Lessico
Catone il Censore
In latino Marcus
Porcius Cato Censorius. Uomo politico e scrittore latino (Tuscolo
234-149 aC). Appartenente a una famiglia di proprietari terrieri, presto si
trasferì a Roma, dove fece una fortunata carriera pubblica: questore in
Sicilia nel 204, fu console nel 195 e censore nel 184. Combatté nella II
guerra punica,
in Oriente e in Spagna, dove si meritò anche il trionfo; governò la
Sardegna, fu attivissimo nei tribunali e in Senato, rendendosi celebre per la
sua opposizione a ogni novità e all'influsso crescente della Grecia, favorito
in Roma dagli Scipioni. Morì poco prima della distruzione, da lui
ostinatamente propugnata, di Cartagine.
Compose la maggior parte delle sue opere letterarie in vecchiaia, ritirato ormai dalla vita attiva, e ispirandosi a scopi pratici. Per evitare al figlio Marco maestri greci, scrisse per lui una breve enciclopedia di nozioni utili (Praecepta ad filium); molti precetti gli diede anche nelle Epistulae. Sviluppando queste opere, scrisse poi più ampi trattati a uso pubblico.
Ci resta quello sull'agricoltura - De agricultura -, la più antica opera latina in prosa giunta per intero fino a noi, che parla delle incombenze del padrone di casa, dei lavori campestri stagionali, dell’allevamento del bestiame e delle sue malattie - comprese quelle delle piante - della produzione di olio e di vino.
Il suo De agricultura - scritto fra il 190 e il 180 aC - è un trattato di tecnica agricola, arido e slegato: si tratta di consigli, di istruzioni, e quelle relative ai volatili consistono solo in come ingrassarli (galline, oche, giovani piccioni). Catone non fornisce alcun dato anatomico sul pollo, neppure un accenno a quale sia il colore del piumaggio eventualmente ritenuto migliore.
Di Catone
sono moltissime le orazioni, assai efficaci e personali, semplici nello stile,
come possiamo giudicare da frammenti. Anche della grande opera storica, le Origines,
non conosciamo che pochi frammenti. Vi era narrata la fondazione di Roma e le
origini delle altre stirpi italiche, quindi la storia della penisola, con le
due prime guerre puniche e le operazioni in Oriente e in Spagna fino al 151
aC, in 7 libri.
da
Veterum illustrium philosophorum etc. imagines (1685)
di Giovanni Pietro Bellori (Roma 1613-1696)
Marco Porcio Catone (latino Marcus Porcius Cato, nelle epigrafi m·porcivs·m·f·cato; Tusculum, 234 aC circa – 149 aC) è stato un politico e generale romano, soprannominato "il Censore" (Censor), Sapiens, Priscus, o Maior (l'anziano), per distinguerlo da Catone il giovane, suo bis-nipote.
« I ladri di beni privati passano la vita in carcere e in catene, quelli di beni pubblici nelle ricchezze e negli onori » (Catone, citato da Aulo Gellio in Noctes Atticae)
« Carthago delenda est » (Catone il Censore, al termine di ogni sua orazione pubblica)
« Mai l'uomo è così attivo come quando non fa nulla, mai meno solo di quando è in compagnia di se stesso » (Catone il Censore)
Biografia
« M. Cato mira fuit industria: nam et agricola
sedulus et peritus iurisconsultus et magnus imperator
et probatus orator et cupidissimus litterarum fuit»
« M. Catone (il Censore) si distinse per una meravigliosa operosità:
infatti fu diligente agricoltore, perito giureconsulto,
grande comandante, abile oratore e grande appassionato della letteratura »
(Cornelio Nepote, ca. 100 - ca. 30 aC)
Catone nacque da un'antica famiglia plebea che si era fatta notare per qualche servizio militare, ma non nobilitata dal fatto di aver rifiutato le più importanti cariche civili. Fu allevato, secondo la tradizione dei suoi antenati latini, perché divenisse agricoltore, attività alla quale egli si dedicò costantemente quando non fu impegnato nel servizio militare. Ma, avendo attirato l'attenzione di Lucio Valerio Flacco, fu condotto a Roma e divenne successivamente questore (204), edile (199), pretore (198) e console nel 195 percorrendo tutte le tappe del "cursus honorum" assieme al suo vecchio protettore; nel 184 divenne infine censore.
Durante i suoi primi anni di carriera si oppose all'abrogazione della lex Oppia, emanata durante la seconda guerra punica per contenere il lusso e la stravaganza da parte delle donne. Nel 204 aC prestò servizio in Africa come questore con Scipione l'Africano ma lo abbandonò dopo un litigio a causa della sua presunta stravaganza. Egli comandò invece in Sardegna, dove per la prima volta mostrò la sua rigidissima moralità pubblica, e in Spagna, che egli assoggettò spietatamente, guadagnando di conseguenza la fama di trionfatore (194).
Nel 191 aC ricoprì il ruolo di tribuno militare nella guerra contro Antioco di Siria, e giocò un ruolo importante nella battaglia delle Termopili, che segnò la fine dell'invasione seleucide della Grecia.
