(Marcus Porcius), the Censor, one of the greatest men among the ancients, was born at Tusculum in the year of Rome 519, about the 232d before Christ. Cato. He began to bear arms at 17; and, on all occasions, showed extraordinary courage. He was a man of great sobriety, and reckoned no bodily exercise unworthy of him. He had but one horse for himself and his baggage, and he looked after and drested himself. At his return from his campaigns, he betook himself to plough his ground; not that he was without slaves to do it, but it was his inclination. He drested also like his slaves, sat down at the same table with them, and partook of the same fare. He did not in the mean while neglect to cultivate his mind, especially in regard to the art of speaking; and he employed his talents, which were very great, in generously pleading causes in the neighbouring cities without fee or reward. Valerius Flaccus, who had a country-seat near Cato, conceiving an esteem for him, persuaded him to come to Rome; where Cato, by his own merit, and the influence of so powerful a patron, was soon taken notice of, and promoted. He was first of all elected tribune of the soldiers for the province of Sicily. He was next made quaestor in Africa under Scipio. Having in this last office reproved him for his profuseness to his soldiers, the general answered, that "he did not want to exact a quaestor, but would make war at what expense he pleased; nor was he to give an account to the Roman people of the money he spent, but of his enterprises, and the execution of them." Cato, provoked at this answer, left Sicily, and returned to Rome.

Afterwards Cato was made praetor, when he fulfilled the duties of his office with the strictest justice. He conquered Sardinia, governed with admirable moderation, and was created consul. Being tribune in the war of Syria, he gave distinguished proofs of his valour against Antiochus the Great; and at his return stood candidate for the office of censor. But the nobles, who not only envied him as a new man, but dreaded his severity, set up against him seven powerful competitors. Valerius Flaccus, who had introduced him into public life, and had been his colleague in the consulship, was a ninth candidate, and these two united their interests. On this occasion Cato, far from employing soft words to the people, or giving hopes of gentleness or complaisance in the execution of his office, loudly declared from the rostra, with a threatening look and voice, "That the times required firm and vigorous magistrates to put a stop to that growing luxury which menaced the republic with ruin; censors who would cut up the evil by the roots, and restore the rigour of ancient discipline." It is to the honour of the people of Rome, that notwithstanding these terrible intimations, they preferred him to all his competitors, who courted them by promises of a mild and easy administration: the comitia also appointed his friend Valerius to be his colleague, without whom he had declared that he could not hope to compass the reformations he had in view. Cato's merit, upon the whole, was superior to that of any of the great men who stood against him. He was temperate, brave, and indefatigable; frugal of the public money, and not to be corrupted. There is scarce any talent requisite for public or private life which he had not received from nature, or acquired by industry. He was a great soldier, an able statesman, an eloquent orator, a learned historian, and very knowing in rural affairs. Yet, with all these accomplishments, he had very great faults. His ambition being poisoned with envy, disturbed both his own peace and that of the whole city as long as he lived. Though he would not take bribes, he was unmerciful and unconciousable in amassing wealth by all such means as the law did not punish.

