Seneca: DIALOGI

I.1 Maior pars mortalium, Pauline, de naturae malignitate conqueritur, quod in exiguum aeui gignimur, quod haec tam uelociter, tam rapide dati nobis temporis spatia decurrant, adeo ut exceptis admodum paucis ceteros in ipso uitae apparatu uita destituat. Nec huic publico, ut opinantur, malo turba tantum et imprudens uulgus ingemuit; clarorum quoque uirorum hic affectus querellas euocauit. 2 Inde illa maximi medicorum exclamatio est: "uitam breuem esse, longam artem". Inde Aristotelis cum rerum natura exigentis minime conueniens sapienti uiro lis: "aetatis illam animalibus tantum indulsisse, ut quina aut dena saecula educerent, homini in tam multa ac magna genito tanto citeriorem terminum stare." 3 Non exiguum temporis habemus, sed multum perdidimus.

1.1 The greater part of mortals, Paulinus, complain of the malignity of nature, that we are begotten into a scant span of lifetime, that the spaces of time granted to us run off so swiftly, so rapidly, to such a degree that, with very few excepted, life deserts the rest in the very apparatus of life. Nor, as they suppose, has only the crowd and the imprudent vulgar groaned over this public evil; this feeling has also called forth the complaints of illustrious men. 2 Hence that exclamation of the greatest of physicians: "life is short, art long." Hence Aristotle’s quarrel with nature—most incongruous for a wise man—namely, that she has indulged animals with such length of age that they draw out five or even ten centuries, while for man, born for so many and so great things, there stands so much a nearer limit. 3 We do not have a scant amount of time, but we have lost much.

Satis longa uita et in maximarum rerum consummationem large data est, si tota bene collocaretur; sed ubi per luxum ac neglegentiam diffluit, ubi nulli bonae rei impenditur, ultima demum necessitate cogente, quam ire non intelleximus transisse sentimus. 4 Ita est: non accipimus breuem uitam sed fecimus, nec inopes eius sed prodigi sumus. Sicut amplae et regiae opes, ubi ad malum dominum peruenerunt, momento dissipantur, at quamuis modicae, si bono custodi traditae sunt, usu crescunt: ita aetas nostra bene disponenti multum patet.

Life is sufficiently long and is liberally given for the consummation of the greatest things, if it were all well invested; but when it melts away through luxury and negligence, when it is expended on no good thing, only with the ultimate necessity compelling do we feel it has passed—going, we did not perceive it. 4 So it is: we do not receive a short life but we have made one, and we are not indigent of it but prodigal. Just as ample and regal wealth, when it has come to a bad master, is dissipated in a moment, yet however moderate, if entrusted to a good custodian, grows by use: so our span, for the one who disposes it well, lies wide open.

II.1 Quid de rerum natura querimur? Illa se benigne gessit: uita, si uti scias, longa est. [At] alium insatiabilis tenet auaritia; alium in superuacuis laboribus operosa sedulitas; alius uino madet, alius inertia torpet; alium defetigat ex alienis iudiciis suspensa semper ambitio, alium mercandi praeceps cupiditas circa omnis terras, omnia maria spe lucri ducit; quosdam torquet cupido militiae numquam non aut alienis periculis intentos aut suis anxios; sunt quos ingratus superiorum cultus uoluntaria seruitute consumat; 2 multos aut affectatio alienae formae aut suae querella detinuit; plerosque nihil certum sequentis uaga et inconstans et sibi displicens leuitas per noua consilia iactauit; quibusdam nihil quo cursum derigant placet, sed marcentis oscitantisque fata deprendunt, adeo ut quod apud maximum poetarum more oraculi dictum est uerum esse non dubitem: "Exigua pars est uitae qua uiuimus.

2.1 Why do we complain about the nature of things? It has conducted itself kindly: life, if you know how to use it, is long. [Yet] one is held by insatiable avarice; another by laborious assiduity in superfluous tasks; one is drenched with wine, another grows torpid with inertia; another is wearied out by ambition ever hanging upon others’ judgments; another the headlong cupidity of merchandising leads, by hope of gain, around all lands, all seas; some the lust for military service torments, never not either intent on others’ dangers or anxious about their own; there are those whom the ungrateful court of superiors consumes in voluntary servitude; 2 many either the affectation of another’s form or a complaint about their own has held fast; most, following nothing certain, a wandering and inconstant lightness, displeased with itself, has tossed through new plans; to some nothing by which they might direct their course pleases, but the fates of those who languish and yawn overtake them, so much so that I do not doubt that what was said, in the manner of an oracle, by the greatest of poets is true: "A scant part of life is that in which we live."

Ceterum quidem omne spatium non uita sed tempus est. 3 Urgent et circumstant uitia undique nec resurgere aut in dispectum ueri attollere oculos sinunt. Et immersos et in cupiditatem infixos premunt, numquam illis recurrere ad se licet.

But, indeed, the whole span is not life but time. 3 Vices press and surround from all sides, nor do they allow one to resurge or to lift the eyes into the prospect of the true. And they press down those immersed and fixed in cupidity; it is never allowed them to return to themselves.

Si quando aliqua fortuito quies contigit, uelut profundo mari, in quo post uentum quoque uolutatio est, fluctuantur nec umquam illis a cupiditatibus suis otium stat. 4 De istis me putas dicere, quorum in confesso mala sunt? Aspice illos ad quorum felicitatem concurritur:bonis suis effocantur.

If ever some fortuitous rest has happened, just as on the deep sea, on which even after the wind there is a rolling swell, they are tossed, nor is there ever any leisure from their desires established for them. 4 Do you think I speak of those whose evils are confessed? Look at those toward whose felicity there is a concourse:bonis suis they are choked.

Quam multis diuitiae graues sunt! Quam multorum eloquentia et cotidiana ostentandi ingenii sollicitatio sanguinem educit! Quam multi continuis uoluptatibus pallent!

How grievous are riches to so many! How for so many does eloquence—and the quotidian solicitation to the ostentation of their genius—draw blood! How many grow pallid from continuous pleasures!

Quam multis nihil liberi relinquit circumfusus clientium populus! Omnis denique istos ab infimis usque ad summos pererra: hic aduocat, hic adest, ille periclitatur, ille defendit, ille iudicat, nemo se sibi uindicat, alius in alium consumitur. Interroga de istis quorum nomina ediscuntur, his illos dinosci uidebis notis: ille illius cultor est, hic illius; suus nemo est.

How many does a crowd of clients, poured around them, leave with nothing free! Traverse, finally, all those men from the lowest up to the highest: this one advocates, this one is present, that one is in peril on trial, that one defends, that one judges; no one vindicates himself to himself, one is consumed upon another. Ask about those men whose names are learned by heart; you will see them recognized by these signs: that man is a devotee of that man, this one of that one; no one is his own.

5 Deinde dementissima quorundam indignatio est: queruntur de superiorum fastidio, quod ipsis adire uolentibus non uacauerint! Audet quisquam de alterius superbia queri, qui sibi ipse numquam uacat? Ille tamen te, quisquis es, insolenti quidem uultu sed aliquando respexit, ille aures suas ad tua uerba demisit, ille te ad latus suum recepit: tu non inspicere te umquam, non audire dignatus es. Non est itaque quod ista officia cuiquam imputes, quoniam quidem, cum illa faceres, non esse cum alio uolebas, sed tecum esse non poteras.

5 Then there is the most demented indignation of certain men: they complain of the fastidious disdain of superiors, that, when they wished to approach them, they were not at leisure for them! Does anyone dare to complain of another’s superbia who is never at leisure for himself? He, however, whoever you are, with an insolent countenance indeed, yet at some time looked toward you; he lowered his ears to your words; he received you at his side: you have not deigned ever to look into yourself, nor to listen to yourself. There is, therefore, no reason for you to impute these courtesies to anyone; since, when you were doing those things, you did not wish to be with another, but you were not able to be with yourself.

III.1 Omnia licet quae umquam ingenia fulserunt in hoc unum consentiant, numquam satis hanc humanarum mentium caliginem mirabuntur: praedia sua occupari a nullo patiuntur et, si exigua contentio est de modo finium, ad lapides et arma discurrunt; in uitam suam incedere alios sinunt, immo uero ipsi etiam possessores eius futuros inducunt; nemo inuenitur qui pecuniam suam diuidere uelit, uitam unusquisque quam multis distribuit! Adstricti sunt in continendo patrimonio, simul ad iacturam temporis uentum est, profusissimi in eo cuius unius honesta auaritia est.

III.1 Although all the talents that have ever shone should agree on this one point, they will never marvel enough at this darkness of human minds: they do not allow their estates to be occupied by anyone, and, if there is the slightest contention about the measure of boundaries, they run to stones and to arms; they allow others to step into their life—nay rather, they themselves even usher in those who will be its possessors; no one is found who is willing to divide his money, yet each man distributes his life to how many! They are strait-laced in maintaining their patrimony; but the moment it comes to a loss of time, they are most prodigal in that—the one thing about which an honorable avarice exists.

2 Libet itaque ex seniorum turba comprendere aliquem: "Peruenisse te ad ultimum aetatis humanae uidemus, centesimus tibi uel supra premitur annus: agedum, ad computationem aetatem tuam reuoca. Duc quantum ex isto tempore creditor, quantum amica, quantum rex, quantum cliens abstulerit, quantum lis uxoria, quantum seruorum coercitio, quantum officiosa per urbem discursatio; adice morbos quos manu fecimus, adice quod et sine usu iacuit: uidebis te pauciores annos habere quam numeras. 3 Repete memoria tecum quando certus consilii fueris, quotus quisque dies ut destinaueras recesserit, quando tibi usus tui fuerit, quando in statu suo uultus, quando animus intrepidus, quid tibi in tam longo aeuo facti operis sit, quam multi uitam tuam diripuerint te non sentiente quid perderes, quantum uanus dolor, stulta laetitia, auida cupiditas, blanda conuersatio abstulerit, quam exiguum tibi de tuo relictum sit: intelleges te immaturum mori." 4 Quid ergo est in causa?

2 It is my pleasure, then, to seize someone from the crowd of elders: "We see that you have reached the ultimate limit of human age; the hundredth year, or even beyond, is pressing upon you: come now, call your lifetime back to an accounting. Subtract how much of this time a creditor, how much a mistress, how much the king, how much a client has carried off, how much a lawsuit with your wife, how much the coercition of slaves, how much a dutiful scurrying about the city; add the illnesses we have made by our own hand, add that which has lain without use: you will see that you have fewer years than you count. 3 Recall with yourself by memory when you were settled in counsel, how few days have turned out as you had planned, when you have had the use of yourself, when your countenance was in its own state, when your mind was unshaken, what work done there has been for you in so long an age, how many have plundered your life with you not perceiving what you were losing, how much vain grief, foolish joy, greedy cupidity, flattering company has taken away, how scant a portion of your own has been left to you: you will understand that you die immature." 4 What, then, is the thing at issue?

