The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  156. workshops: The correct reading of this word is uncertain.

  157. ruined by the whims of Jupiter: As the god of weather, Jupiter could determine the success or failure of agricultural investments.

  158. lend money … the most disreputable form of speculation: Cato equated money-lending with murder (Cicero, On Duties 2.89; see also Cato, On Agriculture 61).

  159. one share … agency of … one of his freedmen: Roman senators were forbidden by law from owning transport ships, a restriction Cato skirted by letting his freedman own the share on his behalf.

  160. tried to encourage his son … capital … not of a man: Plutarch presumably draws this from one of Cato’s works addressed to his son (note 151).

  161. Carneades: (214–129) One of the leading philosophers of his day, famous for his dialectical and rhetorical skills. In Rome he delivered, on consecutive days, speeches for and against justice, philosophizing of a kind unlikely to appeal to Cato.

  162. Diogenes: Diogenes of Babylon (c. 240–152), the leading Stoic of his time.

  163. ambassadors from Athens: This embassy, which also included the Peripatetic philosopher Critolaus, came to Rome in 155. At the time Cato was seventy-eight or seventy-nine years old.

  164. sent to plead … judgement against them: For unknown reasons, the Athenians had raided the territory of the town of Oropus (modern Skala Oropou), which appealed to the senate to intervene. The senate appointed the city of Sicyon to decide the matter. The Athenians did not appear to make their defence and the Sicyonians fined Athens 500 talents. The embassy of 155 persuaded the senate to reduce the fine to 100 talents.

  165. Gaius Acilius: A senator who wrote (in Greek) a history of Rome from its earliest times down to his own day; it appeared around 142.

  166. opposed … to the study of philosophy: In Plutarch’s own day there were Romans who made a show of despising philosophy and philosophizing, sometimes with the Elder Cato in mind; see Syme, Tacitus, pp. 553–63.

  167. Isocrates: (436–338) An important orator and rhetorician whose views on style were highly influential.

  168. disciples … until they were old men: According to Isocrates himself (To Antipater 4.87–8), his pupils remained with him three or four years.

  169. Minos … in Hades: In Greek myth, King Minos became one of the judges of the dead in the underworld.

  170. if ever the Romans … lose their empire: Cato’s words are preserved at Pliny, Natural History 29.14. Presumably they come from one of Cato’s writings dedicated to his son.

  171. Hippocrates’ celebrated reply: Hippocrates of Cos lived in the second half of the fifth century BC and was the most famous physician of antiquity. Here, Plutarch alludes to a letter, one of many pseudepigraphic works attributed to Hippocrates, addressed to an official of the Persian king Artaxerxes I: see Letters 3–8 in E. Littré, Oeuvres completes d’Hippocrate, vol. 9 (1861), pp. 316–19. Plutarch does not explicitly claim here that Cato was aware of this letter (nor is it mentioned in Pliny’s report of Cato’s hostility towards Greek physicians: see Natural History 29.14), but by mentioning it he at least raises the possibility that it is by way of his familiarity with Greek literature that Cato formulates his hostility to Greek physicians.

  172. book of recipes … perfect health: See A. Cruse, Roman Medicine (2004), especially pp. 52–60.

  173. walking towards the forum … in the usual way: Grand figures in Roman society were routinely escorted from their homes to the forum by their friends, as well as their clients, for whom it was a gesture of their respect. On patrons and clients in Rome, see Romulus 13 and, more extensively, Dion. Hal. 2.10.

  174. Salonius: Not otherwise known, but he is subsequently described as having been one of Cato’s scribes, presumably, in view of Comparison Aristeides–Elder Cato 6, a scribe who worked with Cato during one or more of his magistracies. Scribes were far from poor men, some even possessed the wealth of a knight: see E. Badian, Klio 71 (1989), pp. 582–603. Astin, Cato the Censor, p. 105, however, believes Salonius was one of Cato’s freedmen.

  175. ‘you have been a model son … serve my country’: At Comparison Aristeides–Elder Cato 6, Plutarch judges this remark insincere (and Cato’s behaviour in this entire matter disgraceful).

  176. Peisistratus: Tyrant in Athens from c. 546 until his death in 527. His two marriages are discussed at Pseudo-Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 17.3–4. Peisistratus’ explanation of his second marriage is not elsewhere recorded. His sons were Hippias and Hipparchus, who ruled together in Athens after Peisistratus’ death.

  177. a son … after his father-in-law: The boy’s name was Marcus Porcius Cato Salonianus.

  178. his first-born son died during his praetorship: So also Livy, Summary of Book 20, but Cicero (Tusculan Disputations 3.70) and Gellius (13.20.9) say that Marcus died while praetor-elect.

