This authoritative edition of Cicero's Treatises on Friendship and Old Age features the respected translation of E. S. Shuckburgh.
Written in the second century A.D., these writings encapsulate the wisdom and ability possessed by their author. Already well into maturity, it is here that the accumulated experience of a man who had - in an illustrious career of public service in the Roman Empire - seen and known all manner of events and people in his bustling society.
In the first treatise, the attributes important to friendship are identified by Cicero as he discusses the qualities a good friend should have. There are several intractable virtues of friendship, which must be preserved lest the union be damaged. Cicero's best friend Scipio had recently died at the time of writing - as such, what we may read here was written as a means for the author to cope with a loss he felt difficult.
The second treatise meanwhile contains contemplation upon what it is to be old. Writing so as to echo the much esteemed Cato the Elder, the beauty and profundity of the words in this essay are significant. The clear and plain yet highly eloquent words elaborate on aging and the concerns that arrive with it. The text has been much quoted, and for centuries after its publication in Ancient Rome it was used in Latin tutelage.
Cicero was among the most lauded of Roman officials to have ever lived. His writings are in themselves an authoritative historical source both of Roman civic life and thinking on a variety of subjects and events, with his treatises exemplifying the clarity with which he wrote.
