M.

M. Argenta'rius Works Epigrams

the author of about thirty epigrams in the Greek Anthology, most of which are erotic, and some are plays on words. We may infer from his style that he did not live before the time of the Roman empire, but nothing more is known of his age. Further Information

Jacobs, Anthol. Graec. xiii. pp. 860, 861. [P.S]

M. Aure'lius Antoni'nus

commonly distinguished by the epithet of " the philosopher," was born at Rome, on the Coelian hill, on the 20th of April, A. D. 121. From his paternal ancestors, who for three generations had held high offices of state and claimed descent from Numa, he inherited the name of M. Annius Verus, while from his great-grandfather on the mother's side he received the appellation of Catilius Severus. The principal members and connexions of the family are represented in the followirg table:--

N.B. M. Aurelius and Faustina seem to have had several children in addition to the above. Three daughters were still alive after the death of Commodus (Lamprid. Commod. 18; Herodian. 1.12), and one of these was put to death by Caracalla in 212. We find in an inscription the names of his sons, T. Aurelius Antoninus, and T. Aelius Aurelius, both of whom were, it is probable, older than Commodus, and died young. (See Tillemont.)

The father of young Marcus having died while praetor, the boy was adopted by his grandfather, Annius Verus, and from a very early period enjoyed the favour of Hadrian, who bestowed on him the honours of the equestrian order when only six years old, admitted him as a member of the fraternity of the Salian priests at the age of eight, and as a tribute to the sincerity and truthfulness of his disposition, was wont in playful affection to address him not as Verus but Verissimus. At the age of fifteen he received the manly gown, and was betrothed to the daughter of Aelius Caesar, the heir apparent to the throne. But not long after (138), in consequence of the sudden death of his intended father-in-law, still more brilliant prospects were suddenly opened up to the youth. For, according to the arrangement explained under Antoninus Pius, both he and L. Ceionius Commodus, son of Aelius Caesar, were adopted by Antoninus Pius, immediately after the latter had been himself adopted by Hadrian. He was now styled M. Aelius Aurelius Verus Caesar, and was immediately chosen to fill the office of quaestor for the following year. The proposed union with the daughter of Aelius Caesar was set aside, on account, it was alleged, of disparity in age, and Faustina, the daughter of Pius, who had been previously destined by Hadrian for young Ceionius Commodus, was fixed upon as the future wife of Marcus Aurelius. Their nuptials, however, were not celebrated until after a lapse of seven years. (145.) In 140 he was raised to the consulship, and in 147, after the birth of a daughter by Faustina, was permitted to share the tribunate, and was invested with various other honours and privileges befitting his station. From this time forward he was the constant companion and adviser of the monarch, and the most perfect confidence subsisted between the son and his adopted father until the death of the latter, which happened on the 7th of March, 161.

The first act of the new ruler was the admission of Ceionius Commodus to a full participation in the sovereign power, and these emperors henceforward bore respectively the names of M. Aurelius Antoninus and L. Aurelius Verus. When the double adoption by Antoninus Pius took place, it was settled that the son of Aelius Caesar should be considered as the younger brother. Thus, on the coins struck before the death of Pius, M. Aurelius alone bears the appellation of Caesar, to him alone Pius committed the empire with his dying breath, and to him alone did the senate formally offer the vacant throne. Hence his conduct towards L. Verus was purely an act of grace. But the alliance promised to prove advantageous both to the parties themselves, and also to the general interests of the state. Marcus was weak in constitution, and took more delight in philosophy and literary pursuits than in politics and war, while Lucius, young, active, and skilled in all manly exercises, was likely to be better fitted for the toils of a military life. His aptitude for such a career was soon put to the proof. The war, which had been long threatening the east, at length burst forth. Verus, after being betrothed to Lucilla, the daughter of his colleague, was despatched in all haste to the Parthian frontier towards the end of 161, while M. Aurelius remained in the city to watch an irruption of the Catti into the Rhenish provinces and a threatened insurrection in Britain.

Vologeses III., who had been induced to abandon a meditated attack upon Armenia by the remonstrances of Antoninus Pius, thinking that a fitting season had now arrived for the execution of his long-cherished schemes, had destroyed a whole Roman legion quartered at Elegeia, and advancing at the head of a great army, had spread devastation throughout Syria. Lucius having collected his troops, proceeded to Antioch, where he determined to remain, and entrusted the command of his army to Cassius and others of his generals. Cassius compelled the Parthians to retreat, invaded Mesopotamia, plundered and burnt Seleuceia, razed to the ground the royal palace at Ctesiphon, and penetrated as far as Babylon; while Statius Priscus, who was sent into Armenia, stormed Artaxata, and, rescuing the country from the usurper, reinstated the lawful but dethroned monarch Soaemus. Vologeses was thus constrained to conclude an ignominious peace, in virtue of which Mesopotamia was ceded to the Romans. These events took place in 162 and the three following years. In 166, Lucius returned home, and the two emperors celebrated jointly a magnificent triumph, assuming the titles of Armeniacus, Parthicus Maximus, and Medicus. But although this campaign had terminated so gloriously, little praise was due to the commanderin-chief. Twice he was unwillingly prevailed upon to advance as far as the Euphrates, and he made a journey to Ephesus (in 164) to meet his bride on her arrival from Italy; but with these exceptions he passed his winters at Laodiceia, and the rest of his time at Daphne or at Antioch, abandoning himself to gaming, drunkenness, and dissolute pleasures of every kind. All the achievements of the war were performed by his legates, and all the general arrangements conducted by M. Aurelius at Rome.

A still heavier danger was now impending, which threatened to crush Italy itself. A combination had been formed among the numerous tribes, dwelling along the whole extent of the northern limits of the empire, from the sources of the Danube to the Illyrian border, including the Marcomanni, the Alani, the Jazyges, the Quadi, the Sarmatae, and many others. In addition to the danger from without, the city was hard pressed by numerous calamities from within. Inundations had destroyed many buildings and much property, among which were vast granaries with their contents, the poor were starving in consequence of the deficiency thus caused in the supplies of corn, and numbers were perishing by a fearful pestilence, said to have been brought from the east by the troops of Verus. So great was the panic, that it was resolved that both emperors should go forth to encounter the foe. Previous to their departure, in order to restore confidence to the populace, priests were summoned from all quarters, a multitude of expiatory sacrifices were performed, many of them according to strange and foreign rites, and victims were offered to the gods with the most unsparing profusion.

The contest which had now commenced with the northern nations was continued with varying success during the whole life of M. Aurelius, whose head-quarters were generally fixed in Pannonia; but the details preserved by the historians who treat of this period are so confused and so utterly destitute of all chronological arrangement, that it becomes impossible to draw up anything like a regular and well-connected narrative of the progress of the struggle. Medals are our only sure guide, and the information afforded by these is necessarily meagre and imperfect. It would appear that the barbarians, overawed by the extensive preparations of the Romans and by the presence of the two Augusti, submitted for a time and sued for peace, and that the brothers returned to Rome in the course of 168. They set out again, however, in 169, but before they reached the army, L. Verus was seized with apoplexy, and expired at Aetinum, in the territory of Veneti. Marcus hastened back to Rome, paid the last honours to the memory of his colleague, and returned to Germany towards the close of the year. He now prosecuted the war against the Marcomanni with great vigour, although from the ravages caused by the plague among the troops, he was forced to enrol gladiators, slaves, and exiles, and, from the exhausted state of the public treasury, was compelled to raise money by selling the precious jewels and furniture of the imperial palace. In consequence of the success which attended these extraordinary efforts, the legends Germanicus and Germania Subacta now appear upon the coins, while Parthicus, Armeniacus, and Medicus are dropped, as having more especially appertained to L. Verus. Among the numerous engagements which took place at this epoch, a battle fought on the frozen Danube has been very graphically described by Dio Cassius (72.7); but by far the most celebrated and important was the victory gained over the Quadi in 174, which having been attended by certain circumstances believed to be supernatural, gave rise to the famous controversy among the historians of Christianity upon what is commonly termed the Miracle of the Thundering Legion. Those who may desire to investigate this question will find the subject fully discussed in the correspondence between King and Moyle. (Moyle's Works, vol. ii. Lond. 1726.) There is an excellent summary of the whole argument in Lardner's "Jewish and Heathen Testimonies" (chap. xv.), and many useful remarks are to be found in Milman's History of Christianity (chap. vii.), and in the Bishop of Lincoln's "Illustrations, &c. from Tertullian" (p. 105). An attempt has been made recently to restore the credit of the supposed miracle, in the essay by Mr. Newman, prefixed to a portion of Fleury's " Ecclesiastical History," published at Oxford in 1842.

Whatever opinion we may form upon the subject of debate, we may feel certain of the fact, that the Romans were rescued from a very critical situation by a sudden storm, and gained an important victory over their opponents. That they attributed their preservation to the direct interposition of heaven is proved by the testimonies of the ancient historians, and also by the sculptures of the Antonine column, where a figure supposed to represent Jupiter Pluvius is seen sending down streams of water from his arms and head, which the Roman soldiers below catch in the hollow of their shields.

This success, and the circumstances by which it was accompanied, seem to have struck terror into the surrounding nations, who now tendered submission or claimed protection. But the fruits were in a great measure lost, for the emperor was prevented from following up the advantage gained, in consequence of the alarm caused by unexpected disturbances which had broken out in the East, and had quickly assumed a very formidable aspect. Faustina had long watched with anxiety the declining health of her husband, and anticipating his speedy death, was filled with alarm lest, from the youth and incapacity of her son Commodus, the empire might pass away into other hands. She had, therefore, opened a correspondence with Avidius Cassius, who had gained great fame in the Parthian war commemorated above, who had subsequently suppressed a serious insurrection in Egypt, and had acted as supreme governor of the Eastern provinces after the departure of Lucius Verus. Her object was to persuade him to hold himself in readiness to aid her projects, and she offered him her hand and the throne as his rewards. While Cassius was meditating upon these proposals, he suddenly received intelligence that Marcus was dead, and forthwith, without waiting for a confirmation of the news, caused himself to be proclaimed his successor. The falseness of the rumour soon became known, but deeming that his offence was beyond forgiveness, he determined to prosecute the enterprise; within a short period he made himself master of all Asia within Mount Taurus, and resolved to maintain his pretensions by force. A report of these transactions was forthwith transmitted to Rome by M.Verus, the legate commanding in Cappadocia. Aurelius, who was still in Pannonia, summoned his son to his presence in all haste, and bestowed on him the manly gown, intending to set out instantly for the seat of war. But in the midst of active preparations for a campaign Cassius was assassinated by two of his own officers, after having enjoyed a nominal sovereignty for three months and six days. His son soon after shared the same fate. The conduct of Marcus throughout the whole of this rebellion can scarcely fail to excite the warmest admiration. In the mournful address delivered to his soldiers, he bitterly deplores that he should be forced to engage in a contest so revolting to his feelings as civil strife. His chief dread was that Cassius, from shame or remorse, might put an end to his own life, or fall by the hand of some loyal subject--his fondest wish, that he might have an opportunity of granting a free pardon. Nor did this forgiving temper exhaust itself in words. When the head of the traitor was laid at his feet, he rejected with horror the bloody offering, and refused to admit the murderers to his presence. On repairing to the East, where his presence was thought necessary to restore tranquillity and order, he displayed the greatest lenity towards those provinces which had acknowledged the usurper, and towards those senators and persons of distinction who were proved to have favoured his designs. Not one individual suffered death; few were punished in any shape, except such as had been guilty of other crimes; and finally, to establish perfect confidence in all, he ordered the papers of Cassius to be destroyed without suffering them to be read. During this expedition, Faustina, who had accompanied her husband, died in a village among the defiles of Taurus. According to some, her end was caused by an attack of gout; according to others, it was hastened by her own act, in order to escape the punishment which she feared would inevitably follow the discovery of her negotiations with Cassius. Her guilt in this matter is spoken of by Dion without any expression of doubt; is mentioned by Capitolinus as a report only, and positively denied by Vulcatius ; but the arguments employed by the latter are of no weight.

After visiting Egypt, the emperor set out for Italy, touched at Athens on his homeward journey, reached Brundusium towards the end of the year 176, and celebrated a triumph along with Commodus, now consul elect, on the 23rd of December. Scarcely was this ceremony concluded, when fresh tumults arose upon the Danube, where the presence of the emperor was once more required. Accordingly, after concluding somewhat earlier than he had intended the nuptials of Commodus and Crispina, he quitted Rome along with his son, in the month of August (177), and hastened to Germany. During the two following years his operations were attended with the most prosperous results. The Marcomanni, the Hermanduri, the Sarmatae, and the Quadi, were repeatedly routed, their confederacy was broken up, and everything seemed to promise that they would at length be effectually crushed. But the shattered constitution of Marcus now sunk beneath the pressure of mental and bodily fatigue. He died in Pannonia, either at Vindobona (Vienna) or at Sirmium, on the 17th of March, 180, in the 59th year of his age and the 20th of his reign. A strong suspicion prevailed that his death had been accelerated by the machinations of his son, who was accused of having tampered with the physicians, and persuaded them to administer poison.

