Chap. 28. J UNION OF HIGH QUALITfES, ETC. 169 



M.. Messala ; 77 " After having delivered the sea-coast from 

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

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

 Dappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Judasa, the Alba- 

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

 to all these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes." 

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

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

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

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

 jentre. 78 If any one should wish, on the other hand, in a 

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

 las shown himself greater still than Pompeius, why then he 

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

 ay, without an end. 



;HAP. 28. (27.) UNION IN THE SAME PERSON OF THREE or THE 



HIGHEST QUALITIES WITH THE GREATEST PURITY. 



Many other men have excelled in different kinds of virtues. 

 3ato, however, who was the first of the Porcian family, 79 is 

 generally thought to have been an example of the three greatest 

 }f human endowments, for he was the most talented orator, 

 the most talented general, and the most talented politician ; 80 

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

 >till shone forth, more refulgently even, in my opinion, in Scipio 

 /Emilianus, who besides was exempted from that hatred on the 

 3art of many others under which Cato laboured : 81 in conse- 



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

 letail of all the transactions here referred to. B. 



77 According to the chronology ordinarily adopted, this would be in the 

 >-ear of the City 692. B. 



78 By Asia, as we see from the geographical portion of this work, the 

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

 lame, but a comparatively small district lying on the east of the ^gean 

 sea. B. 



79 See B. xiv. c. 5. 



80 Val. Maximus adds, that he was the best lawyer of his time. B. 



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

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

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

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

 2ei ve of his character and manners is highly interesting, and, upon the 

 whole, not unamiable. B. 



