De amīcitia

De amīcitia (‘on friendship’), also known as Laelius, dialogue by Cicero ((1) 5) composed in 44 BC and addressed to Atticus. The dialogue is supposed to take place in 129 BC. shortly after the death of Scipio Aemilianus. The interlocutors are Laelius, the intimate friend of Scipio, and his two sons-in-law, C. Fannius and the augur Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Cicero in his youth had received instruction in the law from Scaevola and had heard him, he tells us, repeat the conversation. Laelius in his discourse discusses the nature of friendship and the principles by which it should be governed. The conclusion is that friendship is founded on, and preserved by, virtue; for it owes to virtue the harmony, permanence, and loyalty that are its essential features. This is one of the most admired of Cicero's dialogues for its dignity and calm and for the melodious quality of its prose. It was one of the two books in which Dante found consolation for the death of Beatrice.