Page:Cicero - de senectute (on old age) - Peabody 1884.djvu/76

38 the last moment occupied in measuring heaven and earth. How often did the morning light overtake him when he had begun some problem by night, and the night when he had begun in the early morning! How did he delight to predict to us far in advance the eclipses of the sun and moon! What pleasure have old men taken in pursuits less recondite, yet demanding keenness and vigor of mind! How did Naevius rejoice in his Punic War! Plautus in his Truculentus,—in his Pseudolus! I saw also Livius in his old age, who, having brought out a play six years before I was born, in the consulship of Cento and Tuditanus, continued before the public till I was almost a man. What shall I say of the devotion of Publius Licinius Crassus to the study of pontifical and civil law? What of the similar diligence of this