much to fear from Carthage as ever.  He quickly returned home, and pointed out to the Senate that the former defeats and misfortunes suffered by the Carthaginians had not really broken their strength so much as they had dissipated their overweening self-confidence, and that in the late war they had not lost so much in strength as they had gained in experience and skill.  Their present difference with the Numidians was, he urged, merely a prelude to an attack upon Rome, with which city they kept up the fiction of a peace which would soon upon a suitable opportunity be exchanged for war.

XXVII.  After these words it is said that Cato threw down in the senate house some ripe figs which he had brought on purpose; and when the senators admired their size and beauty, he remarked that “the country which produced this fruit is only three days’ sail distant from Rome.”  Another and a more violent method of forcing the Romans to attack them was his habit, when giving his opinion on any subject whatever, to append the words, “And I also am of opinion that Carthage must he destroyed.”  On the other hand, Publius Scipio, called Nasica, used to end all his speeches with the words, “And I further am of opinion that Carthage should be left alone.”  Scipio’s reason for this was that he perceived that the lower classes in Rome, elated by success, were becoming difficult for the Senate to manage, and practically forced the State to adopt whatever measures they chose.  He thought that to have this fear of Carthage kept constantly hanging over them would be a salutary check upon the insolence of the people, and he thought that although Carthage was too weak to conquer the Romans, yet that it was too strong to be despised by them.  Cato, on the other hand, thought it a dangerous thing that, at a time when the Romans were giddy and drunk with power, they should leave in existence a city which always had been important, and which now, sobered by defeat, was biding its time and lying in wait for a favourable opportunity to avenge itself.  He argued that it was better to set the Romans free from any fear of foreign states, in order that they might be able to devote themselves uninterruptedly to the task of political reform.

These are said to have been Cato’s reasons for urging his countrymen to begin the third and last Punic war.  He died as soon as the war was begun, leaving a prophecy that it would be finished by a young man who was then serving as military tribune, and who had given remarkable proofs of courage and generalship.  Cato, on hearing of his exploits is said to have quoted Homer’s line—­

     “He alone has solid wisdom; all the rest are shadows vain.”

This opinion Scipio soon confirmed by his actions.

Cato left one son by his second wife, who, as has been said, was named Salonius, and one grandson, the child of his eldest son who was dead.  Salonius died during his praetorship, but his son Marcus became consul.  This man was the grandfather of Cato the Philosopher, who was one of the foremost men of his day in courage and ability.