No More Learning

regarded as a novus homo, and the feeling of his Cato is represented to have said, that he served
unmeet position, working along with the conscious his first campaign in his 17th year, when Hannibal
ness of inherent superiority, contributed to exas- was over-running Italy. Plutarch, who had the
perate and stimulate his ambitious soul. Early in works of Cato before him, but was careless in dates,
life, he so far eclipsed the previous glimmer of his did not observe that the reckoning of Livy would
race, that he is constantly spoken of, not only as take back Cato's 17th year to B. c. 222, when there
the leader, but as the founder, of the Porcia Gens. was not a Carthaginian in Italy, whereas the
His ancestors for three generations had been reckoning of Cicero would make the truth of Cato's
named M. Porcius, and it is said by Plutarch statement reconcileable with the date of Hannibal's
(Cato Maj. 1), that at first he was known by the first invasion.
additional cognomen Priscus, but was afterwards When Cato was a very young man, the death of
called Cato—a word denoting that practical wis his father put him in possession of a small heredi-
dom which is the result of natural sagacity, com- tary estate in the Sabine territory, at a distance
bined with experience of civil and political affairs. from his native town. It was here that he passed
However, it may well be doubted whether Priscus, the greater part is boyhood, hardening his body
like Major, were not merely an epithet used to dis- by healthful exercise, snperintending and sharing
tinguish him from the later Cato of Utica, and we the operations of the farm, learning the manner in
have no precise information as to the date when he which business was transacted, and studying the
first received the appellation of Cato, which may rules of rural economy. Near his estate was an
have been bestowed in childhood rather as an omen humble cottage which had been tenanted, after three
of eminence, than as a tribute to past desert. triumphs, by its owner M. Curius Dentatus, whose
The qualities implied in the word Cato were ac- warlike exploits and rigidly simple character were
knowledged by the plainer and less archaïc title of fresh in the memory of the old, and were often
Sapiens, by which he was so well known in bis talked of with admiration in the neighbourhood.
old age, that Cicero (Amic. 2) says, it became his The ardour of the youthful Cato was kindled.
quasi cognomen. From the number and eloquence He resolved to imitate the character, and hoped to
of his speeches, he was styled orator (Justin, rival the glory, of Dentatus. Opportunity was not
xxxiii. 2; Gell. xvii. 21), but Cato the Ce or wanting : in the school of Hannibal he took his
Cato Censorius, is now his most common, as well first military lessons, namely in the campaign of
his most characteristic appellation, since he filled B. C. 217. There is some discrepancy among his-
the office of censor with extraodinary repute, and torians as to the events of Cato's early military life.
was the only Cato who ever filled it.
In B. c. 214 he served at Capua, and Drumann
In order to ascertain the date of Cato's birth, (Gesch. Roms, v. p. 99) imagines that already, at
we have to consider the testimony of ancient wri- the age of 20, he was a military tribune. Fabius
ters as to his age at the time of his death, which is Maximus had now the comniand in Campania,
known to have happened B. c. 149. How far we | during the year of his fourth consulship. The old


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CATO.
637
CATO.
general admitted the young soldier to the honour of martial spirit and eloquent tongue. He knew how
intimate acquaintance. While Fabius communi-much courage and eloquence were prized at Rome.
cated the valued results of military experience, he He knew that the distinctions of the battle-field
omitted not to instil his own personal and political opened the way to the successes of the gown; and
partialities and dislikes into the ear of his attached that, for a municipal stranger like Cato, forensic
follower. At the siege of Tarentum, B. C. 209, success was almost the only possible avenue to
Cato was again at the side of Fabius. Two years magisterial honours. Accordingly, he recommended
later, Cato was one of the select band who accom- Cato to transplant his anibition to the fitter soil
panied the consul Claudius Nero on his northern and ampler field of Rome. The advice was eagerly
march from Lucania to check the progress of Has followed. Invited to the town-house of Flaccus,
drubal. It recorded that the services of Cato and countenanced by his support, Cato began to
contributed not a little to the decisive victory of distinguish himself in the forum, and became a
Sena on the Metaurus, where Hasdrubal was candidate for office.
slain.
