At Cato, censor cum L. Valerio Flacco, severe praefuit ei potestati. Nam et in complures nobiles animadvertit et multas res novas in edictum addidit, qua re luxuria reprimeretur, quae iam tum incipiebat pullulare. Circiter annos octoginta, usque ad extremam {5} aetatem ab adolescentia, rei publicae causa suscipere inimicitias non destitit. A multis tentatus non modo nullum detrimentum existimationis fecit, sed, quoad vixit, virtutum laude crevit. In omnibus rebus singulari fuit industria: nam {10} et agricola sollers et peritus iuris consultus et magnus imperator et probabilis orator et cupidissimus litterarum fuit. Quarum studium etsi senior arripuerat, tamen tantum progressum fecit, ut non facile reperiri posset neque de Graecis neque de {15} Italicis rebus, quod ei fuerit incognitum. Ab adulescentia confecit orationes. Senex historias scribere instituit. Earum sunt libri vii. Primus continet res gestas regum populi Romani, secundus et tertius unde quaeque civitas orta sit Italica, ob quam rem omnes {20} Origines videtur appellasse. NEPOS, _Cato_, ii., iii. [Linenotes: 1. +Censor+, 184 B.C., with L. Valerius Flaccus, his great friend and patron, by whom he was introduced to political life. 3. +in edictum.+ The Censors, on their entrance upon office, issued a _proclamation_ or _edict_, setting forth the principles upon which they intended to act. Cato set forth in his edict that he intended to use his power for the suppression of luxury. 5. +pullulare+ = _to spread, increase_; lit. _to put forth_, of plants and animals. Cf. _pull-us_ (our _pullet_), _pu-er_, πῶλος (= _a foal_).] +octoginta.+ This is an exaggeration. He was only eighty-five when he died 149 B.C. 6-7. +rei publicae ... non destitit.+ Seneca says: _Scipio cum hostibus nostris bellum, Cato cum moribus gessit._ 7-9. Cato was accused no less than 44 times, but each time acquitted. 11. +iuris consultus+ = _lawyer_. 12. +magnus imperator+, e.g. in the 2nd Punic War, and the decisive victory at Thermopylae (191 B.C.) was mainly due to Cato. +probabilis orator+ = _a tolerable, acceptable orator_. Oscar Browning. 17-21. His two great works were his treatise +De Re Rustica+ (or +De Agri Cultura+), the earliest extant work in Latin prose, and his +Origines+, or accounts of the rise and growth of the Italian nation, the earliest history in Latin prose. ‘It was Cato’s great merit that he asserted the rights of his native language for literary prose composition.’ --Ihne.] +Cato the Censor.+ ‘He deserves our highest respect for the defiant and manly spirit that animated him in his untiring contest with the vices of the age.’ --Ihne. C45 _M. Porcius Cato._ (2)