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Spoken Latin: How Cato resists old age

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Today Daniel dis­cuss­es two pas­sages from Cicero’s On old age (De Senec­tute) in which Cicero uses Cato to express how to resist old age and how to take care of your phys­i­cal being as well as your mem­o­ry and wits. Daniel goes through the pas­sages, explains dif­fi­cult parts and pon­ders the advice giv­en by Cicero’s Cato—all in Latin.

More lessons on De senec­tute : What does Onus Aet­na grav­ius mean?

Video in Latin

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Latin text (De Senectute 35–6, 38)

[…]

Resisten­dum, Laeli et Sci­pio, senec­tu­ti est, eiusque vitia dili­gen­tia com­pen­san­da sunt, pug­nan­dum tamquam con­tra mor­bum sic con­tra senectutem;

[36] haben­da ratio vale­tu­di­nis, uten­dum exerci­ta­tion­ibus mod­i­cis, tan­tum cibi et potio­n­is adhiben­dum ut refi­ciantur vires, non opp­ri­man­tur. Nec vero cor­pori solum sub­ve­nien­dum est, sed men­ti atque ani­mo mul­to magis; nam haec quoque, nisi tamquam lumi­ni oleum instilles, exstin­gu­un­tur senec­tute. Et cor­po­ra qui­dem exerci­ta­tion­um defati­ga­tione ingraves­cunt, ani­mi autem exercendo levantur. 

[…]

Sep­ti­mus mihi liber Orig­inum est in manibus; omnia antiq­ui­tatis mon­u­men­ta col­li­go; causarum inlus­tri­um quas­cumque defen­di nunc cum maxime con­fi­cio ora­tiones; ius auguri­um, pon­tif­i­ci­um, civile trac­to; mul­tum eti­am Grae­cis lit­teris utor, Pythagore­o­rumque more exercendae memo­ri­ae gra­tia, quid quoque die dix­erim, audier­im, egerim, com­mem­o­ro ves­peri. Hae sunt exerci­ta­tiones ingeni, haec cur­ric­u­la men­tis, in his desu­dans atque elab­o­rans cor­poris vires non mag­no opere desidero. 

Daniel Pettersson

Daniel Pettersson

Teacher and author Daniel Pettersson, M.A., is co-founder of Latinitium and is currently teaching Latin at Stockholm University, where he is also working on his Ph.D. dissertation on Humanist Colloquia. Daniel believes in the importance of Latin literature in the modern world and that you can teach yourself Latin with the right motivation, method, and material.
Written by Daniel Pettersson

Written by Daniel Pettersson

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