In the same part of the dialogue, entitled Brutus, Cicero asks what flower or light of eloquence is wanting to the Origines—“Quem florem, aut quod lumen eloquentiæ non habent?” But on Atticus considering the praise thus bestowed as excessive, he limits it, by adding, that nothing was required to complete the strokes of the author’s pencil but a certain lively glow of colours, which had not been discovered in his age.—“Intelliges, nihil illius lineamentis, nisi eorum pigmentorum, quæ inventa nondum erant, florem et calorem defuisse[31].”
The pretended fragments of the Origines, published by the Dominican, Nanni, better known by the name of Annius Viterbiensis, and inserted in his Antiquitates Variæ, printed at Rome in 1498, are spurious, and the imposition was detected soon after their appearance. The few remains first collected by Riccobonus, and published at the end of his Treatise on History, (Basil, 1579,) are believed to be genuine. They have been enlarged by Ausonius Popma, and added by him, with notes, to the other writings of Cato, published at Leyden in 1590.
Any rudeness of style and language which appears either in the orations of Cato, or in his agricultural and historical works, cannot be attributed to total carelessness or neglect of the graces of composition, as he was the first person in Rome who treated of oratory as an art[32], in a tract entitled De Oratore ad Filium.
Cato was also the first of his countrymen who wrote on the subject of medicine[33]. Rome had existed for 500 years without professional physicians[34]. A people who as yet were strangers to luxury, and consisted of farmers and soldiers, (though surgical operations might be frequently necessary,) would be exempt from the inroads of the “grisly troop,” so much encouraged by indolence and debauchery. Like all semi-barbarous people, they believed that maladies were to be cured by the special interposition of superior beings, and that religious ceremonies were more efficacious for the recovery of health than remedies of medical skill. Deriving, as they did, much of their worship from the Etruscans, they probably derived from them also the practice of attempting to overcome disease by magic and incantation. The Augurs and Aruspices were thus the most ancient physicians of Rome. In epidemic distempers the Sibylline books were consulted, and the cures they prescribed were superstitious ceremonies. We have seen that it was to free the city from an attack of this sort that scenic representations were first introduced at Rome. During the progress of another epidemic infliction a temple was built to Apollo[35]; and as each periodic pestilence naturally abated in course of time, faith was confirmed in the efficacy of the rites which were resorted to. Every one has heard of the pomp wherewith Esculapius was transported under the form of a serpent, from Epidaurus to an islet in the Tiber, which was thereafter consecrated to that divine physician. The apprehension of diseases raised temples to Febris and Tussis, and [pg 21]other imaginary beings belonging to the painful family of death in order to avert the disorders which they were supposed to inflict. It was perceived, however, that religious professions and lustrations and lectisterniums were ineffectual for the cure of those complaints, which, in the 6th century, luxury began to exasperate and render more frequent at Rome. At length, in 534, Archagatus, a free-born Greek, arrived in Italy, where he practised medicine professionally as an art, and received in return for his cures the endearing appellation of Carnifex[36]. But though Archagatus was the first who practised medicine, Cato was the first who wrote of diseases and their treatment as a science, in his work entitled Commentarius quo Medetur Filio, Servis, Familiaribus. In this book of domestic medicine—duck, pigeons, and hare, were the foods he chiefly recommended to the sick[37]. His remedies were principally extracted from herbs; and colewort, or cabbage, was his favourite cure[38]. The recipes, indeed, contained in his work on agriculture, show that his medical knowledge did not exceed that which usually exists among a semi-barbarous race, and only extended to the most ordinary simples which nature affords. Cato hated the compound drugs introduced by the Greek physicians—considering these foreign professors of medicine as the opponents of his own system. Such, indeed, was his antipathy, that he believed, or pretended to believe, that they had entered into a league to poison all the barbarians, among whom they classed the Romans.—“Jurarunt inter se,” says he, in a passage preserved by Pliny, “barbaros necare omnes medicina: Et hoc ipsum mercede faciunt, ut fides iis sit, et facile disperdant[39].” Cato, finding that the patients lived notwithstanding this detestable conspiracy, began to regard the Greek practitioners as impious sorcerers, who counteracted the course of nature, and restored dying men to life, by means of unholy charms; and he therefore advised his countrymen to remain stedfast, not only by their ancient Roman principles and manners, but also by the venerable unguents and salubrious balsams which had come down to them from the wisdom of their grandmothers. Such as they were, Cato’s old medical saws continued long in repute at Rome. It is evident that they were still esteemed in the time of Pliny, who expresses the same fears as the Censor, lest hot baths and potions should render his countrymen effeminate, and corrupt their manners[40].
Every one knows what was the consequence of Cato’s dislike to the Greek philosophers, who were expelled from the city by a decree of the senate. But it does not seem certain what became of Archagatus and his followers. The author of the Diogene Moderne, as cited by Tiraboschi, says that Archagatus was stoned to death[41], but the literary historian who quotes him doubts of his having any sufficient authority for the assertion. Whether the physicians were comprehended in the general sentence of banishment pronounced on the learned Greeks, or were excepted from it, has been the subject of a great literary controversy in modern Italy and in France[42].
Aulus Gellius[43] mentions Cato’s Libri quæstionum Epistolicarum, and Cicero his Apophthegmata[44], which was probably the first example of that class of works which, under the appellation of Ana, became so fashionable and prevalent in France.
The only other work of Cato which I shall mention, is the Carmen de Moribus. This, however, was not written in verse, as might be supposed from the title. Precepts, imprecations, and prayers, or any set formulæ whatever, were called Carmina. I do not know what maxims were inculcated in this carmen, but they probably were not of very rigid morality, at least if we may judge from the “Sententia Dia Catonis,” mentioned by Horace:
“Quidam notus homo cùm exiret fornice, Macte
Virtute esto, inquit sententia dia Catonis[45].”
Misled by the title, some critics have erroneously assigned to the Censor the Disticha de Moribus, now generally attributed to Dionysius Cato, who lived, according to Scaliger in the age of Commodus and Septimius Severus[46].