Cato

Căto, ōnis, m. [1. catus], a cognomen of several celebrated Romans in the gens Porcia, Valeria, Vettia al.

• I M. Porcius Cato the elder, distinguished as a rigid judge of morals; hence with the appel. Censorius; whose most celebrated works were the Origines and De Re Rustica, Cic. de Or. 3, 33, 135; Liv. 31, 1 sqq.; Plin. 7, 27, 28, § 100; 7, 30, 31, § 112; cf., concerning him, Bernhardy, Röm. Litt. p. 521 sq.; 650; Bähr, Lit. Gesch. p. 515; 258; 354 al.; Ellendt, Cic. Brut. p. xix.-xxv.—As appel. of a severe judge, Mart. 1, prooem. fin.; Phaedr. 4, 7, 21.—Hence,
• • B Cătōnĭānus, a, um, adj., of Cato: familia, Cic. Q. Fr. 4, 6, 5: aetas, Sen. Tranq. 7, 5: illa (i. e. praecepta), id. Ep. 94, 27: lingua, i.e. of high morality, Mart. 9, 27, 14.—
• II His descendant, M. Porcius Cato the younger, the enemy of Caesar, who committed suicide after the battle of Pharsalia, at Utica; hence with the appel. Uticensis.—
• • B Cătōnīni, ōrum, m., the adherents or friends of Cato, Cic. Fam. 7, 25, 1; cf. catonium.—Concerning both, and the Porcian family in gen., v. Gell. 13, 20 Hertz, p. 19 Bip.—On account of their serious and austere character, serious, or gloomy, morose men are called Catones, Sen. Ep. 120, 19; cf. Juv. 2, 40; Phaedr. 4, 7, 21; Petr. 132, 15.—
• III Valerius Cato, a celebrated grammarian of Gaul, and poet of the time of Sulla, Cat. 56; Ov. Tr. 2, 436; Suet. Gram. 2; 4; 11.—
• IV Dionysius Cato, author of the Disticha de moribus, prob. about the time of Constantine; v. the Disticha, with the Sententiae of Syrus, at the end of the Fabulae of Phaedrus, Bip.

2. Cato, ōnis, m., I) ein Beiname der Porcii (s. Gell. 13, 19), von denen bes. bekannt sind: A) M. Porcius Cato, der ältere, geb. 235 v. Chr., gest. 147 v. Chr., als strenger Sittenrichter bekannt, dah. mit dem Beinamen Censorius, dessen berühmteste Werke die origines u. de re rustica sind, u. dem Cicero seine Schrift Cato Maior s. de senectute widmete, s. bes. Cic. de or. 3, 135. Liv. 31, 1 sqq. Plin. 7, 100 u. 112; – Wegen seiner Strenge appell. = »strenger Richter« Phaedr. 4, 7, 21: Cato severe, Mart. epist. lib. 1. praem. extr. – Dav. Catōniānus, a, um, katonianisch, Cic. u.a.: aetas, Sen. – B) M. Porcius Cato, der jüngere, der sich aus Mißmut über den Untergang der Republik zu Utika entleibte (46 v. Chr.), dah. mit dem Beinamen Uticensis, s. bes. Sall. Cat. 53, 6. Vell. 2, 35, 1 sqq. Plin. 7, 113. Lucan. 2, 380 (außerdem oft bei Cic. u.a.). – Dav. Catōnīnī, ōrum, m., die Anhänger, Freunde des jüngern Kato, Cic. – Wegen des streng sittlichen Wesens der Katonen steht Cato und namentlich Plur. Catones appell. für: Mann od. Männer von strenger Sittlichkeit u. streng republik. Gesinnung, Muster aller Tugenden, Cic. de amic. 21; de or. 2, 290 u. 3, 56. Hor. ep. 2, 2, 117. Sen. ep. 70, 22; 97, 10; 118, 4; 120, 19. Plin. ep. 1, 17, 3. Iuven. 2, 40. Suet. Aug. 87, 1 (wo contenti simus hoc Catone, d.i. verlangen wir nichts Besseres); vgl. Catonum rigoros, Fulg. myth. 1. prol. p. 15 M. – II) Valerius Cato, aus Gallien, Freigelassener, ein berühmter Grammatiker und Dichter zur Zeit des Sulla, Catull. 56, 1 sqq. Ov. trist. 2, 436. Suet. gr. 2.

Cătō, (8) ōnis, m. , Caton (surnom des Porcii) ; not^t  : M. Porcius Caton, le célèbre censeur : Cic. CM 3 || [fig.] Catones Cic. de Or. 3, 56, des Catons = des modèles de vertu comme Caton lʼancien ; contenti simus hoc Catone August. d. Suet. Aug. 87, 1, contentons-nous de notre Caton [= ne cherchons pas mieux] || Caton le Jeune ou dʼUtique : Cic. Mur. 3 || Valerius Cato, grammairien et poète : Suet. Gramm. 4.

Cato , Diony'sius Works Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium

We possess a small volume which commonly bears the title Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium. It commences with a preface addressed by the author to his son, pointing out how prone men are to go astray for want of proper counsel, and inviting his earnest attention to the instructive lessons about to be inculcated. Next come fifty-six proverb-like injunctions, very briefly expressed, such as " parentem ama," " diligentiam adhibe," " jus-jurandum serva," and the like, which are followed by the main body of the work, consisting of a series of sententious moral precepts, one hundred and forty-four in number, each apophthegm being enunciated in two dactylic hexameters. The collection is divided into four books; to the second, third, and fourth of these are attached short metrical prefaces, and the whole is wound up by a couplet containing a sort of apology for the form in which the materials are presented to the reader.

