near Rome, and even Rome itself. At the same time my of the Roman state. Cicero then rose and deliv he numbered among his adherents not only the worst ered that bold oration against him, which was the and lowest of the riotous populace, but also many of means of saving Rome by driving Catiline from the the patricians and men of consular rank. Everything city. The conspirators who remained, Lentulus, Cefavoured his audacious scheme. Pompey was pursu- thegus, and other infamous scnators, engaged to ing the victories which Lucullus had prepared for him, head the insurrection in Rome as soon as Catiline and the latter was but a feeble supporter of the patriots appeared at the gates. According to Cicero and Salin the senate, who wished him, but in vain, to put lust, it was the intention of the conspirators to set himself at their head. Crassus, who had delivered It- the city on fire, and massacre the inhabitants. At any aly from the gladiators, was now striving with mad rate, these horrid consequences might have easily foleagerness after power and riches, and, instead of op-lowed from the circumstances of the case, without any posing, countenanced the growing influence of Cati- previous resolution. Lentulus, Cethegus, and the line, as a means of his own aggrandizement. Cæsar, other conspirators, in the mean while, were carrying on who was labouring to revive the party of Marius, spared their criminal plots. They applied to the ambassaCatiline, and, perhaps, even encouraged him. Only two dors of the Allobroges to transfer the war to the fronRomans remained determined to uphold their falling tiers of Italy itself. These, however, revealed the country-Cato and Cicero; the latter of whom alone plot, and their disclosures led to others still more impossessed the qualifications necessary for the task. portant. The correspondence of the conspirators The conspirators were now planning the elevation of with their leader was intercepted. The senate had Catiline and one of his accomplices to the consulship. now a notorious crime to punish. As the circumWhen this was effected, they hoped to obtain possession stances of the case did not allow of a minute observ of the public treasures and the property of the citizens, ance of form in the proceedings against the conspiraunder various pretexts, and especially by means of pro- tors, the laws relating thereto were disregarded, as scription. It is not probable, however, that Catiline had been done in former instances of less pressing had promised them the liberty of burning and plunder- danger. Cæsar spoke against immediate execution, ing Rome. Cicero had the courage to stand candi- but Cicero and Cato prevailed. Five of the conspiradate for the consulship, in spite of the impending dan- tors were put to death. Caius Antonius was then apger, of the extent of which he was perfectly aware. pointed to march against Catiline, but, on the eve of Neither insults nor threats, nor even riots and attempts battle, under pretence of being disabled by the gout, to assassinate him, deterred him from his purpose; he gave the command to his lieutenant Petreius. The and, being supported by the rich citizens, he gained battle was fought at Pistoria (now Pistoia) in Etruria, his election, B.C. 65. All that the party of Catiline and ended in the complete overthrow of the insurgents. could accomplish was the election of Caius Antonius, Catiline, on finding that all was lost, resolved to die one of their accomplices, as colleague of Cicero. This sword in hand. His followers imitated his example.failure, however, did not deprive Catiline of the hope The history of Catiline's conspiracy has been written of gaining the consulship the following year. For by Sallust. The conspiracy of Catiline, as described this purpose he redoubled the measures of terror, by by this historian and Cicero, is considered by some means of which he had laid the foundation of his pow-persons to contain many improbabilities. It is incredier. Meanwhile he had lost some of the most impor-ble, say they, that a man like Catiline, unconnected tant members of his conspiracy. Antony had been with the regular popular party, should have seriously prevailed upon or compelled by Cicero to remain neu- hoped to effect a revolution; nor can it be believed tral. Cæsar and Crassus had resolved to do the same. that any of the nobility would have submitted themPiso had been killed in Spain. Italy, however, was selves to the guidance of such a leader. Even if he destitute of troops. The veterans of Sylla only waited had succeeded in setting fire to the city and destroythe signal to take up arms. This signal was now ing the principal senators, the prætor of the nearest given by Catiline. The centurion Manlius appeared province would presently have marched against him, among them, and formed a camp in Etruria. Cicero and would have crushed him with little difficulty. was