Tamquam semper uicturi uiuitis, numquam uobis fragilitas uestra succurrit, non obseruatis quantum iam temporis transierit; uelut ex pleno et abundanti perditis, cum interim fortasse ille ipse qui alicui uel homini uel rei donatur dies ultimus sit. Omnia tamquam mortales timetis, omnia tamquam immortales concupiscitis. 5 Audies plerosque dicentes: "A quinquagesimo anno in otium secedam, sexagesimus me annus ab officiis dimittet." Et quem tandem longioris uitae praedem accipis?

You live as though you were going to live always, your fragility never comes to your mind, you do not observe how much time has already passed; you squander as if from a full and abundant supply, while meanwhile perhaps that very day which is donated to some person or affair is the last. You fear everything as mortals, you covet everything as immortals. 5 You will hear many saying: "From the fiftieth year I will withdraw into leisure, the sixtieth year will dismiss me from duties." And whom, then, do you take as guarantor of a longer life?

Quis ista sicut disponis ire patietur? Non pudet te reliquias uitae tibi reseruare et id solum tempus bonae menti destinare quod in nullam rem conferri possit? Quam serum est tunc uiuere incipere cum desinendum est?

Who will allow these things to go as you dispose? Are you not ashamed to reserve for yourself the relics of life and to destine only that time for a good mind which can be conferred to no purpose? How late it is to begin to live then, when one must cease!

Quae tam stulta mortalitatis obliuio in quinquagesimum et sexagesimum annum differre sana consilia et inde uelle uitam inchoare quo pauci perduxerunt?

What so foolish an oblivion of mortality is it, to defer sane counsels to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and from that point to wish to begin life at the point to which few have brought it?

IV.1 Potentissimis et in altum sublatis hominibus excidere uoces uidebis quibus otium optent, laudent, omnibus bonis suis praeferant. Cupiunt interim ex illo fastigio suo, si tuto liceat, descendere; nam ut nihil extra lacessat aut quatiat, in se ipsa fortuna ruit. 2 Diuus Augustus, cui dii plura quam ulli praestiterunt, non desiit quietem sibi precari et uacationem a re publica petere; omnis eius sermo ad hoc semper reuolutus est, ut speraret otium: hoc labores suos, etiam si falso, dulci tamen oblectabat solacio, aliquando se uicturum sibi.

4.1 You will see words drop from men most powerful and lifted on high, by which they opt for leisure, praise it, and prefer it to all their own goods. Meanwhile they desire to descend from that pinnacle of theirs, if it might be permitted safely; for even if nothing from outside provokes or shakes, Fortune collapses in upon herself. 2 The deified Augustus, to whom the gods afforded more than to any other, did not cease to pray for quiet for himself and to ask for a vacation from the commonwealth; all his discourse always rolled back to this point, that he hoped for leisure: with this sweet solace he would entertain his labors, even if falsely, that he would someday live for himself.

3 In quadam ad senatum missa epistula, cum requiem suam non uacuam fore dignitatis nec a priore gloria discrepantem pollicitus esset, haec verba inueni: "Sed ista fieri speciosius quam promitti possunt. Me tamen cupido temporis optatissimi mihi prouexit, ut quoniam rerum laetitia moratur adhuc, praeciperem aliquid uoluptatis ex uerborum dulcedine." 4 Tanta uisa est res otium, ut illam, quia usu non poterat, cogitatione praesumeret. Qui omnia uidebat ex se uno pendentia, qui hominibus gentibusque fortunam dabat, illum diem laetissimus cogitabat quo magnitudinem suam exueret.

3 In a certain epistle sent to the senate, when he had promised that his rest would not be empty of dignity nor discrepant from his prior glory, I find these words: "But those things can be done more splendidly than they can be promised. Yet desire for the time most desired by me has carried me forward, so that, since the gladness of affairs still delays, I might anticipate some pleasure from the sweetness of words." 4 Leisure seemed so great a thing, that he, because he could not have it in practice, anticipated it in thought. He who saw all things hanging upon himself alone, who gave fortune to men and nations, most gladly contemplated that day on which he would strip off his greatness.

5 Expertus erat quantum illa bona per omnis terras fulgentia sudoris exprimerent, quantum occultarum sollicitudinum tegerent: cum ciuibus primum, deinde cum collegis, nouissime cum affinibus coactus armis decernere mari terraque sanguinem fudit. Per Macedoniam, Siciliam, Aegyptum, Syriam Asiamque et omnis prope oras bello circumactus Romana caede lassos exercitus ad externa bella conuertit. Dum Alpes pacat immixtosque mediae paci et imperio hostes perdomat, dum [ut] ultra Rhenum et Euphraten et Danuuium terminos mouet, in ipsa urbe Murenae, Caepionis Lepidi, Egnati, aliorum in eum mucrones acuebantur.

5 He had found out how much those goods, gleaming across all lands, wrung out sweat, how much they covered over hidden anxieties: with citizens first, then with colleagues, and at last with connections by marriage, compelled to decide by arms, he poured out blood by sea and by land. Through Macedonia, Sicily, Egypt, Syria and Asia, and almost all the shores, driven round by war, he turned armies wearied by Roman slaughter to foreign wars. While he pacifies the Alps and subdues enemies intermingled with the very peace and the imperium, while he moves the frontiers beyond the Rhine and the Euphrates and the Danube, in the city itself the blades of Murena, of Caepio, of Lepidus, of Egnatius, and of others were being sharpened against him.

6 Nondum horum effugerat insidias: filia et tot nobiles iuuenes adulterio uelut sacramento adacti iam infractam aetatem territabant Paulusque et iterum timenda cum Antonio mulier. Haec ulcera cum ipsis membris absciderat: alia subnascebantur; uelut graue multo sanguine corpus parte semper aliqua rumpebatur. Itaque otium optabat, in huius spe et cogitatione labores eius residebant, hoc uotum erat eius qui uoti compotes facere poterat.

6 He had not yet escaped their snares: his daughter and so many noble youths, driven to adultery as if by a sacrament, were terrifying his already broken age—and Paulus, and the woman to be feared again along with Antonius. These ulcers he had cut away together with the very limbs: others were sprouting anew; as a body heavy with much blood was always bursting at some part or other. And so he longed for leisure; in the hope and thought of this his labors subsided; this was the vow of him who could make others possessors of their vows.

V.1M. Cicero inter Catilinas, Clodios iactatus Pompeiosque et Crassos, partim manifestos inimicos, partim dubios amicos, dum fluctuatur cum re publica et illam pessum euntem tenet, nouissime abductus, nec secundis rebus quietus nec aduersarum patiens, quotiens illum ipsum consulatum suum non sine causa sed sine fine laudatum detestatur!2 Quam flebiles uoces exprimit in quadam ad Atticum epistula iam uicto patre Pompeio, adhuc filio in Hispania fracta arma refouente! "Quid agam", inquit, "hic, quaeris?

5.1M. Cicero, tossed among the Catilines, the Clodii, and the Pompeys and Crasses—partly manifest enemies, partly dubious friends—while he fluctuates with the republic and holds it as it goes to ruin, at last carried off, neither quiet in favorable circumstances nor patient of adverse ones—how often he detests that very consulship of his, praised not without cause but without end!2 What tearful utterances he expresses in a certain letter to Atticus, with the father Pompey already conquered, while the son still in Spain is rekindling shattered arms! “What am I to do,” he says, “here, you ask?”

Moror in Tusculano meo semiliber." Alia deinceps adicit, quibus et priorem aetatem complorat et de praesenti queritur et de futura desperat. 3 Semiliberum se dixit Cicero: at me hercules numquam sapiens in tam humile nomen procedet, numquam semiliber erit, integrae semper libertatis et solidae, solutus et sui iuris et altior ceteris. Quid enim supra eum potest esse qui supra fortunam est?

"I linger at my Tusculan, half-free." Next he adds other things in succession, by which he bewails his earlier age, complains about the present, and despairs of the future. 3 Cicero called himself half-free; but, by Hercules, a wise man will never proceed into so humble a name, never will he be half-free, being always of an entire and solid liberty, unbound and of his own right, and higher than the rest. For what can be above him who is above Fortune?

VI.1 Liuius Drusus, uir acer et uehemens, cum leges nouas et mala Gracchana mouisset stipatus ingenti totius Italiae coetu, exitum rerum non peruidens, quas nec agere licebat nec iam liberum erat semel incohatas relinquere, exsecratus inquietam a primordiis uitam dicitur dixisse: uni sibi ne puero quidem umquam ferias contigisse. Ausus est enim et pupillus adhuc et praetextatus iudicibus reos commendare et gratiam suam foro interponere tam efficaciter quidem, ut quaedam iudicia constet ab illo rapta. 2 Quo non erumperet tam immatura ambitio?

6.1 Livius Drusus, a keen and vehement man, when he had set in motion new laws and the Gracchan evils, surrounded by an immense gathering of all Italy, not perceiving the outcome of affairs—which it was neither permitted to carry through nor now free to leave once begun—having execrated a life restless from its beginnings, is said to have declared: that for himself alone, not even as a boy, had holidays ever come. He dared, in fact, even while still a ward and wearing the praetexta, to commend defendants to the judges and to interpose his favor in the forum, indeed so efficaciously that it is agreed certain judgments were snatched away by him. 2 To what would such immature ambition not burst forth?

Scires in malum ingens et priuatum et publicum euasuram tam praecoquem audaciam. Sero itaque querebatur nullas sibi ferias contigisse a puero seditiosus et foro grauis. Disputatur an ipse sibi manus attulerit; subito enim uulnere per inguen accepto collapsus est, aliquo dubitante an mors eius uoluntaria esset, nullo an tempestiua.

You would know that so premature an audacity would issue into a huge evil, both private and public. Therefore, too late, the seditious man, burdensome to the forum, complained that no holidays had ever fallen to him from boyhood. It is disputed whether he laid hands upon himself; for, after receiving a sudden wound through the groin, he collapsed—someone doubting whether his death was voluntary, no one doubting that it was timely.

3 Superuacuum est commemorare plures qui, cum aliis felicissimi uiderentur, ipsi in se uerum testimonium dixerunt perosi omnem actum annorum suorum; sed his querellis nec alios mutauerunt nec se ipsos: nam cum uerba eruperunt, affectus ad consuetudinem relabuntur. 4 Vestra me hercules uita, licet supra mille annos exeat, in artissimum contrahetur: ista uitia nullum non saeculum deuorabunt; hoc uero spatium, quod quamuis natura currit ratio dilatat, cito uos effugiat necesse est; non enim apprenditis nec retinetis uel ocissimae omnium rei moram facitis, sed abire ut rem superuacuam ac reparabilem sinitis.

3 It is superfluous to commemorate the many who, although they seemed most fortunate to others, spoke true testimony against themselves, having grown to loathe every act of their years; yet with these laments they changed neither others nor themselves: for when the words have burst forth, the affections relapse to habit. 4 By Hercules, your life, even if it extends beyond 1,000 years, will be contracted into the narrowest: those vices will devour every age; but this very span, which, although nature runs, reason dilates, must needs quickly escape you; for you neither apprehend nor retain it, nor do you make even a delay for the swiftest thing of all, but you allow it to depart as something superfluous and reparable.

