INTRODUCTION 
 Euphanes, to whom this essay is addressed, is known
					from no other source. That he and Plutarch were
					aged men when the essay was written appears from
					the opening sentences (see also Chapter 17, towards
					the end, 792 f). He was evidently a man of some
					distinction at Athens, where he held important
					offices (Chapter 20, 794 b). It is not unlikely that he
					may have asked Plutarch's advice about retiring from
					public life and that this essay is in reply to his appeal,
					but there is no definite statement to that effect.
					Cicero's Cato Maior or De Senectute differs from this
					in not being limited to the discussion of old age in
					its relation to public activities, but the two essays
					have much in common and may well be read in
					connexion with each other.

We are well aware, Euphanes, that you, who are
					an outspoken admirer of Pindar, often repeat, as
					well and convincingly expressed, these lines of his,
					 
 When contests are before us, an excuse
					 
 Casts down our manhood into abysmal gloom. 
 
 
					But inasmuch as our shrinking from the contests of
					political life and our various infirmities furnish
					innumerable excuses and offer us finally, like the
						move from the sacred line 
 in draughts, old age;
					and since it is more especially because of this last
					that these excuses seem to blunt and baffle our
					ambition and begin to convince us that there is a
					fitting limit of age, not only to the athlete's career,
					but to the statesman's as well, I therefore think
					it my duty to discuss with you the thoughts which
					I am continually going over in my own mind concerning the activity of old men in public affairs,
					that neither of us shall desert the long companionship in the journey which we have thus far made
					together, and neither shall renounce public life,
					which is, as it were, a familiar friend of our own
					
					 
					
					
					years, only to change and adopt another which is
					unfamiliar and for becoming familiar with which and
					making it our own time does not suffice, but that
					we shall abide by the choice which we made in the
					beginning when we fixed the same end and aim for
					life as for honourable life - unless indeed we were in
					the short time remaining to us to prove that the
					long time we have lived was spent in vain and for
					no honourable purpose.
				 
 
					For the fact is that tyranny, as someone said to
					Dionysius, is not an honourable winding-sheet ;
					no, and in his case its continuance made his
					unjust monarchy a more complete misfortune. And
					at a later time, at Corinth, when Diogenes saw the
					son of Dionysius no longer a tyrant but a private
					citizen, he very aptly said, How little you deserve
						your present fate, Dionysius! For you ought not to
						be living here with us in freedom and without fear,
						but you should pass your life to old age over yonder
						walled up in the royal palace, as your father did, 
					But a democratic and legal government, by a man
					who has accustomed himself to be ruled for the public
					good no less than to rule, gives to his death the fair
					fame won in life as in very truth an honourable
					winding-sheet; for this, as Simonides says,
					 last of all descends below the ground, 
					except in the case of those whose love of mankind and
					of honour dies first, and whose zeal for what is noble
					fails before their desire for material necessities, as
					if the active and divine qualities of the soul were
					less enduring than the passive and physical. And
					
					 
					
					
					it is not right to say, or to accept when said by
					others, that the only time when we do not grow weary
					is when we are making money. On the contrary,
					we ought even to emend the saying of Thucydides 
					and believe, not only that the love of honour never
						grows old, but that the same is even truer of the
					spirit of service to the community and the State,
					which persists to the end even in ants and bees.
					For no one ever saw a bee that had on account of
					age become a drone, as some people claim that public
					men, when they have passed their prime, should sit
					down in retirement at home and be fed, allowing
					their worth in action to be extinguished by idleness
					as iron is destroyed by rust. Cato, for example,
					used to say that we ought not voluntarily to add to
					the many evils of its own which belong to old age the
					disgrace that comes from baseness. And of the many
					forms of baseness none disgraces an aged man more
					than idleness, cowardice, and slackness, when he
					retires from public offices to the domesticity befitting
					women or to the country where he oversees the
					harvesters and the women who work as gleaners.
					 But Oedipus, where is he and his riddles famed? 
 
				 
 
					For as to beginning public life in old age and not
					before (as they say that Epimenides slept while a
					youth and awoke as an aged man after fifty years),
					
					 
					
					
					and then, after casting off such a long-familiar state
					of repose, throwing oneself into strife and timeabsorbing affairs when one is unaccustomed to them
					and without practice and is conversant neither with
					public affairs nor with public men; that might give
					a fault-finder a chance to quote the Pythia and say,
					 Too late you have come seeking for office and
					public leadership, and you are knocking unseasonably
					at the door of the praetorium, like some ignorant
					man who comes by night in festive condition or a
					stranger exchanging, not your place of residence or
					your country, but your mode of life for one in which you
					have had no experience. For the saying of Simonides, the State teaches a man, 
 is true for those
					who still have time to unlearn what they have been
					taught and to learn a new subject which can hardly
					be acquired through many struggles and labours,
					even if it encounters at the proper time a nature
					capable of bearing toil and misery with ease. Such
					are the remarks which one may believe are fittingly
					addressed to a man who begins public life in his
					old age.

And yet, on the other hand, we see that the mere
					lads and young men are turned away from public
					affairs by those who are wise; and the lawrs wrhich
					are proclaimed by the heralds in the assemblies bear
					witness to this, when they call up first to the platform, not the young men like Alcibiades and Pytheas,
					but men over fifty years of age, and invite them to
					speak and offer advice. For such men are not incited
					by lack of the habit of daring or by want of practice
					
					 
					
					
					to try to score a victory over their political opponents.
					And Cato, when after eighty years he was defendant
					in a law-suit, said it was difficult when he had lived
					with one generation to defend himself before another.
					In the case of the Caesar who defeated Antony, all
					agree that his political acts towards the end of his
					life became much more kingly and more useful to the
					people. And he himself, when the young men made
					a disturbance as he was rebuking them severely for
					their manners and customs, said, Listen, young
						men, to an old man to whom old men listened when
						he was young. And the government of Pericles
					gained its greatest power in his old age, which was
					the time when he persuaded the Athenians to engage
					in the war; and when they were eager to fight at
					an unfavourable time against sixty thousand heavy-armed men, he interposed and prevented it; indeed
					he almost sealed up the arms of the people and the
					keys of the gates. But what Xenophon has written
					about Agesilaüs certainly deserves to be quoted
					word for word: For what youth, he says, did
						not his old age manifestly surpass? For who in
						the prime of life was so terrible to his enemies as
						Agesilaüs at the extreme of old age? At whose
						removal were the enemy more pleased than at that
						of Agesilaüs, although his end came when he was
						aged? Who inspired more courage in his allies than
						Agesilaüs, although he was already near the limit
						of life? And what young man was more missed by
						his friends than Agesilaüs, who was aged when he
						died?

