Plutarch's Lives Volume III Part 39

[Footnote 691: L. Marcius Philippus, consul in B.C. 56 with Cn.

Cornelius Lentulus.]

[Footnote 692: L. Thrasea Paetus, a Latin writer, a native of Padua, who was put to death by Nero (Tacitus, _Annal._ xvi. 34, 25). His authority for the Life of Cato was, as it appears, Munatius Rufus, who accompanied Cato to Cyprus (c. 37).]

[Footnote 693: Quintus Hortensius was consul B.C. 69, a distinguished orator and a man of refined and luxurious habits. Bibulus is M.

Calpurnius Bibulus, the colleague of Caesar in his consulship B.C. 59.

He had three sons by Porcia, Cato's daughter by Atilia.

This transfer of Marcia is oddly told by Plutarch. It was not a mere case of lending the woman for the purpose of procreation, for the child of Hortensius could not be his legal child, unless Marcia became his legal wife. Cato must accordingly have divorced his wife, which was done at Rome without any trouble. The only thing then that is peculiar in the affair is, that Cato did not divorce his wife because he was dissatisfied with her on good grounds, nor for such grounds as Cicero divorced his wife, but for the reason mentioned in the text.

Marcia continued to be the wife of Hortensius till his death. The marriage with Hortensius probably took place about B.C. 56.

This affair has caused the critics much difficulty. But as we may a.s.sume that Hortensius wished to have a child that would be his own, which is in fact Plutarch's statement, and one that would be in his paternal power, he must have married Marcia, and Cato must have divorced her in proper form. The fact of Philippus giving his daughter away shows that she was then at his disposal. Cato married her again, and his conduct proved that he trusted her. The notion of Cato lending his wife would have been as inconsistent with legal principle and morality in Rome as such a transaction would be in England.]

[Footnote 694: Compare the Life of Caesar, c. 8.]

[Footnote 695: Pompeius was now in Asia. See the Life of Pompeius, c.

42, 43.]

[Footnote 696: Castor and Pollux. See the Life of Tiberius Gracchus, c. 2. The temple was on the south side of the Forum Romanum. The steps are those which led to the Rostra.]

[Footnote 697: This is the translation of the reading [Greek: oikothen] ?????e?, which is probably incorrect. Sola.n.u.s proposes [Greek: autothen] a?t??e?, and Kaltwa.s.ser proposes [Greek: apothen]

?p??e?, "from a distance," which he has adopted in his version, "und liess die bewaffneten, die _von fern_ standen, mit furchbarem Geschre*

anrucken."]

[Footnote 698: Lucullus returned B.C. 66. He triumphed B.C. 63. See the Life of Lucullus, c. 37. Plutarch has here confused the order of events. Kaltwa.s.ser translates this pa.s.sage as if Lucullus had returned to Rome after Metellus left it in B.C. 62.]

[Footnote 699: He returned B.C. 62. The consuls who were elected for the year B.C. 61, were M. Pupius Piso, who had been a legatus of Pompeius in Asia, and M. Valerius Messalla. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 44.]

[Footnote 700: Probably Munatius Rufus, who is mentioned again in c.

36. Drumann (_Porcii_, p. 162) says it was Munatius Plancus.]

[Footnote 701: This was in B.C. 61, at the election of the consuls L.

Afranius and Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, the consuls of B.C. 60. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 44.]

[Footnote 702: Caesar returned B.C. 60, and was consul B.C. 59. See the Life of Caesar, c. 13, 14, for the events alluded to in this 31st chapter; and the Life of Pompeius, c. 47.]

[Footnote 703: See the Life of Caesar, c. 14.]

[Footnote 704: Numidicus. The story is told in the Life of Marius, c.

29. The matters referred to in this and the following chapter are told circ.u.mstantially by Dion Ca.s.sius (38, c. 1-7). See Life of Caesar, c.

14.]

[Footnote 705: L. Calpurnius Piso, the father of Calpurnia the wife of Caesar, and Aulus Gabinius were consuls B.C. 58. Aulus Gabinius, when Tribunus Plebis B.C. 67, proposed the law which gave Pompeius the command against the pirates. The meaning of the obscure allusion at the end of the chapter, which is literally rendered, may be collected from the context; and still more plainly from the abuse which Cicero heaps on Gabinius for his dissolute life after he had been banished in the consulship of Gabinius (Drumann, _Gabinii_, p. 60).]

[Footnote 706: This Ptolemaeus, the brother of Ptolemaeus Auletes, King of Egypt, was now in possession of Cyprus, and the mission of Cato, which could not be to his taste, was to take possession of the island for the Romans. When Clodius had been made prisoner by the pirates nine years before, Ptolemaeus was asked to contribute to his ransom but he only sent two talents, for which ill-timed saving he was mulcted in his whole kingdom by this unprincipled tribune (Drumann, _Claudii_, p.

263).]

[Footnote 707: He is called Caninius in the Life of Brutus, c. 3.]

[Footnote 708: The feeble king had not spirit to attempt a resistance, which indeed would have been useless. He put an end to himself by poison (c. 36), and the Romans took the island. A more unjustifiable act of aggression than the occupation of Cyprus, hardly occurs even in the history of Rome.]

[Footnote 709: The priesthood of such temples as Paphos was a valuable thing. These temples had lands and slaves.]

