CATINAT, NICOLAS (1637-1712), marshal of France, entered the Gardes Françaises at an early age and distinguished himself at the siege of Lille in 1667. He became a brigadier ten years later, maréchal de camp in 1680, and lieutenant-general 1688. He served with great credit in the campaigns of 1676-1678 in Flanders, was employed against the Vaudois in 1686, and after taking part in the siege of Philipsburg at the opening of the War of the League of Augsburg, he was appointed to command the French troops in the south-eastern theatre of war. In 1690 he conquered Savoy, and in 1691 Nice; the battle of Staffarda, won by him over the duke of Savoy in 1690, and that of Marsaglia in 1693, were amongst the greatest victories of the time. In 1696 Catinat forced the duke to make an alliance with France. He had in 1693 been made a marshal of France. At the beginning of the war of the Spanish Succession, Catinat was placed in charge of operations in Italy, but he was much hampered by the orders of the French court and the weakness of the forces for their task. He suffered a reverse at Carpi (1701) and was soon afterwards superseded by Villeroy, to whom he acted as second-in-command during the campaign of Chiari. He died at St Gratien in 1712. His memoirs were published in 1819.
See E. de Broglie, Catinat, 1637-1712 (Paris, 1902).
CATLIN, GEORGE (1796-1872), American ethnologist, was born at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1796. He was educated as a lawyer and practised in Philadelphia for two years; but art was his favourite pursuit, and forsaking the law he established himself at New York as a portrait painter. In 1832, realizing that the American Indians were dying out, he resolved to rescue their types and customs from oblivion. With this object he spent many years among the Indians in North and South America. He lived with them, acquired their languages, and studied very thoroughly their habits, customs and mode of life, making copious notes and many studies for paintings. In 1840 he came to Europe with his collection of paintings, most of which are now in the National Museum, Washington, as the Catlin Gallery; and in the following year he published the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians in two volumes, illustrated with 300 engravings. This was followed in 1844 by The North American Portfolio, containing 25 plates of hunting scenes and amusements in the Rocky Mountains and the prairies of America, and in 1848 by Eight Years’ Travels and Residence in Europe. In 1861 he published a curious little volume, in “manugraph,” entitled The Breath of Life, on the advantage of keeping one’s mouth habitually closed, especially during sleep; and in 1868, Last Rambles amongst the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. He died in Jersey City, New Jersey, on the 22nd of December 1872.
CATO, DIONYSIUS, the supposed author of the Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium. The name usually given is simply Cato, an indication of the wise character of the maxims inculcated, but Dionysius is added on the authority of a MS. declared by Scaliger to be of great antiquity. This MS. also contains Priscian’s translation of the Periegesis of the geographer Dionysius Periegetes; this has probably led to the Disticha also being attributed to him. In the middle ages the author on the Disticha was supposed to be Cato the Elder, who wrote a Carmen de Moribus, but extracts from this in Aulus Gellius show that it was in prose. Nothing is really known of the author or date of the Disticha; it can only be assigned to the 3rd or 4th century a.d. It is a small collection of moral apophthegms, each consisting of two hexameters, in four books. They are monotheistic in character, not specially Christian. The diction and metre are fairly good. The book had a great reputation in the middle ages, and was translated into many languages; it is frequently referred to by Chaucer, and in 1483 a translation was issued from Caxton’s press at Westminster.
Editions by F. Hauthal (1869), with full account of MSS. and early editions, and G. Némethy (1895), with critical notes; see also F. Zarncke, Der deutsche Cato (1852), a history of middle age German translations; J. Nehab, Der altenglische Cato (1879); E. Bischoff, Prolegomena zum sogenannten Dionysius Cato (1893), in which the name is discussed; F. Plessis, Poésie latine (1909), 663; for medieval translations and editions see Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Lit. § 398, 3.