The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  There is also a story of a young man who had brought an action against an enemy of his dead father and succeeded in obtaining his disfranchisement. When the case was over and he was leaving the forum, Cato greeted him and said: ‘This is the kind of sacrifice we should offer up to the spirits of our parents, not lambs nor kids, but the condemnation and then the tears of their enemies.’ Yet Cato himself did not escape with impunity. Whenever in his political career he gave his enemies the slightest ground to attack him, he was repeatedly prosecuted and sometimes in danger of being condemned. It is said that nearly fifty impeachments111 were brought against him, the last when he was eighty-six years of age. It was on this occasion that he uttered the famous remark, ‘It is hard for a man who has lived through one generation to be called upon to defend himself before another,’112 but even this action was not his last, for four years later at the age of ninety113 he impeached Servius Galba,114 and indeed one might say of him as of Nestor that his life spanned three generations,115 and he was active in each one of them. He fought many political contests with Scipio Africanus, as I have described above, and he lived to continue them with the younger Scipio,116 who was Africanus’ grandson by adoption, his father being that Aemilius Paullus who conquered Perseus and the Macedonians.

  16. Ten years after his consulship Cato became a candidate for the censorship.117 The office was regarded as the crowning honour of Roman civic life, and in a sense the culminating achievement of a political career.118 Its powers were very extensive and they included the right to inquire into the lives and manners of the citizens. The Romans did not think it proper that anyone should be left free to follow his personal preferences and appetites, whether in marriage, the begetting of children, the regulation of his daily life or the entertainment of his friends, without a large measure of surveillance and control. They believed that a man’s true character was more clearly revealed in his private life than in his public or political career, and they therefore chose two officials, one from among the so-called patricians and the other a plebeian,119 whose duty it was to watch, regulate and punish any tendency to indulge in licentious or voluptuous habits and to depart from the traditional and established way of living. These officers were known as censors, and they had authority to degrade a Roman knight120 or to expel a senator who led a vicious or disorderly life.121 They also carried out and maintained a general census of property, kept a register of all the citizens according to their social and political classification, and exercised various other important powers.

  Accordingly, when Cato became a candidate,122 almost all the most prominent and influential members of the senate joined forces to oppose him. Those of them who belonged to the most ancient families were motivated by jealousy, since they regarded it as an insult to the nobility that men of totally undistinguished origin should be raised to the highest positions of honour and power, while others, who were conscious of having committed shameful misdeeds or departed from traditional customs, dreaded the austerity of Cato’s disposition and felt sure that he would prove harsh and inexorable in his use of power.

  So after conferring together and drawing up their plans, they put up no fewer than seven candidates to oppose Cato, and these men at once set themselves to court the people’s votes by promising that they would show great leniency while in office, imagining that the common people desired a lax and indulgent regime. Cato, on the other hand, did not deign to offer any concessions whatever. He openly threatened wrongdoers in his speeches from the rostra, proclaimed that what the city needed was a drastic purification and exhorted the people, if they had any sense, to choose a physician who would prescribe not the most painless but the most strenuous course of treatment. He himself was such a one, he told them, among the plebeians, and among the patricians they should elect Valerius Flaccus. Flaccus was the only colleague, he insisted, with whom he could make some progress in cutting away and cauterizing the hydralike123 desire for luxury and degeneracy of the age. As for the rest of the candidates, it was clear that the only object of their efforts was to force their way into the office and pervert its functions, since they were afraid of those who would administer them with justice. On this occasion the Roman people showed itself to be truly great, and hence worthy of great leaders. They did not allow themselves to be deterred by Cato’s inflexibility nor even by his arrogance. On the other hand, they rejected his smooth-spoken opponents, who had promised to do everything to please them, and they elected Flaccus together with Cato. Indeed, they treated Cato not as if he were a candidate for office, but already installed in it, and exercising his authority.

  17. As soon as he was elected,124 Cato appointed his friend and colleague Lucius Valerius Flaccus to be the leading man in the senate,125 and he also expelled several of its members, including a certain Lucius Quinctius.126 This man had been consul seven years before and – a distinction which counted for more even than the consulship – was the brother of the Titus Flamininus who had overcome King Philip of Macedon. The reason for his expulsion was as follows. There was a youth who had been Lucius’ favourite ever since his boyhood. He kept him constantly at his side, even taking him on his campaigns, and allowed him to enjoy more honour and influence than any of his closest friends and relatives. While Lucius was serving as governor of his consular province, he held a drinking party. On this occasion the youth was reclining, as he usually did, next to Lucius and serving up flattery to his patron, who was in any case all too easily led astray by drink. ‘I am so devoted to you’, the boy told him, ‘that once, when there was to be a gladiatorial show in Rome, I missed it to hurry out here and join you, even though I have always longed to see a man killed.’ Lucius, who was anxious to demonstrate his affection, answered, ‘I am not going to have you lying there holding a grudge against me on that account. I will soon put the matter right.’ At this he gave orders for a criminal who had been condemned to death to be brought into the banquet, and for a lictor to stand by him with an axe. Then he again asked his favourite whether he wanted to see a man struck dead, and when the boy said he did, he ordered the prisoner to be beheaded. This is the account which most writers give of the incident, and when Cicero in his On Old Age introduces Cato as telling the story, he gives the same details.127 According to Livy, however, the man who was executed was a Gallic deserter, and Lucius did not have him beheaded by a lictor, but struck the blow with his own hand, and he also mentions that this version of the story is repeated in a speech of Cato’s own.128 When Lucius was expelled from the senate in this way, his brother Titus was indignant and appealed to the people, demanding that Cato should explain the reasons for his action. Cato then did so and told the whole story of the drinking party. Lucius tried to deny the affair, but when Cato challenged him to a formal inquiry and a judicial wager129 on the result, he declined. After this everybody recognized that he had been justly punished. But some time later, when a public spectacle was put on in the theatre, Lucius walked past the seats reserved for men of consular rank and took his place as far away as possible, among the least distinguished members of the audience. This action made the people take pity on him, and they began to raise a clamour until they obliged him to change his seat, thus restoring his dignity so far as they could and alleviating the humiliation he had suffered.

