Sen. 7.1At memoria minuitur.But memory grows weaker. Sen. 7.1Crēdō, nisi eam exerceās, aut etiam sī sīs nātūrā tardior.I believe it, if you do not exercise it, or also if you are rather slow by nature. Sen. 7.1Themistoclēs omnium cīvium percēperat nōmina;Themistocles had learnt the names of all the citizens; Sen. 7.1num igitur cēnsētis eum, cum aetāte prōcessisset, quī Aristīdēs esset Lȳsimachum salūtāre solitum?do you then think that, when he had advanced in years, he used to greet the man who was Aristides as Lysimachus? Sen. 7.1Equidem nōn modo eōs nōvī quī sunt, sed eōrum patrēs etiam et avōs, nec sepulcra legēns vereor, quod aiunt, nē memoriam perdam;For my part, I know not only those who are living but their fathers and grandfathers too, nor, as I read the tombstones, am I afraid, as they say, of losing my memory; Sen. 7.1hīs enim ipsīs legendīs in memoriam redeō mortuōrum.for by reading these very things I recall the dead to memory. Sen. 7.1Nec vērō quemquam senem audīvī oblītum, quō locō thēsaurum obruisset.Nor indeed have I heard of any old man who forgot where he had buried his treasure.
Sen. 7.1Omnia quae cūrant meminērunt, vadimōnia cōnstitūta, quis sibi, cui ipsī dēbeant.They remember everything they care about: the days fixed for their bail bonds, who owes money to them, to whom they owe it. Sen. 7.22Quid iūris cōnsultī, quid pontificēs, quid augurēs, quid philosophī senēs?What of old jurists, what of pontiffs, what of augurs, what of philosophers? Sen. 7.22Quam multa meminērunt!How much they remember! Sen. 7.22Manent ingenia senibus, modo permaneat studium et industria, neque ea sōlum clārīs et honōrātīs virīs, sed in vītā etiam prīvātā et quiētā.Old men keep their mental powers, provided only their zeal and industry endure, and not only in famous men who have held high office, but in private and quiet life as well. Sen. 7.22Sophoclēs ad summam senectūtem tragoediās fēcit;Sophocles wrote tragedies to an extreme old age; Sen. 7.22quod propter studium cum rem neglegere familiārem vidērētur, ā fīliīs in iūdicium vocātus est, ut, quem ad modum nostrō mōre male rem gerentibus patribus bonīs interdīcī solet, sīc illum quasi dēsipientem ā rē familiārī removērent iūdicēs.and when because of this pursuit he seemed to be neglecting his family affairs, he was summoned to court by his sons, so that, just as by our custom fathers who manage their property badly are usually barred from it, so the jurors might remove him from his family affairs as being feeble-minded.
Sen. 7.22Tum senex dīcitur eam fābulam quam in manibus habēbat et proximē scrīpserat, Oedipum Colōnēum, recitāsse iūdicibus quaesīsseque num illud carmen dēsipientis vidērētur, quō recitātō sententiīs iūdicum est līberātus.Then the old man is said to have recited to the jurors the play which he had in hand and had most recently written, the Oedipus at Colonus, and to have asked whether that poem seemed the work of a feeble-minded man; when it had been recited, he was acquitted by the votes of the jurors. Sen. 7.23Num igitur hunc, num Homērum Hēsiodum Simōnidēn Stēsichorum, num quōs ante dīxī Īsocratēn Gorgiān, num philosophōrum prīncipēs, Pȳthagoram Dēmocritum, num Platōnem Xenocratēn, num posteā Zēnōnem Cleanthem, aut eum, quem vōs etiam vīdistis Rōmae, Diogenem Stōicum coēgit in suīs studiīs obmūtēscere senectūs?Did old age, then, force this man, did it force Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, Stesichorus, did it force those I mentioned before, Isocrates and Gorgias, did it force the foremost philosophers, Pythagoras and Democritus, did it force Plato and Xenocrates, or later Zeno and Cleanthes, or the man whom you too have seen at Rome, Diogenes the Stoic, to fall silent in their pursuits?
Sen. 7.23An in omnibus studiōrum agitātiō vītae aequālis fuit?Was not the active pursuit of their studies, in all of them, as long as their life? Sen. 7.24Age, ut ista dīvīna studia omittāmus, possum nōmināre ex agrō Sabīnō rūsticōs Rōmānōs, vīcīnōs et familiāris meōs, quibus absentibus numquam ferē ūlla in agrō maiōra opera fīunt, nōn serendīs, nōn percipiendīs, nōn condendīs frūctibus.Come, to leave aside those divine pursuits, I can name Roman countrymen from the Sabine district, my neighbours and friends, in whose absence hardly any of the greater tasks are ever done in the fields, whether in sowing, in harvesting or in storing the crops. Sen. 7.24Quamquam in aliīs minus hoc mīrum est, nēmō enim est tam senex quī sē annum nōn putet posse vīvere;And yet in other tasks this is less surprising, for no one is so old that he does not think he can live another year; Sen. 7.24sed īdem in eīs ēlabōrant, quae sciunt nihil ad sē omnīnō pertinēre: " serit arborēs, quae alterī saeclō prōsint, " ut ait Statius noster in Synephēbīs.but they also labour at things which they know do not concern them at all: 'He plants trees to be of use to another generation,' as our Statius says in his Synephebi.
Sen. 7.25Nec vērō dubitat agricola, quamvīs sit senex, quaerentī cui serat respondēre: "dīs immortālibus, quī mē nōn accipere modo haec ā maiōribus voluērunt, sed etiam posterīs prōdere."Nor indeed does a farmer, however old he may be, hesitate to answer anyone who asks for whom he is planting: 'For the immortal gods, who willed not only that I should receive these things from my ancestors but also that I should hand them on to those who come after.'