At the behest of a dream, illustrious Quintillus, I make you a present of the “Octogenarians.” I had the dream and told my friends of it long since, when you were christening your second child. At the time, however, not being able to understand what the god meant by commanding me to “present you the octogenarians,” I merely offered a prayer that you and your children might live very long, thinking that this would benefit not only the whole human race but, more than anyone else, me in person and all my kin; for I too, it seemed, had a blessing predicted for me by the god.
But as I thought the
matter over by myself, I hit upon the idea that very
likely in giving such an order to a literary man, the
gods were commanding him to present you something from his profession. Therefore, on this your
birthday, which I thought the most auspicious
occasion, I give you the men who are related to have
attained great age with a sound mind and a perfect
body. Some profit may accrue to you from the
treatise in two ways : on the one hand, encouragement
and good hopes of being able to live long yourself,
and on the other hand, instruction by examples, if
you observe that it is the men who have paid most