Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes

by Marcus Tullius Cicero

[32.] sed: see [n. on 26]. — redeo ad me: so 45; Lael. 96, Div. 1, 97 ad nostra iam redeo; also below, 67 sed redeo ad mortem impendentem. — vellem: see n. on. 26. — idem: A. 238; G. 331, Rem. 2; H. 371, 2. — quod Cyrus: see [30]. — queo: the verb queo is rarely found without a negative, possum being used in positive sentences; cf. however Lael. 71 queant, where see n. — miles etc.: see [10] above. — fuerim ... depugnavi: A. 336, b; G. 630, Rem. 1; H. 524, 2, 2. Depugnavi = 'fought the war out', or 'to the end'; cf. 38, desudans; 44 devicerat. — enervavit: enervare is literally 'to take out the sinews'; cf. the expressions nervos elidere (Tusc. 2, 27) and nervos incidere (Academ. 1, 35) both of which are used in a secondary or metaphorical sense. — curia: = senatus. — rostra: cf. [n. on 44] devicerat. — fieri: A. 331, a; G. 546, Rem. 1; H. 498, I. n. — esse: emphatic, = vivere; see [n. on 21]. — ego vero etc.: 'I however would rather that my old age should be shorter than that I should be old before my time'. — mallem: see [n. on 26] vellem.

P. [14] — nemo cui fuerim: cf. Plaut. Mercator 2, 2, 17 quamquam negotium est, numquam sum occupatus amico operam dare.

[33.] at: as in [21], where see [n.] — T. Ponti centurionis: the centurions were generally men of powerful frame; cf. Veget. 2, 14 centurio elegendus est, qui sit magnis viribus et procera statura; Philipp. 8, 26 centuriones pugnaces et lacertosos; Horat. Sat. 1, 6, 72. — moderatio: 'a right application'; literally 'a governing'. — tantum ... nitatur: cf. 27 quidquid agas agere pro viribus, also 434 quantum possumus. — ne: the affirmative ne, often wrongly written nae on the absurd assumption that the word passed into Latin from the Greek ναι, is in Cicero always and in other writers nearly always followed by a pronoun. For the form of the sentence here cf. Fam. 7, 1, 3 ne ... nostrum; Tusc. 3, 8 ne ista etc.; Fin. 3, 11 (almost the same words). — per stadium: 'over the course'; cf. Athenaeus 10. 4, p. 412 E; Lucian, Charon, 8; Quint. 1, 9, 5 Milo quem vitulum assueverat ferre, taurum ferebat. As to Milo see [n. on 27]. For cum sustineret a modern would have been inclined to use a participle, which was perhaps avoided here because of the close proximity of another participle, ingressus. — umeris: this spelling is better than humeris, which is now abandoned by the best scholars. There is no sound corresponding to the h in words of the same origin in cognate languages (see Curtius, Greek Etym. 1, 423 of the Eng. Trans.), and although undoubtedly h was wrongly attached to some Latin words, there is no evidence to show that this happened to umerus. — has: i.e. Milonis, corresponding to Pythagorae. — Pythagorae: chosen no doubt because tradition made Milo a Pythagorean; see [n. on 27]. — malis: i.e. si optandum sit (cf. Plaut. Miles 170). For the ellipsis see [n. on 26]. — denique: 'in short'. — utare: the second person of the present subjunctive hortative is very rare, excepting when, as here, the command is general. Had the command been addressed to a particular person, Cicero might have written ne requisieris. Cf. Madvig, Opusc. 2, 105; Roby, 1596; A. 266, a, b; G. 256, 2; H. 484, 4, n. 2. — dum adsit, cum absit: as both dum and cum evidently have here a temporal sense, the subjunctives seem due to the influence of the other subjunctives utare and requiras. A. 342; G. 666; H. 529, II. and n. 1, 1). — nisi forte: see [n. on 18]. — cursus: for the metaphor cf. [n. on 83]; also Fam. 8, 13, 1 (a letter of Coelius) aetate iam sunt decursa; pro Quint. 99 acta aetas decursaque. For certus cf. below, [72] senectutis certus terminus. — aetatis: here = vitae; see [n. on 5]. — eaque: this is a common way of introducing with emphasis a fresh epithet or predicate. Often idque (και τουτο) occurs, the pronoun being then adverbially used, and not in agreement with the subject. Cf. [n. on 65] illius quidem; also neque ea in [22]. — simplex: life is compared to a race, in which each man has to run once and only once around the course. — tempestivitas: 'seasonableness'; cf. [5] maturitate tempestiva, with [n.] — infirmitas: the context shows that not physical but intellectual weakness is meant; so in Acad. 2, 9 infirmissimo tempore aetatis; Fin. 5, 43 aetas infirma. — ferocitas: 'exultation', 'high spirit'. — iam constantis aetatis: i.e. middle age, the characteristic of which is stability; cf. [76] constans aetas quae media dicitur; also 60; Tac. A. 6, 46 composita aetas. For iam cf. Suet. Galb. 4 aetate nondum constanti; pro Caelio 41 aetas iam corroborata; Fam. 10, 3, 2 aetas iam confirmata. — maturitas: 'ripeness', i.e. of intellect or judgment. — suo: G. 295, Rem. 1; H. 449, 2.