The first act of Cato in his new office, was naming his colleague to be prince of the senate: after which the censors struck out of the list of the senators the names of seven persons; among whom was Lucius the brother of T. Flaminius. Lucius, when consul, and commanding in Gaul, had with his own hand murdered a Boian of distinction, a deserter to the Romans; and he had committed this murder purely to gratify the curiosity of his pathetic, a young Carthaginian, who longing to see some body die a violent death, had approached the general for bringing him away from Rome just when there was going to be a fight of gladiators. Titus Flaminius, full of indignation at the dishonour done to his brother, brought the affair before the people; and inflicted upon Cato's giving the reason of his proceeding. The censor related the story; and when Lucius denied the fact, put him to his oath. The accused, refusing to swear, was deemed guilty; and Cato's censure was approved. But no part of the censor's conduct seemed so cruel to the nobles and their wives as the taxes he laid upon luxury in all its branches; drest, household furniture, women's toilets; chariots, slaves, and equipage. These articles were all taxed at three per cent. of the real value. The people, however, in general, were pleased with his regulations; insomuch that they ordered a statue to be erected to his honour in the temple of Health, with an inscription that mentioned nothing of his victories or triumph, but imported only that by his wife ordinances in his censorship he had reformed the manners of the republic. Plutarch relates, that before this, upon some of Cato's friends expressing their surprise, that while many persons without merit or reputation had statues, he had none; he answered, "I had much rather it should be asked why the people have not erected a statue to Cato, than why they have." Cato was the occasion of the third Punic war. Being dispatched to Africa to terminate a difference between the Carthaginians and the king of Numidia, on his return to Rome he reported, that Carthage was grown excessively rich and populous, and he warmly exhorted the senate to destroy a city and republic, during the existence of which, Rome could never be safe. Having brought from Africa some very large figs, he showed them to the conscript fathers in one of the lappets of his gown. "The country (says he) where this fine fruit grows, is but a three days' voyage from Rome." We are told, that from this time he never spoke in the senate upon any subject, without concluding with these words, "I am also of opinion, that Carthage ought to be destroyed." He judged, that, for a people debauched by prosperity, nothing was more to be feared than a rival state, always powerful, and now from its misfortunes grown wise and circumspect. He held it necessary to remove all dangers that could be apprehended from without, when the republic had within so many distempers threatening her destruction.

From the censor dignified and severe, the reader will will not perhaps be displeased to turn his view upon Cato sociable and relaxed. For we should have a false notion of him, if we imagined that nothing but a sad austerity prevailed in his speech and behaviour. On the contrary, he was extremely free; and often with his friends at table intermixed the conversation with lively discourses and witty sayings. Of these Plutarch has collected a pretty large number; we shall relate but one, and make use of Balzac's paraphrase, and the preface with which he introduces it. "The very censors, though sadness seemed to be one of the functions of their office, did not altogether lay aside railing. They were not always bent upon severity; and the first Cato, that troublesome and intolerable honest man, ceased sometimes to be troublesome and intolerable. He had some glimpses of mirth, and some intervals of good humour. He dropped now and then some words that were not unpleasing, and you may judge of the rest by this. He had married a very handsome wife; and history tells us that she was extremely afraid of the thunder, and loved her husband well. These two passions prompted her to the same thing; she always pitched upon her husband as a sanctuary against thunder, and threw herself into his arms at the first noise she fancied she heard in the sky. Cato, who was well pleased with the storm, and very willing to be careful, could not conceal his joy. He revealed that domestic secret to his friends; and told them one day, speaking of his wife, "that she had found out a way to make him love bad weather; and that he never was so happy as when Jupiter was angry." It is worth observing, that this was during his censorship; when he degraded the senator Manlius, who would probably have been consul the year after, only for giving a kiss to his wife in the daytime, and in the presence of his daughter.

Cato died in the year of Rome 604, aged 85. He wrote several works. 1. A Roman History. 2. Concerning the art of war. 3. Of rhetoric. 4. A treatise of husbandry. Of these, the last only is extant.

(Marcus Porcius), commonly called Cato Minor, or Cato of Utica, was great grandson of Cato the Censor. It is said, that from his infancy he discovered by his speech, by his countenance, and even his childish sports and recreations, an inflexibility of mind; for he would force himself to go through with whatever he had undertaken, though the task was ill suited to his strength. He was rough towards those that flattered him, and quite intractable when threatened; was rarely seen to laugh, or even to smile; was not easily provoked to anger; but if once incensed, hard to be pacified. Sylla having had a friendship for the father of Cato, sent often for him and his brother, and talked familiarly with them. Cato, who was then about 14 years of age, seeing the heads of great men brought there, and observing the fogs of those that were present, asked his preceptor, "Why does no body kill this man?" Because, said the other, he is more feared than he is hated. The boy replied, Why then did you not give me a sword when you brought me hither, that I might have stabbed him, and freed my country from this slavery?

