Cato, onis, Was not firste a surname, but a name of merite. For the auncient Romanes called him Cato that was wise by much experience. Of this name two were moste excellent: Marcus Cato Censorius, because he alwaies vsed the grauitie and rigour that was wont to be in the correctours of maners, called Censores. Also he himselfe being Censor, was aboue all other moste sharpe and rigorous. Valerius, Max. writeth, that he was almoste an olde man ere hee learned Latine letters: & then it seemeth he was old ere he learned Greeke. Yet notwithstanding by gathering abridgements out of Thucydides, and Demosthenes workes, he became the greatest Oratour of his time, and was called the Romaine Demosthenes. He being made Consull, wanne moe Cities in Spaine, than he had aboden dayes in that Countrey. In whiche iorney hee reteined to himselfe, nothing of all that was founde there, but meate and driucke onely. He made his souldiors rich, giuing to euerie of them a pound waight of siluer, saying: Better it were, that many Romaines returned to Rome with siluer, than a fewe with golde. He taught his owne sonne Grammer, notwithstanding he had a seruant called Chylo, an excellent Grammarian, and tanght a great schoole, saying: It is not connenient, if my sonne he slowe of learning, he should be rebuked or pulled by the eares of him that is of sernile condition. He also taught him the ciuill lawes, the exercise of al weapons, to ride well, to fight with the fistes, to sustaine both colde & heate, to leape into waters, and swimme againste swifce streames. Being Censo he spared none estate, whose manners he founde corrupted, or superfluous in liuing, whereby he brought into the Citie a maruellous Image of Vertue. His sentences rehearsed by Plutarke be wonderful: of whiche I will remember three. Like as the Diers, sazde he, doe die moste often that colour, whiche they doe perceiue moste men velight in: so yong men do moste sludiously haunt and imbrace that, whiche they see olde menne and counsailours baue in moste estimation. Hee blamed the people of Rome, for that they committed auchoritie and offices oft times to one person, saying: They seemed not to esteeme rule & authoritie, or else they supposed there were but few worthie of promotion. The one was a signe of contempt, the other discourage to good wittes, and rebuke to their country. When the Embassadors were chosen to be sent into Bithynia, of whome one had the goute, an other paine in his heade, and the third timorous, Cato laughing said in the Senate: The people of Rome seude an Ambassade whiche hathe neither feete, heade, nor heart. The life of this, and of the other Cato, are worthie to bee oftentimes read, specially of counsailours, and men in aucthoritie. He was before the Incarnation. 182. yeares.Cato Vticensis (so called because he slue himselfe in the towne Vtica, to whom the other Cato Censorius was great grãdfather) shewed a wonderful constancie and grauitie, euen in his childhoode. Seldome merry, or seene to laugh, and if he did, it was a verie little smiling: not lightly angrie, but if he were, he was not soone appeased. He was verie studious in all morall Philosophie, practising in his actes and liuing, that which he read of vertue and honestie: and studied eloquence onely, to the intent, that in counsailing and reasoning, he might adde vnto Philosophie more force and ornament, and yet woulde hee not practise it openly. When one sayde to him, menue dispraise thine obstinate silence: hee aunswered: I force not, so they dispraise not my lining: but I will breake out of this silence, when I can speake that is worthie to be spoken. Beeing Tribunus militum, he was sent into Macedonie, wherewith his maruellous grauitie, prudence, and painefulnesse, hee made all that were vnder him sierce and hardie againste their enimies, gentle to their fellowes, fearefull to doe iniurie, prompt to get praises, and himselfe laboring with thÊ, vsing his apparell, feeding, & going like vnto them: he cõtrary to mÊs expectatiõs (notwithstand his seueritie) wanne the harts of them, going on footeand talking with euetie man. He was of such constancie, and so farre from ambition and flatterie, that neither Pompey nor Cæsar, in their chiefe pride, when all men, eyther for dreade or fauour, inclined to their desires, coulde perswade him to agree to their mindes, in cases where it seemed to be against the weale publike: neither might any maner manasing or dreadful tokens moue him from that constancie. In so much, that when he hearde that Cæsar hadde vanqished Pompey, and that his friendes would haue sent to Cæsar to desice his fanour, he aunswered: they which are vanquished, or haue any wise trespassed ought to make sute, but he in all his life was neuer vanquished, and in innocencie surmounted Cæsar, who in making warre againste hys owne countrey, had condemned himselfe to haue done that thing, which he had often denyed. Finallye, not for malice of Cæsar, but because he woulde not beholde the weale publike destroyed, he slue himselfe at Vtica, hauing with hym at supper, the euening before, the greatest officers of that citie, and many of his friendes. Also this sentence beeing spoken amongst other. Only a good man is a free man, all yll men are bonde: when one happened to reason against it, Cato beeing therewith chafed, visputed with the other so vehementlie and long, that all men suspected that he woulde not long liue. He vyed before the incarnation 44. yeares.
Catus, The name of a noble and wise familie in Rome.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
Căto, ōnis, m. [1. catus], a cognomen of several celebrated Romans in the gens Porcia, Valeria, Vettia al. I. M. Porcius Cato the elder, distinguished as a rigid judge of morals; hence with the appel. Censorius; whose most celebrated works were the Origines and De Re Rustica, Cic. de Or. 3, 33, 135; Liv. 31, 1 sqq.; Plin. 7, 27, 28, 100; 7, 30, 31, 112; cf., concerning him, Bernhardy, Röm. Litt. p. 521 sq.; 650; Bähr, Lit. Gesch. p. 515; 258; 354 al.; Ellendt, Cic. Brut. p. xix.-xxv.—As appel. of a severe judge, Mart. 1, prooem. fin.; Phaedr. 4, 7, 21.—Hence, B. Cătōnĭānus, a, um, adj., of Cato: familia, Cic. Q. Fr. 4, 6, 5: aetas, Sen. Tranq. 7, 5: illa (i. e. praecepta), id. Ep. 94, 27: lingua, i. e.
of high morality
, Mart. 9, 27, 14.—II.His descendant, M. Porcius Cato the younger, the enemy of Cœsar, who committed suicide after the battle of Pharsalia, at Utica; hence with the appel. Uticensis.—B. Cătōnīni, ōrum, m., the adherents or friends of Cato, Cic. Fam. 7, 25, 1; cf. catonium.—Concerning both, and the Porcian family in gen., v. Gell. 13, 20 Hertz, p. 19 Bip.—On account of their serious and austere character, serious, or gloomy, morose men are called Catones, Sen. Ep. 120, 19; cf. Juv. 2, 40; Phaedr. 4, 7, 21; Petr. 132.—III. Valerius Cato, a celebrated grammarian of Gaul, and poet of the time of Sulla, Cat. 56; Ov. Tr. 2, 436; Suet. Gram. 2; 4; 11.—IV. Dionysius Cato, author of the Disticha de moribus, prob. about the time of Constantine; v. the Disticha, with the Sententiae of Syrus, at the end of the Fabulae of Phaedrus, Bip.