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CATO, PUBLIUS VALERIUS
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See also:CATO, PUBLIUS See also:VALERIUS , See also:Roman poet and grammarian, was See also:born about roo B.c. He is of importance as the See also:leader of the " new " school of See also:poetry (poetae novi, vewrspot, as See also:Cicero calls them). Its followers rejected the See also:national epic and See also:drama in favour of the artificial mythological epics and elegies of the Alexandrian school, and preferred See also:Euphorion of See also:Chalcis to See also:Ennius. Learning, that is, a knowledge of See also:Greek literature and myths, and strict adherence to metrical rules were regarded by them as indispensable to the poet. The veurrepot were also determined opponents of See also:Pompey and See also:Caesar. The See also:great See also:influence of Cato is attested by the lines: " Cato grammaticus, See also:Latina See also:Siren, Qui solus legit ac facit poetas." 1 Our See also:information regarding his See also:life is derived from Suetonius (De Grammaticis, II). He was a native of Cisalpine See also:Gaul, and lost his See also:property during the Sullan disturbances before he had attained his See also:majority. He lived to a great See also:age, and during the latter See also:part of his life was in very reduced circumstances. He was at one See also:time possessed of considerable See also:wealth, and owned a See also:villa at See also:Tusculum which he was obliged to See also:hand over to his creditors. In addition to grammatical See also:treatises, Cato wrote a number of poems, the best-known of which were the See also:Lydia and See also:Diana. In the Indignatio (perhaps a See also:short poem) he defended himself against the See also:accusation that he was of servile See also:birth. It is probable that he is the Cato mentioned as a critic of See also:Lucilius in the lines by an unknown author prefixed to See also:Horace, Satires, i. lo. Among the See also:minor poems attributed to See also:Virgil is one called Dirae (or rather two, Dirae and Lydia). The Dirae consists of imprecations against the See also:estate of which the writer has been deprived, and where he is obliged to leave his beloved Lydia; in the Lydia, on the other hand, the estate is regarded with envy as the possessor of his charmer. See also:Joseph Justus See also:Scaliger was the first to attribute the poem (divided into two by F. See also:Jacobs) to Valerius Cato, on the ground " Cato, the grammarian, the Latin siren, who alone reads aloud the See also:works and makes the reputation of poets." that he had lost an estate and had written a Lydia. The question has been much discussed; the See also:balance of See also:opinion is in favour of the Dirae being assigned to the beginning of the Augustan age, although so distinguished a critic as O. See also:Ribbeck supports the claims of Cato to the authorship. The best edition of these poems is by A. F. Make (1847), with exhaustive commentary and excursuses; a clear See also:account of the question will be found in M. Schanz's Geschichte der romischen Litteratur; for the " new " school of poetry see See also:Mommsen, Hist. of See also:Rome, bk. v. ch. xii. ; F. Plessis, Poesie latine (1909), 188. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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