t when it appeared that they
were marching to take possession of the hill, the Carthaginian general
sent against them the ablest men of his army, both horse and foot. The
Roman soldiers were surrounded, and being surrounded, fought; the
contest was long doubtful, but numbers at length prevailed; the four
hundred, to a man, were either slain with the sword or buried under
missile weapons. The consul, in the interval of the engagement,
withdrew his troops to a spot high and secure, but the event which
happened to this tribune who commanded the four hundred, I shall
subjoin, not in my own but Cato's words: "The immortal gods gave the
military tribune a fortune suitable to his valor: for thus it
happened, when he was wounded in every other part, his head alone was
unhurt, and when they distinguished him amongst the dead, exhausted
with wounds, and breathing with difficulty from loss of blood, they
bore him off. He recovered, and often afterwards performed bold and
eminent services to his country; and this exploit of his detaching
these troops preserved the remainder of the army. But the place where
the same deed is done, is of great importance. Leonidas of Lacedaemon,
whose conduct was the same at Thermopylae, is extolled; on account of
his virtues all Greece celebrated his glory, and raised his name to
the highest degree of eminence, testifying their gratitude for his
exploit by monuments, trophies, statues, panegyrics, histories, and
other similar means. But to this tribune of the people, who did the
same thing, and saved his country, small praise has been assigned."

JACOB CATS

(1577-1660)

[Illustration: JACOB CATS]

The life of Jacob Cats falls within the golden age of Dutch
literature, represented in the north by Hooft, Roemer Visscher, and
Joost van den Vondel, and in the south by the Zeeland circle of poets,
among whom Cats was undoubtedly the greatest. There have been times
when Cats's was the one name among Dutch poets; in homes where no
other books were found, one might at least be sure of finding the
Bible and "Father Cats." But it is doubtful whether he would be
considered great outside of Holland. He is the most prosaic of poets,
has limited power of language and a still more limited choice of
versification; with these drawbacks he is, however, most
characteristically Dutch, partly on account of his practical moral
teachings and partly on account of the monotonous tic-tac of his
verse. The erect