In his treatise on
Agriculture, written for his son, he has recorded all the old axioms
of the Roman peasantry.[135] He considered it to be a duty to become
rich. "A widow," he said, "can lessen her property; a man ought to
increase his. He is worthy of fame and inspired of the gods who gains
more than he inherits." Finding that agriculture was not profitable
enough, he invested in merchant ships; he united with fifty associates
and all together constructed fifty ships of commerce, that each might
have a part in the risks and the profits. A good laborer, a good
soldier, a foe to luxury, greedy of gain, Cato was the type of the
Roman of the old stock.
=The New Manners.=--Many Romans on the contrary, especially the
nobles, admired and imitated the foreigners. At their head were the
generals who had had a nearer view of Greece and the Orient--Scipio,
conqueror of the king of Syria, Flamininus and AEmilius Paullus,
victors over the kings of Macedon, later Lucullus, conqueror of the
king of Armenia. They were disgusted with the mean and gross life of
their ancestors, and adopted a more luxurious and agreeable mode of
living.
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