170 
PLINT'S NATUllAL HISTOEY. 
[Book Vll. 
qiience of which it was, what must be owned to be a pecu- 
liarity in Cato^s career, that he had to plead his own cause no 
less than four and forty times and yet, though no person 
was so frequently accused, he was always acquitted. 
CHAP. 29. (28.) INSTANCES OF EXTEEME COTJEAGE. 
A minute enquiry by whom the greatest valour has ever 
been exhibited, would lead to an endless discussion, more espe- 
cially if all the fables of the poets are to be taken for granted. 
Q. Ennius admired T. Caecilius Denter^^ and his brother to such a 
degree, that on their account he added a sixteenth book to his 
Annals. L. Siccius Dentatus, who was tribune of the people 
in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and A. Aterius,^^ not 
long after the expulsion of the kings, has also very numerous 
testimonies in his favour. This hero fought one hundred and 
twenty battles, was eight times victorious in single combat, and 
was graced with forty-five wounds in the front of the body, 
without one on the back. The same man also carried off 
thirty-four spoils, was eighteen times presented with the vic- 
tor's spear, and received twenty-five pendants,^^ eighty- tliree 
®2 Plutarch says, that nearly fifty impeachments were brought against 
him, the last when he was eighty-six years of age. — B. 
^2 There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining who was the 
individual here referred to ; the subject is discussed at some length by 
Hardouin, who sliows that it is probable, that it was Lucius Csecilius, who 
was slain in a battle with the Gauls, a.u.c. 470, and in the consulship of 
Dolabella and Domitius. — B. 
The name of this consul has been the subject of much discussion 
among the commentators. Livy, B. iii. c. 31, has been referred to, as 
calling him Atermius ; but in some of the best editions, he is named Ate- 
rius. The tribunate of Dentatus took place a.u.c. 299, fifty-five years after 
the expulsion of the kings. — B. 
^5 When a Eoman overcame an enemy with whom he had been perso- 
nally engaged, he took possession of some part of his armour and dress, 
which might bear testimony to the victory ; this was termed the spolium." 
— B. 
"Hastapura;" these words, according to Hardouin, signify a lance 
without an iron head. We are told that it was given to him who gained 
the first victory in a battle ; it was also regarded as an emblem of supreme 
power, and as a mark of the authority which one nation claimed over 
another. — B. 
^"^ " Phaleris." These were bosses, discs or crescents of metal, some- 
times gold. They were mostly used in pairs, and as ornaments for the 
helmet ; but we more commonly read of them as attached to the harness 
