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M. TULLI CICERONIS
CATO MAIOR DE SENECTUTE
_WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES_
BY JAMES S. REID, M.L.
American Edition Revised
BY FRANCIS W. KELSEY
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
_Copyright, 1882_
PREFACE.
Three years ago Mr. James S. Reid, of Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge, prepared for the Syndics of the University Press editions of
Cicero's _Cato Maior de Senectute_ and _Laelius de Amicitia._ The thorough
and accurate scholarship displayed, especially in the elucidation of the
Latinity, immediately won for the books a cordial reception; and since then
they have gained a permanent place in the esteem of English scholars.
The present volume has the full authorization of Mr. Reid, and was prepared
with the design of presenting to American students, in a form best adapted
to their use, the results of his work. The Text remains substantially that
of Mr. Reid; while mention is made in the notes of the most important
variations in readings and orthography from other editions. The
Introductions have been recast, with some enlargement; the analyses of the
subject-matter in particular have been entirely remodelled. The Notes have
been in some instances reduced, in others amplified,--especially by the
addition of references to the standard treatises on grammar, history, and
philosophy. It was at first the intention of the American editor to
indicate by some mark the matter due to himself; but as this could hardly
be done without marring the appearance of the page, and thus introducing a
source of confusion to the student, it was not attempted. In the work of
revision free use of the principal German and English editions has been
made.
To some the notes of the present edition may appear too copious. The aim
throughout, however, has been not simply to give aid on difficult points,
but to call attention to the finer usages of the Latin, and to add also
whatever explanation seemed necessary to a clear understanding of the
subject-matter. Latin scholarship which shall be at the same time broad and
accurate, including not only a mastery of the language but also a
comprehensive view of the various phases of Roman life and thought, will,
it is believed, be best assured by the slow and careful reading of some
portions of the literature and by the rapid survey of others. Certainly of
the shorter Latin classics few would more fully repay close and careful
study of both language and thought than these charming colloquies on Old
Age and Friendship. While almost faultless in expression, they embody in a
remarkable degree that universal element which characterizes the literary
masterpiece, and makes it the valued possession not merely of an age or a
nation, but of all time.
FRANCIS W. KELSEY
LAKE FOREST, ILL., May, 1882.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
I. CICERO AS A WRITER ON PHILOSOPHY.
(i.) STATE OF PHILOSOPHY IN CICERO'S TIME.
In Philosophy the Romans originated nothing. Their energies in the earlier
years of the state were wholly absorbed in organization and conquest.
Resting in a stern and simple creed, they had little speculative interest
in matters outside the hard routine of their daily life. But with the close
of the Period of Conquest came a change. The influx of wealth from
conquered provinces, the formation of large landed estates, the excessive
employment of slave labor, and the consequent rise of a new aristocracy,
prepared the way for a great revolution. The old religion lost its hold on
the higher classes; something was needed to take its place. With wealth and
luxury came opportunity and desire for culture. Greece, with Art,
Literature, and Philosophy fully developed and highly perfected, stood
ready to instruct her rude conqueror.[1]
In Cicero's time the productive era of Greek Philosophy had well-nigh
passed. Its tendency was less speculative, more ethical and practical than
in the earlier time. There were four prominent schools, the New Academy,
the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean. The supporters of the
last-named advocated in Science the doctrine of the atom, in Ethics the
pursuit of pleasure, in Religion the complete inactivity of the gods.
The Stoics and Peripatetics were divided by comparatively unimportant
differences. In Ethics, considered by them as almost the whole of
Philosophy, which was itself defined as 'the art of living', the main
question between the two schools was the amount of importance to be
attributed to Virtue,--the Stoics declaring that in comparison with Virtue
all other things sink into absolute insignificance, while the Peripatetics
maintained that these have a certain though infinitesimally small
significance. The New Academy taught at this time no complete philosophical
system. It simply proclaimed the view that in the field of knowledge
certainty is unattainable, and that all the inquirer has to do is to
balance probabilities one against the other. The New Academic, therefore,
was free to accept any opinions which seemed to him to have the weight of
probability on their side, but he was bound to be ready to abandon them
when anything appeared which altered his views of the probabilities. He not
only might be, but he could not help being, _eclectic_; that is, he chose
such views promulgated by other schools as seemed to him at the moment to
be most reasonable or probable. Cicero called himself an adherent of this
school. On most points however, although eclectic, he agreed with the
Peripatetics, but with a decided leaning toward the Stoic ethical system.
The Stoic opinion that it is the duty of the wise man to abstain from
public life, which the Peripatetics contested, Cicero decisively rejected.
With the Epicureans he had absolutely no sympathy. Up to this time these
schools and their teachings were known to the Romans only through the
medium of the Greek. The only Latin philosophical literature was Epicurean,
and, excepting the poem of Lucretius (_De Rerum Natura_), scarcely famous
as yet, consisted entirely of books rudely written, although considerably
read.
(ii.) THE MISSION OF CICERO IN PHILOSOPHY.
