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Cato the Elder

Roman politician, soldier and writer (234–149 BC)

  • Fame67.4
  • Momentum0.0
  • Wikipedia33.3K
Source-basedStable
Lived -234–-149, aged 85Italy
ItalyItalyPoliticiansPolitician
  • Wikipedia
    70 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    -234–-149
    Aged 85
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

The Roman senator who ended every speech—on any topic—demanding Carthage be destroyed, and who wrote the oldest surviving Latin prose while railing against Greek culture creeping into Rome.

Biography

About

Marcus Porcius Cato came from a plebeian military family and fought with distinction in the Second Punic War as a young tribune. A patrician patron noticed him and brought him to Rome, where he climbed the offices: quaestor in 204 BC, aedile, praetor, then consul in 195 alongside his patron Flaccus. As consul he tried and failed to stop the repeal of a law restricting women's luxury spending, then led a triumphant military campaign in Hispania. He fought at Thermopylae as a legate and in 184 BC became censor, taxing luxuries and overseeing public works while forcing Scipio Africanus into retir…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Cato the Elder

Cato the Elder
saidundated
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).
Cato the Elder
saidundated
The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.
— Apothegms (no. 247)
Cato the Elder
saidundated
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
Cato the Elder
saidundated
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.
Cato the Elder
saidundated
Those who commit private theft pass their lives in confinement and fetters; plunderers of the public, in gold and purple.
— English translation by John C. Rolfe,(1859-1943)
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
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By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
67.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical25.0
Now attention3.2
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
Global rank
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Country rank
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Category rank
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Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence