LXIX.  As he said this the youth went out weeping, and all the rest, except Demetrius and Apollonides, to whom when they were left by themselves Cato begun to speak in milder terms, and said, “I suppose you too have resolved by force to keep alive a man of my age and to sit here in silence and to watch him, or are you come to prove that it is neither a shocking nor a shameful thing for Cato, when he has no other way to save his life, to wait for mercy from his enemy?  Why then do you not speak and convince me of this and teach me a new doctrine, that we may cast away those former opinions and reasons in which we lived together, and being made wiser through Caesar owe him the greater thanks for it?  And yet for my part I have come to no resolve about myself, but it is necessary that when I have resolved I have power to do what I have determined.  And I will deliberate in a manner together with you, deliberating with the reasons which even you in your philosophy follow.  Go away then in good heart and tell my son not to force his father when he cannot persuade him.”

LXX.  Upon this Demetrius and Apollonides without making any reply retired weeping.  The sword was sent in by a child, and when Cato received it he drew it and looked at it.  Seeing that the point was entire and the edge preserved, he said, “Now I am my own master,” and laying the sword down, he began reading the book again, and he is said to have read it through twice.[754] He then fell into so sound a sleep that those who were outside the chamber were aware of it, and about midnight he called his freedmen Cleanthes the physician and Butas whom he employed chief of all in public matters.  He sent Butas to the sea to examine if all had set sail and to report to him, and he presented his hand to the physician to tie it up, as it was inflamed from the blow which he gave the slave.  And this made them all more cheerful, for they thought that Cato was inclined to live.  In a little time Butas came and reported that all had set sail except Crassus,[755] who was detained by some business, and that even he was now all but on board, and that a violent storm and wind prevailed at sea.  Cato hearing this groaned for pity of those who were at sea and he sent Butas again to the sea, to learn if any one were driven back and waited any necessaries, and to let him know.  And now the birds were beginning to sing,[756] and he sank asleep again for a while.  When Butas had returned and reported that all was quiet about the ports, Cato, bidding him close the door, threw himself on the bed as if he were going to sleep for the rest of the night.  When Butas had gone out, he drew the sword and thrust it beneath his chest, but as he used his hand with less effect owing to the inflammation, he did not immediately despatch himself, and having some difficulty in dying he fell from the bed and made a noise by overturning a little abacus of the geometrical kind that stood by, which his attendants perceiving called out and his son and