On Old Age Passage 30

Cyrus quidem apud Xenophontem eo sermone, quem moriens habuit, cum admodum senex esset, negat se umquam sensisse senectutem suam imbecilliorem factam quam adulescentia fuisset. ego L. Metellum memini puer, qui, cum quadriennio post alterum consulatum pontifex maximus factus esset, viginti et duos annos ei sacerdotio praefuit, ita bonis esse viribus extremo tempore aetatis, ut adulescentiam non requireret. nihil necesse est mihi de me ipso dicere, quamquam est id quidem senile aetatique nostrae conceditur.

In Xenophon, Cyrus, in the speech he delivered while dying at a very advanced age, says that he had never felt his old age become weaker than his youth had been. As a boy, I remember Lucius Metellus, who was made chief pontiff four years after his second consulship and presided over that priesthood for twenty-two years. At the very end of his life he possessed such sound strength that he did not miss his youth. I need say nothing about myself, although doing so is characteristic of old men and is allowed to our age.

Chez Xénophon, Cyrus, dans le discours qu’il prononce en mourant à un âge très avancé, affirme n’avoir jamais senti sa vieillesse devenir plus faible que ne l’avait été sa jeunesse. Je me souviens, lorsque j’étais enfant, de Lucius Metellus. Devenu grand pontife quatre ans après son second consulat, il présida ce sacerdoce durant vingt-deux ans. À l’extrême fin de sa vie, il conservait des forces telles qu’il ne regrettait pas sa jeunesse. Il n’est pas nécessaire que je parle de moi-même, bien que cela soit assurément un privilège de vieillard que l’on accorde à notre âge.