on the watch, and a fortunate accident disclosed But they who argue thus, forget that Catiline was a to him the counsels of the conspirators. One of them, patrician of noble family; that he had been prætor; Curius, was on intimate terms with a woman of doubt- and that he was considered by Cicero as his most danful reputation, Fulvia by name, and had acquainted gerous competitor for the consulship when he was her with their plans. Through this woman Cicero candidate for that office. He had been known in Syllearned that two knights had undertaken to assassi- la's proscription as a man who scrupled at nothing; nate him at his house. On the day which they had and there was a large party in Rome to whom such a fixed for the execution of their plan, they found his character was the greatest recommendation, and who doors barred and guarded. Still Cicero delayed to would gladly follow any one that possessed it. That make public the circumstances of a conspiracy, the this party was inconsiderable in point of political power, progress and resources of which he wished first to as-is true; and they accordingly hoped to effect their decertain. He contented himself with warning his fellow-citizens, in general terms, of the impending danger. But when the insurrection of Manlius was made known, he procured the passage of the celebrated decree, "that the consuls should take care that the republic received no detriment." By a decree of this kind, the consuls or other magistrates named therein were, in accordance with the custom of the state, armed with the supreme civil and military authority. It was exceedingly difficult to seize the person of one who had soldiers at his command, both in and out of Rome; still more difficult would it be to prove his guilt before those who were accomplices with him, or, at least, were willing to make use of his plans to serve their own interests. He had to choose between two evils-a revolution within the city, or a civil war: he preferred the latter. Catiline had the boldness to take his seat in the senate, known as he was to be the ene signs by fire and assassination rather than by open force. But if Catiline could have once made himself master of the city, no one can doubt but that he would have found a majority in the Comitia ready, either from fear or sympathy in his projects, to elect him consul or dictator; and, when once invested with the title of a legal magistrate, and in possession of the seat of government, he would probably have persuaded a very great part of the community to remain neutral, while his own active supporters, the profligate young nobility, the needy plebeians, the discontented Italian allies, and the restless veterans of Sylla's armies, would have enabled him to defy the efforts of any neighbouring prætor who might have been disposed to attack him. He might have held the government as easily as Cinna had done; and, although Pompey might have imitated successfully the conduct of Sylla, in returning from Asia to revenge the cause of the aristocracy, yet the chance of resisting which he sat down along with them at table, eating the same bread and drinking the same wine. Valerius Flaccus, a noble and powerful Roman, occupied an estate in the neighbourhood of Cato's residence. A witness of the virtues and talents displayed by him, he persuaded the young Cato to remove to Rome, and promised to assist him by his influence and patronage. Cato came accordingly to the capital, with an obscure name, and with no other resources but his own talents and the aid of the generous Flaccus; but by the purity CATIUS, M. a fictitious name in Horace (Serm., 2, of his morals, the austere energy of his character, his 4), under which the poet alludes to an entire class of knowledge of the laws, his fluency of elocution, and persons, who abused the genuine doctrines of Epicu- the great ability that marked his early forensic career, rus, and made a large portion of human felicity con- he soon won for himself a distinguished name. It sist in the pleasures of the table. According to Manso was in the camp, however, rather than at the bar, that (Schriften und Abhandlungen, p. 59), Catius appears he strove to raise himself to eminence. At the age of to have had for his prototype one Malius, a Roman thirty he went as military tribune to Sicily. The next knight, famed for his acquaintance with the precepts year he was chosen quæstor, and was attached to the of the culinary art. (Consult Heindorf, ad Horat., l. c.) army which Scipio Africanus was to carry into Africa, -The scholiast cited by Cruquius makes Catius to at which period there commenced between him and have been an Epicurean, and to have written on the that cominander a rivalry and hatred which lasted unNature of Things," and "the Sovereign Good." With til death. Cato, who had returned to Rome, accused this account Acron and Porphyrion agree. Cicero, Scipio of extravagance; and, though he failed in supmoreover, speaks of the Epicurean Catius, from Insu-porting his charge, yet his zeal for the public good gainbria, as of a writer who had died only a short time pre-ed him great influence over the minds of the people. vious. (Cic., Ep. ad Fam., 15, 16.