Cato
Cato names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Cato MARCUS PORCIUS, surnamed the Younger or Uticensis (from Utica
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARCUS PORCIUS, surnamed the Younger or Uticensis (from Utica, the place of his death), the great-grandson of Cato the Censor, was born 95 b. c. Even when a boy, he is said to have given indications of sturdy independence. Taking his great ancestor as his model, he adopted his principles and imitated his conduct. He commenced his military career in 72 B. C., as a volunteer, in the servile war of Spartacus; and afterward earned a high reputation as a military tribune in Macedonia. spent in the study of stoicism, his favorite philosophy, and in diligent preparation for the duties of official life, he was elected quæstor for 65 B. C.; and acting on the principles which he had prescribed to himself, corrected various abuses which had been sanctioned by his predecessors. As the supporter of Cicero, in 63 B. c., in all his measures for suppress- wonderful appearance. ing the Catilinarian conspiracy, he decided by his speech, on the 5th of December, the motion that the conspirators should be put to death. Along with the senatorial party he strenuously opposed the coalition of Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus, in 60 B. C., but the supporters of the triumvirate dexterously removed him from the scene of action by conferring upon him an appointment which called him first to Cyprus, and afterward to Byzantium. When prætor, in 54 B. C., he was exposed to the outrages of the mob, in consequence of his endeavors to put a stop to the bribery and corrupprevailed the tion which . On commencement of the civil war, 49 B. C., Cato joined the party of Pompey, and after the battle of Pharsalia, he retired to Africa, whither he had thought Pompey had fled, and endured, with his troops, hardships in marching across desert to join Scipio at Utica, with whom he had some contest about the mode of carrying on the war. Cato also gave of fense to that general by sparing those inhabitants of Utica who were attached to Cæsar. When that conqueror came before the place Cato retired to his chamber, and after reading Plato's "Phædo, or Dialogue on the Immortality of the Soul," fell upon his sword, 45 B. C.
Cato MARCUS PORCIUS, the Censor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARCUS PORCIUS, the Censor, surnamed Priscus, the Wise and the Elder, a celebrated Roman, born in Tusculum, in 234 b. c. He inherited from his father, a plebeian, a small estate in the territory of the Sabines, which he cultivated with his own hands. By the advice of Valerius Flaccus he removed to Rome, where his forensic abilities had free scope. He rose rapidly, accompanied Scipio to Sicily as quæstor in 204 b. C., became an ædile in 199, and in 198 was chosen prætor, and appointed to the province of Sardinia. Three years later he gained the consulship, and in 194 for his brilliant campaign in Spain obtained the honor of a triumph. In 191 he served as military tribune against Antiochus, and then, having abundantly proved his his soldierly qualities, returned to Rome. For some years he exercised a practical censorship, scrutinizing the characters of candidates for office, and denouncing false claims, peculations, etc. His election to the censorship in 184 set an official seal to his efforts, the unsparing severity of which has made his name proverbial. From that year until his death he held no public office, though zealously continuing his unofficial labors for the state. His hostility to Carthage, the destruction of which he advocated in every speech made by him in the forum, was the most striking feature of his closing years. His incessant "Delenda est Carthago" (Carthage must be destroyed) did much to further the third Punic war. Of his works his "De Re Rustica" (On Rural Economy) alone survives, though there exist in quotation fragments of his history and speeches. He died 149 b. c.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both lives still read much as ancient sources tell them, since Plutarch, Cicero and Sallust remain the evidence and no new ancient testimony has upset them. Two details have been tidied: Collier's dates the younger Cato's suicide at Utica to 45 B.C., whereas it followed Caesar's victory at Thapsus in April 46 B.C.; and scholars now stress that the ringing slogan "Delenda est Carthago" is a modern condensation, the ancient reports of Cato the Censor's refrain being paraphrases rather than a quoted formula. The Censor's surviving farm manual, called here "De Re Rustica" and now usually "De Agri Cultura," is valued more highly than in 1921 as the oldest substantially surviving work of Latin prose. Cato the Younger's afterlife as an emblem of liberty against one-man rule has also continued: the Washington think tank founded in 1977 as the Cato Institute takes its name from the eighteenth-century "Cato's Letters" written under his.
Written for this edition, 2026.