Accordingly when Cato observed to the women, that he who was
connected with Pompeius by marriage, must of necessity participate in
such measures and be loaded with the disgrace of them, they admitted
that he had judged better in rejecting the alliance of Pompeius. But
if we may judge by the result, Cato appears to have made a complete
mistake in not accepting the proposed alliance with Pompeius, and
allowing him to turn to Caesar and to contract a marriage, which, by
uniting the power of Pompeius and Caesar, nearly overthrew the Roman
state and did destroy the constitution, nothing of which probably
would have happened if Cato had not, through fear of the small errors
of Pompeius, overlooked the greatest, which was the allowing him to
increase the power of another.
XXXI. These things, however, were still in the future. Now when
Lucullus was engaged in a contest with Pompeius respecting the
arrangements made in Pontus, for each of them wished his own
arrangements to be confirmed, and Cato gave his aid to Lucullus, who
was manifestly wronged, Pompeius being worsted in the Senate and
seeking to make himself popular, proposed a division of lands among
the soldiery. But when Cato opposed him in this measure also and
frustrated the law, Pompeius next attached himself to Clodius, the
boldest of the demagogues at that time, and gained over Caesar,[702] to
which Cato in a manner gave occasion.
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