On a Proverb

Bos lassus fortius figat pedem Divus Hieronymus oppido quam elegens adagium usurpavit ad beatum Aurelium Augustinum scribens eumque deterre cupiens, ne juvenis senem provocet. Propterea quod tardius quidem ad pugnam excitantur hi, qui jam sunt aetate quasi fessi, verum iidem gravius saeviunt atque urgent, si quando senilis illa virtus irritata recaluit: Memento, inquit, Daretis et Entelli et vulgaris proverbii, quod bos lassus fortius figat pedem. A veteri triturae more ductum apparet, cum circumactis a bubus super manipulos plaustris grana excutiebantur, partim a rotis in hoc armatis, partim a taurorum ungulis. Et lex illa Mosaica, quam citat apostolus Paulus ad Timotheum, vetat, ne bovi trituranti os obligetur. Itaque bos lassus, quoniam gravius figit pedem, magis est ad trituram idoneus. At non item equus ad cursum. Potest allusum videri et ad hoc, quod juvenes corporis agilitate praepollent, senes in stataria pugna ac viribus superiores sunt, id quod et Vergilius in Daretis et Entelli congressu declarat. Nec admodum hinc abludit illud, quod in Graecorum collectaneis positum reperio, Ἀρτέμας Βοῦς, id est, Lente bos, subaudiendum movet pedem. Nam sensim quidem movet, at gravius premit. Adagia,I,47, Erasmus

The weary ox fixes a firmer foot. Saint Jerome with more utility than elegance took up the adage when he wrote to the Blessed Aurelius Augustine wishing to deter him lest youth provoke old age. Accordingly those who are already wearied with years are more slowly roused to fight but greater is their violence and drive when the strength of their old age is warmed by anger. 'Remember,' he says, 'Dares and Entellus and the common proverb that the weary ox fixes a firmer foot.' It seems that of old it was the custom to use oxen to thresh the bundles of the threshing floor, partly by binding them to a millstone and partly by use of the hooves of the creatures. And the Mosaic Law, which the Apostle Paul cites to Timothy, prohibits the binding of the mouth of the ox so used. Thus a weary ox, because he treads more heavily is better able to thresh the wheat. One does not use the same horse for every race. It seems that for games that the body of a youth would excel but in a toe to toe fight the elder man is superior, which is what Virgil declares in the encounter of Dares and Entellus. Nor does he sing out of tune in that, for in the Greek collections I find it is given as 'Slowly the Ox', by which should be understood its step, for prudently it moves and it presses down mightily.  The Adages, I, 47, Erasmus