CATO THE STERN
Or perhaps:
“He who takes what belongs to the public is a thief, even though he is a man of noble birth and dwells in a villa. And Carthage must be destroyed!”
And Carthage was indeed destroyed 146 B.C., but not till after Cato's death, which occurred 149 B.C.
I am sorry to tell you that, when any slave of his was old and useless, he would sell him. The writer Plutarch (Ploo-tark), in whose book I find the tales I tell you, was a kind-hearted man, and he made some wise remarks about justice to servants, and even animals that serve us; and I will copy his words out for you:
A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but when old and past service. Thus the people of Athens, when they had finished building a temple, set at liberty the beasts of burden that had been chiefly employed in that work, suffering them to pasture at large, free from any further service. It is said that one of them afterward came of its own accord to work, and, putting himself at the head of the laboring cattle, marched before them to the citadel. This pleased the people, and they made a decree that it should be kept at the public expense as long as it lived. The graves of Kimon's mares, with which he thrice won races at the Olympic games, are still to be seen near his own tomb. Many men have shown particular marks of re-
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