MARCUS PORCIUS, the Censor, sometimes styled Cato Major, one of the greatest men among the ancients, was born at Tusculum in the year B.C. 234. He began to bear arms at seventeen, and on various occasions signalized himself by his valour and military abilities. He was a man of great sobriety, and reckoned no bodily exercise unworthy of him. He had but one horse for himself and his baggage, and he looked after and dressed it himself. On his return from his campaigns he betook himself to plough his farm; not that he was without slaves to do it, but because such was his inclination. He also dressed like his slaves, sat at the same table with them, and partook of the same fare. He did not in the meanwhile neglect to cultivate his mind, especially in regard to the art of speaking; and he employed his talents, which were of a very high order, in generously pleading causes in the neighbouring cities without fee or reward. Encouraged by Valerius Flaccus, a young nobleman who had a country seat in the neighbourhood, Cato went to Rome, where, not less by his own merits than by the influence of his patron, he soon attracted public notice. He was first elected tribune of the soldiers for the province of Sicily; and he was next made quaestor in Africa under Scipio. Having in this last office reproved the general for his profuseness to his soldiers, the latter answered that he would make war at what expense he pleased; nor was he to give an account to the Roman people of pelf; but of his enterprises, and the execution of them. Cato, provoked at this answer, left Sicily and returned to Rome.

In B.C. 198 he was made praetor, and fulfilled the duties of that office with the strictest justice. He conquered Sardinia, governed with admirable moderation, and in 195 was created consul. He carried on war in Spain with such success, that on his return he was honoured with a triumph. As tribune in the war of Syria, he gave distinguished proofs of his valour against Antiochus the Great, and contributed materially to the decisive victory at Thermopylae. He now for the second time stood candidate for the office of censor. But the nobles, who not only hated him as a new man, but dreaded his severity, set up against him seven powerful competitors. Valerius Flaccus, who had introduced him into public life, and had been his colleague in the consulship, was a ninth candidate; and these two united their interests. On this occasion Cato, far from courting the favour of the people by insinuating speeches, or giving hopes of gentleness or complaisance in the execution of his office, loudly declared from the rostra, with a threatening look and voice, that the times required firm and vigorous magistrates to put a stop to that growing luxury which menaced the republic with ruin; censors who would cut up the evil by the roots, and restore the rigour of ancient discipline. It is to the honour of the Roman people that, notwithstanding these startling intimations, they preferred Cato to all his competitors who courted them by promises of a mild and easy administration. The comitia also appointed his friend Valerius his colleague, without whom he had declared that he could not hope to compass the reformation he proposed. Cato's merit, indeed, was superior to that of any of the great men who stood against him. He was temperate, brave, and indefatigable; frugal of the public money, and wholly incorruptible. There is scarcely any talent requisite for public or private life which he had not received from nature, or acquired by industry. He was a great soldier, an able statesman, an eloquent orator, a learned historian, and skilful in rural affairs. Yet with all these accomplishments he had very great faults. His ambition, being poisoned with envy, disturbed both his own peace and that of the whole city as long as he lived. Though he refused to take bribes, he was utterly unscrupulous in amassing wealth by all means which the law did not punish as criminal.

To the nobles and their wives, no part of the censor's conduct seemed so obnoxious as the taxes he laid upon luxury in all its branches, including dress, household furniture, women's toilets, chariots, slaves, and equipage. The people, however, were in general pleased with his regulations; insomuch that they ordered a statue to be erected to his honour in the Temple of Health, with an inscription which mentioned nothing of his victories or triumphs, but imported only, that by his wise ordinances in his censorship he had reformed the manners of the republic. Plutarch relates that before this, upon some of Cato's friends expressing their surprise that when many persons without merit or reputation had statues, he had none, he answered, "I had much rather it should be asked why the people have not erected a statue to Cato than why they have." Cato was the chief instigator of the third Punic war. Being despatched to Africa to terminate a difference between the Carthaginians and the king of Numidia, on his return to Rome he reported that Carthage had grown excessively rich and populous, and warmly exhorted the senate to destroy a city and republic whose existence Rome could never be safe. Having brought from Africa some very large figs, he showed them to the conscript fathers in one of the lappets of his robe. "The country," says he, "where these figs grow, is but three days' voyage from Rome." We are told that from this time he never spoke in the senate upon any subject without concluding with these words, "Carthage must be destroyed." He judged that for a people enervated by prosperity nothing was more to be feared than a rival state, always powerful, and now, from its misfortunes, grown wise and circumspect. He held it necessary to remove all dangers that could be apprehended from without, when the republic had within so many distempers threatening her destruction.

