Editing Cato the Elder (section)

====Quaestor====
In 205 BC, Cato was appointed [[quaestor]], and in the next year (204) he entered upon the duties of his place of work, following [[Scipio Africanus|Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major]] to Sicily. When Scipio, after much opposition, obtained from the Senate permission to transport armed forces from Sicily to [[Africa Province|Africa]], Cato and [[Gaius Laelius]] were appointed to escort the baggage ships. Yet there proved not to be the friendliness of cooperation between Cato and Scipio which ought to have existed between a quaestor and his [[proconsul]].

Fabius had opposed the permission given to Scipio to carry the attack to the enemy's home, and Cato, whose appointment was intended to monitor Scipio's behavior, adopted the views of his friend. Plutarch reports that the lenient discipline of the troops under Scipio's command and the exaggerated expenses incurred by the general provoked Cato's protests, such that Scipio, immediately afterward, replied angrily, saying he would give an account of victories, not of money.<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Cato the Elder'', 3.</ref> 

Cato left his place of duty after the dispute with Scipio about the latter's alleged extravagance, and returning to Rome, condemned the uneconomical activities of his general to the senate. Plutarch went on to say that at the joint request of Cato and Fabius, a commission of tribunes was sent to Sicily to examine Scipio's activity. Upon their review of his extensive and careful arrangements for the transport of the troops, they determined he was not guilty of Cato's charges.<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Cato the Elder'', 3.</ref> 

Plutarch's version, which seemed to attribute to Cato the wrongdoing of quitting his post before his time, is barely consistent with Livy's narrative. If Livy is correct, the commission was sent because of the complaints of the inhabitants of Locri, who had been harshly oppressed by [[Quintus Pleminius]], Scipio's legate. Livy says nothing of Cato's interference in this matter, but mentions the bitterness with which Fabius blamed Scipio for corrupting military discipline and for having illegally left his province to take the town of [[Locri]].<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxix. 19, etc.</ref>

The author of the abridged life of Cato, commonly considered the work of [[Cornelius Nepos]], asserts that Cato, after his return from Africa, put in at [[Sardinia]], and brought the poet [[Quintus Ennius]] in his own ship from the island to Italy. But because Sardinia is rather out of the line of the trip to Rome, it is more likely that the first contact between Ennius and Cato happened at a later date, when the latter was [[praetor]] in Sardinia.<ref name="ReferenceA">[[Aurelius Victor]], ''On famous Roman men'', 47.</ref>