainty as the foundation of philosophy;

_De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, a work criticising the most prominent
views entertained concerning Ethics;

_Disputationes Tusculanae_, treating of certain conditions essential to
morality and happiness;

_De Natura Deorum_, an examination of the principal theories regarding the
nature and power of the gods;

_Cato Maior_, on old age; _Laelius_, on friendship;

_De Fato_, discussing Fate and Free Will;

_Paradoxa_, a book setting forth certain remarkable views of the Stoics;

_De Officiis_, a treatise on practical ethics, the application of moral
principles to the questions and difficulties of ordinary life.

These works, written mostly in 45 and 44, are, except the _De Cons.,_ still
extant. To the list may be added also other works of a rhetorical nature,
such as the _Topica_ and _De Optima Genere Dicendi_, and some lost
philosophical books, such as _De Gloria_.

Even though allowance be made for the fact that Cicero was giving in Latin
the substance of Greek books with which he had been familiar from boyhood,
the mental vigor and literary power exhibited by this series of works
appear prodigious when we consider their great compass and variety and the
generally high finish of their style.

_References._--For a fuller account of Cicero's philosophical views and
writings consult Ritter, 'History of Ancient Philosophy', Vol. 4, Ch. 2;
Maurice, 'Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy', Ch. 7, § 5; Tennemann and
Morell, 'History of Philosophy', Ch. 3; Ueberweg, 'History of Philosophy',
Vol I, § 61; J.B. Mayor, 'Sketch of Ancient Philosophy', pp. 223-244;
Teuffel, 'History of Roman Literature', Vol. i, § 172 _et seq._ Cruttwell,
'History of Roman Literature', Bk. II. Part 1, Ch. 2; 'Cicero', by Collins,
in Ancient Classics for English Readers, Ch. 10, et seq.; also the
Introduction to Reid's edition of the _Academica_, and the account of
Cicero by Prof. Ramsay in Smith's Dictionary of Biography and Mythology.
The most attractive biography of Cicero in English is that by Forsyth. That
by Trollope is able but quite partisan. On the philosophy, consult also
Zeller's 'Eclectics.'

II. THE CATO MAIOR.

(i.) ORIGIN AND SCOPE.

1. _Date and Circumstances of Composition._

The date at which the Cato Maior was written can be determined with almost
perfect exactness. A mention in Cicero's work entitled _De Divinatione_[6]
shows that the Cato Maior preceded that work by a short time. The _De
Divinatione_ was written after the assassination of Caesar, that is, after
the 15th of March in the year 44.[7] Again, the Cato Maior is mentioned as
a recent work in three letters addressed by Cicero to Atticus.[8] The
earliest of these letters was written on or about the 12th of May, 44.[9]
We shall hardly err, therefore, if we assume that Cicero composed the Cato
Maior in April of the year 44.[10] This agrees also with slight indications
in the work itself. In the dedicatory introduction Cicero speaks of
troubles weighing heavily on himself and Atticus.[11] Any one who reads the
letters to Atticus despatched in April, 44, will have little doubt that the
troubles hinted at are the apprehensions as to the course of Antonius, from
whom Cicero had personally something to fear. Atticus was using all the
influence he could bring to bear on Antonius in order to secure Cicero's
safety; hence Cicero's care to avoid in the dedication all but the vaguest
possible allusions to politics. Had that introduction been written before
Caesar's death, we should have had plain allusions (as in the prooemia of
the _Academica_, the _De Finibus_, the _Tusculan Disputations_, and the _De
Natura Deorum_) to Caesar's dictatorship.[12]

The time was one of desperate gloom for Cicero. The downfall of the old
constitution had overwhelmed him with sorrow, and his brief outburst of joy
over Caesar's death had been quickly succeeded by disgust and alarm at the
proceedings of Antonius. The deep wound caused by his daughter's death[13]
was still unhealed. It is easy to catch in the Cato Maior some echoes of
his grief for her. When it is said that of all Cato's titles to admiration
none is higher than the fortitude he showed in bearing the death of his
son,[14] the writer is thinking of the struggle he himself had been waging
against a like sorrow for more than a year past; and when Cato expresses
his firm conviction that he will meet his child beyond the grave,[15] we
can see Cicero's own yearning for reunion with his deeply loved Tullia.

2. _Greek Sources._

All Cicero's philosophical and rhetorical writings were confessedly founded
more or less on Greek originals.[16] The stores from which he principally
drew in writing the Cato Maior are clearly indicated in several parts of
the work. Passages from Xenophon's _Oeconomicus_ are translated in Chapters
17 and 22. In Chapters 2 and 3 there is a close imitation of the
conversation between Socrates and Cephalus at the beginning of Plato's
_Republic_, while in Chapter 21 is reproduced one of the most striking
portions of the _Phaedo_, 72 E-73 B, 78-80.[17] The view of the divine
origin and destiny of the human soul contained in the passage from the
_Phaedo_ is rendered by Cicero in many of his works,[18] and was held by
him with quite a religious fervor and sincerity.

Besides these instances of special indebtedness Cicero, in composing the
Cato Maior, was no doubt under obligations of a more general kind to the
Greeks. The form of the dialogue is Greek, and Aristotelian rather than
Platonic.[19] But further, it is highly probable that Cicero owed to some
particular Greek dialogue on Old Age the general outline of the arguments
he there brings forward. Many of the Greek illustrative allusions may have
had the same origin, though in many cases Roman illustrations must have
been substituted for Greek. Whether the dialogue by Aristo Cius, cursorily
mentioned in the Cato Maior,[20] was at all used by Cicero or not it is
impossible to determine.[21]

3. _Purpose._

The Cato Maior is a popular essay in Ethics, applying the principles of
philosophy to the alleviation of one of life's chief burdens, old age. In
ancient times, when philosophy formed the real and only religion of the
educated class, themes like this were deemed to afford a worthy employment
for the pens even of the greatest philosophers. Such essays formed the only
substitute the ancients had for our Sermons. There can be no doubt of
Cicero's sincerity when he says that the arguments he sets forth in the
treatise had given him real comfort,[22] and the opening words of the
dedication show that he meant and hoped to administer the same comfort to
his friend Atticus, who indeed acknowledged the benefit he derived from the
work.[23] When Cicero wrote the treatise he was himself sixty-two years of
age, while his friend was three years older. He speaks, therefore, rather
euphemistically when he says that his purpose is to lighten the trouble of
an old age which is already close at hand, or at all events
approaching.[24]

But in addition to the main ethical purpose, there was, as in many of
Cicero's works, a distinct political purpose. He desired to stimulate in
his readers an admiration for what he regarded as the golden age of Roman
politics, the era of the Punic wars, and to do this by making the contrast
between that age and his own appear as striking as possible. A like double
purpose is apparent throughout the _De Re Publica_, where Africanus the
younger is the chief personage, and in the treatise on Friendship, where
Laelius is the central figure. For the dialogue on Old Age M. Porcius Cato
the Censor is selected as the principal speaker for two reasons: first,
because he was renowned for the vigor of mind and body he displayed in
advanced life;[25] and secondly, because in him were conspicuously
exhibited the serious simplicity, the unswerving adherence to principle,
and the self-sacrificing patriotism which were the ideal Roman virtues, and
which Cicero could not find among the politicians of his time.

4. _Form and Language._

The Cato Maior, like most of Cicero's philosophical writings, is cast in
the form of a dialogue. Among the ancients the dialogue was a common
rhetorical device, especially in the presentation of abstruse subjects. The
introduction of characters to conduct the discussion gave vividness and
clearness to the unfolding of the argument, as well as a kind of dramatic
interest to the production. In the Cato Maior[26] and the Laelius, as
generally, Cicero followed the plan of Aristotle's dialogues (now lost)
rather than that of the dialogues of Plato. In the former there was more of
exposition and less of discussion than in the latter; one person stated his
views on some question, and the company in attendance only made occasional
remarks without attempting to debate the question. In the latter, although
one person, Socrates, is everywhere prominent, others are continually drawn
into the discussions, and there is a quick interchange of question and
answer. The Aristotelian form was better adapted to Cicero's purposes than
the Platonic; the progress of the argument was less interrupted, and thus
better opportunity for a symmetrical development of the theme was afforded.
Then, too, the former was more popular. The style of Aristotle[27] had been
imitated by Theophrastus and many other writers down to Cicero's time,
while that of Plato had found hardly any imitators.

The editors of the Cato Maior have generally assumed that Cicero attempted
to give an antique coloring to the diction of the dialogue in order to
remind readers of Cato's own style. It is only necessary to read a page or
two of Cato's _De Re Rustica_ to have this illusion dispelled. The only
things actually alleged to be archaisms are (1) the use of deponent
participles as passives in §§ 4, 59, 74, a thing common enough in Cicero;
(2) the occurrence of _quasi_ = _quem ad modum_ in § 71; (3) of _audaciter_
= _audacter_ in § 72; (4) of _tuerentur_ for _intuerentur_ in § 77; (5) of
_neutiquam_ in § 42; (6) of the nominative of the gerundive governing an
accusative case in § 6. In every instance the notes will supply a
refutation of the allegation. That Cicero should attempt to write in any
style but his own is exceedingly improbable.

5. _Personages._

The conversation is supposed to take place between Cato, Scipio Africanus
the younger, and Laelius, in the year before Cato's death, _i.e._ 150 B.C.,
when he was in his eighty-fourth year,[28] Scipio being about 35 and
Laelius a few years older.

(1.) _Cato._ M. Porcius Cato was born in 234 B.C.[29] at the ancient Latin
town of Tusculum. Little is known of his family except that it was
plebeian, and possessed a small patrimony in the territory of the Sabines,
close to the farm of M'. Curius Dentatus, one of Cato's great heroes and
models. The heads of the family, so far as memory extended, had
distinguished themselves as tough warriors and hardy farmers. Among the
Sabines, who even down to the times of the Empire were famed for simplicity
of manners and the practice of all the sterner virtues, Cato passed those
portions of his life which were not occupied with business of state. From
his earliest days he toiled in his own fields, and contented himself with
the hardest rustic life.[30] Yet even in his boyhood Cato must have passed
intervals at Rome, and seen something of the great statesmen and generals
of the time.[31] He seems to have received when young as thorough an
education as was possible without learning Greek, such an education as was
to be obtained only in the capital. He grew up to manhood in the
comparatively quiet period between the first and the second Punic wars; the
most exciting event of his younger years must have been the destruction at
Clastidium of the vast hordes of Celts who had swept over the northern half
of Italy, almost within reach of Rome.

Cato was of the age for military service about the time of the battle of
Lake Trasimenus, and entered the army then as a common soldier.[32] The
first expedition in which he is definitely said to have taken part is that
of Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator against Hannibal in Campania, in 214.[33]
This Roman commander was a man entirely after Cato's heart, and became one
of his models in public life.

Before and during the early years of his soldier's life, Cato succeeded in
winning some reputation as an orator, having practised first in the
provincial courts near his home, and afterwards at Rome.[34] This
reputation as well as his great force of character procured for him a
powerful life-long friend and patron, M. Valerius Flaccus, a statesman of
the old Roman conservative-democratic school of politics, the leader of
which was Fabius Cunctator. Through the influence of Flaccus, possibly with
the aid of Fabius, Cato became military tribune, and served with that rank
under Marcellus in Sicily, under Fabius again at the capture of Tarentum in
209,[35] and under C. Claudius Nero at the battle of the Metaurus, where he
contributed materially to that great victory.

In 204 Cato began his political career with the quaestorship.[36] As he was
a _novus homo_ and a man of small private means, it was no small
distinction that he had forced his way to office in his thirtieth year. The
lot assigned him as quaestor to Scipio, then in Sicily and about to cross
over into Africa. The chance was most unfortunate, if for no other reason,
because Cato was intimately connected with the party in the senate opposed
to Scipio, which had been attempting to bring him to trial for the
atrocities committed by the Roman army in southern Italy. But in addition
the two men were so utterly different that there was no possibility of the
quaestor standing in that filial relation to his consul, which old Roman
custom required. As financial officer, Cato complained of the luxury and
extravagance which Scipio allowed not only to himself but to his army. Yet
the complaint was made not so much on economic as on moral grounds; it
seemed to Cato that the old Roman discipline and power to endure hardships
were being swept away. The dispute was ended by Scipio allowing Cato to
return to Rome, some authorities say from Sicily, others from Africa.
According to one writer,[37] he came home by way of Sardinia and brought
thence with him Ennius the poet.[38]

In 199 Cato was plebeian aedile, and exercised with severity the police
jurisdiction pertaining to that office, yet so as to win popular approval,
since he was chosen praetor for 198 without the usual interval. The
province of Sardinia was entrusted to him, and he strained every nerve to
make his government present as strong a contrast as possible with the lax
and corrupt administration of the nobles who took Scipio for their pattern.
The troops were sternly disciplined, and law-breakers of every kind
severely dealt with; in money matters the strictest economy prevailed; all
gifts from provincials to Roman officers were forbidden. The praetor, the
great representative of Roman power, passed from town to town attended by a
single servant.

In 196 Cato was occupied with his canvass for the consulship of the year
195, to which he was elected in company with his friend Flaccus. Cato was
the first _novus homo_ elected since C. Flaminius, the consul of 217. It is
probable, though not certain, that he paved the way to his election by
carrying the first of the _leges Porciae_, restricting the right of
punishing Roman citizens. During the whole of his career Cato showed a high
sense of the importance of the individual _civis Romanus_.

One of the first official acts of the new consul was to deliver a set
speech to the people against a proposal to repeal the Oppian law, passed
twenty years before, the object of which was to prevent lavish expenditure
on dress and adornments, particularly by women. We have a lively report of
Cato's speech from Livy's pen, partly founded on the speech as published by
Cato himself.[39] The earnest pleading in favor of simple manners and
economy failed, after having almost caused an open insurrection on the part
of the women.[40]

The two new provinces in Spain, Hispania Citerior and Ulterior, were still
in a very unsettled state. The nearer province was made a consular province
and assigned to Cato; the praetor who governed the farther province was
also placed under Cato's jurisdiction. Before leaving Rome Cato carried a
law for protecting the provincials from extortion. During the whole of his
year of office he practised with the utmost exactness his principles of
purity, simplicity, and economy in public affairs. He is said to have
started from his house on the journey to Spain with only three servants,
but when he got as far as the forum, it struck him that such an attendance
was scarcely worthy of a Roman consul; so he purchased two more slaves on
the spot! In the same spirit, before returning he sold his horse that the
state might not be at the expense of transporting it to Italy. Cato was no
less careful of the revenue than of the expenditure. He largely increased
the productiveness of the mines and other property belonging to the state,
and all goods captured from the enemy were sold for the benefit of the
exchequer. On leaving the province Cato made an unusually large gift to
each soldier, saying that it was better for all to bring home silver than
for a few to bring home gold. The provincials were thoroughly content with
their ruler and ever after looked on him as their best friend. The army was
kept in the strictest discipline. Some disorderly conduct of the _equites_
was rebuked by Cato in a bitter harangue which he afterwards published.
Partly by craft, partly by good leadership in the field, Cato broke the
strength of the turbulent natives and returned to enjoy a well-earned
triumph.[41] In the same year (194) a brilliant triumph was celebrated by
Flamininus.

Scipio, probably uneasy at the great reputations quickly won by Flamininus
and Cato, secured his second consulship for the year 194, but failed to
achieve anything remarkable. Cato probably spent the three years after his
return for the most part at his Sabine farm. When the war against Antiochus
broke out, he took service along with his friend Flaccus on the staff of
the consul Glabrio,[42] and by a difficult march over the mountains broke
in on the king's rear, and so was chiefly instrumental in winning the great
battle of Thermopylae, by which Antiochus was driven out of Greece.
Immediately after the battle Cato returned home with despatches. We have
dim and uncertain information that he took the field once or twice again,
but his career as a soldier was practically ended.

From this time to his death, forty years later, Cato was the leading figure
on the stage of Roman politics. In season and out of season he attacked
abuses or innovations in speeches addressed to the senate, the people, or
the courts. Soon after his return from Thessaly he struck a heavy blow at
the unrepublican honor-hunting among the magistrates, of which the example
had been set by P. Scipio Africanus. Most provincial governors drove their
subjects into war, sent lying despatches home about their victories, and
claimed a triumph. In 190 Cato attacked with success the proposal to grant
a triumph to Q. Minucius Thermus, who had already triumphed over the
Spaniards as praetor, and after his consulship in 193 had fought against
the Ligurians. Cato's next victim was his former commander M'. Acilius
Glabrio, who came forward at the same time with Cato, Marcellus (a son of
the captor of Syracuse), L. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, T. Quinctius
Flamininus (the conqueror of Macedonia) and Cato's friend L. Valerius
Flaccus, as candidate for the censorship of 189. Cato by his violent
speeches procured the trial of Glabrio for appropriating the plunder
captured in Thessaly, and himself gave evidence concerning some property
which had disappeared. Glabrio denounced Cato as a perjurer, but yet
retired from his candidature. On this occasion Cato and Flaccus failed,
Marcellus being elected as plebeian and Flamininus as patrician censor.

In the next year (188) Cato acted in the senate with the party which tried
unsuccessfully to refuse the triumph to the two consuls of 189, M. Fulvius
Nobilior and Cn. Manlius Vulso, the former of whom had gained none but
trifling advantages over the Aetolians, while the latter had disgraced the
Roman name by making war without authorization upon the Gauls of Asia
Minor, and had also suffered a humiliating defeat from some Thracian robber
bands on his homeward march. Not disheartened by ill success, Cato and his
friends determined to strike at higher game. L. Scipio Asiaticus (or
Asiagenus), the brother of Africanus, was asserted in the senate to have
appropriated 3000 talents of public money when in command against
Antiochus. Legal proceedings were taken not only against Asiaticus, but
against Africanus, who behaved with great violence and arrogance. In the
end Africanus withdrew to his country estate, while his brother was
condemned to pay a heavy fine. A death-stroke had been given to the almost
kingly authority of Africanus, who never again showed his face in Rome. The
proceedings against the Scipios seem to have begun in 187 and not to have
been completed before 185.

Nearly twenty years had passed since the conflict between Cato and Scipio
began, and now it had ended in a complete triumph for Cato.[43] But the new
modes of which Scipio was the chief patron were too strong to be conquered,
and Cato spent the rest of his life in fighting a hopeless battle against
them, though he fought for a time with the strongest weapons that the
constitution supplied. In 184 he was censor along with Flaccus, who seems
to have allowed his colleague full liberty of action. Every portion of the
censor's duty was carried out on the most severe and 'old Roman'
principles. Seven senators were degraded, among them L. Flamininus, an
ex-consul and brother of the 'liberator of the Hellenes,' for serious
misconduct,[44] also Manilius, an ex-praetor, for no worse offence than
that of having kissed his wife in presence of his daughter. M. Furius
Purpurio, who had actually competed with Cato for the censorship, was
punished for diverting a public aqueduct for his private advantage. Flaccus
was named leader of the senate in the place of Scipio Africanus, now dead.

On reviewing the _equites_, Cato removed from that body L. Scipio and many
others on various charges: this one had allowed himself to grow too fat for
horsemanship; that had failed to groom his horse properly; another had
neglected his farm; another again had made an untimely jest on the occasion
of the review itself. With the ordinary citizens Cato dealt just as
harshly. In his censorian edict he sharply reproved the extravagance
prevalent at private feasts. All articles of luxury, such as slaves
purchased at fancy prices, luxurious clothing, carriages, statues, and
pictures were rendered liable to heavy taxation. In this way Cato revenged
himself for the repeal of the Oppian law.

In looking after the property and income of the state Cato followed the
same principles he had acted on in Spain. He reduced the expenditure on
public works as far as possible, and took care to sell at the full price
the right to collect the revenue. Encroachments on the property of the
nation were severely punished.

Not by acts only, but by constant speeches, full at once of grimness and
humor, did Cato struggle against the degeneracy of his time[45]. He
concluded his period of office with a self-laudatory harangue, and assumed
the title _Censorius_, while his statue was placed in the temple of the
goddess Salus with an inscription affirming that he had reformed the Roman
nation.

But in a very brief time all trace of Cato's activity as censor was swept
away, except that afforded by the numerous life-long quarrels in which he
had involved himself[46]. In less than two years one of his victims,
Purpurio, was employed by the senate on a high political mission, while
another, L. Flamininus, sat among the senators at the games in defiance of
Cato's sentence. Yet Cato remained by far the most powerful member of the
senate. Titus Flamininus, his only important rival, quickly passed out of
notice. So far as there was any democratic opposition to the senatorial
oligarchy, Cato was the leader of that opposition for the remainder of his
life. But at that period no great political movements agitated the state
within; nearly the whole interest of the time was centred in the foreign
relations of Rome. On matters of foreign policy Cato offered but little
opposition to the prevailing tendencies of the age, though on particular
occasions he exercised great influence. But his voice was at all times
loudly heard on all questions of morality and public order. He supported
the _lex Furia_ and the _lex Voconia_, the object of which was to prevent
the dissipation of family property, and the _lex Orchia_, directed against
extravagant expenditure on feasts, also the _lex Baebia de ambitu_, the
first serious attempt to check bribery. We hear also that Cato bitterly
attacked Lepidus, censor in 180, for erecting a permanent theatre in place
of the movable booths before used. The building was actually pulled down.
We are told that from time to time he denounced the misdoings of provincial
governors. In 171 he was one of a commission of five for bringing to
justice three ex-praetors who had practised all manner of corruption in
Spain. Almost the last act of his life was to prosecute Galba for cruel
misgovernment of the Lusitanians. The titles of Cato's speeches show that
he played a great part in the deliberations of the senate concerning
foreign affairs, but as his fighting days were over and he was unfitted for
diplomacy, we have little explicit evidence of his activity in this
direction. At the end of the third Macedonian war he successfully opposed
the annexation of Macedonia. He also saved from destruction the Rhodians,
who during the war had plainly desired the victory of Perseus, and in the
early days, when the Roman commanders had ill success, had deeply wounded
the whole Roman nation by an offer to mediate between them and the king of
Macedon.

Cato had all his life retained his feeling of enmity to the Carthaginians,
whom Scipio, he thought, had treated too tenderly. In 150 he was one of an
embassy sent to Carthage, and came back filled with alarm at the prosperity
of the city. It is said that whatever was the subject on which he was asked
for his opinion in the senate, he always ended his speech with '_ceterum
censeo delendam esse Carthaginem_' P. Scipio Nasica, the son-in-law of
Africanus, and the representative of his policy, always shouted out the
opposite opinion, thinking that the fear of Carthage had a salutary effect
on the Roman populace at large. But the ideas of Cato prevailed, and a
cruel policy, carried out with needless brutality, led to the extinction of
Rome's greatest rival. Cato did not live to see the conclusion of the war;
he died in 149, at the age of 84 or 85 years, having retained his mental
and physical vigor to the last. He had two sons, one by his first wife, and
one by his second wife, born when Cato was 80 years of age. The elder son,
to whom many of Cato's works were addressed, died as praetor-elect, before
his father[47]. The other was grandfather of Cato Uticensis.

The literary activity of the old censor was great, though his leisure was
small.[48] In Cicero's time a collection of 150 speeches was still extant.
The titles of about 90 are still known to us, and of some we possess a few
fragments. Cato's greatest work, however, was his _Origines_, the first
real historical work written in Latin. His predecessors had been merely
compilers of chronicles. The work was founded on laborious investigations,
and comprised the history of Rome from the earliest times perhaps down to
150 B.C.[49], as well as notices of the history of other important Italian
states. Further, Cato wrote of Agriculture, to which he was
enthusiastically devoted. We still have his _De Re Rustica_, a collection
of maxims loosely strung together. He also composed works on law; a sort of
educational encyclopaedia for his son; and a collection of witty sayings,
Αποφθεγματα, drawn from Greek as well as from Roman sources.

Plutarch seems to have known a collected edition of the pungent and
proverbial utterances for which the censor was famous, and for which (not
for any knowledge of philosophy[50]) he received the title of _sapiens_
('shrewd') which he bore at the end of his life. This edition, however, was
not compiled by Cato himself.

