The Good Book (103 page)

  6. ‘Rome would become great indeed, if men of higher birth never allowed men of lower birth [meaning himself] to advance the honour of the city.'  

  7. The senate voted to change nothing established by Cato in Spain,

  8. So the Spanish government passed under Scipio to little purpose and in idleness, diminishing Scipio's credit rather than Cato's.

  9. Nor did Cato, who received a Triumph from the senate, slacken the reins of virtue, as many do,

10. Who strive more for vainglory than honour, so that having attained the highest honours they pass the rest of their life in idleness, quitting public affairs.  

11. But he, as if entering public life for the first time and thirsting after achievements,

12. Exerted himself; and would give up neither his civil nor his military service.

13. He assisted Tiberius Sempronius, as his lieutenant, when the latter went to Thrace and the Danube;

14. And, in the role of tribune, went with Manius Acilius into Greece against Antiochus the Great,

15. Who, after Hannibal, more than anyone struck terror into the Romans.  

16. For having reduced once more under a single command almost the whole of Asia,

17. And having subdued many warlike barbarian nations, Antiochus longed to conquer Rome,

18. As if it alone was the only thing worth having as an enemy to fight against him.

19. So he came into Greece pretending that it was to free it from Rome.

20. Manius sent ambassadors to the different Greek cities,

21. And Titus Flamininus quieted most of the troublemakers in them who supported Antiochus, without much difficulty.  

22. Cato likewise brought over Corinth, Patrae and Aegium, and spent much time at Athens.  

23. It is reputed that he made an oration in Greek, expressing his admiration of the ancient Athenians,

24. And signifying that he came with pleasure to see the beauty and greatness of their city.  

25. But this is a fiction, for he spoke to the Athenians through an interpreter, though he was able to speak Greek;

26. But he wished to observe the usage of his own country, and laughed at those who admired nothing but what was Greek.

27. He professed to believe that the words of the Greeks came only from their lips, while those of the Romans came from their hearts.

 

Chapter 58

  1. Antiochus occupied the narrow passages about Thermopylae, added palisades and walls to the natural fortifications of the place,

  2. And camped there, thinking he had done enough to divert the war;

  3. And the Romans, indeed, seemed wholly to despair of forcing the passage.

  4. But Cato, calling to mind the circuit which the Persians made to attack that place, went out at night, taking part of the army.  

  5. While they were climbing, the guide missed the way, and wandering along impracticable and precipitous paths, the soldiers were filled with anxiety.

  6. Cato, perceiving the danger, commanded the rest to halt, and taking with him one Lucius Manlius, an expert mountaineer,

  7. Advanced with much labour and danger, in darkness without moonlight, among wild olive trees and steep crags,

  8. There being nothing but precipices and darkness before their eyes, till they found a little pass which they thought led to the enemy camp.  

  9. They marked some rocks and returned to fetch the army.

10. The way still proved difficult, but at dawn they at last saw the enemy trenches at the foot of the rock.

11. Here Cato halted his forces, and commanded the most reliable troops, the Firmans, to stay by him, saying,  

12. ‘I desire to take one of the enemy alive, to find out the number, discipline, order and preparation of the enemy;

13. ‘But this feat must be an act of great quickness and boldness, such as that of lions, when they dart upon a timorous animal.'  

14. The Firmans darted down the mountain and dispersed the enemy guards, capturing one.

15. From him Cato quickly learned that the rest of the forces lay in the narrow passage around the king,

16. And that those who kept the tops of the rocks were six hundred choice Aetolians.

17. Heartened by the smallness of the enemy's number and their carelessness, Cato drew his sword and fell upon them with a great noise of trumpets and shouting.

18. The enemy, perceiving them thus tumbling upon them from the precipices, flew to the main body, disordering everything there.

19. As Manius was forcing the defences below, pouring his forces into the narrow passages,

20. Antiochus was hit in the mouth by a stone which knocked his teeth out, making him feel such excessive pain that he turned away with his horse;

21. Nor did any part of his army withstand the shock of the Romans.  

22. But there seemed no reasonable hope of flight where all paths were so difficult, winding among deep marshes and steep rocks.

23. The fugitives crowded and pressed together in the narrow ways,

24. Destroying one another in their terror of the Roman swords.

25. Cato was never sparing of his own praises, and seldom shunned boasting of his exploits;

26. Which quality he seems to have thought the natural accompaniment of great actions.

27. With these particular exploits against Antiochus he was highly pleased.

28. He wrote that those who saw him that day, pursuing and slaying the enemies,

29. Were ready to assert that Cato owed not so much to the public, as the public to Cato;

30. He adds that Manius the consul, coming hot from the fight, embraced him for a great while, when both were all in a sweat,

31. And cried out with joy that neither he himself, nor all the Romans together, could make him a sufficient recompense.  

32. After the fight Cato was sent to Rome, to be the messenger of it;

33. And his news of the victory filled the whole city with joy and celebrations,

34. And the people with the belief that they were invincible on every sea and land.

 

Chapter 59

  1. Such are all the eminent actions of Cato in military affairs. In civil affairs his chief interest was law and order.  

  2. He prosecuted many, and he would assist in other prosecutions, and even tried to prosecute Scipio;

  3. But unsuccessfully, by reason of the nobleness of Scipio's family and the real greatness of Scipio's mind, which enabled him to resist all calumnies.

