66 law, he did not expoftulate with them, nor take the seaft notice. Next morning he went to the forum, according to custom, with his friends about him; and as he went along, he called aloud to one Salonius, who had been his fecretary, and now was one of his train, and asked him, "Whether he had provided a husband for his daughter?" upon his anfwering, "That he had not, nor fhould without confulting his best friend ;" Cato faid, "Why "then,. I have found out a very fit husband for her, if "fhe can bear with the disparity of age: for in other re“spects he is unexceptionable, but he is very old," Salonius replying," That he left the difpofal of her entire "ly to him, for fhe was under his protection, and had "no dependence but upon his bounty;" Cato faid with out farther ceremony, "Then I will be your fon-in"law." The man at first was aftonished at the proposal, as may eafily be imagined; believing Cato paft the time of life for marrying, and knowing himfelf far beneath analliance with a family that had been honoured with the confulate and a triumph. But when he faw that Cato" was in earnest, he embraced the offer with joy, and the marriage contract was figned as foon as they came to the forum. While they were bufied in preparing for the nuptials, young Cato, taking his relations with him, went and afked his father, "What offence he had committed, that "he was going to put a mother-in-law upon him?" Cato. immediately answered, "Afk not fuch a question, my "fon; for, instead of being offended, I have reason to 66 praise your whole conduct: I am only defirous of hav64 ing more fuch fons, and leaving more fuch citizens to my country." But this answer is faid to have been givenlong before, by Pififtratus the Athenian tyrant, who, when he had fons by a former wife already grown up, married a second, Timonaffa of Argos, by whom he is faid to have had two fons more, Jophon and Theffalus. He By this wife Cato had a fon, whom he called Salonius, after his mother's father. As for his eldest fon Cato, he died in his prætorfhip. His father often makes mention of him in his writings as a brave and worthy map. bore this lofs with the moderation of a philofopher, ap plying himself with his ufual activity to affairs of state. For he did not, like Lucius Lucullus afterwards, and Metellus Fius, think age an exemption from the fervice of: of the public, but confidered that fervice as his indif penfable duty nor yet did he act as Scipio Africanus had done, who finding himself attacked and oppofed by envy in the course of his glory, quitted the administration, and spent the remainder of his days in retirement and inaction. But, as one told Dionyfius, that the most honourable death was to die in poffeffion of fovereign power, fo Cato efteemed that the most honourable old age, which was spent in ferving the commonwealth. The a mufements in which he paffed his leisure hours, were the writing of books and tilling the ground: and this is the reafon of our having fo many treatises on various subjects, and histories of his compofing *. In his younger days he applied himself to agriculture, with a view to profit; for he used to say, he had only two ways of increafing his income, labour and parfimony: but as he grew old, he regarded it only by way of theory and amufement. He wrote a book concerning † country affairs, in which, among other things, he gives rules for making cakes and preferving fruit; for he was defirous to be thought curious and particular in every thing. He kept a better table in the country than in town; for he always invited fome of his acquaintance in the neighbourhood to fup with him. With thefe he paffed the time in cheerful converfation, making himself agreeable, not only to thofe of his own age, but to the young; for he had a thorough knowledge of the world, and had either feen himfelf, or heard from others, a variety of things that were curious and entertaining. He looked upon the table as one of the best means of forming friendships; and at his, the converfation generally turned upon the praises of great and excellent men among the Romans: as for the bad and unworthy, no mention was made of them, for he would not allow in his company one word, either good or bad, to be faid of fuch kind of men. The last service he is faid to have done the public, was the deftruction of Carthage. The younger Scipio indeed gave the finishing stroke to that work, but it was under taken *Befide an hundred and fifty orations, and more, that he left behind him, he wrote a treatife of military difcipline, and books of antiquities; , in two of these he treats of the foundation of the cities of Italy; the other five contained the Roman history, particularly a narrative of the first and fecond Punic war. This is the only work of his that remains entire; of the reft we have only fragments. * taken chiefly by the advice and at the inflances of Cato. The occafion of the war was this. The Carthaginians and Maffiniffa, king of Numidia, being at war with each other, Cato was fent into Africa to inquire into the causes of the quarrel. Mafliniffa from the first had been a friend to the Romans, and the Carthaginians were admitted into `their alliance after the great overthrow they received from Scipio the elder, but upon terms which deprived them of great part of their dominions, and impofed a heavy tribute. When Cato arrived at Carthage, he found that city not in the exhaufted and humble condition which the Romans imagined, but full of men fit to bear arms, abounding in money, in àrms and warlike ftores, and not a little elated in the thought of its being fo well provided. He concluded, therefore, that it was no time for the Romans to endeavour to settle the points in difpute between the Numidians and Carthage; and that, if they did not foon make themselves mafters of that