It is amusing to take a survey of the extraordinary number of conflicting opinions which have been entertained by scholars of eminence with regard to the real author of this work, the period when it was composed, its intrinsic merits, and indeed every circumstance in any way connected with it directly or indirectly. It has been assigned with perfect confidence to Seneca, to Ausonius, to Serenus Samonicus, to Boethius, to an Octavius, to a Probus, and to a variety of unknown personages. The language has been pronounced worthy of the purest era of Latin composition, and declared to be a specimen of the worst epoch of barbarism. The adages themselves have been extolled by some as the dignified exposition of high philosophy; by others they have been contemptuously characterised as, with few exceptions, a farrago of vapid trash. One critic, at least, has discovered that the writer was undoubtedly a Christian, and has traced nearly the whole of the distichs to the Bible; while others find the clearest proofs of a mind thoroughly imbued with Pagan creeds and rites. In so far as the literary merits of the production are concerned, if we distrust our own judgment, we can feel little hesitation in believing that what such men as Erasmus, Joseph Scaliger, Laurentius Valla, and Pithou concurred in admiring warmly and praising loudly, cannot, although its merits may have been exaggerated, be altogether worthless; and any scholar, who examines the book with an impartial eye, will readily perceive that, making allowance for the numerous and palpable corruptions, the style is not unworthy of the Silver Age. As to the other matters under discussion, it will be sufficient to state what facts we can actually prove. The very circumstance that every one of the suppositions alluded to above has been ingeniously maintained and ingeniously refuted, would in it-self lead us to conclude, that the evidence which admits of such opposite interpretations must be both scanty and indistinct.

The work is first mentioned in an epistle addressed by Vindicianus, Comes Archiatrorum, to Valentinian, in which he states that a certain sick man used often to repeat the words of Cato-- Corporis exigua (leg. auxilium) medico committo fideli a line which is found in ii. D. 22; the next allusion is in Isidorus, who quotes Cato as an authority for the rare word officiperda (see iv. D. 42) ; and the third in order of time is in Alcuin, contemporary with Charlemagne, who cites one of the Distichs (ii. D. 31) as the words of the " philosopher Cato." In our own early literature it is frequently quoted by Chaucer. It is clear, therefore, that these saws were familiarly known in the middie of the fourth century, and recognized from that time forward as the composition of some Cato. So, in like manner, all the MSS. agree in presenting that name; while for the addition of Dionysius we are indebted to a single codex once in the possession of Simeon Bos, which was inspected by Scaliger and Vinet, and pronounced by them of great antiquity. We must remark, however, that the combination Dionysius Cato is exceedingly suspicious. Dionysius was a name frequently borne by slaves of Greek extraction ; but when combined with a Roman name, according to the fashion among libertini, it was added as a cognomen to the gentile appellation of the patron. Thus, C. Julius Dionysius appears in an inscription as a freedman of Augustus; so we find P. Aelius Dionysius, and many others; but it does not occur prefixed to a Roman cognomen, as in the present case. Names purely Greek, such as Dionysius Socrates, Dionysius Philocalus, and the like, do not of course bear upon the question.

No one now imagines that either of the Catos celebrated in history has any connexion with this metrical system of ethics. Aulus Gellius (11.2), it is true, gives some fragments of a Carmen de Moribus in prose by the elder; and Pliny (Plin. Nat. 29.6) has preserved a passage from the precepts delivered by the same sage to his son; but these were both works of a totally different description, and no hint has been given by the ancients that anything such as we are now discussing ever proceeded from Cato of Utica.

In truth, we know nothing about this Cato or Dionysius Cato, if he is to be so called; and, as we have no means of discovering anything with regard to him, it may be as well to confess our ignorance once for all.

Perhaps we ought to notice the opinion entertained by several persons, that Cato is not intended to represent the name of the author, but is merely to be regarded as the significant title of the work, just as we have the Brutus, and the Laelius, and the Cato Major of Cicero, and the treatise mentioned by Aulus Gellius, called Cato, aut de Liberis educandis.

Lastly, it has been inferred, from the introduction to book second, in which mention is made of Virgil and Lucan, that we have here certain proof that the distichs belong to some period later than the reign of Nero; but even this is by no means clear, for all the prologues have the air of forgeries ; and the one in question, above all, in addition to a false quantity in the first syllable of Macer, contains a most gross blunder, such as no one but an illiterate monk was likely to commit,--for the Punic wars are spoken of as the subject of Lucan's poem. Editions

This Catechism of Morals, as it has been called, seems to have been held in great estimation in the middle ages, and to have been extensively employed as a school-book. This will account for the vast number of early editions, more than thirty belonging to the fifteenth century, which have proved a source of the greatest interest to bibliographers. One of these, on vellum, of which only a single copy is known to exist, is in the Spenser collection, and is believed by Dibdin to be older than the Gottenburg Bible of 1465. The title in the earlier impressions is frequently Cato Moralisatus, Cato Moralissimus, Cato Carmen de Moribus, and so forth.

The best edition is that of Otto Arntzenius, 8vo. Amsterdam, 1754, which contains an ample collection of commentaries; the Greek paraphrases by Maximus Planudes and Joseph Scaliger; the dissertations of Boxhorn, written with as much extravagant bitterness as if the author of the Distichs had been a personal enemy; the learned but rambling and almost interminable reply of Cannegieter; and two essays by Withof. These, together with the preliminary notices, contain everything that is worth knowing.

One of the oldest specimens of English typography is a translation of Cato by Caxton through the medium of an earlier French version : The BOOKE CALLYD Cathon, Translated oute of Frenche into Englyssh by William Caxton in thabby of Westmystre the yere of our lorde Mcccclxxxiij and the fyrst yere of the regne of Kyng Rychard the thyrde xxiij day of Decembre. From the preface to this curious volume we learn, that the same task had previously been accomplished in verse. " Here beginneth the prologue or proheme of the book called Caton, which book hath been translated out of Latin into English, by Maister Benet Burgh, late Archdeacon of Colchester, and high canon of St. Stephen at Westminster; which full craftily hath made it, in ballad royal for the erudition of my Lord Bousher, son and heir at that time to my lord the Earl of Essex."

