Editing Cato the Elder (section)

===Deducing Cato's date of birth===
The date of Cato's birth has to be deduced from conflicting reports of his age at the time of his death, which is known to have happened in 149 BC. According to the chronology of Cicero, Cato was born in 234 BC, in the year before the first Consulship of [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus]],{{refn|group=n|Cicero, speaking from the perspective of Cato: "I myself saw [[Livius Andronicus]] when he was an old man, who, though he brought out a play in the consulship of [[Gaius Claudius Centho|Cento]] and [[Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus|Tuditanus]] [i.e., 240 BC], six years before I was born, yet continued to live until I was a young man."<ref>{{cite book|first=Marcus Tullius|last=Cicero|title=On old age|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924026475230|chapter=Section 50 |year=1916 }}.</ref>}} and died at the age of 85, in the consulship of Lucius Marcius Censorinus and Manius Manilius. Pliny<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'', xxix. 8.</ref> agrees with [[Cicero]]. Other authors exaggerate the age of Cato. According to [[Valerius Maximus]]<ref>Valerius Maximus, viii. 7. § 1.</ref> he survived his 86th year, according to Livy<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxxix. 40.</ref> and Plutarch<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Cato the Elder'', 15.</ref> he was 90 years old when he died. These exaggerated ages, however, are inconsistent with a statement of Cato himself that is recorded by Plutarch.{{refn|group=n|Plutarch, ''Life of Cato the Elder'', 1 reports that Cato said that he served his in first campaign in his 17th year, when [[Hannibal]] was overrunning Italy. Plutarch, who had read the works of Cato, did not notice that the estimation of [[Livy]] would put Cato's 17th year in 222 BC, several years before Hannibal's invasion of Italy, whereas the birth-date given by Cicero places Cato's 17th year in 218 BC—the year of Hannibal's invasion.}}