Who was Cato the Elder?
Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman orator and statesmen who lived in first half of the 2nd century BCE. (The Marcus Porcius Cato who opposed Julius Caesar was a descendant of this man, often called Cato the Younger). Cato fought in the Second Punic War, was a prosecutor, and eventually became a censor (a position that registered the Roman population and supervised communal morality). In the aftermath of the Second Punic War, Rome had become a world power and was rapidly on its way to dominating the Mediterranean. The wealth of empire flowed into Rome, and so to did Greeks and Greek culture. Many in the upper classes displayed a newfound penchant for both Hellenization and conspicuous consumption. Cato railed against what he saw as decline of traditional Roman morality. In contrast to conspicuous consumption, Cato favoured parsimony. In opposition to Hellenistic urban culture, Cato praised the rustic values of the Latin and Sabine countryside. As Censor, Cato levied heavy taxes on aristocr
