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Cato the Censor (Classics)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Marcus Porcius Cato, also known as “Cato the Censor” and “Cato the Elder” (b. 234–d. 149 BCE), was one of the most prominent figures in the political and cultural life of Rome in the first half of the 2nd century BCE. Born in 234 in Tusculum, fifteen miles south of Rome, Cato belonged to an elite family that is thought to have acquired Roman citizenship in 268 with the rest of the Sabines. In 204, he achieved the quaestorship, the lowest office on the ladder of electoral politics; in 195, at the age of thirty-nine, he reached the consulship. In the same year, Cato spoke against the abrogation of a sumptuary law (lex Oppia) promulgated during wartime that limited expenditure on women’s clothing and carriages. In 184, Cato became censor; afterwards, he became a most authoritative presence in the Senate and remained active until the year of his death (149 BCE). He is often remembered for his hostility to Greek learning, but he is also considered the virtual founder of Roman historiography, oratory, and Latin prose in general. Of his writings, only the De Agricultura survives in its entirety; the rest (which includes orations, historical writing, advice to his son, and other material) comes to us in fragments through quotations in later authors.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. The impact of Cato on the Roman political and cultural scene has undergone major reappraisals since the early 1990s. Gruen 1992 (pp. 53–83) challenges the common characterization of Cato as a radical antihellene who despised all things Greek and attributed Rome’s “moral degeneration” to the acceptance of Greek cultural values. The chapter on Cato in Gruen 1992 needs to be read alongside Gruen 1990, where the author offers a larger overview of Rome’s early-2nd-century BCE cultural life and policies. Habinek 1998 (pp. 34–68) brings to view Cato’s impact on the development of a literature in Latin, based on the hypotheses of Zorzetti 1990 and Zorzetti 1991 concerning Cato’s evocation of the so-called carmina convivalia. An excellent treatment of Cato’s work and the contemporary scene in German is in Suerbaum 2002 (pp. 380–418). Sciarrino 2011 pinpoints Cato’s contribution to our understanding of early-2nd-century sociocultural issues and offers close readings of his oratory, the De Agricultura, the Origines, and other fragments attributed to him.
  8.  
  9. Gruen, Erich S. 1990. Studies in Greek culture and Roman policy. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  11. Each chapter discusses the relationship between political and cultural issues, including the impact of Greek learning and religion on central aspects of Roman life in the middle Republic.
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  13. Gruen, Erich S. 1992. Culture and national identity in republican Rome. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
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  15. In chapter 2 (pp. 52–83), Gruen revises previous views on Cato’s anti-Hellenism and suggests that his positioning contributed to the construction of Roman national identity.
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  17. Habinek, Thomas N. 1998. The politics of Latin literature: Writing, identity and empire in ancient Rome. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  19. The second chapter represents a milestone in the revival of Cato as a culturally relevant figure and views his interventions through sociological lenses.
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  21. Sciarrino, Enrica. 2011. Cato the Censor and the beginnings of Latin prose: From poetic translation to elite transcription. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press.
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  23. This book offers in English an introduction to the scholarly debate regarding the beginnings of Latin literature and situates Cato’s cultural impact vis-à-vis the development of poetic practices in Rome.
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  25. Suerbaum, Werner, ed. 2002. Handbuch der lateinischen Literatur der Antike. Vol. 1, Die archaische Literatur: Von den Anfängen bis zu Sullas Tod: Die vorliterarische Periode und die Zeit von 240 bis 78 v.Chr. Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 8.1. Munich: C. H. Beck.
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  27. It includes an impressive presentation of various aspects of early Latin literature, with accurate bibliography (including reception) and testimonia. See also reviews for a better understanding of the issues relating to the beginnings of Latin literature: Ingo Gildenhard, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.09.39; Denis Feeney, “The beginnings of a literature in Latin,” Journal of Roman Studies 95 (2005): 226–240 (articles available online for purchase or by subscription).
  28. Find this resource:
  29. Zorzetti, Nevio. 1990. The carmina convivalia. Paper presented at the First Symposium on the Greek Symposion, Balliol College, 4–8 September 1984. In Sympotica: A symposium on the symposion. Edited by O. Murray, 289–307. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  31. Together with Zorzetti 1991, this article has had an enormous impact on the resurrection of Cato as a pivotal cultural figure.
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  33. Zorzetti, Nevio. 1991. Poetry and ancient city: The case of Rome. Classical Journal 86:311–329.
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  35. This article complements Zorzetti 1990, and it is crucial for understanding the current scholarly debate over preliterary and early literary practices in Rome. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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  37. Biographies
  38.  
