Sue,—In an article on " The Power of Old Age
" in the Spectator of March 4th occurs the statement: " The chief controlling influence throughout the whole history of Rome was the Senate, of which no Roman might become a member until he had passed the age of sixty." Surely a remarkable proposition, seeing that up till the time of Sulla a man became eligible for the Senate after holding the Quaestorship, an office to which he might attain at the age of twenty-eight.
After Sulla, the age for the Quaestorship was raised to thirty, and all ex-Quaestors became ipso facto Senators. Can it be that the contributor of the article was betrayed into the statement by reminiscences of the white-bearded Senators, who were insulted by the troops of Brennus, or by a miscon- ception of the term "patres," as to which Cicero definitely says "appellati sunt propter caritatem patres "; and Livy : "patres ab honors appellati" P Dr. Osier, with his retire- at-sixty doctrine, suggests the following :—
Applaud ye now the new-established cult Of euthanasia for the tired adult—
After twelve lustres of life's stress and storm A painless exit gained by chloroform.
Osier, thy name through ages shall be sung, That thou did'st make mankind for ever young.
—I am, Sir, &c., W. HENRY GEE.
County School, Bedford.
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