Cato died in the year B.C. 149, aged eighty-five. He was twice married; first to Licinia, a lady of noble birth, who bore one son; and in his old age he espoused Salonia, the youthful daughter of his scribe and client M. Salonius, by whom in his eightieth year he had a son, who was the ancestor of Cato of Utica.

Of Cato's several works the most important was that entitled Origines, a history of Rome, of which only fragments are extant. His treatise on husbandry, De Re Rustica, has been preserved. The best editions of it are those contained in the Scriptores Rei Rusticae of Gesner (Lips. 1773–4); and Schneider (Lips. 1794–7).

Marcus Porcius, or Cato of Utica, was great-grandson to Cato the Censor. It is said that from his infancy he discovered, by his speech, his countenance, and even by his childish sports and recreations, an inflexibility of mind; for he forced himself to execute whatever he had undertaken, though the task was ill suited to his strength. He was equally rude to those who flattered and to those who menaced him; he was rarely seen to laugh, or even to smile, and not easily provoked to anger; but if once incensed he was scarcely to be pacified. Sylla, who had conceived a friendship for the father of Cato, sent often for him and his brother, and talked familiarly with them in presence of the boy. Cato, who was then about fourteen years of age, seeing on one occasion the heads of several persons brought in, and observing the suppressed agitation of those who were present, asked his preceptor "why does nobody kill this man?" "Because," said the other, "he is more feared than he is hated." The boy replied, "why then did you not give me a sword when you brought me hither, that I might have stabbed him and freed my country from this slavery?"

On the death of his father, under Antipater of Tyre, he applied more rigorously to the study of the Stoic philosophy, the principles of which so well suited the inflexibility of his character; and made considerable proficiency in declamation, which he regarded as a necessary means of defending the cause of justice. To increase his bodily strength, he incurred himself to suffer the extremes of heat and cold; and used to make journeys on foot and bare-headed in all seasons. When he was sick, patience and abstinence were his only remedies; he shut himself up, and would see nobody till he became well. The only exception to his usual abstinence was made in favour of the philosophers, at whose entertainments it is said he acquired information at the expense of a habit of drinking freely, and sitting at table Cato till morning. He affected singularity; and, in things indifferent, sought to act directly contrary to the taste and fashions of the age. Magnanimity and constancy are generally ascribed to him; and Seneca makes that haughtiness and contempt for others which in Cato accompanied those virtues, a subject of praise. He served as a volunteer under Gellius Poplicola, in the war of Spartacus; and when military rewards were offered him by the commander he refused them, because he thought he had no right to them. Some years afterwards he went a legionary tribune into Macedonia under the pro-prator Rubrius; in which station he appeared, in dress, and during a march, more like a private soldier than an officer: but the dignity of his manners, the elevation of his sentiments, and the superiority of his views, set him far above those who bore the titles of generals and pro-consuls.

