Chap. 28.J U^'IOX OF HIGH QUALITIES, ETC. 169 



M. Messala f " After having delivered the sea-coast from 

 the pirates, and restored the seas to the people of Rome, he 

 enjoyed a triumph over Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia, 

 Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Judaea, the Alba- 

 nians, Iberia, the island of Crete, the Basterni, and, in addition 

 to aU these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes." 



The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from 

 these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he 

 made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia, 

 which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its 

 centre.'^ If any one should wish, on the other hand, in a 

 similar manner, to pass in review the exploits of Caesar, who 

 has shown himself greater still than Pompeius, why then he 

 must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task, I may 

 say, without an end. 



CHAP. 28. (27.) — rxiox in the same peesox of three of the 



HIGHEST QUALITIES WITH THE GREATEST PURITY. 



Many other men have excelled in different kinds of virtues. 

 Cato, however, who was the first of the Porcian family,'^ is 

 generally thought to have been an example of the three greatest 

 of human endowments, for he was the most talented orator, 

 the most talented general, and the most talented politician ;®^ 

 all which merits, if they were not perceptible before him, 

 still shone forth, more refulgently even, in my opinion, in Scipio 

 ^milianus, who besides was exempted from that hatred on the 

 part of many others under which Cato laboured :^^ in conse- 



assist us in reconciling these dates. The same author gives a very minute 

 detail of all the transactions here referred to. — B. 



'■' According to the chronolosry ordinarily adopted, this would be in the 

 year of the City 692.— B. 



~'^ By Asia, as we see from the geographical portion of this work, the 

 ancients often designated not the large tract to which we now apply the 

 name, but a comparatively small district lying on the east of the -Egean 

 sea. — B. 



" See B. xiv. c. 5. 



^ Yal. Maximus adds, that he was the best lawyer of his time. — B. 



^' We meet with a passage in Livy, B. xxxix. c. 44, illustrative of this 

 view of Cato's character. In Cicero's treatise, De Senectute, where Cato 

 bears a prominent part, frequent allusion is made to the strictness and even 

 severity of his principles, although the general impression which we re- 

 ceive of his character and manners is highly interesting, and, upon the 

 whole, not unamiable. — B. 