city, which was their old enemy, and retained ftrong refentments of the ufage fhe had lately received, and which had not only recovered herfelf after her loffes, but was prodigoufly increafed in wealth and power, they would foon be expofed to all their former dangers. For this reafon he returned in all hafte to Rome, where he informed the fenate, "That the de"feats and other misfortunes which had happened to the Carthaginians, had not fo much drained them of their "forces, as cured them of their folly; and that, in all "probability, instead of a weaker, they had made them 66 a more skilful and warlike enemy that their war with "the Numidians was only a prelude to future combats "with the Romans; and that the late peace was a mere name, for they confidered it only as a fufpenfion of arms, "which they were willing to avail themselves of, 'till they "had a favourable opportunity to renew the war." It is faid that at the conclufion of his fpeech he shook the lap of his gown, and purposely dropped fome Lybian figs; and when he found the fenators admired them for their fize and beauty, he told them, "That the country "where * Scipio Africanus obliged the Carthaginians, at the conclusion of the fecond Punic war, to deliver up their fleet to the Romans, yield to Maffiniffa part of Syphax's dominions, and pay the Romans ten thou fand talents. This peace was made in the third year of the hundred and fourty-fourth olympiad, two hundred years before the Chriftian era. "where they grew was but three days fail from Rome." But what is a stronger inftance of his enmity to Carthage, he never gave his opinion in the fenate upon any other point whatever, without adding these words, " And my "opinion is, that Carthage fhould be deftroyed." Scipio, furnamed Nafica, made it a point to maintain the contrary, and concluded all his fpeeches thus, "And my opinion is, "that Carthage should be left ftanding." It is very likely that this great man, perceiving that the people were come to fuch a pitch of infolence, as to be led by it into the greatest exceffes (fo that in the pride of profperity they could not be restrained by the fenate, but by their overgrown power were able to draw the government what way they pleafed), thought it beft that Carthage fhould remain to keep them in awe, and to moderate their prefumption. For-he faw that the Carthaginians were not ftrong enough to conquer the Romans, and yet too refpectable an enemy to be defpifed by them. On the other hand, Cato thought it dangerous, while the people were thus inebriated and giddy with power, to fuffer a city which had always been great, and which was now grown fober and wife through its misfortunes, to lie watching every advantage against them. It appeared to him, therefore, the wifeft courfe, to have all outward dangers re moved from the commonwealth, that it might be at leisure to guard against internal corruption Thus Cato, they tell us, occafioned the third and last war against the Carthaginians. But as foon as it began he died, having first prophefied of the perfon that should put an end to it; who was then a young man, and had only a tri So we have rendered the laft member of the fentence, with the Latin, ut ita opportunius inteftinis malis medendis vacarent. In the original it is, αναφορας αυτοις προς τας οικοθεν ἁμαρτίας απολιποντας : and one of the fenfes of avoga is an alleviation, a refource; fo Euripides in Oreft. στιν ήμιν αναφορά τῆς συμφορας. Yet the former Englifh tranfator and the French have rendered it very differently: How justly let the learned reader judge! The English runs thus, At a time when through their depravity and corruption they had fo many dangers hanging over their heads at home. The French thus, lorfqu' on lui Laifoit ou dedans tous les moyens de fe porter à tous les excès et de commettre les fautes les plus terribles. What led Dacier wrong, was, we fuppofe, his finding it awvTUS in the text, in the past time: but it is very clear to us, it should be read 702&vres, in the prefent. a tribune's command in the army, but was giving extraor dinary proofs of his conduct and valour. The news of thefe exploits being brought to Rome, Cato cried out, He is the foul of counsel, The reft are shadows vain. This Scipio foon confirmed by his actions. Cato left one fon by his fecond wife, who, as we have already obferved, was furnamed Salonius, and a grandfon by the fon of his first wife who died before him. Salonius died in his prætorfhip, leaving a fon named Marcus, who came to be conful, and was * grandfather to Cato the philofopher, the best and most illuftrious man of his time. HAVING thus given a detail of the most memorable ac tions of these great men, if we compare the whole life of the one, with that of the other, it will not be easy to difcern the difference between them, the eye being attracted by fo many ftriking resemblances. But if we examine the feveral parts of their lives diftinctly, as we do a poem or a picture, we shall find, in the first place, this common to them both, that they rose to high fla tions and great honour in their refpective commonwealths, not by the help of family connections, but merely by their own virtue and abilities. It is true, that when Ariftides raised himself, Athens was not in her grandeur, and the demagogues and chief magistrates he had to do with, were men of moderate and nearly equal fortunes. For eftates of the highest clafs were then only five hun dred medimni; of those of the fecond order, who were knights, three hundred; and of thofe of the third order, who were called Zeugita, two hundred. But Cato, from a little village and a country life, launched into the Roman government, as into a boundless ocean, at a time when *This is a mistake in Plutarch for Salonius was the grandfather, and Marcus the father of Cato of Utica, |