The leading feature in the character of M. Aurelius was his devotion to philosophy and literature. When only twelve years old he adopted the dress and practised the austerities of the Stoics, whose doctrines were imparted to him by the most celebrated teachers of the day--Diognotus, Apollonius, and Junius Rusticus. He studied the principles of composition and oratory under Herodes Atticus and Cornelius Fronto, and by his close and unremitting application laid the foundation of the bad health by which he was so much oppressed in after life. While yet Caesar he was addressed by Justin Martyr (Apolog. i. init.) as Verissimus " the philosopher," an epithet by which he has been commonly distinguished from that period down to the present day, although no such title was ever publicly or formally conferred. Even after his elevation to the purple, he felt neither reluctance nor shame in resorting to the school of Sextus of Chaeroneia, the descendant of Plutarch, and in listening to the extemporaneous declamations of Hermogenes. From his earliest youth he lived upon terms of the most affectionate familiarity with his instructors, as we may gather from his correspondence with Fronto [Fronto]; the most worthy were, through his influence, promoted to the highest dignities; after their death he placed their images in the chapel of his lares, and was wont to strew flowers and offer sacrifices on their graves. Nor was his liberality confined to his own preceptors, for learned men in every quarter of the world enjoyed substantial proofs of his bounty. Philosophy was the great object of his zeal, but the other branches of a polite education were by no means neglected; music, poetry, and painting, were cultivated in turn, and the severer sciences of mathematics and law engaged no small portion of his attention. In jurisprudence especially, he laboured throughout life with great activity, and his Constitutions are believed to have filled many volumes. These are now all lost, but they are constantly quoted with great respect by later writers. (See Westenberg, Dissertationes ad Constitutiones M. Aurelii Imperatoris, Lug. Bat. 1736.) Works Meditations

With the exception of a few letters contained in the recently discovered remains of Fronto, the only production of Marcus which has been preserved is a volume composed in Greek, and entitled Μάρκου Ἀντωνίνου τοῦ αὐτυκράτορος τῶν εἰς ἑαυτὸν βιβλία ιβ́. It is a sort of common-place book, in which were registered from time to time the thoughts and feelings of the author upon moral and religious topics, together with striking maxims extracted from the works of those who had been most eminent for wisdom and virtue. There is no attempt at order or arrangement, but the contents are valuable, in so far as they illustrate the system of self-examination enjoined by the discipline of the Stoics, and present a genuine picture of the doubts and difficulties and struggles of a speculative and reflecting mind. Assessment

The education and pursuits of M. Aurelius exercised the happiest influence upon a temper and disposition naturally calm and benevolent. He succeeded in acquiring the boasted composure and self-command of the disciples of the Porch, without imbibing the harshness which they were wont to exhibit. He was firm without being obstinate; he steadfastly maintained his own principles without manifesting any overweening contempt for the opinions of those who differed from himself; his justice was tempered with gentleness and mercy; his gravity was devoid of gloom. In public life, he sought to demonstrate practically the truth of the Platonic maxim, ever on his lips, that those states only could be truly happy which were governed by philosophers, or in which the kings and rulers were guided by the tenets of pure philosophy. In general policy, both at home and abroad, he steadily followed in the path of his predecessor, whose counsels he had shared for more than twenty years. The same praise, therefore, which belongs to the elder may fairly be imparted to the younger Antonine; and this is perhaps the most emphatic panegyric we could pronounce. No monarch was ever more widely or more deeply beloved. The people believed, that he had been sent down by the gods, for a time, to bless mankind, and had now returned to the heaven from which he descended. So universal was this conviction among persons of every age and calling, that his apotheosis was not, as in other cases, viewed in the light of a mere empty form. Every one, whose means permitted, procured a statue of the emperor. More than a century after his decease, these images were to be found in many mansions among the household gods, and persons were wont to declare, that he had appeared to them in dreams and visions, and revealed events which afterwards came to pass.

The great, perhaps the only, indelible stain upon his memory is the severity with which he treated the Christians; and his conduct in this respect was the more remarkable, because it was not only completely at variance with his own general principles, but was also in direct opposition to the wise and liberal policy pursued by Hadrian and Pius. The numerous apologies published during his reign would alone serve to point out that the church was surrounded by difficulties and dangers; but the charge of positive persecution is fully established by the martyrdom of Justin at Rome, of the venerable Polycarp, with many others, at Smyrna (167) in the early part of his reign, and by the horrible atrocities perpetrated at Vienne and Lyons several years afterwards. (177.) It would be but a poor defence to allege, that these excesses were committed without the knowledge of a prince who on all other occasions watched with such care over the rights of his subjects in the most remote provinces. But, in so far as the proceedings in Gaul are concerned, we have clear evidence that they received his direct sanction; for when the Roman governor applied for instructions, an answer was returned, that all who confessed themselves to be Christians should suffer death. It is probable that his better feelings were in this instance overpowered by the violence of evil counsellors; for had he followed the dictates of his own nature, he would have been contented to moralise upon and lament over what he viewed as ignorant and obstinate adherence to a vain superstition. (See Med. 11.3.) But this calm contempt by no means satisfied the active hate of the crowd of real and pretended Stoics, whom his patronage had attracted. Many of these were bigots of the worst class, and cherished sentiments of the most malignant animosity towards the professors of the new religion. Accustomed to regard all other sects with self-satisfied disdain, they could ill brook the freedom with which their follies and fallacies were now attacked and exposed; they regarded with jealous rage a code of morals and a spotless purity of life far superior to aught they had ever practised, or taught, or imagined; and least of all could they forgive the complete overthrow of their own exclusive pretensions to mental fortitude and calm endurance of bodily suffering.

Although no other serious charge has been preferred against M. Aurelius, for the rumour that he poisoned L. Verus never seems to have obtained or deserved the slightest credit, we may perhaps by a close scrutiny detect a few weaknesses. The deep sorrow expressed upon the death of Faustina, and the eagerness with which he sought to heap honours on the memory of a wicked woman and a faithless wife, who rivalled Messalina in shameless and promiscuous profligacy, if sincere, betoken a degree of carelessness and blindness almost incredible; if feigned, a strange combination of apathy and dissimulation. Nor can we altogether forgive his want of discernment or of resolution in not discovering or restraining the evil propensities of his son, whose education he is said to have conducted with the most zealous care. Making every allowance for the innate depravity of the youth, we can scarcely conceive that if he had been trained with judicious firmness, and his evil passions combated and controlled before they became fully developed, he would ever have proved such a prodigy of heartless cruelty and brutal sensuality.

Our chief authorities for this period of history are the life of M. Aurelius by Capitolinus, a mass of ill-selected and badly arranged materials, and the 71st book of Dio Cassius, a collection of awkwardly patched fragments. Some facts may be extracted from the minor Roman historians, and from Aristeides (Orat. ix.), Herodian, Joannes Antiochenus, and Zonaras. Editions

The editio princeps of the Meditations was published by Xylander (Tigur. 1558, 8vo.), and republished with improvements by the same scholar ten years afterwards. (Basil. 1568, 8vo.) The next in order was superintended by Merick Casaubon (Lond. 1643, 8vo.), followed by the edition of Gataker (Cantab. 1652, 4to.), reprinted at London (1697) with additional notes from the French of And. Dacier, and his life of M. Aurelius translated into Latin by Stanhope. This last edition must, upon the whole, be still considered as the most useful and ample. A new recension of the text, accompanied by a commentary, was commenced by Schulz, at the beginning of the present century (Slesvic. 1802, 8vo.), but the work is still imperfect, one volume only having appeared. Translations

There are numerous translations into most of the European languages. In English, the best, though indifferent, is that published at Glasgow in 1749 and 1764; in French, that of Madame Dacier (Paris, 1691); in German, that of Schulz. (Sleswick, 1799.) For further information with regard to the instructors of this emperor and his various literary compositions, see Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. v. p. 500.

[W.R]

M. Po'rcius Cato or Cato the Censor

1. M. Porcius Cato Censorius, was born at Tusculum, a municipal town of Latium, to which his ancestors had belonged for some generations. His father had earned the reputation of a brave soldier, and his great-grandfather had received an honorary compensation from the state for five horses killed under him in battle. The haughtiest patrician of Rome never exulted in the splendour of the purest nobility with a spirit more proud than Cato's when he remembered the warlike achievements and the municipal respectability of his family, to which he ascribed extreme antiquity. Yet the Tusculan Porcii had never obtained the honours of the Roman magistracy. Their illustrious descendant, at the commencement of his career in the great city, was regarded as a novus homo, and the feeling of his unmeet position, working along with the consciousness of inherent superiority, contributed to exasperate and stimulate his ambitious soul. Early in life, he so far eclipsed the previous glimmer of his race, that he is constantly spoken of, not only as the leader, but as the founder, of the Porcia Gens.

His ancestors for three generations had been named M. Porcius, and it is said by Plutarch (Cato Maj. 1), that at first he was known by the additional cognomen Priscus, but was afterwards called Cato--a word denoting that practical wisdom which is the result of natural sagacity, combined with experience of civil and political affairs. However, it may well be doubted whether Priscus, like Major, were not merely an epithet used to distinguish him from the later Cato of Utica, and we have no precise information as to the date when he first received the appellation of Cato, which may have been bestowed in childhood rather as an omen of eminence, than as a tribute to past desert. The qualities implied in the word Cato were acknowledged by the plainer and less archaic title of Sapiens, by which he was so well known in his old age, that Cicero (Amic. 2) says, it became his quasi cognomen. From the number and eloquence of his speeches, he was styled orator (Justin, 33.2; Gel. 17.21), but Cato the Censor, or Cato Censorius, is now his most common, as well his most characteristic appellation, since he filled the office of censor with extraodinary repute, and was the only Cato who ever filled it.

In order to ascertain the date of Cato's birth, we have to consider the testimony of ancient writers as to his age at the time of his death, which is known to have happened B. C. 149. How far we are to go back from this date is a question upon which the authorities are not unanimous. According to the consistent chronology of Cicero (Senect. 4), Cato was born B. C. 234, in the year preceding the first consulship of Q. Fabius Maximus, and died at the age of 85, in the consulship of L. Marcius and M. Manilius. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 29.8) agrees with Cicero. Other authors exaggerate the age of Cato. According to Valerius Maximlus (8.7.1) he survived his 86th year; according to Livy (39.40) and Plutarch (Plut. Cat. Ma. 15) he was 90 years old when he died. The exaggerated age, however, is inconsistent within a statement recorded by Plutarch (Cat. Aaj. 1) on the asserted authority of Cato himself.

Cato is represented to have said, that he served his first campaign in his 17th year, when Hannibal was over-running Italy. Plutarch, who had the works of Cato before him, but was careless in dates, did not observe that the reckoning of Livy would take back Cato's 17th year to B. C. 222, when there was not a Carthaginian in Italy, whereas the reckoning of Cicero would make the truth of Cato's statement reconcileable with the date of Hannibal's first invasion.

When Cato was a very young man, the death of his father put him in possession of a small hereditary estate in the Sabine territory, at a distance from his native town. It was here that he passed the greater part of his boyhood, hardening his body by healthful exercise, superintending and sharing the operations of the farm, learning the manner in which business was transacted, and studying the rules of rural economy. Near his estate was an humble cottage which had been tenanted, after three triumphs, by its owner M. Curius Dentatus, whose warlike exploits and rigidly simple character were fresh in the memory of the old, and were often talked of with admiration in the neighbourhood. The ardour of the youthful Cato was kindled. He resolved to imitate the character, and hoped to rival the glory, of Dentatus. Opportunity was not wanting : in the school of Hannibal he took his first military lessons, namely in the campaign of B. C. 217. There is some discrepancy among historians as to the events of Cato's early military life. In B. C. 214 he served at Capua, and Drumann (Gesch. Rows, v. p. 99) imagines that already, at the age of 20, he was a military tribune. Fabius Maximus had now the command in Campania, during the year of his fourth consulshlip. The old general admitted the young soldier to the honour of intimate acquaintance. While Fabius communicated the valued results of military experience, he omitted not to instil his own personal and political partialities and dislikes into the ear of his attached follower. At the siege of Tarentum, B. C. 209, Cato was again at the side of Fabius. Two years later, Cato was one of the select band who accompanied the consul Claudius Nero on his northern march from Lucania to check the progress of Hasdrubal. It is recorded that the services of Cato contributed not a little to the decisive victory of Sena on the Metaurus, where Hasdrubal was slain.