Cicero made no claim to originality as a philosopher, nor even to complete
acquaintance with every detail of the Greek systems.[2] In early life he
had studied with enthusiasm and success all the learning of the Greeks, but
especially in the two departments of Rhetoric and Philosophy, then closely
connected, or rather hardly distinguished. He not only sought the society
of learned Greeks, but spent considerable time in study at Rhodes and
Athens, which had become not merely the 'school of Greece', as Thucydides
makes Pericles call her, but the school of the civilized world.[3] When, by
reason of political troubles, he was forced to retire to private life, he
began to carry out a great plan for interpreting the best philosophical
writings of the Greeks to his fellow-countrymen. For this work his liberal
views as a New Academic peculiarly fitted him. His usual method was to take
one or two leading Greek works on the subject with which he was dealing,
and to represent freely in his own language their subject-matter,
introducing episodes and illustrations of his own. He thus presented to the
Romans in their own tongue the most significant portions of the Greek
Philosophy; and in his writings there has come down to us much, especially
of the Post-Aristotelian Philosophy, that was doomed to oblivion in the
original Greek. But further than this, to Cicero more than to any other
Roman is due the formation of a Latin philosophical vocabulary, by which
the language was enriched and fitted for the part it has since taken as the
Language of the Learned. While on many points Cicero's own views can hardly
be determined with perfect exactness, the exalted sentiments and the
exquisite literary finish of his philosophical writings have always won
admiration; and through them he has exerted no small influence on the
literature and life of modern times.[4]
(iii.) THE PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF CICERO.
During the whole of an exceptionally busy public life Cicero devoted his
spare moments to reading and to the society of the learned. After his exile
in 58 and 57 B.C. his political career, except for a brief period just
before his death, was over, and it is at this time that his period of great
literary activity begins, In 55 he produced the work _De Oratore_, in 54
the _De Re Publica_, and in 52 the _De Legibus_, all three works, according
to ancient ideas, entitled to rank as philosophical.[5]
From 51 to 46 B.C., owing first to his absence in Cilicia, then to the
civil troubles, Cicero almost ceased to write. But in the latter year he
was reconciled with Caesar, and as the Senate and law courts were closed
against him on his refusal to compromise his political principles, he
betook himself with greater devotion than ever to literature. The first
work written in 46 was the _Hortensius_, or _De Philosophia_, now lost. It
was founded on a lost dialogue of Aristotle, and set forth the advantages
of studying Philosophy. During the same year Cicero completed several
oratorical works, the _Partitiones Oratoriae_, the _Brutus_, or _De Claris
Oratoribus_, and the _Orator_, all of which are extant.
Early in 45 Cicero lost his beloved daughter Tullia. He passed the whole
year in retirement, trying to soothe his grief by incessant writing. In
quick succession appeared
_De Consolatione_, an attempt to apply philosophy to the mitigation of his
own sorrow and that of others;
_Academica_, an exposition of the New Academic Philosophy, advocating
probability rather than certainty as the foundation of philosophy;
_De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, a work criticising the most prominent
views entertained concerning Ethics;
_Disputationes Tusculanae_, treating of certain conditions essential to
morality and happiness;
_De Natura Deorum_, an examination of the principal theories regarding the
nature and power of the gods;
_Cato Maior_, on old age; _Laelius_, on friendship;
_De Fato_, discussing Fate and Free Will;
_Paradoxa_, a book setting forth certain remarkable views of the Stoics;
_De Officiis_, a treatise on practical ethics, the application of moral
principles to the questions and difficulties of ordinary life.
These works, written mostly in 45 and 44, are, except the _De Cons.,_ still
extant. To the list may be added also other works of a rhetorical nature,
such as the _Topica_ and _De Optima Genere Dicendi_, and some lost
philosophical books, such as _De Gloria_.
Even though allowance be made for the fact that Cicero was giving in Latin
the substance of Greek books with which he had been familiar from boyhood,
the mental vigor and literary power exhibited by this series of works
appear prodigious when we consider their great compass and variety and the
generally high finish of their style.
_References._--For a fuller account of Cicero's philosophical views and
writings consult Ritter, 'History of Ancient Philosophy', Vol. 4, Ch. 2;
Maurice, 'Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy', Ch. 7, § 5; Tennemann and
Morell, 'History of Philosophy', Ch. 3; Ueberweg, 'History of Philosophy',
Vol I, § 61; J.B. Mayor, 'Sketch of Ancient Philosophy', pp. 223-244;
Teuffel, 'History of Roman Literature', Vol. i, § 172 _et seq._ Cruttwell,
'History of Roman Literature', Bk. II. Part 1, Ch. 2; 'Cicero', by Collins,
in Ancient Classics for English Readers, Ch. 10, et seq.; also the
Introduction to Reid's edition of the _Academica_, and the account of
Cicero by Prof. Ramsay in Smith's Dictionary of Biography and Mythology.
The most attractive biography of Cicero in English is that by Forsyth. That
by Trollope is able but quite partisan. On the philosophy, consult also
Zeller's 'Eclectics.'
II. THE CATO MAIOR.
(i.) ORIGIN AND SCOPE.
