1. Introduction.
2. Reputation of Laelius for wisdom. The
curiosity to know how he bore the death of Scipio.
3. His grounds of consolation in his bereavement
4. He expresses his faith in immortality.
Desires perpetual memory in this world of the friendship
between himself and Scipio.
5. True friendship can exist only among good
men.
6. Friendship defined.
7. Benefits derived from friendship.
8. Friendship founded not on need, but on nature.
9. The relation of utility to friendship.
10. Causes for the separation of friends.
11. How far love for friends may go.
12. Wrong never to be done at a friend’s
request.
13. Theories that degrade friendship
14. How friendships are formed.
15. Friendlessness wretched.
16. The limits of friendship.
17. In what sense and to what degree friends
are united. How friends are to be chosen and
tested.
18. The qualities to be sought in a friend.
19. Old friends not to be forsaken for new.
20. The duties of friendship between persons
differing in ability, rank, or position.
21. How friendships should be dissolved, and
how to guard against the necessity of dissolving them.
22. Unreasonable expectations of friends.
Mutual respect necessary in true friendship.
23. Friendship necessary for all men.
24. Truth-telling, though it often gives offence,
an essential duty from friend to friend.
25. The power of truth. The arts of flattery.
26. Flattery availing only with the feeble-minded.
27. Virtue the soul of friendship. Laelius
describes the intimacy of the friendship between himself
and Scipio.
* * * * *
1. Scipio’s visit to Masinissa. Circumstances
under which the dream occurred.
2. Appearance of the elder Africanus, and of
his own father, to Scipio. Prophecy of Scipio’s
successes and honors, with an intimation of his death
by the hands of his kindred.
3. Conditions on which heaven may be won.
4. The nine spheres that constitute the universe.
5. The music of the spheres.
6. The five zones of the earth.
7. Brevity and worthlessness of earthly fame.
8. All souls eternal.
9. The soul to be trained for immortality.
The fate of those who merge their souls in sense.
De amicitia.
