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
virtue.