Date of de Senectute: 44 B.C. The work, therefore, belongs to the main period of Cicero's philosophical writing.

The main claim of the Cato to be read in modern times is its charm as a literary work and its interest as a document of Roman humanism. J. G. F. Powell

1. A universal subject

2. Source for Roman ideals and values, the Roman character

3. Influence of Greek philosophy combined with Roman practicality and personality.

4. Digressions: show a complete, though idealized, man with various interests and pastimes.

5. Name-dropping: a human weakness to say, for example "my friend Ennius." (Cf. H. N. Couch, Cicero on the Art of Growing Old.) But it is also part of the theme: an old man just by living for a long time becomes a bridge between the generations.

Cicero's humanized and idealized Cato becomes part of all the military, political, and cultural history of Rome, a spokesman for civilization. What does this Cato read? Of course the Greek and Roman "greats" but also tombstones so that the bridging of the generations is a conscious effort.

The Roman sees himself as a representative of his civilization: he reflects it (consciously). Cicero has made Cato a complete man (an archaic Cicero).

All the names dropped have educational value. And the whole becomes an example in itself: Cato is the representative of the highest man can achieve through a disciplined life in service to the state with his leisure spent in reading and studying, his pleasure in farming and his old age in consciousness of a life well spent with many great deeds and great men to remember, active up to his last days.

6. The Metaphors

• Drama
• Nature and Agriculture
• The Journey
• The Army