Chapter 22

Meanwhile M. Cato, who was in command at Utica, never left off assailing Cn. Pompeius, the son, with long and constant speeches of reproof. When your father was your age, he said, he perceived that the state was oppressed by wicked and vicious citizens, and that loyal men had either been put to death or else, punished by exile, were deprived of their country and civic rights. Whereupon, carried away by his ambition and the nobility of his nature, though a mere private citizen and a callow youth. In-mustered the remnants of his father’s army and emancipated Italy and the city of Rome when they were all but utterly overwhelmed and destroyed: and likewise he recovered Sicily, Africa, Numidia and Mauretania by force of anus with astonishing speed. By these achievements he won himself that prestige of his which in lustre and in fame is unequalled throughout the world, and, albeit a mere youth and a Roman knight, celebrated a triumph. And in his case his father had not the same imposing record as your father has, nor had he inherited from his ancestors the same position of eminent distinction, nor was he endowed with such influential ties of client-ship or with a famous name, when he entered public life. Whereas in your case not only are you endowed with the fame and prestige of your father, but you yourself arc also adequately endowed on your own account with nobility of nature and with earnestness. Will yon not therefore make an effort and set out in quest of your father’s clients to demand their assistance for yourself, for the state and for every loyal citizen?