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 unquam mihi, Scipio, persuadebit aut patrem tuum Paullum, aut duos avos Paullum et Africanum, aut Africani patrem, aut patruum, aut multos praestantes viros quos enumerare non est necesse, tanta esse conatos quae ad posteritatis memoriam pertinerent, nisi animo cernerent posteritatem ad se pertinere. An censes, ut de me ipso aliquid more senum glorier, me tantos labores diurnos nocturnosque domi militiaeque suscepturum fuisse, si iisdem finibus gloriam meam quibus vitam essem terminaturus? Nonne melius multo fuisset otiosam aetatem et quietam sine ullo labore et contentione traducere ? Sed nescio quomodo animus erigens se posteritatem ita semper prospiciebat quasi quum excessisset e vita tum denique victurus esset. Quod quidem ni ita se haberet ut animi immortales essent, haud optimi cujusque animus maxime ad immortalitatem gloriae niteretur. 83. Quid, quod sapientissimus quisque aequissimo animo moritur, stultissimus iniquissimo ? Nonne vobis videtur animus is qui plus cernat et longius, videre se ad meliora proficisci; ille autem cujus obtusior sit acies, non videre ? 23. Africani patrem, &c.] The father of Africanus Major was P. Scipio, who was killed in Spain B.C. 211. The uncle was Cn. Scipio, who was also killed in Spain at the same time (Livy xxv. 34, &c.). These two Scipios are alluded to in c. 20. Tanta esse conatos—nisi- cernerent] Perhaps we should have expected' conaturos fuisse.' If the reading is right, the use of nisi cernerent' is peculiar. Compare Cicero, Verr. ii. 1, c. 32:"ut per spicuum sit. . . moverentur." · Is qui plus cernat] There is a reading cernit,' but cernat' appears to be the true reading. "Think you not that a mind, if it is one that penetrates more and further, must see that it is going to better things; and, on the other hand, if it is one whose sight is somewhat dulled, that it will not have such a prospect?" Ille] Hic' and 'ille' as demonstratives are the two words that generally come in contrast; but G G am exalter with the vivire of seling,,, 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 quis facile retraxerit, neque tamquam Peliam recoxerit. Quod si quis Deus mihi largiatur ut ex hac aetate repuerascam et in cunis vagiam, valde recusem; nec vero velim quasi decursò spatio ad carceres a calce revocari. 84. Quid enim habet vita commodi? quid non potius laboris ? Sed habeat sane: habet certe tamen aut satietatem aut modum. Non lubet enim mihi deplorare vitam, quod multi et ii docti saepe fecerunt: neque me vixisse poenitet, quoniam ita vixi ut non frustra me natum existimem; et ex vita ita discedo tamquam ex hospitio, non tamquam ex domo. Commorandi enim natura deversorium nobis, non habitandi dedit. 85. O praeclarum diem quum ad illud divinum animorum concilium coetumque proficiscar, quumque 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 there are many examples in Cicero Si quis-largiatur] In this "Quod si tibi res sit cum eo lenone, quocum mi est, tum sentias." Ad carceres a calce] The ' carcer,' or 'place of inclosure,' is the place from which the horses or chariots started in a race: "Ruuntque effusi carcere currus.' (Virg. Aeneid. v. 145.) The 'meta,' or limit of the course in the circus was marked with chalk or lime (creta, calx), that it might be more conspicuous. (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxv. 17, and Harduin's note.) Seneca says (Ep. 108), "Hanc quam nunc in circo cretam voca mus." pietate praestantior, cujus a me corpus crematum est, 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. 86. His mihi rebus, Scipio, id enim te cum Laelio admirari solere dixisti, levis est senectus, nec solum non molesta sed etiam jucunda. Quod si in hoc erro quod animos hominum immortales esse credam, lubenter 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 mortui philosophi irrideant. Quod si non sumus immortales futuri, tamen exstingui homini suo tempore optabile est. Nam habet natura ut aliarum omnium Corpus crematum] It seems that in the early republic both burning the body and putting it in the earth were in use, as Cicero (De Legg. ii. 23) infers from the words of the Twelve Tables. The Tables forbade a body to be interred within Rome or burnt within Rome. Quod contra decuit] This, or some form of expression like it, was often used on monumental inscriptions. Manutius gives several