VII.1 In primis autem et illos numero qui nulli rei nisi uino ac libidini uacant; nulli enim turpius occupati sunt. Ceteri, etiam si uana gloriae imagine teneantur, speciose tamen errant; licet auaros mihi, licet iracundos enumeres uel odia exercentes iniusta uel bella, omnes isti uirilius peccant: in uentrem ac libidinem proiectorum inhonesta tabes est.

7.1 In the first place, moreover, I also number among them those who devote themselves to nothing except wine and libido; for none are more shamefully occupied. The rest, even if they are held by the vain image of glory, nevertheless err speciously; though you enumerate for me the avaricious, though the irascible, or those exercising unjust hatreds or wars, all these sin more virilely: there is a disgraceful wasting in those thrown over to the belly and libido.

2 Omnia istorum tempora excute, aspice quam diu computent, quam diu insidientur, quam diu timeant, quam diu colant, quam diu colantur, quantum uadimonia sua atque aliena occupent, quantum conuiuia, quae iam ipsa officia sunt: uidebis quemadmodum illos respirare non sinant uel mala sua vel bona. 3 Denique inter omnes conuenit nullam rem bene exerceri posse ab homine occupato, non eloquentiam, non liberales disciplinas, quando districtus animus nihil altius recipit sed omnia uelut inculcata respuit. Nihil minus est hominis occupati quam uiuere: nullius rei difficilior scientia est.

2 Shake out all their time, look how long they compute, how long they lie in wait, how long they fear, how long they cultivate, how long they are cultivated, how much their own and others’ bail-recognizances occupy, how much the banquets, which now are duties in themselves: you will see how either their own ills or their goods do not allow them to breathe. 3 Finally, it is agreed among all that no thing can be well exercised by a busy man—not eloquence, not the liberal disciplines—since a distracted mind receives nothing higher but rejects everything as if crammed in. Nothing is less the business of a busy man than to live: the knowledge of nothing is more difficult.

Professores aliarum artium uulgo multique sunt, quasdam uero ex his pueri admodum ita percepisse uisi sunt, ut etiam praecipere possent: uiuere tota uita discendum est et, quod magis fortasse miraberis, tota uita discendum est mori. 4 Tot maximi uiri, relictis omnibus impedimentis, cum diuitiis, officiis, uoluptatibus renuntiassent, hoc unum in extremam usque aetatem egerunt ut uiuere scirent; plures tamen ex his nondum se scire confessi uita abierunt, nedum ut isti sciant. 5 Magni, mihi crede, et supra humanos errores eminentis uiri est nihil ex suo tempore delibari sinere, et ideo eius uita longissima est, quia, quantumcumque patuit, totum ipsi uacauit.

Professors of other arts are common and many, and indeed some of these have seemed to have been apprehended by boys quite so, that they could even give precepts: to live must be learned for a whole life and, what perhaps you will marvel at more, to die must be learned for a whole life. 4 So many very great men, all hindrances left behind, when they had renounced riches, offices, pleasures, drove at this one thing even to the farthest age, that they might know how to live; yet more of these departed life confessing that they did not yet know, much less that these should know. 5 It is the part of a great man, believe me, and of a man eminent above human errors, to allow nothing to be sipped off from his own time, and therefore his life is the longest, because, however much it lay open, he devoted it all to himself.

Nihil inde incultum otiosumque iacuit, nihil sub alio fuit, neque enim quicquam repperit dignum quod cum tempore suo permutaret custos eius parcissimus. Itaque satis illi fuit: iis uero necesse est defuisse ex quorum uita multum populus tulit. 6 Nec est quod putes hinc illos aliquando non intellegere damnum suum: plerosque certe audies ex iis quos magna felicitas grauat inter clientium greges aut causarum actiones aut ceteras honestas miserias exclamare interdum: "Viuere mihi non licet." 7 Quidni non liceat?

Nothing from it lay uncultivated and idle, nothing was under another; for its most sparing guardian found nothing worthy to exchange for his time. And so it sufficed for him: but it must necessarily have been lacking to those from whose life the populace took much. 6 Nor should you think that from this they sometimes do not understand their loss: you will certainly hear very many of those whom great felicity weighs down, amid flocks of clients or pleadings of causes or the other honorable miseries, cry out from time to time: "I am not permitted to live." 7 Why should it not be permitted?

Omnes illi qui te sibi aduocant tibi abducunt. Ille reus quot dies abstulit? Quot ille candidatus?

All those who summon you to themselves take you away from yourself. How many days did that defendant take away? How many did that candidate?

Quot illa anus efferendis heredibus lassa? Quot ille ad irritandam auaritiam captantium simulatus aeger? Quot ille potentior amicus, qui uos non in amicitiam sed in apparatu habet?

How many that old woman, wearied with carrying out heirs to burial? How many that feigned invalid, to irritate the avarice of the legacy-hunters? How many that more-powerful friend, who holds you not in friendship but in his apparatus, his entourage?

Dispunge, inquam, et recense uitae tuae dies: uidebis paucos admodum et reiculos apud te resedisse. 8 Assecutus ille quos optauerat fasces cupit ponere et subinde dicit: "Quando hic annus praeteribit?" Facit ille ludos, quorum sortem sibi obtingere magno aestimauit: "Quando", inquit, "istos effugiam?" Diripitur ille toto foro patronus et magno concursu omnia ultra quam audiri potest complet: "Quando", inquit, "res proferentur?" Praecipitat quisque uitam suam et futuri desiderio laborat, praesentium taedio. 9 At ille qui nullum non tempus in usus suos confert, qui omnes dies tamquam ultimum ordinat, nec optat crastinum nec timet.

Strike off, I say, and recount the days of your life: you will see that very few and very paltry have remained with you. 8 He who has attained the fasces he had desired longs to lay them down and again and again says, "When will this year pass by?" He stages the games, the lot of which he had esteemed it a great thing to fall to him: "When," he says, "shall I escape these?" The patron is torn to pieces throughout the whole forum and, with a great concourse, he crams everything beyond what can be heard: "When," he says, "will the cases be put off?" Each one precipitates his life and toils with desire for the future, with weariness of the present. 9 But he who brings every single time into his own uses, who arranges every day as though the last, neither longs for tomorrow nor fears it.

Quid enim est quod iam ulla hora nouae uoluptatis possit afferre? Omnia nota, omnia ad satietatem percepta sunt. De cetero fors fortuna ut uolet ordinet: uita iam in tuto est.

What, indeed, is there that any hour could now bring of new pleasure? All things are known, all things have been perceived to satiety. For the rest, Fortune may arrange as she will: life is now secure.

Huic adici potest, detrahi nihil, et adici sic quemadmodum saturo iam ac pleno aliquid cibi: quod nec desiderat [et] capit. 10 Non est itaque quod quemquam propter canos aut rugas putes diu uixisse: non ille diu uixit, sed diu fuit. Quid enim, si illum multum putes nauigasse quem saeua tempestas a portu exceptum huc et illuc tulit ac uicibus uentorum ex diuerso furentium per eadem spatia in orbem egit?

To this something can be added, nothing taken away, and added in the same way as some food to one already sated and full: which he neither desires [and] accepts. 10 Therefore there is no reason why you should think anyone to have lived long because of gray hairs or wrinkles: he did not live long, but was long. For what then, would you think that man to have sailed much, whom a savage tempest, having caught him from the harbor, carried hither and thither, and by the turns of winds raging from opposite quarters drove in a circle through the same stretches?

Non ille multum nauigauit, sed multum iactatus est.

He did not navigate much, but he was much tossed about.

VIII.1 Mirari soleo cum uideo aliquos tempus petentes et eos qui rogantur facillimos; illud uterque spectat propter quod tempus petitum est, ipsum quidem neuter: quasi nihil petitur, quasi nihil datur. Re omnium pretiosissima luditur; fallit autem illos, quia res incorporalis est, quia sub oculos non uenit ideoque uilissima aestimatur, immo paene nullum eius pretium est.

8.1 I am wont to marvel when I see some people petitioning for time and those who are petitioned the most easy-going; each regards that on account of which time was sought, but neither the thing itself: as though nothing is being asked, as though nothing is being given. One trifles with the most precious thing of all; and it deceives them, because it is an incorporeal thing, because it does not come under the eyes and therefore is esteemed the most cheap—indeed, its price is almost nothing.

2 Annua, congiaria homines carissime accipiunt et illis aut laborem aut operam aut diligentiam suam locant: nemo aestimat tempus; utuntur illo laxius quasi gratuito. At eosdem aegros uide, si mortis periculum propius admotum est, medicorum genua tangentes, si metuunt capitale supplicium, omnia sua, ut uiuant, paratos impendere! Tanta in illis discordia affectuum est!

2 Men most dearly receive annual distributions and congiaries, and for them they hire out either their toil or their service or their diligence: no one esteems time; they use it more laxly, as if it were gratis. But see these same men, when sick, if the danger of death has been brought nearer, touching the knees of the physicians; if they fear capital punishment, ready to expend all their goods in order that they may live! So great is the discord of their passions!

3 Quodsi posset quem-admodum praeteritorum annorum cuiusque numerus proponi, sic futurorum, quomodo illi qui paucos uiderent superesse trepidarent, quomodo illis parcerent! Atqui facile est quamuis exiguum dispensare quod certum est; id debet seruari diligentius quod nescias quando deficiat. 4 Nec est tamen quod putes illos ignorare quam cara res sit: dicere solent eis quos ualdissime diligunt paratos se partem annorum suorum dare: dant nec intellegunt: dant autem ita ut sine illorum incremento sibi detrahant.

3 But if it were possible that, just as the number of each person’s past years is set forth, so also the number of future years, how those who saw few remaining would tremble, how they would spare them! And yet it is easy to dispense, however scant, what is certain; that ought to be kept more diligently which you do not know when it will fail. 4 Nor, however, is there reason to think that they are ignorant how dear a thing it is: they are accustomed to say to those whom they most strongly love that they are ready to give a part of their years: they give and do not understand; they give, moreover, in such a way that, without any increment to those others, they subtract from themselves.

Sed hoc ipsum an detrahant nesciunt; ideo tolerabilis est illis iactura detrimenti latentis. 5 Nemo restituet annos, nemo iterum te tibi reddet. Ibit qua coepit aetas nec cursum suum aut reuocabit aut supprimet; nihil tumultuabitur, nihil admonebit uelocitatis suae: tacita labetur.

But this very thing—whether they are detracting—they do not know; therefore the loss, the detriment being hidden, is tolerable to them. 5 No one will restore the years, no one will give you back to yourself again. Time will go on by the path it has begun, and it will neither call back nor suppress its course; it will raise no tumult, it will give no reminder of its own speed: silently it will glide.

Non illa se regis imperio, non fauore populi longius proferet: sicut missa est a primo die, curret, nusquam deuertetur, nusquam remorabitur. Quid fiet? Tu occupatus es, uita festinat; mors interim aderit, cui uelis nolis uacandum est.

