C. E. B.

Ithaca, May 1, 1897.
INTRODUCTION
1. Time of Composition of the de Senectute. — With tlie overtlirow of Poinpey at Pharsalus in 48 b.c. and the con- sequent ascendency of Julius Caesar, Cicero had retired com- pletely from the arena of political life. Resigning himself of necessity to the ceutralizing policy of Caesar, "lie sotrght consolation in his ever favorite pursuit of philosophy, and it is to these closiug years of his life that his chief philosophical worksjbgloug. It is still a disputed question whether the de Senectute was written shortly before or shortly after the assas- sinatiou of Caesar (March 15, 44 n.c). Conservative opinion at present tends to recognize the earlier date as the more probable, and to refer the composition of the work either to the last nionths of 45 b.c. or to the very earliest part (Janu- ary or February) of 44.
2. Atticus. — The essay is dedicated to Cicero^s intimate friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. Atticus was born in 109 b.c, of an old and wealthy equestrian family. From 88 to 65 b.c. he had resided at Athens, devoting his time to literary and philosophical studies. Returning to Rome in 65, he lived on terms of intimacy with the first men of his day. His friend- ship with Cicero had begun early in life, when the two were students together, and is well attested by the sixteen books of letters (Epistulae ad Atticum) which have come down to us. This correspondence begins in 68 b.c. and continues for twenty- five years, ending only a few months before Cicero's death (Dec. 7, 43 b.c). Atticus never entered public life. His death occurred eleven years after that of Cicero, in 32 n.c
3. Occasion of the Dialogue ; its Dramatic Date. — Scipio and Laelius meeting at the house of the elder Cato
yi INTRODUCTION
express their wonder at the cheerfulness with which he bears the burdens of age. Cato's answer leads the young men to request that he will set forth to tliem the means whereby old age may be made easy and happy. In compliance Cato pro- ceeds to consider iu detail the various accusations brought against old age, and to show how groundless these are. The greater part of the work is taken up by Cato's remarks. The participation of Scipio and Laelius in the conversation is so slight that the composition is practically an essay, not a dialogue.
The dramatic date of tlie conversation is 150 b.c, the year before Cato's death.
4. The Interlocutors :
(a) Cnto. " M. Porcius Cato was a Sabine farmer wlio rose from the plough to the highest honors of the Republic. Born in 234 B.C., a soldier at seventeeu, praetor in 198 b.c, and consul in 195 b.c, a veteran in the fields of war and oratory, he was the last representative of old-fashioned, middle-class conservatism, a bitter foe to new men and new manners, a latter-day Cincinnatus. Ile had served from the Trasimene to Zama, in Sardinia, Spain, Macedon, with skill, courage, success. Accused forty-four times, accuser as often, the grey- eyed, red-haired man had literally fought his way up with his rough-and-ready wit, his nervous oratory, liis practical ability and business habits. For thirty-five years the most influential man in Rome, he had acted in every capacity, as general, administrator, and envoy. He was a man whose virtues served his own ends, whose real but well-trumpeted austerity was a stalking-horse for his personal acrimony and ambition. Nar- row, reactionary, and self-righteous, as he was honest, active, and well-meaning, a good hater and a persistent critic, at once a bully and a inoralist, he took np his text daily against the backslidings and iniquities of the time, against Ilellenism, luxury, immorality, and corruption, especially as personified in the Scipios and Flaminini of his day. At bottom he was a genuine man, but it was unlucky that the strongest reform- ing force should have taken shape in this political gladiator
INTRODUCTION Vll
and typical Roraan, this hard-hitting, sharp-witted, keenly commercial, upright, vulgar Philistine." (How and Leigh, History of llonie to the Death of Caesar, p, 303.)
Cato lived to an advanced old age, dying in 149 b.c, the year after the date of the conversation represented in the de Senec- tute. Much has been made of the tradition that in his last years he was an assiduous student of Greek. But it is not likely that his study extended to the imaginative works of Greek literature, the masterpieces of Greek poets and philoso- phers. His interest in Greek was probably solely a practical one, and limited to the use of Greek sources in the composition of his historical work, the Origines. Appreciation for the ideal in literature and art he never possessed ; in fact he cherished the intensest conviction that the indulgence of these sentiments involved a distinct menace to the welfare of the state. Hence it is not credible that in his old age he should have renounced the convictions of a lifetime and have turned with enthusiasm to the models of the creative genius of the Greeks. Only six years before his death, besides giving other evidences of his anti-Hellenic spirit, he had been a prime mover in expediting the departure from Rome of three Greek philosophers, Diogenes, Critolaus, and Carneades, who having come to the city on a diplomatic errand were using their leisure to set forth to the Romans the tenets of their respective schools.
It is, then, an ideal Cato that meets us in the de Senectute, not the real Cato of flesh and blood who opposed so stoutly throughout his whole career the tendencies and sentiments for which he is represented by Cicero as cherishing so lofty an enthusiasm.
(b) Scipio. The Scipio of the de Senectute (the younger Africanus) was a son of Lucius Aemilius Pauhis, the conqueror of Macedonia. The name Scipio he took from his adoptive father, P. Cornelius Scipio (son of the great Africanus), adding the surname Aemilianus in token of his actual descent. Scipio was born about 185 b.c, and was therefore about thirty-five years of age at the time of the alleged dialogue. Though he
Vlll INTRODUCTION
early began to devote himself to tlie profession of arms, lie possessed also decided literary tastes, and cultivated friendly relations with the conteniporary poets Lucilius and Terence. Rumor had it that he even assisted Terence in the composition of his plays. For Cato, Scipio entertained a profound admira- tion, despite the old hostility between the two families, and is said to have taken that sturdy exemplar of the homely virtues as his own model.
(c) Laelius. Gaius Laelius, surnamed Sapiens, was of about the same age as Scipio, and was attached to him by ties of the closest friendship, as his father had been attached to the elder Africanus. Hence Laelius is appropriately made the chief speaker in Cicero's essay on friendship (the Laelius or de Amicitia). Laelius held various public offices, but was chiefly distinguished for his enlightened interest in literature and philosopiiy.
5. Ennius. — Ennius, from whose Annals Cato so often quotes in the de Senectute, was born at Rudiae in Calabria in 239 B.C., and died in 169. Ile was serving as a soldier in the Second Punic War when he attracted the attention and won the friendship of Cato, who brought liim to Rome in 204 b.c. Ilere for a time he gained a livelihood by teaching; later his poetic gifts secured him the powerful support of the ekier Africanus and others. Ennius's chief work is his Annales, of which, unfortunately, only fragments have come down to us. This was an historical poem, and dealt with the story of Roman achievement from the earliest times down to and including the stirring events of Ennius*s own day.