XII.  When the time of Cato’s service was at an end, he was attended on his departure, not with good wishes, which is usual, nor yet with praises, but with tears and never-satisfied embraces, the soldiers placing their garments under his feet on the way by which he went and kissing his hands, which the Romans of that day hardly ever did to any of their Imperators.  As he wished, before engaging in public affairs, at the same time to travel about to make himself acquainted with Asia, and to see with his own eyes the customs and mode of living and power of each province, and at the same time not to give any offence to the Galatian Deiotarus,[675] who prayed Cato to come to him on account of the ancient ties of hospitality and friendship that subsisted between him and Cato’s family, he made his sojourning after this fashion.  At daybreak he used to send forward his bread-maker and cook to the place where he intended to lodge; and it was their practice to enter the city with great decorum and no stir, and if there happened to be no ancient friend of Cato’s family there or no acquaintance, they would prepare for his reception in an inn without troubling anybody; and if there was no inn, they would in that case apply to the magistrates and gladly accept what accommodation was offered.  And oftentimes getting no credit, and being neglected because they did not apply to the magistrates about these matters with noise or threats, Cato came upon them before they had accomplished their business, and when he was seen, he was still more despised; and because he would sit silently on the baggage, he gave them the notion of being a person of mean condition and a very timid man.  However Cato would call them to him, and would say, “Ye miserable wretches, lay aside this inhospitable practice.  All those who come to you will not be Catos.  Dull by your kind reception the power of those who only want a pretext to take by force what they cannot get from you with your consent.”

XIII.  In Syria[676] a laughable incident is said to have happened to him.  For as he was walking to Antiocheia, he saw near the gates on the outside a number of men arranged on each side of the road, among whom young men by themselves in cloaks and boys on the other side stood in orderly wise, and some had white vests and crowns, and these were priests of the gods or magistrates.  Now Cato, being quite sure that some honourable reception was preparing for him by the city, was angry with those of his own people who had been sent on, for not having prevented this, and he bade his friends get off their horses and he proceeded with them on foot.  But when they came near, he who was arranging all this ceremony and setting the folk in order, a man somewhat advanced in years, holding a rod in his hand and a chaplet, advanced in front of the rest, and meeting Cato, without even saluting him, asked where they had left Demetrius and when he would be there.  Demetrius had been a slave of Pompeius, but at this time, as all the