Not by the king’s command, not by the people’s favor will it extend itself any farther: as it was sent from the first day, it will run, it will turn aside nowhere, it will linger nowhere. What will come to pass? You are occupied; life hastens on; in the meantime death will be at hand, for which, whether you wish it or not, you must be free.

IX.1 Potestne quicquam stultius esse quam quorundam sensus, hominum eorum dico qui prudentiam iactant? Operosius occupati sunt. Vt melius possint uiuere, impendio uitae uitam instruunt.

9.1 Can anything be more foolish than the sentiments of certain people—I speak of those men who vaunt prudence? They are more laboriously occupied. So that they may be able to live better, at the expense of life they instruct life.

Cogitationes suas in longum ordinant; maxima porro uitae iactura dilatio est: illa primum quemque extrahit diem, illa eripit praesentia dum ulteriora promittit. Maximum uiuendi impedimentum est exspectatio, quae pendet ex crastino, perdit hodiernum. Quod in manu fortunae positum est disponis, quod in tua, dimittis.

They order their cogitations into the long future; and, what is more, the greatest loss of life is delay: it first draws out each day, it snatches away the present while it promises further things. The greatest impediment to living is expectation, which hangs upon tomorrow, and loses today. What is placed in the hand of Fortune you arrange; what is in your own, you dismiss.

Quo spectas? Quo te extendis? Omnia quae uentura sunt in incerto iacent: protinus uiue.

Whither do you gaze? Whither do you extend yourself? All things that are to come lie in uncertainty: live forthwith.

2 Clamat ecce maximus uates et uelut diuino horrore instinctus salutare carmen canit:

2 Behold, the greatest prophet cries out, and as if instigated by divine horror, he sings a salutary song:

Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aeui
Prima fugit.

The best days of the age for miserable mortals
are the first to flee.

"Quid cunctaris?", inquit, "Quid cessas? Nisi occupas, fugit." Et cum occupaueris, tamen fugiet: itaque cum celeritate temporis utendi uelocitate certandum est et uelut ex torrenti rapido nec semper ituro cito hauriendum. 3 Hoc quoque pulcherrime ad exprobrandam infinitam cogitationem quod non optimam quamque aetatem sed diem dicit.

"Why do you delay?", he says, "Why do you idle? Unless you seize it, it flees." And when you have seized it, nevertheless it will flee: therefore with the swiftness of time we must contend by speed in using it, and, as from a rapid torrent not always going to flow, we must draw quickly. 3 This too, most beautifully, for reproaching boundless cogitation, that he says not "the best age" but "day."

Quid securus et in tanta temporum fuga lentus menses tibi et annos in longam seriem, utcumque auiditati tuae uisum est, exporrigis? De die tecum loquitur et de hoc ipso fugiente. 4 Num dubium est ergo quin prima quaeque optima dies fugiat mortalibus miseris, id est occupatis?

Why, carefree and, amid so great a flight of time, slow, do you stretch out for yourself months and years into a long series, as it has seemed to your avidity? He speaks with you about the day, and about this very one as it flees. 4 Is it in doubt, then, that each first, best day flees for wretched mortals—that is, for the occupied?

Quorum puerilis adhuc animos senectus opprimit, ad quam imparati inermesque perueniunt; nihil enim prouisum est: subito in illam necopinantes inciderunt, accedere eam cotidie non sentiebant. 5 Quemadmodum aut sermo aut lectio aut aliqua intentior cogitatio iter facientis decipit et peruenisse ante sciunt quam appropinquasse, sic hoc iter uitae assiduum et citatissimum quod uigilantes dormientesque eodem gradu facimus occupatis non apparet nisi in fine.

Whose minds, still puerile, old age (senescence) overwhelms, to which they come unprepared and unarmed; for nothing has been provided: suddenly, unexpecting, they have fallen into it, they were not feeling that it was drawing near day by day. 5 Just as either conversation or reading or some more intent cogitation deceives one making a journey, and they know that they have arrived before they knew that they had approached, so this assiduous and very swift journey of life, which we make with the same step both waking and sleeping, does not appear to the preoccupied except at the end.

X.1 Quod proposui si in partes uelim et argumenta diducere, multa mihi occurrent per quae probem breuissimam esse occupatorum uitam. Solebat dicere Fabianus, non ex his cathedrariis philosophis, sed ex ueris et antiquis, "contra affectus impetu, non subtilitate pugnandum, nec minutis uulneribus sed incursu auertendam aciem". Non probabat cauillationes: "enim contundi debere, non uellicari." Tamen, ut illis error exprobretur suus, docendi non tantum deplorandi sunt. 2 In tria tempora uita diuiditur: quod fuit, quod est, quod futurum est.

10.1 What I have proposed, if I should wish to draw it out into parts and arguments, many things will occur to me through which I may prove that the life of the occupied is most brief. Fabianus used to say—no cathedra-keeping philosophers of the schools, but of the true and ancient sort—"against the affections one must fight with onrush, not with subtlety, and the battle-line is to be turned not by minute wounds but by a charge." He did not approve cavillations: "for they ought to be crushed, not tweaked." Nevertheless, in order that their own error may be cast in their teeth, they must be taught, not only bewailed. 2 Life is divided into three times: what was, what is, what will be.

Ex his quod agimus breue est, quod acturi sumus dubium, quod egimus certum. Hoc est enim in quod fortuna ius perdidit, quod in nullius arbitrium reduci potest. 3 Hoc amittunt occupati; nec enim illis uacat praeterita respicere, et si uacet iniucunda est paenitendae rei recordatio.

Of these, what we are doing is brief, what we are going to do is doubtful, what we have done is certain. For this is that in which Fortune has lost her right, which can be brought back under no one’s arbitration. 3 This the busy lose; for they have no leisure to look back upon the past, and if they do have leisure, the recollection of a thing to be repented is unpleasant.

Inuiti itaque ad tempora male exacta animum reuocant nec audent ea retemptare quorum uitia, etiam quae aliquo praesentis uoluptatis lenocinio surripiebantur, retractando patescunt. Nemo, nisi quoi omnia acta sunt sub censura sua, quae numquam fallitur, libenter se in praeteritum retorquet: 4 ille qui multa ambitiose concupiit superbe contempsit, impotenter uicit insidiose decepit, auare rapuit prodige effudit, necesse est memoriam suam timeat. Atqui haec est pars temporis nostri sacra ac dedicata, omnis humanos casus supergressa, extra regnum fortunae subducta, quam non inopia, non metus, non morborum incursus exagitet; haec nec turbari nec eripi potest; perpetua eius et intrepida possessio est.

Unwilling, therefore, they call their mind back to ill-spent times and do not dare to re-attempt those things whose faults, even those which were being filched away by some enticement of present pleasure, come to light upon re-examination. No one, unless for whom all things have been done under his own censure, which never deceives, gladly twists himself back into the past: 4 he who has coveted many things ambitiously, has despised haughtily, has conquered without self-mastery, has deceived insidiously, has seized greedily, has poured out prodigally, must needs fear his memory. And yet this is the part of our time sacred and dedicated, having overpassed all human chances, withdrawn from the kingdom of Fortune, which neither want, nor fear, nor the incursion of diseases harasses; this part can be neither troubled nor snatched away; its possession is perpetual and unshaken.

Singuli tantum dies, et hi per momenta, praesentes sunt; at praeteriti temporis omnes, cum jusseritis, aderunt, ad arbitrium tuum inspici se ac detineri patientur, quod facere occupatis non uacat. 5 Securae et quietae mentis est in omnes uitae suae partes discurrere; occupatorum animi, uelut sub iugo sint, flectere se ac respicere non possunt. Abit igitur uita eorum in profundum; et ut nihil prodest, licet quantumlibet ingeras, si non subest quod excipiat ac seruet, sic nihil refert quantum temporis detur, si non est ubi subsidat: per quassos foratosque animos transmittitur.

Only individual days, and these by instants, are present; but all of past time, when you bid, will be at hand, will suffer themselves to be inspected and detained at your discretion, which it is not the leisure of the occupied to do. 5 It belongs to a secure and quiet mind to run through all the parts of its life; the minds of the busy, as if they were under a yoke, cannot bend themselves and look back. Their life, therefore, goes away into the deep; and just as it profits nothing, however much you pour in, if there is not beneath something to receive and preserve it, so it makes no difference how much time is given, if there is nowhere for it to settle: it is transmitted through minds shaken and bored-through.

6 Praesens tempus breuissimum est, adeo quidem ut quibusdam nullum uideatur; in cursu enim semper est, fluit et praecipitatur; ante desinit esse quam uenit, nec magis moram patitur quam mundus aut sidera, quorum irrequieta semper agitatio numquam in eodem uestigio manet. Solum igitur ad occupatos praesens pertinet tempus, quod tam breue est ut arripi non possit, et id ipsum illis districtis in multa subducitur.

6 The present time is most brief, indeed to such a degree that to some it seems none at all; for it is always in course, it flows and is precipitated; it ceases to be before it comes, nor does it admit of delay any more than the world or the stars, whose ever-unquiet agitation never remains in the same track. Therefore the present time pertains only to the busy, which is so brief that it cannot be seized, and this very thing is subtracted from them, distracted as they are into many things.

XI.1 Denique uis scire quam non diu uiuant? Vide quam cupiant diu uiuere. Decrepiti senes paucorum annorum accessionem uotis mendicant: minores natu se ipsos esse fingunt; mendacio sibi blandiuntur et tam libenter se fallunt quam si una fata decipiant.

11.1 Finally, do you want to know how short a time they live? See how greatly they desire to live long. Decrepit old men, with vows, beg for an accession of a few years: they pretend themselves to be younger in years; they flatter themselves with a lie, and as willingly do they deceive themselves as if at the same time they were deceiving the fates.

Iam uero cum illos aliqua imbecillitas mortalitatis admonuit, quemadmodum pauentes moriuntur, non tamquam exeant de uita sed tamquam extrahantur. Stultos se fuisse ut non uixerint clamitant et, si modo euaserint ex illa ualetudine, in otio uicturos; tunc quam frustra parauerint quibus non fruerentur, quam in cassum omnis ceciderit labor cogitant. 2 At quibus uita procul ab omni negotio agitur, quidni spatiosa sit?

Now indeed, when some imbecility reminds them of their mortality, see how, panic-stricken, they die, not as though they were going out from life but as though they were being dragged out. They keep clamoring that they have been fools for not having lived, and that, if only they escape from that illness, they will live in leisure; then they consider how fruitlessly they have prepared things which they would not enjoy, how all labor has fallen to no purpose. 2 But for those whose life is conducted far from every business, why should it not be spacious?

Nihil ex illa delegatur, nihil alio atque alio spargitur, nihil inde fortunae traditur, nihil neglegentia interit, nihil largitione detrahitur, nihil superuacuum est: tota, ut ita dicam, in reditu est. Quantulacumque itaque abunde sufficit, et ideo, quandoque ultimus dies uenerit, non cunctabitur sapiens ire ad mortem certo gradu.

