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 childhood 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-fitted to his strength. He was rough towards those that flattered him, and quite untractable 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 figs of those that were present, asked his preceptor, "Why does nobody 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 insured 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 flung himself up, and would see nobody till he was well. Though remarkably sober in the beginning of his his life, making it a rule to drink but once after supper, and then retire, he infensibly 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. Cæsar 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 Cæsar), that Cato had found them drunk, not they him." Pliny observes, that by this reflection Cæsar 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 drunkards 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 he 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 indirect conduct.

He served as a volunteer under Gallus 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 an affection for the virtuous. 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 condescending manners and sharing in their labours. After his return home, he was chosen to the quæstorship; and had scarce entered on his charge, when he made a great reformation in the quæstor's office, and particularly with regard to the registers. These registers, 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 quæstors, pretended to direct and govern as if they themselves were the quæstors. 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar and Pompey; but seeing it in vain, he sided with the latter. When Pompey was slain he fled to Utica; and being pursued by Cæsar, advised his friends to be gone, and throw themselves on Cæsar's clemency. His son, however, remained with him; and Statilius, a young man, remarkable for his hatred to Cæsar.

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 sandy 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 CATOPTRICS