We have dwelt upon the accidents of his early
In the intervals of war, Cato returned to his history, since they affected the whole tenor of
Sabine farm, using the plainest dress, and working Cato's life. We have seen a youth, indomitably
and faring like his labourers. Young as he was, active and strong-minded - the fellow-workman
the neighbouring farmers liked his hardy mode of and oracle of rustics—not suffered to droop from
living, relished his quaint and sententious sayings, want of practice or encouragement, but befriended
and recognized his abilities. His own active tem- by opportunity and always equal to the exigencies
perament made him willing and anxious to employ of his position, disciplined in the best school of
his powers in the service of his neighbours. He arms, the favourite of his general, listened to with
was engaged to act, sometimes as an arbiter of dis- applause in the courts of Rome, and introduced at
putes, and sometimes as an ad vocate, in local causes, once into a high political circle. What wonder if,
which were probably tried before recuperatores in in such scenes, the mind of Cato received a better
the country. Thus was he enabled to strengthen training for wide command and worldly success
by practice his oratorical faculties, to gain self-than could have been supplied by a more regular
confidence, to observe the manners of men, to dive education ? What wonder if his strength and
into the springs of human nature, to apply the rules originality were tinged with dogmatism, coarse-
of law, and practically to investigate the principles ness, harshness, vanity, self-sufficiency, and pre-
of justice.
judice,-if he had little sympathy with the pursuits
În the vicinity of Cato's Sabine farm was the of calm and contemplative scholars,—if he disdain-
estate of L. Valerius Flaccus, a young nobleman of ed or hated or disparaged the accomplishments
considerable influence, and high patrician family. which he had no leisure to master,-if he railed
Flaccus could not belp remarking the energy of and rebelled against the conventional elegancies of
Caro, his military talent, his eloquence, bis frugal | a more polished society to which he and his party
and simple life, and his old-fashioned principles. were opposed,—if he confounded delicacy of sen-
Flaccus himself was one of that old-fashioned party timent with unmanly weakness, and refinement of
who professed their adherence to the severer vir- manners with luxurious vice ?
tues of the ancient Roman character. There was In B. C. 205, Cato was designated quaestor, and
now in progress a transition from Samnite rusticity in the following year entered upon the duties of
to Grecian civilization and oriental voluptuousness. his office, and followed P. Scipio Africanus to
The chief magistracies of the state had become al- Sicily. When Scipio, acting on the permission
most the patrimony of a few distinguished families, which, after much opposition, he had obtained from
whose wealth was correspondent with their illus- the senate, transported the army from the island
trious birth. Popular by lavish expenditure, by into Africa, Cato and C. Laelius were appointed to
acts of graceful but corrupting munificence, by convoy the baggage-ships. There was not that
winning manners, and by the charm of hereditary cordiality of co-operation between Cato and Scipio
honours, they united with the influence of office which ought to subsist between a quaestor and his
the material power conferred by a numerous reti- proconsul. Fabius had opposed the permission
nue of clients and adherents, and the intellectual given to Scipio to carry the attack into the enemy's
ascendancy which the monopoly of philosophical home, and Cato, whose appointment was intended
education, of taste in the fine arts, and of acquain- to operate as a check upon Scipio, adopted the
tarce with elegant literature, could not fail to be views of his friend. It is reported by Plutarch,
stow. Nevertheless, the reaction was strong. The that the lax discipline of the troops under Scipio's
less fortunate nobles jealous of this exclusive oli- command, and the extravagant expense incurred by
garchy, and keenly observant of the degeneracy the general, provoked the remonstrance of Cato;
and disorder which followed in the train of luxury, that Scipio thereupon retorted haughtily, saying
placed theinselves at the head of a party which he would give an account of victories, not of pelf:
professed its determination to resort to purer mo- that Cato, returning to Rome, denounced the pro-
dels and to stand upon the ancient ways. In their digality of his general to the senate; and that, at
eyes, rusticity, austerity, and asceticism were the the joint instigation of Cato and Fabius, a com-
marks of Sabine hardihood and religion, and of the mission of tribunes was despatched to Sicily to in-
old Roman unbending integrity and love of order. vestigate the conduct of Scipio, who was acquitted
Marcellus, the family of Scipio, and the two Fla- upon the view of his extensive and judicious pre-
minini, may be taken as types of the new civiliza- parations for the transport of the troops. (Plut.
tion ; Cato's friends, Fabius and Flaccus, were Cat. Maj. 3. ) This account is scarcely consistent
leading men in the party of the old plainness. with the narrative of Livy, and would seem to
Flaccus was one of those clear-sighted politicians attribute to Cato the irregularity of quitting his
who seek out and patronize remarkable ability in post before his time. If Livy be correct, the com-
young and rising men. He had observed Cato's mission was sent upor. the complaint of the in-


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CATO.
