III. The estate adjoining that of Cato belonged to one of the most
powerful and highly born patricians of Rome, Valerius Flaccus, a man
who had a keen eye for rising merit, and generously fostered it until
it received public recognition. This man heard accounts of Cato's life
from his servants, how he would proceed to the court early in the
morning, and plead the causes of all who required his services, and
then on returning to his farm would work with his servants, in winter
wearing a coarse coat without sleeves, in summer nothing but his
tunic, and how he used to sit at meals with his servants, eating the
same loaf and drinking the same wine. Many other stories of his
goodness and simplicity and sententious remarks were related to
Valerius, who became interested in his neighbour, and invited him to
dinner. They became intimate, and Valerius, observing his quiet and
ingenuous disposition, like a plant that requires careful treatment
and an extensive space in which to develop itself, encouraged and
urged him to take part in the political life of Rome. On going to Rome
he at once gained admirers and friends by his able pleadings in the
law courts, while he obtained considerable preferment by the interest
of Valerius, being appointed first military tribune, and then quaestor.
After this he became so distinguished a man as to be able to compete
with Valerius himself for the highest offices in the state, and they
were elected together, first as consuls, and afterwards as censors. Of
the older Romans, Cato attached himself particularly to Fabius
Maximus, a man of the greatest renown and power, although it was his
disposition and mode of life which Cato especially desired to imitate.
Wherefore he did not hesitate to oppose Scipio the Great, who was then
a young man, but a rival and opponent of Fabius. Cato was appointed to
act as his quaestor in the war in Africa, and on perceiving that Scipio
was living with his usual lavish expenditure, and supplying his
soldiery with extravagant pay, he sharply rebuked him, saying, "that
it was not the waste of the public money that vexed him so much as the
ruin of the old frugal habits of the soldiers, who were led to indulge
in pleasure and luxury by receiving more pay than was necessary to
supply their daily wants." When Scipio answered that he did not
require an economist for his quaestor, at a time when he was preparing
to wage war on a grand scale, and reminded him that he would ha