by Plutarch
Sources
It is clear that Plutarch relied heavily on Cato’s own writings. Many were readily available in his day, and inasmuch as their study was fashionable he could easily consult learned Roman friends. It is less obvious whether he used the biography of Cato by Cornelius Nepos (the extant Cato is merely an abbreviation of Nepos’ more ambitious work Cato 3.5). It is true that there is information in Nepos which Plutarch omits, but this in and of itself does not prove Plutarch did not read him. More important than Nepos, however, were Polybius (principally Books 3–40, though for most of the period of Cato’s mature career these books are highly fragmentary) and Livy (Books 31–45). Plutarch also appropriated various aspects of the humane and affable Cato portrayed by Cicero in his On Old Age: that was the Cato who was certainly Plutarch’s preference.20
Life of Elder Cato
[234–149 BC]
1. Marcus Cato’s family is said to have originated from Tusculum,1 although he himself was brought up and spent his life – before he devoted himself to politics and soldiering – on a family estate in a country of the Sabines.2 None of his ancestors appears to have made any mark in Roman history, but Cato himself praises his father, Marcus, as a man of courage and a capable soldier. He also mentions that his grandfather Cato was several times decorated for valour in battle, and was awarded by the state treasury for his gallantry the price of the five horses which had been killed under him in battle.
The Romans were in the habit of describing as New Men all those whose ancestors had never risen to high office, but who were beginning to become prominent through their own efforts, and Cato soon acquired this title.3 He himself used to say that he was certainly new to honours and positions of authority, but that as regards deeds of valour performed by his ancestors, his name was as old as any. Originally his third name was not Cato, but Priscus:4 he earned the name Cato later in his life on account of his remarkable abilities, for the Romans apply to a man of skill and experience the epithet catus.5
In appearance he was red-haired and possessed piercing grey eyes, as we learn from the author of this rather malicious epigram:
Red-haired, grey-eyed, snapping at all comers, even in Hades, Porcius, Queen Persephone will turn you away from the gate.6
Ever since his early youth he had trained himself to work with his own hands, serve as a soldier and follow a sober mode of living, and hence he possessed a tough constitution and a body which was as strong as it was healthy. He also developed his powers of speech, which he regarded almost as a second body, and, for the man who has no intention of leading an obscure or idle existence, as an indispensable instrument which serves not only the necessary but also the higher purposes of life. So he practised and perfected his oratory in the towns and villages near Rome, where he acted as an advocate for all who needed him, and he earned the reputation first of being a vigorous pleader and then an effective orator. As time went on, the gravity and dignity of his character revealed themselves unmistakably to those who had dealings with him, and marked him out as a man who was clearly qualified for employment in great affairs and a position of leadership in the state. Not only did he provide his services in lawsuits without demanding a fee of any kind,7 but he did not seem to regard the prestige acquired in these contests as the principal object of his efforts. On the contrary, he was far more anxious to distinguish himself in battles and campaigns against Rome’s enemies, and his body was covered with honourable wounds before he had even reached manhood.
He says himself that he served in his first campaign when he was seventeen years old, at the time when Hannibal, at the height of his success, was laying all Italy waste8 with fire and sword. In battle he was a formidable fighter, who stood his ground resolutely and confronted his opponents with a ferocious expression. He would greet the enemy with a harsh and menacing war cry, for he rightly believed, and reminded others, that such an appearance often frightens the enemy even more than cold steel.9 When he was on the march, he used to carry his own armour and weapons on foot, and would be followed by a single attendant who looked after his food and utensils. It is said that he never lost his temper with this man, nor found fault with him when he served up a meal; in fact he would often join in and share the task of preparing food, so long as he was free from his military duties. On active service he drank nothing but water, except that occasionally when he was parched with thirst he would ask for vinegar,10 or when his strength was exhausted add a little wine.
