Origines

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Origines (

, composed in the early-2nd century BC.

Contents

According to Cato's biographer

its wars, and its growing power,[1] focused on the period between the onset of the First Punic War
up to 149 BC.

When Cato wrote, there had been four major works devoted to

Greek prose. The two poetic works closely tied the history of Rome to its gods. The two prose works apparently hewed closely to the annals of the pontifex maximus. Feeling no need to follow precedent, Roman or otherwise,[3]
Cato declared:

I do not care to copy out what is on the High Priest's tablet: how many times grain became dear, how many times the sun or moon were obscured or eclipsed.[4]

In his books on the Italian cities, Cato apparently treated each individually and drew upon their own local traditions.[5]

The latter books include at least two of Cato's political orations verbatim, something thought to have been unique in ancient historiography.

Lusitani.[2]
Although he avoided mentioning military commanders by name, the work's surviving fragments suggest that he also focused a great deal of attention on his own campaigns as a general.

History

The Origins is a lost work, with no complete text surviving to the modern day. Its fragments in other works[6] have been collected and translated.

Influence

Ancient authors considered the Origins to have influenced the style of Sallust.[7] Quintilian cites an anonymous epigram that calls him the "great thief of the words of old Cato".[8] Festus felt that the last four books on Rome's rising power "outweighed the rest",[9] but later Roman historians largely disregarded the Origins because it eschewed consular dating[10] and highlighted his own political career so heavily. Though Livy pointedly remarked that Cato was "not the man to minimize his own achievements",[11] his near contemporary Dionysius of Halicarnassus cites Cato's first three books in his history, calling Cato among the "most learned of the Roman historians".[12]

In the present day, the Origins is considered to be the beginning of proper historiography in Latin[2] and considered to have been an important work in the development of Latin literature.

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Cornelius Nepos, Life of Cato, §3.
  2. ^ a b c d Briscoe (2010).
  3. ^ Dalby (1998), pp. 14–15.
  4. ^ Chassignet (1986), Fragment 4.1.
  5. ^ Cornell (1972).
  6. ^ Cornell (1988), p. 211.
  7. JSTOR 1558942
    .
  8. ^ Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. pp. 8.3.29.
  9. ^ Festus, On the Meanings of Words, p. 198 M.
  10. ^ Frier (1979), p. 260.
  11. ^ Livy, History of Rome, XXXIV, xv, 9.
  12. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 1.11.1.

Bibliography