A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Rome, no;
A ncient
World, 383 f.
Clothing and
food.
Plutarch,
Calo, 4.
Plutarch,
Cato, 5.
His maxims.
Plutarch,
Calo, 8.
412 Growth of Plutocracy
important positions through Valerius. He was first appointed
military tribune and then quaestor.
Afterward he
became so distinguished as to be able to compete with Valerius
himself for the highest offices in the state. They
were together elected consuls, and still later censors. Of
the older Romans, Cato attached himself especially to
Fabius Maximus, a man of the greatest renown and influence,
although it was his disposition and mode of life
which Cato desired most to imitate. He did not hesitate,
therefore, to oppose Scipio the Great, who was then a
young man but a rival and opponent of Fabius.
He himself tells us that he never wore a garment worth
more than a hundred drachmas; that when he was general
and consul he still drank the same wine as his servants;
that his dinner never cost him more than thirty asses in
the market; and that he indulged himself to this extent
solely for the good of the state, that he might be strong
and able to serve his country in the field.
These habits some ascribed to narrowness of mind, while
some thought he carried parsimony to excess in order by
his example to reform and restrain others. Be this as it
may, I for my part consider that his conduct in treating
his slaves like beasts of burden, and selling them when
old and worn out, was the mark of an excessively harsh
disposition, which disregards the claims of our common
human nature, and merely considers the question of profit
and loss.
(Cato was famous for his pithy sayings.)
Once when
he wished to restrain the Romans from distributing a large
quantity of corn as a largess to the people, he thus began
his speech:
"It is difficult, fellow-citizens, to make the stomach
hear reason, because it has no ears."