[34.] audire te arbitror: 'I think that news reaches you'. — hospes: see [n. on 28] orator. — avitus: there was a strong friendship between the elder Africanus and Masinissa, king of Numidia, who in 206 B.C. passed over from the Carthaginian alliance to that of the Romans. He was richly rewarded by Scipio, and remained loyal to Rome till his death. He lived to welcome the younger Scipio in Africa during the last Punic war, and to see the utter ruin of Carthage. See Sall. Iug. 5, 4. For the expression hospes tuus avitus cf. Plautus, Miles 135 paternum suom hospitem. — cum ingressus etc.: i.e. protracted exercise of one kind did not weary him. — cum ... equo: though Cic. says in equo vehi, esse, sedere etc. the preposition here is left out because a mere ablative of manner or means is required to suit the similar ablative pedibus. So Div. 2, 140 equus in quo vehebar, 'the horse on which I rode'; but ib. 1, 58 equo advectus ad ripam, 'brought to the bank by the aid of a horse'. — siccitatem: 'wiriness', literally 'dryness' or freedom from excessive perspiration, colds and the like; cf. Tusc. 5, 99 siccitatem quae consequitur continentiam in victu; Catull. 23, 12 corpora sicciora cornu. — regis: here = regia. — officia et munera: see [n. on 29]. — ne sint: 'grant that age has no strength'. This formula of concession for argument's sake is frequent in Cicero, who often attaches to it sane. A. 266, d; G. 610; H. 515, III. — senectute = senibus: see [n. on 26]. — legibus et institutis: 'by statute and precedent'. — muneribus eis etc.: chiefly military service. — non modo ... sed ne quidem: when a negative follows non modo these words have the force of non modo non, a negative being borrowed from the negative in the subsequent clause. But often non modo non is written; the negative after modo is then more emphatic, being independent. Here non modo non quod non would have had a harsh sound. A. 149, e; G. 484, 3 and Rem. 1.; H. 552, 2. — quod: adv. acc. (see [n. on 1] quid). Cf. Liv. 6, 15 sed vos id cogendi estis.

[35.] at: as in [21], where see [n.] In his reply Cato adopts the same form as that in which the objection is urged, at id quidem etc. So in 68 at senex ... at est ...

P. [15] — commune valetudinis: 'common to weak health', i.e. to all in a weak state of health. Valetudo means in itself neither good nor bad health; the word takes its coloring from the context. — filius is qui: a pause must be made at filius; the sense is not 'that son of Africanus who adopted you', but 'the son of Africanus, I mean the man who adopted you'. — quod ni ita fuisset: 'now if this had not been so'; a phrase like quod cum ita sit and hoc ita dici. Cf. also [67] quod ni ita accideret; 82 quod ni ita se haberet. — alterum ... civitatis: illud is put for ille, by attraction to lumen. Roby, 1068. A. 195, d; G. 202, Rem. 5; H. 445, 4. Cf. Fin. 2, 70 Epicurus, hoc enim vestrum lumen est, 'Epicurus, for he is your shining light'. — vitia: 'defects'. — diligentia: scarcely corresponds to our 'diligence'; it rather implies minute, patient attention; 'painstaking'.