In view of Cicero's treatise, the Cato Maior, it is necessary to say
something of Cato's relations with the Greeks and Greek literature. The
ancients give us merely vague statements that he only began to learn Greek
'in his old age.' The expression must be liberally interpreted if, as seems
clear, the whole of his writings showed the influence of Greek literature.
It is certain, however, that he thoroughly detested the Greek nation. This
hatred was shown in acts more than once. No doubt Cato was at least a
consenting party to the expulsion from Rome of Greek teachers in 161 B.C.
When in 155 the famous embassy came from Athens consisting of Carneades the
Academic, Critolaus the Peripatetic and Diogenes the Stoic, Cato was a
prime mover of the decree by which they were removed from the city.
Socrates was one of Cato's favorite marks for jests. And this is the man
into whose mouth Cicero puts the utterances, but slightly veiled, of Greek
wisdom!

(2.) _Scipio_. P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the younger, was no blood
relation of the conqueror of Hannibal, but the adopted son of his son. It
must be remembered, however, that adoption was much more formal and
binding, and produced much closer ties in ancient than in modern times.[51]
The elder Africanus was unfortunate in his sons. The younger of these
attained to the praetorship in 174, but was immediately driven from the
senate by the censors of that year on account of his disreputable life. The
elder was an invalid, who never held any office except that of augur, and
died at an early age. He adopted the son of L. Aemilius Paulus, the victor
of Pydna; the adopted son bore the name Aemilianus in memory of his origin.
Cato's son married a daughter of Paulus, so that the censor was brought
into relationship with the Cornelii, whose most illustrious representative
he had hated and attacked.

The young Scipio was born about 185, and when scarce 17 years old fought
with daring bravery at Pydna. While still very young he showed a great
devotion to study, which he retained through life. He was a thorough
partisan of the new Greek learning, and grouped around him in friendship
all the leaders of the Hellenistic movement. Among his dearest friends were
Polybius, the Greek statesman and historian, and later Panaetius, the
Stoic. In 151 B.C. when the consuls found it difficult to enlist officers
and men for service in Spain, where great defeats had been suffered, Scipio
volunteered, and served with great distinction as military tribune. When
the war with Carthage broke out he held the same rank, and shone by
comparison with his blundering superior officers. Coming to Rome in 148 he
stood for the aedileship, but was elected consul for the year 147, and
again for 146, when he finished the war. He is said to have grieved over
the fate of Carthage, and to have dreaded any further increase of the Roman
territory. In 142 Scipio was censor, and acted with almost Catonian
severity. In 134, though not a candidate, he was elected to the consulship
and put in command of the Roman army then besieging the city of Numantia in
Spain. The war, of which this siege formed a part, had been going on for
some years most disastrously for the Romans, but Scipio speedily brought it
to a conclusion in 133. While before Numantia he received news of the
murder of Ti. Gracchus, whose sister he had married and whose cousin he had
become by adoption, but whose policy he had on the whole opposed, though he
had occasionally coquetted with the democrats. This course cost him the
favor of the people, and when in 131 he desired to conduct the war against
Aristonicus, only two of the thirty-five tribes voted for his appointment.
In 129, after a violent scene in the senate, where he had opposed the
carrying out of Ti. Gracchus' agrarian law, he was triumphantly escorted
home by a crowd, composed chiefly of Italians whose interests had been
threatened by the law. Next morning he was found dead in his bed. Opinion
as to the cause of his death was divided at the time and so remained. In
the _Laelius_ the death is assumed to have been from natural causes.[52]
Elsewhere, however, Cicero adopts the view of many of Scipio's friends that
he was murdered by Carbo.[53] Carbo afterwards lent color to the suspicions
by putting himself to death, in order, as was supposed, to avoid a direct
prosecution. In ancient times even C. Gracchus was suspected of having thus
avenged his brother's death, but no modern scholar of any rank has
countenanced the suspicion.

Whether the degree of intimacy between Cato and Scipio, which Cicero
assumes, ever existed or not, cannot be determined.[54] There was much in
Scipio that would attract Cato. Unlike the elder Africanus, he was severe
and simple in his outward life, and though a lover of Greek and Greeks, yet
attached to all that was best in the old Roman character and polity. Though
an opponent of revolution, he was far from being a partisan of the
oligarchy. Altogether, of all Romans, he most nearly deserved the
description, 'ανηρ τετραγωνος ανευ ψογου,' 'a man four-square without
reproach.' In his _De Re Publica_, Cicero points to Scipio as the ideal
statesman, and often elsewhere eulogizes him as an almost perfect Roman.

(3.) _Laelius_. Gaius Laelius, born about 186, was Scipio's most
distinguished officer before Carthage, and his most intimate friend
throughout life. The friendship of the two was one of the most famous in
antiquity, and is celebrated in the _Laelius_. Laelius was an able speaker,
writer and soldier, and devoted to Greek learning, particularly to the
Stoic philosophy. He is with Cicero the type of a man of culture.[55] He,
too, is one of the interlocutors in the _De Re Publica_.

(ii.) SUBJECT-MATTER.

1. _General View_.

The Cato Maior falls naturally into three parts:--

  Preliminary, dedication to Atticus, §§ 1-3;
  Introductory Conversation, 4-9;
  Cato's Defence of Old Age, 10-85.

After § 9 Cato continues to express his views on old age without
interruption to the end, and the dialogue thus becomes really a monologue.

2. _Analysis._

  PRELIMINARY  1-3.

Cicero, addressing Atticus, states his purpose in writing the book and the
effect of the work on himself (1, 2), the reasons for putting the
sentiments on old age into the mouth of Cato, and the circumstances of the
supposed conversation (3).

  INTRODUCTORY CONVERSATION    4-9.

Scipio declares his admiration of Cato's vigorous and happy old age. Cato
replies that the secret lies in following the guidance of Nature (4, 5).
Laelius then asks Cato to point out the road to such an old age as his own
(6). This the old man promises to do, but first remarks that the faults
charged against old age are generally due to defects of character (7).
Laelius suggests that prosperity makes Cato's declining years pleasant.
Cato admits that there may be some truth in this, but maintains that right
character alone can make old age tolerable (8, 9).

  CATO'S DEFENCE OF OLD AGE    10-85.

A. Introductory argument from fact. Account of celebrated old men whose
lives till death were useful and happy 10-14

  (a). Fabius Maximus                                  10-12
  (b). Plato; (c). Isocrates; (d). Gorgias                13
  (e). Ennius                                             14

B. Refutation of charges made against old age 15-85

_Statement of the four charges commonly made against old age_: it withdraws
men from active life, it weakens the physical powers, it takes away
capacity for enjoyment, and it involves the anticipation of death 15

A. Refutation of the first charge, that old age withdraws from active life.

  (a). There are employments suited to old age which
      are as necessary to the well-being of society as
      those which require greater physical powers          15-20

  (b). The special objection that old men have weak
      memories is answered by showing that this is
      due either to an original defect or to insufficient
      exercise                                             21-22


  (c). Argument from fact: instances of old men in
      public and in private life who till death were
      actively at work                                      23-26

B. Rebuttal of the second charge, that old age weakens the physical powers.

  (a). Old age does not desire nor require the strength
      of youth, because it may exert influence
      through other means. Instances cited to show
      this                                                  27-32

  (b). Temperate habits will retain a good measure
      of strength till old age (33, 34); many instances
      of weakness in old age may be attributed to
      ill-health, which is common to all periods of
      life (35); proper care will greatly  retard decay     33-38

C. Refutation of the third charge, that old age takes away the capacity for
enjoyment

  (a). The pleasures in which youth finds its keenest
      enjoyment are in themselves bad, and old age
      is beneficent in freeing from their allurements       39-44

  (b). Old age has pleasures far more refined and satisfying
      than those of sense                                   45-64
      Such as, those of conversation and literature
      (45-50); especially those of agriculture (51-61);
      and lastly, the exercise of influence, which old
      age will always possess if a rightly spent youth
      has preceded (62-64).

  (c). The special objection that old men's tempers
      spoil their enjoyments is met by the statement
      that this is the fault of character, not of age          65

D. Refutation of the fourth charge, that old age is unhappy because it
involves the anticipation of death.

  (a). Since the right aim of life is to live not long
      but well, death ought not to be dreaded at any
      age                                                   66-69


  (b). Old men, especially those of learning and culture,
      ought not to fear death                                       70-76
      Because, that which is according to nature is
      good, and it is natural for old men to die (70-73);
      the process of dying is brief and almost painless
      (74); even young men and those without learning
      often set the example of despising death
      (75); and old age, just as the other periods
      of life, has finally its season of ripeness and
      satiety (76).

  (c). Death is probably the gateway to a happy immortality     77-85
      Tending towards proof of this are the arguments
      stated in Plato; viz. the rapidity of the
      mind's action, its powers of memory and invention,
      its self-activity, indivisible nature and pre-existence
      (78); also the arguments, attributed
      to Cyrus, based upon the soul's immateriality,
      the posthumous fame of great men and the
      likeness of death to sleep (79-81); the instinctive
      belief in immortality, so strong as even to
      form an incentive for action (82); and, finally,
      the speaker's own longing after immortality and
      hope of union with those whom he once knew
      and loved (83-85).

       *       *       *       *       *

CATO MAIOR DE SENECTUTE

       *       *       *       *       *

M. TULLI CICERONIS

CATO MAIOR

DE SENECTUTE.

       *       *       *       *       *

1


  _O Tite, si quid ego adiuero curamve levasso_
  _quae nunc te coquit et versat in pectore fixa,_
  _ecquid erit praemi?_

Licet enim mihi versibus isdem affari te, Attice, quibus affatur Flamininum

  _ille vir haud magna cum re, sed plenus fidei,_

quamquam certo scio non, ut Flamininum,

  _sollicitari te, Tite, sic noctesque diesque,_

novi enim moderationem animi tui et aequitatem, teque non cognomen solum
Athenis deportasse, sed humanitatem et prudentiam intellego. Et tamen te
suspicor isdem rebus quibus me ipsum interdum gravius commoveri, quarum
consolatio et maior est et in aliud tempus differenda. Nunc autem visum est
mihi de senectute aliquid ad te conscribere. 2 Hoc enim onere, quod mihi
commune tecum est, aut iam urgentis aut certe adventantis senectutis et te
et me ipsum levari volo: etsi te quidem id modice ac sapienter, sicut
omnia, et ferre et laturum esse certo scio. Sed mihi, cum de senectute
vellem aliquid scribere, tu occurrebas dignus eo munere, quo uterque
nostrum communiter uteretur. Mihi quidem ita iucunda huius libri confectio
fuit, ut non modo omnis absterserit senectutis molestias, sed effecerit
mollem etiam et iucundam senectutem. Numquam igitur laudari satis digne
philosophia poterit cui qui pareat omne tempus aetatis sine molestia possit
degere. 3 Sed de ceteris et diximus multa et saepe dicemus: hunc librum ad
te de senectute misimus. Omnem autem sermonem tribuimus non Tithono, ut
Aristo Cius, parum enim esset auctoritatis in fabula, sed M. Catoni seni,
quo maiorem auctoritatem haberet oratio: apud quem Laelium et Scipionem
facimus admirantis, quod is tam facile senectutem ferat, eisque eum
respondentem, qui si eruditius videbitur disputare quam consuevit ipse in
suis libris, attribuito litteris Graecis, quarum constat eum perstudiosum
fuisse in senectute. Sed quid opus est plura? Iam enim ipsius Catonis sermo
explicabit nostram omnem de senectute sententiam.

II. 4 SCIPIO. Saepe numero admirari soleo cum hoc C. Laelio cum ceterarum
rerum tuam excellentem, M. Cato, perfectamque sapientiam, tum vel maxime
quod numquam tibi senectutem gravem esse senserim, quae plerisque senibus
sic odiosa est, ut onus se Aetna gravius dicant sustinere.

CATO. Rem haud sane, Scipio et Laeli, difficilem admirari videmini. Quibus
enim nihil est in ipsis opis ad bene beateque vivendum, eis omnis aetas
gravis est: qui autem omnia bona a se ipsi petunt, eis nihil potest malum
videri quod naturae necessitas afferat. Quo in genere est in primis
senectus, quam ut adipiscantur omnes optant, eandem accusant adeptam: tanta
est stultitiae inconstantia atque perversitas. Obrepere aiunt eam citius
quam putassent. Primum quis coegit eos falsum putare? Qui enim citius
adulescentiae senectus quam pueritiae adulescentia obrepit? Deinde qui
minus gravis esset eis senectus, si octingentesimum annum agerent, quam si
octogesimum? Praeterita enim aetas quamvis longa, cum effluxisset, nulla
consolatione permulcere posset stultam senectutem. 5 Quocirca si sapientiam
meam admirari soletis, quae utinam digna esset opinione vestra nostroque
cognomine, in hoc sumus sapientes, quod naturam optimam ducem tamquam deum
sequimur eique paremus: a qua non veri simile est, cum ceterae partes
aetatis bene descriptae sint, extremum actum tamquam ab inerti poeta esse
neglectum. Sed tamen necesse fuit esse aliquid extremum et, tamquam in
arborum bacis terraeque fructibus, maturitate tempestiva quasi vietum et
caducum, quod ferundum est molliter sapienti. Quid est enim aliud Gigantum
modo bellare cum dis nisi naturae repugnare?

6 LAELIUS. Atqui, Cato, gratissimum nobis, ut etiam pro Scipione pollicear,
feceris, si, quoniam speramus, volumus quidem certe, senes fieri, multo
ante a te didicerimus quibus facillime rationibus ingravescentem aetatem
ferre possimus.

CATO. Faciam vero, Laeli, praesertim si utrique vestrum, ut dicis, gratum
futurum est.

LAELIUS. Volumus sane, nisi molestum est, Cato, tamquam longam aliquam viam
confeceris, quam nobis quoque ingrediundum sit, istuc, quo pervenisti,
videre quale sit.

III. 7 CATO. Faciam ut potero, Laeli. Saepe enim interfui querellis
aequalium meorum, pares autem vetere proverbio cum paribus facillime
congregantur, quae C. Salinator, quae Sp. Albinus, homines consulares,
nostri fere aequales, deplorare solebant, tum quod voluptatibus carerent,
sine quibus vitam nullam putarent, tum quod spernerentur ab eis, a quibus
essent coli soliti; qui mihi non id videbantur accusare, quod esset
accusandum. Nam si id culpa senectutis accideret, eadem mihi usu venirent
reliquisque omnibus maioribus natu, quorum ego multorum cognovi senectutem
sine querella, qui se et libidinum vinculis laxatos esse non moleste
ferrent nec a suis despicerentur. Sed omnium istius modi querellarum in
moribus est culpa, non in aetate. Moderati enim et nec difficiles nec
inhumani senes tolerabilem senectutem agunt, importunitas autem et
inhumanitas omni aetati molesta est.

8 LAELIUS. Est, ut dicis, Cato; sed fortasse dixerit quispiam tibi propter
opes et copias et dignitatem tuam tolerabiliorem senectutem videri, id
autem non posse multis contingere.

CATO. Est istuc quidem, Laeli, aliquid, sed nequaquam in isto sunt omnia;
ut Themistocles fertur Seriphio cuidam in iurgio respondisse, cum ille
dixisset non eum sua, sed patriae gloria splendorem assecutum: 'nec
hercule', inquit, 'si ego Seriphius essem, nec tu, si Atheniensis, clarus
umquam fuisses'. Quod eodem modo de senectute dici potest; nec enim in
summa inopia levis esse senectus potest, ne sapienti quidem, nec insipienti
etiam in summa copia non gravis. 9 Aptissima omnino sunt, Scipio et Laeli,
arma senectutis artes exercitationesque virtutum, quae in omni aetate
cultae, cum diu multumque vixeris, mirificos ecferunt fructus, non solum
quia numquam deserunt, ne extremo quidem tempore aetatis, quamquam id
quidem maximum est, verum etiam quia conscientia bene actae vitae
multorumque bene factorum recordatio iucundissima est.

IV. 10 Ego Q. Maximum, eum qui Tarentum recepit, senem adulescens ita
dilexi, ut aequalem. Erat enim in illo viro comitate condita gravitas, nec
senectus mores mutaverat. Quamquam eum colere coepi non admodum grandem
natu, sed tamen iam aetate provectum. Anno enim post consul primum fuerat
quam ego natus sum, cumque eo quartum consule adulescentulus miles ad
Capuam profectus sum quintoque anno post ad Tarentum. Quaestor deinde
quadriennio post factus sum, quem magistratum gessi consulibus Tuditano et
Cethego, cum quidem ille admodum senex suasor legis Cinciae de donis et
muneribus fuit. Hic et bella gerebat ut adulescens, cum plane grandis
esset, et Hannibalem iuveniliter exsultantem patientia sua molliebat; de
quo praeclare familiaris noster Ennius:

  _unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem;_
  _noenum rumores ponebat ante salutem;_
  _ergo plusque magisque viri nunc gloria claret._

11 Tarentum vero qua vigilantia, quo consilio recepit! Cum quidem me
audiente Salinatori, qui amisso oppido fugerat in arcem, glorianti atque
ita dicenti, 'mea opera, Q. Fabi, Tarentum recepisti', 'certe', inquit
ridens, 'nam nisi tu amisisses, numquam recepissem'. Nec vero in armis
praestantior quam in toga; qui consul iterum, Sp. Carvilio collega
quiescente, C. Flaminio tribuno plebis, quoad potuit, restitit agrum
Picentem et Gallicum viritim contra senatus auctoritatem dividenti,
augurque cum esset, dicere ausus est optimis auspiciis ea geri, quae pro
rei publicae salute gererentur; quae contra rem publicam ferrentur, contra
auspicia ferri. 12 Multa in eo viro praeclara cognovi, sed nihil
admirabilius quam quo modo ille mortem fili tulit, clari viri et
consularis. Est in manibus laudatio, quam cum legimus, quem philosophum non
contemnimus? Nec vero ille in luce modo atque in oculis civium magnus, sed
intus domique praestantior. Qui sermo, quae praecepta! Quanta notitia
antiquitatis, scientia iuris auguri! Multae etiam, ut in homine Romano,
litterae: omnia memoria tenebat non domestica solum, sed etiam externa
bella. Cuius sermone ita tum cupide fruebar, quasi iam divinarem, id quod
evenit, illo exstincto fore unde discerem neminem.

V. 13 Quorsus igitur haec tam multa de Maximo? Quia profecto videtis nefas
esse dictu miseram fuisse talem senectutem. Nec tamen omnes possunt esse
Scipiones aut Maximi, ut urbium expugnationes, ut pedestris navalisve
pugnas, ut bella a se gesta, ut triumphos recordentur. Est etiam quiete et
pure atque eleganter actae aetatis placida ac lenis senectus, qualem
accepimus Platonis, qui uno et octogesimo anno scribens est mortuus, qualem
Isocrati, qui eum librum, qui Panathenaicus inscribitur, quarto nonagesimo
anno scripsisse dicit vixitque quinquennium postea; cuius magister
Leontinus Gorgias centum et septem complevit annos, neque umquam in suo
studio atque opere cessavit. Qui, cum ex eo quaereretur cur tam diu vellet
esse in vita, 'nihil habeo,' inquit, 'quod accusem senectutem'. Praeclarum
responsum et docto homine dignum! 14 Sua enim vitia insipientes et suam
culpam in senectutem conferunt, quod non faciebat is, cuius modo mentionem
feci, Ennius:

  _sic ut fortis ecus, spatio qui saepe supremo_
  _vicit Olumpia, nunc senio confectus quiescit._

Equi fortis et victoris senectuti comparat suam; quem quidem probe
meminisse potestis; anno enim undevicesimo post eius mortem hi consules, T.
Flamininus et M'. Acilius, facti sunt; ille autem Caepione et Philippo
iterum consulibus mortuus est, cum ego quinque et sexaginta annos natus
legem Voconiam magna voce et bonis lateribus suasissem. Annos septuaginta
natus, tot enim vixit Ennius, ita ferebat duo quae maxima putantur, onera,
paupertatem et senectutem, ut eis paene delectari videretur.

15 Etenim, cum complector animo, quattuor reperio causas cur senectus
misera videatur: unam, quod avocet a rebus gerendis; alteram, quod corpus
faciat infirmius; tertiam, quod privet omnibus fere voluptatibus; quartam,
quod haud procul absit a morte. Earum, si placet, causarum quanta quamque
sit iusta una quaeque videamus.

VI. A rebus gerendis senectus abstrahit. Quibus? An eis, quae iuventute
geruntur et viribus? Nullaene igitur res sunt seniles, quae vel infirmis
corporibus animo tamen administrentur? Nihil ergo agebat Q. Maximus, nihil
L. Paulus, pater tuus, socer optimi viri fili mei? Ceteri senes, Fabricii
Curii Coruncanii, cum rem publicam consilio et auctoritate defendebant,
nihil agebant? 16 Ad Appi Claudi senectutem accedebat etiam ut caecus
esset; tamen is, cum sententia senatus inclinaret ad pacem cum Pyrrho
foedusque faciendum, non dubitavit dicere illa, quae versibus persecutus
est Ennius:

  _quo vobis mentes, rectae quae stare solebant_
  _antehac, dementis sese flexere viai?_

ceteraque gravissime, notum enim vobis carmen est, et tamen ipsius Appi
exstat oratio. Atque haec ille egit septemdecim annis post alterum
consulatum, cum inter duos consulatus anni decem interfuissent censorque
ante superiorem consulatum fuisset, ex quo intellegitur Pyrrhi bello
grandem sane fuisse, et tamen sic a patribus accepimus. 17 Nihil igitur
afferunt qui in re gerenda versari senectutem negant, similesque sunt ut si
qui gubernatorem in navigando nihil agere dicant, cum alii malos scandant,
alii per foros cursent, alii sentinam exhauriant, ille clavum tenens
quietus sedeat in puppi, non faciat ea, quae iuvenes. At vero multo maiora
et meliora facit. Non viribus aut velocitate aut celeritate corporum res
magnae geruntur, sed consilio auctoritate sententia, quibus non modo non
orbari, sed etiam augeri senectus solet; 18 nisi forte ego vobis, qui et
miles et tribunus et legatus et consul versatus sum in vario genere
bellorum, cessare nunc videor, cum bella non gero. At senatui quae sint
gerenda praescribo et quo modo; Carthagini male iam diu cogitanti bellum
multo ante denuntio, de qua vereri non ante desinam quam illam exscisam
esse cognovero. 19 Quam palmam utinam di immortales, Scipio, tibi
reservent, ut avi relliquias persequare, cuius a morte tertius hic et
tricesimus annus est, sed memoriam illius viri omnes excipient anni
consequentes. Anno ante me censorem mortuus est, novem annis post meum
consulatum, cum consul iterum me consule creatus esset. Num igitur, si ad
centesimum annum vixisset, senectutis eum suae paeniteret? Nec enim
excursione nec saltu, nec eminus hastis aut comminus gladiis uteretur, sed
consilio ratione sententia, quae nisi essent in senibus, non summum
consilium maiores nostri appellassent senatum. 20 Apud Lacedaemonios quidem
ei, qui amplissimum magistratum gerunt, ut sunt, sic etiam nominantur
senes. Quod si legere aut audire voletis externa, maximas res publicas ab
adulescentibus labefactatas, a senibus sustentatas et restitutas
reperietis.

  _Cedo qui vestram rem publicam tantam amisistis tam cito?_

sic enim percontantur in Naevi poetae Ludo. Respondentur et alia et hoc in
primis:

  _proveniebant oratores novi, stulti adulescentuli._

Temeritas est videlicet florentis aetatis, prudentia senescentis.