CATO.
trates.
habitants of Locri, who had been cruelly oppressed the boldness to accost and implore the praetors and
by Pleminius, the legate of Scipio. Livy says not consuls and other magistrates. Even Flaccus wa-
a word of Cato’s interference in this transaction, vered, but his colleague Cato was inexorable, and
but mentions the acrimony with which Fabius ac- made an ungallant and characteristic speech, the
cused Scipio of corrupting military discipline, and substance of which, remodelled and modernized, is
of having unlawfully left his province to take the given by Livy. Finally, the women carried the day.
town of Locri. (Liv. xxix. 19, &c. )
Worn out by their importunity, the recusant tri-
The author of the abridged life of Cato which | bunes withdrew their opposition. The hated law
commonly passes as the work of Cornelius Nepos, was abolished by the suffrage of all the tribes, and
states that Cato, upon his return from Africa, the women evinced their exultation and triumph by
touched at Sardinia, and brought the poet Ennius going in procession through the streets and the
in his own ship from the island to Italy; but Sar- forum, bedizened with their now legitimate finery.
dinia was rather out of the line of the voyage to Scarcely had this important affair been brought
Rome, and it is more likely that the first ac- to a conclusion when Cato, who had maintained
quaintance of Ennius and Cato occurred at a sub during its progress a rough and sturdy consistency
sequent date, when the latter was praetor in without, perhaps, any very serious damage to his
Sardinia. (Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 47. )
popularity, set sail for his appointed province, Ci-
In B. c. 199, Cato was aedile, and with his col- terior Spain.
league Helvius, restored the plebeian games, and In his Spanish campaign, Cato exhibited military
gave upon that occasion a banquet in honour of genius of a very high order. He lived abstemiously,
Jupiter. In the following year he was made prae sharing the food and the labours of the common
• tor, and obtained Sardinia as his province, with the soldier. With indefatigable industry and vigilance,
command of 3,000 infantry and 200 cavalry. Here he not only gave the requisite orders, but, where-
he took the earliest opportunity of illustrating his ever it was possible, personally superintended their
principles by his practice. He diminished official execution. His movements were bold and rapid,
expenses, walked his circuits with a single atten- and he never was remiss in reaping the fruits and
dant, and, by the studied absence of pomp, placed pushing the advantages of victory. The sequence
his own frugality in striking contrast with the op- of his operations and their harmonious combination
pressive magnificence of ordinary provincial magis with the schemes of other generals in other parts
The rites of religion were solemnized with of Spain appear to have been excellently contrived.
decent thrift ; justice was administered with strict His stratagems and manoeuvres were original,
impartiality; usury was restrained with unsparing brilliant, and successful. The plans of his battles
severity, and the usurers were banished.
Sar-
were arranged with consummate skill. He managed
dinia had been for some time completely subdued, to set tribe against tribe, availed himself of native
but if we are to believe the improbable and unsup treachery, and took native mercenaries into his pay.
ported testimony of Aurelius Victor (de Vir. Ill. 47), The details of the campaign, as related by Liry
an insurrection in the island was quelled by Cato, (lib. xxxiv. ), and illustrated by the incidental anec-
during his praetorship.
dotes of Plutarch, are full of horror. We read of
Cato had now established a reputation for pure multitudes who, after they had been stript of their
morality, and strict old-fashioned virtue. He was arms, put themselves to death for very shame ; of
looked upon as the living type and representative wholesale slaughter of surrendered victims, and the
of the ideal ancient Roman. His very faults bore frequent execution of merciless razzias. The poli-
the impress of national character, and humoured tical elements of Roman patriotism inculcated the
national prejudice. To the advancement of such a maxim, that the good of the state ought to be the
man opposition was vain. In B. C. 195, in the first object, and that to it the citizen was bound to
39th year of his age, he was elected consul with his sacrifice upon demand natural feelings and indivi-
old friend and patron L. Valerius Flaccus. dual morality. Such were the principles of Cato.
