Cato the Elder

Who was Cato the Elder?

Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Censorius, Sapiens, Priscus, or Major, Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor, known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization.

He came of an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some military service but not for the discharge of the higher civil offices. He was bred, after the manner of his Latin forefathers, to agriculture, to which he devoted himself when not engaged in military service. But, having attracted the notice of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, he was brought to Rome, and successively held the offices of Cursus Honorum: Military tribune, Quaestor, Aedile, Praetor, where he expelled the usurers from Sardinia, Consul together with his old patron, and finally Censor, where he tried to preserve the mos majorum and combat "degenerate" Hellenistic influences.

Famous Quotes:

• It is a difficult matter to argue with the belly since it has no ears.
• It is thus with farming, if you do one thing late, you will be late in all your work.
• The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.
• Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
• After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.
• I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.
• An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.
• If you are ruled by mind you are a king; if by body, a slave.
• Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.
• Grasp the subject, the words will follow.