The Cato we have been discussing is frequently termed by the first English printers Cato Magnus, in contradistinction to Cato Parvus, which was a sort of supplement to the former, composed originally by Daniel Church (Ecclesiensis), a domestic in the court of Henry the Second, about 1180, and also translated by Burgh. The two tracts were very frequently bound up together. Further Information

See Ames, Typographical Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 195-202; Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. ii. section 27. [W.R]

Cato , Po'rcius

Cato was the name of a family of the plebeian Porcia gens, and was first given to M. Cato, the censor. [See below, No. 1.]

Cato , Po'rcius

2. M. Porcius Cato Licinianus, a Roman jurist, the son of Cato the Censor by his first wife Licinia, and thence called Licinianus to distinguish him from his half-brother, M. Porcius Cato, the son of Salonia. His father paid great attention to his education, physical as well as mental, and studied to preserve his young mind from every immoral taint. He was taught to ride, to swim, to wrestle, to fence, and, perhaps to the injury of a weak constitution, was exposed to vicissitudes of cold and heat in order to harden his frame. The Censor would not allow his learned slave Chilo to superintend the education of his son, lest the boy should acquire slavish notions or habits, but wrote lessons of history for him in large letters with his own hand, and afterwards composed a kind of Encyclopaedia for his use. Under such tuition, the young Cato became a wise and virtuous man. He first entered life as a soldier, and served, B. C. 173, in Liguria under the consul M. Popilius Laenas. The legion to which he belonged having been disbanded, he took the military oath a second time, by the advice of his father, in order to qualify himself legally to fight against the enemy. (Cic. de Off. 1.11.) In B. C. 168, he fought against Perseus at Pydna under the consul Aemilius Paullus, whose daughter, Aemilia Tertia, he afterwards married. He distinguished himself in the battle by his personal prowess in a combat in which he first lost and finally recovered his sword. The details of this combat are related with variations by several authors. (Plut. Cat. Ma. 20; Justin, 23.2; V. Max. 3.12.16; Frontin. Strat. 4.5.17.) He returned to the troops on his own side covered with wounds, and was received with applause by the consul, who gave him his discharge in order that he might get cured. Here again his father seems to have cautioned him to take no further part in battle, as after his discharge he was no longer a soldier. (Plut. Quaest. Rom. 39.)

Henceforward he appears to have devoted himself to the practice of the law, in which he attained considerable eminence. In the obscure and corrupt fragment of Pomponius de Origine Juris (Dig. 1. tit. 2.38), after mentioning Sextus and Publius Aelius and Publius Atilius, the author proceeds to speak of the two Catos as follows : " Hos sectatus ad aliquid est Cato. Deinde M. Cato, princeps Porciae familiae, cujus et libri extant; sed plurimi filii ejus; ex quibus caeteri oriuntur." This passage seems to speak of a Cato before the Censor, but Pomponius wrote in paragraphs, devoting one to each succession of jurists, and the word Deinde commences that of the Catos, though the Censor had been mentioned by anticipation at the end of the preceding paragraph. From tlle Catos, father and son (ex quibus), the subsequent jurists traced their succession. Apollinaris Sulpicius, in that passage of Gellius (13.18) which is the principal authority with respect to the genealogy of the Cato family, speaks of the son as having written "egregios de juris disciplina libros." Festus (s. v. Mundus) cites the commlentarii juris civilis of Cato, probably the son, and Paullus (Dig. 45. tit. 1. s. 4.1) cites Cato's 15th book. Cicero (Cic. de Orat. 2.33) censures Cato and Brutus for introducing in their published responsa the names of the persons who consulted them. Celsus (Dig. 50. tit. 16. s. 98.1) cites an opinion of Cato concerning the intercalary month, and the regula or sententia Catoniana is frequently mentioned in the Digest. The regula Catoniana was a celebrated rule of Roman law to the effect, that a legacy should never be valid unless it would have been valid if the testator had died immediately after he had made his will. This rule (which had several exceptions) was a particular case of a more general maxim : " Quod initio non valet, id tract temporis non potest convalescere." The greater celebrity of the son as a jurist, and the language of the citations from Cato, render it likely that the son is the Cato of the Digest. From the manner in which Cato is mentioned in the Institutes (Inst. 1. tit. 11.12),--" Apud Catonem bene scriptum refert antiquitas,"--it may be inferred, that he was known only at second hand in the time of Justinian.

He died when pretor designatus, about B. C. 152, a few years before his father, who bore his loss with resignation, and, on the ground of poverty, gave him a frugal funeral. (Liv. Epit, 48; comp. Cic. de Senect. 19.) Further Information

Majansius, ad XXX, JCtos, 1.1-113; E. L. Harrier, de Regula Catoniana, Heidelb. 1820 ; Drumann's Rom. v. p. 149.

Cato , Po'rcius

3. M. Porcius Cato Salonianus, the son of Cato the censor by his second wife Salonia, was born B. C. 154, when his father had completed his 80th year, and about two years before the death of his step-brother. He lost his father when he was five years old, and lived to attain the praetorship, in which office he died. (Gel. 13.19 ; Plut. Cat. Ma. 27.)

Cato , Po'rcius

4. M. Porcius Cato, elder son of Cato Licinianus. [No. 2.] Like his grandfather, the Censor, He was a vehement orator, and left behind him many written speeches . In B. C. 118, he was consul with Q. Marcius Rex, and in the sam year died in Africa, whither he had proceeded probably for the purpose of arranging the differences between the heirs of Micipsa in Numidia. (Gel. 13.19; Liv. Epit. lxii.)

Cato , Po'rcius

5. C. Porcius Cato, younger son of Cato Licinianus [No. 2], is mentioned by Cicero as a middling orator. (Brut. 28.) Ill his youth he was a follower of Tib. Gracchus. In B. C. 114, he was consul with Acilius Balbus, and in the same year obtained Macedonia as his province. In Thrace, he fought unsuccessfully against the Scordisci. His army was cut off in the mountains, and he himself escaped with difficulty, though Ammianus Marcellinus erroneously states that he was slain. (27.4.4.) Disappointed of booty in war, he endeavoured to indemnify himself by extortions in Macedonia. For this he was accused and sentenced to pay a fine. Afterwards, he appears to have served as a legate in the war with Jugurtha in Africa, where he was won over by the king. In order to escape condemnation on this charge, in B. C. 110, he went to Tarraco in Spain, and became a citizen of that town. (Cic. pro Balb. 11.) He has been sometimes confounded with his elder brother. (Vell. 2.8; Eutrop. 4.24; Cic. in Verr. 3.80, 4.10.)

Cato , Po'rcius

6. M. Porcius Cato, son of No. 3, and father of Cato of Utica. He was a friend of Sulla, whose proscriptions he did not live to see. He was tribunus plebis, and died when a candidate for the praetorship. (Gel. 13.19; Plut. Cat. Mi. 1_3.) Cicero, in discussing how far a vendor is bound to disclose to a purchaser the defects of the thing sold, mentions a decision of Cato on the trial of an actio arbitraria, in which Calpurnius was plaintiff and Claudius defendant. The plaintiff, having been ordered by the augurs to pull down his house on the Mons Caelia because it obstructed the auspices, sold it to the defendant without giving notice of the order. The defendant was obliged to obey a similar order, and brought an action to recover damages for the fraud. Upon these facts, Cato decided in favour of the purchaser. (De Off. 3.16.)

Cato , Po'rcius

7. L. Porcius Cato, the son of No. 3, and uncle of Cato of Utica, attached himself to the party of the senate. In the year B. C. 100, he was tribune of the plebs, and in that office opposed the attempts of L. Apuleius Saturninus, and assisted in rejecting a rogation on behalf of the exiled Metellus Numidicus. In the social war, B. C. 90, he defeated the Etruscans, and in the following year was consul with Pompeius Strabo. On one occasion a portion of his troops, consisting of town rabble, was instigated to disobedience and mutiny by the impudent prating of one C. Titius. He lost his life in an unlucky skirmish with the Marsians, near Lake Fucinus, at the end of a successful battle. It was thought by some that his death was not to be attributed to the enemy, but to the art of the younger Marius; for Cato had boasted that his own achievements were equal to the Cimbrian victory of Marius the father. (Liv. Epil. lxxv.; Oros. 5.17.)

Cato , Po'rcius

8. M. Porcius Cato, son of No. 4. After having been curule aedile and praetor, he obtained the government of Gallia Narbonensis, where he died. (Gel. 13.19.)

Cato , Po'rcius

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.

Cato , Po'rcius

13. Porcius 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.)

Cato , Po'rcius

14. Porcia. [Porcia.]

Cato , Po'rcius

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, 2.331.)

Cato , Po'rcius

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 prixatum dictatorem, and his boldness nearly cost him his life. (Cic. ad Qu. Fr. 1.2.9.) 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. (D. C. 39.15.) 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 Catonianam venditurum." (Cic. ad Qu. Fr. 2.6.) 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 manoelig;uvre on this occasion he was assisted by Nonius Sufenas, one of his colleagues in the tribunate. (D. C. 37.27, 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. Att. 4.5, 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. Works The Lydia and the Diana

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. has preserved, in addition to the above lines, short testimonies from Ticida and Cinna to the merits of the Lydia and the Diana, together with two epigrams by Furius Bibaculus [Bibaculus], which contrast, in no very feeling terms, the splendour of Cato in the full flush of his fame and prosperity--" unicum magistrum, sumnmm grammaticum, optimum poetam"--with his subsequent distress and poverty. From the circumstance already noticed that Cato devoted much attention in his earlier years to the productions of Lucilius, he is probably the Cato named in the prooemium to the tenth satire of Horace (lib. i.), and may be the same with the Cato addressed by Catullus (lvi.), and with the Cato classed by Ovid (Ov. Tr. 2.435) along with Ticida, Memmius, Cinna, Anser, and Cornificius. Dirae

In all the collections of the minor Latin poets will be found 183 hexameter verses, which, ever since the time of Joseph Scaliger, have been known under the title "Valerii Catonis Dirae." We gather from the context, that the lands of the author had been confiscated during civil strife, and assigned to veteran soldiers as a reward for their services. Filled with wrath and indignation on account of this cruel injustice and oppression, the rightful owner solemnly devotes to destruction the fields he had loved so well. Then in gentler mood he dwells upon the beauty of the scenes he was about to quit for ever; scarcely tearing himself away from an eminence whence he was gazing on his flocks, he bids a last farewell to them and his adored Lydia, to whom he vows eternal constancy. Such is the argument as far as the end of the 103d line. In the portion which follows, the bard dwells with envy on the felicity of the rural retreats haunted by his beautiful mistress, and complains of his relentless destiny, which had separated him from the object of his passion. It must also be observed, that in the first line we find an invocation of some person, place, or thing, designated by the appellation of Battarus--Battare cycneas repetamus carmine voces--and that this word occurs again and again, as far as line 97, forming a sort of burden to the song. These matters being premised, it remains for us to investigate, 1. The connexion and arrangement of the different parts of the "Dirae." 2. The real author. 3. What we are to understand by Battarus.

1. To all who read the lines in question with care it will at once become evident, that they in reality constitute two pieces, and not one. He first, containing the imprecations, and addressed to Battarus, concludes with 1. 103, and is completely distinct in subject, tone, spirit, and phraseology, from the second, which ought always to be printed as a separate strain. This opinion was first advanced by F. Jacobs (Bibliothek der alten Literatur und Kunst, p. ix. p. 56, Götting. 1792), and has been fully adopted by Putsch, the most recent editor. The confusion probably arose from the practice common among the ancient scribes of copying two or more compositions of the same author continuously, without interposing any space or mark to point out that they had passed from one to another. The error, once introduced, was in this case perpetuated, from the circumstance, that both poems speak of the charms of certain rural scenes, and of the beauty of Lydia, although in the one these objects are regarded with feelings very different from those expressed in the other.

