CATO, MARCUS PORCIUS (234-149 B.c), Roman statesman, surnamed "The Censor" or "The Elder," was born at Tusculum of an ancient plebeian family. He was bred to agri culture, but, having attracted the notice of L. Valerius Flaccus, he was brought to Rome, and became successively quaestor (204), aedile (199), praetor (198), and consul (195). During his term of office he vainly opposed the repeal of the Lex Appia, to restrict extravagance on the part of women. Meanwhile he served in Africa, and took part in the campaign of Zama (202). He held a command in Sardinia and again in Spain, which he subdued with great cruelty, thereby gaining a triumph (194) . In the year 191 he acted as military tribune in the war against Antiochus III. of Syria. If he was not personally engaged in the prosecution of the Scipios (Africanus and Asiaticus) for corruption, it was his spirit that animated the attack upon them. 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 opposed the spread of the new Hellenic culture which threatened to destroy ancient Roman simplicity. His purpose was shown most clearly in the discharge of the censorship; hence his title of "Censor." He revised with unsparing severity the lists of senators and knights, ejecting the men whom he judged unworthy, either on moral grounds or from want of means. The expulsion of L. Quinctius Flamininus for cruelty was an example of his rigid justice. His regulations against luxury were very stringent, and he supported the Lex Orchia (181) and Lex Voconia (169) . 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. He raised the amount paid by the publican for the right of farming the taxes, and at the same time diminished the contract prices for the con struction of public works.
From the date of his censorship (184) to his death in 149, Cato held no public office, but continued to distinguish himself in the senate as the persistent opponent of the new ideas. Like many others he was shocked at the licence of the Bacchanalian myster ies; and he urged the dismissal of the philosophers (Carneades, Diogenes and Critolaus), who came as ambassadors from Athens, on account of the dangerous nature of their views. Almost his last public act was to urge his countrymen to the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage. In 157 he was one of the deputies sent to arbitrate between Carthage and Numidia and was so struck by 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 : "Delenda est Carthago" ("Carthage must be destroyed") .
Cato regarded the family as the germ of the State, 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. The Romans respected this behav iour as a traditional example of the old Roman manners (Livy xxxix. 4o) .
Cato was the first Latin prose writer of any importance, and the first author of a history of Rome in Latin. His treatise on agri culture (De Agricultura or De Re Rustica) is the only work by him that has been preserved. It contains a miscellaneous collec tion of rules of good husbandry, conveying much curious in formation on the domestic habits of the Romans of his age. His most important work Origines, in seven books, related the history of Rome from its earliest foundations to his own day. His speeches, of which 15o were collected, were chiefly directed against the young nobles of the day. He also wrote a set of maxims for the use of his son (Praecepta ad Filium) and some rules for everyday life in verse (Carmen de Moribus). The col lection of proverbs in hexameter verse, extant under the name of Cato, probably belongs to the 4th century A.D. (See CATO, DIONYsIUS.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.—There are lives of Cato by Cornelius Nepos, PluBibliography.—There are lives of Cato by Cornelius Nepos, Plu- tarch and Aurelius Victor, and many particulars of his career and character are to be gathered from Livy and Cicero. See also G. Kurth Caton l'ancien (Bruges, 1872) ; F. Marcucci Studio critico sulle Opere di Catone it Maggiore (1902) . The best edition of the De Agricultura is by H. Keil (1884-90, of the fragments of the Origines by H. Peter (1883) in Historicorum Romanorum Fragmenta, of the fragments generally by H. Jordan (186o) ; see also J. Wordsworth Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin (1874) ; Mommsen Hist. of Rome (Eng. trans.) bk. iii. ch. xi. and xiv.; Warde Fowler Social Life at Rome (1909).