Time, then, did not prevent those men from
					doing such great things; and shall we of the present
					
					 
					
					
					day, who live in luxury in states that are free from
					tyranny or any war or siege, be such cowards as to
					shirk unwarlike contests and rivalries which are for
					the most part terminated justly by law and argument
					in accordance with justice, confessing that we are
					inferior, not only to the generals and public men of
					those days, but to the poets, teachers, and actors as
					well? Yes, if Simonides in his old age won prizes
					with his choruses, as the inscription in its last lines
					declares:
					 
 But for his skill with the chorus great glory Simonides
					followed,
					 
 Octogenarian child sprung from Leoprepes' seed. 
 
 
					And it is said that Sophocles, when defending himself against the charge of dementia brought by his
					sons, read aloud the entrance song of the chorus in
					the Oedipus at Colonus , which begins :
					 
 Of this region famed for horses
					 
 Thou hast, stranger, reached the fairest
					 
 Dwellings in the land,
					 
 Bright Colonus, where the sweet-voiced
					 
 Nightingale most loves to warble
					 
 In the verdant groves; 
 
					and the song aroused such admiration that he was
					escorted from the court as if from the theatre, with
					the applause and shouts of those present. And here
					is a little epigram of Sophocles, as all agree:
					 
 Song for Herodotus Sophocles made when the years of
					his age were
					 
 Five in addition to fifty. 
 
 
					
					 
					
					
					But Philemon the comic dramatist and Alexis were
					overtaken by death while they were on the stage
					acting and being crowned with garlands. And Polus
					the tragic actor, as Eratosthenes and Philochorus tell
					us, when he was seventy years old acted in eight
					tragedies in four days shortly before his death.

Is it, then, not disgraceful that the old men of
					the public platform are found to be less noble than
					those of the stage, and that they withdraw from the
					truly sacred contests, put off the political rôle, and
					assume I do not know what in its stead? For surely
					after the rôle of a king that of a farmer is a mean
					one. For when Demosthenes says that the Paralus,
					being the sacred galley, was unworthily treated
					when it was used to transport beams, stakes, and
					cattle for Meidias, will not a public man who gives
					up such offices as superintendent of public games,
					Boeotian magistrate, and president of the Amphictyonic council, and is thereafter seen busying himself
					with measuring flour and olive cakes and with tufts
					of sheep's wool - will not he be thought to be bringing upon himself the old age of a horse, as the
					saying is, when nobody forces him to do so? Surely
					taking up menial work fit only for the market-place
					after holding public offices is like stripping a freeborn
					and modest woman of her gown, putting a cook's
					apron on her, and keeping her in a tavern; for just so
					
					 
					
					
					the dignity and greatness of high ability in public life
					is destroyed when it is turned to household affairs
					and money-making. But if - the only thing left - they
					give to self-indulgence and luxury the names of rest
					and recreation, and urge the statesman quietly to
					waste away and grow old in them, I do not know
					which of two disgraceful pictures his life will seem
					to resemble more closely, that of sailors who desert
					their ship, when they have not brought it into the
					harbour but it is still under sail, and devote themselves to sexual indulgence for all time to come, or
					that of Heracles, as some painters playfully, but with
					evil influence, represent him in Omphalê's palace
					wearing a yellow gown and giving himself up to her
					Lydian maids to be fanned and have his hair curled.
					Shall we in like manner strip the statesman of his
					lion's skin and make him constantly recline at
					banquets to the music of harps and flutes? And
					shall we not be deterred by the words addressed by
					Pompey the Great to Lucullus? For Lucullus gave
					himself up after his military activities to baths,
					banquets, sexual intercourse in the daytime, great
					listlessness, and the erection of new-fangled buildings; and he reproached Pompey for his love of
					office and of honour as unsuited to his age. Then
					Pompey said that it was more untimely for an old
					man to indulge in luxury than to hold office. And
					once when he wras ill and the physician prescribed a
					thrush (which was hard to get and out of season),
					and someone said that Lucullus had plenty of them
					in his breeding-place, Pompey refused to send and
					get one, saying, Could Pompey, then, not live if
						Lucullus were not luxurious?

For granted that nature seeks in every way
					
					
					 
					
					
					pleasure and enjoyment, old men are physically incapacitated for all pleasures except a few necessary
					ones, and not only
					 Aphroditê with old men is wroth, 
 
					as Euripides says, but their appetites also for food
					and drink are for the most part blunted and toothless, so that they can, if I may say so, hardly
					whet and sharpen them. They ought to prepare
					for themselves pleasures in the mind, not ignoble and
					illiberal ones like that of Simonides, wrho said to
					those who reproached him for his avarice that, since
					old age had deprived him of all other pleasures, he
					was comforting his declining years with the only one
					left, the pleasure of gain. Public life, on the other
					hand, possesses pleasures most noble and great,
					those in fact from which the gods themselves, as we
					may reasonably suppose, derive their only or their
					chief enjoyment. These are the pleasures that
					spring from good deeds and noble actions. For if
					Nicias the painter took such delight in the labours of
					his art that he often had to ask his servants whether
					he had had his bath and his breakfast; and if
					Archimedes when intent upon his drawing-tablet had
					to be dragged away by force, stripped and anointed
					by his servants, and then drew diagrams upon his
					anointed body; and if Canus the flute-player, with
					whom you also are acquainted, used to say that
					people did not know how much greater pleasure he
					gave to himself than to others when he played, for
					
					 
					
					
					if they did, those who wished to hear him would
					receive pay instead of giving it. In view of these
					examples, do we not perceive how great are the
					pleasures the virtues provide, for those who practise
					them, as the result of the noble deeds they do and
					their works for the good of the community and of
					mankind; and that too without tickling or enervating
					them as do the smooth and gentle motions made on
					the body? Those have a frantic, unsteady titillation
					mixed with convulsive throbbing, but the pleasures
					given by noble works, such as those of which the man
					who rightly serves the State is the author, not like the
					golden wings of Euripides but like those heavenly
					Platonic pinions, bear the soul on high as it acquires
					greatness and lofty spirit mingled with joy.

