1FANNIUS. 1That is so, Laelius; 1for there was never any man better or more illustrious than Africanus. 1But you ought to consider that the eyes of all are turned upon you alone; 1it is you whom they both call and consider wise. 1This title was recently given to Marcus Cato, and we know that in our fathers' time Lucius Acilius was called wise, but each in a somewhat different sense: Acilius because he was thought to be skilled in civil law, Cato because he had experience of many things, and many instances of his wise foresight, firm action or shrewd replies, both in the senate and in the forum, were reported; 1for that reason in his old age he had by now 'the Wise' almost as a surname.
7But you they consider wise in a somewhat different sense, not only by nature and character but also by study and learning, and not as the common people use the word, but as learned men are accustomed to call a man wise, such as we have heard of no one in the rest of Greece (for those who are called the Seven are not counted among the wise by those who examine these matters more precisely), but of one man only at Athens, and he indeed judged wisest of all even by the oracle of Apollo. 7They think this is the wisdom in you, that you regard all that is yours as resting within yourself, and consider the chances of human life inferior to virtue.
7And so they ask me, and I believe they ask Scaevola here too, how you are bearing the death of Africanus, all the more because on the last Nones, when we had come to the gardens of Decimus Brutus the augur to deliberate, as is the custom, you were not present, though you had always been accustomed to attend that day and that duty most scrupulously. 8SCAEVOLA. 8They do indeed ask a great deal, Gaius Laelius, as Fannius has said, but I give the answer I have observed to be true, that you are bearing with moderation the grief you have suffered at the death of one who was both a very great man and your dearest friend; 8that you could not fail to be moved, and that not to be moved would not have been in keeping with your humanity: but as for your not being present in our college on the Nones, I answer that the cause was ill health, not sorrow.
8LAELIUS. 8You are right indeed, Scaevola, and truthful; 8for I ought not to have been drawn away by any trouble of my own from that duty, which I have always performed when I was well, nor do I think it can happen by any chance to a steadfast man that there should be any interruption of duty. 9But you, Fannius, in saying that so much is attributed to me, as much as I neither acknowledge nor claim, act like a friend, but, as it seems to me, you do not judge rightly about Cato. 9For either no one was wise, which indeed I rather believe, or, if anyone was, he was.
9How he bore the death of his son, to pass over everything else! 9I remembered Paulus, I had seen Gallus; 9but their losses were of boys, Cato's of a man mature and proven. 10So beware of putting even that very man whom Apollo, as you say, judged wisest above Cato; 10for the deeds of the one, the words of the other, are praised. 10But concerning myself, to speak now to both of you, take it thus: