Editing Cato the Elder (section)

===Consul===

====Enactment of the Porcian Laws====
{{main|Porcian Laws}}
In 195, when he was only 39 years old, Cato was elected [[junior consul]] to his old friend and patron Flaccus. During his consulship, he enacted the first two of the [[Porcian Laws]], which expanded the protections of [[Roman citizen]]s against degrading or capricious punishment under the Republic's [[Valerian Law]].

====Repeal of the Oppian Law====
{{main|Oppian Law}}
In 215, at the height of the Second Punic War and at the request of the [[tribune of the plebs]] Gaius Oppius, the [[Oppian Law]] (''Lex Oppia''), intended to restrict the luxury and extravagance of women in order to save money for the public treasury, was passed. The law specified that no woman could own more than half an ounce of gold, nor wear a garment of several colours, nor drive a carriage with horses closer than a mile to the city, except to attend public celebrations of religious rites.

After [[Hannibal]] was defeated and [[Rome]] was resplendent with [[Ancient Carthage|Carthaginian]] wealth, tribunes Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius proposed to abolish the Oppian law, but tribunes Marcus Junius Brutus and Titus Junius Brutus opposed doing so. This conflict spawned far more interest than the most important state affairs. Middle-aged married Roman women crowded the streets, blocked access to the forum, and intercepted their approaching husbands, demanding to restore the traditional ornaments of Roman matrons.<ref>Livy, History of Rome, xxxiv. 1, 8.</ref>

They even begged the praetors, consuls and other magistrates. Even Flaccus hesitated, but his colleague Cato was inflexible, and made a characteristically impolite speech, which was later retold by Livy.<ref>Livy, History of Rome, xxxiv. 1, 8.</ref> The dissenting tribunes withdrew their opposition and the Oppian law was repealed by vote of all tribes. Women went in procession through the streets and the forum, dressed up with their now legitimate finery.<ref>[[Valerius Maximus]], ix. 1. §3.</ref>

During the controversy Cato maintained a firm opposition to the repeal, so he suffered politically and personally when it was finally repealed. Not only had the former consul been rejected by the senate by unanimous decision, but Flaccus failed to stand with him.<ref name="Bauman 1983 159">{{Cite book |last=Bauman |first=Richard A. |title=Lawyers in Roman republican politics: a study of the Roman jurists in their political setting, 316 - 82 BC |date=1983 |publisher=Beck |isbn=978-3-406-09114-8 |series=Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrusforschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte |location=München |pages=159}}</ref> However, perhaps because of Flaccus' connection to Lucius Valerius he was deliberately staying out of the controversy.<ref name="Bauman 1983 159"/> He soon set sail for his appointed province, [[Hispania Citerior]].

====Post in Hispania Citerior====
In his campaign in [[Hispania]], Cato behaved in keeping with his reputation of untiring hard work and alertness. He lived soberly, sharing the food and the labours of the common soldier. Wherever it was possible, he personally superintended the execution of his orders. His movements were reported as bold and rapid, and he always pushed for victory. 
His operations appear to have been carefully designed, and were coordinated with the plans of other generals in other parts of Hispania. His manoeuvres were considered original and successful. He managed to benefit by setting tribe against tribe, and took native mercenaries into his pay.

[[File:Hispania 1a division provincial.PNG|thumb|250px|right|[[Hispania]] in 197 BC]]

The details of the campaign, as related by Livy,<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', book xxxiv.</ref> and illustrated by incidental anecdotes by [[Plutarch]], are full of horror and they make clear that Cato reduced [[Hispania Citerior]] to subjection with great speed and little mercy. We read of multitudes who put themselves to death because of the dishonour after they had been stripped of all their arms, of extensive massacres of surrendered troops, and the frequent harsh plunders. The phrase [[bellum se ipsum alet]]—the war will feed itself—was coined by Cato during this period.<ref>{{cite book|title=Latein – Deutsch: Zitaten-Lexikon|first=Ernst|last=Lautenbach|publisher=LIT Verlag|location=Berlin-Hamburg-Münster|year=2002|isbn=3-8258-5652-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qepmsXSNHtsC&pg=PA101|access-date=2009-09-09|language=de|page=101}}</ref> His conduct in Hispania were not contradictory with the traditional ideals of a Roman soldier, or with his own firm and over-assertive temper. He claimed to have destroyed more towns in Hispania than he had spent days in that country.

====Roman triumph====
After he reduced the area between the River [[Ebro|Iberus]] and the [[Pyrenees]] to a resentful and, as it turned out, temporary obedience, Cato turned his attention to administrative reforms, and increased the revenues of the province by improvements in the working of the [[iron]] and [[silver mine]]s.

For his achievements in Hispania, the senate decreed a thanksgiving ceremony of three days. In the course of the year 194 BC, he returned to Rome and was rewarded with the honour of a [[Roman triumph]], at which he exhibited an extraordinary quantity of captured [[brass]], silver, and [[gold]], both coin and lingots. Cato distributed the monetary prize to his soldiery, and was more liberal than might have been expected from his vigorous parsimony.<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxxiv. 46.</ref>

====End of consulship====
The return of Cato seems to have accelerated the enmity of [[Scipio Africanus]], who was Consul in 194 BC and is said to have desired the command of the province in which Cato was harvesting notoriety. There is some disagreement between Nepos (or the pseudo-Nepos), and Plutarch,<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Cato the Elder'', 11.</ref> in their accounts of this topic. Nepos claims that Scipio failed to obtain the province, and, offended by the rejection, remained after his consulship in a private capacity at Rome. Plutarch claims that Scipio, who was disgusted by Cato's severity, was appointed to succeed him but could not convince the senate to censure Cato's administration, and passed his consulship in inactivity. Plutarch was probably mistaken, judging by the statement in Livy,<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxxiv. 43.</ref> that in 194 BC, Sextus Digitius was appointed to the province of Hispania Citerior. The notion that Scipio was appointed successor to Cato in Hispania may have arisen from a double confusion of name and place, since [[Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica (consul 191 BC)|Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica]] was chosen in 194 BC to the province of [[Hispania Ulterior]].

However true this account, Cato used his eloquence and produced detailed financial accounts to successfully defend against criticism of his consulship. The known fragments of the speeches (or one speech under different names) made after his return attest to the strength of his arguments.

Plutarch<ref>Plutarch, ''Cato the Elder'', 12.</ref> states that, after his Consulship, Cato accompanied [[Tiberius Sempronius Longus (consul 194 BCE)|Tiberius Sempronius Longus]] as [[legatus]] to [[Thrace]], but this seems incorrect because, although Scipio Africanus believed that one Consul should have [[Macedon]]ia, Sempronius was soon in [[Cisalpine Gaul]],<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxxiv. 43, 46.</ref> and in 193 BC Cato was in Rome dedicating a small temple to [[Victoria (mythology)|Victoria Virgo]].<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxxv. 9.</ref>