SOURCE: Plutarch, "Marcus Cato," in Plutarch's Lives, pp. 516-42.

Plutarch's life of Cato has supplied the definitive biography, relied upon by centuries of scholars. Although certain details have been disputed, the comprehensiveness of the account furnishes a very full portrait of Cato's character. Plutarch's death is used to date this essay, since the exact composition date is not known.

Marcus Cato, we are told, was born at Tusculum, though (till he betook himself to civil and military affairs) he lived and was bred up in the country of the Sabines, where his father's estate lay. His ancestors seeming almost entirely unknown, he himself praises his father Marcus, as a worthy man and a brave soldier, and Cato, his great-grandfather, too, as one who had often obtained military prizes, and who, having lost five horses under him, received, on the account of his valour, the worth of them out...