Treatises on Friendship and Old Age
sitting by the fire, or at the proper time cool itself more wholesomely
by the help of shade or water? Let the young keep their arms then to
themselves, their horses, spears, their foils and ball, their swimming
baths and running path. To us old men let them, out of the many forms of
sport, leave dice and counters; but even that as they choose, since old
age can be quite happy without them.
17. Xenophon's books are very useful for many purposes. Pray go on
reading them with attention, as you have ever done. In what ample
terms is agriculture lauded by him in the book about husbanding one's
property, which is called _Oceonomicus_! But to show you that he thought
nothing so worthy of a prince as the taste for cultivating the soil, I
will translate what Socrates says to Critobulus in that book:
"When that most gallant Lacedaemonian Lysander came to visit the Persian
prince Cyrus at Sardis, so eminent for his character and the glory of
his rule, bringing him presents from his allies, he treated Lysander
in all ways with courteous familiarity and kindness, and, among other
things, took him to see a certain park carefully planted. Lysander
expressed admiration of the height of the trees and the exact
arrangement of their rows in the quincunx, the careful cultivation
of the soil, its freedom from weeds, and the sweetness of the odours
exhaled from the flowers, and went on to say that what he admired was
not the industry only, but also the skill of the man by whom this had
been planned and laid out. Cyrus replied: 'Well, it was I who planned
the whole thing these rows are my doing, the laying out is all mine;
many of the trees were even planted by own hand.' Then Lysander, looking
at his purple robe, the brilliance of his person, and his adornment
Persian fashion with gold and many jewels, said: 'People are quite
right, Cyrus, to call you happy, since the advantages of high fortune
have been joined to an excellence like yours.'"
This kind of good fortune, then, it is in the power of old men to enjoy;
nor is age any bar to our maintaining pursuits of every other kind, and
especially of agriculture, to the very extreme verge of old age. For
instance, we have it on record that M. Valerius Corvus kept it up to his
hundredth year, living on his land and cultivating it after his active
career was over, though between his first and sixth consulships there
was an interval of six and forty years. So that he had an official
career lasting the number of years which our ancestors defined as coming
between birth and the beginning of old age. Moreover, that last period
of his old age was more blessed than that of his middle life, inasmuch
as he had greater influence and less labour. For the crowning grace of
old age is influence.
How great was that of L. Caecilius Metellus! How great that of Atilius
Calatinus, over whom the famous epitaph was placed, "Very many classes
agree in deeming this to have been the very first man of the nation"!
The line cut on his tomb is well known. It is natural, then, that a man
should have had influence, in whose praise the verdict of history is
unanimous. Again, in recent times, what a great man was Publius Crassus,
Pontifex Maximus, and his successor in the same office, M. Lepidus! I
need scarcely mention Paulus or Africanus, or, as I did before, Maximus.
It was not only their senatorial utterances that had weight: their least
gesture had it also. In fact, old age, especially when it has enjoyed
honours, has an influence worth all the pleasures of youth put together.
18. But throughout my discourse remember that my panegyric applies to
an old age that has been established on foundations laid by youth. From
which may be deduced what I once said with universal applause, that
it was a wretched old age that had to defend itself by speech. Neither
white hairs nor wrinkles can at once claim influence in themselves: it
is the honourable conduct of earlier days that is rewarded by possessing
influence at the last. Even things generally regarded as trifling and
matters of course--being saluted, being courted, having way made for
one, people rising when one approaches, being escorted to and from the
forum, being referred to for advice--all these are marks of respect,
observed among us and in other States--always most sedulously where the
moral tone is highest. They say that Lysander the Spartan, whom I have
mentioned before, used to remark that Sparta was the most dignified home
for old age; for that nowhere was more respect paid to years, no-where
was old age held in higher honour. Nay, the story is told of how when
a man of advanced years came into the theatre at Athens when the games
were going on, no place was given him anywhere in that large assembly
by his own countrymen; but when he came near the Lacedaemonians, who as
ambassadors had a fixed place assigned to them, they rose as one man out
of respect for him, and gave the veteran a seat. When they were greeted
with rounds of applause from the whole audience, one of them remarked:
"The Athenians know what is right, but will not do it." There are many
excellent rules in our augural college, but among the best is one which
affects our subject--that precedence in speech goes by seniority; and
augurs who are older are preferred only to those who have held higher
office, but even to those who are actually in possession of imperium.
What then are the physical pleasures to be compared with the reward of
influence? Those who have employed it with distinction appear to me to
have played the drama of life to its end, and not to have broken down in
the last act like unpractised players.
