LIBER VII · CAPUT 27
UNION IN THE SAME PERSON OF THREE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITIES WITH THE GREATEST PURITY
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Ceteris virtutum generibus varie et multi fuere praestantes. Cato primus Porciae gentis tres summas in homine res praestitisse existimatur, ut esset optimus orator, optimus imperator, optimus senator, quae mihi omnia, etiamsi non prius, attamen clarius fulsisse in Scipione Aemiliano videntur, dempto praeterea plurimorum odio, quo Cato laboravit. itaque sit proprium Catonis quater et quadragiens causam dixisse, nec quemquam saepius postulatum et semper absolutum.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
Many other men have excelled in different kinds of virtues. Cato, however, who was the first of the Porcian family, is generally thought to have been an example of the three greatest of human endowments, for he was the most talented orator, the most talented general, and the most talented politician; all which merits, if they were not perceptible before him, still shone forth, more refulgently even, in my opinion, in Scipio Æmilianus, who besides was exempted from that hatred on the part of many others under which Cato laboured: in consequence of which it was, what must be owned to be a peculiarity in Cato’s career, that he had to plead his own cause no less than four and forty times; and yet, though no person was so frequently accused, he was always acquitted.