Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/659

Rh CATO. state of morals at Rome, that a mob could be pro- cured to invite the degraded wretch to resume his former place at t!ie theatre in the seats allotted to the consulars. Ho degraded Manilius, a man of praetorian rank, for having kissed his wife in his daughter's presence in open day. Whether Cato's strange statement as to his own practice (Plut. CcUo^ 17) is to be taken as a hyperbolical recom- mendation of decent reserve, or to be explained as Balzac (cited by Bayle, s. v. Porcius) explains it, we cannot stop to inquire. He degraded L. Na- sica (or, as some conjecturally read, L. Porcius Laeca) for an unseasonable and irreverent joke in answer to a solemn question. (Cic. de Oral. ii. 64.) In order to detect that celibacy which it was the duty of the censors to put an end to or to punish, men of marriageable age were asked, " Non hercule," was the answer of L. Nasica, knights, he deprived L. Scipio Asiaticus of his liorse for having accepted the bribes of Antiochus. L. Scipio was a senator, but senators, not beyond tlie age of service, still retained the public horse of the knight, and took their place at the muster. {^Dict. Ant. s. V. Equites.) He deprived L. Vetu- rius of his horse for having omitted a stated sacri- tice, and for having grown too corpulent to be of use in battle. (Fest. s. v. Staia.) Several others he degraded and deprived of their horses, and, not content with this, he publicly exposed, with bitter vehemence, the vices of his victims. It does not appear that, in the exercise of the theoretically exorbitant and anomalous power of the censorship, Cato acted unfairly, although per- sonal motives and private enmities or party dis- likes may sometimes have conspired with his views of political and moral duty. The remarkable censorship of Cato was rewarded by a public statue, with a commemorative and laudatory inscription. Henceforward the public life of Cato was spent chiefly in forensic contests, senatorial debates, and speeches to the people. The fragments of his o:-ations shew his unceasing activity, and the gene- ral consistency of his career. He pursued his po- litical opponents with relentless animosity, for with him, tme Italian as he was, revenge was a virtue. In his own words, the most honourable obsequies which a son could pay to the memory of his father were the condemnation and tears of that father's foes. With greenish-gray eyes and sandy hair, an iron frame, and a stentorian voice, be gave utterance to such bitter invectives as to provoke the pungent Greek epigram recorded by Plutarch. {Cato, 1) Uvppov, vavdaKerrji; yXauKouuaTov, ov5e Qav6i'ra Hopiaov fjs diSrjj/ Ufpaetpour} d^x^rai. His resistance to luxury continued. In B. c. 181, he urged the adoption of the Lex Orchia for restricting the number of guests at banquets. In B. c. 1G9 (according to Cicero, Senect. 5, or several years earlier, according to the epitomizer of Livy JEpit. xli.) he supported the proposal of the Lex Voconia, the provisions of which were calculated to prevent the accumulation of wealth in the hands of women. In some questions of foreign policy we find him taking the side of the oppressed. The proconsular governors of both Spain s compelled the provincial inhabitants to pny their com-assessments in money CATO. G-lI at a high arbitrary commutation, and then forced the provincial farmers to supply the Romans with com at a greatly reduced price. When the Spanish depu- ties came to Rome, B. c. 171, to complain of such imjust exaction, Cato was chosen advocate of hia foi-mer province, Citerior Spain, and conducted the prosecution with such spirit as to draw down upon himself powerful enmity, although the guilty go- vernors, M. Matienus and P. Furius Philus, es- caped condemnation by voluntary exile. (Lir. xliii. 2.) Again, when the Rhodians besought the senate not to punish the whole island for the unauthorized acts of a few factious individuals, on the charge of general disatfcction towards the Roman arms in the wars with Antiochus and Perseus, Cato pleaded the cause of Rhodes before the senate in an able and effective speech. The minute and artificial cri- ticisms of Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, upon parts of this speech, are reported and refuted by Gellius (vii. 3). Cicero himself speaking by the mouth of Atticus {Brutus, 85), was scarce^ able sufficiently to appreciate the sturdy, rugged, sententious, pas- sionate, racy, oratory of Cato. It was tinged with some affectations of striking expressions — with quaintnesses, vulgarisms, archaisms, and neologisms, but it told — rt worked — it came home to men's business and bosoms. If we may judge of Cato by his fragments, he possessed the living fiery spirit and intense earnestness of Demosthenes, without the elevation of thought, the harmony of language, and the perfection of form which crowned the eloquence of the Athenian. The strong national prejudices of Cato appear to have diminished in force as he grew older and wiser. He applied himself in old age to the study of Greek literature, with which in youth he had no acquaintance, although he was not ignorant of the Greek language. Himself an historian and orator, the excellences of Demosthenes and Thucy- dides made a deep impression upon his kindred mind. In many important cases, however, through- out his life, his conduct was guided by prejudices against classes and nations, whose influence he deemed to be hostile to the simplicity of the old Roman character. It is likely that he had some part in the senatusconsultum which, upon the ap- pearance of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, at Brun- disium, B. c. 166, forbade kings to enter Rome, for when Eumenes, upon his former visit, after the war with Antiochus, was received with honour by the senate, and splendidly entertained by the nobles, Cato was indignant at the respect paid to the mo- narch, refused to go near him, and declared that, " kings were naturally carnivorous animals." He had an antipathy to physicians, because they were mostly Greeks, and therefore unfit to be trusted with Roman lives, inasmuch as all Greeks looked upon the barbarians, including the Romans, as natural enemies. He loudly cautioned his eldest son against physicians, and dispensed with their attendance. He was not a bad physician himself in recommending as a peculiarly salutary diet, ducks, geese, pigeons, and- hares, though hares, he tells us, are apt to produce dreams. With all his antipathy, there is no ground in ancient authors for the often-repeated statement that he carried a law for the expulsion of physi cians from the city. When Athens sent Cameades, Diogenes, and Critolaus to Rome in order to nego- tiate a remission of the 500 talents which the Athenians had been awarded to pay bv way of •ix
 * Ex tui animi sententia, tu uxorem habes ?"
 * ' ex mei animi sententia." At the muster of the