-Compare Quintil., 10, 1.) Still, however, the explanation we have given suits better the spirit of Horace's satire; and, besides, Catius had died some time before, and was almost entirely forgotten. (Heindorf, l. c) sor." Five years subsequent to this, after having been already ædile, he was chosen prætor, and the province of Sardinia fell to him by lot. His austere self-control, his integrity and justice, while discharging this office, brought him into direct and most favourable contrast CATO, a surname of the Porcian family, rendered with those who had preceded him. Here too it was illustrious by M. Porcius Cato, a celebrated Roman, that he became acquainted with the poet Ennius, who surnamed Censorius, in allusion to the severity with was then serving among the Calabrian levies attached which he discharged the office of censor, and hence to the army. From Ennius he acquired the Greek commonly styled, at the present day, "Cato the Cen-language, and, on his departure from the island, he Other surnames were, Priscus, "the old," and took the bard along with him to Rome. He was finalMajor, "the elder," both alluding to his having pre-ly elected consul, B.C. 193, and his colleague in office ceded, in the order of time, the younger Cato, who committed suicide at Utica. The subject of the present sketch was born 232 B.C., at Tusculum, of plebeian parents. His family were in very moderate circumstances, and little, if anything, was known of it, until he himself made the name a conspicuous one. His father left him a small farm in the Sabine territory, and here the first years of his youth were spent. The state of public affairs, however, soon compelled him to take up arms for the defence of his country. The second Punic war had broken out, and Hannibal had invaded Italy. Cato, therefore, served his first campaign at the age of seventeen, under Fabius Maximus, when he besieged the city of Capua. Five years after this he fought under the same commander at the siege of Tarentum, and, after the capture of this place, became acquainted with the Pythagorean Nearchus, who initiated him into the principles of that system of philosophy, with which, in practice, he had already become familiar. The war being ended, Cato returned to his farm. Near this there stood a cottage belonging to Manius Curius Dentatus, who had repeatedly triumphed over the Sabines and Samnites, and had at length driven Pyrrhus from Italy. Cato was accustomed frequently to walk over to the humble abode of this renowned commander, where he was struck with admiration at the frugality of its owner, and the skilful management of the farm which was attached to it. Hence it became his great object to emulate his illustrious neighbour, and adopt him as his model. Having made an estimate of his house, lands, slaves, and expenses, he applied himself to husbandry with new ardour, and retrenched all superfluity. In the morning he went to the small towns in the vicinity to plead and defend the causes of those who applied to him for assistance. Thence he returned to his fields; where, with a plain cloak over his shoulders in winter, and almost naked in summer, he laboured with his servants till they had concluded their tasks, after was Valerius Flaccus, his carly friend. While consul he strenuously but fruitlessly opposed the abolition of the famous Oppian Law (vid. Oppia Lex), and soon after this set out for Spain, which had attempted to shake off the Roman yoke. With newly-raised troops, which he soon converted into an excellent army, he quickly reduced that province to submission, and obtained the honours of a triumph at Rome, though there is but too much reason to believe that he had justly exposed himself, in the eyes of a candid historian, if such a one could then have been found among his countrymen, to the charge of perfidious conduct and cruelty. Hardly had Cato descended from the triumphal char iot, when, laying aside the consular robe and assu ming the garb of the lieutenant, he accompanied, as such, the Roman commander Sempronius into Thrace. He afterward placed himself under the orders of Manius Acilius, the consul, to fight against Antiochus, and carry the war into Thessaly. By a bold march he seized upon Callidromus, one of the rockiest summits of Thermopyle, and thus decided the issue of the conflict. For this signal service, the consul, in the excess of his enthusiasm, embraced him in the presence of the whole army, and exclaimed that it was neither in his power, nor in that of the Roman people, to award him a recompense commensurate with his deserts. Acilius immediately after