A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

7. L.PorciusCato, the son of No. 3, and uncle of Cato of Utica, attached himself to the party of the senate. In the year B. C. 100, he was tribune of the plebs, and in that office opposed the attempts of L. Apuleius Saturninus, and assisted in rejecting a rogation on behalf of the exiled Metellus Numidicus. In the social war, B. C. 90, he defeated the Etruscans, and in the following year was consul with Pompeius Strabo. On one occasion a portion of his troops, consisting of town rabble, was instigated to disobedience and mutiny by the impudent prating of one C. Titius. He lost his life in an unlucky skirmish with the Marsians, near Lake Fucinus, at the end of a successful battle. It was thought by some that his death was not to be attributed to the enemy, but to the art of the younger Marius; for Cato had boasted that his own achievements were equal to the Cimbrian victory of Marius the father. (Liv. Epil. lxxv.; Oros. 5.17.)