(1) his treatise _De Agri Cultura_, the earliest extant work in Latin
prose, which, besides giving instruction for the husbandman, deals
with housekeeping, cookery, and medicine.

(2) His great work was the _Origines_, the earliest history in Latin
prose, the contents of which are enumerated by Nepos, _Cato_, 3, 3,
'Senex historias scribere instituit. Earum sunt libri vii. Primus
continet res gestas regum populi Romani, secundus et tertius unde
quaeque civitas orta sit Italica (ob quam rem omnes Origines videtur
appellasse); in quarto autem bellum Poenicum est primum, in quinto
secundum. Atque haec omnia capitulatim sunt dicta. Reliqua quoque
bella pari modo persecutus est usque ad praeturam Ser. Galbae, qui
diripuit Lusitanos (B.C. 151). Atque horum bellorum duces non
nominavit, sed sine nominibus res notavit.[22] In eisdem exposuit quae
in Italia Hispaniisque aut fierent aut viderentur admiranda: in quibus
multa industria et diligentia comparet, nulla doctrina.'

An attempt has been made by A. Bormann (_M. Porcii Catonis Originum
Libri vii._, Brandenburg 1858, p. 38) to prove that the principle of
division was geographical, and that history only came in incidentally
in connexion with the reduction of provinces; but as Nepos was writing
to an eminent authority on antiquities, his account is likely to be
right. The period between the kings and the Punic Wars was probably
omitted by Cato through want of authorities.

The title _Origines_ fails to indicate the scope of the work, which
was chiefly occupied with general history; it was probably taken, as
Nepos suggests, from the contents of Books ii. and iii., which seem to
have been the most novel and valuable part of the undertaking.
(Jordan, however, takes 'Origines' as equivalent, not to the Greek
+ktiseis+, but to 'res Romanae ab origine repetitae.')

(3) _Praecepta ad Filium_ was the general title of a didactic work
containing rules for medicine, husbandry, and rhetoric (_e.g._ 'Rem
tene, verba sequentur'). Cf. Quint. iii. 1, 19, 'Romanorum primus,
quantum ego quidem sciam, condidit aliqua in hanc materiam (rhetoric)
M. Cato ille Censorius.'

(4) _Speeches._--Fragments of eighty speeches, out of about two
hundred and thirty, are collected by Jordan. They are almost equally
divided between forensic and deliberative speeches: none is known of
earlier date than B.C. 195. Cato incorporated some of them in the
_Origines_, _e.g._ For the Rhodians (Gell. vi. 3, 7), an