The Good Book (105 page)

29. Though time indeed has shown the vanity of his prophecy;

30. For the city of Rome rose to its highest fortune while entertaining Grecian learning.  

 

Chapter 65

  1. Nor had he an aversion only against Greek philosophers, but against the physicians also;

  2. For having, it seems, heard how Hippocrates, when the king of Persia sent for him with offers of an immense fee,

  3. Said that he would never assist enemies of the Greeks;

  4. He affirmed that this was a common oath taken by all Greek physicians, and enjoined his son to avoid them.

  5. He had himself written a little book of prescriptions for curing the sick in his own family:

  6. He never enjoined fasting, but ordered them either vegetables, or the meat of a duck, pigeon or leveret;

  7. Such kind of diet being of light digestion, and fit for sick folks, only it made those who ate it dream too much.

  8. However, despite priding himself on understanding medicine, he lost both his wife and his son;

  9. Though he himself, being of a strong, robust constitution, lived long and healthily,

10. And would often, even in his old age, go to bed with women.

11. When he was past a lover's age he married a young woman, upon the following pretence:  

12. Having lost his own wife, he had a young courtesan come privately to visit him;

13. But the house being small, and a daughter-in-law also in it, this practice was quickly discovered;

14. For the young woman seeming once to pass through it a little too boldly,

15. The youth, his son, though he said nothing, seemed to look somewhat indignantly upon her.  

16. The old man perceiving and understanding that what he did was disliked,

17. Went away as his custom was, with his usual companions to the market;  

18. And among the rest, he called aloud to one Salonius, who had been a clerk under him,

19. And asked him whether he had married off his daughter?

20. Salonius answered, no, nor would he, till he had consulted him.  

21. Said Cato, ‘Then I have found out a fit son-in-law for you, if he should not displease by reason of his age';

22. Upon this Cato, without any more ado, told him, he desired to have the damsel himself.  

23. These words, as may well be imagined, at first astonished the man,

24. Conceiving that Cato was as far off from marrying, as he from a likelihood of being allied to the family of one who had been consul, and had a Triumph;

25. But perceiving him in earnest, he consented willingly.

26. When Cato's son died he bore the loss like a philosopher, and was nothing the more remiss in attending to affairs of state;

27. So that he did not grow languid in his old age, as though public business were a duty once to be discharged, and then quitted;

28. Nor did he, like Scipio Africanus, because envy had struck at his glory, turn from the public,

29. And change and pass away the rest of his life without doing anything;

30. For Cato thought old age was most honourable if it was busied in public affairs;

31. Though he would, now and then, when he had leisure, recreate himself with gardening and writing.  

32. He composed various books and histories; and in his youth, he addicted himself to agriculture for profit's sake;

33. For he used to say, he had but two ways of getting money, namely agriculture and parsimony;

34. And now, in his old age, the first of these gave him both occupation and a subject of study.  

35. He wrote one book on country matters, in which he treated even of making cakes and preserving fruit,

36. It being his ambition to be curious and singular in all things.

 

Chapter 66

  1. Some say the overthrow of Carthage was Cato's last act of state,

  2. For though indeed it was Scipio the younger who gave it the last blow, the war was undertaken chiefly by the counsel and advice of Cato.

  3. He had been sent to the Carthaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia,

  4. Who were at war with one another, to know the cause of their difference.

  5. Finding Carthage, not (as the Romans thought) low and in an ill condition,

  6. But well manned, full of riches and all sorts of arms and ammunition, and perceiving the Carthaginians in high fettle,

  7. He conceived that it was not a time for the Romans to adjust affairs between them and Masinissa,

  8. But rather that Rome itself would fall into danger, unless it found means to check this rapid new growth of Rome's ancient irreconcilable enemy.  

  9. Therefore, returning quickly to Rome, he acquainted the senate,

10. That the former defeats of the Carthaginians had not so much diminished their strength, as it had advanced their ambition;

11. That they were not become weaker, but more experienced in war,

12. And only skirmished with the Numidians to exercise themselves the better to cope with the Romans;  

13. And that their treaty with Rome was merely a suspension of war, which awaited a fairer opportunity to break out again.

14. He then shook his gown to let drop some African figs before the senate.  

15. As the senators admired their size and beauty, he added that the place that bore them was only three days' sailing from Rome.  

16. He never after this gave his opinion, but at the end he would be sure to say, ‘Also, Carthage ought utterly to be destroyed.'  

17. But Publius Scipio Nasica would always declare his opinion to the contrary, in these words, ‘It seems requisite to me that Carthage should still stand.'  

18. For seeing his countrymen wanton and insolent, and the people made obstinate and disobedient to the senate by their prosperity,

19. He wished to keep the fear of Carthage alive as a rein on the contumacy of the multitude;

20. For he regarded the Carthaginians as too weak to overcome the Romans, and too great to be despised by them.  

21. On the other side, it seemed perilous to Cato that a city which had been always great,

22. And was now grown sober and wise by reason of its former calamities,

23. Should still be lying in wait until the follies and excesses of the Romans made it vulnerable.

24. So that he thought it the wisest course to have all outward dangers removed, when Rome had so many inward ones to contend with.