L'opera pubblica
La sua reputazione di soldato era quindi consolidata. Da quel momento in poi egli preferì servire lo stato a casa, esaminando la condotta morale dei candidati alle cariche pubbliche e dei generali sul campo. Pur non essendo egli personalmente coinvolto nel processo per corruzione contro gli Scipioni (l'Africano e l'Asiatico), fu tuttavia lo spirito che animò l'attacco contro di loro. Persino Scipione l'Africano, che si rifiutò di rispondere all'accusa, affermando solo: "Romani, questo è il giorno in cui io sconfissi Annibale", venendo assolto per acclamazione, trovò necessario ritirarsi, auto-esiliandosi, nella sua villa a Literno. L'ostilità di Catone risaliva alla campagna d'Africa quando discusse con Scipione per l'eccessiva distribuzione del bottino tra le truppe, e la vita sfarzosa e stravagante che quest'ultimo conduceva.
Catone si oppose inoltre al diffondersi della cultura ellenistica, che egli riteneva minacciasse di distruggere la sobrietà dei costumi del vero romano. Fu nell'esercizio della carica di censore che questa sua determinazione fu più duramente esibita, e il motivo dal quale gli derivò il suo celebre soprannome. Revisionò con inflessibile severità la lista dei senatori e degli equites, cacciando da ogni ordine coloro che riteneva indegni, sia per quanto riguarda la moralità sia per la mancanza dei requisiti economici previsti. L'espulsione di Lucio Quinto Flaminio per ingiustificata crudeltà fu un esempio della sua rigida giustizia.
La sua lotta contro il lusso fu assai serrata. Impose una pesante tassa sugli abiti e gli ornamenti personali, specialmente delle donne, e sui giovani schiavi comprati come concubini o favoriti domestici (quindi superflui). Nel 181 aC appoggiò la lex Orchia (secondo altri egli prima si oppose alla sua introduzione, e successivamente alla sua abrogazione), la quale prescriveva un limite al numero di ospiti in un ricevimento, e nel 169 aC la lex Voconia, uno dei provvedimenti che intendevano impedire l'accumulo di un'eccessiva ricchezza nelle mani delle donne.
Riguardo le altre questioni egli fece riparare gli acquedotti, pulire le fognature, impedì a soggetti privati di deviare le acque pubbliche per il loro uso personale, ordinò la demolizione di edifici che ostruivano le vie pubbliche e costruì la prima basilica nel foro vicino alla Curia (Livio Historiae 39.44; Plutarco Marcus Cato 19). Aumentò inoltre la somma dovuta allo stato dai pubblicani per il diritto di riscuotere le tasse e allo stesso tempo diminuì il prezzo contrattuale per la realizzazione di lavori pubblici.
Dalla data della sua carica di censore (184 aC) alla sua morte nel 149 aC, Catone non occupò nessun'altra carica pubblica, ma continuò a distinguersi in senato come tenace oppositore a ogni nuova influenza. Fu assai disgustato, assieme a molti altri dei Romani più conservatori, dalla diffusione dei riti misterici dei Baccanali, che egli attribuì all'influenza negativa dei costumi greci; e perciò sollecitò con veemenza l'espulsione dei filosofi greci (Carneade, Diogene lo Stoico e Critolao), che erano giunti come ambasciatori da Atene, sulla base della pericolosa influenza che avevano le idee diffuse da questi.
Catone provava ripugnanza per i medici, che erano principalmente greci. Ottenne il rilascio di Polibio, lo storico, e dei suoi compagni prigionieri, chiedendo sprezzante perché il senato non avesse niente di più importante da discutere se qualche greco doveva morire a Roma o nella loro terra. Non era ancora ottantenne che, secondo quanto dicono le fonti biografiche, ebbe il suo primo contatto con la letteratura greca, sebbene dopo aver esaminato i suoi scritti è verosimile ritenere che possa aver avuto un contatto con le opere greche per gran parte della sua vita.
Il suo ultimo impegno pubblico fu di spronare i suoi compatrioti verso la terza guerra punica e la distruzione di Cartagine. Nel 157 aC fu uno dei delegati mandati a Cartagine per arbitrare tra i Cartaginesi e Massinissa, re di Numidia. La missione fu fallimentare e i commissari ritornarono a casa. Ma Catone fu colpito dalle prove della prosperità dei cartaginesi a tal punto da convincerlo che la sicurezza di Roma dipendesse dalla distruzione totale di Cartagine. Da quel momento egli continuò a ripetere in Senato: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam." (Per il resto ritengo che Cartagine dev'essere distrutta. - Plutarco, Vita di Catone). È noto che egli ripeteva ciò alla conclusione di ogni suo discorso.
