a private
soldier in the Punic war, or as quaestor in the same war, or as consul
in Spain, and four years later when as a military tribune I took part in
the engagement at Thermopylae under the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio;
but yet, as you see, old age has not entirely destroyed my muscles, has
not quite brought me to the ground. The Senate-house does not find all
my vigour gone, nor the rostra, nor my friends, nor my clients, nor
my foreign guests. For I have never given in to that ancient and
much-praised proverb:

Old when young
Is old for long.

For myself, I had rather be an old man a somewhat shorter time than
an old man _before_ my time. Accordingly, no one up to the present has
wished to see me, to whom I have been denied as engaged. But, it may
be said, I have less strength than either of you. Neither have you the
strength of the centurion T. Pontius: is he the more eminent man on that
account? Let there be only a proper husbanding of strength, and let each
man proportion his efforts to his powers. Such an one will assuredly not
be possessed with any great regret for his loss of strength. At Olympia
Milo is said to have stepped into the course carrying a live ox on
his shoulders. Which then of the two would you prefer to have given to
you--bodily strength like that, or intellectual strength like that of
Pythagoras? In fine, enjoy that blessing when you have it; when it is
gone, don't wish it back--unless we are to think that young men should
wish their childhood back, and those somewhat older their youth! The
course of life is fixed, and nature admits of its being run but in one
way, and only once; and to each part of our life there is something
specially seasonable; so that the feebleness of children, as well as
the high spirit of youth, the soberness of maturer years, and the ripe
wisdom of old age--all have a certain natural advantage which should
be secured in its proper season. I think you are informed, Scipio, what
your grandfather's foreign friend Masinissa does to this day, though
ninety years old. When he has once begun a journey on foot he does not
mount his horse at all; when on horseback he never gets off his horse.
By no rain or cold can he be induced to cover his head. His body is
absolutely free from unhealthy humours, and so he still performs all
the duties and functions of a king. Active exercise, therefore, and
temperance can preserve some part of one's former strength even in ol