Cato the Younger 33
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hich is not to be wrought upon by favour or compassion. Helearned also the art of speaking and debating in public, think- —ing that political philosophy, like a great city, should maintainfor its security the military and warlike element. But he wouldnever recite his exercises before company, nor was he ever heardto declaim. And to one that told him men blamed his silence,“ But I hope. not my life,” he replied, “I will begin to speak,when I have that to say which had not better be unsaid.” The great Porcian Hall, as it was called, had been built anddedicated to the public use by the old Cato, when edile. Herethe tribunes of the people used to transact their business, andbecause one of the pillars was thought to interfere with theconvenience of their seats, they deliberated whether it were bestto remove it to another place, or to take it away. This occasionfirst drew Cato, much against his will, into the forum; for heopposed the demand of the tribunes, and in so doing gave a.specimen both of his courage and his powers of speaking, whichgained him great admiration. His speech had nothing youthfulor refined in it, but was straightforward, full of matter, andrough, at the same time that there was a certain grace abouthis rough statements which won the attention; and the speaker’scharacter, showing itself in all he said, added to his severelanguage something that excited feelings of natural pleasureand interest. His voice was full and sounding, and sufficientto be heard by so great a multitude, and its vigour and capacityof endurance quite indefatigable, for he often would speak awhole day and never stop. When he had carried this cause, he betook himself again tostudy and retirement. He employed himself in inuring his bodyto labour and violent exercise; and habituated himself to gobareheaded in the hottest and the coldest weather, and to walkon foot at all seasons. When he went on a journey with any ofhis friends, though they were on horseback and he on foot, yethe would often join now one, then another, and converse withthem on the way. Insickness the patience he showed in support-ing, and the abstinence he used for curing, his distempers wereadmirable. When he had an ague, he would remain alone, andsuffer nobody to see him, till he began to recover, and foundthe fit was over. At supper, when he threw dice for the choiceof dishes, and lost, and the company offered him neverthelesshis choice, he declined to dispute, as he said, the decision ofVenus. At first, he was wont to drink only once after supper,and then go away; but in process of time he grew to drink more, T1409, *B 34 ; Plutarch’s Lives insomuch that oftentimes he would continue till morning. Thishis friends explained by saying that state affairs and publicbusiness took him up all day, and being desirous of knowledge,he liked to pass the night at wine in the conversation of philo-sophers. Hence, upon one Memmius saying in public, thatCato spent whole nights in drinking, “You should add,”replied Cicero, “ that he spends whole days in gambling.” Andin general Cato esteemed the customs and manners of men atthat time so corrupt, and a reformation in them so necessary,that he thought it requisite, in many things, to go contrary tothe ordinary way of the world. Seeing the lightest and gayest —purple was then most in fashion, he would always wear thatwhich was the nearest black; and he would often go out ofdoors, after his morning meal, without either shoes or tunic;not that he sought vain-glory from such novelties, but he wouldaccustom himself to be ashamed only of what deserves shame,and to despise all other sorts of disgrace. The estate of one Cato, his cousin, which was worth onehundred talents, falling to him, he turned it all into readymoney, which he kept by him for any of his friends that shouldhappen to want, to whom he would lend it without interest.And for some of them, he suffered his own land and his slavesto be mortgaged to the public treasury. When he thought himself of an age fit to marry, having neverbefore known any woman, he was contracted to Lepida, whohad before been contracted to Metellus Scipio, but on Scipio’sown withdrawal from it, the contract had been dissolved, andshe left at liberty. Yet Scipio afterwards repenting himself, didall he could to regain her, before the marriage with Cato wascompleted, and succeeded in so doing. At which Cato wasviolently incensed, and resolved at first to go to law about it;but his friends persuaded him to the contrary. However, hewas so moved by the heat of youth and passion that he wrotea quantity of iambic verses against Scipio, in the bitter, sarcasticstyle of Archilochus, without, however, his licence and scurrility.After this, he married Atilia, the daughter of Soranus, the firstbut not the only woman he ever knew, less happy thus far thanLelius, the friend of Scipio, who in the whole course of so longa life never knew but the one woman, to whom he was united inhis first and only marriage. In the war of the slaves, which took its name from Spartacus,their ringleader, Gellius was general, and Cato went a volunteer,for the sake of his brother Czpio, who was a tribune in the army. at \ es)
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