La visione della società
Per Catone la vita individuale era un continuo auto-disciplinarsi, e la vita pubblica era la disciplina dei molti. Egli riteneva il singolo pater come il principio della famiglia, e la famiglia come il principio dello stato. Attraverso una rigida organizzazione del suo tempo egli realizzò un'enorme quantità di lavoro; pretese inoltre la medesima applicazione dai suoi dipendenti, e si dimostrò un marito e un padre severo, un inflessibile e crudele padrone. Ci fu apparentemente poca differenza, nel modo in cui trattava sua moglie e i suoi schiavi; il suo orgoglio soltanto lo indusse a prestare una più calorosa attenzione verso i figli.
Per i Romani stessi ci fu poco nella sua condotta che sembrasse necessario censurare; fu sempre rispettato e considerato come un esempio tradizionale degli antichi e più genuini costumi romani. Nel notevole passo (xxxix, 40) in cui Livio descrive il carattere di Catone, non c'è alcuna parola di biasimo per la rigida disciplina della sua condotta domestica.
L'opera letteraria
Catone forse merita ancora più riguardo come letterato che come statista o soldato. Egli fu un annalista, il primo prosatore romano di una qualche importanza e il primo autore di una storia di Roma in latino. Il suo trattato sull'agricoltura (De agri cultura o De re rustica) è l'unico suo lavoro che ci è pervenuto integro, anche se non c'è accordo se l'opera che possediamo sia l'originale o una revisione postuma. Contiene una raccolta di regole per il buon padre di famiglia, consegnandoci molte informazioni curiose sulle abitudini domestiche dei Romani della sua epoca. Contiene inoltre i testi e le spiegazioni di alcune ricette dell'epoca. La sua opera più importante, le Origines, organizzata in sette libri, racconta la storia di Roma dalla fondazione fino ai suoi tempi. Fu chiamata così per il secondo e il terzo libro, che descrivono la nascita e lo sviluppo delle diverse città italiane.
I suoi discorsi, dei quali più di 150 furono raccolti, erano principalmente diretti contro le maniere troppo "libertine" dei giovani e la nobiltà priva di principi dell'epoca. Egli scrisse inoltre una raccolta di massime per l'educazione del figlio (Praecepta ad Filium) e una semplice storia di Roma, sempre per i suoi figli, oltre a qualche regola per la vita di ogni giorno in versi (Carmen de moribus).
Le collezioni di proverbi (Disticha Catonis e Monosticha Catonis), scritte in esametri, probabilmente risalgono al IV secolo dopo Cristo e furono erroneamente attribuite a Catone.
Gli scrittori antichi e Catone
Di Catone si sono occupati nei loro scritti:
Cicerone, Cato Maior de senectute
Cornelio Nepote, De Viris Illustribus, Chronica e Exempla
Tito Livio, Ab Urbe condita libri
Plutarco, Vite parallele
Marcus Porcius Cato (Latin: m·porcivs·m·f·cato) (234 BC, Tusculum – 149 BC) was a Roman statesman, surnamed the Censor (Censorius), Sapiens, Priscus, or the Elder (Major), to distinguish him from Cato the Younger (his great-grandson).
He came from an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some military service but not for the discharge of the higher civil offices. He was bred, after the manner of his Latin forefathers, to agriculture, to which he devoted himself when not engaged in military service. But, having attracted the notice of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, he was brought to Rome, and successively held the offices of Cursus Honorum: Tribune (214 BC), Quaestor (204 BC), Aedile (199 BC), Praetor (198 BC), Consul (195 BC) together with his old patron, and finally Censor (184 BC).
Porcia Gens
Cato the Elder was born in Tusculum, a municipal town of Latium, to which his ancestors had belonged for some generations. His father had earned the reputation of a brave soldier, and his great-grandfather had received a reward from the state for five horses killed under him in battle. However the Tusculan Porcii had never obtained the privileges of the Roman magistracy. Cato the Elder, their famous descendant, at the beginning of his career in Rome, was regarded as a novus homo, and the feeling of his unsatisfactory position, working along with the belief of his inherent superiority, contributed to exasperate and stimulate his ambition. Early in life, he so far exceeded the previous deeds of his predecessors that he is frequently spoken of, not only as the leader, but as the founder, of the Porcia Gens.
Cognomen Cato
His ancestors for three generations had been named Marcus Porcius, and it is said by Plutarch that at first he was known by the additional cognomen Priscus, but was afterwards called Cato — a word indicating that practical wisdom which is the result of natural sagacity, combined with experience of civil and political affairs. However, it may well be doubted whether Priscus, like Major, were not merely an epithet used to distinguish him from the later Cato of Utica, and there is no precise information as to the date when he first received the title of Cato, which may have been given in childhood as a symbol of distinction. The qualities implied in the word Cato were acknowledged by the plainer and less outdated title of Sapiens, by which he was so well known in his old age, that Cicero says, it became his virtual cognomen. From the number and eloquence of his speeches, he was styled orator, but Cato the Censor (Cato Censorius), and Cato the Elder are now his most common, as well as his most characteristic names, since he carried out the office of Censor with extraordinary standing, and was the only Cato who ever accomplished it.