  39. Contemporary references to Cato’s life can be found in Polybius’s work. Ancient accounts of his life include Plutarch’s Life of Cato and Nepos’s Life of Cato; he also appears as a character in Cicero’s Cato Maior De Senectute. References to Cato’s political activities are also in Livy 31–45 (Livy is useful especially as a source for Cato’s Hispanic campaign during his consulship in 195 BCE. For modern discussions of Cato’s life in modern times, see in Italian Marmorale 1949, Fraccaro 1956, Della Corte 1969, and Cato 2001 (especially introduction pp. 9–101); in German, Gelzer and Helm 1953; in English, Astin 1978 (pp. 1–130).
  40.  
  41. Astin, Alan E. 1978. Cato the Censor. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  43. It includes the most complete account of Cato’s life in English. Astin can be considered a point of departure for understanding Cato’s individual works and political career.
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  45. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 2001. Opere di Marco Porcio Catone Censore. Edited by Paolo Cugusi and Maria Teresa Sblendorio Cugusi. 2 vols. Turin, Italy: UTET.
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  47. The introduction offers a detailed and thickly footnoted overview of Cato’s life and works in Italian. Some of the material in this introduction is anticipated in Teresa Sblendorio Cugusi, “M. Porcio Catone Censore,” in Storia della civiltà letteraria greca e latina, edited by Italo Lana and Enrico V. Maltese, Vol. 2 (Turin, Italy: UTET, 1998), pp. 326–346.
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  49. Della Corte, Francesco. 1969. Catone Censore: La vita e la fortuna. 2d ed. Florence, Italy: La Nuova Italia.
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  51. It includes discussions of Cato’s life; much of the focus is on his relationship with other members of the aristocracy, the Scipio in particular. Originally published in 1949 (Turin, Italy: Rosenberg & Sellier).
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  53. Fraccaro, Plinio. 1956. Opuscula 1. Pavia, Italy: Athenaeum.
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  55. It includes a number of articles on various aspects of Cato’s political career and his positioning within the Roman aristocracy.
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  57. Gelzer, Matthias, and R. Helm. 1953. M. Porcius Cato Censorius. In Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Vol. 22, Halbband 43, Pontarches–Praefectianus. Edited by Konrat Ziegler, Karl Mittelhaus, Wilhelm Kroll, August Friedrich von Pauly, and Georg Wissowa, col. 108–165. Stuttgart: Metzler.
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  59. A learned survey of Cato’s life and works in German.
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  61. Marmorale, Enzo. 1949. Cato Maior. Bari, Italy: Laterza.
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  63. Published in the same year as Della Corte’s monograph, Marmorale’s account is a precious addition to the opinions and views that were in place in the mid-20th century.
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  65. Bibliographies
  66.  
  67. In recent years, two important commented bibliographies have appeared on Cato: Cugusi and Sblendorio Cugusi 1996 and Suerbaum 2004. These are most useful for the study of individual fragments, works, or issues.
  68.  
  69. Cugusi, Paolo, and Maria Teresa Sblendorio Cugusi. 1996. Problematica catoniana: Rassegna di studi 1978–1993 e contributi critici. Bollettino di studi latini 26:82–218.
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  71. The bibliography is discussed in continuous prose divided into sections. Several additions are to be found in the “works cited” section of Cato 2001 (cited under Biographies).
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  73. Suerbaum, Werner. 2004. Cato Censorius in der Forschung des 20. Jahrhunderts: Eine kommentierte chronologische Bibliographie für 1900–1999 nebst systematischen Hinweisen und einer Darstellung des Schriftstellers M. Porcius Cato (234–149 v. Chr.). Bibliographien zur klassischen Philologie 2. Hildesheim, Germany, and New York: Georg Olms.
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  75. The commented bibliography is presented in chronological order and by work. It is easy to consult, and the comments are very clear.
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  77. Complete Editions of Cato’s Texts
  78.  
  79. Cato 2001 is the only edition that includes all the textual materials attributed to Cato. This edition is also accompanied by translation in Italian. Cato 1980 offers a translation into German of the entire corpus. No translations into English of the entire Catonian corpus exist. Cato 1860 is still useful for the philological study of the fragments alone (it excludes the De Agricultura). In English, Churchill 1996 offers a philological reassessment of Cato’s entire work.
  80.  
  81. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 1860. M. Catonis praeter librum De re rustica quae exstant. Edited by Henri Jordan. Leipzig: Teubner.
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  83. It comprises an edition of Cato’s fragmentary works and a useful critical apparatus.