During this consulship a strange scene took place. He was not the man to feel any compunctious
peculiarly illustrative of Roman manners. In B. c. visitings of conscience in the thorough performance
215, at the height of the Punic war, a law had been of a rigorous public task. His proceedings in Spain
passed on the rogation of the tribune Oppius, that were not at variance with the received idea of the
no woman should possess more than half an ounce fine old Roman soldier, or with his own stern and
of gold, nor wear a garment of divers colours, nor imperious temper. He boasted of having destroyed
drive a carriage with horses at less distance than a more towns in Spain than he had spent days in that
mile from the city, except for the purpose of at country.
tending the public celebration of religious rites. Now When he had reduced the whole tract of land
that Hannibal was conquered ; that Rome abound between the Iberus and the Pyrenees to a hollow,
ed with Carthaginian wealth ; and that there was sulky, and temporary submission, he turned his at-
no longer any necessity for women to contribute tention to administrative reforms, and increased the
towards the exigencies of an impoverished treasury revenues of the province by improvements in the
the savings spared from their ornaments and plea- working of the iron and silver mines. On account
sures, the tribunes T. Fundanius and L. Valerius, of his achievements in Spain, the senate decreed a
thought it time to propose the abolition of the thanksgiving of three days. In the course of the
Oppian law; but they were opposed by their col- year, B. C. 194, he returned to Rome, and was re-
leagues, M. Brutus and T. Brutus. The most im- warded with a triumph, at which he exhibited an
portant affairs of state excited far less interest and extraordinary quantity of captured brass, silver,
zeal than this singular contest. The matrons poured and gold, both coin and bullion. In the distribu-
forth into the streets, blockaded every avenue to the tion of prize-money to his soldiery, he was more
forum, and intercepted their husbands as they ap- | liberal than might have been expected from so
proached, beseeching them to restore the ancient strenuous a professor of parsimonious economy.
ornanents of the Roman matrone. Nay, they had |(Liv. xxxiv. 46. )


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CATO.
The return of Cato appears to have been accele | who had been sent off from Greece a few days be
mted by the enmity of P. Scipio Africanus, who fore him. (Liv. xxxvi. 21. )
was consul, B. & 194, and is said to have coveted It was during the campaign in Greece under
the command of the province in which Cato was Glabrio, and, as it would appear from the account
reaping renown. There is some variance between of Plutarch, (rejected by Drumann,) before the
Nepos (or the pseudo-Ncpos), and Plutarch (Cat. battle of Thermopylac, that Cato was commissioned
Maj. 11), in their accounts of this transaction. to keep Corinth, Patrae, and Aegium, from siding
The former asserts that Scipio was unsuccessful in with Antiochus. It was then too that he visited
his attempt to obtain the province, and, offended by Athens, and, to prevent the Athenians from listen-
the repulse, remained after the end of his consul ing to the overtures of the Syrian king, addressed
ship, in a private capacity at Rome. The latter them in a Latin speech, which was explained to
relates that Scipio, who was disgusted by Catoºs them by an interpreter. Already perhaps he had a
severity, was actually appointed to succeed him, smattering of Greek, for, it is said by Plutarch,
but, not being able to procure from the senate a vote that, while at Tarentum in his youth, he became
of censure upon the administration of his rival, intimately acquainted with Nearchus, a Greek plii-
passed the time of his command in utter inactivity. losopher, and it is said by Aurelius Victor that
From the statement in Livy (xxxiv. 43), that while praetor in Sardinia, he received instruction
B. C. 194, Sex. Digitius was appointed to the pro- in Greek from Ennius. It was not so much, per-
vince of Citerior Spain, it is probable that Plutarch haps, on account of his still professed contempt for
was mistaken in assigning that province to Scipio everything Greek, as because his speech was an
Africanus. The notion that Africanus was ap- affair of state, that he used the Latin language, in
pointed successor to Cato in Spain may have arisen compliance with the Roman custom, which was ob-
from a double confusion of name and place, for P. served as a diplomatic mark of Roman majesty.
Scipio Nasica was appointed, B. c. 194, to the Ul- (Val. Max. ii. 2. $ 2. )
terior province.
After his arrival at Rome, there is no certain
However this may be, Cato successfully vindi- proof that Cato was ever again engaged in war.
cated himself by his eloquence, and by the pro Scipio, who had been legatus under Glabrio, was
duction of detailed pecuniary accounts, against the consul B. C.