Nothing from it is delegated, nothing is scattered this way and that, nothing from it is handed over to Fortune, nothing perishes through negligence, nothing is deducted by largess, nothing is superfluous: the whole, so to speak, is in return. However small it is, therefore, it suffices abundantly, and so, whenever the ultimate day comes, the wise man will not hesitate to go to death with a sure step.

XII.1 Quaeris fortasse quos occupatos uocem? Non est quod me solos putes dicere quos a basilica immissi demum canes eiciunt, quos aut in sua uides turba speciosius elidi aut in aliena contemptius, quos officia domibus suis euocant ut alienis foribus illidant, [aut] hasta praetoris infami lucro et quandoque suppuraturo exercet.

12.1 You perhaps ask whom I call “preoccupied.” There is no reason for you to think that I mean only those whom, once at last admitted into the basilica, dogs drive out; whom you see being crushed more showily in their own crowd, or more contemptibly in another’s; whom duties call out from their own homes so that they slam upon others’ thresholds; [or] those whom the praetor’s spear keeps busy with infamous profit that will someday fester.

2 Quorundam otium occupatum est: in uilla aut in lecto suo, in media solitudine, quamuis ab omnibus recesserint, sibi ipsi molesti sunt: quorum non otiosa uita dicenda est sed desidiosa occupatio. Illum tu otiosum uocas qui Corinthia, paucorum furore pretiosa, anxia subtilitate concinnat et maiorem dierum partem in aeruginosis lamellis consumit? qui in ceromate (nam, pro facinus!

2 The leisure of certain people is busy: in their villa or on their own couch, in the midst of solitude, although they have withdrawn from everyone, they are troublesome to themselves: whose life is not to be called leisured but a slothful occupation. Do you call that man at leisure who, with anxious subtlety, pieces together Corinthian bronzes, made precious by the frenzy of a few, and consumes the greater part of his days on aeruginous little plates? who in the ceroma (for, good heavens!

ne Romanis quidem uitiis laboramus) spectator puerorum rixantium sedet? qui iumentorum suorum greges in aetatum et colorum paria diducit ? qui athletas nouissimos pascit? 3 Quid?

not even do we labor under Roman vices) sits as a spectator of boys brawling? who divides the herds of his beasts of burden into pairs of ages and colors ? who fattens up the latest athletes? 3 What?

Illos otiosos uocas quibus apud tonsorem multae horae transmittuntur, dum decerpitur si quid proxima nocte succreuit, dum de singulis capillis in consilium itur, dum aut disiecta coma restituitur aut deficiens hinc atque illinc in frontem compellitur? Quomodo irascuntur, si tonsor paulo neglegentior fuit, tamquam uirum tonderet! Quomodo excandescunt si quid ex iuba sua decisum est, si quid extra ordinem iacuit, nisi omnia in anulos suos reciderunt!

Do you call those men idle, for whom many hours are passed at the barber’s, while whatever grew during the previous night is plucked away, while a council is convened over individual hairs, while either the disjected hair is restored or what is failing here and there is compelled forward into the forehead? How they grow angry, if the barber has been a little negligent, as though he were shearing a man! How they flare up if anything has been cut off from their mane, if anything lay out of order, unless everything has fallen back into its own little rings!

Quis est istorum qui non malit rem publicam turbari quam comam suam? qui non sollicitior sit de capitis sui decore quam de salute? qui non comptior esse malit quam honestior?

Who of those is there who would not prefer the commonwealth to be thrown into turmoil rather than his own hair? who is not more solicitous about the adornment of his head than about his safety? who would not prefer to be more well-groomed than more honorable?

Hos tu otiosos uocas inter pectinem speculumque occupatos? 4 Quid illi qui in componendis, audiendis, discendis canticis operati sunt, dum uocem, cuius rectum cursum natura et optimum et simplicissimum fecit, in flexus modulationis inertissimae torquent, quorum digiti aliquod intra se carmen metientes semper sonant, quorum, cum ad res serias, etiam saepe tristes adhibiti sunt, exauditur tacita modulatio? Non habent isti otium, sed iners negotium.

Do you call these men idle, occupied between comb and mirror? 4 What of those who have been employed in composing, hearing, and learning songs, while they twist the voice—whose straight course nature has made both the best and the most simple—into the bends of a most inert modulation; whose fingers, measuring some song to themselves, are always sounding; of whom, when they have been brought in for serious matters, often even sad ones, a silent modulation is heard? These do not have leisure, but an inert business.

5 Conuiuia me hercules horum non posuerim inter uacantia tempora, cum uideam quam solliciti argentum ordinent, quam diligenter exoletorum suorum tunicas succingant, quam suspensi sint quomodo aper a coco exeat, qua celeritate signo dato glabri ad ministeria discurrant, quanta arte scindantur aues in frusta non enormia, quam curiose infelices pueruli ebriorum sputa detergeant: ex his elegantiae lautitiaeque fama captatur et usque eo in omnes uitae secessus mala sua illos sequuntur, ut nec bibant sine ambitione nec edant. 6 Ne illos quidem inter otiosos numeraueris qui sella se et lectica huc et illuc ferunt et ad gestationum suarum, quasi deserere illas non liceat, horas occurrunt, quos quando lauari debeant, quando natare, quando cenare alius admonet: [et] usque eo nimio delicati animi languore soluuntur, ut per se scire non possint an esuriant. 7 Audio quendam ex delicatis (si modo deliciae uocandae sunt uitam et consuetudinem humanam dediscere), cum ex balneo inter manus elatus et in sella positus esset, dixisse interrogando: "Iam sedeo?" Hunc tu ignorantem an sedeat putas scire an uiuat, an uideat, an otiosus sit?

5 By Hercules, I would not place the banquets of these men among vacant times, since I see how anxiously they arrange the silver, how carefully they gird up the tunics of their catamites, how on edge they are about how the boar is to come forth from the cook, with what speed, the signal being given, the smooth youths run about to their ministrations, with what art birds are carved into pieces not enormous, how meticulously the unlucky little boys wipe away the spittle of the drunk: from these things a reputation for elegance and luxury is hunted after, and to such a point do their evils follow them into all the recesses of life that they neither drink without ambition nor eat. 6 Do not even reckon among the idle those who carry themselves here and there in chair and litter and run to meet the hours of their carriage-rides, as if it were not permitted to forsake them, those whom another reminds when they ought to bathe, when to swim, when to dine: [and] they are relaxed to such a point by the excessive languor of a delicate spirit that they cannot by themselves know whether they are hungry. 7 I hear that a certain one of the pampered (if indeed “delights” ought to be the name for unlearning life and human custom), when he had been carried out of the bath between hands and set in a chair, said by asking: “Am I already sitting?” Do you think that a man who is ignorant whether he is sitting knows whether he lives, whether he sees, whether he is at leisure?

Non facile dixerim utrum magis miserear, si hoc ignorauit an si ignorare se finxit. 8 Multarum quidem rerum obliuionem sentiunt, sed multarum et imitantur; quaedam uitia illos quasi felicitatis argumenta delectant; nimis humilis et contempti hominis uidetur scire quid facias: i nunc et mimos multa mentiri ad exprobrandam luxuriam puta. Plura me hercules praetereunt quam fingunt et tanta incredibilium uitiorum copia ingenioso in hoc unum saeculo processit, ut iam mimorum arguere possimus neglegentiam.

I would not easily say whether I should pity more, if he was ignorant of this, or if he pretended to be ignorant. 8 They indeed perceive the oblivion of many things, but they also imitate many; certain vices delight them as though proofs of felicity; to know what you are doing seems the mark of a man too humble and despised: go now and suppose that the mimes tell many lies to upbraid luxury. By Hercules, more things escape them than they feign, and so great an abundance of unbelievable vices has advanced in this one age, ingenious in this one respect, that now we can arraign the mimes for negligence.

Esse aliquem qui usque eo deliciis interierit ut an sedeat alteri credat! 9 Non est ergo hic otiosus, aliud illi nomen imponas; aeger est, immo mortuus est; ille otiosus est cui otii sui et sensus est. Hic uero semiuiuus, cui ad intellegendos corporis sui habitus indice opus est, quomodo potest hic ullius temporis dominus esse?

That there should be someone who has so perished in luxuries that he trusts another to tell him whether he is sitting! 9 He therefore is not a man at leisure; put another name upon him: he is sick—nay, he is dead; he is at leisure who has also a sense of his leisure. But this one, half-alive, who needs a guide to understand the postures of his own body—how can this man be master of any time?

XIII 1 Persequi singulos longum est quorum aut latrunculi aut pila aut excoquendi in sole corporis cura consumpsere uitam. Non sunt otiosi quorum uoluptates multum negotii habent. Nam de illis nemo dubitabit quin operose nihil agant, qui litterarum inutilium studiis detinentur, quae iam apud Romanos quoque magna manus est.

13 1 It would be long to pursue individually those whose life either brigands, or the ball, or the care of excocting the body in the sun, have consumed. They are not at leisure whose pleasures have much business. For as to those, no one will doubt that they laboriously do nothing, who are detained by the studies of useless letters, of which already among the Romans too there is a great faction.

2 Graecorum iste morbus fuit quaerere quem numerum Ulixes remigum habuisset, prior scripta esset Ilias an Odyssia, praeterea an eiusdem esset auctoris, alia deinceps huius notae, quae siue contineas nihil tacitam conscientiam iuuant, siue proferas non doctior uidearis sed molestior. 3 Ecce Romanos quoque inuasit inane studium superuacua discendi; his diebus audiui quendam referentem quae primus quisque ex Romanis ducibus fecisset: primus nauali proelio Duilius uicit, primus Curius Dentatus in triumpho duxit elephantos. Etiamnunc ista, etsi ad ueram gloriam non tendunt, circa ciuilium tamen operum exempla uersantur; non est profutura talis scientia, est tamen quae nos speciosa rerum uanitate detineat.

2 This was the Greeks’ disease: to ask what number of oarsmen Ulysses had, whether the Iliad was written earlier or the Odyssey, moreover whether they were by the same author, and other things in succession of this stamp—things which, whether you keep them to yourself, help a silent conscience not at all, or, if you bring them forth, make you seem not more learned but more bothersome. 3 Behold, an empty zeal for learning superfluities has invaded the Romans too; these days I heard someone reporting what each of the Roman commanders was the first to have done: Duilius was the first to win in a naval battle, Curius Dentatus the first to lead elephants in a triumph. Even now these items, although they do not tend toward true glory, nonetheless revolve around examples of civil works; such knowledge will not be profitable, yet it is something that detains us with the specious vanity of things.

