3. _Iuventius_, _Valerius_, and _Vatronius_ wrote _palliatae_; _P.
Licinius Tegula_ a hymn to Juno, B.C. 200 (Livy xxxi. 12); _Q. Fabius
Labeo_ (cos. B.C. 183) and _M. Popillius Laenas_ (cos. 173) were poets.

(_b_) PROSE WRITERS:

_Fabius Pictor_ was the earliest Roman historian: Liv. i. 44,
2, 'scriptorum antiquissimus Fabius Pictor.' A relative of Q. Fabius
Maximus Cunctator (Plut. _Fab. Max._ 18), he took part in the war with
the Cisalpine Gauls, B.C. 225 (Eutropius, iii. 5), and after the
battle of Cannae was sent by the Senate on a mission to the oracle of
Delphi (Liv. xxii. 57, 5).

Fabius wrote in Greek an account of the Second Punic War, prefixed to
which was a sketch of the history of Rome from its foundation: Liv.
xxii. 7, 4, 'Fabium aequalem temporibus huiusce belli potissimum
auctorem habui.' There was also a Latin version, made either by Fabius
Pictor or by a namesake (Gell. v. 4, 3).

The same subject was treated by _L. Cincius Alimentus_, who was
praetor B.C. 210 (Liv. xxvi. 23, i), and took an active part in the
war in Sicily during the next two years (Liv. xxvii. 7, 12, and
throughout that Book). He was taken prisoner by Hannibal, and
conversed with him: Liv. xxi. 38, 3, 'L. Cincius Alimentus, qui captum
se ab Hannibale scribit, maxime auctor moveret ...'

Both Fabius and Cincius wrote in Greek, and both gave a cursory view
of the earlier history: Dion. Hal. i. 6, +Romaion hosoi ta
palaia erga tes poleos Hellenike dialekto synegrapsan, hon eisi
presbytatoi Kointos te Phabios kai Leukios Kinkios ... touton de ton
andron hekateros hois men autos ergois paregeneto, dia ten empeirian
akribos anegrapse, ta de archaia to meta ton ktisin tes poleos
genomena kephalaiodos epedramen.+

CATO.

M. Porcius Cato, the Censor (B.C. 234-149), born at Tusculum, of a
yeoman stock, was one of the most prominent figures of his time. For
the best account of his military and political career, including his
advancement to the Consulship (B.C. 195) and Censorship (B.C. 184),
and his economic and social reforms, the reader may be referred to
Mommsen, _R.H._, vol. ii. _passim_.

Cato was the founder of Latin prose, and the chief opponent of the
exaggerated Hellenism that was finding its way into Roman life and
literature (cf. his own words quoted by Pliny, _N.H._ xxix. 14,
'Quandoque ista gens suas litteras dabit, omnia corrumpet'); but even
he shows traces of Greek influence. Cato is represented now only by