was by his order as Dictator,
by the way, that C. Servilius Ahala, the Master of the Horse, seized
and put to death Spurius Maelius when attempting to obtain royal power.
Curius as well as other old men used to receive their summonses to
attend the Senate in their farm-houses, from which circumstance the
summoners were called _viatores_ or "travellers." Was these men's old
age an object of pity who found their pleasure in the cultivation of the
land? In my opinion, scarcely any life can be more blessed, not alone
from its utility (for agriculture is beneficial to the whole human
race), but also as much from the mere pleasure of the thing, to which
I have already alluded, and from the rich abundance and supply of all
things necessary for the food of man and for the worship of the gods
above. So, as these are objects of desire to certain people, let us
make our peace with pleasure. For the good and hard-working farmer's
wine-cellar and oil-store, as well as his larder, are always well
filled, and his whole farm-house is richly furnished. It abounds in
pigs, goats, lambs, fowls, milk, cheese, and honey. Then there is the
garden, which the farmers themselves call their "second flitch." A zest
and flavour is added to all these by hunting and fowling in spare hours.
Need I mention the greenery of meadows, the rows of trees, the beauty
of vineyard and olive-grove? I 'will put it briefly: nothing can either
furnish necessaries more richly, or present a fairer spectacle, than
well-cultivated land. And to the enjoyment of that, old age does not
merely present no hindrance--it actually invites and allures to it. For
where else can it better warm itself, either by basking in the sun or by
sitting by the fire, or at the proper time cool itself more wholesomely
by the help of shade or water? Let the young keep their arms then to
themselves, their horses, spears, their foils and ball, their swimming
baths and running path. To us old men let them, out of the many forms of
sport, leave dice and counters; but even that as they choose, since old
age can be quite happy without them.

17. Xenophon's books are very useful for many purposes. Pray go on
reading them with attention, as you have ever done. In what ample
terms is agriculture lauded by him in the book about husbanding one's
property, which is called _Oceonomicus_! But to show you that he thought
nothing so worthy of a prince as the taste for cultivating the soil, I
will translate