25. Thus Cato, they say, stirred up the third and last war against the Carthaginians; but no sooner was the war begun, than he died.

26. He had lived to a great age, over ninety; and left a reputation which invites a mixed approbation: severe, upright, rigorous, of stern principle,

27. But mean and avaricious, in some ways cold and harsh,

28. Opposed to most of the graces of civilisation, and yet a lover of his country and tireless in its service.

29. There were men of great probity in the republican days of Rome's early glory,

30. But few as uncompromising and severe as he.

 

Chapter 67: Cicero

  1. Cicero was a lawyer, orator, philosopher, judge, statesman, defender of the Roman Republic,

  2. And what is not less than any of these, he was a master of an exquisite Latin prose style that made him a model for writers many centuries after his own lifetime.

  3. He lived at the time when the Roman Republic collapsed and became a monarchy,

  4. To his great regret and despite his best efforts. He was a flawed man, but a great Roman.

  5. When he was young Cicero was eager for every kind of learning,

  6. And so distinguished for his talents that the fathers of other boys would often visit his school to witness the quickness in learning for which he was renowned.

  7. After school Cicero studied with Philo the Academic, whose eloquence the Romans admired above all the other scholars of Clitomachus; and they loved him too for his character.

  8. Cicero also sought the company of the Mucii, who were eminent statesmen and leaders in the senate, and acquired from them a knowledge of the laws.

  9. For some short time he served in the army under Sylla, in the Marsian war.

10. But seeing Rome beset by factions, and knowing that the tendency of faction is to produce absolute monarchy,

11. He chose a retired life, conversing with learned Greeks and devoting himself to study;

12. Until Sylla took power in Rome, and by his dictatorship quelled the troubled city for a period.

13. At this time one Chrysogonus, who was Sylla's emancipated slave, made a fraudulent purchase of an estate for a mere two thousand drachmas.

14. This estate had belonged to a man put to death by proscription, and Chrysogonus had laid an information about it.

15. When Roscius, the heir of the executed man, complained that the estate was worth greatly more than had been paid,

16. Sylla started a prosecution to silence him, Chrysogonus himself managing the evidence.

17. None of the advocates, fearing Sylla, dared to assist Roscius.

18. The young man turned to Cicero for help. Cicero's friends encouraged him, saying he was never likely to have a more honourable introduction to public life.

19. So he undertook the defence, won, and thus made his first step to fame.

20. But fearing Sylla, he travelled to Greece, saying it was for his health.

21. And indeed he was lean and meagre, with such a weak stomach that he could take only a spare diet, eating once a day after sunset.

22. In Athens he attended lectures by Antiochus of Ascalon, whose fluency and elegance impressed him, although he did not agree with his doctrines.

23. For Antiochus inclined to the Stoics, while Cicero adhered to the New Academy.

24. He planned to pass his life quietly in the study of philosophy if he did not succeed in public life.

25. On receiving news of Sylla's death, together with letters from his friends at Rome earnestly soliciting him to return to public affairs,

26. Cicero set himself to practise rhetoric, diligently attending the most celebrated rhetoricians of the time, to prepare himself for returning to Rome.

27. He sailed from Athens for Asia and Rhodes. Amongst the Asian masters he conversed with Xenocles of Adramyttium, Dionysius of Magnesia and Menippus of Caria;

28. At Rhodes, he studied oratory with Apollonius, son of Molon, and philosophy with Posidonius.

29. Apollonius, we are told, not understanding Latin, requested Cicero to declaim in Greek.

30. He complied willingly, thinking that his faults would thus be better corrected.

31. After he finished, all his other hearers were astonished, and contended who should praise him most, but Apollonius sat musing in silence for a long time.

32. And when Cicero was discomposed at this, Apollonius said,

33. ‘You have my praise and admiration, Cicero, and Greece has my pity and commiseration,

34. ‘Because those arts and that eloquence which are the only glories that remain to her, will now be transferred by you to Rome.'

 

Chapter 68

  1. Cicero was cautious when he first returned to Rome, with the result that for a while he was held in little esteem, and was called by the derogatory names of ‘Greek' and ‘Scholar'.

  2. But once he began in earnest in the law courts he far surpassed all other advocates of the bar.

  3. He was eloquent, persuasive and witty, and prone to sarcasm, which offended some,

  4. So that among his enemies he gained a reputation for ill-nature.

  5. He was appointed quaestor during a corn shortage and had Sicily for his province,

  6. Where at first he displeased many of the residents by compelling them to send their provisions to Rome.

  7. But when they perceived his care, justice and clemency, they honoured him more than any of their previous governors.

  8. Some young Romans of noble family, charged with misconduct in military service, were brought before the praetor in Sicily.

  9. Cicero undertook their defence, which he conducted admirably, and achieved their acquittal.

10. He returned to Rome with a great opinion of himself for these things.

11. Meeting a friend, he asked what the Romans thought of him, as if the whole city had been filled with admiration for his quaestorship in Sicily.

12. His friend responded, ‘Where is it you have been, Cicero?'

13. He was utterly mortified to think that reports of his work had sunk into the city of Rome as into the ocean, without any visible result in reputation.