Catius

Catius, an Epicurean philosopher, was a na­tive of Gallia Transpadana (Insuber), and composed a treatise in four books on the nature of things and on the chief good ("de Rerum Natura et de summo Bono"). Cicero, in a letter written in 45 BC, [Cicero, "ad Fam". xv.16] speaks of him as having died recently, and jests with his correspondent about the "spectra Catiana," that is, the εἴδωλα or material images which were supposed by the disciples of the garden to present themselves to the mind, and thus to call up the idea of absent objects. Quintilian characterises him briefly as "Among the Epicureans Catius is agreeable to read, though lacking in weight" ( _la. in Epicureis levis quidem sed non injucundus auctor est Catius). [Quintilian, "Institutio Oratoria", x.1.§ 124.] The old commentators on Horace all assert, that the Catius addressed in the fourth satire of the second book, and who is there introduced as delivering a grave and sententious lecture on various topics connected with the pleasures of the table, is Catius the Epi­curean, author of the work whose title we have given above. It appears certain, however, from the words of Cicero, that the satire in question could not have been written until several years after the death of Catius; and therefore it probable that Horace may intend under this nickname to designate some of the gourmands of the court.

Notes