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

CATO.
The return of Cato appears to have been accelerated by the enmity of P. Scipio Africanus, who
was consul, B. C. 194, and is said to have coveted
the command of the province in which Cato was
reaping renown. There is some variance between
Nepos (or the pseudo-Nepos), and Plutarch (Cat.
Maj. 11), in their accounts of this transaction.
The former asserts that Scipio was unsuccessful in
his attempt to obtain the province, and, offended by
the repulse, remained after the end of his consulship, in a private capacity at Rome. The latter
relates that Scipio, who was disgusted by Cato's
severity, was actually appointed to succeed him,
but, not being able to procure from the senate a vote
of censure upon the administration of his rival,
passed the time of his command in utter inactivity.
From the statement in Livy (xxxiv. 43), that
B. c. 194, Sex. Digitius was appointed to the province of Citerior Spain, it is probable that Plutarch
was mistaken in assigning that province to Scipio
Africanus. The notion that Africanus was appointed successor to Cato in Spain may have arisen
from a double confusion of name and place, for P.
Scipio Nasica was appointed, B. c. 194, to the Ulterior province.
However this may be, Cato successfully vindicated himself by his eloquence, and by the production of detailed pecuniary accounts, against the
attacks made upon his conduct while consul; and
the existing fragments of the speeches, (or the same
speech under different names,) made after his return, attest the vigour and boldness of his defence.
Plutarch (Cat. Maj. 12), states that, after his
consulship, Cato accompanied Tib. Sempronius
Longus as legatus to Thrace, but here there seems
to be some error, for though Scipio Africanus was
of opinion that one of the consuls ought to have
Macedonia, we soon find Sempronius in Cisalpine
Gaul (Liv. xxxiv. 43, 46), and in B. c. 193, we
find Cato at Rome dedicating to Victoria Virgo a
small temple which he had vowed two years before.
(Liv. xxxv. 9.)
The military career of Cato was not yet ended.
In B. c. 191, he was appointed military tribune
(or legatus? Liv. xxxvi. 17, 21), under the consul M'. Acilius Glabrio, who was despatched to
Greece to oppose the invasion of Antiochus the
Great, king of Syria. In the decisive battle of
Thermopylae, which led to the downfall of Antiochus, Cato behaved with his wonted valour, and enjoyed the good fortune which usually waits upon
genius. By a daring and difficult advance, he surprised and dislodged a body of the enemy's Aetolian auxiliaries, who were posted upon the Callidromus, the highest summit of the range of Oeta.
He then commenced a sudden descent from the
hills above the royal camp, and the panic occasioned
by this unexpected movement at once turned the
day in favour of the Romans. After the action,
the general embraced Cato with the utmost warmth,
and ascribed to him the whole credit of the victory.
This fact rests on the authority of Cato himself,
who, like Cicero, often indulged in the habit, offensive to modern taste, of sounding his own praises.
After an interval spent in the pursuit of Antiochus
and the pacification of Greece, Cato was despatched
to Rome by the consul Glabrio to announce the
successful result of the campaign, and he performed
his journey with such celerity that he had commenced his report in the senate before the arrival of
L. Scipio, (the subsequent conqueror of Antiochus,)

CATO. 639
who had been sent off from Greece a few days before him. (Liv. xxxvi. 21.)
It was during the campaign in Greece under
Glabrio, and, as it would appear from the account
of Plutarch, (rejected by Drumann,) before the
battle of Thermopylae, that Cato was commissioned
to keep Corinth, Patrae, and Aegium, from siding
with Antiochus. It was then too that he visited
Athens, and, to prevent the Athenians from listening to the overtures of the Syrian king, addressed
them in a Latin speech, which was explained to
them by an interpreter. Already perhaps he had a
smattering of Greek, for, it is said by Plutarch,
that, while at Tarentum in his youth, he became
intimately acquainted with Nearchus, a Greek philosopher, and it is said by Aurelius Victor that
while praetor in Sardinia, he received instruction
in Greek from Ennius. It was not so much, perhaps, on account of his still professed contempt for
everything Greek, as because his speech was an
affair of state, that he used the Latin language, in
compliance with the Roman custom, which was observed as a diplomatic mark of Roman majesty.
(Val. Max. ii. 2. ~ 2.)
After his arrival at Rome, there is no certain
proof that Cato was ever again engaged in war.
Scipio, who had been legatus under Glabrio, was
consul B. C. 190, and the province of Greece was
awarded to him by the senate. An expression
occurs in Cicero (pro Muren. 14), which might
lead to the opinion that Cato returned to Greece,
and fought under L. Scipio, but, as to such an event,
history is silent. " Nunquam cum Scipione esset
profectus [M. Cato], si cum mulierculis bellandum
esse arbitraretur." That Cicero was in error seems
more likely than that he referred to the time when
Cato and L. Scipio served together under Glabrio,
or that the words " cum Scipione," as some critics
have thought, are an interpolation.
In B. c. 189, M. Fulvius Nobilior, the consul,
obtained Aetolia as his province, and Cato was
sent thither after him, as we learn from an extract
(preserved by Festus, s. v. Oratores), from his
speech " de suis Virtutibus contra Thermum." It
seems that his legation was rather civil than military, and that he was sent to confer with Fulvius
on the petition of the Aetolians, who were placed
in an unfortunate situation, not sufficiently protected by Rome if they maintained their fidelity,
and yet punished if they were induced to assist her
enemies.
We have seen Cato in the character of an eminent and able soldier: we have now to observe him
in the character of an active and leading citizen.
If Cato were in B. c. 190 with L. Scipio Asiaticus
(as Cicero seems to have imagined), and in B. c
189 in Aetolia with Fulvius, he must still have
passed a portion of those years in Rome. We find
him in B. c. 190 most strenuous in resisting the
claims of Q. Minucius Thermus to a triumph.
Thermus had been displaced by Cato in the command of Citerior Spain, and was afterwards engaged in repressing the incursions of the Ligurians,
whom he reduced to submission, and now demanded
a triumph as his reward. Cato accused him of
fabricating battles and exaggerating the numbers of
the enemy slain in real engagements, and declaimed
against his cruel and ignominious execution of ten
magistrates (decemviri) of the Boian Gauls, without even the forms of justice, on the pretext that
they were dilatory in furnishing the required sup