2. In all MSS. these lines are found among the minor poems attributed to Virgil, and in several are specifically ascribed to him. Moreover, in the catalogues of Virgil's works drawn up by Donatus and by Servius, "Dirae" are included. Joseph Scaliger, however, considering that in language and versification the Dirae bore no resemblance whatever to the acknowledged compositions of Virgil, and that the sentiments expressed were completely at variance with the gentle and submissive spirit which Virgil displayed under like circumstances, was convinced that he could not be the author ; but, recollecting, on the other hand, that the incidents described and the name of Lydia corresponded in some degree with the details transmitted to us with regard to Valerius Cato, determined, that they must be from the pen of that grammarian ; and almost all subsequent editors have acquiesced in the decision. It is manifest, however, that the conclusion has been very rashly adopted. Granting that we are entitled to neglect the authority of the MSS., which in this case is perhaps not very important, and to remove these pieces from the works of Virgil, still the arguments on which they have been so confidently transferred to Cato are singularly weak. We can build nothing upon the fictitious name of Lydia; and even if we grant that the estate of Cato was actually distributed among the veterans of Sulla, although of this we have not the slightest evidence, we know well that hundreds of others suffered under a like calamity. Nor is there anything in the context by which we can fix the epoch of the forfeiture in question. All the circumstances are just as applicable to the times of Octavianus as to those of Sulla.

3. The discordant opinions which have been entertained with regard to Battarus are spoken of under Battarus. Editions

The Dirae were first printed at the end of the editio princeps of Virgil, at Rome, by Sweynheim and Pannartz in 1469, and are always included among the early impressions of the Catalecta. They appeared in an independent form at Leyden (12mo. 1652), under the inspection of Christopher Arnold, who adopted the corrected text of Scaliger. Since that period, they have been edited by Eichstädt (Jena, 4to. 1826), and with very complete prolegomena by Putsch (Jena, 8vo. 1828), whose work was reprinted at Oxford by Dr. Giles in 1838. They are to be found also in the "Anthologia" of Burmann (vol. ii. p. 647), and in the "Poetae Latini Minores" of Wernsdorff (vol. iii. p. xlv. &c.), who prefixed a very learned dissertation on various topics connected with the work. Further Information

An essay by Näke, who had prepared a new edition of Valerius Cato for the press, appeared in the "Rheinisches Museum" for 1828. [W.R]

Cato , Ve'ttius

[Scato.]

Cato

A surname of the Porcian family, derived from the Sabine catus, cognate with acutus. (1) M. Porcius Cato, surnamed Censorius, in allusion to the severity with which he discharged the office of a censor, and hence commonly styled, at the present day, “ Cato the Censor.” Other surnames were, Priscus, “the old,” and Maior, “the elder,” both alluding to his having preceded, in order of time, the younger Cato , who committed suicide at Utica. Cato the Censor was born in B.C. 234 at Tusculum, of plebeian parents. His family were in very moderate circumstances, and little, if anything, was known of it, until he himself made the name a conspicuons one. His father left him a small farm in the Sabine territory, and here the first years of his youth were spent. The state of public affairs, however, soon compelled him to take up arms for the defence of his country. The Second Punic War had broken out, and Hannibal had invaded Italy. Cato, therefore, served his first campaign, at the age of seventeen, under Fabius Maximus, when he besieged the city of Capua. Five years after this he fought under the same commander at the siege of Tarentum, and, after the capture of this place, became acquainted with the Pythagorean Nearchus, who initiated him into the principles of that system of philosophy, with which, in practice, he had already become familiar. The war being ended, Cato returned to his farm. Near this there stood a cottage belonging to Manius Curius Dentatus, who had repeatedly triumphed over the Sabines and Samnites, and had at length driven Pyrrhus from Italy. Cato was accustomed frequently to walk over to the humble abode of this renowned commander, where he was struck with admiration at the frugality of its owner, and the skilful management of the farm which was attached to it. Hence it became his great object to emulate his illustrious neighbour, and adopt him as his model. Having made an estimate of his house, lands, slaves, and expenses, he applied himself to husbandry with new ardour, and retrenched all superfluity. In the morning he went to the small towns in the vicinity to plead and defend the causes of those who applied to him for assistance. Thence he returned to his fields, where, with a plain cloak over his shoulders in winter, and almost naked in summer, he laboured with his servants till they had concluded their tasks, after which he sat down along with them at table, eating the same bread and drinking the same wine. Valerius Flaccus, a noble and powerful Roman, who occupied an estate in the neighbourhood of Cato 's residence, persuaded the young Cato to remove to Rome, and promised to assist him by his influence and patronage. Cato came, accordingly, to the capital, with an obscure name, and with no other resources than his own talents and the aid of the generous Flaccus; but by the purity of his morals, the austere energy of his character, his knowledge of the laws, his fluency of elocution, and the great ability that marked his early forensic career, he soon won for himself a distinguished name. It was in the camp, however, rather than at the bar, that he strove to raise himself to eminence. At the age of thirty he went as military tribune to Sicily. The next year he was chosen quaestor, and was attached to the army which Scipio Africanus was to carry into Africa, at which period there commenced between him and that commander a rivalry and hatred which lasted until death. Cato , who had returned to Rome, accused Scipio of extravagance; and though he failed in supporting his charge, yet his zeal for the public good gained him great influence over the minds of the people. Five years subsequent to this, after having been already aedile, he was chosen praetor, and the province of Sardinia fell to him by lot. His integrity and justice, while discharging this office, brought him into direct and most favourable contrast with those who had preceded him. Here, too, it was that he became acquainted with the poet Ennius, who was then serving among the Calabrian levies attached to the army. From Ennius he acquired the Greek language, and, on his departure from the island, he took the bard along with him to Rome. He was finally elected consul, B.C. 193, and his colleague in office was Valerius Flaccus, his early friend. While consul he strenuously but fruitlessly opposed the abolition of the famous Oppian Law (see Oppia Lex), and soon after this set out for Spain, which had attempted to shake off the Roman yoke. With newly raised troops, which he soon converted into an excellent army, he quickly reduced that province to submission, and obtained the honours of a triumph at Rome. Hardly had Cato descended from the triumphal chariot, when, laying aside the consular robe and assuming the garb of the lieutenant, he accompanied, as such, the Roman commander Sempronius into Thrace. He afterwards placed himself under the orders of Manius Acilius, the consul, to fight against Antiochus, and carry the war into Thessaly. By a bold march he seized upon Callidromus, one of the rockiest summits of Thermopylae, and thus decided the issue of the conflict. For this signal service, the consul, in the excess of his enthusiasm, embraced him in the presence of the whole army, and exclaimed that it was neither in his power, nor in that of the Roman people, to award him a recompense commensurate with his deserts (B.C. 191).

