For his military and political career, his Consulship (195 B.C.), his famous Censorship (184 B.C.), and his social reforms, see some good history, e.g. Mommsen, vol, iii.
2. Works.
His chief works are:—
(1) His treatise De Re Rustica or De Agri Cultura (his only extant work).—A series of terse and pointed directions following one on another, somewhat in the manner of Hesiod, and interesting ‘as showing the practical Latin style, and as giving the prose groundwork of Vergil’s stately and beautiful embroidery in the Georgics.’—Mackail.
(2) The Origines.—‘The oldest historical work written in Latin, and the first important prose work in Roman literature.’—Mommsen. Nepos, Cato, 3, summarises the contents of the seven books.
Cato struggled all his life against Greek influence in literature and in manners, which he felt would be fatal to his ideal of a Roman citizen. In a letter to his son Marcus he says Quandoque ista gens suas litteras dabit, omnia corrumpet. He was famous for his homely wisdom, which gained him the title of Sapiens, e.g. Rem tene: verba sequentur—‘Take care of the sense: the words will take care of themselves.’
GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS, circ. 84-54 B.C.
1. Life.
CATULLUS.
Born at Verona, of a family of wealth and position, as is seen from his having estates at Sirmio:—