1. _Date and Circumstances of Composition._
The date at which the Cato Maior was written can be determined with almost
perfect exactness. A mention in Cicero's work entitled _De Divinatione_[6]
shows that the Cato Maior preceded that work by a short time. The _De
Divinatione_ was written after the assassination of Caesar, that is, after
the 15th of March in the year 44.[7] Again, the Cato Maior is mentioned as
a recent work in three letters addressed by Cicero to Atticus.[8] The
earliest of these letters was written on or about the 12th of May, 44.[9]
We shall hardly err, therefore, if we assume that Cicero composed the Cato
Maior in April of the year 44.[10] This agrees also with slight indications
in the work itself. In the dedicatory introduction Cicero speaks of
troubles weighing heavily on himself and Atticus.[11] Any one who reads the
letters to Atticus despatched in April, 44, will have little doubt that the
troubles hinted at are the apprehensions as to the course of Antonius, from
whom Cicero had personally something to fear. Atticus was using all the
influence he could bring to bear on Antonius in order to secure Cicero's
safety; hence Cicero's care to avoid in the dedication all but the vaguest
possible allusions to politics. Had that introduction been written before
Caesar's death, we should have had plain allusions (as in the prooemia of
the _Academica_, the _De Finibus_, the _Tusculan Disputations_, and the _De
Natura Deorum_) to Caesar's dictatorship.[12]
The time was one of desperate gloom for Cicero. The downfall of the old
constitution had overwhelmed him with sorrow, and his brief outburst of joy
over Caesar's death had been quickly succeeded by disgust and alarm at the
proceedings of Antonius. The deep wound caused by his daughter's death[13]
was still unhealed. It is easy to catch in the Cato Maior some echoes of
his grief for her. When it is said that of all Cato's titles to admiration
none is higher than the fortitude he showed in bearing the death of his
son,[14] the writer is thinking of the struggle he himself had been waging
against a like sorrow for more than a year past; and when Cato expresses
his firm conviction that he will meet his child beyond the grave,[15] we
can see Cicero's own yearning for reunion with his deeply loved Tullia.
2. _Greek Sources._
All Cicero's philosophical and rhetorical writings were confessedly founded
more or less on Greek originals.[16] The stores from which he principally
drew in writing the Cato Maior are clearly indicated in several parts of
the work. Passages from Xenophon's _Oeconomicus_ are translated in Chapters
17 and 22. In Chapters 2 and 3 there is a close imitation of the
conversation between Socrates and Cephalus at the beginning of Plato's
_Republic_, while in Chapter 21 is reproduced one of the most striking
portions of the _Phaedo_, 72 E-73 B, 78-80.[17] The view of the divine
origin and destiny of the human soul contained in the passage from the
_Phaedo_ is rendered by Cicero in many of his works,[18] and was held by
him with quite a religious fervor and sincerity.
Besides these instances of special indebtedness Cicero, in composing the
Cato Maior, was no doubt under obligations of a more general kind to the
Greeks. The form of the dialogue is Greek, and Aristotelian rather than
Platonic.[19] But further, it is highly probable that Cicero owed to some
particular Greek dialogue on Old Age the general outline of the arguments
he there brings forward. Many of the Greek illustrative allusions may have
had the same origin, though in many cases Roman illustrations must have
been substituted for Greek. Whether the dialogue by Aristo Cius, cursorily
mentioned in the Cato Maior,[20] was at all used by Cicero or not it is
impossible to determine.[21]
3. _Purpose._
The Cato Maior is a popular essay in Ethics, applying the principles of
philosophy to the alleviation of one of life's chief burdens, old age. In
ancient times, when philosophy formed the real and only religion of the
educated class, themes like this were deemed to afford a worthy employment
for the pens even of the greatest philosophers. Such essays formed the only
substitute the ancients had for our Sermons. There can be no doubt of
Cicero's sincerity when he says that the arguments he sets forth in the
treatise had given him real comfort,[22] and the opening words of the
dedication show that he meant and hoped to administer the same comfort to
his friend Atticus, who indeed acknowledged the benefit he derived from the
work.[23] When Cicero wrote the treatise he was himself sixty-two years of
age, while his friend was three years older. He speaks, therefore, rather
euphemistically when he says that his purpose is to lighten the trouble of
an old age which is already close at hand, or at all events
approaching.[24]
But in addition to the main ethical purpose, there was, as in many of
Cicero's works, a distinct political purpose. He desired to stimulate in
his readers an admiration for what he regarded as the golden age of Roman
politics, the era of the Punic wars, and to do this by making the contrast
between that age and his own appear as striking as possible. A like double
purpose is apparent throughout the _De Re Publica_, where Africanus the
younger is the chief personage, and in the treatise on Friendship, where
Laelius is the central figure. For the dialogue on Old Age M. Porcius Cato
the Censor is selected as the principal speaker for two reasons: first,
because he was renowned for the vigor of mind and body he displayed in
advanced life;[25] and secondly, because in him were conspicuously
exhibited the serious simplicity, the unswerving adherence to principle,
and the self-sacrificing patriotism which were the ideal Roman virtues, and
which Cicero could not find among the politicians of his time.
