A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CATO.
probably for the purpose of arranging the differences
between the heirs of Micipsa in Numidia. (Gell.
xiii. 19; Liv. Epit. lxii.)
5. C. PORCIUS CATO, younger son of Cato Licinianus [No. 2], is mentioned by Cicero as a
middling orator. (Brut. 28.) In his youth he
was a follower of Tib. Gracchus. In B. c. 114,
he was consul with Acilius Balbus, and in the
same year obtained Macedonia as his province.
In Thrace, he fought unsuccessfully against the
Scordisci. His army was cut off in the mountains, and lie himself escaped with difficulty,
though Ammianus Marcellinus erroneously states
that he was slain. (xxvii. 4. ~ 4.) Disappointed
of booty in war, he endeavoured to indemnify himself by extortions in Macedonia. For this he was
accused and sentenced to pay a fine. Afterwards,
he appears to have served as a legate in the war
with Jugurtha in Africa, where he was won over
by the king. In order to escape condemnation on
this charge, in B. c. 110, he went to Tarraco in
Spain, and became a citizen of that town. (Cic.
pro Balb. 11.) He has been sometimes confounded
with his elder brother. (Veil. Pat. ii. 8; Eutrop.
iv. 24; Cic. in Verr. iii. 80, iv. 10.)
6. M. PORCIUS CATO, son of No. 3, and father
of Cato of Utica. He was a friend of Sulla, whose
proscriptions he did not live to see. He was
tribunus plebis, and died when a candidate for the
praetorship. (Gell. xiii. 19; Plut. Cat. Min. 1-3.)
Cicero, in discussing how far a vendor is bound to
disclose to a purchaser the defects of the thing
sold, mentions a decision of Cato on the trial of an
actio arbitraria, in which Calpurnius was plaintiff
and Claudius defendant. The plaintiff, having
been ordered by the augurs to pull down his house
on the Mons Caelia because it obstructed the
auspices, sold it to the defendant without giving
notice of the order. The defendant was obliged to
obey a similar order, and brought an action to
recover damages for the fraud. Upon these facts,
Cato decided in favour of the purchaser. (De Off
iii. 16.)
7. L. PoRCIUS CATO, the son of No. 3, and
uncle of Cato of Utica, attached himself to the
party of the senate. In the year B. c. 100, lie was
tribune of the plebs, and in that office opposed the
attempts of L. Apuleius Saturninus, and assisted
in rejecting a rogation on behalf of the exiled
Metellus Numidicus. In the social war, B. c. 90,
he defeated the Etruscans, and in the following year
was consul with Pompeius Strabo. On one occasion a portion of his troops, consisting of town
rabble, was instigated to disobedience and mutiny
by the impudent prating of one C. Titius. He lost
his life in an unlucky skirmish with the Marsians,
near Lake Fucinus, at the end of a successful
battle. It was thought by some that his death
was not to be attributed to the enemy, but to the
art of the younger Marius; for Cato had boasted
that his own achievements were equal to the Cimbrian victory of Marius the father. (Liv. Epit.
1xxv.; Oros. v. 17.)
8. M. PoRcIus CATO, son of No. 4. After
having been curule aedile and praetor, he obtained
the government of Gallia Narbonensis, where he
died. (Gell. xiii. 19.)
9. M. PORCIUS CATO, son of No. 6 by Livia,
great-grandson of Cato the Censor, and surnamed
Uticensis from Utica, the place of his death, was
born a. c. 95. In early childhood he lost both his

CATO. 645
parents, and was brought up in the house of his
mother's brother, M. Livius Drusus, along with
his sister Porcia and the children of his mother by
her second husband, Q. Servilius Caepio. While
yet of tender age, he gave token of a certain sturdy
independence. The Italian socii were now seeking
the right of Roman citizenship, and Q. Pompaedius
Silo was endeavouring to enlist Drusus on their
side. Silo playfully asked Cato and his half-brother Q. Caepio if they would not take his part
with their uncle. Caepio at once smiled and said
he would, but Cato frowned and persisted in saying that he would not, though Silo pretended that
he was going to throw him out of the window for
his refusal. This story has been doubted on the
ground that, as Drusus lost his life B. c. 91, Cato
could not have been more than four years old, and
consequently was not of an age to form an opinion
on public affairs at the time when it is stated to
have occurred. This criticism will be appreciated
at its due value by those who understand the spirit
of the anecdote, and know the manner in which
little boys are commonly addressed.
After the death of Drusus, Cato was placed under the charge of Sarpedon, who found him difficult to manage, and more easily led by argument
than authority. He had not that quick apprehension and instinctive tact which make learning to
some happily-organized children a constant but
unobtrusive growth. He did not trust, and observe, and feel, but he acquired his knowledge by
asking questions and receiving explanations. That
which he thus acquired slowly he retained tenaciously. His temper was like his intellect: it was
not easily roused; but, being roused, it was not
easily calmed. The child was father to the man.
Throughout his life, the same want of flexibility
and gradation was one of his obvious defects. He
had none of that almost unconscious intuition
by which great men modify the erroneous results
of abstract reasoning, and take hints from passing
events. There was in him no accommodation to
circumstances, no insight into the windings of character, no power of gaining influence by apt and
easy insinuation. The influence he gained was
due to his name for high and stubborn virtue.
As a boy he took little interest in the childish
pursuits of his fellows. He rarely smiled, and he
exhibited a firmness of purpose which was not to
be cajoled by flattery nor daunted by violence.
Yet was there something in his unsocial individuality which attracted notice and inspired respect.
Once, at the game of Trials, he rescued by force
from a bigger boy a youth sentenced to prison who
appealed to him for protection, and, burning with
passion, led him home accompanied by his comrades. When Sulla gave to the noble youths of
Rome the military game called Troja, and proposed
as their leaders the son of his wife Metella and
Sex. Pompeius, the boys with one accord cried
out for Cato in place of Sextus. Sarpedon took
him occasionally, when he was in his fourteenth
year, to pay his respects to Sulla, his late father's
friend. The tortures and executions which sometimes were conducted in Sulla's house made it resemble (in the words of Plutarch) " the place of
the damned." On one of his visits, seeing the
heads of several illustrious citizens carried forth,
and hearing with indignation the suppressed groans
of those who were present, he turned to his preceptor with the question " Why does no one kill