Cicero: On Old Age On Friendship On Divination (Loeb Classical Library No. 154)

As I enter advanced old age at 79, this book helped me by providing very thoughtful and sensitive insights into the reality of the situation. I read both of these works at the university. Reading both now at the other end of the spectrum is a much more intense experience.

Classic Cicero! Given to one of my son’s friends in Latin class, this book is timeless and encourages practicing Latin!

The book arrived quickly and in great shape.

Cicero is my jam. I love the side by side English and Latin.

Those who don't know Cicero should get acquainted. His wisdom on old age and friendship are as useful today as in his times.

I've spent a lifetime with LOEB translations in Greek and Latin. I appreciate how the then-translators fit in their day-to-day work with that of translating. That information in itself makes continuing the "traditio" sacred in itself.

This volume of Cicero covers Friendship, Divination and Old Age. All these topics are relevant to me in my study of late Roman friendship, age and religion in my Research Degree. It has the usual Loeb qualities of ease of reading and convenience - even though the translation is a bit dated.

There may be some excuse for a non-literal translation for a publication without the original, if the translator thinks that his style will keep the reader reading while Cicero won’t. But someone reading a Loeb presumably is trying to understand what Cicero actually said, so, for instance, it is inexcusable for Professor Falconer to translate “is qui te adoptavit” as “your adoptive father” rather than “he who adopted you.” This is particularly harmful as it suggests an echo of a nearby actual use of ”patrius.“ Cicero himself is intermittently helpful about coping with the problems of aging. Too much on those who didn’t have such problems, and too much for my taste on the joy of farming, but some helpful observations for lockdown, e.g. “tamen me lectulus meus oblectaret ea ipsa cogitantem, quae iam agere non possem.” (“nevertheless, my [reading] couch would afford me delight while reflecting on the very things that I lacked the strength to do”.)

exactly as described