One man's delay alone restored our State:
He valued safety more than mob's applause;
Hence now his glory more resplendent grows.
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[10]
4. I was as fond of Quintus Fabius Maximus,
who recovered Tarentum, as if he had been of my own
age, though he was old and I was young. For
there was in him a dignity tempered with courtesy,
and age had not altered his disposition; and yet
when I began to cultivate him he was not extremely
old, though he was well advanced in life. For he
had been consul for the first time the year after I was
born; and when he was in his fourth consulship I was
a mere lad, and set out as a private soldier with him
for Capua, and five years later for Tarentum; then,
four years after that I became quaestor, which office
I held while Tuditanus and Cethegus were consuls,
and he, at that very time, though far advanced in
age, made speeches in favour of the Cincian law1
on fees and gifts. Though quite old he waged war
like a young man, and by his patient endurance
checked the boyish impetuosity of Hannibal. My
friend Ennius admirably speaks of him thus:
1 This law was proposed by M. Cincius Alimentus in 204 B.C. and prohibited lawyers from receiving fees from clients and the rich from receiving gifts from the poor for services. Cato's irrelevant digression here is a happy illustration of Cicero's art in impressing us with Cato's age.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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