  179. Lucius Lucullus … Metellus Pius: Lucius Licinius Lucullus (c. 117–57 or 56) was consul in 74 BC and is the subject of Plutarch’s Lucullus; his withdrawal from public life is described at Lucullus 38–9. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius (c. 130–63) was consul in 80 BC; after his triumph in 71 BC, he retired from public life.

  180. Scipio Africanus … in untroubled retirement: Plutarch’s characterization of Scipio’s opponents here colours Cato’s actions in ch. 15.

  181. Dionysius: Dionysius I of Syracuse (c. 430–367) was tyrant in Syracuse from 405 until his death. Once, when he was besieged by Carthaginians and considered surrendering his tyranny, this remark by one of his friends (‘absolute power is the best winding-sheet’) convinced him to carry on. This anecdote is repeated at Moralia 783c, Isocrates, Archidamus 44–5, and Diodorus 14.8.5 and 20.78.2.

  182. discourses on … histories: For a survey of Cato’s literary output, see Astin, Cato the Censor, pp. 131–56 and 182–266.

  183. treatise on farming … includes recipes: Cato’s On Agriculture is his only work that survives in its entirety. The recipes mentioned by Plutarch are found at sections 7, 76, 99 and 143.

  184. He always invited his friends … praise or blame: Here, Plutarch relies on Cicero, On Old Age 45–6.

  185. destruction of Carthage: Carthage was captured and destroyed in 146 by Scipio Aemilianus during the Third Punic War (149–146).

  186. Cato … sent … on a diplomatic mission: In 153.

  187. Masinissa: (238–148) He became an ally of Rome during the Second Punic War.

  188. defeat … at the hands of Scipio Africanus: Plutarch refers to Scipio’s victory at the battle of Zama in 202. On the Second Punic War, see Introduction to Fabius Maximus.

  189. ‘Carthage must be destroyed!’: Cato’s most famous or notorious saying, but its common Latin formulation – Carthago delenda est – does not appear in any ancient source.

  190. Publius Scipio Nasica: Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum was consul in 162, censor in 159 and consul for a second time in 155; he was later pontifex maximus and the leading man of the senate (princeps senatus). His role in the battle of Pydna is described by Plutarch in Aemilius Paullus 15–18, 21 and 26.

  191. He died … after it had begun: In 149.

  192. a man who was still young: Cato refers to Scipio Aemilianus, who was only thirty-nine when he conquered Carthage.

  193. ‘Only his wisdom … shadows’: Odyssey 10.495.

  194. Cato left … his first son … already dead: In fact, Cato Licinianus left two sons. They were (i) Marcus Porcius Cato, consul in 118, who was a distinguished orator whose speeches were still being read during the empire (Gellius 13.20), and (ii) Gaius Porcius Cato, consul in 114 (who is never mentioned in this Life). Plutarch makes several errors in these final lines and it is possible that the passage is defective: see M. Szymański, Hermes 125 (1997), pp. 384–6.

  195. Salonius died … in office as praetor: Plutarch is our only source for his praetorship and his evidence has been doubted by some.

  196. his son Marcus … became consul: This is incorrect. Marcus Porcius Cato Salonian
us had two sons: (i) Marcus Porcius Cato, who was tribune of the people in 99 BC and died while a candidate for the praetorship, possibly in 93 BC, and (ii) Lucius Porcius Cato, consul in 89 BC.

  197. This Marcus was the grandfather of Cato the Philosopher: This Marcus, the tribune of 99 BC, was not the grandfather but the father of ‘Cato the Philosopher’, that is, of the Younger Cato, Marcus Porcius Cato (95–46 BC), the opponent of Caesar, and the subject of Plutarch’s Life of the Younger Cato.

  Notes to the Comparison of Aristeides and Elder Cato

  1. highest census classification … 200: These census brackets were established by Solon (Solon 18; see also Pseudo-Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution 7.3); they indicate, by way of agricultural production, the profitability of an individual’s assets.

  2. Curius … Fabricius … Atilius: On Manius Curius Dentatus, see Elder Cato 2. Gaius Fabricius Luscinus was consul in 282 and 278. Gaius Atilius Regulus was consul in 257 and 250, and was said to have been found sowing his fields when visited by an official delegation (Cicero, Defence of Roscius Amerinus 50; Pliny, Natural History 18.20; and Valerius Maximus 4.4.5).

  3. when he began his political career … 5 talents: Plutarch repeats this at Themistocles 25.

  4. Scipio … Galba … Flamininus: On Scipio Africanus, see Elder Cato 3 and 11; on Galba, see Cato 15; and on Flamininus, see Cato 17 and 19.

