his adopting father, gave her the entire patrimony that came into his
possession.] of his generosity to his sisters, [Footnote: After his
mother's death, law and custom authorized him to resume what he had
given her, but he bestowed it on his sisters, thus affording them the
means of living comfortably and respectably.] of his integrity in his
relations with all men? How dear he was to the community was shown by
the grief at his funeral. What benefit, then, could he have derived from
a few more years? For, although old age be not burdensome,--as I
remember that Cato, the year before he died, maintained in a
conversation with me and Scipio, [Footnote: The _De Senectute_]--it yet
impairs the fresh vigor which Scipio had not begun to lose. Thus his
life was such that nothing either in fortune or in fame could be added
to it, while the suddenness of his death must have taken away the pain
of dying. Of the mode of his death it is hard to speak with certainty,
you are aware what suspicions are abroad. [Footnote: He retired to his
sleeping apartment apparently in perfect health, and was found dead on
his couch in the morning,--as was rumored, with marks of violence on his
neck. His wife was Sempronia, the sister of the Gracchi whose agrarian
schemes he had vehemently opposed. She was suspected of having at least
given admission to the assassin, and even her mother, the Cornelia who
has been regarded as unparelleled among Roman women for the virutes
appertaining to a wife and mother, did not escape the charge of
complicity. Her son Caius was also among those suspected, but the more
probable opinion is that Papirius Carbo was alone answerable for the
crime. Carbo had been Scipio's most bitter enemy and had endeavoured to
inflame the people against him as their enemy.] But this may be said
with truth that of the many days of surpassing fame and happiness which
Publius Scipio saw in his lifetime, the most glorious was the day before
his death when on the adjournment of the Senate he was escorted home by
the Conscript Fathers, the Roman people, the men of Latium and the