«Symposion» and «Philanthropia» in Plutarch - Bad Request ...

Mark Beckis interpreted by Plutarch as signaling a failure in his philosophic training(Cat. Mi. 11. 3-8) 52 , a failing shared by another contemporary Roman devoteeof Greek philosophy, Cicero, whose overwhelming grief at the death of hisdaughter Tullia is regarded by Plutarch as a sign of the statesman’s philosophicinsufficiency (Cic. 41.8) 53 .Michael Trapp has rightly pointed out that Socrates is an intermediaryfoil sharing resemblances that allow comparison of Cato and Phocion ina way that obviates the need for a formal synkrisis at the end, which thispair lacks 54 . He also notes (correctly in my opinion) that the message –whatever it may be – that Plutarch is seeking to communicate “bears moreclosely on Cato than on Phocion” 55 . Trapp then suggests that Plutarch’sintent was to critique subtly earlier Roman writing on Cato known (?) fromCicero’s Tusculan Disputations (1.71ff.); Cicero had employed the Cato-Socrates comparison to embellish the man’s legend 56 . For Cicero, Cato inparticular exemplified the principle that the philosopher’s way of life is reallya preparation for death. In a particularly telling passage a comparison ofCato’s with Socrates’s mode of death serves to introduce a paraphrase ofPlato’s Phaedo 57 (Tusc. 1.71-75). Undoubtedly there was more of this inCicero’s lost work Cato, in response to which Caesar penned his scathingAnti-Cato, also lost to us 58 . This book, as Goar notes, “established Cato as52[sc. Κάτων] ἐμπαθέστερον ἔδοξεν ἢ φιλοσοφώτερον ἐνεγκεῖν τὴν συμφοράν. Cf. Consol.ad uxor. 608c, 609b, 611a. See also T. Duff, 1999, p. 151. We are informed in the Life (Cat. Mi.6.2-4) that Cato’s civic duties kept him from literary pursuits (philologein) and that he spent hisnights drinking and conversing with philosophers (νύκτωρ καὶ παρὰ πότον συγγίνεσθαι τοῖςφιλοσόφοις). Early in the Life we are led to question Cato’s pursuit of literature in a passagethat stresses his excessive love of dice-throwing and overindulgence in drinking: “At suppers hewould throw dice for the choice of portions [. . .] At first, also, he would drink once after supperand then leave the table; but as time went on he would allow himself to drink very generously,so that he often tarried at his wine till early morning. His friends used to say that the cause ofthis was his civic and public activities; he was occupied with these all day, and so prevented fromliterary pursuits, wherefore he would hold intercourse with the philosophers at night and overthe cups. For this reason, too, when a certain Memmius remarked in company that Cato spenthis entire nights in drinking, Cicero answered him by saying: ‘Shouldn’t you add that he alsospends his entire days throwing dice?’”(Cat. Mi. 6.2-5)53Cf. also Cicero’s reaction to his exile (32.5-7). S. Swain, 1990b/1995, p. 242f. sees excessivegrief in Plutarch as symptomatic of “ineffective education”. For Plutarch’s attitude towards howone ought to mourn the death of a loved one see the Life of Fabius Maximus 24.6.54M. Trapp, 1999, p. 495: “And Socrates, ultimately the Socrates of the Phaedo, is theprinciple medium through which the comparison is developed. Plutarch uses him as a ‘thirdman’, a tertium comparationis whose resemblances to both of the other two individually allowthem to be compared not only with him but with each other.” The only other pairs lacking aformal synkrisis are the Lives of Themistocles and Camillus, Pyrrhus and Marius, and Alexander theGreat and Caesar.55M. Trapp, 1999, p. 496.56M. Trapp, 1999, p. 496 (Trapp himself does not in the end subscribe to this view). Seealso J. Geiger, 1999, pp. 357-64 on the subsequent tradition of the Cato/Socrates coupling.57Cf. Pl., Phaedo 67d and 80e58On Cicero’s role in establishing the Cato legend and Caesar’s response see R. Goar, 1987,156