The Distichs of Cato (Latin: Catonis Disticha, most famously known simply as Cato), is a Latin collection of proverbial wisdom and morality by an unknown author named Dionysius Cato from the 3rd or 4th century AD. The Cato was the most popular medieval schoolbook for teaching Latin, prized not only as a Latin textbook, but as a moral compass. Cato was in common use as a Latin teaching aid all the way to the 18th century, used by Benjamin Franklin. It was one of the best-known books of the Middle Ages and was translated into many languages.

Background

^{"He knew nat Catoun, for his wit was rude." — Canterbury Tales}

Cato was the most popular Latin textbook during the Middle Ages, prized not only as a Latin textbook, but as a moral compass for impressionable students. It was translated into many languages, including Norse. The influence of Cato on young minds across such a vast stretch of time and place cannot be underestimated.

Geoffrey Chaucer referred to Cato in Canterbury Tales, through which modern students, less versed in Latin, often first come upon it. Most of Canterbury Tales was written in the same hexameter couplet verse as Cato.

Distichs of Cato was most commonly referred to as simply "Cato". In the Middle Ages, it was assumed the work had been written by Cato the Elder, or even possibly Cato the younger. Cato the Elder had included tracts of the prose in his Carmen de Moribus, but this was later found to be copied. It was eventually attributed to the anonymous author Dionysius Cato from the 3rd or 4th century AD based upon evidence in a manuscript that Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558) wrote about, which no longer exists but which Scaliger found authoritative.

Benjamin Franklin probably studied Cato when he was at Boston Latin School. He cites Cato in Poor Richard's Almanac and believed in the moral advice with such fervor he was troubled to print William Logan's translation called Cato's Moral Distichs Englished in Couplets in 1735, the first in the Colonies. Of its limited need in the morally puritan New England colonies, Franklin says:

"It would be thought a Piece of Hypocrisy and pharisaical Ostentation in me, if I should say, that I print these Distichs more with a view to the Good of others than my own private Advantage: And indeed I cannot say it; for I confess, I have so great Confidence in the common Virtue and Good Sense of the People of this and the neighoring Provinces, that I expect to sell a very good impression."

Cato

^{"Libros lege. Read books.", Cato, Monostichs.}

"Distich" means closed couplets, a style of writing with two-liners. It is a collection of moral advice, each consisting of two hexameters, in four books. Cato is not particularly Christian in character, but it is monotheistic.

Sample distichs

2.1. If you can, even remember to help people you don't know.
More precious than a kingdom it is to gain friends by kindness.

2.9. Do not disdain the powers of a small body;
He may be strong in counsel (though) nature denies him strength.

3.22. If you live rightly, do not worry about the words of bad people,
It is not our call as to what each person says.

Wikisource has the original Latin text and a 1922 English translation of Distichs of Cato ..

References

• Cato translation. Scanned and translated by James Marchand from Leopold Zatocil, Cato a Facetus, Opera Universitatis Masarykianae Brunensis, Facultas Philosophica. Cislo 48 (Brno, 1952), 229-237. Reedited and marked up by Martin Irvine. This is a more modern, and perhaps understandable, translation; it is of unknown copyright status, and thus not included in Wikisource.
• Richard Hazelton, "Chaucer and Cato", Speculum, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Jul., 1960), pp. 357-380. (Available on JSTOR)

See also

• Medieval literature