The Good Book (102 page)

21. As he did not seek for effeminate and handsome ones, but able, sturdy workmen, horse-keepers and cowherds:

22. And these he thought ought to be sold again, when they grew old, and no useless servants fed in his house.  

23. In short, he reckoned nothing a good bargain, which was superfluous;

24. But he thought anything unnecessary too expensive, even at half a farthing.

25. He was for the purchase of lands for sowing and feeding, not for gardens.

26. Some imputed these things to petty avarice, but others approved of him,

27. As if he had only the more strictly denied himself to set an example to others.  

 

Chapter 53

  1. Should Cato be applauded for this austerity and economy in all things?

  2. Certainly it marks an over-rigid temper, for a man to take the work out of his servants as out of brute beasts,

  3. Then turn them off and sell them in their old age, thinking there ought to be no further commerce between man and man, than what has some profit by it.  

  4. We see that kindness or humanity has a larger field than bare justice to exercise itself in;

  5. Law and justice we cannot, in the nature of things, employ on others than men;

  6. But we may extend our goodness and charity even to irrational creatures;

  7. And such acts flow from a gentle nature, as water from an abundant spring.  

  8. It is doubtless the part of a kind-natured man to keep even worn-out horses and dogs,

  9. And not only take care of them when they are young, but also when they are old.  

10. The Athenians turned their mules loose to feed freely, when they had done the hardest labour.

11. The graves of Cimon's horses, which thrice won the Olympian races, are yet to be seen close by his own monument.  

12. Old Xanthippus, too, entombed his dog, which swam after his galley to Salamis.  

13. We are not to use living creatures like old shoes or dishes, and throw them away when they are worn out;

14. But if it were for nothing else, but by way of study and practice in humanity, a man ought always to habituate himself in these things to be kind.

15. As to myself, I would not so much as sell my draught ox on the account of his age,

16. Much less for a small piece of money sell a poor old man, and so chase him from where he has lived a long while,

17. And the manner of living he has been accustomed to; and that more especially when he would be as useless to the buyer as to the seller.  

18. Yet Cato, for all this, boasted that he left that very horse in Spain, which he used in the wars when he was consul,

19. Only because he would not put the public to the expense of transporting it home.  

20. Whether these acts are to be ascribed to the greatness or pettiness of his mind, let everyone argue as they please.

 

Chapter 54

  1. Despite this, for his general temperance and self-control Cato surely deserves the highest admiration.

  2. For when he commanded the army, he never took for himself, and those that belonged to him, above three bushels of wheat for a month,

  3. And somewhat less than a bushel and a half a day of barley for his baggage-cattle.  

  4. And when he became governor of Sardinia, where his predecessors had been used to require tents, bedding and clothes at the public expense,

  5. And to charge the state heavily with the cost of provisions and entertainments for a great train of servants and friends,

  6. The difference he showed in his economy was extraordinary.

  7. There was hardly anything he would charge to the public purse.

  8. He would walk without a carriage to visit the cities, accompanied only by a common town officer.  

  9. Yet, though he was easy and sparing to all who were under his authority,

10. He showed most inflexible strictness in what related to public justice, and was rigorous and precise in what concerned the laws;

11. So that the Roman government never seemed more terrible, nor yet more mild, than under his administration.

12. His very manner of speaking seemed to have such a kind of idea with it; for it was courteous, and yet forcible;

13. Pleasant, yet overwhelming; facetious, yet austere; sententious, yet vehement:

14. Like Socrates, in the description of Plato, who seemed to those about him to be a simple, blunt fellow,

15. While in fact he was full of such gravity and matter as would even move tears, and touch the very hearts of his auditors.  

16. Being once desirous to dissuade the common people of Rome from their unseasonable and impetuous clamour for largesses and distributions of corn, Cato said:  

17. ‘It is a difficult task, O citizens, to make speeches to the belly, which has no ears.'

18. Reproving, also, their sumptuous habits, he said it was hard to preserve a city where a fish sold for more than an ox.  

19. He had a saying, also, that the Roman people were like sheep; for they, when single, do not obey, but when all together in a flock, they follow their leaders:  

20. ‘So you,' said he, ‘when you have got together in a body, let yourselves be guided by those whom singly you would never think of being advised by.'  

21. Discoursing of the power of women, he echoed a saying of Themistocles,

22. Who, when his son was making many demands of him by means of the mother, said,

23. ‘O woman, the Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians, but you govern me, and your son governs you; so let him use his power sparingly, since, simple as he is, he can do more than all the Greeks together.'  

24. Another saying of Cato's was that the Roman people did not only fix the value of such and such purple dyes, but also of such and such habits of life:

25. ‘For,' he said, ‘as dyers most of all dye such colours as they see to be most agreeable, so the young men zealously affect what is most popular with you.'

26. He would say of men who continually desired to be in office that apparently they did not know their way around Rome,

27. Since they could not do without beadles to lead them along its streets.

28. He also reproved the citizens for always choosing the same men as their magistrates:  

29. ‘For you will seem,' he said, ‘either not to esteem government worth much, or to think few worthy to hold it.'

