Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/658

Rh G40 CATO. plies. (Gell. xiii. 24, x. 3.) Cato's opposition was successful ; but the passage of Festus already re- ferred to shews that, after his return from Aetolia in 189, he had to defend his own conduct against Thermus, who was tribune B. c. 189, and died in battle, B. c. 188. In B. c. 189, Cato and his old friend L. Valerius Flaccus were among the candidates for the censor- ship, and, among their competitors, was their former general ^I'. Acilius Glabrio. Glabrio, who did not possess the advantage of nobility, deter- mined to try what the influence of money could effect. In order to counteract his endeavours, he was met by an accusation of having applied the treasures of Antiochus to his own use, and was ul- timately obliged to retire from the contest. Cato was active in promoting the opposition to his old general, and declared that he had seen vessels of gold and silver among the royal booty in the camp, but had not seen them displayed in the parade of Glabrio's triumph. Neither Cato nor Flaccus was elected. The choice fell upon two of the opposite party, T. Flamininus and M. Marcellus. Cato was not to be daunted by a failure. In B. c. 187, M. Fulvius Nobilior returned from Aetolia, and sought the honour of a triumph. Again, Cato was found at his post of opposition. Fulvius was indulgent to his soldiers. He was a man of literary taste, and patronized Ennius, who was his companion in hours not devoted to military duty. All this was repugnant to the old Roman principles of Cato, who, among other charges, found fault with Fulvius for keeping poets in his camp (Cic. Tusc. i. 2), and impairing military dis- cipline, by giving crowns to his soldiers for such mighty ser-ices as digging a well with spirit, or valorously throwing up a mound. (Gell. v. 6.) Again, Cato was unsuccessful, and Fulvius ob- tained the triumph he sought for. When P. Scipio Africanus was charged with having received sums of money from Antiochus, which had not been duly accounted for to the state, and with having allowed the unfortunate monarch to come off too leniently, Cato is said to have been the instigator of the accusation. (Liv. xxxviii. 54.) Every one has read how the proud conqueror of Africa tore with his own hands the books of account which his brother Lucius was producing to the senate ; and how, on the day of his own trial, he bade the people fol- low him from the rostra to the Capitol to return thanks to the immortal gods on the anniversary of the battle of Zama. Unused to submit to ques- tion, and conscious of hjs great benefits to the state, he deemed himself almost above the law. Though Cato devolved upon others the obloquy of accusing Africanus, he hesitated not openly to speak in favour of a proposition which was calcu- lated to prepare the way for the successful prose- cution of a similar charge against L. Scipio Asia- ticus. By his influence a plebiscitum was carried, referring it to the senate to appoint a commissioner to inquire into the charge concerning the money of Antiochus. The result was, that Lucius and others were condemned. As to the dates and de- tails of these transactions, there is the utmost variance in the early authorities. [Scipio.] Cato was now again a candidate for the censor- ship, with his old friend L. Valerius Flaccus and six others, among whom were the patricians P. and L. Scipio, and the plebeian L. Fulvius Nobi- CATO. Hor. He was loud in his promises or threats of reform, and declared that, if invested with power, he would not belie the professions of his past life. The dread of his success alarmed all his personal enemies, all who were notorious for their luxury, and all who derived profit from the mismanage- ment of the public finances. Notwithstanding the combined opposition of the six other candi- dates, he obtained the censorship, B. c. 184, bring- ing in by his own influence L. Valerius Flaccus as his colleague. This was a great epoch in Cato's life. He ap- plied himself strenuously to the duties of his office, regardless of the enemies he was making. He repaired the watercourses, paved the reservoirs, cleansed the drains, destroyed the communications by which private individuals illegally drew off the public water to supply their dwellings and irrigate their gardens, raised the rents paid by the publi- cani for the fkrm of the taxes, and diminished the contract prices paid by the state to the undertakers of public works. It may be doubted whether he did not go too far in his reforms, from considering rather the cheapness of an offer than the security which was afforded by the character and circum- stances of the applicant ; but there can be no doubt that great abuses existed, with which nothing but the undaunted courage and extraordinary adminis- trative faculties of Cato could have successfully grappled. He was disturbing a nest of hornets, and all his future life was troubled by their buzz and their attempts to sting. After his censorship, he was prosecuted by some of the tribunes, at the instigation of T. Flamininus, for misconduct in this department of his office, and condemned to pay a fine of two talents (Plut. Cat. MaJ. 10), or in Roman money 12,000 asses. Though he was ac- cused no fewer than forty-four times during the course of his life, this is the only recorded in- stance in which his enemies prevailed against him. The provisions against luxury, contained in his censoriiU edict, were severe and stringent. He directed unauthorized statues erected to the ho- nour of unworthy men to be removed from the public places, and declaimed against the uncere- monious indecency and want of religious feeling with which the images of gods taken from the temples of conquered countries were used, like ordinary household furniture, to ornament the mansions of the nobles. In the lustral census, young slaves, purchased at 10,000 asses and up- wards, were valued at ten times their cost, and then taxed, upon this fictitious value at the rate of three, instead of one, per 1000 — a circuitous mode of imposing a rate of three per cent. The same course was pursued in rating the dress, furniture, and equipage of the women, when their real value amounted to 15,000 asses. (Liv. xxxix. 44.) Whether or not the rating were anciently or usually confined to res mancipi, such was clearly not the case upon the present occasion. In the exercise of the tremendous power of the nota cen- soria, he was equally uncompromising. He most justly degraded from the senate L. Quintius Fla- mininus (the brother of Titus, his former success- ful opponent in the canvas for the censorship), for having committed (whatever version of the story we accept) an act of the most abominable cruelty, accompanied by circumstances of the most disgust- ing profligacy (Liv. xxxix. 42, 43 ; Plut. Cat. MaJ. 1 7 ; Cic. Sened. 12) ; yet such was already the low