Treatises on Friendship and Old Age

About the book

Cicero approaches friendship and old age through conversations placed among respected figures from Rome's past. In the first treatise, Laelius reflects on friendship after the death of Scipio, asking what makes affection trustworthy and how loyalty should relate to moral judgment. The second gives Cato a defense of old age against familiar complaints about weakness, lost pleasures, and approaching death. Both works test everyday anxieties against ideals of character, public service, and self-command. Historical speakers and remembered examples give these arguments a social setting rather than the form of abstract rules alone. E. S. Shuckburgh's translation brings together two complementary inquiries into how people can sustain meaningful relationships and purposeful lives as circumstances change.

• Friendship and virtue
• Aging
• Purposeful living

Why read it

Read it for arguments about companionship and aging that invite personal disagreement as readily as agreement.

English translation by E. S. Shuckburgh