4. _Form and Language._
The Cato Maior, like most of Cicero's philosophical writings, is cast in
the form of a dialogue. Among the ancients the dialogue was a common
rhetorical device, especially in the presentation of abstruse subjects. The
introduction of characters to conduct the discussion gave vividness and
clearness to the unfolding of the argument, as well as a kind of dramatic
interest to the production. In the Cato Maior[26] and the Laelius, as
generally, Cicero followed the plan of Aristotle's dialogues (now lost)
rather than that of the dialogues of Plato. In the former there was more of
exposition and less of discussion than in the latter; one person stated his
views on some question, and the company in attendance only made occasional
remarks without attempting to debate the question. In the latter, although
one person, Socrates, is everywhere prominent, others are continually drawn
into the discussions, and there is a quick interchange of question and
answer. The Aristotelian form was better adapted to Cicero's purposes than
the Platonic; the progress of the argument was less interrupted, and thus
better opportunity for a symmetrical development of the theme was afforded.
Then, too, the former was more popular. The style of Aristotle[27] had been
imitated by Theophrastus and many other writers down to Cicero's time,
while that of Plato had found hardly any imitators.
The editors of the Cato Maior have generally assumed that Cicero attempted
to give an antique coloring to the diction of the dialogue in order to
remind readers of Cato's own style. It is only necessary to read a page or
two of Cato's _De Re Rustica_ to have this illusion dispelled. The only
things actually alleged to be archaisms are (1) the use of deponent
participles as passives in §§ 4, 59, 74, a thing common enough in Cicero;
(2) the occurrence of _quasi_ = _quem ad modum_ in § 71; (3) of _audaciter_
= _audacter_ in § 72; (4) of _tuerentur_ for _intuerentur_ in § 77; (5) of
_neutiquam_ in § 42; (6) of the nominative of the gerundive governing an
accusative case in § 6. In every instance the notes will supply a
refutation of the allegation. That Cicero should attempt to write in any
style but his own is exceedingly improbable.
5. _Personages._
The conversation is supposed to take place between Cato, Scipio Africanus
the younger, and Laelius, in the year before Cato's death, _i.e._ 150 B.C.,
when he was in his eighty-fourth year,[28] Scipio being about 35 and
Laelius a few years older.
(1.) _Cato._ M. Porcius Cato was born in 234 B.C.[29] at the ancient Latin
town of Tusculum. Little is known of his family except that it was
plebeian, and possessed a small patrimony in the territory of the Sabines,
close to the farm of M'. Curius Dentatus, one of Cato's great heroes and
models. The heads of the family, so far as memory extended, had
distinguished themselves as tough warriors and hardy farmers. Among the
Sabines, who even down to the times of the Empire were famed for simplicity
of manners and the practice of all the sterner virtues, Cato passed those
portions of his life which were not occupied with business of state. From
his earliest days he toiled in his own fields, and contented himself with
the hardest rustic life.[30] Yet even in his boyhood Cato must have passed
intervals at Rome, and seen something of the great statesmen and generals
of the time.[31] He seems to have received when young as thorough an
education as was possible without learning Greek, such an education as was
to be obtained only in the capital. He grew up to manhood in the
comparatively quiet period between the first and the second Punic wars; the
most exciting event of his younger years must have been the destruction at
Clastidium of the vast hordes of Celts who had swept over the northern half
of Italy, almost within reach of Rome.
Cato was of the age for military service about the time of the battle of
Lake Trasimenus, and entered the army then as a common soldier.[32] The
first expedition in which he is definitely said to have taken part is that
of Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator against Hannibal in Campania, in 214.[33]
This Roman commander was a man entirely after Cato's heart, and became one
of his models in public life.
Before and during the early years of his soldier's life, Cato succeeded in
winning some reputation as an orator, having practised first in the
provincial courts near his home, and afterwards at Rome.[34] This
reputation as well as his great force of character procured for him a
powerful life-long friend and patron, M. Valerius Flaccus, a statesman of
the old Roman conservative-democratic school of politics, the leader of
which was Fabius Cunctator. Through the influence of Flaccus, possibly with
the aid of Fabius, Cato became military tribune, and served with that rank
under Marcellus in Sicily, under Fabius again at the capture of Tarentum in
209,[35] and under C. Claudius Nero at the battle of the Metaurus, where he
contributed materially to that great victory.
In 204 Cato began his political career with the quaestorship.[36] As he was
a _novus homo_ and a man of small private means, it was no small
distinction that he had forced his way to office in his thirtieth year. The
lot assigned him as quaestor to Scipio, then in Sicily and about to cross
over into Africa. The chance was most unfortunate, if for no other reason,
because Cato was intimately connected with the party in the senate opposed
to Scipio, which had been attempting to bring him to trial for the
atrocities committed by the Roman army in southern Italy. But in addition
the two men were so utterly different that there was no possibility of the
quaestor standing in that filial relation to his consul, which old Roman
custom required. As financial officer, Cato complained of the luxury and
extravagance which Scipio allowed not only to himself but to his army. Yet
the complaint was made not so much on economic as on moral grounds; it
seemed to Cato that the old Roman discipline and power to endure hardships
were being swept away. The dispute was ended by Scipio allowing Cato to
return to Rome, some authorities say from Sicily, others from Africa.