2. Near his estate11 was a cottage which had belonged to Manius Curius, a redoubtable soldier of the past who had celebrated three triumphs.12 Cato often visited the place, and the small size of the farm and the house itself inspired him to meditate upon its owner, who although he had become the greatest Roman of his day, had conquered the most warlike tribes and driven Pyrrhus out of Italy, continued to till this little patch of land with his own hands and to live in this cottage, even after he had celebrated his three triumphs. It was here that the ambassadors of the Samnites had found him sitting in front of his hearth boiling turnips. They offered him large sums of gold, but he sent them away, telling them that a man who could be satisfied with such a meal did not need gold. He added that he believed it more honourable to conquer those who possessed gold than to possess it himself.13 Cato would return home with his mind full of these reflections; then he would look afresh at his own house and slaves and review his mode of life, and would undertake still more work with his own hands and cut down any sign of extravagance.
When Fabius Maximus captured the city of Tarentum,14 it happened that Cato, who was still quite a young man,15 was serving under his command. Cato was billeted with a man named Nearchus,16 who belonged to the sect of the Pythagoreans, and this made him curious to learn something of their theories. When he heard Nearchus expounding the doctrine, which Plato also upholds,17 ‘that pleasure is to be condemned as the greatest incentive to evil, that the body is the greatest hindrance to the development of the soul, and that the soul can only release and purify herself by employing reason to divorce and deliver her from physical sensations’, he became more and more attracted to these ideals of simplicity and self-discipline. Beyond this, we are told, he did not study Greek until late in life, and he did not begin to read Greek books until he was an old man.18 Then he improved his oratory to some extent from the study of Thucydides,19 and still more from Demosthenes.20 But in spite of his limited acquaintance with the language, his writings are often enriched by ideas and anecdotes borrowed from the Greek, and many of his maxims and proverbs are literally translated from it.21
3. There was at Rome at this time a certain Valerius Flaccus,22 a member of one of the oldest patrician families and a man of great political influence, who combined a keen eye for excellence while it was in the bud with the generosity to foster it and bring it to full flower. He owned the estate next to Cato’s, and learned from his slaves of his neighbour’s frugal and self-sufficient way of living. They told him to his amazement that it was Cato’s practice to set out early on foot to the market-place of the local town; there he would plead the causes of all who required his services and later in the day return to his farm. Then he would set to work among his own labourers, wearing a sleeveless smock in winter and stripped to the waist in summer, and would sit down with them to eat the same bread and drink the same wine.23 After they had told him other stories of Cato’s just dealings and his moderation, and quoted some of his shrewd sayings, Valerius invited his neighbour to dinner. He soon discovered when he came to know him that his nature was gentle and refined, and that like a plant it needed to be cultivated and given room to expand; accordingly, Valerius encouraged him and at length prevailed upon him to take part in public life at Rome. Once he had settled there, his performance as an advocate quickly attracted admirers and friends, while at the same time Valerius’ patronage brought him both honour and influence, so that it was not long before he obtained the office of military tribune and later quaestor.24 From this point he quickly rose to suc
h heights of fame and distinction that his name came to be associated with Valerius’ own in the highest offices of state, and he served as his colleague first as consul and later as censor.25
Among the elder statesmen he attached himself most closely to Fabius Maximus.26 At the time Fabius enjoyed the highest reputation and wielded the greatest power of any man in Rome, yet it was not these distinctions but rather the man’s character and his way of life which Cato chose as his ideal. And it was the same considerations which persuaded him to oppose the great Scipio, later known as Africanus.27 This distinguished man, although at the time barely in his thirties, was already becoming a serious rival to Fabius, who was generally believed to be jealous of him.28 When Cato was posted to Africa to serve as Scipio’s quaestor for the invasion of Carthage, he saw that his commander was not only indulging in his usual lavish personal expenditure, but was also squandering extravagantly high pay upon his troops.29 He protested to Scipio and told him bluntly that the most important issue was not the question of expense, but the fact that he was corrupting the native simplicity of his men, who, as soon as they had more money than they needed for their everyday wants, would spend it on luxuries and the pleasures of the senses. Scipio retorted that when his plan of campaign was proceeding as it were under full sail, he had no use for a niggling quaestor, and that he would be called upon to account to the Roman people not for the money he had spent but for the battles he had won. Cato therefore left Scipio’s army,30 which was then being assembled in Sicily. He proceeded at once to Rome and helped Fabius to denounce the general before the senate. They attacked Scipio’s waste of immense sums of money and his childish fondness for wrestling schools and theatrical performances, as if he had been appointed the impresario of some festival, not a commander on active service.31 As a result of these accusations, tribunes were sent out32 with authority to recall Scipio to Rome, if the charges were proved to be true. However, Scipio was able to impress upon the tribunes that success in war depends upon the size of the preparations made for it, and furthermore that he would indulge in agreeable diversions with his friends during his hours of leisure without allowing his sociability to make him neglectful of his serious duties. At any rate, his defence convinced the tribunes, and he set sail for Africa.
