Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman senator active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the latter half of AD 36 as the colleague of Gaius Vettius Rufus. Although he shares the identical name of several members of the Republican Porcii, Ronald Syme expressed reservations that he is related to that famed family. Stephen Dyson has cataloged 56 people living in the provinces of Roman Spain who took on the gentilicium "Porcius", who were either clientes or descendants of clientes of Cato the Elder while he was proconsul of Spain, which makes Syme's suspicions plausible. Life The historian Tacitus mentions Cato in his Annales. At the beginning of the year 28, during the ascendancy of the powerful prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Sejanus, Titus Sabinus, an eques of the highest rank, was imprisoned due to his friendship with Germanicus. "He had indeed persisted in showing marked respect towards Germanicus' wife and children," writes Tacitus, "as their visitor at home, their companion in public, the solitary survivor of so many clients." Cato, along with three other ex-praetors -- Latinus Latiaris, Petitius Rufus, and Marcus Opsius -- managed to elicit treasonable comments from Sabinus, which they then passed on to Tiberius. The emperor accepted the evidence at face value, and had Sabinus executed. Apparently in the lost books of his Annales Tacitus recounts Cato's execution, for, at the conclusion of a passage about the condemnation of Titus Sabinus, Tacitus admits to wanting to describe the deaths of those who had informed against him. The historian remarks that some were executed after Caligula came to power, while others perished at Tiberius' command. After noting how these informants mattered so little to Tiberius that "he frequently, when he was tired of them and fresh ones offered themselves for the same services, flung off the old", Tacitus promises to describe their fates at the appropriate section. None of these men are mentioned again in the surviving portions of his work, yet Frontinus reports that Cato was cura aquarum in the year 38, so it is safe to conclude that Caligula had Porcius Cato executed between that year and the year of his own death (AD 41). While the name of his wife is not yet known, Cato was survived by a daughter, Porcia, a cousin of Gellius Rutilius Lupus.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“All mankind rules its women, and we rule all mankind, but our women rule us.”
— In bitter criticism of the prevalent domination of women (The Classical weekly, Vol. 25–26, 1932, p. 273).
“Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.”
— Sometimes quoted as Carthago delenda est.
“Emas non quod opus est, sed quod necesse est. Quod non opus est, asse carum est.”
— Buy not what you want, but what you have need of; what you do not want is dear at a farthing.
“Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.”
— Plutarch's Life of Cato Variant: Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
“I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.”
— Attributed to Cato in Plutarch, Parallel Lives 19:4.
“The pursuits of commerce would be as admirable as they are profitable if they were not subject to so great risks: and so, likewise, of banking, if it was always honestly conducted. For our ancestors considered, and so ordained in their laws, that, while the thief should be cast in double damages, the usurer should make four-fold restitution.”
— Introduction: of the dignity of the farmer

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Not who you're looking for? Others named Marcus Porcius Cato: Roman consul in 118 BC · Roman soldier, son of Cato Uticensis (c. 73–42 BC) · father of Cato the Younger

Notable quotes

“All mankind rules its women, and we rule all mankind, but our women rule us.”
— In bitter criticism of the prevalent domination of women (The Classical weekly, Vol. 25–26, 1932, p. 273).
“Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.”
— Sometimes quoted as Carthago delenda est.
“Emas non quod opus est, sed quod necesse est. Quod non opus est, asse carum est.”
— Buy not what you want, but what you have need of; what you do not want is dear at a farthing.
“Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.”
— Plutarch's Life of Cato Variant: Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
“I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.”
— Attributed to Cato in Plutarch, Parallel Lives 19:4.
“The pursuits of commerce would be as admirable as they are profitable if they were not subject to so great risks: and so, likewise, of banking, if it was always honestly conducted. For our ancestors considered, and so ordained in their laws, that, while the thief should be cast in double damages, the usurer should make four-fold restitution.”
— Introduction: of the dignity of the farmer

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Overview

Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman senator active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the latter half of AD 36 as the colleague of Gaius Vettius Rufus. Although he shares the identical name of several members of the Republican Porcii, Ronald Syme expressed reservations that he is related to that famed family. Stephen Dyson has cataloged 56 people living in the provinces of Roman Spain who took on the gentilicium "Porcius", who were either clientes or descendants of clientes of Cato the Elder while he was proconsul of Spain, which makes Syme's suspicions plausible. Life The historian Tacitus mentions Cato in his Annales. At the beginning of the year 28, during the ascendancy of the powerful prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Sejanus, Titus Sabinus, an eques of the highest rank, was imprisoned due to his friendship with Germanicus. "He had indeed persisted in showing marked respect towards Germanicus' wife and children," writes Tacitus, "as their visitor at home, their companion in public, the solitary survivor of so many clients." Cato, along with three other ex-praetors -- Latinus Latiaris, Petitius Rufus, and Marcus Opsius -- managed to elicit treasonable comments from Sabinus, which they then passed on to Tiberius. The emperor accepted the evidence at face value, and had Sabinus executed. Apparently in the lost books of his Annales Tacitus recounts Cato's execution, for, at the conclusion of a passage about the condemnation of Titus Sabinus, Tacitus admits to wanting to describe the deaths of those who had informed against him. The historian remarks that some were executed after Caligula came to power, while others perished at Tiberius' command. After noting how these informants mattered so little to Tiberius that "he frequently, when he was tired of them and fresh ones offered themselves for the same services, flung off the old", Tacitus promises to describe their fates at the appropriate section. None of these men are mentioned again in the surviving portions of his work, yet Frontinus reports that Cato was cura aquarum in the year 38, so it is safe to conclude that Caligula had Porcius Cato executed between that year and the year of his own death (AD 41). While the name of his wife is not yet known, Cato was survived by a daughter, Porcia, a cousin of Gellius Rutilius Lupus.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman senator active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the latter half of AD 36 as the colleague of Gaius Vettius Rufus. Although he shares the identical name of several members of the Republican Porcii, Ronald Syme expressed reservations that he is related to that famed family. Stephen Dyson has cataloged 56 people living in the provinces of Roman Spain who took on the gentilicium "Porcius", who were either clientes or descendants of clientes of Cato the Elder while he was proconsul of Spain, which makes Syme's suspicions plausible.