Old at 35!?! Wow ....just wow. I try to roll play so that means new generals go straight to Roma and "study" for 4 years. They get lots of good managment/influence traits and such then at 20 they are shipped off to perform Tribune duties in the military until 30 and they either take over as general or become a gov in a city. In the big consular armies I will only ever use a general 40+ and retire them at 60. This means I always have 2 generals in my armies one acting as the tribune. So 22 or whatnot is really young to retire a general as far as I am concerned he hasn't even started his life yet. :p