They became intimate, and Valerius, observing his quiet and ingenuous disposition, like a plant that requires careful treatment and an extensive space in which to develop itself, encouraged and urged him to take part in the political life of Rome.  On going to Rome he at once gained admirers and friends by his able pleadings in the law courts, while he obtained considerable preferment by the interest of Valerius, being appointed first military tribune, and then quaestor.  After this he became so distinguished a man as to be able to compete with Valerius himself for the highest offices in the state, and they were elected together, first as consuls, and afterwards as censors.  Of the older Romans, Cato attached himself particularly to Fabius Maximus, a man of the greatest renown and power, although it was his disposition and mode of life which Cato especially desired to imitate.  Wherefore he did not hesitate to oppose Scipio the Great, who was then a young man, but a rival and opponent of Fabius.  Cato was appointed to act as his quaestor in the war in Africa, and on perceiving that Scipio was living with his usual lavish expenditure, and supplying his soldiery with extravagant pay, he sharply rebuked him, saying, “that it was not the waste of the public money that vexed him so much as the ruin of the old frugal habits of the soldiers, who were led to indulge in pleasure and luxury by receiving more pay than was necessary to supply their daily wants.”  When Scipio answered that he did not require an economist for his quaestor, at a time when he was preparing to wage war on a grand scale, and reminded him that he would have to give an account to the Roman people of battles won, not of money expended, Cato left the army of Scipio, which was then being assembled in Sicily.  He proceeded at once to Rome, and by adding his voice to that of Fabius in the Senate, in blame of Scipio’s unspeakable waste of money, and his childish and unsoldierly love of the public games[26] and the theatre, conduct more worthy of the president of a public festival than of the commander-in-chief of an army, prevailed upon the people to send tribunes to enquire into the charges against him, and if they proved true, to bring him back to Rome.  When they arrived in Sicily, however, Scipio pointed out to them that the preparations which he had made would ensure him the victory, and that although he loved pleasant society in his hours of leisure, yet that he had never allowed his pleasures to interfere with his serious duties.  The tribunes were perfectly satisfied with this explanation, and Scipio sailed for Africa.