6-7 rei publicae . . . non destitit. Seneca says: Scipio cum hostibus nostris bellum, Cato cum moribus gessit.
7-9 Cato was accused no less than 44 times, but each time acquitted.
11 iuris consultus = lawyer.
12 magnus imperator, e.g. in the 2nd Punic War, and the decisive victory at Thermopylae (191 B.C.) was mainly due to Cato.
probabilis orator = a tolerable, acceptable orator. Oscar Browning.
17-21 His two great works were his treatise De Re Rustica (or De Agri Cultura), the earliest extant work in Latin prose, and his Origines, or accounts of the rise and growth of the Italian nation, the earliest history in Latin prose. ‘It was Cato’s great merit that he asserted the rights of his native language for literary prose composition.’—Ihne.
Cato the Censor. ‘He deserves our highest respect for the defiant and manly spirit that animated him in his untiring contest with the vices of the age.’—Ihne.
M. Porcius Cato. (2)
Iam pauca aratro iugera regiae