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

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CATO.

Cato soon became the subject of biography and
panegyric. Shortly after his death appeared Cicero's " Cato," which provoked Caesar's " Anticato," also called " Anticatones," as it consisted of
two books; but the accusations of Caesar appear
to have been wholly unfounded, and were not believed by his contemporaries. Works like Cicero's
Cato were published by Fabius Gallus, and M.
Brutus. In Lucan the character of Cato is a personification of godlike virtue. In modern times,
the closing events of Cato's life have been often
dramatized. Of the French plays on this subject
that of Deschamps (1715) is the best; and few
dramas have gained more celebrity than the Cato
of Addison. (Plut. Cato Minor; Sall. Catil. 54;
Tacit. tlist. iv, 8; Cic. ad Alt. i. 18, ii. 9; Senec.
Ep. 95; Val. Max. vi. 2. ~ 5; Lucan, i. 128, ii. 380;
Hor. Carm. i. 12. 35, ii. 1, 24; Virg. Aen. vi. 841,
viii. 670; Juv. xi. 90; Drumann's Gesch. Roms,
v. p. 153.)
10, 11. PORCIAE. [PORCIA.]
12. M. PoRCIus CATO, a son of Cato of Utica
[No. 9] by Atilia. He accompanied his father
upon his flight from Italy, and was with him at
Utica on the night of his death. Caesar pardoned
him, and allowed him to possess his father's property. (Bell. Afr. 89.) After Caesar's death, he
attached himself to M. Brutus, his sister's husband,
and followed him from Macedonia to Asia. He
was a man of warm and sensual temperament,
much addicted to illicit gallantry. His long stay
in Cappadocia on a visit to Marphadates, who
had a very beautiful wife named Psyche, gave
occasion to the jest that the young Cato and his
host had but one soul (Psyche) between them.
(Plut. Cato Minor, 73.) At the battle of Philippi
(B. c. 42) he behaved bravely, and sold his life
dearly.
13. PORclus CATO, son of Cato of Utica [No.
9] by Marcia, and therefore half-brother of No.
12. Nothing more is known of him than that, at
the commencement of the civil war, he was sent
by his father to Munatius Rufus at Bruttium.
(Plut. Cato Min. 52.)
14. PORCIA. [PORclA.]
15. A son or daughter of Cato of Utica [No. 9],
and a sister or brother of Nos. 13 and 14, as we
know that Cato of Utica had three children by
Marcia. (Lucan, ii. 331.)
16. C. PoRcIus CATO, of uncertain pedigree,
perhaps descended from No. 5. He appears in
the early part of his life as an opponent of Pompey. In B. c. 59, he wanted to accuse A. Gabinius of ambitus, but the praetors gave him no
opportunity of preferring the accusation against
Pompey's favourite. This so vexed him, that he
called Pompey privatum dictatorem, and his boldness nearly cost him his life. (Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i.
2. ~ 9.) In B. c. 56, he was tribune of the plebs,
and prevented the Romans from assisting Ptolemy
Auletes with troops, by getting certain priests to
read to the people some Sibylline verses which
threatened Rome with danger if such aid were
given to a king of Egypt. (Dion Cass. xxxix. 15.)
He took the side of Clodius, and Milo in revenge
raised a laugh against him in the following manner:-Cato used to go about attended by a gang
of gladiators, whom he was too poor to support.
Milo, learning this, employed a stranger to buy
them of him, and then got Racilius the tribune to
make a public announcement, " se familiam Cato

CATO.
nianam venditurum." (Cic. ad Qu, Fr. ii. 6.)
Afterwards he made himself useful to the triumviri
by delaying the comitia in order to promote the
election of Pompey and Crassus, when they were
candidates for the consulship in B. c. 55. In his
maniceuvre on this occasion he was assisted by
Nonius Sufenas, one of his colleagues in the tribunate. (Dion Cass. xxxvii. 27, 28.) In the
following year he and Sufenas were accused of
violating the Lex Junia et Licinia and the Lex
Fufia, by proposing laws without due notice and
on improper days. (Ascon. in Cic. pro Scauro.)
Cato was defended by C. Licinius Calvus and M.
Scaurus, and obtained an acquittal, which, however, was chiefly owing to the interest of Pompey.
(Cic. ad Att. iv. 5, 6.) [J. T. G.]
On the coins of the Porcia gens, we find only
the names of C. Cato and M. Cato. Who the
former was, is quite uncertain; the latter is M.
Cato of Utica. In the two coins annexed the obverse of the former represents the head of Pallas,
the reverse Victory in a biga; the obverse of the
latter a female head, the reverse Victory sitting.
CATO, VALE'RIUS, a distinguished grammarian and poet, who flourished at Rome during the
last years of the republic. Some persons asserted,
that he was of Gaulish extraction, the freedman of
a certain Bursenus; but he himself, in a little work
entitled Indignatio, maintained, that he was pure
from all servile stain, that he had lost his father
while still under age, and had been stripped of his
patrimony during the troubles which attended the
usurpation of Sulla. Having studied under Philocomus with Lucilius for a text-book, he afterwards
acted as preceptor to many persons of high station,
and was considered particularly successful in training such as had a turn for poetry. In this manner
he seems to have accumulated considerable wealth;
for we find that at one period he was the possessor
of a magnificent abode at Tusculum; but, having
fallen into difficulties, he was obliged to yield up
this villa to his creditors, and retired to a poor
hovel, where the remainder of his life, which was
prolonged to extreme old age, was passed in the
greatest penury. In addition to various works
upon grammatical subjects, he was the author of
poems also, of which the Lydia and the Diana
were the most celebrated. The fame thus acquired
by him as an author and a teacher is commemorated in the following complimentary distich, probably from the pen of some admiring contemporary:
" Cato Grammaticus, Latina Siren,
Qui solus legit, ac facit poetas."
Suetonius (de Illustr. Gram. 2-9), to whom exclusively we are indebted for all these particulars.