But now I weep when old men’s death I see;
That moved my pity; this comes home to me.
Seek not, my son, an old man’s ways to spurn;
To these in old age you yourself will turn.
Herein we fathers lose a point you gain;
When you of “father’s cruelty” complain,
“You once were young,” we tauntingly are told.
We can’t retort, “My son, you once were old.”
PART II
ROME
The Roman Juvenal observed, “All Greece is a comedian.” But he could not say the same of his own country.