Fading With Age

Long before living memory our ancestral way of life produced outstanding men, and those excellent men preserved the old way of life and the institutions of their forefathers. Our generation, however, after inheriting our political organization like a magnificent picture now fading with age, not only neglected to restore its original colours but did not even bother to ensure that it retained its basic form and, as it were, its faintest outlines. 

What remains of those ancient customs on which he [Ennius] said the state of Rome stood firm? We see them so ruined by neglect that not only do they go unobserved, they are no longer known. And what shall I say of the men? It is the lack of such men that has led to the disappearance of those customs. 

Of this great tragedy we are not only bound to give a description; we must somehow defend ourselves as if we were arraigned on a capital charge. For it is not by some accident—no, it is because of our own moral failings—that we are left with the name of the Republic, having long since lost its substance. 

- Cicero, De re publica (On The Republic or On The Commonwealth); via Laudator Temporis Acti

De re publica was composed by Cicero (106-43 BC) between 54 and 51 as a series of dialogues set in the prior century.  The sixth and final book of De re publica is The Dream Of Scipio (Somnium Scipionis), of which I've previously written in Mastering The Tides Of The World, a post that also describes Cicero's fate amid the wreckage of the faded Republic.

Large parts of the dialogues have been lost over the ages.  The quote is from the fifth book of the dialogues which focuses on the role a citizen should play in government.

Cicero wrote the dialogues during the last years of the Republic.  From the time of the Social War (90-88 BC) the Republic staggered on, its long-standing institutions not capable of addressing the social tensions arising from the city's domination of the Mediterranean.   As it was being written, Caesar was conquering Gaul and shared in the triumvirate of Pompey and Crassus, the latter dying at Carrhae in 53 in his failed quest to conquer the Parthians.  

Caesar would cross the Rubicon in 49, plunging Rome into civil war.  Pompey was killed in 48. Emerging triumphant in 45, Caesar would be murdered a few months later, followed by Cicero's death the following year.  The Republic was dead.

You can read more about Cicero in Cicero And His Friends and Ciceroing.