CATO THE YOUNGER. 409 together with the ship and all her freight. And the other Cato himself kept safe, till he came to Corcyra, but there he set up his tent in the market-place, and the sailors being very cold in the night, made a great many fires, some of which caught the tents, so that they were burnt, and the book lost. And though he had brought with him several of Ptolemy's stewards, who could testify to his integrity, and stop the mouths of enemies and false accusers, yet the loss annoyed him, and he was vexed with himself about the matter, as he had designed them not so much for a proof of his own fidelity, as for a pattern of exactness to others. The news did not fail to reach Rome, that he was com- ing up the river. All the magistrates, the priests, and the whole senate, with great part of the people, went out to meet him ; both the banks of the Tiber were covered with people ; so that his entrance was in solemnity and honor hot inferior to a triumph. But it was thought somewhat strange, and looked like wilfulness and pride, that when the consuls and prastors appeared, he did not disembark, nor stay to salute them, but rowed up the stream in a royal galley of six banks of oars, and stopped not till he brought his vessels to the dock. However, when the money was carried through the streets, the peo- ple much wondered at the vast quantity of it, and the senate being assembled, decreed him in honorable terms an extraordinary proetorship, and also the privilege of appearing at the public spectacles in a robe faced with purple. Cato declined all these honors, but declaring what diligence and fidelity he had found in Nicias, the steward of Ptolemy, he requested the senate to give him his freedom. Philippus, the father of Marcia, was that year consul, and the authority and power of the office rested in a manner in Cato ; for the other consul paid him no less
