VI.  Self-denial, upon which Cato has bestowed such lavish praise, was practised in its purest and brightest form by Aristeides, while Cato seems to have forfeited all claim to this virtue by his unsuitable and unseasonable second marriage.  It could not be to his honour, when he was of such a great age, to marry the daughter of his own servant, a man who acted as a public clerk, and to bring her into the house to act as mother-in-law to his son, who was now himself grown up and married.  Whether he acted thus from natural inclination, or to spite his son for his behaviour about his mistress, the marriage and the motives which led to it are equally discreditable to him.  The sarcastic explanation of it which he gave to his son is utterly untrue; for had he wished to beget other children as noble as his son, he ought to have married a well-born lady at once, and not to have been satisfied with a low intrigue until it was detected, and then to have chosen as his father-in-law, the man whom he could most easily influence, rather than some one whose alliance would bring him honour and advantage.

LIFE OF PHILOPOEMEN.

I. In the city of Mantinea there was a citizen named Kleander, of one of the first families, and of great influence.  Nevertheless he was so unfortunate as to be forced to leave his native city, and take refuge in Megalopolis, to which he was chiefly attracted by Kraugis, the father of Philopoemen, a man eminent in every respect, and an especial private friend of Kleander.  While Kraugis lived, Kleander wanted for nothing, and after his death endeavoured to repay the debt which he owed him by devoting himself to the education of his orphan son, just as Homer tells us that Achilles was nurtured by the exile Phoenix.  The child, who always was of a noble and commanding spirit, grew under his care into a youth of great promise.  As he came near to manhood Ekdemus and Megalophanes, two citizens of Megalopolis, took charge of his education.  These men had studied in the Academy with Arkesilaus, and more than any others brought the lessons of philosophy to bear upon politics and the daily affairs of life.  They freed their own country of the despot Aristodemus by secretly contriving his assassination, drove out the despot Nikokles from Sikyon, with the help of Aratus, and, at the request of the people of Kyrene, whose state was a prey to revolution, they went to that country and restored order and respect for the laws.  They themselves, however, reckoned their most important work to have been the education of Philopoemen, because by bringing him up in the precepts of true philosophy they made him a benefactor to all Greece.  And truly Greece loved him exceedingly, as the last great man born of her old age, after so many great and famous men of former times.  A Roman speaking in his praise called him the last of the Greeks, as though he thought that Greece had never after him produced any son worthy of herself.