He learned the principles of the Stoic philosophy, which so well suited his character, under Antipater of Tyre, and applied himself diligently to the study of it. Eloquence he likewise studied, as a necessary means to defend the cause of justice, and he made a very considerable proficiency in that science. To increase his bodily strength, he injured himself to suffer the extremes of heat and cold; and used to make journeys on foot, and bare-headed in all seasons. When he was sick, patience and abstinence were his only remedies; he shut himself up, and would see no body till he was well. Though remarkably sober in the beginning of his life, making it a rule to drink but once after supper, and then retire, he insensibly contracted a habit of drinking more freely, and of sitting at table till morning. His friends endeavoured to excuse this, by saying that the affairs of the public engrossed his attention all the day; and that, being ambitious of knowledge, he passed the night in the conversation of philosophers. Caesar wrote that Cato was once found dead drunk at the corner of a street, early in the morning, by a great number of people who were going to the levee of some great man; and that when, by uncovering his face, they perceived who it was, they blushed for shame: "You would have thought (added Caesar), that Cato had found them drunk, not they him." Pliny observes, that by this reflection Caesar praises his enemy at the same time that he blames him. And Seneca, his extravagant panegyrist, ventures to assert, that it is easier to prove drunkenness to be a virtue, than Cato to be vicious. He affected singularity, and, in things indifferent, to act directly contrary to the taste and fashions of the age. Magnanimity and constancy are generally ascribed to him; and Seneca would fain make that haughtiness and contempt for others which, in Cato, accompanied those virtues, a matter of praise. Cato, says Seneca, having received a blow in the face, neither took revenge nor was angry; he did not even pardon the affront, but denied that he had received it. His virtue raised him so high, that injury could not reach him. He is reputed to have been chaste in his youth. His first love was Lepida; but when the marriage was upon the point of being concluded, Metellus Scipio, to whom she had been promised, interfered, and the preference was given to him. This affront extremely exasperated our Stoic. He was for going to law with Scipio; and when his friends had diverted him from that design, by showing him the ridicule of it, he revenged himself by making verses upon his rival. When this first flame subsided, he married Attilia the daughter of Serranus, had two children by her, and afterwards divorced her for her very indiscreet conduct.

He served as a volunteer under Gallius in the war of Spartacus; and when military rewards were offered him by the commander, he refused them, because he thought he had no right to them. Some years after, he went a legionary tribune into Macedonia under the praetor Rubrius: in which station he appeared, in his dress, and during a march, more like a private soldier than an officer: but the dignity of his manners, the elevation of his sentiments, and the superiority of his views, set him far above those who bore the titles of generals and proconsuls. It is said, that Cato's design in all his behaviour was to engage the soldiers to the love of virtue; whose affections he engaged thereby to himself, without his having that in his intention. "For the sincere love of virtue," (adds Plutarch), implies plies an affection for the virtues. Those who praise the worthy without loving them, pay homage to their glory; but are neither admirers nor imitators of their virtues." When the time of his service expired, and he was leaving the army, the soldiers were all in tears; so effectually had he gained their hearts by his descending manners, and sharing in their labours. After his return home, he was chosen to the quaestorship; and had scarce entered on his charge, when he made a great reformation in the quaestor's office, and particularly with regard to the registrars. These registrars, whose places were for life, and through whose hands passed incessantly all the public accounts, being to act under young magistrates unexperienced in business, assumed an air of importance; and, instead of asking orders from the quaestors, pretended to direct and govern as if they themselves were the quaestors. Cato reduced them to their proper sphere.

One thing by which Cato extremely pleased the people, was his making the assassins to whom Sylla had given considerable rewards out of the treasury, for murdering the proscribed, disgorge their gains. Plutarch tells us, that Cato was so exact in discharging the duties of a senator, as to be always the first who came to the house, and the last who left it; and that he never quitted Rome during those days when the senate was to sit. Nor did he fail to be present at every assembly of the people, that he might awe those who, by an ill-judged facility, bestowed the public money in largesses, and frequently, through mere favour, granted remission of debts due to the state. At first his austerity and stiffness displeased his colleagues; but afterwards they were glad to have his name to oppose to all the unjust solicitations, against which they would have found it difficult to defend themselves. Cato very readily took upon him the task of refusing.

