Note 365 — Chapter II · THE HELLENIC PEOPLE GENERALLY, IN THE EARLY HISTORICAL TIMES.

Cato, Fragment. ed. Lion. p. 46; ap. Plin. H. N. xxii. 1. A remarkable extract from Cato’s letter to his son, intimating his strong antipathy to the Greeks; he proscribes their medicine altogether, and admits only a slight taste of their literature: “Quod bonum sit eorum literas inspicere, non per discere.... Jurarunt inter se, Barbaros necare omnes medicinâ, sed hoc ipsum mercede faciunt, ut fides iis sit et facile disperdant. Nos quoque dictitant Barbaros et spurios, nosque magis quam alios, Opicos appellatione fœdant.”