  4. But joining with the accusers against Scipio's brother Lucius, he succeeded in obtaining a sentence against him,

  5. Which condemned him to the payment of a large fine; though Lucius was saved by the interpos­ition of the tribunes of the people.

  6. Cato himself did not escape with impunity, for if he gave his enemies the least chance he was often in danger of being prosecuted himself.  

  7. He is reported to have escaped at least fifty indictments; one when he was eighty-six years old drew from him the saying that it was hard for him,

  8. Who had served one generation of men, to plead before another.  

  9. Neither did he make this the last of his lawsuits;

10. For, four years after, when he was ninety, he accused Servilius Galba:

11. So that his life and actions extended, we may say, as Nestor's did, over three ordinary ages of man.  

12. For, having had many contests about affairs of state with Scipio the Great,

13. He continued them down even to Scipio the Younger, who was the adopted grandson of the former.

 

Chapter 60

  1. Ten years after his consulship Cato stood for the office of Censor, which was the summit of all honour, and the highest step in civil affairs;

  2. For besides all other power, it had also that of an inquisition into everyone's life and manners.  

  3. For the Romans thought that no marriage or rearing of children, no feast or drinking bout, ought to be permitted according to individual fancy,

  4. Without being examined into; their view was that a man's character is much sooner revealed by such things than by what he does publicly.

  5. They therefore chose two persons, one from the patricians, the other from the commons, who were to watch, correct and punish,

  6. If anyone too far transgressed the morals or mores of the country; and these they called Censors.  

  7. The Censors had power to distrain goods, or expel from the senate anyone who lived intemperately.  

  8. It was also their business to take an estimate of what everyone was worth,

  9. And to put down in registers everybody's birth and quality, besides many other prerogatives.  

10. The chief nobility opposed Cato's ambition for the office.

11. Jealousy prompted them, who thought that it would be a stain to everybody's nobility,

12. If a man of common birth should rise to the highest office;

13. While others, conscious of their questionable practices and violations of Rome's laws and customs,

14. Were afraid of Cato's austerity, which, in an office of such great power, was likely to prove uncompromising and severe.  

15. And so they brought forward seven candidates in opposition to him,

16. Who sedulously set themselves to court the people's favour by fair promises,

17. As though what they wished was indulgent and easy government.  

18. Cato, on the contrary, promised no such mildness, but plainly threatening evil livers,

19. Openly declared himself on the hustings, arguing that the city needed a thorough purgation.

20. He called upon the people, if they were wise, not to choose the gentlest, but the roughest of physicians;

21. Such a one, he said, he was, and Valerius Flaccus, one of the patricians, another;

22. Together with him, he had no doubt they would achieve something worthwhile.

23. He added that his opponents sought the office with ill intent,

24. Because they were rightly afraid of those who would exercise it justly.

25. It would seem that the Roman people did not fear Cato's grim countenance,

26. But rejecting those smooth promisers who were ready to do anything to ingratiate themselves, they voted for him,

27. Together with Flaccus, obeying his recommendations as if he had had the actual power of censorship already.

28. Cato named his colleague Flaccus as chief of the senate, and expelled, among many others, Lucius Quintius, for the following reason.

29. It seems Lucius was accompanied in all his commands by a youth whom he had long kept as his lover,

30. And to whom he gave as much power and respect as to the chiefest of his friends and relations.

31. Now it happened that while Lucius was consular governor of a province, the youth said to him in his cups,

32. That he loved him so dearly that ‘though there was a gladiator show at Rome, and I have never seen one; and though I long to see a man killed; yet I made all haste to come to you here instead.'  

33. Returning his fondness, Lucius replied, ‘I can remedy that.'  

34. Ordering a condemned prisoner to be brought to him, together with the headsman and axe, Lucius commanded his head to be cut off.

35. Cato asserted that Lucius himself played the part of executioner with his own hand.

36. Afterwards, when there was some show at the theatre, Lucius passed by the seats where former consuls sat,

37. And taking his seat a great way off, excited the compassion of the commoners,

38. Who presently with a great noise made him go forward, and as much as they could, tried to salve over what had happened.  

39. Manilius, also, who according to the public expectation would have been next consul, Cato threw out of the senate,

40. Because, in the presence of his daughter, and in open day, he had kissed his wife.  

41. Cato said that, as for himself, his wife never came into his arms except when there was great thunder, for which reason he liked storms.

42. His treatment of Lucius, the brother of Scipio, who had been honoured with a Triumph, occasioned some odium against Cato;

43. For he took his horse from him, and was thought to do it with a design of putting an affront on Scipio Africanus, now dead.  

 

Chapter 61

  1. But he gave most general annoyance by retrenching people's luxury, because most of the youth had already been corrupted thereby.

  2. Because it seemed impossible to take it away directly, Cato went about it about it obliquely.