See Life by Plutarch, and compare Addison’s tragedy. Modern biographies by H. Wartmann (Zürich, 1859), and F.D. Gerlach (Basel, 1866); C.W. Oman, Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Republic, Cato ... (1902); Mommsen, Hist. of Rome (Eng. trans.), bk. v. ch. v.; article in Smith’s Dictionary of Classical Biography; Gaston Boissier, Cicero and his Friends (Eng. trans., 1897), esp. pp. 277 foll.; Warde Fowler, Social Life at Rome (1909).
CATO, PUBLIUS VALERIUS, Roman poet and grammarian, was born about 100 b.c. He is of importance as the leader of the “new” school of poetry (poetae novi, νεώτεροι, as Cicero calls them). Its followers rejected the national epic and drama in favour of the artificial mythological epics and elegies of the Alexandrian school, and preferred Euphorion of Chalcis to Ennius. Learning, that is, a knowledge of Greek literature and myths, and strict adherence to metrical rules were regarded by them as indispensable to the poet. The νεώτεροι were also determined opponents of Pompey and Caesar. The great influence of Cato is attested by the lines:—
| “Cato grammaticus, Latina Siren, Qui solus legit ac facit poetas.”[1] |
Our information regarding his life is derived from Suetonius (De Grammaticis, 11). He was a native of Cisalpine Gaul, and lost his property during the Sullan disturbances before he had attained his majority. He lived to a great age, and during the latter part of his life was in very reduced circumstances. He was at one time possessed of considerable wealth, and owned a villa at Tusculum which he was obliged to hand over to his creditors. In addition to grammatical treatises, Cato wrote a number of poems, the best-known of which were the Lydia and Diana. In the Indignatio (perhaps a short poem) he defended himself against the accusation that he was of servile birth. It is probable that he is the Cato mentioned as a critic of Lucilius in the lines by an unknown author prefixed to Horace, Satires, i. 10.
Among the minor poems attributed to Virgil is one called Dirae (or rather two, Dirae and Lydia). The Dirae consists of imprecations against the estate of which the writer has been deprived, and where he is obliged to leave his beloved Lydia; in the Lydia, on the other hand, the estate is regarded with envy as the possessor of his charmer. Joseph Justus Scaliger was the first to attribute the poem (divided into two by F. Jacobs) to Valerius Cato, on the ground that he had lost an estate and had written a Lydia. The question has been much discussed; the balance of opinion is in favour of the Dirae being assigned to the beginning of the Augustan age, although so distinguished a critic as O. Ribbeck supports the claims of Cato to the authorship. The best edition of these poems is by A.F. Näke (1847), with exhaustive commentary and excursuses; a clear account of the question will be found in M. Schanz’s Geschichte der römischen Litteratur; for the “new” school of poetry see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, bk. v. ch. xii.; F. Plessis, Poésie latine (1909), 188.
[1] “Cato, the grammarian, the Latin siren, who alone reads aloud the works and makes the reputation of poets.”
CATS, JACOB (1577-1660), Dutch poet and humorist, was born at Brouwershaven in Zeeland on the 10th of November 1577. Having lost his mother at an early age, and being adopted with his three brothers by an uncle, Cats was sent to school at Zierikzee. He then studied law at Leiden and at Orleans, and, returning to Holland, he settled at the Hague, where he began to practise as an advocate. His pleading in defence of a wretched creature accused of witchcraft brought him many clients and some reputation. He had a serious love affair about this time, which was broken off on the very eve of marriage by his catching a tertian fever which defied all attempts at cure for some two years. For medical advice and change of air Cats went to England, where he consulted the highest authorities in vain. He returned to Zeeland to die, but was cured mysteriously by a strolling quack. He married in 1602 a lady of some property, Elisabeth von Valkenburg, and thenceforward lived at Grypskerke in Zeeland, where he devoted himself to farming and poetry. His best works are: Emblemata or Minnebeelden with Maegdenplicht (1618); Spiegel van den ouden en nieuwen Tijt (1632); Houwelijck ... (1625); Selfstrijt (1620); Ouderdom, Buitem leven ... en Hofgedachten op Sorgvliet (1664); and Gedachten op slapelooze nachten (1661). In 1621, on the expiration of the twelve years’ truce with Spain, the breaking of the dykes drove him from his farm. He was made pensionary (stipendiary magistrate) of Middelburg; and two years afterwards of Dort. In 1627 Cats came to England on a mission to Charles I., who made him a knight. In 1636 he was made grand pensionary of Holland, and in 1648 keeper of the great seal; in 1651 he resigned his offices, but in 1657 he was sent a second time to England on what proved to be an unsuccessful mission to Cromwell. In the seclusion of his villa of Sorgvliet (Fly-from-Care), near the Hague, he lived from this time till his death, occupied in the composition of his autobiography (Eighty-two Years of My Life, first printed at Leiden in 1734) and of his poems. He died on the 12th of September 1660, and was buried by torchlight, and with great ceremony, in the Klooster-Kerk at the Hague. He is still spoken of as “Father Cats” by his countrymen.