And recall to your mind stories you have often
					heard. For Epameinondas, when asked what was
					the pleasantest thing that had happened to him,
					replied that it was winning the battle of Leuctra
					while his father and mother were still living. And
					Sulla, when he first entered Rome after freeing Italy
					of its civil wars, did not sleep at all that night, he
					was so borne aloft in spirit by great joy and gladness as by a blast of wind. This he has written
					about himself in his memoirs. For granted that, as
					Xenophon says, there is no sound sweeter than
					praise, yet there is no sight, reminder, or perception in the world which brings such great pleasure as
					the contemplation of one's own acts in offices and
					positions of State in which one may be said to
					be in places flooded with light and in view of all the
					
					 
					
					
					people. Yes, and moreover kindly gratitude, bearing
					witness to the acts, and praise, competing with gratitude and ushering in deserved goodwill, add, as it
					were, a light and brilliance to the joy that comes
					from virtue. And it is a mans duty not to allow his
					reputation to become withered in his old age like an
					athlete's garland, but by adding constantly something
					new and fresh to arouse the sense of gratitude for his
					previous actions and make it better and lasting; just
					as the artisans who were responsible for keeping
					the Delian ship in good condition, by inserting
					and fastening in new timbers to take the place of
					those which were becoming weak, seemed to keep
					the vessel from those ancient times everlasting and
					indestructible. Now the preservation and maintenance of reputation, as of fire, is not difficult and
					demands little fuel, but no one can without trouble
					rekindle either of them when it has gone out and
					grown cold. And just as Lampis the sea captain,
					when asked how he acquired his wealth, said, My
						great wealth easily, but the small beginnings of it
						slowly and with toil, so political reputation and
					power are not easy to attain at first, but when once
					they have grown great it is easy to augment them
					and keep them great by taking advantage of casual
					opportunities. For when a man has once become a
					friend, he does not require many and great services
					that he may remain a friend, but constancy shown
					by small tokens always preserves his goodwill, and so
					likewise the friendship and confidence of the people do
					
					 
					
					
					not constantly demand that a man pay for choruses,
					plead causes, or hold offices; no, they are maintained
					by his mere readiness to serve and by not failing or
					growing weary in care and concern for the people.
					For even wars do not consist entirely of pitched
					battles, fighting, and sieges, but they admit of
					occasional sacrifices, social gatherings in between,
					and abundant leisure for games and foolishness.
					Why, then, forsooth, is public life feared as inexorable, toilsome, and burdensome, when theatrical
					exhibitions, festive processions, distributions of food,
					 choruses and the Muse and Aglaï, 
 and constantly the worship of some god, smooth the brows
					of legislators in every senate and assembly and
					repay its troubles many times over with pleasure
					and enjoyment?

Now the greatest evil attendant upon public life,
					envy, is least likely to beset old age, for dogs do
						indeed bark at whom they do not know, according
					to Heracleitus, and envy fights against a man as he
					begins his public career, at the doorway, as it were,
					of the orator's platform, and tries to refuse him
					access, but familiar and accustomed reputation it
					does not savagely and roughly resent, but puts up
					with mildly. For this reason envy is sometimes
					likened to smoke, for in the case of those who are
					beginning their public career it pours out before
					them in great volume because they are enkindled,
					but when they burst into full flame it disappears.
					And whereas men attack other kinds of eminence
					and themselves lay claim to good character, good
					birth, and honour, as though they were depriving
					
					 
					
					
					themselves of so much of these as they grant to
					others; yet the primacy which comes from time,
					for which there is the special word presbeion or the
						prerogative due to seniority in age, arouses no
					jealousy and is freely conceded; for of no honour is
					it so true that it adorns the giver more than the
					receiver as of that which is paid to old age. Moreover, not all men expect that the power derived from
					wealth, eloquence, or wisdom will accrue to them,
					but no one who takes part in public life is without
					hope of attaining the reverence and repute to which
					old age leads. So there is no difference between the
					pilot who has sailed in great danger against adverse
					winds and waves, and, after clear weather and fair
					winds have come, seeks his moorings, and the man
					who has struggled in the ship of State a long time
					against the billows of envy, and then, when they
					have ceased and become smooth, backs water and
					withdraws from public life, giving up his political
					affiliations and clubs along with his public activities.
					For the longer the time has been the greater the
					number of those whom he has made his friends and
					fellow-workers, and he cannot take them all out with
					him, as a trainer leads out his chorus, nor is it fair to
					leave them in the lurch. But a long public career is,
					like old trees, hard to pull up, for it has many roots
					and is interwoven with affairs which cause more
					troubles and torments to those who withdraw from
					them than to those who remain in them. And if any
					remnant of envy or jealousy does continue against
					old men from their political contests, they should
					rather extinguish this by power than turn their
					backs and go away naked and unarmed. For people
					
					
					 
					
					
					do not attack them so much because of envy if they
					maintain the contest as because of contempt if they
					have given up.

Testimony to the point is what Epameinondas
					the Great said to the Thebans when in winter weather
					the Arcadians invited them to come into the city
					and be quartered in their houses. He forbade it, saying Now they admire you and gaze at you as you
						do your military exercises and wrestle, but if they see
						you sitting by the fire and sipping your bean porridge, they will think you are no better than they
						are. Just so an old man active in word and deed and
					held in honour is a sight to arouse reverence, but one
					who spends the day in bed or sits in the corner of the
					porch chattering and wiping his nose is an object of
					contempt. And undoubtedly Homer also teaches
					this to those who hear aright; for Nestor, who
					went to the war at Troy, was revered and highly
					honoured, but Peleus and Laërtes, who stayed at
					home, were put aside and despised. For the habit of
					prudence does not last so well in those who let themselves become slack, but, being gradually lost and
					dissipated by inactivity, it always calls for what may
					be called exercise of the thought, since thought rouses
					and purifies the power of reason and action;
					 For when in use it gleams like beauteous bronze. 
 
					For the evil caused by their physical weakness to the
					public activities of those who step into civil or military office when beyond the usual age is not so great
					as the advantage they possess in their caution and
					
					 
					
					
					prudence and in the fact that they do not, borne along
					sometimes because of past failures and sometimes
					as the result of vain opinion, dash headlong upon
					public affairs, dragging the mob along with them
					in confusion like the storm-tossed sea, but manage
					gently and moderately the matters which arise.
					And that is why States when they are in difficulties
					or in fear yearn for the rule of the elder men; and
					often they have brought from his field some aged
					man, not by his request and even contrary to his
					wish, and have forced him to take the helm, as it
					were, and steer affairs into safety, and in so doing
					they have pushed aside generals and politicians
					who were able to shout loud and to speak without
					pausing for breath and, by Zeus, even men who
					were able, planting their feet firmly, to fight
					bravely against the enemy. So, for example, the
					politicians at Athens grooming Chares, son of Theochares, a powerful man at the height of his physical strength, to be the opponent of Timotheüs
					and Iphicrates, declared that the general of the
					Athenians ought to be such as he, but Timotheüs
					said, No, by the gods, but such should be the
						man who is to carry the general's bedding. The
						general should be one who sees at the same time ‘that
						which is before and behind’ and does not let anything that happens disturb his reasoning as to what
						is for the best. Sophocles indeed said that he was
					glad to have escaped, now that he was old, from
					sexual love, as from a cruel and raging tyrant;
					
					 
					
					
					but in public life one must escape, not from one
					tyrant, the love of boys or women, but from many
					loves which are more insane than that: love of
					contention, love of fame, the desire to be first and
					greatest, which is a disease most prolific of envy,
					jealousy, and discord. Some of these old age does
					slacken and dull, but others it quenches and cools
					entirely, not so much by withdrawing a man from
					the impulse to action as by keeping him from excessive and fiery passions, so as to bring sober and
					settled reasoning to bear upon his thoughts.

However, let us grant that the words
					 Bide still, poor wretch, in thine own bedding wrapped 
 
					are and appear to be deterrent when addressed to a
					man who begins to act young when his hair is grey
					and that they rebuke the old man who gets up from
					long continued home-keeping, as from a long illness,
					and sets out towards the office of general or of civil
					administrator; but the words which forbid a man
					who has spent his life in public affairs and contests
					to go on to the funeral torch and the end of his
					life, and which call him back and tell him, as it were,
					to leave the road he has travelled so long and take
					a new one, - those words are altogether unkind and
					not at all like those we have quoted. For just as he
					is perfectly reasonable who tries to dissuade an old
					man who is garlanded and perfumed in preparation
					for his wedding, and says to him what was said to
					Philoctetes,
					 
 What bride, what virgin in her youth, you wretch,
					 
 Would take you? You're a pretty one to wed! 
 
 
					
					 
					
					
					for old men themselves crack many such jokes on
					themselves, saying
					 I'm marrying old, I know - and for my neighbours, too; 
 
					so he who thinks that a man who has for a long time
					shared his life and his home blamelessly with his
					wife ought on account of his age to dismiss her and
					live alone or take on a paramour in place of his
					wedded spouse has reached the height of perversity.
					There is some sense in admonishing in that way and
					confining to his accustomed inactivity an old man
					such as Chlidon the farmer or Lampon the shipcaptain or one of the philosophers of the Garden, 
					if he comes forward for popular favour; but anyone
					who buttonholes a Phocion or a Cato or a Pericles
					and says, My Athenian (or Roman) friend,
						 With withered age bedecked for funeral rites, 
 
						bring action for divorce from public life, give up your
						haunting the speakers' platform and the generals'
						office and your cares of State, and hurry away to
						the country to dwell with agriculture as your handmaid or to devote the rest of your time to some sort
						of domestic management and keeping accounts, 
					is urging the statesman to do what is wrong and unseemly.

What then? someone may say; do we
					'not hear a soldier say in a comedy
					 My white hair grants me henceforth full discharge? 
 
					
					 
					
					
					Certainly, my friend, for the servants of Ares should
					properly be young and in their prime, as practising
					 war and war's practices baneful, 
 
					in which even if an old mans hoary hair is covered
					by a helmet,
					 Yet are his limbs by unseen weight oppressed, 
 
					and though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak;
					but from the servants of Zeus, god of the Council,
					the Market-place, and the State, we do not demand
					deeds of hands and feet, but of counsel, foresight,
					and speech - not such speech as makes a roar and
					a clamour among the people, but that which contains
					good sense, prudent thought, and conservatism;
					and in these the hoary hair and the wrinkles that
					people make fun of appear as witnesses to a man's
					experience and strengthen him by the aid of persuasiveness and the reputation for character. For
					youth is meant to obey and old age to rule, and that
					State is most secure
					 
 Where old men's counsels and the young men's spears
					 
 Hold highest rank ; 
 
					and the lines
					 
 First he established a council of old men lofty in spirit
					 
 Hard by the vessel of Nestor 
 
 
					meet with wonderful approval. And therefore
					the Pythian Apollo named the aristocracy which
					was coupled with the kingship at Lacedaemon
					 Ancients ( Presbygeneas ), and Lycurgus named
					it Elders ( Gerontes ), and the council at Rome is
					
					 
					
					
					still called the Senate ( body of elders ). And just
					as the law places diadem and crown upon the head,
					so nature puts grey hair upon it as an honourable
					symbol of the high dignity of leadership. And the
					words geras ( honour, also reward ) and gerairein 
					( venerate ) retain, I believe, a meaning of veneration derived from old men ( gerontes ), not because they
					bathe in warm water or sleep in softer beds than
					other men, but because they hold royal rank in the
					States in accordance with their wisdom, the proper
					and perfect fruit of which, as of a late-bearing plant,
					nature produces after long effort in old age. At any
					rate when the king of kings prayed to the gods:
					 Would that I had ten such advisers among the Achaeans 
 
					as Nestor was, not one of the martial and might-breathing Achaeans found fault with him, but all
					conceded that, not in civil affairs alone, but in war as
					well, old age has great weight;
					 
 For one wise counsel over many hands
					 
 Is victor, 
 
 
					and one sensible and persuasive expression of opinion
					accomplishes the greatest and most excellent public
					measures.

Certainly the office of king, the most perfect
					and the greatest of all political offices, has the most
					cares, labours, and occupations. At any rate Seleucus,
					they used to tell us, constantly repeated that if
					people in general knew what a task it was merely to
					read and write so many letters, they would not even
					pick up a crown that had been thrown away. And
					Philip, we are told, when he heard, as he was on the
					
					 
					
					
					point of encamping in a suitable place, that there
					was no fodder for the beasts of draught, exclaimed:
					 O Heracles, what a life is mine, if I must needs live
						to suit the convenience even of my asses! There is,
					then, a time to advise even a king when he has become
					an old man to lay aside the crown and the purple, to
					assume a cloak and a crook, and to live in the country,
					lest it be thought, if he continues to rule when his
					hair is grey, that he is busying himself with superfluous and unseasonable occupations. But if it is not
					fitting to say this about an Agesilaüs or a Numa or
					a Dareius, let us neither remove a Solon from the
					Council of the Areopagus nor a Cato from the Senate
					on account of old age, and let us not advise a Pericles
					to leave the democracy in the lurch. For anyhow
					it is absurd that a man when he is young should
					prance (about upon the platform and then, after
					having poured out upon the public all those insane
					ambitions and impulses, when the age arrives which
					brings wisdom through experience, should give up
					public life and desert it like a woman of whom he
					has had all the use.