In the intervals of war, Cato returned to his Sabine farm, using the plainest dress, and working and faring like his labourers. Young as he was, the neighbouring farmers liked his hardy mode of living, relished his quaint and sententious sayings, and recognized his abilities. His own active temperament made him willing and anxious to employ his powers in the service of his neighbours. He was engaged to act, sometimes as an arbiter of disputes, and sometimes as an advocate, in local causes, which were probably tried before recuperatores in the country. Thus was he enabled to strengthen by practice his oratorical faculties, to gain self-confidence, to observe the manners of men, to dive into the springs of human nature, to apply the rules of law, and practically to investigate the principles of justice.

In the vicinity of Cato's Sabine farm was the estate of L. Valerius Flaccus, a young nobleman of considerable influence, and high patrician family. Flaccus could not help remarking the energy of Cato, his military talent, his eloquence, his frugal and simple life, and his old-fashioned principles. Flaccus himself was one of that old-fashioned party who professed their adherence to the severer virtues of the ancient Roman character. There was now in progress a transition from Samnite rusticity to Grecian civilization and oriental voluptuousness. The chief magistracies of the state had become almost the patrimony of a few distinguished families, whose wealth was correspondent with their illustrious birth. Popular by lavish expenditure, by acts of graceful but corrupting munificence, by winning manners, and by the charm of hereditary honours, they united with the influence of office the material power conferred by a numerous retinue of clients and adherents, and the intellectual ascendancy which the monopoly of philosophical education, of taste in the fine arts, and of acquaintance with elegant literature, could not fail to bestow. Nevertheless, the reaction was strong. The less fortunate nobles, jealous of this exclusive oligarchy, and keenly observant of the degeneracy and disorder which followed in the train of luxury, placed themselves at the head of a party which professed its determination to resort to purer models and to stand upon the ancient ways. In their eyes, rusticity, austerity, and asceticism were the marks of Sabine hardihood and religion, and of the old Roman unbending integrity and love of order. Marcellus, the family of Scipio, and the two Flaminini, may be taken as types of the new civilization ; Cato's friends, Fabius and Flaccus, were leading men in the party of the old plainness.

Flaccus was one of those clear-sighted politicians who seek out and patronize remarkable ability in young and rising men. He had observed Cato's martial spirit and eloquent tongue. He knew how much courage and eloquence were prized at Rome. He knew that the distinctions of the battle-field opened the way to the successes of the gown; and that, for a municipal stranger like Cato, forensic success was almost the only possible avenue to magisterial honours. Accordingly, he recommended Cato to transplant his ambition to the fitter soil and ampler field of home. The advice was eagerly followed. Invited to the town-house of Flaccus, and countenanced by his support, Cato began to distinguish himself in the forum, and became a candidate for office.

We have dwelt upon the accidents of his early history, since they affected the whole tenor of Cato's life. We have seen a youth, indomitably active and strong-minded--the fellow-workman and oracle of rustics--not suffered to droop from want of practice or encouragement, but befriended by opportunity and always equal to the exigencies of his position, disciplined in the best school of arms, the favourite of his general, listened to with applause in the courts of Rome, and introduced at once into a high political circle. What wonder if, in such scenes, the mind of Cato received a better training for wide command and worldly success than could have been supplied by a more regular education ? What wonder if his strength and originality were tinged with dogmatism, coarseness, harshness, vanity, self-sufficiency, and prejudice,--if he had little sympathy with the pursuits of calm and contemplative scholars,--if he disdained or hated or disparaged the accomplishments which he had no leisure to master,--if he railed and rebelled against the conventional elegancies of a more polished society to which he and his party were opposed,--if he confounded delicacy of sentiment with unmanly weakness, and refinement of manners with luxurious vice ?

In B. C. 205, Cato was designated quaestor, and in the following year entered upon the duties of his office, and followed P. Scipio Africanus to Sicily. When Scipio, acting on the permission which, after much opposition, he had obtained from the senate, transported the army from the island into Africa, Cato and C. Laelius were appointed to convoy the baggage-ships. There was not that cordiality of co-operation between Cato and Scipio which ought to subsist between a quaestor and his proconsul. Fabius had opposed the permission given to Scipio to carry the attack into the enemy's home, and Cato, whose appointment was intended to operate as a check upon Scipio, adopted the views of his friend. It is reported by Plutarch, that the lax discipline of the troops under Scipio's command, and the extravagant expense incurred by the general, provoked the remonstrance of Cato ; that Scipio thereupon retorted haughtily, saying he would give an account of victories, not of pelf : that Cato, returning to Rome, denounced the prodigality of his general to the senate; and that, at the joint instigation of Cato and Fabius, a commission of tribunes was despatched to Sicily to investigate the conduct of Scipio, who was acquitted upon the view of his extensive and judicious preparations for the transport of the troops. (Plut. Cat. Ma. 3.) This account is scarcely consistent with the narrative of Livy, and would seem to attribute to Cato the irregularity of quitting his post before his time. If Livy be correct, the commission was sent upon the complaint of the inhabitants of Locri, who had been cruelly oppressed by Pleminius, the legate of Scipio. Livy says not a word of Cato's interference in this transaction, but mentions the acrimony with which Fabius accused Scipio of corrupting military discipline, and of having unlawfully left his province to take the town of Locri. (Liv. 29.1.9, &c.)

The author of the abridged life of Cato which commonly passes as the work of Cornelius Nepos, states that Cato, upon his return from Africa, touched at Sardinia, and brought the poet Ennius in his own ship from the island to Italy; but Sardinia was rather out of the line of the voyage to Rome, and it is more likely that the first acquaintance of Ennius and Cato occurred at a subsequent date, when the latter was praetor in Sardinia. (Aur. Vict. de Vir. III. 47.)

In B. C. 199, Cato was aedile, and with his colleague Helvius, restored the plebeian games, and gave upon that occasion a banquet in honour of Jupiter. In the following year he was made praetor, and obtained Sardinia as his province, with the command of 3,000 infantry and 200 cavalry. Here he took the earliest opportunity of illustrating his principles by his practice. He diminished official expenses, walked his circuits with a single attendant, and, by the studied absence of pomp, placed his own frugality in striking contrast with the oppressive magnificence of ordinary provincial magistrates. The rites of religion were solemnized with decent thrift; justice was administered with strict impartiality; usury was restrained with unsparing severity, and the usurers were banished. Sardinia had been for some time completely subdued, but if we are to believe the improbable and unsupported testimony of Aurelius Victor (de Vir. Ill. 47), an insurrection in the island was quelled by Cato, during his praetorship.

Cato had now established a reputation for pure morality, and strict old-fashioned virtue. He was looked upon as the living type and representative of the ideal ancient Roman. His very faults bore the impress of national character, and humoured national prejudice. To the advancement of such a man opposition was vain. In B. C. 195, in the 39th year of his age, he was elected consul with his old friend and patron L. Valerius Flaccus.

During this consulship a strange scene took place. peculiarly illustrative of Roman manners. In B. C. 215, at the height of the Punic war, a law had been passed on the rogation of the tribune Oppius, that no woman should possess more than half an ounce of gold, nor wear a garment of divers colours, nor drive a carriage with horses at less distance than a mile from the city, except for the purpose of attending the public celebration of religious rites. Now that Hannibal was conquered; that Rome abounded with Carthaginian wealth; and that there was no longer any necessity for women to contribute towards the exigencies of an impoverished treasury the savings spared from their ornaments and pleasures, the tribunes T. Fundanius and L. Valerius, thought it time to propose the abolition of the Oppian law; but they were opposed by their colleagues, M. Brutus and T. Brutus. The most important affairs of state excited far less interest and zeal than this singular contest. The matrons poured forth into the streets, blockaded every avenue to the forum, and intercepted their husbands as they approached, beseeching them to restore the ancient ornaments of the Roman matrons. Nay, they had the boldness to accost and implore the praetors and consuls and other magistrates. Even Flaccus wavered, but his colleague Cato was inexorable, and made an ungallant and characteristic speech, the substance of which, remodelled and modernized, is given by Livy. Finally, the women carried the day. Worn out by their importunity, the recusant tribunes withdrew their opposition. The hated law was abolished by the suffrage of all the tribes, and the women evinced their exultation and triumph by going in procession through the streets and the forum, bedizened with their now legitimate finery.

Scarcely had this important affair been brought to a conclusion when Cato, who had maintained during its progress a rough and sturdy consistency without, perhaps, any very serious damage to his popularity, set sail for his appointed province, Citerior Spain.

In his Spanish campaign, Cato exhibited military genius of a very high order. He lived abstemiously, sharing the food and the labours of the common soldier. With indefatigable industry and vigilance, he not only gave the requisite orders, but, whereever it was possible, personally superintended their execution. His movements were bold and rapid, and he never was remiss in reaping the fruits and pushing the advantages of victory. The sequence of his operations and their harmonious combination with the schemes of other generals in other parts of Spain appear to have been excellently contrived. His stratagems and manoeuvres were original, brilliant, and successful. The plans of his battles were arranged with consummate skill. He managed to set tribe against tribe, availed himself of native treachery, and took native mercenaries into his pay.

The details of the campaign, as related by Livy (lib. xxxiv.), and illustrated by the incidental anecdotes of Plutarch, are full of horror. We read of multitudes who, after they had been stript of their arms, put themselves to death for very shame; of wholesale slaughter of surrendered victims, and the frequent execution of merciless razzias. The political elements of Roman patriotism inculcated the maxim, that the good of the state ought to be the first object, and that to it the citizen was bound to sacrifice upon demand natural feelings and individual morality. Such were the principles of Cato. He was not the man to feel any compunctious visitings of conscience in the thorough performance of a rigorous public task. His proceedings in Spain were not at variance with the received idea of the fine old Roman soldier, or with his own stern and imperious temper. He boasted of having destroyed more towns in Spain than he had spent days in that country.

When he had reduced the whole tract of land between the Iberus and the Pyrenees to a hollow, sulky, and temporary submission, he turned his attention to administrative reforms, and increased the revenues of the province by improvements in the working of the iron and silver mines. On account of his achievements in Spain, the senate decreed a thanksgiving of three days. In the course of the year, B. C. 194, he returned to Rome, and was rewarded with a triumph, at which he exhibited an extraordinary quantity of captured brass, silver, and gold, both coin and bullion. In the distribution of prize-money to his soldiery, he was more liberal than might have been expected from so strenuous a professor of parsimonious economy. (Liv. 34.46.)

The return of Cato appears to have been accelerated by the enmity of P. Scipio Africanus, who was consul, B. C. 194, and is said to have coveted the command of the province in which Cato was reaping renown. There is some variance between Nepos (or the pseudo-Nepos), and Plutarch (Plut. Cat. Ma. 11), in their accounts of this transaction. The former asserts that Scipio was unsuccessful in his attempt to obtain the province, and, offended by the repulse, remained after the end of his consulship, in a private capacity at Rome. The latter relates that Scipio, who was disgusted by Cato's severity, was actually appointed to succeed him, but, not being able to procure from the senate a vote of censure upon the administration of his rival, passed the time of his command in utter inactivity. From the statement in Livy (34.43), that B. C. 194, Sex. Digitius was appointed to the province of Citerior Spain, it is probable that Plutarch was mistaken in assigning that province to Scipio Africanus. The notion that Africanus was appointed successor to Cato in Spain may have arisen from a double confusion of name and place, for P. Scipio Nasica was appointed, B. C. 194, to the Ulterior province.

However this may be, Cato successfully vindicated himself by his eloquence, and by the production of detailed pecuniary accounts, against the attacks made upon his conduct while consul; and the existing fragments of the speeches, (or the same speech under different names,) made after his return, attest the vigour and boldness of his defence.

Plutarch (Plut. Cat. Ma. 12), states that, after his consulship, Cato accompanied Tib. Sempronius Longus as legatus to Thrace, but here there seems to be some error, for though Scipio Africanus was of opinion that one of the consuls ought to have Macedonia, we soon find Sempronius in Cisalpine Gaul (Liv. 34.43, 46), and in B. C. 193, we find Cato at Rome dedicating to Victoria Virgo a small temple which he had vowed two years before. (Liv. 35.9.)