examples. One is an inscription at Rome: "Quod decuit natam patri praestare sepulto, Hoc contra natae praestitit ipse pater." Another formula occurs in an inscription in Fabretti, p. 284. FILIVS FACERE. QVOD · DE BVERAT INIQVA INTERCESSIT • rerum sic vivendi modum. G Quod si in hoc erro quod-credam,] This differs not at all from the expression in c. 2, "in hoc sumus sapientes quod sequimur," only in the use of 'si,' and that makes no difference, as I believe. If the MSS. may be trusted in such cases, usage was somewhat unsettled as to the indicative or subjunctive following 'quod.' But if either passage is to be altered, we should change credam' into 'credo,' as one MS. has it. Comp. Cicero, Verr. ii. 3, c. 68. Minuti philosophi] Such as the Epicureans. In the Tusculanae Disputationes (i. 23), he speaks thus of this class: "Licet concurrant plebeii omnes philosophi, sic enim ii qui a Platone et Socrate et ab ea familia dissident appellandi videntur." Senectus autem aetatis est peractio tamquam fabulae, . cujus defatigationem fugere debemus, praesertim adjuncta satietate. Haec habui de senectute quae dicerem, ad quam utinam perveniatis, ut ea quae ex me audistis re experti probare possitis. Tamquam fabulae,] This comparison of life to a play was a common one. When Augustus was dying, he asked the bystanders if they thought that he had brought the farce (mimus) of life to a fit conclusion. (Sueton. Aug. 99.) The emperor Antoninus (Med. xii. 36) closes his work with some worthier reflections: he compares men, when released from life, to an actor whom the praetor has hired, and dismisses when he has done with him. "But," says the actor, "I have not gone through the five acts; I have only gone through three of them. You say well in life the whole play consists of three acts; for its limit is determined by him, who, as he once framed it, so now dissolves it; but you have nothing to do with either. Go away then content, for he who gave you your dismissal is content." Compare De Sen. c. 19, "neque enim histrioni," &c. cujus defatigationem] There is a reading 'cujus defectionem which Wunder approves, and tries to explain. 'Cujus' refers to 'aetatis.' Cicero says, "now old age is the completion of life, as if it were a play :" it is the last act. He adds, "and in it (old age) we ought to avoid complete exhaustion:" it is better to quit the stage of life before we are completely exhausted: it is time to go when we have had enough. But there is some ambiguity. He may be recommending suicide, when nothing of life is left but pain and weakness; which however I do not take to be the meaning. He has said that death is a thing that a man ought to wish for, because the purpose of living has a limit, just like a play. A play has a last act, and so has life; and it is old age. We ought to shrink from such a state as complete exhaustion; especially when we have had our fill of life. We should rather be glad that there is an end of life than cling to the miserable remnant. LAELIUS. THIS treatise was written after the De Senectute. It is appropriately dedicated by Cicero to his friend Atticus. The chief speaker is C. Laelius, the friend of the younger Scipio Africanus; and the supposed time of the dialogue is a few days after the death of Scipio (B.c. 129), who was found dead in his bed, and probably was murdered. The story of his death is told by Appian (Civil Wars, i. 19) and by Plutarch (Life of C. Gracchus, 10). The treatise, like the De Senectute, has the character of an essay rather than of a dialogue, except the introductory part. Though Cicero has taken many maxims, and even forms of expression, from the Greek writers, this treatise on Friendship bears the stamp of originality. It was written by a man who had great experience of life, by a man of a reflecting turn of mind, one who had mingled in some way in public affairs ever since his boyhood; but it was written by a Roman. The notion of friendship is Roman, not universal; and the treatise, in order to be fully understood, must be looked at with reference to Roman opinions, and with reference to the circumstances of the times; the times in which Laelius lived, and of which he speaks, and those in which Cicero lived, and to which he could only allude under the cover of another But though Cicero has not made a perfect treatise on friendship, because he has viewed it as founded on the name. 2 |