1I could go through very many delights of country life, but I feel that even what I have said has been rather long. 1But you will forgive me, for I have been carried away by my love of country life, and old age is by nature rather talkative — so that I may not seem to clear it of every fault. 1Well then, it was in this life that Manius Curius, after he had triumphed over the Samnites, over the Sabines, over Pyrrhus, spent the last period of his life; 1and when I gaze at his country house — for it is not far from mine — I cannot sufficiently admire either the self-restraint of the man himself or the discipline of the times.
56When the Samnites had brought a great weight of gold to Curius as he sat by his hearth, they were rejected; 56for he said that to have gold did not seem glorious to him, but to rule those who had gold. 56Could so great a spirit fail to make old age pleasant? 56But I return to the farmers, so as not to stray from my own subject. 56In those days senators, that is, 'old men', lived in the country — if indeed it was while he was ploughing that Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was told that he had been made dictator, by whose order as dictator Gaius Servilius Ahala, master of the horse, caught and killed Spurius Maelius as he aimed at kingship.
56Curius and the other old men used to be summoned from their country houses to the senate, and from this those who summoned them were named 'wayfarers'. 56Was the old age of these men, then, pitiable, when they took delight in tilling the soil? 56In my opinion, indeed, I rather think that none can be happier, and not only for its usefulness, since the cultivation of the fields is beneficial to the whole human race, but also for the delight I have spoken of, and for the plenty and abundance of everything that pertains to the sustenance of men and also to the worship of the gods, so that, since some people long for these things, we may now make our peace with pleasure.
56For the wine cellar, the oil store and the larder of a good and diligent master are always full, and the whole farmhouse is rich, abounding in pork, kid, lamb, poultry, milk, cheese and honey. 56Then the garden the farmers themselves call 'a second flitch'. 56Fowling and hunting, too, in spare hours give all this extra relish. 57Why should I say more of the greenness of meadows or the rows of trees or the beauty of vineyards and olive groves? 57I will cut it short. 57Nothing can be richer in use or more handsome to look at than a well-tilled field, and old age not only does not hinder the enjoyment of it, but even invites and allures us to it.
57For where can that age better warm itself, either by basking in the sun or by the fire, or in turn cool itself more healthily in shade and water? 57Let others, then, keep for themselves their arms, their horses, their spears, their foils and ball, their swimming and running; 58to us old men let them leave, out of their many games, the knucklebones and dice; 58and even that as they please, since old age can be happy without them.