190, and the province of Greece was
attacks made upon his conduct while consul ; and awarded to him by the senate. An expression
the existing fragments of the speeches, (or the same occurs in Cicero (pro Muren. 14), which might
speech under different names,) made after his re- lead to the opinion that Cato returned to Greece,
turn, attest the vigour and boldness of his defence. and fought under L. Scipio, but, as to such au event,
Plutarch (Cat. Maj. 12), states that, after his history is silent. “Nunquam cum Scipione esset
consulship, Cato accompanied Tib. Senipronius profectus [M. Cato), si cum mulierculis bellandum
Longus as legatus to Thrace, but here there seems esse arbitraretur. " That Cicero was in error seems
to be some error, for though Scipio Africanus was more likely than that he referred to the time when
of opinion that one of the consuls ought to have Cato and L. Scipio served together under Glabrio,
Macedonia, we soon find Sempronius in Cisalpine or that the words “cum Scipione," as some critica
Gaul (Liv. xxxiv. 43, 46), and in B. c. 193, we have thought, are an interpolation.
find Cato at Rome dedicating to Victoria Virgo a In B. c. 189, M. Fulvius Nobilior, the consul,
small temple which he had vowed two years before. obtained Aetolia as his province, and Cato was
(Liv. xxxv. 9. )
sent thither after him, as we learn from an extract
The military career of Cato was not yet ended. (preserved by Festus, s. v. Oratores), from his
In B. C. 191, he was appointed military tribune speech “ de suis Virtutibus contra Thermum. " It
(or legatus ? Liv. xxxvi. 17, 21), under the con- seems that his legation was rather civil than mili-
sul M'. Acilius Glabrio, who was despatched to tary, and that he was sent to confer with Fulvius
Greece to oppose the invasion of Antiochus the on the petition of the Aetolians, who were placed
Great, king of Syria. In the decisive battle of in an unfortunate situation, not sufficiently pro-
Thermopylae, which led to the downfall of Antio- tected by Rome if they maintained their fidelity,
chus, Cato behaved with his wonted valour, and en- and yet punished if they were induced to assist her
joyed the good fortune which usually waits upon enemies.
genius. By a daring and difficult advance, he sur- We have seen Cato in the character of an emi-
prised and dislodged a body of the enemy's Aeto- nent and able soldier: we have now to observe him
lian auxiliaries, who were posted upon the Calli- in the character of an active and leading citizen.
dromus, the highest summit of the range of Oeta. If Cato were in B. c. 190 with L. Scipio Asiaticus
He then commenced a sudden descent from the (as Cicero seems to have imagined), and in B. c
hills above the royal camp, and the panic occasioned 189 in Aetolia with Fulvius, he must still have
by this unexpected movement at once turned the passed a portion of those years in Rome. We find
day in favour of the Romans. After the action, him in B. c. 190 most strenuous in resisting the
the general embraced Cato with the utmost warmth, claims of Q. Minucius Thermus to a triumph.
and ascribed to him the whole credit of the victory. Thermus had been displaced by Cato in the com-
This fact rests on the authority of Cato himself, mand of Citerior Spain, and was afterwards en-
who, like Cicero, often indu in the babit, offen- in repressing the incursions of the Ligurians,
sive to modern taste, of sounding his own praises. whom he reduced to submission, and now demanded
After an interval spent in the pursuit of Antiochus a triumph as his reward. Cato accused him of
and the pacification of Greece, Cato was despatched fabricating battles and exaggerating the numbers of
to Rome by the consul Glabrio to announce the the enemy slain in real engagements, and declaimed
successful result of the campaign, and he performed against his cruel and ignominious execution of ten
his journey with such celerity that he had com- magistrates (decemviri) of the Boian Gauls, with-
menced his report in the senate before the arrival of out even the forms of justice, on the pretext that
L. Scipio, (the subsequent conqueror of Antiochus,) | they were dilatory in furnishing the required sup


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CATO.
CATO.
plies. (Gell. xii. 24, x. 3. ) Cato's opposition was lior. He was loud in his promises or threats of
successful; but the passage of Festus already re- reform, and declared that, if invested with power,
ferred to shews that, after his return from Aetolia he would not belie the professions of his past life.
in 189, he had to defend his own conduct against The dread of his success alarmed all his personal
Thermus, who was tribune B. c. 189, and died in enemies, all who were notorious for their luxury,
battle, B. C. 188.
and all who derived profit from the mismanage-
In B. c. 189, Cato and bis old friend L. Valerius ment of the public finances. Notwithstanding
Flaccus were among the candidates for the censor- the combined opposition of the six other candi-
ship, and, among their competitors, was their dates, he obtained the censorsliip, B. c. 184, bring-
former general M°. Acilius Glabrio. Glabrio, who ing in by his own influcnce L. Valerius Flaccus
did not possess the advantage of nobility, deter- as his colleague.