VII. 21 At memoria minuitur. Credo, nisi eam exerceas, aut etiam si sis
natura tardior. Themistocles omnium civium perceperat nomina; num igitur
censetis eum, cum aetate processisset, qui Aristides esset Lysimachum
salutare solitum? Equidem non modo eos novi qui sunt, sed eorum patres
etiam et avos, nec sepulcra legens vereor, quod aiunt, ne memoriam perdam;
his enim ipsis legendis in memoriam redeo mortuorum. Nec vero quemquam
senem audivi oblitum, quo loco thesaurum obruisset. Omnia quae curant
meminerunt, vadimonia constituta, quis sibi, cui ipsi debeant. 22 Quid
iuris consulti, quid pontifices, quid augures, quid philosophi senes? Quam
multa meminerunt! Manent ingenia senibus, modo permaneat studium et
industria, neque ea solum claris et honoratis viris, sed in vita etiam
privata et quieta. Sophocles ad summam senectutem tragoedias fecit; quod
propter studium cum rem neglegere familiarem videretur, a filiis in
iudicium vocatus est, ut, quem ad modum nostro more male rem gerentibus
patribus bonis interdici solet, sic illum quasi desipientem a re familiari
removerent iudices. Tum senex dicitur eam fabulam quam in manibus habebat
et proxime scripserat, Oedipum Coloneum, recitasse iudicibus quaesisseque
num illud carmen desipientis videretur, quo recitato sententiis iudicum est
liberatus. 23 Num igitur hunc, num Homerum Hesiodum Simoniden Stesichorum,
num quos ante dixi Isocraten Gorgian, num philosophorum principes,
Pythagoran Democritum, num Platonem Xenocraten, num postea Zenonem
Cleanthen, aut eum, quem vos etiam vidistis Romae, Diogenen Stoicum coegit
in suis studiis obmutiscere senectus? An in omnibus studiorum agitatio
vitae aequalis fuit? 24 Age, ut ista divina studia omittamus, possum
nominare ex agro Sabino rusticos Romanos, vicinos et familiaris meos,
quibus absentibus numquam fere ulla in agro maiora opera fiunt, non
serendis, non percipiendis, non condendis fructibus. Quamquam in aliis
minus hoc mirum est, nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse
vivere; sed idem in eis elaborant, quae sciunt nihil ad se omnino
pertinere:

  _serit arbores, quae alteri saeclo prosint,_

ut ait Statius noster in Synephebis. 25 Nec vero dubitat agricola, quamvis
sit senex, quaerenti cui serat respondere: 'dis immortalibus, qui me non
accipere modo haec a maioribus voluerunt, sed etiam posteris prodere'.

VIII. Et melius Caecilius de sene alteri saeculo prospiciente, quam illud
idem:

  _edepol, senectus, si nil quicquam aliud viti_
  _adportes tecum, cum advenis, unum id sat est,_
  _quod diu vivendo multa quae non volt videt._

Et multa fortasse quae volt, atque in ea, quae non volt, saepe etiam
adulescentia incurrit. Illud vero idem Caecilius vitiosius:

  _tum equidem in senecta hoc deputo miserrimum,_
  _sentire ea aetate eumpse esse odiosum alteri._

26 Iucundum potius quam odiosum! Ut enim adulescentibus bona indole
praeditis sapientes senes delectantur, leviorque fit senectus eorum qui a
iuventute coluntur et diliguntur, sic adulescentes senum praeceptis
gaudent, quibus ad virtutum studia ducuntur, nec minus intellego me vobis
quam mihi vos esse iucundos. Sed videtis, ut senectus non modo languida
atque iners non sit, verum etiam sit operosa et semper agens aliquid et
moliens, tale scilicet, quale cuiusque studium in superiore vita fuit.
Quid, qui etiam addiscunt aliquid, ut et Solonem versibus gloriantem
videmus, qui se cotidie aliquid addiscentem dicit senem fieri, et ego feci,
qui litteras Graecas senex didici, quas quidem sic avide arripui quasi
diuturnam sitim explere cupiens, ut ea ipsa mihi nota essent, quibus me
nunc exemplis uti videtis. Quod cum fecisse Socraten in fidibus audirem,
vellem equidem etiam illud, discebant enim fidibus antiqui, sed in litteris
certe elaboravi.

IX. 27 Ne nunc quidem viris desidero adulescentis, is enim erat locus alter
de vitiis senectutis, non plus quam adulescens tauri aut elephanti
desiderabam. Quod est, eo decet uti et quidquid agas agere pro viribus.
Quae enim vox potest esse contemptior quam Milonis Crotoniatae? Qui cum iam
senex esset athletasque se exercentis in curriculo videret, aspexisse
lacertos suos dicitur illacrimansque dixisse, 'at hi quidem mortui iam
sunt'. Non vero tam isti, quam tu ipse, nugator, neque enim ex te umquam es
nobilitatus, sed ex lateribus et lacertis tuis. Nihil Sex. Aelius tale,
nihil multis annis ante Ti. Coruncanius, nihil modo P. Crassus, a quibus
iura civibus praescribebantur, quorum usque ad extremum spiritum est
provecta prudentia. 28 Orator metuo ne languescat senectute: est enim munus
eius non ingeni solum, sed laterum etiam et virium. Omnino canorum illud in
voce splendescit etiam nescio quo pacto in senectute, quod equidem adhuc
non amisi, et videtis annos. Sed tamen est decorus seni sermo quietus et
remissus, facitque persaepe ipsa sibi audientiam diserti senis composita et
mitis oratio, quam si ipse exsequi nequeas, possis tamen Scipioni
praecipere et Laelio. Quid enim est iucundius senectute stipata studiis
iuventutis? 29 An ne illas quidem viris senectuti relinquimus, ut
adulescentis doceat, instituat, ad omne offici munus instruat? Quo quidem
opere quid potest esse praeclarius? Mihi vero et Cn. et P. Scipiones et avi
tui duo L. Aemilius et P. Africanus comitatu nobilium iuvenum fortunati
videbantur, nec ulli bonarum artium magistri non beati putandi, quamvis
consenuerint vires atque defecerint. Etsi ipsa ista defectio virium
adulescentiae vitiis efficitur saepius quam senectute; libidinosa enim et
intemperans adulescentia effetum corpus tradit senectuti. 30 Cyrus quidem
apud Xenophontem eo sermone, quem moriens habuit, cum admodum senex esset,
negat se umquam sensisse senectutem suam imbecilliorem factam quam
adulescentia fuisset. Ego L. Metellum memini puer, qui, cum quadriennio
post alterum consulatum pontifex maximus factus esset, viginti et duos
annos ei sacerdotio praefuit, ita bonis esse viribus extremo tempore
aetatis, ut adulescentiam non requireret. Nihil necesse est mihi de me ipso
dicere, quamquam est id quidem senile aetatique nostrae conceditur. X. 31
Videtisne, ut apud Homerum saepissime Nestor de virtutibus suis praedicet?
Tertiam enim aetatem hominum videbat, nec erat ei verendum ne vera
praedicans de se nimis videretur aut insolens aut loquax. Etenim, ut ait
Homerus, ex eius lingua melle dulcior fluebat oratio; quam ad suavitatem
nullis egebat corporis viribus. Et tamen dux ille Graeciae nusquam optat ut
Aiacis similis habeat decem, sed ut Nestoris, quod si sibi acciderit, non
dubitat quin brevi sit Troia peritura. 32 Sed redeo ad me. Quartum ago
annum et octogesimum: vellem equidem idem posse gloriari quod Cyrus, sed
tamen hoc queo dicere, non me quidem eis esse viribus, quibus aut miles
bello Punico aut quaestor eodem bello aut consul in Hispania fuerim aut
quadriennio post, cum tribunus militaris depugnavi apud Thermopylas M'.
Glabrione consule; sed tamen, ut vos videtis, non plane me enervavit, non
afflixit senectus: non curia viris meas desiderat, non rostra, non amici,
non clientes, non hospites. Nec enim umquam sum assensus veteri illi
laudatoque proverbio, quod monet mature fieri senem, si diu velis senex
esse. Ego vero me minus diu senem esse mallem quam esse senem ante quam
essem. Itaque nemo adhuc convenire me voluit cui fuerim occupatus. 33 At
minus habeo virium quam vestrum utervis. Ne vos quidem T. Ponti centurionis
viris habetis: num idcirco est ille praestantior? Moderatio modo virium
adsit et tantum quantum potest quisque nitatur, ne ille non magno desiderio
tenebitur virium. Olympiae per stadium ingressus esse Milo dicitur, cum
umeris sustineret bovem: utrum igitur has corporis an Pythagorae tibi malis
viris ingeni dari? Denique isto bono utare, dum adsit, cum absit, ne
requiras: nisi forte adulescentes pueritiam, paulum aetate progressi
adulescentiam debent requirere. Cursus est certus aetatis et una via
naturae eaque simplex, suaque cuique parti aetatis tempestivitas est data,
ut et infirmitas puerorum et ferocitas iuvenum et gravitas iam constantis
aetatis et senectutis maturitas naturale quiddam habet, quod suo tempore
percipi debeat. 34 Audire te arbitror, Scipio, hospes tuus avitus Masinissa
quae faciat hodie nonaginta natus annos: cum ingressus iter pedibus sit, in
equum omnino non ascendere; cum autem equo, ex equo non descendere; nullo
imbri, nullo frigore adduci ut capite operto sit; summam esse in eo
corporis siccitatem, itaque omnia exsequi regis officia et munera. Potest
igitur exercitatio et temperantia etiam in senectute conservare aliquid
pristini roboris.

XI. Ne sint in senectute vires: ne postulantur quidem vires a senectute.
Ergo et legibus et institutis vacat aetas nostra muneribus eis quae non
possunt sine viribus sustineri. Itaque non modo quod non possumus, sed ne
quantum possumus quidem cogimur. 35 At multi ita sunt imbecilli senes, ut
nullum offici aut omnino vitae munus exsequi possint. At id quidem non
proprium senectutis vitium est, sed commune valetudinis. Quam fuit
imbecillus P. Africani filius, is qui te adoptavit, quam tenui aut nulla
potius valetudine! Quod ni ita fuisset, alterum illud exstitisset lumen
civitatis; ad paternam enim magnitudinem animi doctrina uberior accesserat.
Quid mirum igitur in senibus, si infirmi sunt aliquando, cum id ne
adulescentes quidem effugere possint? Resistendum, Laeli et Scipio,
senectuti est, eiusque vitia diligentia compensanda sunt, pugnandum tamquam
contra morbum sic contra senectutem, 36 habenda ratio valetudinis, utendum
exercitationibus modicis, tantum cibi et potionis adhibendum, ut
reficiantur vires, non opprimantur. Nec vero corpori solum subveniendum
est, sed menti atque animo multo magis. Nam haec quoque, nisi tamquam
lumini oleum instilles, exstinguuntur senectute. Et corpora quidem
exercitationum defetigatione ingravescunt, animi autem exercitando
levantur. Nam quos ait Caecilius 'comicos stultos senes,' hos significat
credulos obliviosos dissolutos, quae vitia sunt non senectutis, sed inertis
ignavae somniculosae senectutis. Ut petulantia, ut libido magis est
adulescentium quam senum, nec tamen omnium adulescentium, sed non proborum,
sic ista senilis stultitia, quae deliratio appellari solet, senum levium
est, non omnium. 37 Quattuor robustos filios, quinque filias, tantam domum,
tantas clientelas Appius regebat et caecus et senex; intentum enim animum
tamquam arcum habebat nec languescens succumbebat senectuti. Tenebat non
modo auctoritatem, sed etiam imperium in suos: metuebant servi, verebantur
liberi, carum omnes habebant; vigebat in illo animus patrius et disciplina.
38 Ita enim senectus honesta est, si se ipsa defendit, si ius suum retinet,
si nemini emancipata est, si usque ad ultimum spiritum dominatur in suos.
Ut enim adulescentem in quo est senile aliquid, sic senem in quo est
aliquid adulescentis probo, quod qui sequitur, corpore senex esse poterit,
animo numquam erit. Septimus mihi liber Originum est in manibus; ommia
antiquitatis monumenta colligo; causarum illustrium, quascunque defendi,
nunc cum maxime conficio orationes; ius augurium pontificium civile tracto;
multum etiam Graecis litteris utor, Pythagoriorumque more, exercendae
memoriae gratia, quid quoque die dixerim audierim egerim commemoro vesperi.
Hae sunt exercitationes ingeni, haec curricula mentis; in his desudans
atque elaborans corporis viris non magno opere desidero. Adsum amicis,
venio in senatum frequens ultroque affero res multum et diu cogitatas
easque tueor animi, non corporis viribus. Quas si exsequi nequirem, tamen
me lectulus meus oblectaret ea ipsa cogitantem, quae iam agere non possem;
sed ut possim facit acta vita. Semper enim in his studiis laboribusque
viventi non intellegitur quando obrepat senectus: ita sensim sine sensu
aetas senescit nec subito frangitur, sed diuturnitate exstinguitur.

XII. 39 Sequitur tertia vituperatio senectutis, quod eam carere dicunt
voluptatibus. O praeclarum munus aetatis, si quidem id aufert a nobis, quod
est in adulescentia vitiosissimum! Accipite enim, optimi adulescentes,
veterem orationem Archytae Tarentini, magni in primis et praeclari viri,
quae mihi tradita est cum essem adulescens Tarenti cum Q. Maximo. Nullam
capitaliorem pestem quam voluptatem corporis hominibus dicebat a natura
datam, cuius voluptatis avidae libidines temere et ecfrenate ad potiendum
incitarentur. Hinc patriae proditiones, 40 hinc rerum publicarum
eversiones, hinc cum hostibus clandestina colloquia nasci; nullum denique
scelus, nullum malum facinus esse ad quod suscipiendum non libido
voluptatis impelleret; stupra vero et adulteria et omne tale flagitium
nullis excitari aliis illecebris nisi voluptatis; cumque homini sive natura
sive quis deus nihil mente praestabilius dedisset, huic divino muneri ac
dono nihil tam esse inimicum quam voluptatem. 41 Nec enim libidine
dominante temperantiae locum esse, neque omnino in voluptatis regno
virtutem posse consistere. Quod quo magis intellegi posset, fingere animo
iubebat tanta incitatum aliquem voluptate corporis, quanta percipi posset
maxima: nemini censebat fore dubium quin tam diu, dum ita gauderet, nihil
agitare mente, nihil ratione, nihil cogitatione consequi posset. Quocirca
nihil esse tam detestabile tamque pestiferum quam voluptatem, si quidem ea,
cum maior esset atque longior, omne animi lumen exstingueret. Haec cum C.
Pontio Samnite, patre eius, a quo Caudino proelio Sp. Postumius T. Veturius
consules superati sunt, locutum Archytam Nearchus Tarentinus hospes noster,
qui in amicitia populi Romani permanserat, se a maioribus natu accepisse
dicebat, cum quidem ei sermoni interfuisset Plato Atheniensis, quem
Tarentum venisse L. Camillo Ap. Claudio consulibus reperio. 42 Quorsus hoc?
Ut intellegeretis, si voluptatem aspernari ratione et sapientia non
possemus, magnam esse habendam senectuti gratiam, quae efficeret ut id non
liberet quod non oporteret. Impedit enim consilium voluptas, rationi
inimica est, mentis ut ita dicam praestringit oculos, nec habet ullum cum
virtute commercium. Invitus feci ut fortissimi viri T. Flaminini fratrem L.
Flamininum e senatu eicerem septem annis post quam consul fuisset, sed
notandam putavi libidinem. Ille enim cum esset consul in Gallia exoratus in
convivio a scorto est ut securi feriret aliquem eorum qui in vinculis
essent, damnati rei capitalis. Hic Tito fratre suo censore, qui proximus
ante me fuerat, elapsus est, mihi vero et Flacco neutiquam probari potuit
tam flagitiosa et tam perdita libido, quae cum probro privato coniungeret
imperi dedecus.

XIII. 43 Saepe audivi e maioribus natu, qui se porro pueros a senibus
audisse dicebant, mirari solitum C. Fabricium quod, cum apud regem Pyrrhum
legatus esset, audisset a Thessalo Cinea esse quendam Athenis qui se
sapientem profiteretur, eumque dicere omnia quae faceremus ad voluptatem
esse referenda. Quod ex eo audientis M'. Curium et Ti. Coruncanium optare
solitos ut id Samnitibus ipsique Pyrrho persuaderetur, quo facilius vinci
possent cum se voluptatibus dedissent. Vixerat M'. Curius cum P. Decio, qui
quinquennio ante eum consulem se pro re publica quarto consulatu devoverat:
norat eundem Fabricius, norat Coruncanius, qui cum ex sua vita tum ex eius
quem dico. Deci facto iudicabant esse profecto aliquid natura pulchrum
atque praeclarum, quod sua sponte expeteretur quodque spreta et contempta
voluptate optimus quisque sequeretur. 44 Quorsum igitur tam multa de
voluptate? Quia non modo vituperatio nulla, sed etiam summa laus senectutis
est, quod ea voluptates nullas magno opere desiderat. Caret epulis
exstructisque mensis et frequentibus poculis. Caret ergo etiam vinulentia
et cruditate et insomniis. Sed si aliquid dandum est voluptati, quoniam
eius blanditiis non facile obsistimus, divine enim Plato escam malorum
appellat voluptatem quod ea videlicet homines capiantur ut pisces, quamquam
immoderatis epulis caret senectus, modicis tamen conviviis delectari
potest. C. Duellium M. F., qui Poenos classe primus devicerat, redeuntem a
cena senem saepe videbam puer; delectabatur cereo funali et tibicine, quae
sibi nullo exemplo privatus sumpserat: tantum licentiae dabat gloria. 45
Sed quid ego alios? Ad me ipsum iam revertar. Primum habui semper
sodalis--sodalitates autem me quaestore constitutae sunt sacris Idaeis
Magnae Matris acceptis--epulabar igitur cum sodalibus, omnino modice, sed
erat quidam fervor aetatis, qua progrediente omnia fiunt in dies mitiora.
Neque enim ipsorum conviviorum delectationem voluptatibus corporis magis
quam coetu amicorum et sermonibus metiebar; bene enim maiores accubitionem
epularem amicorum, quia vitae coniunctionem haberet, convivium
nominaverunt, melius quam Graeci, qui hoc idem tum compotationem, tum
concenationem vocant, ut, quod in eo genere minimum est, id maxime probare
videantur.

XIV. 46 Ego vero propter sermonis delectationem tempestivis quoque
conviviis delector, nec cum aequalibus solum, qui pauci admodum restant,
sed cum vestra etiam aetate atque vobiscum, habeoque senectuti magnam
gratiam, quae mihi sermonis aviditatem auxit, potionis et cibi sustulit.
Quod si quem etiam ista delectant, ne omnino bellum indixisse videar
voluptati, cuius est fortasse quidam naturalis modus, non intellego ne in
istis quidem ipsis voluptatibus carere sensu senectutem. Me vero et
magisteria delectant a maioribus instituta et is sermo, qui more maiorum a
summo adhibetur in poculo, et pocula sicut in Symposio Xenophontis est,
minuta atque rorantia, et refrigeratio aestate et vicissim aut sol aut
ignis hibernus. Quae quidem etiam in Sabinis persequi soleo conviviumque
vicinorum cotidie compleo, quod ad multam noctem quam maxime possumus vario
sermone producimus. 47 At non est voluptatum tanta quasi titillatio in
senibus. Credo, sed ne desideratio quidem; nihil autem est molestum quod
non desideres. Bene Sophocles, cum ex eo quidam iam affecto aetate
quaereret, utereturne rebus veneriis, 'di meliora!' inquit; 'ego vero
istinc sicut a domino agresti ac furioso profugi.' Cupidis enim rerum
talium odiosum fortasse et molestum est carere, satiatis vero et expletis
iucundius est carere quam frui; quamquam non caret is, qui non desiderat;
ergo hoc non desiderare dico esse iucundius. 48 Quod si istis ipsis
voluptatibus bona aetas fruitur libentius, primum parvulis fruitur rebus,
ut diximus, deinde eis, quibus senectus, etiam si non abunde potitur, non
omnino caret. Ut Turpione Ambivio magis delectatur qui in prima cavea
spectat, delectatur tamen etiam qui in ultima, sic adulescentia voluptates
propter intuens magis fortasse laetatur, sed delectatur etiam senectus,
procul eas spectans, tantum quantum sat est. 49 At illa quanti sunt, animum
tamquam emeritis stipendiis libidinis ambitionis, contentionum
inimicitiarum, cupiditatum omnium secum esse secumque, ut dicitur, vivere!
Si vero habet aliquod tamquam pabulum studi atque doctrinae, nihil est
otiosa senectute iucundius. Videbamus in studio dimetiendi paene caeli
atque terrae Gallum familiarem patris tui, Scipio. Quotiens ilium lux noctu
aliquid describere ingressum, quotiens nox oppressit cum mane coepisset!
Quam delectabat eum defectiones solis et lunae multo ante nobis praedicere!
50 Quid in levioribus studiis, sed tamen acutis? Quam gaudebat Bello suo
Punico Naevius, quam Truculento Plautus, quam Pseudolo! Vidi etiam senem
Livium, qui, cum sex annis ante quam ego natus sum fabulam docuisset
Centone Tuditanoque consulibus, usque ad adulescentiam meam processit
aetate. Quid de P. Licini Crassi et pontifici et civilis iuris studio
loquar aut de huius P. Scipionis, qui his paucis diebus pontifex maximus
factus est? Atque eos omnis, quos commemoravi, his studiis flagrantis senes
vidimus. M. vero Cethegum, quem recte suadae medullam dixit Ennius, quanto
studio exerceri in dicendo videbamus etiam senem! Quae sunt igitur epularum
aut ludorum aut scortorum voluptates cum his voluptatibus comparandae?
Atque haec quidem studia doctrinae, quae quidem prudentibus et bene
institutis pariter cum aetate crescunt, ut honestum illud Solonis sit, quod
ait versiculo quodam, ut ante dixi, senescere se multa in dies addiscentem,
qua voluptate animi nulla certe potest esse maior.

XV. 51 Venio nunc ad voluptates agricolarum, quibus ego incredibiliter
delector, quae nec ulla impediuntur senectute et mihi ad sapientis vitam
proxime videntur accedere. Habent enim rationem cum terra, quae numquam
recusat imperium nec umquam sine usura reddit quod accepit, sed alias
minore, plerumque maiore cum faenore; quamquam me quidem non fructus modo,
sed etiam ipsius terrae vis ac natura delectat. Quae cum gremio mollito ac
subacto sparsum semen excepit, primum id occaecatum cohibet, ex quo occatio
quae hoc efficit nominata est; deinde tepefactum vapore et compressu suo
diffundit et elicit herbescentem ex eo viriditatem, quae nixa fibris
stirpium sensim adolescit culmoque erecta geniculato vaginis iam quasi
pubescens includitur; e quibus cum emersit, fundit frugem spici ordine
structam et contra avium minorum morsus munitur vallo aristarum. 52 Quid
ego vitium ortus satus incrementa commemorem? Satiari delectatione non
possum, ut meae senectutis requietem oblectamentumque noscatis. Omitto enim
vim ipsam omnium quae generantur e terra, quae ex fici tantulo grano aut ex
acini vinaceo aut ex ceterarum frugum aut stirpium minutissimis seminibus
tantos truncos ramosque procreet; malleoli plantae sarmenta viviradices
propagines nonne efficiunt ut quemvis cum admiratione delectent? Vitis
quidem quae natura caduca est et, nisi fulta est, fertur ad terram, eadem,
ut se erigat, claviculis suis quasi manibus quidquid est nacta
complectitur, quam serpentem multiplici lapsu et erratico, ferro amputans
coercet ars agricolarum, ne silvescat sarmentis et in omnis partis nimia
fundatur. 53 Itaque ineunte vere in eis quae relicta sunt exsistit tamquam
ad articulos sarmentorum ea quae gemma dicitur, a qua oriens uva se
ostendit, quae et suco terrae et calore solis augescens primo est peracerba
gustatu, dein maturata dulcescit vestitaque pampinis nec modico tepore
caret et nimios solis defendit ardores: qua quid potest esse cum fructu
laetius, tum aspectu pulchrius? Cuius quidem non utilitas me solum, ut ante
dixi, sed etiam cultura et natura ipsa delectat: adminiculorum ordines,
capitum iugatio, religatio et propagatio vitium, sarmentorum ea, quam dixi,
aliorum amputatio, aliorum immissio. Quid ego irrigationes, quid fossiones
agri repastinationesque proferam quibus fit multo terra fecundior? 54 Quid
de utilitate loquar stercorandi? Dixi in eo libro, quem de rebus rusticis
scripsi. De qua doctus Hesiodus ne verbum quidem fecit, cum de cultura agri
scriberet. At Homerus, qui multis, ut mihi videtur, ante saeculis fuit,
Laerten lenientem desiderium, quod capiebat e filio, colentem agrum et eum
stercorantem facit. Nec vero segetibus solum et pratis et vineis et
arbustis res rusticae laetae sunt, sed hortis etiam et pomariis, tum
pecudum pastu, apium examinibus, florum omnium varietate. Nec consitiones
modo delectant, sed etiam insitiones, quibus nihil invenit agri cultura
sollertius.

