wars with all the spirit of youth when he was far
advanced in life, and by his persistence gradually wearied out Hannibal,
when rioting in all the confidence of youth. How brilliant are those
lines of my friend Ennius on him!

For us, down beaten by the storms of fate,
One man by wise delays restored the State.
Praise or dispraise moved not his constant mood,
True to his purpose, to his country's good!
Down ever-lengthening avenues of fame
Thus shines and shall shine still his glorious name.

Again what vigilance, what profound skill did he show in the capture of
Tarentum! It was indeed in my hearing that he made the famous retort to
Salinator, who had retreated into the citadel after losing the town: "It
was owing to me, Quintus Fabius, that you retook Tarentum." "Quite so,"
he replied with a laugh; "for had you not lost it, I should never have
recovered it." Nor was he less eminent in civil life than in war. In his
second consulship, though his colleague would not move in the matter, he
resisted as long as he could the proposal of the tribune C. Flaminius
to divide the territory of the Picenians and Gauls in free allotments in
defiance of a resolution of the Senate. Again, though he was an augur,
he ventured to say that whatever was done in the interests of the State
was done with the best possible auspices, that any laws proposed against
its interest were proposed against the auspices. I was cognisant of much
that was admirable in that great man, but nothing struck me with greater
astonishment than the way in which he bore the death of his son--a man
of brilliant character and who had been consul. His funeral speech
over him is in wide circulation, and when we read it, is there any
philosopher of whom we do not think meanly? Nor in truth was he only
great in the light of day and in the sight of his fellow-citizens;
he was still more eminent in private and at home. What a wealth of
conversation! What weighty maxims! What a wide acquaintance with ancient
history! What an accurate knowledge of the science of augury! For a
Roman, too, he had a great tincture of letters. He had a tenacious
memory for military history of every sort, whether of Roman or
foreign wars. And I used at that time to enjoy his conversation with a
passionate eagerness, as though I already divined, what actually turned
out to be the case, that when he died there would be no one to teach me
anything.

5. What then is