1But throughout my discourse remember that I am praising that old age which has been established on the foundations of youth. 1From this follows what I once said with great approval from everyone, that wretched is the old age which has to defend itself with speech. 1Neither white hairs nor wrinkles can suddenly seize authority, but an earlier life honourably spent reaps the fruits of authority at the last. 63For these very things are marks of honour which seem slight and commonplace — being greeted, being sought out, being made way for, having people rise for one, being escorted from home and back home, being consulted — things which both among us and in other states are observed most carefully in proportion as each state is best in its morals.
63They say that Lysander the Lacedaemonian, whom I mentioned just now, used to say that Lacedaemon was the most honourable home for old age; 63for nowhere is so much granted to age, nowhere is old age more honoured. 63Indeed, it is recorded that when at Athens, during the games, a man of great age had come into the theatre, nowhere in that great assembly was a place given him by his fellow citizens, but when he had approached the Lacedaemonians, who, being envoys, had taken their seats in a set place, they all rose, it is said, and received the old man among them as he sat down; 64and when they had been given repeated applause by the whole assembly, one of them said that the Athenians knew what was right, but were unwilling to do it.
64There are many excellent things in our college, but this, which we are discussing, above all, that each man holds precedence in giving his opinion according as he is senior in age, and the older augurs are put before not only those who are senior in office but even those who hold supreme command. 64What bodily pleasures, then, are to be compared with the rewards of authority? 64Those who have made splendid use of these seem to me to have played out the drama of life to the end, and not to have broken down in the last act like untrained actors. 65But old men are morose and anxious and irritable and difficult.
65If we look into it, they are also greedy; 65but these are faults of character, not of old age. 65And yet moroseness and those faults I have named have some excuse, not indeed a just one, but one that may seem acceptable: they think they are slighted, despised, mocked; 65besides, in a frail body every knock is hateful; 65yet all these things are made sweeter by good character and good training, and this can be understood both in life and on the stage from those brothers who appear in the Adelphi. 65How much harshness in the one, how much kindliness in the other! 65So it is: for just as not every wine, so not every nature turns sour with age.
65I approve of strictness in old age, but, like other things, in moderation; 65sourness in no way; 65as for the greed of old men, what it means I do not understand. 66For can anything be more absurd than to seek more provision for the road the less of the road remains?