Aesop's fox, we recall, would not let the hedgehog, although he offered to do so, remove the ticks
					from her: For if you remove these, she said, which
						are full, other hungry ones will come on ; and the
					State which always discards the old men must necessarily be filled up with young men who are thirsty
					for reputation and power, but do not possess a statesmanlike mind. And where should they acquire it, if
					they are Rot to be pupils or even spectators of any
					old man active in public life? Treatises on navigation do not make ship-captains of men who have
					not often stood upon the stern and been spectators
					
					
					 
					
					
					of the struggles against wind and wave and wintry
					night,
					 
 When yearning for the twin Tyndaridae 
					 
 Doth strike the sailor driven o'er the sea; 
 
 
					and can a youngster manage a State rightly and persuade an assembly or a senate after reading a book
					or writing in the Lyceum a school exercise about
					political science, if he has not stood many a time
					by the driver's rein or the pilot's steering-oar, 
					leaning this way and that with the politicians and
					generals as they contend with the aid of their
					experiences and their fortunes, thus amid dangers
					and troubles acquiring the knowledge they need?
					No one can assert that. But if for no other reason,
					old men should engage in affairs of State for the
					education and instruction of the young. For just
					as the teachers of letters or of music themselves
					first play the notes or read to their pupils and thus
					show them the way, so the statesman, not only by
					speech or by making suggestions from outside, but by
					action in administering the affairs of the community,
					directs the young man, whose character is moulded
					and formed by the old man's actions and words alike.
					For he who is trained in this way - not in the wrestling-schools or training-rings of masters of the arts of
					graceful speech where no danger is, but, we may
					say, in truly Olympic and Pythian games, -
					 Keeps pace as foal just weaned runs with the mare, 
 
					to quote Simonides. So Aristeides ran in the footsteps
					of Cleisthenes and Cimon in those of Aristeides,
					Phocion followed Chabrias, Cato had Fabius Maximus
					
					 
					
					
					as his guide, Pompey had Sulla, and Polybius had
					Philopoemen; for these men, coming when young in
					contact with older men and then, as it were, sprouting up beside them and growing up with their policies
					and actions, gained experience and familiarity with
					public affairs and at the same time reputation and
					power.

Aeschines the Academic philosopher, when
					some sophists declared that he pretended to have
					been a pupil of Carneades although he had not been
					so, replied, Oh, but I did listen to Carneades at the
						time when his speech had given up noisy declamation on account of his old age and had reduced itself
						to what is useful and of common interest. But the
					public activity of old men is not only in speech but
					also in actions, free from ostentation and desire for
					popularity, and, therefore, just as they say that the
					iris, when it has grown old and has blown off its fetid
					and foul smell, acquires a more fragrant odour, so no
					opinion or counsel of old men is turbulent, but they
					are all weighty and composed. Therefore it is also
					for the sake of the young, as has been said above,
					that old men ought to engage in affairs of State, in
					order that, as Plato said in reference to pure wine
					mixed with water, that an insane god was made
					reasonable when chastised by another who was sober,
					so the discretion of old age, when mixed in the people
					with boiling youth drunk with reputation and ambition, may remove that which is insane and too violent.

But apart from all this, they are mistaken who
					
					 
					
					
					think that engaging in public affairs is, like going to
					sea or to a war, something undertaken for an object
					distinct from itself and ceasing when that object is
					attained; for engaging in public affairs is not a
					special service which is ended when the need ends,
					but is a way of life of a tamed social animal living
					in an organized society, intended by nature to live
					throughout its allotted time the life of a citizen and
					in a manner devoted to honour and the welfare of
					mankind. Therefore it is fitting that men should
					be engaged, not merely have ceased to be engaged,
					in affairs of State, just as it is fitting that they
					should be, not have ceased to be, truthful, that
					they should do, not have ceased to do, right, and
					that they should love, not have ceased to love, their
					native land and their fellow-citizens. For to these
					things nature leads, and these words she suggests
					to those who are not entirely ruined by idleness and
					effeminacy:
					 Your sire begets you of great worth to men 
 
					and
					 Let us ne'er cease from doing mortals good.

But those who adduce weakness and disability are accusing disease and infirmity rather than
					old age. For there are many sickly young men and
					vigorous old men, so that the proper course is to
					dissuade, not the aged, but the disabled, and to
					summon into service, not the young, but those who
					are competent to serve. Aridaeus, for example, was
					young and Antigonus an old man, but the latter
					gained possession of almost all Asia, whereas the
					former, like a mute guardsman on the stage, was
					
					 
					
					
					the mere name and figure of a king, exposed to the
					wanton insults of those who happened to have the
					real power. As, therefore, he is a fool who would
					demand that a person like Prodicus the sophist or
					a person like Philetas the poet should take part
					in the affairs of State, - they who were young, to
					be sure, but thin, sickly, and for the most part bedridden on account of sickness, - so he is foolish who
					would hinder from being rulers or generals such old
					men as were Phocion, the Libyan Masinissa, and the
					Roman Cato. For Phocion, when the Athenians were
					rushing into war at an unfavourable time, gave orders
					that all citizens up to sixty years of age should take
					their weapons and follow him; and when they were
					indignant he said: There is nothing terrible about
						it, for I shall be with you as general, and I am eighty
						years old. And Polybius tells us that Masinissa
					died at the age of ninety years, leaving a child of
					his own but four years old, and that a little before
					his end, on the day after defeating the Carthaginians
					in a great battle, he was seen in front of his tent
					eating a dirty piece of bread, and that when some
					expressed surprise at this he said that he did it
					[to keep in practice],
					 
 For when in use it gleams like beauteous bronze;
					 
 An unused house through time in ruin falls, 
 
 
					as Sophocles says; but we say that this is true of
					that brilliance and light of the soul, by means of
					which we reason, remember, and think.

