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Cicero
2. Date of Composition
In a letter to Atticus written on May 11, 44 B.C. (Ad Att. XIV.21), Cicero speaks of the Cato Maior as then already written. In the De divinatione it is referred to as a recent work. It followed the De natura deorum which was not completed until late in August 45. While there can be no certainty as to the exact time of composition the probability is that it was written between p4December 15, 45 and January 3, 44 B.C. It was not fully revised, however, until July 17, 44 (ad Att. XVI.3).1
3. Title
Cicero once refers to this essay as O Tite, si quid (ad Att. XVI.3), from its initial words; once as De Senectute (De div. II.3), and twice as Cato Maior (Lael. 4; ad Att. XIV.21). Its full title is Cato Maior de senectute.
4. Dedication to Atticus
The Cato Maior and the Laelius are both dedicated to Titus Pomponius Atticus, who was born at Rome in 109 B.C. His friendship with Cicero began in childhood and continued until Cicero's death in 43 B.C. From about 88 to 65 B.C., Atticus lived in Athens, devoting himself to the study of Greek philosophy and literature. He wrote Latin verses, which are highly commended by his biographer Cornelius Nepos, Roman Annales, a genealogical history of Roman families and a history in Greek of Cicero's consulship. He died in 32 B.C., at the age of 77, highly esteemed by the Emperor Augustus Caesar and by the leading Romans of his day. More than 400 letters from Cicero extant to prove the rare intimacy and deep affection existing between these two remarkable men.
Publius Scipio Africanus Minor was born about 185 B.C. He was the son by birth of Lucius Aemilius p6Paulus, and the son by adoption of Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of Africanus the Elder. He was a great student and a patron of Greek and Roman letters, and numbered among his intimate friends Polybius, the Greek historian; Panaetius the Stoic, and the Roman poets Lucullus and Terence. At the age of seventeen he fought under his father Paulus at Pydna, and in 151 B.C. was military tribune in Spain. In 148, though only a candidate for the aedileship, he was elected consul. As consul a second time he destroyed Carthage in 146. Thirteen years later, in his third consulship, he captured Numantia. His death occurred in 129 and was due, it was thought, to violence. Carbo, the popular leader, was suspected of having strangled him in his bed as he slept. According to the evidence of Cicero and Polybius (Hist. XXXII.9-16),a Scipio was one of the purest and noblest men in history.
Thayer's Notes:
a So the Loeb introduction; but Book XXXII of Polybius doesn't once mention Scipio, whose character is praised at length in X.2 ff. b This sentence, bracketed in the print edition in front of me, cannot of course have been written by Falconer, and is properly still under copyright. It is so brief as surely to fall under fair use. Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.) UP TO: Cicero Classical Texts LacusCurtius
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