  5. Marathon … Plataea: The battles of Marathon (490) and Plataea (479) were important Greek victories over the Persians.

  6. one of ten generals: Each year the Athenians elected ten generals (strategoi).

  7. one of two censors … eminent rivals: On Cato’s election as censor, see Cato 16.

  8. Miltiades: (c. 550–489) The mastermind of the Athenian victory at Marathon.

  9. Salamis: The battle of Salamis (480) was a major Greek victory over the Persians. On Themistocles, see Cato, note 53.

  10. ‘won the noblest of victories’: Plutarch quotes from Herodotus (9.64.1). Pausanias (d. c. 470) was the Spartan general who commanded the Greeks at Plataea.

  11. Sophanes … Cynaegeirus: So Herodotus: see Herodotus 9.74.1 (Sophanes); Herodotus 8.84.1, 8.93.1 and Plutarch, Themistocles 14 (Ameinias); Herodotus 6.111.1 (Callimachus); and Herodotus 6.114 (Cynaegeirus, who was also the brother of Aeschylus).

  12. Cato … consul during the war in Spain: Cato 10–11.

  13. at Thermopylae … only to the front: Cato 13–14.

  14. Scipio: Lucius Cornelius Scipio, consul in 190, and the brother of Africanus; he defeated Antiochus at the battle of Magnesia.

  15. in politics … faction of Themistocles: Aristeides 7.

  16. Antipater’ … talent for persuasion: Antipater (c. 397–319) was a distinguished Macedonian general, first under Philip II and then Alexander the Great. He was also a student of Aristotle and left behind two volumes of letters addressed to his son Cassander, in which he made this assessment of his teacher (the original context is made clear when Plutarch reports this same view at Comparison Coriolanus–Alcibiades 3).

  17. man’s highest virtue … a household: See Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1094b8–9 and Politics 1252a5, 1253a37.

  18. when Lycurgus banished … iron spoiled by fire: Plutarch’s Lycurgus 9.

  19. by citizens who were helpless … extremely rich: Lycurgus 8.

  20. justice were to blame … possessor: Plutarch here adapts some of Thrasymachus’ criticisms of justice from Plato, Republic 343c–e.

  21. Yet …: In what follows Plutarch wishes to demonstrate, on the authority of Hesiod and Homer, that justice is not incompatible with successful domestic economy. In other words, it was not owing to his justice that Aristeides remained poor.

  22. Hesiod, in numerous passages … injustice: Plutarch does not have specific passages in mind: the whole of Hesiod’s Works and Days concerns the relationship between justice and domestic economy. He condemns idleness at line 311.

  23. hard work … arrows: Odyssey 14.222–5.

  24. men who neglect … one and the same: That is not the actual point of the speaker in the Odyssey. Still, by quoting Homer, however inappropriately, Plutarch thereby arrogates his authority, not an uncommon move in ancient arguments.

  25. how it is most beneficial … family: Plutarch borrows this observation not from medical writings but from Plato, Protagoras 334b–c.

  26. made no provisions … own burial: Aristeides 27.

  27. down to the fourth generation: Cato 27 (with note 197). Plutarch counts inclusively and so Cato’s great-grandsons constitute the fourth generation.

  28. descendants of Aristeides … public grants: Aristeides 27.

  29. Poverty is never dishonourable … foolishness: Pericles expresses a similar sentiment at Thucydides 2.40.1.

  30. Poverty … a man who is temperate … great nature: A similar sentiment is expressed at Moralia 823c.

  31. not wealth but self-sufficiency … service to the state: Plutarch’s language here reprises his description of Cato at Cato 4 and 8, though here he is speaking about Aristeides.

  32. it is the one … most perfect and god-like: A similar view is expressed by Socrates at Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.6.10. Cf. Plutarch’s criticism of Cato at Cato 21 for his view that it is the man who increases his inheritance who is god-like.

  33. mark of distinction … plastered walls: Cato 3–4 (though Plutarch does not tell us there that Cato refrained from wearing purple).

  34. a man who claims … boils them himself: It is Manius Curius and not Cato who does this at Cato 2.

  35. while his wife is busy baking bread: This (unlikely) feature of Cato’s home life has not been mentioned before, but it recalls Plutarch’s description of Phocion’s wife at Phocion 18.

  36. value of a single as: Cato 4.

  37. what practices … rich most quickly: Cato 21.

  38. Aristeides proclaimed … glory in it: Aristeides 25.

  39. he could … have enriched himself … a single tent: Plutarch describes the wealth left behind at Marathon by the retreating Persians at Aristeides 5.

