But when he had
begun to talk with him about his own affairs, and listened to words
full of wisdom and plain-speaking, for Cato reproved him and showed
what a happy condition he had left and to what servitude and toils and
corruption and love of aggrandisement in the chief men of the Romans
he was subjecting himself, whom scarcely Egypt would satisfy if it
were all turned into silver, and Cato advised the king to return and
be reconciled to his people, and said that he was ready to sail with
him and assist in bringing about an accommodation, the king, as if he
had been brought to his senses from some madness or delirium by the
words of Cato, and perceiving the integrity and judgment of the man,
was resolved to follow his advice. However, the king was again turned
by his friends to his original design, but as soon as he was in Rome
and was approaching the door of one of the magistrates, he groaned
over his ill resolve, as if he had rejected, not the advice of a good
man, but the prophetic warning of a deity.
XXXVI. The Ptolemaeus in Cyprus, to Cato's good luck, poisoned himself;
and as it was said that he had left a large sum of money, Cato
determined to go to Byzantium himself, and he sent his nephew
Brutus[712] to Cyprus, because he did not altogether trust Canidius.
After bringing the exiles to terms with their fellow-citizens and
leaving Byzantium at peace with itself, he sailed to Cyprus.
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