CATINAT CATO. 



105 



buttle was fought with bitter desperation. The in- 

 surgents all fell on the spot which their leader had 

 assigned them, and Catiline at their head, at Pistoia, 

 in Etruria, 5th Jan., B. C. 62. The history of Ca- 

 tiline's conspiracy has been written by Sallust. 



CATINAT, NICHOLAS, marshal of France, was 

 born at Paris, 1637. He quitted the profession of 

 the law for that of arms, and attracted the notice of 

 Louis XIV., at the storming of Lille (1667),and was 

 promoted. By a number of splendid deeds, he 

 gained the esteem and friendship of the great Conde, 

 particularly by his conduct at the battle of Senef. 

 He was sent as lieutenant-general against the duke 

 of Savoy, gained the battles of Staffardo (Aug. 18, 

 1690) and of Marsaglia (Oct. 4, 1693), occupied Sa- 

 voy and part of Piedmont, and was made marshal in 

 1693. In the conquered countries, his humanity and 

 mildness often led him to spare the vanquished, con- 

 trary to the express commands of Louvois. In Flan- 

 ders, he displayed the same activity, and took Ath, 

 in 1697. In 1701, he received the command of the 

 army of Italy against prince Eugene ; but he was 

 straitened by the orders of his court, and was desti- 

 tute of money and provisions, while Eugene was 

 allowed to act witli full liberty. July 6th, he was 

 defeated at Carpi. Equally unfortunate was the bat- 

 tle of Chiari, where Villeroi had the chief command. 

 It was here, while rallying his troops, after an unsuc- 

 cessful charge, that he replied to an officer who re- 

 presented to him that death was inevitable in such 

 an encounter, " True, death is before us, but 

 shame behind." In spite of his representations, the 

 French court would not believe the disasters in Sa- 

 voy to be owing to the perfidy of the duke of Savoy, 

 and Catinat was disgraced. He bore his misfortune 

 with calmness, and died at St Gratien, in 1712. He 

 was a true philosopher, religious without austerity, a 

 courtier without intrigue, disinterested and generous 

 when in favour, and cheerful in disgrace. From his 

 unalterable calmness and consideration, his soldiers 

 called him le Pere de la Pensee. 



CATO THE CENSOR (Marcus Porcius), surnamed 

 Prisons, also Sapiens and Major (the Wise and the 

 Elder), was born 232 B. C., at Tusculum, and in- 

 herited from his father, a plebeian, a small estate, hi 

 the territory of the Sabines, which he cultivated with 

 his own hands. He was a youth at the time of Han- 

 nibal's invasion of Italy. He served his first cam- 

 paign, at the age of seventeen, under Fabius Maxi- 

 mus, when he besieged Capua. Five years after, he 

 fought under the same commander at the siege of 

 Tarentum. After the capture of this city, he became 

 acquainted with the Pythagorean Nearchus, who ini- 

 tiated him into the sublime doctrines of his philoso- 

 phy, with which, in practice, he was already conver- 

 sant. After the war was ended, Cato returned to 

 his farm. As he was versed in the laws, and a fluent 

 speaker, he went, at day-break, to the neighbouring 

 towns, where he acted as counsellor and advocate to 

 those who applied to him. Valerius Flaccus, a no- 

 ble and powerful Roman, who had an estate in the 

 vicinity, observed the talents and virtue of the youth, 

 conceived an affection for him, and persuaded him to 

 remove to Rome, where he promised to assist him 

 with his influence and patronage. A few rich and 

 high-born families then stood at the head of the re- 

 public. Cato was poor and unknown, but his elo- 

 quence, which some compared to that of Demos- 

 thenes, and the integrity and strength of his charac- 

 ter, soon drew the public attention to him. In court, 

 and in the popular assemblies, he answered to the 

 fine definition which he himself gave of an orator, 

 and which Quinctilian has preserved to us ; "a vir- 

 tuous man skilled in the art of speaking well." At 

 the age of thirty, he went as military tribune to Si- 



cily. In the following year, he was questor, at which 

 period there commenced, between him and Scipio, a 

 rivalry and hatred, which lasted till death. Cato, 

 who had returned to Rome, accused Scipio of extra- 

 vagance; and, though his rival was acquitted of 

 the charge, this zeal in the cause of the public gainec 

 Cato a great influence over the people. Five years 

 after, having been already edile, he was chosen pre- 

 tor, and obtained the province of Sardinia. His 

 strict moderation, integrity, and love of justice, were 

 here still more strongly displayed than in Rome 

 On this island, he formed an acquaintance with the 

 poet Ennius, of whom he learned Greek, and whom 

 he took with him to Rome on his return. He was 

 finally made consul, 192 B. C., with his friend Vale- 

 rius Flaccus for his colleague. He opposed, with 

 all his power, the abolition of the Oppian law, passed 

 hi the pressing times of the second Punic war, for- 

 bidding the Roman women to wear more than half 

 an ounce of gold, to dress in garments of various 

 colours, or to wear other ornaments ; but he was ob- 

 liged to yield to the eloquence of the tribune Vale- 

 rius, and the urgent importunities of the women. 

 Soon after, he set out'for Spain, which was in a state 

 of rebellion. His first act was to send back to Rome 

 the supplies which had been provided for the army, 

 declaring that the war ought to support the soldiers. 

 He gained several victories with a newly-raised 

 army, reduced the province to submission, and re- 

 turned to Italy, where the honour of a triumph was 

 granted to him. Scarcely had he descended from 

 his triumphal car, when he put off the toga of the 

 consul, arrayed himself in the soldier's habit, and 

 followed Sempronius to Thrace. He afterwards put 

 himself under the command of the consul Manius 

 Acilius, to fight against Antiochus, and to carry on 

 the war in Thessaly. By a bold march, he made 

 himself master of the Callidromus, one of the highest 

 peaks of the mountain pass of Thermopylae, and 

 thus decided the issue of the battle. He brought 

 the intelligence of this victory to Rome, 189 B. C. 

 Seven years after, he obtained, in spite of a powerful 

 faction opposed to him, the most honourable, and at 

 the same time the most feared, of all the magistra- 

 cies of Rome, the censorship. He had not canvassed 

 for the office, but had only expressed his willingness to 

 fill it. In compliance with his wishes, Valerius Flac- 

 cus was chosen his colleague, as the only person 

 qualified to assist him in correcting the public dis- 

 orders, and restoring the ancient purity of morals. 

 He fulfilled this trust with inflexible rigour; and, 

 though his measures caused him some obloquy and 

 opposition, they met, in the end, with the highest 

 applause ; and, when he resigned his office, it was 

 resolved to erect a statue to him with an honourable 

 inscription. He appears to have been quite indif- 

 ferent to the honour ; and when, before this, some 

 one expressed his wonder that no statue had been 

 erected to him, he answered, " I would rather have 

 it asked why no image has been erected to Cato than 

 why one has." Still he was not void of self-com- 

 placency. " Is he a Cato, then ?" he was accus- 

 tomed to say, when he would excuse the errors of 

 another. Cato's political life was a continued war- 

 fare. He was continually accusing, and was himself 

 accused with animosity, but was always acquitted. 

 His last public commission was an embassy to Car- 

 thage, to settle the dispute between the Carthagin- 

 ians and king Massinissa. It is said that this jour- 

 ney was the original cause of the destruction of Car- 

 thage ; for Cato was so astonished at the rapid re- 

 covery of this city from its losses, that he ever after 

 ended every speech of his with the well-known 

 words, " Praterea censeo, Carthaginem esse delen- 

 dam " (I am also of opinion that Carthage must be 



