the great Greek historian Polybius and his fellow exiles were finally
permitted to return to their native land, Cato turned the scale toward
mercy in the Senate with the haughty words, "As though we had nothing
to do, we sit here discussing whether some old Greeks shall be carried
to their graves here or in Achaia!" There was a touch of real humor,
and perhaps of real culture too, in his retort when Polybius asked in
addition for the restoration of civic honors held in Greece seventeen
years agone. "Polybius," he said, with a smile, "wishes to venture
again into the Cyclops's cave, because he forgot his cap and belt." A
few touches like this permit us to like, as well as to admire, this
grim and harsh pattern of old simplicity.

Whether "Cato learned Greek at eighty" as a grudging concession to the
spirit of the age, or to obtain weapons from the foe's own armory
wherewith to combat his influence, we need not argue. Indeed, it is
nearly certain that any special study at that time could have been
only a revival of "what he learned at Athens" many years earlier.

It is however a supreme touch of irony in Cato's fate, that he
rendered, doubtless unconsciously, a greater service to Hellenistic
culture in Rome than did even his illustrious younger contemporary
Scipio AEmilianus, the patron of Terence and the generous friend of
Polybius; for it was our Cato who brought in his train from Sardinia
the gallant young soldier afterward known as the poet Ennius,--the
creator of the Latin hexameter, of the artistic Roman epic, and in
general the man who more than any other made Greek poetry, and even
Greek philosophy, well known and respected among all educated Romans.

Cato is chiefly known to us through Plutarch, whose sketch shows the
tolerance of that beloved writer toward the savage enemy of Hellenism.
The charming central figure of Cicero's dialogue on 'Old Age' takes
little save his name from the bitter, crabbed octogenarian, who was
still adding to his vote on any and all subjects, "Moreover, Senators,
Carthage must be wiped out." All the world admires stubborn courage,
especially in a hopeless cause. We, the most radical and democratic of
peoples, especially admire the despairing stand of a belated
conservative. The peculiar virtues of the stock were repeated no less
strikingly in the great-grandson, Cato of Utica, and make their name a
synonym forevermore of unbending stoicism. The phrase applied by a
later Roman poet t