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22As regards the former, I have already stated who he was, and how, while paying court to the populace, and while generally striving to destroy Pompey’s power, he nevertheless made a friend of him in cases where he would thereby please the populace and gain strength himself. But this Cato belonged to the family of the Porcii and emulated the great Cato, except that he had enjoyed a better Greek education than the former. 2He diligently promoted the interests of the plebs, and admired no one man, but was thoroughly devoted to the common weal. Suspicious of unlimited power, he hated any one who had grown above his fellows, but loved any one of the common people through pity for his weakness. 3He was becoming the friend of the people such as no one else, and indulged in outspokenness in behalf of the right, even when it involved danger. Yet he did all this not with a view to power or glory or any honour, but solely for the sake of a life of independence, free from the dictation of tyrants. 4Such was the nature of the man who now for the first time came forward and opposed the measures under consideration, not out of any hostility to Pompey, but because they were contrary to precedent.
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