SOURCE: Gian Biagio Conte, "Cato," in Latin Literature: A History, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, pp. 85-91.

Conte 's authoritative text on Latin literature, first published in Italian in 1987, provides a brief summary of Cato's life and work. He emphasizes the significance of the Origines, the De agricultura, and Cato's attitude to Greek culture, which Conte contends to have been less hostile than usually described.

Life

Marcus Porcius Cato was born in 234 at Tusculum, near what is today Frascati, to a plebeian family of prosperous farmers. He fought in the war against Hannibal, and in 214 he was military tribune in Sicily. The aristocrat Lucius Valerius Flaccus aided him in his political career. In 204 Cato was quaestor, accompanying Scipio to Sicily and Africa, in 199 plebeian aedile, and in 198 praetor in charge of governing Sardinia. In 195 the homo novus Cato was consul with Valerius Flaccus. While in office he opposed...