4 Hoc quoque quaerentibus remittamus quis Romanis primus persuaserit nauem conscendere (Claudius is fuit, Caudex ob hoc ipsum appellatus quia plurium tabularum contextus caudex apud antiquos uocatur, unde publicae tabulae codices dicuntur et naues nunc quoque ex antiqua consuetudine quae commeatus per Tiberim subuehunt codicariae uocantur) ; 5 sane et hoc ad rem pertineat, quod Valerius Coruinus primus Messanam uicit et primus ex familia Valeriorum, urbis captae in se translato nomine, Messana appellatus est paulatimque uulgo permutante litteras Messala dictus: 6 num et hoc cuiquam curare permittes quod primus L. Sulla in circo leones solutos dedit, cum alioquin alligati darentur, ad conficiendos eos missis a rege Boccho iaculatoribus? Et hoc sane remittatur: num et Pompeium primum in circo elephantorum duodeuiginti pugnam edidisse commissis more proelii noxiis hominibus, ad ullam rem bonam pertinet? Princeps ciuitatis et inter antiquos principes (ut fama tradidit) bonitatis eximiae memorabile putauit spectaculi genus nouo more perdere homines.

4 Let us also remit to those who ask this: who first persuaded the Romans to embark upon a ship (it was Claudius, who for this very reason was called Caudex, because among the ancients a joining together of several planks is called a caudex, whence public tablets are called codices, and even now by ancient custom the ships which convey supplies up the Tiber are called codicariae); 5 surely let even this pertain to the matter, that Valerius Corvinus was the first to conquer Messana and, the city being taken, was the first of the family of the Valerii to be called Messana, with the name transferred to himself, and gradually, as the crowd interchanged letters, called Messala: 6 will you really permit anyone to concern himself with this too—that L. Sulla was the first in the circus to present lions unbound, whereas otherwise they were presented bound, with javelin-throwers sent by King Bocchus to dispatch them? And let this too indeed be remitted: does it pertain to any good thing that Pompey was the first in the circus to exhibit a combat of 18 elephants, with condemned men matched after the manner of battle? The foremost man of the state, and among the men of old (as tradition has handed down) of exceptional goodness, thought it memorable, as a kind of spectacle, to destroy men in a new fashion.

Depugnant? Parum est. Lancinantur?

Do they fight it out? Too little. Are they lacerated?

Parum est: ingenti mole animalium exterantur! 7 Satius erat ista in obliuionem ire, ne quis postea potens disceret inuideretque rei minime humanae. O quantum caliginis mentibus nostris obicit magna felicitas!

Too little: they are trampled down by an enormous mass of animals! 7 It were better that these things go into oblivion, lest some potent person later learn of it and envy a thing most inhuman. O how much caliginous gloom great felicity casts upon our minds!

Ille se supra rerum naturam esse tunc credidit, cum tot miserorum hominum cateruas sub alio caelo natis beluis obiceret, cum bellum inter tam disparia animalia committeret, cum in conspectum populi Romani multum sanguinis funderet mox plus ipsum fundere coacturus; at idem postea Alexandrina perfidia deceptus ultimo mancipio transfodiendum se praebuit, tum demum intellecta inani iactatione cognominis sui. 8 Sed, ut illo reuertar unde decessi et in eadem materia ostendam superuacuam quorundam diligentiam, idem narrabat Metellum, uictis in Sicilia Poenis triumphantem, unum omnium Romanorum ante currum centum et uiginti captiuos elephantos duxisse; Sullam ultimum Romanorum protulisse pomerium, quod numquam prouinciali sed Italico agro adquisito proferre moris apud antiquos fuit. Hoc scire magis prodest quam Auentinum montem extra pomerium esse, ut ille affirmabat, propter alteram ex duabus causis, aut quod plebs eo secessisset aut quod Remo auspicante illo loco aues non addixissent, alia deinceps innumerabilia quae aut farta sunt mendaciis aut similia?

He then believed himself to be above the nature of things, when he was exposing whole bands of wretched men to beasts born under another sky, when he was starting war between such disparate animals, when he was pouring out much blood in the sight of the Roman people—soon about to be compelled to pour out more of his own; but the same man afterward, deceived by Alexandrian perfidy, offered himself to be run through by the lowest slave, then at last understanding the empty vaunting of his cognomen. 8 But, to return to that whence I departed and on the same subject to show the superfluous diligence of certain persons, the same man used to relate that Metellus, triumphing when the Carthaginians had been conquered in Sicily, alone of all Romans led before his chariot one hundred and twenty captive elephants; that Sulla, the last of the Romans, extended the pomerium, which among the ancients it was never the custom to extend except when land had been acquired not provincial but Italian. This it is more profitable to know than that the Aventine Hill is outside the pomerium, as he asserted, on account of one of two causes—either because the plebs had seceded there or because, with Remus taking the auspices, the birds did not ratify in that place—and then innumerable other things in turn which are either stuffed with lies or the like?

9 Nam ut concedas omnia eos fide bona dicere, ut ad praestationem scribant, tamen cuius ista errores minuent? cuius cupiditates prement? quem fortiorem, quem iustiorem, quem liberaliorem facient?

9 For even if you concede that they say everything in good faith, that they write with a view to performance, nevertheless whose errors will those things lessen? whose cupidities will they press down? whom will they make braver, more just, more liberal?

Dubitare se interim Fabianus noster aiebat an satius esset nullis studiis admoueri quam his implicari.

In the interim our Fabian used to say that he doubted whether it were better to be engaged in no studies at all than to be entangled in these.

XIV.1 Soli omnium otiosi sunt qui sapientiae uacant, soli uiuunt; nec enim suam tantum aetatem bene tuentur: omne aeuum suo adiciunt; quicquid annorum ante illos actum est, illis adquisitum est. Nisi ingratissimi sumus, illi clarissimi sacrarum opinionum conditores nobis nati sunt, nobis uitam praeparauerunt.

14.1 Only they, of all, are at leisure who have leisure for wisdom; they alone live; for they do not safeguard well only their own lifetime: they add every age to their own; whatever years were spent before them have been acquired for them. Unless we are most ungrateful, those most illustrious founders of sacred opinions were born for us; for us they prepared life.

Ad res pulcherrimas ex tenebris ad lucem erutas alieno labore deducimur; nullo nobis saeculo interdictum est, in omnia admittimur et, si magnitudine animi egredi humanae imbecillitatis angustias libet, multum per quod spatiemur temporis est. 2 Disputare cum Socrate licet, dubitare cum Carneade, cum Epicuro quiescere, hominis naturam cum Stoicis uincere, cum Cynicis excedere. Cum rerum natura in consortium omnis aeui patiatur incedere, quidni ab hoc exiguo et caduco temporis transitu in illa toto nos demus animo quae immensa, quae aeterna sunt, quae cum melioribus communia?

To the most beautiful things, dug out from darkness into light by another’s labor, we are conducted; no age is interdicted to us, we are admitted to all, and, if by magnitude of spirit it pleases us to go forth beyond the straits of human frailty, there is much time through which we may take our range. 2 It is permitted to dispute with Socrates, to doubt with Carneades, to rest with Epicurus, to conquer human nature with the Stoics, to go beyond with the Cynics. Since the nature of things allows us to advance into the consortium of every age, why should we not, from this scant and perishable transit of time, give ourselves with our whole soul to those things which are immense, which are eternal, which are in common with the better?

3 Isti qui per officia discursant, qui se aliosque inquietant, cum bene insanierint, cum omnium limina cotidie perambulauerint nec ullas apertas fores praeterierint, cum per diuersissimas domos meritoriam salutationem circumtulerint, quotum quemque ex tam immensa et uariis cupiditatibus districta urbe poterunt uidere? 4 Quam multi erunt quorum illos aut somnus aut luxuria aut inhumanitas summoueat! Quam multi qui illos, cum diu torserint, simulata festinatione transcurrant!

3 Those who scurry about through official duties, who unsettle themselves and others, when they have gone thoroughly insane, when they have every day perambulated the thresholds of all and have not passed by any open doors, when they have carried around their mercenary salutation through the most diverse houses, how many people, out of so immense a city distracted by various desires, will they be able to see? 4 How many there will be, from whose presence sleep or luxury or inhumanity will ward them off! How many who, after they have long tormented them, will run past with feigned haste!

Quam multi per refertum clientibus atrium prodire uitabunt et per obscuros aedium aditus profugient, quasi non inhumanius sit decipere quam excludere! Quam multi hesterna crapula semisomnes et graues illis miseris suum somnum rumpentibus ut alienum exspectent, uix alleuatis labris insusurratum miliens nomen oscitatione superbissima reddent! 5 Hos in ueris officiis morari putamus, licet dicant, qui Zenonem, qui Pythagoran cotidie et Democritum ceterosque antistites bonarum artium, qui Aristotelen et Theophrastum uolent habere quam familiarissimos.

How many will avoid going forth through an atrium crammed with clients and will flee through the dark entrances of the house, as if it were not more inhuman to deceive than to exclude! How many, half-asleep and heavy from yesterday’s crapulence, while those poor wretches, breaking their own sleep so that they may wait upon another’s, will with scarcely lifted lips return, with the most supercilious yawning, the name whispered a thousand times! 5 We suppose these men to be delayed in true duties, though they say they would wish to have Zeno, Pythagoras every day, and Democritus and the other high priests of the good arts, Aristotle and Theophrastus, as their most intimates.

Nemo horum non uacabit, nemo non uenientem ad se beatiorem, amantiorem sui dimittet, nemo quemquam uacuis a se manibus abire patietur; nocte conueniri, interdiu ab omnibus mortalibus possunt.

None of these will fail to be at leisure; none will send away one coming to him more fortunate and more a lover of himself; no one will allow anyone to depart from him with empty hands; at night they can be met with, in the daytime they can be met by all mortals.

XV.1 Horum te mori nemo coget, omnes docebunt; horum nemo annos tuos conterit, suos tibi contribuit; nullius ex his sermo periculosus erit, nullius amicitia capitalis, nullius sumptuosa obseruatio. Feres ex illis quicquid uoles; per illos non stabit quominus quantum plurimum cupieris haurias. 2 Quae illum felicitas, quam pulchra senectus manet, qui se in horum clientelam contulit!

15.1 Of these, no one will compel you to die; all will instruct you; none of these wears down your years—he contributes his own to you; the discourse of none will be perilous, the amity of none capital, the observance of none sumptuous. You will carry off from them whatever you wish; by their means there will be no hindrance to your drawing as much as you can most desire. 2 What felicity, what fair old age awaits the man who has consigned himself into the clientage of these!

Habebit cum quibus de minimis maximisque rebus deliberet, quos de se cotidie consulat, a quibus audiat uerum sine contumelia, laudetur sine adulatione, ad quorum se similitudinem effingat. 3 Solemus dicere non fuisse in nostra potestate quos sortiremur parentes, forte nobis datos: bonis uero ad suum arbitrium nasci licet. Nobilissimorum ingeniorum familiae sunt: elige in quam adscisci uelis; non in nomen tantum adoptaberis, sed in ipsa bona, quae non erunt sordide nec maligne custodienda: maiora fient quo illa pluribus diuiseris.

