33
Why in ancient days did they never dine out without their sons, even when these were still but children?
33
Did Lycurgus introduce this custom also, and bring boys to the common meals that they might become accustomed to conduct themselves toward their pleasures, not in a brutish or disorderly way, but with discretion, since they had their elders as supervisors and spectators, as it were? No less important is the fact that the fathers themselves would also be more decorous and prudent in the presence of their sons: for where the old are shameless, as Plato Laws, 729 c; also cited or referred to Moralia, 14 b, 71 b, 144 f. remarks, there the young also must needs be lost to all sense of shame.
34
Why is it that while the other Romans make libations and offerings to the dead in the month of February, Decimus Brutus, as Cicero De Legibus, ii. 21. 54. has recorded, used to do so in the month of December? This was the Brutus who invaded Lusitania, and was the first to visit those remote places, and cross the river Lethê with an army.136 b.c. Cf. Appian, Spanish Wars (72), 74; and Florus, Epitome, ii. 17. 12.
34
Since most peoples are accustomed to make offerings to the dead at the close of the day and at the end of the month, is it not reasonable also to honour the dead in the last monthThat is, according to Brutus’s reckoning. For the common people February continued to be the month of the Parentalia, and February was once the last month (Cf. 268 b, supra). at the turn of the year? And December is the last month.
34
Or do these honours belong to deities beneath the earth, and is it the proper season to honour these deities when all the crops have attained consummation?
34
Or is it most fitting to remember those below when men are stirring the earth at the beginning of seed-time?
34
Or is it because this month has been consecrated to Saturn by the Romans, and they regard Saturn as an infernal, not a celestial god?