But, it will be said, old men are fretful, fidgety, ill-tempered, and
disagreeable. If you come to that, they are also avaricious. But these
are faults of character, not of the time of life. And, after all,
fretfulness and the other faults I mentioned admit of some excuse--not,
indeed, a complete one, but one that may possibly pass muster: they
think themselves neglected, looked down upon, mocked, Besides with
bodily weakness every rub is a source of pain. Yet all these faults are
softened both by good character and good education. Illustrations of
this may be found in real life, as also on the stage in the case of
the brothers in the _Adeiphi_. What harshness in the one, what gracious
manners in the other The fact is that, just as it is not every wine, so
it is not every life, that turns sour from keeping, Serious gravity I
approve of in old age, but, as in other things, it must be within due
limits: bitterness I can in no case approve. What the object of senile
avarice may be I cannot conceive. For can there be anything more absurd
than to seek more journey money, the less there remains of the journey?
19. There remains the fourth reason, which more than anything else
appears to torment men of my age and keep them in a flutter--THE
NEARNESS OF DEATH, which, it must be allowed, cannot be far from an old
man. But what a poor dotard must he be who has not learnt in the course
of so long a life that death is not a thing to be feared? Death, that is
either to be totally disregarded, if it entirely extinguishes the soul,
or is even to be desired, if it brings him where he is to exist forever.
A third alternative, at any rate, cannot possibly be discovered. Why
then should I be afraid if I am destined either not to be miserable
after death or even to be happy? After all, who is such a fool as to
feel certain--however young he may be--that he will be alive in the
evening? Nay, that time of life has many more chances of death than
ours, Young men more easily contract diseases; their illnesses are more
serious; their treatment has to be more severe. Accordingly, only a few
arrive at old age. If that were not so, life would be conducted better
and more wisely; for it is in old men that thought, reason, and prudence
are to be found; and if there had been no old men, States would never
have existed at all. But I return to the subject of the imminence of
death. What sort of charge is this against old age, when you see that it
is shared by youth? I had reason in the case of my excellent son--as you
had, Scipio, in that of your brothers, who were expected to attain the
highest honours--to realise that death is common to every time of life.
Yes, you will say; but a young man expects to live long; an old man
cannot expect to do so. Well, he is a fool to expect it. For what can be
more foolish than to regard the uncertain as certain, the false as true?
"An old man has nothing even to hope." Ah, but it is just there that
he is in a better position than a young man, since what the latter only
hopes he has obtained. The one wishes to live long; the other has lived
long.
And yet, good heaven! what is "long" in a man's life? For grant
the utmost limit: let us expect an age like that of the King of the
Tartessi. For there was, as I find recorded, a certain Agathonius at
Gades who reigned eighty years and lived a hundred and twenty. But to my
mind nothing seems even long in which there is any "last," for when that
arrives, then all the past has slipped away--only that remains to which
you have attained by virtue and righteous actions. Hours indeed, and
days and months and years depart, nor does past time ever return, nor
can the future be known. Whatever time each is granted for life, with
that he is bound to be content. An actor, in order to earn approval,
is not bound to perform the play from beginning to end; let him only
satisfy the audience in whatever act he appears. Nor need a wise man go
on to the concluding "plaudite." For a short term of life is long enough
for living well and honourably. But if you go farther, you have no more
right to grumble than farmers do because the charm of the spring season
is past and the summer and autumn have come. For the word "spring" in a
way suggests youth, and points to the harvest to be: the other seasons
are suited for the reaping and storing of the crops. Now the harvest of
old age is, as I have often said, the memory and rich store of blessings
laid up in easier life. Again, all things that accord with nature are to
be counted as good. But what can be more in accordance with nature
than for old men to die? A thing, indeed, which also befalls young men,
though nature revolts and fights against it. Accordingly, the death of
young men seems to me like putting out a great fire with a deluge of
water; but old men die like a fire going out because it has burnt down
of its own nature without artificial means. Again, just as apples when
unripe are torn from trees, but when ripe and mellow drop down, so it
is violence that takes life from young men, ripeness from old. This
ripeness is so delightful to me, that, as I approach nearer to death,
I seem as it were to be sighting land, and to be coming to port at last
after a long voyage.
20. Again, there is no fixed borderline for old age, and you are making
a good and proper use of it as long as you can satisfy the call of duty
and disregard death. The result of this is, that old age is even more
confident and courageous than youth. That is the meaning of Solon's
answer to the tyrant Pisistratus. When the latter asked him what he
relied upon in opposing him with such boldness, he is said to have
replied, "On my old age." But that end of life is the best, when,
without the intellect or senses being impaired, Nature herself takes
to pieces her own handiwork which she also put together. Just as the
builder of a ship or a house can break them up more easily than any one
else, so the nature that knit together the human frame can also
best unfasten it. Moreover, a thing freshly glued together is always
difficult to pull asunder; if old, this is easily done.