Sen. 13.1Saepe audīvī ē maiōribus nātū, quī sē porrō puerōs ā senibus audīsse dīcēbant, mīrārī solitum C. Fabricium quod, cum apud rēgem Pyrrhum lēgātus esset, audīsset ā Thessalō Cīneā esse quendam Athēnīs quī sē sapientem profitērētur, eumque dīcere omnia quae facerēmus ad voluptātem esse referenda.I have often heard from my elders, who said that they in turn had heard it as boys from old men, that Gaius Fabricius used to wonder that, when he was envoy at the court of King Pyrrhus, he had heard from Cineas of Thessaly that there was a man at Athens who professed himself a wise man and who said that everything we did ought to be referred to pleasure. Sen. 13.1Quod ex eō audientīs M'. Curium et Ti. Coruncānium optāre solitōs ut id Samnītibus ipsīque Pyrrhō persuādērētur, quō facilius vincī possent cum sē voluptātibus dedissent.And Manius Curius and Tiberius Coruncanius, hearing this from him, used to wish that the Samnites and Pyrrhus himself might be persuaded of it, so that they might be more easily conquered once they had given themselves up to pleasures.
Sen. 13.1Vīxerat M'. Curius cum P. Deciō, quī quīnquenniō ante eum cōnsulem sē prō rē pūblicā quartō cōnsulātū dēvōverat: nōrat eundem Fabricius, nōrat Coruncānius, quī cum ex suā vītā tum ex eius quem dīcō Decī factō iūdicābant esse profectō aliquid nātūrā pulchrum atque praeclārum, quod suā sponte expeterētur quodque sprētā et contemptā voluptāte optimus quisque sequerētur.Manius Curius had lived with Publius Decius, who five years before Curius was consul had devoted himself for the state in his fourth consulship: Fabricius knew him too, and so did Coruncanius, who judged both from their own lives and from the deed of this Decius of whom I speak that there is surely something by nature fine and glorious, which is sought for its own sake and which all the best men pursue, spurning and despising pleasure. Sen. 13.44Quōrsum igitur tam multa dē voluptāte?Why then so much about pleasure? Sen. 13.44Quia nōn modo vituperātiō nūlla, sed etiam summa laus senectūtis est, quod ea voluptātēs nūllās magnō opere dēsīderat.Because it is not only no reproach, but even the highest praise of old age, that it does not greatly long for any pleasures. Sen. 13.44Caret epulīs exstrūctīsque mēnsīs et frequentibus pōculīs.It goes without banquets and loaded tables and frequent cups.
Sen. 13.44Caret ergō etiam vīnulentia et crūditāte et īnsomniīs.It goes without, then, drunkenness also, and indigestion and sleeplessness. Sen. 13.44Sed sī aliquid dandum est voluptātī, quoniam eius blanditiīs nōn facile obsistimus, dīvīne enim Platō "ēscam malōrum" appellat voluptātem quod eā vidēlicet hominēs capiantur ut piscēs, quamquam immoderātīs epulīs caret senectūs, modicīs tamen convīviīs dēlectārī potest.But if something must be granted to pleasure, since we do not easily resist its allurements — for Plato divinely calls pleasure 'the bait of evils', because men are caught by it, of course, as fish are — although old age goes without immoderate feasts, it can still take delight in modest banquets. Sen. 13.44C. Duellium M. F., quī Poenōs classe prīmus dēvīcerat, redeuntem ā cēnā senem saepe vidēbam puer;Gaius Duilius, son of Marcus, who had been the first to defeat the Carthaginians with a fleet, I often saw as a boy, an old man returning from dinner; Sen. 13.44dēlectābātur cēreō fūnālī et tībīcine, quae sibi nūllō exemplō prīvātus sūmpserat: tantum licentiae dabat glōria.he took delight in a wax torch and a piper, which he had assumed for himself as a private citizen without any precedent: so much licence did glory give.
Sen. 13.45Sed quid ego aliōs?But why do I speak of others? Sen. 13.45Ad mē ipsum iam revertar.I will now return to myself. Sen. 13.45Prīmum habuī semper sodālīs—sodālitātēs autem mē quaestōre cōnstitūtae sunt sacrīs Īdaeīs Magnae Mātris acceptīs—epulābar igitur cum sodālibus, omnīnō modicē, sed erat quīdam fervor aetātis, quā prōgrediente omnia fīunt in diēs mītiōra.First of all, I always had my fellows of a brotherhood — the brotherhoods were established in my quaestorship, when the Idaean rites of the Great Mother were adopted — so I used to feast with my fellows, altogether moderately, but there was a certain fire of youth, and as that advances everything becomes milder day by day. Sen. 13.45Neque enim ipsōrum convīviōrum dēlectātiōnem voluptātibus corporis magis quam coetū amīcōrum et sermōnibus mētiēbar;For I did not measure my delight in those banquets by bodily pleasures more than by the gathering of friends and the conversation; Sen. 13.45bene enim maiōrēs accubitiōnem epulārem amīcōrum, quia vītae coniūnctiōnem habēret, "convīvium" nōmināvērunt, melius quam Graecī, quī hoc idem tum "compōtātiōnem," tum "concēnātiōnem" vocant, ut, quod in eō genere minimum est, id maximē probāre videantur.for our ancestors did well to name the reclining of friends at a feast, because it involved a sharing of life, a 'convivium', better than the Greeks, who call this same thing now a 'drinking together', now a 'dining together', so that they seem to value most what is least important in that sort of thing.