Studies on Cato’s Ad filium

Abstract

The article seeks to give a detailed analysis of fragments of Cato the Elder which were edited by Heinrich Jordan under the title Libri ad Marcum filium. Particular attention is given to reference formulae which introduce quotations from Cato. I argue that the fragments of Libri, which are explicitly labeled “ad filium” in our sources, and which are devoted to issues of medicine, go back to a private letter addressed to Cato’s elder son M. Porcius Cato Licinianus. In all probability, this letter belongs to a hypothetical series of letters written in 168 BC when Licinianus did his military service in Macedonia (Epistulae, fr. 3; 4 Jordan). It included a notorious attack on Greek medicine and Greek culture (Libri ad filium, fr. 1). I argue that, Cato hinted at an anti-Italic passage from pseudo-Platonic Epistle 7, 353e when he expressed his anti-Hellenic sentiments.  Pliny the Elder used quotations from Cato’s letter about medicine in his Dubius sermo, and beyond doubt Pliny  was the source for  Diomedes and Priscian (ad filium, fr. 3; 4). It can be assumed that Plutarch drew on the Dubius sermo when he quoted fr. 11 and 12 not related to medicine and attributed by Jordan to a hypothetical work De agri cultura (ad filium).  Another fragment assigned to the same De agri cultura is likely to belong to Valerius Cato (ad filium, fr. 8).