Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/653

Rh CATO. a line which is found in ii. D. 22 ; the next allu- sion is in Isidorus, who quotes Cato as an autho- rity for the rare word officiperda (see iv. D. 42) ; and the third in order of time is in Alcuin, con- temporary with Charlemagne, who cites one of the Distichs (ii. D. 31) as the words of the "philoso- pher Cato." In our own early literature it is fre- quently quoted by Chaucer. It is clear, therefore, that these saws were familiarly known in the mid- dle of the fourth century, and recognized from that time forward as the composition of some Cato. So, in like manner, all the MSS. agree in presenting that name; while for the addition of Dionysius we are indebted to a single codex once in the possession of Simeon Bos, which was inspected by Scaliger and Vinet, and pronounced by them of great antiquity. We must remark, however, that the combination Dionysius Cato is exceedingly suspicious. Dionysius was a name frequently borne by slaves of Greek extraction ; but when combined with a Roman name, accord- ing to the fashion among libertiui, it was added as a cognomen to the gentile appellation of the patron. Thus, C. Julius Dionysius appears in an inscription as a freedman of Augustus ; so we find P. Aelius Dionysius, and many others ; but it does not occur prefixed to a Roman cognomen, as in the present case. Names purely Greek, such as Dionysius Socrates, Dionysius Philocalus, and the like, do not of course bear upon the question. No one now imagines that either of the Catos celebrated in history has any connexion with this metrical system of ethics. Aulus Gellius (xi. 2), it is true, gives some fragments of a Carmen de jMoribus in prose by the elder; and Pliny (H. N. xxix. 6) has preserved a passage from the precepts delivered by the same sage to his son ; but these were both works of a totally different description, and no hint has been given by the ancients that anything such as we are now discussing ever pro- ceeded from Cato of Utica, In truth, we know nothing about this Cato or Dionysius Cato, if he is to be so called ; and, as we have no means of discovering anything with regard to him, it may be as well to confess our ig- norance once for all. Perhaps we ought to notice the opinion enter- tained by several persons, that Cato is not intended to represent the name of the author, but is merely to be regarded as the significant title of the work, just as we have the Brutus, and the Laelius, and the Cato Major of Cicero, and the treatise men- tioned by Aulus Gellius, called Cato, aut de Liberis educandis. Lastly, it has been inferred, from the introduc- tion to book second, in which mention is made of Virgil and Lucan, that we have here certain proof that the distichs belong to some period later than the reign of Nero ; but even this is by no means clear, for all the prologues have the air of forgeries; and the one in question, above all, in addition to a CATO. 6Sfi false quantity in the first syllable of Macer, con- tains a most gross blunder, such as no one but an illiterate monk was likely to commit, — for the Punic wars are spoken of as the subject of Lucan 's poem. This Catechism of Morals, as it has been called, seems to have been held in great estimation in the middle ages, and to have been extensively employ- ed as a school-book. This will account for the vast number of early editions, more than thirty belonging to the fifteenth century, which have proved a source of the greatest interest to bibliogra- phers. One of these, on vellum, of which only a single copy is known to exist, is in the Spenser collection, and is believed by Dibdin to be older than the Gottenburg Bible of 1465. The title in the earlier impressions is frequently Cato Moralir- satus, Cato Moralissimus, Cato Carmen de MoriOuSy and so forth. The best edition is that of Otto Amtzenius, 8vo. Amsterdam, 1754, which contains an ample collec- tion of commentaries ; the Greek paraphrases by Maximus Planudes and Joseph Scaliger; the dis- sertations of Boxhom, written with as much extra- vagant bitteniess as if the author of the Distichs had been a personal enemy ; the learned but ram- bling and almost interminable reply of Cannegieter; and two essays by Withof. These, together with the preliminary notices, contain everything that is worth knowing. One of the oldest specimens of English typogra- phy is a translation of Cato by Caxton through the medium of an earlier French version : The Booke CALLYD Cathon, Translated oute of Frenclie irito Englyssh by William Caxton in t/iabby of West- mystre the yere of our lorde Mcccclxxxiij and the fyrst yere of the regne of Kyng Rychard the thyrde xxiij day of Decembre. From the preface to this curious volume we learn, that the same task had previously been accomplished in verse. " Here beginneth the prologue or proheme of the book called Caton, which book hath been translated out of Latin into English, by Maister Benet Burgh, late Archdeacon of Colchester, and high canon of St. Stephen at Westminster; which full craftily hath made it, in ballad royal for the erudition of ray Lord Bousher, son and heir at that time to my lord the Earl of Essex." The Cato we have been discussing is frequently termed by the first English printers Cato Magnus, in contradistinction to Cato Parvus, which was a sort of supplement to the for- mer, composed originally by Daniel Church (Eccle- siensis), a domestic in the court of Henry the Se- cond, about 1180, and also ti-anslated by Burgh. The two tracts were very frequently bound up to- gether. (See Ames, Typographical Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 195 — 202; Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. ii. section 27.) [W. R.J CATO, PO'RCIUS. Cato was the name of a family of the plebeian Porcia gens, and was first given to M. Cato, the censor. [See below, No. 1.] Stsmma Catonum. 1. M. Porcius Cato Censorius, Cos. b. c. 195, Cens. a c. 184, married 1. Licinia. 2. Salonia. 2. M. Porcius Cato Licinianus, Pr. design. B. c 152, married Aemilia. 3. M. Porcius Cato Salonianua, Pr.