He will have those with whom he may deliberate about matters very small and very great, whom he may consult about himself daily, from whom he may hear the truth without contumely, be praised without adulation, to whose similitude he may fashion himself. 3 We are accustomed to say that it was not in our power what parents we might draw by lot, given to us by chance: but to the good, it is permitted to be born by one’s own choice. There are families of the most noble intellects: choose into which you wish to be enrolled; you will be adopted not only into the name, but into the goods themselves, which will not have to be guarded sordidly nor stingily: they will become greater the more you have divided them among more people.

4 Hi tibi dabunt ad aeternitatem iter et te in illum locum ex quo nemo deicitur subleuabunt. Haec una ratio est extendendae mortalitatis, immo in immortalitatem uertendae. Honores, monumenta, quicquid aut decretis ambitio iussit aut operibus exstruxit cito subruitur, nihil non longa demolitur uetustas et mouet; at iis quae consecrauit sapientia nocere non potest; nulla abolebit aetas, nulla deminuet; sequens ac deinde semper ulterior aliquid ad uenerationem conferet, quoniam quidem in uicino uersatur inuidia, simplicius longe posita miramur.

4 These will give to you a road to eternity and will lift you up into that place from which no one is cast down. This is the single method for extending mortality—rather, for turning it into immortality. Honors, monuments, whatever either ambition has ordered by decrees or has built up by works, is quickly undermined; long antiquity demolishes and stirs everything. But the things which wisdom has consecrated cannot be harmed; no age will abolish them, none will diminish them; the next generation, and then ever the further one, will contribute something to veneration, since indeed envy dwells close at hand, we more simply admire what is placed far away.

5 Sapientis ergo multum patet uita; non idem illum qui ceteros terminus cludit; solus generis humani legibus soluitur; omnia illi saecula ut deo seruiunt. Transiit tempus aliquod? hoc recordatione comprendit; instat?

5 Therefore the life of the wise man lies wide open; not the same boundary shuts him in as it does the rest; he alone is exempt from the laws of the human race; all the ages serve him as they do a god. Has some time passed? he grasps it by recollection; is it at hand?

hoc utitur; uenturum est? hoc praecipit. Longam illi uitam facit omnium temporum in unum collatio.

he uses this; will it come? he anticipates this. The collation of all times into one makes a long life for him.

XVI.1 Illorum breuissima ac sollicitissima aetas est qui praeteritorum obliuiscuntur, praesentia neglegunt, de futuro timent: cum ad extrema uenerunt, sero intellegunt miseri tam diu se dum nihil agunt occupatos fuisse. 2 Nec est quod hoc argumento probari putes longam illos agere uitam, quia interdum mortem inuocant: uexat illos imprudentia incertis affectibus et incurrentibus in ipsa quae metuunt; mortem saepe ideo optant quia timent.

16.1 Theirs is the briefest and most anxious lifetime, who forget things past, neglect things present, and fear about the future: when they have come to their last moments, late do the wretched realize that for so long they have been occupied while doing nothing. 2 Nor is there any reason for you to think it proved by this argument that they lead a long life, because at times they call upon death: imprudence vexes them with uncertain impulses and with their rushing into the very things they fear; they often therefore desire death because they are afraid.

3 Illud quoque argumentum non est quod putes diu uiuentium, quod saepe illis longus uidetur dies, quod, dum ueniat condictum tempus cenae, tarde ire horas queruntur; nam si quando illos deseruerunt occupationes, in otio relicti aestuant nec quomodo id disponant ut extrahant sciunt. Itaque ad occupationem aliquam tendunt et quod interiacet omne tempus graue est, tam me hercules quam cum dies muneris gladiatorii edictus est, aut cum alicuius alterius uel spectaculi uel uoluptatis exspectatur constitutum, transilire medios dies uolunt. 4 Omnis illis speratae rei longa dilatio est; at illud tempus quod amant breue est et praeceps breuiusque multo, suo uitio; aliunde enim alio transfugiunt et consistere in una cupiditate non possunt.

3 That too is not an argument for thinking them to live long, that often the day seems long to them, that, while the appointed time of dinner is to come, they complain that the hours go slowly; for if ever their occupations have deserted them, left in leisure they seethe and do not know how to arrange it so as to draw it out. Therefore they reach out toward some occupation, and all the time that lies between is burdensome; yes, by Hercules, just as when the day of a gladiatorial munus has been proclaimed by edict, or when the set day of some other spectacle or pleasure is awaited, they want to leap over the middle days. 4 Any lengthy deferment of a hoped-for thing is long to them; but that time which they love is short and headlong, and much shorter, by their own fault; for they desert from one thing to another and cannot stand fast in a single desire.

Non sunt illis longi dies, sed inuisi; at contra quam exiguae noctes uidentur, quas in complexu scortorum aut uino exigunt! 5 Inde etiam poetarum furor fabulis humanos errores alentium, quibus uisus est Iuppiter uoluptate concubitus delenitus duplicasse noctem; quid aliud est uitia nostra incendere quam auctores illis inscribere deos et dare morbo exemplo diuinitatis excusatam licentiam? Possunt istis non breuissimae uideri noctes quas tam care mercantur?

For them the days are not long, but hateful; but on the contrary how scant the nights seem, which they spend in the embrace of harlots or in wine! 5 From there too comes the furor of the poets, nourishing human errors with fables, in which Jupiter, beguiled by the pleasure of coitus, was seen to have doubled the night; what else is it to inflame our vices than to ascribe to them gods as authors and to give to the disease a license excused by the example of divinity? Can the nights which they purchase at so dear a price seem not most brief to such as these?

Diem noctis exspectatione perdunt, noctem lucis metu.

They waste the day in expectation of the night, the night in fear of the light.

XVII I Ipsae uoluptates eorum trepidae et uariis terroribus inquietae sunt subitque cum maxime exsultantis sollicita cogitatio: "Haec quam diu?" Ab hoc affectu reges suam fleuere potentiam, nec illos magnitudo fortunae suae delectauit, sed uenturus aliquando finis exterruit. 2 Cum per magna camporum spatia porrigeret exercitum nec numerum eius sed mensuram comprenderet Persarum rex insolentissimus, lacrimas profudit, quod intra centum annos nemo ex tanta iuuentute superfuturus esset; at illis admoturus erat fatum ipse qui flebat perditurusque alios in mari alios in terra, alios proelio alios fuga, et intra exiguum tempus consumpturus illos quibus centesimum annum timebat. 3 Quid quod gaudia quoque eorum trepida sunt?

17 1 Their very pleasures are tremulous and disquieted by various terrors, and upon one most especially when he is exulting there steals an anxious cogitation: "How long will these things last?" From this affect even kings wept over their own power, nor did the magnitude of their fortune delight them, but the end that would at some time come terrified them. 2 When the most insolent king of the Persians was stretching out his army across great expanses of plains and grasped not its number but its measure, he shed tears, because within one hundred years no one from so great a body of youth would be surviving; yet he himself, who wept, was about to bring fate to them, and was going to destroy some on the sea, others on land, some in battle, others in flight, and within a short time to consume those for whom he feared the hundredth year. 3 What then, that their joys also are tremulous?

Non enim solidis causis innituntur, sed eadem qua oriuntur uanitate turbantur. Qualia autem putas esse tempora etiam ipsorum confessione misera, cum haec quoque quibus se attollunt et super hominem efferunt parum sincera sint? 4 Maxima quaeque bona sollicita sunt nec ulli fortunae minus bene quam optimae creditur; alia felicitate ad tuendam felicitatem opus est et pro ipsis quae successere uotis uota facienda sunt.

For they do not lean upon solid causes, but are disturbed by the same vanity by which they arise. And what sort of times do you think they have—wretched even by their own confession—when even those things by which they raise themselves and carry themselves above man are scarcely sincere? 4 The greatest goods are all solicitous, and no fortune is trusted less well than the best; another felicity is needed to guard felicity, and vows must be made for the very things that have come in answer to prayers.

Omne enim quod fortuito obuenit instabile est: quod altius surrexerit, opportunius est in occasum. Neminem porro casura delectant; miserrimam ergo necesse est, non tantum breuissimam uitam esse eorum qui magno parant labore quod maiore possideant. 5 Operose assequuntur quae uolunt, anxii tenent quae assecuti sunt; nulla interim numquam amplius redituri temporis ratio est: nouae occupationes ueteribus substituuntur, spes spem excitat, ambitionem ambitio.

For whatever comes fortuitously is unstable: that which has risen higher is more apt for a downfall. Moreover, things about to fall delight no one; therefore it must be that the life of those who prepare with great labor that they may possess with greater is most miserable—and not only most brief. 5 They laboriously attain what they want; anxious, they hold what they have attained; meanwhile there is no reckoning of time that will never return again: new occupations are substituted for the old, hope excites hope, ambition ambition.

Miseriarum non finis quaeritur, sed materia mutatur. Nostri nos honores torserunt? plus temporis alieni auferunt; candidati laborare desiimus?

It is not an end of miseries that is sought, but the material is changed. Have our honors tormented us? they carry off more of others’ time; have we, as candidates, ceased to labor?

suffragatores incipimus; accusandi deposuimus molestiam? iudicandi nanciscimur; iudex desiit esse? quaesitor est; alienorum bonorum mercennaria procuratione consenuit?

we begin as suffragators (canvassers); have we laid down the annoyance of accusing? we come into that of judging; has he ceased to be a judge? he is an inquisitor; has he grown old in the salaried procuratorship of other people’s estates?

suis opibus distinetur. 6 Marium caliga dimisit? consulatus exercet; Quintius dictaturam properat peruadere?

he is distracted by his own resources. 6 Has the soldier’s boot dismissed Marius? he exercises the consulship; does Quintius hasten to seize the dictatorship?

ab aratro reuocabitur. Ibit in Poenos nondum tantae maturus rei Scipio; uictor Hannibalis uictor Antiochi, sui consulatus decus fraterni sponsor, ni per ipsum mora esset, cum Ioue reponeretur: ciuiles seruatorem agitabunt seditiones et post fastiditos a iuuene diis aequos honores iam senem contumacis exilii delectabit ambitio. Numquam derunt uel felices uel miserae sollicitudinis causae; per occupationes uita trudetur; otium numquam agetur, semper optabitur.

he will be called back from the plow. Scipio, not yet ripe for so great a matter, will go against the Punics; victor over Hannibal, victor over Antiochus, the ornament of his own consulship, the guarantor of his brother’s, if there were not a postponement due to himself, he would be placed with Jove: civil seditions will toss the savior, and after god-equal honors, disdained by him as a youth, now as an old man the ambition of contumacious exile will delight him. There will never be lacking causes of solicitude, whether happy or wretched; through occupations life will be shoved along; leisure will never be lived, it will always be longed for.

XVIII.1 Excerpe itaque te uulgo, Pauline carissime, et in tranquilliorem portum non pro aetatis spatio iactatus tandem recede. Cogita quot fluctus subieris, quot tempestates partim priuatas sustinueris, partim publicas in te conuerteris; satis iam per laboriosa et inquieta documenta exhibita uirtus est; experire quid in otio faciat.