Deducing the year of birth
In order to determine the date of Cato's birth, we consider the records as to his age at the time of his death, which is known to have happened 149 BC. According to the coherent chronology of Cicero Cato was born in 234 BC, in the year before the first Consulship of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, and died at the age of 85, in the consulship of Lucius Marcius Censorinus and Manius Manilius. Pliny agrees with Cicero. Other authors exaggerate the age of Cato. According to Valerius Maximus he survived his 86th year; according to Livy and Plutarch he was 90 years old when he died. The exaggerated age, however, is inconsistent with a statement recorded by Plutarch on the asserted authority of Cato himself.
Cato is represented to have said, that he served his first campaign in his 17th year, when Hannibal was overrunning Italy. Plutarch, who had the works of Cato before him, but was careless in dates, did not observe that the estimation of Livy would take back Cato's 17th year to 222, when there was not a Carthaginian in Italy, whereas the computation of Cicero would make the truth of Cato's statement in harmony with the date of Hannibal's first invasion.
Second Punic War
When Cato was a very young man, the death of his father put him in possession of a small hereditary property in the Sabine territory, at a distance from his native town. It was here that he passed the greater part of his childhood, hardening his body by healthful exercise, overseeing and sharing the operations of the farm, learning the way in which business was conducted, and studying the rules of rural economy. Near his lands was a modest hut which had been inhabited, after three triumphs, by its owner Manius Curius Dentatus, whose military feats and rigidly simple character were fresh in the memory of the old, and were often talked of with admiration in the neighborhood. The memory of this hero inspired Cato, who decided to imitate the character, and hoped to match the glory of, Dentatus. Soon an opportunity came for a military campaign in 217 BC, during the Second Punic War against Hannibal Barca. There is some discrepancy among experts as to the events of Cato's early military life. In 214 BC he served at Capua, and the historian Wilhelm Drumann imagines that already, at the age of 20, he was a military tribune. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus had the command in Campania, during the year of his fourth consulship, and admitted the young soldier to the honour of intimate friendship. While Fabius communicated the valued results of military experience, he omitted not to inculcate his own personal and political partialities and dislikes into the ear of his attached follower. At the siege of Tarentum, 209 BC, Cato was again at the side of Fabius. Two years later, Cato was one of the select group who went with the consul Claudius Nero on his northern march from Lucania to check the progress of Hasdrubal Barca. It is recorded that the services of Cato contributed not a little to the decisive victory of Sena on the Metaurus, where Hasdrubal was slain.
Between the wars
In the pauses between campaigns, Cato returned to his Sabine farm, using a simple dress, and working and behaving like his laborers. Young as he was, the neighboring farmers liked his tough mode of living, enjoyed his old-fashioned and concise proverbs, and had a high regard for his abilities. His own active personality made him willing and eager to employ his powers in the service of his neighbors. He was selected to act, sometimes as an arbitrator of disputes, and sometimes as a supporter, in local causes, which were probably tried in front of recuperatores (the judges for causes of great public interest). Consequently he was enabled to strengthen by practice his oratorical abilities, to gain self-confidence, to observe the manners of men, to analyze the diversity of human nature, to apply the rules of law, and practically to investigate the principles of justice.
Follower of the old Roman strictness
In the surrounding area of Cato's Sabine farm were the lands of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, a young nobleman of significant influence, and high patrician family. Flaccus could not help remarking the energy of Cato, his military talent, his eloquence, his frugal and simple life, and his traditional principles. Flaccus himself was member of that purist faction who displayed their adherence to the stricter virtues of the ancient Roman character. Within the Roman society there was a transition in progress: from Samnite rusticity to Grecian civilization and oriental voluptuousness. The chief magistracies of the state had become almost the patrimony of a few distinguished families, whose wealth was correspondent with their upper-class birth. Popular by acts of graceful but corrupting generosity, by charming manners, and by the appeal of hereditary honors, they collected the material power granted by multitude of clients and followers, and the intellectual power provided by the monopoly of philosophical education, their taste in the fine arts, and their knowledge of stylish literature. Nevertheless, the reaction to them was strong. The less fortunate nobles, jealous of this exclusive oligarchy, and openly watchful of the decadence and disorder associated with luxury, placed themselves at the head of a party which showed its determination to rely on purer models and to attach much importance to the ancient ways. In their eyes, rusticity, austerity, and asceticism were the marks of Sabine robustness and religion, and of the old Roman inflexible integrity and love of order. Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Scipio Africanus and his family, and Titus Quinctius Flamininus, may be taken as instances of the new civilization; Cato's friends, Fabius and Flaccus, were the leading men in the faction defending the old plainness.
Path to magistracies
Flaccus was a perceptive politician who looked for young and emergent men to support them. He had observed Cato's martial spirit and eloquent tongue. He knew how much courage and persuasiveness were valued at Rome. He also knew that the merits of the battlefield opened the way to achievements in the higher civil offices. Finally, Flaccus knew too that for a stranger like Cato, the only way to the magisterial honors was success in the Roman Forum. For that reason, he suggested to Cato that he shift his ambition to the fruitful field of Roman politics. The advice was keenly followed. Invited to the town-house of Flaccus, and ratified by his support, Cato began to distinguish himself in the forum, and became a candidate for assuming a post in the magistracy.
