ides by Sophanes, Ameinias, Kallimachus, and Kynaegyrus, all of
whom won great glory in those battles. On the other hand, Cato not
only when consul gained the greatest credit, both by his wise conduct,
and his personal prowess in the Spanish war, but, when at Thermopylae
he was acting as tribune under another person's command as consul,
contributed mainly to winning the victory by his flank movement, by
which he established himself in the rear of Antiochus while that
prince was intent upon the enemy in his front. This victory, which was
so manifestly due to Cato, had the important result of driving the
Asiatic troops out of Greece back to their own country, and so of
preparing the way for Scipio's subsequent invasion of Asia.

Neither of them were ever defeated in battle, but in political matters
Aristeides was overcome by his rival Themistokles, who drove him into
exile by ostracism, while Cato held his own against all the greatest
and most influential men in Rome to the end of his life without once
being overthrown by them. He was often impeached, and always
acquitted, while he frequently succeeded in his impeachments of
others, using, both as a bulwark to defend himself and as a weapon to
attack others, his power of speaking in public, which indeed is a
quality more to be relied upon than good fortune to protect a man from
suffering wrong. Antipater, in the account which he wrote of the
philosopher Aristotle after his death, observes that besides his
other qualities and accomplishments this man had the power of
persuasion.

III. It is generally admitted that political virtue is the highest to
which a man can aspire, and of this, most think domestic virtue to be
a very important part; for as a city is merely a collection of houses,
the public virtue of the state must be increased if it contain many
well-regulated households. Lykurgus, when he banished silver and gold
from Sparta, and gave his countrymen useless iron money, did not wish
to discourage good household management among them, but he removed the
dangerous seductions of wealth out of their reach, in order that they
all might enjoy a sufficiency of what was useful and necessary. He
saw, what no other legislator appears to have seen, that the real
danger to a commonwealth arises from the poor and desperate rather
than from the excessively rich.

Now we have seen that Cato was as well able to manage his household as
to govern the state; for he improved his fo