Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 B.C):

Cato the Elder, was the first Roman historian who wrote history in Latin. He held several positions: lawyer,quaester,aedile,praetor,consul,tribune,soldier  and general.He was the most powerful orator of his time.He published his own speeches,a manual of oratory.He put his farming experiences to use by composing a treatise De agri cultura.It is written in the oldest literary Latin,in a simple vigorous style,pithily compact.He wastes no words

The most important of  Cato’s works is probably the Origins.It deals with antiquities,ethnoloy,institutions and history of Italy from the beginnings till the year of Cato’s demise.The book is devoid of proper names.The author names no generals in it.He deliberately resorted to this method not because “He took the ground that Rome’s battles were won by the common soldiers and  that it was unjust to give the glory to the generals”but, “to spite the aristocracy through its touted ancestors”.In order to insult the aristocracy cato singularly laudes by name surus, an elephant that had fought well against Pyrrhus.cato designed the Origines and his essays on oratory,agriculture,sanitation,military science and law to from an encyclopedia for the education of his son! He wrote in Latin with a view to displace the Greek text books that were in his judgment warping the minds of Roman youth. “Cato is the father of Roman historiography, who not only founded a new school but also completely recoriented latin historiography”.