Politician and writer Mark Porcius Cato the Elder (his descendants called him the Elder, so as not to be confused with his great-grandson) was born in 234 BC. e. He was from the city of Tuskula, located a few dozen kilometers from Rome, and belonged to a plebeian family.
Serving in the army
Cato could have been engaged in agriculture all his life, if it had not begun in 218 BC. e. Second Punic War. At that time, Rome competed on equal terms with Carthage, whose commander Hannibal invaded Italy in a daring campaign. Due to the difficult situation of the republic, even the very young Cato the Elder was drafted into the army. He unusually quickly became a military tribune. For several years the young man served in Sicily. Its immediate leader was the famous commander Mark Claudius Marcellus.
In 209 B. C. e. Cato the Elder went to the service of the commander Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator. Then he ended up in the army of Gaius Claudius Nero and took part in the battle of Metaurus in northern Italy in its ranks. In this battle, the Romans utterly defeated the army of Hannibal's younger brother Hadrubal. A long campaign against Carthage allowed the talented Mark Cato to achieverecognition despite their artistic origin. In ancient Rome, such nuggets were called "new people".
During the Second Punic War, Cato made many acquaintances useful for his future career. For example, he became friends with Lucius Valerius Flaccus, who later became Praetor of the Republic. Another factor in Mark's rise was the death of a large number of Roman aristocrats during the war. Especially many lives of the representatives of the nobility were taken by the Battle of Cannes, in which Cato, fortunately, did not have time to take part.
204 BC e. became a turning point for Mark. On his 30th birthday, he was appointed quaestor of the commander Publius Scipio, who undertook to organize the Roman invasion of North Africa, where the heart of the Carthaginian state was located, and for this he was nicknamed the African. The army was to cross the Mediterranean from Sicily. During the preparation of a complex operation, Scipio quarreled with his assistant. According to one version of ancient historians, Cato the Elder accused the commander of a frivolous attitude to the organization of the landing. Allegedly, the commander idly spent his time in theaters and scattered the money allocated by the treasury. According to another version, the reasons for the quarrel were deeper and consisted in a conflict between Scipio and Cato's patrons Flacci. One way or another, the quaestor spent the entire end of the Second Punic War in Sardinia. It is not known for sure whether he nevertheless visited Africa and whether he took part in the decisive battle of Zama. Opinions of ancient authors differ on this issue.
Startpolitical career
In 202 B. C. e. The Second Punic War ended. In a long-term conflict, the Roman Republic nevertheless defeated Carthage and became the hegemon in the west of the Mediterranean Sea. The African rival retained its independence, but was significantly weakened. With the advent of peace, Mark Cato the Elder moved to the capital. He soon began a public political career. In 199 BC. e. a native of a plebeian family received the post of aedile, and a year later - a praetor.
In a new status for himself, Cato the Elder moved to Sardinia, where, as a governor, he took up the organization of a new administration. On the island, the praetor became famous for clearing it of usurers. The official surprised the common people by refusing the retinue and wagon that were due to him. With his behavior, atypical for a magistracy, he demonstrated his own frugality in spending public money (Cato retained this habit until his death).
Consulate
Thanks to his bright public speeches and activities in Sardinia, the politician has become a serious figure in the capital itself. In 195 BC. e. Mark Porcius Cato the Elder was elected consul. In the republic, this position was considered the highest in the entire bureaucratic ladder. By tradition, two consuls were elected for a term of one year. Cato's partner turned out to be his longtime patron Lucius Valerius Flaccus.
Becoming a consul, Mark immediately went to Spain, where an uprising of local Iberians broke out, dissatisfied with the power of the Romans. The Senate handed over to Cato a 15,000-strong army and a small fleet. With these forces, the consul invaded the Iberianpeninsulas. The performance of the rebels was soon suppressed. Nevertheless, Cato's actions caused a mixed reaction in Rome. Rumors reached the capital about his indefatigable cruelty, because of which the conflict with the Iberians was aggravated even more. Cato's main critic was Scipio Africanus, for whom he once served as quaestor. In 194 BC. e. this nobleman was chosen as the next consul. He demanded that the Senate recall Cato from Spain, but the senators refused to stop the campaign. Moreover, they allowed the returning commander to hold a traditional triumphal procession in the capital, which symbolized his personal great services to the state.
War against the Seleucids
A new challenge for Cato the Elder was the Syrian War (192-188 BC). Contrary to its name, it went to Greece and Asia Minor, where the army of the Seleucid state, created by the successors of Alexander the Great, invaded. Having defeated Carthage, the Roman Republic was now looking at the eastern Mediterranean and was not going to allow its direct competitor to strengthen.
