but I had rather vie with the noblest in virtue than with the richest in wealth, or with the most covetous in covetousness.”  He not only kept his own hands clean, but those of his followers also.  He took five servants to the war with him.  One of these, Paccius by name, bought three boys at a sale of captives; but when Cato heard of it, Paccius, rather than come into his presence, hanged himself.  Cato sold the boys, and paid the price into the public treasury.

XI.  While he was still in Spain, Scipio the Great, who was his personal enemy, desiring to check his career of success, and to obtain the management of Spanish affairs for himself, contrived to get himself appointed to succeed Cato in his government.  He at once hurried to Spain and brought Cato’s rule to an end.  Cato, however, at once marched to meet Scipio with an escort of five companies of infantry and five hundred horsemen.  On his way he conquered the tribe of the Lacetani; and finding among them six hundred deserters from the Roman army, he put them to death.  When Scipio expressed his dissatisfaction with this, Cato sarcastically answered, that Rome would be greatest if those of high birth and station, and those of plebeian origin like himself, would only contend with one another in virtue.  However, as the Senate decreed that nothing that Cato had settled in the province should be altered or rearranged, Scipio found that it was he rather than Cato that was disgraced, as he had to pass his time in inglorious idleness, while Cato, after enjoying a triumph, did not retire into a life of luxury and leisure, as is done by so many men whose object is display rather than true virtue, after they have risen to the highest honours in the state by being elected consuls and enjoying the honour of a triumph.  He did not impair the glorious example which he had given, by withdrawing his attention from the affairs of his country, but offered his services to his friends and fellow-countrymen, both in the courts of law and in the field, as willingly as those who have just begun their public career, and are keenly eager to be elected to some new office in which they may win fresh distinction.

XII.  He went with the consul Tiberius Sempronius as legate, and assisted him in regulating the country about the Danube and Thrace; and he also served as military tribune under Manius Acilius during his campaign in Greece against Antiochus the Great, who caused more terror to the Romans than any one man since the time of Hannibal.  Antiochus had originally inherited nearly the whole of Asia, that is, as much as Seleukus Nikator had possessed, and having added many warlike tribes to his empire, was so elated by his conquests as to attack the Romans, whom he regarded as the only nation remaining in the whole world which was worthy to be his antagonist.  He put forward as a plausible reason for beginning the war that he intended to liberate the Greeks, who did not require his interference,