For that reason kings are said to grow better
					among wars and campaigns than when they live at
					
					 
					
					
					leisure. Attalus certainly, the brother of Eumenes,
					because he was completely enfeebled by long inactivity and peace, was actually kept and fattened
					like a sheep by Philopoemen, one of his courtiers;
					so that even the Romans used in jest to ask those
					who came from Asia if the king had any influence
					with Philopoemen. And it would be impossible to
					find many abler generals among the Romans than
					Lucullus, when he combined thought with action;
					but when he gave himself up to a life of inactivity
					and to a home-keeping and thought-free existence,
					he became a wasted skeleton, like sponges in calm
					seas, and then when he committed his old age to
					the care and nursing of one of his freedmen named
					Callisthenes, it seemed as if he were being drugged
					by him with potions and quackeries, until his brother
					Marcus drove the fellow away and himself managed
					and tended him like a child the rest of his life, which
					was not long. Dareius the father of Xerxes used to
					say that when dangers threatened he excelled himself in wisdom, and Ateas the Scythian said that he
					considered himself no better than his grooms when
					he was idle; and Dionysius the Elder, when someone
					asked if he was at leisure, replied: May that
						never happen to me! For a bow, they say, breaks
					when too tightly stretched, but a soul when too
					much relaxed. In fact musicians, if they give up
					listening to music, and geometricians if they give
					up solving problems, and arithmeticians if they give
					up the practice of calculating, impair, as they advance
					in age, their habits of mind as well as their activities,
					although the studies which they pursue are not concerned with action but with contemplation; but the
					
					 
					
					
					mental habit of public men - deliberation, wisdom,
					and justice, and, besides these, experience, which
					hits upon the proper moments and words and is the
					power that creates persuasion - is maintained by
					constantly speaking, acting, reasoning, and judging;
					and it would be a crime if, by deserting these
					activities, it should allow such great and so many
					virtues to leak out from the soul; for it is reasonable
					to suppose that love of humanity, public spirit, and
					graciousness would waste away, none of which ought
					to have any end or limit.

Certainly if you had Tithonus as your father,
					who was immortal but always needed much care on
					account of old age, I do not believe you would avoid
					or grow weary of attending to him, speaking to him,
					and helping him on the ground that you had performed those duties for a long time; and your
					fatherland or, as the Cretans call it, your mother
					country, which has earlier and greater rights than
					your parents, is long lived, to be sure, but by no
					means ageless or self-sufficient; on the contrary, since
					it always needs much consideration and assistance
					and anxious thought, it draws the statesman to itself
					and holds him,
					 Grasping him fast by the cloak, and restrains him though
					hastening onward. 
 
				 
 
					Now surely you know that I have been serving the
					Pythian Apollo for many Pythiads, but you would
					not say: Plutarch, you have done enough sacrificing, marching in processions, and dancing in choruses,
						and now that you are older it is time to put off the
						garland and to desert the oracle on account of your
						age. And so do not imagine that you yourself,
					being a leader and interpreter of the sacred rites of
					
					
					 
					
					
					civic life, ought to give up the worship of Zeus of the
					State and of the Forum, rites to which you have for
					a long time been consecrated.

But let us now, if you please, leave the argument which tries to withdraw the aged man from
					civic activities and turn to the examination and discussion of the question how we may assign to old age
					only what is appropriate without imposing upon it
					any burdensome struggle, since political activity has
					many parts fitting and suitable for men of such years.
					For just as, if it were fitting for us to continue singing to the end, we ought, since there are many
					underlying tones and modes of the voice, which
					musical people call harmonies, we ought, I say, when
					we have grown old, not to attempt that which is at
					once high pitched and intense, but that which is easy
					and also possesses the fitting ethical quality; just
					so, since it is more natural for human beings to act
					and speak to the end than for swans to sing, we must
					not give up activity as if it were a lyre too tightly
					strung, but we should relax the activity and adapt it
					to those public services which are light and moderate
					and attuned to old men. For we do not let our bodies
					be entirely without motion and exercise when we are
					unable to wield the mattock or use jumping-weights
					or throw the discus or fight in armour as we used
					to do, but by swinging and walking, and in some
					instances by light ball-playing and by conversation,
					old men accelerate their breathing and revive the
					body's heat. Let us, then, neither allow ourselves
					to be entirely frozen and chilled by inaction nor, on
					the other hand, by again burdening ourselves with
					every office and engaging in every kind of public
					
					
					 
					
					
					activity, force our old age, convicted of its weakness,
					to descend to words like these:
					 
 O my right hand, thou yearn'st to seize the spear,
					 
 But weakness brings thy yearning all to naught. 
 
 
					For even a man at the height of his powers is not
					commended if he takes upon himself, in a word, all
					public activities at once and is unwilling to leave, as
					the Stoics say of Zeus, anything to anyone else,
					intruding and mixing himself in everything through
					insatiable desire for reputation or through envy of
					those who obtain any share whatsoever of honour
					and power in the State. But for a very aged man
					that love of office which invariably offers itself as a
					candidate at every election, that busy restlessness
					which lies in wait for every opportunity offered by
					court of justice or council of State, and that ambition
					which snatches at every ambassadorship and at
					every precedence in legal matters, are, even if you
					eliminate the discredit attached to them, toilsome
					and miserable. For to do these things even with the
					goodwill of others is too burdensome for advanced
					age, but, in fact, the result is the very opposite;
					for such old men are hated by the young, who feel
					that they do not allow them opportunities for public
					activity and do not permit them to come before the
					public, and by people in general their love of precedence and of office is held in no less disrepute than
					is other old men's love of wealth and pleasure.

And just as Alexander, wishing not to work
					Bucephalus too hard when he was old, used to ride
					other horses before the battle in reviewing the
					
					 
					
					
					phalanx and drawing it up in line, and then, after
					giving the watchword and mounting him, immediately
					charged the enemy, and fought the battle to its
					end; so the statesman, if he is sensible, will curb
					himself when he has grown old, will keep away from
					unnecessary activities and allow the State to employ
					men in their prime for lesser matters, but in important affairs will himself take part vigorously. For
					athletes keep their bodies untouched by necessary
					tasks and in full force for useless toils, but we, on the
					contrary, letting petty and worthless matters go,
					will save ourselves for things that are seriously
					worth while. For perhaps, as Homer says, 
 to a
						young man everything is becoming, and people
					accept and love him, calling the one who does many
					little things a friend of the common folk and hardworking, and the one who does brilliant and splendid
					things noble and high-minded; and under some
					conditions even contentiousness and rashness have a
					certain timeliness and grace becoming to men of
					that age. But the old man in public life who undertakes subordinate services, such as the farming of
					taxes and the supervision of harbours and of the
					market-place, and who moreover works his way
					into diplomatic missions and trips abroad to visit
					commanders and potentates, in which there is
					nothing indispensable or dignified, but which are
					merely flattery to curry favour, seems to me, my
					friend, a pitiable and unenviable object, and to some
					people, perhaps, a burdensome and vulgar one.

