Laelius de Amicitia
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~11,400 words · 54 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). Laelius de Amicitia. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/laelius-de-amicitia
- MLACicero. Laelius de Amicitia. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/laelius-de-amicitia.
- ChicagoCicero. Laelius de Amicitia. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/laelius-de-amicitia.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
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.
Cum illo vero quis neget actum esse praeclare? Nisi enim, quod ille minime putabat, immortalitatem optare vellet, quid non adeptus est quod homini fas esset optare? qui summam spem civium, quam de eo iam puero habuerant, continuo adulescens incredibili virtute superavit, qui consulatum petivit numquam, factus consul est bis, primum ante tempus, iterum sibi suo tempore, rei publicae paene sero, qui duabus urbibus eversis inimicissimis huic imperio non modo praesentia verum etiam futura bella delevit. Quid dicam de moribus facillimis, de pietate in matrem, liberalitate in sorores, bonitate in suos, iustitia in omnes? nota sunt vobis. Quam autem civitati carus fuerit, maerore funeris indicatum est. Quid igitur hunc paucorum annorum accessio iuvare potuisset? Senectus enim quamvis non sit gravis, ut memini Catonem anno ante quam est mortuus mecum et cum Scipione disserere, tamen aufert eam viriditatem in qua etiam nunc erat Scipio. Quam ob rem vita quidem talis fuit vel fortuna vel gloria, ut nihil posset accedere, moriendi autem sensum celeritas abstulit; quo de genere mortis difficile dictu est; quid homines suspicentur, videtis; hoc vere tamen licet dicere, P. Scipioni ex multis diebus, quos in vita celeberrimos laetissimosque viderit, illum diem clarissimum fuisse, cum senatu dimisso domum reductus ad vesperum est a patribus conscriptis, populo Romano, sociis et Latinis, pridie quam excessit e vita, ut ex tam alto dignitatis gradu ad superos videatur deos potius quam ad inferos pervenisse. Neque enim assentior iis qui haec nuper disserere coeperunt, cum corporibus simul animos interire atque omnia morte deleri; plus apud me antiquorum auctoritas valet, vel nostrorum maiorum, qui mortuis tam religiosa iura tribuerunt, quod non fecissent profecto si nihil ad eos pertinere arbitrarentur, vel eorum qui in hac terra fuerunt magnamque Graeciam, quae nunc quidem deleta est, tum florebat, institutis et praeceptis suis erudierunt, vel eius qui Apollinis oraculo…