Marcus Cato

But in other matters, his self-restraint was beyond measure admirable. For instance, when he was in command of an army, he took for himself and his retinue not more than three Attic bushels of wheat a month, and for his beasts of burden, less than a bushel and a half of barley a day.

He received Sardinia as his province,[*](198 B.C.) and whereas his predecessors were wont to charge the public treasury with their pavilions, couches, and apparel, while they oppressed the province with the cost of their large retinues of servants and friends, and of their lavish and elaborate banquets, his simple economy stood out in an incredible contrast. He made no demands whatever upon the public treasury, and made his circuit of the cities on foot, followed by a single public officer, who carried his robe and chalice for sacrifices.

And yet, though in such matters he showed himself mild and sparing to those under his authority, in other ways he displayed a dignity and severity which fully corresponded, for in the administration of justice he was inexorable, and in carrying out the edicts of the government was direct and masterful, so that the Roman power never inspired its subjects with greater fear or affection.

Much the same traits are revealed in the man’s oratory. It was at once graceful and powerful, pleasant and compelling, facetious and severe, sententious and belligerent. So Plato says of Socrates[*](Symposium, p. 215.) that from the outside he impressed his associates as rude, uncouth, and wanton; but within he was full of earnestness, and of matters that moved his hearers to tears and wrung their hearts.

Wherefore I know not what they can mean who say that Cato’s oratory most resembled that of Lysias. However, such questions must be decided by those who are more capable than I am of discerning the traits of Roman oratory, and I shall now record a few of his famous sayings, believing that men’s characters are revealed much more by their speech than, as some think, by their looks.

He once wished to dissuade the Roman people from insisting unseasonably upon a distribution of corn, and began his speech with these words: It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears. Again, inveighing against the prevalent extravagance, he said: It is a hard matter to save a city in which a fish sells for more than an ox.