According to one writer,[37] he came home by way of Sardinia and brought
thence with him Ennius the poet.[38]
In 199 Cato was plebeian aedile, and exercised with severity the police
jurisdiction pertaining to that office, yet so as to win popular approval,
since he was chosen praetor for 198 without the usual interval. The
province of Sardinia was entrusted to him, and he strained every nerve to
make his government present as strong a contrast as possible with the lax
and corrupt administration of the nobles who took Scipio for their pattern.
The troops were sternly disciplined, and law-breakers of every kind
severely dealt with; in money matters the strictest economy prevailed; all
gifts from provincials to Roman officers were forbidden. The praetor, the
great representative of Roman power, passed from town to town attended by a
single servant.
In 196 Cato was occupied with his canvass for the consulship of the year
195, to which he was elected in company with his friend Flaccus. Cato was
the first _novus homo_ elected since C. Flaminius, the consul of 217. It is
probable, though not certain, that he paved the way to his election by
carrying the first of the _leges Porciae_, restricting the right of
punishing Roman citizens. During the whole of his career Cato showed a high
sense of the importance of the individual _civis Romanus_.
One of the first official acts of the new consul was to deliver a set
speech to the people against a proposal to repeal the Oppian law, passed
twenty years before, the object of which was to prevent lavish expenditure
on dress and adornments, particularly by women. We have a lively report of
Cato's speech from Livy's pen, partly founded on the speech as published by
Cato himself.[39] The earnest pleading in favor of simple manners and
economy failed, after having almost caused an open insurrection on the part
of the women.[40]
The two new provinces in Spain, Hispania Citerior and Ulterior, were still
in a very unsettled state. The nearer province was made a consular province
and assigned to Cato; the praetor who governed the farther province was
also placed under Cato's jurisdiction. Before leaving Rome Cato carried a
law for protecting the provincials from extortion. During the whole of his
year of office he practised with the utmost exactness his principles of
purity, simplicity, and economy in public affairs. He is said to have
started from his house on the journey to Spain with only three servants,
but when he got as far as the forum, it struck him that such an attendance
was scarcely worthy of a Roman consul; so he purchased two more slaves on
the spot! In the same spirit, before returning he sold his horse that the
state might not be at the expense of transporting it to Italy. Cato was no
less careful of the revenue than of the expenditure. He largely increased
the productiveness of the mines and other property belonging to the state,
and all goods captured from the enemy were sold for the benefit of the
exchequer. On leaving the province Cato made an unusually large gift to
each soldier, saying that it was better for all to bring home silver than
for a few to bring home gold. The provincials were thoroughly content with
their ruler and ever after looked on him as their best friend. The army was
kept in the strictest discipline. Some disorderly conduct of the _equites_
was rebuked by Cato in a bitter harangue which he afterwards published.
Partly by craft, partly by good leadership in the field, Cato broke the
strength of the turbulent natives and returned to enjoy a well-earned
triumph.[41] In the same year (194) a brilliant triumph was celebrated by
Flamininus.
Scipio, probably uneasy at the great reputations quickly won by Flamininus
and Cato, secured his second consulship for the year 194, but failed to
achieve anything remarkable. Cato probably spent the three years after his
return for the most part at his Sabine farm. When the war against Antiochus
broke out, he took service along with his friend Flaccus on the staff of
the consul Glabrio,[42] and by a difficult march over the mountains broke
in on the king's rear, and so was chiefly instrumental in winning the great
battle of Thermopylae, by which Antiochus was driven out of Greece.
Immediately after the battle Cato returned home with despatches. We have
dim and uncertain information that he took the field once or twice again,
but his career as a soldier was practically ended.
From this time to his death, forty years later, Cato was the leading figure
on the stage of Roman politics. In season and out of season he attacked
abuses or innovations in speeches addressed to the senate, the people, or
the courts. Soon after his return from Thessaly he struck a heavy blow at
the unrepublican honor-hunting among the magistrates, of which the example
had been set by P. Scipio Africanus. Most provincial governors drove their
subjects into war, sent lying despatches home about their victories, and
claimed a triumph. In 190 Cato attacked with success the proposal to grant
a triumph to Q. Minucius Thermus, who had already triumphed over the
Spaniards as praetor, and after his consulship in 193 had fought against
the Ligurians. Cato's next victim was his former commander M'. Acilius
Glabrio, who came forward at the same time with Cato, Marcellus (a son of
the captor of Syracuse), L. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, T. Quinctius
Flamininus (the conqueror of Macedonia) and Cato's friend L. Valerius
Flaccus, as candidate for the censorship of 189. Cato by his violent
speeches procured the trial of Glabrio for appropriating the plunder
captured in Thessaly, and himself gave evidence concerning some property
which had disappeared. Glabrio denounced Cato as a perjurer, but yet
retired from his candidature. On this occasion Cato and Flaccus failed,
Marcellus being elected as plebeian and Flamininus as patrician censor.
