Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/661

Rh CATO. dispose of his daughter, is disagreeably exemplified in Plutarch's graphic account of the interview be- tween Cato and Salonius which decided the match. The vigorous old man had completed his eightieth year when Salonia bore him a son, M. Porcius Cato Salonianus, the grandfather of Cato of Utica. To his eldest son he behaved like a good father, and took the whole charge of his education. To his slaves he was a rigid master. His condijct towards them (if not represented in too dark colours by Plutarch) was really detestable. The law held them to be mere chattels, and he treated them as such, without any regard to the rights of humanity. " Lingua mali pars pessima servi ;" so he taught them to be secret and silent. He made them sleep when they had nothing else to do. In order to prevent combination and to govern them the more easily, he intentionally sowed enmities and jealou- sies between them, and allowed the males to pur- chase out of their peculiura the liberty of sexual interconrse with the females of his household. In their name he bought young slaves, whom they trained, and then sold at a profit for his benefit. After supping with his guests, he often severely chastised them with thong in hand for trifling acts of negligence, and sometimes condemned them to death. When they were worn out and useless, he sold them or tamed them out of doors. He treated the lower animals no better. His war-horse which bore him through his campaign in Spain, he sold before he left the country, that the state might not be charged with the expenses of its transport. These excesses of a tyrannous and unfeeling nature shocked no scruples of his own conscience, and met no reprehension from a public opinion which tole- rated gladiatorial shows. They were only speci- mens of the wholesome strictness of the good old Sabine paterfamilias. In youth the austerity of his life was much greater than in age, and perhaps his rigour would have been further relaxed, had he not felt that he had a character to keep up, and had not his frugal simplicity been found to conduce to the acquisition of wealth. As years advanced, he sought gain with increasing eagerness ; though, to his honour be it spoken, in the midst of mani- foki temptations, he never attempted to profit by the misuse of his public function*. He accepted no bribes, he reserved no booty to his own use ; but, no longer satisfied with the returns of agricul- ture, which varied with the influences of Jupiter, he became a speculator, not only in slaves,- but in buildings, artificial waters, and pleasure-grounds. The mercantile spirit was strong within him. He who had been the terror of usurers in Sardinia be- cime a lender of money at nautical interest on the et'curity of commercial ventures, while he endea- voured to guard against the possibility of loss by re- quiring that the risk should be divided, and that his own agent should have a share in the management.- To those who admitted his superiority he was affable and social. His conversation was lively and witty. He liked to entertain his friends, and to talk over the historical deeds of Roman worthies. The activity of this many-sided man found lei- sure for the composition of several literary works. He lived at a time when the Latin language was in a state of transition, and he contributed to en- rich it. Cum lingua Catonis et Enni Sermonem patrium ditaverit, et nova rerum Nomina protulerit CATO. B4S He was contemporary with some of the earliest writers of eminence in the adolescence of classical literature. Naevius died when he was quaestor under Scipio, Plautus when he was censor. Before his own death the more cultivated muse of Terence, who was bom in his consulship, had appeared upon the stage. The work De He Rustiea^ which we now possew under the name of Cato, is probably substantially his, though it is certainly not exactly in the form in which it proceeded from his pen. It consists of very miscellaneous materials, relating principally to domestic and mral economy. There we may find rules for libations and sacrifices ; medical pre- cepts, including the sympathetic cure and the ver- bal charm ; a receipt for a cake ; the form of a contract ; the description of a tool ; the mode of rearing garden flowers. The best editions of this work are those which are contained in the collected Scriptores Rei Rusticae of Gesner (Lips. 1773-4) and Schneider. (Lips. 1794-7.) Cato's instructions to hi« eldest »on, psblished in the form of letters, treated of various subjects suited to the education of a Roman youth. They were divided into books, which, being quoted by various names, have been counted as separate trea- tises. The Apophthegmata, for example, may have formed one of the books of the general collection. Of Gate's instmctions to his son a few fragments remain, which may be found in H. Alb. Lion's Catoniana, Gott. 1826, a work of small critical merit. The fragments of the orations are best given in H. Meyer's Oratorum Romanorum FragmentUj Turid, 1842. The few passages in the Digest where Cato is cited are commented upon by Majansius {ad XX JC JCtos) ; but it is probable that the citations in the Digest refer not to the Censor, but to his elder son, who confined himself more exclusively to jurispra- dence than his father. Other juridical fragments of Cato are given by Dirksen in his " Bruchstiicke ausdenSchriften der RcJmischen Juristen," p. 44, &c. Cato, when he was alrieady advanced in life, com- menced an historical work entitled " Origines," of which many fragments^ have been preserved. It was probably published iti' parts from time to time as the several books were completed. Livy (xxxiv. 5), in a speech which he puts into the mouth of the tribune Valerius during the consulship of Cato, makes Valerius quote the Origines in reply to their author; but this is generally thought to be an anachronism. The first book contained the history of the Roman kings ; the second and third treated of the origin of the Italian towns, and from these two books the whole work derived its title. There was a blank in the history from the expulsion of the kings to the commencement of the first Punic war, which formed the subject of the fourth book. The events of the second Punic war were related in the fifth book, and the sixth and seventh con- tinued the narrative to the year of Cato's death. (Nepos, Caio^ 3.) It is said,- by Nepos, Gellius, and Pliny (//. A^. viii. 5), that he suppressed the names of the generals who carried on the wars which he relates ; but the remaining fragments shew that he made at least some exceptions to this practice. He is unanimously acknowledged by the ancients to have been an exceedingly industrious and learned antiquary ; but Livy, in his early de- cads, makes no use of the Origines, According tr 2x2