Amic. 10.1LAELIUS.LAELIUS. Amic. 10.1Audīte vērō, optimī virī, ea quae saepissimē inter mē et Scīpiōnem dē amīcitiā disserēbantur.Listen, then, my excellent friends, to the things that were very often discussed between Scipio and me about friendship. Amic. 10.1Quamquam ille quidem nihil difficilius esse dīcēbat quam amīcitiam ūsque ad extrēmum vītae diem permanēre: nam vel ut nōn idem expedīret incidere saepe, vel ut dē rē pūblicā nōn idem sentīrētur;And yet he used to say that nothing was more difficult than for a friendship to last right up to the last day of life: for it often happened either that the same thing was not advantageous to both, or that they did not hold the same views about the state; Amic. 10.1mūtārī etiam mōrēs hominum saepe dīcēbat, aliās adversīs rēbus, aliās aetāte ingravēscente.he said too that men's characters often changed, sometimes through adversity, sometimes as age grew heavier. Amic. 10.1Atque eārum rērum exemplum ex similitūdine capiēbat ineuntis aetātis, quod summī puerōrum amōrēs saepe ūnā cum praetextā togā dēpōnerentur;And he took an illustration of these things from the analogy of early life, in that the warmest loves of boys were often laid aside together with the bordered toga; Amic. 10.34sīn autem ad adulēscentiam perdūxissent, dirimī tamen interdum contentiōne vel uxōriae condiciōnis vel commodī alicuius, quod idem adipīscī uterque nōn posset.but if they had carried them through to youth, they were nevertheless sometimes broken off by rivalry, either over a marriage or over some advantage which both could not obtain at once.
Amic. 10.34Quod sī quī longius in amīcitiā prōvectī essent, tamen saepe labefactārī, sī in honōris contentiōnem incidissent;And if any had advanced further in friendship, still it was often shaken if they fell into competition for office; Amic. 10.34pestem enim nūllam maiōrem esse amīcitiīs quam in plērīsque pecūniae cupiditātem, in optimīs quibusque honōris certāmen et glōriae, ex quō inimīcitiās maximās saepe inter amīcissimōs exstitisse.for there was no greater bane to friendships than, in most men, the desire for money, and in all the best men the contest for office and glory, from which the bitterest enmities had often arisen between the closest friends. Amic. 10.35Magna etiam discidia et plērumque iūsta nāscī, cum aliquid ab amīcīs quod rēctum nōn esset postulārētur, ut aut libīdinis ministrī aut adiūtōrēs essent ad iniūriam, quod quī recūsārent, quamvīs honestē id facerent, iūs tamen amīcitiae dēserere arguerentur ab eīs, quibus obsequī nōllent;Great breaches too, and for the most part justified ones, arose when something that was not right was asked of friends, that they should be either the servants of lust or accomplices in wrongdoing; and those who refused, however honourably they did so, were nevertheless accused of abandoning the law of friendship by those whom they would not oblige; Amic. 10.35illōs autem, quī quidvīs ab amīcō audērent postulāre, postulātiōne ipsā profitērī omnia sē amīcī causā esse factūrōs.while those who dared to ask anything whatever of a friend declared by the very request that they would do anything whatever for a friend's sake.
Amic. 10.35Eōrum querella inveterāta nōn modo familiāritātēs exstinguī solēre, sed odia etiam gignī sempiterna.By their long-standing complaints, he said, not only were intimacies usually extinguished, but everlasting hatreds were even engendered. Amic. 10.35Haec ita multa quasi fāta impendēre amīcitiīs, ut omnia subterfugere nōn modo sapientiae, sed etiam fēlīcitātis dīceret sibi vidērī.So many dangers of this kind, like fates, hung over friendships, that to escape them all seemed to him, he said, to require not only wisdom but also good fortune.