Page:Cicero - de senectute (on old age) - Peabody 1884.djvu/72

34 often saw Caius Duilius, the son of Marcus, who first gained a naval victory over the Carthaginians, returning home from supper. He took delight in the frequent escort of a torch-bearer and a flute-player,—the first person not actually in office who ventured on such display,—a liberty assumed on the score of his military fame. But why am I talking about others? I now return to my own case. In the first place, I have for many years belonged to a guild. Indeed, guilds were established when I was Quaestor, at the time when the Idaean rites in honor of the Great Mother were adopted in Rome. I then used to feast with my guild fellows, moderately on the whole, yet with something of the joviality that belonged to my earlier years; but with advancing age, day by day, everything is tempered down. Nor did I ever measure my delight