In the next year (188) Cato acted in the senate with the party which tried
unsuccessfully to refuse the triumph to the two consuls of 189, M. Fulvius
Nobilior and Cn. Manlius Vulso, the former of whom had gained none but
trifling advantages over the Aetolians, while the latter had disgraced the
Roman name by making war without authorization upon the Gauls of Asia
Minor, and had also suffered a humiliating defeat from some Thracian robber
bands on his homeward march. Not disheartened by ill success, Cato and his
friends determined to strike at higher game. L. Scipio Asiaticus (or
Asiagenus), the brother of Africanus, was asserted in the senate to have
appropriated 3000 talents of public money when in command against
Antiochus. Legal proceedings were taken not only against Asiaticus, but
against Africanus, who behaved with great violence and arrogance. In the
end Africanus withdrew to his country estate, while his brother was
condemned to pay a heavy fine. A death-stroke had been given to the almost
kingly authority of Africanus, who never again showed his face in Rome. The
proceedings against the Scipios seem to have begun in 187 and not to have
been completed before 185.
Nearly twenty years had passed since the conflict between Cato and Scipio
began, and now it had ended in a complete triumph for Cato.[43] But the new
modes of which Scipio was the chief patron were too strong to be conquered,
and Cato spent the rest of his life in fighting a hopeless battle against
them, though he fought for a time with the strongest weapons that the
constitution supplied. In 184 he was censor along with Flaccus, who seems
to have allowed his colleague full liberty of action. Every portion of the
censor's duty was carried out on the most severe and 'old Roman'
principles. Seven senators were degraded, among them L. Flamininus, an
ex-consul and brother of the 'liberator of the Hellenes,' for serious
misconduct,[44] also Manilius, an ex-praetor, for no worse offence than
that of having kissed his wife in presence of his daughter. M. Furius
Purpurio, who had actually competed with Cato for the censorship, was
punished for diverting a public aqueduct for his private advantage. Flaccus
was named leader of the senate in the place of Scipio Africanus, now dead.
On reviewing the _equites_, Cato removed from that body L. Scipio and many
others on various charges: this one had allowed himself to grow too fat for
horsemanship; that had failed to groom his horse properly; another had
neglected his farm; another again had made an untimely jest on the occasion
of the review itself. With the ordinary citizens Cato dealt just as
harshly. In his censorian edict he sharply reproved the extravagance
prevalent at private feasts. All articles of luxury, such as slaves
purchased at fancy prices, luxurious clothing, carriages, statues, and
pictures were rendered liable to heavy taxation. In this way Cato revenged
himself for the repeal of the Oppian law.
In looking after the property and income of the state Cato followed the
same principles he had acted on in Spain. He reduced the expenditure on
public works as far as possible, and took care to sell at the full price
the right to collect the revenue. Encroachments on the property of the
nation were severely punished.
Not by acts only, but by constant speeches, full at once of grimness and
humor, did Cato struggle against the degeneracy of his time[45]. He
concluded his period of office with a self-laudatory harangue, and assumed
the title _Censorius_, while his statue was placed in the temple of the
goddess Salus with an inscription affirming that he had reformed the Roman
nation.
But in a very brief time all trace of Cato's activity as censor was swept
away, except that afforded by the numerous life-long quarrels in which he
had involved himself[46]. In less than two years one of his victims,
Purpurio, was employed by the senate on a high political mission, while
another, L. Flamininus, sat among the senators at the games in defiance of
Cato's sentence. Yet Cato remained by far the most powerful member of the
senate. Titus Flamininus, his only important rival, quickly passed out of
notice. So far as there was any democratic opposition to the senatorial
oligarchy, Cato was the leader of that opposition for the remainder of his
life. But at that period no great political movements agitated the state
within; nearly the whole interest of the time was centred in the foreign
relations of Rome. On matters of foreign policy Cato offered but little
opposition to the prevailing tendencies of the age, though on particular
occasions he exercised great influence. But his voice was at all times
loudly heard on all questions of morality and public order. He supported
the _lex Furia_ and the _lex Voconia_, the object of which was to prevent
the dissipation of family property, and the _lex Orchia_, directed against
extravagant expenditure on feasts, also the _lex Baebia de ambitu_, the
first serious attempt to check bribery. We hear also that Cato bitterly
attacked Lepidus, censor in 180, for erecting a permanent theatre in place
of the movable booths before used. The building was actually pulled down.
We are told that from time to time he denounced the misdoings of provincial
governors. In 171 he was one of a commission of five for bringing to
justice three ex-praetors who had practised all manner of corruption in
Spain. Almost the last act of his life was to prosecute Galba for cruel
misgovernment of the Lusitanians. The titles of Cato's speeches show that
he played a great part in the deliberations of the senate concerning
foreign affairs, but as his fighting days were over and he was unfitted for
diplomacy, we have little explicit evidence of his activity in this
direction. At the end of the third Macedonian war he successfully opposed
the annexation of Macedonia. He also saved from destruction the Rhodians,
who during the war had plainly desired the victory of Perseus, and in the
early days, when the Roman commanders had ill success, had deeply wounded
the whole Roman nation by an offer to mediate between them and the king of
Macedon.
