After supper the drinking went
on with much gaiety and enjoyment, one philosophical subject after
another taking its turn, till at last the enquiry came round to the
so-called paradoxes of the Stoics, that the good man alone is free,
and that all the bad are slaves. Hereupon the Peripatetic making
objections, as one might expect, Cato broke in with great vehemence,
and with a loud tone and harsh voice maintained his discourse at great
length, and displayed wonderful energy, so that no one failed to
observe that he had resolved to end his life and relieve himself from
present troubles. Wherefore as there was silence and depression of
spirits among all the company, after he had done speaking, with the
view of cheering them up and diverting their suspicions, Cato again
begun to put questions and to express anxiety about the state of
affairs, and his fears for those who had sailed away, and also for
those who were going through a waterless and barbarian desert.
LXVIII. At the end of the entertainment he took his usual walk with
his friends after supper, and after giving the officers of the watch
the proper orders, he retired to his chamber, but he first embraced
his son and his friends with more than his usual expression of
kindness, which again made them suspect what was going to happen. On
entering his chamber and lying down he took Plato's dialogue on the
Soul,[753] and when he had gone through the greater part of it, he
looked up over his head, and not seeing his sword hanging there, for
his son had caused it to be taken away while he was at supper, he
called a slave and asked who had taken his sword.
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