this sent him to Rome to communicate the tidings of the victory. Seven years subsequently he obtained the office of censor, notwithstanding the powerful opposition of a large part of the nobility, who dreaded to have so severe an inspector of public morals, at a time when luxury, the result of their Asiatic conquests, had driven out many of the earlier virtues of the Roman people. He fulfilled this trust with inflexible rigour. Some of his acts, it is true, would seem to have proceeded from that pugnacious bitterness which must be contracted by a man engaged in constant strife and inflictions: thus, for example, he took away his horse from Lu. cius Scipio, and expelled Manilius from the senate for | be found the strange combination of grovelling cupidity saluting his wife at what Cato deemed an improper and boundless indifference towards external goods? time. Still, however, most of his proceedings when As to what regards the first point, we need not, as censor indicate a man who aimed, by every method, in other cases, betake ourselves to Plutarch's collecat keeping up the true spirit of earlier days. Hence, tion of anecdotes; we can judge of it from Cato's though his measures, while holding this office, caused own work on husbandry and household economy. him some obloquy and opposition, they met in the end At the very outset of the book, he sees nothing to with the highest applause, and, when he resigned the find fault with in a respectable man's endeavouring to censorship, the people erected a statue to him in the enrich himself by trade; for profit and gain appear emple of Health, with an honourable inscription, tes- to him an important object of life; only he looks ifying his faithful discharge of the duties of his of- upon the mercantile profession as too hazardous in ace. Cato's attachment to the old Roman morals its nature.-While we recognise with pleasure, even was still more plainly seen in his opposition to Car- in Cato's generation, the old Sabine discipline in the neades and his colleagues, when he persuaded the sen- simplicity of life, rural employments, and social cheerate to send back these philosophers, without delay, to fulness of the Roman country nobleman, yet we pertheir own schools, through fear lest the Roman youth ceive with horror that the treatment of slaves, even in should lose their martial character in the pursuit of ancient Italy and according to old Roman manners, Grecian learning. The whole political career of Cato was still more degrading to humanity than in Greece. was one continued warfare. He was continually ac- Cato bought slaves like hounds or foals, when they cusing others, or made the subject of accusation him- were young, in order to sell them again when grown self. Livy, although full of admiration for his charac- up; he treated them exactly like hounds or foals; ter, still does not seek to deny, that Cato was sus- used them well, because they had a money value, but pected of having excited the accusation brought against otherwise viewed them merely as live-stock, not as Scipio Africanus, which compelled that illustrious man persons. This, however, we find less surprising, since, to retire from the capital. He was also the means of even in his warlike undertakings, Cato opposed rigour the condemnation of Scipio Asiaticus, who would and cruelty, as genuine Roman policy, to Scipio's have been dragged to prison had not Tiberius Grac- mildness. His advice, however, to the farmer, as to chus generously interfered. As for Cato himself, the mode in which old and sickly slaves are to be dishe was fifty times accused and as often acquitted. posed of, shows an utter want of good feeling. He He was eighty-five years of age when he saw himself classes them with old and worn-out iron implements, compelled to answer the last accusation brought against and recommends them to be sold: "Ferramenta vetehim, and the exordium of his speech on that occasion ra, servum senem, servum morbosum, et si quid aliud was marked by a peculiar and touching simplicity: "It supersit vendat." (R. R., 2, p. 12, ed. Bip.)-Among is a hard thing, Romans, to give an account of one's the literary labours of Cato, the first that deserves conduct before the men of an age different from that mention is the treatise De Re Rustica (“On Agriin which one has himself lived."