140 CATO THE CENSORIOUS. 



desire that Carthage should be left in peace. The 

 commissioners "were instructed to report in such a 

 manner that Masinissa might be encouraged to con- 

 tinue his depredations. They brought back astonish- 

 ing accounts of the magnificence and activity of the 

 African metropolis ; and among these commissioners 

 there was one man who never ceased to declare that 

 the country was in danger, and who never rose to 

 speak in the House without saying before he sat 

 down : " And it is my opinion, fathers, that Carthage 

 must be destroyed." 



Cato the censor has been called the last of the old 

 Romans. That class of patriot farmers had been ex- 

 tinguished by Hannibal's invasion. In order to live 

 during the long war they had been obliged to borrow 

 money on their lands. When the war was over, the 

 prices of everything rose to an unnatural height ; the 

 farmers could not recover themselves, and the Roman 

 law of debt was severe. They were ejected by thousands : 

 it was the favourite method to turn the women and 

 children out of doors while the poor man was working 

 in the fields. Italy was converted into a plantation : 

 slaves in chains tilled the land. No change was made 

 in the letter of the constitution, but the commonwealth 

 ceased to exist. Society was now composed of the 

 nobles, the money-merchants or city men, and a mob 

 like that of Carthage which lived on saleable votes, some- 

 times raging for agrarian laws, and which was afterwards 

 fed at government expense like a wild beast every day. 



At this time a few refined and intellectual men 

 began to cultivate a taste for Greek literature and 

 the fine arts. They collected libraries, and adorned 

 them with busts of celebrated men, and antiques of 

 Corinthian bronze. Crowds of imitators soon arose, 