XVI. 55 Possum persequi permulta oblectamenta rerum rusticarum, sed ea ipsa
quae dixi sentio fuisse longiora. Ignoscetis autem, nam et studio rerum
rusticarum provectus sum, et senectus est natura loquacior, ne ab omnibus
eam vitiis videar vindicare. Ergo in hac vita M'. Curius, cum de
Samnitibus, de Sabinis, de Pyrrho triumphavisset, consumpsit extremum
tempus aetatis; cuius quidem ego villam contemplans, abest enim non longe a
me, admirari satis non possum vel hominis ipsius continentiam vel temporum
disciplinam. Curio ad focum sedenti magnum auri pondus Samnites cum
attulissent, repudiati sunt; non enim aurum habere praeclarum sibi videri
dixit, sed eis qui haberent aurum imperare. 56 Poteratne tantus animus
efficere non iucundam senectutem? Sed venio ad agricolas, ne a me ipso
recedam. In agris erant tum senatores, id est senes, si quidem aranti L.
Quinctio Cincinnato nuntiatum est eum dictatorem esse factum, cuius
dictatoris iussu magister equitum C. Servilius Ahala Sp. Maelium regnum
appetentem occupatum interemit. A villa in senatum arcessebatur et Curius
et ceteri senes, ex quo qui eos arcessebant viatores nominati sunt. Num
igitur horum senectus miserabilis fuit, qui se agri cultione oblectabant?
Mea quidem sententia haud scio an nulla beatior possit esse, neque solum
officio, quod hominum generi universo cultura agrorum est salutaris, sed et
delectatione quam dixi, et saturitate copiaque rerum omnium, quae ad victum
hominum, ad cultum etiam deorum pertinent, ut, quoniam haec quidam
desiderant, in gratiam iam cum voluptate redeamus. Semper enim boni
assiduique domini referta cella vinaria, olearia, etiam penaria est,
villaque tota locuples est, abundat porco haedo agno gallina, lacte caseo
melle. Iam hortum ipsi agricolae succidiam alteram appellant. Conditiora
facit haec supervacaneis etiam operis aucupium atque venatio. 57 Quid de
pratorum viriditate aut arborum ordinibus aut vinearum olivetorumve specie
plura dicam? Brevi praecidam. Agro bene culto nihil potest esse nec usu
uberius nec specie ornatius, ad quem fruendum non modo non retardat, verum
etiam invitat atque allectat senectus. Ubi enim potest illa aetas aut
calescere vel apricatione melius vel igni, aut vicissim umbris aquisve
refrigerari salubrius? 58 Sibi habeant igitur arma, sibi equos, sibi
hastas, sibi clavam et pilam, sibi venationes atque cursus, nobis senibus
ex lusionibus multis talos relinquant et tesseras; id ipsum ut lubebit,
quoniam sine eis beata esse senectus potest.

XVII. 59 Multas ad res perutiles Xenophontis libri sunt, quos legite quaeso
studiose, ut facitis. Quam copiose ab eo agri cultura laudatur in eo libro,
qui est de tuenda re familiari, qui Oeconomicus inscribitur! Atque ut
intellegatis nihil ei tam regale videri quam studium agri colendi, Socrates
in eo libro loquitur cum Critobulo Cyrum minorem Persarum regem,
praestantem ingenio atque imperi gloria, cum Lysander Lacedaemonius, vir
summae virtutis, venisset ad eum Sardis eique dona a sociis attulisset, et
ceteris in rebus communem erga Lysandrum atque humanum fuisse et ei quendam
consaeptum agrum diligenter consitum ostendisse. Cum autem admiraretur
Lysander et proceritates arborum et directos in quincuncem ordines et humum
subactam atque puram et suavitatem odorum qui afflarentur ex floribus, tum
eum dixisse mirari se non modo diligentiam sed etiam sollertiam eius a quo
essent illa dimensa atque discripta; et Cyrum respondisse 'atqui ego ista
sum omnia dimensus, mei sunt ordines, mea discriptio; multae etiam istarum
arborum mea manu sunt satae.' Tum Lysandrum, intuentem purpuram eius et
nitorem corporis ornatumque Persicum multo auro multisque gemmis, dixisse
'recte vero te, Cyre, beatum ferunt, quoniam virtuti tuae fortuna coniuncta
est!' 60 Hac igitur fortuna frui licet senibus, nec aetas impedit quo minus
et ceterarum rerum et in primis agri colendi studia teneamus usque ad
ultimum tempus senectutis. M. quidem Valerium Corvinum accepimus ad
centesimum annum perduxisse, cum esset acta iam aetate in agris eosque
coleret, cuius inter primum et sextum consulatum sex et quadraginta anni
interfuerunt. Ita quantum spatium aetatis maiores ad senectutis initium
esse voluerunt, tantus illi cursus honorum fuit; atque huius extrema aetas
hoc beatior quam media, quod auctoritatis habebat plus, laboris minus; apex
est autem senectutis auctoritas. 61 Quanta fuit in L. Caecilio Metello,
quanta in A. Atilio Calatino! In quem illud elogium:

  _hunc unum plurimae consentiunt gentes_
  _populi primarium fuisse virum._

Notum est totum carmen incisum in sepulcro. Iure igitur gravis, cuius de
laudibus omnium esset fama consentiens. Quem virum nuper P. Crassum,
pontificem maximum, quem postea M. Lepidum eodem sacerdotio praeditum
vidimus! Quid de Paulo aut Africano loquar, aut, ut iam ante, de Maximo?
Quorum non in sententia solum, sed etiam in nutu residebat auctoritas.
Habet senectus, honorata praesertim, tantam auctoritatem, ut ea pluris sit
quam omnes adulescentiae voluptates.

XVIII. 62 Sed in omni oratione mementote eam me senectutem laudare, quae
fundamentis adulescentiae constituta sit. Ex quo efficitur id, quod ego
magno quondam cum assensu omnium dixi, miseram esse senectutem quae se
oratione defenderet. Non cani nec rugae repente auctoritatem arripere
possunt, sed honeste acta superior aetas fructus capit auctoritatis
extremos. 63 Haec enim ipsa sunt honorabilia, quae videntur levia atque
communia, salutari appeti decedi assurgi deduci reduci consuli, quae et
apud nos et in aliis civitatibus, ut quaeque optime morata est, ita
diligentissime observantur. Lysandrum Lacedaemonium, cuius modo feci
mentionem, dicere aiunt solitum Lacedaemonem esse honestissimum domicilium
senectutis; nusquam enim tantum tribuitur aetati, nusquam est senectus
honoratior. Quin etiam memoriae proditum est, cum Athenis ludis quidam in
theatrum grandis natu venisset, magno consessu locum nusquam ei datum a
suis civibus, cum autem ad Lacedaemonios accessisset, qui, legati cum
essent certo in loco considerant, consurrexisse omnes illi dicuntur et
senem sessum recepisse; 64 quibus cum a cuncto consessu plausus esset
multiplex datus, dixisse ex eis quendam Atheniensis scire quae recta
essent, sed facere nolle. Multa in nostro collegio praeclara, sed hoc de
quo agimus, in primis, quod, ut quisque aetate antecedit, ita sententiae
principatum tenet, neque solum honore antecedentibus, sed eis etiam, qui
cum imperio sunt, maiores natu augures anteponuntur. Quae sunt igitur
voluptates corporis cum auctoritatis praemiis comparandae? Quibus qui
splendide usi sunt, ei mihi videntur fabulam aetatis peregisse nec tamquam
inexercitati histriones in extremo actu corruisse.

65 At sunt morosi et anxii et iracundi et difficiles senes. Si quaerimus,
etiam avari; sed haec morum vitia sunt, non senectutis. Ac morositas tamen
et ea vitia, quae dixi, habent aliquid excusationis, non illius quidem
iustae, sed quae probari posse videatur: contemni se putant, despici,
illudi; praeterea in fragili corpore odiosa omnis offensio est; quae tamen
omnia dulciora fiunt et moribus bonis et artibus, idque cum in vita tum in
scaena intellegi potest ex eis fratribus qui in Adelphis sunt. Quanta in
altero diritas, in altero comitas! Sic se res habet: ut enim non omne
vinum, sic non omnis natura vetustate coacescit. Severitatem in senectute
probo, sed eam, sicut alia, modicam; acerbitatem nullo modo; 66 avaritia
vero senilis quid sibi velit, non intellego. Potest enim quicquam esse
absurdius quam, quo viae minus restet, eo plus viatici quaerere?

XIX. Quarta restat causa, quae maxime angere atque sollicitam habere
nostram aetatem videtur, appropinquatio mortis, quae certe a senectute non
potest esse longe. O miserum senem, qui mortem contemnendam esse in tam
longa aetate non viderit! Quae aut plane neglegenda est, si omnino
exstinguit animum, aut etiam optanda, si aliquo eum deducit ubi sit futurus
aeternus. Atqui tertium certe nihil inveniri potest. 67 Quid igitur timeam,
si aut non miser post mortem, aut beatus etiam futurus sum? Quamquam quis
est tam stultus, quamvis sit adulescens, cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum
esse victurum? Quin etiam aetas illa multo pluris quam nostra casus mortis
habet: facilius in morbos incidunt adulescentes, gravius aegrotant,
tristius curantur. Itaque pauci veniunt ad senectutem; quod ni ita
accideret, melius et prudentius viveretur. Mens enim et ratio et consilium
in senibus est, qui si nulli fuissent, nullae omnino civitates fuissent.
Sed redeo ad mortem impendentem. Quod est istud crimen senectutis, cum id
ei videatis cum adulescentia esse commune? 68 Sensi ego in optimo filio, tu
in exspectatis ad amplissimam dignitatem fratribus, Scipio, mortem omni
aetati esse communem. At sperat adulescens diu se victurum, quod sperare
idem senex non potest. Insipienter sperat; quid enim stultius quam incerta
pro certis habere, falsa pro veris? At senex ne quod speret quidem habet.
At est eo meliore condicione quam adulescens, quoniam id quod ille sperat
hic consecutus est: ille volt diu vivere, hic diu vixit. 69 Quamquam, o di
boni, quid est in hominis natura diu? Da enim supremum tempus, exspectemus
Tartessiorum regis aetatem: fuit enim, ut scriptum video, Arganthonius
quidam Gadibus, qui octoginta regnaverat annos, centum viginti vixerat.

Sed mihi ne diuturnum quidem quicquam videtur, in quo est aliquid extremum;
cum enim id advenit, tum illud quod praeteriit, effluxit; tantum remanet,
quod virtute et recte factis consecutus sis. Horae quidem cedunt et dies et
menses et anni, nec praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur nec quid sequatur
sciri potest. Quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse
contentus. 70 Neque enim histrioni, ut placeat, peragenda fabula est, modo
in quocunque fuerit actu probetur; neque sapientibus usque ad 'plaudite'
veniendum est, breve enim tempus aetatis satis longum est ad bene
honesteque vivendum; sin processerit longius, non magis dolendum est, quam
agricolae dolent praeterita verni temporis suavitate aestatem autumnumque
venisse. Ver enim tamquam adulescentia significat ostenditque fructus
futuros; reliqua autem tempora demetendis fructibus et percipiendis
accommodata sunt. 71 Fructus autem senectutis est, ut saepe dixi, ante
partorum bonorum memoria et copia. Omnia autem, quae secundum naturam
fiunt, sunt habenda in bonis; quid est autem tam secundum naturam quam
senibus emori? Quod idem contingit adulescentibus adversante et repugnante
natura. Itaque adulescentes mihi mori sic videntur, ut cum aquae
multitudine flammae vis opprimitur, senes autem sic, ut cum sua sponte,
nulla adhibita vi, consumptus ignis exstinguitur, et quasi poma ex
arboribus, cruda si sunt, vix evelluntur, si matura et cocta, decidunt, sic
vitam adulescentibus vis aufert, senibus maturitas; quae quidem mihi tam
iucunda est, ut, quo propius ad mortem accedam, quasi terram videre videar
aliquandoque in portum ex longa navigatione esse venturus.

XX. 72 Senectutis autem nullus est certus terminus, recteque in ea vivitur,
quoad munus offici exsequi et tueri possit mortemque contemnere, ex quo fit
ut animosior etiam senectus sit quam adulescentia et fortior. Hoc illud
est, quod Pisistrato tyranno a Solone responsum est, cum illi quaerenti qua
tandem re fretus sibi tam audaciter obsisteret respondisse dicitur
'senectute.' Sed vivendi est finis optimus, cum integra mente certisque
sensibus opus ipsa suum eadem quae coagmentavit natura dissolvit. Ut navem,
ut aedificium idem destruit facillime qui construxit, sic hominem eadem
optime quae conglutinavit natura dissolvit. Iam omnis conglutinatio recens
aegre, inveterata facile divellitur. Ita fit ut illud breve vitae reliquum
nec avide appetendum senibus nec sine causa deserendum sit; vetatque
Pythagoras iniussu imperatoris, id est dei, de praesidio et statione vitae
decedere. 73 Solonis quidem sapientis est elogium, quo se negat velle suam
mortem dolore amicorum et lamentis vacare. Volt, credo, se esse carum suis.
Sed haud scio an melius Ennius:

  _nemo me lacrumis decoret, neque funera fletu_
  _faxit_

74 Non censet lugendam esse mortem, quam immortalitas consequatur. Iam
sensus moriendi aliquis esse potest, isque ad exiguum tempus, praesertim
seni: post mortem quidem sensus aut optandus aut nullus est. Sed hoc
meditatum ab adulescentia debet esse, mortem ut neglegamus; sine qua
meditatione tranquillo animo esse nemo potest. Moriendum enim certe est, et
incertum an hoc ipso die. Mortem igitur omnibus horis impendentem timens
qui poterit animo consistere? 75 De qua non ita longa disputatione opus
esse videtur, cum recorder non L. Brutum, qui in liberanda patria est
interfectus, non duos Decios, qui ad voluntariam mortem cursum equorum
incitaverunt, non M. Atilium, qui ad supplicium est profectus ut fidem
hosti datam conservaret non duos Scipiones, qui iter Poenis vel corporibus
suis obstruere voluerunt, non avum tuum L. Paulum, qui morte luit collegae
in Cannensi ignominia temeritatem, non M. Marcellum, cuius interitum ne
crudelissimus quidem hostis honore sepulturae carere passus est, sed
legiones nostras, quod scripsi in Originibus, in eum locum saepe profectas
alacri animo et erecto, unde se redituras numquam arbitrarentur. Quod
igitur adulescentes, et ei quidem non solum indocti sed etiam rustici
contemnunt, id docti senes extimescent? 76 Omnino, ut mihi quidem videtur,
rerum omnium satietas vitae facit satietatem. Sunt pueritiae studia certa:
num igitur ea desiderant adulescentes? Sunt ineuntis adulescentiae: num ea
constans iam requirit aetas, quae media dicitur? Sunt etiam eius aetatis:
ne ea quidem quaeruntur in senectute. Sunt extrema quaedam studia
senectutis: ergo, ut superiorum aetatum studia occidunt, sic occidunt etiam
senectutis; quod cum evenit, satietas vitae tempus maturum mortis affert.

XXI. 77 Non enim video, cur, quid ipse sentiam de morte, non audeam vobis
dicere, quod eo cernere mihi melius videor, quo ab ea propius absum. Ego
vestros patres, P. Scipio tuque, C. Laeli, viros clarissimos mihique
amicissimos, vivere arbitror et eam quidem vitam, quae est sola vita
nominanda. Nam dum sumus inclusi in his compagibus corporis, munere quodam
necessitatis et gravi opere perfungimur; est enim animus caelestis ex
altissimo domicilio depressus et quasi demersus in terram, locum divinae
naturae eternitatique contrarium. Sed credo deos immortalis sparsisse
animos in corpora humana, ut essent qui terras tuerentur quique caelestium
ordinem contemplantes imitarentur eum vitae modo atque constantia. Nec me
solum ratio ac disputatio impulit ut ita crederem, sed nobilitas etiam
summorum philosophorum et auctoritas.

78 Audiebam Pythagoran Pythagoriosque, incolas paene nostros, qui essent
Italici philosophi quondam nominati numquam dubitasse quin ex universa
mente divina delibatos animos haberemus. Demonstrabantur mihi praeterea
quae Socrates supremo vitae die de immortalitate animorum disseruisset, is
qui esset omnium sapientissimus oraculo Apollinis iudicatus. Quid multa?
Sic mihi persuasi, sic sentio, cum tanta celeritas animorum sit, tanta
memoria praeteritorum futurorumque prudentia, tot artes tantae scientiae,
tot inventa, non posse eam naturam, quae res eas contineat, esse mortalem;
cumque semper agitetur animus nec principium motus habeat, quia se ipse
moveat, ne finem quidem habiturum esse motus, quia numquam se ipse sit
relicturus; et cum simplex animi natura esset neque haberet in se quicquam
admixtum dispar sui atque dissimile, non posse eum dividi, quod si non
posset, non posse interire; magnoque esse argumento homines scire pleraque
ante quam nati sint, quod iam pueri, cum artis difficilis discant, ita
celeriter res innumerabilis arripiant, ut eas non tum primum accipere
videantur, sed reminisci et recordari. Haec Platonis fere. XXII. 79 Apud
Xenophontem autem moriens Cyrus maior haec dicit: 'nolite arbitrari, o mihi
carissimi filii, me, cum a vobis discessero, nusquam aut nullum fore. Nec
enim, dum eram vobiscum, animum meum videbatis, sed eum esse in hoc corpora
ex eis rebus quas gerebam intellegebatis. Eundem igitur esse creditote,
etiam si nullum videbitis. 80 Nec vero clarorum virorum post mortem honores
permanerent, si nihil eorum ipsorum animi efficerent, quo diutius memoriam
sui teneremus. Mihi quidem numquam persuaderi potuit animos dum in
corporibus essent mortalibus vivere, cum excessissent ex eis emori; nec
vero tum animum esse insipientem cum ex insipienti corpore evasisset, sed
cum omni admixtione corporis liberatus purus et integer esse coepisset, tum
esse sapientem. Atque etiam, cum hominis natura morte dissolvitur,
ceterarum rerum perspicuum est quo quaeque discedat, abeunt enim illuc
omnia, unde orta sunt; animus autem solus nec cum adest nec cum discessit
apparet. Iam vero videtis nihil esse morti tam simile quam somnum. 81 Atqui
dormientium animi maxime declarant divinitatem suam; multa enim, cum
remissi et liberi sunt, futura prospiciunt; ex quo intellegitur quales
futuri sint, cum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint. Qua re, si haec
ita sunt, sic me colitote,' inquit, 'ut deum, sin una est interiturus
animus cum corpore, vos tamen, deos verentes, qui hanc omnem pulchritudinem
tuentur et regunt, memoriam nostri pie inviolateque servabitis.'

XXIII. 82 Cyrus quidem haec moriens; nos, si placet, nostra videamus. Nemo
umquam mihi, Scipio, persuadebit aut patrem tuum Paulum, aut duos avos
Paulum et Africanum, aut Africani patrem aut patruum, aut multos
praestantis viros, quos enumerare non est necesse, tanta esse conatos quae
ad posteritatis memoriam pertinerent, nisi animo cernerent posteritatem ad
ipsos pertinere. Anne censes, ut de me ipse aliquid more senum glorier, me
tantos labores diurnos nocturnosque domi militiaeque suscepturum fuisse, si
isdem finibus gloriam meam quibus vitam essem terminaturus? Nonne melius
multo fuisset otiosam et quietam aetatem sine ullo labore et contentione
traducere? Sed nescio quo modo animus erigens se posteritatem ita semper
prospiciebat, quasi, cum excessisset e vita, tum denique victurus esset.
Quod quidem ni ita se haberet ut animi immortales essent, haud optimi
cuiusque animus maxime ad immortalitatis gloriam niteretur. 83 Quid quod
sapientissimus quisque aequissimo animo moritur, stultissimus iniquissimo,
nonne vobis videtur is animus, qui plus cernat et longius, videre se ad
meliora proficisci, ille autem, cuius obtusior sit acies, non videre?
Equidem efferor studio patres vestros quos colui et dilexi videndi, neque
vero eos solum convenire aveo, quos ipse cognovi, sed illos etiam, de
quibus audivi et legi et ipse conscripsi; quo quidem me proficiscentem haud
sane quid facile retraxerit, nec tamquam Pelian recoxerit. Et si quis deus
mihi largiatur ut ex hac aetate repuerascam et in cunis vagiam, valde
recusem, nec vero velim quasi decurso spatio ad carceres a calce revocari.
84 Quid habet enim vita commodi? Quid non potius laboris? Sed habeat sane;
habet certe tamen aut satietatem aut modum. Non libet enim mihi deplorare
vitam, quod multi et ei docti saepe fecerunt, neque me vixisse paenitet,
quoniam ita vixi, ut non frustra me natum existimem, et ex vita ita discedo
tamquam ex hospitio, non tamquam e domo; commorandi enim natura divorsorium
nobis, non habitandi dedit. O praeclarum diem cum in illud divinum animorum
concilium coetumque proficiscar cumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam!
Proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de quibus ante dixi, verum etiam
ad Catonem meum, quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo pietate praestantior,
cuius a me corpus est crematum, quod contra decuit ab illo meum, animus
vero non me deserens sed respectans, in ea profecto loca discessit quo mihi
ipsi cernebat esse veniendum. Quem ego meum casum fortiter ferre visus sum,
non quo aequo animo ferrem, sed me ipse consolabar existimans non
longinquum inter nos digressum et discessum fore.

85 His mihi rebus, Scipio, id enim te cum Laelio admirari solere dixisti,
levis est senectus, nec solum non molesta, sed etiam iucunda. Quod si in
hoc erro, qui animos hominum immortalis esse credam, libenter erro nec mihi
hunc errorem, quo delector, dum vivo, extorqueri volo; sin mortuus, ut
quidam minuti philosophi censent, nihil sentiam, non vereor ne hunc errorem
meum philosophi mortui irrideant. Quod si non sumus immortales futuri,
tamen exstingui homini suo tempore optabile est. Nam habet natura, ut
aliarum omnium rerum, sic vivendi modum. Senectus autem aetatis est
peractio tamquam fabulae, cuius defetigationem fugere debemus, praesertim
adiuncta satietate.

Haec habui de senectute quae dicerem, ad quam utinam veniatis, ut ea, quae
ex me audistis, re experti probare possitis!

       *       *       *       *       *

NOTES TO CATO MAIOR.

       *       *       *       *       *

CATO MAIOR DE SENECTUTE (CATO THE ELDER ON OLD AGE). CATO MAIOR was
probably intended by Cicero as the principal title. He twice gives the work
this name, in Laelius 4 and Att. 14, 21, 1. In the former passage he adds
the descriptive words, addressed to Atticus, _qui est scriptus ad te de
senectute._ In a third notice, De Div. 2, 3, he gives the description
without the title, _liber is quem ad nostrum Atticum de senectute misimus._
It is likely that Cicero intended the essay to be known as the CATO MAIOR
DE SENECTUTE, the full title corresponding with LAELIUS DE AMICITIA. The
word _maior_ was necessary to distinguish the book from Cicero's eulogy of
the younger Cato (Uticensis), which seems to have gone by the name of CATO
simply.