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  85. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 1980. Vom Landbau, Fragmente, alle erhalten Schriften: Lateinisch-deutsch. Edited by Otto Schoenberger. Munich: Heimeran.
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  87. It contains a useful edition (no apparatus) accompanied by an accurate German translation.
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  89. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 2001. Opere di Marco Porcio Catone Censore. Edited by Paolo Cugusi and Maria Teresa Sblendorio Cugusi. 2 vols. Turin, Italy: UTET.
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  91. Their edition is accompanied by an excellent Italian translation, a useful commentary in footnotes, critical notes detached from the text, and a dense bibliography.
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  93. Churchill, James Bradford. 1996. The Elder Cato: A philological reassessment. PhD diss., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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  95. This dissertation offers an excellent point of departure for understanding the philological issues associated with Cato’s work.
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  97. De Agricultura
  98.  
  99. Generally acclaimed as the first work of Latin prose that survives in its entirety, the De Agricultura is divided into 162 chapters, introduced by titles probably added by later editors. Despite the implicit order that the chapter organization may suggest, scholars have long been struggling with its seemingly irreducible inconsistencies. First of all, the preface does not appear to be well integrated with what follows. While in the opening section Cato supports agricultural practices against usury and commerce, the remainder takes the form of a series of instructions that range from agricultural topics to medical, dietary, legal, and religious prescriptions in the backdrop of a villa environment located somewhere in central Italy. Discussions tend to pivot around two main issues: one, its textual composition, and two, its validity as a document for the understanding of Roman slavery, economic changes after the Second Punic War, and the development of the Roman villa.
  100.  
  101. Editions, Commentaries, and Translations
  102.  
  103. The most reliable critical editions of the De Agricultura are Cato 1982 (edited by Mazzarino) and Cato 2002 (edited by Goujard). The best commentary, in German, is Thielscher 1963. The most recent translation into English is Cato 1998 (by Dalby, based on Cato 1975), but the Loeb edition (Hooper 1979) remains useful.
  104.  
  105. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 1982. M. Porci Catonis De agri cultura: Ad fidem Florentini codicis deperditi. Edited by Antonio Mazzarino. 2d ed. Leipzig: Teubner.
  106. DOI: 10.1515/9783110964806Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  107. A fundamental and reliable edition of the De Agricultura’s text. Discussions of Mazzarino’s choices are included in Mazzarino 1952 (cited under Textual and Literary issues).
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  109. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 1998. On Farming = De Agricultura. Translated with commentary by Andrew Dalby. Totnes, UK: Prospect Books.
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  111. Apart from offering a translation in English and a commentary on various points of the text, Dalby’s introduction deals with a number of issues: the controversy about the socioeconomic state of Italian agriculture in the wake of the Second Punic War, the organization of the text, and speculations regarding Cato’s readership.
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  113. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 2002. De l’agriculture. Edited and translated with commentary by Raoul Goujard. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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  115. Apart from offering a critical edition, a commentary and a French translation, Goujard provides a biography, an introduction to Cato’s works, and a discussion of this work’s redaction. He hypothesizes that there were two editions of this work. Originally published in 1975.
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  117. Hooper, William Davis. 1979. M. Porcius Cato and M. Terentius Varro on Agriculture. Translated by William Davis Hooper, revised by Harrison B. Ash. Loeb Classical Library 283. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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  119. The greatest merit of this publication is to present Cato’s agricultural writings alongside Varro’s. Originally published in 1935.
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  121. Thielscher, Paul. 1963. Des Marcus Cato Belehrung über die Landwirtschaft. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.
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  123. In German, this commentary is the most extensive available.
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  125. Textual and Literary Issues
  126.  
  127. Since the De Agricultura is the oldest extensive piece of Latin prose that survives, scholars have long worked on assessing its unity and its nature as a piece of writing. For an overview, see Astin 1978; for compositional issues, Mazzarino 1952; on the preface, see Gratwick 2002; for an interpretation of how the De Agricultura relates to sociocultural issues, see Habinek 1998 and Sciarrino 2011; for the performative effects of the imperatives that constitute most of this work, see Reay 2005, and within a larger perspective on their use in later agricultural writings, see Hine 2011.
  128.  
  129. Astin, Alan. 1978. Cato the Censor. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  131. Pages 189–203 contain a useful and well-presented assessment of the philological issues relating to the De Agricultura and its nature as a piece of writing; in pp. 239–266, Astin presents various arguments about the validity of the De Agricultura as a social document.
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  133. Gratwick, Adrian S. 2002. A matter of substance: Cato’s preface to the De agri cultura. Mnemosyne, 4th ser., 55.1: 41–72.
