[44]
Why then, do I dwell at such length on pleasure?
Because the fact that old age feels little longing
for sensual pleasures not only is no cause for reproach,
but rather is ground for the highest praise. Old
age lacks the heavy banquet, the loaded table, and
the oft-filled cup; therefore it also lacks drunkenness, indigestion, and loss of sleep. But if some
concession must be made to pleasure, since her
allurements are difficult to resist, and she is, as Plato
happily says, “the bait of sin,”1 —evidently because
men are caught therewith like fish—then I admit
that old age, though it lacks immoderate banquets,
may find delight in temperate repasts. Gaius
Duellius, son of Marcus, and the first Roman to win a
naval victory over the Carthaginians, was often seen
by me in my childhood, when he was an old man,
returning home from dining out, attended, as was
his delight, by a torch-bearer and flute-player—an
ostentation which as a private citizen he had assumed,
though without precedent: but that much licence
did his glory give him.
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