Читать книгу Yale Classics (Vol. 2) - Луций Анней Сенека - Страница 483

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When Cato had done speaking, all of consular dignity, and the greatest part of the senate, indeed, applauded his opinion; extolled his resolution; and reproached one another with pusillanimity. Cato was looked on as a great and illustrious patriot; and a decree passed conformable to his proposal.

Now, as I have read and heard much of the glorious achievements of the Roman people, in war and peace, both by sea and land, I was very desirous to discover the cause to which they were principally owing. I knew that they had often, with a handful of men, engaged mighty armies: I was not ignorant, that with small forces they had carried on war against powerful princes; that they had often supported themselves under the severe buffetings of adverse fortune; that the Greeks surpassed them in eloquence, and the Gauls in military glory. And having duly weighed every cause, I was convinced that all was owing to the great virtue of some particular persons; hence it was that poverty triumphed over riches, and a handful of men prevailed over great numbers. Nay, after Rome became depraved by luxury and sloth, the commonwealth still supported herself by her native strength, under the ambition and intrigues of her magistrates and generals; even when, like a superannuated matron, she did not produce, for a long time, any citizen of distinguished merit.

Two, however, I myself remember, Cato and Cæsar, both men of great abilities, but different characters; whom, as so fair an opportunity presents itself, I would not omit to notice; but shall endeavour, in the best manner I am able, to display the temper and manners of each.37

As to their extraction, years, and eloquence, they were nearly equal. Both of them had the same greatness of mind, both the same degree of glory, but in different ways: Cæsar was celebrated for his great bounty and generosity: Cato for his unsullied integrity: the former became renowned by his humanity and compassion; an austere severity heightened the dignity of the latter. Cæsar acquired glory by a liberal, compassionate, and forgiving temper; as did Cato by never bestowing any thing. In the one the miserable found a sanctuary; in the other the guilty met with certain destruction. Cæsar was admired for an easy, yielding temper; Cato for his immoveable firmness. Cæsar, in a word, had formed himself for a laborious, active life; was intent on promoting the interest of his friends, to the neglect of his own; and refused to grant nothing that was worth accepting: what he desired for himself was, to have sovereign command, to be at the head of armies, and engaged in new wars, in order to display his military talents. As for Cato, his only study was moderation, regular conduct, and, above all, rigorous severity. He did not vie with the wealthy in riches, nor in turbulence with the factious; but, taking a nobler aim, he contended in valour with the brave; in modesty with the modest; in integrity with the upright; and was more desirous to be virtuous than to appear so: so that the less he courted fame the more it followed him.