[Footnote 710: This was Auletes, the father of Cleopatra. He was restored to his kingdom by A. Gabinius B.C. 55, while he was governor of Syria.]

[Footnote 711: This is the meaning of the pa.s.sage. The interview was ludicrous enough, but Dacier makes it still more so, by seating Cato on a close-stool; and Kind and Schirach, two German translators, make him receive the king in the same way (Kaltwa.s.ser's note).]

[Footnote 712: This was M. Junius Brutus, afterwards Caesar's friend and a.s.sa.s.sin. Cato could not have found a better man for his purpose; at least for laying his hands on all that came in his way. Brutus took the opportunity of helping himself to some of the plunder in his uncle's absence. At a later time he had large sums out at interest in Cyprus and partly in other persons' names. He was a merciless usurer.

(Cicero, _Ad Attic._, v. 18 and 21; vi. 21; and the Life of Cicero, c.

36, notes.)]

[Footnote 713: Plutarch explains in a general way what is meant. The Roman word "pignus," which Plutarch translates by [Greek: enechyra]

??????a, means a thing p.a.w.ned and delivered as a security to the p.a.w.nee. To take pledges, "pignora capere," was to seize something that belonged to a man in order to compel the discharge of a duty. It was like a distress for a service. Instances occur in Livy (3. c. 38, 37.

c. 51; Cicero, _De Oratore_, 3. c. 1).]

[Footnote 714: The Greek nominative would be Barcas. The name does not appear to be Roman and is probably corrupted. Bursa is a Roman name.

See c. 48.]

[Footnote 715: There is no suspicion that Cato got anything for himself. He was above that. He honestly discharged his dishonest mission.]

[Footnote 716: This was a port of Corinth on the east side of the Isthmus.]

[Footnote 717: The amazement of the people at the quant.i.ty of the plunder, and the thanks of the Senate for the faithful discharge of their order to pillage, might seem regular enough if it had been booty gotten in war. But the robbery was not gilded with this false show. It was pure, simple robbery without the accessories of war.]

[Footnote 718: This means a praetorship before the age at which a man could regularly hold the office. Cato returned from Cyprus in B.C. 56.

He was now thirty-eight years of age, for he died B.C. 46, when he was forty-eight.]

[Footnote 719: The order of the words in the original makes the meaning appear somewhat ambiguous. The pa.s.sage might be translated, as it is by Dacier, "for the colleague of Philippus paid no less respect to Cato on account of his merit, than Philippus did on account of his relationship."]

[Footnote 720: Cicero returned from exile B.C. 57, in the month of September of the unreformed calendar.]

[Footnote 721: This was the meeting at Luca in B.C. 56. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 51; and the Life of Caesar, c. 21.]

[Footnote 722: This was the second consulship of each, and was in B.C.

55. Cato lost the praetorship, and Vatinius was elected instead of him (Dion Ca.s.sius (39, c. 32).]

[Footnote 723: As to Caius Trebonius, see the Life of Pompeius, c.

52.]

[Footnote 724: One would suppose that a less time would have been more than enough, though not for Cato. Dion Ca.s.sius (39. c. 31) says that Favonius spoke for an hour before Cato did, and took up all the time in complaining of the shortness of his allowance. It would be a fair inference that he had little to say against the measure itself.]

[Footnote 725: Dion Ca.s.sius (39. c. 35) tells us more particularly how it happened that P. Aquilius Gallus was in the senate house. Gallus was afraid that he should be excluded from the Forum the next day, and accordingly he pa.s.sed the night in the senate house, both for safety's sake and to be ready on the spot in the morning. But Trebonius, who found it out, kept him shut up for that night and the greater part of the following day.]

[Footnote 726: Cato was praetor in B.C. 54. It does not appear that he ever was praetor before, and it is not therefore clear what is meant by the "extraordinary praetorship" (c. 39). In place of the word "Rostra,"

in the fifth line of this chapter, read "tribunal." Plutarch uses the same word ([Greek: bema] ?a) for both, which circ.u.mstance is calculated occasionally to cause a translator to make a slip, even when he knows better. The "tribunal" was the seat of the praetor, when he was doing justice. But lower down (line 8 from the bottom) Rostra is the proper translation of Plutarch's word ([Greek: epilabesthai ton embolon] ?p??a?s?a? t?? ?????) and it was the place from which Cato spoke, after he had got up. In c. 43, when Cato gets up to speak, Plutarch makes him mount the Bema ([Greek: bema] ?a), by which he means the place when the orators stood at the Rostra. The Rostra were the beaks of the Antiate galleys, with which, it is said, this place was ornamented at the close of the Latin war (Livy, 8, c. 14).]

[Footnote 727: The reason according to Plutarch why people envy the man who has a high reputation for integrity, is because of the power and credit which it gives. Whatever then gives power and credit should be also an object of envy, as wealth; and so it is. The notion of envy implies a desire to see the person who is the object of it humbled and cast down. The Greeks attributed this feeling to their G.o.ds, who looked with an evil eye on great prosperity, and loved to humble it.

But the feeling of envy, if that is the right term, towards him who has power and credit by reason of his high character for integrity, is not the same feeling as envy of the wealthy man. The envious of wealth desire to have the wealth both for itself and for its uses. The envious of character desire to have the opinion of the character, because of the profit that is from it, but they may not desire to have that which is the foundation of the character. If they did, their desire would be for virtue, and the envious feeling would not exist.