The military career of Cato was not yet ended. In B. C. 191, he was appointed military tribune (or legatus ? Liv. 36.17, 21), under the consul M'. Acilius Glabrio, who was despatched to Greece to oppose the invasion of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. In the decisive battle of Thermopylae, which led to the downfall of Antiochus, Cato behaved with his wonted valour, and enjoyed the good fortune which usually waits upon genius. By a daring and difficult advance, he surprised and dislodged a body of the enemy's Aetolian auxiliaries, who were posted upon the Callidromus, the highest summit of the range of Oeta. He then commenced a sudden descent from the hills above the royal camp, and the panic occasioned by this unexpected movement at once turned the day in favour of the Romans. After the action, the general embraced Cato with the utmost warmth, and ascribed to him the whole credit of the victory. This fact rests on the authority of Cato himself, who, like Cicero, often indulged in the habit, offensive to modern taste, of sounding his own praises. After an interval spent in the pursuit of Antiochus and the pacification of Greece, Cato was despatched to Rome by the consul Glabrio to announce the successful result of the campaign, and he performed his journey with such celerity that he had commenced his report in the senate before the arrival of L. Scipio, (the subsequent conqueror of Antiochus,) who had been sent off from Greece a few days before him. (Liv. 36.21.)

It was during the campaign in Greece under Glabrio, and, as it would appear from the account of Plutarch, (rejected by Drumann,) before the battle of Thermopylae, that Cato was commissioned to keep Corinth, Patrae, and Aegium, from siding with Antiochus. It was then too that he visited Athens, and, to prevent the Athenians from listening to the overtures of the Syrian king, addressed them in a Latin speech, which was explained to them by an interpreter. Already perhaps he had a smattering of Greek, for, it is said by Plutarch, that, while at Tarentum in his youth, he became intimately acquainted with Nearchus, a Greek philosopher, and it is said by Aurelius Victor that while praetor in Sardinia, he received instruction in Greek from Ennius. It was not so much, perhaps, on account of his still professed contempt for everything Greek, as because his speech was an affair of state, that he used the Latin language, in compliance with the Roman custom, which was observed as a diplomatic mark of Roman majesty. (V. Max. 2.2.2.)

After his arrival at Rome, there is no certain proof that Cato was ever again engaged in war. Scipio, who had been legatus under Glabrio, was consul B. C. 190, and the province of Greece was awarded to him by the senate. An expression occurs in Cicero (pro Muren. 14), which might lead to the opinion that Cato returned to Greece, and fought under L. Scipio, but, as to such an event, history is silent. " Nunquam cum Scipione esset profectus [M. Cato], si cum mulierculis bellandum esse arbitraretur." That Cicero was in error seems more likely than that he referred to the time when Cato and L. Scipio served together under Glabrio, or that the words " cum Scipione," as some critics have thought, are an interpolation.

In B. C. 189, M. Fulvius Nobilior, the consul, obtained Aetolia as his province, and Cato was sent thither after him, as we learn from an extract (preserved by Festus, s. v. Oratores), from his speech " de suis Virtutibus contra Thermum." It seems that his legation was rather civil than military, and that he was sent to confer with Fulvius on the petition of the Aetolians, who were placed in an unfortunate situation, not sufficiently protected by Rome if they maintained their fidelity, and yet punished if they were induced to assist her enemies.

We have seen Cato in the character of an eminent and able soldier: we have now to observe him in the character of an active and leading citizen. If Cato were in B. C. 190 with L. Scipio Asiaticus (as Cicero seems to have imagined), and in B. C. 189 in Aetolia with Fulvius, he must still have passed a portion of those years in Rome. We find him in B. C. 190 most strenuous in resisting the claims of Q. Minucius Thermus to a triumph. Thermus had been displaced by Cato in the command of Citerior Spain, and was afterwards engaged in repressing the incursions of the Ligurians, whom he reduced to submission, and now demanded a triumph as his reward. Cato accused him of fabricating battles and exaggerating the numbers of the enemy slain in real engagements, and declaimed against his cruel and ignominious execution of ten magistrates (decemviri) of the Boian Gauls, without even the forms of justice, on the pretext that they were dilatory in furnishing the required supplies. (Gel. 13.24, 10.3.) Cato's opposition was successful; but the passage of Festus already referred to shews that, after his return from Aetolia in 189, he had to defend his own conduct against Thermus, who was tribune B. C. 189, and died in battle, B. C. 188.

In B. C. 189, Cato and his old friend L. Valerius Flaccus were among the candidates for the censorship, and, among their competitors, was their former general M'. Acilius Glabrio. Glabrio, who did not possess the advantage of nobility, determined to try what the influence of money could effect. In order to counteract his endeavours, he was met by an accusation of having applied the treasures of Antiochus to his own use, and was ultimately obliged to retire from the contest. Cato was active in promoting the opposition to his old general, and declared that he had seen vessels of gold and silver among the royal booty in the camp, but had not seen them displayed in the parade of Glabrio's triumph. Neither Cato nor Flaccus was elected. The choice fell upon two of the opposite party, T. Flamininus and M. Marcellus.

Cato was not to be daunted by a failure. In B. C. 187, M. Fulvius Nobilior returned from Aetolia, and sought the honour of a triumph. Again, Cato was found at his post of opposition. Fulvius was indulgent to his soldiers. He was a man of literary taste, and patronized Ennius, who was his companion in hours not devoted to military duty. All this was repugnant to the old Roman principles of Cato, who, among other charges, found fault with Fulvius for keeping poets in his camp (Cic. Tusc. 1.2), and impairing military discipline, by giving crowns to his soldiers for such mighty services as digging a well with spirit, or valorously throwing up a mound. (Gel. 5.6.) Again, Cato was unsuccessful, and Fulvius obtained the triumph he sought for.

When P. Scipio Africanus was charged with having received sums of money from Antiochus, which had not been duly accounted for to the state, and with having allowed the unfortunate monarch to come off too leniently, Cato is said to have been the instigator of the accusation. (Liv. 38.54.) Every one has read how the proud conqueror of Africa tore with his own hands the books of account which his brother Lucius was producing to the senate; and how, on the day of his own trial, he bade the people follow him from the rostra to the Capitol to return thanks to the immortal gods on the anniversary of the battle of Zama. Unused to submit to question, and conscious of his great benefits to the state, he deemed himself almost above the law. Though Cato devolved upon others the obloquy of accusing Africanus, he hesitated not openly to speak in favour of a proposition which was calculated to prepare the way for the successful prosecution of a similar charge against L. Scipio Asiaticus. By his influence a plebiscitum was carried, referring it to the senate to appoint a commissioner to inquire into the charge concerning the money of Antiochus. The result was, that Lucius and others were condemned. As to the dates and details of these transactions, there is the utmost variance in the early authorities. [Scipio.]

Cato was now again a candidate for the censorship, with his old friend L. Valerius Flaccus and six others, among whom were the patricians P. and L. Scipio, and the plebeian L. Fulvius Nobilior. He was loud in his promises or threats of reform, and declared that, if invested with power, he would not belie the professions of his past life. The dread of his success alarmed all his personal enemies, all who were notorious for their luxury, and all who derived profit from the mismanagement of the public finances. Notwithstanding the combined opposition of the six other candidates, he obtained the censorship, B. C. 184, bringing in by his own influence L. Valerius Flaccus as his colleague.

This was a great epoch in Cato's life. He applied himself strenuously to the duties of his office, regardless of the enemies he was making. He repaired the watercourses, paved the reservoirs, cleansed the drains, destroyed the communications by which private individuals illegally drew off the public water to supply their dwellings and irrigate their gardens, raised the rents paid by the publicani for the farm of the taxes, and diminished the contract prices paid by the state to the undertakers of public works. It may be doubted whether he did not go too far in his reforms, from considering rather the cheapness of an offer than the security which was afforded by the character and circumstances of the applicant; but there can be no doubt that great abuses existed, with which nothing but the undaunted courage and extraordinary administrative faculties of Cato could have successfully grappled. He was disturbing a nest of hornets, and all his future life was troubled by their buzz and their attempts to sting. After his censorship, he was prosecuted by some of the tribunes, at the instigation of T. Flamininus, for misconduct in this department of his office, and condemned to pay a fine of two talents (Plut. Cat. Ma. 10), or in Roman money 12,000 asses. Though he was accused no fewer than forty-four times during the course of his life, this is the only recorded instance in which his enemies prevailed against him.

The provisions against luxury, contained in his censorial edict, were severe and stringent. He directed unauthorized statues erected to the honour of unworthy men to be removed from the public places, and declaimed against the unceremonious indecency and want of religious feeling with which the images of gods taken from the temples of conquered countries were used, like ordinary household furniture, to ornament the mansions of the nobles. In the lustral census, young slaves, purchased at 10,000 asses and upwards, were valued at ten times their cost, and then taxed, upon this fictitious value at the rate of three, instead of one, per 1000--a circuitous mode of imposing a rate of three per cent. The same course was pursued in rating the dress, furniture, and equipage of the women, when their real value amounted to 15,000 asses. (Liv. 39.44.) Whether or not the rating were anciently or usually confined to res mancipi, such was clearly not the case upon the present occasion. In the exercise of the tremendous power of the nota censoria, he was equally uncompromising. He most justly degraded from the senate L. Quintius Flamininus (the brother of Titus, his former successful opponent in the canvas for the censorship), for having committed (whatever version of the story we accept) an act of the most abominable cruelty, accompanied by circumstances of the most disgusting profligacy (Liv. 39.42, 43; Plut. Cat. Ma. 17; Cic. Senect. 12); yet such was already the low state of morals at Rome, that a mob could be procured to invite the degraded wretch to resume his former place at the theatre in the seats allotted to the consulars. He degraded Manilius, a man of praetorian rank, for having kissed his wife in his daughter's presence in open day. Whether Cato's strange statement as to his own practice (Plut. Cato, 17) is to be taken as a hyperboiical recommendation of decent reserve, or to be explained as Balzac (cited by Bayle, s. v. Porcius) explains it, we cannot stop to inquire. He degraded L. Nasica (or, as some conjecturally read, L. Porcius Laeca) for an unseasonable and irreverent joke in answer to a solemn question. (Cic. de Orat. 2.64.) In order to detect that celibacy which it was the duty of the censors to put an end to or to punish, men of marriageable age were asked, " Ex tui animi sententia, tu uxorem habes ?" " Non hercule," was the answer of L. Nasica, " ex mei animi sententia." At the muster of the knights, he deprived L. Scipio Asiaticus of his horse for having accepted the bribes of Antiochus. L. Scipio was a senator, but senators, not beyond the age of service, still retained the public horse of the knight, and took their place at the muster. (Dict. Ant. s. v. Equites.) He deprived L. Vetnrius of his horse for having omitted a stated sacrifice, and for having grown too corpulent to be of use in battle. (Fest. s. v. Stata.) Several others he degraded and deprived of their horses, and, not content with this, he publicly exposed, with bitter vehemence. the vices of his victims.

It does not appear that, in the exercise of the theoretically exorbitant and anomalous power of the censorship, Cato acted unfairly, although personal motives and private enmities or party dislikes may sometimes have conspired with his views of political and moral duty.

The remarkable censorship of Cato was rewarded by a public statue, with a commemorative and laudatory inscription.

Henceforward the public life of Cato was spent chiefly in forensic contests, senatorial debates, and speeches to the people. The fragments of his orations show his unceasing activity, and the general consistency of his career. He pursued his political opponents with relentless animosity, for with him, true Italian as he was, revenge was a virtue. In his own words, the most honourable obsequies which a son could pay to the memory of his father were the condemnation and tears of that father's foes. With greenish-gray eyes and sandy hair, an iron frame, and a stentorian voice, he gave utterance to such bitter invectives as to provoke the pungent Greek epigram recorded by Plutarch. (Cato, 1) Πυρρὸν, πανδακέτην, γλαυκόμματον, οὐδὲ θανόντα Πόρκιον εἰς ἀΐδην Περσεφόνη δέχεται.

His resistance to luxury continued. In B. C. 181, he urged the adoption of the Lex Orchia for restricting the number of guests at banquets. In B. C. 169 (according to Cicero, Senect. 5, or several years earlier, according to the epitomizer of Livy Epit. xli.) he supported the proposal of the Lex Voconia, the provisions of which were calculated to prevent the accumulation of wealth in the hands of women.

In some questions of foreign policy we find him taking the side of the oppressed. The proconsular governors of both Spains compelled the provincial inhabitants to pay their corn-assessments in money at a high arbitrary commutation, and then forced the provincial farmers to supply the Romans with corn at a greatly reduced price. When the Spanish deputies came to Rome, B. C. 171, to complain of such unjust exaction, Cato was chosen advocate of his former province, Citerior Spain, and conducted the prosecution with such spirit as to draw down upon himself powerful enmity, although the guilty governors, M. Matienus and P. Furius Philus, escaped condemnation by voluntary exile. (Liv. 43.2.)

