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Portius was one of the leading members, and on his death in 1736 laid the foundation of a valuable builders' library by giving his rare collection of early architectural books to the company.
And a consular law, passed by Lucius Valerius Politus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus, men justly popular for promoting union and concord, enacted that no magistrate should thenceforth be appointed with authority to judge without appeal; and the Portian laws, the work of three citizens of the name of Portius, as you are aware, added nothing new to this edict but a penal sanction.
In the beginning of the second century before Christ we notice the erection of basilicas, used as courts of law and a sort of exchange, the first of which was built by M. Portius Cato, B.C. 184, on the north side of the Forum. It was of an oblong form, open to the air, surrounded with columns, at one end of which was the tribunal of the judge.
The first great historian was Sallust, the contemporary of Cicero, born B.C. 86, the year that Marius died. Q. Fabius Pictor, M. Portius Cato, L. Cal. Piso had already written works which are mentioned with respect by the Latin authors, but they were mere annalists or antiquarians, like the chroniclers of the Middle Ages, and had no claim as artists.
About the same time, Lucius Manlius Acidinus, on his return from Spain, was hindered from entering the city in ovation by Marcus Portius Laeca, plebeian tribune, notwithstanding he had obtained permission of the senate: coming, then, into the city in a private character, he conveyed to the treasury one thousand two hundred pounds' weight of silver, and about thirty pounds' weight of gold.
"Upon the departure of Portius, Sempronius makes but one soliloquy, and immediately in comes Syphax, and then the two politicians are at it immediately. They lay their heads together, with their snuff-boxes in their hands, as Mr. Bayes has it, and feague it away. But, in the midst of that wise scene, Syphax seems to give a seasonable caution to Sempronius:
And yet the author of this tragedy does not only run counter to this, in the fate of his principal character; but everywhere, throughout it, makes virtue suffer, and vice triumph: for not only Cato is vanquished by Caesar, but the treachery and perfidiousness of Syphax prevail over the honest simplicity and the credulity of Juba; and the sly subtlety and dissimulation of Portius over the generous frankness and open-heartedness of Marcus."
Sallust likewise makes M. Portius Cato say this: The help of the gods is not obtained by idle vows and womanish complaints; 'tis by vigilance, labour, and repeated endeavours that all things succeed according to our wishes and designs. If a man in time of need and danger is negligent, heartless, and lazy, in vain he implores the gods; they are then justly angry and incensed against him.
In vain did M. Portius Cato, the most remarkable man who adorned this degenerate age, lift up his voice against increasing corruption. In vain were his stringent measures as censor. In vain did he strike senators from the list, and make an onslaught on the abuses of his day. In vain were his eloquence, his simple manners, his rustic garb, and his patriotic warnings.
Penn induced James Portius to come to the new world to design and execute his proprietary buildings, and Portius was accompanied and followed by others of more or less skill in the same and allied trades.
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