Cato had all his life retained his feeling of enmity to the Carthaginians,
whom Scipio, he thought, had treated too tenderly. In 150 he was one of an
embassy sent to Carthage, and came back filled with alarm at the prosperity
of the city. It is said that whatever was the subject on which he was asked
for his opinion in the senate, he always ended his speech with '_ceterum
censeo delendam esse Carthaginem_' P. Scipio Nasica, the son-in-law of
Africanus, and the representative of his policy, always shouted out the
opposite opinion, thinking that the fear of Carthage had a salutary effect
on the Roman populace at large. But the ideas of Cato prevailed, and a
cruel policy, carried out with needless brutality, led to the extinction of
Rome's greatest rival. Cato did not live to see the conclusion of the war;
he died in 149, at the age of 84 or 85 years, having retained his mental
and physical vigor to the last. He had two sons, one by his first wife, and
one by his second wife, born when Cato was 80 years of age. The elder son,
to whom many of Cato's works were addressed, died as praetor-elect, before
his father[47]. The other was grandfather of Cato Uticensis.
The literary activity of the old censor was great, though his leisure was
small.[48] In Cicero's time a collection of 150 speeches was still extant.
The titles of about 90 are still known to us, and of some we possess a few
fragments. Cato's greatest work, however, was his _Origines_, the first
real historical work written in Latin. His predecessors had been merely
compilers of chronicles. The work was founded on laborious investigations,
and comprised the history of Rome from the earliest times perhaps down to
150 B.C.[49], as well as notices of the history of other important Italian
states. Further, Cato wrote of Agriculture, to which he was
enthusiastically devoted. We still have his _De Re Rustica_, a collection
of maxims loosely strung together. He also composed works on law; a sort of
educational encyclopaedia for his son; and a collection of witty sayings,
Αποφθεγματα, drawn from Greek as well as from Roman sources.
Plutarch seems to have known a collected edition of the pungent and
proverbial utterances for which the censor was famous, and for which (not
for any knowledge of philosophy[50]) he received the title of _sapiens_
('shrewd') which he bore at the end of his life. This edition, however, was
not compiled by Cato himself.
In view of Cicero's treatise, the Cato Maior, it is necessary to say
something of Cato's relations with the Greeks and Greek literature. The
ancients give us merely vague statements that he only began to learn Greek
'in his old age.' The expression must be liberally interpreted if, as seems
clear, the whole of his writings showed the influence of Greek literature.
It is certain, however, that he thoroughly detested the Greek nation. This
hatred was shown in acts more than once. No doubt Cato was at least a
consenting party to the expulsion from Rome of Greek teachers in 161 B.C.
When in 155 the famous embassy came from Athens consisting of Carneades the
Academic, Critolaus the Peripatetic and Diogenes the Stoic, Cato was a
prime mover of the decree by which they were removed from the city.
Socrates was one of Cato's favorite marks for jests. And this is the man
into whose mouth Cicero puts the utterances, but slightly veiled, of Greek
wisdom!
(2.) _Scipio_. P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the younger, was no blood
relation of the conqueror of Hannibal, but the adopted son of his son. It
must be remembered, however, that adoption was much more formal and
binding, and produced much closer ties in ancient than in modern times.[51]
The elder Africanus was unfortunate in his sons. The younger of these
attained to the praetorship in 174, but was immediately driven from the
senate by the censors of that year on account of his disreputable life. The
elder was an invalid, who never held any office except that of augur, and
died at an early age. He adopted the son of L. Aemilius Paulus, the victor
of Pydna; the adopted son bore the name Aemilianus in memory of his origin.
Cato's son married a daughter of Paulus, so that the censor was brought
into relationship with the Cornelii, whose most illustrious representative
he had hated and attacked.
The young Scipio was born about 185, and when scarce 17 years old fought
with daring bravery at Pydna. While still very young he showed a great
devotion to study, which he retained through life. He was a thorough
partisan of the new Greek learning, and grouped around him in friendship
all the leaders of the Hellenistic movement. Among his dearest friends were
Polybius, the Greek statesman and historian, and later Panaetius, the
Stoic. In 151 B.C. when the consuls found it difficult to enlist officers
and men for service in Spain, where great defeats had been suffered, Scipio
volunteered, and served with great distinction as military tribune. When
the war with Carthage broke out he held the same rank, and shone by
comparison with his blundering superior officers. Coming to Rome in 148 he
stood for the aedileship, but was elected consul for the year 147, and
again for 146, when he finished the war. He is said to have grieved over
the fate of Carthage, and to have dreaded any further increase of the Roman
territory. In 142 Scipio was censor, and acted with almost Catonian
severity. In 134, though not a candidate, he was elected to the consulship
and put in command of the Roman army then besieging the city of Numantia in
Spain. The war, of which this siege formed a part, had been going on for
some years most disastrously for the Romans, but Scipio speedily brought it
to a conclusion in 133. While before Numantia he received news of the
murder of Ti. Gracchus, whose sister he had married and whose cousin he had
become by adoption, but whose policy he had on the whole opposed, though he
had occasionally coquetted with the democrats. This course cost him the
favor of the people, and when in 131 he desired to conduct the war against
Aristonicus, only two of the thirty-five tribes voted for his appointment.
