The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [302]
38. For when his sword was struck from him by a blow, he so keenly resented losing it,
39. That he turned to some of his friends about him, and taking them along with him again, fell upon the enemy;
40. And having by a hard fight cleared the place, at length found his sword among great heaps of arms,
41. And the dead bodies of friends as well as enemies piled one upon another.
42. Upon which Paulus, his general, much commended the youth; and there is a letter of Cato’s to his son, which highly praises his honourable eagerness for the recovery of his sword.
43. Afterwards Cato’s son married Tertia, Aemilius Paulus’ daughter and sister to Scipio;
44. Nor was he admitted into this family less for his own worth than for his father’s.
45. So Cato’s care in his son’s education came to a very fitting result.
Chapter 63
1. Cato purchased many slaves out of the captives taken in war, but chiefly bought up the young ones, who were capable of being trained up like whelps and colts.
2. None of these ever entered another man’s house, except sent either by Cato himself or his wife.
3. If any one of them were asked what Cato did they were instructed to answer that they did not know.
4. When a servant was at home, he was obliged either to work or sleep,
5. For Cato most preferred those who often slept, accounting them more docile than those who were wakeful, and more alert when refreshed with slumber.
6. Being also of opinion that the great cause of misbehaviour among slaves was their running after pleasures,
7. He fixed a certain price for them to pay for permission amongst themselves, but would suffer no connections out of the house.
8. At first, when he was only a poor soldier, he would not mind what he ate, but looked upon it as pitiful to quarrel with a servant for the belly’s sake.
9. But afterwards, when he grew richer and made feasts for friends, as soon as supper was over he used to go with a leather thong and scourge those who had served or cooked carelessly.
10. He always contrived that his servants should be at odds among themselves, being suspicious of any understanding between them.
11. Those who had committed anything worthy of death, he punished if they were found guilty by their fellow-servants.
12. Being very desirous of gain, he took care to invest his money safely;
13. He purchased ponds, hot baths, grounds full of fuller’s earth, remunerative lands, pastures and woods,
14. From all of which he drew large returns.
15. He was also given to the form of usury which is considered most odious in traffic by sea, as follows:
16. He desired that those he invested in, should have many partners;
17. And when the number of them and their ships came to fifty, he took one share through Quintio his freedman, who therefore was to sail with the adventurers,
18. And take a part in all their proceedings; so that there was no danger of losing his whole stock, but only a little part, and that with a prospect of great profit.
19. He likewise lent money to those of his slaves who wished to borrow, with which they bought other young ones,
20. Whom, when they had taught and bred them up at his charge, they would sell again at the year’s end;
21. But some of them Cato would keep for himself, giving just as much for them as another had offered.
22. But the strongest indication of Cato’s avaricious humour was when he took the boldness to affirm that he was a most wonderful man, who left more behind him than he had received.
Chapter 64
1. He had grown old when two famous philosophers, Carneades the Academic and Diogenes the Stoic, came as deputies from Athens to Rome,
2. To seek release from a penalty of five hundred talents laid on the Athenians,
3. In a suit to which they did not appear, in which the Oropians were plaintiffs and Sicyonians judges.
4. All the most studious youth immediately waited on these philosophers, and frequently, with admiration, heard them speak.
5. But the gracefulness of Carneades’ oratory, whose ability was really great,
6. And his reputation equal to