P. 1. -- 1. O TITE etc.: the lines are a quotation from the _Annales_ of Q.
Ennius (born at Rudiae in Calabria 239 B.C., died 169), an epic poem in
hexameter verse, the first great Latin poem in that metre, celebrating the
achievements of the Roman nation from the time of Aeneas to the poet's own
days. The incident alluded to in Ennius' verses is evidently the same as
that narrated by Livy 32, cc. 9, 10. Titus Quinctius Flamininus, who
commanded in 198 B.C. the Roman army opposed to Philip of Macedon, found
the king strongly posted on the mountains between Epirus and Thessaly. For
forty days Flamininus lingered, hoping to find some path which would give
him access to the enemy's quarters. A shepherd who knew every nook of the
mountains came before the general, and promised to lead the Roman soldiers
to the ground above Philip's camp. This was done, and Flamininus drove the
Macedonians into Thessaly. It is the shepherd who in the first line
addresses Flamininus by his first name Titus. Cicero here cleverly applies
the lines to his life-long friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. He several times
takes the two words _'O Tite'_ to designate the whole treatise; cf. Att.
16, 11, 3 _'O Tite' tibi prodesse laetor_. -- QUID: accusative of respect
or extent; so _nihil_ in 30, _aliquid_ in 82. A.[56] 240, _a_; G. 331, 3;
H. 378, 2. -- ADI[)U]ERO: for _adi[=u]vero,_ the long vowel having become
short after the falling out of the _v_ between the two vowels. Catullus 66,
18 has _i[)u]erint_ at the end of a pentameter verse, and the same scanning
is found in Plautus and Terence. A. 128, _a_; G. 151, 1; H. 235. --
LEVASSO: a form of _levavero,_ which was originally _levaveso_. For the
formation of this class of future-perfects see Peile, _Introduction to
Greek and Latin Etymology,_ p. 295, ed. 3; also Roby, _Gram._ 1, p. 199,
who has a list of examples; he supports a different view from that given
above; cf. A. 128, _e_, 3; G. 191, 5; H. 240, 4. -- COQUIT: 'vexes.' This
metaphorical use of _coquere_ occurs in poetry and late prose; cf. Plaut.
Trin. 225 _egomet me coquo et macero et defetigo_; Verg. Aen. 7, 345 _quam
... femineae ardentem curaeque iraeque coquebant_; Quint. 12, 10, 77
_sollititudo oratorem macerat et coquit_. -- VERS[=A]T: we have here the
original quantity of the vowel preserved, as in _poneb[=a]t_ below, 10; the
_a_ in _versat_ was originally as long as the _a_ in _vers[=a]s_. Plautus
has some parallels to this scanning (see Corssen, Aussprache 11², 488), but
it is rarely imitated by poets of the best period. Horace, however, has
_ar[=a]t_, Odes 3, 16, 26. A. 375, _g_, 5; H. 580, III n. 2. -- PRAEMI: the
genitive in _ĭ-ī_ from nouns in _ium_ only began to come into use at the
end of the Republic. A. 40, _b_; G. 29, Rem. 1; H. 51, 5. -- ISDEM: Cicero
may have written _isdem_ or _eisdem_ (two syllables), but he probably did
not write the form most commonly found in our texts, _iisdem._ H. p. 74,
foot-note 2. -- FLAMININUM: T. Quinctius Flaminīnus first served against
Hannibal during the Second Punic War. He was present at the capture of
Tarentum in 209 B. c., and in 208 was military tribune under Marcellus.
After being employed on minor business of state, he became quaestor in 199,
and, immediately after his year of office, consul, passing over the
aedileship and praetorship, and attaining the consulship at the
extraordinarily early age of 30. In 197 he won the victory of Cynoscephalae
over the Macedonians, which ended the war. At the Isthmian games in the
spring of 196 Flamininus made his famous proclamation of freedom to all the
Greeks. He returned to Rome in 194 to enjoy a splendid triumph. For the
rest of his life was employed chiefly on diplomatic business concerning
Greece and the East. One of his embassies was to Prusias, king of Bithynia,
call on him to surrender Hannibal, who was living at his court in advanced
old age; this led to Hannibal's suicide. Flamininus was censor in 189 (see
below, 42), and lived on till some time after 167, in which year he became
augur; but the date of his death is unknown. He was a man of brilliant
ability both as general and as diplomat, and also possessed much culture
and was a great admirer of Greek literature. -- ILLE VIR etc.: _i.e._ the
shepherd mentioned in n. on line 1. Livy 32, II, 4 says that Flamininus
sent to the master of the shepherd, Charopus, an Epirote prince, to ask how
far he might be trusted. Charopus replied that Flamininus might trust him,
but had better keep a close watch on the operations himself. -- HAUD MAGNA
CUM RE: 'of no great property'; _re_ = _re familiari_, as is often the case
elsewhere in both verse and prose. Cf. pro Caelio 78 _hominem sine re. Cum_
is literally 'attended by'; it is almost superfluous here, since _vir haud
magna re_ would have had just the same meaning. Madvig, Gram. § 258 has
similar examples. -- PLENUS: final _s_ was so lightly pronounced that the
older poets felt justified in neglecting it in their scanning. It was
probably scarcely pronounced at all by the less educated Romans, since it
is often wholly omitted in inscriptions, and has been lost in modern
Italian. Cicero, Orator 161, says that the neglect to pronounce final _s_
is 'somewhat boorish' (_subrusticum_), though formerly thought 'very
refined' (_politius_). Even Lucretius sometimes disregards it in his
scanning. In the ordinary literary Latin a large number of words has lost
an original _s_; _e.g._ all the nouns of the _-a_ declension. A. 375, _a_;
G. 722; H. 608, 1, n. 3. -- FIDĒI: this form of the genitive of _fides_ is
found also in Plautus, Aulularia 575, and Lucretius 5, 102. _Fidĕi_ as
genitive seems only to occur in late poets, but as dative it is found in a
fragment of Ennius. _Fidē_ as genitive occurs in Horace and Ovid. H. 585,
III. 1; Roby, 357, (c). -- QUAMQUAM: see n. on 2 _etsi_. -- SOLLICITARI
etc.: Cicero probably has not quoted the line as Ennius wrote it. The word
_sic_, at least, is evidently inserted on purpose to correspond with _ut_
before _Flamininum_, -- NOCTESQUE DIESQUE: the use of _que ... que_ for _et
... et_ is almost entirely poetical, Sallust being the only prose writer of
the best period in whose works the usage is beyond doubt. _Noctes_ is put
before _dies_ here, as in _noctes diesque_ (Verr. 5, 112), _noctes et dies_
(Brut. 308 _etc._), _nodes ac dies_ (Arch. 29); cf. also Verg. Aen. 6, 127;
and νυκτας τε και ημαρ in Iliad 5, 490; but the collocations _dies
noctesque_, _dies et noctes_ are far commoner in Cicero. Madvig (Emend.
Liv. p. 487 n., ed 2) says that in writers of Livy's time and earlier, when
an action is mentioned which continues throughout a number of days and
nights, either _dies et noctes_ and the like phrases are used, or _die et
nocte_ and the like, but not _diem noctemque_ or _diem et noctem,_ which
expression, he says, would imply that the action continued only throughout
_one_ day and _one_ night. But Madvig has overlooked De Or. 2, 162 _eandem
incu dem diem noctemque tundentibus;_ also three passages of Caesar: viz
Bell. Gall. 7, 42, 6 and 7, 77, 11; Bell. Civ. 1, 62, 1; to which add a
passage in the Bell. Hisp. 38. Though _diem noctemque_ does often mean
'throughout _one_ day and _one_ night' (as _e.g._ in Nep. Them. 8, 7), yet
it would seem that the other sense cannot be excluded. -- MODERATIONEM ...
AEQUITATEM: 'the self-control and even balance of your mind'. _Moderatio_
is in Cic. a common translation of σωφροσυνη. _Aequitas_ is not used here
in its commonest sense of 'reasonableness' or 'equity', but as the noun
corresponding to _aequus_ in the ordinary phrase _aequus animus_ (Horace,
'_aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem_'), cf. Tusc. 1, 97 _hanc
maximi animi aequitatem in ipsa morte._ said of Theramenes' undisturbed
composure before his execution. -- ANIMI TUI: for the position of these
words between _moderationem_ and _aequitatem_, to both of which nouns they
refer (a form of speech called by the Latin grammarians _coniunctio_), see
note on Laelius 8 _cum summi viri tum amicissimi_. -- COGNOMEN: _i.e._ the
name _Atticus_, which Cicero's friend did not inherit, but adopted. For the
word _cognomen_ cf. n. on 5. -- DEPORTASSE: it should be noted that the
verb _deportare_ is nearly always in the best writers used of bringing
things from the provinces to Italy or Rome, and not _vice versa_, the
Romans using 'down' (_de_) of motion towards the capital. _Italia
deportare_ occurs in Tacitus and late writers, but only in the sense of
banishing a person (cf. Ann 14, 45). So _decedere de provincia_ is common,
but not _Roma decedere_. As to the form _deportasse_, it may be remarked
that Cic. in the vast majority of instances uses the contracted and not the
full forms of the infinitives corresponding to perfects in -_avi_. So
_putassent_ in 4. An extensive collection of examples of this and similar
contractions may be found in Frohwein, Die Perfectbildungen auf -vi bei
Cicero; Gera, 1874. -- HUMANITATEM: 'culture', _i.e._ learning resulting in
gentleness and refinement of character. -- PRUDENTIAM: φρονησιν or
practical wisdom. Corn. Nepos (or his imitator) in his life of Atticus 17,
3 says of him _principum philosophorum ita percepta habuit praecepta ut his
ad vitam agendam non ad ostentationem uteretur_. -- ISDEM REBUS: _i.e._ the
state of public affairs at the time, see Introd. -- QUIBUS ME IPSUM:
strictly speaking the construction is inaccurate, since _suspicor
commoveri_ must be supplied, and Cicero does not really mean to say that he
merely _conjectures_ himself to be seriously affected by the state of
public affairs; _ego ipse commoveor_ would have accurately expressed his
meaning. The accusative is due to the attraction of _te_ above. -- MAIOR: =
_difficilior_ as often; _e.g._ Lael. 29 _quod maius est_. -- VISUM EST MIHI
CONSCRIBERE: = _placuit mihi_, 'I have determined to write'. The best
writers rarely use the impersonal _videtur etc._ followed by an infinitive.
When the usage occurs _videtur mihi etc._ generally have the meaning (as
here) of δοκει μοι κ.τ.λ. = 'I have made up my mind'. Cf. Tusc. 5, 12 _Non
mihi videtur ad beate vivendum satis posse virtutem_; ib. 5, 22 (a curious
passage) _mihi enim non videbatur quisquam esse beatus posse cum esset in
malis; in malis autem sapientem esse posse_; Off. 3, 71 _malitia quae volt
illa quidem videri se esse prudentiam_ ('craft which desires that people
should believe it to be wisdom'); Liv. 1, 10, 7 _dis visum nec irritam
conditoris templi vocem esse_ ... ('the gods decided that the word of the
founder of the shrine should not remain of no effect'). It would be
difficult, if not impossible, to find a passage in a writer before silver
Latin times where the best texts still exhibit anything like _videtur eum
facere_ for _is videtur facere_. H 534, 1, n. 1; Roby, 1353. -- ALIQUID AD
TE: 'some work dedicated to you'; so below, 3; cf. also Lael. 4 _ut de
amicitia scriberem aliquid_; ib. _Catone maiore qui est scriptus ad te de
senectute_; Div. 2, 3 _liber is quem ad nostrum Atticum de senectute
misimus._

2. AUT ... AUT CERTE: so often in Cic.; _certe_, 'at any rate'. --
SENECTUTIS: at the time the words were written Cic. was 62 years old,
Atticus three years older. For the meaning of _senectus_ see n. on 4. --
LEVARI VOLO: the best Latin writers frequently use the passive infinitive
after verbs expressing desire, where moderns would incline to the active;
here Cic. instead of saying 'I wish to relieve yourself and me of the
burden' says 'I wish yourself and me to be relieved'. -- ETSI: = καιτοι
'and yet'. This use of _etsi_ to introduce a clause correcting the
preceding clause, though not uncommon (_e.g._ below 29; Tusc. 1, 99; 3, 17;
4, 63; 5, 55), is far less common than that of _quamquam_, which we have in
1, 9, 10, 24, 47, 67, 69. -- TE QUIDEM: 'you at all events', 'you for one'.
-- MODICE AC SAPIENTER: _modice_ recalls _moderationem_ above (_modice_ and
_moderate_ are used with exactly the same sense by Cic.), while _sapienter_
recalls _aequitatem_, since _sapientia_ produces stability and an even
balance of the mind. In De Or. 1, 132 we have _modice et scienter_. --
SICUT OMNIA: cf. Fin. 1, 7 _facete is quidem sicut alia_; also below, 65
_sicut alia_. -- ET FERRE ET LATURUM ESSE: Tischer rightly remarks that
when a verb is repeated thus with a variation of tense Cic. very nearly
always uses _et ... et_, and not a single _et_ merely. The contrast between
the two tenses is thus made more pointed. Cf. 3 _et diximus et dicemus_. --
CERTO SCIO: one of the best MSS., followed by some editors, has here _certe
scio_. The latter phrase would mean 'I am sure that I know' (a sense which
seems out of place here); the former 'I have certain or sure knowledge'.
Observe that _certe_ may be used with all verbs, while _certo_ is only used
with _scire_. A. 151, c. -- SED: the idea implied is, 'but though I well
know you do not need such consolation, I have yet resolved to address my
book to you'. -- OCCURREBAS DIGNUS: a condensed construction for
_occurrebat te digmim esse_.

P. 2. -- MUNERE ... UTERETUR: 'a gift such as we both might make use of in
company'. -- MIHI QUIDEM: this forms a correction upon _uterque nostrum_
above: 'whatever you may think of the work, _I at least_ have found the
writing of it pleasant'. -- CONFECTIO: 'composition'; 'completion'; a word
scarcely found in the classical Latin except in Cicero's writings. Cf. De
Or. 2, 52 _annalium confectio;_ pro. Font. 3 _confectio tabularum_
('account-books'). -- FUIT UT ABSTERSERIT: the sequence of tenses _fuit ut
abstergeret_ would have been equally admissible, but the meaning would have
been slightly different. With the perfect the sense is 'was so pleasant
that it _has_ wiped away'; with the imperfect 'was so pleasant that it
_did_ (while I was writing) wipe away'. The metaphor in _absterserit_ is
common: _e.g._ Tusc. 3, 43 _luctum omnem absterseris_. With this statement
of Cicero's concerning the effect the work had on himself contrast Att. 14,
21, 3 _legendus mihi saepius est Cato maior ad te missus. Amariorem enim me
senectus facit. Stomachor omnia_. -- OMNIS: acc. pl. A. 55, _c_; G. 60, 1;
H. 67. -- EFFECERIT MOLLEM: so 56 _poteratne tantus animus efficere non
iucundam senectutem_; but 56 _conditiora facit haec aucupium_. _Efficio_
gives more emphatically than _facio_ the idea of the completion of the
action. Cf. Lael. 73 _efficere aliquem consulem_, 'to carry through a man's
election as consul'; _facere aliquem consulem_ being merely 'to vote for a
man's election to the consulship'. -- SATIS DIGNE: 'as she deserves', lit.
'in a sufficiently worthy manner.' Some editors have thought _digne_
superfluous and wished to cast it out but we have _satis digne_ elsewhere,
as in Verr. Act. II. 1, 82; cf. also Sex. Rosc. 33 _pro dignitate laudare
satis commode_. -- QUI PAREAT ... DEGERE: a conditional sentence of
irregular form (_qui_ = _siquis_; _cui_ simply connective, = _et ei_). Cf.
Div. 1, 127 _qui enim teneat causas rerum futurarum, idem necesse est omnia
teneat quae futura sint_; also the examples in Roby's Grammar, 1558. A.
310, _a_, 307, _b_; G. 594, 1, 598; H. 507, II. and III. 2. Some, however,
make _possit_ a subjunctive of characteristic or of cause with _cui_, and
_pareat_ a subjunctive by attraction. -- OMNE TEMPUS AETATIS: 'every season
of life'; so in 55 _extremum tempus aetatis_; 70 _breve tempus aetatis._
The opposite phrase _aetas temporis_ is very rare; it occurs in Propertius
1, 4, 7.

3. CETERIS: neuter adjective used as a noun, equivalent to _ceteris rebus_
'the other matters'; _i.e._ the political troubles hinted at above. The
best writers do not often use the neuter adjective as noun in the _oblique_
cases unless there is something in the context to show the gender clearly,
as in 24 _aliis ... eis quae_; we have, however, below in 8, _isto_ = _ista
re_; 72, _reliquum_; 77, _caelestium_ = _rerum caelestium_; and in 78,
_praeteritorum futurorumque_; see other instances in n. on Lael. 50
_similium_. The proleptic or anticipatory use of _ceteris_ should also be
noticed; its sense is not fully seen till we come to _hunc librum_; the
same use occurs below in 4, 5, 59, 60; so _aliis_ in 24; cf. also n. on
Lael. 7 _reliqua_. -- DIXIMUS ... DICEMUS: when a clause or phrase consists
of four parts, which go in pairs (as here _diximus_, _dicemus_ on one side,
and _multa_, _saepe_ on the other), the Latins frequently arrange the words
so as to put one pair between the two members of the other pair, as here.
This usage is called by grammarians _chiasmus_. Thus if we denote the four
parts by _AA' BB', chiasmus_ requires the order _ABB'A'_ or _BAA'B'_. See
examples in 8, 20, 22, 38, 44, 71. For the more complicated forms of
chiasmus consult Nägelsbach, Stil. §§ 167, 169. A. 344, _f_; G. 684; H.
562. -- LIBRUM ... MISIMUS: observe the omission of a particle at the
beginning of the clause; the contrast between _ceteris_ and _hunc librum_
is made stronger by the omission. For this _asyndeton adversativum_ see n.
on Lael. 5 _Laelium ... putes_. For tense of _misimus_, 'I send' see A.
282; G. 244, H. 472, 1. -- OMNEM: see n. on 62. -- TRIBUIMUS: perfect tense
like _misimus_. -- TITHONO ... ARISTO: see Introd. -- CIUS: Greek Κειος (a
native of Ceos), not to be confused with Χιος (a native of Chios), or Κωος
(a native of Cos). Cicero generally denotes the Greek diphthong ει by _i_
not e. This Aristo was a Peripatetic. -- PARUM ... AUCTORITATIS: observe
how often Cicero takes trouble to separate words which are, grammatically,
closely connected. So above, _omnis ... molestias_; 7 _multorum ...
senectutem_; 9 _mirificos ... fructus_; 21 _civium ... nomina_; 33 _minus
... virium_; 53 _multo ... fecundior_; etc. etc. See also n. on 15 _quam
sit iusta_. A. 344, _c_, _d_, _e_; H. 561, III. -- ESSET: condition
omitted. A. 311; G. 602; H. 510. -- MAIOREM AUCTORITATEM: cf. Lael. 4. --
APUD QUEM: 'at whose house'; so 55 _a me_, 'from my house'. A. 153; G. 417;
H. 446, n. 4. -- LAELIUM ... SCIPIONEM: see Introd. -- FACIMUS ADMIRANTIS:
'we represent as expressing astonishment'. For _facere_, in this sense,
Cic. more often uses _inducere_ 'to bring on the stage', as in Lael. 4
_Catonem induxi senem disputantem_. Cf. however 54 _Homerus Laerten
colentem agrum facit_; also Brut. 218; Orat. 85. Instead of _facimus_ we
might have expected either _fecimus_ to correspond with _misimus_ and
_tribuimus_ above, or _faciemus_ to correspond with _videbitur_ below. On
the use of the participle see A. 292, _q_; G. 536; H 535, I. 4. --
ERUDITIUS DISPUTARE: Cic. not infrequently in his dialogues makes people
talk with more learning than they really possessed. He several times
confesses this as regards Lucullus and Catulus in the Academica, and as
regards Antonius in the De Oratore. -- FERAT: subjunctive because embodying
the sentiment of Laelius and Scipio. Roby, 1744; Madvig, 357; H. 516, II.
-- SUIS LIBRIS etc.: for the allusions here to Cato's life, works, and
opinions see Introd. -- QUID OPUS EST PLURA? _sc. dicere_. cf. the elliptic
phrases _quid multa? sc. dicam_ in 78; also below, 10 _praeclare_. A 206,
_c_; H. 368, 3, n. 2.

4. SAEPE NUMERO SOLEO: 'it is my frequent custom'. _Numero_ is literally
'by the count or reckoning', and in _saepe numero_ had originally the same
force as in _quadraginta numero_ and the like; but the phrase came to be
used merely as a slight strengthening of _saepe_. -- CUM HOC ... CUM
CETERARUM: the use of _cum_ in different senses in the same clause, which
seems awkward, is not uncommon; cf. below, 67. The spelling _quum_ was
certainly not used by Cicero, and probably by no other Latin writer of the
best period. H. 311, foot-note 4. It is worth remarking that _cum_ the
conjunction and _cum_ the preposition, though spelt alike, are by origin
quite distinct. The former is derived from the pronominal stem _ka_ or
_kva_, and is cognate with _qui_; the latter comes from the root _sak_ 'to
follow', and is cognate with Gk. συν, Lat _sequor_, etc. See Vanicek,
Etymologisches Worterbuch, pp. 96, 984. -- RERUM ... SAPIENTIAM: 'wisdom
_in_ affairs'; the objective genitive -- EXCELLENTEM: in sense much
stronger than our 'excellent'; _excellentem perfectamque_ 'pre-eminent and
indeed faultless'. -- QUOD ... SENSERIM: this clause takes the place of an
object to _admirari_. The subjunctive is used because the speaker reports
his own reason for the wonder, formerly felt, as if according to the views
of another person, and without affirming his holding the same view at the
time of speaking. Madvig, 357, _a_, Obs. 1. A 341, _d_, Rem. -- ODIOSA:
this word is not so strong as our 'hateful', but rather means 'wearisome',
'annoying'. In Plautus the frequent expression _odiosus es_ means, in
colloquial English, 'you bore me'. Cf. 47 _odiosum et molestum_; 65 _odiosa
offensio_. -- ONUS AETNA GRAVIUS: a proverbial expression with an allusion
to Enceladus, who, after the defeat of the Giants by Juppiter, was said to
have been imprisoned under Mt. Aetna. Cf. Eurip. Hercules Furens, 637; also
Longfellow's poem, Enceladus. -- HAUD SANE DIFFICILEM: 'surely far from
difficult'; cf. 83 _haud sane facile_. -- QUIBUS: a _dativus commodi_,
'those for whom there is no aid in themselves'. Cf. Lael. 79 _quibus in
ipsis_. -- BENE BEATEQUE VIVENDUM: 'a virtuous and happy life'; 'virtue and
happiness'; so _bene honesteque_ below, 70. -- QUI ... PETUNT: these are
the αυταρκεις, men sufficient for themselves, '_in se toti teretes atque
rotundi_'. We have here a reminiscence of the Stoic doctrine about the wise
man, whose happiness is quite independent of everything outside himself,
and is caused solely by his own virtue. Cicero represents the same Stoic
theory in Lael. 7. Cf. Juv. Sat. 10, 357-362; also Seneca, De Cons. Sap.
VIII, De Prov. I. 5. -- A SE IPSI: 'themselves from themselves,' so in 78
_se ipse moveat ... se ipse relucturus sit_; 84 _me ipse consolabar_.
Expressions like _a se ipsis_ are quite uncommon in Cicero. Cf. n. on Lael.
5 _te ipse cognosces_; also see below, 38 _se ipsa_ 78 _se ipse_. --
NATURAE NECESSITAS: 'the inevitable conditions of nature.' Cf. 71 _quid est
tam secundum naturam quam senibus emori?_ -- AFFERAT: subjunctive because
_nihil quod_ = _nihil tale ut_. A 320, _a_; G. 633, 634; H. 503, I. -- QUO
IN GENERE: _sc. rerum_; with this phrase the defining genitive is commonly
omitted by Cicero. So below, 45 _in eo genere_. -- UT ... ADEPTAM: notice
the chiasmus. -- EANDEM: _idem_ is used in the same way, to mark an
emphatic contrast in 24, 52, 68, 71. -- ADEPTAM: this is probably the only
example in Cicero of the passive use of _adeptus_, which occurs in Sallust,
Ovid, Tacitus, etc.; and in this passage the use cannot be looked on as
certain, since one of the very best and several of the inferior MSS. read
_adepti_. Cicero, however, uses a good many deponent participles in a
passive sense (cf. below, 59 _dimensa_; 74 _meditatum_; see also a list,
Roby, 734), and some of them occur very rarely. Thus _periclitatus,
arbitratus, depastus_ as passives are found each in only one passage. --
INCONSTANTIA: 'instability', 'inconsistency'. _Constantia_, unwavering
firmness and consistency, is the characteristic of the wise man; cf. Acad.
2, 23 _sapientia ... quae ex sese habeat constantiam_; also Lael. 8 and 64.

