of the Augurs was due to illness, not to grief.

LAELIUS. You were in the right, Scaevola, and spoke the truth; for it
was not fitting, had I been in good health, for me to be detained by my
own sad feeling from this duty, which I have never failed to discharge;
nor do I think that a man of firm mind can be so affected by any
calamity as to neglect his duty. It is, indeed, friendly in you,
Fannius, to tell me that better things are said of me than I feel worthy
of or desire to have said; but it seems to me that you underrate Cato.
For either there never was a wise man (and so I am inclined to think),
or if there has been such a man, Cato deserves the name. To omit other
things, how nobly did he bear his son's death! I remembered Paulus,
[Footnote: Paulus Aemilius, who lost two sons, one a few days before,
the other shortly after, the triumph decreed to him for the conquest of
the Macedonian King Perseus.] I had seen Gallus,[Footnote: Gaius
Sulpicius Gallus, mentioned as an astronomer by Cicero, _De Officiis_,
i. 6, and _De Senectute_, 14.] in their bereavements. But they lost
boys; Cato, a man in his prime and respected by all.[Footnote: The
younger Cato had won fame as a soldier and distinguished eminence as a
jurist. At the time of his death he was praetor elect.] Beware how you
place in higher esteem than Cato even the man whom Apollo, as you say,
pronounced superlatively wise; for it is the deeds of Cato, the sayings
of Socrates, that are held in honor. Thus far in reply to Fannius. As
regards myself, I will now answer both of you.

3. Were I to deny that I feel the loss of Scipio, while I leave it to
those who profess themselves wise in such matters to say whether I ought
to feel it, I certainly should be uttering a falsehood. I do indeed feel
my bereavement of such a friend as I do not expect ever to have again,
and as I am sure I never had beside. But I need no comfort from without,