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[6]
2. FANNIUS. What you say is true, Laelius; for
there was no better man than Africanus, and no one
more illustrious. But you should realize that all
men have fixed their eyes on you alone; you it is
whom they both call and believe to be wise. Recently1
this title was given to Marcus Cato and we know
that Lucius Acilius was called “the Wise” in our
[p. 115]
fathers' time, but each of them in a somewhat
different way: Acilius because of his reputation
for skill in civil law; Cato because of his manifold
experience, and because of the many well-known
instances wherein both in Senate and forum he
displayed shrewdness of foresight, resolution of
conduct, or sagacity in reply; and as a result, by
the time he had reached old age, he bore the title
of “the Wise” as a sort of cognomen.
1 Cato died in 149 B.C., hence Fannius by “recently” means “twenty years ago.” The date of Cato's imagined discourse on old age was 150 B.C.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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