Mark Cato the Elder went to that war as a military tribune under the leadership of Manius Glabrio, who then held the position of consul. On behalf of his boss, he visited several Greek cities. In 191 BC. e. Cato took part in the Battle of Thermopylae, during which he occupied strategically important heights, which made a decisive contribution to the defeat of the Seleucids and their allies, the Aetolians. Mark personally went to Rome to inform the senate of the long-awaited successarmy.
Critic of social vices
Once again settling in the capital, Cato the Elder began to speak frequently at the forum, in the courts and the senate. The main motive of his public speeches was criticism of the influential Roman aristocracy. Usually the "new people", the first in their family to rise to significant government positions, tried to merge with representatives of the nobility. Cato behaved exactly the opposite. He regularly came into conflict with the nobility. As his victims, the politician first of all chose the opponents of his friends Flakkov. On the other hand, he opposed the aristocracy in general, as it, in his opinion, was mired in excessive luxury.
Under the influence of this rhetoric, the teachings of Cato the Elder gradually took shape, later developed by a public figure on the pages of his writings. He considered love for greed to be a vile innovation, from which the customs of ancestors who lived modestly suffer. The speaker warned his contemporaries that the love of we alth would be followed by massive shamelessness, vanity, arrogance, rudeness and cruelty, disastrous for the entire Roman society. Aristocrats Cato called egoists who defended only their own interests, while the glorious ancestors of the past worked primarily for the public good.
One of the reasons for the spread of vices politician called the influence of foreigners. Cato was a consistent anti-Hellenist. He criticized everything Greek, and consequently, the apologists of this culture spreading in Rome (among which was the same Scipio Africanus). Cato's conservative ideas soon became known as the moral decadence theory. It cannot be said that it was this politician who invented it, but it was he who developed this doctrine and made it fully complete. Among other things, Mark accused the Hellenophiles, who were part of the military leadership of the country, of abusing their powers and not paying enough attention to army discipline.
Conservative speaker
As a well-known fighter for the purity of morals, Cato went to Greece several times, where he fought against local heretical cults. In the most famous community of this kind were the followers of Bacchus, who encouraged orgies, debauchery and drunkenness. Cato mercilessly pursued such currents. However, while in Greece, he did not forget about his political career. So the military took part in diplomatic negotiations with the unyielding Aetolians.
And yet the political and economic views of Cato the Elder increasingly paled in front of his conservative ideological lobbying. The most convenient way to influence society in this vein was in the status of a censor. Cato tried to be elected to a high position in 189 BC. e., but the first pancake came out lumpy. Unlike other magistracies, the censors changed not once a year, but once every five years. Therefore, the politician received the next chance only in 184 BC. e. Cato the Elder had long established himself as a radical conservative. Other contenders for the position were distinguished by softer rhetoric. However, Cato persisted: he insisted that the Romansociety needed a serious internal shake-up.
The main competitor of the former consul was the brother of Scipio Africanus Lucius. Mark decided to attack his opponent by attacking a more famous relative. On the eve of the elections, he persuaded Quintus Nevius, who held the position of tribune, to accuse Scipio of treason. The essence of the claims was that the commander, allegedly because of a bribe, agreed to conclude a soft peace treaty with Antiochus of Syria, which harmed the international interests of the republic.
Censorship
The public maneuver of Cato the Elder was a success. Scipio's brother was defeated. Cato became censor from the plebeians, and his friend Lucius Flaccus took a similar position from the patricians. This position gave several unique powers. The censors monitored morals, exercised financial control over state revenues, monitored the receipt of taxes and taxes, supervised the maintenance and construction of important buildings and roads.
Caton the Elder, whose years of life (234-149 BC) fell on an era important for the formation of Roman law, won the election, having behind him a program to improve the government from all sorts of vices. The censor began to implement it, barely having time to take office. "Recovery" in the first place was reduced to the expulsion from the Senate of politicians in conflict with Cato. Mark made another Flaccus (Valerius) princeps. Then he carried out exactly the same revision in the ranks of the horsemen. Many ill-wishers of the censor were excluded from the privileged class of equites, inincluding the brother of Scipio Africanus Lucius. Cato himself had been in conflict with the cavalry ever since his Spanish campaign, when it was the cavalry that turned out to be the weak link in the army.
Exclusions from the nobility of members of ancient aristocratic families have become a glaring event for high society. Cato the Elder, whose biography was an example of a "new man", encroached on the privileges of many Romans, which caused their undisguised hatred. As censor, he controlled the census and could demote fellow citizens in their property class. A significant number of we althy inhabitants of the empire lost their social position. Casting down on them his decisions, Cato looked at how the Roman was conducting his household correctly.