Quaestor
In 205 BC, Cato was appointed Quaestor, and in the next year (204 BC) he entered upon the duties of his place of work, following Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major to Sicily. When Scipio, acting on the consent which, after much opposition, he had obtained from the senate, transported the armed forces from Sicily into Africa, Cato and Gaius Laelius were appointed to escort the baggage ships. There was not that friendliness of cooperation between Cato and Scipio which ought to exist between a quaestor and his proconsul. Fabius had opposed the permission given to Scipio to carry out the attack into the enemy's home, and Cato, whose appointment was intended to monitor Scipio's behavior, adopted the views of his friend. It is reported by Plutarch, that the lenient discipline of the troops under Scipio's command, and the exaggerated expense incurred by the general, provoked the protest of Cato; that Scipio immediately afterwards replied angrily, saying he would give an account of victories, not of money; that Cato left his place of duty after the dispute with Scipio about his alleged extravagance, and returning to Rome, condemned the uneconomical activities of his general to the senate; and that, at the joint request of Cato and Fabius, a commission of tribunes was sent to Sicily to examine the behavior of Scipio, who was found not guilty upon the view of his extensive and careful arrangements for the transport of the troops. This version is barely consistent with the narrative of Livy, and would seem to attribute to Cato the wrongdoing of quitting his post before his time. If Livy be correct, the commission was sent because of the complaints of the inhabitants of Locri, who had been harshly oppressed by Quintus Pleminius, the legate of Scipio. Livy says not a word of Cato's interference in this matter, but mentions the bitterness with which Fabius blamed Scipio of corrupting military discipline and of having illegally left his province to take the town of Locri.
The author of the abridged life of Cato which is commonly considered as the work of Cornelius Nepos, asserts that Cato, after his return from Africa, put in at Sardinia, and brought the poet Quintus Ennius in his own ship from the island to Italy; but Sardinia was rather out of the line of the trip to Rome, and it is more likely that the first contact of Ennius and Cato happened at a later date, when the latter was Praetor in Sardinia.
Aedile and praetor
In 199 BC Cato was chosen aedile, and with his colleague Helvius, restored the Plebeian Games, and gave upon that occasion a banquet in honor of Jupiter. In 198 BC he was made praetor, and obtained Sardinia as his province, with the command of 3,000 infantry and 200 cavalry. Here he took the earliest opportunity of demonstrating his main beliefs by the practice of his strict public morality. He reduced official operating costs, walked his trips with a single assistant, and, by the studied lack of ceremony, placed his own frugality in striking contrast with the oppressive magnificence of ordinary provincial magistrates. The rites of religion were celebrated with reasonable thrift; justice was administered with strict impartiality; usury was controlled with deep severity, and the usurers were banished. Sardinia had been for some time completely calmed, but if we are to believe the improbable and unsupported testimony of Aurelius Victor, a revolt in the island was subdued by Cato, during his Praetorship.
Consul - Repeal of the Oppian law
In 195 BC he was elected Consul with his old friend and patron Flaccus. Flaccus gave Cato his wife as a gift for his creation of money. Cato was thirty-nine years old. During his Consulship an odd scene took place, noticeably expounding of Roman manners. In 215 BC, at the height of the Second Punic War, a law — the Oppian Law, (Lex Oppia) — had been passed at the request of the Tribune of the People Gaius Oppius, to restrict luxury and extravagance on the part of women. The law specified that no woman should own more than half an ounce of gold, nor wear a garment of several colors, nor drive a carriage with horses at less distance than a mile from the city, except for the purpose of attending the public celebration of religious rites. With Hannibal defeated and Rome resplendent with Carthaginian wealth, there was no longer any need for women to contribute towards the exigencies of an impoverished treasury the savings spared from their ornaments and pleasures. Consequently, the Tribunes Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius thought it was time to propose the abolition of the Oppian law; but they were opposed by their colleagues, Tribunes Marcus Junius Brutus and Titus Junius Brutus. Curiously, this particular challenge spawned far more interest than the most important affairs of state. The middle-aged married women of Rome crowded the streets, denied access to every avenue to the forum, and intercepted their husbands as they approached, demanding them to restore the ancient ornaments of the Roman matrons. Even more, they had the boldness to approach and beg the Praetors, Consuls and other magistrates. Even Flaccus hesitated, but his colleague Cato was inflexible, and made an impolite and characteristic speech, the substance of which, remodeled and modernized, is given by Livy. Finally, the women got what they wanted. Tired of the women's persistent demanding, the dissenting tribunes withdrew their opposition. The hated law was repealed by the vote of all the tribes, and the women made clear their joy and success by going in procession through the streets and the forum, dressed up with their then legitimate finery.