For it is not seasonable for an aged man even
					to be occupied in public offices, except in those which
					possess some grandeur and dignity, such as that
					
					 
					
					
					which you are now administering at Athens, the
					presidency of the Senate of the Areopagus, and, by
					Zeus, the honour of membership in the Amphictyonic
					Council, which your native State bestowed upon you
					for life and which entails a pleasant labour and untoilsome toil. 
 But even these offices aged men
					ought not to seek; they should exercise them
					though trying to avoid them, not asking for them but
					asking to be excused from them, as men who do not
					take office to themselves, but give themselves to
					office. For it is not, as the Emperor Tiberius said,
					a disgrace for a man over sixty years of age to hold
					out his hand to the physician ; but rather is it a disgrace to hold out the hand to the people asking for
					a ballot or a viva voce vote; for this is ignoble and
					mean, whereas the contrary possesses a certain
					dignity and honour, when an aged man's country
					chooses him, calls him, and waits for him, and he
					comes down amid honour and friendly applause to
					welcome and accept a distinction which is truly
					revered and respected.

And in somewhat the same way a man who
					has grown old ought to treat speech-making in the
					assembly; he should not be constantly jumping
					up on the platform, nor always, like a cock, crowing
					in opposition to what is said; nor should he, by
					getting involved in controversy, loose the curb of
					reverence for him in the young men's minds and
					instil into them the practice and custom of disobedience and unwillingness to listen to him; but
					he should sometimes both slacken the reins and
					allow them to throw up their heads boldly to oppose
					his opinion and to show their spirit, without even
					being present or interfering except when the matter
					
					
					 
					
					
					at stake is important for the common safety or
					for honour and decorum. But in such cases he
					ought, even when no one calls him, to run at a speed
					beyond his strength, letting himself be led by attendants who support him or having himself carried in a
					litter, as we are told that Appius Claudius did in
					Rome; for after the Romans had been defeated
					by Pyrrhus in a great battle, when he heard that
					the senate was admitting proposals for a truce and
					peace, he found that intolerable, and although he
					had lost the sight of both his eyes, had himself
					carried through the Forum to the Senate-house. He
					went in, took his stand in the midst of the senate,
					and said that hitherto he had been grieved by the
					loss of his eyes, but now he could pray not even to
					have ears to hear them discussing and doing things
					so disgraceful and ignoble. And thereupon, partly
					by rebuking them, partly by instructing and inciting them, he persuaded them to rush to arms
					forthwith and fight it out with Pyrrhus for the rule
					of Italy. And Solon, when it became clear that the
					popular leadership of Peisistratus was a contrivance
					to make him tyrant, since no one dared to oppose
					or prevent it, brought out his own arms, stacked
					them in front of his house, and called upon the citizens
					to come to the aid of their country; then, when
					Peisistratus sent and asked him what gave him
					confidence to do this, he replied, My age.

However, matters of such urgent necessity do
					kindle and arouse aged men whose fire is quite
					extinct, provided they merely have breath; yet
					in other matters the aged man will sometimes, as
					has been said, act fittingly by declining mean and
					petty offices which bring more trouble to those who
					
					
					 
					
					
					administer them than profit and advantage to those
					for whom they are administered; and sometimes by
					waiting for the citizens to call for him, long for him,
					and send for him at his house, he will, when he
					comes, be received with greater confidence by those
					who begged for his presence. And for the most part
					he will, even when present, be silent and let younger
					men speak, acting as a kind of umpire at the contest
					of political ambition; and if the contest passes the
					bounds of moderation, by administering a mild and
					kindly rebuke, he will endeavour to do away with
					contention, opprobrious language, and anger, will
					correct and instruct without fault-finding him who
					errs in his opinions, but will fearlessly praise him who
					is right; and he will voluntarily suffer defeat and will
					often give up success in persuading the people to
					his will in order that the young may grow in power
					and courage, and for some of them he will supply
					what is lacking with kindly words, as Nestor said,
					 
 No one of all the Achaeans will blame the words thou hast
					spoken,
					 
 Nor will oppose them in speech; and yet thou hast reached
					no conclusion.
					 
 Truly thou art a young man, and thou mightest e'en be my
					own offspring.

But more statesmanlike than this it is, not
					merely to avoid, when rebuking them openly and
					in public, any biting speech which violently represses and humiliates them, but rather in kindly
					spirit to suggest and inculcate in private to those
					who have natural ability for public affairs advantageous words and policies, urging them on towards
					that which is noble, adding brilliancy to their
					minds, and, after the manner of riding-teachers,
					
					
					 
					
					
					enabling them at first to mount the populace when
					it is tractable and gentle; then, if the young man
					fails in any way, not letting him be discouraged,
					but setting him on his feet and encouraging him,
					as Aristeides raised up and encouraged Cimon and
					Mnesiphilus did the like for Themistocles when
					they were at first disliked and decried in the city
					as being rash and unrestrained. And there is also a
					story that when Demosthenes had met with a reverse
					in the assembly and was disheartened thereby, an
					aged man who had formerly heard Pericles speak
					touched him with his hand and told him that he
					resembled that great man in natural ability and,
					therefore, had been unjust in condemning himself.
					And so also when Timotheüs was hissed for being
					new-fangled and was said to be committing sacrilege
					upon music, Euripides told him to be of good courage,
					for in a little while the theatres would be at his feet.

And in general, just as at Rome the Vestal
					Virgins have a definite time allotted them, first for
					learning, then for performing the traditional rites,
					and thirdly and lastly for teaching them, and as at
					Ephesus they call each one of the servants of Artemis
					first a novice, then a priestess, and thirdly an expriestess, so the perfect statesman engages in public
					affairs, first while still a learner and a neophyte and
					finally as a teacher and initiator. For although it
					is impossible for the overseer of other athletes to
					engage in contests himself, yet he who trains a
					young man in affairs of the community and political
					struggles and prepares him for the service of his
					country
					 Speaker of speeches to be and also a doer of actions, 
 
					
					 
					
					
					is useful to the State in no small or mean degree, but
					helps towards that for which Lycurgus first and
					especially exerted himself when he accustomed the
					young always to obey every old man as if he were a
					lawgiver. For what had Lysander in mind when he
					said that men grow old most nobly in Lacedaemon?
					Was it because there the older men are more than
					elsewhere allowed to live in idleness and to lend
					money or sit together and throw dice or get together
					betimes for drinking-parties ? You could not say
					that. No, it was because all men of advanced age hold
					more or less the position of magistrates, fatherly
					counsellors, or instructors, and not only oversee
					public affairs, but also make it their business to
					learn all details about the gymnasia, the sports,
					and the daily lives of the young men, and, therefore, they are feared by those who do wrong but
					revered and desired by the good; for the young
					men always cultivate and follow them, since they
					enhance and encourage the decorum and innate
					nobility of the young without arousing their envy.