  Cato also expelled another senator, Manilius – despite the fact that public opinion had marked him out as a strong candidate for the consulship – on the ground that he had kissed his wife passionately by daylight in the presence of his daughter.130 For his own part, Cato declared, he never embraced his wife except when a loud peal of thunder occurred, and it was a favourite joke of his that he was a happy man whenever Jove took it into his head to thunder.

  18. Cato also had Lucius Scipio131 expelled from the equestrian order, even though the man had enjoyed the honour of a triumph. But on this occasion he was sharply criticized since it was believed that he had acted out of personal spite, and that his principal object had been to insult the memory of Lucius’ brot
her, the great Africanus.132

  But what annoyed people more than anything else were his efforts to cut down extravagance and luxury. These habits could not be abolished outright, since most of the people were already to some extent infected by them, and so Cato attempted an indirect approach. He had an assessment made of all clothing, carriages, women’s ornaments, furniture and plate: whatever exceeded 1,500 drachmas in value was rated at ten times its worth and taxed accordingly, as he wished to ensure that those whose possessions were the most valuable should also pay the highest taxes. He then imposed a tax of 3 asses for every 1,000 drachmas assessed in this way, so that when owners of property found themselves burdened with these charges, and saw that people who enjoyed the same income but led frugal and simple lives paid far less in taxes, they might give up their extravagant habits.133 However, the result of these measures was to earn him the hatred not only of those who put up with the taxes to enjoy their luxuries, but also of those who sacrificed the luxuries to avoid the taxes. The truth is that most people feel that they are deprived of their wealth if they are prevented from displaying it, and it is the superfluities, not the necessities of life, which really afford the opportunity for such display. This is the phenomenon which so much astonished Ariston134 the philosopher, as we are told: he could not understand why men should regard it as a happier state to possess what is superfluous rather than what is essential. We may remember the story of Scopas135 the Thessalian, one of whose friends asked him for an object which was of no great use to him, and pointed out, to justify his request, that he was not asking for anything which was really necessary or useful; whereupon Scopas replied: ‘But it is just these useless and superfluous things which make me enjoy my wealth.’ From this we see that the craving for wealth is not a passion that comes naturally to us, but is imposed by the vulgar and irrelevant opinions of the outside world.

  19. Cato paid not the slightest attention to the protests which his measures aroused, but proceeded to make them more rigorous than ever. He cut off the pipes by which people were in the habit of diverting some of the public water supply into their homes and gardens; he had any houses which encroached on public land demolished, reduced the contracts for public works to the lowest, and raised the rent for public lands to the highest possible figure. All these proceedings made him intensely unpopular. Titus136 and his friends organized a party to oppose his programme, prevailed upon the senate to cancel the contracts which he had arranged for the building of temples and other public works, and encouraged the boldest of the tribunes to prosecute him before the people and fine him 2 talents.137 He also met with vehement opposition from the senate when he had built in the forum at public expense a basilica below the senate-house, which came to be known as the Basilica Porcia.138

  But for all his unpopularity with the rich, Cato’s activities as censor seem to have been wholeheartedly admired by the Roman people. At any rate, when they erected a statue to his honour in the temple of Health,139 what they chose to commemorate was not his military campaigns nor his triumph but, according to the inscription, the fact that ‘when the Roman state was sinking into decay, he became censor and through his wise leadership, sober discipline and sound principles restored its strength’. And yet at one time Cato used to ridicule those who took pleasure in receiving honours of this kind. Such people could never understand, he said, that the effigies in which they took so much pride were nothing more than the work of sculptors and painters, whereas the finest image of himself, as he saw it, was the one which his fellow-citizens carried in their hearts.140 And if anyone showed surprise that there were so many statues which commemorated men of no distinction, but none of himself, he would answer, ‘I had far rather that people should ask why there is no statue of me than why there is one.’141 In short he believed that a good citizen should not accept even the praise that he had earned, unless this could benefit the state.