Just had this important affair been concluded when Cato, who had maintained during its progress a severe and determined firmness without, perhaps, any very serious damage to his popularity, set sail for his appointed province, Hispania Citerior.
Post in Hispania Citerior
In his campaign in Hispania, Cato behaved in keeping with his reputation of untiring hard work and alertness. He lived soberly, sharing the food and the labors of the common soldier. Wherever it was possible, he personally superintended the execution of his requisite orders. His movements were reported as bold and rapid, and he never was negligent in pushing the advantages of victory. The sequence of his operations and their combination in agreement with the schemes of other generals in other parts of Hispania appear to have been carefully designed. His stratagems and maneuvers were accounted as original, talented, and successful; and the plans of his battles were arranged with expert skill. He managed to set tribe against tribe, benefited himself of native deceitfulness, and took native mercenaries into his pay.
The details of the campaign, as related by Livy, and illustrated by the incidental anecdotes of Plutarch, are full of horror and they make clear that Cato reduced Hispania Citerior to subjection with great speed and little mercy. We read of multitudes who, after they had been stripped of all their arms, put themselves to death because of the dishonor; of extensive massacre of surrendered victims, and the frequent execution of harsh plunders. His proceedings in Spain were not at discrepancy with the received idea of the fine old Roman soldier, or with his own firm and overassertive temper. He claimed of having destroyed more towns in Hispania than he had spent days in that country.
His Roman triumph
When he had reduced the whole area of land between the River Iberus and the Pyrenees to a hollow, resentful, and temporary obedience, he turned his attention to administrative reforms, and increased the revenues of the province by improvements in the working of the iron and silver mines. On account of his achievements in Spain, the senate decreed a thanksgiving ceremony of three days. In the course of the year, 194 BC, he returned to Rome, and was rewarded with the honor of a Roman triumph, at which he exhibited an extraordinary quantity of captured brass, silver, and gold, both coin and ingots. In the distribution of the monetary prize to his soldiery, he was more liberal than might have been expected from him, a so vigorous professor of parsimonious economy.
End of his consulship
The return of Cato seems to have been accelerated by the enmity of Scipio Africanus, who was Consul, 194 BC and is said to have desired the command of the province in which Cato was harvesting notoriety. There is some disagreement between Nepos (or the pseudo-Nepos), and Plutarch, in their accounts of this topic. The former asserts that Scipio was unsuccessful in his effort to obtain the province, and, offended by the reject, remained after the end of his consulship, in a private capacity at Rome. The latter relates that Scipio, who was disgusted by Cato's severity, was actually appointed to succeed him, but, not being able to secure from the senate a vote of censure upon the administration of his rival, passed the time of his command in total inactivity. From the statement in Livy, that in 194 BC, Sextus Digitius was appointed to the province of Hispania Citerior, it is probable that Plutarch was mistaken in assigning that province to Scipio Africanus. The notion that Africanus was appointed successor to Cato in Spain may have arisen from a double confusion of name and place, due to the fact that Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica was chosen, 194 BC, to the province of Hispania Ulterior.
However the true facts may be, Cato successfully proved himself by his eloquence, and by the production of detailed financial accounts, against the attacks made on his behavior while consul; and the existing fragments of the speeches, (or the same speech under different names), made after his return, attest the strength and boldness of his arguments.
Plutarch affirms that, after his Consulship, Cato accompanied Tiberius Sempronius Longus as legatus to Thrace, but here there seems to be a mistake, for though Scipio Africanus was of opinion that one of the Consuls should have Macedonia, we soon find Sempronius in Cisalpine Gaul,[25] and in 193 BC, we find Cato at Rome dedicating to Victoria Virgo a small temple which he had vowed two years before.
Late military career - Battle of Thermopylae
The military career of Cato was not yet ended. In 191 BC, he was appointed Military Tribune (some affirm legatus), under the Consul Manius Acilius Glabrio, who was dispatched to Greece to oppose the invasion of Antiochus III the Great, King of the Seleucid Empire. In the decisive Battle of Thermopylae (191 BC), which led to the downfall of Antiochus, Cato behaved with his usual valor, and enjoyed good fortune. By a daring and difficult advance, he surprised and removed a body of the enemy's Aetolian auxiliaries, who were posted upon the Callidromus, the highest peak of the range of Mount Oeta. He then began a sudden descent from the hills above the royal camp, and the panic caused by this unexpected movement promptly turned the day in favor of the Romans, and signaled the end of the Seleucid invasion of Greece. After the action, the General hugged Cato with the greatest warmness, and attributed to him the whole credit of the victory. This fact rests on the authority of Cato himself, who, like Cicero, often indulged in the habit, offensive to modern taste, of sounding his own praises. After an interval spent in the pursuit of Antiochus and the pacification of Greece, Cato was sent to Rome by the Consul Glabrio to announce the successful outcome of the campaign, and he performed his journey with such celerity that he had started his report in the senate before the arrival of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, the later conqueror of Antiochus, who had been sent off from Greece a few days before him.
