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WHETHER AN OLD MAN SHOULD ENGAGE IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS (AN SENI RESPUBLICA GERENDA SIT)
Euphanes, to whom this essay is addressed, is known from no other source. That he and Plutarch were aged men when the essay was written appears from the opening sentences (see also Chapter 17, towards the end, 792 f). He was evidently a man of some distinction at Athens, where he held important offices (Chapter 20, 794 b). It is not unlikely that he may have asked Plutarch's advice about retiring from public life and that this essay is in reply to his appeal, but there is no definite statement to that effect. Cicero's Cato Maior or De Senectute differs from this in not being limited to the discussion of old age in its relation to public activities, but the two essays have much in common and may well be read in connexion with each other.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Harold North Fowler. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 10.
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