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
world, so to speak, had their eyes on Pompeius, Demetrius was courted
above his merits on account of his great influence with Pompeius. Now
the friends of Cato were seized with such a fit of laughter that they
could not contain themselves as they walked through the crowd, but
Cato, who at the time was vehemently disconcerted, uttered the words,
"O ill-fated city," and nothing more; afterwards however he was
accustomed to laugh at the matter himself both when he told the story
and when he thought of it.
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