-The last act of Ca- culture"). It appears to have come down to us in a to's public life was his embassy to Carthage, to settle mutilated state, since Pliny and other writers allude the dispute between the Carthaginians and King Mas- to subjects as treated of by Cato, and to opinions as sinissa. This voyage of his is rendered famous in his- delivered by him in this book, which are nowhere to be tory, since to it has been attributed the destruction of found in any part of the work now extant. In its Carthage. In fact, struck by the rapid recovery of present state, it is merely the loose, unconnected jourthis city from the loss it had sustained, Cato ever af-nal of a plain farmer, expressed with rude, sometimes ter ended every speech of his with the well-known words, "Præterea censeo Carthaginem esse delendam” ("I am also of opinion that Carthage ought to be destroyed"). Whatever we may think of his patriotism in this, we certainly cannot admire his political sagacity, since the ruin of Carthage, by removing all dread of a once powerful rival, only tended to accelerate the downfall of Roman freedom itself. Cato died a year after his return from this embassy, in the eightyfifth year of his age.-Although frugal of the public revenues, he does not appear to have been indifferent to riches, nor to have neglected the ordinary means of acquiring them; nay, if Plutarch speaks truly, some of the modes to which he had recourse for increasing his resources were anything but reputable. Towards the end of his life he was fond of indulging in a cheerful glass, and of inviting daily some of his neighbours to sup with him at his villa; and the conversation on these occasions turned, not, as one might have supposed, chiefly on rural affairs, but on the praises of great and excellent men among the Romans. He was twice married, and had a son by each of his wives. His conduct as a husband and father was equally exemplary. Cato may be taken as a specimen of the Sabino-Samnite character. If his life be regarded as that of a mere private man, it offers only acerbity and rigour it presents, however, a wholly different aspect if one contemplates him as the representative of the early Italian popular character. Many features of this same character strikingly resemble the modern. Who does not, in Cato's vehement bitterness, retrace a leading feature of the modern Italian, so vehement and implacable when his feelings are once irritated? Who knows not that in Italy is most frequently to with almost oracular, brevity; and it wants all those elegant topics of embellishment and illustration which the subject might have so naturally suggested. It consists solely of the dryest rules of agriculture, and some receipts for making various kinds of cakes and wine. Servius says, it is addressed to the author's son, but there is no such address now extant. The most remarkable feature in this work of Cato's is its total want of arrangement. It is divided, indeed, into chapters, but the author apparently had never taken the trouble of reducing his precepts to any sort of method, or of following any general plan. The hundred and sixty-two chapters, of which this work consists, seem so many rules committed to writing, as the daily labours of the field suggested. He gives directions about the vineyard, then goes to his corn-fields, and returns again to the vineyard. His treatise, therefore, was evidently not intended as a regular and wellcomposed book, but merely as a journal of incidental observations. That this was its utmost pretension, is farther evinced by the brevity of the precepts, and the deficiency of all illustrations or embellishment. Of the style, he of course would be little careful, as his Memoranda were intended for the use only of his family and slaves. It is therefore always simple, and sometimes rude, but it is not ill-adapted to the subject, and suits our notions of the severe manners of its author and the character of the ancient Romans.-Besides this book on agriculture, Cato left behind him various works, which have almost entirely perished. He left a hundred and fifty orations (Cicero, Brutus, c. 17), which were existing in the time of Cicero, though almost entirely neglected, and a book on military discipline (Vegetius, 1, 8), both of which, if now extant, would be highly interesting, as proceeding from one | Moribus, now generally attributed to Dionysius Cato, who was equally distinguished in the camp and forum. A good many of his orations were in dissuasion or favour of particular laws and measures of state. By his readiness and pertinacity, and his bitterness in speaking, he completely wore out his adversaries (Liv., 39, 40), and earned the reputation of being, if not the most eloquent, at least the most stubborn, speaker among the Romans. who lived, according to Scaliger, in the age of Commodus and Septimius Severus. (Plut., Vit. Cat. Maj.-Biogr. Univ., vol. 7, p. 399, seqq.-Dunlop's Roman Literature, vol. 2, p. 16, seqq.) The pretended fragments of the Origines, published by the Dominican, Nanni, better known by the name of Anning Viterbiensis, and inserted in his Antiquitates Variæ, Both Cicero and Livy have ex-printed at Rome in 1498, are spurious, and the impopressed themselves very fully on the subject of Cato's sition was detected soon after their appearance. The orations. The former admits that his language is few remains first collected by Riccobonus, and pubantiquated, and some of his phrases harsh and inele- lished at the end of his Treatise on History (Basle, gant: but only change that," he continues, "which it 1759), are believed to be genuine. They have been was not in his power to change-add number and ca- enlarged by Ausonius Popma, and added by him, with dence-give an easier turn to his sentences, and regu- notes, to the other writings of Cato, published at Leylate the structure and connexion of his words, and den in 1590.