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[15]
Wherefore, as I have already said, it has gone
very well with him, less so with me, for, as I was
before him in entering life, it had been more
reasonable to expect that I should have been before
him in leaving it. Still, such is my enjoyment in the
recollection of our friendship that I feel as if my
life has been happy because it was spent with
Scipio, with whom I shared my public and private
cares; lived under the same roof at home; served
in the same campaigns abroad, and enjoyed that
wherein lies the whole essence of friendship—the
most complete agreement in policy, in pursuits, and
in opinions. Hence, I am not so much delighted by
my reputation for wisdom which Fannius just now
called to mind, especially since it is undeserved, as
I am by the hope that the memory of our friendship will always endure; and this thought is the
more pleasing to me because in the whole range
of history only three or four pairs1 of friends are
mentioned; and I venture to hope that among such
instances the friendship of Scipio and Laelius will
be known to posterity.
1 The three pairs are Theseus and Pirithous, Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades; the fourth, probably in Cicero's mind (Cic. Off. iii. 45; Fin. ii. 79), was Damon and Phintias (vulg. Pythias).
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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