Scaife ATLAS

Laelius on Friendship (5-8)

urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi052.perseus-eng2:5-8

Refs	`{'start': {'reference': '5', 'human_reference': 'Section 5'}, 'end': {'reference': '8', 'human_reference': 'Section 8'}}`
Ancestors	`[]`
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But as in that book I wrote as one old man to another old man on the subject of old age, so now in this book I have written as a most affectionate friend to a friend on the subject of friendship. In the former work the speaker was Cato, whom scarcely any in his day exceeded in age and none surpassed in wisdom; in the present treatise the speaker on friendship will be Laelius, a wise man (for he was so esteemed), and a man who was distinguished by a glorious friendship. Please put me out of your mind for a little while and believe that Laelius himself is talking. Gaius Fannius and Quintus Mucius Scaevola have come to their father-in-law’s house just after the death of Africanus[*]; the conversation is begun by them and reply is made by Laelius, whose entire discourse is on friendship, and as you read it you will recognize in it a portrait of yourself.

FANNIUS. What you say is true, Laelius; for there was no better man than Africanus, and no one more illustrious. But you should realize that all men have fixed their eyes on you alone; you it is whom they both call and believe to be wise. Recently[*]this title was given to Marcus Cato and we know that Lucius Acilius was called the Wise in our

fathers’ time, but each of them in a somewhat different way: Acilius because of his reputation for skill in civil law; Cato because of his manifold experience, and because of the many well-known instances wherein both in Senate and forum he displayed shrewdness of foresight, resolution of conduct, or sagacity in reply; and as a result, by the time he had reached old age, he bore the title of the Wise as a sort of cognomen.

But as to yourself, men are wont to call you wise in a somewhat different way, not only because of your mental endowments and natural character, but also because of your devotion to study and because of your culture, and they employ the term in your case, not as the ignorant do, but as learned men employ it. And in this sense we have understood that no one in all Greece was wise except one in Athens, and he,[*]I admit, was actually adjudged most wise by the oracle of Apollo—for the more captious critics refuse to admit those who are called The Seven into the category of the wise. Your wisdom, in public estimation, consists in this: you consider all your possessions to be within yourself and believe human fortune of less account than virtue. Hence the question is put to me and to Scaevola here, too, I believe, as to how you bear the death of Africanus, and the inquiry is the more insistent because, on the last Nones,[*]when we had met as usual for the practice[*]of our augural art in the country home of Decimus Brutus, you were not present, though it had been your custom always to observe that day and to discharge its duties with the most scrupulous care.

SCAEVOLA. There is indeed a great deal of questioning,

Gaius Laelius, just as Fannius has said, but I state in reply what I have observed: that you bear with composure the pain occasioned by the death of one who was at once a most eminent man and your very dear friend; that you could not be unmoved thereby and that to be so was not consistent with your refined and tender nature and your culture; but as to your not attending our college on the Nones, that, I answer, was due to ill-health and not to grief.

LAELIUS. Your reply was excellent, Scaevola, and it was correct; for no personal inconvenience of any kind ought to have kept me from the discharge of the duty you mentioned, and which I have always performed when I was well, nor do I think it possible for any event of this nature to cause a man of strong character to neglect any duty.

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LAELIUS	1	w	3124
Your	2	w	3129
reply	4	w	3134
was	13	w	3137
excellent	1	w	3146
Scaevola	3	w	3155
and	28	w	3159
it	20	w	3161
was	14	w	3164
correct	1	w	3171
for	11	w	3175
no	18	w	3177
personal	1	w	3185
inconvenience	1	w	3198
of	30	w	3200
any	3	w	3203
kind	1	w	3207
ought	1	w	3212
to	31	w	3214
have	6	w	3218
kept	1	w	3222
me	21	w	3224
from	1	w	3228
the	50	w	3231
discharge	2	w	3240
of	31	w	3242
the	51	w	3245
duty	1	w	3249
you	27	w	3252
mentioned	1	w	3261
and	29	w	3265
which	1	w	3270
I	11	w	3271
have	7	w	3275
always	2	w	3281
performed	1	w	3290
when	2	w	3294
I	12	w	3295
was	15	w	3298
well	2	w	3302
nor	2	w	3306
do	5	w	3308
I	13	w	3309
think	1	w	3314
it	21	w	3316
possible	1	w	3324
for	13	w	3327
any	4	w	3330
event	1	w	3335
of	32	w	3337
this	6	w	3341
nature	2	w	3347
to	32	w	3349
cause	8	w	3354
a	259	w	3355
man	10	w	3358
of	33	w	3360
strong	1	w	3366
character	2	w	3375
to	33	w	3377
neglect	1	w	3384
any	5	w	3387
duty	2	w	3391