Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/663

CATO. probably for the purpose of arranging the differences between the heirs of Micipsa in Numidiiu (Geli. xiii. 19 ; Liv. Epit. Ixii.) 5. C. PoRCius Cato, younger son of Cato Li- cinianus [No. 2], is mentioned by Cicero as a middling orator. {lirut. 28.) In his youth he was a follower of Tib. Gracchus. In b. c. 114, he was consul with Acilius Balbus, and in the same year obtained Macedonia as his province. In Thi-ace, he fought unsuccessfully against the Scordisci. His army was cut off in the moun- tains, and be himself escaped with difficulty, though Ammianus Marcellinus erroneously states that he was slain, (xxvii. 4. § 4.) Disappointed of booty in war, he endeavoured to indenniify him- self by extortions in Macedonia. For this he was accused and sentenced to pay a fine. Afterwards, he appears to have served as a legate in the war with Jugurtha in Africa, where he was won over by the king. In order to escape condemnation on this charge, in B. c. 110, he went to Tarraco in Spain, and became a citizen of that town. (Cic. pro Bulb. 11.) He has been sometimes confounded with his elder brother. (Veil. Pat. ii. 8 ; Eutrop. iv. 24; Cic. in Vei-r. iii. 80, iv. 10.) (5. ]M. PoRCius Cato, son of No. 3, and father of Cato of Utica. He was a friend of Sulla, whose proscriptions he did not live to see. He was tribunus plebis, and died when a candidate for the praetorship. (Gell. xiii. 19 ; Plut. Cut. Min. 1-3.) Cicero, in discussing how far a vendor is bound to disclose to a purchaser the defects of the thing Bold, mentions a decision of Cato on the trial of an actio arbitraria, in which Calpuniius was plaintiff and Claudius defendant. The plaintiff, having been ordered by the augurs to pull down his house on the Mons Caelia because it obstructed the auspices, sold it to the defendant without giving notice of the order. The defendant was obliged to obey a similar order, and brought an action to recover damages for the fraud. Upon these facts, Cato decided in favour of the purchaser. (Z)e OJ". iii. 16.) 7. L. PoRcius Cato, the son of No. 3, and uncle of Cato of Utica, attached himself to the party of the senate. In the year B. c. 100, he was tribune of the plebs, and in that office opposed the attempts of L. Apuleius Saturninus, and assisted in rejecting a rogation on behalf of the exiled Metellus Numidicus. In the social war, b. c. 90, he defeated the Etruscans, and in the following year was consul with Pompeius Strabo. On one oc- casion a portion of his troops, consisting of town rabble, was instigated to disobedience and mutiny by the impudent prating of one C. Titius. He lost his life in nn unlucky skirmish with the Marsians, near Lake Fucinus, at the end of a successful battle. It was thought by some that his death was not to be attributed to the eneni}', but to the art of the younger Marius ; for Cato had boasted that his own achievements were equal to the Cim- brian victory of Marius the father. (Liv. Epil. Ixxv. ; Oros. a-. 17.) 8. M. PoRCius Cato, son of No. 4. After having been curule aedile and praetor, he obtained the government of Gallia Narbonensis, where he died. (Gell. xiii. 19.) 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 bom B. c. 95. In early childhood he lost both his CATO. 64;' pai"ents, 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 Itixlian 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 half-bro- ther 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 say- ing 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 ^*-usus lost his life B. c. 91, Cato could not have been more than four years old, and consequently was n'jt 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 un- der the charge of Sarpedon, who found him diffi- cult to manage, and more easily led by argumeiit than authority. He had not that quick apprehen- sion and instinctive tact which make learning to some happily- organized children a constant but unobtrusive growth. He did not trust, and ol> serve, and feel, but he acquired his knowledge by asking questions and receiving explanations. That which he thus acquired slowly he retained tena- ciously. 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 liexibility 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 cha- racter, 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 i-arely smiled, and Le exhibited a firmness of purpose which was not to be cajoled by flattery nor daunted by violence. Yet was there something in his unsocial individu- ality 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 con;- rades. 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'tj friend. The tortures and executions which some- times were conducted in Sulla's house made it nv semble (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 pre- ceptor with the question " Why does no one kill