Cato laboured to bring about a reconciliation between Caesar and Pompey; but seeing that all his efforts were in vain he took part with the latter. When Pompey was slain he fled to Utica; and being pursued by Caesar, advised his friends to go and throw themselves on the clemency of the conqueror. His son, however, remained with him; and also Statilius, a young man, remarkable for his hatred of Caesar. The evening before the execution of the purpose he had formed with regard to himself, after bathing he supped with his friends and the magistrates of the city. They sat late at table, and the conversation was lively. The discourse falling upon this maxim of the Stoics, that the wise man alone is free and that the vicious are slaves, Demetrius, who was a Peripatetic, undertook to confute it from the maxims of his schools. Cato, in answer, treated the matter very amply, and with so much earnestness and vehemence of voice that he betrayed himself, and confirmed the suspicion of his friends that he designed to kill himself. When he had done speaking, a melancholy silence ensued; which was broken by Cato, who turned the discourse to the present situation of affairs, expressing his concern for those who had been obliged to put to sea, as well as for those who had determined to make their escape by land and had a dry and sandy desert to pass. After supper, the company being dismissed, he walked for some time with a few friends, and gave his orders to the officers of the guard; and going into his chamber he embraced his son and his friends with more than usual tenderness, which further confirmed the suspicions of the resolution he had taken. He then laid himself down on his bed, and took up Plato's Dialogue on the Immortality of the Soul. Having read for some time, he looked up, and missing his sword, which his son had removed while he was at supper, he called a slave and asked who had taken it away; and receiving an evasive reply he resumed his reading. Some time afterwards he asked again for his sword, and without showing any impatience ordered it to be brought to him; but having read out the book, and finding nobody had brought him his sword, he called for all his servants, upbraided them sternly, and struck one of them on the mouth with so much violence as to hurt his own hand, crying out in a passionate manner, "What! do my own son and family conspire to betray me and deliver me up naked and unarmed to the enemy?" Immediately his son and friends rushed into the room, and began to lament, and to beseech him to change his resolution. Cato raising himself, and looking fiercely at them, "How long is it," said he, "since I have lost my senses, and my son is become my keeper? Brave and generous son, why do you not bind your father's hands, that when Caesar comes he may find me unable to defend myself? Do you imagine that without a sword I cannot end my life? Cannot I destroy myself by holding my breath for some moments, or by striking my head against the wall?" His son answered with his tears, and retired. Apollonides and Demetrius remained with him; and to them he addressed himself in the following words: "Is it to watch over me that ye sit silent here? Do you pretend to force a man of my years to live? or can you bring any reason to prove that it is not base and unworthy of Cato to beg his safety of an enemy? or why do you not persuade me to unlearn what I have been taught, that rejecting all the opinions I have hitherto defended I may now, by Caesar's means, grow wiser, and be yet more obliged to him than for life alone? Not that I have determined anything concerning myself; but I would have it in my power to perform what I shall think fit to resolve upon; and I shall not fail to ask your counsel when I have occasion to act up to the principles which your philosophy teaches. Go tell my son that he should not compel his father to what he cannot persuade him." They withdrew, and the sword was brought by a young slave. Cato drew it, and finding the point to be sharp, "Now," said he, "I am my own master." Laying down the sword, he took up his book again, which it is reported he read twice over. After this he slept soundly; but about midnight he called two of his freedmen, Cleanthes his physician, and Butas, whom he chiefly employed in the management of his affairs. The last he sent to the port to see whether all the Romans were gone; to the physician he gave his hand to be dressed, which was swelled by the blow he had given his slave. This circumstance was regarded as an intimation that he intended to live, and gave great joy to his family. Butas soon returned, and brought word that they were all gone except Crassus, who had staid upon some business, but was just ready to depart. He added that the wind was high and the sea rough. These words drew a sigh from Cato. He sent Butas again to the port to know whether there might not be some one who, in the hurry of embarkation, had forgotten some necessary provisions, and had been obliged to put back to Utica. It was now break of day, and Cato slept yet a little more, till Butas returned to tell him that all was perfectly quiet. He then ordered him to shut the door, and flung himself upon his bed, as if he meant to finish his night's rest; but immediately he took his sword and stabbed himself a little below his chest; yet not being able to use his hand well, for it was still swelled, the blow was not fatal. It threw him into a convulsion, in which he fell from his bed, and overturned a table near it. The noise gave the alarm; and his son and the rest of the family, on entering the room, found him weltering in his blood, and his bowels half out of his body. The surgeon found, upon examination, that his bowels were not cut, and was preparing to replace them and bind up the wound when Cato recovered his senses, thrust the surgeon from him, and tore out his own bowels. He immediately expired. Thus died Cato, in the forty-eighth year of his age.