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Cato Censorius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

R. E. Smith
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Extract

A study of the personality of Cato Censorius is both interesting and instructive because of the times in which he lived, a period which began with the Hannibalic War and included those fateful fifty years of the second century which ordered the destiny of Rome herself and indirectly of the whole world. In the shaping of that destiny Cato played a not unimportant part, and the interest of the man lies both in what he did and in his reactions to the events which confronted him. Such a study also throws light on ancient biographical methods. To the ancient mind the personal element was by far the most important for the understanding of history; the individual acquired a correspondingly higher value and importance in the interpretation of movements and events; and in a time when the State was confronted with many problems, the men who strove to deal with them in different ways assumed importance in men's minds as provoking those very problems which they were only trying to solve.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 9 , Issue 27 , May 1940 , pp. 150 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1940

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References

page 154 note 1 For a further discussion on these points, see my article in the Classical Quarterly, 1940.

page 157 note 1 Cf. the case of the Tuberones in Paullus, v.

page 158 note 1 ‘Succidias humanas facis, tantam trucidationem facis, decem funera facis, decem capita libera interficis, decem hominibus vitam eripis indicta causa, iniudicatis, incondemnatis.’

page 158 note 2 ‘Dixit a decemviris parum bene sibi cibaria curata esse. Jussit vestimenta detrahi atque flagro caedi. Decemviros Bruttiani verberavere, videre multi mortales. … Nemo hoc rex ausus est facere; eane fieri bonis, bono genere gnatis, boni consultis? Ubi societas? Ubi fides maiorum? etc.’

page 159 note 1 ‘Multa me dehortata sunt huc prodire, anni, aetas, vox, vires, senectus; verum enimvero cum tantam rem peragier arbitrarer.’

page 161 note 1 ‘Atque ego quidem arbitror Rhodienses noluisse nos ita depugnare, uti depugnatum est, neque regem Persen vinci; sed non Rhodienses modo id noluere, sed multos populos atque multas nationes idem noluisse arbitror atque haut scio an partim eorum fuerint, qui non nostrae contumeliae causa id noluerint evenire sed enim id metuerint, ne, si nemo esset homo, quem vereremur, quidquid luberet faceremus. Ne sub solo imperio nostro in servitute nostra essent, libertatis suae causa in ea sententia fuisse arbitror.’

page 163 note 1 This is not, of course, to suggest that fear of Carthage was the cause of the War, but that it was fear which caused Cato to urge it on Rome.