-The best edition of the work on Agriyou will find no one who can claim the preference to culture is contained in Gesner's Scriptores Rei RustiCato." Livy principally speaks of the facility, asperi- ca, 2 vols. 4to, Lips., 1735.-II. Marcus, son of Cato ty, and freedom of his tongue.-Of the book on mili- the Censor, by his first wife. He distinguished himtary discipline, a good deal has been incorporated into self greatly in the battle of Pydna, against Perses, the work of Vegetius; and Cicero's orations may con- king of Macedonia, and received high eulogiums from sole us for the want of those of Cato. But the loss of Paulus Æmilius, the Roman commander on that octhe seven books, De Originibus, which he commenced casion, whose daughter Tertia he afterward married. in his vigorous old age, and finished just before his He died while filling the office of prætor. (Plut., Vit. death, must ever be deeply deplored by the historian Cat. Maj., c. 20 et 24.)-III. Salonius, or, as Pluand antiquary. Cato is said to have begun to inquire tarch calls him, Saloninus (Eaλwvivoç), son of Cato into the history, antiquities, and language of the Ro- the Censor, by his second wife. This second wife was man people, with a view to counteract the influence the daughter of one Salonius, who had been Cato's of the Greek taste introduced by the Scipios. The secretary, and was, at the time of the marriage, a memfirst book of the valuable work, De Originibus, as we ber of his retinue. Salonius, like his half-brother Marare informed by Cornelius Nepos, in his short life of cus, died when prætor. He left, however, a son naCato, contained the exploits of the kings of Rome. med Marcus, who attained to the consulship, and who Cato was the first author who attempted to fix the era was the father of Cato the younger, commonly called of the foundation of Rome, which he calculated in his Uticensis. (Plut., Vit. Cat. Maj., c. 27.)-IV. Va Origines, and determined to have been in the first year lerius, a celebrated grammarian in the time of Sylla. of the 7th Olympiad, which is also the estimate fol- He was deprived of all his patrimony during the exlowed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The second cesses of the civil war, and then directed his attention and third books treated of the origin of the different to literary pursuits. He wrote a poem entitled Dira states of Italy, whence the whole work has received in Battarum, "Imprecations on Battarus." It was the name of Origines. The fourth and fifth books directed against the individual who had profited by his comprehended the history of the first and second Punic disgrace, to appropriate to himself all the property of wars; and in the two remaining books, the author dis- the former. Suetonius, who has preserved some accussed the other wars of the Romans till the time of count of him, mentions two other poems of his, the Servius Galba, who overthrew the Lusitanians. The one entitled Lydia, the other Diana, and also a third whole work exhibited great industry and learning, and, work, probably in prose, called Indignatio, in which had it descended to us, would unquestionably have he gives an account of his misfortunes. These thrown much light upon the early periods of Roman three works are lost. (Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 1, history and the antiquities of the different states of Ita- p. 152.)-V. Dionysius, a writer supposed to have ly. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, himself a sedulous in- flourished in the age of Commodus and Septimius Sevquirer into antiquities, bears ample testimony to the erus, and who is regarded as the author of the Distiresearch and accuracy of that part which treats of the cha de Moribus. (Compare Scaliger, Lect. Auson., origin of the ancient Italian cities.-Cato was the 232-Cannegieter, Rescrip. Boxhorn. de Catone., c. first of his countrymen who wrote on the subject of 18.-Bähr, Gesch. Rom. Litt., vol. 1, p. 154.)