The first history of Rome written in Latin prose — and one of the great losses of ancient literature. In seven books, Cato traced the origins and early history of Rome and the Italian cities, continuing through the Punic Wars to events of his own day. He deliberately suppressed the names of commanders, refusing to glorify individuals — a radical historiographical choice that reflects his fierce republican ideology. The work survived into late antiquity but is now known only from fragments, mostly preserved by later grammarians interested in his archaic Latin.
The foundation of Rome: Aeneas, Romulus, and the kings. Cato was the first to write this story in Latin prose rather than Greek or verse, claiming Roman history for the Latin language.
Fragments only. Preserved mainly by Servius, Priscian, and other grammarians.
Fragments in Peter/Chassignet ed.; preserved by Servius, Priscian, Gellius, Cornelius Nepos (Cato 3.3–4)
The origins of the Latin cities — their foundations, customs, and early history. Cato's unique contribution: treating the Italian peoples as worthy of history in their own right, not merely as Rome's subjects.
Fragments only. Cato's Italian ethnography is otherwise lost to us.
Fragments in Peter/Chassignet ed.; preserved by Servius (on Aeneid), Priscian, Gellius, Charisius
The origins of the remaining Italian peoples, including the Sabines, Samnites, and the cities of Magna Graecia. A panoramic survey of the peninsula's diverse cultures.
Fragments only.
Fragments in Peter/Chassignet ed.; preserved by Servius, Priscian, Nonius Marcellus, Gellius
The First Punic War. Cato's account would have drawn on living memory and family tradition — his father's generation fought in this war. He famously refused to name the Roman commanders.
Fragments only. The famous passage about the unnamed tribune at Thermopylae (actually a Roman military tribune in the First Punic War) comes from this or Book V.
Fragments in Peter/Chassignet ed.; preserved by Gellius 2.28, 3.7; Priscian; Nonius
The Second Punic War — Hannibal, Cannae, Scipio, and Zama. Cato served in this war himself from the age of seventeen. His refusal to name generals was pointed: he would not glorify the Scipios.
Fragments only. Cato's eyewitness perspective on the Hannibalic War is an irreplaceable loss.
Fragments in Peter/Chassignet ed.; preserved by Gellius 6.3, 10.13; Priscian; Nonius; Frontinus
Events from the end of the Second Punic War through Rome's eastern campaigns. The period of Cato's own political career — his censorship, his opposition to Hellenism, his wars in Spain.
Fragments only. This book included Cato's own speeches quoted verbatim — one of the earliest examples of a historian incorporating documentary evidence.
Fragments in Peter/Chassignet ed.; preserved by Gellius 6.3; Priscian; Pliny, NH 8.11
Contemporary history, extending to at least 149 BC — the year of Cato's death and the outbreak of the Third Punic War he had demanded. Tradition holds he was still writing when he died, his final act of Roman stubbornness.
Fragments only. Cato reportedly dictated portions on his deathbed, still insisting that Carthage must be destroyed.
Fragments in Peter/Chassignet ed.; preserved by Gellius 6.3; Cicero, Brutus 294; Pliny, NH 7.100