Cato, to keep out a very bad man, put in for the tribunate. He sided with Cicero against Catiline, and opposed Caesar on that occasion. His enemies sent him to recover Cyprus, which Ptolemy had forfeited, thinking to hurt his reputation by so difficult an undertaking; yet none could find fault with his conduct.

Cato laboured to bring about an agreement between Caesar and Pompey; but seeing it in vain, he sided with the latter. When Pompey was slain, he fled to Utica; and being pursued by Caesar, advised his friends to be gone, and throw themselves on Caesar's clemency. His son, however, remained with him; and Statilius, a young man, remarkable for his hatred to Caesar.

The evening before the execution of the purpose he had formed with regard to himself, after bathing, he supped with his friends and the magistrates of the city. They sat late at table, and the conversation was lively. The discourse falling upon this maxim of the Stoics, that "the wise man alone is free, and that the vicious are slaves;" Demetrius, who was a Peripatetic, undertook to confute it from the maxims of his school. Cato, in answer, treated the matter very amply; and with so much earnestness and vehemence of voice, that he betrayed himself, and confirmed the suspicions of his friends, that he designed to kill himself. When he had done speaking, a melancholy silence ensued; and Cato perceiving it, turned the discourse to the present situation of affairs, expressing his concern for those who had been obliged to put to sea, as well as for those who had determined to make their escape by land, and had a dry and family desert to pass. After supper, the company being dismissed, he walked for some time with a few friends, and gave his orders to the officers of the guard; and going into his chamber, he embraced his son and his friends with more than usual tenderness, which farther confirmed the suspicions of the resolution he had taken. Then laying himself down on his bed, he took up Plato's Dialogue on the immortality of the Soul. Having read for some time, he looked up, and missing his sword, which his son had removed while he was at supper, he called a slave, and asked who had taken it away; and receiving no pertinent answer, he resumed his reading. Some time after, he asked again for his sword; and, without showing any impatience, ordered it to be brought to him; but, having read out the book, and finding nobody had brought him his sword, he called for all his servants, fell into a rage, and struck one of them on the mouth with so much violence, that he very much hurt his own hand, crying out in a passionate manner, "What! do my own son and family conspire to betray me, and deliver me up naked and unarmed to the enemy?" Immediately his son and friends rushed into the room; and began to lament, and to beseech him to change his resolution. Cato raising himself, and looking fiercely at them, "How long is it," said he, "since I have lost my senses, and my son is become my keeper? Brave and generous son, why do you not bind your father's hands, that when Caesar comes, he may find me unable to defend myself? Do you imagine that without a sword I cannot end my life? Cannot I destroy myself by holding my breath for some moments, or by striking my head against the wall?" His son answered with his tears, and retired. Apollonides and Demetrius remained with him, and to them he addressed himself in the following words: "Is it to watch over me that ye sit silent here? Do you pretend to force a man of my years to live? or can you bring any reason to prove, that it is not safe and unworthy of Cato to beg his safety of an enemy? or why do you not persuade me to unlearn what I have been taught, that, rejecting all the opinions I have hitherto defended, I may now, by Caesar's means, grow wiser, and be yet more obliged to him than for life alone? Not that I have determined anything concerning myself; but I would have it in my power to perform what I shall think fit to resolve upon: and I shall not fail to ask your counsel, when I have occasion to act up to the principles which your philosophy teaches. Go tell my son, that he should not compel his father to what he cannot persuade him." They withdrew, and the sword was brought by a young slave. Cato drew it, and finding the point to be sharp; "Now," said he, "I am my own master!" And, laying it down, he took up his book again, which, it is reported, he read twice over. After this he slept so soundly that he was heard to snore by those who were near him. About midnight he called two of his freedmen, Cleanthes his physician, and Butas whom he chiefly employed in the management of his affairs. The last he sent to the port, to see whether all the Romans...