Seven years later he obtained the office of censor, notwithstanding the powerful opposition of a large part of the nobility, who dreaded to have so severe an inspector of public morals at a time when luxury, the result of their Asiatic conquests, had driven out many of the earlier virtues of the Roman people. He fulfilled this trust with inflexible rigour. Some of his acts, it is true, would seem to have proceeded from that pugnacious bitterness which must be contracted by a man engaged in constant strife and inflictions: thus, for example, he took away his horse from Lucius Scipio, and expelled Manilius from the Senate for kissing his wife in the presence of his children. Still, however, most of his proceedings when censor indicate a man who aimed, by every method, at keeping up the true spirit of earlier days. Hence, though his measures, while holding this office, caused him some obloquy and opposition, they met in the end with the highest applause; and when he resigned the censorship the people erected a statue to him in the Temple of Health, with an honourable inscription testifying his faithful discharge of the duties of his office. Cato 's attachment to the old Roman morals was still more plainly seen in his opposition to Carneades (q.v.) and his colleagues, when he persuaded the Senate to send back these philosophers, without delay, to their own schools, through fear lest the Roman youth should lose their martial character in the pursuit of Grecian learning. The whole political career of Cato was one continued warfare. He was constantly accusing others, or made the subject of accusation himself. Livy , although full of admiration for his character, still does not seek to deny that Cato was suspected of having excited the accusation brought against Scipio Africanus, which compelled that illustrious man to leave the capital. He was also the means of the condemnation of Scipio Asiaticus, who would have been dragged to prison had not Tiberius Gracchus generously interfered. As for Cato himself, he was fifty times accused and as often acquitted. He was eighty-five years of age when he saw himself compelled to answer the last accusation brought against him, and the exordium of his speech on that occasion was marked by a peculiar and touching simplicity: “It is a hard thing, Romans, to give an account of one's conduct before the men of an age different from that in which one has himself lived.”

The last act of Cato 's public life was his embassy to Carthage, to settle the dispute between the Carthaginians and King Masinissa. This voyage of his is rendered famous in history, since to it has been attributed the destruction of Carthage. In fact, struck by the rapid recovery of this city from the loss it had sustained, Cato ever after ended every speech of his with the well-known words, Praeterea censeo Carthaginem esse delendam (“I am also of opinion that Carthage ought to be destroyed”). See Carthago.

Cato died a year after his return from this embassy, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Although frugal of the public revenues, he does not appear to have been indifferent to riches, nor to have neglected the ordinary means of acquiring them; and, if Plutarch speaks truly, some of the modes to which he had recourse for increasing his resources were anything but reputable. Towards the end of his life he was fond of indulging in a glass of wine, and of inviting daily some of his neighbours to sup with him at his villa; and the conversation on these occasions turned, not as one might have supposed, chiefly on rural affairs, but on the praises of great and excellent men among the Romans. He was twice married, and had a son by each of his wives. His conduct as husband and father was equally exemplary. In fact, Cato may be taken as a specimen of the SabinoSamnite character, narrow, bigoted, and obstinate, yet inspired with a strong sense of duty and unimpeachable integrity.

Among the literary labours of Cato , the first that deserves mention is the treatise De Re Rustica, more properly styled De Agri Cultura, which appears to have come down to us in a mutilated state, since Pliny and other writers allude to subjects as treated of by Cato , and to opinions as delivered by him in this book, which are nowhere to be found in any part of the work now extant. In its present state, it is merely the loose, disconnected journal of a plain farmer, expressed with rude, sometimes with almost oracular, brevity; and it wants all those elegant topics of embellishment and illustration which the subject might have so naturally suggested. It consists solely of the dryest rules of agriculture, and some recipes for making various kinds of cakes and wine. Servius says it is addressed to the author's son, but there is no dedication now extant. It is divided into chapters, but the author, apparently, had never taken the trouble of reducing his precepts to any sort of method, or of following any general plan. The hundred and sixty-two chapters, of which this work consists, seem so many rules committed to writing, as the daily labours of the field suggested. He gives directions about the vineyard, then goes to his corn-fields, and returns again to the vineyard. His treatise, therefore, was evidently not intended as a regular and well-composed book, but merely as a journal of incidental observations. That this was its utmost pretension is further evinced by the brevity of the precepts, and the deficiency of all illustrations or embellishment. Of the style, he of course would be little careful, as his memoranda were intended for the use only of his family and his slaves. It is therefore always simple, and sometimes rude, but it is not ill-adapted to the subject, and suits our notions of the severe manners of its author and the character of the ancient Romans.

Besides this book on agriculture, Cato left behind him various works, which have almost entirely perished. He left a hundred and fifty orations ( Brutus, 17), which were extant in the time of Cicero, though almost entirely neglected, and a book on military discipline (Veget. i. 8). Both Cicero and Livy have expressed themselves very fully on the subject of Cato 's orations. The former admits that his “language is antiquated, and some of his phrases harsh and inelegant. But only change that,” he continues, “which it was not in his power to change—add number and cadence— give an easier turn to his sentences, and regulate the structure and connection of his words, and you will find no one who can claim preference over Cato.” Livy principally speaks of the facility, asperity, and freedom of his style.

