Spoken Latin: How Cato resists old age

Today Daniel dis­cuss­es two pas­sages from Cicero’s On old age (De Senec­tute) in which Cicero uses Cato to express how to resist old age and how to take care of your phys­i­cal being as well as your mem­o­ry and wits. Daniel goes through the pas­sages, explains dif­fi­cult parts and pon­ders the advice giv­en by Cicero’s Cato—all in Latin.

More lessons on De senec­tute : What does Onus Aet­na grav­ius mean?

Video in Latin

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Latin text (De Senectute 35–6, 38)

[…]

Resisten­dum, Laeli et Sci­pio, senec­tu­ti est, eiusque vitia dili­gen­tia com­pen­san­da sunt, pug­nan­dum tamquam con­tra mor­bum sic con­tra senectutem;

[36] haben­da ratio vale­tu­di­nis, uten­dum exerci­ta­tion­ibus mod­i­cis, tan­tum cibi et potio­n­is adhiben­dum ut refi­ciantur vires, non opp­ri­man­tur. Nec vero cor­pori solum sub­ve­nien­dum est, sed men­ti atque ani­mo mul­to magis; nam haec quoque, nisi tamquam lumi­ni oleum instilles, exstin­gu­un­tur senec­tute. Et cor­po­ra qui­dem exerci­ta­tion­um defati­ga­tione ingraves­cunt, ani­mi autem exercendo levantur. 

[…]

Sep­ti­mus mihi liber Orig­inum est in manibus; omnia antiq­ui­tatis mon­u­men­ta col­li­go; causarum inlus­tri­um quas­cumque defen­di nunc cum maxime con­fi­cio ora­tiones; ius auguri­um, pon­tif­i­ci­um, civile trac­to; mul­tum eti­am Grae­cis lit­teris utor, Pythagore­o­rumque more exercendae memo­ri­ae gra­tia, quid quoque die dix­erim, audier­im, egerim, com­mem­o­ro ves­peri. Hae sunt exerci­ta­tiones ingeni, haec cur­ric­u­la men­tis, in his desu­dans atque elab­o­rans cor­poris vires non mag­no opere desidero.