3. Iuventius, Valerius, and Vatronius wrote palliatae; P. Licinius Tegula a hymn to Juno, B.C. 200 (Livy xxxi. 12); Q. Fabius Labeo (cos. B.C. 183) and M. Popillius Laenas (cos. 173) were poets.
(b) PROSE WRITERS:
Fabius Pictor was the earliest Roman historian: Liv. i. 44, 2, ‘scriptorum antiquissimus Fabius Pictor.’ A relative of Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator (Plut. Fab. Max. 18), he took part in the war with the Cisalpine Gauls, B.C. 225 (Eutropius, iii. 5), and after the battle of Cannae was sent by the Senate on a mission to the oracle of Delphi (Liv. xxii. 57, 5).
Fabius wrote in Greek an account of the Second Punic War, prefixed to which was a sketch of the history of Rome from its foundation: Liv. xxii. 7, 4, ‘Fabium aequalem temporibus huiusce belli potissimum auctorem habui.’ There was also a Latin version, made either by Fabius Pictor or by a namesake (Gell. v. 4, 3).
The same subject was treated by L. Cincius Alimentus, who was praetor B.C. 210 (Liv. xxvi. 23, i), and took an active part in the war in Sicily during the next two years (Liv. xxvii. 7, 12, and throughout that Book). He was taken prisoner by Hannibal, and conversed with him: Liv. xxi. 38, 3, ‘L. Cincius Alimentus, qui captum se ab Hannibale scribit, maxime auctor moveret ...’
Both Fabius and Cincius wrote in Greek, and both gave a cursory view of the earlier history: Dion. Hal. i. 6, ῾Ρωμαίων ὅσοι τὰ παλαιὰ ἔργα τῆς πόλεως Ἑλληνικῇ διαλέκτῳ συνέγραψαν, ὧν εἰσι πρεσβύτατοι Κόϊντός τε Φάβιος καὶ Λεύκιος Κίγκιος ... τούτων δὲ τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἑκατέρος οἷς μὲν αὐτὸς ἕργοις παρεγένετο, διὰ τὴν ἐμπειρίαν ἀκριβῶς ἀνέγραψε, τὰ δὲ ἀρχαῖα τὰ μετὰ τὴν κτίσιν τῆς πόλεως γενόμενα κεφαλαιωδῶς ἐπέδραμεν.
CATO.
M. Porcius Cato, the Censor (B.C. 234-149), born at Tusculum, of a yeoman stock, was one of the most prominent figures of his time. For the best account of his military and political career, including his advancement to the Consulship (B.C. 195) and Censorship (B.C. 184), and his economic and social reforms, the reader may be referred to Mommsen, R.H., vol. ii. passim.
Cato was the founder of Latin prose, and the chief opponent of the exaggerated Hellenism that was finding its way into Roman life and literature (cf. his own words quoted by Pliny, N.H. xxix. 14, ‘Quandoque ista gens suas litteras dabit, omnia corrumpet’); but even he shows traces of Greek influence. Cato is represented now only by (1) his treatise De Agri Cultura, the earliest extant work in Latin prose, which, besides giving instruction for the husbandman, deals with housekeeping, cookery, and medicine.
(2) His great work was the Origines, the earliest history in Latin prose, the contents of which are enumerated by Nepos, Cato, 3, 3, ‘Senex historias scribere instituit. Earum sunt libri vii. Primus continet res gestas regum populi Romani, secundus et tertius unde quaeque civitas orta sit Italica (ob quam rem omnes Origines videtur appellasse); in quarto autem bellum Poenicum est primum, in quinto secundum. Atque haec omnia capitulatim sunt dicta. Reliqua quoque bella pari modo persecutus est usque ad praeturam Ser. Galbae, qui diripuit Lusitanos (B.C. 151). Atque horum bellorum duces non nominavit, sed sine nominibus res notavit.[22] In eisdem exposuit quae in Italia Hispaniisque aut fierent aut viderentur admiranda: in quibus multa industria et diligentia comparet, nulla doctrina.’