  134. DOI: 10.1163/156852502753776948Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  135. This article deals with some of the most outstanding features of the preface and offers insightful suggestions about the addressees that it implies. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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  137. Habinek, Thomas N. 1998. The politics of Latin literature: Writing, identity and empire in ancient Rome. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  139. Habinek’s comments on the preface to the De Agricultura have opened a whole new line of interpretation regarding the impact of literature beyond the confines of literature itself and into mechanisms of social formation. See especially pp. 46–49.
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  141. Hine, H. M. 2011. ‘Discite . . . agricolae’: Modes of instruction in Latin prose agricultural writing from Cato to Pliny the Elder. Classical Quarterly, n.s., 61.2: 624–654.
  142. DOI: 10.1017/S0009838811000103Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  143. The article traces the use of second person imperatives and other forms of imperatives in agricultural writing. The understanding of imperatives is fundamental for the understanding of the De Agricultura and ties in with evaluating its sociocultural impact. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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  145. Mazzarino, Antonio. 1952. Introduzione al De agri cultura di Catone. Roma: Atlante.
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  147. A revised edition of this book came out in 1962. It contains a reconstruction of the De Agricultura’s composition that is both compelling and amply argued. Mazzarino provides a critical appraisal of the kind of material that went into the constitution of the text and traces it back to the Ad Filium.
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  149. Reay, Brendon. 2005. Agriculture, writing, and Cato’s aristocratic self-fashioning. Classical Antiquity 24.2: 331–361.
  150. DOI: 10.1525/ca.2005.24.2.331Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  151. This article focuses on the way Cato constructs his own persona through the use of imperatives. For Reay, Cato’s imperatives build upon the extendibility of masters through their slaves and create the illusion of masters engaged in hands-on farming. Reay’s “Cato’s De agri cultura and the spectacle of expertise” in Becker and Terrenato 2012 (cited under Documentary uses of the De Agricultura), pp. 61–68, expands on authorial self-representation. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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  153. Sciarrino, Enrica. 2011. Cato the Censor and the beginnings of Latin prose: From poetic translation to elite transcription. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Univ. Press.
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  155. Literary and social issues are reviewed on pp.141–160 in order to offer a new interpretation of the imperatives and repetitions that make up the De Agricultura. It connects these features to a process of ritualization orchestrated by Cato and meant to contribute to the formation of a new, imperial, aristocracy.
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  157. Documentary Uses of the De Agricultura
  158.  
  159. The setting implied in the De Agricultura is a slave-powered farm located in central Italy. For this reason, this work has been used to understand farming practices, the economic situation of 2nd-century BCE Italy, and the treatement of slaves. Important contributions about the understanding of Roman villas and the documentary value of the De Agricultura are now gathered in Becker and Terrenato 2012; the standard view on the devastating effects of the Hannibalic wars is in Toynbee 1965; for background readings, see Hoyos 2011 with reappraisals in Cornell, et al. 2008 and Rosenstein 2008; for Cato’s representation of slavery and treatment of slaves, see the classic Finley 2003 and the most recent overview of Roman slavery in Joshel 2010. Somewhat useful is Merlo 2003; Wiedemann 2005 includes relevant passages.
  160.  
  161. Becker, Jeffrey A., and Nicola Terrenato, eds. 2012. Roman republican villas: Architecture, context, and ideology. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
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  163. This edited volume contains a thorough reappraisal of Roman republican villas. Terrenato’s “The enigma of ‘Catonian’ villas: The De agri cultura in the context of 2nd-century BC Italian architecture” (pp. 69–93) reconnects the literary world of villa estates with the archaeological and historical evidence for Italian farms and identifies important inconsistencies.
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  165. Cornell, Timothy J., Boris Rankov, and Philip Sabin, eds. 2008. The Second Punic War: A reappraisal. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 67. London: University of London Institute of Classical Studies, 1996.
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  167. This edited volume contains both standard and revised views on the effects of the Second Punic War on the economic and agricultural situation in Italy.
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  169. Finley, Moses I., ed. 2003. Classical slavery. London: Frank Cass.
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  171. This book is a classic in the treatment of ancient slavery. Cato’s De Agricultura is central to the discussion and represents well the way in which Cato’s text is used as a document (see especially pp. 64–66). Originally published in 1987.
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  173. Joshel, Sandra R. 2010. Slavery in the Roman world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  175. This is the most recent sociohistorical treatment of Roman slavery. Cato’s representation of slavery is placed within a larger overview of the phenomenon in both urban and rural settings.
