De Amicitia, Scipios Dream | Page 7

an old man to an
old man about old age, so in this book I write as the most loving of
friends to a friend about friendship. [Footnote: In the Latin we have
here two remarkable series of assonances, rhythmical to the ear, and
though translatable in sense not so in euphony. "Ut tum senex ad senem
de senectute, sic hoc libro ad amicum amicissimus, de amicitia scripsi."]
Then Cato was the chief speaker, than whom there was in his time
scarcely any one older, and no one his superior in intellect, now Laelius
shall hold the first place, both as a wise man (for so he was regarded),
and as excelling in all that can do honor to friendship. I want you for
the while to turn your mind away from me, and to imagine that it is
Laelius who is speaking. Caius Fannius and Quintus Mucius come to
their father-in-law after the death of Africanus. They commence the
conversation, Laelius answers them. In reading all that he says about
friendship, you will recognize the picture of your own friendship for

me.
2 FANNIUS It is as you say, [Footnote: The reference is to what
Laelius is supposed to have said already. The dialogue, as given here, is
made to commence in the midst of a conversation.] Laelius, for there
never was a better man, or one more justly renowned, than Africanus,
But you ought to bear it in mind that the eyes of all are turned upon you
at this time, for they both call you and think you wise. This distinction
has been latterly given to Cato, and you know that in the days of our
fathers Lucius Atilius [Footnote: The first Roman known to have borne
the surname of Sapiens He was one of the earliest of the juriconsults
who took pupils.] was in like manner surnamed The Wise, but both of
them were so called for other reasons than those which have given you
this name,--Atilius, for his reputation as an adept in municipal law,
Cato, for the versatility of his endowments for there were reported to
his honor many measures wisely planned and vigorously carried
through in the Senate, and many cases skilfully defended in the courts,
so that in his old age The Wise was generally applied to him as a
surname. But you are regarded as wise on somewhat different grounds,
not only for your disposition and your moral worth, but also for your
knowledge and learning, and not in the estimation of the common
people, but in that of men of advanced culture, you are deemed wise in
a sense in which there is reason to suppose that in Greece--where those
who look into these things most discriminatingly do not reckon the
seven who bear the name as on the list of wise men--no one was so
regarded except the man in Athens whom the oracle of Apollo
designated as the wisest of men.[Footnote: Socrates.] In fine, you are
thought to be wise in this sense, that you regard all that appertains to
your happiness as within your own soul, and consider the calamities to
which man is liable as of no consequence in comparison with virtue. I
am therefore asked, and so, I believe, is Scaevola, who is now with us,
how you bear the death of Africanus; and the question is put to us the
more eagerly, because on the fifth day of the mouth next following,
[Footnote: Latin, _proxumis nonis. The nones, the ninth day before the
ides_, fell on the fifth of the month, except in March. May, July, and
October, when the ides were two days later. We have elsewhere
intimation that the Augurs held a meeting for business on the nones of

each month.] when we met, as usual, in the garden of Decimus Brutus
the Augur, to discuss our official business, you were absent, though it
was your habit always on that day to give your most careful attendance
to the duties of your office.
SCAEVOLA. As Fannius says, Caius Laelius, many have asked me
this question. But I answered in accordance with what I have seen, that
you were bearing with due moderation your sorrow for the death of this
your most intimate friend, though you, with your kindly nature, could
not fail to be moved by it; but that your absence from the monthly
meeting of the Augurs was due to illness, not to grief.
LAELIUS. You were in the right, Scaevola, and spoke the truth; for it
was not fitting, had I been in good health, for me to be detained by my
own sad feeling from this duty, which I have never failed to discharge;
nor do I think that a man of firm mind can be so affected by any
calamity