He was a good father, an excellent husband to his wife, and an
extraordinary economist; and as he did not manage his affairs of
this kind carelessly, and as things of little moment, I think I
ought to record a little further whatever was commendable in him
in these points. He married a wife more noble than rich; being of
opinion that the rich and the high-born are equally haughty and
proud; but that those of noble blood would be more ashamed of base
things, and consequently more obedient to their husbands in all
that was fit and right. A man who beat his wife or child, laid
violent hands, he said, on what was most sacred; and a good
husband he reckoned worthy of more praise than a great senator;
and he admired the ancient Socrates for nothing so much, as for
having lived a temperate and contented life with a wife who was a
scold, and children who were half-witted.
When his son began to come to years of discretion, Cato himself
would teach him to read, although he had a servant, a very good
grammarian, called Chilo, who taught many others; but he thought
not fit, as he himself said, to have his son reprimanded by a
slave, or pulled, it may be, by the ears when found tardy in his
lesson: nor would he have him owe to a servant the obligation of
so great a thing as his learning; he himself, therefore, taught
him his grammar, his law, and his gymnastic exercises.
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