P. 3. -- AIUNT: _sc. stulti_. -- PUTASSENT: the subjunctive is due to the
indirect discourse. Where we say 'I should not have thought,' the Latins
say, in direct narration, '_non putaram_,' _i.e._ 'I never had thought' (so
Off. 1, 81 and often in Cicero's letters). Translate, 'more quickly than
they had ever expected'. Cf. Att. 6, 1, 6 _accipiam equidem dolorem mihi
ilium irasci sed multo maiorem non esse eum talem qualem putassem_. See
Zumpt, Gram., 518. -- FALSUM PUTARE: 'to form a mistaken judgment'. For
_falsum_ as noun equivalent to ψευδος, cf. 6 _gratissimum_; also n. on 3
_ceteris_. -- QUI CITIUS: lit. 'in what way quicker'; cf. Tusc. 5, 89 _qui
melius_. H. 188, II. 2. -- ADULESCENTIA ... SENECTUS ... PUERITIA: babyhood
was generally at Rome supposed to last till the 17th year (the time for
assuming the _toga virilis_ and for beginning military service). _Iuventus_
is usually the age from 17 to 45, during which men were liable to be called
on for active service. Ordinarily, in colloquial language, _adulescentia_
is the earlier portion of _iuventus_, say the years from 17 to 30 (cf. 33),
but Cicero seems here to make _adulescentia_ co-extensive with _iuventus_.
From 45 to 60 is the _aetas seniorum_, the period during which citizens in
early Rome might be called out for the defence of the city, but not for
active service. _Senectus_ was commonly reckoned as beginning at 60; but in
§ 60 Cicero includes in _senectus_ the _aetas seniorum_, and probably
intended to include it here. In Tusc. 1, 34 Cic. reckons three ages
_pueritia adulescentia senectus_ as here; below in 74, four periods, or
five. -- QUAMVIS: = _quantumvis_. -- EFFLUXISSET: subjunctive because the
mood of _posset_, to which it stands in subordinate relation _Cum_ here is
purely temporal. See Roby, 1778; A. 342; G. 666; H. 529, II. -- POSSET: see
n. on _esset_ above, 3.

5. SI ... SOLETIS ... SUMUS: the apodosis and protasis do not exactly
correspond; the sense really required is 'if that wisdom for which you
admire me does exist, it lies in this', etc. -- UTINAM ... ESSET: _esset_
here gives a greater appearance of modesty than would been expressed by
_sit_: 'would it were, as it certainly is not'. A. 267; G. 253; H. 483, 2.
-- COGNOMINE: Cato bore the title _sapiens_, even in his lifetime; see
Introd. _Cognomen_ is used in good Latin to denote both the family name and
the acquired by-name; in late Latin this latter is denoted by _agnomen_. --
IN HOC SAPIENTES: but above, 4 _rerum sapientiam_, not _in rebus_. The
genitive construction is not found with _sapiens_ used as noun or adjective
till late Latin times. -- NATURAM DUCEM etc.: Cato's claim to the title of
_sapiens_ does not rest on any deep knowledge of philosophy, but on
practical wisdom or common sense and experience in affairs. Cf. Lael. 6 and
19. In this passage Cicero has put into Cato's mouth phrases borrowed from
the Stoic philosophy, which declared the life of virtue to be life in
accordance with nature (_naturae convenienter vivere_ or ‛ομολογουμενως τη
φυσει ζην). Cf. 71, n. on _secundum naturam_. -- TAMQUAM DEUM: observe
_deum_ not _deam_, because nature is compared with, and not identified
with, a divine being. Cf. Fin. 5, 43 _eam (rationem) quasi deum ducem
subsequens_. -- AETATIS: here = _vitae_, life as a whole. Cf. 2 _omne
tempus aetatis_ and n.; also 13 _aetatis ... senectus_; 33, 64, 82. --
DESCRIPTAE: 'composed'; literally 'written out'. The reading _discriptae_,
which many editions give, does not so well suit the passage. _Discribere_
is to map out, plan, arrange, put in order (see 59 _discripta_ and
_discriptio_); the point here lies, however, not in the due arrangement of
the different scenes of a play, but in the careful working out of each
scene. _Ab ea_ must be supplied after _descriptae_ from _a qua_ above. --
ACTUM: the common comparison of life with a drama is also found in 64, 70,
85. -- INERTI: the sense of 'ignorant' 'inartistic' (_in, ars_), has been
given to this by some editors (cf. Hor. Ep. 2, 2, 126 _praetulerim scriptor
delirus inersque videri_, and Cic. Fin. 2, 115 _artes, quibus qui carebant,
inertes a maioribus nominabantur_), but the meaning 'inactive', 'lazy',
'slovenly' seems to suit _neglectum_ better. -- POETA: nature is here the
dramatist, the drama is life, the actors are human beings. -- SED TAMEN
etc.: 'but for all that it was inevitable that there should be something
with the nature of an end'. So 69 _in quo est aliquid extremum_, 43
_aliquid pulchrum_. -- ARBORUM BACIS: the word _baca_ (the spelling _bacca_
has little or no authority) is applied to all fruits growing on bushes or
trees, cf. Tusc. 1, 31 _arbores seret diligens agricola, quarum aspiciet
bacam ipse numquam_ -- TERRAEQUE FRUCTIBUS: here = cereals, roots,
vegetables and small fruits. No sharp distinction can be drawn between
_fruges_ and _fructus_ (_e.g._ in Div. 1, 116 we have _fruges terrae
bacasve arborum_) though _fructus_ as commonly used is the more general
word of the two. -- MATURITATE CADUCUM: 'a time of senility, so to speak
and readiness to drop, that comes of a seasonable ripeness'. _Vietus_ is
literally 'twisted' or bent', being originally the passive participle of
_viere_. The comparison of old age with the ripeness of fruit recurs in 71.
Cf. Plin. Ep. 5, 14, 5 _non tam aetatis maturitate quam vitae_. --
FERUNDUM: the form in _undus_ is archaic, and generally used by Cic. in
quoting or imitating passages of laws, sacred formulae, and the like. H.
239. -- MOLLITER: here 'gently', 'with resignation', though _molliter
ferre_ often has another meaning, viz. to bear pain or trouble in an
_unmanly_ fashion. Cf. _facillime ferre_ below. -- QUID EST ALIUD etc. The
words perhaps imply the rationalistic explanation of myths which the Greeks
had begun to teach to the Romans during Cato's lifetime. Trans 'what else
but resistance to nature is equivalent to warring against the gods, and
_not_ 'what else does warring with the gods mean but to resist nature.' In
comparisons of this sort the Latins generally put the things compared in a
different order from that required by English idiom. Thus in Div. 2, 78
_quid est aliud nolle moneri a Iove nisi efficere ut aut ne fieri possit
auspicium aut, si fiat, videri_, S. Rosc. 54 _quid est aliud iudicio ac
legibus ac maiestate vestra abuti ad quaestum ac libidinem nisi hoc modo
accusare_. Phil. 1, 22, 2, 7, 5, 5, 10, 5. -- GIGANTUM MODO: see n. on 4
_Aetna gravius_ -- DIS: for the form _dis_ see n. on 25.

6. ATQUI: in the best Latin _atqui_ does not introduce a statement
_contradicting_ the preceding statement, but one that _supplements_ it.
Here it may be translated 'True, but'. Cf. 66, 81. -- GRATISSIMUM:
equivalent to _rem gratissimam_. With the thought cf. Rep. 1, 34 _gratum
feceris si explicaris_. Lael. 16 _pergratum feceris si disputaris_ -- UT
POLLICEAR: so Acad. 1, 33 _nos vero volumus ut pro Attico respondeam_.
Brut. 122 _nobis vero placet, ut pro Bruto etiam respondeam_; Lael. 32 _tu
vero perge, pro hoc enim respondeo_ A 317, _c_, H 499, 2, n. -- SENES
FIERI: if the infinitive had depended on _speramus_ alone and _volumus_ had
not intervened, Cicero would probably have written _nos futuros esse
senes_. -- MULTO ANTE: _sc. quam id factum erit_ so Balb. 41 _re denique
multo ante (sc. quam factum est) audita_, and very often in Cicero. --
DIDICERIMUS: as this corresponds with _feceris,_it would have been formally
correct to write here _nos docueris_ -- QUIBUS POSSIMUS: 'what
considerations will enable us most easily to support the growing burden of
age'. -- FUTURUM EST: = μελλει ειναι this form of the future is used in
preference to the simple _erit_ because it is desired to represent the
event as _on the very point of fulfilment_, and therefore sure of
fulfilment. _Erit_ would have implied much less certainty. Trans. 'I will
do so if my action _is going to give_ you pleasure' Cf. 67 _beatus futurus
sum_, also 81, 85. See Roby, 1494. -- NISI MOLESTUM EST:3 a common
expression of courtesy, like 15 _nisi alienum putas, si placet_, cf. Hor.
Sat. 2, 8, 4 _si grave non est_. -- TAMQUAM LONGAM VIAM: Cicero here puts
into Laelius' mouth almost the very words addressed by Socrates to the aged
Cephalus in the introduction to Plato's Republic, 328 E. Observe the
succession of similar sounds in t_am_qu_am_, aliqu_am_, long_am_, vi_am_.
-- VIAM CONFECERIS: so pro Quint. 79 _conficere DCC milia passuum,
conficere iter_ a common phrase. For mood see A 312, G 604, H 513, II. --
QUAM ... INGREDIUNDUM SIT: this construction, the neuter of the gerundive
with _est_ followed by an accusative case, is exceedingly rare excepting in
two writers, Lucretius and Varro. See the full list of examples given by
Roby, Gram., Pref. to vol. 2, p. LXXII. A 294, _c_, H 371, I. 2, 2, n. The
best texts of Cicero now give only one example of a construction at all
resembling this, viz. pro Scauro 13 _obliviscendum vobis putatis matrum in
liberos, virorum in uxores scelera?_ The supposition of some scholars, that
in this passage Cic. used the construction in imitation of the archaic
style of Cato, is not likely to be true, seeing that in Cato's extant works
the construction does not once occur. For the form _undum_ see n. on 5
_ferundum_. -- ISTUC not adverb, but neuter pronoun, as in 8. The kind of
construction, _istuc videre quale sit_ for _videre quale istuc sit_, is
especially common in Cicero.

7. FACIAM UT POTERO: 'I will do it as well as I can.' Observe the future
_potero_ where English idiom would require a present. So Rep. 1, 38 _hic
Scipio, faciam quod voltis, ut potero_. -- SAEPE ENIM: _enim_ introduces a
reason, not for the words _ut potero_, but for _faciam_ -- 'I will grant
your request because I have often heard complaints about old age and
therefore have thought of the matter'. -- PARES AUTEM etc.: parenthetical.
-- VETERE PROVERBIO: the saying is as old as Homer, Od. 17, 218 as ‛ως αιει
τον ‛ομοιον αγει θεος ‛ως τον ‛ομοιον; cf. also Plat., Rep. 329 A, Symp.
195 B, Phaedr. 240 C.

P. 4. -- FACILLIME: 'most cheerfully', 'most eagerly'; a common meaning of
the word in Cic., _e.g._ Fam. 2, 16, 2 _in maritimis facillime sum_, _i.e._
'I find most pleasure in staying by the sea'. -- QUAE: a kind of
explanation of _querellis_: -- 'lamentations, viz. such utterances as'
etc.; see n. on Lael. 14 _quae_; cf. Fam. 2, 8, 2 _sermonibus de re publica
... quae nec possunt scribi nec scribenda sunt_. A. 199, _b_; G. 616, 3,
I.; H. 445, 5. -- C. SALINATOR: probably C. Livius Salinator, praetor in
191 B.C. (Livy 35, 24), who was entrusted with the equipment of the Roman
fleets during the war against Antiochus. He was born about 230, and was
therefore a little younger than Cato; cf. _fere aequales_ below. Salinator
was consul in 188, and died in 170. For the name Salinator cf. n. on 11. --
SP. ALBINUS: Sp. Postumius Albinus was consul in 186, and was with his
colleague appointed to investigate the great Bacchanalian conspiracy of
that year (Livy 39, CC. 1 seq.). Albinus died in 180. He was probably a
little younger than Salinator. He can scarcely have been fifty years of age
at his death. -- TUM ... TUM: 'now ... again'; so in 45. -- CARERENT: see
n. on 3 _ferat_. -- VITAM NULLAM PUTARENT: 'they considered life to be not
life at all'. For _vitam nullam_ cf. Lael. 86 _sine amicitia vitam esse
nullam_; also the Greek phrase βιος αβιωτος; and below, 77 _vitam quae est
sola vita nominanda_; also 82. A. 239; H. 373, 1, n. 2. _Putarent_ =
'thought, as they said'. -- ID QUOD ESSET ACCUSANDUM: the subjunctive
_esset_ is used because a _class_ of things is referred to, 'nothing of a
nature to deserve complaint'; _id quod erat_, etc. would have meant merely
'that one thing which was matter for complaint'. A. 320; G. 634, Rem. 1; H.
503, I. -- USU VENIRENT: the phrase _usu venire_ differs very little in
meaning from _accidere_. _Usu_ is commonly explained as an ablative ('in
practice', 'in experience'), but is quite as likely to be a dative of the
sort generally called predicative ('to come as matter of experience'); cf.
Verg. Aen. 1, 22 _venire excidio_; Plin. N.H. 28, 106 _odio_; Caes. B.G. 5,
27 _subsidio_. -- QUORUM ... MULTORUM: the first genitive is dependent on
the second, so that _quorum = e quibus_. Notice the separation of _quorum_
from _multorum_ and of _multorum_ from _senectutem_. -- SINE QUERELLA:
attribute of _senectutem_. A. 217, Rem.; H. 359, n. 1, 4), and n. 3. This
form of attributive phrase, consisting of a preposition with a noun, is
common; cf. 24 _ex agro Sabino rusticos Romanos_; 40 _cum hostibus
clandestina colloquia_. _Querella_ is better spelling than _querela_. See
Roby, 177, 2. -- QUI: 'men of such nature as to ...'. -- ET ... NEC: Roby
2241. The reason for the departure from the ordinary sequence of particles
lies in the words _non moleste_. _Nec ...et _ is common; see 51, 53. --
LIBIDINUM VINCULIS etc.: Cic. is here thinking of the conversation between
Socrates and Cephalus in Plato, Rep. 329 D, for which see Introd. --
MODERATI: 'self-controlled'; cf. n. on 1 _moderationem_; _difficiles_,
'peevish'; _inhumani_, 'unkindly'; _importunitas_, 'perversity'.
_Importunitas_ seems to be used as the substantive corresponding in sense
with the adjective _difficilis_. _Difficultas_, in the sense of
'peevishness', probably occurs only in Mur. 19.

8. DIXERIT QUISPIAM: 'some one will say presently'; a gentle way of
introducing one's own objection. The mood of _dixerit_ is probably
indicative, not subjunctive; see the thorough discussion in Roby, Gram.,
Vol. 2, Pref., p. CIV. _et seq_. -- OPES ET COPIAS: 'resources and means'.
_Opes_ has a wider meaning than _copias_ (mere material wealth) and
includes all sources of power, influence, and authority as well as wealth.
Thus in Lael. 22 the end of _divitiae_ is said to be enjoyment; of _opes_,
worship (_opes ut colare_). _Dignitas_ is social position. -- ID: remark
the singular pronoun, which indicates that the preceding clause is now
taken as conveying one idea. Trans. 'such fortune'. -- CONTINGERE: 'to fall
to one's lot' is the phrase in English which most closely represents
_contingere_. This verb is not, as is often assumed, used merely of _good_
fortune; it implies in itself nothing concerning the _character_ of events,
whether they be good or bad, but simply that the events take place
_naturally_ and were to be expected. See n. on Lael. 8, where the word is
distinctly used in connection with _bad_ fortune, as it is, strikingly, in
71 below. -- EST ... OMNIA: 'your statement indeed amounts to something,
but it by no means comprises every consideration'. The phrase _esse
aliquid_, 'to be of some importance', is often used by Cic. both of things
and of persons; cf. Tusc. 5, 104 _eos aliquid esse_, also n. on 17 _nihil
afferunt_. So _esse aliquis_ of persons, as in the well-known passage of
Iuvenal, 1, 72 _aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum si vis esse
aliquis_. For the general sense cf. Tusc. 3, 52 _est id quidem magnum, sed
non sunt in hoc omnia_; so De Or. 2, 215; ib. 3, 221; Leg. 2, 24 _in quo
sunt omnia_. -- ISTO: the use of the neuter pronoun in the oblique case as
substantive is noticeable. -- THEMISTOCLES ETC.: Cicero borrows the story
from Plato (Rep. 329 E _et seq_.), but it was first told by Herodotus, 8,
125 who gave a somewhat different version. Themistocles had received great
honors at Sparta when Athenian ambassador there; an envious man declaring
that the honors were paid really to Athens and not to Themistocles, the
statesman answered ουτ αν εγω, εων Βελβινιτης (_i.e._ an inhabitant of the
small island of Belbina lying to the S. of Cape Sunium) ετιμηθην ουτω προς
Σπαρτιηρεων, ουτ αν συ, ανθρωπε, εων Αθηναιος. -- SERIPHIO: Seriphus is a
small island belonging to the Cyclad group and lying almost due N. of
Melos, and due E. of the Scyllaean promontory. Seriphus is often taken by
ancient writers as a specimen of an insignificant community (_e.g._
Aristoph. Acharn. 542; Cic. N.D. 1, 88), but it had the honor of being one
of the three island states which refused to give earth and water to the
Persian envoys, the other two being the adjacent islands of Melos and
Siphnus (Herodotus, 8, 46). -- IURGIO: _iurgium_ is a quarrel which does
not go beyond words; _rixa_ a quarrel where the disputants come to blows.
-- SI EGO: but further on, _tu si_. The contrast would certainly be more
perfect if _ego si_ were read, as has been proposed, in place of _si ego_.
-- QUOD EODEM MODO ... DICI: Cic. commonly says _quod ita dicendum_ and the
like; see n. on 35 _quod ni ita fuisset_. Cato means that just as
Themistocles' success was due to two things, his own character and his good
fortune, so two things are necessary to make old age endurable, viz.
moderate fortune and wisdom. He then in 9 insists that of these two
conditions wisdom is far the more important. -- NEC ... LEVIS ... NEC ...
NON GRAVIS: notice the chiasmus.

9. OMNINO: here = πανταπασι 'undoubtedly', in a strongly affirmative sense,
as in 76; but in 28 (where see n.) it is concessive. -- CUM DIU MULTUMQUE
VIXERIS: literally 'when you have lived long and much', _i.e._ when you
have not only had a long life but have done a great deal in the course of
it. The phrases _diu multumque, multum et diu_ are common in Cic., as
below, 38; Acad. 1, 4; Div. 2, 1; Off 1, 118; Leg. Agr. 2, 88; De Or. 1,
152. For mood see A. 309, a; H. 518, 2. -- ECFERUNT: _ecferunt_ for
_efferunt_ (_ec_ = _ex_ = _ecs_; so εκ = εξ = εκς) was old-fashioned in
Cicero's time, but forms of the sort, as below, 39 _ecfrenate_, according
to the evidence of the best MSS., occur in a good many passages. See Neue,
Formenlehre, Vol. 2, pp. 766 seq., ed. 2. -- NUMQUAM DESERUNT: the omission
of the object after _deserunt_ is not common. With the general sense of
this passage cf. Arch. 16 _litterarum studia adulescentiam alunt,
senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solarium
praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum,
peregrinantur, rusticantur._

P. 5. -- 10. Q. MAXIMUM: the famous Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Ovicula
Cunctator, hero of the Second Punic War. -- EUM ... RECEPIT: this clause
has often been suspected to be an insertion of the writers of MSS. But (1)
the capture of Tarentum in 209 B.C. was Fabius' crowning achievement, and
'captor of Tarentum' was often added to his name as a title of honor; see
De Orat. 2, 273; and (2) there were several other persons of distinction
bearing the name Q. Maximus about the same time, so that some special mark
was wanted for the sake of clearness. Notice _recepit_ 'recovered',
Tarentum having been lost by the Romans to Hannibal in 212 B.C. -- SENEM
ADULESCENS: observe the emphasis given by placing close together the two
words of opposite meaning. -- ERAT ... GRAVITAS: 'that hero possessed
dignity tempered by courtesy'. Expressions like _erat in illo gravitas_ are
common in Cicero; _e.g._ Mur. 58 _erat in Cotta summa eloquentia._ The
metaphor in _condīta_, 'seasoned', is also common; cf. Lael. 66
_condimentum amicitiae_. -- QUAMQUAM: 'though indeed', introducing a
necessary correction of the last words _nec senectus mores mutaverat._ For
this corrective _quamquam_ cf. n. on 2. -- CONSUL PRIMUM: B.C. 233. --
GRANDEM NATU: although the phrases _maior, maximus, parvus, minor, minimus
natu_ are of frequent occurrence, yet _magnus natu_ is not Latin, _grandis
natu_ being always used instead. The historians sometimes use _magno natu
esse_ or _in magno natu esse_. -- ANNO POST: the word _unus_ is not usually
attached to _annus_ except where there is a strong contrast between one and
a larger number of years. _Anno post_ must not be translated 'during the
year after'; but either 'a year after', _anno_ being regarded as the
ablative of measure or excess, literally 'later by a year', or 'at the end
of a year', the ablative being one of limitation, and _fuerat_ being
equivalent to _factus erat_ 'had been elected'. So _quinto anno_ below, 'at
the end of the fifth year', _i.e._ 'five years after'. -- ADULESCENTULUS
MILES: See n. on 21 _quemquam senem._ Translate 'when quite a youth I
marched with him to Capua as a private soldier'. G. 324; H. 363, 3, 2).
_Miles_ here = _gregarius miles_. -- QUEM MAGISTRATUM: _sc. quaesturam_, to
be understood from _quaestor_ Cf. Mur. 18 _quaesturam una petiit et sum ego
factus (sc. quaestor) prior_. -- TUDITANO ET CETHEGO: when the _praenomina_
of the consuls are given the names generally stand side by side without
_et_; when they are omitted _et_ is generally inserted. Cf. n. on 50
_Centone Tuditanoque_, etc. -- CUM QUIDEM: the _quidem_ simply adds a
slight emphasis to _cum_; 'at the very time when', επειδη γε. -- SUASOR:
_suasor legis_ was any person who publicly (_i.e._ before the senate or
people in _contio_ assembled) spoke in favor of a measure, _dissuasor_ any
one who spoke against it. Cf. 14 _suasissem_. -- LEGIS CINCIAE: a law
passed in 204 B.C. by M. Cincius Alimentus, a plebeian tribune, whereby
advocates were forbidden to take fees from their clients, and certain
limitations were placed on gifts of property by private persons. -- CUM ...
ESSET: '_though_ he was'; so below 11, 30, etc. -- GRANDIS: = _grandis
natu_. -- IUVENILITER: Hannibal was 29 years of age when he entered Italy
in 218. -- EXSULTANTEM: 'wildly roaming'. The word in its literal sense is
used of a horse galloping at its own will over a plain. The metaphorical
use is common in Cicero; cf. Acad. 2, 112 _cum sit campus in quo exsultare
possit oratio, cur eam tantas in angustias compellimus?_ -- PATIENTIA:
'endurance', 'persistence'; it is not equivalent to our 'patience'. --
PRAECLARE: _sc. dicit_; cf. n. on 3. -- FAMILIARIS: see Introd. -- UNUS
HOMO etc.: these lines were famous, and were not only often quoted with the
name of Ennius attached (as in Off. 1, 84; Livy 30, 26), but also imitated
or adapted without mention of his name, as, being too familiar to need it;
cf. Att. 2, 19, 2; Ovid, Fast. 2, 241; Verg. Aen. 6, 846; Suet. Tib. 21. --
CUNCTANDO: Cf. Polybius 3, 105, 8. On Fabius' military policy consult
Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, Bk. III. ch. 5. -- REM: here = _rem publicam_. --
NOENUM: the older form from which _non_ is an abbreviation; = _ne-oinom_,
_n-oinom_, literally 'not one thing'; cf. _nihil_ = _ne-hilum_ 'not a
whit', also the rare word _ningulus_ = _ne oinculus_, 'not even a little
one'. -- RUMORES: 'fame', 'public opinion'. -- PONEB[=A]T: for the long
vowel cf. n. on 1, l. 2 _versat_. -- PLUSQUE: MSS. _postque_; _plusque_is
the emendation of Bernays. _Plusque magisque_ is a variation upon the
ordinary phrases _plus plusque_, _magis magisque_.

