A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

636 CATO.
a
I
4. M. Porcius Cato, 5. C. Porcius Cato,
Cos. B. c. 118. Cos. B. C. 114.
8. M. Porcius Cato, Pr.

CATO.
b
I I
6. M. Porcius Cato, Tr. 7. L. Porcius Cato,
P1. married Livia. Cos. B. c. 89.

--

9. M. Porcius Cato Uticensis, Pr. B. c. 54,
married 1. Atilia.
2. Marcia.
I

10. Porcia, married
L. Domitius
Ahenobarbus.

11. Porcia, married 12. M. Porcius
1. M. Bibulus. Cato, died
"2. M. Brutus. B. c. 42.
16. C. Porcius Cato, Tr. P1. B. c. 56.

13. Porcius
Cato.

I I
14. Porcia. 15. A son or
daughter.

1. M. PoacIUS CATO CENSORIUS, was born at
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 an
honorary compensation from the state for five horses
killed under him in battle. The haughtiest patrician of Rome never exulted in the splendour of the
purest nobility with a spirit more proud than Cato's
when he remembered the warlike achievements and
the municipal respectability of his family, to which
he ascribed extreme antiquity. Yet the Tusculan
Porcii had never obtained the honours of the Roman
magistracy. Their illustrious descendant, at the
commencement of his career in the great city, was
regarded as a novus homo, and the feeling of his
unmeet position, working along with the consciousness of inherent superiority, contributed to exasperate and stimulate his ambitious soul. Early in
life, he so far eclipsed the previous glimmer of his
race, that he is constantly spoken of, not only as
the leader, but as the founder, of the Porcia Gens.
His ancestors for three generations had been
named M. Porcius, and it is said by Plutarch
(Cato Maj. 1), that at first he was known by the
additional cognomen Priscus, but was afterwards
called Cato-a word denoting 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 we
have no precise information as to the date when he
first received the appellation of Cato, which may
have been bestowed in childhood rather as an omen
of eminence, than as a tribute to past desert.
The qualities implied in the word Cato were acknowledged by the plainer and less archaic title of
Sapiens, by which he was so well known in his
old age, that Cicero (Amic. 2) says, it became his
quasi cognomen. From the number and eloquence
of his speeches, he was styled orator (Justin,
xxxiii. 2; Gell. xvii. 21), but Cato the Censor, or
Cato Censorius, is now his most common, as well
his most characteristic appellation, since he filled
the office of censor with extraodinary repute, and
was the only Cato who ever filled it.
In order to ascertain the date of Cato's birth,
we have to consider the testimony of ancient writers as to his age at the time of his death, which is
known to have happened B. c. 149. How far we

are to go back from this date is a question upon
which the authorities are not unanimous. According to the consistent chronology of Cicero (Senect.
4), Cato was born B. c. 234, in the year preceding
the first consulship of Q. Fabius Maximus, and
died at the age of 85, in the consulship of L. Marcius and M. Manilius. Pliny (H. N. xxix. 8)
agrees with Cicero. Other authors exaggerate the
age of Cato. According to Valerius Maximus
(viii. 7. ~ 1) he survived his 86th year; according
to Livy (xxxix. 40) and Plutarch (Cat. Maj. 15)
he was 90 years old when he died. The exaggerated age, however, is inconsistent with a statement
recorded by Plutarch (Cat. Maj. 1) 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 over-running Italy. Plutarch, who had the
works of Cato before him, but was careless in dates,
did not observe that the reckoning of Livy would
take back Cato's 17th year to B. c. 222, when there
was not a Carthaginian in Italy, whereas the
reckoning of Cicero would make the truth of Cato's
statement reconcileable with the date of Hannibal's
first invasion.
When Cato was a very young man, the death of
his father put him in possession of a small hereditary estate in the Sabine territory, at a distance
from his native town. It was here that he passed
the greater part of his boyhood, hardening his body
by healthful exercise, superintending and sharing
the operations of the farm, learning the manner in
which business was transacted, and studying the
rules of rural economy. Near his estate was an
humble cottage which had been tenanted, after three
triumphs, by its owner M. Curius Dentatus, whose
warlike exploits and rigidly simple character were
fresh in the memory of the old, and were often
talked of with admiration in the neighbourhood.
The ardour of the youthful Cato was kindled.
He resolved to imitate the character, and hoped to
rival the glory, of Dentatus. Opportunity was not
wanting: in the school of Hannibal he took his
first military lessons, namely in the campaign of
B. c. 217. There is some discrepancy among historians as to the events of Cato's early military life.
In B. c. 214 he served at Capua, and Drumann
(Gesch. Roms, v. p. 99) imagines that already, at
the age of 20, he was a military tribune. Fabius
Maximus had now the command in Campania,
during the year of his fourth consulship. The old