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COMPARISON OF ARISTIDES WITH MARCUS CATC. Having mentioned the most memorable actions of these great men, if we now compare the whole life of the one with that of the other, it will not be easy to discern the difference between them, lost as it is amongst such a num- ber of circumstances in which they resemble each other. If, however, we examine them in detail as we might some piece of poetry, or some picture, we shall find this com- mon to them both, that they advanced themselves to great honor and dignity in the commonwealth, by no other means than their own virtue and industry. But it seems •when Aristides appeared, Athens was not at its height of grandeur and plenty, the chief magistrates and oflficers of his time being men only of moderate and equal for- tunes among themselves. The estimate of the greatest estates then, was five hundred medimns; that of the second, or knights, three hundred ; of the third and last called Zeugitae, two hundred. But Cato, out of a petty village from a country life, leaped into the commonwealth, as it were into a vast ocean ; at a time when there were no such governors as the Curii, Fabricii, and Hostilii. Poor laboring men were not then advanced from the plough and spade to be governors and magistrates ; but greatness of family, riches, profuse gifts, distributions, and personal application were what the city looked to ; keep- VOL. II. 23