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  177. Hoyos, Dexter. 2011. A Companion to the Punic Wars. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  178. DOI: 10.1002/9781444393712Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  179. Particularly relevant are the article by Toni Ñaco del Hoyo, “Roman economy, finance, and politics in the Second Punic War” (pp. 376–392), and Nathan Rosenstein’s “Italy: Economy and demography after Hannibal’s war” (pp. 412–429). Many of the ideas contained in Rosenstein’s contribution are explored in Rosenstein 2008, where he doubts the growth of commercial agriculture.
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  181. Merlo, Valerio. 2003. Contadini perfetti e cittadini agricoltori nel pensiero antico. Milan: Jaca.
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  183. The chapter “Catone, l’agricoltura come vocazione e come affare” (pp. 87–104) offers a very clear overview of the representation of slaves in the De Agricultura as well as Cato’s understanding of slavery.
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  185. Rosenstein, Nathan. 2008. Aristocrats and agriculture in the Middle and Late Republic. Journal of Roman Studies 98:1–26.
  186. DOI: 10.3815/007543508786239238Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  187. This article sheds doubts on the dramatic changes generally painted in modern accounts, in particular the development of commercial agriculture as suggested by the De Agricultura. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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  189. Toynbee, Arnold J. 1965. Hannibal’s legacy: The Hannibalic war’s effects on Roman life. 2 vols. London: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  191. This work offers a monumental analysis of the negative effects of the Hannibalic war on the Italian economy and Roman society. More recent appraisals of the socioeconomic situation of early-2nd-century Italy take this work as a point of departure.
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  193. Wiedemann, Thomas E. J. 2005. Greek and Roman Slavery. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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  195. This sourcebook includes passages from the De Agricultura and other references to the treatment of slaves according to Cato. Originally published in 1981.
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  197. Origines
  198.  
  199. The Origines has come down to us in highly fragmentary condition. In his Life of Cato, Nepos defines this work as historiae and describes its composition. As it stands, it is virtually impossible to determine what the Origines looked like independently from what he says. The fragments of the preface do not refer to this work as historiae, and the question of how Cato saw this work remains open. Generally speaking, scholars have adopted Greek historiographic precedents and later Latin outcomes as investigative models. These investigations, however, continue to produce the same results: it is still uncertain whether the first three books covered Roman events up to 270 BCE, and there are clear signs of unevenness between this first part and what follows, which seems to have included a smoother narration of events. Moreover, as Nepos suggests, the names of individual leaders are almost completely omitted from the fragments. It is generally agreed that this choice expresses Cato’s resistance to the aristocratic practice of linking actors and actions to celebrate (or denigrate, as the case may be) individual leaders; however, the inclusion of two of his speeches would contradict this stance and in one way respond to his need of self-assertion. The last twenty years have witnessed the publication of numerous contributions to the understanding of this important specimen of Latin prose.
  200.  
  201. Editions, Commentaries, and Translations
  202.  
  203. Complete editions of the fragments with translation are in French (Cato 1986) and in Italian (Cato 2001); in German, Schröder 1971 presents only the fragments attributed to the first book. Peter 1993 is still a useful resource.
  204.  
  205. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 1986. Les Origines: Fragments. Edited and translated with commentary by Martine Chassignet. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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  207. It offers an excellent edition of the fragments with commentary and translation into French.
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  209. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 2001. Opere di Marco Porcio Catone Censore. Edited by Paolo Cugusi and Maria Teresa Sblendorio Cugusi. 2 vols. Turin, Italy: UTET.
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  211. The Latin text is accompanied by translation and excellent footnotes. The preface includes fragments not included in other editions.
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  213. Peter, Hermann. 1993. Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae. 2d ed. Leipzig: Teubner.
  214. DOI: 10.1515/9783110958218Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215. This work gathers all of the fragments of the Roman historians. It is still useful, although it is being replaced by The Fragmentary Roman Historians team-edited under the direction of Tim Cornell. Originally published in 1914.
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  217. Schröder, Wilt A. 1971. M. Porcius Cato, das erste Buch der Origines: Ausgabe und Erklärung der Fragmente. Meisenheim am Glan, Germany: A. Hain.
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  219. It offers an excellent introduction, edition, and commentary to the fragments, although it is now superseded by Cato 2001.
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  221. Textual Issues and Interpretation
  222.  
  223. A useful introduction to this work and the interpretative problems attached to it can be found in Astin 1978 (pp. 211–239). The status of the Origines as historiographical text is variously discussed by Churchill 1995, Sciarrino 2004, Sciarrino 2011 (pp. 170–201), and Kierdorf 1980. The fragments attributed to the preface are the focus of Cugusi 1994 and Sciarrino 2004; both of these articles argue for expanding it by introducing new fragments, in particular Cato’s reference to convivial practices. Gotter 2009 offers a well-articulated overview of the Origines that in many ways supersedes Letta 1984, at least in relation to Cato’s attention to Italy and the lack of names for military commanders.