4. All this while, Cato’s speeches continued to add greatly to his reputation, so that he came to be known as the Roman Demosthenes,33 but what created an even more powerful impression than his eloquence was his manner of living. His powers of expression merely set a standard for young men, which many of them were already striving their utmost to attain. But a man who observed the ancestral custom of working his own land, who was content with a cold breakfast, a frugal dinner, the simplest clothing and a humble cottage to live in, and who actually thought it more admirable to renounce luxuries than to acquire them – such a person was conspicuous by his rarity.34 The truth was that by this date the Roman republic had grown too large to preserve its original purity of spirit, and the very authority which is exercised over so many realms and peoples constantly brought it into contact with, and obliged it to adapt itself to, an extraordinary diversity of habits and modes of living. So it was natural enough that everybody should admire Cato when they saw others prostrated by their labours or enervated by their pleasures, while he remained unaffected by either. What was even more remarkable was that he followed the same habits, not merely while he was young and full of ambition, but even when he was old and grey-headed and had served as a consul and celebrated a triumph, and that he continued, like some champion athlete, to observe the rules of his training and maintain his self-discipline to the end.
He tells us35 that he never wore a garment which cost more than 100 drachmas, that even when he was praetor or consul he drank the same wine as his rowers,36 that he bought the fish or meat for his dinner in the public market and never paid more than 30 asses for it,37 and that he allowed himself this indulgence for the public good in order to strengthen his body for military service. He also mentions that when he was bequeathed an embroidered Babylonian rug, he immediately sold it, that none of his villas had plastered walls,38 that he never paid more than 1,500 drachmas for a slave, since he was not looking for the exquisite or handsome type of domestic servant, but for sturdy labourers such as grooms and herdsmen, and that when they became too old to work, he felt it his duty to sell them rather than feed so many useless mouths.39 In general he considered that nothing is cheap if it is superfluous, that what a man does not need is dear even if it cost only an as,40 and that one should buy land for tilling and grazing, not to make gardens, where the object is merely to sprinkle the lawns and sweep the paths.
5. Some people attributed these actions to sheer meanness of spirit on Cato’s part, while others upheld them on the grounds that he practised this austere and close-fisted way of life so as to correct and restrain the extravagance of others. For my own part, I regard his conduct towards his slaves in treating them like beasts of burden, exploiting them to the limits of their strength, and then, when they were old, driving them off and selling them, as the mark of a thoroughly ungenerous nature, which cannot recognize any bond between man and man but that of necessity. And yet we see that kindness possesses a far wider sphere of action than justice, for it is in the nature of things that law and justice are confined to our dealings with our fellow-men, whereas kindness and charity, which often flow from a gentle nature, like water from an abundant spring, may be extended even to dumb animals. A kindly man will take good care of his horses even when they are worn out in his service, and will look after his dogs, not only when they are puppies, but when they need special attention in their old age.
