page_title: Cato the Elder
section_title: On the Punic Wars
hierarchical_section_title: Cato the Elder / Biography / Youth / On the Punic Wars
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kolorierter Holzschnitt Die Karthager – Hannibals Übergang über die Alpen von Heinrich Leutemann, erschienen im Münchener Bilderbogen (Blatt 13 der „Bilder aus dem Altertume“; Nr. 438)
context_page_description: Marcus Porcius Cato, also known as Cato the Censor, the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write history in Latin. His epithet "Elder" distinguishes him from his equally famous great-grandson Cato the Younger, who opposed Julius Caesar.
  He came from an ancient Plebeian family who were noted for their military service. Like his forefathers, Cato was devoted to agriculture when not serving in the army. Having attracted the attention of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, he was brought to Rome and began to follow the cursus honorum: he was successively military tribune, quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul together with Flaccus, and censor. As praetor, he expelled usurers from Sardinia. As censor, he tried to save Rome's ancestral customs and combat "degenerate" Hellenistic influences.
context_section_description: When Cato was very young, after his father's death, he inherited a small property in the Sabine territory, at a distance from his native town. There, he spent most of his childhood overseeing the operations of the farm, learning business and the rural economy. Near this land was a small hut owned by Manius Curius Dentatus, whose military feats and rigidly simple character were remembered and admired in the neighborhood. Cato was inspired to imitate that character, hoping to match the glory of Dentatus.
  Soon, an opportunity came for a military campaign in 217 BC, during the Second Punic War against Hannibal Barca. Experts express some disagreement about Cato's early military life. In 214 BC, he served at Capua, and the historian Wilhelm Drumann imagines that already, at the age of 20, he was a military tribune. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus had the command in this area, Campania, during the year of his fourth consulship. At the siege of Tarentum, 209 BC, Cato was again at the side of Fabius. Two years later, Cato was one of the group who went with the consul Claudius Nero on his northern march from Lucania to check the progress of Hasdrubal Barca. It is recorded that the services of Cato contributed to the decisive and important victory of Sena at the Battle of the Metaurus, where Hasdrubal was slain. He later gave several vehement speeches which he often ended by saying "Carthago delenda est", or "Carthage must be destroyed."
caption: Hannibal and his men crossing the Alps
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