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Treatises on Friendship and Old Age

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Read by David Wales · 3 h 11 min · 5 parts

Introductory Note
9:49
On Friendship Part 1
48:41
On Friendship Part 2
47:12
On Old Age Part 1
45:08
On Old Age Part 2
40:47

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About this book

Trust depends on being willing both to hear the truth and to speak it in these two philosophical discussions. Cicero presents friendship through a conversation associated with Laelius, recalled by Scaevola and arranged so that the speakers seem to address one another directly. The companion treatise gives Cato the leading voice on old age. Both works are dedicated to Atticus, placing their broad subjects within the setting of personal acquaintance and remembered Roman conversation.

In the discussion of friendship, flattery is a practical danger rather than a minor fault of manners. Political speeches and comic characters supply examples of the ways people encourage praise they already want to believe. E. S. Shuckburgh's English translation lets readers follow this argument about sincerity, vanity and judgment. The pair offers a starting point for considering friendship and later life through the conversational form of ancient moral philosophy.

About the author

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, advocate, orator, and philosophical writer whose Latin prose helped transmit Greek ethical debate to later readers. On the Good Life is a Penguin Classics selection, translated and introduced by Michael Grant, that gathers Cicero’s reflections on moral integrity, friendship, public duty, and happiness.