  40. Xerxes: (519–465) The king of Persia who invaded Greece in 480. The Persian empire at the time was more extensive even than Antiochus’ kingdom.

  41. incessant boasting … superior to everyone else: Cato 14 and 19.

  42. He … insists that glorifying oneself … is disgusting: We do not know from which speech Plutarch extracted this sentiment.

  43. a modest indifference to glory … envy: Here Plutarch recurs to virtues and vices central to his moral outlook: mildness (praotes) is a crucial virtue (see General Introduction III), whereas ambition (philotimia) often degenerates into harshness (philoneikia); see Introductions to Philopoemen and Flamininus.

  44. Aristeides saved Athens … when he was general: Aristeides 8.

  45. Cato … opposition to Scipio … embezzlement: Cato 3, 15 and 24.

  46. self-restraint: (sophrosyne) A cardinal virtue for Plutarch, as for all Greek moralists.

  47. he chose as his father-in-law … honour: Cato 24.

  AEMILIUS PAULLUS

  Further Reading

  The only extensive commentary on the Life of Aemilius Paullus is (in Dutch) by C. Liedmeier, Plutarchus’ Biographie van Aemilius Paullus: Historische Commentar (1935). W. Rieter, Aemilius Paullus: Conqueror of Greece (1988), is a careful study of Aemilius’ portrayal by ancient writers, including Polybius, Livy and Plutarch. For the history of the Third Macedonian War, consult Hammond–Walbank, pp. 488–558, and P. S. Derow, ‘Rome, the fall of Macedon and the sack of Corinth’, in CAH viii (1989), pp. 290–323. There is also much to be learned from P. J. Burton, Friendship and Empire: Roman Diplomacy and Imperialism in the Middle Republic (353–146 BC) (2011), and Walbank, Commentary, vol. 3.

  Plutarch’s prologue is discussed by Duff, Plutarch’s Lives, pp. 30–34, and A. J. Zadorojnyi, ‘Hosper en esoptro: the rhetoric and philosophy of Plutarch’s mirrors’, in Humble, Plutarch’s Lives, pp. 169–96. Interpretive studies of this Life includ
e S. C. R. Swain, ‘Plutarch’s Aemilius and Timoleon’, Historia 38 (1989), pp. 314–34; Swain, H&E, pp. 151–4; L. Holland, ‘Plutarch’s Aemilius Paullus and the Model of the Philosopher Statesman’, in L. de Blois, J. Bons, T. Kessels and D. M. Shenkeveld (eds.), The Statesman in Plutarch’s Works, vol. 2: The Statesman in Plutarch’s Greek and Roman Lives (2005), pp. 269–79; and W. J. Tatum, ‘Another Look at Tyche in Plutarch’s Aemilius Paullus–Timoleon’, Historia 59 (2010), pp. 448–61.

  Notes to the Introduction to Aemilius Paullus

  1. On the design of Polybius’ Histories, see F. W. Walbank, Selected Papers: Studies in Greek and Roman History and Historiography (1985), pp. 325–43, and B. McGing, Polybius’ Histories (2010), pp. 17–50. The importance of Pydna is unmistakable (Polybius 1.1.5, 3.1.9–10, 29.21).

  2. On chance and Macedon’s rise, see Polybius 29.21.5–6.

  3. Or so we naturally assume. The relevant section of Polybius’ Histories is lost, but this is how Aemilius is uniformly represented elsewhere in sources that almost certainly depend on Polybius’ account (Livy 45.41, Diodorus 31.11 and Aemilius Paullus 36).

  4. See General Introduction V.

  5. For Aemilius’ being hailed as imperator, see ILS 15. His supplicatio is reported at Livy 37.58.5. But he did not receive a triumph: see J. Briscoe, A Commentary on Livy, Books 34–37 (1981), p. 392.

  6. Livy 39.32.5, with T. R. S. Broughton, Candidates Defeated in Roman Elections: Some Ancient Roman ‘Also-Rans’ (1991), pp. 6–7.

  7. See Hammond–Walbank, pp. 488–558; Derow in CAH viii, pp. 303–19.

  8. Eumenes II of Pergamum played a leading role (Livy 42.11–13).

  9. In his speech On Behalf of the Rhodians, delivered in 167 (cited by Gellius 6.1.3 = Cato, fr. 164, in H. Malcovati, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta (4th edn, 1967)). Greek expectations at the time of the Third Macedonian War are discussed by A. M. Eckstein, Rome Enters the Greek East: From Anarchy to Hierarchy in the Hellenistic Mediterranean, 230–170 BC (2008), pp. 369–71.