Page:The life of and character of Marcus Portius Cato Uticensis - Theobald (1713).djvu/9

[5] THE

LIFE and CHARACTER

OF

M. CATO of Utica.

Arcus Portius Cato was the Great-Grandson of that Cate, who by his Virtue and Excellence gain'd a wonderful Reputation and Authority amongst the Romans, and transmitted a Grandeur and Nobility to his Family, which before that Time it wanted; and which his famous Descendant, of whom I am here treating, by the signal Probity of his Life, and Glory of his Death, preserv'd and kept alive to all Posterity.

Our Cato, commonly called Uticensis from the Place of his Death, was born in the 659th Year from the Building of Rome, when C. Caldus and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus were Consuls; for he kill'd himself in the 48th Year of his Age, which was the 707th Year from the Building of the City, when the Great Julius Cæsar was the third Time Consul, (and the second time Dictator) with Marcus Emilius Lepidus.

He was, by the Loss of both his Parents, left an Orphan, and was bred up in the House of Livius Drusus, his Uncle by the Mother's side. From his very Infancy he discover'd those Seeds of Virtue in his Disposition, which naturally produc'd the Harvest of his After-Sentiments and Actions: The Accent and Delivery of his Words, the Frame of his Countenance, and even the very Diversions of his Childhood, were