  224.  
  225. Astin, Alan. 1978. Cato the Censor. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  227. Astin (pp. 211–239) presents a complete discussion of standard scholarly opinions about the Origines, Cato’s writing methods, and hypotheses about the work’s composition.
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  229. Cardinali, Luca. 1988. Le Origines di Catone iniziavano con un esametro? Studi Classici e Orientali 37:205–215.
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  231. In this article, Cardinali proposes an emendation to the first fragment belonging to the preface, suggesting that the Origines began with a hexameter. His article offers the opportunity to think about the Origines’ relationship with the epic in Latin by the contemporary poet Ennius.
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  233. Churchill, James Bradford. 1995. On the content and structure of the prologue to Cato’s Origines. Illinois Classical Studies 20:91–106.
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  235. This article surveys various scholarly opinions about the nature of the prologue and interrogates the validity of applying the category “historiography” to the Origines. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Cugusi, Paolo. 1994. Il proemio delle Origines di Catone. MAIA 46:263–272.
  238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  239. This important article reorders the sequence of the preface’s fragments and suggests that an additional fragment derived from Cicero’s De Republica should be added.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Gotter, Ulrich. 2009. Cato’s Origines: The historian and his enemies. In Cambridge companion to the Roman historians. Edited by Andrew Feldherr, 108–122. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  242. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521854535Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243. It is probably the best synthesis of scholarly opinions regarding the nature of the Origines, its representation of Italy, and its contribution to the development of historiography vis-à-vis the annalistic tradition and contemporary cultural interventions.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Kierdorf, Wilhelm. 1980. Catos Origines und die Anfänge der römischen Geschichtsschreibung. Chiron 10:205–224.
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. This article offers the standard view of Cato’s contribution to the development of historiography.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Letta, Cesare. 1984. L’“Italia dei mores romani” nelle Origines di Catone. Athenaeum 62:3–30.
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  251. This two-part article (continued in Athenaeum 62:416–439) surveys Cato’s presentation of the Italian people in the Origines and proposes the acceptance into the preface of a fragment referring to ancestral convivial practices and the so-called carmina convivalia. The suggestion is discussed and accepted (although differing on various points) by Cugusi 1994 and Churchill 1995. The fragment is included in Cato 2001 (cited under Biographies).
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Sciarrino, Enrica. 2004. Putting Cato the Censor’s Origines in its place. Classical Antiquity 23.2: 323–357.
  254. DOI: 10.1525/ca.2004.23.2.323Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. It dissents from a strictly literary interpretation of the Origines and the use of Greek models for the interpretation of this work. As a result, this article offers a view on Cato’s conceptualization of historiography that differs from what is generally assumed. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Sciarrino, Enrica. 2011. Cato the Censor and the beginnings of Latin prose: From poetic translation to elite transcription. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Univ. Press.
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  259. See especially pp. 170–201. In these pages, the Origines is used as a stepping-stone for exploring the impact that Cato’s censorial experience had on his approach to writing and his understanding of recording individual feats.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Speeches
  262.  
  263. In Brutus 56–76, Cicero offers a view on the beginnings of Roman oratory. Through a number of convoluted analogies and chronological assessments, Cicero argues that Cato was the first to produce oratorical texts worth reading and defines oratory as an art comparable to sculpture and poetry: just like these arts, oratory had followed an evolutionary path towards stylistic perfection. Cicero’s assessment and the use of Cicero’s oratory as a benchmark have been very influential in the interpretation of Cato’s fragmentary speeches. In the same context, Cicero claims to have read 150 speeches of Cato and asserts that, although his language is rather archaic and uncouth, by changing what Cato could not at the time, that is, by adding rhythm, by rearranging the words, and by tying everything up, Cato would not have been surpassed by anyone (Cic. Brut. 68). To this date, only fragments derived from eighty speeches have survived. To assess in a definitive manner the ways in which Cato handled the oratorical medium is virtually impossible; however, scholars have done a great deal of work on trying to identify Cato’s stylistic choices and strategies. Astin 1978 (pp. 131–156) offers an excellent introduction to the issues relating to Cato’s oratory; detailed studies of Cato’s oratory (with varied degrees of focus on technicalities) include Sblendorio Cugusi 1971, Habinek 1985, and Sciarrino 2011 (pp. 117–141) (all cited under Cato’s oratory).
  264.  
  265. Editions, Commentaries, and Translations
  266.  
