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

646 CATO.
that tyrant?" " Because," answered Sarpedon,
"men fear him more strongly than they hate him."
"Why then," subjoined Cato, " would you not let
me have a sword, that I might put him to death,
and restore my country to freedom?" This outbreak induced his tutor to watch him, lest he
should attempt something desperate.
He received 120 talents as his share of his father's fortune, and, being now his own master,
still further contracted his expenditure, hitherto
extremely moderate. He addicted himself to political studies, and practised in solitude oratorical
declamation. As he hated luxury and was accustomed to self-denial, the precepts of the Porch
found favour in his sight; and, under the guidance
of Antipater of Tyre, he pursued with all the ardour of a devotee the ethical philosophy of the
Stoics. The virtue he chiefly worshipped was a
rigid justice, not only unmoved by favour, but
rejecting the corrective of equity and mercy.
Differing widely in disposition and natural gifts
from his great ancestor the Censor, he yet looked
up to him as a model, adopted his principles, and
imitated his conduct. His constitution was naturally vigorous, and he endeavoured to harden it
still more by excessive toil. He travelled bareheaded in the heat of summer, and amid the winter snow. When his friends were making long
journeys on horseback, he accompanied them on
foot. In illness and fever, he passed his hours
alone, not bearing any witness of his physical infirmities. He was singular in his dress, preferring,
by way of sober contrast, a dark purple to the rich
crimson then in vogue, and he often appeared in
public after dinner without shoes or tunic. Up to
his twentieth year, his inseparable companion was
his half-brother, Q. Servilius Caepio, to whom he
was affectionately attached. When Caepio was
praised for his moderation and frugality, he acknowledged that he was but a Sippius (a notorious
prodigal) when compared with Cato. Thus Cato
became a mark for the eyes of the throng. Vicious
luxury was one of the crying evils of the times,
and he was pointed to as the natural successor of
his ancestor in reforming manners, and in representing the old, simple, undegenerate Roman. It
is much to become a type of a national character.
The first occasion of his appearance in public
life was connected with the name of his ancestor.
The elder Cato in his censorship had erected and
dedicated a building called the Porcia Basilica. In
this the tribunes of the people were accustomed to
transact business. There was a column in the
way of the benches where they sat, and they determined either to remove it altogether or to change
its place. This proposition called forth the younger
Cato, who successfully resisted the measure in a
speech which was graceful while it was cutting,
and was elevated in tone without any of the tumour of juvenile declamation.
Cato was capable of warm and tender attachment, and much that was stiff and angular in his
character was enhanced by early disappointment
and blighted affection. Lepida had been betrothed
to Metellus Scipio, who broke off the match. Free
once more, she was wooed by Cato; but the attentions of a new admirer recalled the ardour of her
former lover, who sued again, and was again accepted. Stung to the quick, Cato was with difficulty prevented, by the entreaties of friends, from
exposing himself by going to law, and expended

CATO.
the bitterness of his wrath against Scipio in satirical iambics. He soon afterwards married Atilia,
the daughter of Serranus, but was obliged to divorce
her for adultery after she had borne him two children.
He served his first campaign as a volunteer, B.c.
72, under the consul Gellius Poblicola, in the servile war of Spartacus. He joined the army rather
from a desire to be near Caepio, who was tribunus
militum, than out of any love for a military life.
In this new career he had no opportunity of distinguishing himself; but his observation of discipline was perfect, and in courage he was never
found wanting. The general offered him military
rewards, which he refused on the ground that he
had done nothing to deserve them. For this he
was reckoned perverse and cross-grained, but his
own estimate of his services was not perhaps much
below the mark. He had many of the qualities
which make a good soldier, but of that peculiar
genius which constitutes a great general he had
not a spark.
About the year B. c. 67, he became a candidate
for the post of tribunus milittim, and obeyed the
law by canvassing without nomenclatores. He
was elected, and joined the army of the propraetor
M. Rubrius in Macedonia. Here he was appointed
to command a legion, and he won the esteem and
attachment of the soldiery by the force of reason,
by sharing all their labours, and by a strict attention to his duty. He treated them as rational
beings, not as mere machines, and he preserved
order without harsh punishments or lavish bribes.
But the life of the camp was ill suited to his temperament. Hearing that the famous Stoic philosopher Athenodorus, surnamed Cordylion, was at
Pergamus, he obtained a free legation, which gave
him leave of absence for two months, travelled to
Asia in search of the philosopher, and succeeded
in persuading Athenodorus to return with him to
Macedonia. This was deemed by Cato a greater
triumph than the capture of a rich city, for the
Stoic had refused repeated offers of friendship and
society from kings and emperors.
Cato was now doomed to suffer a severe misfortune, and to put to the test all the lessons of his
philosophy. Servilius Caepio, on his way to Asia,
was taken ill at Aenus, a town of Thrace. Cato
was informed of this by letter, and, embarking
without delay in a small vessel, set sail in stormy
weather from Thessalonica; but he did not arrive
in time to close the eyes of his beloved brother.
The tumult of his grief was excessive. He embraced the corpse with tears and cries, and spared
no expense in the splendour of the funeral. He
sent back to the provincials their preferred gifts of
money, and paid them for the odours and precious
vestments which they contributed to the sad solemnity. At the cost of eight talents, he erected
to the memory of Caepio a polished monument of
Thasian marble in the market-place at Aenus.
He now returned to Rome in a ship which conveyed the ashes of his brother. At Rome his
time was divided between the lessons of philosophy
from the lips of Athenodorus, the advocacy of his
friends' causes in the forum, and the studies that
were necessary to qualify him for political offices.
He was now of an age to offer himself for the
quaestorship, but he determined not to put himself
forward as a candidate until he was master of the
details of his duties. He was able to purchase for