FOR W.ROBINSON AND SONS, R. JENNINGS, J. M. ALLISON, J. BUMPUS, G. AND J. OFFOR, C. CHAPPLE, J. CRANWELL, J. EVANS AND SONS, J. MAYNARD, E. WILSON, W. BAYNES AND SON, T. MASON, W. SHARPE AND SON, J. ROBINS AND CO., W. HARWOOD, AND W. ALLISON, LONDON; ALSO, W. STEWART AND CO., AND J. CARFRAE, EDINBURGH; AND W. TURNBULL, GLASGOW.

.. 5 8 25 '09

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PLUTARCH'S LIVES.

CATO THE CENSOR.

Ir is said that Marcus Cato was born at Tusculum, of which place his family originally was, and that before he was concerned in civil or military affairs, he lived upon an estate which his father left him near the country of the Sabines. Though his ancestors were reckoned to have been persons of no note, yet Cato himself boasts of his father as a brave man and an excellent soldier, and assures us, that his grandfather Cato received several military rewards, and that having had five horses killed under him, he had the value of them paid him out of the treasury, as an acknowledgment of his gallant behaviour. As the Romans always gave the appellation of new men*, to those who, having no honours transmitted to them from their ancestors, began to distinguish themselves, they mentioned Cato by the same style: but he used to say, he was indeed new with respect to offices and dignities, but with regard to the services and virtues of his ancestors, he was very ancient.

His third name, at first, was not Cato, but Priscus. It was afterwards changed to that of Cato, on account

* The jus imaginum was annexed to the great offices of state, and none had their statues or pictures but such as had borne those offices. Therefore he who had the pictures of his ancestors, was called noble, he who had only his own, was called a new man; and he who had neither the one nor the other, was called ignoble. So says Asconius. But it does not appear, that a man who had borne a great office, the consulate for instance, was ignoble because he had not his statue or picture; for he might not choose it. Cato himself did not choose it: his reason we suppose was because he had none of his ancestors; though he was pleased to assign another.

of his great wisdom; for the Romans call wise men Catos. He had red hair and grey eyes, as this epigram ill-naturedly enough declares:

With eyes so grey and hair so red,
With tusks so sharp and keen,

Thou'lt fright the shades when thou art dead,
And hell won't let thee in.

Inured to labour and temperance, and brought up, as it were, in camps, he had an excellent constitution with respect to strength as well as health. And he considered eloquence as a valuable contingent, an instrument of great things, not only useful but necessary for every man who does not choose to live obscure and inactive; for which reason he exercised and improved that talent in the neighbouring boroughs and villages, by undertaking the causes of such as applied to him; so that he was soon allowed to be an able pleader, and afterwards a good orator,

From this time, all that conversed with him discovered in him such a gravity of behaviour, such a dignity and depth of sentiment, as qualified him for the greatest affairs in the most respectable government in the world. For he was not only so disinterested as to plead without fee or reward, but it appeared that the honour to be gained in that department was not his principal view. His ambition was military glory; and when yet but a youth, he had fought in so many battles that his breast was full of scars. He himself tells us, he made his first campaign at seventeen years of age, when Hannibal in the height of his prosperity was laying Italy waste with fire and sword. In battle he stood firm, had a sure and executing hand, a fierce countenance, and spoke to his enemy in a threatening and dreadful accent; for he rightly judged, and endeavoured to convince others, that such a kind of behaviour often strikes an adversary with greater terror than the sword itself. He always marched on foot, and carried his own arms, followed only by one servant who

carried his provisions. And it is said, he never was angry or found fault with that servant, whatever he set before him; but when he was at leisure from military duty, would ease and assist him in dressing it. All the time he was in the army, he drank nothing but water, except that when almost burned up with thirst he would ask for a little vinegar, or when he found his strength and spirits exhausted he would take a little wine.

Near his country-seat was a cottage, which for merly belonged to Manius Curius*, who was thrice honoured with a triumph. Cato often walked thither, and reflecting on the smallness of the farm and the meanness of the dwelling, used to think of the peculiar virtues of Dentatus, who, though he was the greatest man in Rome, had subdued the most warlike nations, and driven Pyrrhus out of Italy, cultivated this little spot of ground with his own hands, and after three triumphs lived in this cottage. Here the ambassadors of the Samnites found him in the chimney-corner dressing turnips, and offered him a large present of gold; but he absolutely refused it, and gave them this answer: A man who can be satisfied with such a supper has no need of gold; and I think it more glorious to conquer the owners of it, than to have it myself. Full of these thoughts, Cato returned home, and taking a view of his own estate, his servants, and manner of living, added to his own labour, and retrenched his unnecessary expenses.

When Fabius Maximus took the city of Tarentum, Cato, who was then very young †, served under him.

* Manius Curius Dentatus triumphed twice in his first consulate, in the four hundred and sixty-third year of Rome, first over the Samnites, and afterwards over the Sabines. And eight years after that, in his third consulate, he triumphed over Pyrrhus. After this, he led up the less triumph, called Ovation, for his victory over the Lucanians.

Fabius Maximus took Tarentum in his fifth consulate, in the year of Rome 544. Cato was then twenty-three years old; but he had made his first campaign under the same Fabius five years before.