  267. The standard edition of the surviving fragments is now Cato 1982 (in Italian), although Malcovati 1976 remains important, especially because the Catonian material is collected alongside the fragments of other Republican orators. Cato 2001 (cited under Biographies) offers text, translation (in Italian), an updated bibliography, and notes. Courtney 1999 includes a few of Cato’s fragmentary speeches (Pro Rhodiensibus, In Q. Minucium Thermum de falsis pugnis, De Sumptu Suo) with commentary in English but no translation (pp. 78–91). Suerbaum 2004 (cited under Bibliographies) collects bibliographic material related to individual speeches; for the Pro Rhodiensibus (for which we have a higher number of fragments), see Calboli 2003. For the other more substantial speech, De Dierum Dictarum Consulatu Suo, Sblendorio 1980 is still the best treatment; for a detailed analysis of the events recounted in this speech, see Martinez Gázquez 1992.
  268.  
  269. Calboli, Gualtiero. 2003. Marci Porci Catonis Oratio pro Rhodiensibus: Catone, l’oriente greco e gli imprenditori romani. 2d ed. Bologna, Italy: Pàtron.
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  271. Calboli provides a thorough introduction to Cato’s oratory, the political questions surrounding the speech, text, and commentary in Italian (this second edition includes important additions to the commentary).
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Cato, Marcus Porcius. 1982. M. Porci Catonis Orationum Reliquiae: Introduzione, testo critico e commento filologico. Edited by Maria Teresa Sblendorio Cugusi. Turin, Italy: Paravia.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. It is the most comprehensive edition and commentary of Cato’s oratorical fragments. The same text is reproduced and complemented by translation in Cato 2001 (cited under Biographies).
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Courtney, Edward. 1999. Archaic Latin Prose. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. It includes text and comments on a few speeches within a chapter dedicated to Cato’s style (pp. 41–91).
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Malcovati, Enrica. 1976. Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta Liberae Rei Publicae. 2 vol. 4th ed. Turin, Italy: Paravia.
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  283. Malcovati collects all of the fragments of oratory that survive from the Republican period and offers a commentary in Latin. This will soon be replaced by The Fragmentary Roman Republican Orators, team-edited under the direction of Catherine Steel and Henriette van der Blom.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Martinez Gázquez, José. 1992. La campaña de Catón en Hispania. 2d ed. Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona.
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  287. A detailed analysis of the sources related to Cato’s campaign to Spain during his consulship. The campaign is the subject of what remains of Cato’s De Dierum Dictarum Consulatu Suo, what appears to be an official account of how he handled his office.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Sblendorio, Maria Teresa. 1980. Sulla struttura dell’orazione catoniana Dierum dictarum de consulatu suo. Atti dell’ Accademia di Scienze di Torino, Classe Scienze Morali 114:247–258.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. Presents well-argued hypotheses about the structuring of this important speech, one of the earliest attested.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Cato’s Oratory
  294.  
  295. Astin 1978 (pp. 131–156) surveys ancient and modern assessments of Cato’s oratory. For an analysis of Cato’s sophisticated use of formalities and the subtleties attached to his manipulation of diverse cultural traditions, see Sciarrino 2011 (pp. 117–141). Habinek 1985 (pp. 173–200) considers the colometric structure of Cato’s oratorical prose especially in relation to his use of poetic features; Sblendorio Cugusi 1971 provides an excellent overview of Cato’s stylistic choices.
  296.  
  297. Astin, Alan E. 1978. Cato the Censor. Oxford: Clarendon.
  298. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. Excellent treatment (pp. 131–156) of Cato’s oratorical skills and scholarly opinions, with rich footnotes and bibliographical references.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Habinek, Thomas N. 1985. The colometry of Latin prose. University of California Studies in Classical Philology 25. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. Offers one of the most compelling analyses of Cato’s prose style (pp. 173–200), not only in relation to later developments but more importantly with a keen eye to the contemporary cultural scene, especially the influence of poetry and poetic devices on what we have.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Sblendorio Cugusi, Maria Teresa. 1971. Note sullo stile dell’oratoria catoniana. Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Cagliari 34:5–32.
  306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. A comprehensive outline of Cato’s oratorical style, with attention to the use of wordplay and figures of sound.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Sciarrino, Enrica. 2011. Cato the Censor and the beginnings of Latin prose: From poetic translation to elite transcription. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Univ. Press.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. Sciarrino illustrates (pp. 117–141) the poetic and nonpoetic formal structuring of Cato’s oratorical prose. A presentation of Cato’s oratory vis-à-vis Gaius Gracchus is in Enrica Sciarrino, “The Elder Cato and Gaius Gracchus: Roman oratory before Cicero,” in W. J. Dominik and J. Hall (eds.), A companion to Roman rhetoric (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), pp. 54–66.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Ad Filium and Other Writings
  314.  
