Sen. 17.1Multās ad rēs perūtilēs Xenophontis librī sunt, quōs legite, quaesō, studiōsē, ut facitis.Xenophon's books are very useful for many purposes, and I beg you to read them diligently, as you are doing. Sen. 17.1Quam cōpiōsē ab eō agrī cultūra laudātur in eō librō, quī est dē tuendā rē familiārī, quī Oeconomicus īnscrībitur!How fully agriculture is praised by him in the book about managing one's estate, which is entitled Oeconomicus! Sen. 17.1Atque ut intellegātis nihil eī tam rēgāle vidērī quam studium agrī colendī, Sōcratēs in eō librō loquitur cum Critobūlō Cyrum minōrem, Persārum rēgem, praestantem ingeniō atque imperī glōriā, cum Lȳsander Lacedaemonius, vir summae virtūtis, vēnisset ad eum Sardīs eīque dōna ā sociīs attulisset, et cēterīs in rēbus commūnem ergā Lȳsandrum atque hūmānum fuisse et eī quendam cōnsaeptum agrum dīligenter cōnsitum ostendisse.And so that you may understand that nothing seemed to him so kingly as the pursuit of farming, Socrates in that book tells Critobulus that Cyrus the Younger, king of the Persians outstanding in talent and in the glory of his rule, when Lysander the Lacedaemonian, a man of the highest merit, had come to him at Sardis and brought him gifts from the allies, both treated Lysander in other respects with affability and kindness and showed him a certain enclosed park, carefully planted.
Sen. 17.1Cum autem admīrārētur Lȳsander et prōcēritātēs arborum et dīrēctōs in quīncūncem ōrdinēs et humum subāctam atque pūram et suāvitātem odōrum quī afflārentur ex flōribus, tum eum dīxisse mīrārī sē nōn modo dīligentiam sed etiam sollertiam eius ā quō essent illa dīmēnsa atque discrīpta;And when Lysander admired both the tallness of the trees and the rows set straight in a quincunx, and the soil well worked and clean, and the sweetness of the scents breathed out from the flowers, he said that he admired not only the diligence but also the skill of the man by whom these things had been measured out and arranged; Sen. 17.1et Cyrum respondisse: "atquī ego ista sum omnia dīmēnsus, meī sunt ōrdinēs, mea discrīptiō;and Cyrus replied: 'But it was I who measured out all these; the rows are mine, the arrangement is mine; Sen. 17.1multae etiam istārum arborum meā manū sunt satae."many of these trees too were planted by my own hand.' Sen. 17.1Tum Lȳsandrum, intuentem purpuram eius et nitōrem corporis ōrnātumque Persicum multō aurō multīsque gemmīs, dīxisse: "rēctē vērō tē, Cyre, beātum ferunt, quoniam virtūtī tuae fortūna coniūncta est!"Then Lysander, looking at his purple robe and the sleekness of his person and his Persian finery with much gold and many jewels, said: 'Rightly indeed do they call you happy, Cyrus, since good fortune is joined to your virtue!' Sen. 17.60Hāc igitur fortūnā fruī licet senibus, nec aetās impedit quō minus et cēterārum rērum et in prīmīs agrī colendī studia teneāmus ūsque ad ultimum tempus senectūtis.This good fortune, then, old men may enjoy, nor does age prevent us from keeping up our pursuits, both in other things and above all in farming, right up to the last moment of old age.
Sen. 17.60M. quidem Valerium Corvīnum accēpimus ad centēsimum annum perdūxisse, cum esset āctā iam aetāte in agrīs eōsque coleret, cuius inter prīmum et sextum cōnsulātum sex et quadrāgintā annī interfuērunt.We are told, indeed, that Marcus Valerius Corvinus carried on to his hundredth year, living in the country when his active years were over and tilling his fields; between his first and his sixth consulship forty-six years passed. Sen. 17.60Ita quantum spatium aetātis maiōrēs ad senectūtis initium esse voluērunt, tantus illī cursus honōrum fuit;Thus as long a span of life as our ancestors wished to reach to the beginning of old age, so long was his career of offices; Sen. 17.60atque huius extrēma aetās hōc beātior quam media, quod auctōritātis habēbat plūs, labōris minus.and the last part of his life was happier than the middle part by this much, that he had more authority and less toil. Sen. 17.61Apex est autem senectūtis auctōritās.Authority, moreover, is the crown of old age. Sen. 17.61Quanta fuit in L. Caeciliō Metellō, quanta in A. Atīliō Calātīnō!How great it was in Lucius Caecilius Metellus, how great in Aulus Atilius Calatinus!
Sen. 17.61In quem illud ēlogium: " hunc ūnum plūrimae cōnsentiunt gentēs populī prīmārium fuisse virum.On whom was written that epitaph: 'This man, very many nations agree, was the foremost man of the people.' Sen. 17.61" Notum est tōtum carmen incīsum in sepulcrō.The whole poem, carved on his tomb, is well known. Sen. 17.61Iūre igitur gravis, cuius dē laudibus omnium esset fāma cōnsentiēns.Rightly, then, was he a man of weight, whose praises all the world spoke of with one voice. Sen. 17.61Quem virum nūper P. Crassum, pontificem maximum, quem posteā M. Lepidum eōdem sacerdōtiō praeditum vīdimus!What a man we saw in Publius Crassus, chief pontiff, lately, what a man afterwards in Marcus Lepidus, invested with the same priesthood! Sen. 17.61Quid dē Paulō aut Āfricānō loquar, aut, ut iam ante, dē Maximō?Why should I speak of Paulus or Africanus, or, as I did before, of Maximus? Sen. 17.61Quōrum nōn in sententiā sōlum, sed etiam in nūtū residēbat auctōritās.In these men authority rested not only in their opinion but even in their nod. Sen. 17.61Habet senectūs, honōrāta praesertim, tantam auctōritātem, ut ea plūris sit quam omnēs adulēscentiae voluptātēs.Old age, especially when it has been honoured, has so great an authority that it is worth more than all the pleasures of youth.