urel wreath on the
occasion of all meetings at any time, and should be clad in the robe of
office at all of them, as well as in the triumphal garb at the
horse-races. They were granted him chiefly through the cooeperation of
Caesar, and contrary to the judgment of Marcus Cato.

[-22-] Regarding the former a statement has already been made as to who
he was, and it has been related[23] that he cultivated the common
people, and while generally striving to depose Pompey from his high
position, still made a friend of him in cases where he was sure of
pleasing the populace and gaining influence himself. But this Cato
belonged to the family of the Porcii and emulated the great Cato, except
that he had enjoyed a better Greek education than the former. He
promoted assiduously the interests of the multitude and admired no one
man, being excessively devoted to the common weal; suspicious of
sovereignty, he hated everything that had grown above its fellows, but
loved everything mediocre through pity for its weakness. He showed
himself a passionate adherent of the populace as did no one else, and
indulged in outspokenness beyond the limits of propriety, even when it
involved danger. All this he did not with a view to power or glory or
any honor, but solely for the sake of a life of independence, free from
the dictation of tyrants. Such was the nature of the man who now for the
first time came forward before the people and opposed the measures under
consideration, not out of any hostility to Pompey, but because they
transgressed time-honored customs.

[-23-] These honors, then, they granted Pompey in his absence, but none
when he had come home, though they would certainly have added others,
had he wished it; upon some other men, indeed, who had been less
successful than he, they often bestowed many extravagant distinctions.
That they did so unwillingly, however, is clear.

Pompey knew well that all the gifts granted by the common people to
those who have any influence and are in positions of authority contain
the suggestion, no matter how willingly they are voted, of having been
granted through force applied out of the resources of the strong. He
knew that such honors bring no glory to those who receive them, because
it is believed that they were obtained not from willing donors, but
under compulsion, and not from good will, but as a result of flattery.
Hence he did not permit any one to propose any measure whatever. This
course h