mined to try what the influence of money could This was a great epoch in Cato's life. He ap-
effect. In order to counteract his endeavours, he plied himself strenuously to the duties of his office,
was met by an accusation of having applied the regardless of the enemies he was making. He
treasures of Antiochus to his own use, and was ul- repaired the watercourses, paved the reservoirs,
timately obliged to retire from the contest. Cato cleansed the drains, destroyed the communications
was active in promoting the opposition to his old by which private individuals illegally drew off the
general, and declared that he had seen vessels of public water to supply their dwellings and irrigate
gold and silver among the royal booty in the camp, their gardens, raised the rents paid by the publi-
but had not seen them displayed in the parade of cani for the farm of the taxes, and diminished the
Glabrio's triumph. Neither Cato nor Flaccus was contract prices paid by the state to the undertakers
elected. The choice fell upon two of the opposite of public works. It may be doubted whether he
party, T. Flamininus and M. Marcellus.
did not go too far in his reforms, from considering
Cato was not to be daunted by a failure. In rather the cheapness of an offer than the security
B. C. 187, M. Fulvius Nobilior returned from which was afforded by the character and circum-
Aetolia, and sought the honour of a triumph. stances of the applicant; but there can be no doubt
Again, Cato' was found at his post of opposition. that great abuses existed, with which nothing but
Fulvius was indulgent to his soldiers. He was a the undaunted courage and extraordinary adminis-
man of literary taste, and patronized Ennius, who trative faculties of Cato could have successfully
was his companion in hours not devoted to military grappled. He was disturbing a nest of hornets,
duty. All this was repugnant to the old Roman and all his future life was troubled by their buzz
principles of Cato, who, among other charges, and their attempts to sting. After his censorship,
found fault with Fulvius for keeping poets in his he was prosecuted by some of the tribunes, at the
camp (Cic. Tusc. i. 2), and impairing military dis- instigation of T. Flamininus, for misconduct in
cipline, by giving crowns to his soldiers for such this department of his office, and condemned to
mighty services as digging a well with spirit, or pay a fine of two talents (Plut. Cat. Maj. 10), or in
valorously throwing up a mound. (Gell. v. 6. ) | Roman money 12,000 asses. Though he was ac-
Again, Cato was unsuccessful, and Fulvius ob-cused no fewer than forty-four times during the
tained the triumph he sought for.
course of his life, this is the only recorded in-
When P. Scipio Africanus was charged with stance in which his enemies prevailed against him.
having received sums of money from Antiochus, The provisions against luxury, contained in his
which had not been duly accounted for to the censorial edict, were severe and stringent. He
state, and with having allowed the unfortunate directed unauthorized statues erected to the ha
monarch to come off too leniently, Cato is said nour of unworthy men to be removed from the
to have been the instigator of the accusation. public places, and declaimed against the uncere-
(Liv. xxxviii. 51. ) Every one has read how the monious indecency and want of religious feeling
proud conqueror of Africa tore with bis own
with which the images of gods taken from the
hands the books of account which his brother temples of conquered countries were used, like
Lucius was producing to the senate ; and how, on ordinary household furniture, to ornament the
the day of his own trial, he bade the people fol- mansions of the nobles.
In the lustral census,
low hiin from the rostra to the Capitol to return young slaves, purchased at 10,000 asses and up-
thanks to the immortal gods on the anniversary of wards, were valued at ten times their cost, and
the battle of Zama. Unused to submit to ques. then taxed, upon this fictitious value at the rate of
tion, and conscious of his great benefits to the three, instead of one, per 1000-a circuitous mode
state, he deemed himself almost above the law. of imposing a rate of three per cent. The same
Though Cato devolved upon others the obloquy of course was pursued in rating the dress, furniture,
accusing Africanus, he hesitated not openly to and equipage of the women, when their real value
speak in favour of a proposition which was calcu- amounted to 15,000 asses. (Liv. xxxix. 44. )
lated to prepare the way for the successful prose Whether or not the rating were anciently or
cution of a similar charge against L. Scipio Asia- usually confined to res mancipi, such was clearly
ticus. By his influence a plebiscitum was carried, not the case upon the present occasion. In the
referring it to the senate to appoint a commissioner exercise of the tremendous power of the nota cen-
to inquire into the charge concerning the money soria, he was equally uncompromising. He most
of Antiochus. The result was, that Lucius and justly degraded from the senate L. Quintius Fla-
others were condemned. As to the dates and de- mininus (the brother of Titus, his former success-
tails of these transactions, there is the utmost ful opponent in the canvas for the censorship), for
variance in the early authorities. (Scipio. ) having committed (whatever version of the story
Cato was now again a candidate for the censor- we accept) an act of the most abominable cruelty,
ship, with his old friend L. Valerius Flaccus and accompanied by circumstances of the most disgust-
six others, ainong whom were the patricians P. ing profligacy (Liv. xxxix. 42, 43; Plut. Cat. Maj. 17;
and L. Scipio, and the plebeian L. Fulvius Nobi-Cic. Scncct. 12); yet such was already the low


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CATO.
