The title _Origines_ fails to indicate the scope of the work, which was chiefly occupied with general history; it was probably taken, as Nepos suggests, from the contents of Books ii. and iii., which seem to have been the most novel and valuable part of the undertaking. (Jordan, however, takes 'Origines' as equivalent, not to the Greek κτίσεις, but to 'res Romanae ab origine repetitae.')
(3) _Praecepta ad Filium_ was the general title of a didactic work containing rules for medicine, husbandry, and rhetoric (_e.g._ 'Rem tene, verba sequentur'). Cf. Quint. iii. 1, 19, 'Romanorum primus, quantum ego quidem sciam, condidit aliqua in hanc materiam (rhetoric) M. Cato ille Censorius.'
(4) _Speeches._--Fragments of eighty speeches, out of about two hundred and thirty, are collected by Jordan. They are almost equally divided between forensic and deliberative speeches: none is known of earlier date than B.C. 195. Cato incorporated some of them in the _Origines_, _e.g._ For the Rhodians (Gell. vi. 3, 7), and Against Galba (Cic. _Brut._ 89).
Works on civil law are attributed to Cato, and we hear also of ἀποφθέγματα (Cic. _de Off._ i. 104), _Liber de re militari_ (Gell. vi. 4, 5), and _Carmen de moribus_ (Gell. xi. 2, 2).
The forms Accius and Attius are both found on inscriptions, _e.g._ from Pisaurum; but in the MSS. of Nonius Marcellus, who often quotes Accius, and who is careful about his forms, 'Accius' is always found, and generally in MSS. of other authors.
L. Accius was born B.C. 170 at Pisaurum (of. Pliny, _N.H._ vii. 128, 'Attio Pisaurense').
Jerome yr. Abr. 1878 = B.C. 139, 'L. Accius tragoediarum scriptor clarus habetur, natus Mancino et Serrano coss. (B.C. 170) parentibus libertinis et seni iam Pacuvio Tarenti sua scripta recitavit. A quo et fundus Accianus iuxta Pisaurum dicitur, quia illuc inter colonos fuerat ex urbe deductus.'
This last statement must refer to Accius' father, as the colony of Pisaurum was founded B.C. 184. Jerome's chronology is corroborated by
Cic. _Brut._ 229, 'Accius isdem aedilibus (B.C. 140) ait se et Pacuvium docuisse fabulam, cum ille lxxx., ipse xxx. annos natus esset.'
Accius' friendship and influence with leading men is shown by Cic. _pro Arch._ 27, 'D. Brutus, summus vir et imperator (cons. B.C. 138) Acci amicissimi sui carminibus templorum ac monumentorum aditus exornavit suorum.'