16 



CATO 



Cato, DIONYSIUS, is the name prefixed to a little 

 volume of moral precepts in verse, which was a 

 great favourite during the middle ages, but the 

 author of which is unknown. Its usual title is 

 Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium. 

 It begins with a preface addressed by the supposed 

 author to his son, after which come fifty-six injunc- 

 tions of rather a simple character, such as par- 

 entem ama. Next follow 164 moral precepts, each 

 expressed in two dactylic hexameters, the 'whole 

 monotheistic in tone without being distinctly Chris- 

 tian. The book was early translated into most of 

 the western languages. An English version by 

 Benedict Burgh was printed by Caxton before 1479. 

 A good edition is Hauthal's (Berlin, 1869). 



CatO, MAKCUS PORCIUS, frequently surnamed 

 Censorius or Censor, also Sapiens ( ' the wise ' ), and 

 afterwards PRISCUS or MAJOR to distinguish him 

 from his great-grandson, Cato of Utica was born 

 at Tusculum in 234 B.C. He was brought up on 

 his father's farm in the Sabine country, and here he 

 learned to love the simple and severe manners of 

 his Roman forefathers. He made his first campaign 

 in his seventeenth year, distinguished himself at 

 the capture of Tarentum (209), at the defeat of 

 Hasdrubal on the Metaurus ( 207 ), and in the later 

 years of the second Punic war. At the same time 

 lie had been making himself a reputation as an 

 orator and statesman. He became quaestor in 204, 

 and served under the pro-consul Scipio Africanus in 

 Sicily and Africa, denouncing his commander's 

 luxury and extravagance on his return to Rome. 

 He was aedile in 199, and praetor the following 

 year, when he obtained Sardinia as his province. 

 So high was his reputation for capacity and virtue, 

 that in 195, although his family had hitherto been 

 unknown, he was raised to the consulship. Spain 

 fell to him as his province, and here he showed such 

 vigour and military genius in crushing a formidable 

 insurrection, that in the following year he was 

 honoured by a triumph. In 191 he served in the 

 campaign against Antiochus, and to him the great 

 victory won at Thermopylae was mainly due. He 

 now turned himself strenuously to civil affairs, and 

 strove with all his might to stem the tide of Greek 

 refinement and luxury, and advocate a return to 

 a simpler and stricter social life after the ancient 

 Roman pattern. In 187 he opposed the granting of 

 a triumph to M. Fulvius Nobilior after his return 

 from ^Etolia victorious, on the ground that ha was 

 too indulgent to his soldiers, that he cherished 

 literary tastes, and even kept poets in his camp. 

 These rude prejudices of Cato were not acceptable 

 to the senate, and his opposition was fruitless. In 

 184 Cato was elected censor, and discharged so 

 rigorously the duties of his office that the epithet 

 Censorius, formerly applied to all persons in the 

 same station, became his permanent surname. He 

 repaired the watercourses, paved the reservoirs, 

 cleansed the drains, raised the rents paid by the 

 publicans for the farming of the taxes, and 

 diminished the contract prices paid by the state to 

 the undertakers of public works. More question- 

 able reforms were those in regard to the price of 

 slaves, dress, furniture, equipage, and the like. 

 Good and bad innovations he opposed with equal 

 animosity and intolerance, and his despotism in 

 enforcing his own idea of decency may be illustrated 

 from the fact that he degraded Manilius, a man of 

 praetorian rank, for having kissed his wife in his 

 daughter's presence in open day. 



In th year 175 Cato was sent to Carthage to 

 arbitrate between the Carthaginians and King 

 Masinissa, and was so impressed by the dangerous 

 power of Carthage that ever afterwards he ended 

 every speech in the senate-house whatever the 

 immediate subject might be with the well-known 

 words : ' Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam ' 



( ' For the rest, I vote that Carthage must be de- 

 stroyed ' ). Cato died in the year 149, at the age 

 of 85. He had been twice married, and in his 

 eightieth year his second wife bore him a son, the 

 grandfather of Cato of Utica. Cato treated his 

 slaves with old-fashioned harshness and cruelty, 

 and in his old age became greedy of gain, although 

 it cannot be said that his avarice impaired his 

 honesty. He wrote several works, of which only 

 the De Re Rustica (ed. by Keil, 1882-94), a kind 

 of collection of the rules of good husbandry, 

 has come down to us. There exist but a few frag- 

 ments of his Origines, a summary of the Roman 

 annals. These are reprinted by Jordan (Leip. 

 1860). Of his speeches, which were read with 

 approval by Cicero, none remain. We possess his 

 life as written by Cornelius Nepos, Plutarch, and 

 Aurelius Victor. 



Cato, MARCUS PORCIUS, named CATO THE 

 YOUNGER, or CATO UTICENSIS (from the place of 

 his death), was born 95 B.C. Having lost, during 

 childhood, both parents, he was educated in the 

 house of his uncle, M. Livius Drusus, and, even in 

 his boyhood, gave proofs of his decision and strength 

 of character. In the year 72 B.C. he served with 

 distinction in the campaign against Spartacus, but 

 without finding satisfaction in military life, though 

 he proved himself a good soldier. From Mace- 

 donia, where he was military tribune in 67, he went 

 to Pergamus in search of the Stoic philosopher, 

 Athenodorus. He brought him back to his camp, 

 and induced him to proceed with him to Rome, 

 where he spent the time partly in philosophical 

 studies, and partly in forensic discussions. Desir- 

 ous of honestly qualifying himself for the quaestor- 

 ship, he commenced to study all the financial 

 questions connected with it. Immediately after 

 his election he introduced, in spite of violent 

 opposition from those interested, a rigorous reform 

 into the treasury offices. He quitted the qua>stor- 

 ship at the appointed time amid general applause. 

 In 63 B.C. he was elected tribune, and also de- 

 livered his famous speech on the conspiracy of 

 Catiline, in which he denounced Caesar as an 

 accomplice of that political desperado, and deter- 

 mined the sentence of the senate. Strongly dread- 

 ing the influence of unbridled greatness, and not 

 discerning that an imperial genius like that of 

 Caesar was the only thing that could remedy 

 the evils of that overgrown monster, the Roman 

 Republic, he commenced a career of what now 

 appears to us blind pragmatical opposition to the 

 three most powerful men in Rome Crassus, Pom- 

 pey, and Caesar. Cato was a noble but strait-laced 

 theorist, who lacked the intuition into circum- 

 stances which belongs to men like Caesar and 

 Cromwell. His first opposition to Pompey was 

 successful ; but his opposition to Caesar's consulate 

 for the year 59 not only failed, but even served to 

 hasten the formation of the first triumvirate be- 

 tween Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. He was after- 

 wards forced to side with Pompey, who had with- 

 drawn from his connection with Caesar, and become 

 reconciled to the aristocracy. After the battle of 

 Pharsalia (48), Cato intended to join Pompey, but 

 hearing the news of his death, escaped into Africa, 

 where he was elected commander by the partisans 

 of Pompey, but resigned the post in favour of 

 Metellus Scipio, and undertook the defence of 

 Utica. Here, when he had tidings of Caesar's 

 decisive victory over Scipio at Thapsus (46), Cato, 

 finding that his troops were wholly intimidated, 

 advised the Roman senators and knights to escape 

 from Utica, and make terms with the victor, but 

 prohibited all intercessions on his own behalf. He 

 resolved to die rather than surrender, and, after 

 spending the night in reading Plato's Phcedo, com- 

 mitted suicide by stabbing himself in the breast 



