Cicero on Old Age: De Senectute (1884 Translation by Andrew P. Peabody)
Book details
- Title
- Cicero on Old Age: De Senectute (1884 Translation by Andrew P. Peabody)
- Author
- Andrew P Peabody
- Publication year listed
- 1884
- Format
- Public domain eBook
- Reading access
- Free online reader; no registration required
- Source record
- View on Archive.org
About this book
Cicero on Old Age: De Senectute (1884 Translation by Andrew P. Peabody)
Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero (author); Andrew P. Peabody (translator)
Year: 1884
Cicero. Cicero De Senectute [On Old Age]. Translated by Andrew P. Peabody, Little, Brown, and Co., 1884. Historical, Political, and Philosophical Context Cicero De Senectute was written around 45–44 BCE, during a time of personal withdrawal for Cicero from Roman political life following the death of Julius Caesar and just before the rise of Mark Antony. The treatise reflects Cicero’s engagement with Greek philosophical traditions, especially Stoicism and Platonism, and forms part of a productive period at his Tusculan villa during which he composed several philosophical works. Set as a fictional dialogue between the venerable Cato the Elder and the younger Scipio and Laelius, the text addresses the challenges and dignity of aging within a Roman cultural framework. Cicero, though politically disillusioned, uses philosophy to affirm the enduring value of virtue and reason, suggesting that the decline of the Republic might still be resisted through moral endurance and the cultivation of the soul. Epistemology: How Knowledge is Treated Cicero presents knowledge not as something dependent on youth or physical vitality but as a power sustained through lifelong discipline and reflection.