11. SALINATORI: there can be no doubt that Cicero is guilty of a blunder
here, and in De Or. 2, 273 where the story also occurs. Livy (27, 34, 7)
gives M. Livius Macatus as the name of the Roman commander who held the
citadel of Tarentum while Hannibal was in possession of the town. Cicero
probably found the commander described by the annalists merely as M. Livius
(so in Livy 24, 20, 13; 26, 39, 1), and then jumped to tne conclusion that
he was the famous M. Livius Salinator. This man, the father of the
Salinator mentioned in 7, was consul in 219 and subdued the Illyrians, but
was condemned for misappropriation of public moneys and went into exile. In
210 he was induced to return by the desire of the senate. In 207 he became
consul with C. Claudius Nero, and defeated Hasdrubal in the great battle of
the Metaurus. In 204 Livius was censor with Nero as his colleague, and won
his name _Salinator_ by imposing a tax on salt. The title was bestowed in
ridicule, but clung to the family. Salinator was a relative of M. Livius
Macatus. See Liv 27, 34, 7. -- ITA DICENTI etc.: the anecdote is told by
Livy, 27, 25, 5 and Plutarch, Fab. 23. Both, however, refer the story not
to the time at which Tarentum was taken, but to the year after, when
altercations about it took place in the senate. -- TOGA: here put for
'civil life', the _toga_ being replaced in time of war by the _sagum_. Cf.
in Pisonem 73 _pacis est insigne et oti toga, contra autem arma tumultus
atque belli;_ De Or. 3, 167 _'togam', pro 'pace', 'arma', ac 'tela', pro
'bello'._ We have the same contrast between _arma_ and _toga_ in Cicero's
own much-derided verse, _cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi_, which
is defended by him, in Pis. 73 and Off. 1, 77. -- CONSUL ITERUM etc.: as
the second consulship of Fabius was in 228 B.C., while the law of Flaminius
was passed in 232 (according to Polybius), it is very difficult to
understand the statement here made. It is possible that Flaminius was one
of the commissioners for executing his own law, and that its execution
lasted over the time of Fabius' second consulship. The Flaminius here
mentioned is the same who fell as consul in 217 at the battle of lake
Trasimenus. He held large and statesman-like views on the policy of
securing Italy by planting Romans and Latins in the territory then recently
taken from the Gauls, in the neighborhood of Ariminum. This particular
measure was carried against the will of the senate, and was the first law
passed, since the _lex Hortensia_ of 287, in defiance of its wishes. It was
also the first agrarian law since the Licinio-Sextian law of 367. Polybius
dates the decline of the Roman constitution from the passing of the _lex
Flaminia_. Cf.'Rheinisches Museum', 1843, p. 573. -- SP. CARVILIO
QUIESCENTE: this Sp. Carvilius was consul in 234 when he conquered the
Corsicans and Sardinians. In 228 he was again consul, and died as augur in
212. He is said, but erroneously, to have been the first Roman who divorced
his wife. In 216, just after the battle of Cannae, he made a most
remarkable proposal, to fill up the gaps which that battle had made in the
numbers of the senate by selecting two members from each of the Latin
communities. It was almost the only occasion in the course of Roman history
when anything like modern representative government was advocated.
Carvilius was not sprung from one of the noble families, who for the most
part monopolized the higher offices of state, it is therefore not
surprising that he should have sympathized with Flaminius. -- CONTRA
SENATUS AUCTORITATEM: 'against the expressed wish of the senate' _Senatus
auctoritas_ is, strictly speaking, an opinion of the senate not formally
embodied in a decree, _senatus consultum_. Cicero, in Invent. 2, 52 says
Flaminius carried his law _contra voluntatem omnium optimatium_. --
DIVIDENTI: 'when he tried to divide'. The participle is here equivalent to
_cum_ with the imperfect indicative (dividebat). So in 54 _lenientem_ A.
290, _a_; G 668; H 549, 1.

P. 6. -- CUM ESSET: '_though_ he was'. What Fabius declared was reaily that
the _auspicia_ were a political instrument in the hands of the aristocrats,
rather than a part of religion. Fabius, according to Liv. 30, 26, 7, was
augur for 62 years before his death, and had no doubt had a large
experience in the manipulation of the _auspicia_ for political purposes.
Compare Homer, Iliad, 12, 243, also Cic. Phil. 11, 28 _Iuppiter ipse sanxit
ut omnia quae rei publicae salutaria essent legitima et iusta haberentur_.
Consult Mommsen, Hist of Rome, Bk. IV. Ch. 12.

12. ADMIRABILIUS: 'more amazing'. The Latin word has a much stronger
meaning than the English word derived from it. -- QUO MODO TULIT: = _eum
modum quo tulit_, so that the clause is not really dependent on _cognovi_,
nor _tulit_ irregularly put for _tulerit_. In Lael. 9 Laelius exclaims, of
Cato himself, _quo modo, ut alia omittam, mortem fili tulit_. And no doubt
Cic. meant here to make Cato allude to _his_ loss, described in 84. --
FILI: see n. on 1 _praemi_. -- CONSULARIS: the son of Fabius was consul in
213 with Ti. Sempronius Gracchus -- EST IN MANIBUS: 'is in every one's
hands', 'is commonly read'. The expression is common enough in this sense;
_e.g._ Lael. 96 _in manibus est oratio_. -- LAUDATIO: _sc. funebris_, the
funeral speech. This composition was read in Cicero's time (see Tusc. 3,
70; Fam. 4, 6, 1) and existed in the time of Plutarch. See Plutarch's life
of Fab. 24. -- QUEM PHILOSOPHUM: many of the ancient philosophers wrote
popular treatises in which the principles of philosophy were applied to the
alleviation of sorrow. The most famous of these in Cicero's time was
Crantor's περι πενθους, which Cicero used largely in writing his _Tusculan
Disputations_, and also in his _De Consolatione_ on the death of his
daughter. -- IN LUCE ... CIVIUM: 'in public and under the gaze of his
fellow-countrymen'. Do not translate _in oculis_ by the English phrase 'in
the eyes of', which has another sense. The metaphor in _lux_ is often used
by Cicero, as Qu. Fr. 1, 1, 7 _in luce Asiae, in oculis provinciae_. --
NOTITIA: _notitia_ is general knowledge, often merely the result of
superficial observation; _scientia_ is thorough knowledge, the result of
elaboration and generalization. -- MULTAE LITTERAE: 'great literary
attainments.' In this sense _magnae_ could not be used to represent
'great'. Note the ellipsis of _erant_. -- UT IN HOMINE ROMANO: 'considering
that he was a Roman', or 'for a Roman'. On the backwardness of the Romans
in literary pursuits see Teuffel, Hist. of Rom. Lit, § 2; cf. also Ritter,
Hist. of Ancient Philosophy, Vol. IV. pp. 1-13, Eng. ed. In parenthetic
clauses like this, the introductory _ut_ may convey two very different
meanings according to the context. Thus in Acad. 2, 98 _homo acutus, ut
Poenus_ is 'a keen witted man, _as might be expected of_ a Carthaginian'
(cf Colum 1, 3, 8 _acutissimam gentem Poenos_) while Nepos, Epam. 5, 2
_exercitatum in dicendo ut Thebanum_ implies that oratory was _not_ to be
expected of a Theban. -- DOMESTICA ... EXTERNA BELLA: here the _domestica
bella_ are those wars which belong to the history of Rome, the _externa
bella_ those wars which belong to the history of other states; but usually
_domestica bella_ are civil wars, _externa_ foreign wars in which Rome is
engaged; _e.g._ Leg. agr. 2, 90 _omnibus domesticis externisque bellis_; in
Catil 2, 11 _omnia sunt externa unius virtute pacata; domesticum bellum
manet, intus insidiae sunt_. The practice of reading military history was
common among Roman commanders; see for instance Acad. 2, 3 of Lucullus; the
practice is ridiculed by Marius in Sall. Iug. 85. -- ITA: _ita_ does not
qualify _cupide_, and has not the sense of _tam_, it means rather 'in this
state', 'under these conditions'; the words from _quasi_ to the end of the
sentence really form an explanation of _ita_. This mode of expression is
often found, _ita_ and _sic_ frequently look on to clauses introduced by
_quasi_, _si_, _ut_, _cum_ etc. Cf below 26 _sic quasi, cupiens_ (where see
n.); Sall. Iug. 85, 19 _ita aetatem agunt quasi vestros honores contemnunt,
ita hos petunt quasi honeste vixerint_. -- DIVINAREM: see references on 6
_confeceris_. -- ILLO EXSTINCTO: Fabius died in 203 B.C. -- FORE UNDE
DISCEREM NEMINEM: cf. Acad. 1, 8 _quae nemo adhuc docuerat nec erat unde
studiosi scire possent. Unde_ of persons (here = _a quo_); is common in
both verse and prose (so ‛οθεν and ‛οθενπερ, vid. Liddell and Scott in
vv.); cf. Horace 1, 12, 17 _unde nil maius generatur ipso_; 1, 28, 28; Cic.
de Or. 1, 67 _ille ipse unde cognorit_; ib. 2, 285. So _ubi = apud quem_ in
Verr. 4, 29; _quo = ad quos_ below, 83, and in Verr. 4 38; cf. also n. on
_istinc_ in 47. For mood of _discerem_ see A. 320; G. 634; H. 503, I.

13. QUORSUS IGITUR HAEC: _sc. dixi._ -- TAM MULTA: this takes the place of
_tot_, which, like _quot_, cannot be used as a substantive. -- SCIPIONES:
'men like Scipio', _i.e._ the elder Africanus; so 15 _Fabricii Curii
Coruncanii_. Cicero has here put his own opinion of Scipio into the mouth
of Cato, who, during a large part of his life, was a staunch and even
bitter opponent of Scipio, and therefore not likely to couple him with
Fabius. Cf. Introd. -- UT ... RECORDENTUR: the repetition of _ut_ with each
clause for the sake of effect may be compared with the repetition of
_nihil_ in 15, 27, 41; of _non_ in 32; of _hinc_ in 40; of _sibi_ in 58. --
PEDESTRIS: for _terrestris_; the usage is very common; so in Greek
πεζομαχια and ναυμαχια, πεζομαχειν and ναυμαχειν are often contrasted (see
Liddell and Scott). It is not recorded by historians that either Scipio or
Fabius took part personally in naval warfare. -- RECORDENTUR: this verb
implies the habitual dwelling of the memory upon the past. -- QUIETE ET
PURE ATQUE ELEGANTER: the enumeration consists of two branches connected by
_et_, the second branch being subdivided into two members connected by
_atque_. Had each of the adverbs been intended to stand on exactly the same
footing Cic. would have written _et_ instead of _atque_, or else would have
omitted the copula altogether; see n. on 53 _capitum iugatio_. In
enumerations of the form A + (Bl + B2), the + outside the bracket is
expressed by _et_, the + inside the bracket generally being expressed by
_ac_, for which _atque_ is substituted when the following word (_i.e._ B2)
begins with a vowel, a guttural (_c, q, g_) or _h_, before which _ac_ was
very seldom written. -- PURE ATQUE ELEGANTER: 'sinlessly and gently'.
_Pure_ implies moral stainlessness, _eleganter_, literally 'in choice
fashion', implies daintiness combined with simplicity in regard to the
external conditions of life. The same ideas are put together in Sull. 79
_cum summa elegantia atque integritate vixistis_. -- AETATIS: see n. on 5.
-- PLACIDA AC LENIS: 'quiet and mild'; _placida_ refers to the external
surroundings, _lenis_ to the temper and character. -- ACCEPIMUS: _sc.
fuisse_; for the ellipsis of the infinitive cf. n. on 22 _videretur_. --
UNO ET OCTOGESIMO: but below _quarto_ (not _quattuor_) _nonagesimo_. In the
compound _ordinal_ numbers corresponding to those _cardinal_ numbers which
are made up of one and a multiple of ten, the Latins use _unus_ oftener
than _primus_, which would be strictly correct; so in English 'one and
eightieth' for 'eighty-first'. The ordinary Grammar rule (Roby, Vol. I, p.
443 'the _ordinal_ not the _cardinal_ is used in giving the date') requires
slight correction. For the position of the words see G. 94, 3; H. 174,
footnote 3. -- SCRIBENS EST MORTUUS: 'died while still engaged upon his
works'; cf. 23 _num Platonem ... coegit in suis studiis obmutiscere
senectus?_ Diog. Laert. 3, 2 quoting Hermippus (a Greek writer of biography
who lived about the time of the Second Punic war), says that Plato died in
the middle of a marriage-feast at which he was a guest. Val. Max. 8, 7, 3
gives a slightly different account. -- ISOCRATI: this form of the genitive
of Greek proper names in _-es_ was probably used by Cicero rather than the
form in _-is_; see Madvig on Fin. 1, 14; Neue, Formenlehre, 1² 332.
Isocrates, the greatest teacher of rhetoric of his time, lived from 436 to
338, when he died by voluntary starvation owing to his grief at the loss of
Greek freedom through the battle of Chaeronea. Milton, Sonnet X. 'That
dishonest victory At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty, Kill'd with report that
old man eloquent'. -- EUM ... INSCRIBITUR: the periphrasis is common, and
the verb _inscribere_ is nearly always in the present tense (in later prose
as well as in Cicero) as in 59. This is sometimes the case even where the
neighboring verbs are in past tenses, as in Acad. 1, 12 _nec se tenuit quin
contra suum doctorem librum etiam ederet qui Sosus inscribitur_. The
present seems to mean that the name mentioned is continually given to each
copy of the book as produced; where the continuing multiplication of copies
is not looked to, we have the perfect, as Att. 8, 5, 2 _tu fasciculum_
(bundle of letters) _qui est inscriptus 'des M'. Curio', velim cures ad eum
perferendum_. Cf. also De Or. 2, 61 _deceptus indicibus librorum qui sunt
fere inscripti_ ('to which the authors--once for all--have given the
titles') _de virtute, de iustitia_, etc.; so Div. 2, 1 _eo libro qui
inscriptus Hortensius_. -- DICIT: the 'Panathenaicus', an encomium of
Athens written for recitation at the great festival of the Panathenaea, is
among the works of Isocrates which we still possess. In c. 1 Isocrates says
τοις ετεσι ενενηκοντα και τετταρσιν, ‛ων εγω τυγχανω γεγονως. -- VIXITQUE:
'and yet he lived'. The _que_ here has a slight adversative force, as is
often the case with _et_. Cf. n. on 28, 43, 73. -- GORGIAS: the greatest of
the sophists, born at Leontini in Sicily about 485 B.C.; his death took
place, according to the varying accounts, in 380, 378, or 377. In his old
age he lived in Thessaly where Isocrates studied with him; see Or. 176;
Fin. 2, 1. For the adjective _Leontinus_ placed before the name rather than
after cf. 43 _Thessalo Cinea_. -- CENTUM ET SEPTEM ANNOS: Kennedy, Gram., §
34, vii, _c_, says, 'in compound numbers above 100 the larger number, with
or without _et_, generally precedes the smaller'; cf. Roby, Vol. 1 p. 443.
-- CESSO: does not correspond in meaning with our 'cease', _i.e._ '_to come
to_ a standstill'; _cesso_ is 'I am in a state of rest', 'I am idle'. --
QUAERERETUR: the past tense, though the principal verb _inquit_, is in the
present, because the present is the _historical_ present and so equivalent
to a past tense. Cf. Roby, 1511-1514; Kennedy 229, 2. A. 287, _e_; G. 511,
Rem. 1; H. 495, II. The idiom by which the imperfect stands where we should
expect a tense of completed action, should be noticed; cf. Tusc. 2, 60
_quem cum rogaret, respondit._ The explanation of the imperfect in such
cases is that it marks out, more clearly than the pluperfect would, the
fact that the action of the principal verb and the action of the dependent
verb are practically contemporaneous. In our passage if _quaesitum esset_
had been written it would have indicated merely that at some quite
indefinite time after the question was put the answer was given. Cf. N.D.
1, 60 _auctore ... obscurior_. -- CUR ... VITA: a hint at suicide, which
the ancients thought a justifiable mode of escape from troubles,
particularly those of ill health or old age. See n. on 73 _vetat
Pythagoras. Esse in vita_ is stronger than _vivere_; cf. Qu. Fr. 1, 3, 5.
-- NIHIL HABEO QUOD ACCUSEM: 'I have no reason to reproach'. Cf. the common
phrase _quid est quod ...? Quod_, adverbial acc. A. 240, _a_; G. 331, R. 3;
H. 378, 2. For mood of _accusem_ see H. 503, I. n. 2, and references on 12
_discerem_. -- PRAECLARUM RESPONSUM: _est_ is not required, because
_responsum_ is in apposition to the last part of the preceding sentence.
Similar appositions occur in Laelius, 67, 71, 79. -- DOCTO: applied
especially to philosophers, but also to poets. The word implies
_cultivation_ as well as mere _knowledge_; 'a learned man', merely as such,
is '_homo litteratus_'; cf. n. on 54.

P. 7. -- 14. CUIUS ... FECI: 'the aforesaid' is in good Latin always
expressed by a parenthesis like this and not by a participle in agreement
with the noun. The phrases '_ante dictus_', '_supra dictus_', belong to
silver Latin, where they are common. Cf. 23 _quos ante dixi_. -- SIC UT
etc.: the lines are from the Annals of Ennius, for which see n. on 1. --
ECUS: Ennius did not write _uu_, nor most likely did Cicero; the former may
have written either _ecus, equos,_ or _equs_. The last form Vahlen prints
in his edition of Ennius. -- SPATIO SUPREMO: 'at the end of the
race-course', 'at the goal', or it may be 'at the last turn round the
course', the race requiring the course to be run round several times; cf.
Homer's πυματον δρομον in Iliad 23, 768. So 83 _decurso spatio_; Verg. Aen.
5, 327 _iamque fere spatio extreme fessique sub ipsam finem adventabant_.
-- VICIT OLUMPIA: a direct imitation of the Greek phrase νικαν Ολυμπια, to
win a victory at an Olympic contest. So Horace Ep. 1, 1, 50 has _coronari
Olympia_ = στεφανουσθαι Ολυμπια. The editors print _Olympia_, but the use
of _y_ to represent Greek υ did not come in till long after the time of
Ennius. -- SENIO: differs from _senectute_ in implying not merely old age,
but the weakness which usually accompanies it. -- CONFECTUS: for the
disregard of the final _s_ in scanning cf. n. on 1, l. 6. -- EQUI VICTORIS:
for the almost adjectival use of the substantive _victor_, cf. Verg. Aen.
7, 656 _victores equos_; ib. 12, 751 _venator canis_; ib. 10, 891; 11, 89,
and Georg. 2, 145 _bellator equus_, in Theocritus 15, 51 πολεμισται ‛ιπποι.
The feminine nouns in _-trix_ are freely used as adjectives both in verse
and in prose. A. 88, _c_; H. 441, 3. -- QUEM QUIDEM: the same form of
transition is used in 26, 29, 46, 53. The whole of this passage to
_suasissem_ is an exhibition of antiquarian learning quite unnatural and
inappropriate in a dialogue. -- PROBE MEMINISSE POTESTIS: cf. De Or. 3, 194
_quem tu probe meministi_; Fin. 2, 63 _L. Thorius quem meminisse tu non
potes. Memini_ can take a _personal_ accusative only when the person who
remembers was a contemporary of the person remembered; otherwise the gen.
follows. Cf. Roby, 1333; A. 219, Rem.; H. 407, n. 1. -- HI CONSULES: 'the
present consuls'. -- T. FLAMININUS: commonly said to be the son of the
great Flamininus (1, l. 1). He was altogether undistinguished, as also were
the Acilius and the Caepio here mentioned. This passage gives the imagined
date of the dialogue as 150 B.C. -- PHILIPPO: this was Q. Marcius
Philippus, who was consul in 186 and took part in the suppression of the
great Bacchanalian conspiracy of that year. For the next 17 years he was a
leading senator and much engaged in diplomacy in the East. In 169 he was
again consul and commanded against Perseus in the early part of the war. --
CUM ... LEGEM VOCONIAM ... SUASISSEM: 'after I had spoken publicly in favor
of the law o£ Voconius'. For _suasissem_ cf. 10 _suasor_ with n. The _Lex
Voconia de mulierum hereditatibus_ aimed at securing the continuance of
property in families. By its provisions no man who possessed property
valued in the censors' lists at 100,000 sesterces or more, could appoint a
woman or women as his _heres_ or _heredes_; further, no person or persons,
male or female, could receive under the will legacies amounting in all to a
larger sum than that received by the principal heir or heirs. Every Roman
will named a _heres_ or _heredes_, on whom devolved all the privileges and
duties of the deceased, with such duties as were enjoined by the will;
particularly the duty of paying the legacies left to those who were not
_heredes_. See Maine, Ancient Law, Ch. 6; also Hunter, Introd. to Roman
Law, Ch. 5. -- MAGNA: in Latin the word _magnus_ is the only equivalent of
our 'loud'. -- LATERIBUS: 'lungs'. Cic. and the best writers rarely use
_pulmones_ for 'lungs'; the few passages in which it occurs either refer to
victims sacrificed at the altar, or are medical or physiological
descriptions. 'Good lungs' is always '_bona latera_' never _pulmones_. --
DUO ... SENECTUTEM: Ennius is said to have kept a school in his later days,
and to have lived in a cottage with one servant only.

15. ETENIM: this word generally introduces either an explanation or a proof
of a preceding statement. Here the words are elliptic, and the real
connection with what precedes can only be made clear by a paraphrase.
'Ennius seemed to delight in old age. And no wonder, since there are four
causes which make men think old age wretched, and no one of these will bear
examination'. _Etenim_ may generally be translated 'indeed', or 'in fact'.
-- CUM COMPLECTOR ANIMO: 'when I grasp them in my thoughts'. The object of
_complector_ is to be supplied from _causas_. -- AVOCET: _sc. senes_. The
subjunctives denote that these are the thoughts not of the speaker, but of
the persons who do think old age a wretched thing. See n. on 3 _ferat_; but
cf. Kennedy, Grammar, pref., p. 30. -- ALTERAM ... TERTIAM: in enumerations
of more than two things _unus and alter_ generally take the place of
_primus_, and _secundus_: in Cic. these latter rarely occur under such
circumstances. Cf. Att. 3, 15, 1; Fin. 5, 9; Off. 1, 152; Cluent. 178. --
INFIRMIUS: _sc. auam antea erat_. -- QUAM SIT IUSTA: Cicero generally
separates from the words they qualify _quam_, _tam_, _ita_, _tantus_,
_quantus_, often, as here, by one small word. Cf. below, 35 _quam fuit
imbecillus_; 40 _tam esse inimicum_. -- QUIBUS: the preposition _a_ is
often omitted; cf. in Pis. 91 _Arsinoen ... Naupactum fateris ab hostibus
esse captas. Quibus hostibus? Nempe eis_ etc.; Tusc. 3, 37 _sed traducis
cogitationes meas ad voluptates. Quas?_ Even when relative and antecedent
are in the same sentence the preposition is not often repeated; _e.g._ Fin.
5, 68 _eodem in genere quo illa_. -- AN EIS: _an_ always introduces a
question which is not independent, but follows upon a previous question
either expressed or implied. Here _quibus_ implies _omnibusne_. Cf. div. in
Caec. 52 _quid enim dices? An id quod dictitas_ ... where _quid_ implies
_nihilne_: also below, 23, 29 _anne_. A 211, _b_; G. 459; H. 353, 2, n. 4.
-- IUVENTUTE ET VIRIBUS: commonly explained as a hendiadys, _i.e._ as put
for _iuventutis viribus_; but Cic. no more meant this than we mean 'the
strength of youth' when we speak of 'youth and strength'. Real instances of
hendiadys are much rarer than is generally supposed. -- QUAE: = _tales ut_.
-- L. PAULUS: this is L. Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, consul in 182 B.C.,
and again in 168 when he finished the third Macedonian war by utterly
defeating Perseus at Pydna. For his connection with Scipio and Cato see
Introd. -- PATER TUUS: _i.e. Scipio_; so in 29 _avi tui_, and in 75 _avum
tuum_, without mention of young Scipio's name, but in 49 _patris tui,
Scipio_; so 77. -- FABRICII etc.: for the plurals see n. on 13. C.
Fabricius Luscinus, consul in 282, 278, and 273 B.C., censor in 275, held
the command against Pyrrhus. The Roman writers, Cicero especially, are
never tired of eulogizing him as a pattern of old-fashioned Roman virtue.
Manius Curius Dentatus, consul in 290, 275, and 274 practically, if not
formally, ended the third Samnite war, and also commanded against Pyrrhus;
see 55. He was famed for his sturdy Roman simplicity and frugality.
Tiberius Coruncanius as consul in 280 crushed an Etruscan insurrection. In
252 he became the first plebeian pontifex maximus. These three men are very
frequently mentioned together by Cicero; cf. below, 43, Lael. 18. -- NIHIL
AGEBANT: observe that _nihil agebat_ is put at the beginning of the first
sentence, _nihil agebant_ at the end of the second; chiasmus.

