On Old Age, On Friendship, On Divination

When, by Caesar's complete dominance of the courts and the Senate, Cicero had been excluded from those activities in which he had spent thirty brilliant and laborious years, he was forced to find some other outlet for his tireless energy of mind and body. Full of grief for the downfall of the Republic, harassed by debt and struggling under an almost intolerable weight of domestic sorrows, he turned to the writing of philosophic books as the surest relief from trouble and as the best means of serving his country. Early in 46 B.C., he withdrew from Rome to the quiet of his country places, and in that year published Paradoxa, Partitiones oratoriae, Orator, De claris oratoribus, and, probably, Hortensius. In February 45 the death of his adored and only daughter drove him into a frenzy of writing in an effort to forget his grief. In an incredibly short time he produced, in the years 45 and 44, Consolatio, De finibus, Tusculanae disputationes, De natura deorum, Cato Maior, De divinatione, De fato, De gloria, De amicitia, Topica, and De officiis. The De officiis, finished in November, closed his literary career.

2. DATE OF COMPOSITION

In a letter to Atticus written on May 11, 44 B.C. (Ad Att. xiv. 21), Cicero speaks of the Cato Maior as then already written. In the De divinatione it is referred to as a recent work. It followed the De natura deorum which was not completed until late in August 45. While there can be no certainty as to the exact time of composition the probability is that it was written between