30. Pointing at one who had sold an inherited estate which lay near the sea, he pretended to express his wonder at this man's being stronger than the sea itself;

31. For what it washed away with much effort, he drank away with great ease.  

32. When the senate with a great deal of splendour received King Eumenes on his visit to Rome,

33. And the chief citizens strove who should sit nearest the king, Cato regarded him with dislike;

34. And when someone said to him that Eumenes was a good prince, and a friend to Rome:  

35. ‘It may be so,' said Cato, ‘but by nature this same animal of a king is a kind of man-eater';

36. And added that there were never kings who compared with Epameinondas, Pericles, Themistocles, Manius Curius or Hamilcar Barca.

 

Chapter 55

  1. Cato used to say that his enemies envied him because he got up every day before light, and neglected his own business to serve that of the public.  

  2. He would also say that he had rather be deprived of the reward for doing well, than not to suffer punishment for doing ill;

  3. And that he could pardon all offenders but himself.

  4. The Romans having sent three ambassadors to Bithynia, of whom one was gouty, another had his skull trepanned and the third seemed little better than a fool;

  5. Cato, laughing, said that the Romans had sent an embassy which had neither feet, head nor heart.

  6. He used to assert that wise men profited more by fools, than fools by wise men;

  7. For that wise men avoided the faults of fools, fools would not imitate the example of wise men.  

  8. He would profess, too, that he was more taken with young men that blushed, than with those who looked pale;

  9. And that he never desired to have a soldier that moved his hands too much in marching, and his feet too much in fighting; or snored louder than he shouted.  

10. Ridiculing a fat overgrown man: ‘What use,' said he, ‘can the state turn a man's body to, when all between the throat and groin is taken up by belly?'  

11. A man who was much given to pleasures desired his acquaintance, whereupon Cato begged his pardon, saying he could not be friends with a man whose palate was of a quicker sense than his heart.  

12. He would likewise say that the heart of a lover lived in the body of another;  

13. And he said that in his whole life he most repented of three things:

14. One was that he had trusted a secret to a woman;

15. Another, that he went by water when he might have gone by land;

16. The third, that he had remained one whole day without doing any business of moment.

17. Addressing an old man who was committing some vice, he said:  

18. ‘Friend, old age has of itself blemishes enough; do not add to them the deformity of vice.'  

19. Speaking to a tribune who was reputed a poisoner, and was very keen to bring in a certain law:  

20. ‘Young man,' cried he, ‘I know not which would be better, to drink what you mix, or confirm what you would put up for a law.'  

21. Being reviled by a fellow who lived a profligate and wicked life:  

22. ‘A contest,' replied he, ‘is unequal between you and me; for you can hear ill words easily, and can as easily give them;

23. ‘But it is unpleasant to me to give such, and unusual to hear them.'  

24. Such was the way Cato expressed himself, in sayings that are memorable.

 

Chapter 56

  1. Being chosen consul with his friend Valerius Flaccus, Cato was given the government of that part of Spain which the Romans call Hither Spain.  

  2. As he was engaged in pacifying some of the tribes by force, and negotiating with others, a large army of barbarians attacked him,

  3. So that there was danger of being disastrously driven from those territories.  

  4. He therefore called upon his neighbours, the Celtiberians, for help.

  5. They demanded two hundred talents, and everybody thought it intolerable that Romans should pay barbarians for aid;

  6. But Cato said there was no discredit in it; for if they won, the barbarians would be paid out of the enemy's purse;

  7. But if they lost, there would be nobody left either to demand or to pay the reward.  

  8. However, he won a convincing victory, and all his subsequent affairs went well.

  9. By his command the walls of all towns east of the River Baetis were demolished in a single day;

10. There were a great many of them, full of brave and warlike men.  

11. Cato himself says that he took more cities – four hundred of them – than he stayed days in Spain.  

12. And though the soldiers had gathered much booty in the fights, yet he distributed a pound of silver to each of them,

13. Saying it was better that many Romans should return home with silver, than a few with gold.  

14. For himself he says he took nothing beyond what he ate and drank.  

15. ‘I do not fault those who seek booty,' he said, ‘but I had rather compete in valour with the best than in wealth with the richest, or with the most covetous in love of money.'

16. He kept not only himself but his servants from taking booty.

17. One of them, called Paccus, bought three boys from among the captives.

18. When Paccus learned that Cato had heard this, he hanged himself rather than face Cato's wrath.  

19. Cato sold the boys, and gave the price to the public exchequer.

Chapter 57

  1. Scipio the Great was Cato's enemy, and wishing to limit his achievements and take Spanish affairs into his own hands,

  2. He arranged to be appointed his successor there; and, making all haste, put an end to Cato's authority.  

  3. But Cato, taking with him a convoy of five cohorts of foot, and five hundred horse to attend him home,

  4. On the way overthrew the Lacetanians, and finding six hundred Roman deserters hiding among them, had all the deserters beheaded;

  5. Scipio pretended indignation at this, but Cato, in mock disparagement of himself, said,