[36.] habenda ... valetudinis: 'attention must be paid to health'; so valetudini consulere (Fam. 16, 4, 3) operam dare (De Or. I, 265) indulgere (Fam. 16, 18, 1) valetudinem curare often; cf. also Fam. 10, 35, 2; Fin. 2, 64. — tantum: restrictive, = 'only so much'; so in 69, and often. — potionis: cibus et potio is the regular Latin equivalent for our 'food and drink'; see below, [46]; also Tusc. 5, 100; Fin. 1, 37; Varro de Re Rust. 1, 1, 5. — adhibendum: adhibere has here merely the sense of 'to employ' or 'to use'. Cf. Fin. 2, 64. — non: we should say 'and not' or 'but not'; the Latins, however, are fond of asyndeton, called adversativum, when two clauses are contrasted. — menti ... animo: properly mens is the intellect, strictly so called, animus intellect and feeling combined, but the words are often very loosely used. They often occur together in Latin; Lucretius has even mens animi. — instilles: see [n. on 21] exerceas. — et: 'moreover'. — exercitando: in good Latin the verb exercitare is rare except in exercitatus, which stands as participle to exerceo, exercitus being unused. The word seems to have been chosen here as suiting exercitationibus better than exercendo would. So in [47] desideratio is chosen rather than desiderium, to correspond with the neighboring titillatio. — ait: sc. esse; the omission with aio is rare, though common with dico, appello etc.; see [n. on 22]. — comicos: not 'comic' in our sense, but = in comoediis, 'represented in comedy'. So Rosc. Am. 47 comicum adulescentem, 'the young man of comedy'. The passage of Caecilius (see [n. on 24] Statius) is more fully quoted in Lael. 99. — credulos: in almost every Latin comedy there is some old man who is cheated by a cunning slave. — somniculosae: the adj. contains a diminutive noun stem (somniculo-). — petulantia: 'waywardness'. — non proborum: Cic. avoids improborum as being too harsh; with exactly similar feeling Propertius 3, 20, 52 (ed. Paley) says nec proba Pasiphae for et improba P. Cf. Off. 3, 36 error hominum non proborum. — ista: implying contempt. A. 102, c; G. 291, Rem.; H. 450, 1. n. and foot-note 4. — deliratio: 'dotage'; a rare word, used by Cic. only here and in Div. 2, 90.

[37.] robustos: 'sturdy'; implying that the sons were grown up. — tantam: sc. quantam habuit; only a little more emphatic than magnam would have been; see [n. on 52]. — Appius: see [n. on 16]. — regebat: the pater familias in early Roman times was an almost irresponsible ruler over his children and household. For a full discussion of the patria potestas see Coulanges, Ancient City, Bk. II. Ch. 8; Maine, Ancient Law, Ch. 5; Hadley, Introd. to Roman Law, Chapters 5 and 6. — et ... senex: 'though both blind and old'. — intentum: commonly used of animus, like the opposite remissus (28). — tenebat etc.: the patria potestas is often denoted by the word imperium; cf. De Invent. 2, 140 imperium domesticum. — vigebat etc.: 'in him ancestral spirit and principles were strong'. While animus patrius here evidently means the strong will for which the patrician Claudii were proverbial (as e.g. in Rosc. Am. 46 intellegere qui animus patrius sit in liberos) it indicates the feeling of a particular father for his children.