A doubtful visit to Athens
It was during the campaign in Greece under Glabrio, and, as it would appear from the account of Plutarch, (rejected by the historian Wilhelm Drumann) before the Battle of Thermopylae, that Cato was chosen to keep Corinth, Patrae, and Aegium, from siding with Antiochus. It was then too that he visited Athens, and, to prevent the Athenians from listening to the propositions of the Seleucid king, addressed them in a Latin speech, which was explained to them by an interpreter. Already perhaps he had a basic knowledge of Greek, for, it is said by Plutarch, that, while at Tarentum in his youth, he became in close friendship with Nearchus, a Greek philosopher, and it is said by Aurelius Victor that while praetor in Sardinia, he received instruction in Greek from Ennius. It was not so much, possibly, taking into account his still confessed disdain for everything Greek. Nevertheless because his speech was an affair of state, it is probable that he used the Latin language, in compliance with the Roman norm, which was observed as a diplomatic mark of Roman dignity.
Influence in Rome
His reputation as a soldier was now established; henceforth he preferred to serve the state at home, scrutinizing the conduct of the candidates for public honours and of generals in the field. If he was not personally engaged in the prosecution of the Scipiones (Africanus and Asiaticus) for corruption, it was his spirit that animated the attack upon them. Even Scipio Africanus, who refused to reply to the charge, saying only, "Romans, this is the day on which I conquered Hannibal," and was absolved by acclamation, found it necessary to retire, self-banished, to his villa at Liternum. Cato's enmity dated from the African campaign when he quarrelled with Scipio for his lavish distribution of the spoil amongst the troops, and his general luxury and extravagance.
Cato was also opposed to the spread of Hellenic culture, which he believed threatened to destroy the rugged simplicity of the conventional Roman type. It was in the discharge of the censorship that this determination was most strongly exhibited, and hence that he derived the title (the Censor) by which he is most generally distinguished. He revised with unsparing severity the lists of Senators and Knights, ejecting from either order the men whom he judged unworthy of it, either on moral grounds or from their want of the prescribed means. The expulsion of L. Quinctius Flamininus for wanton cruelty was an example of his rigid justice.
His regulations against luxury were very stringent. He imposed a heavy tax upon dress and personal adornment, especially of women, and upon young slaves purchased as favourites. In 181 BC he supported the lex Orchia (according to others, he first opposed its introduction, and subsequently its repeal), which prescribed a limit to the number of guests at an entertainment, and in 169 BC the lex Voconia, one of the provisions of which was intended to check the accumulation of an undue proportion of wealth in the hands of women.
Amongst other things he repaired the aqueducts, cleansed the sewers, prevented private persons drawing off public water for their own use, ordered the demolition of houses which encroached on the public way, and built the first basilica in the Forum near the Curia (Livy, History, 39.44; Plutarch, Marcus Cato, 19). He raised the amount paid by the publicani for the right of farming the taxes, and at the same time diminished the contract prices for the construction of public works.
Later years
From the date of his Censorship (184) to his death in 149 BC, Cato held no public office, but continued to distinguish himself in the senate as the persistent opponent of the new ideas. He was struck with horror, along with many other Romans of the graver stamp, at the licence of the Bacchanalian mysteries, which he attributed to the influence of Greek manners; and he vehemently urged the dismissal of the philosophers (Carneades, Diogenes, and Critolaus), who came as ambassadors from Athens, on account of the dangerous nature of the views expressed by them.
He had a horror of physicians, who were chiefly Greeks. He procured the release of Polybius, the historian, and his fellow prisoners, contemptuously asking whether the Senate had nothing more important to do than discuss whether a few Greeks should die at Rome or in their own land. It was not till his eightieth year that he made his first acquaintance with Greek literature, though some think after examining his writings that he may have had a knowledge of Greek works for much of his life.
In his last years he was known for strenuously urging his countrymen to the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage. In 157 BC he was one of the deputies sent to Carthage to arbitrate between the Carthaginians and Massinissa, king of Numidia. The mission was unsuccessful and the commissioners returned home. But Cato was so struck by the evidences of Carthaginian prosperity that he was convinced that the security of Rome depended on the annihilation of Carthage. From this time, in season and out of season, he kept repeating the cry: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam." (Moreover, I advise that Carthage must be destroyed) He was known for saying this at the conclusion of each of his speeches, no matter what he had previously been talking about.
To Cato the individual life was a continual discipline, and public life was the discipline of the many. He regarded the individual householder as the germ of the family, the family as the germ of the state. By strict economy of time he accomplished an immense amount of work; he exacted similar application from his dependents, and proved himself a hard husband, a strict father, a severe and cruel master. There was little difference apparently, in the esteem in which he held his wife and his slaves; his pride alone induced him to take a warmer interest in his sons, Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus and Marcus Porcius Cato Salonianus.
To the Romans themselves there was little in this behaviour which seemed worthy of censure; it was respected rather as a traditional example of the old Roman manners. In the remarkable passage (xxxix. 40) in which Livy describes the character of Cato, there is no word of blame for the rigid discipline of his household.