Again, when the Rhodians besought the senate not to punish the whole island for the unauthorized acts of a few factious individuals, on the charge of general disaffection towards the Roman arms in the wars with Antiochus and Perseus, Cato pleaded the cause of Rhodes before the senate in an able and effective speech. The minute and artificial criticisms of Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, upon parts of this speech, are reported and refuted by Gellius (7.3). Cicero himself speaking by the mouth of Atticus (Brutus, 85), was scarcely able sufticiently to appreciate the sturdy, rugged, sententious, passionate, racy, oratory of Cato. It was tinged with some affectations of striking expressions -- with quaintnesses, vulgarisms, archaisms, and neologisms, but it told--it worked--it came home to men's business and bosoms. If we may judge of Cato by his fragments, he possessed the living fiery spirit and intense earnestness of Demosthenes, without the elevation of thought, the harmony of language, and the perfection of form which crowned the eloquence of the Athenian.

The strong national prejudices of Cato appear to have diminished in force as he grew older and wiser. He applied himself in old age to the study of Greek literature, with which in youth he had no acquaintance, although he was not ignorant of the Greek language. Himself an historian and orator, the excellences of Demosthenes and Thucydides made a deep impression upon his kindred mind. In many important cases, however, throughout his life, his conduct was guided by prejudices against classes and nations, whose influence he deemed to be hostile to the simplicity of the old Roman character. It is likely that he had some part in the senatusconsultum which, upon the appearance of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, at Brundisium, B. C. 166, forbade kings to enter Rome, for when Eumenes, upon his former visit, after the war with Antiochus, was received with honour by the senate, and splendidly entertained by the nobles, Cato was indignant at the respect paid to the monarch, refused to go near him, and declared that, " kings were naturally carnivorous animals." He had an antipathy to physicians, because they were mostly Greeks, and therefore unfit to be trusted with Roman lives, inasmuch as all Greeks looked upon the barbarians, including the Romans, as natural enemies. He loudly cautioned his eldest son against physicians, and dispensed with their attendance. He was not a bad physician himself in recommending as a peculiarly salutary diet, ducks, geese, pigeons, and hares, though hares, he tells us, are apt to produce dreams. With all his antipathy, there is no ground in ancient authors for the often-repeated statement that he carried a law for the expulsion of physi cians from the city. When Athens sent Carneades, Diogenes, and Critolaus to Rome in order to negotiate a remission of the 500 talents which the Althenians had been awarded to pay by way of compensation to the Oropians, Carneades excited great attention by his philosophical conversation and lectures, in which he preached the pernicious doctrine of an expediency distinct from justice, and illustrated his doctrine by touching on a dangerous and delicate subject--the example of Rome herself. " If Rome were stript of all that she did not justly gain, the Romans might go back to their huts." Cato, offended with these principles, and jealous of the attention paid to this Greek, gave advice which the senate followed--" Let these deputies have an answer, and a polite dismissal as soon as possible." Upon the conquest of Perseus, the leading men of the Achaian union, to the number of nearly 1,000, including the historian Polybius, were brought to Rome, B. C. 167, as hostages for the good behaviour of the Achaians, and, afterwards, without any proof of disaffection, were detained in exile from their country, and distributed among the colonize and municipia of Italy. When their numbers were reduced to about 300, by an exile of 16 years, the intercession of the younger Africanus, the friend of Polybius, prevailed with Cato to vote that they should be permitted to return to their country. The conduct of the old senator--he was now eighty-three---was kinder than his words. He did not interpose until the end of a long debate, and then assented to the proposal on the ground, that it was a matter of perfect indifference. " Have we nothing better to do than to sit here all day long debating whether a parcel of worn-out Greeks shall be carried to their craves here or in Achaia ?" When the exiles further besought the senate that they might be restored to their former status and honours in their own country, Cato intimated that they were fools for going home, and were much better off as they were. He said with a smile, that Polybius was like Ulysses returning to the cave of the Cyclops for his hat and sash. The active powers of Cato had been so much more educated than his affections, that he appears to have been nearly devoid of sympathy with fine and tender feelings, though some allowance may be made for a little assumed ungraciousness of demeanour, in order to keep up his Catonian character. Nowhere in his writings or his speeches do we meet with generous and elevating sentiments. His strong will and powerful passions of anger and ambition were guided by a keen and cold intellect, and a practical, utilitarian, common sense.

Even in the closing years of his protracted life, Cato had no repose. In his 81st year, B. C. 153, he was accused by C. Cassius of some capitale crimen (the nature of which is not recorded), and defended himself in person with unbroken strength, with unfaltering voice, and with unshaken memory. " How hard it is," he said, " for one whose life has been past in a preceding generation, to plead his cause before the men of the present!" (V. Max. 8.7.1; Plut. Cato, 15.)

In the very year before his death, he was one of the chief instigators of the third Punic war. The anxiety of the senate had been excited by the report that a large army, under Ariobarzanes, was assembled on the Carthaginian territory. Cato recommended an instant declaration of war against the Carthaginians, on the ground that their real object in procuring the assistance of the Numidians was hostility to Rome, although their nominal object was the defence of their frontier against the claim of Masinissa to part of their dominions. Scipio Nasica thought that no casus belli had arisen, and it was arranged that an embassy should be sent to Africa to gain information as to the real state of affairs. When the ten deputies, of whom Cato was one, came to the disputed territory, they offered their arbitration, which was accepted by Masinissa, but rejected by the Carthaginians, who had no confidence in Roman justice. The deputies accurately observed the warlike preparations, and the defences of the frontier. They then entered the city, and saw the strength and population it had acquired since its conquest by the elder Africanus. Upon their return home, Cato was the foremost in asserting that Rome would never be safe, as long as Carthage was so powerful, so hostile, and so near. One day he drew a bunch of early ripe figs from beneath his robe, and throwing it upon the floor of the senate-house, said to the assembled fathers, who were astonished at the freshness and fineness of the fruit, " Those figs were gathered but three days ago at Carthage; so close is our enemy to our walls." From that time forth, whenever he was called upon for his vote in the senate, though the subject of debate bore no relation to Carthage, his words were " I vote that Carthage no longer be," or, according to the more accepted version of Florus (2.15) " Delenda est Carthago." Scipio Nasica, on the other hand, thinking that Carthage in its weakened state was rather a useful check than a formidable rival to Rome, always voted to " let Carthage be." (Liv. Epit. xlviii. xlix.; Appian, de Bell. Pun. 69; Plin. Nat. 15.17.) This story must appear strange to those who know not that, during the republic, it was a Roman custom for senators, when called upon for their votes, to express--no matter what the question--any opinion which they deemed of great importance to the welfare of the state. (Tac. Ann. 2.33.)

In the very last year of his life, Cato took a conspicuous part in the righteous but unsuccessful prosecution of S. Sulpicius Galba. This perfidious general, after the surrender of the Lusitanian army, in flagrant breach of faith, put to death some of the soldiers, and sold others as slaves in Gaul, while a few escaped by flight, among whom was Viriathus, the future avenger of his nation. Galba pretended to have discovered that, under cover of the surrender, the Lusitanians had concerted an attack; but he obtained his acquittal chiefly through the compassion excited by the theatrical parade of his young weeping sons and orphan ward. Cato made a powerful speech against Galba, and inserted it in the 7th book of his Origines, a few days or months before his death, B. C. 149, at the age of 85. (Cic. Brutus, 23.)

Cato was twice married; first to Licinia, a lady of small property but noble birth, who bore a son, M. Porcius Cato Licinianus, the jurist, and lived to an advanced age. After her death he secretly cohabited with a female slave; for, though he was a faithful husband, and as a widower was anxious to preserve his reputation, the well-known " sententia dia Catonis" proves that he set but little value upon the virtue of chastity. When his amour was discovered by his son, he determined to marry again, and chose the young daughter of his scribe and client, M. Salonius. The way in which a patron could command his client, and a father dispose of his daughter, is disagreeably exemplified in Plutarch's graphic account of the interview between Cato and Salonius which decided the match. The vigorous old man had completed his eightieth year when Salonia bore him a son, M. Porcius Cato Salonianus, the grandfather of Cato of Utica. To his eldest son he behaved like a good father, and took the whole charge of his education. To his slaves he was a rigid master. His conduct towards them (if not represented in too dark colours by Plutarch) was really detestable. The law held them to be mere chattels, and he treated them as such, without any regard to the rights of humanity. " Lingua mali pars pessima servi ;" so he taught them to be secret and silent. He made them sleep when they had nothing else to do. In order to prevent combination and to govern them the more easily, he intentionally sowed enmities and jealousies between them, and allowed the males to purchase out of their peculium the liberty of sexual intercourse with the females of his household. In their name he bought young slaves, whom they trained, and then sold at a profit for his benefit. After supping with his guests, he often severely chastised them with thong in hand for trifling acts of negligence, and sometimes condemned them to death. When they were worn out and useless, he sold them or turned them out of doors. He treated the lower animals no better. His war-horse which bore him through his campaign in Spain, he sold before he left the country, that the state might not be charged with the expenses of its transport. These excesses of a tyrannous and unfeeling nature shocked no scruples of his own conscience, and met no reprehension from a public opinion which tolerated gladiatorial shows. They were only specimens of the wholesome strictness of the good old Sabine paterfamilias. In youth the austerity of his life was much greater than in age, and perhaps his rigour would have been further relaxed, had he not felt that he had a character to keep up, and had not his frugal simplicity been found to conduce to the acquisition of wealth. As years advanced, he sought gain with increasing eagerness; though, to his honour be it spoken, in the midst of manifold temptations, he never attempted to profit by the misuse of his public functions. He accepted no bribes, he reserved no booty to his own use ; but, no longer satisfied with the returns of agriculture, which varied with the influences of Jupiter, he became a speculator, not only in slaves, but in buildings, artificial waters, and pleasure-grounds. The mercantile spirit was strong within him. He who had been the terror of usurers in Sardinia became a lender of money at nautical interest on the security of commercial ventures, while he endeavoured to guard against the possibility of loss by requiring that the risk should be divided, and that his own agent should have a share in the management.

To those who admitted his superiority he was affable and social. His conversation was lively and witty. He liked to entertain his friends, and to talk over the historical deeds of Roman worthies.

The activity of this many-sided man found leisure for the composition of several literary works. He lived at a time when the Latin language was in a state of transition, and he contributed to enrich it. Cum lingua Catonis et Enni Sermonem patrium ditaverit, et nova rerum Nomina protulerit.

