Laelius de Amicitia
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~11,400 words · 54 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). Laelius de Amicitia. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/laelius-de-amicitia
- MLACicero. "Laelius de Amicitia." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/laelius-de-amicitia.
- ChicagoCicero. Laelius de Amicitia. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/laelius-de-amicitia.
What it is about
The Latin original of Cicero's dialogue on friendship, written in 44 BC and put into the mouth of Laelius.
Context and history
Laelius speaks a few days after the death of Scipio Aemilianus, the friend of his whole life, and the dialogue comes out of that loss: what was this thing that has ended. The answer is that friendship can exist only between good men, that it is born of virtue and not of advantage, and that the touchstone is this: ask nothing dishonourable of a friend, and do nothing dishonourable if asked. Written in the same terrible year as the 'De senectute' and likewise dedicated to Atticus — Cicero's own friend, which is no accident — it is the most read text on friendship in ancient literature: Augustine took his definition from it, and Montaigne argues with it when he writes about La Boétie. Short, clear, and written by a man who by then had lost nearly all the friends who appear in it.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Q. Mucius augur multa narrare de C. Laelio socero suo memoriter et iucunde solebat nec dubitare illum in omni sermone appellare sapientem; ego autem a patre ita eram deductus ad Scaevolam sumpta virili toga, ut, quoad possem et liceret, a senis latere numquam discederem; itaque multa ab eo prudenter disputata, multa etiam breviter et commode dicta memoriae mandabam fierique studebam eius prudentia doctior. Quo mortuo me ad pontificem Scaevolam contuli, quem unum nostrae civitatis et ingenio et iustitia praestantissimum audeo dicere. Sed de hoc alias; nunc redeo ad augurem. Cum saepe multa, tum memini domi in hemicyclio sedentem, ut solebat, cum et ego essem una et pauci admodum familiares, in eum sermonem illum incidere qui tum forte multis erat in ore. Meministi enim profecto, Attice, et eo magis, quod P. Sulpicio utebare multum, cum is tribunus plebis capitali odio a Q. Pompeio, qui tum erat consul, dissideret, quocum coniunctissime et amantissime vixerat, quanta esset hominum vel admiratio vel querella. Itaque tum Scaevola cum in eam ipsam mentionem incidisset, exposuit nobis sermonem Laeli de amicitia habitum ab illo secum et cum altero genero, C. Fannio Marci filio, paucis diebus post mortem Africani. Eius disputationis sententias memoriae mandavi, quas hoc libro exposui arbitratu meo; quasi enim ipsos induxi loquentes, ne 'inquam' et 'inquit' saepius interponeretur, atque ut tamquam a praesentibus coram haberi sermo videretur. Cum enim saepe mecum ageres ut de amicitia scriberem aliquid, digna mihi res cum omnium cognitione tum nostra familiaritate visa est. Itaque feci non invitus ut prodessem multis rogatu tuo. Sed ut in Catone Maiore, qui est scriptus ad te de senectute, Catonem induxi senem disputantem, quia nulla videbatur aptior persona quae de illa aetate loqueretur quam eius qui et diutissime senex fuisset et in ipsa senectute praeter ceteros floruisset, sic cum accepissemus a patribus maxime memorabilem C. Laeli et P. Scipionis familiaritatem fuiss