Distichs of Cato

The Distichs of Cato (Latin: Catonis Disticha, most famously known simply as Cato), is a Latin collection of proverbial wisdom and morality by an unknown author named Dionysius Cato from the 3rd or 4th century AD. The Cato was the most popular medieval schoolbook for teaching Latin, prized not only as a Latin textbook, but as a moral compass. Cato was in common use as a Latin teaching aid as late as the 18th century, used by Benjamin Franklin. It was one of the best-known books in the Middle Ages and was translated into many languages.

Cato was the most popular Latin textbook during the Middle Ages, prized not only as a Latin textbook, but as a moral compass for impressionable students. It was translated into many languages, including Norse.

Geoffrey Chaucer referred to Cato in Canterbury Tales, through which modern students, less versed in Latin, often first come upon it.

The Distichs of Cato was most commonly referred to as simply "Cato". In the Middle Ages it was assumed the work had been written by Cato the Elder, or even Cato the Younger. Cato the Elder was assumed to have included tracts of the prose in his Carmen de Moribus, but this was found to be a later addition. It was eventually attributed to the anonymous author Dionysius Cato (also known as Catunculus) from the 3rd or 4th century AD, based upon evidence in a manuscript discussed by Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558). This manuscript no longer exists, though Scaliger found it authoritative.

The Roman jurist Licinianus, son of Cato the Younger, wrote Regula Catonianus, describing Cato as an honest man who opposed Caesar's excesses. It has been argued that Licinianus might be the original author of the Distichs of Cato.

In 1513 Erasmus corrected and commented on the text in a new edition of his own.

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