He was contemporary with some of the earliest writers of eminence in the adolescence of classical literature. Naevius died when he was quaestor under Scipio, Plautus when he was censor. Before his own death the more cultivated muse of Terence, who was born in his consulship, had appeared upon the stage. Works De Re Rustica

The work De Re Rustica, which we now possess under the name of Cato, is probably substantially his, though it is certainly not exactly in the form in which it proceeded from his pen. It consists of very miscellaneous materials, relating principally to domestic and rural economy. There we may find rules for libations and sacrifices; medical precepts, including the sympathetic cure and the verbal charm; a receipt for a cake; the form of a contract; the description of a tool; the mode of rearing garden flowers. Editions

The best editions of this work are those which are contained in the collected Scriptores Rei Rusticae of Gesner (Lips. 1773-4) and Schneider. (Lips. 1794-7.) Apophthegmata

Cato's instructions to his eldest son, published in the form of letters, treated of various subjects suited to the education of a Roman youth. They were divided into books, which, being quoted by various names, have been counted as separate treatises. The Apophthegmata, for example, may have formed one of the books of the general collection. Editions

Of Cato's instructions to his son a few fragments remain, which may be found in H. Alb. Lion's Catoniana, Gött. 1826, a work of small critical merit. Orationes Editions

The fragments of the orations are best given in H. Meyer's Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, Turici, 1842. Juridical Fragments

The few passages in the Digest where Cato is cited are commented upon by Majansius (ad XXX JCtos); but it is probable that the citations in the Digest refer not to the Censor, but to his elder son, who confined himself more exclusively to jurisprudence than his father. Editions

Other juridical fragments of Cato are given by Dirksen in his " Bruchstücke aus den Schriften der Römischen Juristen," p. 44, &c. Origines

Cato, when he was already advanced in life, commenced an historical work entitled " Origines," of which many fragments have been preserved. It was probably published in parts from time to time as the several books were completed. Livy (34.5), in a speech which he puts into the mouth of the tribune Valerius during the consulship of Cato, makes Valerius quote the Origines in reply to their author; but this is generally thought to be an anachronism. The first book contained the history of the Roman kings; the second and third treated of the origin of the Italian towns, and from these two books the whole work derived its title. There was a blank in the history from the expulsion of the kings to the commencement of the first Punic war, which formed the subject of the fourth book. The events of the second Punic war were related in the fifth book, and the sixth and seventh continued the narrative to the year of Cato's death. (Nepos, Cato, 3.) It is said, by Nepos, Gellius, and Pliny (Plin. Nat. 8.5), that he suppressed the names of the generals who carried on the wars which he relates; but the remaining fragments show that he made at least some exceptions to this practice. He is unanimously acknowledged by the ancients to have been an exceedingly industrious and learned antiquary; but Livy, in his early decads, makes no use of the Origines. According to Dionysius (1.74) Cato placed the building of Rome in the 132nd year after the Trojan war, or in the first of the 7th Olympiad, B. C. 751. Editions

The best collection of the remains of the Origines in Krause's Vitae et Fragmenta Vet. Hist. Rom. Berlin, 1833. Lives of Cato

The life of this extraordinary man was written by Cornelius Nepos, Plutarch, and Aurelius Victor. Many additional particulars of his history are to be collected from Livy, who portrays his character in a splendid and celebrated passage (39.40). Some facts of importance are to be gleaned from Cicero, especially from his Cato Major or de Senectute, and his Brutus. By later writers he was regarded as a model of Roman virtue, and few names occur oftener in the classics than his. Much has been written upon him by the moderns. There are some Latin verses upon Cato in the Juvenilia of Theodore Beza. Majansius (ad XXX JCtos) composed his life with remarkable diligence, collecting and comparing nearly all the ancient authorities, except a few which were discreditable to his hero. Further information

See also Wetzel's Excursus in his edition of Cic. de Senect. p. 256, &c.; De M. Porcii Catonis Vita Studiis et Scriptis, in Schneider's " Scriptores Rei Rusticae," vol. i. pars ii. init.; Bayle, Dict. s. v. Porcius ; Krause, Vitae et Fragm. &c. pp. 89-97; G. E.Weber, Commentatio de M. Porvii Catonis Censorii Vita et Moribus, Bremae, 1831; and Gerlach, Scipio und Cato, in Schweitzerisches Museum für historische Wissenschaften, 1837; above all, Drumann, Gesch. Roms, v. pp. 97-148.)

M. Po'rcius Cato or Cato Uticensis or the Younger Cato or Cato the Younger

9. M. Porcius Cato, son of No. 6 by Livia, great-grandson of Cato the Censor, and surnamed Uticensis from Utica, the place of his death, was born B. C. 95. In early childhood he lost both his parents, and was brought up in the house of his mother's brother, M. Livius Drusus, along with his sister Porcia and the children of his mother by her second husband, Q. Servilius Caepio. While yet of tender age, he gave token of a certain sturdy independence. The Italian socii were now seeking the right of Roman citizenship, and Q. Pompaedius Silo was endeavouring to enlist Drusus on their side. Silo playfully asked Cato and his halfbrother Q. Caepio if they would not take his part with their uncle. Caepio at once smiled and said he would, but Cato frowned and persisted in saying that he would not, though Silo pretended that he was going to throw him out of the window for his refusal. This story has been doubted on the ground that, as Drusus lost his life B. C. 91, Cato could not have been more than four years old, and consequently was not of an age to form an opinion on public affairs at the time when it is stated to have occurred. This criticism will be appreciated at its due value by those who understand the spirit of the anecdote. and know the manner in which little boys are commonly addressed.

After the death of Drusus, Cato was placed under the charge of Sarpedon, who found him difficult to manage, and more easily led by argument than authority. He had not that quick apprehension and instinctive tact which make learning to some happily-organized children a constant but unobtrusive growth. He did not trust, and observe, and feel, but he acquired his knowledge by asking questions and receiving explanations. That which he thus acquired slowly he retained tenaciously. His temper was like his intellect : it was not easily roused; but, being roused, it was not easily calmed. The child was father to the man. Throughout his life, the same want of flexibility and gradation was one of his obvious defects. He had none of that almost unconscious intuition by which great men modify the erroneous results of abstract reasoning, and take hints from passing events. There was in him no accommodation to circumstances, no insight into the windings of character, no power of gaining influence by apt and easy insinuation. The influence he gained was due to his name for high and stubborn virtue.

As a boy he took little interest in the childish pursuits of his fellows. He rarely smiled, and he exhibited a firmness of purpose which was not to be cajoled by flattery nor daunted by violence. Yet was there something in his unsocial individuality which attracted notice and inspired respect. Once, at the game of Trials, he rescued by force from a bigger boy a youth sentenced to prison who appealed to him for protection, and, burning with passion, led him home accompanied by his comrades. When Sulla gave to the noble youths of Rome the military game called Troja, and proposed as their leaders the son of his wife Metella and Sex. Pompeius, the boys with one accord cried out for Cato in place of Sextus. Sarpedon took him occasionally, when he was in his fourteenth year, to pay his respects to Sulla, his late father's friend. The tortures and executions which sometimes were conducted in Sulla's house made it resemble (in the words of Plutarch) " the place of the damned" On one of his visits, seeing the heads of several illustrious citizens carried forth, and hearing with indignation the suppressed groans of those who were present, he turned to his preceptor with the question " Why does no one kill that tyrant ?" "Because," answered Sarpedon, "men fear him more strongly than they hate him." "Why then," subjoined Cato," would you not let me have a sword, that I might put him to death, and restore my country to freedom ?" This outbreak induced his tutor to watch him, lest he should attempt something desperate.

He received 120 talents as his share of his father's fortune, and, being now his own master, still further contracted his expenditure, hitherto extremely moderate. He addicted himself to political studies, and practised in solitude oratorical declamation. As he hated luxury and was accustomed to self-denial, the precepts of the Porch found favour in his sight; and, under the guidance of Antipater of Tyre, he pursued with all the ardour of a devotee the ethical philosophy of the Stoics. The virtue he chiefly worshipped was a rigid justice, not only unmoved by favour, but rejecting the corrective of equity and mercy.

Differing widely in disposition and natural gifts from his great ancestor the Censor, he yet looked up to him as a model, adopted his principles, and imitated his conduct. His constitution was naturally vigorous, and he endeavoured to harden it still more by excessive toil. He travelled bareheaded in the heat of summer, and amid the winter snow. When his friends were making long journeys on horseback, he accompanied them on foot. In illness and fever, he passed his hours alone, not bearing any witness of his physical infirmities. He was singular in his dress, preferring, by way of sober contrast, a dark purple to the rich crimson then in vogue, and he often appeared in public after dinner without shoes or tunic. Up to his twentieth year, his inseparable companion was his half-brother, Q. Servilius Caepio, to whom he was affectionately attached. When Caepio was praised for his moderation and frugality, he acknowledged that he was but a Sippius (a notorious prodigal) when compared with Cato. Thus Cato became a mark for the eyes of the throng. Vicious luxury was one of the crying evils of the times, and he was pointed to as the natural successor of his ancestor in reforming manners, and in representing the old, simple, undegenerate Roman. It is much to become a type of a national character.

The first occasion of his appearance in public life was connected with the name of his ancestor. The elder Cato in his censorship had erected and dedicated a building called the Porcia Basilica. In this the tribunes of the people were accustomed to transact business. There was a column in the way of the benches where they sat, and they determined either to remove it altogether or to change its place. This proposition called forth the younger Cato, who successfully resisted the measure in a speech which was graceful while it was cutting, and was elevated in tone without any of the tumour of juvenile declamation.

Cato was capable of warm and tender attachment, and much that was stiff and angular in his character was enhanced by early disappointment and blighted affection. Lepida had been betrothed to Metellus Scipio, who broke off the match. Free once more, she was wooed by Cato; but the attentions of a new admirer recalled the ardour of her former lover, who sued again, and was again accepted. Stung to the quick, Cato was with difficulty prevented, by the entreaties of friends, from exposing himself by going to law, and expended the bitterness of his wrath against Scipio in atirical iambics. He soon afterwards married Atilia, the daughter of Serranus, but was obliged to divorce her for adultery after she had borne him two children.

He served his first campaign as a volunteer, B. C. 72, under the consul Gellius Poblicola, in the servile war of Spartacus. He joined the army rather from a desire to be near Caepio, who was tribunus militum, than out of any love for a military life. In this new career he had no opportunity of distinguishing himself; but his observation of discipline was perfect, and in courage he was never found wanting. The general offered him military rewards, which he refused on the ground that he had done nothing to deserve them. For this he was reckoned perverse and cross-grained, but his own estimate of his services was not perhaps much below the mark. He had many of the qualities which make a good soldier, but of that peculiar genius which constitutes a great general he had not a spark.

About the year B. C. 67, he became a candidate for the post of tribunus militum, and obeyed the law by canvassing without nomenclatores. He was elected, and joined the army of the propraetor M. Rubrius in Macedonia. Here he was appointed to command a legion, and he won the esteem and attachment of the soldiery by the force of reason, by sharing all their labours, and by a strict attention to his duty. He treated them as rational beings, not as mere machines, and he preserved order without harsh punishments or lavish bribes. But the life of the camp was ill suited to his temperament. Hearing that the famous Stoic philosopher Athenodorus, surnamed Cordylion, was at Pergamus, he obtained a free legation, which gave him leave of absence for two months, travelled to Asia in search of the philosopher, and succeeded in persuading Athenodorus to return with him to Macedonia. This was deemed by Cato a greater triumph than the capture of a rich city, for the Stoic had refused repeated offers of friendship and society from kings and emperors.

Cato was now doomed to suffer a severe misfortune, and to put to the test all the lessons of his philosophy. Servilius Caepio, on his way to Asia, was taken ill at Aenus, a town of Thrace. Cato was informed of this by letter, and, embarking without delay in a small vessel, set sail in stormy weather from Thessalonica; but he did not arrive in time to close the eyes of his beloved brother. The tumult of his grief was excessive. He embraced the corpse with tears and cries, and spared no expense in the splendour of the funeral. He sent back to the provincials their preferred gifts of money, and paid them for the odours and precious vestments which they contributed to the sad solemnity. At the cost of eight talents, he erected to the memory of Caepio a polished monument of Thasian marble in the market-place at Aenus.

He now returned to Rome in a ship which conveyed the ashes of his brother. At Rome his time was divided between the lessons of philosophy from the lips of Athenodorus, the advocacy of his friends' causes in the forum, and the studies that were necessary to qualify him for political offices. He was now of an age to offer himself for the quaestorship, but he determined not to put himself forward as a candidate until he was master of the details of his duties. He was able to purchase for five taleats a book which contained the pecuniary accounts of the quaestorship from the time of Sulla, and this he attentively perused. Further, he made himself acquainted with all the laws relating to the public treasure. Armed with this knowledge, he was elected to the quaestorship. The scribes and subordinate clerks of the treasury, accustomed to the routine of official business and official documents, relied upon their own experience and the ignorance of ordinary quaestors, and thus were able to teach their teachers and to rule their rulers. Cato broke in upon this official monopoly, which had been made a cover for much fraud and abuse, and, in spite of the resistance which might have been expected from such an interested swarm, he routed and exposed their misdeeds. The debts that were due from the state to individuals he promptly paid, and he rigidly demanded prompt payment of the debts that were due to the state. He took effectual measures to prevent the falsification of the decrees of the senate and other public documents which were entrusted to the custody of the quaestors. He obliged the informers who had received blood-money from Sulla out of the public treasure to refund their ill-gotten gains. His colleagues, who were at first offended at his strictness, finding that he continned to act with impartiality and upon consistent principle, sought to avoid his reproach and began to admire his conduct. By his honest and determined administration he replenished the treasury, and quitted office at the end of the year amid the general applause of his fellow-citizens.

It is probable that after the termination of his quaestorship he went a second time to Asia, upon the invitation of king Deiotarus, his father's friend, for, as Drumann has observed (Geschichte Roms, v. p. 157), the narrative of Plutarch, who makes the events of his Asiatic journey anterior to his quaestorship, is beset with numerous difficulties and anachronisms. In his travels in the east, he neglected that external splendour to which the Orientals were accustomed, and sometimes was treated with slight on account of the meanness of his equipage and apparel. By Pompey, Cato was received with the utmost civility and respect, and this external show of honour from the great man upon whom all eyes were turned, considerably exalted Cato's dignity and importance elsewhere. But there was no cordiality in Pompey's welcome. The visitor, who seemed to be a damper upon his free command, was not invited to stay, and was dismissed without regret.

