Ca'tius
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 B. C. 45 (
ad Fam. 15.16), 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 (10.1.124) characterises him briefly as " in Epicureis levis quidem sed non injucundus auctor."
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 is probable that Horace may intend under this nickname to designate some of the gourmands of the court.
[
W.R]