The Censor has significantly increased taxes on luxury and domestic slaves. He tried to increase government revenues and reduce spending on aristocrats. By changing the contracts concluded with the tax-farmers, Cato rescued a significant amount of money. These funds were used to repair the city's sewerage system, to resurface stone fountains, and to build a new basilica in the forum. The censor was also one of the initiators of the new electoral legislation. According to Roman tradition, the winning candidates for the highest positions of the magistracy held festive games and distribution of gifts. Now these handouts to voters have fallen under a new strict regulation. Cato made so many enemies that he was sued 44 times, but he never lost a single case.
Old age
After the expiration of hiscensorship, Cato took up the arrangement of his own large estate and literary activities. However, he did not lose interest in public life. Some of his public appearances and ventures periodically reminded contemporaries of the former censor.
In 171 B. C. e. Cato became a member of the commission investigating the abuses of the governors in the Spanish provinces. The orator continued to stigmatize the vices and the decline of morals. Many of his censorship laws, however, were repealed during his retirement. Cato continued to be a fierce anti-Hellenist. He advocated the termination of contacts with the Greeks, urged not to receive their delegations.
In 152 B. C. e. Cato went to Carthage. The embassy he belonged to was supposed to deal with the frontier dispute with Numidia. Having visited Africa, the former censor was convinced that Carthage began to conduct a foreign policy independent of Rome. Quite a lot of time has passed since the Second Punic War, and the old enemy, despite its epochal defeat, has begun to raise its head again.
Returning to the capital, Cato began to call on his compatriots to destroy the African power until it recovered from a long crisis. His phrase "Carthage must be destroyed" turned into an international phraseological unit, which is used in speech today. The militaristic Roman lobby got its way. The Third Punic War began in 149 BC. e., and in the same year, the elderly 85-year-old Cato died, who never lived to see the long-awaited defeat of Carthage.
To my son Mark
In his youth, Cato was remembered by his contemporaries as a bright military leader. In adulthood, he entered politics. Finally, closer to old age, the speaker began to write books. They reflected the pedagogical ideas of Cato the Elder, who sought to explain to his contemporaries the need to combat the decline of morals not only through public speaking, but also through literature.
In 192 B. C. e. the politician had a son, Mark. Cato personally took care of the upbringing of the child. When he grew up, his father decided to write for him "Instruction" (also known as "To the son of Mark"), which outlined his worldly wisdom and the history of Rome. This was the first literary experience of Cato the Elder. Modern scholars consider the Instruction to be the earliest Roman encyclopedia, containing information on rhetoric, medicine, and agriculture.
About agriculture
The main book that Cato the Elder left behind is “About Agriculture” (also translated as “About Agriculture” or “Agriculture”). It was written around 160 BC. e. The work was a compilation of 162 recommendations and tips for managing a rural estate. In Rome they were called latifundia. The vast estates of the nobility were centers for growing cereals, winemaking and olive oil production. They made extensive use of slave labor.
What did Mark Porcius Cato the Elder advise his contemporaries in his work? The treatise "On Agriculture" can be divided into two structural parts. The first is carefully composed, but the second is distinguished by a chaotic order. In hermixed recommendations of various kinds from traditional medicine to culinary recipes. The first part, on the other hand, is more like a systematic textbook.
Since the book was intended specifically for rural residents, it does not contain the very basics, but rather specific tips are listed, the author of which was Cato the Elder. The economic idea of his work is to rank the profitability of different types of farming. The writer considered vineyards to be the most profitable enterprise, followed by irrigated vegetable gardens, etc. At the same time, the low profitability of grain was emphasized, which Cato the Elder dwelled on in detail in his work. Quotations from this book were then often used by other ancient authors in a variety of works. Today, the treatise is considered a unique literary monument of antiquity, as it describes the rural life of the ancient world of the 2nd century BC better than any other source. e.
Beginnings
"Beginnings" - another important work, the author of which was Cato the Elder. "On Agriculture" is known to a greater extent due to the fact that this book has been preserved in its full form. The "Beginnings" have come down to us only in the form of scattered fragments. It was a seven-volume book devoted to the history of Rome from the founding of the city to the 2nd century BC. e.
Cato the Elder, whose theory of book organization proved to be innovative, founded the style that became popular with subsequent researchers of the past. He was the first to decide to abandon the poetic form and move on to prose. Moreover, his predecessorswrote historical writings in Greek, while Cato used only Latin.
The book of this author differed from the works of the past in that it was not a dry chronicle and enumeration of facts, but an attempt at research. It was Cato the Elder who introduced all these norms typical of modern scientific literature. Photographically capturing events, he offered the reader their assessment, based on his favorite theory about the decline in the morals of Roman society.