For the emotion of envy is not fitting for any
					time of life, but nevertheless it has among young
					people plenty of fine names, being called competition, 
 zeal, and ambition ; but in old
					men it is totally unseasonable, uncultured, and
					ignoble. Therefore the aged statesman, being far
					beyond the feeling of envy, should not, as envious
					old tree trunks clearly do, try to destroy and prevent
					the sprouting growth of the plants which spring up
					beside them and grow under them, but he should
					receive kindly those who claim his attention and
					attach themselves to him; he should offer himself to
					
					 
					
					
					direct, guide, and support them, not only with good
					instructions and advice, but also by giving up to
					them public offices which bring honour and reputation, or certain public services which will do no harm
					to the people, but will be pleasing to it, and will make
					them popular. But as for such things as arouse
					opposition and are difficult and, like certain medicines, smart and hurt at first but produce an excellent and profitable result afterwards, he should
					not force young men into these and subject them to
					popular outcries while they are still unaccustomed
					to the inconsiderate mob; but he should himself
					assume the unpopularity arising from advantageous
					measures, for in this way he will make the young
					more well-disposed towards him and more eager in
					performing other services.

But above all things we must remind them that
					statesmanship consists, not only in holding office,
					being ambassador, vociferating in the assembly,
					and ranting round the speakers' platform proposing
					laws and making motions. Most people think all
					this is part of statesmanship, just as they think of
					course that those are philosophers who sit in a chair
					and converse and prepare their lectures over their
					books; but the continuous practice of statesmanship
					and philosophy, which is every day alike seen in acts
					and deeds, they fail to perceive. For, as Dicaearchus
					used to remark, those who circulate in the porticoes
					are said to be promenading, 
 but those who walk
					into the country or to see a friend are not. Now
					being a statesman is like being a philosopher. Socrates
					at any rate was a philosopher, although he did not
					
					 
					
					
					set out benches or seat himself in an armchair or
					observe a fixed hour for conversing or promenading
					with his pupils, but jested with them, when it so
					happened, and drank with them, served in the army
					or lounged in the market-place with some of them,
					and finally was imprisoned and drank the poison.
					He was the first to show that life at all times and in
					all parts, in all experiences and activities, universally
					admits philosophy. So this is what we must understand concerning statesmanship also: that foolish
					men, even when they are generals or secretaries or
					public orators, do not act as statesmen, but court the
					mob, deliver harangues, arouse factions, or under compulsion perform public services; but that the man
					who is really public-spirited and who loves mankind
					and the State and is careful of the public welfare
					and truly statesmanlike, that man, although he never
					put on a uniform, is always acting as a statesman by
					urging those on who have power, guiding those who
					need guidance, assisting those who are deliberating,
					reforming those who act wrongly, encouraging those
					who are right-minded, making it plain that he is not
					just casually interested in public affairs and that he
					goes to the assembly or the council, not for the sake
					of getting the first seat when there is something
					serious in prospect or he is summoned, but that
					when he goes there he goes not merely for amusement as if to see or hear a performance, and that
					even when he is not there in person he is present
					in thought and through inquiry, thus approving of
					some of the proceedings and disapproving of others.

For not even Aristeides was often ruler of the
					
					
					 
					
					
					Athenians, nor Cato of the Romans, but they spent
					their whole lives in active service to their native
					States. And Epameinondas as general gained many
					great successes, but one deed of his equal to any of
					them is recorded, which he performed in Thessaly
					when he was neither general nor magistrate. The
					generals had led the phalanx into difficult ground
					and were in confusion (for the enemy were pressing
					them hard with missile weapons), when he was
					called out from his place among the infantry; and
					first by encouraging the army he put an end to confusion and fear, then, after arranging the broken
					phalanx and putting it in order, he easily led it out
					and drew it up to face the enemy, so that they
					changed front and withdrew. And when King
					Agis, in Arcadia, was already leading against the
					enemy his army drawn up for battle, one of the elder
					Spartiates called out to him that he was planning to
					cure evil with evil, pointing out that his present
					unseasonable eagerness was an attempt to atone for
					his culpable retreat from Argos, as Thucydides says. 
					And when Agis heard this, he took the advice and
					retreated. For Menecrates a chair was placed every
					day by the door of the house of government, and
					often the ephors rose up from their session and went
					to him for information and advice on the most important matters; for he was considered to be a
					wise man and an intelligent one to be consulted.
					And therefore, after his physical strength had become utterly exhausted and he had to spend most of
					the day in bed, when the ephors sent for him to come
					to the market-place, he got up and set out to walk,
					
					 
					
					
					but proceeded slowly and with difficulty; then,
					meeting some boys on the way, he asked them if
					they knew of anything stronger than the necessity
					of obeying one's master, and they replied, Not
						being able to. Accounting this as the limit of his
					service, he turned round and went home. For a
					man's zeal ought not to fail before his strength,
					but when it is deserted by strength, it should not be
					forced. Certainly Scipio, both as general and as
					statesman, always made use of Gaius Laelius as
					his adviser, so that some people even said that
					Scipio was the actor, but Gaius the author, of
					his deeds. And Cicero himself confesses that the
					noblest and greatest of the plans through which
					as consul he restored his country to safety were
					devised with the help of the philosopher Publius
					Nigidius.

There are, then, many kinds of political activity
					by which old men may readily benefit the commonwealth by giving of their best, namely reason,
					judgement, frankness, and sapience profound, as
					poets say ; for not only do our hands or our feet
					or the strength of our body constitute a possession
					and a part of the State, but first of all our soul and
					the beauties of the soul - justice, moderation, and
					wisdom. And since these acquire their proper
					quality late and slowly, it is absurd that house,
					farm, and other property or possessions should derive all the benefit from aged men but that they
					should be no longer of use to their country in general
					and their fellow-citizens by reason of their age, for
					age does not so much diminish our power to perform
					
					 
					
					
					inferior services as it increases our power for leading
					and governing. And that is the reason why they
					make the older Hermae without hands or feet, but
					with their private parts stiff, indicating figuratively
					that there is no need whatsoever of old men who
					are active by their body's use, if they keep their
					mind, as it should be, active and fertile.