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[5]
But as in that book I wrote as one
old man to another old man on the subject of old age,
so now in this book I have written as a most affectionate friend to a friend on the subject of friendship. In the former work the speaker was Cato,
whom scarcely any in his day exceeded in age and
none surpassed in wisdom; in the present treatise
the speaker on friendship will be Laelius, a wise
man (for he was so esteemed), and a man who was
distinguished by a glorious friendship. Please put
me out of your mind for a little while and believe
that Laelius himself is talking. Gaius Fannius and
Quintus Mucius Scaevola have come to their father-in-law's house just after the death of Africanus1 ;
the conversation is begun by them and reply is
made by Laelius, whose entire discourse is on friendship, and as you read it you will recognize in it a
portrait of yourself.
1 The death of Africanus occurred 129 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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