( The introduction places the man and his work in context...)
The introduction places the man and his work in context and discusses specific problems of textural arrangement and organization and agricultural practice. There are several drawings to aid appreciation of Catos descriptions of buildings and equipment. A book of instruction about the cultivation of vines, olives and fruit, the management of slaves and contract labour, the rituals consequent on ownership and even cookery for humans and the pharmacy. Because of its date, the 2nd century BC, it is a particularly important resource for students of Latin and of early Roman society.
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(Le texte des Origines ne nous est malheureusement pas par...)
Le texte des Origines ne nous est malheureusement pas parvenu: nous n'en connaissons que des fragments de longueur tres inegale, transmis par les testimonia, notamment ceux de Cornelius Nepos. Ces fragments sont cependant suffisamment abondants pour que l'on puisse reconstituer la trame generale de l'oeuvre, probablement divisee en deux parties: les deux premiers livres traitaient de la periode de la periode royale de Rome et des principales villes italiennes, tandis que la fin de l'ouvrage etait consacree a l'histoire contemporaine ou proche de Caton. D'un style tres varie, ces Origines relatent tout autant la fondation de Troie, que la frequence des eclipses lunaires et solaires ou encore les produits utilises par les femmes pour eclaircir leurs cheveux.Notre edition regroupe les fragments des sept livres et les fragments des livres non identifiables. L'introduction fait le point sur les differentes hypotheses relatives a la datation du livre et au credit a accorder aux differents testimonia. Une analyse des sources, complexes, permet de discerner quatre grandes orientations, la litterature latine, les sources grecques, les histoires locales et l'experience personnelle de Caton. L'histoire du texte est longuement analysee, tandis que le choix et l'ordre des fragments sont rigoureusement justifies. Des notes accompagnent la lecture et sont developpees, en fin d'ouvrage, par des notes complementaires. L'edition est en outre enrichie d'un tableau de concordance, d'un Index Testimoniorum ainsi que d'un Index Nominum, en latin et en grec.
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Cato the Elder was born in Tusculum. He came of an ancient plebeian family, noted for some military services, but not ennobled by the discharge of the higher civil offices. He was bred, after the manner of his Latin forefathers, to agriculture, to which he devoted himself when not engaged in military service.
Having attracted the notice of L. Valerius Flaccus, Cato the Elder was brought to Rome, and became successively quaestor (204), aedile (199), praetor (198), and consul (195) with his old patron.
Meanwhile he served in Africa, and took part in the crowning campaign of Zama (202).
If he was not personally engaged in the prosecution of the Scipios (Africanus and Asiaticus) for corruption, it was his spirit that animated the attack upon them.
Even Africanus, who refused to reply to the charge, saying only, " Romans, this is the day on which I conquered Hannibal, " and was absolved by acclamation, found it necessary to retire self-banished to his villa at Liternum.
It was in the discharge of the censorship that this determination was most strongly exhibited, and hence that he derived the title (the Censor) by which he is most generally distinguished.
He revised with unsparing severity the lists of senators and knights, ejecting from either order the men whom he judged unworthy of it, either on moral grounds or from their want of the prescribed means.
The expulsion of L. Quinctius Flamininus for wanton cruelty was an example of his rigid justice.
His regulations against luxury were very stringent.
He imposed a heavy tax upon dress and personal adornment, especially of women, and upon young slaves purchased as favourites.
He raised the amount paid by the publican for the right of farming the taxes, and at the same time diminished the contract prices for the construction of public works. From the date of his censorship (184) to his death in 149, Cato held no public office, but continued to distinguish himself in the senate as the persistent opponent of the new ideas.
He was struck with horror, along with many other Romans of the graver stamp, at the licence of the Bacchanalian mysteries, which he attributed to the fatal influence of Greek manners; and he vehemently urged the dismissal of the philosophers (Carneades, Diogenes and Critolaus), who came as ambassadors from Athens, on account of the dangerous nature of the views expressed by them.
He had a horror of physicians, who were chiefly Greeks.
It was not till his eightieth year that he made his first acquaintance with Greek literature.
Almost his last public act was to urge his countrymen to the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage.
The mission was unsuccessful and the commissioners returned home.
From this time, in season and out of season, he kept repeating the cry: " Delenda est Carthago.
"To Cato the individual life was a continual discipline, and public life was the discipline of the many.
To the Romans themselves there was little in this behaviour which seemed worthy of censure; it was respected rather as a traditional example of the old Roman manners.
His treatise on agriculture {De Agricultura or De Re Rustica) is the only work by him that has been preserved; it is not agreed whether the work we possess is the original or a later revision.
His most important work, Origines, in seven books, related the history of Rome from its earliest foundations to his own day.
It was so called from the second and third books, which described the rise of the different Italian towns.
His speeches, of which as many as 150 were collected, were principally directed against the young free-thinking and loose-principled nobles of the day.
He also wrote a set of maxims for the use of his son (Praecepta ad Filium), and some rules for everyday life in verse.
The collection of proverbs in hexameter verse, extant under the name of Cato, probably belongs to the 4th century a. d.
(Le texte des Origines ne nous est malheureusement pas par...)
( The introduction places the man and his work in context...)
Cato Marcus Porcius married Roman women crowded the streets, blocked access to the forum.
