why was Cato the elder known as "the Censor"???

Answer 1

"His reputation as a soldier was now established; henceforth he preferred to serve the state at home, scrutinizing the conduct of the candidates for public honours and of generals in the field."

"Cato was also opposed to the spread of Hellenic culture, which he believed threatened to destroy the rugged simplicity of the conventional Roman type. It was in the discharge of the censorship that this determination was most strongly exhibited, and hence that he derived the title (the Censor) by which he is most generally distinguished. He revised with unsparing severity the lists of senators and knights, ejecting from either order the men whom he judged unworthy of it, either on moral grounds or from their want of the prescribed means. The expulsion of L. Quinctius Flamininus for wanton cruelty was an example of his rigid justice."

"His regulations against luxury were very stringent. He imposed a heavy tax upon dress and personal adornment, especially of women, and upon young slaves purchased as favourites. In 181 BC he supported the lex Orchia (according to others, he first opposed its introduction, and subsequently its repeal), which prescribed a limit to the number of guests at an entertainment, and in 169 BC the lex Voconia, one of the provisions of which was intended to check the accumulation of an undue proportion of wealth in the hands of women."

"Cato the Elder" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Censor#Influence_in_Rome

Answer 2

Because in the old Roman republic they had an office known as the CENSOR. It was an office usually given to an older senator who had passed through the CIRCUS HONORUM or the career path of a senator:
QUESTOR
AEDILE(CURILE-assist a consul>TRIBUNUS-assist tribune)
PRAETOR
CONSUL
PROCONSUL(governor of province in the republic).

The Censor was responsible for :
SENATORIAL LISTS
SENATORIAL MORALS
CITIZEN'S REGISTRATIONS.
and was elected once every 5 years.

The censor, especially in the old republic was considered and many times had to be a person of stern morals and character. Cato the elder was known as such a person. An example of his stern character was his three regrets in his life:
I That he went by sea when he could have gone by land.
II That he passed a day in idleness.
III That he trusted a woman with a secret.

It was Cato who insisted upon the destruction of Carthage. He once showed to the senate an olive plant and said that that had come from so close-three days away-denoting the potential threat to Rome(even after they had won the second punic war). Maybe it stemmed from the fact that he was a veteran of the battle of Cannae(216 B.C.) in which Hannible destroyed the largest Roman army put into the field up to that time. Afterwards the legions that had fought at Cannea had been shamed and sent to Sicily. They were later redeemed by Scipio Africanus and fought in the battle of Zama-the final defeat of Hannible in 202 B.C. He embodied the Roman virtues in a negative way: INFLEXIBILITY instead of STERNESS, MEANESS instead of FRUGALITY, VINDICTAVENESS instead of DETERMINATION and STUBBORNESS instead of STEADFASTNESS. He was noted throughout history for his stern and uncompromising
character and was famous for the words that he ended every speech with and which were acted out in 146 B.C. CATHAGO ELENDA EST(Cathage must be destroyed).
Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Because he actually was a CENSOR!

There was a board of Censors who regulated customes and morality and violations thereof.

Cato the Elder was particularly notorious for his rigid interpretation and prosecution of the law.

Read Plutarch! your library may ... ! SHOULD! have the bilingual Loeb edition or Dryden's translation of the Lives.

Answer 4

he was surnamed the Censor to distinguish him from Cato the younger