When the people of Athens were building the Parthenon, they turned loose those mules which had worked the hardest, put them out to grass and declared them to be exempted from any further service.41 One of these, so the story goes, came back to the site of its own accord, trotted by the side of its companions which were hauling wagons in harness up the Acropolis, and even led the way as though encouraging and urging them on, whereupon the Athenians passed a decree that the animal should be fed at the public expense for the rest of its life. The graves of Cimon’s race-horses too – a set of mares with which he won three victories at Olympia42 – can still be seen near the tombs of his family. There are many instances of dogs which have become the faithful companions and friends of their masters: perhaps the most famous of all was Xanthippus’ dog, which swam by the side of his trireme to Salamis when the Athenians were abandoning Athens,43 and was buried with honour on the promontory, which is to this day called the Dog’s Mound.
We ought never to treat living creatures like shoes or kitchen utensils, to be thrown away when they are broken or worn out in our service, but rather cultivate the habit of behaving with tenderness and consideration towards animals, if only for the sake of gaining practice in humanity when we come to deal with our fellow-men. For my part, I would not sell even my draught ox simply because of his age, far less turn out an old man from the home and the way of life to which he has grown accustomed for the sake of a few paltry coins, especially since he would be of no more use to the buyer than he was to the seller. But Cato goes so far as to boast of such economies, and says that he left behind him in Spain even the charger which he rode during his campaigns as consul, so as to save the state the cost of its transportation. Now, whether these actions are to be judged as examples of greatness or of pettiness of spirit is a question which the reader must decide for himself.
6. However, in other respects Cato’s self-restraint deserves the highest commendation. For example, when he commanded an army he never drew for himself and his staff more than three Attic bushels44 of wheat a month, and for his horses less than a bushel and a half of barley a day. When he became governor of Sardinia,45 whereas his predecessors had been in the habit of charging the cost of their tents, beds and clothing to the public funds, and extorting immense sums from the province to pay for large retinues of servants and fri
ends, and for sumptuous banquets and entertainments, he substituted an unheard-of economy in his administration. He imposed no charges whatever on the public treasury and visited the various cities on foot, followed by a single public slave,46 who carried his robe and his cup for pouring libations. But although in these matters he treated the people under his authority with tolerance and a strict regard for economy, in other respects he governed with an exemplary dignity and severity.47 He was inexorable in the administration of justice, and direct and peremptory in the execution of his orders, so that the authority of Rome was never more feared nor more loved than during his term of office.
7. These are also the qualities which distinguish Cato’s oratory. It was at once elegant and forceful, agreeable and vehement, playful and severe, epigrammatic and combative. In the same way, Plato remarks of Socrates48 that superficially he impressed the people as an uncouth man with a face like a satyr, who was rude to everyone he met, but that his inward nature was deeply serious, and full of thoughts which touched his listeners’ hearts and moved them to tears. For this reason I find it hard to understand those who say that the closest parallel to Cato’s oratory is to be found in the speeches of Lysias.49 However, this kind of question must be decided by those who are better qualified than myself at defining the characteristics of Roman oratory.50 I shall now relate a few of Cato’s memorable sayings, since I believe that it is often a man’s words rather than his appearance which throw light on his character.51
8. On one occasion, when he wished to dissuade the Roman people from raising what he considered to be a quite unjustifiable clamour for a free distribution of grain, he began his speech with the words, ‘It is difficult, my fellow-citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears.’ Then, when he was attacking the extravagance of the day, he remarked, ‘How can we expect to save a city, where people are prepared to pay more for a fish than for an ox?’52 On another occasion he declared, ‘The Roman people are like sheep: you cannot budge one of them on its own, but when they are in a flock, they all follow their leaders as a single body. In the same way, when you come together in the assembly, you allow yourselves to be led by men whose advice you would never think of following in your private affairs.’ On the subject of the influence of women, he said, ‘All mankind rule their wives, we rule all mankind, and our wives rule us.’ However, this saying is borrowed from Themistocles,53 who, when he found his son constantly giving him orders but doing so by way of instructions from his wife, told her, ‘My dear, the Athenians rule the Greeks, I rule the Athenians, you rule me, and our son rules you. So he must be careful, even at his young age, not to abuse his power, because it is greater than anyone else’s.’
