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The Character of Marcus Cato Marcus Cato grew so powerful by his eloquence that he was commonly
called the Roman Demosthenes; but his manner of life was yet more
famous and talked of. For oratorical skill was, as an
accomplishment, commonly studied and sought after by all young
men; but he was a rare man who would cultivate the old habits of
bodily labor, or prefer a light supper, and a breakfast which
never saw the fire; or be in love with poor clothes and a homely
lodging, or could set his ambition rather on doing without
luxuries than on possessing them. For now the state, unable to
keep its purity by reason of its greatness, and having so many
affairs, and people from all parts under its government, was fain
to admit many mixed customs, and new examples of living. With
reason, therefore, everybody admired Cato, when they saw others
sink under labors, and grow effeminate by pleasures, but beheld
him unconquered by either; and that, too, not only when he was
young and desirous of honor, but also when old and gray-headed,
after a consulship and triumph; like some famous victor in the
games, persevering in his exercise and maintaining his character
to the very last. He himself says, that he never wore a suit of
clothes which cost more than a hundred drachmas; and that, when he
was general and consul, he drank the same wine which his workmen
did; and that the meat or fish which was bought in the market for
his dinner, did not cost above thirty 'asses.' All which was for
the sake of the commonwealth, that his body might be the hardier
for the war. Having a piece of embroidered Babylonian tapestry
left him, he sold it; because none of his farm-houses were so much
as plastered. Nor did he ever buy a slave for above fifteen
hundred drachmas; as he did not seek for effeminate and handsome
ones, but able, sturdy workmen, horse-keepers, and cow-herds; and
these he thought ought to be sold again, when they grew old, and
no useless servants fed in a house. In short, he reckoned nothing
a good bargain, which was superfluous; but whatever it was, though
sold for a farthing, he would think it a great price, if you had
no need of it. Yet, in my judgment, it marks an over-rigid temper for a man to
take the work out of his servants as out of brute beasts, turning
them off and selling them in their old age. A kind-natured man
will keep even worn-out horses and dogs, and not only take care of
them when they are foals and whelps, but also when they are grown
old. The Athenians, when they built their Hecatompedon,* (*The
Parthenon; built on the site of an older temple which had borne
the name of Hecatompedon, or a "hundred feet long." The name was
retained for the new building.) turned those mules loose to feed
freely, which they had observed to have done the hardest labor.
One of these came once of itself to offer its service, and ran
along with, nay, went before, the teams which drew the wagons up
to the Acropolis, as if it would incite and encourage them to draw
more stoutly; upon which a vote was passed that the creature
should be kept at the public charge till it died. The graves of
Cimon's horses, which thrice won the Olympian races, are yet to be
seen close by his own monument. Old Xanthippus, too, the father of
Pericles, entombed his dogs which swam after his galley to
Salamis, when the people fled from Athens, on the top of a cliff,
which they call the dogs' tomb to this day. For his general temperance, however, and self-control, Cato really
deserves the highest admiration. For when he commanded the army,
he never took for himself, and those that belonged to him, more
than three bushels of wheat for a month, and somewhat less than a
bushel and a half a day of barley for his baggage-cattle. And when
he entered upon the government of Sardinia, where his predecessors
had been used to require tents, bedding, and clothes upon the
public account, and to charge the state heavily with the cost of
provisions and entertainments for a great train of servants and
friends, the difference he showed in his economy was something
incredible. There was nothing of any sort for which he put the
public to expense; he would walk, instead of taking a carriage to
visit the cities, with only one of the common town officers, who
carried his dress, and a cup to offer libation with. Yet on the
other hand, he showed most inflexible severity and strictness, in
what related to public justice, and was rigorous, and precise in
what concerned the ordinances of the commonwealth; so that the
Roman government never seemed more terrible, nor yet more mild,
than under his administration. His very manner of speaking seemed to have such a kind of idea
with it; for it was courteous, and yet forcible; pleasant, yet
overwhelming; facetious, yet austere; sententious, and yet
vehement: like Socrates, in the description of Plato, who seemed
outwardly to those about him to be but a simple, talkative, blunt
fellow; whilst at the bottom he was full of such gravity and
matter, as would even move tears, and touch the very hearts of his
auditors. Reproving on one occasion the sumptuous habits of the
Romans, he said: "It is hard to preserve a city, where a fish is
sold for more than an ox." He had a saying, also, that the Roman
people were like sheep; for they, when single, do not obey, but
when altogether in a flock, they follow their leaders: "So you,"
said he, "when you have got together in a body let yourselves be
guided by those whom singly you would never think of being advised
by." The Romans having sent three ambassadors to Bithnia, of whom one
was gouty, another had his skull trepanned, and the other seemed
little better than a fool; Cato, laughing, gave out that the
Romans had sent an embassy, which had neither feet, head, nor
heart.* (*Both the Romans and the Greeks conceived of the region
of the heart, the chest, as the seat not of emotion, nor of will
and courage merely, but more especially of judgment, deliberation,
and practical sense. Thus the Greeks derived their word for moral
wisdom from Phren, the diaphragm, and the Romans by 'egregie
cordatus homo' meant a wise statesman.) Cato also said that in his whole life he most repented of three
things; one was, that he had trusted a secret to a woman; another
that he went by water when he might have gone by land; the third,
that he had remained one whole day without doing any business of
moment. He was a good father, an excellent husband to his wife, and an
extraordinary economist; and as he did not manage his affairs of
this kind carelessly, and as things of little moment, I think I
ought to record a little further whatever was commendable in him
in these points. He married a wife more noble than rich; being of
opinion that the rich and the high-born are equally haughty and
proud; but that those of noble blood would be more ashamed of base
things, and consequently more obedient to their husbands in all
that was fit and right. A man who beat his wife or child, laid
violent hands, he said, on what was most sacred; and a good
husband he reckoned worthy of more praise than a great senator;
and he admired the ancient Socrates for nothing so much, as for
having lived a temperate and contented life with a wife who was a
scold, and children who were half-witted. When his son began to come to years of discretion, Cato himself
would teach him to read, although he had a servant, a very good
grammarian, called Chilo, who taught many others; but he thought
not fit, as he himself said, to have his son reprimanded by a
slave, or pulled, it may be, by the ears when found tardy in his
lesson: nor would he have him owe to a servant the obligation of
so great a thing as his learning; he himself, therefore, taught
him his grammar, his law, and his gymnastic exercises. Nor did he
only show him, too, how to throw a dart, to fight in armor, and to
ride, but to box also and to endure both heat and cold, and to
swim over the most rapid and rough rivers. He says, likewise, that
he wrote histories, in large characters, with his own hand, that
so his son, without stirring out of the house, might learn to know
about his countrymen and forefathers: nor did he less abstain from
speaking any thing improper before his son, than if it had been in
the presence of the sacred virgins, called vestals. Nor would he
ever go into the bath with him; which seems indeed to have been
the common custom of the Romans. Thus, like an excellent work, Cato formed and fashioned his son to
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