—VI. medicine. This was done in a work entitled "Com- Marcus, surnamed Uticensis, from his death at Utica, mentarius quo medetur Filio, Servis, Familiaribus." was great-grandson to the censor of the same name, In this book of domestic medicine, duck, pigeons, and born B.C. 93. A short time after his birth he and hare were the food he chiefly recommended to lost both his parents, and was brought up in the man the sick. His remedies were principally extracted sion of Livius Drusus, his uncle on the mother's side. from herbs; and colewort or cabbage was his favour- Even in early life Cato displayed a maturity of judg ite cure. (Pliny, 20, 9.) The recipes, indeed, ment and an inflexible firmness of character far above contained in his work on agriculture, show that his his years; and Sarpedon, his instructer, being accusmedical knowledge did not exceed that which usu- tomed to take him frequently to the residence of Sylla, ally exists among a semi-barbarous race, and only ex- who had been his father's friend, the young Cato, then tended to the most ordinary simples which nature af- but fourteen years of age, struck with horror at the fords.--Aulus Gellius (7, 10) mentions Cato's Libri bloody scenes that were passing around him, asked quæstionum Epistolicarum; and Cicero his Apoph- his preceptor for a sword that he might slay the tyrant. thegmata (De Officus, 1, 29), the first example, prob- His affectionate disposition was clearly displayed in ably, of that class of works which, under the appella- his strong attachment to Cæpio, his brother by the tion of Ana, became so fashionable and prevalent in mother's side, as may be seen by a reference to the paFrance. The only other work of Cato's which we ges of Plutarch. Being appointed to the priesthood shall here mention is the Carmen de Moribus. This, of Apollo, he changed his residence, and took his however, was not written in verse, as might be sup- share of his father's estate; but, though the fortune posed from the title. Precepts, imprecations, or pray- which he thus received was a considerable one, his ers, or any set formula whatever, were called Carmi- manner of living was simpler and more frugal than na. Misled, however, by the title, some critics have ever. He formed a particular connexion with Anerroneously assigned to the censor the Disticha de tipater of Tyre, the stoic philosopher, made himself well acquainted with the tenets of this school, and ever to Juba, king of Mauritania, where Varus had colafter remained true to its principles, pushing them even lected a considerable force. Cato immediately resolv to the extreme of austerity. His first appearance in ed to join them, and, in order to effect this, was compublic was against the tribunes of the people, who pelled to make a long and painful march across a deswished to remove a column of the Porcian Basilica, or ert region, in which his troops suffered severely from Hall of Justice, which incommoded their benches. hunger, thirst, and every hardship, but which privaThis Basilica had been erected by his great-grandfa- tions his own example enabled them manfully to en ther the censor, and the young Cato displayed on the dure. After seven days of suffering his force reachoccasion that powerful and commanding eloquence ed Utica, where a junction between the two armies which afterward rendered him so formidable to all took place. The soldiers wished to have him for their his opponents. His first campaign was in the war general, but he yielded to what he conceived to be the against Spartacus, as a simple volunteer, his half- superior claims of Scipio, who held the office of probrother Cæpio being a military tribune in the same consul; and this fault on his part, of which he soon army; and he distinguished himself so highly, that after had reason to repent, accelerated the ruin of the Gellius, the prætor, wished to award him a prize of cause in which he had embarked. Scipio having wishhonour, which Cato, however, declined. He was ed, for Juba's gratification, to put all the inhabitants then sent as military tribune to Macedonia. There of Utica to the sword, Cato strenuously opposed this he learned that Cæpio was lying dangerously ill at cruel plan, and accepted the command of this imporEnos in Thrace, and instantly embarked for that tant city, while Scipio and Labienus marched against place in a small passage-boat, notwithstanding the Cæsar. Cato had advised them to protract the war; roughness of the sea and the great peril which at- but they hazarded an engagement at Thapsus, in which tended the attempt, but only arrived at Enos just they were entirely defeated, and Africa submitted to after Cæpio had breathed his last. Stoicism was here the victor. After vainly endeavouring to prevail upon of no avail, and the young Roman bitterly lamented the fragments of the conquered army, as they came the companion of his early years. According to Plu- successively to Utica, to unite in defending that city tarch, there were some who condemned him for act- against the conqueror, Cato furnished them with all ing in a way so contradictory to his philosophical prin- the ships in the harbour to convey them whithersociples; but the heavier and more unfeeling charge was ever they wished to go. When the evening of that the one brought against him by Cæsar, in his work en- day came, he retired to his own apartments, and emtitled "Anti-Cato." It was there stated, that, after ployed himself for some time in reading the Phædon all the lavish expenditure in which Cato had indulged of Plato, a dialogue that turns upon the immortality of in performing the funeral obsequies of Cæpio, and the soul. He endeavoured at the same time to lull after having declined repayment from the daughter the suspicions of his friends, by seeming to take a of the latter, he nevertheless passed Cæpio's ashes lively interest in the fate of those who were escaping through a sieve in search of the gold which might by sea from Utica, and by sending several times to the have melted down with them! When the term of his seaside to learn the state of the wind and weather. service in Macedonia had expired, he travelled into But towards morning, when all was quiet, he stabbed Asia, and brought back with him the stoic Atheno- himself. He fell from his bed with the blow, and the dorus to Rome. He was next made quæstor, and dis- noise of his fall brought his son and servants into the charged with so much impartiality the duties of this room, by whose assistance he was raised from the difficult office, and displayed so much integrity in its ground, and an attempt was made to bind up the various details, that, on the last day of his quæstor- wound. Their efforts to save him were in vain: for ship, he was escorted to his house by the whole assem- Cato had no sooner recovered his self-possession, than bly of the people. So high, indeed, was the opinion he tore open the wound again in so effectual a manner entertained by his countrymen of the purity of his that he instantly expired. He died at the age of 48; moral character, that when, at the Floral games given and when Cæsar heard of his fate he is said to have by the ædile Messius, Cato happened to be a specta- exclaimed, "I grudge thee thy death, Cato, since thou tor, the people, out of respect for him, hesitated about hast grudged me the saving of thy life.”—Such was ordering the dancers to lay aside their vestments, ac- the end of a man whom a better philosophy, by teachcording to long-established custom, nor would they ing him to struggle with his predominant faults instead allow this to be done until he had departed from the of encouraging them, would have rendered truly amitheatre. (Val. Max., 2, 10, 8.) When the conspira-able and admirable. He possessed the greatest integcy of Catiline was discovered, Cato supported by rity and firmness; and, from the beginning of his poevery means in his power the acts of Cicero, and was litical career, was never swayed by fear or interest to the first that gave him publicly the honourable title of desert that which he considered the course of liberty "Father of his Country." Opposing after this the and justice. He is said to have foreseen Cæsar's deambitious movements of the first triumvirate, they signs long before they were generally suspected; but managed to have him removed to a distance, by send- his well-known animosity against him rendered his auing him out as governor of the island of Cyprus. thority on the subject less weighty; and his zeal led Having executed this trust with ability and success, him to miscalculate the strength of the commonwealth, and having deposited in the treasury nearly seven when he earnestly advised the senate to adopt those thousand talents of silver, he again took part in public measures which gave Cæsar a pretence for commenaffairs at Rome, and again continued his opposition cing hostilities. During the civil war he had the rare to the triumvirate. When, however, the rupture took merit of uniting to the sincerest ardour in the cause place between Pompey and Cæsar, he sided with the of his party a steady regard for justice and humanity; former, and was left behind by him at Dyrrhachium he would not countenance cruelty or rapine because to guard the military chest and magazine, while he practised by his associates or coloured with pretences pushed on after Cæsar, who had been forced to retire of public advantage. But philosophical pride overfrom the siege of that city. Cato, therefore, was not shadowed the last scenes of his life, and led him to present at the battle of Pharsalia. On receiving the indulge his selfish feelings by suicide, rather than live news of this event he sailed to Corcyra with the for the happiness of his family and friends, and mititroops under his orders, and offered the command to gate, as far as lay in his power, the distressed condiCicero, who declined it. He then proceeded to Afri-tion of his country. His character, however, was so ca, where he hoped to meet with Pompey, but on pure, and, since Pompey's death, so superior to that of reaching Cyrene he heard of his death, and was also all the leaders engaged with him in the same cause, informed that Pompey's father-in-law, Scipio, had gone that his opponents could not refuse him their respect |