DIONYSIUS

See also:

• DIONYSIUS CATO
• CATO, MARCUS PORCIUS (234—149 B.c.)
• CATO, MARCUS PORCIUS (95-46 B.c.)
• CATO, PUBLIUS VALERIUS

CATO  , the supposed author of the Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium . The name usually given is simply Cato, an indication of the wise character of the maxims inculcated, but Dionysius is added on the authority of a MS. declared by Scaliger to be of great antiquity . This MS. also contains Priscian's translation of the Periegesis of the geographer Dionysius Periegetes; this has probably led to the Disticha also being attributed to him . In the middle ages the author on the Disticha was supposed to be Cato the Elder, who wrote a Carmen de Moribus, but extracts from this in Aulus Gellius show that it was in prose . Nothing is really known of the author or date of the Disticha; it can only be assigned to the 3rd or 4th century A.D . It is a small collection of moral apophthegms, each consisting of two hexameters, in four books . They are monotheistic in character, not specially Christian . The diction and metre are fairly good . The book had a great reputation in the middle ages, and was translated into many languages; it is frequently referred to by Chaucer, and in 1483 a translation was issued from Caxton's press at Westminster . Editions by F . Hauthal (1869), with full account of MSS. and early editions, and G . Nemethy (1895), with critical notes; see also F .

Zarncke, Der deutsche Cato (1852), a history of middle age German translations; J . Nehab, Der altenglische Cato (1879); E . Bischoff, Prolegomena zum sogenannten Dionysius Cato (1893), in which the name is discussed; F . Plessis, Poesie latine (1909), 663; for medieval translations and editions see Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Lit . § 398, 3 .