gods; the gods, he said, were only men of ancient times who had been
deified; Jupiter himself had been a king of Crete. This book had a
great success and was translated into Latin by the poet Ennius. The
nobles of Rome were accustomed to mock at their gods, maintaining only
the cult of the old religion. The higher Roman society was for a
century at once superstitious and sceptical.

CHANGES IN MANNERS

=The Old Customs.=--The old Romans had for centuries been diligent and
rude husbandmen, engaged in cultivating their fields, in fighting, and
in fulfilling the ceremonies of their religion. Their ideal was the
_grave_ man. Cincinnatus, they said, was pushing his plough when the
deputies of the Senate came to offer him the dictatorship. Fabricius
had of plate only a cup and a salt-cellar of silver. Curius Dentatus,
the conqueror of the Samnites, was sitting on a bench eating some
beans in a wooden bowl when the envoys of the Samnites presented
themselves before him to offer him a bribe.[133] "Go and tell the
Samnites," said he, "that Curius prefers commanding those who have
gold to having it himself." These are some of the anecdotes that they
used to tell about the generals of the olden time. True or false,
these legends exhibit the ideas that were current in Rome at a later
time regarding the ancient Romans.

=Cato the Elder.=--At the time when manners were changing, one man
made himself notable by his attachment to the "customs of the
fathers." This was Cato. He was born in 232[134] in the little village
of Tusculum and had spent his youth in manual labor. Entering the
army, according to the usage of the time, at the age of seventeen, he
fought in all the campaigns against Hannibal. He was not noble, but he
made himself popular by his energy, his probity, and his austerity.
He passed through the whole course of political honors--quaestor,
aedile, praetor, consul, and censor. He showed himself everywhere, like
the old Romans, rude, stern, and honest. As quaestor he remonstrated
with the consul about his expenses; but the consul, who was Scipio,
replied to him, "I have no need of so exact a quaestor." As praetor in
Sardinia, he refused the money that was offered him by the province
for the expenses of entertainment. As consul, he spoke with vigor for
the Oppian law which prohibited Roman women from wearing costly
attire; the women put it off, and the law was abrogated. Sent to
command the army of Spain, Cato took 400