Cato the Elder

Cato the Elder, full name Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 bc), Roman statesman and writer. Born on a farm in Tusculum (near modern Frascati, Italy), he remained interested in agriculture and the simple life typical of Roman landholders of early Republican times. He distinguished himself while still young as an enemy of Greek culture, which he believed enervated the Romans. Cato served as a quaestor in 204 bc, as aedile in 199, as praetor in 198, and as consul in 195. While holding this last office he suppressed revolt in former Carthaginian Spain with severity. He was most well known for his activities as censor in 184. He campaigned against the immorality and luxury of Roman life and used the privileges of his office to rid the Senate of all whom he considered unworthy, either because of their extravagance or their departure from his own conception of virtuous Roman character. In 157 he was sent to Africa to act as arbitrator between the Carthaginians and Numidian tribesmen. During this visit he became obsessed with the idea that the city of Carthage, which both repelled him because of its luxury and wealth and aroused his native xenophobia, was a menace to Rome. Until his death he concluded every speech, regardless of the subject, with the words: Delenda est Carthago (“Carthage must be destroyed”). In the year of his death, largely due to his influence, the Third Punic War broke out between Carthage and Rome, resulting three years later in the razing of Carthage. Cato is also remembered as the first to write a prose history of Rome, Origines, of which only a few fragments survive. His De Agri Cultura, a treatise on farming, is the earliest complete work of prose in Latin.