Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/394

 386 CATO THE YOUNGER. the dishonor of removal by our officers." * At this expression, Catulus looked as if he would have made some answer ; but he said nothing, and either through anger or shame went away silent, and out of countenance. Nev- ertheless, the man was not found guilty, for the voices that acquitted him were but one in number less than those that condemned him, and Marcus Lollius, one of Cato's colleagues, who was absent by reason of sickness, was sent for by Catulus, and entreated to come and save the man. So Lollius was brought into court in a chair, and gave his voice also for acquitting him. Yet Cato never after made use of that clerk, and never paid him his salary, nor would he make any account of the vote given by Lollius. Having thus humbled the clerks, and brought them to be at command, he made use of the books and registers as he thought fit, and in a little while gained the treasury a higher name than the Senate-house itself; and all men said, Cato had made the office of a quaestor equal to the dignity of a consul. When he found many indebted to the state upon old accounts, and the state also in debt to many private persons, he took care that the public might no longer either do or suffer wrong ; he strictly and punctually exacted what was clue to the treasury, and as freely and speedily paid all those to whom it was indebted. So that the people were filled with sentiments of awe and respect, on seeing those made to pay, who thought to have escaped with their plunder, and others receiving all their due, who despaired of get- ting any thing. And whereas usually those who brought false bills and pretended orders of the senate, could through favor get them accepted, Cato would never be so Mr. Long's note,) " That the offi- did." cers of the court would turn Catu-
 * Cato hinted, (I quote from lus out if he continued to act as he