P. [16] — [38.] ita: = ea lege 'on these conditions, viz. ...', the clause with si being an explanation of ita. This correspondence of ita ... si is common in Cicero; see [n. on 12] ita ... quasi. Here translate 'age can only be in honor if it fights for itself'. — se ipsa: cf. Cic. Acad. 2, 36 veritas se ipsa defendet; see also the [n. on 4]. — si ... est: 'if it has passed into bondage to nobody'. Mancipium is a piece of property; emancipare is to pass a piece of property out of its owner's hands. The word acquired two exactly opposite meanings. When used of a slave, or of a son in patria potestate, who was legally subject to many of the same ordinances as a slave, it means 'to set free', unless, as in Fin. I, 24 filium in adoptionem D. Silano emancipaverat, some person is mentioned to whom the original owner makes over his rights. But in Plaut. Bacchid. 1, 1, 90 mulier, tibi me emancupo the sense is 'I enslave myself to you', i.e. 'I pass myself out of my own power into yours'. So in the well-known passage of Horace, Epod. 9, 12 (of Antony) emancipatus feminae 'enslaved to a woman'; cf Cic. Phil. 2, 51 venditum atque emancipatum tribunatum. — senile aliquid ... aliquid adulescentis: chiasmus. For the sense cf. [33] ferocitas iuvenum ... senectutis maturitas. — quod qui sequitur: 'and he who strives after this', i.e. to combine the virtues of age and youth. Cf. Aesch. Sept. 622 γεροντα τον νουν σαρκα δ' ‛ηβωσαν φυει. — mihi ... est in manibus: 'I have on hand', 'am busy with'. Cf. [n. on 22]. — Originum: as to Cato's literary labors see [Introd]. — omnia colligo: referring to the materials Cato was collecting for his 'Origines'. — quascunque defendi: 'as many as I have conducted'. Defendere causam here is simply to act as counsel in a case, whether the client be defendant or plaintiff. So in Lael. 96 and often. — nunc cum maxime: 'now more than ever', νυν μαλιστα. The phrase is elliptic; in full it would be 'cum maxime conficio orationes, nunc conficio', 'when I most of all compose speeches, I now compose them'; i.e. 'the time when I most of all compose is now'. The words cum maxime generally follow tum or nunc and add emphasis to those words, but are sometimes used alone to express the ideas 'then' and 'now' more emphatically than tum and nunc would. Cf. Ver. 4, 82; Tac. Ann. 4, 27. The orators were in the habit of working over their speeches carefully for publication and preservation. — ius augurium etc.: 'the law pertaining to the augurs and pontifices'; i.e. the principles applied by them in the performance of their duties. The pontifices had the general oversight of religious observances. See Dict. of Antiq. — civile: the meaning of ius civile varies according to the context. Here it is the secular law as opposed to the sacred law, as in [50]; sometimes it is the whole body of Roman law as opposed to the law of other states; often, again, it is the older portion of the Roman law as opposed to the newer or 'equity' portion. — commemoro: 'I say over to myself'. In Cicero commemoro is a verb of speaking, and never has the meaning of recordor or memini. — curricula: see [nn. on 33]. — magno opere: better so written than in one word magnopere; so maximo, minimo, nimio opere. — adsum amicis: 'I act as counsel to my friends'. This legal sense of adesse is common. — frequens: literally the word means 'crowded' (connected with farcire 'to cram' or 'to crowd together'), hence frequens senatus and the like phrases. Then frequens comes to be used of actions or events that often recur; e.g. Orat. 15 Demosthenes frequens Platonis auditor; De Or. 1, 243 frequens te audivi. On the use of the adj. here see A. 191; G. 324, Rem. 6; H. 443. — ultro: 'unasked', 'of my own motion', a reference to the well-known story that, whatever subject was discussed, Cato gave as his opinion 'delenda est Carthago'. See [Introd]. — tueor: 'advocate', 'support'. — lectulus: a couch usually stood in the Roman study, on which the student reclined while reading, composing or dictating, or even writing. Cf. De Or. 3, 17, in eam exedram venisse in qua Crassus lectulo posito recubuisset, cumque eum in cogitatione defixum esse sensisset, statim recessisse ...; Suet. Aug. 78 lecticula lucubratoria. — ea ipsa cogitantem: = de eis ipsis cog.: so Acad. 2, 127 cogitantes supera atque caelestia, and often. — acta vita: 'the life I have led'; cf. [62] honeste acta superior aetas; so Tusc. 1, 109; Fam. 4, 13, 4. — viventi: dative of reference. A. 235; G. 354; H. 384, 4, n. 3. 'As regards one who lives amid these pursuits and tasks'. — ita sensim etc.: sensim sine sensu (observe the alliteration) is like mentes dementis in [16], where see [n.] Sensim must have meant at one time 'perceptibly', then 'only just perceptibly', then 'gradually' and almost 'imperceptibly'.

[39.] quod ... dicunt: not strictly logical, being put for quod careat, ut dicunt. In cases like this the verb of saying is usually in the subjunctive. Cf. Roby, 1746; A. 341, Rem.; G. 541, Rem. 2; H. 516, II. 1. The indicative here is more vivid and forcible. — munus ... aufert: to say that a gift robs one of anything is of course an oxymoron; cf. [n. on 16] mentes dementis. — aetatis: almost = senectutis: cf. [n. on 45]. — id quod est etc.: 'the greatest fault of youth'; i.e. the love of pleasure. In this passage voluptas indicates pleasure of a sensual kind, its ordinary sense, delectatio, oblectatio etc. being used of the higher pleasures. In [51], however, we have voluptates agricolarum. — accipite: 'hear'; so dare often means 'to tell'. With accipere in this sense cf. the similar use of αποδεχεσθαι. — Archytae: Archytas (the subject of Horace's well-known ode, 1, 28) was a contemporary and friend of Plato, and a follower of the Pythagorean philosophy. He wrote philosophical works, and was also famous as a mathematician and astronomer, besides being the leading statesman and general of the commonwealth of Tarentum. For another saying of Archytas, cf. Lael. 88. — tradita est: 'was imparted to me', i.e. by word of mouth. — cum ... Tarenti: 'when as a young man I stayed at Tarentum'. For adulescens cf. [n. on 26] senes. — nullam ... pestem etc.: cf. Lael. 34 pestem ... cupiditatem; Off. 2, 9 consuetudo ... honestatem ab utilitate secernens, qua nulla pernicies maior hominum vitae potuit afferri. — capitaliorem: 'more deadly'; caput was often equivalent to vita, so that capitalis comes to mean 'affecting the life'.