reed of dogs;
but every one, according to his ability, provides himself with some, in
order to be torn by them; and they hold that to be the best kind of
interment. Chrysippus, who is curious in all kinds of historical facts,
has collected many other things of this kind, but some of them are so
offensive as not to admit of being related. All that has been said of
burying, is not worth our regard with respect to ourselves, though it is
not to be neglected as to our friends, provided we are thoroughly aware
that the dead are insensible; but the living, indeed, should consider what
is due to custom and opinion, only they should at the same time consider
that the dead are no ways interested in it. But death truly is then met
with the greatest tranquillity, when the dying man can comfort himself
with his own praise. No one dies too soon who has finished the course of
perfect virtue. I myself have known many occasions when I have seemed in
danger of immediate death; oh! how I wish it had come to me, for I have
gained nothing by the delay. I had gone over and over again the duties of
life; nothing remained but to contend with fortune. If reason, then,
cannot sufficiently fortify us to enable us to feel a contempt for death,
at all events, let our past life prove that we have lived long enough, and
even longer than was necessary; for notwithstanding the deprivation of
sense, the dead are not without that good which peculiarly belongs to
them, namely, the praise and glory which they have acquired, even though
they are not sensible of it. For although there be nothing in glory to
make it desirable, yet it follows virtue as its shadow. And the genuine
judgment of the multitude on good men, if ever they form any, is more to
their own praise, than of any real advantage to the dead; yet I cannot
say, however it may be received, that Lycurgus and Solon have no glory
from their laws, and from the political constitution which they
established in their country; or that Themistocles and Epaminondas have
not glory from their martial virtue.

XLVI. For Neptune shall sooner bury Salamis itself with his waters, than
the memory of the trophies gained there; and the Boeotian Leuetra shall
perish, sooner than the glory of that great battle. And longer still shall
fame be before it deserts Curius, and Fabricius, and Calatinus, and the
two Scipios, and the two Africani, and Maximus, and Marcellus, and Paulus,
and Cato, and Laelius, and numberless o