16. A. CLAUDI: Appius Claudius, the head of the most strongly aristocratic
family in Rome, was censor in 311 B.C., when he constructed the _via
Appia_, and consul in 307 and 296. He had to be carried into the
senate-house in order to oppose the peace with Pyrrhus -- ACCEDEBAT UT:
_accedit_ is far oftener followed by a clause with _quod_ and indicative
than by a clause with _ut_ and subjunctive. When the _quod_ clause follows,
it contains a fact looked at merely as a fact and nothing more, but the
_ut_ clause views the fact as consequent upon, or dependent on some other
fact. Here the blindness is regarded as being the consequence of old age,
though Livy 9, 29, 11 and other authors attribute it to the anger of the
gods, because as censor Appius had taken the administration of the worship
of Hercules away from the ancient family of the Potitii, and had placed it
in the hands of public slaves. The mental vigor of Appius in his old age is
mentioned by Cic. in Tusc. 5, 112.

P. 8. -- CUM PYRRHO: note the position of the words between _pacem_ and
_foedus_, with both of which they go. This usage is called by the
grammarians _coniunctio_; cf. n. on Lael. 8 _cum summi viri tum
amicissimi_, also above, _quae iuventute geruntur et viribus_, below 18
_quae sunt gerenda praescribo et quo modo_. -- FOEDUS: this seems opposed
to _pacem_ as a formal engagement is to a mere abstention from hostilities.
-- NON DUBITAVIT DICERE: when _dubitare_ means 'to hesitate' (about a
course of action), and the sentence is _negative_, or an interrogative
sentence assuming a negative answer, the infinitive construction generally
follows, as here; but the infinitive is rare in a _positive_ sentence. When
_dubitare_ means to 'be in doubt' (as to whether certain statements are
true or not), the regular construction is either _quin_ with subj. or some
form of indirect interrogative clause. Cf. below, 25. -- QUO VOBIS: from
the _Annales_. In _mentis dementis_ we have _oxymoron_ (an intentional
contradiction in terms) as in 38 _sensum sine sensu_; 39 _munus ...
aufert_. On the case of _vobis_, see Roby, 1154, A. 235, _a_, H. 384, 4, n.
2. -- ANTEHAC: always a dissyllable in verse, and probably so pronounced in
prose -- VIAI: the old genitive. A. 36 _a_, G. 27, Rem. 1, H. 49, 2. The
reading is not quite certain, if _viai_ be read it is not altogether
certain whether it depends on _quo_ or on _sese flexere_. In the former
construction we have a partitive gen with an adv; A. 216, _a_, 4, G. 371,
Rem. 4, H. 397, 4, in the latter, a distinct Graecism like _desine
querellarum_ (Hor Od 2, 9, 17) and the like; A. 243 Rem., G. 373 Rem. 6, H.
410 V 4. -- ET TAMEN: the sense is incompletely expressed, in full it is
'and yet there is no need for me to refer to Appius' speech as given by
Ennius, since the speech itself is in existence.' Exactly similar ellipses
are found with _et tamen_ in Fin 1, 11 and 15; 2, §§ 15, 21, 64 and 85,
Att. 7, 3, 10, Lucretius 5, 1177. In Munro's note on the last passage a
collection of examples will be found. -- APPI ... ORATIO: the speech was
known to Cicero, and was one of the oldest monuments of prose composition
in Latin extant in his time, see Brut. 61. Plutarch, Pyrrhus 19, gives an
account of Appius' speech, which may founded on the original, he mentions
it also in his tract commonly called '_an seni sit gerenda res publica_',
c. 21. Ihne (History of Rome, Vol. I. p. 521, Eng. ed.) doubts whether the
speech, as Cic. knew it, was committed to writing by Appius himself. --
HAEC ILLE EGIT: 'he made this speech'. -- SEPTEMDECIM ANNIS: as the second
(_alterum_) consulship was in 296, and the speech in 280, both these years
are included in the reckoning by a usage very common in Latin. For the
ablative cf. 19. -- CENSOR ... ANTE CONSULATUM: this was unusual, and
therefore to Claudius' honor. -- GRANDEM SANE: 'undoubtedly old'. -- ET
TAMEN SIC: _i.e. eum tum grandem fuisse_ Lahmeyer wrongly says that _sic_
points to the words _atque haec ille egit_. It may be noted that _sic_
takes the place of an object after _accipimus_, cf. 77 _ita crederem_; 78
_sic mihi persuasi_, also 18 _male cogitanti_.

17. NIHIL AFFERUNT: 'they bring forward nothing', _i.e._ what they bring
forward is worthless, so in Greek ουδεν λεγειν, the opposite of which is
λεγειν τι. Cf. 8 _est istuc aliquid_. -- SIMILES UT SI: a very rare
construction. Equally unusual is _similes tamquam si_ in Div. 2, 131. In
Tusc. 4, 41 and Off. 1, 87 we find _similiter ut si_ in Fin. 2, 21 and 4,
31 _similiter_ or _similis et si_, in N.D. 3, 8 _similiter ac si_, also in
Liv. 5, 5, 12 _dissimilia ac si_, in 35, 42, 10 _idem ac si_. As regards
the _ut_ after _similes_, we may compare a few passages in which _simul ut_
appears for _simul ac_, see Reid's n. on Academ 2, 51. In the English Bible
there are expressions like _similes sunt ut si qui dicant_, 'they are like
as if some men should say.' -- SCANDANT: '_cum_ is used with the
subjunctive when it expresses a kind of comparison, and especially a
contrast, between the contents of a leading proposition and a subordinate
("whereas", etc.)' Madvig, 358, Obs. 3. The underlying idea in this use is
generally cause, sometimes concession. -- PER FOROS 'over the deck'. --
ILLE: for the omission of _sed_ or _autem_ (_asyndeton adversativum_) see
n. on 3 _librum_, etc. -- CLAVUM: 'tiller'. With this passage Lahmeyer well
compares what Cicero says of himself in Fam. 9, 15, 3 _sedebamus in puppi
et clavum tenebamus; nunc autem vix est in sentina locus_. -- VELOCITATE:
_velocitas_ and _celeritas_ differ very slightly; the former means rather
speed of movement in one line the latter rather power of rapid motion with
frequent change of direction. The emphatic word in this clause is
_corporum_. Cf. Off. 1, 79 _honestum ... animi efficitur non corporis
viribus_. -- CONSILIO ... SENTENTIA: _consilio_, advice; _auctoritate_,
weight of influence; _sententia,_ an opinion or vote formally given. --
QUIBUS: in twofold relation; with _orbari_, abl. of separation, with
_augeri_ of specification.

18. NISI FORTE: ironical, used to introduce a possible, but absurd
objection to something which has gone before. The verb that follows is
always in the indicative. -- MILES etc.: 'as common soldier'; see n. on 10.
-- IN VARIO GENERE: we use the plural, 'in different kinds'. Cf. Acad. 2, 3
_in omni genere belli_; Deiot. 12 _in omni genere bellorum_. -- CESSARE:
cf. n. on 13. -- AT SENATUI etc.: exactly the same ideas are expressed,
with the same mention of Cato's activity in Off. 1, 79. -- MALE COGITANTI:
'which has now for a long time been plotting mischief'; A. 290, _a_; G.
671, 221; H. 549, 4; 467, III. 2. Cf. pro Sulla 70 _nefarie cogitare_; for
the use of the adverb see n. on 16 _sic_. On Cato's attitude toward
Carthage see Introd. -- VERERI: the construction is unusual. _Vereor_
regularly takes after it an accusative, or else a clause with _ne_ or _ut_.
A passage much resembling this is Rab. Post. 10 _omnes qui aliquid de se
verebantur_; cf. also Att. 10, 4, 6 _de vita sua metuere_; Verg. Aen. 9,
207 _de te nil tale verebar_; in all these examples the ablative with _de_
denotes the quarter threatened, not, as here, the quarter from which the
threat comes. -- EXSCISAM: from _exscindo_; most edd. _excisam_, but to
raze a city is _urbem exscindere_ not _excidere_; _e.g._ Rep. 6, 11
_Numantiam exscindes_.

19. QUAM PALMAM etc.: a prophecy after the event, like that in Rep. 6, 11
_avi relliquias_, the finishing up of the Punic wars. For the use of
_relliquias_ cf. Verg. Aen. 11, 30 _Troas relliquias Danaum atque immitis
Achilli_; ib. 598; ib. 3, 87. -- TERTIUS: so all our MSS. This places the
elder Scipio's death in 183, which agrees with Livy's account in 39, 50,
10. But the year before Cato's censorship was 185 not 183, hence some edd.
read _quintus_ and some _sextus_ in place of _tertius_.

P. 9. -- NOVEM ANNIS: as Cato's consulship was in 195 these words also
apparently disagree with _tertius_ above. _Novem annis post_ means nine
_full_ years after, _i.e._ 185 not 186; cf. 42 _septem annis post_. --
ENIM: implies that the answer 'no' has been given to the question and
proceeds to account for that answer. -- EXCURSIONE: a military term =
'skirmishing'; Cf. Div. 2, 26 _prima orationis excursio_. -- HASTIS:
loosely used for _pilis_. The long old Roman _hasta_, whence the name
_hastati_, had long before Cato's time been discarded for the _pilum_ or
short javelin, which was thrown at the enemy from a distance before the
troops closed and used the sword. -- CONSILIUM: the repetition of consilium
in a different sense from that which it had in the sentence before seems to
us awkward; but many such repetitions are found in Cicero. _Consilium_
corresponds to both 'counsel' and 'council'; the senate was originally
_regium consilium_, the king's body of advisers. Here translate _summum
consilium_ 'the supreme deliberative body'. -- SENATUM: 'assembly of
elders'. Cf. 56 _senatores, id est senes_. _Senatus_ implies a lost verb
_sen[=a]-re_, to be or grow old from the stem of which both _sen[=a]-tus_
and _sen[=a]-tor_ are derived. This stem again implies a lost noun or
adjective _senus_, old. The word _senatus_ was collective, like
_comitatus_, a body of companions, _exercitus_, a trained band etc.

20. AMPLISSIMUM: 'most honorable'. -- UT SUNT ... SENES: the Spartan
γερουσια, as it is commonly called, consisted of 28 members, all over 60
years of age. Herodotus uses the term γεροντες (_senes_) for this assembly;
Xenophon γεροντια. In the Laconian dialect γερωια was its name; we also
find γεροντευειν 'to be a senator'. For _ut ... sic_ cf. Academ. 2, 14,
_similiter vos cum perturbare, ut illi rem publicam_, _sic vos philosophiam
velitis_; also Lael. 19. -- AUDIRE: like ακουω, used especially of
historical matters, since instruction in them was almost entirely oral. Cf.
ανηκοος = 'ignorant of history'. -- VOLETIS: see note on 7 _faciam ut
potero_; cf. Roby, 1464, _a_; Madvig, 339, Obs. 1; A. 278, _b_; G. 234,
Rem. 1; H. 470, 2. -- ADULESCENTIBUS: Cic., when he wrote this, was
possibly thinking of Athens and Alcibiades. -- LABEFACTATAS: the verb
_labefacio_ is foreign to good prose, in which _labefacto_ is used. --
SUSTENTATAS: Cic. does not use _sustentus_. In Mur. 3 _sustinenda_ is
followed by _sustentata_ in the same sentence. -- CEDO ... CITO: the line
is of the kind called tetrameter iambic acatalectic (or octonarius), and is
scanned thus: --

  v v -' | - - | - -' | v - || - -' | - - | - -' | v -.

In all kinds of iambic verse the old Romans freely introduced spondees
where the Greeks used iambi; so in hexameters spondees for dactyls. Cf.
Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 254 _et seq._ -- CEDO: = _dic_; from _ce_, the enclitic
particle involved in _hic = (hi-ce)_ etc. and _da_, the root of _do_. So
_cette = ce-d[)a]te = cedte_, then _cette_ by assimilation of _d_ to _t_.
The original meaning would thus be 'give here', and in this sense the word
is often used. See Lex. _Dare_ is commonly put for _dicere_, as _accipere_
is for _audire_. -- QUI: 'how'. -- TANTAM: = οτσαυτην ουσαν. -- NAEVI:
Naevius lived about 264-194 B.C. His great work was a history of the First
Punic War written in Saturnian verse, the rude indigenous metre of early
Roman poetry. He wrote also plays,--tragedies and comedies, both
_palliatae_ and _praetextae_. For an account of him see Cruttwell, History
of Roman Literature; also, Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, Ch. 3. If
_Ludo_ be read, it may be either from the Latin _ludus_ (Naevius entitled a
comedy _Ludius_) or from Λυδος, Lydian. -- POETAE: Naevius seems to have
been in the habit of adding _poeta_ to his name. It appears in the
well-known epitaph said to have been written by himself, also in the lines
written against him by the family poet of the Metelli: '_malum dabunt
Metelli Naevio poetae_'. The name _poeta_ was new in Naevius' time and was
just displacing the old Latin name _vates_; see Munro on Lucr. 1, 102. --
PROVENIEBANT etc.: the same metre as above, divided thus by Lahmeyer: --

  _provéni | ebant | orát | ores || noví | stultí adu | lescén / iuli_.

The whole line has the look of being translated from the Greek: προυβαινον
(εις το βημα) ‛ρητορες κανοι τινες, μειρακια γελοια. Lr. takes _provenire_
in the sense of 'to grow up', comparing Plin. Ep. 1, 13, 1 _magnum
proventum_ ('crop') _poetarum annus hic attulit_; Sall. Cat. 8, 3
_provenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia_. -- VIDELICET: 'you see'.

21. AT: = αλλα γαρ; used, as in 32, 35, 47, 65, and 68, to introduce the
supposed objection of an opponent. -- CREDO: 'of course'. Cf. 47 where
_credo_ follows _at_ as here. -- EXERCEAS: the subject is the indefinite
'you' equivalent to 'one', τις: 'unless one were to practise it'. So 28
_nequeas_; 33 _requiras_. Cf. also Plin. Ep. 8, 14, 3 _difficile est tenere
quae acceperis, nisi exerceas_. For the mood see A. 309, _a_; G. 598, 597,
Rem. 3; H. 508, 5, 2). -- TARDIOR: 'unusually dull'; cf. Academ. 2, 97
_Epicurus quem isti tardum putant_. -- THEMISTOCLES: famed for his memory.
-- CIVIUM: 'fellow-countrymen'; _perceperat_: 'had grasped' or 'mastered'.
-- QUI ... SOLITUM: 'that he often addressed as Lysimachus some one who for
all that was Aristides'. The direct object of _salutare_ is omitted. For
_qui = tametsi is_ cf. Att. 1, 13, 3 _nosmet ipsi, qui Lycurgei fuissemus,
cotidie demitigamur_; also De Or. 1, 82. -- ESSET: A.342; G.631; H.529, II.
and n. 1, 1). -- LYSIMACHUM: for _ut L._ or _pro Lysimacho_. So Arch. 19
_Homerum Chii suum vindicant_ (= _ut suum_ or _pro suo_). Lysimachus was
the father of Aristides. -- SUNT: = _vivunt_, as often; so in 32 _esse =
vivere_; 54 _fuit = vixit_; 56, 60, 69. -- SEPULCRA LEGENS: Cato was a
great antiquarian; cf. 38 _Originum_. -- IN MEMORIAM REDEO MORTUORUM: the
genitive as with _memini, recordari_ etc. For the phrase cf. Verr. 1, 120
_redite in memoriam, iudices, quae libido istius fuerit_; also below, 59
_in gratiam redire cum voluptate_. Here translate 'I refresh my memory of
the dead'. -- QUEMQUAM SENEM: the best writers do not use _quisquam _as an
adjective, but there is no need to alter _senem_ into _senum_ as some
editors do, since _senem_ is a substitute for a clause _cum senex esset_;
'I never heard that anybody because he was an old man ...'. _Senes_ must be
so taken in 22, since _pontifices_ etc. cannot stand as adjectives. Cf. n.
on 10 _adulescentulus miles_. -- VADIMONIA: 'their appointments to appear
in court, the debts due to them and the debts they owe'. When the hearing
of a suit had to be adjourned, the defendant was bound over either on his
own recognizance merely (_pure_) or along with sureties (_vades_) to appear
in court on the day appointed for the next hearing, a sum or sums of money
being forfeited in case of his non-appearance. The engagement to appear was
technically called _vadimonium_; when the defendant entered into the
engagement he was said _vadimonium promittere_; if he kept the engagement,
_v. obire_ or _sistere_; if he failed in it, _v. deserere_. The plural
_vadimonia_ is here used because a number of suits is meant; the word
_constituta_ is chosen as a more general term than _promissa_, and as
referring to the circumstances of both plaintiff and defendant. Strictly
speaking, it is the presiding judge who _vadimonia constituit_. On this
account _vadimonia constituta_ should be translated as above
'appointments', and not _'bonds'_ or _'engagements_' to appear in court.

P. 10. -- 22. QUID ... SENES: _sc. tibi videntur_; 'what do you think of
old men as lawyers, etc.?' So without ellipsis, Fam. 9, 21, 1 _quid tibi
ego in epistulis videor?_ -- INGENIA: = _suum cuique ingenium_; 'old men
retain their wits'. -- PERMANEAT: A. 266, _d_; G. 575; H. 513, I. --
STUDIUM ET INDUSTRIA: 'earnestness and activity'; not a case of hendiadys,
as some editors make it. Cf. n. on 15 _iuventute et viribus_. -- NEQUE EA
SOLUM: = ουδε ταυτα μονον, 'and that not only'. -- HONORATIS: this does not
correspond to our 'honored', but implies that the persons have held high
offices (_honores_); cf. 61 _senectus honorata praesertim_. Here translate
'statesmen'. -- IN VITA ... QUIETA: 'in an unofficial and retired life'.
There is chiasmus here, since _privata_ is contrasted with _honoratis_ and
_quieta_ with _claris_. -- SUMMAM SENECTUTEM: Sophocles died at the age of
90 in 405 B.C. -- QUOD PROPTER STUDIUM: 'from his devotion to this
occupation'. -- FILIIS: except Plutarch, who probably follows Cicero's
words, all the authorities tell the story of the poet's eldest son Iophon
only. The tale is full of improbabilities. -- REM: = _rem familiarem_ as in
1. -- PATRIBUS BONIS INTERDICI SOLET: 'fathers are often prevented from
managing their property'. For the construction cf. the expression
_interdicere alicui aqua et igni: interdici_ is here used impersonally with
_patribus_ in the dat.; A. 230; H. 384, 5; _bonis_ is abl. of separation
(deprivation). The fragment of the XII tables here referred to is thus
given in Dirksen's edition: _sei fouriosos aut prodicos (prodigus) escit
(erit) adenatorum centiliomque (gentiliumque) eius potestas estod, i.e._
the agnates (male relatives whose kinship with the _furiosus_ is derived
through males) and members of his _gens_ are to administer his property. We
have preserved the form in which the judgment was made by the _praetor
urbanus_ (Paulus, Sent. 3, 4a, 7): '_quando tibi tua bona paterna avitaque
nequitia tua disperdis liberosque tuos ad egestatem perducis, ob eam rem
tibi ea re commercioque interdico_'. -- QUASI DESIPIENTEM: '‛ως
παραφρονουντα' says the author of the anonymous life of Sophocles. Cf.
Xenophon, Mem. 1, 2, 49. -- IN MANIBUS HABEBAT: 'had on hand' _i.e._ in
preparation. _Est in manibus_ in 12 has a different meaning. -- SCRIPSERAT:
he had written it but not finally corrected it. -- RECITASSE: the common
version of the story states that not the whole play was read but only the
fine chorus beginning ευιππου, ξενε, τασδε χωρας. -- VIDERETUR: _sc. esse_;
the infinitive is often omitted thus after verbs of desiring, thinking
etc., also verbs of speaking and hearing; cf. Lael. 18 _eam sapientiam
interpretantur_; ib. 29 _quam natam volunt_; ib. 64 _homines ex maxime raro
genere iudicare;_ Acad. 2, 12 _viderenturne ea Philonis._

23. HESIODUM: see n. on 54. -- Simoniden: Simonides of Ceos (not S. of
Amorgos), one of the greatest Greek lyric poets, lived from 556 to about
469 B.C. -- STESICHORUM: of Himera in Sicily, also a lyric poet; lived from
about 630 to about 556 B.C. -- ISOCRATEN GORGIAN: nn. on 13. --
PHILOSOPHORUM PRINCIPES: 'in the first rank of philosophers'. --
PYTHAGORAN: neither the date of his birth nor that of his death can be
determined; he 'flourished' about 530. He lived mostly in the Greek
settlements of lower Italy, where his school existed for some centuries
after his death. -- DEMOCRITUM: of Abdera, one of the originators of the
theory of atoms; said to have lived from 460 to 361 or 357 B.C. --
XENOCRATEN after Plato, Speusippus was the first head of the Academic
School; Xenocrates succeeded him. He lived from 397 to 315 or 313. --
ZENONEM: of Citium in Cyprus, founder of Stoicism, born about 357, is said
to have lived to the age of 98. -- CLEANTHEN: he followed Zeno in the
presidency of the Stoic school. His age at death is variously given as 99
and as 80 years. -- QUEM VIDISTIS: see Introd. It is rather curious that
Cic. should make Cato speak with admiration of Diogenes, to whom he had
shown great hostility. -- DIOGENEN: Cic. probably wrote in _-an, -en,_ not
in _-am, -em_ the accusatives of Greek proper names in _-as, -es_. --
STOICUM: to distinguish him from Diogenes the Cynic. -- AGITATIO: Cic. uses
_agitatio_ and _actio_ almost interchangeably; cf. _agitatio rerum_ in De
Or. 3, 88 with _actio rerum_ in Acad. 2, 62 and elsewhere. _Actus_ in this
sense occurs only in silver Latin.

24. AGE: a common form of transition to a new subject; brief for _'hoc
age'_, 'do this', _i.e._ 'attend to this that I am going to say'. The
common use of αγε in Greek is exactly similar. -- UT ... OMITTAMUS: Cf. n.
on 52 _ut_. -- POSSUM NOMINARE: 'I am able to name'; in colloquial English
'I _might_ name'. The Latins occasionally use also a hypothetical form,
where _possim_ or _possem_ stands in the apodosis of a conditional
sentence, the protasis of which is not expressed; but the missing protasis
is generally easily supplied and was distinctly present to the writer's
mind. _E.g._ in Tusc. 1, 88 we have _dici hoc in te non potest; posset in
Tarquinio; at in mortuo ne intellegi quidem (potest)_, where the reason for
the change from _potest_ to _posset_ is quite evident. In translating from
English into Latin it is far safer to use the indicative. Cf. 55 _possum
persequi_. A. 311, _c_; G. 599, Rem. 3; H. 511, 1, n. 3, 476, 4. -- EX AGRO
... ROMANOS: 'country-bred Romans (_i.e._ Roman citizens) belonging to the
Sabine district'. The words _ex agro Sabino_ form an attributive phrase
qualifying _Romanos_ just as _rusticos_ does. -- NUMQUAM FERE: 'scarcely
ever'. -- MAIORA OPERA: 'farm work of any importance'. This use of _opera_
is common in Vergil's Georgics. -- NON: the repetition of the negative
after _numquam_ is common in Latin; in English _never ... not_ is found in
dialects only. Cf. Lael. 48 _non tantum ... non plus quam_. -- SERENDIS:
ablative of respect, 'as regards sowing'. See Roby 1210; Kennedy, 149. --
PERCIPIENDIS: so 70; cf. N.D. 2, 156 _neque enim serendi neque colendi, nec
tempestive demetendi percipiendi que fructus, neque condendi nec reponendi
ulla pecu

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