18.1 Extract yourself therefore from the common crowd, dearest Paulinus, and, having been tossed not in proportion to the span of your age, at last withdraw into a more tranquil harbor. Consider how many waves you have undergone, how many storms you have in part endured in private, in part turned upon yourself from public matters; enough now: virtue has been exhibited through laborious and unquiet demonstrations; make trial what it may do in leisure.

Maior pars aetatis, certe melior rei publicae datast: aliquid temporis tui sume etiam tibi. 2 Nec te ad segnem aut inertem quietem uoco, non ut somno et caris turbae uoluptatibus quicquid est in te indolis uiuidae mergas; non est istud adquiescere: inuenies maiora omnibus adhuc strenue tractatis operibus, quae repositus et securus agites. 3 Tu quidem orbis terrarum rationes administras tam abstinenter quam alienas, tam diligenter quam tuas, tam religiose quam publicas.

The greater part of your life, assuredly the better, has been given to the commonwealth: take some of your time for yourself as well. 2 Nor do I call you to a slothful or inert quiet, not that you should drown whatever there is in you of lively disposition in sleep and in the dear pleasures of the crowd; that is not to find rest: you will find tasks greater than all the works thus far vigorously handled, which you may pursue when withdrawn and secure. 3 Indeed you administer the accounts of the world as abstinently as if they were another’s, as diligently as if they were your own, as religiously as if they were public.

In officio amorem consequeris, in quo odium uitare difficile est; sed tamen, mihi crede, satius est uitae suae rationem quam frumenti publici nosse. 4 Istum animi uigorem rerum maximarum capacissimum a ministerio honorifico quidem sed parum ad beatam uitam apto reuoca, et cogita non id egisse te ab aetate prima omni cultu studiorum liberalium ut tibi multa milia frumenti bene committerentur; maius quiddam et altius de te promiseras. Non derunt et frugalitatis exactae homines et laboriosae operae; tanto aptiora [ex]portandis oneribus tarda iumenta sunt quam nobiles equi, quorum generosam pernicitatem quis umquam graui sarcina pressit?

In office you will obtain love, in which it is difficult to avoid hatred; but yet, believe me, it is better to know the reckoning of one’s own life than of the public grain. 4 Recall that vigor of spirit, most capable of the greatest things, from a ministry indeed honorable but little suited to a blessed life, and consider that you did not pursue from your earliest age, with every cultivation of liberal studies, in order that many thousands of measures of grain might be well entrusted to you; you had promised something greater and higher of yourself. There will be no lack of men of exact frugality and of laborious toil; by so much are slow pack-animals more apt for [ex]porting burdens than noble horses, whose generous swiftness who ever pressed with a heavy load?

Cogita praeterea quantum sollicitudinis sit ad tantam te molem obicere: cum uentre tibi humano negotium est; nec rationem patitur nec aequitate mitigatur nec ulla prece flectitur populus esuriens. Modo modo intra paucos illos dies quibus C. Caesar periit (si quis inferis sensus est) hoc grauissime ferens quod decedebat populo Romano superstite, septem aut octo certe dierum cibaria superesse! Dum ille pontes nauibus iungit et uiribus imperi ludit, aderat ultimum malorum obsessis quoque, alimentorum egestas; exitio paene ac fame constitit et, quae famem sequitur, rerum omnium ruina furiosi et externi et infeliciter superbi regis imitatio.

Consider, moreover, how much anxiety it is to set yourself against so great a mass: you have business with the human belly; the hungry populace admits no reasoning, is not softened by fairness, and is not bent by any prayer. Just now, within those few days in which C. Caesar perished (if there is any sensation among the dead), taking most grievously that he was departing while the Roman people survived, there were certainly provisions left for 7 or 8 days! While that man was joining bridges with ships and playing with the forces of empire, the last of evils was at hand—lack of provisions—even as for those under siege; it came almost to ruin and famine, and, what follows famine, the collapse of all things, through the imitation of a mad, foreign, and unhappily proud king.

6 Quem tunc animum habuerunt illi quibus erat mandata frumenti publici cura, saxa, ferrum, ignes, Gaium excepturi? Summa dissimulatione tantum inter uiscera latentis mali tegebant, cum ratione scilicet: quaedam enim ignorantibus aegris curanda sunt, causa multis moriendi fuit morbum suum nosse.

6 What spirit then did those have, to whom the care of the public grain had been entrusted, who were about to face stones, iron, fires, and Gaius? With the utmost dissimulation they were covering so great an evil lurking in the viscera, and with reason, of course: for certain things must be treated in the sick while they are ignorant, and for many the cause of dying was to know their own disease.

XIX.1 Recipe te ad haec tranquilliora, tutiora, maiora! Simile tu putas esse, utrum cures ut incorruptum et a fraude aduehentium et a neglegentia frumentum transfundatur in horrea, ne concepto umore uitietur et concalescat, ut ad mensuram pondusque respondeat, an ad haec sacra et sublimia accedas sciturus quae materia sit dei, quae uoluptas, quae condicio, quae forma; quis animum tuum casus exspectet; ubi nos a corporibus dimissos natura componat; quid sit quod huius mundi grauissima quaeque in medio sustineat, supra leuia suspendat, in summum ignem ferat, sidera uicibus suis excitet; cetera deinceps ingentibus plena miraculis?

19.1 Retreat yourself to these more tranquil, safer, greater things! Do you think it is similar, whether you take care that the grain be transferred into the granaries uncorrupted and free both from the fraud of the carriers and from negligence, lest, having taken on moisture, it be vitiated and grow warm, so that it answer to measure and weight, or that you approach these sacred and sublime matters to learn what the matter of God is, what his pleasure, what his condition, what his form; what occurrence awaits your mind; where Nature disposes us when we have been dismissed from our bodies; what it is that sustains in the middle each of the heaviest things of this world, suspends the light things above, bears the fiery to the highest, rouses the stars to their proper turns; and, thereafter, the rest, full of vast miracles?

2 Vis tu relicto solo mente ad ista respicere! Nunc, dum calet sanguis, uigentibus ad meliora eundum est. Exspectat te in hoc genere uitae multum bonarum artium, amor uirtutum atque usus, cupiditatum obliuio, uiuendi ac moriendi scientia, alta rerum quies.

2 Do you wish, the soil left behind, to look toward those things by mind alone! Now, while the blood is hot, while we are vigorous, we must go on to better things. There awaits you in this kind of life much of the good arts, love of virtues and their practice, oblivion of cupidities, the science of living and of dying, a lofty repose of things.

XX.1 Omnium quidem occupatorum condicio misera est, eorum tamen miserrima, qui ne suis quidem laborant occupationibus, ad alienum dormiunt somnum, ad alienum ambulant gradum, amare et odisse, res omnium liberrimas, iubentur. Hi si uolent scire quam breuis ipsorum uita sit, cogitent ex quota parte sua sit. 2 Cum uideris itaque praetextam saepe iam sumptam, cum celebre in foro nomen, ne inuideris: ista uitae damno parantur.

20.1 The condition of all the occupied is miserable; yet most miserable is theirs who do not even labor at their own occupations, who sleep another’s sleep, walk to another’s pace; they are commanded to love and to hate—the freest things of all. If they wish to know how brief their own life is, let them consider by what portion it is their own. 2 Therefore, when you have seen the praetexta already often assumed, when a name celebrated in the forum, do not envy: these things are procured at the damage of life.

Vt unus ab illis numeretur annus, omnis annos suos conterent. Quosdam antequam in summum ambitionis eniterentur, inter prima luctantis aetas reliquit; quosdam, cum in consummationem dignitatis per mille indignitates erepsissent, misera subiit cogitatio laborasse ipsos in titulum sepulcri; quorundam ultima senectus, dum in nouas spes ut iuuenta disponitur, inter conatus magnos et improbos inualida defecit. 3 Foedus ille quem in iudicio pro ignotissimis litigatoribus grandem natu et imperitae coronae assensiones captantem spiritus liquit; turpis ille qui uiuendo lassus citius quam laborando inter ipsa officia collapsus est; turpis quem accipiendis immorientem rationibus diu tractus risit heres.

That one year may be counted among those, they wear out all their years. Some, before they could strive up to the summit of ambition, were left by life amid their first wrestlings; some, when they had crept to the consummation of dignity through a thousand indignities, a wretched cogitation came upon them—that they had toiled for the title of a sepulchre; for certain men, ultimate old age, while it is disposed to new hopes as though it were youth, weak, failed amid great and shameless efforts. 3 Foul is he whom, in judgment on behalf of the most unknown litigants, great in years and catching the assents of an unskilled crowd, his breath abandoned; base is he who, wearied by living sooner than by working, collapsed in the very midst of his offices; base is he whom, dying while receiving accounts drawn out at length, the heir laughed at.

4 Praeterire quod mihi occurrit exemplum non possum: Turannius fuit exactae diligentiae senex, qui post annum nonagesimum, cum uacationem procurationis ab C. Caesare ultro accepisset, componi se in lecto et uelut exanimem a circumstante familia plangi iussit. Lugebat domus otium domini senis nec finiuit ante tristitiam quam labor illi suus restitutus est. Adeone iuuat occupatum mori?

4 I cannot pass by the example that occurs to me: there was an old man, Turannius, of most exact diligence, who, after his ninetieth year, when he had, unasked, received from Gaius Caesar an exemption from his procuratorship, ordered himself to be laid out on the bed and, as though lifeless, to be lamented by the family standing around. The house was mourning the leisure of its aged master, nor did it end its sadness before his own labor was restored to him. Does it, then, so much please to die occupied?

5 Idem plerisque animus est; diutius cupiditas illis laboris quam facultas est; cum imbecillitate corporis pugnant, senectutem ipsam nullo alio nomine grauem iudicant quam quod illos seponit. Lex a quinquagesimo anno militem non legit, a sexagesimo senatorem non citat: difficilius homines a se otium impetrant quam a lege. 6 Interim dum rapiuntur et rapiunt, dum alter alterius quietem rumpit, dum mutuo miseri sunt, uita est sine fructu, sine uoluptate, sine ullo profectu animi; nemo in conspicuo mortem habet, nemo non procul spes intendit, quidam uero disponunt etiam illa quae ultra uitam sunt, magnas moles sepulcrorum et operum publicorum dedicationes et ad rogum munera et ambitiosas exsequias.

5 The same spirit is in most; their cupidity for labor lasts longer than their faculty; they fight with the imbecility of the body, they judge old age itself grievous by no other name than because it sets them aside. The law from the fiftieth year does not levy a soldier, from the sixtieth does not cite a senator: men obtain leisure from themselves with more difficulty than from the law. 6 Meanwhile, while they are seized and they seize, while one breaks another’s quiet, while they are mutually miserable, life is without fruit, without pleasure, without any progress of the mind; no one has death in view, no one fails to stretch his hopes far off, indeed some even arrange those things which are beyond life—great masses of sepulchres and dedications of public works and gifts at the pyre and ambitious exequies.

At me hercules istorum funera, tamquam minimum uixerint, ad faces et cereos ducenda sunt.

But, by Hercules, the funerals of those men, as though they had lived the least, must be conducted by torch and wax-candle.