In 129, after a violent scene in the senate, where he had opposed the
carrying out of Ti. Gracchus' agrarian law, he was triumphantly escorted
home by a crowd, composed chiefly of Italians whose interests had been
threatened by the law. Next morning he was found dead in his bed. Opinion
as to the cause of his death was divided at the time and so remained. In
the _Laelius_ the death is assumed to have been from natural causes.[52]
Elsewhere, however, Cicero adopts the view of many of Scipio's friends that
he was murdered by Carbo.[53] Carbo afterwards lent color to the suspicions
by putting himself to death, in order, as was supposed, to avoid a direct
prosecution. In ancient times even C. Gracchus was suspected of having thus
avenged his brother's death, but no modern scholar of any rank has
countenanced the suspicion.
Whether the degree of intimacy between Cato and Scipio, which Cicero
assumes, ever existed or not, cannot be determined.[54] There was much in
Scipio that would attract Cato. Unlike the elder Africanus, he was severe
and simple in his outward life, and though a lover of Greek and Greeks, yet
attached to all that was best in the old Roman character and polity. Though
an opponent of revolution, he was far from being a partisan of the
oligarchy. Altogether, of all Romans, he most nearly deserved the
description, 'ανηρ τετραγωνος ανευ ψογου,' 'a man four-square without
reproach.' In his _De Re Publica_, Cicero points to Scipio as the ideal
statesman, and often elsewhere eulogizes him as an almost perfect Roman.
(3.) _Laelius_. Gaius Laelius, born about 186, was Scipio's most
distinguished officer before Carthage, and his most intimate friend
throughout life. The friendship of the two was one of the most famous in
antiquity, and is celebrated in the _Laelius_. Laelius was an able speaker,
writer and soldier, and devoted to Greek learning, particularly to the
Stoic philosophy. He is with Cicero the type of a man of culture.[55] He,
too, is one of the interlocutors in the _De Re Publica_.
(ii.) SUBJECT-MATTER.
1. _General View_.
The Cato Maior falls naturally into three parts:--
Preliminary, dedication to Atticus, §§ 1-3;
Introductory Conversation, 4-9;
Cato's Defence of Old Age, 10-85.
After § 9 Cato continues to express his views on old age without
interruption to the end, and the dialogue thus becomes really a monologue.
2. _Analysis._
PRELIMINARY 1-3.
Cicero, addressing Atticus, states his purpose in writing the book and the
effect of the work on himself (1, 2), the reasons for putting the
sentiments on old age into the mouth of Cato, and the circumstances of the
supposed conversation (3).
INTRODUCTORY CONVERSATION 4-9.
Scipio declares his admiration of Cato's vigorous and happy old age. Cato
replies that the secret lies in following the guidance of Nature (4, 5).
Laelius then asks Cato to point out the road to such an old age as his own
(6). This the old man promises to do, but first remarks that the faults
charged against old age are generally due to defects of character (7).
Laelius suggests that prosperity makes Cato's declining years pleasant.
Cato admits that there may be some truth in this, but maintains that right
character alone can make old age tolerable (8, 9).
CATO'S DEFENCE OF OLD AGE 10-85.
A. Introductory argument from fact. Account of celebrated old men whose
lives till death were useful and happy 10-14
(a). Fabius Maximus 10-12
(b). Plato; (c). Isocrates; (d). Gorgias 13
(e). Ennius 14
B. Refutation of charges made against old age 15-85
_Statement of the four charges commonly made against old age_: it withdraws
men from active life, it weakens the physical powers, it takes away
capacity for enjoyment, and it involves the anticipation of death 15
A. Refutation of the first charge, that old age withdraws from active life.
(a). There are employments suited to old age which
are as necessary to the well-being of society as
those which require greater physical powers 15-20
(b). The special objection that old men have weak
memories is answered by showing that this is
due either to an original defect or to insufficient
exercise 21-22
(c). Argument from fact: instances of old men in
public and in private life who till death were
actively at work 23-26
B. Rebuttal of the second charge, that old age weakens the physical powers.
(a). Old age does not desire nor require the strength
of youth, because it may exert influence
through other means. Instances cited to show
this 27-32
(b). Temperate habits will retain a good measure
of strength till old age (33, 34); many instances
of weakness in old age may be attributed to
ill-health, which is common to all periods of
life (35); proper care will greatly retard decay 33-38
C. Refutation of the third charge, that old age takes away the capacity for
enjoyment
(a). The pleasures in which youth finds its keenest
enjoyment are in themselves bad, and old age
is beneficent in freeing from their allurements 39-44
(b). Old age has pleasures far more refined and satisfying
than those of sense 45-64
Such as, those of conversation and literature
(45-50); especially those of agriculture (51-61);
and lastly, the exercise of influence, which old
age will always possess if a rightly spent youth
has preceded (62-64).
(c). The special objection that old men's tempers
spoil their enjoyments is met by the statement
that this is the fault of character, not of age 65
D. Refutation of the fourth charge, that old age is unhappy because it
involves the anticipation of death.
(a). Since the right aim of life is to live not long
but well, death ought not to be dreaded at any
age 66-69
(b). Old men, especially those of learning and culture,
ought not to fear death 70-76
Because, that which is according to nature is
good, and it is natural for old men to die (70-73);
the process of dying is brief and almost painless
(74); even young men and those without learning
often set the example of despising death
(75); and old age, just as the other periods
of life, has finally its season of ripeness and
satiety (76).