ad, and instructed him also in the Roman law and in
bodily exercises; not confining himself to teaching him to hurl the
javelin, to fight in complete armour, and to ride, but also to use his
fists in boxing, to endure the extremes of heat and cold, and to swim
through swiftly-flowing and eddying rivers. He tells us that he
himself wrote books on history with his own hands in large letters,
that the boy might start in life with a useful knowledge of what his
forefathers had done, and he was as careful not to use an indecenr
expression before his son as he would have been before the vestal
virgins. He never bathed with him; which indeed seems to have been
customary at Rome, as even fathers-in-law scrupled to bathe naked
before their sons-in-law. In later times, however, the Romans learned
from the Greeks the habit of bathing naked, and have taught the Greeks
to do so even in the presence of women.

While Cato was engaged in this great work of forming his son's
character and completing his education he found him eager to learn,
and able to make great progress from his natural ability: but he
appeared so weak and delicate that his father was obliged to relax the
stern simplicity of his own life in his favour, and allow him some
indulgences in diet. The young man, although so weakly, yet proved
himself a good soldier in the wars, and distinfuished himself greatly
in the battle in which AEmilius Paulus defeated King Perseus.
Afterwards, upon the same day, he either had his sword struck from his
hand or let it fall from weakness, and in his grief at the loss got
together some of his friends and prevailed upon them again to charge
the enemy. With great exertions they succeeded in clearing a space,
and at length discovered his sword under a great heap of arms and
corpses of friends and foes alike which were piled upon it. Paulus,
the commander-in-chief, was much pleased with the youth's eagerness to
regain his sword, and sent a letter to Cato in which he spoke in the
highest terms of the courage and honourable feeling which he had
shown. He afterwards married Tertia, the sister of Scipio, and had the
gratification of pleasing his father as much as himself by thus
allying himself with one of the noblest families in Rome. Thus was
Cato rewarded for the care which he had bestowed upon his son's
education.

XXI. He possessed a large number of slaves, and when captives were for
sale he always purchased those who were young, and who