An Ancient Guide to Aging—Part Two: Sensual Pleasure and Death

Cicero, sensual pleasures and death

Cicero, sensual pleasures and death

Last week I wrote a post on Cicero’s first two points about old age. You may remember that he wrote an essay, On Old Age, when he was 62.

Most of his essay is given to discussion of four reasons for unhappiness in old age. Cicero refutes the notion that old age is necessarily unhappy by offering prescriptions for its common complaints. His first two arguments counter the charges that old age withdraws us from active employments, and that old age takes our bodily strength. His last two deal with sensual pleasures and death.

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