Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato) lived from 234-149 BCE. He was a speaker, politician, and Roman writer. A talented commander, administrator and statesman. He was called Censor (Censorius), Wise (Sapiens), Ancient (Priscus) or the Elder to distinguish him from his great-grandson. His great-grandson was Cato the Younger.
- “Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed”
- latin: [Ceterum censeo Karthaginem esse delendam]
- description: Cato the Elder, an implacable enemy of Carthage, ended all speeches in the Roman Senate with such words.
- source: Plutarch, Marcus Cato 27, 1
- “Well done, for when shameful lust has swollen the veins, it is suitable that young men should come down here rather than fool around with other men’s wives”
- description: spotting a young man coming out of a brothel.
- source: Horace, Satirae, 1.2.31-2
- “To each his own”
- latin: [Suum cuique]
- description: words referring to the old Greek rule of law, which in Plato’s work “Republic”, are described as “justice is when everyone minds his own business”.
- source: Cato the Elder, De Natura Deorum, III, 38
- “When those folk [Greeks] give us their writings they will corrupt everything. All the more if they send their doctors here”
- latin: [vincam nequissimum et indocile genus illorum, et hoc puta vatem dixisse: quandoque ista gens suas litteras dabit, omnia conrumpet, tum etiam magis, si medicos suos hoc mittet]
- source: Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 29.14
- “Between the mouth and the morsel”
- latin: [Inter os atque offam (multa intervenire possunt)]
- description: firstly quoted by Aristotle. In the Latin version, quoted by Gellius as a fragment of the speech of Cato the Elder.
- source: Gellius, Noctes Atticae, XIII, 17, 1
- “Beautiful woman is like a gilded pill – pleasing to the eyes, bitter to the lips”
- “Moreover, I consider that Carthage should be destroyed”
- latin: [Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam]
- description: words of Cato the Elder, with which he ended all of his speeches in the Roman senate. Often quotes also as “Carthago delenda est”.
- source: Florus, Epitome of Roman History I, 31
- “Grasp the subject, the words will follow.”
- latin: [Rem tene, verba sequentur]
- source: Gaius Julius Victor, Ars Rhetorica
- “All mankind rules its women, and we rule all mankind, but our women rule us”
- description: about prevalent domination of women; source is in greek.
- source: Plutarch, Apophthegmata regum et imperatorum
- “Thieves who have robbed private individuals spend their lives in prison and chains, and public thieves in gold and purple”
- latin: [Fures privatorum furtorum in nervo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt, fures publici in auro atque in purpura]
- source: Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae XI, 18, 18
- “Buy not what you want, but what you have need of; what you do not want is dear at a farthing”
- latin: [Emas non quod opus est, sed quod necesse est. Quod non opus est, asse carum est]
- description: a farthing was a quarter of an old British penny, so Cato meant that if you buy something you don’t want, a farthing would be too much to pay for it.
- source: Seneka the Younger, Epistles, 94
- “Grasp the subject, the words will follow”
- latin: [Rem tene, verba sequentur]
- description: suggestions for orators.
- source: Julius Victor, Art of Rhetoric
- “I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one”
- greek: [‘μᾶλλον γὰρ,’ ἔφη, ‘βούλομαι ζητεῖσθαι, διὰ τί μου ἀνδριὰς οὐ κεῖται ἢ διὰ τί κεῖται’]
- source: Plutarch, Cato, 19:4
- “Wise men are more dependent on fools than fools on wise men”
- descritpion: words given in Greek.
- source: Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 9