641
CATO.
state of morals at Rome, that a mob could be pro- I at a high arbitrary commutation, and then forced the
cured to invite the degraded wretch to resume his provincial farmers to supply the Romans with cori
former place at the theatre in the seats allotted to at a greatly reduced price. When the Spanish depu-
the consulars. He degraded Manilius, a man of ties came to Rome, B. c. 171, to complain of such
praetorian rank, for having kissed his wife in his unjust exaction, Cato was chosen advocate of his
daughter's presence in open day. Whether Cato's former province, Citerior Spain, and conducted the
strange statement as to his own practice (Plut. prosecution with such spirit as to draw down upon
Cato, 17) is to be taken as a hyperbolical recom- himself powerful enmity, although the guilty go-
mendation of decent reserve, or to be explained as vernors, M. Matienus and P. Furius Philus, es-
Balzac (cited by Bayle, s. v. Porcius) explains it, caped condemnation by voluntary exile. (Liv.
we cannot stop to inquire. He degraded L. Na- xliii. 2. )
sica (or, as some conjecturally read, L. Porcius Again, when the Rhodians besought the senate
Laecn) for an unscasonable and irreverent joke in not to punish the whole island for the unauthorized
answer to a solemn question. (Cic. de Orat. ii. acts of a few factious individuals, on the charge of
61. ) In order to detect that celibacy which it general disaffection towards the Roman arms in the
was the duty of the censors to put an end to or to wars with Antiochus and Persens, Cato pleaded
punish, men of marriageable age were asked, the cause of Rhodes before the senate in an able
“ Ex tui animi sententia, tu uxorem habes ? " and effective speech. The minute and artificial cri-
“Non hercule,” was the answer of L. Nasica, ticisms of Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, upon parts
“ ex mei animi sententia. " At the muster of the of this speech, are reported and refuted by Gellius
knights, he deprived L. Scipio Asiaticus of his (vii. 3). Cicero himself speaking by the mouth of
horse for having accepted the bribes of Antiochus. Atticus (Brutus, 85), was scarcely able sufficiently
L. Scipio was a senator, but senators, not beyond to appreciate the sturdy, rugged, sententious, pas-
the age of service, still retained the public horse sionate, racy, oratory of Cato. It was tinged with
of the knight, and took their place at the muster. some affectations of striking expressions --- with
(Dict. Ant. s. v. Equites. ) He deprived L. Vetu- quaintnesses, vulgarisms, archaisnis, and neologisms,
rius of his horse for having omitted a stated sacri- but it told—it worked-it came home to men's
fice, and for having grown too corpulent to be of business and bosoms. If we may judge of Cato
use in battle. (Fest. s. v. Stata. ) Several others by his fragments, he possessed the living fiery
he degraded and deprived of their horses, and, not spirit and intense earnestness of Demosthenes,
content with this, be publicly exposed, with bitter without the elevation of thought, the harmony of
vchemence, the vices of his victims.
language, and the perfection of form which crowned
It does not appear that, in the exercise of the the eloquence of the Athenian.
theoretically exorbitant and anomalous power of The strong national prejudices of Cato appear to
the censorship, Cato acted unfairly, although per- have diminished in force as he grew older and
sonal motives and private enmities or party dis- wiser. He applied himself in old age to the study
likes may sometimes have conspired with his of Greek literature, with which in youth he had
views of political and moral duty.
no acquaintance, although he was not ignorant of
The remarkable censorship of Cato was rewarded the Greek language. Himself an historian and
by a public statue, with a commemorative and orator, the excellences of Demosthenes and Thucy-
laudatory inscription.
dides made a deep impression upon his kindred
Henceforward the public life of Cato was spent mind.