1He held the consulship with Lucius Valerius Flaccus. 1Having obtained by lot the province of Hither Spain, he brought back a triumph from it. 2When he stayed there rather long, Publius Scipio Africanus, consul for the second time, whose quaestor he had been in his earlier consulship, wanted to drive him from the province and succeed him himself, but could not achieve this through the senate, although Scipio held the first place in the state, because at that time the state was governed not by power but by law. 2Angry with the senate over this, when his consulship was over he remained in the city as a private citizen. 3But Cato, made censor with the same Flaccus, exercised that office strictly.
3For he both punished a number of nobles and added many new provisions to the edict by which luxury might be checked, which was already then beginning to sprout. 4For about eighty years, from his youth right up to the end of his life, he never ceased incurring enmities for the sake of the state. 4Though attacked by many, he not only suffered no loss of reputation, but as long as he lived grew in the praise of his virtues.