This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
[34]
I think, Scipio, that the news reaches you of the
daily activities of your grandfather's friend and host
Masinissa, now ninety years old; that when he
begins a march on foot, he never mounts a horse,
and when he sets out on horseback he never dismounts; that no rain or cold, however great, can
induce him to cover his head; and—such is the
extreme wiriness of his body—that he in person
performs all the duties and functions of his kingly
office. It is possible, therefore, for a man by
exercise and self-control, even in old age, to preserve
some of his original vigour.
11. But, grant that old age is devoid of strength;
none is even expected of it. Hence both by law and
by custom men of my age are exempt from those
public services which cannot be rendered without
strength of body. Therefore, we are not only
not required to do what we cannot perform, but
we are not required to do even as much as we
can.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.