  On the other hand, we should recognize that no man ever did more to heap praises upon himself. Cato tells us, for example, that when men were reproved for misconduct of one kind or another, they would say: ‘It is not fair to blame us: we are not all Catos.’ And again that men who tried to imitate his habits but went about it clumsily were known as ‘left-handed Catos’. He also mentions that the senate at moments of great crisis looked to him as sailors do to their pilot, and that they would often postpone their most important business, if he could not be present. These claims, it is true, are confirmed by other writers, for his whole course of life, his eloquence and his age all combined to invest him with immense authority among the Romans.

  20. He was also a good father, a kind husband and a most capable manager of his own household, since he was far from regarding this side of his affairs as trivial or allowing it to suffer from neglect. For this reason, I think I should give some examples of his conduct in his private life. He chose his wife142 for her family rather than her fortune, for he believed that while people of great wealth or high position cherish their own pride and self-esteem, nevertheless women of noble birth are by nature more ashamed of any disgraceful action and so are more obedient to their husbands in everything that is honourable. He used to say that a man who beats his wife or child is laying sacrilegious hands on the most sacred thing in the world. He considered that it was more praiseworthy to be a good husband than a great senator, and was also of the opinion that there was nothing much else to admire in Socrates of old except for the fact that he was always gentle and considerate in his dealings with his wife, who was a scold, and his children, who were half-witted.143

  When his son144 was born, Cato thought that nothing but the most important business of state should prevent him from being present when his wife gave the baby its bath and wrapped it in swaddling clothes. His wife suckled the child herself145 and often did the same for the slaves’ children, so as to encourage brotherly feelings in them towards her own son. As soon as the boy was able to learn, his father took charge of his schooling and taught him to read, although he had in the household an educated slave called Chilo who was a schoolmaster and taught many older boys. However, Cato did not think it right, so he tells us, that his son should be scolded or have his ears pulled by a slave, if he were slow to learn, and still less that he should be indebted to his slave in such a vital matter as his education. So he took it upon himself to teach the boy, not only his letters, but also the principles of Roman law. He also trained him in athletics, and taught him how to throw the javelin, fight in armour, ride a horse, use his fists in boxing, endure the extremes of heat and cold and swim across the roughest and most swiftly flowing stretches of the river.146 He tells us that he composed his historical books,147 writing them out with his own hand and in large characters, so that his son should possess in his own home the means of acquainting himself with the ancient annals and traditions of his country. He also mentions that he was as careful not to use any indecent expression before his son as he would have been in the presence of the Vestal Virgins, and that he never bathed with him. This last seems to have been the general custom among the Romans, and even fathers-in-law avoided bathing with their son-in-law, because they were ashamed to show themselves naked.148 In later times, however, the Romans adopted from the Greeks the practice of stripping in the presence of other men, and they in turn corrupted the Greeks by introducing this same practice even in the presence of women.149

  Such was Cato’s approach to the noble task of forming and moulding his son for the pursuit of virtue. The boy was an exemplary pupil in his readiness to learn, and his spirit was a match for his natural goodness of disposition. But since his body was not strong enough to endure extreme hardship, Cato was obliged to relax a little the extraordinary austerity and self-discipline of his own way of life. However, his son, in spite of a delicate physique, became an excellent soldier, and fought with great distinction under Aemilius Paullus at the battle of Pydna, when the Romans defeated King Perseus.150 During the fighting, his sword was either struck out of his hand or else slipp
ed from his grasp when it became moist with sweat. The young man felt deeply ashamed at losing it, and so he turned to some of his companions and, rallying them to his side, charged the enemy again. The fighting was fierce, but at length he succeeded in clearing a space, and there he came upon the weapon amid the heaps of arms and corpses, where the bodies of friends and enemies lay piled high upon one another. Paullus, his commander, was greatly impressed by the young Cato’s courage, and a letter has come down to us151 written by the father to his son, in which he praises him in the highest terms for his gallantry and for the sense of honour which he showed in recovering his sword. He afterwards married Tertia, a daughter of Paullus and hence the sister of the younger Scipio, as he afterwards became known, and the distinction of this alliance with so noble a family was quite as much due to his own achievements as to his father’s. In this way Cato was justly rewarded for the care which he had devoted to his son’s education.

  21. Cato possessed a large number of slaves, whom he usually bought from among the prisoners captured in war, but it was his practice to choose those who, like puppies or colts, were young enough to be trained and taught their duties. None of them ever entered any house but his own, unless they were sent on an errand by Cato or his wife, and if they were asked what Cato was doing, the reply was always that they did not know. It was a rule of his establishment that a slave must either be doing something about the house, or else be asleep. He much preferred the slaves who slept well, because he believed that they were more even-tempered than the wakeful ones, and that those who had had enough sleep produced better results at any task than those who were short of it. And as he was convinced that slaves were led into mischief more often on account of love affairs than for any other reason, he made it a rule that the men could sleep with the women slaves of the establishment, for a fixed price, but must have nothing to do with any others.