Of the book on military discipline, a good deal has been incorporated into the work of Vegetius; and Cicero's orations may console us for the want of those of Cato. But the loss of the seven books De Originibus, which he commenced in his vigorous old age, and finished just before his death, must ever be deeply deplored by the historian and the antiquary. Cato is said to have begun an inquiry into the history, antiquities, and language of the Roman people, with a view to counteract the influence of the Greek taste introduced by the Scipios. The first book of the valuable work De Originibus, as we are informed by Cornelius Nepos, in his short life of Cato , contained the exploits of the kings of Rome. Cato was the first author who attempted to fix the era of the foundation of Rome, which he calculated in his Origines, and determined to have been in the first year of the 7th Olympiad, which is also the estimate followed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The second and third books treated of the origin of the different states of Italy, whence the whole work has received the name of Origines. The fourth and fifth books comprehended the history of the First and Second Punic Wars; and in the two remaining books the author discussed the other wars of the Romans till the time of Servius Galba, who overthrew the Lusitanians. The whole work exhibited great industry and learning, and, had it descended to us, would unquestionably have thrown much light upon the early periods of Roman history and the antiquities of the different states of Italy. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, himself a sedulous inquirer into antiquities, bears ample testimony to the research and accuracy of that part which treats of the origin of the ancient Italian cities. Cato was the first of his countrymen who wrote on the subject of medicine. This was done in a work entitled Commentarius quo Medetur Filio, Servis, Familiaribus. In this book of domestic medicine, duck, pigeons, and hare were the food he chiefly recommended to the sick. His remedies were principally extracted from herbs; and colewort or cabbage was his favourite cure (Plin. H. N. xx. 9). The recipes, indeed, contained in his work on agriculture show that his medical knowledge did not exceed that which usually exists among a semi-barbarous race, and only extended to the most ordinary simples which nature affords. Aulus Gellius (vi. 10) mentions Cato 's Libri Quaestionum Epistolicarum, and Cicero his Apophthegmata (De Officiis, i. 29)—the first example, probably, of that class of works which, under the appellation of Ana, were once so fashionable and prevalent in France.

On the life of Cato , see Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos; Cortese, De M. Porc. Catonis Vita, Operibus, et Lingua (Turin, 1883); and Weise, Quaestionum Catonian. Capita V. (Göttingen, 1887). The fragments of Cato 's writings (except the work on agriculture) are collected by Jordan (Leipzig, 1860). The best text of the Res Rustica is that of Keil (Leipzig, 1884). See, on the language, the work of Cortese, Grammatica Catoniana (Turin, 1883).

(2) Marcus, son of Cato the Censor by his first wife. He distinguished himself greatly in the battle of Pydna, against Perses, king of Macedonia, and received high eulogiums from Aemilius Paulus, the Roman commander on that occasion, whose daughter Tertia he afterwards married. He died while filling the office of praetor ( Cat. Mai. 20, 24).

(3) Salonius, or, as Plutarch calls him, Salonīnus (Σαλωνῖνος), son of Cato the Censor by his second wife. This second wife was the daughter of one Salonius, who had been Cato 's secretary, and was, at the time of the marriage, a member of his retinue. Salonius, like his half-brother Marcus, died when praetor. He left, however, a son named Marcus, who attained to the consulship, and who was the father of Cato the younger, commonly called Uticensis ( Cat. Mai. 27).

(4) Valerius, a celebrated grammarian and poet in the time of Sulla. He was deprived of all his patrimony during the excesses of the Civil War, and then directed his attention to literary pursuits. To him has been ascribed the poem of 186 hexameters, entitled Dirae in Battarum, an imprecation against the person who had caused the loss of his estate, and a lament for his love, Lydia. Text by Putsche (Jena, 1828) and Ribbeck (Kiel, 1867). See the treatise on Cato by Naekius (Bonn, 1847), and Haupt's edition of Vergil, p. 576 (Leipzig, 1873); Suetonius mentions other works that have not come down to us —the Diana and the Indignatio—besides treatises on grammar and rhetoric.

(5) Marcus, called also Minor, and Uticensis, from his death at Utica, was great-grandson to the censor of the same name, and was born B.C. 93. A short time after his birth he lost both his parents, and was brought up in the house of Livius Drusus, his uncle on the mother's side. Even in early life Cato displayed a maturity of judgment and an inflexible firmness of character far above his years; and Sarpedon, his instructor, being accustomed to take him frequently to the residence of Sulla , who had been his father's friend, the young Cato , then but fourteen years of age, struck with horror at the bloody scenes that were passing around him, asked his preceptor for a sword, that he might slay the tyrant. His affectionate disposition was clearly displayed in his strong attachment to Caepio, his brother by the mother's side, as may be seen by a reference to the pages of Plutarch. Being appointed to the priesthood of Apollo, he changed his residence, and took his share of his father's estate; but, though the fortune which he thus received was a considerable one, his manner of living was simpler and more frugal than ever. He formed a connection with Antipater of Tyre, the Stoic philosopher, made himself well acquainted with the tenets of that school, and ever after remained true to its principles, pushing them even to austerity. His first appearance in public was against the tribunes of the people, who wished to remove a column of the Porcian Basilica which incommoded their benches. This basilica had been erected by his great-grandfather, the censor, and the young Cato displayed on the occasion that powerful and commanding eloquence which afterwards rendered him so formidable to all his opponents. His first campaign was in the war against Spartacus (q.v.), as a simple volunteer, his half-brother Caepio being a military tribune in the same army; and he distinguished himself so highly that Gellius, the praetor, wished to award him a prize of honour, which Cato , however, declined. He was then sent as military tribune to Macedonia. There he learned that Caepio was lying dangerously ill at Aenus in Thrace, and instantly embarked for that place in a small passage-boat, notwithstanding the roughness of the sea and the great peril which attended the attempt, but only arrived at Aenus just after Caepio had breathed his last. Stoicism was here of no avail, and the young Roman bitterly lamented the companion of his early years. According to Plutarch, there were some who condemned him for acting in a way so contradictory to his philosophical principles; but a more unfeeling charge was the one brought against him by Caesar, in his attack entitled Anticatones (q. v.). It was there stated that, after all the lavish expenditure in which Cato had indulged in performing the funeral obsequies of Caepio, and after having declined repayment from the daughter of the latter, he nevertheless passed Caepio's ashes through a sieve in search of the gold which might have melted down with them.

