2 1 6 History of Nature. [ BOOK V 1 1 . 



gave his opinion presently, that those Ambassadors were to 

 be sent away with all speed, because, if that Man argued the 

 case, it would be difficult to find out the Truth. 1 What a 

 change is there now in Men's manners ! His decision was, 

 that by any means all Greeks should be expelled from Italy ; 

 but his nephew's Son, (Pronepos,) Cato of Utica, brought one 

 of their Philosophers over with him from the Tribunes of the 

 Soldiers, and another from the Cyprian Embassy. And it is 

 worthy of notice to consider how the same Language was regard- 

 ed by these two Catoes : for by the one it was rejected. But 

 let us now discern the glory of our own Countrymen. Scipio 

 Africanusthe elder gave order that the Statue of Q, Ennius* 



1 The account of Cato's conduct with the Greek ambassadors, as 

 given by Pliny, is very different from that by Plutarch, and, from 

 Cato's acknowledged love of eloquence, we may judge more correct. It 

 was not, therefore, the fear that eloquence would render the Romans 

 effeminate ; but because the peculiar eloquence of these men, with per- 

 haps the general tendency of Greek studies, was calculated to foster 

 habits of sophistry, and so confound the distinction between truth and 

 falsehood. Wem. Club. 



3 He was emphatically the poet of the republic, and must have been 

 a man of sterling worth to have been so highly esteemed by the family 

 of Scipio, and by the censor Cato. " It was well known from a passage 

 in Cicero, and another in Livy, that the sepulchre of the Scipios stood 

 beyond the Porta Capena of Rome ; and Livy describes it as being in his 

 time surmounted by three statues : two of them of the Scipios, and the 

 third, as was believed, of the poet Ennius. But it was not until the year 

 A.D. 1780, that some labourers at work in a vineyard discovered a clue 

 which led to further excavations; and thus the tombs, after having lain 

 undisturbed for upwards of 2000 years, were most unexpectedly brought 

 to light. The original inscriptions have been removed to the Vatican." 

 The following is from " Roma Antica," but is also contained in Mont- 

 faucon's " Antiquities," and it must belong to that Scipio who is spoken of 

 by Pliny in the thirty-fourth chapter of this book, though our author 

 has erred in the application : 



Hone . oino . ploirume . consentient . R . 



Duonoro . optumo . fuise . viro . 



Luciom . Scipione . filios . Barbati . 



Consol . Censor . Aidilis . Hie . fuit .A .... 



Hec . cepit . Corsica . Aleriaque . Urbe . 



Dedet . tempestatebus . aide . mereto . 