Cato's writings
Cato is famous not only as statesman or soldier, but also as author. He was a historian, the first Latin prose writer of any importance, and the first author of a history of Italy in Latin. Some have argued that if it were not for the impact of Cato's writing, Latin might have been supplanted by Greek as the literary language of Rome. He was also one of the very few early Latin authors who could claim Latin as a native language.
His manual on running a farm (De Agri Cultura or "On Farming") is his only work that survives completely. It is a miscellaneous collection of rules of husbandry and management, including sidelights on country life in the 2nd century BC. Adopted by many as a textbook at a time when Romans were expanding their agricultural activities into larger scale and more specialized business ventures geared towards profitability, De Agri Cultura assumes a farm run and staffed by slaves. Cato advises on hiring gangs for the olive harvest, and was noted for his chilling advice on keeping slaves continually at work, on reducing rations for slaves when sick, and on selling slaves that are old or sickly. Intended for reading aloud and discussing with farm workers, De Agri Cultura was widely read and much quoted (sometimes inaccurately) by later Latin authors.
Probably Cato's most important work, Origines, in seven books, related the history of the Italian towns, with special attention to Rome, from their legendary or historical foundation to his own day. The text as a whole is lost, but substantial fragments survive in quotations by later authors.
Under the Roman Empire a collection of about 150 political speeches by Cato existed. In these he pursued his political policies, fought verbal vendettas, and opposed what he saw as Rome's moral decline. Not even the titles of all of these speeches are now known, but fragments of some of them are preserved. The first to which we can give a date was On the Improper Election of the Aediles, delivered in 202 BC. The collection included several speeches from the year of his consulship, followed by a self-justifying retrospect On His Consulship and by numerous speeches delivered when he was Censor. It is not clear whether Cato allowed others to read and copy his written texts (in other words, whether he "published" the speeches) or whether their circulation in written form began after his death.
On Soldiery was perhaps a practical manual comparable to On Farming. On the Law Relating to Priests and Augurs was a topic that would follow naturally from some of the sections of On Farming. Only one brief extract from this work is known. Praecepta ad Filium, "Maxims addressed to his son", from which the following extract survives:
In due course, my son Marcus, I shall explain what I found out in Athens about these Greeks, and demonstrate what advantage there may be in looking into their writings (while not taking them too seriously). They are a worthless and unruly tribe. Take this as a prophecy: when those folk give us their writings they will corrupt everything. All the more if they send their doctors here. They have sworn to kill all barbarians with medicine — and they charge a fee for doing it, in order to be trusted and to work more easily. They call us barbarians, too, of course, and Opici, a dirtier name than the rest. I have forbidden you to deal with doctors. - Quoted by Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 29.13–14.
A history of Rome from which Cato taught his son to read.
Carmen de moribus ("Poem on morality"), apparently in prose
in spite of the title.
A collection of Sayings, some of them translated from Greek.
The two surviving collections of proverbs known as Distichs of Cato and Monosticha Catonis, in hexameter verse, probably belong to the 4th century AD. They are not really by Cato.
Origines (Origins) is the title of a historical work by Marcus Porcius Cato, commonly known as Cato the Elder. Origines no longer survives as a complete text, but substantial fragments are known because they were quoted by later Latin authors.
This highly original work was the first prose history in Latin, and among the very first Latin prose works in any genre. Along with Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Ennius and Plautus, Cato helped to found a new literature.
According to Cato's biographer Cornelius Nepos, the Origines consisted of "seven books. Book I is the history of the early kings of Rome; books II and III the beginnings of each Italian city. This seems to be why the whole work is called Origines." The city histories in books II and III of the work were apparently treated on an individual basis, drawing on their own local traditions. The last four books dealt with Rome's later wars and the growth in the city's power; they "outweighed the rest", according to one later reader.
There were two existing historical works in Latin, by Naevius and Ennius, but they were in verse, not prose. There were two existing prose histories by Romans, Q. Fabius Pictor and L. Cincius Alimentus, but they were written in Greek. All four of these existing works focused on Rome throughout; moreover, the two poems wove Roman history inextricably into the adventures of the Graeco-Roman gods. In Origines, Cato evidently chose to do it differently. He felt no need to follow precedent, Roman or otherwise:
“ I do not care to copy out what is on the High Priest's tablet: how many times grain became dear, how many times the sun or moon were obscured or eclipsed.” - Cato, Origines.
Cato's own achievements were not downplayed: he was "not the man to minimize his own achievements". The Origines included several of his own speeches verbatim. He made it a rule not to mention military commanders by name, yet the surviving fragments give the impression that Cato's campaigns were highlighted.
In latino Tusculum, era un’antica città del Lazio sul pendio settentrionale dei Colli Albani, le cui rovine sorgono 7 km a SE di Frascati. Secondo la tradizione fu fondata dagli abitanti di Alba Longa e questa, a sua volta, fu fondata da Ascanio figlio di Enea. Presa dai Romani intorno al 380 aC, fu prima municipio, poi con Silla divenne colonia.