When the term of his service in Macedonia had expired, he travelled into Asia, and brought back with him the Stoic Athenodorus to Rome. He was next made quaestor, and discharged with so much impartiality the duties of this difficult office, and displayed so much integrity in its various details that, on the last day of his quaestorship, he was escorted to his house by the whole assembly of the people. So high, indeed, was the opinion entertained by his countrymen of the purity of his moral character that when, at the Floralia given by the aedile Messius, Cato happened to be a spectator, the people, out of respect for him, hesitated about ordering the prostitutes to strip themselves naked, according to long-established custom, nor would they allow this to be done until he had departed from the theatre (Val. Max. ii. 10, 8). When the conspiracy of Catiline was discovered, Cato supported by every means in his power the acts of Cicero, and was the first that gave him publicly the honourable title of Pater Patriae. Opposing after this the ambitious movements of the first triumvirate, they managed to have him removed to a distance, by sending him out as governor of the island of Cyprus. Having executed this trust with ability and success, and having deposited in the treasury nearly seven thousand talents of silver, he again took part in public affairs at Rome, and again continued his opposition to the triumvirate. When, however, the rupture took place between Pompey and Caesar, he sided with the former, and was left behind by him at Dyrrhachium to guard the military chest and magazine, while he pushed on after Caesar, who had been forced to retire from the siege of that city. Cato , therefore, was not present at the battle of Pharsalia. On receiving the news of this event, he sailed to Corcyra with the troops under his orders, and offered the command to Cicero, who declined it. He then proceeded to Africa, where he hoped to meet with Pompey; but on reaching Cyrené he heard of his death, and was also informed that Pompey's father-in-law, Scipio, had gone to Iuba, king of Mauritania, where Varus had collected a considerable force. Cato immediately resolved to join them, and, in order to effect this, was compelled to make a long and painful march across a desert region, in which his troops suffered severely from hunger, thirst, and every hardship, but which privations his own example enabled them manfully to endure. After seven days of suffering his force reached Utica, where a junction between the two armies took place. The soldiers wished to have him for their general, but he yielded to what he conceived to be the superior claims of Scipio, who held the office of proconsul; and this fault on his part, of which he soon after had reason to repent, accelerated the ruin of the cause in which he had embarked. Scipio having wished, for Iuba's gratification, to put all the inhabitants of Utica to the sword, Cato strenuously opposed this cruel plan, and accepted the command of this important city, while Scipio and Labienus marched against Caesar. Cato had advised them to protract the war; but they hazarded an engagement at Thapsus, in which they were entirely defeated, and Africa submitted to the victor. After vainly endeavouring to prevail upon the fragments of the conquered army, as they came successively to Utica, to unite in defending that city against the conqueror, Cato furnished them with all the ships in the harbour to convey them wherever they wished to go. When the evening of that day came, he retired to his own apartments, and employed himself for some time in reading the Phaedoof Plato, a dialogue that turns upon the immortality of the soul. He endeavoured at the same time to lull the suspicions of his friends by seeming to take a lively interest in the fate of those who were escaping by sea from Utica, and by sending several times to the seaside to learn the state of the wind and weather. But towards morning, when all was quiet, he stabbed himself. He fell from his bed with the blow, and the noise of his fall brought his son and servants into the room, by whose assistance he was raised from the ground, and an attempt was made to bind up the wound. Their efforts to save him were in vain, for Cato had no sooner recovered his self-possession than he tore open the would again in so effectual a manner that he instantly expired. He died at the age of forty-eiglit. When Caesar heard of his fate, he is said to have exclaimed, “I grudge thee thy death, Cato , since thou hast grudged me the saving of thy life.” Such was the end of a man whom a better philosophy, by teaching him to struggle with his predominant faults instead of encouraging them, would have rendered truly amiable and admirable. He possessed the greatest integrity and firmuess; and, from the beginning of his political career, was never swayed by fear or interest to desert that which he considered the cause of liberty and justice. During the Civil War he had the rare merit of uniting to the sincerest ardour in the cause of his party a steady regard for justice and humanity; he would not countenance cruelty or rapine because practised by his associates or coloured with a pretence of public advantages. But philosophical pride overshadowed the last scenes of his life, and led him to indulge his selfish feelings by suicide, rather than live for the happiness of his family and friends, and mitigate, as far as lay in his power, the distressed condition of his country. His character, however, was so pure, and, since Pompey's death, so superior to that of all the leaders engaged with him in the same cause, that his opponents could not refuse him their respect.

(6) M. Porcius, son of the preceding, was spared by Caesar, but led a somewhat immoral life, until he effaced the stains upon his character by a glorious death at Philippi ( Cat. Min. 73).

(7) Dionysius Cato . A name erroneously given to the author of a collection of moral maxims in four books, much used as a school-book in the Middle Ages, and translated into English before 1479 by Benedict Burgh, whose version was printed by Caxton. Each maxim consists of two hexameters, the whole number of maxims being 164. The style is fairly good, and shows the poem to date from about the third century A.D. The collection is preceded by fifty-six short proverbs in prose with a separate preface, by a different author, probably of later date. The hexameters are generally spoken of as Disticha Catonis (Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium), and in a Paris MS. as Liber Catonis Philosophi, but the name Cato is probably used merely to designate the maxims as shrewd and wise. The addition of the name Dionysius is doubtless due to a confusion arising from the fact that one of the earlier MSS. of the Disticha contained also a translation of the Periegesis of Dionysius. A good text is that of Hauthal (Berlin, 1869).