Deiotarus, upon the arrival of Cato, offered him all kinds of presents, and pressed their acceptance with an earnestness which offended his guest, who departed early on the following day. Upon reaching Pessinus, Cato found that still richer presents had been sent on with a letter from the king, beseeching him, if he would not take them himself, to let his attendants take them; but, much to the dissatisfaction of some of his attendants, he rejected this specious bribery too.

Upon Cato's return to Rome, B. C. 63, he found Lucullus, who had married one of his half-sisters, Servilia, before the gates soliciting a triumph for his success against Mithridates. In obtaining this object, he succeeded by the assistance of Cato and the nobility, notwithstanding the opposition of Memmius and other creatures of Pompey.

Cato was now looked upon by many as a suitable candidate for the tribuneship, but he declined to stand for that office, and determined to pass some time at his country seat in Lucania in the company of his books and his philosophers. On his way he met a long train of baggage, and was informed that it belonged to Metellus Nepos, who was hastening from Pompey's army to seek the tribuneship. His resolution was at once taken. He determined to oppose this emissary of Pompey, and, after spending a day or two in the country, reappeared in Rome. He compared the sudden arrival of Metellus to a thunderbolt falling upon the state, but his own arrival equally surprised his friends. The nobles, who were jealous of Pompey's power and designs, flocked in crowds to vote for him, aud he succeeded in gaining his own election, but not in ousting Metellus. One of his first acts after his election was the prosecution of L. Licinius Muraena for bribery at the consular comitia; but Muraena, who was defended by Cicero, Hortensius, and Crassus, was acquitted by the judges. This (B. C. 63) was the famous year of Cicero's consulship, and of the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy. Cato supported the consul in proposing that the conspirators should suffer death, and was the first who gave to Cicero the name of pater patriae. It was Cato's speech of the 5th of December which determined the senate, previously wavering from the force of Caesar's oratory. The severer sentence was carried, and Cato's part in this transaction occasioned a rupture between him and Caesar, whom he charged with being a secret accomplice of Catiline. Plutarch (Cato Minor, 23) speaks of Cato's speech as extant, and says that it was taken down by short-hand writers placed in the senate-house for that purpose by Cicero. Sallust gives two well-known orations as the speeches of Caesar and Cato, but there is reason to believe that not only is the language Sallust's own, but that the fabricated speeches differ considerably in several particulars from those which were actually delivered.

The crushing of Catiline's conspiracy was an important step, but, in order to accomplish the political theories of Cato, much remained to be done. Induced by the example of Sulla, several ambitious men were now aspiring to supreme power, and those who, like Catiline, endeavoured to grasp it in the disorder occasioned by popular tumult and anarchy, were not the most formidable. The wealth of Crassus and the character and position of Pompey were directed to the same end. Caesar, who had watched the conspiracy of Catiline, and, if it had succeeded, would most likely have been the person to profit by its success, saw their object, and had the address to baffle their schemes. Pompey, his more formidable rival, wished to obtain supreme power by constitutional means, and waited in hope of a voluntary surrender ; but he had not the unscrupulous courage which would have been required to seize it, or to keep it when gained. Caesar, of a more.daring, vigorous, and comprehensive intellect, was not restrained by similar scruples. He contrived by entering into a combination with Pompey and Crassus to detach both from the senatorial party, from which they were already estranged by their own unambiguous ambition. Cato wished to defeat this combination, but the measures he resorted to were clumsy and injudicious. His opposition to Pompey was conducted in a manner which promoted the views of Caesar, who turned every combination of events to the purposes of his own aggrandizement, and availed himself at once of the influence of Pompey and the wealth of Crassus. The state of political parties at Rome was now such, that neither energy nor foresight could long have retarded the downfall of the republic. The party of the senate professed to adhere to the ancient doctrines of the constitution, clinging in practice to oligarchical principles, but it possessed in its ranks no man of great popularity or commanding political genius. Lucullus had often led his troops to victory, and had considerable influence over the army, but he preferred the quiet enjoyment of the vast wealth he had acquired in Asia to the leadership of the party of the nobles. Had he not lacked ambition, he might have given the senate effectual support. Cato attached himself to the senate, and may be numbered among its leaders; but neither he nor his chief coadjutors in the same cause, Catulus and Cicero, could boast of that practical ability and ready command of resources which were wanting at the present crisis. He was far better suited for contemplation than for action, and would have been more at home, more happy, and not less useful, in the calm pursuits of literature and philosophy, than amidst the turmoil of public life. A man more pure and disinterested could not be found. His opinion as a judex and his testimony as a witness were regarded as almost decisive. Such was the reverence for his character, that when he went into the theatre during the games of Flora, given by Messius, the dancing-women were not required to exhibit their performances in their accustomed nudity; but when Cato learned from Savonius that his presence damped the enjoyment of the people, he retired amidst applause. The conduct of his political friends was analogous. They rather praised than imitated his virtues, and those who praised him liked him best when he was at such a distance as not to impose restraint upon their actions. Irregularity and corruption were so general, that an honest man, in order to do good, must have been master of remarkable discretion, whereas the straightforward and uncompromising strictness of Cato generally appeared ill-timed, and was deemed better suited to the imaginary republic of Plato than to the actual condition of the Roman people.

In the year of his tribunat he opposed the proposition of Metellus Nepos to recall Pompey from Asia, and to give him the command of the legions against Catiline. Cato exerted himself in the midst of a riot to prevent the voting of the proposition, and exposed himself to considerable personal danger without much prudence or much dignity. In B. C. 60), he opposed the rogation of the tribune L. Flavius to reward Pompey's veterans with allotments of land. Caesar, when he was returning from Spain, sought the honour of a triumph, and desired in the meantime to be allowed, though absent, to be a candidate for the consulship. In order to prevent a resolution to this effect from being carried on the day when it was proposed, Cato spoke against time until sunset; but Caesar renounced his triumph and gained the consulship. By a course of conduct which to the eyes of the statesmen of that day appeared to be a series of half-measures and vacillating policy, Cato desired to prove that, while some were for Caesar and some for Pompey, he, Cato, was for the commonwealth.

Though Cato seemed generally to waste his strength in ineffectual efforts, he still was found to be a trouble and a hindrance to the designs of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. They accordingly got Clodius, during his tribunate, to propose that Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, should, without even a plausible pretext, be deprived of his dominions, and that Cato should be charged with the task of reuniting the island to the Roman empire, and restoring the exiles who had been sent to Byzantium. Constitutionally averse to active military measures, as well as benevolently anxious to prevent the unnecessary shedding of blood, Cato sent a messenger to Ptolemy to signify the determination of the Roman people. The unfortunate king put an end to his life by poison, and Cato took peaceable possession of Cyprus, and sold the royal treasures at the highest price, offending some of his friends, who hoped to enrich themselves by cheap bargains. After restoring the Byzantine exiles, and successfully accomplishing a commission which, however abstractedly unjust, he considered himself bound to undertake by his duty to the state, he returned to Rome in B. C. 56, displaying to the eyes of the people the public wealth thus acquired. This very treasure afterwards came to the hands of Caesar, and contributed to the destruction of republican liberty. The pecuniary accounts of the sale by some accident were lost, and Clodius Pulcher took occasion to accuse Cato of embezzlement. His answer was, " What greater disgrace could befall this age, than that Pulcher should be an accuser or Cato be accused?" (Senec. Controvers. 5.30.) Cicero, on his return from banishment, insisted that Clodius was not legitimately appointed tribune, and that therefore all his official acts ought to be annulled. The propositions was opposed by Cato, as it would have rendered void his legation to Cyprus. This affair produced a marked coldness between Cicero and Cato.

After his divorce from Atilia, Cato had married Marcia, the daughter of Philippus, and had three children by his second wife. About the year B. C. 56 happened that strange transaction by which he ceded Marcia to his friend Q. Hortensius, with the consent of her father. At the death of Hortensius in the year 50, he took her back again. Heineccius (Antiq. Rom. lib. i. append. 100.47) infers, from the words of Plutarch (Cato Min. 25), that Cato did not, according to the common belief, lend his wife, but that she was divorced from him by the ceremony of sale, and married to Hortensius. Heineccius quotes the case as an instance of a marriage contracted by coemtio and dissolved by remancipatiu, in accordance with their maxim " unumquodque eo modo dissolvitur quo colligatum est." But it does not appear that Cato married her again after the death of Hortensius, and yet it seems that she returned to her former relation of wife.

Cato continued to oppose the triumvirs. In B. C. 55 he actively assisted L. Domitius Ahenobarbus in canvassing for the consulship against Pompey and Crassus, who were elected. In the election riots he was wounded, and narrowly escaped with life. With no better success was he himself a candidate for the praetorship in the same year in opposition to Vatinius. He would not submit to employ the bribery which was necessary to obtain a majority. Again, in an unsuccessful opposition to the Trebonian law conferring extraordinary powers upon the triumvirs, we find him engaged in popular tumults and personal conflict. At length, B. C. 54, he was made praetor, and this was the highest office to which he attained. His exertions during his praetorship to put down the notorious bribery of the consular comitia disgusted both the buyers and the sellers of votes. Again he was attacked by a hooting and pelting mob, who put his attendants to flight; but he persisted in mounting the tribunal, and succeeded in appeasing the violence of the populace.

After the death of Crassus, when the senate had to make choice between Pompey and Caesar, it naturally wished to place itself under the protection of the former. In B. C. 52, Pompey was anxious to obtain the dictatorship; but as the nobles had not given him their full confidence, and yet at the same time were anxious to gratify him, Bibulus proposed that he should be created sole consul, and in this proposition was supported by Cato. In the following year, Cato himself, mistrusting Pompey, was a candidate for the consulship; but he would not bribe, and his competitors, S. Sulpicius and M. Claudius Marcellus, who had the support of Caesar and Pompey, were elected. On the day of his defeat, Cato amused himself with playing at ball, and renounced for ever all aspiration after an office which the people had not thought proper to confer upon him.

On the commencement of the civil war, B. C. 49, Cato supported those illegal proceedings [Caesar, p. 550] which gave some colour of right to the hostile preparations of Caesar. On the approach of Caesar to the city, Cato took flight with the consuls to Campania, and yielded himself up to unavailing grief. From that day forth he allowed his hair to grow; he never after wore a garland, but seeing, that Roman blood must be shed, whichever party might prevail, he determined to mourn until his death the unhappy lot of his country. It was a time for decisive and strong measures. Caesar was not now to be fought by laws or resolutions, and the time for negotiation was past. Cato recommended a temporizing policy. Thoughts of patriotic philanthropy were uppermost in his mind. He made Pompey promise to pillage no Roman town, and, except in battle, to put to death no Romman citizen.

The senate entrusted Cato, as proprietor, with the defence of Sicily; but, on the landing of Curio with three of Caesar's legions, Cato, thinking resistance useless, instead of defending the island, took flight, and proceeded to join Pompey at Dyrrachium. Little confidence was placed in his military skill, or in the course that he would pursue if his party succeeded; for, though it was now his object to crush the rebellion of Caesar, it was felt that his efforts might soon be directed to limit the power of Pompey. After Pompey's victory at Dyrrachium, Cato was left in charge of the camp, and was thus salved from being present at the disastrous battle of Pharsalia. (B. C. 48.) After this battle, he set sail for Corcyra with the troops and the fleet left in his charge; but he offered to resign his command to Cicero, who was now anxious for a reconciliation with Caesar. Cicero, a man equally incompetent to command, declined the offer. Cato now proceeded to Africa, where he hoped to find Pompey; but on his route he received intelligence from Cornelia of Pompey's assassination. After a circuitous voyage he effected a landing, and was admitted by the inhabitants of Cyrene, who had refused to open their gates to Labienus.

