which cannot be borne without strength.[1] Therefore we are compelled to do, not what we are unable to do, but even less than we can do. Is it said that many old men are so feeble that they are incapable of any duty or charge whatsoever? This, I answer, is not an inability peculiar to old age, but common to bodily infirmity at whatever period of life. How feeble, Scipio, was that son of Africanus who adopted you![2] But for this, he would have shone second in his family as a luminary of the state, adding to his father's greatness a more ample intellectual culture. What wonder, then, is it that old men are sometimes feeble, when it is a misfortune which even the young cannot always escape? Old age, Laelius and Scipio, should be resisted, and its deficiencies should be supplied by faithful effort. Old age, like disease, should be fought against. Care must be bestowed upon the health; moderate exercise must be taken; the food and drink should be sufficient to recruit the strength, and not in such excess as to become oppressive. Nor yet should the body alone be sustained in vigor, but much more the powers of mind; for these too, unless you pour oil into the lamp,
- ↑ By law no one over forty-six years of age was required to render military service, and Senators above sixty years of age were not summoned to the sessions of the Senate, but attended them or were absent from them at their own option.
- ↑ Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Minor, undoubtedly in genius, learning, and ability the foremost of the Scipio family, but never able to fill any other offices than those—involving little labor—of Augur and Flamen Dialis.
