Cato regarded the Hellenizing of Rome as pernicious and when a delegation of philosophers was sent from Athens in 155, Cato argued in the Senate for their business to be despatched as quickly as possible so that the delegation could return to educating Greek boys and Roman youths could return to their traditional ways. His final political achievement was the destruction of Carthage. After having served as one of the mediators between Carthage and the Numidian King Masinissa, Cato was impressed by how much Carthage had recovered from its defeat in the Second Punic War, and thereafter finished all his political speeches with the famous words Carthago delenda est (Carthage must be destroyed). Eventually his policy prevailed and the Third Punic War was started.
Cato said that it was more important to be a good husband than an influential senator. His first wife was called Licinia, by whom he had a son. Cato undertook his son’s education himself rather than entrust it to a slave. This son married Aemilius Paullus’ daughter. After Licinia died, Cato had a prostitute come regularly to his house, but after his son found out he married the daughter of a former clerk of his. From this wife, Cato had another son, Salonius, who was the great-grandfather of Cato the Younger, the opponent of Julius Caesar.
Cato suggested that old slaves should be sold rather than allowed to become an expense for their owner. He didn’t mind slaves sleeping when they had the chance as he believed this made them more docile. He also used to stir up trouble between slaves to prevent them from banding together. He lent money to his house slaves for them to buy boys to train and sell after a year. Sometimes he decided to keep the new slaves himself, but was scrupulous about crediting the price they would have fetched to the trainer’s account.
Cato wrote "Origines," a history of Rome and the Italian states, but this work is lost. Another of his works, "De Agricultura," does still exist. He died aged 85 in 149. He appears as a character in Cicero’s "De Senectute" (On Old Age), and his biography by Plutarch is paired with that of Aristides the Just.
Ancient Sources:
Cato’s On Farming
Cicero’s On Old Age
Livy. See especially Book 38 sections 1-21 for Cato’s consulship and his campaigns in Spain and Book 39 sections 40-44 for Cato’s censorship
Cornelius Nepos’ life of Cato (in Latin but only about an A4 page long)
Plutarch biography - Marcus Cato
