towns, securing immense
treasure which he turned into the public chest; at the moment of
embarking, he sold his horse to save the expenses of transportation.
As censor, he erased from the senate-list many great persons on the
ground of their extravagance; he farmed the taxes at a very high price
and taxed at ten times their value the women's habits, jewels, and
conveyances. Having obtained the honor of a triumph, he withdrew to
the army in Macedonia as a simple officer.

All his life he fought with the nobles of the new type, extravagant
and elegant. He "barked" especially at the Scipios, accusing them of
embezzling state moneys. In turn he was forty-four times made
defendant in court, but was always acquitted.

On his farm Cato labored with his slaves, ate with them, and when he
had to correct them, beat them with his own hand. In his treatise on
Agriculture, written for his son, he has recorded all the old axioms
of the Roman peasantry.[135] He considered it to be a duty to become
rich. "A widow," he said, "can lessen her property; a man ought to
increase his. He is worthy of fame and inspired of the gods who gains
more than he inherits." Finding that agriculture was not profitable
enough, he invested in merchant ships; he united with fifty associates
and all together constructed fifty ships of commerce, that each might
have a part in the risks and the profits. A good laborer, a good
soldier, a foe to luxury, greedy of gain, Cato was the type of the
Roman of the old stock.

=The New Manners.=--Many Romans on the contrary, especially the
nobles, admired and imitated the foreigners. At their head were the
generals who had had a nearer view of Greece and the Orient--Scipio,
conqueror of the king of Syria, Flamininus and AEmilius Paullus,
victors over the kings of Macedon, later Lucullus, conqueror of the
king of Armenia. They were disgusted with the mean and gross life of
their ancestors, and adopted a more luxurious and agreeable mode of
living. Little by little all the nobles, all the rich followed their
example; one hundred and fifty years later in Italy all the great were
living in Greek or oriental fashion.

=Oriental Luxury.=--In the East the Romans found models in the royal
successors of Alexander, possessors of enormous wealth; for all the
treasure that was not employed in paying mercenaries was squandered by
the court. These oriental kings indulged their vanity by displaying
gleaming robes, precious stones