M. Porcius Cato
The archetype of Roman virtue
234 BC – 149 BC
Marcus Porcius Cato was born in 234 BC in Tusculum, into a plebeian family of no particular distinction. He rose by talent, ferocity, and an ostentatious devotion to traditional Roman values — or his version of them. He served with distinction in the Second Punic War, held the consulship in 195 BC, and as censor in 184 BC conducted a famous purge of senatorial luxury and Greek influence.
He was the first Roman to write history in Latin — the Origines, in seven books, covering the foundation and early history of Rome and the Italian cities. It is lost except for fragments. His speeches — over 150 were known to Cicero — are also mostly lost. What survives complete is the De Agri Cultura (On Farming), the oldest surviving work of Latin prose: a practical handbook on estate management that is also a document of Roman social history, full of recipes, remedies, prayers, and slave management instructions of bracing ruthlessness.
Cato is remembered for ending every speech in the Senate with 'Carthago delenda est' — Carthage must be destroyed. He lived to see his wish granted.
The oldest surviving work of Latin prose — a practical handbook on estate management that doubles as a social document of extraordinary value. Cato in...
Over 150 speeches on political and legal topics, considered by Cicero to be the foundation of Roman oratory.
Originally: ~150 speeches. Surviving: ~80 fragments.
Malcovati, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta (Turin, 1955)