Now I have told this at
some length, because I consider such things to contain a certain
evidence for the exhibition and perception of character no less than
public and great acts.
XXXVIII. Cato[715] got together nearly seven thousand talents of
silver, and being afraid of the length of the voyage, he had many
vessels made, each of which contained two talents and five hundred
drachmae, and he fastened to each vessel a long rope, to the end of
which was attached a very large piece of cork, with the view, that if
the ship were wrecked, the cork holding the vessels suspended in the
deep sea might indicate the place. Now the money, with the exception
of a small part, was safely conveyed; but though he had accounts of
all his administration carefully drawn up in two books, he saved
neither of them. One of them was in the care of his freedman
Philargyros, who set sail from Kenchreae,[716] but was wrecked, and
lost the book and all the cargo with it: the other he had safely
carried as far as Corcyra, where he pitched his tent in the Agora; but
the sailors on account of the cold having lighted many fires, the
tents were burnt in the night, and the book was destroyed. The king's
managers who were present were ready to stop the mouths of the enemies
and detractors of Cato; but the matter gave him annoyance for other
reasons. For it was not to prove his own integrity, but to set an
example of exact dealing to others that he was ambitious to produce
his accounts, and this was the cause of his vexation.
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