1Quintus Mucius the augur used to tell many stories about Gaius Laelius, his father-in-law, recalling them accurately and with charm, and he did not hesitate in any conversation to call him 'the Wise'. 1I, for my part, had been brought by my father to Scaevola when I assumed the toga of manhood, on the understanding that, as far as I could and was permitted, I should never leave the old man's side. 1And so I committed to memory many things he discussed wisely, and many too that he said briefly and aptly, and I was eager to become more learned through his wisdom. 1When he died, I betook myself to Scaevola the pontiff, whom I venture to call the one man of our state most outstanding both in talent and in justice.
1But of him another time; now I return to the augur. 2Among many other occasions, I remember in particular that he was sitting at home in his semicircular alcove, as was his habit, when I was with him and only a very few close friends, and that he fell upon a topic of conversation which was then on almost everyone's lips. 2For you certainly remember, Atticus, and all the more because you were very intimate with Publius Sulpicius, how great was people's astonishment or complaint when he, as tribune of the plebs, was at deadly enmity with Quintus Pompeius, who was then consul, and with whom he had lived on the closest and most affectionate terms.
3So then Scaevola, having happened upon that very mention, set out for us a conversation on friendship which Laelius had held with him and with his other son-in-law, Gaius Fannius, son of Marcus, a few days after the death of Africanus. 3The substance of that discussion I committed to memory, and I have set it out in this book in my own way; 3for I have brought the speakers themselves on stage, as it were, so that 'I said' and 'he said' should not be inserted too often, and so that the conversation might seem to be held face to face, as though by people present. 4For since you often pressed me to write something on friendship, the subject seemed to me worthy both of everyone's attention and of our close friendship; 4and so it was not unwillingly that, at your request, I set about being of use to many.
4But just as in the Cato Maior, which was written to you on old age, I brought in Cato as an old man discussing it, because no character seemed more fitting to speak of that time of life than his, a man who had been old for a very long time and who in old age itself had flourished beyond all others; 4so, since we had learned from our fathers that the friendship of Gaius Laelius and Publius Scipio was especially memorable, the character of Laelius seemed to me suitable to expound on friendship those very things which Scaevola remembered had been discussed by him. 4Besides, this kind of dialogue, resting on the authority of men of old, and famous men at that, seems somehow to carry more weight: and so, reading my own work, I am sometimes so affected that I think it is Cato speaking, not I.
5But just as then I wrote as an old man to an old man on old age, so in this book I have written as the most devoted of friends to a friend on friendship. 5Then it was Cato who spoke, than whom hardly anyone in those days was older, no one wiser; 5now Laelius, both wise (for so he was held to be) and pre-eminent in the glory of friendship, will speak on friendship. 5I would have you turn your mind away from me for a little and think that Laelius himself is speaking. 5Gaius Fannius and Quintus Mucius come to their father-in-law after the death of Africanus; 5the conversation is begun by them, and Laelius replies; his whole discourse is on friendship, and as you read it you will recognise yourself in it.