In the spring of the year B. C. 47 Cato marched his troops across the desert, for six days supporting hunger and thirst, and every privation, with remarkable fortitude, in order to form a junction with Scipio Metellus, Attius Varus, and the Numidian Juba. Here arose a question of military precedence. The army wished to be led by Cato ; but, as a strict disciplinarian, he thought it necessary to yield to the consular Scipio. Most probably he was glad to rid himself of a position in which immediate action appeared inevitable, and felt himself oppressed by the weight of a responsibility to which his shoulders were unequal. Here the mildness of his disposition was again manifest. He resisted the counsel of Scipio to put Utica to the sword, and, though now nothing could be hoped but a putting-off of the evil day, wisely advised him not to risk a decisive engagement; but Scipio disregarded his advice, and was utterly routed at Thapsus. (April 6th, B. C. 46.) All Africa now, with the exception of Utica, submitted to the victorious Caesar. Cato wanted to inspire the Romans in Utica with courage to stand a siege; but they quailed at the approach of Caesar, and were inclined to submit. Plutarch relates in detail the events which now occurred at Utica, and his narrative exhibits a lamentable picture of a good man standing at bay with fortune. Careless for his own safety, or rather determined not to live under the slavery of Caesar's despotism, Cato yet was anxious to provide for the safety of his friends, advised them to flee, accompanied them to the port, besought them to make terms with the conqueror, composed the speech in which L. Caesar interceded for them, but would not allow his own name to appear. Bewildered and oppressed, driven into a corner where his irresolution could not lurk, and from which he had not strength to break forth, he deeply felt that the only way to preserve his high personal character and unbending moral dignity, and to leave to posterity a lofty Roman name, was --to die. For the particulars of his death, which our limits prevent us from giving, we must refer our readers to the graphic account of Plutarch. After spending the greater part of the night in perusing Plato's Phaedo several times, he stabbed himself below the breast, and in falling overturned an abacus. His friends, hearing the noise, ran up, found him bathed in blood, and, while he was fainting, dressed his wound. When however he recovered feeling, he tore open the bandages, let out his entrails, and expired, B. C. 46, at the age of forty-nine.

There was deep grief in Utica on account of his death. The inhabitants buried him on the coast, and celebrated his funeral with much pomp. A statue, with sword in hand, was erected to his memory on the spot, and was still standing when Plutarch wrote.

Caesar had hastened his march in order to catch Cato; but arriving too late, he exclaimed, "Cato, I grudge thee thy death, since thou hast grudged me the glory of sparing thy life." Works

The only existing composition of Cato (not to count the speech in Sallust) is a letter written in B. C. 50. It is a civil refusal in answer to an elaborate letter of Cicero, requesting that Cato would use his influence to procure him a triumph. (Cic. Fam. 15.4_6) Cato as the subject of biography and panegyric

Cato soon became the subject of biography and panegyric. Shortly after his death appeared Cicero's "Cato," which provoked Caesar's " Anticato," also called " Anticatones," as it consisted of two books; but the accusations of Caesar appear to have been wholly unfounded, and were not believed by his contemporaries. Works like Cicero's Cato were published by Fabius Gallus, and M. Brutus. In Lucan the character of Cato is a personification of godlike virtue. In modern times, the closing events of Cato's life have been often dramatized. Of the French plays on this subject that of Deschamps (1715) is the best; and few dramas have gained more celebrity than the Cato of Addison. Further Information

Plut. Cato Minor; Sall. Catil. 54 ; Tacit. Hist. iv 8; Cic. Att. 1.18, 2.9; Senec. Ep. 95; V. Max. 6.2.5; Lucan, 1.128, 2.380 ; Hor. Carm. 1.12. 35, 2.1, 24; Verg. A. 6.841, 8.670; Juv. 11.90; Drumann's Gesch. Röms, v. p. 153. PORCIAE

10, 11. Porciae. [Porcia.]

M.

and P. COTTII, of Tauromenium in Sicily, two Roman knights, witnesses against Verres. (Cic. Ver. 5.64.)

M. Pacu'vius

one of the most celebrated of the early Roman tragedians, was born about B. C. 220, since he was fifty years older than the poet Accius or Attius (Cic. Brut. 64), who was born in B. C. 170 [Accius]. This agrees with the statement of Jerome (in Euseb. Chron. Olymp. 156. 3) that Pacuvius flourished about B. C. 154, since we know from various sources that Pacuvius attained a great age, and accordingly the time understood by the indefinite term flourished may properly be placed in B. C. 154, though Pacuvius was then about sixty-five years old. Jerome further relates that Pacuvius was almost ninety years of age at the time of his death, which would therefore fall about B. C. 130. Pacuvius was a native of Brundisium, and accordingly a countryman of Ennius, with whom he was connected by ties of blood, and whom he is also said to have buried. According to the accounts of most ancient writers he was the son of the sister of Ennius, and this is more probable than the statement of Jerome, that he was the grandson of Ennius by his daughter, since Ennius was only nineteen years older than Pacuvius. Pacuvius appears to have been brought up at Brundisium, But he. afterwards repaired to Rome, though in what year is uncertain. Here he devoted himself to painting and poetry, and obtained so much distinction in the former art, that a painting of his in the temple of Hercules, in the forum boarium, was regarded as only inferior to the celebrated painting of Fabius Pictor (Plin. Nat. 35.4. s. 7). After living many years at Rome, for he was still there in his eightieth year (Cic. Brut. l. c.), he at last returned to Brundisiltm, on account of the failure of his health, and died in his native town, in the ninetieth year of his age, as has been already stated. We have no further particulars of his life, save that his talents gained him the friendship of Laelius, and that he lived on the most intimate terms with his younger rival Accius, of whom he seems to have felt none of that jealousy which poets usually entertain towards one another. After his retirement to Brundisium Pacuvius invited his friend to his house, and there they spent some time together, discoursing upon their literary pursuits. These notices, brief though they are, seem to show that Pacuvius was a man of an amiable character; and this supposition is supported by the modest way in which he speaks of himself, in an epigram which he composed for his tombstone, and which, even if it be not genuine, as some modern writers have maintained, indicates at least the opinion which was entertained of him in antiquity. The epigram runs as follows (Gel. 1.24:-- Adulescens, tametsi properas, te hoc saxum rogat, Uti sese aspicias, deinde, quod scripture est, legas. Hic sunt poetae Pacuvi Marci sita Ossa. Hoc volebam, nescius ne esses. Vale. Works Tragoediae

Pacuvius was universally allowed by the best writers in antiquity to have been one of the greatest of the Latin tragic poets. Horace regarded him and Accins (Ep. 2.1. 56) as the two most important of the early tragedians; and he is especially praised for the loftiness of his thoughts, the vigour of his language, and the extent of his knowledge. Hence we find the epithet doctus frequently applied to him, and the great critic Varro apud Gell. 7.14) praises him for the ubertas of his style. He was at the same time an equal favourite with the people, with whom his verses continued to be esteemed in the time of Julius Caesar (comp. Cic. de Amic. 7; Suet. Jul. 84). The tragedies of Pacuvius continued, like those of his predecessors on the Latin stage, to be taken from Sophocles, Euripides, and the great Greek writers; but he did not confine himself to a mere translation of the latter, as most of the previous Latin writers had done, but worked up his materials with more freedom and independent judgment, of which we have an example in his Dulorestes, which was an adaptation to the Latin stage of the Iphiqeneia in Tauris of Euripides. Some of the plays of Pacuvius were not based upon the Greek tragedies, but belonged to the class called Praetextatae, in which the subjects were taken from Roman story. One of these was entitled Paullus, and had as its hero the celebrated L. Aemilius Paullus who conquered Perseus, king of Macedonia (Gel. 9.14). The following titles of his tragedies have come down to us:--Anchises ; Antiopa; Armorurum Judicium; Atalanta; Chryses ; Dulorestes; Hermiona; Iliona; Medus or Medea; Niptra; Periboea; Tantalus (doubtful); Teucer; Thyestes. Of these the Antiopa and the Dulorestes were by far the most celebrated Other works

Although the reputation of Pacuvius rested almost exclusively on his tragedies, yet he seems to have written other kinds of poetry. He is expressly mentioned as having composed Saturae, according to the old Roman meaning of the word (Diomedes, iii. p. 482, ed. Putschius), and there seems no reason for doubting, as some modern writers have done, that he also wrote comedies. The Pseudo is expressly mentioned as a comedy of Pacuvius (Fulgentius, p. 562), and the Tarentilla may also have been a comedy. Editions

The fragments of Pacuvius are published in the collections of Stephanus, Fragmenta Vet. Poet., Paris, 1564, of Scriverius, Tragicorum Vet. Fragm. Lugd. Batav. 1620, and of Bothe, Poet. Latii Scenic. Fragm. vol. i. Lips. 1834. Further information

The principal ancient authorities respecting Pacuvius are: Hieronym. in Euseb. Chron. Olymp. 156. 3; Plin. Nat. 35.4. s. 7; Vell. 2.9; Quint. Inst. 10.1; Gel. 7.14, 13.2, 17.21; Cic. de Optim. Gen. Orat. 1.6, Brut. 64, 74, de Amic. 7., Tusc. 2.2], de Orat. 1.58, ad Herenn. 4.4; Hor. Ep. 2.1. 55; Pers. 1.77. The chief modern writers are: Delrio. Syntagm. Trag. Lat. Antv. 1594, and Paris, 1620; Sagittarius, De Vita et Scriptis Livii Andronici, M. Pacuviii, &c., Altenb. 1672; Annibal di Leo, Memorie di M. Pacuvio Anticissimo Poeta Tragico, Napoli, 1763; Lange, Vindiciae Trag. Rom. Lips. 1822; NäkeComment. de Pacuvii Duloreste, Ind. Lect. Bonn. 1822; Stieglitzde Pacuvii Duloreste, Lips. 1826 : Vater, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklopädie, art. Pacuvius.

M. Annaeus Se'neca or the elder Seneca or Seneca the elder

was a native of Corduba (Cordova) in Spain. The time of his birth is uncertain; but it may be approximated to. He says (Contr. Praef. i. p. 67) that he considered that he had heard all the great orators, except Cicero; and that he might have heard Cicero, if the Civil Wars, by which he means the wars between Pompeius and Caesar, had not kept him at home (intra coloniam meam). Seneca appears to allude in this passage to some of Cicero's letters (ad Fam. 7.33, 9.16), in which Cicero speaks of Hirtius and Dolabella being his "dicendi discipuli" (B. C. 46). It is conjectured that as Seneca might be fifteen in B. C. 46, he may have been born on or about B. C. 61 (Clinton, Fasti), the year before C. Julius Caesar was praetor in Spain. Seneca was at Rome in the early period of the power of Augustus, for he says that he had seen Ovid declaiming before Arellius Fuscus (Contr. x. p. 172). Ovid was born B. C. 43. Seneca was an intimate friend of the rhetorician M. Porcius Latro, who was one of Ovid's masters. He also mentions the rhetorician Marillius, as the master of himself and of Latro. He afterwards returned to Spain, and married Helvia, by whom he had three sons, L. Annaeus Seneca, L. Annaeus Mela or Mella, the father of the poet Lucan, and Marcus Novatus. Novatus was the eldest son, and took the name of Junius Gallio, upon being adopted by Junius Gallio. Seneca was rich, and he belonged to the equestrian class. The time of his death is uncertain; but he probably lived till near the end of the reign of Tiberius, and died at Rome or in Italy. It appears that he was at Rome early in life, from what has been stated as to Ovid; and he must have returned to Spain, because his son Lucius was brought to Rome from Spain when he was an infant. (L. Seneca, Consol. ad Helviam. ) Works Controversiae

Seneca was gifted with a prodigious memory. He was a man of letters, after the fashion of his time, when rhetoric or false eloquence was most in vogue. His Controversiarum Libri decem, which he addressed to his three sons, were written when he was an old man. The first, second, seventh, eighth, and tenth books only, are extant, and these are somewhat mutilated : of the other books only fragments remain. These Controversiae are rhetorical exercises on imaginary cases, filled with common-places, such as a man of large verbal memory and great reading carries about with him as his ready money. Suasoriarum Liber

Another work of the same class, attributed to Seneca, and written after the Controversiae, is the Suasoriarum Liber, which is probably not complete. We may collect, from its contents, what the subjects were on which the rhetoricians of that age exercised their wits : one of them is, "Shall Cicero apologise to Marcus Antonius? Shall he agree to burn his Philippics, if Antonius requires it ?" Another is, " Shall Alexander embark on the ocean ?" If there are some good ideas and apt expressions in these puerile declamations, they have no value where they stand ; and probably most of them are borrowed. No merit of form can compensate for worthlessness of matter. The eloquence of the Roman orators, which was derived from their political institutions, was silenced after the Civil Wars; and the puerilities of the rhetoricians were the signs of declining taste. Editions

The Controversiae and Suasoriarum Liber have often been published with the works of Seneca the son. The edition of A. Schottus appeared at Heidelberg, 1603 and 1604, Paris, 1607 and 1613. The Elzivir print of 1672, 8vo., contains the notes of N. Faber, A. Schottus, J. F. Gronovius, and others. More information

The confusion between Seneca, the father, and Seneca, the philosopher, is fully cleared up by Lipsius, Electorum Lib. I. cap. 1, Opera, vol. i. p. 631, ed. 1675. [G.L]