nal makes the
meaning appear somewhat ambiguous. The passage 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 Cassius (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 Cassius (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 Cassius (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 passed 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]) for both, which circumstance 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] )
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]), 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
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