CA'TO, MAncrs Poncrus, surnamed Censorius and Sapiens ("the wise"), afterwards known as CATO PRISMS or CATO MAJOR—t0 distinguish him from Cato of Utica—was b. at Ttisculum in 234 fix. He inherited from his plebeian father a small farm in the country of the Sabines, where he busied himself in agricultural operations, and learned to love the simple and severe manners of his Roman forefathers, which still lingered round his rural home. Induced by Lucius Valerius Flaccus to remove to Rome when that city was in a transition epoch, from the old-fashioned strictness and severe frugality of social habits, to the luxury and licentiousness of Grecian manners, C. appeared to protest against this, to denounce the degeneracy of the Philo-hellenic party, and to set a pattern of sterner and purer character. Ile soon distinguished himself as a pleader at the bar of justice, and after passing through minor offices, was elected consul. In his province of Nearer Spain, where an insurrection bad broken out after the departure of the elder Scipio (206 n.c.), C. was so successful in quelling disturbances and restoring order, that in the following year he was honored by a triumph. C. exhibited extraor dinary military genius in Spain; his stratagems were brilliant, his plans pf battle were marked by great skill, and his general movements were rapid, bold, and unexpected. In 187 B.C., a fine opportunity occurred for the display of "antique Roman" notions. M. Fulvius Nobilior had just returned from ,Etolia victorious, and sought the honor of a triumph. C. objected. Fulvius was indulgent to his soldiers, a of literary taste, etc., and C. charges him, among other enormities, with "keeping poets in his camp." These rude prejudices of C. were not acceptable to the senate, and C.'s opposi tion was fruitless. In 184 B.C., C. was'elected censor, and discharged so rigorously the duties of his °dice, that the epithet Censorius, formerly applied to all persons in the same station, was made his permanent surname. _Many of his acts were highly commendable. He repaired the water-courses, paved the reservoirs, cleansed the drains, raised the rents paid by the publicans for the farming of the taxes, and diminished the contract prices paid by the state to the undertakers of public works. More questionable reforms
were those in regard to the price of slaves, dress, furniture, equipage, etc. His despotism in enforcing his own idea of decency may be illustrated from the fact, that he degraded Mauilius, a man of pnetorian rank, for having kissed his wife in his daughter's presence in open day. C. was a thoroughly dogmatic moralist, intolerant, stoical, but great, because he manfully contended with rapidly swelling evils; yet not wise, because he opposed the bad and the good in the innovations of his age with equal animosity.
In the year 175 n.e., C. was sent to Carthage to negotiate on the differences between the Carthaginians and the Numidian king Masinissa; but having been offended by the Carthaginians, he returned to Rome, where, ever afterwards, he described Carthage as the most formidable rival of the empire, and concluded all his addresses in the senate house—whatever the immediate subject might be—with the well-known words: " Ceterum cense°, Carthagimem ease delendam" ("For the rest, I vote that Carthage must be destroyed").
Though C. was acquainted with the Greek language and its literature, his severe principles led him to denounce the latter as injurious to national morals. He died 149 B.C., at the age of 85. C. was twice married. In his eightieth year, his second wife, Salonia, bore him a son, the grandfather of Cato of Utica. C. treated his slaves with shocking harshness and cruelty. In his old age, he became greedy of gain, yet never once allowed his avarice to interfere with his honesty as a state-functionary. Ile also composed various literary works, such as De Re Rustka (a treatise on agriculture)—much corrupted, however. The best editions are by Gesner and Schneider in their Seriptores Rei Rustiar. His greatest historical work, Originea, has, unfortunately, perished; but some few fragments are given in Krause's Ilistoricorum, ROM471411177L Fragmenta (Berlin, 1833). Fragments of C.'s orations—of which as many as 150 were read by Cicero—are given in Meyer's Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta (Zurich, 1842).