Marcus Cato

Wise men, he said, profited more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise. He said he liked to see blushes on a young man’s face rather than pallor, and that he had no use for a soldier who plied his hands on the march, and his feet in battle, and whose snore was louder than his war-cry.

Railing at the fat knight, he said, Where can such a body be of service to the state, when everything between its gullet and its groins is devoted to belly? A certain epicure wished to enjoy his society, but he excused himself, saying that he could not live with a man whose palate was more sensitive than his heart. As for the lover, he said his soul dwelt in the body of another.

And as for repentance, he said he had indulged in it himself but thrice in his whole life: once when he entrusted a secret to his wife; once when he paid ship’s fare to a place instead of walking thither; and once when he remained intestate a whole day. To an old man who was steeped in iniquity he said: Man, old age has disgraces enough of its own; do not add to them the shame of vice.

To a tribune of the people who had been accused of using poison, and who was trying to force the passage of a useless bill, he said: Young man, I know not which is worse, to drink your mixtures, or to enact your bills. And when he was reviled by a man who led a life of shameless debauchery, he said: I fight an unequal battle with you: you listen to abuse calmly, and utter it glibly; while for me it is unpleasant to utter it, and unusual to hear it. Such, then, is the nature of his famous sayings.

Having been elected consul[*](195 B.C.) with Valerius Flaccus, his intimate friend, the province which the Romans call Hither Spain was allotted to his charge. Here, while he was subduing some of the tribes, and winning over others by diplomacy, a great host of Barbarians fell upon him, and threatened to drive him disgracefully out of the province. He therefore begged the neighbouring Celtiberians to become his allies.

On their demanding two hundred talents pay for such assistance, all his officers thought it intolerable that Romans should agree to pay Barbarians for assistance. But Cato said there was nothing terrible in it; should they be victorious, they could pay the price with the spoils taken from the enemy, and not out of their own purse, whereas, should they be vanquished, there would be nobody left either to pay or to ask the price. In this battle he was completely victorious, and the rest of his campaign was a brilliant success.

Polybius indeed says that in a single day the walls of all the cities on this side the river Baetis—and they were very many, and full of warlike men—were torn down at his command. And Cato himself says that he took more cities than he spent days in Spain, nor is this a mere boast, since, in fact, there were four hundred of them.

His soldiers got large booty in this campaign, and he gave each one of them a pound of silver besides, saying that it was better to have many Romans go home with silver in their pockets than a few with gold. But in his own case, he says that no part of the booty fell to him, except what he ate and drank. Not that I find fault, he says, with those who seek to profit by such a case, but I prefer to strive in bravery with the bravest, rather than in wealth with the richest, and in greed for money with the greediest.