side, Vatinius and
all the greatest scoundrels on the other, were putting up for sale,
and, carried away by their blind covetousness, did not understand that
when they sold it they themselves were sold with it; I bade you have
no fears on behalf of Cato himself, because the wise man can neither
receive injury nor-insult, and it is more certain that the immortal
gods have given Cato as a pattern of a wise man to us, than that they
gave Ulysses or Hercules to the earlier ages; for these our Stoics
have declared were wise men, unconquered by labors, despisers of
pleasure, and superior to all terrors. Cato did not slay wild beasts,
whose pursuit belongs to huntsmen and countrymen, nor did he
exterminate fabulous creatures with fire and sword, or live in times
when it was possible to believe that the heavens could be supported on
the shoulders of one man. In an age which had thrown off its belief in
antiquated superstitions, and had carried material knowledge to its
highest point, he had to struggle against that many-headed monster,
ambition, against that boundless lust for power which the whole world
divided among three men could not satisfy. He alone withstood the
vices of a worn-out state sinking into ruin through its own bulk; he
upheld the falling commonwealth as far as it could be upheld by one
man's hand, until at last his support was withdrawn, and he shared the
crash which he had so long averted, and perished together with that
from which it was impious to separate him--for Cato did not outlive
freedom, nor did freedom outlive Cato. Think you that the people could
do any wrong to such a man when they tore away his praetorship or his
toga? when they bespattered his sacred head with the rinsings of their
mouths? The wise man is safe, and no injury or insult can touch
him....

Consider now, whether any thief, or false accuser, or headstrong
neighbor, or rich man enjoying the power conferred by a childless old
age, could do any injury to this man, from whom neither war nor an
enemy whose profession was the noble art of battering city walls could
take away anything. Amid the flash of swords on all sides, and the
riot of the plundering soldiery, amid the flames and blood and ruin of
the fallen city, amid the crash of temples falling upon their gods,
one man was at peace. You need not therefore account that a reckless
boast, for which I will give you a surety, if my word goes for
nothing. Indeed, you would hardly believe