  315. The Ad Filium is a collection of didactic sayings attributed to Cato. Astin 1978 (pp. 332–340) discusses in depth the problems associated with their interpretation. For the later tradition of the Disticha Catonis, see the excellent treatment in Bloomer 2011 (pp. 139–169). Together with the Ad Filium, the so-called Carmen de moribus (in fragmentary condition) raises important questions concerning nonliterary didactic Roman traditions. For an assessment of Cato’s impact on epistolography, see Schmidt 1972. Fragments attributed to the De Re Militari remain as well; a fragment attributed to the preface is particularly interesting for the language of praise that it includes (Sciarrino 2011, chapter 5, cited under General Overviews). The reaction of Cato and his contemporaries to the incorporation of Greek learning into Roman education is a major topic of discussion, variously approached. Since the early 1990s, the image of Cato’s conservatism in relation to education and other related matters has been revised completely (see, e.g., Gruen 1992, chapter 2; Astin 1978, pp. 157–181; Bloomer 2011, chapters 1 and 2; Stroup 2007; Staden 1996).
  316.  
  317. Astin, Alan E. 1978. Cato the Censor. Oxford: Clarendon.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. Astin discusses (pp. 332–340) the philological problems associated with the Ad Filium and its characterization as an encyclopaedia.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Bloomer, W. Martin. 2011. The school of Rome: Latin studies and the origins of liberal education. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. Bloomer presents an excellent discussion of the sources for schooling in early times in chapter 1, and in chapter 7 he deals with the Disticha Catonis, sayings of anonymous authorship attributed to Cato, which became integral to the school curriculum at least from the 3rd century CE onwards.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Gruen, Erich S. 1992. Culture and national identity in republican Rome. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. The revision of Cato’s antihellenism in chapter 2 includes reference to some of the fragments of the Ad Filium.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Schmidt, P. L. 1972. Catos Epistula ad M. filium und die Anfänge der römischen Briefliteratur. Hermes 100:568–576.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. The article sets the basis for a view on the texts to his son within the development of epistolography in Rome.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Staden, Heinrich von. 1996. Liminal perils: Early Roman receptions of Greek medicine. In Tradition, transmission, transformation: Proceedings of two conferences on pre-modern science held at the University of Oklahoma. Edited by F. J. Ragep, Sally P. Ragep, and Steven Livesey, 369–418. Amsterdam: Brill.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. Von Staden focuses on medicine and uses Cato’s negative reaction to Greek doctors in a fragment from the Ad Filium as an example of its early reception.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Stroup, Sarah Culpepper. 2007. Greek rhetoric meets Rome: Expansion, resistance, and acculturation. In A companion to Roman rhetoric. Edited by William J. Dominik and Jon Hall, 23–37. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  338. DOI: 10.1002/9780470996485Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. An excellent survey of the sources that we have available as a point of departure for discussing Roman reactions to Greek learning.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Cato’s Language
  342.  
  343. As the texts attributed to Cato are some of the earliest examples of Latin prose that we have, his use of Latin has received some attention. The De Agricultura offers a great many archaisms (as it includes prayers and formal language of various types) alongside Greek terms. Till 1968 and Boscherini 1970 are key as introductions to Cato’s Latin, and Purnelle 1988 as an instrument for more specific investigations around the areas of lexical usage and grammar.
  344.  
  345. Boscherini, Silvano. 1970. Lingua e scienza greca nel “De agri cultura” di Catone. Roma: Edizioni dell’Ateneo.
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  347. Boscherini’s treatment of Cato’s use of Greek and Greek learning is the most comprehensive.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Purnelle, Gérald. 1988. Cato, De agricultura, Fragmenta omnia servata: Index verborum, liste de fréquence, relevés grammaticaux. Série du Laboratoire d’analyse statistique des langues anciennes 15. Liège, Belgium: Centre Informatique de Philosophie et Lettres.
  350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. An excellent tool for any type of research on Cato’s lexical and grammatical choices.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Till, Rudolf. 1968. La lingua di Catone. Edited by Cesidio de Meo. Ricerche di storia della lingua latina 5. Roma: Edizioni dell’Ateneo.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. Till’s work in the enlarged edition by de Meo is the point of departure for a general grasp of Cato’s use of the language. Originally published in 1935 as Die Sprache Catos (Leipzig: Dieterich).
  356. Find this resource:
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